Thank you for the reviews! Sorry for not replying (T.T) and late updates again, really, I've recently found another inspiration to continue this story, and I'm glad it didn't take another half year to complete this chapter.

Well, there's about…maybe two or three chapters for the story to end? I'm not really sure, but it's around there. Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 9: Reinforcements

Shiro cursed under his breath as he jumped from tree to tree, pumping more chakra into his legs for speed. He had made a mistake, a huge one. He regretted sending Sakura out now and he hated himself for listening to the damned prophecy. Glancing when he saw the sun was setting, he prayed that Sakura wouldn't have reached the Waterfall border yet.

"Shiro."

The familiar deep voice calmed him a little, but the adrenaline in his blood made him move faster, but he answered the voice.

"Yeah. I'm heading there, have they reached?"

A dark figure appear beside him, following his pace from tree to tree as he nodded. "Two of Orochimaru's underlings have baited them earlier than we expected." The hood concealing the figure dropped back a little from the wind that whipped at them. "Have you decoded the script?"

"Yes damnit!" Shiro growled. "It was a mistake! We weren't supposed to send her out!" The maroon haired teen exclaimed. "Someone tampered with my memory, but they couldn't do anything with the script."

"Hn. I thought so." Itachi said, as his hood flew back completely, revealing his pale face and red sharingan eyes. His frown deepened. "When I gave you that script, something was off about the prophecy you told me."

"Damnit, and you never said anything?" Shiro said, narrowly avoiding hitting a stray branch. "We could have done something before I stupidly sent my sister out there!"

Itachi gave a long sigh. "I wasn't sure, and I don't make assumptions." He paused before continuing. "Besides, my brother was with her, I didn't think it would be that bad."

"Pfft." Shiro retorted. "If you weren't Itachi, I'd call you a brother complex."

Itachi glared at the younger teen. "Shut up, sis con."

"My sister is ten times cuter than Sasuke!" Shiro exclaimed, defending himself. "Plus, I'm less worried, I saw Shisui together with them too." He glanced at Itachi, seeing how he would respond to his best friend's name. "And…he seems well."

The older Uchiha stayed silent, his eyes looking into the distant. "Is that so." He replied after a few moments of silence. "I'm glad."

"You…" Shiro hesitated. "Aren't going to explain it to them?" He said quietly, staring straight ahead.

Itachi said nothing as he continued jumping, but his eyes said otherwise. Shiro waited patiently like he always did when dealing with the Uchiha, and he knew Itachi would talk to him when he felt like it. It was what friends were for after all, in their line of work.

"…Maybe." Was the quiet response he got after a while. "Just maybe…if they're willing to listen."

Shiro smiled.

--

Drawing Charter spells as quick as he could, Shisui threw a few more powerful ones at the nearer Deads that were closing in on them. Naruto cursed louded as he swung his two massive kunai, careful to not hit Shisui, who ran near him. Looking at the rotting, disgusting flesh that were peeling off them, Naruto felt sick to his stomach, something he normally wasn't bothered by. Shisui noticed his discomfort, and spoke.

"Don't worry." The older teen assured. "It's the smell that's become more obvious since we stepped into their boundary."

"This didn't used to be a problem." Naruto complained, throwing a spell.

"Well, you used to have Kyuubi in you." Shisui explained. "Maybe some of his stronger sense stayed with you."

"Yeah, like…sense of smell. Disgusting." The cheeky teen retorted, muttering curses. "How can Kyuubi stand this!?"

Shisui chuckled. "He doesn't have much of a choice now does he?"

Grinning from ear to ear, Naruto laughed out loud as he unleashed a stronger Charter spell which burned the Dead to ashes around them. Shisui whistled as the rotting bodies gave way to ashes and were carried away by the wind. Naruto had improved again, since he rarely used spells.

"We better pick it up." Naruto said seriously, glancing towards his companion. "The bastard might already be there!" He shouted with blazing eyes, making Shisui wonder if Naruto ever got the meaning of cooperating instead of competing.

Deciding that for now it didn't really matter, Shisui agreed with the blonde, pumping chakra into his legs to move faster like they always did when they had an emergency, they pushed forward, leaving the Dead to slowly chase their trail.

