//------------------------------// // Fallen Sky Pt 1 // Story: Adventures of the Equestrian Ninja // by hussbek //------------------------------// ADVENTURES OF THE EQUESTRIAN NINJA Chapter 43: Fallen Sky Pt 1 It's been about a week and a half since Nightmare Night, things have pretty much gone back to normal for Naruto, albeit with a few things going on every now and then. Some examples being Naruto having to help Rarity come up with something for a fashion show when she was recommended by Sapphire Shorts the Pony of Pop like the last time, frankly he doesn't have a strong sense of fashion compared to Ino back home and yet Rarity would seek out his opinion which he finds rather touching and strives to not let her down. Another is working with Twilight in creating a new spell based on a spell book which she came across in the library. There's also helping Fluttershy with caring for the animals and had to deal with the usual issue of the birds fighting over the right to nestle in his spiky blond mane. Right now, he was acting as a referee for Applejack and Rainbow Dash who were having a competition, so far it's been a series of ties as they were consistently trying to outshine each other, reminding him of when they took part in the Iron Pony competition…boy was that something. He was snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing the clopping of hooves and looked to see the two mares running neck-and-neck in the rush for the finish line, Naruto and his shadow clone held their stopwatches ready then stopped them as the mares went across the finish line. "Who won!?" both Applejack and Rainbow Dash spoke simultaneously. Naruto and the clone came close together to compare the time, looking at each other and nodding before answering in unison "It's a tie…again," "Again? Aw man," Rainbow Dash groaned "Every time we try to break the ties, we end up getting more," "Ya darn tooting, neither of us are winning or losing," Applejack complained. "It's fine for you two to be competitive with each other but try not to go overboard like last time," Naruto said this while looking at the mares pointedly, making the two look away sheepishly. "Uh, can we not talk about that?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Yeah, not exactly something we'd like to remember," Applejack added. "Then don't give me a reason to bring it up," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow "Anyways, I'm heading back to the shop, got something to work on," "Alright Naruto, be seeing ya," Applejack trotted away. "What she said," Rainbow Dash zipped up to the clouds but Naruto knows full well she's going to take a nap. The blonde stallion headed over to the Whirlpool where Trixie was tending to a customer at the counter before seeing Naruto and calling out to him. "Welcome back, Naruto," said Trixie. "Thanks Trixie, I'm going to the back to work on some crystals," Naruto explained. Trixie nodded in understanding "Okay, I'll let you know if anything comes up," Naruto went to the worktable where multiple pieces of paper inscribed with seals as well as prototype crystals where scattered all over, he sat down and began working on creating or improving new concepts but he couldn't help but notice that is rate of progress has been slowing down as of late which he wasn't too pleased about it. "Then again, I only know of the basics of Fuinjutsu as well as the additional scrolls that Pervy Sage showed to me. The best way for me to get out of this rut will be to acquire more scrolls and that means…," Naruto sighed, knowing what he has to do next "I've been putting it off long enough, time for me to go…home," Steeling himself, Naruto packed the necessities and stored them in his medallion before leaving shop after telling Trixie that he'll be gone for a couple of days and sent a shadow clone to pick Scootaloo whilst her and the others of his trip. He made his way over to Dr. Whooves' place and knocked on the door a couple of times before said person opened to greet him. "Oh Naruto, what can I do for you, my boy?" asked Dr. Whooves cheerfully. Naruto smiled cheerfully "Hi doc, I was hoping to ask if you could give me a ride on the TARDIS to the Elemental Nations? I got a few things to do there," "Well of course, I am not at all busy and could use a trip to wave off the boredom that was bothering me," "Great, let's get going then!" The two ponies went inside the house, to the room where the TARDIS was before inside and activating the machine as it soon disappeared in a flash of light. As they travel through the dimensions, Dr. Whooves decided to inquire Naruto about something. "I've noticed that you haven't received any mission notice these past months," said Dr. Whooves. "Same here, maybe the worlds aren't having problems serious enough to require my help with them. It does give me more time to train myself to be stronger for the future," said Naruto thoughtfully. So far he had been to the Pokémon world, the Dragon world and his old world which he's currently going towards. "Quite understandable, by the way there's something I wanted to bring up if you're interested," "What is it?" asked Naruto