My eyes shifted over to where the kages are seated, it was hard to see through the smoke, but I knew uncle Yagura was still up there, somewhere. That's where I need to go. I squinted a bit through the smoke when I noticed something on the roof of the building where the kage were seated. Uncle Yagura was up there with both the Hokage and the Kazekage.

There was other movement up there, a person in each corner of the roof. A beam of purple light went up from each of their positions and spread putting a barrier in place. Uncle Yagura was trapped in there with the other kage.

I used the transportation jutsu to appear on that rooftop just outside of the barrier. I was just about to punch a hole in the barrier to shatter it when I saw a ninja of the Leaf attempt to run through it and catch on fire. He rolled away in a burning heap.

Through the barrier I could see that the Kazekage had a hold of the Hokage and was holding a kunai to his neck. Uncle Yagura was standing across from the two of them trying to figure out his next move. I know that he was somewhat friends with the older man, but would he care that the Hokage was killed other than maintaining peace between our two nations? The bonds that they have in place are sturdy enough, and I'm sure it will only get more complicated if uncle Yagura had to place his trust in someone other than Hiruzen Sarutobi.

I looked at the barrier again, I wonder if I could punch through with my coral armor? The coral would protect me from the flames, but could this barrier do anything else than just set someone's body on fire?

Black tendrils of coral trailed up my arms and covered my fists. The coral suddenly solidified to become armor, if I continue to concentrate the coral will remain indestructible on the outside and on the inside it will move along with the contours of my muscles to make it more comfortable. This is the only way I can use it otherwise I wouldn't be able to move.

I firmly planted my feet into the tiles of the roof and concentrated chakra into my left fist as I punched the barrier. Red flames trailed up my arm, but there was nothing else for it to attach itself to other than my coral and it fizzled out when I withdrew my arm from the barrier. I punched with my right arm, putting more chakra behind the punch and heard a slight crack. I withdrew that arm only to see the slight spider webbing cracks slowly fix themselves.

My brows furrowed, if I want to actually take down this barrier I may have to use up all of my chakra. I glanced at my blackened fists before thinking it through. What if I used my Kukushibyo with added chakra around the blade? That way once it impacted the barrier it would be more likely to shatter because of the sharpness of the blade.

Just as I was about to reach for my Kukushibyo a voice called out to me, uncle Yagura. "Ketto, leave us!"

"What do you mean, I can get you out." I argued.

"Look around you Ketto." he demanded. I looked, all of the anbu from the different villages were fighting among each other. The only Mist ninja I could see were the ones I spotted in the audience before. Emon was still missing, I assumed he was somewhere else with reinforcements, but I still didn't know for certain. Gaara, Temari and Kankuro disappeared from the arena. Sasuke was also gone, so he must have went after them. It looked like everything was falling apart. "This is bigger than just keeping me safe, don't worry about me. I need you to aid the Leaf ninja's, and to do that I need you to pursue the one tails jinchuriki. He is not to be killed, do you understand that? He will be under our protection. Subdue the one tails jinchuriki and bring him back here."

"What about you?!" I demanded.

"I just told you that I'll be fine!" he snapped. He tossed his Mizukage headpiece to the side and took off his robe exposing his regular ninja attire including his green poncho. "This man isn't the Kazekage, he's been using the Sand ninja. I need you to contain this situation by controlling the one tails. Can I trust you to do that?"

"Yes," I grit my teeth, unhappy with how things are playing out. I don't really want to leave him here, but I guess with the barrier in place he will only have to worry about the man impersonating the Kazekage. Once the barrier disappears though… I looked to the ninja at the corners of the barrier, could uncle Yagura handle them too?

"Ketto go!" he yelled.

I willed myself to move, I'll choose to believe in uncle Yagura's abilities, even if his chakra is sure to be depleted once this battle is over. I used the transportation jutsu to appear in the stands over where I glanced Shozouki along with Mitsuru and Jiro fighting enemy ninja together.

"Lady Ketto!" Jiro exclaimed. His blade clashed with one from an enemy ninja who he managed to push back. "Where did you disappear to?!"

"I tried to free the Mizukage from the barrier he's trapped in, but he gave me orders to go after the one tails jinchuriki." I said. "I just came to tell you to keep assisting the Leaf ninja's."

"What?! No way, I'm going with you!" Jiro yelled. He pointed his katana at me. "Who knows what could happen to you if we let you go on your own!"

"Lady Ketto, I'm sorry, but I'm going with you too." Mitsuru said. He was using a kunai of his own to deflect other kunai that were being thrown at him.

"The three of you go then." Shozouki said. "I'll stay here and help the Leaf ninja, our reinforcements should be here soon. Go after the one tails like the Mizukage ordered."

"Got it!" Jiro agreed, he made to grab my arm, but it was still covered in black coral up to my shoulder. Jiro didn't seem too bothered by my dodge and recovered quickly. "Well come on, some other Leaf ninja already went off to go after them. Naruto was one of them."

I turned and ran off knowing that both Jiro and Mitsuru would follow me. As long as I didn't use any of Isobu's speed they should be able to keep up with me. Just in case, I kept glancing behind me to make sure they were there.

We followed all of the footprints of the ninja that went through the woods before us and were eventually lead to a clearing with a group of other ninja, but they weren't allies, they were from the Sound village. They already spotted us, so there was no point in trying to hide ourselves. "Jiro, Mitsuru, I know it's a bit of a deviation from our plan, but what do you say we take care of these Sound ninja?" I reached for my Kukushibyo and detached it from my belt.

"Yeah, I don't mind." Jiro said. He already had his katana in hand and I could sense his bloodlust.

"It will be less for us to deal with later." Mitsuru agreed. He started hand signs for the water dragon.

"That's a lot of talk for a bunch of brats." one of the Sound ninja growled. "We'll teach you a lesson!"

