Chapter 73

Wow, so much time slipped past, and quickly too. Everyone our age were Chuunin, and Neji was a Jonin!
I was currently on a mission with Daisuke and Susumu, Tekuno-sensei wasn't with us, he had another mission to be on. In fact since we've become Chuunin, we haven't seen much of Tekuno-sensei anymore.
We were in Sunagakure, collecting herbs and other materials for the Hokage. On our way in there were a lot of ANBU guarding the village, and it took us 40 minutes before we managed to get into the village, because of their interrogations on our identity.
The security is very tight here, I don't think even a fly could get by unnoticed.
Anyway, we managed to get through, so we looked around for this shop. Susumu insisted that we ask for directions, but Daisuke and I refused, we knew we would find it eventually.
"I could always create heaps of clones and have them search!" I exclaimed.
"No, that would just upset the people here, don't go using any jutsu while we're here. We might even stay the night, it'll take us another three days to get home." Susumu said. His hair had grown down to his mid-back, and he barely tied it up anymore, so it just flowed around in the wind. My hair had grown to the same length too, I had been putting off a haircut for quite some time now, but I didn't really pay attention. I would get it cut soon, but in the meantime, I just tied it into a rough ponytail. As for Daisuke, his hair was still the same bushy hairstyle he's always had.
"This way!" I said, leading them into a random street. This was my first ever time coming to Suna, and it was nothing like I expected. I felt excited, exploring a new place.
"Are you sure..?"
"Nope!"

We finally found it, after wasting a lot of time. Susumu asked directions, and we were pointed in the right spot.
We collected the herbs and chatted with the elderly woman. We decided to find a nice hotel, and book a room. I decided I would take the biggest bed. It was a double, and there was a single bed. Two beds. Three of us. I jumped onto the double bed, and laid on it. Daisuke grumbled and sat on the end.
"Let me sleep with you, Setsuki-chan!"
"No! You sleep with Susumu-kun or on the floor!" I exclaimed. He whined. The sun was getting ready to set. The sky was a nice orange.
Daisuke glared at Susumu walking over to the other bed. He ran over and tackled Susumu away from it.
"Don't even think about it!" He growled, reaching for the bed.
Susumu returned the glare, and grabbed his wrist. "No you don't! It's mine!"
I laid there happily, my hands behind my head. I could fall asleep. The sun was disappearing, the room was getting darker.
What seemed like an hour passed, and the sun was gone. Daisuke and Susumu were still wrestling on the floor. I was almost asleep.
By the time I did manage to fall asleep, Daisuke and Susumu ended up knocking each other out, so they were passed out on the floor.
Strange noises were heard outside, but none of us paid any attention, we were too busy sleeping.

A huge explosion woke us all up. We looked out the window, and there was a huge ball of smoke in the sky, there were also many Suna ninja staring around, staring at the ball of smoke, their expressions showed anxiety.
As soon as the smoke disappeared, there was a huge sphere of hardened sand, floating in the sky.
"Hey, should we go see what's going on?" Susumu asked.
"Yes!" Daisuke answered. We ran outside, and stood behind a bunch of Suna ninja.
"What's going on?" Susumu asked, but his question was ignored. A huge sand figure, that looked like the claws of the Shukaku, surrounded a small white bird in the sky.
The bird crashed into it, and the sand surrounded it quickly, forming another sphere.
We watched in amazement. We heard some ninja talking.
"Yeah! As long as Kazekage-sama is here, our village is safe!"
Suddenly a huge explosion created a hole in the second sphere, and a person came flying out, sand pursued him, grabbed his foot, and threw him at the other sphere, however this person seemed to summon another white bird, and the Shukaku claw followed it.
"Who's that guy?!" Daisuke questioned.
"I think it's an Akatsuki member!" A sand ninja shouted. We gasped.
"A-Akatsuki!? What're they doing here?!" I asked.
"I think they're after Gaara.." Susumu said. Everyone looked at him. "I don't know if its true or not, but I heard the Akatsuki are after the Tailed Beasts.."
"Why on Earth!?" The ninjas all stared up at the sand grabbing at the guy on the bird.
The bird lowered and flew through the streets, he flew straight past us, he ripped his arm off to escape the sand, it made us cringe. We watched as he returned to the skies.
"What can we do!?" Daisuke questioned.
"I don't think we can do anything.. this is the Kazekage's fight.." Susumu grumbled.
"We have to help!" I exclaimed.
"Don't!" Susumu retorted, holding his arm out in front of me. "You'll only get in the way. This is an S-Rank criminal we're talking about, Setsuki.. I'm sure even you can understand just how dangerous that is.."
I looked at Susumu straight in the eye. "Hold my jacket." I said, unzipping my flak jacket.
"You leave that on, missy! That is your symbol of- oh forget it." Daisuke groaned. "Setsuki, see if you can minimise the impact of his explosions with your water!"
"Wow! You do have a brain in there, huh?" Susumu scoffed.
"Now's not the time, Susumu! Setsu-...ki?" Daisuke realised I was gone, and gone I was. I jumped off the building, ran across the street as fast as I could, then jumped up onto the highest building I could find – the Kazekage's tower.
Now I just had to get my water to actually reach this girl on the bird. I rolled up my imaginary sleeves, let my jacket fly around in the wind and mentally boosted my confidence. 'I can do this!'.
Into the air I jumped, I tried hopping across the sand floating in the sky, but it wasn't enough to support my weight, so I fell. Pretty far. It was pretty high..

