Heeeeere's Chapter 10! What's up readers, happy tenth chapter! It's time for the infiltration! Whoooooo
Thanks as usual to all of my reviewers, followers, favoriters and anyone who reads this story, and in honor of the tenth chapter, I'd like to thank some of my new reviewers personally!
The Writing Prokaryote- Hiiiii, I don't know if you're still reading this since it's 2020 now, but if you are, I thought I should answer back, lol
Naomi Alejandra768- *In DJ Khaled voice* Another one! Haha, I hope you're enjoying the chapters so far.
Tem- I hope you're taking care of yourself too! And I hope the chapters thus far have been to your expectations! :D
Thoughts are in italics
Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics
Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, believe me Miyako is enough of a handful by herself.
Just Another Great Day to Die
The times for existential crisis had passed Miyako up some one hundred years ago, and yet, she could feel herself questioning all of her life choices as she scanned the arena for the 4th time in the last 10 minutes. As if Naruto, the worst ninja when it came to stealth, could've possibly snuck by her.
'Should I have attempted to get through to Naruto anyway? He wouldn't have decided to not compete right? There's no way.' She flinched when her teeth suddenly met skin, having chewed off all of her nails in her nervousness and leaving only stubs behind.
'What if he's in trouble?' Her brow furrowed. 'But who would even do that?' She trailed her eyes down to Gaara standing impatiently among the other challengers, only Naruto and Sasuke missing. No one seemed too overly concerned about Dosu, but since Baki had killed their previous third round proctor, Konoha couldn't know that Gaara had killed him.
Miyako scanned the crowds from the challenger box to distract herself, spotting several ANBU black ops in the shadows, considerably less than she thought there should be for the amount of ninja packed into this space. She vaguely wondered if this was by design. She couldn't pick out Kabuto from the crowd, but she was sure he was disguised amongst them and had made himself indistinguishable white noise just like the rest of the ANBU Black Ops.
She caught Sakura's pink head amongst the stands and realized that Ino was right beside her. She didn't see Choji, Kiba or Hinata, but this was understwandable, Choji had been in the hospital yesterday and Hinata was supposedly still in poor health after her match with Neji, and Kiba seemed particularly protective over her, so Miyako was sure he'd be escorting her to the matches.
Of course they couldn't really start if Naruto and Sasuke didn't hurry the fuck up.
Obviously she didn't particularly care if Sasuke showed up, in fact, let him be delayed so she could avoid compromising her instincts further, please. But she was well aware that Orochimaru would make sure he showed up even if he had to interfere somehow himself. He was reeeeealllly looking forward to watching what Sasuke could do against a literal container for a demon.
Miyako vaguely wondered if she was going to have to separate herself from the match again and winced as the images of Sasuke blowing holes through literal rock assaulted her eyelids.
So…yes. She looked around the stands again and wondered where she could go that would be in close enough range to Gaara while also avoiding scrutinizing eyes. She eyed the stairwell behind her, and scrunched her nose, but honestly it was probably the best bet she had. She'd just have to make up some excuse to leave before Gaara's match.
Miyako sighed heavily to herself, already feeling the events of the day weighing on her shoulders. She rolled them to try and alleviate some of the tension, but it was hard to alleviate tension when she was about to let her master not only participate in a potential deadly match, but also lead him straight into another all for the sake of him of potentially shaking him out of a bloodthirsty trance.
At this point she had to admit to herself that she really didn't have an entire plan, and that she really didn't know if this half-baked plan she did was even going to work. Emotions were a fickle thing—she was essentially banking on one kid who was great with words breaking Gaara out of a killer mentality he'd built over several years for protection. And part of her was also still annoyed that it even had to happen in the first place. That a kid Gaara barely knew would probably have more luck jarring him then she ever would. Jealousy burned through her blood at the thought that she'd literally gotten on her knees to beg him, something she'd never done before then in her life, to no effect, but Naruto didn't have to sacrifice any of his character. The idea that Naruto would be the answer to Gaara's wish, that "someone would understand him so that he didn't have to do this", ate her up in unacceptable ways.
She tried to sigh out the poison and focus on something else, she wasn't doing this for her after all, well not entirely. She should honestly be more worried about the possibility of it not working, the chance in her mind was slim, but there was a possibility that Naruto didn't have enough influence, or that he wouldn't say the right thing. What would she do then?
Honestly Miyako didn't have a contingency plan for if Naruto failed. Her only thought process had been to ensure Gaara and Naruto met and then contain the fight as much as possible, she hadn't thought past the point of Naruto changing Gaara. She didn't know what she would do if he failed or succeeded honestly.
She much preferred the line of thought where he succeeded, because again she doubted she could come up with a foolproof contingency plan on such short notice. When would be an appropriate time to tell Gaara that she'd lied to him for the last month and a half? How long after one reformed themselves should the person that helped set up said reformation wait to tell the reformed person that they were a genie and that they were their genie? And more importantly, once Gaara knew this information, what would he do?
'What if he doesn't need me? What if he doesn't understand why I did what I did? What if he's not interested in further help from me at all because of this?' The swelled up so thick inside of her that her throat clogged and she choked momentarily. She coughed violently, trying to shake the images of the many what if scenarios from her brain and focus on the now.
Commotion from below took her attention, the participants were turned to a face planted orange shape, with varying ranges of expressions on their faces.
'Thank god, it's Naruto. The show can go on.' Miyako violently pushed back the jealous feelings snapping at the edges of her thoughts and made her way back down the stairs. She shifted her brain back to "work" mode, deciding that the first thing she needed to do was to locate Kabuto. She figured that if anyone was going to be a thorn in her plans, Orochimaru's Right Hand man would be the biggest. After that she'd need to make an appearance in front of Baki, she didn't need the man more on edge than he already was and if she could release some suspicion off of herself for the time being it would be better in the long run for, well, whatever came after this failed infiltration.
Miyako easily located Baki in the stands and plopped into the empty seat at the end of the aisle next to him, offering him an easy smile in the face of his scowl.
"If you go any stiffer Baki, you'll turn into a statue." She remarked easily, not even bothering to look at him as she scanned the section of stands she could see, noting that the section of stands that the Leaf genin were populating wasn't all that visible from her angle, but the seating area where the Hokage and "Kazekage" were seated was in full view. They must be waiting for some sort of signal from Orochimaru then.
"Where the hell is Uchiha?" He grunted as the challengers moved from the center of arena to the stands up top, only Naruto and Neji staying in the center. He turned a critical eye to Miyako.
Miyako raised her hands in innocence. "I haven't seen him in days." She shrugged. "They're probably just late, Kakashi apparently has a penchant for this behavior." Which wasn't very professional, but who was she to judge? She didn't want them showing up anyway, so…
Baki grunted but turned his eyes back to the match when the proctor, a man Miyako could see had some sort of oral fixation, announced the commencement of the match.
Naruto and Neji stared off, with Neji inching forward carefully like a predator analyzing next prey. Miyako didn't know what to focus on, the sharp smacking of Neji's leather presence or the calm field of Naruto's wild roses, a mere illusion before a storm.
Much like everything else in Naruto's life though, he soon attacked, launching headfirst at Neji. Their auras clashed, Neji's tangling through the thorns bristling in Naruto's like a dance that entranced anyone looking.
She didn't believe it would happen, but she vaguely wondered at the variable of Naruto losing. That could also impede on her plans, but Miyako would never insult Naruto, even if he would never know it, by interfering in anyway during his match. He was after all, at least partially so, doing this for Hinata. He needed to prove himself in his own way.
'But, Naruto doesn't have any other way to fight but close combat, and not nearly as efficiently as Neji.' As Naruto rolled away from Neji's strike at his chakra point, the pensive look on his face told Miyako that he was all too aware of what Neji was capable of. The question now was, how was he going to approach Neji for a close-quarters fight without putting his own self at risk?
'Surely he and Jiraiya must've trained for this?' Miyako chewed lightly on the nub her finger had become in thought, cursing how little she'd been able to get out of Naruto yesterday.
'All I know about is his ability to summon, and not even a clear picture of that.' Miyako heaved another sigh, watching as Naruto summoned shadow clones to the field. 'I might just be relying on this kid's stamina again.'
