Haruka told the lion-dog to stop when she found Shino was lying on the ground, one arm twisted at an unnatural angle, breathing fast and shallow. Jubei sat beside him, stitching up one of the numerous cuts across his shoulders and chest.
"He's been poisoned," the little tanuki said. "He fought that guy with the puppet, but he didn't have enough bugs left to do much more than stall him."
Haruka crouched down beside them. With this many wounds there was no way to tell through which one the poison had entered. Hell, it could be all of them, not to mention that it had likely already spread throughout his body. She'd just have to flood his whole system with her chakra and hope it didn't kill him because the poison certainly would if she didn't. His lips already had a slightly blue tinge to them.
She'd thought Shino was unconscious when she arrived, but he started screaming the second she began burning the poison out of his system. It was an ear-splitting noise, full of pain that echoed through the trees, and startled a flock of birds.
She could feel Shikamaru and his sensei close in on their position a short time later, but didn't pay too much attention to them. As far as she could tell they were the only other humans around. Haruka reconsidered that attitude when Asuma pressed one of his famous trench knives into her neck however. Thankfully there was no chakra flowing through the metal. He hadn't even broken skin, but it was kind of hard to concentrate on what she was doing, when she had to be careful not to slit her own throat by accident.
"She's helping him you moron!" Jubei shouted without looking up. Haruka wondered how he had gotten so proficient at treating wounds without the use of medical jutsu. His stitches looked rather professional, and his little furry hands were perfectly steady, the motions practiced.
"That's not how it looks from my perspective," Asuma said. His voice was quiet, calm even, but there was also an unmistakable threat in in. She wanted to explain what exactly she was doing, but she couldn't risk getting distracted because then she might lose control of her chakra, which would end very badly for Shino.
"Well, it's hardly her fault that you're stupid, is it?" Her little tanuki snapped. He wasn't usually this aggressive, and it made her want to hug him. They'd never really talked about their curious arrangement. The summon without a contract. It had been convenient for both of them, but they'd quickly developed a strong friendship over the short time they'd known each other.
Asuma didn't seem particularly happy with that answer, and even less so when Jubei told him to shut up so they could work in peace. He held his knife firmly in place, but didn't otherwise interfere. It was a good sign that he hadn't slit her throat yet she supposed. Still, Haruka made sure all of her movements were slow and obvious. No need to provoke him or risk giving the wrong impression.
Beads of sweat had formed on her forehead by the time she was done, and she wiped them away with the back of her hand, sighing in relief. Jubei had finished up quite a while before her, and was quickly taken to look at her arm. Haruka hadn't paid too much attention to what he was doing at the time, but now she admired his handy work. The shoulder would be black and blue in a few more hours, but the tanuki's neat stitches had stopped the bleeding.
"He's gonna make it," she informed Asuma, while Jubei wrapped her wound in fresh bandages from her own first aid kit, apparently he only carried a needle and thread around. "The poison prevented his red blood cells from carrying oxygen. It didn't damage any cells though. Burning it out, however, did quite a number on his pathways, so you should probably get him to a medic. I bet his vocal cords need treatment as well, all that screaming before he passed out can't have been good for them."
The jonin let her get up without protest after that. He didn't make her explain anything else either, but he also informed her that he needed to get back to the village and couldn't help with her team. To everyone's surprise Shikamaru refused to go with him. Apparently he'd played decoy while Naruto, Sai—and Sakura for some reason—went after Sasuke. Asuma had saved him from two teams of Sound shinobi, and then they'd heard Shino's screams.
"It makes sense," the Nara said. "They'll need help against that monster and I'm barely even injured. I can at least stall his two teammates if nothing else."
His sensei was clearly worried, but all he did was wish them good luck as Haruka called the lion-dog back over to lead the way.
𖦹𖦹𖦹
They hadn't made it far when a cloud of what looked like chakra smoke, sand and parts of the foliage rose in the distance. As it dissipated a monstrous form became visible, towering over the forest. It had the same color as Gaara's sand, and it's whole body was marked by purplish-black swirls, just like the thing that had come out of the sand sphere during Sasuke's fight.
"Is that…?" Shikamaru started, but left the question unfinished.
"It kind of looks like a tanuki," Haruka said while Jubei cursed like a sailor. The little creature was so terrified she could feel him shaking in her arms.
A moment later a gigantic frog summon appeared in another cloud of chakra smoke.
"Okay, what the fuck?" The Nara exclaimed. He was clearly regretting not going back to the village while he had the chance. The frog was most likely Naruto's, but for some reason it wasn't doing anything. The two giant monsters were simply standing around and staring at each other.
"Y-you need to-to get up there," Jubei stuttered, pointing at the beast she assumed to be Gaara. Shikamaru wasn't on board with that idea at all, so Haruka told him to keep following the lion-dog and find the others.
She'd used up more than three quarters of her chakra already, but Jubei seemed to have some idea of what was going on and a plan to deal with it. Haruka suppressed her chakra and masked her scent to make sure she could get close enough. Something that big wouldn't be able to feel her body heat. She hoped it wouldn't see her either because she couldn't hold the Camouflage technique long enough to be useful, not to mention that she didn't have the energy to spare.
Climbing the sand monster's limbs was easy enough while it sat still, waiting for it's opponent to do something. But of course the stupid frog had to finally decide that he was taking part in this fight after all. It jumped forward with a leap that made the earth shake and demolished a good portion of the forest below. Haruka wasn't really in a position to see how exactly the summon had attacked, but she had to hold on tight, and was almost thrown off even with the help of chakra to glue herself to the monsters rough skin. She was pretty sure this form was the Tailed Beast sealed into Gaara, which would make it the Ichibi, or Shukaku as he'd called it.
A loud crash sounded from somewhere further off, followed by a second smaller one. The Tailed Beast had stopped moving for the moment, and Haruka use her chance, sprinting up it's back and towards the head like Jubei had told her to. Buried hip-deep in it's forehead she found the unconscious form of Gaara.
"He said bad things happen if he sleeps," she whispered, finally getting an idea of what he meant. Deep, terrifying laughter rang out as the last bits of Gaara's chakra vanished and the Ichibi fully took over.
"You have to hurry," Jubei urged. Haruka thought he meant for her to kill the boy and drew her wakizashi as she moved closer, but then the world around her suddenly shifted and she fell into a black void.