This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Naruto, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto. Everything aside from the original characters are created from the wonderful mind of Kishimoto.
Most of the following unrecognizable are original characters of mine, please bear with me I am still in the process of making the character profiles for an even better visualization.
Also, comments, suggestions, criticism, even just simple messages are welcomes, please feel free to message me anytime.
Thanks for reading!
Chapter 4: The Artist Combo
"We're too late" Kakashi was the only one brave enough to voice out the scene before them, everybody else was silent the moment they entered and saw the stomach churning scene in front of them. None of them even reacted, still trying to process the emotions that surged their whole body and the possible consequences of showing an enemy of these emotions.
Misaki can literally feel every fiber of Ayako's body shaking with anger at the sight of an immobile Gaara being sat on by a blond man dressed in a black cloak adorned with red clouds. Misaki knew it was hard on Ayako to see Gaara this way, but as reckless as Ayako is, she knew it would only be futile, stupid even to confront these two head on.
Ayako had never felt so angry nor so helpless in all her life, she wanted to outstretch her hands towards Gaara, to be able to reach him this time. It seems that yet again, just as it always had been, Ayako had been unable to reach Gaara. She tried to fight back the tears that started to spill from her eyes, but it was proving to be a tasking matter, for some tears had stubbornly rolled down her cheek.
"Bastard! Who do you think you're sitting on?!" Naruto yelled out to the two, not so hulking, but still domineering figures in front of them. The blond one looking at them like they were toys in the sand box and the weird barely gazing at them like they were a complete waste of his precious time.
Misaki brazed herself as she noticed Naruto's irises drastically change from their shared vibrant blue to an angry shade or red, his incisors, barely noticeable, but had already grown longer than his normal ones.
'This is bad' Misaki thought as she slowly raised her hand to the hilt of her sword, careful not to let their enemies notice her movement. It would be bad enough that they were up against not only one but two members of the akatsuki, but to battle two members of the organization and keep Naruto from a. being captured and b. rampaging across the lands.
"No doubt about it, he's the jinchuriki, 'the first one to yell and scream at you' huh? Itachi is pretty good at describing people" the blond one said, the air of mischief never lost in the suffocating air of tension.
"GAARA! What do you think you're doing leisurely sleeping in a place like that, stand up! Hey Gaara are you even listening, knock it off!" Naruto called out to his fallen brother at arms, whilst Ayako's tears began to fall uncontrollably, and Misaki stopped her, as her body involuntarily moved forwards, hands outstretched reaching towards Gaara. Misaki felt bad hat all she can do to console her friend was hold her back from doing something incredibly rash and stupid.
Naruto began to copy Ayako's actions, but was ceased with a yell from his sensei. This was no time for anyone in the group to be over ruled with any sort of emotion. All of them needed to concentrate on the mission at present without thinking about anything else.
"You know it already right? That he's long dead" Deidara taunted, pushing harder when he started to tap Gaara's unmoving face, a gesture that pushed Naruto way beyond his patience as Misaki felt his nine-tailed infused chakra emit from his body. Changes were subtle, but they were already there, like his fangs growing longer as he got angrier, or his unruly blond hair flowing even though nothing so much as a draft was present inside the stuffy cave, even his facial features were sharper and more intense.
Misaki felt Ayako's shaking begin to settle down in her arms and slowly the young kunoichi of Suna moved away from Misaki, head hung low as she wiped the tears away. When she had raised her head, her face was already clear of any indication that she had just been crying, replaced with the ferocious determination to avenge Gaara.
"Give him back! Give Gaara back you jerks!" Naruto tried to advance towards the enemy ranks, this time at a noticeably faster and more determined pace, but still he was halted by Kakashi who immediately used his entire body to prevent Naruto from acting on his thoughts, or the lack thereof.
"Naruto, calm down, if you charge ahead without thinking, we'll be annihilated" Kakashi said, literally spelling it out to Naruto that if he broke ranks, their chances of surviving, much less completing their mission would be compromised.
Misaki noted that even though that fazed Naruto for a moment, it did nothing to quench the anger that surged inside of him. Her twin was so angry that his entire being shook with the intensity of it.
Misaki watched their enemies intently, trying to absorb every detail of their being just as she tried to recall all the information about them. It wasn't the first time she and Ayako would be up against Akatsuki members, but it would be their first time without Yoko, Kazumi or Natsumi.
