Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters. Isa Yamanaka and any other OC's are mine.
"What are you talking about?" Kakashi's eye was sharp, his jaw tight beneath his mask.
"Shino overheard Temari and Kankuro talking about a plan, and Shikamaru and I think they're operating on orders from the Kazekage," Isa said, speaking quickly, keeping her voice quiet.
"But you don't know what their orders might be?"
She shook her head, mouth pulling down in regret. "We don't really know anything," She admitted. "We just know there's something going on. And... I don't know, Kakashi-sensei, it just feels weird."
He quirked an eyebrow at her. "It feels weird?" He repeated, voice laced with the slightest hint of skepticism. It wasn't condescending, but there was a careful restraint to his words, a kind of warning that even if he did care for her - and Isa was quite certain he did - that whatever she said next was going to be taken with a grain of salt.
She flushed and twisted her fingers together absent-mindedly. "Yeah, I've just had this feeling like something is going to happen. Like, when is the other shoe going to drop, you know?"
Kakashi's gaze softened in understanding. "You think that because Orochimaru showed up before, something's going to go wrong here, too." It was more of a statement than a question, and he crouched in front of her, bringing himself to eye-level.
"Listen," He said, ruffling her hair affectionately. "It's smart to be cautious, but I don't want you to get so wound up that you start seeing conspiracies everywhere you look. Being alert and being paranoid are very different."
She butted her head against the hand rested in her hair, frowning at her teacher. "I am being alert! I don't know if Orochimaru is here, but I do know that something weird is going on with the Sand team, and we can't dismiss that just because they might not actually be up to anything."
Kakashi sighed, but he was smiling in resignation when he stood up. "Alright, you go back up and find the other genin. I want you to keep an eye on the Sand kids, and if something does happen, you stay with Naruto and Sasuke, okay? Don't try to play hero, just stick together."
Isa's eyebrows furrowed, but she didn't protest. Kakashi nodded, tweaked her nose gently, and left, striding purposefully toward the stands. She hovered in the doorway, wavering on the tips of her toes in indecision. I need to go up and find Naruto. But... what about Shikamaru? I should make sure he's okay. She worried at her bottom lip, glancing up the stairs and freezing when Gaara appeared at the top.
He descended them without really seeing them, stepping onto the landing and walking past her. He didn't pause, his eyes didn't lift to hers, but the air around him was thick with malice. He stepped into the sunlight of the arena and Isa released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Mind made up, she hurried down the long hallway, following the trace of familiar chakra to the medical room.
Shikamaru was sitting up, pale-faced, waving off the last of the medics. He looked up when she entered the room and the lazy grin that greeted her was almost enough to loosen the knot of worry in Isa's chest.
He pushed himself to his feet, only wobbling slightly, grunting when she threw her arms around his neck and squeezed, hugging him tightly.
"I'm okay," He muttered, voice muffled against her shoulder. "You didn't even use a full dose, did you?"
She pulled back, cheeks pink. "No," She admitted quietly, blushing harder when he snorted. "I didn't want to hurt you, you jerk!" She smacked him lightly, shoulders hunched and arms crossed defensively. "I just gave you enough to make you weak, not enough to kill you."
"You have any more of those?" He asked. She nodded. "Good. Keep them handy, we might need them."
"But..." She frowned at him, forehead lined with worry. "Shika, are you sure you're okay? Shouldn't you lay down or something?"
He shrugged. "If I pass out, you'll know something's wrong."
Isa pursed her lips, unsatisfied, but glanced absently around the room, frown lifting in confusion. "Wait, where's Neji? Shouldn't he be down here, too?"
"No, he's in another room. I think he's talking to Hiashi."
"Oh. We'll just leave them alone, then." Isa had only met Hiashi Hyuga once or twice before when she was young, and she remembered mostly hiding behind her father's legs, intimidated by the stern, composed leader of the Hyuga family. She had no desire to barge into a meeting between Hiashi and Neji.
She followed Shikamaru back to the balcony, welcomed by Naruto and Kiba with cheerful smiles, and Shino with a simple nod. Temari and Kankuro were still huddled on the opposite side of the room, casting occasional dark looks at the group of Konoha genin.
Naruto clapped Shikamaru on the back bracingly. "Tough loss, man." He turned to Isa and flashed her a thumbs up. "I knew you could do it, though!"
Isa smiled, but the expression was vacant, her mind elsewhere. Subtly, she pulled the others in closer, lowering her voice to a whisper. "I told Kakashi-sensei," She said. "He said to watch the Sand ninja and if anything happens, we need to stay together."
"If they do anything, leave that Kankuro guy to me," Kiba muttered, glaring at the older boy on the other side of the room. "He's mine."
