A/N: Sorry for the ultra late update

A/N: Sorry for the ultra late update. You probably want to read the chapter already, so on with story...

Disclaimer: you know the drill...

Translations:

tachi: and the others, and them, and his/her/their group (something along those lines)

keikoku no maigo tamashii: valley of lost souls (probably didn't word this right, but that's what I was aiming for)

keikoku: valley, canyon, ravine

maigo: lost

tamashii: soul, spirit

senbon: throwing needles

usuratonkachi: total moron, moron of morons dumbass (at least I think that's what it means)

gama: toad

gaki: brat

Tsuchikage: earth shadow (kage of the hidden stone village)

harahetta: I'm hungry (heh...I've been watching too much Saiyuki)

betsuni/nandemonai (sp?): nothing, it's nothing (sometimes even means whatever)

koketsu: tiger's denjaws of death, dangerous place (strange word, ne?)

kagiru: to restrict, limit, confine

maboroshi: dream

Three

by: Lostlily

Chapter 11

-Small country between the Fire and Earth countries-

Jiraiya's team stopped just at the edge of the forest. They had been traveling nonstop for a day and a half now and the boys looked like they were about to collapse. Both Jiraiya and Kakashi were fairing much better as they were used to traveling with little rest.

Kakashi glanced at the panting boys, wondering if they were truly prepared for their mission. Things were only going to get harder. He looked towards Jiraiya, who was silently frowning at the forest. If the mission was going to end up as bad as he felt it was going to, then he and Jiraiya would have to fight to the best of their capabilities to ensure that everyone on their team will survive. It was a fight he was not looking forward to.

Shikamaru resisted the urge to just lay on the ground, knowing that if he did, he would just fall asleep and not wake up for many hours. Once he managed to catch his breath, which took a bit longer for him than it did for Sasuke and Neji, he glanced towards forest. Using his photographic memory, he mentally studied a map of the countries that he saw in a book once, in his head. Just at the end of the forest would be a small mountain, which was the border between the country they were in and the Earth country.

He knew they were close to catching up to Naruto, but he wasn't sure exactly how close. Jiraiya never told them exactly where they were headed. So he finally decided to ask, "Oi, Jiraiya-sama! Where are Naruto-tachi heading towards?"

The big, white-haired man was silent for a minute and then he finally replied, "Keikoku no Maigo Tamashii just at the border of the Earth Country." He never once took his attention away from the forest.

Kakashi soon found himself doing the same. He could feel it. Something happened...something bad. But what?

Jiraiya gave the signal to move on and at once they were leaping from tree branch to tree branch. It wasn't too long until they stopped again. Only this time it wasn't to rest. They stood upon the branches of some trees that overlooked a tiny clearing. It was the smell that stopped them. They all leapt to the ground and kept a small distance away from the half-eaten corpses within the clearing.

"Apparently a fight occurred here a couple of days ago," Kakashi observed. From what he could see, there were two bodies that were emitting the rotten stench of death and decay. One had senbon protruding from his neck and the other had a kunai sticking out of his chest. The ravens that had been picking at the bodies flew away as they approached.

Neji held no expression on his face, but inside, he could feel his stomach churn from the smell. He turned his sight away from the bodies to the ground, then he gave a sudden frown. He knelt down for a closer look. 'Sand? Then that means...' "They were here," he quietly said. The others glanced towards the Hyuuga boy, who had sand sifting through his slender fingers.

Sasuke studied the area. There were kunai scattered everywhere and on a nearby tree was the rusty stain of blood. He closed his eyes as memories flash through his mind...

Blood splattered everywhere. On the ground...the walls...windows. The pools of the dark, crimson liquid beneath each body of his very own people. The coppery scent filled his senses. The gruesome sight implanted itself in his young mind. He ran home. Home, the representation of safety, ne? But it wasn't safe at home. All he found were the bodies of his parents and the lone figure of his traitorous nii-san...

A low growl rumbled from his throat as he angrily punched the tree. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things. He had to focus. He had to find that usuratonkachi and drag him, along with his demonic little friends, back to the Hokage. Maybe after that, he'll beat the crap out of the blond baka and prove that he was stronger than him, youkai or no youkai.

