Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story besides Ryu and Raida.
Prologue: Almost Free When All Hell Broke Loose
A girl walked through the forest, her midnight black hair swaying with every step. Her large gray eyes, both beautiful and hypnotic, glowed through the unyielding darkness around her as two viper-like fangs protruded from between her blood red lips. She knew she was being followed; she was always being followed as ordered by the Hokage himself, and whenever she got too far from the village those who were following her that day would force her to turn around… and that is why they were getting so close now. 'Why am I so different from everybody else?! I am not important, so why waste manpower by making them follow me around?' She thought as a desperate rage coursed through her veins, her pale skin giving her the appearance of a goddess in the darkness but making it impossible to sneak away from those responsible for following her. 'Maybe if I can get to the river… I could leave the Leaf Village behind and finally be free…' She thought as she heard the friendly gurgling of the river, and she began running to her left where the sound was loudest, knowing that the river would be deep enough to swim away in… and the dogs wouldn't be able to track her through the water.
"Raida, get back here this moment! You have gone far enough; you need to head back towards the village!" One of the people yelled and she instantly recognized the voice as Ryuji, the only person that was always on duty to watch her. "Help me catch her damn it! Don't let her get away!" Ryuji shouted angrily at the others as Raida moved agilely between the trees, her movements almost serpent-like.
"You won't catch me even if the whole village was here to help you… you couldn't catch me before and you can't now." She said, her soft voice echoing harshly through the forest. "Why do you always come back to watch me though? Why do you follow me, driving me crazy?" She asked with both honest curiosity and contempt.
Ryuji looked slightly stunned, this was the second time since he had been assigned the job of watching over Raida four years ago and the last time she spoke to him she killed one of his men were killed after they tried protecting him. His golden eyes widened as he saw her look directly at him with a glare that would have stopped him in his tracks if he was alone, but to his relief her gaze was full of hidden determination… not the inhuman amount of bloodlust that was present last time. "Raida, come back to the village with me…" He said, his chestnut brown hair covering his eyes. She stopped as she narrowed her eyes, coming to an abrupt stop and he signaled to the others who hid in the shadows around them to stop. "Come back with us little Raida, we don't want to hurt you." He said softly as he moved closer towards her, Raida standing unnaturally still as he did.
"So you'll hurt me if I don't come back with you? Are you so sure that you can? After all, I am what nightmares are made of… the last time you tried to hurt me I ended up killing someone." She hissed as softly as a gentle breeze, and somehow the softness made it seem all the more threatening. "Raida… little dragon… do you know why they named me that? Well do you want to know Ryuji… dragon man?" She laughed mockingly as she saw the startled look on his face as she said his name. "Yes I know your name you idiot, you aren't the only one that can follow someone around unnoticed."
"But… you never came near me!" Ryuji protested, answered once again by her mocking laughter.
"Come on ANBU-san, you should know that just because I never went near you or your damn house doesn't mean that I wouldn't find out about who you were and that you live only twenty-five minutes away from my apartment. You know… I feel so sorry for you because you are sixteen and an ANBU Black Ops… but you live with your parents." She laughed again, but this time it was full of sorrow that seemed like it would turn into a sob at any moment, before she sighed and placed her hand on the hilt of a katana that rested on her hip. "Catch me if you can!" She said as she took off into the forest and jumped head-first into the river, swimming swiftly downstream, leaving a dazed Ryuji behind her.
Raida dragged herself out of the cold water and onto the sandy shore of the river, her movements slow and weary from the three hours she had spent swimming in the icy cold water that had taken her away from the Leaf Village. She laid down on the sand as the sun rose slowly in the now flaming sky, shivering from the chill that had sunken into her bones as she fell into a deep sleep.
