Sora awoke to what she could only describe as bliss.

There was a wonderfully comfortable and plush blanket around her form and she never remembered her sleeping bag being so perfect, or smelling so good. There were two fragrances; one she immediately recognized as snake soup and her mouth watered in reaction. The other was a scent Sora felt like she'd smelled before, but couldn't quite put a finger on where. There were traces of coffee, ink and sand mixed together as well as something…masculine. Sora took a deep breath, filling her lungs and let out a pleasant sigh.

Her eyes cracked open and refocused on her surroundings. There was a white bowl of snake soup an arm reach away. Who had put this marvelous dish beside her? It was more than likely the Kazekage and though she did wonder why, didn't question it for long. Food was food and she sensed no poison. Plus, she didn't have dinner or in between snacks yesterday and was famished. Sora attempted to sit up to eat.

Bad idea.

Instantly, aching sores racked every muscle she knew. Sora froze in place, not even daring to move.

Why was she hurting so badly?

And then she remembered the marathon of hell.

Gods, she should've known.

And at the time, she did. Sora was aware that if she didn't stop soon, there would be hell to pay later (which she was paying now) but she was a medic nin that could heal the sores. No biggie. Except, she had underestimated the labor and without even knowing it, had collapsed.

It was a stupid decision and humiliating. The Kazekage had taken care if her, when she should be taking care of him. Sigh.

Kazekage: 2 Sora: 1

It sucked. It really did.

Now was not the time to be wallowing in self-pity though. Sora checked her chakra reserves that were now close to full (rarely were they ever so low like yesterday), and sent them to each muscle, ridding the lactose in her muscles by increasing the rate of fermentation.

It took awhile but once done, Sora tested out her movements and was glad to see that they were now fine. And now, for the snake soup.

With uncharacteristic eager, Sora flung the blanket off her person and began to drink the soup. Oh, it was so good. It wasn't enough to satiate her hunger and she got out her summoning scroll, picking out a container to eat. It was onigiri.

Sora looked at the marvelous sleeping bag and realized with a tilt of her head, it was not hers. Judging from the Suna emblem sewed unto a corner, it was the Kazekage's. Speaking of whom, she hadn't sensed his chakra since awakening. If she had his sleeping bag, where did he sleep? Where was he?

As if being called, Gaara dropped down from a high tree branch and landed with grace, about 50 yards away from Sora. He walked his way over, assessing her condition and was satisfied to see that she was back to normal stature and eating.

By the time he reached her, Sora was halfway finished her food. Her mouth was full and Gaara took the opportunity to inform her.

"There are 4 missing nins," he said coolly, "357 yards east, heading in this direction."

Sora swallowed the food to rid the lump in her throat. He didn't look bothered by it at all. Gaara thought them more an inconvenience rather than a threat. She should've been comforted by his confidence but whether or not she could fight them wasn't the problem; it was the risk of blood.

They wouldn't escape or avoid them, even if they could. If they were missing-nins, they were in the Bingo Books and if they were in the Bingo Books, no dignified Kage would let them go alive. The Kazekage was a very dignified Kage.

Well, shit.

Sora disregarded the rest of her food and put the container back on the scroll, rolling it up and setting it in her holster. She sat up from her seat. "I'll do it."

Gaara crossed his arms and tilted his chin slightly upwards in a dominant fashion. "It's unnecessary. I will be quicker in their deaths."

Sora knew exactly what jutsu he'd use: the Sand Waterfall Funeral. He'd catch the opponents with his sand and then crush them with it. Blood would go spewing and just the idea of it made her nauseous. She really couldn't have that.

"I'm not going to put you in harm's way, no matter how slight the chance," was her comeback. A weak one, but it was all she could think of at the moment. "I don't care what you say, I'm fulfilling my duty and doing it alone."

Gaara didn't understand why she was being obstinate or why she wasn't the least bit intimidated by his glare. She would only be putting herself at risk; 4 missing-nins all at once is a problematic for any shinobi. Overnight, he had used his Sand Sensing technique and when it notified him of the intruders, used his Third Eye for an assessment. The nins weren't high class but they would be saving time if he merely killed them; catch and kill. It was simple and quick. He also doubted her lame excuse; she too saw the practicality of it. There was something else. Jade eyes narrowed, intensifying the glare but she remained unmoving.

Hm. He supposed he could entertain the proposition; they'd die either way. Gaara would also see her fight and curiosity domineered the final decision.

He turned away from her, the 4 chakra signatures coming closer. "Hn."

Sora was relieved and let her muscles relax. She sensed their enemies approaching and stepped forward, ready for the challenge of 4 missing-nins all at once. It wasn't the worst circumstances she'd been under but there wasn't a Kazekage analyzing her fighting style during such times.

