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…
A shout of, "Kai!" rang throughout the entire village as the ninja quickly picked up on the Genjutsu that had been cast upon them. For most this had not come a moment too soon, as they were able to jump out of the way before their bodies became something resembling pincushions via the numerous kunai and shuriken which had flown through the air. This was of course only for most of the Konoha ninja, others were not so lucky.
Giant serpents were summoned outside the walls of the village, and it took no longer than a few seconds for them to break their way into the town, destroying everything in their path. Before any of the Konoha shinobi had the chance of trying to put a stop to the massive creatures that were causing massive amounts of collateral damage, they first had to defeat the shinobi from both Oto and Suna that stood in their way.
Not an easy task by any means.
With the element of surprise having been removed from play, however, it was a more even battlefield, as shinobi of all ranks and skill levels rallied behind one another in what would be a battle of life or death between the two factions. The prize for the winner: Konoha.
…
Temari had been rather worried going into her match. Gaara had been knocked out not long before but Shukaku still had not come out to play. She assumed that there was some kind of delay; maybe Konoha had been particularly adept in sealing him in a certain part of the building for a while, but that had not been the case.
A look into the stands said that similar thoughts were going through Baki's mind. Kankuro had thought that perhaps he had been snubbed by Konoha's Anbu, or that perhaps that damn spandex-wearing Genin's final blow had killed him, but both of those theories had been shot down the moment she saw her father return to his box during her final match.
That had, regrettably, caught her off guard and had led to her being on the receiving end of a vicious combo, courtesy of the boy. Then to add insult to injury, they both ended up losing to that stupid cloud-watching idiot. In the end, though, she supposed she hadn't really stood much of a chance; Lee had taken out Gaara without breaking much of a sweat after all.
She hadn't had time to ponder upon what exactly had happened to her little brother, but now she had a little breathing space. The question was, however, was she going to play her foretold role in the events to come, or was she going to look for her youngest sibling?
Temari got her answer as she saw several members of the crowd bring their hands together in the hand seal for a Genjutsu.
…
The voice was unrelenting.
Gaara had known that eventually one day he would have to face his mother's voice again, that whatever the old man had done would not be permanent, but he had not expected it to come so soon.
'Blood… you must give it to me…'
He tried to think straight, of a way to drown it out and obtain the peaceful state of mind he had been in not ten minutes prior, but he just couldn't. It was not like silencing a child whose screaming was uncessant, Gaara noted, for you could not bury it in sand.
He clutched at his hair in anger. Mother was not saying anything incredibly intelligible, however, the low grumbling which accompanied her voice was what truly got to Gaara. Shoving his palms against his ears, he attempted to try and block out the voice but to no avail.
"S-Shut up!" yelled Gaara, grunting, as the demon continued to tell Gaara of its bloodthirsty demands.
'Kill them all… Mother demands their blood!' exclaimed Shukaku within his head manically, 'Destroy all of them!'
"Gaara!" exclaimed a familiar voice as the door flung open besides him. "I was so worried about you, are you alright?"
Although he normally would have been glad to see Temari, his only response was to clutch at his hair and scream further in agony. Unable to control himself, a wall of sand sprung forth from Gaara's nearby gourd.
"Go away," he yelled, "Just leave me alone!"
At this point he wasn't sure whether he was talking to Temari or Mother, but all he knew was that he wanted to be left by himself, to his own devices. The urge to kill, however, was continuously growing stronger and he was sure that he would not be able to fight it any longer.
He could hear loud bangs and yelling coming from outside; it would be so easy for him to just join the fray and snap every little insect's neck.
'Yes, Gaara, you must obey Mother! Bury them all in your sand, it is the only way to validate your existence,' Shukaku whispered. 'Start with that stupid little girl in front of you, then go on to bathe the entire arena with blood!'
The idea started to sound more and more appealing the more he thought about it. Other people were nothing but trouble, they were nothing more than obstacles in his way; he needed to crush them all.
