Hanara and Kakashi-Sensei rushed in, Hanara sending visible chakra threads in front of her. She heard a gasp from Lady Chiyo but ignored it in favour of focusing on her opponent. Kakashi-Sensei sent a punch that Itachi blocked with an open palm. She saw movement to her left and found a shadow clone running to Naruto. Naruto just sent a Rasengan at it, causing it to explode in a puff of smoke.
'Damn shadow clones... still can't tell the difference.'
And then Naruto went extremely still, concerning Hanara. She focused harder and saw Itachi's chakra spreading near his brain.
'Genjutsu? Naruto didn't look in his eyes... damn Itachi's good.'
"Sakura, Lady Chiyo, it's genjutsu!" Hanara yelled, still sending chakra threads towards her opponent.
'Dodging both of us? So damn good, but even making the threads invisible won't matter... Guess I gotta get close.'
Sighing, Hanara used her threads as wire, taking shuriken out of her weapons pouch and tossing them with her threads as a distraction. Obviously, with an Uchiha as an opponent, that was easily dodged, but it gave Kakashi an opening that he used to get in close. Then, Hanara did something she had been practicing with Asuma-Sensei for a while. She abandoned her chakra threads and quickly weaved the handsigns for the Replacement Jutsu, replacing herself with Kakashi-Sensei and sending a Gentle Fist strike Itachi's way. As expected, Itachi caught her wrist before her hand made contact with his stomach, but she had a plan. Smirking, Hanara sent a burst of chakra to her wrist instead of her fingertips. It wasn't as effective as it would've been had she hit Itachi's stomach instead, but it still numbed his fingers a bit.
Now Kakashi-Sensei and Hanara had switched positions, Hanara attacking Itachi with her Gentle Fist and Kakashi creating openings whenever he could with kunai or shuriken.
'I can't do anything too chakra-intensive, because then I won't have enough energy to face Deidara and Sasori... That man is too damn good at dodging. I just need one hit c'mon.'
There was a sharp intake of breath and Hanara saw Naruto finally released from the genjutsu.
"You alright there, Naruto?" Hanara called, still attacking Itachi.
Or, attempting to.
The man had such great reflexes, and soon enough her first strike would wear off. Feeling desperate, she kicked off a sandal, added a burst of chakra to her foot, and kicked instead. The Gentle Fist style didn't use high kicks, so that caught him off-guard. Hanara learnt from her mistake and focused enough to block one chakra point. Panting, she used Itachi to kick herself backwards, created some space between them, and put on her sandal.
"Hey! Pull yourself together!" Sakura exclaimed, slapping Naruto, who was completely out of it.
"Naruto," said Kakashi-Sensei seriously, "We'll show you how to handle him."
Itachi started weaving handsigns that Hanara recognized for a fire jutsu, and she immediately unsealed a scroll filled with water that she grabbed from her weapons pouch.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball!" Itachi exclaimed, exhaling the largest fireball Hanara had ever seen.
Dragon. Tiger. Rabbit.
"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Hanara countered, using the water she had just released to spit out a wave of water.
The fire and water collided, creating a hazy mist that only Hanara could clearly see through. She was about to rush in and harm Itachi's chakra system for good when she saw Kakashi-Sensei about to explode from the ground. Knowing that he had good reflexes and a sense of smell that was good enough to know where she was, she continued and prepared herself.
"You are within my field of divination," Hanara whispered to herself once she was two meters away from Itachi, slipping into the Gentle Fist stance. "Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams, 64 Palms!"
She went full speed, knowing that with Itachi's Sharingan, going slow was even more deadly than it was with a regular shinobi. There was also the fact that the mist was not going to last long. Itachi managed to dodge at least a quarter of her strikes, but it didn't matter. Gentle Fist was something to be feared, and Hanara proved it. Itachi couldn't keep channelling chakra to his eyes once she was done with him. If his Sharingan was impossible to use, then it was guaranteed that he couldn't do anything.
"Well done," Itachi murmured, "You have improved since we last fought."
Hanara shivered. Something about a missing-nin complimenting her was disturbing.
As the remnants of the mist cleared, Kakashi popped out of the ground from behind Itachi and punched him so hard it sent Itachi flying towards Naruto.
"Now, Naruto!" Kakashi-Sensei exclaimed.
"Giant Rasengan!" Naruto yelled, running towards Itachi and pummelling him to the ground.
There was a huge crater created, causing dirt to fly in the air.
'Wait, that's... that's not Itachi...'
Once everything settled, there were sharp gasps released by everyone.
"... it must be a jutsu or something," Sakura breathed.
"I thought his chakra looked odd, but I didn't think much of it..." Hanara added.
"Yura..." Lady Chiyo murmured, "That was a Jonin from our village. He was on border patrol when we were attacked."
Hanara nodded, "That jutsu is beyond regular Transformation– I could barely see the difference in chakra. Also, that Great Fireball and Sharingan isn't something that can be faked. But it's obvious what they were trying to do. He was a decoy. They're good."
"Presumably, they're trying to create a new jinchuriki with the One-Tails." Lady Chiyo croaked.
"And if you remove the biju from a jinchuriki... he'll be dead," Hanara said, determinedly not thinking of the prospect.
"Both of the Sand's previous jinchuriki have died because their biju were removed."
"Oh no..." Sakura breathed, tears forming in her eyes.
"You were always quick to cry, weren't you, Sakura," Hanara forced a grin, wrapping her arm around her. "We won't fail, though. Not with our team."
Finally, they stopped in front of a cave with rock with a seal on it for a door.
'Byakugan!'
"Gaara's beyond that rock, but that seal is a troublesome one..."
'Damn it, Shikamaru.'
