Gaarafan12
Active member
“I’m so sorry.” Ino kept repeating as she worked over Hannah, whose eyes stared into nothing and her lungs gasped for air that could not provide what she needed. I watched as my fury grew, not at the young medical ninja or anyone else, but rather at the cruel turn of events that had befallen Hannah. Temari tuned with a pleading expression and I saw something I have only seen on rare occasion. Temari was crying softly for her student.
We had all grown to love Hannah during the time she had spent with us in the sand village. She had worked hard for Temari and never once complained about her harsh training; She had been a great sparring partner to Kankuro and had always made him laugh at her determination even after losing multiple times. And to me she had been an invaluable friend, it seemed as though anytime things got hard being the Kazakage, Hannah would find me and say exactly what I needed to hear to push forward. I felt ashamed that I had never told her this, that I would never get to thank her for her kind words; Or tell her how much she had meant to him…
Immediately I reached a decision, I would not allow Hannah to die. I moved past the silent group and up to the bed where I got my first good look at Hannah’s state. She was terribly pale; the site where the poison entered was gruesome and threatening. Her body was drenched in sweat, and her eyes searched the room for something, anything to hold onto, to pull herself out of this state.
Temari was looking up at him hopefully, and yet hopelessly at the same time. I gently took Hannah’s hand in my own and felt her frantic heart beat yearning for help, desperately fighting a hopeless battle. I squeezed Hannah’s hand gently before letting go and leaving the room. Walking quickly down the hallway and into my own room I picked up my gourd and strapped it to my back.
As I walked back into Hannah’s room I said nothing, there was nothing to say… Temari and Ino both moved away from him as I knelt down and gently slipped my arm under her head and my other under her knees. Lifting her from the bed, I was met by protests from the group. They all understood what I planned to do, and only Kankuro and Temari stayed silent. They knew I would not waver from my decision.
As I walked up the stairs and out onto the deck, the group followed silently. My siblings must have told them to shut up after I left. I looked down at Hannah’s face as her head turned to face mine, but not seeing. Her hand found my chest and held on as if he were her lifeline. I quickly summoned my sand to create a hovering platform which I stepped onto as Ino called out to me. “Don’t let her fall asleep, or I don’t think…” She stopped short, not able to finish. But everyone knew what she had meant. If she fell asleep again, she wouldn’t wake up.
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The unseen clones charged at our team once more and this time they had the same fury as their creator. We had nothing to do but retreat. But we were too slow. With a normal opponent we would have been able to see them begin to attack but without being able to see the subtle movements we never thought about, this was proving to be a difficult fight.
Sakura had the worst reaction time, not even being able to see their chakra. I lunged for Sakura just as a large billow of flames formed from apparent nothingness and came right at us. I cringed as I grabbed Sakura and jumped away knowing it wouldn’t matter. All I could try to do was shield Sakura from the flames as best I could; but the flames never came. I turned, surprised, to see three figures standing in the clearing smoke.
“Sorry we’re late.” A familiar cocky voice said.
“Perfect timing really.” Kakashi answered. As the smoke settled I could see Sai, Neji, and Hinata in between our line and the unseen foes. So, Granny Tsunade sent us these three, man, she was right on the money. With Neji and Hinata’s Byakugans, this is going to be a lot easier.
The three moved back to where Kakashi, Sakura, and I stood.
“Alright,” Kakashi began, “As I’m sure the two of you can see, we are facing two physically invisible clones, and one other. The two clones use long range attacks and we haven’t seen what the other guy can do yet. We will work in pairs, Neji and I will go after one clone, and Naruto and Hinata will take out the other.” As Kakashi finishes talking to Sakura and Sai; I look reassuringly at Hinata who looks unsure.
“Ah yeah! This will be a piece of cake!” I say. Hinata nodded her head back at me and quickly moves behind the clone closest to us. With two people to deal with, the clone became slower and easier to keep track of. Falling into synch together, Hinata and I are able to maneuver in ways to push the clone into one another’s attacks.
While the clone fights Hinata, I summon two clones to create a rasengan shuriken which I throw at the clone. Hinata moves out of the way just before impact and meets me on a tree branch.
Breathing heavily I gasp I out, “That’s it, that’s got to be it.” Out of Sage-mode, after the large attack, I look at Hinata.
“No, he’s still there… I don’t know how, I saw you hit it, but he’s still there.” Hinata looks at him apologetically as she too gasped out the words.
