The Found
Chapter 9
Saving Gaara
"Dammit, I thought we ditched these boggies." Naruto muttered to a strait faced Gaara. He simply nodded in response and did forging hand signs, at the same time the scorpion like Akatsuki member laughed and raised his tail to strike Gaara. Naruto dug in his pocket for kunia, and made an attempt to gain the attention of the blond Akatsuki member.
Haze's head suddenly jerked up, she motioned fro Naruto to come to her, he ran, she pointed at the ring on his finger, then she whispered, "Stop, kill, them... Now..." Naruto under stood.
"Gaara, take my hand, come on, hurry up!" Gaara rushed over and grabbed Naruto's hand without a second thought. Then, just like the first time, everything stopped, except himself, Haze, and Gaara.
"What did you do?" Gaara demanded, letting go of Naruto, and catching a piece of frozen sand.
"I stoned time so we can kill these guys,so lets hurry up and get 'em! We have fifteen minutes!" Naruto said already taking a kunia to the blond haired one, and ripping his arms off savagely, then kicking him in the dirt.
Gaara dismantled the scorpion, revealing puppet after puppet that lurked inside, finally finding the las one, and disintegrating it with a sand coffin. But an unforeseen event happened, while most of the time when Gaara used his sand coffin, blood came out of his victim, but purple liquid splattered him this time. And Gaara dropped to his knees, in pain, Naruto quickly rushed to help him.
"Are you okay?"
"No, it was poison in the container, it got in my open wounds. I have to get b-back to the village. I can't walk, and you can't carry us both, you'll have to get some help." Gaara said, his eyelids fluttered and his hand was pulling at Naruto's sleeve tightly.
Naruto swallowed, he couldn't go back to the forest, he couldn't go to the village with just Gaara, and his Gamma-soma wouldn't come into the desert. He was stuck, he didn't know what to do now, for a while at least he could conger up a clone and have it carry Haze, while he carried Gaara.
"Naruto!" He heard Sakura's voice from a distance, like a light in the darkness, but at the same time, he heard the blond Akatsuki's screams of pain.
"Sakura?" Naruto called, pulling Haze and Gaara over his shoulder and walking away from the Akatsuki member.
"Naruto! Where were you? We thought that you we-" Sakura appeared through the trees boarding the desert and stopped at the sight o the withering blond ninja and disembodied puppets. She stared at him wide eyed, and when she saw Haze and Gaara over his shoulder she fainted.
"You have succeeded in destroying two Akatsuki members and saving Gaara." Sia's voice popped out behind Sakura's body, lifting her up, and putting her arm over his shoulder. Kakashi, Yamoto, Sasuke, Gai, Lee, Neji, and TenTen. They all gasped and stared wide eyed at the sand where the two figures still lie, unmoving now.
"Naruto, how... What happened? And is that... Haze?" Sasuke asked, walking closer to Naruto, as he staggered, from exhaustion and the wait of his comrades.
"Sasuke, I'll explain later for now, we have to get back to the village, were all probably infected with the same kind of poison as Kankurou. Gaara and Haze especially, yes, Haze is alive, I'll expla..." Naruto dropped to his knees, not able to hold the wait any longer, or the pain that he could feel spreading through him.
Sasuke picked up Naruto, and the others carried Haze and Gaara, they didn't notice the one of the supposedly dead Akatsuki members get up and dissipate, leaving his comrade in the dust.
"Do you think that this is Haze? Or is it an impostor?" Sakura asked at last.
"I don't know, if it was an impostor, why would she help Naruto and Gaara?" Said Kakashi defensively.
"We don't know that she did help them, maybe-" Sai was cut off.
"Well, how am I supposed to prove to you that I'm Haze?" The dark curly haired girl murmured, her eyes were still closed, but lips her lips moved in the slighted of movements.
"Well, what was your cousins name?" Sasuke said flatly.
"Koji and Nathaniel, how are they by the way Kakashi?" She took a quick peek at Kakashi from under Sai's arm.
"Th-their f-fine..." Kakashi stuttered, he looked st her with shocked, longing eyes.
"I hear you have a daughter, Haze, that was her name right?" She said conversationally.
"Yeah... " He admitted, Haze sighed tiredly, and closed her eyes again.
"Kakashi, you know I can't stay with you," She whispered. "I'm to dangerous to be around." Kakashi didn't respond, but stared hard out into the desert.
"Besides, I have to help Naruto, Gaara and Sasuke now, you've already found your happiness. You have a family, and you have to keep it together, you cannot tel either Koji or Nathaniel that I was here. You can put me in the report, but other then that, I'm still dead to all of you..." She said sharply, almost exasperated.
"Why?" Sasuke asked.
"Well, first of all I have to deal with Orochimaru, we're going to kill him. Soon. And then we'll deal with the Akatsuki."
"What do you mean we?"
"Well, Naruto and Gaara, aren't coming with us, it's just you, your anger issue problems and me. Of course, Kabuto will be a problem too, not to mention Suigetsu, Karin and Juugo, I just don't know what to do with them. How they'll impact the future by killing them..." Haze said frustratingly.
"What are you talking about? I doubt that we could kill Orochimaru and his henchmen single handedly." Sasuke franticly muttered.
"You could kill Orochimaru single handedly, Naruto could, Gaara could, by my word Sakura even could! And I diffidently can." She said once again exasperated.
"What are you talking about?" Sakura said, staring back in forth from Sasuke to Naruto to Haze.
"Well, I mean, we all have... Special traits don't we... Er, at least Gaara, Naruto and Sasuke do. And no, I'm not going to explain that." Haze said stubbornly, falling asleep again.
The rest of the way was quite, and no one dared to look at Haze, just in case she started yelling at them. None of them had seen have worked up before, not even a little bit, not one ounce of emotion besides happiness, had been there. And now at the sound of her angry words, they could see the stress that was always threatening to engulf her.
"Gaara!" They were met by a ebullient Termari, who picked Gaara right out of Lee's arms, and hugged him vigorously, crying all over him. Half the village came out to meet them, Kankurou included, and escorted them to the hospital. They were all given emergency treatment, and the others waited patently out side to hear the news of their condition. The nurse came out fist, Sakura had been working with her to help treat the poison.
"Naruto is going to be fine, the poison is out, but he won't be able to move for a while. It seems he's used up allot of chakra, he's awake right now, but only three in at a time to see him." Kakashi, Lee and Sasuke made their way to his room and sat them selves against the wall or any free flat surface they could find.
"Naruto," Sasuke asked, since he was the closest, perched hesitantly on his bed. "tell us what happened, why did you leave?"
"Haze took me to save Gaara, she can- Well she's really fast, we caught them off guard and then she just ran out of steam, and me and Gaara took care of the Akatsuki that fallowed us. The you found us, I can't tell you anymore then that." Naruto hedged, he didn't tell a lie, but he wasn't telling them everything, Sasuke could feel it. Besides, some one doesn't go into a cavern full of Akatsuki, and come back in only a few hours, almost totally unscathed. Sasuke thought.
"Naruto, you cannot have just gotten in and out like that." Lee argued,
"It really was mostly Haze, I mean she got Gaara out, and ran for nearly three, maybe four hours with me or Gaara on her back. How are they?" Naruto said frowning.
"We don't know. I guess we might have underestimated Haze after all, if she did that..." Sasuke said distractedly.
Naruto and Sasuke wondered what adventures Haze had gotten into while she was away. Why she wasn't dead? And most of all, what future did she have planned for them.