What he did not expect was for a pair of arms to crush him in an embrace, as his sister sidestepped the levitating wall of sand in front of him.
"It's going to be okay, Gaara," she whispered protectively. "Kankuro and I are here for you, and we always will be."
And just like that Shukaku's voice faded to nothingness like a candle that had been blown out. The wall of sand dissipated as the Jinchuuriki came to his senses, his eyes widening in surprise as he noticed that his sister was hugging him tightly. Unsure of what else to do, he hugged her back slightly.
"Thanks…"
Temari wasn't sure if she had heard her brother correctly or if she was just hallucinating, but she decided that it did not matter for the moment. With a smile that she hadn't expected to be able to place on her face for a few more days given her loss in the finals, she turned towards the door before glancing back towards her brother.
"So what do you say? Ready to go and kick some Konoha butt now?" she asked enthusiastically, glad to see that Kankuro's head peaking out the door meaning that he had also decided to come and check on Gaara.
Gaara's answer was something that she had not anticipated.
"No."
…
"Did you really have to kill her, teme?" asked Naruto with a frown upon his face as the four of them fled the village in a hurry.
"She was about to attack Sakura, dobe, would you have rathered I stood there watching while Sakura was defenceless?" said Sasuke with a shake of his head. "Besides, they're the enemy, aren't they?"
"Not quite," said Kakashi, carrying Sakura on his shoulders, as he looked towards Sasuke. "Turns out Suna had been duped and that the Kazekage was murdered a few weeks ago."
"So then why was that girl attacking Sakura?" asked Sasuke. "Seems a little shifty to me."
"Well, you kinda permanently handicapped her sister," said Naruto bluntly. While he was rather disturbed that someone who appeared to be so kind and welcoming really had sinister intentions, that did not mean that he approved of Sasuke's solution to the problem.
"It's not like it can be helped," said Sasuke, shrugging it off. "It's unfortunate, yes, but there's nothing we can do about it."
"I'd have thought you of all people would know how sacred life is," said Kakashi, deciding to interrupt. "While you're right, we can't do anything about it now, it doesn't mean that brushing it off is the right thing to do."
Sasuke muttered something incomprehensible as he looked to the ground, scowling.
An awkward silence consumed the group for a few minutes before Naruto began to grow restless. He attempted to strike up a conversation with Sakura but that didn't quite work since she was slipping in and out of consciousness. Kakashi was too focussed on keeping Sakura on his shoulders and staying upright - showing obvious fatigue from the long battle and the toll it had no doubt taken on his chakra - to talk to him either.
"So, teme, who exactly kidnapped you?" asked Naruto as he kicked the sand in front of him, frustrated that he had to resort to conversing with the arrogant bastard. "And how'd you get away, anyway?"
Kakashi couldn't help but suppress a smirk as he noticed this. Just an hour ago, Naruto had been worried for Sasuke's safety but now the two were back to hating each other's guts. 'Just like Obito and myself.'
"I'll show you later when I'll definitely be able to spare some chakra," said Sasuke with a smirk. "But who said that I was captured?"
"The ambush force said that you vanished without a trace," said Naruto before shaking his head. "And you had all of us worried, teme."
"That's enough, kids," said Kakashi with a grunt, heaving as he gently placed Sakura on the desert floor. "We're about far enough away from the main danger, but I'd still like to go a little further before we set up camp, just to be on the safe side. Naruto, would you be able to create a clone to carry Sakura the rest of the way?"
"Don't worry about it, I've got it covered," said Sasuke as he acted before Naruto had the chance to create a clone. First biting at his thumb, the hand seals Sasuke went through were instantly recognisable by both his sensei and his fellow Genin before he slammed a palm on the ground.
To say the other members of Team Seven were surprised when a large falcon appeared, flapping its wings to dispel a shroud of smoke, was a large understatement.
