Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto & Co.
Shukaku's words are written in 'bold' and those lines in italics are Gaara's thoughts. I will type some of their conversations at the beginning of this chapter.
Chapter eleven: Interferences
"How did it feel to be used for the one you care about? I hope it hurt a lot 'cause you don't seem to have learnt your lesson. I told you to kill the damn nuisance a long time ago, but did you listen? Noooo, you never listen. Love only yourself, fight only for yourself. What happened to that?"
"Nothing happened to that. What makes you think I'm not the centre of my universe anymore? Really, don't be stupid. It's just a small change. I included him."
"Why? I thought you were a lot more clever than that. I thought I could trust you!"
"No matter how bad you fuck up with my mind, my heart belongs to me, and only me. You can't change what's there and I feel like I don't have much control over it myself. Because of that... now I have to fight for both Sasuke and myself. Because I have no control over my feelings for him."
"I knew that nuisance would make you lose your mind! Listen to what you're thinking! Look at him! Is he worth risking your life for him? Is it worth suffering for this ungrateful boyfriend of yours? Come on, you've gotta be better than that! Remember that no matter what, we will be together in life and death. Is he worth your sacrifice?!"
"That's enough. I will do whatever I can to keep him safe. If can't do that... I will kill him myself."
Gaara had no privacy and sometimes that could be really annoying, even if shukaku couldn't tell somebody else about his deepest, darkest thoughts, he always found himself craving for silence and the tailed-beast would certainly hear that and would start making such a big fuss about it... at least after some of their big arguments he'd shut up for a while.
"Gaara."
He looked down and saw Sasuke raising an eyebrow at him and his lips moved to let out a small "what?".
"Uhm... nothing." he replied, playing with a stick in the golden fire in front of him. "Just the fact that it's the fifth time I've called your name. Will you get your head out of the clouds and bring it back on earth, where it belongs? We're on a mission. What were you thinking of?"
"Nothing important. Shukaku and I were having a... 'decent' conversation."
"Oh. Well then, sorry to interrupt. I wanted to talk to you... about Pein."
"What about him?" Gaara asked, leaning on the tree behind him with his arms bent under his head.
"I've heard some pretty nasty things about him and I wanted to know if it's true. Some say he's cruel and bloodthirsty, sadistic and a master of torture. You know him better than I do, you're the one who talks to him everytime, so you tell me if it's true."
"How the fuck should I know? You're the one who drank a glass of wine in his presence. You should know better than me."
"Jealous?" he sneered.
"Just stay away from him!" Gaara snapped, glaring at him.
"He doesn't seem that bad, why are you..."
"Shut up and go to sleep."
"Didn't I tell you?"
"You should do the same thing. Leave me alone. This is my problem and I have to deal with it by myself."
"It doesn't matter how hard you try to keep Pein away from the boy, 'cause Sasuke will be the one to keep going after him. He's fascinated by the evil aura around this man and he will do everything he can to find out the truth. You're only making things worse by trying to deny him the pleasure of finding out himself what kind of man Pein really is. I told you he's not worth the effort. He should know that every rumor has something true in it, therefore, Pein is a true master of torture. Sasuke only heard that from somebody else, but you have become the living proof. People who make the same mistake twice are either foolish or feeble minded. He must be a big idiot to make the same mistake he made with the snake Orochimaru. Too bad Pein's worse than Orochimaru." he laughed hysterically, his deep voice making Gaara's head ache. Think about it, Gaara. First he's going to break you and after that, he'll be going for Sasuke. What will you do then?"
"That bastard will have to do his best to break me."
"It will be his pleasure to prove you wrong, mine to watch everything through your eyes. It would be funny if Pein actually fell in love with you before getting to Sasuke..."
"Don't make me feel sick. This mission makes me feel sick enough."
"And I thought you felt sick about going back 'home'. I'm sure Pein misses you already."
"Will you shut up?! Stop mentioning that name!"
"Okay... if you say so..."
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Gaara ran a hand through his hair in annoyance. They had been following their target for a while and he wasn't feeling very well. He just wanted to finish the job and go back to the Akatsuki. Sasuke watched the man running on the street to get away from some imaginary assassins, his sharingan fixed upon the victim in a cold, defiant glare. He was a fast learner, he could be bad when he wanted to. The target was unaware that the real assassins where watching him right at that moment, waiting for the perfect time to attack and kept running from nobody in paticular: the street was empty, it was the middle of the night.
The man tripped over something and hit the wet pavement, releasing a long whine as he staggered on his feet trying to stand and continue to run. Gaara's sand gushed out of his gourd and went after the man, engulfing him completely, making nothing more than a ball of sand out of him. Sasuke looked at his partner, his inquiring look getting no answer, just the coldness with which Gaara gazed at the ball of sand. It wasn't like him to ignore the plan and risk like that, but Sasuke didn't complain about it, knowing that he would have the time to do that later. Now he had the feeling that something was wrong.
