A/N: God, I forgot it again. I'm sorry Masashi Kishimoto!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I am in no ways associated with it. I just like writing stories about it. This is for entertainment purposes only and I make no profit from it.

Without further ado,

"Kazekage-dono, we'll be crossing into Lightning in just over 20 minutes." A shinobi whose name Gaara had yet to learn called out from the rear. The red head nodded and tightened the strap of his gourd. He smiled slightly at the memory of his sister trying to move it so she could clean. She'd taken one look then very loudly exclaimed that it grew. She had just about a billion protests to this prospect, 'it's heavy enough! It didn't need to get bigger!!'

Gaara smiled to himself. 20 minutes before he could get this over with. "Thank you very much. I was wondering." Gaara paused for a moment on a tree branch and readjusted his gourd. Something about it was off, the very sands in it seemed to be restless. He took the gourd off and ran his fingertips down the side of the cork. The sands inside shifted in response to his chakra and he frowned.

"What is the matter?" he directed the question more to himself then the gourd. The two squadrons following him stopped on the surrounding branches. He pulsed his chakra and let it sink into the gourd. His frown got quite a bit deeper. Someone else's chakra was surrounding his gourd. Luck was not on his side however, because he didn't recognize the chakra. Had it been Sasuke's he'd know and it would make sense seeing as Sasuke often used chakra to lift the damn thing whenever he needed to move it.

But it wasn't and no one else should have touched it.

"Lord Kazekage?" One of the 6 Suna shinobi escorting him called out from a lower branch. "Is something the matter? I've never seen you struggle with the gourd before."

The red head ignored the ninja and continued his small investigation into the chakra. It felt light, warm. Feminine. So a woman's chakra. He risked a small glance at the Lightning squadron. One of them must have have touched the gourd because his men never would. But 3 out of 6 were women. Shit.

Gaara shrugged, probably a damn dare. He rose to his feet and put the gourd back.

Kooisi's heart almost stopped when he mentioned the gourd. She looked forwards and guessed that there was maybe a mile between them and the ambush. If the Kazekage could use the sand when they were attacked then the chances of this entire mission succeeding was cut down by half. Apparently that red head could change the landscape of a very large expanse of land when he was 14, after so many years Kooisi was horrified by the notion of what he could do now.

She ran a hand through her hair to push the sweat from her eyes. Nerves were a bugger to a shinobi and hers were ruining her. She took one last glance at the two squadrons around her. The 5 men on her squad were going to die today. The 6 Suna ninja as well. The only people who were walking away from this ambush were her and the Kazekage.

A pity, she kind of liked that Suna Captain.

Kooisi resisted the urge to shrug, not that it mattered. Soon she'd have enough money to get away - even if she feel horrible about this - and leave the shinobi world behind her. Get married, have kids and not have to listen to anyone anymore. No one, especially not a Kage. She jumped up to a higher branch, the oncoming ambush was coming in from below and would hit the Lightning squad first. Then the Kazekage, then the Suna Squad.

Kooisi Kamji steeled her reserve and followed the plan diligently. Once they reached the site of the ambush she went to sound the alarm, but Gaara beat her to it.

Gaara skidded to a halt on a branch and yelled for everyone to stop. "Do you feel that?" He whispered. "At least 50 or 60 shinobi coming this way." He glanced around and when the ANBU nodded he called for defensive positions. Offense would get them killed. So they had to defend. Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and prepped himself for the battle.

"Chances of survival?" An ANBU gave him a hopeful glance and for a split second Gaara hated his job. Everyone trusted you so much everytime there was an issue, they looked to you for all the answers and prayed you actually had them.

Gaara was torn for a second between comforting the man and saying the truth. 13 people vs 60approx. No, their chances were low. Even as well trained as they were. With the gods on their side 3 people including Gaara might survive. Gaara was doubtless to survive, he could get the hell out the situation if it got too hot. Meaning he could abandon his men, but he couldn't do that to them.

But he would get out. Nobody with sense just murders a Kage. There was infinite possibilities of things to gain with a Kage as your prisoner. He looked back at the man. There wasn't that much of a chance of a ANBU getting out though, all the men standing around him would probably be dead in a few minutes.

"Do you want the truth?"

"Yes sir."

"They aren't very good. More then likely we're all going to die." Gaara sighed and met the man's eye. They both nodded and Gaara watched the ANBU around him assume fighting stances and mentally prepare themselves for death, should they face it. As much as it killed him to even think that.

Gaara went to pop the cork off his gourd and was horrified to find that it couldn't. Chakra, it had been chakra glued shut, that's why the sand had been freaking out. Gaara dropped to one knee and began hurriedly focusing his own energy to attempt and override the other. "To whomever has their chakra on my gourd, now would be a really good time to take it off."

Everybody looked momentarily horrified at Gaara's very quiet growl.

"You have to listen to me, please, if I can't use the sand then your chances of survival drop by a lot-" He never got to finish that argument because the enemy arrived.

