PROTECT THE PRINCIPAL!
The refrain echoed over and over in Aya's mind. How could she protect Gaara in this situation?
"Here," she murmured, drawing her chokoto and passing him both of them. Gaara took them, but frowned.
"Won't you need them?"
Aya smirked. "He knows I'm a Juunishi. I'll battle him the Juunishi way." She drew a familiar-looking handle. Gaara recognized it from a while back.
"That's the…!"
"The Juunblade that Kisame stole," Aya confirmed, turning on the weapon. With a hum, the blood-red blade slid out. Aya took up a warrior's stance against Deidara, Gaara held the chokoto as sword and shield before him, summoning Siena's training and the strange power in the sand. Aya felt the sand begin to whirl around their feet and smiled. Deidara looked a little unnerved. Aya laughed tauntingly.
"Weren't you going to kill us?"
Gaara's sand blasted away the first wave of Akatsuki's minions, his chokotos took the lives of two more. Aya focused on Deidara, he was the real threat here. He laughed and rolled something at her. Aya gasped as she recognized it.
Deidara had just rolled a bomb at her!
"LORD GAARA!" Gaara jumped as Aya threw herself at him, knocking him backwards, away from the explosion. He picked himself up as Aya got off him, looking at the cloud the bomb had sent up.
"Are you alright, my lord?"
"I'm fine, commander. Where's Deidara?"
"Heheheheh…"
"THERE!"
The commander and prince rolled away again as another of Deidara's bombs rolled at them and exploded. Aya coughed in the smoke.
"Are you OK?" Gaara asked, worried. Aya growled.
"I'm fine. Stay here, I'm going to find him."
"No need," Deidara laughed. "I'm here."
Gaara turned in surprise, but Aya was prepared. She spun and threw her fist at Deidara!
Gaara missed the impact, but he heard Deidara scream. Aya leapt backwards, blowing on her fist. Maybe it was Gaara's imagination, but he thought he saw it smoking.
"Alright, my lord, we need to get some reinforcements!" Aya yelled.
"We need a signal flare!" Gaara cried through the smoke. Aya nodded.
"I'll do it!"
Her fingers flashed in a series of handsigns, her Juunblade hanging from her belt for the moment. Gaara frowned. What was Aya doing?
"KATON: PHOENIX FLARE NO JUTSU!" A number of fireballs shot up through the smoke and sand from the bombs and burst like fireworks above the melee.
"How did you do that?" Gaara yelled. Aya grabbed his hand.
"That's not important! Let's go!" she yelled. She drew her Juunblade and looked around them.
Gaara's sand suddenly enveloped them in a cocoon as a bomb went off right under their feet. Aya cursed.
"He's fooling us in the smoke!"
Then Deidara appeared. Gaara noticed that his left sleeve looked charred, as if something fiery had struck it. He was angry now.
"You'll pay for this, Juunishi!" he yelled. Aya noticed the black shapes rising behind him.
"Oh, no! He's got more men!"
Sure enough, Akatsuki agents were surrounding Gaara and Aya once again. Then a cry sounded from the right.
"SETSUKI!"
Aya turned as several black-clad Setsuki agents appeared and flung themselves into the battle. Tents were aflame now, adding more confusion to the mess. Gaara hacked away at his opponent without really knowing who he was fighting. Then Aya was there, breaking the lines apart, blood flowing from a dozen wounds on her real body, her steel limbs showing through the gashes in her arms…
"FIGHT BACK!" she roared. "FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, SETSUKI!"
Gaara watched in awe as she blocked the axe swing of one of Akatsuki's henchmen and swung her Juunblade at him. Juunishi and axeblade parried, searching for an opening. Blood ran into her eyes, obscuring the phenomenon occurring there.
Gaara turned to see Deidara thundering down on him, teeth bared, ready to kill. But in an instant, a blur ran between him and the blonde. Aya was there, her face dark, her body ready to take any blow to defend Gaara.
