AN: Okay, this was by far the most difficult chapter that I had to write as this is mostly action based, and I am pathetic at writing fighting scenes and I'm still not happy at the result; but I've lagged enough with it and just have to post it otherwise it'll remain in my pc for ever. I ask for your indulgence :( I have cheated by skipping out on the fights totally in some cases, and I apologise in advance for that, but I'm helpless.
XOXOX
"We've been ambushed!" the horrifying thought flitted through Sakura's mind.
Everything had had been so simultaneous and happened in the blink of an eye - their immobility, the dome encasing them and the appearance of the enemy - that her brain was still in the throes of assimilating the fact. She stood completely paralyzed; everything seemed fuzzy and slow as the dozen or so figures blurred around them before settling on a circular perimeter around them, close to the dome wall.
Her first thought was that it could all be a genjutsu; it was so highly improbable and unbelievable that all these people had been undetected by Kiba's and Akamaru's unfailing nose, or unlocated by Neiji's Byakugan. Concentrating hard, she stopped her chakra flow to immediately follow it by an even stronger flow by silently thinking "Kai"– the usual drill to counter a genjutsu; but she still remained perfectly statued.
She flared her chakra into her limbs trying to outforce the invisible force retaining her, but even her monstrously powerful strength could not counteract the paralyzing effect. It reminded her of the Nara's Kagemane no Jutsu, the only marked difference was that she could see no shadow binding her and she had lost even the use of her voice. At least she had the full faculty of her brains and still had analyzing, rational thoughts; as rational as their horrible predicament allowed her to have.
Desperate and with a mounting urgency, she tried her senses, checking each of them out. She could see, though she could not move her eyeballs, they were as rigidly still as the rest of her, her unblinking vision frozen ahead in front of her and providing her with barely 120 degrees view. In her limited field of vision she could only see four people standing side by side, in equal distances from each other; men or women she could not tell because of the white, shapeless hooded garb and face masks they all wore. Beyond and above them was the fuzzy chakra wall; no Kiba and Akamaru in sight. Considering that had been in front of her all the time and judging by the distance of the wall, she quickly deduced that the two had not been trapped within the dome.
She could hear muffled shouts, bangs and crashes which seemed to be coming from far; it must be the others trying to get in the dome, she realized as she heard faint yells of "Getsuga!" which preceded some of the bangs. In contrast to the faint ruckus coming from outside, an eerie, frightening silence reigned inside the dome. The cloaked figures stood still and watched the paralyzed Konohans silently.
She could vaguely discern the image of the two horses at the right periphery of her vision, frozen as well, and the carriage was tomb silent behind them. Her terror for Naruto was paramount, her heart pounding fearfully in her chest; he must have been immobilized same as them and totally vulnerable, and the more the seconds were ticking by, the more he was at risk
A familiar electric splitting sound, like thousands of bird screeching at once, reached her. Sasuke! She thought frantically, recognizing the noise of his Chidori. She desperately willed him to succeed in breaking into the dome because tried as she might she could not move a mere millimeter of her body, and though it was barely minutes that they had been trapped, her total immobility and incapacity to do anything made as if it was hours.
Neiji, as paralyzed as Sakura, been busy working his mind to find a way out of their terrible predicament too. In all their worked out strategies, they had not accounted that all of them would be incapacitated like this at the same time, and this was bad. He discovered, to his major relief, that he could activate his Byakugan, and since the short span of time they had been trapped he had been minutely examining Sakura's chakra network; she stood right in front of him and it was easier to examine her to try to discover the cause of their immobility.
It did not take long for the Hyuuga to spot the problem: he discovered that all the major chakra nodes connecting to body motions had been rendered inactive by some fine chakra threads which came from the ground. A quick 360 degrees survey showed the chakra threads were coming from the center of the huge pentagram drawing on which they stood.
He felt a burst of hope. He should be able to counter this jutsu, and immediately set to work.
The silence of the enemy was suddenly broken by a voice.
"Yes, the Kyuubi is definitely here."
The cold, masculine voice sent chills down Sakura's back, and she saw that it was one of the four which stood in front of her who has spoken. He was tall, wiry, and seemed to be the one in command seeing the way the others responded to his words - a murmured cheer immediately going through the till now silent crowd.
