Since then, Until forever
Authors Notes: This is my first fanfic so please be nice to me, and I do except flames but nice reviews are welcomed. I don't own Naruto
The name Kohana means little flower in Japanese as all of my characters I have make up in my other stories all have been chosen for their meanings, I though the Kohana was a good chose when you put her name in its full text.
Oh look, I rambling . . . . hehe . . . . on with the story.
"Thoughts"
"Shukaku"
"Normal"
Since then, Until forever
By RikuOfTheDesert
Chapter 1: Meeting of Two Lost Souls
Blood. The warm substance ran slowly down a soft creamy cheek then dripped down a long slender neck. It coated delicate, but strong arms and legs, and stained light brown ragged clothes. Its stench hang heavily in the air, as the bodies of the dead littered the area.
A twelve year old short curly raven-haired girl stood in the centre of the cluster of bodies. Gripping a katana caked in blood in each hand, red eyes blazing, before her were the last two opponents out of the fifty that had attach her.
She had felt their presents following her for the last three days, but had been unable to calculate how many of them there had been. When they had finally attacked it had taken her by surprise. She had figured that there were a lot of them, but not so many.
The fight had been a long and tiring one, many had not even been worth her time, but there had been those select few that had posed as a challenge for her and some had even wounded her, but they too ended up dead like the others.
Now exhausted and slightly dizzy from the lose of blood she stood tall, showing no weakness, katana held ready in front of her as the last two annoyances stood there smirking at her.
One had gray hair that was tied back in a low pony tail and wore round glass that reflected the light making it impossible to see his eyes. The other was tall and had long black hair that fell in his face were yellow eyes gazed hungrily out at her. His eyes were that of a predator and she was his pray.
Her head started to swim, and she used all her strength to not sway, as the black haired man stood forward.
"It hurts, doesn't it? To lose that much blood," he sneered.
"I don't know who the bastard you are, but I'll kill you just like I killed all your men," the girl sneered back, but inside she was panicking as she felt her knees shake with the strain of holding herself up.
"You would kill the one, who would leave you with such a great parting gift?" asked the man, taking one more step towards her.
"I have no idea what you're trying to say," she answered, holding her katanas up a little higher, hoping to scare him a little.
"I will leave you with the gift of true power and when the time comes you will come to me seeking more and I will give it to you," said the man. Before she had time to react, his neck extended as his head shot out at her like a snake and long fangs sunk in to the flesh of her neck.
Pain shot though her body as the place of her neck burned like a red hot brand, as his fangs released her neck his head returned to it normal place. The raven haired girl fell to her knees and the pain running though her body double ten-fold make it hard for her to think, as she gasped out, "Fuck you, you bastard!"
"Remember, you will come you me, the legendary sannin, Lord Orchimaru of the Sound Village," he sneered as he and his partner disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
Gasping for breath she collapsed face down of the ground "so this is the end of the legendary thief, the dark shadow of the night, Kohana," she thought as the pain make her drift in to the land of unconscious.
Three days later four shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Sand past though, returning from their last mission. The tension was high in the air as the three eldest members of the group watch the youngest member with weary eyes as his stability was questioned at the moment.
It had been a simple B-rank mission of collecting an important scroll of hidden secrets that they had to collect from some shinobi from the Grass Village to take back to Suna. There had been a chance that enemy shinobi would attack to get their hands of such important information, and there had been two attempts from enemy shinobi at getting the secrets of the scroll, but they were killed quickly but the youngest member, Gaara of the Desert with not so much a flinch or hesitation. Apart from that, the trip back had been a quite one, expect for Gaara killing the Grass shinobi at the start of the mission, because of the lack of blood.
The three older shinobi, watched as Garaa's breathing continued to rage unevenly and his eyes held a crazed wanting and the sinister smile on his face making him look inhuman. Yet they continued on, jumping from tree to tree, every few minutes or so one would look back at Gaara, until the oldest member, Baki-sensei, called a holt.
"What is it?" asked the only female member of the group, Temari.
