Temari walked forward toward Naruto and said "I didn't know that you were a Jinchuriki as well but I can understand the pain you must have gone through your entire life. But this isn't the way to express it. I am sure that my brothers can hold off the Akatsuki till we arrive there."
Everyone could see that she herself was under much stress but even she knew that it was impossible to reach the hidden sand in the given timeframe. By this time as the entire group was talking, they noticed that the villagers around them were looking at them nervously.
"Why are they looking at us like that?" Sakura asked confused by the behavior of the villagers.
That's when Temari said "Actually like the Land of fire, the Land of Earth, isn't that prospersous so the civilian villages manage things by themselves and the only shinobis are the ones who are posted as the village head's guards. The only exception is when a threat is around the village and the hidden sand has sent shinobis to get rid of it."
"Should we tell them that there is nothing to worry about?" Lee asked to which Kakashi shook his head and said "I think that would be waste of time. Just find a nice place on the outskirts to eat something and let's leave."
Everyone nodded and after walking for a minute or two through the peering gazes of the villagers, the two squads reached a small open restaurant at the end of the village.
They were all seated at the tables and ordered the food. Except for them, there weren't many people there. As they were eating Kakashi, Sasuke, and Neji immediately looked up at the sky. Since there were all sitting at one big table, this behavior was noticed by everyone and just as they were about to ask what it was, they saw something coming at them at tremendous speed.
"What is that?" Karin asked as she stood up. Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee were also ready to attack and Sasuke even tightened his grip on his sword when Kakashi said "Sit down everyone...It's not an enemy attack."
The others were confused as to why Kakashi would say that. Sasuke still didn't loosen his grip on the sword's hilt while Neji even activated his Byakugan. Just as the thing got closer, they saw that it had red eyes and sharp teeth...both extremely threatening.
"I-Is that a..." Temari was asking when Sasuke took his hand off and stood normally as he said "Yes it's a bat."
"Is Yami sending another letter? Maybe the Akatuski postponed or canceled their plans?" Naruto said trying to be positive about this. He didn't want to hear any kind of bad news. He already regarded Gaara as his friend and the last thing he wanted was to lose him.
But to everyone's surprise, the bat came and landed on the table beside the group's table. A strong gust of wind spread in the area as the bat landed. Even the table that the bat landed on cracked.
"Huh? I don't see a letter tied to its legs." Lee said as he looked at the bat's legs. "Maybe he is going to pull out a message scroll from his mouth." Kakashi said as he had seen Yami do that before with the bat.
They all waited for a few seconds but the bat didn't do anything. Neji stood up and looked at Sasuke and said "Sasuke it seems to be staring at you." and he was right because that's what the bat was doing. Since Sasuke was sitting in the middle of the group, they didn't notice at the bat wasn't looking at them as a collective but at Sasuke alone.
"Sasuke do you do something that confirms to the bat that it's you and then it gives you the letter?" Naruto asked. He didn't know how this worked but he could only take a few wild guesses.
Sasuke looked at him and said "There is nothing like that you idiot. In fact, this is the first time I am seeing this kind of bat. Normally the bats that Yami used to send were the normal small black ones."
"Hmmm....what if he isn't here to give anything but to take something?" Karin asked as a fluke. The others didn't know what she meant but 3 people instantly did. Neji and Kakashi both looked at Sasuke who nodded and stood up immediately.
"Were you guys able to think of something?" Temari asked as she saw Kakashi looking at Sasuke and him standing up as if he had come to some kind of realization.
Kakashi didn't say anything and just nodded. The next second they all saw Sasuke take out a storage scroll from his pocket. He made some hand signs and 2 things popped up from the scroll. The first thing was another storage scroll but it looked way more complicated than the normal ones and it had the Uchiha logo on it. The 2nd thing was the sword wrapped in cloth.
"What are these two things?" Naruto asked as he tried to touch the cloth on the sword but Sakura slapped his hand away.
"This is bad manners Naruto. You shouldn't touch other's things without their permission." Sakura said and the next second looked at Sasuke and asked "What is this Sasuke, can I take off the cloth and see what's in it?"
Sasuke didn't say anything and placed the sword beside the bat's legs. The bat looked at it for a second or two and then grabbed it with both his legs. Sasuke then held the scroll in front of the bat and with a small inhale the scroll instantly went inside the bat's mouth.
The bat then immediately flew away with the same speed and ferociousness that it had come. "Those were Yami's things and his sword. I guess we don't have much time before Yami needs them." Sasuke said as he kept looking at the direction in which the bat flew away.
"He'll be alright." Kakashi said as he tapped Sasuke's shoulder. The entire group gobbled up the food that was served to them and continued their journey toward the hidden sand.
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The hidden Sand Village (3 hours later)
It was already evening and the shifts were going to change in a few hours. Even though the patrolling was tripled than usual, the sand shinobis posted at the border were quite lax. One of the most important reasons for that was the sand storm which was now approaching. The village already had sturdy walls in place to protect it from such storms and no idiot would try to travel the desert in such a storm so the chances of an attack were too low.
Even Yami was lax as he knew the time the attack was going to happen. For now, Yami was just keeping an eye on Yura from a safe distance. He knew that Yura himself didn't know that he was a traitor and when Sasori activates him, that is when Yura realizes what he must do to let Sasori and Deidara in.
Yami who was now just standing guard with a few others looking at the wide empty desert in front of him looked up. He felt that the bat he had sent was coming back...the time the bat took to come back from when it was sent gave Yami the estimate that Sasuke is among the blood Lady Tsunade is sending to the hidden sand and where they must have reached.
'I think they must have crossed the land of earth. I guess Lady Tsunade trusted my letter way too easily and took action immediately. I can assume that Naruto is also there with them like in the canon.' Yami thought.
As he was thinking about all this, he noticed some movement. The movement wasn't happening in the open desert but in the tent where Yura was supervising everything.
Yura came out a few seconds later and started patrolling the border himself. He was inspecting like a normal elder would but then Yami felt something odd. He noticed that from time to time Yura would look in a particular direction in the desert. Since there was no physical sign as to when the jutsu on Yura will be activated, Yami knew that he would have to completely trust his instincts and act on it or else the sand shinobis he might need to use as cannon fodder become a burden to him.
As Yura was coming closer, Yami was focused on finding someone in the desert. All he needed was something more than his gut instinct and the next second he was going to take action...and sure that time came within the next 15 seconds because Yami saw 4 silhouettes coming toward the hidden sand a few kilometers away.
( How will Gaara defeat them? Will Yami interefere? Ans to all your questions are posted in my P@treon)
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