Last chapter. Iruka finally shows back up here. I don't own, characters may be out-of-caracter, it happens, some things happen that Kaze and Kiara didn't see, so while they still happened, I will not explain them. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Even after all this time, I still don't own them, except Kaze.
Back in their home village, Kiara and Kaze were attacked by one specific teacher who was, at that moment, freaking out. "WHERE HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?" Iruka bellowed as they walked through the gates. Kiara and Kaze flinched and tried to hide behind a building, but Iruka found them and pulled them out into the open by their collars.
"I'm sorry, Ruka-sensei!" Kaze cried, her head bowed. "Our teacher wanted us back so she could train us, then Naru-san found us-"
"And he said that Itachi-sama was here in the village and that he hurt Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei-" Kiara continued when Kaze stopped.
"So we ran back here as fast as we could to try to help!" Kaze finished.
"Honest!" They both said at the same time, their collars still in the grasp of their former teacher.
"Am I really that scary?" Iruka asked, laughing as he let the two girls go. "I was kidding, girls, really!" He wrapped the two girls up in a hug until they relaxed enough to laugh with him.
"Sorry, Ruka-sensei," Kaze said, smiling at him.
"But you can get frightening when you yell," Kiara said, sighing. "We've seen it enough times with Naruto that we never wanted to be on the receiving end of it."
Iruka laughed again, patting the two girls on the head. "Well, you'd better go see them. I'm not sure what the status is," Iruka said, waving the two girls off. They waved back as they ran to the hospital.
"Where's Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei?" Kiara asked the lady at the front.
"They can't have visitors," the obviously new lady said, waving them off like a couple of little kids. "Now get going, those two are in critical condition and we don't want you under foot."
Kaze put her fist in the lady's counter, leaning close to her. "Room numbers," Kaze ordered, pulling her fist out of the counter and leaving a hole in the middle of it.
"Th-three-oh-six," she stuttered. "They were put together because they had similar afflictions."
"Thank you!" The girls said, smiling sweetly at the lady before running down the hall.
"Oh, hey, those two have special permission to be here at any time, no matter the condition of the patient," a passing nurse said, writing something on her clipboard.
"Thanks for letting me know," the lady said sarcastically, eyeing the hole in her counter.
Kaze burst through the door of the room the lady had said, accidentally leaving it in pieces on the floor in her haste. "There's a doorknob, you know," Kiara stated, holding said doorknob up before dropping it to the floor with the rest of the door.
"Ah, you're here!" One of the doctors said, allowing the two girls to stand next to Sasuke's bed. "We don't know what to do, and we're afraid they'll die if we keep them like this. Is there any way you can wake them up?"
Kiara waved her hands, wrapped in healing chakra, over Sasuke while Kaze did the same to Kakashi. "I don't think so," Kiara sighed. "This is the one Tsunade-sama was teaching us, but because we didn't have any subjects we couldn't learn how to heal them of it."
"We can, however, keep them stable until she gets here," Kaze said, frowning at Kiara's negativity. "It's rare for you to be so negative, Kia."
"I'm tired, Kaze-sama," Kiara sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "I don't think I've gotten a proper night's sleep for quite some time. Not since before we became official ninja."
Kaze nodded her head in understanding as she and Kiara got to work stabilizing their friend and former teacher.
About a week later, Tsunade burst through the newly fixed door, breaking it to pieces just as Kaze had all over the floor. "There's a doorknob, you know," Shizune stated, holding said doorknob up before dropping it to the floor with the rest of the door.
"That sounds familiar," Kaze said, snickering.
"How are they?" Tsunade asked, peering at Sasuke and Kakashi.
"These two have done nothing to help him!" Sakura claimed, standing up indignantly. "They just sit there and do nothing all day while Sasuke-kun lays there dying! They're useless!"
"Shut up, or I'll break all your bones in one moment," Tsunade threatened, shooting Sakura a glare that instantly quieted her. "My students have done all they could, and now that I have a reason to show them this, they'll know how to heal anyone cursed with this affliction."
Tsunade sat down where Kiara just stood from and waved her hands over Sasuke, instructing Kaze and Kiara as she did so. Kiara and Kaze nodded in understanding before moving to Kakashi's side and helping him. Moments later, Sasuke woke up and Sakura latched on to him as Naruto laughed nervously before leaving. Kakashi also woke up, looking as if he had the worst hangover in his life.
