Hair as white as SNOW!

A Naruto fanfiction.

Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, but Malli Elliku and her thoughts are mine

Chapter 14:

I barely found my feet under me the next few mornings to come. Since the attacks on my life were becoming harder, Lee was determined my training had to be as well. Since that night, Gaara was completely different around me. Whenever I wasn't practicing with Lee to be competent at just attacking with my hands and feet, I was with Gaara. He let me follow him from meetings to talk in with solidiers and spies, and sometimes we just sat and ate in silence out of pure exhaustion. But, the best part and worst part were the nightmares.

I continued to have horrific nightmares about blood, the spew of its iron reeking liquid all over me. Faces, people, bodies, all stared and glared at me. I felt like a broken child. Every time I woke up startled, and sometimes, I woke up screaming.

If I woke up screaming, Gaara was there to hold me. He held me close to his chest, and curled up around me until I could breathe again. He never said a word, but it meant the world to me to have him there. He never talked about the nightmares, except for once when I thanked him for it. Even then, he said, "I never did it for the thanks." And the slightest smile would be on his lips and I felt shivers, the memory of the time next to the map still fresh in my head.

But this night, after a hard day, all day with Lee out in the field, my body felt like a pile of stepped in mud. I showered and laid down to rest. Only, this time when I woke up from the nightmare, I hadn't screamed. I could still feel the panic in my blood and fear in my brain. I flipped from my bed and darted out of my tent. I needed Gaara, but he was probably asleep.

Little did I know, as I slipped into his personal tent in hopes to curling up next to him like a child. I found him in only shorts on his bed, eyes wide open and hands behind his head. He laid there relaxed until my entrance. He turned his head to me and I saw his body go tense. I had tears trailing down my cheeks that now lit up with embarrassment, my hands attempted to pat down my pajama shorts to hang lower than they felt.

"Malli?" He whispered and turned to get up. But I was determined to go back to sleep, and soon, so I swiftly marched to the side of his bed and sat down. Without a word, he pulled me into his arms and soothed my wild hair with his hands.

"I didn't wake up screaming, I couldn't breathe." I confessed. I pulled back from the embrace to look at him.

I wanted to ask to sleep next to him, but he didn't look tired. Plus, now that I knew he was barely clothed, I didn't want to ask.

"Yes?" He asked me, drying up my throat painfully.

"I..."I gulped, "Would you mind if I slept here?"

His body went tense as I watched him, panic rising in my chest. He would say no and I would be the fool. What a pain was I to him? I must be such a pest to him, worrying him when he had larger things to worry about.

On the brink of war, and I wanted to turn all his attention to me. I felt so selfish.

Gaara didn't say a word, because when I went to move away, to slink back to my tent in shame, he pulled me back. He did more than that.

Gaara pushed his lips up against mine, his lips afraid at first. Only, when my hands clutched to his shirt out of impulse, his lips were no longer afraid. My back hit the mattress in a swish of air, Gaara's knees on either side of my hips as our lips never parted. His hands flat on the mattress, his wrists pushed up against my shoulders. Hands that must belong to me, not that I could tell with my brain as mixed up as it was, went to his shoulders. I let them travel up his neck to his cheeks as I pushed more into the kiss.

A purr, I guess, the only way to describe it, came from Gaara as he pressed down into me. My fingers pulled at his hair, air escaped my lungs and never returned. I felt suffocated. But I felt in heaven as our lips moved and melted against each other. I felt his teeth scrape against my lips and I took a harsh, deep breath in my nose as his tongue met mine. I felt hazy, I felt upside down and unable to control my fingers.

As I buried my fingers in his hair, my nails scrapped against his scalp and that purr turned into a forceful growl. In a whip of air, he was on his back and my knees straddled him now, his fingers dug into my shoulders. I gasped for air in the second our lips parted before they were taken back by Gaara's. I felt the small tips of his finger nails claw my shoulder down to the top of my tanktop. I gasped again, but this time, Gaara didn't take over my lips again, his lips only kissed my cheek, then my jaw line. I took deep, heavy breaths to fill my lungs that screamed for air. I only lost all the air I had gained when his lips attacked my neck. My fingers, now back at his shoulders dug into his shoulder, clawing down to his collar bone. The pressure in the nape of my neck grew intense, then lit on fire when he lightly bit at my neck then kissed it again.

He moved from the right side to the very middle of my neck, his lips just grazed over my collar bone, shivers ripped down my spine. When he got to the other side, he only lightly kissed it, before blowing on my wet skin. My eyes opened to see his, fully intent on me. They went from this intense stare with fire, to a soft, apologetic look.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, his fingers slowly fell off my back to his sides. "Malli, I…." His voice fell silent as I looked to him.

