Gaara Saved!

I looked around the cave and let out a sigh of relief after confirming no more hostiles, my butt smashed the ground below, sitting beside the comatose Gaara. The fight had consumed me a lot, I couldn't remember how many spells I had used and creating the blade Qi that big also expenditure many of my Qi, although, I could still do it about two or three times more.

"Damn man, how long you are going to sleep?" I shook my head in disbelieve, whatever happened to this guy, he just took his sweet nap while everybody giving their asses on the line.

"Awake," I went over to the position of Garaa's head, placed my both hands on his temples, as the mana gathered on all my fingertips, I said the magic word.

Gaara slowly opened his eyes, it was rather a creepy irises he had and didn't even blink, just stared at the ceiling. What's wrong with him? Don't tell me Akatsuki had broken him?

"You are... Konoha's shinobi," Garaa mumbled.

"I demand a reward for saving you, Kazekage..." I said before also slamming my back on the ground, ah hard, but felt good.

Gaara rose from the ground, looking around, he frowned a bit, seemingly tried to recollect the past, then he said, "You save me on your own?"

"Nah, there are others, it just for some circumstance, I sent them away..." I placed both hands below my head, damn it, I would like to see some bright and blue sky now instead of a grim stoned ceiling.

"What about Naruto Uzumaki, does he with you?"

I glanced at Gaara, I could hear a warm tone he held when mentioned Naruto, it seemed both of them were in a good term, I wondered if it was because they were both had Bijuu in their bodies, or for something happened in the past?

"He still on the way here, it seems he didn't have the chance to play a hero," I grinned.

"What happened after I fainted?"

"Well, I don't really know the detail, first Akatsuki two people; Deidara and Sasori infiltrated Suna to get you, then they asked for reinforcement to Konoha, Naruto and his team departed first, then another group was sent as a back-up team, and I was... helping. Then I and the back-up team arrived first, we managed to discover their hideout in this cavern and fought them, and we won," I tried to explain the summary from what I knew only, then I looked at Gaara, said, "what about you? What are you feeling right now? Do you know what they want with you or the Bijuu?"

"..." Garaa went silent for a while, he said after half of minute, "Shukaku is still inside of me, but he's rather weak at the moment, said the Akatsuki had tried to suck him away with a husk of..."

Garaa widened his eyes, then a trace of worry appeared in his face, I could feel whatever this Bijuu inside of him tried to tell definitely was not a good thing, it also proved that Akatsuki's goal.

"Anyway, let's leave first, we don't want the rest of Akatsuki to arrive," Gaara said then he lifted his hand, a group of sand appeared beneath us and carried our bodies like a flying platform, how handy.

We flew for a bit before we caught up with Tenten and the rest, at first they were surprised then cheered in joy, they must have been trying to search for Deidara all over the area and worried since they couldn't find a single trace of him. Now they saw Gaara had awoken and I was safe, they naturally could relax now.

"Abe, are you OK? Is there anywhere hurt?" Tenten fell to my side as soon as we landed on the ground, she seized up my body up and down, clearly looking for wounds.

"Well, I am fine, or should I strip so you can do medical check-up?" I grinned, it's warming to have someone that cared about you.

"Ah, you don't have to... I believe you," Tenten quickly looked to the side.

"Abe, what about Sasori? How's Gaara with you? Did he run away from Deidara?" Guy asked. I honestly told them about what happened, I could see the anger rose in Tenten's eyes, obviously didn't like how I handled thing.

"I am sorry, I just want you to be safe," I apologized, but Tenten didn't say a word she just nodded but the anger still not dissipated, I looked at the other and asked for help, they pretended as if they hadn't seen anything, useless!

"But still, to wipe out two S-class missing Nin in one fell swoop, along with an army of puppets, Neji, you may have a rival already," Guy nodded while rubbing his chin, making Rock Lee dropped his jaw and eyes went white, it seemed the fact I was so strong hit this guy quite hard.