…
Jiraiya sat atop the roof of the arena, having broken away from the small crowd of Sound Ninja that had attempted to catch him by surprise. He looked down upon Konoha and the fight between her inhabitants and invaders, tempted to intervene but acutely aware of the fact that it was entirely possible his skills would be needed elsewhere.
He couldn't be in two places at once, after all. Shadow Clones weren't even an option because splitting his chakra in what looked like it could turn into a battle of attrition was by no means a good idea. He needed to save all of his strength for the battle that would most likely need his assistance.
"Oi, fat ass, hurry the fuck up already," cursed someone from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Jiraiya spotted that the words had come from a fiery red-haired woman who was part of a group of four sound shinobi standing nearby. They hadn't seemed to notice him, and given that he was sitting in plain sight, they were probably up to something, because no sane Ninja would allow someone as renowned as him to just sit there. "We need to get this bloody barrier up!"
Jiraiya felt as if he had found the battle he needed to take part in.
…
Sakura fumbled through her backpack, careful to not allow anything to fall off the large bird's back. While she was incredibly tired, she managed to eventually find what she was looking for. A storage seal, and a puff of smoke later had her graciously sipping on her spare canteen.
She was starting to feel a little better now, and hopefully, if she could manage to stand once the falcon touched down on the ground, she'd be able to help prepare camp for when the others got there. It momentarily dawned on her that they had not chosen a specified point to meet up at, but she supposed that wouldn't be a problem with the massive falcon accompanying her. If it wouldn't go and fetch the rest of her team for her, it could easily just hang around in the air a couple hundred metres above her so that the other members of Team Seven could see it without much of a problem.
Her stomach rumbled slightly and she realised that she was beginning to feel hungry, however she was also glad to note that said organ no longer felt like an endless liquidy abyss. She reached into her backpack and pulled out a small bottle of food pills before hesitating.
They tasted like crap, and she wasn't sure if swallowing more pills was a good idea, given how weak she was feeling. Sakura realised that she was craving for the taste of something fresh and decided to settle with staying hungry for the moment; she'd have Naruto call up a clone and hunt something down for her later on.
With that thought in mind, for almost the first time since she had mounted the falcon, Sakura glanced down upon the sandy wasteland below her. As a little girl she had been scared of heights, and though she had mostly outgrown that fear, the knowledge that she was flying hundreds of metres up in the sky certainly didn't help tame the queasy feeling she had been unable to get rid of for the last day or two. Suna was no longer visible, and the pink-haired girl was a little glad to leave everything associated with it behind for the moment.
She had been feeling horrible, too sick to even walk by herself, and someone who wasn't even meant to be her enemy had taken advantage of that. The Ninja life was dirty, but knowing that didn't help take the edge off. While it was unfortunate that Yoki's younger sister had suffered a rather severe injury as a result of Suna being manipulated, it was a little scary to think that the girl had been prepared to harm - if not kill - her for barely even being involved with the whole thing. Had it not been for Sasuke, Sakura was certain she would be feeling a lot more pain at the moment - that was, if she would be feeling at all.
Sakura considered talking to the falcon. She wasn't sure if it could speak English - some summons couldn't - but given that it appeared to be following its summoner's orders, it probably could understand it. In the end, she decided it wasn't worth it; she probably didn't have the energy to hold a full conversation and then set up camp anyway.
She looked up towards the sun, wincing in pain slightly when its bright light blinded her for a few seconds. By her estimations it was was an hour or two past noon which explained why it seemed to have gotten hotter, however that meant the worst was still to come. Hopefully the bird would be able to - by some miracle - land somewhere with a bit of shade.
…
"Hinata, these are no ordinary Genin!" warned Kurenai as she stabbed a Sand Ninja with her kunai.
"I know, Kurenai-sensei," said Hinata as her Byakugan flared into life. Her father had gone off to fight with some of the other Jounin after the pair had found her sensei. "I think some of them have the same mark as I do."
