27 - Rescue Gaara

'Fuck my life.'

Fuyuka was not having a nice time. She had joined her team at the worst possible moment- mid fight with Itachi Uchiha. And on top of that, she couldn't have a nice student following her orders, Kakashi had to have sent the purple haired boy off to scout just because he could fly.

Also, she was pretty sure she was in a genjutsu because everything was neon banana yellow. Seriously, she better not be the only one in a nightmare.

For one, all of her companions had turned banana yellow and melted away right in front of her. Then, Itachi turned banana yellow as well and unfortunately did not melt.

In other words, alone + banana yellow + emo weasel man = fucking hell.

She fended off a whole bunch of crows by bashing them with Stellar Snares. However, as she finished up the murder (a murder of crows, of course. Not the killing), she watched as the banana yellow ground began to change shape, several more banana yellow Itachi's taking shape.

Fuyuka did not have a sannin trainer, and she was not at all trained to break out of genjutsu. She just had to hope her teammates finished off the Uchiha and broke her out of it instead.

However, even in a genjutsu, her stupid ego decided that giving up was not the way to go.

Her hands drifted to her satchel, grateful to find her supplies were still there. By 'supplies' that meant a stack of paper bombs and also fake paper bombs.

Stellar Snare-ing another murder of crows, she stuck a paper bomb each to a few dozen kunai, throwing them all at the various Itachi's. A few of them backed away only for nothing to happen while the others got an explosion to the face.

Here's the thing- Fuyuka's bag was only so big. She did not have an endless supply of kunai or explosive tags, so pretty soon she was back to chucking Stellar Snares of various sizes.

'Damn it, why isn't anyone breaking me out of the stupid jutsu?!'

She made a hand sign, casting a substitution jutsu to dodge another flurry of crow attacks. Where did the birds even come from? The girl grabbed the nearest crow out of the air, crushing its bones against her knee before throwing it into the nearest cheese-tachi's face. Hey, if the crow wasn't real, no need to feel guilty.

"I don't know if I'm unconscious or not, but if anyone is hearing me, get me out of the fucking genjutsu!" she yelled. The girl wasn't sure about the type of genjutsu, but if she was actually hitting air in reality instead of unconscious, hopefully her teammates could free her- assuming they weren't hallucinating either.

Sakura whipped around in surprise at Fuyuka's annoyed words. She had been attacking with such accuracy, always just slightly off, she had assumed the girl was just feeling quiet.

"Naruto, you keep working. We need to free Fuyuka too," the pink haired medic announced. Naruto nodded, having his shadow clone finish forming the Big Ball Rasengan.

Fuyuka was beyond pissed to find that she had missed the whole ass fight.

Life sucked spectacularly sometimes.

"So you're telling me none of you noticed my distinct lack of creative insulting? Nobody tried to see if I was under a genjutsu as well when Naruto was?" Fuyuka scoffed, tapping her feet against the ground. "Man, what a waste of supplies. C'mon, let's go check he's gone."

However, instead of Itachi's body having been Big Balled (weird name, but it's funny, so Fuyuka's not complaining) there was an unfamiliar corpse. Chiyo, the powerful and slightly goofy old lady of Suna, walked over, her eyes widening slightly.

"Yura," she identified. "A trusted advisor of the council."

"What kind of jutsu is that?" Kakashi mused, observing the body.

"If they were stalling us, that must mean they've begun Shukaku's extraction," Chiyo announced. She explained Tailed Beast extractions to the group, before encouraging them to hurry.

At that moment, Yozora returned, dispelling his starry blue eagle. "Did you guys win? Oh, Fuyuka-san, you're here!"

Kakashi quickly summed up the fight and the strange occurrence with Yura. The purple haired boy nodded, reporting that Team Guy had finished up Kisame Hoshigaki, who was not who he seemed to be either.

However, as the team continued to travel, they quickly realized that the fight against Itachi, even a fake, was incredibly draining. That meant Fuyuka was forced to take a break despite the fact that she got to do absolutely nothing. Ugh.

She was continuously annoyed when Team Guy took care of the strange seals at the entrance to the cave, she really hoped there was a decent fight inside the cave.

Fuyuka did not get a rescued Gaara and she did not get a good fight. She got a dead Gaara and two arguing artists. Now, personally, she believed art was her own majestic crayon stickmen, but she was no professional.

The two artists included a guy with mouths on his hands and tied up blond hair. That's right, another blondie. The other was a short, ugly old man with a black mask. Hey, Fuyuka respected fear of covid. Also, she was pretty sure his name was Danny, which sounded weird but that's what blondie called him.

Blondie did some creepy hand-mouth thing to summon an exceedingly ugly clay bird (this is why Yozora was the better random bird summoner), hopping on and having the bird pick up the dead Gaara. "Catch me if you can, Jinchuriki, hm."

"You-!" Naruto growled, chasing after the other blond.

"Come on, I can fly too," Yozora called to Fuyuka, summoning Aquila again. The two flew after the blonds, followed by Kakashi.

Blondie led the four outside, turning to observe who had followed. "Sasori-danna is stronger than me, as much as I hate to say it. Are you sure sending four people after me is smart, hm?" (okay, apparently his name was Sassy instead of Danny. Close enough.)

"We can take him, Kakashi-sensei. You go help Sakura and Granny Chiyo," Naruto decided. Kakashi shook his head, staying put and moving his headband up to reveal his Sharingan. "They can do it."

Meanwhile, Sakura learned from Chiyo that ugly old man was Hiruko, the puppet armor Sasori hides in. Despite his attempt at shooting poisoned senbon, the two kunoichi managed to get out of the way.

"Take this!" Sakura shouted, raising her chakra-imbued fist. The puppet only barely managed to deflect it with his tail.

"Wait!" Chiyo halted in her tracks. "Someone's approaching."

Sakura and Sasori stopped as well, sensing the approaching chakra. The puppet recovered faster, preparing his poison tail to attack Sakura.

The medic (again, doctors are scary) whipped around, ready to dodge. However, she didn't need to because the chakra from earlier had arrived.

"Crimson Flare Jutsu!"

A bright red beam of flame shot from the cave entrance, scorching Hiruko's tail right off. Sakura took the opportunity, smashing her fist into the puppet. Chiyo, meanwhile, turned around to see their new ally.

A girl, probably a year older than Sakura, with orange-red hair in a spiky ponytail, the last remains of a flame on her fingertip. She smirked, blowing out the fire. "Hoka, fire jutsu master of Sun Star. Nice to meetcha, I'll explain later."