Deidara, the spontaneous and eccentric bomber whilst Sasori was the calculative and cautious puppeteer, together, they make quite a pair, enough to throw a village into chaos long enough to snatch their kazekage. Misaki observed if their argument was any indication, the two S-ranked criminals before them were aficionados of art, differing in perception, but still loved in general. The two of them continued to debate about the real meaning of art, as if their enemies had just vanished into thin air before them, like they were nothing at all.
Just another perk that drove Naruto mad with rage as he took out a scroll, releasing a rather large shurinken to chuck at his enemies. However, as distracted as they were, the huge shurinken was deflected without being looked at, like a small fly being swatted away. As a matter of fact, the two akatsuki members were more focused on fighting each other, making Misaki wonder what kind of system the akatsuki has, that they were confident to have powerful unstable members to function, even though not perfectly, but purposely.
They all watched intently as Deidara seemingly conjured a bird made out of clay and swallowed Gaara whole, with only his feet dangling out of his mouth. It was a clear indication that these guys were using their emotions against them, as this action was clearly a trap.
A bait Naruto had willingly bit as he followed the clay bird carrying Gaara in its mouth outside the cave. Ayako watched as the ever observant Misaki broke her gaze from the targets to follow her brother's actions.
"Misaki" Ayako called out to her friend and the two of them stared at each other, a wordless exchange, but it spoke in volumes, as Misaki nodded back towards her throwing a small pouch, one which Ayako caught without another word and placed directly on her pouch lodged on her back. Misaki gave a final look to her team mates and left the cave in order to follow Naruto, Kakashi following in tow.
"Chiyo-baa, can you still keep up?" Ayako said loosening the bandages wrapped around her arms; from her elbow down.
"Please, this old lady can still put you down even during nap time"
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Misaki, Kakashi and Naruto stood on top of the red gate just outside the cave as Deidara continued to mock them as he loomed above them, close enough to touch but far enough to reach.
Noises are heard from within the cave, and it wouldn't even take a genius to deduce that the battle against the other akatsuki member had already begun.
"You left those two little girls and that old hag, are you sure they are really up to the task of taking on Sasori-dono?" Deidara asked as Naruto and Kakashi looked towards the entrance of the cave, face full of worry, with Naruto more obvious than Kakashi's. However, Misaki trained her eyes on their blond opponent, observing his actions. Misaki formed a quick succession of hand signs and then pointing her index and middle finger towards Deidara.
"Raiton: Stream wave" Misaki said and small precise currents of electricity bolted out of her fingers, quickly making its way towards Deidara, who was initially shocked, but was able to dodge Misaki's attack with complete ease.
"Huh, you missed! Is that the best you got?" Deidara taunted Misaki, however Misaki just looked him in the eye and smirked.
"It wasn't meant to hit you. We are your opponent, I won't allow you focus on anything other than our battle" Misaki replied as she watch Deidara's attention shift from looking at her to looking at his hands.
Misaki's eyes focused on his hand, his only hand, the other freshly removed, probably from his battle with Gaara. If that was the case, then Gaara knew that his hands were essential for his technique and had gotten rid of his other hand.
"Kakashi-sensei, go back to Sakura-chan, I'll save Gaara" Naruto yelled and jumped up from where he stood between Misaki and Kakashi towards Deidara.
Deidara smirked, his plan was going smoothly, playing the jinchuriki of the nine tails was so easy for them, but just before Naruto even got close to him, Misaki had appeared seemingly out of nowhere at a break neck speed and kicked Naruto, sending him flying towards the edges of the surrounding cliffs.
"I'm sorry Naruto," Misaki said as she landed on the cliff next to him. In a split second, Deidara chucked an explosive clay towards them, but Kakashi was quick to react and deflected it using a shurinken, however, even out of its course, Deidara still set off the clay bomb, sending the embedded shurinken on it hurtling towards them, which Misaki quickly deflected with her katana.
"It wouldn't be worthwhile if you were beaten that easily," Deidara said smirking down at them.
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Meanwhile, inside the cave Ayako, Sakura and Chiyo were going toe to toe against Sasori as he showered them with poisoned senbon needles. Ayako clenched her teeth, alone she could have just deflected the attacks with any wind technique she had up her sleeves, but there were three of them in the rain of poisoned senbon needles and Misaki had only procured three antidotes. If ever she decides to deflect the needles from her body, it would mean, the needles would blast away from her, some might end up lodging themselves on either Sakura or Chiyo. It would be easier to let the needles rain on their own, wherein they can easily project the trajectory of the directions the senbons are about to go.
