Our enemies in this world make up their own rules. If we play their game, if we become like them we lose, we lose big. ~ Bobby Ewing.
.
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We knew we were catching up when we came across the used tripwire traps.
Most of them had already been set off, but it did slow us down a little to navigate through them.
But because we had slowed down, we were able to get behind cover when an absolutely insane gust of wind swept through the trees. Leaves were ripped straight off, branches were shredded, a few older trees snapped off at the trunk and went over completely.
"Well," Kiba drawled, forearms crossed in front of his face. "Zero points for guessing who's up first."
I cast a sideways glance at him and Ino. "You two good to go?"
Ino gave me a thumbs up.
"Okay, fast burst when the wind dies down. We'll be interrupting a fight so be careful!" I said. If you timed it wrong, you might get attacked from both sides before anyone recognised you.
Maybe I should have said 'on my mark' because Naruto's concept of 'dying down' and mine obviously weren't the same. Then again, he didn't get shredded when he burst from cover, so the rest of us followed him.
"Having trouble?" Naruto greeted cheekily, ploughing into the clearing. Well. It probably hadn't been a clearing before Temari started throwing mega wind jutsu around.
The rest of us flickered in after him, arraying ourselves over the branches in a variety of places. I slid to a crouch next to Sasuke, surveying the surroundings. If I'd been in the mood to notice, I probably would have said we made a damn dramatic entrance.
Temari's face went from 'determined but resigned' to 'ohshit' in the blink of an eye.
I cast a quick eye over Sasuke - tired but not exhausted. Maybe half his chakra gone. Uninjured.
Good enough.
"Come on," I said to Sasuke, with a tilt of my chin. "Don't take too long, you guys."
"Pshaw," Ino said. "Ten minutes. Tops."
"Oh no you don't," Temari murmured, grasping her fan and heaving, probably intending on stopping us from getting past her. But Kiba was way ahead of her, shoulder charging her and knocking her off balance.
"Get outta here!" He growled.
We went. I didn't really have any worries about Ino and Kiba. Temari was practically exhausted already and while she was crafty and strong all the cards were stacked in their favour. Frankly, the biggest issue was that they'd never worked together before.
Should I have split people into Team groups? I shook my head at the thought. Too late now.
"Here," I said to Sasuke as we leapt from branch to branch, handing over a soldier pill. "Soldier pill. Take it when your chakra gets low."
"Thanks," he muttered, tucking it away in his weapons pouch. Given that his Chidori seemed to drain about half his chakra a shot, he'd need it.
I didn't want to give him more than one since I knew Sasuke would use it. Soldier pill overdose was nothing to laugh at, especially since there were other complications.
I glanced at his neck, the black seal inert but still present. He caught my glance and grimaced.
"No trouble?" I asked.
"Not yet." He shook his head. I had the feeling that Kakashi-sensei had driven him to the point of exhaustion so many times over the past month that he knew how far he could push it before it started acting up. With Sasuke, however, that didn't necessarily mean he was going to stop there.
"We're here!" Pakkun barked, and we all slid to a stop on the branches.
"You beat Temari so fast, Uchiha?" Kankurou said before blanching. "Huh. Reinforcements. That's… troubling."
"Shit! Where's Gaara?" Naruto shouted, taking in the scene. Kankurou was there, but Gaara wasn't. "He got away!"
"On the ground," I said, almost in tandem with Pakkun.
Kankurou's fingers twitched, almost invisible chakra strings blooming from the tips. "I can't let you pass."
"You can't stop them," Shino said blandly. "We will be your opponents."
"We will handle this," Hinata said quietly to the rest of us.
Shikamaru said nothing, but I didn't need him to.
"We'll give you guys some space," I said. "Come on." Getting ourselves out of range would be a wise starting move, particularly if Gaara was about to go nuts and transform. And if Kankurou had area of effect poisons… yeah, distance was good.
We dropped down, catching the lower hanging branches, and following Gaara's tracks to give them some space.
"Alright," I said. "We'll get some space, so we don't get mixed up in their fight." I breathed in deeply and let it out, trying to come up with a strategy, the best possible use of the people I had. "Chouji, stay with Pakkun. You are a close range fighter, so I don't want you to engage with Gaara unless absolutely necessary. If you see an opening, use your judgement, but don't get caught by the sand." It … depended. Chouji's Multisize Techniques might come in handy even though he wasn't fast, particularly if Gaara started getting bigger. "I want you to be on lookout for incoming enemies, in case there are more of them in the forest. If anyone gets injured, get them out of the way and protect them." I didn't kid myself that no one was going to get injured. "When the others come, fill them in."
Chouji nodded seriously. "Right. Oh, man. This is nuts."