"Can anyone else smell that stench in the air?" said Baki-sensei, as the other three sniff the air to see what their teacher was talking about.
"Whoa, that reeks. What is that smell?" asked that last member Kankuro, as he held his noise.
Baki, stood still, as he slow deified what it was, "It smells like - ,"
"Blood,"
Baki turned to Gaara as the word left the young boys mouth, the look in his eye appeared more psychotic as he looked in the direction that the stench was coming from.
"Baki-sensei," voiced Temari, softly, as if hoping that it would not draw her to the attention of her unbalanced team mate, "What are we going to do?"
Baki paused in thought, eye still trained on Gaara, It would be in our best interest to look into this, as it is close to our border, but how would Gaara react if what we were to find is too much for him, nodding Baki turned to the other two members of the team, "We shall check it out to see if holds any ill towards the sand village."
That said the four shinobi turned off their original course to investigate the origins of the bloody smell.
The sight that lay before the sand shinobi was that of a blood bath, bodies lay every where, within the small clearing that the smell of blood had lead them too, fifty scatted dead bloody figures. Blood was dripping out of wounds all over their bodies, spattered all over trees and sipping into the ground, the sight could only be described as the biggest massacre of human slaughtering that they had every seen done by someone that was not Gaara.
"What the hell happened?!" voiced Kankuro, in a horse voice as the strong stench of rotting flesh wafted up his nose, making him want to gag.
Baki scanned the clearing of died masses, until it landed on a small body lying in the middle. It was the only one laying in a circle of one meter each way and it appeared to be moving, but only a little.
"Hey, I think that person's still alive," said Temari, as she pointed to the quivering body that Baki had been studying.
Kankuro slowly stepped towards, arm out stretch to pock the small body. Just as Kankuro's finger was two centimeters away, a small gasp of pain escaped the delicate small mouth as onyx eyes snapped open to land on Kankuro and his out stretch arm.
The small body flickered as it disappearing then reappearing a few short meters away, with a speed many ninja's would envy. Onyx eyes moved from Kankuro on to Temari, then on the Baki and last on Gaara, dark eyes seemed unfocused not really taking in what was in front of them. They raised their two katanas up in a defensive stance, eyeing Kankuro the closes of the Suna team.
"We are not trying to harm you. Please put the weapons down and come with us," said Baki with authority in his voice.
"What?" said Kankuro, eyes flicking back to his sensei before flicking start back, determined not to let the person with two weapons in hand a chance to take a swing one at him.
"Baki-sensei, it looks like he was the one to kill all these ninjas. Why are we helping him? He could end up being a danger to the Sand Village," said Temari as her eyes through a glance at Gaara.
"Look around; there are signs all over this clearing of a large scale ambush. This ninjas seemed to have ambushed him. For them to do that he must be someone of great power or importance," replied Baki sternly.
"Or a wanted killer," stated Kankuro bluntly, hand flinched slightly ready to moving to a battle stance at a moments notice.
"If he was a wanted killer Suna would have him in our Bingo book, and I haven't seen someone this young in the Bingo Book yet," stated Baki eyes on the young person with the glaring onyx eyes.
There was a Whooshing sound as a large tress of sand whipped out of the gourd on Gaara's back, lunging towards the black hair youth.
"GAARA, NO –!"
It was to later, the sand came crashing down on top of the raven haired, onyx eyed youth that no one would have survived.
Baki turned to Gaara and said in a stern voice with a little hint of hesitation laced in his voice, "We needed him, he could have been a great asset to Suna had he come with us. Why did you do that?"
Gaara looked at Baki with a insane look with in his eye, "You were taking to long, and I wanted to kill him," Gaara then chuckled under his breath that made him sound evil and insane.
"Look, up there," said Temari, cutting into the tense atmosphere that had descended of the Sand team after Gaara's statement.
They all turned to look up to see the raven hair youth standing in a nearby tree, one hand on the tree to stop themselves from falling. They seemed to be breathing heavily and was not steady on their feet.
