Talking, Running, Thinking

A/N: This update comes a little later than I had intended. However I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Have a great week and remember that I have no claims to being the author of Naruto, so if you think the whole Gaara getting attacked thing sucks—blame the person who originally wrote that arc, not the college student who is wasting precious study time writing (like I want to study anyways…) a fictional account that has no claim to being anything worth selling.

XxOOxX

The group stood there in front of the blonde (but secretly graying) Hokage, in shock. Kaiyou felt her world being shaken upside down rather painfully, and then righted to the proper dimensions once again, with a new piece of information lodged into her mind sharply.

Gaara was the Kazekage. A Jinchuuriki, who had formerly been insane, had become the Kazekage. If he could become Kazekage, she could do anything….

The Kazekage, the strongest person in his whole village, had been kidnapped. It would take extreme power to have managed that feat.

It registered in her mind that she was angry and scared. She didn't have to look at her father's face to know who would have kidnapped a Jinchuuriki. The same group who had broken into Konoha and killed the previous Kazekage; the same group who were after her life; the same mysterious group that had a Sharingan-wielder; the same mysterious group who's only known motives were capturing all of the tailed beasts, and their human containers if necessary had kidnapped her friend.

Gaara did not deserve to be kidnapped. She did not deserve to be hunted like a deer. Fiery anger began to build in her small body, and she felt something uncurl deep within her.

A hand landed on her shoulder: Kakashi. Kaiyou calmed herself and looked up, purposely lighthearted, though her emotions still weighed upon her. "Well let's go already, we need Gaara to show up at the next Chuunin exams so he can vote me into the chuunin ranks!"

Despite the lighthearted look on her face, all of the males in the room could still see her determination and anger. She might pretend to be her normal cheery self, being sent out on a mission, but the old Kaiyou was gone. Before the group now, this Kaiyou was intent on protecting somebody, not on the adventure.

Kaiyou didn't notice the looks on her friends' faces, questioning when she had become so mature. There wasn't much to see anyways: Sakura, not knowing Kaiyou well having been childhood enemies, could not read the lie in Kaiyou's voice. Sasuke and Shino, being stiff-faced so much of the time, didn't let their thoughts show on their faces for more than an instant. Kakashi hid his face behind a mask, forever using the mask to add to his charismatic allure.

Minato's attention was stuck on a totally different thing than her maturity. "Why would you take the Chuunin exams?"

Kaiyou blinked, and stared at her father, her determination for the mission momentarily forgotten (so much for maturity, to forget the mission so quickly). "What do you mean? Of course I want to take the Chuunin exams! I don't want to be a genin forever! I want to go on cool missions!"

Saying the word 'mission' recalled the girl to the mission at hand, and she calmed her over-eager, defensive body language. On edge she watched her father blink once more, then begin to chuckle. "I'll have to talk to the old pervert." Minato, calming his laughter, looked at his daughter. "Clearly Jiraiya never told you, but you've been a chuunin for three years; you passed the exams."

Kaiyou looked ecstatic for a moment, and then settled her face into a glare. "I'll have to talk to that..grr!" Hearing a muffled snicker, she turned her head and glared at her friend. "Sasuke, you teme, don't' you be laughing. That means I made chuunin before you!"

The snickering stopped, and invisible because of the hood, a smirk appeared on Sunglasses' face. Kakashi, squeezing his sister's shoulder once more, held his hand out the Hokage. "Mission details?"

The mood was reigned back in. "Ah, of course. Team 7, Sakura do you accept the mission of rescuing the Kazekage and assisting with medicine as necessary? Do you accept the role of aiding the Wind country as necessary?"

The two jounin in the room, Sasuke and Kakashi, nodded silently. Sakura confidently patted the medical vials at her waist—trained for the past three years in medical jutsus, and fighting by Tsunade-hime she was certainly able to help. Shino, ever analytical knew that he would be of assistance. It was Kaiyou, of course (since she's got the loudest mouth) who accepted the mission: "Damn right! We'll rescue Gaara's butt!"

XxOOxX

It was a day later that another message arrived at the Hokage's office and he began to feel panicky. It was intel from Jiraiya, who had left the village instead of being chased by Minato. The sheet held two names of the Akatsuki, and their last known locations. It was far worse than he'd guessed:

Sasori of the Red Sands, formerly of Sand.

Deidara, formerly of Rock (and presumably a great enemy of the Namikaze family).

Added to this list, was the already known member: Uchiha Shisui, formerly of Konoha.

And these figures had been seen near the Sand village, deep inside the Wind country. Backup would be needed, on the off chance that more members of Akatsuki were nearby. He signaled to the seemingly omnipresent ANBU, having the white-clad woman send a message out for another ninja team, one who was swift.

