Baki had finished transporting the drugged shinobi out of the town.

The heat from the fires were behind him and the coolness of the desert at night lay in front. Three miles east from there was Kankuro and Ritsu with the Konoha shinobi. The rebel army had swept past him. He had hidden just in time by ducking into a building with the cart of unconscious shinobi, watching from the window the hordes of rebels filling the streets. It took a good fifteen minutes for them to clear out, and it was another ten to make sure there weren't any stragglers until Baki went on his way again, even more determined to return as soon as possible as backup.

Now, as he set off into the open, he sensed the attack that came at him. He redirected it so that the force made the attacker flip and land away from the drugged shinobi.

Noboru stood in front of him. The kunai he'd swung at Baki falling into pieces in his hands. Baki took in the unraveling way his eyes shone, and his mouth shook into his crazed smile.

"Look at you, saving people. Suna sure has changed if you're going out of your way to save criminals."

"Shouldn't you be guarding your master?" Baki said. "Aren't you his right hand man?"

Noboru laughed maniacally. "He can go get killed by Suna's monster if he likes. I'm not going to stand between that. What I want is to rip you limb from limb."

"I don't suppose you've reconsidered your answer, then?" Baki provoked. "Are you sure you want to say you got roped into this willingly?"

"Shut your mouth."

"Look around you. Does it appear like you're winning?"

Noboru's composure completely snapped. "I can at least kill you!"

Baki let out a full bodied sigh and when he next opened his eyes they were sharp and deadly. He could tell this wouldn't be much of a fight.

Noboru attacked him first with an earth jutsu, which was thrown so haphazardly that Baki didn't need to put in much effort to dodge. Another incompetent earth jutsu, and another, and another. Baki had yet to attempt a strike.

Enraged, Noboru attempted fire jutsus, their flames uncontrolled and sputtering weakly.

Noboru let loose a scream of frustration. "Keep still, fucker!"

"Why are you holding back on your wind techniques?" Baki asked. "You had no peer in wind jutsu back in the day."

"I don't need those to take care of the likes of--!"

Baki had appeared right in front of Noboru and his hand pressed into the man's stomach. "Futon: Lung Compress."

All of the air from Noboru's lungs sucked inward, pulling the organ with it. Noboru couldn't take in another breath. His lungs ripped and he coughed out the blood that leaked. Baki held the man's arms behind his back and pressed a forearm to his throat. Noboru's struggles gradually weakened until he fell limp.

Baki dropped him and hurried to the unconscious rogues without a single additional act for the man he'd just defeated, though his thoughts lingered.

Noboru hadn't had enough resolve. That was why his earth and fire jutsu were lacking. Perhaps, his wind jutsu had abandoned him just as he had abandoned the Sand. Was it that Noboru had turned his back on the Sand, or had the Sand turned its back on him? It was probably one and the same.

Baki had gone, leaving Noboru there so that the wind could envelope him in sand.

There were three of them. One, an S-rank, the others were only B's. They dashed up the tower to arrive like wind through the new holes they punctured into the walls. Kankuro had to dodge a barrage of electric kunai. One of the B's charged at him, a close proximity fighter, but with a quick maneuvering of his fingers, Karasu's arm shot out and hit the shinobi square in the back with a poisoned blade.

They went down as Kankuro's attention was drawn to the other two. The remaining B rank was engaged with Ritsu who stuck close to the Nara, restricted by the defensive nature of his role as protector, and kept the enemy at bay with long-range attacks. Kankuro sent Black Ant their way, leaving him with Karasu.

"Target the foreigner." The S-class instructed the remaining B class, not bothering to keep it a secret.

The S-class then wove her seals and fire danced, everybody's shadows flickering like trapped birds. Kankuro and his puppet dodged, though Kankuro had to pat out a tiny fire that had managed to singe his sleeve.

"A fire specialist, huh?" Kankuro smiled through the bad news. "Looks like I shouldn't pull back my punches."

With Black Ant by his side, Ritsu was on the same level as the B-class. And more than wanting to attack him, the rogue focused more on trying to get to the Nara.

Kankuro and Karasu rushed the S-class, not giving her a chance to free her hands to make more jutsu. They managed to get her off balance. She fell backwards.

Black Ant left Ritsu's side. It opened itself to catch the S-class.

A split second before the rogue fell into Black Ant's torso, she caught her balance and then swung her short blades down, skinning the arms off of the puppet's sides. Now just a hollowed shell, Kankuro didn't bother keeping him attached. With a resounding thud, the puppet dropped to the ground and rolled until it stopped against a wall.

