Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Lost Soul ❯ Shifting Sands ( Chapter 19 )

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me, but I do claim the Yominokunis, Yakubyougami and the Tekigougan for myself!

 

A Note from Katana Haibane: I blame not being able to write this fic for the last two month on school. Entirely on school. I made the idiotic decision to take two, high workload, third year courses in my second year at university. BAD CHOICE! I completed them but was worked right into the ground. Every time it seemed like an opportunity to write this fic I found myself being hauled off to do interviews at all hours of the day. But on the bright side…I'M DONE SCHOOL FOR THE YEAR! HELL YEAH!!!

 

To everyone who has read my fic to this point and has been waiting for me to write the next chapter, I humbly apologize. I wanted to write this just as bad as (I'm hoping!) some of you wanted to read this. I should be able to start updating once every week or so. NOW, ON WITH THE FICTION!

 

Chapter 19: Shifting Sands

 

Sakura slumped forward in her chair, groaning at the futility of trying to reason with the other occupants of the conference room. It had be a month, a whole god-damned month since she had arrived in what was supposed to be a de-militarized area between Mizu and Kumo and not one person had listened to a thing that she, or anybody else from Konoha had said.

 

Sighing deeply, Sakura was vaguely aware of Shizune continuing to try and reason with the conference delegates from Mizu and Kumo. A dry, humourless smile spread across Sakura's tired face. Shizune certainly was persistent when she wanted to be. She had be badgering every single unreasonable delegate in this sham of a peace conference after they had dismissed the evidence that Team Ten had gathered supporting Orochimaru's involvement in sparking the conflict. Sakura had to suppress an involuntary giggle when she remembered the week Shizune had given the three original delegates from Kumo nervous breakdowns when they couldn't think of a way to refute the evidence she had be showing them. It hadn't stopped them from Ignoring the five Konoha Shinobi anyway.

 

“…you haven't let us!” Sakura heard Shizune shout, her patience finally wearing thin, “You've confined us to this compound you've set up for these talks while you just continue to war around us! Do you honestly believe the five of us to be stupid? We've given you ample evidence that Orochimaru is the mastermind behind this stupid war you've gotten yourselves into. Now you want more proof that Orochimaru is involved and you lock us up under heavy guard every hour of the day to prevent us from leaving the compound!”

 

Hearing the cue that Shizune had instructed her to listen for, Sakura got to her feet. Slipping her black gloves on Sakura cracked her knuckles. Loudly. “Listen up. You clearly don't want to listen to us. Well, too bad, because we're here to pull your heads out of your asses even if you want to keep `em there.” A wave of protest rose from the Kumo and Mizu delegates at Sakura's rudeness before she slammed her hand down on the huge oaken table they were sitting at, splitting massive structure in half. The room fell silent once again. “You may have had guards stationed in the hallway outside the room you've set aside for myself and the other Konoha delegates to keep us locked up, but we've only remained at our own discretion and as a courtesy to everybody else meeting here. You say you want more proof? Then let us look for it.”

 

Silence continued to smother the room like a thick woolen blanket until the eldest delegate from Kumo, Chuuko, at last spoke up, “This is exactly sort of violent behaviour we believe you would use to prove your wild theory young lady. What was the point of breaking the table? All you've done is given us yet another reason, albeit a stronger one, to not allow you into our territory. Orochimaru's past history, as well as proof of his involvement with Iwa once again proves nothing. Besides temper tantrums will get you nothing whelp, this is politics, not a fight.”

 

“But it finally got everyone's attention, didn't it old man,” Shikamaru drawled from the doorway, “It stopped your posturing and arguments long enough for us to get a word in edgewise.” Strolling over to the broken table Shikamaru stood just behind Chuuko, “Besides, you're dead wrong if you think this isn't a fight.”

 

“Your point being?” Chuuko muttered, “Nobody here wants to listen to your damned lies.”

 

“Then why haven't you bothered sending us packing?” Shikamaru smirked as Chuuko winced. All of the Kumo delegates began to feel nervous - Chuuko had never had such an obvious hole poked in his logic before. “I mean, come on, the two of you are at war. All of you don't want to listen to an ally of yours, so what would the point be in trying to avoid insulting Konoha? Why not just start throwing its representatives out the door?”

 

Chuuko's face turned a faint shade of red, “Because that's just not the way things are done. We want Konoha to remain our allies.”

 

Shikamaru then turned on Aoi, the head of the Mizu delegates, “If you're supposed to be at war, then why the hell are you allowing a Kumo delegate to decide everything about the situation regarding you're `guests?'”

 

“But…but…grr, what the hell do you think you're saying boy? You should hold your tongue while you're betters are speaking-”

 

Shikamaru just raised his left eyebrow, “So you think Chuuko's you're better? You've been silent while he's been talking this whole time.”

 

Aoi's face was starting to turn purple when another delegate clamped a firm hand on his shoulder to calm him down. Taking a deep breath, Aoi tried again, “Perhaps I should rephrase that. We don't have a problem with Konoha and don't want to cause one. Now, I don't like the fact that Konoha is allied with Kumo, but if we have to grit our teeth and bear it then so be it. But if you think that we'll just back down from Kumo after then attacked us for no reason then you're sorely mistaken. If they want peace, well, they can just pay up.”

 

“And I've told you countless times that you attacked us first!” Chuuko growled, “Ten of your shinobi, TEN, blew up almost an eighth of Kumo in an completely unprovoked attack and you have the gall to claim again and again our counter assault was the start of this war?”

 

“SHUT-UP!” Shizune shouted, “Listen to yourselves! You both claim the other side started this war. You won't stop fighting until you receive compensation from the other and to top it all off you're fighting a war of self destruction. Neither of you can destroy the other without ruining your own villages! Playing this pathetic blame game is making you both look like spoiled children. Don't you want to know what really happened?”

 

“We already know what happened!” Chuuko and Aoi exclaimed at the same time before turning to glare at one another.

 

Sighing, Sakura just shook her head at the reaction of the `peace talk' delegates. `I sometimes wonder if just beating the information into their heads repeatedly would be easier than this' Sakura thought.

 

Gathering herself, Sakura gave the delegates a once over, “Then what difference would it make if we investigated the start of your war ourselves? A couple months ago the two of you stood together as part of an alliance to defend yourselves from Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. Now you've fallen right into a needless conflict whether or not Orochimaru provoked it. Che, I don't know why we're even bothering with all of you anymore.”

 

“Maybe I should just suggest that Konoha cut all ties from Mizu and Kumo if you seem so keen on ignoring us anyway,” Shikamaru mused out loud causing more than a few delegates present to have fear flick across their faces for a moment.

 

Aoi grabbed a hold of the broken table to calm his anger before he spoke again, “Mizukage-sama instructed me to prevent any unnecessary provocation of Konoha in order to maintain the stability of our trade relations and allegiance. I will send a recommendation to the Mizukage suggesting that we allow your delegation of shinobi from Konoha into our lands so that you can conduct your investigation.”

