Chapter 23: New Plan

Camp was made as soon as they got far enough away from the temple that the hairs on the backs of all their necks laid flat again. So naturally it was well after dark by the time the fire was built and the still unconscious Usagi was at last tucked beneath a blanket to sleep off the rest of the temple's effects. Thankfully, it didn't take long.

"Matsuri-chan, are you sure you're alright?" Gaara asked for what must have been the third time in as many minutes.

"Gaara-sama, I told you, I'm fine," Matsuri insisted. She pulled the blanket tighter around herself, shivering in the cool night air, her bloodstained kimono swapped for a spare outfit of Temari's, which was a little too big for her.

Matsuri had already explained to the rest of them how she had gotten into the temple. The details of her captivity had been skimmed over, but they could all guess. They all had experience with Harbingers. They all knew the methods of torture that nightmares could produce.

"There must be something I can do for you, Matsuri-chan," Gaara replied. Half the gourd of sand had already spilled out into the surrounding air, hovering around Matsuri like a shield, ready to protect or fetch her whatever she needed. Kankuro had to admit, he had never seen Gaara so worried.

While the sand siblings and Shikamaru, Ino and Choji all clustered around Matsuri, the rest of the Golden Army, save Lee and Sakura, were all hovering somewhere around Usagi. Hinata, still a bit weak, had been place next to her daughter by Neji, and now proceeded to hold the child while she slept, stroking the blond hair as her face cemented itself into a seemingly irreversible worried expression. None of the others strayed far. Kiba pretended to be checking Akamaru for wounds, but he'd examined the same spot on his dog's side at least four times, all the while darting looks at his teammate. Shino sat not to far away, fawning over a cluster of insects, but none of them failed to notice the even larger group he had designated to buzzing over Hinata and Usagi as they lay recovering, and a few over Matsuri as well, occasionally reporting back to their master. Sakura was nestled between two tree roots, now being openly fawned over by Lee. She kept shooing him off, but he continued to buzz around her like one of Shino's bugs, trying his best to take care of her despite her own best efforts to stop him. Neji was not even trying to hide the fact that he had not taken his eyes off Hinata since the temple. Tenten was trying her best to distract him, cuddling and kissing him in every way she knew how, but to no avail. Neji was going to watch over his cousin, no his sister, and niece, for as long as it took for him to be satisfied they were both alright.

So of course when Usagi stirred, Neji leaped to his feet as though the patch of ground he'd been sitting on had caught fire.

"Little rabbit!" Neji cried, instantly at the child's side. Usagi stirred, squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them, squinting against the light.

The first thing she said when she regained consciousness was, "Uncle Neji, don't call me little rabbit."

"Usagi-chan!" Neji laughed, pulling the little girl into his arms and holding her tight. They all knew she was ok.

"Get off!" Usagi squirmed out of Neji's hold, only to be waylaid by her mother, pulling her into an equally tight hug.

"You gave us all a scare, Usagi-chan!" Kiba called, running over to her, Akamaru yipping his approval behind him.

"Indeed." droned Shino.

"Usagi-chan, don't scare us like that!" echoed Tenten, coming to sit beside Neji.

"What happened?" Usagi asked, finally wiggling free of her mother's hold as well.

"You attempted to reach your initial jinchuriki state inside a Harbingers' temple," Shino told her calmly, "Naruto discovered a while back that that isn't a good idea."

"Why not?" Usagi asked tentatively, "what . . . what did I do?"

Hinata stroked her daughter's hair, "Nothing, Usagi-chan. Its nothing, really . . ."

"What happened!" Usagi demanded, pulling sharply away from her mother, jumping to her feet and looking from one concerned face to another. Her eyes burned with a desperate question. "What did I do?"

"You attacked Matsuri, Usagi-chan," Kiba told her softly.

Usagi looked up at him in shock. Shock became horror, horror disbelief, then disbelief gave way to shock again. She sank back down on the ground, and didn't even seem to notice when Hinata began to stroke her hair again.

"Usagi-chan?" Neji asked tentatively, after a moment, "Usagi-chan, it wasn't your fault. Being in one of those temples weakens the seal on the demon inside you. You weren't in control of your actions, you didn't know what you . . ."

"Matsuri-sensei," Usagi whispered, staring off into space numbly, as though Neji had not spoken. Her mind was a whirling blank. She simply could not process what she'd heard. She could not have done that. She couldn't have. She could not have hurt Matsuri. It just wasn't possible.

"Matsuri-sensei . . ."

"Is fine!" Neji finished for her quickly, grasping her shoulder and jerking her around to face him, "She's right over there, little rabbit, see for yourself!"