Neiji was struck with shock at the words, spoken without a trace of doubt. How could they be so sure that this Naruto was indeed the real Jinchuriki? It was as if they could sense the Kyuubi as an entity on his own, which was unthinkable, since even the Byakugan could never sense the Kyuubi within Naruto. True, the Byakugan could sense the red chakra flow when Naruto activated the Fox mode, but right now Naruto had not activated it; his chakra flow was as normal as any one of them.
"Finally, the power is ours!" the man hissed malevolently, breaking into Neiji's frantic musings.
The Hyuuga saw three silhouettes detaching from the group and walking towards the carriage, the one who had spoke taller than the rest and leading by a few paces. Their stride was unhurried, purposeful, inexorable; it was even more terrifying, as it denoted the complete confidence in their power, the evil aura surrounding them reaching out to Konohans.
Not the carriage! Both Sakura and Neiji thought frantically. Sakura struggled even harder, while Neiji concentrated back more intently on his chakra flow. Another more second…he was not called the prodigy Hyuuga for nothing.
From outside the dome, Sasuke watched with increasing dread as a group of three people detached from the perimeter and moved towards the carriage. His thoughts went to the six murdered shinobis of Kumo, dead without any trace of struggle, and he knew that he should not let the people approach Naruto…not when Naruto was immobilized like this and incapable of defending himself.
The Uchiha closed his eyes and concentrated on a sensory search of the air. As he hoped, he managed to found some of the electric charge from the false storm which the enemy had created, scattered in the area. It was not much, but it was enough for what he needed to do.
"Move back!" he bellowed to Sai, Kiba and Akamaru, and the three immediately complied.
He did some swift hand seals and immediately, the scattered charges assembled and swirled above them in a whirlpool of electricity enriched clouds. He prepared a Chidori, and with some further hand seals, invoked the collected charge towards the Chidori; the crackling and sizzling sound amplified immediately, causing Sai and Kiba to cover their ears while Akamaru whimpered. An electrical blue shape appeared and zapped to the Chidori.
"So that's his Kirin technique!" thought Sai, watching from safe distance away, as awed as Kiba.
With a roar, Sasuke smashed the Kirin Chidori into the dome's surface. Had the technique been to its full power, the blast would have completely annihilated everybody within the dome, but as such, it was just strong enough to shatter the surface.
As the dome crumbled under the immense, raw electrical power of Kirin, the masked people looked up with disbelief shock.
"Impossible!" roared the leader who had already reached the carriage some precious minutes ago. From his cry of rage, it was obvious that the man had not expected his defense barrier to go out so soon.
There was a rush of confused panic as Sasuke, Sai, Kiba and Akamaru landed amidst the ground group, but the enemy were quick to recover and the four were immediately assailed by a swarm of attacking men.
All the attention was directed towards the new development and no one was paying attention to Neiji, who, with a burst of energy, used his Gentle Fist Style One Blow Body technique and freed himself from the immobilizing jutsu. Feeling his chakra rushing normally to his limbs and his movement ability back, the Hyuuga bounced towards the center of the pentagram and slammed his palm down on the center where the chakra threads emerged. As he had expected, the binding chakra flow was immediately deactivated by his gentle Fist technique; but he could not say for how long it would remain deactivated, not knowing how the chakra source was powered, so they would better move out of the pentagram as fast as possible.
By the time he was noticed by the enemy, it was too late: Sakura and the ANBU, freed, had already joined the fray.
Despite each of the Konohans immense aptitude, the fight was proving to be difficult since they were outmanned by at least twice, and the enemy was ridiculously strong, using unfamiliar, strong jutsus. As each Konohan fought, their minds were directed to the almost sinister silence of the carriage and each of them had the same worried thought in their mind: their Hokage should have joined the fight by now.
Sasuke landed back to back with Sakura. "Go to Naruto," he yelled as he stepped in to take her two opponents on top of his own two.
She immediately bounced away while he covered for her, taking on the four men at once while she rushed towards the carriage. She came face to face with the leader, while the other two masked individual held an unconscious, limp Naruto by each arm, both of them in a tell-tale crouched -about to take off - position while they were in the process of some hand-seals.
