Chapter 6.
Pairing: Naruto x Yugao.
A/N: It's been a while. I know, I know, I say that in a lot of my stories. Sometimes I just feel like writing The Spiraling Empress, sometimes I feel like writing Heir to The Blade. It mostly depends on my mood if I have to be honest. I want to answer a question from the last chapter, or rather it wasn't really a question but a complaint about my elite team.
The reason I didn't pick people like Gai and Shikamaru, is simply because their skills are much better used elsewhere. Shikamaru is already part of the next generation Ino-Shika-Cho, and what would Gai be without his youthful student Lee? I mostly see them working better in these respective groups, because of the already established dynamics that they have. Sorry for the long author notes.
Tsunade's Office
As the number of people within the office increased from one to six, Tsunade lifted up her head to see the people gathered before her. It hadn't been super long since she last saw them, and she was without a doubt second-guessing her choice of summoning them so soon. They hadn't had enough time, Shizune had been wonderful enough to remind her of that. The situation, however, called for action. An alliance, and a life, were at stake.
This team had been created for this, an elite response team to handle missions beyond that of regular Shinobi. She just hoped that they would be able to put aside their lack of teamwork, and succeed, because hanging in the balance, was the life of the current Kazekage, Gaara no Subaku. And Konoha was needed to aid them.
Suna had said as much. Their village was still lacking ever since the failed invasion four years ago. In fact, from what Naruto and Jiraiya had learned during their travels, the only three promising aspects within the village beside Gaara was the other two Subaku siblings and their sensei Baki.
There was however also other people in the village that were strong, but nothing quite like those four. Though, there were actually two others that would come to mind. The Honoured siblings. Chiyo and Ebizo, but those two had grown old and retired from active duty long ago, but their feats during the last wars were nothing to joke about.
Tsunade let her eyes gaze around the room, trying to decipher the atmosphere present. They still didn't seem like a team, they were still clearly split. The three eldest among the group stood together, and the two youngest were standing together. It would probably take some time, but she was confident that they wouldn't be split for too long. She just hoped it wouldn't become a problem with what was at stake at the moment.
"As the messenger told you, we are in the middle of an emergency. The Akatsuki has taken the Kazekage for his Bijuu, and time is running away from us. I know that this is unorthodox and that you two haven't been given enough time to get to know each other, furthermore work together. Status is just, that we don't have the luxury of time. The life of Gaara no Subaku may be slipping away as we speak, and this team was put together for times such as this." Tsunade trailed off, letting the information sink into their heads as Kakashi stepped forward.
Gazing around at his team, the silver-haired leader sighed, "What do you require of us Hokage-sama?"
The blonde Hokage tapped her fingers on her desk before standing up and turning around to face out of the window in her office, "Despite the unique circumstances, the village and the alliance between Suna and Konoha needs you to take action. The situation is a bit tricky at the moment, they currently don't have a lead on where Gaara was taken to, but his brother Kankuro may have an idea. However, there's a problem. Kankuro was badly injured whilst fighting one of the Akatsuki, so Suna also needs someone with medical expertise."
"I assume we are to run status on the situation first, gather all intel we can as we wait for a medic team to arrive?"
Tsunade nodded her head, "That's correct, gather all the information you can. Any intel on the Akatsuki members could prove useful in the upcoming battle because your objective is to save the Kazekage. We have to expect these guys to not go down without a fight, so be careful out there and watch each others' back."
Kakashi gazed around again, there was a mixed vibe from the people around him. Uncertainty, discomfort, but most important of all, he sensed a genuine sense of determination. Turning his head back, he nodded his head at Tsunade who had turned around to face them again, "We'll do it, not that we had much choice in whether or not we were going to anyway."
Tsunade quickly nodded her head with a satisfied smile, "I once again apologize for the way this had to happen, but it was out of my control. Kakashi is taking point, Tenzo will be second in command. Now go, time is of the essence. We don't have enough of it to waste."
No more was needed to be said before the five Hashira vanished from the room. They had all prepared to leave at a moment's notice when they had gotten the message from the ANBU earlier, so without the need to stop by their base of operations, they just rushed through the village and out of the gate, making the infinite gate guard duo, Izumo and Kotetsu, fly back in their chairs when five figures raced by them at incredible speeds.
