The Invasion
On the day of the final part of the Chunin exam, 7 of the 9 contestants are standing in the arena, with Jiang Wei and Sasuke missing.
"Where could they be? I don't think Sasuke would miss this chance." Naruto says.
"And that Jiang was too assured of his victory to believe he chickens out." Shikamaru adds.
"Uhh, sorry I had to sign some release forms in the hospital." Jiang apologizes to their instructor, coughing lightly, wearing his green coat as usual hanging over half his body diagonally and black pants, having his lower abdomen wrapped up in bandages, where a red tinge is visible, some blood seeping through.
"And you are Jiang Wei?" Genma asks.
"Yes." He replies.
"Are you sure you want to compete with that injury?" Je asks, pointing at his bandaged side, where he usually wears his wide shirt and his metal armor.
"Yeah, it'll be fine. I can always bow out if I can't continue right." He replies smirking.
"Right." The instructor agrees and the Hokage then announces that the Chunin exam will now start, ignoring the fact that Sasuke is currently missing.
"Everyone but the two contestants, please head to the waiting area." Genma tells them and the group of Genins make their way towards the viewing platform for contestants.
"You shouldn't have come. You got hurt only yesterday." Temari tells Jiang worried, once they are in the waiting area, sitting down with him at one of the benches.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine." He says but she only pokes his wound in reply, causing him to keel over, holding his abdomen.
"What was that for?" He asks, coughing out a small bit of blood.
"For being stupid and making me worry. Everything would have been fine if you'd stayed in the hospital." She says, droplets of tears forming in her eyes.
"Temari, I don't know what is going on exactly, but I know that it'll happen today. And I couldn't live with myself if I laid in the hospital when I could have been saving the lives of my friends." He says, squeezing her hand comfortingly.
And she gives him a kiss on his cheek shyly.
"Did we miss something?" Shikamaru asks smirking at them, having observed their close conversation with Shino.
"Probably. Anyways, wake me when it's my turn alright?" He requests, looking at Temari and her brother.
"Sure, I'll see you down there later then." She says conflicted, giving him a peck on his forehead.
After the first two fights, where Naruto beats Neji only by an inch and Temari wins by Shikamaru forfeiting even though he has the upper hand Kankuro wakes up Jiang, having dropped out himself.
"Hmm? Already?" Jiang asks rubbing his eyes.
"Yeah. Temari is waiting and she doesn't like having to wait, but look who I am telling this." Kankuro says, going to the ledge overseeing the stadium with Jiang, who jumps down into the arena.
"So, you won huh?" He asks, walking over to her.
"Shikamaru forfeited after a while." She informs him.
"Too bad. I don't really like fighting my friends." He sighs.
"Are you ready?" Genma asks the two.
"Wait, before we start. Temari, don't take it easy on me. I don't want a pity win on my record, I'd much rather lose honestly." He says.
"Fine, but only if you don't hold back either. I'm curious to see what you really are capable of." She tells him.
"Fine. You asked for it and I will honlr your request." He says, bowing to her.
"You two done lovers?" Genma asks.
"Yeah." The two reply looking at each other focused.
"Alright, begin." Genma shouts, hopping aside.
In a blink of an eye Jiang is standing behind Temari one kunai at her throat and another at her stomach while lightning crackles around him, enveloping him from head to toe.
"Uhhh... the winner is Jiang Wei?" Genma announces surprised, not having been able to keep up with his speed himself.
The crowd then starts to boo and complain, claiming Jiang cheated with a genjutsu, but most of the higher ranked nins know that the claims are ridiculous and that defeating her by using a genjutsu would be just as impressive with the amount of people present.
"Come on Tema-chan. I'm gonna take a nap again." Jiang says, removing his kunais from the girl, who's frozen in place with fear.
"I... I'm coming." She says, following out of the arena. When the two are in the hallway leading to the waiting area Jiang turns to look at her, asking "are you OK?" concerned.
"Yes, just shocked and a bit scared. I knew you were strong, but after training with you I genuinely thought I might have a slight chance..." Temari says, looking down sadly.
"Temari, I never meant to mislead you when we were training. I'm honestly inferior to you when it comes to suiton control. But you must've noticed that there is a difference in our chakra power and control." He says.
