Chapter 30: Protect or Die: My Ninja Way

Fighting the pain, I pushed myself up beside Naruto hearing the man say, "Why don't you two just give it up? The power of the Shukaku is already mine. Now I declare war on all the five great nations, and against every single ninja of those lands who took advantage of the Village of Artisans."

I looked up glaring at him as he smirked saying, "They will suffer the consequences of the hundred-year grudge held by my proud people. For they will all be sacrificed as we seek our revenge."

"You shut your mouth!" Naruto growled seeing him start to stand saying, "You think we're just going to let you use our own power against us, you're dead wrong! I hope you got a good taste of Gaara's chakra, cause you're about to give it back."

The man was quiet before saying, "I'm curious, why are you still trying to win? Why is the monster of the Sand Village worth putting your own lives on the line?"

My blood began coming to life around me as I tightened my fist saying, "Because Gaara is our friend."

"And friends are what's most important to us." Naruto said making me nod saying, "So you can keep coming at us and we'll fight back with everything we got!"

"Very well then, you can die for your friend." he said seeing the heads start to come towards the both of us as we braced ourselves for the impact, but it never came.

Looking up we saw that the heads were entangled in rope as my eyes followed them seeing Gaara's student on the other end.

"What do you think you're doing girl?" Seimei said as she replied, "I get it now, I know what Gaara-sensei was trying to teach me. Maybe weapons took the lives of my mother and father, however, you can also use a weapon to protect those close to you."

"Utter nonsense." Seimei said flinging the girl as I slid over to the girl catching her before she hit the ground.

"Yuna, keep her safe." Naruto said as I nodded seeing her groan, she wasn't even a Genin and yet she tried to fight.

"You have a bright future ahead kid… now rest." I said feeling her relax against my touch gripping my leg, I was losing a lot of blood.

I felt the ground begin to rumble seeing a giant hand stick out of the sphere breaking it as the girl said, "What's happening to him?"

"The power of the Shukaku is breaking out I have to make sure he doesn't fully transform, or we could all be in danger." I said bringing her over to Naruto grunting at the pain shooting through my body.

"Naruto, Yuna!" I heard seeing the others running towards us as Sakura and Hinata rushed to Naruto.

"Alright you guys take care of her." Naruto said as he began limping past them while I did the same as Sakura replied, "Are you both crazy you're badly injured I need to treat your wounds."

"We have to help him." I said feeling my body sway, but I felt someone grab onto me from falling looking up to see Shino as he said, "You've done enough, we can take it from here."

"Gaara is starting to change into some half beast while his opponent is gathering an immense amount of chakra." Neji said using his Byakugan as the girl replied, "That one called himself Seimei and said he was the founder of the Village of Artisans."

"He said he had been reborn as the ultimate ninja tool." I said weakly feeling Shino's hold on me tighten as he sat me down beside him.

"A lousy thief is what he is, he's stealing Gaara's chakra." Naruto yelled as Sakura continued to heal him while Lee said, "Come to think of it the enemy we faced wore a similar sort of armor with the power to absorb one's chakra."

"Armor that feeds off of chakra… we must be very careful." Shino said standing up as I looked over at Gaara frowning.

I saw him panting and grunting as if trying to gain control of himself again despite Seimei mocking him suddenly seeing sand begin to fall over half of his body. I gasped surprised seeing the Shukaku part of him diminish realizing he was taking back control over the tailed beast inside him.

"He's fighting off the transformation with all his strength." Temari said while Shikamaru replied, "But why, he's going to need everything he's got to fight off this guy."

"That may be, but he's choosing to do it with his own powers not the monsters." Kankuro said while I smiled saying, "That's where his real strength lies."

Gaara and the enemy began to talk but they were too far away seeing Gaara grin at the man before rocks started to fall. Sand began to rise in front of us as Shino picked me up jumping us all out of the way seeing the canyon was about to be engulfed by it. I looked on amazed seeing Gaara's sand now covering the whole canyon looking around for movement of the enemy.

Suddenly wind came out of the sand seeing Seimei float out as Neji gasped saying, "He's absorbing the last of Gaara's chakra."

"We have to help him." Naruto said now mostly healed but Temari stopped him saying, "You'll only get in the way, Gaara is stronger than you think."

We looked back seeing Gaara create a pike out of the sand before throwing it at Seimei watching it pierce the armor breaking it. I gasped seeing it went fully through to his body watching the surprise on his face too as he got wrapped in Gaara's sand.

"Giant sand burial!" Gaara yelled putting his hands to the ground feeling the waves of pressure under our feet until everything was silent.

"He did it!" Naruto yelled starting to run over to him with some of the others, but Gaara fell as I got out of Shino's arms to hobble to him.

Sakura put her hands on him feeling Shino walk up beside me as she said, "He's alright, he's just exhausted from using so much of his chakra."

"To think he was able to suppress Shukaku and do it all on his own." Temari said amazed as Kankuro said softly, "Yea… I guess you finally found someone who understands you didn't you?"

I smiled turning towards Naruto, he was the reason Gaara was how he is now, and I can only hope we all will hold a special place inside of him too. We heard footsteps seeing Kakashi and that perv old guy Jiraiya coming towards us.

"Kakashi-sensei… pervy sage what are you both doing here?" Naruto asked curiously as Kakashi said, "Well we were sent to track down what happened to the Artisan's village lord, but it looks like you did all the work for us."

"Were you watching the whole time!?" Sakura growled as Jiraiya rubbed the back of his head saying, "Only a little, you guys took care of everything though."

I laughed relieved but felt the pain in my side groaning as Sakura looked towards me.

"Here let me help you." she said as I shook my head saying, "No take care of Gaara I'll be alright although I may need a piggyback ride."

I looked up at Shino seeing his eyebrow raise while I smiled sheepishly saying, "How about it bug boy?"

"Fine but promise me one thing..." he said going to pick me up seeing his eyebrows furrow in anger saying, "Don't ever call me that again."