Phew. School has been crazy, but I am beginning to enjoy AP Government. Anyway, sorry for the late update. Before you read the next part, let me thank those awesome reviewers! Meira Evenstar, Fire Rogue Shinobi, Narutoboyluver, Blacknbluesiren, Lily Yamamoto (2), and Eddi.
Just as Akira was about to cut Kankuro in half, a familiar object collided with the left side of her skull, and nearly rendered her unconscious as it sent her flying through the air to her right.
Temari rushed forward to her brother. "Kankuro! Are you okay?" The puppet master rolled his eyes. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "Let's see how to get you out of there."
Figuring she had just a few seconds to free her brother, Temari knew she had no other option. If only I knew some katon jutsu, she sighed.
"This might hurt a bit," she admitted, though she said so with a mischievous grin. Kankuro barely had any time to be surprised or protest before Temari unveiled two exploding tags, ignited them with a quick seal, and threw them on the ground in front of the two frozen figures before jumping out of the way. Within seconds the tags exploded and shards of glass flew in every direction. When the dust cleared, a disgruntled Kankuro emerged with an angry scowl on his face.
He swore and growled at Temari. "That HURT!" Kankuro winced as he pulled out a large piece of ice that was embedded in his left shoulder. The sleeve on his left arm and part of the clothing over his chest were blown off and he was sporting a few minor burns that nonetheless were painful.
Temari just shrugged and joined her brother. "Got you out didn't I? Or would you rather be stuck in an ice cube while I destroy that ice bi—" Just then they were assaulted by ice needles and they had to jump out of the way. When they landed again, Akira was off to their right completely fuming.
"How did you—" Just then another Temari came up behind her and her arm grew and wrapped itself tightly around Akira's torso.
"You don't seem to know the most important rule of fighting a puppet master," Kankuro chided. "Always keep an eye on their puppets." He flicked his wrist and Kuroari appeared next to him. "Didn't you ever wonder where Karasu went?"
As Akira finally understood she growled. That brat used Kawarimi on me again and I didn't see it!
"Suiton: Snow Storm Diversion!" Akira's eyes glowed and she disappeared as tiny pieces of ice, freeing herself from Karasu's grasp. Suddenly they were surrounded by a swirling mass of ice and snow. Akira suddenly materialized in front of them and sliced Temari with her daito only to vanish just as quickly. The Suna shinobi soon found themselves alternatively sliced with the weapon and Akira was nowhere to be found.
"It's a genjutsu!" Temari yelled as she was cut across the cheek. Kankuro grunted his acknowledgement and focused on trying to cover his vital organs.
Temari took a deep breath to calm herself and mentally blocked out the pain. Time to end this battle, she though. Their opponent was impressive because not many were able to stay alive this long when fighting them, but her time was up. She meticulously tracked all the movements of the ice and snow and made a mental list of where and when they were each attacked. After a few minutes she was able to discover the pattern of Akira's attacks.
With one swift movement Temari unfurled her fan and chanted, "Ninpou Fuusajin! (Dust Wind)" Her aim was perfect, and she noted with relief that her chakra enhanced wind collided with Akira and sent her flying, dispelling the genjutsu.
Take that, crybaby, she smirked. Shikamaru wasn't the only strategist. Kankuro let out a sigh of relief and brought his puppets close to him.
Akira soon recovered from Temari's attack and jumped down to meet them, but failed to notice the small pile of dust directly beneath her. When she landed the sand caused her to slip and miss her footing, causing her to tumble down to the earth.
"Kankuro, Interrogation Tactic Three!" Temari knew she would fall for it, everyone always did. What opponents assumed to be just an annoying burst of chakra wind at them had a hidden purpose. It caused sand to appear where they were most likely to step so they would be caught off guard. Temari still remembered with pride when she tricked that brat Sasuke with it during the chuunin exams.
Her brother immediately understood and intricately moved his fingers, causing Kuroari's neck to lift up and a purple coated kunai burst out and made contact with Akira's shoulder, pinning her against the base of a tree. She yelped in pain as the poison began to take effect. Her body no longer responded and she felt her life and vision slowly dissipating.
The two shinobi landed beside her, both with grim smiles.
"This is a special serum I made," Kankuro happily explained, "which is only to be used in interrogation. First it paralyzes you and seals off all your chakra coils, rendering you helpless, and it is combined with a powerful truth serum, so you have no choice but to answer our questions. Then it kills you once I perform a special hand seal so that I have control over how long you spend answering our questions."
Akira's eyes opened wide. "You made a serum like this?" She smirked. "Guess you're not as dumb as you look."
Kankuro grabbed the collar of Akira's jumpsuit. "Now listen here bi—"
"Oh, leave her alone. She's under the effects of a truth serum, remember?" Temari chuckled. Kankuro scowled and folded his arms angrily. "So, first question," Temari continued, "why were you attacking our guard posts? Is it an act of war?"
Akira smirked. "That was two questions." True, she was going to give all the answers against her will, but she wasn't going down without having a little fun. "No, it wasn't for an act of war. The entire purpose was to draw out the infamous Suna Jinchuuriki from the village and kill him."
