Hi everyone! This is officially the longest chapter yet. It's about 2400 words long. However, I must say that this is also my favorite chapter so far so I hope you like it! Now here's the disclaimer.

I do NOT OWN NARUTO! Masashi Kishimoto does. However, Akira and Myobi are mine, muhahahahahaha!!!

"regular talking" 'thinking' 'demon talking inside someones mind'

After waiting all night, Gaara's sand had returned. It had been an agonizingly slow wait as the sand came back to him grain by grain, but by 8 o'clock all of his sand had returned and formed his trade mark gourd again. Due to the fact that Gaara had Shukaku and Naruto had the Kyuubi, all of their wounds were healed by the demons. Naruto was still sleeping when there was a knock on the door. Gaara raced to the door as Naruto jumped up like someone had lit a fire under him. Gaara reached the door and used his sand and ninja senses to see if it was a trap.

What he found was a note that said, "I have Tsunade and her assistant Shizune held captive in the Hokage Tower. You have fifteen minutes to get there before the Hokage and her assistant meet a wolfish friend of mine...Akira." "Oh man, she's got grandma Tsunade and Shizune!" "...I don't know..."Gaara hesitated, "How do we know for sure? Knowing Akira-" "Knowing Akira she could be torturing them!" "Good point..." With that Gaara and Naruto were out the apartment door and running down the street at top speed.

It was then that they noticed that they were running down the main street and there were no people anywhere. It was like they were running through a ghost town. Suddenly, the air turned frigid and walls of ice sprang up out of nowhere. Naruto and Gaara skidded to a halt as three walls of ice rose around them. Let's listen to their thoughts. Naruto thought, 'Oh no...we just ran right into a trap like a couple of idiots!' and Gaara thought, 'I had a feeling something like this would happen.' "What is this place? What kind of trap is this?" Naruto wondered out loud.

An image of Akira became reflected in the ice wall, "Welcome to my ice maze." "Akira, let us out of here!" Naruto yelled. Akira took a thinking pose, "Hmm...No. Unfortunately, the ice maze technique is different then all the others. You see, once I construct it the only way out is to solve it." "What no hint?" Naruto said sarcastically. "Well since you asked, watch out for dead ends because they're really dead ends. Oh, and I'd start moving if I was you because the maze attacks if you stop for more than twenty seconds or so..." As soon as she said that, Akira's image vanished and a barrage of ice kunai began firing at Gaara and Naruto!

Luckily they were protected by Gaara's sand, but the boys started moving just incase Akira started setting better traps then kunai. "Aw man...How are we supposed to get out of here? We don't even know how big this place is!" Naruto complained as they walked very cautiously to the first maze corridor. Gaara quickly glanced around, "I have an idea," he formed several hand seals, "Third eye jutsu!" Sure enough an eye made entirely of sand floated up over the maze. "Hmm...Akira really went all out on this one. The maze stretches over the entire village." "Well, we're at the first corridor, Gaara. Which way do we go?" "Right...Oh crap!" Gaara started running down the corridor.

He glanced back at a stunned Naruto. "Naruto, run!" he almost shouted. However, it was too little too late. Naruto heard something move behind him. He turned around to see two seven foot tigers made completely out of ice. They had seven inch fangs and six inch razor sharp claws. Lets just say you didn't want to mess with one of those kitties. As soon as they saw Naruto and Gaara they roared and began running straight for them, and Naruto began running for his life. He raced after Gaara down the corridor which only turned left, then down that one. The ice tigers were gaining on them with every stride.

Naruto looked ahead and saw another fork in the maze. "Gaara, I have a plan!" "What is it?!" "When we get to the fork you go right and I'll go left, then just do exactly what I do!" There was no more time to talk as they reached the fork with the ice tigers right on their heels. Gaara dodged right, Naruto swerved left, one tiger went left, and the other went right. Gaara glanced back and saw Naruto sliding between the tiger's legs heading in his direction, and he realized the plan. He quickly turned and slid between his ice tiger's legs towards Naruto. The two tigers turned and leaped for their prey at the same time, colliding together and shattering them into a million pieces.

