Treacherous Dealings/A New Mission Part 3
Two hours had passed since Einjeru started her guard duty. Four of her shadow clones came across what looked like barrier seals. Upon dispersing them, Einjeru had gone into deep thought. "What could those seals be a barrier for, and why were they marked forbidden? Are there other seals somewhere outside of our perimeter?" After letting the questions sink in, she woke Naruto and Sasuke up for their guard.
For those two, their guard went by quickly, neither of them had any clue about the barrier seals. Naruto had sent shadow clones out for a perimeter check and went to take a piss in a nearby river seeing a piece of parchment on a boulder and dismissing it as lack of sleep. Sasuke stayed in the campsite in case someone got past Naruto and his shadow clones. After Naruto dispersed the clones and accumulated their memories, he and Sasuke woke up Neji and Lee for their guard.
Neji and Lee both remained inside the camp. Neji triggered his byakugan and got a 360 degree look of everywhere in a 10-kilometer radius. He ended up seeing the four barrier seals that Einjeru saw plus the one that Naruto saw and dismissed. "Are those barrier seals?" Neji thought. Lee decided to put his body to work and went for a walk. Upon coming back Lee looked at Neji and said "Did you see some pieces of parchment in various places?"
Neji nodded and said "I wonder if any of the others noticed. However, it isn't a direct threat to us now, so I guess we leave them until/unless they impact us in some way." Lee acknowledges it and notices that their shift is over. "I guess it's time for Sakura and Tenten to take watch." They go over to them and wake them. Sakura and Tenten's patrol was quiet.
The final patrol of the night was taken by the two sensei. Guy smiles at Kakashi saying "The next generation is growing fast, isn't it?" Kakashi looked up at the sky, the fires glow highlighting his mask and making his silver hair look orange. "Yeah, it seems like only yesterday that Lord Third sent me after Einjeru and told me that she's mine. She's grown so much in 10 years. Three chakra natures under her belt, her shadow clones surpass mine in numbers and quality. I just wish she'd open up more to me. It seems when I pry, she closes up more."
Guy nods and says "Maybe these two years away from you was what was needed. Who knows? She might come to you more. Look at how far all of them have come. Sasuke especially. He doesn't obsess over revenge anymore. He looks after his comrades and those really close to him and because of that has grown stronger. His sharingan has matured working with you. You have to admit even Sakura has found her way while working under Lady Tsunade. Naruto working with Master Jiriaya has allowed him to become even stronger and explore… well you know."
Kakashi smiled and said "If Naruto tried any of those perverted stunts, Einjeru would destroy him. She never tolerated him doing any of those perverted jutsu in their academy time. However, encountering Itachi was not on the agenda. I hope Sasuke doesn't slip back into his old ways."
Guy gives the nice guy grin and stirs the fire. "If he does, he has his teammates to bounce back from. Einjeru is not one to give up on her teammates, and you instilled that value into her moral fibers. If it came down to it, she with Naruto and Sakura would bring him back kicking and screaming. Stop doubting yourself. You've done well with them and your instincts were all on the money. All those that you sent back weren't ready and you knew it. Although some of us thought it was because you were hurting still, but in the end, they needed it. Sometimes all it takes is some tough love."
Kakashi shrugged and gave Guy a smile. "Thanks Guy. I haven't had this kind of talk in over 20 years. I mean the kind where someone was cheering me up and giving the listening ear and I actually vented how I felt." Little did he know, Einjeru had woken up and heard all of it. She crawls out of her tent causing Guy and Kakashi to tense.
Upon seeing them tense, Einjeru sighs. "You know if it was an enemy because they'd be a little quieter coming out of a sleeping bag and tent." Kakashi sighed and said "How much did you hear?" Einjeru shrugs in an uncaring fashion. "All of it. Now I will walk away as if I didn't." She walks away as she said and takes to the trees to look at the moon. Her inner voice took over as she said nothing.
'Is this what you meant by dad being concerned mom? I know he seems a little overprotective, but hearing him pour his heart out like that makes me wonder what having both of you in my life from the start would have been like.'
