CHAPTER TEN

Two minutes and Sakura broke.

"We shouldn't have left him."

"Too late. We go back now and any plan he's got is ruined. Besides, have you practiced apparating yet?" Naruto shook his head at the shear simplicity Sasuke's plans usually took. "I didn't even think about that since coming here. We hardly left school grounds after getting our licenses. With my messed-up animagus transformation, I'd hate to see what my apparation skills are like."

"Your animagus form is linked with your soul, which is currently bound to a powerful demon lord. Apparation uses magic to phase your body out of real space and shifts your location before forcefully re-entering the current plane of existence. The noise associated with apparation is from the displaced air and can be softened depending on control."

Naruto smiled as he listened to his teammate's explanation. It never failed. In either life, the best way to get her away from worrying is to get her to lecture about something complicated. "Right. But neither of you were splinched when learning back at Hogwarts." 'Back at Hogwarts' had become their catch phrase of their previous life rather than their actual time at school.

"Your dad was the one that put you back together, not a healer. I could do it with a wand. It's just a matter of aligning your previous state of being with the slightly altered magic signature of your apparated self. Phasing out of existence seems to change the frequency of the energy-"

"That's fine. You don't have a wand, so it doesn't really matter. I doubt Sasuke could fix splinching even if he understood the theory behind it. I'll stick to kawamari jutsu." 'Plan distract Sakura is a complete success. You owe me big time Sasuke.'

"But you have only a limited distance with kawamari, where any place you can completely visualize works with apparation. I wonder if the theory applies to kawamari jutsu as well, but with the addition of physical energy it limits to how much your body and endure rather the strength of your magic reserves. Most of the explanations in the Academy focused on the actual swap between the body and object, not how the swap occurs without actually moving in real space."

"You think we go 'out of phase' with kawamari? But it doesn't feel like you're being suck through a straw, more like a dizzy spin before 'poof' your where the log was."

"I think we do, but with a different method. After all chakra is physical and spiritual energy combined, which makes it more complicated in magic in a lot of ways. We know that the spiritual side is actually magic which is why not everyone can be a ninja."

"So why didn't we use chakra before?"

"Wizards weren't too big on physical exertion, you know that. I have to wonder if something happened to all the wands and wand makers and chakra became the new way of magic. While more complicated in some ways, and rather limiting what you can do, by mixing magic with physical energy, it eliminates the typical need for a wand to regulate a persons magic. The fact that most uses for chakra are for war, might mean the magical community was at war when this occurred.

"There were several schools of thought in the muggle world that martial art masters could control their body's energy for defensive, offensive, or just general health purposes. It was called ki or chi depending on the discipline. Most people believed it to be legend or myth."

"Like how muggles thought magic wasn't real."

"Exactly. It gives more credence to my thought that we're in the far future rather than an alaternate world. The problem is how far. Most historical records only date back a couple of generations. Konoha was founded 122 years ago, which isn't a long time considering we had to study at least a thousand years of magical history at Hogwarts and the muggle world had historical texts on time periods much further back than that. Ninjas also exited during that time period, but not in the same sense as the current shinobi. Some overlap could-"

Sakura's thoughts were cut off as Naruto stopped and signaled for silence. Taking another breath the blonde's hear sank. 'Blood and Sand. Gaara. Save there's more blood than sand this time. He must have just killed.' They were close to the clearing where Team Seven would regroup. Exactly in the direction he could smell the sand-nin.

Signaling to Sakura, he kept watch as she closed her eyes and scanned ahead of them. The kunoichi was getting better at keeping her detailed senses open while fighting, but the initial start always seemed to take more out of her, and she couldn't keep it up for long.

Eight ahead, one hostile with high power. After confirming that none were Sasuke or the grass-nin they left behind, he debated on waiting until the group cleared out on their own. 'No. Sasuke should have been there by now. He could show up any second.' Dropping to the ground he made his way towards the clearing, suppressing his chakra as Kakashi had taught them. Without their henge or tree-hopping, the group ahead shouldn't suspect them. His half-animagus state caught a slight shift in the wind. The sharp taste of blood was muted, but the distinct smell of dog added a new level of worry.

