Chasing Gaara, part 2

Miyo

Come morning, we had a lock on the Akatsuki base, courtesy of Pakkun. I got my stuff settled in my sleeves, after first studying Mini Itachi and his pal, who Kakashi-sensei had finally told me was named Kisame. We're going to be in for a rough one, that's for sure.

And, as it turned out, we were going to be bringing along the old lady from yesterday, Chiyo. It left me glad I'd made a doll of her, though I had to send Little Naruto – discreetly – to get her from my guest room.

When we'd gotten a ways away from the Sand Village, I suddenly called a halt. "Um, guys? There's, um, something I need to show you."

Well, I had Naruto's attention, at least. "What's up, sis?"

"Um…Little Gaara…I mean," I backpedaled, glancing at Chiyo and fishing around in my sleeve, "my little doll-copy of Gaara…it's different from my usual arsenal. It can…move on its own, and it's been giving me updates on the Kazekage's condition."

"You're kidding us, right?" Sakura asked.

"No, I'm serious. There's no point in withholding this information right now." Finally my fumbling hand found Little Gaara's gourd, and I pulled him out to show them.

Sure enough, I was clearly not using any jutsu on it and it was shaking hard enough to be visible to the observer.

Chiyo took the doll from my hand and studied it more closely while I added, "And I don't know what the Akatsuki are doing to him, or I'd try to influence it through that doll!"

Little Gaara had slowed in his shaking when he'd changed hands and turned to look up at Chiyo. But then he went right back to the shaking.

Chiyo looked at me. "Well then," Chiyo returned Little Gaara to me, "we'd better get moving!"

Soon we were bounding through trees, and I felt somewhat more at home.

Chiyo told us more about the Tailed Beasts, but I admit I was only barely paying attention. Little Gaara was starting to make that sound again, something like a whimper. I still didn't know how he was doing that.

Then I opted to make a move that would help me keep my mind on the mission part of what we were doing: I pulled out Little Neji and started scoping about with the Byakugan. It's a good thing I've practiced using this move; now I'm probably almost as good as he is! Granted, my view was failing a little, mostly I believe because my accuracy is off after two years: Neji and Little Neji no longer look exactly alike.

Then of all things, Itachi appeared in our path!

I skidded and sat down. I just wasn't that good at killing my momentum from a full run.

"Kakashi, Naruto, Miyo. It's been a while."

I chose to stare at his sandals. That was infinitely safer than looking at his face.

I caught up Little Itachi, connected my chakra thread to his back, and tried to read this guy's energy. And that was where things got weird for me.

See, the energy I was reading was…skewed. Like, yes, he was standing right there in front of us, but he was also elsewhere working a powerful jutsu in concert with others.

I'll lay odds on which one's the real one. We're standing in front of a clone. …I won't say anything, I mean, it's not like he's any less dangerous because of it. I'd better work with the thought that as this is a clone, I can't affect him with the doll.

"Everyone!" Kakashi-sensei declared, "Whatever you do, don't look him in the eyes!"

Would it be worthwhile to run the real Itachi through right now? …Nah. I don't know how far away we are, and I don't know range.

Kakashi-sensei told us the basics of how to fight Itachi. Then he spared a glance at me. "Miyo, your doll should give you an edge…"

I shook my head. "I don't want to go into it right now. Leave it at, I can't use the doll."

Sakura likened anticipating moves by watching the body and feet to fighting with one arm tied behind one's back. I hadn't decided if I was going to agree. Instead, I pulled out Little Gaara. He was still shaking.

"Hey, little guy, I know you're going through a lot, but please…guard me, will you?"

He looked up at me, and then finally he nodded, standing on my hand and then jumping to my head, where he sat down and faced Itachi himself. Little Gaara was probably the heaviest of my dolls, courtesy of his sand, but I could support him up there. I closed my eyes, chose Sasha, and became the cat.

Chiyo explained that defeating a visual jutsu could be done with multiple people, one drawing fire and the others attacking from behind. I wondered how a toy would work into that equation.

Naruto volunteered to take the rear, but Kakashi-sensei stopped him. Then he explained that Itachi's Sharingan was much more complicated. At least Chiyo opted not to argue this time.

I loved the startle that happened on Itachi's face, the almost-fear, when Kakashi-sensei wondered aloud how much damage Itachi had already done to his eyes using that complicated ultimate Sharingan.

