Chapter's done! Yay.

Idk man I keep editing my newer chapters before my older ones. It's weird and I should stop doing it so much.

Anyways, without further ado, The FitnessGram™ Pacer Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The 20 meter pacer test will begin i

Chapter 63: A Feint, Resolve, and Stolen Sands

About a minute into leaving their proctor's station, they received a call on their communicator's from Team Fu's assigned Jonin.

"We're being engaged by Kisame Hoshigaki! I'm holding him off for now so those kids can escape… but I'm not gonna' last. They're running back towards the entrance-" His feed cut out momentarily. "-need you to rendezvous with the other Jonin leaders and guard Team Fu at all costs!"

"Will do!" Sasuke shouted in, hoping the man who was laying down his life would at least be able to find some recompense with that. "All Jonin Leaders, this is Central command! Calling all back to the entrance, we have a breach in security!"

He swore as he saw an explosion on the sands some distance away. From the looks of things, whatever had just hit wasn't to be trifled with.

"I'm guessing that's where we're going?" He turned to Naruto.

"Yeah…" His friend responded. "I think you're probably right."

/-/

Ino wasn't quite sure when her life had become some ancient drama straight off the page of a famous poet, but somehow today had been about the most eventful day of her entire life, and it didn't look to be stopping anytime soon.

They hid behind a sand dune, the sun beating down on them relentlessly, as they watched two figures clash with another taller, broader one. Ino had the sneaking suspicion she knew who their opponent was. Wielding a massive, living sword and sneering down at all of them, Kisame Hoshigaki stood menacingly.

An S-ranked outlaw ninja. A member of the Akatsuki. Perhaps most importantly of all, though…

One of Zabuza's killers.

Well shit. Her brain supplied rather unhelpfully.

The green-haired girl Fu was here too, and she was standing with her two teammates, who, for all intents and purposes, looked far and away the most experienced ninja here, besides their opponent. She wasn't fighting, and every time she tried to move in, her teammates hissed and forced her backwards.

"Bodyguards?" Shikamaru muttered under his breath. "I guess that means she's important, like I thought." He turned back to the two of them, before inclining his head at another three figures off in the distance. "Not to mention… those three as well."

She looked over and her face blanched as she saw the unconscious forms of Team 8. Shino seemed to have taken the least damage, merely sporting a few cuts and bruises, but Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru all looked like they'd been brutalized. If anything, Ino had a feeling that was due to Kisame's weapon, Samehada.

They'd heard about it from Team 7's reports on the man, but even still, seeing it up close was something else. It seemed to move towards its opponents, snaking into their swords and shaking whenever it managed to sap some chakra away from them, almost like it was laughing. It was a truly frightening sight, not to mention that the man who wielded it was no slouch either.

On their own, either was formidable. Together, they made for a real monster.

"What do we do, Shikamaru?" Choji asked worriedly.

"We help out as best we can. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like running away from this."

It was rare for Shikamaru of all people not to shirk work, but then again, this was the Akatsuki. These people weren't just a threat to the Leaf, according to what Naruto and Sakura had told her, they were a threat to the entire ninja world.

Plus, even if they'd been competing with them, Team 8 were their friends. They couldn't just abandon them here.

"That's all well and good, Shikamaru." Ino spoke cautiously. "But wouldn't you normally supply us a plan first?"

Choji nodded, facing Shikamaru expectantly.

"Ino… I don't suppose you could swap minds with him?"

"With him?" She parroted with a raised eyebrow. "And get immediately punted back out?"

"Eh, could buy us a few seconds."

"Come up with a better plan."

"I really don't have one." Shikamaru admitted a second later. "We're not the kind of people meant to fight someone like this guy. He powered through Sasuke's Genjutsu, I'm not willing to risk him not being able to power through Shadow Possession, or swat away a human boulder."

She could see the logic in that, even if it made her want to bite her nail in worry. Even with the six of them, if they were all Genin, hell, if the four of them were Genin, and they had Fu's teammates, presumably Chuunin or Jonin on their side as well, this was still probably their loss.

Judging by the way Kisame was batting them around like they were nothing, she was hesitant to think anything else.

They needed actual support, and they needed it fast.

"Assume the proctors know what's going on here." Shikamaru sighed out. "That's about all we can do. We engage Kisame and hold him until back-up arrives."

"And if it doesn't arrive?"