 

Not to be one-upped by anyone from Mizu, Chuuko made a similar concession, “And I will do the same. If nothing else it should prove to you that it was Mizu who recklessly attack our village.”

 

Shizune allowed relief to flood into her voice at last, “That is all we have been asking to do for the last two weeks. Now, I think it might be a good idea to clear this broken table out of the hall and replace it. The recess should give all of us enough time to clear our heads.”

 

 

Although Hinata usually enjoy the daily training and sparring sessions she had voluntarily joined for the last month with Naruto and Mikomi, today really felt as if she had taken on a little more than she could handle. Sure, the Byakugan allowed her to see every attack that was coming at her, but how are you supposed to concentrate when you've got a crazy girl tearing up chunks of earth with every attack and a hundred copies of your boyfriend running topless around you? What, with the sweat gleaming off of his body…

 

Hinata gave a little squeak as she wrenched her mind back to the situation at hand and barely managed to Judo throw a Naruto clone into the onrushing Mikomi. Taking advantage of the smoke explosion generated from the clone's destruction at the fists of Mikomi, Hinata dove between Mikomi's legs, sweeping them out from under her. Handspringing to her feet Hinata spun once, unleashing an uncontrolled Kaiten to knock Naruto's clones back and destroy a few of them. Pausing to catch a quick breath, Hinata didn't notice the slight tremble beneath her feet.

 

Before she could move out of the way, Hinata felt a pair of strong hands lock onto her ankles a moment before the real Naruto burst from the ground. Pulling Hinata off her feet, Naruto and his clones proceeded to dog-pile Hinata, burying her completely under a sea of copied humanity.

 

A startled laugh from Mikomi and a series of rapid-fire explosions signaled an end to the day's sparring, revealing a rather stunned Hinata on the ground.

 

“Neh, neh, Hinata, you lasted a lot longer this time than you ever have!” Naruto shouted excitedly before hauling the dizzy girl to her feet, “I can't believe that you managed to last an hour!”

 

A wry grin spread across Mikomi's face, “Yeah, especially since you're not as thick skinned as me, or anywhere near the stamina freak that Naruto is.”

 

“Uhh…thanks…I think,” Hinata said before giving her head a shake, trying to clear the cobwebs out, “but I still haven't even come close to lasting the four hours that Naruto did last week, or even the three and a half that you did yesterday Mikomi.”

 

“Your point is Hinata?” Mikomi asked the blushing kunoichi, “How many people besides Kakashi-sensei do you know that could dance around a hundred Kage Bunshin's for an hour? It took Naruto, what, twenty minutes to attempt to dog-pile me yesterday? I was just strong enough to muscle my way through it.”

 

“Come on, come on, we've got a little bit of time before you've got to take Mikomi to the Hokage tower Hinata-chan, so let's go get something to eat!” Naruto yelled, “I say that we go to-”

 

“That barbeque place,” Mikomi finished for Naruto before staring off into space, “We've had ramen almost fifteen times this week and not once have we picked up any dango afterwards. It'll be a change. Besides, it's close to the confectionary and they've got this great new almond dango…”

 

Mikomi just trailed off when she noticed Naruto and Hinata staring at her. Feeling a little bit annoyed at the looks the pair was giving her, Mikomi started to speed up her pace, “What…what is it you two?”

 

A sheepish look spread across Naruto's face before he turned to Hinata, “Neh, do I really start to look like that when I talk about ramen if I haven't had it for a while? Kakashi-sensei says that I do but…am I really so spacey and whatnot?”

 

“Yep, without a doubt Naruto-kun,” Hinata gently teased Naruto, although I personally think that the both of you look really cute when you do it. Your whisker marks kind of curl up into an extended smile and Mikomi's scar crinkles in such a cute way. Not to mention the glow.” With laugh, Hinata took off in the direction of the barbeque restaurant with Naruto chasing her down and a bemused Mikomi following.

 

“Hey, what the heck to you mean that I glow Hinata? I'm not a light bulb or a firefly you know!”

 

 

Mikomi was waiting patiently in front of the medical jutsu practice table inside the Hokage tower while Hinata prepared the fish they would be working with today. Another smile was beginning to grow on her face. In fact, Mikomi had noticed that she had been far more cheerful lately. It wasn't because the pain of Sasuke's death had started to ease up in the slightest, but it was because Hinata and Tsunade were teaching her medical jutsus. That connection to her past, to her parents…it was a connection that Mikomi had thought was lost to her forever.

 

The Sound and Orochimaru only cared that she could kill people. Nobody had cared that she hadn't wanted to be able to kill people. The only person who treated her like a human being was Sasuke, and he didn't know any medical jutsus to teach her in the first place. In all honesty she hadn't even been able to devote much thought to what she was missing in her life since it felt as if she had been reduced nothing.

 

When she had awoken in Konoha she had been incredibly happy to be free from Orochimaru and the Sound. Suddenly Mikomi had found some semblance of control over her life once again. She had met all sorts of people willing to be her friend and even care about how she was doing. Compared to the Sound it should have been perfect. It was perfect in comparison. But once all of the problems had been solved, once her memories had been restored, an oddity of living a good life occurred: Mikomi felt as if her life was missing something. Mikomi's life was missing her own desires, her own dreams. And learning medical jutsus was her dream. Problem was that with her deplorable chakra control, nobody thought that she would even be capable of learning medical jutsu. Everyone just assumed her knowledge of the cut healing jutsu was a fluke.

 

Then Hinata had examined her chakra coils in greater detail than any medical jutsu ever could. She had discovered the natural healing chakra flowing through her body, naturally lending itself to performing healing jutsu. It had been Hinata who had convinced Tsunade to become her teacher in the healing arts, under the condition that Hinata led her through the initial stages of training.

 

And now Mikomi only had one more step to complete before Tsunade would lend a hand in her training. The dream that had died with her parents had been reborn, thanks to Hinata's keen eye.

 

The door to the training room opened with a bang and Hinata wheeled in a massive cooler. Pushing it over to the larger tanks that lined two opposite sides of the room Hinata flipped the lid off and tipped the cooler over. Three fish almost three fourths as long as Mikomi's leg spilled out into the water. They were the subjects for the final test.

 

“Alright Mikomi,” Hinata said before taking a deep breath, “This is the final test. You need to take the fish out of the water, wait till it stops moving and then try and bring it back from the brink of death by triggering the spark of life. The catch is these fish are five times the size of the last fish you attempted this on.”

 

Nodding, Mikomi walked over to the pools, bending down to pull a fish from the water.

 

“Are you sure you're ready Mikomi-chan?” Hinata asked softly, kneeling down beside her friend, “You've only been working on these tests for the last month. Tsunade-sensei was only willing to give you one attempt at becoming at least a partial pupil. Shouldn't you practice for a little while longer to make sure that you can do this?”

 

“No.” Mikomi said with determination in her voice, “It's what I want to do and I there is no way I'll screw this up. The last thing I ever wanted before my parents were killed was to learn how to heal people with medical jutsu, not kill them.”