"SUMMONING JUTSU!"

Within a huge cloud of white smoke, Keahebi's head shot up from the ground, and I landed on it. Oh, I forgot to mention, Keahebi is massive now. His head alone was at least half the size of the Kazekage's tower itself.. the strange part, is that Keahebi is still only maturing.. he'll probably grow 3 times his current size over time.
Keahebi's hissing echoed through the village, attracting the attention of everyone, including Gaara and the woman.
"My my, un. I thought that was one of that damned Orochimaru's experiments, hm." The woman commented.
"Keahebi, take me higher! I need to drench her in water!" I said.
Keahebi obediently followed my orders, allowing me to get close to them. The woman flew circles around Keahebi's head, as if trying to provoke him.
Gaara's sphere of sand levitated to where I was. "What are you thinking..?!" He spoke in an agitated tone, it sent shivers down my spine.
"D-Don't worry, Gaara! I'm gonna help fight!" I said.
"Don't be a fool.." He merely said, then a Shukaku arm shot out of the spear, almost hitting the woman. She flew up high into the air, smirking. She had something planned.
Gaara and I watched as she dropped something, it was small to start with, but after a handsign, it became huge. It was a massive sculpture of some sort. It began to fall.
Gaara became panicked, he raised his hands, sand from the village began rising into the sky somewhat slowly.
"It's a bomb." Keahebi stated. My eyes widened.
"B-but something this huge could destroy the entire village!" I exclaimed.
"I'm.. aware of that.." Gaara said, his tone gave away that he was struggling. I sensed this, I could tell this wasn't going to end well.
"Let me help!" I performed some handsigns. This was going to be a big jutsu, so I had to be careful not to use up all my chakra.
The ground shook below us, some cracks appeared in the hardened clay-like sand of the streets... but no water rose from them.
"Fool you cannot.. use water ninjutsu.. here.." Gaara growled, focusing on what he was doing. "We're.. in a desert... there's no.. natural water source.."
I felt like an idiot. I really did.

The bomb was falling fast, and at the rate Gaara was building some defence with the sand, wasn't going to be fast enough.
I felt weak and nauseous, my legs felt numb and one fell limp, causing me to fall to my knees. I just wasted a huge amount of chakra. I looked up again, the defence, as much as Gaara was trying, wasn't going to be enough. I just knew it.
"Setsuki!" Daisuke called, running up Keahebi's spine, followed by Susumu.
"Get.. back.. all of.. you.." Gaara hissed through his tightly clenched teeth. We faced him with great concern.
The giant bomb was just above us now, if that thing exploded.. we'd probably die..
Daisuke quickly grabbed me by my waist and hoisted me up onto his shoulder, and both him and Susumu sprinted down Keahebi's spine, racing for the ground.
"What about Gaara?!" Daisuke questioned, giving Susumu a serious look.
"I.." Susumu trailed off, looking up at the sand sphere Gaara was hiding in. "He'll be okay.. I think.."
"You think!?" Daisuke scoffed, but there was no time to reply, because one word from Claybanger's mouth commanded the enormous bomb to explode.
The impact was devastating, we felt a majority of the force from the height we were at, which threw us at the ground harshly.

