Feral Dreams

Neji slowly stepped into the cabin, walking across the small room one step at a time. Hinata moved to walk in after him, but Shashu placed his hand on her shoulder, stopping her from moving forward. She turned her head to look at him, seeing him smile and shake his head as he manoeuvred her away from the door and closed it silently.

Sasuke and Hinata looked up at him, confused and suspicious, causing him to respond to their unvoiced question, “She asked me to give them some time alone when you all arrived.”

Still a little disbelieving, Hinata continued to watch him, “Was that really Ten Ten?”

“Yes, it is.” He answered calmly, “But before we get on with the questions, I really think we need to discuss her current condition. She asked me to make sure Neji was away while I did so now is the opportune time.”

“Her condition?” Said Sasuke in his calm, monotone voice.

“Yes, I need to know. Are any of you medical ninja?”

“I know some,” Hinata said, hoping whatever was needed was within her abilities, “however I am only trained in support and basic techniques. Why?”

“Shit, this will complicate things slightly.”

“I asked why is it so important that we’re medical ninja?” Straightening her posture, Hinata took on an imposing countenance.

Sighing loudly, Shashu sat down on the hard wood of the porch and leaned against the door. He gestured for the other two to follow his example, to which only Hinata seem to follow his example. “Ten Ten can’t move.”

“Hmm?”

“Transporting her here almost killed her. If you were to take her home in her current condition she probably wouldn’t survive the trip. Even if she did, it would probably cause even more permanent damage, and personally, I think she has enough to suffer through as it is.”

Rubbing the sides of his head, Sasuke looked up into the clear blue sky and sighed mournfully. Turning back to them he spoke calmly, “I’m going to look around and make sure nothing is coming. Hinata, brief me on her status when I get back.”

Seeing his discomfort, she smiled to him in understanding and nodded, “Very well. Don’t be too long Sasuke.” He nodded to her in consent and quickly disappeared into the trees. Seeing she was being watched curiously by her host, she turned back to him to explain, “He’s had his fair share of troubles, and I’d assume from his reaction that he doesn’t like to hear about others’.”

“Ah, fair enough, so I should take this to mean you’d now like to hear what her current injuries are?”

Hinata was silent for a long moment before her voice finally crept out of hiding from deep within her own fear of the answer, “Yes, what are her current injuries?”

He paused a moment before answering, seeming to take a mental tally, “Well, there’s a lot, and I have a feeling that you may regret wanting to know later on, but I promised her that I’d tell you, so regardless of my own feelings on the subject, I’ll have to tell you everything. What would you prefer to know first? The injuries I’m treating or the injuries I can’t?”

“Let’s start with what you can’t treat so I know if I’ll be able to do anything.” Hinata spoke, growing more worried by the minute.

“Very well. I’ve been able to brace most of her broken bones, but I’m not a medic, so I couldn’t do much else.”

“Ugh, this is already off to a bad start!” she thought to herself, “Does she have many?” She asked, hoping for the answer to be no.

“Yes, quite a few actually. Both of her knees are broken and she has a vertical fracture through her left femur. Her right arm is broken in three places, as well as all of her fingers on that hand and lastly she has four cracked ribs.” He tapped his lip in thought, running a double check in his mind. “Yes, that’s all of them. As is obvious, she also has fairly extensive muscle damage and more than likely, the bones will need to be re-broken and set properly, but I’ve done the best I can on those fronts. As for the rest…”

“Wait,” Hinata cut in, “Is there a lot more?”

“No, those are the majority of them.” He saw Hinata loose a deep sigh, “But as I said, these are just the things that I can’t really treat. I’ve been tending to the rest of her injuries since I brought her back, so most of those are at least stable and not getting any worse. Thankfully she’s been fairly drugged up since even before I got her here, so she hasn’t been feeling too much pain. Though considering how much I’ve had to give her I’m surprised she feels anything at all.” Seeing her baffled look he explained himself. “I’m an assassin I told you, we are very skilled with poisons and other narcotics. I’ve been using some diluted drugs to leave her mostly numb. If I didn’t, I’m fairly certain she would be unconscious almost continuously from the pain.”

“Oh.” She wasn’t pleased at all about the fact that Ten Ten was being drugged, but she couldn’t argue with his reasoning, so she opted to remain silent instead.

