Hey everybody! Sorry for the delay in uploading this chapter...real life has gotten real busy in the last month, and only gonna get crazier. See the end of the chapter for an important author's note. Thanks as always to those who's decided to add this story to their alerts or favorites, and the reviewers! You guys rock! Now on with the story~ ;)
"That's enough rest. We should get moving." Kakashi jumped down from his post in the tree and turned to Chiyo, who was already awake. The old woman nodded her agreement, and he turned his attention to the rest of his team, who were sprawled out on the grass, fast asleep. "Okay, you three. Wake up. We're heading out."
"R...right." Came Sakura's groggy reply as she sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
Next to her, Nozomi stifled a yawn as she sat up and stretched her arms. Her eyes slid over to Naruto's sleeping form, and she leaned over, nudging the boy's shoulder. "Wake up, Naruto-kun. It's time to go."
"Okay, in a minute. Just give me a minute more." He murmured sleepily, rolling onto his side, and the brunette shook her head with a sigh.
"There's no time for that…" Glancing up, she caught Kakashi's stare and flinched. Even with a mask on she could tell he was a little annoyed, from the way he stood, hands on his hips.
"I thought you were gonna save Gaara."
The jonin's statement proved to be just the wake up call needed, as Naruto shot straight up, a determined look in his eyes. "You bet I'm gonna save him!"
"That's more like it." Nozomi grinned, offering her hand to help him to his feet, and once they'd packed up their campsite, they set off for the Akatsuki's hideout.
The atmosphere surrounding the group as they traveled was heavy; the tension only thickened when Kakashi observed that the Akatsuki believed they'd delayed them long enough, which was why they weren't encountering any further interference.
"But that means.." Sakura trailed off grimly, and Nozomi winced, noticing the way their blond friend's shoulders tensed up in response. Then, without warning, he surged ahead, breaking formation again, eyes burning red with anger. "Hang on, Gaara...we're coming!"
"Naruto, not so fast! Wait up!" Sakura called out in protest. Seeing that her words had landed on deaf ears, the pinkette lowered her voice. "Oh, brother."
Nozomi's brow furrowed as her friend got further and further ahead. The intense aura she'd felt just before Naruto raced ahead made her a little uneasy, making her rethink her idea to catch up with the blond. Besides, what would they accomplish by breaking formation twice? This was her first mission outside the village, and she didn't want the report to describe her being unruly or disobedient. Even if she was supposed to look out for him, she figured she could do so just fine back here, so long as he didn't get any further away. Even if she could catch him, there was nothing she could say to comfort him, she reasoned with herself. The best thing she could do for him right now was to focus on getting to the Akatsuki's location as quickly as possible.
Her fist clenched at her side as she continued to run, keeping pace with the rest of Team Kakashi. 'Don't worry, Naruto-kun. We'll definitely save Gaara-san...no matter what it takes!'
…..
It was daylight when they reached their destination: a large, rocky structure surrounded by water; at the center, a huge, round boulder blocked the entrance, and a torii gate stood just above it.
"Late as usual, Kakashi." Came a booming, masculine voice.
"Well, you see, we ran into a little trouble along the way." Said silver haired jonin replied, a sheepish grin hiding beneath his mask.
"Wait a minute." Chiyo suddenly said, a miffed expression appearing on her face, "by 'a little trouble' you don't mean me, do you Kakashi?"
Tuning them out, Nozomi glanced around. It looked like the rest of Team Gai was busy examining the entrance to the Akatsuki hide away, so she stuck close to Naruto, hoping to go unnoticed. It wasn't that she disliked her fellow Leaf ninja; it just so happened that she found Lee a little intimidating. Not only did he look like a carbon copy of Gai, but he was just as eccentric about fitness and training as the man!
Nozomi had learned the hard way not to interrupt them after an accidental run in resulted in her being dragged into an impromptu handstand race around the village with the spandex wearing duo. Her wrists had hurt for days after that, and she'd had to deal with an extremely irate Saera when she'd failed to grasp her kunai properly, let alone put up a decent fight in training.
