CHAPTER 15: Shock N' Awe
Naruto rested in his apartment the next morning with a pinkette standing above him. "Wake up Naruto," she was saying, "we have a mission. Be at the front gate in thirty minutes, and clean this apartment when we get back. It's disgusting."
"Just a few more minutes, sakura-chan…"
Sakura knew there was no point in arguing with the other shinobi. When Naruto wanted to sleep it was hardly worth arguing over it. But, Naruto needed to wake up. The young kunoichi gently put her hand on the bed and leaned over. After doing so, she violently shook the bed, "NARUTO UZUMAKE DID YOU NOT HEAR ME? WE HAVE A MISSION, WAKE UP!"
"Woah…" said Naruto, "Alright i'm up. Geez sakura couldn't you have been a little softer?."
"You wouldn't have gotten up. Now hurry up, you now have twenty nine minutes," said Sakura as she left the apartment.
—-
A near thiry minutes later the newly formed squad met at the village gates. The two younger members stood infront of their new white haired squad leader. "We will head from the village and look for Temari on the way. The sand village has asked us to bring her back, but since she already left the village we will need to search from her. Thankfully, we know the path she will take. Once we get to the sand village we will search the desert for Gaara's captors. This is a long journey and we don't have much time. Any questions?"
"No, Jiraiya sensei."
"Lets get going."
—-
"WHAT?! GAARA'S BEEN KIDNAPPED?!" shouted Temari. "I need to get back the the village now."
—-
The team arrived at The Village Hidden in the Sand with their extra member. Quickly they reported to the village council to receive further instruction. "Did you bring a medical ninja?" asked a council member. "I am," replied Sakura. "We need you to try and reverse a poison. Our medics have tried but to no avail." "Sakura, go with him," said Jiraiya, "Me and Naruto will search outside the village. Once you have reversed the poison you will help in the search."
"Yes sir," responded Sakura, being led toward Kankuro and the nameless shinobi.
"What did the men look like," asked Jiraiya, "It helps if we know." "They were dressed in black cloaks, there were two of them. The cloaks had red splotches on them." "I see," summarized Jiraiya, "where can I send a letter from?"
Jiraiya's letter:
Send more people
It's who we thought it was
They wear the cloaks
Two of them
—-
The message arrived in record time and within the hour Tsunade had begun planning a second team. "The only two teams available are Anbu or team 10. The Anbu might make short work of this, but they may be needed for another jinchuriki kidnapping. Team 10 has worked with Jiraiya's team before, but they are definitely weaker shinobi. I guess though I'll have to send them. I can't spare any Anbu right now. The Anbu are needed to guard this village," Tsunade summerized.
"Shizune,"
"Yes Lady Tsunade."
"Get team 10 in here right now."
—-
'I guess I'm gonna miss my second date. Sorry Naruto,' thought Ino when her team left for the sand village. Naruto however was miles away, searching the desert for the Kazekage.
—-
Sakura rushed meet with Naruto and Jiraiya, after learning the powers of the Akatsuki members from a now recovering Kankuro. 'I hope I can give them this information in time,' she thought.
While running through the desert she noticed a familiar face. 'Is that Ino-pig? No it couldn't be. Why would they send two teams? Unless, this may be a bigger deal than I thought originally.'
"Hey, Ino-pig!"
"Hey, Billboard brow! Why are you here?"
"I could ask you the same thing!"
"Well, get over here so we can stop yelling!"
—-
Sakura met up with team ten and told them everything that she knew. "So," said Shikamaru, "We have to deal with a puppet user and a guy who makes his own explosions. All while trying to get the Kazekage from their grasp with no damage. What a drag."
"What about Naruto and Jiraiya," asked Choji, "where are they?". "Somewhere in this desert. I stayed back to reverse a poison used on Kankuro. They left to search the desert, but they don't know the enemies jutsus, we need to tell them right away!"
"Well," said Ino, "lets hurry up and go than."
—-
Team ten and Sakura were able to run into Naruto and Jiraiya, both within a few minutes of eachother. "We have to find these guys now," said Jiraiya, "If we don't bring Gaara back soon they will unseal the One tails from him."
"The one tails?" asked Sakura, "What is the one tails." Asuma answered, "The one tails is the beast within Gaara. It is the reason he was so aggressive during the Sand's invasion."
