I.
A duel between two former opponents was about to begin on that sunny day, outside the gates the Sand village. Although the season of sandstorms was over, the winds continue to blow hard, and the brilliant sun, always floating on the cloudless sky.
On one side, facing the afternoon sun was a man in a maroon-colored outfit, with a gourd tied on his back.
On the opposite was also a man, of the same age as his opponent, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and black trousers, with a purple rope coiled on his waist.
There were few spectators: A blonde-haired ninja and his pink-haired companion.
"Remind me why we're out here again? Our heads will be scorched up if we stay here a bit longer," the pink-haired girl complained to the blonde ninja.
"Shh, be quiet," the blonde boy answered.
"I don't get it. Why exactly are these two fighting?"
"Sakura, you wouldn't understand even if I explain to you."
"I'll explain," the former leaf ninja, Sasuke Uchiha, had spoken.
"I didn't have the chance to finish the match with him in the Chunin exams. I didn't know how to control the cursed seal back then. But now that I have perfected it, I'll make sure that I'll win."
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura complained. "You can't fight against the kazekage! Naruto, stop this ridiculous fight, now!"
"Even Naruto can't do anything to stop us," the kazekage spoke.
"He was the one who challenged me. He said that he'd defeat me on my own backyard. I shouldn't refuse. I will defend the honor of the Sand."
"But Gaara…" Sakura tried to reason.
"Cut the talk and let's begin, Sand shinobi," Sasuke interrupted.
"I'm ready, go on," Gaara signaled with his hands.
"Come to me…"
With that note Sasuke sliced the thin air surrounding them with an undetectable speed. Sakura was startled.
"Did you see that Naruto?"
"Umm… yeah!" Naruto lied while scratching his head.
Already knowing what his enemy had planned to do, Gaara created a sand armor around him, anticipating Sasuke's attack. But the latter had something else in mind. He went past Gaara and while on air, formed the seal of fire.
A ball of fire engulfed the kazekage's body. Naruto and Sakura couldn't see him, while Sasuke drew his sword, expecting that his opponent easily dodged the fire assault.
Gaara didn't escape the fire, but he was able to shield himself from the strong surge of the flames. He was also able to make a counter attack.
Unaware of what's about to happen, Sasuke closes in as the smoke clears up upon his opponent's body. He uses his sword to draw the sand's attention, and on his other hand, he started forming the chidori technique.
His plans would have been successful, however, once the sword hit the side of Gaara's clothing, the kazekage began his counter attack.
Gaara lowered himself as the sword's blade touched his arm, and reached for the ground with his hands. Seconds after, a massive wall of sand rose around Sasuke and swallowed him while he was forming the chidori on mid air.
"Shit, I have to escape this barrier!" Sasuke gasped.
But the sand wall immediately trapped him.
"Sabaku…" Gaara started.
The wall's size decreases, aiming to strangle Sasuke's body.
But the Uchiha ninja refused to die.
Inside the massive wall, the screeching sound of Sasuke's defense was heard. The lightning-like chidori clashes with the immense sand, creating a tremendous explosion.
A huge hole was made by the collision and Sasuke seized the chance to escape through it. He landed on the ground, while making successive seals with his hands.
"Summoning technique!"
"What?" Naruto exclaimed. "How did he…"
Sakura on the other hand was still in shock. Sasuke has indeed become a lot stronger.
"It's not safe here anymore," Naruto suspected. He grabbed the enthralled Sakura's hand and started running away, farther from the battle scene.
A huge snake appeared in front of Gaara. Sasuke was able to summon Manda, the legendary snake.
Instead of running, the kazekage smiled and said, "Now it's a fair match."
He started forming his own seals, and began to transform.
The legendary Ichibi, the Shukaku of the sand emerged from the depths of kazekage's consciousness.
Sasuke couldn't hide his excitement.
"Manda, look at the creature you are about to defeat today," he boasted.
"Don't be too confident ninja," the snake answered.
"Shukaku in far more powerful than any beast that I have fought with."
"You're not scared, are you?" the ninja mocked.
"Instead of worrying about my fear, stay focus on your capabilities," the snake suggested.
Once the Shukaku took his form, Sasuke and Mandacharged forward.
