Ch 10
A few hours later, they found themselves at the border of Fire and Wind.
"Gomen, Naruto-san, but I cannot carry all three of you across the desert."
"Can you take one?"
"Hai, I should be able to handle one."
"Then it's fine." Naruto then bit his thumb, flashed through a few seals, and summoned two more three-tail foxes, as well as Kotaro, Mayu, and Yuuka. Each of the girls grabbed their fox, and jumped on one of the new three-tails. Naruto scooped up a protesting Kotaro, jumped back on Masami, and they took off across the desert.
"What the hells going on, Naruto?" asked Kotaro.
"Garra got taken by the Akatsuki."
"The sand kid? No wonder you're going so fast."
Naruto opened up his link with Kyuubi.
'You up to speed?'
"Yeah. Just let me know when we're close."
'How much can I handle?'
"Alone? Mmm, probably five. Six if it's real quick, and by that I mean less than a minute. If you let me do it, you could swing eight tails for about a minute and a half, but you're looking at a week in a coma if that happens."
'What's the most you can do without the coma?'
"Seven, but it'll drain you completely. You'll be out for a couple hours afterwards, but that should be about it. If you go six tails alone for over a minute, it could kill you, so if you need to go past five, let me do it. You go five alone, and you're still looking at a couple hour nap."
'That's fine. It won't matter how long I'm out, so long as they're both dead. If I go past four, will I still change like I did last time?'
"Unfortunately. That damn seal is messing with my chakra somehow. When we get back, talk to the old pervert to see if he can do anything about it. I know you don't want to tell him, but I think it's time."
'Yeah, you're right. He mentioned something about having a scroll all about my seal once. He was completely trashed when he told me, so I didn't pay that much attention to him.'
"Maybe you should talk to him when he's drunk more often. He seems to provide much more useful information then."
'Ehh, maybe.'
Naruto then pulled out the metal plate that had the kanji for toad on it, and channeled a little chakra into it, before sending a massive spike of chakra into the plate. He then lowered it, but still kept a little running through it.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Fire country, Jiraiya is seen peeping on a few well endowed women who are enjoying themselves in the local hot springs. He was scribbling furiously in his notebook, when he suddenly realized his ass was getting warm. He didn't think much of it, until his ass suddenly got A LOT hotter. It felt like someone had parked the sun right under his ass cheeks, and it sent him flying over the fence to try and find some water to cool his ass off. Even the hot water in the springs seemed better than the fiery pain coming from his ass.
Running full tilt, he jumped into the spring, and after a few moments, pulled a metal plate out of his back pocket. It had the kanji for fox on it, and was glowing a very angry shade of red.
"Damn kid," he mumbled as he stuck it back into his pocket, before climbing out of the spring. He was just about to leave when he heard the sound of knuckles being cracked behind him, and without even looking, he knew that he had landed in the women's side of the springs.
"Awww, hell, not again," he mumbled, before sprinting to the door, trying (and failing) to dodge the tremendous amount of feminine cleanliness product containers flying at him. Funny how one of the worlds greatest ninja couldn't dodge a flying shampoo bottle to save his life, as one caught him right in the eye as he looked back over his shoulder to see if they were following him.
Emerging from the springs with his newly acquired black eye, he grabbed the plate again, this time pushing some of his own chakra into it, which caused it to point to the southwest.
'Well, here goes nothing,' he thought, as he summoned a toad and took off.
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Naruto and crew flew through the desert for the rest of the day, stopping only once so the foxes could get a quick drink. As darkness fell, the outline of Suna's walls became visible on the horizon. Seeing their destination, the foxes seemingly found a new gear, and took off, going even faster than they had been earlier.
"Masami, take us right to the Kage's tower. If the guards try to stop us, just jump over them!"
Masami didn't bother to reply, as any breath that could be used for talking was better spent on running faster. She knew of the special relationship Naruto had with Garra, and knew he was immensely proud of him, even when he learned that the sand nin had made Kazekage while Naruto was still a gennin.
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Meanwhile, at the gates of Suna, the guards were all transfixed by what looked like a small sandstorm heading their way.
