A/N: Yeah, been a while... sorry. I've been catching up on a few manga (longer running ones, incl Air Gear, Negima, etc) that I lost track of a while back when OneManga stopped running the actual scanlations. But... hey, here's a new longish chapter. The conclusion of the Sakura+Ino vs Sasori, a bit of Naruto vs Gaara (but not much, there'll be more of that later in a flashback), and... well, some things you might not be expecting. All of it leads up towards a massive change I'm making from canon, which has it's start in this chapter... I'll give a cookie (It might even be a real one, since I make really good cookies... I'd need your address to send it/them to though. Lol) to anyone who figures it out just from the clues here. :)

Also, I do have a beta for this story now. Expect fewer mistakes, because he's good at catching them... and if you care, you can also expect the older chapters to be repaired, because he's given me a long list. I've worked through it (mostly) now, and as soon as I'm caught back up, I'll be replacing the chapters. Every single one. :)

You can thank Mouserr Rodent for the cleaner story, not to mention several improvements I've made where he's pointed out that the story is a bit weak. :D

Oh... and about the center-justified section? That's there for a reason. Another cookie to anyone who can figure out why. :)

Enjoy... this chapter's a doozy imho. :)

Chap. 29 Light and Dark

"Shit!" Naruto yelled, struggling to stand with the weight of what felt like an entire stone building on his back. Not that he had much choice about that...
"Tema-chan, you okay? Did you get hit?" he struggled to say, coughing a little between sentences to clear the dust from his lungs and throat.

"N- No, I think I'm all right, Uzumaki-san. What the hell happened? Was it Gaara? Where's my fath- the Kazekage? Or Kankuro?"

He'd finally been able to rise upright. Apparently, it had not, in fact, been the whole building, just the top two floors, and not all had landed on him and Temari. Just enough to hurt like a bitch, I guess. "I donno," he muttered while scanning around, "Let me get out of here and I'll pull you up."

Temari felt a flutter in her chest when Naruto's strong hand gripped her wrist and hauled her from the loose debris. Immediately, her eyes moved to his, looking for... something. She didn't find it, because Naruto wasn't even looking at her.

Tracing his gaze, Temari looked up into the sky, carefully avoiding the sun just to their right. There. What is that? A bird? How could a bird make a building explode?

A moment later, her sharp eyes caught something being dropped from the silhouette above, and just as it hit the large building that was Suna's biggest hospital, it exploded with even more devastating power than what had just struck her home. "Shit!" she cried, "That was the hospital! What the hell is that?"

Naruto only said one word, "Akatsuki."

"Red Dawn? What's that?" Kankuro, covered in dust and bleeding himself, growled from behind them, "And why are you two holding hands?"

Suddenly blushing, Temari jerked her wrist out of Naruto's hand. He didn't resist, nor did he look toward her, much less blush himself.

"They're after either me or Gaara. You guys need to lure him away from the city, get all your long ranged people out there and either fight him off or make it seem like Gaara's escaping."

"What makes you think he's not after you?" the Kazekage said, joining them as well. He seemed unscathed, likely protected by his jutsu, "You are a jinchuuriki as well."

Temari tensed beside him, Naruto noted, but only nodded. "Yeah... but I doubt they know I'm here. I left Ootori rather suddenly, and have been taking... measures. I suppose it's possible, but I'd probably know it if they did."

"Kagebunshin?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. About a dozen. None have dispelled yet."

The leader of Suna's eyes widened. A dozen shadow clones and he's still this strong? He really is the Nine-Tail's jailer, then. No one else could do that. Right? "Well then, I propose a different plan. You stop that Akatsuki member, and we'll work to keep Gaara subdued. I'm surprised he's let us talk this long without-"

But he was cut off by the rubble underneath them being reduced to sand in an instant, leaving each of them to sink several inches further down.

"Mother wants your blood, father!"

Naruto and the three Suna ninja whirled to face the new threat.

"Crap, he's loose!" the Kazekage muttered, before shouting out commands to his subordinates, "Jonin, distract the attacker! Chunin, Genin, evacuate the civilians to the shelters! Go, quickly! Temari, Kankuro, you protect Naruto, and I'll subdue Gaara!"

A moment later, only four ninja still stood in or around the ruins of the Kazekage's dwelling.