Sasuke was giving me a strange look, but I didn't have time to process that right now.
"We'll circle around him and box him in. Everyone okay with that?"
"Yeah, let's do this," Naruto said, but with markedly less enthusiasm than normal.
Gaara was stumbling along the ground. I don't know if he knew what direction he was moving in. I don't know if he even had any goal at all. He was just moving. Stumbling along, one hand clutched to his bleeding shoulder, the other to his head, mumbling and muttering.
Alone, I would have been perfectly content to just shadow him, preventing him from returning to the village by way of diversions. Sasuke, and to a lesser degree Naruto… weren't.
And once Gaara knew that Sasuke was there, by sight or by scent or whatever, he wasn't either.
"Sasuke Uchiha!" He growled out, spinning around on the ground. "Come out! I know you're there!"
There was unfocused Killing Intent spiking in the air. It wasn't the focused intent of Zabuza or even the coldly dispassionate strength of Orochimaru. It was hungry. Bloodlust.
"Hmph," Sasuke said, unimpressed as he revealed himself. "I don't know what you Sand Village clowns are up to, but I'll stop you." His eyes gleamed. He was looking forward to this fight.
"We're so alike, Uchiha," Gaara said. "I don't have friends as you have, but they aren't what makes you strong. It's your purpose that does it. In that way, we're alike. But mine is the stronger purpose, for only by destroying you and all you represent can I even prove that I exist. Only by killing you can I know what life is."
He was groaning, howling, the sand armour on his face cracking off as he clutched his head.
We waited warily.
"You are my prey!"
Sand spilled out of his gourd, starting to coat his arm and face. His chakra was flaring, uncontrollable but stronger and stronger.
Gaara lashed out, clawed arm trying to grab Sasuke. Sasuke flipped backwards, avoiding the large but surprisingly agile attack. His Sharingan was spinning, picking up cues to allow him to dodge in time.
Gaara's sand arm was blasting holes through the trees, as though the rough sand was abrading the wood away. That and the amount of force he was using. Another very good reason to avoid being hit by it.
Not that I needed any more reasons.
"Why do you hide, Sasuke Uchiha?" Gaara growled, almost like he was taunting. "Do I frighten you? Are you shocked by my true form?"
I darted sideways, keeping parallel to Gaara and using the shadows of the branches to boost my shadow towards him. I was glad that he was sticking to the ground, it made catching him easier.
"Shadow Possession Complete!" I called, and then was nearly knocked off my feet at the sheer feedback from the jutsu. This was worse than trying to hold him in the hospital. I grunted, struggling to hold it. "Naruto! Water scroll!"
Naruto barely hesitated for a second before darting out with his water scroll and flinging it towards Gaara. I was prepared for it, but nearly hit by the backwash as the wave crested over the ground.
Gaara howled. I struggled to keep him frozen, not even trying to make him mimic me. My chakra was draining at an alarming rate.
But his sand was sloughing off, the water soaking in and making it slow and sluggish. The rest of his sand armour was cracked and flaking from the sheer force of the water slamming into him.
"I will kill you!" He howled, chakra surging higher and higher again, more sand spilling out from his gourd, forming a lashing tail behind him.
My shadow wavered and broke.
"UP!" I shouted, leaping straight up into the canopy, just as a claw of sand crashed down where I had just been standing. Dust billowed into the air and there was a creaking groan from Naruto's direction as the tree behind him toppled over. His chakra signal was bright and high in the air, so I knew he'd dodged the attack.
"This is unreal," Sasuke breathed. "His strength is off the charts."
"Is your existence stronger than mine? You'll never know unless you fight me! You'll never feel it. Attack!"
I could tell what Sasuke was going to do even before he started forming the hand seals. Chidori was the strongest attack jutsu he knew, and it was uniquely suited to disrupting Gaara's sand.
"Over here, Gaara!" I shouted, pelting him with handful after handful of kunai to gain his attention.
He growled, covering his face with the huge sand arm. The kunai sunk into it like it was quicksand, half absorbed half pulled in.
"Here! You can have them back!" He shouted.
They shot back out twice as fast, almost burning with the air friction.
Interesting, I noted, even as I flipped out of the way, ducking behind tree trunks and rolling flat across the ground. Does his automatic defence not work while he is transformed?
He had actually had to intercept them himself, not just rely on the sand to catch them.
I rolled to my feet just in time to see Sasuke leap forwards, lightning chirping in his hand.
The Chidori carved right through the clawed arm, lightning disrupting the chakra bonds in the sand, sending it crumbling to the ground. But Gaara just laughed.
"I see! So that's what it is! Now its clear to me exactly why I've been looking forward to this! This… pain… What a thrill it will be to crush such an opponent." His face was twisted into a demonic grin, the sand still coating half of his face and forming that of Shukaku. It looked demented.
