The next morning the three Sand ninjas began their trip to Konoha at first light just as Gaara had said they would. Gaara was in front and lead at a quick pace knowing that his siblings could handle it. The three shinobi made it across the desert and into the forest by noon and decided to take a short break. As they stood at the mouth of the forest catching their breath Kankuro thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He whipped around and stared into the forest, watching for even the slightest movement. The edgy puppet master watched for several minutes waiting for something to happen and just as he was about to turn away he saw some subtle movement in the tall grass several yards away. He readied a kunai and was ready to strike when a squirrel ran out of the long grass and scurried up a nearby tree, disappearing into its foliage. Kankuro sighed and turned back to his siblings. He hated being so on edge, but the three of them had to keep their guard up because they were fairly certain that they would be attacked once they entered the forest. Knowing this ahead of time was probably making the others hyperaware as well he thought to himself.
Soon it was time for the three siblings to start traveling again. They sped through the forest as quickly and silently as shadows, trying their best to stay undetected. Kankuro followed at the tail of their group remaining vigilant to ensure that they remained unseen. As they hurried through the forest every now and then he could have sworn that he saw something out of the corner of his eye, just for a second. He began to think that they were being followed and just when he was about to say something Gaara had them stop. The Kazekage quietly motioned for them to stay silent while he sent his sand in all directions. Gaara must have noticed that we were being followed too, thought Kankuro. It makes sense, he admitted to himself scanning their surroundings, the enemy must have been waiting for us to exit the desert so they could follow us, then pursued us until we got into a part of the forest that we were not familiar with before launching their attack. This would give the enemy the advantage as they presumably know the forest better than we do. Kankuro was beginning to wonder if he should summon Crow when Gaara suddenly stretched out his arm in front of him and quickly made a loose fist. Kankuro watched as a bundle of sand floated into view stopping several feet in front of Gaara. The sand at the top of the bundle began to crumble and a person's head emerged. The trapped shinobi wore a headband from the Hidden Sound Village which seemed to be all the confirmation Gaara needed to know that they had been followed and were probably going to be ambushed soon.
"Where are your comrades?" Gaara questioned in a calm yet menacing way, beginning his interrogation. When the stranger gave no sign that he intended to answer the question Gaara squeezed the sand around him a little tighter hoping that the discomfort this caused would encourage their foe to answer, however as he did this an unforeseen consequence resulted when the sound ninja suddenly popped. Air started rushing out of the ninja's head like a massive balloon and Gaara was left with a deflated blob trapped in his sand coffin. The red haired shinobi released the decoy and returned the sand to his gourd.
"Let's hurry," he told his siblings before speeding off into the forest. Temari and Kankuro quickly followed Gaara's lead and picked up the pace. Knowing that they were already being followed they gave up some of their discreetness in favor of picking up speed. Attack seemed inevitable, but if there was even a slight chance the three of them could make it to Konoha without incident they would take it.
After being on the move for several hours Kankuro noticed someone drop from the tree cover above and begin to follow them in plain sight.
"We've got a Sound on our tail trying to close in on us!" he called to Temari and Gaara. These words were barely out of his mouth when Temari came to an abrupt halt in front of him. The startled puppet wielder also stopped as promptly as he could and almost lost his footing in the process. He quickly recovered his balance and turned to face the stranger who had been following them. The ninja behind them stopped as well and Kankuro noticed for the first time that it was a young woman with long dark hair and a large frame drum strapped across her back.
"What's the situation?" Kankuro inquired still at a loss to know why Temari and presumably Gaara had stopped.
"We're surrounded," Temari informed him bitterly.
Kankuro looked back at his siblings just in time to see Gaara leap back onto the thick branch Temari was standing on while still facing the enemies in front of him. Kankuro followed suit and also jumped onto the branch while still facing the woman behind them so that he was back to back with his siblings. He quickly took two scrolls off of his back and summoned Crow and Black Ant. He wasn't sure if Salamander would be much use if the battle was going to be up in the trees.
All three siblings took defensive positions, prepared to react to anything that the enemy might decide to throw at them.