A pulse from closer to the Konoha side of the stands took Miyako's attention, and she sniffed in understanding, a fresh breeze whipping across her bare face. 'Hinata is anxious.' She closed her eyes and probed a little deeper, detecting that Kiba's wild aura was hovering just around her, protective as usual.
'He seems a little tenser than usual, or could that be Akamaru?' It apparently was hard to distinguish animals from their masters, but regardless the two were on edge. She couldn't make out what for, but if the two were encroaching that much on Hinata's aura then there must be something else going on aside from worry for Naruto.
Miyako spread out her field of detection and hovering just in the back was the quiet white noise of an ANBU black ops, a shield around his aura that prevented her from penetrating deeper into the identity of the person. The ANBU were always on high alert, so it could mean nothing, but it could also very well mean that it was Kabuto. Miyako tsked, opening her eyes again to find that Naruto had summoned what had to be at least 30 shadow clones.
Miyako squirmed in her seat, well aware that this was going to take a while, and feeling the need to do something. Should she make a contingency plan after all? Not because she thought Naruto was going to lose, but more because there were still too many factors up in the air. How was she going to get both Gaara and Naruto to follow the path she'd picked in the forest? Convincing Gaara was going to be hard enough, but to get Naruto to go after him? By himself? Unlikely.
She supposed that in the end it would all depend on how Gaara and Sasuke's match went, because she was sure Orochimaru was going to curb his enthusiasm for eradicating his old village to see two kids try to kill each other.
She was well aware that troops were preparing outside of the village by now, setting up summoning stations in different parts of the forest, and she wondered if she should attempt to mess with that, just to give Konoha a leg up. But, if she did that, what would that affect as far as plans go?
Miyako huffed and rose abruptly, catching Baki's attention as she made her way quickly up the stairs. She could vaguely hear Baki hissing for her to come back, but there was no way she could just sit there and watch Naruto and Neji fight when Gaara's fight was in a matter of minutes and she still had no way of ensuring her incomplete plan was brought to fruition.
G/M
People often think seeing into the future is just something that comes to you, that you just have to invite visions in and you're set to go on making a plan and changing the course of history.
It wasn't nearly that simple. First off, if you didn't use the skill enough, you had to isolate yourself from others, usually in a dark room with little to no outside stimulus so the vision wouldn't be "tainted" as it were. Then, it required you to literally detach yourself from your physical body and search. It wasn't like you opened a third eye and wham, bam, thank you ma'am, here's the future. You had to go down the path of each "decision" and look at the different versions.
It didn't take a lot of time necessarily but it took a lot of energy. So she had to choose her options carefully, which meant she couldn't waste time looking at alternate futures of her fears, like: "what if Naruto loses against Neji?" Or, "what if Sasuke doesn't show up?" Seeing as the chances of those were slim.
She also had to stop herself from attempting to go too far. It was easy once you started down a future path to forget that you weren't watching a movie with a riveting plot, it was the future that you had to be an active participant in, and getting stuck staring off into space wasn't helpful.
The easiest way to make sure none of these things happened was to limit her options and how far she went. So for Miyako, who hadn't used this kind of power since she'd plotted to kill the 9th Daimyo of Iwa with her former master, she stuck to just looking at potential failed futures to figure out how far she should interfere in the present.
The most pressing issue at the moment was how far Sasuke was going to be allowed to fight, how far they were willing to push Gaara to ensure their goals were met, and when was the right timing to take Gaara away without it seeming suspicious.
Miyako was sitting in one of the dark corridors of the arena, and the preparations were complete. She breathed in once, to steady herself in the dark and then with her eyes closed and her inquiries in mind, she felt the quick yank of her spirit being separated from her physical form.
Since she couldn't be away for too long without drawing attention to herself, she took the shortest route, forcing the reel to speed through Naruto's battle, where he won of course, and watching herself be motioned from the balcony by Baki. She wanted to linger on this interaction, but fast forwarded through herself leaving. The crowd grew uproarious at one point, and Miyako could vaguely tell by the position of the sun and the fact that Sasuke wasn't present, that his battle had been delayed.
She stifled a squawk at Shikamaru suddenly falling from the balcony. She was doubly tempted to watch his and Temari's match, but instead got a cliff's notes version that it ended in both he and Temari raising their arms in a forfeit position. She'd definitely have to ask questions about that whenever that happened in the future.
She saw herself come back shortly after the field had been cleared, talking to Baki briefly before disappearing and reappearing next to Gaara and the siblings again. She was going through the reel so fast that Kakashi and Sasuke appearing in a whirlwind of leaves only took a blink of her eyes. She watched Gaara disappear and then herself soon after, probably to go hide.
Gaara appeared on the field, he and Sasuke exchanged blows, nothing too terrible seemed to be happening as of yet, but when Gaara encased himself in his Defense Sand, Miyako slowed it down to a crawl to watch. She floated closer, she couldn't feel auras as easily as she could with a corporeal body, but Gaara's emotions were still discernable even in this form, and she could feel the mental break happening, that he was descending into madness, muttering the hand signs necessary to channel Shukaku.
She saw herself at the doorway to the arena, tried to split her attention between watching Sasuke try to penetrate the Sand with Taijutsu to no affect, until he scaled the wall and channeled his chakra for his Lightning attack.
The corporeal Miyako twitched, and everything paused as Sasuke finished channeling his chakra, the familiar loud chirping bouncing off her skull eerily.
She saw the two choices clearly, one of herself with glowing eyes in an attempt to kidnap Gaara herself, thusly starting what was sure to be an adverse domino effect, for herself anyway, and another of her stepping back into the shadows and letting Sasuke finish his attack.
Knowing she had to know what happened in order to prevent herself from doing it, she went down the path of the attempted kidnap of Gaara first, even though she realized it would instantly label her a traitor and create massive problems with the rest of her plan.
She saw herself whisk Gaara from the Defense Sand successfully without detection, she saw herself purposely get caught with Gaara thrown over her shoulder, still stunned so there would be no choice but for action to be taken and ninja to follow. She saw Sasuke attempt to leap into action to follow, but a bomb throwing him off from the Kage stands. She saw Baki appear to the siblings and order them to follow her. What she didn't see was any way for Naruto to help in apprehending Gaara. She didn't even want to closely follow herself to see what exactly was happening. She knew realistically she could take Kankuro, Temari and probably Gaara if she tried hard enough, but they'd be looking for her, and she couldn't contain Gaara, and hold off potential enemy troops from both sides, and somehow convince Naruto to follow her. The plot just drew too much attention to her at the end of the day and it wasn't a smart approach, even if it would make her feel more in control and less at the mercy of Orochimaru.
She went back to watch the more…sensible option, and though it didn't involve her nearly as much, she could handle the blow to her ego, as long as it worked. It would mean, however, that she would have to let Sand and Sound get away with a lot of shit she didn't want them to.
But that wasn't her business was it?
G/M
She showed back up to Neji and Naruto's fight right on time to see Neji unbandage his head and tell Naruto the story of how his father died. Kankuro had expressed surprise at seeing her, and Gaara had obviously tensed, but Miyako was all ears for this story that was starting to sound…familiar to her.
Before the master before Gaara, it had been decades since she last had come in contact with Leaf shinobi, and while she knew about the Hyuga clan from her adventures with Senju, her knowledge had been increased exponentially due to her last master's obsession with the Hyuga clan. Specifically, their ocular jutsu. He had wanted those eyes so badly he would do anything for them, even to go so far as stealing a child.
She'd remembered when her former master had grabbed her hands excitedly, practically salivating at the opportunity to finally acquire his prize, her voice quivering as he'd made his final wish to her that afternoon in their temporary lodging in Konoha.
"Miyako, you will make me the happiest with this wish, the strongest ninja alive once you help me in acquiring what I've always wanted."
Miyako, then clad in a skintight blue body suit with a white armored overlay and white facemask the contrasted sharply with her skin, only looked dispassionately on as her master raved. She barely held back the urge to roll her eyes as he continued to gush.
"I've located the perfect target for it, all I need you to do is give me a little more insurance." He grinned viciously, fingering the golden wide-cuffed choker around her neck with a sickly fond smile.
"Miyako," he grasped both her hands again, looked deep into her eyes, and then said the most disgusting thing Miyako had ever heard in her life, "I wish to kidnap the Hyuga heiress and take her Byukugan for myself."
