Inevitable
Chapter 10

Kakashi’s ninja hounds led the rescue squad to a thin riverthat separated them from an obvious cave with a large boulder blocking theentrance. Sakura ran forward and punched said boulder, shattering it into abillion tiny pieces, making Chiyo slightly and silently impressed. Inside wereDeidara and Sasori, who had obviously been waiting for them. Deidara wassitting on a body, looking bored.

Naruto looked closer at the figure they sat on. The body wasGaara! He wasn't moving, and didn't look like he was breathing either."About time you got here, yeah," Deidara smirked.

"GET THE HELL OFF OF HIM! I'M GUNNA KILL YOU!"Naruto growled as a red liquid started to seep over him. His eyes turned fromblue to red, his whisker marks turned darker and his teeth turned sharper. Thered liquid cloud was done covering him, and there was an evident tail from theback of the substance and fox ears on the front.

"So that's the nine tailed brat," Sasori statedthe obvious. He was still hidden in Hiriko, but he saw Chiyo and by the way shewas looking at him, he knew that she identified him right away.

"LET'S GO!" Naruto yelled at Sasuke, the liquidturning into a hard shell. The blonde could still be seen, but just barely, ashe attacked Deidara. Sasuke put in a second blow and released his fire balljutsu. The older blond didn't quite understand what kind of danger he was in ashe made a clay bird and jumped on it, taking off with Naruto, Sasuke andKakashi following him closely.

"Chiyo,"Sasori snarled.

"What? No respect for your grandmother?" the eldercrossed her arms.

"I don't like waiting. Shall we start fighting?"

"Absolutely. Sakura, you must fight too." Sakuranodded and got into a fighting stance. Chiyo pulled out two scrolls andsummoned two puppets. One looked like an older Sasori, and the other was abrunette. They both looked like humans with obvious puppet features.

"Uh, Itachi, what do we do?" Amejisuto asked.There were no more people to fight, and the other girls completely ignored themas they rushed forward to attack the puppet.

"Let's go get Gaara somewhere safe," Itachireplied, quickly grabbing the dead body that the Akatsuki abandoned. They bothran out of the cave and to a meadow a few kilometres away. The brunette heardexplosions and rocks breaking from where they left. Trying to ignore that, sheput her head on Gaara's chest, listening for a heartbeat. As expected, therewas none.

She started to tear up before trying to restart it bypounding on his chest. She even started trying to get his chakra paths workingby transferring some of hers. Itachi held her back and felt his skin."He's quite cold already, which means he's long gone," he whisperedsadly.

Amejisuto stated to cry. She really liked Gaara; she wasn'tscared of him like most people in Konoha still were, and her, Gaara and Narutoused to hang out a lot when Sasuke and her sensei were doing their own thing.Itachi's heart broke at the sight of his apprentice breaking down and pulledher close, wrapping his arms around her trembling body. She buried her face inhis chest and cried even harder.

They barelyregistered time passing. When the other members of the retrieval group appeared,it seemed like they had been waiting for only a few seconds, but at the sametime, a hundred years. Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi looked worn out but not toodamaged. Naruto was back to normal, but a bit bloody due to the hardened liquidthat was now gone. They called it 'the nine tails cloak' since it was thedemon's chakra surrounding him and giving him power.

Sakura and Chiyo returned not long after, both badlyinjured. Sakura had a deep stab wound in her side, in a place where it would beharder to heal, and Chiyo was limping and started twitching and breathingheavily. "She got hit by a kunai and refused to take the antidote since Ineeded it for the stab wound," the pinkette explained.

"I had to... Do something..." Chiyo stumbled forwardand put her hands over Gaara's heart. "I knew Lord Gaara was dead, now I'mgoing to give him his life back." A faint green glow flowed from herhands. "I was saving this for Sasori if he ever returned, but he's deadnow. I never thought I would be helping the younger generation, but it's yourturn to shine," she said to Naruto.