I started pacing around, wishing I'd had the foresight to bring my snake instead. It avoided notice way better than the cat.

Kakashi-sensei told us to leave Itachi to him, and we were to cover his back. By that point, I'd gotten into the bushes and walked all the way around so that I was behind Itachi.

Sensei noticed that, though. "And Miyo…"

I'll give him credit, he didn't change his tone from what he'd already been using, and his eyes only flicked to me for an instant, quickly returning to Itachi's chest.

"Stay safe."

I will, Kakashi-sensei.

Chaos ensued. Shadow-clones, and Naruto went nuts trapped in a genjutsu!

Naruto

This was nuts! Sakura, Granny and Kakashi-sensei had all turned into Itachi-clones! I glanced over where I'd last seen Miyo.

Well…at least she was still normal, sitting on the ground in a trance with her Gaara doll sitting on her head. But I wasn't sure it was safe to say anything to her – she might turn into Itachi, too!

Wait…if she's in a trance, then what's she playing with? I looked around, trying to spot her toy.

Finally, I saw it: her purple cat.

Okay…so she's right there…I think I'll still ignore her for now.

Miyo

Naruto looked right at me, nodded briefly, and looked away again.

Okay, so he's not going to attack me. That's good to know. Still…I spared a glance of my own at my body. If he decides to go for my body, I'll have to stop him.

As it turned out, he figured out what was going on and tried to break out on his own.

Emphasis on "tried." Itachi was just too powerful an opponent for him.

I didn't know what I could do for him. I mean, I figured there were ways, but I was already channeling my chakra into something else entirely, not to mention my mind. It'll have to be Sakura, or somebody else.

…Or Sakura and somebody else, a.k.a. Chiyo…that works too. I swapped my attention back to Itachi.

I worried when Itachi launched a Fireball Jutsu and the others dodged without referring back to me, but I didn't feel any pain through my human body. When the explosion cleared, I saw why: Little Gaara had put out a sand shield, which he quickly returned to his gourd.

Kakashi-sensei chased Itachi into the air with Chidori, and Naruto came down on Itachi's head with Rasengan! I was still poised, claws out, in case of a comeback.

Naruto had missed, or he'd dodged, or something. Then the mist started building, courtesy of Kakashi-sensei.

So, I took matters into my own paws…and jumped, a silent stalker.

And that was when we all found out something interesting.

Itachi Uchiha had forgotten all about me. He hadn't been watching out for any jutsu from me with his Sharingan, and he somehow clean missed a purple cat behind him when he'd jumped!

I impacted his shoulders, and started trying to grab his throat with my claws!

Of course, by then he started trying to grab me, and I started leading him a merry dance which probably looked ridiculous to anyone from the outside. That actually felt good, making Itachi look like a dancing fool.

Then the mists cleared. That was around the time Itachi grabbed the scruff of my neck. As far as I was concerned, that was bad, because the scruff was where my connecting thread was, well, connected! If one of my squadmates tried something while I was still dangling there, well…

I started thrashing, trying to scratch either his face or his wrist. At the least, that meant he had to hold me at arm's length. He stared me in my glassy eyes, as if trying to figure me out or use a jutsu on me. I didn't feel any different, so evidently I was immune while in a toy.

Kakashi-sensei lunged in himself while Itachi was occupied with me, and – okay, I don't know how he got this close without Itachi noticing, my holding his attention or not, but Kakashi-sensei grabbed him and kept him from running.

And…he also grabbed the scruff of my neck, so at least I had some margin of protection.

Then I heard Kakashi yell out – from a ways back, so this one was a shadow-clone and the yeller was the original – for Naruto to attack Itachi and the shadow-clone together, and Naruto came dashing out of the trees on the farthest side from me with the biggest Rasengan I'd ever seen!

When Naruto's Rasengan impacted his targets, the shadow clone vanished, Itachi loosened his grip, and I leaped away just as the shockwave-explosion went off. This sent me flying, but I wasn't worried: Sasha was stuffed, and cats always land on their feet anyway.

As it turned out, Kakashi-sensei caught me. "I thought I told you to be safe."

I stared up at him innocently. At least, I hoped it was innocent – Sasha wasn't all that good at facial expressions, but she couldn't talk either.

I woke up.

