𝙰𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔 𝙻𝚘𝚞𝚍𝚎r. (𝙶𝚊𝚊𝚛𝚊 𝚡 𝚘𝚌)

Un-Blooded Sister Thieves ( Chapter 36 )

"Well, that went...terrible, you weren't even able to kill the damn priest to get his healing abilities," Kabutome scoffed at Leila as she leaned against the tree, "But more so your sister, how could you not just kill her but toy with her?"

"It's because I can't kill Ura, that's something I just won't do to her," Leila stated with an angered look, "The blood we share is something more powerful than any barrior, you have to be the one to kill her, not me."

"We both know if I kill her i'll be the one that stands in your way of gaining my power, you must do what has to be done. If you kill your sister, no one will lay a hand on you, not even the husband-to-be of your sister. The next time we meet them you must do it without stopping," Kabutome sneered, "You would've been killed if it weren't for me."

"I had the upper hand, what're you talking about?" Leila asked with a tint of confusion, "She was closer to death than I was."

"Then you didn't notice the her hands moving, she has a little puppeteer in her, your sister was trying to gain control of the hari on the floor to stab you in the back," Kabutome explained, "Now will you be consumed with hate or did I screw up."

"Maybe you did screw up, maybe i'm not that angered, tormented soul you desired!" Leila lashed out at Kabutome, "You can't make me be something i'm not!"

Kabutome's twisted grin curled into an insane smile of darkness, "Oh..but my dear, I can."

**Ura**


Kankurou held out the limp body to Gaara, "She's burned, but i'm sure she's going to be ok..."

Gaara greedily took Ura from Kankurou's arms and walked to a farther place in the shrine, looking over Ura's wounds. The Kazekage summoned Sakura over, "Are you able to heal the burns on her?"

"Yeah," Sakura made a handsign and placed both palms on Ura's burns.

The burns turned to light marks, but though they were nothing much, Gaara could spot out every wound that Ura ever had. Her pale skin was like a mirror that reflected every battle she had to go through just to get to where she was now. Gaara could stare at her all day, but everyone was getting ready to get going, so he carried her bridal style out of the shrine. As he waited for everyone else to be ready, Kankurou stepped outside and confronted Gaara, "Hey..how is she?"

"Fine."

"Look, Gaara, i'm sorry for what happened, it was just...stupid of me..." Kankurou looked away as he tried to apologize, "You're probably pissed..."

"I am."

Kankurou took a step back from Gaara, in fear he might get hurt from Gaara's death glare. Gaara then snided, "You and the Uchiha have a far way to go before I can trust either of you near her again, more so you. Who knew my perverted brother would betray me like that."

"Alright you two, knock it off, we have a long way to go before we can track down Kabutome and Leila," Temari came out of the mansion just in time.

Nanima and the others then stepped out, but then the mystic turned to face the group behind her, "I cannot travel with you any further, I am sorry, but duties as a mystic require me not to travel at all."

"But we need you, without you how are we going to find them? You are the only one that can track Kabutome down," Lee approached Nanima, "How can you just leave us like this when we are at the peak of battle?"

"I am a mystic not a warrior! All I can do for you now is send you to another mystic's home and hope that they will assist you better than I did," Nanima stated to Lee and everyone else, "It is best to travel when Ura has awakened and after you all are fed. Come back to my home and i'll have my servents cook you up one last meal, then you all may take your leave."

Naruto then stood up and gave an angry stare at Nanima, "You can do more than just track them down, but..we don't need you nor do we need your help. If you can't even travel with us then you're not much of a real human like other people can be. Get out of here!"

Everyone was a bit shocked at Naruto's outburst like that to Nanima, but the mystic turned and walked away. Kankurou had a mournful look on his face, and Temari knew why. She knew Kankurou was on the prowl for a mate, not a one-night-stand, and not a free-lover, but a real woman who would stay by his side. His sister patted him on back and said, "I'm sure you'll find her one day, Kankurou."