"Oh, you can try." I said. I raised my Kukushibyo and pointed it at the one who spoke. "Though, I'm sure I'll kill you first." I smirked as he seemed to get more angered.

"You'll kill me!? I would like to see you try!" he yelled.

"It'll be my pleasure." I ran at him with my Kukushibyo raised, ready to fight. I could sense Jiro and Mitsuru also attacking from either side of me, but I didn't pay them too much attention. This Sound ninja who seemed to be in charge of this squad was my target.

He managed to dodge my attacks for awhile, but then I started to use Isobu's speed. I was able to get behind him and used my Kukushibyo to pierce his back. Once I pushed his limp body off my blade I quickly turned and attacked the next Sound ninja. There were nine total, I just killed one, Mitsuru had another one knocked out on the ground, while Jiro just mortally wounded another. That's three down and six to go.

The only weapons these Sound ninja had were kunai and shuriken, they didn't stand a chance against the size of my Kukushibyo or Jiro's katana. Two of the Sound ninja tried to sneak up behind Mitsuru and attack him from behind, but I managed to intercept and dispose of them quickly.

Three Sound ninja were bombarding Jiro with attacks. It was hard for him to keep up so I threw my Kukushibyo at the nearest Sound ninja to me. The blade impaled him and lodged itself into the ground at the force of the throw. The Sound ninja's dead body slumped against the blade but otherwise fell to the ground.

I detached the executioner's blade from my belt and charge forward to assist Jiro with the other two Sound ninja. I was able to get behind one of them and behead him with my executioner's blade while Jiro gutted the other. That just leaves the one Sound ninja left. I looked over to Mitsuru, who just slammed his opponent through several trees with his water dragon and he didn't get back up.

I tried to shake the blood off of the executioner's blade, but didn't succeed in getting it all off. I decided that I could deal with it later considering it may collect more blood. I reattached the executioner's blade to my belt and walked over to the Sound ninja that was impaled by my Kukushibyo. I put one foot against the ninja's back and braced myself to pull the blade out. When I yanked the blade out, I could hear the blade cutting through more of his flesh as it slowly left his body. More blood spilled, I noticed that I was covered in it. I must not have noticed or cared a moment ago when I was fighting, but now that it's all over I could feel the drying blood sticky on my skin and soaking the bandages on my shins and clothes. When my Kukushibyo was finally released, I used the material of my leggings to try and wipe some blood off of the blade. My leggings were filthy anyway, so what's a little more blood?

"Lady Ketto." Mitsuru started.

"Hn," I looked over to him to see him trying to catch his breath as he walked over to me.

He pulled his sleeve over his hand and sighed, "You have blood on your face." He moved his hand to clean the offending blood when I stopped him by taking a step back.

"It's fine, there will probably be more blood." I said.

Mitsuru sighed again and grabbed my face to start wiping the blood off. "Just because you are the Demon of the Mist doesn't mean you have to look like one. If there's more blood I can clean that off your face too. We don't need the Leaf ninja to be afraid of you by your appearance, do you want them to treat you like Kiri nin do?"

I scoffed, "I don't care what they think about me."

"Even Naruto?" Jiro asked, "He was your first friend here right? What would you do if he became afraid of you and didn't want to be your friend anymore?"

"Jiro and I have already accepted you for who you are. The Leaf ninja don't know a lot about you. Would it really not bother you if they didn't want anything to do with you after they find out?" Mitsuru added.

I stayed silent. That would be a problem, I would definitely care if Naruto didn't want to be my friend anymore, and all because of a little blood. I'll have to remember that people from the Leaf are more caring, seeing someone drenched in blood usually makes a person want to run away from the one covered in blood. Or towards depending on the situation, but it's obvious that I was the one to cause the pain and suffering.

"Did you get it all?" I finally asked.

"Most of it." Mitsuru said. "It started to dry so there is a bit of red stained onto your cheek, but for the most part it's gone."

"Thanks, we should get moving. Naruto may need our help." I said.

I ran off with Mitsuru and Jiro following me. "Do you know where they are?" Mitsuru wondered. "How far can you sense them?"

"A few kilometers out, they are just at the edge of what I can sense." I said. "It feels like someone stayed behind to fight, as if they used themselves as a distraction. They're at the edge of what I can sense and the furthest away. I can only assume that someone stayed behind to fight Sasuke so that the other could get away with Gaara. The group in between us and them must be Naruto's group."

"Right, so what's our plan?" Mitsuru wondered.

"If it comes to it, we may have to split up." I could tell that Jiro was about to argue, so I continued, "Our primary goal is to bring the one tails jinchuriki back to the Leaf village alive. We can't allow ourselves to be deterred on our mission. The sand ninja with him are also to be brought back, they don't know that something has happened to their Kazekage and are most likely being used. Any other Sound ninja we encounter are to be killed."

"You said something to us before the last exam started. Did you know this would happen?" Mitsuru asked.

"Not exactly, but I did know something was going to happen." I revealed. "I didn't know the true reason behind why we were sent here for the exams until just recently. Ultimately, we are to serve as a defense of sorts to help protect and preserve the Leaf village during the ambush."

"It was a warning, you couldn't tell us the truth so you warned us about what could happen." Jiro said. "Heh, sorry for getting stuck in the genjutsu."

"It's fine, we know that you're kind of weak against genjutsu." I said.

"I can't help it! My kenjutsu and taijutsu come first." he defended.

"Maybe if you balance everything out a bit more you wouldn't be such an inconvenience." Mitsuru said.

"What?! Mitsuru, you can't mean that?! I'm not an inconvenience right Lady Ketto?" Jiro yelled over to me. "Lady Ketto, tell him he's wrong, I'm not an inconvenience."

