So far one review... And they asked for more, well here you go dude. A brand new chapter. Please keep the reviews coming, I would love to read if you guys like this.

Chapter 7

Face to Face with Ashimaru

Her eyes soon opened, she was in a dark void. She felt the cold rush of water touching her bare soles. She tried to gain her bearings in her location but to no avail. Sakura was alone at this moment. The last thing she remembered was laying on Naruto's bed with him. She started to wander around the void until her eyes soon picked up on a flicker in the distance. She ran towards it, hoping to god she would find out where she was. She soon came to a giant glowing orb.

"What is this? Why is it so warm?"

Sakura pressed her hand on the orb, and she soon felt a pulse, like a heartbeat. She was perplexed by what was in front of her. She remembered what those two girls told her when they were tying her up. Was this the spirit of Ashimaru? She couldn't believe it, she pinched herself trying to awaken from this. There she still was still looking at the orb.

Maybe this was a Genjutsu? She tried to release her chakra, but again there was nothing. She suddenly started to hear a voice, it was faint but it was there.

"Hello? Is someone there?" She called out. But there was no one there. Suddenly there was a giant eye that popped from the orb. Sakura froze in place, she would scream loudly. The eye looked down at the young woman.

"Sakura Haruno if I'm not mistaken?" The orb asked, catching Sakura off guard.

"You know who I am?" Sakura said.

"Indeed, I have been with you for a good chunk of your life."

"Are you who I think you are?" She took her turn to ask a question.

"I am indeed what they call Ashimaru, the demonic hell phoenix."

Sakura was freaking out, she knew that this was the creature who was gonna kill her once she fully awakened.

"Relax Sakura, I will not harm you."

"But Kai said…" Sakura said before Ashimaru interrupted her.

"I heard what he said, I may be still in this form but I have heard everything and seen everything you have."

"So I have nothing to worry about?" Sakura asked.

"Not exactly, to be honest, you are in mortal danger Sakura. The people that are after you are doing it to remove me from you. They want my power and needed a body with a pure heart and untapped potential. So they found a random child and place me within them. To incubate my power and once you reach a certain age, that is when they will extract me from you."

"So am I like Naruto then in that sense, that if they extract you from me I will die?"

"While I'm not bound to your soul like the nine-tailed fox is to your mate. You could still potentially die from the process."

That didn't make Sakura panic any better, now she was fearful for her life. She didn't want to die, she wanted to save Sasuke, start a family with Naruto, she wanted to do so many things with her life.

"Sorry, but I just can't allow that to happen. I have no plans to die. Not today, tomorrow, or any time soon."

"That's the spirit, my dear." The orb said before it would begin to glow. Sakura's eyes would show her the orb slowly shaping into a human form. What she saw was one of the most beautiful women she has ever seen, more beautiful than her mentor, Lady Tsunade.

She stood in a white gown, her hair was colored black with red highlights, her eyes were gold colored, and she wore a golden necklace.

"That's a lot better, I just had to transform into my human form. That was getting a little tight over there."

"I have to say, you're very beautiful," Sakura said, with Ashimaru walking up to her.

"You're not bad yourself. Now let's have a talk about the guardian who was hell-bent on trying to find me."

"You mean Kai, is he evil?" She said, fearful that maybe he was a fraud.

"Oh no, far from it, he's just misinformed about me, to be honest. I may have been born from the force of the nine-tailed beasts, but I am not evil by any imagination."

Sakura chimed into what she was saying, "But Kai said, you destroyed villages with your own power."

"Can't blame a girl for stretching her wings out after literally being born out of nothing." She said, shrugging her shoulders.

Sakura scratched her head in confusion. For someone Kai touted as a huge threat, she was not that menacing. That made her relieved by how she acted.

"So, what will happen now, I mean you are now communicating with me, does that mean you're awake?"

"No, not yet. But you will know soon enough. But until then, I'll be watching over you." Ashimaru said, before enveloping Sakura in a bright light."

Sakura sat up from the bed she was sharing with Naruto, she saw that he was gone. She looked for him but he was nowhere to be found. She walked around for a bit and saw a note on the table for her.

"Sakura-hime... went to train this morning... I Love you… Naruto" She smiled and hugged the letter, she got dressed and headed out for the day.

Naruto was in the middle of team seven's training field. Training with his shadow clones when he caught sight of someone approaching, it was Kai.

"Hey Naruto, could I have a word with you?"

"Sure, what's up?"

Both of them sat on the ground and Kai would ask him something.

"Hey Naruto, I want to get stronger, but I would really like some assistance. It seems like that with this enemy coming forward and trying to kidnap Sakura the other night. I figure I could be of more assistance to you guys."

Naruto pondered that for a moment, but came up with an idea.