“Cum on!! You’ve just got to be kidding me! I’ve got better things to do than fighting these stupid clones!”
“That’s it, Neji!” Hinata cried out knowing he would hear her. As quickly as she had called, Neji appeared. “Have you had any luck with your clone?”
“No,” Neji reluctantly admitted. “Kakashi and I have both connected with them, but they appear to be able to endure much more than regular clones.”
“But that’s just it! They are just clones!” As Hinata finished, our clone shot off a fireball causing us to retreat further to another tree.
“What’re you talkin about? They’re not just clones or otherwise they would have been gone before you guys got here.” I growled annoyed.
“But no matter how different they are from normal clones, the concept is still the same; they are created and maintained from a different person. If we can just cut them off from their chakra source they should cease to exist! Right?” Hinata looked hopefully from Neji to me, as I grabbed her on the shoulders and yelled, “Hinata you’re a genius!” before turning to face Neji, who nodded and smiled before jumping back to help Kakashi.
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Sakura panted, as she faced her enemy. He was really starting to irritate her.Sai and I have been working together perfectly, but our enemy was strong and fast. We had gotten off some small attacks on him and he on them, but neither side much making any headway.
I saw Naruto and the others fall back for a moment to formulate a plan B, and they had left looking confident. Now it was our turn to take care of buissness here. Sai and I had a pretty easy time communicating non-verbaly, so it was easy to see that he was on the same track as I was. It was time to switch approaches and get this done.
Instead of going along with our previous approach of holding back and trying to capture our enemy, Sai and I both kicked it up into a new gear. Now we were switching to eliminating the enemy if possible. Our target had not been ready for this switch and the seconds we gained by his surprise was his undoing.
Because in those few seconds I attacked with speed instead of force, hitting him with multiple small but powerful punches that sent him into a tree. As soon as the opportunity arose, Sai used a snake ink monster to bind our target to the tree he had fallen into.
Just as we felt we had our target secured, we both turned to see Neji and Hinata attacking with their gentle fist and block off the clone’s flow of chakra. With no chakra coming in to maintain the two clones, they both let off a cloud of smoke where their unseen forms had been.
This pain, I’ve never felt such pain. Hannah thought as she tried to escape the prison her mind had become. I stood there, in my own mind looking around for any comfort, any protection from the pain. Nothing made sense, one moment I had been checking on Gaara and laying down for a rest; then the next my very heart began bringing unimaginable pain with every beat.
The blood that ran through my body was like searing water attacking each cell over and over. I wasn’t able to move, or even scream. No scream could even do it justice. Then I had lost all of my senses of sight and sound. Although the smell of the mixture of sweat and blood that covered me I could still smell. I could still feel the pain.
Oh this pain, surely it couldn’t last forever, there had to be a way to make it go away. There was no apparent escape, as I wandered in the darkness with nothing but the pain to remind me I was alive. I feel so tired, surely it couldn’t hurt if I fell asleep, surely dreams would drive away the real nightmare I had entered… Some ominous felling accompanied the notion of sleep, but I couldn’t endure this anymore, not alone. I decided the feeling was my imagination, sleep would bring peace, make the pain disappear. I could feel a faint breeze through the pain, it was so nice, I tried to focus on the wind in my hair and whatever it was I could feel my hand was so foolishly grasping. As I close my eyes I prepare to welcome the refuge sleep would surely bring.
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Gaara pushed his sand faster as he flew above the waves as they raced west toward the barely visible setting sun. The helplessness I felt as I looked down at Hannah angered me. None of my words would reach her and help her hold on. It seemed like so long ago now, that we had been back in the sand village. A regular day for Hannah had been to wake before most; as soon as she would wake she would go and train whatever her and Temari had worked on the day before. I had observed through her training that Hannah worked the same way Naruto did, always thinking of others first.
She had the same instinct to protect others even in battle, but unlike Naruto she didn’t have the recuperative abilities to make up for it. She would train until the end of the day in which she would either find Matsuri, who she had befriended, or spar with Kankuro. I had trained her when I had the time, on defense and she had been just as great of student as Temari had bragged.
Times have been stressful since the war, peace has brought new responsibilities. I had anticipated them, but it was still hard being a young Kazakage in the first ever great ninja alliance, and maintaining the friendships after the threat was gone has proven difficult.
