Disclaimer
K. I'm not sure if I have to write these things but I will. I don't claim any rights to Naruto or the characters. I give full credit to the rightful owners, blah, blah, blah. Except my story line. I mean I have no problem with them using it in Naruto, but I want credit if they do. lmao.
It's being passed on… From the past to the future, the Will of Fire.
-Godaime of Konoha: Tsunade
Sasuke leaned against the tree moodily, glancing around their small, hastily-made campsite. The eight Jinchuuriki had been running for two days before they were sure they were out of the ANBU's range. They didn't have any destination in mind except 'away from Konoha' in Naruto's words. They hadn't spoken a single word since leaving Konoha, but it was a mutual understanding that they would need Gaara. Not at that exact moment, necessarily, but eventually. It would be a risk for any of them to go near the Hidden Villages, but they'd need to if they were going to contact Gaara. None of this they mentioned, of course.
But, as usual, Naruto was the first one to break the silence they were in.
"What the hell are we going to do now?" Naruto blurted out suddenly, glaring around the fire to dare anyone to say something that could be considered depressing.
Sakura looked down at her nails. "Well, we could always head towards the last known Akatsuki manor and hand ourselves in." She paused as everyone else shot her dangerous looks. "But, I don't really think that's an option at this point, is it?"
Sasuke sighed. "Well, we're going to have to do something about our pursuers. Tsunade told me what the Elders would probably decide, and gave us time to leave. Danzou will send every Root member after us so he gets our power, so we'll have to do something to hide." He said, more to himself than to the others.
"We can't exactly go into a small town and volunteer as farmers…" Lee murmured, shaking his head slowly. "They'll find us if we stay in one place for to long."
"What do you propose, then?" Neji demanded, glaring at his green-clad team-mate. "The Kazekage may be a Jinchuuriki to, but he'd be stupid to let us stay there. None of the other villages will let us in unless we give them our demons and from what you guys said, that'll kill us."
"We could just keep wandering around until they stop… though we may need to fake our deaths to make that happen." Tenten added cheerfully, sharpening her favourite kunai. Her eyes flickered to the extra bag between Sasuke and Sakura. "What that thing for?"
They both looked down at the bag in confusion. "Weapons." They said in perfect unison, looking back at Tenten in confusion.
"Weapons?" She repeated, disbelief flickering across her face. "There are weapons in there?"
Sasuke nodded. "Yes, we figured that everyone would need their own weapon so we just grabbed a bunch so you guys can choose." He tossed the back to Tenten across the fire. "Although, I'm sure you already have enough for an army. Everyone else is free to choose."
Sakura sighed and crossed her legs, letting her hands fall into her lap. "You guys can keep arguing, but it just makes my head hurt. Wake me up when you decide night shifts." She said letting me mind drift away from the conversation, she was slightly aware of the fact that Sasuke and Lee were also starting to meditate. She sent a small wave of chakra over the surrounding area, checking for any signs of intruders. Before she could even get a few meters, something wrapped around her ankle and jerked her upwards.
With a cry of surprise, Sakura flew into the air, hanging upside down by here ankle. Sasuke and Lee jerked out of their trance as everyone else jumped to their feet, holding their newly chosen weapons out in front of them. Sakura angled her head down - up? - to look at what was holding her ankle. A thick wrapping of sand had coiled around her foot and ankle.
"Gaara, what the hell?" Sasuke snarled, glaring in the direction he assumed the Kazekage would be. "What are you doing?"
Gaara stepped out of the trees, glaring back at Sasuke. "I have no need to explain myself to you, Uchiha." He said in his monotone, waving his hand so that Sakura lifted farther off the ground and was at eye level with him. "Sakura, I presume you have a reason for being in the middle of the forest."
Sakura forced her gaze away from the sand and to Gaara. "Yeah, but I can't remember it now, all the blood in my body suddenly rushed to my brain." She informed him in a matter-of-fact voice, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I'm pretty sure my brain cells are drowning."
He shook his head and opened his fist. Sakura fell towards the ground immediately. Sasuke darted forward to catch her so she wouldn't land on her head. He grunted and the sand wrapped around both of them instead and covered his field of vision.
"Let us out of here!" Sasuke roared, lowering one knee to the sand and resting Sakura on his leg - afraid that Gaara would absorb her if she touched the sand - with his left arm still wrapped around her waits so he could pull his katana out.
They could barely hear the other Jinchuuriki screaming insults at Gaara outside the dome of sand but Sasuke ignored them and sliced at the sand with his blade, pushing as much Lightning-Chakra into the metal as possible. The sand separated but reformed before Sasuke could move a muscle. He hissed out an few key swear words. Sakura gently patted him on the cheek and pressed her hand to the sand, sending a wave of her chakra towards Gaara. She entered his mind with a jerk.
Let me kill them! Take their blood and spread it across this clearing, boy! Ichibi was bellowing at him, pure blood-lust literally radiating off the demon.
Stay out of my head, demon! Gaara hissed back, countering his demon's anger with his own. You have no right to tell me what to do!
'Gaara, do you mind letting me and Sasuke out of this bubble? It's getting hard to breath and I'd rather not die of suffocation, m'kay?' Sakura chirped up, ignoring the angry roar from Ichibi as he growled something about 'unwanted intruders.'