"Sometimes you are." I said. Jiro faltered in his steps and almost fell off the branch he landed on. "That just means you can improve your skills to become stronger."

"How far away are they?" Mitsuru asked, changing the subject.

"They're still out quite a distance. We started after them later than Naruto's team so it will take us longer to get to them." I said. "Naruto hasn't gotten there yet either, but he's closing in. Wait, Naruto is going around two of them, they have different chakra than the ones before. It's probably two other ninja that are fighting and he doesn't want to get involved."

"Should we go around too?" Mitsuru asked.

"Yes, only one of us will aid the Leaf ninja that is currently in a battle." I said. "Jiro, that will be you."

"What do you mean me?! I want to stay with you Lady Ketto?!" Jiro whined.

"The Sand ninja battling has a tainted chakra. I believe that it's Kankuro, I managed to get a hit on him earlier." I said. "You would be the best option in combat considering that he is better at long ranged attacks and I don't think he would be very skilled in close combat. I don't think he will have much chakra left either."

"You managed to get a hit on him? You mean he's dying?" Mitsuru questioned.

"He is, Jiro, I don't think that the fight will last too long considering his condition. I'll need you to bring him to the hospital in the Leaf village after. His life won't be saved, but he can at least be comfortable while he waits for death." The plan was to bring the three Sand ninja back to the Leaf village, but Kankuro's fate was decided before I knew the Sand village was being manipulated. There's nothing that can be done about saving Kankuro's life, there isn't a cure to the black coral's poison. He will just have to be a casualty in this siege on the village.

We continued to run through the treetops for a while longer before I stopped suddenly. Mitsuru and Jiro didn't notice at first so they stopped on the next tree branch.

"Lady Ketto?" Jiro looked to me curiously.

"This is where we go our separate ways." I said. "Jiro, you will continue forward into the fight. Mitsuru and I will go around and rendezvous with Naruto's group. Remember, Kankuro will need to be brought to the hospital. Mitsuru and I will bring Gaara and Temari back so they can at least say their goodbyes to their brother."

"Got it!" he braced himself to jump away, but then he turned to us. "Take care of yourselves. I better see you back in the village just as you are. If either of you is hurt then-"

I cut him off, "Don't get all sentimental. We'll be fine, remember who you're talking to."

"That's exactly why I'm worried." Jiro said. With his katana in hand he added, "I'm off!"

"Alright, let's continue Mitsuru." I said. I altered our course to go around the fighting with Mitsuru following me. We continued in the direction of where Naruto would be for a while without any other disturbances. In no time, we caught up to the other chakra signatures because they stopped moving.

Mitsuru and I emerged from a bunch of trees to see Naruto facing off with a large sand creature. Naruto had a giant toad summoned while the sand creature looked like it was consuming someone. This must be the one tails, so that must mean that is Gaara's body. It doesn't look like Gaara has much control over it. The giant toad pulled out a equally large katana from a holster on its back and I knew that I wouldn't have to step in for awhile. I could still assess the situation.

"Lady Ketto, what's happening here?" Mitsuru questioned. He looked uncertain, which I guess is understandable, this isn't what I was expecting to run into either.

"It looks like there is going to be a battle between jinchuriki's." I said. I looked around and saw an unconscious Sakura pinned to a tree by some sand. Like the giant sand creature, this sand had purple vein markings on it. Upon closer inspection it looked like the sand was crushing her. "Mitsuru, can you use your water dragon to get Sakura out of this? If the sand continues to crush her then she won't make it back to the village."

"I can try, it might take some time." he said.

"That's fine, just try and get her out." I said. "Then I need you to start heading back to the village with her, she may need some help recovering." I looked around some more and saw Sasuke on his hands and knees on a tree branch. "You may have to take Sasuke with you too." I jumped away from Mitsuru to get closer to Sasuke, who was still conscious. Sasuke had markings running across his body, he same ones I saw a flash of during the second exam.

"Ketto?" Sasuke questioned. "What are you doing here?"

"The Mizukage sent me to bring the Sand ninja back to the village." I explained. "Someone was masquerading as the Kazekage and orchestrated this. The Sand ninja's were manipulated into participating. I'm supposed to bring them back so we can figure something out being that they were tricked into breaking the peace treaty."

Sasuke looked behind us to look at Sakura. "Will he be able to get her out?"

"Maybe, he's going to try." I said. "He's going to take her back to the village for some medical treatment. You should go with, your chakra seems unbalanced again."

"What do you know about that?" Sasuke growled.

"The curse mark?" I raised a brow, "I saw it during the preliminaries. It makes you incapable of maintaining a steady flow of chakra."

"I can still try to help." Sasuke argued. He tried to stand only to end up hunching over anyway.

"Stop." I held him in place when he tried to move forward. "Let Mitsuru help you back to the village, I can help Naruto."

"Don't tell me what to do, I can still try and help." Sasuke grit through his teeth. He was knocked back down to his knees by a big gust of wind. My hair flew up, blue strands swirling in my ponytail, but otherwise I was able to stay standing. I looked over to Gaara and Naruto's fight to see that the giant toad used his katana to cut off one of the sand spirits arms. The missing appendage was turning back into loose sand and falling to the forest floor.

"Do you really think you can do anything to help?" I questioned. "Especially in your condition. Even if you weren't suffering from the curse mark you wouldn't be able to stand a chance against the one tails." I watched as Sasuke's face fell. "Don't let it get to you, it just means right now you should withdraw."

"Tch," Sasuke looked away from me. "Fine, just don't let anything happen to either of them. Do you hear me Momochi? I swear if anything happens to them, then I'm coming after you."

I watched him for a moment longer. I was confused, I didn't think that Sasuke cared much for anyone, but here he is asking me to protect both Sakura and Naruto. He feels deeply for both of them and is willing to avenge them if anything happened to them. Suddenly, I turned away from him. "Don't worry, Naruto is my friend too and his friendship is precious to me. I'll make sure nothing happens to him, now go to Mitsuru, he'll get you back to the village to someone who can help you with that curse mark."

