Chapter-9

-Somewhere in the forests of the Land Of Fire

A group of three masked strangers were heading towards their home situated near The Hidden Hot Water Village. The one wearing the fox mask was dressed in black anbu trousers and a black jacket with three diagonal orange stripes and had the Uzumaki clan symbol on one sleeve and the Senju clan symbol on the other, the one with the cat mask was wearing black anbu trousers and a navy blue high collared t-shirt with a small Uchiha clan symbol on the back and the girl wearing the sparrow mask was dressed in a long sleeve t-shirt and a skirt with fishnet armor going down to her knees. A hawk carrying an emergency letter from Suna was heading towards them. AS soon as he was above them, he sat on Kitsune's shoulder and pecked him in the ear. Kitsune and the two stopped their journey and landed on the ground. Neko had grabbed the letter and was letting the bird go, while Kitsune was putting up his barrier.

"What is the letter about Sasuke?" The blonde asked while removing his mask. He had an annoyed expression on his face because of the hawk pecking his ear.

Sasuke removed his mask. "We need to go to Suna immediately, Naruto, the-" but before he could complete the sentence, Naruto had cut him off.

"I just finished a meeting with the fire daimyo and just as I am about to return home, a hawk from Suna wants us to go to Suna? Now we have to head in the opposite direction and I haven't had my dose of ramen." Naruto started anime crying.

"Is Anija bipolar or something, Sasuke-kun? Was he always like this?" The girl asked taking her mask of revealing a beautiful girl. She had short red hair and warm brown eyes.

"Yes, Aiko-chan. He's been that way since we were children. In the beginning I wanted to Chidori him, but after a while I got used to the dobe." He answered back.

The two had found Aiko while returning from their meeting with Kumo after the Chunin exams, a year ago. A bunch of Otogakure shinobi were attacking her and she was about to be captured due to chakra exhaustion but the two had killed the Oto Nins and taken her in. In the beginning she was cold and distant towards the two and only answered when asked something, but after a few months, she had warmed up to the two. She was a year younger than the two and was an orphan. A few months back, she started calling Naruto 'Anija' because both of them were Uzumakis and Naruto always treated her like a little sister, and she had a special bond with Sasuke. The raven always helped her with her nightmares when Naruto was away on solo missions.

"Oi Naruto, quit whining, this is a serious matter. The Akatsuki got Gaara." Sasuke said with a grim voice. "And poisoned Kankuro. The Sand is in chaos. We need to go."

"Okay." Naruto said closing is eyes. He entered his mindscape to have a talk with Kurama.

"Kurama, do you think that you could transfer your chakra to Sasuke and Aiko-chan? I can sense that their chakra reserves are low"

"Sure, kit. But hurry up. That Gaara brat would die if Shukaku was to be extracted from him." Kurama said, channeling some of his chakra into Naruto.

"We leave now!" Naruto said, opening his eyes.

"Anija, our chakra reserves are low. Even if we managed to reach the sand, we would be out for a long time due to chakra exhaustion." Aiko slightly rolled her eyes.

"I already thought about that. Aiko-chan, Sasuke give me a fist bump. Kurama is going to transfer some of his chakra to you so that you can refill your chakra reserves by the time we reach the sand." Naruto said while giving both of them a fist bump. A minute later, all of them were covered on Kurama's bubbly orange chakra. They put on their masks, pulled down the barrier and headed towards Suna.

-On reaching Suna

The three had just reached Suna, The village was partially destroyed and there were only three guards at the village gates because the rest were either injured or were busy keeping the villagers safe and rebuilding the village.

"We are the Uzu trio, allies of the Sand." Kitsune said to one of the guards.

"Hai! Kitsune-sama, Neko-sama and Suzume-sama, we were expecting you." He then ordered one of the guards to bring Temari or Baki.

A few seconds later Baki arrived.

"What is the state of the sand?" Kitsune asked Baki.

"A huge part of the sand is destroyed. The older brother of the Kazekage, Kankuro, was poisoned by Sasori of the Akatsuki. Team 7 from the leaf has arrived, but they have not been able to cure Kankuro." Baki said leading them towards the hospital.

"Hnn. Those pathetic genins can't cure Kankuro. Let me have a look." Neko muttered.

The three reached the room where sakura was inspecting Kankuro.

"Were these the weaklings you were talking about, Neko?" Suzume asked bluntly in front of the leaf ninja. This pissed Hiroto off

"Hey! We are not weak! I am easily stronger than all three of you!" Hiroto shouted.

"Well let's see. The black haired one has mid-Chunin level chakra, the pinky has low-Chunin level chakra and you, your chakra is also mid-Chunin level. The only strong one in your team is the white haired guy, who appears to be your sensei. His chakra is high jonin level. Overall you all are weak except your sensei. "Suzume said.