Kakashi found the tree she was sitting in and joined her in looking at the moon. "So? What do you think the outcome is going to be?" Einjeru frowned saying "I don't think we're going to make it. We were stalled big time." She punched the bark. "Damn those Akatsuki. There's no way to bring him back from having Shukaku extracted, and from the looks of things they have been sealing for at least 2 days. If we weren't halted by those two we might have had a chance. Of course I'm going to continue to try."
"Sounds quite gloomy coming from someone who always had a smile on her face and cheering everyone on." A joke with a hidden meaning from Kakashi got through to her. She gives a small smile and leans against him. "We both know that it was just a farce. I thought I was optimistic at one time, but the last two years made me realize something. I'm not. I'm a realist, and sometimes stuff like this hurts. I know it's ok to have feelings and vocalize them, but they're not going to change a thing. We make things happen ourselves."
Kakashi scoffs at how profound that was. "Be ready to move soon. I'm willing to bet that we can bring him back." Einjeru smiles. "When we get back home, can we talk?" She got an eye-smile in return as Kakashi leapt down from the tree. That same voice from earlier in the day popped in her head, but she quelled it thinking "If it comes down to it, I'll kill you myself with my human abilities."
Upon that affirmation, Einjeru jumped down from the tree. "It's a good day to defy fate huh?" A smirk pasted on her face, she went back and joined Kakashi and Guy in their remaining guard time because she wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. Guy greets her in a somewhat quieter manner than what she's used to.
"So? I can't wait to see what the daughter of my eternal rival has up her sleeve." Einjeru sighed as she sat down and took in the peace of the woods before the sun rose. "If you must know Guy sensei, the fact that none of your team recognized me or noticed my presence until I revealed myself should give you some hint of what I have up my sleeve. Either way what's our game plan? During my patrol I came across 4 barrier seals and I have a slight inkling that there might be more that were outside of my guarding perimeter."
Kakashi and Guy looked at her wide-eyed. "What do you mean?" Upon the question being asked, the sun was making its way above the horizon. Einjeru says "I may not have been the only one who saw them. I have a feeling a certain Hyuuga saw them too. I found them via my shadow clones. I think we should talk about the guard patrols before we head out." Kakashi and Guy nodded.
Everyone else started to wake. A few minutes later, the 2 squads, 2 jonin and 2 retirees were sitting around what used to be a fire for a talk about the previous night. Kakashi started off being the senior tactician saying "Einjeru told me she came across 4 barrier seals. I want to know if anyone else saw one or all of them."
Neji replies in a curt manner saying "I did a 10-kilometer check of our surroundings and saw 5 of those seals. 4 being in the areas that Einjeru had checked because of paw prints that she left to signify that she had check those areas. It's an efficient way to track your guarding patterns, but a sure fire way to allow the enemy to find us. However, there was one in the area where Naruto was as well. He left footprints where he went to the bathroom at. That stream has a boulder across from where Naruto was that looks like an entryway to a cave with that same barrier marker."
Einjeru shrugged saying "If that's the case, then we should have no problem finding four of the barrier markers. Also that 5th one that you described might be the hideout where the Akatsuki took Gaara. Unfortunately, we won't be able to determine that without a nose sensor or someone who knows the chakra near by the boulder. We have a lot of variables and too many speculations with very little time to sift through it all."
Kakashi nods and looks at the 2 groups of teenagers. "Spoken like a true tactician. There are too many variables to go through and formulate a plan on, plus we may be dealing with Akatsuki that we haven't yet to encounter, meaning we must be absolutely careful." He got a "Yes sir!" in reply from everyone before giving the instruction to pack quickly.
Within 10 minutes everyone was packed and in a formation that could be used with 11 people. Kakashi, Einjeru and Shirobuki in the front with their noses followed by Sakura as the medic followed by Chiyo as an experienced member followed by Lee, Naruto, Sasuke, Guy and Tenten as the main battlers followed by Neji as the rear lookout.
