QUICKSAND
CHAPTER 27
"Don't fight him!" Hinata cried. "P-please!"
"We have to," Sasuke said. Not an ounce of confliction showed in his tone. He was set. "Naruto, take Hinata and run. If something happens to us, she can't defend herself like this."
"Take her where?"
"To the tower. Her cousin should still be there. If he's half the ninja he should be, he'll still be alive."
"We can't just—" Sasuke turned on him with a flash of his eyes.
"Go!"
Naruto started, but turned around and grabbed Hinata. It was difficult for him to move, let alone with a person in his arms, but he managed. Gaara followed them with his eyes, roared, and extended a spiked claw out to retrieve them. "Where do you think you're going!"
Sasuke used his fire phoenix jutsu to divert its path, and barely managed to move it two feet. Naruto was sensible enough to use the distraction to gain some distance, but Gaara was faster. His large tail buried into the earth, turning dirt into sand, and erupted underneath Naruto like a geyser. Hinata was torn from his arms, both thrust wildly in opposite directions. The tail was like an umbrella protruding out of the ground, sandy spikes curved like teeth. It fell toward Hinata, who immediately tried and failed to dash out of its shadow.
Naruto flew to her side and curved his body over hers, waiting for the impact. Sasuke flew at Gaara, flipped gracefully over his bulldozing arm, and struck him in the vulnerable side of his face. He went flying. The tail receded back into the ground. "I don't get it," Naruto panted, his arms still around Hinata. "He gave us his kunai, didn't he? If he wanted us to finish the test, why come back to kill us?"
"I don't think he meant to," Hinata said. Her eyebrows were drawn together tightly, her face flushed with pain. Her leg throbbed heatedly, itched and bled, and her vision was beginning to swim. "Something must have happened to him at the tower."
"He's lost his mind!" Naruto said. "He's a freak. He'll kill Sasuke." Hinata struggled to sit. Her hands lay flat against Naruto's chest, forehead pressed lightly to his collarbone. "Hey, Hinata! Are you alright?"
"I . . . am not afraid that Gaara will kill Sasuke," she breathed. "I am afraid of what he will transform into." In her near delirious state she had no idea who she was talking about. Was it Sasuke or Gaara? Kami, she really didn't know. The only thing she was terribly certain of was that she was worried for Naruto, and petrified for Sasuke.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke snarled at Naruto. "Get her out of here!"
Gaara burst into vicious laughter. He positioned himself on all fours, his face now completely overtaken by sand. Both arms followed, then his legs, until his entire body was submerged in this living substance. He grew and grew, and in one single burst the clearing was completely enveloped in smoke. Sasuke, Hinata and Naruto were all thrown in different directions.
The whole area went dark. Hinata tried to activate her Byakugan and felt a severe rush to her head. She deactivated it at once and shook her head. She called out for the others, faintly hearing Naruto doing the same. As the smoke began to clear she looked up to see something enormous towering over them. It blocked out the entire sun, and a good portion of the sky. The breath was robbed clean from her lungs.
She managed to get to her feet. "G-Gaara?" she gasped. Was it Gaara? The laugh that ruptured forth was most definitely Gaara, only crossed with something . . . else. Despite the pain it caused her, she strained to see him. She searched the entire length of the behemoth and could not find him. Panic inflamed inside of her. Was it possible that the Shukaku had eaten Gaara? No . . .
She searched harder. When she was finally able to catch something, she could a see much smaller, individual network of nodes and pathways. The only network of chakra flow, actually, and it was the generation source for the entire Shukaku. It was in his forehead. "He's there!" she whispered. Sasuke found her before she could process any more, and immediately swept her up in his arms as he ran. Naruto was thankfully at his heels.
"Is it really the smartest thing to do, leading it to the tower?" he asked.
"We don't have a choice!" Sasuke said over the rushing wind. "Better that than the village." The Shukaku spotted them easily, and was already barreling through the forest to get to them. The trees tipped like dominos under its enormous weight. Every step was like a meteor striking the earth, shaking, breaking, destroying.
"I didn't take you for a coward, Uchiha!" Gaara bellowed out to them.
Hinata watched him descend upon them from over Sasuke's shoulder. She had not felt a fear like this in a very long time, if ever. This was unlike anything she had ever seen. 'What triggered it?' She thought numbly. 'What on earth happened to him in one day? Is his father the one at fault here?'
She remembered what Gaara had told her so long ago and wondered: was this really something a father would wish on his son? Such thoughts had no ground in a situation like this, and yet she could help but think it. "We can't outrun him," she said faintly. Sasuke heard her.
"Don't worry, I won't—"
"Your chidori won't do anything, Sasuke-kun."
He didn't say anything back, but she felt his desperation. No part of their training in the past four months—in the past four years—had prepared them for anything like this. "We're going to have to improvise," she whispered breathlessly.
