"Come on," Sakura whispered, gently pressing her chakra against the tiny chest, "Come on." The child had stopped moving. Almost as soon as the strange creatures had disappeared from the sky, he grew deathly calm. There was a trail of blood under his nose and Sakura suspected that their presence had actually harmed him more than it helped.
"He seems to react to the others, doesn't he?" she whispered to Kankurou, stroking the small forehead gently with one hand as she tried to feed her chakra over his lungs with the other. His skin had a strange rubbery texture and it was clammy with fever, "It's almost like he knows when they're there."
Kankurou twitched his head uncertainly. Signalling to his sister, who was busy collecting a rather stunned Naruto, he turned and regarded her with a puzzled frown. "Maybe," he shrugged, "He was all still like that when we found him too. He just started moving when the others made that noise. Maybe that's a good thing? Maybe all that tossing and turning is a sign that he's stronger with them nearby?"
'Definitely not,' Sakura thought to herself, but she said nothing and merely shook her head. From what she could detect being near the others had actually distressed the child, causing already fragile membranes in his body to burst and causing minor internal haemorrhaging in several places. If she was to have any chance of saving him, they had best keep him as far away from the island's other experimental children as they could.
Kankurou hadn't really noticed her response one way or the other. He was distracted by the arrival of the other shinobi of their various scouting parties. Kakashi thumped him playfully on the shoulder as he leapt aboard his own boat, muttering a 'thank you' that seemed to be aimed more at all three Suna siblings than just Kankurou specifically. Temari dropped Naruto in a heap next to his sensei, who was busy taking control of their sail. The blonde genin seemed to have sprained his leg at some point during the last battle and was muttering mild threats towards it as he lay on his back, kicking it in the air as if that would help. Kakashi stepped on him, apparently by accident, and sent him scurrying to the bow of the craft, complaining at the top of his voice.
After a few moments of indecision Temari seemed to decide to stay on the Konoha boat as well, on grounds that the Suna one was already crowded enough. With a nervous glance at Sakura, she put away her fan and sat down next to Kakashi, folding her legs and adjusting her skirt.
Kankurou pulled his foot from the bow of the Konoha vessel, releasing his chakra threads and watching as Gaara landed rather unhappily towards the stern of their own craft. It looked as if his younger brother would have preferred to avoid alighting at all until he could do so on solid ground, but even his chakra reserves were not inexhaustive. The sand he had used returned to its guard and Gaara stoppered it with care, apparently especially concerned about his supply with the excess of water about. He was also evidently worried about Sakura, his eyes fixed on her as she worked in the bottom of their boat.
She had stopped any bleeding in the lungs and had gotten the child to a point were he was at least breathing more regularly on his own, if still really weakly. Using her chakra to monitor his heartbeat, her other hand cupped his cheek as she tried to peer into his eyes. She couldn't. Some kind of sticky discharge had them almost glued shut. It was so severe that Sakura left off, fearing she might damage the cornea if she attempted to prize the lids apart any further. Focusing instead on the rest of his head, she gently used her chakra as a means to feel for any cranial injuries. A smile traced across her face. She was relieved to find him fairly healthy in that regard and she started to shift, intending to continue her examination elsewhere.
Then something spiked under her hand. Jumping towards his head, Sakura stared at his little face in panic as she increased the chakra flowing from her hands. No, it wasn't just his brain. His heart rate was speeding up… and his breathing… Staring as the child's features started to contort, the medic nin gasped as realisation hit her.
"Watch out!" she screamed, flinging herself forward.
It was too late. Both boats suddenly swung, veering from side to side as the water seemed to come alive below them. Sakura felt her patient kicking her in the stomach as the boat almost toppled in the ocean currents. She gasped for air. There was another heavy weight suddenly pressing into her back.
"Gaara!" Kankurou yelled, scrambling to his feet from where he had fallen on the medic ninja. The stern of the boat was empty. "Gaara!" he called again, pulling himself up against the side of the boat. He was lucky not to capsize it. The water was twisting beneath them, churning it into a giant circle that spun round and round and straight down. With a gasp of horror Kankurou realised he was staring straight into the centre of a maelstrom.
The boat spun, jolting him hard against its wooden side. Winded he fell backwards and Sakura grabbed his shoulder, pulling him down. "Gaara," he repeated, trying to push her away.
"You'll fall," she snapped at him, her arms already full of her young patient.
Ignoring her, he crawled forwards until he could stare down into the murky water. Something was happening in the centre of the whirlpool. It split, the water tearing away until he could see the seabed below. A dark, round object rose up from the exposed middle. No, it wasn't an object. It was a mass; a mass of glistening, shining rock that teemed upwards in clumps and mounds. Kankurou stared at it, reaching instinctively for the scrolls mounted on his back. Mercifully they were still dry.
Abruptly he saw him. Bobbing in the writhing water not far from the boat was a mess of dark hair. An arm struck out against the waves. He could make out a gasping face. "Gaara!" Kankurou screamed his brother's name, frantic as he watched him drowning. Flinging his hand back outwards, Kankurou shot out a fresh length of chakra string. It missed his younger brother by several inches. He tried again to no avail. Gaara lunged forward attempting to grasp out towards him. Then his head disappeared under the waves and did not reappear.
"Gaara!" Kankurou howled his brother's name a final time, feeling Sakura's hand pulling him backwards as he threatened to topple the boat in his panic. They spun in the water. The tiny wooden vessel bounced back and forth in the cruel torrents and the kunoichi clung to his bare waist as he sobbed, holding both him and her child patient, her tears falling against his skin.
Kankurou fell back into the boat, gasping. Sakura and the child collapsed against his chest and he gripped them, trying to stabilise their small vessel as the raging water tormented it. He stared blankly ahead at the still moving mound of rock in the whirlpool's nucleus. It was still rising and it was gaining speed.
"Look," Sakura pushed a hand against him, gaining his attention. She pointed out to a spot further down the rushing water. There, surrounded by swirling sea-foam, a small light yellowish blob was battling the spiralling current, holding a darker reddish one by its side. Naruto had dived to Gaara's rescue. Even with two of them though, and their incredible combined power, it seemed like an almost hopeless plight. The maelstrom was just incredibly strong.
Someway off to their right, Kankurou could spot Temari and Kakashi in their craft. It looked like the Konoha shinobi had his work cut out just preventing his Suna friend from jumping into the tempest to save her brother.
When it happened, it happened almost in an instant. The rising rock broke asunder, smashing into the rushing water. Naruto and Gaara dived, narrowly missing being struck. More rock fell in clumps all around them. Temari and Kakashi jumped overboard as the stone crashed into their vessel. Splintered wood whirled in the water and Kakashi grabbed her shoulder, surfacing. She clung heavily to his arm as the current ripped at their bodies, threatening to tear them apart.
Choking, she dug her nails into his top, holding on with both hands as the water raged against her body. She gasped, and then, just over his shoulder, she saw something that nearly made her scream.
The rock was rising back out of the water where it had fallen, but it was changed. Instead of individual lumps it now had shape, an almost human shape. Green glowing chakra bound the glistening stone into a mockery of the human form. The faceless statues climbed up onto the water's surface, swinging huge limbs with fists bigger than a man's head. Saltwater stinging her eyes, Temari watched helplessly as they turned as one towards the centre of the maelstrom, towards the beings that had summoned them.
A great green glowing cloud hung in the air over that centre. Tendrils of smoke were pouring and weaving from it into the swirling water, twirling rapidly the way a mixing machine stirs dough. From the top of that fog, their overlong digits writhing as they cackled and squirmed over each other, the little gray creatures laughed at their captives.