I jumped off the tree branch Sasuke was on to get closer to Naruto and the giant toad. I overheard Naruto yell to the toad, "Hey chief, hold on a second. Don't go in that direction, Sakura's still there! Try and lure him over this way if you can."

"Sakura?" the chief toad asked.

"It's his little girl friend pop. Right kid?" the smaller orange toad on Naruto's head said.

"Naruto!" I called.

They all looked at me. Naruto and the other two toads, and Gaara's sand spirit. "Ketto?!" Naruto yelled. "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to help." I said. I jumped from my tree branch to the head of the chief toad to be next to Naruto.

I could hear sand moving and I looked over to Gaara to see his figure appear in the center of the sand spirits head.

"What the heck is that?" Naruto asked. I wasn't sure what was happening exactly so I didn't respond.

"A spiritualist medium." the chief toad said.

"To thank you for entertaining me today, I'll show you the true power of the manifestation of the sand." Gaara said.

"The circles under his eyes they're signs of insomnia. Evidence that the medium has been possessed by the Shukaku." the chief explained.

"What do you mean insomnia?" Naruto questioned.

"It's not that hard to tell that Gaara doesn't sleep much." I said. I thought about it a bit more and added, "It's not that shocking that Gaara has insomnia." As the three tails jinchuriki I've never experienced insomnia, and I doubt Naruto has had the same issue. It must be something particular to the one tails.

"Those possessed by Shukaku the sand spirit are no longer able to sleep soundly through the night, the terror is too great." the chief said. "Before one does sleep the Shukaku will eat away at your psyche until the person that you once were ceases to exist. Since he normally doesn't get much sleep, the mediums personality becomes quite unstable. As long as the spiritualist medium is awake, the Shukaku's true power is held in only danger is if the medium finally falls asleep."

So insomnia is particular to the jinchuriki of the one tails. I guess it's only natural that a demon would totally screw with your mind for their own benefit. If the hosts psyche drastically changes and they hardly have any sleep in general, then I can imagine that it would be easier for the demon to break through the seal keeping them within the host's body. But Gaara was born with the spirit inside of him, I wonder if that would still be the same? Maybe not the same as in breaking through a seal, but what if Gaara's mental instability is what pushes him over the edge?

Suddenly, Gaara said, "Clay possum jutsu." He did a hand sign and slumped forward unconscious. Wait, this means the one tails will surface.

"He's done it." the chief said.

"I don't like this at all, what's going to happen?" Naruto asked.

"Whatever happens something tells me it won't be good." I said.

"If he's set the clay possum jutsu in motion then the Shukaku will be unleashed." the chief said.

The sand spirit threw its head back and cheered, "Yeehaw! I'm finally free! Here I come baby!"

"That's the sand spirit." Naruto said.

"It looks like it." I said.

"Here we go!" the sand spirit pointed to us. "I hope you're ready to die. Let's do this!"

"I'm gonna jump." the chief toad said. I tried to brace myself by taking a knee, I thought it would reduce the chance of falling off the toad, but really I didn't know if it would actually help. I've never had to hold on to a giant toad as it jumped before.

"Air bullet!" the sand spirit yelled. It pushed it's hand against its stomach to fire an air bullet just as the chief toad jumped into the air.

"Water style: liquid bullets!" the chief yelled. His mouth opened releasing a water bullet that collided with the air bullet. The sand spirit kept firing air bullets at us and the chief continued to dodge and send back his own water bullets.

"Wait chief, there was another one!" I shouted.

"It's still coming!" Naruto yelled.

We were hit with the last air bullet and fell out of the sky. The sand spirit was cheering about killing us, but the chief quickly got up like it was nothing. "Now that kind of hurt." The chief seemed to be a bit more affected than I thought. "That was an awful lot of chakra you blasted me with. I'll have to admit, hit me with a couple more of those and even I won't last much longer."

"Chief, what should we do?" Naruto asked.

"Well, for starters, you can wake up the spiritualist medium to release that jutsu." the chief said.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Naruto asked.

"Fire a few rounds at him." the chief said.

"Naruto, I can hold off the one tails if you want to try and wake up Gaara." I said. I thought that I could try summoning Kofuku, he will surely be able to hold his own. Kofuku may be bigger than Shukaku too.

"How are you going to do that?" Naruto looked to me curiously.

"Remember my summoning, Kofuku will be able to help us out." I said.

"But Ketto, I thought you were worried about summoning him? You said that you've never had a need to summon him, are you sure you can do it?"

"I'll be fine, I think I know what I have to do." I said. "Hey chief, can you put me down? I don't want to flatten you with my summoning."

"Alright." chief toad lifted an arm and grabbed me with his hand. He lifted me up and placed me on the forest floor. "Be careful girl."

"I will." I said. I ran as Shukaku sent another air bullet in our direction. The chief toad jumped in the air firing a water bullet at the sand spirit. Then the chief toad grabbed hold of both of Shukaku's shoulders trying to hold him in place but not having much luck. Kofuku would be able to hold Shukaku.

I stopped running suddenly, I decided that I have enough distance and enough space to summon Kofuku. I grabbed a kunai out of my pouch and brought it up to my eye knowing that it was the only vulnerable place on my body. I didn't want to waste any time trying to crack my skin, so a thin cut along the tear duct of my right eye should do it. I only need a drop of blood for this to work.

I could feel the sting of the air on the cut I gave myself. I couldn't feel any blood, but when I swiped my finger across the area it came back red, perfect. Now, I can try and summon Kofuku. I would have to believe I can do it. My chakra is already constantly being mixed with Isobu's chakra, so I should have the chakra needed.