"It's not wise to be impulsive," Shino chimed in, deep voice level, wary, but not uneasy.
Kiba rolled his eyes. "Come on, Shino, you'd be the same way if he forfeited on you."
Shino's shrug was barely more than a tiny lift of his shoulders, almost imperceptible beneath his coat. "Perhaps. But I would not charge mindlessly into a fight, regardless." His attention turned to Isa. "I have been assessing the defenses around the arena. There are five sections of arena seating, and in each section there are eight ANBU scattered throughout the crowd."
Isa blinked in surprise, mentally berating herself for not thinking to look for defenses herself. "Only eight per section? That's not enough to cover the whole area."
"Maybe they're stationed all through the village," Shikamaru offered. His voice was casual, but the implications were not.
If that's true that means they're already anticipating a full-scale attack. The thought chilled Isa to the bone. Her fingers tightened around the railing beneath her hands. And dad's out there right now, probably. I don't even know where mom is, or Ino.
"I have also located several other genin," Shino continued. "They have all converged in the second section. Ino, Choji, and Sakura Haruno were joined by Guy-sensei and Lee later on. Kakashi-sensei appears to have just joined them, as well. Asuma-sensei and Kurenai-sensei are together, but are farther away from the rest of them. I believe Hinata was there earlier, but I don't know where she is now."
"Sakura's here?" Naruto asked, smiling in pleased surprise. That's right, you liked her, didn't you? Back at the Academy. Isa blinked, almost taken aback by how distant the memories seemed. It was as if their time at the Academy had been ages ago, not mere months.
She shook herself, gathering her thoughts. "So that's everyone, then." She glanced at Shikamaru. "Do we want to warn Ino and Choji?"
He looked up at the stands, then yawned, shaking his head. "No time."
Isa frowned, opened her mouth to respond, but her attention was drawn to the center of the arena. The fight had begun without her noticing, and Gaara was on his knees, breathing hard. There were hairline cracks splintering across his skin, as if his skin itself was hardened. Sasuke looked confident, but Isa could feel the toll his chakra was taking. She'd seen him training before, she knew how fast he was, but despite his training, forcing his body to move this quickly was still sapping his chakra at an alarmingly fast rate.
The sand around Gaara's feet shifted, rising to form a solid shell around him, hiding him from view. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he sprung at the cocoon of sand, fist connecting with a grating crunch. The sand shot out, jutting toward him in sharp spikes, forcing him to jump back.
That's... it's like it has a mind of its own! No wonder this kid has never gotten hurt on a mission before!
Tendrils of sand rose higher in the air, coalescing into a large, lidless eye that hovered above the sand shell. Isa sucked in a stunned breath. I've never seen anything like this. What kind of jutsu is this?! She glanced at Naruto, who was watching the match intently, leaning across the railing as if tempted to jump into the fight himself.
Temari muttered a quiet, "Gaara" and cast a surreptitious look at the prestige box, face pinched in worry.
What are you planning? And why are you so afraid of Gaara? Isa wondered, watching the older kunoichi closely. The fear was palpable in both Temari and Kankuro, a sickening kind of dread that Isa knew well.
Sasuke was still trying to attack the sand shell head-on, flickering around it, chased away again and again by the sand spikes. They were too slow to catch him, though only just, and he landed safely outside of their reach, breathing hard, but smirking.
He reached up, unbuttoning the strap wrapped around his left arm, unwinding it until only thick bandages were left protecting his arm. Isa released her breath in a long, slow sigh. Looks like it's time.
All eyes were riveted on him, the stadium utterly silent. Sasuke executed a series of backflips, soaring through the air and landing on the side of the arena wall. Chakra was flowing through his feet, anchoring him in place, but the rest of it was concentrating in his arm, building smoothly as he formed a series of hand seals.
"What's he doing?" Naruto asked, squinting at their teammate as Sasuke lowered his hand toward the wall, eyes shut in concentration.
She felt the chakra before she saw it, arcs of light that seared against her senses, hot and almost painfully bright. "Watch," She said, nodding toward Sasuke. "This is what he's been training for."
The energy gathered beneath his palm, flaring and sparking, lightning rippling along his arm, splintering across the wall. He dragged his arm to the side and surged forward, sprinting straight down the side of the wall. He hit the dirt and kept going, angling up and barreling toward Gaara's sand shell, arm extended behind him, wreathed in chakra.
Chidori. She'd seen him practice it only once on the mountaintop while she'd been there, and its power hadn't been anywhere near the level he was at now.
