Gaara's Rescue- Part 1

Shinada’s POV

After calming myself down I realized that I needed to get to the village as soon as possible ‘Something tells me that I can trust Itachi despite what he has done, but…I can’t allow that to mislead my judgment…’ I think putting away my sword I sigh deeply as I take out my father’s kunai I smiled ‘the only thing I have of him…’ I then remember that I had left one of my seals on one of Naruto’s kunai.

“This should allow me to get there quickly…” I mutter I close my eyes and within seconds appear in a warmer destination

“W-What the-?” I hear my brother’s voice call out I open my eyes and see Naruto on the ground as I am oddly sitting on top of him around me is Kakashi-Sensei, and Sakura all shocked I smirk under my mask and get off of Naruto dusting myself off as he got up he stared at me, like he was trying to pinpoint who exactly I was.

I shook my head with my hands on my hips

“w-who are you and how the hell did you get here?!” he asked pointing his finger at me with a small frown

“You don’t remember me? I’m hurt Naruto-Nee Chan” he as well as the others looked shocked all eyes were widen as they stared at me

“You don’t mean-“he started as his hand fell to his side I pulled off my mask

“You sure have grown, Naruto…” I said smiling brightly as my eyes closed I then felt as if I was pulled into a tight hug I quickly shot open my eyes to meet Naruto holding me close he was shaking but he was laughing I smiled and patted his back and returned the hug

“I missed you…” he whispered

 “I missed you too” I said I looked and saw Sakura and Kakashi smile I then quickly remembered why I was here in the first place as we both let go my face was written with dread “We must go to Lady Hokage at once!” I said

“We were just on our way there” Sakura said

“Good, I believe an Akatsuki member not in our bingo books has arrived to our village attempting to get info or maybe something worse…” they all looked shocked “What?” I asked as my eyes lowered

“Was it a girl?” Kakashi asked

“Yes, why? Don’t tell me…” I muttered realizing she has came before me “We need to go, now!” I said clenching my fists tight as we ran towards the building.

“How do you know her?” Naruto asked

“I was on a mission trying to get info on Sasuke’s whereabouts and I ran into her while she was talking to Itachi Uchiha, I believe they are working together somehow but…” I mutter the last part still wondering why Itachi would give me information not to mention what he told me.

“But what?” Kakashi asked sending me out of my thoughts “

Uh, nothing…” I said we finally got there I rushed inside before anyone could react they all called my name but I ignored I wasn’t going to allow any of my friends to die without a fight; the Akatsuki weren’t going to win this fight. I heard bits and pieces of talking but I rushed in I charged at her getting ready to kill her with my sword but then I heard her say

“-I am Uchiha Sasuke’s twin sister.” I stopped myself as she stared at me I was so shocked ‘That is impossible…’ I thought by now I realized Naruto and the others were in before me somehow, they might have teleported here, I had also taken notice to Jiraya who was focused on us

“There is no record of three children born to Fugaka Uchiha and his wife Mikoto.” The Elder woman Koharu said.

“Yet here I am.” She said eyes not leaving my own

“Tsunade, she is obviously in league with the Akatsuki. You need to-” The Elder man Homura said.

“I will decide what must be done.” Tsunade snapped. “Why do you say that you are Uchiha Sasuke’s twin?”

“It is rare for twins to be born into the Uchiha clan because of our Kekkei Genkai. If twins are created, we devour the other in the womb. Our Kekkei Genkai, the Sharingan creates a link between our twins. I can’t explain the link to you. I don’t fully understand it myself. But I’m able to see flashes of Sasuke’s life every time I sleep.” she said. “That’s how I know.” My eyes widen ‘She must know then!’ I thought as I clenched my fists tight

“But you’re also Uchiha Itachi’s sister correct?” Tsunade asked her

“Yes, but-“she started looking at her but I grabbed her by the collar pulling back I then leaned to her ear

“Are you able to know the exact location of Sasuke?” I asked

 “No” she said glaring up at me, my eyes lowered into a glare

“Shinada! Let her go” Tsunade commanded I sighed as I rolled my eyes and let her go.

“Lady Tsunade! I recognize her from the mission I just came from. She has been in direct contact with Uchiha Itachi. She cannot be trusted. I believe her in league with the Akatsuki and a threat to Naruto.” I yelled slightly turning away from Tsunade to the girl who stayed quiet she must have been wondering about how I knew her meeting with Itachi.

“Yuki has not done anything wrong! And another of the Uchiha clan on our side would benefit us, no?” Yozora said. I wanted to believe Yozora sensei, she did teach me a lot and not to mention helped me when my master was killed and I was left to die out on the streets of an unknown village by myself.