"I didn't pay that much attention, but now that I think about it, I've never seen you tired before." She says.
"Believe me. I'm plenty tired right now." He chuckles, holding his side with one hand.
"Come on let's join the others. Gaara is up right?" He says, grabbing her hand gently, but she rips her hand free, making him turn to her confused.
"You have to leave. Please." She pleads desperately.
"Why? If you just tell me..." he says.
"Suna is launching an attack on Konoha alright?" She confesses quietly.
"Why?" Jiang asks.
"Konoha's been oppressing Suna for a while and my father decided that this is the only way Suna won't fall under Konoha's control." Temari says near tears.
"You don't seem to be on board with this plan." He says.
"I'm not, but they're using Gaara to launch the attack. He's my little brother and I need to look out for him, no matter what he's done." She tells him, crying into his robe, hugging herself against him.
"Alright. Calm down. There isn't much we can do to stop the invasion now I'm guessing. But I can knock out Gaara and we can leave before anything happens." He suggests, holding her in his arms supportively.
"No! Whatever you do, you can't knock out Gaara." Temari says almost hyperventilating.
"Why? What's so bad about that?" Jiang asks.
"Gaara has a tailed beast inside him and if he ever falls asleep or gets knocked out the beast can take over his body. The seal is the reason for him being unstable." Temari explains.
"OK, fine. Just calm down, I'm going to help you through this how I can." He tells her, seeing her rapid breathing and kisses her passionately.
"Now's not the time." She says, releasing a content sigh after their kiss.
"Had to get you to calm down somehow, didn't I?" He says.
"Now, come on. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I will try to protect you and your brother with all my power." He promises her.
"Wait. I think I'm still not calmed down." She says, looking at Jiang with a blush and a genuine smile on her face.
"I understand." He replies, leaning towards her again, kissing her passionately, one hand playing with her four pigtails, the other grabbing her hip and squeezing one of her bouncy ass cheeks.
"Hey." She complains, hitting his shoulder, smirking at him.
"Sorry, that just crossed my mind every time we were training." He tells her, kissing her hand before heading to the waiting area hand in hand.
"How the heck are you fighting in the arena one moment and then come walking up hand in hand all lovey-dovey. You aren't even a couple." Kankuro asks his sister, holding his head in confusion.
The two shrug their shoulder, looking at one another and sit down on a couch together.
Soon after the fight between Gaara and Sasuke starts, with the latter arriving late because of his teacher's tardiness.
When the two are fighting Gaara uses a jutsu, which causes Temari and her brother to panic, the two looking at the fight below, where Gaara encases himself in a sand dome. The blonde girl squeeze's Jiang's hand so hard he fears he'll lose all feeling in it and he focuses on the fight as well, wondering what's so concerning.
Sasuke then manages to pierce through the dome, drawing blood from Chakra, barely able to hit him with his teacher's trademark technique, the chidori.
Once drawing blood a monstrous arm shoots out at Sasuke, who barely manages to dodge the attack, surprisingly however Gaara drops the dome soon after, looking at his bleeding shoulder in panic as well as anger.
In that moment Orochimaru, disguised as the Kazekage starts the attack ln Konoha, taking the Hokage and engaging him in a fight, protected by a barrier casted by his underlings, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
"I have to get down to Gaara." Temari says, looking at Jiang once more, before jumping over the ledge, landing in the arena next to their brother and take him away on Baki's orders, since the teen is unable to use Shukaku's power safely at the moment. Sasuke then, on orders from Genma goes after the group, while this is happening the audience is put to sleep with a genjutsu and only the experienced Jonins, plus Sakura remain awake. Across town Suna also launches an attack with a massive three headed snake summon, which wreaks havoc, while the Suna nins also fight the ground forces standing in their way.
"Your name is Shino right?" Jiang asks the only remaining person in the waiting area, with Shikamaru and Naruto having joined their friends in the stands.
"Yes." Shino says suspicious of him, since he saw his interaction with Temari.
"Come on, we should see if we can help in any way." Jiang says, grabbing his double-bladed trident and starts to go up to the general stands where oto and konoha nins are fighting with Shino following at a safe distance.