Deidara spotted her and threw another one of his clay bombs. Aya knocked it to the side with a blow of her steel arm. It exploded and went up in flames. Aya growled. Gaara saw something familiar in her eyes…something he had only seen once before. Only once, when he had felt the blast of hatred coming so strongly from her. It was the blood-red eye with the three tamoe in it!
Deidara drew a sword and went at it. He and Aya blocked, hacked, twisted, and parried. In frustration, Deidara formed a clay shield. Aya knocked his sword hand aside and brought her Juunblade down hard on the shield. It did not even crack under her blow.
"ATARNY'IT!" Gaara winced. He knew a bit of Atlantean, and that was pretty bad.
Aya let her Juunblade drop and clapped her hands together, shutting her eyes. A wind stirred her hair, which had come free of its braids. Her eyes snapped open.
"CHIDORI!"
Deidara's eyes opened wide as he recognized the signature jutsu. Everyone else, though, remained in the dark. Only an Akatsuki would recognize that.
Aya's blazing hand smashed straight through the clay shield, shattering it to pieces. Deidara raised his arm to protect his face, and that was his last mistake. Aya's other hand came up.
"KATON: FLAME SWORD NO JUTSU!"
Deidara screamed as Aya's fist, glowing with flame, punched right through him! The Akatsuki hung off of her fist. With one smooth motion, Aya brought up her leg and kicked him backwards. Deidara flew back, back into the grasp of another person. Aya panted for breath as she saw the new man wearing the Akatsuki cloak.
Kakazu let Deidara's body fall, laughing.
"That was good. But can your fire compete with my water?"
Aya picked up her Juunblade, but knew she was running low. And Gaara was still behind her, his sand protecting him. But who knew how long he could hold out? They needed to get the principal out of here so they could destroy the Akatsuki safely!
"MEGUMI! YUUKI!" Aya roared. In an instant, the two were at her side. Aya hooked her deactivated Juunblade onto her belt again and held out her hands.
"The scroll, Megumi!"
Yuuki gasped. "No, Aya, not that jutsu! You'll DIE!"
Aya looked at her, blood streaming into her eye, and growled. "The principal is in danger! Nothing is worth my life now!"
Megumi placed a scroll in Aya's hand, while Yuuki clapped her hands together. Aya opened the seal on the scroll and began to wind it about her body. Gaara watched in awe as the kanji-covered parchment wound about his commander. Meanwhile, Megumi was drawing hurried seal lines in the sand. Yuuki's hair began to stir and a crackling filled the air. Megumi and Yuuki formed several handsigns and nodded.
"TRANSFORMATION: STEEL THUNDER DRAGON!" They smashed their hands into the seal, causing it to turn blindingly white. The scrolls around Aya turned white as the power seeped through them.
There was an explosion, a roar…
And a huge dragon rose above the Setsuki camp on steel scales!!
The dragon roared and blasted fire from its nostrils. Megumi turned to Gaara.
"Hurry, your Highness, mount her!"
"Mount THAT THING?!!?" Gaara cried. Yuuki slew an enemy and turned to Gaara.
"It's AYA! HURRY!"
Gaara suddenly felt the dragon's breath hot on his neck. He turned and yelped as its huge fangs connected in his tunic. The dragon twisted backwards and threw him. Gaara landed heavily behind the beast's ear. The dragon's huge, red eye was right below him, with three huge black comma shapes in each of them. Below them, Kakazu gasped. The dragon had a power he'd only seen once before: the Sharingan!
The dragon-that-was-Aya turned and bellowed, its war cry echoing off the desert floor. Gaara, high atop its head, closed his eyes and gripped her ear, holding on for dear life. Those fighting below paused. Those from Suna gasped.
"The legend!" cried one.
"What legend?" Yuuki asked. Tsume turned to her.
" 'He who rides the dragon will be the greatest of us yet.'"
The dragon's huge wings unfurled and it rolled into the sky. Kakazu cursed and called to the third Akatsuki member there.
"Hidan, we can't let them get away!"
The man in the black cloak with red clouds left off his killing spree and turned to Kakazu.
