Chapter 25

Naruto held his hand up to his head blocking the sun from his eyes, as his group made their way rapidly through the Wind Country, towards the Hidden Sand Village. This was going to be the first of two stops that Naruto's team would make. The reason for this was that the group they were to remove was making an attempt at taking the One Tailed Container, Gaara. Or so their best information led them to believe currently.

"I really hate this place," Yugito said as they moved along.

"I agree, why is it again we are coming out here during the day rather than night," Naruto asked.

"Lord Mew found the attackers location, and wants us to be there before them if at all possible," Annabel answered.

"So they will be here tonight, great! That means we need to stay hidden from Gaara for a half a day," Naruto said semi annoyed.

"We all know you are not happy about this, but you said we would help," Yugito pointed out.

"Yes, I know. But I very much doubt Gaara has forgotten his defeat at my hands," Naruto pointed out.

"Well true, but now you are stronger. And you have me," Yugito pointed out.

"What are we, cook liver," Hinata asked, pointing to Annabel and herself.

"We are in his home element," Naruto countered.

"We are not enemies like before, we should be able to reason with him since we are going to be trying to help him," Hinata said.

"Key word in that being should, but I guess you have a point," Naruto said.

They continued for a while longer before they came to the sandstone walls of the Sand Village. They were stopped by the Chuunin gate guards, and with some work were finally allowed to enter the village, but not without an escort directly to the Kazekage to explain their business first. They stayed together and soon arrived at one of the larger builds, only slightly bigger than many of the ones currently around it.

Upon entering it and reaching the Kazekage's office they were met with a rather interesting surprise. Gaara was sitting there in the Kazekage's seat, and wearing the Kazekage's hat. Also when he looked up at them, he no longer had that insane look, and looked quite well rested.

"G-g-gaara," Naruto said surprised.

"Yes. That is my name, who are you and why are you here," Gaara asked, noticing the Chuunin that had brought them quickly leaving.

"Well, I am Naruto formally of the Hidden Leaf Village" Naruto said, waiting slightly for Gaara to launch an attack on him.

"So, you have finally returned, who are your other companions," Gaara asked, not seeming to angry at realizing who Naruto was.

"Hinata formally of the Hidden Leaf and Yugito formally of the Cloud, and Annabel from the Snow," Naruto said, introduction each of his group.

"I see, it is interesting and a small pleasure to meet each of you," Gaara said.

Naruto looked at Gaara closely, before saying, "you seem really…"

"Different," Gaara stated.

"Yes different. Last time we meant, you were a blood thirsty killer. Now you seem, well, normal," Naruto said, "Not to be offensive, but this is a really big difference, and rather surprising."

Gaara sighed, and nodded, "Yes I have changed a good deal since we last faced each other."

"Might I ask why?" Naruto asked.

"Yes… after you applied the seal, I was able to get my main seal redone, making it much stronger. Since then I was able to get a good deal sleep. And since then I have gotten along more with this Village. Plus with the loss of my father, I was the strongest Ninja in the village and passed as Kazekage. So I had to let go of old habit, less I wipe out the village for good," Gaara explained.

"That is rather surprising," Yugito said.

"Yes, but I might ask, why are you here now," Gaara asked.

"Because we have been informed the Akatsuki are currently targeting you, and at a client's request, we were sent to help keep you safe before going to remove each of the agents currently in the group," Naruto explained.

Gaara nodded in understanding, "I see. I have been informed of these agents by the Sannin, Jiraiya."

"What has he told you," Naruto asked.

Gaara explained, telling him about what agents were in the group of Akatsuki. Naruto's group listened to the details carefully, as it was more than Jiraiya knew back when Naruto was part of the Hidden Leaf Village, and it also gave them a good many ideas on how to plan for the future attack depending on how good the information was. Gaara soon finished explaining, saying outside those six known members nothing was really know about the leaders.

Naruto nodded, "I see that is a lot of data."

"Yes Jiraiya has been working hard to help keep the Tailed Beasts, and their containers out of the enemy's hand," Gaara said.