Sasuke was panting heavily. As I'd thought before, using Chidori took a lot out of him. One hand was clutching the crook of his neck, right over the curse mark. Shit.
"Naruto! Get some clones in there!" I shouted, going for Sasuke.
He swallowed, but formed the cross seal. "Right!"
I landed beside Sasuke, wrapped one arm around his waist and jumped, narrowly avoiding the flailing sand tail that tried to crush us.
"Shit," Sasuke breathed, and scrambled for the soldier pill I'd given him before. As he took it, I felt his chakra flare.
It's said that soldier pills give you enough chakra to run for three days and nights. That might be so in theory, but considering the chakra expenditure of more serious jutsu it doesn't work quite the same in practice.
"Whoa." Sasuke shook his head and stood, pulling away from me. "That's a rush."
"Shadow Clone Body Slam!" Naruto shouted, and we jolted, peering around the tree to see a Naruto hurling another Naruto at Gaara. There were clones everywhere and even though Sasuke had destroyed one sand arm, it looked like Gaara had formed another.
The Naruto hurtled in an arc around Gaara, even as the others dispersed into smoke, using quickly formed Shadow Clones to change direction and distract the murderous Jinchuriki. He landed in Gaara's blindspot, rolled beneath the thrashing tail and took out a single kunai.
I had a sinking feeling that I knew where this was going.
"Konoha Secret Taijutsu Technique; One Thousand Years of Pain!"
"He didn't," Sasuke said. "Please tell me he didn't."
Naruto used the Replacement Jutsu to get himself out of there just before the kunai exploded, showering sand everywhere.
"Well, it was a weak point," I said feebly. "The sand couldn't absorb all of the impact."
"Still…" Sasuke said and shook his head.
"Is that it?" Gaara shouted, smoke clearing. Sand was slagging off his face, looking halfway between melted and soggy, but even more sand was flowing out of his gourd, encasing his entire torso. There couldn't be that much in there, could there? "That was the best demonstration you could make of the value of your existence?" The sand on his arm bulged and separated out into what looked like small, free floating balls. "Sand Shuriken!"
Then the world became a blur of high speed, high danger combat as we dodged, ducked, wove and attacked, trying to hit exposed skin and not get caught by sand. I slapped explosive tags down willy-nilly, shock tags - lightning based but not really strong enough to do much to an insane Jinchuriki -, tags that produced concussive blasts… anything I could get my hands on. There was a mess of clones around us, attacking, popping, pulling us from danger… I caught sight of Sasuke, Sharingan spinning, launched for an attack before I had to duck and dodge and focus.
I got hit by a flailing trail of sand - arm or tail I couldn't tell - and had just enough time to chakra reinforce my entire body before I went slamming through a tree trunk. I wheezed, air forced from my lungs, and slumped to the ground, stunned for a moment.
Hands pried at my arms, lifting me and moving. Groggily, I saw green and white… Chouji. Good old Chouji.
"Alright?" He asked, eyes wide and worried.
"Fine," I rasped. "Gimme a sec."
There was the sound of chirping birds and the flash of blue lightning through the air. Sasuke was a blur of black moving for Gaara.
Again, the lightning sliced through the sand armour, scattering and dispersing the sand. We were landing hits, but we weren't progressing. Every hit we landed, Gaara recovered from.
"I lost everything once," Sasuke said, voice soft and flat, yet managing to carry. "I don't ever want to have to say that again. My trusted comrades falling, right in front of me…"
"I think that's my cue to get back in there," I said, standing and shaking myself off. My chakra reserves were low but I wasn't really hurt. After a seconds hesitation, I took a soldier pill.
Sasuke was right. That is a rush, I thought. But they taste horrible.
I darted back through the trees, power flowing through my limbs. It was more agitated than normal, buzzing like static electricity under my skin. It was a heady feeling.
"Are you afraid of me? Or are you still thinking of the best way to save your friends? Fool. Forget them. Think only of yourself. Love only yourself. That is what it means to be the strongest," Gaara was saying as I approached. He was mostly transformed now, only human legs sticking out of the mass of sand.
"Oh, shut up," I said, irritated, launching a wave of kunai with explosive tags at the ground towards his feet. They detonated in his face.
Sasuke and Naruto snapped around to look at me, disbelief and relief mixed on their faces. And so I was the only one who saw the attack coming.
"Move!" I shouted, leaping away.
He… it breathed in, gaping maw opening wide. "Wind Release: Sandstorm Devastation!" The wind that gushed out was thick with sand, rough and abrasive and blasting. It was strong enough to disperse Naruto's clones and slam us all into trees. I clipped a branch, anchoring myself with chakra and crossing my forearms across my face to protect my eyes.
