Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

IMPORTANT! This is a horrible chapter.

It is nearly exactly like canon. Basically, I wrote it because saying: And then they got to the Sand, healed Kankuro, and headed out to find Gaara. just didn't cut it.

Which is why if you perfectly remember the canon, you should just read the last few paragraphs and it should be fine.

Also, recently I have discovered this:


Should I replace 1010101010 with that? I like that better anyways.

If I do, though, I think I'll want to change all the chapters, and that'll be a huge pain however...

Chapter 48: Sakura's Improvement: The Danger That Closes In!

Team Kakashi... plus Temari... arrived at the gates of the rather uncolourful village of the Sand. All the buildings were a shade of brown and white. Still, as it was the hidden village of the Sand, that was to be expected. After all, it was located in the middle of the desert.

Temari raced up to the gatekeepers of the Sand. "It's Temari. The people behind me are the reinforcements from Konoha."

"The reinforcements?" one gatekeeper said with concealed relief. "Very well. Come in. I'll take you to the hospital. There's someone you might want to see."

"Someone I might want to see?" Temari blinked, racing after the gatekeeper who had already started to run off.

"Kankuro! I'm sure you already know about Kazekage-sama, but Kankuro followed his kidnappers too far." the gatekeeper explained. "He got hit by poison of the kidnappers, and we still can't neutralize it. If things continue on like this... he can't have more than half a day left."

"First Gaara... now Kankuro too?" Temari said. She clenched her fists. Why?

Sakura's eyes narrowed. "Let's hurry, Temari-san. I'll examine him."

"Oh, yeah." Naruto commented. "Sakura, you became a medic nin, right? Can you heal him?"

"I can't tell until I see him." Sakura answered.

The seven of them continued on running towards the hospital.

1010101010

Back in Konoha, Tsunade was sitting in her desk, a newspaper spread out on it. She stared at a lottery ticket located on top of the newspaper.

And stared some more.

And a bit more, for good measure.

Then she shifted her gaze towards the newspaper, which had the results of the lottery.

And she glanced back at her lottery ticket yet again.

I won. Tsunade thought in mute astonishment

Third place, but never the less, I won.

...

Nothing good happens when I win.

Tsunade paled.

This is a bad omen.

She grabbed her teacup. Unfortunately enough, Shizune had forbidded Tsunade to drink sake during work. And had confiscated all her sake bottles to boot.

Which is why she was forced to drink tea.

Of course, that was when the teacup decided to crack. Another bad omen.

Tsunade paled further.

"Shizune! Shizune!" she called urgently. "Can you get Gai's team in here? I've got a mission for them!"

1010101010

Sakura raced into the hospital room where Kankuro was. Various shinobi ran around in the room, doing various jobs.

She threw down her bag and ran to Kankuro's side.

Meanwhile, a old woman stared at Kakashi, who had just entered the room. She was quite old... wrinkles covered her face and hands. But even with her age, her face currently had the darkest look that Naruto had ever seen.

"White Fang..." she murmured furiously. She jumped at Kakashi, fully intending to fight him.

Naruto's eyes narrowed and he blocked the old woman's jabs. He hit the old woman with his spare leg and kicked her to the ground.

He then grabbed her hands and prevented her from moving.

"What do you think you're doing, attacking Kakashi-sensei so suddenly?" Naruto demanded with irritation. "We're here to help the Sand, you senile old hag!"

"Was there really any reason for you to come in?" Sasuke retorted. "You're just showing off."

"Shut up, Sasuke." Naruto snapped.

"She said 'White Fang'..." Obito commented. "Oh, I got it! Hey, old woman, you thought Kakashi was the White Fang! Which he isn't by the way."

"That's right, Chiyo." an old man walked up to Naruto and the old woman- Chiyo. "Look closely. The resemblance is startling, but this man is not the White Fang of Konoha."

Chiyo blinked and started laughing nervously. "As if! I was just pretending to be senile!"

Naruto twitched and let Chiyo go. She quickly stood back up.

Why is the Sand letting a crazy old woman loose?

"Still, you're pretty good." Chiyo complimented. "Even though I was holding back quite a bit, to be able to get me to the ground like that..."

"Yes, whatever you say." Naruto muttered, ignoring her.

"More importantly, I need to treat Kankuro-san!" Sakura exclaimed in irritation. "Can you keep quiet for a bit?"

"Okay." Naruto shrugged. He blinked. "Wait, that's Kankuro? I couldn't tell without the make-up."

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

Sakura gathered green chakra in her hands and put one of her hands on his chest. With her other hand, she grabbed the poison that she had drawn out of Kankuro's body.

