Chapter 9: The real work starts now

2 months, D.S.I has been in Konoha for 2 month and by the 7th week their under the radar persona had faded. They brought millions in revenue into Konoha at time and single handedly saved it from extinction. Kiba had been concerned about credibility, that was no longer a problem. Now they were starting to get bigger and more paying clients, and to Iruka's contempt the demons surrounding Konoha were wiped out. The only problem now was that the Leaf's damages were measured in Billions, they need to take on jobs that paid more then a few million.

More money meant more difficulty, Other areas that had been hit by the storm were offering missions of a more prominent nature. The Demons around Konoha were just basic in comparison.

! - ! - !

"Are you serous, their offering how much?" Iruka asked in disbelief, leaning over his desk at the mention of a client's offer. "What's the catch?"

"100 million." Kakashi said causally. "No strings attached, we just have to do the demon kill thing." Kakashi had been gone for the better part of a week to see a client, a very big client.

Iruka let out a deep breath and sat back down "Great, where are we going?"

"Cloud village."

"Cloud! How are we suppose to get out there?"

"Don't worry, I had Naruto bait the demon, should be really close by now." Kakashi told him.

"Wait, you had Naruto bait a demon all the way from the Cloud village? That's way too dangerous!" Iruka obviously wasn't happy about this, which wasn't good for Kakashi.

"Kidding ..Ehm...Uh." Kakashi coughed and turned around, no, he wasn't kidding. "I'm sure he's fine, you know Naruto and Gaara follow each other like lost puppies."

Iruka sighed and got up, "Come on let's go before something happens to them." He said, shooting Kakashi a look while walking out of his office and into the hallway. The lay out was different now, instead of one floor now there were two. It was easy to see what direction Naruto was going with the spending, it was all about construction. And right across from Iruka's room was an armory that Naruto had built, it wasn't a bad idea, it was actually one of Naruto's better ones.

Iruka walked into the room that more closely resembled a hallway with display cases, a door at the back of the room led to the out side so the concept was simple, get what you need quickly. Iruka and Kakashi walked through, taking what they needed on there way, and it wasn't hard to choice because they both predominantly picked their own usual set of weapons. Iruka took a large 5-point shrunken shaped weapon only the blades were thin and sleeker like those generally found on swords. They were curved to one side so it could work as a boomerang. Other then that, 10 Kunais and 10 explosive tags which he tucked away in the holder strapped to his legs.

Kakashi wasn't much of a weapons user, he took only a few Kunais and Shrunkens.

With that taken care of the two emerged from the back door into the field out side the building, most of the dead trees had decomposed or had been destroyed in fights leaving only a grassy, uneven land. "He should be about 30 miles ahead by now so it shouldn't take that long." Kakashi said.

"I just hope Naruto doesn't do anything stupid, what kind of demon is it anyway?" Iruka asked.

"Spider, it's working with a fly. Ironic huh?"

"Wait, there's two of them, and there working together?" Iruka was starting to get even more worried about Naruto, despite the fact that a spider and a fly couldn't be easy to fight at the same time. "Maybe we should take Sasuke, I don't want to try to describe this one when we get back."

! - ! - !

"Neji, you in here?" Kiba called out, pushing open the double doors into the largest room in the building. "I just saw Kakashi come out." He heard his voice echo as he stepped inside, he couldn't help but look around an awe. "Whoa..." He was surrounded on all sides by book shelves, Neji had built a whole library.

Shelves were pressed against every wall, in front of him were 5 rows of the smaller shelves that stretched in sections of 6 to the end of the room, and this was a big room. And because of that only half of the shelves were filled, the ones toward the back were still empty so that's where a desk resided and a door that lead to Neji's bed room. This place was huge, even by normal standards, that's because the library in itself was the entire second floor.

Neji emerged from one of the rows with a ladder on his shoulder that he used to reach the top of his higher shelves, the ones against the walls stretched up to the ceiling, larger then the ones in the center of the room so he was probably trying to access one of those. "He wanted some information on a Spider and a fly demon."

"I can't believe you actually have the whole second floor to yourself, I want my own floor." Kiba wined.

"And what would you do with it?" Neji couldn't help but let out a small smirk at the thought of Kiba sitting alone in an empty room as large as this trying to figure out what to use it for.

After a moment of contemplating he shrugged "I don't know, I'd figure something out. Till then I'm sharing this one with you."