Once the dust and smoke cleared, everyone was able to see what had happened. Gaara had somehow managed to create a big enough sand shield that protected the entire village from any harm.
The floating sphere was still there, which meant Gaara was okay..
Daisuke rose slowly, wincing in pain as a new injury started to bleed from his thigh, from smashing it against a hard rock on the ground. Susumu obtained a gash on his forehead from hitting the ground, and I was perfectly fine, why? Because I landed on some random Suna ninja.
"Th-thanks." I breathed, feeling too exhausted to move. But I had to get up, even though it stung to move. I sat there and looked up at the damage. Keahebi had disappeared, avoiding any injury from the explosion.
Everyone in the village cheered and encored Gaara for his heroic efforts. "Oh, no! Gaara!" Kankuro's familiar voice sounded. I glanced over at where he was standing, his eyes were fixed on the very sphere his little brother was sheltering in.
I returned looking at the sky, at Gaara, sand from his sphere was dropping, and rapidly. Kankuro ran far enough, until he was under it, perhaps he was intending to catch Gaara if he fell? If that was so, catching Gaara would be a long shot, because of how high he was. No one could jump that high. I pulled myself to my knees reluctantly, scanning the area, searching for my two blondies.
There was Daisuke, a few metres away, and beside him, Susumu, laying on the ground, barely moving. I struggled as I ran to him.
"D-Daisuke!" My body was shaking furiously, the pain was a mixture of numbness and like thousands of small needles, stabbing everywhere.
"Setsuki! There you are!" Daisuke stepped towards me, apparently oblivious to Susumu's motionless body. "Are you okay? Are you hurt!? Why are you shaking!?"
"I'm.. fine.." I lied, facing Susumu, worried. "I-Is Susumu.."
Daisuke turned to Susumu and seemed to panic. "Oi!" Daisuke dropped to his knees, and shook Susumu roughly by his shoulder. "Wake up dammit! This is no time to rest!"
I was too focused on Susumu to see what had happened to Gaara.

We were taken to the infirmary, Susumu's gash on his forehead was stitched up and had a gauze bandaged to it, Daisuke's thigh was treated and had to be disinfected because of the rock may have infected his leg. It was a painful process, and they didn't give him anaesthetic, so his screams echoed through the main hall. As for me... I was asleep. The fatigue caught up to me, and I passed out half way to the infirmary.

When I woke up, I disliked the view of the hospital. I knew I needed to get out as quickly as I could. My memory was a bit of a blur, I don't remember much before passing out. I sat up and looked around. The room was tiny, almost like a bedroom rather than a hospital room. There was a bedside table with three drawers, and a ceramic vase with a distinct pattern on it, holding withering flowers. On the other side of the bed was an IV stand, holding a plastic bag of blood, seeing the blood made me cringe. My eyes ran along the small clear tube attached to it, the blood was easily seen inside of it. The tube ended, attached to the inside of my elbow, with a small piece of tape over it. I cringed.
A needle... sticking into me...
My eyes began to water, I let out a huge scream at the top of my lungs. A curtain was pulled back quickly, revealing that the room wasn't actually a room, it was just a bed inside of a U-shaped curtain. A medical ninja faced me.
"What is it!?" She questioned.
"M-My arm!" I sobbed. She looked at the IV cord, then shook her head.
"It's just keeping your blood levels normal. You were lacking a bit of blood and-"
"I don't like it!" I cried loudly. My body did feel a little strange.
"Well I can unhook it if you really want to.." She said.
"Yes! Take it out! Take it out!" I begged. She walked over, and took hold of my arm.
"Hold still then." She peeled off the tape. I looked at it, sticking into me, it made me nauseous. "... You don't have to watch.. you can look away." She said. I took her advice and immediately looked away, covering my mouth with my hand, trying not to vomit.
She pulled it out and my arm tingled. She gasped as if something was wrong.
"W-What's wrong?!" I questioned.
"N-Nothing!" She stuttered, quickly applying a gauze to my elbow and taping it down. She scurried out in a hurry. My elbow hurt, I couldn't move it. I also felt like I needed water. A huge amount of water. My mouth was dry and tasted like sand and salt.
I could hear that medical nin talking from behind the curtain, to possibly another medical nin.
"Are you sure that was the right blood type?" She questioned.
"For the blue haired girl? Her blood type is A. But her blood was abnormal... it was almost like water.. a really watered down blood.. I've never seen anything like it, to be honest." A male voice responded.
Did they screw up my blood system!? Is that why I feel so weird?!