An odd sound was in the background. It kept demanding more attention by getting more and more obnoxious. It was a hissing?

The smell of smoke.

Kankuro and the S class both paused. They looked over at the smoking and hissing body of the dead B-class just as a big flash blinded the area.

"Get down!" Kankuro managed to say before an explosion threw them all back.

He expected and prepared for the collision against the wall with a blast of chakra through his back, cushioning the impact slightly. He blinked the spots out of his vision as quickly as he could, but before he was ready the building let out an ominous moan from all around them and it shook with shivers.

A huge snap and the sounds and shivers intensified.

"It's collapsing!" somebody yelled.

The tower crumbled under its own weight. The floor vanished and then readjusted under them as their world rocked. Black Ant's torso flew around like a barrel, its detached arms clattered about. Dust and pieces of the building were knocked loose.

The deadweight Nara went rolling away towards the holes in the wall. The B class took the chance to get to him but Ritsu tackled him down. Just as Ritsu was about to reach the Konoha shinobi, the B class had grabbed a hold of his ankle and yanked him to the ground.

The Konoha shinobi was just over the edge when Kankuro dove and caught his wrist. Kankuro pulled him up again just before the final crash to the ground that clattered their bones.

Everything settled.

First person to recover their composure wins.

Ritsu spat needles into the B class's eyes. The rogue screamed and Ritsu managed to twist his ankle out of the man's grip. Kankuro was playing defense as the S-class took this chance to throw everything she had at him. The Nara was hanging limply on his back while Kankuro jumped around to evade fireball after fireball.

"You'd harm the Councilman's toy? Doesn't he really want this guy?" Kankuro said while flying around.

"He can find another toy soon enough. Right now, I'm just enjoying the fight."

Kankuro took this opening to make Crow shoot needles at the rogue. The needles went through the rogue who turned into a pile of debris from the tower.

A clone!

Kankuro was completely blind sighted as a punch came point blank at his face and a kick sent him flying.

The blows separated him from the Nara who landed closest to Ritsu and the B class.

Both Ritsu and the remaining rogues bolted to the Konoha shinobi. Ritsu got there first.

It was Ritsu against two rogues. He threw dozens of kunai at both of them. The B rogue didn't catch the trick in time. He tried to dodge illusions of kunai and didn't expect the real ones right behind them. Three landed, one went straight into his cheek, the other two around his chest. The S-class didn't even falter, noticing the slight genjutsu as soon as it was utilized. A rib breaking kick sent Ritsu flying away from the Konoha shinobi and he collided against the wall, and fell gasping for breath.

Through foggy eyes and from his place on the ground, Ritsu saw the enemy raise a knife to strike, plunged it down toward the Konoha shinobi.

The blade never met its mark. Kankuro had stood between them. Kankuro's broad back was punctured through with a sword.

"No!" Ritsu screamed.

Kankuro choked out blood and the rogue let him drop to the ground, spluttering through blood.

She scoffed. "You let your guard down. Is this foreigner really worth your life, Kankuro?"

She stepped over him to the Konoha shinobi. She grabbed the front of his shirt to pull him up.

"All this trouble. I don't know what the Councilman sees in this bra--" Her sentence was interrupted by one powerful swing of an arm.

The rogue's throat was slashed open and gushing blood. The head landed on the ground. The decapitated body's hand released the Konoha shinobi's front and the Nara landed onto his feet as the rogue's body crumpled to the floor.

The Nara, drenched in blood, smirked and cast aside the blade he'd used to kill the rogue. His features broadened and roughened, his frame filled out.

Kankuro cracked his stiff neck from lying in an awkward position for too long as the unconscious Nara. The Kankuro who had been dead on the floor shed off his appearance to turn into the puppet who had been in his place, and it laid there with the kunai uselessly in its chest. "Heh. Who let their guard down, jan?"

"Kankuro-senpai!" Ritsu said, weak with relief.

Kankuro hurried to his side to help him up. "Sorry for worrying you, Ritsu."

"If you were the Konoha shinobi and the puppet was you, where is the Konoha shinobi?"

Kankuro led Ritsu over to the broken puppet of Black Ant that had been de-limbed. Kankuro pried its torso open to reveal the Nara who had been shoved awkwardly in there.

Stars sparkled in Ritsu's eyes as he gawked at Kankuro while his superior pulled the Nara out. "When did you...?"

