By The Strings

16~ too soon

In no time morning arrived, I quickly got dressed early wanting to walk around the town for a while before training a bit. Yosuke barked waiting for me to put his vest on him for the day.

We walked out of my home and into the empty city, I grabbed some breakfast and tea before heading towards the training grounds.

I stopped in my tracks taking a deep breath, something was wrong. In the sky flew a messenger hawk from the hidden sand village.

I followed it rushing toward the hokages office worried, Yosuke was right behind me.

I gently knocked on the door waiting for Lady Tsunade to tell me to enter but it never came. I let myself in ready to be scolded.

In the room sat many people, team Kakashi appeared to be awaiting a mission.

"Masako! What are you doing here?" She scolded coldly, "I saw a hawk from the sand, I came to see if everything was okay." I spoke honestly for once, a woman rushed in claiming it was urgent and she mentioned the encrypted message handing it to Lady Tsunade.

Everyone gasped.

"The Kazekage of the hidden sand has been taken. By members of the organization called the Akatsuki." Her voice held fear.

"Gaara." My heart dropped hearing Naruto say his name.

"We have more information concerning the Akatsuki, and so the hidden sand has officially requested our help..." She was serious.

"Lady Tsunade, don't tell me you're going to have team Kakashi...?!"

"This is a time of emergency. I can't be wasting time on personnel selection. And besides, we've got someone here who's actually fought against the Akatsuki..." She added

"I understand that but..."

"I will now issue team Kakashi a new mission. Go to the village hidden in the sand immediately, find out what's going on and report back to the hidden leaf. After that, you will follow the orders of the hidden leaf and provide them with backup!" She glanced at me for a moment, "Masako will accompany you and heal the wounded! Now, your dismissed."

My medical bag was on my back and my weapons bag was on my hip. The food bag was around my hips resting on my lower back, and earlier I had put Yosukes best on him which held medical supplies, clothes, and extra things.

We were off at a moment's notice to save Gaara. After a little pow-wow with the pervy sage that is.

It was a long way away to the sand village from here, and they didn't seem to care how fast they got there. None but Naruto that was.

I snapped back to reality hearing Sakura call Temari, she was walking back to the sand village... I explained the situation to her as we rushed through the trees.

"And Kankuro?" She questioned terrified for her brothers. I shook my head telling her we had no idea yet.

I had no care for Narutos sob story as we rushed to the village, my mind was far too busy worrying about Kankuro...

Was he okay? Did he go after Gaara and get killed? Who would annoy me with their banter if not him? I felt something touch my shoulder, Temari had too many emotions swirling in her eyes. "I'm worried too, but we both know him well enough to say he's strong. I'm sure he's okay..."

She didn't quite sound like she believed her own words.

Two days had passed, finally, we were nearing the sand village. Something felt seriously off.

"Kankuro, if I have to come to save your ass a second time you're going to owe me big time," I mumbled to myself as we started our journey through the sand, Temari and I lead the way to the sand village.

"Do you remember the first time you guys thought it would be a good idea to send me and Kankuro alone on a mission?" I laughed trying to light up the mood.

"Yeah, you actually almost killed eachother..." she continued.

"God that feels like only yesterday..."

"We should be arriving soon, let's speed up." Kakashi interrupted us but didn't when naruto was giving his sob story.

And ofcourse, being this close to the sand village something would go wrong. I fed Yosuke something along with Temari knowing the other three where prepared with enough food.

Naruto and Sakura argued like always, the small space we were squished in wasn't helping.

As soon as the storm let up we ran as fast as we could, we needed to be there as fast as we could.

Finally, we where outside the gates of he sand village.

Two sand shinobi guided us through the city and straight to the hospital I came to know so well...

An all to familiar scent was in the air... my heart dropped fearing the worst for Temari. Yosuke barked trying to tell me he smelled it too, "I know, I smell it too." I told him glad the others couldn't understand what he had been saying.

"Its just this way," one said as we got closer and closer.

We entered the room, panic was on Temaris face as both me and Sakura made our way over to the stone table. My hands where shaking and my knees where weak but I had to hide it, I didn't want to scare her worse than she probably already was.