My fingers moved to form the correct hand signs before I shouted, "Summoning Jutsu!" and slammed my palm on the forest floor. A cloud of smoke erupted all around me. The sound of snapping wood reached my ears along with the rush of water. I could feel the ground below me change into something with ridges and I quickly rose up into the air over the treetops.

When the smoke cleared I was left with my palm on Kofuku's head. I was a bit stunned that I could actually do it. Despite talking myself into believing I could do it, I didn't actually believe I could summon him.

Water continued to fall off of the dark ridges of Kofuku's body, he must have been underwater when I summoned him.

"What is this, where am I?" the deep voice of Kofuku asked. He turned his head from one side to the other as I tried to keep my balance on his scaled head. "Hatchling?"

"I summoned you because I needed your help." I said. I pointed over to Gaara and the Shukaku. "We need to stop the one tails before he does any damage to the nearby village or any of the people here in the forest with us." I saw Naruto on top of the chiefs head transform the two of them into the nine tailed fox and jump towards Shukaku.

"The nine tailed fox is also here." Kofuku said.

"It's just the jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox. That's not actually him." I said. I kneeled down to brace myself. "Hurry Kofuku, we need to help them. We have to hold Shukaku in place so they can attack."

"Understood." Kofuku said. He crouched down on all fours and charged towards Shukaku. Despite his large stature, he managed to dash in front of the transformation of the nine tails. Without the resistance of water Kofuku is able to move much faster than he would in the water. Kofuku stood up on his hind legs and grabbed Shukaku by his shoulders. "Listen here brat, you're causing trouble for my hatchling. You're going to stay put." Lava spouted from Kofuku's mouth spreading across Shukaku's body. The sand spirit had its only good arm engulfed in lava along with the rest of its body. Slowly, the lava that was a bright red orange color turned black and stiffened keeping Shukaku in place.

The chief as the nine tails bit into Shukaku's exposed neck and savagely tried to rip a piece away. Kofuku stepped away to let the chief have more room. Kofuku and I watched as the chief tore into Shukaku with his teeth. With Shukaku stationary from the solidified lava he couldn't retaliate or move away. Shukaku wobbled a bit from the force of the chief leaning against him. The chief pulled away from the shrieking Shukaku only to attack his neck again. With his teeth, the chief managed to tear a piece of Shukaku's neck. Shukaku tried twisting his neck in a feeble attempt of trying to get away, but it only caused the chief to tear more of his neck. With this struggle the two of them toppled over with the chief toad as the nine tails on top. The chief managed to separate Shukaku's head from the rest of his body and tossed it aside before he transformed back into himself.

Shukaku's head turned in the air with sand falling everywhere, but if I looked close enough I could tell that the sand that I thought was falling from the disembodied head was actually going to the head. It was trying to reconstruct the rest of its body.

"Kofuku, grab the head." I said. "This fight isn't over yet. He's trying to give himself a body."

Kofuku stepped towards where Shukaku's head was falling and grabbed it before it could reach the ground. Sand was still being gathered and quickly covered Kofuku's clawed hands.

"Should I crush it?" Kofuku asked. He held the head in front of himself with both palms flat on either side. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to turn the head into a bunch of loose sand, but then Shukaku could still reform his body.

"No, don't crush it." I said. I looked down at the head to see and unconscious Gaara attached to Shukaku's forehead. "The body will just reform anyway." The chief toad said we had to wake the spiritualist medium."

"Sand coffin!" Shukaku yelled with a giggle.

The sand covering Kofuku's clawed hands compressed, but Kofuku was not physically affected. He was more annoyed. "I'll admit, you've got some spunk demon. But you should know when you've lost a fight."

"I haven't lost yet." Shukaku said.

"Admit defeat brat." Kofuku growled.

Shukaku giggled and then some sand flew up to Kofuku's eyes. I watched Kofuku squeeze his eyes shut before the sand could reach them. "Aw, that's no fun!" Shukaku whined.

"Ketto, be quick and wake up the spiritualist medium. I've grown tired of this creatures antics." Kofuku said.

"Right." I discarded the black coral on my fists and arms and moved it to cover my chest, it would look as if it was a part of my shirt. The plan wasn't to kill Gaara, only to knock some sense into him. With a running start, I jumped off of Kofuku's head and free fell to Shukaku's. I had my fist pulled back as if to punch Gaara in the face, but as I got closer to Shukaku there was a sudden tendril of sand that caught me by the arm halting my fall. Another tendril of sand came up and grabbed my other arm.

I struggled to move my arms, it was hard to break free when the sand moved with me whenever I tried to yank my arms free. Suddenly, I saw Naruto land a punch on Gaara's face. I briefly wondered how Naruto got up here and realized that he must have been thrown. His punch jerked Gaara's head to the side.

"That one punch should have done it, not much time has passed since the medium went under. That should have woken him up." the chief toad said.

"Come on! Give me a break, I just got here!" Shukaku yelled.

"The jutsu may have been released, but he still has some fight left." chief said.

Two more sand tendrils appeared and grabbed ahold of each of my legs to further constrict my movements. I needed to get out of this sand. I can't use my strength, the sand will just move with me again if I tried to get out. But sands weakness is water and I can create water.

I focused on the surrounding area around me. There wasn't much to draw water from. I wouldn't be able to get any water from Shukaku. The plant life of the forest was too far away for me to take water from and I wasn't going to steal water from other beings. I glanced around, it was cloudy today.

I felt for the water molecules in the air and called them to me. I didn't need too much, just enough to wet the sand right around me so I could get out of this position. The water from the clouds didn't feel like it would be enough, I wouldn't be able to do anything with it, but I had another idea.

With an exhale I started to extract water from my skin and used it as a barrier around my body. The sand surrounding me started to crumble away once it was wet because Shukaku couldn't control anything that wasn't purely sand. Without the support of the sand I fell to the forest floor.