Einjeru's nose twitched upon coming across the scent that they crossed in the desert. "I smell wood and poison again…" She went to the east where the stream was. Everyone else followed with Neji giving the look around. He passed the message that they were heading right for the boulder.
Once it got to the front, chatter started. Einjeru groaned. "I hate when my hunches are correct." Kakashi chuckles. "It just means your mind has gotten keener. Also, it means we make it to Gaara that much sooner." Einjeru shrugs and says "That means we have to fight sooner. Either way, we need to have a plan in place for removing the other seals."
Shirobuki butted in saying "Shadow clones. It's your best option in case the seals are rigged after they're torn off." Einjeru shook her head. "Only 3 of us can use shadow clones, someone would still have to go with them."
A call of shadow clone jutsu was called out. In the corner of her eye, Einjeru makes out two Shirobukis. "I didn't know you could make shadow clones." Shirobuki smirked. "Never said whether I could or couldn't." A couple minutes later, they stood in front of the boulder.
Kakashi, Einjeru, Shirobuki and Naruto each made a shadow clone a piece and sent them to the other seals. Once they were on the way Kakashi explained everything. "Alright, we're going to use the button-hook entry method. Einjeru, Shirobuki, myself, Naruto, and Chiyo will be on the left. Guy, Lee, Neji, Tenten will be on the right. Sakura will smash the boulder after Sasuke removes the tag in front of us. Understood?" He got an acknowledgement and leapt to the top of the boulder.
At the same time, the Akatsuki had finished sealing Shukaku. The leader says to Sasori and Deidara to dispose of the 11 of them outside. Itachi warns them to be careful. "Those guys were able to fend off Kisame and myself at 30% of our chakra capacity." He disappears, leaving Kisame and Deidara to ponder.
The shadow clones got into place and were ready to pull. "Shadow clones are in place dad." Kakashi nods as all of them say "1, 2, 3!" As soon as it was pulled, Sakura charged in, her fist ablaze with chakra. As the boulder smashed to bits, the shadow clones dispersed.
They flashed into the cave, seeing Deidara and Sasori. Upon laying eyes on Sasori, Chiyo gave a shallow breath. "Sasori… How long it's been since I last saw my grandson." Sasori looked at Chiyo, speaking in a gravelly voice, "Hello grandma Chiyo."
Einjeru wanted to gag at how strong the poison emanating off of Sasori was. "Well we know who defeated Kankuro and his puppets." She takes a double-take at Chiyo upon hearing her say grandson. "He's your grandson?" Chiyo nods in a somber manner.
"I never thought I'd have to fight my own grandson. Things were so hard after he'd lost his parents, but I thought that maybe teaching him the intricacies of the puppet master jutsu would cheer him up. He ended up creating the puppets that Kankuro uses, and he created a few special ones. Currently he's hiding in the Hiruko puppet."
Naruto and Einjeru nodded and noticed Deidara sitting on Gaara. Naruto wanted to yell at Gaara to get up. One word that was barely audible yet everyone heard came out of Einjeru's mouth. "Unforgivable…" A purple glow started to shine. Deidara decides to taunt them by saying "You guys are a little late. He's been dead for a few minutes now."
Einjeru grit her teeth and grabbed Silverlight from its sheathe; Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke readied kunai. Kakashi prepared for taijutsu along with Lee, Guy and Neji who in turn triggered his Byakugan. Tenten readied one of her scrolls. Sasori shakes his head. "Rumor has it that a jinchuuriki is among them."
Naruto debates going into nine-tails chakra mode. Einjeru says "Don't. It's not worth it." She then feels a sharp pain up her back. In her mind, she's thinking of possibilities for the pain but couldn't think of any plausible ones; well at least until it hit her. Her inner voice rung out. "Could it be another tail?" Her back stiffened to reduce the effect of the pain of her new growing tail. "I thought this growth happened as I got older…"
Kurama chuckles from inside Naruto. "It also happens when you're faced with extreme emotion. I guess Queen Anjera forgot to mention that..." Einjeru fought to prevent herself from rolling her eyes.
