A/N: New Fic!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.
Sandy love!
Temari looked up and over the rubble that she was currently hiding behind. Her enemy was close and she knew it. This was her first A-ranked mission and if it carried on at the rate it was going at, it would be her last. The information had been outdated and the rebel forces had grown in both strength and numbers since the last attempt had been made to finish off there destructive rampages.
Temari had just turned nineteen and had received her first A-rank mission as a gift from her father. The missions had seemed simple enough track down the last remaining rebels and stop them by any means necessary. The reports had stated that they where low on soldiers, ten at the most and badly wounded. Five shinobi had set out on this mission and now only one stood alive…barely, but still alive.
Three of Temari's closest friends had died on this mission including the man she had slowly started falling in love with over the last two years. She couldn't even say his name anymore. The man she loved who had died protecting her from a back attack was dead and she couldn't even shed a tear for him. She felt a few tears trying to escape her eyes, but held back.
She slowly looked over at the three men that were knocking over tables and chairs while looking for her. They had made it painfully clear what they had intended to do with her and it made her cringe at the thought. She knew reinforcements would be here soon, but feared that soon wouldn't be soon enough. She quickly moved to another place for better cover, holding her arm as she moved. Her arm had been impaled by several kunai and daggers, one even succeeded in hitting her just above the right breast.
She knew she just had to hold out a little longer, but also couldn't help wonder if she could make it on her own. She carefully opened her pouch that was connected to her left leg and scanned through the supplies. She had three kunai, one ninja star, some wire and a small med kit. Her odds where looking bad, but Temari knew that if she could just keep them busy enough till reinforcements arrived she'd be okay. She carefully tied one end of the wire to the leg of a chair and the other end to the leg of a half broken table.
The image made her mind wonder to this place she had ended up in while running for her life from the bastards. This really was a wasteland. The streets where littered with nothing, but half rotten animals and odd pieces of rock. The buildings where in worse shape chunks where missing from the walls, tables and chairs where everywhere, there where even a few rotting corpses among the remains of what appeared to be food. It was hell, worse than hell and what made things worse is it was in the middle of nowhere in the desert.
Temari had lived in the desert her entire life and was used to the extreme heats, but this place was not normal the heat was unbearable and it was completely bare of any life, or even the slightest breeze. Breeze…that reminded Temari of her birthday, it had been extremely windy as usual, it was always windy on her birthday, but this year her father had given her a beautiful new giant fan, but now it was gone along with everything else they had brought along for the mission. She finished setting the trap and made her way further to set up the last one with the last of her equipment.
She quickly glanced over the giant piece of rubble she was hiding behind to find the exact location of her tormentors. She looked at her hand and gripped the kunai harder. She would rather kill herself than become there sex slave. She took the bandages and wrapped them around her bloody arm as best she could before making her way to hide behind a small steel plate. This also made her wonder just what exactly this town was before it was destroyed, there where strange steel pipes and plates lying almost everywhere.
Temari carefully looked through a scrape that was across the steel plate and saw her targets. They where so close to her trap just a bit more and then it happened the snapping sound could clearly be heard as the man stood on the wire and a kunai got launched at his heart. Just before it hit a screeching sound was heard before the kunai hit the ground.
"HAHAHAHA! Is that the best you can do you little whore!" The man shouted as he picked up the kunai and threw it straight at Temari. The kunai stopped right next to Temari's face as it got stuck in the grooves of the plate.
Temari's eyes widened as she saw the tip of the kunai pointing at her. She immediately jumped back and ran from the crazy men.
One of the smaller enemies moved to chase her, but was stopped by the oversized brute.
"Let her run I like it when they run!" He shouted loud enough so that Temari could hear.
Temari could feel those same tears threatening to escape again, but this time it wasn't over the loss of her friends or her lover now it was in fear of these men that where chasing her. She heard the man yelling at her as she made her way across the desolate street to find a new place to hide. She stopped and hid behind a broken wall panting slightly as she felt the exhaustion of the last day catch up to her.
Her mind once again wandered to the days events. She had arrived at the designated area where the rebels where rumoured to be to find nothing, but a barren wasteland of death. The smell of rotting flesh and blood was so thick that Temari felt sick. They made there way through the town looking for survivors, but found none. As they where about to leave they found a small girl, who couldn't have been older than ten. She was badly beaten and bloody, her clothes where ripped apart and her face was stained with dried tears.
Temari felt so many different emotions when she looked at the poor girl. The girl was still alive and whimpering slightly. Temari tried to lift the girl, but soon found out that both her legs and arms had been completely smashed. Some of her ribs where broken and she was clearly struggling to breath. Temari felt her heartbreak as she reached for a kunai. She bought it to the girl's neck and in one swift motion put the little girl out of her misery. Temari gave the little girl a proper funeral before they headed out to find the monsters that could do such a thing.
