Robin felt her mind growing hazy, and the fact that feathers were falling didn't seem as… important… as it should… have…

Ow.

She glanced down at her arm to see a single drop of blood welling up from a pinprick, and saw Daz Bonez with his hand above the point.

"I could have handled it on my own." She pointed out. Robin had been pulling up the chakra to break the technique, if rather slowly and dizzily. Her practice sessions with Kakashi in their free time had taught her at least that much.

"You were taking too long." Crocodile told her. He'd presumably been the one to order Bonez to hurt her like that, given that he was already awake.

"And you?"

"Turned into sand and scrambled the grains." Crocodile answered, eyes narrowing. He pulled a cigar out of his pocket, lighting it and bringing it up to his lips. His eyes scanned around the slowly erupting pandemonium among the ninjas (whilst the civilians were left passed out and defenseless in the crowd).

A low thrumming noise expanded over the arena, and Robin turned to see that a strange, translucent purple barrier had been raised around the roof of the Kage box. Her eyes flicked over to Crocodile, who was instead focused on the infirmary that was built into the arena wall.

"The Kage have been isolated." She murmured.

"That brat with the sand is finally doing something interesting." Crocodile replied, not looking away from the direction that Gaara was in.

Robin nodded, seemingly to herself. "I'll see what I can do I the Kage box. You do what interests you, but please do avoid killing any Konoha shinobi or civilians. Taking out the enemy without unnecessary death would be nice as well."

Crocodile glanced at her, and then, in a way that almost made Robin think she was still stuck in a genjutsu, smirked. "I'll do what I can."

He made a joke. Robin mused, even as she began sprinting up towards the Kage box. That's… unexpected.

She had a fight to crash.

o.o.o.o.o

Hanabi's eyes snapped open, and she looked up into her sister's face.

"What—?"

"Most of the stadium is under a sleep genjutsu." Hinata murmured, her hand covering Hanabi's mouth. "Kurenai taught us how to break most genjutsu up to B-rank, and this is fairly weak. There's an invasion or something going on. Keep silent and pretend you're still asleep. You'll be safer that way."

Hanabi nodded slightly, squeezing her eyes back closed.

Hinata was the nicest, sweetest girl anyone knew… until one put her sister in danger. If someone tried to do that?

An Oto nin fell to the ground, coughing up blood and not quite sure what had been ruptured beyond the fact that it hurt more than anything he'd experienced before.

"Don't touch my sister."

Then Hinata became one of the most dangerous genin on the battlefield.

"Nicely done." The voice came from TenTen, who had just jumped up onto the rail. "But your teacher's looking for you. You're one of the few genin teams that's still fresh and not separated across the arena, and you work well together."

"Why did she send you to tell us this?" Kiba challenged, even as Lee jumped up to stand next to TenTen. Sasuke and Karin had already disappeared, running down to meet Sakura and Naruto in the center of the arena.

"I was one of the few Konoha genin left in the fighter's box, and she was there." TenTen turned to Lee. "Gai-sensei's fine on his own right now. He said you should go to the Academy since you're one of the fastest genin. Protect the kids."

"Yosh!" Lee saluted and sprinted off.

"What about us?" Ino demanded, mid-parry as she fought off a Suna nin. Chouji nodded.

"No clue. You could stay here and help me fight. My messenger job is done, now. All that's left is protecting Konoha from the invading forces."

Hinata glanced at Kiba and Shino, and then rounded on TenTen, Ino, and Chouji. "Keep my sister safe."

TenTen glanced at the little girl still slumped in her seat, eyes hidden behind her hair (but presumably activated to be aware of any attacks headed her way. The girl with the buns in her hair turned back to Hinata. "I'll do my best."

Neji may not have liked to admit it, but Hanabi and Hinata were family. And even if he held a grudge and often claimed to want to kill them, he'd be furious if she let anyone other than him hurt the girls.

"Good." With one final glance back, Hinata darted off to find Kurenai.

TenTen watched her for a second, nonchalantly catching a kunai headed for her head and sending it back at the burly Oto nin that had thrown it.

She turned to Ino and Chouji. "Hey, wanna help me with my cannon?"

o.o.o.o.o

Robin analyzed the purple at the top of the Kage box. The ANBU around the box had informed her that any living being that touched the box would be incinerated on contact.

So… getting through physically would be impossible. She could attempt to transfer herself in with the Hana Hana no Mi, but… there was a danger that, should her "sprouted" arm be incinerated, the rest of her body would follow suit.

