Gaara quickly scanned the area, he could feel something happening, and the sand being torn away from him, but it didn't feel like Shukaku's doing. That, or Shukaku had just gotten a lot stronger. Before he could warn Lee, he felt the sand torn away from him and instantaneously saw it before them, whipping himself and Lee to the ground. They were pinned there by their arms and legs, Lee physically struggling against it and Gaara trying his hardest to get the sand off of him. He'd gotten weaker or Shukaku had just shown what he could really do.
Shukaku moved towards Gaara, and removed the sand from him, only to keep him pinned there with his foot. He slowly added pressure to Gaara's chest with his foot, leaning into it a little further for every time Gaara fought against it. Shukaku gathered the sand up his arms, ripping the dress's sleeves to pieces. Gaara could see him reinforcing his arms with the sand, and he waited to be hit by those arms. But they never moved towards him, instead Shukaku's face leaned down right in front of Gaara's.
"I'm in a good mood. I'll give you and your little boyfriend one last chance to leave." At this he spit the blood out of his mouth again, leaving his eerie bloody smile to greet Gaara. "So, what do you say?" Shukaku put a little more pressure onto his chest to remind him of the position he was in.
Suddenly, Shukaku's weight was thrown off of Gaara as he saw a blur tackle the monster to the ground. He sat up to see Lee had escaped the sand, but not without his fair share of bruises and cuts covering his arms and already injured legs. Lee got one or two punches on Shukaku before he recovered. Though he was now angry, his kind offer had been refused. He threw both of them against an outer wall of the castle with the sand and pinned them there. His face was now even more of a mess, the blood gathering there making him look more and more like a monster with each passing moment. He no longer took the time to spit the blood out of his mouth, but let it seep out the sides and down his chin. He smiled, because it was interesting. But too much of a good thing will make someone sick. And he didn't want to be sick; he was to take over a kingdom today. So he'd have to get rid of his toys.
"Well, I'll take that as a no?" He mocked, waking towards them. "Then I guess you've chosen death. How lovely, I'll let you die together." He laughed maniacally, unable to control it. "I'm such a nice person." He muttered, still trying to control the laughter.
Once he was done chuckling at their imminent deaths two matching collars of sand clasped onto their necks. Shukaku slowly added a little pressure to the collars, giggling a bit as he saw their breathing hindered. Pain, he relished in it. His pain, their pain, it was all the same for him. As long as he drew this out, made it as excruciating as possible, he'd be satisfied. He tightened it a bit more, finding pleasure in hearing their breath hitch. With the sand he moved their arms above their heads, wondering whether he should rip their arms out of their sockets or not. He'd always want to make someone a quadruple amputee… He stretched their arms farther above their heads until he knew they would be screaming if they could. Just as he was about to make their muscles tear he was hit upside the head with something that caused him to fall sideways.
"Stay the fuck away from my little brother!" Temari yelled as she saw the monster fall from her attack. The sand was released from Gaara and Lee, and they took grateful heaves of air for a few moments, glad their arms were still intact. Shukaku looked up, twisting his head towards his attacker, only to see the only thing she carried was a fan. What had he been hit with, then? As he moved to get up, he found out what it had been, as he was once again hit by a wall of wind. Temari smiled at his surprise. Two elementals in one family? He couldn't believe he had looked over such a huge factor. He cursed himself, and decided to drop this lousy human form. If he didn't, he surely would have been beaten.
They all looked on in horror as they saw Shukaku's form writhe and gather sand. It was transforming, and they couldn't stop it, so they were forced to just look on in horror. They saw the true form of the beast, a giant sand raccoon demon, said to have been extinct for eons. But it looked as though Gaara's gift had awakened this one, and now they'd have to somehow rid the place of it.
Now Kankuro arrived, carrying someone with him, an elder, it looked like. Now Gaara knew where they had gone while they had kept Shukaku at bay. Kankuro came to Temari, Gaara, and Lee, who had grouped together as they watched in horror as the demon manifested itself. The elder was set down, and looked at the demon with a certain expression of realization.
"I got here as fast as I could, but…" He looked from them to the mass of sand gathering before them.
"It's finally revealed itself. There is only one way to get rid of it. But there's a hefty price to pay." The elder said, his voice barely above a whisper, yet audible. "We'd have to seal it, and to seal it we need a vessel."
"I'll do it." They all said at once, then looked at each other, worried for one another.
"It's my fault, for ever letting it in the castle." Temari said, but Kankuro shook his head.
"It's more so my fault, I'm supposed to look out for the everyone." They didn't want to argue, but none of them wanted any of the others to bear the pains of being a vessel.
