Chapter 25

"Sakura… hold out as long as you possibly can. Naruto and Gaara, you too. I'll see if I can find a way to stop the poison from spreading and slowly killing us," Kakashi instructed.

His mask would slow the progression of the poisonous gas to some extent, but the same couldn't be said for the others. They had to find some way to protect themselves while he worked out a plan.

A determined look in his eyes the ninja reached up and grabbed hold of his headband. For this he'd have to use his Sharingan and with that in mind he revealed the eye that had been given to him.

As Naraku casually released more poison into the air Kakashi carefully studied his movements. His eyes widening, he realized that his best tactic would be useless in this situation.

In his own world this wouldn't be a problem, aside from if he was going up against someone with a bloodline limit. Here, however, that wasn't the case. Here in the Feudal Era they didn't use chakra, and the fighting styles of the ninja were either non-existent or only in the first stages of being developed.

Still, he kept his sharingan active, an idea in mind. It would take a bit of time, time that they may not even have, but he would try to bring out the mangekyo sharingan to banish Naraku to another dimension.

Meanwhile, the others were dealing with their own problems. On Kakashi's advice they'd covered their mouths and noses, but they were still beginning to feel the effects of the poison.

Naruto, his mouth covered with his shirt, turned to Gaara. He saw that things weren't going anywhere quickly, and he knew that they had to act now. Whether his teacher was whipping up a plan or not, they had to do something.

"Gaara… we have to do something. I don't know what's going on, but we really have to get going," he wheezed, alarm in his eyes, "Gaara… if you can, you have to get out of here. Go find some help… if you can, see if you can find Sango. Out of any of us, she has the most knowledge of this guy."

Though he didn't want to leave in such a dire time he knew that Naruto was right. Nodding, he made for the door. When he pulled on it, he was happy to find that it was unlocked. The door swinging open he lunged outside.

The air in the hall was amazingly fresh compared to that which was inside the room, and he couldn't help but take in a few big gulps of it. The freshness seemed to reenergize him, and he suddenly felt ready to face the task at hand.

Wanting to do at least something for his comrades, he thought to leave the door open for them. Surely having some of the poison waft out of the room would give them more of a chance against this guy.

Forming some sand into a wedge he created a doorstop, hardening it until it was rock solid. He shoved it under the open door, creating not only a vent for the poison to come through but also an escape route for his teammates if they needed it.

Having done all he could for the time being, Gaara set off down the hall in search of help. He started out optimistic, but as he walked he came to a troubling realization. He was in enemy territory, and finding help would be easier said than done.

Nonetheless he continued, knowing there was no other option. Compared to the others he had next to no fighting experience. And against someone such as Naraku, going into battle like that could only be called suicide.

"Damn it… how am I supposed to find help like this?" he muttered angrily to himself. He desperately wanted to help Naruto and the others, but walking around randomly like this was doing absolutely nothing for him. He was beginning to feel helpless.

He wasn't even sure that Naruto could win against this guy. Before he'd come to his senses and escaped Naraku's controlling grasp, he'd been living in the castle. In the whole time he'd lodged here the fiend had approached him only a few times. The power he'd shown Gaara had been devastating, and it had only been a fraction of what he could really do.

As he traversed the maze of hallways his spirits continued to droop. He was losing faith quickly, and was starting to debate whether he should just leave and try to correct the flow of his own time on his own, completely abandoning the people of this world.

He was just about to decide to save himself and leave when something caught his attention. It was a good thing he noticed this, or he would have been out of there.

Down one of the corridors he heard voices. They were familiar voices, and hearing them brought back a bit of his hope. Hastily he ran in the direction they were coming from, desperate to find the help Naruto had sent him to fetch.

Though it sounded like they were close by, Gaara soon realized that that was merely an illusion. Their voices were bouncing off the walls endlessly, making it hard for him to pinpoint their location.

It took a bit of preservation and patience, but Gaara stuck to his new mission. He'd find the ones these voices belonged to if it was the last thing he did; his friends needed him, and for once he'd be the one to come to the rescue.

Soon enough the voices started to get louder, and he knew then that he was getting closer to his target. He stopped at the end of the corridor he was currently running through, realizing that the people were right around the corner.

"Let me go!" a girl cried fiercely. Her voice was followed by the sounds of her hitting something, probably the one that was with her and apparently holding her captive.

"If I let you go, you'll run away," the man's voice said calmly, ignoring the fact that the girl was hitting him relentlessly.

Gaara knew one of the voices for sure, and the other sounded vaguely familiar. Growing more and more excited, he leaped into the next hallway to see the people he'd been sent to get. He smiled when he saw Sango, but when he was who was holding her that smile disappeared a bit.

"S-Sasuke?" he stammered, barely believing his eyes, "Is that you? But… how did you get here?"

"Hmm… so you have one inside you too…" Sasuke noted, feeling Shukaku's presence, "While that thing inside you brought you all here, it wasn't able to repair the rip it created in space and time. I merely reopened it and found myself here."

"But why? Why would you want to come here?" Gaara questioned, not quite sure of what to do. This random encounter confused him a little.

"I sensed a power unlike any I've ever felt, and decided to see what it was. And now I see it, so that's where I'm heading. Kyuubi's there too so feel free to follow… but be warned that getting in my way is something best avoided," the power hungry boy said calmly, as he walked past Gaara.

Needless to say, Gaara obediently followed. Had Sango not been propped up on Sasuke's shoulder, she too would have followed willingly; Kagome was with them too, and saving her was the goal of this mission.

"Hey, you can put me down now. I'm going that way anyway," she protested, though she'd long given up any meaningful struggling, "If you can see it, you don't really need me and – wait, what?"

