Naruto led them through the first three faces until they entered the fourth. He froze.
"What is it?" asked Sakura.
He walked into the center of the face where a limp form was lying, unmoving.
He bent down and picked it up, before bringing it over to the others.
Then he put it down.
"It's...a..." said Hinata.
They all stared down at the fox, it was dead.
"It's not jsut dead...it...it was tortured," whispered Sakura.
Naruto looked uneasy. "Sakura-chan..."
"Naruto?" asked Sakura.
He held out a piece of paper.
Sakura took it. As she read her eyes got wide. "Oh Naruto..."
The others read over her shoulder.
Next time...I'm going for the big fox
Naruto blinked down at the fox. "He was young..."
Suddenly it twitched. It blinked up at Naruto and it's tail barely waved.
Sakura blinked at it, before reaching out, her hands green. It yelped as her hand neared it. Naruto sighed and put the fox down. Then he reached out a put his hand on it's side. It slid an eye over him, but did not make a sound. His hand began to glow red and so did the fox.
The others stared at him as the fox licked his hand before falling back.
Naruto's hand stopped glowing. "We're too late," he muttered.
The fox did not move again.
"Naruto...this is serious...it's a death threat!" said Sakura.
Naruto didn't reply. "Like it's the first time I've gotten one of those."
"But who is this person?" asked Ino.
"Does it matter?" asked Naruto. "They did this..." He pointed at the fox. "And they want to do it to me...and probably anybody close to me." He looked at them all. "In other words..."
"No don't you dare say..." said Sakura.
"You know me too well," said Naruto.
"We're all in this together!" said Kiba.
"Yeah if we're all in danger we have a better chance together!" said Shikamaru.
"After all...I don't want to end up like that..." said Neji glancing at the fox.
"None of us do..."