Chapter 120
"Stop!" Temari calls out. Her enemies are walking away with her kid, leaving Gaara and her behind. "I see now, your plan! Gaara—"
Deidara just acts as if he didn't hear anything. He simply follows the puppet with the crying baby gripped in its scorpion-like tail.
"I SAID STOP!" Temari calls out again, the desperation she's trying to hide bleeding out into her voice. When they didn't stop, she finally moves her feet to pursue them. She can't just leave Gaara's body behind but she needs to be where her baby is.
Deidara finally deigns to glance behind him. "If you follow us...I will just kill you along the way. Then my companion over here will tell your baby when he's big enough that both his parents are dead. At least that will be partially true thanks to me."
"Shikamaru is looking for us. He will find—"
"Good. Then when your kid is told both his parents are dead...that will be actually a hundred percent true." Deidara laughs.
"Laugh all you want now but once you kill me and finally realize how dumb you are for thinking you can take care of a baby 24/7—"
"Jokes on you. It's not my problem taking care of your brat. Just this one will be taking care of it," dismisses Deidara, pointing at the back of the puppet Hiruko. Then he swivels around and resumes walking.
Temari then laughs out loud then stops abruptly, then she runs to overtake the slow moving puppet to sneer in its face, "So you went to all this trouble but in the end you have no idea what you are getting into."
The puppet speaks, "I know what I'm doing."
"Hope you can still say that when you go without sleep seven days in a row," challenges Temari.
While Deidara continues walking, the puppet stops, pulling the baby grasped in its scorpion like tail closer to its eye level. The baby cries even harder then.
"Face it. You need me. Shikadai is a fussy baby. He sleeps a little at a time and prefers to play peekaboo at night," Temari says, lying through her teeth. Shikadai is the most even tempered baby and likes to sleep a lot. "I've tried giving him formula once then he developed rashes, we had to rush him to the hospital. It was a nightmare, he was so itchy he couldn't sleep even a little," Temari continues. That was true enough, Shikadai was rushed to the hospital because Shikamaru thought a scorpion bit him. It was just an ant, but Shikamaru saw the weal and thought the worse as expected from someone who grew up in Suna. However, it wasn't a nightmare, it was actually very funny at the time.
"It's so easy to kill me. I won't even attempt to fight since you have my child, hostage. I may not like whatever you have planned for Shikadai but I am too pragmatic, I recognize that I am too powerless to do anything for him right now. So hear my proposition. Postpone killing me until you have a clearer picture of what you are taking on. Take me with you and I swear I won't try to run away with him."
"I don't trust your word, Konoha nin," retorts the puppet.
"Why didn't you just kill me then?! Why did you just plan to leave me with Gaara's body?!" asks Temari, angrily, "I know! Because I was supposed to return back to Suna to report that the Kazekage is dead and lead them to his body...Only that Gaara isn't really dead, isn't he?"
Deidara finally stops walking too, swiveling again to look sharply at Temari.
"I told you, I see your plan. Gaara is not dead. You just want us to think that. You need him. So once he's buried, you'll steal his body and revive him. Which leads me to ask why..." taunts Temari with a knowing smirk. "Trust me that question isn't too hard to figure out, not when I have the help of two villages behind me."
Deidara visibly grits his teeth.
"You really have no option now but to either kill me or take me with you. And if you do kill me, I promise you, you would regret it!" rasps Temari.
Deidara marches back, intent on killing the argumentative, know-it-all kunoichi. He knows his partner who hates delays will appreciate it.
—oOo—
How are we supposed to look for Temari and her baby now?" Naruto asks. His arm still on Kamaru's shoulders and that's the only reason why he detects it. Tiny tremors just run through Kamaru's body. He's clearly shaken. Naruto clears his throat. "Anou, it wasn't just luck that you found this place. Your men are good at tracking. We can depend on them."
"Yes because Temari helped. She kept dropping off her weapons." Shikamaru gestures at the fan left by the other Suna shinobi near them. There are three other Suna shinobis scouting the area. However, Shikamaru grew up in this village. This is the Sand, he recognizes the fact that if someone wants to disappear in this barren land, it's all too easy. "My men have found Temari's fan. She must be out of weapons to drop by now."
Naruto lets go of his hold on Kamaru shoulders so he can pat his back in support. "You don't just have your men. You also have me and Sasuke. And we will find a way to find your wife and your kid."
"You'rewrong!" someone bellows at Naruto.
Everyone glance at the new arrivals except Sakura, whose concentration remains centered on Gaara. Kankuro lifts his head but knows he can't abandon his post. The three Suna medics assisting Sakura has no such qualms as they form a barrier to the new arrivals.
