Hot Blooded Sports in the Shifting Sands

In the desert-like Land of Wind, a caravan of travelers made their way slowly through the shifting sands underneath the baking heat. A group of shinobi guarded the perimeter of the fleet of hooded carts, a sight that was rather common for the country. With a large portion of the country being a harsh desert, many of the missions that were given out to Sunagakure (the Village Hidden in the Sands), the local ninja village, ended up being convoy and * missions for various merchants and other such individuals.

While it seemed a bit counter-intuitive, there were actually many bandits and missing-nin that frequented the sands of the country. Most civilians and traders going through the deserts had enough to worry about with the natural hazards that the climate itself had to offer, but it was specifically for this reason that bandits took the opportunity to plunder these troubled travelers.

Regardless of how well-trained any bandits might be, they would have to be * to attack the caravan that was currently making its way across the sands. That was because the insignias of Sunagakure and Konohagakure (Village Hidden in the Leaves) were imprinted on the canvas-sides of the wagons.

Yes, in fact, every member of the caravan at hand was a shinobi of one of the two villages.

After the Invasion of Konoha spear-headed by Orochimaru, the traitorous snake Sannin, Sunagakure was put under heavy pressure to make up for their role in the attack. Once the dust settled, the advisory council of Sunagakure made the decision to nurture the stabilizing Gaara as the next Kazekage, as tradition dictated, and acceded to a treaty and trade agreement, amongst other terms that would be discussed more completely in the coming months once they established better communications.

For the time being however, the caravan of shinobi was actually travelling to Sunagakure to participate in a volleyball competition, as unexpected as it may be.

In order to lighten up the mood and better the relations between the two shinobi villages, Konoha sent along a pair of Jonin and a number of their talented younger generation members to participate in a friendly competition of one of Sunagakure’s specialty sports.

The Sand Siblings of Konoha along with their Jonin teacher, Baki, were part of the Suna forces returned to their village. The previously-antisocial and psychotic Gaara was currently chatting pleasantly with the boy who catalyzed his change into a more-stable individual, Naruto Uzumaki of Konoha.

“Man, is it always this windy here?” the blond-haired boy complained. “I don’t know how you manage to live here! Hey Gaara, how much of the desert do you think you could fit in your gourd?”

The red-haired boy looked between his new ‘friend’ and the sand underneath slowly before seriously contemplating the question.

Sakura, Naruto’s pink-haired teammate of Team Seven, palmed her face. Kakashi, their Jonin teacher, let out a little snort before returning his focus to the latest edition of Jiraiya-sama’s Make-out Paradise series. Sasuke, the last of their four-man squad, was brooding quietly in the shade of the wagon, though he directed a momentary glance at the goings-on before going back to sulking.

“Naruto, you know what I said about asking * questions,” a young woman laughed from the other wagon, wielding her fan menacingly.

The blond-haired boy flinched before rubbing his head sheepishly. “Aw, come on sis! It’s an honest question, ok? You saw how much he pulled out during the Exams and afterwards…”

“Yeah, just let him go this time,” another girl giggled placatingly. “You were curious too, weren’t you?”

The individuals talking were a group of four Chunins that recently surged to the spotlight in Konohagakure. All four were only known by codenames corresponding to the elemental affinities that they specialized in just like their Jonin leader, even to those close to them.

“Do we all have to participate in the event, Crimson?” a boy with white hair sighed. “I’m really not feeling up for it.”

“No, you’re free to abstain Midnight,” the brawny Jonin responded with a grin. “But if we don’t have enough members from our side, I’ll be forcing you to join in.”

“Hey, leave Nighty alone,” the last boy with brown-haired said, his hands locked behind his head. “You know he wilts a bit under the sun. I can’t imagine what being in the Land of Wind is like for him right now.”

The boy dodged his head to the side as a tanto lodged itself into the wood where his forehead just was.

“Screw off, Scarlet.”

