The Fox Sage

Ch. 6 : Kazekage Captured

Once the sun began to rise it woke Ray she still hadn't become accustom to the sun waking her, she sat up yawning. When she heard Kakashi at the door, "are you up Ray, Tsunade has summoned us." Ray threw the blankets off her then proceeded to the door opening it, she was wearing lose sleep shorts and a loose tank top, one of the sleeves had fallen off her shoulder. Kakashi looked away, "could you get dressed, I thought you were taught manners" Ray looked down at herself, "oh alright" she closed the door, opening it only a few moments later dressed and ready to go. They reached Tsunade's office with Naruto and Sakura there as well, "here is your new teams first assignment" he handed Kakashi a piece of paper, after he read it, it was passed around with Naruto highly disappointed, "oh come on I can handle more than this" he complained, "Naruto shut up" Sakura smacked him on the back of the head, "but I can" he protested as he rubbed the back of his head. They argued back and forth for a moment before a woman burst in the room "Lady Hokage urgent message from the deciphering core" the woman put a piece of paper down on Tsunade's desk. "Her eyes widened after reading it, "Team Kakashi you have a new mission!" she exclaimed, Naruto jumped at the sudden urgency. "You will be going to the village hidden in the sand!" Tsunade's assistant looked at her shocked, "are you sure that's a good idea" Tsunade swung around barking at her, "are you questioning me?!" Ray looked from person to person reading their moods 'Tsunade sure is bossy when she's stressed, what's got her so worked up?' Kakashi finally spoke up "um Lady Tsunade what seems to be the issue?" Tsunade snapped her attention back to Kakashi. "The Kazekage has been kidnapped..." she looked at Naruto briefly seeing his worry then to Ray, "...by the Akatsuki." Ray's eyes widened, "are you up to this task?" she said aloud but Ray knew she was directing the question to her, "yes mam!" Naruto and Sakura shouted in unison while Kakashi was looking to Ray from the corner of his eyes, "yes mam" Ray stated less excitable. "Then move out immediately!" Tsunade shouted, the four of them then launched out of the room through the windows. The four of them quickly made their way towards the sand village, Kakashi spoke to Ray quietly as they traveled, "I remember what you said about intel on them, but we will need some information on who were up against" Ray nodded, "once we learn which pair it is I will let you know everything I can." Ray continued to jump through the forests branches, "wait so why is this so urgent for the leaf village?" she asked. "Well since the Chunin exams many years ago the ones Naruto had attended we have formed an alliance with them, that's a story for another day," Kakashi looked to Naruto "more important than that the Kazekage is Naruto's close friend, Garra." Ray looked to Naruto as well, "I see, I'm sure you already know this but they are after the one-tail" Kakashi nodded.

They continued heading for the sand village, they came across Temari who joined them the rest of the way. Along the way, they learned hers and the Kazekage's brother Kankuro had been severely poisoned. 'Poisoned, no severely poisoned it must be Sasori and Deidara' Ray thought to herself upon hearing this information. Once they took a break from their travels Ray separated Kakashi from the group "I believe I know which pair took the Kazekage" Kakashi nodded, "that's good, what information can you provide?" Ray took a seat leaning up against a tree, "thankfully I trained with these two often and they're not the strongest pair in the group actually in my opinion the weakest pair." Kakashi's eyes widened a bit 'the weakest and they still bested Garra' Ray wasn't sure how to respond to his reaction, 'his shock to my statement of them being weak is not a good sign'. "In any case..." Ray then began to explain the abilities of the two of them, how Deidara used explosive clay and Sasori was really a puppet, how he had made himself a puppet a long time ago, also that's probably who poisoned Kankuro. Ray probably knew the most about Sasori's and Deidara's abilities as opposed to the rest of Akatsuki they were the two who trained with her the most. Kakashi was pleased with how much information she had over them, this would defiantly give them the edge against such powerful opponents. After the conversation, they set out towards the sand village once more.

