Chapter 047

When Haruka neared Shikamaru's position he was kneeling on a thick tree branch. His arms were stretched out to either side and his muscles shivered, but his head was turned down and he didn't move otherwise. In front of him was a girl in one of those monster forms. She had long, coral colored hair and five white horns protruded from her head.

The area was completely blanketed in her chakra, and Haruka had a hard time keeping the genjutsu from taking hold. She could move just fine, but it felt as if invisible strings were restraining her. That alone wouldn't have been a problem, what bothered her though was that her flesh seemed to be melting like wax and dripping down her body. That too was merely illusion, yet the sensation was incredibly gross and painful.

The problem with the genjutsu was that the Sound nin used music to create it. That meant as long as she kept playing her flute the stupid thing would try to catch Haruka again the instant she broke free. It was incredibly annoying and her own chakra wasn't potent enough to fight the effects off entirely. She really needed to find out more about Orochimaru's curse seals. Harnessing natural chakra like that had to come with some kind of nasty side effect, other than the obvious ugly it caused.

The other girl picked up a kunai, moving closer to the Nara and clearly intending to finish him off while he couldn't move. This time Haruka knew better than to rush in like an idiot though. Instead she paid more attention to her surroundings, noting that the foreign chakra's hold on her friend had lessened considerably. She didn't know how, but he'd broken out of the genjutsu on his own, and now that the Oto kunoichi wasn't playing her flute anymore it wasn't continually reapplied.

Haruka ghosted almost completely, using all of her stealth techniques except for the Camouflage jutsu, and moved in closer.

Right before Sound's latest monster gutted Shikamaru she stopped dead in her tracks, cursing even worse than Haruka ever did. Shadows snaked up and around her body, while the Nara explained how he'd tricked her into coming closer. His foresight and knack for tactics were impressive as always. The talking, however, was meant to stall for time because he was neither stupid nor arrogant enough to give away his moves unless he had no other choice. Haruka decided that was her cue to join the fight.

She used a Body Flicker to get behind the other girl, and not a second too soon. Her appearance grew even more monstrous as her chakra surged, and the shadows receded. Shikamaru was clearly struggling to hold the technique, but a second was all the time Haruka needed.

Her chakra enhanced blades cleanly cut through the other girls neck and torso. It wasn't nearly as easy as usual because her strange skin proved to be quite a bit more resistant than regular human one, but in the end she was dead just the same and her appearance reversed as it had with the other two. A spray of blood hit Shikamaru in the face, making him look even more beaten up than he already had, and of course he immediately started to complain. Not that Haruka listened.

"Need help with that?" She asked, pointing at his broken finger. That certainly explained how he'd escaped from the genjutsu. He shook his head, and after making sure he didn't have any serious injuries Haruka verbally tore him a new one for not taking her on this mission to begin with. He tried to reason with her a few times, but gave up quickly enough when she kept ignoring him.

The whole exchange didn't take longer than the Nara needed to splint his finger, but it made her feel better anyway. Naruto wasn't here and neither was Sasuke, which meant they weren't done yet. Shikamaru informed her that a fifth Sound shinobi had shown up and run off with the container they'd transported Sasuke in. Naturally Naruto had gone after the Uchiha. Shikamaru didn't know what the whole deal with Sasuke was, and why they'd stuffed him into a cylindrical box, but they both agreed the reason couldn't be good.

"You're late," Haruka called, as soon as she judged Temari was close enough to hear. Her two teammates weren't with her. Had they split up to help the Konoha nin or Oto nin? She took a defensive stance in front of Shikamaru, but relaxed as soon as the other girl came into view. She didn't have her weapon drawn, and there wasn't any hostility in her body language.

"You knew we were coming?"

"Take this moron and check on Sai and Kiba please," Haruka said, without explaining. "They're somewhere down by the river, not too far from here."

Temari told her that her brother Kankuro had gone that way, but Haruka insisted she check on them anyway. The blond just glanced at Shikamaru before she agreed without further protest, clearly having grasped that Haruka mostly just didn't want him to continue with this mission. The Nara had caught on as well, but he was too low on chakra to reasonably make a case in favor of going on.

"Gaara?" Haruka asked.

"He went ahead," Temari told her.

Haruka nodded and started running without another word. If the redhead had cut a straight path instead of following the river she wouldn't have noticed his chakra pass. With the Suna team on their side things seemed to be looking up. Now the only question was how Gaara's mental state had changed since she'd last seen him.

