Clarification: Gaara was not in his 6-year-old mental state throughout his days in the real world; the 6-year-old form Sakura is seeing now is due to the fact that she made it into the deepest, vulnerable parts of his mind, where his childish fears and inner id are. In the real world, Gaara and Sakura truly interacted as though they were the same age, with each of their own messed up life experiences.
Back to the story. Thanks for waiting!
P.S. I'm very proud of this chapter, so please do enjoy it, and write down your thoughts for me, my friend/reader :)
Chapter 86
Sakura stared at the scene before her. The Ichibi was whacking Gaara around with its massive claws, like a cat toying with a mouse, with Gaara running away in fear and pain. He tripped, fell, got up, and kept running, barely evading another smack to the sand from the beast that exploded all the sand into the air.
It was shocking to see Gaara like this, like a helpless child, when he had been so ruthless against her not too long ago.
"HEY!" Sakura shouted before she could stop herself, at the monstrous One Tail, "STOP THAT! That's a child you're hitting!"
The Tailed Beast turned its beady, raccoon eyes downward towards Sakura. It created a giant mass of chakra, condensing it into a black ball. Then, it turned its head to stare at Sakura, tilted its head, and shot the tailed beast bomb straight toward Sakura.
Propelling chakra to her feet, and activating the shunshin technique, Sakura jumped out of the way. She raced in front of Gaara, just as the ground exploded where she stood a second ago.
A giant crater formed within the sand, that quickly turned into quicksand, sucking all the sand around it downwards, underground, like a vortex. Simultaneously, a hurricane of dense sand whirled up from the impact of this, blocking everything from sight.
20 meters from the crash of the ball, was Sakura at Gaara's location. Sakura wrapped her arms around the little Gaara, embracing him in protection from the barrage of hard rocks and sands hitting her from behind.
"Ouch!" Sakura grunted as a particularly sharp, hard shard of debris stabbed into her shoulder. Within her arms, Gaara's light teal eyes widened in shock at her, unable to believe his eyes.
"W-Who—" Gaara shook his head against her shoulder. Then, his little eyes widened in horror. "Behind you!"
A giant claw smashed downward upon them, but Sakura dodged out of the way, still carrying Gaara in her arms. She crashed into a sand dune, and burst through the other side of it. The Tailed Beast chased the two of them (or rather, a Sakura carrying a boy half her size) across the desert, as the sun began to set across the horizon.
"FUCK!" Sakura shouted as she outran tailed beast bomb after beast bomb. It was like outrunning actual mini-nuclear explosions. She barely evaded the impact of each bijuu bombl, as the explosions singed the ends of her pink hair and clothes, and scorched parts of her skin.
All this was happening within a mindscape, so why, just why was this entire situation so dangerous, as though it were real life? Sakura wondered bitterly, heart beating rapidly in her chest. The little boy turned his head to stare up at Sakura now, and she remotely wondered whether he could feel her heartbeat, with how tightly she was holding him.
She shunshined again, dodging another tailed beast bomb, but this last one...was it the 20th? 30th already? This latest one… it fizzled out faster than the others— the impact was slower.
Was the Ichibi tiring out already?
Sakura tried to smirk, relieved, only that was hard to do while panting, gasping and coughing for air. She was sweaty and exhausted herself too.
"At this rate, I'm really Shunshin no Sakura, Sakura of the Body Flicker," Sakura laughed and coughed.
"S-Sakura…" Gaara's little eyes widened up at her, his little hold on her suddenly loosened, as though it was foreign. "Not...Yashamaru..." He gazed up at her in question, "...?"
"Who the hell is Yashamaru?" Sakura asked.
(She remembered, suddenly, back when she first met the older Gaara in the real world, that Gaara claimed she had the exact same eyes as Yashamaru. Back then, despite not knowing who Yashamaru was, Sakura wasn't even surprised; she was used to reminding people of someone else, as though she didn't deserve to have an identity of her own. She reminded the dead Uchiha elders of Obito when she was a kid, and now she reminds Kakashi of him. She reminded Orochimaru of Sasuke, which made impersonating him that much easier. She always reminded someone of someone. It was no surprise she reminded Gaara of some figure he met before.)