"Sure you would." Neji gave him a mocking pat the back and continued working, he was currently looking for a book. "But I don't mind sharing."

"What are you doing?" Kiba followed behind him curiously, letting Akamaru jump off his head and look around the room for himself.

"Remember what I found in Lee's house? Well I've been trying to research it but details are sketchy." Neji sat the later against one of the shelves and climbed upward "As far as I can tell it's an old concentration stone. There's a lot of Charka stored inside so who ever used it must have had immense Charka. And from what I can see they were fighting in an imperative battle to use that much and still need to concentrate it."

"I guess Lee's not an option then huh?" Kiba watched Neji pull out one of the thicker volumes of a series of blue books. "Could have been his parents."

"That would explain why he kept it, I doubt he knew what it was." Neji climbed down and started walking towards the desk in the back of the room, 'But why would he leave it to me...?'

"What do you think they were fighting?" Kiba asked, "Must of have been something seriously mean."

"Not sure. There's no way I can gather that from what I have." Neji started shifting through the book, trying to reference the concentration stone with any one who may have had one in the past or at least it's origins.

"What about those bugs, anything on them?"

"I'll have something soon enough, as soon as I find out what they are."

"So, you get any closer to cracking that safe?" Kiba asked, Lee's safe was now in Neji's room across from his bed.

Neji shook his head "No." 'I should probably get back to that.'

! - ! - !

"Sasuke..." Konohamaru didn't bother to look up at him, he was too busy with the punching bag. Even though D.S.I had been developing and expanding, Konohamaru still opted to keep the basement the way it was with out power. Those flames never went out once, he took care of them diligently and they gave more then enough light. "Anything weird ever happen to you around here?"

"What do you mean weird." Sasuke was holding the bag from the other side, he could feel how much Konohamaru had grown in strength over the last 2 months of training.

"Nothing really, just...I always get a weird feeling around here." Konohamaru shrugged it off, that feeling had been getting worse and worse. "And it must be something I've been eating because I think I've been seeing things."

"What have you been seeing?" Sasuke asked, Konohamaru had just made him interested.

"It's flashes of stuff, I can't make it out because it comes and goes really fast and it's kinda blurry. I was wondering if it was only me."

"I haven't seen anything unusual." Sasuke glanced over at Konohamaru somewhat worried, Konohamaru must have been seeing things because if anyone would have spotted something it would have been Sasuke. "Are you ok?"

"I don't know, it's starting to creep me out now. Think something's wrong with me?"

"Maybe...Can you describe it in detail?"

"Well...it only happens when I'm around here...and it's just flashes like I said." Konohamaru became a little disheartened, he felt like he was going insane though if this kept up he'd die from fear before that happened.

"Tell me the next time it happens."

"Ok."

! - ! - !

"Whhhhaaaaa!" Naruto found himself being picked off the ground by a black fly, it caught him by the collar with it's leg and lifted him in the air, flying strait ahead toward an extremely large tree.

The fight was taking place in a large grassy field with a single tree in the center, and right now he was being carried head first at high speeds towards it. "Let go of me you damn fly!" He shouted, he could barely hear himself of over the buzz of the insect's wings.

Naruto bent backwards and flipped completely so that his back was facing the ground and kicked the legs that held him. The fly couldn't maintain grip and released him, sending his body flying head first at the tree's trunk helplessly. Naruto flipped in the air and landed side ways on the enormous plant, kicking off the tree and flying towards the fly again. He drew a Kunai and pulled his arm back to strike, only to be swatted down by it's wings. "Damnit I can't catch this thing! What about you Gaara?"

Naruto rolled to the side and looked towards Gaara who was about 100 yards off with a very different enemy. He couldn't locate it at the moment though not because it was small, the Spider was actually quite large, it was just under ground. Gaara of course knew how to solve that problem, the only problem was it was too fast catch even for Gaara while it was drilling. "It's tricky, I just have too" Gaara jumped into the air just a half second before the ground erupted in a pillar of thick dirt. The spider jumped out of the cloud at Gaara, but Gaara was too high for it to touch.

This was an usual spider not because it was half the size of D.S.I headquarters but because parts of it such as it's the leg area above the claws it walked on, it's back, the top of it's head, it's under belly all were made of Lava. It was so good at drilling because it melted the ground, and a few other features it had helped. The large scorpion tail behind it was some type of demonic mutation and it just made things worse for Gaara. Gaara shifted slightly in the air, causing the ground to break and fly upward in a flurry of brown and green.