Ayako watched Sasori as the second rain of needles ceased, trying to find an opening. Chiyo had earlier said that Sasori was a master puppeteer and all weaknesses that puppeteers was that whenever they control and send their puppets on the battlefield, they were all left vulnerable. However, this puppet in front of them Hiruko, was Sasori's masterpiece in order to transcend that puppeteer's weakness, for it was both serves as an offense and a defense puppet as it battled on, with Sasori is tucked safely within it.
"Sakura" Ayako said calling out to the pink haired Konoha kunoichi, who nodded back at her clenching her glove covered fists.
"Let's go" Ayako said and together they both ran towards their enemy, however the closer they got to Sasori, Ayako sped up whilst Sakura slowed down as Ayako took the lead, disappearing into a small twister of a petal filled twister hitting Sasori, throwing him off his guard.
"Sakura now!" Chiyo said and Sakura sped up behind Ayako and hit Sasori with all her might, shattering Hiruko like it was just some novice puppeteer's first work.
A smaller black figure emerged from the broken pieces of the larger puppert, and it dashed immediately out of Sakura's reach.
"So you've finally come out huh" Chiyo said as she watched the small hooded form of her grandson.
"I've come this far to see my grandson's face, after twenty years, what say you we face each other?" Chiyo urged her grandson, who remained eerily still before them, crouched in a smaller form and staring at his hand. It was then that Ayako materialized back to solid form right next to Chiyo. It was a small movement, but Ayako didn't dare miss it, from her experience with puppeteers back at Suna, a small twitch of the hands can mean a huge attack from it puppet.
"Sakura, watch out!" Ayako said, but Chiyo had beat her too it and quickly steered Sakura out of range of Sasori's attack with Hiruko's dismembered head.
"As I thought, just what I'd expect from my old granny, no wonder these girls were able to dodge my hidden weapons. After all, the old lady who can see past my attacks was controlling these little girls with chakra threads used for the puppet master technique. What's more, you were kind as to attack thread of chakra to Hiruko's tail, but to think I wouldn't notice after the tail's motion had been bought to a halt, it was when you first attacked with the kunai knife wasn't it? Threads of chakra attached to the kunai knives, latched onto the tail when it repelled the kunai knives" Sasori explained, revealing every single detail of Chiyo's movements from the moment she first attacked up to the present situation.
Ayako clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, Sasori wasn't just an ordinary opponent, for unlike Deidara, he was more calculative and cautious, as if being a master puppeteer wasn't dangerous enough, he had to be more of a strategic opponent, in addition they had the advantage of Chiyo being familiar with Sasori's fighting style, but they also have the disadvantage of Sasori being well versed with Chiyo's.
"I suppressed my chakra as much as possible, so as not to be seen, and yet you still figured it out" Chiyo mused.
"Of course, after all, the one who hammered the principles of puppetry into me was you" Sasori replied,
"But the show ends today!" Chiyo exclaimed.
"I intend to!" Sasori said finally removing the black cloth hooding, no covering his whole face.
"Well then, will things proceed as simply as that, I wonder, Chiyo-baa-sama" he said, finally revealing the famed red haired puppeteer of Suna.
"Chiyo-baa-sama, is he… is he Sasori?" Sakura stuttered as she shifted her gaze from Chiyo to their opponent. Meanwhile Ayako frowned, how come that a man who is already somewhere in his thirties look as pubescent as he is now. Ayako looked towards Chiyo and judging from the old lady's reaction, she too had not been expecting what she saw.
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Outside the cave, the battle between the other akatsuki member and the rest of the party continued on. Well if one would even call it a battle as it merely revolved around petty attacks with no purpose whatsoever and Deidara taunting and mocking them as he flew above them.
Misaki had already considered moving against Deidara, but that would involve leaving a very rash Naruto, and that might not be good, considering he was threading on the border of rampaging, something that Deidara would surely use to his advantage, seeing as he was used the same underhanded tricks to subdue and capture Gaara.
Misaki frowned as Deidara flew farther away from the cave, separating their already separated party even more, knowing that Naruto would be impulsive enough to go after him.
