Chapter 49

Katiya (03 days later, time: 01:03:14, hr/min/sec)

"Still no improvement…" Katiya grumbled before a rudimentary computer screen and series of X-rays. Despite narrowing down the disease affecting Kimimaro after shooting so long in the dark, not much progression had been made in his treatment with the more obvious options ruled out.

It was virtually impossible for any shinobi capable of conscious control of the cells in their body—medic-nin—the odd shinobi that manipulated their hair to form armor—tongues to use as whips—misplace organs—or the ones that were able to distort their own skeletal structure—to get such a joke of a civilian disease as cancer. Yet Katiya was face to face with the one person who managed to have a disease resembling it. Even the new kid from the Land of Grass whose blood was able to heal basically anything wasn't able to do much against the disease.

Katiya remembered the last time she tried to actually help someone she cared about. Seeing how disastrous that was the last few times, the fact that she had since come to the realization that caring for anything didn't matter… she was glad she didn't care that much this time.

Something someone told her mumbled through her mind—but she ignored it. And then there were Kabuto's enigmatic words before she was sent back into the special care unit.

"… Lord Orochimaru tends to only accept willing hosts."

She put her head into one of her hands tiredly. So what?

"If your parents helped you… out of a desire to care for you, why does there need to be a reason for you to care for anyone else?" someone's mumble asked louder in her mind.

A part of her felt it was a good thing she didn't even have a desire to care for anyone else… Katiya leaned back in her chair, pulling herself off of her propped hand. Perhaps Kabuto had been right, that there was no point in telling Kimimaro the news of his disease—perhaps it would have been much more humane to allow him to live his brief life out than with the possibility of longer life minus something as coveted as a curse mark and higher possibility of needing to suffer further.

Katiya stared at the ceiling. Being buried underground could not be too much different from living underground, she decided as her mind drifted off.

Temari (approximate time: 7:00 AM)

Kankuro told her the day before that Gaara was meeting with the Council about the assassins they sent after him. The thought of it got her out of bed.

She didn't know what would be happening during the meeting, but she thought it a good idea to show up anyways. Just in case—the Council looked to her as the future Kazekage still—clearly, if they were still sending assassins after Gaara and knew Kankuro was poised for an advisory position over a leadership one—just in case things got out of hand.

She got dressed. She was going before the Council. She threw on a top that covered her shoulders, perhaps a bit of a darker purple shade than the one from the dress she loved… A skirt, her usual mesh armor bits… and then her red sash over a grey chest plate for armor. She bit back a sigh before hopping out the door. No one could find fault with what they couldn't see—and at least this time, she had covered her broad shoulders.

…

"Psst—! Temari, over here!" Kankuro yell-whispered.

Temari turned from where she was at the Council's door. Kankuro waved her over to the seats he and Gaara were on—outside the council chamber.

"What—I thought you two had a Council meeting today. I just got here to check up on you," she told Kankuro.

"Oh, we do," Kankuro replied jauntily.

"It seems the Council has an emergency meeting that took precedence. It concerns Konoha," Gaara said in explanation.

A voice rang out from the miniature radio in Kankuro's hands. "By helping recover a Konoha-nin from the hands of Otogakure, we can prove our allegiances to the alliance and get Konoha off our backs. It's a rare strategic opportunity where we can place them in our debts."

Another voice countered, "Even if we wanted to send aid to Konoha, none of our forces would even make it in time. This message from their Hokage likely got to us at least a few hours late anyways—we can simply say use that to justify not sending aid," the voice spat.

"You snuck your puppet in there, Kankuro?! You sure you should be doing that to a Council meeting?! That stuff's probably classified!" Temari admonished her brother, knowing the audio had to be coming from a receiver inside the sound resistant council chamber.

"Shh," Kankuro shushed her. If anyone absolutely had to know, his puppet Karasu was still firmly mounted to his back and he had no idea how his other puppet ended up in the council chamber. "No one's said anything yet—I don't think they even noticed," he said lightheartedly. "Besides, future Kazekage here. They better not be keeping classified stuff from us."

