Meanwhile, as Chiyo and Karin are fighting for their lives, Naruto and Kakashi are taking a pleasant stroll through the by pleasant you mean dodging live bombs getting dropped from the has been leading them away through a canyon, in an attempt to get them farther away from their allies and closer to far they had attempted a myriad a things to take him down, from throwing basic equipment at him, shooting long range jutsus, and a rather risky tower of shadow clones that only resulted in Naruto almost getting his head blown off his shoulders.

"Ugh, damn it! We aren't getting any closer!" yelled Naruto. "We need something to stop him, something big!"

And almost as if the universe had heard his pleas, the sound of crackling lightning was heard. Deidara barely had time to stop his bird as a massive wall of purple lightning cut in front of his path, destroying most of the surrounding looked with wide eyes at the destruction in front of him before turning his head to see Tenten and Sasuke, the latter had the Raijin no Ken raised chakra sword shined a bright purple, it's blade a much more defined shape than when Aoi used it. It was a testament of Sasuke's mastery of it, as not only did the color resemble his chakra, but also his chokutō's blade inlength and swiped his hand down and released another wall of purple lightning that Deidara dodged.

"About time you two got here!" exclaimed Naruto as Sasuke and Tenten jumped to join them in the ended up with Kakashi and Naruto on one side and Sasuke and Tenten on another, effectively boxing Deidara in.

"What's the plan?" asked Sasuke.

"We need to find a way to either get us to his height or bring him down to us." said Kakashi. "Would your Susanoo be able to help us?"

"Susanoo?" asked Naruto confused, but he went ignored.

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm too low on chakra to reach his height, at most I could use it to throw boulders at him, but Susanoo slows me down so he could still get away."

"I think I have an idea, but I would need something to distract him." said Tenten as she pulled out a kunai.

...

Deidara was getting pissed. He thought it would be easy getting the reckless Jinchūriki away from his allies, but instead not only does he have to deal withKakashi of the Sharingan, butalsoItachi'sannoyanceof a little brother?When he gets out of this, and after they extract that tailed beast from its loud container, he. Will.Throttle. Itachi. This all his fault somehow, he just knows it! He begins throwing more of his C1 at them and they scatter like headless chickens. He's about to make a new bomb when Naruto attempts his tower of shadow clones again. He dodges them all effortlessly and laughs at them.

"Is that all you've got? You're never getting this corpse back at this rate."

"Not even close!" yelled Tenten as she used a huge axe to hit the ground, sending several rock projectiles towards him. Then she felled a tree with one swing and wrapped a chain around it. Then she threw it in the air for Kakashi to use as a spring board to get closer to Deidara. Deidara once again directed his bird away from the incoming Chidori, but as he was falling, Kakashi threw a kunai at Deidara. It cut his cheek as it passed.

The blonde was about to taunt them again on their pathetic attempts but what he didn't know was that all of this was a distraction to get that kunai close to the kunai sailed passed, Tenten and Sasuke appeared next to it. Unfortunately they had overshot a little, so Tenten grabbed Sasuke by the arm, rotated them both midair and then threw him at action so surprising, the blonde Akatsuki member could to nothing but gape as he was impaled through his heart by the electric Raijin no Ken.

Sasuke twisted the sword before slashing to the side and cutting Deidara in half. He and Tenten landed on opposites sides of the canyon, with Gaara in Tenten's arms, as the C1 bird fell in the hole and exploded upon reaching the bottom.

"That was amazing! What even was that?" asked Naruto.

"Hiraishin no Jutsu." answered Tenten. "I am not nearly as fast as Yondaime-sama or Nidaime-sama nor can I place it on living beings-"

"But you are still faster than most ninja alive." said Kakashi.

Tenten laughed bashfully. "Yeah I guess so. I really owe one to you and Karin, Naruto. There's no way I could have gotten as good at sealing without you two passing letters to Jiraiya for me. And Kakashi-sensei for helping me get the basics down too."

"That's amazing! You probably wouldn't even have needed Sasuke's help at all!" said Naruto.

"Actually, from what some spies have told Tsunade, Deidara's body is a living bomb and it would have needed to be neutralized with lightning chakra so-"

"Not that I don't want to hear about Tenten becoming a sealing master," interrupted Sasuke. "But we have bigger problems." and he pointed at Gaara.

