The Seventh Seal

Chapter 6: Rescue Underway

Gaara was sitting at his desk and was waiting for an envoy from Kumo to enter his office. He looked out the window and a quizzical look crossed his face. Just then a woman entered the room wearing a jounin outfit and a Kumo headband. "Greetings from Kumogakure no Sato, Kazekage-sama," she said in a pleasing tone.

He stood and turned to the woman and said, "I'm sorry for having you wait so long to see me, jounin-san, but meetings ran a little longer than I thought they would." He saw her nod her acceptance for his apology and then he said, "There is something bothering me outside, would you care to accompany me?"

She looked at him wearily, but nodded when she saw him point at something outside the window. She smiled and said, "It would be my pleasure to accompany you Kazekage-sama."

The pair headed to the stairs that led to the top of the building. "So jounin-san, what..." Gaara asked, but was interrupted by the woman.

"Yugito, Nii Yugito, Kazekage-sama," she said correcting Gaara.

"Forgive me Yugito-san, if I may?" he asked and she nodded. They began to ascend the stairs, and he asked, "So Yugito-san, what does the Raikage want from Suna?"

Yugito was taken aback by his forwardness, but didn't show it and replied, "He wanted to improve relations with both Suna and Konoha, but thought it would be easier to start with Suna."

"Very good thinking," Gaara said, as he opened the door to hear several explosions. Both looked out of the door to see a blonde wearing a black cloak with read clouds landing on the roof.

"I see I attracted your attention, jinchuuriki, but how did you figure it out?" Deidara asked happily.

"That bird isn't found here in the desert," Gaara explained.

"So what does Akatsuki want with this village?" Yugito asked.

Deidara pointed at Gaara and laughed. "His Bijuu, nothing more, nothing less," he answered happily.

Deidara jumped quickly onto his clay bird and watched the sand follow him.

"Are you just going to chase him with your sand?" Yugito asked pointedly.

"Yes, unless you have a better idea," Gaara replied.

"Give me a minute..." she said, while she watched the Akatsuki member evade the sand. She then asked, "Can we get up there with him?"

Gaara nodded and a cloud of sand formed in front of the pair. It rose to staggering heights with both of them aboard. "Is this high enough for you?" he asked.

A blue flame formed in her hand and she waited until Deidara's attention was on the sand behind him before launching it at the blonde bomber. The fire hit the bird in the leg and began to burn, it would have hit Deidara, but he noticed it at the last minute. "That isn't fair, two against one?" he said in a complaining tone. He opened his hands and threw several clay birds. They grew in size after they left the clay user's hands.

Yugito ran through several hand seals and blew several balls of fire at the birds. Half of the birds avoided the fireballs only to be consumed by the arms of sand that rose from the ground.

Deidara shook his head, as he watched this and was disappointed that he had to fight two shinobi instead of just the jinchuuriki of Suna. He continued to make bird bombs and have them taken out by the pair. This continued for about thirty minutes. The game of cat and mouse nearly took Deidara, in that he lost his arm to Gaara's sand. Yugito's fire also claimed his cloak. He sacrificed it to protect himself from a fireball.

"This ends..." Gaara declared. Suddenly Deidara noticed that he was going to be engulfed in a huge ball of sand.

Deidara created another bird and sacrificed the one he was riding to explode an exit out of the closing ball of sand. The owl he now rode was slower, but more maneuverable. He finally had setup his endgame and sent two fast dual winged birds down towards Gaara and Yugito. The birds flew right by Gaara and exploded. Deidara smiled at his victory, but it was short lived, when he noticed that both Gaara and the woman were protected by the sand casing. He smiled and said quietly, "While you're very strong Kazekage. You still lose. Boom."