Yet another councilor jumped into the discussion over Kankuro's radio. "It will take our fastest jonin roughly four days to Otogakure. It's also at least a two-day journey to Otogakure from Konohagakure, a fact Konoha knows. The hardest part isn't the travel time if Konoha delays them properly—it'd be finding shinobi from Suna to do the job—considering many of them have recent memories of being beaten up by Konoha-nin."

"Ooh," Kankuro vocalized in response. "Sounds like they're asking for volunteers…"

"By not aiding Konoha now, they might consider it a breach of the alliance, and we can't stand to have that so soon after re-establishing it and our current conditions! Not to mention the shinobi they're meant to recover being their coveted last Uchiha! This is a direct request from their Hokage—we cannot ignore it!"

Kankuro and Gaara exchanged looks. Gaara made to stand. And Kankuro followed, knowing what was on Gaara's mind. Temari hesitated, looking to the chamber door from the exterior seating area. All of that effort for some Konoha pretty-boy?

"You coming?" Kankuro asked Temari.

Temari met Gaara's eyes. It wasn't about the Uchiha, Gaara's eyes conveyed. It was something more personal for him—the reason why he wasn't a monster now.

"I am," she told them firmly before striding forwards.

Kankuro (approximate time: 7:30 AM)

Kankuro banged open the door, Gaara and Temari following close behind. "So—about Gaara's last mission—oh, wait, are we interrupting something?" Kankuro asked aloud, intentionally oblivious to the tension in the council chamber.

The council chamber instantly silenced. "Who forgot to lock the—where's—!?" one of the councilors asked, recovering and asking for their ANBU head… who was unfortunately unaware of any Council meetings happening, really.

Kankuro privately smirked to himself. Shinobi were rare to forget to lock doors when it came to matters of security, but basically only the pen-pushing of them trusted the security of doors locked by others—or doors in general. And, there was the funny fact the current ANBU head was technically in the room while "missing".

Someone signaled another ANBU subordinate in the room to move.

"Wait!" another called out at the "head" of the circular table. "On behalf of the Suna Council, I officially order you three to track down the Konoha squadron en route to Otogakure with the mission of providing them support in their pursuit of Sasuke Uchiha!" he yelled while banging a gavel—before anyone else could say anything.

Lord Senior Ebizo, Kankuro recognized the man as. There were furtive looks around the chamber as some of the other councilors dared the others to counter. With the chamber door open to the hall and shinobi being shinobi, if anyone dissented, it would have soon become public that the Council was not as unified as they presented with the absence of their Kazekage. And that they stood against their head councilor.

Kankuro and Lord Ebizo nearly imperceptibly nodded their heads at each other. And with a two-fingered salute, Kankuro and his siblings left the room.

Katiya (time: 10:07:34, hr/min/sec)

Katiya awoke with a start and a crick in her neck. Where—what? her mind asked as she regained her bearings. She had apparently fallen asleep in a chair, reviewing Kimimaro's X-rays. She looked to the clock.

Thirty four seconds… seven minutes and ten in the morning. Thirty five, now that she had mentally read the clock. She mentally cursed to herself. She had fallen asleep. She ran down the steps to the lower floor of Oto's underground "village" to Kimimaro's hospital room—only to hear voices as she neared. She slowed her footsteps to gradually mute them and stopped outside the door.

She threw on a Chameleon Jutsu and waited quietly, listening. Kimimaro, in the uniform of the Sound Five, left in a rush despite having been bedridden just a few moments prior. With just a few words from whoever he had been speaking to. Katiya stepped into what was Kimimaro's hospital room, still disguised under the Chameleon Jutsu.

She made eyes with the back of Kabuto's head. Kabuto. The person Kimimaro had been speaking to. His back was to the door, facing the foot of Kimimaro's now vacated bed and the now blank computer monitors that had been displaying vital signs during their patient's hospice. Katiya dropped her disguise.

"He'll die out there," she told him flatly.

Kabuto turned around slowly. "I know," he replied. While Katiya thought she heard the hint of a smirk in his voice, as he turned around, she saw that his expression was morose.

"I know", Katiya's mind echoed from Kabuto's words—this time with a tone matching the morose look he had on his face.