Deidara laughs seeing Einjeru stiffen. "Look at her Sasori. She's stiff." Sasori shakes his head and takes a look at Einjeru fully. "You idiot. She isn't scared. She's in pain, and like me, doesn't like to be kept waiting."
Deidara decided to see if he could bait out Naruto thinking he's the jinchuuriki. "Don't you guys want him back?" However, it didn't get a rise out of him. It got a rise out of Einjeru. "You… are so DEAD!" Kakashi grabbed Einjeru, trying to calm her. "Getting upset won't help this."
Kurama applauded Naruto for not shouting out like he used to. "However, it seems that Queen Anjera never dealt with her temper, and her ANBU guardian was frightful of her when it got to a point. Poor Kakashi brat…" Einjeru squirmed for 30 seconds before calming.
Kakashi breathed out a sigh. "Alright. Now we-" He was cut off by a sudden explosion. Shirobuki thinks to himself, "Explosive style huh? From the looks of things, the explosives are mostly earth chakra based making Kakashi, Einjeru and Sasuke the worst opponents for him."
Sasuke says "The blonde sitting on Gaara is an earth style user. Einjeru, you and I can take him on." Kakashi nods in agreeance. "Alright. We'll handle him. Everyone else; be careful with Sasori." Shirobuki shakes his head thinking "If Kakashi thinks that I'm going to let only them three go he's sorely mistaken."
Deidara didn't even consider a chase from an Uchiha and two Hatake, but thought to lure Naruto out by flying out of the cave with Gaara. Einjeru charged after with Kakashi and Sasuke hot on her tail. Sasuke then asked, "Sensei, I want to try the jutsu that I derived from the chidori." Einjeru was surprised by that and frowned inwardly.
Kakashi then said "Well here's your chance to try the chidori senbon. We have multiple bombs coming towards us. Einjeru, fall back." Einjeru flipped behind him and kept an eye on Deidara. She made sure not to let them see her tears as she blinked them away. In her mind she said, "What have I been doing these past two years? Sasuke had created variants of the chidori which was dads original jutsu… and one that dad passed down to me… All I've done is learn new chakra natures and learn about my supernatural powers that I can't even use."
Shirobuki came up behind her and whispered in her ear, "Just because he did something like that doesn't make your training any less fruitful. Use your wings. When we said you couldn't use them, we meant not in the village. On a mission, you don't know what you'll encounter, so circumstances being what they are here, we need that kind of advantage."
Einjeru shrugged, pondering what Shirobuki was doing there. "It won't hurt to try." She didn't realize that she lagged behind Kakashi and Sasuke while talking to Shirobuki. When the bombs didn't go off, Einjeru smirked at the fact that Sasuke could determine chakra natures from hand signs, but felt a slight pang of jealousy.
Sasuke, disarming the bombs, kept his eyes planted on Deidara. Kakashi, he had his hands in an odd hand sign and his sharingan eye closed doing so. Einjeru saw it as her chance to duck to the logs below and use her wings. Upon spreading them, she passed by Kakashi and Sasuke, flying up under Deidara and stabbing the bird with Silverlight.
Because Einjeru couldn't maintain her wings too long, the feathers started flying into the wind and she was stuck holding onto her sword for dear life. Sasuke saw the feathers and looked at the bird. "Kakashi… Tell me you're almost ready?"
Kakashi opened his eye to reveal his mangekyo sharingan. "Why are you saying that Sasuke?" Sasuke pointed at their resident Black, Purple and Silver clothed kunoichi on their squad holding on to their kunai.
Shirobuki sighed, as he expected this. "Hold on Einjeru…" Kakashi internally groaned. "She is so in trouble when she returns. A question would be how the hell she got up there." He focused on Deidara's arm as more bombs started falling. Sasuke used the chidori senbon again.