“Let me prove myself to you Lady Tsunade. I will not be a burden.” she said, bowing before Lady Tsunade.

She raised her eyebrow at me,

 “I have reached a decision…” I waited patiently for her reply; I needed this girl, badly. She had to have some information on Sasuke’s whereabouts; even a small speck could help me at the moment. But I still felt unsure, I can’t doubt the fact that she was with Itachi at all.

“She shall stay here with us” Tsunade said staring at the girl, who seemed relaxed Yozora sighed in relief

“Thank you lady Tsunade” she said with a smile as she looked at the girl I looked at her trying to figure her out, something told me that I could trust her but my stubbornness was getting the better of me, making me judge her.

“She will also be joining your team 7” she said with a small smile I shot my head at her

“W-WHAT!” the rest of my team yelled Tsunade only nodded

“She will be a great asset to your team, think of her as your new Sasuke just a female version” everyone nodded

“Now go along and get to know one another” she said shooing us off, we did as we were told and walked out the room, apparently Jiraya and Tsunade needed to talk about urgent news, but I knew well it was just about going out to gamble and drink.

We all stood outside the building and all eyes were on the girl, she looked a bit annoyed, confused and nervous.

 “Well, I sadly must go back on a mission to hunt a dead missing Nin, I should be back by no later than next month “The girl looked surprised maybe not wanting her to go, I understood why, Yozora Sensei was the only one who stood up for her and knows her well and for her to just up and leave after our situation would be a bit unsettling for myself. She walked to the girl “You will be fine Yuki, believe me” she said giving her a reassuring smile the girl Yuki nodded giving in, Yozora nodded and patted her shoulder “I will entrust you to Kakashi, but if he leaves I will give you to Shinada I’m sure you two will be good friends” she said I jolted ‘And how does she know?’ I thought shocked by her sudden decision “Well until next time, good luck team 7!” she said and with that disappeared before our eyes.

A sigh was made and I knew who it belonged to, we all turned to Kakashi sensei

“Sadly I can’t get to know you today, but I will try sometime this week, but business calls” he said walking away

 “W-wait! Kakashi Sensei!” Naruto and Sakura yelled I rolled my eyes knowing well he was going to do nothing but read his new book. He had left before Naruto and Sakura could do a thing.

“Aw come on! What about training?!” Naruto asked as Sakura had her hands on her hips with a small frown

“He always does this…” she muttered. I turned to them

“Well, why don’t we do as Yozora sensei asked and get to know Yuki?” I asked turning to Yuki. Naruto nodded but Sakura looked unsure

“Not to sound rude but Yozora sensei wanted you to become close with her” Sakura said I raised my eyebrow under my mask I glared at her a frown clear on my face though she couldn’t see it I'm sure she felt it. I could also feel Yuki become upset and angered by her words.

“Well I just thought we would get to know with someone who will be on our team and working with us for a while now, Sakura” I said still glaring at her through my mask, she glares back at me for a short while before Naruto coughs and attempts to stop the fighting

“So um, Yuki why don’t you tell us about yourself? How about your past?” he asked she nodded

"My father was ashamed of having twins as it was said that neither of them could ever become as powerful as they could have been so he put me into a little boat and floated me down the river. At least that's what Itachi tells me. I don't remember anything before three years ago before my brother found me, amid a burning village."  She says as she stares at her hands. "He's been training me and telling me about Sasuke ever since he found me." Everyone was quite and stared at her, I felt great empathy for her

 “I am sorry about that Yuki” she shook her head with a small smile

“No, it’s alright, I accepted it a long time ago…” there was another long silence the sky had gotten to a warm light orange for the sun was setting and the wind was blowing lightly, we had sat at a bench still by the building I sighed standing up and stretched.

“Well, I’m hungry so why don’t we all go out to eat?” I asked with a wink pointing in the direction of the ramen house Naruto smiled laughing

“Yeah! I'm starving!” he said rubbing his stomach I rolled my eyes with a smile

 “When are you not?” I asked

“I guess I can go too…” Sakura muttered I nodded and we started walking but I noticed Yuki was still sitting there I turned around

“You coming Yuki?” I asked she looked surprised

 “Uh…” she started “Come on! They have the best ramen here!” Naruto said with a smirk she was hesitant but came along. We sat there slurping down the noodles enjoying the delicious noodles until Sakura broke the silence.

