Previously:
Gaara was shocked, but then smiled again. He seemed to smiling a lot nowadays. But he was very lucky to have a 'friend' to help him and willing to risk her life for him. He was very pleased with this, but he couldn't help but feel uneasy of the fact that he was indeed started a relationship with someone. It had never happened before in a while. Was he going too slow or too fast? He was uncertain of himself. Was this really the right thing to do? He didn't want it to become like…'Yashamaru.' At the very thought of him, his smile quickly was replaced with an angry scowl. It was impossible for him to remove him from his memories…
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So, uh, yeah, I didn't think I'd get the feeling to write this fanfic again, but I ran into another angst dark fanfic and I got my inspiration back
Enjoy! And yea, I don't own Naruto .
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When Sakura woke up, she was still in Gaara's arms and he was still walking. Looking around, she noticed that it was around the break of dawn.
Blinking a little, she opened her eyes, yawning a little "Gaara? Have you taken a rest yet?" She asked a little suspiciously. She figured he'd be the type to push over his limits.
"I've taken the necessary breaks…"
"…and how many would that be?"
"…4…"
"Gaara!" Sakura yelled, if Gaara didn't know how long one of her lectures were, he was about to find out.
Gaara "hn'd" and continued walking but Sakura would have none of that. Jumping out of his hands and pulled his hands to make him stop. "Nu uh! We're taking a break! Right now."
Gaara sighed, putting his gourd on the floor as she started to rant on.
"Do you KNOW how bad it is to over-use your body!? In order to continue being at the strength you are in, you need rest. You need to be in top condition if something else is to happen, something unexpected. We are shinobi, therefore we need to be prepared for anything…"
Gaara lazily closed his eyes and zoned out at that moment while Sakura continued to talk.
Gaara's eyes snapped open though, "Stop." He instructed Sakura.
"What? If you think I'm going to back down on my rant, you're wrong." She puffed.
"I hear 7, no 8 people coming. Their chakra is at Chuunin level." Gaara clarified monotonously.
Sakura closed her eyes and did her calculations in her head, muttering them out loud. "I'm predicting I'll be able to take down 2, maybe 3 because I just slept, but you haven't gotten proper sleep. Originally, I'm guessing you'd be able take down…all of them, but in your condition, I think it'd be best if you reserved your energy at the most, try not to fight as much as possible."
"I can try."
"We should use the element of surprise, take down a few and lessen the load, you have an idea?" Sakura asked.
"Not really, you?"
Sakura thought, millions of ideas whizzing through her mind. She was known for her intelligence, it was maybe the only trait that she truly possessed greatly. This was her element, to form a plan, but time was ticking.
"How much time do we have before they get here?"
Gaara went back to sense them, "Roughly around 10 minutes, it might be a little shorter because they're picking up speed."
"That would make them lose more chakra." She frowned at their choice of attack. "Full and frontal, sounds as if they're too cocky for their own good."
"Well, we DO only have 2 people here, not even Chuunin level and they have 7 or 8 people, all Chuunin level, I'd say its fine for them to be cocky."
"Rule number one about me Gaara, when I'm determined, I'm determined, right now, I am, so I'm positive we'll be able to take them down."
"And rule number two?" Gaara asked.
"I'm smart, lacking in ninja skills, I have an IQ of around 180. Not as much as Shikamaru, no one can beat him, but I'm pretty smart. And it seems to be paying off, because…"
Sakura did the last calculations in her head. "I have an idea right now. So here's the plan, hopefully it will go according to plan, though I have no idea how smart they are."
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"Man! Are we there yet?" Yelled out an infuriating girl named Amaya.
"No, we aren't, now shut up before you give us away." Grumbled a guy with blue hair. He was the leader and the strongest out of all of them. He was secretly at Jounin level but he was masking his chakra to make it look Chuunin. He had read their profiles, their enemies, Gaara and Sakura's. Yes, they were quite something; everyone on his team seemed to disagree with him and say that they were an easy target, saying that they were only dealing with a frail girl and a guy who wasn't even at Chuunin level and unstable.
He looked at their abilities though, in the Chuunin exams, the girl seemed to do the test without even needing to cheat, and was currently training with Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin.
Gaara was unstable, yes, but that's what made him more hard to get, he was unpredictable, uncontrollable. His team was underestimating them, which would be their downfall. He honestly didn't care for his 'teammates' they were just in the way, all that mattered was the mission at hand.
