Chapter 4: Never Give Up! Naruto's Encouragement

Masao leapt into a large tree that was rooted before a great pond, and stopped there steadily and quietly. A large group of people stood on the water, and she silently pulled out a scroll, causing a fuuma shuriken to poof out of it. Preparing to strike, she carefully peeked through the leaves at the shinobi. A pair of silvery eyes glanced back at her, startling her, and she fell from the tree onto the water where she exerted her chakra to help her stay on the surface. "Masao-chan?" The Sorakage glanced up and saw the familiar blond waving at her and she blinked in astonishment. Picking it up and putting away her shuriken, she sighed and waved to him.

"I thought you stayed in the Suna Masao-san?" Sakura asked, furrowing her brow. Neji and Tenten glanced at each other and Lee watched Masao with interest. The maroon haired girl smiled nervously and scratched the back of her head.

She told the cherry headed girl with a slight smile on her face, "Well, Sakura-san, it's just one of those… things. When you really care about someone, you just have to do everything in your power to save them. Know what I mean?" Naruto's eyes opened wide in revelation and he glanced at Masao. She… He furrowed his brow in confusion, and Gaara? I'm so confused!

Sakura smiled, Naruto and Sasuke on her mind. "…Yes."

"Well," Pakkun, who had been leading Neji, Tenten, Lee, and Gai, said, glancing up at the silver haired jounin, "I think I'll just disappear since I'll just be in the way if I stay; I really wouldn't be any help."

Kakashi nodded and told the dog, "Pakkun, good work."

As the ninja canine vanished, the elder man in green spandex asked, "Right! First off, this barrier, eh, Kakashi? How do we take it out?" Everyone looked at the masked shinobi, whose expression released the impression of slight boredom.

"This particular 'Five Seal Barrier'," he started, "is created by tokens with the word 'kin' written on them placed in five places in the vicinity." He motioned to the white seal on the boulder above their heads and continued, "The 'kin' token you see in front of you, and the other tokens are in four other places. To remove the barrier, all of them must be detached."

Glancing around the blond jinchūriki asked, "So where are they? The other four?" Masao furrowed her brow. So, all four 'kin' tokens must be removed at the same time, which means some of us need to split up while the rest stay here. But the biggest problem is finding the symbols. She crossed her arms haughtily. Knowing the Akatsuki, the tokens most likely aren't close by, which means we could take forever looking around for them. The longer we take, too, means the longer it is until we can get to Gaara.

"Kakashi-san," she started glancing to Naruto and Sakura's leader, "how do you recommend we find them? It could take awhile…" She trailed off when she realized the sensei wasn't listening, but looking at the pearl eyed boy of their group. Leaning over to see on the other side of Sakura, Masao realized he was doing some sort of seal she didn't recognize the use of.

"Neji-kun," he told the dark haired boy, and he nodded.

"Understood. Byakugan!" Veins protruded from his face, and Masao looked slightly taken aback. Lee smiled reassuringly at her, but she didn't feel very at ease. After a moment of examining the immediate landscape Neji narrowed his eyes and told the group of shinobi, "Found them."

"What?" Masao asked in shock.

Tenten shushed her as the Hyuuga continued, "On top of a rock about five hundred meters north-east of here… On a tree trunk, on a river bank, three hundred and fifty meters south-east… On a wall of rock about six hundred and fifty meters north-west… Inside a grove about eight hundred meters south-west…"

Again the Sorakage was astounded. "That's amazing." That's curious… I wonder what that is… Masao pondered, watching Neji with inquisitiveness. Whatever is was, it was one of the most amazing things ever to her at that point. It means all the soon for her to see Gaara again.

"That's our Neji," the weapons master told her proudly.

Taking off his backpack, Gai-sensei unzipped it and pulled out a handful of little contraptions. "Right!" he said. "If it's that range, we'll use these radios! While we're taking Neji's directions, we can keep in communication, and we'll find the locations of the tokens!" Lee affixed his earpiece and microphone to his head band and tied the hitai-ate around his forehead. Neji and Tenten hooked the microphones on straps around their necks and slipped the earpiece into their ears.

The brunette said, tapping her radio, "Radio placement, okay!"

Giving Kakashi the thumbs-up, Gai told him, "Speed-wise, my team is faster. The frequency is one-seventy-four. Wait for our message!"

"It's up to you," he replied, snapping his own radio around his neck and turning it on.

Masao told them, "Good luck!"

