Author's note: Next chapter is here, and it's the longest one yet, though not by much. I'm still working on the next one, so I don't know when it will be out. It shouldn't take long.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If you think I do, I have shares in Gatou Shipping Company to sell. Buy quick, their price is going to skyrocket soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Near the Iwa fortress~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They raced across the open fields. Everybody was pumping as much chakra as they could into their legs. Nobody wanted to stay on the deadly ground for any longer then they absolutely had to, mostly because they didn't want to serve as practice dummies for some of Iwa's nastier jutsu. The haste had cost many of them dearly when they had run straight into the traps littering the ground. But they still pressed on.

Hana had another reason to rush. Her teammate was out there. Completely alone. Her mind was full of horror images of what could be happening to him right now. That was the main reason why she was here instead of in the back with the other medics. The rational part of her mind was telling her that it was unwise, but she told it to shut up. Her teammate was in danger and she was going to do everything in her power to get him out of there in one piece. She shot a sideways glance at Hotaru, who was running next to her. Judging by the determined expression on the purple-haired kunoichi's face, she was thinking the same.

And so they ran. The fortress walls, looming ominously in front of them, were becoming bigger and bigger. Even the collapsed part did little to make them seem less threatening. They could already recognize the individual shinobi standing atop them, even in the insufficient light. The thought was quickly followed by the realization that the Iwa shinobi could now see them well too and that they were going to get within jutsu-firing distance any moment now. Almost as soon as she thought it the first technique was cast. It was a Fuuton, a bit unusual among Rock shinobi, but nothing really odd. It only ruffled her hair at this distance, but some of her allies who had been closer to it stumbled. And then more techniques followed. The battle was on.

The attacking army quickly responded with their jutsu. First somebody from Suna swung a giant fan, knocking several Iwa ninja off the walls. Then somebody joined with a Katon, but it fell a bit short of its target. A bunch of small explosions showed where several Exploding Tags had landed. The Iwa defenders responded with an avalanche of giant round stones. Hotaru and Hana dodged at the last moment, but some of their comrades weren't so lucky. And then they were almost at the breach in the wall.

It was one of the Haimaru siblings who realized the danger first, and that was because he stepped into it. His paws sank into the ground and he yelped in surprise and fear. And he was sinking lower and lower fast. The two kunoichi stopped at the spot, concentrating chakra to their feet to stick to the ground. Hana grabbed the trapped dog's tail and pulled him out. Fortunately nothing was holding him down. They all looked at the swamp that now lay between them and the opening in the wall.

"Can we walk over it?" Hana mused.

"I wouldn't risk it," Hotaru replied. Techniques like this usually didn't allow water-walking on top of them. And it was too wide to jump over. Then they noticed two Suna ninja on the other side, already engaging the other army.

"How did they get there?" the Inuzuka wondered. At that moment a Konoha ninja appeared at the other side.

"Shunshin?"

"Kawarimi!" Hana recognized. There was enough rubble to switch themselves with. A water missile shot at them, but they were already going through the seals for the Substitution Jutsu, trying to be as thorough with it as they could because it was a tad bit too far. The Suiton hit only rocks.

Hana and Hotaru appeared on the other side. Immediately they were engaged by Rock Ninja. Hotaru launched a Raiton technique and stunned the two closest to her. Her sword made short work of finishing them off. Hana slashed her nails turned into claws at the neck of the closest. It hit home. The man clutched his throat as blood poured from his cut carotid. Then she looked at the cluster of obviously lower-ranked ninja facing her. A Gatsuuga seemed to be in order.

She signaled to her companions only to notice they weren't with her. A stab of panic shot through her heart. Where were the Haimaru? Then she noticed them on the other side of the swamp, running around and whining forlornly. She slammed her forehead. How could she have been so stupid? Of course her ninken weren't as good at Kawarimi as she was, so they got stuck on the other side. She was a disgrace to the Inuzuka clan. Abandoning her dogs was something that just wasn't done, no matter what. When her mother found out about this... It was a lot scarier prospect than all the ninja facing her now.

