Chapter 5: Fighting for Love

Masao glanced up from the ground, shell-shocked by the voice she heard from the shadows. A familiar face moved away from the darkened corner of the cave, smirking slightly in his black coat adorned with red clouds. Chiyo furrowed her brow and asked, "Who is that?"

Shakily, the Sorakage stood up and Sakura shot her a concerned look, supporting her by the elbow. "What the hell are you dong here, Kenji?" The missing-nin's smirk grew more pronounced and he motioned to the large hole in the stone wall where Gaara had been taken by Deidara.

"Why do you think Masao-sama?" he asked, honeyed sarcasm dripping from his voice. "I heard you were coming and decided to drop by to say hello." Masao glared at him, and he leapt into the air and through the entrance. She followed directly after, unable to be seen due to her speed. Sakura glanced after her in shock. She matched his pace easily as they flew through the trees, despite her bad leg acting up again. "I knew you'd come after your boyfriend," he laughed, dodging her angry kunai. She fell forward and placed her hand on a tree branch, doing a front flip on the limb as she used her free hand to throw a fuuma shuriken at the traitorous ex-Hikari ninja. He knocked it aside with a previously concealed blade, and thrust it at her with great accuracy.

Masao dropped to the ground, clutching her bleeding shoulder, and panting heavily from the exertion. "I should have known you'd join up with the Akatsuki!" she told him, wrapping a thin piece of white cloth around her shoulder. He readjusted the slashed hitai-ate on his forehead and shrugged.

"I may not be from one of the main five villages," he commented, whipping his sword through the air to clean the blood off. "But they seem to need my assistance after all." She snorted, the act causing her chest to hurt slightly.

"What assistance could you possibly give the Akatsuki?" This time it was his turn to snicker. And he did. Quite loudly and obnoxiously. She narrowed her eyes and he glanced at her, bringing his chortling down to a soft chuckle.

"Masao-sama, I'm a shinobi from Hikari. Which means I have information valuable to the Akatsuki." He threw a kunai at her and her at him, and they clanged in midair with a bright spark. While Masao was distracted, Kenji ran to the side and appeared behind her. She turned in shock, blocking the sharp edge with her hand. She grasped it, wincing as the blade punctured the skin of her fingers. "Well, you're stronger now Masao-sama."

"More so that you think." A doppelganger of her jumped from the canopy of trees onto him, jabbing a kunai into his arm. She twisted the sword from his hands and back flipped away as he examined the deep wound on his appendage. She landed upright at the edge of the clearing, throwing the sword into the ground. The blade quivered from the impact, and she held out a scroll that she swiftly pulled from her bag. She pulled it open and an enormous scythe burst from it. Grabbing it from the air, Masao spun it around her back and tapped in lightly on the moss forest floor. "You've never seen this one before Kenji. It's a new one."

"I've seen all of your scythe work Masao-sama," he corrected. She rolled her eyes and pushed off from the scythe, bringing the weapon with her and she swung it forcefully at Kenji. He slid out of the way and jumped into a backflip towards the very edge of the clearing. She smirked and fell into a particular posture that he realized he never saw before. Kenji narrowed his eyes, and felt a twinge of annoyance. I should be better than she is now. I was accepted into the Akatsuki dammit! Now fueled by anger, Kenji did a series of hand signs, and Masao leapt forward towards him.

"Wired-Ice Jutsu!" Suddenly unable to move, Masao struggled against the wires binding her, powerless to break free. Chinks appeared along the thin metal, and she realized that they were becoming quickly coated with ice. Narrowing her eyes, she did a single hand sign behind her back and fell to the ground, grunting in pain.

"Doton: Doryuu Taiga!" The land beneath Kenji suddenly swayed, creating a large mudslide beneath him. He fell to the ground and the wires around Masao snapped. She shrugged them off and rolled away, grabbing her fallen scythe as she went. He stood up, covered in mud and looking calm. Masao leapt into the air and swung her scythe at him. Just when she thought she got him, he disappeared and she cursed. Suddenly Kenji was by her, knocking the scythe from her hands and sharply swinging a kunai at her face.

