*beep beep beep
*ring ring ring
A panel on Tutubi flashed and his phone rang almost at the same time. He was just about to answer when memories came flooding into his head out of nowhere. Not out of nowhere, it was from his clone who poofed out of existence. Although his clones are sturdier than most, they can only take as much damage as the chakra inside them allowed.
Gaara did not have to manually control Tutubi, it automatically responded to the input of data provided by the closest CCTV to the incident. Temari and Kankuro can be seen in his monitors a few kilometers behind them are the enemies chasing after the siblings relentlessly.
Tutubi gained more and more altitude before its turbines retracted into the body, then wing gliders came out from the sides as a jet engine popped out from the stern. This amazing feat of transformation occurred in time a bit more than a second.
The thrusters of the jet engine began spew concentrated gas while Tutubi glided forward increasing its speed tremendously, the sound barrier broke in the next few seconds leaving civilians on the ground afraid of the strange bird in the skies that summoned cloudless thunder. They believed that some deity must be angry and many started to kowtow wherever it went past.
Meanwhile, Gaara is already considering the serious lack of muscle in his group. His clones are great and all that but they have their own limitations. Honestly, he didn't like to use his clones for combat and preferred using them to help the scientists decipher ancient inscriptions in Roran or in Kusagakure.
'The problem with doing things alone is that you have to do everything yourself. Everything important at least. I need some musclehead to do the gruntwork in the future. I just thought of the most appropriate candidate.
------------------------
Who would have thought that a B rank mission like pulling out a sword from a boulder will make two chunin level genin and a jonin level one be chased by angry samurai from the land of Iron. The sword isn't even anything special, just a normal chakra blade stuck in a boulder.
The one who issued the mission did not mention of the significance of pulling out the blade, she must have withheld information. When Temari pulled the blade out from the boulder some kind of energy was freed from the ground that caused devastation to the surrounding areas and alerted the samurai who must have been slacking in guarding the blade.
Now here they are running like mice from a group of cats. What's funny is that they didn't even know exactly why these guys are trying to kill them, and they sure seemed like they are not up for negotiations that involved them not becoming prisoners. What was worst is that the terrain is totally NOT to their advantage at all. Poison gas almost always didn't work on the samurai, their special armor made it difficult for most ninjutsu lower than or equal to D rank to be completely nullified and the samurai are just too courageous that they seemed unafraid of reincarnating.
Temari and Kankuro quickly traversed the terrain of ice and snow with their maximum speed even in their injured and tired state. These two can only be described as being way beyond their limitations and are close to dropping on the ground due to extreme fatigue. Gaara infused more chakra to the engine allowing it to go over the maximum at the cost of becoming a one time use consumable. 500,000,000 Ryo down the drain just like that.
He mentally noted to train his brother and his sister till they earn their keep in the foreseeable future, but that's of no use if they are dead so rescue comes first before he made them regret not being caught by the samurai of Tetsu no Kuni.
"Quick they are not too far ahead. We must capture them and get the sword back before the designated time or we will have nowhere to return to afterwards!"
"Hai!"
A collective answer was given by the group behind him before they sped forward far faster than before. Some of them drew their bows and shot at the escaping duo firing chakra (is it) augmented arrows that pierced through huge trees and big boulders. Kankuro's on the spot traps managed to slow them down but not enough to lose them, one critical hit from those arrows and he believed a hole not any smaller than his fist would be decorating his body.
"Aaargh! Shit! Don't stop Temari! GO!"
An arrow flew dangerously close and Kankuro's left arm fell on the white snow bringing with it a small drizzle of blood that looked like red flowers blooming on a white plain, or a sprinkle of paint on a blank canvas. Some kind of beauty amidst carnage. He was not intending to stop and appreciate such views at the moment as he still needed to escape. He took a piece of paper from his pouch at held it over the remaining stump, the markings slowly changed and his wound is now fully bandaged.
He took an injection vial from his pocket and stabbed to his chest. Kankuro felt light headed at first before getting a boost of adrenaline from the shot. He did not feel as tired anymore, the pain disappeared almost entirely, and his senses sharpened to a level unknown to him.
'These things from Yggdrasil sure is worth every Ryo spent on them.'
"Your arm..."
Temari looked worried but stopped herself they still had to escape from this place.
"It's just a scratch. Don't worry about it. My balance is a bit off... maybe its the arm."
*bang bang bang
"They sure have lots of arrows. How much chakra do you still have?"
Kankuro asked.
"Not much, I've been changing the trajectory of their arrows but it is proving to be quite difficult. We'll be dead if this continues as is."
A maniacal smile decorated Temari's face and Kankuro smiled with her. Both of them knew what the other is thinking. If they are going to die anyway, then mutual destruction is the way to go. This is true art. Something normal people will never understand. The two stopped running and prepared to engage the enemy with the intent to die together with at least some of them.
They saw the enemies coming close, they looked up and scattered. A trail of fire flew past the siblings much to their shock. They looked behind and there's no one there as expected.
"Gaara!"
"?"
Kankuro looked to his sister who was looking up to the skies.
"What are you..."
He was thinking that she must have been seeing things and it appears that he is also seeing things. Gaara stood in the air in a metal platform. They didn't know he could do that at all or he might have been a real ghost of their brother who made a vow to protect them like their mother did with Gaara. Anyhow, Gaara came closer shaking his head.
'Now I have to walk and the money you owe just tripled. On the plus side, I saved my siblings and tested the limits of Tutubi. Sigh, things we do for love...'
"Thanks. I'm glad to see that you are alright as well. Yes? I told you I wouldn't just keel over and die in this frozen hell didn't I? Now give me that fucking sword to look. There's no way these guys would chase us like piranhas onto blood if that thing is anything close to normal."
Temari nodded and lifted the sleeve on her right wrist and a sword came out when she touched it. She gave it to Gaara who scrutinized the blade. The blade looked old, dull and dirty. It still had soil on its length and black liquid stain on its tip. (-.-) He touched the strange black liquid and almost immediately it evaporated into vapor of black gas, it hovered in the air and creepy ghost-like faces started wailing and squirming from it.
*poof
It exploded like a bubble of LPG under Gaara's application of fire.
'Now that was something else.'
Facing the samurai who slowly came closer Gaara spoke.
"I'm very glad that you guys volunteered. You will be taken with great care in our facilities where we worked for the advancement of mankind. Will you come peacefully or do I have to personally motivate you?"
"I don't have time for your joking shinobi quickly give us the blade! You saw for yourself what a tiny drop of blood the demon under the sealing sword can do. If it regains strength and gets out of the seal the whole world will be destroyed."
"You expect us to believe that kind of bedtime story?"
Kankuro mocked but stopped under Gaara's gesture.
"Perhaps we both need to take a step back. This sword is the proof of mission completion as requested of us. We would have simply escaped and be done with it but now that you speak of the world's doom, we are willing to listen."
'Perhaps a ruin? Hehe at least something good out of all this. Gimme.'