As if luck was against her (which, she was beginning to believe might be the case), Lee happened to glance over and his eyes lit up. "Naruto! Sakura! Nozomi!" He greeted, and the brunette retreated behind her spiky haired friend slightly, sweat dropping.
Naruto shot Neji an expectant look. "Well?" His impatience was obvious from the distortion of his facial features; he already bore red eyes and ever pronounced whisker marks- telltale signs he would go into jinchuuriki mode.
"Looks like we were just behind you guys," Sakura began as they approached their fellow Leaf ninja. When asked about Chiyo, she introduced her, and the elderly woman flashed the teenagers a peace sign, saying that she was very pleased to meet them all.
"Well then, let's do this, Kakashi." Gai spoke then, and said jonin nodded slightly.
"Right."
Standing between Naruto and Chiyo, Nozomi followed the group's gaze to the massive stone in front of them, her brows knitting thoughtfully. She glanced back at her friends and her stare stopped on Neji, who had activated his byakugan. "I just can't make out what's going on in there. I see several people."
"Neji...what about Gaara?" Naruto butted in impatiently. "What's happening? Is he one of the people you see?!"
Not waiting for an answer, he grabbed the Hyuuga's arm and began to shake him. "Neji, what's going on? What's in there?"
Finally, the dark-haired man deactivated his ocular jutsu. "Let go of me." He frowned at the Uzumaki.
Shaking her head, Nozomi grabbed the blond's elbow, making him stumble back and almost getting knocked over in the process. "Really, Naruto-kun. Give the guy some space." She admonished softly.
It was difficult to keep a serious expression, however, as he pouted in her direction, folding his arms across his chest, and she bit her lip, hiding a small grin. "Just be patient." She murmured before shifting her focus to Sakura, who was asking Neji what he'd seen.
The pale eyed brunette seemed to hesitate for a moment before he answered, his face taking on an even more serious expression than he normally wore. "It's hard to describe with words."
'Hmm...I guess we'll need to find out for ourselves, then.' Nozomi thought, feeling Naruto squirm against her. Suddenly realizing that she was still holding onto his arm, she let go, her arm dropping to her side quickly.
"What it is, we will have to go see for ourselves." Lee stated, echoing her thoughts.
"That makes things easy, doesn't it?" Gai back flipped several feet away from the group, then, without warning he charged straight ahead.
"Coming through!" He reached the boulder and delivered a power packed punch, but was repelled by an unseen force and withdrew his assault. "Quite a barrier."
As he returned to the group in waiting, Lee asked what the plan was and the bushy browed jonin smirked. "Well, Lee, it's pretty obvious we need to get rid of that barrier."
"Before we can even think about breaking through, we should know what kind of barrier it is." Sakura interjected.
"It could be a five seal barrier." Kakashi suggested, causing Naruto to glance at him.
"Five seal barrier?" The spiky haired boy echoed, looking confused.
"It's a strong layer of protection, in which five tags with the word "forbidden" written on them are fastened around the area that's being guarded." The silver haired jonin elaborated. "One forbidden tag is in front of us, and four more must be in other locations."
When Gai asked if they could simply pull them off, the sharingan wielder shook his head. "It's not that easy. The tags are in five different places, but they have to be taken down at the exact same moment."
"So we'd have to remove them simultaneously?" Sakura inquired.
"Right, the barrier won't budge unless all five tags are pulled off simultaneously." Kakashi confirmed, adding that it would be no simple task, since they knew only the location of the one tag so far.
As Gai commented that there were four more out there, Nozomi's eyes darted from side to side, trying to spot anything else that might look like a tag, but to no avail.
'What am I thinking? If they were all placed close together it wouldn't be a very good barrier, would it?' The brunette shook her head at her naivety and turned back to the discussion just in time to see Neji activate his byakugan once again.
"One is on the boulder about five hundred meters northeast of us," The Hyuuga stated as his pale irises dashed back and forth, scanning the surroundings at a rapid pace. "The second one is on a tree trunk beside a riverbank 350 meters south, southeast. The third you'll find 650 meters north west on a cliff. And the last one is in the woods less than 800 meters to the south west. That's four."