"Sorry for what?" I breathed.

"You didn't come here for that, and I… I shouldn't have attacked you like that," He grumbled as he looked from my face to the front of the tent.

"You talk like you're some kind of tiger and I'm the poor zebra being eaten alive." I joked lightly, trying to catch his eye. Gaara finally let me catch his eyes, but they looked sad. I didn't know why, but they were incredibly sad. His right hand grazed my cheek before he rested it at the base of my skull.

He leant up and pressed a kiss to my lips, scared and timid like it had been before. But this time, when I kissed back, it stayed light and sweet.

"I will devour you, and I'm sorry… you shouldn't sleep here." He whispered.

My heart sank as I looked to him, his eyes so sad and full of things I couldn't understand. But I pulled my legs away from him and left the bed. I hid the tears as I stood and walked towards the door of the tent. I gulped and kept my head high until I was out of sight of the tent. That's when I collapsed and hit the ground, my knees took the full impact.

Tears flowed freely, but I made no sound.

But I heard Lee before he saw me, and I couldn't move.

"Why is it I always find you alone, and crying?" Lee whispered tentatively.

"I'm just a mess…I can't sleep." I mumbled. Lee lent his hand and lifted me to my feet. He linked arms with me and walked me back to my tent. I didn't speak, but he did.

Lee talked about the time before he was a great ninja, the hard work and hard times. He talked even as I leaned against him and the wall and fell asleep on his shoulder.

When I woke that morning, he was gone but there were two notes on my bed. My head was on the foot end of the bed, my legs hung off the side, and the blanket was thrown over my hips.

One note, by my hand, was obviously scrawled in Lee's handwriting.

'With hard work, and youthful hope, dreams will become reality.' I smiled and rolled my eyes.

A pep talk in one sentence, that was all Rock Lee.

But when I sat up, a note slipped from my pillow and fell beside me. It was far more slanted, prettier script.

"Don't give up on him, please. He needs you, he doesn't want to hurt you, and believes he doesn't deserve you."

~!~!~

I stood on a cliff, arms spread out to the world when the rain hit. It hit like bullets on my skin, but I continued to stand there with my arms out, ready to embrace the world if it would just let me hug it. I heard the roar of the ran on the land before I heard the roar of someone behind me.

"What are you doing out here?" I turned to Tsunade, an umbrella held above her head. I was already drenched to the bone and unable to speak for a second. She waited till I found the words to say, the words to express why I was out here.

"Trying to get closer to my father…" I breathed, trying to speak louder than the rain. Tsunade nodded as I turned back to the rain, eyes closed and head back.

"Malli… we have some intelligence that you might want to hear!" Tsunade yelled at me. I turned my head towards her with confusion as she stepped closer.

"It's about your mother?" My heart stopped as the rain continued to beat down onto my body. I could feel it on my head but my shoulders had become numb as I saw Tsunade's lips move. I couldn't hear her, the shock that took over me drowned her out. But I could see what she was saying.

"NO! No!"

"MALLI!" She shouted louder, her hands snatched up my shoulders and yanked me under the umbrella were the rain thundered more.

"No! She can't be, no!"

"Malli, she's in the hospital, we don't know how much longer she will-"I didn't wait. I knew where she was and I was already in a bolt. I could hear Tsunade yelling after me, but I didn't wait for her. My mother had been attacked, by the very men who wanted to take my life. I cried, I heaved and sobbed, but I made my body run. I made myself keep going, I made my feet keep running.

I made it 2 miles out of camp before Gaara appeared before me in a flash of sand.

"Move!" I cried out, tears mixed in with the rain as I tried to push past him.

"Malli, you can't leave the camp." He grabbed at my shoulders, but I shrugged him off.

"She's my mother!" I hissed, my body shook as I side stepped him.

"She hated you, you said she never wanted you." Gaara stated, his eyes focused on me firmly. I cried harder as I shook my head and stepped further towards the hospital that held my mother. Gaara grasped my hand and held it. I gripped his back, holding it tightly before I dropped it.

"But she's my mother, she's dying because of me. Even if she hated me for everything, I love her… I have no choice but to." I smiled at him.

"I will go with you."

"No!" I stepped up to him and put a hand to his shoulder. His hands pulled me closer to him, but I kept my strength and determination about me. "They need you here. But me… this is something I must do by myself." And with that, I was off again, in the rain.

Nothing could stop me, I had to make it before anything happened.

I didn't get to say goodbye to my father, I'll be damned if I'm not able to say it to my mother.

Author's Notes: and here it is, chapter 14! ;DHF;SJDBG;AJBDS;JA;KJ!

Yes!