Chapter 19
She had woken up early again this morning; actually, more like she didn't quite get a good night's sleep, due to last night's events. Aby had glanced towards Gaara's closed bedroom door and fought the urge to peek inside to see if he was still sleeping.
She made her way to the very top of the building, through the winding staircase and opened the ceiling hatch as she did the previous morning. She knew they would depart today for Konoha and she wanted to see Sunagakure one last time under the rising sun. The sunrise, as before, had brought a soothing peace to her heart, but was mixed with emotions from last night.
Now, they were all on their way, far from Suna's gate and the sun was revealing its scorching heat. They walked at a steady pace, nonetheless, excited at the prospect of seeing their friends and Konoha; especially Abigail; she wiped the sweat from her brow, but discomfort didn't take her smile away.
Sofia stared at her friend from behind and wondered what the hell could have happened for her to be lost in thoughts like this. The children, she noted, were too hot to play and run around, so they just kept on walking beside Abigail, head down, without complaining. Yashiko joined Sakura who was behind Sasuke. She observed them talking with animation about the wonders of healing chakra. At some point, while they all rested for a snack, they were even exchanging notes on paper.
She saw Yashiko nodding enthusiastically. "Thank you! I'm really looking forward to it!"
Sakura didn't have much time to reply; Sasuke unexpectedly came in between them and grabbed the note that Yashiko was holding.
"Hey! We are in the middle of a mission! Could you at least wait until it's over to flirt around?"
Sasuke waved the paper and blushed when he glanced at it. Obviously expecting something else, what he saw was several lines describing different procedures of chakra healing. Sakura, who would usually get angry at this outburst of unnecessary disturbance, stared back in shock and confusion. Yashiko, seemingly embarrassed, bowed apologetically.
"I apologize for misleading you … I wasn't courting! We were only discussing the techniques she uses for healing. I wish to learn more … so I asked her, quite boldly I must say, if we could talk some more later."
Sasuke looked up to Sakura, then Yashiko.
"Why would you apologize to me? It is not my business who you court … just not my teammate!" he quickly added, "I mean, not my teammate while on a mission! Anyway, I'm the one who should apologize," he grumbled, "I jumped to conclusions … not that the conclusions would be bad! J-Just not during a mission!" He gave back the note to Yashiko and quickly walked away.
Everybody observed in silence, looking perplexed at this new strange behavior. Sofia leaned in close to Abigail, smirking.
"Told ya …" she whispered to her friend, picking up on the obvious jealousy he was trying to hide. Aby raised an eyebrow and smiled. She quickly glanced towards Gaara and down at her apple, before crunching off a bite. He and Kankuro were talking about something; she couldn't make out the words but Kankuro's smile seemed to tease him. Temari came around and gave him a slap on the back of his head, telling him to stop harassing the kazekage and sat down beside Shikamaru who was laying down on a big flat rock, his arm across his eyes to shade his face from the sun.
Sofia wrapped her arms around her bended knees and observed Aby.
"So?" she asked. Aby turned and raised her eyebrows. "What happened last night?"
Abigail froze. To be honest, she had wanted to run to her, last night, and tell her everything. But was it ok to tell? Since this morning, Gaara had not spared a moment for her, except a smile or two; which was enough for her to confirm that it wasn't just a dream. Moreover, everything happened so fast; she wasn't even sure what they were … were they a couple now?
They had not even talked about it on their way back the night before; She just held on tightly to him as they traveled back, using his chakra infused sand. Only when they landed in front of the front gate that she inquired, confused, about the fact that they were supposed to be "sneaking". He laughed and told her not to worry about it anymore.
Her eyes turned to Gaara once more, wondering if she could tell her friend. He was still being teased by his brother, which made her wonder if his siblings already knew what happened. She reddened at the thought. Sofia cleared her throat; still waiting for an answer.
"N-Nothing ..." she managed to whisper.
"Aby, come on. Are you guys a thing now? Or what?"
Aby choked. "... I don't know," she admitted, embarrassed.
"What do you mean 'you don't know'?" Sofia exclaimed, surprised; which attracted Gaara's attention for a brief moment.
"Shhhh! We didn't do anything, ok? We just … he took me somewhere to cheer me up, that's it!"
"Oh … so you guys sneaked out so he would cheer you up," Sofia said, nonchalantly. Aby bit her fingernails, nervously.
"Did you guys kiss?" she teased with a smile.
Aby's silence was longer than she meant it to be, which made Sofia look up at her.
"... A little?" Aby shily whispered without looking at her.