"Sorry, Uncle T, but I don't follow your orders. I need your son alive, so I'll be the one stopping him."

The older shinobi snorted, "What makes you think you can even stop him, Uzumaki?"

The brown and blue eyes of the two ninja turned toward the teal of the crimson-haired ninja walking toward their group. Naruto was struck by how cold the Kazekage's youngest child's expression was. "I don't need to stop him. I just need to guide him, that's all."

Gaara himself spoke before his father could, his voice just as chilling as his eyes, "I am not your weapon. You cannot guide me. Instead, I will guide you... to the underworld."

Despite the obvious threat, the slightly shorter young ninja spoke in a monotone, with no inflection of any kind.

"I don't need you to be my weapon," Naruto responded warmly, "I just want your help. 'cause that's what friends do, they help each other."

Gaara ignored Tanaka's snort, "I have no friends. I need no friends. I am alone... and I am the strongest being alive. There is nothing that can compare to me."

This time, it was Naruto who snorted, "Right... I can admit you're strong, or I wouldn't have come to you for help, but the strongest being around? I doubt that. The guy flying around up there on his giant bird's probably stronger than you. I know I am."

"Stronger than me? You think you, a nobody, are stronger than the Desert Storm."

Naruto nodded, "Yep. By enough to matter. You'll never beat me, Gaara. So why don't we work together, instead?"

The first sign of emotion crossed the red-head's face, "Work together. How will that validate my existence?"

Naruto shrugged, "You exist or you wouldn't be talking to me, right?"

"I exist to kill. It is the purpose of my existence. If I am not killing, I have no reason to exist. Killing gives me a reason to exist. Helping you... does not."

Naruto nodded, "I guess I can see that in a sort of twisted way. We're ninja. More so, we're both Jinchuuriki. Our purpose is, in a way, to kill. But do you know why?"

"To prove that we exist."

"No!" Naruto cried, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of an explosion to the north. Turning his attention to the Kazekage, Naruto yelled over the reverberations, "Uncle T! You go handle that guy, you have to protect your Village! I can do this!"

"And if you fail?" Tanaka whispered.

Naruto still understood. "I won't. I can't."

After a few seconds, the older brunette gave a curt nod. He then gestured to his elite guard before the lot of them leapt away onto the nearby rooftops, leaving only Naruto and his three children standing amidst the ruins of his home.

"Puppet-guy, you better get out of here. This isn't something you can help with."

"Fuck that!" the older shinobi replied with a scowl that twisted his war-paint comically, "I don't run! I'm not a coward!"

Temari smacked him lightly on the shoulder with her fan, "He's right. No one thinks you're scared, Kankuro, but what are your puppets going to do against... him?"

While Naruto disagreed with Temari very much that her middle brother wasn't scared (because he could smell the fear just as easily as a dog would, emanating from them both), it was the blonde who countered Temari's argument, "Both of you, get out of here. You'll only get yourselves killed if you fight back. Just leave him to me."

Kankuro scoffed, "Leave him to the scrawny twerp who flipped up my sister's skirt way too many times when we saw you last? Yeah, right. I wouldn't even trust Gaara to you, much less the safety of our whole Village!"

Temari blushed, and swung her fan to bash her brother over the head this time.
He smoothly ducked, of course, but Naruto only smiled sadly, "Yeah... good times. But I'm not that scrawny kid any more, Cousin Kaka."

"What- who the hell are- you- that's not my name!" the brunette spluttered.

Naruto, in response, began to walk calmly toward the the Jinchuuriki of the One-Tails, though he said over his shoulder, "'s what I know you as."

Temari, though giggling slightly at seeing her wannabe-playboy brother so out of sorts, still had her head in the game enough to ask, "Naruto... seriously, what makes you think you can handle him? Gaara's... he's not..."

The taller blonde (Temari was pleased to note that he was even taller than her nearly six feet) shrugged, not bothering to look back, "He's only got one tail. I can use four... six if I have to, though I can't promise that won't be more trouble than it's worth for Suna."

Both sibling's eyes widened. Even Gaara showed some reaction, because he stopped his own slow steps forward and actually glared at Naruto. "You... you have the six-tails?"