"We cross that bridge when we come to it." He turned to her. "You in or out?"

"I have a choice?"

"Not really, no."

"Then don't offer me one." She hissed annoyedly, before vaulting the small dune they'd been hidden behind and raising her hands, catching the figure of Kisame Hoshigaki in her 'reticle'. "Mind Transfer Jutsu!"

The effect was immediate, and Kisame's body stiffened.

Inside his head, she barely had the time to turn before an almost herculean force pushed against her. She screamed in pain and was flung back and out of his head barely a second later.

"Hah!" She heard the man bark out as he reclaimed his body, batting aside a few well-placed strikes from Fu's teammates as he looked towards her. "I've fought some of the very best of your clan, girl. Don't think your pansy-ass version of that Jutsu's gonna' do a thing to me!"

Shikamaru had managed to use the second or two she'd bought him, however, getting behind him and bringing his own hands into his ancestral Jutsu.

"Shadow Possession!"

The black line streaked along the ground and connected with Kisame's feet. He looked down almost casually, almost entirely ignoring the control, before he looked up at Choji above him, who was rolled into a human boulder.

He slammed down on Kisame a second later.

A cloud of dust and sand was kicked up as Ino struggled to breath, backpedaling a few times to get away from the epicenter, trusting her teammates to be able to watch out for themselves. However, before the dust had even settled, there was a crying sound, as if from a young girl, and the sound of two others shouting out.

Fu!

The sand cleared, and they got their first real look at the damage done. Kisame stood casually with Fu slung over his shoulder, shooting the three of them a smile as the girl's teammates laid at his feet. From their rasping breaths, they were alive, but out of the fight.

"Hey, thanks you three!" The Akatsuki laughed merrily, readjusting Fu slightly so her head swished limply. "I was having a bit of trouble capturing this one past those two, but you really saved me with that smokescreen!"

She ground her teeth together, as did Choji. Shikamaru managed to stay calm, but she could tell there was an edge there. He wasn't too pleased their plan had helped the enemy either.

"Welp, it's been fun and all, but…" He brandished his likely obscenely heavy blade with his left hand. "Unless you'd all like to die, I've got places to be."

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji all took a single step forwards. It wasn't enough for Kisame to jump in and attack them, but it must've at least sold out their intent, for the man took a step back, smirking slightly at their boldness.

It was in that moment that a comet struck.

Wielding a blade as big as he, the icy swordsman cut down at Kisame's head. The blow was blocked by Samehada, and though the force of it was enough to nearly knock Ino off her feet from a good three meters away, neither warrior seemed particularly phased.

"Oh…" Kisame's interest seemed to shift entirely, from escaping, to planting his feet firmly on the sand below. "Oh, ho ho!"

"Recognize me," Haku spat, his eyes blazing. "Akatsuki scum?"

Haku was still suspended in the air, balancing on his blade, which was, in turn, balanced atop Samehada. He flipped off of the man, shooting a few razor-sharp icicles that would've pierced to bone, had any of them been allowed to hit. Instead, they impacted against the warm sands beneath Kisame, and began to melt and soak the banks below.

"Heh, you've gotten stronger!" Kisame practically shouted, whirling around, and swinging his sword, letting it collide with Haku's own with a clang that rattled Ino's teeth. "I see you've personalized it, too," He nodded to the icy spikes running up the back of the blade. "I like it. Got some real character!"

The shark-skinned warrior capped off his sentence with a swing of his blade, which jostled both Haku and Fu, who was still resting over his right shoulder. As Kisame managed to press Haku back ever so slightly, Haku threw his sword in the air, and slammed his hands down on the ground.

"Ice Release: Ice Wall!"

A large structure erupted from the earth just in front of him, nearly gutting Kisame where he stood. If anything, Ino thought it was more for offense then defense, forcing Kisame back as the ice began to melt into the sand below Haku as the boy charged towards his opponent, kicking up even more particles of the stuff as he somersaulted forwards.

"Shit… I want to help him, but…" Shikamaru growled under his breath. "We'd be in his way if we even tried."

She'd felt much the same but telling herself that they'd be in Haku's way if they tried didn't do much for her instincts, which were screaming at her to jump in and help him.