"I only see one problem though," Naruto said.

"What is that," Gaara asked.

"While we know about the enemy ninja we will be taking on. We don't know who will be coming after us first," Naruto pointed out.

Gaara nodded thoughtfully, "that is true but…"

Gaara talk was cut short though as his head was removed by Naruto. The Anbu in the room were to shock to react. He had just attacked, and by the look of it killed the Kazekage.

Naruto sheathed the Kunai he used and spoke, "Next time you try to impersonate Gaara make sure you have your facts straight. Jiraiya only knows about two agents, not six of them when we met with him yesterday on his way to the Hidden Cloud Village."

Naruto turned around and looked at his group, "Gaara has already been taken we need to act fast and track him down."

The Anbu at this point appeared in the room and stood in front of him, "You are not going anywhere you just killed the Kazekage."

Naruto looked back at the dead body which was losing a sand disguise, "Really that is Gaara? Look if you want your Kazekage back, we must move quickly, and each second we are held up here the longer it will be, before we find the real Gaara. And more likely chance we will find him dead, if we do find him."

The Anbu glared at him behind their masks but moved out of the way. As much as they hated to admit it, this was true. Gaara had vanished somehow underneath their watch, and no one had noticed at all. The glanced at the dead body, which now was white in color, and lying on the desk, it was a very real point of how bad they messed up.

"Fine go, find him. But before you go, do know that the last time he had left that we were sure it was him was about a day go." The leader said.

Naruto nodded as his group quickly left the office and moved towards the edge of the village. And as they moved along Naruto started gathering Chakra for a large summon. And as they finally left the village he went through the needed hand signs, before slamming his hand into the ground. A large plume of Smoke appeared.

In front of him appeared a semi large group of Pokémon, there was twelve Pokémon in total, with at least one of each for everyone to use. One flying Pokémon, a Pidgeot, for them to ride one, and one Alakazam that would help them stay in contact as they spread out searching. The last ones were the same kind, two Lucario which could see and sense Aura. Which while not the same as Chakra was still able to be seen by these two Pokémon.

Naruto looked around, "Okay seeing that Gaara was attacked and taken without anyone knowing that would mean he was pretty good distance from the village. And if it was a day ago we might still have time to save him."

"So how do you want to do this," Yugito asked.

"The best chance we have for finding him is for a large area search team, but I don't have enough chakra for a team big enough to pin point him like that, and still have more than enough energy to fight. So we will each take a direction and move out in a spiral pattern that way we do not miss anything, it is not as fast as moving in a straight line, but that would leave to many blind spots if we did not know where to start looking," Naruto said.

"Okay, understand," Hinata and Yugito said before setting out with their group of four Pokémon.

Annabel did not move though she was looking out towards the north east, seemingly confused by something. Naruto walked over and put a hand on her shoulder, "hay Annabel something wrong?"

Annabel blinked and shook her head, "No… nothing wrong, but I sense something… weird off in that direction."

Naruto looked off where she was looking, "That is where the Hidden Leaf Village would be. Could you be sensing the village or do you think it is something else?"

"It is not the village I am sensing, I think our target is in that direction," Annabel said.

"How sure are you of this," Naruto asked, he knew that to just go that way on a feeling was not the best idea. But he had won and lived on his gut feelings before.

"Not completely," Annabel said.

"I see… get going over towards it and see what you find, we will continue our search here," Naruto said.

"Are you sure?" Annabel asked.

"Very, remember if we don't follow all possible leads it might be too late," Naruto pointed out.

"I understand," Annabel said before jumping onto her Pokémon's back and was off quickly into the air, with the other three not far behind.

Naruto nodded to himself before he turned to his own group, and was off into the air. They had a lot of ground to cover, and he was very sure not a lot of time to look. He was not completely convinced what Annabel had sensed was Gaara, but he was not about to denied the possibility. With this he informed the group using Alakazam the slight change in formation, and began helping with the search.

( Just a few chapters are left and sorry the updates are so slow. Espo Out. )