Chapter 54

Setting up the Ambush

"So, do you always sulk like this?"

Gaara, who had indeed been sulking a bit after the incident in the temple, turned a cold gaze on Katsu. He decided not to answer her, and looked away from her. The Iifernati had been in that temple for a few more hours, and the ninja had gotten busy during that time, or at least some of them had. Gaara had sent a few scouts out to find the Smoke army that was supposed to be heading for Kairuio, their capital. They were going to intercept them and ambush them, before they could even think of reaching it. While Gaara might not get along with the Daimyo he did realize that taking over both the military base of the Sand and its political capital would be a disaster.

Katsu was one of the last people that Gaara wanted to talk with right then, preceded by Jhimey. Gaara wasn't in the mood.

Katsu, however, didn't seem to be leaving. She sighed a bit. "You're being a little brat, you know that?"

Gaara turned to her "A brat? Do you know how much Naruto and I went through when we were young?"

"Yes, I do. I also realize that Naruto has made a better showing of it then you did." Katsu pointed out. "It's not entirely your fault, but if you are going to go off and cry every time that someone raises an objection about you then that makes you a brat."

Gaara bristled "Naruto had people to support him, I never did."

"If you ever stopped to think a moment then you would have seen otherwise. Naruto is not the only person who ever cared for you. Or are Temari, Kankuro and Baki nobody to you? Or the Sand ninja that believe in you are they nothing as well?"

"Naruto is the only person who could possibly understa-"

"No." Katsu interjected. "You take things to hard. You let the things people say and do hurt you to deeply. One person betrays you and you go on an elaborate extended temper tantrum. Then when someone else shows you a bit of humanity you cling to him like a burr. Gaara you may be a good leader, but you need to keep things in perspective. Reem didn't mean to hurt either or you."

"Do you understand what it's like to be rejected for something you can't help?"

"It's not a rejection. Reem wasn't upset because it was Naruto; he was upset because of the demon. None of us see them as the same. If it were anyone else with a demon they still would have objected. The thing that destroyed the Empire, the thing that the spider followers sacrificed themselves for was the Ten tailed beast, the beast that your friend holds a piece of."

"I don't like it." Gaara said flatly.

"You know what, Temari never liked our traditions, and Kankuro never liked your attitude when you were younger. I don't like some things my husband and son do. I don't like your disposition. Families will always annoy you, sometimes in little ways and sometimes in small ways. That doesn't mean you give up on them."

Gaara sighed "I understand. I'm not trying to hurt Jhimey, but don't wish to be around your tribe, at least not right now."

"Fine, but let me say this, kid. Jhimey may act tough, but he can be slightly sensitive when it comes to his family. If you even think about hurting him then I am going to rearrange your face." Katsu stated.

Gaara blinked at her "Does your side of the family always threaten people when you get upset?"

Katsu grinned "In case you haven't notice, most of us have pretty volatile tempers, even you."

Gaara thought back to his siblings. They both did have tempers. In fact, aside from a certain other uncle, Gaara himself was the only one who didn't show a great deal of emotion. That didn't mean he never got angry, he just held it in while the rest of his family displayed it out in the open. He wondered if this was because of Shukaku.

But he could sort of see where the tribe was coming from. He didn't believe in their gods, but he knew that he couldn't trample on the beliefs of others no matter how stupid they were. They weren't actually hurting anybody, and their beliefs worked for them, so who was Gaara to judge?

Katsu was also right. He was being a little too sensitive, especially since Naruto himself had brushed off Reem's attitude, as if did not matter, and had gone on to mess around.

"I suppose I'm being to sensitive." Gaara finally admitted.

Katsu grinned "Glad you can admit that, Squirt."

Gaara gave her an even look "Squirt?"

"Hey, Kankuro and Temari have their nicknames, why not you?"

"You're not calling me that." Gaara said.

"Yes I am."

Gaara sighed. He had feeling this was a fight that he wasn't going to win.


Hiashi wondered how in the world the Iifernati thought they were going to fight when they kept making that blasted racket all night. While the ninja were doing the smart thing and getting some rest, the Iifernati were again making noise. It was ever more infuriating when you couldn't understand the lyrics to their damn music. Didn't they understand that there might be a battle any day now? What kind of idiot threw parties right before battles? It was incredibly annoying, especially when poor little ninja were trying to get their beauty sleep.