"Oi! Jin! Lighten up, it'll be easier to kill them than you think." One of his 'teammates' said.
His lips curved in a sinister smile, he would definitely kill Gaara…at least Gaara.
(flashback)
"Mother! Father!" A little kid yelled out, his blue hair disheveled and uncombed. He was happy, his life was nice. His two parents were ninja's, could you believe that? NINJAS! He was so proud to have them as his parents; he wanted to be a ninja too, just like they were! He wanted to prove himself worthy. That all changed, however, when a horrific moment turned, twisting his fate in a cruel angle. He would never be the same.
Jin, running happily around the corner to continue searching for his missing parents, found them instantly. They weren't hard to spot, lying on the ground, though it was hard to decipher if it was really them-they looked so different…so mutilated...
His mother's head was not attached to her body; it seemed to have been painfully ripped off…while she was still alive. Scratches and claw marks dug in deeply in her flesh, blood painted her skin.
His father had most likely been the luckiest out of both of them. Gaara, how could one person be so cruel that he could possibly put a woman in more excruciating pain? It was uncivil.
His parents were killed on a mission…and not just easily, no, they took a stand and fought their best. They were very strong Shinobi after all, but Gaara started to lose control…Yes. Their mission was to bring down the ever so powerful Gaara. Even though Gaara was young at the time, probably the same age he was, possibly younger, he was much stronger. He was in a fragile state, no one taught him the valuable lessons of life, which created him to lose control and kill his parents. They did not die painlessly either. Shukaku, who had taken over him fully by then, had felt the need to torture, and that he did. He couldn't even imagine the pain that they'd gone through, Gaara probably didn't either, but Jin was determined to make sure Gaara would feel their pain, just in an equal amount of dose.
Though Gaara was still unconscious at the time of killing his parents most horridly, Shukaku being the real villain, he couldn't help but feel as if it was also his fault. He just had to not be able to control himself, just had to be weak! Had be to stupid enough to let Shukaku come out, maybe even gullible to let him come out from will. He honestly hated Gaara's guts.
They said 'Time unwinds the damage,' but Jin couldn't disagree more. Over the accumulated time, he had grown more vicious, more evil…more desperate. He needed to kill Gaara, he deserved it! If God didn't think that Gaara was a villain, than he must be blind.
Jin admitted it, he was obsessed with Gaara, the things he would do to make him scream in agony. The amount of torture he would do. He couldn't wait. He dreamt of killing him, over and over in his mind, these thoughts were not nightmares to him, but dreams, happy dreams. These thoughts calmed him, excited him.
Jin's mouth twisted in a cruel smirk. He would continue with his plan, use his fellow companions as the bait, the ones to weaken them, at least a little, he would kill Gaara, leave the girl to die on her own, and then finally be satisfied. He was just doing it for the greater good of life. The world didn't need a monster…a weapon of mass destruction, Satan himself, in this world. He was saving people, and he definitely was the good guy.
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"You sure this is going to work?" Gaara asked, still skeptic.
"Just go with it, improvise if needed, this is either life or death." Sakura noted. They both knew this though.
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Jin and the other people in the group of 8 people stepped into the area of where they originally felt Sakura and Gaara's last chakra.
All keeping their guard, they decided to search the place.
One of the weakest links of their 8-man squad checked out near a part of the tree area. Jin knew that there was a trap there, but was too tired to go and save him. He also figured he wouldn't lay a scratch on Gaara because he was so weak, so he just observed him team member and watched till he detonated the trap.
The young man took his steps closer to the spot, not even being precautious.
'Pfft, this will be so easy' Sakura thought in her head, that is until she saw something quite odd…like it didn't fit in place. Whatever it was, it was quite unnerving.
She shifted ever so slowly in her spot in the bushes, trying to look around the group of adversaries in front of them. They all seemed to not even notice that their teammate was walking a death trap of his own because they were too busy trying to look in different places. They weren't disturbing her…so what was?
Eyes darting in other places where she had not checked, she found it. At first she figured he was the leader of the group, being the only one not working and checking for them, but he was staring directly at the young man that was headed towards the trap. 'Did he know of the trap? Impossible! Then why would he just be there just watching?'
Whatever he was feeling at the moment, she felt uneasy. Just who were these people they were dealing with?
'The clueless guy was only a foot away from his doom' Jin thought with a maniacal smirk, thinking innerly.
"Aaarrgh!!" The man finally screamed as his foot hit the spot, making the, roughly around 100, kunai pierce his body simultaneously.
