Matsuri of the Sand... KIDNAPPED

"Right. We'll find them." Kanae said as she stood with Neji, Hinata, Shino, and Sakura. She was apart of the sensory squad being sent out first. In an attempt to locate the student, four celestials, and the sand siblings. The rest of the genin alongside chunin Shikamaru and Kohana were to be dispatched in 10 minutes. And wait for a signal.

"We're counting on you guys." Shikamaru said and the five nodded before dispersing into the forest

"Alright, we're all here. Or rather who's supposed to be here is here." Kohana said softly, looking around at Choji, Ino, Kiba, Akamaru, Katsuo, Lee, and Shikamaru.

"You've organized a no-nonsense squad. But what about sensory types?" Lee asked and Kohana looked over

"They were sent out ahead of time, to try and locate the teams, they're going to be relaying needed information, like where the battles are, whos injured and so on." she said

"But they aren't going to be fighting. We owe the sand village a debt from our last mission, but lets not pay it with our lives." Shikamaru said and the group nodded,

"Let's go." He said the group heading out,

"Ino, you and I will form a two man squad. Choji, you and Kiba will also be a two man squad. Kohana, you Katsuo and Lee will form the only three man squad." Shikamaru said and the group nodded,

"Please refrain from acting independently." Lee said looking at Katsuo, Kohana just sighing.

Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro rushed through the trees, rushing after the ninjas from the artisan village that took Matsuri. When one of the four celestials, with the lime green highlight on her light blue hair cut to sit just above her shoulders, with a burgundy sleeveless dress that stopped just above her thighs with thighhigh ninja boots, paired with a sleeveless cloak overtop, and gloves on her hands going up to her upper arm. A red belt around her waist. Her artisan headband sitting on a white cloth around her forehead. They heard her voice before they saw her,

"Kujaku, double edged sword! Tempest wind!" She said sending a blast of air straight through the trees and crashing into the three sand genin. Temari agreeing to take her on alone, in order for Gaara to go save his student, Kankuro and Gaara warning her to be careful. Before the two jumped away. A blue snake like sword came from below, twisting and bending, forcing Kankuro and Gaara to the ground, another one of the celestials walked out in front of them, his blue sword having gone back to it's original shape. His blue hair cut just above his neck, with a few strands falling over his artisan headband which sat diagonally on his forehead. He wore a sleeveless purple cropped top underneath a gray scarf. Gray pants and ninja sandals to match, wearing sleeves on his arms which went from his upper arm to hang loosely on his wrists,

"What do you think, Bet you've never seen a sword like this one before." he said as his green eyes looked towards the two

"Just a kid?!" Kankuro said surprised, looking forwards,before scoffing, remembering the snake puppets from childhood, telling Gaara to go on ahead, Gaara doing so with little hesitation since Kankuro was sure he could handle the guy. The third celestial, not the one with Matsuri on his back, wore a lion like armor on his chest, his brown hair sitting past his shoulders with stands that sat on either side of his headband tied in front. He used a medival style mace to break the branch Gaara stood on in half, forcing the

boy to jump to the ground, as he wore blue armor on his shoulders, and a

purple like suit.

"You're not going any farther, Gaara. You'll have to go through me" The man stated, Gaara looking forwards a moment,

"Since you insist. Fine." Gaara stated in return, crossing his arms over eachother before moving his sand.

"It's already started… Kohana, Lee, Naruto take the northwest forest. Kiba and Choji the west forest. Ino, and I will take the hills to the northeast. Let's go do this." Shikamaru said glancing back, the group nodded

"Right." they all said before scattering,

"I don't think the student was the target, not fully. They seem to be leading Gaara somewhere, and branching off so he's alone. We need to hurry." Kohana said softly and the two loud boys nodded, as they went top speed through the forest.

"I agree, it is odd to attack the sand and then go through the leaf's territory." Lee said as they jumped through,

Temari using sea dragon to try and get the jump on her opponent who could take every single thing she through at her, leaving her face cut in some places and her body tired. The woman sending the atack back at Temari which sent her crashing to the trunk of the tree behind her, landing on it's branch.

Kankuro's opponent sending his snake like sword to bite Kankuro's face, taking him to his limits. Moving out of the wrappings on his puppets back he sent the puppet forwards, but it was clear he was also reaching his limits with the fight.

With Gaara, the man continued to swing the mace around, and any attack Gaara sent forwards was absorbed into the armor, or well, his chakra was. He sent a sand coffin attack towards the man.

With Temari the artisan sent an attack towards the girl, who was still sat on the branch, when Temari moved out of the way of the attack, Shikamaru standing on the branch behind her, the girl having been presumed to have passed out, but yet, she moved with such precision out of the way of the attack.

