Disclaimer: I own the OCs in this fic, the rest is Masashi Kishomoto's. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.
Character age:
Akane, Itachi: 18
Naruto, Sasuke: 12/13
Shisui: 21
Kakashi: 26
We caught up with them. Kankuro stopped and tried to stop us, but Haku and I were faster and we body flickered in front of Gaara and Temari. Naruto joined us and went behind them, my summon still with Chōjūrō. I barely had the time to blink that sand was coming straight at us, and it was fast. Haku was faster and created a shield of ice in front of us. I was about to go out of hiding when Gaara sent sand all around him in extremely sharp spikes. I executed hand seals and spat water to form my water shield, and froze it, Haku joining me to be protected. Naruto created a bunch of clones to protect himself and smoke was all around him, and Temari was nowhere to be seen. My cousin tried a surprise attack, sending clones to attack Gaara, but they were all popped. Naruto almost was too if it wasn't for Temari's surprise intervention.
"Gaara, stop!" his sister pleaded. He barely frowned at her.
"If you become an hindrance to the mission I will kill you too."
"No offense, but if the Kazekage is the one who gave you your mission, then it's a scam. He wasn't even in Konoha to begin with, Orochimaru stole his identity. Sorry, he's probably dead by now." Gaara didn't even budge, his eyes turning lazily to me as Temari widened her eyes in shock. Kiri's bluntness just for you!
"So?" Haku and I avoided sand. Again, and again, until violent wind blew it away. I looked where the wind came from and smirked at Temari, open fan in her hands, Naruto frowning next to her. Right, he knew Rasa was their father and the Kazekage if I remember well.
"How can you say that of your father Gaara!?" Naruto screamed at the red haired boy.
"My father tried to kill me numerous time to turn me into the perfect weapon for Suna. His death is not..."
"A weapon!? Is that all you think you are!? A weapon!? Don't you remember the promise we made to each other when I left Suna!? That one day we would be Hokage and Kazekage! What happened to that!?"
"It is a foolish promise. We are weapons Naruto, none of us will ever be seen as anything else than that." I frowned. Yagura...was made a jinchuriki before he became the Mizukage even if he was already considered for the job, and to keep his position mastered his bijuu in a record time.
"I TOLD YOU I WOULD PROVE THEM WRONG! I'LL PROVE YOU WRONG TOO GAARA!" Naruto created even more clones than before and as they went against Gaara, I went to Temari.
"Temari, state your position in this fight now. It will be important later on, because sorry but there's no way you're winning this with six Kiri-nin in town, four of them being accomplished or in training Swordsmen."
"It was too sudden of him to attack Konoha," she admitted with sad eyes, "Kankuro and I have no reason to fight against you if...if our father is dead. But Gaara..."
"We'll deal with it, we won't kill him but make sure he's in no state to keep fighting. Go to Kankuro, show that," I placed one of my special kunai in her hand and made her close it on the weapon, "to my student and he'll know you're cool. Tell him to go back help the others." She nodded and left with one last look to her brother.
I summoned my katana and teleported to Haku's kunai, blocking the kunai aimed at him. I bit the inside of my cheek at the purple liquid covering the blades. I knew Deidara wouldn't be alone.
"Sensei..." Haku trailed off, but I didn't glance at him.
"Naruto and you take care of Gaara, sorry but I can't let someone else interfere, especially without knowing their level." I felt Haku tensed behind me and I jumped down, wind chakra on my katana blade. I threw two wind blades to where the kunai came from, my chakra making deep and clean cuts in the earth.
My eyes followed movement to the right and my feet barely touched the ground when I landed that I was following Sasori. How could I ever, after Kiri, trust Sasori who was basically a stranger and even crushing on him in my past life was above me. I was a stupid hormonal teenage girl after all I guess, and mom paid the price. The image of her still body, her skin a dull gray was still burned in my mind.
I ran after him for a while actually, I realized it when I spotted the guard towers signaling we were leaving Konoha's territory. I was pretty sure I would not even see the fighting in Konoha from there. I sent another wind blade and Sasori dodged, revealing himself to me. Or his huge puppet. Hiruko, wasn't it?
"Who the hell are you, you and the blond guy bombing the village? Who sent you here and why?" I asked coldly as he finally, finally turned to me. I clenched my fists tightly and he noticed, a dry chuckle coming from him.
"Scared of me little girl?"
"No, I won't allow myself to be scared of someone who hides in a puppet."
"Oh, you've already noticed? The Mizukage did a good job I guess."
