TWO
Suna: Part II
Two days later, the group ninja were traveling to the Hidden Sand, doing what ninjas do best; jumping through trees. Shikamaru and Kakashi were in the front with the other Ninja behind them. It was silent most of the way there.
"How much longer, Kakashi?" Shikamaru said breaking the silence.
"Only about an hour" came the reply, "Do you have a strategy?"
"Yea, its not very solid, but it may work. I don't have in the information on the mysterious man or Sasori but I have the information on Deidara from when…." Shikamaru trailed off.
"We are ahead of schedule so lets stop to go over the strategy," Kakashi said giving a signal to the party behind him.
Everyone landed in a near by field before they got to the sand, they were still about an hour away from Suna.
"Got it?" Shikamaru asked after he explained his strategy to everyone.
Everyone nodded.
"There is a lot of us, so a surprise is not a option. We will have to rely on strategy." Shikamaru continued.
"Lets go" Kakashi nodded.
000
"Deidara, you and the kid are going to take on the One Tails." Sasori said as they neared the Sand village. The mysterious man was in the center with Sasori to his right and Deidara to his left.
"What?! Why?! Hnn," came the response.
"Because I refuse to step inside the village unless I am destroying it," Sasori responded casually.
"Fine, Hnn. Are you alright with that kid?" Deidara asked.
"Yes. Gaara is quiet strong. It may take both of us to take him down, but I would like to take him on my self then have you intervene only if I need it," the kid replied. Although they had taken to calling him kid for years, he wasn't exactly that young.
"Hnn."
"We're here," Sasori said as they stopped in front of the village entrance.
"Why aren't there any guards? They had to be expecting us. Hnn," Deidara questioned looking around.
"I released the seal on my spy and had him take down any guards," Sasori answered.
"That's why we have you Sasori, my man. Hnn," Deidara smiled.
"Lets get this over with," the young mad ignored the other blonde and started to walk into the village. It was getting late as the sun was already starting to set.
Deidara took out some clay and made a small bird, with a puff a smoke the bird grew.
"Hop on kid," Deidara said as he hopped on the bird.
He nodded and did as the blonde asked, "drop me off on top of the Kazekage's tower."
"Hnn," Deidara agreed.
Moments later Deidara did has he was told and dropped the Unknown man on top of the tower where the Kazekage was waiting for him.
"Make sure I am able to battle Gaara alone." The unknown man said before he jumped off, "distract the other shinobi on the other side of the village."
"Hnn."
"Diedara!"
"Yea yea, I got it. Go."
The man dropped down and when he stood he faced a familiar face.
Gaara was standing directly in front of him. Gaara was dressed differently than before. He wore a long sleeve shirt with tails down his side that was the color of blood, black pants with a grey strap around calf, black sandals, two grey belts about his waist and a grey one shoulder vest with two buckles that went all the way around. He also had his traditional gourd on his back.
Gaara didn't recognize the man standing in front of him as anything other than an Akatsuki member. The man stood tall and straight as if he was proud of something. He wore the traditional black Akatsuki cloak except it was only buttoned from his chin only down to his waist where there was a black belt, the rest of the cloak was open. He also wore a pair of black pants with ninja boots that came up to his calf and a pair of black gloves that went almost up to his elbow. A mask similar to Kakashi's obscured the lower half of his face while a conical hat with white strips and the bell hanging down hid his hair and eyes. He also carried two Katanas crisscrossed on his back and unseen is the hitai-ate around his neck due to the collar of the Akatsuki cloak.
"Who are you and why are you here, Akatsuki?" Gaara said with a very stern voice with his arms crossed.
The man lifted his arm and pointed towards the redhead, "you."
Gaara only stiffened slightly at the sight, but the man's voice pulled at his heart for a reason he could not find.
Suddenly he lunged at Gaara. Gaara could feel the killing intent coming off the man. He shot sand towards the man, but it was quickly dodged.
He's fast Gaara thought.
The sand automatically swirled around to catch up to the man but it was futile as he had already reached Gaara. The sand dropped as Gaara and the man starting fighting with taijutsu. Neither man was able to land a hit on one another. Gaara felt the man suddenly placed a hand on his back using him to launch him self.
Gaara eyes narrowed at the man as he landed swiftly across from him, "Who are you?"
"Who I am no longer matters," the man replied as he unsheathed his swords and plunged them in to the roof of the tower they were standing on, "Raiton: Sandāgēto!"
An electrical shock shot up wards to the sky, causing a lighting bolt came crashing down to where Gaara was standing.
Got him… hopefully I did not kill him. Pein would be pissed.
The smoke finally clear, but Gaara was nowhere to be found.
The man suddenly felt a presence above him. He looked up to see Gaara about to land on him with a Katana made of sand, but the man was able to grab his Katanas and get out of the way.
The man landed on the other side of the roof with a Katana in each hand. The man lunged at him again and Gaara threw more sand but the man disappeared, then he felt a presence behind him. Only to find two Katanas crisscrossed on his neck.
"How?" Gaara whispered.
"Hiraishin," The man replied.
"That's impossible," a voice said.
Both Gaara and the man looked to where the voice came from.
They saw Kakashi, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino and Hinata standing across the roof. Kakashi was standing with arms in his pocket and his sharingan was already active. Shikamaru was crouching to the right of Kakashi in his normal fighting stance with Ino and Choji standing behind him. Hinata where standing to the left.
"There is no way you know that Jutsu," Kakashi said. "That's the Yondaime Hokage's Jutsu."
The man sighed.
Gaara eyed the man behind him curiously at the sound of a sigh.
I can't kill Gaara, but there is no way I can take on that many ninja at once. Where is Deidara when I need him?
The man removed the Katanas from Gaara's neck and jumped back as he saw a shadow in the moonlight slowly creeping towards him.
As soon as he started to land he heard a loud voice shouting from behind him, "Gaara!"
He looked up and saw Temari, Gaara's sister about lung down on top of him; he shook his head and rolled his eyes as he dodged the attack. The man was able to disappear and reappear behind the blond, kicking her in the back. Temari was able to readjust her self then and the slides back to where she is standing in front of Gaara and the leaf Ninja.
The man landed across the roof from the other ninja. He eyed them curiously for a moment. He was trying to come up with a battle strategy that wouldn't kill Gaara, when Temari suddenly took out her fan about to create a Jutsu. He knew what was coming so he pours chakra into his feet to keep his ground.
"Guys, hold your ground. Fusajin no Jutsu!" Temari yelled waving her fan.
A gust of strong wind blew towards him, but he was able to hold his ground. However the conical hat upon his head blew off…
Revealing striking blond spiky hair.