"How dare you, I am the apprentice of lady Tsunade!" Sakura arrogantly said.

"But still you can't cure him. Now move aside pinky, let me examine him." Neko said.

"Sakura, we are not here to pick fights. Let him examine Kankuro." Kakashi said without even looking away from his book.

"I apologize for their bluntness." He scratched the back of his neck nervously."Okay Neko and Suzume, while you two treat Kankuro, while I help out around the village." Kitsune said before leaving through the window.

"What is his condition?" Neko asked while examining Kankuro's lungs and heart.

"High Fever, body weakness and semi-paralysis state." One of the Suna medics replied.

"The poison is spreading across the body and is currently affecting his heart, lungs, pancreas, kidneys and intestines. I need time to make the antidote but that would mean risking Kankuro's life. I have to remove the toxins directly. Please bring me clean water. Suzume and the rest, hold Kankuro down" Neko instructed.

Two of the Suna medics went to bring water while the rest, Temari and Suzume held Kankuro in place. As soon as the bowl of water had arrived, Neko forced in water into Kankuro's chest, the water then drew out the toxins from Kankuro's organs and after that Neko pulled out the toxin filled water out from the other side. He repeated this process several times until all of the poison from Kankuro's internal organs had been removed.

"I removed all of the poison so Kankuro's life shouldn't be in danger anymore." Neko said moving away from Kankuro's bed.

Temari breathed out a sigh of relief. Everyone in the room was awestruck. Something that they hadn't been able to do for hours was just done within minutes by Neko. Even sakura, Tsunade's student, and the best doctors of Suna couldn't figure out what to do in this situation and Neko made it seem easy.

"Suzume, can you prepare an antidote for the poison?"

"Yes Neko, do you know where the green house is?" The redhead asked the raven

"Yes, follow me." The two took one bowl of poisoned water and headed towards the greenhouse.

"Finally found the antidote. Sasori sure makes complex poisons; it took me twenty eight minutes to prepare the antidote. Now let's go find Anija and leave to find Gaara" Suzume said

"Hn."

The two met up with Naruto in the Kazekage's office, where Temari was handling the job of the Kazekage. The three advised Temari to ask for another strong team from the leaf and decided to leave next morning since it was only evening and according to their Intel, the Akatsuki would need at least four days to extract the tailed beast and Gaara was captured two days ago.

-The next morning.

The three were at the gates of Suna, ready for departure.

Neko summoned his cat summon. "Kara, I need you to track this scent, can you do that for me?" Neko asked giving the cat a piece of Sasori's clothing that they had recovered from one of Kankuro's puppets.

"Hai, Neko-sama. Follow me." The cat sniffed the fabric and started leading the team toward Sasori's scent.

After a while of following Kara, the three stopped abruptly after seeing a man in the Akatsuki cloak with a straw hat. The person slowly lifts his hat off revealing a pair of Sharingan eyes.

"Is he-" Kitsune could only say two words before Neko cut him off.

"Itachi Uchiha." Neko said with venom in his voice. He activated his own set of Sharingan. "Whatever you do, do not look into his eyes." Kitsune immediately took his offensive stance. "Kitsune, you promised to stay out of this."

"So like a non-fighting teamwork?"

"No, just cover me." Neko ran towards Itachi and tried to punch him, but Itachi easily grabbed his wrist and started tightening his hold in attempt of breaking it. But after a few seconds, Neko poofed away.

'Shadow clone. He has grown, but he is still not good enough.' Itachi thought. Neko appeared behind him. "Chidori Spear!" He said firing a sharp beam of lightning from his palm. As soon as the beam pierced Itachi, he disappeared in a murder of clouds. He reappeared behind Neko.

"You're only using around 30 percent of your power for this." Neko said turning to Itachi. Itachi didn't reply."Okay, so you don't want to talk."

The two made the same hand signs. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" The two Uchiha fired a volley of fire balls towards each other canceling each other's jutsu out. The two again made similar hand signs. "Fire Style: Grand Fireball Technique!" The two fired off massive fireballs at each other, Neko's fireball being slightly larger. A few minutes later, there was thick layer of smoke covering the forest.

"Oi Neko, this is not the real Itachi, hurry up. We need to save the Kazekage too." Suzume yelled from her spot.

