A/N: Ho and behold, this chapter is exceptionally dark and it's not edited...yet.
His eyes bore into hers but somehow she was able to pull an indifferent expression. Gaara amused but didn't show any profound emotion, his face as stoic as ever. He started to examine the girl. She had worn a one-sleeved black Kimono. Something that was quite common among the Chunin of Iwakuagure, except the unusual color, of course. Her headband however was nowhere to be seen; instead the Iwakagure's symbol was tattooed in a form of a scar on her left temple, where her soft, feather-like black hair was half shaved.
She was an average looking young woman probably in her late twenties. He guessed from the little wrinkles around her almond shaped eyes that she might be a few years older than him. But that wasn't what caught Gaara's attention.
It was the eyes.
There was nothing in them to behold. An endless depth of ink that showed absolutely nothing. It was like, looking inside a depth of ever-ending darkness combined with a large amount of charcoal. It almost matched the way she looked towards the world, he guessed: dark and cold. She must've been through so much and must've witnessed the blackest parts of the world.
That was why for a moment Gaara wondered if the woman before him was the same from the other night. The eyes surely were the same but the feelings they held were exceptionally different.
She bowed her head a little and her midnight colored hair that was on the huge contrast of her pale skin, fell across half of her face. .
"I'm Sei from Iwakagure."
Gaara didn't blink even once. However his gaze hardened at her in suspicious but he didn't mouth a word. Her voice was emotionless and flat, mostly like a machine. She seemed to have been under strict military trains. The way she talked reminded him of Anbu, skilled Shinobi. Judging by her toned and in shaped body, she could've been one of the undercovers for sure. The way she stood with straight tensed shoulders and her fingerprints brushing over her *Tanto showed her lack of trust and safety even in the allied Shinobi territory.
The little old scars on her forearms were also the relic of the war, probably something that made her a person she was today. She was the product of the old Shinobi world thorough and thorough that still hadn't used to the peace. Not that the Kazekage blamed her, the word, 'peace' was still foreign to his own ears as well, still though he could sense a dark aura surrounding her. Something about her didn't feel right and Gaara couldn't put his finger on it.
Not that the headache and the nauseous feeling helped him any better during the process anyway.
"Our lady Tsuchikage was very pleased with the medical results of *Hoodia. The medical-nin found useful benefits to it. As it reduces the fever and can very much help the poisonous wounds to heal faster." She paused, her gaze fell on Gaara who was as motionless as a statue at the moment. "That's why she has sent her regards by presenting you rare valuable gems from the land of earth." She said, bending and placing a scroll on Gaara's desk.
"That wasn't really necessary." Kankuro was the one who spoke. "She could've just sent a message due to this new electronic system. It comes handy at times like this, you know."
"Sure." Sei answered coldly." Guess Lady Tsuchikage still prefers old-fashioned ways. "Her eyes fixed on Gaara's as she talked. "Anyway the jewels are in bags just outside the office, please take them in."
Kankuro nodded, exchanging a doubtful glance between his brother and the Iwa nin, he waited for Gaara to say something but he remained silence. The Kazekage lowered his chin, resting his elbows on the desk as his gazed remained fully fixed on hers as if he was studying an enemy in a one on one battle. Gaara's face was as unreadable as always, if it was in the past Kankuro would be worried if his brother was going to kill someone but now it was just how he looked.
Kankuro knew Gaara never trusted the strangers in his presence easily but the surprising matter was that the girl, too, returned the exact same expression. Like they were in some sort of staring contest, they had pinned each other in their spot and didn't allow the other to even flinch a muscle.
And that was why the room had fallen into an awkward silence, well at least for Kankuro, it was pretty awkward.
This is hopeless. The puppet master thought for a second before letting out a sigh. "Okay, how long will you be staying here?"
For the first time in those few minutes in the room, Sei looked at his direction. Tilting her head, her cold expression suddenly changed and she broke into a wide grin, making Kankuro think whether she was the same person from seconds ago. "Not long. However I'd like to look around the village if possible. It's been long since I last left Iwakagure and I guess this is my only chance to slack off a little."
"Sure. But this isn't Konahagakure, so there are probably not a lot of sights you can see. There are a couple of bars down the street, though. So you may want to check'em out, eh?"
