Desert Flower

The Code Word Is...

About halfway in the forest a sudden scream pierced through the air. Naruto, Yuri, Sakura and Sasuke stopped, wondering where it had come from.

"W-Was that a human scream?" Sakura asked nervously.

"Looks like the forest got someone...or another team got them." Yuri said then she turned to Sasuke, holding out the scroll.

"Here's the scroll. I'm going to scout out ahead." Yuri told them.

"Wait! We need to stick together!" Sakura shouted.

"It'll be faster to know where other teams are." Yuri told her. "Oh, and while we're out here. I think that we should have a code word."

"Code word?" Naruto asked.

"Well, there are other shinobi lurking around. They can pretend to be one of us. We need something to know if we're really who we say we are." Yuri explained.

"It needs to be something short and simple." Sakura spoke. Naruto hummed to himself, thinking, until Yuri spoke.

"Tokage."

"To-kage?" Naruto blinked confused.

"Sounds good enough." Sasuke replied.

"Okay, I'm heading out. I'll be back in five minutes. Don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone." Yuri smiled to them, and she left, hopping through the trees.

As Yuri was hopping through the trees another scream pierced the air, making her stop. Some more poor unfortunate souls fell victim to the forest. Suddenly, something lunged out at Yuri through the leaves. Yuri quickly moved and threw a kunai, stabbing a jumping leech through the bark. Then a few more rushed at her as the leeches fell from the treetops. Yuri quickly dodged and threw her weapons at the leeches, killing them. It was not good to stay in one place for so long. She needed to keep moving.

Then Yuri's eyes widen when she saw some familiar faces and quickly landed on a branch and hid in some leaves. Below her, it was Gaara, Temari and Kankuro and they were facing against three rain ninjas. Then she saw Shikamaru, Choji and Ino a little further away, hiding behind some bushes.

"Damn, Sand brat, challenging head on like this." one of the mist ninjas glared at Gaara.

"You'll die." The rain ninja, smirked, that Gaara had challenged to fight with.

"Enough talking. Let's do it, old man from the hidden rain." Gaara spoke.

"Gaara, maybe we should ask them what scroll they have first?" Kankuro suggested. "If we both have the same scroll then there's no need to fight."

"That doesn't matter." Gaara said. "This guy looked at me funny. So he must die."

The rain ninja quickly pulled out some umbrellas, spinning them. "Then hurry up and do it! Here I come!" He growled. He threw the umbrellas into the air and they floated above Gaara. The rain ninja smirked and performed a hand sign. "Die, brat!"

Senbon needles came raining down, straight at Gaara. The man laughed.

"There's no escape from this jutsu! All the needles are controlled by my chakra to strike their prey!" All at once, the needles crashed into Gaara. Yuri's eyes widen a little in concern. Then her eyes widen in shock at what she saw. Gaara was encased in a ball of sand as it protected him from the flying weapons. None had pierced him as it couldn't get through his sand defense.

"Is that it?" Gaara spoke, with his arms crossed. The three rain ninjas stared in disbelief and in shock.

"The sand is packed into the gourd with chakra, it protects his body and the surrounding area. A jutsu only allowed by Gaara. It moves against Gaara's will. It's his ultimate defense." Kankuro spoke.