"Well...lets go, from what I say they traveled westward," Sasuke brushed some hair out of his face, "If we had a map we could mark out where they're heading."

"Here, take this," Kankurou pulled out a map from his pocket, "It's a bit old and wrinkley, but i'm sure it'll do."

Sasuke took the map and scanned his raven eyes over the fine paper, then looked up at everyone, "I bet they're heading towards the Village of the Four Priestesses, it's a weeks run from here even if we go at full speed."

"Why there? There's no money in that village, only four priestesses that can do some tricks, that's it," Sakura was confused, "Besides, why did they come here in the first place? There's nothing here except wealthy people that throw their money away."

"Then you didn't see where this village is located," Temari interupted the conversation, "There are many trade routes that send out supplies to other minor villages and towns. If Kabutome were to take over this village with brute force, that would mean he would be able to control the minor villages at his will."

"So...they're not looking for money?" Lee asked, also coming into the conversation.

"No, Kabutome is looking for ultimate power," Gaara jumped into the conversation, "Why would Kabutome need money when power has more affect on the world? The reason he would go to the Village of the Four Priestesses is because the priestesses are able to create a stream of endless chakra. If Kabutome took that ability from them, somehow, then he would be next to unstopable to anyone. Even to Naruto and I."

Naruto then took the map from Sasuke, folded it up, and put it in his pocket, "Then we better go now if we can get to that village before they can."

Temari opened her fan and turned to Gaara, "I'll take Ura in the air with me so you and Naruto can travel faster, I promise to be careful with her for you."

Gaara nodded once and handed Ura gentley over to Temari as the Suna Kunoichi glided in the air. Once Temari was safely in the air, Kankurou and Sasuke spreaded out to cover the Kage's from far off, Lee and Sakura stayed close to Gaara and Naruto as the Kages began to run at full speed. As Naruto and Gaara dashed through the trees as fast as they could, Naruto yelled over at Gaara, "I hope Ura is ok, she looked pretty burnt."

"She's fine, now keep moving," Gaara yelled back as he went ahead of Naruto.

They had to keep running until midnight, then they could all rest for a few hours before sun-up to gain farther land than Kabutome. Temari wasn't used to holding another person on her fan, especially with the added weight given to the pressure on her fan. But, she had promised Gaara that Ura wouldn't be hurt, so Temari had to everything she could to keep them both from falling. The weather seemed perfect, not too cold nor too hot, but just in between, something Temari was far from used to. Actually, the blistering heat felt good sometimes when needed, but it also cause deadly diseases that spread quickly in very dry heat. As Temari thought about her home, her mind was too far from feeling the woman in her arms squirm slightly as Ura began to wake.

"Hm..Temari?"

Temari snapped at of her day dream and looked down at Ura with a friendly smile, "Hey there, how are you feeling?"

"Fine..but could you stop pressing my head againsts your breasts?" Ura tried to nudge her head away from Temari's chest, but Temari was holding Ura there.

"Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Temari shifted both their bodies to where they could sit comfortabley on Temari's fan, "Gaara and the others are running on the ground, I told Gaara that i'd take care of you by gliding in the air."

"How long was I out?" Ura asked as she tried not to look down.

"A few hours, but you didn't miss much except where we think Kabutome and Leila are headed to," Temari explained, "But we'll be there in a week, so you have plenty of time to regain your full potential energy to fight on Leila again. Next time i'll be there to help you out."

Ura then snapped her head to face Temari with an urgent look in her eyes, "No, you can't."

Temari was a bit confused why Ura didn't want her help when Ura, herself, was no match to Leila, "Well why not? If you couldn't defeat her when you were at your best, then how in the hell do you think you can take her on again?"

"It's not that... Leila's my problem that I need to get rid of, I don't want you fighting a battle that I need to take care of," Ura explained, "As her enemy, it's my duty to kill her, but as her sister, it's my duty to save her as well. To save her... I must kill her to be free from Kabutome, that's the only way I can set her soul free from Kabutome's reach. That, or I give myself to him in sacrificing Leila."

