Inochi and her newly made squad spent the whole day traversing through the demon desert without much problem. Only twice they were attacked by giant desert demons but their offence was negligible in front of the three leaf ninjas and the excellent sensory sand ninja.

- "Are the leaf ANBU so slow that they haven't yet ambushed us?" Sajin snickered so as to mock Inochi's home village.

- "They are possibly hiding their chakras. I know you can sense farther than most ninjas, but your senses weaken with distance. Its better to sense upto a few kilometers while focusing on the changes in the environment too"

Inochi did not catch upon the mockery as she was too indulged in revising her plan. She did not know anything about what kind of ANBU was going to ambush her or the number of shinobi she would be against. Furthermore she would have to keep an eye on Gaara too as not only she would need to protect him but she would also need to protect others from him if he let his tailed beast loose.

- "Hmph" Sajin sighed in frustation as she did not liked being ordered around, but ultimately took Inochi's advice into account. Her skills were comparable to the byakugan in terms of coverage but the resolution was far from perfect. Her senses could retain their perfection upto 50 kilometre mark, but in general could cover upto a little bit more than 100 kilometres. She thus, lowered her coverage to 30 kilometers and focused more on resolution. She started to register every change in chakra made by demons present around the 30 kilometer radius, but found an abnormal change after half an hour. She realised that this was what Inochi was talking about and suddenly came to a halt.

Inochi too stopped and looked at Sajin. She was well aware of what the sudden pause meant.

- "How far?" Inochi asked the moment she came to a halt.

- "30 kilometers but closing very fast. They will be here in 10 minutes. Sorry I couldn't notify you quicker"

- "Its enough time to prepare. If they have a byakugan user, we probably got identified way before. Anyways, Niisan, Shisui san stick to the plan okay? Sajin san, stay with Shisui san and protect Gaara. Only intervene if I ask you to, okay?"

- "Okay" The three shinobi firmly agreed and went ahead with the plan.

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- "Sir, they suddenly stopped in their tracks. Did they sense us?" The ANBU bearing the byakugan asked his superior.

- "So the sand shinobi is a sensory ninja... Heh.. pretty useless though. If she was anywhere near skillful like us leaf ninja, she would have been able to sense us way before" The ANBU captain of the group smirked. "Anyways, what about the child? could you sense what he is supposed to be?"

- "His chakra is too weak sir. But its constant so he is probably in some kind of deep sleep, or under some kind of sealing jutsu"

- "That's concerning. And what about the third Leaf ninja? Who is he? We were just supposed to be after Hatake Kakashi"

- "Sir they are breaking up" The hyuga interjected.

- "What?"

- "They are going in separate ways. Aoyama and Kakashi san are the only ones coming at us"

- "Tch.. they really underestimate our skills" The leader turned back to face the other members. His team had six members, all specialising in different aspects. "You.." He pointed at the youngest member of his squad, "take him" he pointed at another member, "with you to sniff out the two runaways. Bring them back to me alive, got it?"

The youngest member who was a taijutsu specialist was thus paired up with an Inuzuka and sent off to track down Sajin and Shisui.

- "Sir, don't get a good feeling from the third leaf ninja. I feel like more people should go that way" the Inuzuka raised his concerns. He could smell a similar odour of the third unidentified leaf ninja, but dismissed his guesses as just a fluke. There was no way the 'dead' Shishui would come alive.

- "We cannot send anymore that way. I may sound weak but Aoyama is enough to annihilate two of us. If you add Kakashi san, we have even lesser chance to beat them alone. But still, dying in their hands is way better than returning to Lord Danzo empty handed"

- "Why is Kakashi san here anyways" The Hyuga whined. Kakashi's name was popular all over the Ninja world, and going against him took a lot of dedication which only few had. "Wait... WHAT!?"

- "What?" The leader was slightly startled at the sudden exclamation. "What happened?"

