WW0604: Sorry for the wait *bows*. I kept losing my plot paper for this fic, but I finally found it and soooo I'll be updating yays xD. Sadly though this is the last chapter to this fanfic. Hmm…the thought of finally having a finished fanfic is kinda sad…but this fanfic has been a huge success to my surprise and that's well worth a sequel =]. I already have the Sequel titled and plotted out, just have to decide how far of a time jump I want it. The sequel's called 'The Joy of Pain: What True Joy is' and it'll have twenty chapters. Ok, now to get this final chapter started.
I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS AND ECT.!!
I like sushi…my mom's awesome for buying me my brain food lol. Though…I need to get use to Wasabi Sauce. I'm a cosplayer for Fuji Syuusuke, so I really wanna get the like for Wasabi x3.
Sorry got off topic. Well we left off right when Gaara disappears and Neji depressed over it. We'll continue right where we left off, so enjoy =].
Chapter 12: Love Set Free
"He's gone…Gaara isn't home. He…he ran away." Neji said, looking at the ground beyond depressed. Gaara has left…he may never see his friend…his love again. Tamari, Kankuro, and Hinata stood in the door way staring at the over depressed boy. It was Tamari who snapped Neji out of his depressed stage by slapping him.
"You fool!" she yells at him, tears swelling up in here yes. Neji put a hand on the slapped spot, shock taking over the upset emotion he originally had. "You're jumping to conclusions too soon. Now get your ass in gear and find my younger brother!" she yelled again before grabbing her car keys and she, Kankuro, and Hinata went to her car to drive around town, leaving Neji to think things over and possibly think of where Gaara could be.
"…well you didn't have to hit me…" he mumbled and sat on the couch. "Gaara…" he said to himself before thinking. 'Where can you be? Where…' Neji thought over and over, all the possible areas, all the possible places…where could one emotionally unstable boy go? It must have taken him 5 minutes till he gathered his possibilities and took off out of the door.
'The Amusement Park…maybe there.' Neji thought as he ran though peoples back yards and across streets with racing cars to get to the amusement park. At the entrance of the park, he looked left and right, but didn't see Gaara.
'Ok…maybe the little restaurant I took him to on our first date.' he thought again as he ran the same route, making a turn shortly before he reached Gaara's house to be at the restaurant. Neji looked inside, outside, in the back, and in the dumpster of the restaurant, but there was no Gaara. Sighing in defeat, Neji sat at a table and refused to place an order as he tried thinking of his thoughts again.
'He wasn't at the places we hold our closest memories. I've only known Gaara for a few days, how can I know where he'd be??' Neji slammed his forehead on the table in front of him, getting strange looks at the people all around him, then one place came to mind. 'It's possible…but I don't know why he'd be there…I have to try though.' Neji thought while jumping to his feet and running for the new place that he thought of.
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With Gaara, he was still sitting in the spot by the dead body with a gun shot wound and the gun that caused it. Except now, he wasn't looking away from the gun, but right at it. He wants it…he wants to grab that gun and put in his mouth to blow his brains out. 'All I've been doing is causing Neji trouble. I bet he's home right now having a fit…' Gaara thought, a hand reaching for the gun, but pulling it back before he was able to grab it. 'I'll wait…Neji will show up, he has to. I have faith in him.' Gaara thought while hugging his knees closer to himself, not letting himself look away from the dead body or the gun.
'You're a good little whore…' a voice deep in Gaara's head said, taunting the younger boy. Gaara's hands gripped his head as he started to whine. Two voices now kept repeating the line, trying to drive the boy to grab the gun…to join them wherever they are. 'Little whore, little whore, come to us…' they say.
'No…I must wait…at sundown. If Neji isn't here by sundown then he'll never find me.'
