Yea! Sorry it has been so long! I guess I let the time slip by me! Well hopefully this is a good chapter. Right about now it isn't what I thought it would be, but it seems to have come together pretty good! Now mind you this is from episode 218-219. If you haven't seen this yet this is a SPOILER!! So please don't get mad at me! I hope this will help. After this I am planning on wrapping this up. A few more chapters to go! Yay! Oh! And I do not own Naruto!

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Gaara continued on his trek. He now left his brother alone with one of the shinobi, if they got hurt….. He would never forgive himself. However, they are older than he, they have a few tricks of their own. He jumps onto one of the branches, but he quickly dodged the large morning star that obliterated the branch that he was about to jump on. Gaara readjusts and lands safely on the ground a few yards away from one of the shinobi that kidnapped his student.

"You aren't going any further." the shinobi said. He tightened his hold on his weapon. "Gaara, fight me." he got into a defensive stance. The Shitenshounin shinobi had only heard the stories about what Sabaku no Gaara was capable of, he had never experienced it himself, so he needed to be cautious.

Gaara stood in silence, debating if he should satisfy this man's wishes. "Okay then," Gaara decided. "Come at me." he crosses his arms and waited.

Both didn't move. Gaara guessed that he would have to start the fight.

'Fine.' Gaara thought. He began to feed his sand out of his gourd, he brought out enough so that it made a good sized ring around his body. Gaara's opponent must have gotten tired of waiting because he began to swing his morning star around. He needed to get momentum before he attacked, which to Gaara was a major flaw. He must have finally gotten enough leverage, because before Gaara knew it, the shinobi was hurling the morning star towards Gaara. His sand reacted immediately and speared in front of him, stopping the spike ball in its tracks. One tug and the spike was free.

"Pretty good Sabaku no Gaara. How much chakra is molded into that sand?" the shinobi asked. He watched as the sand circled around Gaara.

"Do you want to find out?" Gaara glared at his opponent, this man was beginning to bug him….only slightly. "However," he uncrosses his arms so that they were in front of him, "it'll be in exchange for your life."

Gaara's sand shot from their hiding place where they had begun to creep up on the armored man and enclosed him from head to toe.

"Sabaku Kyuu!" Gaara says and closes his hands into a fist, and the sand pressurizes.

Gaara pauses, he begins to relax, instead his brow creases and he can't believe what he is seeing. The sand

that had pressurized one minute before, began to lose its shape and began to fall. The shinobi that he had trapped in there kicked and shook himself free of the sand.

"Impossible." Gaara mutters. No one could have survived that. No matter how strong that armor he had on.

"That was a nice sandbag." the shinobi said, he began to move his shoulder in a windmill motion to stretch it out.

Gaara finally understood what happened when he noticed that the eyes of the lion etched in the breastplate of the armor he was wearing were glowing an eerie red . "You absorbed the sand's chakra."

The shinobi smiled. "That's right, this armor swallows chakra." the eyes of the lion fade away after that.

Both shinobi's stare at each other for a while. Gaara tried to figure out a way that he could bypass this minor problem, well he did have a good amount of chakra, so he trusted in himself, but he wouldn't let this guy know, so he kept his face placid.

Gaara's opponent laughed and began to swing the spike-ball attached to the now staff. "As long as your chakra isn't molded into it, your sand is nothing. Do your best to grab this!" he gave it one last swing and then let the ball fly towards Gaara.

Gaara molded his sand once again, this time into a giant hand, and did just what he asked, he grabbed the chain connecting the ball to staff. The armored shinobi just laughed.

"It's useless." he says as Gaara's chakra began to flow up the chain and into the lion's open mouth. "I can feel it! I'm absorbing your chakra!" the Shitenshounin shinobi knew that he was finally winning! If this is how Sabaku no Gaara really was, then he was disappointed in all the stories that he had heard.

Gaara decided that he needed to use his secret weapon, so he touched the chakra in his sand and it instantly reacted, knowing exactly what he wanted. The sand shot out of the gourd. Gaara watched as the shinobi's face changed into something along the lines of disbelief; Gaara enjoyed that look. He kept a hold of the chain and had the sand make a column underneath his feet so he was now rising into the canopy of the trees, while his opponent hung on for dear life. Just to make sure that this guy knew what he was getting himself into; Gaara held out an arm and closed his fist, then he crossed his arms and watched as the fun began. The sand arm began to swing the armored shinobi around. Faster and faster the armored shinobi went, he couldn't do anything but hang on and hope that he was distracting Gaara enough so that his partners were able to position themselves.