The two combatants reconnected over the wet sand from Haku's prior icicles, dancing across the dunes as their blades cut across, desperately trying to pry chunks of flesh from each other's forms. If Ino were being honest, she was surprised to find that Haku seemed the faster of the two, avoiding Kisame's blows and occasionally managing to strike small cuts along the man's arms and legs.

She was more than willing to accept such a thing as being due to the girl Kisame held on his shoulder, Fu, who was still out cold. Likely, she'd been hit on the back of the head, which meant she'd be out a while.

Haku fired another round of icicles, which scattered a bit uselessly into the sands around them, before he was forced to jump back, barely managing to summon what looked like a mirror in front of him to shield himself before he was blown backwards by one of Kisame's Jutsu's, a massive translucent shark.

"Hah, you're not just better, you're damned good!" Kisame howled, stepping forward excitedly. "Even still, you can see the writing on the wall, right? You're not winning this."

"Shut up." Haku muttered, his eyes dark as he looked towards her. "I-"

His eyes widened, his voice sputtering to a stop, and Ino gathered in that scant half-second that he truly hadn't seen her up until that point. Unfortunately, that moment of distraction was enough for Kisame to capitalize on it, pushing himself forward and swinging his sword up.

Haku swore as he turned back around, narrowly managing to get a wall of ice in between them that was shattered on the impact. Even still, he was sent sailing to the floor, barely managing to push himself up in time before Kisame could chop down at his body.

Unfortunately, he was able to clip Haku's chest all the same, and Ino audibly gasped as she watched the boy's kimono rip from the strain, some blood and tissue going with it.

"HAKU!" She shouted on instinct.

"Oh, who's this?" Kisame looked over at her, and she felt a chill go down her spine. "Got yourself a girlfriend? Not bad, she's a real cutie."

"Shut your damned mouth!" Haku forced himself up, barely dodging underneath Kisame's next strike as he landed one of his own, which took a scrap of the black cloak the man wore.

"Oh? someone's rather touchy." The larger man bared his razor-sharp fangs, smirking devilishly as he locked blades with Haku again. "What's the matter, scared that I'll-"

Kisame was cut off before he could utter another word, a dagger that Haku had materialized out of ice nearly cutting his throat as he juked back and away. Instead of putting distance between them, Haku forced his way back in, bringing his sword to bare and stabbing forward.

It was such an obvious maneuver that Ino was fairly sure even she could've countered it, and Kisame seemed to think the same thing, for he backed off, stepping back towards where they'd been fighting earlier, atop the damp sand, expecting a trap out of Haku's stance.

"Bein' awfully obvious about that." Kisame inclined his head, as if pointing out the obvious. "What, you think you've got me in some trap?"

Haku, despite having lost the fight up until that point, gave a tiny, chilly smile at the man's words.

He slammed his foot down on the wet sand below.

"You're standing on it."

It was all the warning Kisame had, but it wasn't enough.

From the dampened sand below the both of them, massive spikes of ice shot upwards. They impaled the air above, and even though Kisame had managed to dodge getting gutted by them, he still took several big hits.

Enough so that he hobbled away, chest and legs bleeding profusely. The look on his face was still, somehow, one of abject enjoyment, even as he panted wildly, trying to stimmy the flow of blood that poured down his front.

"Hah… Hah…" Kisame groaned slightly as he massaged his left pectoral, which practically oozed blood onto the sand below. "Neat trick, kid… steadily pouring water into the sand below with your ice… whilst keeping me distracted from noticing it with high-intensity combat, then feigning an obvious trap, while waiting to flash-freeze the water being evaporated by the sun…" The man laughed, no, he cackled, shaking up and down as he readjusted Fu. "You're pretty damn good!"

Haku dashed forward, content to try and end this right now. Ino could barely see the next few swings, but Kisame had managed to hold them off.

But she could see desperation in the man's face, desperation she'd not seen before. Haku was winning now, and both combatants knew it. Haku grew more confident, his strikes became more calculated, aimed closer to Kisame's body.

The larger man seemed to be looking for a way out of his current predicament, stepping back and away from the small arena Haku had managed to create with his ice, but even still, every time he tried, Haku caught up to him. He looked around again, and his eyes widened as they settled on something entirely different.

Her.

Kisame feigned dodging back and out of the arena, making Haku go right, while he instead dashed towards Ino. She barely even had the time to react, let alone dodge, and so she was caught as his fist slammed into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her entirely.

"INO!"

"Shit, Ino!"

