[Jiraiya]
We just reached a barrier of some sort after running for some time. Predictably, Naruto tried to pass it only to end up failing miserably.
"Ugh! This is annoying!" He complained. He started to pace around the area.
"There is nothing we can do right now…" Shikamaru spoke, I looked over at him and nodded.
"What do you mean-" Naruto started to shout.
"The Akatsuki could be anywhere by now…There's no telling what kind of barrier this is…" I interjected. Naruto clenched his fists before punching in front of him.
"Argh!" He shouted as the barrier created purple sparks as his fist met the barrier. "What do we do now?!"
Wind blew past, almost carrying the heavy silence that invaded my ears.
"I suggest we head back to the leaf village and wait until Kakashi comes around. We should find out if he has any ideas. Once he's able, we can use his tracking dogs to-" Shikamaru started.
"That will take too long! What if they kill her?!" Naruto interrupted, his voice cracking at the end of his sentence.
I let out a long sigh before rubbing my face with my hand.
"Naruto," I started before placing my free hand on his shoulder. "She will be fine. Sakura is a smart kunoichi…" I reassured him, not entirely believing my sentence myself.
"Yeah." Naruto grunted before shaking his shoulder free of my grasp. I returned both my hands by my sides before leading the three back to Yamato.
"We've got good news and bad news." Yamato didn't hesitate to speak as I looked down at Temari's battered body.
"Hit me." I said as a force of habit.
"Good news is; a significant amount of Deidara's blood was left on Temari's forehead, one of Kakashi's hounds will be able to track him, no matter how far away he is." I smiled slightly at the good news before glancing over at Naruto.
"And the bad news?"
"Temari is in a critical condition. Her body is starting to shut down. She's bleeding out and if she doesn't get to a hospital in five minutes, she will die."
I heard Shikamaru inhale air greedily.
"Konoha is twenty minutes away…" He stated, wretchedness dripping from his tone. He walked to Temari's unconscious body and placed his hand on her shoulder. Yamato and I exchanged concerned looks before I noticed a new Chakra signature head in our direction.
"Someone is heading towards us." I informed everyone as I turned around to be met with two familiar faces.
"There you are! I said to wait until Choji and I finished our convers-!" An angry looking Ino started shouting. She noticed Temari and stopped herself from speaking. "Out of the way!" Ino ordered. Yamato moved out of Ino's way swiftly. Shikamaru stayed where he was. "What happened?" Ino asked as she hovered her hand over Temari's heart, her hand shaking slightly. A soft green glow started forming around her hand.
I almost forgot that she studied Medical jutsu alongside Sakura. From what Tsunade told me, Ino gave up when they were asked to resurrect a recently killed bird. From that point onwards, Sakura and Ino had a routine going on every week where Sakura would share her knowledge on medical jutsu with Ino on a basic level.
"I don't know what happened to her regarding the burns…but I saw Temari get stabbed with a razor-sharp sword…with spiky teeth on it." Shikamaru informed Ino as much as he could.
There were a few moments of silence where Ino had moved her hand up and down Temari before stopping at the gaping wound on her right side.
"This here," Ino started as she placed her two hands over Temari's wound. "If I can clot the blood here, it can act like a layer of skin and it may help her hang on to life longer." Ino finished, sounding quite unsure of what she was saying.
We all stood in silence while waiting for any movements from Temari. Shikamaru kept his sight locked onto Temari's eyes.
Suddenly Temari's eyes started to flit behind her closed eyelids and her body flinched. Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief.
"Will she be okay?" Naruto asked, messing up Ino's focus. She signalled for Shikamaru to hold Temari.
"We'll need to get her to a specialist within the next half an hour…They'll be the only kind of medics who will be able to help Temari's condition stabilize." Ino responded.
"We'll all head back for now." Yamato stated as he placed a white handkerchief with blood in his pocket. He chucked Kakashi over his shoulder before heading off in the direction of the leaf village.
I waited for everyone to follow Yamato before leaving, although Naruto was the only person who stood still.
"What's wrong?" I questioned, trying to tilt my body to get a closer look at his face.
"This was all pointless. We didn't get Sakura back…" He complained. I frowned at him before crossing my arms.
"Be that as it may, we managed to collect Deidara's DNA. And that isn't pointless. We'll be able to find Sakura when Kakashi comes to." I stated. Naruto looked at me before easing his facial expressions.
"It's just annoying…" He muttered before darting off in the direction of the hidden leaf Village
A/N: Thank you for reading! Please review to help me improve the story