Shizukesa: [58] - Casualties

Claws whistled through the air near Deidara's face, skimming the skin with rushing air. Naruto shot by, having missed his target, and slammed his hands and feet onto rough stone, sending small chunks of fragmented rock spewing out from the points of impact. Pumping chakra violently to his feet, he burst back into the air, taking on the appearance of an orange blur. Against the camouflage of the forest, he stood out like a fireball in the dark of twilight.

Kakashi's mangekyou pulsed with pain as if he'd been stabbed. He felt his body fighting him as he tried to draw a second use of its dimensional powers, but with all of his ANBU dedication to the mission, he forced it to comply. The small clay explosive that flew toward Naruto's chest was moving almost too quickly to follow with his exhausted eyes, but in a painful arc, his blurry vision locked onto it and he desperately cast his jutsu one last time.

Snapping his sharingan shut he caught sight of the bird collapsing in on itself. With his regular eye he watched his student draw back a beastly fist and catch Deidara straight in the jaw. A shadow clone with a windmill shuriken decapitated the clay monster that had Gaara in its mouth and pried open its chalky jaws, but it suddenly puffed into white smoke.

Lifting his leaden body, Kakashi trudged over to the severed skull of soft clay, and snapped his head around when he heard a veritable roar.

Guttural reverberations escaped Naruto's throat as the fox's chakra bubbled around him, orange and corrosive. His already claw-like hands grew cloaked with sharpened spears of energy, threatening to tear Deidara's throat out.

And that he did.

Throwing his enveloped head back, he roared once more with closed eyes and drew back a claw.

Then he was pinning the Akatsuki with a feral foot, plunging his hand down like the edge of a katana and slicing through his chest. The ground around rippled and cracked around the crater occupying Deidara's chest cavity.

As Kakashi dropped out of the air with Gaara on his back and slapped a small sliver of paper onto Naruto's head, white lines spread along the shattered clay clone.

~ ~ ~

Sakura gaped up in awe at the blood-soaked scene that sprawled out before her. A small lake of red had populated the cracked, ragged ground around the island of stone where Sasori stood, a statue of shock and silence. The two parental puppets had thrust blades through the scroll containing his heart, and Chiyo was fighting to stand just as hard as her grandson was. Rushing over to her side, Sakura threw an arm around her to support her, taking note of her ragged breathing and weak pulse.

She froze at the sound of Sasori's laughter.

“You women really enjoy the pointless things...”

Anger bubbled up in Sakura's gut, rising into her chest.

“Why bother trying? She's already standing in her grave.” he hissed.

Sakura tensed, ready to go over there and...

“Don't... bother...” Chiyo rasped, punctuating her words with a ragged inhale. “You won't... change his mind... and besides... he's... right...”

Sasori cocked his head to the side and grinned sickly, like a smug child who had been rewarded for ratting out a friend. “Poison, girl. Good luck.”

Fuming, Sakura laid Chiyo on the ground for a moment and drew out a kunai. Tense, angry, she turned, drew back a fist and slammed it against the wall of the once-dark cave.

Skeletal cracks sparked up the side of the slab of stone, sunlight seeping through as the wall crumbled to dust. She took Chiyo in her arms and sprang outside. The empty, clear crystal around her neck bounced on her chest as she jumped...

~ ~ ~

… And he couldn't feel his chakra in her crystal at all. Normally he was able to feel his own chakra in the crystal that Sakura wore around her neck. Sasuke ran through the forest, looking for a landmark, Karin unconscious in his arms, and although he could still feel her heartbeat, that fact did little to assuage his uneasy intuition. Sinister tree branches blew past him like they were hands reaching to snatch another loved one from this world. He snarled, sharingan suddenly blazing in his eyes.

Catching sight of another clearing, he burst out of the forest like a black bear, landing in the center. He tenderly placed Karin on the grass and stood purposefully, weaving signs like a madman. His meagre pool of remaining chakra heaved mightily, rippling and waving before lengthening into spears of light.

~ ~ ~

Chiyo was struggling to breathe, and Sakura couldn't find anything to do about it. All of her treatment was useless in the face of this poison out in the middle of the wild, with no supplies or assistance. Cursing under her breath, she stood up in frustration.

“Sakura!”

She turned at the sound of Naruto's voice, which had an unusual sense of urgency. Gaara was limp in his arms, and she felt a pang of sadness as she saw that his chest was still.

“What happened to the old lady?” he asked as Kakashi emerged on the edge of the clearing, clearly exhausted.

“Poison.” she said softly, kneeling beside Gaara, preparing herself for the likely possibility that his pulse wasn't there.

It wasn't.

She closed her eyes as tight as she could, trying to prevent tears from escaping, but they did. They always did.

“Bring him here.”

She heard Chiyo's voice distantly, and Naruto drew the corpse from her.

“Sakura... Please. Stop crying.”

This was Sasuke's voice, and he was nowhere to be seen. A miniature explosion of worry sent a new  stream of tears down her face.

Suddenly, just a few feet in front of her, a screeching column of electricity spawned into existence, crackling crazily in midair. Through her light-blinded eyes and teary lenses, she thought she saw her love's figure form in it for a moment...

Kakashi looked over, panicked. Naruto and Chiyo, focused on Gaara, ignored it, both frantically pumping chakra into his chest. The jounin stood, shaky, but at that moment it dissolved, little filaments of lightning shooting out in all directions and fading in the afternoon air.

~ ~ ~

Deidara stumbled through the forest, clutching at where his arm had been. Oh, and he was fuming. Absolutely livid. When the ground began to ripple near him, he kicked savagely at it without even thinking, catching the white and black Zetsu in the face. He froze.

“OWWWW!!!” The white half whined as the rest of the unnatural body rose from the ground.

“Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there before you crawled out of the depths of hell.” he apologized sardonically.

Sensing a presence appearing behind him, he spun again, this time catching a materializing masked man in the … mask. Although, being intangible, Deidara's foot passed straight through it entirely.

“Uwargh!!” The newcomer screamed pathetically, despite being unharmed.

“Deidara.” the black half of the sludgy humanoid spoke. “I do hope you don't make a habit of assaulting your colleagues.”

“In case you hadn't noticed, I'm missing an arm here. Excuse me if my mood isn't the peachiest.” he retorted, his voice dripping with unmitigated sarcasm. ” Why is this overgrown eight-year-old wearing the robes of our fine organization?”

“We had an opening!” was the all-too-eager response.

“Tobi's a good kid, and we need a replacement for Sasori.” Zetsu elaborated.

At this, Deidara regained a single ounce of seriousness, cocking his head sideways in disbelief. “He's dead?”

“Yup!” Tobi sounded like he was grinning behind that infuriating little mask.

“...How?” Deidara glared at him, shutting him up momentarily before turning back to Zetsu. “Please tell me the jinchuuriki came back and that it wasn't the old woman.”

“That 'old woman' is his grandmother and the one who showed him how to use puppets in the first place. It's hardly a surprise that she could defeat him, especially with his arrogance. Besides, she had help.”

“If by 'help' you mean the little girl...” he muttered. ”Some artist he was...” Deidara turned his head to the sky, narrowing his eyes at a bird soaring overhead.

“What kind of artist are you, Deidara-senpai?”

Oh, I am most definitely going to strangle him.