Chapter 37: Akatsuki re-match

“Team Yukari, we just received an urgent request of assistance from Suna. Akatsuki had attacked their village and captured the Kazekage.” Tsunade said, looking at Yugao, Kakashi and Riku in front of her. “You are to find and rescue the Kazekage, and capture if possible the Akatsuki members. Any questions?”

“How many are there? We were three against Sasori and got lucky.” Riku asked.

“Two from what Suna’s Message reported. Deidara, the mad bomber of Iwa and Kurosaki Raiga, former member of the seven swordsmen of Kiri. The latter is manageable by one of you, the second is not as versatile as Sasori was but just as dangerous.”

“I’ll be more comfortable with a fourth member.”

“It’s up to you to decide who you want to add to Team Yukari, Riku. You’re in charge.”

“Me?! That’s-”

“You need to learn how to lead an elite team like this one.”

“You have no problem with this?” Riku inquired of his teammates. Kakashi as the most experienced should be the leader then Yugao.

“Mah~ You’ll do a good job.” the cyclops said, making their female teammate nod in agreement.

“In that case… I have one last question. Why Team ‘Yukari’?”

“Yugao’s hair, your favorite color and because it's for Yugao, Kakashi, Riku.” she replied with pride in her smile.

“... How long did you take to come up with that?” Riku replied with a deadpan face.

He barely dodged in time the paper weight that was aimed at his head.

“Get out of my office, you got a job to do!”

They left promptly and made a stop on the side of the corridor.

“You were thinking of someone for a fourth member?” asked Yugao.

“Yes, a tracker. Better than Kakashi’s summons for our situation.”

“A Hyuga then.” the called out man remarked aloud.

“Yep.”

“Since we have to battle two S-rank nin and deal with Gaara’s rescue and well being, may I suggest taking two more members?”

““Who?”” wondered Kakashi’s teammates. He wasn’t the type to request for help, so that surprised them.

“Naruto and Sakura.”

“... Kakashi, if it’s to spend time with them on-”

“It’s not.” He quickly cut off Riku with a ‘stop’ hand gesture. “Sakura is an excellent medic on her own and Naruto with his bottomless chakra reserves and ingenuity would be able to help on the fly where it’s necessary. He progressed much during his training trip. He won’t be a burden. Neither will Sakura.”

“... Alright. I just hope they will be able to stay professional with me and our fourth member.”

“Why is that?” Yugao asked.

“Sakura hates my guts, blaming me for Sasuke deserting and her not apprenticing under sensei. Naruto is… well… Hinata is the one I was thinking about and he’s been kind of avoiding her ever since his return two months ago.”

“They’ll do fine.” Kakashi said.

Riku looked at the man, and chose to trust him. He had done enough missions with the man (and Yugao) to give him that.

“East Gate in half an hour for a gear check then we leave another half after that?”

“Good for me. I’ll warn Naruto.” Kakashi said, knowing where his blonde student dwells most of the time.

“Then I’ll take care of your other student.”

“And me, Hinata.”

Their short term plan over, they went their separate ways to look for their supplementary members. Riku didn’t know what Hinata was doing today and tried his luck with Ino who he knew was working at her family’s flower shop. To his pleasant surprise he found the one he was looking for there.

“Baby!”

Seeing passing through the door, Ino, moved with incredible agility and was on Riku in an instant to get a heartfelt ‘hello’ kiss.

“Hey!” He greeted her with a smile on his face. Ino’s behaviour towards him ever since they started their thing always cheered him up.

“Finally, out of your head and you decided to come visit, little old me, hm?” she said in a husky voice that had him hard on the spot as she hung on his neck with her arms.

“I came to see you, yes but for professional reasons, I’m afraid. I wanted to know if you knew where our moon princess was. It turns out you do.”

“What is it about?” the blonde asked, releasing him from her embrace and looking at Hinata.

“The Kazekage had been kidnapped by two S-rank nuke-nin and Suna asked for our help. We need to leave in 50 minutes and we need a tracker so I thought of you, Hinata.” answered Riku looking at the bluenette.

“S-rank?! Are you mad?!” protested Ino. She knew perfectly well that Hinata wasn’t strong enough for a fight against an enemy of that calibre. Two even less.

“She won’t be a frontliner but in the support team with two others.”

“That’s not-”

“I’ll do it.”

Ino turned around to look at Hinata in shock, not believing what she just heard.

“No, you’re not!”

“Ino… If the village needs my help, as a kunoichi it’s my duty to answer present.”

“But…”

“Riku is there.”

