Rottweiler
"Byakugan!"
Hinata Hyuuga activated the pale, pupil-less eyes that were the bloodline limit of her clan. She saw through trees and rocks as if they were made of glass, searching for her team's targets. Her vision shot forward rapidly like lightning. Eventually she spotted them, fleeing through the trees a good few miles ahead.
"I-I-I can see them," she cried out to her team mates. "Th-they're in the d-d-distance."
Kiba's sensitive nose twitched, and the scent of the Rain ninja that he and his team mates were pursuing penetrated his nostrils. They were beginning to gain ground; the gap was closing. He was beginning to tire ever so slightly, but he would have rather chewed off his own leg than admitted weakness in front of Shino Aburame, who had appointed himself the de jure leader of Team 8.
They were running and jumping effortlessly through the trees of the Forest of Death, leaping from one branch to another, Shino's bugs circling around them. Small branches and leaves whipped at Kiba's face and brushed his hair as he sped towards the small group of enemies.
He hoped his mother and sister were alright back in Konoha, and wished that he and his team mates could have stayed behind to aid the other ninjas of Konoha and Sunagakure. Even with two villages and their respective Kages fighting together, the invading Rain and Mist ninja, plus their Akatsuki allies, were proving to be more than a match for the alliance. An hour or two earlier, a group of renegade ninja had fled into the Forest of Death, and, as the tracking team, Kiba, Shino, Akamaru and Hinata had been sent to hunt them down and kill them. Every chuunin and jounin in Konoha had been instructed not to hold back, not to underestimate their opponents, and not to get complacent.
"These Akatsuki bastards," the Fifth Hokage had warned them at the pre-invasion briefing, "will stop at nothing until the village is razed to the ground, with no survivors. Many of you may remember Orochimaru's invasion. Recall the amount of damage caused to the village, the casualties on our side. I may not have been there, but I know what happened. And as some of you will know, these people are tougher than Orochimaru. They are S-ranked criminals with powerful ties. They killed Jiraiya." Naruto Uzumaki, the only genin in the room, bowed his head. "They killed Asuma." Here, Shikamaru Nara's eyes filled with tears. "They nearly killed the current Kazekage too. And don't forget that they have eight Bijuu on their side...which brings me to my next point." She focused on Naruto. "Naruto here must be protected at all costs. We cannot allow them to capture him. I am sure that you are all aware that this boy is the vessel for the Kyuubi, the most powerful Bijuu in existence. If he is captured and the Kyuubi extracted from him, it will spell disaster. That must not, on any accounts, be allowed to happen. Do I make myself clear?"
The assembled chunin and jounin nodded.
"Granny Tsunade!" interrupted Naruto.
"Naruto, please," said his sensei, Kakashi Hatake. "This is not the time."
Ignoring Kakashi, Naruto continued: "So what's going to happen to me? Am I going to be under protection or something? Can't I fight too? I want to avenge Jiraiya's death, damn it! I want to make those bastards pay for what they did to him!"
"Calm down, Naruto," said Kakashi sternly, laying a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"You'll be protected, of course," was Tsunade's response. "The Toad Sage has promised to look after you. He's going to take you to the mountains and train with you there. We can't have you in the village, Naruto! It's too risky for all of us!"
"But..." Naruto appealed. Tsunade held up her hand. "That's it, Naruto. I am the Hokage, and what I say, goes." She fixed her gaze on the rest of the people in the room. A deathly silence fell.
"This will be Konoha's darkest hour. A new Ninja War will begin. Everyone who can fight will be needed. Every clan, every chuunin, every jounin and medic and special jounin. Remember the Will of Fire, and the Hokages who sacrificed themselves for this village. Remember the Third, who died to save this village from Orochimaru. Remember the Fourth, who gave his own life to stop the Kyuubi. I too intend to lay down my life for Konoha if I have to. I told Orochimaru that, and I do not go back on my word. Now you are dismissed. Go and prepare for the invasion. Sakura, Ino, Shizune and Naruto, you all stay here."