"Hey, you guys are the newcomers senseis right?" Jiang says, walking over to Kakashi and Gai, who are protecting Sakura, Naruto, Shikamaru and a small dog in ninja gear.
"You are the contestant without village affiliation, right?" Gai asks, kicking away an Oto nin who attacks the group.
"Yeah." He says, cleaving a sound nin, jumping at Shino in half.
"What's with all the sound nins? I thought Suna was..." Jiang says, before spotting Orochimaru's face now revealed, wearing the kazekage's clothes.
"I see. Well that's problematic." Jiang says.
"What?" Kakashi asks him, on guard by his comment.
"Temari, she told me about the invasion like 10 minutes ago, hoping I'd go hide in the hospital. But she is under the assumption the Kazekage leads this invasion, if Orochimaru stole his face, that means the real Kazekage is dead right?" Jiang asks, ruffling his hair annoyedly.
"Right, we can assume so. And this explains why Orochimaru never showed his face. He was posing as the Kazekage." Kakashi agrees.
"And we're about to have the one tailed Bijuu storm Konoha, once Gaara loses his cool." Jiang informs the sensei's.
"The one tailed." Naruto asks wide eyed.
"Yeah, well I'm going after him to try and stop him before it comes to that." Jiang says, turning to the hole in the wall Gai made, by slamming an enemy through and holds his side with a hiss.
"Are you sure about this? You aren't a Konoha ninja and could very likely die, especially in that condition." Gai asks, being reluctant in letting him leave after what happened with Lee.
"Yeah. I made a promise to Temari, which I intend to keep." Jiang says.
"Can you watch out for them then? They are going for Sasuke and Gaara as well." Kakashi asks hopefully.
"Hmpf fine. Let's go and one warning to all of you, if you kill one of the siblings, I will personally remove your head from your body." He warns them darkly, before jumping out of the hole, with the Genins plus one dog summon following him.
When they are out of the arena they follow the dog Pakkun, who leads them out of Konoha's city area, into the vast forest still contained within its border.
"Why do we have to take him along? He's in league with Temari and is no Konoha shinobi." Naruto says grumpily, glaring at the back of Jiang's head.
"Because without me your chances of survival are cut in half, now shut up and be glad I agreed with your sensei's request. " Jiang tells Naruto.
"He is right. He's the strongest trump card we have currently and your complaining isn't helping." Shikamaru groans.
"We should hurry up everyone." Pakkun tells them after a while of them tree hopping after the dog.
"Why? Is Sasuke in trouble" Sakura asks worried.
"No, but we are going to be." Pakkun says.
"Why?" Shino asks.
"There are some nins following us. Possibly oto or suna." Jiang says, getting surprised looks.
"I'm have a little skill in sensor abilities." He says.
"He's right. There are 8... No 9 of them following and with our current speed they'll catch up in 10 minutes at most." Pakkun says.
"Shikamaru, you know what needs to be done, right?" Jiang asks.
"Yeah, distraction by faking out an ambush, since we can assume that at least some of them are Jonin level." Shikamaru groans, making the group stop.
"So that means... one of us has to stay behind." Sakura says in shock, realizing the danger they are in.
"Hah, I was hoping to go ahead, but I need that stupid dog to find Gaara." Jiang says, rubbing his head annoyed.
Fine, I agreed with your sensei after all. Shikamaru, we'll stay behind and lead them into an ambush." Jiang says.
"But, don't we need you to fight Gaara?" Sakura asks fearfully.
"I will catch up to you before you know it. Now go before I abandon you all and go on my own, leaving you as fodder for the enemies." He tells them, doing a summoning jutsu, calling forth a lions cub, wearing a orange life vest.
"Where are we?" The cub asks, looking around him searching for something.
"Konoha, don't worry no lake is nearby." Jiang groans, picking it up and dumping it in Sakura's arms.
"Take him with you, that way I'll find you." Jiang tells the group, grabbing Shikamaru and jump down on the floor, kicking over a tree while descending.
"Get going!" Jiang shouts at the group in the trees and they hurry away.