curiously. "Lately, I have been getting pings of unique energy signatures throughout Equestria. At first, I thought they were life signs of animals but then I noticed that none of them so much as budged a single inch from where I first detected them," Whooves explained. "So, it's like there's something there. Maybe a relic of sorts," "My thoughts exactly and I recalled you telling me of the item you acquired some time back which made my theory even more solid that ancient relics are scattered all over Equestria, just waiting to be unearthed and discovered!" Earth pony's eyes glittered with excitement. Naruto hummed in thought; If it's true, then he should help Dr. Whooves locate these relics and obtain them before they fall into the wrong hands like the kaleidoscope group. "Okay doc, when I get back, I'll help you find these relics whenever I can," said Naruto assuredly. Dr. Whooves nodded happily in response "Why thank you my boy, I'm looking forward to what we'll discover in the future!" "Heh, me too," Soon enough, the TARDIS arrived at its destination as it reappeared in the midst of a forest and settled onto the ground. Naruto stepped out of the machine and soon felt his body change and looked down to see that he was in his human form again with the Kosei no Ha appearing to latch on to his back like before. "Can't deny that I miss looking like this," said Naruto with a soft smile. "I'll be here when you're ready to head back to Equestria," Dr. Whooves called out from the TARDIS. "Thanks for the heads-up doc, catch ya later," Naruto went on his way after taking note of his surroundings before choosing the correct direction towards the Hidden Leaf village. Along the way, he was contemplating on the kind of approach he would make towards his friends. "Okay then, how do I open up…," Naruto hummed in thought before trying something out "Um…'Hey guys, it's been a while!' No, that will make them think of how long it's been since I died… 'Yo, guess who's back!'…from the dead. How about… 'long time no see, just wanted to drop by and see how you're all doing'…after my death," Naruto gripped his head in frustration "Ohhhh geez, why can't I come up with something that won't bring up depression?" he looked up to the sky and saw something usual "Are those…flying ninjas? That's something new, it looks like they're going somewhere," He took note of the direction which the flying ninjas were going "They heading for the village…I have a bad feeling about this," Naruto took to leaping across the trees to catch up to them. His feelings of dread unfortunately came true as he witnessed the ninjas proceed to bombard the Hidden Leaf village with attacks "No no no no, not this again! I've got to stop them and fast before the village is destroyed!" Quickly coming up with a plan, Naruto pulled up a facemask and the hood to conceal his identity then took out a Camo Crystal which turned him invisible upon activation "Chakra Wings!" wings made out of white energy sprouted from his back as he leapt into the air and took flight in pursuit of the flying ninjas. As for the aforementioned ninjas, they were laying waste to the village with glee when suddenly a wing was sliced off, sending one of the ninjas plummeting to the ground. Whilst trying to react to the sudden attack, more of the flying ninjas had the wings of their gliders getting sliced off, resulting in them crashing to the ground where the vindictive Konoha ninjas were waiting to make their anger known to them. "What's going on, is this some sort of counterattack from the village!?" asked a ninja in a panic. A voice responded angrily "Not exactly, just a guy angry about you jerks attacking my old home," then the wings of the ninja's glider were torn off with him plummeting towards the unforgiving ground. Meanwhile, the ninjas of Konoha took note that the flying ninjas were being attacked but couldn't see who it was. "What's going on? First these ninjas attack our village and they're being attacked by something we all can't see," asked a Leaf ninja. The other Leaf ninja frowned in response "I don't understand either, what I do know is that we now have a fighting chance," "Yeah, you're right. Let's give these bastards hell for attacking our home!" Back in the air, the invisible Naruto continued to ground the flying ninjas with his glaive in hand and looked to see that there are still more for him to deal with "Let's see if I can't thin them out a bit more, Chakra Bullet: Rapid Fire!" Naruto stretched out both arms forward as two runes appeared before releasing a barrage of small white orbs at the enemies, shooting them out of the skies at a much faster rate compared to when he uses his glaive. Hearing explosions, Naruto turned to see more of these ninjas dropping explosives and destroying buildings which angered him greatly as this reminded him of when the village was attacked by the Sand and Sound village during the Chuunin exams "Get out of my village, "Stellar Gear change: Chakram!" the glaive transformed into the cyclone blade as he focused on the enemies and threw it to slice off the wings of several gliders multiple times before returning to