"Chidori: Senbon!" Neko sent a multitude of needles made out of lightning chakra towards Itachi. Itachi managed to avoid all of the needles, but he did not sense Kitsune coming for him from underneath the ground. Neko had given Kitsune the signal to attack by sending a needle his way. Kitsune came in front of Itachi from underneath the ground and swung at him. Itachi caught his arm and Kitsune used his other hand to hold Itachi in place. Itachi tried to place a genjutsu on Kitsune but for some reason was not able to. 'Shadow clone' he thought. He tried to free himself, but was not able to. "Now, Neko!" Neko came running towards Itachi and Naruto's clone with a Chidori in each hand. "Chidori!" He pummeled Itachi into the ground with the Chidori. Itachi slightly smiled after getting hit. After looking at the corpse, they found out that it was actually a sand ninja instead of Itachi. Itachi had used some jutsu to transfer his conscious into the ninja. The three resumed their journey to find Gaara with Kara leading them. Neko quickly summoned another cat and sent it to find the other team from the leaf.

-Meanwhile team 10 was heading towards the Akatsuki hideout to provide support for the Kazekage's rescue mission.

"Asuma-sensei, how much further is the location?" Shikamaru asked.

"We have an hour long journey ahead of us." Asuma replied.

"What a drag."

"Shut up Shikamaru. Everything is a drag for you." Ino replied, slightly irritated.

The three came to a halt when they saw a man with the akatsuki cloak on and a sword covered in bandages.

"Well well, look who it is. Asuma Sarutobi, you were pretty weak the last time we fought."

"Asuma sensei, do you know him?" Choji asked.

"Yes, that is Kisame Hoshikagi, wielder of the Samehada. He used to be one of the seven ninja swordsmen of the mist, but now is a part of the Akatsuki." Asuma said spitting out his half-burnt cigarette and taking out his chakra blades.

"It's quite an honor being remembered by one of the Former Guardian Shinobi Twelve. Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave!" Kisame spat out a huge volume of water from his mouth, enough to fill a small lake.

"That technique needs a lot of chakra." Shikamaru said before the four jumped out of the way, to avoid getting hit by the water waves coming out of Kisame's mouth."Asuma-sensei, we need to get rid of the water in order for my shadow possession jutsu to work. This is such a drag."

"On it. Cover me. Fire Style: Burning Ash!" Asuma said spewing out a stream of chakra-infused gunpowder from his mouth covering Kisame and a lot of the water in a smokescreen. He then rubbed his chakra blades together to form a spark, which ignited the gunpowder causing an explosion. After the smoke from the explosion was cleared, a lot of water had evaporated, but Kisame was nowhere to be seen.

"Under you!" Ino shouted

Kisame appeared in front of the four. The four jumped away from him.

"Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu!" Kisame said forming four water clones.

"Earth Style: Stone Clone Jutsu!" Ino said spitting out earth from her mouth, which then transformed into eight clones. She knew that her clones were definitely stronger since earth has an advantage over water, but didn't want to take any chances. She then sent sets of two clones to take out Kisame's one clone. In the end she managed to take all of Kisame's clones out and was still left with three clones.

Suddenly Kisame's clones appeared in front of all four of them from underneath the water and tried to capture them in his water prison jutsu. Shikamaru and Choji were captured, but Asuma and Ino managed to get away. Asuma engaged in a taijutsu fight with Kisame. His chakra blades against Kisame's Samehada. After a while, Kisame managed to strike Asuma and sent Asuma underwater. Asuma tried to resurface but Kisame had other plans. "Water Style: Five Hungry Sharks!" Kisame put his hands on the water and formed five sharks from the chakra released from the tip of his fingers. Asuma cut the sharks with his chakra blades, but they reformed immediately, meanwhile Ino freed her teammates from Kisame's water prison. Tired of cutting the sharks, Asuma gathered a huge amount of chakra in his chest. "Fire Style: Grand Fireball Technique! Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" He fired off a fireball and then intensified it with a gust of wind. This evaporated all of the water.

"Earth Style: Stone Golem!" Ino said ramming her hands onto the ground and forming three humanoid creatures. The creatures attacked Kisame leading him to Shikamaru. Suddenly, Kisame couldn't move.

"Ninja Art: Shadow Possession Jutsu Complete." Shikamaru said.

"Human Boulder!" Choji shouted coming with huge velocity at Kisame. Kisame couldn't move which led to the Akimichi crushing Kisame.

The four examined the corpse and found a sand ninja. Just when they were about to leave a ginger cat stopped them.

"I am Kaito. Neko-sama has asked me to lead you to him. They have found the Akatsuki hideout and are heading there." The cat said leading the four to Team Uzu.

A/N:

Another chapter down. The next chapter is going to be about the rescuing of Gaara. What are your thoughts on the OC? I am sorry if the chapter was too short but the last week has been really busy. I have decided not to let Shukaku be extracted from Gaara, if you have any idea on that let me know.

1) Should I kill off both Deidara and Sasori? (Deidara by the hands of Sasuke and idk who's going to kill Sasori.)

2) Should Ino and Aiko get a summon?

Let me know!

Peace!