"It's a five-seal barrier. You need to find the other four seals and rip them off at the exact same time..."
'And this is where Ino is really useful...'
There was a splash behind them, but Hanara didn't turn around. Her Byakugan revealed that it was Guy-Sensei and his team along with Pakkun.
"Maah, you're late, Guy," Kakashi said with an eye-smile.
"My hip and cool rival, you have beat me again!" exclaimed Guy-Sensei.
Before he went on a tangent, Hanara cut in.
"They've used a five-seal barrier, and we can only get in if we rip them all off at the same time. Do you have comms?"
"I do, young flower!" Guy smiled.
As he rummaged in his pack, Neji slid over to her.
"Who's that old lady?"
"Lady Chiyo, an advisor from the Sand," she muttered, "Very skilled in puppeteering and taught some of the Sand's greatest puppeteers."
"I guess it's time I go," Pakkun said, "No sense in getting in the way."
"Okay," Hanara started as soon as the ninken disappeared, "First order of business. The barrier–"
"So, where are they? The other four seals?" Naruto asked.
"I was getting to that," Hanara said through gritted teeth, "Neji, they all should look the exact same."
He nodded.
'Byakugan.'
"I see them," the Hyugas said at the same time.
Hanara grinned, 'I'm getting better.'
"One's on a rock 500 meters to the northeast..." Neji said.
"Another one's near a tree by a river 350 meters southeast..." Hanara continued, "And one on a cliff wall 650 meters northwest."
"The last one is in the woods, 800 meters from here." Neji finished.
"Alright! They're all within the wireless' range," Guy-sensei grinned.
"Neji, you'll be able to see them easier than I will, so guide Guy-Sensei, Lee, and Tenten to the remaining seals," Hanara ordered.
He nodded.
After Team Guy tested their headsets, they scattered– not without a scream about the power of youth, of course.
"So, to break-in, I'm thinking we need a switch hook entry," Kakashi said, jumping on the rock and inspecting it.
Hanara nodded in agreement, "Got that, Sakura?"
"Ri–"
"Team Guy has reached their seals," Kakashi announced after listening through the comm that Guy-Sensei gave him.
Kakashi ripped off his seal and quickly leapt off the rock.
"Sakura, now!" Hanara commanded.
"SHANNARO!"
She punched the rock and completely shattered it.
Hanara took in their surroundings.
There were eight holograms of missing-nin standing on pieces of rock, and she immediately memorized their figures. If she could get home, the first thing she would do was get Shikamaru to look through the Bingo Book and find them. The stones the holograms were hovering over were arranged in a circle in front of a huge statue. In the middle of the circle was Gaara. To normal eyes, he would look like he was sleeping, but Hanara could see the chakra being sucked out of him and into the statue.
'Shit. At least he's alive... but it looks like everything would be over in twenty minutes.'
Ignoring her pessimistic thoughts, she continued to study her surroundings. Deidara of the Hidden Stone and Sasori of the Red Sand were the only two members of the Akatsuki not hovering over rocks as well as the only non-holograms.
'They're meant to stop us from getting Gaara. But... they need Gaara's chakra to go into that weird statue. Sakura should be able to destroy the statue. But, who knows how many–'
Hanara scanned the statue and saw massive amounts of chakra.
'If the difference between Gaara's chakra before and Naruto's is anything to go by... there's at least two other tailed beasts in there. If we destroy the statue, we'll have two-three biju on the loose. But the only other way to stop them is to find each and every one of these people in less than twenty minutes or the obvious one. Get Gaara.'
Everyone is paranoid in a ninja village– and for a good reason. With the amount of missing ninja the Leaf produced, it became a necessity to change all its codes every two years. Even if all the members of the Akatsuki were Leaf ninjas, they wouldn't understand a thing that Hanara was about to sign next.
"Now, let's see... which one is the jinchuriki, hmm?" Deidara smirked.
"YOU!" Naruto yelled, "YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!"
'Fucking damn it. Why couldn't I be with a nice, calm, rational team that didn't act on their impulses...'
"That would be it, then," Sasori commented.
"Looks like it."
"I don't suppose you'll just stop your chakra draining ritual and hand Gaara over?" Hanara sighed, discreetly signing in the Leaf Standard.
Fight. Retrieve. Leave. Quick.
Deidara gave her an incredulous look.
"Life's never easy," Hanara muttered.
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM WHEN GAARA'S DYING!" Naruto roared.
'There's so many ways I can counter that I can't even–'
He turned to Gaara, "GAARA GET UP! HOW CAN YOU JUST LIE THERE?"
Naruto started walking towards Gaara.
'What did Jiraiya even teach him? I swear he's worse at controlling himself than he was before!'
Hanara used her chakra threads and pulled him back.
"LET ME GO, HANARA!"
"That is enough, Naruto. You are being a liability. I can think of over twenty ways those two could've killed us right now. If you want yourself and Gaara to stay alive, you are going to control yourself. Gaara has, because of you, under fifteen minutes before he is dead. Listen to me, or this mission will be a failure. You are so out of it that you haven't even gotten the instructions everyone else understood. Control yourse–"
She saw Sasori's puppet heading straight for her and quickly weaved handsigns.
Tiger. Ox. Dog. Rabbit. Snake.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
Hanara released a gust of wind through her mouth that pushed the puppet back.
"She was paying attention to more than her subordinate. Hm." Deidara commented.
Hanara smirked, "You can never catch a Hyuga off-guard."
Deidara threw clay figurines towards the five ninjas.
'I guess the battle's begun.'
A/N: I've realized that Hanara's done a ton of Naruto bashing in this fic, but honestly, she doesn't hate him. I just want to make it clear that Hanara does not hate Naruto. She just finds him a bit too loud and unreasonable at times.