"Nevermind," Sakura turned her eyes back toward the tailed beast, not looking at Gaara's reaction. She decided, to be greedy for once. Because she was greedy before she met Obito-kun, and now during the absolute heat of battle, in which she's risking her very life to save Gaara's imaginary ass right now… She doesn't owe Gaara anything, certainly not playing the role of a "figure who looks like someone he cared about." She played roles and acted as other people, towards the people who wanted Sakura to be someone else; she did that to Orochimaru, and even to Obito-kun, who she suspected, had once loved someone else.
But for Gaara, who tried to kill her….who's not even a Konoha ninja but technically the enemy of Konoha...who she's saving right now… She owes him nothing, but rather, Gaara owes her.
"I'm not Yashamaru, and I don't want to know him," Sakura whispered coldly. There was no visible reaction from Gaara, but she heard a whimper.
She's now at the trap that Inner Sakura had set. The gigantic, monstrous beast was now rapidly approaching, charging toward Sakura, like an armored racecar.
"Brace yourself," Sakura warned lowly, and suddenly felt Gaara clutch onto her tightly. Still holding onto Gaara, Sakura charged chakra to her feet, and backflipped directly over the trap.
There was a black geometric pattern over the sand, completely out of place, spanning 200 meters. That's exactly how far Sakura leapt and cartwheeled mid-air. Sakura backflipped herself high up, through the air toward the other side of the trap, propelling herself over the black lines of the seal that Inner Sakura had painted into the sand.
As soon as she, still holding onto Gaara whose red hair had become frazzled and puffy, landed back onto the ground, the Ichibi sprang into the black seal ranging 200 meters.
The black seal sprang upwards and wrapped around the Ichibi, like a black fishing net that captured a giant shark.
"RAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!" The Ichibi roared through the seals to the point that the grounds shook, as it squired and struggled, bursting through some of the seal-ropes, only for more seal-ropes to encircle him, like hydra heads. More deafening roars erupted. "I AM SHUKAKU, THE ONE-TAIL! A FOREIGN INVADER LIKE YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! WHAT IS THIS… THIS IS NO GENJUTSU…WHAT ARE YOU, HUMAN?" Desperate for an answer, the bound creature turned its golden eyes toward Sakura, who glared back at him. "RAAAAAAOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!"
She felt her eardrums were about to burst so she protected her ears with chakra, and even touched Gaara's ears, layering a protective chakra covering over each of his ears. Not enough to fully block out the sounds, but enough to preserve their eardrums.
Then, she chakra-augmented her voice, and shouted across the edge of Inner Sakura's trap seal, where the Ichibi was tied. "I'm Haruno Sakura. I'm Gaara's friend, and you were hurting him… a little boy. Was it you who forced him to run around committing murders? I should have known that you weren't an Inner Gaara, but a Tailed Beast!"
"FORCED? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Ichibi laughed evilly. "I NEVER FORCED HIM. I DON'T CONTROL HIM, UNLESS HE SLEEPS, OF COURSE. BUT GAARA NEVER SLEEPS! HE DID THAT ALL WILLINGLY. ALL HIS SERIAL KILLINGS WERE DONE OUT OF HIS OWN FREE WILL! BECAUSE GAARA IS A MONSTER, JUST LIKE ME."
Sakura stared at the tailed beast skeptically. She released Gaara on the ground, and walked toward Shukaku. Standing right next to his eye, she glared at him through the net.
"What do you mean? Gaara is n-not a monster!" Sakura almost hesitated, a brief flicker of fear inside her as she remembered that battle she had with Gaara. "I'm not so sure about you though. He called you 'Mother' once, what was that all about?"