"How did – ?" said Kankuro, who seemed unable to finish his sentence as he look a upon the youth with a sense of awe, no one had ever managed to dodge Gaara's attacks before, not with his sand moving as fast as it had toward the onyx eye youngster.
Gaara's jade eyes narrowed as the he started at the onyx eyed raven haired youth that had just missed his attack, no one had done that before and it pissed him off greatly.
"Kill him! Kill the scum! This should by greatly entertaining. If he was able to dodge that, let's see how long he can stand up against us in a fight. Kill HIM!" sounded the voice of the demon Shukaku as it raged inside Gaara's head, a feeling of great power flowed though him making him feel geared up to attack the raven haired youth.
The youngster in the tree swayed and stumbled for a little, before his eyes rolled back, his head fell forwards and he fell from the tree. As he fell it seemed like everything was moving slowly, as the two katanas slipped from his grip and slashed towards the ground.
Baki jumped forward arms out stretched, reaching to grab the falling child before he hit the ground. Catching the young boy in his arms, Baki was surprised by the feel of him. By the look of the child he was no more then a common thief, and Baki would have said it too had he not seen how fast the boy more and seen the dead bodies that lettered the clearing to know the child had a capability with a sword.
Holding the boy, however, Baki could feel that this boy was well feed, if not a little thin, but who knew how long the child had been laying in this clearing unconscious and bleeding slowly to death, but seeing as he could more fast Baki guessed he would be able to get food easily, and with some training maybe he would make a find addiction to the shinobi of Suna.
Baki could feel a warm liquid sip into his jacket from the child in his arms and knew that if the boy bleeds any more he would die for sure. "Temari, I want you to wrap up his wounds, he's bleeding greatly from a wound in his shoulder, if you find any more wrap those too."
Temari nodded as Baki gently laid the young boy down on the ground before letting Temari do her work. Pulling up the boy's shirt Temari gasped.
"What is it?' asked Kankuro worried by what his sister had found.
"It's a girl," said Temari in surprise.
"WHAT? . . . . . What do you mean it's a girl?" said Kankuro unable to understand what she had said.
"The boy isn't a boy it's a girl," said Temari, as she looked at small mounds of flesh that looked like the start of breast, meaning the girl was not far, if not starting to go though puberty.
"You're telling me that a twelve year old GIRL did this," said Kankuro looking around the clearing in disbelief.
"Women are just as capable as men are, Kankuro," said Temari in a dangerously low voice, glaring at her brother, making his step back in fear, before turning back to wrapping up the small girls' wounds.
Pulling the shirt back over the girls head and over her now bandaged shoulder and chest, Temari pulled her up to half carry, her half pull her along.
"We have wasted enough time as it is," said Baki turning in the direction of Suna, "We'll take turns in carrying her, now let's go." With that the Sand shinobi took off in a run leaving the clearing of the dead behind them.
Kohana could feel the hard throb of her head as she slowly made it back into the conscious world. The pain made it feel as if her scull was going to crack open and her brain fall out. Slowly Kohana started to feel the pain in the rest of her body, busies and cuts made themselves known, as the numb feeling in her body slowly disappeared. Her neck hurt the most and she could not remember why, then it slowly came back to her.
The fight, the people she had killed, the cuts and busies, the blood, there had been a lot of blood as Kohana remembered, she had been wounded by a large man with a sword, but she remembered taking him down after that and then another opponent had stepped forward and the fight had continued. Then a looming face resurface in her mind, the long black hair and creepy yellow eyes, the eyes of a predator, he had bitten her on the neck, she remembered the pain as his fangs pierced her skin.
Why was she alive? She should have died that night, not just from the lost of blood, but also from the pain too. As her mind slowly made it way to it usual alertness she became a where of the warm and soft surface that she appeared to be laying on. Slowly her hearing started to come back as she began able to pick up the sound of people talking around her.
"How is she?"
This voice was female and Kohana felt somewhere deep in her mind that she had heard this voice before, the female sounded like she was young, still in her mid teens.
