Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything associated with it whatsoever. Alas, and woe.
Journey Through Night
Chapter 10
The sparrow was chirruping to himself (herself?) as he hopped along the surface of the smooth-polished concrete. The little songbird happily twittered, his tiny claws scrapping lightly on the floor as he landed after each bounce, his bright eyes focused on the seeds scattered like beads along the floor the greenhouse. He came to stop on the edge of a small pile of pale yellow seed, fallen to the floor. The seed pack rested against the side of a red planter holding a bright green herb, its white blossoms open and fragrant. The bird turned his head sideways to examine the seeds, fluffed his sandy feathers, and began to peck at the morsels, singing cheerfully to himself.
A light breeze flowed through the open spaces of the greenhouse, carrying the scent and coolness of the flowers and chatter of the bird to the women seated nearby, a cup of tea cradled in her wrinkled hands. Uzume took another appreciative sip of the aromatic drink, smiling softly as the little sparrow fluffed his feathers in celebration and enthusiastically stuffed his face.
She sighed to herself, the antics of her teatime companion not quite enough to block from her mind the sounds of strain, distress, and dismay outside of the glimmering glass of the green sanctuary. The desperation of the citizens of the city was approaching riots. Unused office rooms in the Kazekage's Tower had been commandeered and redesignated as temporary holding cells once the typical jail cells had become so packed that fights and deaths were inevitable. Mixing the genuine thugs every city, even a Hidden Village, has with everyday people driven out of their reason with panic was a sure way for someone to die.
In an attempt to alleviate the difficulties associated with food distribution, Gaara-sama had banned hoarding food, including the bureaucrats guarding their ostentatiously walled orchards from other villagers. Of course, some people took advantage of the change in law to attempt to ransack merchant's estates, creating all new chaos. Worse, some of the thugs had tried to attack the greenhouses.
The sounds of vociferous arguing filtered in through the doorways. Uzume carefully set the cup down as she stood to arrange her burgundy robe and shawl. No matter how many times it was said, local crooks seemed bent on claiming the greenhouses grew food as a ploy to gain entry to see what they could steal. Perhaps seeing the Director tell-off the rabble would encourage her few employees, backed by the shinobi who would defend the greenhouse complex as part of their rounds, to keep arguing no matter how annoying and tedious it became.
A final huff, and the woman took a deep breath- then gasped as a sharp crack split the air, sending the sparrow fleeing out the doorway. Dark eyes, not quite as sharp as they once were, turned to see a jagged break through the porcelain of the teacup. Shards and powdery dust mixed with the glimmering puddle of spilt tea spreading across the tabletop.
The hands that had been smoothing her robe stilled, her breath caught in her throat.
"Oh dear Kami…"
*****O*****
The tunnel was barely large enough to move through, more akin to the dimensions of a burrow. Fine grains of sand tumbled down from the low roof of the narrow passageway into the dark caverns of the drained underground river system.
Neji inched forward, the fabric draping from his elbows brushing against the sides of the tunnel, freeing even more sand to slide loose and skitter down through the dark. Chakra flowed in a steady stream to his eyes, the distinct pressure of his bulging chakra network strong against the bones of his face and skull.
Kankuro was moving ahead of him in the dark, his puppet manipulated through the tunnel with such skill that even the rattling noise of the puppet was suspended, the weapon soundless. There were no signs of more traps ahead, but a lapse in his concentration was not acceptable. Contrary to myths perpetuated among those outside of the clan, speculations not discouraged by the Hyuuga, the Byakugan did not grant X-Ray vision nor was it simple to train oneself to understand visual input in 360˚. Even with his bloodline active, he could fail to recognize evidence of danger just as easily as he could with regular vision if not focused.
With his concentration forward as he traveled deeper into the earth, the area behind him was as indistinct as normal peripheral vision. He could see the hazy outline of Kiba's chakra network; a ghostly flame in the lightless tunnel. Though he could not see him, farther back Akamaru would be following. Matsuri would be trailing the nin-dog, but the angle of the descending tunnel put too much sand and loam between them for him to detect the kunoichi with his kekkei genkai alone.
A very subtle shift in the air brushed his face. The ground around him was not so sandy, more compact, and the pattern of the movement of the Kankuro's chakra network changed, showing greater lateral motion. A hint of light, flickering torches. The end of the tunnel was approaching.
Moving with haste was a temptation. Neji kept his pace deliberate and breathing steady as Kankuro's silhouette, and that of the puppet in front of him, became clear.
The grunt was all but inaudible as Kankuro jerked his arm, sending Karasu spearing forward. A muffled, aborted yelp.
"GO!" Kankuro was racing for the mouth of the tunnel.
Chakra rushed to his feet as Neji vaulted forward, using his hands to dig into the soil for purchase, barely aware of Kiba hurrying behind him.
He arrived the exit just in time to see the Gold nin not bleeding out on the blades of Karasu finishing a flurry of hand seals. Chakra released.
The tunnel imploded.
Heavy soil crashed onto Neji's lower half from the hips down, throwing the jounin to the rock hard floor. A blink of time and chakra blasted from the chakra points of his legs. The ground erupted in bombardment of earth. The Gold nin, gasping through the greasy curtain of his tangled hair, leapt back deeper into the caves as Neji landed lightly in front of him, sliding easily into his Juuken stance. From behind the nin, the subtle sounds of more ninja approaching could be heard.
The warm glow of the torches reflecting off the rocky walls was joined by a burst of white. Smoothly, Neji landed Juuken strike with his palm on the greasy nin's upper arm. A kunai appeared in a dirty hand with chipped nails. Too slow. A quick chakra bearing jab to the shoulder and the kunai dropped, another efficient strike to the base of the throat and a collapsed body landed at his feet.
Neji scanned the cavern made by the river system. Kankuro was alert behind him, Karasu free of the body that had been skewered on its retractable blades.
No immediate challenges.
"Kiba!" He shouted at the collapsed tunnel wall, dirt and debris spilled out onto the unforgiving rock. Dark and abrasive, the soil was motionless.
He was too far back. They couldn't have made that distance.
"Kiba!" With more force. And Matsuri?
The heavy weight of the fallen sand and rock didn't stir.
Buried alive…
Instinct and ingrained reflex had him vaulting backward.
"Duel Piercing Fang!"
The tunnel wall exploded again as a whirlwind of chakra threw the earth into the cave. Twin spirals of raw energy shattered and scattered the debris in a rain of dirt and dust.