"Wonder if Sakura's doing alright?" Naruto said after a while, grabbing a branch and swinging himself to another tree as Shisui shrugged.

"Sasuke's with her, so she shouldn't be-"

"Hah!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm worrying that the bastard will do something to her!" The blonde laughed, knowing he was worrying for nothing.

Sasuke was an ice cube, and he had never shown interest in girls.

Never.

"Maybe he's gay?" Naruto suggested suddenly, and Shisui almost missed a branch to step on.

"Hey, that would make Neji gay too!" The blonde teen exclaimed, and Shisui really did miss a step, his hand shooting out just in time to save himself from falling into the darkness below them.

"Why the hell would that make both of them gay!?" Shisui exclaimed, flustered by Naruto's logic. "That doesn't make sense at all!"

Naruto grinned, as if it was so obvious. "Cause Sasuke never expressed interest in girls right? Neji is exactly the same, so maybe they're together or something?"

Shisui nearly rammed into the next tree, whether from amusement or embarrassment, he really didn't know. All he knew was that he was laughing his lungs out the next second after Naruto explained his logic, and he couldn't stop the deep sound emitting from the back of his throat.

"That's bullshit, Naruto!" Shisui continued laughing while trying to concentrate on his path. "Now I know why Sasuke calls you a dobe!"

"What!?" Naruto protested. "Come on, it does make sense!"

"Naruto, you are hopeless."

"Shut up!"

Somewhere on the other side of the border, Sasuke sneezed.

--

Neji sighed as he swung his staff to behead another Dead, wondering how many filthy hideous creatures there were in this not so vast forest. The only thing they encountered so far were Dead, and there were no Unseen or any other undead. Shadows were the worse things to encounter actually, but they had little encounter with them even during their journeys.

"We'll never reach anyway if this keeps up." Kyuubi growled as he tore through the rotting flesh. He spat out violently, trying to ignore the repulsive taste it left in his mouth. How he wished he was in a bigger form so that his claws were more of a use instead of his teeth.

"We're supposed to be moving fast." Neji said calmly, drawing a Charter mark as he spoke. "These are just nuisance."

"This is ridiculous!" Kyuubi growled louder. "Release the first level of the seal!" He turned towards Neji. "I've had enough of the disgusting taste in my mouth!"

Ripping through a few more rotting bodies, Neji smirked. "Fine. We'll get somewhere faster with you loose anyway." Ignoring the Dead that were closing on them, Neji reached out towards Kyuubi's collar, pressing a chakra filled hand on it and drawing the suitable Charter spell in his mind to partly release the binding spell on Kyuubi.

A loud, deafening roar rang out throughout the forest, alerting even Naruto and Shisui, Sasuke and Sakura, who were quite a distance from them. Even the compound they were heading towards to shook, and the occupants inside were alarmed. Neji winced at the sound, mainly because he stood at the closet distance to the creature. The Dead surrounding them moaned at the roar, and Kyuubi's red eyes glinted with malicious anger as he trampled them with his gigantic paws. Neji jumped onto Kyuubi's back to avoid it.

"Byakugan!" Neji activated his bloodline, scanning the forest with his eyes and ignoring the bumping of the movement when Kyuubi continued to act like a puppy as he trampled all over their enemies. No use trying to conceal their whereabouts when there were secret passages everywhere anyway.

They were doing this, with style.

--

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed as he saw the gigantic red mass of fur in the distance. "Is that Kyuubi!?"

Shisui glanced at the direction, smirking. "Looks like Neji got the party going."

Naruto barked out a laugh, stopping in his tracks to watch as Kyuubi threw his head around, as if trying to see if he missed out any enemies. His tongue dangled from his mouth, and his mouth was pulled back in what looked like a grin, baring his sharp fangs. His eyes that was burning with anger had melted to plain enjoyment at being able to move freely and having a larger body.

A rustle of leaves behind them alerted the two, and they dropped to a defensive stance immediately, muscles tensed as they scanned their surrounding. They had been too careless, Shisui thought, as his eyes swept through the greens around them. Thinking that there were only Dead after them was a very big mistake. If mages could come after Orochimaru, then Orochimaru could certainly send out mages too.

"Relax."