his hand before throwing it again. He felt large amounts of energy being channeled and turned to a giant flying craft where a man with a mask on his face sat cross-legged and was generated a large amount of yellow chakra "I don't know what you're about to do, but I'm not going to let you! Chakra Cannon!" he held out both palms together to form a blue rune as a large sphere of chakra took form and grew larger then he launched the attack, sending the projectile flying through the air and slammed into his target then exploded upon impact in time before they could attack. At this point, the invading force were reduced to less than half which them no other choice but to retreat otherwise they would be wiped out by the invisible assailant. Naruto watched them leave with a frown on his face, a part of him wanted to pursue and take them all down but he had more important things. "I need to make sure that Grandma Tsunade and the others are okay, plus my Camo Crystal will soon run out of power," he turned round and flew towards the Hokage Tower. Over at the aforementioned place, Kakashi and Yamato were running up the stairs and quickly hurried into the office where Tsunade stood staring at the window with Shizune looking at her with concern. "Lady Tsunade, thank goodness you're safe," said Kakashi with relief. "…yes, but I wish that I'd be the only one that they'd hurt," said Tsunade, looking down at the destruction with sorrow "They had almost overrun the entire village if not for whatever that was attacking them to the point of being forced to retreat. Do any of you know what it was?" "Not what but rather who," a voice spoke up, putting everyone on alert. "Who's there? Show yourself!" Tsunade demanded. "Oh sorry, I thought it had worn off by down. Deactivate," there was shimmering before a hooded figure appeared before taking it off to reveal his face, shocking them all "Hey guys…," "N-Naruto, is that you?" asked Shizune, she was still in disbelief in spite of the letter he had written to them. "Yeah, it's me," Naruto was suddenly glomped by Tsunade who was holding him tightly. "You're here…you're really here," Tsunade muttered, barely holding back the tears. Naruto smiled sadly and hugged her "Yeah, I'm sorry for leaving you all that day," "Don't…don't say anything and just let me hug you," "Okay," Soon enough, Tsunade had to let him go as they need to deal with the current situation with Kakashi being the one to ask the blonde ninja. "Looking back at what happened, I don't need to guess that you're the reason why those guys weren't to attack the village the way they wanted," said Kakashi. Naruto nodded in affirmation "Yeah, I used my Camo Crystal to hide myself whilst inflicting maximum damage enough to make them run off with the tails between their legs. There's also the fact I can't let myself be seen since I'm supposed to be dead otherwise the Akatsuki would try looking for me in spite that I don't have the Kyuubi in me anymore," "But we're glad you came at the right time, but what were you coming here for anyway?" asked Shizune. "I wanted to acquire some scrolls on advanced Fuinjutsu from Pervy Sage and visit you guys, so what happens now?" Naruto inquired at the last part. "First we tend to the wounded which is low in number thanks to your intervention, next we set up a counter-strike force to deal with what's left of the Sky Ninjas," said Tsunade. "Who are they and why attack the village?" "During the Second Great ninja Wars, a group of ninjas excelled at ninjutsu that let them fly by manipulating chakra. They called themselves the Land of Sky and had opposed the Five Great Nations and so the Leaf destroyed them," Naruto frowned at this "So, they did this to get back at us? "That's what I thought at first but I suspect that they have something else in mind other than the village's destruction," Naruto looked out the window with a frown "I could help with my Shadow Clones but…," "You'd be found out in an instant as no one can create as many clones as you, just leave the rest to us since you've done enough today," said Kakashi with an eye smile. "Okay Kakashi-sensei," "We'll be going to the hospital now to check on the wounded, no doubt Sakura and Hinata are there to heal them," said Tsunade. "Then I'll come along, got another Camo Crystal that I can use to conceal myself," Naruto took out said crystal and went invisible. "I can see that you've been coming up with new tricks at where you came from," said Yamato. "Yup, couldn't stand being idle," Tsunade and Shizune left the Hokage Tower with Naruto following them while invisible to the hospital where they saw the medical staff hard at work with Sakura and Hinata spearheading them, they saw Tsunade and bowed their head in greeting. "Lady Tsunade!" said Sakura. "What's the status?" asked Tsunade. "Everyone are on their way to a full recovery, but the strange thing is that the patients being brought had been treated into stable conditions beforehand and not by one of our own," Sakura explained. "Are you saying that someone has been treating the wounded and while in the battlefield no less?" asked Tsunade. Sakura was about to answer