Feeling a prickle of annoyance, Hiashi activated his Byakugan, wondering precisely what they were doing over there. All he could see over in the Iifernati section, which was once again in the center of a ring of annoyed ninja camps, was a mass of whirling, spinning, twitching bodies as the moronic Iifernati danced along with their music. Funny thing about Iifernati dancing was that they all seemed to have absolutely no concept of personal space. Every single one of them seemed to be unnaturally close to the other. Hiashi's binocular vision landed on his distant relatives, Katsu, Jhimey and Maro, he almost winced to see Katsu being unnaturally close to her son. It was not like Hiashi was unfamiliar with the concept of dancing with one's offspring, but this seemed different then a polite whirl around the ballroom. To a person raised in a strict political setting it bordered on almost wrong.

Not that Hiashi had ever danced with his own offspring, not even in a more polite setting. In fact, especially now, Hinata seemed to avoid him at all costs. That prick of annoyance was getting stronger the more Hiashi looked at the bizarre family in front of him. These people seemed to so close, but even when he tried Hiashi didn't seem any closer to his daughter. Unless he was mistaken the distance between him and his daughter was just as far and wide as ever before.

Now completely annoyed, Hiashi decided that he was not going to get any sleep tonight. He slowly got out of the tent his "team" had set up and went to get a breath of fresh air. He deactivated the Byakugan and started to stare up at the sky. It was rather impressive up there. He had never really taken the time to look at it when he was at home. Something about the desert just made the sky more impressive, and the night was even more so.

He was so distracted that he at first didn't feel the presence when it arrived, but in the end he did sense her. He looked over at Tsume and grumbled "Are you following me?"

Tsume glared at him "Never, I just can't sleep with the damn racket the Iifernati are making. I was just taking a walk. I would never seek you out."

"And yet you keep turning up."

"Screw you."

"Are you that desperate?" Why was his mouth saying these things? He didn't want to fight with Tsume, but his mouth kept saying things!

"I'm not the one following his daughter around like a wounded puppy begging for forgiveness." Tsume snarled.

"But I'm not the one acting like the wounded party, when you're the one who walked away."

"I was driven away! And you never even lifted a finger to help or uttered a word of protest!" Tsume said.

"I didn't know you were so scared of little old ladies." Hiashi said mildly.

Tsume was snarling again, it was amazing how that affected Hiashi. Once that would have-no! He stopped those thoughts right there. Tsume wanted to kill him, not do anything else with him, regreatable as that thought was. Once that look on Tsume's face would have been very very different, but now all that Hiashi could detect was anger and disgust. He had tried to talk to her over the years, but she never seemed to respond. He had no idea what he had done to make his team so angry. To Hiashi it was strangly sudden. One day he, Tsume and his brother had all been friends, then the next Hizashi hated him, and Tsume would have nothing more to do with Hiashi.

Hiashi shook his head "Look at us, it's like those years never happened. I never figured out why you and Hizashi started to hate me. What did I do to make you so mad at me? You stayed away from me for almost twenty years, and I never knew why."

Tsume shook her head "You're a blind fool. I never thought I would say that to you, but it's true. If you can't figure it out then there is no point in talking with you."

"Wait, I-"

"Hiashi, it's too late. It's probably been too late for a while now." There was no more anger in Tsume's voice, now she just sounded depressed. She walked away from Hiashi with a sad shake of her head.

"But, why." Hiashi said "Why is it too late?" But she didn't even turn around to look at him.


Eventually the Iifernati had settled down, and the ninja got to sleep the rest of the night. The next morning Gaara awoke to find that one of the scouts he sent out had arrived, and he had some good news. The scout had found the slow moving Smoke army, and they were indeed heading for the capitol of the Land of the Wind. They were going to be passing near the temple, only a few miles to the southeast.

"We are in a perfect position." Gaara said. He had decided to grab the jonin leaders of the various ninja teams, as well as Jhimey and Iren. They were all there, save for Kakashi, who was late. "They will pass through a rather narrow canyon not far from here by tomorrow, if they keep up this speed. Plenty of time to set up an ambush, and they might not be able to use their superior numbers and firepower if they are boxed in."

"You ninja can cling to walls, right?" Iren was giving the map spread out on a handy rock a considering look. Gaara nodded. "Here's what I think, we can have one tribe's warriors at one end of the canyon, the other at the opposite end. Once we have boxed in the Smoke the ninja can attack from above. It's not like we can get our horses down the sides of that thing anyway."

"How are we going to get them to that particular canyon, anyway? Or will any canyon do?" Kakashi seemed to appear from nowhere.

Gaara gave him a cold look "Where were you?"

"Hmm? Oh, a small family of squirrels needed my help. I had to stop." Kakashi said.