The chuunin and jounin – with the exception of the aforementioned medical ninja – left the room. The corridors of Konoha's central building echoed with the chatter of the men and women bound by duty to protect their village.
"I h-h-hope N-N-Naruto-kun will be alright," murmured Hinata to Shino.
"Thank the gods we have Gaara-sama on our side," said Rock Lee to Tenten, one of his team mates. "A formidable ally indeed."
"If it's a fight they want," declared Shikaku Nara, father of Shikamaru, "we'll be ready for them."
"Damn right we will," agreed Chouza Akimichi, as his son Chouji polished off the rest of his crisps. "We dealt with Orochimaru and his mob. We'll deal with these Akatsuki bastards too."
Kiba laid a hand on Akamaru and ruffled his fur. "I'll protect you no matter what happens, Akamaru," he whispered.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Confronted by two of the Rain ninja he and his team had been pursuing, Kiba remembered Tsunade's words. He bit his lip and made the hand seals needed for his signature move.
"Jujin Bunshin!" he roared. Akamaru yelped, and two Kibas stood defiantly before the Rain ninja. Akamaru-Kiba leapt onto the real Kiba's back.
"Gatsuuga!"
Boy and dog-boy whirled through the air, a dark grey spinning blur. The Rain ninja dodged out of the way as Kiba and Akamaru piledrived their way into the ground. Kiba mentally kicked himself, remembering that this jutsu had failed against that guy from Akatsuki -
Kiba threw himself to the side just in time for his leg to be grazed by a flying kunai. This is no time for flashbacks, Kiba scolded himself.
Think.
Blood pounded in his ears and at his temples, the beat of his heart like a deathly tremor within his body. He did a quick body flicker into the undergrowth. Akamaru followed suit.
"Where is he?"
Where the fuck are Shino and Hinata?
Akamaru's heavy breathing sounded like a roar to Kiba's tense, terrified ears.
One of the Rain ninja appeared and sliced at Kiba's face. He felt a warm trickle of blood down his cheek as the Rain ninja grabbed him by the throat, preparing to slit it. Kiba grabbed the ninja's arm, cursing himself.
Shit.
What would a dog do?
Akamaru leapt out of the bush with a growl, and pissed in the Rain ninja's eyes. The first Rain ninja let out a cry of pain as the acidic urine temporarily blinded him, clawing at his face, while the second Rain ninja hesitated, unsure how to react at the seemingly ridiculous jutsu. "Good boy, Akamaru," said Kiba under his breath.
He was rewarded by a searing pain shooting through his leg as Akamaru sunk his teeth in. The dog was angry with his owner for letting his guard down. Kiba nodded curtly, and shouted, "Jinju Konbi Henge, Sotoro!"
Boy and dog became one, a huge two-headed snarling beast, saliva dripping in a steady stream from its snarling jaws. Kiba and Akamaru sprung at the second Rain ninja, and Akamaru picked him up in his jaws, sinking his fangs into his chest. The ninja screamed with agony as Akamaru's teeth met within his body. Blood dripped down Akamaru's chin, and he shook his head rapidly, spraying blood everywhere. The ninja's left arm came off, the tendons and bones severed by Akamaru's teeth, and went flying into the undergrowth.
While Akamaru's head played with his new chew toy, Kiba lunged at the first Rain ninja, still blinded by Akamaru's piss, and seized him in his claws, ripping chunks of flesh away. He would show these bastards no were going to discover what it felt like to be a piece of meat in the clutches of a hungry dog.
Kankuro would be proud of me, thought Kiba, and immediately he felt like an idiot for thinking of the Sand jounin during battle. He tore off the first Rain ninja's head, and changed back into his human form.
"Good work," Kiba panted, stroking the head of his exhausted dog. He began to sniff the air for any hints of Shino or Hinata. He hadn't seen a single bug, a sign that Shino was seriously in trouble. Normally, Shino would have sent his bugs to find Kiba. Perhaps he had been captured along with Hinata.