With a shout of fury, Sakura launched herself at the group. "Shannaro!" She thundered, punching the ground as she reached them, the sand exploding under her fist and sending all of them – the leader, the two individuals still holding Naruto, along with the carriage and horses - flying in the air.
She was prepared for that and with a burst of chakra at her feet, leaped high and grabbed Naruto from the shocked, slacked grasps of the two men, ramming her chakra enhanced feet powerfully in succession into each man's chest and using the momentum as pivot, jerked around and bounced away, her arms tightly around the unconscious Naruto.
"No!" roared the leader in rage, falling to his feet as the two others crashed a distance further away.
A shower of kunais immediately followed her unprotected back, but Neiji appeared behind her and used his Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin technique to deflect each kunai.
"Move out of the pentagram," Neiji shouted urgently, and Sakura instantly bounced away from the huge drawing. She guessed that the drawing must harbor the powers of the enemy - Neiji's Byakugan must see what her normal eyes could not.
The leader disappeared from his position in a flash to reappear in front of Sakura, eyes flashing with dark killing intent and an enraged howl on his lips; but even as he swung his arm to strike, a dagger glinting in his hand, Sasuke appeared and deflected the aim with his sword. The two immediately engaged in a ferocious combat.
More men – Sakura could not count how much as she was more intent to get out Naruto out of reach - rushed towards her, but were in turn intercepted by Kiba and Akamaru. Barely reaching a distance away from the pentagram, she was again barricaded by another set of figures, and Neiji jumped in again between her and the approaching men.
Seeing that it was futile to run further, she would only expose Naruto to more risks if she ran too far away from the team as they were so outnumbered, Sakura braked to a stop and deposited the still unconscious Hokage on the ground. She needed to urgently check him up, because something was not right. He should have broken out of the immobilizing Jutsu as the rest, and, more frightening, unlike her, where she had been as rigid as a rock, his form was slack, his body limp, and his eyes were closed. Seeing how the three foes had been with him, even for a very brief time, got Sakura intensely worried, and fear spiking through her, she quickly pushed a green chakra enhanced hand into Naruto's chest.
Her heart skipped to her mouth; she could not feel any heartbeat.
By now, she was surrounded by Sasuke, Kiba, Akamaru and Neiji, all building a defensive circle around her as she set to work. Mouth dry and heart hammering in her chest in fear, she hovered her hand over his torso, scanning for a further diagnostic. She still could not get anything. She scanned him again, in a much slower pace this time, trying to discern any minute injury; but again the scan did not reveal any injuries. Nor any life sign.
The fear lapping through her increased.
Fighting not to lose her calm, she turned around. "Neiji!" she screamed. Since the Hyuuga had known how to un-paralyze them, he should know why Naruto was not released from the Jutsu; or any other Jutsu that had rendered him into this- state- she refused to think it as anything else than that.
Sai rushed in to help as Neiji landed besides her. He ran his Byakugan over the inert body – and what he saw made his blood freeze in his veins. It was not a problem of block chakra points…there was no chakra flow in Naruto, at all.
"I don't see any chakra flow," he said, disbelief shaking his usually calm voice.
She turned a horror-struck face to Neiji. "What?" she shouted. No chakra flow could only mean one thing…
Neiji could not say anything further as one enemy managed to get through the defense of Kiba, Akamaru and Sai and was jumping straight at them, sword raised. Neiji jumped back and tackled the man, leaving Sakura without reply. A short distance away, Sasuke was still in a bloody fight with the powerful leader, and the ANBU as well locked in a harsh combat with another group.
Barely breathing, Sakura got back to work. "Naruto? Naruto, talk to me _" she heaved, as she pushed chakra against the inert body, checking out each vital organ. She could feel a blind panic rising from deep within her, trying to break through her shocked mind, but she struggled against it – it would not do any good, she needed her lucidity to be able to do anything.
Soon, the whole team held a protective formation around her, fighting the incoming offense. Their priority of the mission had changed – it was now a fierce battle to protect their Hokage from being reached by the surprisingly powerful and numerous enemy.
