This is the edited version of the chapter, enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto or the characters mentioned in the story
Chapter X - THE MISSION (part3)
The sand storm feels like it got even harder as if it could have. Sakura cling to the ground as she gasp, the biiju's attack was thrown towards the sand siblings, not as big as the ones she witnessed kurama has thrown, but it was strong enough to have an impact on Gaara's sand barrier as it did earlier
The black ball of explossive energy revolve around the storm and was flying faster and faster, closing to the eye—where Gaara is, Sakura runs towards it with everything she's got against the wind, and kick it aside as hard as she could with lots of chakra focused on her feet just like she did with Naruto's rashenshuriken, send it flying away to another direction, away from the storm, before hitting the ground and miss Gaara
"Why you—" the companion growl, getting ready to swing his weaponized arm to attack Sakura but he stop mid-movement as Kankuro's chakra already got him paralyzed like a frozen puppet bound by his master
The explosion landed not so far away and the impact was died down by the hard rotating wind in Gaara and Temari's sand storm
"It's like a giant barrier of sand and wind" Sakura's amazed
"That's right" The puppets (Kankuro) say with pride "with this nothing outside the storm can do anything to us"
"Sakura, are you okay?" Temari ask, seems like she's not bothered by the wind at all
"Hmm.. hai, don't worry about me" Sakura clutch the ground again trying not to get blown away
"Kankuro!" Sakura calls him
"Well, what do you know, it's going to be harder than we originally thought. But every good purchase has a good bargain" the figure say with a more serious face
Kankuro pulls on the companion as he try to escape his chakra strings but his knives couldn't cut the hold he has on his now useless body "Nice try" the puppets say as kunai and knives flew out their mouths and jabs his enemy in various places and fall to the ground
"Hngh… Do you know how hard it is to find a good servant?!" the figure say in annoyance and obvious anger.
"Not good enough" the puppets say in unison
Temari wave her fan one more time as the wind cuts through the whirl and hit the nameless figure, blocking his eyes with his sleeves does him no good as the next thing he knew he's pinned to the ground with a seal that Sakura had thrown at him "Damn you!"
He broke himself free out of the seal with a little struggle, wound and blood now visible through his white shred clothes after multiple attack he had recieved
"You sure talk confident for someone who's losing" Gaara say
"Fools! You think that weak seal can hold me?!"
"It was never meant to hold you" Sakura say
The figures eyes widen as he looks at his palm, the eye he uses to absorbed powers has closed and sealed. Gaara's sand storm got less and less strong before finally settling, his sand gathering inside it's carrier on his back again.
"It's over"
"Fools" he search his pocket for the substance he took earlier before attacking "Wh-where?"
"Looking for these?" Kankuro that's already back to his old self, puppets on his back carrier again holds out a few pills, the one his smaller puppet has taken from him while he didn't notice
"B-but how?"
"We've been studying you for quite some time now" Gaara say
"We can read through your attacks" Temari say
"Even this tough guy over here" Kankuro point to his companion tied up unconscious with his chakra string "Now now" Kankuro pulls on his fingers and the figure jolts, flying foward and landing in front of them with a thud
"I-I refuse… to lose—"
"but you already did"
"—completely" he continue as he does a hand seal and suddenly Gaara drops to his knees
"Gaara!" his siblings gasp out and run to their youngest sibling, Sakura grab on the now prisoner of Suna by the collar and threat him "What did you do?!"
"I-ah ha…" he caughs out blood as Sakura's grasp tighten at his throat "J-just like you said, i-I was human before, and I had a life, as a ninja.. Th-this is just" he caughs again "an old trick of mine"
"What. Did. You. Do?" Sakura repeats herself
"I poisoned the sand"
"How?"
"When the sandstorm was formed, he lets all his sand out and, my chakra had touched most of them so I was able to poison him"
"How do I undo it?"
"Tch, as if I'd tell you"
"Do you wanna die? Shanaroo?" she slams him to the ground "I had some old tricks of myself y'know"
"Urgh, you can't heal someone from my poison, there is only… death"
"Don't worry, I've skipped death before" Gaara say as he try to stand up but failed
"Kazekage-sama"
"Sakura" Temari looks at her hopefully
"Hai" she say as she let go of her grasp and tend to Gaara
...
"I don't know what kind of poison this is" she say. Gaara is sitting on a big pile of sand, hunching as he clutch his bare chest. Sakura's palm on his back trying to figure out how to save him
Temari has already left with the prisoners and to get some help.
"Kazekage-sama, does your chest hurt?"
"Yes. But it's not the poison, it's my heart"
"Your heart?"
"He poisoned my sand, my mother—" Gaara caughs out blood
Sakura just realized, how much his sand means to Gaara. She always knew that he's connecter to it and will fight and get hurt as one, but now she knows it holds his mother's love as well, something he just found out he had, after carving the kanji "love" to his forehead when he thought he didn't have any in his life. Of course this hurts him more than the poison alone.
