Before the blow could land, I was repelled by a heavy force.

"Eight trigrams; airpalm!"

The action was instant. In front of me stood Team Gai. The force that had knocked me back must have been the Hyuuga's technique.

I took in their faces from where I was kneeling on the ground, blade dug into the earth to counteract the force of the airpalm. Neji was assessing me silently; Tenten looked terrified; Lee was clueless (always giving people the benefit of the doubt, that one); Gai stared at me warily, clearly ready for anything. I wonder if he was thoroughly informed about my situation.

His hand tightened on the kunai; he was.

My calculating gaze finally landed on Deidara. He was staring at me with just a hint a wary fear and surprise, though he never lost the smirk. He hadn't seen me. He hadn't expected me. I would have succeeded if it hadn't been for...

I turned my stare back to Team Gai, and this time a glare replaced my calculating look. Deidara's chances of escape just rose considerably because of them.

"Good work, Neji," Gai congratulated, eyes never leaving Deidara and me.

Neji simply nodded, at the ready for anything and everything. "Ah, the Byakugan," Deidara smirked. "So that's how your team approached me from my blind spot." He sent a brief, agitated glance over his shoulder towards me, clearly hating having me at his back but unwilling to turn away from a full team of shinobi. He settled for turning sideways so he was facing neither of us, but his back wasn't to either of us. "I'd like to see how the byakugan differs from Itachi's sharingan."

I twirled the blade in my right hand once and everyone tensed, prepared for sudden action as though I was some sort of wild animal that could be set off at the slightest provocation.

"But I think escaping from this situation comes first now," Deidara continued. I didn't understand why Gai's team just sat there, allowing him to ramble on instead of engaging. But I couldn't make my move without being 100% sure of how they would react.

"Heh," Gai scoffed, "now that team Gai, the strongest in all the Leaf is here... you can't escape!"

I narrowed my eyes. If he'd allowed my strike to land, Deidara would never even had a fighting chance to escape.

"Exactly!" Lee agreed with Gai.

"Prepare yourself!" Tenten exclaimed. And why the hell would you order the enemy to prepare, or give him time to? Neji, the only one who seems even slightly sane, did  nothing but tense slightly, ready to explode into action.

Deidara's smirk deepened, and then he exploded off of the ground. Team Gai followed him into the air. Their first mistake: never let the enemy choose the fighting grounds. It would be easier to defeat him pinned here on the ground, and yet they allowed him to take to the trees. And now he even had a kunai in his mouth!

I watched the fight closely, studying Deidara's fighting style. He was entirely on the defensive, which was to be expected. If I joined the fight now I would simply interrupt Team Gai's dynamics; I would get in their way, and they would get in my way. Best to wait for the opportune moment to strike.

Deidara seemed more amused by Tenten's weapons than anything. He could only be a few years older than her, and yet he was in an entirely different league. The only two who seemed to truly bother him were Neji and Gai.

Escaping by foot would be impossible for him with these four on him, and soon enough Deidara would realize the same thing. Neji managed to land a hit with his airpalm, but I was already moving away. Deidara would realize that escape by foot was impossible, so...

There! I spotted the white bird and sprung into a tree by it, falling completely still. He would come. I knew he would. I had predicted it to be so, and the pieces would soon be falling into place.

True art.

I finally spotted movement in the trees. Deidara sprang down and Team Gai followed, keeping their distance and allowing Deidara to make whatever move he wanted to. What the hell was wrong with them? They needed to attack, not sit back and let Deidara do whatever he pleased!

Sure, you might lose a teammate more often, but the success of missions skyrockets when you're not scared of a teammate losing their life.

Deidara chewed the clay and swallowed and I was already falling through the air for the second time that day as his body began to distort. No one saw me, a shadow in a shadow as I unsheathed my blades, which had been hidden until the last possible moment lest the gleam of metal gave me away.

I hit his body, one blade pushing into his neck and severing his spinal cord and the other piercing his heart. Everyone was staring in shock, trying to process what had just happened and I was already springing away, blades slipping back into their places as I sprinted from Deidara. His body was still distorting even though he should be dead, and considering how his tricks usually ended, everything was about to get incredibly messy, incredibly quickly.

