Gaara's around this time. Yay!
I opened my eyes slowly, my head pounding. Bright lights only made the headache worse. My throat was dry and my entire body was sore. I glanced around me. I was lying in a hospital bed, a light sheet cast over my body. I felt hot and uncomfortable so I shimmied the sheet off. I felt another person's presence in the room. Whoever it was wasn't thinking about me though, so I pushed them away. It was probably another injured ninja.
"I was beginning to think you had died, too," the other person said. I turned my head to the side and saw Tokomo-sensei staring across the room from me. She was leaning against my bedside table. Now her thoughts practically screamed at me. All her accusations, all her pain and grief. All of it was focused on me. She had entrusted the lives of her genin in my hands and now they were dead.
I said nothing as she looked over and glared at me. "I told you, specifically, that you were not to die trying to complete this mission. I thought you would know their limits but you pushed them, didn't you? You wanted to save that sand ninja. That was your goal. And he got away, too. That's what they said. Squad 7 let them go. I wonder why." I honestly didn't know. I barely remembered catching up to Gaara and his squad. And Squad 7? Had they really been there?
Thoughts of Miu and Takeo filled my head. Her soft smile, those eyes without lids, the blood bubbling from between her lips. Takeo… He had told me not to blame their deaths on me, but Tokomo-sensei did. And she was right, it was my fault. I had killed them. "Are you going to say anything?" Tokomo demanded. She was at her wits' end. Her genin had been the only genin to die. All the others were safe and sound but her team of misfits was dead. Besides me, the squad leader that she blamed everything on.
"Water," I pleaded, my voice hoarse. She sighed inwardly but picked up a glass of water from the table she was leaning on and helped me drink. My arms were still useless. They felt better, though. The pain wasn't nearly as awful as last time.
"Why did you fight them, Nari?" she breathed. She was talking about the sound ninja. "I told you not to fight a hopeless battle. Why did you?"
"It wasn't hopeless," I responded, closing my eyes. Tokomo was about to attack me, to explain why it was. "I killed them. All sixty sound ninja. It was easy. But there is always a drawback to such power. Miu and Takeo did not die fighting. They died running. Running from my jutsu that burned them alive." My sensei couldn't begin to comprehend the pain I felt for my actions. I wanted to curl up in a ball and howl until the moon stopped rising and the sun stopped setting. But I didn't let that show. I laid flat on my back, staring at the ceiling with a blank face.
"You… you killed Takeo and Miu?" She almost didn't believe it. She knew Miu was my friend and she was almost certain that Takeo and I were growing together.
"How far were they from the center?" I asked, despite that I didn't need to. I already knew. They were forty-seven yards from where I had released the jutsu. The blast radius was fifty yards. Had they listened, they might've been alive. Badly burned, sure, but alive. "I told them to go fifty yards. I created a diversion so they could escape the ambush and flee fifty yards. That way my jutsu wouldn't hurt them. But they didn't, did they? They were too close." "Don't blame our deaths on yourself. We should've gone farther." That's what Takeo had said. He was right. He was always right.
"You're a traitor," Tokomo-sensei accused. "I'll have you punished for this if it's the last thing I do." Then she was gone. My sensei, one of only two I fully respected, and she had turned her back on me. Why?
►§◄
It took me a week to recuperate after my battle. The doctors had been amazed by my recovery and that I had the ability to use my arms like before. In fact, the only sign that my arms had ever exploded were thin scars crisscrossing over them. They'd fade soon enough. I doubt that I would ever have permanent scars.
Walking down the middle of Konoha, I thought about what Tokomo-sensei and the elders had decided. Until a new Hokage was put in place, my rights as a ninja were suspended. That meant only one thing to me; it was time to move on. The next Hokage may not show up for a year or longer. There was no reason for me to stick around that long.
Naruto passed by me as I was walking. He had a small pack on his back and was grumbling about some "pervy sage". "Hello, Naruto," I spoke up. I was feeling the effects of depression and I was sure he, of all people, could cheer me up. At the very least, he might give me an idea of where to go.
