Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. The internet went down at work and my only other access is via my phone. It's fixed now though. I have a couple chapters written and ready to post so hopefully the next few updates will go smoothly. I'll try to put up one chapter each week until I run out of what I have ready. Thanks for being patient with me. I hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Sandstorms and Falling Leaves
Chapter 27: Finishing Unfinished Business
Naruto rubbed his back, resisting the urge to scratch at the newly healed skin as he walked along between Sakura and Yamato, following Kakashi's confident lead. The pink haired girl had one arm in a sling to support her recently dislocated shoulder while the anbu captain and Kakashi had only a scratch or two to show for their recent activities.
Tazuna's long feared retaliation had finally come. The bridge project had been well ahead of schedule, with Naruto helping out with the construction in his boredom and Sakura joining him out of a sense of duty to keep him out of trouble. They'd been just days away from finishing the final phase of the bridges when the mercenaries had attacked the construction workers.
The fight had been over in a matter in minutes but Naruto had been caught off guard by a rogue wave ninja and smashed against one of the bridge's support pillars. The rough wood had scraped a fair amount of skin off his lower back and the impact had bruised a few ribs but he was healing fast and he was in high spirits. The bridge was nearly finished and the culprits leading the opposition had been identified and detained so Tazuna had happily sent them on their way, knowing at least one hyperactive blonde in the group was eager to get back to Konoha. They had been travelling for several days and now they were only a couple miles from home.
'I can't wait to surprise Gaara.' He thought with a grin. He reached his hand into his pocket, toying with the nearly completed pendant. He still needed to talk to Kankuro before he could actually propose, but he was fairly sure he could bring the puppetmaster around.
The blonde was so lost in thought he almost missed the flicker of chakra that tickled his senses. Someone was coming towards them, fast.
The orange clad teen automatically dropped into a defensive stance, noting that Sakura moved to guard his back as she did the same. Kakashi dropped back to join them and Yamato stepped closer as well.
Gaara swept the sand up and around her in a spiral, taking the opportunity while she was alone to simply play with her abilities and test the limits of her chakra control. It was an activity she had often engaged in as a child but now it had taken on a new purpose, beyond simple amusement. With her limited chakra supply, she had to be able to make the most of every bit of energy she could muster. That meant every action had to be accomplished without wasting chakra.
'Not to mention this is fun.' She thought to herself with just a hint of a smile as she created half size sand sculptures of her brother and sister and let the tiny Temari bash tiny Kankuro with a frying pan, as she often threatened to do when he'd cast aspersions on her cooking.
Aqua eyes narrowed suddenly and, with a sweep of her hand, a wall of sand rose up to block the trio of kunais tagged with explosive charms that had been aimed at her head.
The resulting explosion pushed her back a few yards but the sand held the blast at bay. Once the force was spent she allowed the sand to settle back into a swirling mass at her feet so she could see where the attack had come from.
A moment later she had to hastily raise the barricade again to block another wave of exploding kunai.
Her ears were ringing but she could hear clearly enough that the voice that followed in the wake of the explosions made her blood run cold. "Hmm...I was hoping to do this without anyone knowing I'd been here but I guess that won't work. Ah well, being dead was no fun anyway, ne Gaara-san?" The blonde man grinned as he stepped from the cover of the trees to face the redhead squarely.
Gaara's eyes widened in shock. "Deidara..." She breathed out, as her heart raced with terror she refused to show on her face.
"In the flesh...as are you I see. Lucky you!" The artist of the Akatsuki grinned again. "This means you get to experience my art again!"
Gaara considered her position, alone and weakened against the man that had defeated her at the peak of her strength. She had few choices. She didn't dare go for help because that would require bringing the explosives expert back towards the village and she wouldn't risk Konoha's civilians any more than she would her own people. She knew that the fight was likely impossible for her to win in her current state. However she wasn't about to let that prevent her from doing everything in her power to defy those odds. This man had helped kill her once, it was time to return the favor.
"What do you want?" She asked flatly, crossing her arms and eying the blonde man with narrowed eyes. "Your group took what you needed from me, why come after me again."
Deidara laughed, a harsh, bitter sound that made the exjinchuriki's skin crawl. "It's my punishment for failing to capture the nine tails jinchuriki when he was after you and for letting you get away." The blonde shrugged, sticking one hand nonchalantly into the white pouch strapped to his hip. "The Akatsuki don't care much for loose ends."
Gaara scowled. "The jinchuriki, his name is Naruto."
"His name doesn't matter anymore than yours did. He's just a shell to contain the beast." The blonde laughed coldly. "You on the other hand are just an empty shell, without further usefulness." He reached into the pouch at his side. "Hardly worthy of my talents, but arguing against it would've been more trouble than it was worth."
