Chapter 12

Clare's team quickly spotted Gaara, standing on a roof that wasn't too far away, and immediately made their way over. On the way, Shihizuki and Haku joined them.

"You have any idea what's going on?" Haku asked Clare.

"Not a clue. Where's Raito?"

"Excellent question, but if she's not already fighting, she'll join us shortly. What are your team's strengths?"

"Why? Ok, that one is obvious, but Gaara's going to be the one directing the counter attack," Yosuke said "Either him, or Kankuro."

"Yosuke is good with Earth jutsu's, and Ren specializes with genjutsus. I'm good with water based," Clare replied, ignoring Yosuke. Of course, she fully intended to talk to Gaara or Kankuro before doing something if it was Haku or Shihizuki making plans. She trusted

Raito's judgement, but that was only because she had worked with the girl personally.

When they got to the roof, Raito was already arguing with Kankuro. She stopped abruptly when she saw the others had arrived.

"Clare, are you willing to coordinate with my team to help?" Raito asked.

She nodded, and Kankuro looked put out. "Fine, take my job without Gaara's permission then, he's going to be pissed when he finds out."

"Ok, hun, we're loyal to this village too. If you're not going to listen to me without complaint, you're more of a liability than an asset. Which is it going to be?"

"I'll help, I'm just not happy about it."

"Good. Clare, I want you and Haku to coordinate a diversion. Clare, if you can make it rain, Haku can turn it into ice senbon. Keep this in mind." The two nodded, and darted off. "Ren, Shihizuki, Kankuro, these people work in teams, there's probably another one around here somewhere, your job is to neutralize him. As soon as they are available, I'll send in reinforcements."

Ren and Shihizuki scowled at each other, but left with Kankuro. Both of them understood that this was not the time for arguing, even if it was tempting.

"What do you want me to do?" Yosuke asked.

"You're with me, we're going to provide Gaara cover as best we can."

Raito didn't mention that she was also going to try and coordinate between the five different parties to the best of her abilities. In order to be the most effective, they were going to somehow be able to predict what Gaara and Haku's makeshift team were going to do, and direct their attacks accordingly. Besides that, someone had to stay behind for when Suna's militia was finally getting a move on.

A wave of water barely caught the edge of the bird's tale, but before Haku's ice could take effect, that piece melted off. The blond who they were fighting noticed that something was off, and turned his back for half a second to see what was going on. Raito saw his mouth move in a curse, buying Gaara enough time for his sand to reach for one of the bird's claws without being dodged.

An explosion went off near Gaara, somewhere during the fight the blond had been able to send one of his birds close enough to cause damage. In the same moment, the bird's claw shrunk, allowing it to get free from the sand long enough for them to get out of reach.

During this, the blond wasn't paying attention to what building he was going past, and Haku jumped on the bird and aimed a kick at the imposter's face. It was dodged and grabbed, but Haku used that as leverage to spin the other one to land a hit to the face. Water, formed by the barely existent precipitation in the air melted off the tip of a wing. The bird wobbled before regaining balance, and Gaara took the advantage to latch on to the blond.

Bloody rain spattered the street and buildings below, and the attacker howled with pain when he lost his arm. Wasting no time, without warning he tipped the bird. Haku was barely able to freeze the wave of water Clare drew up to break his fall. The blond took the moment to send down an explosive, and Haku went still. Raito saw Clare hop up on the ledge, and check his pulse. Infinite relief flooded her when Clare gave her a thumbs up, but she could tell that the other girl had exhausted her chakra supply.

The feeling of dread came back when Kankuro and Ren came back. There wasn't a scratch on them.

"What happened?" she demanded, never taking her eyes off the fight going on in the air.

"You were right, there was another one. He, it, took Shihizuki," Ren informed her.

"It also took apart my puppets, claiming that it made them," Kankuro added. "What's going on here?"

"Haku and Clare are unable to fight, but our opponent seems to be running low on what looks to be clay. He's also missing one of his arms, and we've unbalanced his bird, though he seems to have made up for that by now. Are you two good on chakra?"

Both of them nodded, which was a good thing. "What now?" Ren asked.

"Both of you should try to evacuate the city as much as you can. If nothing else works, that bird is big enough to take out the entire city."

At long last, Baku arrived with the militia. Instead of cussing them out, like she wanted to, Raito took in all that they had at their disposal with a trained eye.

"Where's Kankuro?" Baku asked, immediately questioning her authority.

Raito ignored it. "Get as many people as you can spare to evacuate the city, and anyone who can use water jutsu aiming for the bird he's standing on," she ordered. "If we can damage it any more, Gaara will be able to completely take him out."

"Where's Kankuro?" he asked again, ignoring her orders. "You aren't someone in authority."

"He's evacuating the city, along with Ren," she replied. "He put me in charge."

