I mades me a big ol' mistake!
What I posted yesterday was actually what was supposed to be the twenty fifth chapter! The twenty fourh chapter encompassed both itself and the next one on accident, so you got more than I had planned. Sorry for any inconveniences.
I don't own Naruto. Same as last time, and the time after this one.
Saotome woke up in an unfamiliar location. He wasn't exactly sure where he was and after a few minutes, all he knew was he was in a building, and that Temari was next to him. Both of them had their clothes on, and nothing else was out of the ordinary. A very perplexing arrangement. Slowly he put a hand on Temari's shoulder, causing her eyelids to flutter open almost like a butterfly's wings and she smiled at him.
"Hey…" She said to him sleepily as she smiled up at him "Did you sleep well? Why do you look so confused?"
"I have no clue where I am…or why you're here…" He said, trying to figure the whole situation out "Not that I don't like you here! In fact it's the most pleasant thing I've ever woken up to, but still, its not something I'm really accustomed to…"
"You passed out while we were on our date and I realized that I had no clue where you lived, so I just brought you here." Temari replied lazily, yet for some reason not uncomfortably, which was very odd for her.
"You let me sleep next to you?" Saotome asked questioningly "No…this has to be a genjutsu somebody's pulling on me."
"No it isn't…I wanted to sleep next to you because your were unconscious and not thinking dirty thoughts and I didn't want my brothers to come in and see us on the couch or something." She explained comfortably, still not sitting up.
"Ok, I'm starting to put things together now…Man I wish I could have been awake for all of this." Saotome said as he put a hand to his head and slowly got up "I need coffee or something and I need it bad. My head still hurts from when you hit me."
Saotome made his way downstairs with Temari's help and sat down as she made him coffee. Together they both sat there and talked romantically to each other while drinking their coffee when, of course, Kankuro walked down in his underwear.
"So, doll boy doesn't sleep with his makeup on…interesting" Saotome said as he looked over at Temari's brother with a smile.
"Oh my god! Kankuro, go put on some clothes!" Temari yelled at him, even though she knew her brother wouldn't quite register her for a few seconds.
"AAAHH!" Kankuro screamed when he finally realized what was going on. Temari counted a four second delay time. He was getting quicker "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BASTARD DOING HERE!"
"Having a decent cup of coffee. Temari, no offense sweetheart, isn't a very good cook, but she can make a mean cup of joe." Saotome said with a grin "So, you're a tighty-witeys kind of guy. Kind of had to expect that."
"TEMARI! WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING IN OUR HOUSE? DID YOU KNOW HE WAS HERE WHEN YOU CAME IN LAST NIGHT?" Kankuro continued to rant.
"Be quiet Kankuro, she came in last night with him. He was unconscious and she didn't want us to mangle him." Gaara said calmly as he walked in. Everybody in the room, with the exception of Saotome of course, stiffened at his entrance.
"Well now, if it isn't the one person who needs a cup of coffee more than anybody else." Saotome said cheerily as Gaara walked in, knowing he wouldn't do anything that would hurt Temari's feelings.
"What's coffee?" Gaara asked, to everybody's surprise. Temari and Kankuro looked at him in shock.
"You mean to tell me you've gone all this time with no sleep and you've never had coffee!" Saotome asked incredulously.
"Yes. Usually I just go and take a walk or stare at the sky. Now what is coffee and why would I need it?" Gaara asked, obviously intrigued.
Temari stumbled about and quickly got him a cup of coffee. "Here, drink this, it'll make you feel more awake." She said as she handed him the cup.
Gaara looked at her cautiously at the steaming liquid and then at Saotome, who smiled at him and took a drink of his. Slowly he took a careful drink of the hot substance and his eyes widened.
"Wow…what's in this stuff?" Gaara asked as he quickly took another drink, clearly enjoying his new energy.
"Caffeine my friend…lots and lots of caffeine." Saotome said with a grin "Well, I had better get going, I'm supposed to go and report in with my team in about…well right now actually, so I'll see you people later."