"Who made you do this?"
"Don't know his name," she sighed, "and he kept his face hidden. He just came to Hiro and me, asking for a favor. Didn't really matter who he was because he was offering a lot of money for it. We had to spend a month or so being specifically trained to fight Gaara, but it was worth it."
"What were his intentions?"
"How should I know? We got a mission and a lot of money to complete it, so we took the job."
Kankuro began to feel uneasy. "Do you at least remember something about what he looked like?"
The prisoner frowned for a second, then answered, "Sort of. I know the main guy had long blonde hair, and his partner was some fat old guy who wore a cloth around his face. They both wore these really ridiculous looking cloaks that were black with red clouds on them though."
This new information meant nothing to them, yet the message was clear; someone desperately wanted Gaara dead and they weren't from Suna. The only puzzling thing was that these shinobi weren't strong enough to defeat them. Sure, it took a lot of work, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. Did the people responsible not know their full abilities, or was it for another reason?
At any rate, Akira no longer served a purpose. While Kankuro made the appropriate hand sign, Akira sighed softly.
"Never thought I'd be bested by some little kids," she mumbled before her head limped forward in defeat. There was silence for a few moments while the Temari checked for a pulse to make sure she was dead.
Temari glanced at her brother. "Wow, you look awful," she taunted. His "war paint" was slightly marred from becoming a human icicle, bits and pieces of his clothes were missing, there were numerous cuts and bloody gashes that adorned random areas of his body, and the burned flesh added to the ensemble.
He snorted at her. "You don't exactly look like a princess yourself," he retorted. Glancing down, Temari felt inclined to agree. She shared many similar cuts and gashes, the most notable where the ice stalks had viciously split apart her flesh, and she could feel some nasty bruising starting to appear all over her body. None of their injuries were that serious, but their cuts were very exposed, leaving them vulnerable to infection and blood loss could play a factor later. Kankuro's burns would also have to be looked at.
"We better go see how Gaara's doing."
To say Hiro was surprised was an understatement. He was completely baffled. This mission was supposed to be relatively easy; fight the demon to drain him of his chakra, make his sand explode (rendering him helpless), and then kill him before he could even blink. This was not in his original calculations.
That annoying girl sat there before him as thick trails of blood ran down her left arm. She had stopped his katana with her forearm and the bones were now severely broken. She was protecting him!
Hanshara winced. The pain was excruciating. As Hiro tried to kill Gaara, she did the only thing she could think of; stop it with her own body. Thanks to her training, she was able to move fast enough to get in the way, and she held up her left arm to block it.
She was immensely grateful and surprised that her arm hadn't been cut off. As the blade stuck, there was a reverberating crunch; similar to the sound of someone walking on glass. Blinding red pain filled her consciousness, and her heart skipped a few beats as her brain stumbled to register the unendurable level of pain. Still unable to think clearly, Hanshara squinted at her shocked opponent, whose eyes had seemed to double in size. Anger soon clouded his expression, and Hanshara grimaced and whimpered in agony as he dislodged the blade.
As he raised the katana again, Hanshara called out to the sand closest to her and sent it flying into his eyes. The man yelped in surprise and dropped his weapon, furiously wiping the sand away so he could see. Wasting no time, Hanshara cradled her useless arm against her chest, pushed herself into a standing position, and charged at the unsuspecting shinobi. She locked both legs together then crashed into his stomach, feet first.
Hiro wheezed as all the air left his lungs and he swore he heard a lung crack. He flew through the air and collided with an uprooted tree, with his back slamming into it first with a powerful whiplash soon after. Hanshara slid on the ground a couple feet in front of him, using her right hand to steady herself.
She swore at being reduced to just taijutsu, seeing as how any attack she threw at him with sand would blow up in her face—literally. She was beginning to see that having no weapons with her was a serious flaw in their preparations.
The shinobi slowly picked himself off the ground and spat out blood. It would be harder to complete his jutsu now because each ragged breath resulted in pain. He had to kill her now before she could do anything else so he could accomplish his mission.
Ignoring the pain, Hiro took a smaller breath, puckered his lips, and blew. "Sound Wave Cannon!" A concentrated high frequency beam bolted towards her and she barely had enough time to get out of the way. However, as she dodged, Hiro followed her with his beam, and Hanshara felt her sense of perception failing, causing her to trip over an upended root. Hiro's beam caught her leg just before he ran out of breath.
The Suna kunoichi cried in agony as the attack tore into her ligaments and burst a small hole into her calf about an inch in diameter. She collapsed on the ground and inspected the hole on her right leg. The blood easily flowed through the open wound.
Hiro coughed up more blood and then staggered over to the fallen girl, grinning wildly. Hanshara gasped as her vision became foggy, and she started to have trouble hearing various sounds and differentiating them.
Noticing her expression, Hiro chuckled. "Having trouble concentrating? When I caused the sand in your ears to explode, the sound wave they gave off attacked your semicircular canals in your ears, messing up your five senses. You should be incapable of fighting for a while."