"Get Temari-sama out here right away!" one of them yelled.
"Don't bother I'm here already. What's going on?" she asked the guard.
"Something is approaching at high speed from the northeast!"
"How's that possible? They shouldn't have gotten the message until this morning. How can they be here so fast?" she thought out loud. Grabbing a telescope from one of the guards, she aimed it towards the approaching dust cloud, and much to her amazement, saw that it was three Konoha ninjas, all riding on large foxes.
She kept watching them as they approached, dividing her thoughts between figuring out who they were, and how the hell they were going so fast. Eventually she was able to pick out all the orange that one of them was wearing. 'Naruto? The little brat that stopped Garra? Hmm, I wonder who the other two are.'
"Stand down," she ordered the guards, "they are Konoha nins here to help us get back Kazekage-sama."
Right as she finished speaking, however, she realized that they weren't slowing down. She was about to jump out of the way when Naruto swung his arm out and grabbed her, swinging her around behind him.
"Hang on!" was all he said, and she would've yelled at him, had he not knocked the wind out of her when he grabbed her.
She just managed to get her arms wrapped around him, when the three foxes launched themselves out of the canyon that led through the village wall, and began roof-hopping to the tower. Once they got close enough, the foxes launched themselves into the air over the tower, before dispelling out from under them. Hinata and Sakura landed first, as Naruto grabbed Temari, who was flailing wildly in the air. He turned around mid-flight, caught her bridal-style, and landed gracefully on the roof next to his companions.
He set her down gently, and she immediately fell to her knees, gasping for air.
"How…"
"Fox summons," he replied, answering her question as to how they got there so fast.
"When….."
"This morning."
"Who…" she asked next, still struggling to get out more than one word at a time.
"Well, you know me, and they," he said, motioning to the girls behind him, "are Hyuuga Hinata and Haruno Sakura."
"Tsunade-sama's apprentices?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Kankuro was poisoned in the attack. We've tried everything we have, but nothing has worked yet."
"Let us take a look at him," Sakura replied, "We may be able to help."
Temari leads them to the hospital, where Hinata and Sakura go about removing the poison from Kankuro. (If you want to know how this works, go watch it yourself, just imagine that Hinata is there as well.)
While the girls were doing that, Naruto was sitting in the waiting room with Temari.
"So how exactly did you get here so fast?" she asked Naruto.
"Fox summons. Kyuubi gave me the contract a couple years ago."
"Kyuubi? You mean you actually talk to him?"
"Yeah. He's really not that bad once you get to know him. I'll tell ya all about him later, if you want to hear it."
"So when did you actually leave Konoha?"
"This morning."
"But that's impossible! That trip takes me three days at top speed! Just how fast can those foxes go?"
"Fast enough to make a three day trip into one, although all three of them are exhausted. They should be ready in the morning though. When to we head out?"
"In the morning. Hopefully the trail will still be there."
"Don't worry about that. I've got access to the best nose anywhere. So tell me, what happened?"
"Well, they came out of nowhere. One of them flew around on a giant white bird, and threw explosives down on the village. Kankuro fought the other one, who we have determined to be Akasuna no Sasori, a missing nin from here. The one with the explosives got Garra by mixing some of them into the sand he was protecting himself with. He came out of that attack still able to fight, though. Then that bastard dropped some huge explosive on the village, and it took all Garra had to block it, and then dump the sand outside the village so it wouldn't crush anybody when it fell. He exhausted himself doing that, and the Akatsuki grabbed him and flew away.
Kankuro on the other hand, faced off with Sasori at the gate, and even though he was using all three of his puppets, he was defeated, since they were all designed by Sasori before he left the village."
The girls came out of the OR then, and told Temari that Kankuro would be fine with a few days of rest. They then gathered up some last minute supplies geared towards desert survival, like cloaks and extra water, and crashed for the night.
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The next morning, they gathered at the top of the tower, preparing to depart. When Temari came out in her usual battle kimono, Naruto asked her a rather awkward question.
"Temari, don't take this the wrong way, but what are you wearing under that?"