"Pay attention!" Hotaru screamed. Hana's head slapped back to the danger in front of them. The cluster of Iwa chuunin and genin was almost upon them. Hana growled. She might be alone, but she was far from defenseless. A quick Katon fried the closest enemies. Hotaru's sword flashed and took care of the two who dodged in her direction.

Somebody appeared at Hana's other side. Her first instinct was to attack, but then she noticed the Konoha uniform the man was wearing. She let him deal with his batch of opponents and turned to deal with the few who jumped over the burned bodies of their comrades.

She felt naked without her canine partners. She was good enough to hold her own against enemies of this level, but the absence of her dogs was constantly felt like a sore wound and it disrupted her concentration. 'Focus,' she ordered herself, but that was easier said than done. She just barely dodged a kunai slash and then stumbled as she stepped on a loose rock. This shouldn't happen to a kunoichi of her abilities.

She stabbed the man, but she couldn't recover her lost balance. As the downed opponent fell, she fell with him. And he was immediately replaced with two more. Hana kicked at the knees of the closer one, but the hard-faced woman stepped around it easily. Her companion lifted a staff over his head, prepared to finish Hana. Dodging this was going to be hard.

Then a grey body slammed into the man, knocking him off balance. Another one joined it, sinking its teeth deep into the man's upper arm and dragging him down. The third one bothered the Iwa kunoichi. Hana rejoiced internally. Haimaru were here! She used the brief reprieve to jump to her feet and shot a look over a shoulder. Somebody had used a Doton jutsu to create a bridge over the swamp and now Konoha and Suna ninja were pouring over it, pressing the Iwa defenders. She quickly disposed of the Rock woman, her dogs having already finished the man and rejoined Hotaru in the fighting.

"Now we're going to show them!" the Inuzuka cheered. Boasts like this were more Tsume's and Kiba's thing, but Hana felt this occasion called for it. Hotaru nodded. Her spirits were lifted by the sudden influx of allies too.

But they were celebrating too soon. The Iwa ninja had put up a strong defense. Now an Earth Rampart blocked their way and the lines of shinobi standing atop it were determined not to let them even one more step further into their base. Breaking through this was going to take quite some time. And Naruto was still stuck on the other side. That sucked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Rubble~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everything hurt. It was a disturbingly familiar sensation to Naruto. So what had he done this time to end up in such a state? He opened his eyes. He couldn't see much, but that was because there was a wooden board blocking his vision. He removed it, his arms protesting against being used. He still couldn't see much, this time because it was dark outside. He could see the sky high above him, a few stars shining faintly through smoke. All around him was rubble and dead bodies. It was no surprise considering he could hear a battle going on close by.

Now Naruto could remember what had he been doing, namely tearing Iwa ninja apart aided by Kyuubi's power. But it didn't explain why he was lying on the ground among corpses and debris when the last thing he could recall he had been up on the wall and the enemies around him were too much alive. And then there was something about falling. So the wall had collapsed after all. Naruto wasn't sure how did it happen. Was it Gaara's work? Or did some other ally blow it up? He didn't know, he was just certain that it wasn't his work, even if that was exactly what he had been supposed to do. But it was very hard to remember his orders while under the influence of Kyuubi's power. It was all he could do to tell apart friend from foe.

Speaking of which, why wasn't he high on the kitsune's chakra now? He didn't recall pushing it back. Did the flow of chakra stop when he had been knocked out by the fall? Probably. And whatever had been left in his system had been used to heal him, because there was no way he could have survived this fall uninjured.

The sound of footsteps on stones let him know that he wasn't as alone as it had seemed at first. He turned his head towards its source. There he saw the silhouette of a large man heading straight for him. Naruto was unable to tell any details, but he was pretty sure that this one was an enemy. He reached for his sword, despite his muscles' loud protests, only to realize that he wasn't in possession of it anymore. Where did he lose it? He had no idea and it didn't matter nearly as much as the fast approaching hostile.