"Like Gaara will let you go with that last one..." Temari grumbled to herself, "Look, I know you want to do what's best for Leila, but you also have to think of yourself in terms of the future. Gaara's going to want a wedding and a family with you, so giving yourself to Kabutome is way out of the question. Plus, Gaara is very overprotective of you now since he found out about what happened between you and Kankurou on that one night, so there's another reason he doesn't want you to be alone with absolutely anyone."

"My sister is in that category now? Gaara already knows that I know my duty as a kunoichi, I am to kill anyone that threatens the life of the Kazekage or anyone," Ura commented, "Gaara understands that I made that choice to forget everyone in my bloodline to serve under him."

Temari then gave a stern glare at Ura, "She's your sister, Ura, you have to remember that as well. There are other ways around to saving her from Kabutome that avoids death and you going away, Naruto and Gaara both know the jutsu where they can cancel out the deal between Kabutome and Leila."

Ura looked at the clouds as they roamed below them, her thoughts went out to her sister, wondering if she was ok or not. Yes, Ura wanted Leila punished for joining Kabutome, even if she was near death she shouldn't have gave her soul to him to use. But, the sister-side of her wanted so badly to do anything to get her little sister away from that evil man. If Ura could just stray away Leila from Kabutome, maybe she could see the little child that still sat in Leila's frozen, icy heart. The wind ran through Ura's hair as she stared lazily up at the blue sky, what could she possibly do? As much as she didn't want to hurt Leila, Ura didn't have the choice, it was her job as a kunoichi to protect her Kage.

*Who knew it came down to this... For as long as I can remember, I wanted to fight Gaara to prove to him my existense was with him... But in the end, I didn't have to, all I had to do was wait a little longer and now here I am, his wife-to-be. Now I have to fight Leila to prove to her that she can still be free from Kabutome if she just let me and everyone else help her. Yes, the curse on her is going to be tricky to get rid of, but... We all can get rid of it if she would just give us the chance. I never wanted to fight Leila, but if it ever came down to just her and me. . . I will do everything I possibly can to stop her from continuing to live,* Ura thought as she concentrated on the clouds above her.

Then, the clouds began to form into thicker, darker clouds looming dangerously close to Temari's fan. The wind began to pick to where Temari was having a very hard time balancing the both of them, so she wrapped one arm around Ura's waist, pulling her close, and the other at the front of the fan, "Hold on, it's going to get really rough getting back down in this!"

Ura allowed Temari to take control as the wind began to become more violent at their high altittude. As Temari began descend to the ground as softly as she could, though her fan began to spasm out of control a few times, Temari was doing a pretty good job. Lightning began streak across the clouds, then started to come closer to Temari's fan, which was frightnening Ura. Thunder roared as rain began to drop like hail, Temari was half-way to the ground when a lightnening bolt struck the tip of her fan, causing it to catch on fire! The fan spun out of control as Temari's chakra was sucked out of the fan, spiraling down the two kunoichis to the ground below! Instinctively, Ura pulled out both her umbrellas as she tried to catch Temari's hand, but Temari slipped out of Ura's grip and caught Ura's ankle instead.

"We'll be electricuted if we stay here, we should just fall!" Temari yelled up at Ura.

Ura looked up and saw a huge streak of lightnening go across the clouds, a strong warning that Ura was risking both of their lives if they stayed like this. As she squinted her eyes shut, she used her chakra to shut the umbrella, causing both kunoichis to continue their fall to the ground. While they were falling to the ground, Ura released her umbrellas as Temari grabbed Ura to protect Gaara's wife-to-be from any fatal injury, but putting herself in a position where her spine could break in two.

"Temari! No! You're going to get killed!" Ura screamed at her friend.

"Your role is more important than my own! As a Suna Kunoichi, it is my own duty to protect any love of the Kazekage's," Temari had a defiant smirk on her face, "I'm a Kunoichi too, remember?"

