Okay, so I've kinda had this mostly written and just sitting here. Sorry it's taken so long to update. Life's been...interesting. We were driving across the country back to school and my tire blew out. My brother and I are fine, but my car was totaled in the middle of no where. On the bright side, besides loosing the car we came off pretty good. No personal injuries, and we only lost about $30 worth of stuff that we were traveling with. Nice thing about being mormon, though, is that there was another member (yes, in middle of nowhere) that helped us out and got us where we needed to be to finish our trip to school.
On this chapter, I'm kinda evil. We have a couple REALLY good/bad cliffhangers. I'm not telling you the results, or whether the person in one of them is really the person. You'll see what I mean. *evil grin* Next chapter will be Gaara vs Naruto, and I think it will also be the chapter where Narut finally get's the full story of her past. Enjoy!
disclaimer me-I DON'T own Naruto.
PLEASE REVIEW!
It was a relief to be away from the fighting. They had been unsure how to get Gaara away from all the fighting, knowing how much influence the blood-thirsty bijuu had over their brother, but the injury was an unexpected blessing, despite their anger at Sasuke for actually hurting Gaara. Now, though, supporting Gaara between them and racing away from anything that could once again trigger his bloodlust, they glaced at each other and smiled, then Kankuro's head whipped backwards.
"We're being followed." His sister groaned.
"Why? Why now? Just a little longer and we would have been out of range."
"Yeah, well, this time we're out of luck." They paused, settling on a long branch as Gaara groaned, still recovering from the unfamiliar experience of pain.
"Alright, keep going, and don't stop for anything," Temari said, lifting Gaara's arm from her shoulders.
"Whoa, hold on! What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm going to slow down who ever's chasing us. We need to get Gaara out, and you're the one to do it. I'm the oldest-"
"So you're the one who needs to stay with him." Kankuro looked down. "Temari, ever since we were kids, you've been the one looking out for him. Me? I was the one who was scared, the one who didn't push to look after him. It's my turn to watch his back," he delcared. "It's my turn to protect him. Besides, even if he doesn't say it, no matter how much he denies it, we both know he trusts you more than me. You're the better one to get him out of here, and distraction is something I'm better at than you anyway." Temari met her brother's hard stare, willing him to back down only to be surprised by his conviction.
"Fine," she said, slinging Gaara's arm back over her shoulders. "But you'd better make it back home."
"Mah, don't worry, I'll be fine," he said, "now get out of here." Temari nodded as she hoisted Gaara up and continued through the trees. Kankuro turned around and prepared for his coming opponent.
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She was fast; amazingly fast. Kakashi, despite his long years of experience and training on top of his natural talent, would have had trouble tracking her movements without his sharingan. As it was he was amazed by what he saw. Ever nick, every scratch, every wound he inflicted healed within seconds. What made him narrow his eyes was the tiny chakra fluxes with each hit. It almost made her chakra look like a small fire, flickering quickly and going away.
On top of all this, she seemed intimately familiar with Kakahsi's taijutsu style, knowing almost every counter. He had tried to back off several times, but she would immediately cover the 'safe' zone he was heading to.
This is lasting too long. Her stamina is incredible; it reminds me of Naruto. Well, that and her healing. The only person I've ever seen that can do something like that is Tsunade, but this girl isn't using that technique. Still, the oddest thing about her is her chakra, he thought, dodging another swipe of her kunai. The only person I've ever seen with chakra like this...is Naruto... He frowned as he continued to formulate a plan to defeat his mysterious, wild opponent. He had managed to only knock out several of his previous enemies for questioning, but this one...he could not hold back. She was truely a deadly enemy. But why did fighting her seem so...familiar?
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Sasuke dodged to the right to avoid the fan of senbon that shot out at him, glancing up to confirm his opponent.
"Kankuro..." The older boy grinned back at him.
"Hey Sasuke; Sorry 'bout this, but I can't let you get any closer to Gaara."
"Well I'm not sorry. Ever since you people showed up you've all been pestering Naruto-chan, making her question who she really is." His fist clenched tightly. "I'm tired of your sick little game, and even if I hadn't been ordered to follow Gaara I would have anyways, to make him understand that he will never take my Naruto away!" Kankuro sighed.
"We didn't mean to hurt her," he said, "and wether you believe what we do or not doesn't matter. We love her so-"
"So you attack her village? WHAT KIND OF LOVE IS THAT," Sasuke yelled, throwing several tagged Kunai at the puppet user who dodged.
"We are attacking nothing! Before we ever knew Naruto was here the plan was made, and since that time we've done all we can to keep losses to a minimum while still being loyal to our own village." Sasuke laughed from his position behind a tree.
"I seem to recall hearing that you said that the loyalty to your friends is one that should matter more than to your village."