When he plunged his arm into the sand, for a moment Isa wasn't sure it would work. He might have been going too slow, he might not have had perfect control of the chakra, or Gaara's sand might have simply been too strong. Her lip split when she bit down on it, watching with wide eyes as the shell parted and Sasuke's arm sunk inside.
The dead silence that followed was broken by a bloodcurdling scream that made the hair on Isa's neck stand up. Gaara was screaming incoherently and Sasuke balked, painstakingly dragging his arm out of the sand shell. He managed to free it and leapt away. What followed him resembled nothing Isa had ever seen before.
A huge arm was protruding from the sand, lighter than the sand itself, and laced through with purple. It slammed into the ground and the balcony beneath Isa's feet rumbled. Temari and Kankuro were pale, stricken with terror.
Bad. Bad, bad, this is really bad.
The arm snaked back into the hole in the sand shell, and Kankuro jerked, making an aborted movement as if to jump into the arena below. Temari grabbed his arm, hauling him back.
"Kankuro, no!"
He strained against her grip. "We can't let it take over! Not now!"
"Let what take over?" Kiba was facing them with his hands on his hips, expression practically daring them to start something.
Temari's gaze was steely. "None of your business," She snapped, anxiety clipping the edges of her words.
There was a growl, low and bestial, that shook the rafters. Their heads collectively swiveled back toward the arena, at the cocoon of sand. Sasuke was staring open-mouthed at the hole in the middle, transfixed by whatever he saw. The growl intensified, growing into a roar.
The shell broke, sand sifting to the ground, leaving Gaara exposed, clutching his bleeding shoulder and panting.
"Temari, he's hurt." Kankuro sounded more panicked than concerned, arm lax in Temari's grasp.
Isa's eyes darted between Gaara and Sasuke, heartbeat hammering in her ears. This thing, whatever it was, was Gaara. It was part of him, but wholly inhuman, its power carnal and savage, bloodthirsty, ancient.
Just like- She felt like she was moving in slow motion, head turning to Naruto, tasting blood on her lip. He met her eyes, jaw clenched, every mental wall thrown up. You know. You know what this is. This is the same, isn't it? The same as the red chakra. He's the same as you.
She opened her mouth to say... something. She didn't know, couldn't think, couldn't form words, couldn't correlate her thoughts with her mouth. There was terrible knowledge in his eyes, a harsh, careful wariness that she'd never seen before. He knew, and he knew that she knew.
Shino grabbed her arm. "Isa, something's happening."
She was jolted out of her stupor by his hand, tight around her arm. There was worry in his voice, and when she looked out across the arena, she blinked, the stands suddenly very hazy, as if a veil had been lowered over them.
"What-"
The prestige box exploded. Then, the side of the arena exploded. Further off, there were more blasts, each sending tremors through the ground. Isa ducked reflexively, hand finding the sleeve of Naruto's jacket and dragging him down beside her.
"Hey, wait!" Kiba was shouting, perched on the edge of the railing, Akamaru yipping from the collar of his jacket. Temari and Kankuro were jumping from the balcony. They landed beside Gaara and each carefully seized an arm, dragging him out of the smoking hole in the side of the arena wall. Sasuke, momentarily stunned, recovered and sprinted after them.
"What do we do?" Naruto asked, looking to Isa expectantly. There was still something guarded in his gaze, caution in the way he spoke to her, but she was still holding onto his sleeve, and he wasn't pulling away.
"There are ninja attacking the jonin instructors," Shino said tersely. "Someone put a genjutsu over everyone in the audience. Ino and Sakura appear to have broken out of it and are attempting to revive Choji and Lee."
A peculiar sort of calm was settling over Isa. It had finally happened. The plan was in action. Now all they had to do was react. "Naruto, send a shadow clone to Kakashi, tell him we're going after Sasuke. Kiba, I need you and Akamaru to take point, we need to catch up with Sasuke right now. Shikamaru, can you still fight?"
He nodded as Naruto stepped back and a shadow clone popped into existence. It streaked off, a blur of orange and blue. "I'm fine," He said. "Let's go, they've already got a head start."
"We're not gonna help the Hokage?" Kiba asked even as he pulled Akamaru from his jacket.
Isa shook her head, climbing onto the railing beside him. "He has elite bodyguards, and ANBU, and the jonin. We wouldn't be any help, anyway."
"It's Orochimaru, isn't it?" Naruto asked, staring up at the smoldering prestige box and the figures on the roof adjacent to it. Isa had recognized the chakra signatures instantly; the Third Hokage's chakra was warm and dry, like sun-baked clay, while Orochimaru's was cold, clinically detached power, the same as it had been in the Forest of Death.
"Yes."
He nodded decisively. "We can kick his ass some other time. Come on."