"DON'T BLAME ME FOR THAT. I NEVER SAID I WAS HIS MOTHER. I JUST LET HIM CALL ME WHATEVER HE WANTED, I WAS HAPPY AS LONG AS HE KILLED HUMANS. IT WAS HUMANS WHO BOUND ME AFTER ALL—"
"Deception by omission is still deception."
"AS I SAID, I AM SURE GAARA KNEW I WAS NOT HIS REAL MOTHER. HE SIMPLY WANTED TO COMMIT MURDER, SIMPLY OUT OF THE BLOODLUST THAT WE BOTH POSSESS. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. IS THAT SO HARD FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND, LITTLE PINKIE HUMAN?" The tailed beast growled. "NO MATTER HOW MUCH HE SUGARCOATS IT BY CALLING ME MOTHER, HE KNEW THE TRUTH ABOUT ME. HE JUST WANTED TO KILL."
Sakura's eyes widened and her head turned toward the six-year-old boy. "Is that true, Gaara?"
"N-No—" Gaara stammered in fear, eyes wide in tears at Sakura, as though afraid she'd reject and spurn him like all the other kids had in his past. "I'm not a monster!"
Sakura smiled at the boy, and turned back to Shukaku. "Well, there you have it, Shukaku. It's been nice meeting you, but I think it's time to reduce some of your…'killing intent' influence. You know, it's time for your nap. Don't worry, I'll...do something about that 'hatred' of yours...afterwards. But Gaara's recovery, from your mental mind games, comes first. And I'm not stupid, Shukaku. I saw you chasing Gaara like a hungry tiger chasing and toying with its prey. You most certainly had an influence on him, and if it wasn't intentional, you were definitely messing with his mind and preventing him from sleeping. So…..I'm going to have to leave you bound up in this seal, so that you can't hurt little Gaara anymore."
The Ichibi started squirming desperately.
Sakura clucked her tongue. "Don't worry, it won't be forever. Just think of it as a prison term because you shouldn't be let off that easily after attacking a six-year-old child!"
"GAARA ISN'T SIX!" Shukaku roared, as though 12-year-olds weren't children either.
Sakura shook her head, and weaved a hand seal. She knew generally how Inner Sakura worked. "Sink!"
The sound of rumbling…..And Shukaku, along with its net, began sinking slowly downward into the sand, like quicksand. The sand within 200 meters all became quicksand, and began sinking rapidly. Sakura jumped on top of the tailed beast, to ensure that her own feet would not be stuck into the sticky substance of the quicksand, and in turn, sink herself underground as well.
"I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET THIS, SAKURA HARUNO! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
"Hmph," Sakura smirked, standing on top of Shikaku's back, eyeing his tail which was also bound within the net. As it began sinking, and as Sakura prepared to jump off Shukaku's back for the safe sandy ground outside the perimeter of the trap, Sakura heard a young scream. Turning her eyes toward the direction of the scream, her eyes widened at Little Gaara sinking toward Shukaku, who was like a vortex of a whirlpool.
"Fucking hell!" Sakura body flickered over to Gaara, as her feet touched the sticky substance. She hooked her hands underneath Gaara's armpits, and heaved and pulled Gaara upwards, as hard as she could.
Due to the high density and pressure of the special sand, this in turn, sunk Sakura's legs and waist into the sand while pulling Gaara freely out of the sand. She tossed Gaara across, until he reached safe landing, outside of the quicksand, while her own self was sinking along with the Ichibi. She found herself unable to move.
The little boy watched Sakura with wide eyes. He reached out a hand as if to grab her, but was scared; he'd just struggled for his life out of the lethal quicksand and got saved, he didn't want to actually die, he wasn't that stupid. "Nooo! I'm sorry, Sakura-san! I'm so sorry!" Gaara was in tears and crying through his panda eyes.
Sakura smiled at the boy, trying to comfort him, despite her own peril. "It's okay Gaara. Please don't kill any more people from now on. Promise me this."