"Oh. Hi, Nari!" he responded with a grin. "Where are you headed?"
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "Yourself?"
"I'm going with the pervy sage to go find some special lady and do some training… Hey, did you ever get assigned to a team?" I bit my lip, showing on my face that it was a sore subject. "They were the two genin that died, weren't they? I'm sorry." I shrugged, not knowing what else to say. "How come you don't have a headband on?"
"They think I'm a traitor because the circumstances around my teammates' deaths are so mysterious. Up until the new Hokage is appointed, I'm not a ninja. I was thinking about traveling until that happens. I just don't know where to go." Naruto frowned slightly.
"Well, um… Could I ask you a favor then? Since you're leaving anyway?" I nodded. "Could you watch out for the sand ninja? Sasuke said you must have watched us battle and, you know, I just don't want them planning something." Why didn't I think of that? I chastised myself. Gaara is a perfect pass time.
"Yeah. I can do that," I agreed. "I didn't watch the battle though. What happened?" The rest of our walk to the outside of the village consisted of a descriptive summary. He couldn't tell me everything. We simply didn't have enough time.
"Hey, Pervy Sage!" Naruto called, running towards a ninja with white hair. I followed him out of the village slowly, coming to a stop and leaning on my staff.
"Who's the pretty girl?" the man asked, although he was staring at me suspiciously. He saw my eyes and the one headband they couldn't take away. He knew what I was immediately, and he also knew that I could read his mind. He was a sannin, not a regular jounin. He was dangerous. But, if he knew, why hadn't Orochimaru?
"That's Nari, Pervy Sage. She's leaving too."
"I see," he muttered in a tone one might use with a child. "And where's she headed?"
"I'm on a peace mission," I explained, although it wasn't exactly true. "After the attack from Orochimaru, it's best if we not have enemies. I already have connections in Suna so…" The man nodded, figuring it was best I leave. He had heard about my team too. I bit back a retort for the accusations in his thoughts.
"Do you know the way?" he asked.
"Yeah…" Animals had an uncanny sense of direction. We could retrace our steps years after we made them. Finding Suna would be easy. Not to mention, Gaara's scent couldn't have faded too much. I had heard it had rained but I doubt they had gotten very far before that and they would've taken shelter during the rain, if it had even hit outside of the village. The sannin didn't argue.
I walked with them for a while but left as our paths branched off. Once Naruto and his sensei were gone, I shifted into nine-tailed fox form so I could hunt out scents better. I had been right about being able to find Gaara's scent. I found the remains of a week old camp and then followed his scent from there. Running through the night, it only took me three days to reach the Land of Wind. I rested for an hour once I hit the border, but I didn't dare sleep. Then, it took me a day to reach Suna, thinking of Gaara all the while.
It had occurred to me that maybe something Naruto had said had gotten through the jinchuriki's skull. If that was true, I definitely wanted to watch the transition from the cold, frightening boy to something more. I didn't expect much to change but surely there'd be a difference. A hint of emotion, an occasional smile. But first, I needed to eat and sleep. It was nighttime when I approached slowly, wondering where Gaara might be.
I saw him out there, sitting on the ledge of the canyon just before the village. I sighed inwardly. I didn't really want to go out to him right then and there. He probably had questions I couldn't answer. But I did want to comfort him somehow. No one should be left to figure out something like that on their own. I thought over my plan carefully before performing my nine-tailed replication jutsu.
I looked towards the beast to tell her what I wanted when I heard her think, Yeah, yeah. I know what you're planning. I smiled and transformed into a nine-tailed fox as she took human form. She cast a genjutsu over Gaara, a difficult thing to do over such a long distance, so that I'd look like a normal fox to him. Then she disappeared and I began to approach. On my way over, I caught wind of a jackrabbit. I caught and killed it, carrying my meal with me as I lay beside Gaara on the cliff's edge.
