"SOMA!! KATARA!!" Troahs' voice yelled across the desert, getting closer. Katara cursed, sensing Gaaras' charka as well.

'Allow me… to lend you some of my power…' the dragons' voice echoed.

Wings sprouted from Kataras' back… not her white, feathery ones. These were scaly black ones… the Thunder Dragons own. She felt a familiar charka source running through her veins… Somas'… her blood trait moves. 'Oh God…' Katara thought. "Deidara… Zetsu, head back to the leader and tell him it was a success," she said, "I'll handle the Kazekage and… my old friend…"

Deidara and Zetsu nodded, leaving.

"Katara… Where's…" Troah began, running over. His eyes fell on Soma, his heart stopped, 'no… Soma…' "SOMA!!" He yelled, dropping down beside her, desperately trying to use his healing jutsus' to help her.

Gaara stared at Katara, he knew what had happened.

"Katara…. Who did this?" Troah asked, looking towards her.

"The Akatsuki of course…" Katara answered.

Gaara growled, getting ready to attack her.

"Gaara what are you doing!?" Troah yelled, cradling Somas' head.

"Yes… do tell, Lord Kazekage…" Katara sneered, getting ready to fight back… with one of Somas' moves. She wanted to make sure it was one they would recognize.

Troah stared in disbelief… 'that stance… that's… Somas'… oh no… no… she wouldn't have.'

"I thought so," Gaara growled, sand swirling around him.

"Let's get this over with," Katara smirked, sending the Lightning Serpent towards him. With the Thunder Dragons' strength mixing with her own, it made the jutsu twice as powerful.

The sand shot up, defending Gaara against the attack. Performing hand signals behind the wall, he began his Desert Avalanche attack, hoping it was high enough to knock Katara at least out of the sky.

"Gaara! Troah! We heard screaming so we came to see… KATARA!?" Naruto exclaimed running up with Neji.

Neji's eyes widened, spotting Katara. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Troah, what happened?" he asked.

"When Gaara and I got here… Katara was already like that and Soma… she's… Katara killed…"

"She's still alive!" Gaara snapped, behind his avalanche of sand. He wouldn't accept that Soma had died.

"Katara killing…" Gaara shot Naruto a glare, "uh… trying to kill Soma… it doesn't add up…"

'He's right… something… doesn't add up…' Neji thought. "Byukugan!" Neji scanned the area surrounding the fight.

Naruto joined Gaara in the fight, using, of course, his shadow clone jutsu. As some of the clones ran to attack Katara, the others stayed behind, building up charka to create the Rasengan.

Katara laughed at Naruto's attack. "You… are pathetic…" she growled. She put her hands in a triangle form, "Lightning Spear!"

"Ha… that can't reach us!" Naruto laughed as the Rasengan was nearly complete.

"On contraire… Soma could only us it when it was aimed at her… the Thunder Dragon wanted to kill her for not obeying him… yet I have reached an… understanding with the dragon… so the Lightning Spear… goes where I want," Katara laughed.

Naruto eyes widened in fear, this couldn't be the same Katara who walked here with them, it just couldn't.

'There!' Neji thought, spotting two ninjas hiding a ways off. Their charka was different to that of the Akatsuki when they had run into them before on their rescue mission. He charged towards them, dodging around the Lightning Spears electricity.

"What the…? Who the hell are you?" one of the ninjas asked.

Neji didn't bother to respond, immediately he began his attack on them. "Eight trigrams, two palms…!"

Katara's attack faltered slightly. 'What's going on?' she wondered, 'why… why am I fighting… I mean… I know why I'm fighting… I know what prompted me, but when did I start… and why am I fighting th… WHAT HAPPENED TO SOMA!?' Katara's thoughts raced through her head.

'Don't give in now… just let me take over… and we'll finish this… summon me,' a dark growl went through her head.

'What?' Katara thought.

'Summon it!' another voice ordered.

Katara clutched her head in pain.

The other ninja jumped back, away from Neji, and took off running. If both of them were killed they'd lose Katara completely. Itachi wasn't joking when he said that she was losing sight of what she was doing, it was hard to force her to fight.

'Damn,' Neji thought, noticing how the other ninja disappeared. He didn't know if what he did, did any good, but it was worth a shot. He looked back towards Naruto, Katara and Gaara's fight. His heart jerked in fear as a new, unfamiliar, powerful chakra filled the air.

sorry I haven't updated in a while... kinda hit a road block... but it's running smoothly now!