"We have stopped the bleeding and have been pumping fluids into her body. She is stable now and has been sleeping for awhile. However she seems to have a strange mark on her neck."
This voice was also female, and unknown, but had age and maturity laced into her voice as if she held wisdom and knowledge.
"What do you mean there's a mark?"
The voice belonged to a male, and Kohana knew she had heard that voice of authority before.
"It appears to be a curse mark, one of great power that can double the users strength tenfold. However this one seems to have been placed on her recently and by force as her body appears to have been forced to painfully change to allow the curse to live inside the girl's body. Thank gad she is no more then twelve, if she was too much older she would have died from such an attack on the body."
The wise female voice said as Kohana heard a soft beeping sound that sounded a lot like a medical machine.
CRASH!! BANG!! SMASH!! SHIT! DAMN! FUCK!!
There was the sound of glass or porcelain falling to the ground and a string of curses followed. Kohana realized her sense of smell was back as the stench of medicine reached her nose.
"KANKURO! WHAT THE HELL TO YOU THINK YOUR DOING YOU COULD HAVE WOKEN HER UP!!"
The young female voice screeched as a thump was heard and a moan of pain as the thrown fist hit its mark.
"If my smashing of a medical pot didn't you screaming will Temari,"
Groaned a young male's voice as he fought to bring air into his lungs.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"Temari, Kankuro, stop fighting in the hospital, or I'll though you out myself!"
It was that male voice again, the one that screamed authority, the bickering stopped straight away, and silence hang heavily in Kohana's mind, but that was not what had her panicking. Did he just say hospital? Hospital meant a settlement, a settlement meant people, and people meant a cage that she could not get out of . . . . , well at least a cage that would try to keep her in.
Kohana opened her eyes to see white hospital walls all round her, four people stood around the bed that she laid on, memories of three of them came to the surface of her mind.
One was a blonde haired female with her hair up in four ponytails two on top of her head and two on the bottom. She was fifteen or sixteen and wore a short off the shoulders white dress with mesh netting around one thigh and on the opposite ankle and mesh under shirt. She seemed to be carrying something like a large fan on her back.
The second was a young male in black with a hood that was in shape of cat ears; white and purple face paint lined his face not really making him look that attractive. There was want looked like a mummy strapped to his back, he seemed be the age of fourteen.
The last was an older male in elite ninja clothing and half his face covered with a white cloth. Kohana could faintly remember the three of them being in the battle field clearing, but there had been a fourth member in the clearing, he had blood red hair, bright jade eyes, rimmed in black shadows around them. He wore black with a brown leather strap and white sash holding a large gourd to his back.
However the fourth member around Kohana's bed was elderly female with grey hair and a face filled with wisdom, she wore a white robe that Kohana surmised as a medical robe, and she held a clip board in her hand, that appeared to have Kohana's medical development on it.
Kohana's eyes quickly glanced around the room, when the four around her bed did not notice that she had awoken, to see if she could find a quick way out of this hell hole. Her eyes landed on the window, where she could see a village made of sand and rock, and beyond that was a baron waste land of endless sand.
"Suna. So they brought me to Hidden Village in the Sand," thought Kohana, as movement by the window caught her eye. It was the last member of the shinobi team, the red haired boy, with cold, dead jade eyes, eyes that were looking right at her.
Kohana froze as a staring contest started, one set of murderous jade eyes against wiry onyx eyes. Kohana noted that he was not making a move to tell the others of her wake state, looking into his eyes she saw a great hate for everything living, and a thrust to kill all of human kind, but that was not what had her staring at him, it was a look of sadness and loneliness that was hidden under all that anger and hate.
It was the sense of hurt and emotional pain that had something in Kohana wanting to reach out to him, the scared and afraid little boy that cry to be held and protected by another, to feel connected and bound to another human being, to know that he was wanted and loved. Kohana could not help but feel a connection to this boy in front of her and she was unable to not notice that, even with his dark aura around him was quite handsome.