Kiba and Akamaru, as instructed, took the lead, guiding them through a village that was nearly unrecognizable. Ninja were fighting in the streets, blood was spattered on walls, kunai littered the ground. One portion of the village wall was gone, crushed beneath a snake that was nearly as tall as the wall itself. It was practically a warzone, save for one glaring absence.
No people. No civilians. Isa risked quick glances as they ran, peering into windows and down alleyways for the huddled forms of terrified people. There were none. They must have been evacuated. But then we must have known there would be an attack. Dad must have known, and he knew that I was worried about it, too. Indignation curled in her chest, tempered only slightly with logic. He couldn't have told me, though, even if he knew. That would have been top-secret information, not something you share with a genin.
She sailed over a pair of Sound ninja facing off against a Leaf ANBU, watching the masked shinobi cut them down without a moment's hesitation. Shaking off the thoughts occupying her mind, she sent a quick burst of chakra to her legs, shooting forward beside her friends. They were heading straight for the hole in the village wall, into the thick of the fighting.
They managed to get through the hole in the wall without attracted too much attention, or so they thought, and plunged into the forest outside of the village. They'd barely cleared the treeline when Isa noticed the chakra signatures following them.
"Damn it," She muttered, picking up her speed until she was even with Naruto. "Nine shinobi on our tail."
"How do we get rid of them?" Naruto asked, glancing behind them. There was no movement in the trees, but the ninja were closing in fast.
"They'll be expecting a trap," Shikamaru said. "They've probably been trained to detect and avoid ambushes."
"So what, we leave someone behind?" Isa asked, shaking her head. "Not happening."
"We'll be able to move faster with less people," Shino pointed out dourly.
"We're not leaving anyone behind." Isa hoped her tone was stern enough that no one would argue with her. "One of us won't be able to take on nine of them, anyway. It'd be an unnecessary sacrifice, we can't afford it. Naruto, make five shadow clones, have them transform into each of us, and head back to hold them off. Hopefully they'll think that we turned around to fight them, maybe it'll buy us enough time to get away."
Naruto nodded, formed a hand seal, and five shadow clones materialized around them. With a few puffs of smoke, four of them transformed into mirror images of the other genin, and together the five clones dropped away from the group, hiding in the trees to wait for their pursuers.
"You really think that'll work?" Kiba asked, skeptical.
"It might. And even if it doesn't, they'll still have to at least stop and deal with the clones before continuing," Isa said.
"Don't worry," Naruto chimed in confidently. "My clones can handle it. They're just as smart as I am!"
Shikamaru sighed, grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like "Idiot", but didn't comment on their plan. Either he was satisfied with it, which was unlikely, or he was simply too lazy to protest.
Isa half expected the shinobi to catch up with them, either completely bypassing the clones or getting rid of them without any trouble, but their chakra signatures faded away as they get deeper into the forest, and didn't appear again. They were catching up with Sasuke, though, that much she knew. He was nearly on top of the Sand team, and Sasuke himself was a flicker of movement in the trees ahead of them.
Isa's earlier anxiety wasn't entirely gone, some part of her was still worrying incessantly, considering variables and weighing odds, but it was no longer dominating her thoughts. Keeping her team safe was her objective, the one thing that she was focusing on. Everything else had become irrelevant.
They almost tripped over Sasuke when he stopped. He was facing Temari, who had apparently stayed behind to get rid of Sasuke. She looked shaken enough already when the five genin landed beside Sasuke, but her mouth thinned into a line, lips bloodless, when Sasuke smirked.
"About time. I was wondering how long it would take you guys to catch up," He said, glancing at Isa. He was entirely too calm for her liking, too assured and in-control.
Isa was standing next to him, and she returned his smirk with a sharp warning look. "Next time you decide to go running off, at least wait for us first."
Temari scoffed, but the derision in her voice was forced. "You Leaf ninja are pathetic. I didn't stop just to listen to you stand around bickering."
"We have to split up," Shikamaru said, ignoring Isa's huff of consternation. "We'll lose the others if we get held up here."
"Leave me," Shino said. "She was supposed to be my opponent in the Final Exam, and I do not appreciate having the opportunity to fight her robbed from me due to the Sand's ulterior motives."
Kiba clapped him on the shoulder enthusiastically. "Alright! See, you get just as pissed off about not getting to fight as I do!" Akamaru, who was standing at Kiba's feet, yipped, pawing at Kiba's leg. "Okay, yeah, we're coming. Let's go, they're gaining ground."
"Shino, are you sure you can handle her by yourself?" Isa asked, concern coloring her voice.
Shino nodded solemnly. "I will disable her and catch up as soon as I can."
