You guys are probably wondering who the hell that girl was with Neji. Well, its part of a spin off short I'm working on - check out the summary on my profile titled: Laughter in Their Hearts. Interested in reading it? Let me know!

Chapter 16: War

They'd known the enemy wouldn't fight fair – after all crazy take-over-the-world enemies never did – but Kira hadn't thought it would be this bad.

Though, in all honesty she hadn't been sure what to expect.

"This can't go on for much longer," she'd muttered, her back to Kankurō as they stood close together, eyeing not only enemies but comrades as well. Bringing back the dead and forcing them to fight hadn't been enough for Madara, and now these white half beings with spikes had every single person turning on each other. There was no way to tell who was an imposter, not unless you hadn't left that person's side.

Thankfully, that was the case with her best friend. The puppet master had needed the backup, fighting two former members of the Akatsuki was anything but easy, even if you had help.

As if on cue, the blond explosives master shouted again from beside her, his voice muffled from inside the prison that was Black Ant. He'd been snapping at them every few minutes about being set free so he could unleash his art, but really, how stupid did he think they were?

"You're right," Kankurō muttered, his hands at his sides, but the gleam of chakra thread still strung on his hands. The puppets of mother and father, along with the shell of Sasori all stood immobile nearby.

Honestly, it had been a bit odd to see that fight with the brought back to life Sasori. It all gave her a bit of a headache.

"Why fight it? Become part of my art and live forever in other's eyes, hmmm!" Deidara shouted again and Kira scowled, clenching her tonfas tighter and taking a moment to kick Black Art in irritation. It was bad enough that the person who had basicly killed Gaara was right next to her; she didn't feel like listening to him.

"Hey, don't take it out on Black Ant," Kankurō grumbled, but didn't turn to look at her. Kira huffed a bit and looked around again. Too many of their allies were accusing others. It was chaos, though that was the point. "We have to do something."

"I'm open to ideas," she'd muttered.

It seemed a bit unreal to her, how fast everything had come to pass. Just hours ago Kira had been scowling half-heartedly at the puppet master as he teased her about the paint on her face. He hadn't asked where it had come from, and she wondered if somehow he'd figured it out. Once the team had landed it had only been a little over an hour before the war had officially broken out. Somewhere down the line, their team had been broken up, and Kankurō and herself had teamed up with the Samurai troop from the Land of Iron. They held their own pretty well despite not wielding Justus, but she could tell the leader had been relieved to see them.

That seemed so long ago now. Time had passed, almost two days of it, and Kira had gone from stalling and eyeing her fellow ninja to suddenly leaping forward to save one.

More enemies had come, four more powerful undead, two of which Kira recognized. Kankurō was fighting the first of them, Lady Chiyo, the elder who had died to save Gaara. The old woman had spoken to both of the stunned sand ninja for a moment grumbling about how unfair it was to be controlled at her age. Chiyo was one the few who had known of Kira's purpose in the village, as the elders were some of the few who worked closely with the previous Kazekage. She had known of Kira's place, know of her mission to keep others away from Gaara.

She had also been the one to order that Kira be put on an ANBU team after Gaara's father had passed. Kira wished she had been able to thank her, but life seldom works like that and thus Kira had been called away to deal with the other undead she recognized.

Kimimaro was as stunning as he had been in his Bingo Book picture. White hair, startling eyes and a power that was nearly limitless. A power that had almost killed Gaara and had led Kira to studying him even after his death, not because she had thought she would ever face him, but because he had been so dangerous.

It was that knowledge that was the only thing Kira thought was keeping her from being a corpse on the forest ground like so many of the samurai division. She told them to back off, to go help their leader who was fighting another resurrected. They had, a few sticking around to watch, maybe back her up if she needed it. She wasn't sure they could help, even when the battle had started simple enough, just the use of her tonfas and Taijustu, a few earth justu here and there.