“This volleyball thing sounds pretty interesting,” the first girl mentioned. “I’ll take part at least, though I don’t know how many people we’ll need.”

“I’ll back you up if we need anymore, Breezy,” the other said with a wink.

“Aw, I c*ways count on you Azure.”

Crimson just laughed wryly at the largely-contrasting relationships between his four subordinates. On the bright side, it looked like all four were relaxing to some degree. They earned it after the work they put in during the Invasion.

He looked off into the distance. They were nearly there now.

……………………

Once they arrived in the village, the Jonin teachers went off for a meeting with Sunagakure’s advisory council. The Konoha diplomatic shinobi and straggling Suna forces followed them.

Meanwhile, Team Seven, the four Chunin, and the Sand Siblings headed off to a nearby oasis for the first round of the competition. After some briefing by one of the locals on the basic rules of the sport, Naruto, Breeze, and Azure took one side of the court opposing Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara himself.

Scarlet was sipping a coconut from the shade of a nearby tree and waving a small flag that said Konoha it. Midnight was holding a battery-powered fan to cool himself down, his normally spiky white-hair drooping slightly. Both were in beach shorts.

Breeze was dressed in a yellow two-piece swimsuit that had Wind written across her chest-piece. An orange and white bandana * her long, blond hair into a ponytail, paired with a small cap. Azure wore a white and blue one piece and had her hair done into a small ponytail with a scrunchie.

Naruto was rocking a pair of beach shorts, bright orange as he always preferred. No one knew where he got it from though. Temari was also wearing a swimsuit, while Gaara didn’t see a need to change given his particular talents. The weird thing was seeing how surprisingly fit Kankuro was underneath his usual get-up, though he was comically pasty for a guy who lived in the Land of Wind.

Naruto looked curiously at the large size of their court in comparison to some of the other courts across the oasis that some civilians were playing volleyball in.

“Why’s our court so much bigger than theirs? And why’re we so far away form the rest of them too?”

Temari spoke up with a grin. “That’s because they’re playing civilian volleyball. We play just a tad differently than them, so the extra space is necessary. It’s also why we only play with three people.”

“Since you’re the newbies coming in, you get first serve,” Kankuro smirked. “We’ll try to take it easy on you.”

“All right, you asked for it,” Breeze returned, competitive spirit now lit. “Azure, Naruto, you better bring your A-game!”

The two saluted comically as Breeze served the ball, leaping as high as she could and smacking the orb into the other court. Temari whistled as she hopped to the side, passing the ball up into the air with her arms.

“Not a bad serve for a rookie, but you’ll need to do better than that. Kankuro!”

“Roger that.”

The puppeteer set the ball by jumping up and patting the ball high into the air.

Breeze watched in confusion. “How are you going to –“

Her words were cut off by the sight of Temari leaping sky-high, wind bursting underneath her and boosting the girl five meters into the air. She grinned as she spiked the ball accurately towards the corner of the court where Naruto was standing.

“Don’t worry, I got this sis!” he called out.

In a surprising show of good judgement and reflex, Naruto bounded over to the landing zone accurately, arms pulled tautly and ready to pass the heavy spike. He beamed a wide smile over to his newly-found sister figure, which promptly changed into shock as the sand underneath his feet suddenly rippled into waves.

With his balance thrown off, the incoming volleyball made it through his guard easily, plummeting into the sand and forming an imprint. The referee off at the side blew her whistle and flipped the score-board to indicate the Sand Siblings’ point-gain.

“Sorry, Naruto,” Gaara said as his siblings high-fived in the background. He moved his hand and the sand flattened back to normal underneath his feet.

“All right, I see how it is,” Breeze pouted, stomping the ground. “Let’s show them some Konoha pride then!”

She grabbed the volleyball and tossed it high into the air before leaping upwards with a boost of air, just like Temari’s trick. Once she leveled with the ball, Breeze activated a seal on her arm and her fan popped out, ready for action.

