Chapter 11

"Beat that you bastard!" Temari summons her one-eyed weasel, Kamatari, and having a stronger wind whirl attack, she is able to throw the enemy nin several metres away. Immediately, after landing on the ground, the enemy nin jerks and clutches at his neck as if something or rather someone is suffocating him.

Temari knows that its Kamaru's doing.

-o0o-

A year ago, when Temari had just turned 17 and been just promoted to a Jounin, Temari's team, comprising of Ino and Choji, was sent by the third Hokage to the Land of Rivers for a B-ranked mission. There they accidently met the Kazekage's three sons who had an S-ranked mission.

Temari had volunteered her team as Kamaru's team's back-up. Kamaru just said, "Tch," his meaning unclear while the second brother called Kankuro replied, "Whada fuck for?" and Gaara just eyed Temari's team silently.

Temari was expecting Ino at least to disagree but seeing how the other Kunoichi approached Kamaru and said, "It's been a long time," in that flirty voice of hers, Temari was tempted to glare at Ino but did not. Instead Temari glanced at Choji and noted that her other teammate seemed resigned to the idea and was eating his chips way faster than normal.

According to a Suna intelligence report Sasori of the Red Sand was still alive. The Kazekage's sons were then assigned to apprehend him. At the start, it was just a fight between Sasori and Kankuro, a duel between two puppet masters. In the end, Gaara had to intervene; he saved Kankuro by sheilding him with his sand when Sasori's puppet Hiruko attacked Kankuro with its long scorpion-like tail and its poisoned tip. It was then that Shikamaru figured that Sasori's objective was to remove Gaara's protective shell from around himself, but before Shikamaru could create the appropriate hand seals, Temari had used her wind jutsu to blow away the rain of poisoned senbon that was directed towards Gaara. It was just a small victory but it bought Gaara's sand time to return and enclose even Gaara and not just Kankuro.

Later, with both Kankuro and Choji critically injured and with flying poisoned senbons in every direction, Temari shouted at Gaara that Ino could help slow the progress of the poison if only she could perform her healing seals undisturbed. Gaara understood what Temari meant.

Temari then shoved Choji towards Gaara's sphere of sand before it could close and hollered at Ino to take cover inside also. Gaara did not seem to mind the orders she issued to her teammates. While inside the sphere Ino healed Choji and Kankuro the best she could, but with the exact antidote to the poison being unknown, all she could do was slow the progress. Gaara's floating eye of sand was left to observe what was happening outside the sand cocoon.

Temari knew there was no more room for Kamaru and her to take cover inside the sand shell so there was nothing left to do but for her and Kamaru to face the wrath of the thwarted Akatsuki member. Temari tried to repel all the flying senbons, protecting herself and Kamaru, but there were just too many. Her arms were getting tired and her chakra was getting low from continuously waving her tessen.

With all the flying senbons around, it casted a sufficient amount of shadow for Shikamaru to utilize the Invisible Shadow Thread Jutsu, but with that technique he could only manipulate a few ultra thin strings of shadows at a time while with the Shadow Sewing Technique he could increase his success of apprehending the puppet since he could make more shadow needles go through the enemy sewing it to the ground. However, in this instance subtlety was more important. The Invisible Shadow Thread Technique had the advantage of it being probably not going to be noticed even by Sasori.

Shikamaru performed several hand seals behind Temari's tessen's protection. The enemy did not even detect the two attempts Shikamaru made before he was able to reach Hiruko's underbelly. He was able to silently coil the shadows around each chakra strings that held the puppet together. Years of watching Kankuro assemble and disassemble his puppets had paid off when simultaneously Shikamaru disrupted the flow of chakra with his shadow strings. The puppet Hiruko suddenly fell limb by limb. Then immediately Temari gave the disassembled parts a whooshing blast of her fan smashing them to pieces, preventing them from re-assembling.

Without Hiruko, the young body of Sasori appeared. Furthermore, it was revealed that the legendary third Kazekage of Suna became Sasori's puppet and with it the third Kazekage's Iron sand techniques were now at Sasori's disposal.

Temari, breathing hard, resumed waving her tessen but it was no use; the metallic ore from the third Kazekage deposited itself on her fan's joint and leaves making it heavy and ineffective.

While Shikamaru just kept on eluding the gigantic prism-like piece of metal comprising of iron sand that tried to squash him; thinking of a way to utilize his shadow. It was then that Gaara's sand dispersed and seemed to fuse with the iron sand. The gray metallic weapon, no matter how big it was, was spotted with then totally enclosed within the brown sand weighing it down and nullifying its magnetic ability.

With the majority of the iron sand imprisoned within Gaara's sand, Temari took the chance to run towards the Kazekage puppet and smashed it with her still clogged, still stucked open fan. Heaving, Temari smirked towards Gaara while the gray sand fell to the ground from her weapon. Gaara just stared at her, his expression non-changing. After that Gaara returned his attention to Sasori, who was now readying his next assault.

With Kankuro and Choji weak but breathing, Ino and Temari protected them from the numerous puppets Sasori had still in his arsenal while Gaara and Shikamaru did the offensive attacks on these puppets. It was soon after that Shikamaru realized the weakness in Sasori. He then whispered his plan to Gaara. Gaara then waited for a chance to pierce the cylinder embedded on Sasori's chest with his sand.

With Sasori dead, Temari slumped on the ground in relief. After a while Gaara approached Temari, offering his hand to help her get up.

"Thanks." Temari reached for Gaara's hand and hauled herself up.

Without saying anything Gaara turned his back then he lifted Kankuro's weakened body with his sand, leaving behind Choji's.

Temari glared at Gaara's back. Subsequently, she noticed that Gaara with Kankuro had gone ahead, leaving an exhausted Kamaru behind. Temari approached the young man who, like she had before, sat on the ground to rest after defeating Sasori.

"We're even," Temari declared calmly.

Shikamaru lifted his head towards Temari and murmured, "Tch." Unable to add anything Shikamaru swivelled his head towards his departing brothers. He stood up and took the first step towards his brothers when Temari spoke again.

"Don't worry it won't stop me from saving your lazy ass next time." Temari then turned her back away from Kamaru. She was smirking and quite satisfied with her parting shot. Then together with Ino, Temari lifted Choji's body from the ground, propping him up between them. Since the Land of Rivers is situated between Konoha and Suna, Temari's team would reach Konoha before the three days that it would take for the poison to kill Choji. Likewise for Kankuro, he would receive Suna's medical help in time.

Shikamaru, following with his eyes Temari's team's progress, realized that the next time he would see Temari again it would not be on the Chuunin examinations.

TBC

1 16/2 22.23/11

~7 8 11AF~

A/N: Whew, when I wrote the plot of this story, I didn't realize I needed to write some action sequence. But then I should have known that the way to a sandsib's heart was through a battle. So hey I tried. Tell me what you guys think.

And to Sandanio, your review helped me a lot in this chapter. This chapter was only halfway done for more than a month now. What you said clinched something in me. Thanks.