"You have to target the ninja who controls the Shukaku before he makes the forced sleep technique!" the snake ordered.
"I know, just deal with the monster and I'll handle the ninja."
Sasuke jumped off Manda's back towards Gaara.
Gaara on the other hand gestured another set of seals.
"Forced sleep technique!"
At the same time Sasuke landed on Shukaku's back, in front of the sand ninja.
"I won't let you"- He then again, wielded his lightning chakra.
Manda wrapped himself around the Shukaku's body, while Sasuke stabbed Gaara's side with his chidori.
Naruto couldn't control the urge of joining the battle and stopping his friends.
If he decides to join and summon gamabunda, he'll be fighting against Gaara and Sasuke.
The idea isn't sensible after all.
And Sakura wouldn't allow him to, he is sure of that.
Sasuke's lightning sword split into two. The automatic shield on Gaara's body reacted against the force of the chidori. Lightning wasn't able to penetrate through the hardened sand jutsu, thus, it snapped like a twig.
"What!" Sasuke exclaimed with disbelief.
Manda tightened his grip on Shukaku, while the latter remained still.
The forced sleep technique was activated, and Gaara lost consciousness.
The sand body of Shukaku collapsed slowly, to Manda's surprise.
Manda burrowed underground to keep away from the massive collapsing sand and Sasuke disappeared with him.
Not long after, new monster came out of the collapsing sand, and it was the awakened Shukaku.
"At last I'm free!" the crazy monster rejoiced.
"Now, where are you snake? I'll rip you to pieces! "
But the giant snake was nowhere.
Shukaku began searching for him and it only took a while before the snake emerged from the ground with Sasuke on it's back.
"Now!" Sasuke ordered.
The giant snake released its sticky venom on the Shukaku's eyes, and the latter shrieked with pain. Sasuke once again, aimed on Gaara who was still unconscious. He jumped his way from the snake's back towards the Shukaku but unexpectedly, the ichibi fired massive ball of wind towards him.
The immense force of the wind had torn his shirt and sent him flying off, but he managed to stab Manda's tail with his sword.
"That monster is too strong," Sasuke admitted while climbing his way on Manda's back.
"I told you, even Orochimaru can't defeat that beast," said Manda.
Instead of being discouraged, the former leaf ninja chuckled.
"What's funny?" the snake asked.
"It's the first time that I'll be able to use this technique," Sasuke said.
His eyes changed to brilliant red.
"Sharingan…" the snake grumbled upon seeing his eyes' transformation.
"I haven't used the Mangekyou Sharingan before. It's my first time to use it."
"Hmm… I have a bad feeling about this," Manda countered.
"I don't want to mess with that Ichibi and that Sharingan of yours," he added.
"Then you could go back to hell," Sasuke replied.
"You fool. If I leave you here, you'll be good as dead, but since you're an insolent ninja, you deserve that kind of fate," the snake hissed.
After the short argument, Manda suddenly disappeared.
"What? You coward snake!" Shukaku cried after witnessing Manda's disappearance.
Sasuke fixed his eyes on the enraged Shukaku.
His eyes were ablaze, as he ran towards the monster. Shukaku ejected two massive balls of air but Sasuke easily avoided them.
Being able to read the Shukaku's movement was the sharingan's power.
After seeing an opening on the Shukaku's side, Sasuke jumped and located Gaara's spot.
Once again, he formed the ninjutsu seal of fire, while the Shukaku expelled another massive air towards him. The fire and the wind clashed, creating a star-like explosion...
The massive fireball engulfed both Sasuke and the Shukaku's body, and everything around them.
Witnessing this from afar, Naruto and Sakura wondered if Sasuke and Gaara could survive this death match.
The explosion created a hole in the midst of the dessert, and inside this crater were the two fighters.
Both were unconscious.
"Gaara! Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.
Sasuke's finger twitched and then his arm moved after hearing Naruto's call.
Gaara woke up too. He pulled himself up and realized that the Shukaku had retreated.
Both of them were wounded, and hardly had any chakra left to use.
But Sasuke's sharingan was still working.
Recovering his balance, Sasuke launched towards his opponent while Gaara anticipated him by forming his defensive technique.
