Here you have it kids, Chapter 2! I can't think up a good name for it, gomen.
Before you start can someone explain to me what an AU is? I get confused people keep asking my if that's what my stories are. I have a vague idea because I know it stands for Alternate Universe but still... it'd be muchos appreciated. Thanks for the reviews! This chapter is abit long.
Disclaimer: I like doing these. I do not own Narutooo... I do own the stupid little legend though. You'll know what I mean as you read on I don't want to spoil.
The couple were now heading to the closest ramen bar; Ino had a big smile on her face, whereas Gaara was watching her unnervingly. She was rambling on about something, which Gaara didn't care to listen to properly. He always thought of his father as an idiot, but to match him up with a female like her? The only reasonable thing he could think of was that he was hoping her crazy-loud mouth rambling would eventually drive him so mad he'd end up killing himself or just die of insanity… although the main reason was to win back the trust of Konoha, somehow.
She seemed to be getting used to him, too used to him for his liking. To make matters worse it had only hardly been a day, although Gaara was truly going easy on her. Did he feel sorry for her? Nahh. He did have his reasons though.
They finally made it to the ramen stand, it happened to be a nice sunny afternoon so they had set up seats around the stand and there were quite a few people there – a lot of familiar faces too. As the two walked by, everyone suddenly went silent in complete shock, some in complete fear. Ino had stopped talking and her cheeks were burning up at the fact that she and Gaara were the center of attention – she had temporarily forgotten who she was accompanied by, what he was about to become to her (husband) and what kind of person he was (psycho killer).
Suddenly, the silence was broken by obnoxious laughter coming from a certain hyperactive individual.
"Ino and Gaara? An item?!" Shouted Naruto.
Ino began to twitch, whereas Gaara just looked at the blonde boy lazily.
"Ahahahahaahahahaha! Aah that was a good laugh… More ramen please!" Naruto ordered his 10th bowl of ramen.
"Grrrr stupid Naruto, he's going to pay for that stupid remark. How dare he laugh at my ill-fated situation! Why did everyone have to be here!? Of all the restaurants in Konoha!"
"Are you just going to stand there with that ugly look on your face? Hurry up and order something." Gaara said coldly to Ino, who had gotten lost in her thoughts.
"WHAAAA?! How dare you call me ugly you arrogant asswhipe! At least… at least… damnit there's nothing wrong with him…at least my hair isn't red!"
……. Of course that's what Ino would have liked to have said, given that she'd come up with a better insult… but she just didn't have the guts….
"Do you want to repeat that……" - enter horrific chibi image of Ino dying very gruesomely by Gaara-
…. Because she then imagined the above happening. So instead she quickly and quietly ordered the food she wanted and sat down opposite her soon to be freaky husband. During that time most of the people there were following them with their eyes, still in complete fear/shock… well they were following Ino with their eyes, no one dared make eye contact with Gaara.
And Ino understood why. As she looked at him, she noticed his eye twitch slightly and his fists were clenched. She didn't like what she heard next.
"Why… are they all starring?" he said quietly, although his voice suggested that it was more of an excuse to begin a massacre.
Clearly the movie they had watched had excited him abit too much, which meant that anything could trigger his murderous intentions at this moment.
"H-hey Gaara… what did you get? To eat I mean." Ino attempted to get his mind of it.
His eyes turned to her. His hands then loosened from their clenched position.
"Hn." was all he muttered, rather sarcastically.
Ino grinned to hide her fear.
"Heh-heh yeah what else, we're at a ramen stand." She answered her own question.
After a while of awkward silence, on Ino's behalf anyway, their food finally arrived. Ino sighed.
"Oh that felt like an eternity…"
Gaara raised an eyebrow slightly at the amount of food on his partner's half of the table. It seemed that she ate more than Naruto!
"………… How are you going to fit that in after the cinema snacks?" Gaara questioned curiously.
Ino furrowed her brows.
"Well while someone was too busy laughing his ass off at that psychopathic excuse of a movie to notice, I was busy trying to block everything out so I couldn't eat. If I had eaten something then I would have ended up puking all over you and I'm sure you wouldn't have liked that which means that I DEFINITLY would have liked it… if you know what I mean."
Gaara just continued to look at her; she had a point. He would have probably killed her there and then, although to say that he would be being modest – with the mood the movie had set, he would have done much worse than simply kill her.
"Sure…"
Ino turned her attention to the food, her eyes widened; she was SO hungry. It had been so long since she'd eaten properly, she could literally eat the whole ramen stand! She picked up her chop sticks and was about to dig in when she paused. A certain feeling overtook her again, it was one that made her feel awkward and uncomfortable and she didn't like one bit. She looked up to meet Gaara's eyes.