Of course, Miyako wasn't as…dedicated to the Head Ninja of Kumo as she was to Gaara. She also had a penchant some years ago for having a vicious streak, and being downright unforgiving in subtly punishing her masters for their greed.
That's why she'd made sure to wake Hiashi Hyuga the night her greedy ex master had attempted to kidnap Hinata. She didn't stick around for the consequences for that action, she hadn't even known her ex-master was killed, their contract was up so why did she care? But evidently her good deed hadn't gone unpunished.
She snapped out of her trance when Naruto began to speak about Neji's destiny not being determined by his father's death and watched as the boy struggled back to his feet after Neji struck him dead in the stomach.
A quick assessment of him told Miyako that Neji had sealed off most of Naruto's chakra points, but the fact that he was still standing and didn't appear to be suffering any major adverse effects as Hinata had was promising. In the vision she saw he won, so she wasn't too worried, he'd most likely make a comeback, he was dramatic like that.
She scanned the crowds to see if she'd missed anything else, and noticed that Hinata and Kiba were both missing from their seats. She was alarmed momentarily, most likely the after effects of reliving those memories of her despicable ex-master trying to steal this very same child's eyes, and relaxed slightly when she saw them tucked behind the seats. However, she tensed right back up at seeing them being attended by an ANBU black ops. She still couldn't penetrate this particular black ops' aura, but the fact that he'd dealt with Hyuga heiress himself and hadn't gotten a medic-nin involved was screaming suspicious to her. This definitely wasn't protocol.
Miyako practically got whiplash from turning her head back too quickly, her vision swimming as the Kyuubi chakra seeped into all 5 of her senses. She could taste and smell the overwhelming stench of wild red roses, could feel them prickle every inch of her skin; could see how they stood out starkly in the field even amidst the sea of thorns.
"Miyako…what's happening?" Gaara murmured beside her unconsciously, hands gripping the bar in front of him, Naruto's massive chakra even making Gaara, who was so similar to him, unconsciously bow.
She held her breath, as if it would help, but gave in and just tried to force her words out even through her sudden coughing fit. "I…I don't know." Her eyes watered from just how much she was having to hold herself back from flinging herself at him.
The fleeting thought of experiencing Gaara even half transformed was slightly terrifying. She had the additional worry of being emotionally attached to Gaara, so if he got anywhere near full transformation Miyako was most likely going to lose her shit.
At the very least she was going to be exhausted by the end of the day.
The match was hard to watch, chiefly because Naruto's power was dizzying and being right next to Gaara wasn't helping in the slightest. It was like being on two drugs simultaneously, she prayed it would be over soon so she'd only have to deal with one Jinchuriki's influence, thank you so much.
Their kunai clashed and an explosion of light exploded around them and Miyako felt like she was going to have a seizure for a hot second. But the light eventually dimmed and Naruto and Neji were laying in separate holes created from that act of aggression. Miyako was coherent enough to pout when Neji rose, but not coherent enough to stop her giggle of triumph when Naruto emerged from underneath the ground to nail Neji right in the chin.
The siblings looked at her oddly, but Miyako was too busy restarting her brain to pay them any mind. Shikamaru, after he presumably got over the fact that Naruto had beaten Neji of all people, eventually turned to Miyako with a look that somehow read equal parts bored and curious.
"Are you supposed to be up here?" He asked slowly, and Miyako, who supposedly had been bending over looking fully drunk, straightened herself up and gave him a dazzling smile.
"Shikamaru are you saying you don't want me here?" She made sure to add a little whine to her voice to make him feel even worse, fully aware that this man wasn't the best with women.
He scoffed something under his breath, but Miyako's attention was taken by Baki, who was apparently following her with his eyes, which she only deduced after pointedly making large movements. Ignoring the strange looks, again, her still-drunk-on-Naruto brain finally caught up that Baki wanted her for something, presumably whatever she had gone to do during the vision.
Miyako huffed but abruptly about-turned and walked out of the challenger box, curious as to what he could want and wondering if she should've followed herself during that vision after all. She faintly heard Kankuro calling after her and Temari telling him to leave it alone, but she could deal with them when she got back.
By the time she'd gotten to Baki the crowd was starting to get restless, after all Sasuke was still missing. Miyako didn't care much, but by the darting eyes Baki was giving the rest of the spectators he did. He motioned her to sit down casually and she flopped into the seat, humming as the spectators starting complaining loudly to each other about where the Uchiha was.
"You said the last you saw the Uchiha was 3 days ago?" Baki confirmed out the side of his mouth, still warily eyeing the seats around him and occasionally drifting his eyes to the challenger box.
"Are you trying to ask me if Gaara did something?" While she couldn't confirm that Gaara didn't kill Sasuke, she highly doubted Gaara could kill both Sasuke and Kakashi.
"Did he?" Baki grunted.
"I can't say he didn't." She answered casually, "But I doubt it." She assured, glancing sidelong at Baki.
The man sighed, too weary, and who wouldn't be when you were about to attack one of the military powers of the ninja world? Miyako decided to take pity on him, besides she could get other things done outside of the arena, like making sure the path she marked in the forest was still visible.
"I know where they might be." She offered slowly, trying not to scoff as Baki perked up. "I could…encourage them to get a move on. Like I said before, Kakashi is probably just late." She shrugged nonchalantly. Baki seemed to be internally debating for a bit, before sighing and deciding that it was obviously a risk he had to take.
"Please." He watched her all the while when she rose and dusted off her skirt. He called to her at the last second as she was making to disappear.
"Miyako," he only continued when he was sure she was paying attention. "Hurry back…Gaara," he grunted, "he seems to listen to you." The man then folded his arms and refused to say anything further. He couldn't tell, but Miyako was giving him a little grin under her mask, knowing that was as close to a compliment as she was getting. She nodded shortly and gave a little wave before disappearing with a fake handsign and a swirl of purple smoke.
G/M
As she suspected, Kakashi and Sasuke were in the mountainous region, what baffled her was the last minute training they were getting in when the tournament was…well right now. She perched herself on a nearby rock and watched them lightly spar for a moment longer before interrupting.
"Kakashi-san you can't be that bad at time." Miyako called down to them. Sasuke, alarmed, immediately got into a defensive position. Kakashi was a lot more relaxed and eyed her with hands in pockets.
"Miyako, I'm surprised." Miyako clocked that his words didn't match his tone at all, her raised eyebrow challenging him to continue.
"Well wouldn't it benefit Sasuke's opponent and your…comrade," it also didn't escape her that he'd practically spat that word, "if Sasuke didn't show up?"
Miyako scoffed, looking at Kakashi just as incredulously as he and Sasuke were looking at her. "You obviously don't know Gaara very well."
"Really?" He titled his head. "Are you sure you do?"
Miyako, despite knowing it was bait, bristled at the notion. Having someone confirm out loud what she was already obsessing over was a sore spot for her.
"Don't beat around the bush Kakashi, what are you implying?" She sniffed.
Kakashi grinned and Miyako had to hold herself back from snapping—she wasn't sure if was at him verbally or his arm in half. What an infuriating man.
"Well, Gaara showing up here two days ago to…presumably kill Sasuke doesn't fit with your assessment of him."
Miyako unfurled, not at all surprised Gaara had stalked Sasuke to judge his strength for himself. What she didn't understand was why Gaara hadn't come to her if he saw what she'd been seeing for the past month. But then again, that would be logical and Gaara had proven he wasn't the most logical being, especially when it came to prey. Hell, he apparently respected Miyako only after she'd proven she could kill him if she wanted to.
"Well he isn't dead." Miyako dismissed with a sniff, to which Sasuke scoffed. "So clearly he wasn't intending on killing Sasuke outside of the exams, after all it isn't much of a challenge to him if you're not at your best." She revealed, the Uchiha made a "hn" noise that had Miyako groaning at he and Gaara's similarities.
"As much as I would love to sit here and continue to shoot the shit with you Kakashi and...well Sasuke doesn't look like he speaks words if it isn't Naruto so…" She ignored the patented Uchiha glare burning into her skin and plowed on, "but we're still in the middle of an exam, and if you don't show up the crowd will riot and Gaara might show up here and really try to kill you for making him wait."