There was a pause when they were finally face to face as an odd intensity to Kabuto's eyes seemed to make Katiya's own throb. There's a chance that you could change that… I know you'd want to help him, but it can't be helped, the back of her mind felt the look projected. The words were felt—projected—not "said". We know there's no point to immortality if all you can do is suffer through it. You know that. Look… at Kimimaro's choice…

(But—)

She narrowed her eyes involuntarily. She was just projecting—they were her thoughts—not his words, she told herself. Katiya's mind replayed a thought for her while the throbbing in her eyes increased to sharp jabbing. "… Lord Orochimaru tends to only accept willing hosts." The jabbing was sharp—just like it was back when she had spoken to Itachi.

"I'm going after him," she told Kabuto emotionally blankly.

(I'm sorry), the intensity in Kabuto's eyes now told her—faintly—before he blinked and looked away, breaking off the jabbing sensation in Katiya's own eyes. Katiya turned towards the door. "There's a chance you won't make it back," Kabuto said out loud, not looking at her.

Only a fool walked in circles forever while thinking it led someplace. But what was death if not one way out?

"I know," she replied, pausing in her step. He didn't lift his head back to look at her. And she didn't turn back to face him after turning towards the door. She left.

Temari (approximate time: 10:40 AM)

They took off running to the border between the Land of Rice Paddies and the Land of Fire. The logic being that that would be the most contested area—their search for their Konoha compatriots spreading out from there. While Gaara seemed to have high regard and an established reason to continue their alliance with Konoha, and Kankuro a reason to support Gaara in that, she told herself it was just orders. She'd treat the mission as such.

"If we were to just run there, we won't ever make it in time. We're still over 4,000 kilometers away—a four day journey, no going about it," Kankuro told them. "We can increase our speed by breaking our run up with the Body Flicker Jutsu—but then by the time we need to fight, we'll be out of chakra."

In front of him, Gaara narrowed his eyes before decelerating to a stop. Kankuro and Temari followed suit. "My sand can get us there faster," Gaara said, holding his hand out for his siblings', palm up. "Allow me," Gaara said.

Kankuro and Temari exchanged glances. What's Gaara trying to—?

"Trust him," Temari felt Kankuro's gaze respond.

Temari placed her hand in Gaara's. The sand took no issue with the contact, though it shifted hesitantly as their hands linked. "There is no guarantee this will work," Gaara warned as Kankuro did the same. Kankuro grabbed Temari's other hand as well.

"Gaara, what're you—" Temari started.

—Whoof.

Gaara's sand and chakra engulfed her starting from the ground up—she had felt it so suddenly—along with a rushing falling sensation—and then a pull and a push at the same time, directing her to the same direction. She felt like sand. Unseeing but somehow gracefully jostled. At first, she felt herself wanting to fight the sensation—Gaara's chakra encasing her own like one might imagine during a Sand Coffin—but realizing it was Gaara's jutsu and that it was nonhostile—holding, not suffocating, Temari slowly allowed herself to relax—and the sensation became more fluid.

It was as if she had fallen into the sand and then became it, only to be swept away by the wind. Gaara was the one pulling them forwards like that, and giving them a barrier too—from the falling sensation—and the ripping one Temari thought was likely Shukaku or whatever wind-style was actually carrying them in reality. It was purposeful and directed, not at all like she expected Gaara's chakra to be in light of everything she had seen of him.

Is... this... really... Gaara's chakra? she wondered while within the sand jutsu.

Temari felt themselves slow and then felt sand pour off of her head, a non-sandy physical sensation returning. She quickly began brushing herself off and flexing her muscles, making sure everything was in working order.

Some jutsu, alright, she mentally remarked, her wits coming about themselves.

"Are you two alright?" Gaara asked.

Kankuro patted his chest. "I feel like there's still some sand in my shirt, but that's alright. Temari?"

"I'm good. But where are we?"

Kankuro dug into his leg hip pouch for a sextant-compass set and checked the sun position. He flipped over his compass for the chronometer on the other side. "Let's see… I'd say… forty-three point eight-three-two latitude, eighty-seven point five sixty-seven, longitude. Time. We got here in a little under ten minutes."