- "I sense more than ten shinobi coming this way. Wait .... their speed is impeccable.. they are not regular shinobi" The Hyuga stopped dead in his tracks, turned back and activated his byakugan "NO WAY!"

- "WHAT IS IT?"

- "The leaf ANBU special ops are here" The Hyuga was petrified. Special ops was the highest rank in the ANBU which was an inner circle created by Danzo as he handpicked the most skilled shinobi from prestigious clans in the village. Many special ops were orphans and were brought up by Danzo himself, thus curating their skills to unfathomable levels.

- "WHAT IN THE HELL!? Why are they here?"

- "Should we go join them?" One of the members squeaked in a confused tone.

- "What? NO. They will kill us too if we get in their way. Listen, we are getting out of the way okay? we will be going after the two runaways. The special ops are probably here for Aoyama and Kakashi san so we can just take care of the left over pieces"

- "We are giving up so easily?" The fourth member spoke up. He started judging the skills of the squad leader.

- "Kakashi san was an ANBU special ops. The fourth Hokage took him out. He was probably just 16 at that time. Aoyama was going to be one, but the third interjected. I am taking this decision because I am aware of their level. Even with so many special ops, there is a slight possibility that those two win against them, but they won't go unscathed. They will be too weak to fight further which is when we enter the scene. Got it?"

The leader's speech was enough to convince the members of his team, who left quickly to pursue Sajin, Shishui and Gaara instead.

The fifteen special ops were swift and discreet. Because of their speed, the change in chakra around them couldn't be sensed with any ninjutsu or kekkai genkai except the byakugan. However, Inochi already knew that even if Danzo underestimated her skills, he surely wouldn't do the same with Kakashi and Shisui. She was more than enough sure that Danzo would dispatch the special ops against the two most feared shinobi in the ninja world.

- "Niisan, they have caught up. Remember, don't push yourself. we need to return to Konoha. This is not our end goal" Inochi muttered to Kakashi.

- "I know. Let's do this. How many can you take on safely?" Kakashi breathed out, stretching out his muscles to brace them up.

- "four, taking into consideration that we will be very tired"

- "That's more than enough" he retrieved Inochi's daggers from a scroll and tossed them to her. Both of them braced themselves up for the impact as in the blink of an eye they witnessed the ANBU specials ops lunging at them with their eyes screaming bloody murder.

Kakashi and Inochi too leapt into the fight.

Kakashi, who was well aware of the skills of the special ops was taken aback by how much they had improved. It was clear, all of them had been practicing against sharingan bearers since the day Kakashi was removed from the team. None of the special ops looked directly into their eyes, nor did they get trapped in Inochi's shuriken jutsu. Every "Uchiha" jutsu seemed to fail against the ANBU, which made Inochi excited.

- "Niisan, they were created for us. Isn't that crazy!" Inochi grinned as blood trickled down her jaw. She was again descending into madness, but right now was a perfect situation for it to happen.

- "We need to change to stage two. Let's go" Kakashi said as he swiftly jumped to her side. Inochi had anticipated, that a team dispatched against Kakashi and Shisui by Danzo would be highly trained against the Sharingan. So, she and the others were ready to get a bit more creative with their offense.

- "I wanted to wait a bit more, but whatever!" Inochi took a few steps back as Kakashi lunged forward to create a diversion. She flashed an evil grin as she finished her handsigns and squealed gleefully "COME ON MY BABIES!!!!"

Fear paralysed the ANBU as they saw four giant demons emerging out of the sand. Inochi had made the desert demons her pawns the moment she fought them off earlier.

- "Niisan!! Retreat. NOW!" Inochi said as she held her position about 50 feet away from the brawl. She was holding the rat sign, and it took the ANBU about a minute to realise that the demons were being controlled by her.

- "DON'T LOOK IN THE EYES!!" The ANBU special ops were at last making some noise of distress, but the fight was far from over.

