"Temari-san was with you?" A sand-nin asked the squad. "We have been waiting. Please, this way!"
"Right!" Naruto nodded.
"But... The Kazekage was abducted... After that, Kankurou pursued them, but he was wounded..."
"What?" Temari snapped her head towards the man, "They got Kankurou too?"
"Yes, and he was caught by the enemy's poison. And we have no way to neutralize it... At this rate, he has half a day at the most..."
"Shit!" The female cursed.
"Let's hurry Temari-san... I'll examine him!" Sakura told her, hoping it to be a comfort.
The squad walked to the Sand's hospital in quite. Mayumi continually tripped over her own feet for no reason at all. Normally she wasn't this bad but... Something was off... It couldn't be just her could it? They rushed into the room without knocking, Temari and Sakura in the lead.
A freaking old woman looked back at the group and eyed Kakashi, "The White Fang of Konoha!"
He made a face, "Eh?"
The old woman jumped at him. Naruto blocked the punch that she threw and knocked her back with a shadow clone. She landed on her feet easily and skidded back.
"Why are you going at Kakashi-sensei so suddenly for? You wrinkled old hag!" Naruto shouted at her.
She glared at the two, "I remember that time... That White Fang of Konoha... My son's enemy... I will get my revenge for him today!"
"Ah! No I'm not-" Kakashi tried to defend.
"There's no use in arguing!" She shouted at him as she charged.
However before the lady could reach her target an even creepier old mad stood in front of her, "Sister... Take a good look. There's a strong resemblance, but he isn't the White Fang of Konoha."
"Huh?" She focused hard on him then glared at her brother, "No waaaay! I was just pretending to be stupid! Gyahaha!"
Sakura quickly walked over to Kankurou, "More importantly, Kankurou-san needs to be treated quickly!"
"Please!" Temari added.
With that the pink haired female's hands began to glow as she placed her hands over the male's wounds. Slowly she pulled one hand away and extracted some poison. The gunk bulled it's self up and floated above her glowing hand.
"Got it!"
Mayumi rolled her eyes, "Would you shut your big mouth and finish already?"
Lucky for her the female didn't hear her comment and continued her work. The Arakaki female pestered her teammates the best could in hopes of keeping them all calm. That she was pretty good at. She should really get paid for it, she'd have to bring it up with Tsunade when she got back.
"Heh... I don't think there's any need to worry about his life anymore," Sakura told them, wiping the sweat from her face. "I've directly removed the poison."
Temari backed against the wall and slide down, "Whew..."
"Now I have to make an antidote for the little bit of poison left in his body. We can't relax yet. Please gather what I say!"
The old woman stared at her, "You're a lot like that slug woman... That a girl like you would come..."
"Yes!" Sakura smiled at her, "It's because Tsunade-sama is my master. And my master said that I should come here."
"Sister..." The old man spoke. "Time really is slowly flowing by..."
"Right!" Naruto said balling his hands and putting them in front of himself, "But we're not gonna be slow! Let's go right after Akatsuki!"
*Later*
After awhile Mayumi had fallen asleep. Who could blame her? They had been traveling for three days. Everyone else was crowded around Kankurou's bed, all staring at him with worried expressions. Sakura, on the other hand was helping him drink an antidote, making sure he drank it all and then giving him her orders.
"Right!" Naruto shouted once the pinkette was done. "Let's hurry!"
Kankurou stared down at his hand for a long while. His dark, tired eyes began to tear up slightly as he looked up and studied Naruto. Then he took a look at the rest of the new team seven. The only thing he could think of was how Naruto had helped his brother.
"Uzumaki Naruto..." He spoke. "Please save my brother."
Naruto smiled, "Leave it all to me! Because I will be Hokage someday too! So I'll secure an advance favor from the Kazekage!"
*Another Later*
"Why'd you guys have to wake me up!" Mayumi whined, rubbing her eyes. "I thought you were my friends! If you were my friends you'd have just left me here to sleep!"