"Isn't One tails a singular not plural?" asked Shikamaru.
"Yes it is, and it's top secret. Don't tell anyone I told you." answered Asuma. "Asuma's right," said Jiraiya, "don't tell anyone about the one tails."
"Gaara, he could have been me," said Naruto, "and I, I could have ended up like him."
"Hmm?" asked Sakura
"Naruto, he's in a smililar case as Gaara. I think that it is why he's so determined," answered Jiraiya.
"Lets go already," said Naruto, "We need to find Gaara."
—-
After hours of searching, the squad found their targets sitting on a boulder in a sea of sand. "ok," whispered Jiraiya, "we're going to use shikamaru's jutsu to hold them inplace." "how am i going to get close enough?" asked Shikamaru. "simple we are going to use a transformation jutsu on naruto's shadow clones. the clones will transform into little ants small enough to not be noticeable, but big enough to form a shadow. these ants will form a line to the enemy, where they will merge their shadows with the akatsuki's. if everything goes right, we'll be able to capture the akatsuki along with gaara and suffer no casualties." answered Jiraiya.
The plan was set into motion, as a line of ants moved toward the Akatsuki. Deidera was eating on the rock, with Sasori standing watch. When Deidera had eaten his fill, he threw his food aside, hitting a shadow clone. The hit from the food was enough to dissipate the clone, creating a cloud of smoke that was noticed by Sasori. Sasori heard the sound and looked around to find the smoke of a defeated shadow clone. "We have company," said the S-ranked nin.
"Well," said Naruto, "I guess we have to fight now." The battle between the two forces quickly lost two participants when Deidera jumped away while holding Gaara; Naruto quickly jumped to follow him.
—-
Naruto caught up to the clay artist, raging toward the man before him.
"YOU GIVE GAARA BACK RIGHT NOW!"
"No."
"GIVE HIM BACK!" yelled Naruto, jumping toward the enemy. Deidera rebuffed the attack with his own clay creations, always staying one step ahead of the raging shinobi. This one-sided battle continued until the aggressor was out-maneuvered one too many times. Naruto had had enough of being outclassed by Deidera. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" yelled the Konoha-nin, forming thousands of copies of himself. The Naruto overtook the ground, causing Deidera to take to the sky. "You call this art?" demanded Deidera. "There is no substance, no meaning behind this piece. You are just creating for the sake of creating. Now I, I create true art. And my true art, true art is an EXPLOSION!". After giving his speech, Deidera dropped his C3 bomb on the Narutos. Puffs of smoke littered the ground and one now defeated Shinobi lay on the ground. To add insult to injury, Deidera dropped his cargo to the ground beneath him. "You weren't art."
Gaara's eyes cracked open, he lay on the ground next to his brother jinchurki. Deidera approached, one hand reached into his clay pouch, the other holding a kunai. The man moved to cut Gaara's Achilles, severing his ability to walk. Next, he moved to the other blond, preparing to do the same, but he stopped. Wrapped around his ankles were shackles made from the floor of the desert. He struggled, but couldn't step forward. "Why the hell are you doing this?! Give up! Damn, Jinchuriki! This isn't art!" said the standing man as the sand began to envelop him. Kunai and Chakra began to fly at the redhead, but he didn't give up, he kept pulling the man down. Waist deep was when the man began to panic, his attacks became more frantic, now nearly submerged. "i can't" whispered Gaara, "i can't let you take him. he is my friend." In one last moment of desperation, Deidera formed his bird, using it to lift Gaara to the heavens. Gaara fell from the sky at an incredible velocity, parting the clouds as he fell. Gaara hit the ground. Gaara, the Sand demon, was finally defeated. Deidera dragged himself out of the sand, moving toward Naruto. Chakra began to envelop the boy, red, bubbling chakra. Deidera, seeing this, grabbed Gaara and left the sand. He flew on his clay back toward a safe spot to drain the Jinchuriki.
Naruto's chakra began to form its first tail as the rest of his squad found him. The boy was furious but still alive. The 9 tails chakra was going to be an issue though. Slowly Jiraiya approached the boy from behind, careful to not be noticed. Then he jumped on the boy, placing a seal on his stomach to seal the tailed beast back inside. The tailed beast fought back, but it didn't matter; the beast was sealed. "Wow, that was Naruto…" said Ino quietly, "I didn't realize that was him for a minute."