Sakura flinched at the sight of blood, but refused to let it deter her.
Jin's eyes were wild with craze as he watched the boy drop to the ground, blood oozing out of him. The blood was making him go out of control but he held his ground. He would need this power to go after Gaara, later on, not now.
The kunai seemed to have gone through him pretty hard, a few of the kunai made it through one side of him, and exiting on the other side of him.
She figured he would just keep on bleeding out till he was sapped dry, at the rate it was at now. Unconsciously she gripped her arm around Gaara's, feeling insecure at the moment.
Gaara looked to her, seeing her face etched with panic, so he reassuringly squeezed her hand back. Looking at him, she smiled wanly, having a little more courage than she used to. It was almost time to go.
Jin looked at his other squad members and noticed they were staring in shock at the body almost a few meters away from him. Perhaps he had guessed wrong, maybe they ALL were weak and would not even be able to scathe Gaara. He sighed mentally; perhaps he had to do this whole thing by himself. At least they'd be able to take care of the GIRL at least.
Before he could stop Amaya, she triggered another trap by pushing a bush branch down, triggering her and the person around her in a fiery demise of explosive tags. They were easily disintegrated and turned into ash before being blown in the wind.
'Four people down…' Sakura thought to herself. She was a little relieved that the explosive tags killed 2 people in its blast, but there was still 6 more to go…one including the person who seemed completely unfazed with any death near him, especially the ones of his team. 'Was he even natural?'
One of the other members of the enemy squad triggered the last trap they had in store. Accidentally backing away from his 2 dead teammates, remains of ash, horror-stricken, he touched a thorn in the bushery. It was no ordinary thorn, having coated with poison, immediately causing him to gasp as his skin deteriorated, making the flesh visible on him. Screaming in agony, the sound made Sakura wince, as it was cut short of him gurgling on his own blood. It was a truly horrifying poison, but one that was quite effective. She had learned all of these plants and poisons from Tsunade.
Since all the traps were detonated, Gaara and Sakura decided to take action, but using the moment of surprise well enough. Sakura charged her feet with chakra, running up the tree, once at the top, back-flipping and sending poisonous enlaced kunai to the enemies.
One screamed in agony as the poison reached his heart and made it stop, falling on his knees before he died.
Sand poured from underneath and wounding another, but he managed to jump out of the way, only getting his arm crushed by sand. The other saw it coming and jumped out of the way as well. The lack of rest seemed to be finally taking effect. This isn't good…
Jin looked over his shoulder, the enemy he had always dreamed of, needed to eliminate. He couldn't wait to kill him. With a maniacal laugh, he charged towards Gaara, creating some distance between them and everyone else.
"Yo! Leader, wait!" The guy wounded in the arm cried out, but it was too late, they were gone, into fighting with each other, absorbed on what they were doing.
"Tch, I can't believe that bastard, taking the harder one to kill and giving us this weak little girl…" The other said sullenly.
She didn't know what she was feeling but it definitely was a feeling she rarely got. It was…unrelenting fury. Something deep down had triggered within her.
Pulling out a kunai from her weapons pouch, she twirled it around her finger before presuming battle position.
The wounded guy sighed and said, "I guess we wipe her out then, eh?"
'I am surely crazy if I think I can take down 3 Chuunin level people. Even though one of them is injured, the odds are very low…'
Nevertheless, she kept on going, parrying, driving them back, they hadn't seen this coming, but realized they'd have to try a little harder to kill her.
"Ayako! Let's head out, Hachiro, stay out of this, you're wounded, you'll just get in the way."
Sakura looked at the dialect between them. The girl with blonde hair's name was Ayako; she had that obviously put out. Hachiro, as he said was the wounded guy. This only left the guy talking…
"Tatsuo, that's unfair," The wounded man, Hachiro whined.
"Do it, I'll tell you when to be pulled into the fight." Tatsuo ordered.
Hachiro hesitantly, but reluctantly obeyed, sitting on a tree, trying to fix his wound on his arm, wanting to get into action later on.
Ayako, the most over-confident of the 3, attacked first, she was unrelenting and pressed forward. To the discerning eye, Sakura was losing, but in fact, she was only analyzing how Ayako attacked. She had strong combat skills, but her defensive side was very weak.