'Orochimaru's doing, no doubt,' thought Kurenai, choosing to not voice her suspicions. That meant that the snake had both Oto and Suna under control, which was a little disturbing since they were both amongst the most powerful villages in the Elemental Nations. "Take them out before they get a chance to use it then."
"Yes, sensei," replied Hinata, flowing into a Gentle Fist stance. She struck the large, brown-haired man in the shoulder without hesitation, cutting off both chakra circulation and movement to his left arm. He got a blow in with his other fist, but she managed to shrug it off and jab him in a vital chest tenketsu, causing him to crumple to the floor.
The Hyuga crouched immediately afterwards, having seen the shuriken flying towards her backside with her bloodline limit, before spinning on her heel and thrusting herself forward with a strike to her assailant's gut. The kunoichi from Oto doubled over in pain, but Hinata's thoughts were forced away from the girl as a strong fist collided with her head, causing the Hyuga to try and stumble away from the action in pain.
She attempted to try and shake the pain away but it wasn't much help. The bulky shinobi advanced towards her while Kurenai was occupied with her own assailants, a menacing look in his eye as he smashed his fist against a gloved palm. The Hyuga faltered for a moment, the pain in her head feeling as though it had extended to the rest of her body and a glance to her right arm told her what she feared.
Black lines began to dance around her body as a visibly sinister shroud of chakra overtook her being.
…
It had taken a long time for Naruto to calm down after learning that he was no longer the only one with the ability to summon animals warriors to help them fight in battle, and Kakashi doubted that they had heard the last of it. The Jonin figured that Naruto was feeling somewhat envious that what had been his trump card was now matched in the sense that Sasuke could now call upon the aid of falcons in battle.
The story had been an interesting one to say the least, Sasuke having copied the hand seals from when he was still training his Sharingan to stay active for long amounts of time, and had used it as a last ditch effort in his battle against the Suna shinobi. He had hoped that something would have been summoned to fight by his side, but nearly the complete opposite had happened in how he had been teleported to the home of the falcons instead. Kakashi had recalled his sensei telling him how something familiar had happened with Jiraiya, but hadn't told his students of that yet, keeping that story for a special occasion.
They had then been told that Sasuke quickly went about making a pact with the feathered creatures before asking their aid in returning him as quickly as possible to Suna; something which had still taken several hours due to the distance that had needed to be travelled. Despite the whining of the blond Genin, Kakashi was internally thrilled with having all three of his Genin safe once more. Externally, however, he showed little more than a slight shrug of satisfaction.
"Alright, you two, there's trees up ahead which means that we're getting out of the desert and into something you'll find a little more familiar," said Kakashi as he spotted the edge of the sandy terrain in the distance.
"Home sweet home here we come," said Naruto joyously.
"Provided it's still home," said Sasuke gloomily, in stark contrast to Naruto's comment.
"Of course it will still be home. There's no way that Konoha will fall," said Naruto retaining his upbeat attitude.
Kakashi remained silent on the matter, as while he had faith that Konoha would still be there when they returned, the real question would be how much would it still look like the home they had left days earlier.
…
For Orochimaru, the plan had been a simple one, a plan that should not have failed under any circumstance and allowed him to kill his former sensei while the village below burned. To do this, all he needed was for his four subordinates to create a barrier around both him and Sarutobi, locking them in place so that they could duel uninterrupted.
So why was it that when Orochimaru forcibly dragged his former sensei to the roof, he found that the four shinobi he had dubbed the Sound Four had been beaten by his fool of an old teammate? With a sickening crunch, Jiraiya successfully ended the life of Jirobo with a brutal snap of the neck before he turned around and noticed that he had more significant company.
"Seems like the party was up here after all," said Jiraiya as he acknowledged both his sensei and the traitorous snake.
Needless to say, nothing seemed to be going right for Orochimaru.
…
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