Azure spat out a screen of water in the meantime so their opponents couldn’t throw any interference their way. Breeze did a full spin in the air and swung her fan full-force, slamming a Hurricane Jutsu into the volleyball.

“You’ll need to try harder than that!” Kankuro shouted as he activated his chakra strings. “Crow!”

His puppet rose out of the sands swiftly, traveling across the ground and receiving the jutsu-powered volleyball with its body. Crow crumpled into the ground, but the ball was successfully passed. Temari moved into position to set the ball this time around.

“Gaara, it’s up to you this time!”

Temari punched the ball high above the net as Gaara nodded in affirmation, rising above the ground atop a column of sand. The cork on his gourd popped open as sand flowed out plentifully, forming into a giant fist of sand.

The Konoha team wasn’t staying idle, however.

“You’re not gonna get us that easily!” Naruto replied. “Shadow Clone Barrage, go!”

A small army of shadow clones appeared on the field and got to work, one group of clones throwing the others further into the sky. The second wave of airborne clones sacrificed themselves as stepping stones for the last wave of clones, who stepped on their predecessors’ heads and finally made it to Gaara’s altitude.

“Tough luck!” “You won’t get through us!” “Dattebayo!”

Gaara smiled slightly at the energy of the clones, but it was futile. He swung his sand fist heavily into the volleyball, sending it rocketing through the clones who dispersed. They did manage to change the trajectory just enough, however, to send it towards the middle of their court.

“Leave this one up to me, but it’s up to you to fini* off,” Azure giggled, cracking her fists. “Let’s trying out my new technique! Skewering!”

The blue-haired girl gathered an orb of water around her right fist before swinging upwards heavily, parting some of the sand underneath as her fist passed by. The orb of water exploded as her fist made contact with the ball, reducing some of the ball’s downwards momentum, while transferring all of hers into it.

Like a game of ping-pong, the ball flew back upwards into the sky. Breeze made a hand-sign and formed three shadow clones. Two worked together to toss her upwards, while the other followed. Together, they channeled a large amount of chakra between their palms until a giant, shrieking blue orb formed.

“I didn’t train under the Toad Sage himself for nothing!” she yelled.

The Big Ball Rasengan made contact with the ball in a brief moment of tranquility before it was sent plummeting downwards like a meteor towards the Sand Siblings’ courtside. Despite it being directly in the middle, they quickly *tered out of the way in the face of the hazardous projectile.

A fountain of sand exploded upwards and outwards at contact, splattering the referee and even Midnight and Scarlet with sand particles. The ball was surprisingly still intact.

“Good thing we made those volley* super durable.”

……………………

After a long, competitive match where an exhausted Azure and Naruto had to sub themselves out for Scarlet, Sakura, and Midnight (who joined begrudgingly), the sun began to set and the Konoha detachment bid farewell to the Sand Siblings.

Crimson and Kakashi led the way back while the others, excluding Sasuke and Breeze, all lay slumped in the wagon. Azure weakly lifted her head up to look at Breeze, who was sitting on the back of the caravan and thoughtfully looking back at Sunagakure.

“What’re you thinking about, Breezy?” the blue-haired girl asked.

“Oh, nothing!” the blond-haired young lady remarked, snapping out of her daze. “I was just thinking about starting up a volleyball club in Konoha. I think I’d know a good spot for it…I’d just need to ship in a bit of sand.”

Azure t*ed her head against the floor of the wagon.

“Please, don’t say it.”

“Do you want to – “

The blue-haired girl sighed.

“Fine, I’ll help you with the club. Don’t forget that I still have my gymnastics things to do though…”

Breeze smiled sweetly at the girl before leaning against the wagon’s side and whistling a little tune. She figured Tenten would be interested and she could always get Scarlet and Midnight to join in for a bit until more members came along. Even though the others tried their best to find her a sport to enjoy as well, it never felt right.

She had a good feeling about this one though.

……………………