"Kakashi-sensei, Misaki, you go look after Sakura-chan and the others" Naruto said as he mindlessly ran after Deidara. Misaki and Kakashi shared a look, one with a mixture of deep thought and reluctance, before following after Naruto.
"Idiot, like we have a choice" Misaki muttered as she caught up with ease next to her twin brother.
"Wait! Hold back!" Naruto yelled at Deidara as he chased after the blond akatsuki member, not noticing the three white bird-like figures heading his way, however it did not escape Misaki's sharp eyes.
"Naruto watch out" Misaki said grabbing Naruto by the collar and dragging him backwards as she sent three kunai knives towards the detonating clays, making them explode out of their reach.
Just as the smokes of the detonated bomb settled down, Naruto broke free from Misaki's grasps and resumed pursing Deidara.
"Naruto, hold on, we're moving too far from the others!" Misaki yelled after him, but unlike before, Naruto was already too livid to listen to anyone. Misaki frowned,if this continues further, it could spell trouble for them as they went farther and farther away from the cave.
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From within the cave, Sasori had begun his attacks with a different set of tricks, for he now yields a puppet that was once the third kazekage of his very own home village. The kazekage once deemed to be the most powerful of all the past kazekage. Sakura was just barely manipulated by Chiyo when Sasori rained down hundreds of puppet arms on her when Sasori released a mist of poison gas. Chiyo tried to pull Sakura away from the poison gas' range, however Sasori had set off ropes, tightly holding Sakura in place within the poisoned gas.
"Sakura! Futon: Howling Wind Technique" Ayako yelled a petal filled wind blowing the gas away from Sakura and towards Sasori himself as Chiyo, the petals in the wind sharpening themselves, severing the ropes keeping Sakura captive. However, Sakura did not come out unscathed since Ayako was attacking blindly, some of the sharpened edges of the petal had grazed her all over her body.
Ayako had been too relieved and too busy watching as Chiyo inspected Sakura's body for any signs of being affected by the poison that she didn't have the time to react when Sarori had launched an array of kunai knives and shurinken towards her team mates. Luckily for Sakura, Chiyo's age did not dictate her reflexes when she managed to block them with a new set of puppets; the mother and the father.
"Sakura, Ayako stand back" Chiyo ordered the two younger kunoichi, marking the beginning of a long awaited grandmother-grandson showdown, the battle of two master puppeteers. Both Ayako and Sakura watched in amazement, just as any child would in a puppet show, only this time, and the puppets were intent to destroy the other with the full intent to kill.
By the time they were finished with the exchange of attacks, the weapons of every puppet utilized in the puppet show, were already spent.
However things began to move downhill when Sasori had revealed the secrets of the puppet he wielded. The Iron Sand technique unique to the third kazekage.
Pushed back to the last of Chiyo's defenses, Ayako wiped the dirt and blood from her face and stepped forward.
"Sakura, are we just going to stand by and let the old hag do all the work?" Ayako said completely removing the bandages the covered her fingers to her elbows, revealing blisters all over. Blisters ranging from old barely there to fresh ones.
Both Sakura and Ayako attacked together with Ayako acting as a shield deflecting Sasori's attacks with her wind techniques and Sakura on the offense, punching and kicking the formed materials out of the third kazekage's iron sand. It went on and on, until the cave was destroyed to a point that it can't be recognized as a cave anymore, probably more like a crater by now.
Sasori was beginning to get impatient as Ayako and Sakura began to perceive his attack pattern by the movement of his fingers. Completely irritated that two little girls are managing to get the best out of him. Through the excursion of chakra, Sasori created sharp web like patterns out of the iron sand, widening its range and sharpening its edges.
"Watch out!" Ayako said blasting winds from all over her body, sending Chiyo and Sakura out of the way, saving their lives, however it wasn't without a fail as a huge chunk of rock fell on Chiyo's good hand and both of them had gotten wounds, not just any ordinary wounds but poisoned wounds. Thank god for Misaki and her excellent memory for remembering Kazumi's antidote.
Both younger kunoichi collapsed on the ground, feeling the effects of the poison that coated the entirety of the iron sand, causing Sasori to lower his guard and maneuver his precious puppet to attack the two at close range, but they were prepared for his attack.
"Futon: Blades of Wind" Ayako said and four petal filled winds blasted from her form, decapitating the third kazekage puppet of its limbs followed by Sakura's chakra infused punch completely destroying the puppet of the third kazekage, deactivating every iron sand around them.