She appreciated Haku and Shikamaru's concern, but she had other things to be thinking about. Mostly breathing, but there were some attempts at escaping the massive shark's hold as well. None of them really worked, the breathing nor the escape.

"Alright…" Kisame took a deep breath, holding her in front of him and clamping down on her throat with his elbow. "That was closer than I'd have liked, but it worked out in the end."

She scratched at the man's arm, but it was all muscle, and though her nails drew some scant amounts of blood, the arm didn't budge. If anything, it only grew tighter.

"So, all of you, weapons down or I crush her windpipe."

Shikamaru and Choji did so in a hurry, throwing their kunai down and glaring at Kisame. Haku ground his teeth together, but stabbed his great sword into the sand below, and stepped away from it.

"Good, good…"

He walked them both backwards, him pulling her there by the throat. He panted slightly as he backed away, but it was clear he had regained control of the situation, given that none of the three before her could move.

She gazed towards Fu's teammates, trying to see if they'd be any help, but it looked like they truly were down for the count.

"Right, well, busy day and all, afraid I've got things to do," Kisame placed his foot in the small of her back. "I suppose I'll see you all later!"

He kicked, and the force of it knocked the wind out of her once more. Her spine ached, though that was probably a good thing, for the fact that she could feel it meant it wasn't broken.

Less good was that she was currently flying towards one of the icy pillars Haku had created to damage Kisame, and it was still quite sharp. Haku moved quickly, though, flickering towards the piercing stalagmite of ice, and placing his hand against it.

It shattered with a sound akin to the breaking of glass, and she hit the sandy dune below with a rasping cough.

Her lungs struggled to draw breath as her teammates caused a commotion, fussing about her as they helped get her up. She did appreciate it, even if they were a bit heavy.

Honestly, she felt horrible. Not just because she hadn't been able to breathe, but because she'd been the reason Haku had lost his fight, she'd been captured so easily, so effortlessly…

Damn it… I can't even stay out of a fight correctly!

She looked up towards Haku, and saw that he was looking off into the horizon, where she could barely make out the figure of Kisame Hoshigaki disappearing into the sands.

"Haku," She started, feeling guilt pool in her chest. "I-"

"Idiot…"

Her heart dropped into her stomach, and she felt the breath she'd finally been able to draw sucked back out of her.

"You…" He turned to look at her, his lips curled into an angry snarl as he took a step towards her. "Why did you… why are you here!?"

"I… we saw something odd, so we came over, and-"

"Why didn't you leave when you saw who it was!?" Haku shouted at her, yelled at her. "Why did you stick around, you could've been-" He cut himself off, biting his tongue. "You absolute idiot!"

She tried to open her mouth to speak, but she felt small, incredibly so. The withering gaze in Haku's eyes had her wanting to look anywhere but at him.

He shook his head, instead stepping forward, looking off to where Kisame was.

"I'm going after him."

Her heart leapt back up in her chest, and she looked up at him with fear and worry and a thousand other emotions working their way through her heart.

"No!" She screamed, trying to lunge forward and stop him. "You only stood a chance when he had to hold onto the Jinchuuriki, and you're still injured! Without her… without her, and without that trap, you would've been-"

"Shut up!" He screamed, looking back to her out of the corner of his eye.

The expression there was complicated, almost impossibly so. She could see anger, surely, but… but there was something else there, too, something that she couldn't quite identify. Before she could read him any further, he'd turned away.

"I'm going after him. I refuse to let him get away; I refuse to let him-" He bit down on his lip. "I'm… I'm going to get my revenge," He didn't sound terribly sure. "Don't follow me."

"Wait!"

She tried to stop him, but by the time she'd reached out her hand, Haku was already dashing away, following the tiny speck in the distance that was his nemesis.

She panted as she fell to her knees, the strain of the days events only increasing.

"Well, shit." Shikamaru swore, walking over to Team 8's unconscious forms and sitting them up, beginning to do some light first aid. "Alright, for right now, we stay here."

"What!?" She practically shrieked. "We have to go after Haku, if he goes in alone-"

"And what use would we be helping him?"

The frank honesty in the words silenced her immediately, and the look in Shikamaru's eyes declared he was entirely done with playing games.