Also it appeared a fortuitous event that he had sent Sakura with the group; Sasori was an expert with poisons, not just puppets.

XxOOxX

Too much time was passing; it was taking them too long to make it to Sand. The landscape was quickly drying out, the trees were thinning: they were so close to their arrival, yet it was taking too long, Kaiyou felt. They were making phenomenal pace, and each of the other members of the group was slightly irate at the pace Kaiyou was setting, as they could keep up with the speed, but not for as long as the girl was running.

Temari had joined them, having been in town, working with Shikamaru, preparing for the upcoming Chuunin exams, of which Kaiyou apparently would not be competing as she'd been a Chuunin for three whole years and NOT KNOWN IT THANKS TO HER SENSEI THINKING IT WOULD BE FUNNY!

Having been running for the past two days Kaiyou had concluded that humor was indeed the reason that Jiraiya had not told her that she had passed her chuunin exams. The man had frequently been chuckling when she got letters from her from telling about all the wonderful things they were getting to do, all of the cool missions. She had been continually making a fool of herself bemoaning her status as a genin, complaining that all she did was train, and a mission once in a while would be cool.

In her better moods she had admitted that she had been enjoying being out of the village. She'd gotten to visit Wave again, and seen Inari and Tazuna. She had seen snow (which she hadn't been completely thrilled with, but then again it was exciting so what did she care?) and she had seen rivers winding deep between cliffs, scenery that was not around Konoha.

Still, she'd been let to moan over her genin status all of these years, for nothing! The man was going to get it later…actually, now that she was running and trying to keep her mind off of the threat at hand, she wondered if Itachi had known. Slowing her running down for a moment, over the dry ground, she let Sasuke catch up to her, and started talking (rather casually for a girl who was running very quickly) to him.

Her voice was quiet, not the brash annoying-nickname-giving tone she'd used when she'd been younger. "Did Itachi-san ever say anything about knowing I was a chuunin?"

The question took Sasuke aback. He and his brother didn't talk a lot: both of them were quiet. He had however noticed how his brother had gone on a mission for a week every other month, and would return dropping a letter on his futon. After six months Sasuke had asked his brother why he was always the one to bring the letters from Kaiyou back after returning from a mission.

Sasuke's Flashback:

Sssscraaapeee, scriiiitch, kriiitch. He sat there sharpening a kunai on his futon, with the door shut. His mother would kill him if she found him sharpening weapons indoors, but it was raining outside, a rarity, and he would rather not be outside.

Kkkkriii—Sasuke stopped in mid-stroke, hearing footsteps in the hall. He listened for a moment, and then determined that it was Itachi, not his mother, from the amount of weight he could hear on the squeaking floorboards. Yet he still jumped as the steps turned towards his door, and the door to his room opened. Sasuke quickly turned his face down, bringing the sharpening stones from behind his back, as if he had not instinctively hid them behind his back, in case he'd been wrong.

Itachi had smirked at his little brother, shaking his head wryly. "Hiding from mother again, little brother? One day she'll find the shavings, and then you'll be in for it."

Their mother was normally a sweet woman, but like any woman who managed to survive within the Uchiha clan she was also tough. An Uchiha woman might be as domestic and traditional as can be, but she was also firm with her sons, and their mother was perhaps more firm than the few other mothers left in the clan as she no longer had a husband. A woman alone frequently found a need to be tougher than she had been previously.

Sasuke scowled at his brother, then noticed the letter in his brother's hand. "Another letter from Kaiyou…" He frowned, and remembered a question that had popped into his head after the last letter. "Why do you bring them from the Hokage's office after a mission, and never somebody else?"

Itachi blinked, and looked at the letter. "I don't bring them from Hokage-sama. My mission is to check in with Jiraiya-sama and Kaiyou-san while they are training."

Sasuke stood up, partially in excitement, and reached for the letter (partially as cover for his emotional reaction). "You collect the letters from Kaiyou? Could I send letters to her through you?"

Itachi nodded. "I suppose I did promise to deliver messages for her…"

Sasuke felt a momentary surprise that his brother would promise to do anything. Itachi typically tried to avoid commitments to anything other than his ANBU unit. That had been a source of contention between the boys back when Sasuke had been in school and Itachi a young chuunin. Itachi had kept sneaking out of practice-sessions with Sasuke that he'd been 'encouraged' to commit to by their parents.

End Sasuke's Flashback.

Sasuke remembered speaking with his brother a few times after that about the young girl. For a while Itachi had seemed fairly open to answering questions, but then about six months before he had turned his head away and refused to answer any questions. He'd assumed that his brother was in a foul mood, and had ignored the questions for that reason: Sasuke hadn't tried asking his brother anything again. Thinking on the conversations that had actually yielded answers Sasuke realized that Itachi had never mentioned anything of the sort, and certainly he would have when Sasuke was made chuunin…wouldn't he?