Her surrounding became a total blur, the shouts and clashes of fights receded from her mind as Sakura concentrated on only one thing – to do what she was supposed to excel at: healing. She had faith that she and her patient were provided with the best defense possible and she pushed all her mind onto Naruto.
Frantically, she infused her healing chakra at his heart, trying to jump start it. Even though she was struggling hard not to give it to the blind fear, her hands were shaking badly. The six dead Kumo shinobis were on her mind; they had died without the tiniest trace of injuries. She could not comprehend how the little time that the men had been with Naruto – barely a couple of minutes - had resulted into this. Such a powerful being as Naruto could not be taken down so easily; she refused to accept that.
She went from one organ to the other, infusing her healing chakra into them, not knowing exactly what to heal exactly but doing it anyway; she NEEDED to heal something, her numbness making her doing things automatically.
She lost track on how long she was at it.
She dimly realized that somebody was shaking her and she became aware that the fighting around her had ceased. She looked up to meet worried dark eyes.
Sasuke inhale a sharp breath when he saw her bleak eyes. "Sakura?"
"I'm not having anything," she whispered in a chocked frantic whisper. "Nothing." She got back to her work, starting from his head going down to his toes again. Skull, spine, arteries, veins, blood, all organs again. Nothing.
Neiji, Sai and Sasuke stood around her, battered and bleeding; a few men, all on the enemy sides, laid unconscious on the ground, tightly bound by Sai retaining ink snakes as added precautions. The leader, though, had run away with a few of his men. Kiba, Akamaru, the ANBU had given the chase, and Sai had sent a flurry of his ink animals at their heels.
"Do something," Sasuke urged Sakura desperately. "Surely you can do something?" She was the best medic-nin in the whole nations, after all. But her broken, despaired expression told him what his mind was refusing to accept.
His own expression was frozen, cold even; nothing showed of his inner agony. His chest was jagged with a deep gash which was bleeding profusely, but he did not even feel the physical pain, he was so numb. He felt a lump in his throat as he stared at the inert body of the blond, and he felt something close within him. Was that his fate? Was that his atonement for the wrongs that he has done – to lose his close ones over and over and over again? To be alone; always?
He looked at the two closest people he had ever had in his life from the day he lost his parents; the two ones who never gave up on him despite all, the two who cared enough to come to snatch him from the hell he had been falling into… and now, one was lifeless, and the other one soon to be broken, he knew, without repair.
"Maybe Tsunade shishou would have found the problem immediately," Sakura chocked, looking almost demented.
Sasuke opened his mouth, but Neiji beat him to it. "Sakura-san, if you cannot find anything, then no one will," he murmured.
But she could not accept that statement. Drawing a pearl of blood from her thumb, she hit the ground and yelled "Kuchiose no jutsu!" and the medium sized slug which whom she usually worked, going by the name of Mai, appeared. Mai was as good as Katsuyu in medical ninjutsu and Sakura wanted to have a second opinion; she may be the best med-nin in the five nations, but she suddenly had big doubts about her ability, maybe she was not as good as she and the others had always believed.
It took only a few minutes and Mai bowed her head in sadness. "I'm sorry Sakura-Hime, I can't find the problem…I can't do anything." She then disappeared in a plop.
The words cut through Sakura. "Naruto, you baka. Wake up now!" she suddenly screamed, gripping the limp body and shaking it, her pain bursting forth.
The three males looked at the heaving body of the medic-nin over the lifeless form of Naruto, all stricken and dazed with shock. None thought of pulling her off; they were too stunned, their mind refusing to accept what their eyes were seeing.
A few minutes later, the wave of stormy emotions subdued and Sakura felt a sudden cold purpose getting into her. She suddenly felt very lucid, her mind sharp and clear; she had been prepared that such a horrifying eventuality might happen one day. She had a resolve and knew what she had to do.
She looked tenderly at the whiskered face, looking so peaceful, the eyelids closed over the oh so beautiful blue eyes, the blond hair a mess over his forehead. A soft smile tremulously reached her lips. Bending her head, she brought her lips close to the ears.
"I love you," she whispered. Some droplets of water fell on his cheeks, and she looked at them dispassionately. She had not even been aware that she was crying, the silent tears cascading down her cheeks. He had always accused her of having easy tears, she thought.