Sakura tried not to cry. "Killing hurts you, it burns you. I can tell. I think I can finally understand you. You do it because.. Not because it's your purpose in life… but it's a form of self-punishment. Well, stop it. You shouldn't take lives anymore, they are lives that don't belong to you. You don't steal as a form of punishment to yourself, just because stealing makes you feel insanity and guilt and hunger. So Gaara. Promise me. No more killing. It's the least you can do, for the girl who saved you. Her last wish...honor it."
"I promise! I promise I won't kill anyone ever again!" Gaara cried, and shut his eyes tight. "So please! Please don't leave me!"
Please don't leave me again, Yashamaru!
It was at this moment, of pure desperation, that their minds connected. Maybe it was because they were sharing the same mindscape, or maybe because Sakura may actually die from this, or that Gaara thought that he would never see Sakura again… Or maybe, it was because Gaara had never been saved before, or… had never had any person, ever, sacrifice his or her own life, willingly, to save Gaara. It was the highest form of love and…
Gaara could not believe that this person, or anyone, would put themselves in danger, to even sacrifice themselves, to save a twisted, deranged boy like him, a boy who didn't deserve to live. A boy whose mother hated him, father hated him, uncle hated him.
And yet Sakura Haruno did just that, self-sacrifice for his sake. It all felt real. What if it was all real. It all was real.
Whatever the cause was, for the briefest of seconds, their minds connected. It was a phenomenon similar to two great fighters understanding each other through throwing punches.
But it wasn't quite that.
The little boy and the older girl were just staring at each other in the eyes for the final seconds that they could, that they must have seen each other's lives.
Gaara himself was not new to blood and murder, so he saw Sakura train and perform human experiments and eye dissectionsunder the guidance of an older man, a ghost, whom she loved with all her heart. Gaara's own heart felt a pang. He didn't have time to introspect why, or whether it was his feeling or hers.
The memories backwinded, and Gaara saw more things like deaths of her loved ones, a feeling Gaara didn't understand, for his only "loved one" that died was Yashamaru who betrayed him; his feelings regarding that particular death was twisted. But now, he felt the purest of sadness and regret at the Uchiha elders dying, and Sakura's promise to revive them from the dead. He felt the purest form of remorse and compassion, and started crying.
He never knew that he held such feelings within him. He never felt these emotions before, didn't even knew he had them...but now that he experienced them for himself, he knew they existed… even though the experiences were not his alone.
Then, Gaara experienced blossoms of happiness, with Team 7, Naruto, and Sasuke, and even Kakashi-sensei. A sensei that was not his, a team of friends that were not his, and missions in Konoha that he never went on… And yet, Gaara couldn't help but laugh in happiness, and cry in happiness, as though having broken out of a sick depression, like a rainstorm had just ended.
Gaara cried and smiled. "Sakura...So this was your life." Suddenly, he looked 12 years old again, as though he had aged himself. He wasn't a 6-year-old boy anymore. His eyes had 'opened.'
It seems Gaara was not the only one who peeked into the other's mind. Sakura, too, experienced life through Gaara's memories.
She saw everything that happened with Gaara's childhood, in which Gaara went around Sunagakure slaughtering kids who wouldn't play with him. She saw Gaara's father, the Kazekage, acting suspicious one night, and soon, Yashamaru attacking Gaara and killing him.
While she found the entire thing suspicious about Yashamaru, since he had always acted like he loved Gaara, Sakura actually felt hate toward Yashamaru. She wasn't sure whether this hatred was Gaara's or her own, vengeful at him for doing this to just a 6-year-old.
Sakura Haruno suddenly felt disgusted that Gaara, and now she knew why Gaara kept calling her Yashamaru back then, and why Gaara was so curious about her… Gaara was curious about her kind eyes, because Yashamaru was the only other person in the world with such kind eyes...And he wanted to ask her about it; but Gaara didn't know how to just ask, he only knew how to murder and rip the answers out of someone, like how one would rip the physical heart out of a victim one killed.
