Mission to the Hidden Sand

Chapter 7: Tough Luck

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This issue of the purple toxic gas has finally been resolved. Thanks to Baki and the rest of the H2O crew members. Everyone is now safe to go out in the village," one of the elderly men said gladly.

"Oh, thank goodness. That is the need that I've been waiting to hear," the elderly woman sighed in relief.

"Wait, did they already figured out how the air contamination got leaked?" A dark blue-haired councilor questioned in puzzlement.

"Yeah, where did it came from?" One of the young women urged him curiously.

"There's no recent statement report back yet, but the two jounin leaders, Kankuro and Temari, will be informing us," the elderly man answered.

Suddenly, the door slammed open out loud when the messenger decided to speak out hurriedly. 

"Sir!! There's a little bit of trouble," he said overwhelmingly.

"Hmmm? What is it?" The elderly man asked sternly. 

"One of the medical nurses at the hospital informed me that a certain kunoichi named Sakura Haruno has allegedly attempted to harm her patients and threaten the coworkers," he explained. 

"What?! That's completely absurd. No kunoichi will ever commit such a reckless act," the elderly woman gasped in shock. 

"Seemingly, she may have lost her control," the elderly man sighed tiredly and narrowed his eyes directly at the messenger, asking. "Speaking of which, where is the fifth Kazekage? Does he know about this?"

"Y-yes, sir! He's on his way there to stop the commotion," the messenger nodded. 

"Good. Soon, we will eventually hear out those reasons," the elderly man said, pursing his lips while staring off into space.

"Excuse me," a familiar voice muttered behind the messenger as she and her brother made their way to the front. 

"Kankuro! Temari! What took you both so long? Did you finished all the rounds?" The dark blue-haired man asked in surprise. 

"Yeah, we did. Anyway, we've discovered something down in one of the tunnels," the purple-faced ninja said as he moved his eyes to the right to look at him.

"Oh? Is it about the gas leak?" The young woman questioned curiously.

"No. It's about a cave, which you may have not known yet," the ponytail-haired kunoichi noted.

"A cave? I've seen one, but it's only for the mining," one of the young men mentioned out loud from his seat.

"Hmm," the others agreed in unison with a curt nod. 

"Well, just to let you know. It's not that one, though. It's a different cave and we took a peek inside of it. It appears that there's the purple gas circling around the black figures," Kankuro stated quietly.

"Black figures... So I assume that someone is in there or perhaps, a group," the elderly man said rhetorically.

"Yes. They're standing in front of the circle, discussing some plan that they are going to undertake. They were making some sort of ritual..." Temari clenched her teeth awkwardly.

"Who are they?! They might be the ones who emanated the entire village!" The dark blue-haired man pointed out.

"They're from the Akatsuki," Kankuro said sternly.

"Ah... No wonder. It's no surprise. What brings them here?" The elderly man asked calmly as he folded his hands together tightly. 

"We don't know, for sure. But it's difficult for us to hear since we were outside of the cave in the tunnel. However, we both know that they are going to plan something horrible-" Kankuro answered but didn't get to finish his sentence. 

"My dear, of course, they are. Why else would they be here? And for what? Certainly, they can't be after the fifth Kazekage. They are after someone else. Could it be that boy that is fidgety? Naruto Uzumaki?" The elderly woman interrogated.

"Probably. It's one of the possible cases," Temari sighed and continued on. "But we have to do something about it. There's not enough time before they are about to strike us down."

"Right. I'll go tell Baki and the rest of the crew," the messenger bowed down and rushed out of the room as quickly as he can.

"Kankuro, Temari. Can you, at least, identify them?" The elderly man asked. 

"Well, one thing we know is that there's a girl. She has a familiar resemblance," Kankuro replied, recalling back the memory of him witnessing the person. 

"She's..." Temari trailed off her words and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Who?" The dark blue-haired man urged them to tell everyone at the table. Then, Kankuro opened his eyes slowly and whispered a name, much to their trauma. 

Meanwhile, in the hospital room, the nurses and doctors were stuck in the corner of the room while protecting their patients from harm. The pink-haired kunoichi was still throwing chairs around and keeps breaking the tables and trays using her strong hands. 

"Arrghh!!" She snapped them in half with her left and right knees up and boomerangs the pieces on the wall.

"Miss Haruno! Please, don't scare them-" One of the medical nurses pleaded sadly. 

The pink-haired kunoichi turned her head slowly at her with a malicious glint in her eyes. She then quickly grabbed the Comedone extractor and pops out the metal cap off onto the floor, much to their horror. 

Before she started to throw it at her like a dart, the sand blocks her attack just in time before it almost stabbed one of the nurses in the chest. Everyone froze into their spot and glanced around to see who it was.

"Lord Kazekage!" One of the doctors exclaimed in relief.

"Sir!" The nurse cried out in panic.

Gaara, on the other hand, was staring at the pink-haired kunoichi with his eyes narrowed, saying. "I'm disappointed in you."

Sakura's eyes glowed bright red and growled angrily when she attempts to charge towards him. "Grrraaaahh!!" 

Although, the aura that was surrounding her had quickly vanished into thin air of dust. She suddenly started to collapse when her foot tiptoed upward until Gaara catches her from falling onto the floor. 

"You two... I need you to come with me," the red-haired Kazekage ordered sternly as he carries the unconscious pink-haired kunoichi up in his arms tightly.

The doctor and the nurse nodded in agreement without saying a word and followed him out of the room later on.

"Just what happened to her?" One of the patients asked nervously.

"I have no idea... She suddenly lost control. She's probably sick..." The doctor muttered quietly in concern.

On the other hand, the others continued to work and started cleaning the mess that was scattered on the floor. It was definitely a lot of them, but luckily Gaara came in to stop the agitation that has been going around with Sakura. 

They will soon find out what the problem was. For now, they just need to do their part as well as the rest of the people in the hospital. The medical doctors and nurses have no choice but to get new surgical tools in order to treat their patients. It was definitely a bit of tough luck for them.