Panting, Ino wipes the perspiration from her forehead and takes the clammy, sticky hair off her face. "I was able to read your lips, Naruto. You're wrong. Kamaru does not just have your team, he also has me, Choji and Neji and the rest of Konoha if need be."
The Suna shinobis look pointedly at Shikamaru, awaiting orders.
Shikamaru gestures at the new arrivals, at Ino, Choji and Neji. "My wife has a lot of friends...and marrying her seemed to have made me acquire them as well," he mutters.
"You aren't gonna ask your friends how did they got here so fast? Sasuke asks, sarcasm dripping from his voice
"Tch, no need. It's obvious. They have Neji," Shikamaru answers.
"So you know about his jutsu?" Naruto asks.
"Yes, I know about Neji's eyes. Temari once wanted to spar with him while she was pregnant," Shikamaru replies. "It's probably too easy for him to follow you and Sasuke here."
"Sasuke and his team doesn't know we're coming too," discloses Ino. "When we heard about their mission, of course, me and Choji volunteered. But you guys already left so we asked Neji to come with us so we can find you faster."
—oOo—
"Kankuro go with Sakura back to our village. Make sure our people listen to her. She will need help gathering the supplies she requires for the antidote. And make sure the poison...is disposed properly," Shikamaru orders.
"Are we really going to destroy the poison? It's a great weapon. Just imagine what we could accomplish with it. It can render our enemies unconscious just like that," replies Kankuro, clicking his fingers.
"No. We will destroy it. If it ends up being duplicated, it's just too dangerous in the wrong hands," reiterates Shikamaru.
"Kamaru is right, Kankuro," adds Sakura, putting away the equipment she used but doesn't need anymore, getting ready to travel to Suna's hospital.
"Thank you." Shikamaru nods at Sakura before he swivels back his attention to his brother. "Make our people listen to you. They will know Gaara is still unconscious...reassure them that he is fine. We wouldn't want a power struggle at this time."
"That's not a problem for now, big bro. The village of Suna just witnessed Gaara saving them. Anyone taking advantage of the situation will have a hard time convincing them that Gaara isn't fit enough to be the Kazekage," replies Kankuro.
"I will take just two of our men," Shikamaru says in goodbye. "You go back with the rest."
Kankuro nods his head. "You bring them home safe."
"I will," Shikamaru replies, "bring Temari and Shikadai back home alive."
—oOo—
"You don't seem to believe what you just said to your brother," Neji observes, "that you will bring them back home...alive."
"Tch," Shikamaru says, evading Neji's all seeing eyes.
"Just tell us if you think we're going on a mission bound to fail...because if you think so, you can still run and catch up with your brother and my wife," snaps Sasuke.
"Sasuke, you're not helping," Ino snaps then at Kamaru, she speaks more calmly, "If you are worried...I can feel it, Temari is still alive. And while she's still alive she won't let anyone harm Shikadai."
"What you don't know, Ino, is this, Temari has no weapons left. And if they are holding Shikadai captive, she'll rather die than attack back," utters Shikamaru, matter of fact.
"No, Temari is still alive," reiterates Ino. "Whoever have them needs her to take care of Shikadai."
"Anyone can take care of a baby," replies Shikamaru, tonelessly. "What's more, I'm convinced, it was Temari who left the symbols for us to find. If Deidara and whoever with him knew that...Temari is not just dispensable but a risk they can do without."
"If they are going to dispose of Temari, we should have seen her body by now," Choji says quietly, sidling close to Ino to offer his own support to his childhood friend...because in a way he believes Kamaru speaks the truth, that Temari, his other childhood friend is probably dead.
"I'm hoping for the best, the same as you, Konoha shinobis!" Shikamaru finally snaps. "However, your lives must be too sheltered not to realize that you should also be prepared for the worst."
Sasuke grits his teeth. "Too sheltered, you say?! Just because you grew up in Suna, you think you have the monopoly of bad things happening to you—"
Naruto stops Sasuke by laying his hand on his shoulder and shaking his head at him. "We can play whose life is the most tragic game after we have found Temari and Shikadai. I'm pretty sure...Kamaru will lose."
Shikamaru looks at Naruto then at Sasuke then at Ino.
Ino's eyes when they meet Kamaru's, convey unspoken sadness.
"What?" Shikamaru asks. He is so wrapped up in his own mental torment...he realizes belatedly, he is lashing out at the wrong people.
Choji answers instead, "Naruto lost both his parents when he was just a baby. Sasuke lost his clan when he was just a kid. Neji has been branded with a cursed seal—"
"Leave me out of your discussion," Neji cuts in, looking far, far into the horizon then suddenly he sees blood spilled on the sand.
—oOo—
~late nov P12 6 20~