Saotome got up and kissed Temari on the cheek as he left. He grinned at what was behind him, knowing Kankuro was still speechless and in his underwear and from now on Gaara would be very twitchy.
Junichi woke up rather normally, in contrast to Saotome. He woke himself up a little bit and went to take a shower. Junichi hated hygiene habits; he followed them, but didn't think they were very necessary. He got dressed and went into the kitchen where he poured himself a nice glass of sake.
"You shouldn't be drinking at your age." Zabuza said from the kitchen table, idly looking at a newspaper.
"You shouldn't be squatting in a person my age's house." Junichi said to him as he sat down across from the jounin at the table with his alcoholic beverage "And for your information I've been drinking since that mission were I nearly killed you."
"Interesting…I watched that fight with the Uzumaki boy last night. You are a skilled shinobi for one your age." Zabuza said distractedly, obviously making small talk.
"I didn't know you were watching." Junichi said as he finished the glass and poured himself another glass "It's not that spectacular when you're dealing in demons."
Junichi finished his drink and walked out the door, making sure he had all his weapons in tow. As he made it down to their usual meeting place he saw a slightly twitchy Saotome and a very happy Ayane heading there as well. Perfect.
"My oh my, why are you two so weird in the morning?" Ayane said as she looked at both boys.
"How the hell do you stay so chipper every morning evening and night?" Junichi asked her, slightly annoyed.
"Well, I wake up extra early every morning to eat a balanced breakfast and then I skip through the flowers. What do you two do?" She asked sweetly.
"Nothing special." Both boys said in unison as they walked on either side of her. As they walked though, they saw a bunch of genin gathered around; among them were Naruto and Sakura.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Saotome asked as they walked up. "Why's everybody hangin around and why are you crying slightly.
"Sasuke took off in the middle of the night and we have to go and get him." A tired looking Shikimaru said. Apparently he was leading these people.
"All right chief, what's the plan?" Saotome asked as he and Junichi began quietly walking away without anybody noticing.
"We're going in. Sasuke has the sharingan on his side and if an enemy gets it, things could be bad." Junichi explained quietly "We're going to collect a select group of people and we're going in as support. We won't tell anybody because we're not supposed to be gone. Go and get Gaara and meet me at back here soon."
"Hey, everybody!" Saotome said as he busted into the sand trio's house "The Uchiha took off and we're going to go and get him back. Gaara we need you to come with us."
"Why should I help this Uchiha person? I don't even know him." Gaara said coldly as he was still drinking coffee.
"Hey man, I don't know him real well either, but it'll be so much better than anything else you're gonna do for a long time. We're deep in enemy territory with this one." Saotome said with a grin.
"Allright I'm in. Let me get my sand and we'll head off." Gaara said as he put his coffee down and went to get his gourd.
"I'm coming with you and I'm not taking no for an answer!" Temari said suddenly. She had seriousness plastered all over her face.
"No." Saotome said simply "I don't want you in any danger whatsoever. You should just stay here and be safe."
"I'm going no matter what you say." She said stubbornly "You can either keep an eye on me or let me go by myself."
"…Fine, but you're staying close to me the whole time unless I say it's ok. I'm not going to let you get hurt this time." Saotome said firmly, his face void of any humor.
"Allright, I'm ready, lets go." Gaara said as he came back and handed Temari her fan. He knew Temari was going with her boyfriend and he also knew how hardheaded she was.
Junichi sat and waited for everybody to get back. He was going to get Zabuza to go, but he had already left on some important get rid of all ties to the mist mission or something like that. He really didn't know who else to turn to. He didn't want to go to anybody too official since he wasn't supposed to be going himself…They'd just have to make due with Gaara.
Saotome ran up with Temari and Gaara following behind them. They all met and exchanged determined looks, especially Gaara, who always looked the same unless he was trying to imitate normal people.