"Impressive, seeing as how there are no squirrels in this area." Jhimey said mildly.

Gaara decided to move on and ignore the squirrels. "This canyon is ideal for other reasons. If I recall there are several underground tunnels. One of the groups can hide in these tunnels until the right time. They could also be used as an escape route if things don't go well."

"Where did these tunnels come from?" Hiashi asked suspiciously.

"Same place this temple did." Baki said.

"How would the warriors know when to come out?" Iren said. "Those tunnels are pitch black.

"You, Hyuga." Jhimey looked at Hiashi, who stiffened a bit. "You can see pretty much everything with those eyes, including things through walls and rocks, right?" Hiashi just nodded. "There's an old tower not far from the canyon, at one time it was used to watch that particular pass. It's about as old as that temple over there. You can't use it to watch the pass now, because the top collapsed and there are no more windows. But, with someone who can see through the wall then that won't be an issue. If you were to be a lookout for us on that tower you can signal us when the Smoke are in the right place."

"We are going to need to make sure that the Smoke goes through this path. They might decide to go a different direction?" Gaara said.

Iren grinned "Send of your ninja with us Dragons. We can herd em right to you. If we can do it with a bunch of cattle then we can do it with Smoke. At the pass we'll lure them in and attack them from the front while the Eagles come up in from behind."

"You sure about that, I mean, cattle can be pretty smart." Jhimey said. This generated a few half hearted chuckles, but other than that the joke fell a little flat.

"Let's get moving. We don't have that much time." Gaara said.


The group managed to reach the aforementioned canyon within a few hours, the noncombatants of the tribe had been left at the Temple, including older men like Nori, young children and any disabled, like Maira. Once there Jhimey and the other Swooping Eagles went underground, thanks to a hidden trap door, complete with ramp for the horses, buried under the sand that they used to get into the tunnels. Unfortunately for Hiashi not all of the Eagles had gone underground. Jhimey had decided that his son, Maro, would be accompanying Hiashi. Maro had a horn with him that he was going to blow three times when the Smoke were in position. Hiashi had wondered if Jhimey had done this to keep his son out of the way. To be honest it had not been a bad idea, and Hiashi had wanted to copy the tribal leader by dragging Hinata into the tower to keep her out of harm's way, but when Iren learned of the particular talents of Hiashi's team the Dragon had practically demanded that he have them for his tribe, as it would be easier if they could use Hinata's vision to find the Smoke and Shino's bugs to send messages to the Sand and Leaf ninja lining the canyon walls. These ninja were using various methods of stealth to hide themselves along the canyon, and they were doing a pretty good job of it, though there were so many new "rocks" lining the walls that it looked like a meteor shower had hit. Hiashi hadn't wanted to let Hinata go, but he didn't object. He knew to do so would be illogical, and it would be doing her a great disservice. She had survived this long without him and she could do so this time as well. And besides he had seen how protective Shino and Kiba were towards his daughter, and she was in good hands.

Jhimey may have been motivated by concern for his son, but he had not taken into account the fact that Maro, while willing to put aside his aggression in an effort to figure out Hinata, didn't make the same exception with Hiashi. And Hiashi figured out that the boy had a temper within four minutes of living with each other.

"Will you please stop pacing, it's very grating." Hiashi said, Byakugan active and scanning the sands.

"Shut up; don't tell me what to do." Maro said.

Hiashi focused his attention from the sand to his companion "What is wrong with you?" He asked.

Maro muttered something about stuck up city squatters, which ruffled Hiashi's feathers a bit. He had never been spoken to like that before, at least not like that by someone who, for all intents and purposes, looked like a Hyuga branch member. Hiashi shook his head and tried to ignore that annoying child.

But Maro wasn't done being annoying "I can't believe this! Stuck in an old tower with a snotty, stuck up, worthless old Leaf city squatter that's probably never seen the light of day in years! I'd be better off with a trained monkey!"

"At least with a trained monkey you would be with your own kind." Hiashi said. His left eyebrow was starting to twitch.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Maro whirled around to face him from where he had been pacing.

"What do you think it means?" Hiashi said. His voice was mild and soft.

Maro glared at Hiashi.


By nightfall the Bloodied Dragons and Team 8 had found the Smoke army; a long line of various transport vehicles and tanks rolling slowly but surely across the sand. Hinata, using her Byakugan, could see that the normal soldiers in their odd green jackets were piled into the smaller vehicles. She thought it was a good strategy. The things didn't seem to be powered by animals, and by riding in them the troops would be nice and fresh by the time they reached their destination. The other vehicles, the larger ones with the huge guns jutting out like the noses of elephants, would follow behind the transporters.