A drop of sweat slid down Nozomi's head, her ears lowering as she listened. The tags were a fairly good distance apart, as she should've expected from the start. How were they supposed to remove the tags all at once? Would they even be able to communicate with each other over that kind of distance?
"Each one of them is pretty far apart," Sakura stated, unknowingly echoing the brunette's own thoughts, "How will we signal each other?"
"I think I can handle that." Gai announced, reaching into his bag and producing a strange, choker like device with a mic attached. "We should just be in range for these. They're wireless radios."
"Whoa, that's amazing!" Naruto breathed in awe, and a small grin found its way onto Nozomi's face as she had to agree. She couldn't help wondering what else Gai had in his backpack. That man seemed to be prepared for any kind of situation.
"Good thinking." Kakashi remarked, and Chiyo echoed his approval, unknowingly stroking Gai's ego even further.
The green clad jonin flashed a dazzling grin, combined with his trademark nice guy thumbs up. "Okay, so we'll stay in constant communication and follow Neji's directions to the tags." Strapping on his own mic, he smirked. "Team Gai is the faster team, so we'll be the ones to handle this mission."
He gave another thumbs up that Naruto reciprocated, reminding him that they were all counting on him, as Kakashi nodded.
"Go get em." Nozomi added, giving her own weak grin and thumbs up when Team 3's jonin glanced in her direction. A soft sigh of relief left her lips as the man turned his attention to his squad, and she listened as he assigned a specific tag location to each member.
"I'll take care of the one on the north west cliff," He finished, adding that it was in the trickiest location and would be the hardest to eliminate.
"TESTING, TESTING. DO YOU READ ME?"
Nozomi stumbled back, nearly falling over as her sensitive ears were assaulted by Lee's high pitched voice. 'Why's he so loud?!'
"Lee! Your microphone's up too loud!" Tenten groaned, causing the young ninja to bow at the waist.
"A THOUSAND APOLOGIES!"
"Lee! The mic!" Gai shouted, practically sobbing at the ear splitting noise.
Unable to take the agony, Nozomi clutched her ears to her skull, crying out weakly as her legs threatened to give out beneath her.
"Nozomi-chan?"
Golden orbs slowly opened to gaze up, and a startled gasp escaped the brunette as she realized that she had fallen, but Naruto caught her; his arms were the only thing keeping her from sinking down to her hands and knees.
At the same time, Lee glanced up and, noting the various pained looks on his teammates' faces, twisted the volume knob on his mic. "Sorry, guys."
Nozomi's hands released her ears to hang limply at her sides, and she slumped forward with a soft sigh of relief. It was then that she remembered Naruto's grip on her, and she turned around, flashing a sheepish smile in response to his bewildered look.
"Sorry about that. The microphone was really, really loud." She tugged one of her ears lightly with a nonchalant shrug. "Sensitive ears, you know?" Sweat dropping, she willed her knees to stop trembling and gave a gentle tug to free herself from the boy's hold. "Ah-anyways, thanks for breaking my fall."
Naruto regarded her with a curious nod as he let go. "Anytime. You sure you're okay now?"
Reassuring him that she'd be fine now that the mic was turned down, the brunette moved to stand between him and Sakura, watching as Gai tried to get his team to join in for a hand stack. After a few seconds, Lee placed his hand on top of the jonin's hand, and with another grunt, a resigned Tenten did so as well.
With a chuckle, Gai turned his gaze to his last member, and a stare down ensued between he and the Hyuuga, who was clearly not interested. "Hmmm? Hmmmmm?!" Several grunts from the jonin eventually broke him down, however, and Neji finally placed his hand into the formed pile.
Gai unleashed a loud, heart laugh as he grinned widely. "Onward with the power of youth!" He boomed. To Neji and Tenten's displeasure, Lee echoed the jonin's sentiment just as boisterously until finally they took off, each fanning out in a different direction to complete the task they'd been assigned.
"Oh, man! That was so cool!" Naruto clenched his fists excitedly as he turned toward Sakura and Chiyo. "Hey, we should do it too!"
"I'd rather die." Sakura muttered, turning her head to the side and folding her arms.
"Me too." Came Kakashi's agreement, which Chiyo echoed as well.