Perhaps both of them were lying unconscious somewhere.
Or even dead.
Akamaru placed his nose to the ground, and began to yelp, sensing an imminent danger. He had smelled something disturbing. Kiba sensed it too. The air seemed somehow heavier, and strangely sweet despite the stench of blood emanating from his and Akamaru's victims.
"What the..." Kiba began, and was cut off when poison gas began to fill his nose and mouth. His eyes began to water, as the ground appeared to give way. The trees appeared to be reaching out to touch him and rip him limb from limb, tearing off an arm, a leg, his head...peeling off his skin...tearing tiny little holes into his body, turning him into a human colander. The grass was also conspiring against him, reaching up to crush his throat, snap his bones, fill his mouth and nose and choke him.
The sky turned black. The grass was wrapping itself around Kiba's feet, creeping up his legs and entwining itself around him, like thin green snakes. Now it was wrapping itself around his waist, now his arms, across his chest...and it was pulling itself tighter and tighter. His breath came in frantic little gasps.
A tree root wormed its way out of the ground and curled its way upwards until it was on a level with Kiba's face. It paused, tantilisingly offering itself to him, then shot out with no warning and wrapped itself around his neck.
Kiba's lungs were working overtime as his breathing slowly became a tortured, painful process. Blood flowed to his head, and it appeared to be leaking out of his eyes in a small waterfall and soaking the grass.
He began to shiver. The temperature was dropping rapidly.
Akamaru was nowhere to be found.
Kiba, bound and paralysed, gave one last gasp, and his body went limp, supported only by its grass bindings, as everything turned to blackness around him.
Meanwhile, several miles away, Kankuro lay unconscious in a pool of blood, his life rapidly seeping away.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Where am I?
Am I dead?
Shino? Hinata? Akamaru? Where are you?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Shizune surveyed the battered body of the young Sand ninja that had been brought in earlier. Although he was out of danger, now that the tiny shards of rock had been sucked out of him by the bubble technique that had successfully been used on him before, he was in a bad shape. When he had been brought in, his face was barely recognisable; it was swollen, covered in black bruises, and caked with blood and the purple paint that he habitually wore. He had been placed on the same ward as Kurenai Yuuhi's team. All three of them had been recovered by reinforcements from Sunagakure, and were now lying in bed in various states of disrepair. Although the Aburame boy was conscious, the Hyuuga girl and the Inuzuka boy were barely alive.
Shizune wondered where Tsunade-sama was. She had been out on the battlefield with her earlier, but had been forced to escape to the secret, other hospital that had been set up in the mountains for times such as these. Konoha's main hospital was currently not safe, as the Akatsuki members had penetrated the chakra field surrounding it.
She had barely escaped with her life. A bandage covered the dark hole where, moments earlier, her right eye had been. She had been part of a group sent after Konan, an Akatsuki member who was said to be made of paper, and who was complicit in Jiraiya's death. Sure enough, Konan had divided herself into thousands of pieces of paper, sharp enough to cut through arteries. She had channeled her chakra into each tiny piec, and one of them had gouged out Shizune's right eye. Shizune silently thanked the gods she had remembered to bring medicines with her. Had she not taken the painkillers, she would have collapsed from the pain. It was a miracle she'd made it this far. The Kazekage's sister intervening and blowing the shards of paper into confusion with her giant fan had helped too.
She could have sworn the Sand boy had moved.
What was his name again?
As if he were reading her thoughts, Shino spoke up. "His name is Kankuro," he intoned. "How do I know this? I fought with him once, three years ago, in the Forest of Death, after he failed to fight me in the Chuunin Exams."
"Kankuro," Shizune said gently, taking his hand in hers. "Can you hear me? If you can, squeeze my hand."
She felt the faintest of pressures on her hand, as if a leaf had landed on it.
"He's conscious," she said to one of the other medic-nins present.