“I am and I have a method to get her as far away as possible in four hand seals. Kakashi and Yugao are there too in my team. Naruto and Sakura will be with Hinata at the back. It’s never without risk but she has plenty of protection.” explained Riku to his blonde lover.

“... If something happens to her…”

“You’ll take my freedom away by putting me on a leash for the rest of my life. I know.”

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!”

Hinata couldn’t help herself but giggled at their antics. Despite not being a couple, they sure were acting like an old married one. Ino took Hinata in her arms for a hug and whispered some words that Riku didn’t hear. He didn’t really care, if he was meant to know, Ino would have spoken aloud and not in their friend’s ear.

They separated and she hugged him too. She got the promise of getting back in one piece, gave him a kiss and shooed them all out.

“So, that’s the young man you've been all fussy about for years.”

Turning around, Ino saw her mother coming out from the backroom behind the counter.

“I wasn’t ‘fussy’ mom but yes, that’s him.”

“Hmhm. Why don’t you invite him home for dinner? I want to get to know this boyfriend of yours.”

“We’re not dating, mom.”

“Sure. And those kisses were my imaginations? So is the slight limp in your steps from when you get back from a sleepover at ‘Hinata’ or ‘Karin’? And the smile on your face that only a woman that got her bell rung all night long would have?”

“Oh, no. I’m fucking him alright! As much as I can. We’re just not… like that yet.” she said unashamedly to her mother before hesitating about how she should define her relationship with Riku.

“You're clearly in love with him, you’re having sex with him but you’re not dating? Ino…”

“He’s not taking advantage of me mom, it’s… Complicated. He’s… He has trust issues and it’s difficult for him to enter into a serious relationship. He wants to, and we’re just taking things slow on the emotional side of things to not botch everything up. But he’s making progress, we’re supposed to go on a date next Friday.”

“There is more to it, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, there are no customers so we have the time.”

While Ino spoke to her mother about her relationship with Riku, he and Hinata had shushined towards the Easter Gate. As usual, when he was leaving on a mission with his team. He found a secluded place to unseal his Botib and enter it. They were joined ten minutes later by yugao and Sakura who began asking questions about how such a thing like the Botib existed and five minutes after that Kakashi and Naruto arrived too.

“Wow, it’s bigger on the inside! That’s so cool!” the orange clad blond commented.

“Thank you.” Riku replied.

“You made this?” asked Sakura in shock.

“I did.” he replied and signaled Kakashi to lock the door while he activated the time Dilation seal on the table. “Okay, let’s start with this: this closet and everything that you will see or hear inside is an S-rank secret. You spill the beans about it? At best it is jail for life, at worst death penalty but I’m sure you were aware of that.”

Both Naruto and Sakura nodded at that.

“Second, do you know why you’re here?”

“Yes, to be part of the rescue mission for Gaara!” Naruto said loudly but with seriousness in his voice.

“Yes. He was taken away three days ago and thanks to this little baby here…” he pointed at the time seal. “We’re on a full chase 24/7.”

“Why?”

“What does that seal do?”

“That, Naruto, Sakura, is a time seal. It allows me to control the passing of time inside this closet. To accelerate it or slow it.”

“What for?” inquired Naruto.

“At the current setting, one second outside the closet is one hour in here.” Riku explained.

“Oh! That means we can get 8 hours of sleep here but outside only eight seconds would have passed. In other words, Naruto, for the outside world it will look like we will never rest. The 6 to 8 hours of sleep we would usually need can be used to search for Gaara.” Sakura explained further.

“Ah! That’s awesome! We will have the advantage since the guys that took him need to rest at some point.”

“Exactly. Since we have the time, pun intended, let me show you around. This closet will be our base of operation for this mission and it’s better if you’re familiar with it.”

From there on, he showed them the rooms one by one. He particularly expressed to Naruto that the training room was not for ninjutsu but for practicing taijutsu and bukijutsu to keep their skills sharp. He particularly expressed that should the walls break, anyone in the room would be stuck in another dimension without any means to get back to their own. The warning made Naruto’s face pale like a ghost and Riku knew that his point had been made. Finally, he presented them with shurifuins, explaining what each did, and a few more tags. Kakashi noticed new additions.

“What’s that tag? ESM? I don’t recognize it.” he said in curiosity after pulling a tag from its open box.

“Elemental Shrapnel Mine.”

“If it does what the name implies… Nasty.” he said and put a few tags inside his backpouch.

“What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei?” a curious Naruto asked.