"I'm still alive, ain't I?" I snorted back and released a storage seal through my left foot. I jumped and water violently popped out of the seal. Sasori placed his metal tail in front of him. "Fuuton: High Wind Technique!" The water became even more violent and Sasori's tail flew into pieces. I executed another series of seals. "Suiton: Wild Water Wave!" I focus an important dose of wind chakra in it and my jutsu pierced through the water of the seal. I heard wood cracking. With the water still attacking, I created three water clones and made them put an explosive seal on them. I landed on a tree branch when my clones exploded, pieces of wood and weapons flying into pieces. Something jumped out of the Hiruko puppet but I didn't have the time to care, because a certain smell hit my nose. I stopped breathing and put a blank storage seal on the tree, activating it to suck the poison gas up.
"It's quite impressive to destroy Hiruko so fast," I heard a painfully familiar voice said in front of me, a voice I had not heard for so long, "yet you were too impatient and forgot it was just a puppet, a weapon. Kiri ninja are as impatient as ever. You did a good job at getting rid of the gas without spreading it any further, I'm impressed." I looked up and glared at Sasori's mocking smirk, his brown eyes still bored and red hair still messy and curly. Just like I remembered him to be. He wasn't trying to coax me this time though, we were enemies.
"Why are you and that blond guy helping Orochimaru?" I asked and he stared at me for a second before frowning.
"We're not helping that snake."
"Then why did he steal the Kazekage's identity and is fighting the Hokage right now?" From the look on his face, he wasn't expecting that. Or Obito didn't tell them, or Orochimaru is way too good at manipulating even his old organization. Either way, I knew Sasori hated Orochimaru with passion.
"This attack was deemed to be a lost one for Suna and Oto anyway." I heard him mutter under his breath before his eyes were locked in a staring contest with mine. "There is something annoying with you though Uzumaki. Why are you looking at me with such anger when it's the first time we meet?"
"I know things about you, you don't seem like the kind of guy I would like."
"Say the girl coming from a cursed clan."
"I see my old man is talkative?" He seemed shocked for a brief second and his eyes grew cold. "Your grandma wasn't very nice to me when I met her, is my dad better? You have the same taste in coats, don't you?"
"You know too much," he stated and I used my blade to block the tip of the tail he threw at me with chakra strings.
I didn't know all of Sasori's tricks. However, I knew he was a puppet master, the best of the best and I would need to reach him. Problem was: I needed to reach him, and he was not gonna let me do that.
"Hiding in the Mist Technique," I whispered and blew mist from my mouth.
The problem was you could not feel puppets because they didn't produce any chakra, and Sasori's chakra was very faint. Maybe using this jutsu was a mistake on my part, but I could go full Silent Killing mode on him. I threw my kunai kind of everywhere. I was up against puppets, but mist was everywhere and it was at my advantage. I could turn mist into a multitude of ice spikes.
I fucking had this, I wasn't the same Akane as in my past life.
I went behind him without a sound and raised my sword, just to meet something solid. My katana broke and I cursed. As I was about to make another move, the mist became less dense, enough for me to see the shadow of Sasori's puppet and the black form in front of it. Was the small dose of poison interfering? Probably, I was starting to feel dizzy. I was about to take a boosting seal when I dropped on my knees, the mist disappearing entirely. My hand was clenched on my flak jacket on the stomach area.
It was burning. The seal was burning! It was hurting like hell and...and I felt like...no, my chakra was leaving me!
What...Sandaime? Was he...summoning the Shinigami!?
I took my contact seal and activated it, hoping Mangetsu or Dai showed up and quick, because Sasori's smirk was far from pleasant to see.
"Would you happen to have health problem?" he taunted as he jumped in front of me, his puppet getting closer and closer. But he stopped and frowned. "Wait, it's not the effects of the poison. I can't turn you in a puppet if your body is sick." I felt flattered, really. But at that rhythm I would die, or at least pass out from chakra exhaustion.
I widened my eyes when the Uchiha I was with earlier cast a fire jutsu at Sasori, who jumped back, and landed in front of me. I tried to form words, anything to tell him he was out of his league and he should leave me here, that he should not help me.
Yet he attacked. I could only watch, powerless, how he put up a fight for a minute before being touched by a needle dripping in poison. I could only hear his pain moans as black invaded my vision, my body on fire. I needed to cool my body down. I needed to.
So, I did. I used the kinjutsu I created and couldn't control and slowly froze the inside of my body, sighing in relief at the coolness in my insides and how good it felt.
And I fainted, the Uchiha giving out one last pained breath before his body relax entirely.
"You're fucking annoying!" the bomb guy spat at Itachi as his bird was covered in black flames. Itachi wiped the blood from his eye and dodged the clay coming at him, which exploded in the forest behind him, and the blonde let go of his burning bird to create another one. He had let Shisui deal with the man in the stadium and attacked the one in the black and red coat, following him when he started to flee. Now he was out of the village but still in its limits. His red glance looked down when he felt someone else and frowned when he recognized one of Akane's teammate, who was in his Bingo Book. One of the Seven. He looked back and joined Itachi when he saw him.