There was a pause as they thought. It put them in the area just south of the Land of Rice Paddies border.

Gaara shifted his head, listening. "Over there. A battle."

"Yeah, but it sounds small," Temari thought out loud. "If I were Konoha, I'd have dispatched a bigger team—so it's likely they split themselves up to break up the Oto-nin's ranks."

"I see Naruto. Over there," Gaara told them, pointing off at a blob of orange out at a distant clearing edge; a clearing edge that split an area between a rocky border and a forest.

"Yeah, but that other Konoha-nin doesn't look all that great," Kankuro countered, looking at the main part of the clearing still.

Kankuro and Gaara exchanged glances. The pair knew Gaara wanted the battle closest to Naruto in case he could offer aid to the latter later though Temari still didn't get what happened between the two to get them so close. She frowned, turning her mind back to analyzing the battle situation.

"I'll take the battle closest," Kankuro said, interrupting her thoughts. "Temari, you think you know where the other Konoha-nin might be?"

"No, but I've got an idea," she replied, looking to the forested area between the two battles they already identified as being in progress. "We'll regroup in Konoha after the battle's done," Temari said decisively.

"Alright. You good chakra-wise, Gaara?" Kankuro asked to confirm.

"I am. And if not, as a last resort, Shukaku will be," Gaara replied back. "I don't intend to rely on him if there's allies around, but I am more… in control now."

They exchanged glances and nodded their heads to each other. Temari and them scattered.

Kankuro* (approximate time: 11:00 AM)

There—! Kankuro mentally exclaimed, finding the Konoha-nin he was meant to rescue. It wasn't good—the punk and his dog downed and propped against a tree. Kiba Inuzuka, the canine unit of Konohagakure's Chunin Exams. Kankuro remembered him after watching him fight Konoha's resident orange-clad knucklehead, Naruto, and losing. A short-ranged combatant. But there was a chance Kankuro's longer ranged attacks would put him at an advantage considering the Inuzuka's own shorter range.

Kankuro deftly manipulated his primary puppet, Karasu, to block a kunai meant for the Inuzuka. Two bogeys—twins by the looks of them—identically poor make-up jobs on them both too—though the oni horns on them might have thrown one for a loop.

"—Behind you!" the Inuzuka warned.

Kankuro swung around while doing a subtle Substitution Jutsu with his other puppet and using it to block his opponent's body. Luckily, he had brought both of his puppets to the Council meeting he and his siblings left from—though he was decidedly unaccustomed to using both to their maximum capacities though. Not that he was going to advertise that.

But his opponent, ever an odd one, grabbed "Kankuro's" head—or rather Kankuro's… other puppet's—head.

"What is this guy?" Kankuro asked, manipulating his puppet's arms to try and push off the opponent—to no avail. He felt a minor chakra siphon via his puppet threads—but not debilitatingly as his wooden puppet body and chakra control into his threads minimized the output.

"Careful—that's their jutsu! It'll siphon your chakra off—!" the Inuzuka warned.

His opponent's tight grip on his puppet face only managed to damage the sand-covered exterior. Kankuro smirked. "I guess that jutsu of yours doesn't really work on puppets, does it?" Kankuro asked rhetorically from within the muslin wrap after his Substitution Jutsu. In a move similar to Gaara's contour body armor, the face of Kankuro's puppet began to crack off.

Thanks, Gaara.

"Fair warning, we Suna-nin aren't pushovers like our friends from Konoha. Oh, and standing so close to my friend Kuroari? Big mistake," Kankuro said, referring to his second puppet—the Black Ant.

Kankuro flicked his left ring finger inwards to his palm, pulling serrated saw blades from Kuroari's arms and breaking it out of its sandy disguise. The blades encircled his enemy-punk around the waist and lower torso, clamping in. The enemy let out a cry of pain…

Except there was another one—the other twin—who just… merged with enemy-punk Kankuro just injured, healing the wounds Kankuro had inflicted somehow. The Inuzuka quickly informed him more in-depth about how the self-healing ability was their enemy's most dangerous ability while the enemy… themselves(?) rambled on about how the body now felt weird.