He put his hands over hers and gave some of his chakra,seeing as Chiyo looked too weak. Amejisuto was still sniffling, but had stoppedcrying. Itachi was still holding her, earning weird looks from Sasuke andKakashi, but the brunette didn't care. She stared intently at Gaara, prayingfor him to breathe again. After a few minutes, he started coughing and sat up. Narutocheered and helped him up, and the elder fell over.

A few tears formed in Sakura's eyes as Naruto also tried towake the old woman up. "Man, she must be so tired. We should go back tothe village and get her an antidote," he smiled. "Wake up Granny,Gaara's alive! You did it!"

"YOU IDIOT!" Sakura yelled, punching him."How can you be so dense?!" Naruto looked around at everyone, who hadtheir heads down in mourning. "She... She gave her life to bring Gaaraback with a forbidden jutsu.”

Amejisuto pressed closer to Itachi and bit her lip to keepfrom crying again. Her ears tuned in to the sounds of the wind. Even nature wasmourning the great sacrifice.

A backup group got to the field consisting of Temari,Kankuro, the old man, and other Suna ninja. "Gaara! You're safe!"Temari and Kankuro ran and hugged their brother before looking down at the oldwoman with questioning expressions.

"Chiyo has died," the redhead reported. "Letus all grieve and give a prayer." The Suna squad joined the others andbowed their heads. They carried her body back to Suna where the whole villagecould mourn the loss of their elder.

---------------------------

"Fix it faster! It hurts if you do it slowly!"Deidara complained as Kakuzu sewed his arm on. "Stupid Kakashi and hisimplanted mangekyo sharingan. I'm lucky he only got my arm sucked into anotherdimension rather than my whole body like he thought, yeah."

"Yah, you're lucky, but you won't be if you don't shutup and stop breaking things. I'm tired of putting you back together,"Kakuzu growled, cutting the thick cable that acted as veins in his body. Heused them as sewing threads since he had great control over them, and ended upbeing the one in the organization that somehow got pinned to fixing everyone.He would charge them first, of course.

"It's too bad that Sasori got killed. He was a goodaddition to the Akatsuki," Pain said as he entered the room."Deidara, from now on, you will be partnered with Kisame. Next time, becareful." Pain and Kakuzu left Deidara alone in his room.

"Now who will I bicker with about art, yeah?"Deidara mumbled sadly to himself, already missing his friend.

----------------

"So, how did your mission go?" Mikoto inquiredwhen her children and Amejisuto walked through the door.

"It has been an exhausting week filled with sleeping onthe ground, seeing a few dead people, and crying," the young girl yawned,trudging to her room.

"What happened?"

"Our mission was three days running there at highspeed, hunting down the Akatsuki, seeing a dead Kazekage, not being able tohelp anyone fight, watching an elder die to save the Kazekage, and three daysrunning back," Itachi explained quickly before heading to his own room.

"Ameji cried a lot and Itachi was acting weird,"Sasuke informed, grabbing a glass and filling it with lemonade.

That sparked the mother's curiosity. "What was hedoing?"

"Ameji was friends with Gaara so she was crying a lot,and when I went to them with Naruto and Kakashi after our fight, Itachi washugging and comforting her. I've never seen him do that before." He gotslightly concerned for his mother when she started dancing and squealing aroundthe kitchen. He slipped off to his room before she could notice he was gone.

---

"Itachi, can I come in?" Amejisuto knocked on theUchiha's room door.

"Just a minute," he called. He released thegenjutsu that would trap intruders other than his mother and brother and openedthe door. His apprentice looked extremely tired and was almost falling asleepwhile standing. "You should sleep."

"I tried, but after group missions like that, I alwaysget adjusted to having more people with me. Usually my mom does this but… Canyou sleep in my room just for tonight?" she asked awkwardly. Itachi smiledlightly and nodded, following the brunette to her room. They crawled into herlarge bed and before her head touched the pillow, the girl was asleep. She hada death grip on his arm, keeping him close. Itachi found himself falling asleepquicker than usual too, going into a peaceful rest.

Mikoto peeked in and softly ‘awed’. “They make such a cutecouple,” she squealed once she closed the door. “I can’t wait till they admittheir true feelings.”