Her dreams were full of violence, destruction, death, pain, and bloodshed. The last image that she saw before she woke up screaming and covered in sweat was a large fox, its slited crimson eyes glaring into her blood red ones as its nine tails lashed about in uncontrollable fury. She sat up, gasping for breath as she fought against the terror that overwhelmed her, and suddenly finding herself fighting against the familiar sense that she was being studied from the shadows around her. "Who's out there?" She hissed abruptly, her voice shaking from the rage she suddenly felt. "Come on out, don't you think that after being watched my whole life that I wouldn't be able to tell that I was being watched!?"
When no one answered her or showed themselves she smiled suddenly, seeing this as a challenge to find them. She grabbed at her waist and drew the only weapon that she had on her as she stood up, her fangs glinting in the moons last light as the sun finally overpowered it while the blood red sky slowly turned blue. The katana was clean and well cared for the scabbard decorated with a picture of a snake wrapped around it, the cold, gray blade glowing with the sunlight as she spun around, looking for any signs of life around her.
"Put your blade away…" Someone finally said in a deep, husky voice. She shied away from the voice, gripping the hilt of her katana tighter as she took a step back.
"Who are you?" She demanded roughly, her eyes narrowed in cautious suspicion.
"That does not matter, the only that does matter right now is who are you?" The person said as Raida laughed rebelliously.
"Look you jerk-off, tell me who the hell you are and I may spare your pathetic life… if not then I'll be forced to kill you." She said and the silence that followed her words was thick with tension. The sand under her feet began shifting and wrapped around her ankles, moving slowly up to her thigh. She screamed and tried to step back, away from the odd sand but whimpered with sudden terror when she realized that she couldn't move her legs at all. Her eyes hardened with hate and terror as she looked around, needing someone to attack for the trap she was stuck in. "COWARD!!" She shrieked and the invisible attacker laughter surrounded the air around her.
"Your eyes have been filled with hate this whole time… why?" The person asked, his husky voice patient, as if he had all of eternity to wait for her answer.
"None… of your… DAMN… business!" She growled as she tried to tried to pull her legs away from the sand that was wrapped too tightly around her to let her get away.
"But it is… seeing as I found you all alone, and no one would ever know what happened to you. Now who are you … and why do you have so much hatred in your heart?" He said as she howled in agony, the sand slowly crushing her legs.
"Fine! Let me go and I'll tell you anything you want!" She screamed as she heard a bone snap. The man paused, as if weighing his options, and slowly the sand loosened but did not release her. "Hey! Let me go!" She said and struggled again until she moved her left leg and a terrible pain tear through her body. "You… You broke my god damn leg!" She howled her voice thick with pain.
"The broken bone won't kill you but I will. Who are you?" He demanded and Raida shivered involuntarily at the smell of her own blood.
"I… I… I am Raida." She hissed as her heart began pounding faster and harder while her mind became foggy. "I come from the Leaf Village… but I came alone. I am the last member of the Kasanagi clan alive… my whole clan was murdered by a group of psychopaths except for my pregnant mother who they killed only moments after she gave birth to me, and they all died soon after that. I hate hurting others and killing them but I enjoy a good fight. I am twelve and one of the best damn taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu specialist in the academy, only second to a bastard and his little stalker… and now that you know about me I want to know more about you. Who are you? Where are you from? How old are you?" Her grey eyes looked like liquid silver in the light and her eyes where shadowed by beautiful, natural golden markings that encircled her eyes.
"I am Gaara of the Sand, my home in the Hidden Sand Village." He said jumping off of the branch of a tree, his red hair reminding her of fresh blood and his teal eyes that were shadowed by black rings full of hate, contradicting the 'love' tattoo on his forehead. The oddest thing about him was the ominous gourd that rested on his back, giving her a feeling of odd, old familiarity.
'Ugh… I don't feel so good…' She thought suddenly as her heart beat so hard that it felt like it was going to break her ribs, nausea keeping her from answering the boy named Garra. She swayed slightly before falling half-way forwards, her broken leg snapping again as she put her weight on it, and the sand being the only thing keeping her from falling onto the shore as everything around her went black.