Isa wavered, teetering on uncertainty, but Sasuke took off, and with a growl of frustration, she followed him. She wove through the trees beside him, keeping pace easily.
"I told you, wait," She said, pushing off from a branch, sailing through the air beside her teammate. The others were right behind them, and they moved quickly, despite their size.
"They were getting away," Sasuke said dismissively, not the slightest bit apologetic.
"They're not the priority right now," Isa retorted hotly. "The village is under attack and Kakashi-sensei said we need to stick together. Besides, we don't know how dangerous these guys are." They both knew she meant Gaara.
Sasuke snorted. "He's human, he bleeds. If he bleeds, he can be defeated. What more do we need to know?"
Isa shot him a blistering glare. "Don't be an idiot," She snapped. "He's not like us. Whatever that kid is, he's more than any of us can handle."
A muscle in Sasuke's jaw ticed, but when he looked at her, he was still smirking. "You willing to bet on that, genius?"
Isa grit her teeth, lip curling, but her mouth snapped shut with an audible click. She had neither the time nor the inclination to argue with Sasuke right now, especially because Kankuro's chakra signature was peeling away from Gaara's, stopping ahead of them, waiting.
"Kankuro stopped," She announced.
Kiba grinned ferociously. "Leave him to me. You guys don't need to me to track Gaara. Isa, you can follow his chakra. I've got this guy."
Kankuro was waiting with his puppet already out. Isa hadn't seen his fight in the preliminaries, but she'd wager that the long knives on the puppet's hands were coated in poison. Which meant Kiba would need to keep his distance from the puppet and incapacitate Kankuro quickly. She chewed on her lip, wincing when the split widened, blood welling from the cut.
Kankuro grinned at them. He'd affected an appearance of ease, as if facing off against five enemy shinobi didn't phase him at all. "Well, isn't this a treat? The whole gang's here."
"You and I have unfinished business," Kiba said, rolling his neck, joints popping.
Kankuro quirked an eyebrow, unimpressed. "I don't even get to fight the pretty girl?" He winked at Isa playfully. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other later."
If she hadn't been both disgusted and preoccupied, Isa might have laughed when Naruto and even Sasuke, though to a decidedly lesser extent, edged in front of her protectively.
"Keep talking, asshole," Kiba growled, lips pulled back from his teeth in a feral grin. "You're just making this worse on yourself."
"Leave him alive, Kiba," Isa cautioned. "And bring him with you when you're done."
"Yes, ma'am," Kiba said, flicking a sardonic salute her way. She rolled her eyes but still cast a worried look over her shoulder before returning to the trees. He smiled at her and nodded, confident and eager.
They were moving again, quicker now that they were down two people. There were muffled crashes from behind them, Kiba's fight against Kankuro echoing through the quiet forest. They were bearing down on Gaara rapidly, his chakra growing more erratic the closer they got.
"Listen, Sasuke," Isa said, speaking slowly, words tripping carefully from her mouth. "I know you want to finish your match, but I don't think you should attack Gaara alone."
"Yeah, I'm not gonna stand back and let you have all the fun!" Naruto added.
"'Fun'?" Shikamaru echoed, incredulous. "You need to seriously reevaluate what you consider fun."
"I'm just saying, this Gaara guy is stronger than all of us. If we want a good fight, nobody can fight him alone, or he'll destroy us!" Naruto exclaimed defensively, looking to Isa for support.
She hesitated, gliding through the trees, using the time to think. "Naruto's right, Gaara's definitely stronger than us. We need to be careful, I don't want to know what happens if we push him too far."
"I do," Sasuke muttered under his breath, so quiet that Isa barely caught it.
Isa quelled the irritated response that danced on the tip of her tongue, glaring at the back of his head instead. Stupid, suicidal, idiot Sasuke. You're even worse than Naruto. At least Naruto knows when to quit, you're going to get yourself killed. And for what? To prove that you're strong?
She sniffed disdainfully, but her eyes lingered on the curve of Sasuke's neck, and the mark hidden beneath the collar of his shirt. Please, be safe. I just want everyone to be safe.
A/N: Soooo I know I said there wouldn't be any late chapters again, and this one is kinda late, so I'm sorry! Life has gotten me really, really busy lately so unfortunately writing has fallen by the wayside a little bit. But thank you all so much for your continued support, it makes me ridiculously happy every time someone says they love this story. I know this chapter is a little shorter than normal, but the next chapter is a fun one. Chapter 22 next Wednesday, on schedule barring technical problems or my forgetfulness. I'll try and upload it earlier next week so you all don't have to wait so long. But I hope you enjoy anyway, even if it is a little late!