She nodded her head, prompting him to continue, “She has second degree burns along most of her chest, back, and some of her face, lucky for her however, that I am quite apt at treating burns. I’ve had to deal with a lot of black powder, so I’ve had to tend to my own injuries fairly often. In all likelihood, there won’t be any facial scarring, she will have some on her body though. I have limited supplies and saw it as more the prudent choice to have what she shows to the public be scar free.”

“You treated her chest?”

“Yes.”

“Then you…”

“Yes, I’ve unfortunately had to become far more familiar with her than I had ever planned and I would really appreciate it if you could refrain from telling Neji about that, I don’t much feel like dying before I manage to make things right. Remember, she can’t walk so I’ve been helping her with everything… I’m just very glad that my wife doesn’t know about this. I’d be in a great deal of trouble even considering the circumstances.”

Hinata wasn’t certain what to think or say on the matter, she was embarrassed to the point that her cheeks flushed bright red, but glad that the man had cared for her friend and not done anything to hurt her while she was vulnerable. Finding her voice amidst her own embarrassment, she spoke slowly, taking a light tangent in hopes of recovering some of her dignity, “Why is your wife not here?”

He smiled sadly, waiting a long while in silence before answering, “I can’t see her now. Until they’re gone, I’m just a deserter, so I’m a danger to my own family.”

“Oh,” realizing the question had only made it more awkward, she decided to return to the original topic, “S-so, are those all Ten Ten’s injuries?”

“No, not by a long shot, but the rest are pretty much treated already. She has plenty of small and large lacerations, but most have either started to heal or I’ve been able to stitch up. Unfortunately, there’s also the possibility that she has injuries I haven’t been able to see or identify, which is why I don’t want to move her again until a medical ninja or at least a proper doctor have been able to see her.”

She let out a long breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, “Terrible, but it’s better than I could have hoped for. The only thing I can do for her though is set the bones properly.”

Smiling slightly he rubbed his closed eye, “I’m sure she’ll appreciate it regardless.”
“I’m sure she will.” She responded in a laugh, but stiffened immediately, “Why is she in this condition? Why do this much to her?”

“Ah, that… I was wondering when we’d get to that question.” He seemed uncomfortable with the question, but continued speaking regardless. “After being captured, they interrogated her. Unfortunately, they generally didn’t like what she said so they put her to work… to which she was not too amenable. So to get her to a state of cooperation, if you’ll excuse my language, they beat the living shit out of her, multiple times.”

“So… basically what you’re saying is that they beat her until she couldn’t fight back, then raped her.” She said, swallowing back her own disgust,

“Unfortunately… yes. I worked in the detention area and I was in the room when they broke her knees… it was painful to watch.”

“Wait, you watched?” Surprise rippled across her features as she stared disbelievingly at Shashu.

He looked back at Hinata, confused, until the implication of what she said shot through his mind and he quickly waved his hand in front of his face in a denying gesture, “No, no, no, god no. I’m an honourable man and that type of action is truly debauched. I believe there is a place for interrogation and torture, at least to some degree, but not that. Thankfully I was able to find proper timing to run away with her after only three days, so she didn’t need to deal with it for long. The things they did to your friends were the last straw for me. I’m just glad that I’ll be able to make some of it right before I die.”

Her sombre eyes were touched with pity for the man, “Your letter also mentioned your death, why are you so certain that you’re going to die?”

With a wry smile, he shook his head and spoke calmly, “Because I’m going to die. I have a little less than two weeks to live at the moment.”

“Why do you know so precisely?” her voice still sombre.

“Because within the organization, everyone who knew any secrets was required to drink a potent poison, and unless we took a vial of the anti toxin every four weeks, it would kill us. The poison is heavy metal in nature so it remains in the organs, but through use of the anti toxin, it prevents residual damage. I received my last dose the day before you all attacked, so at most by the five week point, I’m going to die.”

Utterly appalled at the control fashion, Hinata spoke without thinking, “That’s disgusting, how could you stand to do that?”

“It was all for my brother, but alas, he’s gone now.” A bitter smile touched his lips as he thought back on what had happened.

“But…”

Shashu cut her off as she began to protest, “Don’t worry about me, I deserve this at the very least.”

Finally seeing that argument would get her nowhere, she chose a middle ground, “But if there’s an antidote already made, why don’t we just get it for you.”

He shook his head, allowing his face to turn more sombre, “The anti toxins are individually made for each of us because the poisons are each slightly different. If we take the wrong one, it’ll kill us.”

“Hmm,” Hinata cupped her chin in her hands, thinking deeply a moment.

