Starting over

#95 Grief

Temari POV

I evaded another kunai from one of Sasori's puppets when I heard Naruto scream. I could hear his pain through his voice and immediately grew worried. I threw a quick wind jutsu in Sasori's face, to distract him while I glanced at the area where I knew Naruto was fighting.

What I saw did not help with my worries, three of pain's paths laid on the ground, cuts and bruises over their bodies, obviously not alive anymore. The other tree paths stood in front of them, with the deva path having his hands outstretched. Then I saw Naruto lying on the ground with the tip of a kunai coming clean out of his back. I couldn't take a closer look since Sasori had evaded my wind jutsu and I was forced to refocus on defending myself, but I knew, that even Kurama was most likely not able to help him with a wound this bad. With tears in my eyes I jumped away, letting Sasori's puppets miss and charged at the redhead with my fan at the ready. Swinging my fan, my attack was blocked by Sasori's arm, although he was pushed back and had to flip away to not be overpowered by my fan. Then I felt a giant pulse of chakra washing over the area. My opponent had obviously felt it too, seeing as how he was looking around to see where such a massive burst of chakra would come from. As I was looking around I saw one of the puppets shooting at me with massive speed. I cursed, since I had let my guard drop and was just able to dodge that attack.

When I hit the ground I knew, that it would be the end, since two other puppets had been waiting for me to dodge the attack and were already coming at me way to fast for me to do anything against them. I closed my eyes and thought to myself that I would at least be with Naruto in death, when I heard a roar and two puppets that shattered. I opened my eyes and saw a tall red headed man jump around the battlefield, crushing Sasori's puppets as if they were nothing. When it came to only Sasori left standing he disappeared in a red flash and reappeared behind his fellow redhead with a sword in his heart. I readied myself for a fight, since I didn't know this shinobi, but he just smiled at me and shook his head. Then I saw what sword he was holding; it was Naruto's predator blade. Combined with his fangs and the rather feral looking face my eyes widened. "Kurama?", I asked silently almost whispering in disbelief. I just received a nod, before the man disappeared in another red flash and cut straight through the other fights. I could see the Akatsuki members dropping one after the other, while the remaining paths of pain tried their best to catch up to the newcomer. "Dammit, why does my Rinnegan not work on him.", I heard one of the paths curse, as I jumped behind them, trying to catch up to them to maybe catch them off guard.

As Kurama killed Konan I saw him turn around, looking expectantly at the three paths of pain. They stopped a few meters away from him, giving me the chance to catch up to them. I readied my fan but was almost immediately blasted away by some sort of invisible force. I looked up and saw the redhead ready his sword and charge at the remaining three Akatsuki members, while his arms glowed blue with seals. The Preta path tried to absorb the chakra of the attacker, but he almost immediately burst into flames and died screaming. The Mecha path shot everything he had in the way of Kurama, but he just evaded the missiles and slashed his sword at the man, cutting clean through him. The Deva path, the last standing Akatsuki member, looked at the redhead in horror, as he jumped towards him. Stretching his hands out he managed to push Kurama away from him, but the bijuu just stood back up and charged at him again. This time, when Pain tried to push him away a red flash cut through the battlefield to a kunai behind the last remaining path. The shinobi only had time to turn around before a blade had lodged itself into his heart. When Kurama stood back up he looked at me and my team with a sad smile on his lips. Everyone but me readied themselves for a fight, but he just put the sword on the ground and held up his hands.

"I don't think, that Naruto would have wanted us to fight.", he said in a deep voice. That was when it came to me, that Naruto was still lying somewhere on the battlefield. Gasping, I scanned the field in a flash and jumped towards the motionless form of my boyfriend. Kneeling down next to him, I felt tears roll down my face, as I turned him over. I tried to feel his pulse, even though I knew, from the wound in his stomach and the fact that Kurama was now standing on the other side of Naruto, that I wouldn't find anything. I silently cried, while everyone slowly gathered around the fallen leader, with sad faces.

After a while my tears had dried and I stood up with a neutral look on my face. "Let's go.", I simply ordered. Taking Naruto's corpse I sealed it in a scroll, before I looked around the battlefield. Kurama looked at me, a sad smile on his lips. "I'm going to get the rest of the akatsuki. I will clean up here, too.", he informed me, before vanishing back towards the forest.

I didn't even acknowledge him as I took off towards Sunagakure, I didn't go full speed, since we still had two council members with us, and the two that carried them, wouldn't be able to keep up with me.

When we finally arrived at the village I just walked past the two guards, who looked at me with a worried expression. At Gaara's office, I didn't even knock and just walked in with Gaara looking up from his papers and immediately dismissing his guards as he saw my face. "What happened?", he asked, standing up and walking up to me. I opened my mouth but couldn't bring myself to say anything, before I just broke down. Gaara didn't say anything as he enveloped me in a hug. We stayed like this for a while, me just crying into my brother's shoulder.

When I had myself under control again, we sat down on the couch that Gaara had in his office, Gaara waiting for me to clean my tears off my face. I had a feeling that he knew, what happened, since he had obviously noticed the fact, that Naruto was not with me and his expression was almost as sad as mine. "We finished the mission. But we had to fight a lot of Iwa's jonin to even get to the council. We could only rescue two of them alive, the rest was already dead. Team Daiku provided the distraction, while Neji Hyuuga and I rescued the two prisoners. After that, we managed to get away and meet up with everyone a bit outside of the village. The only casualties on our side were one of the Anbu and Akira, they didn't make it out of Iwa. We were relieved, that the mission had been over and went on our way home. As we passed the border, we were confronted by the Akatsuki, who apparently had been tasked by Iwa to take us out.

We fought and after a while, I heard Naruto scream and ...", I couldn't finish the sentence, but Gaara already knew, what I was going to say anyways. "What happened then? How did you get away?", he asked, his voice quiet. I was about to answer him, when I felt a chakra pulse coming from the ring, that Naruto had given me for our anniversary. Moments later, a red flash appeared next to me and I saw Kurama standing next to me. Gaara immediately got defensive and pulled me away from the newcomer. "Don't worry, Gaara.", I said, causing my brother to relax a bit. "Gaara, meet Kurama. He was it, who killed the Akatsuki and who effectively saved my life.", I said, as I wound myself out of Gaara's grip and sat back down on the couch. "How are you out? Even if Naruto died, it would take years for you to reform, so how?", Gaara asked, suspicious about the redhead. Kurama took a chair and sat down, as he told the story, how Naruto was dying and he wanted Kurama to at least get rid of the Akatsuki. He also told us about the seal that had prevented Pain from controlling him with the Rinnegan. After that I gave Gaara the scroll with Naruto's corpse, before going out of the office and walking through the streets of Suna.