Deidara dropped a small handful of clay insects on the ground, the sort he had used against Kakashi. They weren't powerful but the Akastuki member didn't think Gaara would be much trouble. He didn't know exactly how the redhead came back to life...or why the sand user was now female, but without the one tail's power to back her up he doubted she had the chakra to be a real threat to him, even as weakened as he was by his own near death experience.
Naruto relaxed as a familiar pair of figures landed just a few feet from him.
"Lee, Neiji, what are you guys doing here?" He asked with a grin.
Neiji stepped forward and handed Kakashi a small scroll. "The hokage received information that indicated Akatsuki activity near the village and she has ordered that Naruto not return until the threat has been dealt with." The young jonin explained evenly.
"What!?" Naruto scowled.
"We cannot risk them capturing you." The Hyuuga boy pointed out, as one would explain something to a particularly dense rock.
Unfortunately, it had about the same effect on Naruto that it would have had on the rock. "No way am I sitting this out! I need to get back right away so I can show those Akatsuki jerks that you don't mess with Naruto Uzumaki!" He thrust one fist in the air eagerly.
Lee stepped forward and clutched at the blonde's wrist, manly tears streaming down his face. "Naruto-kun, your youthful zeal makes my heart ache with joy to witness it but the Hokage herself has ordered you to stay out of this fight. You cannot disobey her orders."
Naruto shrugged him off angrily. "I don't need other people to protect me." He muttered.
Kakashi had been reading over the contents of the scroll and he sighed, knowing Naruto would never stay put once he found out exactly which Akatsuki member had been spotted heading towards Konoha. 'I really thought we'd killed him. Too bad. Now how can I get Naruto to agree to...'
"Don't worry, Naruto-kun!" Lee grinned with a sparkle of teeth as he offered the jinchuriki a thumbs up. "This akatsuki will be no match for Konoha. After all, you've already beaten him once."
'Crap.' Kakashi sighed.
Naruto stiffened, a flicker of orange entering his eyes before he forced it back. "What did you say?"
Lee seemed oblivious to Naruto's sudden change in demeanor. "It's Deidara, the one you and Kakashi-sensei defeated in the Wind country."
Naruto was moving before the unibrowed teen could finish the sentence, darting into the trees with single-minded determination. Kakashi instantly rushed to intercept the brash jinchuriki, catching him after only about a dozen yards and holding him firmly under his arms as the teen struggled in vain to get loose.
"Kakashi-sensei, I have to go! You saw what he did to Gaara! I can't let him get away with that!" The boy shouted as he flailed. Unfortunately, the experienced jonin had no trouble countering every attempt the teen made to get free.
"Naruto, calm down and think about this rationally." Yamato spoke evenly, hoping to get through to Naruto.
Naruto paused in his struggle to look at the wood jutsu master with pained eyes. "You didn't see...you weren't there. He killed her...and then he..." Tears rolled down his whisker marked cheeks as he the lump in his throat prevented him from continuing.
"I was there." Kakashi pointed out calmly.
Naruto sighed, stopping his fighting to get free altogether. "I know..." He looked down at the ground regretfully, and the sudden change in his mood set his old teacher immediately on guard. "Which means you know why I have to do this...even though I am really sorry." He offered sincerely, right before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Kakashi blinked in mild shock. "A shadow clone." The boy was truly a genius with them, to have fooled him for even a few minutes.
"He's got a good head start now." Sakura noted, shaking her head.
"Yep." The silver haired jonin agreed. "Let's go after him."
The group took off towards Konoha, knowing they'd never catch the jinchuriki in time to stop him from reaching the village first. They would just have to hope Deidara wouldn't be fast enough to make a move before they caught up.
Gaara threw her sand shield up as the spiders jumped at her but she remembered her last fight with the explosives master and didn't wait for the creatures to burrow through her barricade before taking action.
The redhead moved on instinct, throwing herself backwards into a series of summersaults as the first of the explosive constructs poked through the sand in front of her. The tiny thing launched itself at her, swiftly joined by the rest of the dangerous little swarm.
'I can't fight the way I used to. My defense isn't as strong as it was. I'll have to keep moving.' Gaara reminded herself, remembering a time when she would have held her ground and trusted Shukaku to protect her while she focused on offense.
She moved behind a tree and several of her pursuers attached themselves to the hapless foliage before detonating, forcing her to roll out of the meager cover as it was demolished.
"Keh, are you just going to run away?" Deidara asked boredly.
Gaara didn't respond, saving her energy as she continued to dodge away from his vicious little sculptures, waiting for an opportunity to strike back.
'I'll only get one shot at this. Have to make it count.' She thought, crushing several of the clay monsters with a hand made of sand and darting away from the resulting blast.