"When the tower was collapsing." Kankuro laid the Nara against a wall. He crouched down to his level. "Man, he's sleeping through everything."

Ritsu kept sparkling at him.

"What?" Kankuro gave him a suave look. "Did you fall for me again?"

"Yes!"

Kankuro laughed.

The swell of the rebel army that had filled their ears minutes before was absent. There was now only overwhelming silence away from the excitement and adrenaline of the life or death fight they had been in.

From Kankuro's estimations it had only lasted less than ten minutes.

Kankuro gave the Nara a once over. He relaxed when he saw that he seemed fine. He then looked up at Ritsu.

"How are you holding up?"

"I have a bit of a concussion and it's going away," he reported. "Otherwise, I'm fit, sir."

Kankuro nodded and looked back at the Nara to think. "We should probably relocate. I'm sure this place isn't as inconspicuous as we want it anymore. Going further away is probably the safer bet even though that would mean we'd be cut off from the rest."

"I'll carry the Konoha shinobi, Kankuro-senpai," Ritsu said as he went over to the Nara's side.

A clatter from behind them sent a chill up Kankuro's spine. Pain flashed through his side.

Fear jump-started his body and he turned. His fingers only managed to glow with chakra, he could do no more to protect himself as he faced the bloody B-rank who had a kunai through his cheek and a short blade in his trembling hand.

The rogue had missed the first hit, already mid-swing in the next.

Kankuro could only think about protecting the other two. The only option was to take the blade and fall on top of the already dying enemy to disable him. They both moved.

Shadows rushed.

They wrapped like cobras around the man until all he was was a mass of wriggling blackness. Kankuro shook off his shock to jab a poisoned needle into him. The wriggling stopped just as the shadows retreated, and Kankuro followed them in time to see Shikamaru's hands fall away from their seal and he once again slumped into unconsciousness.

Looks like it wasn't easy to put a Konoha shinobi in your debt.

Baki had arrived just in time to witness this last confrontation. He hurried over to Kankuro who then felt a weakening pain spread from his side, buckling his knees. He caught his composure enough to pull his hand away to see it drenched in blood.

Baki supported him with a firm grip on his arms. "Kankuro."

"Poison," his voice was more shallow than usual, "back pocket, eighth."

Baki caught him as Kankuro fell forward.

He immediately reached into Kankuro's pocket and pulled out a roll of vials filled with antidotes. He picked the eighth one in the line up and quickly forced Kankuro to drink it.

His breathing and pained expression relaxed.

After doing a quick job of wrapping up his wound, Baki carried Kankuro while Ritsu took the Konoha shinobi to their safe coordinate.

Konoha Bodyguard team, successfully evacuated.

The rebels had caught up to them. Arrows had flown at them from above and Suzume and Akira had ducked away and behind cover.

Seeing the small number, Suzume had quickly disarmed them. Frightened by how she had just appeared out of nowhere, the rebels fled.

"You're on the wrong side, shinobi!" one of them said as they ran.

Suzume frowned. She's never heard that one before. Usually it's just cursing directed at her and her hypothetical generations to come. Perhaps they might be right.

In the middle of contemplating this, the sound of approaching people, this time, a hundred times as much as the small squadron she had just dealt with.

Suzume and Akira watched as the entrances around them clogged up with rebels and the smell of smoke that they brought with them. The rumbling of footsteps stopped as the last of them caught up, and the two parties considered the other. One of the rebels stepped up to speak.

"Move aside, kids, we don't want to hurt you."

Suzume had done a quick estimate of how many people there were and her own stamina level.

It was going to be close.

Akira walked over to stand by her. Both of them knew what their job was.

Lessen the strain on their superiors. They needed to keep these guys occupied. Not one was getting past them.

Understanding their answer, the same rebel's face set in acceptance. "Can't say I didn't warn you."

With a war cry, the rebels slid down the cavern walls, flooding toward them. In the blink of an eye, their first wave of soldiers were down with pure taijutsu, but another quickly took their place.

Pouches with spark powder rained down around them.

"Fire!"

Arrows with flames showered down, made contact with the sparkpowder, and created tiny explosions randomly around them.

"Fire!"

Distracted, Suzume didn't notice the tiny grains of sparkpowder that had been send toward her which had been lighted by a passing arrow. Tiny sparks sizzled and popped. Clouds of smoke hid Suzume from view.

"Suzume-san!"

She tried to open her eyes but the pain was too much, tears leaked out as her eyes tried to drown out whatever was causing the disturbance.

In the slight second she was distracted, she only barely managed to dodge the swing of a knife.