Sakura blocked the katana strike from her and flash-stepped behind her, striking her kunai behind to stab it in her back. It hit the mark but she moved out of the way so she wasn't hurt critically. Though the whole kunai blade was dug in her back, and only the handle was sticking it, it seemed not to faze Ayako…but it did faze Sakura.
Sakura felt a little dizzy as the blood soaked up her shirt. She tried to push those thoughts out of her head, she needed to keep her head in the game, one slight flaw could mean her death, and she knew this very well.
Taking out a couple of shuriken, she threw it at Ayako, who just barely blocked it. Taking the katana that was harnessed on the back of her, she wielded it.
Ayako seemed quite invincible at the moment. Sakura was starting to freak out a little, 'She should be dead already!! Blood loss should've at least knocked her out of a conscious state!! What is going on?!' Her answer was not given a reply as they both charged towards each other.
The sound of metal clanging with itself was in the air, it was a deadly fight. Sakura jumped in the air, forcing chakra in her foot to propel her and then came crashing down again, the chakra still in her foot as she stomped Ayako's stomach. When they both hit the ground, Ayako gasped as a sickening crunch had echoed through the woods. Ayako's whole rib cage was surely broken…she was also most likely dead.
Sakura's leg stung a little from the force of being 10 feet in the air and crashing down on one foot in the ground. Her only cushioning from that time was…she shuddered…Ayako's own body. It had suddenly hit her, by full force. She had killed someone…KILLED! She knew that in the world of ninja's, in order to live and survive was to kill. It was a cruel and harsh life, but she had to live with it. Pushing her troubled thoughts away, she had barely enough time to register before Tatsuo had charged towards her.
She blocked a little messily since her foot was still stinging in pain. She took a deep breath and did something that her sensei would've frowned upon. She enlaced her whole leg with chakra. It was a move that was used when your own self was injured in one of your ligaments; you would infuse your chakra there to hold it in place so you could continue fighting. It was a move that used much of your chakra and needed you to focus on the chakra on your injury and also what you were doing, in this case fighting…and trying not to get killed with the other attacks coming from her adversaries.
She knew that without the amount of chakra she had, she would not be able to fight for the longest of times. She would need to use her remaining chakra well and sparingly. She would have to end this fight as soon as possible, reminding herself by saying 'I need to do this a lot faster so I can help Gaara…He is alone with a psycho and heaven forbid if he has enough strength from before to fight…'
Taking a deep breath, she charged into battle, going to do everything in her power to kill him, their lives were at stake.
Sakura fought head-on, never taking a break…never letting the enemy take a break. He was soon taking back his words about her. She was not as weak has he had originally surmised. Perhaps she was even stronger, but it didn't make any sense. Why was she so weak only a mere couple of days back? He had read her current status report. She was the weakest link in her 3-man cell. She had no powers worth praising or even recognizing. So, if she hadn't been great at all, why was she beating him? Was there a concept to why she was pushing herself? Pushing her limits?
He did not know, but what he did know was that he had to give this fight everything he had…or he would never see the light of day ever again.
She flipped back and threw a windmill…henge thingy (A/N: what would you call that thing? o.O) He dodged it with ease, but what he didn't see was the second one in the shadow of the first one.
Tatsuo cursed as it sliced his side, blood easily falling out of him, as if it'd never stop.
It was at this point he knew he would never survive, but he knew that if he did not damage her enough, she'd surely go after Jin, his leader, and he did not want an angry Jin on his side…Yes, even if he was dead, far along in the after-life, Jin was a mad-man…a crazed guy far passed the sides of sanity. He would personally hunt him down, killing him without mercy, haunt him forever…
Gritting his teeth, he pulled out an explosive tag and stuck it on himself, pushing all of his chakra reserves to be used to boost him as close to her as possible.
'He wouldn't…no…' Sakura thought in horror. To see a man go so far to kill, it was a desperate action.
Hachiro knew what was going on in Tatsuo's mind, and he would've entirely understood in his position. It was when a person was even horrified of LIVING…something that would scare you, in this case Jin, so much into not wanting to live anymore…Tatsuo did not want to live for fear of what Jin would do to him if he came back-alive. He could do things much worse than dying…much worse.
Sakura's confusion soon turned to horror. She wanted to live-no, she needed to live. For Gaara's sake. It was that moment, unconsciously, she'd even LIVE for him. She had realized, she deeply cared for him…something she had not felt, she had never felt this strongly for anyone before…not this strong anyways. She needed to live, she needed to LIVE!
