A/N
GUYS, I'M NOT DEAD! I WAS JUST TEMPORARILY DEAD! BUT I'M NOT DEAD ANYMORE! I STILL LOVE YOU GUYS, DO YOU STILL LOVE ME?!
...no? ;-;
I WILL NOT TAKE THAT FOR AN ANSWER! GET BACK HERE AND LOVE ME! (SpongeBob reference in case you didn't get it)
Enjoy this chapter, lovelies!
Chapter 21: Kyarra VS. Temari!
I woke up,
In a dream today.
~With You–Linkin Park
Kyarra, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura darted through the trees in a diamond formation. The second chunin exam had just started, and Kyarra looked calm and collected as she ran behind her teammates.
On the inside, she was freaking out.
'What if we don't get the scrolls in time? What if I have to kill someone and I can't? What if I get killed? What if one of my friends get killed!?' She thought, panicking inside her own mind and hoping everyone couldn't read her thoughts right now.
It was dark, despite the fact that it was the middle of the day. Something was bugging her more than her panicked thoughts though.
When they were signing the forms that basically said "you are responsible for your death if you die", Kyarra had walked over to where Zaku and his team were standing to thank him for stopping her from getting herself killed by a proctor.
"Hey." She waved, walking over as all three turned to look at her. No one replied, they all just scowled.
"Zaku, I just wanted to say thanks for saving my ass back there." She rubbed her head sheepishly, "I get stupid when I'm tired."
"Watch out for yourself, won't you?" He said coldly, sneering at her.
"...What?"
"You shouldn't even be in this exam if you can't even take care of yourself!" he snapped, then smirked as if he were trying to piss her off.
"Hey man, what the hell did I ever do to you?!" she yelled, "I came over to thank you and you decide to be an ass?!"
Zaku looked as though he was about to do something, but then he saw something over Kyarra's shoulder. Kyarra turned to see Neji walking toward her.
"One day, your friends won't be around to protect you." Zaku spat, "That's when you'll realize you're not good enough to be a ninja."
Not good enough... to be a ninja? What...?
Neji walked up next to her and saw her confused face, then looked at Zaku coldly. "I suggest you hand in your form before the exam starts if you would like to compete." he told the three, and they started to walk away.
"You are no better than me." Zaku hissed at Kyarra as he walked by her.
What did that mean?
Naruto, Kyarra, Sakura, and Pakkun arrived on the scene just in time for Naruto to shield Sasuke from Gaara, probably saving his life. Naruto and Gaara faced each other, but Kyarra wasn't paying attention to the right now.
Kyarra wondered, in the back of her mind, if Shikamaru was okay. She knew they shouldn't have left him by himself. There were too many ninja for even the strategical genius to handle. But she couldn't think about that right now. Right now, she had to make sure Sasuke was alright and–
"I won't let you interfere!" Kyarra heard Temari say, then saw her friend jump down from the tree, leg extended in Sakura's direction. Kyarra jumped and countered the kick with one of her own, then pushed Temari backwards.
"Sakura!" Kyarra called as Temari landed on a tree branch, "Help Sasuke and Naruto! I've got Temari!"
"You're really going to take me on?" Temari asked in a mocking tone, "When I have such low chakra? What happened to the I-would-never-hurt-a-fly girl you used to be?"
"She grew a spine!" Kyarra cried. In the background, Gaara screamed.
"Do tell." Temari leaned against her fan.
"She realized you can't trust everyone." Kyarra jumped onto a branch closer to Temari. Temari jumped back. Kyarra knew she was trying to get away from Gaara so she wouldn't be hit in the crossfire.
"Especially not you." She continued, also not wanting to get caught in Gaara's fight. She walked forward, toward her opponent.
"This was my mission, Kyarra!" Temari told her, turning and running through the treetops, "A shinobi must complete the mission or die trying."
"I don't care!" Kyarra yelled, charging forward. "You were my friend!"
Temari pulled out her fan before Kyarra could reach her, "Wind scythe jutsu!"
Kyarra flew backward and hit a tree with a thud. She groaned, then jumped onto the branch next to her. She hid behind the tree and made a handsign.
"Shadow clone jutsu!"
Two clones walked into Temari's sight.
"You think some stupid trick like that is going to stop me?" Temari smirked, then swung her fan once more. The clones flew backwards, one hitting a tree and one hitting a branch, both poofing away. Branches that were cut from the wind fell to the ground with loud cracks.
Two more clones ran out from behind the tree, jumping in opposite directions and pulling out kunai. They threw them at the girl, who just laughed and waved her fan again. The kunai simply blew away as the clones did.