"Temari...i'm sorry," Ura whispered to Temari as they were seconds from smashing into the forest ground.

Twigs snapped, branches collapsed, but the huge pile of leaves in the trees managed to give a slightly softer landing for the two kunoichis. Temari was caught in a few branches, which saved her from a fatal crash into the ground, but Ura was hanging upside down in a trap that a hunter had put to catch a rabbit maybe. Both kunoichis had a few gashes on them, but nothing that was much to worry about. Temari looked over at Ura and asked, "Well, you ok?"

"I'm great, are you ok?" Ura asked worriedly, "Do you have anything broken?"

"Naw, i'm good," Temari fumbled with herself until she fell on her feet on the ground, "But I need to find my fan and your umbrellas, without those we're useless."

"First off," Ura pulled out a hari and threw it at the rope that had caught her feet, then landed gracefully on her own two feet, "We should find the others then find our weapons."

Temari looked around, then had a concerned look on her face, "I can't sense their chakra anywhere, they had to have seen us fall in this direction, especially Gaara. They probably went ahead if they didn't see us fall."

"That's my guess... Should we wait out the storm then?" Ura asked.

"I don't really know... C'mon, lets find our weapons then we can try to find the direction we were going in," Temari walked in the direction south of where they landed, suspecting their weapons might be there.

The two Sand Kunoichis walked cautiously along the forest floor in search of their weapons, the rain fell on the leaves that dripped onto their heads, but both were safe from the violent winds and lightning. Ura wiped away some of the rain water on her face, then wrung her hair out that was soaking wet from the water. They walked a few more yards until both smelled a fire nearby, but low chakra levels could be sensed in that area as well. Temari and Ura silently stalked towards the campfire to see both of their weapons dry, slightly broken, but at least dry so they could mend their weapons. But, both kunoichis also saw clothes and food near the campfire, meaning whoever saved their weapons were nearby as well.

"What should we do?" Ura whispered to Temari, "Just take what's ours and leave?"

"Yes, the food doesn't belong to us and it could be a trap, let's just wait until whoever saved our weapons returns, then we'll decide to get our stuff or not," Temari whispered back as she looked around again.

"That bath felt good, Naomi, it's been a while since we've had one," a young girl's voice could be heard, around 13.

"Yes, very good, Rini," another young girl's voice echoed through, also around 13.

Then, a girl, known as Rini, stepped into the clearing near the campire, along with her friend, Naomi. Rini stretched her braided, black hair as she wiped the rain water out of her dark brown eyes, then began to eat the fish that were cooking in the campfire. The one known as Naomi combed her fingers through her short brown hair as she sat down, the fire danced in her silver eyes as she dug into her own food. Both girls wore something like peasent clothing, which Temari and Ura were skeptical about these two girls.

"They're only children," Ura looked over at Temari, "Why would they want our weapons?"

"Because they're thieves, they're planning on selling our weapons," Temari sighed, "We should get our weapons back..."

"Who goes there!? Show yourself!" Rini stood up swinging a stick threateningly as Naomi scuddled behind Rini.

Ura and Temari stood up, walking out of the bushes to where both girls could see them. Temari then placed her hands on her hips, "If you think we're afraid of that little twig then you're much mistaken, we're Sand Kunoichis, we fear nothing, not even death. Now, you have two of our weapons, and we need them back so we can continue our mission."

"Kunoichis...we haven't seen one of those before, Rini," Naomi's soft voice chimed in as she looked both women up and down, "They're so cool looking..."

"Hmph... So your kunoichis, big deal, but why should we give you back those? How do we even know they really belong to you, huh?" Rini asked defiantly, which was going to just piss Temari off for being rude and defiant to someone like her.

"We don't need to put up with this, Temari, lets just get our weapons," Ura walked over to their weapons, but then Naomi ran in front of them.

"These are ours! We found them and we're gonna sell them so we can live in a home together!" Naomi glared at Ura angrily.

"Are you two sisters?" Ura asked as she looked at both Rini and Naomi.