“As I said, don’t worry yourself about it. I appreciate your concern, but I am content with my decision. Even if there was a chance, chasing hopes is not what I do, I’d rather die content with what I had done than die scrambling and panicking while trying to find a way to live.”

His face showed how serious his comment was, Hinata just shook her head, “We’ll leave it at that for now I suppose.”

“Thank you,” He bowed his head slightly to her, “I believe partly that my own death will help atone for what we did to your friends. Though truly, your blonde friend was a monster.”

Her eyes flared before narrowing menacingly as she realized that he was speaking of Naruto, “Don’t talk about Naruto that way. He died protecting us and I won’t stand for anyone insulting him.”

He raised his hands defensively, “I didn’t mean that as an insult, I only meant to imply that he was a truly brutal combatant.”

She quirked her head curiously at his statement, her anger forgotten in the moment of confusion, “When did you see him fight?”

“After that wall of wind he had conjured came down, your friend charged the men who were waiting nearby. He killed almost twenty men before we managed to take him down.”

Her curiosity turned sour as a bitter smile filtered across her lips, “Good. I can’t imagine him dying without leaving a message of his strength behind… though I have enough difficulty just thinking about him being gone…”

She pulled her knees up and hid her face against them, wishing that she could be alone with her own jumbled thoughts. They were silent for a long moment as he watched her appraisingly. Only when he saw the trickles of tears leaking down the visible sides of her face, did her thoughts on their last missing companion became evident.

“Ah! I see now.” He placed a hand gently on top of her head that, to his surprise, was not shaken off, “You’re having a hard time with all of this aren’t you?”

Her muffled voiced sounded from behind her knees, “Maybe, I’ve been acting really different than normal lately. Hell, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I didn’t even know you more than an hour ago.”

He smiled to himself, amused that he was acting like a father to not only a stranger, but a girl, who at most was 10 years younger than himself, “I have no reason to judge, so speak your mind. Maybe speaking to a stranger would be better than speaking to a friend in this case?” He could hear her suppressing a chuckle, but to little success.

After seeming to think about it for a few seconds, her quiet voice echoed around her knees, “When I got back, the stress was making me act on my pride and be more direct… a lot of things happened because of this. But now that we’re on this mission, and that I know Ten Ten is safe, all the emotions that I bottled up are making me act even more irrationally than normal. These moment to moment mood swings are really driving me crazy.”

He laughed aloud, causing her to quickly sit up, knocking his hand away and glare at him through reddened eyes. She readied herself verbally bite into him but he cut her off before she could begin her tirade, “I’m not laughing at what you said, I’m laughing at this all sounds.” She continued to glare, unconvinced, “Heh, I was thinking that you sound like a woman, pregnant with her first child.”

She continued to glare, though her face flushed a light shade of pink, “Gee, thanks. I’m glad to know that in my moments of depression, I’m able to be so amusing. I think I’ll be crossing off the ‘Confide in a stranger’ line from my list of things to do when depressed now.”

Still snickering, he continued, “I don’t intend to be mean by saying that, you sound like my wife did just before our daughter was born.”

Still angry, she returned her face to her knees in order to hide her own embarrassment, “Oh… whatever. It’s still not something you should use to compare.”

He tried to put his hand on her head again, but this time it was shaken off. Smiling, he looked up at the sky before speaking again, “So he was your lover then?” He could tell he struck a cord when her entire body stiffened and her hands dug painfully into her legs, “Oh, so it was an unrequited lo…”

There was a quick flurry of motion between the two. In the blink of an eye, Hinata lunged from a crouching position and grabbed Shashu from the collar, pulling him to his feet and slamming him against the door. In the same violent motion however, Hinata felt a metal tube pressed against the side of her head and saw Shashu’s right eye open. His right eye was a blank white, save for the two intersecting black lines over where his pupil should be.

“Now then my dear, please calm yourself down. I’d prefer not to have to hurt you.” She heard a clicking from the tube pressed to her head, like the sound of a weapon joint, snapping into place. “I’ll admit maybe my last comment was a bit tactless, but slapping me would have been far more prudent.”

Taking several deep, calming breaths, she released his collar and stepped back from him, “I’m sorry. As I told you, I’ve been a bit wound up and what you said just kind of pushed me over a little.”