Sora reached into her pockets and pulled out 4 kunai's per hand, each handle wedged between her fingers. She decided to show off a little bit.

Before she bolted deeper into the forest to face the opponents, Sora looked to Gaara and said, rather sheepishly, "Thanks…for the soup and sleeping bag."

Gaara inwardly grinned at the sudden coyness. He couldn't resist teasing her. "I also caught and carried you."

Midnight eyes glared. "Yeah. Thanks for that too," and she muttered something under her breath that sounded conspicuously like 'jerk face'. His inner grin only grew.

Sora ignored the Kazekage who seemed to be emitting waves of amusement and focused on east.

4 man cell means they'll more than likely be in pairs for their strongest jutsus. If their jutsu's are in pairs, find who works with whom and kill one from each duo. They'll be prepared for such situations but it'll hinder their strategy. From then on, it's kill based on observed personal weaknesses.

There.

She threw a kunai in the direction of the closest chakra signature and it depleted.

1 down, 3 to go.

Sora shot chakra to her feet and ran towards the other three. The quickly noticed and dispersed.

Fucking idiots.

Were these guys seriously in the Bingo Books? They made it clear who worked best with whom by separating in a pair and leaving another solo. They went in opposite directions, too. If she killed one from the pair, the two remaining members would be too far apart to join. They were making themselves vulnerable so obviously she'd go after the pair.

Or the single had something important and the pair was trying to distract her.

Maybe they weren't so dumb.

Sora went after the individual and smirked when she felt the two chakra signatures stop in their tracks and change direction, heading at an even faster pace towards her than when they dispersed. So she'd been right.

Thank goodness, too. If she'd been wrong, she'd have to run all the way back in the opposite direction after defeating the single one, and would've been sent on a very tiring chase. This way, they were all together and she'd finish the job all at once.

As Sora was closing the distance between her and the one in front of her, she left explosives for the pair behind. Though they had taken neither down, they served their purpose; the two had suffered damage and there was more space between them and her.

The nin she was chasing stopped, finally facing her in battle.

Good. They knew trying to escape was useless.

Sora made a shadow clone to fight her pursuers and hid her chakra to sneak up on the other nin.

Her target was a beefy man with a really long brown beard. He was waiting for her and during the time she observed him, she caught sight of the bright red urn he was holding. She'd have to retrieve whatever it was.

She threw a kunai and by angling his head away, dodged the weapon and it landed on the tree behind him. But then saw the explosive tag attached. Boom.

The man jumped to avoid the full impact, but his back still suffered damage and the red urn went flying. He didn't notice until the object hit a tree, making a loud thud. Sora noted that he was slow in reacting. She wasn't.

After several hand signs, a geyser of mud rocketed from his mouth and in her direction. She ran from tree to tree and it followed behind, breaking trees and covering the forest with mud.

He'd run out soon enough and when he did, Sora was right behind him, finishing her hand signs.

Fire Release: Great Fireball

He heard her massive inhalation of air and before he could jump out of the way, was engulfed in a burning inferno. Sora stopped when his body fell to the ground, the corpse now feeding the fire jutsu.

Perfect timing. Her clone just disappeared and all of its memories came to her.

The pair consisted of twin girls, both with bright blue hair. They used earth jutsu like her previous opponent. Their method was to have one use long range jutsu (the one she named Thing 1) to lead the enemy into a direction where the other was hiding (Thing 2), and that one would use close combat to annihilate. As anticipated, they had suffered damage from her explosions.

They were close.

Sora was more than ready and knowing the Kazekage was watching fuelled her resolution. She'd be done in 5 minutes.

The kunoichi reloaded on kunais and shot them in the nins approaching direction. They were all dodged and then Thing 2's chakra signature disappeared into hiding. The ground beneath her feet rumbled and cracked. The pieces of rock shot upwards and as Sora elusively dodged them, a tuft of bright blue hair was seen underneath.

There was then a fist heading her way.

She blocked with an arm, bringing in her own kick to Thing 2's side but it was grabbed and Sora used the momentum by jumping with the remaining leg. Mid-air, her heel crashed down unto the blue head. The girl turned to a puff of smoke.

There was a harsh blow to her back and Sora suffered the full impact. She spun around before another hit could be taken and was able to prevent the succeeding elbow blow to her head.

They were a mess of hits and blows but Sora had the edge. She didn't have much practice in taijutsu because they almost always resulted in blood but she was elusive and caught the girl's movements clearly enough. The problem was the other nin.

Just about when Sora was able to land a knockout, Thing 1 used some Earth jutsu to distract and separate them.