"That was very good, girls," Tsunade said, grinning at her students. They smiled back at her until she left to room, following Gai, to go check on Lee.
Once she was gone, the two girls let out huge yawns and rubbed their eyes. "Have you two gotten any sleep since you came back?" Kakashi asked, dragging himself off the hospital bed.
"In the past week?" Kaze asked. Kakashi nodded. "I think we slept about a total of twenty minutes, right Kia?"
"Collectively, I'm sure it was about twenty minutes," Kiara agreed, rubbing her temples.
"Well, we need to get you two off to bed!" Kakashi stated, grabbing their hands and pulling them with him out of the hospital. "Never liked hospitals, by the way. Can't stand them!" Kaze laughed half-heartedly and Kiara stayed silent, focusing on staying awake until Kakashi stopped pulling her arm off.
Kakashi lead them to his house, opening the door and taking them to his room, where they flopped onto the bed. "I'll have dinner made when you two wake up, okay?" Kakashi said, laughing at his former students.
"Nade-sama said you need to rest," Kaze said, rolling her one open eye to peer at him.
"All I've been doing is resting," Kakashi retorted, hiding a yawn.
"I saw that," Kaze said.
"I heard that," Kiara's muffled voice stated from the pillow. "Bed, now, Kakashi-sensei." Kakashi laughed, but crawled in next to Kaze and wrapped his arms around the two girls.
"Make sure you actually sleep, Kashi-sensei," Kaze ordered, burying her face in his chest and grabbing on to his shirt with one hand. "And just to make sure you won't leave, I have an iron grip on your shirt."
"I've got his hand," Kiara said tiredly, holding tightly onto Kakashi's hand. The two girls fell asleep quickly, and Kakashi tried to escape but found he really was trapped.
"One of these days those two will be the death of you," Iruka laughed from the window.
"One of these days I'm going to be the death of you if you don't keep coming up to my window," Kakashi threatened half-heartedly. "I guess I need to rest, so go do some teacher things, Iruka-sensei." Iruka let out an irritated sound before leaving, allowing Kakashi to drift off to sleep.
Hours later, Kakashi finally woke up and disentangled himself from the two girls, who awoke with a start. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Kakashi said.
"No, it's that sudden chakra burst…" Kaze said, looking around the room, disoriented.
"I think it came from the hospital," Kiara said stumbling out of the bed and out into the hall. "Let's go, Kiara-sama."
"I think I'm Kaze," Kaze said, following her friend.
"Whatever you are, we have to stop whatever this is," Kiara said, frustrated. "Why can't I find this doorknob?" She shrieked, running her hands over the wall in front of her.
"Over here, Kiara," Kakashi said, amused by their tired antics.
"Thank you," Kiara said tartly, finally awake enough to realize what she was doing.
Kaze yawned hugely, following her friend to the hospital in the twilight to find Sasuke and Naruto aiming at each other, Sasuke with his Chidori, and Naruto with his Rasengan. Kakashi jumped in the middle just as Sakura had run out between her two teammates and threw the boys to different ends of the roof. Each landed in a water tank and Sasuke pulled his arms out to release a huge flow of water, but Kaze and Kiara saw Naruto's Rasengan fly out the other end of the water tank and spill all the water out of it in a moment.
"Whoa, when'd he get so strong?" Kaze asked, raising an eyebrow at Kiara. Kiara shrugged in response, watching Sasuke punch the wall below Naruto's water tank and storm away.
"Either way, Sasuke-kun's not happy about it," she stated. "Should we go talk to him?"
"Don't bother, he wouldn't listen to a couple of girls younger than him," Kaze said, shrugging. "Besides, Kashi-sensei's going after him. I'm going to Shino's, I need more sleep." She waved to Kiara, making her way to Shino's house.
The next morning, Kaze was woken up, at Hinata's house (Shino was on a mission with his father) by a yell of surprise. "Sasuke's gone?" Neji shouted. "Are you sure, Lee?"
"Yes, Shikamaru-san is taking some ninja with him, and I figured you'd be the best choice since I myself cannot go," Lee's voice said from the doorway. Hinata followed Kaze out into the front of the house to see what was going on. Neji ran past them on his way to his room to pack and Lee waved at Kaze. "Hello, Kaze-san, I am sorry to have woken you."
"No problem, Lee-kun," Kaze said, waving off his apology. "But tell me, what did Neji mean when he said 'Sasuke's gone'?"
