Chapter 3: Hyena, laughing blood

Author: Hellhound09

Beta: SoraInu-chan

YAY! for blood.


Blood was everywhere.

The hyena demon was making quick work of the lower level ninjas.

Even though the demon was small and less powerful, it was smart, it avoided the stronger shinobi and went for weaker of the fray using its greater speed.

Many of the ninjas took most of their energy and time making sure the demon did not attack the village, giving the demon an opening to attack and kill them, it was using their duty to take them down.

Not to mention it was incredibly fast and had seemed to be made of sand, blocking any attacks that might damage it and absorbing damaging jutsu with its sand outer.

And as if that wasn't bad enough it manipulated the wind too, giving it the ability to spin in the air changing its direction in the blink of an eye, she knew Temari was pissed that her attacks weren't doing anything, they blow forward and where stopped by the Hyena, the damn demon was using all of its body as a weapon, attacking high speed with its spiked back.

Sakura couldn't do much but help the injured; needless to say her inner self was pissed. She had the only close combat that was effective on the demon, it had come to attack her breaking through Naruto, Kakashi and Gaara to spiral towards her as she healed a shinobi, she had had little choice but to focus in on it and slam a well aimed fist into the ground to stop its momentum.

It had burst in to sand at falling into the pit she had made and ever since avoided her as much as it could, leaving her to heal the wounded. Being unable to keep up with the demon Sakura had resigned herself to healing the others around her.

She soon spotted Shikamaru, he had finally got his shadow jutsu to get a hold of the speedy bastard, Sakura gave a little smile to the scowling Shadow user, this would be the end.

The creature snarled, its eyes seem to glow red with anger.

Then it was gone.

The shinobi around them froze, Shikamaru in the middle, he had lost the demon.

He stepped backward, his eyes searching the now quiet clearing of blood soaked sand.

Gaara stood a few feet away, trying to find the beast by focusing on the movements of the sand.

Temari was doing the same with the wind.

Kankuro's puppet, Sanshōuo, slowly started towards Shikamaru.

Naruto and Kakashi waited, not for sure what to do.

The sand turned underneath Shikamaru, the jaws of the hyena lashed out grabbing his arm.

Sakura gave a startled yell and ran to his aid, Naruto made it first since he was closer, hitting the demons head with his rasangan, his eyes long since bleeding to red in annoyance that the demon had gone after his teammates so viciously.

The attack cut through the neck of the demon but the head held Shikamaru's arm tightly in its iron grip.

The hollow eyes of the demon narrowed and smiled as its body suddenly dissolved into sand, then shoot back up reattaching the head to a new body before anyone knew what it was doing.

Kakashi was there, ready for the demon.

With a quick flare of chakra and a series of hand signs he shot out a fire jutsu, cutting the incomplete body apart and throwing Shikamaru away.

By then Sakura had gotten to the demon from across the clearing, before its sand could react completely to her, she slammed her fist into the warring sand. It parted and the demon's left leg fell to the ground in a burst of sand.

Shikamaru was barely able to move out of the way of the sand demon's fall, Temari ran forward hitting the demon with her most powerful attack, summoning her one eyed weasel, the creature raced forward with the powerful wind jutsu tearing at the dissipating Hyena.

The Hyena was now open to attack and unable to defend itself, the sand around it shifted with nothing of its own will.

At the moment, Sakura swore she had seen two of the demon. The second had sank back into the ground before another attack could happen.

Gaara stood before the trapped demon, raising his hand in the sand tomb, crushing it while others attacked with jutsu.

The cries of the hyena sent shock waves in the sand around them.

Sakura eyed the distance between herself and the injured Shikamaru, Temari had him now and was trying to stop the bleeding, but dammit, if she didn't get over there Shikamaru would surly die of blood loss!

The hyena broke through Gaara's sand after the attacks had paused, spinning around in a circle, clearing its surroundings of Gaara's chakra embedded sand.

Kakashi used a water Jutsu to slow the spinning, wetting the sand and making the demon stop its mad spin.

The other ninja backed off.

Naruto looked at Kakashi, wanting badly to go to Shikamaru, "This is turning bad, I guess you won't be reading this time, huh Kakashi-sempai?"

Kakashi chuckled without amusement, "You could say that." The demon trembled, reforming itself in the center of the group of shinobi, seeing her chance Sakura pulled back from the group and made a break for Shikamaru.

It was then that everything went black.

Silence and confusion reigned over Sakura as she regained sight.

It was still dark, but not enough to see past her shoulders, it was then that something warm dripped onto her shoulder, wetting the material of the black top she was wearing.

A hazy thought drifted into Sakura's disoriented mind, why was she still wearing this thing?

She was burning up.

Then another drop hit her and snapped her from her delirium, she looked over, realizing she was leaning against something.

She reached out her arm but could see nothing.

Then a cracking noise drew her attention towards the sky, light filtered through the darkness.

The sky was cracking?

No, she was in a shield of sand.

Gaara.

The crack created a little light from the moon, the soft light fell into the sand cocoon making it fall in shadows.

She looked at her arm where she felt the warmth fall again.

Her eyes widened.

