Chapter XXXII

As it turned out, Jashinists had apparently decided to adopt the building practices of the country they'd been stationed at, judging by how they led their followers to a building entrance seemingly built into a small hill.

Naruto settled between the girls, as they sought the protection of the foliage. They'd followed the procession of people across a dirt road, out the village and into the mild wilderness of the small mountain ranges that started to form this close to the border of Stone. The worshippers seemed oblivious to their tailing but the threesome had some frantic moments where they feared they would lose their prey. The blond ninja was especially nervous due to the erratic movement of Jiraiya, who appeared to be attempting to use the flow of the people to drift closer to the leaders of the group.

The small hill the Jashinists seemed to be using as a church seemed to sprout from nowhere, out in the middle of a small forest of pine trees. It was a miserable forest, at least by the standards of Leaf ninja, but it had enough undergrowth to provide moderate cover for the conscientious spy. The leader of the cultists seemed to be making another speech before letting the followers into the church and the ninja welcomed the break, because it gave them some time to prepare.

Sakura was having some problems correlating the Pervert's actions with his fame as a genius ninja.
"It just seems so irresponsible!" She complained, looking genuinely distressed over the destruction of her world view, "You'd think he'd at least coordinate better with us..."

"I think I've already said this before but Ero-Sennin isn't exactly responsible, Sakura-chan." Naruto remarked dryly, "He just goes with the flow. And besides," he continued, turning his attention back at the people bellow them, his voice gaining a considering tone, "I don't think the idea even occurred to him." he turned to Sakura and smiled, "I think he's going by the book."

"The book?" Sakura repeated incredulously, "Knee jerk reactions are by the book?!"

Kyuubi was watched, interested, has Naruto seemingly bit back a laugh, something that did not escape the pink haired ninja and seemed to do little for her disposition, "Not shinobi code of conduct book, maybe, but Ero-Sennin's guide to information gathering? Definitely!"

"Ah..." Kyuubi breathed, "I think I understand."

"Well, good." Sakura hissed, fixing the Sannin with a chilling glare, "You can explain it to me."

"Ero-Sennin is a spy-master, Sakura-chan." Naruto started instead, "But it's a thankless job. It used to make me so confused..." he reminisced as they watched the figure of the priest waving is arms around like a lunatic, "We would roam the lands, many times without destiny. It's very easy for the Hokage and the Council to order Ero-Sennin to use his contacts to defend Konoha, but most of the time he's working blind: there's no defined objective. So Ero-Sennin had to learn to grab every little opportunity that came his way. I think it's what happened here: there was something strange going on and the Old Pervert just went on with it to find out if it's dangerous to us. He used to do it back then too."

"But he didn't even tell us!" Sakura insisted.

Naruto shrugged, completely understanding her point of view.

"I know. I also like Kakashi-sensei's Teamwork view, Sakura-chan. But sometimes there's just no time."

"We'll just have to go get him." Kyuu-chan added with a grin.

Naruto smirked, "Right. We'll get the Pervert out of the fire as proof of our teamwork."

Sakura smiled in a fierce expression, mirroring the faces of her teammates.

It wasn't easy but, somehow, they managed to get in behind the group without being caught. It didn't help the priests that they's left the doors to their sanctuary open after leading the followers inside. The door gave way to a barely lit corridor, the darkness being pushed away by torches spaced unevenly on the walls. The fire on the wood made for a very inconstant lightning and their shadows seemed alive, as they moved along the corridor, undetected.

By that time the group had begun to feel that there was more to this cult than simple religion. Something hidden and dark. Perhaps the Old Spy-master had caught on earlier than they had, his senses more acute to suspicious situations than theirs were. There was no denying that, if this had been a normal religion, looking to expand its followers, there wouldn't have been need for a hidden church. Then again, this was the ninja world. Everything was done under the table.
Although Sakura had the suspicion the door had remained open not out of any innocence on the priests part but rather to give the follower the illusion that the way behind them was clear, should they want to turn back at any moment. She rather doubted any last moment quitters would reach the surface alive.