With his messy and unkempt rusty red hair and his bright shining jade eyes that were brought out more by the black circles that framed them, and with his strong build hidden under his black clothing, it was hard not to see that he was very good-looking, he was however kind of short for his age, but in a few years time when he grow up a little he would be the heart throb of the village.
However as soon as Kohana saw all this it was covered up with a meanest glare Kohana had ever reserved. If looks could kill she would have died with the look he was giving her and she had a feeling he had had a lot of practice. Having seen pass his emotional shield she had a feeling that whatever had made him like this had happened a long time ago, for the emotional darkness he found himself in had consumed him, leaving Kohana with the feeling of hopelessness that she believed he could not feel.
However, stubbornness took over and Kohana could not help but glare back just as darkly at him in warning, that had him glaring even darker if that was possible. Seeing as she could not go out the window with out having to go pass him, Kohana scanned the sides of her vision for the door, so she did not have to take her eyes of the red hair.
"There," thought Kohana as she spotted the door a few meters away to her right, in the opposite direction to the red hair, making it easier to get away from him, and her katanas had been left on the table next to her, meaning she didn't have to look for them or steal a new pair, she was rather attached to them.
Quick as a flash she was up, katanas in hand and though the door and down the white walled hallway. All the hallways looked the same, the same white walls, the same white doors, the only differences was the numbers above the doors, telling her that she was somewhere in the hundreds, not really helping in telling her the way out.
Voices of the Suna shinobi team and the female medic followed down the hall as they run to stop her so they could finish healing her or to question her about herself or what had happened in the clearing. Questions Kohana didn't really feel like answering anyway, so she picked up the speed, ignoring the pain in her body
78 . . . . . . 77 . . . . . 76 . . . . . 75 . . . . . 74 . . . . . . 73 . . . . . 72 . . . . . .
"Crap! How much longer do I have to keep running?" thought Kohana as the seventies went pass and she still had not seen an exit.
"Oi, Girl! Get back here!" yelled a voice behind her, turning Kohana saw the face paint teen running no more then ten meters behind her.
"Crap, when did he get there?" panicked Kohana, as she released because of her wounds she could not out run him too much, or she would pass out. However the tiered look in his eyes and the way he was panting made her feel better, with the knowledge that it was still a task to keep up with her in her weakened state. "Sucker,"
Gaara locked eyes with the raven haired girl in the hospital bed, in her eyes was showed fear of being found out and her eyes seemed to be imploring him to not tell the others that she was awake. He wasn't planning on telling them anyway, he had not interest in her except to fight her and kill her. Baki seemed to think that she could be used for the good of Suna, a weapon, a trap card, to be used just like him.
Looking at her, he could see the hard life she had lived, even with her fast speed and talent with a blade, her life had been hard. Her onyx eyes shined with mistrusted and her soft lips were set in a slight frown. Her short curly dark hair fell in her eyes and her hands were balled into fists, they twitched slightly towards the katanas on the table next to her as she seemed to gear up or a fight or flight.
What made Gaara stare at her was the look of sadness she had in her eyes covered by her mistrust and want to distance her self from others. She was lonely and lost just like he was and she seemed to be almost be reaching out to him, her eyes seem to soften with understanding of him.
No one understood him, he was on his own, he needed on one, he loved no one but himself. "That's right boy, you don't need anyone, kill them all, kill everyone that looks down on us, we need blood,"
Gaara quickly cut the girl off there before she looked too deeply into him by giving her a dark warning glare. This seemed to startle her for a moment before she seem to recover herself and glare back just as darkly, which only made him glare back darker in return.
Then faster than any normal sick and injured person would, she jumped out of the bed and out the white door.
"What the . . . ," said his half wit brother Kankuro as his brain slowly understood what happened.
"We need to stop her, the curse mark hasn't been sealed yet, if she uses too much chakra she could activate the mark and who knows what it will do to her body." Said the medic as she ran out of the room with Temari, Kankruo and Baki right on her heels.
"Idiots. The girls trying to find away out." Said Shukaku in a mocking voice.
"Why go that way when there's a window right here," asked Gaara.