Sakura has made up her mind, there's only one way he could save Gaara. She doesn't have time to get help from Tsunade-shihou or find a book that will tell her what to do. If she wants Gaara to live, she would have to suck the poison out and keep it within her body until she'd know what to do. She's convident she can handle it
"Don't worry, I know what to do now" Sakura assures the Kazekage
"Sakura" Kankuro put a hand on her shoulder "please, do your best" Sakura just nod
"Kazekage-sama, please set up a barrier around us with all your sand"
Gaara did as Sakura asked. Still clutching to his chest, he remembers the pain he used to feel before deciding that he would only care for himself. Helplessness and desperation for love, but now it's for the loss of love, he couldn't bear the thought of something like this happening to his sand… his mother, that has been protecting him and loving him through his dark days and good days.
"Kazekage-sama" Sakura try to get him to snap out of his tears "Kazekage-sama" she calls out to him but he doesn't answer, she feels his skin cracks like shells and turn into sand under her palms "Gaara!"
Gaara opens his eyes and shift his attention to Sakura "Yes"
"I will fix this. You will live, and your sand… your mother's love will all be okay"
"Sakura?"
"…" she doesn't say anything, waiting for him to continue
"why are you crying?"
"C-crying?" after he mentioned it, she feels the wetness running down her left cheek "I'm… I'm crying… because I want you to live. Your siblings, your nation and the shinobi world need you. You're so loved that everyone is going to cry if you die"
"Ev-very one?"
"Yes, and I'm going to prevent everyone's tears so don't you worry"
Gaara just nod
"Now just sit still and focus on getting this poison out" Sakura begins to link his chakra flows with hers, trying to make it go in the same pace so the poison could flow out of him and into her
After a while their chakra actually manage to flow together like a linked stream within two bodies, both shot their eyes open as they realized it. Then Sakura forms a seal open to extract the poison from the flow, a marking appears on her own back as she feels the skin burns, Gaara felt it too
"What was that?" he ask at the unpleasant sensation he feel although it's not even actually on his own body
"It's a poison seal. Just relax and let your chakra flows steadily"
Temari arrived back at the scene after half a day, this time with Shikamaru and Naruto with her
"What's going on?" Naruto say looking at the sand barrier that looks beyond impenetrable
"Gaara and Sakura are in there" Kankuro say "You're back already? Has the prisoner been taken care of?"
"Some of Suna's shinobi met me halfway to take them as planned, and I'm too worried to go back to the village now" Temari say
"I see"
"How long have they been in there?" Shikamaru ask
"Quite long. What are you two doing here?"
"We just finished a mission and saw Temari, she told us what happened and we rushed here"
"A mission? Just the two of you?"
"Kiba, Chouji and Lee left with Yamato back to the village, I don't see why I have to come here, so troublesome"
Temari glare at him
Shikamaru sigh "It's not like Sakura couldn't handle the situation herself"
"Hmm" Naruto nod
"But you said you didn't know much about who the attacker was did you?" Shikamaru turns serious
"Hm" Temari nod
"Well, then we don't know how familiar Sakura would be with this kind of poison"
"I'm sure Sakura-chan could do it, they'll be out of here in no time and we'll go home together"
"She truly is a good ninja" Kankuro phrase
"Of course she is, she's on my team after all dattebayo. I've seen her do great things as a ninja, she's strong and smart, and she also has a big heart"
"Hmm" Kankuro agrees "We've been studying the criminal's movement for weeks before we actually pursuit him to battle, she was a great help at reading chakra signature so we can locate him in no time, though we still have to chase him around before today"
"Sakura told us you and Sasuke had battled someone like him before" Temari ask Naruto
"Hmm, perhaps it's not only Madara and Kaguya. After the war, people might have ideas to possess power and someone like her might still be around in the future and keep popping up"
"The man we fought wasn't that strong yet, so we were still able to defeat him, but in the future we might need precautions. Someone to monitor the nation's land and see, to make sure threats like this would be eliminated before they could destroy us all" Kankuro say
"Someone strong and skilled" Temari say
"Someone smart" Shikamaru add
"Someone selfless" Kankuro add
"Someone that cares about the villages and the shinobi world very much" Naruto finish
Meanwhile, inside the barrier Sakura and Gaara are now both spitting blood. The poison latched on Gaara and is hard to pull even after they practically bound their chakra together. Sakura has to pull it out by force, gentle but sure, hurting them both in the process.
"I'm sorry Kazekage-sama, this will be over soon"
"Don't worry about me Sakura" Gaara say giving her a small smile "you should worry about yourself. I can feel your back burning with the seal"
"My priority is to make sure you come back in top shape—besides, this all will be over soon. The poison is almost all cleared out of your body"
"I-I can feel it" he confirm, coughing another gush of blood simultaneously with Sakura "just hang on a little bit Sakura"
"Hmm" Sakura nod as she make sure all the poison is in her body before slowing the flow and let their chakra untangles and separate.
Sakura let go of Gaara and almost collapse, holding her weight in her two arms, Gaara is doing the same. Both panting out of exhaustion.
Sakura use the last of her chakra to try and seal the poison in her body letting the sting on her back burns one last time before she feels the pain gone completely along with her consciousness.
.
.
.