There hadn't been time for conversation, once they'd followed in. It would have been to risky. Still, Sakura was of the opinion that this was beginning to become a troublesome pattern in their investigations: it seemed wherever they went, Team 7's missions always ended up underground, lately.

The corridor kept going in an uneven pattern and sometimes they had to be careful not to crack their heads against a rock hanging from the ceiling. Naruto had been looking at the walls curiously, without really knowing why. The it downed on him: the whole structure had the appearance of a mine shaft. As if it had been excavated for utilitarian purposes rather than attract the eye, as was normally the case with cathedrals.

For her part, Kyuubi didn't notice any of that. There was a familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach. A feeling that proved correct when, suddenly, the tunnel turned and ended in an unbearably bright hallway.

The ninjas stopped on the edge of the darkness and silently debated what to do. Suddenly, two pairs of arms shot from the shadows and grabbed the priests that had been stationed near the exit, pulling them towards the dark. A few muffled curses latter, and two unconscious men lay at the feet of the team.
"This is funny..." Naruto commented in an undertone.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked back, in the same volume.

The blond gestured to the fallen men, "I don't get the feeling of them being priests. They give more of a feeling of guards or some sort of militia..."
"Gut instinct, Naruto?" Kyuubi asked with a smile. Then she agreed, "I know. I'm getting the same. And I'm feeling antsy too; We better be more careful than we thought: I don't think things are as simple as they appear."

With quick movements, the ninja took the hapless men's robes and left them naked further into the tunnel, hidden from view. From the exit of the tunnel came two somewhat bulkier and taller versions of the priests. Kyuubi stealthily followed closely behind.

"Oh, wow. I didn't know churches came in this variety!" Sakura couldn't help to comment.

Indeed, the walls were briskly white, of a cleanliness that seemed spotless and unnatural. What they had assumed to be an hallway was revealed to be a corridor, with one end blocked by what seemed to be a wall and stretching into another, perpendicular corridor a bit further on the other side. Light came from the ceiling through a line, like water flowing from a fountain, behaving like liquid rather than radiation. The walls so polished they seemed to be shining on their own, even as geometric dark lines crossed on their surface. The entire building, if building it was, looked like it had been constructed all from a single, homogeneous piece.

"Ah, hell!"

The exclamation had come from Naruto who, along with the white haired member of the group, didn't seem very excited at the sight that greeted them.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, puzzled, taking in the thunderclouds that seemed to be forming on Kyuubi's face.

Naruto swallowed in a nervous inflexion before giving her a very forced smile.

"We found the Facility."

"Are you sure?" Sakura asked in a shocked voice.

"Oh, yes." Naruto confirmed, grimly, "it looks exactly like the one on the Southern Continent. Advanced, Beautiful, White, Poisonous, Deadly." he categorized.
Sakura frowned, "From what we'd seen in Whirlpool, I wasn't expecting something quite so... clean."

"The one in Uzushio was probably thrashed with the invasion." Naruto ventured, "This one looks active. Like the one we found in the first place. We have to find Ero-Sennin fast." he decided, starting to move towards the exit of the new corridor. He turned sideways to look at the vixen girl, "You think you can use your shape-shifting techniques to look like a priest, Kyuu-chan?"

The white haired woman gave him a quick look, "Probably. I don't want to, if I can avoid it, though", she stated nervously, "You remember what happened last time I used my powers in a place like this."

Naruto's eyebrows lifted as memories crashed into him and he nodded decisively.

"Right! Forget it, then. Well beat up another one of these guys and get a robe for you!"

Kyuubi breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why?" Sakura asked, looking from one teammate to the other, "What's the problem with her abilities?"