Sofia's eyes grew bigger than her sockets. The surprised look on her unsmiling face would have been hilarious if Aby hadn't been so uncomfortable about the whole situation.
She was grateful when Akio cut their conversation short.
"My apologies, I thought it would be a good opportunity to tell you more about your position!"
The rest of the group drew their attention to the Gatekeeper, curious to know what he would teach her.
"To know how to apply your duties you must first know what a Grand Gatekeeper is. I already told you the basics; now, let me tell you the details!"
He placed the book and a few notes in the middle of the gathered group, and rubbed his hands, as if going to tell a campfire story.
"Imagine a country! A country divided by several territories;" Akio traced a large oval in the dirt and divided it into several different size shapes. "Those are, in turn, separated by cities. These cities each have a single door separating them from a superimposed top single layer that covers the whole country … let's call this top layer 'main world'... aka, our world," Akio pointed at himself, Aby, Sofia and the kids. "Each city represents an 'alternate world', like this one!" Akio traced the word 'Naruto' in one of the shapes. "Each territory represents the genre of different creations of writers. For instance, this whole circle here, is the 'genre' or 'type' we are in … I would call this one the 'action' type; or maybe we are in a 'ninja' type, or 'epic'... who knows! As I mentioned before, each city has a door, or a gate … that can only be opened by a special key, a special person; the gatekeeper! But if each city, or world, has a gatekeeper, like a knight, or a guardian, then each territory has some kind of leader."
"A Grand Gatekeeper," said Shikamaru, without looking.
"Precisely!"
"But then, who is the ruler of the country?" asked Sakura.
"Uhm … good question … let's call it a 'king' for now," said Akio.
"Or a queen!" shouted Tori, which made everyone smile.
"Or a queen …" agreed Akio, patting her head. "Each city/world has an anointed gatekeeper, and each territory, a Grand Gatekeeper; which happens to also be a gatekeeper of a particular world. These Grand Gatekeepers," he continued, "Are the protectors of their own realms … therefore have more powers than any of the created characters … After all, these Grand Gatekeepers were created by God himself to watch over the writer's creations! Which means that, perhaps evil forces, demons for instance, might want to mess up these realms."
Aby felt a chill on her back. Wherever God went, demons were bound to follow. She held the cross around her neck, something she hadn't done in a long time. Could she fight demons? She couldn't even fight bad guys from this world at the moment …
She felt something hot on her shoulder. Gaara had nudged her with a cup of hot mixed roots and herbs mixture, freshly poured from his canister. She thanked him and took the fragrant cup with a shy smile. He subtly squeezed her left shoulder and casually sat beside her. This was not unnoticed by Sofia. She gave a quick glance and slightly raised a hand.
"Why did her powers only manifest here? Why not in our world?" she asked.
"That I don't know … either there is no power in our world and it only manifests in this world, or there is power but she has not been awakened yet …"
"Wouldn't you know from the other Grand Gatekeepers or Gatekeepers?" asked Sakura.
"He said he didn't meet them, so he wouldn't know," reminded Sasuke.
A tiny mouse came boldly around to see if he would get lucky and get a snack. Aby offered a small piece of bread, and to her surprise, he swiftly took it and ran back under some rocks. Gaara watched her take another piece of bread and put it in her mouth.
"We, Gatekeepers and writers, are somewhat aware of them from passed down knowledge only … but we have no contact with them. We barely even know other chosen creators and gatekeepers!"
"Well that's stupid!" exclaimed Aby without thinking. Akio looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
"I … guess it is … I do not know the reason for this secrecy myself …"
Seeing that they were all looking at her, she continued. "Well, it's just … if they … sorry … if WE, Grand Gatekeepers, must protect the "country" and 'our realms', wouldn't it make more sense to know each other and work together?"
"Indeed," Akio answered. "It would …"
"Who said they don't?" blurted out Shikamaru, still lying back on his rock, his face turned their way.
"He said HE didn't know them … it doesn't mean that some of the Gatekeepers and Grand Gatekeepers do not know each other … maybe they are part of some big secret organization ..."
They all nodded in agreement and Akio smiled.
"I guess you have a good point! It is very likely! I'm just not sure why I would be left out."
"You mentioned that Grand Gatekeepers have great power … I don't feel powerful at all … in fact, I'm pretty useless if I'm not near water."
"You are not complete yet! As a guardian, you need some extra tools! Some artifact is supposed to bring your inner power up to the surface, though I don't know what the artifact is. Maybe a staff or something," he said while looking back in the book. "And some are drawn with some kind of companion, like an animal or something."