Naruto shook his head, still grinning, "Nope. The Nine... Kyuubi. I just can't handle more than six tails without losing control completely. Even that's a stretch, but it should be enough to control you if I have to. I'd really rather we got along, though. No use tearing up your home, right?"

"This is not my home. It is my prison."

At that, Naruto actually stopped himself. With a sigh, his head lowered. "I... I want to say I know how that feels, Gaara... but I can't. I was raised in... well, not a perfect home, but a home where the people loved me. I want to say that we're the same... but we're not. The only things we have in common is that we're both Jinchuuriki, and both male. That's it, really... and I know, I know, even if I've never experienced it myself, what that kind of pain must feel like... but you are not alone. You never really have been. You have a brother, a sister, and a father... even if you scare them, even if... even if you don't want them around, they still love you. Right?"

Temari, though she privately doubted Naruto's words very much (watching your youngest brother slaughter six of your best friends, including one boy you had been crushing on for years, had a tendency to ruin good feelings toward him), she at least knew where Naruto was going with this.

Kankuro, though, bless his perverted little heart, had all the tact of a warhammer.

"Yeah, right! We'd just as soon he was dead, then we could live in peace!"

Naruto sighed again, "Okay, so your brother's not the best example... but, even if your whole family hates you, there's still me. I met you once, when we were little. Remember? Little, yellow-haired kid with whiskers? I remember you."

Gaara's eyes narrowed again.

"Gaara, this gentleman is one of the Densetsu no Sannin. His name is Jiraiya-sama. And... this little guy is... Uzumaki Naruto. He's like you, he doesn't have many friends. But you guys are the same age. You even look alike. Do you think you could be friends?"

The red-head, terrified of stepping beyond his uncle Yashamaru's legs to be nearer the giant man, shook his head, while clutching his teddy bear closer to his chest.

"Come on!" a bright, high voice called from next to the giant man, "Don't be like that! Hi, Gaara! My name's Naruto. Pleased to meet ya!"

Surprised by the blonde boy's willingness to talk to him, Gaara took a step back, away from the shelter of his uncle's legs, for each the other boy took towards him.

But that emotion (is that what it was?) paled in comparison to the shock when the other boy- Naruto, he'd said?- put one hand forward, like he'd seen some of the traders and others in the village do, before clasping their hands together.

"Come on, Gaara!" the blonde said cheerfully, "Shake my hand! Or we can bow, if you like doing things the stuffy old way. Ero-jiji says some people are like that. Do you want to bow?"

Dumbstruck, Gaara shook his head.

What was this Naruto even talking about?

After a few more seconds, with some fear, that Yashamaru and the giant man had walked further away from them, leaving him to be attacked by this... this blonde monster.

When would he start yelling?

Throwing things at him?

Calling him, Gaara, a monster?

Because they always did.

Only uncle Yashamaru didn't do those things, until... until that day.

But uncle Yashamaru was dead.

Gaara had killed him.

Just like he'd killed so many others.

And like he'd kill this... this monster who dared to meet him once... and try to fool him, just like uncle Yashamaru had!

"Noo!" Gaara suddenly screamed, the volume chakra-enhanced and terrible.

Sand, smaller pieces of rubble, and clothing flew away from the short shinobi. Only Naruto was unfazed.

"I won't let you trick me! I won't! You just want to get close to me, hoping you can get past my defenses! Well I won't let you! I'm stronger! I'm the strongest! Mother said so! And now, Mother wants your blood, even more than Father's!"

Naruto, turning his head back toward the other siblings, uttered just one word.

"Run."

Kankuro displayed a high amount of wisdom, and did just that, dragging a reluctant Temari behind him.

(O)(O)(O)

There was no way she'd be able to stop herself, her momentum was too great, and Sakura was still a few feet off the ground, a half-moment from being impaled on the spike Sasori had extended from his body. In a fraction of a second, she would be struck down, and he would be...

He would go after Ino.

And then Naruto.

Cha! You can not let that happen, Sakura! Never let him touch your precious people! Protect them, even if it's your life on the line! Naruto would do the same for you! You owe it to him, to all of them!

At a distance of four feet from Sasori's puppet-body, hurtling toward him at about sixteen meters per second, Sakura's panicked expression shifted to determination.