"Matsuri-sensei?" Usagi asked, turning tentatively in the direction Neji had indicated. Suddenly she leaped to her feet and, despite the fact that they all made grabs for her, shot off in the direction of the fire. She skidded to a stop just behind Matsuri and Gaara, narrowly missing the angry cloud of sand orbiting the Suna kunoichi.

"Matsuri-sensei!" Usagi cried, making Gaara and Matsuri turn to face her, "I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you? I'm so sorry, I can't believe . . . I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry, I . . ."

"Usagi-chan," Kankuro interrupted her, "if you don't stop apologizing Matsuri will think you've actually done something wrong."

Usagi stared at him a moment. Then, to everyone's great surprise, she started to cry.

"Usagi-chan, what's wrong?" demanded Choji, scooping the child into his arms.

"I'm sorry . . . I'm sorry . . ." she whispered, clinging to his shirt. She felt the eyes of her family upon her as she sobbed uncontrollably. She heard Matsuri say something along the lines of a surprised forgiveness, but she couldn't properly understand the words. She felt as though she were drowning. This power was supposed to be a way to protect her family, at least that was how her father had always described it. She was not supposed to hurt people with it.

"Usagi-chan," whispered a voice against her hair, which it took her a moment to identify as Ino's. Usagi looked up at her, to see the elder blond smiling sweetly at her. "You know, Naruto once attacked Sakura, in one of his tailed transformations."

Usagi's eyes widened. "He . . . he did?"

Ino nodded. "Afterwards he felt terrible, but Sakura forgave him."

"Why?" Usagi asked in a whisper, still clinging to Choji's shirt as she listened, hardly daring to form the words.

Ino smiled, a smile full of warmth and love and understanding. "Because it wasn't his fault, Usagi-chan. It was the nine-tails. Sakura didn't blame him. Matsuri doesn't blame you. Usagi-chan, the demon inside you is capable of terrible things. Its chakra is pure animal instinct. The temple weakened the seal that keeps the chakra locked away inside you. You were overwhelmed, is all. Usagi-chan, it was not your fault."

Ino reached out a hand and cupped Usagi's cheek, wiping the tears from her face with one thumb. Usagi was no longer crying.

"There now," Ino simpered, "its ok, see?"

Usagi nodded.

Shikamaru cleared his throat. "Not to sound callous or anything," he began, "but we are in a bit of a bind now. We need to move up our time table, because you can bet they have. A straight shot to the academy, no stopping for anything. We'll need to leave as soon as possible."

"Why?" Usagi asked, looking nervously from Shikamaru to Ino, "what's changed?"

"We've lost the element of surprise," Neji explained. They were all their now, all fifteen plus Matsuri. They clustered around the fire in the early, pre-dawn light that was beginning to shine through the trees, but did nothing to dispel the darkness they all felt settling in.

"When we first set out, as far as we knew we had all the time in the world," Shikamaru explained, "attacks can be random, in fact they usually are. Being ambushed by a few Darks doesn't mean anything. Being kidnapped by one does.

"The Harbingers make sacrifices to the Nightmare, but they aren't just random. They all occur in specific places, nine specific temples all equidistant from the point at which the Nightmare will be brought to being. Last time we were able to calculate exactly where it was being raised based upon the position of the temples the sacrifices were made it."

"But we rescued Matsuri!" Usagi protested, "If the Nightmare needs sacrifices to be born then haven't we stopped it?"

Shikamaru shook his head. "There are temples all over, Usagi-chan. If this temple won't do I'm sure another sacrifice is waiting at another temple equally suitable for their purposes. They may just find another sacrifice for this temple here. The point is, we already know where the Nightmare will be raised. The Darks we've encountered have all been headed in the same direction we're going, probably converging on the school, and this temple is equidistant from the Golden Academy as the one that Naruto and Gaara found the first sacrifice in."

"But we already knew that," Usagi piped up, "so why have we lost the element of surprise?"

"We haven't, not really," Shikamaru told her, "we never had it to begin with. We thought they didn't know which way we were coming from, but we were wrong. They know we're coming. They were just toying with us. Now they know that we know the truth, they're going to hit us with everything they've got to stop us from reaching the academy."

"Then we will just have to get there before they get the chance!" Lee proclaimed, standing up, fist clenched in front of himself in determination.

"A straight shot!" Choji agreed.

"No stopping!" Hinata piped up, determination hardening her eyes as she stood too.

Shikamaru got to his feet. A few hand seals and the fire was dowsed by a jet of cold water, leaving their campsite bathed in shadows.

"Let's move out."