Releasing the weapon and the kunai nicking her on the cheek, she dived from the spot to the right, grabbing the sword she stuck into the ground awhile before and stood up in place. Suddenly the kunoichi fell to the ground, her injured leg giving out. Damn, she thought, using the stolen sword to hold herself up. The side of her head was bleeding and her headband she saw had been cut off when he swiped at her, slitting her cheek.

He scoffed, "Do you see how foolish you're being Masao-sama?" Ignoring him, she wracked her brain for something, anything that could help her. Then she remembered something that used to happen when they were younger, and smirked. If he hasn't changed too much, then she had one chance. His ego.

"And why," she countered, twirling the sword easily in her fingers and resting the blunt edge of the blade on her shoulder. "Do you serve an organization that would just as easily get rid of you?" He narrowed his eyes and pulled his straw hat off, dropping it to the ground. His black hair was rather short now, and left dangling around his face in black clumps. Masao pointed the sword at him, and smirked. "You're not even a real member! I don't see your Ring…" He growled angrily, letting her see his emotions on his sleeve. Too easy… "You never should have taught me how to swordfight, Kenji."

He pulled out another sword from under his cloak and they stood in identical poses facing each other, his face back to a calm demeanor. "Why do you even bother Masao-sama?" He questioned after parrying her first few blows. "You're worthless as ever I see."

"Worthless?" She laughed. "Yes, I'm the worthless one Kenji! Let me tell you! I run around in girly little cloud cloaks and paint my nails purple, too. Oh! I also murder people's friends for power! Yes, I'm the worthless one!" Her tone had gotten sharper by the end of the sentence, and she held up the sword again and frowned. "I'm so worthless, Kenji, that I'm still Sorakage, and I'm respected more than you ever were!" With that she leapt forward and the two leaned on each other's swords, unable to overpower the other. Their foreheads were close enough to knock together at that point.

"Before you met that beast and before Raiden died you were an amazing shinobi," he told her as they pushed off. Masao flew backwards and tilted her body so her feet flew in front of her. She kicked off from a tree and Kenji leapt from the ground. They met in midair and he brought his sword handle up in an attempt to hit her in the face. Predicting his maneuver, she ducked down in-flight and grabbed his leg. With a cry she flung him quickly down towards the ground and, performing a sharp spin, chucked her sword after him. He did a speedy series of seals and her eyes opened wide. Pulling back her sword by the wire she had connected it to, Masao watched as Kenji hit the ground in a puff of smoke. As it cleared, her suspicions were confirmed as a log lay where his body had been.

"You were always good at running away," she taunted, landing on a tree branch and glancing around. A sizzling sound started behind her, and she cursed. Jigen bakudan! She leapt away and latched herself onto a branch across the small clearing from the exploding sutra, the sword held in her mouth by the grip.

A voice noted from above her, "Your senses have dulled Masao-sama." She looked up and saw him standing on the branch tapping his chin in thought. The claret haired girl quickly pushed herself away and tumbled as she hit the ground with her hurt leg buckling out from under her. Glancing down, she saw that blood had begun to soak through the white bandages and sighed. Things are getting harder… This is way outta hand; I have to finish it quickly. "Ah, didn't your boyfriend give you that?"

"Shut the fuck up," she spat at him, holding the blade out as she prepared to strike.

"Ah, I seem to have hit a nerve," the black haired man observed. Their swords clanged together again, but when she pushed away this time she leapt up instead of to the side. He watched her go noting her movements closely. She pressed against the bottom of a high branch and kicked off twirling her blade around, she managed to scrape him a tiny bit, but he just parried her blow again. Frustrated, she ran forwards with a cry and aimed her sword at his chest. Holding his own out, he chuckled and she narrowed her eyes angrily.

Blood splattered onto the grass, and a cough sounded, causing more crimson liquid to spill to the ground. Masao let out a soft chuckle as she touched the steel blade rammed through her stomach. "Well, this is inconvenient," she commented amiably.

"I still don't understand why you try so hard Masao-sama…" He looked over her pale body and shook his head. "See where love got you in the end? Killed." She laughed heartily and, clutching the sword, attempted to pull it from her front. Kenji maliciously pushed it in farther until she was touching the handle of his weapon. "Never did I imagine seeing you spiked on the front of my own sword…"

"Well then," she told him, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, "I suppose our definitions of 'the end' differ quite a bit then Kenji?" He knit his brow in confusion and watched her suspiciously. "Love is what gives me the strength to beat you!"