Ino's eyes, though, went from anxiety to horrified terror. "Sakura, no!" she screamed. But it was too late.

"Huurk!"

The blonde kunoichi could do little more than stare for several seconds. A... a double... double kill? I... no! I can't let it end like this!

Ino charged forward.

In front of her, Sakura weakly pulled her clenched fist from the hole she'd punched through the puppet's weak spot. It was dripping with red, viscous fluid that closely resembled, but was clearly not, blood. For one thing, it glowed faintly with blue chakra. For another, it smelled more like dirt than copper or iron. "Got... got you... Akas- Akasuna no Sasori. Not... not so tough... now... are y-you?"

The Akatsuki member's dull brown eyes moved downward, both wide with surprise that was not mirrored in their artificial surfaces. "You... you killed me."

Sakura nodded, "And you... killed me. But I... I'm not... upset. I'm just a 'weak girl'... and I brought down an S-class nukenin... Akasuna no Sasori. Path- pathetic."

"Sakura!" Ino cried, now beside the pair, "What- what should I do? I mean, you're... you're..."

The rosette's eyes closed for a moment. Ino was surprised to see a somewhat wistful smile on her face, "I guess... I'll leave Naruot... in your care, In- Ino-bunta."
"Come on, Sakura! Don't say that!" the blonde cried, "You're a medic, aren't you? You can heal this! It's just a stab! Right?"

Sasori answered for her, though, "She has taken three separate injuries, each with their own lethal poisons. I... there is nothing anyone can do for her, now."

"That can't be right! Come on, don't you give up on me, Sakura! What will Naruto say when I tell him you gave up, huh? He'll- he'll hate you forever for it, that's what!"

Sakura coughed, causing several small red spots to appear on Sasori's face and her own lips. "He... yeah... that sounds... about right. But I can't... can't feel my chakra. I... can't heal... myself... s-sorry... tell Naruto? Tell... tell him I'm... s... and... and I l... love..."

"Sakuraaaaaaa!"

Sasori's light brown eyes lingered on the green ones while the medic's lids closed slowly inches from his own. For a moment, he wished his own eyes were still capable of showing emotion. But even blinking took chakra, and he was fading fast.
"Girl... there is... a chance. A small one, but it is there. It is real."
"Shut up! Why should I trust you, huh? You're the one that- the one... that..."

"In the bottom-right scroll... on my back... the third seal from the left, on the top row. It has... my antidotes. Use them all... mix them, give her exactly... one... drop. Just one. More would kill... her even more slowly... and painfully than the... the toxins."

"And... and then what? She'll still bleed out because of you!"

The puppet's head shook slowly, back and forth, just once. "N... no... she has... the knowledge. You have... the chakra... use mind-jutsu... take the knowledge from her... save her..."

Ino was motionless for only a half-heartbeat more, before blurring around the puppet body and ripping the remains of his black cloak from him, immediately reaching for the scroll in quetsion before unfurling it. "Why? Why are you trying to save her now? What's... what's in it for you?"

The puppet made a half-hearted attempt to shrug. "I... my art... it will out... outlast me... now. But this one... her art... tr- transient... has def-defeated... mine... Deidara-gagakusei... that mere... student of... art... could he be... right? That art... really is... t-transi... ent? I... I want her... to... to decide. What... what is real... art?"

Ino, who had just finished using Sakura's medical kit to mix the antidotes and fill a dropper, put the tip on Sakura's limp tongue, one hand holding her head back so her mouth hung open, the other the dropper, while the medic's breathing became weaker and slower with each exhalation. "If... if you're lying about this..."

The puppet only said, voice soft and mouth barely moving, "No... point. No... reason... to lie. Take... ring... don't... Akatsuki... h... ha... have..."

The hole in Sasori's chest pulsed once more, expelling a pint or so of the strange red fluid to dripple, as the rest had, into the narrow space between he and Sakura, and the head fell forward against the medic's chin. Heh... lucky, Sakura... at least I don't get to tell Naruto you cheated on him by kissing a puppet...

A moment later, Ino's burden was lightened considerably when, with a sickening squelch, the puppet fell backwards, pulling the spike by the cable it was attached to out of Sakura's abdomen before falling completely to the ground.