"Desert Rain."

The uprising earth pummeled the spider, engulfing it in the attack's wake and knocking it in to the air. The molten spider was too heavy to be taken up more then a few feet, Gaara wasn't strong enough for that, so it fell back to the deep crater that remained, landing painfully on it's back. Carrying himself just above the hundreds and hundreds of pounds of dirt and minerals with his sand, Gaara sent all of it down in a torrential rain, he had become more skilled in the attack's use, instead of just falling sand that drowned the opponent. He could now form it in to thick spikes. It clearly had some damage, not as much as he had liked, that outer shell around it's body was stronger then he expected.

"Not bad, where'd you learn that?"

The sand surrounding Gaara jumped toward the unexpected source, it might just have hit Kakashi if he if he hadn't recognized him at the last second. Gaara let the sand under him dissipate and himself fall, landing softly on the ground facing the man "Why did you use us as bate?" He sounded mad, apparently Kakashi didn't let him in on the plan.

"No, Naruto was the bate." Kakashi clarified, that only made things worse. Gaara had rather used himself then Naruto.

Gaara glared at him menacingly then returned back to the task at hand. "You use water elementals right, your more effective then me."

The spider burst through the earth that had buried it in a burst of flames that surrounded it's body. It opened it's mouth, blowing out a ball of flames the size of Kakashi's torso past the large venomous fangs that hung outside of it's mouth. Kakashi and Gaara dived to the side as the flames narrowly missed them. "Ok, you distract it and I'll"

"NO." Gaara yelled in annoyance.

"Fine, just try and keep it above ground." Kakashi drew a kunai and took a step forward toward the spider that was currently trying to dig.

The sand in Gaara's gourd swirled around it's legs and tried to in inhibit it's movement, he did manage to slow it down critically. So the Spider took another approach, it drove it's tail in to the ground, seemingly with no real purpose until Kakashi jumped into the air. "Might want to look down."

Gaara's eyes shifted downward toward a reddish orange light glowing under his feet. He dived backwards but he was just a little too late, lava came shooting out of the glowing spot, devouring Gaara in a rush of heat liquid heat. "!" Even with the sand surrounding every inch of his body it was hard not to cry out, it was so intense that the lack of air in these conditions almost made him pass out. His body was launched in to the air by the geyser of molten rock, the burning Gaara slammed into the large tree a 100 yards away and sparked flames on the branches.

Naruto glanced over towards Gaara to see if he was alright then turned his eyes back on the fly, it was imposable to hit! "Iruka, got any plans?"

"Not really, well... it seems to like you." Iruka said, trying to follow it's movements but it was erratic and fast, just like ...well, trying to swat a fly. The fly rushed at Naruto from behind, slamming into his back and sending him sliding forward face first on the ground.

"Ooo...Damn, it hit's hard." Naruto could feel a bruise forming already, it hurt when he bended a little just to get up. "We got to slow that thing down, we have to catch it."

"Just stand back." Iruka pulled the 5 point blade and lifted it into the air, spinning around between both hands for more stability. It was a trick he'd learned to intensify his jutsu "Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" A burst of wind cascaded outward from the blades, instead of going upward in a blast it radiated outward and swirled in visible white streaks around the blade like a whirlpool.

"Whoa Iruka, where did you learn that?" Naruto asked, crouching down to avoid the vortex. "It's really cool."

"2 months of practice." Iruka's voice had a strain to it as he tried to spin the 5 point faster. "Now get ready." He called out, watching the fly slow down as it was pulled into the winds.

Naruto watched carefully with 2 Kunai's in hand, ready to attack

Closer... closer, the closer the fly came to being shredded the more buzzing of the fly's wings grew louder with it's increased effort. It blew it's own gust of wind at Iruka who was pulling in air. That added wind was too much for him to handle, the Retsu Ha geki grew out of balance and he was blown off his feet, cutting off the Jutsu with him.

"Damnit!" Naruto threw both Kunais at the insect but it dogged easily.

The fly seemed as if it was going to attack again, only instead it started twitching and shaking. It was spitting up 3 or so white balls, all of them larger then the insect's mouth. As soon as they hit the ground they expanded and uncurled into Fly larva. "What! No way!"

! - ! - !

