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Chapter 8: Gaara, Possessed?
This chapter is dedicated to the sound a saved document makes when it is deleted. Specifically, a saved document wiped out in a tragic computer reset that saved over it with a blank document. Specifically, this document, now being rewritten from scratch. Way later. I barely remember how it goes anymore...
This chapter is also dedicated to everyone but Slacker, out of sheer tremendous momentum.
(scene change)
Sasuke jumped up from the branch on which he had been standing, narrowly avoiding a hail of shuriken that had sprung seemingly self-propelled from Kankuro's back, launched by chakra-strings. He had been looking for an opening for the whole two minutes, and finally his eyes paid off. Watching Kankuro's fingers allowed him to predict the action of the trap-master.
Re-orienting himself and springing off the side of the tree he was, at the time, rising into the air next to, Sasuke's jump took him straight on a path to Kankuro, on a side the strange ninja's traps could not protect.
Surprisingly, Kankuro grinned. A series of blades popped from his robe, right in Sasuke's path. "A hint, sharingan user – my traps can be triggered by other means than my hands." He licked his lips, revealing the chakra string protruding from the tip of his tongue.
Sasuke braced for impact – hoping that it wouldn't instead become a slicing.
(scene change)
Haku stared as the beast composed of sand reared into the air, taking slowly the hideous and malformed shape of a badger...
(scene change)
Shikamaru sighed with relief. His sensei had arrived in time, after all. Well, that's one less thing to worry about. He let his shadow-bind drop just as Asuma dropped from the tree with the body of a Sound jounin over his shoulder.
(scene change)
Time seemed to slow for Sasuke as his death stared him right in the eye. Kankuro showed no signs of dodging and had adjusted his blades for maximum damage. He closed his eyes, but then slammed into the ground where Kankuro had been standing.
"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed as she flipped off of Kankuro, having tackled him at the last second. "Are you all right?"
Sasuke stood, brushing his bruised face. "Yes. But Temari escaped with Gaara."
Naruto looked at Ranma, whose eyes hardened. "Let's get her."
Kankuro slowly stood, discarding his broken blades. "You're not finished with me yet!" He launched an attack at Sasuke, who dodged.
Sakura shouted a little too loud, hurting Ranma's ear slightly. "Sasuke and I will deal with him. You two can catch up to Temari and Gaara!"
Inner Sakura smiled. "Yes! Alone with Sasuke, our lives in each others' hands! He'll fall in love with me for sure! And Naruto can have that Ranko girl (who is not nearly as pretty as me)! It's perfect!"
Naruto sighed, then jumped to catch up with Ranma.
(scene change)
Ranma was the first upon the scene, and the first thing that caught her eye was the blood.
Even in her years as a rogue ninja, she had never learned to ignore the bright red of freshly spilled blood, bringing out something in her that still feared human mortality and still regretted having to take a life. And this was all over the small clearing.
The second thing she noticed was the sand. Gaara's sand. Gaara's sand, crushing the life out of Haku and Temari, who seemed to be attached by this desert trap to a nearby tree. Gasping, she jumped to a branch within arm's reach of the spectacle and tried to free Haku as Naruto arrived where she had been standing.
Naruto noticed Gaara, and tensed.
He stood on a branch on the far side of the clearing, slightly taller than he had been. His eyes had resumed the dark rings of his youth, seeming to indicate a lack of sleep. Although his eyes the day before had reflected amusement, joy, and life, now they only shined with death, sadness, and hate.
"I know what my life is now." Gaara's voice made Ranma pause in her attempts to liberate Haku from her sandy prison. "I know the lies you spun."
Ranma didn't know how to respond. "What?"
"I know now, who my enemies are. Shukaku has told me everything. Everything!"
The sand burst from his very limbs, swirling about the air before reforming on his arms and legs, transforming them into claws and sand-furred skin. His face dropped below the sand, turning into the malformed visage of Shukaku, the one-tailed demon raccoon of the Sand village.
Haku stirred. "He's... tranforming... again?"
Ranma shushed Haku with a frown. "I'll get you out of there, and get Gaara back." If I can figure out how... Ranma thought grimly.
(scene change)
Kankuro fought Sasuke, taking his attention briefly off of the puppet fighting Sakura to deflect another jump kick. With a clang, Sakura finally finished off the puppet, and Kankuro cursed. He turned so that he could see both his foes, and smirked again. However, a buzzing noise on his back made him pause.
A swarm of small beetles covered him, and he fell to the ground. "I see I arrived in time to..."
Sasuke interrupted Aburame Shino, the bug-using genin who had jumped out of nowhere into the battle, with a complaint. "In time to steal my kill!" He grumbled and mumbled and stalked off towards the sounds of pain and death just a hundred meters away.
Sakura glared at Shino. "Now he isn't thanking me for helping him!" Inner Sakura was screaming in torment. She turned to follow and Shino turned around to finish off the bug-covered enemy.
(scene change)
Ranma and Naruto jumped around like ping-pong balls, barely dodging the needle-like projectiles of sand that Shukaku was firing at them from his arms and tail. Naruto slowed down, still managing to dodge, and began to attempt a summoning spell. "Aw, not the little frog again!" He suddenly cried.
Ranma looked over for just an instant and sighed. Naruto had wasted his chakra on some sort of frog... Not even a big, powerful frog!
Shukaku-Gaara saw the frog and shot a blast of sand at it, which Naruto barely got the frog out of the way of. "I'll protect you at least..." Naruto said.
"You won't be able to dodge anymore!" Shukaku suddenly exclaimed, growing to huge proportions as all the dirt in the area turned into sand and merged with him. With that, Gaara had almost completely become the sand demon. Only his head and arms stuck out of the top of the monstrosity, a tiny pimple on the forehead of a horrible god.