"Hey, I thought you were supposed to get somebody else to come!" Saotome yelled at him as it finally dawned on him.
"There weren't many people who were willing to take the job. It looks like this is all we got…You sure you want to do this Temari? Saotome's probably gonna get himself massacred." Junichi said with that trademark grin of his. The grin that said 'good or bad, who cares as long as we fight'
"I think we'll manage." Temari said with a smile, casting a glance over at Saotome who returned the look. Neither of them had told anybody about the wolf demon.
"So our mission is to rescue that Sasuke person from a few sound shinobi." Gaara stated plainly "Sounds easy enough."
"Our mission is to aid our comrades. We start with whoever's fallen behind or in battle. Sasuke should be at the end of the chain. We'll just go down the list." Junichi said firmly, getting everybody's nods.
Like that, they were traveling through the woods at tremendous speeds. They each had their mission in mind and knew to follow it. The only clue in which direction to go however was watching where the team started off from. It wasn't long before they came to a tree with an arrow on it. Sitting directly under the arrow was Choji.
"Should we not do something for him." Gaara said, motioning to the unconscious boy.
"No. There's nothing we can do for him now. We have to keep moving to save those who are in battle currently." Junichi said as they pressed on.
They moved past Choji and kept the breakneck pace down. Something inside the demon boys told them that serious danger was ahead. It must have been a strange demon thing or something, for they soon passed up severely beaten Neji, but pressed forward as well. It wasn't long before they came to a large pit, from inside of which they heard crashing.
"Gaara, I'll assign you this one. Come back alive friend." Junichi said calmly. He watched Gaara nod slightly and head to the battle.
Heading on, they moved through the trees until they heard the melodies of a flute. At this point Junichi sent Saotome and Temari in, hoping he might be able to get a piece of more powerful enemies ahead. To him, this was all still the same game of fight and kill. It probably always would be…
Gaara walked slowly to where he heard noises, checking to see where the enemy was. He finally found some footprints and followed them down a stream. After a while of walking he saw a boy with a dog running from another person, who didn't seem very happy at all. Gaara quickly put a wall of sand up to protect the dog boy.
"What is this!" the attacker yelled upon seeing the shield rise in front of him as if out of nowhere. Slowly he turned around and faced Subaku no Gaara, vessel of the demon shukaku.
"I hope you're prepared to die today." Gaara said as he held out a hand and moved it to the side. From the sand wall a giant fist emerged and punched the attacker to the ground.
The attacker got up with another head growing out of his shoulder. Gaara looked on calmly, but he was rather shocked. The attacker laughed at him mildly before suddenly charging forward, his one face that of a beast.
Temari and Saotome were already in position and had a plan that they set up. Shikimaru was in trouble and they knew just how to get him out of it. Just as the girl raised her flute, Saotome began playing, being the idiot that he was, the beginning of 'deliverance' from a safe spot.
Temari took the opportunity to blast her with a gust of wind. The flute girl barely managed to dodge and suddenly disappeared. At this time Saotome and Temari came out and helped Shikimaru up.
"Hey man, you ok?" Saotome asked as he held out a hand to the lazy genius "Hey! Its that guy who beat me and then gave up at the chuunin exam! Small world this is."
"Yeah, imagine that." Shikimaru said lazily as he took his hand and stood up "What are you guys doing out here anyway?"
"We saw you all heading off and decided you wouldn't survive unless you had some help. We passed two others up on the way here, that Hyuuga guy and some other kid." Temari said, informing him the best she could.
"Were they still alive?" Shikimaru asked quickly, showing in that instant that he was really worried about them, despite being lazy.
"They were fine dude." Saotome said as he pat him on the back. "Now all we have to do is-TEMARI WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!"
Temari was frozen, staring off into space when all of the sudden she just broke down and started crying. Then Saotome heard it, the sound of the evil flute. Try as he might though, he couldn't get Temari to snap out of it, then he too began staring.