"While I'm still learning things myself, I can try to get Kakashi-Sensei to help you. Maybe even try to get you to become a Konoha Ninja."

"Do you think? I mean would it be any problem?"

"Nah, I think it would be fine. I think Kakashi-sensei would be thrilled to be training another person."

Kai was excited, he knew some fire jutsu, but now he hoped his skills would evolve even further, and what better way to get stronger than with the people he considers his family?

Sakura walked through the village, still thinking about meeting Ashimaru. She saw Ino walking the streets as well, she was stuck on what Kai told her last night. Both girls caught sight of one another.

"Hey Sakura, do you have a minute?"

"Anytime Ino."

Ino and Sakura soon head to her house and would venture into her room to have a heart-to-heart with each other. Sakura could see her best friends struggling with something.

"You seem conflicted with something, care to explain Ino?"

Ino sat there, looking at the hot tea she had in her hand. She soon would tell Sakura about the story Kai told her the other night, about how he was engaged to a girl from his village, how he was forced to become a guardian to Ashimaru, How when he finally left he found out that Sena passed, and how he had a son who also died.

"Ino, it's ok."

"No, it's not Sakura, he's still shaking up about it. I wish there was something I could do for him?" She said.

Sakura thought too and something came to mind.

"Hey Ino, you could always invite him as a date to the Blossom Festival."

"Why didn't I think about that? I guess I could give it a shot." Ino said with a smile.

The Konoha Blossom Festival is a celebration of the blooming of flowers. It's where girls invite guys to dance, eat, shop, and possibly fall in love. Ino and Sakura love the festival, they tried their damnedest to invite Sasuke there a multitude of times but he would shoot them down every time. But every time Naruto would ask her to do it, she would turn him down. But this year things would be different, both of them would go as a couple. Ino decided that this year she would ask Kai to visit the festival.

"Thanks, Sakura, I appreciated talking to someone about it," Ino said to her best friend.

"No problem, anyway I was meaning to talk to Kai."

"What for?"

"I talked to her, I talked to Ashimaru."

Ino gasped, did she hear Sakura correct what Ashimaru communicated to her?

"For real, you're not pulling my leg?"

"Must have been sometime this morning when she talked to me?"

Ino pressed Sakura on the details of her conversation.

"So how is she, is she as evil as Kai-Kun said she was?"

"No actually, she's really nice, to be honest. Once we find Kai I can say what I know about her. You wouldn't happen to know where they went?"

"Kai-Kun said he was gonna find Naruto and see if he could help him hone his skills a bit."

Sakura knew where the two boys were, so she and Ino soon departed for the training field.

A loud painful scream echoed through the training field, as explosions rippled through the area. Naruto and Kakashi stood tall, as Kai lay crumpled on the ground. His body was covered in ash, and his hair was burnt.

"Kakashi-Sensei, maybe you went a little overboard?" Naruto said.

"Maybe, next time I'll try to tone it down a bit. Trying to keep up with you and Sakura these days is quite the chore."

"Hey Kai, are you alright?" Naruto asked his friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine, if you would be so kind as to pop my shoulder back in place that would be wonderful," Kai said, as Naruto did what he requested. "Oh, yeah that's better."

Kakashi admired the young man who knew some pretty decent fire-based ninjutsu, but his combat skills needed a ton of work. Kakashi knew this was gonna be a project.

"Well Kai, I have some bad news for you. You need a lot of work at this point. Not only working on your sword skills with taijutsu, you know how to use it at least, but you flail it around like a kid with a stick. And while your fire techniques are decent, some amazing fire jutsu I've never seen, you still need lots of work improving that aspect."

"How long will it take to learn stuff like that, if I may be inclined to ask?"

"Rough estimate, 200 years."

Kai's jaw dropped, was he for real, was he kidding?

"Just kidding, it will take at least a year."

"One year huh, well sign me up, I wish to get stronger to protect the people I love and to make sure Ashimaru doesn't fall into the wrong hands," Kai said, while still on the ground.

"Hey Kakashi-Sensei, I want to help as well, maybe this can help me get stronger as well."

"I don't see why not. Alright you two, well take a break and we'll continue our training."

Naruto whooped it up, while Kai gave a thumbs up while on the ground. The girls soon arrived and Ino saw Kai laying on the ground. She was mad and the only person she could take her aggression on is Naruto himself. She would slam her fist on Naruto's cranium.

"Owww, what was that for?" Naruto said, rubbing his head.

"You were too rough with him," Ino said, giving him a glare.

"Come on Ino, we were just training? Plus it was mostly Kakashi-Sensei. You have to believe me right Sakura-Hime?"

"Naruto-Kun, I've seen how you train so don't give us that?" Sakura said, sharing in the glare that Ino gave him.