Deidara reached into his pouch for more clay. "It really is pretty impressive that you've made it this long. Guess I'll have to get a little more creative." He grinned, dropping a clay wolf from his hands and performing a jutsu to enlarge and animate it.
Gaara frowned at the new threat but had no time to react as the few remaining insects took advantage of the instant of distraction to latch onto her arms and chest. The redhead tried to brush them off but it was too late.
The explosion ripped through the clearing and when the smoke cleared Deidara stepped forward to investigate the results of his handiwork with a look of satisfaction.
Gaara lay unmoving on the sand, one arm entirely missing and a gaping hole in her chest.
The akatsuki member narrowed his eyes. Something was not right and it took him only a moment to decide what it was. 'No blood.' In fact, the body before him seemed to be composed entirely of...
"Sand." He frowned as the sand clone began to dissolve back into the ground before his eyes. A moment later the blonde had to jump away as the sand that had been disguised as Gaara lunged at him with razor sharp spikes aimed to impale vital organs.
Landing easily a dozen feet away, Deidara let his newest masterpiece take up the fight in his place as Gaara stepped from behind a tree now that her clone had been discovered. The clay wolf agilely dodged the sand spears and honed in on the redhead controlling them, wicked teeth and claws ready to tear into the girl's flesh before the inevitable explosion ended both of their existences.
Deidara was impressed. For a woman with less chakra than many genin, Gaara was doing surprisingly well. 'Not that it will make any difference in the end.' The Akatsuki member was still totally confident in his ability to kill the exjinchuriki and escape before reinforcements arrived. He'd been lucky to catch the redhead alone and he wasn't going to lose the opportunity.
Gaara jumped over the gnashing teeth that snapped at the air where she had just stood, pulling a tendril of sand in her wake and using it to bind the sculpture's jaws shut.
Deidara smirked, his art didn't need teeth to hurt her. "Katsu!" He announced as the bound sculpture exploded right beneath the airborne sand wielder.
Gaara was caught in the edge of the blast, unable to dodge in the air. She was thrown high and to the side, crashing hard against a tree. The redhead gasped in agony as she felt at least one rib snap from the impact.
'I can't keep this up.' She realized grimly as she landed in a heap at the foot of the tree. Forcing herself to her feet, she clutched her abused ribs for a moment. 'I'm so sorry Naruto.' She thought sadly. She'd promised him she would be waiting when he returned but it was looking less likely with every passing moment. 'Naruto...' Aqua eyes narrowed thoughtfully as an idea struck her. 'Please let me have enough chakra.'
Deidara had been busy while she was thinking and he dropped several finely sculpted falcons as the exjinchuriki forced herself to her feet. The birds took flight a moment later, the first heading straight into a dive at the injured redhead and exploding.
Gaara darted away an instant before the blast, moving behind a large tree to cover her swift hand signs as she performed the only jutsu she could think of that might give her an edge over this man who had already proven once that he knew all her tricks.
Moments later the redhead darted out of her cover again, pulling the sand up in a shield as she moved into a better position.
Unfortunately, she had lost sight of one of the birds of prey for just an instant and without warning the white creature appeared behind her. The young Kazekage had only a moment to register the danger before the beast latched onto her clothing with its talons and detonated.
Deidara was wary of approaching his downed enemy, mindful of what had happened with the sand clone. He moved forward carefully, alert for any movement from the quite obviously dead girl's body.
He was so focused that the hand that grabbed his ankle caught him completely by surprise. "What the...!?
The blonde Akatsuki looked down at the hand in disbelief before a popping noise and a puff of smoke pulled his attention back to the Gaara he had blown up, or rather, the shadow clone he had blown up.
Deidara had no more time to think as the pale hand around his ankle pulled him violently down into ground that was suddenly no longer solid at all. He thought for a moment the redhead was going to simply bury him but his descent stopped with only his head showing above the earth.
A moment later, Gaara rose smoothly from beneath the ground a few feet in front of him. She kept her expression carefully blank as she regarded her trapped enemy.
"I'll kill you!" The self proclaimed artist screamed as he struggled.
"Not this time." The redhead said flatly. "You've made a fatal mistake."
Deidara froze at her use of the word fatal. He wasn't dead yet. "What mistake?" He was almost afraid to ask but his curiosity pulled the words from him before he could stop them.
Gaara knelt painfully and put both her hands on the ground. Then she looked her enemy in the eyes. Deidara shuddered at the blank expression, and the icy fury he could see burning in those aqua depths.
"You attacked me on the ground." She explained coldly.
