Strange and Stranger Things

Kakashi stood between Sai, Kiba, and Ino outside of the Mizukage's office. He had left behind a massive amount of work in Shikamaru's hands to travel to the Land of Water at Mei Turami's request.

"There are rumors about strange occurrences all over the world, sir." Sai briefed Kakashi with Shikamaru's notes quickly before the meeting. "Just this week, we've received requests from the land of tea, the land of trees, and the land of hotwater about exterminating fantastical creatures that by all rights shouldn't even exist."

"Do we think these sightings are real?" Kakashi frowned, taking the notepad and looking over Shikamaru's notes. His face mask was still a constant but both his eyes were now visible. Though he kept his promise to his old teammate and recovered Obito's sharingan from Madara's body, he chose not to transplant them and instead locked them away in the Hyuga treasury.

"We're not sure." Sai admitted. "The only verified event is an epidemic of an odd disease that has spread across the Land of Water. Apparently it causes rapid premature aging. It seems to be tied to the water supply but is passed from person to person through some other unknown method. There are reports of a strange creature appearing in the water right before the disease shows up in that region. The people are calling the creature, the basilisk. They say if you look into the creature's eyes or drink any water it has touched, you contract the disease."

Kakashi sighed. "Well that sounds like a problem."

"Their medical teams have no way of treating it. The disease is only contained by locking away those who have it. They've sent teams to hunt this creature without any success."

"So they have requested our assistance?" Kakashi presumed.

"The Mizukage asked for both you and Shikamaru personally. Of course some one had to stay behind to oversee the village... we thought it looked best if you went alone as opposed to Shikamaru." Sai stated. "I believe she hopes that you may be able to convince Lady Tsunade to return. They are in need of her medical expertise. And Shikamaru's strategic mind has become legendary."

Thoroughly briefed, Kakashi opened the door to the Mizukage's office. He found the woman with long red hair sitting inside next to her assistant. There were almost as many papers on her desk as there were on Kakashi's desk. She stood up and moved with a sultry stealth across the office to greet her guests.

"Aw, Lord Hokage. My day just keeps getting handsomer and handsomer." Exaggerating the swing of her hips even more, she moved close enough to Kakashi to lay her hand on his chest, spreading her fingers just enough to feel his pectoral muscle through the robe. She undressed him with her leering green eyes. Kakashi could feel the hairs standing up on the back of his neck.

"Ummm... yes... Lady Mizukage." He stammered as he moved back slightly to escape her wandering fingers. But Mei's hands were quicker and instead he ran smack into Ino, stepping on her foot.

"Ouch!" Ino yelped hopping on one foot. She elbowed Kiba hard in the side as he snickered. Sai ignored both of them, staring at Mei with his mouth wide open.

Mei smiled wickedly and raised an eyebrow at Kakashi's flushed face. "I see I haven't lost my touch yet. What a relief! At least the years haven't yet eroded that away."

She looked forlornly at Chojuro before moving behind her desk to appraise Kakashi fully from her chair. "Do you know my assistant, Chojuro? I'm sure you met during the fourth war."

Kakashi greeted Chojuro before introducing Kiba, Ino, and Sai.

Picking up a pen to tap on her desk, Mei examined Ino. "And you must be Inoichi Yamanaka's daughter. You look just like him too. I was sorry to hear of your father's passing. He perished at the same time as our beloved Ao. And I know what it is to be a young woman lost without her parent... though that was a... long... long... loooonnng time ago."

Mei started to look forlorn again as she balled up her fist in angry frustration. "Why must time pass so... quickly. Where has my youth gone Chojuro?"

"Lady Mizukage! Maybe we should discuss the reason why we called the leaf ninja here!" The lenses of his glasses thoroughly steamed, Chojuro exclaimed nervously, snatching the shattered pen from her well manicured death grip. He quickly moved any sharp or fragile objects from within her reach.

Mei snapped back to reality then. "I'm sorry to have called you all this way Lord hokage, but I am really in the midst of a true crisis and in need of your personal touch. I was hoping you might be able to convince Lady Tsunade to look into this disease that has ravished so many nearby villages. As well as lend your strategy maker to assist us in devising a way to capture whatever has been spreading it from town to town."