It just didn't stay simple for long, not when sharp bone spikes suddenly erupted from the ground and Kira had no choice other than to jump backwards and with them following her like striking snakes, growing impossibly fast. One sliced into her cheek just as she touched the ground and the shadows of the trees snatched her up a moment before the rest could impale her.

She appeared behind him using his own cast shadow and landed a blow to the back of his neck with her weapon that sent him crashing to the ground. The blade cut deep, a move meant to sever the spinal cord and kill instantly. Except it didn't kill him, didn't even spill blood, it was like she had shredded paper and as she stared that paper began to float back to their rightful spots, and Kimimaro's fingers twitched.

Kira had known it wouldn't work, known that all of the dead brought back were immortal. Sheathing one of her tonfas she reached into a side pouch to pull out one of the sealing tags Aya had given her. They were imbued with her jutsus, and only needed to be activated by Kira's own charka. They weren't true seals but they would immobilize him and trap his chakra. She just needed to get them on the boy.

Things were just… never that simple.

It was her training that kicked in and told her she was being attacked from behind. Turning Kira struck out with her other weapon and caught the blade of a Samurai warrior. Or at least he appeared to be one; the wide grin on his face told otherwise. Kira let out a sound of frustration and dropped the sealing tag in order to stop a kick to her side from the same imposter. She pushed back, hard, and made him stumble, which gave her the opening she needed to cut his throat. Unlike Kimimaro he didn't regenerate but rather fell to the ground and turned back to his white and green true form.

Before she could even truly register her kill something smashed into the middle of her back, sending her flying forward to hit a tree. She lay on the ground a few moments stunned, tasting blood in her mouth as she blinked. Kimimaro was looking at her pointedly, and good as new. He'd hit her with a bone mass that reminded her of a club. Head still ringing Kira pushed herself back up again, grimacing.

Damn it.

This fight was so far out of her favor she wasn't sure what to do. If she just had the bone user to deal with things would be easier. Not good, but still better.

"You have a very interesting ability," Kimimaro muttered with a frown. "But that won't save you, I will do my lord's bidding, as I have been brought back to serve once more."

Kira raised a brown, the ringing subsiding in her ears as she realized that he really wouldn't have known the truth, would he? After all, he'd been dead long before. What would it do if she told him that Orochimaru was dead?

A sudden spike in chakra and a flash of orange startled Kira from her thoughts and seemed to freeze the entire battlefield. The figure was bright, covered in orange and yellow flames that made some kind of clothing. It took her another long moment for her to realize that standing before her was Gaara's best friend, Naruto. Though he certain looked different from the last time she had seen him – and the only time – he'd been beaten up pretty bad, still this seemed pretty different.

"Naruto," Kimimaro said flatly, and the blond looked to him for a moment frowning before looking around again. Kira wondered what he was looking at before quiet suddenly with a flash of chakra, he was moving and attacking the troops. Not all of them, it almost seemed random and for a moment she wanted to stop him, till she saw one of them fall and turn into a Zetsu. Moments later a tree grew from him, and as she watched, every single one Naruto attacked did the same, a small forest forming from the bodies.

Stunned once more all she could do was watch. Somehow he had found a way to tell the imposters from the real ones. How was he even there? Kira frowned, wasn't he part of the reason they were fighting? He shouldn't have been there, but she was suddenly rather grateful he was.

The question of how he was there was a burning shout in the back of her throat, one she knew she had to ignore. He hardly knew her, probably didn't even remember her. Plus, the middle of a battlefield was no place for such questions.

Kimimaro's growl at the boy had caught his attention, but he didn't turn to him till every Zetsu was dead – or so she assumed – and sprouting trees. Naruto recognized the bone user; a frown planting itself on his face. Would he fight? Kira thought about that, knew from Gaara and her own experiences that he was an impulsive good-hearted guy. It would be easy, she was sure, to let him fight Kimimaro; Kira didn't doubt that he was more than powerful enough. Stepping back was something she thought about doing seriously for a good long moment.