"And you can't accuse me of lying to myself this time," she chuckled brokenly.
Taking a deep breath, she straightened herself, suddenly feeling calm and almost peaceful. She lifted her chakra filled hands towards Naruto again. While the others stood some steps away, petrified and each within their own shock, she made some swift, unfamiliar hand seals. Preparing her hands for a final chakra burst, she pressed her palms over Naruto's belly, and a new, blue colored light appeared around her palms.
"Sakura?" Sasuke wanted to tell her that it was no use. It's been too long, there was no hope now.
Neiji had been watching the new hand seals with a frown. He did not recognize them, though they seemed familiar. He activated his Byakugan to have a better look, and he jumped in shock, suddenly remembering. He had witnessed this flow of chakra only once in his lifetime, years ago; the chakra migration had been imprinted in his mind from the only and unique time he had seen it, because of what they did.
There was no doubt about it; the flow he was seeing right now under his eyes was the same he had seen when Chiyo, from Suna, had done the life force transferring jutsu to Gaara, and the result from such Jutsu_
With lighting speed, Neiji rushed forward, stooped and grabbed Sakura, pulling her away from Naruto.
"Sakura-san!" His voice held his shock and hurt. "I cannot allow you to do this."
Sakura screamed and struggled. "Neiji! Let me go!" she cried out.
But the young Hyuuga maintained her firmly, while Sasuke and Sai, frozen still, looked upon, not comprehending what was happening.
"Sasuke, please help me to retain her!" Neiji shouted urgently as Sakura's struggles increased. The Hyuuga could have knocked out Sakura with a mere flick, but he wanted to have the medic-nin conscious.
Sasuke hesitated for second, torn between Sakura's protests and Neiji's appeal. But the frantic demeanor of the usually calm and stoic Neiji finally got to him, and he immediately complied.
"What is it?" he demanded, at the same time restraining a by now wildly struggling Sakura.
"Neiji! How can you do this?" Sakura choked.
"I'm sorry Sakura-san. Naruto would never have wanted this, and I would not forgive myself for standing back and watching you do what you were about to do."
Sasuke was having difficulty in holding Sakura back; her monstrous strength was not legendary for nothing.
"Sai!" Sasuke beseeched.
Sai hesitated for a second, and then swiftly drew some restraining snakes on his scroll. He knew that they would not hold her for long; she could break them like nothing. But at least it will give them time to understand what the Hyuuga was panicking about.
Sasuke watched as Neiji did some heals, and pointed a palm at Sakura's belly. He still felt torn though he had no choice but to trust the Hyuuga.
"What is it?" he repeated urgently, looking at Neiji, as the blue light slowly disappeared from Sakura's hands.
"She was doing a life transfer jutsu on Naruto," Neiji replied quietly.
Sasuke eyes widened and he snapped his head towards Sakura. "Sakura," he could only murmur.
"I have stopped the transfer movement and restored her normal chakra flow," Neiji said, lowering his hand.
"Sasuke! Let me go! I have to do it!" she shouted in anger. "I can't stand here not doing anything!" her voice dropped to an agonized whisper, her eyes wild. "Please," she appealed, closing her eyes, tears squeezing out past her closed lids.
She could not imagine life without Naruto. She just could not.
But Sasuke held her firmly, his arms wrapped tightly around her. "Don't, Sakura. He would never have wanted this. He would not be able to bear this burden on his conscience."
Sai crouched down besides her, holding her shoulder. "They are right," Sai said quietly. "Naruto would never have forgiven himself. You would be condemning him to a guilt filled life."
Sasuke stiffened as he suddenly felt some presences; Neiji as well had sensed it, and the men immediately stood alert.
They were relieved to see that it was Kakashi and his team.
"Damn! What happened here?" Ino gasped. She rushed to Sakura's side as Sasuke released her.
Kakashi looked at the scene, feeling a chill going down his back. Their decoy Hokage had suddenly popped and disappeared, and Kakashi knew that it would have happened in only one condition; Naruto had been incapacitated in a fight. They had immediately decided to rush to the group to be of any help. Now, what he saw was worst that what he had feared. He stared, horrified, at the inert body of their Hokage, and the despaired face of Sakura – her face telling him the story.
