Naruto was confused.
And that was putting it lightly. One moment, he had been standing with Shikamaru, watching the Teme beat the hell out of Gaara, and the next, he was on the floor, being woken up by Sakura. He had a faint memory of seeing wierd floating feathers, but wasn't sure what they meant.
"S-Sakura?! What's goin' on?" He slurred, barely awake.
"Wake up already! The village is under attack!" Sakura ordered harshly, shifting over to Shikamaru, who was laying beside him.
Scratching his head, Naruto turned his attention to his sensei, who was currently being swarmed by foreign nin. "Kakashi Sensei, what's go-" Before he could finish his sentence, a foreign lunged towards him, kunai raised to kill.
Kakashi swiftly cut the man down before Naruto could even think about screaming or defending himself.
"I need you to listen closely. This will be your first S- rank mission since the land of the waves..."
At the moment, Temari was extremely worried for both her brothers. One was clutching his head and moaning in pain, while the other was carrying that ticking time bomb.
Once Gaara had collapsed from his partial transformation, he had refused to leave the village without first killing a certain annoying blonde. He hadn't even been able to stand up, but the two siblings knew that to deny him his request also meant a potentially deadly punishment in the future. So that's why they had been forced to smuggle Haruka out of the village as well.
The second she woke up, they knew they were in for a world of pain, but had no other choice. At least they had a 40% chance of surviving her wrath, while with Gaara they had a .40%.
Temari had insisted on being the one to carry Haruka though, knowing Kankuro might have not been able to keep his inner pervert in check. Even if she had kidnapped Haruka, she still had some morals.
"Hey, Temari..." Kankuro began after a minute or so of silence.
"Yeah?" She murmured, more focused on scanning their surroundings for enemies than her idiot brother.
"Don't you think it was strange that H- I mean, Nee-san, got caught in the genjutsu with all of the civilians? She just seems too... Too good for that." He stated, his voice low.
Now that she thought about it, it did seem very 'out of character' for her to be done in so easily. She had even seen the pinkette on Haruka's brother's team awake and moving, unaffected by the jutsu. So how had someone strong enough to stop their brother been affected to the point where they still showed no signs of waking up, even though they were a good distance away from the jutsu caster?
"I don't know! Just concentrate on getting Gaara to safety!" She growled, pushing the question out of her head. Now was not the time to get distracted.
"Alright, alright." Kankuro grumbled, rolling his eyes.
Temari ignored him, trying her best to think ahead as to how to keep Gaara as safe as possible. For the time being, the best she could do was lay traps to try and deter any followers.
They didn't have time for anything else, so she could only hope that it would work.
As time went on, Naruto was becoming more and more unsure about their mission. At first, it had seemed like something truly worthy of his awesome skills, but now...
His heart had stopped it's excited skipping, and his palms were sticky with more sweat than they should have been.
Everything had been going fine until they had to leave behind Shikamaru. He had been more revved up than ever to show Sasuke up, and teach that crazy psycho not to mess with the leaf village.
Seeing his comrade stay behind though, with that look on his face, made all thoughts of being the hero dissipate. Now he just wanted everyone to make it back alive.
But that wasn't the only thing on his mind.
It had taken a bit for him to realize it, but there was something missing from their group. Not something, but someone. Naruto had gotten so used to Haruka showing up and following him around that it was hard for him to get used to her absence, especially during such a crisis.
He wasn't too worried about her though; she was strong enough to take care of herself. Even if she did manage to land herself in trouble, surely her sensei would save her.
Shaking his head, Naruto did his best to focus on catching up with Sasuke, putting those worries to the back of his mind.
Things weren't going good for Temari at all.
The Uchiha had caught up to them eventually, and she had been forced to stay back. Not even ten minutes had passed during their fight before she had to retreat, catching up with her brother just before Sasuke appeared again. Of course, he then had to stay behind as well.
Now Temari was all alone, carrying her other brother and Haruka. Her speed was reduced by half, due to all the extra weight. She may have been a ninja, but she was not a miracle worker. Gaara's gourd felt as if it weighed more than him, making her wonder how he managed to lug it around everywhere he went.
Still, she pressed on. If the dark haired boy got past Kankuro before Gaara had a chance to recover, she was as good as dead. On the other hand, if Gaara woke up and there was no Uchiha to fight, he could very well take his anger out on her after he finished with Haruka.
A low moan shook her out of her thinking. Haruka stirred a bit from her place on Temari's shoulder, her head brushing the large fan on her back.
And then there was Haruka. If the blonde woke before Gaara did and found out what was going on, there would be hell to pay as well.
'What if, what if, what if.' Temari thought to herself angrily. 'I need to stop thinking like this and focus on the things I can control, like getting Gaara to safety.'
Increasing her speed as much as she could, Temari pushed on, doing her best to stay as far away from Sasuke as possible.
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sprinting, Sasuke smirked to himself when he saw the sand girl just ahead of him. It had taken longer than he thought, but he had finally caught up.
As he was not a complete idiot like Naruto, he decided to use the element of surprise and shoot a fireball at her.
Jumping, he quickly formed the proper hand signs, blowing the hot fire out at his enemy, hoping to either hit her or make her stumble.
Now that he had finally caught up, he wasn't going to let his opponent escape.
''''''''''''''''''''''''
Naruto had been running for twenty minutes when he saw Sasuke. Rather, Sasuke about to be killed by a giant monster-thingie.
As fast as he could, he jumped in, grabbing the Teme and carrying him to another branch. Sakura landed beside him, fluttering her hands nervously around Sasuke as she fretted over his injuries.
"Where'd that monster come from?!" Naruto yelled, examining the thing. The closer he looked, the more familiar it seemed. He just couldn't place it...
"It's, Gaara." Sasuke panted, eyeing the red head warily. Normally, his pride would prevent him from accepting the Dobe's help, but this guy was on another level entirely. Not only that, but he was already at his limit with his chidoris. If he wanted to survive this battle, he had no choice other than to run.
"Wha-" As Naruto went to ask how someone could turn into such a monster, a deep groan turned his attention to a tree a few paces behind.
There was a large clump of sand on it, much like a butterfly cocoon. The sand was shifting constantly and compressing together tighter and tighter every few moments. On a closer inspection, he could see a head poking out from the top. One that was extremely familiar...
"H-HARUKA?!"
Current Count: 97
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Sooooooooooooooo...
I am EXTREMELY sorry for taking so long with this update! I've been writing whenever I could, but school and such caught up with me.
I'm sorry as well as if this seems rushed or poorly written. I dunno why, but I feel that it is... >.>
Oh! And here's the one shot I was talking about last chapter: http://www.wattpad.com/73284469-anime-ect-something-to-fight-for-one-shot-2
I'm feeling too lazy to go and put it up on that chapter sooo... yeah... -_-"
The song is the anthem of all us Otakus~!
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