It was just that... it wasn't right to let him take her fight. She'd already started this, and how could she even think about letting him do it for her. She was an ANBU. She was Gaara's personal ANBU. She was his friend. How would she look him in the eyes again if she didn't do this, didn't pull her own weight? She was strong. She was not a coward.

"Naruto," she called out and took some steps forward, placing herself near the blond and between him and her opponent. "You don't need to worry about him," she said easily, her left hand twirling her weapon. "I've got him covered."

He stared at her for a long time, with eyes that she realized were amphibian in nature, and kind of creepy. She really wanted to look away, be her shy, unconfident self. She was wearing a mask, she reminded herself, a mask Gaara and drawn himself. She would not drop her gaze, not be who she was, not when he put so much faith in her. There was a flicker of recognition in Naruto's eyes for a moment and his frown slowly became that grin of his.

"You're that girl...Gaara's friend?" he asked and looked like he struggled with something. He couldn't remember her name, she realized, and found herself smiling slightly. Honestly, it seemed unbelievable that he'd remembered her at all.

"Kira," she said "Kira Ariya."

"Right..." He scratched his head before glancing back at the bone user. "You sure you've got this?" He was concerned. Kira wasn't sure if it was for herself or if he worried about what it would do to Gaara if something happened to her. It was quite possibly both, knowing what she did about the blond.

...What would it do to Gaara if something happened to her?

The thought distracted her, left her wondering, her mind spinning off in hundreds of different directions. He would be upset – of course he would, after all, he was her friend – but how upset? Kira thought back to when Gaara had killed his uncle and the one tails had gotten loose.

Shukaku was gone though, and she felt foolish for that thought moments after thinking. She doubted he would get that upset anyway; his temperament was in much better control these days. She had no way of knowing really, what she meant to him. It startled her how much she wanted to know.

The cracking of paint on her forehead when she drew her eyebrows together snapped her from her spiraling thoughts, reminded her that she knew he cared. Remembered his fingers gliding over her face. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to find that paint, so of course, he cared about her. How much? No, it didn't matter. Not right now. Not in the middle of a war.

Focus.

Kira took a deep breath and gave a sharp nod. "I've studied him before, I know what to expect. Thank you for making things easier for me, though. The Zetsu were a problem." It was a dismissal, not an ungrateful one, but one all the same. She didn't need a babysitter, and Kira was sure Naruto had more Zetsu to find.

"You shouldn't have to do it alone."

Kira felt herself smile.

"I'm not, I promise." She wasn't after all. She'd delayed summoning them in order to let them get a feel for Kimimaro's movements. They'd had enough time, and Kira suddenly felt the need for payback on being outnumbered.

She reached up to her face and wiped at the blood from the cut on her cheek – it had bled a lot more than she thought, a small line of red running down and below her chin – and rubbed a few drops on each finger. She turned fully to Kimimaro and without another word made the string of signs and slammed her palm into the ground.

"Summing Justu, Stone Familiars."

Just like always there was no puff of smoke or flash of light that occurred with most summoning's, no that happened because the summoned were coming from different worlds. They were not, Ru and Ryoko were always nearby, tied to her by blood, they lived in the earth. So, it was only normal that they would come from the earth, the spots of blood on the ground sinking in and mounds growing up and out.

The terrain was much different from when she had shown Kankurō, all sand, and stone. Here it was a lush forest and thus the large dog-like forms – that Kira knew were coyotes but certainly would never admit to it, not after the way Kankurō had made fun of her for it – reflected that. At their base they were made of stone like always, but with an open chest cavity this time, tree roots acting like a rib cage around the glowing spirit forms of her allies. Moss clung to them in spots, creating features on the stone and soil faces that framed glowing hollow eyes. Tails of leaves and ivy hung around the back of their forms, swishing as if it were bone and muscle, not stone, that moved them.

For his part, Kimimaro reacted only with a stiffening of his limbs in surprise as both spirits pulled back muzzles of mud and moss to snarl with stone teeth. Naruto was not so unaffected letting out a startled sound and jumping back, losing the cool demeanor he had been fronting for a moment. Kira felt a smile twitch on her mouth and glanced back at him for a moment.