Jiraiya arched a brow at the volatile Uchiha boy, then he glanced at the forever serious Hyuuga, and lastly at the super lazy Nara kid. The gama senin suddenly found himself missing the simple and happy personality of his blond pupil. He let out a sigh as he thought to himself, 'We better catch up to that gaki soon. These boys are no fun at all!'

Kakashi cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention, "We should continue on."

"What about these guys?" Shikamaru inquired as he nodded towards the stone-nin corpses.

"We'll be sure to send the Tsuchikage a message about this once we've completed our mission," Kakashi drawled in that strange way of his.

"How troublesome..."

"Let's go," Jiraiya said as he jumped to the trees once more. The others followed suit, except for Sasuke who paused by one of the bodies and pulled out the kunai that was sticking out from it's chest. His eyes narrowed as he saw the faint swirl mark near the hilt of the weapon. Slipping the blade into his pouch, he leapt into the trees to catch up with the others. As he flew from branch to branch, Naruto's voice echoed in his mind.

What are you afraid of?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-Hidden Sand Village-

"Harahetta..." Chouji mumbled as they walked down the road towards the Kazekage's tower.

Asuma's team had arrived barely an hour ago. Though everyone was exhausted, they didn't bother to rest once entering the village. Wanting to hurry back to their own country, the small group headed immediately towards the tower where they were told the Kazekage resided in.

"Shh!" Ino hissed at her teammate as she elbowed him. "Now is not the time to worry about food!"

Hinata gave a nervous glance around as Chouji continued to mumble under his breath while Ino shot glares at him. The pale-eyed girl noticed how different the Sand Village was compared to their own.

Konoha was so green and practically bursting with life. People would be bustling around busily or cheerfully chatting with one another. Even with the damages from the war last year, one could tell that it was a very prosperous ninja village. The Hidden Sand appeared to be almost the opposite. The people seemed weary and the buildings were worn with cracks. The sun that was beating down upon them unmercifully just made the sand that was everywhere more glaringly obvious. All in all, it wasn't a very pleasant atmosphere.

Ino turned her attention away from the mumbling boy once she noticed the look on the younger girl's face, "Ne, Hinata, what's with you? You've been jumpier than usual every since we got here."

Fidgeting with the strap of her bag absently, she said softly, "Gomen, Ino-san. I-it's just that this place makes me feel a bit nervous." That was only half the reason she was so jumpy. The blond girl just nodded with understanding. After all, their villages had barely just formed a new alliance and the Sand had taken part in the attack against their village the year before. It was only natural that they should feel uneasy.

"He's not here," Shino stated in his usual low-toned voice.

Hinata's pale eyes widened with surprise while Chouji and Ino just blinked at the bug boy with confusion.

Chouji scratched his head as he asked, "Who's not here?"

"That guy with the powerful chakra and the killing intent to match."

"Eh?" Ino muttered, then she blinked again with even more confusion. "What guy? What are you two talking about," blue eyes narrowed with suspicion towards the two members of team eight.

The young Hyuuga gave a small shiver as Shino said, "The one that Sasuke faced during the final Chuunin exam."

Both Ino and Chouji looked around with the same nervousness that Hinata displayed earlier. They remembered that guy. The guy that almost killed Lee during the preliminary matches. Lee had fought with everything he had and in the end, the sand-nin still walked away without a scratch. They could only hope they didn't run into him. He was from this village after all. Then the bug user's earlier comment suddenly hits the blond kunoichi, "Wait a minute. How do you know he's not here?"

"I sent some bugs to scout the village when we arrived and they didn't detect any of that guy's chakra anywhere."

"We're here," Asuma said as he rolled his unlit cigarette from one corner of his mouth to the other. The group stopped in front of the two story building before they were quickly escorted to the Kazekage's chambers by two sand anbu. Many passing sand-nin glanced at them with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. Once in the Kazekage's chambers, they knelt on the large mat placed before the curtain that veiled the Sand Village leader.