"No, we are the Un-blooded Thieves of this forest, and we take anything we find in this forest because it's our temporary home. Naomi is my best friend, and ever since we ran away from our home, we've stuck together since," Rini rested the huge stick on her small shoulders, "So your weapons rightfully belong to us now."

"You've got to be kidding me..." Temari rubbed her temples from annoyance, "Look, we're wasting time, Ura, grab the stuff and we can leave. The others are probably far ahead by now..."

When Ura touched their weapons, Naomi grabbed Ura's arm and sunk her teeth into her! Ura waited a few moments then reacted by waving her arms in the air frantically, "THE LITTLE BRAT BIT ME!!!"

Naomi flew to the ground, but got right back up as Rini ran at Ura with the huge stick, but Temari grabbed the stick out of Rini's grasp and broke it in half. Rini went after Temari, but all the blonde kunoichi had to do was put her palm against Rini's forehead to keep the little brat from getting to her. Ura managed to get the rest of the weapons by doing the same technique on Naomi, then leaped to a tree above, Temari did the same. Rini and Naomi didn't know how to get the two kunoichis, then Naomi whispered something in Rini's ear, but Rini reacted by crossing her arms frustratingly, "Fine.."

"We want to ask you something," Naomi called up to the kunoichis as Temari strapped her fan in her sash as Ura strapped her fans on her back.

Temari gave them a bored look as she placed her hands back on her hips, "What now?"

"Can we be your apprentices?" Rini asked in a way that said she didn't want to, but really did on the inside.

"Apprentices?" Ura was confused as she looked at Temari, "We can have those?"

"Yeah...but it's a rarety in the Sunagakure because being a ninja is more deadly in our country," Temari shrugged at Ura, "But we can't take them in, not while we're on this mission, it's going to take us forever to catch up with the others. Plus, taking care of two brats like them is going to put more stress on our group than it already does carry with your situation."

"You know you don't have to bring that up everytime," Ura narrowed her eyes on Temari, then looked down at the girls, "Sorry, but we can't."

"Why!?!?" Rini whined up at them, "We'll work really, really hard! We promise!"

"It's not that, we know you can work hard, but we're busy for the next few weeks," Temari rolled her eyes, getting bored with explaining herself, then turned to Ura, "C'mon, they have food and constant water, we need to go now."

"Yeah... Sorry, but you two should really find a village somewhere to live in, staying here is dangerous," Ura and Temari leaped off as fast as they could in the direction they others were running in.

Rini looked at Naomi, then Naomi nodded...

**Gaara**


As the rain poured out of the sky and onto the heads of the four Shinobi, Lee looked upwards to see how Temari was doing, until he couldn't even see the Sand Kunoichi. As he kept searching the skies, all he could see were the black clouds over their heads, streaks of lightning, and on-going rain. Sakura then ran next to Lee and whispered, "I can't find Temari either... Do you think they could've gotten hit by the lightning?"

"No, it is not like Temari to just get hit without already seeing the lightning come," Lee whispered low enough for Gaara not to hear.

Sakura looked up in the sky and Lee then gave a confused look to Sakura, "Are you friends with Ura now?"

"Not friends, just...we found some common ground," Sakura commented drly, then Naruto slowed down his speed a little to hear what they were talking about.

"I think something's wrong, Gaara isn't talking about anything," Naruto explained, "I think he's worried about-"

"Don't say her name!" Lee and Sakura whispered only loud enough to where Naruto only heard that.

"Why?"

"Because Temari and Ura are no where to be found," Lee whispered, "Gaara will go into a full blown panic if he does not know where she's at."

"Yeah, and that's the last thing we need right now, if Gaara gets to that point he'll want to hault everything just to find Ura and Temari. If that happens, we'll lose time to catch Kabutome and Leila, and time is exactly what we need. That's why we'll wait until tonight, when we rest, to mention Ura and Temari," Sakura informed Naruto.