Kankuro's swollen lips moved. She wondered what he was trying to say, and peered at him through her remaining eye. Kankuro's lips moved again, and she realised he was trying to say a name.
"Gaa...ra..." Kankuro breathed. It seemed to Shizune that for Kankuro in his current state, even uttering a mere syllable was like trying to move a mountain with his little finger.
"No sign of Gaara-sama yet, I'm afraid," she said gently.
A small trickle of blood emerged from Kankuro's mouth, and Shizune slowly, carefully, wiped it away.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Where am I?
Shino?
Hinata?
Those Rain nin...I killed them...or did they kill me? Who is the dead man here?
That fucking grass round my neck. It can't have been real.
Can it?
"Kiba?"
I can hear someone...calling me...
"Kiba?"
Hana? Mum? Hinata?
I'm dreaming. I'm hearing things. Stupid.
"He's still yet to regain consciousness," said the medic-nin, staring anxiously at the dog-nin before her.
In the opposite bed, Shino prayed silently that Hinata and Kiba would be fine.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The sun was descending slowly. The battle still raged on outside, the streets filled with corpses, ANBU hurriedly gathering up the sick and the dying and ferrying them to the secret location.
Kiba's nose was penetrated by the scent of medicine, antiseptic, and blood, intermingled with the fresh scent of the mountains. He opened one eye, to find a blurry figure standing over him, then closed it immediately when his head began to swim.
"Where am I?"
"So you're awake at last, Kiba," said Shizune. "You're in hospital, on the outskirts of Konoha. And I know what you're going to ask. Your team mates were brought back around the same time you were. Shino is recovering quickly, and your sister's looking after Akamaru, but Hinata is still very ill. She has been poisoned. You too, by the looks of it. You were caught in a genjutsu." She wondered if she should tell Kiba the whole story: that Hinata had been raped minutes before she was found, and that the Rain ninja who raped her were in the act of bukkakeing on her unconscious body when the Konoha ninja confronted them.
"Was I?" murmured Kiba. "Gods, I'm stupid...thank you. How long was I out for?"
"Five days."
Kiba's eyes grew wide. "And Hinata? She won't..."
Shizune was about to reply when the door burst open, and a young jounin, with a network of scar tissue covering half his face, rushed in. The hackles on Kiba's neck stood up, as his inbuilt canine senses told him that something was wrong. Shino also sensed it, and stiffened.
"Raidou?" gasped Shizune. "What's going on?"
Raidou bowed his head, and the ward fell deathly silent.
"Shizune...I...I...don't know how to tell you this," he said, an audible tremor in his voice. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...the Hokage...Akatsuki..."
"What?" the medical jounin almost screamed. "Tsunade-sama? What is happening, damn you?"
Kiba could have sworn that Raidou's eyes were filling with tears. Shizune's face looked even ghostlier before in the dim light.
Raidou massaged his forehead with his bandaged hand and announced in a voice that betrayed his sorrow and terror, "Tsunade-sama has fallen in battle."
Kiba felt as though his body were slowly being eroded away by acid. He found himself beginning to shiver, as the colour drained from the faces of the medics, and Raidou caught Shizune just in time as she collapsed to the ground.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Gradually, as the days passed, the war still raged on, and the wards began to fill. Kiba's strength began to return to his body, like a cup being filled with water from a trickling tap.
He recognised names, faces, voices. Gingerly propping himself up on his side, he looked out the window and saw two giant figures stalking the streets. He noticed that one of them was carrying a staff, while the other, smaller one was wearing armour. "The Akimichis are OK, at least," Kiba thought, smiling wryly to himself.
Reports flowed in from the battlefield. Anko Mitarashi, a former student of Orochimaru, had had her soul ripped out by one of Pein's bodies. Various members of the Hyuuga clan had lost their lives. The elders had been attacked from above by another of Pein's bodies, and killed before they even knew what hit them. After teleporting into her office and confronting her on the roof of the standard hospital, Madara Uchiha had been the one who had delivered the fatal blow to Tsunade, preventing her from regenerating with the use of his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. Rumours abounded that the traitor Sasuke had killed Danzo, the Hokage's old enemy, and seriously wounded Madara before mysteriously disappearing.