"Ketto!" Naruto yelled.

""I'll be fine!" I yelled back. "Make sure Gaara is wake!" I continued to fall backwards. The ground was rushing towards me, but I wasn't afraid. Nothing can penetrate my skin anyway. Just to make sure, I moved the black coral from my chest to cover my head like a helmet. The rest of me will be fine.

My back slammed into the ground causing the earth around me to crack. I didn't feel any pain, but it still felt like I was falling. I laid still for a few minutes trying to wait for my insides to stabilize from the fall. Up above, I watched Naruto run up Shukaku's nose towards Gaara only to have the sand grab hold of his feet to hold him in place.

Gaara was going to use sand coffin on Naruto, before the sand could fully surround him Kofuku moved Shukaku's head up and covered Naruto with his mouth. The sand covered Kofuku's snout and tightened with his sand coffin. Kofuku seemed unaffected by the sand.

"Do you think I'm a fool!" Gaara yelled.

Kofuku withdrew his snout revealing Naruto who was covering his face. He was sinking in the sand. The sand was up to his knees and he couldn't move. It looked like he didn't have much chakra left. I have to try and help. First, I lifted my arm with a bit of difficulty. Then my other arm. I lifted myself up into a sitting position to see that my body was imprinted into the ground.

I quickly pushed myself onto my feet and used Isobu's speed to climb up Kofuku's leg, up his torso and then used some chakra to propel myself off of Kofuku's chest. Naruto managed to find some strength and was emitting orange chakra, which was different from his blue chakra earlier. Gaara caught me with his sand again, but I managed to get closer to him than last time. Naruto also jumped towards Gaara and was caught. He somehow managed to headbut Gaara while I surrounded my body in chakra and broke free from his hold. I continued towards the two and succeeded in freeing them both from the sand. As soon as Gaara's body left what remained of Shukaku's head, the head burst between Kofuku's hands and sand fell everywhere.

The three of us were falling. I had one arm wrapped around Naruto's left and Gaara's right, I held onto them as we fell. The ground was approaching fast and Kofuku wasn't fast enough to try and catch us. I whipped Naruto to the other side of me to turn us around and then drew them both close to me. I held on to them tightly as Naruto screamed my name. My eyes squeezed shut to protect them from the sand, so I didn't know when we would hit the ground.

My back connected with the forest floor first. Followed by the rest of me. This time the fall was more jarring than the last, I was prepared for the last fall. This time, I was caught a bit off guard when Shukaku's head exploded. I thought that being it was sand, Gaara would use that to his advantage and catch himself.

I laid still with my eyes closed, Naruto and Gaara on top of me. My arms fell from around them. Gaara was laying face down on my chest while Naruto was laying on top of Gaara the same way. "K-Ketto!" Naruto cried. There was a rustling of fabric and a thump next to me. I didn't feel as if I was holding as much weight, so Naruto must have rolled off.

"Why would she save us?" Gaara asked. He didn't move, he seemed frozen in place.

"Because," I started, "Naruto's friendship is precious to me."

"Ketto! You're okay!?" Naruto exclaimed. I opened my eyes to see him lying on his back next to me.

"Of course I'm okay." I said. "My skin is nearly impenetrable, I just feel a bit rattled." This time I had the breath knocked out of me from the force of the impact and my brain feels shaken. I tried to catch my breath before I said anything else. "Gaara, the Mizukage sent me after you and your siblings to bring you back to the village. I thought you should know that someone has been impersonating the Kazekage and that the real Kazekage is likely dead. You and all of the Sand were used to take part in this ambush."

I managed to get some of my strength back and roll Gaara off of me. It didn't look like him and Naruto had any energy to move anymore. I sat up and pulled myself out of the small crater we landed in. I kneeled and saw Naruto try to move himself closer to Gaara, but he was so exhausted that he had to use his chin to move.

Slowly, I got to my feet. I stood above them as Naruto inched closer to Gaara.

"No, stay away from me!" Gaara yelled. He wasn't able to move, so he stayed in place.

"It's almost unbearable isn't it?" Naruto asked. "The feeling of being all alone." Naruto looked up at Gaara with tears in his eyes. "I know that feeling. I've been there in that dark and lonely place. Ketto has too, I can see it in her eyes. Even when I first met her she was different, void of emotion and caring. Now we are friends and she's not as lonely anymore. There are other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I won't ever give up. I will stop you even if I have to kill you."

"Why, why would you do this for anyone but yourself?" Gaara asked.

"Because they saved me from myself." Naruto said. I lowered my gaze and looked away from them. I've never really had anyone to save me from being lonely. I have Mitsuru and Jiro now, they care about me, but they haven't fully saved me from being alone. "They rescued me from my loneliness. They were the first to accept me for who I am. They're my friends."

"Naruto, that's enough." Sasuke jumped down to us and took a knee by Naruto. "Look, Sakura is going to be alright. Mitsuru couldn't free her from the sand, but once the sand spirit disappeared the sand holding her fell away too. This guys chakra is all used up."

"That's a relief." Naruto sighed.

All of a sudden, Temari appeared in front of Gaara as if she was going to shield him from us. She didn't say or do anything before Gaara spoke, "That's enough. It's over."

"But Gaara." Temari said. She stopped herself from saying anything else.

"Where's Kankuro?" Gaara asked.

"I don't know." Temari said worriedly. "I went back to look for him, I thought that he might have used up all of his chakra, but I couldn't find him anywhere."

"He's already been taken back to the Leaf village." I said. I moved the helmet made of black coral from my head to my feet so that it wouldn't get in the way. "I dispatched Jiro to that battle to aid whichever Leaf ninja confronted you. All three of them are either back at the Leaf village or on their way."