She placed it in a bowl and continued on the process. Eventually, she stood back and wiped her forehead.

"I've removed most of the poison." Sakura explained. "There's no immediate danger to his life now. But I still need to make an anitidote to the remments of the poison in his body."

"Well..." Obito whispered. "Looks like Sakura has become a full-fledged medic nin."

Naruto nodded.

"Can you gather the ingredients I ask you to gather?" Sakura asked, sitting down onto a chair.

Chiyo stared at Sakura. "You remind me of the slug woman."

"Tsunade-shishou?" Sakura smiled. "Well, she is my master after all."

Chiyo's eyes widened. "Ebizo..."

The old man, presumably Ebizo, nodded. "Time is still flowing."

"Exactly. Now, let's hurry up and go after the Akatsuki." Naruto retorted. "We're running out of time. Sakura, how long will it take for you to make an antidote?"

"Depends. Do you have the tomoshiri plant here?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, in fact. Not too much, but we do have it. I'll take you to the greenhouse." a ninja answered.

"Good. Naruto, it shouldn't take too long." Sakura answered. The two of them walked out of the room.

"So, as soon as Sakura's finished with that, let's go after them." Naruto grinned. He paused. "Wait a second. Does anyone actually know where they went?"

"Kankuro was the only one to follow after Kazekage-sama." a random shinobi answered. "Unfortunately enough, we have completely lost them."

Obito looked disaproving. "Let me get this right. Your Kazekage was abducted, and the only one to follow him was what? A single chuunin? Low-jonin at most?"

Most of the Sand shinobi in the room looked slightly ashamed, which was saying something.

"Just because he was kidnapped by a couple of S-ranked ninjas isn't an excuse." Naruto agreed.

"That seems like an excuse to me." Sasuke muttered.

"I-I'll have you k-know..." a weak voice stammered. "-that I'm a... j-jonin."

All the eyes in the room turned to the weak form on the bed.

"There were... t-two enemies. One who t-took Gaara... and the other. You c-can follow Gaara's scent... for the f-first. The other... caught h-his clothing in m-my puppet."

Kankuro rubbed his eyes and looked. The figure of a slightly familiar blond-haired ninja reflected in his eyes.

Is that... Uzumaki Naruto? And next to him... it's the whole Konoha team from the Chuunin Exams, plus an unknown person.

"Kankuro!" Temari exclaimed, running to his side. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah... more or l-less." Kankuro said unconvincingly.

"Kankuro." Chiyo said, staring at Kankuro with a unreadable expression. "I have heard that one of the enemies you fought was Sasori. Is that true?"

"I don't know if... it's t-true or not..." Kankuro stated hesitantly. "But that's what he... called himself. S-sasori of the Red Sand."

"I see." Chiyo murmured.

"Can you tell us more about the Akatsuki you fought?" Kakashi asked. "If we are going to fight them, we need to know about them."

Kankuro nodded and started to speak. He slowly and steadily explained what he knew about the Akatsuki members he fought with. It wasn't much, but it was something.

After a while, Sakura returned with the antidote to the poison in Kankuro's body.

"Drink it all up." Sakura ordered. "Medicine always tastes bad."

"You know, someone should really make medicine that tastes good." Obito muttered. "It would make trips to the hospital much more enjoyable."

"Are you done?" Naruto said with a tinge of impatience. "Let's go."

Sakura grabbed her bag and nodded. "Okay. Let's go then."

Kankuro stared at Naruto.

That's him.

That's the person who managed to make Gaara change so much.

From... that thing... to what he is now. What seems like a normal human trying to make up for things he did before.

Just by beating him in a fight.

Then again, I don't think anyone had ever beaten Gaara in a fight before, so that was probably a major milestone.

But still.

Gaara... he isn't that psychotic monster that passes for human anymore.

He's...

He's...

"Uzumaki... Naruto." Kankuro said quietly, his eyes scanning the bed. "Please. Please save my brother."

Naruto flashed one of his trademark grins. "Of course!"

The grin transformed into a small smirk. "After all, I plan on becoming Hokage someday. It would help quite a bit if the Kazekage owed a favour to me."

Obito twitched.

You know, sometimes I wonder if everything Naruto does is all a ploy to manipulate people into getting him into the Hokage position.

I mean, if you wanted, you could explain off practically all of his actions for something like that.

"Are you coming?" Naruto demanded.

Obito blinked.

On second thought, there's no way Naruto would do that.

Nah. There's no way Naruto would even think of that. He wouldn't think that way. Or that deep. Etcetera.