"Why are you attacking us?" Gaara asked no one in particular, "We have no quarrel with the Hidden Sound Village."
"But the Leaf Village is our enemy and an alliance with the Sand Village would only make them stronger," replied someone who Kankuro could not see.
"We are already allies with the Leaf Village," Gaara stated authoritatively.
"Then there's all the more reason for you to die!" shouted the woman facing Kankuro. She then hastily took the drum from her back. Holding the drum in one hand and a large drum stick in the other she swung both with great force bringing the two together in front of her.
As soon as Kankuro heard the resulting sound of the drum he jumped into the foliage above. He was not sure what she was trying to do with the drum, but he was not going to make himself an easy target. The puppeteer looked around trying to find a good place to hide while he used his marionettes. He spotted a dark place in the tree cover above and a little behind the woman with the big drum and quietly made his way there. When he was sure that he was well hidden he looked back at the tree limb where the three of them had been standing moments before and was unsurprised to find that Temari was nowhere to be seen, but what he did see was a big ball of sand surrounding his little brother hovering in midair. It's unusual for Gaara to start a fight this way, thought Kankuro. Just as this thought crossed his mind he began to hear a muffled screaming coming from inside the ball of sand. For a moment Kankuro gazed in horror and amazement, his mouth slightly agape. He had not heard his brother scream like this since Shukaku had possessed him in the Leaf Village years ago. That drum must initiate some kind of genjutsu, decided Kankuro looking down at the woman with the drum, and she must have been targeting Gaara because Temari and I also heard the sound of the drum, but we were unaffected. If that was the case the best way he could help his brother now would be to take out the kunoichi controlling the genjutsu. With any luck he would be able to end the genjutsu quickly thought Kankuro as he hid Black Ant on the side of the tree trunk opposite the woman so it was out of view. He then proceeded to hide Crow in the foliage on the other side of her and launch poised senbons at her from the puppet's mouth. She heard them coming and jumped out of the way moments before they would have impaled her chest.
"Ha! You'll have to do better than that!" she shouted triumphantly with her eyes locked on Crow who was now in plain sight. She threw a handful of shuriken at Crow before landing next to the tree trunk. Kankuro smiled wickedly as he sprung his trap. Black Ant jumped out of hiding and started opening the compartment in his stomach as he raced toward the enemy kunoichi. At the same time Kankuro used Crow to distract her by advancing on her from the other side. The agile woman seemed to sense the hidden danger, however, and caused Kankuro to curse inwardly as she dodged both puppets by jumping back onto a different tree branch. The irritated puppet master quickly hid Black Ant again still hoping that he would be able to catch her off guard.
"Now it's my turn!" the woman declared gripping the frame of her large drum with both hands and holding it straight out in front of her so it looked as if she had been eclipsed by the moon. She stared intensely at the back of the drum, probably transferring chakra into the weapon, and after muttering something unintelligible she released the drum which began spinning in front of her seemingly supported by nothing. This looks like a wind attack, thought Kankuro as the drum spun faster and faster generating what looked like a mini cyclone. When the funnel of the cyclone had fully formed the drum abruptly stopped spinning releasing the cyclone.
"Thousand Wind Blades!" the woman yelled as the cyclone split into thousands of smaller semi circles and sprayed in every direction. She's probably trying to flush me out, thought Kankuro as he quietly moved to a more suitable hiding place to continue the fight. As soon as the volley of blades stopped he quickly attacked with Crow who launched several kunai knives out of his palms as he flew foreword rattling eerily. Kankuro's intention was to destroy the drum and he smiled as the kunai hit their mark in the center of the instrument's taut leather.