"Sasuke left last night, according to Sakura-san," Lee reported as Neji ran past him, dressed and packed, but his hair flew around his face freely.
"Neji-sama, wait!" Kaze called, waving him back inside the gate. He looked agitated when she told him to spin around, but calmed down as she pulled his hair back away from his face in a loose ponytail. "Running around with long, loose hair is a hazard, you know," she said, smiling up at Neji. He smiled back gratefully, waved at Hinata, and ran off again. "Wait…" Kaze muttered, finally processing what Lee had said. "SASUKE'S GONE?" She screeched, grabbing her weights and bag and running after Neji.
She caught up with him at the gate to the outside of the village where he was meeting up with Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Naruto. "I'm coming!" Kaze demanded, glowering at the group.
"That sounds great, Kaze-chan!" Naruto said, grinning at her.
"Nope, we can't do that," Shikamaru sighed, shaking his head. "The fifth said to not allow you to come with. Neither you nor Kiara-san, sorry."
"What?" Kaze yelled, indignant. "Why can't we come?"
"Go ask her, I was too busy thinking of who to bring to listen very closely," Shikamaru said, shaking his head. Kaze fumed for another moment before spinning on her heel and running towards the Hokage tower.
"I'm going!" Kaze said, bursting into Tsunade's office. She saw that Kiara was already there, pleading with Tsunade to let them go.
"You are not!" Tsunade ordered, scattering her paperwork.
"Why not?" Kaze asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"You two are too close to Sasuke," Tsunade sighed. "It's the same reason I won't let Sakura go."
"Besides the fact that I don't want to be placed in the same category as that pink-haired, clingy, useless, girly-girl, Kiara and I are the best choice for this!" Kaze declared. "Besides, Naruto's going!"
"True, but Naruto's always thought of Sasuke as a rival, so he won't decide to join him," Tsunade explained. "And that was Shikamaru's decision, not mine."
"Then let us be backup!" Kiara said. "They'll need medical ninja if Sasuke has company! Please, Tsunade-sama, they'll need our help!"
"No, and that's final!" Tsunade said, standing up. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have something I need to do for Lee. Relax, Shikamaru will make sure they're all alright."
Kiara followed Kaze as she stormed to their house. "Kaze-sama, what are we going to do? We need to help them!" Kiara asked as Kaze ran up to her room.
"Oh, we're going," Kaze said, pulling a phone out of her drawer.
"But Tsunade said-"
"I heard what Tsunade said," Kaze cut Kiara off. "But we need to help them. And we'll need backup of our own."
"Who are you calling?" Kiara asked, frowning at Kaze.
"Hey, Gaara-kun!" Kaze said brightly into the phone. "Listen, I need a favor…"
Half an hour later, after Kaze had explained their situation to Gaara and he promised to meet them with Temari and Kankuro, Kaze and Kiara were racing through the trees, following Shikamaru's team.
"I can't believe we're ignoring direct orders," Kiara moaned. "She'll have our heads, I'm sure of it!"
"No time to worry about that, Kia," Kaze ordered. "We need to hurry, they already have half an hour ahead of us!"
Kiara sighed, then froze when she heard someone groaning on the forest floor. "Kaze-sama, hold on!" Kiara called, dropping down from the branch in front of the figure.
"It's Cho-kun!" Kaze said, surprised. "Hey, Cho-kun, you okay?"
Choji groaned again, holding his stomach. "Uh oh," Kiara breathed, channeling her healing chakra into their friend. "Help, Kaze-sama, he's really hurt!"
Kaze helped the best she could, but Choji couldn't be healed with what skills they had, so they did their best to stabilize their friend's condition before shooting a flare into the sky to signify his location. Kiara sighed, leading the way until Kaze stopped, noticing a figure once more on the forest's floor.
"Oh, no, Neji-sama!" Kaze yelled, causing Kiara to pause. "I need to try to help him, Kia!" Kaze said, jumping to the floor.
Kiara followed, helping Kaze stop the blood flowing out of a hole in Neji's chest. They couldn't do much else, since neither girl could regenerate his missing tissue properly without causing him to lose some mobility. Kaze gave up, with some difficulty and allowed Kiara to pull her away.
The two girls kept running forward after letting off a flare, both girls using their noses in much the same way that Kiba and Akamaru normally do until they both stopped suddenly, completely in tune with the other's natural reactions. "Kaze-sama, they split up," Kiara reported, looking around. There was a huge chasm in front of them.