"We stay here because when the proctors or other Jonin show up, wondering what that giant explosion of sand and the sudden pillars of ice that cropped up are about, we can tell them. We can get Haku the help he actually needs." His expression softened as her head dipped towards the ground. "Ino, I'm not trying to be cruel, but we need to look at this honestly. Right now, we aren't any use to Haku, but people like Team 7…?"

She looked back up, blinking away the unshed tears in her eyes. "They might be."

He nodded, before looking off into the distance somewhere and cursing lightly.

"Unfortunately, now we've got two problems."

She looked up at him in confusion. "Two problems?"

He nodded. "One, we've got Haku running off on his own on some hair-brained revenge plot. And two…" He grimaced, pointing towards the Sand Village, which could barely be seen off in the distance just behind them.

"Don't the Akatsuki usually work in pairs?"

/-/

The corridor was quiet as Temari and her guard made their way down it, which was perhaps the second sign that something was wrong.

At the very least, were there signs of combat, Temari would've known her guards were alive, or a few of them. The utter silence ate away at her as she called for the strike team's leader to round the corner first.

He was, thankfully, not instantly killed by an attack she couldn't see. In fact, as the man went forward, and called for the rest of the team to follow after a short delay, they were once again left with the impression that nothing at all was wrong.

Which was precisely the problem.

They'd contacted the guards for this building several times. They'd answered the first time, but upon subsequent attempts to contact them, their communications had gone dark. She'd assembled as elite of a team as fast as she could in the short period she'd had, including her personal guards, who stood behind her, and one of the better infiltration teams the Sand had to act as point.

"Where are we off to, ma'am?" One of her men had asked. She'd answered honestly.

"The Kage building."

The Kazekage's edifice was one of the most reinforced structures in the sand. It wouldn't have fallen to a single attacker, she felt confident in saying…

And yet the Akatsuki had a habit of shaking that confidence.

They'd breached the site expecting to find carnage. Instead, they'd been greeted by… no one.

Not a soul in the lobby, not an ounce of blood spilled. If there was anything odd about that, it was the fact that there was absolutely no evidence of… anything. There wasn't even an 'out to lunch' sign, since Temari was fairly sure that was about the only thing that could've explained it.

One of her guards, however, who'd served as a protector of the former Kazekage but not been brought along to the last Chuunin Exams (likely saving his life) had chimed in there, however.

"It's entirely possible our opponent is a specialist not in killing his foes… but in putting them under his spell."

In a way, a master of Genjutsu should've seemed a non-threat to an elite team of ninja, and perhaps they were, but to Temari, they were terrifying. She found herself hesitating on almost every action, making sure she was checking every minuscule shift, every tiny movement out of the corner of her eye.

On the off chance she was already under one… being controlled like a puppet.

She forced herself to shake those thoughts away. If she were already under a Genjutsu… well, she simply had to hope her teammates would snap her out of it. That was supposed to be Genjutsu's great weakness, that if there were more than one person, they would be able to break out with assistance.

They arrived at an offshoot room, from there, the proctors had been given the go-ahead to watch over the many cameras lining the walls, and installed in some of the caves, to watch the Genin as they went about their exams.

Both Gaara and Kankuro would be in there.

Their point leader stepped up to the door and motioned for his team to take a spot on either side. She herself followed the man's lead, taking the second to last spot on his side of the door, with her personal guard just behind her. He held up his hand, counting down with his fingers until he reached 'one'.

He blasted the door open and charged inside. From there, his fellows followed a zipper-like formation, one side and then the next filtering in.

Just as before, there was no sound of combat.

Temari herself entered in third to last, her hand still on her fan as she looked around the room.

"Well." Their leading man grimaced slightly, looking towards the back of the room. "I've found our guards."

"Kankuro!"

There, at the back of the room, fifteen people sat completely still.

"Calm down, Lady Kazekage. They're alive."

She forced herself to look a little closer, and, just as he'd said, they were alive, breathing rather soundly. She let out a horrifically deep breath, letting go of the fear that'd momentarily strangled her heart.

"But where is Lord Gaara?"

And it was back with a vengeance.

Just as the man had said, there was no sign of combat, nor, really, was there any sign of a struggle, or the signs of a kidnapping. It honestly looked like every single man and woman here had gotten up of their own accord, moved into the corner of the room, and decided to take a nap.

Temari felt she could be forgiven for thinking the chances of that having happened were rather low.