Gaara went higher and higher, he was able to see the canopy and before he knew it, he could see the tops of the trees. He waited a few minutes and then when he felt like that was enough, he uncrossed his arms and lifted one, he opens his fist and the sand hand did the same, letting the armored shinobi swing far away from him.

'It's going to hurt when he lands.' Gaara thought.

The armored shinobi flew, but he must have been so weight down that he flew about five yards and made a huge crater when he landed.

Gaara could not see the armored shinobi at all. He just decided to look around…..how long had it been since they had taken Matsuri? He must have been distracted because before he knew it he saw what looked to be chakra in the form of a dragon, a water dragon.

Gaara watched as it slammed into his sand tower that he had made, and toppling him over; drenching him.

'Damnnit!' Gaara thought as he fell. He was able to have his fall broken by his sand, he still had a small amount of reign over it.

"To choose to land on sand, as expected of Sabaku no Gaara." the armored shinobi said. He was now the one that was waiting for Gaara to make a move.

Gaara glared at the armored shinobi.

"But," the shinobi continued as he stared at the spot that Gaara landed.

Gaara lifted a hand. It was hard for him to move it, but he wasn't a quitter. He lifted his arm and focused his chakra. The sand was very heavy but he could still manipulate it. It moved and took shape, but it was too heavy and crumbled.

'This isn't good.' Gaara thought. He had already been through this once, but it wasn't during a battle.

The armored shinobi saw this and began to laugh.

"Your luck ends here." the shinobi said. He began to swing his morning star, quickly gaining speed, he tossed the spiked ball towards Gaara's direction. Gaara knew this was going to hurt pretty badly, but before both could move, Gaara heard a familiar voice to his left.

"Konoha Senpu!" Lee said and knocked the ball away. He took his normal fighting stance in front of the armored shinobi. "A hero's entry always comes late!" he said and turned his head so he could give Gaara a big smile. The sun reflected off his teeth and they sparkled for a second. Then he turned to keep the enemy distracted for Naruto.

"That's right!" Naruto jumped out of his hiding place, landing a kick to the unsuspecting shinobi, making him spiral to the side. Naruto stood up and grinned over towards Gaara. "Sorry we made you wait Gaara."

'Naruto?' Gaara thought.

"You covered for everyone during the time with Sasuke, right? I came to pay you back for that time. That is why we have dibs on that guy." he glanced over at the armored shinobi who was beginning to rouse from his near unconscious state. "So go hurry to your student!"

Gaara was actually pretty happy to see them. He knew that Konoha might help, but had no idea that Naruto would be there, he figured that Naruto would be searching for Sasuke. He didn't want to read too much into those two, but he knew that Naruto would do anything for Sasuke, even if it involved dragging Sasuke by the hair to get him back.

Gaara tried to stand up, he was not out of this fight yet, they would be his backup, but when he got halfway, his legs gave out from the weight of the sand and the gourd. He lands on one knee. Rock Lee is right by his side, he places a hand on Gaara's shoulder, in utter shock of the state Gaara was in.

"For you to have been this run down…" Lee couldn't even finish what he was saying; this guy was defenitly strong.

Lee heard his name being called by Sakura. She ran up to where he was kneeling with Gaara. She looked at Gaara and then back to Lee.

"Please leave Gaara's care to me." Sakura said, she was already getting her chakra to move towards her hands. They turned green when she began to heal what she could of Gaara's wounds.

"Understood." Lee said. Both Lee and Naruto watched and stood in a defensive stance as the armored shinobi began to stand up. " Then allow me to start this!" Lee tenses his muscles to rush the shinobi.

"Be careful." Gaara says. He knew that he needed to let them know about the armor that shinobi was wearing before they did anything. "His armor absorbs chakra." He was a little late in letting them know. Lee lunged at the armored shinobi and planted a kick to his breastplate. The lion's eyes turned red as it began to suck the chakra from Rock Lee's attack.

The armored shinobi laughed. I'll have all your chakra sucked up." he said.

Lee stumbled to get his footing again. That definitely felt weird. "I see." Lee said. "This means we can't use our usual abilities, huh?" he meant it as a question for Gaara and a statement for Naruto.

" That doesn't matter." Naruto said. He lunged at the armored shinobi, but got knocked back. " Fighting spirit's enough!" he began to attack the shinobi.

Lee could feel the spirit that Naruto was emanating. It seemed to pump him up and feel more sure of himself. "Yes! I'll go forth with willpower!"

Both boys threw all that they could; kicks, punches, you name it. They tried not to rely too much on their techniques, so as not to feed the armor. The shinobi was good at dodging though.

