Kakiiro watched her cohort's battle from a distance. When the assignments were being given out, she'd gotten the luck of the draw - observe and report only, do not engage. Not that she preferred the luck of the draw; in fact, she'd prefer stopping a certain Leaf ninja before he blabbed her identity to everyone.
She let out a sigh as she watched nothing happen from the vantage point of a large rock outcropping. Without a true kekkei genkai, she was unable to really see any details of the unfolding plan. Twice she thought she spotted smoke but couldn't verify it without risking exposing her position.
She wondered how Chibizu and Shuhaka were managing in their efforts to draw the Hidden Village's attention. With a slight disdain she questioned if Tiratsu had yet failed in his objective.
"Why do I hate that fool so much?" she pondered aloud. "There were times in the past when he wasn't so useless." Then she moaned, realizing that she was trying to persuade herself to like him again. She didn't still like him ... did she? "No, he's too much of a klutz for his own good," she reminded herself.
A strange crackling explosion occurred to the north of her position, but she was too far away to see what it was. "I need to get closer. That crystal isn't worth Shuhaka's or Chibizu's life."
Kakiiro decided against her better judgment and headed directly toward the explosion, arms trailing behind her body as she ran at top speed toward the epicenter.
Upon reaching the site, she was dumbfounded. There appeared to be nothing but a dusty, barren patch of earth.
She put her hands together and shouted, "Release!"
Her vision seemed to flicker for an instant. She pulled her hands apart, about to reiterate the genjutsu-breaking command.
"I don't think you really want to see what's behind door number two," a feminine voiced warned.
Kakiiro clasped her hands together defiantly. "As if I'm going to listen to you! Release!"
In that instant she recognized the foul smell of burnt flesh. Her face contorted at the stench, and she doubled over as if to vomit.
"That's the last time I'll waste my chakra trying to be considerate to an enemy," the woman sneered, still unseen by Kakiiro.
Surely this is another genjutsu trap, Kakiiro thought. A third time she put her hands together and said, "Release." Nothing happened. She performed a more complex series of hand seals followed by, "Release!" But again, nothing happened. Becoming desperate, she clasped her hands and shouted, "Release!" a half dozen more times.
She slumped to her knees, sobbing, pleading as she once again proclaimed, "Release."
"Your comrade is truly dead, but not from us. When his power was sealed within this area, he became gaunt and frail, some kind of jutsu placed in his cursed form. A few minutes after he collapsed, the curse mark spread all over his body and burned it as if the marks became phosphorous bombs. There was nothing we could do for him," Temari explained.
"W-Why did you tell me?" she asked meekly. She pulled a trio of shuriken from her holster and flung them in the general direction of Temari, but none of them hit their intended target.
"WHY... DID YOU... TELL ME?" Kakiiro screamed, murderous intent saturating her voice. "Why do you lie to me? Why do you curse the dead?" she demanded.
A dubious cloud of chakra began to form around the young woman.
"Psuedo-bijuu," both women seemed to whisper at the same time.
Ino tried to use her mind transfer jutsu on the woman, but the chakra field surrounding her body overwhelmed the technique. Ino stumbled backward a couple steps when the energy from the failed jutsu ricocheted back to her full-force.
"Ino-san," Sari called, hoping her comrade was fine.
A slightly less perky Ino responded with a quick wave as if to say, "I'm fine, leave me alone."
The two distinct blue tails took shape and swept out, but no one was behind the kunoichi. The tails knocked down several large trees, scorching them where her tails had touched.
Sari fearfully gripped a kunai in her right hand. Her left forearm was vertical in front of her torso, a metallic bracer providing minimal defense. "Lady Temari," she asked, "what's our plan?"
Temari made the boar and dragon hand seals for their strategy's code. Sari nodded and jumped back twenty meters. The team leader continued signing, and soon a large gust of wind threw a blinding cloak of sand at the chakra form.
Kakiiro unleashed a violent growl against the wind, slowly shredding through it. Once through the wind, the growl sent a small shockwave at the kunoichi trio. Temari jumped out of the way, as did Sari. When Temari noticed that Ino would be struck by the shockwave, she blasted a tuft of wind in front of the Leaf chuunin to protect her.
The current from Temari drove the shock wave into the ground, at which point Ino was able to jump to safety. The shock wave threw the earth into a disheveled state. An earthen tsunami ten meters high headed toward the Village Hidden in the Sand.
"Sari to base, Sari to base. Come in base. You have incoming!" The young woman tried desperately to reach the village on her radio, but didn't receive a response.
Kakiiro wasted no time with her next attack. Bluish purple chakra blasted from her tails, orbs approximately half a meter wide.
The crash of the sand tsunami hitting the city walls sounded like a monstrous explosion; in a way, it truly was.
Two-thirds of the ninja inside the village sprang to action at the wall, crisscrossing various jutsus and otherwise reinforcing the general area. The attack had done minimal damage inside the city despite the noise.
"Come back home so we can kick their butts together," Temari asked of her brothers. She wasn't sure when to expect them, but it would only be a couple more days before the villagers began getting suspicious.
"Huh?" Ino replied over the radio.
"Nevermind. Launch stage one," Temari tersely answered.