After squinting for a moment at the silhouette, Asuma cleared his throat and said gruffly, "Hokage-sama has sent us here to deliver a message concerning a certain shinobi from your village. She requires an immediate reply." Then he presented the scroll that he was to deliver. One of the sand-nin came forward and took the scroll, then handed it to the man behind the curtain. Everyone waited in silence as the Kazekage opened the scroll and began to quickly read it. Suddenly, they heard low hiss, "That kuso gaki!"

Hinata clutched her hands together tightly, Ino and Chouji fidgeted uncomfortably, Shino just sat there passively, and Asuma arched a brow. The Kazekage tossed the scroll to the side and said, "I will send a team to go back with you to your village. I will follow with an entourage once I have settled a few things here. The team will meet you at the gate." The leaf nin bowed their heads respectfully, then exited.

As they headed back to the village gate, Ino asked, "Asuma-sensei, why is the Kazekage going to our village?"

"Because the Hokage wants to talk to him," Asuma answered.

"About the alliance between our villages?"

"Iie. Don't worry about it. It doesn't concern you guys." Then the jounin muttered under his breath, "At least I hope it won't."

"What was that?"

"Betsuni."

Ino looked at her sensei with suspicion, but decided not to comment any further since they were already approaching the gate. They had waited for about half an hour before the sand team that was to travel back with them arrived. To their great surprise, they happened to recognize the team. Ino, of course, couldn't keep her shock from being known, "It's them! That girl that Shikamaru fought and her teammate." Hinata gave in involuntary shiver as the sand team reached them.

Baki started to discuss something with Asuma and they both didn't appear to be happy about anything. Kankuro had a sour look on his face as he muttered, "These gaki again." Temari didn't even bother to acknowledge the young genin. Actually, it seemed like there was something on her mind. Something that was troubling her.

Once the discussion between the jounin was over, both teams left, eager to just get everything done and over with.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-Hidden Cloud Village-

The Raikage was not happy. He clenched his hands, crumpling the scroll he just read. Standing before him, with her head bowed respectfully, was Kurenai. Biting back at the fury he could feel rising within, he said to her, "Tell your Hokage that I will come once my...daughter," he almost winced at the word, "is found and captured."

Kurenai nodded, "Arigato for your time, Raikage-sama." Then she silently exited. Once she was gone, the Raikage ripped the scroll in half in a fit of anger. Heads were gonna roll for this act of treachery...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While Kurenai was meeting with the Raikage, her genin team was instructed to wait outside of the building, which do not make them very happy. But their unhappiness didn't get in the way of their curiosity. After all, none of them have ever been to the Lightning Country before and they didn't know anyone who's been within the walls of the Hidden Cloud Village since the incident that happened with the Hyuuga clan eleven years ago.

Looking around, they noticed that the buildings appeared to have a fair amount of space between them and what really puzzled them were the odd metal towers that were set up here and there. Akamaru curiously sniffed at one of the nearby towers and then yelped with surprise as he received a sudden static shock. With fur standing on end, the small dog hightailed back to Kiba and climbed into in his jacket. A short distance away, an old man sitting on a bench called out, "Careful there. You don't want to get too close to that lightning tower." The genin team walked over to the old man. Upon studying, he appeared to be just an old citizen taking a rest.

"Lightning tower? Is that what it is?" Tenten asked.

"Hai. Since the Hidden Cloud Village is located on the highest grounds of the Lightning Country, we tend to have many severe thunder storms. The lightning towers are placed all around the village for the safety of the villagers. You may also have noticed that all the buildings are set apart from each other," The young genin nodded, except for Kiba, who was too busy trying to smooth down Akamaru's fur. "Well, they were set up that way so that if one building were to get hit by lightning and catch on fire, then there would be less of a chance of the fire spreading to the surrounding buildings."

Sakura stared up at the lightning tower, but her thoughts weren't on it. In fact, at the first mention of the word lightning just brought her mind back to Sasuke. 'Will Sasuke have to use his chidori during his mission? Will his cursed seal activate again?'