“So Yuki…Do you know what type of girl Sasuke likes?” she asked with a light blush and a sly smirk on her face I rolled my eyes ‘Here we go…’ I thought slurping some more noodles down. Naruto looked a bit upset, how could she continue on hurting my brother’s feelings for someone who doesn’t love her? The girl pondered for while thinking long and hard and nodded

“From what I remember through his dreams and short memories: calm, non-eccentric, non-stalker, blonde girls. So, not girls like you." She before slurping more noodles down Sakura shocked and pissed had a hanging noodle on her mouth she broke the chopsticks in her hand making Naruto shake in fear I chuckled lightly

“Mmm, this is really good!” she said with a smile as she slurped more down  I laughed harder at the fact that she ignored Sakura’s anger. Ichiraku happened to over hear what Yuki had said

“Oh, Sasuke? I remember him!” he said with a laugh “I remember how Shinada and Sasuke would come in and always get the same thing! It was so cute to see young love!” he said laughing again I blushed lightly slamming my hand on the table

“W-we weren’t dating Ichiraku!” I yelled I could feel a death glare come from Sakura.

“Eh?! But I thought you two were!” he yelled scratching the back of his head

“You assumed wrong…” I muttered as my eyes lowered

“That’s too bad…” he said walking into the back to probably get stuff. I sighed and sat back down I could feel the stares on me

“You and Sasuke were a couple?! And you didn’t tell me?!” Naruto asked I shook my head

“We were not a couple…” I said with a low growl the blush not leaving my face

“Next time I see him, he’s getting punched in the face!” he yelled standing up clenching his fists as he grinded his teeth together Sakura growled and smacked him back of the head

“Like hell you will!” she yelled glaring down at him, she then pushed her bowl and stood up dusting herself off and huffed “I’m leaving…” she said before giving all of us glares. I’m sure Yuki and I returned them back Naruto looked upset again and I sighed

“Naruto, don’t worry about that, why don’t you go back home, I’ll meet you up later” he nodded and placed the money on the counter and left.

I turned to Yuki, and smiled “I’m sure you have nowhere to stay huh?” I asked

 She nodded “I’ll take you to the hotel next to Naruto and my house” she nodded and followed my lead. It was dark now, and the full moon was the only sources of light out, only a few people were out but it was quiet and I liked it, the breeze made it even better.

“So, how do you like it here so far?” I asked

She nodded “It seems peaceful and quiet…” I nodded

“Yeah, it’s a wonderful place to raise a family here…” I muttered there was a long silence as we reached the hotel

“Well, here it is” I said looking up at the big green and white building she nodded

“Uh, yes thank you” she said I shook my head “No, it’s alright really” I then reached in my pocket and handed her money

“There, that’ should be enough for a week, I’m sure by then Lady Tsunade will order a place for you” I said she looked at me, surprised

“I-I can’t accept this…” she said I shook my head once again

“No, go on there won’t be anywhere else for you just take it” she sighed giving in maybe knowing well that she wasn’t going to win this fight. I started to walk away

 “Wait!” she called I turned my head slightly “Thank you…” she muttered I nodded

“Good night” I replied and walked home in the cool night.

The next day

We all arrived at Lady Tsunade’s office, she sat in her chair she looked dead serious today. Her hands were folded under her chin as she stared at us “Listen team Kakashi, I have a very important mission for all of you…” we all nodded waiting for her to go on.

“The Kazekage Gaara….” She started Naruto laughed “Gaara? Kazekage?! That’s awesome! How’d he become Kage before me?” he asked laughing again. Tsunade looked a bit upset. “Naruto let her continue, please.” Shizune said he nodded.

“Has….been kidnapped by the Akatsuki” she said lowly, I felt my heart stop. I shook my head as I heard Naruto yell in a fit of anger ‘No, not my best friend Gaara…’ I thought. Gaara and I had gone back to childhood during my travels with my late Master I had entered the sand village and met Gaara and we’ve been close since then. Sakura and Kakashi was trying to calm him down and finally succeeded, Temari was there as well sadly watching.

“When are we going?” I asked my tone bleeding out with anger and revenge was on my mind. ‘Whoever did this to him is dead…’ I knew Naruto felt the same way, he and Gaara were close as well due to them being in the same situation.

“Now, Temari will lead you to the village at once” we all nodded and headed off, Temari leading the way, as she told about Gaara’s situation. ‘How could this happen? I wish I was there to help him…’ Naruto was in front of me as we jumped from tree to tree following Temari I saw him start to cry, he too wishing he was there to protect him. I felt worse, why was this happening? We soon arrived at the village, only to be greeted by an elderly woman try to attack Kakashi and mistake him for someone else who happened to be his dead father.

She then threatened us once we were told of Kankuro’s condition he apparently was attempting to get Gaara back but ran into one of the Akatsuki members who was highly skilled in poison as well in the arts of mastering puppets, she kept telling us she didn’t want us to interfere that she didn’t trust us leaf ninja because what of happened to her grandson Sasori who we learned more about from her. We somehow convinced her otherwise and Sakura and I helped Kankuro get back to health by healing him and taking the poison out. Due to the training with Tsunade it was easy to heal others but I never took interest in her strength work out trainings.  Within a few hours our team was ready to go and find Gaara followed by team Gai who split up, we traveled through the forest and to a huge blocked bolder in front of a cave.