Ayako observed the red haired puppet master as Sasori watched the both of them, wondering why even with the scratches received from his poisoned weapons, the two of them were still able to move as any other normal person.
"Sucks for him, we already managed to procure an antidote for your unique poison" Ayako explained, raising the vial that she had injected herself with as Sakura helped Chiyo stand from the debris that was created during their exchange of blows.
"Where did you two get such a thing?" Chiyo asked in astonishment.
"While I was taking care of Kankuro, Misaki was able to make several antidotes, not only for Kankuro, but she figured since we probably are going to go up against Sasori, we might as well be ready" Sakura explained.
"Yeah, during our travels, we have encountered this sort of poison and Kazumi was able to formulate a perfect antidote for it, good thing Misaki has an excellent memory or else, Sakura and I might be suffering just as Kankuro had suffered." Ayako added, all three kunoichi looked back to their opponent who was observing them with keen eyes, probably wondering how they were able to overrule his poison.
Sasori's eyes sleeked at the sight before him, irritated that this battle is dragging on longer that he wanted it to be. s
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"You're too slow Kakashi-sensei, at this pace, we'll lose sight of him!" Naruto yelled back at Kakashi as he and Misaki took the lead in chasing Deidara.
"No matter how slow we get, I doubt he'll lose us" Misaki reminded Naruto who looked at her inquisitively.
"His target is you Naruto, the whole point is to try to get you to them, he won't run off as far enough to shake us completely" Kakashi explained Misaki's notion.
They chased for a while without much action, Misaki believed that Deidara was merely preparing for an attack that made her be extra cautious in observing his movement.
So when Deidara raised his hand and small seemingly harmless flecks of white began to rain on them Misaki unsheathed her sword behind her.
"Kakashi be careful" Misaki warned as they progressed, not long after that, small spider like clay figures began blocking and exploding their way.
"Misaki! Kakashi-sensei! You're too slow, I'm going on ahead" Naruto said, not heading any of Kakashi's warnings.
"I guess we'll just have to finish with her first" Misaki pondered out loud staring at where Naruto had once been. Both Kakashi and Misaki braised themselves and tried to surpass the blockade of miniature clay with the use of speed. However, speed wasn't the case, since all those clay figures had to do was block the way and explode in their faces so they.
"Any plans Kakashi?" Misaki asked, staring at the clay bombs, not sure if she was being amazed at the brilliance of the strategy or annoyed that it was retaining them right where they are.
"I have one" Kakashi said dropping down behind the logs and running backwards, surprising Misaki, but nonetheless followed the exactly what the older more experienced shinobi did.
After quite some time an explosion erupted, wrenching Naruto's attention from Gaara's form within the clay bird towards the small raving between two cliffs.
"MISAKI!" he yelled out, as if urging, wanting to hear her reply back, the longer he is met with silence, the angrier he got at the blond before him.
"You bastard!" Naruto yelled, ready to launch himself towards Deidara, if it wasn't for an arm pushing him down.
"Wait, Naruto!" Kakashi stopped Naruto from doing anything both rash and stupid for the nth time that day, and this time it wasn't any different.
"I thought you had died from that explosion" Deidara said, nonchalantly, but his composure completely diminished when he was kicked out of the blue, almost throwing him off his bird.
Misaki landed next to Naruto with a small smile, as she sheathed her sword.
"Sorry, but something as mediocre as that won't detain us for long, much less kill us" Misaki said.
"Next time you set your bomb to follow, make sure you teach them to follow the real body rather than a shadow clone" Kakashi said.
"Besides, it was pretty easy to neutralize your bomb with electricity" Misaki added.
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Getting anxious with the fight's turn outs, Sasori uncloaked himself and revealed before Ayako, Sakura and his very own grandmother his ultimate puppet; Scoripion, his very own body. Almost immediately the fight ensued with Sasori blasting incredibly flames at his opponents whilst they hid behind the remains of the previous fight. Sakura and Chiyo, both tried to chuck different items at Sasori, only to have the flames burn them out before they can reach a somewhat close range.
"Tche, it seems we have no choice" Ayako said summersaulting from behind the rock she was hiding at and threw several blades at Sasori, dragging the puppet master's attention from Sakura and Chiyo towards her.