The journey to Suna had been uneventful. Nothing had been said during the entire trip, though the atmosphere among them was so thick you could cut through it with a kunai knife. Their squad had been formed today, so all of them were hoping this would work out. The three eldest had all be sharing time within ANBU, so they had at least had the luxury of getting to know each other a little more earlier on.
But even with that in mind, it had been years since they had last worked together. And now they were an even larger cell without more than one teamwork exercise under their belt, but then again, what could be better than a life or death situation to push people closer together?
One thing Naruto did manage to notice in the midst of all of this, was a certain aura surrounding the lone female member on the team. He couldn't at first pinpoint what it was, but it felt cold. It was like she brought a chill throughout the room, and it had been like this ever since they had arrived in Suna. Even when it was just their team gathered, she still decided to take a seat a bit away from the group.
Actually, it was more accurately whenever Baki was in the room that things seemed to get worse. Naruto could remember the man from the time he had attempted to become chunin, not that they had exchanged words, but he had managed to get a couple of glimpses at the end of the second exam, and the start of the third one. He was starting to get certain that the frustration evident in Yugao's features, were somehow tied together with this Baki fella.
Gazing into the room from the hallway they were placed in, Naruto looked on with a frown as Kankuro rolled and turned as he occasionally roared out in pain. The poor guy had apparently been poisoned, and the toxin within his system made people believe that the one behind it could be some guy named Sasori. The blond didn't know that much about this person, he and Jiraiya had gotten a bit of intel on him, but that was about it.
No one from the village had seen him either if that was the case, supposedly only one guy had attacked the village and fought Gaara as he tried to protect it. There wasn't much to be said about him either, which was starting to get on their nerves. The man in question had been said to utilize explosives, dropping them from the sky as he flew around on a huge bird. If it hadn't been for Gaara, then the village would have been nothing more than another dune of sand.
Running a hand through his wild unruly blond locks, Naruto sighed as he leaned in against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. There was nothing they could do but wait at the moment, they needed clues, and they had to wait for the medics to show up and run point on Kankuro's situation. If they couldn't find anything after that, then the good old scattering of shadow clones trick would have to do.
Deciding that just standing here was a waste of time, Naruto pushed off the wall and aimed to figure out exactly why the purple-haired woman seemed so distant all of a sudden. Not that she had been super talkative before, but this was like… a lot worse. She was also the only one he had failed to really speak to yet, he had obviously been in contact with Neji and Kakashi before, but out of the two new people he had met, he had only talked with Tenzo for a brief time.
Stepping up beside the place she was sitting, he cleared his throat and put up a friendly smile as he pointed down next to the seat beside her, "Do you mind?"
Yugao who had been deep in thought blinked a bit out of surprise when she heard the sound of someone asking her something, lifting her head up, she came into eye contact with Naruto who was pointing down beside her. She hadn't exactly heard what he asked her, but she could somewhat figure out what it was. "Go ahead."
Naruto sweatdropped a bit at that, conversing wasn't looking that promising so far. Oh well, not like you could call it a conversation yet anyway. So sitting down beside her, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs, his fingers intertwined as he looked down in front of him, "I don't suppose it's any of my business, but you seem to be… troubled. I know I'm a stranger and all, but you're my teammate now. If there's anything wrong, I want to help."
The woman hadn't said anything after Naruto had taken a seat beside her, but she had kept a watchful eye on him as she sat down. The question surprised her a bit, but it really shouldn't have. The number of emotions she was experiencing at the moment, was probably quite noticeable. Sighing slightly, she shifted her gaze in the opposite direction. "I'm just not too fond of Suna, I suppose."
Frowning a bit at that, Naruto tilted his head to try and get eye contact again but failed to do so. He could understand why a lot of people would feel sour about Suna, they did try and destroy their home and all. "How come?"
Clenching her fist tightly at the question, Yugao took a deep breath and tried to sound as polite as possible, but her tone did manage to betray her slightly as she said, "You're right, it isn't really your business. It's personal."
Feeling as if someone had smacked him on top of the head with a frying pan, Naruto scratched his cheek and nodded, "I understand, I'm sorry for prying, I'll go now." His words sounded almost robotic, but he had no idea about what he should do. This was a rather delicate mission, and they needed to work together on this. So fueling bad emotions toward the village they were supposed to aid, wouldn't really be that helpful.
Pushing himself up from the seat, he sighed and prepared to walk back to where he had been standing earlier. He paused momentarily as he noticed Yugao's eyes looking up at him, like she wanted to say something, but then she turned her head away again. It only managed to confuse him further, but he figured that if she wanted to talk then she'd come around.