Blood, a lot at that.

She looked up into the shadowed face of the person above her, she had been leaning against his legs.

Another drop fell to the sand.

The face shifted allowing her to use the light to see the face of the kazekage.

Blood was caked over his cheeks and nose, running down from a superficial wound on his head, jade eyes however, only shown great rage.

Sakura gasped.

Gaara began to turn, moving his feet, not caring if he stepped on Sakura.

Sakura scooted over, moving closer to the back of the shield.

Her anger returning somewhat, 'He saves me then tries to step on me, typical guy.'

Gaara turned and fixed the crack with his sand, darkening the enclosure once more. It was soundless in the enclosed sand, all but Sakura's light breathing and shifting of sand around them in the shield, the temperature climbed and Sakura found it was even warmer.

Gaara tensed then, something hit the sand, hard.

Gaara lifted his left arm, using it to reinforce the sand. Sakura was shocked to find that they where being pushed back. Blood dripped to the sand in huge droplets.

The only sound in the shield other then Sakura and the shifting sand...

The attack stopped as suddenly as it had started; little cracks of light filtering in the now breaking sand.

Sakura had never seen Gaara so warn out, this mission was turning out to be harder than ever expected.

Then she remembered Shikamaru, the strong medic in her kicking in.

Sakura knew Gaara needed help, but she knew he would not take it at a time like this, and thankfully his wounds would hold a while longer.

"Gaara."

Gaara looked behind him, dark red hair covering his face, sticking slightly with the blood, though she could not see it as his face was thrown in shadows as he the sand repaired the shield.

"Shikamaru, I need to help him."

Why this made Gaara mad, he did not know and didn't care at the time.

He used his right arm awkwardly to open the back where Sakura was sitting.

Light shown in the blackness and Sakura could see that Gaara's right shoulder was bleeding as well.

Sakura's mouth opened slightly and emerald eyes widened.

"LEAVE," his eyes where angry and maybe there was a hint of pain, but Sakura didn't wait to analyze it, knowing he was straining himself.

Sakura turn and scrambled out.

Once she was out the sand enclosed again.

She ran towards Shikamaru and Temari, who where only a little further back than before.

Another Ninja stood by them.

"It's firing again," Naruto's voice cut through the rolling sand.

Sakura turned around to see the Hyena focusing Chakra in its mouth.

Her analytical mind fired into over drive, knowing Gaara couldn't block another attack like that in his injured state.

Every attack they had used so far had merely made the demon angry, except-

Sakura then thought of when the demon crumbled into nothing at her fist. All other attacks wouldn't move it, but if she made it fall its target would change from Gaara and the remaining Shinobi.

She had no other choose, she took the chance.

"Naruto watch-out," she yelled.

The blonde swiveled in time to see Sakura's fist rear back, eyes widening, he made a break for it, heading to a spot of safety away from Sakura's line of fire.

She focused chakra to her fist and hit the sand, splitting the packed ground with ease.

The crack rushed towards the demon breaking open underneath its paw.

The demon fell into the pit with a screech, the attack fired away from them, cracking the ground and screaming through the air.

Gaara slammed sand in to the pit where the demon lie immobile from the attack; the others attacking with jutsu once more.

Sand burst into the air a ways from the pit, a figure jumped out of the sand further away from the attacks.

It was not made of sand like the one they were attacking but a solid hyena demon.

It did not turn around to attack, only ran away, blood trailing behind it.

Sakura watched with slight horror as she watched her greatest fear happen to another village not her own, but it certainly didn't make it any less devastating.

The chakra attack missed its target completely but it was not enough to get it away from the village.

The huge beam struck right though the Sunagakure's wall and took out a line of houses behind it, destroying everything in its range.

Sakura froze.

Even if she had managed to keep the beam from the center of the village it had still taken out a huge chunk of their defense.

Temari looked at Sakura, her eyes sad and voice tired, "Help me get Shikamaru to the hospital."

Sakura shook off the shock from the attack, turning to the concerned Suna-nin.

She looked into Temari's eyes with resolution, glancing down at Shikamaru she saw he was unconscious. But the bleeding had stopped some thanks to Temari.

Temari saw the concern and guilt in Sakura's gaze and her eyes narrowed somewhat.

Shinobi where gathering around them now, those who weren't injured regrouping.

"Don't worry, for now we need to get the wounded to the hospital that you saved." She raised her voice at the "saved" part, emphasizing it for the guilt ridden kunoichi.

Sakura set her jaw and leaned foreword helping Temari carry Shikamaru without jostling his wound, at the same time taking stock of everyone else.

Kakashi and Naruto were helping others who needed it, Kankuro was coming to the aid of Temari, but Sakura could not find Gaara anywhere.

Kankuro was by their side in no time. "There's so many injured and dead," He looked at Sakura, his eyes dark.

"You may be here a while."

Then he looked at Shikamaru and his frown deepened, "Damn." It about summed up his condition.

"Shikamaru's arm is completely shattered, it will take a long time for me to fix." Sakura whispered. 'and with all these others… I just hope Gaara's alright.'


Comments and Critiques please.. lol

Hope you liked.