"Sakura-san?" Lee softly called out to her, once he noticed the distressed look in her spring green eyes.

The pink-haired girl blinked with surprise, then glanced towards the older boy, "A-ah, hai, Lee-san?"

"Are you alright? You look like something's bothering you."

"Nandemonai. I'm fine," She said with an obviously strained smile.

The thick-browed boy's eyes took on a look of understanding as he quietly said, "You're worried about Sasuke-kun, aren't you?"

The false smile quickly faded from Sakura's lips. Her gaze slipped downward as she whispered, "Gomen ne. I know I should be focusing on this mission, but..."

"You still can't help but worry about your teammate, correct?"

"...Hai."

Lee gave her an encouraging smile, "That's why I think Sakura-san is the greatest. Sakura-san has the most kindest heart. Such beauty inside and out!" Then he gave her the patented good guy pose with his teeth-pinging smile and thumbs up sign, "Don't worry about Sasuke-kun. He's a strong shinobi. I believe that whatever happens, he will return back home safely!"

Sakura stared at the older boy for moment, then gave a small tearful smile and nodded, "Hai. Arigato, Lee-san."

It was at that moment that Kiba suddenly asked the pink-haired girl, "What happened to Naruto?"

Startled, she stuttered, "N-nani?"

Kiba walked up to the two, keeping his gaze on Sakura as he said, "He wasn't there in the Hokage's office, so where is he? What happened to him?"

"Nothing happened to him. He wasn't feeling well, so Tsunade-sama probably didn't summon him." The young girl was always good of thinking of believable excuses on the spot. Tenten joined them, finding interest in their choice of topic.

"You're lying."

Taking offensive on Sakura's behalf, Lee pointed at the younger boy and said, "How dare you accuse Sakura-san of lying!"

Kiba swatted Lee's pointing hand away from his face and stated towards Sakura, "I clearly overheard Iruka-sensei asking the Hokage if Naruto was involved in all this and she nodded yes. Since you lied about him, then you should know what really happened to him, ne?" All eyes were on the pink-haired girl. Lee wanted to protest about her innocence, but Tenten gave him a look of warning. She also wanted to hear the younger girl's answer.

Sakura desperately tried to think of something to say. She felt that Naruto's disappearance was something that she shouldn't be talking about with others. Luckily, it was then that Kurenai appeared and said, "Oi, it's time to move out. We have one more stop before heading back to Konoha."

Thankfully, Sakura followed the jounin with the others trailing close behind them both. She knew that sooner or later, Kiba was going to question her again. Hopefully by then, she will have come up with something to tell him. Until that time, she could only go back to worrying about her teammates. 'Sasuke-kun, Naruto...please be ok.'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Darkness...

So much darkness everywhere. But it wasn't an empty darkness.

No.

Something was prowling within, watching. Always watching. Always waiting.

Then the voice could be heard. A voice that taunted at odd moments. A voice that would always be there. A voice that warned that something was going to happen...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Keikoku no Maigo Tamashii , Earth Country-

Naruto kicked at a tree. A tree that Yuri happened to be perched in, napping; though the kick startled her awake from her dream. At least, she thought it was dream. Realizing what he had done, the blond boy looked up towards her and gave her a sheepish look while he apologized, "Gomen, Yuri. I didn't mean to wake you up."

Straightening up a bit, she replied, "It's ok. I think I needed to wake up." She took a brief glance around, trying to remember where they were for a moment. The first thing she saw was a big rock. Standing next to the rock was Gaara, who appeared to be staring at something on the ground. Just a short distance behind Gaara and the big rock was the entrance to the canyons. Yuri finally remembered that Akuma-aniki had instructed them to wait just at the edge of the canyons while he went to scout ahead. Since she didn't get much sleep the night before, when they camped halfway down the mountain, she decided to take a short nap.