 

Without another moment of hesitation Mikomi's hand shot out and caught the largest of the three fish from the tank. Hauling it from the water it took another moment to place the wriggling fish onto the seals inscribed on the practice table. With a firm grip Mikomi gently pressed down on the head and tail of the dying fish to keep it from flopping off of the table.

 

Hinata nervously watch Mikomi as the fish slowly began to struggle less and less with each passing moment. She had done this many times herself but she had never done attempted to restore the spark of life with this much on the line. Quietly clapping her hands in front of her face, Hinata whispered a silent prayer for Mikomi's success.

 

Once the fish at last stopped struggling, everything else in the room seemed to fade into the background for Mikomi. All that remained was the fish and her ability to save its life. Closing her eyes for a moment, Mikomi concentrated on the chakra flowing throughout her body. Feeling the ebb and the flow of her internal energies sharpened Mikomi's focus even further. With a thought, the chakra flowed into her hands and right to the edges of the tenketsu in her palm. Verging on exploding out of her palms, Mikomi gently allowed her chakra ease from her palms as she converted the raging torrent of destructive chakra into the calm, flowing river of healing energy. Within a moment Mikomi's hands began to give off a green glow that continued to increase in intensity for another couple of seconds even as she placed her hands on the unmoving fish.

 

The healing chakra seeped rapidly into the fish's body allowing Mikomi to develop a mental picture of the creature. Its lungs were nearly devoid of oxygen. The blood pressure was beginning to drop. The heart then slowed to a stop even as the faint electrical charge in the heart faded…

 

“Shit!” Mikomi cursed as she realized that the fish was already dead. Taking another glance at the body, Mikomi noticed the indentation on the fish where her hand had been. Directly over the creature's heart. “Damn, this thing was dead even before I had a chance to try and bring it back to life. I think I injured its heart while I was restraining it.”

 

Mikomi calmly picked the fish up once again and placed it back inside the cooler Hinata had used to wheel them in. “They should make somebody a good meal at least,” Mikomi said before she pulled another fish from the water.

 

This time Mikomi knew far more about the creature that she was attempting to treat. Gently, she placed her right forearm down across the tail and midsection of the fish and firmly grabbed its snout with her left hand. Placing her right hand palm down on the fish, Mikomi let her hand rest directly over the fish's heart. Mikomi felt the fish's heart begin to slow down as the rest of the fish stopped moving, patiently waiting until it ceased moving entirely.

 

Mikomi's chakra was already in the palms of her hands as she swiftly began to direct her chakra towards the heart. This time Mikomi could feel the familiar `spark of life' that was the natural electrical current flowing through the heart. Using her chakra to keep that spark alive was the first priority before moving elsewhere. Slowly Mikomi could feel the fish's heart start to beat again. From there Mikomi's chakra spread out towards the fish's lungs and began to break the carbon dioxide down to carbon and oxygen. With a gently current of chakra she cleared the carbon particles from the fish's lungs.

 

Then the fish moved.

 

Continuing to push chakra into the fish's body elation soared through Mikomi. Stronger and faster the fish flopped on the practice table until it seemed as if had never died in the first place. Mikomi had brought the fish back from the brink of death. She had succeeded in the final test that Tsunade-sama - now Tsunade-sensei - had placed before her and passed with flying colours.

 

Whooping for joy Mikomi tossed the alive again fish back into water before grinning crazily at Mikomi. Laughing with exhilaration, Mikomi caught Hinata's hands in her own and spun her around. Having lifted Hinata off her feet for a full revolution Mikomi set her back down before finally calming down.

 

It had finally happened. Mikomi was going to be taught by the best. Taught by the best the art of saving lives instead of taking them.

 

 

“Kazekage-sama,” Juuboku called as he hurried into Gaara's office, “I've got the latest figures on the quarantine situation in the city.”

 

Gaara set aside the small stack of papers he was working on and riveted his attention on the pages in Juuboku's hands. Reaching out, Gaara accepted the clipboard from Juuboku's hands and began to flip through it, a frown marring Gaara's usually calm face.

 

“I'm sorry, but it looks like we didn't get the situation under control in time.” Juuboku said as he paced around Gaara's office, “There have been three reports of people contracting his wasting sickness outside of the southwester quarantine area. Considering how viciously this bug hit around two weeks ago the three new cases brings the total infected up to nine hundred and seventeen. It would be higher, but I'm afraid that an elderly couple passed away last night. Their bodies just couldn't handle the strain.”

 

“Tch,” Gaara bit out before leaning back in his chair a ways, “Get those three people quarantined right away. I'm afraid that we're going to have to keep the volunteers who are taking care of the sick locked in the city quadrant as well. They may be carrying the disease outside to others without realizing it. Switch the transportation of supplies to the quarantine area to summoned creatures only. I'd extend the quarantine further, but there simply isn't enough room.”

 

Juuboku bowed deeply, “I will do that immediately Kazekage-sama. I have already moved the three new cases into the quarantine lockdown and I will alert the shinobi who are able to summon creatures to ready themselves to become the supply line.” Juuboku bowed again before he looked Gaara in the eye. It was time to put everything on the line and hope that his plan worked, “Kazekage-sama, I have been doing a thorough examination of the blood and skin samples from the infected that I collected. We're not dealing with an infectious bacteria sir, but an unusual viral infection. All the signs point to that. I've even identified some odd shapes in the blood that are neither bacteria nor human cell. Our medicines won't be able to fight it sir. But you, you've been exposed multiple times and not once have you even shown the simpler symptoms such as frequent bloody noses. I need a sample of your blood to see if I can find something, anything in it that will allow me to come up with a cure.”

 

Under the guise of Juuboku, Yakubyougami was praying that Gaara would consent. He had tried everything he could think of to covertly affect Gaara with one of his viruses but nothing had worked. He had even mixed a few protein capsules filled with his deadliest flesh-eating virus into Gaara's morning meal and he had complained of nothing but an upset stomach. Yakubyougami hadn't even needed to give him the antivirus to keep Gaara alive. So he had created the debilitating sickness that had spread like wildfire through Suna.

 

A minute passed. Then another.

 

“Alright Juuboku-san, take a sample of my blood. You'll need to be quick though, it is difficult to purposely hold my sand back.”

 

An unnoticeable sigh of relief left Juuboku as he bowed again before pulling a rubber band and a syringe from the breast pocket of his vest. Gaara pulled back his left sleeve exposing his forearm. As Juuboku went to tie the rubber band around Gaara's bicep he couldn't help but stare as Gaara's sand started to swirl viciously around his hand. It didn't touch him, but it was enough to distract him slightly. With a practiced flick, Juuboku tied off Gaara's arm and stuck the sanitized needle into a vein in Gaara's arm. Letting blood flow into the glass tube attached to the needle, Juuboku waited until it was full before pulling the needle out and untying Gaara's arm.