when a voice called out from the nearby window "It was Master Shinnou!" they turned to see a boy climb through and gesture towards the patients lying in their cots "I can tell, these are all done by him!" "That name sounds familiar," said one of the medic staff. "Is there something you want from him?" asked Shizune. "Yes, I need his help! My village is in trouble and needs help!" the boy called out desperately before passing out. "Get her to a bed and we can find what's going on from her later," Tsunade ordered with the medical staff immediately obeying "By the way, Sakura. A friend of yours is around," Sakura looked at her master in confusion "A friend?" Then a familiar voice whispered into her ears "Believe it…," her eyes widened in realization before smiling a bit. "Naruto…," she muttered lowly but Hinata's head snapped towards her, having heard the name. "Naruto-kun, you're here," thought Hinata, trying not to lose control of her emotions. Sometime later on, a man with long white hair and wearing clothing similar to the boy came to the hospital who introduced himself as Shinnou; the person who was responsible for treating the wounded that were brought in and whom the boy from before was looking for. "You're quite skilled to be a doctor, this boy said so," said Sakura, having been impressed by his feat. Shinnou waved her off with a gentle smile "That's kind of you to say, I don't think I deserve such a noble title as doctor. Amaru has always looked up to me for a long time," "Even so, it was thanks to you that so many wounded were able to survive today otherwise they would have died," Sakura protested. Shinnou turned to look at the sleeping Amaru fondly "Amaru's village is way on the outskirts of the Land of Fire. Even so, last night it was attacked by a group of unknown ninjas and many people were injured," Naruto frowned in thought as he listened to the conversation "Unknown ninja, could he be talking about the Sky Ninjas?" "If what you say is true, then I'll be assigning Sakura and Hinata along with someone else to form an emergency three-man medical squad," Tsunade made herself known after entering the room. Sakura bowed her head in affirmation "As you wish, Lady Tsunade," Shinnou his head in gratitude "Thank you, any help is appreciated," The next morning, Sakura along with Hinata, Shinnou and Amaru had left the village and were walking along the road when the latter spoke up about something. "Master Shinnou said that there would be three of you, how there's only two?" asked Amaru confusedly. "Don't worry, he'll be here any moment now," said Sakura. "He?" Someone dropped down from the trees to land before them, revealing to be a male ninja dressed in orange and black with a sea blue broadsword with an outward motif for the guard and in the center is a white swirling energy attached to his back but without a sheath or harness, they couldn't see his face since his hood was put up. The ninja waved a hand in greeting "Hey everyone, been a long time since we last met," Sakura nodded with a smile "It's great to see you too, "I-I'm glad t-to see you a-again," Hinata stammered a reply, not knowing how to react upon seeing Naruto alive and well after all these years. "How do you expect us to trust you when your face is all covered up?" asked Amaru skeptically. "My face is too well-known and the last thing we want is for me to attract the wrong kind of attention, plus those two can vouch for me," Naruto explained. "You can trust Naruto, he'll never betray you," Sakura spoke up. Shinnou looked at Naruto while deep in thought "If you say that he is trustworthy, then I see no reason to not trust him," Amaru frowned but complied "If Master Shinnou says so then fine," Meanwhile at a lagoon, numerous aircraft carriers were seen anchored there where the Sky Ninjas were currently situated and reorganizing themselves after their attempt at attacking the Hidden Leaf village was disrupted by an unknown invisible assailant. "Looks like you were right on the ball, Shikamaru," said Kakashi, spying on the enemy from behind the rocky cliffs. Shikamaru shrugged in response "Well, it's the same like worker bees finding their way back to the hive. I just narrowed down the possible flight distance with the amount of chakra Neji's Byakugan detected," "Even so, sending a four-man is bold…typical Shikamaru," "They're already twitchy thanks to Naruto's unseen attack on them, we need to keep them thinking that they still inflicted great damage to the village by doing this so they don't retreat to the open sea," Shikamaru pointed out. "So, that's why you sent Sai out there to keep them around," said Kakashi with understanding. "Yeah, and Naruto was nice enough to give us some party favors before accompanying Sakura ad Hinata on their mission. He's troublesome, but the good kind of troublesome," "No surprise there," Back with Naruto, he and the others were silently paddling along a river through a forest with him and Amaru on one canoe while the rest are on the other one. "Amaru's village is upstream, deep in this jungle. There are also some ancient ruins nearby," Shinnou informed the group "I suggest you