Naruto: Rise of the Saibankan

Chapter 5.

In the trees just metres away from a river clearing, two ninja with no forehead protectors to indicate their villages sat quietly and carefully, watching the commotion below them unfold.

The one on the left, a kunoichi, wore her long black hair in four braids— two behind her, moving with the wind, and two smaller ones that rested over the front of her shoulders. She looked down with dark blue eyes at one of the men below her, the one with distinctive red hair, and turned to face her companion. "Isn't that the Kazekage?"

Her partner, a brown-haired and brown-eyed shinobi who donned a pair of rectangular glasses and a black mask that covered his nose and mouth, looked back at her. "He is."

"Huh," the woman huffed. She made a face that symbolized disgust. "To think the Sand would risk their leader's life like that. And we're the rogue ninja? Nothing sounds more rogue to me than sending the Kazekage out on a suicide mission."

Her partner was silent for a moment, but spoke again in a more hushed voice. "I mean, I could see why they did," he said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "if what I've heard is correct, he was recently arranged to be married."

"I see," she replied. "He doesn't want that woman, then. And this is his escape?"

"No," the brown haired ninja stated, his tone firm, "They never married. She went missing. Apparently he showed no interest in finding her, or marrying her, in the first place— and showed no interest in having children, either. Look at him carefully, Kōzui. Follow his eyes."

The konoichi, Kōzui, did, and followed Gaara of the Sand's gaze to another member of the team in front of them: a man with a shiny black bowl cut and scars along the whole of both of his arms. She was puzzled. What was so special about that guy? "Okay," she started, "and what am I supposed to be looking at here, Natsuo?"

"You obviously weren't paying close enough attention," he said. "That one defeated Toshiko in combat."

"Yes, I know, I was there for that," Kōzui snapped, and she rolled her eyes. "But what does that have to do with—"

"He defeated her in combat," the shinobi interrupted, "but he wasn't the one to finish her off."

Kōzui narrowed her eyes. "What are you implying?"

She noticed the sarcastic smile Natsuo gave under the mask, it was a given in his expression. "That sand was no work of a leaf ninja," he said, rather matter-of-factly, and he pointed to the Kazekage, "it was his sand."

"Your point being?"

Now her partner was just annoyed. "If you're so airheaded that you don't see the obvious, maybe Nagaiyo was wrong to choose you for this mission."

She turned to him, her expression filled with anger, and made sure her chakra kept her balance steady while she trembled with rage, "I'm warning you, Natsuo, insulting me might be the last thing you ever do. I'd watch your tongue. She might have been wrong in choosing Toshiko, but I for one am not such an easy opponent. I'd like to say the same about you, but all of your analyzing is just more time wasted watching the enemy making progress. I don't care what you see, all I see are a bunch of fucking targets."

Natsuo chuckled and threw his hands up in front of him, "Hey now, I'm just letting you know. You have to know how your opponent works in order to defeat them. Toshiko didn't, and look where she ended up." He watched Kōzui's face fall and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Those two," he gestured to the Kazekage and the one with the eyebrow, "they're working together. In fact, I wouldn't doubt it if something else were going on between them, as well— it would certainly explain why the Kazekage shows no interest in marriage or children, but that's just a theory. The bottom line is, they're a deadly combination. We have to separate them if we want to stand a chance, and study the others. We haven't seen what the rest of them are capable of yet. With your water style and my earth style, we can certainly do a lot, but quite possibly not enough."

Kōzui scowled; he was right. "Fair."

Beneath them, the group continued to splash around and talk amongst each other. "Let's report back to Nagaiyo," Natsuo suggested. "Don't worry about them now. We don't need to go running after them just yet. Besides, she'll be angry if we aren't there for the meeting tonight, and she's not someone I want to piss off."

Kōzui grunted in agreement, but lingered a bit longer to watch Gaara swim toward the bushy-browed shinobi, his expression unreadable. She blinked once and then set off behind her partner. Maybe studying the enemy would be a better approach.