"Seems like my kind of place." Sei chuckled, looking once again at Gaara, she quirked into a small smirk."Lord Kazekage, I hope you like the offerings." Bowing again, she nodded to Kankuro, turned on her hills and left the room.
Gaara's eyes followed her every single movement as she left the room and closed the door behind her back, still not saying even said a word. Kankuro eyed his little brother carefully, surely Gaara wasn't the most talkative person and all but ever since the Iwa messenger had arrived he was acting a little more cautious than ever.
Crossing his arms, Kankuro finally asked. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Gaara answered dryly without looking at him. It all made Kankuro uncomfortable like he was left out of a game. But he also knew, he could never force Gaara into anything, so it was useless to ponder on it anymore.
He looked at the door, as Gaara was looking fiercely at it, he wonder if there was something wrong with the actual door instead of the messenger. Then something struck him as he asked incautiously. "Do you know that girl?"
The question seemed to have enough power to make Gaara's eyes tear away from the door. He looked at Kankuro, frowning. It was one of those occasions that Gaara actually showed some kind of emotion and it wasn't good at all. Not to Kankuro's liking anyway.
"No." He responded dully. Deep inside though, something bugged Kankuro and it annoyed the hell out of him not being able to pull out what was bothering his little brother at the moment.
"Okay…" He shrugged, trying to act uninterested as he casually headed to the door. " I'll go check on headquarters for now. Call me if you need anything." He drawled, putting his hand on the doorknob, he shared a last glance with Gaara who looked exceptionally tired. "Oh and don't forget today's meeting with those old geezers."
Gaara made a sound that seemed more like a groan at the mention of the last word. He really didn't feel like listening to a bunch of nonsense and complaints from all those grandpas.
"I won't." He said lastly, closing his eyes as Kankuro chuckled. Surely he was worried over nothing. Gaara will be fine. Kankuro thought before leaving the room.
The Kazekage waited patiently for his footsteps to fade and just then reopened his eyes and glanced at the scroll on his desk suspiciously, like it was some sort of an unknown weapon. He proceeded warily, picking it up and undoing the seal on it. There was nothing wrong with the message. Gaara could tell from the scratchy handwriting it was truly from the current Tsuchikage. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as Naruto's and he could still read it without getting headache. For the time being though, the scroll wasn't the thing that could put his curious mind at ease.
His thoughts keep reverting to the woman and the images from the other night blended with her earlier presence. Gaara wasn't stupid, they both were a same person but he didn't know how they ended up so… close. Even thinking about it made Gaara experience all these mixed up emotions he had never felt before. And worse he didn't even know what was wrong with him. To be honest it made him a little furious. How in world, couldn't he remember? It seemed like he had fallen into an enemy's Genjutsu and was forced to forget their encounter.
Serenely he put the scroll aside, pushed back his chair and got to his feet, walking to the windows, he took a look outside.
Another afternoon was slipping by. Suna wasn't that big of a village; of course after the war it, too, had expanded and a lot tall buildings were constructed still from up here he could see most of the main streets perfectly. There in the middle of the village, the sidewalks were crowded with lots of shouting salespeople, trying to sell their goods. Women were out shopping groceries and men were coming from whatever mission or work back to their homes. He watched families, eating in the family-run noodle eateries and children laughing and playing alongside their parents.
Nothing out of ordinary, the village was peaceful as always thanks to the young Kazekage, people seemed to be happy with how their lives were passing by. There was truly nothing to worry about, still though; Gaara felt a storm going on in his head. He looked through the crowd, searching for one significance kunoichi, his sharp eyes wandering between the people, one by one, until they fell upon a woman with pitch black hair.
Gaara watched her, as she walked gracefully amongst the crowd. His brow creased. There was no doubt about her being from Iwakagure as the message that she held was unavoidably from the Tsuchikage herself but still it didn't mean that he trusted a stranger among his people. Surely she was from an allied force but Gaara had this strange feeling that he had to keep an eye on her. Of course he could always tell Kankuro to send a Shinobi to watch her but he chose to take care of it himself, at least for now.
Lifting his right hand to his face, Gaara placed his index and middle finger on his left eye. As he did so a thousand grains of sand, gathered behind the window, constricting, they soon shaped the form of an eyeball.