The others looked equally horrified and appalled. The two ANBUs from their team immediately set to scout the area when Sai had quickly explained the situation, and Sai decided to follow them.
"Sakura?" Ino whispered haltingly, not daring to ask the question burning her lips.
Sakura looked at her imploringly. Ino breath hitched at the utter desperation in the green eyes.
"Please check him out," Sakura whispered. "I-I can't find what happened. He–he's not showing any vital signs."
"I'll not find anything that you haven't," Ino replied gently yet firmly. "But I have an idea."
What she was about to do was very dangerous – her father had always warned her about the danger that lies in entering a …dead – she shivered at the horrifying thought - man's mind. One could get trapped in the dead mind forever; but Ino was past caring about that. The sight of their blond friend lying there helplessly was unbearable. She placed her palm over Naruto's head and activated her mind body switch technique. The others watched her, understanding that she was looking into his mind.
Delicately, Ino went through the last events which Naruto had been through. She wanted to see what exactly have the enemy done to him to have caused this result. Eyes closed, her face was set in a frown as she roamed through his mind.
Shikamaru was silent. He watched, speechless, at the inert body of his friend. They had managed to lure the enemy all right, as he wanted; but at what price. He felt stricken and a sense of failure. His plan had failed. He was still moping in his feeling of failure when two silhouettes appeared on the horizons, and an instance later, Temari and Kankuro reached the group.
"Gaaraa had been having a bad feeling and asked us to come to meet you guys," Temari whispered to no one in particular as she watched in horror at the lifeless body of Naruto.
A short while later, which seemed like ages to the tensed, waiting group, Ino carefully retracted.
"I've got something," she urgently told the worried group.
Snapping from her stupor, Sakura felt a mad hope getting into her.
"Sakura, he's not dead. His neurons are still active, though so faintly that you would barely know it. And they've injected something at his nape. I felt a slight prick, so it must be very small. And from the conversation before the guy pricked him, I don't think they intended to kill Naruto- yet."
"This should knock them both of them out nice enough," Ino had heard the man sneered while pricking Naruto.
"It's just a stun," she told the group hanging to her words. "A powerful stun to incapacitate both Naruto and the Kyuubi."
Sakura was already rolling Naruto on his belly. She had suddenly remembered Sasuke being in a similar death-like state when pierced at the neck by Haku's fine senbon during their first mission to the Water country those long years ago.
"At his nape?" she repeated, doing a quick visual survey, pulling his hair back to have a better look, but could not see any prick sign. She hovered her chakra filled palms over the nape area and still she could not detect anything; even Neiji's Byakugan failed to locate any foreign matter. Ino tried to pinpoint the location, but it was not easy to point with exactitude; the prick she had felt had been so slight.
"Why not simply extract whatever is there like you did for Kankuro when he was poisoned?" suggested Temari. She has erupted a huge fan from her scrolls which was now acting like an umbrella, keeping the hot blazing sun off the working unit.
Sakura shook her head, while at the same time focusing on Naruto's nape. "I cannot extract not knowing what to extract," she whispered. "For Kankuro, I knew exactly which poison to extract. I prepared the chakra bubble accordingly, so that the bubble would remove the specific poison. But here I do not know what I'm dealing with. It's definitely not a poison, because I have not located any signs of poison in his blood stream."
It was among the first check she had done, trying to detect any poison in his organism. "I can't go blindly here," she whispered. Talking was helping to return her sanity back.
"And it being at such a delicate location, so close to his spine, make things tricky," Ino said quietly. "A single wrong move, Naruto can get paralyzed, or worst, go in a long term coma."
Sakura took a deep, steadying breath, gathering her thoughts back together again, and calming her jittery nerves. Even if there was something as tiny as an atom in there, she would find it. She had not worked so hard to get where she was for nothing. She could not afford not to perform for her most precious person.
She activated her diamond shaped chakra reserve on her forehead. Making a hand seal, her whole body went into a green glow; then she slowly channeled chakra into her index, which she positioned onto Naruto's nape. With minute, millimetered movement, she moved the index over the skin, scanning the region again.