She stood, attempting to dust off her skirt of the red dust and grumbling when it didn't help much. "Now don't get the wrong idea," she continued when they still were looking at her warily, "I don't really care if you don't show up Uchiha. In fact, please don't." She figured reverse psychology would work well here, especially when Sasuke just glared harder at her. She swore he was going to pop a blood vessel that way.
Miyako shrugged, "but it would be a waste if you didn't get to use that fancy lightning jutsu you've been working so hard on, right?" She cackled at Kakashi's one widening eye and Sasuke's pissy face. She gave a mocking salute before disappearing in another plume of purple smoke, her laughter still echo in the cavernous region even when she was no longer in sight.
G/M
After obsessively assuring that the path to the clearing was clear of all debris or anything that could confuse the siblings, Miyako followed the large en masse of energy being brewed in the forest to see what she could discover.
Dozens of Sound jounin looking like a bunch of rotted grapes in their odd little purple get ups were gathered around the scarce few Suna Jounin sitting spread out in a circular formation. Whatever they were about to summon was likely to be big and vicious. She had a fleeting idea of taking them all out at once, fleeting because she didn't have energy to waste like this, and also because her preview of the future held her back from committing any unnecessary interference where it could backfire on her.
She crawled away carefully from the gathering as they radioed each other about being ready to strike. Minutes later she made it to the border, fazing through the walls and catching a fleeting glance of a team stationed right on top of the wall, likely to strike down the sentinels in a moment's notice. She faintly heard them radio that they were in position, and decided that she needed to hasten back to the arena and keep an eye on Gaara.
She reappeared in the dark corridors, the crowd sounding even more anxious then when she left them. She arrived back in Baki's section to discover them clamoring amongst each other rowdily. Men in screaming matches in seats nearby holding each other's collars, a chorus of people in a whole section demanding that the Uchiha come out and fight in perfect sync. She quickly made her way to Baki, not even bothering to sit down as the antsy energy of the crowd and even more so Gaara had her too wound up to even sit still.
"He's fine." She reported shortly. "They should be on their way." She added when he didn't look satisfied with her short answer. He sighed heavily but nodded in dismissal, his eyes locked on the "Kazekage" and Hokage as they presumably chatted with one another. Miyako was surprised that the Hokage hadn't called the match disqualified by now, but she was sure Orochimaru was using that creepy tongue of his to do his damnedest to convince him to wait just a few more minutes. She shuddered, and scoffed in the next moment, 'I'm sure the Hokage is not immune to the Uchiha effect either.' Seriously, what a terrible group of people to have such a soft spot for.
Miyako had turned around to leave, when a nearby "hushed" conversation perked her interest, the mentioning of Gaara having her slow her walk to a leisurely crawl up the stairs. Hopefully there was no one behind her.
She identified it as one of the many feudal lords, though considerably less powerful if his dress was anything to go by. He was speaking lowly to two men towering over him up the stairs. He didn't say much, which meant he at least had enough sense to know when to apply discretion, but the sentence of "I put money on that Uchiha, make sure I win" was all Miyako needed to hear.
She sped up, 'we could do it quickly, subtly, what if they all just choked to death all of the sudden?' She shook her head at the hissing temptation, knowing whatever way she killed them it would look odd all of the sudden when they seemed perfectly fine, besides she had no proof of what they were going to do so her conscience was holding her back.
She passed by the group easily and made her way to the stairwell that led to the challenger box. She stopped herself from turning back several times and finally made it upstairs to a jittery Gaara and a nervous looking Temari and Kankuro. Shino, the only other challenger who stood well on the other side of the space, look unruffled, which was an impressive feat.
"Oh Miyako, you're back!" Kankuro was always enthusiastic at her presence, but today he didn't bother hiding his sigh of relief every time she arrived to wedge herself between the siblings and Gaara. She guessed it had to do with the fact that she'd brought him back yesterday quite easily, and more importantly, quite docile. Somehow from this one act all three remaining members of team Baki thought Miyako was some sort of "Gaara whisperer" and now trusted her more in the last 24 hours than the last month and a half. Well, at least with Gaara anyway.
"Where did you go?" Gaara snapped immediately when she settled herself in between him and the siblings.
"I went to check on your opponent." She replied and then she turned to Kankuro before Gaara could question her further, the vision still burned in her eyelids and her curiosity too high to ignore.
"They had a match while I was gone?" She guessed and Kankuro sighed heavily, but nodded. "Yeah, Temari and that shadow guy." He went on without Miyako having to even ask, hands thrown up in the air in frustration. "I mean Temari won or whatever, but only because that lazy asshole claimed he was low on chakra and couldn't execute any of the 200 moves he'd thought of." Miyako hummed, so he had forfeited, that sounded so Shikamaru.
Gaara cleared his throat, not at all subtly and Miyako turned her body back to him, smiling patiently beneath her mask as Gaara glowered at her. "Yes?"
"Sasuke…" Was all the moody redhead said and Miyako rolled her eyes and straightened up. "Yeah, so he's fine or whatever, he's just late, he and Kakashi should be here any minute." She shrugged.
"Why didn't you just…"Kankuro seemed to think better of his statement, but Gaara grabbed onto that line of thought and didn't let go.
"Yes, why didn't you just bring them here?"
"You thought that I…" she pointed to herself for emphasis, "could make a bratty teenager and a grown man…" she paused again, which Gaara didn't seem to be enjoying as much as she was, "follow me back to the village?"
Gaara turned away from her, deciding to ignore that answer in lieu of attempting to hurt her she guessed if his twitching eye was anything to go by. Miyako reveled at her small victories, almost snickering at Kankuro's baffled expression. "How…" he started, but was cut off by a swirl of leaves in the center of the arena.
"Speak of the devil." Miyako grumbled, Gaara's sudden calm only serving to make her more worried.
'It will all be over soon,' she had to tell herself, rubbing her temples as Gaara exited, his bloodlust skyrocketing every step he took. 'One way or another.'
She directed her eyes down to the center of this whole plot, the loudmouth blonde seemingly scolding Sasuke and Kakashi. Kakashi effectively ignored him, instead looking around until he caught Miyako right in his crosshairs. They proceeded to have a stare off, and Miyako vaguely wondered what Kakashi was looking for.
'Well out of all of the Leaf Jounin he did have the right attitude about me from the start, so maybe he's looking for guilt?' When he decided to simply beam up at her, Miyako felt her eye twitching. 'Or he's just rubbing it in my face that Sasuke is still qualified.'
Naruto made his way off the field, tugging Shikamaru along with him to the door nearby that would take them back up to the box. Miyako watched until they'd made it inside, trying to remember what happened next in her vision, but she'd went through it so fast that it was starting to blur at the edges a little bit.
'Roses, red, yawning danger danger!' She shot up and ran into the dark corridor without another thought, locking onto the cluster of presences somewhere near the bottom level. 'That Feudal Lord's lackies.' She realized and locked onto Naruto's location, fazing behind them in the span of a second.
Shikamaru whipped around to her, but before he could say anything she yanked them further into a dark corner of the stairwell, making her presence as small as possible and watching the situation taking place in front of them with just as rapt attention.
Gaara was redder than she'd ever seen him, even weeks ago when he'd let Shukaku out to kill Dosu. She couldn't even distinguish him from his aura, it was dripping in a thick dark red sludge that was already clawing at his adversaries and they hadn't even done another. They had to be fools if they couldn't feel it, Gaara's killing intent, had to be stupid if they thought they could go up against something so potently lethal that was eating their auras as an appetizer before taking them as a main meal.
Miyako kept palms over both Shikamaru and Naruto's mouth even though Shikamaru was much calmer than Naruto, who was shaking against her, she pulled him closer unconsciously. She didn't have to look at him to know his eyes were as wide as dinner plates and his eyes were the blue before a storm.
She didn't bother paying attention to what they said to Gaara, it didn't matter, it took minutes for the sand to make a meal of them, Gaara proceeding down the stairs in a zombie like fashion afterwards, the red aura leaving just a stark a path as the actual blood left behind.
It took two more minutes for Naruto to get his feelings in check enough to remove Miyako's hand. Shikamaru already having maneuvered out of her hold to eye her in silent contemplation.
"Miyako-chan…" Naruto breathed out harshly. "We can't let that…" he choked on the word and Miyako squeezed his shoulder in a mixture of sympathy and warning. "We have to stop the fight."