Closing his right eye, he pulled away from her head what appeared to be a smaller, one-handed version of the weapons they had destroyed in their first raid. He slipped the weapon behind his belt where she heard another light click as the weapon was likely disarmed. “I can understand your stress, and I do apologize for my lack of tact. Your friend though was a tough one, that’s for sure. It’s unfortunate that they put him in the tank, I might have been able to get him as well when we escaped.”

“Get him as well?” She parroted him in confusion.

“Yes, after capturing him, he was put into the maximum security cell.”

“But you said that he was killed?!”

“I said that we took him down, not that we killed him.”

“They don’t mean the same thing?” Her thoughts were so jumbled at the moment, she was having trouble processing her own conversation.

“No, in my line of work, ‘taken out’ means killed, ‘taken down’ means incapacitated. We shot him close to sixty times, but by the time we checked him out after downing him, he was still breathing, and healing slowly on top of that.” Her eyes brightened for a moment before he cut in again, “Please, don’t get your hopes up for him to still be alive. The tank is truly terrible, it breaks even the strongest of men after a few days, and he’d have been in there for two weeks by now.”

She smirked, staring at him defiantly, “You’ve never met someone as strong as he is.”

“No, listen!” He desperately needed to get across to her the atrocity of the tank, and he wasn’t looking forward to the description, “The tank is primarily for psychological assault, but it functions as a modified torture chamber as well.”

“So?” her voice echoed even more defiantly as the flames of her hopes were gently fanned back to life.

“So?” He was taken aback by her overtly blasé comment, “So, the tank is effectively a self contained sarcophagus! The main focus of the assault is sleep deprivation through electric shock and intense heat, but there are also clamps in several areas meant to rip and tear the flesh. Even with your friend’s ability to heal quickly, he’d eventually bleed out.”

“But you didn’t confirm him as dead before you left, correct?” Her defiance didn’t dwindle, even when faced with terrible odds.

“No, I’ll admit I was a little too busy dragging your half dead friend out of a pit in the ground to pay much attention to a sealed room.” He didn’t like being snide, but he was afraid things would fall apart if she put all her hopes into something that was so improbable. “Please don’t look a gift horse in the mouth here and pin your hopes on something that’s so unlikely.”

“That’s enough!” There was power behind her words, and much to his own surprise, Shashu stopped cold, “I appreciate what you’re saying Shashu, but what you don’t understand is that right now, I am acting in Hokage-sama’s place. The original mission has not changed, nor will it. However, if there is any hope, regardless of how small, that we could find and return Naruto home with us, we will take the appropriate course of action.”

“But…”

“I’m sorry but this is my final word on the subject. We will be just as thorough as we would have been, however when we enter the detention center area, we’ll scour it for this ‘tank’. Come worst or best case scenario, we’ll bring him home with us.”

He watched her for a while, standing resolved in her course of action as her long black hair swayed in the light wind. Her pale lavender eyes no longer showed any signs of the tears she had shed only a few short minutes before. Shaking his head in defeat, he looked up to her and said, “Fine, then I guess you’ll need to know what to look for.”


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Inside the small house, oblivious to the going-ons outside, Neji kneeled before the chair containing his thought to be lost lover, a confused yet happy smile playing across his lips. Even in the shadowy light and amidst the many bandages, he could see her eyes and knew she was Ten Ten.

He slowly reached a quivering hand towards her face, but her left hand intercepted it and interlaced her fingers with his, “Nice to know you missed me.” Her voice was hoarse, but bore a deep note of affection and sincerity.

His normal, resolute and powerful demeanour failed him as all he could bring himself to say was, “It’s really you, isn’t it?”

A small giggle escaped her lips as she was caught between amusement and disappointment that Neji’s first words at seeing she was alive were so simple. “Not quite the same as you left me, but you could say that. I’m a bit more fragile at the moment though.”

He stood up, still holding her hand and eyed her up and down. Both of her legs were braced straight with several rounded sticks and bandages, and were set at a downward angle so her weight wouldn’t rest on them much while she sat. Her right arm was wrapped heavily in thick bandages to restrain its movement, and was resting loosely in a sling around her neck. Her body was mostly covered in blankets, but from the material he could see around her shoulders, she was wearing what probably amounted to a simple turquoise dressing gown.

Bandages were firmly wrapped up to her chin, leaving her face and left hand to be just about the only exposed skin she had. Her face itself was a deep red, similar to someone who had just gotten out of a hot bath, and her left eye was swollen, leaving it half open. She smirked to herself when she saw his eyes register the surprise at seeing her braid in the place of her odango, but he said nothing on it, and for that she was glad at the moment.

