While showing no outward emotion Gaara mentally cursed as the giant explosive began to fall on the village, redirecting his sand Gaara created a large protective barrier over the village in the shape of a bowl. The giant and odd shaped explosive hit the barrier and exploded, however something happened that surprised and shocked both Gaara and Deidra. The explosion was beginning to warp towards one point as if it was caught in some kind of slipstream, everything from the explosion to Gaara's sand was pulled into that one spot before it disappeared.
"What happened to my art?" Deidra asked in frustration as he looked over to see an equally stunned Gaara. Just then something stuck into the head of his clay owl, he didn't even get the chance to see what it was before a large explosion took over the owl he was on.
Gaara watched as Deidra's bird exploded in confusion, he was not sure what had just happened. When the explosion lived out its life Gaara saw that Deidra was gone. The young Kazekage looked around to see if there was any trace of the Akatsuki member left, which was when he noticed a cloaked figure on the roof looking at him. He didn't know why but Gaara felt a sense of familiarity when he saw the blue eyes of the stranger, when the Kazekage blinked the figure was gone causing him to wonder if he had seen it at all. Shaking his head Gaara floated his sand down until he was on the ground, where he became surrounded by his ninja who were congratulating him on beating such a strong opponent. Soon after the villagers who had seen Gaara's act of defending the village came out and began to cheer for him too, despite not being hated anymore Gaara was finding it awkward to receive such high praise and affection; especially when several woman exclaimed how hot he was.
"Gaara!" turning his head Gaara spotted Kankuro and Baki coming towards him.
"Kankuro, Baki," Gaara greeted.
"What happened?" Kankuro asked, "what was that when the explosion and your sand…"
"I have no clue," Gaara said shaking his head, "I have never seen anything like it."
"So then if you didn't do that then who did?" asked Baki.
The three of them were silent amongst the cheering, none of them had an answer to that. Deciding not to worry about that for now Gaara looked out at the people who were cheering his name, a small smile graced his lips. It was this kind of recognition and desire he had longed for, to be needed and wanted by people because of his willingness to protect his precious people. That brought an even bigger smile to Gaara's face as he thought about the person who told him that expression, he would have to thank Naruto the next time they saw each other.
Several miles away from Suna Deidra cursed as he sat down on the ground in exhaustion, not only had he lost an arm but he multiple second and even a third degree burn from that explosion. What the hell was that anyway? One minute he had been about to enact his plan to use the village as a means to force Gaara to use his special sand so he could set his trap, then his jutsu gets swallowed up and somehow ends up exploding on him. The very thought that his art could do that sounded ridiculous, and yet it had somehow happened.
"DEIDRA-SEMPAI!"
Deidra cursed as he turned to Akatsuki's newest member, Tobi was an oddball who wore an orange spiral mask centered around his right eye whole. He didn't know anything about the man other then he was childish and annoying, "What do you want!" Deidra asked with a glare on his face.
"Ohoh Sempai is mad!" Tobi yelled as he threw his hands in the air and began to run around in circles.
"Tobi I swear if you-"
"Leader-Sama wants a report on the one tails."
Deidra turned to the man who interrupted him, Zetsu was man who looked like he had been swallowed by a plant and had just his head sticking out. One half of him was white while the other was black, it had been a common joke among Akatsuki that this showed that Zetsu was half good and half evil. Of course there was some truth to that, the white side was fairly polite and not as interested in fighting while the black side was a lot more violent and liked to feast on human flesh.
"I wasn't able to get the Ichibi," Deidra said, "But it wasn't my fault yeah." he added hastily as he held his one good arm out in defense. "I was just about to capture him with my high yield C3 when it got sucked into some kind of worm whole, it was weird yeah. And then my own bird exploded and if it wasn't for a quick Kariwimi I would be dead yeah…"
As Deidra explained what happened 'Tobi' had gone silent, his explosion was sucked up? Why does that sound so familiar…
"What about Sasori where is he?" asked Zetsu.
"Don't know," Deidra shrugged, "I didn't see him yeah."
"This is not good, we will need to report this to Pain-Sama." Zetsu spoke
"Don't worry Tobi will tell him!" Tobi shouted out as he waved an arm around, "after all Tobi is a good boy!"
It was night and Gaara was currently walking down the hall of the Kazekage tower to finish the paper work that this incident was going to cause, he would also have to send a letter to Konoha letting them know Akatsuki was on the move. Gaara stayed up like this most nights anyway, since he had the Ichibi inside of him Gaara could not sleep lest the giant Tanuki take over and go on a rampage. Though he had gotten used to not sleeping, walking up to his door Gaara tensed at feeling a presence already inside. Being cautious Gaara opened the door and stepped inside as he summoned his sand in case he had to fight, the sand returned to his gourd as soon as he saw who it was. It was the shinobi who he was positive had helped him sitting at his desk with his feet propped onto it, the one Gaara was sure had used that odd jutsu.
"Who are you?" Gaara asked wearily, just because this guy had helped him did not automatically make him a friend.
"I'm rather hurt that you would talk to a friend in such a way Gaara," the cloaked figure said as he stood up. Gaara tensed as the man walked away from the desk, only for his hands to fall slack at his side as the man removed his hood and face mask.
"Naruto?" Gaara questioned and though it was still emotionless, those who knew Gaara could tell he was surprised.
Naruto grinned, "It's been a long time Gaara, a little over three years if I'm not mistaken."
Gaara blinked once, twice, thrice, "that was you who helped me wasn't it?"
"Of course," Naruto said with a smirk, "I was on my way to visit since I had just captured a bounty near here when I saw your battle." Naruto shrugged as he walked up to Gaara, "I decided to step in when I saw that large explosion, which reminds me," Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a scroll. He put it out to Gaara who was looking at it, "inside is the person who was that man's partner I believe. He had been standing just outside the gates as I was making my way in, I believe he is a shinobi that was once a part of Suna and figured you may want his body back."
Gaara took the scroll and noticed that it had the kanji for 'puppet' on it, "I will give this to my morticians later." Gaara walked over to his desk and set the scroll down before turning back to Naruto, "it is good see you again 'Namikaze'."
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