She almost came to a sputtering halt when she felt the boy's chakra because Lee's was right next to him. Instead of stopping though Haruka almost doubled her speed to reach them. She had no idea how Lee was there—the idiot should be in the hospital recovering—but if she arrived only to see him squished by Sand again there would be hell to pay.

When she reached the clearing the two, as well as another Sound nin, were in Lee was indeed surrounded by Sand. Only, it was protecting him from what looked like bullets.

"I'll handle this," Gaara said. Of course Lee disagreed, starting to march forward and then promptly fell on his face.

"Sit down moron," Haruka called, moving over to them. "Panda Eyes here in I got this. Tsunade is going to kick your ass if you ruin her work, and believe me you do not want to get on that woman's bad side.

"Haruka-chan!" He hollered, far louder than was warranted. She cringed a little at the noise. Gaara merely nodded in greeting. The redhead seemed a lot more stable than during the exam. There wasn't even a trace of the malevolent Tailed Beast's chakra tainting his own. She decided to take that as a good sign and trust the peace for now.

Lee explained to them how their opponent could grow bones at will and use them to attack. It seemed unnecessarily painful and gross, which was right up Orochimaru's alley.

Another volley of bullets, that were apparently finger bones, flew their way. Gaara blocked it just as easily as the previous one. Afterwards his sand rushed forward to attack, and Haruka followed in its path, her stealth techniques still in effect. She made sure to stay behind the white haired Sound nin, moving in for quick attacks with her blades and out again just as rapidly.

The guy was annoyingly fast, dodging both her and the sand at every turn, without even breaking a sweat. She backed off several meters to give Gaara more room, and to watch her opponent's movements for a while. The redhead created hundreds of tiny sand bullets in the air all around the Sound shinobi. She could feel some of his chakra in the ground as well. It turned out he'd also created some more sand below the other guy's feet to keep him in place as the bullets rained down on him.

The Oto nin ended up completely coated in sand, and then Gaara closed his fist. The sand compressed, blood spraying out, but it was far less than she'd expected. Instead of slowly fading the white haired guy's chakra surged, then a hand covered by the curse seal markings reached out of the sand.

It seemed he'd protected most of his body by growing plates of bone around himself like armor, but Gaara wasn't done yet. He'd created a lot more sand all around him in the meantime, and was now trying to bury his opponent under a wave of it. Haruka, already standing several meters further left, still had to jump out of the way and use the opening Gaara had left her in order to not get swallowed up herself. When he was done the whole clearing as well as a big part of the surrounding forest was a desert, with lots of broken trees and ripped up foliage poking out here and there. This time the Sand didn't press inwards, but down, creating earth quake like tremors.

"Are you serious?" She shouted at him. This kind of attack was total overkill, especially considering that the Sound nin still wasn't dead. All he'd done was turn the place into a wasteland.

What crawled out from underneath the newly created desert looked even worse than the other monsters Haruka had seen that day. His skin was the same odd color as it had been for the others, but instead of horns six bones that looked like massive ribs, bent backwards protruded from his back. He also, for whatever reason, had a tail. The boost in chakra made him faster as well, which was bad because he'd already been quite fast to begin with.

Gaara tried to stop him with sand again, but he ripped right through the attack and then the redhead's shield. He even managed to crack the sand armor with what amounted to nothing more than a tackle.

"He's not your only opponent!" Lee called, jumping at the Sound nin. The kick he delivered to the other guy's head did absolutely nothing, and the tail that slammed into Lee in retaliation hit with enough force to smash Gaara's hastily thrown up sand shield. Her fellow genin flew several meters through the air before a hard landing on his back forced the air from his lungs.

Haruka didn't just stand around to watch though. She'd used the distraction to close the distance. This time her swords were safely in their sheath. Instead she relied solely on her chakra claws. Until fighting with blades became second nature to her they slowed her down. Her own chakra though she was more than used to. Using chakra manipulation to attack, defend herself or boost her speed was instinctual at this point. It took away from her reach, but she needed the added speed to avoid getting skewered, or tackled as it were.

Her blades had already had a hard time cutting through that last Sound monster. With this one it would only be worse. He'd withstood the sand without problem, so instead of attacking with her claws she used them to block whenever she couldn't dodge. Her little dance with the Sound shinobi was a lot less smooth than the one with Neji had been. She could barely keep up with his speed, and when he pulled out his freaking spine to use it as a whip things got even more annoying.

Gaara couldn't block any of the attacks for her because his sand wasn't dense enough, and got blown apart on impact. Instead he created floating platforms, which she greatly appreciated because they gave her more directions to move in.