"Okay, Forehead... lie down here... that's a good girl... don't you die on me, smart-ass, or I'm never, ever going to forgive you... let's... let's hope this works. Help... help me, daddy, please. I don't... I don't want to lose her... not like this..."

"Ow..." the rosette whimpered, "That...was totally not worth it."

"I can't believe you, Sakura! How could you let him hit you like that?"

The medic shrugged, still focusing on withdrawing the poison from the open wound in her stomach before it could cause much internal damage. "How... how else was I supposed to get close... close enough to bring him down? I... Jigoku's rambling lawyers, this hurts..."

The leggy blonde, only mildly distracted by the strange epithet, scowled at her friend, "There were other ways. I could have tried to possess him again... I think I could have held him long enough for you to get a hit in. But letting him hit you... twice? I mean, come on! There had to be another way!"

Sakura only shrugged.

Then winced, moaning again, before returning her attention to her stomach. At least the section of tail that had struck her back was turned to the side, and not one of the poisoned edges. That would have made finishing the healing Ino had inexpertly started a great deal harder, and more painful.

That it had thrown her straight at Sasori was, given his readiness with the spike that had punctured her abdomen, likely intentional.

What had probably not been intended was Sakura's sudden readiness to counter-attack, and the timing involved in punching her hand through Sasori's heart as soon as he'd been in range.

"Still..." Sakura groaned a minute later, distracting Ino from checking their enemy's puppets for usable weapons or scrolls, "at least I know... I can handle my... my own... against an S-class... now..."

Ino's eyes rolled, "Look, Sakura... I know you feel all giddy and whatever, but you weren't alone. I might not have helped much, but I did help. You'd be dead right now if it wasn't for me, so stop being all high-and-mighty, and fix yourself up so we can go help Naruto! You know these guys are supposed to travel in pairs. If we haven't been attacked..."

As she'd spoken, the blonde had turned to the southwest, searching the horizon.

She gasped, "S- Sakura... look."

It took a bit, given the injury that made her back almost inflexible with pain, but Sakura eventually stood and turned to face the same direction, only to see several pillars of black or white smoke, merging into one huge, gray column of gray that rose high into the sky before being scattered by the high-altitude winds.

"S- Suna... Naruto!"

"Come on, Pinky," Ino said, suddenly focused again, "No time for dilly-dallying. Get yourself patched up enough to move, I'll gather the gear... I'm good enough with storage scrolls we can just bring it all, it'll take... two minutes."

Sakura nodded, "I'll be... maybe three. I have to loosen up my back a little, or I won't be able to keep up. I won't have much chakra left, though. How're you?"

"About half. If we have to fight, I can, but I won't last too much longer. It doesn't matter, though. Just hurry."

(O)(O)(O)

The ground beneath Naruto exploded upward again, throwing him several feet into the air this time. Damn Suna and their crappy Jonin! Can't they keep that guy busy? Why haven't they just taken him out? His bombing the whole damned city, but mostly me!

"The worm! The worm thinks he can take my prey! I'll kill the worm first!"

Naruto wasn't sure if he was relieved or upset to see Gaara lift upwards from where he'd been tossed to the ground on a platform of floating sand.

His own fight had not gone as he'd expected so far. While he knew, knew with both head and heart, that he was stronger than Gaara... the Sannin student had also been getting his ass kicked by the crazed Jinchuuriki.

"It's not enough..." he groaned, setting his lower left arm so when the Kyuubi healed it it'd be at least mostly straight, "that I have to deal with crazy, either, but the random explosions aren't making it any easier. But it's just the sand! It gets everywhere!"

"Stop your whining, insignificant insect! Unleash me, let me crush that bothersome mite beneath my paws! I want to feast on Shukaku's flesh before I consume your soul!"

"And... now I have a mangy furball talking to me again. Great."

"N-Naruto?"

And... just when I thought I hit rock bottom, I have to protect Temari-chan too...

"What is it, Temari?"

If she was put off by his stern tone, the kunoichi didn't show it. Instead, she moved up to stand next to him, fan completely open, with a hard look in her eyes. "I'm here to help. If nothing else, I should be able to direct that Akatsuki guy's bombs elsewhere; I've been able to help my dad's squad with that, but... he's directed them to help evacuate, so here I am again."