She guessed that she had been asleep for two hours at the most. Somehow, she was glad that Naruto woke her up. She was having the same dream that she had the night before. She didn't like the dream because she always hears that voice. It's voice. And she hated It because It was the source of all her problems. It being the Kuroneko, of course. She didn't tell Naruto and Gaara, but sometimes, the youkai inside her would talk to her. It would whisper things in her mind and no matter how hard she tried to make the voice go away, it wouldn't give her peace. Unconsciously, she raised her hand to touch a spot a few inches below her collar bone. On that spot, was a seal that was placed upon her when she was just an infant. (A/N: if you wanna know what the seal looks like, then just check it out on my deviant art page. the link is in my profile)

Noticing how distracted Yuri seemed to be, Naruto decided to go see what Gaara was doing. Approaching the redhead cautiously (cautious because of an earlier incident where he ran up to him and ended up with a face full of sand), Naruto asked curiously, "Ne, ne, what are you looking at, Gaara?" The older boy happened to be staring up at the sky. Why he was, Naruto didn't know, but he was curious about it.

"There's clouds."

The blond turns his face upwards and sees clouds, "So?"

"They weren't there before."

Naruto gave his companion a funny look, "So what? That's how clouds are. They appear and disappear like my ramen." Even though Naruto was the kind of person to have his head in the clouds didn't mean he was one to speculate on their presence.

Gaara stared up at the cloudy sky silently for a moment or two, then slowly moved his gaze to meet the younger boy's eyes, "These clouds are...wrong."

"Wrong?"

The leaf-nin glanced up at the sky again. Nothing looked wrong with them. They were grey and a bit low, but other than that, they just seemed like regular clouds. He looked back to the sand-nin, his face riddled with confusion.

"I've located the village," a deep voice suddenly said from behind Naruto, making the young boy yelp with surprise. When he swirled around, he found Akuma standing there with his magenta eyes peering eerily down at him. While the blond glared at the man for appearing so abruptly, Yuri lightly hopped off her tree and walked towards them.

Gaara merely glanced towards the older cloud-nin before looking away again. He still felt uneasy about their mission. Deep inside he could feel Shukaku's excitement. Though it was strange to think it, it almost felt as if the sand youkai was...snickering about something. The young sand-nin was not pleased at all.

After some brief instructions, they all donned some plain, brown cloaks and headed off into the entrance of the canyons. Akuma lead the young shinobi towards the heart of the canyons until they finally reached what appeared to be some old ruins at the base of a small plateau. The ruins weren't really much to look at. Just some fallen columns here and there, a few broken down buildings, and small shrine with an altar. There didn't seem to be anyone around, yet they all kept their guard up.

Akuma approached the shrine and felt around the back of the altar a bit before triggering a switch. He then stepped back as the altar moved to the side to reveal a set of steep steps leading underground. Without any hesitation, he preceded to walk down the steps. The three young ninja glanced at each other briefly before silently following. The steps lead them about a kilometer underground and at the base of the steps were a pair of large wooden doors. The older cloud-nin placed a hand on the one of the closed doors and murmured firmly, "Koketsu!"

As the doors swung open, Naruto could feel a strange sense of foreboding creeping up his spine. Within the seal, he knew Kyuubi was pacing impatiently within his cage. As they walked down a poorly lit tunnel, he shot a quick glance towards Gaara from under his hood. As usual, Gaara's expression was blank. So, the blond looked towards Yuri and his blue eyes took in the slightly uncomfortable look on her face. Before he had a chance to wonder about this whole 'mission', he could hear voices echoing around faintly. The voices became louder and louder as they approached the end of the tunnel.

Soon, they found themselves within a massive cave that connected to many tunnels and smaller caves. Looking around, they could see that the underground 'village' was lit up by some overhanging light bulbs here and there. Apparently they had some generators set up somewhere to provide them with a minimal amount of electricity. There were all kinds of people around. From bandits to mercenary samurai to even missing-nin. There were many small groups gathered here and there either gambling, arguing, drinking, and talking. All in all, it seemed like a seedy and dangerous place.

