Part 5

Since I'm pretty much rewriting Shippuden almost entirely there will be a lot of changes to whatever existing arcs I choose to include. Just letting you know now so you aren't confused about things missing or whatever. Still haven't decided on a Naruko ship, it will definitely be yuri, at the moment I'm seriously considering Samui. Completely open to suggestions, just let me know.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy and review.

Two figures walked casually through the desert of Kaze no Kuni heading north. Both wore conical straw hats and black cloaks with red clouds, signifying them as Akatsuki members. One stood straight and the other was hunched over, close to the ground. The sun was just setting to the west as the village of Sunagakure no Sato appeared in front of them, slowly rising over the horizon.

"Un, how should we do this, Sasori-san?" The taller of the two asked.

"Hmm..." the hunched figure growled in thought. "Why not show the shinobi of Sunagakure your art while I capture the Ichibi?" he spoke with a raspy, guttural voice that seemed to echo inside of him.

Raising his head, one would be able to see the smirk that appeared on the taller man's face. "With pleasure, un."

Temari leapt from building to building as explosions echoed across the village, the villagers were running and screaming in the opposite direction. She could see smoke rising in various places around the southern wall. She stopped and examined a crater down in street, the smell of sulphur and blood filling her nostrils as she surveyed the gore splattered onto the buildings and street. Her face morphed into an expression of cold fury. Whoever was attacking her village was going to get cut the fuck in half.

Just as she was about to start jumping again, her danger-sense went mental and she frantically jumped to the building across the street. Not a moment later, the roof top she had been standing on was engulfed in a massive explosion, the resulting shockwave knocking her to the ground. Good thing too, as she watched a massive piece of stone that had once been a roof fly just centimetres over her. She quickly stood and looked for her attacker. She saw a weird white bird high up in the air, a person on its back. It was difficult, but she managed to make out their black cloak and red patches over it. She was suddenly filled with dread as she looked back to the inner city. "Gaara." She realised with horror. She quickly channelled chakra into her legs and almost flew back toward the Kazekage Estate.

As she made her way back, she could see huge amounts of sand forming a shield over the village, but it was moving too slowly, large parts of the city still open for attack. Getting closer, she could see why, as sand tendrils moved to shield Gaara and attack something she couldn't see.

Just as she was almost back to the Estate she saw the white bird land on the roof and take off again, this time with two extra passengers. One of which, she recognised. "Gaara!" She shouted desperately. She fell to her knees. She'd failed.

Naruko was heading back to her apartment after a trip to the Ichiraku's. She was just about to enter her building when an ANBU Operative with a cat mask and familiar purple hair landed in front of her. "The Hokage has a mission for you. Report to her immediately." Before Naruko could even say anything, the ANBU disappeared in a shunshin, leaving her alone in the small street. Naruko quickly shunshined up to her apartment and within a minute was fully geared up and locking the door to her apartment, activating the many security seals, before disappearing in a Shunshin again.

"What's goin' on, Baa-chan?" Naruko asked as she entered through the window. She saw Kakashi was there along with Sakura. She got a bad feeling when she saw Kakashi was standing fully to attention and not reading his book.

"Naruko, finally." Tsunade said as she stood up and looked over the three of them. "We received word an hour ago that Suna has been attacked by two Akatsuki members."

Naruko's eyes widened and then narrowed dangerously. "What happened?" she growled.

Sakura looked at her with some worry and surprise, not expecting the reaction. Kakashi simply stood, waiting for the Hokage to continue.

"Basically, the village was attacked by two Akatsuki members. It sustained a large amount of damage from some type of explosive jutsu from one of them and another assailant that we have no information on. The second assailant defeated the Kazekage while their forces were engaged with the explosive user. All we know is that Suna doesn't have the shinobi available to send out of the village, and since we are their allies and the closest thing to experts on the Akatsuki, they've asked for support. You three are the most suited to fight the Akatsuki, so I'm sending you. Also, you should know that the explosive user can fly on some type of huge bird. We don't know if it's a summon so be ready for anything. Naruko" Tsunade waited until the girl made eye contact. "You have the most ranged techniques out of the three of you, I expect you'll be able to deal with this person."

Naruko gave her a determined nod. "'Course, you can count on me, Baa-chan."

Tsunade nodded to her. "Quickly get whatever you need for the mission. You're to leave as soon as you're ready. Dismissed." They saluted and began to leave. "Naruko." Tsunade called. "Come back for a sec." Naruko walked back to her desk and Kakashi and Sakura exited.

"Yeah? Whaddya' need?"