 

“Thank-you Kazekage-sama,” Juuboku said as he backed out of the room, “I hope to be able to synthesize something that can counteract this terrible outbreak.”

 

Gaara said nothing, just turning back to work on his papers. However, the concern etched across his face was all anybody needed to see to understand what Gaara felt about the tragedy that had befallen the Village hidden in Sand.

 

 

Yakubyougami relaxed slightly as he entered his home in Suna, letting his features shift from the rounded features of Juuboku to his own hawkish looks. Everything had gone as planned. The virus he had created was incredibly debilitating, but only the weakest of the old had died, and two deaths at that. He had gotten a sample of Gaara's blood and with it, a chance to discover a way to take him down without having to openly reveal the Akatsuki.

 

All the other menial tasks that were put before him now didn't matter. Only his results would matter.

 

With a practiced set of one-handed seals Yakubyougami opened the door to his basement lab and started to descend when he sensed a presence inside his lab. His hand immediately shot to his hip pack before he recognized the familiar presence. Deidara was waiting for him in his lab.

 

Annoyance quickly replaced the surprise that Deidara's presence had given him. Not bothering to hide his approach Yakubyougami quickly descended the stairs, “Deidara, what the hell are you doing here? We're not scheduled to forcibly move on the one-tail. Not until another another two months have passed. We can't risk being discovered, especially this close to the Jinchuriki you…”

 

Yakubyougami trailed off when he realized that Deidara wasn't the only person waiting for him to show up. The head of the Akatsuki was waiting there with Deidara.

 

“Things have changed,” the Leader said, “We've had to move up our time table up. We don't have any more time to waste moving people into position or for you to figure out a way to incapacitate the Jinchuriki with your viruses. Orochimaru's actions have created wars and turmoil that will be difficult to gain control of. We need to act soon. You have one week, and then you will capture Gaara. Once you do, you'll have proven your worth to Akatsuki once and for all. Don't let your kind-hearted streak get in the way of your job.”

 

The Akatsuki Leader started to head up the stairs and out of the lab before he called back down over his shoulder, “Deidara will be remaining with you from now on. Take down Gaara, and you shall act as the leader of your little team.”

 

 

Yakubyougami closed his eyes and leaned backwards away from his lab table and stretched his back out, balancing precariously on the three legged stool he was sitting on. Groaning for a moment as he felt his spine realign he began to stare at the ceiling. It didn't make any sense. He had started his experiments by testing a few of his most basic flesh-eating viruses on Gaara's blood so that he could have a control test to reaffirm Gaara's immunity.

 

It ended up consuming the sample of Gaara's blood in less than a minute.

 

Shocked and stumped he had eventually decided to try all of his viruses on Gaara's blood. Every single one of them from his first modified cold virus to a modified AIDS virus that attacked all blood cells affected Gaara's blood. He tried adding antibiotics and all sorts of other medicines to Gaara's blood but they didn't even slow down the progress of his viruses. What had started out as a fairly sound plan had gone to pieces less than an hour after getting the blood sample that was supposed to solve all of the problems that he had been having. He'd even managed to have his wasting sickness affect Gaara's blood, although that had taken three inoculations to the same sample before it occurred.

 

In a fit of blind rage Yakubyougami grabbed all of his tests on Gaara's blood and incinerated them with a burst of chakra. Every test that he had secretly done to Gaara with every single virus that he had used today hadn't ever worked before. But they worked on Gaara's blood sample as easily as on any other person.

 

A strained laugh forced its way out of Yakubyougami's mouth and he reflexively crushed the glass test tubes in his hands. Pain spiked into the back of his mind but he barely noticed it as the laughter kept building in his chest. As the blood started dripping out of his hand and the glass fell away from his opening palm he lunged forward and grabbed the rack of test tubes that held what was left of Gaara's blood and hurled it across the room. As the test tubes and rack shattered on the edge of a doctor's examination table Yakubyougami through back his head and howled his laughter at the ceiling. All sanity seemed to have left him as he cackled at the heavens from the basement of his house the Village hidden in Sand.

 

His eyes were wild as he activated the Tekigougan and swung his bloodied right hand in an arc and instinctively shaped his blood into a solid, razor sharp, katana. Staunching the wound and sealing it up by generating cells where his wound was he raised his blood katana over his head and split the examination table that Gaara's blood had shattered on in half. He slashed the table again and again, reducing it to finer and finer slivers and his arms started blurring. Not once did his blood blade even mar the floor before he dropped the ground and rammed his created sword through his left hand right up to the hilt, pinning him to the floor.

 

A cry of agony tore from Yakubyougami's frothing mouth before he spit across the room as he tried not to throw up. Manipulating his blood once again he sucked the blood blade up into his hand and sealed the cut, weeping the entire time.

 

He was nothing but a failure. First he had been nearly killed by Orochimaru's men. He had lost everything that had any meaning in his life. Then he'd thrown himself into become a killer, a destructive force like he had been before meeting the only woman who had ever calmed his blood, hell bent on tearing Orochimaru's spine out of his ass. Only to discover that Orochimaru held the last remaining fragment of his shattered conscience: Mikomi. She had been warped from a young child who wanted to heal the sick into nerveless killer at the hands of the man who had destroyed his life. It didn't matter that she had escaped him thanks to Uchiha Sasuke; he was trapped even further, locked behind the black and red cloak of the Akatsuki in his lust for revenge. Now…now he had just failed once again. It didn't matter that it was an inconsequential failure, but he simply couldn't take failure anymore.

 

“I'm not a failure…I'M NOT A FUCKING FAILURE DAMMIT! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME KAMI-SAMA, WHO THE FUCK DID I PISS OFF IN A PAST LIFE TO HAVE YOU FUCK MY LIFE UP THIS BADLY”

 

Collapsing to the ground, Yakubyougami started pounding the floorboards until the shattered and his hands met the rock that was the building's foundation. As he stopped punching the ground, Yakubyougami was distantly grateful he had soundproofed the basement when he had fist moved into the building.

 

Then he noticed something wet was sliding down his face.

 

Blinking rapidly as his face seemed to become wetter for no reason he reached his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes. That's when it struck him: he was crying! The man who had turned his back on every emotion except cold-heart rage and revenge was crying! Yakubyougami felt his throat close up and he thought that he was going to choke and die in his basement for no reason when his throat muscles relaxed slightly and a sob tore from his throat.

 

Once…twice…then over and over again until he thought he couldn't make another sound and he still sobbed some more. The red-eyed Akatsuki member wept tears of horror and sorrow in the basement of a house that was nothing more than a cover for taking down a Jinchuriki for profit.

 

The more Yakubyougami cried, the more he hurt, in turn causing him to cry even harder. His life had turned to shit and he couldn't find anybody to truly blame but himself. Orochimaru may have set the events into motion but it was his own choices that had backed him into the corner he was now in.