"Gaara's going after that mad bomber, now, before he 'comes back to eat my soul'. Like I don't hear that enough."

"You... what?"

Naruto shrugged, "Kyuubi. We... well, we used to not get along so well as we do now. He used to tell me stuff like that all the time."

"And I still will! I refuse to let your pathetic father's jutsu keep me locked away until we both die, harmless, bitter old men, in the night! I will not bow to that fate! You will suffer for ten thousand years in my stomach, while I ravage the world and everything in it!"

One of Naruto's calloused hands moved to his belly, where Temari was able to catch a glimpse of a spiral seal through one of the many holes either Gaara or the bomber had ripped in his jacket. "Shut up, stupid fox. One more word, and the new deal's being renegotiated further. I don't need you any more, remember? I can just take what I want, if I have to."

Temari's eyes widened, "You... you can actually do that? H- How?"

Naruto, his eyes never leaving the aerial battle between sand and explosives, muttered, "My seal's... better. Better than Gaara's ever was, if Ero-sennin can be believed. And since it's about seals... he can be. I'm no master or anything, but I know enough to help Gaara. If I can get him to to settle down for ten minutes or so. But I can't even get him to talk to me. I've never seen anyone so... so damned stubborn! It's like he doesn't want help!"

The kunoichi shook her head, "He... he doesn't. What Kankuro said... was right. Most of us... all of Suna... really does want Gaara dead. You have no... no idea of how many of our people he's killed. It takes everything our father has to keep him down when he gets riled, and he's the strongest Kazekage in history, even stronger than his father and his Iron Dust jutsu."

"Yeah, the old man said something about that once. Your dad uses gold, right?"

Temari nodded, "Yes. It's heavy enough that if the sand and gold are bonded, Gaara can't control his sand properly, and the Kazekage's range is... higher. Not a lot, but enough to make a difference. He can usually force Gaara to settle down, but I've never seen him so upset before."

"I believe it," Naruto answered calmly, "after hearing how you guys have treated him... I'm not surprised he's a murderous lunatic. I'd probably have been the same way. I hate to say this, but you guys really have no one to blame but yourselves."

"How can you say that?" she cried, whirling to face Naruto, "He's a killer! Just last year, he killed fifty-six people in one hour! One! He's killed our uncle, he even started life by killing our mother!"

Naruto shook his head, "You're going to blame your mother's death on a baby not even hours old? Tell me how anyone, even someone with instinctual control of sand, could take the blame for something they did right after they were born?"

Temari had no response.

Naruto, though, wasn't done, "And the rest... he's this way because you made him that way. I don't care how crazy the One-Tails makes him, I was raised with the Nine inside me. Some of it's 'cause I have a better seal. I know that. But the rest... I had a father-figure, a mother-figure, and two sisters who always loved me, no matter how much we fought. Even if... even if I never really met my birth parents, I know now they still loved me too. Even if one of them had to bind the Kyuubi into me. It was... it was nothing more than my mother, and my grandmother, had to face too."

That was more than he'd ever admitted to Sakura, or Ino, though he suspected both had figured it out. They were both, after all, scary-smart.

"Naruto... I..."

He shook his head, interrupting her, "But the way you treated Gaara? How was he supposed to be normal like that? Ostracized. Outcast. Feared. I heard the story about uncle Yashamaru a few years ago. I knew then that... eventually... I'd have to come here again. I need his help, I really do, but even if I didn't... I'd still want to come and get Gaara out of here. Show him how real people are, not... not monsters."

A large part of Temari was screaming at her to tell him off, to prove him wrong. To explain, make it absolutely clear beyond the shadow of a doubt, that it was Gaara who was the monster. Not her. Not her brother. Not their father.

Not their whole Village.

But a tiny, quiet part of her knew otherwise.

"Y... you're right. We are the monsters here. But... what are we supposed to do about it? He just wants to kill us."

Naruto shrugged. "It might be too late. For you guys, at least. But I'm not giving up, not yet. I'm going to beat him down. Somehow. And then I'll fix his seal. It should help."

"You... you really can do that?"

He nodded, "Yeah... when we were hear before, Ero-sennin saw his seal. He has this weird memory for seals, like, once he's seen them he never forgets one. He drew it for me a few times, and we talked about some of the problems with it. I remember most of them."