When the 9 Otonins, with one lagging behind in case of traps see the knocked over tree, they also see some clothing peek around the corner of a tree, as well as a blinding shimmer from some medal.
"An ambush?" The leader laughs, running over to Shikamaru's jacket and his forehead protector, picking the latter up.
"Let's..." the leader says, but the whole group suddenly can't move anymore.
"Kagemane, success." Shikamaru says, climbing out of his hiding spot, in some bushes.
"The shadow binding technique huh?" A member of the group says, relaxed since thed have a safety net, with a Jonin following the group.
"Don't get your hopes up. This is the end of the rope for you all." Jiang says, suddenly jumping out of a tree to their left, holding a blood soaked oto nin hood.
"Shikamaru, you may want to cover your eyes." Jiang tells the teen, raiton chakra covering the outside of his right arm.
"Chidori? But how did... wait, no noise." Shikamaru says surprised.
"It is similar and at my level of control probably not that much stronger." Jiang says, showing his four lightning covered fingers, his thumb being at the side of his palm.
"Hell's stab." One nin says fearfully.
"It's actually the four finger Nugite stab, 2 levels away from the hell's stab." Jiang says before disappearing from their view, reappearing on the other side of the group, every oto nin having a hole in their chest, where their hearts once were.
"Still too good a technique for scum like you." Jiang says, swiping his arm to the side, cutting through 3 nearby trees, removing the blood from his hand.
"You did good. You should wait for your sensei, he's almost here." Jiang tells Shikamaru, who looks at the still standing corpses, held upright by his technique.
Jiang then disappears in a burst of speed, catching up with the others in a minute or two.
"Jin. Come here." Jiang says, suddenly reappearing next to Sakura.
"What about the followers and Shikamaru?" Sakura asks worried.
"Dealt with." Jiang tells her, before rolling out a scroll a small bit in his hand, a raw piece of meat appearing in his palm.
"Ohh." Jin, the small cub says drooling from Jiang's shoulder.
"Here, you can find me with this right?" Jiang asks, pouring some chakra into the meat and feeding it to the lion.
"Yup." He says contently chewing the meat.
"Good, then you lead the group while I go ahead with the dog." Jiang says, putting away his scroll, in the inside of his green robe.
"Isn't it saver if we don't split up?" Naruto asks.
"This takes too long. I'm sure you of all people understand. Temari is important to me and she has only one ally out there." Jiang says.
"Doesn't she have two? Both brothers?" Sakura asks confused.
"Kankuro, yes. But Gaara poses the most danger to her of all. Because he'd kill her without a second thought while Temari wants to protect him at all costs." Jiang tells them heavy heartedly.
"How can you say that?" Sakura asks shocked.
"Because he already tried to kill her twice. This happened on his last attempt, even with my speed I barely was able to protect her." Jiang tells them, grabbing his bandage covered wound, which has a damp red spot clearly visible.
"O... OK. But please if you can protect Sasuke." Naruto agrees.
"I'll try to safe everyone." He says with dedication in his eyes.
"Come on dog." He says, lifting Pakkun on his shoulder and sets down Jin, who hops over the trees.
"Lead them to me." Jiang tells the lion, before speeding up, the group not seeing him anymore after 3 seconds.
"He's fast." Shino comments stoically as always.
A handful of minutes later Jiang comes across Sasuke beating Kankuro, who is exhausted, lying wrapped up in ninja wire while Sasuke shoots a fireball at him, causing a large crater.
When the dust clears thw raven haired Genin doesn't see any sign of the pupeteer anymore.
"Wait here." Jiang says, standing on a branch nearby, tying the weak form of Kankuro to a tree.
"Let me go... Temari, the invasion." He says desperately.
"The invasion is a mistake, your father is probably dead. Because a missing nin posed at him soley to make use of suna's military force." Jiang informs him.
"And if I can help it, everything in this forest will die before Temari gets harmed." Jiang says, gripping the three over his head, breaking off the top half of the tree and dropping it behind himself with a look of pure anger in his eyes.
"It's like looking at another Gaara." Kankuro gulps after Jiang sped away.
When Jiang catches up to Sasuke, Gaara and Temari he lands next to the suna girl.