 

Slowly, ever so slowly, the tears began to temporarily dull the pain of his past. Every bad memory he'd had from before he had assumed the name of Yakubyougami was thrown into the back of his mind and locked away. He didn't bother rationalizing what he had done. He didn't care that he had killed so many people. Orochimaru was still going to die. He still would use the Akatsuki to become stronger than ever, strong enough to be able to control his own destiny. He would reunite with Mikomi and throw the mantle of his past behind him.

 

All he needed was the power to do it.

 

When Yakubyougami finally stood up again it was as if his outburst had never happened. He was cool and calm once again, striding purposely over to the corner lab where he had created the wasting sickness in the first place. Striding over he picked up a vial with a sickening beige fluid floating inside it and concentrated on it for a moment, re-memorizing the genetic pattern of his pre-made cure to the ailment.

 

Popping a few blood regeneration pills into his mouth, double the normal dosage, Yakubyougami slit his wrists wide open and drained almost two litres of blood into the basin on the table before he had to seal his wrists up before losing more blood than the pills would regenerate. With a gasp he slumped forward, nearly dunking his head in his own blood before his knees hit the floor. Hard. He had to breathe deeply for a couple of minutes to start thinking straight again, his face an ashen grey that made his eyes look sunken into his skull. Hauling himself to his feet, Yakubyougami grabbed the dish of his blood and activated the Tekigougan.

 

It took almost four hours for him to create enough of the cure for all of the infected, but he couldn't help but give off a crazed grin. All nine hundred people who had been infected weren't going to be getting up anytime soon with his sickness, and his cure made sure they would feel sleepy for a couple of days at least.

 

More than enough time for him to capture Gaara without having all of Suna come down upon him.

 

 

Breathing hard, Sasuke was facing a pair of opponents this time during the second phase of Shinigami's testing. He was bruised and beaten, tired beyond belief, finally starting to have his defences slip in this fight. Zabuza and Haku fighting at full strength was pushing the Uchiha to his limits and beyond.

 

Sasuke felt more exhilarated than he ever had while he was alive.

 

He felt absolutely incredible. There were no doubts this time. Sasuke knew that he had truly earned his strength this time through his blood, sweat and tears. Alone for the last several months he had trained almost without rest and it showed. There was nothing borrowed about his body now - even if it was currently a spiritual entity - no snake corrupting his mind. And, he hoped, no revenge controlling his soul.

 

Finding himself at last trapped inside of Haku's Demonic Ice Mirrors Sasuke couldn't help but let a faint smile grace his face before creating an electrical charge within his body. He'd show Haku what a mistake attempting to trap an Uchiha could be.

 

“Give up Uchiha Sasuke,” Haku's shade said, completely surprising Sasuke. Not one other shade had ever spoken before now. “I have no desire to have to follow through and kill you for real this time rather than merely placing you in a state between life and death.”

 

“Hehehehehe,” Zabuza laughed, wiping the smile from Sasuke's faith with the coldness of it, “You've done well kid, but this time you don't have the copycat to protect you from a real demon. Besides, Shinigami's given us a chance to take the ticket of life from you kid. No way in hell am I going to pass that kind of chance up.”

 

All conscious thought left Sasuke's mind as he went into overdrive, dredging up every last scrap of chakra that filled his spiritual body, “CHIDORI NAGASHI!” With that cry Sasuke summoned the power of the Raikiri to encapsulate his entire body. Forcing even more chakra into the attack, Sasuke unleashed an explosion of electrical energy in every direction. The terrible chakra ripped through Haku's mirrors as if they were tissue paper, sending the attractive boy screaming away from Sasuke and Zabuza.

 

Seeing his chance, Sasuke charged the shocked Zabuza, drew a pair of kunai from his hip pack, and proceeded to decapitate the Demon of the Mist. With a smirk, Sasuke glanced back over his shoulder only to see Zabuza dissolve into a puddle of water. Astonishment shot through Sasuke as his Sharingan hadn't even register the swap. Just as suddenly the entire dojo filled with a thick fog.

 

“I'm sure you remember this Uchiha,” Zabuza's voice echoed from the mist, “And you've got eight parts of your body to protect. What makes you think you'll be able to take the two of us? Especially since Kakashi was even stronger than you currently are now.”

 

The faintest flutterings of desperation shot through Sasuke as he looked around wildly through the mist, hoping to catch a sign of his two opponents. With sound, sight and smell muffled by this mist, Sasuke need to figure out another way of defending against his two opponents. Taste was out of the question and feel was almost as unlikely, but Sasuke had no choice but to trust his instincts.

 

As he started to spin to his right, Sasuke suddenly felt the temperature drop from the direction that he was turning in. Snapping his head in that direction time seemed to slow down to a crawl for Sasuke. Haku was bursting out of a pane of ice just to his right while Zabuza's sword was sweeping across his body diagonally.

 

Letting his body's momentum carry him, Sasuke leapt up with his right foot and twisted in the air, slipping just over Zabuza's sword while tucking his legs away from Haku's needle barrage. With a quick backwards kick, Sasuke smacked Zabuza's sword, overbalancing him and causing the zanbato to swing around to Zabuza's other side and drop his grip to a single hand. In desperation, Sasuke grabbed the huge sword handle, tearing if from Zabuza's grasp and swung it hard at Haku. The massive blade cleaved through the ice mirror as if it was nothing and struck Haku in the middle of his back and kept right on moving. With a savage cry, Sasuke kept up his spin and tried to cleave Zabuza in twain.

 

However, the slight drag caused by cutting through Haku's body was enough of a delay for Zabuza to slam his hands down on either side of the blade. Sasuke put all of his strength into the attack going as far as throwing the massive blade at Zabuza, but only succeeded and throwing him away while clutching his own blade mere centimeters from his body.

 

Seeing Zabuza hit the ground and start rolling, Sasuke hands shot through three seals before the piercing sound of the Raikiri split the air. Just as Zabuza started to get to his feet Sasuke took of in a head on charge straight for the Demon of the Mist.

 

Zabuza barely had any time to react before the Raikiri came tearing through his ribcage the way Kakashi's had intended to, Sasuke's arm traveling all the way through Zabuza's chest before knocking him away with his shoulder. With a wet sucking sound Zabuza slid off of Sasuke's arm and down to the ground. Sasuke just looked down his right arm at the blood that coated it, not even noticing as the bodies of Haku and Zabuza faded away.

 

The fact that Sasuke had blood on him seemed unreal. None of the other shades had ever bled no matter how many times he had cut them. `They weren't just copies created by Shinigami,' Sasuke thought, `they were real…real spirits or maybe even alive. What's going to happen next? I only have one last shade to face…'

 

“Pathetic…”

 

Sasuke's blood nearly froze in his body when he heard that familiar drawl. With the Sharingan coming to light in his tired eyes Sasuke came face to face with an entire room full of Itachis. Unconscious rage started boiling in Sasuke and he clenched his hands till they started to bleed.

 

All of the Itachi's spoke in unison, “This is why I told you to run. Run in fear and live your life in such a disgraceful way. You're nothing but a weakling, a weak child who shouldn't even try to pretend to have anything resembling strength at all. Give up this foolishness or else I'll just send you to the grave once again.”