Kiba stumbled as he came out of the twisting rotation, coughing and gagging, his sandals skidding on the smooth stone. He threw his arms and legs outward, struggling for balance and orientation as he labored for breath, his leather jacket and spiky hair throwing dirt in a ragged arc. Beside him Akamaru scrabbled at the floor with all four paws, dirt clotting in his eyes, cling to his slobbery lips.
A big gasp and the Inuzuka righted himself, breathing hard. Black eyes met white as he looked to Neji, then he directed his attention to his canine partner. Akamaru was rubbing at his eyes in with his forepaws, slobbery and blowing hard to clear his snout.
Relief curled with a disturbing coolness through his torso as Kiba stood hunched in the tunnels.
But.
"Matsuri?" Kankuro asked, his looking over his shoulder at the Konoha shinobi as he paid attention to the stretching caverns around them.
Kiba, pale and haggard, heaved through his open mouth as he looked to his stoic taichou. Neji watched as the chuunin turned towards Akamaru. The furry head, still blowing hard, looked up to the nin, his doggy expression unreadable to the Hyuuga.
Kiba's jaw dropped farther. "What do you mean you don't know?" he hissed in effort to keep his voice low, incredulous.
Floppy, furry ears moved back and forth, and more inscrutable communication occurred.
"How was she not behind you?" he demanded. The chuunin looked up. "How was she not behind us? Didn't you see her, Neji?"
Controlling his emotions was a challenged. "I am not able to see through that amount solid matter. The distance between us in the tunnel was too great."
Kankuro didn't comment, but Kiba weaved slightly on the spot. His thoughts were easy to read.
Maybe she got out.
"We need to move," Neji interrupted. Matsuri was an unknown, and their position had been revealed.
"There's nothing down this way," Kankuro reported frankly as he and Karasu faced towards one side of their chamber. "Trouble is that way." He looked to the other side, the tunnel from which the sounds of motion were coming. He smirked, his eyes becoming slights in his face paint. "There's no use heading into the unknown and getting lost." He focused on the source of the noise, the others turning with him. "Let's head into trouble, shall we?"
*****O*****
"Sakura, I know it can be difficult for doctors and medics to turn off their 'medical mode', but if you don't stop analyzing me, I'm going to throw your butt out."
Sakura, deciding to tread lightly to avoid an incident, laughed awkwardly, her face showing her chagrin. True, she was having a hard time just taking a walk, but she had a good reason.
The two kunoichi walked side by side, the pace the slow metered pace of a casual walk. Sakura couldn't help but listen to how Temari's feet sounded as they hit the floor, even and steady. The blonde's strength was rapidly returning, her balance and coordination exactly as they should be.
And true to form, Temari wasn't shy about it either. As soon as she had permission secured, she said, the kunoichi had dived into the bathroom for a lightening quick military shower and had changed into her standard uniform from her thin hospital gown. Her sandy blonde hair was back in its usual four-ponytail square, and her Iron Fan was secured to her back. She would have looked like her old self were it not for the lingering angularity of her face and the last vestiges of the yellow from the jaundice still tinting her skin.
This was how Sakura and the now ever-trailing Sari had found the Ambassador as she walked back and forth down the hallways of the quartered off sections of the desert hospital, her gloved hands stretched far over head as her back cracked audibly.
The hallways were the same brightly lit sandstone polished stone they had always been, with doctors, nurses, orderlies, and shinobi staff rushing from one place to another. What was different was the feel of the place. The emotions and attitudes of those hurrying by and in and out of adjacent rooms had changed drastically. Before the atmosphere was suffocating, claustrophobic, and the despair, terror, and raw anger sucked the life out of any who passed by like air from the lungs. Now hope was rising with almost hysteric urgency. The regimen of treatments, so problematic in shinobi with their large, well-developed chakra networks, were much easier in the civilians of the city. Some of the more recently infected civilians were, by all evaluations, already cured. The difficulty was the limited number of doctors on hand versus the need.
On the plus side, physical quarantine, preventing the sharing of water sources and water prepared foods, and the isolation of chakra based shinobi weapons had been determined to be enough to prevent further distribution of the tainted chakra. The water-based nature of the jutsu meant it only could remain functional if in water, such as the water rich structure of a person, or a chakra containing seal. She had been told Gaara had already approved a dispatch to Konoha asking for input on crating a counter-seal to be a 'vaccine' against reinfection.
She hoped Shino would come around soon.
"You're still doing it." Temari's blue eyes narrowed and regarded her askance.
Sakura smiled in apology and threw her hands up in a defensive gesture as Sari, who was walking just behind them rapidly turned her head back and forth between them. It was clear Temari's cabin fever had just about depleted the taller kunoichi's good will.
"You said yourself it's difficult," Sakura pleaded lightly, trying placate her companion. "Besides, what else should I do while we just walk in circles?"
"You mean you're bored?"
Implied: Then go do something else!
"No!" Sakura insisted reflexively. "It's just that you don't seem very talkative."
Temari's blue eyes rolled to look on the upper diagonal. Her still chapped lips quirked up, and Sakura suddenly had a very ominous feeling. Apparently, Temari wanted to talk about something, just not with present company; namely the entire hospital stuff swarming around them.
She wants to discuss my relationship- thing… whatever! - with Gaara. Oh, please not that…
She really did not need someone like Temari focused on getting her and Gaara to get serious.
Sakura could practically feel Sari freeze up in the wave of awkwardness trailing behind them.
"Don't tell me you're bashful, Sakura," Temari muttered quietly, the half-smile in her voice setting off all sorts of warning bells in Sakura's mind.
If Temari figured out how to get to her when it came to Gaara, she was doomed.
She forced herself to remain cool and detached. "Not particularly." She paused to appear nonchalant. "Why do you ask?" She turned big green eyes to look innocently at her counterpart.
Temari opened her mouth to answer, only to abruptly look away, her attention directed forward. Sakura followed her gaze to see a chuunin with the insignia of the Cipher Squad and a look of mild panic come rushing through the sea of scrubs and lab coats.
"Chuunin," Temari called, causing the messenger to whip his turban covered head towards her so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. The man corrected himself and danced his way through the crowd to stand in front of the jounin.
"Temari-sama," he began, slightly breathless, as Sakura and Sari leaned in to hear over the scrape and bustle of the hallway. "We recently received a dispatch from Kankuro-sama's squad." The man stopped, his dark eyes shifting in a way that suggested the rest should be said privately.
