Here's the latest chapter, hope everybody enjoys.

I don't own Naruto in any way shape or form, but if I did this is how it would go.

FAMILY REUNION IN THE DESERT

The meeting between the members of Aketsuki had been finished for a while now. Outside of the meeting place sat Deidara standing next to her was Sasori they were looking down at the lifeless form that was Gaara in front of them. "Yeah... that was unexpected. Did you expect it?" Deidara asked waiting for Sasori's opinion. She was sitting on the beak of a giant clay bird her elbows on her knees looking down at their victim.

Sasori looked at her with a little incredulity on his face. "Of course that was unexpected. The question is what do we do now. Do we take care of him somehow or do we let him go and re-capture him again when we figure out what's to be done?" Sasori responded.

Deidara seemed to have already thought about this. "I had fun getting him. Yeah. We could drop him off somewhere and get him whenever we need to." She said quickly. "Besides I hate to babysit, its too... cumbersome. Yeah...that's a good word for it." She lazily got a small stone from the ground and tossed it at Gaara. "You really think that the seal was manipulated by the brat and the rodent?" She asked getting up.

Sasori had been thinking about this ever sense their leader had picked it up and now spoke about it. "When you take into consideration how long these creatures have lived. The amount of knowledge they posses can be staggering, I wouldn't find it out of the question that maybe, just maybe he convinced the boy to allow him to do so. I don't think the boy has the brains to undertake such a complex maneuvering without killing himself or damaging the symbiotic relationship they share." He looked at the boy and considered the other question at hand. Deidara had a good point babysitting was annoying. "If you drop him off make sure he doesn't die. The last thing we want is for all our efforts to go to waste by killing the container and releasing the youma. We would have to hunt it down all over again. Other than that I don't care what you do with him. After all it's your Jinchurikki."

Deidara had her clay bird open its mouth and picked up Gaara's lifeless form and began to drag it towards the bird. As she was about to toss him into the birds beak Sasori put up his hand. She stopped and looked at him. "What is it? Had a change of mind?" she asked smiling now.

Sasori didn't look at her. "Baka, don't you sense it we're about to have company." Sasori said.

Deidara's smile disappeared instantly she dropped Gaara and turned to her companion. "Don't call me that! So what if we're about to have company we can take care of them easy, yeah. What's the big deal!" She asked with a note of annoyance in her voice.

Sasori was sometimes perplexed as to why she was even a member of Aketsuki. "They have a Jinchurikki with them." He now looked at her. "Are you seriously telling me you didn't sense that?" He asked.

Now that he mentioned it she did sense something coming towards them. She had paid it no mind though, because they would be gone before they got there. She had missed the Jinchurikki's presence among them until just now that Sasori made mention of it. "I sense it, now. So what does that mean? Is it the one you couldn't find come to find you or what?" Deidara said nonchalantly.

That pissed Sasori off, he had searched for his target for a long time now. Long before she ever joined the group. However he never knew it would be so difficult to find his target. While she on the other hand had the easiest time considering that her target was the Kazekage of his old village. He didn't let this bother him though. Opportunity was presenting itself and he wanted to take advantage of it. "It doesn't matter if it was my target or not. If we capture it here, then it's mine by default." He looked at her with renewed interest. "Do you think you're up for it. You caught the one tail rather easily. This one may be a better challenge for you." Sasori said.

Deidara looked at him with suspicion. "Why would I want to capture it? I've already got mine." She said.

Sasori looked away from her. "Oh, that's okay, if you're not up to the challenge I can do it myself. I just thought if I isolated it you would want to try our your skills on it. After all you wouldn't be able to blindside it or anything." He said.

Deidara wasn't being fooled. "You're not going to manipulate me like that. Just ask nicely and I'll consider it, yeah." She said, she wasn't going to admit it, but his proposal had intrigued her.

Sasori let out a caw of a laugh. "So be it." They began discussing their strategy. Two lonely figures in the dessert in front of a cave.

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Kakashi and company came abreast a sand dune and looked ahead to see the top of a large rock. Judging from the distance he saw that they should be coming up to it shortly and that the landscape would change slightly. Already he could feel the ground becoming harder and was sure that up ahead would be a dry stony area. He looked at his companions and took a deep breath. He had a feeling that they were about to have a difficult confrontation. He only hoped they would be successful.

As they went over the next hill they looked down and saw the true size of the rock. It was about the size of a small mountain and at the foot they saw two tiny figures. Suddenly one of the rocks standing beside them shifted and as they all squinted to see better they realized it was a giant bird shaped something. "What the hell is that Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto asked, he had never seen anything like that and neither had anybody else on the team, but for some reason he thought he would get an answer.