Miyako let out a long sigh and removed her hands completely from Naruto. He spun around to face her, but she had her eyes closed and her fingers on her temples. 'How am I going to damage control this? If Naruto thinks Gaara is a…monster, than it's all over isn't it? How do you come back from an opinion like that?'
"I can't," she answered after Naruto started shaking her shoulder.
"You can!" He shouted. "Listen, I know that guy is your comrade or whatever but you saw what he did!" He pointed to the spattered remains of what was once two people and continued to attempt to persuade her. "You're a Jounin, you could stop the match!"
Miyako shook her head slowly at Naruto, keeping eye contact with him the whole time to show she was serious. "Naruto, I'm telling you that I can't."
He paused, seeming to understand something in Miyako's face. It was like he was seeing through her, all the bullshit fronts and masks she'd ever had in her life. Still, he tried again.
"You came down here and hid us in a corner." his voice cracked with emotion that Miyako had to physically shield herself from, her arms automatically crossing across her chest. "You showed up yesterday in Lee's hospital room, all for the same reason, because you knew he was going to kill us. And yet," his fist clenched and Miyako starkly realized that it was too late to get Naruto to look at Gaara sympathetically, right now his hatred was all she had to work with, "you still choose him?"
Miyako didn't answer; she didn't need to, Naruto could apparently read her like a book now and knew that her stoic face was all the confirmation he needed.
He grabbed Shikamaru and rushed down a hallway, his determined look making him immune to Shikamaru's onslaught of complaining. Miyako stayed seated in her little dark corner looking at nothing, a bitter laugh her only companion as reality set in.
G/M
There was no way in hell she was going to watch the fight.
If anybody happened to wander the corridors it would be an odd scene, blood splatter along one dark wall, and in a corner Miyako was curled up rocking herself through the mental downward spiral she and Gaara were both having.
'I wonder if Kakashi will actually entertain Naruto at all?' It was only logical that he go to the next Jounin available that he knew well enough. 'Probably not, after all, why would he have shown up at all if he thought Sasuke stood no chance against Gaara?'
The fight had since started, but it was like the longer Gaara and Sasuke exchanged blows, and the more excited Gaara got, Miyako got more and more sluggish—a new reaction. She was expecting the same kind of feelings she had during Lee's fight, anxiety, fear, jumpiness—but she supposed her reactions to Lee's fight with Gaara was more out of guilt at having been the cause of it. This was like…a cold complacency, like she could've move to do anything against this because it would be pointless.
Naruto thought that Miyako would always choose Gaara over anyone else because he was her…comrade, from her country, and discounting that she is in love with him—she winced slightly as that fact stabbed her in the heart, and that she was his genie and couldn't defy him, he was still missing a large piece of the puzzle.
He didn't realize how pointless it would all be, how numb she'd become in just the last month at how useless she would be in convincing Gaara to go down a better path. It was hard to make yourself do something you knew was right, by yourself anyway, when you already knew the outcome without having to even see into the future.
'You're the only one who can help him now.' She vaguely felt when Gaara attempted to begin the Perfect Possession, much too early she guessed if the lances of panic she could feel around her were anything to go by, how her mind got heavier, slower, and her limbs paralyzed, only her aura sense allowed to roam freely; a butterfly flying in circles.
She would panic, but her brain didn't know how to do that right now. And the longer she thought about trying to move, to get up and do something, the more it felt like she was being buried under tons of liquid glue that plastered her to the floor.
It lasted a few more minutes, to where it even felt hard to breathe through the sea of paste, clogging up her airways, her mouth, her eyes and then—
She ripped herself from the floor her hand flying to her right shoulder as a phantom pain ripped through her, a silent scream being suddenly filled by Gaara's own, his actual screams, and ohmygod.
She stumbled up, falling several times to her knees as Gaara's pain echoed through her head. She knew, logically, realistically, that it probably wasn't that bad, but that didn't register to Gaara. All that mattered was that he was bleeding, he was in shock.
She finally got her frozen legs to move enough to make her way slowly down the stairs, with each step they woke up a little more, along with her mind as the pain caused her to pull herself out of Gaara's red haze and back into her own senses. She knew she would still have to stop herself from killing Sasuke on sight, he'd injured Gaara after all, fucking Uchiha scum.
She ended up where she'd been in the vision, at the doorway, except this time it was the right vision because Gaara's sand was pooled around him as he grasped his shoulder. Miyako observed that the majority of the non-ninja audience was asleep, 'Genjutsu,' Kakashi and Gai however hadn't fallen for it, but Naruto and Shikamaru apparently had.
She took and deep breath and sighed, knowing that if Kakashi was awake, things were about to get a lot harder for the Sound and Sand. She winked and a Miyako clone appeared before her kneeling, ready to be useful.
"Watch Naruto for me, you know what we need from him." The clone nodded once before disappearing in a swirl of smoke. A bomb went off in the Kage's seating area and within seconds Baki, Temari and Kankuro were springing into action. Miyako forced herself to move closer despite her brain still being slightly clouded.
She caught their conversation as Baki appeared, Gaara falling to his knees prompting Miyako to pull him to her side, supporting most of his weight.
"His injury is deeper than I thought." Temari fretted, hands hovering as Gaara continued to groan in pain.
"Idiot!" Miyako glared at Baki reflexively, but he plowed on despite it. "This is all because you didn't wait for the signal before attempting to start the Perfect Possession." He scoffed.
"What do we do then, are you saying we have to do this without Gaara?" Baki clenched his teeth and looked to Miyako who was shushing Gaara mindlessly and carding fingers through his hair, her body remembering what soothed him despite not having done so in years. Gaara quieted some, but he was still shaking.
"Miyako, can you heal him?" Baki grunted, still eyeing Sasuke and the proctor warily.
"My healing skills are rudimentary at best, but regardless we're going to have to move him. He'll be at risk if he stays here any longer." She rose with Gaara, Kakuro automatically moving to the other side to support him across his shoulders.
"Will you be alright here?" Miyako wondered aloud, although she knew there was no way she was going to stay and help Baki at a time like this.
"Go, you're the only one who seems to keep him calm." Baki grunted. "I'll take care of things here."
Miyako nodded to Kankuro and they both jumped simultaneously to the arena's edge, Temari trailing behind them. They heard the proctor call after them, but Baki seemed to be enough to occupy him.
G/M
Miyako was, apparently, the kind of foolish creature who still had hope.
Maybe it was the way Gaara was cradled to her body, his head lolling more towards her shoulder than even his own brother's, pay no mind to the fact that his injury was on that side, or that he did seem considerably calmer when she was holding him than previously, or that she had nothing left but hope.
Whatever it was, it made her come to a screeching halt when they were cut off by Leaf shinobi from leaving towards the gates, it made her let go of Gaara and beckon Temari to take his unoccupied side, it made her open her mouth and tell them that she'd clear a path for them to a forest.
"Wait, Miyako we shouldn't separate!" Temari called as Miyako threw herself headfirst into the enemy. Miyako parried strikes left and right, calling to Temari to just continue to the east and follow the path in the forest and erase their tracks.
"You'll be fine, I'll be fine, now go!" Miyako shoved her fingertips into a man's side and didn't even have time to make sure he was down before grabbing another Jounin who lunged to go after the siblings and pulling him to the ground.
She sighed, running a current up the man's leg that had him gasping. He managed to worm his way out of her hold and stumble back onto his feet. He got into a fighting stance and Miyako sighed a followed.
'Maybe if I do something nice for once, Karma will reward me with what I want for Gaara.' She aimed her eyes at the sky, 'are you listening God? Cut me some slack.'
G/M
The Miyako clone was invisible and curled against the wall of the section of stands that Kakashi and Gai were currently fighting in, Kabuto's minions seemingly endless as the two elite jounin tore through them. She was debating helping, after all they didn't like Kabuto and it seemed like Miyako had temporarily abandoned Gaara to do a good deed for Konoha, so maybe she could help? But her instructions were to watch Naruto, so maybe she shouldn't?
A man made a sickening thud next to her head as he was tossed into the wall, and she looked back to the two huffing Jounin. They'd made quite a dent in their opponents, but still more were appearing out of the woodwork. Kabuto was prepared, maybe she would help when they looked more…tired? After all, Miyako liked Gai, and Kakashi despite how much she threatened to snap off his limbs.