"That guy is going toward Uzu's position," he informed the Uchiha with irritation in his voice, "I don't know what happened but she's in troubles right now."
"Where is your brother?"
"I left him behind, he was going to where his teammates were. What's worrisome is that guy is going to where Uzu is and if she is that far from Konoha, then it means she wanted to have space to fight."
"A dangerous ninja then," Itachi guessed, eyes staring straight in front of him, "maybe that man didn't come alone."
The burning bird started to glow and exploded. Itachi used his Susanoo to protect himself. When the smoke disappeared, he saw the Swordsman, Mangetsu if he remembered well, reformed himself as if nothing had ever happened. He stopped his technique and winced slightly, the pain in his body barely bearable. The Susanoo...Itachi tried his best not to use it, like his Mangekyou Sharingan, but right now he didn't care. The blonde man was a threat, and if what Mangetsu said was true, then Akane was in a bad state and there was another ninja lurking around.
"I hope she's not dead," he thought out loud and he cursed himself for having forgotten he was not alone.
"Uzu is way too stubborn to die, that's what I said to that Shisui when I saw him on my mission years ago. She won't die a useless death," was the confident reply he got. Kiri was not famous for comradeship, which was one of the reason why Shisui was having such a hard time seeing Akane wearing Kiri's symbol, yet that guy was rushing to her to help. Itachi's eyes turned vague. Kiri and the Land of Water did not let information about them get out of the borders, so nobody really knew how it was over there except those who lived there. From what he witnessed, Akane's team all trusted each other, so as Akane's friend, he would do the same. Not that he could do more when she would leave again. Shisui...Shisui needed to do the same, for his own sake.
Wind was lashing their faces but none of them cared. They were too busy avoiding the many bombs they were sent. Quickly, they left Konoha territory and the trees grew denser. Mangetsu sped up out of sudden, his face falling quickly. He jumped down and Itachi followed, noticing the earth and grass going from dry to humid to completely wet.
The Uchiha saw Akane, lying down on the ground, and another shinobi wearing the Uchiha crest motionless a few meters away. His sharingan met bored brown eyes as the blond man lowered his bird closer to him.
They were both wearing the same coat. Black with red clouds.
"We're done here," the bomber said and Sasori jumped behind him on the bird, "the girl got your puppet my man, yeah?"
"Shut up," Sasori replied with annoyance, "she was disappointing in the end, nothing like what he told us, weak for someone who learned from a Kage." They took off, under Itachi's harsh gaze before the Uchiha checked his clansman pulse. When he found none, he went to the two Kiri-nin's sides. He looked for a pulse and widened his eyes when he found none.
"Calm down Uchiha, she's not dead," Mangetsu told him in agitated voice, "fuck what is Dai doing? I can't..." He didn't finish his sentence and placed a hand over her heart and the other on her forehead. He frowned and drew back his lips in frustration, one sharp canine coming into view.
"Mangetsu!" their other teammate, Dai, yelled as he landed next to them, followed by Hyuuga Ko, Sasuke and two anbu. The young man rushed to Akane and placed a hand on her cheek, cursing at how cold she was. Almost as if she had been dead for a long time, worrying Itachi even more. The only thing keeping him from snapping was that he didn't know Akane's techniques, and this might very well be one of them. "I told her not to use it, that I wouldn't be able to...what a fucking moron!"
"I tried to control the water of her body around her brain and her heart but it keeps freezing."
"Go get her stuff Mangetsu, I take care of her. Uchiha, move aside." Itachi did and watched him taking out different seals from his back pouch. The Uchiha recognized Akane's hand writing on them. Dai looked through them and put one on her forehead, executed a series of hand seals and the symbols on the paper spread out onto her skin. "Okay, now she's in stasis, nothing will get worse, nothing will get better. Hyuuga, if you were to block some of her tenketsu around her heart and vital organs, would they suffer from it?"
"No," Ko answered, kneeling next to them, "if she stays unconscious then it will be fine and leaving her in a forced coma could be good."
"Great, because putting someone in stasis is not the best. We need to go to the hospital. Hey, anbu kid!" the medic called out to the boy next to a stunned Sasuke, "We can't move her joints without risking permanent damages, can you transport her with one of your ink bird?" As they were getting ready to transport her, Mangetsu picked up all of Akane's kunai and the seal on the tree, but stopped at the broken pieces of her katana.
"Dai, her katana is broken."
"So what?"
"Uzu always uses her wind affinity to sharpen her katana blade."