She squeezed his hand reassuringly, pulling his attention away from the unpleasant details of her current appearance, “So, what? No cheering? No dancing? No screaming in thanks that I’m alive?” Her tone was serious, but she couldn’t keep the edge of her lips from tipping into a smile.

With a short laugh, Neji shook his head in amusement, “It’s actually kind of depressing that you’re going to have to deal with hours of that from Gai sensei and Lee when we return.”

Her smile quickly turned into a pout as she realized the truth of his statement. In all likelihood, when Gai and Lee found out that she was alive, she would be up to her neck in ‘Power of Youth’ preaching and be unable to run away. She squeezed his hand again, this time pleadingly, “Can I stay with you when we get back? You can protect me from them can’t you?!”

Deciding it to be the best choice to sate the whims of his newly recovered girlfriend, he just smiled and nodded.

The two remained in silence for several long minutes, looking into each other’s eyes, uncertain what to say. A thump against the door shook them from their trance, causing both to look to it curiously, however after several seconds of no one saying anything on the other side or attempting to open the door, they assumed it to have just been someone bumping against it from outside.

As she turned back to him, she felt sudden warmth pressed against her lips as Neji had leaned in and captured them in a quick but tender kiss. She returned the affection in kind, bringing her usable hand up and around the back of his neck holding him close to her. They stayed that way for a long moment, the kiss never intensifying under a mutual fear that it may hurt her.

After a time, she finally broke away gasping for air. A content smile on her lips, she looked into Neji’s eyes, “Like I said, it’s nice to know you missed me.” The playful note in her voice made him chuckle lightly.

They spent the next while in light conversation, content with the close proximity of each other. Deciding not to bridge the topic of her experiences over the past weeks, Neji kept the topics steered to non-hostile territory. She didn’t mind the calm conversation and was quite curious in fact of the going-ons in Konoha since she had left on her previous mission, especially considering she hadn’t even been in town for a full day before being shipped off on the last mission.


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Hinata sat on the ground by herself around the side of the building, since Shashu had wandered off in search of Sasuke several minutes ago and had yet to return. She was excited at the newfound information, but wasn’t sure how she was going to incorporate her new plan into the current operation. In truth it was very simple. The problem was what Sasuke and Neji’s reactions were going to be. She was certain Sasuke would likely be all for it, but Naruto had abandoned Ten Ten in favour of saving the others, so there was no guarantee that Neji would be up for adding the rescue attempt to the plan.

She grumbled and mumbled for a while, until a familiar shadow crossed the ground in front of her. Without looking up she addressed him irritably, “So, feeling better now?”

Though amused by her snarky response, Sasuke suppressed his chuckle, not particularly wanting to draw the ire of the moody princess. He decided it was best not to further sour her mood, so he humoured her, “Yeah, I’m fine. I just don’t like being holed up in one place for long periods of time.”

She looked up to him, rolling her eyes, “And I guess that’s why you’ve hardly left Sakura’s room over the last two weeks?”

He knew she was baiting him, but he reacted immediately and couldn’t stop himself from jumping at it, “That’s different Hinata!”

“Oh… I know.” She taunted with a knowing grin.

He glared at her a few moments, annoyed, before loosing a resigned sigh, “It’s depressing that I’m already missing the old, uncertain, shy, feinting every five minutes Hinata.”

A humoured laugh escaped her lips, “Well Sasuke-kun, you’re just going to have to deal with it then, aren’t you? I’m not really up to changing back, especially not for you.”

“Yeah,” He shook his head, admitting his inevitable defeat, “I’ve noticed. That aside, what’s happening? The old man came around and said you wanted to see me.”

“You shouldn’t call him an old man. At most I think he’d be around Kurenai-sensei’s age. But yes, I did want to see you, I needed for all of us to sit down and discuss the mission.” She stood and began walking around to the front of the cabin.

“You sure you shouldn’t give them some more time?” The corners of his lips curled into an amused grin.

“They’ll have plenty of time later, besides, I’m sure they’ll save their real reunion for when were back in Konoha.” She smiled to herself as from the corner of her eye she saw Sasuke stumble from her comment.

Hinata knocked on the door and after a few seconds, Ten Ten’s hoarse voice could be heard from the other side, “Come in.”