Their point man walked over to Kankuro and tried to shake him awake. There was no response, and, with a small curse, the man placed a single hand on the boy's shoulder and held another aloft.

"Release!"

Kankuro awoke instantaneously with a gasp.

"STOP – wait… what's…" Kankuro looked up at them, his eyes wide. "Temari!?"

"It's me." She assured him, before shaking her head and getting back to the point. "Kankuro, what happened.

"I… I don't know. The guards all funneled in here all of a sudden. Gaara and I were suspicious of course, but then… the next thing I know, a black-robed man with glowing red eyes came around the corner, and then… then I woke up here."

Her eyes became saucers, and she turned to the guards around her, silently asking them if they agreed with her theory.

"There's only two people left in the world with a glowing red eye that specializes in Genjutsu…" Her personal guard swore under his breath. "And the other's currently out in the desert, chasing down our first intruder."

She stood, her mind moving at a mile a minute as she tried to decide just what they were to do.

"Get me in contact with Team 7!" She shouted to the furthest man in their party, who wore a large metal communicator on his back.

"I have something I need to tell them."

/-/

By the time Team 7 caught up to where they'd seen the explosion, the two responsible for it were long gone.

They interrogated the remaining three who'd seen it all, and checked in with Shino and the two members of Team Fu who'd awoken. Their reports were largely the same, Kisame had infiltrated their hiding point, then destroyed them without much effort. Their assigned Jonin sensei had shown up and given himself up so they could get away at first.

They'd gone back into the cave a few minutes ago and found him alive, but critically injured. He wouldn't be of any use to them. Neither, still, would any of those still awake, aside from Team Asuma, who were all in generally good condition.

Kiba and Akamaru were still totally out of it, and while Shino and Hinata had woken up (Hinata quite literally a few seconds prior) they were in no state to be fighting off world renowned criminals, even if Hinata seemed oddly eager to do so.

"Well then…" Naruto scratched his chin, trying to decide what it was they were going to do. "Clearly we have to go soon. We have to go help Haku before things get bad… but you said that he called Fu 'Lucky Seven'?"

"Y-yeah." Hinata murmured quietly, before shaking her head, and speaking more confidently. "Yes. His sight never really left her, either. I'd say she was his sole objective."

Which matched what Team 10 had told them. Even still, that wasn't exactly grand news.

It meant they had, as Naruto had guessed, three tailed beasts in attendance.

His communicator rang a moment later, and he picked it up without a seconds hesitation.

"Central Command here."

"This is Temari, calling from the Kazekage building."

He bit down on the nerves in his stomach.

"We read you."

"Drop the formalities, Naruto. I'm coming with a message for you and you specifically."

He nodded in a bit of a surprised way, before realizing she couldn't see that.

"Oh, uh… yeah, got it."

"Gaara's been captured."

The nerves in his stomach broke free.

"Wait, what, by who?"

Temari sighed, before her voice became harder to hear for a moment, as if she were leaning away from the microphone. "Kankuro, you want to tell him?"

There was an unintelligible response, and the next thing he knew, it was Kankuro's voice coming from out of the communicator.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Kankuro." He replied evenly. "What happened?"

"I can't say terribly much…" The voice was staticky, and he could tell they didn't have much in the way of signal this far into the desert, even if they'd set up boosters around the edges just in case. "-ambushed by an Akatsuki member. Tall, black hair, and red eyes."

Sasuke stilled beside him.

"Next thing I knew, I was waking up to Temari's worried look. I think… I think it was Itachi Uchiha."

He didn't look towards Sasuke, even if he wanted nothing more than to comfort his friend. There were lives at stake, he could show concern later.

"And he took Gaara?"

"Well he's not here, and I don't think he would've gone of his own accord." He heard Kankuro sigh. "Usually, having a tailed beast inside you would be a pretty good deterrent to Genjutsu… but… Gaara's is sealed. He's as vulnerable as any of the rest of us."

That was true. Even if a Tailed Beast didn't necessarily like being sealed inside it's Jinchuuriki, he had to imagine it was better than being… well, whatever it was the Akatsuki wanted with them, if the Nine-Tails' fearful voice when he'd spoken about Tobi had been any indication.

But Jiraiya had, according to him, sealed away Gaara's tailed beast. Or, at least, he'd locked him in a bit tighter. Letting Gaara be free of the curse placed upon him. It was a good thing, at least in theory.