As Temari briskly nodded her understanding, Sakura looked around briefly until she saw the door to a room she knew to have been recently emptied during her rounds.
"Here."
The group followed the beacon of red and pink to the door. Sakura grabbed the handle and pushed it open to find an orderly preparing the bed for a new patient. As the grey-haired woman looked up from spreading the clean sheets, she started in surprise at the person who walked in behind the pink-haired foreigner.
"We need to borrow this room, orderly-san," Sakura explained as the woman tried not to gape at Temari. "You can have it again as soon as were done."
The woman excused herself and hurried out the door.
Temari didn't waste any time. "What do you have?"
"Ma'am!" the chuunin withdrew the message scroll from his pouch and handed it to the jounin. "The dispatch from Kankuro-sama states they have found the entrance to the underground system where the enemy is believed to be hiding. All but his squad was destroyed in an ambush during the last sandstorm. He made the decision to go infiltrate the base and requests the Village send any help available."
Sakura felt her heart jump up and them then slam to the floor as the messenger spoke, her eyes widening. Her mind automatically balked at the logic of going in to what amounted to an enemy fortress after suffering massive casualties in an ambush, but a second later the knowledge of why made itself known. What good did it do to fallback if you couldn't expect reinforcements and the enemy could just refine their plans in the meantime? How could they send now?
I should go. She should be with her team after all, and they needed a medic.
"Understood." Temari said, quickly reviewing the inked message before closing the scroll. "Forward this to Gaara, which is what I'm sure you were doing."
Temari stepped aside to let the man exit the room, before turning to Sakura.
"I'm ready. You?"
Sakura blinked. "Are you telling me you want to go?" In her condition? She was almost dead for most of the past week!
"Of course I am," Temari said sternly, looking Sakura dead in the eye. "For numerous reasons we don't have time to discuss. Don't even try to stop me."
Sakura felt her eyebrow twitch as she pictured the brawl that was going to follow if they tried to match wills and what Tsunade would do to her when she found out.
"You aren't fit for duty," she pointed out flatly.
"Close enough," Temari countered. "And I am not leaving my brother out there without back up. Especially not when I'm immediately under Gaara in authority, and especially not during a crisis where he's going after the people who did all this."
Temari's teeth clicked shut with finality the marked the argument closed. "You would do the same thing if you were me. Coming or not?"
Sakura hated that Temari was right. She was going to be in so much trouble as a medic for letting a key diplomat and relative of the Kazekage go out into battle unfit and when it was almost certainly into a loss given the strategic disadvantage.
"As you wish." Sakura scowled and rolled her shoulders.
"You, Sari-kun," Temari called the genin, who had been playing the fly on the wall, over to herself. The lanky girl skittered over to the much taller jounin, big brown eyes wide with trepidation. "I want you to stay close to Sakura and I. Stay out of combat unless one of us clear you."
The brunette's nervous energy nearly exploded out of her skin. "I'm going with you?!" She looked as though she'd been informed she was going to be used for target practice at the Academy.
Even as Sakura had her doubts about brining along such a green shinobi, Temari removed any room for escape.
"Are you a Suna kunoichi or aren't you?" she challenged, her voice sharp.
The genin snapped to attention, her narrow shoulders way too rigid. "Hai!"
"Then you're coming," Temari finished.
The blonde turned to the medic. "Let's go."
*****O*****
The mild ache in his lungs caused by his fight for air while buried in the ground was fading. It had been frickin' annoying to be buried like that out of the blue. These Gold nin were going to have to try a lot harder than that to kill him, but little tricks like that were so irritating. He had to take a minute to get out and get reoriented before he could fight and that just slowed him down. That and the second it took to coordinate with Akamaru.
Kiba flared his nostrils as he pulled in the scents, aromas, and odors of the drained underground river system. Mostly odors.
The Gold nin's hideout was far from sophisticated, definitely a casualty of their refugee, guerilla group lifestyle. The reek of the acrid smell unwashed human body, sulfuric stench of improper sanitation, and the rot and decay of poor maintenance and a lack of fresh supplies marked the center of operations. Smells and odor filtered out like the tentacles of a sea creature. At least it made it hard for the nin to sneak up on their team.
The cavern, easily the size of the old hall were they had faced their first preliminary of the third portion of the chuunin exams, worn smooth by millennia of rushing water, echoed and reverberated with sounds of shattering stone and shrieks and calls of battles.
It was so much better than sniffing the dirt for clues.
"Hah!"
His shout tricked his opponent, a dirt-caked, sallow skinned nin in a stolen Iwa flak jacket, to look just in time for the tread of Kiba's sandals to plant their pattern on his face. Kiba rode the momentum and the man's face into the ground with a wet thud, then pulled out a kunai to deflect an incoming barrage of shuriken.
The attacker dashed forward, chambering a kick to crash into Kiba's head. He ducked the blow, then jumped back to avoid the hasty kick meant for his gut. Kiba cocked his arm, the hand clenched in a fist around the kunai punching forward, aiming for them Gold shinobi's nose to crush it. The nin flung himself to the side, narrowing avoiding the glinting tip of the trailing blade, only to double over as Kiba's knee buried itself in his solar plexus. A hammer blow to the back of the nin's skull sent him crashing into the rocky floor.
A toothy grin split the lower half of his face. Alright, good times. He looked up, confirming what his other senses had already picked up. Gold nin were tossed across the rocky floor like rag dolls, one of them covered in white dog hair.
He jogged over to where Neji stood in the cave, scanning carefully with his Byakugan.
"Not too bad," he observed, as Akamaru, looking around the bend in the tunnels ahead, panted calmly. "What's ahead?"
"I know you're glad to be able to finally fight with someone, Kiba. Don't get carried away."
Kiba responded with a snort, his jovial mood dampened by the rebuke. You know why I want them so bad. He gave Neji a small glare as he looked to where Kankuro was inspecting Karasu for damage.
"These shinobi are all but sick their condition is so bad," Kankuro commented, his eyes still on his wooden puppet. He turned them to look at Kiba. "They must be desperate to finish what they're doing, and believe they're close to accomplishing it."
Neji nodded briefly, while Kiba scowled. Well, duh. He redirected his attention to Akamaru, who was giving no sign more Gold nin were coming. They were regrouping somewhere.
"Let's get organized and go then," Kiba said, keeping the grumble out of his voice.