Neji caught on a split second later, shouting out a warning to everyone. By then I'm already twenty yards past them, hurtling away from what will soon be the blast zone. I felt the ground rock and heard the explosion but didn't bother looking back; it would just slow me down. Team Gai wouldn't make it at the speed they were going: they'd begun their escape too late. It would be a close call for even me, and I was already flying past Kakashi and Sakura and Naruto and Chiyo and Gaara's corpse that I was notlookingatnotthinkingabout.

And then, suddenly, the explosion was simply... gone.

I stared at the hole in the air that was sucking away the remnants of the explosion until that too disappeared. So that was Kakashi's new technique. For a long moment there's only the sound of Kakashi's labored breathing. Then he made a pained grunt and began to fall over from his place on the ground.

I appeared and rammed my knee into his side, keeping him in a vaguely upright position. "Just like old times, Kakashi," I drawled, thinking back to the Zabuza fight.

Kakashi simply glared, and a moment later Naruto appeared, taking Kakashi by his shoulders. "You okay, Kakashi sensei?" he asked.

"What in the world did you do?" Sakura questioned.

"Looks to me as though he transported the explosion to somewhere else," I shrugged.

"Into another dimension," Kakashi clarified between pained pants. Even I had to raise an impressed eyebrow at that.

"I don't really get what happened," Lee admitted, "but the enemy is defeated, right, Tenten?"

"Hey! Don't ask me that."

Huh. So even she recognized her own inability to understand the situation.

"More importantly... is everyone okay?" Kakashi asked. More importantly? How could that be more important than whether or not the enemy had been defeated?

Especially when I was almost entirely certain that Deidara hadn't been defeated?

My assassination should end any technique: it killed the victim almost immediately and also cut off vital chakra pathways for techniques that were meant to continue after death. The only possible way that the explosion continued was either that the technique was already too far along to stop or that the victim of my assassination was simply a clone.

I leaned towards the latter.

Deidara had been beaten today, but certainly not defeated.

***

The somber moment had arrived.

Sakura shook her head slowly, removing her hands from Gaara's corpse. Autolysis would have already begun, his cells acidity increasing as they became deprived of oxygen. His organs and cells had already begun to break down. Soon his skin would begin to discolor as blood leaked from broken vessels and settled into small capillaries with the aid of gravity.

"Gaara," Naruto's voice was shards of glass, broken and sharp and tearing through the air. His tears flowed openly, repulsively, from his eyes. For some reason I didn't believe he would appreciate it if I voiced my information.

"Naruto—"

"No!" Naruto whirled, tears falling in spinning droplets from blazing eyes. "None of you understood him, none of you!"

Over the course of the time I've known him, even with my recent years being gone, I'd come to expect exactly this sort of thing from Naruto: irrational, overly emotional behavior.

So this didn't come as a surprise to me. It also didn't come as a huge annoyance to me, which did startle me a bit. I suppose it was useless, being irritated by Naruto's behavior; it was a part of who he was. But that didn't mean I had to be understanding of it, especially when it was putting us in danger.

"We have to move on," I said casually, but in a slightly toned down voice so there was less of a chance of Naruto going on a rant about me not caring that Gaara was defeated, dead, decaying, departed.

No one reacted to my words. I glance around; not a single person would look at me. I consider repeating myself, but then decide not too. There was no way they didn't hear me. Speaking again would only put me in their bad graces.

"What right do you have?" Naruto asks, the shards of glass shattering further. "What right do you have label us. Jimchuuriki is just some name you people made up to slap on us."

My face is stone to Naruto's shattered glass. There was nothing left to do; Gaara was dead. He had been dead for a while, his body's cells already breaking down just as he'd been broken.

"Why is it always Gaara?" Naruto whispered. I found myself wondering the same.

"Control yourself, Naruto Uzumaki," Chiyo murmured.

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted, the shards of glass now cutting through the air, cutting through Chiyo and actually forcing her to take a half step back from the pain on display. "Its because of you people this happened! You had to go and stick a monster in him and it's not fair! He just became the Kazekage. It's not fair."

Naruto shifts from side to side as though he didn't quite know what to do with his feet. The tears are truly pouring from his face now. I want to tell him to calm down, to shut up, to move on, but he'd made it clear that this... This tantrum, this mourning, was not to be interrupted lest it go on for far longer. He tilts his head sideways, then raises his head as though in an attempt to contain the tears and then simply lowers it, shoulders shaking in grief.