"Well then, let's follow them! Deidara left his clay bird here."
They mounted the clay creature and took off after the writhing dragon.
Gaara felt the wind rushing past his face as the dragon beneath him undulated through the sky. It was an amazing feeling, riding one of the legendary creatures. And yet, it was strange. He would never have guessed that Aya had such a close affiliation with fire! She could use fire jutsu, transform into a fire creature…
What's going on? Or is this just another SECRET? his mind asked him.
The dragon looked exhausted, its strength spent. It banked and came to rest in a little hollow. Gaara tumbled from behind its ear and thudded to the soft, sandy ground. The dragon transformed into Aya, who was on her hands and knees, gasping for breath.
A sudden screech made them look up. Aya's hand shakily went towards her Juunblade and closed on the handle, but she lacked the strength to pull it out. Hidan and Kakazu leapt off Deidara's bird in triumph. There was one of them for each of the others, and the dragon girl wouldn't last long, anyway. They were cornered.
Aya suddenly coughed. Her arms shook with the effort of keeping herself steady as she murmured.
"I'm sorry, your highness…you're on…your own…"
Her eyes rolled back into her head as Aya keeled over. The Juunblade rolled from her loose hand. Gaara knelt by her side, frantic.
"No…no…"
Kakazu and Hidan entered the little hollow.
Gaara turned to face them, his eyes red with wrath. The sand began to flow and rise around him, the Juunblade Aya had dropped glowing red in his hand. Kakazu and Hidan gulped.
Gaara's arms pointed at them. Words came unbidden from his mouth.
"Sabaku Kyu!"
Kakazu choked as the sand engulfed his body. Gaara's fist clenched shut.
"SABAKU SOSO!"
The sands turned red.
"Heheheh...nice."
Gaara turned around to see Hidan standing next to Aya's unconscious body. His fists clenched as he growled.
"Get away from her."
"Or what?" Hidan asked jovially. "Wish you'd do that implosion thing to me. It would please Jashin no end!"
He held a kunai to Aya's throat. "Oh, well, guess this will have to do as a sacrifice."
Gaara's sand slammed Hidan back into the rocky wall behind him. As Hidan groaned, the sand curled back and lifted Aya away from Hidan and behind Gaara once more. Gaara knelt and plunged his hands onto the ground.
"Ryusa Bakuryu!"
Hidan spluttered as sand cascaded from above his head, flowing around and over his body. Gaara nodded. Time to finish it. He spoke the final words.
"SABAKU TAISO!"
Hidan died without a sound. Gaara stood up, panting.
"Quick, the dragon went down here!"
"This way!"
Gaara turned and blocked the first two with his sand. They cried out as they hit the solid wall.
"Your Highness, it's us!" Yuuki called desperately. The mad light died from Gaara's eyes. The sand suddenly dropped to the ground, and Gaara fell with it.
"LORD GAARA!"
Setsuki poured into the hollow. Yuuki, Megumi, and Hinata knelt over the prostrate Aya.
"She's nearly dead," Megumi pronounced. "That Steel Thunder Dragon jutsu almost killed her."
"She saved Gaara, though," Yuuki reminded her. "After the dragon left, we were able to weed out the rest of Akatsuki, though we missed these two."
She pointed at the remains of Kakazu and Hidan.
Hinata quietly made a few handsigns and placed her palms over Aya's chest.
"What are you doing?"
"Ssh," Megumi reprimanded her friend. "She's healing the commander!"
A little ways away, Tsume and Lee had gotten Gaara onto a bier.
"He's only exhausted," Tsume announced. "Battle fatigue, that's what it is."
Gaara stirred on the stretcher. Lee frowned.
"Let's get him back to camp."
Hinata had finished ministering to Aya. Aya sat up and drank a little water. Then, with her arms around Yuuki and Megumi's shoulders, she managed to hobble back to camp on her own two feet. Shortly after, she collapsed into a deep sleep.
Setsuki withheld the signal to the west, waiting for their commander and prince to revive from their first confrontation with Akatsuki.