Yet another GaaSaku fanfic from me. Slightly plot less, but I'll try to come up with one.
I no own Naruto characters. I do own a few of the ideas about chakra in this chapter, so it's a little AU-ish. (Gaara - Translation: totally BSing the ideas. KK - *blushing 'cause it is so true* Hey! I couldn't find anything about it! Gaara - Translation: too lazy to look. KK - Hey! *blushing even harder 'cause it is, again, true.)
KK out ~
***Sakura POV***
I, Haruno Sakura, have a secret. I keep it very well. Or, so I thought. But someone caught me in it. Some strange boy with evil in his eyes. Well, maybe not evil. Bitterness. Anger. Selfishness. But also loneliness. What made the boy what he is today, I have no clue. But the only thing I'm interested in is the present, with said boy staring at me from the bank of the lake I swam in. I can't believe this! Did he follow me, all the way from my house? Did he see what actually happened? If not, maybe he doesn't know. The lake is dark, after all, even with a full moon reflected in its waters.
URGH! My father and I tried so hard to hide it. How long? How much? I thought back to when I first left my house. My father left hours earlier to go on a mission, even though it was a full moon tonight. So I went to my 'happy place', as I call it, alone. I started by sneaking out of my house. My mother never knew what she was getting into, so not even she knew our secret.
Back to the secret. I can control it mostly, but there are certain times when it overcomes me. Like full moons, for instance. Then I have no control over it. When I left, it was dark out, but the moon hadn't risen yet. I still had a little less than an hour. Was he there when I climbed out my window? I closed my eyes, trying to think back. No, he definitely wasn't there then. How about walking through the back alleys, where people couldn't see me, like I usually did? Nope, not there either. Then what about the one time I go down the main street and the market, sticking to the shadows? I passed the empty stalls of vendors, abandoned for the night. I passed apartment buildings and hotels. And on one particular hotel, one that was only about four stories high, someone sat in the darkness, watching the town with hate-filled eyes.
The same jade eyes that stared into my emerald ones. He'd been following me since I left Konoha. Still, there was a chance he didn't see. But he seemed slightly shocked - not really, but he widened his eyes a little - which is more emotion he'd shown when I'd first met him.
Sabaku no Gaara was watching me while I swam, probably not believing what he was seeing. And it had nothing to do with my naked breasts.
Damn it all.
***Gaara POV***
Most of the Hidden Sand village believes in stupid superstitions and some form of a 'God'. I'm not one of those people. I believe in fact, in science, and also in myself. Not silly little fairytales or 'magic' or any of that fake shit. Some people call my ninjutsu magic. They usually end up as greasy spots on the walls, their blood strengthening my sand. Ninjutsu can be explained by science - ninja use chakra, life force that every idiot on this planet has, to create copies of themselves or change the way they look, etc. And believe it or not, every idiot on this planet can do this, it just so happens that some can do it better than others.
Like that pink-haired girl. Before this mission started, my team was given profiles on every genin in Konoha, our potential competition in the Chunin Exams and the defenders of their homeland. I never bothered to learn their names, just faces and abilities. In her profile, it was shown that she had great chakra control. She is also very smart. I thought back to when I met her.
She was chasing some kids down the road. One of them bumped into Kankuro, and the idiot threatened him. It led to Kankuro's hand being hurt by one of her teammates, the raven-haired boy. He was perched on the branch of a nearby tree, watching and interfering as needed. I'm kind of amazed. Hitting Kankuro's hand is a hard shot with the rock he'd thrown at my idiot brother. Kankuro didn't like that. He was going to use Karasu, so I decided it was time to reveal myself.
The girl got really excited to see the boy. A little crush, maybe?
"Kankuro, stop it." I said. I showed myself, standing upside down on the opposite side of the tree the boy was on, just to mess with him. "You're an embarrassment to our village."
"Ga-Gaara!" He tried to say. Everyone there was looking at me. I almost smiled, being the center of attention. But I didn't. The would ruin the image I was trying to create.
"Losing yourself in a fight, how pathetic. Why do you think we came to the Leaf Village?"