be careful as there are man-eating catfish, hungry alligators and lots of poisonous fishes," Hearing a splash nearby, Naruto looked to see a scaly tail enter the river which made him nervous "Thanks for the heads-up," Amaru smirked at his reaction "Don't be scared, these boats carry two accomplished doctors that are way more useful than you ninjas," he reached into his pouch and brought out a small bundle of cloth "All I need to save you is just this scalpel," Naruto frowned in response "Let's not start playing the comparison game, I don't look down on doctors just like you shouldn't look down on ninjas. Every role is important in their own way and one is not above the other," Sakura was surprised to hear this from Naruto, the old him wasn't exactly the wisest in the original Team 7 "Wow Naruto, wasn't expecting you to be all sage like," Naruto smiled underneath "I learnt a lot of things in my new home, I'm still me just less hasty," "Naruto, you've changed so much but you're still the same despite what happened," thought Hinata in admiration. Suddenly, Naruto's ears picked up a strange sound "Hey guys, I'm hearing something and it's coming from above," by his words, everyone grew tense and Hinata looked up to the sky with her Byakugan activated. "I see a flier emanating chakra, the same kind that attacked the village," said Hinata with a frown. "Quickly, use the nearby trees as cover," said Shinnou in alert, He and Sakura paddled the canoe towards the side of the riverbank where the tree branches hung above it. Naruto and Amaru were paddling the canoe to the side as well when the latter's scalpel slipped out of his hand and fell into the river. "My scalpel!" Amaru dove into the river without hesitation before Naruto could stop him, he saw the flier draw closer and had to dive into the river as well while turning the canoe over to make it appear as a wooden log floating in the river. Sky ninja looked around the area and saw nothing out of the ordinary before flying away, Amaru managed to find his scalpel amongst the underwater plants and tried to swim back to the surface but found that her leg was entangled in one of the plants, he struggled to free himself but time was running out and he began to lose consciousness as memories of the past flowed through his mind. Amaru remembered when he was ill and nobody wanted to help given his orphan status, but Shinnou was the one who chose to nurse him back to health in spite of the negative views from the villagers. At first, Amaru wanted to become a shinobi but decided to become a doctor just like his mentor. Suddenly, he was yanked out of the water and carried over to the shore, Naruto swatted away the fish which tried to attack them till they finally reached the shore. He placed Amaru on the ground who was gasping for air and noticed something…off about him. Due to the wet clothes now clinging to the skin, Naruto noticed that Amaru's figure was more…feminine then dawned upon him what was going on. "Now way, you mean to tell that you're a…," Naruto stammered in disbelief. Amaru blushed at his reaction and was about to yell at him when she noticed that Naruto was acting strangely, his body swaying unsteadily "Naruto, are you okay?" "I…guh…uh…," Naruto could barely give a proper response. "What's the matter with y-," Amaru stopped in midsentence upon a seeing a piranha fish latched on to Naruto's leg with its teeth "Oh no, he's been poisoned!" Everyone immediately rushed to help Naruto, Amaru had him sit up against a tree with the pant leg rolled up to expose the bite. She took out her scalpel and heated it with a lighter before making a cut on the skin then proceeded to suck out the poisoned blood and spit to it to the ground. Naruto with his hood and facemask removed started to blush now that he's fully aware of Amaru's true gender in addition to what she's doing is making him well…conscious. This was noticed by everyone with Sakura being vocal about it. "Naruto, why are you blushing?" asked Sakura. "Huh? Oh it's nothing, must be the poison affecting me," Naruto quickly replied, the last thing he wants is for Sakura to jump to conclusions and hit him for being a 'pervert'. Shinnou looked at Amaru with a smile of fondness "And that's how the orphan child gains acceptance, they use the blade to save lives. Even injured, they run to seek help for their village, now the child tries to save a ninja who became a friend…you've really grown, Amaru," Amaru finished applying the antivenom for the poison and bandaged Naruto's leg to prevent bleeding "He should be fine now," Sakura and Hinata checked to make sure and the results were positive with the former speaking up "Nice job, it's perfect," "And this is why all roles have their own importance," Naruto added, looking at Amaru with gratitude. "They're correct, Amaru. Which is why I'm so proud of you," said Shinnou, smiling warmly. Amaru smiled back with her cheeks tinged pink "Thank you, doctor," Naruto saw their interaction and couldn't help but find similarities between them and him with Iruka. Later on, the group resumed their journey towards Amaru's village, going by foot this time with