"That won't help you," the kunoichi said rolling her eyes, " I-" but she was cut off as the paper bombs attached to the kunai knives detonated. She was blown backwards off the tree limb which provided the perfect opportunity for Black Ant to reappear and capture her in his middle as the drum fell to the ground burning. Even though the weapon used to cause the genjutsu had been destroyed Kankuro could still hear the subdued screaming that told him his brother was still suffering its effects. Noting that the genjutsu apparently continued until the ninja casting it was stopped Kankuro wasted no time in finishing off the woman inside of Black Ant. As soon as he released her lifeless body from his puppet the muffled screaming stopped. Kankuro looked over at Gaara to see if he was alright, but all he saw was streams of sand running off of the ball of sand as it started to fall apart. Gaara was not visible until it was almost completely gone and when Kankuro could finally see his brother it was obvious that he was not alright. The red head appeared to be unconscious lying in the center of a crumbling sand platform. He started to make his way toward Gaara, but the rest of the sand crumbled away before he got there and his brother's limp body began to fall toward the ground. Kankuro sent Black Ant after Gaara as fast as he could and managed to catch him before he was injured further. The older brother sighed in relief as he locked Gaara into the puppet knowing that he would be safe there. He guided the puppet onto the branch beside him and set it down there as he wondered what he was going to do about the three remaining Sound ninjas. Just then Temari leapt out of nowhere onto the tree branch in front of him. She quickly bit her thumb and smeared the blood across her fan as she performed a summoning jutsu.
"Get a head start with Gaara," she called, "I can handle the rest." With that the sand kunoichi finished her jutsu and released her wrath on the remaining enemies. That was all Kankuro needed to see to know that she had everything under control and hurried off into the forest with his puppets, carrying Gaara out of harm's way. After he was a good distance away from where the fight had taken place he stopped to let Gaara out of Black Ant and resealed the puppets into their scrolls. The puppet master then lifted his brother onto his back along with the scrolls and kept going until he was back on the path that Gaara had intended to take to get to the Leaf Village. Once he was back on the path he decided to take a short break and allow Temari to catch up. He was sure it wouldn't take her long, after all he didn't know anyone in Suna who had more endurance than his sister did.
While he was waiting Kankuro propped Gaara up against a tree trunk. He sat down opposite Gaara and frowned at the sorry state that his brother was in. He wished that there was something he could do to help his unconscious sibling, but Kankuro was no medical ninja. As he stared worriedly at his brother he noticed that Gaara appeared to be physically unharmed. Then that was definitely some nasty genjutsu, Kankuro concluded. He wondered how long Gaara had thought that he was trapped in the illusion. In the real world his fight with the sound kunoichi had lasted mere minutes, but to Gaara it could have seemed like hours, or days even. Days stuck in some messed up illusion… Kankuro shuddered at the thought and began to wish that Temari would hurry up so they could get Gaara to the Leaf Village where Tsunade could help him. Not long after this thought crossed his mind Temari appeared before him panting heavily. The exhausted girl leaned on her folded up fan as she tried to catcher her breath.
"How's…Gaara?" she asked breathlessly.
"He doesn't seem to be physically hurt," Kankuro answered standing up, "but that genjutsu the ninja with the big drum used sounded pretty horrible."
Temari nodded apparently satisfied with that answer. "We should get him…to the Leaf…as quickly as possible," she said standing up strait and strapping her fan on her back.
" You should rest for a minute," Kankuro suggested seeing how worn out she looked. Temari shook her head and waved the idea away as if she were swatting a fly.
"We don't exactly know…what's wrong with Gaara…so if we wait he could get worse...We should …go right now," she insisted still slightly out of breath and doing her best to hide her fatigue.
"We'll be able to go faster if you rest a little," Kankuro stated calmly sitting back down in his previous position.
"Fine!" Temari spat huffily sitting down. After they rested for a little while and Temari had caught her breath they decided to get going again. They had both gotten a little more anxious about Gaara's condition and as Kankuro raced toward the Leaf with his brother on his back he had to assure himself again and again that Tsunade could definitely fix whatever was wrong with Gaara.
The sand siblings still had a quite a way to go to get to the Leaf Village, in fact normally it would take them 2 more days to get there, but neither Kankuro nor Temari wanted to stop for the night. They devised a plan where they would switch who was carrying Gaara approximately every hour so that the three of them could continue until they reached the village with no prolonged stops along the way. The two older siblings felt that they had an obligation to get Gaara medical attention as quickly as possible not only because he was their little brother, but also because he was their Kazekage. All of their effort to get Gaara to the village quickly paid off when they finally reached Konoha a little after noon the next day.