"Okay you two, turn around slowly, arms in the air and show your faces!" a familiar voice came from behind, making Sasuke remember where they were. "C'mon, we don't have all night!"
The two looked at each other from the corners of their eyes, turning around to glare at their attackers. Of course, the Konoha security was just as good as always. Or maybe not. Sasuke was a bit disappointed to see three genins in front of them, holding kunais, large grins spread on their faces. They reminded him of Naruto, but then he realised that he did know them: the boy between the other two genins was Konohamaru, the other two were his friends. Sasuke felt like his brother for a moment, remembering about his days as a genin, in team 7, thinking of Itachi, until that day come and they had met again. Itachi had felt no interest in paying attention to him then, and he could now see why. Those three were absolutely pathetic. He had probably been the same a long time ago.
"Go away." he growled angrily. "My partner doesn't like children at all, especially children who interrupt him. I doubt that you like to die a very painful death."
"We have no fear! We have the mission to protect Hazuma-san no matter what and we shall do so! Believe it!" Konohamaru grinned.
"Genins assigned for A level missions." Gaara muttered. "Konoha seems to be flying to the winds."
"Maybe they didn't know this 'Hazuma-san' was an Akatsuki target. The same thing happened to me and my team when we were genins. The man we were supposed to protect never told us there were ninjas after him. Things could have ended pretty bad. Let's see, what should we do with them?" Sasuke sneered, his sharingan glowing in the darkness, watching the three shuddering at the deadly tone in his voice.
Gaara turned around suddenly and his sand ball spreaded rapidly, leaving a log behind.
"So, a genjutsu." he said icily, glaring at the three children. "Your sensei might actually be clever."
"Don't you speak like that about our sensei!" Konohamaru yelled.
"You're making too much noise, spoiled little one." the sand ninja told him huskily. In the next moment, the boy's kunai flew through the air and landed at Sasuke's feet. Gaara had an steel grip on Konohamaru's arm, bending it to the point of breaking his bones. Another kunai flew towards Gaara, hitting a sand wall instead, but then somebody managed to hit him hard enough to make him let go of the boy.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Konohamaru made a few steps back, holding his arm in his other hand, while the thin silhouette of a kunoichi rose from the ground, emerald eyes piercing his sharingan for a moment.
"Sensei!" the genin girl behind jumped around happily, clapping her hands.
"Uchiha!" the woman snapped in an unrecognisable voice, ready to attack if neccessary. "I never thought I'd ever see your face around here again!"
Sakura had suffered some big change since he had last seen her, both physical and emotional. Her coldness was not fake, it almost made Sasuke smile. He was glad to see that she had become so strong and independent. Gaara growled and raised his arm, the sand following his command immediately, whirling around her threateningly. By the looks in his eyes, he was going to kill her, but then something else came up and another ninja managed to make the sand demon lose control.
"Get away from here." Neji's voice, deepened by time, told her from behind an ANBU mask he got rid of immediately. He had probably become a squadron leader of the ANBU. "I'll fight with these two."
Sakura did as she was told, knowing that it was more important to get the genins to safety than risk her life to fight with two Akatsuki members at the same time. Neji looked at the two and sneered, his pearl eyes resting upon them before getting ready for the Hyuga Gentle Fist fighting style.
"Drop it, Hyuga. They've got better things to do than waste their time playing with you. Don't you two have a mission?" Kay's mocking voice intervened as she walked out of the darkness. "I'll stay here and play with the little Hyuga, you go and finish this job." she ordered with a sneer on her lips.
Sasuke and Gaara looked at each other again, then set out to find their target, hoping that they wouldn't be interrupted AGAIN. Sasuke had time to see that Kay's magekyo was activated.
"Don't even think about going after them, Neji-san. If you try to run away from me, Sakura and the three pretty genins will die. I have my mangekyo ready for them." Kay told him as they circled each other like two tigers getting ready for a battle. "Hazuma was as good as dead from the beginning. By the way..." she continued, watching him move his arms and legs into his usual fighting style "you know your Gentle Fist isn't going to work. You've tried that before."
Neji didn't make the mistake to look in her eyes because he already knew it was the fastest way to hell. He did however, prepare for what he knew would come: he had fought with her before, he knew she was a cold blooded murderess, a demon for which nobody and nothing really mattered, although she could show affection when she wanted to. Thanks to Lee, he had escaped from her last time. He wasn't sure this time was going to be that easy, especially with Sakura and her team trapped in the illusionary world of the mangekyo.