Sakura? How are you contacting me through my thoughts? Gaara asked, ignoring the yelling demon behind him.
Sakura frowned and looked around. They were in a large, dank room. There was a tunnel connecting to the room - which seemed to be split in half - that led to who knows where. The room had a large metal gate separating the two halves. Ichibi was safely locked behind it, numerous seals were placed over the bars. Most had been torn or ripped. More destroyed ones were laying on the ground. The ones that were left would break immediately, at the slightest growth in power from Ichibi - like the chance he would get in Gaara were ever to fall asleep… She thought to herself dully.
'I lean on my feet, Gare-Bear. Now, can you please let me out? Cause this jutsu takes a lot of energy and I'm tired as it is…' She let her voice trail off as she snapped back to her own body.
The sand slowly fell away around them as Gaara gently set them on the ground, he was still glowering at Sasuke. Sasuke matched his glare easily.
"Jinchuuriki or not, Gaara, if you endanger any of our lives like that again, I won't hesitate to end your life." Sasuke hissed, gently setting Sakura on the ground in front of him and standing up so he looked more intimidating.
The two glared at each other - with Sakura quickly scrambling away from them so she wasn't stuck between them - and the other Jinchuuriki standing back nervously. They stayed that way for a few minutes before Hinata quietly spoke up from behind Sakura and Tenten.
"Um… If you two kill each other now it'll just defeat the purpose of all we've already gone through." Hinata told them in a hushed voice.
The two turned to her, their glares still blazing. She yelped and ducked behind Tenten, holding onto the older girls arm nervously. Naruto stepped in front of the three female Jinchuuriki.
"Listen up, we'll all end up dead if we don't work together. And as much as I hate working with some of you, teamwork's the only option we have if we're going to survive. Things are just going to get harder from here on out. Failure is not an option, failure ends in death." He paused, thinking his next words through. "I know most of us haven't been in any major missions before. Maybe, you've had an A, if you're lucky. B is probably the highest you've gone and - even if you've had an A-ranked mission - I can guarantee that it won't be as difficult as what we're about to go through. But, even still, more hangs on our success than any other mission. If we fail this time, we won't just loose a few bucks or our sensei's disapproval for a few days. If we fail, there's the potential that the entire world could be destroyed.
"I don't pretend to know everything there is to know about Jinchuuriki." He glanced over at his younger sister. "Or about all the world's clans" A look at Sasuke. "Or their powers." A look at Neji. "Or even about most weapons." At Tenten. "But, if I do know one thing, it's this. If people kept quitting and dropping what they're doing because it was difficult, we'd be nowhere. We'd be a bunch of dumb fucks sitting around and complaining about how crummy our lives are. Sure, if you want to, I won't stop you from doing that. But, I will never quit. That's my way of the ninja. I plan to stick this through to the end. I won't get mad at you or even try to stop you if you want to leave, I won't even hold it against you. This is your lives on the line, I can risk mine but I have no right to risk yours."
Naruto paused again, looking each Jinchuuriki in the eye. "I'll admit that I'm scared, terrified to death actually, but I'm even more scared to know that - if I give up - everyone I care about will die, you all included. I won't lie to you, there's a chance you may die. Okay, that's not phrasing it properly. There's a definite possibility that you are going to die. I know that. I know that if I stick this through, I'm probably going to die. But I can't just sit back and wait for the Akatsuki to take Kyuubi from me! I don't know why I was stuck with this thing, all I know is that I am. Which means it's now my duty to make sure that his power ends with me. I won't let the Akatsuki use the Kyuubi's power for whatever their trying to do, I won't let him get sealed into anyone after me, and I certainly won't allow him to take over my body and destroy everything. This is my curse to bear, I won't let it be inflicted on the world, too. I won't hold it against you if you leave, but please, if you're going to leave. Go now, so we won't fall apart later. We'll give you anything you need to do whatever you plan to do, but after that, please don't interrupt our plans."
No one moved a muscle so he looked around the loose circle again.
"After knowing all that, are you still willing to risk your lives?" He asked the circle at large, not addressing the question to anyone in particular.
"Sheesh, ni-san. Keep talking like that and people might start thinking that you're growing up." Sakura scoffed under her breath, shaking her head slowly as she rubbed her temples.
"If I wasn't prepared for this, I would have stayed in Konoha and just given them my demon." Sasuke told him, finally putting his katana away as he wandered over to his backpack.
"We all know the risks of being a Jinchuuriki, Uzumaki." Neji told him, walking past the blond to lay down next to a tree.
"Yeah, we've kind of figured out how bad this stuff is from watching your battle with the Akatsuki." Tenten told him, rubbing the back of her neck.
"I-I won't leave, Naruto-kun." Hinata told him softly, conviction strengthening her voice.
"Like you said, we're all in this together." Shikamaru told him from his place next to a large oak tree.
"I won't give up either, Naruto-san!" Lee added, looking at Naruto from behind the dispersing group.
Gaara merely sat down at the far edges of the clearing. Naruto looked around the group, amazed that everyone had agreed so readily.
"It's do or die time, Ni-san." Sakura muttered from the ground, looking up at her brother.
"Either get on the bandwagon or shut up, Uzumaki." Sasuke added, laying on the ground and clasping his hands behind his head.