After years of being kept in the dark of her past and of her family, Kari Yamada finally knows the truth. However, there's something still missing, something detrimental to gain the peace she strives to find. With the Akatsuki breathing down hers an...
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Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No matter how hard I search, no matter how hard I try to sense even the weakest of flames within him, it's no use. Gaara is gone.
"You bastards!" Naruto screams, his Nine-Tails' chakra making a reappearance. I stumble slightly from the strength of it, but regain myself. "Where the hell do you think you're sitting?!"
"Well, so much for that mystery, hm," the blond one with the ponytail, the one from the Hidden Stone, says with a chuckle. "This kid's the Jinchūriki. He's the one who bursts in and barks first, all right. Seriously!" He turns to his partner—so this is Sasori. I can tell by his chakra. "Itachi was right on the money, huh? Hm?"
"Gaara!" Naruto calls. "What the hell are you doing? Come on; why are you just lying there?! Get up..."
"Naruto..." I can't bring myself to tell him to stop.
"Gaara!" he calls again. "Answer me! What are you, deaf?! Come on, knock it off, already—""Enough, Naruto!" Kakashi-sensei shouts, and Naruto freezes. "You know full well that..."
"Your friend's right," the blond one says, "and you know it, too. He's been dead for a while now." Naruto's chakra becomes blistering when the man slaps Gaara a few times in his face.
"Well, well," Sasori murmurs.
"Yeah," the Iwa-Nin says. "That's him, all right."
"Give him back," Naruto growls. "Give him back, you damn—!" I immediately jump in front of Naruto, barring his path.
"I know you're angry," I say quietly. "I know, because I'm furious. But if you charge in without thinking, we'll lose you, too, Naruto. So please, just bear it a moment longer."
"It looks like the one on the left is the one who infiltrated the Sand and took Lord Kazekage," Kakashi-sensei says. "Which means that this one is the puppet master who wounded Kankuro so badly. Her grandson, Sasori, huh...?"
"Well, my man," the Iwa-Nin says, "I doubt that you want to hear this, but I'll just go ahead and say it anyway. I think I'll take care of the Jinchūriki."
"Look," Sasori says, "our quota is one a piece. Don't push your luck, Deidara."
"An artist must ever seek greater stimulation," Deidara reasons, "lest his senses go dull on him... my man. Rumor has it, the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki is pretty powerful—a canvas truly worthy of my artistry."
"What? Those pyrotechnics of yours, art? Art is a work of beauty, captured, and left for posterity. Art is eternal beauty."
"Eternal beauty?" Deidara repeats. "Are you kidding me? Look, don't get me wrong; as a fellow artist, I respect your point of view. But true art is fleeting, a flash of beauty burning brightly, vanishing in a heartbeat."
"What did you say? Apparently, Deidara, one of us doesn't understand the true meaning of what art is."