All the girls just stared at him in shock that he had asked such a question. Seeing the coming outburst, he immediately launched into his next question.
"I only ask because we're gonna be riding our foxes the whole time. I wasn't sure if you would be comfortable riding in that."
The girls visibly relaxed at that. Once you add the second part of his question in, it actually made sense.
"Don't worry about it. I thought it might happen, and planned accordingly," she replied.
Hinata and Sakura then summoned larger foxes than they rode the day before, each of them having five tails, and Naruto summoned Masami.
"Naruto-san, I don't think I have recovered enough yet to help today," Masami said regretfully.
"I know. I had a different task in mind for you. I want you to go find Ero-sennin and bring him to wherever we happen to be at that point in time. Can you handle that?"
"Hai, I think I can handle that," she replied as she too off for the gate.
"Now then," Naruto said as he built up a massive amount of chakra, "I'd like you to meet Kyuubi."
He then bit his thumb, did the signs, and slammed his palm into the ground, producing a huge smoke cloud.
"Ahh, fresh air."
"You ready for some exercise?"
"Of course. You ready to hold on?"
Temari just stood there with her jaw on the floor. The greatest of the tailed beasts was standing right in front of her, and was engaging in a rather sarcastic conversation with Naruto, who had just summoned him.
"K-K-Kyuubi?"
"Hmm, what do you want?"
"Chill out, furball. That's Garra's older sister. She's coming with us."
Temari couldn't believe it. Naruto had just insulted the Kyuubi!
"Oh, we don't have time for this. Yes I am Kyuubi. No I'm not going to kill you. Yes the kit just summoned me. No, I'm not going to destroy your village, even though it would be fun."
"Kyuubi,"
"What? It would be fun."
"Still, if everyone's ready, lets go."
Hinata and Sakura both jumped onto their foxes, and Naruto jumped onto the back of Kyuubi, before hoisting Temari up behind him.
"Hold on tight," he told the blond behind him, "these three go even faster."
"Why didn't you show up on them then?"
"Because we didn't know if we'd meet the Akatsuki on the way here."
"OhhHHHAAAAA!!!!!!"
Her response was cut short by the scream she let out as the three foxes took off towards the gates of Suna at top speed, or at least as close as they could get to it inside the village. Temari was so intent on holding on that she didn't even realize they had stopped at the gate, until Naruto spoke to her.
"Temari………-san………..can't……….breathe!"
"Oh? Gomen." She said, as she released the death grip on his chest.
"It's ok. Which way did they go?"
"Kankuro said they went north."
"Where did he fight them?"
Temari pointed to a spot a short ways away from the gate, "Over there."
The three foxes walked over to the battle site. They had only sniffed around for a few moments when Kyuubi suddenly jerked his head back and started sneezing. His sudden movement almost unseated his riders.
"Woah, what'd ya find?" Naruto asked.
"Poison. And lots of it."
"Can you track it?"
"Of course."
"Well then, let's go!"
The foxes took off into the desert, the cloaks of their riders whipping in the wind. Once Temari got over the fears she had, she found out that she quite enjoyed riding on the fox, wind whipping around her. Eventually it got to the point where she didn't really have to hold on, and devoted herself to scanning the horizon for signs of Garra.
They stopped briefly at midday to eat some lunch, and much to Temari's surprise, none of the foxes seemed tired. Hell, they barely looked winded. They declined eating, instead choosing to drink from a large container that Naruto pulled from a scroll that had water in it. After getting their fill, Naruto sealed the water dish back up, and they set back out into the desert.
Near mid-afternoon, they caught their first break, in the form of a comment from Kyuubi.
"They're close. We should meet with them in about a half hour at the speed we're currently going."
AN: I need all you female readers (if any) to suggest some of the scents of your hair care products, the girly-er the better. I'm planning on doing some Neji bashing, and what with the fact that I'm a guy, I am having some difficulty coming up with girly scents to put in his hair. I mean, come on, there is no way hair products for men can do that to his hair, so he must use women's products. It's the only way it makes sense to me. Oh, and whosever idea I use will get credited in the story.