“This is where they should be…”Yuki muttered

“And how does she know?” The elder woman Chiyo from before asked

 “Her Sharingan seems to be special; we aren’t sure how it works but it’s better not to ask, seeing as to how we don’t have time for it…” I mutter looking at the blocked bolder. Due to Yuki giving sudden sad looks and sighs I know she must have met Gaara sometime in her life as well.

“Yeah but, how do we get in?” Naruto asked I looked to Sakura “You got this right?” I asked she nodded with a smirk and tightened her glove

“Yep!” she said she then ran towards it and punched the bolder crushing it to huge and small pieces we rushed inside to see two men. One man had long blonde hair in a high ponytail he only had one blue eye; the other was a weird futuristic square. He had on the regular Akatsuki cloak, as for the other man he wore the exact attire but he was small and was a hunchback tan man with black braids and black eyes, his mouth was covered with a mask he was known as Sasori. As I looked down next to him I saw Gaara. He looked lifeless and it angered me deeply, I could feel the tension rise as Naruto yelled angered seeing his dear friend’s lifeless body be treated like a bag of trash.

“Give him back!” he yelled the men smirked

“Look, it’s the one of the Jinchuriki” the blonde said the other nodded

 “Looks like we have company” the blonde’s smirk grew

 “Should we take care of them?” he asked “No I will, go and take this one to the others” he nodded and made to what seemed as clay. And a huge bird like beast came as he jumped on and grabbed Gaara and flew off we tried to do something but we knew nothing was going to work. I turned to Sasori

 “We should split up” I muttered

 Kakashi agreed “Naruto, and Yuki will come with me, Sakura, and Lady Chiyo will be with you” he said

 I nodded and turned to Naruto and Yuki “Please, please bring him back safe!” they nodded and left to go after the other man. I turned to Sakura and Lady Chiyo “Now let’s get this over with…” I said they nodded and we got into stance I looked at Sakura and we both gave a small nod and charged at him she was on his left and I was on his right.

I had secretly made a few doppelgangers that were waiting for my signal, Sakura punched the ground and threw a piece at him which he dodged I then quickly did a few hand signs and lighting was surrounding my body I then sent my clones after him as I struck him, they too surrounded by lighting and stuck at him all kicking and punching but he had protected himself and pushed them off and myself sending me flying a few feet but I caught myself.

“I guess I have no choice if you are going to approach me…” he muttered “Will you become a part of my collection along with the brats, grandma Chiyo?” he asked as he took a stance, his weird tail whirling around in the air.

“W-what is that?” Sakura asked as we both stood next to Chiyo

“That isn’t his true form.”

“If that is true then, I see what you are getting at, he is puppet correct?” I asked turning to her she nodded

“Yes, he is” “

Then where is his real body?” Sakura asked

“A puppet master usually pulls the strings behind” “His real body is inside…” Chiyo muttered Sakura’s eyes widen in shock as we all stared at the fake puppet body. She then explains how puppet masters aren’t good at close range fights, how it leaves openings to themselves, and that the puppet is in a way cheating and an easier way to fight through that tactic. Apparently it is his 18^th puppet named Hiroku

 “Grandma Chiyo, you recognize it?” I ask slightly turning to her she nods

 “I know it well…” she answers

“Do you know how I add to my collection?” he asks there was a long silence allowing him to continue “First, I tear out the organs, once I’ve washed it clean, I drain all the blood” I glare at him as he seems to make eye contact with me and I can feel a smile under that puppet. “After I’ve made sure it won’t decay, I fill it with weapons and traps, and make its addition official” he then stares intently on grandma Chiyo “Just as grandma said, Hiruko is part of my collection, and with you two girls and grandma Chiyo, I will have exactly 300 puppets to my collection!” he says as we glare at him ‘Great, he wants to turn us into puppets…’ I thought still glaring at him “This is my art!”

“Art, huh?” Chiyo asked she then started to explain Sasori’s impressive history but also sad history and the puppet was once a Shinobi of their village, explaining that he excelled in making humans into puppets or otherwise as human puppets.

“And you’re next” he says “You will become one of my works” his tail begins to uncurl and Chiyo tells us we must separate the puppet from Sasori. She is the only one who knows how the puppet works but it’s different from when she lost saw of it. And the only way to get to Sasori is to defeat the puppet Hiruko.

“Well Sakura I think we can put lady Tsunade’s training into good use?” I ask with a smirk she smirks back

“Let’s do this!” she says looking at the puppet.