Kakashi looked at Naruto wondering if it was just a rhetorical question, but when he saw it was not he sighed and answered. "Beats me, Naruto that's the first time I've ever seen anything like that." Kakashi said. Kakashi looked around and saw there was nowhere to take cover, they would be seen regardless of what they tried. He hoped they hadn't been spotted already. He turned to his comrades and said. "We don't have much time to strategize however it looks like they're not guarding any entrance so they must either know where Gaara is or have him themselves. It looks like we can't avoid a confrontation with them so the objective would be to subdue them and get information, or if we're lucky defeat them and retrieve Gaara. Any questions?" Kakashi asked. Naruto and Sakura both nodded their heads in understanding.

"Aye, I have a question." Chiyo said. She was not looking at Kakashi or the others and asked her question. "Who is best equipped to deal with an enemy that can fly?" She then pointed to where the two figures had been standing.

Kakashi and the others followed her finger and saw only one figure now standing there. The other one had disappeared. Kakashi had only to look up to see that the large bird they had seen was now carrying the other person and it looked to be headed their way. Dammit Kakashi thought to himself this presented a problem. Sakura was not suited for long distance attacks and Chiyo and he were the best suited to handle whoever it was heading their direction, but he didn't want to leave Sakura and Naruto alone. He looked at Naruto and wondered briefly about how much he had progressed. "Naruto, do you think you can deal with her?" Kakashi asked. Meaning Chiyo. Naruto had no qualms about it as long as they got Gaara back.

"Hai, I have no problems." Naruto said. He was already beginning to tense for battle.

Kakashi hoped his strategy worked. "Good, if we get split up I want you to go with Chiyo and fight whoever that is coming our way. Me and Sakura will search for Gaara. Kakashi thought this would be the best way, because he wanted Sakura with him if they found Gaara. Her medical skills could become useful then and he hoped that they were the first ones to get to Gaara if he was there. He also put his faith in Naruto hoping he was making the right decisions.

Naruto quickly drew four kunnai and threw them. Everyone else was caught off guard. They all spun around in time to see four small explosions. Sakura also threw two kunnai that set off the small bombs that had been flying towards them. They were all alert now.. Spotting the enemy headed their way.

Deidara saw them all take out her small clay birds. She thought to herself, 'this should be fun. I wonder which one is the Jinchurikki.' She focused in on the two young ones and saw immediately that it was the boy. 'So this is the one. Doesn't look much different than the one tail' she thought. She took a deep breath and embedded her fingers into the bird. When she pulled her fingers out she was holding what looked like a crude spear. She had taken clay from the bird and molded it with her chakra. She then pulled her arm back and launched towards her target. She began making hand signals as she flew closer.

Naruto and the others quickly threw their kunnai's at the spear, but it didn't stop it. Naruto saw it was aimed at him and quickly jumped out of the way as the spear buried itself into the ground where he had just been standing. Kakashi looked at the spear and identified it. "It's hardened clay." Before he could observe it any closer however a females voice spoke from above them.

Deidara had gotten very close to them and was hovering at a safe altitude. She got on one knee on the bird and created an opening in it's head so she could reach in and grab Gaara. She thought it funny that they didn't attack right now that she was in a somewhat vulnerable position. One of them was turning to look at the spear the boy had dodged while the two girls looked at her to see what she was doing. She pulled out grabbing him by the elbows and held him up so they had a good view of him. She held in in a manner that made him look like he was crucified in the air, his head dangling. She yelled out a challenge to the shinobi below. "You got some skills, yeah. You got enough skills to get him back!" She dropped Gaara and he fell neatly into the hole in the birds head. She immediately formed a seal and began flying back the way she had come from.

Naruto and the other began moving towards her before she dropped Gaara, but as soon as she did there was an explosion right behind them. The spear had exploded and a profusion of clay birds had broken off from the spear and were now flying around. Naruto had been knocked forward by the blast as had the others and now began to move forward in order to create room between him and the birds. The others were doing the same thing. They could not get rid of the birds at such close range without setting them off and hurting themselves. Naruto knew he had the best shot of taking them all out so he called out to Kakashi and the others. "You guys go on ahead I'll cover you and catch up when I'm done here." He turned around and faced the oncoming birds already forming his seals.

Chiyo looked at Kakashi and asked. "Is that wise, can he handle it."

Sakura was the one that answered. "Of course he can handle it. We have faith in him. Now its our turn to handle our part." Sakura said with a determined look in her eyes she turned and started to follow Deidara's bird. Kakashi moved to follow, he was impressed by Sakura's newfound confidence and hoped it was authentic. Chiyo really had no choice but to follow. She didn't see the point in staying if the Uzumaki boy could handle the task.