"Last time," Naruto explained when it became obvious Kyuubi would not willingly revisit the events by herself, "When Kyuu-chan used her powers in the Facility, there were these... things... As soon as they sensed her power, they all turned on her and attacked her. They almost overwhelmed us. If those things are in every active facility, I'd rather not call them to us..."

Finding another priest proved a bit more challenging than expected: either they'd all followed after the villagers, or they weren't that many to begin with. Eventually they managed to catch a woman exiting from a room and re-appropriate her clothes, but it seemed that the facility was simply too big for the priesthood to occupy completely.

Somewhere along the way, they must have strayed from the path followed by the procession because when they finally found the people they'd tailed, it was from a balcony overseeing a large room where an enormous statue of a humanoid with an unpleasant face glared at the faithful, as they assembled on the floor down bellow. The balcony was high enough that it towered even over the statue. It grew from the wall directly above the entrance bellow, giving the three Leaves a singular vantage point over the procedures.

Like the previous rooms, this one was pristinely white, but instead of simple walls, crystal or polished glass tubes, each one larger that two man side-by-side hanged from the top and plunged into the walls. From them, what looked like cylindrical diamonds descended to the ground, ending in glass chambers big enough for one person. Directly above the statue, on the centre of the room, a gigantic half sphere edged towards the ground, filled with what looked like shiny milk, with hair bubbles flowing to the surface every now and again. The whole contraption gave of a light of its own, making the room seem like a shifting kaleidoscope.

"It's beautiful!" Sakura whispered.

"It's horrifying!" Naruto rasped.

The pink haired shinobi looked at the blond ninja. Like his white haired companion, Naruto was peering around the room with a look of horror that clashed fiercely with the beauty of the room.

"Is that... them?" he whispered to Kyuubi, motioning to the sphere with the eyes.

The Kitsune had to swallow a few times before she managed to answer, "Looks like it."

"What are you talking about?" Sakura demanded.

"We think those are the creatures." Naruto elaborated.

"That liquid?"

"They don't have a fixed form. Don't even seem to have bones..." he said, looking a little green.

On his side, Kyuubi's knuckles had gone white from the force of her grip on the parapet.

From bellow came sounds of awe and wonder.

"Yes, brothers and sisters." came a voice that made them jump a little, before realising it had been just the head priest bellow, "Welcome, to the main chamber of the Church of Jashin. This is where we make our prayers and do our baptisms: with our Lord's attentive gaze upon us and the light of the Orb of Life to bath us!"

There were more murmurs from the crowd and, in the mass of people, Naruto was finally able to find the Toad Sannin. It seemed that he too had thought something was amiss because he no longer stood so close to the front, instead preferring to hang back and let others overtake him, securing a position close to the exit, where he could quickly make his escape, if necessary. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at the evidence that Ero-Sennin was, at the very least, starting to think ahead again.

The head priest kept talking.

"On your journey through our sacred abode, I have shown you the Truth of our work! Brothers and sisters working in peace for a better world. Enlightenment! An end to violence! Safety!" he paused, "But still it's not enough. The Elemental Nations are vast; It is a daunting task for so few to undertake. We are very much in need of help! So we urge you: help us make our dream a reality! There is no need for formal commitment! Those of you who do not feel ready to enter our covenant, may turn back to your homes. The only thing we ask is that you keep our words in your heart and spread our message of peace and understanding! A few of our brothers and sister will help you on the way back."

"Interesting." Sakura commented, "He's making it seem like its their choice."

You think it isn't?" Naruto asked.

"The old man you talked to said no one sees any one who's ever taken by the Jashinists again. I don't think they'll make it back home." she explained in a clinically detached manner. As they watched a few of the villagers break ranks and exit the room from where they came, accompanied by two other priests. It was hard to determine their gender through the robes.