She stopped suddenly in the middle of her sentence, cutting herself off. A bewildered look came upon her face, as if she'd just come to a shocking realization. In fact, that's exactly what had happened. She tried to shake off this shock so she could ask her captor something.

"You… you can see the shards of the Sacred Jewel? How? Only Kagome can see the Jewel when it's not right in front of her, and even then we don't quite know how…" she asked, looking curiously at his face. She was examining it for any hints of an answer, though she received none.

:Change of Time:

"We're here. They're just inside that open door over there," Gaara announced, thought he really didn't need to. The whole journey back to the others had been made in complete silence, with Sasuke leading the way. Gaara was actually very glad about this; in his frantic rush to find them he'd completely lost his way, and couldn't have led them back to save his life.

Sasuke stayed silent and calmly entered the room, pushing Gaara aside. Only now that they were at their destination did he allow Sango to go free, although she would have preferred he'd done it in a more civilized way.

She fell to the ground hard, having just been tossed carelessly off Sasuke's back. As she got up she rubbed her arm, a fierce stinging pain distracting her from the scene inside the room. The only thing that broke her distraction was Kirara, who upon rushing to Sango caused her to ignore everything else that was going on.

"Mew!" Kirara cried, jumping into Sango's arms. She'd thought the demon slayer would never return, yet here she was. It made her wonder, though; if she'd been so absorbed with possibly saving her brother, how'd she come to her senses… and who was this man who was still accompanying her?

"Oh, Kirara… you were right all along. I should have listened to you from the very beginning and now…" she sobbed, still unable to believe everything that had happened, "And now Kohaku's dead! He's dead, Kirara!"

There she broke into tears, unable to hold them back any longer. She'd lost her brother, the one she'd been fighting so long and hard to save, and now she knew she'd have to team up with his killer to defeat Naraku and save Kagome.

"Mew, mew?" Kirara asked, looking up at the one standing beside her. He was intimidating, and she wasn't sure whether to be happy that he might help them fight or run away afraid that he'd turn on them and join the enemy.

"That's the man who killed Kohaku. He says he can see the Jewel Shards, and wants them for himself for some reason. I… I don't know about him," she answered, her voice shaking.

The two quieted down, letting that sink in. Naraku, soon broke their silence however, when he decided that it was a good time to do some taunting.

"Kukuku," he chuckled evilly, "Brought back another pest for me to squash, have you, Sango? Too bad you'll all end like him over there in time."

He motioned to Sai, who lay face first on the floor. Still he hadn't moved since Gaara was last in the room, and was undoubtedly dead.

Only now that Naraku spoke up again did Sango become aware of her surroundings and what was actually going on. She stared in amazement at the scene, hardly believing how quickly everything had changed.

The one thing that stood out to her above any of the other things that were happening, however, was Kagome. Still she sat trapped in one of Naraku's barriers in the corner of the large room, just waiting to be rescued.

"Kagome!" she said, starting to walk forward. They were so close to saving her now that she figured they could just walk right up to her and take her back. That was improbable and she knew it, but she just wanted to be done with this whole ordeal at that point.

Before she got far Gaara, who stepped into her path, stopped her. He knew that it wasn't safe for her to do something like that right now, though she didn't realize why. This small act of protection seemed to anger her for some reason; why it did that, she didn't know.

"Gaara, let me go. I have to go get Kagome so we can get out of here," she demanded, common sense slipping from her, although she did nothing to forcefully get by.

He shook his head, refusing to obey. At the very least he felt he should give a reason, so he pointed ahead of them and said, "We can't… I've never seen him like this before, but I have a hunch that not much good can come of it right now."

She looked to where he was pointing, and an amazed look crossed her face. How she'd managed to overlook this she didn't know.

Standing on all fours in the middle of the room was Naruto, an odd orange substance covering his body. As some of this orange stuff began to form a tail he let out a deep menacing growl, a warning to all in the room.

:End of Chapter 25:

Well, I told you I'd update on or before Monday, which happens to be today! See! It's right here! Yeah... now on to the next one! (starts typing madly)

Anyway, on to the chapter comments of DOOM. Sasuke and Sango are back in the picture now. You know those twists I was talking about last chapter? Well, Sasuke coming into the picture as a near-main character isn't one of them. The actual twists are still to come, and believe me, they're epic compared to Sasuke showing up. You'll never see them coming!

So, what do you think will happen to everyone? Will they save Kagome? How many will fall to Naraku's power? What's going to happen to Naruto? How will they defeat the evil half-demon? You'll have to stay tuned to find out! You won't have to wait all that long now; there's only 5 main chapters left as well as 4 mini-chapters to tie up loose ends, so you'll know the rest of the story fairly soon. As with this chapter, I'll try to post the upcoming chapters ASAP.

Speaking of posting chapters ASAP, I figure I should tell you all of when I won't be posting anything. I'm going to camp from the 18th to the 25th, so the two Mondays I'd post a chapter on fall in that. I won't be on at all seeing as there's next to no technology there, so I'll either try to get those two chapters out before or after I go. I'm hoping for before, but things could change, as has been the case in the past.

Just thought I'd give you a heads-up on that.

Now, I'm happy to tell you that I've been typing like a madwoman lately, and in five days I've completely finished typing the rest of this fanfiction. That's... about nine chapters in five days. So yeah... I'm a tad beat, but it was totally worth it. That being said, I'm going to have a new way of posting these. Once I get a review for the latest chapter I'll post the next one. So once you post a review for this chapter I'll put up another, and so on and so forth.

So yeah. You can look forward to lots of chapters of this in the very near future.

Anyway... yeah. That's about it. Next chapter will ome out once I get a review for this chapter.