On his way back to the place he had stood before talking to his female team member, he had been stopped by Kakashi who had lightly grabbed onto his arm. Turning his up toward his sensei, Naruto looked on as Kakashi quickly nodded his head in Yugao's direction, "What was that about?"
Naruto sighed and shrugged his shoulders, "I would answer if I could. I just thought that she felt a bit off, and I was right to assume so, but she doesn't really seem to want to talk about it."
His answer made Kakashi nod, the silver-haired man had a pretty good idea why Yugao was feeling down in the dumps at the moment, but it wasn't his place to say. 'It really isn't my place to tell our team that Suna is responsible for her late fiance's death...' He and Yugao had been squad members in ANBU, so they had friends for some time. Or at least close enough to be called that.
From what he had heard from the people they both talked to, the woman had somewhat gotten over Hayate in the past four to five years. There was however something quite serious about the situation they were in because Yugao had sworn to avenge Hayate's death. And the man who had killed him? Well, he was in the other room at the very moment.
"She'll tell you why eventually, but I'm sure she appreciated the offer to talk." Kakashi smiled and let go of Naruto's arm.
Naruto however tilted his head, "You know why." It wasn't a question, but a statement. Those specific words revealed that Kakashi knew why Yugao was upset, which meant that Tenzo probably knew as well. Those three had a history together after all.
The conversation didn't go on any further as the doors to the hallway they were in opened. In stepped a group of five, were only three of them were familiar. Specifically, one face made Kakashi and Naruto sigh, because in came Temari, the eldest of the sand siblings followed by none other than Sakura and Ino. Oh yeah, this wasn't going to get awkward at all.
The eldest of the Subaku didn't manage to spot the amount of non-Suna Shinobi that was also present, because the sight of her brother managed to catch all of her attention in an instant. "Kankuro!" The blonde girl cried out as she immediately tossed her battle fan against the wall and rushed to her brother's side, a pained expression on her face as she took a hold of his hand. The look of pain and suffering on his unconscious face, along with how his entire form was wrapped up in bandages, made her teeth grit with anger. 'Those damn Akatsuki! First Gaara… now Kankuro…'
Much to Naruto and Kakashi's surprise, Sakura didn't give them much thought. She did, however, give them both a very menacing glare before rushing along with Ino to Kankuro's side where Temari already had gone. They didn't get much time to dwell on the situation, since a very surprising uproar came from their right as the old woman that had entered as one of the last screeched out, "I'll never forget what you did back then. Konoha no Shiroi Kiba! I shall avenge my son's death today by defeating you today!"
Kakashi had been surprised at the mention of his father's moniker, so much that he almost stumbled at the sight of the old woman suddenly leaping like a tiger toward him with her hand drawn back to strike.
Naruto, on the other hand, raised a brow and stepped in front of Kakashi and caught the woman's hand with ease, his eyes narrowed as he pushed it out of the way and crouched down to spun around to kick the woman off her feet. Much to the blond's surprise, this old granny easily flipped out of the way.'That old goat sure is agile for something that looks like it's about to wither away.' He scoffed out mentally.
Kashi lifted up his hands as he chuckled sheepishly, "Erh… no, you see… I'm…"
"No questions or answers! I'm taking you down today!" She interrupted, causing the entire group of Hashiras to sweatdrop at her, but before she could do anything else, the old man that had entered with her raised his hand up in front of her, bringing her to a halt.
"Chiyo-neechan… Take a good look at him! He may resemble him closely, but that's not the Konoha no Shiroi Kiba, in fact, don't you remember that you cried at the fact you couldn't avenge your son when you learned that he died all those years ago?" He mouthed out, making the old hag stumble back a bit with an embarrassed look.
With a nervous glance, Kakashi raised up from behind Naruto and waved his hand, "Uh… hello."
Naruto however felt his mouth gape wide open with a baffled look, 'Those two, could they be…'
The old woman seemed to relax at that, "Easy there Ebizo, I got them. I was just playing that I had gone senile, aha… aha…" She croaked out, the fakeness of the laughter making everyone present facepalm at her antics. Though, most of Suna didn't seem too surprised. Was this a regular thing?