He ran after Naruto and the rest of his team.

1010101010

"Wait!" Temari called. The five Konoha shinobi stopped. "If you'd wait a bit, you could have a Sand shinobi with as well. I'm coming with you."

Kakashi blinked. "I suppose you may co-"

"Temari, you stay here. There's plenty for you to do." a voice from above called.

"Chiyo-baasama!" Temari exclaimed in surprise.

"I'm not just a old woman." Chiyo said, jumping down from the tall building she was standing on. She hit the ground with a heavy thump.

"You jumped." Obito stated with shock.

"Yes, she did." Naruto nodded, in a similar state.

"Besides. I've wanted to see my 'cute little' grandson for a while now." Chiyo smirked.

"..."

"G-grandson?" Naruto stammered. "One of the Akatsuki is your grandson?"

"Are you sure it's a good idea for you to go with us?" Sasuke demanded. "After all-"

"I assure you, if it comes to killing him... I will not hesitate." Chiyo assured.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Kakashi discreetly hit Sasuke in the ankle. "We would be glad to have you on this mission."

Sasuke resisted the urge to kill Kakashi.

It would cause too many questions, and there's too many witnesses. he reasoned to himself.

And it's not like anyone saw.

He noticed Naruto failing to resist a snicker from the corner of his eye.

Scratch that.

"We need to go. We don't have a moment to waste." Kakashi turned around and started to run.

1010101010

Eerie eyes glowed in the darkness. "Is everyone here?"

A dark figure took in the people assembled. They were standing in a semi-circle around a statue. The lifeless form of Gaara was in the middle. "Yes."

"Very well. We should start the ritual." the original person stated. He seemed like the leader. "Make sure your real bodies are secure. It will take three days to complete it."

"Three days? Won't it take longer since Orochimaru is gone, un?" another figure demanded.

"If you think that, let's hurry up and start." yet another muttered.

"Zetsu." the leader stated. "Use your real body to survey our surrondings."

The so-called Zetsu nodded.

"Let us start." the leader decided.

1010101010

Gai and his team raced through the trees, heading towards the Sand.

"Gai-sensei! Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed. "Let's get to the Sand in two days!"

"No, one day!" Gai countered.

"Half a day!" Lee cried back.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Enough..." Tenten groaned. "No matter how fast you go, it still takes three days to get to the Sand."

Neji sighed. "Why has Fate forced us to deal with these hyperactive idiots?"

"Don't ask me." Tenten retorted.

Why has 'Fate' forced me to deal with two hyperactive idiots and a Fate-obessed idio- er, person?

The four of them continued on racing through the trees.

Meanwhile, a strange plant-like figure melted up from the trees. One half black, and one half white.

He... or perhaps it... stared at the retreating figures of Team Gai, then melted back into the tree.

1010101010

Naruto rummaged around in his pouch, producing a somewhat suspicious-looking seal from it. He discreetly put it at the bottom of the gatepost leading out of the Sand.

"Are you coming, Naruto?" Obito asked.

"Uh, yeah!" Naruto ran after his team out of the Sand.

Kakashi quickly summoned his dogs after they were a bit away from the village.

"I'm going to get my dogs to separate to find the scent of the Akatsuki who had captured Gaara." Kakashi explained. "Even though they may have separated, remember that our mission is solely to retrieve Gaara. Not to engage the Akatsuki in battle, if possible."

He recieved nods from his team.

Chiyo yawned. "Will you really be able to find the Kazekage using those dogs?"

"Yes." Kakashi said patiently. He waved a scrap of fabric over the noses of each of his dogs. "Separate. Come back when you find the scent. Guruko, you stay here. We'll follow you."

The seven other dogs ran off in opposite directions.

" 'Kay." Naruto nodded.

They moved forwards, following the dog.

"Um, Naruto..." Sakura said hesitantly.

"Yeah?" Naruto said.

"The Akatsuki have been targeting you for a while, right?" Sakura blinked. "I mean, I know they tried to capture you before your training trip..."

"Uh, yeah, I guess..." Naruto shrugged.

"The Akatsuki?" Chiyo said with interest. "Why would they target you?"

"I'm a Jinchuriki. They target Jinchuriki. They target me." Naruto dead-panned.

Chiyo's eyes widened slightly.

He's a Jinchuriki as well?

"I think she didn't know you were a Jinchuriki." Obito pointed out.

"Yeah, but I wanted to see her expression." Naruto shrugged. "I was disappointed."

Chiyo twitched.

"What I was wondering..." Sakura said hesitantly. "Why did the Akatsuki wait three years to attack someone again?"