"I see no indications of traps, detectors, a counter-offensive, or anything to tell us if we're approaching the shinobi powering the seal," Neji reported. "There is a minor tunnel branching off to the right ahead. Kiba, which direction?"
Kiba took another breath, the putrid smells in the cavern hitting his lungs. "We definitely want the major tunnel."
"Right," Kankuro muttered, walking forward, his three-eyed puppet chattering noisily. "Move out."
*****O*****
The leafs of papers shuffled through his hands as he examined the names now available for the duty roster. The number fallen ill had increased, but the number of actual casualties had stabilized.
Baki controlled his frown as he regarded the information, even though there was no one in the empty hallway outside the Kazekage's office to draw conclusions from his expression. Gaara-sama had dismissed the ceremonial guard to perform the duties where they could actual be useful.
The rough sound of the paper brushing against itself as he shuffled the report echoed slightly in the empty corridor then was joined by the sound of rapid steps approaching. The jounin looked up to see a chuunin messenger rushing towards him, the cloth of his turban extending past his hitai-ite flapping with in the breeze he was creating.
"Sir! I have an emergency dispatch for the Kazekage-sama."
Baki turned to regard the messenger, noting the man flinching as he saw the hard lines he wore as his expression. "The Kazekage-sama is not in his office."
"I know, Sir," the man flinched again as he was mildly reprimanded for not knowing where his Kage was, rushing into a restricted area and taking up the time of a senior officer. "I searched everywhere. But you know his location, Sir."
The old soldier looked towards the chuunin with more regard. As of late, every small dispatch was handled with utmost priority. Gaara did not want to see one more 'emergency' concerning a Council Member not having access to enough oranges to properly flavor the ten tier chocolate cake for his daughter's thirteenth birthday.
'This time of rationing and quarantine is bad enough, and now a young lady of her standing must suffer through a party unbefitting of her station!'
The soldier would only be so insistent if the messenger was actually important.
"What do you have, chuunin?" Baki asked as he held out his hand for the offered scroll.
"A message handed over from the Cipher Squad. Kankuro-sama's latest dispatch." The messenger was direct and succinct. " His squad discovered an entrance to the enemy's fortification and chose to engage. He has requested any available reinforcements."
The chuunin's voice began to fade as Baki rapidly headed down the empty hall to the underground levels where Gaara could be found. Gaara had left orders to not receive any dispatches unless his former sensei cleared them first. "You should have come to me to clear the orders first."
"Of course, Sir," the man said as he rushed after the retreating jounin, "but the orders were already cleared by Temari-sama."
Really? He turned his head to talk over his shoulder. "Did she add her own comments?"
"No, Sir."
He nodded in acknowledgement.
"Temari-sama must have decided to handle it herself," the man continued, the note of relief at having passed on his message detectable. "Temari-sama, Haruno-san, and the genin Sari-san have deployed in the direction of the Oasis."
Baki's sandals nearly squeaked against the polished stone as he halted.
"Say that again?"
*****O*****
The dunes were high. The storm had rearranged the grit and dust, making each long stride of the trio of kunoichi toss up a sandy cloud in their wake.
In an odd way, the dunes were like a work of art. The shapes of the dunes, the degradation of color where pristine sunlit white faded to cool blue shadows. The mix of shapes and colors continued endless toward the gentle arc of the horizon. Unmarred, clean, without any taint.
The sun was setting fast. Traveling during the high heat of the afternoon had been very unwise from a desert safety standpoint, but necessary. Sakura had been sure to watch both Suna kunoichi to monitor their water intake despite knowing they would never be careless enough allow themselves to dehydrate. It was easier than allowing her mind to dwell too much on what might be awaiting their small team.
Slit open abdomens, guts splattered on the floor, slick with their with their own juices. Necks snapped and torn so vertebrae thrust through rent flesh lying like a useless blanket. Faces charred and ashen, black maws frozen in open gapes of horror. But rarely burned hot enough to remove all moisture.
Her hand reached down for her water bottle, hand tightening on the neck and she pulled it free with a gloved hand. She watched ahead of her as Temari and Sari jumped effortless towards the Oasis ahead. They had to be approaching the rest point soon.
As if on cue the black robes of Temari landed atop a rock jutting up out of the sand. Once she was sure her teammates were joining her, she slipped down into the ragged shadow.
"No complaints?" Sakura asked as she ducked into the cool shade, carefully eyeing the recovering jounin and rookie genin, searching for signs of over exertion. Temari was somewhat pale, but not enough to suggest she was experiencing anything more than effects of the long run. Sari was panting slightly as she used her hands to tighten the cloth tied over her hair, but nothing excessive.
"No, Sakura-san." Sari was reaching for the water bottle at her hip.
"Nothing," Temari took a deep breath, looking up at the sky, reading it without the interference of the sun's reflected glare.
The break needed to be brief, and Sakura pulled out one of the soldier pills they had agreed to use on the run. It wouldn't be good to have their stomachs and muscles competing for oxygenated blood.
"I want us to move in a tighter group as we approach the Oasis," Temari said, earning a puzzled look from the medic. "I want us to maintain close proximity for defense."
Oddly enough, due to their unusual circumstances, during an attack they would need to remain close to each other. A rookie genin, a medic, or a long distance specialist did not want to be trapped in the open alone.
Their trio leaped back out into the sun, its rays darkening to orange as it approached the horizon, the sky around it darkening. In a way, the darkness would help to provide a cover they needed once approached the perimeter.
"You're something of a natural when it comes to desert travel Sakura," Temari observed, her sandy blonde bangs blown back from her hitai-ite.
Sakura shrugged, looking at her out of the corner of her eye. "It's natural for a shinobi to travel through all environments with ease, is it not?" she answered.
"True, but you don't seem to have any problems with it, unlike some of the other shinobi who come out of the trees," she said with a teasing grin. "Quite a difference from how you handle our coffee."
Sakura grinned weakly, certain her ears were turning a color to match her hair. She could practically feel Sari's surprised look on the back of her head.
"Good to know since you'll be spending a lot of time here."
She is merciless when she wants to be. The idea of how she would face off against Temari as a sister-in-law came to mind; an idea ruthlessly quashed.
"I won't be here that often," Sakura countered reasonably, before the group left of the apex of dune onto the next. "I have a lot I'm doing in Konoha."
"Are you saying you're jerking my brother around?"
"No! I…" Turning to Temari, she could see the jounin was kidding, but not completely. Blue-green eyes were carefully watching for her answer.