"If you wait a little, we can have skilled ninja here too..." A sand-nin informed the team.
"Really..." Kakashi muttered.
Mayumi reached towards the Hatake with pleading eyes, "Piggy back ride?"
"No."
"Please?" She gave him puppy dogs eyes, it had to work! It always did!
"...No."
"You know what! I'm going to send you to the land of milk and cookies!"
"I'm going too!" Temari shouted as she walked towards the team.
Mayumi gave her a questionable look, "To land of milk of cookies? Okay but it's for crazy people and-Ow! What the hell!" She snapped as Sakura elbowed her.
"Temari, stay here and work on defense of the country border," the old woman from before told them. "From the shinobi of the sad, I am more than enough."
Mayumi frowned, "They're going to guard the land of milk and cookies? I'm lost... Why are these sand ninja's taking me so dang seriously?"
"But... Chiyo-baasama!" Temari snapped her head up at the old woman who had perched herself on top of a building.
"Don't treat like an old woman!" Chiyo snapped as she jumped off the building.
Sakura and Naruto both took a step back while Kakashi and Mayumi stared at her in disbelief.
"She needs to go back to the land of milk of cookies..." Mayumi muttered.
"I've wanted to give my cute grandson some love for a while now..." She looked up at them.
*In Forest*
"Naruto..." Sakura said as she caught up to him. "Can I ask you something? Since when did the Akatsuki start targeting you?"
"I don't know..." He answered, looking down.
"A while ago..." Kakashi started to explain. "Two of Akatsuki's agents infiltrated Konoha in order to make contact with Naruto. It's been three years since then, and they've started moving. Though, I can't quite see the motive behind this."
"Why did they wait three years?"
"Maybe it was that they couldn't take action, rather than choosing not to. He always had Jiraiya-sama by his side."
"Well..." Chiyo began. "From what I've gathered, I heard there were other reasons. It requires considerable preparation to separate a 'Tailed Beast' that is sealed within a man. I assume that's what hampered their effort."
"A 'Tailed Beast'?" Sakura questioned.
"What! You call yourself Tsunade's apprentice and you don't know that?"
"The information regarding the 'Nine Tails' is top secret material in Konoha, so..."
"Of course it is..." Chiyo nodded. "The Tailed Beasts are in fact magical beasts possessing tails. The sand always possessed the One Tail. That is the Shukaku sealed within Gaara-sama."
"A One Tail?" Sakura questioned. "So there are other different kinds aside from the Nine Tails..."
"Indeed. There are a total of Nine Tailed Beasts in this world. Each Beast differs in characteristics depending on the number of tails they have. One Tail possesses a single tail, Two Tails possess two, and so on until the Nine Tails. Each possessing a number of tails according to their name," Chiyo explained. "The Tailed Beasts are a monstrous formation of chakra. During the great ninja war, every hidden village attempted to acquire the power for military purposes. They competed to obtain these beasts. However... No one can control such power beyond the ability of men. I've yet to know why Akatsuki attempts to acquire such power...it's too dangerous. Well, even through the rime of peace, the ages shift on. I've heard that all the Tailed Beasts are scattered across the world."
*Later*
The group ran through the trees in hurry, the blue-haired female leading. Kakashi grabbed her arm and stopped the her from going any farther.
"Everyone halt!" He ordered.
Naruto and Mayumi's eyes both went wide.
"Who?..." Sakura muttered.
"Well this is sudden..." Kakashi said.
"...This guy... Those eyes.." Chiyo muttered
"Uchiha..." Naruto started.
"Itachi-san..." Mayumi finished, staring at him with a questionable look.
HAHAHA! I'm leaving it there suckas! Anyways... I want to thank you all for reviewing/ voting. Sasuke is now in the lead by a ton! And I don't understand how Sakura is ahead of some people '-_- anyways please review/vote! I'll update as soon as I can!