"Jiang... Gaara, he, he's losing control." Temari says, a look of panic on her face.
"Let me get you out of here first." Jiang says worried.
"No, I can't leave him. No matter what, he's my brother." Temari says.
"So you say, but where does he start and the one tailed begin?" Jiang asks.
"Honestly, I don't know. But you can't make me leave." She protests, grabbing her fan, ready for a fight.
"Fine." Jiang agrees, putting his hand over the one she's holding onto her fan with, when suddenly behind them Sasuke's chidori slices through Gaara's monstrous sand arm. The redhead's knees buckle and he laughs maniacally, reforming the arm and a tail sprouts from the underside of his gourd, saliva dripping down his half transformed face.
Jiang grabs Temari and jumps a few trees away, setting her down.
"Summoning jutsu." Jiang says, summoning a waist high Tiger. With lightning bolt looking stripes over its otherwise yellow furred body.
"Master." The tigress says in a feminie voice.
"I need you to protect Temari here." Jiang says, kneeling down with the tigress nuzzling against his face.
"Temari." The tigress says, bowing her head to the blonde.
"Just make sure she's safe, OK Suzune?" Jiang tells the tigress, already turning to the fight going on between Gaara and Sasuke.
"Here, if I don't make it you can help yourself to everything in the scrolls." Jiang tells Temari, handing her his robe, standing there bare chested, his double-bladed trident held leaned against his shoulder, smirking teasingly, while being serious about it.
"Was he serious?" Temari asks concerned while Jiang jumps towards a marking covered Sasuke, who's lying immobilized on a tree branch, having used another chidori, which is more than he can normally handle, but Gaara simply repairs the damage, which only affected his sand arm.
"Heya. Let me take over now." Jiang says, standing on the same tree branch Sasuke is lying on.
"What? Why are you here?" Sasuke asks.
"I made a promise to a blonde suna kunoichi." Jiang replies, throwing him over his shoulder and jumping to Temari, dumping Sasuke in front of her.
"Gaara, you said he's your pray right?" Jiang says, jumping front of Gaara, standing on the same branch as him , while the half transformed teen glares at him.
"Care to try hunting me? Afterall I'm stronger than anyone you've seen before." Jiang tells him.
"Get out of my way, I need to kill him." Gaara shouts, his tail swiping at Jiang, who knocks the tail upwards, before separating it from the body with his trident, not moving a single step.
"I can do this all day. You're so weak I might not even have to use chakra." Jiang taunts him, trying to get his attention away from Sasuke and Temari.
"Weak? I'll show you who's weak." Hr growls, reforming his tail, which stabs at him, while he sends his arm flying towards Sasuke and Temari.
Jiang ignores the tail and appears in front of the arm blocking it with his weapon, but Gaara's tail, having predicted this, swings at him, slapping him across his face, sending him into a tree. The arm then continues to advance towards Sasuke and Temari, before Jiang reappears in front of it, blocking it again and then grabs onto the again incoming tail with his other hand, holding it in place.
"Why? Why are you protecting them? They're weak, worthless." Gaara asks, holding his head in pain, getting flashbacks to his childhood.
"Because I care for your sister. And I promised I'll try to protect everyone." Jiang says, while Gaara transforms further with only his shins and feet not covered by the Sand, with black spikes and purple markings all over its body.
"Even you." Jiang says, suddenly standing behind Gaara, covered in lightning chakra and grabs onto him from behind, dropping off the tree branch they are on, releasing Gaara moments before impact.
"Sasuke?" A voice is then heard above them and one of Gaara's arms grabbed onto the branch they jumped off and shoots towards the newly arrived Sakura, pinning her against a tree with its hand sand separating, keeping her pinned against the tree.
"Sakura!" Naruto shouts, trying to pull her free to no avail, before jumping down to them, shouting "release Sakura, whoever you are!"
"Gaara. What are you trying to accomplish? She's in no way an opponent for you." Jiang asks calmly.
"This way Sasuke has to come fight me." Gaara grins evilly, sending sand shuriken ar the two, with Jiang blocking them by twirling his weapon in front oy him, while Naruto gets flung through a few branches and into a tree.