"Team Gai! Let's go with the full power of youth! Scatter!" Then they were gone, leaving only a disruption of water behind to mark their leaving. Naruto clenched his fists, hating to have to wait. Gaara… The maroon haired girl glanced around at the other four people, feeling slightly awkward and out of place here. All of them were sent here by their Hokage, but she decided to come of her own volition. And she wondered, was it the right thing to do? She knew Ryuki would be okay handling Hikari, but didn't the village come first? Was she being selfish deciding to leave and save Gaara? Talk of ethics and morality always confused her, so she didn't know the answer. The town always wanted their Sorakage to do things so she would be happy, that's why they practically pushed her out of the village to go to Suna. But this… it seems wrong.

"Sakura-san, it won't take them long will it?" she asked, trying to hide her anxiety and attempting to get her thoughts out of what she should do to be happy. The pink haired girl patted her shoulder in comfort and shook her head no.

"Don't worry Masao-kun. Lee's team is all jounin, they'll pull through." A question had been pulling at Sakura's mind since she met the young Kage, and she had to ask. Her aqua eyes meeting Masao's silver ones, the medic-nin asked, "Masao-kun, why are you so eager… to save Gaara?"

Masao froze, and looked at her newly found friend, unable to hide the pain sieving into her eyes at that moment. "I…" Sighing, she clutched at her elbows and stared at the ground. "Sakura-san, is there someone out there you'd be willing to do anything for?" The Konoha kunoichi nodded slowly, and she continued, "Gaara is that important person for me. I'd be ready to die for him if need be." She let out a small chuckle and admitted, "Don't ask me why, but it's true."

Naruto looked down at the ground, digesting the new information that had just been given to him. "So… you really care for Gaara… huh?" he asked her softly. Masao glanced at him and smiled surely. He nodded his head in comprehension, and looked even more determined than before. "Not just for me, or Suna, am I saving Gaara. But for you too, Masao-chan."

A tear slid down her cheek. "Arigatou, Naruto-san."

Sakura didn't want to say anything to upset the young woman any more, but she felt this might be an important thing to tell her. After all, if she… 'liked'… Gaara, then she had the right to know about what might happen to him, ne? If the Akatsuki are doing what they think they might be doing. "Masao-kun, there's something you need to know." The burgundy haired kunoichi glanced over at her, but before the cherry headed girl could finish, Gai's voice crackled over the radio.

"Right, everyone! Remove the tokens!"

As he peeled off the token, Kakashi told them, "We'll break in with a buttonhook entry. Sakura!"

"Okay!" She ran forward, pulling her hand back, and as the jounin leapt from the boulder pounded her fist into the stone. It cracked under the impact of her attack, and it crumpled into hundreds of small rocks. As it revealed the entrance, Kakashi stuck his first and middle finger forward, motioned for them to go. Chiyo, Masao, and Sakura leapt into the left, and the jounin, and Naruto hopped in to the right of the cave, hugging the wall to conceal themselves. Masao winced as her bad leg began to hurt again and she prayed it wouldn't get too much worse.

But when they got inside, two Akatsuki members were already there, as if waiting for them, a large clay bird sitting next to its creator. Is it too late? the masked man thought anxiously. Sasori… Chiyo reflected, narrowing her eyes. But Masao wasn't worried about the two figures in the coats. Her eyes trained on the mop of red hair that was located beneath the blond. His eyes were closed as if asleep and Masao felt her throat constrict. It was… it was like in her dream. He's… No! He can't be! "Gaara?" she choked out, her voice barely above a whisper.

The blond man asked, "Well then… which of you is the jinchūriki, I wonder? Mm."

A strange chakra emanated from Naruto, and Masao noted with apprehension the strange lines change on his face. His normally piercing blue eyes changed to red, with cat like pupils, and Masao bit her lip. Naruto-san… what on earth? His canines grew longer, and he clenched his fists angrily. "You bastards! I'll smash you to pieces!"

The Sorakage recognized the other man, as Sasori commented, "That one." It was the strange one, with the tail, that she and Kankurou fought before. She looked at Naruto, the words he screamed burning on her lips.

"Well, it seems like it… mm."

Naruto glanced down at the Kazekage, his look of anger not receding, and roared, "Gaara, what are you doing, sleeping there lazily! Stand the hell up!" Sakura glanced at him with a horrified, yet confused expression. Masao couldn't stand it. She desperately wanted to believe what Naruto was saying. That he was asleep, not what she knew was the truth. Her body started to shake slightly in a desperate attempt to keep standing. "Hey! Gaara, are you listening to me!"

"Stop, Naruto," Kakashi told him gently. "You should understand." He wore a strained expression as it dawned on him; what he had frantically not wanted to believe.