"He's what?!" Temari exclaimed.

"On his way back to the village." Sasuke repeated.

"But we can't leave without him!" Temari's face fell when she realized the predicament she was in.

"You won't be." I said. "The Mizukage has tasked me with your retrieval. I am to bring the three of you back to the Leaf village. Being that you are from a kage family you will be placed under my protection."

"Your protection?! Why would you want to protect us?" Temari demanded. She was helping Gaara sit up, he still couldn't move by himself.

"The Mizukage thinks the three of you have been manipulated into helping an international criminal. He killed the Kazekage and has been impersonating him for some time as these kinds of plans take a while to plan out." I explained. "The Mizukage wants you protected because he wants to resolve any tensions between the Sand and the other nations." I tried not to think about the state Kankuro is in for too long. I suppose this could be considered a partially failed mission, but having two of the Kazekage's children alive and well is better than none.

"Why would the Mizukage have a squad of genin protect us!" Temari snapped. She seemed to be losing her temper a bit.

"In the land of Water we do not rank our ninja." I said. I looked to Temari and stared into her dark teal eyes. "Because my genin graduation exam was so…"

"I believe the word you are looking for is traumatic." Mitsuru butt in. He landed next to us with Sakura draped over his arms and a small dog next to him.

"Fine, it was traumatic for the villagers." I agreed. "My uncle, the Mizukage was urged by the elders of our village to separate me from everyone else and to weaponize me. Shortly after I was paired with an anbu who was ten years older than me who was also considered a threat to the village, the jinchuriki of the six tails named Utakata. We were paired together so that he could assess my ability in completing missions as the Mizukage would want them to be done. My training with the seven ninja swordsmen continued along with my missions with Utakata. So you see, even if we ranked our ninja I wouldn't be considered a genin."

"Usually if you toss out the name Demon of the Mist it says enough." Mitsuru added.

"Kabuto told us about how you got that name and how you ended up in the bingo book." Sasuke said. "Why would the Mizukage make you do that at seven?"

"He thought I was ready." I replied. "It seems as if my whole life I've been training. My graduation was more than a regular test." Naruto suddenly fell limp from lack of energy. "We should get you all back to the Leaf village."

"How exactly do you plan on doing that?" Temari demanded.

At that moment Kofuku pushed aside some trees from above. "There you are hatchling, That was quite the fall."

"What is that?!" Temari screamed. I looked up at Kofuku taking in his dark gray scales and black claws. There were no spikes on the top of his head, but there were some trailing down the rest of his spine and his tail.

"That's Kofuku, he's my summoning." I looked up to Kofuku, "Can you take us back to the Leaf village."

"My head isn't big enough for you all to fit, so I will have to carry some of you." Kofuku said.

"That's just fine Kofuku." I said. "Most of us are in no shape to travel back by ourselves so we will be grateful if you could help us." Kofuku reached down and made to grab Mitsuru who was still holding Sakura. Mitsuru was a bit startled and moved back a step. "Mitsuru, it's fine. He won't hurt you."

Mitsuru stayed still as Kofuku reached for him again. With Mitsuru and Sakura in hand, Kofuku placed them on top of his head were I was earlier. Then he placed his hands on the forest floor palms up. Sasuke grabbed Naruto and dragged him to one of Kofuku's hands with the small dog following while I climbed into his other hand with Temari following me as she supported Gaara who managed to reform his gourd out of sand. Once we were all settled, Kofuku picked us up and started walking in the direction of the Leaf village.

"Temari, I'm sorry." Gaara said. He still didn't have enough energy to hold up his own body, so he was using Temari as support. Her knees were folded underneath her and Gaara was resting on top of them.

"What are you sorry for?" she asked.

"Everything." he replied.

"It's- it's fine Gaara, don't worry about it." she said. With hesitation, she ran her fingers through Gaara's hair. I turned away from them, letting them have their moment. "Ketto?"

"Hmm?" I tilted my head a bit to show that I heard her.

"What exactly will happen to us? What will the Mizukage do?" she asked. "I- I've recently heard that he's the reason the Mist is known as the Bloody Mist."

"The third Mizukage is responsible for the Bloody Mist, though the fourth didn't put a stop to any of the practices." I said.

"That doesn't make me feel any better about this." she said.

I turned to the two of them. "It's like I said earlier, you are under my protection and the protection of the Mizukage. That is until we can arrange for you to be taken back to your village safely."

"How do we know the Mizukage won't just kill us?" she asked.

"He won't." I said.

"But how can you be sure?" she demanded.

"I know the Mizukage and I know that this is something he wants." I said. "As the children of the Kazekage it would be in our best interest to protect you and try to form new alliances with the Sand."

She was quiet for a moment before she said, "Thank you Ketto."

"Don't thank me." I said. I looked away from them.

"Why not?" Temari asked.

"Just, don't thank me." I didn't want to tell her about what happened with Kankuro. That's a whole new issue to deal with once we get back to the village. Any and all respect Temari may have for me will vanish as soon as she sees Kankuro.

I wonder if the Leaf ninja were able to control the situation. They had some help from the Mist village, but I haven't seen Emon recently with any of his forces. It had to have gone well, the number of ninja's on each side should have been close to being equal.

What are the actions they take here in this kind of situation? I know what would happen in the Mist village, but that doesn't mean other villages do the same. In the Mist we would have fought with everything we had. We would have killed as many enemies as possible and if we couldn't win we would have fought until we lost our own lives.

Thinking of all of the blood that must have been spilled, I remembered that I was covered in it. My bandages were all soaked and it was the same with my clothes. There was some blood on my chest that was drying. It started to itch so I rubbed it a bit. Red flakes came off in my hand. I remembered that I cut myself by my eye and a small trail of blood trickled down my cheek. My other hand lifted to try and rub it off, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get it all.