"Thank you for remaining, brothers and sisters. " the man continued, "We will now start the baptism. This will bring you into the covenant with our God, The Lord of Life, Jashin. But take heed," the priest cautioned, looking deadly serious, "Our God does not tolerate iniquity. The impure of heart should not attempt the baptism. If you have doubts, spend a session in meditation with our monks."

Several more people separated from the others and were led away by the churchmen.

Kyuubi frowned, "They take a lot of precautions for a simple bathing..."

"What?" Naruto asked, the confusion making him avert his eyes for a moment.

"A baptism is traditionally a ritual where one is integrated into a society. In religion it used to be something symbolic like submerging yourself in water for a few seconds and 'coming out cleansed of sin'." Kyuubi explained, "But these guys have it backwards: they separate the supposed sinners from the pure before the baptism; hence the baptism is not about purification. What sort of ritual are these priests preparing that requires so many pre-requisites?" she asked almost to herself.

Bellow, the man resumed his speech.

"Beloved brothers and sister: thank you. We are now ready to begin the ceremony."

Suddenly, from the door behind the mass of people, a large group of priests entered the room and began gently guiding the people closer to the central statue. At the same time, Naruto noticed the Old Pervert slip from view and hide behind one of the glass containers. The head priest walked to a table near the feet of the statue and collected a fairly large bowl. The other priests arranged the people so that everyone was facing the god effigy and the produced smaller cups which they used to collect some of the liquid that had been on the larger bowl. Then, they moved next to their selected believer and, after a few prayers and gestures, extended the cup to them.

"Let us now drink the cup of Peace." The Head Priest said.

As one, the remaining villagers took a sip from the cup. Almost immediately, a ripple of alarm flowed through the mass of people.

"What's going on?" Kyuubi asked.

From their vantage point, the ninjas could see how the villagers eyes opened in alarm even as their members sagged and their faces lost all expression.
"Muscle relaxant." Sakura mumbled, "No: probably just a very strong calming drought. A muscle relaxant that strong would kill them."
"Why's that?" Naruto couldn't help but ask.

"They wouldn't be able to breathe and eventually their heart would stop."

"What the hell are they gonna do - Oh, shit!"

The reason for the kitsune's curse became apparent, as the head priest approached the statue and extracted a large syringe. It was absurdly big, the size of an arm. The man inserted the tip of the needle on an orifice in the statue and immediately a small rivulet of white liquid flowed through a pipe so transparent they hadn't been able to see it, from the sphere to the statue. As they watched in stupefied silence, the priest filled the syringe and approached the first of the villagers.

"Oh, god..." Sakura mumbled, "Don't tell me..."

With a forceful motion, the man jammed the needle directly into the villagers neck. Curiously, he didn't even have to apply pressure to the piston, as the insides of the syringe seemed to swirl into the villagers spine almost on its own.

There was a moment of horrified silence on the three ninjas part, while the head priest extracted the needle.

Then, suddenly, the villager let out a blood freezing scream and began trashing about, even with the effects o the drug. The priest that had been holding him quickly took a few steps back and joined the head priest in observing the process.

The poor villager's face was a rictus of suffering, bewilderment and helpless rage, if it was possible for a face to hold such varied expressions. But the worst was that, while he fought against a pain he couldn't reach, his own body started to change. His members moved almost with a mind of their own, twisting and turning, becoming horribly disfigured and then returning to their normal size and form. The man continued to convulse and eventually was able to get to his knees. As he panted in pain, his head hung from the effort, a large bulge formed on his back, forming a horrible silhouette that thrashed as if trying to escape from the man's body before subsiding. The villager gave one last shuddering moan and his body returned to normal. At the same time, his skin acquired a pattern of black and white, the white delimiting what had to have been his bones. Then even that disappeared and what was left was a normal looking civilian, gulping in rasping breaths.

The head priest approached the man and told him,

"Welcome, Brother!"

The priest that had held him approached the villager and, after a few whispers, led the new acolyte out of the room.