'Gaara and Kiba. Great. Bloody asshole better keep his mouth shut.' Picking up the pace he signaled possible allies under fire back to Sakura. Hearing the make-up boy and Gaara ahead, he hoped Kiba had kept hidden and none of the Sand-nin had decent noses. If he could smell them this far away, the wind was not in favor of the Inuzuki.

"-listen to what your older brother says once in a while?" Slowing down, Naruto spied a convenient bush that would cover him. Signaling Sakura to stay as back-up, he crept forward.

"I've never thought of you two as siblings. If you get in my way, I'll kill you." A grunt and Naruto could see the three sand-nins in the clearing. Temari was off to the side as Kanko-something was backing away from Gaara. The redhead reached forward to Kanko who gave a pleading look to the blonde girl.

"Gaara, stop. Don't be so cold. This is your big sister asking you, okay?" A short moment and Gaara's hand continued to move, now stretched straight out from his body instead of in front of him.

'Kiba's over there. Hinata too.' Gaara's hand went from a relaxed fist to opened palm and the two sand siblings' breath seemed caught in their lungs. Preparing himself to attack if needed, Naruto watched as the smallest sand-nin's hand began to clench.

"Gaara!" Temari's panicked scream almost sent him into the clearing, but there was not indication of an attack. Gaara held something in his hand and used it to stopper the gourd on his back.

"I understand." Turning sharply, Gaara led the way out of the clearing.

'Shit. We should have circled around.' Naruto and Sakura were nearly on the straight path to the tower. The sand-nins would pass no more than ten feed from his position. Scrambling for better cover would only attract attention. A moving object in the corner of your eye makes a good ninja want to investigate.

Gaara seemed to have better eyes than most. The small slow motion of his warning signal to Sakura brought the short ninja's head around to stare right at Naruto. Knowing nothing would save him, the blond glared right back and pretended he wasn't feeling a hurricane of butterflies in his stomach. And that trickle of sweat sliding down the back of his neck was only because of the autumn heat.

This guy gave him the chills that reminded him of Bellatrix Lestrange. If it came to a fight he'd make sure Gaara's full attention was on himself. Kiba and Hinata were still on the other side of the clearing, which meant Shino was probably around somewhere. Sakura could get some help from Team Eight and take care of the other two, but Gaara – everything about the guy screamed 'predator.'

Surprisingly, he was steadily gaining confidence. Worry about fighting this blood tainted genin slipped away. His body was saying 'This man is a danger to our pack,' 'This man threatens me and mine,' 'This man will not live long. Let him come.'

A low rumble started in his chest and a slight snarl twisted his face. 'Just try it raccoon-boy. That blood lust won't last you long if you wish to challenge me now. I don't have time to play, but if it's a fight you want, you'll get far more than that.'

Gaara frowned so slight he would have missed it if he wasn't intently studying his opponent. The sand-nin looked ahead and continued on his way. "Mother's had enough blood today. She'll enjoy yours another time." The quiet murmur easily reached his ears, but he did not take his eyes off the trio until they were completely out of sight.

Author's note:
I'm looking for a beta for the next chapter (the Sasuke versus Sound-trio fight). I need someone that can not only look at the grammer and general spelling errors, but will give a good critique on the descriptive fighting. The Sasuke versus Orochimaru fight was rather rushed as I was more trying to get it posted than quality, but the two largest complaints were the shortness of the chapter and the lack of description in the fight. I think I did better but would like a beta to run it through before posting. Please E-mail 'sangelide-at-todandlorna-dot-com' with the subject "Reclaiming Life Beta" in the subject line by November 29th, 2007 if you are interested. I'd like to get the beta a copy on the 30th and have it back by the 31st. It will be posted on December 1st, 2007, so if you can not meet this deadline, please use include the word "future" in the subject line if you still want to be a beta.