Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [2]

☾ 36 ☽

"There you are," Tsukiko said as she landed into the training ground later that morning and found Naruto and Yamato there. "Oh, Sakura's here, too, good! Come over here!" Sakura jogged over to them with the daily basket of her soldier pills.

"What is it, Tsukiko?" Yamato asked as the three of them looked at the white-haired girl once they were all in the vicinity.

"Kakashi Sensei left with Team Ten to go seek out the Akatsuki members Hidan and Kakuzu, earlier today," Tsukiko informed them. "He has left Captain Yamato as the leader and me in control of you lot,"

"Kakashi Sensei and Team Ten went after Akatsuki?" Naruto asked, shocked while Yamato nodded in understanding over his role again.

"Usa," Tsukiko replied. "He just left around dawn – quite honestly, I had a bit of a hand in it," But she waved it off dismissively. "Granny Tsunade didn't want Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji to go on their own,"

"I see," Yamato muttered, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Did you come from meeting Tsunade-Sama?" Tsukiko nodded. "Oh, what did she say?"

"We discussed Kakashi Sensei's appointment to the Team Ten," Tsukiko replied. "And then we discussed that us, Team Seven, is the best suited to be their backup,"

"Are we going to go in as backup to Team Ten?" Sakura asked. Tsukiko nodded. "When? Should we be setting out immediately?"

"Oh, we can't do that immediately," Tsukiko said. "Granny Tsunade said that the only condition we can go in as a backup is if Naruto completes his new Jutsu,"

"My new Jutsu..." Naruto trailed off.

"If you can't do it within twenty-four hours, she'll send another squad as backup instead," Tsukiko informed, turning to look at him.

"Twenty-four hours, huh..." Yamato said. He and Tsukiko looked at Naruto as the blond walked over to the bench where Sakura's soldier pills were.

"Naruto...?" Sakura asked. Naruto grabbed a handful of the distasteful pills and piled them into his mouth. "You shouldn't eat –" Naruto continued to eat it down before drinking it down. "Naruto..."

"Captain Yamato," Naruto said as he turned to look at them. "Let's keep training!"

☾

"It doesn't look like Naruto's taken a single break," Sai commented as he came to stand next to Tsukiko and Sakura. The white-haired girl nodded without taking her eyes off of the crater that Naruto had created.

"I wouldn't think so," Tsukiko replied. "He has to perfect his new Jutsu as soon as possible, if we're going to be sent as Kakashi Sensei and Team Ten's backup,"

"The time limit is twenty-four hours, right?" Sai asked.

"It's a difficult situation, but all we can do is believe in Naruto," Tsukiko muttered. "Currently, we're the only team in the village who can work smoothly with Kakashi Sensei and Team Ten,"

"Tsukiko..." Sakura spoke up suddenly. "You did all this... on purpose, didn't you? Give in our name so that we can go after Akatsuki again? Naruto can't –!"

"Listen, Sakura," Tsukiko said as she looked at her. "I'm not putting any one in any trouble. I managed to get Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino safe with Kakashi Sensei and I gave Naruto an incentive to work hard – in response, I got what I wanted, being able to go after the Akatsuki,"

"Tsukiko, you've started to go crazy about this since fighting Sasori," Sakura said. "It doesn't even have anything to do with Sasuke-Kun! You're taking Orochimaru's words too seriously,"