Naruto pushed himself to his feet. Once he was moving the pain was easier to ignore. The man was almost upon him. Naruto let out a battle cry, activating his Whirlwind Fist. Then he charged. He stumbled over a piece of rock he couldn't see well in the darkness, but it turned out to be a good thing because that way the man's fist passed harmlessly above his head while Naruto's strike drilled into his thigh. The man collapsed with a yell right on top of Naruto. The young chuunin pulled out a kunai and stabbed below the hem of his flak jacket. The man screamed. Naruto stabbed again, this time sharpening the blade with Wind chakra. The man gurgled and went still. Naruto pushed the corpse off him and got to his feet.

He took a moment to survey his surroundings. He could hear the sounds of battle some distance away and the sounds of many feet running, but in his immediate vicinity it was quiet. Had he been so lucky to fall down away from the action? Or had he crawled here unconsciously? He didn't know, he was just happy that he had survived while he was knocked out. If the Iwa ninja had found him while he had been unconscious, he'd be already dead. Good thing the main attack wave had arrived in time to occupy their attention.

He didn't think about what he should do next. There was a battle going on so he was going to fight. His injuries and tiredness didn't matter, he was already getting used to them. He couldn't just stand around when his comrades were fighting and dying. They might even be people he knew. He relieved his victim of his weapon's pouch, his being lost earlier, he couldn't even recall when and where, and headed towards the fighting.

He didn't have to go far. The closest skirmish was going on just behind a big pile of debris. There was a man in Suna uniform fighting off two Iwa ninja. Naruto pulled a shuriken from his pouch, charged it with Wind chakra and threw. It caught the closer Iwa ninja off guard. The shuriken pierced his flak jacket. The man stumbled and fell onto his comrade. The Suna shinobi took the opportunity to finish him off. Naruto didn't stick around and continued on his journey.

Suddenly he stood face to face with a full contingent of Iwa ninja. He paused in shock. Why was he alone here? Weren't the reinforcements already here? No, it seemed they had yet to reach the outer wall, at least most of them. Only a couple of the fastest were already here, mostly getting massacred by the superior Iwa numbers.

It looked like the same fate was about to befall Naruto as the Rock shinobi started throwing kunai and jutsu at him. The boy quickly ducked back avoiding most of the barrage, only getting mildly singed by a Blast Note. 'I'm going to die here, there's just too many of them,' he thought as he heard the Iwa forces approaching. Then his face broke into a grin. 'But there's a lot of me too.'

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted, pushing as much chakra as he could muster into the technique. Even he was surprised when the whole space between him and the enemy was filled with little blond boys. The Iwa shinobi were surprised too and the copies wasted no time in capitalizing on it. The clash was ferocious. Though the clones didn't last long, they took many Rock ninja with them.

'Why didn't I think about this earlier?' Naruto thought. 'If I did this with the Kyuubi's power...' But that was the problem: Kyuubi's chakra generally made it hard to think clearly, especially if he was using two whole tails. And now he could think clearly, he was low on chakra. But being low on chakra wasn't the same as being all out of chakra and he intended to teach the Iwa shinobi the difference. With whatever strength he had left he created one more Shadow Clone.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!" he shouted at the same time as his copy called: "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He had improved quite a lot since he had first tried this combo so even with just two casters the Firestorm was quite potent. Unfortunately it didn't cause much damage because some Rock ninja were smart enough to erect a mud wall to protect their comrades. But it served well to slow their charge down. Therefore Naruto was still standing when the reinforcements finally arrived.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Outskirts of the battlefield~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another section of the fortress collapsed. Gaara decided that it was enough. The Suna and Konoha forces now had several openings they could enter the Iwa stronghold through. And considering that many had already done so, collapsing the building further would only endanger them. And besides watching from the sidelines bored Gaara already. He wanted to take part in the action.