Kakashi called Sakura to release the genjutsu on Naruto and Shikamaru because he had a mission for them. The clone wondered how Sakura would feel when she found out that Shikamaru was just sleeping and totally unaffected by the jutsu. Once released, Kakashi summoned a cute little pug with a headband, the clone wanted to cuddle it sooooooooo bad.
The clone perked up once instructions were given, the 4 told to go after Sasuke who had gone after Gaara. She held herself back from clapping at how well this was working out, barely escaping when Gai almost punched her through the wall in his effort to…well punch an opponent through a wall. Showoff.
She happily found her original in the midst of battle with some Sand and Sound ninja in the middle of town. She let Miyako finish a fancy move she randomly named "electric ribbon" where she rapidly struck enemies in a consecutive fashion before making a "handsign" and sending a streak of lighting along her path. The clone stepped over the charred bodies, noting that only the Sound ninja appeared to be dead, and the Sand ninja were largely just unconscious.
"Naruto, Licorice girl, and Eternal Yawn are taking Kakashi's puppy on a mission after the moody Uchiha who is after our master." Miyako raised an eyebrow to that, but hummed in satisfaction, slamming her hand into a Leaf ninja attempting to sneak up on her and shocking him into unconsciousness.
"Good, I'll make my way over there and follow them. Anything else?"
"That silver-haired snake nerd is being mean to our jounin friends." The clone supplied, deciding to join in on the fun and spearing nearby sound ninja with sand, giggling as they fell to the ground.
"Keep an eye on him, if he saw Naruto and the others leave he might try to interfere." Miyako commanded. The clone nodded and gave a goodbye salute before disappearing again.
Miyako started walking, determined to take her time in getting there, curious in what Naruto would do if he happened to run into Gaara.
'Ah, but what if Sasuke gets to Gaara first? He might die.' Miyako shrugged at first but then paused and groaned, wanting to pound her head into a nearby fence at her stupidity.
'Naruto's motivation is Sasuke, stupid!' She sighed, tracing a path of lightning to some Sound ninja in her eyesight. It didn't make her feel better when they fell to the ground like flies. 'So Sasuke can't die, great, but if Naruto gets to Sasuke before Gaara can kill him, then he might get riled up enough to protect him?' He did seem pretty invested in making sure Sasuke didn't fight Gaara, so he would definitely do his best to protect Sasuke if that was his only option.
'Soooo basically I just need to create a situation where Sasuke is in danger and the siblings, Shikamaru and Sakura can't interfere?' Miyako paused in her trek, hand to chin as she thought hard, which wasn't the smartest thing to do with a Sand headband on, but she wasn't worried.
'Well, the siblings will fight off anyone who try to get to Gaara, so if they have to go up against Shikamaru and Sakura, that should occupy them long enough, right?' Even as she said it she knew it wouldn't work. There was no way Sakura could go up against either sibling at the level she was now, and they'd already seen Shikamaru's jutsu, so they might be able to outmaneuver him into depleting his chakra, and she knew Shikamaru knew when to quit. Naruto couldn't also possibly take all three of them on consecutively. Even with Sasuke added in, Sasuke and Naruto were both close range types and had no jutsu that would create an opening for a close quarters fight.
'Where the hell am I going to get other people?' She groused, looking to the Hokage statues for guidance. She noticed, in her call for inspiration, a few kids disappearing into an unseen entrance on the side of the faces, but more importantly the Sand and Sound ninja giving chase.
'Detour time.' She launched herself onto a rooftop and disappeared in a swirl of purple smoke.
She tried to be as quiet as possible when she was grabbing the two ninja who had gone after the kids, but a familiar kid had still caught her as she was dragging the dead body of the Sound ninja and the unconscious body of the Sand ninja away. She put her finger to her lips as Konohamaru and the gang looked at her with huge eyes and then disappeared once again.
The clone met her outside when she was dumping the bodies, looking a little grave.
"What?" Miyako was immediately alert.
"Kabuto sent like 8 Sound ninja Jounin after Naruto and friends." She pouted. "Is…that okay?"
Miyako groaned, rubbing her forehead and wondering if it really was okay, while she definitely wanted to lessen the amount of people who got involved with Gaara outside of Naruto, it also meant less people for the siblings to have to engage with and a higher chance that Sasuke would catch up to all three and get himself killed.
"Find the nearest Jounin not tied up in battle and have them go after them, I don't need anyone unnecessarily dying." She rubbed her temples, kicking up her leg at approaching enemies and scoffing when they dodged her arc of purple energy.
"Anything else?" Miyako continued, flinging her arm out to send shockwaves to oncoming Sound ninja.
"Yeah," the clone paused, stomping on the ground and forcing a Leaf ninja to pop up from his hiding place. "I can't find the bug-lover."
Miyako blinked, letting the clone blow a purple dust into the Leaf ninja's face where he promptly fell over, dead asleep, her brow wrinkled the whole time.
"Wow, I didn't even think to look for that kid." She murmured. "Maybe he went after Gaara too?" Miyako tilted her head. While she didn't want Shino anywhere near Gaara either, it wouldn't hurt if he managed to occupy one of the siblings. He did have long range jutsu after all.
"Well, leave it alone for now. Go find an available Jounin, preferably one we already know, and then do your best to kill Kabuto." Miyako set off on a brisker walk, eyes darting around for any more signs of Sand or Sound ninja looking to harm innocents.
"Really? I can really kill Kabuto?" The clone wiggled happily, like a worm dancing for the sun after being stuck in soil.
"Have at it." Miyako agreed, the clone's squeal the last thing she heard before the girl disappeared.
She was certainly walking faster, but she still didn't know if it was time yet to interject. She locked onto Gaara's aura, feeling that though it was still a dull red in comparison to the danger he had been outputting before, it was steadily growing as he was allowed to rest. She only felt a hazy protectiveness and slight biting resentment near him, 'Temari', so Kankuro must've gotten caught up with someone—Sasuke maybe?
She sped up her pace to a run, just mildly shocking anyone who got in her way as she made her way towards the village gates.
G/M
"So…Sleepy- I mean Shikamaru is in danger." The clone was trying to convince an irate Asuma to stop fighting her and go after Shikamaru, it wasn't working well. Maybe it was the headband? Or the betrayal of knowing that someone you liked had lied to you? It wasn't time to debate either.
She dodged another swipe of his knuckle-blades and groaned. "Asuma please, I get that you're pissed at me, but trust me you're not going to feel any better if you kill me, I'm just a clone!" She tried to reason. He jumped back and scrutinized her and she held her hands up in surrender.
"Look you could waste more time pointlessly fighting with me, or you could go to the East part of the bordering forest and save Shikamaru from Sound jounin." She shrugged. "And if you think I'm just saying that to get you to leave or something you're wrong, 'cause I'm leaving first." She saluted before disappearing, knowing there really wasn't much else she could do to convince him besides attempting to find Shikamaru herself, pin Asuma down, and teleport them both there. Nobody had time for that.
She watched around the corner as he seemed to blink at the residual smoke of her teleportation before looking worriedly to the East. He seemed to debate with himself for a few moments, but then took off in the East gates direction. Ha! High five for Miyako clone.
She really left this time and reappeared back at where all the real action was happening—the Kabuto versus Kakashi and Gai battle. She barely avoided being hit in the face with a Sound enemy and popped back up to find that there were only a handful of Sound ninja left, but that Kakashi and Gai looked pretty tired. Miyako told her she could attempt to kill Kabuto, so that meant helping right? She was gonna help!
She built up lightning in her hand and then shot it off in quick succession at Kabuto, who barely had time to dodge, but the nearest lackey caught it in his side, which he clutched in agony.
"Kabuto," she tried to purr like the real Miyako, barely holding back a giggle, "you meddlesome little worm." She finally sneered as he crouched on the metal railing still in his fake ANBU getup.
"Miyako, what a surprise." The clone noticed that Kakashi had immediately turned his body to be able to see both she and Kabuto, but she didn't have time to pout about how much he didn't trust her.
"Don't tell me you're angry at me, whatever did I do?" He chuckled.
The clone made a series of fake hand signs that the present company all tensed at before simply ending at her hand cupped around seemingly nothing.