It was night out, the full moon was glowing overhead. To his left Temari was leaning her head on his shoulder peacefully as they walked through the forest with each other's arms around them. Suddenly for no reason at all Saotome stopped.
"Saotome, what's wrong" Temari asked concernedly as he stared down at his hands as if they were more interesting than her.
"Run…" was all he could get out before hair started to grow all over his body. In a few seconds he was the demon once again, and he slowly approached her with hungry jaws.
Temari only backed up a few steps, still smiling sweetly. She didn't fear him at all. But why should she? It was only him after all, and he would never hurt her. And then with one swipe, he ripped her head from her shoulders like it was nothing.
Saotome suddenly fell to his knees with his girlfriends head still in his hands staring up at him with a confused expression on her lovely face, now completely detached from her beautiful body.
"Why? Why would you do that to me Saotome?" The head asked him, tears running down her eyes.
Saotome began shaking violently, staring into her dead eyes. Then the head was no longer there and the trembling continued. He didn't notice he was once again in his human form, staring at where her head used to be in his hands. A single tear fell down the side of his face.
"No…" was the only choked up word he managed to whisper as his right hand suddenly became that of the wolfs and began to claw at him maliciously. He didn't even try to fight it.
"NOOOOO!" Saotome suddenly yelled so loud that his echo could be heard across the forest in all directions.
Saotome didn't know what was happening any more. After he yelled, he didn't notice that the world suddenly returned to normal, even as he stared up at the sky. He didn't notice that his yell soon became a howl and that suddenly he was very, very hungry.
The flute player smirked from her hiding spot on the bushes nearby. She had successfully caught them in her genjutsu. All she had to do now was go in for the kill. She stopped for a second, curious as to where the howl came from. She didn't have time to ponder it however as it seemed the ground around her exploded.
Trees were uprooted, rocks were crushed, the very earth was moved slightly. All that could be discerned were the glowing red eyes attached to the snarling face with the drooling jaws. Desperately she tried to run, but it was no use as the creature caught hold of her leg and crushed it in it's iron tight grip, completely shattering the bone and anything else that might have been there.
She was held face to face with the wolf demon, staring into it's eyes. For the first time in her life, she was paralyzed with fear. She simply couldn't move. She had to sit by and watch as her arm was ripped off and the meat chewed by a wolf. She had to sit there, and contemplate how long it would take her to die as the creature began to eat her alive, slowly, savoring every morsel.
Temari suddenly woke up in almost exactly the same place she had blanked out in. She remembered the genjutsu, but then…everything went dark. To her left she saw Shikimaru, sitting there as if petrified. She looked around but couldn't find Saotome anywhere. Sensing something was amiss, she hopped out of the tree and searched around for him. She came to what she thought was a regular clearing and suddenly covered her mouth in surprise at what she found. Sitting in front of her was the half eaten corpse of a girl, while next to it, Saotome was lying in a heap with his eyes wide, staring at nothing at all.
"Oh my…" Was all she could say at the gruesome sight. Everything was in pieces. She ran over to Saotome and leaned down over him.
"No…run…run Temari…" Saotome mumbled in his vegetable like state "run…I love you Temari…I don't…don't want to hurt She said with tears in her eyes as she hugged his body close to her. She tried to carry him but found that she couldn't. She leaned against a tree and held him tightly against her, crying the entire time. She didn't even know why she was crying. Her tears fell like the rain, washing his skin of blood as they did so.
"I love you…" He continued mumbling, still not coming out of it "would never hurt…hurt you…love you…"
"I love you too Saotome…" She whispered into his ear as she held him close, not knowing what to do except wait for somebody to come and help her.
Review response:
Shang: well, you might just be right. All the same, it doesn't matter because I already wrote it. I don't want to lose a reader, but what's done is already done. Sorry if you're dissapointed. I'll keep it in mind as I get to that on my next story.
All right. For real this time. Keep on tranglin!