Tsunade could see Naruko was trying to be calm but she could see anger and worry shining in the girls eyes. "I know you're friends with the Kazekage. I expect that you'll remain professional and represent Konoha properly." Naruko nodded grimly, a gloomy expression on her face. "Come here." Tsunade walked around the desk and held her arms out. She and Naruko had a short hug. Tsunade kissed her forehead and patted her on the back. "It'll be alright, gaki. Now go show those Akatsuki bastards why they shouldn't mess with us."

Naruko smiled and nodded, quickly jumping out the windows and heading toward the Great Gate.

Tsunade anxiously grimaced and sat down, pulling out a bottle of sake.

After a few minutes of running Naruko called out "Hold up!"

Kakashi and Sakura both stopped, landing on branches a few metres in front of Naruko. "What's wrong? We need to keep moving." Kakashi asked.

"I know. It's taking too long. Come here." Kakashi and Sakura shared a look but both obliged, jumping to the same branch as Naruko. "Good. Brace yourselves. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Unexpectedly, a massive toad appeared beneath them, one they both recognised.

"What the hell!?" Gamabunta yelled. His eyes shifted upwards to find Naruko looking down at him. "What's wrong, gaki? I don't see any Biju around." He asked somewhat sarcastically.

"No time to explain, 'Bunta! We need to head west, ASAP!" Naruko called down.

Gamabunta growled slightly but obliged. "Fine! But you owe me for this."

"I always do, 'Bunta!" she yelled back fondly. Turning to her teammates she said. "You might wanna hang on."

Not a second later, Gamabunta took a huge leap, Sakura and Kakashi almost flying backwards.

"Stop!"

Sasori and Deidara had landed a few hours ago so Deidara wouldn't end up with chakra exhaustion, but it seemed someone had managed to catch up to them. Both Akatsuki members turned to see a Suna shinobi who they recognised as Kankuro; the Kazekage's brother. Three massive puppets of vastly different designs appeared beside Kankuro and he prepared himself to fight. "You fuckers better hand my brother over, or shits gon' get really messy, real fast." he promised.

Sasori used his massive metal tail to hand the unconscious Gaara to Deidara. "Take the Ichibi back to base. I will take care of this."

"Ugh, fine, have your fun Sasori-san, un." With that said, Deidara recreated his bird and took flight.

Kankuro tried to stop him by firing poisonous needles out of one of his puppets, but they were blocked by Sasori's tail. "You will earn the right to go after your brother, if you defeat me." Sasori declared.

Kankuro's face hardened and he prepared his puppets.

Naruko had dismissed Gamabunta at the edge of the desert, he wouldn't do well in the scorching heat and endless sands of Kaze no Kuni. Naruko unsealed three thin cloaks made of light but durable material to protect their skin from the blistering sunlight, but not hold their body heat in. Handing one to Kakashi and Sakura, they both thanked her and put them on, Naruko doing the same. She then decided to take the time to teach Kakashi and Sakura a technique she'd learnt while travelling with Jiraiya.

-Flashback-

"So where are we headed now?" Naruko asked. They'd been travelling around the Yōso Kuni for about a year. Jiraiya had finally managed to convince her that bright 'kill me', or as he referred to it, 'fuck off' orange was a bad idea for a ninja to wear. She'd agreed to switch to black ANBU style pants, though there was an orange stripe on each leg, he was willing to let that go, and a vermillion long sleeve shirt she'd taken to after she'd fallen in love with the colour of it. She'd also begun growing her hair out and experimenting with makeup, to his surprise. Apparently, with puberty came a desire to be more feminine. He wasn't going to question it, long as she didn't start putting makeup on him (he chose to ignore the fact that he wore face-paint).

"We're heading to Sunagakure. Apparently, their Jinchuuriki has been rising in the ranks and not going bat-shit crazy every ten minutes but he still can't sleep. They've requested me personally to come look at his seal." Jiraiya explained with some puffed up pride.

"What, they don't have fuuinjutsu users in Suna? Not that I'm complaining. It'll be nice to see Gaara again." Naruko responded.

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the last part. "Well yeah, they have people that know fuuinjutsu but they aren't really at my level. Besides, the messed up seal he's got is part of why he was fucking nuts in the first place. Though, all those assassination attempts probably didn't help."

After a couple days of travel they stopped to wait for Gaara in a small oasis in the middle of the desert. Apparently, they didn't want someone messing with a Jinchuuriki's seal in the middle of their village. They waited for a few hours, it was a good opportunity for Naruko to practice some fuuinjutsu, when the three Sand Siblings showed up with their teacher. After a quick catch up, Gaara declared that he wanted to get started. Jiraiya began examining the seal and said that it would take him quite a bit of time to examine the seal fully, as the Suna fuuinjutsu style was a bit different to what he used.