"Look, I don't trust Gaara for the life of me, but I know he would never, ever want Ura hurt. Plus it's not right to keep that big of a secret away from someone who should know what's going on with the one they love. I'm gonna tell h-"

"No!" Lee stopped Naruto by grabbing his wrists, "We should allow Gaara to be calm until tonight, besides, maybe Temari went ahead of us to make sure...there's no enemies."

Behind the clouds, the sun began to slowly set in the distance, but the rain just came down by buckets and the storm kept on increasing. Naruto ran up to Gaara and the two Kages debated about something both Sakura and Lee couldn't understand. Then Naruto came back to them, "Gaara and I agreed that we'll stop running due to the storm coming in on us."

Kankurou and Sasuke narrowed in on the group as everyone began to slow down and come to a complete stop on the tree-tops. Gaara searched around, then looked up at the skies as Lee and Sakura began to get a tad bit nervous. Kankurou then noticed Gaara looking upward and did the same, until Kankurou finally asked, "Hey, where's Ura and Temari?"

"SSHH!!!" Lee, Sakura, and Naruto shushed Kankurou, but it was too late, Gaara had caught on to what was going on.

"Where are they?" Gaara glared at the Leaf-nins such a fowl glare that sent chills down their spines.

"We think they were hit by lightning," Sakura spoke up, "That they've fallen and are probably wounded."

"Sakura!" Naruto and Lee both swacked a punch upside Sakura's head in annoyance.

"What!? He's the Kazekage, he's gonna find out sooner or later so why not now while we're resting from the storm!?" Sakura blurted out, which was recieved by three almight death glares by the Leaf Shinobis and Kankurou, excluding Gaara's rising anger.

"Find out what?"

They all turned to see two wet women appear, tired and worn out, but they were none other than Temari and Ura, both with a bright smile on their face. Kankurou nearly ran over to Temari and Ura and hugged them both, "Thank Kami you two are here, there was going to be another fight because we lost you!"

"Ahem...."

Kankurou turned and saw Gaara approaching, so he quickly let go of Ura and stood behind Temari, in fear Gaara might do something. Gaara took hold of Ura's upper arm, looking over the injuries she had earlier and comparing them to the scars now on her body.

"Where did you go?" he mumbled as he continued to stare at her like this wasn't the real Ura in front of him.

"Temari was losing control of her fan in the storm so we went down into the forest to get out of harms way. There, we lost our weapons and had to find those, which were stolen so we had to get them back. We ended up getting them back and running for about an hour to get back here, fighting off of common thieves and other exotic animals on the way to where we are now," Ura explained, "So there you have it, Gaara."

Though Gaara was worried about where Ura had went off to, he wasn't overly worried because he knew his wife-to-be was a very well-known kunoichi of will-power and strength. After that brief moment of the two kunoichis explaining themselves, everyone began to just settle down, trying to regain some desperate rest that they all needed. But, in the rush of everyone finding a comfortable spot, Gaara and snuck off silently with Ura, just to repeat their meeting 'his' way. When they were finally alone, Gaara embraced Ura close to him, holding her tightly and not planning to let go.

"What's wrong? Were you upset that Temari and I just disappeared like that? I'm very sorry that happened Gaara, but we did-"

"Hush... It's been far too long since I can just do this, just hold you and not have to be anyone else but myself with you," Gaara whispered in her ear, "Just to know that you will never disappoint me like so many others have done to me."

"Lets not talk about that, Gaara, the past is the past, but we can change the future however we desire. And I want to be with you in my future, forever, for better and for worse," Ura whispered back to him as Gaara sank them both to the ground, leaning his back against a tree while holding Ura against his chest.

Gaara didn't say anything, just feeling her so close to him made him feel the real words she was speaking. So many 'I love you' 's that spoke to Gaara by how Ura stayed with him even though he would unconsciously beat her down.

"Ura."

"Yeah?" Ura slowly closed her eyes, his body heat as her blanket.

"When we go home, you can forget about drinking sake whenever you want," Gaara informed Ura.