"But listen, Gaara, they started it, and…" He tried to cover up, but I just glared at him.
"Shut up or I'll kill you."
"I-I'm sorry! My name is Haruno Sakura, and this is kind of my fault." The pink haired kunoichi moved forward and bowed, long hair slipping past her face and hiding it from the world. "I was just messing around. I didn't mean to make them bump into each other."
I directed my gaze to her, then used my sand to appear directly in front of her. She seemed shocked, but never showed it. I bowed to her. "And I apologize for my siblings' rudeness." We raised at the same time and she smiled nervously at me. I turned to my siblings. "We may have gotten here too early, but we didn't come to play around."
"I-I know, Gaara." Kankuro said, then both he and Temari started begging for forgiveness. I started to walk away.
"Uh, w-wait!" I shot a glare over my shoulder at the girl who stopped us.
"What?" I asked grumpily. She gulped, then steeled herself.
"According to your forehead protectors, you three are ninjas from the Hidden Sand Village, right?" She glared at me. "You may be allies with the leaf, but it is forbidden for shinobis to enter each other's village without permission. State your purpose. Depending on it, we may or may not be able to let you go."
"Heh," Temari moved forward with her pass, "talk about clueless. Don't you know anything? You're right, we're genin from the Hidden Sand. We came here to take the Chunin Selection Exam."
They continued to talk about it, but my attention drifted. I glared at the girl, Sakura, who looked exasperated at her blonde teammate's enthusiasm. I glared at her until her black-headed teammate noticed. Then he jumped down from the tree, appearing in front of her protectively. "Hey, what's your name?" he asked.
"Who, me?" Temari asked, blushing. Idiot.
"No, you with the gourd." So he meant me, huh?
"Sabaku no Gaara," I answered, "I'm also interested in you, what is yours?"
"Uchiha Sasuke."
"What about me? Huh? Aren't you interested in me?" yelled the final teammate.
"No," I said, turning.
That was earlier today. The full moon kept me on full alert, most of my being devoted to keeping Shukaku under control. So when a blob of pink ran across the street of the hotel I was sitting on, I noticed. No one else in Konoha had that hair color. It was Sakura. What she was doing out in the middle of the night, I have no clue. It was no concern of mine. But when it got boring watching the lifeless town, I decided to follow her. All the way to outside the village, into the woods that surrounded it, all the way to the lake she had carelessly removed her clothes on the bank of. Now she swam, nude, singing. Turns out she needs the discarded bra near my foot. Her singing was lovely. It drew me in… to the point where I almost stepped into the murky waters of the lake despite being unable to swim.
I did, in fact, take a step. My foot plopped into the mud at the bottom. I pulled back with an involuntary gasp. The water was frigid! How could she stand it? She gasped too, then turned to face me, swimming away slightly and crossing her arms across her chest.
"You're… Sabaku no Gaara, right?" she asked me. I nodded. "What are you doing here? How long have you been standing there?"
I ignored her questions, and answered with one of my own. "How can you stand the water? It's freezing."
She let out a relieved sigh. "I'm-I got used to it," she replied. "Um…" she blushed slightly and looked away. "Would you care… to… j-join me?"
What was she doing? "No, I can't swim. Why would you even ask that to a stranger? Idiot."
"I was just trying to be nice! And it's hard to yell all this time! Geez! Besides, I figured you couldn't swim anyway, being 'Gaara of the Desert'." The last sentence was mumbled. I smirked.
"Just being polite, huh? Why don't you get out?" She smiled at that.
"I'm sorry, I can't." she told me. With relief. What did that mean?
Gathering chakra in my feet, I walked on top of the water towards her. She tried swimming further away, but not very far. I squatted down to her level and grabbed her upper arm, intending to pull her up when I stood and drag her out. We had to yell across the lake to hear each other, and my throat was getting hoarse. She struggled to get out of my grip, I but was too strong. She even tried to slap me, but my sand stopped her arm before it could touch me. Still she fought back. Trying to bite, scratch, smack, anything except kick, which may have been actually helpful. I pulled her out to her waist, and she suddenly found the strength to dig her fingers under my hand and pry her arm loose. When she was free, she turned and dove, powerful tail forcing her down, fin smacking the water where she once was.