Then I retrieved Sasha from Kakashi-sensei's arms, and we went over to the end of the crater Itachi dug and looked down at the body.

It wasn't Itachi – it was a jounin from the Sand Village!

I re-sleeved Sasha. "I actually suspected that wasn't Itachi. When I tried to tap his energy with my Copy Doll Jutsu, I got a weird double-sense. Since I didn't know which the real one was, I didn't bring it up, mainly because I knew it wouldn't matter: he was delaying us, and so he needed to be defeated."

"So that's why you said that you couldn't use the doll!" Naruto sounded enlightened, and I nodded.

It was explained to us that the Akatsuki were probably already extracting the Tailed Beast from Gaara, hence the delay tactic, and while they elaborated for Sakura, I once again studied Little Gaara. Thanks to you, I can determine exactly when they started this extraction. It was back when you'd first started shaking, isn't it?

Little Gaara, sensing my thought patterns, started making another sound. I held him up to my ear and paid careful attention to the hoarse sound.

"Yuh. Eh. Sss…"

"Once the Tailed Beast is extracted," Chiyo wrapped up, "they die."

A minute of silence passed.

Then Naruto said that we'd better hurry and started off again.

It left me wondering again. If the Tailed Beast was extracted…and Gaara died…what would happen to Little Gaara? Would he just go still all at once, or would he explode like a paper bomb?

Itachi

When asked who was coming, I told them. "A five-man squad. Kakashi, Sakura, the Nine-Tail Jinchuriki Naruto Uzumaki, Chiyo of the Sand Village, and Miyo Diatra."

Miyo

We set off towards the base again. At sundown, we stopped for a short break, much to Naruto's displeasure.

"Chill, Naruto." I dug in my sleeve a bit, and came up with something I knew he always liked. "Ramen cake?"

No, it's not as gross as it sounds. This was technically a bunch of ramen I'd cooked up, shaped into a block, and then baked so that it was firm – ramen on the go, in a way. I knew Naruto liked fresh ramen better, but he called me a genius for making the portable version. I didn't make it often because it was tricky.

He glared at me, but I could tell he'd just about resigned himself to the break. "Yeah, gimme."

I tossed it to him, and we all sat down. He ate it, though I doubt he truly tasted it. I pulled out a portable meat pie for myself, and offered to share out my other supplies. (Yeah…I'd baked almost as soon as I got home. I wanted to restock my travel meals, so I'd made several meat pies along with that ramen cake and a few apple pies, all of which I could carry around in my sleeves as long as they were inside a large toy pig I'd made for food protection.)

They took the food, anyway. I hadn't pulled out the apple pies, mostly because I thought sweets were for celebrating, and there wasn't anything to celebrate.

When I fell asleep, it was with Little Gaara shivering next to my head and Little Naruto stroking my hair, trying to be unobtrusive about it of course.

Kakashi woke us up while it was still dark, and frankly, it was a relief.

Naruto noticed as we were running again. "Bad dreams, sis?"

"I saw Gaara."

I didn't have to say any more. Naruto just nodded and we kept going.

Truthfully, it wasn't just bad dreams. Little Gaara had been moaning again.

Morning came while we were still on the move. I personally hated this mission now. I didn't know if I could use Little Gaara to disrupt the extraction, and in the meantime, he could die!

And Naruto…agitated wasn't even the word for it! Kakashi-sensei explained it to Chiyo, including an extra comment about me. "Miyo's similar to that. She claimed Naruto as her brother, and as she recognized Gaara as a Jinchuriki without prior knowledge, she adopted him as well, right in the middle of the Chunin Exams…or so I've heard."

I felt Chiyo's attention rest on me for a moment.

"I believe it's why she ended up being trained in the Sand Village. Master Jiraiya had mentioned to Lady Tsunade that Miyo had developed a strange need to be near someone who had the same energy as Naruto, or she would get nightmares. And since Master Jiraiya was going to be training Naruto elsewhere, the only way to keep her sane was to send her to Gaara."

So Pervy Sage was part of the reason I was trained by Gaara, huh? Mental note: I should thank him next time I see him.

I picked up the pace so that I wouldn't be blatantly eavesdropping on them anymore, though I did hear Chiyo laugh at something Kakashi-sensei said.

Suddenly, from my sleeve, Little Gaara…screamed.