"Ketto, are you okay?" Temari asked worriedly. "You're covered in blood."

"None of it's mine." I said. "I had a bit of a run in with some Sound ninja in my pursuit of you. I didn't have any orders to spare them so I killed them." A look of shock crossed Temari's face. "Don't look so shocked. I was raised in the Bloody Mist. Did you really think that I wouldn't have taken a life? I've told you and Kakuro about my graduation."

"I don't know. I'm just still shocked I guess." she said.

Kofuku walked with us at a leisurely pace, it may take some time before we got back to the village but we weren't in a hurry. Hopefully, by the time we get there everything will be resolved. Then, I won't have to worry about keeping Temari, Kankuro and Gaara away from additional danger. We should be able to go straight to the hospital once we get back to the village. I wonder how much time Kankuro has left? If he didn't move around too much he should be fine for another couple of hours before the toxin spreads throughout his body. Otherwise he might already be dead. A part of me wants him to still be alive, so at least Gaara and Temari can say their goodbyes, something I wasn't able to do with Zabuza.

Trees fell as Kofuku's body pushed them aside. Kofuku held us steady, but we were still moved around a bit. I was still able to still see the village coming into view.

"Ketto, would it be okay if we became friends?" Temari asked shyly. "There isn't anything between us, we're not enemies anymore."

"No, we can't become friends." I said.

"Why not? Didn't you ask Gaara to be friends the other day? Things are different now but we don't hate each other." Temari seemed hurt by my words.

"When we get back to the village you'll hate me." I said. "So it would just be best if you forgot you ever asked that question."

"Why do you say that?" Gaara asked. He tried to push himself up a bit more only to fall back on Temari as he was.

"You'll see when we get there." I said.

"Why can't you just tell us now. Why would we hate you?" despite his tired state, Gaara still sounded demanding. "You saved me from that fall, if I was alone there is no way I would have been able to use my sand as a shield."

"Yeah Ketto, how could we hate you?" Temari wondered. "You're even protecting us from the other ninja's."

I still didn't want to tell them about Kankuro just yet, so I said, "I received my orders too late. When the sleeping genjutsu was first activated in the stands I grabbed a kunai and moved to kill Kankuro, but he moved just in time to evade a killing blow."

"That's it?" Temari questioned. "You think that because you hit Kankuro in the shoulder with a kunai that we wouldn't want anything to do with you? It wasn't fatal, it was a near miss."

"It wasn't an ordinary kunai." I said.

"Was it another standard kunai of your village? Because that would explain all of the blood." Temari said.

"It was fashioned in that way, yes." I said. "You should see him before I explain anything else."

They were quiet for awhile. None of us knew what to say to each other.

Kofuku carried us the rest of the way to the Leaf village. Once the village was in sight I couldn't see too much of the village because of the wall surrounding it, but I could see that there was mist everywhere. It wasn't too thick yet visibility was greatly reduced. There were smoke clouds rising from different parts of the village, I could only assume they were from a fire.

Kofuku brought us closer to the wall. "I shouldn't enter the village, I would only add to the chaos. I'll leave you here." He was going to put me, Temari, and Gaara down on the other side of the wall when we were surrounded by ninja wielding weapons.

I looked to their forehead protectors to see that they were from Kirigakure. One of the ninja's, an anbu with a familiar mask stepped forward. "Lady Ketto?"

"Emon, how was the operation?" I wondered.

"We retook the village. All Sound ninja have fled the same could be said for most of the Sand ninja." he replied. He looked to Kofuku curiously and then his attention shifted to Gaara and Temari. "These are the Kazekage's children?"

"Yes," Temari said, "Do you know where our brother is?"

"The puppeteer is in the hospital. Most of his chakra was drained and he was poisoned." Emon reported. "There's a Mist medical nin looking over him, but the poison hasn't yet been identified."

"He's been poisoned..." Gaara trailed off. "How?"

"It isn't known where the poison came from but the affected area has a point of origin in a wound in his shoulder." Emon said.

"Did you just say a wound in his shoulder?" Temari asked. She thought about it and a sudden look of realization passed her face.

"Yes, though that's all I know." Emon said. " You should talk to the medical nin in charge of his care."

"Emon, could you spare a ninja or two to help us get to the hospital?" I asked.

Kofuku placed the three of us gently on the ground before putting down Sasuke, Naruto and the small dog then finally Mitsuru, and Sakura. "I'll be heading back now." I nodded to him and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I walked over to Sasuke and Naruto to take Naruto from Sasuke, he still had those markings from his curse mark running across his body and could barely keep himself upright.

One of the anbu with Emon caught Sasuke as he fell forward. Another approached Temari to take Gaara from her, he must have seen her putting all of her weight on one side of her body. I nearly forgot that she didn't quite heal all the way from our fight in the preliminaries.

The two anbu directed us through the village to the hospital where they left us in the care of the medical ninja. I tried not to notice the state of the village, but I told myself that it could have been worse if the Mist didn't help. There will definitely have to be some rebuilding, a lot of rebuilding. I'm sure that the Leaf villagers will be able to come together to rebuild. It shouldn't take too long for everything to get back to a more normal state.

At the hospital, I handed Naruto over to one of the medical ninja. Other medics came for Sasuke and Sakura to examine them. Mitsuru stayed with me and together we were brought to Kankuro's room with Temari and Gaara. The anbu holding Gaara took off his gourd and placed it against a wall and then sat him in a chair next to Kankuro's bed before he left us. Jiro was here too, he walked over to me and Mitsuru.

Temari walked to Kankuro's bedside with a noticeable limp and stood next to his unconscious form. She was quiet as she slowly brought up her hand to trace the black veins creeping up Kankuro's neck and chin. She just rested her hand on Kankuro's neck and took a calming breath before turning to the Mist medical ninja in the room, "What is this?"