"No, I'm not…I am not taking Gaara's feelings lightly, Temari, but it's a little early to get serious."
There was going to be an international incident yet at this rate. How did she do these things to herself? Not only did she pick socially isolated, emotionally damaged guys, she had to fall for one with the possibility of future warfare as consequence if they had a nasty break up.
Then came the small voice from their back. "Sakura-san? Ohf!"
Sakura didn't have to look behind her to Sari's shocked expression, or the fact she had nearly done a face-plant in the sand during her next landing. The medic cringed as she imagined the gossip.
"Gaara and have known each other a while," she said over her shoulder, a shaky smile on her face. Again. "It's not like were a couple or anything."
"You aren't?"
Temari must be laughing hysterically on the inside by now.
"No, we aren't. We are not," she answered confidently, trying to avert disaster. "We are close based on our shared history."
"But you just said he has feelings for you and you are aware."
Kami, what did I do that offended you this much? "True, but I have a lot of training left to do under Tsunade-shishou… and some history if have to clear up. Gaara knows these things. And who knows what will happen between now and then?"
Temari looked towards her again, squinting slightly against the angle of the sun. "You intend to learn everything possible from the Hokage-sama?" she asked in the tone of one confirming established fact.
"Yes, of course."
"And then you'll come back?"
"Ye-, no! … I will at some point in accordance with a mission, I'm sure." Yup, merciless.
It was obvious that Temari was enjoying teasing her before they had to face whatever was underground, but she was also genuinely interested in just how deep her feelings ran. Getting serious at this point was nothing short of crazy. They were only 15! Even if they didn't both have a lot of learning and training to go through, it wasn't like they'd get married anytime soon.
Or married at all! That was so far in the future. It was something she had to aware of because of how Gaara's position of Kazekage affected his personal life, but that didn't mean she had to focus on it. She had wanted to get married at some point anyway. Having a husband and kids was something that she wanted to have, but now anytime soon! Temari's was really pushing too hard.
"But you'll come back for Gaara too, right?" the blonde asked.
Sakura suppressed a sigh. "Honestly, who knows? I'm not psychic."
Temari's teasing faded. "You know you can't take this anything but seriously, Sakura, if you can't see becoming serious with Gaara in the future, don't even start in that direction."
The finality of Temari's words surprised her, her eyebrows pulling together in confusion. "Why?"
Temari turned her head to face her fully, her expression focused. "As time passes Gaara is going to have fewer and fewer people he can trust. He's never had a network of people could trust, but due to his position people will always attempt to manipulate him, and the people who rise to positions to interact with him will especially be career manipulators. Do you understand?"
A wait settled on her mind as she processed the ramifications of Temari's words. If Gaara wanted to marry someday, it would be difficult for him to find someone through his connections that would not have ambitions and aspirations or be a puppet of someone else's. Someone as emotional fragile as Gaara would be crushed by most of the usual potential brides. The more time went by, the more he would have a network of only those dubious persons as he lost contact with old friends he acquired before rising to a position of power.
In other words, he had to find someone he could marry soon to be anything like happy with a wife. Even if it was only a companionate marriage and not a romantic one. If she wasn't capable of seeing herself marrying him in the future, she needed to bow out know for his sake.
"Sakura-san is going to marry the Kazekage-sama?" Sari sounded flabbergasted.
Something in her tone made Sakura look back to the genin's mildly perturbed expression.
"Sari, would it be unacceptable somehow if I were to marry the Kazekage?" she called over her shoulder.
Sari increased her pace over the sand to bring herself closer to the other kunoichi. "The Kazekage-sama is from Suna. He should marry someone from Suna."
Sakura felt her eyebrows go up as she returned her attention to the blonde. "Would marrying me get Gaara in trouble with the Village Council?"
"Having a pulse gets Gaara in trouble with the Village Council," Temari answered. "Don't worry about that."
Sakura was opening her mouth to object before the hand of Temari rose up to cut her off, her pony-tailed head jerking in the direction they were traveling. Looking ahead, she could see a change on the deep blue horizon, the appearance of moisture in the sandy ground. Beneath their sandals, the sandy dunes were giving way to hard-packed, fine-grained soil with a smattering of thorny shrubs.
Nodding sharply to show she wanted them to move forward, the group continued creeping over the scrubland in silence.
*****O*****
Curls of sand heaved through the sky in spitting arcs, whipping and snapping in violent twists. Grains hissed, rushed, and sliced against each other, rough, grating, harsh, crushing out any hint of air between them.
Chakra swirled into the vortex, twisting in tight tendrils between each individual piece of grit, speak of dirt, shard of natural glass, driving it, empowering it, sending into a rage of energy that surged with relentless speed over the sun-blasted desert below as it ferried its master north.
He was going to give Temari such a lecture; maybe put her on desk duty until she begs for mercy.
The hoards of turbulent sands hid the lightening bolt of chakra arcing between grains, but it did nothing to hide the thunder in Kazekage's expression. Temari's behavior was irresponsible, unprofessional, and borderline insubordinate. Her symptoms were too severe to qualify as walking wounded. She should not have returned to combat. The offence was reproachable in a foot soldier, worse in someone of her rank and command.
She had taken both Sakura and the genin Sari with her.
Anger burned in his veins, raw like the rip of sand on fragile skin. His eyes narrowed as he stood, ostensibly aloof on the platform of the racing waves of sand. A rescue mission had just become unnecessarily complicated. Finding Kankuro and the rest of the Konoha squad in limited time was a challenge unto itself. Now, he had to find a Temari's 'team', and especially had to find Sakura, the only true medic in the operation. If he couldn't locate her and secure her to heal the wounded, it was likely they would face casualties.
Gaara inhaled slowly, attempting to cool the heat bubbling just under the skin, the fizzling of tainted chakra. The Shukaku was active, delighted, and almost smug with enjoyment of the situation. The monster roiled and growled, purred and chuckled, in the void at the back of his conscious, working poisonous lancets of miasma-like chakra into his mind, scraping at his sanity, dissolving his control, inspiring that giddy feeling of total chaos as reality began to break apart, splintering at it's edges, the cracks breaking inward…
Gaara blinked. The Shukaku rumbled, vibrating though his very bones.
This mission was becoming increasingly complicated.
*****O*****
The degree to which she felt better was impressive. None of the aches or soreness Temari had anticipated in her muscles, joints, or head lingered as their team nearly crawled over the sandy terrain, watching each other for warnings of quicksand. It was a relief as great as the feeling of being back in the field.