Once in the sand village Sakura immediately started treating Kankuro after a small altercation with a village elder who mistook Kakashi's identity. "Follow me Ray..." Kakashi walked down the hall outside the room where Sakura was treating Kankuro, she followed. "If you worked so closely with Sasori wouldn't you have the knowledge to treat the poison?" he asked, "yes, I do, however who am I to stunt Sakura's progress as a medical ninja" Ray crossed her arms, "this is Kakuro's life though" Kakashi looked at her with understanding but was also shocked at what seemed to be carelessness. "I am aware, if I am needed I will step in, but she is handling it just as she should without any knowledge of the poison" Ray looked down the hallway to the door where the treatment was taking place. Kakashi looked at her a bit irritated but he still understood, he did appreciate that she was letting Sakura put her training to the test. "Let me tell you something though" Ray looked back to Kakashi, "she may be handling it as she should but Sasori's poisons are no easy task to completely neutralize, I expect that I will have to step in to complete that task. However, if she can pull it off not only will she be on her way to being the best medical ninja the five nations has seen, once we reach them when he learns that she has come up with an antidote it might give us the edge needed to beat him" Kakashi looked at her surprised that she was thinking that far ahead. "So how do you want to go about planning a battle plan? Will we tell the Naruto and Sakura about my connections or come up with a lie to hide that you got the information from me?" she looked down in despair at the thought of lying to them. "For now we will lie..." Kakashi noticed her sadness to this idea, "...however, once we return to the village I believe since they are our teammates it will be an appropriate time to tell them the whole story" Ray smiled up at him, "if we tell them now it will only put strain on the trust between the three of you, if we tell them when we return to the village, after you have assisted us in defeating them it will show good faith that you are truly with us" he smiled back at her. "Wont they still be mad they have been lied to though?" Ray looked to Naruto who was sitting on the bench outside the operation room. "Sakura will understand, Naruto may not be too happy but he will understand as well" Kakashi looked to Naruto as well, "ok" Ray looked down still not happy that he would be upset with her at all, "it'll be ok" he placed his hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "Let's see how Sakura is doing" they both walked back to the opening of the room to see the medical gear was getting packed up and Kankuro seemed to have settled down. "Ok most of the poison is out of him but I will still need to make an antidote, can you show me your stock of herbs" Sakura looked to one of the sand medics, "yes follow me" he began to walk towards Kakashi and Ray. "Why don't you join them Ray" Kakashi looked to Ray as Sakura and the medic passed them, Sakura took notice of this request. Ray understood she was to stand by if Sakura couldn't figure it out "yes sensei" she then headed off after Sakura. The three of them went to the sand villages stocks of herbs to make the antidote, once there Sakura got to work on it while Ray observed carefully. "So, are you a medical ninja Ray?" Sakura asked as she mixed some of herbs together, Ray nodded, "don't you want to help?" Sakura asked a bit agitated that she wasn't helping. "I feel I would just get in your way you're on a roll. I don't want to take your spot light in saving the Kazekage's brother from a poison created by 'Sasori of the Red Sand' either. I will help if you need me to though" Ray wanted to stick to her plan, so she attempted to appeal to Sakura's vein of success. Sakura smirked a little happy that somebody was acknowledging her hard work and talent, Rays plan had worked.

After many hours Sakura had come up with an antidote. They immediately took it to Kankuro after she made two more for safe keeping. After Kankuro took the medicine they headed out to find Garra along with the village elder, known as Lady Chio, that had attacked Kakashi. Kakashi used his ninja hounds to sniff him out. Finally, they had found where Garra was, there was already a backup squad waiting for them made up of four shinobi she hadn't met, their names seemed to be Might Guy, Rock Lee, Neji and Tenten. There was no clear entry to where Garra was, it didn't take long for the ninja to figure out how to gain entry and put a plan in motion. After gaining entry to the cavern Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, Lady Chio and Ray saw the end result of the tailed beast being extracted from Garra. Naruto would not accept that Garra was dead, everybody else understood this. Despite this fact Deidara and Sasori still needed to be defeated. After some back and forth conversation or rather argument Deidara left the cavern with Garr's dead body, Ray knew he was attempting to get Naruto's fox demon, she knew Kakashi understood this as well. Of course, Naruto ran after Deidara with Kakashi close behind him, "Ray stay here, Sakura, Lady Chio follow me" he shouted as he ran off. "But Ray..." Sakura protested, "don't worry just come with me!" he stood there looking back and forth between Naruto beginning to disappear in the distance and Sakura who was torn "She will be fine" he barked. Sakura began to follow him, Lady Chio however stood her ground, "I will remain here Kakashi, there is nothing you can do to convince me otherwise" she kept her eyes on Sasori. Kakashi grunted he didn't have time for this so he took off with Sakura behind him.