She needed to get rid of that one first but whenever she backed away, Thing 2 in front of her would bring Sora back in. The only choice was to defeat the one in front of her first whilst avoiding attacks from the other. It was risky and she barely managed to escape flying kunai's by the skin of her teeth.

Finally, Thing 2 had a small enough opening that it was undetected by the partner and Sora managed to get a clean hit to the side of her blue head. She fell and before she could fall to the ground, Sora's knee came up to catch her body and struck her upwards into the sky. She flew like Team Rocket.

Sora whipped 180 to find Thing 1 whose chakra was hidden for a while and if she had the time to, she would've screamed. Several inches from her face was Thing 1 but her face was of downright, pure horror. Her body was captivated by sand and during the instant their eyes met and Sora scarcely registered who she was…it happened. The sand crushed her.

Blood. Blood everywhere.

She felt it splatter like a slap across her face and her clothes. It was disturbingly warm; almost hot.

Sora couldn't think or breathe. She could only stare at the place where the girl once was, where the sand now collapsed back to the ground and slithered back to it's master; Gaara, who's raised arm was falling back to his side.

He saw her but she didn't see him. She just saw red.

It was fucking everywhere.

Gaara followed Sora to watch her battle and observed from the sidelines. He was impressed. Before the battle truly even started, Sora had taken one nin down with her first move. Her level of accuracy was faultless. She was also strategic and cunning. At first he wondered why she was going after the single one but when the pair followed, he understood and praised her intelligence. As the battle prolonged, Gaara noted her different skills. She used katon and medic jutsu, a sensor type and performed taijutsu. She was proficient in her abilities and they were all formidable ones.

At the very end, when the 2nd last enemy flew to the heavens, the remaining nin had taken that opportunity of blindness to attack from behind with poisoned kunai in hand. She would've succeeded too, were it not for his interference. His sand shot out, imprisoned and immobilized her. Gaara considered waiting for Sora to be out of the way so she wouldn't get caught up in the mess of blood but then his sand found something. The girl was covered in explosive tags, ready to ignite. He did not hesitate in clutching his upraised hand and only regretted that Sora chose that time to turn around.

When all the enemies were defeated, he expected her to wipe off the blood and scold him for ruining her clothes. He didn't know why she stood there, frozen in time. Her eyes were still wide, but rather than surprise it was horror. They stood watching each other for who knows how long and then from behind black curtains, he saw her eyes become tainted with a new color.

His first reaction was denial.

It wasn't possible. This was impossible. Except it was still happening.

Gaara watched as those midnight blue eyes progressively swirled with a bright red and then 3 black tomoes circled into place.

Gaara was just as shocked as the Sharingan user.

Suddenly, everything became clear. It wasn't a put your glasses on kind of clear, it was an 'I can see every bug and vein on every leaf within a mile radius' kind of clear. For a second, she forgot about the blood covering her head to toe; it was like seeing the world for the first time and it was incredibly beautiful.

Especially the man in front of her.

Sora never noticed how stunning the Kazekage was and could see the reason why the entire female population in Suna were throwing themselves in all directions for his attention. He had the prettiest eyes.

But they were wide in shock. Why?

And then she remembered the blood.

Blood…? Her gaze fell from the handsome man to her stained hands.

Escape lasted only a second.

Sora's heartbeat was erratic, and she was hyperventilating.

Where's the fucking air?!

Her chest was hurting, constricting, stabbed, torn. Her red and white hands grabbed at it through her clothes, but there was no weapon sticking out.

Her gasps were on the brink of screams.

Tremors ran through her bones. She lost balance, and her back hit a tree. There, her knees gave way and she slid down to the ground. It didn't feel like there was a ground. The world was detached, unreal. Her head whirled and she was going to throw up.

Cold sweat broke out and everything was extremely cold; maybe that's why she was shaking so hard. She curled into a ball, gathering all the warmth she could but it didn't help. Her blood was frozen in ice.

I'm losing control. I can't even breathe. I'm going crazy. I'm dying; I have to be. All this blood. All this fucking blood.

"Sora."

She didn't hear it.

"Sora."

The girl didn't even notice someone was standing right in front of her. When she saw the black pair of nin shoes enter her vision, she looked up and the Kazekage was towering over her. He crouched slowly, until they were eye level.

His eyes were so pretty.

"Be still." He said it like an order, but still wanted some form of consensus. It felt like someone was choking her and an inferno in her throat, but Sora managed a pathetic whimper.

It was verification enough. Gaara's arms maneuvered their way through the entanglement she made herself. Once he had a firm enough hold, he stood and carried her. An alabaster hand clutched at his clothes for dear life.

When he looked down, she was fast asleep.