"Stupid boy, she would have to going through us, and she knew it, better to look for another way out then fight us in a weakened state, don't you think," answered Shukaku. "Go after her; if she escapes we'll never get that fight we want or have her blood soak though our sand,"
Listening to the demon, sand filed out Gaara's gourd as it started to twirl around him, making him disappear, leaving nothing, but a little pile of sand on the hospital floor.
Kohana puffed as she zipped past medics and patients alike, knocking over who ever got in her path to freedom, angry voice of medics and shinobi followed her every step, every floor she deceased they were there where on her tail.
"Dear – pant – you must not – gasp – use your chakra, – puff – your body is weak – pant – and tired – puff –. Please stop and – gasp – let me heal you – pant –," said the old female medic, as she gasped for breath.
"You know, for someone to have lost as must blood as she has, she can really move," said Temari as she looked and Baki.
"If she's doesn't stop soon she's going to end up tiring herself to death," comment Baki, frown at the girl speeding ahead of them. "If she survives this, with the strength and will power she's showing she would be a great shinobi for Suna,"
"First we have to stop her though," said Kankuro throwing in his little thought in to the conversation.
"We have to stop her before she runs out of chakra, because then her curse mark will activate," said the medic as she pushed more of her chakrainto her legs. "Though I don't have to say that this girl is really strong and fit, to be able to run after she has not fully healed from the state you brought her here in."
Kohana's heart skipped for joy when the front doors to the hospital came into view down the hall, "Yes freedom, good bye suckers, it was fun while it lasted," though Kohana as she speed down the hall. Just as she was half way there a twirl of sand appeared in the middle on the exit, as it slowly settled the structure of the red haired boy stood there.
Kohana quickly skidded to a stop in front of the red hair, katanas raised, pointed right at him, glaring, a warning to move now or she would have to make him, Kohana took a big breath as the pain in her body came back with vengeance.
The red hair stood there with arms crossed not moving, glaring right back; Kohana turned her head as the ones chasing her finally caught up, panting and out of breath.
"Gaara," said Temari in surprise at seeing him there, she had thought he would have left or stayed in the room.
"Okay, now came back to your room and we can talk about this later," said Baki as he stood forward to address her.
Making her mind up, Kohana turned back to the red hair and launched into an attack. His eyes widen for moment before sand came up to form a shield around him. Frown Kohana pushed more charka into her legs and turned to strike him of the right, she smiled when her katana got close to his skin before the sand shield appeared.
Pushed more charka though her, Kohana striked out at his left to just miss his flesh, smirking up at him, she was happy to see the surprise look on his face, the look was quickly changed to a glare as his eyes locked with hers, sending a shiver of excitement though her body. The feeling disappeared as she felt sand snake around her leg, before throwing her across the waiting room.
A groan of pain left Kohana's lips as her injured body hit the white hospital wall, she could faintly hear voices screaming for the fighting to stop, but neither Kohana or the red haired paid them much notice, as she pulled herself up at charged again, just as pain erupted from her neck making her scream in pain and fall to her knees.
"Oh no, the curse seal," said the medic running towards her, as the screaming stopped and Kohana fell to the floor in a dead faint.
Turning her over the medic and shinobi team could see black marking all over her neck and half her face and traveling down her shirt. He medic quickly checked her pulse and to see if she was breathing before breathing a sign of relief when there did seem to be any thing wrong with her.
Waving to more medics over she instructed him to take her back to her room and make sure she did not try something like that again, as others in the waiting room when back to doing what they where doing before a fight between the Suna monster and a mad patient had a fight in the hospital.
In the corner of the room Gaara watched as they took the raven haired girl away. "She good for being injured," said the Shukaku, "Makes me want to kill her all the more. No ones ever got that far past our defenses, I can't wait to kill her now, hahahaha," the laughing of the demon sound loudly in Gaara's head but he stay silent as his thoughts drifted to the raven haired girl and the look she had held in her eyes as she had looked at him
TO BE CONTINUED . . . . Thats the end of chapter 1, Please review