 

For a full ten minutes Sasuke just stared the copies of his brother in the eyes, shaking with barely suppressed rage. He couldn't think. He couldn't speak. He was even afraid to move in case he lost control.

 

Finally, Sasuke started to stalk towards the image of his brother…and walked right past him.

 

Just before Sasuke exited into the shower room he slammed his fist through the wall and ripped as large a section out as he could before heading off to shower, relax and calm down.

 

 

Disguised once again as Juuboku, Yakubyougami gave one last long look out over the Village Hidden Sand. He had to admit he would kind of miss the city. It was quite the miracle, an incredible wellspring of life in the middle of a lifeless desert.

 

With a bit of a sigh he turned outwards to look across the desert from the highest point of Suna's western defensive face. Yakubyougami stared down at the men under his command that were to protect the severely weakened village in its time of crisis - after all, he had released his virus into the homes of almost half of the Shinobi population and his cure would still take close to a week to fully clear them of the virus.

 

The shift was only a third of the size it normally would be since any more would be overworking the few Shinobi that didn't catch his wasting sickness. `They all have to die, but at least it won't cripple Suna,' Yakubyougami thought. He wasn't a cruel man, despite being Akatsuki, and he had started to honestly think of Suna as his home in a strange sort of way. These men he had worked with for over a year and a half were a kind of family to him in a perversion of the normal sense. `At least I bought them all a decent final meal…and I'm going to let them see one final sunset.'

 

Shrugging his shoulders, Yakubyougami adjusted the sword on his back. A sad smile was on his face as he thought about how easy it had been to fool everyone with an illusion to make it seem to be nothing more than a standard issue Anbu katana. Basking in the surprisingly gentle breeze that swept across the desert plains and into sun and sand-blasted cliffs that surrounded the village would be the last peaceful act he would ever do in the village that had become a substitute home. He would truly miss this place.

 

“Sir,” called an Anbu in a mask painted with the pattern of a dust storm. She had come to report in as she landed behind Yakubyougami, “The shift change on the eastern escarpment has finished and gone over smoothly. Also the two teams leaving on missions assigned less than an hour ago by the Kazekage left with everything in order.”

 

“That's good, but we cannot relax. If word gets out of our weakened condition that bastard Orochimaru might make a move on us. We cannot relax, no matter how much we would like to relax. I need you to remain the sole messenger for the wall defences. The Anbu need to remain concentrated on the easier gate access points.”

 

Without another word the Suna Anbu slipped off leaving Yakubyougami in silence once again. Soon his entire guard station would have to die. Soon he'd have to leave Suna forever.

 

 

“Rest in piece brave shinobi of Suna,” Yakubyougami whispered as he allowed the last shinobi he had assigned to protect the western escarpment to slide lifelessly from his blade, “You deserve that much for your devotion to Suna and the man I pretended to be. May the desert winds carry your soul to Kami-sama and the sands of time bring you back to this place.”

 

At least nobody would have to see his transformation from his Juuboku persona to his actual appearance. They didn't have to suffer the despair of being killed by one of their own. He had been fast enough to ensure that much.

 

A low whistle behind him alerted Yakubyougami to Deidara's approach, “You can really make death an art form…yeah. These cliffs painted with the pattern of life that you'll only find from a death by the sword…”

 

Yakubyougami just scowled at Deidara, “There is no art in death. There is an art how you can deal death by not in death itself. It's just the end.” Yakubyougami sighed and ran a hand through his hair before pull out a scroll from his hip pack, “It doesn't matter anyway. You timed your approach well, approaching with the rise of the sun. Nobody knew what hit them.”

 

Deidara gave an arrogant smirk to Yakubyougami as he pulled a spare cloak from the bag on his side and tossed it to Yakubyougami, “Still, you really don't look like your true self without the red clouds. Now, let's head for the one tails so that you can show me the art in dealing death…yeah.”

 

“I just have one more person to take care of.”

 

With a flicker, Yakubyougami hyper-stepped back up the cliff's highest lookout moments before the Sandstorm Anbu was to arrive. Yakubyougami sent a pulse of chakra into the scroll in his hand to unseal its contents. It was a body, the preserved body of the man whose appearance he had stolen to become Juuboku.

 

Even now the corpse's eyes were wide open in death.

 

After Yakubyougami laid him across the wall of stone that made up the platform's railing he slipped behind the only building on the cliff to wait, tossing on his Akatsuki cloak before he hid.

 

Just as he slipped behind the building the Sandstorm Anbu made her appearance. A grimace marred Yakubyougami's face when the first thing the Anbu's hidden face locked on was the corpse he had modified to be an exact replica of his appearance as Juuboku.

 

“Juuboku-sama…” The Anbu whispered in a slight moment of hesitation. Whether it was shock or despair that caused the Sandstorm Anbu to pause, it gave Yakubyougami enough time to make sure it was her last mistake. Before she could react Yakubyougami silently burst from behind the building and with a quick slash his blade split her vertically from her head to her waist. Bloody tears seemed to leak from her Anbu mask before her body finally fell apart, blood sloshing over Yakubyougami's boots.

 

Deidara hopped up to the lookout with a laugh, “You really know how these sand guys operate. Guess you learned a thing or two working for them and their Jinchuriki for over a year.”

 

“I was essentially Kazekage…no…the One Tail's right hand man. I did a lot of management and organization of the mechanics of the village,” Yakubyougami said as he flicked the blood from his sword and replaced it in its shoulder harness, “Now if you don't mind, lets get down to business. I've got a Jinchuriki to take down. As long as you stay out of the way things won't be a problem. You can just hang out around here if you want to, watch with that little ocular enhancement of yours.”

 

“Sure…yeah… boss man,” Deidara said with a grin. With a jump he hopped back up onto the building built into the cliff and leaned back and relaxed.

 

 

This early in the morning there normally weren't many civilians moving about the streets of Suna. Mainly shinobi were the only ones up and about. With the large section of shinobi population affected by his wasting sickness Yakubyougami didn't see a single person moving about Suna, even though it was already just past the crack of dawn.

 

With familiarity born from living in the Village for so long Yakubyougami darted towards the Kazekage tower, sticking to the shadows and hyper-stepping across any open sections in the village. All the available shinobi would be posted on guard duty or else sleeping so that they would be ready for it. Even the skeletal staff at the Kazekage tower wouldn't be a problem to slip by as he had purposely targeted the strongest shinobi for infection.

 

Yakubyougami watched and waited for the sole guard patrolling the outside of the Kazekage tower to move out of his direct line of sight and then another ten seconds to ensure that the guard wouldn't be able to see him when he emerged. Making sure to suppress his chakra as low as possible Yakubyougami ran across the open area to the tower wall and took off climbing the outside of it. Seven seconds and seven stories later he paused to glance in a window to get oriented to his position.