Getting a hold of her concentration again, Suzume was able to hold her own until they were forced to send another wave of rebels. In a break of attacks, Suzume's hands blurred.

"Futon: Kite's Flight!" She blew out a gust of wind strong enough to throw all of the rebels back along with their spark powder. "Katon: Fox's Tail!"

A tail of fire swept over the rebels and the spark powder burst around them, the smoke so thick it hid them all within it.

Akira grabbed Suzume and they both hid behind a boulder that had been displaced from the earlier battle with Sora.

"Your eyes," Akira breathed.

Suzume tried once more to open them but only managed a couple of blinks.

"You should retreat, Suzume-san. I can hold them off for a little while longer before joining you."

Suzume shook her head. "That's too many for you to handle. We have to stand our ground."

"You aren't fit enough to fight." Akira was saying as he reached out a glowing hand.

Suzume took hold of Akira's wrist, his chakra that he had intended to use to knock her out fading. "I have an idea, Akira-senpai."

After explaining her idea, he was not any more comforted. Feeling his indecisiveness, Suzume scooted closer to him, her grip on his wrist still there. "Akira-senpai, there's no time."

He let out a painful, high pitched sound.

"If we fail, we die," Suzume said.

He gawked at her. "That's not encouraging. At all."

She gave him a weird expression and he still felt her confusion even with her eyes closed. "It wasn't supposed to be. If it's any consolation, pretend I said something better."

"You're horrible!"

Akira gulped and fidgeted in his place. The smoke clouds were dissipating by now, Suzume knew.

"Akira-senpai!" she prompted.

He grimaced, but still, his fingers glowed with the presence of his chakra strings which attached onto Suzume's limbs. They heard the rebels regrouping. "Don't die," he said through a shaky voice.

Suzume nodded and shot into the fray. Kunai fanned between each of her fingers and she sent them flying to where she knew some of the rebels were. She heard them land. She felt a shadow cast over her but she was pulled backwards by Akira's chakra strings and she managed to evade being squashed by a huge hammer.

Suzume sensed foot soldiers closing in. She pounced on one of them to ricochet off and put the rest out of commission. Akira pulled her arm up and her armguard caught the edge of the ax coming toward her head.

She pushed the ax away then kicked the man in the chest to send him flying. She unsheathed her sword and sliced up the ones rushing her.

There were huge amounts of enemies now that she was in their midst and she only managed to get through because of Akira's help. Suzume sharpened her sword with chakra.

Back behind the boulder, Akira felt his muscles starting to cramp but he pushed the feeling down. Suzume needed him to support her, especially now when she was in the thick of things.

About half of the rebels were down. The difference between shinobi and normal people was in stark contrast as the battle continued. Suzume trapped another quarter in a quicksand jutsu.

Suzume thought she'd use the remaining chakra she had to perform a jutsu that scared away the stragglers and once the cavern was empty with only the shinobi's heavy breaths, Akira hooted in joy and Suzume let her sword kiss the ground in her slack grip and took the time to catch her breath.

Akira was punching the air in victory. "Yahoo!"

Suzume let her mouth curve into a small smile but it dropped as soon as it came. She heard a rumbling getting louder and louder.

Fear coursed through her and she readied her sword. "Akira!"

He flicked his fingers to reconnect the chakra strings on her body.

The adrenaline had long since sputtered out of her system, her chakra was dangerously low, and by the sound of it—she tightened her grip on the handle—at least a hundred grown, muscular soldiers were stampeding their way toward them.

The rebels poured out of the cavities of the cavern.

"Arrows!" She heard Akira cry and she waved a hand over the seal bound on her wrist and a fuma shuriken came into existence. She caught it and threw it, trusting Akira's aim.

From the sound, she managed to get most of them but she couldn't focus on it for long since she had to flip to kick an oncoming attacker below the chin.

She was slower now, and she began to get nicks from close swipes of blades and her sword felt heavier in her hands. If it weren't for Akira covering her, she would've been dead.

Akira's arms were as heavy as lead, but they didn't falter once. Focus and flow took a hold of Akira like a drug. He'd never been this confident, this sure of his skill.

A hot pain struck the back of his head. Stars blinded his eyes. He fell forward onto his face.

Suzume felt the chakra strings lose its tension and her head whipped around to the general direction she knew Akira was and struggled to open her eyes.

Akira tried to push himself back up but he knew he had more than a concussion from the blood gushing down his neck. He turned around to see the blurry figure of a man with a club standing over him. Akira struggled to crawl backwards away from him.