All lives end. All hearts are broken. Caring was not an advantage.

Then there's a movement as Chiyo takes a slow, staggering step forward.

"What are you doing?" Naruto questioned aggressively, when she rested near Gaara's body, a green glow illuminating from her hands.

Sakura's dramatic gasp was all it took to figure it out.

Gaara would not be the dead body we would be returning home with.

Somehow, Granny Chiyo was giving life to Gaara again, and it didn't take much to figure out that the cost of one life is only worth the cost of another. Confusion welled inside of me. All these years, all this time had gone by. And I still didn't understand human behavior in the oddest moments, like right now. Why would you sacrifice your life for another's?

I suppose it sort of made sense: Granny Chiyo was on her death bed, it wasn't hard to see. She was old, had only a few years left in her to live. And Gaara was the precious Kazekage of the sand village. Young, strong, vital to the Village Hidden in the Sand. Of course Chiyo would give her life for his if she were able too, like a good little self sacrificing shinobi.

Chiyo makes a strange whimpering grunt as her chakra begins to deplete. Keep your weakness to yourself, old woman. Naruto walks forward and kneels beside Gaara, hands held out in an offering. I wonder, if we all offered chakra, would this jutsu still take a life in exchange for a life? Probably. Otherwise it was too damn convenient of a jutsu.

Someone lands beside me and my blades are out, one at the persons throat and the other held defensively as more and more shinobi appear around us. I slowly lower my weapon. Sand shinobi. Couldn't have shown up twenty minutes ago to help out, could you have?

And then Gaara was sitting up and he'salivehe'salivehe'salive and his eyes were wide and shocked and Naruto's hand was on his shoulder and he was alive. Chiyo was slumped over, Sakura supporting her and shaking with her own tears, now. What was the use of crying? She made her choice, and it wasn't in vain.

"Naruto," Gaara whispered, eyes wide. His eyes landed on me next. "Cashile Kuroki."

And then his eyes slipped from me and I can breathe again. He scanned all the shinobi surrounding us, the shock in his eyes only growing. "This is..." He breathed.

"Everyone came running to help you," Naruto smiled.

"Lord Gaara!" A girl shouted, running up. I took a step to the side so she doesn't run into me. Irritating little genin. Show some self control. "Are you alright?" She asked desperately.

I turned to Gaara as well, curious about the after effects of being dead. I would think that the jutsu Chiyo had done would take care of any damage.

Gaara nodded slowly, looking as though he couldn't quite process what was happening. Cheers sprang up all around us at his confirmation. People began crying, though I couldn't understand why. He said he was okay. Maybe they hadn't wanted to see him dead.

"Thank God Lord Gaara's alright," one of the sobbing shinobi choked out.

Okay. They didn't want to see him dead. Maybe they were simply insane.

Gaara attempted to stand but grimaces in pain. So maybe Chiyo's jutsu didn't heal all of the damage.

"She got tired out, so she's sleeping right now," Naruto was saying. I closed my eyes for a brief moment. He always managed to see me with his stupidity. Thankfully, Kankuro was there to correct Naruto before he could make a bigger fool out of himself.

Gaara began to stand, brushing away the girl's help. He's weak, though, and begins to fall forward. But Naruto was there to catch him.

"Everyone, let us pray for Granny Chiyo," Gaara murmurs.

Everyone's eyes around me began to close and I studied them closely. I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes, surrounded by ninja who could have harmful intent. It was like the start of a bad joke: a bunch of ninja stand in the middle of a field. They all have there eyes closed for some damn reason.

When Naruto opened his eyes with the rest of the shinobi they land immediately on me, and narrowed into a glare when he saw my eyes had been open.

But he doesn't say anything. Instead, with Chiyo in Lee's arms, and Kakashi on Gai's back, we headed back to the Sand Village.

__________________________

Look at us with our quick updates!

Despite the fact Supes and I had to stay up late preparing for her college chem class we got this done quick! (If any of you are taking chem I feel your pain. I took AP chem last year and dieeeeed).

ANYHOW make sure to comment inspiring comments so we can get out another quick update!

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Hey guys! Yeah, somehow we miraculously this one out faster than usual. Anyways, I just pulled a triple shift for my job (think over 24 hours of no sleep) and I have chem in a couple of minutes so wish me luck!

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-S

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