The boys got up slowly. "Next time you say run I'm right behind you, Gaara." "Hn." "So which way now?" Gaara reattached the third eye and started looking around. Then he suddenly turned very pale and an expression of absolute horror crossed his face. "What is it, Gaara? More ice tigers?" "No...worse..." "What could be worse?" "Naruto...she put our FANGIRLS in the maze!" Naruto fell to his knees, "NOOO-UMMMMFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The umf sound was made when Gaara covered Naruto's mouth with his hands in an attempt to stifle the death wail. "Quiet you idiot!" He hissed, "They'll hear you!" Naruto nodded and Gaara uncovered his mouth. "Gaara, what are we going to do?" "I don't know...let me think...I've got it! Naruto you run left through my fangirls, and I'll run right through your fangirls. Then you stay put, and I'll come get you." "Great idea! See ya on the other side."

So they seperated, Naruto ran to the left, and Gaara ran right. Then the unthinkable happened...The maze shifted. Gaara was sent running head long right into his horde of adoring rabid fangirls. "It's Gaara-kun!!!" "Lets glomp him!" "Lets rip off his clothes and sell them on e-bay!!" "SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" The fangirls were fast and determined, but Gaara was faster and had a strong sense of self preservation. He barely managed to pull himself out of the fangirls' grasps and started running back the way he came as fast as he could with his adoring fans a heartbeat behind him. "Curse you Akira!!" he shouted, "You cheater! You changed the maze!" An image of Akira appeared, running on the wall beside him, "Well you used your third eye jutsu!" "Grr...How can someone so twisted have a good comeback?!" Akira just shrugged, "It's a gift." Then her image vanished.

Gaara raced to where he told Naruto to run, and he found him being glomped unmercifully by rabid fangirls. He was pretty sure that Naruto was going to be crushed to death under the mass of bodies if he didn't get out soon. So Gaara did what Gaara did best. A wave of sand and a couple of sand funeral jutsus later, Naruto and Gaara were running for their lives with their combined mob of fans tailing them. "Naruto, I've got it!" "You thought of a plan?!" "Yep." "Better then the last one?" "Yes...here's what we do...whisperwhisperwhisper." "Gaara, you're a genius!" "Sharp left!"

They turned left into a dead end. Then they waited as their fangirls swarmed in. "Naruto, now!" Naruto and Gaara jumped up and started running out of the dead end on the fangirls' shoulders. Suddenly, the walls sprouted spikes and an ice wall started rising, beginning to cut off the exit. They both put on an extra burst of speed and just barely made it out of the death trap. They stopped panting and turned to see what horrible end their fangirls would suffer. It appeared that they would be caught in between the spikes and impaled to death, but just as the spikes were about to reach the frightened fans the three walls around them melted away, releasing them while keeping Naruto and Gaara trapped in the maze.

"What?! We're stuck here, but she lets the fangirls go?!"Naruto ranted,"Gah! I can't take much more of this!" "Naruto come on. We aren't going to get out of here any faster just standing around." "Wait a minute! I just had a great idea! Why don't we just run on top of the walls and jump from wall to wall?" "That might work...come on." Unfortunately, as soon as their feet touched the top of the wall there was a burst of light, and they were right back at the beginning of the maze."What?! NO WAY!! This is crazy, dattebayo!" "Hmph...she even changed the maze again!"

While Naruto and Gaara were cursing the day that Akira decided to play with them. Akira was in the Hokage Tower lounge room watching them through the Hokage's crystal ball which she stole that morning. She was sipping cola and eating popcorn like she was watching a soap opera. A demented torture filled soap opera. 'Hmm...what to do next, what to do next?' she pondered. 'What do you mean, what to do next? KILL THEM!' 'Aww...but that's no fun...' 'Fun?! This is sick, twisted, demented, sadistic, inhumane, and just plain WRONG! I'm SO proud of you!!' 'Thank you, Myobi! Now any ideas on what to do next?' She could feel the wolf inside her slowly break out into a feral grin.

