Konoha Crush: Part III

"Naruto!" I alerted from a distance. My teammate smiled at the backup before going full speed ahead and landing a ferocious kick at Shukaku's unstable jinchūriki.

I caught up to the pug just in time to catch Sasuke from falling down a tree that he was thrown against. He was knocked out cold so I was left with no choice but to transport him to some other far away branch and blessed him with my famous ice dome. I'll come back for him later. Right now I had something more important to do.

Gaara detected me dashing back to provide Naruto support, and instinctually decided to kill me to stop me. A giant sand claw was seeking to grope me but I shifted just enough to dodge it, but when the second sand hand came to grab me, I wasn't as quick to react.

Naruto and I watched as my clone got slammed against the wall, water droplets dampening the sand grabbing onto the fake body. It was only a minuscule moment, but the surrounding sand retracted a second slower.

[No shit! Sand is heavier when mixed with other substances. He controls sand, not all the other elements mixed in.]

I planted myself onto a spot three branches up before kneeling down to activate my ice dome.

"Thousand Water Needles of Death!" I yelled as my water rained upon the sand monster.

I knew it wasn't much help, but that was all I could do to help Naruto. Even if I slowed it down just by a little, it would do.

Naruto took the chance to summon his shadow clones.

After raining more water, I followed that with my "consecutive ice chains" in hopes of freezing the particles and making the sand harder to manipulate. Unfortunately, we weren't in the Mist. If we were, this would already have been over.

The Naruto clones relentlessly battered Gaara who now transformed more into the beast he is. But it seemed like we needed one more distraction before Naruto could pull something from his sleeve.

[Fuck me.] I threw myself into the battle.

"Ice Prison!" I froze Gaara. He broke free. But I activated the same technique again. I was able to freeze him three times when he finally figured out that I was lacking chakra to continue. With one deathly blow, I was knocked to the sidelines and crushed underneath his Sand.

Then the stupid 'beeeeeeep' sound came back. That was accompanied by the taste of iron in my mouth and the indescribable feeling of a rib(s?) stabbing at an organ that I currently was unable to identify.

Recognizing my sacrifice, Naruto summoned Gamabunta and defeated still conscious Gaara. The blonde stared wide-eyed back at me who was still confined to the tree. I had one eye open to see the summoning. That was fucking amazing. For once, Naruto was pretty cool.

"Haku!" he yelled, rushing by my side, futilely trying to yank at the unyielding sand prison.

"Uchiha is safe." I whispered, as some fresh blood leaked out of my mouth. I spat it out, didn't want him to see the sorry state I was in.

"Haku! GODDAMN IT!" Naruto was on the verge of tears, trying to free me from the stubborn clasp.

Just then, a grumpy grumbling came from Gaara. We both watched Shukaku, the one-tailed beast, awaken in front of our eyes. It was beginning its transformation and it was fucking horrible.

"I'm a coward, Naruto…" I panted out in breaths. Naruto turned back to me with increased worry. "Coming back was stupid. I should've just fled and became a doctor…"

"What kind of bullshit you- you- talking about?" Naruto forced out, withholding falling tears.

"But then I remembered that there are two idiots I need to watch over." I closed my eyes, tired and wanting to sleep.

"Haku!" Naruto pleaded for me to stay with him.

"But I'm proud to be part of Team 7…and proud to have you and Uchiha be my brothers…despite the short time." I managed to genuinely smile, something I tried not doing often since everyone would gush about how "cute" I looked. But it seemed like Naruto needed some cheering up.

"Haku…" His tears stained the branch beneath us.

I playfully (or as playfully as I could make it) knocked my head against his. "Got get him, Orange."