"I'll do it." Gaara stated once again, but Lee quickly stood in front of him, like that would protect him from being chosen.
"I can't let that happen to you Gaara, I'll take it." Lee said, but Gaara pushed him aside.
"It only makes sense for me to do it. It's after me, it was awaken by me, and we share the same element. It has to be me. If any of you do it, it'll reject you and the pain will only be that much worse." Gaara said, no emotion in his words, even though ears would search for a hint of sadness or regret.
"Then it is decided. I will start the transfer, the markings. It is up to you three to keep the monster at bay. And it seems he's almost ready to take all three of you on. Be careful, he now has all of his power. Don't kill yourselves, just keep him from killing us." The elder said, and the others turned to see the huge form of the monster before them. The elder lead Gaara a little ways away from them, towards the castle's barrier walls. There he instructed Gaara to remove his shirt, which he did. The elder then pulled a brush and ink from somewhere on his person and started the inscriptions on Gaara skin.
The others, on the other hand, where put to a much more physical task. While Gaara prepared himself to become one with the demon they had to make sure the said demon didn't kill him first. It opened it's black eyes and stared down at them, and the could've sworn it was smiling. It moved a large clawed arm towards them, which Temari removed with a blast of wind. But the speed in which it re-grew was frightening, and it continued towards Temari. Lee quickly tried to kick the arm away, but the sand just enveloped his leg. And then he was being held upside down by the giant hand, which seemed to be dangling him in midair just for amusement. It might have been a different form, but it was still the demon they had come to know and detest. He was cut from the hand and caught by some hard form, then put to the ground once again. He looked over to see some sort of life sized puppet as his rescuer, then looked towards Kankuro to see he had been the one controlling it. This time, even Lee was astonished. Three elementals in one family; sand, wind, and wood. He now felt sort of left out, having nothing but his own will to fight with. But he wasn't able to think of too long, because now was the time for fighting, not anything else.
The elder took his time writing the seal, not want to mess up one line of one symbol, because if he did, who knew what was to happen to them. He knew it by heart, as he had to, but still, he'd rather not rush it. And he believed the others could fend off the beast.
Which they were doing, more or less. Distracting it, yes, defeating it? No. But they didn't need to defeat it, because there was no hope of defeating it, only containing it. Yet they still tried their hardest. They focused on the head, because it took the longest to recover, and it was the only seemingly weak point. And yet again, they were attacking Shukaku's face, as they had done before. Had he cared for his face he might have been frustrated at how they tried to pulverize it. Shukaku may have been strong, but he was much slower in using the sand in this form. While Temari and Kankuro would keep the hands busy Lee would run up on or the other to injure the head, which he had to back flip off of after hurting in order to avoid being crushed or encircled by the sand again.
This routine worked, until Shukaku got tired of it and swiped at Temari and Kankuro with his tail, sending them back and leaving his arms open to hit Lee to the ground. They could all get up after this, but were feeling the pain, Lee twice if not thrice as much as Temari and Kankuro. Just when they thought they might not be able to keep the raccoon demon occupied for much longer, reinforcements arrived. Kiba had gathered all of the knights he could find that weren't already busy keeping the civilians out of the area and had brought them to the castle, here, to fight.
"We fight 'til dead, charge!" Kiba proclaimed as they all followed him, swords raised, to attack the mass of sand. It didn't have much affect on it's own, but it did occupy Shukaku enough so that the Temari and Kankuro could manage some devastating attacks. Or, they would be devastating if Shukaku didn't just recover after every strike. The knights were constantly knocked to their feet by Shukaku's tail, or just waves of sand, but they continued to get back up after every blow. Lee went back to running up the sides and focusing his strength on attacking the head. All of this, going on all at once, most surely kept Shukaku at bay. Too many hits at once to focus on much more that recovering.
Battered and bruised they fought on, but not for much longer. For the Elder stood up, inspecting his work, then turning to the demon at hand. Shukaku didn't seem so monstrous when faced against so many opponents, and the elder knew they'd seal him. The only problem would be, could Gaara live with the demon as apart of him. Hoping they had made the right decision, the elder started the incantation, still not speaking above a whisper, so no one heard him. But after several minutes of chanting softly, the monstrous form began to disappear, little by little. The sand dissipated and the wretched soul started to enter the lifeless form that was Gaara. The creepiest thing was how Gaara didn't even twitch as the demon and him became one. The other stopped their fight, no longer having to keep Shukaku occupied. He was threatened enough by his own slowly disintegrating form. They all heard the demon give out one last, low cry of hatred as the last of it blew into the wind and the soul entered Gaara through the seal. They all gathered, making a circle around Gaara, watching, waiting, and the glow of the fusion started to dissipate. Lee came the closest, not daring to touch him yet, but wanting to. He might have been the bloodiest of them all, torn up from head to toe.