Shinnou at the lead while using his machete to cut through the branches and plants, Hinata and Sakura were behind, and Amaru was helping Naruto walk behind them until he recovered fully. "Not to worry, we're almost at the village," Shinnou spoke up. Naruto spoke "I can see why Shinnou is so proud of you, your skills as a doctor are amazing," Amaru shook her head in disagreement "That's not true, it's master Shinnou who's the amazing one," "Uh, just to clarify and I'm not trying to offend but…you're a girl right?" Amaru frowned at the question "Of course I'm a girl, do I really look like a boy?" "Again, I'm not being offensive but your clothes kinda make you look otherwise," Naruto pointed out. "I wonder if that's the way dr. Shinnou looks at me…," Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her before coming up with a suggest "Hmmm, sounds to me like you have a crush on Dr. Shinnou," "You idiot, it's not like that!" *Smack* The next thing they know, Amaru had slapped Naruto hard in the face which left behind a swollen handprint on a blonde reeling in pain. She quickly realized what she had done and stepped away from him. "I guess…my body hasn't fully recovered yet," Naruto muttered painfully. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hit you," Amaru apologized. "It's okay, I kinda had it coming by just blurting it out," "Look over there!" Hinata suddenly called out, grabbing their attention to run over to where the others are. There they saw black smoke rising to the sky a small distance from where they are. Shinnou frowned at this "Oh no, the place where the smoke is coming from is…," Amaru dropped her bag and started running towards the source of the smoke "Amaru, wait!" he and the others followed after the girl. "Darn it, I still haven't recovered completely yet," thought Naruto in mild frustration. Amaru ran though the forest as fast as she could, her heart thumped against her chest. She finally reached the village and was horrified to find it burning to the ground, Amaru stumbled along in disbelief at what was happening around and saw bloodied kunai all over the place with one embedded in a broken doll. "No, this can't be happening…," Amaru muttered in denial "Hello, where is everyone? Can anyone hear me? Please, say something if you can hear me!" She started running around, frantically calling for any villager who might have survived but Amaru wasn't finding any, not even a corpse. She was running up a long flight of stairs to the top in her search when she felt her leg hit something which unfortunately triggered a trap, launching large amounts of kunai towards her. Amaru stood there frozen in fear when someone suddenly grabbed her shoulder, pulling her away and tossed down to the ground. Hearing the sound of metal piercing through flesh, Amaru looked up to be greeted with a sight which made her want to scream but no sound came out of her mouth. Naruto and others soon caught up and came upon the scene of Amaru holding Shinnou whose body was riddled with kunai and bleeding all over. "Doctor, please hold on! Don't die please!" Amaru begged with tears dripping down her cheeks "Why did you do that?" Shinnou fought through the pain to respond "It's because…I recognize you…as my…apprentice…," he took off the bandanna from his head and held it out to her "I need you…to work with our new friends…find the villagers…I'm counting on…you…," "Sakura-chan, Hinata-chan! You gotta help him!" said Naruto urgently, the aforementioned two rushed over to the wounded doctor and began utilizing the Mystic Palm jutsu in an attempt to heal him the best they could. "Doctor, you can't die! You just can't!" Amaru wailed, Shinnou's breathing grew more haggard until he stopped and laid still. Naruto turned to Sakura and Hinata who closed their eyes and shook their heads sadly, making him clench his fists in frustration "He's gone…," hearing this only made Amaru cry even harder. A day later, Naruto was watching Amaru stand before a grave at a cemetery with Dr. Shinnou's bloodied jacket hung over the grave marker while holding the deceased doctor's bandanna in her hand. It reminded him all too much of Kakashi spending hours in front of the Hokage Monument, looking at the ones of his deceased loved ones. He was snapped out of his thoughts by Sakura and Hinata arriving to speak to him. "Naruto-kun, Sakura and I believe that the villagers must have taken refuge somewhere since we haven't come across any bodies," Hinata explained. "I thought as much but what I don't get is why the Sky Ninjas attacked this village, could there have been something in the village that was important enough to the point of being their target?" said Naruto thoughtfully. "We might get our answers from the villagers once we find them," Sakura suggested. "If that's the case, let's split up and search for them," Looking at Amaru one more time with feelings of sympathy, the trio went in different directions to begin their search for the missing villagers. However, they failed to notice that a black aura began to envelop Amaru as she slowly rose to her feet and turned to look at where they were with glowing red eyes.