Inevitable
Chapter 8

Amejisuto awoke after a strange dream (something about a manturning into a weapon and her using him to defeat evil) and sat up quickly. Asense of urgency was running through her, but she didn't know why. Somethingjust felt... Wrong. There was a knock ather door before it opened and Itachi walked in. He looked slightly worried.

"You and I are going to meet up with Team Seven andhead to Sunagakure right away. The Kazekage has been kidnapped by theAkatsuki," he announced. "Pack lightly. We're leaving in half an hourat the gates."

He left her to get dressed and strap on an emergency missionbag. She quickly brushed her hair, put it in her usual ponytail and slipped herninja headband on. She went to the kitchen where Itachi and Sasuke were waitingand they were off in a flash. They met up with Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi at thegates, and they all left quickly racing through the trees, ready for the threeday journey to the Land of Wind.

"Good morning, Ameji," Sakura half smiled, tryingto make the mood a bit lighter so they wouldn't get as drained from depressionand worry.

"Hey Sakura. What exactly happened?" Amejisutoasked.

"Gaara was kidnapped by the Akatsuki," Kakashiexplained.

"I know thatalready, but who exactly are they?"

"A criminal organisation that is powerful and getshired for military purposes sometimes. The pervy sage has a lot of information.He said that they're planning something huge and the only way to stop the worldfrom going into chaos is to destroy them," Naruto growled. "I don'tget why they would need Gaara though."

The brunette felt sad for her usually-cheerful friend. Hisbest friend other than Sasuke had been kidnapped, and she knew Naruto feltresponsible for him since he was Gaara’s first real friend. Plus, they both hadtailed demons in them, so they knew how each other felt.

"Wait, maybe that's it!" she thought out loud."Gaara has a demon in him, right? They might be trying to take it!"

The others looked at her with wide eyes, which seemed weirdas they were all jumping through trees and could fall at any time. "Youknow, I think she might be right," Kakashi said.

"If they were for hire for military purposes, imaginewhat people would pay to have a tailed beast on their side," Itachipointed out. The others all nodded.

"We can't be certain, but if that theory is correct,then be careful Naruto," Kakashi warned.

After that, everyone split into groups, trying to make thethree day's travel not so treacherous. The girls decided to gossip about randomthings happening around the village and different medical things. The two teenboys started talking about training and almost broke into a few fights (butwere stopped by Sakura's threat to punch them across the forest) and the ex-ANBUmembers talked about different techniques for teaching. The first day oftravelling was finally over and they set up camp for the night.

They had no time to set up or take down tents so they sleptin light sleeping bags under the stars. The Ishi looked around and yawnedbefore crawling into her warm zippered blanket. She noticed that her sensei wasextremely close to her on the left side, and she couldn't fight the blush thatwas covering her face, reminded of what she questioned herself about the weekbefore. Thankfully for her, it was dark and the fire they had in the middle ofthe camp made everyone's face seem tinged red and gold.

"Goodnight you guys. I'll take the whole watch, andtomorrow you guys can rotate, ok?" Kakashi said before opening the newestedition of his weird Icha-Icha books.

"Goodnight," Sakura bid before falling asleep.

Naruto squirmed around in his sleeping bag before giving up onreplaceing comfort with a sigh. "Night, jerk, Ameji, Kakashi sensei, Sakuraand Itachi."

"Hn," Sasuke answered before rolling over andfalling asleep.

"Goodnight Ameji," the older Uchiha mumbledquietly.

"Goodnight Itachi," Amejisuto replied before theyboth went unconscious.

Kakashi looked over at them with an eyebrow raised. 'This is getting interesting.'

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"Give Gaara back, you criminals!" Kankuro yelledonce he caught up to the Akatsuki members. He spotted his bother lying on awhite clay bird, unconscious.

"Go on ahead, Deidara. You've had your fun, now I'llhave mine," Sasori ordered. The blond shrugged and hopped on the bird,taking off with the Kazekage. Kankuro growled and pulled out his favoritepuppet: Crow. It had several blades and a compartment so someone could beshoved in him and stabbed. Sasori smirked. 'Puppetvs. puppet, eh?'

The brunet sent off his beloved puppet, attaching invisiblechakra strings to move it. It sliced at Sasori, who was still inside his shell."Ok, Hiriko, let's finish this quickly," the redhead mumbled to hisown puppet, sending out more chakra strings to a hidden metal scorpion tail. Itswiped at the other puppet user, who leapt back and sent Crow forward to sliceoff a part of Hiriko's cloth mask for tracking. He knew inside that he wouldn'tbe able to make it past this guy. He recognised the tail and saw a symbol onthe side of it.

"Sasori of the red sand, I won't go down without afight, though you may be the second best puppet user in all of Sunagakurehistory," Kankuro growled, aiming a few blows to the other puppet's'head'. The fight was short as Sasori wanted it; he sent out a poison tippedsenbon while the Kazekage's bother was distracted on replaceing the body controllingHiriko.

"Don't worry about dying now. It will slowly stop youorgans over three days. Then you willdie," the Akatsuki member smirked before taking off, leaving Kankuro lyingin the sand. He was already feeling the effects of the poison and cried out."By the way," Sasori stopped. "I'm never second best. Not evento my grandmother, and obviously not to someone who got beaten so easily."

He walked out of sight, and not long after, Suna ninja cameand rushed Kankuro to the hospital while he started to feel the painful effectsof the poison. He was starting to die.