Back with the others handling Sasori; Sasori had unleashed the puppet jutsu that took down an entire nation. Chiyo unleashed the puppet jutsu that was heard to have taken an entire fortress and attached her puppet strings to the others so she could help them evade the attacks that Sasori's puppets made. Other than the helpful evasion, they were able to move as they saw fit.
Guy, Lee and Sakura were punching through the puppets like no one's business. Neji, using his byakugan was detaching the chakra strings from the puppets, rendering them useless. Naruto was using the rasengan like mad, shoving them into the puppets and causing an explosion that destroyed dozens of them. Tenten was unleashing kunai into the joints of the puppets, causing them to be unable to move.
Sasori was moderately impressed by the fact that all of them were able to evade and destroy his puppets. He failed to notice Sakura coming in and destroying the Hiruko puppet that he was hiding in. Chiyo looked at him in shock. "That's impossible. You look the same as when you left… You didn't age." She took a closer look at him and saw the joints. "I see… You made yourself into a human puppet."
Sasori smirked and pulled out a scroll that had the marking for 3 on it. When the puppet appeared, Chiyo visibly paled. "That's the third Kazekage. Praised for his use of the Iron Sand, he disappeared and no one found his body. Be careful everyone. If you get hit by his Iron Sand, it will be over for you." Sasori gave a demented laugh. "This is art in its purest form! You shall kneel before my human puppets!" Naruto cringed at the thought of being done in by a puppet, but the mental training he underwent with Kurama allowed him to think rationally about it. His stance grew rigid, and Einjeru was able to feel it.
Back with Deidara and the others, Einjeru grew rigid. She gritted her teeth and started channeling lightning into her sword which was inside the bird. Silverlight started sliding out and the bird was coming down. "Oh hell…" Shirobuki noticed it and thought to himself, "Hold on Einjeru. We're coming."
The bird was coming down faster, and Einjeru was still dangling from a dangerous height. "HELP!" Sasuke got ready to take to the higher logs before hearing "Wait!" Sasuke faced Kakashi to see him focusing in on Deidara. "I need you to stay still Sasuke." Shirobuki decided to make his presence known to the two of them saying, "That better not harm Einjeru, Kakashi. I don't need to remind you of what will happen should she get injured."
Kakashi snorted. "I know what will happen, but I think this is a good lesson for Einjeru about going in half-cocked. I did see the lightning flow from her sword into the bird, so I know she gave us an advantage. That's why I'm attempting to take him out."
Einjeru went for a kunai knife to keep herself in place. "Well I could try and get Gaara…" She decided to use her mountain climbing skills and scaled her way to the head. Deidara started seeing the shimmer of a kunai knife and looked down at the dangling kunoichi. "Well would you look at this. A girl managed to get on my bird." He grabbed Einjeru by the scruff of her shirt.
Shirobuki notices this and gets Kakashi's attention. "He has Einjeru by the scruff!" Kakashi cursed at this. "Damn it! I need to focus on his head. It'll be bad if he shifts though."
Einjeru smirked saying, "You made a big mistake by not grabbing my arms." She put her hands in a sign all too familiar to her, Naruto and those who use that jutsu. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Two clones appeared on the bird and grabbed Deidara by the arms.
Down below Kakashi noticed the poofs of smoke and sighed. "Einjeru is making things more difficult. Did you know what she was planning Shirobuki?" Shirobuki shook his head. "She's more or less improvising at this point."
Back with Sasori, all of them just dodged an attack from the third Kazekage's Iron Sand. Chiyo utilized Neji's byakugan with her puppet master jutsu to disable the chakra strings. Sakura, Lee, Guy and Naruto charged in with chakra charged punches, obliterating the puppet and then facing Sasori, who had no choice but to use himself. "It's been a long time since I had to fight using myself."
Everyone saw a pair of spinning claws attached to his lower back, a holder for four scrolls on his back, a stinger in the empty and open stomach cavity, a compartment in his right chest, and a core of living flesh in the left which had the kanji for scorpion. His eyes were wide open which made him look like a maniac.