Suna desert had some of the most vicious demons, and to keep them under genjutsu, not to mention four demons at once, was a feat achieved by only a few shinobi in history. However Inochi's plan was far from perfect as she was currently completely unprotected and any stray kunai could kill her or atleast break her genjutsu over the demons. But, Inochi also realised that in such battles where lives could be lost any second, succeeding with many imperfect jutsus was way better than failing with one perfect technique.

Kakashi, through the corner of his eyes peeked at the focused stare that Inochi's face beared as she ordered her demons to take on the ANBU. He smirked as he realised that she had atlast overcome her fear of taking the lead.

- "I have got your back" Kakashi dashed up behind Inochi to provide her protection.

Inochi nodded ever so slightly to not lose her concentration over the battle. Her eyes strained as the battle went on for minutes and blood trickled down her injuries, thus depleting her chakra immensely.

Meanwhile Kakashi searched for Sajin and Shisui who he had seen being chased by the previous ANBU group, but they were nowhere to be seen. As per their plan, they were supposed to move quickly throughout the desert using Shisui's body flicker jutsu in order to confuse the ANBU, but Kakashi feared that such fast movements would awaken an even bigger problem; the one tails.

- "Niisan, five more are down. I don't think I should go any further. I will start reserving the chakra now for the final blow"

- "Ok! Leave the rest to me. Just signal to me when to retreat" Kakashi rejoined the battle as Inochi sat down in lotus position on the sand and started meditating to restore her energy.

Kakashi rushed at the remaining ANBU. He dipped and weaved right as he was about to reach one of them and slashed downwards with his chidori. The ninja parried as his blade clashed against the Kakashi's technique with a shriek that sent sparks flying into the air. However , Kakashi was quick on his feet, as he turned the other way and slashed through the next ninja in front of him. His plan was to keep the remaining ninjas busy long enough for Inochi to activate her sure shot assault.

The ninjas sidestepped just enough to avoid contact with the chidori, but they knew, playing defensive wouldn't help them as Kakashi's assaults were not yet over. Quickly, before Kakashi could respond with a follow-up, a third ANBU swiftly punched him in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of the copy ninja, and stunning him for a brief moment. As Kakashi doubled over, he saw two more ninjas charging towards Inochi, who was only surrounded by a temporary shield of mud.

- "AHH SHIT...." Kakashi used his lightning nature to shock the four ninjas holding him down and dashed towards the duo approaching Inochi. He pulled out two kunais and threw it towards them. Using the Flying Thunder God Technique as the kunais touched the two shinobi, they got transported back in front of Kakashi.

- "YOU LITTLE-" The two shinobi shifted their focus to Kakashi, who activated his mangekyo Sharingan.

- "KAMUI!" Kakashi's left eye bled as he used his sharingan to transport the two shinobi to his own alternate world.

The rest four ANBU without faultering even a bit, charged at Kakashi as they knew that his mangekyo could only be used once every two hours.

Kakashi knew he was at his limit, especially after using Kamui. To use such a power using someone else's eye drained enough chakra to create a concussion. However, just before the four ANBU could reach him, he used a smoke bomb and jump high in the air, thus warding off all the ninjutsu aimed at him.

- "GOD I HOPE INOCHI'S DONE!" Kakashi prayed as he knew that he would be done after landing on the ground and would have no more energy to even stand. He turned his body midair to brace for the impact just when he saw Inochi's mud dome being broken. He landed just behind Inochi and felt a cold silhouette towering before him. He lifted his head using whatever energy he had left and got a look of one of the most evilest stares he had ever encountered.

Inochi's eyes didn't just speak murder. They were desiring destruction. Kakashi was scared out of his wits to even say something to Inochi, just when Inochi's head turned to him. Kakashi stiffened as his eyes met with the cold gaze Inochi's mangekyo bearing eyes held. In the lowest tone, Kakashi heard Inochi murmur something and flash a very subtle smile.

The four ANBU shinobi recovered from the smoke bomb and charged at Inochi and Kakashi. Inochi held her head, as if to squeezed out every last bit of chakra and focused it on her eyes.

