A New Way of Ninja, (Naruto)

2: Feeling The Heat

[OP: Naruto AMV to "The Valley" by ConflictRevolution]

Temari almost choked on air when she saw the flash of light. It was the same as she'd seen before when she first found them. But through the smoke and steam, they couldn't see exactly what made it...but the four strangers were gone.

"What the heck was that?" Kankuro said. "That wasn't like any teleportation jutsu I've ever seen."

"Or earth jutsu," Temari said strangely.

Gaara said nothing, but he started walking down the street to where they'd been.

"Crap, he's going!" Temari said.

"'Course," Kankuro said. "You know he's not going to let anyone who threatens him get away. Alive, that is."

"I'm an idiot!" Temari slapped her thigh and charged after Gaara, who was now continuing down the street.

Kankuro followed.

* * *

Tumbling into the sand outside the village, everyone spit out grit.

"What happened back there?" Momo asked.

"I think you girls hit a nerve," Dabi groaned, dusting himself off. "Maybe don't talk about agony and crap upfront next time, huh? That guy looked like an assassin."

"And are you sure you want to meet him somewhere alone?" Shoto demanded. "No witnesses?"

Shine blinked. "Why? What else are we going to do? If he doesn't follow us, we'll just have to go back in there. I saved us trouble. Oh, look, there he is."

Sure enough, Gaara had just come out the gate--using sand, it looked like, to glide over the ground. In the harsh glare out here, they could now see little sand granules moving all over his skin, like ants.

Momo gasped, "H...how is he doing that?"

"That's an insane amount of control," Shoto said.

That seemed to anger Gaara.

He raised his hand. Sand rose up out of the ground and squeezed around all their shoulders, tightly.

"Why are you here?" he demanded, in a harsh, cold voice.

"Demon...sand..." Dabi said in a strained voice. "What...next...? Demon...flowers?" [Nah, that's not till the next book.]

Gaara suddenly seemed startled. "You here to kill the monster? Did Leaf send you?"

Just then Temari came sprinting out. The sentry was just casually watching from the wall in resignation, no apparent concern. Temari stopped when she saw the scene and sighed in resignation, not moving to stop it or seeming to be interested in questioning them.

"Leaf again?" Shine sputtered, spitting stand out of her mouth. "What is that? Your sworn enemy? Let us go." Her tone was strangely commanding.

Temari looked at her like she'd lost her mind. Kankuro now could be seen near the gate, also just watching.

Suddenly the sand around Shoto exploded off. Ice shot out from him, and he dropped to the ground, panting hard. With an intense look, he sprang to his feet.

"He broke the sand coffin?" Temari said in astonishment.

"Co-coffin?" Momo said, then gasped. It was tightening. Dabi's sand erupted in blue flames and it melted right off him, some of it turning to glass shards from the heat, astonishing Temari further and Gaara even more so. He looked almost scared for a second.

Todoroki shot fire at the sand around Momo, but it was ineffective. He swore. "It's not hot enough."

Dabi moved to use his.