"He... he never sleeps."

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"Gaara. Those rings under his eyes? They're not the mark of the Shukaku, like your whiskers are for you. They're just... just regular bags under his eyes. He has this, uh... this... Kami, if he ever hears me say this or finds out I told you, I'm so dead... he..."

Naruto's eyes rolled, "Out with it, Temari! Say it or don't, we don't have time to argue... Gaara's losing."

The shock of that statement took a few moments to sink in, so she just blurted out, "He has a tail, all right? A little, stubby tail that looks kind of like a raccoon! He keeps it hidden, but our medics haven't been able to remove it, 'cause the sand kept them from getting close even as a baby. Just don't tell him I said anything. But maybe you can use his insomnia against him someh- wait... what? He's losing?"

Naruto nodded solemnly, pointing upwards towards the sun, "Right there. Somehow, the Akatsuki guy got bombs inside Gaara's sand-shell, when even my Rasengan barely got through it. He's not falling, but he's hurt pretty bad. I can smell the blood falling."

Temari nodded, stunned.

"Can you get us up there?"

Stiffly, she nodded, holding out her fan and channeling chakra without a word, eyes still riveted to the speck above them. "Hop- hop on. This'll take all of my concentration, though, so glue yourself on with chakra, and you'll have to do the fighting. I can only manage small jutsu if I'm alone, nothing with a passenger."

He nodded, sliding on to crouch next to the kneeling kunoichi. "Let's go."

(O)(O)(O)

"Halt! I said halt!"

Ino's jutsu connected a moment before the shuriken was thrown. Without warning, Sakura scooped up her friend and flung the blonde's body over her shoulder, ignoring the pain it caused in her back, just as the lone Jonin guard at the shattered gate turned to fling the weapon into the lone Chunin's leg. Hopefully that would slow them down.

Familiar now with Ino's techniques, Sakura was not much surprised when the Jonin, an older man with a white cloth covering half his face, wearing the standard sand-brown flak jacket of Sunagakure, moved up next to her and said in a gravelly voice, "Sifting... he's really worried, and not about us. Name's Baki. Uh... an attack on their Jinchuuriki, Gaara... the Kazekage in danger... Naruto! I saw Naruto!"

"Where?" Sakura asked, green eyes suddenly scanning the street they were flying down even more intently.

"No- not here. In this guy's memory. It's- right! Turn right here!"

"On it!"

(O)(O)(O)

"It's over, One-Tails," the voice said, clearly amused, "You've put on more of a fight than I'd expected, but you aren't a match for me. Hmph."

"He's not alone, though!" Naruto cried, suddenly leaping from Temari's fan, twenty-two and a half feet through the air to plunge a kunai into the Akatsuki member's back.

Of course, he just disappeared with a puff of smoke, leaving only a vaguely-humanoid simulacrum in white clay. "Kuso!"

Boom.

Temari screamed.

Gaara laughed, even with blood burbling from his lips, while an orange-clad body plummeted, smoking, from the sky.

"Naruto!"

Temari raced downward, as fast as she could go, hoping she'd be able to slow his descent in time... they were a few hundred feet up. It would be close...

And while she did so, Gaara lost consciousness, even the Shukaku's chakra drained by the intense battle with first Naruto in his two-tailed state, and then the former Iwa shinobi.

Said Akatsuki member appeared on Gaara's sand platform, which was already breaking up. "Just enough clay for a bird to ride home. Hmph. I wonder if Sasori-sempai is done with his playtime. The girls weren't bad looking for kids, I wonder if he'll make them into puppets so I can admire them later. But you, little boy, are coming with me. Hmph. That's just two Jinchuuriki left... Pain-sama will be pleased. Hmph."

No one in Suna even noticed the large white bird fly away.

A/N2: Whelp, what do you think? Let me know in review!

Seriously.

This chapter (and the ones before and after...) are already significantly different than canon, and it's going to continue to the conclusion. I need to know if you guys are enjoying it or not to improve, so review, please!

On the same subject (of the 'continuing to conclusion')... I was wrong. We aren't about 2/3, but only about ½. I had several other good plot points spring into my head early this morning, and as they're basically all written out, and make the story better... well, they're going in. You're welcome. :)

Glossary:

Can't think of anything to add.