The soft, feminine voice that he was accustomed to hearing made Naruto drop his guard, signaling for Shisui to do the same. The blonde haired teen grinned as another blond teen -female- emerged from the upper branch. She landed silently and gracefully on the lower branch, another figure behind her.

"Long time no see." The blonde female greeted, her blue eyes sparkling. She could have been mistaken for Naruto's twin, and Shisui was growing more confused by the minute.

"Who-?"

"Don't worry, they're friends." Naruto assured him. "From Konohagakure."

"Hello." The girl turned to Shisui. "Nice to make an acquaintance of an Uchiha. I'm Yamanaka Ino." Shisui could only nod in respond, still waiting for an explanation.

"Ino was in the same batch as me, a specially trained unit under ANBU in Konoha." Naruto explained. "Under a different teacher of course, so we're fairly familiar with each other." Ino smiled. "Her specialty is 'jumping'. Something like mind control and transfer."

"I don't normally use it though." Ino said. "Because Dead just don't need the use of this technique."

"And that is…" Shisui looked behind Ino. The girl behind Ino smiled shyly.

"I'm…Hyuuga Hinata." The girl said softly, bowing.

"I'm Shisui…Hyuuga?" Shisui asked, turning to Naruto, who grinned.

"I don't need to tell you what she excels in!" Naruto laughed. "But yeah, a Hyuuga. Hinata-chan is Neji's younger cousin, also under ANBU unit."

Waving the introductions aside, Naruto turned to Ino. "What are you girls doing here anyway?" He asked, completely serious, the mischievous glint all gone from his eyes.

"Kakashi-sensei sent us here." Ino explained. "We're looking for a girl with pink hair-"

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto interrupted.

Ino's eyes widened, but she nodded. "Yeah, Haruno Sakura. Do you know where she is?"

"She's together with Sasuke right now." Shisui said, turning their attention to him. "They should be on the other side of the forest right now."

"But why the borders of Waterfall?" Naruto asked.

"Gaara-sama said Sakura left in this direction, together with a group of people, I guess he meant you guys." Ino replied, frowning. "Kakashi-sensei told us to avoid entering Waterfall, but since this was the only place…"

"Kakashi-sensei should know that Waterfall is dangerous territory right now, and sending you here is-"

"We were also sent on a mission to investigate the happenings here." Hinata cut in. "Tsunade-sama said something about strange disappearances around here, and the prohibited entry into Waterfall is very suspicious."

"So other countries are noticing too?" Shisui muttered. "True, the increase in the disappearances is becoming a concern to other countries, even those which are not that close to this area."

"But Kakashi said to avoid entering, so why are you girls here?" Shisui asked, dismissing his previous words for now.

"Well, there was no resistance all the way to Waterfall, so we didn't notice when we stepped into the borders, until the Dead started attacking us." Ino shrugged, smiling.

"Ah." Naruto said in realization. When they eliminated the black mages…those were the only defense Waterfall had, it seems. "Well, we got rid of em…"

"Maybe it was better too." Shisui said, shrugging. "Anyway, we best get a move on…""Wait." Naruto said. "You two can't be the only ones on this mission, who else is in?"

Ino smirked, signaling she was hiding something. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

--

A new scent that reeked of white magic invaded his nose, and the only thing that had stopped him from bringing his paw down on the new person was the fact that Neji had inserted a mile shocking Charter spell into his collar to alert him, thus he stopped in his tracks, allowing the white mage to jump down from his back, going towards the new chakra pattern.

"Neji!"

A girl, no older than the Hyuuga prodigy stood behind a tree, her eyes scrutinizing the giant beast as Kyuubi sat down, uninterested in the exchange. Neji's face held disapproval as he walked towards the girl, and she merely smiled at him.

"What are you doing here?" The pearl eyed Hyuuga questioned as soon as he was in hearing distance. "It's dangerous."

"I laugh in the face of danger." The girl--Tenten--said jokingly, shaking her head when his frown deepened. "Just kidding." she said after her joke did not bring out a reaction in her--god forbid--stoic boyfriend.

"Honestly Neji, lighten up." Tenten said as she placed her hands on her hip. "I'm a very capable weapon master and a white mage under ANBU training."