Sasuke glanced at Kaiyou, dragging himself out of his thoughts. "No. Itachi doesn't talk much."

Kaiyou grinned, and ran ahead again, relieved that it seemed nobody but Jiraiya had known and neglected to tell her. "You're wrong," she called back over her shoulder. "He talks more than you do, Uke!"

Setting her eyes ahead she saw the ground go from mostly grass and dirt, to sand on the horizon, small rolling hills of sand. They were very near to the village now.

XxOOxX

Temari and Sakura were running at the end of the group, chatting lightly as they ran. Somehow during the conversation Sakura had found herself comforting Temari. Despite being enemies with Kaiyou during Academy she knew enough of the girl, could guess enough, to know that the Jinchuuriki would never let Gaara be hurt.

In the past three years Temari had become a worrying older sister and needed reassurance. Her teacup had cracked, a bad omen, when she'd thought about her brother last. She was worried that they would be too late, and that nothing could be done to save her village or its Kazekage. Sakura knew that Kaiyou would never abandon a friend: everybody knew that the Hokage's daughter believed in protecting her friends above all else.

Sakura suspected that Kaiyou would sacrifice herself if it meant saving her friends. The two girls were silent most of the time, but for that conversation. Temari was still worried, but inwardly contemplating what the young Jinchuuriki who had defeated her brother in combat had learned in the past three years.

Was Kaiyou good enough to go against a man who had attacked a village single-handedly and left with the Kazekage in his grasp?

Temari pushed that thought into the back of her mind and told Kakashi that they were almost to the village. He looked around, and then called for the group to halt. Kaiyou halted most reluctantly, but came to heel, and grouped up to listen to orders from her old sensei.

Looking at the group of four teenagers he smiled at them. "We've made it in good time. But from here we split up: Sasuke and Shino: Find the enemies trail, and then report back to us as the Kage's tower. Girls we're going into the village to get intel from the tower. From there we will arrange plans. Temari if you could lead the way…"

Quickly the group split up. Shino and Sasuke standing still, as bugs quickly exited Shino's body, searching out for traces of recent, strong chakra out on the sands. The kidnapper would have left some sort of trail that his bugs would be able to detect, if the kidnapper used any chakra at all during his escape.

Temari took the lead, with Kaiyou, Kakashi and Sakura trailing directly behind her as they ventured into Sand. Thanks to Temari's presence they weren't stopped on the way into the village at all, but allowed to proceed directly to the Kage's tower.

Once there a man, with his face covered in face paint, caught Temari's arm. "Subaku-san! You're back! You should head for the infirmary at once. That is where the elders are—you're brother chased after Kazekage-sama. He was found yesterday evening a couple hours from here. He's been poisoned, but not even Chiyo-sama knows of a cure…"

Temari's face crumpled, for just a moment, and Sakura found herself putting a hand on her arm. "Which way is the infirmary?"

XxOOxX

Shino sat quietly in the sand, with a canteen out, drinking water sedately. It was too hot for his taste out here in the sun—few people enjoyed the desert of Wind country. He was mildly irked that his friend didn't seem to be overly bothered by the heat.

Sasuke looked down at Shino and smirked, as if he knew what his friend was thinking. "I do not wear a coat in the desert," he said mildly. "Have we got a direction yet?"

Shino sat still for another moment, and then shook his head. "Not just yet. Few of my bugs have had an opportunity to report back yet. It should just be another few moments."

Sasuke took that as a cue to seat himself on the sand, uncaring towards the effect it might have on his black clothing. He sat for a moment, and then spoke. "Kaiyou asked me about my brother on the way here. She seems different somehow."

Shino looked at his friend, and slipped the hood off of his face, absentmindedly. "She is still Kaiyou, just older. She didn't recognize me…"

Sasuke held back a smirk. Sometimes, it seemed, the girl still didn't engage her brain. "She looks like a kid still, and expects all of us to look the same too—well, mostly like a kid, anyways," he amended.

Shino raised his eyebrow, but remained silent, then stood, pointing. "That way. Let's check it out."

As the two boys starting running Shino commented to his friend, "I suggest not paying too much attention to Kaiyou's new appearance."

The reasons stayed in both boys head's: the girl was oblivious. They'd eventually learned from Kiba that she'd only liked Shikamaru because he could help her plan pranks—the girl had thought that Shikamaru helping her plan pranks was what a boyfriend did…

They had no idea where she had gotten that idea. Kaiyou was both oblivious, and the Hokage's daughter: Off limits.