Sakura knew there was a huge difference between herself and Yashamaru. And in fact, she was not even going to bother to explain to Gaara, that there was a slim possibility that Yashamaru loved Gaara and was merely acting on orders. Because that would make Gaara regret killing Yashamaru, for trying to kill him.
Besides, Sakura remembered a lesson from Obito-kun. Love was more important than orders. The instant Yashamaru turned his blade onto Gaara, even as an "order" or a "fake test," that was the instant that Yashamaru abandoned Gaara. Friends who abandoned their own comrades were worse than trash. Yashamaru was not a true friend, only a pretender. He should never have gone along with the orders to kill Gaara. In fact, he even stated his last words, that he and Gaara's mother hated and cursed Gaara. Maybe they were just lies to mess with Gaara's mind. Or, maybe it was actually true.
However, none of it mattered, because there was no point dwelling on the past when it was all done and over already, and there's the present now. She would never understand their sick motivations toward Gaara, and she didn't want to understand. She decided she would not understand that.
She would instead, stick to her own philosophy, that Obito-kun taught her, that Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, and Sasuke all follow. That was all she needed. She didn't need to understand trash who threw "friends" under the bus… Even if Gaara adores such trash, due to "kind eyes."
Sakura's standards and principles were a cut above Yashamaru's, and it was time...for Sabaku no Gaara, to get an upgrade in his as well.
"You fool. I am not Yashamaru. Yashamaru betrayed you. I am Sakura. I'll never betray you. You will never kill again, and I will never 'test' you or toy with you in the manner that he did, ever. Everything I say or do, is real… when it comes to you, Gaara-chan.
"And…" She coughed sand, her lungs felt constricted as she sunk neck-deep. "You'd better keep your promise. Be like my best friend, Naruto-baka: never go back on your word!"
Gaara, same age as Sakura, ruffly red hair, wide green eyes with black circles, outreached a hand out to Sakura. "Sakura…H…." He grabbed her fingers. But it was too late.
She sunk entirely underneath the sand, along with the Ichibi.
With that, everything went black.
—
THWAK!
Unable to breathe, Sakura woke up and jolted upwards. Glancing around, she sees she's back in her bedroom, back in her own body, on her own bed. She sees Gaara sound asleep right beside her, hearing him snore softly, on her bed.
"Maan! That was one wild dream!" Sakura stretched herself on her bed. "I can't believe I fell asleep next to Gaara. Oh god… I can't believe...what I just dreamed…It's not a dream. It was really his mindscape, wasn't it? I really could have died?"
Sakura activated her Sharingan, to glance at Gaara one more time. She sees that the Ichibi is no longer in Gaara's body. "Huh...interesting. Hey, wait… That means, Konoha won't easily find him, since his Tailed Beast chakra is undetectable now...Niiice." Sakura smirked.
Okay, to be fair, I'm sure the Ichibi is still inside Gaara, but Inner Sakura's trap and seal must be pretty special and warped the Ichibi into a third pocket dimension within Gaara that's inaccessible. Sakura's nerdy self thought. All that time I spent studying fuuinjutsu and checking out Naruto's seal, from the outside and from inside his mindscape where Kurama's at, paid off.
That realization hit her.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Gaara won't be caught by the sensors from Torture & Interrogation anymore!
It was so fucking ironic. All it took was a dream, for Sakura to be this cheerful, for her opinion to change completely about Gaara; now she absolutely loved the male redhead, as her true friend… when just an hour ago, they had almost killed each other. And Gaara wasn't even awake the entire time. Wow! Amazing! All Sakura could do was laugh at the irony, as she got up from the bed, and pulled a blanket over Gaara. She looked at Gaara's sleeping face, with a smile.
Well, it was time to clean up the entire mess of the house and cover the evidence of the aftermath of the battle. After all, after that "dream" in which she bonded so deeply with Gaara, she concluded that she didn't want the Ichibi host to be caught.