“It’s an explosive tag which uses the force of the explosion to throw a hundred Senbon in all directions. If you activate it by channeling wind chakra, the senbon would be imbued with wind chakra or fire if you use fire etc…” the silver haired jonin explained to his student.

“Wow.”

“It’s a double edge kunai, though. All directions also means the one’s who threw it, so better take cover in the case you use one. I’m still working on the one direction version to hit only the enemy but I don’t have the time.”

Once everyone was geared up, Riku returned the time to normal and everyone exited the closet. Now ready, they went through the gate, registered their departure and began tree hopping west Towards the Land of Rivers. Hinata took point, thanks to her Byakugan followed by Yugao and Riku side by side. Behind them Naruto, then Sakura and then Kakashi who closed the formation. The Time Dilation effect of the Botib had been a godsend.

As they reached the Land of Wind’s border with the Land of Rivers, Hinata stopped in her tracks, prompting everyone to do the same.

“There is… something weird, 1.9km in the South, South-West direction.”

“What do you see?” Riku inquired.

“Nothing, and that’s the problem.” she replied with a frown.

“Why?” asked a confused Naruto.

“Something is obstructing my Byakugan and that shouldn't be possible unless someone puts special seals.”

“I doubt whoever put those seals did it to hide from the byakugan, especially when it would be seen as big as the nose on a face by it.” commented Yugao.

“... We’re checking this out. But first, let’s put in place the Botib. Kakashi, put a genjutsu on it to hide it please.”

“On it.”

Their escape route secured, they changed their destination and the teams made their way towards the anomaly. Hinata revealed that two people in black robes with red clouds were coming their way to intercept them. Their description allowed Kakashi to know who they were. Hoshigaki Kisame, former member of the seven swordsmen of Kiri and Konoha’s very own Uchiha Itachi.

“Hinata, fall back.” Riku ordered and took the lead. He made nine clones and dispelled eight right after their creation. When he saw the enemies approaching and stopped to prepare for battle, Riku and his clone didn’t stop, they charged faster. Right onto them. With his sudden burst of speed, he surprised them enough to take them off guard and hit them with his explosive strength. Kisame’s head was completely disintegrated while Itachi’s torso suffered the same fate. Their features started to change and reveal two Suna shinobi dead bodies. Waiting for the rest of his team, he examined the corpses.

“Not only are we on the right track but whatever is going on with Gaara needs them to be focused and undisturbed.” he said as soon as everyone got there.

“The real ones must not be far, we should hurry even more.” Kakashi added.

“Agreed.”

___________________________________________________________________

Five kilometers away. Itachi and Kisame opened their eyes from their meditative stance.

“That kid got us good. Know anything about him, Itachi?”

“No but from his appearance he may be the one who killed Sasori.”

“Itachi, Kisame, intercept them for good this time. We need one more hour to completely extract the ichibi. Without the two of you, one hour more.”

“Yes, Leader-sama.”

The mental connection broker and both nuke-nin got up.

“Dibs on the kid.” said Kisame with his literal Shark smile.

___________________________________________________________________

The group arrived in some kind of lake where a huge boulder with a tag on it blocked the entrance to a huge cavern.

“It’s a four point barrier.” Riku said to himself aloud, looking at the tag.

“So?”

“We can’t break it without removing all of the four other tags maintaining the barrier, Naruto.” explained Sakura.

“If you’re not a seal master, yes. That's the way to go.”

“Thankfully, you’re one.” noted Kakashi.

“Not in barriers but that’s alright I know an alternative.”

He pulled out his brush and ink from his book of seals and began drawing a new one around the tag. “Kakashi, Naruto, you’re taking Deidara on. Hinata, Sakura, secure Gaara and get him outside. Provide any medical assistance he needs. If the worst happens, the both of you will reverse summon to the Botib with him. Yugao and I we’ll be taking care of Raiga.”

Everyone indicated verbally that they understood their orders and Riku finished his seal.

“Alright. Be ready. Naruto?”

“Yeah?”

“Pump chakra into the seal I drew until the tag burst in flame.”

“Got it!”

Moving in front, the orange knucklehead did as instructed. Ten seconds in and the barrier dissolved.

“Idiots. Always forgetting to put measures against an opposite number seal.”

“The four seals went up in flames too.” reported Hinata thanks to her Byakugan.

“Perfect. Good job Naruto, now get back all of you.”

Riku took a deep breath and punched the giant boulder, shattering it to smithereens.