Sei glanced at the couple of shops as she passed by them and continued walking down in a narrowed alley. She took a turn briefly after and disappeared into a crappy inn. The eyeball, stood still behind a wall watching her from the small cracked windows as she talked to the old manager, took a key and walked up the stairs to where her reserved room supposed to be.
Without being noticed the eye ascended, following her glowing Chakra, up to the second floor, it watched her stepped into an empty tiny room, locking the door, she cautiously walked to the middle of the room. Then stopped, tossed her sandals aside, unbuttoned her army belt that contained the Tanto and other nin tools, she placed it on the bed and moved towards the full-length mirror.
Through the eyeball he watched her hands moving slowly up to her back to unhook the armory torso on her chest. She watched the armory falling down at her feet as her dull, emotionless eyes looked back at her own image and her long slender fingers once again traveled up, gingerly untying her obi, slipping her left shoulder off the kimono. Then she took her right hand out of its sleeve, brought it around to the fullness of her breast.
The piece of nylon soon fell loosely down to her knees. And suddenly she was fully naked, exposing her bare body; she stared at her own reflection. The third eye… did the milky breasts weren't silicone monsters, they were rather small but perfectly shaped with ruby nipples, although they sat lower, they were more natural. Less close together and moulded to her form.
For a second Gaara felt his own member hardened at her image but she when she ran her hands down her front, over her body and turned sideways to check her profile, his eyes widened. Whether it was in pure shock or something else, Gaara couldn't tear his eyes away from her nude form and the ugly scars all over the right side of her body. They were still red and pretty bloody and it could clearly be seen where the lousy stiches had been. At some parts there was the layer of skin that normally wasn't exposed. The muscle, the rawness of her body, the part of her that undoubtedly was stronger than anything else.
It startled Gaara a little, of course he was somehow incapable of having scars as the sand protected him all the time. During the war after he was reincarnated for the third time, the wounds on his skin soon disappeared even before he had the time to examine them but still he was well aware of how the scars of the war looked like that's why he could say it for sure that these weren't from the war.
He watched her stroke the wounds, a twisted smile, plastered on her face. It was nostalgic yet disturbing somehow, seeing how her smile looked like his own from years ago, when he still had this lust to kill, to crash the bones and to see people suffer and beg for mercy. He'd be a fool to think the sensation had gone completely, although upon meeting Naruto he fought the monster within and became a man he was today still there were times that he ached to hurt someone or… to destroy something.
The skin on her upper right arm was mottled completely, it was pitted and ridged, indicating that she had survived a fire incident. Gaara wondered what she had gone through to this day. Slowly he came to realize that it wasn't none of his business anyway, as he decided to not to look at the private parts of her body, anymore.
He turned his head, bringing down his finger when a loud whimper drew his attention back to the strange Kunoichi.
"SEE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?"
Crismon filled his vision. The blood gushed out of the woman's right side as she tightened her fingers around a kunai and penetrated her own skin with it. Gaara's eyes went wide open as she twisted the blade inside her side, tearing the stitches, carving new wounds on the old ones. The ugly wounds reopened, and the right half of her body soon covered in her own blood.
She whimpered, sobbed, murmured inaudible words to his ears and exhaled sharply then cracked into a laughter. A twisted, disgusting and sad laughter.
"Do you like what you see, my lord?"
Staring right into his eyes, for a second Gaara was taken back, removing his finger from his eyes unknowingly. Cold sweets formed on his forehead, as he walked closer to the window.
Just what the hell is she?
A/N:
* Tanto : An especial kind of Japanese sword.
Hoodia: name of a cacti
I'm not sure if I'm going to reveal this or not but the name Sei in Japanese means life. Oh and it's not Sai, please don't mispronounce it lol.
And here comes the questions: Who is this Sei? what does she want from Gaara? is she a reminder of his madness? Is she even real? All on future chapters!
In edited version of this, I definitely add more details. I kinda think that this wasn't satisfying enough...Hmph... I don't know.
Anyway, I'd be glad to know your opinions on this chapter.
Thanks to my lovely reviewers and to those who followed and favorite-d this story.
~Bella