He was just looking at her, like he was when her mother and his father were discussing the marriage. The look where she could feel his eyes burn on her skin…. She couldn't eat while he was doing that!
"Err… aren't you going to… you know, eat?" she said.
Gaara just continued to glare at her and furrowed his brows slightly, he was now giving her a "are you seriously trying to tell me what to do?" look, so Ino quickly tried to explain herself.
"Err not that I'm telling you to… I know that came out bad I'm sorry. I just meant that you know because were…"
"Be quiet." He interrupted. He then removed his hands from before his face and picked up his chopsticks.
Ino sighed. She had no idea how long she was going to live if things kept going the way they were… she was amazed she was still able to use all her bones properly with the amount of times she's bothered him. Maybe he didn't like to hit girls? So her gender was like a good luck charm for her. Although she highly doubted that was the case.
She was about to eat but she felt his eyes again. She didn't want to bother him again, but she couldn't waste all of the food she'd ordered. She decided she'd just force feed herself, which was kinda difficult because the awkwardness and fear was making her hand tremble. So eventually, after realizing that it just wasn't going to work, she put her chopsticks on the table and just sat there quietly. She had her head down and it was slightly covered by her long, glossy hair so Gaara couldn't see her face properly.
He placed his chopsticks down too and continued to stare at her. Ino was getting extremely aggravated.
"What is up with this guy?! Before he was scary as hell, now he's just annoying. Arghh if this goes on I'm gonna tear my face off! I have to get out of this marriage… I just have to! But how do I…"
Ino was cut of her thought at the obnoxious sounds of hiccups. She lifted her head quickly, and turned to see who it was; Naruto! The idiot had eaten too much, too fast again and had a bad case of hiccups.
She shook her head, and turned to face Gaara. His eyes had moved towards Naruto for a second too, but now he just continued to gaze at her. Ino wanted to smirk at the thought that just crossed her mind.
"Heh, one minute he calls me ugly, the next he can't take his eyes off me! Silly little fool…at least I'm safe to make witty comments inside my mind..."
Ino rested her chin on her hand and began to play with her food, since she couldn't eat it.
He eyes then fell on the table across which was where Sasuke and Sakura were sitting… she figured the three of them (including Naruto) had decided to hang out together, but it was so obvious that those two were so much more than just friends. Although Sasuke didn't like to show it much, it was obvious by the way he was looking at her. Ino's face turned red with anger and jealousy… she wanted that so badly... she'd always dreamed of what it would be like to have someone who cared like that, and that it would last forever… and eventually have what every girl dreamed of - a perfect wedding, with the perfect guy… the rest of their life didn't even have to be perfect; just that day. And whatever came their way after that, they'd get through it because of the strong bond that kept them together… and they'd –
SMACK!
Ino shrieked and almost fell of her chair; she was immediately snapped back from her daydreaming and saw Gaara standing up. He had hit the table hard with his hand. Ino was staring at him in complete shock and gave him a questioning look.
"W-what happened?" she said, trying to get her breath back.
Gaara glared at her, he looked pissed off. He began to speak.
……….
"You bore me" he said.
Ino continued to look at him blankly, and raised an eyebrow.
"So you hit the table because…..?"
Gaara shrugged.
"You looked too… I didn't like it. Do you want me to kill him?"
Ino's eyes widened… what the hell was he talking about?
"What?! Kill who? And why would I want you to kill someone?!"
"Sasuke Uchiha. The way you were looking at him…"
Ino's heart was racing… could he see that watching Sasuke made her unhappy that she'd never have him? If he wanted to kill him for her, surely it meant that he didn't like to see her upset and possibly vague signs of jealousy. Somewhat, in a weird twisted kind of way, that was so… so romantic.
"… You looked happy." Gaara finished.
Ino's eyes widened, could it be that he really was jealous?
"It's really depressing when you're happy like that. I do not like it." Gaara stated.
Ino sweat dropped.
She couldn't have been more wrong if she tried. It was all in self interest. And clearly the whole staring game was part of "confirming his existence" if it made other people feel bad, it made him feel good. He was probably so used to people fearing him; he must have learned to get some kind of twisted enjoyment from it.
Ino mumbled things quietly as she began to stand up. She packed all the food and decided to take it with her as a takeaway. It's really depressing when you're happy like that. She kept hearing his cold, calm voice in her head – and it made her shiver. She still couldn't figure out what was up with him, but one thing was for sure… she did not want to go through with the marriage. It wasn't even a matter of giving him a chance. He didn't want a chance, Ino could tell. He probably hated this marriage as much as she did, although then again it could have been that he didn't even care enough to hate it.