"How did she??" The artisan said confused, by Temari's sudden movement

"Shadow paralysis jutsu, complete.Man what a drag, any later and we would have been too late." Shikamaru said panting with a smirk on his face

Kankuro was forced to continuously jump out of the way of the launched assault, dodging and weaving, the boy sending all three dragons towards Kankuro, who looked at them wide eyed

"Crap…" He said before a gust of wind blew over the two, Kiba's fang over fang, while in the two headed wolf form, knocking the blades away. Confusing the artisan. And Kankuro who'd yet to see the two headed wolf. The wolf poofing from existence as Choji jumped down, Kiba and Akamaru being seen next to him.

"Hey it's you guys." Kankuro said and the artisan sneered,

"Who are you?" The boy said moving his sword to gesture, a giant pillar of sand making itself known, from across the battle field.

"I'm going top speed. Catch up." Kohana said and the two nodded again, before Kohana disappeared in a blur of red, as a yellow sort of triangle became apparent as all three artisans stabbed their swords into the ground. The red blue climbing up Gaaras sand before dodging into him as the jutsu the artisans were using became apparent, the two slid back on the ground as the sand Gaara had been standing on became waterlogged, and unuseable. Due to Kohana's quickness, his sand armor and gord weren't affected.

"Kohana?" Gaara said as the two landed on the ground, sliding back and kicking dirt up for a minute, and Kohana looked over,

"Hey Gaara. sorry for the rough grab but I could sense chakra building underground and figured you might be the target of said jutsu. Listen. I think you're their target. Not Matsuri, and more importantly I think they're herding you somewhere." Kohana said

"Who are you?!" The boy called to Kiba and Choji

"Well?" The woman said across from Temari, Ino, and Shikamaru

"Who are you, girl!" The man said

"Allies to the sand village." Shikamaru and Ino said

"We're shinobi…" Kiba said

"...Of the hidden leaf village." Kohana said as she healed Gaara where she could, she was nowhere near as proficient at Sakura but she could heal the few scrapes and bruises he had. She looked over a moment as she answered, noting the mans armor and outfit, she's seen that exact armor before, but where was it? Could it had been on a mission, or perhaps when she was doing research into the artisan village for the fifth hokage Dan Kato, Tsunade's husband. Armor with the face of a cat, with a mace attached, it had to mean something, but what?

"His armor absorbs chakra. Be careful." Gaara said and Kohana hummed before she clicked her tongue, finally making the connection with the armor.

"Lee and Katsuo are on their way to help, let me see here that armor looks familiar… Armor of invincibility, right? Or is it infinite kujaku armor, it's goal is to absorb the chakra from attacks and send it through the user, to heal injuries, boost strength, and so on." Kohana said looking at the armor, humming a moment,

"You're done!" he said sending a mace forwards, Lee kicking it out of the way,

"Don't use chakra to fight this guy, at all. That armor's called the Infinite Kujaku Armor, before this mission I was assigned to research the village of artisans, that armor absorbs chakra from enemies and redirects it to heal injuries and boost strength. According to the research I compiled it's supposed to be hidden since it.. Don't tell me that's your plan?! Are you mad!" Kohana said looking at the man,

"What?" Katsuo said as he kicked the guy in the face, not using chakra, as Lee did the same

"Gaara. The two others with this guy, tell me, did one of them have two thin swords that worked with wind manipulation? Or a three pronged blue sword that broke apart?" Kohana asked and Gaara nodded,

"What does it mean?" Lee said

"I can't say for certain, but it's nothing good." Kohana said

"Backup from the leaf? Sand village loosing it's edge?" the artisan said speaking trash talking towards the three, and Kiba scoffed, as he replied to Kankuro's question, before the boy sent his sword forwards once more,

"Fang release dark sword!" he said sending it forwards, forcing the three to jump through the forest. The three attempting to send out attacks all at once only for them to crash into eachother, annoying the three to no end.

"Gaara! Get going your student needs you right?" Katsuo said and Gaara looked over from where he stood, Sakura having left to go heal Ino. Kohana finishing up the healing from where Sakura left off. Allowing Gaara to stand while she did so.

"You're missing a lot of chakra, I can help with a piece of it, but its unwise to engage in another drawn out fight." Kohana said and Gaara glanced over, nodding,

"I'll be okay, thank you for healing me, again." Gaara said and Kohana nodded, as he made a spear of sand after Lee was tossed aside, Gaara sending the spear forwards.