The mood sombered instantly. "Right, we should go meet up with Kari-chan. She could fix this." Naruto bent down and picked up Gaara's body from where Tenten had laid him down.

"Naruto...I-I don't know if-" began Tenten.

"No! Karin once told me she brought back a man who was cut in half, she can fix this. I know she can! We just have to find her."

Sasuke and Kakashi shared a look, but followed a stomping Naruto through the forest as they made their way to Karin and Chiyo's location.

...

They found Karin and Chiyo after about half an hour of walking. Both of them looked a little worse for wear but alive.

"Kari-chan! Please you have to help us!" yelled Naruto when he saw his cousin running in the forest. Karin barely had time to turn around as Gaara was thrust into her arms. "You can save him, right? You have to save him!"

Chiyo looked at Gaara in sadness as Karin tried her best to resuscitate him at her cousins urging.

"So...Looks like we are too late after all." said Chiyo.

"Don't say that!" said Naruto.

"Naruto..." said Karin looking at her cousin with sad eyes. "I don't...There's nothing more I can do...I'm sorry."

Naruto's eyes began to water. "Damn it...Why...Why is it always Gaara? He-he just became Kazekage...he just became Kazekage!"

"You must calm yourself." said Chiyo.

The blonde whirled around in anger. "You shut up! If you sand shinobi hasn't put that monster inside Gaara, then none of this would have happened!" he began sobbing. "Did you ever care about him? Ask him what he wanted...Calling us Jinchūriki...What gives you the right to label us? Who...are you...to decide someone else's fate?"

Karin came next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Naruto..."

He covered his face with his hands as more sobs wracked him. "I-l couldn't save Sakura-chan...A-and now I couldn't save Gaara three years...I trained so hard...B-but nothing has changed!"

Karin took her cousin by the arms and pulled him into a hug. As he sobbed, Chiyo made her way to Gaara and kneeled in front of did the hand signs for a jutsu that had Karin gasping.

"Lady Chiyo, that jutsu!" exclaimed Karin, but the old woman merely smiled at her.

"What is she trying to do?" asked Naruto as he stepped away from Karin to look at the puppeteer.

"Kishō Tensei, Chiyo-sama is exchanging her own life for his."

"How?"

"This jutsu is special...Only lady Chiyo knows it...It can bring back the dead...at the cost of all the chakra in their body...and the life of the user."

"Damn it...Not enough chakra..." said Chiyo. That was when Naruto stepped forward and combined his chakra with that of the old woman and together they worked to bring Gaara back. Chiyo smiled at him. "In this world of shinobi, created by frivolous old people...It's comforting to know that new souls like yourself have come along. Until now...everything I've done in my life has been wrong, but at least here in my final hour I can finally do something right for a change.I hope the future of this new generation will be different from the way things were in our time."

As the jutsu progressed, Chiyo got weaker and weaker, just as it was almost over, she asked Naruto to look after Gaara.

...

Gaara began blinking slowly as the sun shined on his face, when he finally opened his eyes he came face to face with a teary eyed Naruto and slowly sat up and saw that he was surrounded by the ninja of his village, most of them celebrating and chanting his gave his sister a confused look and she laughed as she hugged him.

"Welcome back, little brother."

...

Their stay in Suna was extended for another week, as they attended Chiyo-sama's for the first time ever, leaf shinobi were present. The desert heat pressed down on Karin as she stood in her black funeral attire and watched the funerals were rather different from Konoha ones. The body would be burned and then the ashes were mixed with sand from the surrounding area. Then, they would be put in a decorative pot that would pe placed in the crypt under the Kazekage tower, where it would remain for all of time. Chiyo's younger brother, Ebizō, as the last remaining member of her family, would be the one to bring it there.

After the funeral proceedings were done, Gaara approached Karin. "I wanted to offer my condolences and apologize about Chiyo-sama. I know you to were close."

"Thank you, Gaara." said Karin. "But there is no need to apologize. Chiyo-sama, knew exactly what she was getting into when she joined us. To think of her sacrifice as a mistake is to diminish her, so don't." then she laughed. "And to call us close is a big exaggeration. I was just the annoying leaf kunoichi that asked her questions...Still, I will miss her."

Gaara nodded and they both watched in silence as Ebizō carried the urn towards the tower.