"And you don't think we have friends in our village?"
"Well, it's just that I would think a 'sister' is more important than some lousy friends who can't even throw a kunai straight!"
"Shut up," Kankuro yelled, throwing his puppet forward to attack his bad-mouthing opponent. The arms of his puppet exteneded, reaching around the tree and pinning Sasuke and holding him in place. "You can't understand the position we're in! We're doing the best we can with what we've got. You think Gaara cares about whether or not Naruto's village is attacked? He welcomes it! We did what we did to make sure Konoha will be able to thrive, and Naruto still be happy here." He pulled the strings on his puppet, tightening it's grip around the tree. "Now just stay away from Gaara, or I can garuntee Naruto will be missing more than her village..."
"Well, I highly doubt that." Sasuke's voice came from behind him. A chop to the neck paralyzed the older genin before he could react. He fell to the forest floor, groaning.
"H, how? I, I had you..." Sasuke smirked down at him before continuing on.
"Clones; pretty handy, aren't they?"
"Come back! Don't you get it? Gaara's gonna kill you! Stooop!" Gaara's cries fell on deaf ears and he sighed. "I'm sorry; I tried to stop him, I really did," he thought. "Naruto...I'm sorry..."
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Kakashi dodged another swipe from the kunoichi's kunai, almost ready to counter attack and finish. She healed too quickly for anything, but thanks to his sharingan he'd realized something: every time she healed an injury, there was a slight pause proportionate to the severity of the injury. Even with the sharingan it was hard to notice. The trick here would be to cause enough damage to take her out for a few seconds, and use that time to either finish the job, or secure her for questioning. As powerful as she was it was likely that she'd have good intel on Orochimaru, but at the same time he was hesitant to let her live, dangerous as she was.
The kunoichi charged at him once more, pulling out a tanto strapped to her back, flowing from attack to attack seamlessly. Kakashi grimaced as he remembered a not so long ago encounter with another sword master. Still, their styles were different. This one was more like his own from when he was a young jounin. It wouldn't be so hard to counter. He took note of his surroundings, pulling his fingers together as his opponent scored a slash on his arm.
"Hidden mist jutsu!" Zabuza had taunted him once about his inability to counter the silent killing technique while in the mist. It had been mostly true, but only because the man had attained a level of mastery beyond anyone Kakashi had ever met. Kakashi himself had good hearing, and his nin-hounds to catch the scent if need be. He hoped he didn't need to summon them, even though he had planned for it. Ever since fighting the demon of the mist he had wondered if it was possible to tweak the fog a little. He slipped into the mist and waited a moment, smiling as his practice came to fruition.
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"Okay, so what do we do when we catch up?" Pakkun grunted.
"How should I know? Kakashi just asked me to help you get there. I'm not a combat type, I'm a tracker." Naruto scrunched up her face in frustration.
"What a joke," she muttered.
"Hey, I'd like to see you try to track them down," he said, glaring up at her. "Do you have any training in tracking? Didn't think so. Can you smell another human's scent? Yeah that's what I...what?"
"Well," Naruto said, glancing at Sakura, "I've got better senses. I'm sure you know why." Pakkun sniffed the air in disdain and paused.
"Ah; you're that kid. Guess that makes sense," he grumbled, "but you still can't track your boyfriend's scent, can you?"
"I guess no-wait! How did you know that?"
"His smell is all over you." Naruto and Sakura both blushed.
"Well, um, how about we just focus on catching up," Sakura said. "After all, they have a head start and Sasuke is pretty fast, isn't her Naruto." The blonde nodded.
"Yeah, he is, but I'm faster."
"But since we're following we're going slower," her teammate pointed out.
"Exactly. That's why you need me. With my nose we're losing a lot less time than if you two were trying to follow him alone."
"...alright, fine," Naruto exclaimed. "You're not a lame dog!" Pakkun grinned.
"Thank-you. Now, as for planning ahead-" he stopped, almost making the two girls trip over him.
"Waaah! I take it back! You are such a lame dog! What are you trying to do stopping suddenly like that? Kill us?" Pakkun ignored her.
"Sasuke's scent is all over this place, and it looks like there was a fight."
"Huh?"
"He's right," Sakura said, pointing around them. "Look at all the senbon imbedded in the trees. It looks like Kankuro was here."
"Still is," Pakkun said, pointing a paw towards the ground. Sure enough, Kankuro was below them, still trying to pull himself up to stop Sasuke. Naruto growled, jumping down to the ground.
"Alright," she said, startling the boy, "are you going to tell me what's going on, or do I get to beat it out of you?" The puppet user started at her sudden appearance. He'd been rather eloquent in his frustration and had missed their arrival.
"N, Naruto?"