Sakura turned her wide eyes towards her companions. Naruto had broken the stone of the parapet where he had gripped it, his revulsion evident on his face. Kyuubi was even worse. The girl had retreated from the edge of the balcony and now sat against the wall, chest heaving.

"Their injecting the creatures into the villagers!" she rasped.

Naruto turned to her, his mouth set in a grim line. Sakura couldn't decide if it was anger or disgust that kept it like that. Maybe a mix of both.
"Yeah, I think so too. And I think I don't like a religion like that." he understated.

Sakura was about to intervene when a new scream pierced the air. The team rushed to the edge of the balcony.

Bellow, another villager had been injected with the mixture of creatures. But this time things didn't seem to be going so well. The trashing was more violent and the pitch in the man's voice was more desperate, almost like a dying pig. The head priest wasn't quick enough to get away and the syringe smashed into bits on the floor. The belly of the man was swollen like a balloon, bulging veins racing across it. Suddenly, it deflated massively and the man spewed blood like a fountain, before emitting a shuddering whimper and dying.

A white mass rose from the man's back, vaguely forming an indistinguishable outline before bursting like a balloon and disintegrating.
The head priest mumbled something that might have been "another failure", before moving on to find a new syringe.

"At least those things, whatever they are, don't seem to be able to survive outside on their own." Sakura remarked faintly.

Naruto didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the next victim, a young girl who'd been brought along by gullible parents. This was enough! He didn't care about being discovered, he wasn't going to let a small girl die or worse!

He was about to jump over the parapet when a large hand landed on his shoulder and pulled him down.

"Ero-Sennin!" he whispered harshly, "let me go!"

"Shut up, you idiot!" the Sannin answered, "and stop thrashing."

"I'll not let them do this any more!"

"And I won't ask you to!" the old man shot back, "But we can't be recognised. So take of the headbands and find a way to disguise your faces, even if its just a genjutsu. Konoha can't be found violating border treaties!"

"What about you, Jiraya-sama." Kyuubi asked, looking determined but highly nervous all the same, "you're pretty recognizable, even if you don't use Konoha's headband."

"They won't recognize me like this."

A quick series of hand signs later, two toads perched on the shoulders of the Old Pervert.

"Ma, Pa, this is my team. No time for introductions, I need the Sage chakra. We're up against Jashinists."

There was no talking from the amphibians. They simply nodded and concentrating, assuming a meditation pose.

Quickly averting their eyes, the team took off their headbands and secured them in the inner pockets of their uniforms. Sakura noticed that Kyuubi's ears were now in full view.

"Aren't you going to disguise that?" she asked.

A silver flowed across the white girls face, before taking the shape of a feral fox muzzle. When she answered Sakura, the voice sounded harsher and deeper, muffled by the mask.

"No. Today, I am a God." she turned to Naruto, whoo seemed to be looking at something, "Do you want me to do the same to you?"

Naruto looked up with a fierce glint in his eyes before shaking his head.

"I don't think I'll need it." he stated, lifting his head and revealing a mask where the grin of a white bony skull looked back at them.

Putting the mask and pulling the hood of his cloak over his head he looked back at them. There were no features identifying the skull wrapped in shadows as Naruto. Sakura suppressed a shiver but Kyuubi merely nodded her approval.

With a small genjutsu, Sakura made sure to cover her face with a blank mask, featureless and without even eyes. The two girls pulled their hoods just as the Sannin said, "We're running out of time. Let's go!"

The head priest had returned with a new syringe. The little girl was crying in fear, unable to move and the Jashinist had just turned towards her when the Old Pervert smashed on top of one of the priests, turning the man to mush under his feet.

What followed was a stunned silence from the Jashinists. Sannin and priests looked at each other and were still on this lock-down when Kyuubi and Sakura killed the one that had been holding the girl. Naruto had just grabbed the terrified child and had taken off into the air with her when he heard the leader's scream.

"KILL THEM!"

What followed was chaos.