"Not even close, I don't think I am his level, are you sure you are a Chunin?" Neji himself didn't have much response.

"Don't bother much with that..." I waved my hand then I continued to look at Tenten, she cast her eyes to the side, didn't want to look at me.

I didn't think she would be this upset, but perhaps not entirely because I was lying to her, maybe more about she thought she was a burden, while I thought it was true, but it's not because of her skill wasn't enough, but her condition was exhausted at that moment, I couldn't afford to let her continue to fight a dangerous person like Sasori. Hell, I wouldn't even allow her to fight a duck either in that condition.

We continued our journey on Gaara's sand, I tried to coax Tenten along the way so she wouldn't feel much upset, but nothing seemed working. I tried to check her affection for me on my phone silently, I worried that it might have actually decreased.

"Tenten

Rank: Chunin

Specialty: Bukitjutsu, Fuinjutsu.

Hobby: Fortune Telling

Favorite food: Sesame dumpling

Favorite item: [blank]

Affection: 50%

Rival in love: none."

Huh, it actually increased 20% than before... previously was 30% after all, wait, there were so many things that happened from when I first rescued her up to now, so, there might have been a chance it was higher than 50%. I didn't know whether I should leave it be for a while or should I continue to coax her, I looked at Tenten who stared at the horizon, she looked pretty silent at the moment, and her face seemed absentminded, I tried to peek at her thought.

Tenten: Useless... how can you keep being saved by him all the time... what if an accident happens and it eventually cost his life... what happened next...

Tenten: it's painful... imagining him cover in blood just to shield me from harm... the pain makes me hard to breathe...

I see, so she was worried that I might die someday to save her, a heroic sacrifice for love was a common trope, after all, and she didn't really know all of my strength, so no wonder she was feeling terrified. I put down my phone and continued to look at her, I could see her eyes blurry with tears at the moment, probably kept thinking and picturing my death scenes, and how powerless she was to prevent it from happening.

Right, I remembered her dream, she wanted to become strong, like the legendary Sannin Tsunade, but today's fight showed how far she was from achieving her goal. How weak, how hopeless she was, she didn't even qualify to stay on the battlefield.

I smiled, regardless of how many people around, I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward me, in her surprised eyes, I placed her on my bosom. Tenten struggled to break free but I kept my hand on the back of her head, and the other on her back, caressing them slowly.

"When we get back, let's practice and get strong together, okay? So I can protect you better, and you can fight on my side as equal."

Hearing my words, Tenten widened her eyes, the struggle ceased, the atmosphere turned very quiet, only the whisper of wind and silent sob reverberated in ears.

We met with Naruto and his team, this was the first time I finally saw this Naruto Uzumaki, tall and blonde, a whisker mark on his cheeks, his dress consisted of orange and black, his temperament was cheerful and relaxing, right, this Naruto was an easy person to be befriended, no wonder even a creepy like Gaara would warm up to him.

Then there was Kakashi with his weird style of hair and headband, but he also wore a mask that covered only up to his nose, kinda reminded me of old Ninja's story.

Next was Sakura, she's pretty if I had to say, more or less the same with Tenten, but still below Ino.

And lastly was a granny, my goodness, even a small and seemingly would die at any moment old lady like this was still running around, hopping on the tree, didn't she fear her back would be broken?

We returned to Suna, and finally, Gaara revealed something that Shukaku had told him, Akatsuki was likely to resurrect the strongest Bijuu among all of the nine of the tailed beasts, the origin of all of them, the ten tail beast, as for what specific purpose they wanted to achieve remained unknown. Akatsuki already had the husk of the ten tails, something that could only be summoned through the use of Rinnegan, a powerful eye that belonged to the sage of six paths, this means one of the Akatsuki's member had Rinnegan, most likely the leader.

With that information in hand, it was clear now that Akatsuki must not succeed in capturing the remaining Bijuu, because once the ten tailed beasts woke up, it's not just one nation that was likely in danger, but the world was at the stake.