Sofia laughed and rolled her eyes, but Abigail smiled at the prospect of having an animal sidekick friend. She didn't really know about the staff though...she didn't really like to carry extra stuff wherever she went; but still, she was now wondering what kind of stuff she could accomplish with a staff. Her mind suddenly went back to a dream she had recently; when she was in the cave. Didn't she have a staff in her hand?
"Maybe your animal sidekick is that mouse you keep on feeding," said Kankuro mockingly.
The mouse came back a second, and then a third time.
"Are you my animal sidekick?"
"A little small if you want my opinion," mocked Kankuro. "Since when do girls feed mice anyway?!"
"She's weird like that," said Sofia, smiling.
Sasuke offered water to Sakura who observed him.
She chewed one of the bitter nourishing pills she created and perfected within the past few years.
What was that all about earlier? She thought. Her stomach was still fluttering. Was it jealousy?! That was jealousy; right? His behavior left her confused.
Sofia distracted her spying as she loudly stretched and yawned.
"Oh boy! It's so darn hot here!"
"This is still considered wind territory," Kankuro said with a smirk. "We'll get in the land of fire shortly, which means a lot of shades."
"We'll also pass by a small waterfall and stream," said Temari, "You can always freshen up then.
"Oh! Awesome!"
"So, where do I find this animal sidekick?" continued Aby, directing her question at the the Gatekeeper.
"I don't know!"
"What does the staff look like?"
"I don't know!"
"That doesn't help much" criticized Gaara.
"For now … but we can still focus on something else; like combat training for instance!" He looked at Gaara with a smile. "You have a similar ability as her. Perhaps you can help her grasp it, understand it, and ultimately, use it more efficiently!"
Sakura stood up and faced them. "Maybe when we are near water," she said. "For now, we can still make good use of this time! Get up, I'll show you some basic one on one combat techniques!"
"I'll help too!" Temari put her fan aside against a rock. "You! Get up! You need to learn how to defend yourself as well!" She said to Sofia with a grin.
"In this heat?!" she complained.
"Not for too long, we need to get a move on soon …" said Shikamaru, still lying down, his hands holding the back of his head; eyes closed. If anything, he didn't look ready to go at all! Regardless, Gaara nodded in agreement.
A few hours passed before they started noticing the sun glowing red behind them, wrapping the clouds with hues of pink, purple and orange. The heat receded slowly as well, making the trip a little more comfortable. They had been climbing a low but steady slope towards the dark green horizon.
If Aby turned back, she would see the sand dunes below that hid Suna, more to the west. Although the sight alone was breathtaking, she preferred the sight right in front of her; the brown-reddish head and long reddish-brown coat, covering the man who was leading them ahead, with two kids chasing each other between her companions.
His cloak was nicely folded, hanging from a belt around his gourd, while his white and green hat adorned it. She used a hair tie she found in her purse that she placed across her shoulder, and put her hair up in a simple ponytail.
A hand suddenly pushed her from the back and she stumbled forward; she let out a frustrated low growl.
"Five!" Said Temari, mockingly.
"Six" Gaara corrected, to Aby's surprise, without bothering to turn around, albeit being sure he was grinning.
"But at least, you're not falling anymore!" Said Temari.
"You're making progress!" added Sakura.
"This is a boring exercise," complained Abigail.
"It's necessary," said Gaara, turning to face her, at last. "Before you can fight, you need to learn how to stay on your feet." His gentle smile sent a wave of red heat across her cheeks. She wanted to embrace him so bad!
"Yeah but isn't this more accurate during an actual fight?"
"Enemies will not wait for you to be ready; they will often try to ambush you. You need to learn to travel without letting your guards down. Just keep it in the back of your mind, stand solid at all times." said Kankuro.
"Listen to master Kangaroo!" said Sofia who happened to be beside him. He pushed her sideways without looking at her and she fell on all four.
"Hey!"
"That goes for you as well, sweetheart!" he said to her with a grin.
"Okay," Aby answered, distracted. She turned her head where a few more rocks were piled up a few meters away. She thought she saw something slithering there.
Tori noticed her distraction and turned her head towards whatever Aby was looking at, but saw nothing.
"We're almost there," Gaara announced ahead. He pointed straight ahead to the dark sky. Aby looked up and saw a few bright stars starting to break through the horizon. She nudged the children and pointed to the sky while smiling. Toshiko didn't seem interested, but Tori looked up while walking ahead, beaming. She bumped into Sasuke who looked down in surprise. Aby chuckled, and was once again distracted by a moving shadow nearby, and a rubbing sound against dirt.
"Hey, are there any snakes here? Like big ones?"
"There were before I ate them" a snarky voice answered behind the rocks.
