The Land of Rivers
Team Kakashi
The entire team, along with the sand siblings, was well on their way to the Akatsuki hideout and Naruto was trying not to disrupt the entire cell as they traveled. He tried to keep his anger down to a minimum before he spoke. He took a deep breath, reigning in his anger and the surprisingly possessive demon before he spoke. He explained to the sand siblings about how the fox said that Mina was his mate. Gaara knew immediately what Naruto was referring to (in terms of the tailed-beasts) but his sister was unclear as to what he meant by this.
"Fox?" Temari asked.
"The Nine Tails Fox." Gaara responded.
The sand siblings remained rather attentive to what their fellow shinobi had to say. Naruto repeated the fox's message of how the blonde Akatsuki member had dark intentions for their mate and that he needed to be killed. The Leaf Ninja's eyes flashed a dangerous red when he said this and a low growl rolled through his chest. He had never felt this protective about his teammate before. Sure, he always looked after his teammates. They were his friends and family and he hated it when someone was in danger. When someone was in danger, he fought for them hard. However, he never felt the possessive nature of the fox...until now, of course, and he was really feeling it.
"Hold on, Naruto." Kakashi suddenly ordered.
"We don't have time to stop, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto declared angrily.
"We've got company." Kankuro said.
Naruto quickly sought out the source of the new, approaching shinobi. As they came closer, he relaxed as he recognized the chakra signature that belonged to Team Guy. He smirked as TenTen, Neji, Rock Lee and Guy made their appearances. Rock Lee grinned when he saw his blonde companion and vowed then and there that he would challenge him to a spar. TenTen and Neji simply sighed at their teammate's antics. They simply just didn't have the time for this. They were here to lend a hand to their fellow Leaf Ninja after all.
"Now's not the time for that, Lee." TenTen admonished. "We're here to back Naruto's team up."
"It looks like they already had back-up." Neji observed.
Temari explained that they had come across each other by chance as she was returning from the Leaf Village and her brothers weren't too far behind. After being briefed of the situation, they simply offered their assistance. Kakashi added that the more help that they had against the Akatsuki, the better. The atmosphere became serious and the group then continued their journey towards the base, following Kakashi's ninja dog.
Mina's POV
Well, damn. Not only was I being persecuted by Deidara but now I was being taunted by Sasori. He wasn't taunting me verbally. The taunts were there in his gray eyes and whenever he pulled his puppets out in front of me. He was making sure that I got his message and I got it loud and clear. Once the Akatsuki was done with me and got their hands on Naruto, I would be discarded...and turned into a freaking puppet. Quite frankly, I think being turned into a puppet is a little less daunting than being blown up into smithereens. On the other hand, if I was blown up into smithereens by Deidara, then Sasori wouldn't get to use me as one of his many puppets and, thus, wouldn't be able to use any of the jutsus that I had worked hard to create on my own.
God, I'm a masochist.
I did consider myself a masochist because there were times that I actually looked forward to feeling pain. I had to deal with pain with most of my life and not feeling pain made me feel, oddly, empty. It made me think and it made me feel. Plus, feeling pain brought some much needed distraction to the morbid situations that I faced...like now. Every time Deidara finished with me and getting the crap beaten out of me by Sasori on occasion distracted me from the molestation that I faced.
Nothing that I can't handle.
That was true. Pain was something that I can handle. Strangely enough, I was kind of like that blonde bastard. He had a high tolerance for pain and I was the same way. Just admitting the fact that I had something in common with that idiot was painful in itself. I sighed. If I died here in the Naruto world, then I guess things would go back to how they were meant to be before my arrival. History would return to its normal flow. Then again, it probably wouldn't, but what did I care? I saved a life or two and, to me, that was enough. No one back in my world would miss me. I would just be a ghost...like I always had been.
"Well, little kunoichi," Sasori's voice called. "Looks like we got company coming rather soon."
I didn't react, which disappointed the puppet master. I wasn't about to give anyone the pleasure of reacting to news like that. I always held on to the hope that Naruto would come and get me. Little did I know that I would see a different side to the blonde shinobi...and the fox, especially.