"If you can't keep up, maybe you should leave this fight to me. Sasuke is save for now, you could take them to safety." Jiang suggests, not taking his eyes off Gaara.
"No, I'll not abandon Sakura-chan." Naruto yells, picking himself out of the tree and summoning a hand sized frog, starting a discussion with him, obviously having intended to summon someone else.
"Gaara. The invasion is a mistake, your father was killed and someone took his place, misleading your people." Jiang tells the redhead.
"My people? I have no people. I live in solitude and strive to be the strongest, because that's how you're really alive!" He growls crazily.
"Being the strongest isn't the way to live. Believe me. I've seen what a life in solitude without comrades does. You will suffer your entire life before dying, regretting your entire life." Jiang says, thinking back to why he left his home country really, one day having realized that the daily bloodshed with no regards to human lives can't be the right way to life, even if it's for a righteous cause.
"What do you know? You care too much about people, that proves my point exactly. Gaara says, pointing at his reopened blood seeping wound on his stomach.
"Gaara, I will stop you!" Naruto suddenly shouts, summoning multiple Shadow clones and charging at him at once, one half of the clones getting destroyed by a blast of wind from Gaara. The other half however starts to beat st Gaara, until his outer shell is running with Sand and he looks at Naruto angrily, swiping away the clones with his tail.
"How are you stronger? You were so weak in the competition." Gaara says, holding his head, before a massive explosion of sand happens and in place of Gaara is the massive sand form of the one tailed beast. A massive, big bellied Tanuki.
Jiang luckily managed to get Naruto and jump to a sage distance ontop of the trees, while Suzune makes Temari mount her, while biting into Sasuke's shirt's collar and jumps away with the two as well, jumping through the woods for a while before letting the two down ontop of a tree, overlooking the fight unfold.
"What is that?" Naruto asks, not noticing the sand encircling his lower body.
"Watch out. I can't free you from that." Jiang alerts him, having jumped into the air when the sand tried to get him.
Naruto gets covered in Sand but before Gaara manages to crush him Naruto manages to summon Gamabunta, a humongous frog of a similar size as the monstrous Tanuki.
"That's a good idea, allow me to follow your lead on this." Jiang says, using the summoning jutsu, to summon a massive blue furred tiger with large white antler like horns, two massive fangs sprouting out of its upper lip, being on eye level with the Tanuki and Gamabunta.(AN: Abyss Tiger from Tales of Demons and Gods, without bones covering its back)
"Abyssmal? I thought the way to your realm was lost?" Gamabunta asks the blue Tiger who has lightning crackling from it.
"It was old friend." The tiger replies in a dark, raspy voice.
"You know each other?" Jiang asks surprised.
"The wildcat summons were friends to many summons, since we are the race with most diverse elemental summons." The Abyss Tiger says proudly.
"Hey Boss, stop chatting, we need to take out that thing!" Naruto tells Gamabunta from his place atop the frog.
"Why should I, you are not my partner. We haven't even exchanged the customary dishes of Sake." Gamabunta berates Naruto.
"I think you should help him pops, that guy wanted to hurt me and this Ninka protected me bravely." The small frog Naruto previously summoned tells his father.
"He did what? OK, you are my partner now. No one hurts my son and gets away with it." Gamabunta says, drawing his blade and dashes at Gaara, slicing off one of the Tanuki's arms.
Once the arm is sliced off however the massive blade of Gamabunta goes flying through the air, landing a couple hundred meters away.
"Let's hop into the fray, shall we Abyss?" Jiang asks the Tiger, who nods, before snarling at the Tanuki and summons a ball of lightning between its horns, shooting it at Gaara, who blocks it with a wind bullet.
"Two summons huh? No matter, once I use this jutsu your end is sealed." Gaara says, appearing on the Tanuki's forehead, his eyes glazed over, before he suddenly slumps over and a shrill voice echoes through the forest.
"Free! Finally free. You two are the ones I shall kill?" The crazed Tanuki asks, spotting the two humans ontop of the summons.
"Come on, from both sides." Gamabunta says, leaping towards the Tanuki, with Abyss prancing towards the Sand monster from the opposite side.