Ino inhaled sharply. She watched with deep fascination and reverence as her friend performed the technique. She was witnessing one of the most advanced and complicated jutsu in the medic field, which equaled to an atomic scan. As a medic-nin, she had only read about the technicality of it; even Tsunade herself had not been able to master this Jutsu. The precision and chakra control needed for this was phenomenal and nothing could be missed by this. The chakra needed for this was extreme as well, thus why this jutsu could not be used be used over extensive area. One single square centimeter of scanning could draw all the chakra from a person and Ino frowned, worried. Even if they knew something has been placed at the nape, the region was still too large for this particular ninjutsu. Sakura would not last long if they did not find that thing fast.
After some few tense minutes which seemed like a lifetime, Sakura muttered, "Got it." She detected a tiny alien particle which was buzzing off some amount of energy. She immediately frowned. "It's lodged into his skull bone at the head of his spine."
After a moment of silence, where everybody held their breath, she whispered, "I'll have to drill."
Not removing her hands, she turned to look at Shikamaru.
"I'll need you to immobilize him totally. My manipulations should not budge his head for the tiniest fraction."
Shikamaru nodded silently before activating his Kage Mane Jutsu. Temari's huge fan provided more than enough shade for the jutsu.
Sakura drew another burst of chakra from her dwindling reserve and sent it to her forefinger, sharpening it to the point of being as tiny and cutting as the finest laser beam. She set to work, carefully drilling into the flesh to reach Naruto's scull base; there, she worked a tiny hole around the area of the thing to dislodge it. It was a slow, delicate process and she applied all her know-how in doing it.
Ino, in the meantime, had already prepared a tiny chakra bubble, and at Sakura's sign, she carefully passed it on to Sakura index. It took another slow while to get the chakra bubble to the now freed detected particle, envelope the bubble around it and took as long to extract it out; but to everyone's immense relief, it was done finally.
At first, the tiny chakra bubble seemed empty, but a close inspection from Neiji's Byakugan detected a green haze of the size of a sand particle. However tiny that thing was, it had enough chakra emission to have done its work.
Sakura sat back, drained and stumped; the emotional trauma was beginning to take effect. Ino immediately took over and gently pushed her chakra enhanced hands over the operated region, while Neiji scanned through the chakra network with his Byakugan.
"His flow has restarted!" the Hyuuga breathed.
"You can release him now," Ino whispered to Shikamaru. He was showing clear signs of fatigue as well, having to hold his jutsu for so long.
Nine pairs of hopeful, expectant eyes watched the still inert body, breath held.
Finally, a blond eyebrow twitched. Then a lid opened, followed by the second one, revealing blue eyes, and Naruto slowly looked around the anxious, terrified face of his friends.
"What happened?" he mumbled. "Ino? Sakura-Chan?"
Wordlessly, with a thud, Sakura dropped to the ground, unconscious; shock, relief and chakra depletion finally getting the better of her.
XOXOX
"Naruto," Gaara murmured.
He has been informed about the near disaster that had taken place via a hawk Kankuro had expedited, and had been awaiting the group at the entrance of Suna village. A medical team was ready and waiting by his side. Baki, his chief commander, led a group of Suna ANBUs who immediately took charge of the eight still unconscious and bound enemies.
"Sakura-Chan," Naruto only said at Gaara's greeting.
Gaara nodded. "She will be well taken care of, have no worry."
The waiting medical team immediately rushed forward and delicately removed the unconscious Sakura from Naruto's arms and promptly disappeared, along with Ino by their side.
"Anyone else needs medical care?" asked Gaara, but they all shook their head. Their wounds had been tended by Ino. "Then let's go to my office," Gaara said, "we will talk there."
"No," Naruto said firmly, "I need to go back. Kiba, three of my ANBUs and Sai are on the trail of the group. I just wanted to make sure that Sakura-Chan is in good hands."
If Kiba has done his part correctly, the enemy would not be able to evade them for too long. Naruto looked at Sasuke, who nodded. The Uchiha's gash had been healed by Ino, and he was ready to set off again.
Naruto was deeply upset. He felt a great sense of failure towards his men – it had been his idea that had led them into this and he had not even been apt to raise his tiny finger to protect his people. Now it was time he took over and finished the work which they had so valiantly started.