"It's like they're over there just mocking us," Kankuro said, using the time to regroup.

"This isn't the kind of enemy you can beat head-to-head! Back down, and we'll regroup!" the Inuzuka exclaimed back, a lot more panicked than Kankuro himself was.

"I can't back down when they show me no respect," Kankuro said, gauging the situation himself. An enemy with the ability to heal had to be dealt with quickly, having more long-term endurance than one without.

"Kuroari's not usually meant for offense—it's specialty is trapping! But when Kuroari's paired with Karasu—it makes a deadly attack combination—!" Kankuro said aloud, setting Karasu to launch kunai and poisoned needles closer into Kuroari's vicinity.

"And now—let's have a puppet show! Secret Black Technique—Iron Maiden!

Kankuro set Kuroari's barrel body open. It was hollow inside, meant to enclose a human body. His opponent stumbled in and Kankuro sealed the exit with a pinching motion of his left hand. With a flick of the fingers in Kankuro's right, Karasu's detachable limbs came apart, revealing eight retractable blades. Kankuro flourished his arm, the blades then impaling his opponent through wooden slots in Kuroari's barrel body.

Kankuro's opponent let out a cry, blood coming out of Kuroari's wooden seams.

"Is he dead?" the Inuzuka asked.

Kankuro shifted the blades inside of Kuroari and before removing and resheathing them. There was no stirring of the body inside. Kankuro threw the sensory version of his Puppeteer Jutsu into the vacated blade slots. His chakra threads became garrote-like as they wrapped around his opponent's neck. Kankuro pulled the threads taut for good measure.

"He is now," Kankuro told him, opening up Kuroari. There was a pause. "Sheesh, that punk's a mess," he said as Kuroari's—and his former opponent's—innards became exposed.

Kankuro's Inuzuka ally covered his nose, his mouth twitching downwards at the poor humor.

Temari* (approximate time: 11:15 AM)

"I heard something about how Konoha finally made up with you traitors, but I didn't expect you to change sides so quickly," her Konoha ally bantered to her after she located him and made her presence known by landing gracefully on the same tree branch as him. Shikamaru, she recognized the person to be, from his distinctive stick-up pineapple-like scruff of hair. Her last exam opponent.

"It's not like we just attacked Konoha just for kicks, you know," she told him. "We were following orders. Just like we're doing on this mission."

She smirked to herself, ready to repay Shikamaru's rhetoric back. He had appeared to be prone and losing control over the given situation when she had arrived. "By the way, you seem a lot dumber than the last time our paths crossed. So, what, you going to give up again this time?" she asked, referencing their previous Chunin Exam battle, "Go ahead, I'll take care of this for you."

Shikamaru startled. "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not about to give up. Besides, a real man doesn't need a woman fighting for him."

"Still being macho with all the man and woman stuff? You talk tough, but I know it's just an act," Temari shot back without looking. Shikamaru, this time, was the one looking worn out and defeated from his ongoing battle.

"So this time you're on Konoha's side, huh? You guys are all over the place, aren't you," Temari's new opponent remarked. Girl, red coral hair. Horns, and the uniform of the Sound Four—Sound Five, if we included Kimimaro.

"The sound of her flute summons her genjutsu," Shikamaru warned.

"I got it—" Temari replied to him unhesitatingly, "—Cyclone Scythe Jutsu!" she called, unleashing a torrent of wind and slicing through enough trees to create chunky wooden shrapnel before her new opponent could make a sound of anything. She had been working on jutsu strong enough to clear a path for the trajectory of her Wind Scythes.

The field went silent.

Maybe she gave up like this one would? she mentally asked hopefully before verbally asking her ally. Shikamaru replied negative. Temari mentally grumbled to herself. That'd just be too easy.

"Since I'm new to this fight, maybe it'd be a good idea for you to explain the situation to me. An analysis of her skills and battle style," Temari told Shikamaru.

"Well, first off, her flute casts genjutsu. She uses it to ensnare her opponents and when they can't move she uses it to deliver a lethal attack," he told her briefly before pausing to think. "She's a typical long-range genjutsu-style shinobi. Most likely, as soon as she saw your jutsu, she realized it could counteract her own. So that's why she retreated. Besides, it's two against one now. I doubt she'd show herself again until she can cast another genjutsu."