Neji sighed, understanding his girlfriend well enough to know that if he kept this up, it was going to lead into another heated argument. He was just a year older than her, but he graduated from Konoha two years earlier, which made her a bit peeved, though it really wasn't his fault that he was a prodigy.

"Fine. But what are you doing here?"

Tenten shrugged. "We were sent here on a mission, Waterfall has been having suspicious activities lately, and Tsunade-sama is getting concern."

"Investigating?" Neji inquired, an eyebrow raised. "We?"

"Oh, I didn't come alone, of course." The browned haired girl replied. "It's, like you said, too dangerous."

"Hn."

"Real response, Neji." Tenten scoffed. "What are you doing here?"

"Infiltrating."

Tenten raised an eyebrow. "O-kay. I thought infiltrating meant…" Eyeing the massive beast beside them, she turned her gaze back to Neji. "Being discreet."

"…"

"I'm not that huge." Kyuubi growled through his teeth. The vibration from his throat shook the ground a bit, and Tenten's eyebrow raised higher.

"It talked!" She exclaimed. "But…no, that doesn't matter now…I think."

"Kyuubi, I released two levels." Neji stated without turning to look at the fox.

"I know." Came the replied. "I know how big my body can go with each release, it is my body after all."

Neji smirked, turning towards Kyuubi. "Let's go."

"The girl?" Kyuubi inquired, as Neji made to jump onto his back again.

"Coming with us."

Tenten blinked. "I am?"

Neji rolled his eyes and grabbed her arm, jumping onto the mass of red fur. "Investigating, infiltrating, we'll shoot two birds with one stone."

"There won't be much to report about investigating if we get this matter settled." Kyuubi said, grinning.

"True." Neji replied back, glancing at Tenten, who shrugged.

"Whatever gets the mission done."

--

Sasuke and Sakura were proceeding smoothly, after eliminating the massive numbers of Dead they encountered when the sun set. Sakura had made a good partner when she played her flute, letting Sasuke have free rein to draw Chidori instead of using the bells. She didn't have to draw her own blade, but after playing for a while she had gotten impatient even though Sasuke had been moving faster than her. As she played she drew Charter markings mentally, weaving the complicated patterns as she completed her spell.

Sasuke's blade had lit up, crackling with a surge of energy that resembled lighting. He had been quite alarmed when that happened, and he had glanced at the rosette hair mage, only to have her wink back as she continued her flute playing. He moved and cut faster after that, like a knife slicing through butter and he couldn't help but realized that her technique resembled his own, Chidori.

Glancing at her from the corner of his eyes, he actually wondered how far her ability was, because they hadn't really watched her fight before. They had handled most of the battles until now, and being partnered with her gave him an opportunity to assess her skills.

His sharingan caught a faint chakra signal as he slowed his pace, and Sakura did the same, her eyes questioning. Her green eyes seemed to have caught something too, and she tensed, ready for battle.

"Unseen?" She asked quietly, but Sasuke shook his head.

"Unseen don't have chakra patterns." He had wanted to say that she wouldn't be able to see them, but bit his tongue when he remembered she had the clairvoyance ability.

"It's been a while." A chuckle sounded from behind them, and the two teens whipped their heads to the back, Sasuke's hands were already on the hilt of his blade, while Sakura had her flute to her mouth. Their eyes widened when they saw who it was, his silver hair and lone eye painfully familiar.

"Kakashi-sensei!"

--

"They're coming here?" Orochimaru asked his two underlings, and Karin nodded.

"We managed to bait them here, as you asked, but we didn't manage to separate the pink haired one." Suigetsu reported, his expression bored.

"They are saving us the trouble." The snake-like man said, amusement clearly in his voice. "The girl is vital for the ritual." His lips pulled back into an eerie smirk, sending shivers down Karin's spine, while Suigetsu remained with his bored expression.

"The sacrifice for my ultimate forbidden ritual."

dark: Well, that's chapter nine!

Sasuke: About time.

dark: Hey! Gimme some credit Sasu-chan! I had exams!

Sasuke: Yet you update your other fic before this?

dark: …I hate you.

Sasuke: Hn. Whatever gets you writing.

dark: Fine. FINE. I will update more frequently…if I get inspiration.

Sasuke: Aa. Please review...and wtf!? GAY?

dark: ((whistles innocently))