Late that night they had come by there camp and where shocked to find over a hundred men drinking while screams came from there tents of innocent woman being raped. They immediately attempted to pull back, but before they got the chance they where ambushed. They fought desperately to survive the gruesome battle, but only exceeded in escaping with two members. Temari and her lover hid silently behind a rock as they waited for an opportunity to escape.
They both soon realised that escaping from this was impossible and awaited there death, when suddenly Temari's lover ran out, his whole body tapped with explosive tags. He knowingly ran to his own death for the sake of Temari's life and made damn sure to take most of the bastards with him. Temari still isn't sure how many people he killed with that suicidal bombing, but honestly didn't care. He had given his life for hers and that's all that mattered.
She somehow managed to get away from the rebels, but soon realised that she was been followed by three of them. She would have fought them, but even she knew that she was to badly injured to win. She kept running until she came to this god forsaken town. It was completely barren and reeked of death, but she needed somewhere to hide and catch her breath.
She had hide and now even tried to set a trap against them, but they proved far more skilled than she had thought and now here she was hiding behind the little remains of what seemed to be a bakery. The huge steel ovens made her start thinking again what this town could have been. It wasn't on any map they had and it didn't look like anyone inhabited this area.
Her thoughts where interrupted by the sounds of steps approaching her. She felt like the tears where finally going to escape her eyes as the steps got louder and louder.
"Ah what you doing behind this ugly wall come out and play?" The man said in an evil twisted voice.
Temari gasped as she felt his hand grip around her arm and pull her up. She opened her eyes and found her self dangling in the air as the men smirked at her.
"Hmmm…she's a real beauty; let's see what she looks like with out that jacket, eh?" The brute said as his free hand ripped her jacket apart revealing her large breasts. Temari felt the tears finally leave her eyes as the man roughly groped her. Her body felt limp and wouldn't move, as much as she had wanted it to it just wouldn't.
The man laughed out loudly his disgusting breath running over her face. She felt sick again, but finally managed to move her hand again. She moved her hand behind her back and drew her kunai. She moved as quickly as her body would allow her, the kunai directed straight at her own throat.
She closed her eyes in preparation for her own death, but it never came. She opened her eyes and saw the man smirking at her again as he held her hand in his.
"Now, now. That wouldn't do…how am I supposed to hear you scream if you're dead?" the man said as he violently threw her down at the ground. Temari cried in pain as her back hit the ground.
The man looked at her with an evil grin on his face.
"So boys…who goes first?" He said never losing eye contact with Temari as he said the words. Temari could hear the ugly laughs coming from the men in the back as they both chanted for the huge brute to have his way with her.
Temari's was crying uncontrollably now, it was as if all the tears for her comrades, her lover and herself where finally being set free. The brute bent over Temari and tore the remainder of her clothes of leaving her in nothing, but the scraps that he was to lazy to completely remove.
She knew what was about to happen to her and knew that she couldn't stop it and also knew the reinforcements wouldn't find her in time. It was over. She was going to die today, the day after her nineteenth birthday. For the first time in her life she wished that she had never turned nineteen, if she could just go back she would never be self centred and stubborn and accept an A-rank mission because she wants to prove herself.
She would rather have died with him than be here right now.
The man looked down at her as he undid his pants, letting them fall to the ground. He was grinning as he made his way towards her.
Temari closed her eyes and wished that they would just do what they wanted to do so that they could just kill her and put her out of her misery like she did for that sweet little girl earlier that day.
Temari waited for the pain and torture to come, but when it didn't she was confused. She opened her eyes to find nothing, but darkness. She looked around and found that everything was black and nothing else. There was no sounds, no light and that sickening smell was finally gone.
"Am I dead?" Temari asked herself as she looked around the darkness.
She smiled and suddenly broke out in tears of joy. She was happy…so happy that she didn't experience the pain, that she didn't feel her life leave her. She wondered about this, why and how come. Surely that sick man wouldn't have let her pass out and even if she did he would keep her for his sick amusement, but here she was in complete nothingness. The pain was gone and she felt safe, safer than she had felt in a long time.
She smiled and accepted that she was finally dead and free from all the pain that her life had brought her. Suddenly she heard screaming and almost immediately the smell of blood and death came rushing back to her. Everything had returned the pain in her arm, the sounds of screams and the sickening smell of that man on her torn clothes.
But the darkness was still there and it wasn't leaving. She reached out and her hand touched something. It felt hard and rough and hurt. She pulled her hand back and found that it was bleeding. Her hand looked like it had been terribly scratched against a hard rock or something and it scared her.
Where was she? She was alive, but trapped in a hard dome of god knows what and what about the screams. Who was that? Was it the enemy screaming, did reinforcements arrive and save her. No that's impossible she was completely alone with those three bastards, she would know if there was anyone else around. Wouldn't she?