 

`Alright, so I'm at the western conference room,' Yakubyougami thought as he mapped out his position relative to the Kazekage office window on the top floor, `Gaara's bay window should be on the exact opposite side of the building.

 

Latching his hands to the wall and it was a simple matter for Yakubyougami to crawl along the wall over the tops of the seventh floor windows. Keeping one eye on the ledges above his head he counted off seven before he saw the long, extended ledge of the Kazekage's office window. Peeking a glance through the corner of the window, Yakubyougami saw Gaara sitting at his desk with his back to the window.

 

Ducking back down he slid out below the ledge and silently unsheathed his blade and set himself to launch in at full speed at Gaara. Locking one hand to the ledge as a pivot point Yakubyougami pushed off as hard as he could and slammed feet first into the window, blowing the entire thing into the office.

 

A wall of sand exploded out of the window taking Yakubyougami with it before his feet even touched the office floor. Yakubyougami had to close his eyes for a moment to keep the sand out of his eyes and channeled his energy down his sword. Before the sand could lock around Yakubyougami's arms he blasted the sand away from his body only to be met with a screen of sand shurikens. His arm blurred as he slashed them all aside before twisting into a back flip to land against the wall of a house near the tower. Looking up at Gaara, Yakubyougami found him standing on the ledge where the window once stood glaring down at him.

 

Gaara only said one thing, “Akatsuki…”

 

“So you already know why I'm here do you?” Yakubyougami called back up to the red-haired Kazekage, “Then how about we do this the easy way and you just come with me right now. Don't make me ruin your village by having to put you through half the buildings to get you to see the light, or better yet, darkness.”

 

Gaara didn't bother saying a word, he just raised his left hand and a wall of sand came with it. Yakubyougami gave an unsurprised and unimpressed smirk at Gaara and did a quick hyper-step away, seconds before the wall of sand crashed down upon the wall he had been clinging too. Gaara's shield of sand reacted marginally faster than he did starting to dome up above his head to intercept Yakubyougami's sword slash. Thinking beyond a defensive counter Gaara blasted a spear out of his sand gourd at Yakubyougami's head only to end up reeling backwards slightly at the sight and sound a fist indenting into the sand centimeters from the left side of his head.

 

Leaping from the window Gaara created a sand plat form beneath his feet even as he directed four separate pillars of sand to shoot up from the ground and tear the vacant top floor of the Kazekage tower clean off. Yakubyougami came leaping up above the blasting sand after it had already struck with both hands full of his viral tipped senbon. Yakubyougami pushed his chakra into the senbon to give them more of a kick and then he converted it into wind chakra with his elemental alignment. Rearing back Yakubyougami hurled the enhanced senbon with all his might, sending them drilling through the air towards Gaara.

 

The shockwave generated by senbon arched Yakubyougami back towards the wall of the Kazekage tower and he ran down the side to the ground. Gaara `s shield of sand shot into place as usual, closer to his body due to the sheer speed of the senbon, only to have the punch right on through. The sand hadn't compacted enough to deal with the power being brought to bear behind the needle points. With a cry of shock and a little pain, Gaara's sand platform disintegrated for a moment as three of the eight needles managed to penetrate right through his sand armor and into his body. The sand pulled the needles from his body seconds after they penetrated, but the burning distraction left behind by the virus attempting to eat away at his flesh left his defences down enough for Yakubyougami to strike again.

 

Hyper-stepping at top speed, Yakubyougami closed the gap between himself and Gaara in less than a second and blew right through the flimsy line of sand that had started to react to his attack. Yakubyougami struck home with a powerful blow to Gaara's stomach with the flat of his sword, hurling the heavy Jinchuriki through the wall of a nearby building.

 

When Gaara didn't reappear Yakubyougami couldn't help but feel a little cautions, “Give it up kid, I know you aren't gonna go down that easily.”

 

In an explosion of sand the entire courtyard surrounding Yakubyougami seemed rise up into the air like a massive tsunami of sand and started falling towards him. “Oh shit!” Yakubyougami screamed before grabbing the cross-piece of his sword. Pushing his chakra in a very specific three ring, clockwise motion it unlocked the cross-piece and he pulled the two, one and a half inch thick guards down to the handle. With a quick flick of his wrist, Yakubyougami's blade transformed. No longer was it a massive blade nearly the size of a zanbato, but instead it had become a fan made up of fifteen ultra thin sword blades.

 

Yakubyougami didn't hesitate to launch his attack, “FUTON: CYCLONE FURY!”

 

The cyclone of wind exploded outwards with incredible force, throwing away all of the sand surrounding Yakubyougami. As the sand walls were blown away, Yakubyougami reset the blades of his sword only to have several spears of sand shoot in his direction. Quickly bobbing and weaving Yakubyougami left them in the dust and closed in on Gaara's chakra signature. With his sword alighting with blue chakra Yakubyougami unleashed three chakra waves in succession, battering against Gaara's sand shield.

 

As Gaara was lowering the shield that had completely obscured his view of the Akatsuki attacker he summoned two walls of sand to slam together in the area the attacker had been standing. He was two slow. As the wall parted all Gaara saw was a black blur before the pain hit him.

 

Yakubyougami had gotten in beyond Gaara's defences and was pummeling away at him, forcing his sand to try and keep up. For Gaara it started feeling like Rock Lee all over again before he simply exploded all the sand he could beneath him and forced the Akatsuki member to retreat. Breathing hard Gaara tried to calmly face down the speedy fighter in front of him. He really needed a chance to come up with a plan, “You're not the first person to outrun my sand Akatsuki. That won't work a second time.” The last thing that Gaara was expecting was the Akatsuki member laughing in his face.

 

“Hahahaha, oh that was rich one-tail. I called Yakubyougami for a reason you know. Nobody notice all those weeks ago when I unleashed that wasting sickness I created upon your village. Nobody noticed when I tried to kill you off by putting a flesh-eating virus in your morning meal. Nobody even noticed the fact that I single-handedly wiped out every shinobi standing guard on the western escarpment. I too great pleasure in killing that fat-ass fool Juuboku.”

 

“What?” Gaara growled out as he felt his temper flaring, “That was you? You caused all those people to get sick, and now you've killed of them man who saved them all?” Gaara furiously glared at Yakubyougami, trying to burn a whole through his body, “You're a dead man Akatsuki.”

 

With yet another wave of sand shuriken Gaara leapt into the air to get above the action, flying high on his platform of sand. Like a general that can see everything his opponent is doing, Gaara launched wave after wave of sand after the elusive Yakubyougami, but still couldn't touch the man.

 

Yakubyougami spent the next ten minutes waiting for Gaara to land again and start fighting again for real before getting fed up. Once again Yakubyougami found himself climbing the Kazekage tower, but this time moving at top speed. Reaching the top Yakubyougami pulled two slits of fabric from the back of his shirt and then cloak. Then he made five quick hand seals and he bit his thumb, wiping the blood across the back of his shoulders.