Kurama, from inside Naruto, didn't like where this was heading. "I think some of you should go back up Kakashi-brat and the others." Naruto silently acknowledges, but ponders to himself about who should go with. Kurama makes a couple of suggestions. "Take the green-clad guys and the weapons girl. The Byakugan kid would serve more useful here and so will your pink-haired teammate in case one of those left is poisoned."
Naruto calls out to Guy, Lee and Tenten saying "Maybe we should leave him to Sakura, Neji and Lady Chiyo. They do have the best chance of surviving against this guy. We should go help Kakashi sensei and the others." They head out and charge to where the flying bomb was.
Back with Deidara, the bird was getting closer to the logs, and Einjeru's shadow clones, before popping, managed to pull Deidara back where the main Einjeru was able to gain footing. She grabbed Silverlight from the bird and got into her swordsman position. Deidara smirked and threw a couple of mini bombs which were disarmed by Einjeru channeling lightning into Silverlight. "Please, your jutsu is getting old. I can disarm it by channeling lightning chakra into my weapons and using lightning based jutsu. Why don't you do us a favor and surrender peacefully?"
Deidara laughed hysterically. "Do you really think that you're going to get me to surrender? No! You have no meaning of art! Art… Is an explosion!" Before Einjeru knew what happened, she started seeing white. From below, everyone else saw the explosion and Einjeru falling.
Kakashi and Shirobuki both thought the same thing. "If she keeps falling at this rate… She'll suffer long lasting damage or… Die." Upon completing that thought, puffs of smoke appeared and they were surrounded by a sea of Orange. Naruto managed to break her fall, but she was battered. The shadow clones dispersed and the main Naruto reunited with everyone.
Kakashi wanted to face-palm so badly in that moment, but noticed that Deidara was up there intact. He focused on Deidara and a void appeared near Deidara's arm. "What the hell? My arm is being sucked in!" Upon trying to pull away, his arm got ripped off. The bird finally made a crash landing, allowing the others to break the head away and release Gaara.
Deidara came out of the bushes, holding his arm (well what was left of it,) and frustrated. "Damn sharingan wielders. I'll truly show you the ultimate art! Art is… an EXPLOSION!" He ate the clay from the bird and started to puff up like a puff pastry. Before the explosion was able to spread, Kakashi was able to transport it to another. dimension using the mangekyo sharingan.
Throughout all of this, Sakura, Neji and Chiyo managed to find out that Sasori's chakra was based in the one organ showing. Chiyo looked at Neji and Sakura saying "We need to strike him in the core of his." Neji uses his byakugan to determine if the hypothesis was accurate. "I only see chakra flow in that one area. If I can get close enough, I might be able to disable him using 8 trigrams 64 palms."
Sakura pulled out a vial and handed it to Neji. "This is an antidote should you get hit with Sasori's poisoned weapons." She got a nod from him as he slipped the vial into his sleeve.
Sakura and Chiyo charged in for the diversion and led Sasori into Neji's range. Neji grunted in preparation. "You're in the range of my divination. Gentle Fist Art; 2 palms, 4 palms, 8 palms, 16 palms, 32 palms; 8 trigrams 64 palms!" Upon the last strike, a blast of chakra shot out, thrusting Sasori backwards. Neji was panting from exhaustion and was near chakra depletion.
Sasori's voice rung out through the cave causing the three of them to go rigid. Sasori gave a demented laugh. "It was a nice attempt, but that can't stop a puppet." Neji thinks to himself "Damn! That was the best idea that we had." Chiyo notices that Sasori was standing where the mother and father puppets were.
Sasori decided to monologue about how invincible he was which became his undoing. All of a sudden he started coughing up blood and looks at his core to see two swords pierced through it. Each sword was in one hand of the mother and father puppets while their arms were wrapped around Sasori in a hug.
Chiyo smiles at the sight. "Well that got you." Sakura looks at Sasori curiously. "Well, that did… As a reward, I have a spy in Orochimaru's ranks that I'm supposed to be meeting up with in 10 days at the Tenchi Bridge. You might be able to get some information out of him." Upon saying that, all of the air that was in his body came out in a rough exhale.