Raida opened her eyes confused for a moment, unable to remember closing her eyes and definitely unable to remember if she was in a bleached white room when she fell asleep. "Where… am I?" She asked groggily, her vision swirling as she as she sat up and a dull pain throbbing began in her left leg. She yelped in shock at the pain before pulling off the covers and staring oddly detached and confused at the off-white caste on the leg that was throbbing softly, warning her that she had been hurt.
The door opened noisily as a young blond haired girl came into the room, her brown eyes flicking towards Raida, who looked at her with dulled grey eyes that even with the numbness created by the morphine were hypnotic, like a small animal gazing into the eyes of a cobra. "You're finally awake? You have been here for three days, and you were hissing most of the time. Gaara will be-" She spoke briskly, almost fearfully but she was cut off by an unearthly, enraged, and tortured scream.
"Where are all my things? My mother's sword! Where is it?" She screeched as her eyes widened in realization that the girl took her things and then narrowed with a deadly rage as she sized up the girl. All she carried was a giant fan on her back… no sign of her mother's precious sword. "Where…. Is …. My… God… Damn… Sword!?" She hissed gutturally, her fangs exposed in a menacing grimace as she slipped out of bed but unable to hold her weight she fell on her butt. "That katana is the only thing that I have left of my mother… so tell me where the fuck I can find it or I'll rip your throat out before you can even take a breath to scream for someone to help you!"
She stumbled to her feet and even with broken leg she was behind the girl within moments, her hand pulling her head back by her blond hair, her fangs just above the jugular vein. "I don't know where your sword is! Ask Gaara when he comes!" The blond haired girl growled lowly as Raida snorted with contempt and murderous malevolence.
"I don't know who the fuck you are talking about you bitch, so just give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you now for stealing from me!" She muttered and laughed to herself as the girl turned around, trying to hit her while reaching to grab her fan.
"Temari cut it out." A boy said with cold teal eyes and blood red hair. Raida and the girl who he called Temari both froze, only instead of being filled with fear like Temari Raida's eyes burned with vengeful wrath.
"You! You were the one who attacked me, broke my leg, and stole my mother's sword from me!" She hissed angrily, bloodlust visible in her eyes that had been narrowed into slits.
"Shut up and you'll get your katana back soo-"
"No! I want it now!" She screamed, cutting him off as she shook her head violently.
"You'll get your damn katana back soon… now shut up!" Gaara said and Raida stiffened with indignation as she let go of Temari's hair while her eyes began turning blood red, her pupils becoming slits.
"Why do you have to act like such an ass? I'm not an animal that you can order around! You're a fucking asshole!" She hissed as her fangs grew longer and her voice became deeper, more feral. "Come on and give me my katana so we can go outside and finish this bullshit!" She hissed as she tossed Temari aside and lunging at Gaara. Sand from the large, hollow gourd on his back surrounding him… protecting him from her fierce blows. He watched as she became much more fearsome in appearance, her eyes having become blood red, her nails becoming claws, her skin becoming slightly darker and more scale-like while an ominous, bloodthirsty black chakra began swirling around her.
She came to an abrupt and violent halt before she walked around him looking for some weakness in the sand. After several minutes of her circling she was overcome by her own unusually monstrous bloodlust and she aimed a kick at his head, but once again the sand protected him from her dangerously powerful blow. "Raida you're going to hurt yourself!" Gaara warned as she tried punching through the sand.
"Why… do you… care?" She hissed between the barrage of kicks and punches as he watched her watched her futile stubbornness with curiosity. "Come on! Let me get one good hit in!" She hissed more to herself than anyone else before she growled and running out the door, into the main hallway of the hospital. She ran for the door and burst out of the building as if her nightmare fox were right behind her, the caste slowing her slightly as she ran through the village and into the desert. She ran as fast as her body would take her and by the time Gaara caught up to her she had gotten ten miles from the village.
"Raida, where will you go? The Leaf Village has sent shinobi to every nation to look for you; they are even in our village. They haven't found you because I have been hiding you, you belong to me." He looked crazy as he said this but his statement made sense to her in a sickening way as he continued. "I could have killed you, but I let you live and brought you here to be healed."