"Attack me, Sasuke Uchiha," Gaara growled. "Don't run and hide."
Sasuke glared at him angrily. He knew as well as I did that things weren't going in our favour here. He'd used Chidori on Gaara three times, and he was still as strong as ever, if not getting stronger every second.
Then…
"Fang over Fang!"
Twin fangs twisted over head, through the air on a crash course for Gaara.
"No! Kiba!" I shouted, panicked.
They hit his huge sand arm and kept spinning, drilling themselves into it. Beside me, Sasuke crouched and flashed through hand seals, summoning lightning to his hand once more.
"Sand Coffin!" Gaara shouted, the loose sand that Kiba and Akamaru were stirring up twisting around to entangle them.
Sasuke rushed forward.
I followed in his footsteps, and as he leapt to sever the arm holding them, I ducked down, ready to grab them as they were released. I nearly missed the first one released, as the Beast Clone form of Akamaru reverted in my arms. He was battered and his white fur was stained red but I didn't have time to assess them, slinging the real Kiba over my shoulder and hightailing it out of there. I saw a flash of blonde in the trees - Ino - but didn't stop.
"Chouji!" I said, skidding to a stop. Then I blinked. "Is that…"
"Temari. We brought her with us," Kiba explained, groaning and sliding off my shoulder. "Didn't wanna just leave her there." Leaving her alone would have just given her another chance to attack us. Bringing her here, as prisoner, was the compromise between that and killing her. "We thought you guys could use some back up. Didn't realise just how much."
"Yeah," I said, biting my lip. "Kiba, I want you to stay with Chouji. Don't attack unless necessary."
"I can fight!" Kiba protested almost immediately.
"I know," I stressed. "Kiba, you saw what jus happened; your Fang Over Fang Jutsu just drilled you into his sand. If we hadn't gotten you out of there…"
He went pale and nodded. "Aww, man. I hate this."
"Don't we all," I muttered, turning to dash back to the others.
"As long as you fight for the sake of others," Gaara spat at Sasuke. "You'll never advance beyond this level. Only one can remain undefeated and only he can know what it feels like to truly exist. Forget your friends and fight for yourself."
"Why do you gotta go around picking on Sasuke-kun, you jerk? He's had it rough, you know," Ino shouted back, sounding perfectly annoyed and not even a little intimidated, even though her white knuckled hands gave her away. "He's nothing like you. All he needs is a little love and affection."
Ino, I thought fondly. You just have this desire to fix people, don't you? Me, Sakura… Sasuke too. I should have figured.
But Gaara screamed like her words had burnt him. "Shut up!"
Sand rushed for her, a clawed hand hurled through the air. Ino's eyes widened. I knew with cold dread that I'd never get close in time to help.
Then, with a pop, Ino was Naruto and the sand slammed into him
Be a clone, I thought desperately. Don't be the real one.
"Now you're just pissing me off," Naruto shouted, from a completely different direction. Ino was standing safe, though terrified, beside him. "I get it. I do. You're no different than I am. Going through life with the exact same sadness and loneliness that I had to carry… You fought only for yourself, never relying on anyone…But you're wrong. Being alone isn't the same as being strong. And trying to hurt Ino, just because she wants to help Sasuke… that's just low."
Ino was staring at him like she'd never seen him before.
"I'm not scared of you," Naruto continued, deathly serious. "Because I know that people aren't strong unless they have something they want to protect. And I WONT LET YOU HURT MY FRIENDS."
Chakra surged, pure and blue.
"Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Orange filled the trees. There must have been a thousand of them. "Naruto Uzumaki Two Thousand Combo!"
They charged at Gaara, a relentless almost suicidal barrage. For every one that Gaara burst, two got through his defences. The combined, choreographed pummelling threw him into the air, whereupon more clones promptly hit him back down again.
"Is that Naruto?" Someone asked weakly. I didn't even look to see who.
Gaara hit the ground so hard that it shook. A dust cloud billowed into the air, obscuring even the sky above us.
"I won't lose to you!" Gaara screamed in outrage.
Then there was an explosion of chakra smoke and I gagged as chakra filled the air, as thick as water. We looked up. And up.
"What is that?" Sasuke asked in horror.
"Shukaku," I breathed. It towered over the tree tops, four maybe five times as tall as the tallest tree. I swallowed. I had underestimated it. I had greatly underestimated just how big it would be. Shit.
If this had been let lose in the middle of Konoha…
The thought flashed quickly across my mind, irrelevant but horrifying all the same.
"So that's it," Naruto said. "The monster inside of him."
"Naruto," I said breathlessly, swallowing with a suddenly dry mouth. "Please tell me your summoning contract has some really big Toads."