Kakashi did a few quick hand seals and then jumped backwards out of the way of another large fireball. Water expelled from the ground per Jutsu and washed over the molten spider, a loud hissing sound radiated from it's body. "Gaara."

"What?" Gaara finally caught up, his body filled with scorch marks.

"We're going to need mud."

The spider jumped up into the air, trying to pounce on Gaara and Kakashi, the two rolled to the side just in time, nearly falling from the resulting earthquake. It was smart enough to go for the slowest person, the burning spider turned towards Gaara, spitting another ball of fire at him. Gaara tried to jump back but was much to slow. Sand rushed over the front of his body to absorb the impact but it did little against the flames. Gaara was knocked to the ground, once again on fire. "Desert Coffin! Kakashi, go." Gaara yelled firmly.

Kakashi began doing hand seals "Someone's mad." Kakashi snorted, he moved backwards as sand started to rise from the ground around the spider. Water began to seeped up between the grains and minerals directly after, changing the it into a thick quicksand like mixture. The spider struggled, the only thing louder then it's trashing in the devouring liquid was the sizzle of it's lava merged body. After a few seconds it realized that sudden movements only made it sink faster, it couldn't get out. "Not bad."

The spider opened it's mouth, instead of it's usual flames a white egg was spit out ward, it had time to eject one more before it's head sunk below the quicksand and it drowned.

"Eggs?" Gaara looked on in confusion, kicking it lightly. "Eh!" He pulled his foot back quickly, just in time to watch the tip of his shoes melt, "Scolding acid, extremely hard shell."

Both of them were watching the first egg that they didn't notice one of the Flies larva crawling up to the second, it wrapped it's mouth around it despite the fact that the egg was 2 the size of it's body and dripping in burning acid. It was like a snake, stretching to devour something larger then it self, the white body grew larger with ever inch it took in. Some how immune to the acid it broke through the shell and devour the baby spider inside...on the other hand it may have more so merged and mutated the then devoured, it started to grow and change shape.

When the process was complete the small white larvae was red and about 2 feet in height and length, it was completely flat when it's mouth was closed. It had the same number of eyes as a spider as well as it's fangs that extended out side of it's mouth, it also had the wings of a fly. It didn't see Kakashi and Gaara, it only moved forward toward what it did see, Iruka.

The creature was fast, it moved as quickly as snake's strike towards the man, springing upwards and sinking it's fangs into his chest before he even realized it. "What the!" The creature started sucking his blood like a leach, instantly making him dizzy and light headed along with his amazingly fast fleeting strength. Iruka almost fell to the ground, scrambling to pull it off with a loud grunt from the pain of separation. He tossed it to the ground, attempting to step on it before it scurried away with a speed he could hardly follow. "What was that thing?"

It wouldn't be the last time he saw it, and he was going to regret letting it catch him off guard.

"Iruka! Behind you!"

Iruka quickly turned around with the 5-point outward, he sliced right through the Fly.

Naruto ran over to him. "Iruka are you ok, that thing was huge!" Naruto wasn't exaggerating.

"I'm ok, I just hope it wasn't poisonous." Iruka brushed his fingers over the two holes in his chest, the creature's fangs had slid right in-between his ribs but didn't go far enough to do serous damage.

"I never saw you use that before." Naruto looked over the remains of the fly demon, it had been cleanly halved.

"Yeah, looks like I need more practice." Iruka place the weapon back on to his back and turned towards Kakashi and Gaara's direction, he almost jumped when he found that they were standing right behind him.

"What happened to you?" Kakashi softly touched the two wounds with his hand, carefully as not to make them worse.

"Not sure what it was but it bit me...Don't worry it's nothing." Iruka pushed away Kakashi's hand and discarded the injury as occupational hazard , it didn't hurt too much, he'd dealt with worse. "I just can't help thinking this job was too easy for how much we were paid."

"Don't get too relaxed, it's not over." Gaara said "There's more."

"Huh? Where?" Naruto started looking around nervously, "I don't see anyWhooaaaa!" Naruto stared strait upward, his eyes wide at the approaching hoard of flies, the faint buzzing slowly becoming louder.

"How are we going to fight against all of those!" Iruka shouted, taking a step back at the sight. "It's imposable!"

"The same why we fought the ones before them." Kakashi said, looking towards the south with lazy eyes. That was the direction of the Cloud village and the rest of the spiders, when there was one spider there was always at lest10 more in the area.