"I don't care what you do with…Uchiha." She rolled her eyes. "But you're messing with my plans, you remember how I warned you about that right?" A spark jumped in her palm, then another, and another, rapidly until it looked like bright white fireworks, the lightning winking in and out of existence.
"Ah it all makes sense now," Kabuto cackled, "you're a monster sympathizer aren't you Miyako?"
"Such a waste of talent," she clicked her tongue, "I hope you know Kabuto that a snake is always a snake, don't get bitten." She then slammed the firework onto the ground, it exploded into a brilliant burst of light before seeming to leap in all directions, jumping across the pavement in search of prey.
"Lightning Swarm." She gave another fake hand sign. "Hunt." She grunted. The lightning thickened and leapt in a grand arc off of the concrete and curved to the Sound ninja. The scattered, but the lightning zigzagged to follow them, some hitting their targets, dissipating on impact once blood rained.
Kabuto seemed to have fled the scene entirely, but she knew she at least grazed him, the small droplets of blood where he once stood were still crackling with white noise like energy.
Kakashi grabbed her once the remaining Sound ninja had managed to flee, Gai giving chase to them with renewed vigor. The clone whined and winced when he twisted her wrist behind her back, squirming lightly when he managed to pin her front to a nearby seat.
"Don't even try to talk yourself out of this." Kakashi spat as she went to open her mouth. She winced lightly when a kunai was placed at her throat, he forced her posture back straight and attempted to maneuver the clone into a position where he could detain her, but the clone decided, since Miyako had only told her to attempt to kill Kabuto, and she'd completed all her other orders, that she didn't need to be here anymore. So she forced her head forward and her neck into the tip of the kunai.
She heard Kakashi curse at her disembodied giggle as she fell into a pile of sand.
G/M
"Well what do you know, I found Shino." The bug-user was writhing heavily on the ground and sweating profusely, a few trees ahead was Kankuro who was also panting and struggling to lift himself up.
If Shino was in a fight with Kankuro it wasn't too far of a stretch to assume that he'd been poisoned, and while she was sure he'd be fine, she was still feeling a little generous, so she scooped the boy up and sped back to where she could feel Shikamaru's and Asuma's chakra.
"Why…" He wheezed softly, grunting every so often when Miyako had to land on another branch. "Where…?"
"Don't try to exert yourself, you'll only make exacerbate the spread of the poison." In a few minutes she saw the backs of Shikamaru and Asuma who were resting after Asuma presumably took out all the Sound Jounin. Miyako paused just on the edge of the opening to a clearing and set Shino down gently.
"This is where I leave you." She murmured. "Make sure to make some sort of noise so they find you." Shino grunted and glared at her in confusion as she patted his head before taking off once again.
She swiped Kankuro, who had managed to get up while she was gone and lean his weight against a tree, clean off his feet. She grunted as he squirmed in confusion for a moment, her muscles protesting for a moment when she shifted him to press closer to her side and hiked him higher into an odd carry where his toes skimmed the ground and his arms could naturally wrap around her neck.
"Wrap your legs around my waist." She commanded, causing Kankuro to squawk in protest. She pinched his thigh with the hand supporting him.
"Why can't you just sling my arm across your shoulders like a normal carry, this is embarrassing!" He protested, but didn't continue to wiggle to Miyako's relief.
"Do you see how fast we're going? You can't keep up with me right now, you're exhausted." She watched as he slowly blinked and looked around, realizing the trees were blurring around them much faster than anything he could accomplish.
"How…?" He unconsciously wrapped his legs around her waist and his arms around her shoulders, relieving some of the burden of carrying him.
"I'm a Lightning user." Is all she answered. "And we have ground to cover." It was true, some still 50 or so kilometers or so ahead of them was Gaara who had been successfully stopped by Sasuke at this point, and still yet to catch up was Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi's dog, who were obviously closer than they were, but still 10 kilometers or so off. At the speed Miyako was running now, which was about 56 kilometers per hour, they'd catch up to the party just as they made contact. Miyako would try to push herself faster to ensure Gaara didn't kill Sasuke, because the last thing she needed was a rampaging Naruto on her hands, but she didn't want to be totally useless in case she had to intervene. The most she could hope was that Sasuke could hold his own until Naruto got there.
"You're right, we have to hurry, that Uchiha kid was following us and Temari already wasted a lot of chakra try to ward him off earlier." He grunted, his fingers tightening on her fishnet shirt. "And then that bug kid showing up, who knows who else Konoha has sent after us."
Miyako hummed, "Kakashi sent the rest of his own team to assist Sasuke." She could feel Kankuro's eyes boring holes into the side of her head.
"And you didn't stop them?" She appreciated that she didn't even ask anymore how she knew what she knew.
"A clone was keeping tabs on them and Kakashi caught her." Miyako shrugged. "I gave chase, here we are."
Kankuro said something to her, but it was a faint undertone in comparison to the static suddenly filling up her brain. They were less than 10 kilometers from the sudden battlesite and it appeared that Naruto and friends had caught up with Gaara and the Jinchuriki's auras were clashing monumentally, their emotions so intense it made Miyako gasp and lose footing.
"Miyako!" Kankuro managed to reach out at the last second and caught a branch, his chakra clung to the bark and prevented a further fall while his thighs were clamped around Miyako's waist in a vice grip as they dangled at least 20 feet above ground.
"Sorry," she breathed and realizing he wouldn't be able to hold this position long, she fought through the wave of nausea overcoming her and climbed up Kankuro, settling on a branch and hoisting him up to lean next to her.
They struggled to catch their breath, with head between knees Miyako fought back the sickening bile crawling up her throat. She had obviously greatly underestimated how her body would react to Gaara and Naruto actually fighting. The red of Gaara's aura mixing with the overpowering scent of roses was overloading her senses, and just the intensity of the two's emotions had her unsure of what reality was. Where did she begin? Where did she end? Gaara's hatred thickened and weighed down her body while Naruto's righteous fury liquefied her into a melting mess.
"Miyako, hey, Miyako!" She gargled something unintelligible, but got up on autopilot because she knew she had to fight through this. She swayed on her feet and knocked away Kankuro's steading hands.
"'M fine." She stuttered out. "Just, just went too fast." She gasped and leapt to the ground, figuring that maybe the slight change in altitude and flatter ground would help her make it there.
Kankuro followed her reluctantly as she stumbled through the remainder of the forest, with each step her body was adjusting to the awareness of the situation, but as her wits returned to her so did her primary instincts.
Kankuro easily followed as she picked up the pace once again, though still considerably slower than before, still fast enough for them both to maintain. She clenched her fists against the shaking and the voice that urged her to rip Naruto's arms right off of his body for even touching Gaara.
'He's ours, ours to protect. How dare you, how dare you put him in this situation.' She blinked past the headache assaulting her eyelids, trying to push her rationale onto her uncontrollable need to protect and to murder.
They finally came upon the unfolding scene, audible gasps leaving both their lips. Gaara was half-transformed from the waist up into a smaller version of the Shukaku when Miyako followed Gaara's arm she saw that he had Sakura pinned to a tree with a clawed hand he'd detached from his body. Temari was leaned against a tree not too far away, holding her side in slight pain. Kankuro immediately rushed to her aid, but there wasn't much the sibling could do for his sister or to stop or help Gaara, which he seemed irritated about.
"Miyako!" Kankuro called, turning several heads that frankly Miyako could've gone without. Although she guessed she deserved that for staring off into space during a ninja battle, she should probably either help or get out of the way.
Although she intended to do neither. Naruto followed her with his eyes, looking lost and in the midst of troubling thoughts. She settled herself on a branch not too far from Kankuro and Temari, eyeing Gaara and Naruto with deep concentration.
"Miyako-chan, please."
She shut her eyes to Naruto's pleading and Gaara's harsh laugh. "You think she's going to be able to save you? That she's going to choose to help you and your friends?" He threw his head back and laughed throatily, his voice even raspier after his episode. "Miyako is ours."
Despite how fucked up this situation was, Miyako's heart lurched. She breathed in and out and opened her eyes to regard Naruto again.
"I can't help you fight Gaara, Naruto." And that was wholehearted truth. "But whatever you have to do to save your friends, do it. Prove to me right now that I was right in trusting you all this time."