"Or were separated," Kaze said, sighing.
"I'll go find Kiba," Kiara suggested. Kaze agreed, running after Shikamaru's scent.
Kiba gasped for air, trying to use his nose to find the Sound ninja who was coming after him. "Seems like he's gone," Kiba sighed in relief, patting the unconscious Akamaru.
"You think so?" The Sound ninja asked, wearing Kiba's jacket.
"My jacket, you used it to disguise your scent," Kiba said, staring wide-eyed at the ninja.
"I figured you wouldn't notice a scent you've been smelling all your life," the ninja said, stabbing at Kiba. He was stopped by a figure in a cloak standing in front of him.
"Don't worry, Kiba," Kankuro laughed from the other side of the boy. "The Sand ninja are here to help!"
"Hey, I was here first," Kiara said from behind the Sound ninja. "No fair." She picked the guy up and flipped him over her head, pulling Kiba's jacket off him the same time she threw him into the river. "Hi, Inuzuka-san!" Kiara said brightly, handing Kiba his jacket. She kneeled down to heal Akamaru before taking care of Kiba. "Quite a mess, huh?" She asked, ignoring Kankuro engaging the Sound ninja in battle.
"Ah, Kawa-san!" Kiba sighed in relief. "Where's Kami-san? You two are never separated."
"She went after Shikamaru-san," Kiara replied just as Kankuro slid next to her.
"Wait, Kaze-san went to help Shikamaru?" He asked. Kiara nodded. "Temari went to help Shikamaru."
The two looked at each other for a moment before muttering, "Uh oh."
Shikamaru struggled in his battle with the girl with a foul mouth. She had gray skin with horns on her head and long hair, she was laughing and cussing at Shikamaru as he struggled to hold her in his Shadow Strangle Jutsu. "You aren't bad for a dickhead," the girl said, snickering as she tried again to hit him with a dagger she'd stolen from him. Shikamaru's jutsu broke, the girl aimed, and a moment later Kaze was standing between them, holding the dagger still.
"You may have gotten through Shikamaru's jutsu," Kaze chuckled. "But you want to know my favorite move?"
"What is it, hoe-bag?" The girl asked, trying to pull the dagger out of Kaze's hand and failing miserably.
"ROUNDHOUSE KICK, BITCH!" Kaze shouted, spinning around and kicking the girl in the head, successfully knocking her off the tree and onto the ground below.
"Language, Kaze-chan!" Temari said, trying to keep her anger to a simmer. "Besides, I was supposed to help Shikamaru-san!"
"You snooze you lose!" Kaze laughed, helping Shikamaru stand. "Are you okay, Shika-san?" She asked, running her hands over Shikamaru's chest and down his arms.
"What are you two doing here?" Shikamaru asked, flinching as she reached his broken finger.
"Aw, Shika-san, you're finger," Kaze muttered, straightening it out while healing it. "That better?" She asked, sneakily holding his hand for longer than she needed to.
"He's fine!" Temari snapped at Kaze, pulling her away from Shikamaru. "We have to beat this girl so quit touching Shikamaru-san!"
"But-" Shikamaru began, blushing slightly. Kaze and Temari launched themselves off the branch and at the girl below. "I kinda wanted to hold her hand," Shikamaru finished to himself, frowning after the two girls.
Moments later, the girl was unconscious on the forest floor and Kiara and Kankuro ran up. "Hey, Kia!" Kaze called, waving.
"Are you guys okay?" Kiara asked, looking Shikamaru over.
"I'm fine, Kaze-san already looked me over," Shikamaru said, waving Kiara off and laughing. "Where's Choji and Neji?" Kiara shook her head, refusing to answer.
"I'm guessing Temari didn't much like that," Kankuro muttered.
"We have to go find Naruto!" Kiba said, still clutching the unconscious Akamaru and staggering on his pained legs. "C'mon, let's go!"
Kaze nodded and she led the way to a clearing where Gaara was standing over a weird looking guy that no one paid any attention to. "Hello, Kaze-san, Kiara-san," Lee said, waving to the two girls from next to Gaara.
"Hello, Lee-kun!" Kiara said. "Gaara-san, thank you so much for helping us!"
"I didn't do it for you," Gaara said, not looking at Kiara.
"I don't care, I still wanted to thank you," Kiara said tartly, glowering at Gaara.