"So it's sound."

Shikamaru confirmed and then proceeded to mansplain as if she wasn't a kunoichi trained for war. But then again, from what she knew of the kunoichi from Konoha, the mansplaining could have been crucial for their safety.

I guess we can both be glad I'm not from Konoha, then.

Temari ignored Shikamaru for the most part while she scanned the area for flicks of coral red hair. She knew from her own sensei that sound genjutsu were especially deadly because the shinobi creating it could hide out of range, the genjutsu permeating around corners and across broad distances. She even trained for such things back when Oto and Suna were apparent allies.

But at the end of his mansplaining, Shikamaru butted in with even more obtuse advice than his previous statements. "Listen, sooner or later, she's going to corner us and that'll be that—we should withdraw—"

And that was when Temari had enough. "—Excuse me, did I ask for your opinion?" Temari retorted back at that point. "I told you to explain the situation to me, that's all. You have no idea what kind of power I actually have," she said, smarting over the fact she actually held back during the Chunin Exams and Shikamaru apparently took that to mean a lack of battle skill when she had plenty. She bit her thumb for a Summoning Jutsu. "If she thinks she can hide from me, but stay close enough for the sound of her flute to still reach me, she's mistaken."

"Summoning Jutsu—Blade Dance!" Temari called, drawing a wide arc of blood over her fan and taking a few swings. Kamatari, her summon, proofed into existence. He spun eagerly on his sickle, riding on the wind currents she generated and locating her target. Temari felt the amount of available chakra she had drop but she wasn't done yet. If anything, Shikamaru ticked her off and the adrenaline she got from it was battle fuel.

Again, chunky wooden shrapnel took to the skies, and the Land of Fire's giant trees began to fall and uproot from where they were planted. Temari made eye contact with her screaming coral haired adversary as Kamatari caught the latter in a wind-style and pushed her out her hiding place.

Temari slammed another wind-style of her own downwards. The wooden shrapnel that had been airborne quickly came crashing down. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes from the airborne debris, but Temari didn't, using her chakra instead to shield and repel the dust from her eyes. Only once she ascertained her opponent had been crushed by no less than twelve of the Land of Fire's giant trees did she allow the dust to eventually settle. Kamatari returned flying on his sickle.

They bowed to each other, and he poofed off.

"See that? It's finished. Pretty good, huh?" She turned around, finally making eye contact with her apparent ally. She watched as Shikamaru wiped the shock off his face and then smiled at her. "We should recover the body and make sure she's dead," Temari told him, smirking.

Shikamaru frowned. "—Forget about that, Konoha's medical team can deal with it—I left men behind. We gotta head back."

"Wasn't the mission to pursue Sasuke Uchiha?"

"Naruto's already on it. Come on, we've got to find Neji and Kiba—and oh man—Choji!" Shikamaru exclaimed, realizing. He jumped up and ran ahead of Temari in the direction opposite of where she knew Naruto Uzumaki to be. Temari started and quickly began to follow. "Give me your flares," Shikamaru told her.

Temari complied.

He set one off where he was. "That one's for the Oto-nin—now we've got to find the others."

Author's Note

Rough-cut distances and speed notes for this fanfiction:

Sunagakure to Otogakure: approximately 4,500 kilometers

Konohagakure to Sunagakure: approximately 3,250 kilometers

Konohagakure to Otogakure: approximately 2,000 kilometers

Now, if you do the math from the speed scales I put for Temari, it would have taken about sixteen hours to get from Konoha to Suna. It didn't, it took three days. Unless they rested, which…. *shrugs. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. So… I will now say Temari's top sprinting speed when she's running and interspacing her run with a Body Flicker Jutsu gives her a 200 kmph speed… And that the journey she ran from Konoha to Suna as a jonin in three days was a marathon-type run—in which she ran while conserving energy for use over the entire duration of the marathon.

Because from what I understand, every marathon requires aerobic endurance… while sprints are more anaerobic… rushes.