Yo!
I finally get to write chapter 13 now!
Yay!

The site was being stupid for awhile, so I waited it out before I started to update.

And HUZZAH! I am now sitting at my desk, drinking coke and eating sour patch kids, updating my story to my immense pleasure.

Yet again, I own nothing … because if I did, I wouldn't be sitting here writing fanfic ….

Chapter 13

I quickly pushed Naruto and Gaara behind me and dropped my grocery bags. I set into a defensive crouch while I glared at the man who tried to attack us.

"They said you were strong and rightly to be feared, but I see nothing but a dressed up doll and two snot nosed brats in front of me."

I growled softly at his insults, but made no move.

Slowly, the man stepped out of the shadows to face us. He had dark black hair and muddled dark brown eyes. His lips were upturned into a smirk and he was casually twirling a kunai in his hand. His eyes showed every intent to kill.

I immensely disliked him.

"Well, anything to say for yourself?" the man asked with a sneer.

I straightened up and glared at the man.

"Naruto. Gaara. Move back and stay behind me, do not move to help."

I pulled out two kunai from my obi and settled into a fighting stance.

The man in front of me just smirked and got into a fighting position himself.

I quickly scanned the area to see anything that I could use to my advantage. Nothing really, I was in an alley way that had nothing in it save for a few pieces of garbage and rocks.

Suddenly, the man in front of me lunged. I quickly blocked his attack before raising my leg up to kick. He dodged and threw three kunai my way. I rolled out of the way before they could hit my and proceeded to lunge out of my low crouch to tackle the man. Unfortunately for me this kimono didn't have much leg room and restricted the speed that I lunged. Doubly unfortunate, the man seemed to notice.

He quickly moved to the side and was able to score a slash to my shoulder.

I hissed in pain as I skidded around to face him again.

He was smirking. Damn that cocky smirk, I was so ready to smack it right off his face. I threw my two kunai at him and proceeded to use the distraction to do a few handsigns for a jutsu.

I summoned three shadow clones to fight beside me, two for the man, and one for protecting Naruto and Gaara. I didn't want to summon many because I was in a small alley and it didn't provide much room for fighting.

I ripped off the skirt of the kimono to about mid thigh, mentally cursing myself for such a waste of fine material. At the very least the sleeves of the kimono weren't getting on my way.

'When I get out of this mess I'm going to go shopping for another dress!' I mentally shouted.

The man quickly dispatched my shadow clones but it was all the time I needed. I quickly did a few more handsigns and charged my fist up with lighting. I snarled and rammed my fist into the man's chest, satisfied with the electric crackles ringing through the air.

I smirked a bit, happy at my victory, but it was short lived. The man I hit suddenly poofed, and my eyes widened in realization.

I heard something whiz from behind me, but I was only able to sidestep to give it my shoulder rather than my back. I snarled in pain as I quickly ripped the shuriken out of my already injured shoulder.

"Though you had me, eh?" the man said while smirking.

I was livid. I was making stupid beginner mistakes and was getting my ass handed to me by a guy I didn't even know. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Naruto and Gaara. Naruto looked pissed, but Gaara's face showed nothing but cold hatred, something that scared me more than Naruto's anger.

Suddenly, I saw something inching toward the man's foot. Not wanting to give anything away, I quickly refocused on the man in front of me.

"Yeah, I did. My mistake." I growled out.

The just smirked. AGAIN. I quickly settled back into my fighting stance as he did the same. Just as the man was about to move, something shot up and wrapped around his leg.

The man gasped and looked down to see his left leg quickly be encased in something. I was too shocked myself to see what it was until I focused my gaze on it.

Was that … sand?
I quickly connected my thought and quickly moved my gaze to Gaara. I saw little trails of sand leaving him and slithering up to the man in front of me.

I looked back to find the man already up to his waist in sand. He was struggling and jerking trying to escape.

"What kind of trick is this? Release me!" the man demanded.

Before I could answer, Gaara spoke up.

"No."

The sand quickly made its way up the man's arms and chest. Slowly, I saw Gaara raise up his small open hand.

The man struggled more and more and was yelling and screaming, trying to escape whatever it was that was holding him. I was too dumbfounded to really do anything but watch, fascinated and a bit scared by what I was watching. I was amazed that this 7 year old was able to do this, but I knew that his jinchũriki was helping him. I also knew that this couldn't end well, but I didn't want to interrupt Gaara and have myself included in the sand encasement also.

As the sand finished wrapping around the man, Gaara raised his hand a bit more, and then suddenly squeezed it, as if he was squeezing something in his hand

"Die. Sand Coffin."

I saw the sand shift, and then squeeze around the man. I heard a final scream, and something warm and gooey splashed across my face and clothes. It took me a moment to realize that blood had been practically shot out of the sand encasement. The sand quickly left and traveled back to Gaara, settling back in his clothes and creating armor around his skin. What was left behind was the mutilated remains of the man who had attacked us. I blinked in surprise, and the only thing I could come up with is …

"Well damn …" I muttered looking at the mess in front of me.

I glanced back over Naruto and Gaara. Naruto looked equally surprised, and kept looking between the corpse and Gaara, trying to connect the dots, but had a look of indifference on his face. Slowly, I saw his eyes gaze up to me, and I thought I saw a flicker of fear flash through them, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

"If you think me a monster, I shall return to where the rest of the Suna entourage is." Gaara said in a lowered voice.

I quickly snapped out of my surprise and snorted.

"As if. You were just protecting us Gaara, believe me, I'm no stranger to odd deaths." I retorted, a bit angry at his assumption.

Gaara looked a bit surprised at my answer, but Naruto spoke up also.

"Yeah! That guy was trying to beat up my mom! You saved her Gaara, and you have my thanks!" yelled Naruto.

I saw Naruto quickly step forward and wrap Gaara in a hug. I awh'd at the sight, it was just too cute, especially since Naruto was at least a few inches taller and easily enveloped Gaara.

I gave one last glace at Naruto and Gaara before looking back to the corpse of the man that had attacked. I sighed.

"This will be so fun to explain to Kakashi why I was late with his dinner and have a ripped kimono, and to Gramps and probably Gaara's dad why there's a dead Konoha ninja in an alley way …" I muttered under my breath.

I retrieved my grocery bags, happy at least that they had surivived the attack (Huzzah! I can still cook!) and made my way back to Naruto and Gaara.

"Alright boys, let's see if we can make it back to the meeting place without anymore suprises."

Well, maybe it wasn't Sonya who whooped the bad guy's arse

But at the very least he had it coming to him

GO GAARA!