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'Why does the place have to be so damn far!?' Neji thought to himself as he kept running for Gaara. Fear and adrenalin filling his bones and muscles. 'Why does he have to be there??' Neji thought again. He was sure, positive, that that's where his Gaara is. Neji looked over at the sun, it slowly setting behind the bare open field he's running across. 'It's going to be dark soon.' he thought before looking at the road a head of him.
Dark, light, sun, snow, rain…it makes no difference, Neji will do anything to find Gaara. Gaara is his special someone, Gaara is his one and only. "I won't lose you…" Neji huffed out, nearly tripping over his energy drained feet. "I won't stop till I find you!" Neji yelled as his knees gave out. He fell to the ground and just laid there. "I can't give up…" he breathed out with as little breath as he had. His eyes started to close, he was giving up…
BEEP BEEP
A car horn…Neji opened his eyes again and looked up as someone from the car in front of his opened their car door and jumped out in front of him.
"Are you sure you're ready to give everything up…to give HIM up?" the person, a female, asked. Neji looked up at the person to see Tamari. "Or are you willing to do everything to get him?"
That couldn't have been a question…he'd do anything for Gaara. "I'm just…too weak."
"Oh suck it up." Kankuro yelled from the passengers seat of Tamari's car.
"Neji…get up." Tamari said. Neji set his head back on the ground and shut his eyes. "Get up!" she yelled at him, getting no response from the teen on the ground.
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Gaara looked out the door that led out of the room to also look through the open front door to see the sun nearly gone. 'Is Neji really going to find me?' he thought and rested his head back on his knees. 'Or was I just some accessory for me to carry around?'
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"So that's it, huh?" Tamari asked, balling her hands up in fists. She couldn't believe what she was seeing in front of her. The one person who was able to give her younger brother happiness despite all the things he's been through and has done to himself, she couldn't believe that THAT person was simply giving up. "Gaara really meant nothing to you?"
"That's a stupid question bitch…" Neji growled out, but stayed laying on the ground, his eyes opening to see the sun still setting. "You know I love Gaara more than anything--"
"Then get your lazy ass up and find him!!" she yelled at him, not allowing Neji to finished whatever he was about to say. She continued to watch Neji, waiting to see if she needed to physically grab the boy or if he was going to be a man he claims to be and get up to protect the one he loves. After waiting what seemed like forever, Neji finally got up and brushed himself off.
"I needed a rest, that's all." he simply said and looked at Tamari.
"Yeah, yeah, just go find my brother!" she yelled again. She then turned back to her car and drove off to continue her search for Gaara. Neji watched them leave before continuing down his path. The sun to the right of him was almost fully hidden behind the earth in front of it, but it's not like that made a difference to Neji. He has to find Gaara, he has to find his love.
'It's near…I'm almost there.' Neji thought as he again looked at the sun. 'At least Gaara isn't afraid of the dark…' he thought again as he rounded the final corner and headed for the end of the road. 'Just a few more houses. Come on legs, don't give up on me now!' he thought once again as he drew closer and closer to the suspected spot.
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Gaara looked out the window again. The sun was gone…
The boy sighed and looked at the gun as silent tears started to fall. 'So…he really isn't going to come…' Gaara thought while watching the gun as if it was going to suddenly float up to shoot him. 'What does he really think of me? I guess…I guess it's obvious now.' Gaara reached out for the gun and grabbed it in his hand. The boy looked at it, the cold metal pressed against the warm hand that held it. He looked it over, seeing if it had any bullets, which it did. Three unused bullets sat in the gun, ready to be used. 'Three bullets. Well I only need one, but I guess having the other two is good incase I chicken out and pull the trigger when it's not even in my mouth.' Gaara thought as he pulled the hammer of the gun back to load the bullet into the barrel.
Gaara was about to put that barrel of the gun in his mouth when he heard shouting.
"Gaara?!" Neji called when he ran through the front door. He looked left and right from where he stood at the front door then walked right for the room Gaara was in. Gaara watched Neji as he walked through the doorway and froze in front of it. "Gaara…put…put that down!" Neji frantically said, rushing for Gaara and grabbing the hand with the gun in it.