During that time, Temari and Kankuro struck up a conversation with Naruko. At some point in the conversation, Naruko had complained about how long and hot the walk was to get to the oasis. The two elder Sand Siblings offered to teach her to 'Sand Surf', a faster way of traversing the desert. It took a while, but the process wasn't too much harder than water walking, the only difference being that instead of having to compensate for the movement of the water, the user needed to use the chakra to propel themselves forward. After some practicing and falls that left her with a mouthful of sand, she got it down and was merrily gliding around the oasis.

After that Jiraiya announced that there was nothing he could do. The seal had been in place too long and was tied to Gaara's chakra circulatory system. Temari and Kankuro were greatly saddened by his announcement, but Gaara seemed pretty blasé about it. When Naruko asked he just shrugged and said he was prepared for a negative assessment to come back. After Naruko caught up with Gaara and praised him on his recovery so far, they parted ways. After they'd left, Jiraiya had demanded to know how Naruko got the secret to Sand Surfing out of them, as it was apparently supposed to be kept secret from outsiders. Naruko just smiled and began walking away, Jiraiya followed essentially begging her to tell him. She'd continued to use it as leverage to get secrets about certain jutsu out of Jiraiya, and just as they reached the edge of the desert she told him.

They'd visited Suna a few times when they passed through Kaze no Kuni. By the last visit, Naruko was good friends with all three siblings, though she and Kankuro often butted heads after she couldn't resist making fun of his puppets or face paint. Temari even helped her a bit with her Futon training and she helped Gaara with some of the issues he had that he didn't often talk about since she was the only person that could really empathise with him.

-Flashback End-

Once Kakashi and Sakura were able to Sand Surf without falling over, they began travelling rapidly toward Suna, three times as fast then if they were walking. While shinobi could run at high speeds it required a lot of chakra to do so over a large distance, and it wouldn't be a good idea to do so in the desert as a combination of heavy chakra use and perspiration as well as the heat itself would lead them to becoming exhausted very quickly, that problem was sorted when Sand Surfing only required a small amount of chakra for propulsion.

As they glided across the sand Sakura decided it was a good time to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while now. "Hey! What's the deal with these Akatsuki guys anyway!? Why have they kidnapped the Kazekage!? I thought they were after Naruko for whatever reason!" she yelled over the wind.

"They're after nine different people across the Yōso Kuni!" Kakashi yelled back.

"Why!?"

"We each have one thing in common!" Naruko yelled back, a grimace on her face. She figured she wasn't going to be able to hide it for much longer anyway.

"What!?"

"We all have one of the Biju sealed inside us!"

Sakura was silent at her answer. It only took her a few seconds for her to realise the truth, but when she did, her eyes widened in shock and dismay. Her control slipped and she almost fell over but she managed to right herself and continued on, her thoughts filled with questions. Now wasn't the time though.

It was almost night fall by the time they'd made it to Suna, the air was rapidly cooling, soon enough they'd be in danger of freezing to death if they'd been caught out. They were greeted at the gate by the Sand Siblings' teacher, Baki. He nodded to them, his face grim. "Follow me." He said simply.

They walked through the village, taking in the craters and sand covered buildings. Some of the craters had gore around them. Naruko grimaced at the damage but continued silently. After a few minutes of walking, they were surprised to be entering the hospital. Naturally, it was in full chaos. People were running around frantically and the halls were filled with groans of pain and the smell of antiseptic and blood.

They were eventually led to a room at the end of a hallway, Temari was frantically pacing outside. Naruko ran up to her.

"Temari!"

The girl in question looked up. "Naruko! It's good to see you, but we'll have to catch up later. My brothers are in trouble and I just... I don't know what to do." She admitted. Temari was stubborn, it wasn't easy for her to admit weakness of any kind.

"It's ok Temari, we'll do whatever we- wait. Brothers? What happened to Kankuro?"

Temari just shook her head and motioned for them to follow. Opening the door behind her, she lead them into an operating room, showing them a writhing Kankuro on the operating table and he was only wearing underwear. Many of his veins were bulging unnaturally and they were a deep, purple colour almost like a particularly bad bruise. He was also covered in recently healed cuts and bruises.

Sakura walked up to the operating table and inspected him. "Poison?" she stated, more than asked.

Temari nodded. "Yes. We don't know what it is. The medics are baffled and we don't have any antidotes that work." she answered. Though her voice was tightly controlled, they could still hear the concern and panic she was trying to hide.

Sakura turned back to them with a determined frown. "Here's what I'll need..."

End Part 5