"Also," he wheezed, "That last jutsu was extremely powerful. Usually sound waves aren't dangerous, but if they are focused just right, and enough power is put behind them, they can go right through your skin and tear the flesh apart. If aimed at your heart, it can prove fatal." Hanshara gasped as she realized what he was about to do, and struggled to get up, but found she couldn't.
"Goodbye," Hiro taunted solemnly. As he took a breath, sand shot out from behind him and wrapped around his body until he was almost completely smothered in it. Hanshara struggled to focus on what was happening before her.
As Hiro was slowly being lifted up into the air, made immobile by the sand, Gaara stumbled forward out from behind a tree, covered in dried and flowing blood, but nonetheless alive.
"You should really shut up once and a while and actually focus on the battle," Gaara advised dryly.
"HAA!" Hiro screamed. "Nice try demon, but I can easily escape from this pathetic 'Desert Coffin' of yours!" With that he took a deep breath and expelled the air, yet nothing happened. Hiro frowned and tried again, completely focused on creating the sound, but the sand didn't move at all.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
Gaara sighed impatiently. "While you two were fighting, I drew up minerals from deep within the earth and merged them with my sand." He locked eyes with Hiro. "Minerals with densities greater than my sand and the strongest on the earth." His opponent gasped, then let out a loud cry of despair and anger that Gaara was all too happy to extinguish.
"Sabaku SouShu!" Hiro was gone forever. Previously, Gaara had thought he couldn't have gotten any more covered in blood, but he was wrong. The blood of their former opponent rained on the two shinobi, blending in with their own.
After he let his sand fall, Gaara let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground, clutching his ears. So, Hanshara thought, he is suffering the same effects as me. She groaned as she slowly dragged herself over to him, the area around them swaying and becoming more blurred with each passing second.
"G-Gaara?" Her voice was strange, as if it was an echo in an empty room and garbled as if she were underwater.
"So—sorry, Hanshara," Gaara answered weakly. "Should'a . . . been faster . . . " Suddenly there were two figures standing over them—or what he assumed were two figures. They were more like foggy blurs.
"GAARA!" The voice was so far away, so distant . . . . it sounded like Temari.
"How could he be bleeding? The sand armor is supposed to protect him?" Gaara gave a weak smile at his brother's comment.
"It's ironic," he slurred. "The sand armor is what hurt me." Temari and Kankuro glanced at each other in alarm as Gaara fainted.
"Hanshara! What happened?" Temari demanded The kunoichi rushed to her side and cradled her in her arms.
"H-Hiro . . . made the sand . . . explode and . . . we h-had some . . . in . . . our ears . . . hard to concen—trate . . . " Then she too succumbed to unconsciousness.
Kankuro swore. It was about a two day journey back to their village; they would die from blood loss first! What were they to do?
"Kankuro! Take some cloth and wrap it around the places where Gaara is bleeding the most!" Temari ordered. She untied her sash and firmly tied it around Hanshara's waist, and she noted with disgust that so much flesh had been ripped off Temari could see some of her hip bone.
"Got it!" The shinobi paused for a second before bringing Karasu towards him and tore off his puppet's cape, tearing it into random pieces. Gaara had a lot of places that were bleeding the most! There was no way he could pick just a few. Thinking quickly, Kankuro strapped cloth around Gaara's main pressure points, and wiped away the blood that marred his face so he could breathe easier.
"Konoha is about half a day's away. We should go there to seek help!" Temari reasoned a little hysterically. The cuts all over their body weren't necessarily what worried her; what was unsettling was the amount of blood and the blood coming out of their ears.
If those explosions were too close to their eardrums they could become permanently deaf, which would be a serious handicap for a shinobi. What was also unsettling was the fact that it reminded her that her youngest brother was not immortal.
At the beginning, Gaara being seemingly immortal was a nuisance, and she would feel herself straying to almost wishing he would die, partly because he caused so much trouble, and partly because she felt it would be a better life for him than the one he was currently living. However, as of late she had grown to be grateful for the fact that practically nothing could hurt him. She wanted him to live on and fulfill his dream and to try and enjoy what life can bring.
Now he was so covered in blood that he looked like someone had thrown red paint all over his body. Temari scooped Hanshara in her arms while Kankuro did the same with Gaara. With a frantic nod they each took off towards Konoha, not noticing the two, dark figures hidden in the vegetation around them.
"Your subordinates were weak," a deep voice scolded.
"Tch! They did their part. Anyway, their jutsus weren't any type of art anyway," a blonde replied in irritation. "Although I did enjoy that one guy's explosive jutsu, what was his name . . . Hiko?" he added as an after thought.
"What do you think about this Jinchuuriki?" the first asked, ignoring his partner's previous observation.
The blonde stroked his chin. "He's quite powerful, but I think I can defeat him, hmph."
Well, there you have it! I hope the fact that the Akatsuki is testing Gaara to see his strengths is believable.
Also, I really hope you were able to understand the fighting, and that you enjoyed it (especially the faceless master who requested a fight scene)!