‘Holy crap!’ he heard Naruto shout but paid it no mind, he got inside on the spot and like previously made 9 clones and dispelled 8. The clone went for Gaara who was on some kind of altar with his chakra being sucked out of him. Riku used the Great Breakthrough to push against the end wall of the cavern the Akatsuki members. Raiga was affected but Deidara made some kind of bird made of clay and dodged by taking to the sky. Yugao started her assault against Raiga and Riku joined her meanwhile Kakashi and Naruto followed their target that had fled outside. Sakura and Hinata were already on their way out with the clone carrying Gaara.

Riku stood in retreat letting Yugao deal with their opponent. He wasn’t a swordsman by any means but he was able to tell that she was more skilled with a blade than Raiga was. The only reason he was holding his own was because he had more strength and because of the lightning effect of both of his blades. Riku tried to use wind shurifuins to minimize the lightning attacks of the Kiri nuke-nin but it was difficult with both fighting ninja never staying in their position more than long enough. The stalemate seemed to have annoyed the man who channeled a huge powerful lightning Justu to take Yugao out. Without thinking twice, Riku acted. He found himself in front of his friend and pumped a lot of his chakra into another Great Breakthrough. Air being a very poor electricity conductor, the wind of his jutsu served as a tool which dispersed the lightning bolts. They all passed around them. At this point it was a fight of stamina. Whoever ran out of steam would lose. Having faith in him, Yugao prepared herself to neutralize their opponent at a moment's notice. It came ten seconds later when Raiga, despite the help of his swords, couldn’t maintain the chakra flow anymore. In an instant Yugao was on him, severing his arms at the wrists, Riku being not far behind and putting a chakra sealing tag on the man’s forehead. Defeated and captured, the man ended up in a crate in Yugao’s own book of seals.

“So?” Riku asked, catching his breath.

“So, what?”

“How does it feel to have beaten in pure skill one of the seven swordsmen of the mist?” he grinned at her.

“...Good. I suppose.” she humbly replied but the excitement in her eyes was obvious.

“You’re going to use them?” he pointed at Raiga’s swords.

“The Kibas? I don’t know. Maybe? Or Maybe I’ll just hang them on my wall.”

“They would look nice above your TV or your couch facing the TV.”

Exiting the cave, they saw Hinata and Kakashi guarding an unconscious Gaara while Sakura pulled out a dozen of Senbon from Naruto’s back.

“He got caught in the blast?” Riku asked Kakashi.

“He got caught in the blast.” confirmed the jonin and Naruto ‘heyed’ in protest and pain as Sakura pulled out a senbon. “To be fair we wouldn’t have made it without his idea.”

“Oh?” exclaimed Yugao calmly.

“That maniac had the idea to put an ESM charged with lightning, attached to a Kunai. Dedidara dodged the Kunai easily but the tag caught his presence and exploded. It destroyed the whole bird, nearly killed Deidara and well… Despite an earth wall, the senbons went through. I backed away just in case but Naruto didn’t.”

“Good job. Is Deidara secure?”

“Yes, but he will need heavy medical attention on the spot once unsealed. What about you?”

Yugao proudly showed him the Kiba blades and Kakashi whistle, clearly impressed.

“She’s even better than me at ‘disarming’ people.” he said with a chuckle.

“I only took his hands, not the whole arm.”

“Who did you disarm?” Hinata asked to get closer to Riku.

“The Sandaime.”

“That was you?!” Naruto exclaimed in outrage.

“To my defense it was poisoned and removing the arm saved his life. Besides, I helped in healing and reattaching it. If you ask him, you’ll find out he remembers that event with amusement.”

“Only you, Ri-kun. Only… Someone is approaching!” Hinata suddenly said, breaking down the good mood. “It’s… Itachi and Kisame.”

“Alright. Naruto, can you make some clones and henge them into us? Gaara included?”

“Sure.” the blonde ninja said and made seven clones who took the appearance of everyone present.

“Stall them as long as you can by talking. If a fight breaks out, have them stall even more. As for us, let's bail out back to the Botib.”

The whole group reverse summoned and found themselves in their mobile base. Riku activated the Time seal immediately while Kakashi picked up Gaara to bring him to the infirmary, following Sakura and Naruto.

“What do we do now?” Yugao asked.

“Suna may be closer and while the desert would prove advantageous against Kisame, the terrain is unfamiliar and in the open. Returning to Konoha is the better and safer option. Besides, I heard of Gaara’s seal being unstable. Maybe Karin could do something about it?”

Both ladies in the room with him nodded. Yugao went to take a shower and Hinata was dragged inside the training room by Riku for some lovey-dovey time.