Hannah’s friendship with my people always encouraged me and helped me hold onto the hope for the peace to go on. And now, when she needed me the most, all I could do was watch her endure this, and try to get her help before it was too late.
I look down at Hannah again, her head turns to face the stars, eyes still wide as if she is in shock. Her hand gently grips my shirt, then as I look down at her, Hannah shifts in my arms. Her head rolls into my arm facing my body, and I can feel her grip on him loosening. Her eyes begin to further gloss as her breathing slows.
“Hannah!” I yell, she was falling asleep! Giving in and surrendering her body’s losing battle. What could I do? I had to help her fight, but didn’t know how. As I looked around for any sign of what to do, the land of fire comes into view on the horizon. It mockingly approaches as both a near end, and an impossible task. She was giving in! I was so close, yet I was losing her.
I pushed the sand forward willing it to go faster, but it’s going faster than I have ever gone. I moved a pillar of sand to replace my arm holding up her head and moved it to rest it on Hannah’s weakening hand. I hold her hand there forcing her to maintain the grip. I look straight into her eyes as I speak, “Hannah you have to hold on, you have to fight! We are close, it will be over soon, but until then you have to fight.” Hannah’s eyes flutter a moment before closing.
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Naruto and Hinata finish off their clone moments before Kakashi and Neji; afterward they all four met Sai and Sakura where they stood with the captured enemy. “All right, I have wasted enough time with your stupid clones, and won’t waste anymore waiting for you to talk. We’ll skip right to making you talk.” Kakashi rolled his eyes as he watched him march up to the target threateningly.
“Now, tell us where to find this Zutara, or whatever his name is. I’m gonna finish this right now!” The guy laughes in my face, and that really makes me mad. I knew the guy could see my eyes change to blood red with deep slits.
“Well that is interesting, you are the leaf jinchuuriki. You are a friend of the Kazakage then?” the man looked at me as if I were no threat, but was very interested.
“Yeah, that’s right, and if you mess with him you mess with me! Get it!” I yelled into the man’s face pulling him by his clothes to meet my gaze. When the man didn’t respond I pushed him back into the tree hard. I’m ready to take this guy out by the time Kakashi speaks.
“If you mess with Naruto, you will have the leaf village to deal with, and if you choose to attack the leaf village, you will have the entire shinobi alliance to deal with. Are you ready for that?” Kakashi said behind us, placing a calming hand on my shoulder.
“Oh yes, I believe I am.” The man says before disappearing into a familiar smoke.
We had all grown to love Hannah during the time she had spent with us in the sand village. She had worked hard for Temari and never once complained about her harsh training; She had been a great sparring partner to Kankuro and had always made him laugh at her determination even after losing multiple times. And to me she had been an invaluable friend, it seemed as though anytime things got hard being the Kazakage, Hannah would find me and say exactly what I needed to hear to push forward. I felt ashamed that I had never told her this, that I would never get to thank her for her kind words; Or tell her how much she had meant to him…
Immediately I reached a decision, I would not allow Hannah to die. I moved past the silent group and up to the bed where I got my first good look at Hannah’s state. She was terribly pale; the site where the poison entered was gruesome and threatening. Her body was drenched in sweat, and her eyes searched the room for something, anything to hold onto, to pull herself out of this state.
Temari was looking up at him hopefully, and yet hopelessly at the same time. I gently took Hannah’s hand in my own and felt her frantic heart beat yearning for help, desperately fighting a hopeless battle. I squeezed Hannah’s hand gently before letting go and leaving the room. Walking quickly down the hallway and into my own room I picked up my gourd and strapped it to my back.
As I walked back into Hannah’s room I said nothing, there was nothing to say… Temari and Ino both moved away from him as I knelt down and gently slipped my arm under her head and my other under her knees. Lifting her from the bed, I was met by protests from the group. They all understood what I planned to do, and only Kankuro and Temari stayed silent. They knew I would not waver from my decision.
As I walked up the stairs and out onto the deck, the group followed silently. My siblings must have told them to shut up after I left. I looked down at Hannah’s face as her head turned to face mine, but not seeing. Her hand found my chest and held on as if he were her lifeline. I quickly summoned my sand to create a hovering platform which I stepped onto as Ino called out to me. “Don’t let her fall asleep, or I don’t think…” She stopped short, not able to finish. But everyone knew what she had meant. If she fell asleep again, she wouldn’t wake up.
