Well, we have returned. Thanks to Marjolein222, Malix2, digger(I'd be more inclined to follow your advice if your review had actually included something about the actual story), Rena, Lady Rini, Raiuta and Ratt1993. We are 19 reviews away from one hundred reviews, and two thousand views away from twenty thousand views. Go. Us. This chapter is a tad bit short, so forgive us, but hey! Quality over quantity am I right?
The adrenaline rush acquired from racing towards Suna faded much more quickly than it should have. It wasn't long until they were out of breath. But the real reason for panic set in when some leftover logic set in.
None of them were entirely sure how to get to Sunagakure.
The use of Nara's byakugan proved to be a great help to try and find where the village was located, but they were two days away from the village hidden in the wind, and no Hyuuga in the world could see THAT far away.
"What…what if Kankuro-sensei is…you know…dead?" Ryoga asked finally.
"Well, we'll most likely have to go on a search party to find his maggot ridden body so that none of the missing nin dissect him. Of course, he's more likely gonna be kept alive and tortured within an inch of his life. You know that cloud ninjas are really skilled with lightning jutsus so they're probably going to fry his entire nervous system so he's all numb and dump him in a fire or-"
"Miyaki, shut the hell up." Keitaro hissed.
"She does have a point you know." Nara pointed out. "She's exaggerating a bit though…"
"Yeah, tha's right, side with Miyaki." Sarunte grumbled.
"Sarunte, what's that supposed to mean?"
"Nutin, jus' that you seem to always agree wit' the person tha's wrong an' all."
"But she's not wrong! They wouldn't kill Kankuro-san. He's worth way too much alive."
"Dumb ass." Sarunte muttered. "Tha's not how the world works Nara. You'd have to be a demon host to even have a chance o' living. I have an entire monument devoted to my family name. And plenty more friggin KIA. No one cares to keep you alive if you're dangerous. They kill you when you're dangerous."
Haruna stared at Sarunte for a couple of minutes in sheer horror. Sarunte…Sarunte was actually not dumb.
"He's right." She finally said reluctantly. "My dad's brother was a pretty big name till he got killed by mist ninjas."
Nara shook her head and sighed. That was only how the world worked sometimes. She had a feeling, that if those ninja caught up with them, they'd WISH they were dead.
The wind had started to pick up, and it was getting harder and harder to see. Sand blew in everyone's eyes, and it was left up to Miyaki to lead them, which wasn't exactly foolproof, since Miyaki was just as lost as the rest of them.
"I'm starving." Sarunte complained after what had to have been hours.
"We all are. Shut up." Ryoga grumbled.
"You shut up first."
"I'm not saying anything!"
"Ahh! Ahh! We're all going to dieeee" Sarunte mocked. "Woe unto ussssss. We're all gonna ddiiieeeee"
"I don't sound like that!" Ryoga shouted.
"Yeah you do." Miyaki pointed out cheerfully.
"Hey, don't take his side!" Keitaro said. "We're a team here."
"Yeah but, he's cute."
"You're blind!" Ryoga cried out hoarsely.
"Just shut up ALL of you." Haruna said. "You're ALL annoying, and ALL stupid."
"Stay out of this runt!" Sarunte hissed.
"Don't call me a runt!"
"Why not? You call me an idiot all th' time! S'all fair to me!"
"Well it's not!"
"Get off your high horse." Keitaro finally said. "You're what? Eight? Don't act like you know more than us!"
"We shouldn't be fighting guys" Ryoga said, "We'll end up killing each other or something…"
"Oh yeah. THAT'S gonna happen." Miyaki cackled back. "You first claw-boy."
"Don't call me that!"
"I'm almost ten for your information!"
"Oh. Now I'm terrified. What are you going to do to me pinky? Throw a tantrum?"
"I'm more powerful than you'll ever be!"
"Yeah, only cause you cheat with your kekkai genkai."
"Stay out of this Sarunte!"
"ENOUGH!" Nara shrieked. "YOU ARE ALL BEING IMMATURE ABOUT THIS. LET'S JUST KEEP GOING OR THE KAZEKAGE IS GOING TO DIE!"