There wasn't any more time to dwell on the details, because just as the woman, now identified as Chiyo, seemed to calm down, Kankuro roared out in pain with salvia exploding from his mouth, his back arching into the air as he almost rolled onto the floor while grasping his throat, and would have if it wasn't for the Suna medics pinning him down to the hospital bed again.
Sakura and Ino took this as their cue and moved in front of the medics, "Please, let us have a look at him! And the rest of you, please stand back a bit." Ino spoke out softly, making the medics nod at them, well Temari asked them to please do so.
Kakashi nodded his head at the young Yamanaka, and placed a reassuring hand on his blond student's shoulder, "Stand down Naruto, the danger has passed. Or at least I hope so?" He asked out, but not to Naruto, in fact, the question was aimed at the two Suna elders that had gone over to the place they were standing.
"Nee-chan hopefully won't attack you again, even if you do resemble the Shiroi Kiba a lot," Ebizo responded politely, while the old woman just crossed her arms across her chest with a grunt.
The answer seemed to satisfy both Naruto and Kakashi, the former relaxing his stance while moving away from Kakashi, and back in the hallway where they had been before where he joined up with the rest of the Hashira. Tenzo was the first one to speak, as he blew a gentle whistle, "That was tense, huh?"
"Sure was, I was starting to think I'd had to battle a granny…" Naruto sweatdropped and sat back in against the wall, his answer making Tenzo chuckle lightly.
In the opposite direction of the hallway, Naruto failed to see the calculating eyes of Temari looking him over with a surprised look on her face. 'Naruto? As in, the little loudmouth that stopped Gaara?'
"D-Don't come any closer!" Gaara shouted out as he laid on his back, unable to move a muscle, as his blond opponent crawling his way over using just his chin to drag him across the ground, both their foreheads were dripping with blood, neither of them barely having the energy to stay awake.
Naruto grunted, his orange jumpsuit drenched his sweat as he lifted a tearful face, "It's almost unbearable… isn't it? The pain of being all alone… The way you feel, I don't know why, but I'm completely able to understand why it hurts…" As Naruto spoke, Gaara's lips trembled with anger and confusion as he could just lay there and stare.
"But… I have important people now, people that mean the world to me now! I won't allow those precious people… to get hurt! I will stop you, even if it means that I'll have to kill you!" Naruto shouted out as he managed to lift his head completely from the ground, a scowl present on his face.
Gaara looked visibly taken back by the words, "Why…? How can you fight so hard for others?!"
"Because they saved me… from myself, and the hell of being all alone. They started accepting me for who I was, that's why they are important to me."
Those words had been what made Gaara change. Not even long after that talk, those revealings, Gaara had gone as far as to apologize to them. Making him spiral down a new path, a path toward the light he so desperately wanted to feel. Just like Naruto Uzumaki had described. He had gone for a new dream, to become the Kazekage, so he could protect his village and no longer be viewed as the monster that once terrorized it.
And he had succeeded. This blond boy in front of her… well, she didn't really know if he could be considered a boy anymore. This guy seemed nothing like the blond she saw fighting Gaara, but then at the same time he did, it was just quite obvious he had grown up from being the loud brat she had met at the chunin exams.
The intensity of the situation seemed to disappear slowly after the arrival of the medics from Konoha, they had gone ahead to extract the poison from Kankuro's system. It had been such an impressive sight, that even Chiyo had made a comment about the two young Kunoichi resembling Tsunade a great deal, only for her to be told that they were actually both being taught medical ninjutsu by said person.
They didn't stick around for long though if such a poison like this was in play, they had to see if they could create an antidote. So upon request, the medics from Suna had taken them to a place where they could find all the available medical herbs you could find in Sunagakure no Sato.
Stuff was concerning at the moment, however, because as the medics had been working on Kankuro, Baki had gone ahead to talk to Kakashi about the situation at hand. Kankuro had apparently stormed off on his own, despite being told not to. Hence why he was in the hospital at the moment, and had been so close to dying. A team of hunters had also been dispatched, but none of them had checked in or come back yet. So their fate was probably no better than what Kankuro had been about to meet before Ino and Sakura arrived to save his life.
Though, despite all of this being terrible, there was something a bit more confusing and troubling. A chief from within the village had gone missing, and Baki was quite certain that this man wouldn't have gone down so easily. It made some wheels in Kakashi's head turn. The information about how the Akatsuki had appeared out of nowhere without anyone noticing, made him wonder. Could this have been an inside job?
"Baki-sama! Kankuro has woken up." One of the medics from Suna called out, getting the people in the room's attention.