The frog suddenly spoke. "He uses forced sleep technique to activate his power. If you wake him he will lose his power. Ribbit."
Naruto blinked. "Insightful."
With a deep breath, he tried his summon again, focusing his energy. Ranma quietly set her hand on Naruto's shoulder as the hand of Shukaku came down, too large to dodge.
With a burst of demonic chakra, Gamabunta, the massive Frog-Boss, sprang into being, carrying Naruto, the little frog, and Ranma up into the sky on his head and blocking Shukaku's paw.
"YOU LITTLE RUNT!" Gamabunta shouted, "Why summon me now!"
The little frog shouted back, comically. "He helped me against that badger-thing."
Gamabunta focused his eyes. "Ah! My old foe, Shukaku. This changes everything, boy! I will help you fight this menace because he tried to kill my little child!"
Naruto shut one eye and squinted. "Why are you so dramatic?"
"Shut up and fight him! We need to wake his host!"
"I already knew that..."
(scene change.)
Sasuke and Sakura arrived too late to be of help. The giant brawl of the frog-boss and the demon raccoon raged high in the air, the frog jumping around and crushing whole sections of the forest and the badger shooting bursts of sand and air all over the place.
Sasuke felt a powerful yet familier chakra and the beastly frog suddenly transformed – into the spitting-image of the demon fox, the nine-tail, the Kyuubi...
Sasuke gasped as he recognized the powerful chakra. "Can this be... Naruto?"
The fox grabbed hold of Shukaku with its teeth, holding it in place as a lone figure stood atop the massive fox's head, addressing Gaara, Shukaku's host.
(scene change)
"I'm your family, Gaara! You have to stop this!"
Gaara was mumbling in his sleep, but it was clear he understood. "I know the... truth... you just wanted my power..."
"Never that! I wanted your friendship, and more importantly, your happiness. Please... Gaara, understand what I have to do..."
Gaara spoke louder, though his eyes remained shut. "You can only hurt me... now..."
Ranma spoke softly, and a tear ran down her face from her left eye. "Hurting you... That's what I have to do. Forgive me..."
With a mighty leap, accompanied by the poof of air as Gamabunta reverted to his normal form and released Naruto from the group transformation, Ranma launched herself as Gaara, and connected to his conflicted face with a devastating punch.
His eyes flew open, and Shukaku screamed, sending waves of sand, even as he dissolved, crashing into Gamabunta, Ranma, and Naruto, all too close to dodge. Gamabunta disappeared with a similar poof to the last one, and Naruto and Ranma collapsed to the ground, followed closely by Gaara, released by Shukaku's disappearing act.
Ranma fell head-first, and all went black for the dimensional traveling martial artist.
Naruto and Gaara fell next to each other, so weak they could barely talk.
(scene change)
The fighting figures had disappeared from view, and Sasuke and Sakura could not see them. However, they barely reacted in time when the sand holding Haku and Temari dissolved, almost failing to catch the two as they fail. Haku was unconscious but Temari stirred in Sasuke's arms, crying out in pain.
Sasuke's readiness for battle anew turned to concern as he noticed her right leg – severed at the ankle.
He almost threw up.
(scene change)
"Why do you fight for them – they only want to use you." Gaara weakly stated to Naruto, only a few feet to his left.
"They are my friends – and if you were in your right mind, you'd know that you have friends and family too." Naruto said with hope evident in his voice.
"But they don't..." Gaara began, but Naruto didn't let him finish.
"You have people who care about you! Forget that demon who possessed you! He's the one using you! Remember that the people of your family made you what you are – your experiences define you as a person who has compassion and understanding instead of a heartless killer!"
Gaara reflected on his foe's words for a moment, and felt the pain in his cheek rise anew. This bruise that his sister had given him now was twice as bad – that he had almost hurt those he loved because of a monster inside of him made the pain he deserved double.
He felt his eyes return to normal, and felt beat, but with new hope – this new experience let him know that his family wasn't looking for his power – for the one more powerful than him, that Naruto, was the same and had his friends as well.
Gaara looked at Ranma, out cold, and let a tear that paralleled Ranma's tear from before fall from his cheek. One tear only – of regret but also a promise that this kind of hurt would not happen again.
(scene change)
AR: whoo. It's been QVITE A VILE. I hope no one thought I died or anything. This chapter might trail off badly at the end, because I tried to transform Naruto's words to the new setting, and It didn't work out right, and also I am tired. Imagine that what he said makes sense and was inspirational. IF I GET AN EMAIL WITH (HINT HINT) A REVISED VERSION OF THE FINAL SCENE OF THIS CHAPTER I WILL (HINT HINT) TOTALLY POST IT IN A REVISION (HINT HINT). Not that I expect anyone will write this part for me but I am totally burning out and I don't wanna do the hard parts till I'm sure this story is back and not just a final sputter of the old match before it goes out forever. FOREVER.
EDIT: You are may be getting the alert twice because I forgot my omakes which people have allegedly enjoyed so I am doing more half-baked comedy.
OMAKE I:
The little frog shouted back, comically. "He helped me against that badger-thing."
Gamabunta focused his eyes. "Ah! My stupid child! Damn it Naruto, next time let that one die!"
OMAKE II:
Gaara spoke louder, though his eyes remained shut. "You can only screw me over... now..."
Ranma spoke softly, and a tear ran down her face from her left eye. "Screwing you... That's what I have to do. Forgive me..."
OMAKE II:
Sasuke's readiness for battle anew turned to perversion as he noticed her pants – cut open right at the middle.
He drooled.