Nozomi crossed her arms and snorted in amusement as Naruto sputtered, appearing as if he may fall from the shock before settling back and pouting. "Hey wait, you're on Team Kakashi right now, too!" A shiver went down the brunette's spine at the blond's outburst, and she sweat dropped as he approached her, looking hopeful.
"How about it, Nozomi-chan?" He asked, extending his hand out.
Nozomi didn't need to look around to know that the rest of the team was watching, waiting for her response, and she stepped back uneasily, shaking her head. "...I don't really think-"
"Aww! C'mon! Do it for me, Neko-chan?"
Hearing her old nickname said so casually in front of everyone, the brunette felt her fur stand up, and she groaned inwardly, gazing into the warm eyes of her childhood friend. 'Ugh, this guy! It's like he knows how hard it is for me to say no to him…'
"Oh...fine." Exhaling deeply, she placed her hand on top of his, not noticing the way his face lit up at the motion before he chuckled.
"Alright! Team Kakashi, go!" He paused, noticing the less than amused looks his other teammates wore and chuckled sheepishly. "...Some of Team Kakashi."
"...Neko-chan, huh?"
Nozomi retracted her hand as she heard stifled laughter and flattened her ears in embarrassment. Leave it to Sakura to find the whole thing amusing, she thought. Then again, the pinkette was also aware of the influence Naruto had over her, so why wouldn't she find this ordeal funny?
Luckily, there was no time to dwell on such things, as Kakashi made his way to the boulder, standing just above the tag on it.
Following Naruto's lead, Nozomi moved to the side of the boulder, watching as Sakura positioned herself several feet away. The plan was simple; Team Gai would reach their targeted tags. Once they had confirmed everyone's location with the microphones, Team Gai and Kakashi would remove the five tags simultaneously. Then, Sakura would destroy the boulder.
"That will be our signal to charge inside and rescue Gaara." Kakashi's instructions echoed through Nozomi's mind as she waited. Beside her, Naruto was rigid, eyes hard and determined, and she reached out, gently patting his shoulder.
"It's okay. We're almost there." She whispered.
Whether the blond heard her soft words of encouragement or not, she didn't know, but his eyes did dart back toward her briefly, making her think perhaps he had.
Moments later, the microphone on Kakashi's neck blared to life, and Gai's voice could be heard. "Well Kakashi, you guys all set?"
"Ready when you are." The silver haired man replied, gripping the corner of the tag he was responsible for removing. "We'll make our assault using the button hook entry." He announced.
"Sounds like a plan to me." Naruto said, and Nozomi nodded, echoing her own agreement.
"On my mark," Gai's voice began again. "I...2...3!"
Kakashi tore the tag off the rock as a chorus of ripping tags could be heard on the radio. "Now, Sakura!" He called out.
"Right!"
"Quick, Nozomi-chan!" Naruto said, grabbing said brunette's wrist and pulling her back against the wall. The two stood there, watching as Sakura charged at the boulder; her fist collided with it seconds later and it shattered into thousands of smaller rocks.
Nozomi watched the display in open mouthed awe. 'Note to self,' She swallowed softly as her gaze slid over to her pink haired friend, who was standing on the opposite side with Chiyo. 'Never get in a fist fight with Sakura-chan.'
At Kakashi's signal, the five of them entered through the opening into the cave, each taking a position on either side of the entrance. Naruto was the first to drop his defensive stance, his brow furrowing in shock, and, hearing Sakura's gasp, Nozomi followed their stare; her eyes widened at the sight of two Akatsuki members seated atop a deathly pale redhead, and her ears pinned back. 'No…'
"We're too late." Kakashi spoke grimly, confirming her fears.
"Finally. Now which one of you is the jinchuuriki?" Spoke one of the men.
'This is it. These are real members of the Akatsuki.' She frowned, narrowing her eyes at the men before lowering her gaze once more to the still man on the floor. A pain churned in her gut at the sight and she lowered her head to hide tears that had sprung to her eyes.