"What! We can't take on all that many!" Naruto said worriedly, this just seemed like too much for even them to take on.

Gaara un-folded his arms and looked towards the approaching molten spiders, they were coming from all sides now "It's a trap, doesn't look like we have a choice in the matter." He said in his usual manner, he didn't seem worried. "We can handle this." Gaara crouched slightly and jumped in to the air, springing a little higher then usual.

"I hope so..." Iruka sighed, pulling the 3 point off of his back.

"I'll try and stay out of the air." Kakashi said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"What is he doing?" Naruto looked at the spot Kakashi had been standing in curiously.

"I'm going to need your help Naruto." Iruka said, he had to shout over the sound of the flies wings, they were spreading out from one large swarm into a scattered mass that surrounded the both of them.

"I'll do my best." Naruto pulled out another set of Kunais from his holder, only to have them knocked out of his hand by a fly slamming in to his stomach. Another smashed into to his back and another came from below and knocked him upward by a strike to his chin. More and more came from every direction, knocking him around with strength that only came from flying at high speeds. "Uhff!"

"Watch yourself Naruto, you have to use your agility, you have a lot more of it then I do." Iruka told him, he was doing well enough to avoid most of them.

Naruto landed on his feet, quickly crossing his arms over his chest to block a fly soaring head first into his stomach, he slid backwards a few feet, jumping to the side and out of another one of the insect's way but he ended up right in the path of a third that hit him directly in the face, drawing blood in several places and throwing him to the ground. "I can't! They're too fast, what ever your going to do, do it now!" Naruto shouted.

"I'm going to need you to cover me." Iruka moved and blocked what he could, a few were still getting past his evasions. One rammed head first in to the back of his leg while another struck him on the shoulder and swept him painfully of his feet.

"I'll try.." He was quickly hooked by the collar and taken up in the air by another one of the black insects, it was easier just to continue with his current plains then to stop and try to escape Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto's body went up in a white smoke, reappearing with 10 more copies each with a pair of Kunai's in hand. He and clones were immediately dropped, quickly surrounded Iruka upon landing and holding off as many as they could while Iruka held the 5-point above his head.

He attempted to concentrate and spin the weapon between both sets of his fingers, but more flies attacked him from behind while he wasn't paying attention. Three more came from the front, each attacking in different places with enough force to send him flying backwards. "Naruto."

"There's just too many of them!" He and his clones shouted in unison, "I can't...Hold them off." Just as quickly as they were created his clones were destroyed in a white cloud. Naruto was being hit more frequently then ever now that he was in the center of the swarm and of the fly's attention. He could barely keep track of the attacks coming head on let alone those coming from other sides and protecting Iruka.

Their was only black streaks, to fast to see clearly even with his training. He was being hit constantly now, no pause in-between each strike for him to recover or distinguish one between the next. 'They're...too strong, I can't even get away.' He was trying to fight back but it was just too much for him to handle...

"Naruto!" Iruka abandoned his plain and started to fight his way over to Naruto, but it seemed like the numbers were increasing, barely anything could be seen in-between the black streaks of agile fly demons 'More of them are coming...something's drawing them to Naruto...' Iruka grunted loudly "Naruto!"

"Aaarrgg!"

A red light...an energy radiated from Naruto's body, rising from his feet, sweeping over his body ...It was Charka, large amounts of it. The cuts on his body...miraculously began to close, the bleeding bruises also began to heal, the marks on his face started becoming more bold and extended. His hair grew into a wild mass that hung just above his eyes now that he didn't have his forehead protector to hold it back, his eyes shifted into animalistic narrow slits as his canines grew into fangs . "Back off!" Naruto yelled as loud as he could, his body suddenly multiplying at an increasing rate, with in seconds there had to be at lest 30 copies.

"Naruto?" Iruka looked around questioningly, finding himself no longer under attack. It took every one of Naruto's copies to hold them off and even then he was having trouble. 'Right, I've got do it now!'

Iruka lifted the 5-point above his head again, spinning it in a rapid rotation faster then he'd ever practice. It was a struggle to keep it in his grip "Full power Retsu ha geki no Jutsu!" This time he was turning his blade in the opposite direction, so it blew out wind like a fan in a strait forward blast of air. The whirlpool of air expanded much farther then it's previous boundaries now that he was pouring more chakra in to it, most of the demons were blown away but a substantial amount fought back with wind of their own from their wings.