Kenji asked, "What the hell are you talking about?" Suddenly Masao vanished in a cloud of smoke, and he looked slightly taken aback. He sensed a presence behind himself, but before he could do anything a slim piece of metal had been pushed through his back and out his chest. His mouth gaped open in shock when maroon hair met his gaze. He fell off the tree branch with Masao landing next to him on the ground. She shoved the sword farther into him, pinning his body to the ground. His face was deathly pale now and blood dripped from his chest onto the ground. He watched the Sorakage powerlessly as she fell backwards next to him, panting slightly. "That was amazing Masao-sama."

"Shut up, bastard," she ordered him, trying to catch her breath. "Just shut up. I don't want to hear your voice any more." Kenji smiled mindlessly and laughed, blood pouring from his mouth. Just laughed. Masao looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.

He told her, "This had been quite fun Masao-sama. I'm glad we got to spar one last time, heh. Give Ryuki-san my regards." With his smile still in place, Kenji's heart stopped pumping, and his breath ceased flowing out of his mouth. The Sorakage watched him dispassionately, his corpse doing nothing to the coldness and hate she felt towards him. Pulling the foil from his back she took quickly dug a shallow hole in the ground and shoved his carcass into it.

"Yes… it was quite fun wasn't it Kenji-kun?" she murmured, kicking the dirt back over the body. "At least, now, no one will ever find you. Not that anyone would ever look for you." She glanced towards the west, where she knew a large ravine to be and felt a familiar chakra there. Time to go help Naruto-san… Then she was gone, a small puddle of blood from her leg to mark that she was ever there.

:oOo:…

Masao burst from the forest to see Naruto atop the clay bird with that man, Deidara. He attacked the Akatsuki member, causing the blond to leap off his bird, and Naruto blasted the head off of the thing. Yes… Kakashi thought. "Naruto, I've got him!" Masao cried, jumping up. The blond saw her and nodded, leaving his other shadow clone to help her out. Masao leapt underneath the decapitated bird head and landed with it on a tree. "Gaara!" she screamed at it, tearing the clay apart with her hands. Please be okay, she begged silently, trying to get through. Don't be dead, please! When the hole was large enough, she and the Naruto double glanced inside. Gaara lay there, unmoving, and Masao could feel tears swelling up in her eyes at the sight.

Her blond friend put his arms under Gaara's and pulled the Kazekage out. The burgundy haired girl felt tears drip down her face, and the Naruto replica glanced at her. "Hang in there, Masao-chan. Just hang in there." She nodded and wiped the tears away, holding Gaara close to her chest and resting her cheek on his soft red hair. She didn't know what else to do than to simply hold him there, secure by her. His body was cold, but she couldn't help herself. She wanted to see Gaara again, so badly, but… not like this. Oh God, no not like this!

Abruptly, a strong aura met her senses and she glanced down to a frightening sight. "Naruto-san…!" He sat on a large rock ledge and around him red chakra made a strange shape, like… tails. "He is… a jinchūriki… too?" The silver haired jounin noticed, and took out a seal given to him by Jiraiya-sama. He leapt forward and pressed it to Naruto's forehead, suppressing the chakra from coming out any more than before. Behind her, Masao heard a commotion, and turned to see the other team from before attacked Deidara. The brunette, Tenten, threw with amazing accuracy three shuriken and kunai, all of which he was too fast to be hit by. Neji, Lee, and Gai followed after, and the blond stopped by his decapitated bird.

Deidara sank his teeth into the clay and pulled a bit out. Swallowing it he proclaimed, "Take a look at my ultimate work of art! Art is a bang!" The man began to expand and upon examining him with his Byakugan Neji thought, The chakra's all gathering in one spot at once…! He couldn't be…

Neji screamed to all of the shinobi nearby, "Everyone, hurry! Get away from here!" Everyone complied, Kakashi pressing a palm against his Sharingan, as the man began to expand grotesquely. Masao and Naruto grasped Gaara and, glancing at each other in agreement, flew from the branch. A huge explosion started to erupt, as the desperate Deidara began to self-detonate!