Inuzuka: Book 2 to Momochi

Chapter 1: Mission to the Sand

Chatter amongst the Rookie 9 broke out once they heard of Naruto's return. Shino was standing underneath the tree Kiba, Akamaru (No clue about how he got up there), and I was residing in. We were waiting on Hinata before heading out on a mission. I read quietly while Kiba fiddled with one of his Daggers. Naruto walks past, muttering under his breath. He pauses as Shino asks him something. "Who are you?" I hold in the urge to snicker at Shino's crestfallen expression. Kiba jumps down from the tree.
"So the rumors are true, you really are back." Naruto brightens. "Hey Kiba! Is that Akamaru? He got so big!" Shino gains a depressed look. "Really? I didn't notice." I sigh and close my book. "I guess I am not going to get very far in my book." I jump down, and Naruto looks at me confused. "Akahana? Did you cut your hair?" Shino is now banging his head on the tree, depressed lines very prominent.
I nod and run my fingers through my short hair. "Yeah, decided that with rising tensions it would be best to give it a snip. At least until everything is settled." He nods. "Anyways, have you seen Hinata? We are waiting for her so we can go on a mission." he shakes his head. "I was heading to the Hokage's office for a mission too, haven't seen her." "She's here." Shino mumbles. "Sorry guys! I had to do some stuff for Hanabi and-" She notices Naruto. "Oh hello Naruto-kun. How was your trip?" He smiles widely. "It was great Hinata. Thanks for asking!" She blushes softly. "Anyways," I start, breaking them out of their moment. "Team Oni has to report to the Hokage for a mission. I think we are doing a joint mission with Team Kakashi. Walk with us, we all know that Kakashi will be a little late."
We make it to the Hokage's office. "And congratulations on your promotions, especially you Hinata. I knew you could make it to Jonin." She nods. "Thanks Naruto-kun. It was mostly thanks to Akahana offering to train me." I smile. "I already told you, it was no problem, now let's head inside." We push open the doors after knocking and entering. "Ah, Team 8. Good to see you. We are just waiting on Kakashi." I snicker. "We all know that perv will be late." At that moment he casually walks in. "Were you talking crap Aka?" "You know I was." Lady Tsunade clear her throat. "Now that we are all here-" We are interrupted by the door slamming open. "Lady Tsunade! A class 1 message from Suna! The Kazekage has been kidnapped!" Naruto straightens. Tsnade sighs and rubs her temples. "I was going to give a C-Rank, but everyone else is stretched thin. Team Oni, Team Kakashi, you will set out for Suna immediately." I nod, leader instincts taking over. "Meet at the gates in half an hour." My team sprint out of there, getting to our houses.
We pack everything into small scrolls and clip our weapons onto our back, before making our way to the gates. We meet up with everyone there. Jiraya talks with Kakashi for a few moments and hands him something before he turns to us. "Let's go, we'll take our first break in 6 hours. We need to get there as fast as possible.
My team takes into the trees, Kakashi's team following shortly behind. "So what's with the team name?" Sakura asks. "It was made due to our fierceness in battle, that I basically forced into Gennin Kiba, Shino, and Hinata. The people at the Chunin Exams were not the real them. We were given a classified mission that resulted in the act." I speak up. She looks taken aback. I push ahead, scanning around us for any chakra signatures.
About three hours in a push a soldier pill into my mouth and continue moving. Kiba catches up to me. "What's wrong?" I look at him out of the corner of my eye before speaking. "I feel that there is more to this situation than it appears. I don't know what." He nods. "We'll find out when we arrive." By the time we reached hour 6, we had run into Gaara's sister Temari, who was quick to join us after a short break.
We continued to run through the night, only having a short break that consisted of a small nap. When we made it to the desert, there was a sandstorm, forcing us to halt. Naruto was growing restless. "Naruto enough." He looks at me, anger burning in his eyes. "I can't just sit here and wait while who knows what is happening to Gaara!" "Well you are going to have to! Because if you go out there, we will have to follow, and you cannot get through sandstorms like that. You will get lost. It won't be much longer, so sit tight and kindly shut up!" He freezes and settles onto the floor grumpily. After a short while the sandstorm passed and we continued to Suna.
Once we had reached the gates, we were ushered over to the hospital. An old lady charges at Kakashi, who I ignore completely. Temari looked like she had seen a ghost when she saw her brother, and I sucked in a breath. He had a very similar appearance to him. I shake my head. "He was poisoned wasn't he?" The doctors look at me confused. "It's obvious from his appearance and ragged breathing." Sakura tosses Naruto her backpack and ties her hair up. I pull Kubikirobrocho off and hand it to Kiba with a determined nod. I push the doctors aside and draw a small amount of blood. "Metal based, definitely." Sakura mutters. I nod. "Seems to be tearing down the muscle at an alarming rate. But it is painful. The only one I know who could do this is Akasuna no Sasori, meaning the Akatsuki are involved."
I turned to one of the doctors. "What do you have so far for the antidote?" They hand me a clip board while Sakura begins ordering them the supplies she needs to clear out the poison. "Thank you Haku for poisoning yourself, forcing me to learn how to make Poisons and Antidotes, even if I didn't like it." I mutter, scanning the sheet. "There are several gaps that we were unable to fill." I scan the list. "I can use this. I need to analyse the poison and take a look at the herbs you have." The doctors are quick to pull me to the greenhouse.
I observe what they have and scan the list, grabbing what I believe would fill it. "Grab me some of the water-lily, and a white snapper. I also will need some of the seeds and fruits listed here." I hand one a list and grab some of the Indian Atees and place it in a pestle, grinding the plant into a fine paste. I grab the other items and add them in the correct amounts, or at least I hoped. I steep the herbs in water and channel some healing chakra into it to help with muscle repairs.
After a few minutes I take the finished antidote and place it on the seal, as well as putting it in with the poisoned blood under a microscope, significantly pleased to find it worked. I created four extra dosages in hypodermic form. We rush back to the hospital and I hand the finished antidote to a resting Sakura, who is quick to give it to him.
I sigh and lean against the wall, very relieved seeing Kankuro gain some color. An older woman, who I had seen attack Kakashi approached me. "How did you crack the code so fast?" I smile at her. "My brother used to Poison himself a lot, which forced me to learn how to make antidotes to keep his sorry butt alive. He then taught me what he knew about poisons and medicine, but it isn't my calling." She nods. "Well thank you dear." I nod. "It is no problem, Sakura could have done it, I am just quicker." I make my way over to Kiba, who subtly grabs my hand. "Good job." I smile. "I just need a nap, but we have to figure out the trail of where Gaara was taken." I take a kunai and cut my palm, summoning Akiko. "I need you to search for Gaara." Kankuro coughs. "Karasu, he... has something... that may be of use." I look at him while Sakura mother hens and tells him to not talk quite yet.
He ignores her and one of Karasu's hands open. "It is off of Akasuna no Sasori. I tore it off of him while we fought. This should help." By now, Kakashi had also summoned his Pack and they were observing the scent as well. With a nod they were off. Kakashi gives us a close eyed smile. "Now we rest until they find their location." Naruto looks about ready to burst. "Naruto." He looks at me. "We have no trails of where they are, and we need to rest to be at our full capacity. I promise the moment we find out where they are we will head in that direction." He sighs and looks at me. "Alright." Temari begrudgingly leaves her brother's side and levels herself. "Alright, I'll show you to you rooms. There you can rest until it is time to move out." We follow Temari into the hotel. When we arrive, exhaustion hits me like a truck. I eat a small sandwich and take off Kubikiribocho before falling onto the bed, quickly succumbing to exhaustion.