Ino was terrified of him, and she wasn't the only one; she couldn't believe her parents were willing to give her away to such a cold blooded person. Oh how she envied Sakura at the moment.
- A tiny bit later-
It had gotten quite dark now. Ino was thinking up places where Gaara would take her next… she figured it would probably be something like a graveyard.
Gaara was looking straight ahead with his usual pissed off facial expression. Ino figured she had nothing to lose.
"Hmph." She said, rather loudly to try and catch his attention.
But she failed.
"EHEM!" she tried again, coughing this time.
Still no reply.
"Huh!? Oh! Oh! What's that blood doing on the floor!" she figured it was the only thing that would work.
Gaara stopped walking now. Ino looked at him wide eyed. He turned to face her…
"What do you want?" he said, smirking slightly at her amusing attempt to get his attention.
Ino smiled.
"Umm I don't know. Gomen please don't kill me!" she said closing her eyes.
She slowly opened one eye, and saw that he wasn't about to kill her... he just stood there, the smirk had gone too. She sighed.
"You're not into this whole dating thing… are you?" she hesitated. "Well, how about we just… do something else, like… things that we can find out more about… each other."
She didn't understand what urged her to say that, she didn't know how good of an idea finding out about Gaara would be. But she figured since she'd have to spend the rest of her life with him she might as well try… and she knew her mother would kill her if she didn't make an effort.
Gaara continued to walk without giving any sign of whether he'd accepted or rejected her offer. Ino just followed him, and they were soon in some kind of park. They walked up to a hill, which was quite high; Gaara sat down when they reached the top of it. It was actually a cliff rather than a hill, but you wouldn't be able to tell that when walking up it. Ino was dumbfounded. The sight was so beautiful. A glowing full moon was visible in the dark blue sky which shone on the flower field bellow them. There must have been a million different species of flowers.
Ino turned to Gaara whose eyes were closed as he sat at the edge of the cliff. He didn't seem as intimidating anymore, especially by the way the moon light shone on him... Ino smiled pleasantly.
"You like flowers, don't you?" He said slowly.
"Y-yes… I do." Ino's features softened and she looked at the view lovingly. He accepted her offer after all.
"Good."
After a moment of silence and calm, Ino spoke the question that had bugged her for a moment.
"But, how does this place represent you?"
Gaara opened his eyes. He turned to smile at her… Ino was quite shocked, this time it wasn't a smirk or an evil grin it was an actual smile. She…. Spoke too soon; he's smile suddenly turned more demonic and freaky, as he looked away from her.
"I like the background and stories it holds." He began. "According to its legend, about a thousand years ago many people were brutally murdered here and the blood they all shed was used as a sacrifice. Of what is unknown, but the flowers represent every life taken, and their spirits are said to wander when there is a full moon above this land. Those assassins, especially. The killings are said to have happened at the same hour and time of year as right now."
Ino's face had paled.
"So you're saying this place is haunted?" she questioned.
Gaara nodded.
"What are we doing here?"
"You're going to help me; I want to find out more about the people who died here that night and the assassins…"
"Why?!" Ino snapped.
"Because, I want to…"
"You want to what, get us killed?!" she was shivering madly now.
"No, I want to meet the ones who share the same point and reason in life as I do."
"Shared, key word here Gaara… these people are dead!" Ino hugged her knees and began to rock back and forth.
She then began to laugh.
"You're kidding, right? You just want to scare me, heheh ghosts… there's no such thing as ghosts." She then gasped as she noticed Gaara's arm.
"Then what is that?" He was pointing at what appeared to be blue mist rising from the beautiful flowers.
Ino's eyes widened and she felt a lump on her throat. She wanted to scream but she was so terrified she couldn't. As the spirits began to rise, Gaara stood up and his smile turned into a freakish grin. A gust of wind blew as the spirits began to screech in tremendous pain. You could almost feel the suffering the people must have gone through… Gaara began to laugh menacingly.
"Do you want to find out more about me? Then listen to this, absorb it and let it thrill you… It's like a drug." He said, in an excited, deadly tone.
Ino's mouth was wide open… the things she was seeing at that moment were bad enough to send her to her grave. The knot in her stomach tightened so much it hurt. She wanted to die. Suddenly her eyes became fuzzy, the last thing she saw was Gaara and that demonic expression on his face, her world then went black.
Poor Ino-chan. I'm so sorry! Next chapter starts with a dream... Ooooh.