"Yeah, Naruto," she drawled sarcastically. "The one you said was important to you, and yet," she glared, "you're destroying my village!" Kankuro held up a hand defensively.
"Hey that's Suna, not us," he said. "You'll notice we took off right when it started."
"Yeah, but you didn't give us much warning about it, either." Kankuro sighed.
"Yeah, I'll give you that, but Suna is my home just like Konoha is yours. I'd like to be able to go back fix things once the battle's over."
"Over how many lives, huh? How many people are gonna die today because you guys didn't say anything?"
"Less than there would have been." Naruto blinked as Sakura questioned his comment.
"What? What do you mean?"
"Once we knew Naruto was here we did everything we could to disrupt the invasion. Barely over half of the forces that were supposed to attack were there at the start, and fewer than half of the rest will ever show up." He clenched his eyes shut. "Alot of our people are going to die, but it was the only way we could think of to preserve your village and still be able to live in ours." Sakura wasn't convinced, but Naruto, after a moment of intense inner battle, reached down and lifted him up, supporting him.
"Alright, I'm not sure how to feel about this, but I guess I understand some. I ain't happy, but I'm not gonna leave you here like this, either. What happened to you anyway?" Kankuro nodded his thanks at her semi-forgiveness, then began to explain.
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Kakashi grinned. He had hoped that his own training would help him attain this goal, but the woman's odd chakra fluctuation aided him. It stood out in the mist, despite it's aim to mask chakra. His sharingan detected her easily. He lowered his hand and prepared his signature technique. he doubted one strike would be enough to kill her. Her reaction time was too fast, and his attack too loud, but it would score a hit and shock her chakra system long enough to finish the job. Her fall through the air would help as well, he thought, noticing how close she was to the balcony. His own fall would be more controlled, allowing him what he needed to finish it.
"This has been a challenging fight," he declared, "but it's time to end it." A strike from her tanto followed his words, slicing him in half, only to receive a shock as his lightning clone burst, giving him just the time he needed to get under her guard. Just as he thought she was fast, reacting to his attack with a chop of her arm, diverting his attack to her lower torso and singing the clothering there and on her arm. Her chakra flared as it tried to handle the massive damage he'd just dealt. The power of the blow and Kakashi's own momentum threw them both off the roof as he grabbed a kunai from his pouch, preparing to stab her in the heart. If the kunai stayed there, it would be enough to kill her.
The world slowed down as his hand stabbed downward, piercing her flesh. Even falling through the air, paralyzed as she was he could see her eyes widen, just as easily as he could see her now exposed arm...with a rectangular purple tatoo on her shoulder. They landed on the ground, the impact forcing the kunai deeper into her flesh before he could react.
"K-K-Kaka-shi?"
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Temari started as a kunai sailed by her ear, twisting to land facing her assailent. It was the worse possible scenario.
"…Sasuke…no…" Sasuke grunted as he prepared another kunai.
"Yeah, it's me. Don't worry about Kankuro. He's just knocked out. It's him," he said, pointing to Gaara, "that I want, and you're not going to stop me." Temari's grip stiffened.
"Please, Sasuke, you don't understand! If you fight Gaara he won't be able to hold his demon in check any longer. He'll kill you!"
"He can try," Sasuke said, "but it won't work. He wants to take away Naruto, and until he learns better, I can never let up, and I cannot lose so long as I am fighting for Naruto-chan." Temari looked back and forth frantically as Gaara began to stir, his mumbling becoming more coherent as he recovered from the daze of being successfully attacked not long ago.
"PLEASE! There's no time; get out of here! Get back to Naruto! If you really love her, get back to her and away from him!" Sasuke crouched as he prepared to attack.
"Not going to happen, so get out of my way or face my attack. If it wasn't for Naruto you wouldn't even get that courtesy."
"I can't-" she began, but her response was cut off as a firm hand gripped her arm.
"Always in my way…always standing between me and my prey…" The red-head looked up at her, pure hate in his eyes. "You will leave me alone now…" Sand shot from his gourd, covering his arm as he lifted her into the air.
"Gaara! Please, no! Don't let him control you!" He sneered.
"Control me? No one controls me…especially, not, you!" He laughed, delighted in her screams as he turned to face the Uchiha, his enemy, the deceiver…the dead.
Mwahahaha! So, Sasuke vs Gaara is next chapter, too, but it will be less than Naruto vs Gaara. And how about Kakashi's fight, eh? The poll I did so long ago is finally going to be answered. Remember, I said I'd find a way to show it either way, whether she was dead or alive, so the question is...is it really her?
As I said, next chapter Naruto will learn the truth. For sure. It will be one of the longer chapters, but I WILL have it happen next chapter. After all, I've got most of the rest of the story written, and after waiting as long as you have for the story in general, and this particular update, and think you all deserve a nice long chapter.
Take care ya'll!