AN: Note that I do not own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or any of the characters from either Anime. This work is a fanfiction written out of my love for the series and not in any attempt to make a profit.

Proofread by: Author

I feel a lot better about this chapter than I did the last one. I will likely be going back and editing the last one. I am considering taking a small break after chapter 100 to properly get some business in order and clean previous chapters up a bit. I am thinking a week's hiatus might be a good idea, but we'll see if I even get to it or not.

On another note, it seems that some of the reviews I've been getting lately aren't appearing for me on the fanfiction site. The only way for me to read them is via mail. It's odd, and hopefully temporary, but it bothers me, especially since it can accurately count the number of reviews on site for me, but not display all of them correctly. Trying to follow the provided link in the mail to find the reviews isn't working either. Hopefully, this won't happen much more from now on. Now, back to the chapter.

Chapter 91: Plan of attack, twice the surprise


"Don't worry Sakura. I know how to fix it, just not right now. Sasuke needs us." Heikō assured Sakura. Sakura felt annoyed by Heikō's reluctance to explain herself, but she was aware that Heikō was right that Sasuke needed them. Peeking around the tree Karin had pulled her behind while healing her, Sakura saw Gaara shouting at Sasuke, who from her angle was visible, hiding behind the trunk of one of the half-cut trees, seemingly debating on what to do next.

Gaara was clearly not right in the head, the way he was shouting and drooling, he seemed obsessed with fighting Sasuke for some reason, but Sakura couldn't find it in herself to care why he did, all she needed to figure out was how to stop him.

"Can't we just kill him with Natural energy?" Sakura wondered, only to feel Heikō deny the idea.

"No. While Karin healed us, I don't think we've recovered from the last time we did. We could probably do it, but we'd end up coughing blood or worse. Karin would have to heal us again. I don't want to force her to do that or rely on that either." Heikō reasoned, and Sakura agreed. Karin had already used her ability far more than Sakura was comfortable with.

"We should attack him to give Sasuke an opening to flee or take Gaara down. We have the element of surprise, I think. He seems to have completely forgotten about us." Sakura pointed out to Karin who had joined Sakura in peeking around the tree they were hiding behind.

"It's risky. A single swipe of that sand arm, and we'll be obliterated. I don't know how you weren't when he hit you, but I don't think I'd survive such an attack." Karin admitted with a sour look on her face, before pulling out some Kunai from her pouch, looking at them in contemplation.

Sakura kept observing Sasuke and Gaara. Sasuke was ignoring Gaara, before taking a quick moment to spot a log for a body replacement technique. Performing the snake seal, Sasuke jumped out from behind his cover, drawing Gaara's attention as he pushed off of a tree and flew towards him. As Gaara attacked, Sasuke replaced himself with the log from before and jumped into the air, while Gaara was focused on the log as it was revealed.

Immediately, Gaara began glancing around, trying to spot Sasuke, and Sakura thought Sasuke had managed to set up a great surprise attack on Gaara, only for Sasuke to shout "I'm here!" Revealing his position in mid-air, as he threw six kunai down at Gaara.

Sakura could only gape at the mistake, while Heikō had no reservations with her own reaction. "That idiot! Why did he give himself away? He's acting as bad as Naruto now!" Heikō exclaimed in frustration.

Gaara easily blocked the kunai with his arm, before smirking and allowing the kunai to be absorbed by the sand before Gaara proclaimed "I'm returning them to you!" launching the kunai back at a retreating Sasuke. The kunai seemed to ignite, before blowing through a branch, completely obliterating it, before, fortunately, missing Sasuke, by virtue of the retreating one, that Gaara had been aiming for, turned out to be a clone, which the kunai simply passed through, disrupting its form.

"So, kunai won't work," Karin spoke up, sounding disappointed, ready to put her kunai away, while Sakura instead got an idea, and held up a hand to stop Karin.