The last clone suddenly jumped up from the bushes right under the branch she was standing on. Temari had thought she had seen some movement down below, but had shrugged it off. She gasped, and just as the clone was in front of her, swung her fan. Before the clone could hit a tree, it smirked, then kicked at the air, kunai detaching from it's sandal.
'Thanks for the idea, Sasuke.' Kyarra smirked as she watched it shoot toward an unsuspecting Temari. When she finally noticed it, it was too late for her to use her fan, so she ducked under it. It cut off one strand of her hair.
"Is that all of your tricks Kyarra?" Temari taunted, "I could have sworn you were better last time I saw you. Or are you only good at hand-to-hand combat? Was your Sensei too busy teaching Sasuke to bother teaching you any useful justsu?" Temari knew about this because Kyarra had been complaining to her before the third exam.
There was no answer, so Temari took a step closer. Suddenly, there was a noise from above her, but just as she looked up a foot collided painfully with her face. She stumbled, but managed to use her chakra to stay attached to the tree.
A branch swung out of seemingly nowhere and hit her right in the stomach, sending her falling off of the tree limb that she was standing on. The dirty-blonde landed on the hard ground with a groan. She had let go of her fan on the way down, and she couldn't see where it had landed. She tried to stand, but she was weak from using up so much chakra before, and now from falling from so high up.
She looked around, but didn't see the fan anywhere. She was starting to panic. That fan would be her only way to keep Kyarra away from her. Without it–
"Looking for this?" she heard, then spun around to see Kyarra holding her closed fan, leaning against a tree.
"How did you do that?" Temari asked, "How did you get to me without me seeing?"
"Forget already?" Kyarra flashed her invisibility on then off, "It's barely been two months, Temari. And already you've forgotten something that, if remembered, could have saved you in this battle?"
Temari realized that the movement she had seen below her before hadn't been Kyarra's clone, it had been Kyarra! Kyarra had used the clones as a distraction so she could get above Temari with a branch without Temari noticing!
This kid... was a friggin genius.
"You... you shut up!" Temari got to her feet, "This isn't over yet!"
"Suit yourself." Kyarra made a handsign again, and two clones appeared on either side of her. They stepped back and stood next to the tree the fan was resting on.
"What, clones again? As if they managed to lay a scratch on me last time!"
"Oh," Kyarra grinned, "They're not for you. They're to make sure you don't get your fan." She stepped forward and got into a fighting stance. "It's you and me, Temari! This is now a one-on-one fight! No weapons, no jutsu!"
"You're ridiculous!" Temari exclaimed angrily, "Are you stupid? You act as though an enemy would fight against you with honour! You're gonna get killed one day because of your stupidity."
"Aren't we all?" Kyarra asked, getting out of her fighting stance, and taking a step forward. "I wouldn't expect a foe to just drop their weapons and fight me in only hand-to-hand combat... But I would expect you to."
"And why's that?"
"Because you're..." Kyarra paused, smiling at her. "Not my enemy!"
There was silence for a minute. The only sounds you could hear were the leaves rustling in the wind, and Gaara's demented screams coming from a safe distance away.
Temari smirked and got into a fighting stance, "Okay, Kyarra. Drop the sappiness. I'll fight you, one-on-one."
(1) Kyarra got into a stance too, then ran forward. She and Temari started their little fight. It looked as though they were simply sparring for training. No jutsu, no weapons. Just them. Every time one would attempt to land a punch, the other would block it and try to land a kick. The other would counter. Neither one was able to get a hit in, because neither one was really trying.
Kyarra was reminded of her time back in the sand village, when she and the sand-sibs were house-mates. When they were sparring, the sibling she wasn't up against would cheer for her.
"Nice kick, Kyarra!" Temari had yelled.
Even though Temari had helped Orochimaru in his quest to destroy the village, Kyarra knew she was going to have to forgive her eventually.
"Take her down, Kyarra!" Kankuro had laughed.
And Kankuro too.
"Hm." Gaara had nodded, almost in approval, at one of her punches.
...And even Gaara for all he had done.
"I'm sorry for this, Temari." Kyarra whispered, ignoring the flashbacks racing through her mind. She had to end this right now, she had to go help her team. She wound back her fist.
"HAH!" She cried, then punched her friend directly in the stomach. For a split second, it was Kyarra and Temari again. Then Temari coughed hard, flying backwards and hitting a tree. The battle was over.
And Kyarra had won.
When she got back to where Naruto and the others were, they were in bad shape. Sakura was being held up against a tree by some of the Shukaku's sand, and it didn't seem Sasuke had moved since the last time she was over there. Naruto was facing off with Gaara.