Sakura desperately used her chakra to create a shield around her, wincing at the costs….she only had enough chakra and her injured leg was taking its toll. But at least she was still alive.
White enveloped the world, separating Sakura from it for a brief moment. She closed her eyes at its serene feeling, but could feel the world greedily grabbing back at her, forcing her to be pulled into the world again. She had not choice but to return back. She had the feeling of never wanting to leave though.
Opening her eyes after the shock had passed, she was shocked to see the injured man from before head towards her with a kunai. She was almost out of chakra, she could feel it. There was no way she could kill him at this rate.
Desperately clawing her way backwards, away from him, it was with no use, Hachiro was stalking towards her at a much faster pace. He raised his hand with the kunai in it towards her. Sakura winced her eyes shut, but was surprised not to feel anything.
If she was not utterly surprised from before, she was now. She had gradually opened her eyes to see Hachiro holding the kunai towards her as in a gesture of giving it to her. It wasn't the gesture that amazed her, it was his eyes…it seemed as if they were pleading her.
Not finding the voice in her throat, she looked questioningly at him instead.
Hachiro, taking a deep breath before explaining, said, "I…am sadly in the same position as Tatsuo…" Talking most difficultly, trying hard to suit the right words to say.
Sakura gestured for him to continue, so he did, "The position we are in, is we don't want to live, in fear of something…and that something is Jin. He is not normal, he would do something worse to us than death. He is a maniac, unnatural. I strongly urge you to have nothing to do with him…you'll only end up in sorrow or hurt. He'll find your weakness and exploit it for his own sick cause and purpose. He already knows mine and I don't want to live through with it…so please, do the favour of ending my life. If you have a kind heart, you will."
Sakura didn't know what to do…he said it so easily but the truth was it really wasn't.. This decision was very difficult. It wasn't the matter of being cold hearted or not, but of courage. To have a heart to kill…to have a heart not to kill, it didn't make sense. It contradicted itself, to be so cold-hearted to kill someone, a living thing, but being kind to kill someone. What was she to do? She had decided what to do, though.
Trembling hands took the kunai from his hands. He looked relieved at the motion and closed his eyes to await his 'demise' that he called a call from god. One he eagerly wanted. She could not keep her hands straight. What had made killing this man in front of her different than the others she had just killed mere minutes ago? It was because this man wanted to die…from her hands.
Sakura took a deep breath, as in a way you would take a deep breath before taking a plunge in a pool, taking a deep breath to help you calm down, taking a deep breath before entering something that was beyond your control, taking a deep breath before entering some that unsettled you.
Driving the kunai hard and fast, it made its mark, causing the warm liquid to splatter across her pretty face. Such an innocent face to have something taint her for life…she would never feel the same.
His body made contact with the floor, but not before saying a small, almost inaudible "Thank you." He was trying to say an apology for tainting her, but she never got it because his life had been taken away…into a place he felt more happy in.
She saw the blood seep out more and more. The beautiful, crimson liquid trickle across his chest, down his body to the ground, as gravity made it look to silent and slow, as if time stopped to let you see it. It was a horrifyingly beautiful sight, indeed.
Silently, the poor little girl cried, for she had just ended peoples' lives. She had done it, not for survival, but for her survivals' sake for another. Was this her true weakness?
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Annnndd…I'll end it there because I'm tired and need more school work to do…so if anyone of you had seen from my profile, they would've known that I've decided to try and give up fanfics for a little while because my school marks are in a crisis (in me and my parents' eyes at least) I'll update REALLLLLYYY SLLOOOWWWWLLY and for that I'm very sorry but I really need to do this…not to mention because of my bad habits of creating new fanfics and not finishing one before the other, you might feel as if it'd be forever, but I'd just be updating other fanfics.
I KNOW, I KNOW! I suck at battle scenes…actually, I've only done 2, ( now 3) in my whole life. I tried to create a different feel to this battle though, while the others were action-y, I tried to get the feeling of horror and sadness in it…cuz, this is what this fanfic is all about!! XDDD Tell me if it was drop-dead boring or not…
REVIEW AWAY PLEASE!! ….annddd because of a change of events cough Jin cough this fanfic will be scheduled to be longer. Yay! I've finally got a fanfic I've thought through about…mostly, I've still got some things to think and figure out. There's also a part in this chapter that foreshadows a chapter WAAAAYYY far away. See if you can figure out what it is.
PS I'LL MISS UPDATING AND I'LL ALSO MISS YOU GUYZ! T.T