"I'm going to need proof," he said. "For all we know, you could be a spy, trying to sabotage us."

"There isn't time for that..." the rest of her words were drowned out by a large explosion, nearby. Raito looked up to see the night sky covered by a massive amount of sand. The next explosion was much more muffled, but they could see through the crumbling wall that it was even more effective. "Hold your fire, they have Gaara. Look for yourself if you don't believe me," she said pointing at the small bundle wrapped in the "tail feathers" of the bird. Both sleeves of the enemy hung empty, at least.

Raito started swearing up and down like a sailor.

"We should organize a party to go after Gaara," Ren suggested. Raito seemed incapable of saying anything other than profanities, some of which made him blush a little, but someone needed to state the obvious if they weren't moving already.

They were too busy watching Raito swear though, her vocabulary was rather impressive, and in between they thought they could catch phrases relating to what she was planning.

After about two minutes, she calmed down enough to think rationally. "Baku, do you have a team prepared to go after Gaara in the event that he was captured? Because so help me, if you don't..." she began to threaten.

Baku nodded, and four of the sand nins came forward. Raito nodded her approval. "Ren, Kankuro, I want you to come with me, as well. You, you get the people back in the city. If there's a mass panic, it won't help anything, so get people started on repairs. Assure them that we're getting the Kazekage back."

At her words, Baku's people began moving. Raito was glad for their compliance, and made a mental note to tell Gaara that their organizational skills needed work. It shouldn't have taken this long for them to be ready in the first place. She gestured for Kankuro to lead, and the eight nins went after their Kazekage.

Raito was beyond glad to have Yosuke there when one of the nins that Baku had sent with them set off a paper bomb trap that was actually quite elaborate. The nin that had set off the trap died, and one other was badly hurt by the falling rock, but Yosuke managed to stop the rocks before anyone else was rendered incapable of fighting. However, Raito's leg and Ren's side were both badly hurt getting the other two nins whose names they didn't know out of the way. It was unfortunate, but better than a fatality.

Ren was pretty sure one of his ribs had been cracked, but didn't say anything. He felt that the well being of the Kazekage was more important, and had every intention of fighting until either Gaara was returned or he died.

Both Yosuke and Kankuro pointed to the correct trail of the many Sasori had left at the same time, and wordlessly their group of four followed. All four of the nins Baku had assigned to them had been sent back to help their injured not set off any more traps. Besides that, Kankuro and Ren knew that they wouldn't stand a chance against Sasori and the blond together.

The chances were slim for their own hastily cobbled together team. Raito was banking on back up arriving quickly.

Of course, that went away as soon as she saw that Shihizuki was also unconscious and on the blond's bird thing. At least it was still wobbling. The short lumpy thing in a similar coat was her real concern, now. At least she knew the blond was almost out of juice, it was still completely unaffected, as far as they knew.

Her lips twisted into a snarl and she drew Zabuza's sword. By now, the weight felt comfortable in her hand.

"Give them back," she demanded. She pointed the sword threateningly at the two boys that were blissfully unaware of what was going on.

"Deidara, you go on ahead, I'll take care of this," Sasori said. Deidara got on the bird.

Raito shrugged. "I'm going to attempt to cut off the end of that bird's tail, you three should distract Sasori when I give the word."

"You know what they say, finders keepers, losers weepers," Deidara said, and the bird wobbled a bit before getting ready to take off.

All four of them moved at once, but a metal tail shot out of Sasori and knocked them back. Raito could feel the tale tell signs of poison in her veins, but that wasn't going to be a problem for her or Kankuro. Both of them had been exposed enough times that they had developed immunity, but Ren and Yosuke probably hadn't.

At least she had taken off a decent chunk of it with Zabuza's sword. 'What is Sasori? I've never seen someone who could do that before...' She picked up Head Cleaver and did her best to ignore the effects of the poison. She saw Kankuro begin to stand as well, and he nodded.

Raito ran forward, using the sword to block his attacks. She only had a short time before getting them medical attention would be first priority. Another clip to the cheek, a cut on her calf, moving was getting harder. She was forced to jump back, out of range.

Several pieces of fabric fell away, as well as a few parts. She had done damage, but not enough to really do anything. At best she had pissed him off.

She didn't have time to regroup and try again. She put a hand to her damaged torso. "Next time you won't get away so easily," she vowed as she picked up Ren. Kankuro got the point and picked up Yosuke.

Sasori nodded, and started walking away. He had kept Deidara waiting as it was, and a small part of him was glad that she had recognized the situation for what it was. He doubted the Kazekage's brother would do as much, the boy seemed rash.

"She did a number on you, hn," Deidara said when he saw the scraps haphazardly hanging of his partner.

"Not really, it's just superficial," Sasori answered honestly.