"Yeah, yeah, don't you get it? He's, well, dead, mm?" At that, the shaking Hikari kunoichi fell to her knees, and threw up everything in her stomach. The pink haired girl glanced at her in alarm as she shivered awfully. Her greatest nightmare had come true now, and her greatest fear had been realized. Gaara was dead. Her stomach heaved again even though there was nothing in it, and she clutched her abdomen.

"…give him back…" She distinctly heard Naruto growl. "Give Gaara back! You bastards! You took him away from a village that needs him, away from us, his friends!" He shook his head violently in vehemence and finished, "And from Masao, who loves him!" Masao glanced up as he rushed forward in blind fury, but was soon stopped by the quick thinking Kakashi.

He soothed the jinchūriki, "Calm down. If you go rushing in there without thinking, they'll destroy you." He let out a strangled sound as he realized what his sensei was saying was true. Sakura put a hand softly on the maroon haired girl's trembling shoulder and tried to get her to stand, but her legs didn't seem to want to work. Shock still had its hold on her body, and Masao couldn't think straight anymore. We're too late, was the only coherent thought running through her mind.

Sasori told his partner, motioning to Gaara, "I'll look after this one."

"It seems that jinchūriki wants to take this one back," Deidara observed. "Master, this'll probably make you angry but… I'll handle that jinchūriki, mm."

Angrily, Sasori reminded him, "The assignment is one person to one beast. Don't push it Deidara." Beast they say, Masao thought angrily, glaring at the dirt floor. Beast…! She clenched her fists and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to suppress the urge to vomit again. They didn't know either of them. Neither Naruto nor Gaara. She barely knew the former, but from what she's seen she could surmise a lot about him. And Gaara… well that was self-explanatory. She loved him with all her heart and she knew he was no monster like everyone labeled him!

"Stop playing around bastards!" Naruto ordered, pulling a scroll from his pouch a opening it. A large shuriken popped from it and he clutched it tightly.

"Naruto-san, matte!" She aimed to warn him about Sasori, but he had thrown the shuriken before the words could leave her lips. The creature's tail knocked it aside as it had before, and she glanced at Naruto apologetically. "Gomen nasai," she whimpered, "I tried to say…"

She sniffed and rubbed at her tearing eyes. She was completely lost now. What was she to do now that Gaara was…? Stopping, she realized that she didn't even want to think about it. It was too painful for her to try. Too hard to try and accept. "Masao-kun, you have to move, you can't just sit here," Sakura tried to reason with her, attempting to pull her up.

"Demo, Sakura-san…" She mumbled, not moving.

Naruto heard her, and glanced back at her in disgust. "Don't give up that easily Masao-chan!" She stared up at him in shock and he clenched his hands. "Don't give in! You have to keep fighting for what you care about! Do you think Gaara would want you to act like this!" Glancing back at Gaara, she dried the tears on her cheeks, her resolve hardened slightly. Naruto was right. The Kazekage would be ashamed to see her like this so she wiped her face off and attempted to get up. Unfortunately, her empty stomach affected her a lot more than she thought.

"Deidara you little shit," Sasori commented, still watching the man angrily. "Are you trying to piss me off?"

He spoke matter-of-factly, "Well, then, I was right when I said I'd probably make you angry, mm!" Sakura thought in fright, Without even glancing at the shuriken, he deflected it… "My fine art is explosions. Completely different from your little puppet show! Mm." The clay bird grabbed Gaara in its mouth and started to fly away, with Deidara jumping onto its back as Sasori tried to attack him with his tail. Slightly angry, Deidara told him, "See you master."

"Gaara!" Masao's voice came out asphyxiated as the blond flew through the entrance with Gaara in his bird's mouth.

Naruto followed, calling after him, "Wait the hell up!"

Tch… Naruto never stops does he? To Sakura, Masao, and Chiyo he told them, "Naruto and I will handle the one outside. Sakura, Masao and Chiyo, take care of this one… But until Team Gai gets here, try not to overdo it."

"Got it!" Sakura replied. Kakashi left after Naruto, and Masao glanced at the two women standing by her. She needed to get her act together if she was to help them at all. Before she made a move however, the puppeteer started.

Sasori glanced to the side and breathed heavily. "How long do you plan on standing there?" The three of them glanced to the side as a chuckle sounded.

"Gomen nasai Sasori-san," a voice replied, sounding quite humored. "I was just going to observe for a moment before I intervened. I can't let you and Deidara-san have all the fun, ne?" Masao's heart hopped into her throat as the voice she just heard registered in her mind. No, it couldn't be! Not here! Shaking she turned her face towards where the tone came from, knowing what she would see there wouldn't be any good.