Nara was suitably pissed. Was it that hard to ignore each other? This was a mission! An important one at that. If they failed this, not only would Gaara die, but it would be all their fault.
But she received no agreements or apologies. The heat and lack of food and water had taken their toll. They yelled at her for various reasons, before resuming arguing.
Finally, it happened.
Sarunte right hooked Ryoga in the jaw. Keitaro responded by tackling the Uchiha, and Haruna activated her Zajigan.
It almost seemed laughable that a missing ninja was their biggest threat.
xXx
Kankuro, for lack of a better word, was happy. He was able to let loose most of the frustration that had bottled up for the past two days, and nothing kept up ones adrenaline like a fight to the death.
The two Takigakure ninjas were actually quite formidable, especially as a tag team. But of course, it wasn't two on one. It was more of…two against seven. Six puppets, and one puppet master. Kankuro quickly outwitted them.
One glorious puppet play later, and they were poisoned and stabbed successfully, inches away from death. However, they would stay alive for a bit longer. Long enough to be questioned. After all, Akatsuki had long since been defunct, and no one put slashes through their headbands anymore unless they were asking for attention.
But now it was time to take care of the other one, Soko, they called him, who had spent this entire time on the sidelines, watching.
Kankuro cracked his neck. "You next jaan."
The redheaded man tilted his head. "Not today. And for the record, my name is Akano, not Soko. Put that in your bingo book."
Suddenly, Akano disintegrated into lightning and disappeared into the ground.
Lightning clone.
Clone.
Shit.
Fuck.
Not good.
Gathering his puppets together and his two hostages, cursing the entire time at his own stupidity, Kankuro started to head back into the desert, with great intent to find his genin squad.
xXx
The genins of Konoha and Suna were still in a mindless brawl. Nara had summoned multiple shadow clones in an attempt to stop the fighting. It hadn't worked. Especially since that was when Miyaki joined the fight for fun. She was relying solely on taijutsu, but she had a certain amount of bloodlust to her that made her quite formidable. It didn't help that she was blind. Haruna's Zajigan had no affect on her.
Ryoga, as it turned out, had retractable metal claws, which explained Miyakis nickname of him. He was also incredibly fast.
Keitaro, if he had a special jutsu, kept it under wraps, and relied solely on his muscle and some generic jutsus and weapons. Which proved to be enough for now.
Eventually, turning away in disgust, Nara withdrew from the fight. This wasn't worth it. She should just let them exhaust themselves, so that they could continue travelling. Then they'd be too tired to argue.
Of course, Miyaki noticed this. "OOooOOooh, looks like SOMEONE is too much of a chick to fight. Scared you'll bleed?"
"Yeah." Nara replied sarcastically. "I hate blood."
Miyaki frowned. "Don't use that tone with me. I'm blind. Not deaf."
"We are in a mission at the moment. We might be being tracked at the moment. We can't afford to fight."
Miyaki smirked. "Lighten up you insensitive prick." A swift uppercut made contact with Nara's jaw. "Sides," She continued, "I don't care whether we fail the mission or not, it's all the same to me."
"How can you say that?!? Gaara is your Kage!"
"Kage shmage. It's just a title. What do YOU care?" She cried out, tackling Nara.
This girl…was insane. She was start mad. A raving loony. Whatever term she used…something was clearly not right with this girl. She activated her byakugan. She had more important things to do than engage in a cat fight with a blind psycho.
…
…
…
Oh.
No.
Oh no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO! SHIT!
They had been followed. By that kumo missing nin. NO NO NO NO!
She had let her guard down! He wasn't even attacking, or moving, he was just waiting.
He was waiting until they tired themselves out and picked them off one by one.
Not good. Not good. NOT GOOD.
She had to do something. She had to warn them. But how?!? They weren't going to listen to her! They were all in a frothing rage.
Pressing her knees to her chest, she kicked upwards, knocking Miyaki off of her.
She tackled Miyaki and whispered quietly, "We're being followed. The Kumo ninja. Please, help me. "
Miyaki cackled insanely for a moment. "OOooOOooh, now the les yay is rubbing off on me. Sure, I'll help you."