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The unseen clones charged at our team once more and this time they had the same fury as their creator. We had nothing to do but retreat. But we were too slow. With a normal opponent we would have been able to see them begin to attack but without being able to see the subtle movements we never thought about, this was proving to be a difficult fight.
Sakura had the worst reaction time, not even being able to see their chakra. I lunged for Sakura just as a large billow of flames formed from apparent nothingness and came right at us. I cringed as I grabbed Sakura and jumped away knowing it wouldn’t matter. All I could try to do was shield Sakura from the flames as best I could; but the flames never came. I turned, surprised, to see three figures standing in the clearing smoke.
“Sorry we’re late.” A familiar cocky voice said.
“Perfect timing really.” Kakashi answered. As the smoke settled I could see Sai, Neji, and Hinata in between our line and the unseen foes. So, Granny Tsunade sent us these three, man, she was right on the money. With Neji and Hinata’s Byakugans, this is going to be a lot easier.
The three moved back to where Kakashi, Sakura, and I stood.
“Alright,” Kakashi began, “As I’m sure the two of you can see, we are facing two physically invisible clones, and one other. The two clones use long range attacks and we haven’t seen what the other guy can do yet. We will work in pairs, Neji and I will go after one clone, and Naruto and Hinata will take out the other.” As Kakashi finishes talking to Sakura and Sai; I look reassuringly at Hinata who looks unsure.
“Ah yeah! This will be a piece of cake!” I say. Hinata nodded her head back at me and quickly moves behind the clone closest to us. With two people to deal with, the clone became slower and easier to keep track of. Falling into synch together, Hinata and I are able to maneuver in ways to push the clone into one another’s attacks.
While the clone fights Hinata, I summon two clones to create a rasengan shuriken which I throw at the clone. Hinata moves out of the way just before impact and meets me on a tree branch.
Breathing heavily I gasp I out, “That’s it, that’s got to be it.” Out of Sage-mode, after the large attack, I look at Hinata.
“No, he’s still there… I don’t know how, I saw you hit it, but he’s still there.” Hinata looks at him apologetically as she too gasped out the words.
“Cum on!! You’ve just got to be kidding me! I’ve got better things to do than fighting these stupid clones!”
“That’s it, Neji!” Hinata cried out knowing he would hear her. As quickly as she had called, Neji appeared. “Have you had any luck with your clone?”
“No,” Neji reluctantly admitted. “Kakashi and I have both connected with them, but they appear to be able to endure much more than regular clones.”
“But that’s just it! They are just clones!” As Hinata finished, our clone shot off a fireball causing us to retreat further to another tree.
“What’re you talkin about? They’re not just clones or otherwise they would have been gone before you guys got here.” I growled annoyed.
“But no matter how different they are from normal clones, the concept is still the same; they are created and maintained from a different person. If we can just cut them off from their chakra source they should cease to exist! Right?” Hinata looked hopefully from Neji to me, as I grabbed her on the shoulders and yelled, “Hinata you’re a genius!” before turning to face Neji, who nodded and smiled before jumping back to help Kakashi.
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Sakura panted, as she faced her enemy. He was really starting to irritate her.Sai and I have been working together perfectly, but our enemy was strong and fast. We had gotten off some small attacks on him and he on them, but neither side much making any headway.
I saw Naruto and the others fall back for a moment to formulate a plan B, and they had left looking confident. Now it was our turn to take care of buissness here. Sai and I had a pretty easy time communicating non-verbaly, so it was easy to see that he was on the same track as I was. It was time to switch approaches and get this done.
Instead of going along with our previous approach of holding back and trying to capture our enemy, Sai and I both kicked it up into a new gear. Now we were switching to eliminating the enemy if possible. Our target had not been ready for this switch and the seconds we gained by his surprise was his undoing.
Because in those few seconds I attacked with speed instead of force, hitting him with multiple small but powerful punches that sent him into a tree. As soon as the opportunity arose, Sai used a snake ink monster to bind our target to the tree he had fallen into.
Just as we felt we had our target secured, we both turned to see Neji and Hinata attacking with their gentle fist and block off the clone’s flow of chakra. With no chakra coming in to maintain the two clones, they both let off a cloud of smoke where their unseen forms had been.
This pain, I’ve never felt such pain. Hannah thought as she tried to escape the prison her mind had become. I stood there, in my own mind looking around for any comfort, any protection from the pain. Nothing made sense, one moment I had been checking on Gaara and laying down for a rest; then the next my very heart began bringing unimaginable pain with every beat.
