Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I never copied from anybody either- I've been thinking of this story for ten months before I heard of this website!
A small girl staggered wearily across the endless sand dunes. She didn't seem to notice that she was walking on the edge of a cliff. She looked like a ghost or a dead person fresh from the grave.
The sun made numerous heat waves, causing the desert to shimmer and swim before the girl's eyes.
Suddenly, the girl slipped and fell off the steep cliff to hit the ground hundreds of feet below. She lay on the ground, staring at the blue sky with a vacant expression on her face. Her fingers twitched for an instant and stopped moving. Her eyes dulled over and she lay still, even when a lizard crawled by her.
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A man ran as fast as he could from the two figures pursuing him.
Sand exploded by him and he took the warning sign to start leaping into the air, staying as far as he could from the treacherous sand. It was slowing him down.
More weapons were thrown at him. He dodged them all except for a single, snaky line of rope with a small knife at the end of it. The sharp end twisted around his ankle and the person at the other end tugged onto the rope, dragging him back to the horrible ground. The sand immediately covered his entire body.
The man twitched is foot uselessly and glared at the girl who was hanging onto the other end of the rope. His left hand struggled to reach for his back pocket.
"It's useless," a deep voice said behind him. The man twisted his head left to look at his other pursuer, a seemingly tall boy with a pale face.
"It's not over yet," the man growled, baring his teeth at the teenager before him.
The sand started to swirl around the man as the pale teenager stared murderously at him. Strangely, the man grinned widely. The boy frowned even deeper and decided that it was time to strike.
A large amount of sand rose high into the air and began to come down at an incredible speed, ready to crush the grinning man.
The man, still smiling, quickly threw numerous kunai through the sand at the girl, rope and boy. Strangely enough, the weapons passed through the incoming sand and missed the girl's head by inches, breaking her and her senior's concentration as they tried to defend themselves. In the moment that followed, there was a flurry of confusion as the girl and boy deflected the wave of the kunai. When they were finished, the man was gone, the rope broken.
"Over there!" The girl shouted.
The man was several yards away, but they could still catch up. They ran after him.
The man was tired. He was running out of energy as he had wasted it all on running, techniques and disguising himself. Then, while running, he spotted something white on the ground.
More out of fear of being caught than curiosity, he ran downwards to the figure at the bottom of the pit.
"Matsuri, distract the enemy until you see me. I will take over from there," instructed the older boy quickly when the man appeared to be quickly swallowed up by the ground. "There should be a steep cliff where the man disappeared so be careful."
"Yes," answered Matsuri. She watched as her teacher vanished from sight and then concentrated at the task at hand. She ran down the cliff wall and analyzed her surroundings. It was basically a huge hole in the desert. But what puzzled her most was the way the man was positioned.
His back was facing her and he was bending over something on the ground. He also seemed to be preoccupied with something. She tensed and got ready to defend herself. When the man did nothing, she landed quietly on the ground and threw her weapon at him.
The man slowly turned around to face her. He was holding a small child.
Matsuri stopped her attack short of coming into contact with the two. She looked at the new situation: the child appeared to be a frail, young girl of eight. She was either unconscious or dead. Her eyes certainly looked dead and she was dusty all over. Plus she was being used as a shield.
The man couldn't believe his luck, what a turn of events! First he was the pursuer, then he was pursued and now, as long as the girl was with him, he could get away with his mission- yet only halfway complete.
The girl he looked at was quite dead, there was no pulse and her eyes were cloudy.
Doubt was written all over the face of his female pursuer. She was unsure of whether to strike or not.
A huge wave of sand appeared in front of him, ready to engulf him. Just then, there was a loud shout from his first opponent.
"Gaara- sensei, he's using a girl as his shield!"
Gaara paused his attack for a moment and grimaced. The newcomer was a nuisance; he would have to separate her from the man. But then, the girl didn't even look alive.
The man was even more pleased. But his happiness was cut short when the sand resumed movement. Apparently the Kazekage knew that the girl was not alive.
Gaara took small pleasure in watching his opponent's reaction. Just then, he saw the girl slowly lift her head up and gravely stare at him in the eye. Her gaze pierced him and nearly tore his soul apart with a painful aching feeling. His head was breaking into pieces…
He stopped his attack immediately and the sand dropped to the ground.
The child was still watching him, not blinking. Her eyes searched the entire place before landing on Matsuri.
Matsuri was holding a kunai and she threw it at the man in a curved arc so that only the man would be injured, not the girl.
The girl watched the kunai come closer. She jerked out of the man's grasp and stood defiantly in the path of the kunai. Her face bore no expression and her arms were outspread, protecting the man behind her. She shook her head no.
Gaara aching head was confused. Was this girl in league with the assassin?
Matsuri was stunned. She couldn't move an inch and she could do nothing to protect the girl from harm if she was in this state. Plus the kunai was moving too fast for her to intercept it. All she could do was watch the kunai get closer and closer to the girl. The girl would definitely die if nothing happened soon. Why can't I move? She wondered. And why is Gaara- sensei not doing anything?