Naruto could feel many calculating gazes follow them as they headed towards one of the far tunnels in the back. He made sure not to have any eye contact with anyone and felt very relieved once they entered the second tunnel. They never noticed the two cloaked figures standing in the shadows. This tunnel was different from the one that led to the outside as it was smaller and seemed more like a hallway than anything else. After what seemed like fifteen minutes, they reached a thick door covered with many paper seals at the end of the tunnel.

Gaara found it highly suspicious how Akuma just merely opened the door without any problems. 'Why are there no guards?' He wondered as Yuri and Naruto blindly follow the older Cloud-nin in. After an annoyed look from Akuma, Gaara entered as well. Inside the room, they couldn't see a thing as it was pitch black darkness all around.

"Oi! Oi! I can't see anything! Someone turn on a light or something," Naruto complained.

Yuri, having the advantage of partial night vision via her neko youkai, glanced around. She noted that the two boys were standing right next to her. Gaara with a scowl on his face and Naruto squinting his eyes trying to see in the dark. She happened to glance at the ground and noticed something strange. 'That looks like...writing. That's odd...' It occurred to her then that the writing was part of some sort of seal and her and the two boys were standing on that seal. The door was shut silently. She turned her head to make a comment toward Akuma when she noticed him kneeling at the edge of the seal with both his hands on it. "Akuma-aniki, what are you d-"

"KAGIRU!"

The large seal on the ground lit up the whole room, revealing the fact that spread out about six feet in diameter. Chains burst through the ground and clamped themselves on the their ankles and wrists. To Gaara's confusion, his sand didn't leap to his defense, "N-nani!" He suddenly realized that he couldn't feel his chakra. The other two came to the same realization.

Yuri sent a confused and pleading look towards Akuma who just stared back at her coldly as he was forming seals rapidly with his hands. The three fell to their knees as the chains began to feel heavier with every seal the Cloud-nin formed. With the last seal, Akuma quietly said, "Maboroshi no jutsu."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Naruto couldn't understand how they ended up trapped like this. Wasn't this Akuma guy supposed to be helping them? He felt a burning pain on his stomach that made him yelp out. Soon the burning intensified and before he passed out, he could only hope his friends would forgive his stupidly for leaving in the first place.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gaara was furious with himself. How could he have allowed something like to this to happen? What kind of jutsu was this to be able to seal his chakra to a point where his sand wouldn't even defend him anymore? He suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his head. A pain that was parallel to the kind he felt when Shukaku wanted to come out. What was going on? What will happen to them? His vision started to blur and he began to panic. He couldn't afford to pass out. The demon tanuki would come out and start to kill. But he couldn't fight the pain any longer and fell into unconsciousness.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yuri felt a crushing pain in her chest. Through pain-filled tears, she stared at Akuma. The one person she trusted the most in the world had betrayed her. She just couldn't comprehend why he would do such a thing to her and her newfound friends. Was this whole mission just a trap for them? Deep inside, she hoped that her eyes were just fooling her. That it wasn't her Akuma-aniki doing this to them, but some imposter instead. Or maybe that he was being controlled somehow. Yet as she looked into his cold magenta eyes, she could see the sharpness and clearness in them. There was no trick. No being controlled. Before she gave into the darkness, she uttered out weakly, "Why?"

No answer was given.

A/N: This chapter didn't turn out quite like I first envisioned it to. I'm not even sure it makes any sense. Trust me, I gave this a lot of thought. I came up with dozens and dozens of scenarios and somehow I just ended up with this. I hope it's ok. Once again, I'm really sorry that it took me so long to update. I guess a lot things in life just caught up to me and I couldn't find time to work on the fic. Of course, by the time I did find time to work on it, the words just wouldn't come to me. Oh well, you all probably don't want to hear my excuses. On another note, thank you thank you thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'm in awe of all the reviews I received. All of you are totally sugoi! Whenever I felt like giving up on the fic, I would read the reviews and start trying to break down my writer's block and begin brainstorming. I'm really glad you people like this fic. It may not be quick, but I really will finish this story. Anyways, I hope this chappie wasn't too confusing and that you enjoyed reading it. Please do feel free to drop a review. I'm trying to work on the next chapter already while my creative juices are still flowing. Ja ne!