The Jashinists were many but the four of them were ninjas. Naruto deposited the girl against the wall, protected by the cannisters from any stray attack. The girl was frantic, not being able to move. Seeing her desperation, Naruto made a decision in the heat of the moment and took his mask off to the side just enough to show an eye and a sliver of blond hair.

"Hey." he said softly, "you're gonna be alright. We'll take care of the bad guys and take you out of here, OK? Just stay hidden and don't come out until I come for you, OK? Blink once if you agree."

The girl agreed, having calmed enough to understand what was being said. Naruto turned and joined the fray.

The head priest's cry had attracted even more followers of Jashin, and the room seemed like a flood of priests trying to drown the ninja. The Flow was maddened, a flurry of activity that didn't really do much in the way of letting him predict things, given the mess of mixed signals his mind kept receiving. Even so, things wouldn't have been much of a problem had the situation not changed. Had the priests not called upon the creatures that dwelt inside them.
It seemed a gradual thing. Naruto and the others didn't even notice it at first. Ero-Sennin looked like a demon, yellow eyes and red lines across the face, dishing out high-rank jutsu like candy and burning Jashinists like weeds. Sakura and Kyuubi seemed to have formed an all-girl team, Sakura trapping the priests in genjutsu or disabling them with her chakra scalpels before the Kitsune made them suffer with Fox Fire or a swipe of razor-like tails.

Then a chilling howl was heard and a gigantic fist slammed against Jiraiya.

One of the Jashinists looked like a cross between Gaara's half-form transformation and a geisha. Half-naked, white as death but without the beauty of the human form. And drooling. Naruto punched the grotesque figure with a Flow-reinforced fist, sending him flying across the room and splaching him on the wall. It was gratifying to see that at least Sakura had been right and the creatures didn't seem to be able to stand on their own, once the vessel had been destroyed. Unlike what had happened on the Jaw.

The fight continued but the Jashinists were unrelenting and the addition of the abilities of the creature-infested assailants meant that the ninja were soon starting to be overwhelmed. It seemed the creatures could recover the body of the Jashinists from just about anything, provided there was anything left to rebuild and the head was intact. It reminded Naruto of Kyuubi's own abilities, when she'd been sealed inside him. On a personal note, his own fight was starting to get more difficult: ever since punching the first mutated priest, his wrist had started hurting, the burned mark on his hand black like a tattoo, pulsing like a second heart.

Naruto did his best to ignore it but in the end it was not his choice: when one of the mutations got too close to him, the tattoo simply burst forth from his hand and coalesced into the growling Scythe that had burned his arm a few weeks before. Before he could even express his surprise, his arm was moving on his own, slicing mutations left and right. Curiously, though, once the scythe had cut them, they wouldn't get up again. Unlike before, where they would reattach members or just outright regrow them, when Naruto's Mother's weapon cut them they would simply fall, dead.

Sakura panted her way through dead monsters - or at least, dying monsters, as Kyuubi's fire worked its wonders on them. The Kitsune had been visibly shaken with the mutations of the priests for some reason or another. The medic apprentice privately thought it was due to some of her experiences while travelling with Naruto. They'd agreed to try and join their other teammates and were now working on getting to Jiraya, since Naruto looked unable to sit still in one spot for too long. The blond ninja jumped and flew from one spot of the room to the other, his new abilities greatly enhancing his mobility, mowing Jashinists with a huge scythe that seemed made of liquid shadows. Sakura recognized it as the weapon they'd found on the blond's estate and couldn't understand how he had it now: he'd left it back in Konoha. The way he moved was funny too. The scythe's movements were fluid, experienced and deadly. No wasted time, no wasted movement, twirling around like an expert-wielded weapon. But Naruto's body language seemed to indicate it was him who was following the scythe, not the other way around. Sakura shook her head and suddenly realised they were next to the pervert.

The old ninja's garb was soaked in blood and remains of dead monsters. He looked at them with a tired grimace.