"We will contact Tsunade's student, Sakura Haruno, about these incidents and ask her to detour from her current mission to investigate this disease. She is currently with Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hinata Hyuga. While they are in Kirigakure investigating the disease, I will also ask them to look into these creature sightings as well. I will also send back any intel that my team and I gather here to Shikamaru in order to devise a strategy to capture this creature... if you will allow us to have a look around during the few days we are able to stay." Kakashi offered.

The Mizukage nodded. "Thank you so much for your personal attention to this."

"Keeping a cooperative relationship between our two villages is of great importance to us all, Lady Mizukage." Kakashi replied.

"Oh really?" Mei leaned forward across the desk. "If that's true maybe you would agree to have dinner with me tonight, so we can discuss this further... kage to kage."

Clearing his throat, Kakashi looked over his shoulder at Sai and caught sight of Kiba, whose body shook with barely contained laughter as he did his best to stifle another snicker. "I'm sure Sai has my scheduled packed tight..."

"Actually sir, you're completely free this evening." Sai volunteered deadpanning his voice.

Kakashi's shoulders slumped. "Well then... I guess I'm free for dinner."

Mei raised an eyebrow and licked her lips seductively. "We are going to have lots of fun together."

"The only thing I got out of it was something about the demon of broken hearts." Naruto slumped over Hinata's bedside, feeling defeated.

"Demon of broken hearts... demon of broken hearts..." Gemsa rolled the thought around her head a few times. "What was she wearing?"

Embarrassed, Naruto's face turned an odd pink color. "At first she looked like Hinata... in a bikini. Then she turned into this granny in an out of date kimono."

Gemsa raised an eyebrow. Her long hair flew in a wild storm of untamable silver strands around her face, but her eye brows were still a dark shade of red. "Most likely that's the Oiwa. Her sympathy for Menma's plight fits this particular demon. And so does her attempt to make herself look aesthetically pleasing to you. The Oiwa was once a woman who became facially deformed after her husband poisoned her so he could marry a more prominent younger woman. After the poor woman woke up from her illness and she discovered her husband's betrayal and her terrible facial disfigurement... drooping eyes, crooked mouth, flattened nose, and chunks of hair falling out, she went insane and eventually died of a broken heart. Her soul was so tortured in the afterlife, that she came back as a demon to torment her husband and drive him and all of his descendants to madness."

"Well she sounds like a joy." Sakura commented. "So what do we do about her?"

Gemsa stood up and moved over to Hinata, taking the girl's hand. "I can help but you'll have to get the Oiwa's mask for me. It should be locked away with the rest in your village."

"Or not..." Sasuke interjected. "During the war, Orochimaru had Jugo and Seigetsu steal the shinigami mask from the Hyuga treasury. They took all twenty six because they couldn't tell one from the other."

"So where is it now?" Naruto demanded.

Sasuke did not answer. He just turned and walked to the front door of Gemsa's house.

"Where are you going?" Naruto called after him.

"I'll be back in less than a day with the mask." Sasuke said before exiting the house.

Sakura turned to Naruto. "Don't worry. Keep watch over Hinata. I'll go with him."

Sasuke and Sakura crossed back to the mainland within a few hours. The journey was silent and uncomfortable, but they made good time. After she finally caught up to him, Sasuke did not refuse Sakura's company on this journey, but he also did not bother to acknowledge her either.

By the next nightfall, they made it to a cave set in the southern portion of the Land of Hot water. Sasuke stopped abruptly and stood at its mouth as though waiting.

"Do you think you will find the masks in this cave? Why are we here?" Sakura inquired as she moved up to his side.

Saskue ignored her and turned his head only slightly as a shadow appeared from the nearby woods. It moved out into the soft moonlight slowly revealing a familiar face.

A smile filled Sakura's face. "Captain Yamato... what are you doing here?"

"Since you're watching over this place, it must mean that Orochimaru is here." Sasuke cut into Sakura's greeting. The edge to his voice caused the other two ninja to look at him.

"You're Sasuke, right? What's the purpose of your visit to this cave?" Yamato asked, curiously. "I can't allow you through to see Orochimaru without a good reason -or approval from the hokage."