Naruto couldn't win when it came to explaining what happened to both of them.

Ino started to heal Kai, he felt like a million dollars. He slowly got up and dusted himself off.

"Thanks, Ino-Chan, I appreciate it." He said, giving her a thumbs up. Ino blushed like crazy.

"Umm sure, it's sort of my job." She said as she rubbed the back of her neck.

"But it's alright, Kakashi offered to train me so I can become stronger than I am right now."

Sakura then said something to Kai that would catch his attention.

"Hey Kai, I think I have something you would like to know. Ashimaru spoke to me."

Kai stopped what he was gonna say.

"You did, when did this occur?"

"This morning, right before I awoke," Sakura said, before going into the entirety of the conversation she had with the phoenix.

Kai heard very intently what Sakura told him and was more mad at himself that he bought into the lies he was told by the elders in his village. Even in the books, he's read on the subject that he had to, there was always this emphasis on how evil and destructive the phoenix was. After Sakura finished, Kai stood there for a bit. He sat there thinking, and adding it all together.

"Well at least that's something not to worry about, if Ashimaru got loose she wouldn't destroy the world, but it's the people who attacked you that we should worry about. She said that she hasn't fully awakened yet so maybe we can find a way to remove Ashimaru without hurting you."

"What do you think we should do next?" Naruto asked.

"Just have to stay on our toes, hopefully, my contact will come through, as well as Tsunade's."

"Right, everything will work out," Sakura said, with a wink.

Meanwhile, in the Land of Shadows, a familiar tavern lies with the same man polishing a freshly drunk saki glass. When a man with a black cloak with red clouds enters the tavern. A few patrons went about their business, and the man walked up to the counter and would sit down. A pair of cold raven eyes looked at the man who was more focused on the glass than the customer.

"How may I be of assistance?"

"Information, if you have it?" The man said, throwing a bag of money on the counter. "I heard a rumor throughout the ninja information network that there might be a new jinchuriki?"

Kenji picked up the bag and placed it into his pocket.

"It's not really what you may call a jinchuriki, but an incubator of a legendary phoenix."

"A phoenix? Tell me more if you would?"

"From what I can gather, that the young woman happens to reside in a village quite a ways from here, she has within her a phoenix who could have the potential to destroy the world."

"I see, where exactly is she residing in?"

"I don't know much about her name but she lives in Konoha. But she has pink hair from what the intel gave me."

The man in the cloak soon remembered a kunoichi with pink hair. He would get up from his seat and start to make his way out the door.

"I have to say it's been a while since I've seen you Akatsuki members. If my memory suits me well, you happen to be one of the last of the Uchiha, am I correct?"

"You could say that?" He said as a gust of wind blew his hat off, revealing him to be Itachi Uchiha.

Sakura tells the guys about the blossom festival happening in a few days. Naruto was excited that this year he finally gets to go with Sakura. Kai though really has never been to a festival as far as he remembered. Maybe when he was living in his home village many years ago. But even during his journeys, he may have missed it. But he figured how fun this was gonna be. Ino approached him and would sit next to him.

"Hey Kai-Kun, did you want to go with me?" She asked, hoping he would say yes.

"Sure, sounds fun. I can't wait." He said, giving her a smile.

She was now excited, she couldn't wait to go with him. Her mind started to fly like a bird soaring through the sky. She had to start to get ready for the day so bid her friends goodbye for now. Kai, Naruto, and Sakura looked confused.

"Guess she really wanted to go with you Kai reminds me of when Hinata would ask me to it many years ago," Naruto said.

"Agree, she's been so nice to me since we met. So I feel like this is a great reward for her."

Sakura got to her feet and looked at both Naruto and Kai, making a devious smile.

"All right boys, let's dance. Since you want to train and I need to as well, why not spar for a while." She said with a cocky smirk.

"Right, all right Sakura-Hime… Let's dance!" Naruto said.

"Oh man, all I ask is to go gentle?" Kai asked her, with Sakura winking at him.

"Sorry Kai... no mercy" She said, charging right at him.

Down the road still days away, there were three figures in cloaks. Two of the figures were not too mysterious. Kagome and Keiko were walking down the trail, with one thing on Kagome's mind… revenge. Keiko would follow her friend, she didn't want to do this but they had no choice. But the third is the red-haired woman with chakra armor and a mask with only a vizor with runes written on it.

"All right, the master gave us our orders. We are to try to kidnap the pink-haired woman once again, and not leave the village until we have her and place her at his feet. While you will take on her friends, especially that blonde-haired fool." She said, still thinking of Naruto.

The woman nodded her head in agreement. Keiko wanted to settle all of the scores when they got there. But Keiko wanted her to relax. They held hands as they continued down the road.