"Well, it was three years since I was attacked. Not necessarily three years since I someone was attacked." Naruto shrugged. "There must be other Jinchuriki."

"True." Sakura admitted.

"And after failing to capture me twice, maybe they didn't want to risk failing yet again." Naruto smirked.

Sasuke scoffed. "Or they didn't want to go against Jiraiya of the Sannin."

"That too." Naruto amended.

"Jiraiya of the Sannin?" Chiyo repeated.

"Oh, I didn't say?" Naruto grinned. "I'm Ero- that is, Jiraiya of the Sannin's apprentice."

Chiyo's eyes widened slightly again. "I suppose you're not just a typical irritating brat."

"Why people always feel the need to insult me to compliment me?" Naruto said irritably. He turned back to Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, do you know if one of your dogs have the Akatsuki's scent yet?"

"Yes." Kakashi nodded. "Gurako has, in fact. The one we're following."

Naruto stared forwards with an impassive expression.

Gaara...

All of them continued forwards, not noticing the plant-like person disappearing back into a tree.

1010101010

Pakkun took a breath as he ran after the first Konoha team he spotted around here.

Which, for better or worse, turned out to be the team of Maito Gai.

Pakkun barked furiously in an attempt to make them notice him.

"Pakkun?" Gai paused, turning around. "The dog of my youthful rival?"

"Hello." Pakkun stated, breathing hard. "I've got something to tell you."

1010101010

"There are two Konoha teams heading here." a cold voice said, one shadowy figure amoung many in the cave. He seemed to be the same as the plant-like figure that had been spying. "The first is leaded by someone named Maito Gai, I believe."

"Who is he?" the leader demanded.

"A skillful jonin from Konoha." the figure explained. "He is very adept with taijustu."

"Very well. I will use that techni-" the leader started.

"May I go instead?" a figure with gills demanded. It was obviously Kisame. "I have a bit of a... grudge against him, let's say."

The leader looked over Kisame. "Very well. You have a lot of chakra, even for among the Akatsuki, so this technique would work well for you. I will still need 30% of your chakra."

"Ch. Well, I still will be able to pay him back..." Kisame shrugged.

His eyes flew open, away from the cave.

"... for that kick." Kisame finished.

Meanwhile, back in the cave, the plant-like figure continued on talking.

"The other team includes a few interesting people. Such as, the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan, and two of few known Uchiha left- Uchiha Sasuke and Obito."

Nothing changed on Itachi's face at the mention of his little brother. Not to mention the Uchiha that the Akatsuki had discovered not too long ago.

Well, not that anyone could actually see his facial expression, considering the fact it was nothing but a black silouette with eyes.

"The Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi? Itachi, you and Kisame were in charge of capturing him." the leader commented. "But you failed twice."

Itachi mentally winced.

"Perhaps I should let someone else attempt this time." the leader commented. "Let's see..."

1010101010

"I see..." Gai murmured. "We are closer to the Akatsuki than Kakashi and his team?"

"Yes." Pakkun answered. "They were heading towards the Land of Rivers, in between Sand and Fire. Anyways, follow me. I'll explain more as we go."

Gai nodded and the four of them- plus a dog- raced forwards, following Pakkun.

They exited the forest, landing in the outskirts of the desert.

Pakkun sniffed the air and froze. "Someone's coming!"

Neji instantly activated his Byakugan. "Behind us!"

The five of them jumped forwards, taking cover behind a rock just as an explosion of dust and rock flew up.

From the cloud, the silouette of someone holding a large sword gradually grew clearer.

Gai's eyes widened. "That's..."

He paused and scratched his head. "Who?"

Kisame resisted the urge to jump at him and lop his head off right now.

"I'll just have to 'refresh' your memory, then." Kisame growled.

Team Gai all got into a fighting stance.

1010101010

"Stop!" Kakashi cried, just as his team entered a clearing in the forest.

Everyone instantly stopped.

"Hello. Kakashi of the Sharingan." a voice said.

Six pairs of eyes widened in unision.

A man walked towards the six shinobi. He wore the typical Akatsuki robes, showing that he was a member of that organization.

He wasn't any member of the Akatsuki they knew, however.

"Your bounty is quite high, you know?" the man stated. Barely any of his face was shown, all covered up a mask. The only part of his face visible was his eerie eyes and the space around it. His eyes were a discoloured shade of red, with pupil-less white-green irises.

"My name is Kakuzu." the man- Kakuzu said coldly. "And I'm afraid I'm going to kill you all."

1010101010

Yup, I decided that I wanted to put Kakuzu in instead of Itachi.