"Katsuo! Gaara! Get going! I'll heal Lee, I'm not as talented as Sakura but I do have a background in medical ninjutsu too." Kohana said and the two nodded,

"Your leg's broken." She said as she began healing him

"Did you study under Lady Tsunade as well?" Lee asked and Kohana shook her head

"Rin sensei is also a medical nin. She had us work on medical ninjutsu in between missions to work on chakra control, though… poor Katsuo kept setting his fish on fire." Kohana said

"You like Gaara, don't you?" Lee asked quietly and Kohana's face lit up a bright scarlett red,

"D-don't don't be silly, ya know. He's just a friend." Kohana said as she healed him,

"Hey, let me help." Sakura said and Kohana nodded,

"Just a few tendons. Alright, Lee, you're not doing any more fighting. As medical ninja I forbid it." Sakura said

"She's right." Kohana said as Ino sat behind Lee,

Back near the waterfall, Shikamaru and Temari backed the woman up near the waterfall, the woman continuously gloating about being out of reach,

"Well, we won't know until we try." Shikamaru said simply, before Temari sent another cyclone scythe jutsu seemingly towards the woman, though, instead, sending it towards the water in the waterfall, creating a secondary shadow for Shikamaru. Which allowed him to connect to the woman, who held two swords in either hand.

"You couldn't reach this far before!" The woman stated, confused, outraged, had she made a miscalculation?

"Confused? Well, let me shine some light on the subject." Shikamaru said forcing the woman to look towards the waterfall, which extended his jutsu allowing it to reach her. Temari sending her summoning blade dance towards the woman, Shikamaru releasing his hold right as the jutsu reached her, as the woman tumbled off the cliff, falling to the water below.

"One down." Temari said before giggling as she grinned, 'girls are something else man.' Shikamaru thought,

"Man beast clone! Fang over fang!" Kiba said with what looked to be Akamaru at his side, the pup transforming into a clone of Kiba, before the two spun readying their attack, Choji's hand coming up behind them.

"Partial expansion jutsu" He said

"Enough of this! Dragon eye! Fang release! Dark Sword!" the boy said as he sent the dragons of chakra forwards once more, 'stopping' the attack as Kiba and the pup landed in Choji's hand, grinning as Kankuro smirked, Akamaru barking behind the boy, causing him to turn, confused,

"What the… but if.. Then whos…" The boy said looking towards the two in the hand, the pup transforming back into the crow puppet, Kankuro lifting crow up as he shoved the boy into black ant, the crow breaking apart into different parts, each part holding a blade.

"Now it's time for a puppet show! Secret black move, Iron Maiden!" Kankuro said, the boy yelling out a moment as he was stabbed before blood started to fall out of the puppet.

"Gaara and Katsuo seem to have the last enemy cornered in a canyon." Hinata said as she used her byakugan to look forwards as she jumped through the trees, Shino relaying the information to the other teams. Shikamaru and Temari rushing forwards to help alongside Kankuro's team, going as quickly as they could.

"Return my student, your at the end of the line." Gaara said as he and Katsuo stood side by side, his arms crossed one over the other sitting on his chest, as Katsuo fixed to run forwards.

"You think I'm cornered? Your the one trapped." The man said confusing the two shinobi, who raised an eyebrow,

"Uh… it's two on one, pretty sure your outmatched here bud." Katsuo said clearly confused, as Gaara stood next to him in a fighting position. The man dropped Matsuri behind him in favorof getting into a fighting stance the wood making a clink against the ground. Neji who was jumping through the forest as well, alongside the team of sensory shinobi looked around. Kanae placing her hand on the tree she stood on, Neji using his byakugan, looked around

the canyon

"The surrounding area is calm.. No other enemies have been detected." Neji said, Shino talking about the battles being diversions more than likely.

"Katsuo and Gaara have started to battle with the last member." Kanae said

Kohana and Sakura finished healing Lee, with Sakura teasing him for a moment, Lee taking it in stride, laughing off the embarrassment.

"Sorry… but you've saved my life, Sakura, so now, I am forever in your debt." Lee said sitting up

"I was just doing my job." Sakura replied with a lighthearted grin, Ino yelling for Lee to stay down, Sakura moving her arms out.

"As a medical ninja, I forbid you from continuing this fight." Sakura said

"Please let me go, I cannot leave Gaara out fending for himself." Lee said

"Katsuo is with him, you need your rest." Sakura said firmly unwilling

to budge on the issue, a fact that Lee was noticing as he looked at the determined look on her face.

"Well that was a fight I didn't want to have, but hey we defeated… or I guess Gaara defeated Seimei on his own. The show off." Kanae said laughing, as they ran forwards, Gaara falling to the sand a moment later, causing the group to go into a frenzy, Sakura reaching him first and checking him over.

"He's fine, just needs some rest." She said the group sighed, Kohana and Katsuo kneeling on the ground, their clothes torn in a few places,

"That's good." Kohana said, with a grin.

"Oi! Pervy Sage! When'd you get back old man?" Katsuo yelled from his bed, Jiraiya sitting on the foot of it, Kohana laying in the bed across from him, with Kanae laying next to her behind a curtain.

"I was busy doing research." He said

"Probably for his stupid pervy books ya know!" Kanae said from her bed,

"Stup… no. I was looking into the Akatsuki and we've got maybe two years before they start making moves. So we've gotta train you up." Jiraiya said

"Just say the word old man, we're ready." Kanae said from her bed,