Back in the ice maze, Naruto and Gaara were carefully walking down the corridors when Akira's image reappeared in the wall. "Hello boys!"she said almost perkily. "What do want now?"Naruto snapped. "Well, I was just making sure I told you about the little time glitch." "Time glitch?"Gaara asked. "Yes, you see you only have two hours to solve the ice maze before everything inside it freezes, and after that it explodes, shattering everything inside it, that would be you guys, into teeny tiny little pieces!" "What?!" Naruto and Gaara shouted. "Oh and you only have," Akira checks a random clock, "Ten minutes left, have fun!"

"Ahh!!! She's trying to kill us! She's trying to kill us!"Naruto panicked. "Naruto, shut up!" Gaara snapped. "What are we going to do?" "We're going to run for the exit and hope she can't set up traps fast enough!" "Okay, lets go!" So they started running faster than they'd ever run before. Down one way, they had to dodge rolling ice boulders, and down the next the floor fell away into a pit of ice spikes. They rounded a corner and encountered nothing unusual. "Ha, this is great!" Naruto said. Gaara on the other hand was not so sure. It was way too easy, and the traps were way too generic. Where was that sadistic twist that screamed Akira made this?

"Naruto, the exit's just around the corner!" "Yatta! We're getting out of here!" They rounded the corner and came face to face with the sadistic twist. Standing in front of them were two perfect replicas of themselves. "Huh? What's going on?"Naruto said, completely confused. "...What are you," Gaara demanded. "We're flesh and blood clones of you two,"clone Gaara answered. "Yeah," clone Naruto continued, "Akira-dana (AN: means master Akira) created us using your DNA." "Where did she get that?!" the real Naruto shouted. "Apparently your fangirls were selling it on e-bay," clone Gaara answered. "This is why I HATE fangirls!" the real Gaara growled. "You know," clone Naruto started, "You only have five minutes left." Cue the staring down contest before a major battle.

A small gust of wind blew across the maze, rustling everyone's clothes. Then the battle began with the two Gaara's fighting for control of the sand as the two Naruto's used a dual rasengan, trying to over power each other. Seeing his chance, the real Gaara turned his gourd into sand and slammed it into clone Gaara and pushed him right in the middle of the two rasengans. Blood went flying everywhere and temporarily blinded Gaara as it splashed his face. When he finally rubbed it out of his eyes, he grabbed both Naruto's with his sand and pulled them apart.

The only problem was that he no longer knew who the real Naruto was. "Gaara, what are you doing?" "Don't tell me that you can't tell which is which?!" Gaara immediately used his sand to crush the second one, who turned out to be clone Naruto. "Wow, how'd you know it was me?" "You would've never caught on that quickly." "Hehe...Hey wait a sec, what do you mean by that?!" "My point exactly. Now lets get out of here." They both turned and started running towards the exit as Akira flashed a two minute warning on the walls, but they didn't care.

There was the exit, and they were drawing closer to it with every step. They were just one step away from freedom when the maze shifted, and they ran right into the wall. Naruto and Gaara quickly got back up on their feet. "WHAT?!!! You can't do that! That's not fair, dattebayo!" "Curse you, you crazy wolf!"Gaara yelled in frustration, "You put is in a maze with no way out!" Suddenly, the walls melted away and the temperature returned to normal. "Wow, it sure took you long enough," Akira said as she came out of the Hokage Tower.

"Huh? Wait, what?" Naruto sputtered. "Gaara figured it out," Akira said. "Wait, a minute,"Gaara started getting angry, "Do you mean to tell me that all we had to do was say we couldn't get out?" "Yeah." "So we went through all of that for NOTHING,"Naruto yelled as he finally caught on. "Uh-huh," Akira replied. "That's it! You're going down, wolf!" Gaara finally snapped. "I'm going to tie you up and throw you in the jail, dattebayo!" "Uh-oh...um, bye!" Akira ran for it with a very angry Naruto and a former psychopathic murderer who is at the breaking point hot on her heels.

xxxxx

It seems that Naruto and Gaara may have finally turned the tables on Akira. Will she escape, or has the wolf girl's fun finally come to an end? Find out next time!