Meanwhile, Kankuro had finally regained consciousness, and was almost hysterically begging to see Gaara and Temari. Rock Lee was brought in, unconscious. Shortly after, Sai – a victim of one of Pein's summons - followed; next was Chouji, emaciated by the Akimichi clan's notorious red soldier pill and bleeding heavily from several large gashes in his torso that had been caused by a summon mauling him; and Hinata's cousin Neji, whose hands were wrapped in bloodstained bandages. Several wounded Sand nin were carted in. Gaara and Temari were not among them.
"Where's my brother and sister?" Kankuro yelled. "Where the fuck are they?"
"Kankuro-san, please be patient," pleaded the medic-nin. "We have so many people coming in, it's difficult to tell right now..."
"But Gaara's the fucking Kazekage!" Kankuro wailed. "Where is he? Where is he?"
"I've told you, Kankuro-san. I don't know."
"I see that childish puppet ninja is shooting his mouth off again," Shino remarked to Kiba. Kiba said nothing. He stared up at the ceiling and wished the sickness in his head and stomach would end.
The entire room became bathed in a red glow, its eerie light dyeing the walls a shade of pale pink. The ground trembled as a mighty roar sounded through the air, threatening to split the sky open.
Iruka Umino, currently taking a break from helping to keep a watchful eye on the young children of the village, looked out of the window, and was overcame by nausea at what he saw, as memories of his parents' deaths hit him like falling rocks.
The Kyuubi, he thought. The Kyuubi has returned.
For there, in the distance, stood a giant fox, its nine tails lashing in the wind.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Naruto Uzumaki, his body fused with the giant toad Gamabunta and the chakra of the Kyuubi, a toad on each shoulder, stared down at the red-haired man in the Akatsuki cloak. Nagato stared back defiantly, his chakra rod primed to react to the overwhelming chakra of the Jinchuuriki.
"You will never take me," Naruto hissed. Nagato launched himself at the giant fox, but was swept aside by its paw, as though he were a mere leaf in the wind.
"You will never take me."
"I want to bring peace to the world," Nagato said in a monotone. "By capturing all tailed beasts, I would fulfill my intention of bringing the world under my control. Join me, and we can change the world together."
"Join you?" Naruto howled. "Join you?"
Nagato nodded.
"I would rather fucking die than join you, you evil murdering bastard," Naruto hissed through gritted fangs.
"Then I have no choice," murmured Nagato, and attacked Naruto with a bolt of lightning. Naruto barely moved. He threw back his head and laughed a bitter laugh.
"I control the Kyuubi. I am the Kyuubi now. And I will make you pay a thousand times over for everything you have done. You and your bastard organisation. You stole my best friend. You murdered Gaara. You killed Shikamaru's sensei. You killed the Hokage. You killed my mentor and my sensei. And now you're trying to destroy my home. I will not forgive you."
From between the Kyuubi's eyes, the real Naruto emerged. The giant fox took a step forward.
"You killed Jiraiya."
The Kyuubi took another step forward.
"You killed Kakashi."
The Kyuubi took another step forward, Nagato now inches from its paws. Naruto pointed an accusing finger at him.
"You will not kill me. I don't know if there's an afterlife or not, but if there is, I hope that Dad, Jiraiya and Kakashi are watching me right now, 'cos I'm going to make them proud of me."
The toads began to sing. Miles away, in the hospital, Iruka stared out of the window, and wondered what the hell was going on outside.
"Dad, Jiraiya, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto screamed. "This is for you!"
The song of the toads reached a crescendo, and the world itself seemed to break in two.