Nara got off of her. Miyaki smiled. "Leave it to me." She told Nara.
Cracking her neck, she opened her mouth. "Hey. Sand for brains. KNOCK IT OFF!"
That was what she said, but the noise that came out of her mouth was different. More…painful. High pitched. Nara instinctively covered her ears to avoid the noise.
The effect was instantaneous for Ryoga and Keitaro. Wincing, they immediately stopped fighting, and covered their ears, and Sarunte and Haruna were quick to follow.
"Now." Miyaki said cheerfully, "Listen to girly here."
Nara gulped. "We're being followed."
The effect was instantaneous. Shock and a flinch. Hopefully the Kumo ninja hadn't noticed they knew he was there…
The suna ninja eyed each other. "So…I guess that means we stay behind to fight." Keitaro said sadly.
Nara shook her haid. "No way, you guys are in no condition to fight. I'm the only one who could beat him off."
"But…you might die, and if you die, it'll be our fault and Konoha will stop trusting us and we'll get attacked and there will be a war and we'll all die!" Ryoga pointed out.
"We. Don't. Have. A. Choice."
"Yeah we do!" Sarunte said hoarsely. "I'm stayin' to fight. I'm not letting my teammate go and face a missing nin on her own."
"No you're not Sarunte!"
"Yes I am!"
"I'm staying too." Haruna said, smiling widely. "I am one of the top scorers from the acadamy you know. I have the Zajigan too. I can take care of myself."
"If you had enough chakra to do it!" Nara pointed out. "You should have thought of that before you started fighting each other like rabid animals! Now GO!"
Unfortunately, they could not go. At that moment, Akano picked up on the fact they did indeed know he was there.
Withdrawing his twin katanas, Akano charged. "Chakra wave; Lightning style!"
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Miyaki shrieked, for the first time, actually scared.
"Everyone GO!" Nara yelled. "GO NOW!"
Keitaro raised his arms, The holes on the metal clasps on his arms shot out an odd pink liquid.
Akano sliced through it with his lightning charged katanas. He smirked. "How pathetic."
Keitaro groaned. That WAS pathetic. He had wasted a good amount of his chakra fighting back Haruna's Zajigan. God damn it.
Nara gritted her teeth. She summoned a couple of shadow clones. She had a jutsu that could take care of this man. But she had no idea if she could pull it under such pressure.
Akano charged and struck at Keitaro, leaving a bloody slash across his chest.
"BASTARD!" Ryoga shrieked, appearing right behind him, stabbing him through the waist.
Correction. Stabbed a lightning clone.
Ryoga widened his eyes as another Akano appeared and sent a wave of lightning his way.
Paralyzed with fear, he was thrown out of the way by a quick thinking Haruna.
Akano made some more hand signs. Four lightning clones appeared.
"How the hell does he have so much chakra?" Miyaki shrieked, sensing the amount he used. "That's just inhuman! It rivals a tailed beast!"
Akano slashed at the blind genin, who clasped her wrists together, and spread her fingers far apart. "SLICING SOUND WAVE!"
It was taken full on by Akano, but he didn't seem to be very affected, and he slammed Miyaki into the air, who crashed into the ground several feet away. The sand was every where.
"KATON!" Sarunte roared and breathed out fire. It was dodged and a triple gang up of clones proceeded to punch him simultaneously in rather painful places. The fourth one stabbed him through his thigh.
Sarunte collapsed. He moaned with pain.
"SARUNTE!" Haruna shrieked.
Akano charged at Haruna, who futilely used a clone jutsu.
Her Zajigan was rather weak by this point, but it managed to hinder Akano for a couple of seconds. Long enough for Ryoga to decapitate it. Pity it was only a clone, that proceeded to shock Ryoga rather painfully.
Another Akano began to attack Haruna,
"HARUNA MOVE!" Nara shrieked. Haruna took a step back as Nara charged at Akano.
Raising her arm with the joint help of two other shadow clones, Nara focused her chakra as intensely as she could as she roared the words she had heard her father used so many times previously.
"RASENGAN!"
To Be Continued