Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 20 Priorities

“Stop,” Shino said and his team came to a halt. Shino’s beetles flew towards a tree and sat on it in a particular formation. When all of them were on, a message became visible. “They split up,” Shino said, “Hinata, Neji, do you see anything with your Byakugan?”
Both of them scanned the area. “There is fighting East,” Hinata said.
“West too,” Neji filled in, “and North.”
“Can you see who?”
“Lee and Naruto are closets,” Neji said, “they’re fighting on opponent. There are two other chakra streams too, but they’re down. One of them… Taryn,” he ended softly.
“Are they alive?” Shino asked.
Neji nodded. “Yes, but they seem injured. As far as the others are concerned. I can’t tell. They’re all fighting and there are a lot of different chakra streams.”
Shino nodded. “We’ll split up too then. Sakura, Neji, you got to where Naruto and Lee are. When you are finished there, go see the others. Hinata, come with me.”

Taryn groaned as she carefully tried to sit up. She pressed a hand to her head and studied it. She knew she was bleeding and her head throbbed. There was a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you alright?” Lee asked.
“Where is Gaara?” Taryn asked.
“He’s right here,” Lee said, “but his sand is wet and he can’t use it.”
Taryn looked around and saw that Naruto was fighting their opponent with his shadow clones. She tried to stand up, but doubled over and fell again.
“Careful,” Lee warned.
“Hey, need some help?” Sakura stepped into the clearing with Neji behind her. She kneeled next to Taryn and looked uncertain, still not sure what to think of this girl with her hostile eyes.
“Help Gaara first,” Taryn said.
The prospect of healing Gaara seemed to frighten the girl even more. She swallowed and went to the boy. Gaara looked at her surprised when she started healing his wounds. He could see the fear in her eyes, but he was used to being treated that way.
“That’s enough,” he said and stood up.
Sakura backed away from him and hurried towards Taryn to heal her wounds. “I’ve got it,” she said to Lee, “you help Naruto.”
Lee nodded and together he and Neji rushed to Naruto’s side. Gaara didn’t hesitate and spurted past them to find Matsuri.
“Gaara wait!” Taryn called, but she fell back and hissed in pain.
“Hold on,” Sakura said, “I’m almost done. You hit your head pretty hard. You should rest a moment.”
Taryn gritted her teeth. She knew Sakura was right. Somewhere during the fight she had lost her wireless and the water had made it useless. She hoped Dante and Yamaru were alright. She stood up when Sakura finished. At the same time a few bugs came flying their direction. “That’s Shino’s sign,” Sakura said, “the others are injured.”
“Go,” Taryn called at Neji, “I’ll take over.”
Neji nodded at her and disappeared into the forest with Sakura at his side.

Kankuro sighed as he closed Yamaru’s eyes. It had been a long fight and in the end they had been able to defeat their enemy, but at the cost of Yamaru’s life. He took a moment out of respect for his fallen comrade, but then he stood up with an determined look in his eyes.
“Sorry about your comrade,” Kiba said.
Kankuro nodded. “Thanks. We need to catch up to the others. I don’t know how far they are.”     
“Akamaru can track them,” Kiba said, “our friends are near too. He can find them and we’ll find your teammates too.”
“Right. Let’s go.” He carefully placed Yamaru’s body in one of his puppets and followed the others.

“You missed me,” Delia laughed as Temari’s windattack hit the waterfall behind her. But her laugh died out when she noticed she was unable to move. She gasped. Shikamaru chuckled.  
      “Have you forgotten about my Shadow Entrapment?” he asked.
Delia stared at him confused. “That’s not possible. I stayed out of your jutsu’s reach. You could never have caught me.”
“True,” Shikamaru admitted, “but I didn’t use your  shadow…I’ll let you look up and see.” He lifted his own head and Delia’s moved with his. Temari’s attack had deliberately missed her and when it had hit the rock wall, it had bent off the waterfall, causing it to form a large shadow over Delia’s head. That was the shadow Shikamaru had used to reach hers. Delia gritted her teeth, but was unable to do anything about it.
“Heh,” Shikamaru said, “get it now?” he lowered his head again.
“Go on,” he said to Temari, “finish it.”
Temari grinned and lifted her fan.