Elusive {Book 2}

Sasori's Late

"Naruto." A silky voice called out.  The blond in question turned and looked over at Orochimaru confusedly.  Naruto had spent the past couple of days working on his rasengan, taste testing the different ramen stands in the town, trying not to fall asleep during Jiraiya's theories about Kabuto's jutsu, and trying to write a letter to Sakura and Sasuke.

It was pretty difficult.

"What's up creepy man?" Naruto asked.  Orochimaru had to prevent the upcoming eye roll. 

"Tsunade would like you to have your messenger deliver this to Sakura when you send her a letter." Orochimaru held out a scroll tied shut.  Naruto grabbed it and looked at it confusedly. 

"What's in it?" He asked suspiciously.  Orochimaru shrugged.

"I suggest you don't attempt to open it.  There's a reason I'm delivering it instead of Jiraiya." Naruto's eyes widened and he didn't know whether to laugh at Jiraiya's expense or gulp at his probable future. 

"Thanks." Naruto said slowly as Orochimaru walked off.  Naruto turned back in his seat and looked down to his barely written letter.  He sighed before deciding that it would be easier to explain the summoning situation in person rather than on paper and decided to make the letter shorter than planned.  Naruto finished Sasuke's letter first and then he finished Sakura's, and decided to ask Orochimaru to send one of his snake summons to deliver the letters. 

Sasuke's letter would arrive first, because they were closer to Kumogakure than they were to Suna.  Sasuke and Naruto had been sending each other letters back and forth for the past month.  Sasuke had told Naruto about becoming enemies with Shinja and Naruto had told him that they think they found out why the summons weren't going back.  But Naruto couldn't explain why.  He wanted to do that in person. 

Sasuke had wanted to send a letter to Sakura, but he wasn't sure of what to tell her.  Naruto had assured him many times that Sakura would be happy just getting a letter from him, but Sasuke didn't seem to believe it.  Naruto almost groaned at his friend's stupidity.

$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

When the civilian's screams sounded throughout the village, that's when they knew that it was starting. Sakura and Temari had quickly run out to see where the screams were coming from, while Gaara and Kanuro went to do their own thing. Rasa and Chiyo had decided that Gaara and Kanukuro's first priority should be to warn the third Kazekage while Sakura and Temari should try and get civilians to safety. Sasori would go to the village borders and let his allies in.  Rasa and Chiyo were supposed to go fight off the enemies until backup arrived. 

Temari sported civilians running towards the center of the village so she, along with Sakura, ran towards the direction the civilians were running from. Temari ran ahead while Sakura made sure to keep the path clear so civilians could get through quicker. When Sakura finally caught up with Temari she saw the sand kunoichi aiding some sand shinobi in pushing the enemy away from the Suna border.

It seemed that all the Suna ninja thought that it would be better to fight out in the open desert. Sakura smirked and yanked a necklace with a crocodile charm on it off before throwing it on the ground. There was a proof of smoke before a puppet the size of Kankuro's Salamander appeared.

This puppet was a wooden Crocodile with a protective metal back and tail. The mouth was big enough to store a couple swords and the eyes were hollowed out in the middle. She ran over to join Temari and the other ninja, quickly taking advantage of the enemy.

The enemies were a mix of different ninja.  Some had the Otogakure head bands while others had headbands from other villages, but they had marked out the symbol making them rouge.  Then there were ninja without headbands. 

$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$

Sasori ran as fast as he could using his puppets to clear a path through the enemies so he could get to the border.  Suna ninja were scattered.  To his knowledge a lot of ANBU were doing missions.  The majority of the ninja in the village were genin and chunin.  Though, Suna did have some good ninja on their side. 

The third Kazekage would be fighting along with Rasa and the well known Sand Sibilngs.  Chiyo and her brother Ebizo would be in the front lines.  Though Sasori hadn't spoken with Ebizo, he knew the old man would find his sister and decide to fight with her.

Sasori made it to the border after awhile and he saw Deidara waiting with another man.  The other man was leaning against a tall sword that was stuck into the ground.  He wore a black sleeveless shirt and black pants.  He wore bandages around his mouth and neck like a scarf.  

"Deidara." Sasori greeted.  Deidara nodded. 

"Sasori un.  You look better." Deidara claimed.  Sasori rolled his eyes.  The man next to Deidara sized up Sasori before nodding.

"We're waiting for someone." The man said.  Sasori raised an eyebrow. 

"Suna is under attack." Sasori stated in a bland voice giving the two a plain look.  Deidara put his hands up in a surrender mode.

"Un.  We didn't intend for this.  Kisame just really wants to take a shot at the Otogakure ninja that are going to be there.  He has a grudge against them." Deidara claimed. 

"I have very little paitence." Sasori mumbled putting his fingers up to the bridge of his nose.  Deidara shrugged with a grin. 

"He should get here soon un."

$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

Things at Suna had started off good.  There weren't as many sound ninja as they had thought there would be.  They were doing pretty good guarding their side of the village.  Ebizo had come and fought with them until they had the upper hand.  Once they began to over power the sound ninja he left and went to help secure the other side of the village where the third Kazekage was.

Though also whenever they were winning, Kankuro had caught sight of Teki and Furai fleeing.  It wasn't until Teki fled that some Suna ninja turned and joined the other side.   Then things started getting out of hand as more sound ninja had arrived and Sasori still hadn't come back with his promised backup. 

On the battle field were Sakura, Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, Chiyo, Rasa, about five ANBU, seven jonin, thirteen chunin, and sixty enemies and counting.  The remanining Suna ninja were working on protecting the other side of the village, and trying to keep the civilians safe. 

"Chiyo where's Sasori?" Rasa asked as he teamed up with Gaara and the two of them used their sand ability to pull the enemy in the ground to their knees. 

"I don't know." Chiyo stated as she and her Chikamatsu Collection of puppets had incapacitated the ninjas that Gaara and Rasa didn't get.  "He's never late."

"Yeah!" Sakura called out in agreement to what Chiyo had said.  She had been using Croc, her puppet, to launch poison weapons while she had used taijutsu against other ninja.  "Always fussing about being late. 'You're late brat,' 'Brat if you want to be trained come on time.' So annoying!" Sakura socked a guy in the face, holding back a wince as she heard his nose crack.

"You don't think he died?" Kankuro asked wondering if the puppeteer had been attacked.

"Of old age probably." Sakura mumbled to herself as she continued her fist fight.  She was so using this against Sasori the next time she was late.

$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&$&

A/N: Thanks to all the people who responded to my authors note last chapter. Your comments helped a lot and I'm thankful.

Next chapter should be up by Friday. We'll probably finish up all the Suna action and something dramatic will happen that affects Sakura's time in Suna. I don't think we'll see any Naruto action next chapter, but we will see some Sasuke.

See you guys! Thanks for reading!