"First of all, I would rather die than be around someone that sees me as property to be owned, and second you were the one who hurt me in the first place!" She shouted loudly, her eyes wide with horror as she thought about being a piece of property that could be claimed by anyone that wanted her. She had somehow managed to get herself into a worse situation than she was in back in the Leaf Village, and at least there she was somewhat free… and she wasn't with some psychotic boy that thought she was his. She would willingly go back home to the Leaf Village if she could somehow get away from Gaara long enough to do so. "I'll go back to the Leaf Village then… I want to go home… I want my sword… I want revenge on those that killed my family. I can't get any of the things I want here Gaara, let me go!" She took a step forward and glared down at her caste with distaste before using her new claws and inhuman strength to rip it off.
Gaara didn't even flinch as he saw her try to kick him but for the first time the sand was too slow and her blow connected with his side, the sheer power behind her blow knocking the air from his lungs, leaving him gasping for breath. "You think you own me!? You are hurt after only one god damn kick! If anyone owns anything, I own you!" She hissed angrily, her movements now so quick that Gaara could barely keep up with them.
Gaara began laughing as he grabbed his side, now sending sharp pains through his body whenever he moved. "This… pain… Raida do you fear me?" Garra asked as an odd look appeared in his eyes.
"No… you're too pathetic to be afraid of." She answered instantly, the honesty in her voice brutally clear. Gaara looked at her and the chakra that was still radiating around her.
"Then you'll need to be taught to fear me, won't you?" He growled as the sand began to cover him, encasing him like armor as Raida sensed a violent change in him.
"What are yo-" She fell silent as the sand began to wrap around her, and before it could trap her there she jumped away and ran from the dangerous sand. Since the sand was everywhere she spent all her time avoiding Gaara's sand attacks, leaving her no time or room for a retaliatory strike.
"If I can't have you then no one will…" He said and she shivered, understanding the threat.
"You're crazy!" She whispered breathlessly, her mind racing with thoughts of escape. She glanced around, her blood red eyes wild with the need to get away from the boy she was fighting. "Fine! You want a fight? I'll give you a fight that you'll never forget!" She growled before jumping high into the air, away from Gaara as she began forming hand signs. The moment that she began to use her chakra the black chakra began to take shape, forming into an eight tailed and eight headed snake, all of the heads blood red eyes focused on Gaara, the necks flattened into hoods as the black body coiled around Raida.
Gaara could barely control his shock at the sight of the snake and suddenly from within the coils a large fireball flew towards Gaara. He jumped back and his sand formed a shell around him, but she was right beside him before he was safely enclosed in the sand. She stood still, smirking for a moment before she pulled back and her fist hit Gaara in the jaw. "Raida, what are you?" He asked through the pain of the in his jaw.
"None of your damn business." She growled as the snake disappeared into the sky. She jumped over him as the sand tried latching onto her and landed lightly on her feet before lunging at him again, her fangs sinking through his sand armor and into the soft, warm flesh of his neck.
The sand began to react violently, pounding against her and wrapping around her delicate body as she pulled herself away from the warmth of his body. "I know now why I want you so much… to take such a spirited and wild person like you and break them… tame them, it will make my existence worth more that anyone would have ever thought possible. To figure out all your mysteries and secrets… will be a pleasure." He said in his growling, husky voice and her blood red eyes narrowed fiercely, her body trembling with an overwhelming longing for his death.
"No Gaara, you will never be able to learn everything about me… nor will you ever have the power to tame me. You are nothing when compared to me… nothing! You're not the one in control… I am bitch! If you were better than me than I wouldn't have been able to harm you at all." She hissed before the scent of Gaara's blood on her lips hit her with full force. She gagged once before she threw up the small amount of blood that she had swallowed on accident. The smell and taste of the blood together seemed to have caused a part of her that had been dormant but a there her whole life to awaken completely, and she tried to fight against the sand that was wrapped tightly around her whole body and grab her head when eight voices began assaulting her mind. She screamed in agony as the voices spoke, her heart causing her physical pain the longer she allowed the voices to speak, the scream resembling a wild animal in pain.