"Let's go," he commanded his teammates. Temari and Kankurou exchanged a worried look behind his back, but they followed him without question. A small part of his mind questioned the wisdom of the action. Using his power on a grand scale over such a distance had drained him considerably. His automatic defense still worked, but he wasn't sure how effectively he would be able to fight should they encounter some tough opposition. But he couldn't stay back. A few minutes earlier he had seen the red haze of the Kyuubi's power die down. That meant Naruto was in trouble and Gaara wasn't going to let his friend down. He owed him too much for that. And he wasn't going into battle alone. Temari and Kankurou were with him and though they were nowhere near his strength, they were no slouches either. Temari had recently made chuunin, just like him, and while Kankurou was still stuck as a genin, it was more thanks to his recklessness than lack of fighting abilities.

At first they could travel fast, encountering no resistance. Then they neared the Iwa fortress and with it the booby-trapped area. They recognized its border easily thanks to the bodies strewn around. Fortunately most of the traps had been sprung or otherwise disabled by now. But Kankurou attached his chakra strings to one of the bodies and sent it as a front scout, just to make sure. It turned out to be a sensible precaution when the corpse puppet tripped a wire mere fifteen paces in, getting a hail of senbon through its stomach.

They encountered two more working traps before they reached the battle itself. The joined forces of Suna and Konoha attackers were locked in a fierce match with Iwa defenders and at the moment nobody was winning. Gaara wasted no time in changing it. The Rock ninja didn't even notice when the sand came alive around their feet. Some were quick enough to jump away, but many got crushed. And then the sand rose and chased after them. Somebody put a Stone Wall in the way, but the sand simply poured over it. Pained shouts informed everybody around that the deadly sand found its victims.

Gaara let his sand fall down and tried not to pant too obviously. He really was tired when even a simple Sand Waterfall was this hard. And the worst thing was that his attack didn't change that much. The allied forces pushed a bit in, but fresh Iwa forces replaced the slain defenders. Well, nobody ever said that conquering this base would be easy. It was the biggest Iwa stronghold outside Earth Country, maybe even the biggest after Iwagakure itself. He could see that walking in and finding Naruto was going to be nigh impossible. Fortunately he had other means at his disposal. He created a platform of sand and hopped on. He gestured to his siblings to do the same. Then he levitated the platform up. It was going to be much easier to search from above and they could even attack from up here, all of them being long-range fighters. Now he just hoped they'd find Naruto in time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Outside the fortress walls~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maito Gai was tempted to shout something. Preferably something like 'take this, you unyouthful Iwa fiend!' but shouting disrupted his breathing pattern and that in turn would mean that he'd be short of energy for the fight and that would be unyouthful. And he had to be as youthful as possible now. It wasn't just because of the battle, though that was important too. The most important thing was the youthful contest he had entered with his new youthful friend from Suna. The contest was simple: Which one of them could kill the most Iwa shinobi? And Youkou-san had an advantage with his Katon jutsu that could burn many of them at once. But Maito Gai didn't complain, that would have been unyouthful. Instead he decided to prove that it was possible to kill just as much enemies using pure taijutsu. He had to make it, just to show his youthful student Rock Lee that it was possible. It would mean so much to him. And so he concentrated on the fight and punching and kicking as hard as he could. Around him Iwa ninja were dropping like flies. He spared a glance towards his new youthful rival, who was much more fun than the insufferably hip Kakashi. Youkou just breathed out a stream of fire, catching two Rock ninja in the blast. That wasn't particularly impressive considering how much chakra that had to cost. He was going to exhaust himself soon and then Gai would win their match by simply outlasting him. Pure taijutsu had its advantages. Maito Gai smiled and kicked through the ribcage of yet another Iwa ninja.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~With Naruto~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naruto was getting really worried about himself. He had been so relieved when the reinforcements had arrived, but that didn't last for long. The other side had reserves too. Before he realized it, he and four others were isolated from the rest and pushed further into the fortress. And now the last of his allies was dying on the ground and Naruto was once again alone behind the enemy lines. Sometimes his life just sucked.