Instinctively Gaara fought again Neji to keep the gun in his grasp. The tugging went on for a short while before they both stopped when hearing the gun fire. "G…Gaara" Neji gasped before he fell over. In the struggle, Neji gripped Gaara's hand tighter hoping the boy would finally let the gun go, but he only gripped it tighter…tight enough for his finger to squeeze the trigger right as it was pointed at Neji.
'Oh…oh my god…' Gaara thought as he dropped the gun and went to see if Neji was alive. He is…only barely. 'Oh my god…what am I going to do?' Gaara started getting frantic. He was running around the house in hopes to find any medical supplise only to fail at that. When finally realizing that there wasn't anything in the house Gaara ran back into the room where the barely alive Neji was. Gaara kneeled next to Neji and took his own shirt off to use it to stop the bleeding. 'I'm sorry….I'm sorry…' Gaara thought over and over as he started to cry, keeping pressure on the wound that's in Neji's abdomen.
Neji started to open his eyes a little to look at Gaara. He placed one of his hands on the hand Gaara was using to stop the bleeding with. "Thank god I found you…" Neji whispered and gripped Gaara's hand as tightly as his weak hand would. Gaara wanted to speak, to apologize over and over like he was doing mentally, but when he tried nothing came out which caused him to cry even harder. "I know Gaara…it's ok." Neji said and shut his eyes yet again. He felt Gaara, felt him tense and shift above him. "It's ok, I'm only resting." Neji reassured his boyfriend and relaxed while trying to keep himself from passing out.
Half an hour passed…Neji was still alive, but he was even closer to death than before. Gaara, had stopped crying and focused on keeping the other boy alive. Neji's phone started ringing at this time and Gaara's expression immediately lit up. He started to try waking Neji, but there was no response. Neji had passed out from blood loss. The phone stopped ringing and that's when Gaara realized that Neji wasn't going to wake up to answer his phone. 'This is bad…what if no one finds us? Neji will…he'll…' Gaara couldn't finished his thoughts…he didn't want to, but what stopped him was actually the phone ringing again. Gaara quickly grabbed the phone and opened it.
"Neji?" Tamari's voice said on the other line. Gaara tried answering but nothing came out, so instead he just blew at the phone so she knew that someone was there. "Gaara?? Gaara, if that's you then press a button." He did so. "Oh my god, he found you that's great. Hey, put him on the phone so I can pick you two up." How was Gaara suppose to respond to that? He couldn't tell her that Neji couldn't come to the phone, he couldn't tell her where they were, so what can he do? He pressed one of the buttons on the phone twice. "What are you trying to say Gaara?" Tamari asked and Gaara sighed in frustration before seeing the gun again.
'It's the only thing I can do…' he thought while picking the gun up and fired it once at the mattress in the room that he was sitting next to.
"Gaara?!" Tamari yelled when hearing the gun go off. Quickly, Gaara pressed a button to let her know he was fine. "Don't you do that again!! Wait…did Neji get shot?" she asked then heard a beep from Gaara pressing a button again. "That's not good…ok Gaara, try telling me where you are." she said. Gaara pressed a button twice to tell her it wasn't possible. "Try Gaara, we have to get him to a hospital." Gaara pressed the button twice again. "Then how do you expect me to get wherever you two are!?"
There was silence on the other line before Gaara heard some mumbles and Kankuro was on the phone this time. "Hey, here's what we're going to do. You're going to use Neji's phone to text us the address you're at, ok?" Gaara responded by pressing a button once and hung the phone up to start texting.
'Tamari must have been too scared to even think of this…way to go Kankuro.' Gaara thought while texting the address. He waiting for a few minutes until he got a reply.
'Stay where you are, we'll be there in 5 minutes.'
