9 The first mission (3)

Speaking"

'Thinking'

The remaining six were more cautious than the rest of the bandits. They made sure to take a path on which all traps had already been triggered.

As soon as they made it through the minefield, they rushed at us. Temari and Kankuro fought together. Kankuro used his puppet while Temari had to use a kunai to fight. Three attacked Baki, two engaged in a Tai Jutsu fight while the other shot fireballs at every possibility.

Gaara was currently fighting one opponent. Or in other words, his opponent was dodging his sand while once in a while throwing a kunai or shuriken at him.

'One of them is missing.'

"Water release: Water dragon bullet."

A water dragon rose in front of Gaara and went straight at him. On the way, it smashed into his opponent and knocked him away.

Gaara's sand rose to form a wall in front of him. It blocked the dragon, but due to the water, the sand became weak and heavy.

The next moment a fist smashed through the wet wall. Gaara's ultimate defense just only managed to save him from that strike.

'That was number six.'

Gaara immediately sent sand to pursue his new opponent. After he was out of his reach he took time to see what damage the water dragon had done.

His former opponent was lay knocked out on the ground. On further behalf, it distracted Kankuro's and Teamri's opponent to such an extent that Kankuro was able to get a hit with his poisonous blade.

The opponent he was facing now was Mamoru the water demon. But before they engaged in combat again, Gaara decided to taunt him.

"It seems like the water dragon wasn't your best idea. You knocked out one of your comrades and distracted another."

"Oh, kid. You have a lot to learn. Do you think I'm stupid enough to take out two of my team members by accident?"

"Well. You just sent your man running into a minefield. I wouldn't be surprised if you were stupid enough to pull off that move by accident."

"Shut up you brat. I had a reason to do that!"

"And what reason?"

"Right now around reinforcement troupes are on the way here. They will arrive around noon. These five suckers are their leaders. If I want to take control of the reinforcements I'll have to take out all of them. That's the reason why I used the Jutsu!"

"Well, that explains a lot."

'This guy just told me valuable information just because he didn't want to be perceived as stupid by me? Maybe Kankuro was right about their stupidity.'

Gaara had no more time to think about the information he just received because Mamoru decided to attack.

They entered a fierce Tai Jutsu battle.

When it came to speed, technique and power, Gaara was heavily outclassed.

While it was true that Mamoru was fast, he wasn't fast enough to get past Gaara's sand defense. One hit after another was parried by his sand when suddenly, Gaara saw an opening and went for it.

Gaara's sand had parried another attack when Mamoru lost his balance. Gaara used the sand to replicate an image of his fast but larger. The fist hit his struggling opponent right in the chest.

But Mamoru disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing a wooden lock. He had used the body substitution technique to dodge Gaara's strike.

'He is behind me!'

During the fight, Gaara had spent his sand on the ground to be able to feel the movements of his opponent. He could feel him approach from behind, ready to send a strike to the back of his head.

Time seemed to slow down. Gaara turned around to see Mamoru's fist approaching his face.

Of course, he could use his sand defense to block the strike. But the problem was that he was unable to counterattack if he used the sand shield.

He forcefully held back his shield and gathered sand around his right fist.

He narrowly dodged Mamoru's strike, who was visibly confused. He went for an attack expecting Gaara's sand to block it. That was the reason why he wasn't prepared for a counterattack.

Gaara used the momentum of his turn to slam his right fist into Mamoru's jaw. He had hardened his sand to a point where it was as hard as steel.

A crack could be heard from Mamoru's jaw as he was flung back by the force of the strike.

'Dammit! I wasn't careful enough! I expected his sand to block my strike. I wasn't fully concentrated and left an opening. He saw it and went for the counterattack.'

He didn't have time to check his injury because the next wave of sand was approaching him.

He quickly dodged and created distance between the two of them.

"Water release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave."

Mamoru released a stupidly large amount of water from his mouth and started surfing on it toward Gaara.

'Damn. Under normal circumstances, I would dodge the water, but the village is behind. It would be destroyed. I will have to use most of my sand to stop the water from getting through.'

Suddenly Gaara had an idea. He unsealed his metal sand combination and sent it to the entrance of the village. Then he used his other sand to build a huge wall in front of him.

The wall of sand was able to stop the incoming water. But it couldn't stop Mamoru. He jumped over the wall and approached Gaara at a high speed.

He had only a small amount of sand left. He used it all to block the chakra-infused fist coming at his chest.

It helped him limit the damage, but he was sent flying. He flew through the entrance of the village and came to a halt.

Mamoru was calmly approaching him.

"You fought well, I have to give you credit for that. You even landed a hit on me.

But you are simply too weak. My water release made your sand unusable. And I'm at a Jonin level while you are barely at a high Jonin level."

"You are right. Your Tai Jutsu is superior to mine. The only reason I could keep up was through my ultimate defense. And your water release is the hard counter for my sand.

That makes it even more impressive, how you managed to lose."

"What do you mean? You are laying on the ground in front of me, all your sand has been made useless by my water release. How do you think you will win this?"

"You are superior to me in all fields of combat except one.

Intelligence. Sand coffin!"

Only now did Mamoru realize what Gaara meant. He stood at the entrance of the village. In 15-centimeter deep sand.

Before he could react his feet and ankles were crushed by the metal sand.

"AHHHHH!"

Mamoru fell to his knees.

"You son of a bitch! I will kill you!"

He was about to make some hand signs when suddenly sand started to cover his whole body.

"My sensei told me to try to keep you alive to get some information out of you. But I think he won't be too upset if you die during our battle."

Tears were streaming down Mamoru's face. "Please let me live! I will tell you everything. I don't want to die."

Gaara stood up, a dark grin plastered on his face.

"You have got some information? Sadly for you, I don't care!"

Gaara closed his fists, crushing Mamoru.

Gaara collected his sand before leaving the village again, to get the remaining sand that was scattered through the battlefield, and to check on his team.

After Gaara had collected his sand he approached the spot where the battle started. Baki, Temari, and Kankuro had already defeated the bandits.

Currently, they were questioning the guy that was knocked out by the water dragon.

"It's good to see you that you one your fight Gaara. After we finished our fight we saw you collecting your sand. It seems like you didn't manage to keep Mamoru alive."

"Sadly not Baki. He felt a crushing defeat against me if you know what I mean."

"I don't know what you mean."

"It doesn't matter anyway, did this guy say anything to you?"

"No, we haven't good any information out of him. We will take him to Suna for further interrogation. We will leave tomorrow at noon."

"Tomorrow at noon. Oh, that reminds me of something."

"That reminds you of what?", Baki was sounding mildly annoyed.

"The reinforcements!"

"Which reinforcements?"

Suddenly everyone could hear the sound of countless footsteps coming closer. After a few seconds, around 100 people appeared on top of the hill.

"These reinforcements."