He slashed his sword at the closest Rock ninja. The man wasn't very familiar with Wind blades and received a cut across his chest. That was less than Naruto had hoped for, but what could he expect from a weapon not meant to channel chakra? He had grabbed an abandoned sword of approximately the same size as his and used it because keeping his Whirlwind Fist active was too draining. But judging from his current situation, chakra exhaustion wasn't going to be an issue. The five Iwa shinobi surrounding him were going to kill him much sooner than exhaustion could. There was no way to defeat them as he was now. But he didn't want to die. Could he afford to use Kyuubi's chakra again? He doubted he'd be able to control it. And if he went berserk, what then? There were only enemies in his vicinity, but once the Nine-tails took control, it would rampage until somebody stopped it. The only one who might have a chance to do so was Jiraiya and he had other problems to take care of. But, he thought as he just barely blocked a thrown kunai, it wasn't like he had much choice. One of the Iwa ninja was running through handseals and though Naruto couldn't tell what jutsu he intended to use, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to block it.

But just as he was readying to call of the demonic chakra again, there was a strong gust of wind from above. The Iwa ninja weren't hurt much, but they were forced to scatter and the jutsu intended for Naruto wend wide. Then a hail of senbon from above struck two of them. The three that avoided the deadly barrage found themselves enveloped in sand and crushed. Naruto looked up and saw a descending platform of sand.

"Gaara!" he exclaimed in relief.

"Come up," the red-haired boy said instead of a greeting. Considering the situation he was in, Naruto didn't hesitate and boarded the platform.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Battlefield~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kaede danced. Her long sleeves were whirling around her, causing gusts of deadly sharpened wind to raise and fly at whoever was unlucky enough to get close. She felt like this was what she existed for. Now she was the perfect kunoichi. Beautiful and deadly. Just like Teono-sensei. She felt that the day when she would finally surpass her teacher was close. She made several fast yet elegant steps and waved her arms around. Two more Iwa shinobi stumbled when gashes opened on their bodies. Yes, this was the perfect union of beauty and death. The only thing that marred her perfection was the bulky chuunin vest she had to wear to the battle. Without it her beauty would be peerless. She considered removing it, but the sight of four shuriken embedded in the thick material reminded her that the unsightly garment had its purpose. Without it she could have been already dead four times. It meant that she wasn't as perfect as she strove to be yet. But she was going to be. Eventually. In the meantime she continued her dance of death.

Aoyume Daiki found himself in a pinch. He might possess the strongest Kekkei Genkai in his clan, but here it didn't help him any. The din of the battlefield was so loud that his voice didn't carry. And even if it did, everybody's emotions were so intense that it would be hard for him to change them. Strong bloodlust was very hard to overcome and change into something else. Using genjutsu on many people at once was too taxing on his concentration and nearly impossible to pull off when he had to keep dodging attacks as well. Using it only on one person at a time was useless because there were too many people who wanted to kill him around. And so he had to make do with his kunai and taijutsu alone. And while he was no slouch, he was no close combat specialist either. He just didn't belong to the frontlines, but unfortunately that was when he found himself when an Iwa battalion had pushed into their lines, so he could just fight and do his best to survive.

Gennosuke dodged a kunai. This had been close. He sent his favorite puppet Hisan Uma to deal with the Rock ninja who had thrown it, but controlling a puppet while dodging shuriken and jutsu was hard. A puppeteer should be hidden, making his puppet do all the fighting without exposing himself to danger, but unfortunately a team of Iwa ninja had busted his hiding spot and he couldn't find a new one in the middle of a battle. And hiding inside his puppet limited his field of view and ability to dodge. This sucked. His team wasn't suited for this kind of combat. None of them was a frontline fighter. Kaede was doing the best, but even she was more of a long range fighter. Their team specialized in infiltration and ambushes, not heavy combat. But thanks to a permanent shortage of manpower during wartime, they found themselves right in the middle of one of the biggest battles of this war. He had the sinking feeling that it was going to be their last, but he was determined to take as many Rock ninja with him as he could.

Kaede screamed. He spared a glance for her. It looked like somebody had used a Katon jutsu against her and her attempt to blow it away only fanned the flames. Now the kunoichi was rolling on the ground, frantically trying to put down the flames consuming her sleeves. Gennosuke sighed. With their strongest fighter down, they really were going to die here.