Tail? Fin? What the hell? Her smack was powerful, it sent me back into the water. I can't swim. I don't even float. Instead, I sank. Deeper and deeper into the murky water, my oxygen running low. My lungs burned. I thought of all the assassination attempts my father tried, all the times he tried to kill me. How come my sand wasn't rescuing me this time? Out of nowhere, hands grasped my shoulders and pulled up. Sakura tried to lift me up, but apparently it was to much for her. Through the gloominess, I could see her face. Her brow was creased in concentration and hard work. She stopped for a moment, studying me. I just sank deeper. Then something in her face changed, like she was seeing something she hadn't before.
She glanced at me, and then up, at the surface of the water. Was she considering leaving me to drown? My vision got fuzzy, and I started blacking out. What would Shukaku do if I slept underwater, I wonder. Right before I could pass out completely, I saw her panicked face. Her panicked, beautiful face. Beautiful? I thought, Must be the lack of air…
I closed my eyes.
Then I felt her take my face, and move closer. Something pressed against my mouth and pushed precious air into my lungs. I was jolted awake. It was her, her lips on mine, blowing oxygen into my body. When she pulled away, she held a kunai. She held it above my chest. Where did she get it? Was she planning on killing me with it?
She looked into my eyes and sawed the sash that held my gourd to my back. I was freed from a great weight, and when she pulled, she was able to actually lift me this time. We went slowly - I have no clue why - but every few minutes, right before I ran out of air, she gave me a fresh supply. When we breached the surface, I took big gasping breaths.
"Why -gasp- why the hell -gasp- did you -gasp- take so long to get me -gasp- up?" I asked her.
"Look, I'm not used to saving every idiot that falls into the water, ok?" She swam toward shore, pulling me along. I tried to imitate her strokes, but quit when I failed. "I'm not super strong, and you're a guy my age that's kind of bulky with muscles, and muscles weigh more than fat. Unfortunately, I'm not that strong compared to you guys." She pouted as she pulled me up on land. She dragged herself out of the water to sit beside me. I got a good look at her tail then. It was longer than my legs, and red in color. It also seemed to sparkle and glimmer in the fading moonlight. Her pink hair seemed to sparkle too. It fell in waves as it dried, ending at her waist. She sighed, looking up at the moon. "I'll be right back." She dragged herself back into the water and dove once again.
I shivered. The water was freezing, and the cool night air only made it bitterly cold. I thought of using my sand to keep me warm. But it was under the water. Wait, is that why I was too heavy for her to lift? My gourd? Probably. I scanned the calm surface. She's been under for a while, is she having trouble with it?
I shook myself. Why do I even care? It's so cold. I looked around for something to cover myself, finding only her clothes. I wrapped her red dress around my bare arms. That is all I dare to take, though. A strange scent came from it. I sniffed the cotton cloth. Strawberries. Come to think of it… I checked for her one more time, and not seeing her, then licked my lips. Strawberry lip gloss. Waterproof, I guess. Strange, a girl whose name means 'cherry blossom' chooses strawberry scents and flavors. I guess she's just full of surprises.
I wanted to stay and watch for her, but I could feel my siblings' restlessness even from way out here.
"I have to go back now." I call out to the water, not knowing why. "Enjoy your swim, Haruno-san."
I leave the dress and return to my hotel. Temari and Kankuro stood on the roof, probably looking for me. I walk up the wall to them.
"Gaara! Where's your gour-" Temari started, but stopped halfway through. "Oh my gosh, Gaara, you're drenched! Are you ok?" She laid a hand on my shoulder and leaned down to peer into my face. I just scowled at her, and she backed off.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Kankuro asked.
"I'm fine." I sighed. "I just-" What should I tell them? Not that I saw a mermaid, no way they'd believe me.
I just saw a mermaid. Not only saw, but was rescued by one. I'm kind of shocked. A mermaid!
A creature of myth, magic, and legend. This just throws off all of my scientific views.
PS: I graduate on Saturday, so I'll be able to update like crazy soon. (Or at least until I get a job)