'If only I hadn't gotten caught in Itachi's genjutsu,' Regret filled her, strangling her in its grasp and making her heart ache, as she hung her head. 'Maybe we could've fought the guy off sooner and got here in time! Why am I always so helpless when people need me the most?! Naruto-kun was right all along...Tsunade-sama should have sent somebody else.'
"You know the answer to that, Kubota. It's because you ARE helpless!" Crooned a smooth voice in the back of her mind, adding to her psychological torture. "Thinking that someone like you could ever make a difference. You were guaranteed for failure all this time!"
Nozomi's spirits were too weak to fend off the tendrils of purple chakra that slithered up her body, and she hung her head, just listening as her inner demon berated and ridiculed her. Maybe...Kumoraku was right, and she wasn't good enough on her own. If she had gone to the cat for power, maybe then..
'Maybe I would've been strong enough, and we could've rescued Gaara-san in time.'
"You bastards!"
The brunette jumped, jerked back to reality and cast a glance toward Naruto, surprised. His eyes were a deadly crimson, and his whiskers were more pronounced than usual.
"I'll kill the both of you!" He snarled, exposing elongated fangs in the process.
Feeling her heart clench with sadness again, Nozomi opened her mouth to say something, but was silenced as she realized that he wasn't the only one who had undergone a physical change.
Apparently, while she'd been caught up in self pity, Kumoraku had consumed a portion of her being; Her vision, though obscured by her tears, was bathed in hues of red, and her own fangs, as well as her claws had grown in length.
As the group of ninjas stood in the cave entrance, the Akatsuki with a cloth over his face spoke. "The one who bursts in and starts barking. That would be him, then."
"Sasori my man, I think you're correct." The other one, a blond sporting a ponytail agreed with a smirk.
This elicited a low growl from Nozomi as she realized that they had been lured in, most likely to capture Naruto, and she tensed up, clenching her jaw. "You…! I don't know what game you're playing, but you're gonna have to go through me, you hear?!" She shouted angrily. "I'll kill you before you take another life!"
The one who'd been addressed as Sasori regarded her calmly. "It appears we have more than one jinchuuriki in our midst, Deidara." He stated, narrow eyes raking over her form in a venomous stare.
The one called Deidara smirked at Nozomi, making her growl as the demonic chakra surged wildly through her body, itching to be set free. "I doubt she's any real threat, or else we'd have heard of her before, hmm."
"You think that just because you've never heard of me I'll go down easily?!" The rest of Nozomi's retort was drowned out as Naruto began to shout, unable to reign in his own fiery temper any longer.
"You bastards...where the hell do you think you're sitting?!" He demanded.
His eyes shifted to the pale redhead on the floor. "Gaara! What the hell are you doing? C'mon, why are you just lying there?! Get up! Gaara! Answer me! What are you, deaf? C'mon, knock it off already!"
"Enough, Naruto! You know full well that-" Kakashi began, but was cut off by a sneering Deidara.
"Your friend's right, and you know it, too. He's been dead for awhile now, heh." As he spoke, he reached down and slapped Gaara's face, smirking.
His callousness set Naruto's temper to a new level, and he snarled, looking even deadlier than before. "Give him back! Give Gaara back you damn- ARGGH!"
Seeing her friend about to charge in, Nozomi lunged at him, grabbing his right arm. "Naruto-kun, hold on!" She begged, trying to pull him back, but even with her own demon's power, she was no match for Naruto who, clearly not in his right mind swiped his free hand at her.
"Let me go! He asked for it, damn it!"
Started by his assault, Nozomi was forced to let go, and she stumbled back, narrowly avoiding his claws. Realizing that the blond was too angry for her words to stop him, she stood back, praying that his ascent wouldn't be the huge mistake she feared it was.
"Cool it." Kakashi was next to intervene, stepping into Naruto's path. "Charge in without thinking, and we're done for."
Nozomi nodded her silent agreement to the jonin, relieved as her fellow jinchuuriki was forced to stop. There was a brief pause then, as Kakashi glanced toward the two Akatsuki, assessing them. "It looks like the one on the left is the guy who infiltrated the Sand and took Lord Kazekage...which means this one is the puppet master who wounded Kankuro so badly."