"That man used something hard enough to counter it and break it," Itachi stated with a frown on his face and Mangetsu nodded.
Itachi needed to report this. Black coats and red clouds. They...were a serious threat.
"Gaara..." Naruto trailed off, in front of his immobile friend, who was sitting on the ground with an angry scowl on his face, "please stop it. Stop the fight, you can't move anymore and Shukaku is under control."
"Shut...up!" he growled between clenched teeth as Haku joined Naruto, an arm injured. "You don't...you don't understand!"
"You know I do Gaara," Naruto shot back with sadness, "being alone, being rejected when we were children without knowing why. Being denied love by everyone and watch people having others to rely on when they keep pushing you away. I hated them so much, I wanted to know why...I wanted to know what I did wrong. But Iruka-sensei treated me kindly when I went to the Academy, even if I didn't have any friends. Aunty and nee-chan arrived when I was eight and nee-chan saved my life and ended up in the hospital, but Aunty didn't resent me because I was the one nee-chan tried to protect with Sasuke 'ttebayo! They...they taught me and showed me how it was to have a family and how good it was! You think you're alone but you're not! You've got a brother and a sister who love you too, who just want to be close to you! You just, you just have to let them get close and they'll help you prove yourself to your village, prove you're not just a monster! Don't let Shukaku tell you how to live your life! You're Gaara, shinobi of Suna, not Gaara the monster!"
"Na...ruto..." Gaara whispered with wide eyes.
"We promised each other we would prove ourselves to them, that we would be Hokage and Kazekage!" the young Uzumaki reminded him, limping pitifully to his fallen friend. Haku grabbed the back of his orange jacket when he started to fall forward and helped him to reach Gaara. He stretched out his hand to the Sand jinchuriki, a determined spark burning in his blue eyes. "I don't care if we're not from the same village, you are one of my first friends Gaara, the first one who understood how I felt and I know you'll help me in the future. It's because we're friends I want to help you now and make you realize you're not alone. Please, let me help you!"
Gaara stared, completely astonished, at Naruto. Even after everything, he still wanted to be his friend. It was with a trembling hand he took Naruto's hand, who grinned and held it even tighter, silently making him understand he would be here.
Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke and squinted harshly at Gaara. Temari and Kankuro, who joined them a while earlier, went in front of their little brother by reflex.
"Temari, Kankuro," Gaara started slowly, "thank you, but it's enough. I'm...done fighting for today, you two should be too."
"Suna and Oto are retreating and we're trying to catch as many of them as we can. You three will go in T&I for a while."
"We will answer to Konoha," Gaara spoke out, his turquoise eyes meeting Kakashi's black and red ones, "right now we are under the impression our father, the Fourth Kazekage, might have been killed by Orochimaru and gotten his identity stolen. It is what Sasaki Akane implied before she left."
"I see," Kakashi said thoughtfully and he took his genin on his back, "let's go to the hospital. The fights are over. Haku, on the way we were with Terumi Dai, he left when a seal started glowing red." Haku widened his eyes and turned around to see Suigetsu and Chōjūrō running toward him.
"Mangetsu went to Uzu too and asked me to come as backup," Suigetsu filled him in with a long face, "but yeah, Konoha is cleaning up its streets."
"Do we agree you will do as I say?" Kakashi asked the three Sand genin, who all nodded quietly. "Fine, let's go."
The way back to the village was silent, the only sound between them being the wind in the leaves, even after picking up the genin who had stayed behind. They all, except for Naruto who had passed out, widened their eyes in horror at the sight of the bodies in the street, all from Konoha, Suna or Oto. Hinata held back a sob, her Byakugan showing her the damages all around the village.
"Neji, Shikamaru, take the Sand genin to T&I. Hum...Suigetsu, is it? Go with them please, in case of..."
"I get it," the young swordsman cut him off idly. They walked to the hospital quietly and a strangled sob escaped Sakura. She tried to stop it by pressing her hands against her mouth, but everybody heard it. Nobody said anything. The only persons not fazed by the deadly scenery around them were Chōjūrō and Haku. The state Konoha was in was the usual state of Kiri and the Land of Water. The gap between the two nations had never been so clear in the entirety of the Chuunin Exams.
"Kakashi-kun." They stopped at the hospital entrance. Sasaki Akiko was there with some nurses, her face grave. "Naruto?"
"He's exhausted but alive, no life threatening injuries." She nodded with dull eyes. "Akiko-san?"
"Sandaime-sama...passed away during his fight against Orochimaru," she reported slowly, as if to be sure they would all perfectly comprehend it. The Hokage...was dead. Suna and Oto has lost, but they took their leader with them.
Hey! Thanks for reading! Please review so that I know you liked it :)
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