- "DIE" Inochi declared, just when all the four shinobi lost their balance and found their feets being turned into ashes and blown away with the heavy Suna loo.

Heavy screams could be heard from miles away as the four ANBU ninjas felt their bodies disintegrate into ashes. Inochi's both eyes strained to their maximum level, as blood dripped from them like tears. Kakashi, who was still laying on the ground completely concussed, put out his hand and held Inochi's calves as if to tell her to calm down.

- "We need to get out of here too!!" Kakashi said in a strained voice as he remembered how the mangekyo's target explodes at the end. They were at a mere 40 feet away from the ANBU and the explosion that would be caused by four bodies will be enough to annihilate everything in 100 meter radius.

Inochi kept focusing as in a few seconds the ashes reached their limit and all the four ninjas exploded simultaneously. In the blink of an eye Kakashi witnessed the explosions engulfing Inochi just before reaching him. But before his already chakra depleted body could react, he felt a numbing jolt across his head as his last bit of consciousness faded away.

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Inochi slowly opened her eyes as she could feel a burning sensation all over her body. The last thing she remembered was the explosion engulfing her and Kakashi. She blinked a few times before her mind readjusted to the soft sandy surface underneath her.

- "Wake up Umi neechan!!!!" Inochi felt a pair of small hands trying to shake her up vigorously. She adjusted her gaze and saw through her blurry eyes she noticed Gaara's figure wailing beside her, assuming that she had died.

- "Gaara sama..." The moment Inochi's weak voice reached Gaara's ears, a huge wave of relief swept through his mind.

- "Neechan!!!!" Gaara hugged Inochi a bit too tightly as Inochi flinched in pain.

- "Gaara sama.. I am happy that you are okay" Inochi hugged Gaara back even though a pang of pain went through her bones.

- "Enough with this already.... Gaara sama, I need to heal them now. And you, get up already" Sajin scoffed, visibly annoyed at how her village's ultimate defense was hooked to Inochi.

- "I am sorry, but this is how a person acts after fighting a fierce battle for over an HOUR!" Inochi groaned in pain as Sajin rushed to her side. She decided to keep her arguments to herself until after Inochi gets better.

Sajin placed the healing seal on Inochi and in a few minutes Inochi's chakra was completely restored, and so was her eyesight.

- "This seal.... Its sure is forbidden. It was even able to repair my kekkai genkai" Inochi said as she looked around her. "Is it over? Did the plan work?"

- "Yes it did. But it was a very very bad plan. Your brother over there, he probably fainted due to the sudden explosion and transportation. I have healed him but he is still dazed"

Inochi looked around to see Kakashi sitting next to Shisui in silence. As per the plan, just after Inochi had used her Mangekyo, Shisui was supposed to transport both her and Kakashi away from the impact area. However, transporting on such low levels of chakra was definitely threatening, which was why Kakashi fainted the moment Shisui apparated them away.

Inochi got up and wobbled towards Kakashi. She sat down slowly beside Kakashi and bowed before him.

- "Niisan, I am really sorry for this. I am sorry I put your life in danger. I promise you I will work on this a lot and come up with better plans. I really promise you. I won't run away from such tasks anymore" Inochi groveled as Kakashi slowly turned his gaze to her.

- "We came out alive, that's what matters" Kakashi patted Inochi who was still bowing in front of him. "Plus, its not your fault. Its his" Kakashi turned to Shisui.

- "What! How is it my fault? I am the one who saved you two as per the plan"

- "Yes, but why was your chakra HIDDEN!? That wasn't the plan. I started panicking because I couldn't locate your position. I thought you were busy fighting off the previous ANBU group"

- "Oh give me a break. If my chakra was visible, those psychopaths would have come after me too. I am too precious to die you know" Shisui flipped his non existent long hair.

- "Ohh Ohh... How do you, a person who faked his death, have the AUDACITY to say THAT! You eyeless buffoon!"