Once again her thoughts where interrupted as the dome around her started to crumble. She could hear the rustling sound of sand spinning and then she was free. She looked around there in the distance where three mangled corpse now laid. But these where fresh the blood could still be seen leaving there bodies, but what surprised Temari the most was that these where the bodies of the men that where just about to rape her.
Once again tears left her eyes, but this time they where tears of relief.
When Temari settled down enough she realised that she wasn't alone. She looked up and her eyes fell onto what seemed to be a young male. She immediately wrapped herself with what little clothe there was and hid her body from the possible new threat. She looked over at him; his whole body was covered in black leather. His legs where surrounded by chains and metal studs that covered the leather. His arms where bare except for the odd wrapping of leather around his left arm. His chest was also covered in chains and studs. What had caught Temari's attention was his pale skin, most who lived in the desert where rather tanned, but her this young man was almost as white as ghost.
She continued her search of the stranger until her eyes found his, they where green and almost the complete opposite to his fiery red hair, but what caught her attention was the dark outline that surrounded his eyes. She found him scary and intimidating, but also…kinda hot. She buried that thought away as she realise that he was turning around to leave.
"D-did you s-save me?" She asked in a weak timid voice.
The mysterious man turned and looked at her for a few seconds before simply nodding. He still didn't say anything as he looked at her and Temari found his cold attitude even scarier than that of the men that had tried to help her.
"Thank you…I owe you my life." Temari said in gratitude to her savour. The young man said nothing and just looked at her before shaking his head. He turned to leave again and Temari felt rejected and angry.
"Why don't you say anything!?" She shouted out without realising that she had shouted. Before she could apologise a huge tidal wave of sand come out of no where and was just about to crush her before it suddenly stopped, just in front of her. The sand fell to the ground and disappeared.
Temari was shaking in fear from the man that had almost killed her in a blinked of an eye, the same man that had just saved.
"I-I'm s-sorry…what's your name?" she asked cautiously.
He looked at her for a few seconds like she was crazy, "I don't have a name." came the cold reply.
His deep voice sent shivers down Temari's spine, all fear of the mysterious man was no gone from her mind. She wanted to know more about him and most importantly wanted to know who he was. She couldn't conceive what he meant when he said he didn't have a name. How could someone not have a name, it was just not possible.
"Then what must I call you?" She asked looking directly at him. For the first time she noticed that his expression hadn't changed once since she had first seen him. His face looked emotionless and his eyes looked dead. She opened her mouth again to speak, but closed it as the first breeze that night past through this crappy town. His hair swayed and Temari's eyes widened as she say a big red tattoo kanji on his forehead.
The kanji meant love.
"I'll call you Gaara" she said suddenly. After she realised what she said she quickly put her hand over her mouth. She had no idea why she had just called this strange man Gaara, the name of her younger brother that had died along with her mother during childbirth. She could still remember her mom saying that she was going to name her new son Gaara and ever since Temari had found out that her mother had died and her little brother had died she vowed to name her first born son Gaara.
He looked at her for a while before saying his new name softly then his mouth moved slightly into a weird smirk. It only lasted a second before he said his new name out loud for the first time. The name made Temari shiver as memories of her mother popped back into her head, memories of her deceased mother. He suddenly turned around and threw a huge leather jacket at her before disappearing in a swirl of sand.
Temari unconsciously reached out to the spot where he was just standing and clenched her fists closed. Her saviour had just left her alone in the middle of the desert.
"Temari! Are you alright?" A voice shouted out.
Temari turned around and saw her brother Kankuro and twelve shinobi closing in on her location.
"Thank goodness you're alright." Kankuro said as he panted slightly from all the running. He saw her tattered clothes and his eyes widened in shock.
"Don't worry I'm alright…he never touched me." Temari said softly. Kankuro sighed in relief as he looked over at the three destroyed corpses.
"Are there any survivors other than you?" Kankuro asked as he knelt down next to his sister. Temari shook her head as she looked at her younger brother.
"We must finish the mission, those bastards must die!" Temari shouted out loud suddenly. Kankuro nodded and got up ordering them to follow Temari to the rebels camp.
Temari got up slowly and looked at the spot where the newly named Gaara had been standing. She made her way over to the exact spot and ran her hand on the ground before she slowly lifted up some of the sand. She took her empty medicine bottle and placed the golden sand in there before nodding to Kankuro and leading the way.
(Back in Village)
Temari stared up at the ceiling as she thought about the horrible mission. She had lost the love of her life and it hurt, but surprisingly her mind kept jumping to the dark image of Gaara as he stood there. She would never forget the slight smile he made when she named him.
She looked over at the huge leather jacket on the chair before looking up at the beautiful crystal vile which was filled with golden sand.
"I will find you Gaara."
A/N: That came out of nowhere I was listening to music and suddenly the idea popped into my head. Hope you enjoyed it.
Thanks for reading and please Review.