I felt his eyes peer down at me as I devoured the flesh of the rabbit. "Nari sent you, didn't she?" he muttered, patting my head softly. I didn't give any sign that I had heard him. I ripped apart the poor animal, crushing bones as I went. "Her curiosity is insatiable." I was glad for the rabbit then. It kept me from laughing. He started stroking my back and I couldn't help but to scoot closer, liking the sensation.
"Where is Nari? I'd have liked to talk to her. I hate to admit it, but I was wrong and she was right. I think Naruto Uzumaki did change me." I nodded in agreement. He looked down at me with lonely eyes. I stared back up at him with intelligent eyes. I wanted him to know that I could understand what he was saying. Silence ensued.
"Did she fight for the Village Hidden in the Leaves?" I nodded. "I heard from Temari that there must have been another great fight somewhere near where I had been fighting. She said that the entire area had been flattened and near sixty sound ninja were found dead, along with two leaf ninja." I whined a little, thinking about Miu and Takeo. "They were her teammates, weren't they? The two leaf ninja." I nodded again. He sighed. "So she knows how to love," he declared. "That makes two of us.
Two? I thought, glancing up at him with what I figured would be a confused expression. Gaara didn't know how to love. Of that, I was sure. "There are three demon children that I know of. Two know how to love; Naruto and Nari." I wiggled my head from side to side, showing that that was debatable, before relaxing to finish eating my dinner. "At the very least, Naruto does." I nodded vehemently.
"Did Nari kill her teammates?" My whine this time was heartbreaking. It was too obvious how deeply that pained me. "I'm sorry for her," he muttered, petting me again. "Apparently, her jutsu was stronger than she thought it was." It wasn't my jutsu, I wanted to correct him. I just shouldn't have fallen asleep. I had WAY too much chakra built up. The only time I had that big of an explosion was when I killed my first sensei. I don't even remember his name; I was so young.
"I'm glad I didn't kill Temari and Kankuro, even though I was fully prepared to. I shouldn't have been. They're my siblings, my family. I should've never wanted to kill them. I should've never thought about it." I gave him a reassuring nudge with my head before licking the last of the meat off my rabbit. Then, I took one bone and snapped it in half with my jaws, anxious to get at the bone marrow within.
"I wonder how she does that in human form." I picked up a different bone and laid it on another. Then, getting to my feet, I stepped on either end of the bone on top. Eventually, it snapped in half, unable to bear the weight with the other bone underneath. Then I went back to eating. Gaara simply bobbed his head. We must have sat there for hours, staring at the sky, because the sun was beginning to rise.
"I don't know how she does it," he finally admitted. "Even though I'm surrounded by people, I still feel all alone. How does she act as though she's not? How does she bypass that pain?" I stirred slowly. I had been still for a while, full and not having anything to try and say without words. Now, I was confused. How was I supposed to explain that I never felt alone because I could hear whenever somebody thought about me, without telling him that I could read minds? And how was I supposed to even try to do that in beast form?
I made a rash decision, one I'd probably regret. I got up from my little meal and tugged on his hand with my mouth. I led him through the canyon, to his village. We walked into Suna, side by side, him following me now. I searched the minds around me. Everyone noticed Gaara as soon as he came into his presence. They weren't ignoring him, they were just acting like it.
I dug through people's minds, looking for someone Gaara might remember personally. Not just someone who had given him a fleeting glance and scurried off, but someone who had actually had an encounter with him. Even an unfortunate encounter would do. I just needed somebody who had actually given him their full attention before. I was surprised at how little that had happen. Almost everyone had given their full attention to him before but it wasn't returned. They all seemed to fear and hate him. This was going to be harder than I thought.
Finally, I decided it was best to just sniff out Temari. I found her with ease, in a large building towards the middle of the Village Hidden in the Sand. She was talking to Kankuro but I stole her attention with a small head-butt. She looked down at me with surprise before glancing up at Gaara. He stood there silently, arms crossed. Completely clueless at what to do. I growled in frustration. This was so difficult!