"Sasuke." Kyarra stood next to her raven-haired friend. He looked up at her, and she knelt down next to him, noticing the little black marks of Orochimaru's curse-mark all over his body.
"You need to take cover." She told him, "Until you get your strength back at least. Things are going to get ugly."
She turned invisible and ran over to Sakura, hoping Gaara wouldn't notice that her friend was suddenly gone. She tried to cut through the sand, but nothing happened. She punched at the sand in anger, not even leaving a dent.
'C'mon! Work!' She thought as she sliced at the rock-hard sand over and over, 'Come on!'
"Come on!" She said out loud, stabbing the sand with all of her might. But she knew it was hopeless.
"Huhn?" Gaara growled, turning toward her. He panted, face contorted into an extremely creepy grin. Just the sight of him gave Kyarra shivers.
"Gaara, stop this!" Kyarra yelled, taking out a kunai, "Let Sakura go!"
"Why should I?" He cackled evilly.
"Because I know that you don't want to be this way!" She cried desperately, "I know that somewhere, deep down, you don't want to hurt people!" She gestured to Sakura and Sasuke, "You need to stop hurting my friends!"
"You're just like Naruto Uzumaki." He told her, "You only fight for your friends, never for yourself. And you are going to fail."
"I'm fighting for you, Gaara!" she exclaimed, and he tilted his head ever so slightly. "I'm fighting for you because... because...
"Because I consider you my friend!"
She took a step towards him, "I know you don't want to hurt me or anyone else, Gaara. I know that you're just hurting. I know you don't believe the words that you say. And I forgive you for what you've done. I–"
"ENOUGH!" Gaara exploded. One of the Shukaku's arms stretched toward her too fast for her to dodge. It hit her hard, crushing her, then shoved her against a tree.
"I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT OF MY WAY!"
"G-Gaara." She gasped for breath as the sand crushed her against the tree. She couldn't breathe at all, she struggled with all of her might. Her vision started fading, her heart was almost pounding through her chest.
The sand finally released her, just as she thought her lungs were about to burst. With no branches to catch her, and her still in shock from what had just happened, she fell. She landed on the ground with a thud, head hitting off the tree trunk.
Everything, even Gaara's twisted screaming, faded to nothing.
She dreamed of a showdown between the Kyuubi and the Shukaku. Or maybe she was awake and she watched it. But either way, it still scared her. She remembered crawling and someone taking her hand, helping her stand. They looked like... like... Itachi Uchiha? But she knew it couldn't be him, he wouldn't be stupid enough to come in the middle of a battle between two demons.
She coughed hard and blinked a few times. She had seen Itachi in Sasuke's eyes... and it wasn't really him. His hair wasn't that blue, his eyes not that dark.
"Are you even awake?" She barely heard Sasuke ask her.
She nodded slowly, "Maybe." She answered. She wasn't dreaming. So that means the nine-tailed-fox was really...
"I'll leave you with Sakura and that dog. Then I'll–"
"No, Sasuke." She shook her head, "T-take me with you."
"Are you sure? You need to rest."
"Shut up, Princess." she growled. "I need to... n-need to... apologize to Gaara."
"For what?" Sasuke demanded.
"For getting in the way, when he told me not to."
"You don't need to–"
"Yes I do." she insisted, "He hurt me because I got in the way. He didn't want to hurt me. But it was my fault."
"...fine. I'll take you with me. But I still think you don't need to apologize." Sasuke wrapped Kyarra's arm around his shoulders and half-led, half-carried her to where Naruto and Gaara were laying.
"You go talk to Naruto." She told him, and he took her arm off of him and walked away. She took a few steps toward Gaara, then slowly dropped to her knees and started crawling. She reached him rather quickly, but did not touch him, just in case.
"Gaara?" she could see his eyes were open.
He turned to her slightly, "Kyarra?"
"I'm sorry for getting in your way." she heard Sasuke saying something to Naruto.
Gaara didn't respond.
"And I hope that one day you'll realize that you can't only fight for yourself. You have to rely on other people to help you when you need it. You can't shut people out when they just want to help you."
She took his hand, "Maybe one day you'll realize that you are my friend."
(1) Cue dramatic flashback music!
Ending note!
This took me a really long time to write. Like, really long. Like, more than a month. For this tiny-ass chapter. Uggggghhhhhh!
BUT JustFabulous THOUGH! YOUR REVIEWS ARE THE REASON I FINISHED THIS STORY, MAN!
GOODNIGHT GUYS! I'M GOING TO BED NOW EVEN THOUGH IT'S ONLY 2:00 PM!
~Kyarra-Chan