The cavern fell silent as the two men spared them no further attention, having begun a discussion on who would deal with Naruto; ultimately it turned into a heated debate on what true art was between their styles, and Team Kakashi stared, bewildered and forgotten as insults were flung back and forth between the two men.
Finally, Naruto's fragile patience ran out, and he shouted that enough was enough, and pulled out a scroll, summoning a giant shuriken that he chucked at Sasori.
Right on cue, a long, bony tail protruded from the masked Akatsuki's robe to deflect the weapon as he carried on arguing with his partner, not even sparing the Uzumaki a glance.
"Hmm, art is one thing, and one thing only." Deidara insisted, "The explosion itself, hmm!" He produced a small clay bird, tossing it into the air; it expanded into a much larger version and swooped down, scooping the lifeless Gaara into its mouth. "It's not even in the same league compared to your grotesque puppet show!"
Sasori retaliated with a jab of his poison coated scorpion tail, but missed as the blond Akatsuki leapt onto the clay bird, grinning. "See you around, my man." With that, he steered his clay creation toward the mouth of the cave, flying past a bewildered, furious Naruto.
"Just where the hell do you think you're going?!" He demanded, running after the giant bird.
'No...this is exactly what that creep wants! I can't let him go alone!' Gritting her teeth determinedly, Nozomi spun on her heel and raced out of the cave after her friend, leaving a frustrated Kakashi behind with the rest of their team.
"Naruto! Nozomi!" The silver haired jounin exhaled softly, slumping his shoulders briefly. 'As always, he just can't help himself!...And she's just as hard headed when it comes to protecting him!'
He turned his attention to the two kunoichi to his right. "Naruto, Nozomi and I will handle the one outside. Sakura, Lady Chiyo. Take the one inside, but please, don't do anything rash until team Gai gets back!"
With that said, the copy ninja turned to leave, trying to ignore the feeling of dread in his gut. He trusted Sakura, and he was sure that Chiyo was strong enough to hold her own as well, but the fact remained that they knew little to nothing about the Akatsuki's capabilities. Still, he had no choice but to leave it up to the two kunoichi, as not only Naruto had run off, but Nozomi, too.
'As if one enraged jinchuuriki wasn't enough..' he thought with a slight shake of his head.
He only hoped Nozomi was more even tempered than his knuckle head of a pupil. Her own response to the situation, however, made him doubtful. She may not have made as much of a fuss as Naruto, but she had still begun to transform into...whatever it was that she carried within. Not only that, but Deidara had managed to provoke her with so little effort.
Kakashi frowned deeply as he hurried to catch up with his students. If both of them lost their cool and went berserk, he was doubtful that he'd be enough on his own to stop such a rampage...
And now for an important author's note:
For a while now I have been mentioning that I'm getting further along in my pregnancy. Well, the end is practically staring me in the face now- I'll be going in to have my baby next month on the 21st. Time has really flown! Because that is the day that I usually try to update this story, I will likely be uploading a few days earlier than normal next month. That being said, this story will be going on hiatus after chapter 6 (the conclusion of this arc) for the following reasons:
1. I don't have the next arc fully planned, and need a fresh, rested mind to work on it. If any of you are parents you know that's something I won't have much of pretty soon! ;) That's not to say I won't be still working on chapters but it'll be a very, very slow process...
2. After really thinking about this story I made a couple changes that altered certain events planned for this story. I have since checked my notes for consistency, but I'm not 100% satisfied with how some things line up anymore and need to revise a bit further. It's better to hold off than have a bunch of chapters pre-written that suddenly need to all be redone.
Anyhow, we're still a couple chapters away from the hiatus but I wanted to warn everyone in advance. ^^ I am still working on chapter 6, which I'd like to put up as well next month for a double update (as not only will the 21st be my baby's birthday, but it's Nozomi's as well!) but we'll see what happens. I've got a lot of doctor's appointments and other prepping to do between now and the 21st, making finding time to write challenging. For this reason I am also unable to respond to reviews (but I read every single one!) since my time to write is being solely devoted to chapter 6. Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and for your understanding as I prepare for a very busy season of my life. ^^
'Till next time, stay awesome, and I hope you are enjoying the story. ^_^
~NinjaKitty91