An Iwa ninja walked close to Kaede, prepared to finish her off with his spiked mace. But before he could do so, he was hit by a Raiton jutsu and collapsed. A quick jab with a sword finished him. Kaede smiled gratefully at the Konoha kunoichi who had saved her. Though a part of her mind told her that she should be ashamed she needed saving, right now she was just glad that she was alive. She also thought that her savior looked familiar. But remembering when she had seen here before had to wait, her primary concern now was putting out the accursed flames while there still was anything left of her special chakra-conductive battle kimono.

Daiki was on the losing end of a rather one-sided fight with a seasoned Iwa chuunin. That man was so much stronger that none of Daiki's skills made any difference. It'd be a miracle if he survived the next minute. 'Forget minute,' he thought as the Rock ninja's attack knocked him to the ground. 'I won't survive the next ten seconds.'

Then his opponent was swiped away by a furry tornado. Daiki breathed a sigh of relief. Somebody from the Kineko clan came to his rescue. But the tornado turned into a grey wolf-like dog, instead of a panther. So one of Konoha's Inuzuka clan then. It was of no consequence, he survived for the while and that was all that mattered. He noticed three more furry tornadoes around, two of them turned into two more identical dogs and the last one into a familiar looking kunoichi.

"You were at the Chuunin Exams," he remembered.

"That we were," Hana confirmed. Her eyes fell on Gennosuke. "And that guy who beat me is here too."

"I hope there's no hard feelings," Gennosuke called, a bit preoccupied battling an Iwa chuunin.

"Not really," the Inuzuka answered.

Kaede finally put out the fire and stood up. Her kimono was a loss though. She'd have to do without it, which was going to be a problem because her style depended on it. They'd really need some assistance. She looked around.

"Where's your third teammate?" she asked the Konoha duo. She remembered the boy who had beaten her in the first round and his strength would be welcome.

"Somewhere inside," Hotaru answered, worry clearly written on her face. They had tried hard to reach Naruto, but the Iwa counterattack had forced them back. "We know nothing about him since the wall collapsed." Kaede gulped. She had almost forgotten just what their young teammate was. It was quite hard to believe that he really held the most dangerous of Bijuu considering how cute and harmless he looked. But deception was a powerful tool of ninja.

"Would you mind to stick around?" Gennosuke suggested. "If you covered us short-range, we could handle long-range support."

"Alright," Hana agreed without hesitation. If they wanted to fight through the Iwa lines towards where they had last seen Naruto, they were going to need all the help they could get. And so the two squads stuck together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Above the fortress~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They had been in the air for about a minute when the Earth Dragon struck. Gaara, used to blocking rather than dodging, put more sand into its way, but it turned out to be woefully inadequate. The Doryuudan shattered the sand platform and sent them all plummeting to the ground. It was a good thing they weren't very high when it happened. Gaara was too disoriented by the hit to catch them in his sand so everybody had to break their fall as best as they could.

Naruto created a couple of Kage Bunshin and made them throw him upwards, thus halting his momentum. He landed safely on the fortress roof. Temari unfolded her giant fan and used it to glide down. Her landing wasn't as smooth as she had wanted, but she remained unharmed and her weapon was still usable, though she'd have to get a weaponsmith to straighten the ribs after the battle. Gaara was caught by his sand and lowered down gently. That left somebody missing. The trio looked around for the last member of their party, but they couldn't see him anywhere. There was just a hole in the roof suggesting where Kankurou might have gone.

Before they could go looking for him, the Iwa jounin who had shot them down appeared, two companions at his side. Temari waved her fan at them, but it had little effect and not just because it was slightly bent. The Iwa trio was good and they dodged easily. Or at least they thought so. One of them suddenly found his calves enveloped in Gaara's sand. He had just enough time to look surprised when it crushed his limbs. The man fell down screaming, his legs crippled. The sand moved further up his body.

The two remaining Iwagakure shinobi weren't caught so easily. Naruto created four clones in their paths, but the jounin dispelled three of them with quickly thrown shuriken before they could inflict any damage. The last one managed to put a shallow slash on his companion's shoulder before he too was destroyed. And then the jounin was almost upon them and they had no time to put up a defense.