Naruto and Sakura ran towards them to stop the silly fight.
But it was too late.
Sasuke used his Mangekyou Sharingan, hoping to destroy Gaara's sand defense.
A black hole appeared between the two, and all of Gaara's sand was sucked inside it.
Gaara couldn't believe what's happening. His hands, and soon, his own body were being absorbed by the infinity of the blank space.
"I made it!" Sasuke celebrated, but his pleasure was suddenly interrupted when he realized that the hole kept on sucking in and his limbs were already taken to the other side.
The dimensional warp swallowed both of them, until everything disappeared.
AN: This is where the real story begins. I hope you like the prologue…
Good, Good Feeling…
"One. Two.Three…"
"Good morning, yeah I see the sun, is out to kiss you… hello!" a girl sings loudly while driving to her new apartment.
The girl's seemingly out-of-tune voice, along with the squeaking sound of her car's engine disturbed the sereneness of the countryside.
"Coz I've got a good, good feeling!" she shouted.
"I've got a good, good feeling! Ooh…"
"I should have brought my earplugs," a farmer walking on the roadside commented.
The fully furnished, cheap apartment, as the advertisement on the newspaper said, was located on the farthest side of town, next to the thick forested area separating the city from the mountains of Nahabia.
The peaks of Nahabia are called the spirits' sanctuary- the place of the departed. Everyone believes that the mountains are sacred and that the spirits of the world and beyond roam throughout the place.
She arrived at the site of the apartment, but there was nothing there, except rubble.
"Is this a joke?" She was obviously confused.
She turned down the radio's volume and got out of the car. Taking the map with her as she walked along the roadside, she tried to figure where the apartment's location was.
That's when the conclusion came to her.
She couldn't read a map.
"Oh what the heck!" she complained. The map was turned upside down, making it more difficult for her to read.
"Now, here I am. The Northwest of … and south of…"
Her head began to spin because of the directions, which she couldn't follow.
"I'm lost," she concluded.
A sigh of despair came after.
This would have been her first experience to live on her own .She used to live with her friends in the city, but because of the huge financial expense, in addition to her being temporarily unemployed (she got fired after spilling muriatic acid on a pervert for raising her skirt while she's scrubbing the restaurant floors), she must find a cheaper place to stay in.
She didn't bring any food with her. Only a small portable jug with water in it. Her car was almost out of gas, and the weather wasn't that promising.
Nimbus clouds started forming above.
"Now, think, you must know where it is or you'll be stuck here until tomorrow," she scolded herself.
The useless map rested on her hands, a she paced back and forth.
The dark clouds were forming rapidly above her.
"A storm?" she asked upon noticing the clouds' appearance.
Sudden fear crept on her spine as she watched the clouds pile up until the sky is almost black.
The gusts became stronger, carrying debris of rock and leaves around her. She ran for the car to take cover but a large figure from the sky fell on her just before she tries to open the car's door.
A massive figure clashed against her, and then she lost consciousness…
When she woke up, the dark clouds were gone.
"What the hell happened?" She tried to pull herself up, but she couldn't. Her head must have suffered a slight concussion.
She felt for some scratch on her head, or a wound perhaps, but there was none.
That's when she turned to find out that wasn't alone anymore.
An unconscious figure was beside her.
It was a man, about the same age as her, wearing a torn maroon trousers and black undershirt.
Judging from his looks, she suspected that he might have been drunk or half-dead.
And his outfit…
She smiled upon inspecting his garments.
Maroon trousers… and a Gourd!
"Cool costume!" She grinned.
The winds died down and the landscape around her changed.
It was as if a sandstorm had passed.
Her hands, her skirt, and even her undergarments were filled with sand.
She gathered herself up… walked around the sleeping figure.
The man's hair was red, and his eye sockets were painted with black.
"Weird," she said.
She knelt and touched the man's hand. She felt his pulse.
"He's still alive."
Her mobile phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Cassandra, I've just arrived at your place. Where exactly are you?"
It was one of her friends.
"I… got lost," Cassandra laughed.
"Yes I thought you'd be…"
"Listen," Cassandra said. "I'm with someone…"
AN: To Inuloverforeva. I hope you like your character here... Yes, this is your fic, and probably mine too :)