Sari ran to the northwest, hoping to draw her opponent's attention. She threw a kunai with an attached paper bomb. The weapon exploded ten meters from the target, out of range for dealing any serious damage.
Ino moved stealthily to the southwest. When she was in position, she let a series of paper bombs fly to hem in Kakiiro.
Sari was already forming hand seals for an earth jutsu. The rough ceramic blades erupted from the ground and then headed straight for the pseudo-bijuu with the aid of Temari's fan.
Kakiiro could sense something big was about to happen, so she opened another chakra gate and poured more energy into her ephemeral form. She growled under the vague realization of the damage being done to her own body.
In an instant, Kakiiro's growl was drowned by the exploding paper bombs. The woman-beast leapt upward with amazing power, able to see beyond her enemies beyond the explosions. She quickly made a long series of signs and incanted, "Nature disruption jutsu!"
Three masses of swirling blue and purple chakra burst toward the Sand and Leaf kunoichi, but as they flew, an enormous amount of friction was created against the nature chakra in the environment. The chakra bombs exploded into fireballs, still on course for their targets. As the fireballs came closer, their heat increased from the continuing friction against nature chakra.
Temari tried to bat hers away with a slicing wind, but that maneuver only added to the friction and thus the fireball's intensity.
Ino chose to dodge the massive chakra blaze, but its increasing intensity and increasing size made it nearly impossible to cleanly escape.
Sari faced the same problem, nervously throwing up several earthen walls to stop or at least redirect the inferno headed toward her.
Yamato ingested a food pill as he continued to follow Kankuro's trail. The men had covered an incredible distance, now less than half a day from Sunagakure. By Yamato's estimate, Kankuro was less than five kilometers ahead, and he forced himself to continue closing the gap.
In a windswept clearing, Yamato spotted a boulder that looked... out of place. Upon closer inspection, its underside appeared to be covered in a lichen growth while the top remained unscarred. The dirt around its base also looked as if it had been displaced somewhat unnaturally.
The rock exploded into head-sized chunks. One grazed Yamato's thigh, and two others came perilously close to taking off his head. When he jumped back, the ground within a twenty meter radius of the boulder collapsed into an underground chamber. Yamato was caught in the collapse and found himself looking at a doughnut-shaped room eight meters below ground level. The walls had a smooth, polished look and were surprisingly cold to the touch.
Yamato was about to mutter something about the longest day ever when he noticed a familiar face on the other side of the round room, slightly covered by the recently fallen debris.
A faint "Mtdmmr! Mbr mir!" could be heard from the gagged and bound shinobi.
Yamato quickly glanced around the room and decided it was probably safe to help his comrade. "Where are your puppets?" he asked the young man in black before removing the gag.
Kankuro fearfully looked upward as Yamato heard the familiar clicking sounds of the puppets.
Yamato turned to look at whatever was frightening his teammate, assuming it was the trap-setter.
In that instant, Yamato heard a poof behind him and felt the cold metal blade bite into his lower back.
"Thanks for dropping in," the attacker chuckled.
Yamato would have rolled his eyes if not for the fact that his mind was racing to develop a plan. A chilling sensation radiated from his back wound, making it nearly impossible to stand up straight or to fully bend over.
"W-What did you do to meh?" Yamato slurred, a sudden dizziness overcoming him as well. He tried to stagger to safety, but his legs began to give out.
"Think of it as short-circuiting a few important muscles," the man replied. He spoke as if he were answering a classroom question. "But more importantly, it disrupts the flow and control of chakra. And that means no jutsus for a while."
Even as the ninja spoke, Yamato was focusing his chakra on the wound. He was happy that, for the moment, his attacker was busy monologuing rather than watching him. A small branch slowly emerged from Yamato's back as he tried to move any poison from his body to the wood.
Tiratsu suddenly turned to look the Leaf ninja in the face and noticed his look of anguish and concentration. "What are you doing over there?" he asked, once again drawing the kunai. "H-How did you-" he sputtered upon seeing the branch. "That's impossible!" he countered incredulously.
He ran for the ninja who was still sprawled on the ground. Tiratsu threw the kunai, but Yamato evaded by rolling himself to the side.
Yamato was unable to remove any poison - his opponent must have used some other means of inflicting the damage. Even worse, Yamato just wasted his chakra in the effort.
In a moment Tiratsu was on top of him with a piece of wire taut against his neck. "Care to make another move?"
The world still seemed to be spinning for Yamato. He kicked his legs upward, hoping to knock the man off balance or even manage to choke him with his feet. Unfortunately, Yamato was much less flexible in his current state than he hoped. Tiratsu angrily pushed the wire harder against his neck.
"Bad choice. Now where's your puppeteer pal?" he growled.
The clicking sound intensified, and Tiratsu couldn't help but look around.
Yamato grabbed his opponent's left hand while pushing off the ground with his own left foot, sweeping the man onto side his side. Tiratsu was somewhat dazed by what just happened, and before he knew it, his wire was being wrapped tightly around his wrists.
The former Leaf ANBU member pressed his knee forcefully into Tiratsu's midsection. He leaned close to the man's face and whispered, "Two can play the 'distracting familiar sound' game." Then, not wanting to deal further with his defeated foe, Yamato knocked him unconscious. He breathed a sigh of relief, laid his back against the ground, and allowed the world to continue its wild spinning for a few more minutes.