"Actually, I have an idea concerning that." She told her with a smile, reaching into her own pouch, and brought out her bundle of explosion tags. "We throw kunai at him with these wrapped around the handles, and then detonate them as he absorbs them," Sakura suggested, and Karin responded with a smile of her own.

Handing Karin four of the explosive tags, she made sure to purge her chakra from them without detonating them, as they had been filled in advance for quick use, allowing Karin to put some of her chakra into the for remote detonation. Preparing their kunai, they carefully kept an eye on the battle, noting that Sasuke was once again hidden, looking at them as they prepared. Sakura signed him to coordinate with them, and received a nod in response.

With Sasuke now in on the plan, they just needed to get into position. Deciding that it'd be more distracting if they all looked like Gara, Sakura quickly formed the hand ram seal, followed by the tiger seal, applying the transformation and clone technique in quick succession, using only one hand sign for each technique.

Having transformed into Sasuke, and summoned four clones of herself, or rather, Sasuke, she winked at Sasuke with a smirk, before nodding at Karin, who followed suit and also transformed into Sasuke. Signing a count-down, she made sure both Karin and Sasuke saw her fingers before they all dashed in different directions as her last finger joined the rest in a fist. While two of Sakura's clones spread out to hopefully disorient Gaara, she also had two of them run at Gaara from two different directions, while she herself circled to get behind Gaara.

It was almost disappointing to see Gaara go for the two charging clones. He felt almost predictable, and Sakura felt like she might have overestimated Gaara. "Better than underestimated, not go, before he targets us!" Heikō countered, and Sakura hid in-between two of the fallen trees, dropping her transformation s she did, as well as dispelling her clones as soon as they were out of Gaara's sight, except for the two that had drawn his attention by charging, as he had swiftly destroyed them.

Having gotten into position, Sakura felt for Sasuke and Karin, finding that Karin had already gotten into position, already holding her kunai, ready to throw, while Sasuke was still darting around, while Gaara seemed to hunch over in pain, holding his head. Growing cautious, Sakura decided not to attack, finding herself wondering what the hell was happening to Gaara, despite her earlier conviction that she didn't care.

"No escape! I won't let you escape, Sasuke Uchiha!" Gaara then declared, before swatting down some more, still standing trees, nearly hitting the hiding Sasuke. With another cry, he then leaped at some other trees, going straight through them, sending bark, wood, and dust everywhere, making Sakura curse as they would now have to reposition themselves.

As Sakura and Karin followed after Gaara, Sasuke had already repositioned after Gaara nearly hit him. Thankfully, both Sakura and Karin could keep track of everyone as they moved, due to their own unique abilities.

Laughing, Gaara looked around, searching for Sasuke as if wishing to share some sick, twisted joke. "Are you afraid of me?" He taunted, and Sakura tried to examine her own feelings concerning Gaara. He was strong, and as an opponent, he was definitely scary. But she didn't fear him. After all, she wouldn't have decided to face him alongside Sasuke if that had been the case, would she? And if she wasn't afraid, then obviously Sasuke couldn't be. He had faced worse. Being cautious and smart wasn't the same as cowardly and afraid. If anything, Sasuke was doing things the right way as it was, and that was admirable.

"Except for his decision to give himself away," Heikō commented in amusement, something Sakura had to concede. It had been a stupid decision on Sasuke's part. Fortunately, not a fatal one. Although, it could possibly be used with clones now to draw Gaara's attention in a more believable manner if used right, Sakura supposed. Perhaps it had been a deliberate setup by Sasuke? Sakura decided to elt the issue go, rather than overthink it while in the middle of sneaking up on an opponent.

"Sasuke Uchiha! Are you afraid of me? Are you afraid of my existence?!" Gaara demanded to know, growing louder in his shouting. Meanwhile, Sakura felt Sasuke standing still, with a body language that seemed to suggest that he was lost in thought. She wondered what Sasuke was thinking about, but recognized that as long as Sasuke was like that, he was both in danger and unable to act following their plan. However, for him to be lost in thought during a battle, it must have been something important, possibly vital to the battle at hand even. All Sakura and Karin could do was to wait for him to snap out of his thoughts.