Their trio crouched low and looked carefully for tripwires, lookouts, and any of the nin-lizards that had been detailed in Kankuro's report. The powdery topsoil had only the faintest trace of lizard footprints, and no trace of human footprints yet. It seemed the enemy had taken pains to erase the tracks that had given away their position previously.
Temari carefully shifted her weight from one hand to the other as she prepared to crawl forward, the weight of the fan on her back nearly a part of her after so many years carrying it. Her eyes, wide open to bring as much of the fading light as possible, spotted the outline of a sandal print. Keeping her breathing measured, she determined its direction and looked to where the person that had left the mark was traveling. Her gaze tracked up, and noted a darker shadow in a slight rise in the ground. Her eyes narrowed. Either the team in the drained river had disrupted the defenses to the point the Gold nin faction couldn't maintain a decent guard, or their three-man squad was being offered an open invitation.
Her hand moved in a silent signal, and Temari indicated the dark gap in the ground ahead. She sensed rather than saw Sakura and Sari creep over the ground to her, their attention on the entrance point. A quick look to her two teammates relied what she need to know.
Sakura was cool and focused. Her breathing was even and steady, her shoulders straight beneath her red shirt, but not rigid. The guts she had seen from the medic were in clear show; her sparking slightly as she visibly psyched herself up.
Good.
Sari was trying to hide her fear, but not succeeding. Big hazel irises were surrounded by white sclera, pupils dilated to maximum. The adrenaline rush of the impending fight was written all over her posture and breathing, a visible effort to keep her breathing steady advertised by a clenched jaw tightly pressed lips. But she was dug in, literally, as her small hands curled in the sand, refusing to bolt.
Good enough.
Temari swiveled her head toward the gap and began crawling forward, all her senses already carefully attuned to the entrance.
She moved slowly, expanding and extending her sense of touch, straining the nerves of her fingertips, feeling for wires, triggers or chakra lines hidden in the grit. Her eyes scanned the ground in front of her, searching for any sign of irregularity or disturbance in the rough sand and chalky dust. No sign of alarms or traps met her detection, and the tunnel itself was large enough to suggest it was in regular use by the shinobi encamped within.
Fine particle of sand fell from the tunnel ceiling, catching in her hair. The ground changed from dust to soil, the oppressive blanket of darkness all encompassing, smothering, isolating, until broken by the quavering glow of flame lit torches. She crept out of the pressing earth, breathing deep as she emerged in a large tunnel, easily the size of the Council's conference room. She scanned the space.
And froze.
"Sakura!"
*****O*****
During any other mission their tactics, or rather lack thereof, would be akin to suicide. Ninjas learn art of stealth for a reason; a fact drilled into the tiny brain of every new genin that plants it's butt in an Academy chair. Knowledge: often the key to winning a battle. Leaving evidence and trails in ones wake leaves a mountain of deduced facts and clues to sift through that even civilians could decipher with half a functioning neuron.
It grated on Kankuro's nerves to ignore such ingrained teachings to leave such a clear mess as they moved through the enemy base. If it could be called that. The network of caves, caverns, and passages beneath the wastelands were a testament to the age of the ancient river that flowed beneath Suna. The flow of water over millennia had carved out numerous different paths in the desert rock and soil. Tunnels ranged in size from barely the width of an arm to the expanse of a stadium. Chambers had formed where water had swirled in circles against rock only to find an easier path through the ground and switch to that direction of flow. Branches of the system disconnected and reconnected, creating intersecting twists and turns. The river had carved down over time, leaving open air, and the rain water seeping down and created stalactites and stalagmites in the higher stretches of rock. The whole labyrinth had been polished smooth by water, and echoed cacophonously with the sounds of combat.
It was clear that the Gold nin themselves were unable to block every opening of the network, and hadn't even bothered. This brought up a range of possibilities, not the least of which was fears of collapse or even flooding. The tunnels were not a suitable defensible position. Which brought up the question:
"Are these guys nuts?" Kiba muttered, sniffing the air and motioning to his comrades to follow as he choose one of the pathways at a rocky intersection. Akamaru padded along beside, wars and nose twitching.
"Desperate," Neji answered, his Byakugan examining of every inch of wavy stone and piled debris. "But why?"
Kankuro scowled deeper as he tested the connection of chakra strings that connected to Karasu, his fingers flexing diagnostically as he mulled over his observations. Not only were the Gold nin in a poor position, they were in shambles. The majority of the shinobi they had encountered were just plain pitiful.
Underfed, unwashed, poorly equipped with chipped kunai and shuriken, and uniforms that were patchwork, worn through, or salvaged from other Villages or clans. Their ninja skills were crap. Their team hadn't encountered a jounin level opponent yet. He would have expected nin surviving in hiding to be, if not in ideal physical condition, to have exceptional survival skills and guerilla fighting tactics. These shinobi couldn't even manage a respectable defense of their base.
These shinobi were barely a step up from common civilian street people. Oh, they were definitely desperate. Time was short on something.
Not just their mission. That was only a consequence. Their mission was the result of running out of time. What were they about to lose, or what was about to happen that drove them to such drastic, almost stupid actions? Were the entirety of the remaining Gold nin committed to this operation? Where were the shinobi that had destroyed his units during the sandstorm? Was it a few talented shinobi manipulating impressionable, vulnerable clan members?
"Alright," Kiba said, his profile revealing a lip curled up to expose fang like canine teeth. He turned to face his teammates, his expression focused. "I'm pretty sure there is a major group pf Gold nin just ahead. They're being as quiet as possible."
"How many?" Kankuro directed his attention on the weight of the summoning scroll secured horizontally above the back of his waist, ready for use.
"I can't tell," Kiba admitted with mild frustration. "It smells as though there is one body emitting a massive amount of odor, scent particles, but he'd have to be huge."
"How big is 'huge'?" Neji asked, white eyes reflecting slight puzzlement.
"Like a whale," Kiba said flatly. "Think an Akamichi in beat-down mode." He paused, his lips turned down in doubt. "These Gold nin don't have that type of jutsu, right?"
The Hyuuga's neutral expression was irritating. "Not that we know of."
"Oh, that clears it up. Wonderful. Awesome."
"Kiba, is it possible you smell whoever is the source for the seal?" Neji continued.
An eyebrow shot up in response. "That big? Wouldn't that be way outside of what your records indicated?"
"Is there a way we can spy on them?" Neji asked calmly. "Do the air currents indicate a high, narrow air flow nearby?"