The middle child of the Subaku family groggily woke up a bit after the poison had been extracted, and the sedatives were wearing off. His vision returning to him, only to see the worrying face of his older sister, "What… you're back already, Temari?" As he spoke those words, his eyes roamed around the room, noticing headbands from the leaf present as well as some familiar faces.
"I heard that the village was in crisis…" She mouthed out, making Kankuro frown weakly.
"Sorry for making you worry."
Temari scoffed a bit at that, before smiling gently, "You fool, don't talk such nonsense."
Kakashi looked away from the reunited siblings, and onto Baki who was standing on his right, "Please take me to the place where Kankuro did battle. I may not look like it, but I'm quite good at tracking. Just a bit of a lingering scent, and we'll be able to figure out where the Akatsuki took Gaara."
Baki looked on in surprise at that and opened up his mouth to respond to that. He of course knew of the various skills and feats of Kakashi Hatake, but despite how much the bingo book praised him, there was always more beneath the surface, just as he had just learned now. Not only did he know over a thousand jutsu, but he could also qualify as a professional tracker. Which meant he was just as skilled, if not more, than hunter nins.
However, before Baki could reply, Kankuro groaned as he forced himself into a sitting position, "T-There's no need for that, my puppets… they have all been recovered, right?"
Baki nodded his head in affirmative, a bit questioning as he waved his hand to one of his subordinates that brought the destroyed parts of Kankuro's three puppets into the hospital room.
Kankuro glanced down at the shattered puppets with a pained look, those would take forever to get reassembled correctly again. "The enemy forces, they were two in number. One rode a giant bird, but it wasn't a real one. It almost looked like it was made out of clay, and the other one…"
He trailed off, without finishing his sentence as he with a chakra string forced the puppet's hand to open up to reveal a little torn piece of fabric, "His scent is on that one. All you have to do, is follow his scent, right? In Crow's left hand, I hid away a piece of fabric from one of the Akatsuki… I believe he was..."
Chiyo sighed and interrupted in the middle of the sentence there, "It was Sasori, wasn't it?"
Kankuro's eyes widened slightly, "I believe so, he claimed to have made all three of my puppets. Every single one of them, he knew all of their weaknesses, their strengths, and exactly how they worked. It didn't even take him five minutes to destroy them all and defeat me…"
Kakashi crouched down next to the puppet, the other Hashiras following his movement with their eyes as he grabbed the piece of fabric between his thumb and index finger, "Even if you fall, you don't go down without a fight. Just as what I'd expect from a Suna Shinobi."
The teen smirked slightly at being praised by the one and only Copy Ninja, before looking around the room again to probably see the people around him now that his vision wasn't blurry. Once they landed on a certain blond member of the Konoha group, his eyes widened in interest.
Temari followed his gaze of vision, and nodded, "Yeah, he came all the way from Konoha for us."
'Naruto Uzumaki, huh?' He thought to himself while nodding, "I see."
Naruto who had noticed the looks he was receiving and raised his arm from the place he had crossed them over his chest, "Yo..." He greeted, a slight smile on his face as the older boy chuckled in pain.
The leader of the Hashira didn't waste any time before summoning his trustworthy eight shinobi hounds, not even wasting a second before ordering them to determine the way they had headed. They could only sit and watch as the eight hounds disappeared from sight, a howl echoing off the streets of Suna as they set out to track the scent of the Akatsuki.
I know this probably wasn't the most satisfying chapter, but I've always postponed it over and over the last couple of months. I dislike writing all of this pre-mission stuff, but it is needed. And it's not that bad when I finally do get to it, I just make it sound worse than it has to be haha. I'll try and update more often, but no promises. School is starting up soon, and I dunno what to expect with all of the stuff going on around the world. I'll try to release more chapters, but with The Spiraling Empress and the new story I have in the works, then my attention is kinda split out over all of them.
However, I do have a question for all of you. Which Akatsuki member would you like to see more to in the next chapter? We all know where we are headed, so if our favorite has to fight an Akatsuki, then which one should it be?
Also, I know Yugao wasn't the nicest person here, but you can't really blame her. Stuff will evolve on that front soon enough, don't worry. They are still strangers too, and that is also relevant for all of the other Hashira members, they need to develop their relationship with each other, and I hope I'm doing a good enough job of showing that they aren't exactly the closest with the short dialogues, etc.