Then a wall of sand arose between them and the Iwa jounin smashed into it headfirst. Sand flew in all direction and the attacker almost came through, a testament to both his strength and just how exhausted Gaara was. But at least his momentum was halted. Naruto immediately stabbed at him with his sword, but he hit only a rock the jounin had replaced himself with.

There was a startled shout as Temari barely blocked a wild kunai stab from the other enemy and was pushed back. And a bit away from that the jounin was preparing some jutsu. This situation didn't look good. Naruto pondered whether he could afford to draw on Kyuubi's chakra again. The minute of rest atop Gaara's sand platform had helped him a bit, but the weariness was still there. If he allowed Kyuubi's power out of the seal now, he'd lose control of it and slaughter everyone around, including his friends. And if he didn't do it, they all would be killed, he thought as the Iwa jounin shot another Doryuudan at them and it once again shattered Gaara's sand defense. The three went flying. Again. It was becoming a habit.

As Naruto stopped rolling on the ground, he saw the lower-ranked of the Iwa ninja above him, prepared to finish him off with a kunai. Naruto waved his arm in his direction, concentrating Wind chakra to his fingertips. The Wind blade was long enough to hit. The Rock ninja collapsed down, his thighs slashed. Considering how fast he was bleeding it was probably a lethal wound, but Naruto left nothing to chance. He grabbed the dropped kunai and rammed it deep into his skull. That was another one down.

A tortured shriek captured his attention. He looked up to see Temari crumpled on the ground, bleeding. The Iwa jounin stood above her. Close by Gaara was covered in sand, his expression murderous. He was about to unleash Shukaku, but it wouldn't be fast enough to save his sister. And Naruto was too far away to protect her too. He just threw the kunai charged with Wind chakra at the enemy, but he doubted it would make a difference.

Sure enough the Iwa jounin threw his own kunai, knocking it off its course. And then his face turned into one of surprise. It didn't stay that way long, because Gaara's sand slammed into him. As he was thrown away, the three kunai in his back were revealed. The fight was over fast after this. The wounds slowed the jounin's movement so much that Gaara's sand caught up with him and crushed his head. The group was saved for the moment. The only question was who exactly had saved them.

"Uh, guys, can you help me out?" a familiar voice asked.

"Kankurou!" Temari coughed. She was trying to get up, but it was hard with her wounds.

Naruto looked in the direction of the voice. There was the hole in the roof they had noticed after their landing and through it was sticking a wooden construction, now partially broken, with splinters sticking in all directions.

"I think I broke something and it isn't just Karasu," the young puppeteer continued. Naruto ran towards the puppet.

"I'll help you if you let me through," he said. The broken puppet Karasu disappeared down the hole. Naruto jumped down after it. It was dark down there. Naruto reached into his pouch for a light, then he remembered that he was using somebody's else pouch after he had lost his and he didn't have a light.

"Does somebody have a light?" he asked a bit embarrassed. "I've lost mine."

"I have one," Kankurou replied. "A puppeteer is always prepared." Then the room lit up. The first thing Naruto noticed was Kankurou sitting on the ground, leaning on a shelf. One leg and one arm were twisted oddly, but there was no blood. It looked like the Suna genin wasn't seriously wounded. The next thing he noticed were the contents of the shelves. Kunai, shuriken, Exploding Tags. Lots and lots of Exploding Tags. Naruto's face spread into a grin. He couldn't believe their luck. They found a weapon's supply room and there was nobody inside guarding it. This situation was just begging to be exploited.

"Hey, guys," he called. The three Sand Siblings looked at his questioningly, Kankurou from the ground, Gaara and Temari from the ceiling. The girl had to be supported by her brother to move, but her wounds weren't serious. "I just got an idea."

And that's it for now.

Next time: The battle continues and the promised meetings between Konoha and Suna shinobi finally happen. I know I promised them for today, but they got pushed into the next chapter.