"That a pretty stupid move from you little girl" Sasori taunted directing his aim to Ayako, smirking at the sheer stupidity of the youngest, wind specialist kunoichi. The flames fired from their nozzles just as Ayako finished with her hand signs.
"Futon: Reverse Tornado" she yelled and gusts of wind protruded from the palms of her hand, meeting the flames half watched in amazement as Ayako's winds accomplished the exact opposite, Ayako's winds sucked the flames instead of blowing on it, that would probably result in a less than ideal scenario for the three of them.
Ayako noticed, that amongst the scrolls lined up on the spine of the Sasori puppet, the top scroll had already disappeared and instead of fire the nozzle began shooting out waters.
"Shit!" Ayako barely had the time to create a wind of wall between her and the highly pressurized shooting water, but she wasn't able to escape unscathed, as she was hit on her stomach and pushed to an unsuspecting rock.
Whilst Ayako was down for the count, Sasori increased the pressure and decreased the range of the water making it more lethal, enough to slice through the rocks and started attacking his grandmother and Sakura.
Ayako regained consciousness to find Sakura standing before bits and pieces of Sasori's puppet body.
"Have we won?" Ayako muttered the question to herself as she slowly stood up and walked towards Chiyo and Sakura. Their victory was cut short when Sasori's puppet body started to repair itself like a horror story unfolding between them.
Causing Chiyo to release her famous ten puppets, known for bringing down a castle, one which Sasori countered with a hundred of his own puppets, one which he used to conquer a nation, shadowing upon them like a rain storm.
"Sakura" Ayako called out to her peer who smirked and nodded at her, fixing her gloves tighter, soon they began an onslaught of attack against the army of puppets.
"Sakura aim for Sasori, Ayako and I will have you're back" Chiyo ordered and Sakura did as she was told as Ayako and Chiyo with her ten puppets covered Sakura's path.
"Go for it SAKURA!" Ayako yelled at the top of her lungs once Sakura got in range to throw the sealing ball, Ayako sent a powerful gust of winds around her, turning everything around Sakura into nothing but mere bits and pieces.
There it was, the brief moment, that one small moment where seconds can change the course of the entire battle, and at the moment for sure, they had won against Sasori of the Red Sand.
If only this victory was not short lived either, but Ayako just had to catch the brief movement behind Chiyo and shield her in time, the sword embedding deep inside of her.
"Ayako!" between the pain, the blood loss and the poison, Ayako's senses began to dull as she begin to stagger for breath. She didn't know the specifics, all she knew was that they won and the pain was beginning to fade.
"Stupid child, to risk your life for an old lady, much less one that destroyed your life" Chiyo said as Ayako chuckled, blood running down on her lips.
"Forgetful old hag, can't you remember if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have the chance to get closer to Gaara" Ayako said, and her vision began to blur in place of her memories with Gaara, both good and bad.
"Gaara" I guess I'll be joining you sooner than I originally planned.
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Naruto, Misaki and Kakashi were still hot in Deidara's heels, Naruto completely calming down once he had heard Kakashi's plan to retrieve Gaara. After a while of amassing chakra on his sharingan eye, Kakashi activated the Mangekyou Sharingan on Deidara.
"Naruto, prepare yourself" Misaki said as Deidara was occupied with Kakashi's technique, after a momen't struggle, he was successful in dismembering Deidara's arm.
"Let's go Naruto" Misaki said and together the two of them followed toe to toe as Kakashi attempted his second try, hint the word attempted, causing Deidara to lower his guard at Kakashi's failure, failing to notice the twins cornering him.
Misaki disloged the clay bird's neck from its whole body as Naruto tried to hit Deidara with rasengan, an attack he missed by barely a little.
Naruto used his shadow clones softening the landing of Gaara's body, the rest digging through the clay.
"Let me" Misaki said and sliced the clay bird's head in half, revealing the unmoving Gaara beneath it.
Deep inside Misaki had been dreading this moment, where Naruto would get to validate by himself of Gaara's passing, however at the same time Misaki knew that he had to know, no matter how painful it is.
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Sakura wasn't sure how she was going to manage to bring a barely alive Ayako and Chiyo out of the cave, but they had to move from there, even though they had emerged as victors in the battle against Sasori the mission is far from being accomplished as they had yet to bring the kazekage Gaara back home.
Suddenly, figure emerged out of nowhere at the top of the crater that once was a cave, as soon as the figures spotted her, it went towards her at a fast pace alarming Sakura, pushing her to take a defensive pose to protect both Ayako and Chiyo.