Though they were seeing the downsides now.

"He fell victim to Genjutsu…" Sasuke cursed beside him. "And not just any Genjutsu either…"

That it was Itachi's Genjutsu was left unsaid.

"Right, what's the plan?"

He heard a small scuffling on the other side of the mic, most likely it being passed back to Temari.

"We have a request, Naruto. We need you and Team 7 to chase on ahead and stall the Akatsuki for as long as you can. We'll be at your back, but you'll likely be on your own for a good hour. Can you guys do it?"

He looked up towards his teammates, and, seeing their expressions, didn't hesitate.

"We can."

"Then I leave him to you. We'll be right behind you." Temari's side of the line clicked off.

He turned to the others.

"Well then, I think we've got our mission."

Sasuke and Sakura both nodded, before they turned back towards Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji.

"Can you three give these guys the medical help they need for now?"

Choji and Shikamaru both nodded resolutely, but Ino looked… not quite willing to disobey his line of questioning, but to at least protest.

"I… I'd like to go along with you three."

Sasuke, unlike he and Sakura, minced no words. "You're not strong enough."

The girl winced but shook her head, seemingly denying the statement. "I was caught off guard. I won't make a mistake like that again."

"Wouldn't you?" Sasuke pushed further. "Haku's still going to be in danger. In fact, he might be in even more danger now that Kisame and Itachi are likely meeting up. Could you truly continue the mission if he were hurt? If he were killed?"

Ino opened her mouth, before closing it with a small frown.

"I can't… I can't get left behind again." Ino looked up at Sasuke, a look of raw determination set in her features. "I refuse to be left behind and have to hear that someone important to me, or to someone I love, was killed. I won't sit behind like some demure maiden. I want to fight."

"Even still-"

"Let her go."

It was Sakura's voice that'd interrupted. She was perhaps the most biased in this equation, being the girl's best friend and all, but there was a certain sureness to her tone that had Naruto wanting to believe her.

"She has something she needs to say." The pink-haired girl winked at Ino. "Besides, I think she'll do just fine."

Sasuke opened his mouth, before sighing, and shutting it the moment later.

"If you're sure."

Ino's face lit up.

"Sakura… thank you."

Her friend simply smiled.

"You're welcome." Her eyebrow rose with a bit of mirth. "Don't make me regret it."

Ino smirked back.

"I won't." She turned back towards Shikamaru and Choji. "Do… can you guys manage this without me?"

"No worries," Shikamaru smiled lazily as his face took on an almost teasing expression. "Go rescue your boyfriend."

Ino looked like she wanted to comment on that, but she didn't. Instead, everyone turned to look at him.

Who made me leader? Well… Not really complaining, just not sure how this came about.

"Alright crew!" Naruto shouted, deciding to just roll with it. "We're going after the Akatsuki. Our mission is to retrieve our three missing persons – Gaara, Fu, and Haku – before the Akatsuki can do whatever it is they want to with them."

The others nodded back to him, resolve set in their gazes.

"Let's move!"

/-/

The black robed figure moved across the sands rather slowly.

He could've chosen to make better time, but his mission hadn't been particularly taxing. He'd decided not to drain himself at all, since if they did end up sending someone after him, he'd be at full strength, ready to repel them.

He shifted the dreaming boy along his shoulder, making it so that he could at least be comfortable on the way to his death.

Gaara of the sand had earned at least that kindness, even if he'd never known him.

He'd seen something earlier, though, that'd piqued his interest. Just a small name underneath a communicator, a memo for how to contact those who'd be assisting with the Chuunin Exams.

Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno…

Sasuke Uchiha.

He found a small, absent smile forming on his face as he walked onward, stepping through the hole Kisame had put into the wall, and over the corpses of the ninjas he'd killed.

His twin Sharingan spun into place without him having even activated them. "To think I'd see you, little brother…"

"Perhaps… I can institute that idea after all."

End Chapter 63

Welp, another chapter gone by!

Slight hints towards future happenings this chapter. More on that...

Two weeks from now! Sorry about the break, but my wrists have been hurting a bit more recently, and while they've definitely improved, I don't want to risk relapsing. I have two weeks of chapters, but screw me, I like being a week ahead.

So yeah, sorry, but next chapter will come two weeks from now. You may call me 'Stingy boi' in the reviews if you'd like.

See you all then!