In the makeshift hospital, Kankuro and Temari clung to each other, saying nothing, for nothing could be said.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
To Kiba, it was as though he were in the middle of a never-ending nightmare, accompanied by a soundtrack of sobs and groans and helpless, wretched cries. Around him, the sick, the injured and the dying lay comatose or sat on their beds, wrapped in blankets, while others leaned against the walls or curled up on the floor. Blank eyes stared into space. The stench of blood filled his nose, threatening to choke him.
He dragged himself out of bed and took a few faltering steps out into the corridor, and saw Team Gai congregating further away. Tenten had returned from the battlefield, her hair undone from its usual odango, and although Kiba's eyes were swollen, he could still make out the mixture of horror and grief etched onto her face.
"Tenten!" cried Lee. "Where's Gai-sensei? Is he OK?"
Tenten stared at her shoes as tears began to form in her dark eyes.
"You know something?" Lee pressed. "What's wrong? Has something happened? Where's Gai-sensei? Please tell me, Tenten! Please! I just want to know where he is! Why aren't you telling me? Damn you!" By this time, his voice had risen to a scream.
"Because you're not letting her get a word in edgways, Lee," said Neji coldly. "Be quiet a minute."
Tenten forced herself to speak. Choking back her own tears, she told Lee and Neji that Gai had been fighting Kisame, an Akatsuki member, a tall sharkman who Gai had encountered on a couple of previous occasions. Gai had won the fight and killed Kisame, but at a price. He had opened all eight chakra gates, and subsequently collapsed and died shortly after.
Neji appeared to be caught in a genjutsu. Kiba walked away, feeling guilty for watching a personal moment, but stopped dead in a tracks when he heard the sound of a boy screaming.
"GAI-SENSEIIIIII! NOOOOO!"
Lee's legs gave way and he fell to the floor, crying out Gai's name over and over. Kiba returned to the ward, a haunted expression on his face.
Kankuro, meanwhile, attempted to make room on his bed for his sister. Her face was covered in cuts and bruises, her dress was soaked in blood, and her fan had been broken.
"Temari-chan," he breathed, "what happened to you?"
Temari recounted the horrific story of what had happened to her. Along with Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji – who had used Baika no Jutsu to increase his size - and Neji, she had been fighting Konan. Ino, using her Shitenshin, had found her. Temari used her fan and summoned Kamatari, the one eyed weasel, who tore through Konan, dispersing her into shards of paper. The gigantic Chouji had helped by blowing at Konan, and this, coupled with Temari's jutsu, had prevented her from reforming her body. Neji, using the Hyuugas' Hakke Hyaku Nijuhachi Sho technique, had continued to keep Konan at bay, frantically slapping at the paper with his chakra-filled hands. When Konan reassembled herself, Shikamaru, remembering how he had killed another Akatsuki member, bound her with his shadow and attached explosive tags to her body, setting her on fire.
The group had then dispersed, at which point Temari had run into Pein, and attempted to attack him alone.
Kankuro's face turned white with rage as Temari told him of how Pein had absorbed her wind attack and used it to slam her into a wall, breaking her fan and fracturing her skull. He had then summoned one of his bodies to hold Temari down and rape her, before beating her severely and leaving her for dead. She had been found by a female ANBU, who smuggled her to the hospital. Lifting up her dress, she showed her brother the bruises left on her inner thighs, her face expressionless.
"That bastard," Kankuro breathed. "I wish I could go out there and kill him right now." He attempted to move his legs, but the pain that shot through them was so great that he recoiled in shock.
"He's probably dead now," Temari said, her head bowed. "No use getting angry, Kankuro-kun."