Hinata opened the door and walked in with Sasuke in tow. Neji was sitting beside Ten Ten’s chair on a stool that he had pulled over, his hand interlaced with hers. Both Hinata and Sasuke took in Ten Ten’s current appearance and mentally logged it, deciding not to discuss it until later.

“I see you two have become pretty comfortable, should we have given you a little longer?” Sasuke asked seriously as he exchanged a glance with Hinata, not trying to hide his grin. She merely shook her head and rubbed her eyes.

Neji cleared his throat in embarrassment. Ten Ten however, put on a mock pout and responded, “Oh would you? That would be grand.”

A moment before returning with his own rebuttal, Sasuke was interrupted by the presence of a firm hand on his arm. He looked over his shoulder to the pale eyed young woman behind him, silently asking her why she stopped his fun.

“You guys can tease each other later, okay?” Her voice was nonchalant, as though she had dealt with this kind of behaviour far more often than she had. “For now I’d like to discuss the mission.” Her words had the desired effect as both men turned to face her with rapt attention.

Ten Ten looked back and forth between the two normally belligerent and difficult men. It was amazing. She had only ever seen them so compliant in the face of the Hokage herself.

“Umm, Hinata-chan… they’re creeping me out, what did you do to them?” Though her fear was a fabrication, she was in fact curious as to why they had all suffered such uncharacteristic changes to their personalities.

“Hmm, what do you mean?” Hinata looked between the two men, not understanding what Ten Ten was talking about. Both men smirked at her continued confusion.

“Right then,” Ten Ten realized that Hinata herself probably hadn’t noticed, so she addressed the other two instead, “So why are you two being so compliant? Not that it’s a bad thing, but you guys hardly ever listen to anyone.”

Sasuke looked up to Neji, his smirk ever present, “So I guess you were too busy to explain things to her?”

Neji blushed a stoic crimson color before managing to stutter out his own rebuttal, “Damn it, no we weren’t. I just didn’t think about it you cocky bastard.”

“Explained what?” Ten Ten interjected curiously.

Hinata’s voice came through lightly but was overwhelmed by the other three as they spoke, blotting out whatever she had said.

“Well, for one she’s the current team leader.” Sasuke stated plainly.

“She is? But both of you outrank her.” Ten Ten’s curiosity continued to be stoked.

Again Hinata spoke, but once again she was drowned out by the others.

“Yup, and also she’s here in acting proxy for the Hokage herself.” Sasuke spoke again, earning a dumbfounded look from Ten Ten, “That doesn’t mean much to me though. Honestly, I don’t really like or respect the Hokage for much more than her power.”

“Watch what you say Sasuke, you speak ill of both the Hokage and my cousin. If you continue it is likely to come back and bite you.” Neji said calmly.

A third time Hinata tried to speak, but continued to be drowned out by the others.

“I’m just speaking the truth. The only reason I’m so… compliant, as you say, is because Naruto trusted them both implicitly, and he is one of three people who I trust. Therefore, at the very least I will respect them in memory of him.”

“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP FOR A DAMN MINUTE?!” Her patience finally wore out as she screamed at them as loud as she could. Thankfully it had the desired effect since all three others stopped talking immediately and looked to her. “Damn, it’s about time. Argh! You can discuss this all later, right now we’re discussing what’s happening tomorrow. That’s all! Is this understood?” She could feel a vein throbbing on the side of her head, it was almost like she had three, ten year old Naruto’s in the room. She waited a moment, and when the silence remained, she went on, “Good, we will be attacking in the early afternoon tomorrow. We’ll leave mid morning so we can be there and scout so that adjustments can be made to our timing and plans. Lastly, we will be making one major change to the designation of the mission. This will no longer be primarily a search and destroy mission.”

“What? Why not?” Sasuke shouted back at her while the other two just looked perplexed.

“Because this is now designated as a rescue mission, search and destroy is a secondary.”

His anger cooled by his confusion, he decided he had to ask, “Rescue who?”

She smiled, a flicker of the last time she saw him flashed through her memory. Even though it was forced on him, his lips had been warm and comforting, a sensation that she wished to have experienced many times more.

She blinked pushing the memory into the back of her mind, “Naruto, he’s alive, I know it.”

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Hey guys, hope you're still all enjoying Feral Dreams. Please R and R, I love hearing your thoughts about the story. This chapter is a little bit shorter because I originally wasn't planning on putting this chapter up yet, but it's my birthday in a few days so I tried to finish up the scene as soon as possible and post it as a present from me.

Thanks for continuing to read,
The_Keeper