"After I've finished absorbing your chakra," the armored shinobi kept dodging the kicks and punches that the two boys threw at him still. "I'll be sure to get you back."

As Naruto and Lee kept their opponent busy, Sakura was already done healing Gaara's wounds. His sand was even dry. The thing that Gaara didn't understand was why she was staring at him. He was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. Just then she looked up into the sky, Gaara followed her gaze and he noticed a cloud of black that moved into readable characters.

"A message from your ally?" Gaara asked.

"Ino is hurt." Sakura said. She turned around to see Gaara stand up.

"Go." was all Gaara said. He was anxious to get back into the fight, and he had something in mind, his last resort.

Sakura stared at Gaara in disbelief. She had just got done healing him, and she was still concerned about his depleted chakra as well. "But with your body in that condition.." she didn't get to finish since Gaara interrupted her.

" I'm alright now, go save your friend." he said. He got up and began to walk to where the fight had progressed, which wasn't that far away.

"Don't over do it." He heard Sakura say over her shoulder.

"Yea." was all he said, and watched for a few seconds as she ran back into the forest.

Gaara pulls his full attention to the fight. He waited for the perfect moment when he would execute his attack.

"What are you doing?!" Naruto said, he saw Gaara come over to the fight from the corner of his eye. "Go save your friend."

Gaara crosses his arms. "I will save my friend." he had a score to settle with this guy. He got his sand wet, Gaara was slightly grumpy and he wanted to return the favor. "I'll finish it quickly."

"But…" Naruto began.
Rock Lee had been keeping the armored shinobi busy, but he was obviously at a disadvantage, and he got knocked down by the spiked ball that was being swung around.

"Fuzzy eyebrows!" Naruto said and ran over to the fallen Lee.

'So he does want to play dirty. ' Gaara thought. He walks over to armored ninja. He thought he heard someone call his name, but he ignored it and kept his eyes glued onto the ninja in front of him. Gaara lifts up an arm in the stance that it usually takes when he calls upon his sand.

The armored ninja scoffs. "There's no sand left in that you can use!" the ninja thought that Gaara was going to use the sand in his gourd. He was way off.

Gaara'sskin on his face seemed to begin to break off. It revealed his real skin underneath the sand armor. It snaked over to his outstretched hand. "This is my weapon." it began to form into a spear made of sand. The armored shinobi stared in awe as it formed. Gaara glared hard and threw the spear. It sailed true and went right into the heart of the shinobi.

The armored shinobi stumbled, his face a mask of utter shock. How could this happen?! He underestimated Sabaku no Gaara fatally. He could feel himself fading fast. He dropped to his knees and fell completely to the ground.

Gaara watched as the armored shinobi fell; once he fell to the ground and didn't move, Gaara fell as well; his legs couldn't keep him up anymore.

"Are you okay Gaara?" Naruto asked?

"This is it." Gaara said simply.

They waited in silence, catching their breath, when a scream broke the silence. All three boys were immediately alert. As if on cue they then heard a girl's voice yell.

Matsuri was calling to her teacher. Gaara's heart froze. If she gets hurt…..was all he could think.

"Hurry leave the rest to us!" Naruto said. That cry for help was chilling, he wanted Gaara to hurry and save the innocent girl before it was too late.

Gaara nodded and took off into the canopy of the trees.

Rock Lee felt useless. He knew that he messed up something in his leg. He couldn't move his leg.

'Damnit!' He thought. So far he was not helping out at all. He could think of so many training sessions that he would have to do after this. He was already thinking of what he could do next, when Naruto broke his thoughts. All he heard from him was Sakura and soon. So Sakura was on her way. That was good! He could get back into the fight! He would just have to wait a little longer.

'Hang in there Gaara-san!' Lee thought.

A few minutes later Sakura came along with Ino, to where Lee and Naruto were resting. She kneeled down to where Lee was, she had him lay down so she could being healing him. Lee waited while Sakura healed him. It seemed like hours, but was really mere minutes. Lee could feel the sharp pains fading in his leg and arm.

"Just a few more ligaments." Sakura said. She wanted to assure Lee that he would be back to normal soon.

She looked up from what she was doing. "It seems like no matter how much you fight, this always happens." she said. This was making her slightly worried.

Lee could hear the worried tone in Sakura's voice. "I'm sorry." He immediately said. "You were a big help. Sakura-san, thank you for your help." he really couldn't express how grateful he really was. He knew that she wanted him to stop, but he just couldn't. "I can't just ignore Gaara-kun. We're part of the Return the Favor Squad, after all." Lee said. He wanted to get back on the move to catch up with Gaara.