Gaara let out another laugh as he stretched his sand claws forward as Naruto still didn't move for several seconds. "What's wrong, are you afraid of me? Weren't you going to save your friend? Or has all your bravado vanished in knowing no one is going to help you?" He laughed again, drool dripping from his warped Shukaku-turned face. "If you don't fight me I'll kill this girl, so come at me with all your strength so that I can crush you."
Before Naruto could even get his bearings enough to move, Gaara had become impatient enough to make the first move, launching sand shuriken at Naruto three times, pushing him further and further into the forest as his projectiles struck with no mercy.
It was on this third time, now several meters away, that Naruto seemed to regain his senses. Miyako felt the renewed spirit welling up in him and sighed in relief, sliding down the tree trunk to observe the oncoming battle.
She winced every time Gaara dispelled a clone, but she deadpanned when Naruto stuck a kunai in Gaara's sandy butt. Still the explosion made her wince harder and she looked in satisfaction to see half of Gaara's form falling off.
'This is a good start but it's going to take more than that.' She trailed her eyes back to Naruto to see that Sasuke, with several black markings marring his body was attempting to stand. 'He's not going to interfere is he?' She would hate to have to try and knock Sasuke out, although she didn't lose sleep over crushing an Uchiha's confidence or anything.
They seemed to have a moment before Naruto stood up, vocalizing aloud to all in the vicinity exactly what Miyako wanted him to understand. She leaned her head back against the tree and smiled, noting that the sun seemed pretty bright and optimistic today, despite the condition they were all stuck in.
"I thought that this guy, one who fights in solitude for himself, the one I understood because he's lived a similar life to mine, filled with sadness and loneliness, I thought he was strong." Naruto shook his head. "But this isn't true strength, someone who fights only for himself can never be strong because…he has no one to protect, to cherish, only with this motivation can someone truly be strong."
G/M
Miyako looked on from behind the hard light shield she'd erected as soon as Gaara had gone Shukaku on their asses, worriedly of course.
"Miyako, we should- I mean we have to—" Kankuro beat against the shield in frustration.
"Kankuro you do not want to get involved in that." Miyako forced herself to say calmly, watching as Naruto wrestled to control the giant toad he summoned and Shukaku laughed just as insanely as Gaara was before.
She walked away from the siblings who were pressed against the shield, figuring she should make herself at least partially useful during the agonizing wait she'd have to endure. She moseyed over to the still trapped Sakura, but she could only manage to land on her tree branch before the dog appeared and growled at her.
"Get away from Sakura." Miyako turned her head to find Sasuke on the next tree branch over, slightly impressed that he'd managed to muster enough energy to move, much less to threaten her when she was clearly in a better position than he was.
Miyako held her hands up in surrender, splitting her eyesight between the pissed Uchiha and the dog.
"Gaki, help me out here." She called out to the air, tired of having to try to explain herself to everybody. Sasuke's eyes widened before they slowly slipped shut, behind him "Gaki" or the clone Miyako had summoned without anyone noticing, because how could you when a giant sand raccoon was fighting a giant toad, caught him around the waist. When the dog was distracted Miyako snatched him up, giving him a tiny shock that paralyzed him just long enough for Miyako to toss him to "Gaki".
The clone caught the puppy, and immediately cooed and cuddled him against her face. "His name is Pakkun I think, and he's the cutest little pug ever! Who's the best tracker~" she sing-songed to the quite annoyed dog who still couldn't move, "you are."
"Go put him somewhere else before he bites you Gaki, you know you won't like that." She ignored the girl's pout and turned back to Sakura, skimming her hand across the sand claw wrapped tightly around her body. It shifted for her as it usually did, but it was also packed with the demon's malevolent chakra, so it wouldn't respond to her the same way Gaara's own sand did. She frowned as only a thin layer of sand fell to the ground, and realized she was going to have to put in a little work if she wanted to free this girl.
She carefully began shaving off layer after layer of sand with a thin wire of lightning, doing her best not to risk electrocuting Sakura and trying to not to exert any more power than was necessary, she only needed to free her limbs and all, not take off the whole arm.
It was easy to get lost in the delicate procedure, because it required so much concentration she only mildly winced when Shukaku was attacked and only furrowed her brow and paused as the earth shook.
'I don't even want to know what they're doing over there.'
Finally she had come to the final layer of thicker sand still holding Sakura in place, the only problem was that she wasn't sure using the lightning wire would still be helpful, or if she'd accidentally take off a layer of Sakura's skin that she couldn't replace. She was getting weaker by the second after all, with all the magic she'd used that day, fighting, calling forth visions, running, creating clones, plus Gaara being beaten to a pulp, plus the fact that he still didn't know who she was. That equaled a tired Miyako.
"Gaki," she called weakly. The chipper clone reappeared, eager it seemed to help. She was glad one of them still had pep in their step.
"Can you remove the rest of the sand entrapping Sakura's body please?" Miyako sighed a soft thank you as Gaki nodded, "wake up Sasuke when you're done and then dispel yourself." She finished through a yawn.
Miyako sluggishly jumped closer to her light barrier, which had thinned considerably and peered through it to find a nine-tailed fox holding down the Shukaku with claws and fangs before disappearing in a giant cloud of smoke. She couldn't see from this far away too well, but she felt it certainly when Naruto punched Gaara awake.
She gasped and coughed up blood, wheezing and frozen as it clung to the fading wall of her barrier. Momentarily she felt like Gaara, confused at the sight of her own blood. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen it because an enemy drew it. Was it ten years ago? 20 years?
Eerie cracks filled the air and she hazily looked up to find the Shukaku breaking apart and dissolving into a tsunami of sand. She looked around, knowing unconsciously that she should make sure no one was in range of its blast, but found Sasuke crouched on a branch with the freed Sakura looking on with Pakkun, eyes wide.
The two great beasts were gone, the only remnants a giant sword stuck in the middle of the clearing they'd made and the two summoners left behind. Miyako groggily made her way towards them, the barrier dropping as she shuffled her way forward, coughing a bit more into her hand when she felt Naruto land another blow. She ignored the blood this time and wiped it on her leggings, hoping it was just a side effect of being exhausted or overexerting herself, but knowing it wasn't.
G/M
Gaara was paralyzed and it was weird. He was also bleeding, for the second time that day, that was also weird. He had lost a fight, which by itself was weird enough, but it was to the loudest idiot he'd ever met, which made it even weirder.
The weirdest thing about this whole situation was above all though, was that he didn't hate him. Naruto Uzumaki, the last person he would've expected to be able to beat him, and the first person to ever do so, and he didn't want revenge, or to even kill him. He…he wanted to be like him. To have people to care about, precious people who would chase away his loneliness.
To love is to have a heart that desires to protect and serve and precious person.
'Yashamaru, even though you didn't love me, were you right about love all along?'
"Gaara?" He blinked and over the image of a smiling Yashamaru, the only person he'd thought would ever love him, purple eyes smiled down at him.
'Miyako…'
"You can't even walk on your own, how are you going to pick up Gaara?" Gaara forced his head to turn to see Temari to Miyako's left, supporting her by the waist as Miyako leaned forward to slid an arm under Gaara's head.
"I can so walk." He heard her voice retort right next to his ear, and he let his head roll to rest on her shoulder.
"I'll take his other side Temari, you're more exhausted then the both of us." He saw out of the corner of his eye how Kankuro sidled up to his left and sling half his weight over his other shoulder.
"Your chakra was consumed by bugs and you were a goner until Miyako found you, but fine." He heard Temari snort and for some reason, instead of annoying him, he felt himself smile, just a little.
"Let's go home." Miyako whispered, her voice like a lullaby, a soothing balm. He wondered what life would be like if Miyako was one of those precious comrades instead of glaring him down in challenge. It made him warm: the idea of it, the way Miyako's voice sounded when she laughed, Kankuro's jokes, Temari pretending to scold everyone but sounding too fond.
He whispered, basking in the too warm glow. "Temari, Kankuro, Miyako…I'm sorry." And then drifted in the current of his thoughts.
I swear I didn't mean to make you wait that long, it just got…really out of hand ^.^'
Over 14,000 words. Wow. I thought for sure Intermission was going to be the longest chapter, but how I've been proven wrong. .
Anyway, I love you much my beautiful readers! Send me your feedback! I like answering reviews, they motivate me :D Until the next chapter!
.Acronym.