The glow receded completely, yet the eyes stayed closed. It wasn't unheard of for a vessel to die when taking a soul in with it's own. It happened more often than not, actually. So they waited, and Lee dared to touch the hand of the one he had loved, the one he still loved. At this the eyes opened wide, then narrowed, and Lee could help but pick him off the ground and embrace him. Everyone let out breaths they hadn't known they had been holding, and few cried in relief, Lee being the one to cry the most. He knew this was Gaara, not the demon. Because it was also known that the demon could take over the body of its vessel if the vessel's soul died. Yet this was Gaara, and he was fine. Or, at least, he wasn't dead.
No one talked yet; they were all too tired and relieved. Temari broke the silence, though. "Before anything is explained, I say we all rest. All able bodies are to help fetch medical units. First, we should clean up ourselves, then we can fix the castle." And as she said it, it was obeyed. All medicine men in the capital were called to the castle, where they had to avoid parts of the castle that were falling apart. Nobles who had been at the capital rested at inns, awaiting the announcements that would come after the castle was fixed. Temari, Kankuro, Kiba, all of the knights who had fought, and especially Lee were all given special medical attention. Gaara was fine, for the most part, and stayed with Lee while he healed. Gaara was check up on by the elder, but had no physical ailments that wouldn't heal on their own. Lee wasn't so lucky. They had many medicine men look at him, but none of them knew how they were supposed to fix his legs.
"He'll probably never walk again." Most of them said before leaving to help others. Lee, having fallen unconscious after crying in relief, hadn't awoken yet. And after two days, he still hadn't. The castle was being rebuilt, and others were on their way to full recoveries. Gaara hadn't slept, and had stayed by Lee, not speaking. No one asked him anything, not wanting to upset him. They didn't see him being taken over by the beast, so they assumed he was all right. In the middle of the night on the second day, though, Lee finally came back into consciousness. Though, he came back to experience a lot of hurt, and the instant he opened his eyes they were closed again, trying to bare the pain of it all.
Slowly, Lee opened his eyes and turned his head, finding Gaara there, staring back at him. "Ah, Gaara, you're all right. Good." He said through clenched teeth, not knowing how else to deal with the horrible ache.
"I'm fine. You're not." Gaara said coolly, the most he had said in days.
"Oh, but I'll heal. What about you, is everything ok, I mean with the seal?" Lee said, his body numbing off the pain as best it could on it's own.
"Yes, it's… fine. And you might not heal this time, Lee." Gaara replied gravely.
"What do you mean?" Lee asked, knowing he had healed from everything before this. He hadn't gone too far, right? Otherwise, he'd be dead.
"They say you might not walk again." Gaara almost muttered, not liking the sound of the idea aloud.
"Ah…well, as long as you're okay. I mean, I'll still live, right?" Lee tried to smile, but it was a horrendous thought. Never walking again, never running again, never being able to do anything with his legs, ever again. It was enough to make him cry, even though he didn't notice his own tears at first.
"Don't spill your tears. It'll…It'll be okay." Gaara said slowly, like he needed to believe the words himself. Lee nodded, which only made it hurt more. He winced at the pain, but accepted it. If Gaara was the one needed to reassure him, then he better start smiling. And Lee managed a weak smile, giving it to Gaara before closing his eyes.
"I can't keep my eyes open, Gaara." Lee said softly, trying to stay awake. He really wanted to talk with Gaara. He really wanted to make sure he was okay. Because, if Gaara was okay, he was okay.
"It's fine. Sleep. It helps the wounds to heal." Gaara said, and soon heard the deep breathing of Lee's entering the first stage of sleep.
Wish you could do that, don't you?
Of course I do. But I can't let you have a chance to do anything. I can get by without sleep. As long as it means you'll never hurt him again, I can stay awake.
If you say so. I'll be here, waiting.
Because that's all you can do, wait. You won't get the best of me, I promise.
Gaara continued to sit there, and he didn't need Lee to carry on a conversation. Because he was constantly bickering with his new burden. And that would be enough to keep anyone awake.
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Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who reads this, and those of you who review it! I haven't answered any reviews because... well... I sleep a lot. xD I'm finally out of school, time to catch up on missed sleep. Though, I stayed awake long enough to write this so, hurray! And I remember to post it here right after posting it on Deviant Art, so it's all good. I'm sorry it's so bad, I swear, a couple more chapters and I'm done! Dx