"What's the matter? Sasuke Uchiha! Are you afraid of me?!" Gaara demanded, shouting, becoming more and more agitated by Sasuke's absence. "Your hatred and intent to kill... Have they given way to fear?" Gaara taunted, grinning while continuing to search for Sasuke. "Is that the extent of your existence?!" He asked, making Sakura feel as if she was part of some kind of performance, only without the manuscript and missing all her lines, unable to figure out what Gaara was talking about. Surely he didn't know about Sasuke's intentions to kill his brother and what happened all those years ago, did he? "Fight me... and confirm it! Your value! your existence! Experience it!" Gaara continued, while Sasuke remained calm and focused on his thoughts, seemingly unbothered by Gaara's words.

"If you want an answer... Come at me!" Gaara finished, roaring loudly, trying to provoke a reaction. Only this time, Sasuke reacted by calmly standing up from the spot where he had been hiding, sitting down while deep in thought. Sakura felt Karin get ready at the same time as her. They had Gaara surrounded from three directions. As soon as Sasuke attacked, so would they.

Sakura was a little startled when she felt Sasuke speaking as he began forming hand seals. "I was allowed to live… Only... myself. Expressly, for what reason?" He asked himself, while Sakura recognized the order of the hand seals from earlier that day, forming monkey, dragon, rat, bird, ox, snake, dog, tiger, monkey, the sequence for Chidori, before grabbing his left arm by the wrist with his right, before channeling Chidori. She could feel something within his eyes shift and assumed he had turned on his Sharingan. "No… I know the reason." Sasuke declared as his arm lit up with a multitude of chirping bolts of electricity, discharging in all directions. "The reason that man left me alive was so he wouldn't be tormented by a sense of guilt for having killed an entire clan… Itachi chose me as the avenger… in order to have me kill him!" Sasuke proclaimed, and Sakura realized that Sasuke wasn't aware she could read lips using her senses, allowing her to hear his private wow, or feel slightly betrayed by his words. She, together with Naruto, had promised him they'd help. Yet, by his words, he seemed convinced that in the end, it was just him, a lone avenger meant to avenge his clan on his own. Sakura hoped she and Naruto would be able to convince him otherwise before it came to that.

Naturally, from the light-show Sasuke was putting on, Gaara spotted his hiding spot immediately. Smiling in glee, he turned towards Sasuke's spot, chuckling as Sasuke stepped out from behind the tree trunk. To Sakura's surprise, she suddenly felt someone else enter her focused range of perception, revealing Temari, barely standing and gasping as she saw Sasuke.

"Now, let me have some fun… Sasuke Uchiha!" Gaara exclaimed, looking absolutely thrilled that Sasuke finally looked ready to face him. As one, Gaara and Sasuke leaped off of their respective branches, flying at each other. Taking it as a signal, Sakura threw her tag wrapped kunai, before grabbing a fifth, swiftly wrapping it with her last explosive tag, and throwing it at the gaping Temari, intending to take her down as well, feeling rather annoyed with Karin at that moment for not having finished the enemy off when she had the chance. They couldn't let her interfere after all. She felt Karin launch her own kunai, just a moment after hers, all eight of the kunai Heading for where they had estimated Gaara to be as he and Sasuke would end up meeting in mid-air.


AN: Yay, actual battle in this chapter. Although, it's pretty much a canon recap, just with Sakura and Karin there as well.

Sakura never did tell anyone she had learned to read lips, or that she can do so without seeing a person. It is a rather valuable skill when it comes to team communication when you think about it.

Poor Temari, she can't catch a break. Personally, I'm afraid she's going to actually get killed by Sakura here, and I honestly don't want to do that… Yet neither do I wish to bullshit something to save her. What should I do?