Luckily, Sakura knew a lot of seals and genjutsu, so she could seal away all the sand into scrolls. As for the property damage? She could always make the excuse that she was training indoors, and that her punches were too powerful, that she got carried away. And that was why she was renovating.
As for her "new roommate"? If anyone came inside the house and saw Gaara by accident. And yes, roommate, where else would Gaara live? On the streets? Return back to Suna? Hahaha, no way, not after what the Kazekage and Yashamaru did to Gaara. He's going to live with me, to learn...what it means to live a good life. But yeah, what are people going to think when they see that Gaara is my roommate?! Even if they can't sense the One Tail inside of him, they'll know it's him! He's a little bit famous! A little since the Third Stage of the Chuunin Exams was cancelled, so it's not like he stepped out for the crowds to see...But still! There are many shinobi who know what he looks like. Hmm… Err...Hmmm….
"Errr...I'm going to make Gaara dye his hair black...or blue. Sky blue would look good." Sakura giggled. "Wait! PINK! Like me! My long lost civilian brother!" Sakura cheered and fistpumped toward the sky as she stepped outside the wall-less front of her house to clean up the destruction.
"I always wanted a little brother! With short, pink hair just like mine— but shorter! Hehehe!" Sakura's prank-like nature came back; she always secretly loved pranks, and pulled them all the time with Naruto during their childhoods; Naruto's mischievous nature rubbed off on her, and she couldn't help but grin to herself.
Sakura felt excited, as she finished cleaning up. She was going to shwoer, sleep, and in the morning, inform Gaara that he was her new "brother," (don't get the wrong idea, Gaara, I know we're not real siblings, but that's the story we're going to sell to everyone until we figure out what our next course of action should be.) And then, she would introduce Gaara to Naruto and Sasuke.
Ahh… Sakura closed her eyes in bliss. She really, really missed Naruto and Sasuke. Not Kakashi though; they'd trained together all month. But Naruto and Sasuke, she hadn't seen them all month...She was excited to see how much training they both got in without her, and how much stronger the boys got.
Sakura was curious about which one of them is the strongest now. Sasuke was a natural genius with the fortunes of the Uchiha as well as the Uchiha archives that Sakura borrowed most of her jutsu from. And Naruto had…well… Sakura made Naruto smarter because she actually taught Naruto how to read properly during their Academy friendship days. Naruto even learned sealing, and then apprenticed under Jiraiya, last she recalled. Yes, she was excited for another 3-way-spar. And for them to meet her newest little brother… Though she wasn't sure whether she should tell them that it's actually Gaara, can they keep a secret? They'll think she's crazy again… First Zabuza and now Gaara…..And this time they're supposed to keep it a secret from the Leaf? Basically breaking the law?
Eheheehehe…..I should take the shinobi business more seriously. Sakura thought. Her heartbeat finally calmed down. Yeah things will be good.
It was the only way she could cope with the gravity of the situation, of everything that happened.
But for now, she expected the next few weeks to be peace. And she needed to do something about the treatments of Gaara's siblings, now that she knew that Gaara would be on her side when he wakes up. He was one of her (loyal) people now.
The moonlight was awfully beautiful tonight, and the crickets chirped sirenly, and the owls hooted gently. Finishing up her outdoor yard work, where she cleaned everything up, Sakura turned to go back inside.
With so much on her mind, she didn't realize until now— Sakura glanced at her own body and saw she was butt naked. "EEH?!"
END OF CHAPTER 86.
Author Note: Hey, thanks to the few readers' comments I get, I've been wanting to take a break, because I want to start a new Sakura story. But I pushed because I didn't want to leave you guys, my readers, at the uneventful cliffhanger that was the previous chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave some comments here and share my story with Naruto friends ^_^ See ya and good luck with school!
I'll let you know when it's up. Please join my Discord for announcements if you haven't already. (Upper/lower casing matters: discord DOT gg / b9WcNRs
