Thawing an Icy Heart

Taking down 'Itachi'

"Tsunade most likely would've sent help to us after your initial report Kakashi, most likely Team Guy." Taka spoke in that monotone voice of his, as he remained laser focused on bringing back Gaara. The Freezing Aura and killing intent emanating from him, was enough to keep Sakura and Naruto at a distance. Much to their annoyance and sadness. "Why? Why are you keeping us away? We're not gonna hurt you dattebyo!" Taka turned his head to look at the blonde boy, before shaking his head. "It's for your own good." Taka began as he turned his head forwards again, Naruto went to protest but Taka held up his before continuing. "I don't want you getting hurt, because I'm struggling to keep myself in check. I'm saving it for the bastards that deserve my rage."

With that no one else said a word, seemingly understanding what he was doing. 'He hasn't completely frozen his heart then, he still cares deeply enough to protect his friends......maybe there's hope.' Chiyo thought to herself, until their paths were blocked, by the figure of an old friend. "Uchiha." Taka muttered out to himself, as the others soon saw what Taka saw. "You! You're the one that caused Sasuke's pain, and why he left us in the first place!" Naruto's anger was beginning to bubble up, until Taka placed a hand upon his shoulder. Instantly cooling down the Jinchuriki's boiling anger. "You guys go on ahead, I've got a score to settle." Kakashi looked at the boy wide eyed, he couldn't believe he wanted to take on this monster all by himself. "The more time we waste, the less likely we are to get Gaara back alive. Now move it!" Taka's anger reached a freezing point, as the air temperature dropped immediately to below freezing, with the others hot breaths now visible in the air.

Reluctantly Kakashi accepted the boys request, and began taking the others past Itachi. Itachi wasn't about to let them go free so easily, and would've hurt them, if not for a powerful fist slamming into the back of him, sending him flying away. Taka's eyes were wide open, but he had ice mirrors on his eyes. To help reflect the effects of the Sharingan, and render it ineffective agains him. (Think of the mirrors on his eyes, being contact lenses.) This rendered any Genjutsu caused by the Sharingan ineffective, and gave Taka the edge in this fight, as the others managed to get ahead of the battle, and were now actively searching for the Akatsuki hideout. Which allowed Taka to focus back on his fight. "You're not the real one, are you? I can tell, your moves aren't as fluid as his, and you're making mistakes." Without another word, Taka then used one of his ultimate jutsu. "Ice Style: Blood detonation!" Almost instantly the body of 'Itachi' exploded and froze in place, creating a sculpture of exploding body parts. With the Jutsu over the fake now fading away, to reveal a Sand Shinobi in his place.

"Tch, thought as much. Time to catch the others." With that the ice mirrors on Taka's eyes melted away, and were absorbed back into his body. As he slowly melted the frozen blood away, and slowly extracted the water from the plasma of the now dead Shinobi. "Ice Style: Water Plasma Extraction." Taka had now surrounded himself with jets of pure water that he could use, as the now dehydrated corpse crumpled into dust. Once he had the additional resources he needed, he quickly took off in a ninja run, and began closing the distance between himself and the group, who had now managed to get inside of the hideout, unfortunately for them they were too late.

Gaara's corpse lay there, as Deidara sat himself upon it.