Kakashi and Shisui were at each others throats just when Inochi burst out laughing.

- "You....." Inochi held her stomach trying to stop laughing "You two are really something else. We just survived two ANBU squads, one being a 15 member ANBU special ops group. I don't think anyone in the HISTORY of shinobi has ever done that and here you two are fighting like cats and dogs"

- "How do you two have to energy to argue after such a battle. Plus you are scaring away Gaara sama" Sajin too joined the conversation after tidying up the weapons and medicines. "You leaf ninjas are so immature" Gaara too nodded while hiding behind Sajin. Seeing such a strong opposition, Kakashi and Shisui let go of each other's collars and then drowned in a fit of laughter.

- "Ok! Let's resume our path. Sajin san, narrate to me what happened at your side while we travel. If we keep our speed we can reach by tomorrow"

- "We would need to make a stop after entering the fire nation. Gaara sama needs to have something" Sajin reminded Inochi who looked at Gaara.

- "Gaara sama, can you wait till night? We will surely have a meal after entering the fire nation"

Gaara nodded as Inochi let him piggyback ride her through the Suna desert. Meanwhile, Sajin narrated to Inochi how she, Shisui and Gaara fought off the former ANBU group.

The ANBU had Sajin and Shisui surrounded just after a few minutes of chase. However, due to Shisui's body flicker technique, he was able to transport him and the other two without leaving any trace everytime they would get cornered. He kept the distances short to lower the usage of chakra, however, after six such transports, Gaara woke up completely. At that moment, Sajin asked Shisui to go to Inochi and Kakashi in order to follow the last stage of plan as she won't be able to calm Gaara down with a stranger around.

Gaara woke up but due to Inochi's previously casted genjutsu, he beared almost no memory of the assassination carried out in Suna. He thus only had a confused expression on his face when he opened his eyes. Sajin told Gaara that they were going to the fire nation for a training session with Umi neechan and her friends, but he had fallen asleep midway. However, before Sajin could complete explaining the situation to Gaara, the ANBU surrounded them again and attacked Sajin.

Gaara was startled with the sudden offense and thus got thrown away from the battlefield by one of the ANBU, as they did not want to hurt a child. Gaara was dazed for a few moments as he tried to make something of the situation. He did not know who the attackers were, but the moment he saw Sajin getting badly beaten up by them, he swiftly stood up and ordered his sand to take care of the matter.

Needless to say, after Gaara's sand overwhelmed the ANBU, it was a pretty easy win for him and Sajin. The squad leader and the hyuga were the only ones who stuck till the end, but Sajin had an upper hand in the desert and along with Gaara, the fight lasted just a bit more than half an hour. Sajin after finishing up with the bodies of the ANBU members, pulled out the healing seals and placed one on Gaara. She found two cookies in the satchel that Inochi brought with her and gave them to Gaara. Gaara and Sajin thus waited for Inochi, Kakashi and Shisui to return. While waiting, she did get the incentive to run back to Suna but when she looked at Gaara and saw the faint scars possibly caused during the assassination attempt, she shook away the idea.

Gaara didn't ask any further questions as he was preoccupied with the thrilling sensation that he had atlast used his sand to fight off "bad people". He couldn't wait to narrate it to his Umi neechan but his mouth dropped the moment he saw Shisui transporting to their side with an almost unconscious Inochi. Gaara started sobbing the moment Shisui placed Inochi on the sand and even after a firm consolation from Sajin that Inochi would be alright he did not calm down. While Sajin tended to Kakashi's wounds, Gaara used his scarves to wipe away blood from Inochi's face, especially from the corners of her eyes.

While Gaara tended to Inochi, several questions popped in his mind "why was she fighting if she is not even a shinobi?" "why are we going to the fire nation?" "Who are these two people with Umi neechan?" "why is so much blood flowing out of her eyes?". Gaara decided to keep shut about all this even after Inochi woke up as he believed that even if his Umi neechan was not the person he knew, she was still the best thing that had happened to him.