Sakura, Neji, and Chiyo take a look at Sasori cautiously. Neji takes a look with his byakugan and sees no chakra flow. "He's dead. I see no chakra flowing through him." Sakura breathes a sigh of relief. "I know our enemy is down, but shouldn't we head out to the others?" Chiyo nods and they leave the cave.
Back with the others, Deidara comes out thinking "I thought that suicide bombing clone would work. Oh well. With all the backup, I know I'm going to get my ass handed to me." He tries to tip-toe away a few minutes later to be discovered by Chiyo, Neji and Sakura. "Well this means that Sasori is dead." Neji uses the 8 trigrams air palm to force Deidara into the open. The others would surround him as Sakura and Chiyo would walk over to Kakashi and Naruto; who were with Einjeru and Gaara.
Naruto was the first to speak saying, "Sakura! You need to help!" Sakura nods in understanding and gets to work on Gaara to see if he's dead or not. It took a few minutes before Sakura shook her head. "So it's true… If the tailed beast is extracted, the jinchuuriki… dies." Chiyo puts her head down. "This was my fault. Us old people stuck in the old ways caused this mess. However, there's one way to mend the mistakes I've caused."
Chiyo kneels down next to Sakura and weaves some signs. "You should go check your teammate. She seems in pretty bad shape." Chiyo's hands glow blue as she puts her hands to Gaara's stomach. She thinks to herself "Everything that I screwed up can be fixed… With this generation… right Ebizo?"
Sakura comes over to Einjeru and checks her breathing. Einjeru's breathing seemed a little on the heavy side which caused Sakura to immediately go into diagnostic mode. Some explosions rang off in the background. Naruto sends clones to join the group with a rasengan at the ready, leaving him with Chiyo and Sakura if they needed him.
Kakashi saw another giant explosion coming their way with Guy, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Sasuke, and Shirobuki trying to get out of it. Shirobuki and Neji start to think "We're not going to get out of it in time." Kakashi focused once more thinking to himself, "This is going to put me in the hospital for a while, but it's better than my comrades getting burnt to a crisp."
Guy's squad plus Shirobuki and Sasuke fell to the ground and looked back to see the explosion disappearing. Kakashi ended up having to grab his eye in pain. All of them came over to Kakashi in relief. Guy wrapped his arm around Kakashi smiling. "Thank goodness for my eternal rival!"
Meanwhile, Sakura managed to get Einjeru to become stable enough for transport back to the sand village. Chiyo's chakra began to flicker. She thinks "Damn it. Due to my age, I don't have enough chakra to give him." Naruto notices the flicker and asks if there was any way for her to use his. Chiyo gives a small smile and says to him "Put your hands over mine."
As he does, the blue glow from her hands becomes almost blinding. Chiyo then says to Naruto, having known his plight as a jinchuuriki, "Us old people thought of you jinchuuriki as nothing more than weapons to use for the sake of our villages. Seeing you trying to save Gaara has gotten me to think otherwise. Also, your teammate has shown me that even though you guys are used to bolster up the military might of your village, you guys are human as well. I hope you can forgive us."
Naruto nods in acknowledgement. "It's nothing. I have a whole bunch of friends and they don't care. My best friend has been there for me since the academy days. She's known all about it and has never called me out for it. We, along with Kakashi sensei, Sakura and Sasuke make up the most badass squad in the Hidden Leaf. I guess I have you old people to thank for it."
Chiyo gave another smile thinking "At least I'll be dying with the knowledge that the future is in good hands." Naruto smiled back. Kurama then says "Hey brat! Use a little bit of my chakra. The less chakra that she uses the better…" Naruto in his mind then asks "What do you mean?"
Kurama looks down saying "That jutsu that Chiyo is using is transferring her life into Gaara. She's going to die from this either way, but it will be less rough." Naruto wanted to stop, but in doing so causing their mission to fail. Chiyo sensed Naruto's worry and gave a smile. "I chose this as a means to mend my wrongs. As long as there are shinobi like you and your teammates, this world will survive."
