Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [1]

☾ Stone of Gelel - 3 ☽

The sun was right above their heads, shining brightly in the cloudless blue sky. It was far past pleasant, however, and was beating down on them heavily. Tsukiko and Naruto had chased after Temujin all the way to a beach on the outskirts of Land of Wind, and the two of them came to see –

"What is this?"

Both Tsukiko and Naruto were shocked as they stared at the scene in front of them: there was a giant metal fleet that was lying destroyed on the coast with metallic debris sticking out of the sand. They hadn't expected to see this, but Temujin was already heading off into the destroyed ship.

As expected, the inside of the ship was just as trashed as the outside of it – and Tsukiko wondered what really had gone on down there. However, Temujin seemed to be very determined to go somewhere inside the ship, and as such, she and Naruto just quickly followed after him inside.

For a while, the two Konohagakure ninjas followed Temujin in silence, turning several corners around the place. Tsukiko was also on edge. She was quite suspicious over what was really going on.

And then, finally, a breakthrough – they had arrived in what seemed to have been a large hall but was now destroyed as well. But then, Tsukiko noticed something that shook her down to the core.

There were bodies strewn around the entire hall, and they were all the bodies of young individuals.

"What the..." Tsukiko whispered as she stared wide-eyed. "Are... are they even alive? What is this?"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, snapping out of his thoughts, at Temujin, who had stopped in the middle of the dark, broken hall. "What's the meaning of this?! Answer me...!"

Before anything could be said or done, there was a loud rattling sound as a puppet came spinning down and wrapped itself around Temujin as tightly as it could, and it took Tsukiko a moment to recognise it – it was Crow! The puppet that belonged to none other than Kankuro of Sunagakure.

"Naruto! Tsukiko! Why are you here?!"

Tsukiko whipped around to see that it really was Kankuro who was lurking around. He got down to the floor and looked over at the two Konohagakure Ninjas in brief confusion, which they shared.

"You're from Sunagakure..." Naruto recognised as well.

"Well, that's fine," Kankuro replied. "You may have thought that you could sneak up on us, but don't underestimate the Five Great Nations' Ninjas of Sunagakure,"

"Wait, what do you mean?" Tsukiko asked. "What is going on? Naruto and I weren't sneaking..."

"Don't you two know anything?" Kankuro asked, now genuinely surprised at them. "These people invaded the Land of Wind out of nowhere,"

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed, and Tsukiko was shocked, too.

"I was suspicious that something strange was going on," Tsukiko said. "But I wasn't aware of that... What exactly happened to you guys? Naruto and I have been trying to look for answers, too,"

"We've had quite a few casualties trying to stop them," Kankuro informed the two of them. "There are villages that were caught in the battle and destroyed,"

"Hey!" Naruto shouted as he turned to look at Temujin, and so did Tsukiko. "Is that true?!"

"They are noble sacrifices to accomplish our goal," Temujin replied calmly.

"You bastard!" Naruto yelled back angrily. "What you're saying is different from what you're doing!"

"Sorry for butting in, but I'm going to take him out now," Kankuro said to them.