Deidara opened his mouth to retort, only to have it fill with sand as he sank into the earth completely. He tried to struggle, tried to scream but it was no use. He felt himself stop moving downwards but he had no idea how far underground he was or which way was up. 'I'm going to suffocate!' He pulled in his last clay bird, hoping it could blow a hole down to him if he crashed it into the ground above his position.
Gaara stood slowly, breathing shallowly to ease her ribs as she held out her hand. She wasn't leaving anything to chance, no matter how much the insane artist might deserve a slow death. Her hand formed a fist and she squeezed, feeling the sand around her captive mimic the motion hundreds of feet below her.
"Sand Coffin." She announced flatly, right before her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed, her chakra exhausted and her injuries catching up to her as the adrenaline ebbed.
The clay falcon dropped harmlessly to the ground near her head, lifeless; the chakra that had been controlling it having been brutally snuffed out.
As Naruto neared the village, he heard a distant explosion and his heart leapt into his throat. 'That sounded like it came from Gaara and Hinata's training area.' He thought, heading immediately for the source of the sound.
Naruto arrived on the battlefield just moments too late. He spotted Gaara at once, taking in her singed clothing and still form. His frantic eyes caught sight of the undetonated sculpture a few feet away and for a moment he felt his heart stop.
"No..." He gasped in disbelief, running to the redhead's side and kneeling to reach for her with shaking hands. "Gaara! Don't even think about dying on me again!" He ordered, tears threatening to overflow his eyes at the thought.
"Naruto?" Aqua colored eyes opened wearily as the leaf chunin helped her shakily roll over and sit up, leaning heavily against his arms as even that small movement seemed to require more energy than she had left. "Welcome home." She didn't have to force the small smile that crossed her face as she looked at him.
"You're alive!" Naruto shouted joyfully, wrapping the teen in an embrace.
Gaara hissed in pain as her ribs were jostled and the blonde released her at once, growing serious as he began checking for injuries. "What happened? Where's that Akatsuki bastard?"
"Dead." Gaara said flatly, closing her eyes as the small amount of energy she had mustered to reassure the hyperactive leaf ninja began to fail her. "Below us." She elaborated quietly.
Naruto looked down at the sand beneath them, understanding dawning slowly in his blue eyes. "Gaara..."
He couldn't think of anything to say that would express the mixed feelings of sadness and pride that he felt at her accomplishment. Sadness that she had been injured and he hadn't been around to protect her; that she'd had to face a man that was the cause of so many of her nightmares alone; and pride that she'd managed to defeat him despite all the odds against her. He struggled to find words for a minute before he realized it didn't matter. The redhead had lost consciousness once again.
Just then Kakashi and the rest of his squad caught up with the yellow haired jinchuriki.
"Sakura-chan, I think Gaara needs your help." The blonde said urgently.
The pink haired girl moved quickly forward, her hands already glowing with healing chakra. She moved her hands over the redhead's body slowly, identifying injuries.
"It's not too bad, she's got two broken ribs and a mild concussion, but the rest is just bruises and some minor burns." Sakura said once she was done with her exam and had moved on to healing the ribs enough to stabilize them.
Naruto smiled in relief, brushing the hair back from his love's face and looking down at her fondly. "She's really strong, ne...to have beaten an Akatsuki member on her own."
Sakura didn't respond as she focused on her medical jutsu.
Kakashi had no such distraction. "She beat an Akatsuki?" He spotted the lifeless sculpture and his single visible eye narrowed.
Naruto nodded. "Deidara, it really was him. He was alive after all." The blonde explained grimly, looking down at the ground where the crazed artist's remains were now buried. "He's not anymore."
Kakashi's gaze followed Naruto's and he quickly caught the significance of the disturbed patch of earth the blonde was eying. "Hn." He acknowledged thoughtfully.
Sakura sat up from her crouch over Gaara's still form, sighing and stretching out her neck and arms. "Okay, let's get her to the hospital. Be careful of her ribs."
Naruto nodded, scooping the unconscious redhead up and cradling her gently to his chest.
"I'll notify the rest of the Sand delegation of what happened." Yamato spoke up helpfully, before darting off without acknowledgement.
Naruto started back towards the village, moving quickly but carefully to keep from jostling his cargo more than necessary. Sakura fell in beside him without a word, while Kakashi and Neiji began examining the scene of the battle and Lee ran off to alert the Hokage of the situation.
Looking down at the redhead as he ran, Naruto let his apprehension melt away. Sakura said Gaara wasn't badly hurt and he trusted the pink haired teen's medical knowledge implicitly.
'You have to get better soon.' He ordered the unconscious girl silently with a grin creeping onto the corners of his mouth. 'I have a question to ask you.'
To Be Continued...
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading! Please review so I know people are still reading. Again, I am sorry for the wait and I will try to update again soon.