Gaara shifted his eyes to her, startled at her sudden irritation. "Oh, well then, you're welcome?" Gaara said uncertainly, furrowing his eyebrows.
Kiara nodded, pleased with his acceptance and looked Lee over. "Lee, why do you smell like sake?" She asked, waving her hand in front of her nose to dispel the smell.
"I'm not sure," Lee said, shrugging. "I was taking my medicine before my fight with this guy," he waved at the guy on the ground, "and I can't quite remember what happened until Gaara-sama came." He then waved at Gaara, who was being looked over by Kaze.
"You don't need to check for wounds, Kaze-san," Gaara insisted, trying to pull his arm out of her grip and earning a death glare from her. "If you insist, I guess," Gaara sighed, giving up and allowing Kaze to run her hands over his arm.
"You never know, Gaara-kun," Kaze stated. "Your defense isn't perfect, if it was I wouldn't be allowed this close to you."
"I honestly think his sand likes you," Kankuro said, shaking his head.
"It's sand, it can't have feelings," Temari snorted, still unhappy with Kaze.
"It might," Gaara said as Shikamaru silently fumed. "She is the only person who could possibly take me out who is allowed this close. See?" He motioned to his sand, some of which was sliding out of his gourd and wrapping around Kaze's hair.
"Aw, kawaii!" Kiara squealed, grinning at Kaze.
"Oh, shut up!" Kaze snapped, the sand settling in her hair. Kaze blushed angrily, biting her lip. Shikamaru cleared his throat.
"Where is Naruto?" He asked, trying to pull the attention away from Kaze. "He'd gone ahead of us to find Sasuke."
"I saw him," Lee said. "He went off ahead to find Sasuke."
"Well, I trust Naruto to get back safely," Kaze stated, touching Gaara's hand before turning away. "Thank you very much, Gaara-kun, we'll be running back to the village." She smiled gratefully at Gaara before running away, followed by the other Konoha ninja. The Sand ninja looked at each other warily before following.
They made it back to the village, Kaze and Kiara sneaking in while Shikamaru ran to see the Hokage about the mission.
About an hour later, Kakashi showed up in the village with Naruto on his back. "Kashi-sensei, are you okay?" Kaze asked, she and Kiara rushing up to him and Naruto.
"Yep, and Naruto's fine too," Kakashi said, smiling at the two girls.
"And… Sasuke-kun?" Kiara asked warily, noticing that both Kakashi's and Naruto's eyes turned dark at the sound of his name.
"Well, whatever, we need to tell Tsunade-sama!" Kaze said, turning and running towards the hospital. Kiara faltered and instead helped Naruto to his house and to bed.
"Tsunade-sama!" Kaze yelled, interrupting Shizune's report. "Kashi-sensei and Naruto have returned!"
"Just the two of them, huh?" Tsunade said sadly. Temari ground her teeth in irritation when Kaze ran up.
"Well, you failed your mission. But at least everyone survived," Tsunade said, shrugging.
Kaze peered at Shikamaru, who was standing next to her, and saw with surprise that he was crying openly. "Next time, we will definitely complete our mission," he promised, trying to hide his tears. Kaze hesitated, but then wrapped her arms around Shikamaru. He gratefully accepted the hug, calming his tears gradually.
"Oh, and Kaze," Tsunade said, frowning at Kaze. "The next time you disobey a direct order from me it will result in severe consequences."
Kaze looked carefully at Tsunade before straightening up. "With all due respect, Tsunade-sama," Kaze began after clearing her throat. "The next time you give me an order that puts my friends in danger, it may result in your life."
Tsunade gaped at her as she pulled Shikamaru away. "C'mon, Shika-san, I'll treat you to dinner," Kaze said, smiling at Shikamaru, who stared at her in surprise, allowing himself to be pulled away.
Over the next seven years, Kiara and Kaze managed to become both Jounin and Anbu by the age of fourteen, while all the other Leaf ninja became either Chuunin or Jounin. Gaara had become the Kazekage in his father's stead and Temari and Kankuro stayed as his guards. Naruto went on many different missions to try to find Sasuke, with the help of Kiara and Kaze, who used their new Anbu rank to get Naruto more difficult missions. Naruto went on a two-and-a-half year training journey with Jaraiya while Kaze and Kiara tried to help Tsunade teach Sakura about medical ninjutsu without hurting Sakura in the process. Naruto, Kiara, and Kaze refused to give up on their missing-nin friend, and Tsunade frequently lost patience with them.