"It's important. Hinata is..." Sakura started.

Sasuke spoke over her. "Naruto and Hinata stumbled across one of those apparitions resulting from Kaguya's revival. Hinata is now possessed by a demon who an old Uzumaki woman calls the Oiwa. We need its mask to trick it out of her. Only Orochimaru knows where all of the Uzumaki masks are now."

"Did you contact Lord Sixth about this?" Yamato asked crossing his arms. "He has personally been looking into these strange occurences, himself."

"We were in a hurry." Sasuke spoked abruptly again before Sakura could speak. "Naruto is watching over Hinata using the binding seal to keep the demon at bay, but we only have so much time."

Yamato raised an eyebrow, and looked at Sakura for a second. Then he turned back to Sasuke. "I believe Lord Sixth would make an exception for this. He trusted you enough to pardon you, and Naruto trusts you enough to track down the one item that can save Hinata. So there is nothing else to say."

Stepping to the side, Yamato said, "I'll just send a report of this to the hokage."

"Thank you." Sasuke nodded at Yamato. Then he walked forward into the cave. Sakura turned and smiled at her old team leader. "Yes. Thank you, Captain Yamato. I'll tell Naruto and Hinata that you helped..."

"Are you coming or what?" Sasuke interjected from over his shoulder. He had stopped right inside of the cave mouth but did not bother to turn around.

Sasuke waited until Sakura moved next to him and then he continued to walk down the long corridor inside of the cave. Sakura whispered up to him. "I just wanted to say hi to Yamato. I haven't seen him since before the war."

He did not respond but Sakura could feel the tension waft off of Sasuke as she tried to explain herself. Sakura frowned. Was Sasuke jealous? This was strange behavior, even for him.

They found Orochimaru at the end of the corridor in a large laboratory. "Awww.. Sasuke. You've come looking for me again already."

Orochimaru's lips curled into a malicious smile. "And you've brought the girl with you this time. I knew it would only be so long before you finally gave in and started coveting that power for yourself... and what a pretty picture the two of you make."

Sasuke ignored Orochimaru's taunting as usual but Sakura's face had gone red. She growled and moved to snap at the sannin, but Sasuke grabbed her arm, signaling for her to stop. "Where are the Uzumaki masks?"

"Not even a greeting. You're as blunt as ever. So we are back to the usual nature of our relationship. You scratch my back and I scratch yours."

"Tell me where to find them." Sasuke did not plan to give an inch.

"Now is that any way to ask a person something?" Orochimaru asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Hurry up."

"I want the guard on my door switched." Orochimaru hissed. "Anko Mitarashi should be the guard, not one of my old botched experiments."

"Captain Yamato is not..." Sakura started but Sasuke squeezed her arm tighter, causing her to look down at his hand.

"I'll think about it while I'm contemplating over whether I should kill you again." Saskue replied.

"Dear boy. You can only kill me once." Orochimaru waved his hand nonchalantly at Sasuke. "Don't worry. I'm going to help you. You are... after all, my dear student."

"SASUKE!" The door to the lab flew open and a blur of red hair came barreling in towards Sasuke. "Hey! Why didn't you let me know you were coming?"

She grabbed his free arm and wrapped her arms around it, almost purring as she lay her head against his shoulder. Then she opened her eyes and took note of his other hand holding tight to Sakura's arm. She glared at Sakura. "What. Is. She. Doing. Here. And why are you holding her hand?"

"Im not." Sasuke looked down at his hand around Sakura's arm, nonplused.

"Wow! So we finally get to meet your girlfriend!" Seigetsu came in to the room, followed by Jugo, with a huge wicked grin on his face. He whistled, enjoying every second of the blood draining from Karin's face. "Heard she was hard to handle! And what a looker too!"

Karin spun and knocked Seigetsu's head into a splash of water. She pointed her finger at Sakura. "You mean that ugly hag? Get your eyes checked!"

"You don't want to start with me!" Sakura balled her fists. "Call me ugly one more time and I'll make sure you can't speak again for hours."