Meanwhile….

Gaara had caught up with the remaining shinobi, he would get Matsuri back no matter what! Just where was this guy leading him anyways? Gaara followed him all the way into a valley. The shinobi carried Matsuri on his back in a pouch that restrained her completely. Gaara looked around the valley, it was pretty deep; but Gaara focused his attention back to the shinobi, who had now stopped in his tracks.

"That's as far as you go. I'm taking Matsuri back ." Gaara said. He stared hard at the shinobi.

The shinobi turned to face Gaara. "You're the one who is cornered." the shinobi replied. Gaara did not like the smirk that spread across the weather-worn face of the shinobi.

"What?" Gaara said.

He must be planning something, but what? Gaara hoped that his friends would be here soon.

"Although you're called the ultimate weapon, didn't you use up all your sand back there?" the shinobi asked still smirking as he waited for Gaara to answer back.

Gaara's eyes narrowed slightly, so this is what he had planned. For the armored shinobi to distract him so he would use up all of his sand; which was true, he was at his limit, but he wouldn't let this guy know. "One-on-one battle I won't lose." Gaara said to the shinobi but for also himself as well. He could do this! He had been practicing for this.

The shinobi scoffed. "I'm not afraid of an unarmed shinobi." he lifted an arm and Gaara heard a click and the pouch that was holding Matsuri to the shinobi's back fell to the ground. Matsuri didn't say a word, she must be disoriented still. Gaara watched as the shinobi withdrew a sword strapped to his side. The sword had a greenish tint to it and it had a small stone towards the tip.

'What an odd looking sword.' Gaara thought.

The shinobi held the sword up skyward, not anywhere near Gaara's direction. "Come forth! Mugen Kouga!" he yelled.

Gaara wasn't sure what he meant by that. He felt a surge of chakra toward his left, he also noticed a light towards the left as well. He turned to see what that was and watched as the light zipped towards the shinobi holding the sword. The light rested on the shinobi's chest and solidified into a familiar lion headed breastplate. He yelled a two more times, but Gaara was too stunned to even figure out what he had just said, but it seemed that he commanded the other weapons that his allies had wielded.

"It's time for you to learn that mere ninja cannot defeat the weapons that Takumi Village create!" the shinobi said, he then swung one of the short swords which made a small squall to Gaara's left, it then quickly became a tornado in mere seconds.

Gaara had to think fast. He remembered a jutsu that he knew that he had enough chakra to use. As the tornado came closer he dropped into the ground in a hollow ball, and he came back up when the tornado blew past. Gaara stood staring at the shinobi waiting for the next move.
The shinobi gritted his teeth. "Garian Tou!: The blue snake-like swords on the shinobi's back raced towards Gaara. He dodged when it came to his right, but he didn't dodge fast enough and it grazed his shoulder. When he felt the lace of pain in his shoulder he jumped back to get some distance, and went down to one knee as he clutched his now bleeding shoulder.

"Seems that you main reserve of chakra has disappeared. There's a monster in your body, right?" the shinobi inquired, which made Gaara clench his jaw tighter and narrow his eyes at the shinobi; but it seemed that the shinobi was not done there.

"Why don't you use Shukaku's chakra?" he smirked slightly.

Gaara figured that he must want something from the Shukaku; he would never use that abomination! Never! He got up and reached in his pack. He took out two kunai and got into a defensive stance. He was ready for this guy and he would NOT use that.

The shinobi attacked with the blue sword again. It snaked and coiled towards Gaara; left, right, center; he blocked all the attacks, he dodged one and dived and rolled to the right.

'That was close.' Gaara thought to himself. He jumped to the side and back flipped the other way.

The shinobi brought up the next assault, he dodged them but the attacks made Gaara back up into the cliff-face of the valley. He could not dodge anymore and one of the swords slammed into the cliff behind him.

"This is the end! The Sand village's ultimate weapon!" the shinobi yelled triumphantly.

Gaara couldn't hold himself up anymore, he slid down the cliff-face onto the ground. He was completely out of strength.

'Damnnit!' Gaara thought as he glared up at the shinobi.

Lee picked up the pace as he jumped through the forest canopy. He had a feeling that something bad was happening. It was a good thing that Naruto had already run ahead. It made Lee feel a little better, but he still couldn't wait to get there to help out.

'Don't worry Gaara-san! Hang in there!' was all Lee could think. He hoped that everything was okay.

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Alright! This is the middle of the fight scene! Yay! Just a little bit more! I promise that I will write it faster! I have already started what will happen after the fight! Thanks again!