"See? I'm perfectly fine."

Naruto surprisingly regaining his composure quickly, realizing that his exuberant response wasn't helpful and thus clamped down on it. He gave a sharp nod.

"Guess you do. See you later than, Kira."

His words weren't hopeful, Kira realized as he leapt off to a different section of troops, they were simply and stunningly a truth he believed. As if there were no doubt in his mind that after the war was over they would meet again.

Kira couldn't decide if that was naive or amazing. Maybe both.

Brushing the thought away Kira turned back to Kimimaro and set her face into a blank, calculating mask. "You guys were watching, right?" She asked the sister spirits. Both looked at her, jaws relaxing for a moment, eyes and chest pulsing with green and yellow light as they spoke.

"Of course, you know we see everything, we pay attention to your world when we feel your chakra spike," Ryouko said smoothly, her green light somehow muted next to all the green and brown of the shape she had taken. Her sister was much more vibrant, pulsing faster to match the speed in which she spoke.

"This will be so much fun!"

The bone user scowled and Kira's little pack focused on him again. Somehow they had to confine him and get the sealing tag on him. Pain wouldn't work, nor would amputation, at least not for long. Kira let out a low sigh and readied her weapons once more.

Fun indeed.

…

If someone had told Gaara years ago, that he would one day be facing his father as an enemy, Gaara might have believed them. Certainly in the years before meeting Naruto when Gaara had trusted no one, hated almost everything. The idea of facing off with his father and getting the chance to kill him... would have been enjoyable at that point in his life. He had wanted his father to die back then.

That was not the case now, nor had that been the case for nearly two years. Yet, now was the time that he had faced his father in battle, and thus, things had been very different. It hadn't been the fight he had thought would occur; it had hardly been a fight at all. A few attacks of golden sand easily blocked by his own. Rasa had been somber, unbelieving at the idea of Gaara's growth and place in the world, unbelieving in the thought of him having friends, people that cared about him. Gaara hadn't risen to his bait, but his right hand – still stained in sky blue paint – had tightened around the new strap for his weapon. Nothing too noticeable as Gaara's arms were crossed, just the simple shift of his thumb curling under the strap. His father had momentarily followed his hand, but whatever he had been thinking, hadn't been voiced.

What he had voiced turned out to be some of the most important words Gaara had ever heard. Laid out truths about events that Gaara had been so sure of that were now altered. A change that seemed to free him from something he hadn't known was there, nor could he truly describe what it had been. He hadn't been sure of how to take it, the kindness that his father had suddenly given him. The love that had been hidden for so many years.

It was a lot to take in.

Gaara wished he'd had more time to question his father, to get better explanation for things he had done...but time had been limited and unavailable. Now his father was buried, a sand pyramid covered in binding tags serving as his prison. It was the last Gaara would see of him, he was sure of that.

Three of the four enemies were now down for the count, thanks to the fact that Naruto's clone had appeared. Said clone stood next to him on floating sand, and for the moment Gaara took a second to look around at his force. There were a lot dead, far more than he had thought possible in such a small amount of time, not even a full three days. His sister was fine, as were key justu users, though they had lost two sealing experts. Naruto was apparently alive and fine, seeing as a clone stood next to him, cloaked in gold and black.

Gaara didn't know what his brother was doing, and he also didn't know where Kira was. Contact with their team had been lost shortly after the war had begun. Uncrossing his arms Gaara glanced down at his hand, at the now flaking blue paint and frowned. She should have been there by now. It had been her orders to come find him. Her powers would have been rather helpful in these fights, and her absence worried him. Were his brother and Kira all right? War was unpredictable, plans never stayed the same once the battles started, Gaara knew that. Three days though? Gaara rubbed his thumb over the side of his hand, making more paint flack off, leaving pale skin with a tinge of blue on it and closed his eyes for a moment.

There wasn't anything he could do, that was what frustrated him the most.

