Damaged
We were moving quickly through the forest. It was getting thinner and thinner as we neared the Land of Ice.
I tried to stay as far away as possible from Gaara.
That man disgusted me.
I was done trying with him. He was right - I had damaged the vow beyond repair.
Attack
About halfway to the Land of Ice we got attacked by some rogue ninja.
"Ooh la la," they taunted. "Some nice little shinobi to play with."
Obviously they greatly underestimated us.
There were about 20 of them, but 10 of them were the pack leaders. The other ones seemed to be minions or something.
The six of us decapitated them in a matter of minutes; then more came.
"What the hell is with these people?!" Naruto shouted after awhile, fighting off yet another batch of 20.
"Where're they all coming from?" I wondered.
Eventually we found out the source of all these people. It was a single rogue ninja, producing solid clones that did not disappear into air when they were beat.
"No wonder," I muttered.
"We could've saved a lot of time if we knew these were actually clones," Sakura remarked.
"I've never heard of solid clones before," said Temari.
We were all poised to fight off the rogue ninja.
It turned out he was a pretty tough guy. Those clones were just obstacles to make us tired; I could feel all of our chakra diminishing, but even so he was no match for us, top jounin of our villages.
With all six of us, we finished him quickly.
"Well that wasted a lot of our time," Kankuro scoffed.
We looked at the quickly darkening sky. The bright light was beginning to fade.
"We should just keep going," Naruto said.
"Um," Sakura said. "Our chakra is pretty low; what if we run into another problem like this? We'd be so emptied out. This really isn't convenient, but I think we should rest another night and replenish our chakra."
I sighed. "Sakura that's what you said last time."
"Sorry Ren, but think, what if we kept going from yesterday? Without that night's rest we would've been totally finished when we ran into that ninja."
Since she was the team's medic nin, we reluctantly agreed and set up camp there in the thinning batch of forest.
Tent
I was already beginning to feel cold, so I produced a fire.
Naruto was the only one who was excited that we were low on tents; the rest of us groaned. We only had 3 tents for the 6 of us.
"Well, we'll have to share!" He said brightly. "I guess Temari and Kankuro can share, and me and Sakura will share!" He glanced at me. "Oh, and Renna…will have to share with Gaara…"
I glowered at him. It looked like his crush over Sakura hadn't diminished since our genin days.
"I'd rather share with Sakura," I said. "I…feel more comfortable sharing a tent with a girl."
What a lame excuse. All of us at one point or another had to share a tent with the opposite sex.
"It's alright."
I looked, astonished, over to the source of the quiet voice.
"What." I grit through my teeth.
"Just let Naruto share with Sakura."
He left the rest of us speechless.
"Let's get going," Temari said finally. "Food, and then sleep."
I fumed inwardly as I set up our stupid tents.
I really hated him!
The whole night while eating our dinner I was dreading sleeping alone with him. Our tent was plenty spacious, but it was too awkward. I would be able to feel his energy, what he was feeling, radiating off of him all night.
I offered to stay behind and clean up, inviting the others to go ahead.
Stalling.
Finally I couldn't delay any longer. I climbed through the tent flaps where Gaara was sitting on his sleeping bag.
Pouting the whole time, I angrily began setting up my sleeping bag as far away from his as possible.
He made it hard; he set up his right in the middle.
I indignantly pushed the side of the tent, willing it to stretch a little further.
When I accidentally punched a whole through the side, he spoke.
"Sorry," he intoned quietly.
I froze.
How dare he. How dare he speak to me? How dare he apologize for-whatever it was for-after all those things he said?
"Shut up. I don't want to hear," I spat out.
"Sorry! It was wrong of me to hurt you," he said. "But it's true…every time I look at you…its just…something inside of me…dies. I can't do it. The past is too…" he was struggling for words.
"…Real," he whispered.
I huffed.
"Too bad," I sang out, just like a child. I knew I was being silly. "I agree; we can't be together, because you make me sick." I looked at him the most loathing on my face I could muster up. "Oh and I don't accept your apology," I remarked harshly.
I then leaned over and blew out the candle, plunging us into darkness; it was like the signal of the end of the conversation.
A/N: ya'll may already know this if you read my prev. chapters but i dont really like editing much *sheepish grin* so....ya most of these i just sat down and wrote and really never look back to edit. so yeah. sorry bout that. i hate editing.
