Fic 27. Prompt 002. 'Middles.'
In the middle of battle, Naruto had found, there was always peace.
Peace came when he and Gaara, faceless in white porcelain masks of a fox and a raccoon, stood back-to-back, kunai flying from his hands and shadow clones swarming through the forest like Shino's bugs, Gaara's sand whirling in a circle around their feet, leaping up- there! A kunai stuck, quivering, falling into his hands- as blade after blade zipped through the darkness at them, Gaara's laughter rumbling through his skin and up into his own chest.
His katana whirling out, scything the air- sand parted just enough for the blade to pass through and take the head of a Sound-nin- humming with the sound of a tornado. The last shinobi fell, neck spurting blood, and he blinked the blood-red film from his eyes and stood panting at the end of the earth, sagging against Gaara.
The peace of battle was gone.