"Something on your mind Gaara?" Naruto's voice drew his attention and the blue eyes boy tilted his head. Gaara blinked, wondering if he'd done something to give away his feelings. The paint, he realized. He'd been staring at his hand for longer than intended. Gaara shifted his gaze around, making sure they weren't in danger again.

"I am simply concerned about my brother and his advanced attack group. There has not been any word on them for quite some time." He would have said something about Kira, but he wasn't sure Naruto would know who she was. The redhead saw confusion in his friend's eyes for a moment and then it changed to something like clarity. Like he'd remembered something.

"Oh! That's right, I totally forgot," he gave a sheepish grin. "One of my clones ran into them, your brother and that... girl, uh, Kira?" He scratched his head "I think that was her name anyway."

Gaara's pale brows arched, okay so maybe Naruto had a better memory than he thought. His clone must have dispersed in that area then, for this one to have that information. "Are they alright?"

Naruto rubbed his neck and sighed. "They were both fighting resurrected enemies when I saw them," he explained. "I didn't talk to your brother, he was fighting that old lady, the one that saved your life."

It took Gaara a moment to realize whom he spoke of but the last part of it made it clear. "Lady Chiyo?"

"Yeah." He nodded his head. Well at least they were both puppet masters, and Gaara doubted Chiyo wanted to fight them. "Your friend was fighting that bone user... Kimi... something?" He pondered the name, once again forgetting it.

Gaara had no trouble remembering that name and he felt his joints lock at it. "Kimimaro."

"Yeah, that sounds right," Naruto confirmed.

That wasn't good.

Gaara knew first hand how dangerous that ninja was, and the fact that Kira was fighting him... it was slightly eerie really. He didn't take the ninja lightly – not that he really did with any opponent – when Gaara himself had struggled to win against him. That had been years ago, but because of the reanimation justu, Kimimaro wouldn't be dampened by illness slowing him down.

Would Kira be able to fight, and win against him?

His first thought was, no, not because he doubted her abilities, but because those abilities didn't include sealing. No matter how strong she was, if she was fighting someone who couldn't die, then she would wear out. Just as that thought had ended Gaara remember the tags Aya had practically shoved into her teammate's hands. Kira wasn't a sealer, but she did have pre-made tags that could seal.

"My clone offered to help," Naruto said after a moment, drawing Gaara's attention. "But she didn't take it. Said she had it covered and then used some kind of summoning justu. It was pretty awesome." He grinned, and Gaara stared at him both wondering how he could smile like that during a war and just what he was talking about.

Kira had a summing justu?

Gaara didn't recall her ever mentioning that, nor did she use it when they had spared. It was something he would have to ask about... if they saw each other again.

"I see," he muttered, feeling some amount of relief at his friend's words. If Kira had said she could handle it, then she must have had a plan. Gaara felt foolish suddenly, for letting worry cloud his thoughts on her. This was Kira. She was strong. He had to believe that she knew what she was doing, that she could win. He had to have faith in her, as he was sure she did in him.

The faith she'd always seemed to have in him...

Absently he ran his hand down the complex knot work of his strap and let out an even breath. At least now he knew she was alive, that she hadn't forgotten to come to his side. He was sure she would, once her battle was taken care of. It was time to keep his attention at the battles ahead of him and to not worry about something he couldn't control.

Or at least that was what he told himself.

Haha! Didn't see that coming did you? I was super annoyed that Kimimaro basically got brushed off into the background when he was a defined character already (and instead we got full episodes of random, never before seen characters that we never see again once the episode is over... Have I mentioned I don't like the war?) so I gave a bigger part.

on another note, anyone else feel like Gaara got jipped in his 'battle' with dear old dad? I was expecting a multi-part episode fight of epicness.

Nope. Instead, we find out that Rasa is an even bigger ass than we thought before. Sigh.

I really, really hate the war there is literally so much shit that happens that isn't nessary, so rest assured it's only three chapters long.

Please Review!

DROH