Gaara looked at the young Hokage silently for a second. "Okay, you are right; you can fill in the details as we moved."
Naruto opened his mouth in surprise, but the young Kazekage was already turning towards Kankuro and Temari.
"Kankuro, Temari, I'll leave the task of seeing to our incoming guests in your hands. The Raikage and the Tsuchikage is expected by tomorrow morning, see that they have the welcome that they deserve."
Both looked at their brother with raised eyebrows, but they did not protest. They both nodded.
"Make sure you return on time for the finals at least, little brother," Kankuro said. The final sets of exams were scheduled to start the day after, early morning. "It would not look good if the Kazekage himself was not present."
"We'll be here," Gaara replied calmly.
Naruto stared at his Suna friend. "Are you sure it's a good idea for the Kazekage to leave the village at such a time?"
"Why should the Hokage be the only one to have all the fun?" replied Gaara.
XOXOX
Gaara and Baki, the two to accompany the Konohans comprising of the Hokage, Sasuke, Neiji, Kakashi and Shikamaru, were quickly filled in about the enemy.
"A pentagram?" repeated Baki sharply when told about the huge drawing on the ground which had immobilized the convoy.
"You know about such jutsu?" Kakashi immediately asked.
Baki was thoughtful for one minute, his brows furrowed incredulously, before replying. "We have in our archives some info about a very old clan which used to exist before the coming about of the Ninja world as we know it now. This clan jutsus was ancient techniques based ancient symbols and runes which were closely linked with sorcellery. This clan was comprised of monks and their specialty was taming demons with their most powerful technique: the pentagram binding technique."
A shocked silence received the information.
'Demons?" echoed Naruto.
"You mean to say that the group that attacked could be from that clan?" Gaara asked.
"I would have thought that would be unlikely, because we are talking about a clan which existed before our ninja times, hundred of years ago, when the world was ruled by powerful sages and monks. As far as we know, that clan is supposed to be extinct; there is no record of them or their powers having been passed on."
"They immediately knew that Kyuubi was present," remembered Neiji.
Baki nodded. "They had special demon sensing abilities. It must definitely be them because I have never come across any other sensing ability for a tailed beast within a Jinchuriki."
"Their planning was perfect and well timed," Shikamaru said tightly. He still felt responsible for the failure of the mission and had chills when thinking about what the outcome could have been. "They certainly beat us as strategist."
"Shikamaru," Naruto calmly but firmly cut him. "Your plan did NOT fail. We've brought the enemy out of their anonymity and now know of their powers. We've taken most of them down; now it's just a question of finishing the work."
Baki nodded his agreement. "The pentagram jutsu was renowned for being very powerful," he said. "It was a genius move on Neiji's part to stop the power by using his gentle fist. And to break down that chakra barrier was another feat. Don't forget that you have dealt with techniques used to hold down demons such as powerful tailed beasts!"
Naruto looked proudly at his team. "That's why I put my trust explicitly in you guys," he whispered.
"Konoha has one of the best team known to rule it," agreed Gaara.
Naruto went serious when he thought about what might have happened while he had been "dead". When the others had briefed him, Neiji had quite reluctantly told him about Sakura's attempt. The blue eyes were dulled with a glint of pain; he would have to deal with that issue later. For now, he has a mission to finish.
XOXOX
Several hours later, following the trail of ink animals which Sai had left, the group met Sai, Kiba and the three ANBUs. They had grouped as per the instructions, waiting a safe distance away from the enemy's suspected hideout.
"You did it," Naruto told Kiba.
Kiba grinned smugly. "No-one can escape our nose once our dynamic marking has landed on them."
"They didn't suspect that they were being followed?" Sasuke asked.
"They were already quite wounded and were more intent to escape."
"Then let's go," Naruto said. "There's no time to lose."
XOXOX
The enemy did not have the slightest chance of escape. They might have been from an old clan, with powerful jutsus at their beckon, but their power was finally puny compared to the group of powerful, closely bonded shinobis who eventually faced them. The leader along with every single of his follower were defeated and taken as prisoners of the alliance, since they had to face trial in the Kumo country as well.