I herded Temari and Kankuro into a small room and pushed Gaara into the entrance way, blocking their exit. Then I turned to find someone else. When Gaara tried to follow me, I growled, hackles rising. He seemed to get the point, not moving from his spot again as I turned to leave. "What's going on, Gaara?" Kankuro demanded.
"I don't know," he answered honestly. I found Baki next, and luckily, another jounin who had watched Gaara extensively through out his childhood. It took me longer to get them to follow me, but, unlike Gaara, they could see my multitude of tails. They knew I was no regular fox and they grudgingly went where I bid. When they saw Gaara and his two siblings stuck in a room, they hesitated, but I forced them in with a ram from behind. I managed to hit one in the back of the knee, making him collapse.
"What is this all about," Baki asked.
"We don't know," Temari answered. "But the animal doesn't want us to leave." I nodded and ran back out. I took me a little under two hours to pack the room full of people. Then I sat on my haunches and smiled up at Gaara, panting. He looked from me to the room of people, studying their faces. I didn't know if he'd recognize them all or if he even understood what I was trying to say. The others didn't, but they were smart enough to guess that this crowding had something to do with Gaara. I waited expectantly.
"I still don't understand," Gaara said with a shake of his head. I let out an irritated whine, feeling deflated. How was I supposed to make this clear to him? Someone without my gifts might never understand. Still, I wasn't going to give up so easily. I strode into the room and stared at all the faces gawking at me. Some with fear, most with confusion. I lifted my tails and swirled them around, looking agitated. My hackles rose and I growled deeply, getting ready to pounce. The crowd went into a defensive position, most coming to fear my next move. They all froze after preparing for an attack.
I sat down and relaxed, making them feel safe again, but when they moved, I rose to attack again. I kept at this until they eventually learned not to move. Then, a few who did move that didn't look at me, I didn't go after. The others learned the same tactic. In just over an hour, they all learned to ignore me unless they wanted to be attacked. Now I stared at Gaara. Was this a good enough example? His eyebrows furrowed together. Still not quite getting it. I sighed.
I walked through the crowd, just for an added measure. They all turned their backs to me, ignoring me. I think I'm starting to get this, I heard Temari think. She's trying to teach Gaara why we ignore him. "Gaara," she spoke up. "Imagine the fox is you." I let out a happy yip as realization crossed his features.
"But how does that help with showing why she doesn't feel as though she's alone?" he mumbled in a whisper too low for anyone else to hear. I kept walking through the crowd so he could study how they parted for me. How the way they turned their back on me was actually their way of taking notice of me. He shook his head.
"Well, I tried," I said, going into human form again. The group of ninja looked at me with a mixture of horror and surprise. "You can't say I didn't try. You're just not ready for it yet. There are other things you have to understand first." Gaara frowned, glaring at me. By taking human form, I had broken my genjutsu on him and now he knew that he had been fooled. That's how she was able to sit with him and not be killed, Baki realized. She's a demon child, too.
"Anyway," I muttered, sitting cross-legged on the opposite side of the room from the crowd. "You can leave. I'm not going to hold you here any longer." Most bolted. Other slowly drained out, peeking at me curiously as they left.
"You tricked me," Gaara hissed once they were all gone.
"I tried to help you," I defended myself. "They're still things I don't understand. I was afraid that if I approached you as myself, you'd ask about them. I saved us both the trouble."
"You still tricked me," he complained before leaving with the rest. I frowned angrily and looked down at my hands that were sitting in my lap. I felt tears well up behind my eyes, although I didn't know exactly why. I knew I hadn't actually helped him, but I had done my best. Wasn't that enough?
I'm sorry if I got the genjutsu part wrong. I don't know if you cast it on the object or the person but I just guessed it was the person. Anyway, thank you for reading and please review. Oh, yeah! Next one's half and half.