Robin was very, very glad that Kakashi had offered to teach her the Kage Bunshin.

And also very glad that the Kage Bunshin could use the Hana Hana no Mi just as well as she could.

o.o.o.o.o

There was a pounding migraine behind Gaara's forehead, and he was all too aware of it. Temari was beside his bed, kneeling down and grasping the edge with a grip so tight that her knuckles had bled white long ago.

"Gaara, you have to get up." There was worry in her tone, and it was for him, not of. Funny, he wouldn't have noticed something that subtle a few weeks ago… "Gaara, the invasion's started, and Father is here. If he finds out that you aren't fighting… Gaara, please…"

Father… Gaara felt a flare of anger at the word… the man was no father to him…

"Gaara?"

More worry, a different kind. No longer afraid for him, but back to what he knew, the fear of him.

He could feel his sand moving, sharpening. It wasn't hitting him, and… he could push it away from Temari.

She was worrying for him. She could live a little longer.

"Gaara, you have to wake up, you have to wake up now." Temari was shaking him, and then she wasn't, she was g—

"Get out!"

Gaara's eyes snapped open, the remaining poison in his system filtering out completely in a matter of seconds. A warmth in his chest, Shukaku's chakra (Mother…), flared for a second to clear his system fully, and then subsided as the seal pressed it back once more, its job done.

He sat up and turned to the door, seeing that Temari had pushed back and more than likely killed several Konoha shinobi.

"What are you doing?"

Why are you protecting this room?

"What do you mean?" Temari demanded, her body halfway out the door as she checked for more enemies. "They're attacking me; they're attacking you; you weren't moving, and I'm not abandoning you."

"Why?"

Temari bit back a groan. "Because you're my brother, now let's go. Now isn't the time for this conversation, because the invasion is going on, and father will notice if we aren't there."

"…Fine."

Gaara missed the look of relief on Temari's face as it processed that her hasty comment hadn't prompted Gaara to try to kill her.

She didn't want to hurt Konoha.

She didn't want to hurt the village that had jumpstarted the slowly mending relationship with her brother.

She didn't want to hurt the ones that had helped her and her brothers so much.

She didn't.

But the Kazekage had ordered it, father had ordered it, and the Kazekage's will was that of the village.

She had no choice.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto and Sakura were back-to-back in the arena, trying to cover for each other as various Oto nin attacked. The Suna shinobi didn't seem as concerned with getting to them, or concerned at all, since they were just genin. The Oto shinobi, on the other hand, seemed very concerned with killing Naruto.

Orochimaru probably didn't care one way or the other about the law banning people from telling anyone about the Kyuubi. With all the other ones he'd broken, that law probably meant less than nothing to him.

So… Oto wanted to kill him as soon as possible to prevent the Kyuubi from becoming a deciding player in the battle.

"Oi, idiot, watch your back."

Naruto squawked and turned around, noticing that, oh, Sasuke had just kept some guy from stabbing him. Well, that was nice of Sasuke, but why hadn't Sakura—ah, Sakura was in the middle of a different fight.

"As soon as this mess is over, I'm helping you with your sensor skills." Karin muttered, slinking in behind Sasuke (Naruto hadn't noticed her, but Karin was good at hiding like that). "They're disgraceful."

"I'm not that bad!" Naruto argued, even though he knew that, really, he could have been better.

"You're an Uzumaki. You shouldn't be bad at all." Karin retorted, even as she dodged an Oto nin, skillfully weaving around a near impossible number of projectiles that had been thrown her way. "Unless you happen to be a one-in-a-million anomaly in that regard, even the slightest bit of practice with sensing should have shown some potential."

"Uh… I don't think anyone ever tried that with me." Naruto punched a man in the ribs, feeling a few of them break under his knuckles. "And I was always more interested in big jutsu than stuff like that."

Karin glared at him for barely a second, dodging an attack without even seeing it (wow, okay, so sensing could be cool if it meant he could do awesome jutsu without even looking at someone), and then turned back to her fight. "Sensing may not be a flashy offensive technique, but it's still useful, cousin dear."

Naruto winced. "Uh… okay. I'll work on it later?"

"Good."

That's when the side of the arena exploded.

"Art is a bang, un!"

o.o.o.o.o

A/N: Yeesh, the review count's been dropping the IQ of someone reading Fifty Shades of Grey. You guys alive out there?

Ja ne,

Phoenix