Gaara shut Neji's phone and went back to keeping his love alive. His pulse was faint and his body was starting to feel cold. He didn't have much time to stay alive. 'Please Neji, hold on a little longer…' Gaara thought as he leaned down and kissed Neji's lips. 'Please live.'
"Gaara??" Kankuro and Tamari called out right as the car pulled up in the drive way. The two jumped out of the car and ran right into the house. While they were doing that, Gaara had pulled one of his shoes off and started banging it on the ground. They heard him and was in the room with Gaara in a matter of seconds.
"Ok, Kankuro carry him to the car." Tamari said while moving to where Gaara was pulled him to his feet. "How did this happen?" she asked while handing him a notebook and pen. "You can write it in the car." Gaara nodded and fallowed his sister, brother, and boyfriend to the car and they started racing towards the hospital.
The Next Day
Gaara had explained the situation to Temari, she managed to make up a very convincing cover up, and now everyone was in the room Neji was being held in. They were quietly talking, all besides Gaara who was right at Neji's side holding his hand.
"Ok, ok here's another one. You all are bound to laugh at this one." Kankuro said at the seat he was sitting at. Hinata and Tamari was sitting across from him on a seat that pulled out as a small bed and listened to Kankuro and his torturing jokes. "Ok, Mickey Mouse was fieling a devorce between him and Minnie Mouse and the judge asked, 'So why are you trying to file a devorce?' and Mickey responded, 'I already told you, she's fucking Goofy.' The judge sighed and told him, 'Yes, and I already told you that we ran some tests and found that she was perfectly normal.' Mickey got frustrated and said once again. 'No, no, I mean she's literally FUCKING Goofy.'" Kankuro finished while laughing, leaving Hinata and Tamari groaning at the idiotic joke. "Oh come on, you two have no sense of humor."
"I don't find the situation we're in now something to laugh over…" Hinata sadly said as she looked at her cousin.
"That's right Kankuro. We may not have any ties to Neji, but Hinata is his cousin and Gaara is his boyfriend." Tamari said after Hinata while putting an arm around the girl. "It's probably more upsetting for them as it is for us."
"But still, it's not good to have such a droopy atmosphere around." Kankuro argued back.
'They make it sound like you won't make it, Neji…' Gaara thought, gripping his boyfriends hand tighter. 'I know you'll be fine. The doctors are doing a great job at keeping you well.'
"Well fine then, let me try another joke." Kankuro declared and started thinking, leaving Tamari and Hinata groaning. "Ok…how do you convince a blonde to drown themselves?"
"Do I even want to know?" Tamari grumbled, making Hinata giggle a little.
"You put a mirror on the bottom of the pool, HAHAHA!!" Kankuro leaned back in his chair laughing, not even prepared for Tamari to tackle him out of it in a death strangle.
"What are you saying that blondes are too preoccupied with their looks!? You really should pay attention to who your saying your stupid jokes to buddy!!!" Tamari yelled and started slamming Kankuro's head on the ground. Everyone, including Gaara, were too busy watching the siblings fight to even notice Neji waking up.
"Are we going to need another room?" Neji asked as he sat up to look at the two on the floor. They stopped their fighting when hearing Neji speak and everyone swarmed his bed.
"How are you feeling?" Tamari asked first.
"Do you need a drink??" Hinata asked while grabbing the water by his bed.
"How much does it hurt?" Kankuro asked, getting a hit on the head by Tamari.
"That's not something to ask!!"
"Hey, I was only kidding."
"Lets try shooting you to see if you'd like someone asking that question to you!" Neji sighed and laid back down.
"No wonder I couldn't fall back asleep…" he mumbled and looked at Gaara. "Hey, Gaara." Gaara smiled a little and pecked a kiss on Neji's lips. "Thanks…hey, you look tired, Gaara." Neji pointed out and reached a hand out to trace the dark circles under Gaara's eyes. "Did you get any sleep?" Gaara shook his head and grasped Neji's hand. "Why not rest then? I'm awake now so you don't have to worry about me." Gaara frowned in return and shook his head making Neji sigh. "Well if you won't rest then I won't either." Gaara glared at him and looked away. Neji laughed again right as a nurse walked in.