Kankuro sank back into the mattress, defeated. He had never seen Temari like this. His big sister, the strong, confident girl who was top of her class at the Suna academy, who blew enemies away in the blinking of an eye, who had teased Kankuro whenever he was on the verge of tears and stood up to Baki-sensei back when Sunagakure and Konoha were about to go to war, was lying on her side, aimlessly staring into space. Both of them, once feared and respected by many of the other ninja in Sunagakure, now helpless and incapacitated in a hospital in a foreign land. And still there was no sign of their brother. Kankuro gritted his teeth and forced himself not to think of the possibility that Gaara might be...no. Gaara would be fine. He himself had bragged about his little brother being a genius, back when they'd all come to Konoha before the Chuunin Exams. OK, Gaara no longer had Shukaku inside of him
He tried to console himself with the fact that he'd fought off and killed a good few Rain ninja, while hidden inside Sanshuo. After that horrible incident with that fucking traitor Sasori Akasunano last year, Kankuro had fixed his puppets, adding even more traps to them. Karasu contained even more poison gas than before. He'd killed three Rain nin with it, trapped others in Kuroari and impaled them, and even managed to get a few shots in at that ginger-haired freak with the piercings while Gaara trapped and crushed the strange half-man, half-plant creature that was spying for Akatsuki. At least the puppets weren't smashed to bits this time. But it was no use; Kankuro felt as though he was literally weighed down by helplessness, a feeling that was not unlike drowning in quicksand.
He wondered how many of the Sunagakure troops had died.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
"Over here! I've found him!"
Ino Yamanaka knelt down besides the unconscious Naruto and felt for a pulse. Sakura Haruno rushed towards them, followed by Chouza Akimichi, Shikamaru and Shikaku Nara, and Sai, the new member of Team 7.
"He's not...he's not..." Sakura gasped. Ino shook her head, and Fukusaku, the ancient toad sent by Jiraiya to train Naruto, croaked, "He's exhausted. Very little chakra left. Take him to a hospital, and fast!"
"Still as bothersome as ever," Shikamaru said with a wry smile. "Is it true, Dad? He fought the Akatsuki leader?"
"So I've heard," replied Shikaku. He turned to his team mate. "Chouza-kun, we'd better get this kid to the hospital. It's not as damaged as we thought, and they're starting to move people down there now." He paused, then added, "Chouji's already in there."
Shikamaru's jaw dropped, a terrifying coldness enveloping his body. Wordlessly, Chouza picked Naruto up and slung him over his shoulder. The little group rushed to the original Konoha hospital, Sakura and Ino in the lead.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Kankuro awoke to find a pair of dark, wolf-like eyes staring into his.
"Well, well, well," said Kiba. "Fancy seeing you here. Almost didn't recognise you without your make-up on."
"Where's Temari?" asked Kankuro, realising his sister was no longer on the bed.
"Hello to you too," said Kiba sarcastically. "She's down there." Kankuro followed Kiba's finger, and saw Temari curled up on the floor next to his bed, wrapped in a blanket. Her face was still ashen, and she looked strangely vulnerable, almost childlike. Anger gripped Kankuro's throat like a hard fist as images of Temari screaming, her legs pulled apart, her dress pulled up over her knees, danced before his eyes.
"That bastard..." he spat out. "My sister...how could they...I'll get him. I'll make him fucking bleed, I'll kill him a thousand times over for what he did to her. I'll avenge her...Temari. I'll kill him. I'll..."
"I," said a surprisingly deep voice, "have taken care of that."
With difficulty, Kankuro shifted over onto his right side, and his eyes became saucer-like when he saw the speaker.
Gaara.
He was safe. Kankuro breathed a sigh of relief and sank back into the mattress, the tension within his damaged body uncoiling.
"I saw what that...thing...did to her, Kankuro," Gaara continued. "I followed him. I wrapped him in sand and crushed him before he knew what was even happening."
Kankuro realised that his brother's tunic was spattered with blood. Kiba's hand came to his mouth as he remembered that time he and his team mates had seen Gaara killing three Rain ninja in seconds. He had almost killed them and Kankuro into the bargain...but Gaara seemed different this time, somehow. His pale, pupilless eyes were filled not with bloodlust and hatred, but with sorrow and anger for his brother and sister.
Gaara laid a hand on Kankuro's shoulder.
"The war is over."