'Break out of the sand', 'Kill him now', 'Shukaku is weak, you can kill him', and 'She's too weak, she is worthless as a host' were the most commonly spoken. The voices began fighting amongst themselves so loudly that she hissed through clenched teeth before she yelled as loudly and threatening as she could manage. "Shut the fuck up!" The voices hissed in anger as she felt as if someone was stabbing her through the heart but the pain couldn't kill her, and she howled loudly, her voice full of the pain that she was feeling.
Gaara looked shocked at the violent and tortured scream that tore through the air and in an attempt to quiet her he had the sand the sand that encased her body constrict slightly, squeezing the air from her lungs. She forced herself to look at him, her eyes demented and blood-like eyes before she shrieked again, the noise full of bloodlust and rage. "I'm not going to kill him or anyone else, and I am not weak! Gaara… let me go; they do not like you hurting me!" She screeched and struggled violently against the sand, her lungs burning with the sudden lack of air.
Gaara refused to do what she told her but did loosen the sand slightly so that she could breathe again. "Who are they?" He asked as his curiosity burned through him.
She smiled inwardly as she realized that she could move her hands slightly and used this to her advantage. Doing what the voices were telling her to she began forming hand signs slowly, the sand not loose enough to form them quickly. "You don't want to know… and I don't know who they are." She said, speaking quietly to make him focus on her voice. Seeing Gaara's face become emotionless she became furious thinking that he could somehow know what she was planning and she finished the hand signs, laughing as Gaara took her place inside the shell of sand. The sand fell away slowly from Gaara as she looked at him for the last time and using her enhanced speed, she took off towards the east… back towards her home… away from Gaara and the monster she had become in the nightmare that she had become trapped in while in the Sand Village.
As soon as she was back at the river that had delivered her to this hellish nightmare, the voices were hissing with fury at allowing Gaara, who they were still calling Shukaku, to live and began drawing back the black chakra, leaving her unconscious by the river when they were done.
Gaara had followed her a little over a mile before the intense pain that had flared up from the two holes in his neck that her fangs had made forced him to stop and turn around, returning to the Sand Village. The doctors there said that he had been bitten by a snake, and that he was lucky that it hadn't killed him… that the snake hadn't injected enough venom for that. He was in a deadly and dark moon when his brother and sister found him in his room, holding Raida's katana as he examined it. He glared at them coldly for a few moments before turning his attention back to the sword.
"So Gaara you didn't kill her did you?" She asked and although he didn't reply she flinched when the cork for his gourd popped out of the top and sand cascaded onto the floor.
"Well of you didn't kill her, do you know where she is?" The boy asked, looking at his sullen, brooding brother.
"Yes Kankuro I do… she went back to the Leaf Village… before she bit me. It wasn't a snake… it was her that bit me." She growled with barely controlled and concealed rage, and both Kankuro and Temari were glad that she had hurt him or else he would have followed her back to the Leaf Village and destroyed the village to make sure that she had nowhere to go except the Sand Village.
"Well the next time the Leaf Village lets the other villages past the gates we will go and get her if she doesn't come back for her precious katana first, okay? Just don't do anything before then okay?" Temari asked and Gaara nodded, obviously done talking to his siblings. They left him in the room and Gaara put the katana down on the table before he went and looked out the window. 'The full moon…' He thought as he opened the window and almost as if it were a drug, his eyes glanced back at the sword. He sighed and went back to grab it, went back to the window, opened it and climbed out of it. He sat on the roof looking at the moon with the katana in his hands as he thought about what happened earlier. 'I will find her again and the moment that I do I will never let her get away again. Then I will figure out just what happened today…' He thought as his grip on the hilt of the katana tightened as he spent the rest of the night watching the moon.