Naruto landed next to them and, abruptly, all the Jashinist were dead.

Except for the head priest.

The ninja turned simultaneously to find the man on top of the statue. His skin had acquired the tones and markings Naruto had seen on the first villager and his face looked like a mockery of the blonds mask.

"Heathens!" he screamed, "You dare invade the house of the Lord. You dare kill his subjects! You dare destroy his Peace?!"

"What you promise is not freedom but slavery. What you offer is not Peace but Conformity." the Toad Sage answered.

"SILENCE!" the man bellowed, "I will not stand by it. I will not stand while you threaten everything we have built!" with a swift movement, the head priest smashed the orb above him.

The four shinobi looked incredulously, while the man was bathed in the creature goo.

There was a maniacal laugh and suddenly all the liquid seemed to try to flow into the Jashinist. The man inflated like a balloon for a few moments before turning back to normal, his skin like ebony and the marking so white they almost shone with a light of their own. The hybrid jumped down and landed heavily in front of them, doing even more damage than Jiraiya had before.

"Behold!" he bellowed, "Behold the power of the Blood God! Behold the power of Jashin!"

Naruto tensed as the man seemed to ready for an attack but was unprepared for what happened next. The Jashinist convulsed once and opened his mouth as if to speak. A gulf of blood shot from his insides before his body once again deformed. A scream of pain erupted from his lips as dozens of creatures seemed to form beneath his skin and attempt to escape.

"No!" he gurgled, "I won't fail... Master Hidan!"

Sakura let out a cry of disgust, now that she was confronted with the process up close. The kitsune seemed frozen and Naruto would probably have the same reaction if not for the Scythe. It twirled in his fingers on his own and, before he could process what was happening, stabbed itself on the man.
The priest of Jashin open his eyes immeasurably, looking stunned at the weapon, before turning to the blond.

"You... Death... How?"

There was a loud screech, like the scream of something horrible, and the white liquid flowed from the man into the scythe. The Jashinist deflated and diminished until all that was left was a husk of a man, only skin and bones. The man grasped Naruto's arms feebly, struggling against death and whispered, "I didn't... do it."

Silence met the sentence, as the last Jashinist in the Facility expired.

"Well..." Jiraiya started, "That was anti-climatic."

Sakura threw him a glare.

"Good." she said, "I don't think I could have held on for much longer. The genjutsu on my face takes a lot of chakra to maintain continuously."

"Well, don't take it off just yet." the Pervert cautioned, "We still need to get out of here first. We don't now how much commotion we caused."
Sakura huffed and would likely give a rude response had Kyuubi not interrupted them both.

"Are you alright, Naruto?"

He wasn't. His arm was burning, trying to move on his own. He grabbed it in a futile attempt to keep it still but, with a mighty swing and a hoarse cry, he slashed forward with the scythe. A great arc of energy emerged from the blade and, in a flash, smashed against the statue.

Before the ninja's disbelieving stare, the statue crumbled, revealing a group of consoles like the ones Naruto had seen in the Jaw.

Naruto sagged in relief, the pressure gone from his members.

"Well..." Jiraiya commented.

A/N.: Ah Another chapter.

You know, I finally got a job. As a researcher in an Astrophysics centre. You know what I learned? Having a job absorbs you man. There's just no time for anything else. And contrary to school where you pay to work, here they pay you to work. The change is great.

Anyways, the Team finds the facility, we get to see what exactly makes a Jashinist, and let's hope Naruto doesn't forget the little girl.

I don't know why but the uploaded document on FFNet seems strange to me, for some reason. Tell me if there's any problem with the formatting. I wrote this on a beta writing program and when I passed it to oppenoffice there were some... interesting changes in some words. I think I got them all but...

Review if you find the inclination.

NOTE: Thanks to KinkyKamui (hope I got the name right) for pointing out a problem with the formatting.