The Willow Maiden [Naruto]

{28} Escape Plan

"Ruka! Do it now!"

"Hai!"

Deidara intructs Ruka to use her powers on Gaara, the 1 tailed Jinchuriki. Ruka complies and strugglingly raises her head to control the earth beneath the sand.

Seeing how hard it is to collect most of the Green, buried underneath the sand, this might drain her. 

The roots from beneath the sand gathered up to the sky and slowly wrapped around Gaara, but Gaara was quick to get away from it. But what he didn't see coming was the thorns wrapping around his body from behind. 

"Katsu!" Deidara shouted as he sent another clay bomb towards Gaara. Gaara was caught in the blast, thanks to Ruka's thorns, and had fallen unconscious. As for Ruka, she had weakened herself. "Hey, take it easy now." Deidara catches Ruka as she leans on him. "You did a good job, hn. Now, let's get back to Sasori. We've kept him waiting long enough." 

"Right. . ." Ruka nods her head as the two of them went back to where Sasori was waiting for them. 

"It's about time you two got finished. What took you so long?!" Sasori swing at Deidara, who dodges the attack. 

"Hey, take it easy. The Jinchuriki was a lot stronger than I thought. He wouldn't go down easy. But thanks to Ruka's thorns to hold him in place, I was able to blast him." 

"You better be sure he isn't dead before the extraction." 

"Don't worry, I made sure of that. Let's get moving, hn." Deidara, Sasori, and Ruka went back to the hideout, carrying Gaara on the giant clay bird. 

While they walked back to the hideout, Ruka could not take her eyes off Gaara. She swore that she had seen him before, but seeing how her memory is faint, she can't remember. 'Who are you? . . .' She thought to herself. 

It didn't take for the word to spread about Gaara's capture. Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, with a few other recruits, were on their way to the hideout. "What's the plan if we happen to run into Ruka, Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura questions. 

"We don't hurt her. If we attack her, she will convince herself that we are her enemies. We need to talk to her calmly, and try our best not to trigger her." Kakashi informs. 

"But last time we did that, she almost killed us!" Sakura recalls. 

"That's why we're going to do things differently. But we need her to be alone. Now that she's with the Akatsuki, she knows that they will protect her no matter what. She feels safe with them." 

"Just leave it to me, Sensei!" Naruto shouts and goes ahead of the group. 

Back with the Akatsuki, Ruka waited in her garden while the Akatsuki was extracting the 1 tails out of Gaara. As mentioned, she felt at ease in her garden. All she had to do was wait until they were finished. But her mind was elsewhere at the moment. 

'Why do you look familiar to me, 1 tails? . . .' She thought to herself, recalling Gaara's face. 

"I hope we can become good friends, Lord Gaara!" Ruka blinks, hearing her younger self say this to Gaara when she first met him. 

'Lord. . . Gaara?' She repeated. 'Kaze. . .kage. . . I. . .' As much as Ruka wanted to remember, she shook her head, giving up, because she was starting to get a headache. 

"Ruka, they're finished." Zetsu appears beside her. 

"It has only been 3 days already? . . . Have I been standing here within my own thoughts?" Ruka questions herself, and Zetsu. 

"Is there a problem with that?" 

"I guess not. . ." Ruka sighs and leaves her Garden while going to the hideout to meet up with Deidara and Sasori. 

"There you are. Where have you been, hn?" Deidara asks Ruka with a smirk. She doesn't answer him because he knows where she was. Ruka looks at Gaara's lifeless body underneath Deidara and frowns. "He's dead, you know. The sealing was a success, hn." 

"And now we have company coming. . ." Sasori informs in an irritated tone. "You know the plan, don't you, Ruka?" 

"Hm?" Ruka blinks with confusion before looking at the closed entrance of the hideout, then nodding her head. If an intruder came by, Ruka would have to hide out in her garden and escape, then regroup with another set of the Akatsuki members that are close by. That's how she was taught. "Somebody is coming? . . ." 

"Yeah, but they're too late." Deidara smirks. "This is going to be fun." 

The entrance to the hideout was crushed and busted open by Sakura, and her, Naruto, Kakashi, and Chiyo entered into the hideout. Ruka's eyes slightly widened when she sees the blonde shinobi once again.

Naruto Uzumaki. 

"Ruka!" He shouts at her. 

"The 9 tailed fox, hn. You two know each other?" Deidara looks at Ruka with a smirk. 

"No. . ." Ruka slowly shakes her head. 

'As I thought. She still doesn't remember. She's gotten use to being in the Akatsuki. . .' Kakashi says within his thoughts when he hears Ruka's answer. 

"Well, you know the plan, Ruka. Get going." Deidara instructs Ruka, who complies by nodding her head, and takes running into her garden and out the back entrance. 

"Ruka, wait!" Sakura shouts after her and takes a step forward, but is stopped by Sasori's puppet tail while Deidara takes off with Gaara's body

"Stick to the plan! Let's go, Naruto!" Kakashi shouts and goes after the Akatsuki member with Gaara." 

"Yeah, let's go!" 

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