As they were turning to leave behind them there was a giant poof as a large cloud appeared blocking the way between the birds and the others. The birds hovered for a second when out of the clouds began jumping Naruto clones. The birds began evading the clones as explosions started going off as the clones began making contact with them. Naruto held his ground and opened up his jacket revealing a belt that was rowed with kunnai's there must have been at least fifty kunnai in total and he began to launch them catching the birds his clones were missing. The birds were not slow however and his job did not turn out as easy as he had hoped as the birds keyed in on the real him and flew in closer to him. He was deftly dodging the birds all the while his clones being destroyed. He couldn't keep count in all the action, but it appeared as if the birds were outnumbering his clones. 'Dammit he thought, he should have made more clones and made them better' The clones he was using were taken out by the impact of the explosions. Time started going by as he dodged and weaved through the birds unable to create more clones and taking them out as well as he could. After a few minutes it seemed there was only three clones left and about twelve clay birds. Naruto's jacket was slightly singed from nearby explosions and his frustration was beginning to climb a little bit. He didn't want to waste anymore time here. However he did not become upset knowing that the mission was in the hands of people he trusted.

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Kakashi and the others were running full speed trying not to loose sight of the giant bird. As they ran Kakashi couldn't help, but feel as if they had forgotten something very important. It wasn't until they were almost at the foot of the mountain that he remembered. There had been two figures there. Where had the second one gone. He began to slow down so he could scan the area, but saw nothing. As they drew closer though Kakashi could not overcome the feeling he had in his gut. He yelled out to Sakura and Chiyo. "Stop, I think we're being lured into a trap!" He said, he knew that had to be it. Chiyo and Sakura looked back at their companion waiting for an explanation. "They knew we were coming there were two of them when we got over the last dune. The other one must be waiting for us up ahead. We can't fall for whatever trap they have." He finished.

Sakura was looking back towards Kakashi and saw something behind him. "It's too late Kakashi-san. We need to worry more about getting out of it now." she said.

"What are you talking about Sakura?" Kakashi asked. She didn't need to answer though. As he turned around he saw Sasori standing by a large stone. Kakashi's thoughts darkened. He should have been paying closer attention. He thought the feeling he had was that they were headed into the trap when in fact it was that they had just entered whatever trap they had set up for them. The person was walking slowly towards them. As he walked closer what seemed to be a giant snake began rising behind him. As he drew closer Kakashi saw that it was more like a scorpions tail. He figure was wearing a hat with bell's just like Itachi's and Kakashi instantly knew this guy would not be easy to deal with.

Sasori walked up to them and stopped about ten yards away from them. He had a suspicion that his grand mother was with them, but the appearance of Kakashi had taken him by surprise. He noticed the pink haired girl as well, but was only interested in the other two. "So you are the white fang's child. Isn't it ironic? Your dad killed my parents and now, I can return the favor." Kakashi's eyes widened, he didn't know who this was, but obviously he knew of his father. Kakashi still had no idea who his father had killed. He assumed it must have been someone important in the village of sand for so many people to know him. Sasori then looked at Chiyo. "Hello, obaa-chan... I'll be taking your life as well. How low you've sunk that you would cooperate with you'r child's killer." He said this last part with venom in his voice. He then looked at Sakura, she had no idea what was happening. "Your going to die as well. Wrong place at the wrong time I guess." He said.

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Neji and Rock Lee had seen most of the events unfold as they drew nearer and now were almost close enough to finally step in and help the others in their mission. They both wore intense expressions on their faces. Neji didn't turn to face Lee. He simply asked. "You ready Lee?"

Lee was more than ready. "Hai." With that they charged in to aid Naruto.

PREVIEW

Battles in the desert and high speed chases.

RSO'S

danny- What are you talking about, you must be seeing things. Neji didn't say Rock Lee, he did say Lee. J/K thanx for the reminder. Poor Chiyo, it might be too late for her to really learn new tricks. Kiba will hopefully get in line and do well. Wow, that's probably better than what I ever got. lol, dont drink too much. Already.

dragonman180- thanx, oh not for a long time. remember he doesn't even know about it yet. Hopefully soon, this arc is finally over the halfway point and once I squeeze enough foreshadowing they can finally get back to the village and do the dew. lol.

acrazygirlofmanynames- yeah, they're finally here.

jeefus- thanx, I think he will be pretty surprised. Nope Jiraiya doesn't know anything about them as of yet. That was the first thing he heard, he didn't hear anything they were talking about before. You know what I mean like as he got closer that was the first thing he heard. Keep in mind they were travelling pretty fast. Ok, I'm going,going,going. Energizer bunny. Thanx, I'm glad its alright with you.