The blue glow begins to fade and Chiyo loses consciousness. Naruto laid her straight as Gaara regained consciousness. The rest of the hidden sand shinobi surrounded them, Temari at the front shoving Naruto out of the way. He immediately went over to Sakura and Einjeru.
Einjeru's eyes twitched, showing that she was starting to wake. She groaned, feeling like she was trampled on. "What happened?" Naruto and Sakura didn't know how to answer since they came in after the fact. Sasuke walked up and said "You were caught up in that creeps' explosion style. Are you alright?" Einjeru sat up doing a self-check. "I seem to be. Just a few bumps and bruises and the fact that I feel like I've been hit by a carriage."
Sasuke smirks before going back to his normally stoic state. Naruto the takes Einjeru's hand and allows her to use him as a support. Sakura tries to object to Einjeru standing, but is ignored due to the kazekage making an appearance.
The kazekage immediately noticed Chiyo and bowed his head in respect. The rest of the hidden sand shinobi and the hidden leaf shinobi did the same. Einjeru thought to herself "She was a true shinobi, worthy of respect." Gaara looked at the kazekage, aka his father saying "The one-tail was extracted. Lady Chiyo must have performed that forbidden technique on me."
The kazekage looks at the two hidden leaf squads and says "You have returned Gaara to me which is technically what the request stated. The cost of it was Lady Chiyo and you guys having some injuries, but what mission isn't without sacrifice?" Einjeru muttered under her breath, "Lowly D-ranks…" The only hidden leaf genin there let out small chuckles before getting looks from the two sensei and the kazekage.
"You four were in the chunin exams 2 years ago right? To be able to hold your own on this kind of mission isn't common among genin. When you think about it, not even your common chunin would be able to handle a mission like taking back a shinobi from a terrorist organization such as the Akatsuki and survive it. For that I commend you guys and come next chunin exams nominate you guys. Now let's head back to the hidden sand so we can send a message to your hokage."
They nodded in acknowledgement and headed back to the sand. The following three days for message delivery involved rest, recovery and bond forging. Einjeru was confined to the hidden sand hospital with Kakashi. They had Sakura as their primary doctor meaning there was no room for fussing or they got injured even more.
Upon getting confirmation back, the hidden leaf shinobi were ready to move. Kakashi was being assisted by Guy and Einjeru (who argued about it saying she was capable of walking) assisted by Naruto were the first to walk out the village but were eventually passed by their squad. Everyone had forgotten about Shirobuki which worked out for Naruto and Einjeru.
Shirobuki came up to them looking like a white wolf. Einjeru smiled at him and Naruto set her on Shirobuki. Einjeru held on to Shirobuki's neck as they walked next to Guy and Kakashi. Guy eventually yelled, throwing Kakashi into the air and catching him on his back.
Both squads looked at the two in disgust. They all had the same simultaneous thought, "Grown men and piggy-back? It's so wrong…" They hear Charge play out of nowhere which made it worse. Kakashi couldn't speak due to being so out of it. Einjeru buried her face in Shirobuki's fur to hide her embarrassment and shame.
Shirobuki in his mind says "My kami son… Have you really stooped that low?" He flashed to the front with the others causing them to ask where the white wolf came from. Einjeru answered saying "It's Shirobuki. We are related, so it's no surprise that he can turn into a wolf."
Before anyone realized it, Guy was running up to them yelling "GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Shirobuki decided to check his limits and basically became a white flash with Einjeru holding on for dear life. "Shiro! Slow down! Did you forget you have a passenger?! SHIRO!" Shirobuki laughed at his granddaughter and caught up to Guy.
Guy smiles at the fact that Shirobuki and Einjeru managed to keep up. The others took their time to catch up. It then became a race to the village between Guy and Kakashi; Shirobuki and Einjeru; and Rock Lee. It took them just under 3 days to get back to the leaf village.