The Inuzuka closed his eyes, inhaling deeply, his ribs expanding as far the ligaments would allow. His opened slightly. "No, but I can tell you which tunnels are the least used. We can approach with caution."
"That will do." Neji started walking forward, Byakugan trained in the direction Kiba was facing. The team had only traveled a short distance when the Hyuuga abruptly halted, his posture rigid even for him.
"What do you see?" Why else would a Hyuuga freeze up?
It irked him a little when Neji addressed Kiba instead.
"Kiba, is the source of the massive odor directly ahead?"
Kankuro followed Neji's line of sight to a spectacularly blank rock wall. He grit his teeth.
Kiba stopped moving forward, Akamaru stopping with him. "Yeah, why?"
"What do you see?" Again, with greater emphasis. And menace.
"A… tremendous chakra network unlike any I have ever seen." Neji's voice was awed, making Kankuro stare in shock. What made a stiff like this lose his composure? "A truly massive amount of chakra, flowing in a gigantic bloated mass." He paused as both of his companions kept staring. "It appears to be one, impossibly obese person. The amount of charka…" He struggled for words. "…Inhumanly large enough to be visible even through solid rock."
Kiba, shocked still, was left with his jaw hanging at the look on the jounin's normally stoic face. "How big is 'inhumanly large'?"
Neji managed to tear his eyes away from only what he could see to regard Kiba with a look that was a bizarre mix of mildly horrified and deadpan.
"I maintain 'inhumanly large' is an accurate description."
*****O*****
The dull light from the torches lighting the underground system beyond illuminated the twilight point at the narrow mouth of the passageway as Sakura rushed forward, individual points of light glinting of quartz grains like an absurd parody of stars. Her hands flexed inside the charka reinforced fabric of her gloves, palms curling and fingers digging into the crumbling soil as she pushed herself forward with all the force and speed she could manage, hunched over and confined in the tight space. One last push from her sandals as she dug into the soil for purchase and she burst into the light, automatically pulling up both her fists into a guard and shifting her weight into a fighting stance.
She was far too familiar with that tone, the one other shinobi used when they called for a medic. Temari had moved slightly to one side of the tunnel mouth to let her see the cause for alarm. Bright green eyes took in the sight ahead in crystal clear detail, every rod and cone sparking, sending an image to her brain for process that had every nerve in her body hyperactive. She was barely aware of Sari crawling out of the tunnel behind her onto the smooth river rock, or the squeak of horror the rookie didn't quite suppress.
Standing side by side with Temari, the jounin's hand already on the top of the fan on her back, Sakura reigned in the chaos of mental and physical reactions ricocheting through her consciousness to focus on the site in front of her.
Matsuri had been nearly gutted. Even from the distance across the cavernous hollow in the rock, the loops of bowl protruding from the bloody seems cut into her abdomen were obvious. Sections of bowel protruding through secondary punctures were purpling, oxygen-starved, twisted on the themselves such that the blood supply was cut off. Filthy, yellow-tinged bandages, with brown tinged flecks of discoloration were the blood from previous wounded had been insufficiently cleaned and sanitized, were wrapped around the ruptured gut, soaking up seeping blood and trickling interior fluids. It was obvious they hadn't been placed there by a healer, or any one with any intent of helping her. The lines of threadbare linen were cunningly placed in there position to provide enough pressure to prevent the fragile connective tissue anchoring the protruding organs to the back of the abdominal cavity from tearing free; and to keep Matsuri securely fastened to the post. The rough-hewn piece of wood, splinters and chips clearly jutting into the air and certainly Matsuri's vulnerable skin, had been partially buried in the cave floor to stand vertical. Matsuri hung suspended; her hands tied back to back above and behind her on the back pf the posts, her body's leaking fluids soaking down her bare legs into the tops of her shin guards.
Her color was horrible, pallid with darkened circles appearing under closed eyes, even the dark bruises that had started to appear on her skin and torso discolored, the lines of blood from her mouth and nose oxidizing and drying to crusty brown.
She's bait.
Behind the genin was an uneven rise of rock, not a smooth as the recent. Probably the result of a fairly recent cave in. The broken mass of stone provided the perfect advantage point in the cave.
"Sakura…" Temari hissed, wanting her evaluation.
If Matsuri were dead, she wouldn't still be bleeding from her gut. She still had blood pressure, and a pulse. Temari would not be angry enough to fail to notice.
"I'm not going to be able to move her until I've had time to stabilize her," she breathed in answer. "We have to hold that high ground."
"Right."
Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura watched Temari loosen her fan, moving it in front of her. She kept the Iron Fan closed, holding it like a bludgeon, aware her Wind jutsu might be powerful enough to overwhelm and tear the ratty bandages or even knock over the piece of wood at it's base.
The sounds of dry retching were beginning behind her. "Sari," she whispered, making her voice as firm as possible, and heard the retching abort in a gagged hiccup. Sakura turned her head, trusting Temari to keep watch, to examine the genin. She was a ghastly green and visibly trembling with nausea and horror, but still on her feet.
"Sari, now is not the time, I need you to help me with Matsuri." The genin blanched, the last of the blood leaving her face. Sakura ignored it. "Sari, I need the extra pair of hands, and for you to watch my back while I work. Understand?"
Sari was on the verge of passing out. Sakura, narrowing her eyes, decided to borrow a page from her shishou's book of motivation.
"PULL IT TOGETHER, SARI!"
The rookie nearly hit the ceiling in shock, and Temari tensed as the roar triggered a reaction in the enemy.
"Ahead!"
A series of brown streaks appeared over the broken, ending a line of ragged looking shinobi facing them from just behind Matsuri's post. Sakura felt a flicker of confusion as she evaluated their bony frames, more than one snarling such that she could teeth rotted beyond saving. This was beyond the wear of a difficult long-term mission in the field. They were all in a state of neglect, at least.
One of them, who looked better fed than his counterparts, grinned at the kunoichi at the tunnel mouth, revealing two broken teeth.
"Well, ain't this unexpected?" He leered as he saw the lean genin and showed even more teeth as he recognized Temari. "The Kazekage's own sister. Ain't you dead yet?" He seemed to chuckle at his perceived cleverness. "Guess you're lookin' for help?"
Temari dismissed the taunt. "What are you doing here in Wind Country?!" she demanded, adjusting her fan in her hands, ready to smash the man's skull into pulpy shards beneath his scalp. "Explain yourself!"