"We need to wake the host." Abyssmal says, clawing at the Tanuki, with Gamabunta jumping over it, joining Abyssmal, backing away.
"Any ideas?" Naruto asks, looking at the Tanuki fearfully.
"You wake Gaara, pummel him if you have to. I have an idea for the Tanuki body." Jiang says, jumping off his summon, telling it "support them however you can."
The two summons then dash at the Tanuki, pushing through the windbullet fired at them and bite/ hold onto the sand monster, while Naruto jumps off and hits Gaara in the face, waking him. Jiangs summon then disappears, with a spike of chakra appearing a bit in the distance.
Naruto gets trapped ontop of the Tanuki, his feet stuck in the sand and drained of energy.
When Gaara tries to crush Naruto with his sand however Gamabunta protects him with his tongue.
When the frog however disappears, exhausted from the last hit he took head on the sand starts to creep up his body, until Naruto and Gaara look up, something blinding them, to see Jiang come flying in, holding onto Gamabunta's monstrous giant blade, slamming it through the Tanuki's belly, before hitting it with a large lightning dragon shooting out of the air behind Jiang, shocking the Tanuki, which then starts to fall away into pieces, with Naruto and Gaara falling exhausted, but Jiang jumps towards them and safely lands them on the ground, settung the two down close to each other, against a tree, while he slumps down on a third, the three sitting in a triangle.
Jiang coughs blood, leaning against the tree while holding his side.
"what's wrong with you?" Naruto asks tiredly.
"My wound opened up." Jiang says huffing exhausted.
"How? How are you two so strong?" Gaara asks the two nins shocked.
"Because we have someone to protect. Gaara I'm just like you. I was trapped in darkness and loneliness, but that's the reason I will do anything to protect those who saved me from it." Naruto tells him.
"I never was lonely, but I lost everyone close to me before starting my journey. So, I too will protect my friends with all I have, so I'll never lose anyone again." Jiang says, grinning at Naruto at the similarity.
"I... I give up." Gaara says lost in thought. In that moment Temari, Suzune and Sasuke arrive.
"Gaara. Jiang." Temari says worried, checking on the two.
"It's fine." Jiang tells her when she sees his blood covered side.
"Temari, we need to go." Kankuro tells Temari arriving and picking up Gaara.
"I guess this is goodbye. I'm sorry it turned out this way." Temari says saddened, kissing Jiang on his cheek before joining her brothers.
"Temari, don't..." Jiang tries to say while reaching for her before passing out, collapsing on the ground.
Temari is tempted to help him, but Kankuro presses her to leave with Gaara.
"Can you put him on my back? I will bring him to the hospital." The tigress Suzune requests, looking at Sasuke.
The raven haired teen puts Jiang and his weapon on top the tigress, who then speeds through the woods, rushing past Shino, who's sitting over two beaten Sound nins, which he toon care of after they discovered that their group was being followed again.
"Please help my master." Suzube says, standing in the entrance of the hospital.
"He's not a Konoha nin. What do we do?" A nurse asks the head doctor worried because of the tigress summon.
"I'll get the jonin assigned to protect the hospital to handle the decision."
The doctor says, quickly fetching the nin in charge.
"What is going on here?" Inoichi's voice is then heard when he and Ino arrive at the entrance.
"Dad, that's Jiang." Ino says concerned, going to help him, but no one else is helping her.
"Ino, he's not a Konoha shinobi. He could be hostile." Inoichi says, looking at the growling tigress, with his daughter glaring at him from beside the tigress for a moment before saying "Fine. Treat him, but secure him with chains and chakra seals." Inoichi says, getting the medical staff to bring Jiang away.
"And you, disperse please. Or else we'll be forced to refuse his treatment." Inoichi tells the tigress, who looks to be thinking it over.
"I will make sure Jiang is going to be OK. I owe him my life." Ino tells the Tigress, who looks at Ino sharply, before saying "fine." Disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"He saved your life?" Inoichi asks surprised.
"During the Chunin exam. I would have died if it wasn't for him." Ino says, before following after the medical nins, leaving behind her surprised but relieved father, who is glad Ino is acting for her own good and doesn't seem to be crazy for the Uchiha anymore.