"We just want to help, we mean you no harm " the tallest woman said showing her necklace to Sakura, an identical one to what Ayako and Misaki wore around their necks, the same one all three women wore, and the only difference is that the crystals of their necklaces differ in color.
"My name is Shimizu Yoko and these are Hino Natsumi and Moriya Kazumi, we're friends of Misaki and Ayako" Yoko said pointing towards the brunette then to the black haired girl.
Sakura watched with caution as Kazumi immediately tended to Chiyo and Ayako, not yet trusting their motives for helping them, but even she had to admit that they were in no form to deny any form of help.
"How did you find us?" Sakura said, her gaze returning to the remaining kunoichi before her.
"The necklaces, Misaki designed it so that we'll be able to sense the other" Natsumi said callously as she looked around, clearly more interested in the chaos before her.
Sakura observed the three women and noted that they all had differing hitae-ate, a fact that extended to Ayako and Misaki, just who are these friends of Misaki? Sakura thought as Yoko assisted Chiyo and Natsumi carried a barely conscious Ayako on her back.
"Let's go, Misaki might still need our help" Kazumi said and the all-female group left the once cave crater.
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Misaki stood behind Kakashi, supporting him as Naruto spent his pent up anger towards Deidara, watching with worry as Naruto's rage grew and grew, until such time that chakra had manifested around his body.
"This is bad" Misaki said as Naruto continued to pent up his anger, this time on a much more dangerous scale, too dangerous that even his own shadow clones are feeling the effects of the cloak of chakra.
"Naruto, stop it!" Misaki yelled after Naruto, but Kakashi held her wrist in place.
"Misaki, Naruto is not himself right now, it's dangerous for you to go down there" Kakashi said, but Misaki broke free from his grasp and instead held his hand in her grasp, tight to reassure him.
"This is Naruto we're talking about, he won't hurt me" Misaki said, her eyes showing the unwavering faith she has on her twin.
"Fine" Kakashi said and jumped down, calling Naruto's attention before he can create any further damage. At the sight of Kakashi, Naruto lounged at him, but his distracted attention made it easier for Misaki to intervene between them and hug her brother tight, effectively calming Naruto, the nine-tails' cloak of chakra gradually disappearing.
Finally spent, Naruto collapsed in his sister's arms, and Misaki was glad to catch her twin, thankful that Naruto was able to calm down without much damage.
Just in time that Yoko, Ayako, Natsumi, Kazumi, Chiyo and Sakura arrived the scene, and team Guy had spotted Deidara.
"Everyone get back!" Neji yelled before a large explosion was heard.
"Suiton: Wall of Gel" Yoko yelled slamming her hands on the ground, shielding the rest of the group with cold gel.
"Damn, it won't hold for too long get out of here" Yoko said, but before their eyes, behind the wall of cold gel, the explosion was absorbed in a hole, exhibiting the true power of the mangekyou sharingan.
Once everyone has settled in the middle of the grass field, they laid Gaara, where Sakura inspected his body.
"Natsumi, please bring me to Gaara" Ayako whispered, Gaara's death haven't been completely imbedded in her mind.
"Fine" Natsumi said and placed Ayako to sit towards Gaara's head. Ayako carefully placed Gaara's head on her legs and ran her fingers along her red mane, as tears fell from her eyes.
In anger, and grief, Naruto began crying and lashing out at the others present, but everyone knew it was all. Because although they were not experiencing it at Naruto's degree, they were all in mourning for Gaara, finally accepting that the kazekage was no more.
So imagine their shock when Chiyo placed her hands on top of Gaara, executing a technique only she could use in the exchange of her own life.
"Chiyo-baa" Ayako said between her sobs.
"Consider this as my gift to you, so you better not waste my life and do what you have been meaning to do" Chiyo said.
Ayako couldn't help as the tears fell harder from her eyes, unable to choose on which emotion to portray, the happiness of Gaara's return or the sadness of losing Chiyo as a price for Gaara's life.
"See you in the other life, but don't be in such a rush to get there, someone has to take care of Gaara too" Chiyo winked one last time before her eyes shut completely.
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Sorry for the hiatus, but here it is the final chapter of the kazekage rescue mission arc. Not much Misaki action, but there will be more of her in the following arc. Thank you so much for reading, until next time.