 

“I TOLD YOU BEFORE GAARA, THERE'S A REASON I'M CALLED THE ANGEL OF DEATH. KUCHIOSE NO JUTSU!” Yakubyougami slammed his bloody hand down on his back and bit back a cry of pain as smoke billowed from his back and he could feel the skin stretch beyond the breaking point at his shoulder blades. In an explosion of blood and chakra Yakubyougami's summoning jutsu slowly revealed itself to the world.

 

On Yakubyougami's back was a pair of massive, black, angel wings. The wingspan was just over twenty feet wide and the feathers seemed to suck the light from the air they were so black.

 

Sweeping his massive wings back, Yakubyougami whipped the blood from his wings and leapt up into the air. Then he began to fly. The downdraft from the wings was strong enough to knock a man from his feet and propelled Yakubyougami into the sky. In three strokes Yakubyougami had closed the distance with Gaara and once again began to attack.

 

When Gaara tried attempting to outmaneuver Yakubyougami in the air, he soon realized how mistaken he was. Despite their size Yakubyougami's wings allowed him to dart through the air like a hawk, turning on a dime only bring a wing across to slash a wind blade into Gaara's sand defences.

 

Again Gaara found himself being pressured onto the defensive, forced to give ground again and again to keep the sword from striking him. More than once he had felt the blade whistle just past the front of his face as it tore through his half formed sand shields.

 

Frustration and desperation were starting to set into Gaara as he tried again and again to at least strike the black wings of his elusive foe. Pulling more and more sand up from the desert floor a proverbial sand storm had erupted with Yakubyougami being its target. All over Suna the pair flew with Yakubyougami slowly, but successfully getting cut after cut into Gaara. He made sure than not a single one of them was truly deep: the Akatsuki still had need of him after all.

 

Finally, Yakubyougami struck home again, ejecting Gaara from his created sandstorm with Yakubyougami following closely behind. Gaara struggled to quickly call all of his sand to him while quickly forming a protective dome that encapsulated him within his dome of highly compressed sand. Just as Gaara formed his third eye outside of his little dome he summoned an enormous wave of sand stretching from almost one end of the village to another. With a bit of chakra molding, Yakubyougami suddenly found himself in a dark cavern created by Gaara's chakra.

 

Then the massive, kilometer wide sand dome imploded.

 

Not being able to afford missing his opportunity, Yakubyougami shot through the air at full speed towards the hiding Gaara as the dome imploded around him. Chakra surged into his wings and the next sweep generated a sonic boom powerful enough to hold the sand away from him for another precious second. At top speed, with wind chakra moving through his blade, Yakubyougami slashed straight through the top of Gaara's ultimate defence. Folding his wings in tight Yakubyougami dove inside.

 

With no room to maneuver Gaara was unable to avoid Yakubyougami's next attack, taking the butt of the massive sword straight on his temple with almost enough force to crush his skull. The blow snapped Gaara's head back into his own hardened sand, knocking him unconscious. With a sudden lurch, Gaara and Yakubyougami dropped from the sky amidst a tempest of sand that obscured them from view.

 

In a streaming burst of sand Yakubyougami emerged clutching Gaara tightly. In a matter of minutes he flew over Suna and dropped Gaara into the waiting arms of Deidara.

 

“Yeah, that was certainly a beautiful fight Yakubyougami-sama. The way you drove back that prison of sand tsunamis was great to watch…yeah.”

 

“There's no time for that,” Yakubyougami said, “We have to leave now. Most of the Village may be down for the count still, but those left alive are going to be enraged that somebody has taken their Kazekage. Start creating a few of your exploding sculptures. NOW MOVE!”

 

 

Kankuro was royally pissed off. He had had to stand around looking like an idiot watching his brother, his Kazekage, fight for his life by the time he had gotten close enough to assist in the battle. Everyone had been warned about the dangers of the Akatsuki and what it meant to Gaara but nobody had made the connection. Half of the damned shinobi and almost all of the Jounin had been laid low by that wasting sickness. With all the reports Jiraiya had been sending in about Akatsuki activity you'd think at least one person might have made the connection between the sickness and an impending Akatsuki attack.

 

By the time he reached the tunnel exit that would lead to an exit that would cut off the Akatsuki Kankuro was starting to breathe a little harder due to the speed he was moving at. Banking off the side of the wall, Kankuro lost as little speed as possible as he flew down the tunnel. The only thing on his mind was getting his brother back no matter what he had to be done to do it.

 

Without breaking his stride Kankuro leapt over the bottom half of the gate's tunnel just as the backs of the two Akatsuki members came into view. Continuing his sprint Kankuro felt his adrenaline come alive once again as anger and fear tingled throughout his body.

 

“Just where in the hell do you think you're going?” Kankuro roared as he slid to a stop at the top of the dune overlooking the two men, “Drop my brother right the fuck now!”

 

Both men paused to look back at the enraged Kankuro.

 

“Nah, he's our property now…yeah.” Deidara said just before turning to leave.

 

“DON'T FUCKING MOVE!” Kankuro shouted, grabbing the three scrolls from his back and throwing them out onto the sand before the two Akatsuki. Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo appeared in a massive cloud of smoke, all familiar to both Akatsuki members. They both had dealt with Sasori's puppets before.

 

“Take him down quickly,” Yakubyougami said as he hefted Gaara once again before tossing Deidara a clear plastic tube, “finish him off with these guys.”

 

“Yeah, now take the one-tails and leave catty here to me,” Deidara said with a laugh, “I'll show him what true artistry is like.”

 

In a surge of sand, Kankuro sent all three of his puppets charging at the lone, grinning Akatsuki member. Pulling his hands from his pockets Deidara's hands were covered in smoke and a pair of clay swallows appeared. With a surge of chakra Deidara send the birds arching towards Karasu and Kuroari. The resulting explosion forced Kankuro to duck behind Sanshouo to avoid the shrapnel caused by his other two puppets exploding, raising his left hand to fully control Sanshouo in the process.

 

A sharp stabbing pain in his left hand was all that alerted Kankuro to what was going to happen. Yanking his hand back he tore the senbon from his and leapt back to his feet to see Deidara running to catch up to Yakubyougami. Just as he was about to give chase the pain hit him. With a gasp Kankuro sank to his knees as he felt as if his left hand was tearing itself apart. Glancing at it he was horrified to see his hand practically rotting away from his bones and spreading up his arm at an alarming rate. Think as fast as he could through the pain, Kankuro grabbed a kunai from his hip pack and rammed it into his elbow. Biting his tongue to keep from passing out from the pain, Kankuro started to hack away at his forearm. Nearly vomiting from the pain and the sight of flesh falling away from his bones, Kankuro tore the bottom half of his left arm away from his body just centimeters before the flesh eating virus would have made its way past his elbow.

 

With the last of his strength, Kankuro used his left hand to have Sanshouo face his arm and activate the flamethrower in its mouth, searing his wound closed. This final bit of pain proved too much for Kankuro, at last passing out and collapsing onto the hot desert sand.