When the Sound nin swung his spine whip again she jumped on, then over the thing, landing right in front of him. Haruka let the claws vanish, since they only just held when his bones hit them. Instead she gathered chakra in her hand and struck his chest with an open palm, releasing the energy into his body like tiny needles. It wasn't the Gentle Fist, but judging by the sound her opponent made it definitely hurt.

Not enough to distract him though. While she had moved in, bones had sprouted from his left arm, twisting until they formed into a lance surrounding the limb. She tried to body flicker out of his range, but wasn't quite fast enough. He'd managed to ram the tip into her side. Hot blood gushed from the wound, and Haruka had to grit her teeth against the pain. She forced chakra into the wound, accelerating the healing to numb it and, hopefully, keep from bleeding out.

The Sound nin spat blood, hunching over, but then moved forward without actually pausing. Again Haruka was too slow to get out of the way in time, but Gaara threw up another shield. It looked like a much cuter version of Shukaku, and half of it blew apart just like his other attempts had. It held, however, and also shattered their opponents bone lance into hundreds of pieces.

Gaara glanced in her direction, then started a conversation with the Sound nin, apparently stalling for time so she could recover. His voice sounded as uninterested as it always did, but the guy, whose name turned out to be Kaguya Kimimaro, was rather willing to talk. It seemed he too needed a pause. He informed them that he was the last living member of his clan. When Gaara told him that that would soon change he just laughed though. Apparently he was mortally ill and would die soon, one way or another. Haruka cursed loudly at that. People that had nothing left to lose were the worst kinds of enemies because they would gladly die to take out their opponent. On top of that this lunatic also worshiped Orochimaru.

Gaara let the idiot rant on about the snake's greatness for some time, while he slowly gathered his chakra in the ground. When he was done he cut Kimimaro off mid word by using his sand to drag him below ground.

The relieved breath caught in Haruka's throat when a forest of bones shot out from the quick sand a moment later. It didn't stop there though. The grotesque trees sprang up all over the place. Gaara had to save her and Lee again by lifting them up on his floating sand clouds.

The Suna nin thought he'd finally won, but Haruka knew better. Kimimaro's chakra was still there, speeding up one of the bone trees right behind Gaara. She used a Body Flicker to get to him and slam her palm into the mass of chakra that emerged, forming into their opponent. This time she hit him with all the chakra she had left, forcing it through his pathways. She could almost feel them get burned and ripped apart as he screamed.

"Fuck," she cursed, stumbling backwards and into Gaara. He caught her, but immediately handed her over to Lee, forming another sand shield around them.

"Pretty sure he's finally dead," Haruka mumbled, rubbing at her arm. She'd burned herself with that last attack. The damage wasn't nearly as bad as what she had inflicted on Kimimaro, but it still hurt like a bitch. Even worse there was an itching sensation right below her skin that wouldn't go away.

Gaara waited several minutes just to make sure they had actually won, and then lowered all of them down at the edge of the bone forest. Afterwards he handed her the thin, white piece of cloth that was usually draped over his shoulder and around his torso. She looked at him quizzically until he nodded towards the open wound in her side, then embarrassment hit her. She'd actually forgotten that one because of the stupid itching.

While she bandaged herself up, wishing Jubei would finally catch up so he could take care of the wound, Lee and Gaara talked. It seemed, just like her, the redhead thought they would have all ended up dead if Kimimaro had been at full strength. Lee, however, disagreed. Apparently Gai was of the opinion that luck was part of a shinobi's strength, and what Gai thought Lee treated as fact.

Gaara said something insulting about Gai, which had Lee explode into a mini rant that ended with the demand not to slight his sensei.

"You too become enraged if the one you admire is insulted," Gaara mused, referring to Kimimaro's devotion to Orochimaru. "He was the same as Uzumaki Naruto. The only difference is that the person Kimimaro admired isn't a good one."

"You don't have to admire a bad person," Lee told him, which had Haruka laughing.

"It's not that easy. When that person is all you have, all you know then it doesn't matter whether they're good or bad." She didn't turn to look, but she could practically feel Gaara's gaze boring into the side of her head, so she continued. "I have a friend—my first friend—who has been doing things that seem really bad, but it doesn't at all fit with who I think he is. I keep hoping that there is a good reason for his actions because they bring him into conflict with other people I care about, but in the end… I don't know if I could truly turn my back on him, even if there isn't."

"No one can fight loneliness on their own," Gaara whispered. At that she did turn, and then scooted closer to give him a side hug, mindful of her wound. He seemed completely surprised and his whole body went rigid, but she hadn't been squished to death by sand yet, so it couldn't be that bad.