Starting over

#71 Wave

Naruto POV

We readied ourselves as Sasori's puppet commanded his sand to attack us. Naturally Gaara sent out his sand to block the sand, coming at us. Baki nodded at us, trying to back Gaara up by throwing attack after attack at the late Kazekage, although the iron sand of the puppet blocked every attack.

Temari and I returned our attention to Deidara and went on the attack. Slashing at the blonde man, he managed to evade most of our attacks, while we also dodged his explosives. I got more confident in using my father's technique, as I used them more frequently to get away from the explosions.

Kicking off again, I threw a kunai with my free hand while readying my sword for another strike at the Akatsuki members. Smirking I saw the blonde man ready himself to dodge my sword while producing clay in his hands. Temari saw my smirk and decided to drop back, not exactly knowing what I had planned. Deidara swatted my kunai away with his hand and went down to duck under my sword, before a yellow flash engulfed me and I appeared behind him next to a kunai I had thrown earlier. Looking around shocked, the Akatsuki member didn't see the blade coming that pierced him through the chest, killing him instantly. Sasori looked at us with an impassive look, but you could see the fear in his wooden eyes as he tried to comprehend what had happened. Gaara had held off Sasori and his puppet for the time being but he had not made any progress in getting to the puppeteer himself.

With Temari and me joining the fight now we could see Sasori searching for a way to get away to regroup.

Pulling out a scroll he quickly opened it and pushed chakra into the sealing matrix that was painted on the inside. A giant cloud of smoke appeared and as it dissipated slowly we faced almost a hundred puppets. Apparently Sasori had already recalled the puppet of the third Kazekage as it was nowhere to be seen. Jumping around to dodge the hail of weapons that the dead shinobi were hauling at us, we destroyed as many of the as we could.

When we finally killed the last puppet we looked around still on guard to see if Sasori was still somewhere waiting to strike. After a while we determined that he wasn't in the are anymore and relaxed a bit. Tazuna and his family who were guarded by one of Baki's clones came back onto the path and smiled tiredly at us. We walked a few minutes more until we found a clearing where we could set up camp.

Setting up a small campfire we huddled around it, watching the sun disappear behind the treetops.

I smiled as Temari took my hand and leaned her body against mine, placing her head on my shoulder. Giving her a kiss on the forehead I put my arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to me and retook her hand with my other hand.

Inari and Tazuna were already in their tent sleeping, while Tsunami was sitting next to Baki silently talking to him about something. Gaara sat in the treetops keeping watch, since he had volunteered for the first shift. I felt Temari yawn and chuckled, standing up and leading my girlfriend to our tent.

With my fellow blonde in my arms I slowly drifted in the realm of sleep.

Gaara POV

The end of my shift was nearing and I went to Naruto's tent to wake him, since he was to take the second shift. I put my head through the entrance and saw him sleeping peacefully, his arms wrapped around my sister. Smiling I decided to let them sleep. I went back to the treetops and played with my sand until the sun rose again.

Naruto POV

I woke up by the sun lighting up the tent. I smiled, feeling Temari stir in my arms. "Good morning.", I whispered, before pressing my lips against hers. "I'll show you a good morning.", she replied playfully, turning so that she hover over me, straddling my waist. Smiling she leaned down for another kiss, running her hands through my hair. I smiled, letting my hands flow over her back, letting my girlfriend set the pace.

"Let's go, we are on a mission after all.", I said, after a few minutes. Temari pouted a bit but I saw in her eyes that she was just playing so I kissed her on the nose before crawling out from under her.

After we were ready we crawled out of the tent to see Gaara still sitting in the trees. I smiled at him thankfully, knowing that he had let me sleep, even though I was supposed to keep watch.

Baki was also awake already and was currently waking our clients.

After two more hours of walking we arrived at the shore of the giant sea that was water country. From here Tazuna told us, it would only be a short boat ride until we would truly arrive at his village. Looking at the giant fog wall that was hovering over the water I smiled. We had almost completed our journey.

"Ah, home sweet home.", Tazuna said as he opened the door to his house. "Come in, make yourself at home.", he almost demanded as he saw us standing in his door not knowing what we should do.

After we got situated in the house and had put our belongings into the rooms we would use for the rest of the mission, Tsunami called us down for supper.

"So how long, do you think you will need to finish the bridge again?", Baki asked, while helping himself to another plate of pasta that Tazuna's daughter had made. "Honestly, I don't know, for sure not more than a week. I mean I basically am just rebuilding the old bridge, so it shouldn't take too long.", Tazuna replied.

"Well we will see, how it plays out, I just hope that your men are ready for the attempts that are gonna be made to sabotage you. I don't think that Gato's successor will be satisfied that you have survived his attempt to kill you.", Baki said, between bites.

"They have stayed by my side while we had stood up against Gato himself, they won't back down now.", Tazuna replied confidently. Baki nodded, deep in thought, continuing to eat.

"Well, we're off to bed, good night.", Temair said, as we both stood up, putting our plates in the sink and heading upstairs.