"I don't think that we can get past that armor." Hinata said. "It's pretty thick."

"We don't need to get past it. Technically we don't have to kill a single one of them, at least not yet. We just have to piss them off enough so that they follow us." Iren said calmly. He was sitting on his horse, the warriors of his tribe gathered around them ready to charge.

"If I get close enough I can plant my insects on their transports. They can't chew through metal, but the material on their wheels might be malleable enough for them to disable." Shino pointed out. "I don't think we want them to be able to escape when we get them into position."

"Can they time it?" Arch, who had only just reached the age to where he would be allowed to fight, asked as he twitched on his horse. The kid was nervous, and his nerves were being transmitted to his horse, who kept dancing on the sand; hooves shifting and shuffling around.

Shino nodded.

Iren nodded "Alright, pass em out."

To the ninja surprise, one of the Iifernati warriors dug into a bag and started to pass out guns.

Shino stiffened "Kankuro told us those were only used by the Smoke."

Iren shrugged. "Would you tell a foreigner everything about your insect friends?"

Shino was still stiff. "You are showing us."

Iren grinned "But I'm not a ninja. For one these are the older models." Iren held up a pistol "See this wheel thing on the side? It holds six bullets and only six. I have to reload this thing afterwards. From what the Eagles said the newer Smoke weapons don't do that."

Kiba snorted "I've never seen a Sand ninja use this stuff."

"That's because they don't." Iren shrugged "They consider their chakra enough, and they look down on guns in many ways. Iifernati will use them, but only in war. City squatters in normal towns, towns without ninja like the Hidden village, will use them as well. So do the hill folk in the south. Only ninja don't use them. But, as I said, these ones here aren't as advanced as the newer Smoke ones. Now is everyone ready?" The warriors nodded "Then let's go!"

Iren kicked his horse in the ribs and galloped towards the Smoke army, his warriors right behind them. The ninja kept pace right beside them.

After cresting a dune they were able to see the Smoke properly. The Dragons began to scream and holler at the Smoke, and occasionally they would shoot into the air. Iren had made sure that they were near the front of the line of Smoke soldiers. It was clear that the Smoke had been taken completely by surprised; as soon as they were a few feet from the Smoke the Dragons began to open fire. Hinata didn't think that they actually hit anything vital; most of the Dragon's bullets seemed to simply clang against the armor of the transports. As they were passing, however, Hinata noticed one of the bullets hit the glass of the lead transport and make a small crack. Swiftly she attached an explosive tag to a kunai and flung it at the crack, pushing with her chakra at the same time. The kunai's tip stuck to the crack, and the tag exploded. However, Hinata didn't stop to check the damage she had caused. The Dragons were already turning towards the pass, practically daring the Smoke to follow them.

"That was awesome!" Hinata heard Arch bellow. She felt an odd chill listening to the young Dragon. Even though she had never cared for Uchiha at all, and in fact found him rather grating and annoying, Sasuke had been a huge part of Naruto's life, and Naruto she did care for. However jarring she found Arch because of his appearance, she could not help but like Arch a bit better than Sasuke.

Hinata shook her head. Now wasn't the time for this. They had a mission. She activated her Byakugan and watched the Smoke, trying to see if they would follow.


The Commander of the Fourth Legion coughed as he dragged himself out of the ruins of his transport. His face was red with rage, or perhaps it was the smoke. How could this have happened? Those sand barbs had come out of nowhere! At first it had been funny seeing their useless efforts to destroy the superior weapons of the Empire, but then that little girl had tossed a knife, which for some reason had exploded. Somehow the explosion had managed to breach the gas tank, and the entire front of the transport had gone up in flames. That wasn't supposed to happen! It hadn't happened in the jungle! Every time the Empire had moved through that land they had met almost no opposition, and what opposition they had come across had been primitive and disorganized. True the Sand barb weapons had been out of date, but that blow at the end had managed to do what thousands of jungle spears had not, damage an Imperial transport.

"Sir, are you okay?" One of the soldiers asked as he grabbed their commander's arm and steadied the man. The Commander coughed a few more times. He was enraged. How dare they!

"I'm fine." The Commander stormed past the solider and climbed into the next vehicle. "after those barbarians!"

"Sir, are you sure. It's probably a trap!"

"Of course it is a trap! Do you really think that a bunch of Sand barbs can beat an Imperil Legion! Now after them! We'll make them regret taking arms against us!"

The rest of the Smoke army cheered, and began to follow in the nice clear path the Dragons had marked for them.