Karin ignored Sakura and began to cry hysterically. "Sasuke, say you don't have a girlfriend! Say it isn't true!"

"It isn't true." Sasuke answered abruptly.

Karin nearly fell over with relief. "Thank goodness."

"Ah well." Seigetsu puffed, annoyed his joke was over. "You should have seen the look of panic on your face. So much for caring that he almost killed you and then left you to die. Of course... what woman in this room hasn't Sasuke tried to kill?"

"Why don't you shut up!" Karin yelled at Seigetsu.

"Quiet." Orochimaru commanded. "Ok. If you want those masks, Sasuke, let's go."

"Where are we going now?" Karin asked forcing her arm through Sasuke's other arm while staring daggers at Sasuke's hand still wrapped around Sakura's arm.

"I'm taking Sasuke to the location of the masks. You are staying here and minding the fort." Orochimaru instructed. In response, Karin's face crumpled and her shoulders slumped.

Seigetsu smiled. "Don't worry. Your true savior will be here right by your side."

"Don't you..." Karin ran after Seigetsu as he dodged her fists again.

Naruto woke up as Hinata shifted in the bed. He had been sitting by her bedside keeping vigil for the day and a half since Sasuke and Sakura left to retrieve the mask. He would not even leave to eat, so Gemsa had been bringing bowls of her strange food into him when she came to check on Hinata.

She kept the two leaf ninja hidden in the back of the house behind a sheet across the door to the one bedroom, as to not scare off the rest of her customers with the demon possessed girl, which was how the rest of the town was now referring to Hinata. Though the old woman did not need to worry.

Since the leaf ninjas' arrival, the town had become aware of the fact that Naruto was also an Uzumaki. In fact, he was "the Uzumaki", who carried the nine tailed demon fox sealed inside of his body and who had just recently saved the world from the rabbit goddess, destroyer of worlds. Many of them were scared to death of the strangers, but even more of them were curious. So Gemsa's shop had become very popular as of late.

Almost kicking himself for falling asleep, Naruto watched as Hinata opened her eyes and focused on him. He was pretty certain from the intense hunger that he was feeling through the binding seal that she was not completely herself. A wicked smile curled across her lips as she reached up and grabbed his t shirt. "Aww look what happens when you fall asleep for just a second."

Naruto narrowed his tired eyes. "Hinata?"

Hinata sat up, her long hair falling wildly into her face. Pushing the sheets down, she looked at her body, and examined her chest and her stomach with her hands. Her face became elated. "I so enjoy this new body!"

Then she looked up at Naruto. Her eyes turned blood red, as she ripped his t shirt open revealing his muscular torso. "And I plan to enjoy this body too!"

Grasping Hinata's wrists, Naruto demanded, "Give Hinata her body back!"

"Nope." The demon leaned forward planting a kiss on his lips. Feeling Hinata's lips against his lips, Naruto's natural instinct was to kiss her back though his mind told him this was not actually his girlfriend.

'Kid! Snap out of it!' Kurama growled.

Naruto made a weak attempt to push Hinata away. But then the demon wrapped her arms around his neck tighter and climbed out of the bed onto his lap, pressing against him and whispering, "Naruto, let's do all of those things you were just dreaming about... huh?" in a very Hinata like voice. And he let her kiss him again.

'Errrrr... Let me handle this.'

As Kurama took over Naruto's body, the demon abruptly broke the kiss, jumping back on to the bed like it was poked with a cow prod. Hinata's face turned a sickly shade of green as though tasting something bitter and she shuddered. "Uhh! You suddenly taste like a rotting animal carcass."

Then the demon noted the foxy look to Naruto's face and the deep red hue that replaced his usual blue eyes and she hissed, "No wonder."

"We can do this the hard way or the easy way, demon." Kurama offered to the Oiwa.

"You bijuu are no fun... bring back the human boy." The demon rolled her eyes and pouted. Kurama frowned and snarled a warning at the demon. She sighed and said, "Fine. You win for now, fox."

Hinata's eyes turned white again and she passed out, tumbling forward into Naruto's arms. Back to himself, Naruto rest his chin on the top of Hinata's head. "You're going to be ok. Sasuke and Sakura will be back soon."