'Hm?' - Eiji could feel the gazes of Naruto and co, so he turned around.

"What's wrong?"

"DAMN YOU!! WHY DID YOU KILL HIM?!! WE NEED TO KNOW WHERE GAARA IS!!" - Naruto shouted furiously.

"Oh...my bad." - Eiji said that, but his head was preoccupied with other thoughts.

"MY BAD?! ARGHH!!" - Naruto charged at him, but Eiji knew that Kakashi would stop him, so he didn't dodge.

'Huh?' - Eiji could feel a fist landing on his head and he was sent flying.

Turns out Kakashi was still suffering from the use of Kamui and couldn't stop him.

"NARUTO!! STOP IT!! Let's calm down, saving Gaara is our priority. Throwing punches at him angrily won't help!" - Sakura

"She is right...Naruto...think for a second. Since this Akatsuki member didn't have Gaara with him and was the one looking for us, the chance is high that Gaara is still at their hideout, sp we just have to continue on our route." - Kakashi

"You...are right. Sorry..." - Naruto managed to calm down.

'Still...we were lucky that Eiji didn't regard as enemies and even helped us, despite us attacking him and accusing him of being with Akatsuki...so we should try to not leave on to bad terms with it since if he is with the Shiki Ryuu it might get problematic for Konoha...' - Kakashi was wise enough to see the big picture.

"Alright, then let's move!" - Chiyo

"Hehehe..."

"?"

Eiji got up with sinister laughter: 'This Naruto...even if you are this world's protagonist, I wont overlook what you did just like that...I will mess with you for a bit...'

"If it's Gaara you guys are looking for, it's already too late."

"!"

"What - did - you - just - say?" - this time he didn't shout, but staring with red fox eyes made it obvious that Naruto was even more pissed right now.

But Eiji smiled amused: "Are you deaf? I said you are too late to save Gaara."

'This situation...sigh...it gets worse and worse...' - Kakashi looked at Naruto, then at Sakura and Chiyo.

He knew Naruto would jump any second at Eiji again, but it looked like Sakura and Chiyo were too shocked by the news and weren't prepared to hold Naruto back.

But the worse part is that Naruto's chakra started to form foxtails.

Kakashi remembered how Jiraiya prior to this mission warned Kakashi to stop it with a seal he gave him and to act quickly before more tails would form.

Eiji also saw how Naruto started to see his transformation: 'Uhm...did I go too far? I think I messed up...'

"Uhm...it was just a joke, you see..." - Eiji tried to say that with an honest face.

"..."

Lee, Tenten, and Neji were rushing at full speed, but even with their full speed to were way slower than someone who is able to fly.

Pakkun who was with them didn't talk at all, since with Neji he didn't need to use his nose to track Deidara.

Anyway, when they thought they are about to finally reach where Team Kakashi was, Neji who used his Byakugan suddenly had an expression of horror and only blurted these words out: "What the hell...is that?"

"Neji, what's wrong?!" - Lee asked worriedly, but his question was answered at the next moment.

A huge tiger made up of wind appeared in the sky and seemingly swept and devoured everything of where they were heading to.

"Akatuski is really on another level...no wonder they are regarded as being that dangerous..." - Tenten

"This wasn't the work of that Akatsuki member..." - Neji had an unreadable expression.

"What do you mean?" - Lee

"Let's just hurry!" - Neji

"..." - Pakkun looked at them but didn't say anything.

But when they finally appeared there, it wasn't a situation they were expecting.

"E-Eiji? Is that really you?" - Tenten couldn't believe her eyes.

CrusadeAgainstFurries

I already feel better now, so here I'm back. Again a day later like always...but anyway, this chapter is a bit shorter, because when I tried to add more paragraphs, it always felt too awkward to end it there. But since starting tomorrow there will be double chapters to make up for the last few days, I guess it isn't too bad to have a slightly shorter chapter today.