"Iruka!" The surrounding Naruto clones leaped upward into the white-winded whirl pool above their heads, using the winds to throw themselves upward at the flies with kunais ready. The current was strong enough to make them merely an orange bur ones in plain sight, the brightly colored streaks sliced through the demonic left and right with the knifes in hand and let the remains be scattered by Iruka's Jutsu...it was quite a sight to watch.

'Go Iruka.' Kakashi rooted mentally, still keeping his eyes on the surrounding spiders that he was currently drawing to himself and Gaara. He wished he had a longer weapon, then he could more effectively do close combat if it was needed. Now it wasn't worth the risk, he'd be melted long before he did any substantial damage.

Gaara was doing better fighting wise, his main weapon was the sand, which he shaped over his arms in large hammering pillars that extended far past his hands. It was mainly used only when one of the creatures got too close, other then that all they could do was evade and doge, that didn't mean it was easy. Gaara jumped into the air, kicking off the face of one of one of the spiders that sprang after him, only to be pressed down by another that had leapt a little higher.

He was slammed to the ground and pined between it's lava over-flowing underbelly and the ground. The inane sand that automatically sprang to his defense provided some protection but the lava was melting right through.

Kakashi charged forward, dodging a few other spiders before jumping into the air and sending a strong kick to the face of the demon pinning Gaara down. He was just strong enough to send it sliding back a little, good enough for free Gaara. "Are you all right kid?"

"..." Gaara glanced behind him, seeing that half of his shirt had been melted away and the burning sensation that still lingered on his back, he could safely say no. He couldn't hold back a growl of frustration that radiated from his throat...Sand swirled around him in reaction, hardening into an defensive orb around his body.

'He's transforming...' Kakashi flipped backwards, slipping between two large blast of fire and springing on to his feet. 'I'm going to have to do this now...' Kakashi kicked off the non molten joints of the next spider's leg, leaping upward and tossing a shrunken at it's head. The spider hissed and cocked it's head to the side, letting the projectile strike it's fang and shatter before it turned completely around and plunged the long tail into the ground. Pillars of lava trailed after him but Kakashi fell faster then demonic spider could pump the burning liquid.

He may have been aware of what was about to happen but he wasn't fast enough to escape a spider spring upward from behind him and wrapped it's legs around his body, squeezing him tightly against the intense heat from the red liquid. His eyes grew wide and he almost cried out, the constriction became tighter and tighter pressing him deeper and deeper...

Something pulled the spider off from behind...Gaara, in a half transformed state, dug both of the rock hard claws into it's back and tossed it to the ground. He was in the same form of half change he had been in when fighting Naruto Everything was transformed except for his shins and his feet which he hadn't had time to wait for, he even had a tail now.

Kakashi landed and sprang back up into the air again, "Rain!"

His Chakra poured outward in large volumes, creating dark clouds in the blue sky. Thunder rolled over the calm lands, letting a heavy rain fall break out of the clouds on to the mass of molten lava demons. Mist started to rise from the ground and a loud hissing sound resulted, it was definitely working. The spiders most defiantly became weakened by it.

Gaara's body absorbed the damage of numerous balls of fire almost larger then him, Black and red eyes shifted quickly between enemies and the brown claws followed after. Punching, tearing, ripping and smashing demons in an almost animalistic rage while Kakashi continued to send a torrent of rain over the spiders. "Double Chidori!" A static energy formed in both palms, radiating and discharging like blue lighting. He fell head first into the crowd of spiders drawn after Gaara, slamming in to the spider in the center and sending a rush of power outward.

The other spiders were struck with a high voltage bolts that radiated from Kakashi like lighting towards a rod in a storm, everything else was a blinding flash...

Kakashi emerged from the light on his feet, surrounded by the bodies of unconscious demons. Gaara...the sand creature he'd almost fully changed in to had almost completely been blown apart by Kakashi's attack. Half of his back and all of his tail was now running off in thick piles of the golden minerals he was formed off, Thankfully he'd manage to curl into a ball before it happened, and he wasn't too happy about it happening in the first place.

"Uh..." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head nervously "Oops."

Gaara allowed his transformation to fall away, returning to normal and his injured form. He was limping slightly and had a few burn marks, moderate injuries. Gaara shot him a dangerous glare towards Kakashi, snorting as he turned to walk away.

"Guess your not going to help me finish them off huh?"