The man sneered, the expression highlighting the dirt and grease collecting in the wrinkles around his mouth. "You ain't in charge here!"
Sakura felt her jaw clench as the trash spat insults. Had he been hoping they'd beg for Matsuri? Or be intimidated into acquiescence? Was he simply that arrogant? His control over his emotions was weak.
"You ain't nearly as important as you think you are!" he declared. "Just another stupid little girl playing ninja!" He addressed his cohorts. "Kill the two from Suna however you like. The pink-head we're supposed to torture!"
What in the world? Why her?
The Gold nin forces charged forward. Sakura moved behind Temari as she began to race around the cave wall, feeling Sari following right on her heels. They need to circle around together until they could get between the enemy and Matsuri to be certain she wouldn't be caught in the crossfire.
A barrage of shuriken and kunai were easily deflected with a few smooth rotations of Temari's closed fan. The projectiles clattered to the stone, clearly nicked and with hints of rust.
A Gold nin quickly flashed through a set of seals. The sound of a slight crack was Sakura's only warning before a huge pillar of stone burst from the floor just before her feet, blocking their path.
Not even a challenge. Chakra flowed into her hands, rushing to the fine chakra network lines in her fingers and knuckles. She twisted her torso back for maximum impact, aware of Sari letting a squeak of shock and dodging her flying elbow.
"HAH!!" Her fist impacted the boulder, shattering it to pulverized chips and bits of stone flying towards her attackers, the wind created by her chakra burst dispersing even the finest billows of dust. She charged forward without missing a beat, Temari and Sari immediately with her. She felt the reverberations in her feet as heavy rocks from an Earth jutsu pounded the spot where they would have been pinned.
Temari twisted her head, looking over her shoulder. Behind her was the nin that had cast the second jutsu. With one hand she opened her fan, twisting mid run to face backward bringing her fan around in arc before finishing her spin and running forward again.
The wind kicked up, surging in a rush, blasting into the stunned target with enough force to topple full-grown pine trees. The man's scream was swallowed by the winds howl, but Sakura just caught gurgles as ribs cracked and broke as he slammed onto the unyielding stone floor.
Sakura slipped her hand into her kunai pouch, slipping a trio between her knuckles to throw at their stunned opponents to keep them off balance. Another pillar of rock ahead, no two, trying to smash their team in between like a hammer and anvil. Rock shot up violently from immediately above and below her, the blow to the bottom of her foot mid stride would have crushed and destroyed the knee and hop joints of a civilian. Instinctively she shot her other hand out to grab the collar of a stumbling Sari. Enemy kunai slammed into the meat of her thigh and upper arm, then dropped to the ground embedded in a log surrounded by swirling smoke.
Sakura reappeared in the face of Gold nin that had wandered too far from his counterparts in his enthusiasm. He didn't react fast enough as she kicked him across his jaw, dislocating it. She released Sari's uniform to land a haymaker to his temple, collapsing him on the spot.
She jumped, somersaulting into the air, dodging the rift in the ground that opened beneath her feet as new jutsu immediately tore through the stone cave floor like an earthquake. The rumbling and cracking in her ears didn't mask the sound of the approaching Gold nin, and she twisted in mid air, suspended upside down, to bring her hand around and throw her fistful of kunai at near point blank range. Razor shape blades buried themselves in his exposed throat, and crumpled towards the ground, descending into the opening rift.
She uncurled herself to land on the edge of the gap, only the chakra on the soles of her feet keeping her from tumbling backward of the precipice. She vaulted up onto the lowest of the pile of rocks and boulders that lead up to Matsuri. She whirled her head to look for Sari, who had a kunai in her hand and was jumping from point to point to avoid the Gold nin. Temari had beaten them both to the rise of rock, having somehow, probably using her fan, jumped behind the enemy line.
She leapt forward, Iron Fan above her head and brought it down in front of her with sledgehammer force, causing her opponent to leap backward or lose his skull. She now stood with Matsuri off to her side, out of danger. The man threw a hand full of shuriken and started another series of hand seals. Temari opened her fan in a quick flick in front of her, sending out a short, powerful gust of wind that sent both shuriken and shinobi off their feet and into the air at an angle. Jumping up above both, Temari swung her fan all the way behind her, before swinging it in a full circle. The Wind roared through the air and hit the man's body, visibly breaking his facial bones on impact in a spurt of blood before forcing him onto the stone with all the furious force of a tornado.
Sakura landed next to the post holding Matsuri, noting Sari jumping toward her. Fortunately, as a lesser threat she was drawing less attention. Sakura analyzed Matsuri with a combat surgeon's skill, quickly deducing she was under the influence of a jutsu keeping her asleep. Good. They hadn't wanted to risk her waking and going into shock as long as she was useful, and the jutsu would keep preventing that. How to get her down? Was she booby-trapped?
Temari retreated back to them, using blasts from her fan to keep the Gold shinobi, and the reinforcements coming in from adjoining chambers from reaching them, and Sakura thanked Kami for Wind chakra.
A shout of from frustration met her ears and she turned to she the broken-toothed shinobi looking at them with unconcealed fury. She decided Temari should do all the talking as she carefully searched for any signs of a trap on Matsuri, like a wire or explosive tag.
"Try all you want!" Broken Teeth shouted with a shower of angry spittle. "You won't get out of here alive!"
Temari simply snorted, her fan open and at the ready.
"Don't dismiss me!" he raged. "You're nothing but a woman! You aren't your brother!" He wiped the spit dribbling down his chin with back of one hand. "I'll show you your place before I kill you!"
Temari merely shifted her weight slightly, putting it more on one foot as she answered him coolly.
"What was that?" Politely, as if she had merely misheard him.
"I said," his voice roiled with venom as he gestured to the other nin, setting up a plan, "I am going to show your place and then kill you, you worthless female."
The Ambassador was unimpressed. "Who do you think you're talking to?" Her smooth voice was beginning to get dangerous.
Taking a quick look at Broken Tooth, Sakura saw the first flicker of worry.
Temari brandished her fan, shouting. "You ignorant fool!" Her killing intent swept over the crowd, her chakra spiking, and the Gold nin cringed and cowered. She pulled herself to her full height. "I'll teach you not to mess with Tessen no Temari!"
AN: A tessen is an Iron Fan, Temari's weapon. Temari introduced herself as Tessen no Temari for her famous skill with her weapon the same way Gaara is Sabaku no Gaara for his famous weapon of sand.
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