Suzume was overwhelmed by numbers in the short time she was distracted and a blade cut through her right shoulder cutting deep enough to render her whole arm useless.

Akira reached into his pocket and feebly threw a shuriken at the man but it flew right passed. The man grabbed him by the neck and pulled him into the air. Akira punched at the grown man's beefy arm but his oxygen was getting cut off and the dots in his vision were swallowing his eyes. His arm fell to his side and he took in harsh gasps as the hand choking his neck tightened.

Wind from shuriken flew passed and Akira heard them sink into flesh. The grip on his neck slackened and he dropped onto the ground and soon after was the thud of the man's body following him. He fought against the unconsciousness and lifted his heavy head.

Suzume's eyes were bloodshot, but they were open. The soldiers who had been closest to her had fallen at her feet, the others frozen in fear. She had arrows sticking out of her back and her bloody, right arm hung limply by her side. Her working arm was still in the position it would be in after a kunai is thrown and her chest was heaving.

Akira gawked at her. She left herself vulnerable to protect him. "Suzume...san..."

Suzume collapsed to her knees and her sword lay in front of her and in its reflection was...

"Suzume-san!" Akira cried, trying to reconnect his chakra strings in time.

"Die, shinobi!" the man behind Suzume raised his sword high above his head.

Suzume couldn't find any feeling in her body, she closed her eyes trying to gather some strength and found none.

The sword began to swing.

A torrential gale knocked into the man and rammed him into a wall. The wind blew through Suzume's hair gently and she opened her eyes again and sluggishly raised her head to see someone standing protectively in front of her.

Suzume relaxed and she collapsed face first into the ground, asleep.

"Baki-sensei...!" Akira cried out in relief, a sob breaking his voice.

Baki was murderous, his eyes hardened against any inkling of mercy.

He made quick work with the remaining and soon he was the only one left standing. He rushed over to where Akira was trying to heal Suzume but his chakra was fading in and out perilously. Baki grabbed Akira's hands and forced him away from Suzume. He struggled weakly in his grasp, silent as he was trying to lock his cries inside of him, tears tracking down his face.

"Akira, calm down," Baki said, "you're not in a state to heal, you'll only hurt yourself."

"But she's not waking up! She's lost so much blood!"

"She'll be fine," he said unconvincingly as the blood pooled onto the ground. "We need to find help for the both of you. But you have to calm down."

Akira quivered in his arms and he felt him sag as the remaining energy died. Baki swiftly scooped Suzume up and, with the kids in his arms, shot away out of the cavern, their blood soaking his skin.

Support team, Successful.

A crowd of black market residents were armed with miscellaneous makeshift weapons and a determined air, climbing out from the debris of the fight and into the circle of clean sand. Among them were people of all ages, the kids and elders bravest of all. The mothers stood beside their children ready to die and kill for them.

"Hand them over," one of them demanded with a shaking voice. They tightened their hold on their shovel.

"What're you idiots doing?" Neha coughed out from the ground. "Get out of here!"

"We're standing our ground, Neha-dono," an elderly man with a balding head said. "We're not going to let them take you."

Gaara lifted a hand, making the people flinch. They knew that this attempt was futile. No power, no plan, just pure will power. They had experienced the terror of shinobi for years and they knew if the shinobi wanted to kill them it would take little to no effort and time until they were all dead.

"Don't-Don't touch them," Neha said, trying to crawl forward, "please."

Sand buzzed. The people let out a war cry and charged.

"You already have us!" she begged, panic in her voice. "That should be enough!"

Gaara didn't spare her a glance and the sand only continued to thicken in the air, the people continued to advance.

"PLEASE!"

"We're not going to hurt anyone." Temari's voice struck through the woman's panic and she looked up at the shinobi.

"Huh...?"

"Gaara's just immobilizing them."

The makeshift weapons were ripped out of the people's hands, creaked something terrible as they're molded into a sphere by the sand, then dropped with a thud onto the ground, immovable. The sand then encircled the people. It fenced them in with sandy walls.

Neha fought against her unconsciousness, not entirely trusting that the shinobi wouldn't do something, but, nevertheless, her body closed her eyes.

The sand flowed to pick up the three rebellion leaders and carried them into the now spherical room of sand where the people rushed to them and took care of their wounds.

"Looks like they were right," Temari said, blinking and looking around at the fuzzy image around her. "Took a few minutes. I guess they never tested this poison on shinobi."

The Councilman retrieval team, successful.