"Oh, I see you're finally wake. That's a wonderful sign." she said and walked to the machines to look at the records. "Looks like you're doing great, you may be able to go back home tonight if you get a doctors aproval."
"That's great, I'd love to go home." Neji said in return.
"Yes, but you'd have to take it easy for sure." she answers him then turns to face Neji. "I'll get the doctor for you to see if you can have promission to be released."
"Thank you." The nurse nodded and left the room. "You hear that, Gaara? I may be able to go home." Gaara nodded with a smile, excited about being able to cuddle with his boyfriend again.
Not too long after the nurse left, the doctor walked into the room with his clipboard. "Hello there, Neji Hyuuga." the doctor said.
'I recognize that voice…' Gaara thought and looked at the doctor. The doctor looked at Gaara and smiled slightly before going over the notes of his clipboard. 'Why is he so familiar?'
"So, the nurse says you're stats are in a pretty safe zone and it appears that she was right. What do you say? Feel up to going home?" Neji nodded his head, keeping his eyes on Gaara. "Well you'd have to take it easy then. No physical activities such as sports and you'll have to take some pain medication twice a day.
"Ok…" Neji said, not paying too much attention to the doctor.
"Alright, now if I could have whoever's paying for his medical bill to come downstairs to the lobby with me so we can go over some papers." Tamari, Kankuro, and Hinata all stood up and left the room with the doctor. When the door shut both Neji and Gaara sighed.
"About time…" Neji sighed out and continued to stare at Gaara who was staring back. Neji quickly looked around and saw Gaara's notebook and pen on the table next to him. "Hey…why were you staring at the doctor that walked in?" Neji asked and Gaara shrugged. "It was as if you recognized him." Gaara nodded his head. "Really? From where?" Gaara shrugged again. "Oh…" Gaara grabbed his notebook and started writing. Neji waited paitently till Gaara showed him what he wrote.
It was his voice that made me think I knew him from somewhere. I know I've heard his voice in the nightmares I've had, but I can't think why he'd be in them let alone his voice. Neji read what Gaara note and nodded.
"I see…maybe you've come across him in your past or something." Gaara nodded in agreement. "Either way I don't need you to worry about something that has no threat to you or what we hold." Gaara nodded again then started to write again.
Can we go home now? I hate hospitals… Neji laughed and sat up with a hand over the gun wound. Gaara watched him and wrote again. I'm sorry, Neji.
"For what?" Neji aksed after reading the paper.
I was the one that shot you, why wouldn't I be sorry?!
"Because you didn't do it on purpose…"
But I still did it!
"I'm not angry at you, so please don't be mad at yourself. I love no matter what, Gaara. I'm just glad it was me and not you."
I'd rather it be me than you.
"And that just shows why we were meant to be." Gaara smiled at the comment then Neji stood to his feet with Gaara standing with him. "Lets go home."
Gaara and Neji walked down to the lobby where the other waited for them and soon they were on their way home to have the most happy lives as anyone can hope to have.
Neji and Gaara continued to go to school with the same classes together, Kankuro pulled off the impossible and graduated from high school, and Hinata ended up having two classes with her cousin and childhood friend. In the end, what more can they want?
WW0604: Ugh, ok I'm not any good with ending stories, but you know what? I finally finished a fanfic!! Lol, well I really do hope everyone likes it. There will be a sequel to this called, The Joy of Pain: What True Joy is. I'll post a Authors Note to this when I have the fist chapter up, so even though this is finished keep your eyes out for the next story =]. Thank you for all of you who have fallowed my fanfic and who have taken the time to comment. It's the comments that makes me have so much confidence and motivation to work on these. *bows* Thank you very much and I hope to see you for the next story to his fanfic.