Two members of the lightning squadron were overwhelmed in seconds, katanas appearing very suddenly from different areas of their bodies. No one spared them a second glance, they didn't have time. Gaara dropped the gourd to the ground, it was useless to him so he wouldn't carry the weight. He dropped his stance to a familiar one once taught to him by Rock Lee.

He glanced around and realized that he was surrounded but no one was attacking him, just penning him in. Meanwhile his shinobi were being killed. The Lightning squad was toast except for Kooisi and one other woman. He looked up and barely dodged a falling body. He made to go to the right and help the Lightning squad members and his little circle of herders tightened. So he jumped straight up and swung up onto a branch.

"Who's alive?" He flipped a shinobi off his back and onto another attacker, then rounded and threw a kunai into the neck of a shinobi attacking the captain of the Suna squad.

"Me!"

"Me!"

"4 members of the Suna squad My Lord! 2 members of Lightning." The Captain yelled and Gaara had to snarl. 7 people already murdered. He dropped off one branch and onto another and threw a punch into the spinal cord of an nin, when the ninja turned around Gaara plunged a kunai through his chest. He hissed when a senbon found it's seat in his calf, then tore it out and threw it back. Hitting a substitution jutsu instead.

He heard a cry of pain and saw an arm fall off a branch. He looked up and recognized the second-to-last member of Lightning. He took no time to mourn her as her head joined her arm, he could take time after this was over to mourn them all.

He grabbed onto the out-stretched hand of one of his shinobi and put his back to hers. "How about now Sir, chances of survival?"

"5 people against--" He halted as a groaned from somewhere to his left signalled a death. "Sorry. 4 people against what thirty...eight. Divvy that up for me."

"38 by 4, that's 9 each and two remaining."

"Wait, that's not too bad." He smiled grimly and let loose a combo of attacks to kill another 3 people. "Make that 4 people against 35."

They all took a breath and dodged the next attack coming. Gaara forced himself to be optimistic, he had to be. They all were relying on their humor to keep their heads together, it was crucial for their survival. A pessimist always dies in battle, an optimist looks to the next battle coming.

Gaara heard an exclamation and turned to fire off a small fire jutsu. He didn't know many fire jutsus and he couldn't do them very well, but Sasuke taught him to do Grand Fireball jutsu and he could do that half-decently. Decently enough to roast a few enemies. The ANBU who had been under attack threw him a grateful look then continued her array of attacks.

He looked around again and found that it was him Kooisi and that shinobi left alive. When he heard the scream and the crunch of bones breaking, he knew it was just him and Kooisi.

But his gourd was still out of commission. So Kooisi had to have put the chakra seal on it and cost these people their lives. Gaara backed up on the branch he stood on by a single step then stood his ground. Kooisi had betrayed both him and all the dead surrounding him, he couldn't afford to look weak in front of a woman willing to do that - no matter how horrified he might feel about it. Last time he got kidnapped he got killed. And there was no Elder Chiyo to bring him back this time.

"Bitch." He growled the word at Kooisi. "You've betrayed your country." He launched a kunai and let it scrape across her forehead protector and country symbol. "You are a traitor and a murderer in the eyes of the Kages." Technically he wasn't supposed to speak for all the Kages but hell, it sounded good and he knew the Raikage would back him in the choice as soon as he got the ransom demand for Gaara.

"There's better money in it."

Gaara looked around and searched for an escape. Finding one he dove off the branch and towards the ground, he landed and started running. The borders of Lightning would no doubt be patrolled lightly but if the gods were with him then a patrol would find him before these guys did.

"Catch him!" He heard Kooisi scream. He glanced up and counted 28 men above him, the remainder of the original 60 who came. He recalled the times he, Sasuke and Kankuro had gone running together and recalled Kankuro telling him that if he wanted to go faster to let his mind escape him and focus on the rhythm of his feet and let the beat pick up.

He darted around trees and jumped over the few fallen ones and cursed when he was forced to pause and kill an annoyingly quick enemy. He skidded to a stop when confronted with 15 shinobi of back-up. He made to turn around and keep running but faced the 28 others. He let out another curse and when to jump straight up, finding that blocked.

"I won't come willingly." He glared up at Kooisi and a few men on the branches. "And I won't allow myself to be ransomed. I will escape." He tried very hard to sound like this was an absolute certainty, not a desperate prayer.

"Good luck with that." Any traces of guilt Gaara had seen last night were gone, she was in neck-deep and not bothering to pull herself out.

He felt two hands on his shoulders and another two on his wrists. Gaara could feel the chakra seeping into his pores and knew he wouldn't be conscious for long, these were clearly medic-nins.

"How long do you figure you have before the Raikage learns of this, I was supposed to arrive today. He'll send men after me-"

"-He can't afford to let Suna know he lost the Kazekage to a bunch of shinobi that you yourself told him to deal with, so he'll say you arrived on time and pay us to keep it quiet. You'll be the only loose end for everyone. How long do you figure he'll take to reach the decision that you should die?" Kooisi shrugged.

It was bullshit and they both knew it, but it had done it's job; planted the seeds of doubt. Gaara felt himself dropping forwards on his knees, using his hands to prop himself up, then watched the forest around him and the rogue shinobi blur into a blackness he couldn't resist.