The blood that ran through my body was like searing water attacking each cell over and over. I wasn’t able to move, or even scream. No scream could even do it justice. Then I had lost all of my senses of sight and sound. Although the smell of the mixture of sweat and blood that covered me I could still smell. I could still feel the pain.
Oh this pain, surely it couldn’t last forever, there had to be a way to make it go away. There was no apparent escape, as I wandered in the darkness with nothing but the pain to remind me I was alive. I feel so tired, surely it couldn’t hurt if I fell asleep, surely dreams would drive away the real nightmare I had entered… Some ominous felling accompanied the notion of sleep, but I couldn’t endure this anymore, not alone. I decided the feeling was my imagination, sleep would bring peace, make the pain disappear. I could feel a faint breeze through the pain, it was so nice, I tried to focus on the wind in my hair and whatever it was I could feel my hand was so foolishly grasping. As I close my eyes I prepare to welcome the refuge sleep would surely bring.
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Gaara pushed his sand faster as he flew above the waves as they raced west toward the barely visible setting sun. The helplessness I felt as I looked down at Hannah angered me. None of my words would reach her and help her hold on. It seemed like so long ago now, that we had been back in the sand village. A regular day for Hannah had been to wake before most; as soon as she would wake she would go and train whatever her and Temari had worked on the day before. I had observed through her training that Hannah worked the same way Naruto did, always thinking of others first.
She had the same instinct to protect others even in battle, but unlike Naruto she didn’t have the recuperative abilities to make up for it. She would train until the end of the day in which she would either find Matsuri, who she had befriended, or spar with Kankuro. I had trained her when I had the time, on defense and she had been just as great of student as Temari had bragged.
Times have been stressful since the war, peace has brought new responsibilities. I had anticipated them, but it was still hard being a young Kazakage in the first ever great ninja alliance, and maintaining the friendships after the threat was gone has proven difficult.
Hannah’s friendship with my people always encouraged me and helped me hold onto the hope for the peace to go on. And now, when she needed me the most, all I could do was watch her endure this, and try to get her help before it was too late.
I look down at Hannah again, her head turns to face the stars, eyes still wide as if she is in shock. Her hand gently grips my shirt, then as I look down at her, Hannah shifts in my arms. Her head rolls into my arm facing my body, and I can feel her grip on him loosening. Her eyes begin to further gloss as her breathing slows.
“Hannah!” I yell, she was falling asleep! Giving in and surrendering her body’s losing battle. What could I do? I had to help her fight, but didn’t know how. As I looked around for any sign of what to do, the land of fire comes into view on the horizon. It mockingly approaches as both a near end, and an impossible task. She was giving in! I was so close, yet I was losing her.
I pushed the sand forward willing it to go faster, but it’s going faster than I have ever gone. I moved a pillar of sand to replace my arm holding up her head and moved it to rest it on Hannah’s weakening hand. I hold her hand there forcing her to maintain the grip. I look straight into her eyes as I speak, “Hannah you have to hold on, you have to fight! We are close, it will be over soon, but until then you have to fight.” Hannah’s eyes flutter a moment before closing.
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Naruto and Hinata finish off their clone moments before Kakashi and Neji; afterward they all four met Sai and Sakura where they stood with the captured enemy. “All right, I have wasted enough time with your stupid clones, and won’t waste anymore waiting for you to talk. We’ll skip right to making you talk.” Kakashi rolled his eyes as he watched him march up to the target threateningly.
“Now, tell us where to find this Zutara, or whatever his name is. I’m gonna finish this right now!” The guy laughes in my face, and that really makes me mad. I knew the guy could see my eyes change to blood red with deep slits.
“Well that is interesting, you are the leaf jinchuuriki. You are a friend of the Kazakage then?” the man looked at me as if I were no threat, but was very interested.
“Yeah, that’s right, and if you mess with him you mess with me! Get it!” I yelled into the man’s face pulling him by his clothes to meet my gaze. When the man didn’t respond I pushed him back into the tree hard. I’m ready to take this guy out by the time Kakashi speaks.
“If you mess with Naruto, you will have the leaf village to deal with, and if you choose to attack the leaf village, you will have the entire shinobi alliance to deal with. Are you ready for that?” Kakashi said behind us, placing a calming hand on my shoulder.
“Oh yes, I believe I am.” The man says before disappearing into a familiar smoke.