"What?" Sasuke said. She didn't respond. Her eyes were wholly transfixed on the Shukaku. Naruto gave a shout, which drew her attention forward. They leapt high enough to see the tower bloom full into view, and what they saw was shocking. An enormous snake was wrapped around it, like a vine to a fence. It was not unlike the other snakes they had encountered in the forest—only much bigger—so they immediately knew where it must have come from.
"Fantastic," Sasuke growled.
Jonins from both Konoha and Sand were battling one another. Only a few tried to subdue the snake, but it was so impossibly large, its scales impenetrable. Before they could even land its eyes locked on them. A jaw large enough to consume half a village yawned in their path, preparing to spew what must have been venom.
Sasuke was prepared to fling Hinata toward the trees, but the Shukaku's enormous arm stretched out like a bridge over them, darkening the entire area in its shadow. "Don't get in my way!" Gaara roared. When he grabbed the snake its mouth jerked upward. He pulled it from the walls as if it were string, which caused the entire peak of the tower to snap apart. It plummeted toward the base, almost crushing a few ninjas in its path.
The strength of the Shukaku was more than a match for an overgrown snake. He bent the neck so far back that the scales peeled and the skin ripped. A sickening sight. Hinata and the others watched the display in horror. However, they were also grateful for the distraction. "Well what the hell do we do about this?" Sasuke said. Despite all the chaos, he sounded so calm.
"Do we help the others?" Naruto cried.
"And do what?" Sasuke twisted his nose. "They're jonins. We're not even chuunins. Whatever's happened to that freak—"
"What the hell is this?" They all looked to see Temari bounding near the tree they'd landed on. Her eyes grazed the scene wildly, observing her brother with the greatest dread. Sasuke immediately set Hinata down and stood erect.
"You," he snarled. "You started all this; ever since you first skulked into Konoha. The Hokage knew too, didn't he? Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand, you traitorous Sand rat."
"Back off, kid!" It was Kankuro, landing next to his sister. "Do you really want to make things worse? Take a look around you, why don't you?"
Sasuke almost backhanded him. Instead he made a violent gesture toward the Shukaku, who was at present engaged with several Konoha jonin. "Look at your monster of a brother and tell me how I can make this worse! You fools let this happen—invaded our village and planted yourself in the Hyuga estate, and even in the academy!"
"This isn't the time for that!" Temari exploded. Her face was flushed with terror. Her hands and shoulders were trembling, and her eyes were stuck wide open. "He's not fully awakened yet."
"What?" Naruto demanded. He was supporting Hinata by the shoulders and did not move from his spot, though he was tempted.
"Gaara's still present, but he might not be for long. He's unstable enough as it is. He barely knows who he's attacking anymore. I'm not even sure he cares."
"Well we knew this was going to happen," Kankuro told her. He looked up at the Shukaku. "What I want to know is what the hell triggered this? This wasn't part of the plan. Not now. Not this soon." The tower broke completely in half. It leaned, breaking into several fractions before it shook the forest floor. Hinata and the others faltered at the impact, for it rocked the trees on nearly every square mile.
Temari and Kankuro rushed off without a word. Sasuke called out to them in a fury, but did not move away from his teammates. "They're running. Typical. "
"Where is Niisan?" Hinata asked aloud. She had been looking for him and couldn't see him anywhere.
"He must have gone back to the village," Naruto said.
"I doubt it," Saske threw out offhandedly. "The forest is on fire, remember? If anything he went back into the forest to look for you." He dropped a nod towards Hinata. "A little late on that one." He spat to the side. When it landed on a leaf, Hinata saw blood. A thin trail of it ran from the corner of his mouth.
"S-Sasuke-kun?" she stammered. He barely seemed to hear her. There was a severe twitch in his left eye, and his skin was stark pale. It was a glaring contrast against the ink markings all over his body, which at this point seemed to be causing him great pain. He looked ill—feverish. Naruto noticed too, and fell into panic.
"Sasuke, what the heck's wrong with you?" Sasuke gave his head a vigorous shake.
"I'm fine." His balance faltered as he said it, and he had to bend down into the leaves to keep himself from falling. Hinata felt sick to her stomach.
"No . . . Sasuke-kun, don't tell me you've been poisoned?" He laughed harshly.
"Poisoned? By what?" Naruto gasped.
"The scorpion! It grazed you—I saw it! But I didn't think . . . aw hell! Sasuke! Hey, Sasuke!"
"Uchiha!" Gaara bellowed. "Where are you? Come out, come out!"
"Dammit," Sasuke hissed under his breath.
"Uchiha!"
"Dammit . . ." He glanced at Hinata, saw her staring at him pleadingly, and with the deepest concern anyone had ever expressed for him.
"There you are!"
Sasuke struggled to stand. His knees were shaking. His spine was trembling. It felt as if every vein in his body carried fire. Chakra began to waft from him. The curse mark on his neck was a hot coal buried into his skin. Energy of the most unnatural and exhilarating kind began to fill him, making him whole, making him tremble.
"Sasuke-kun, please no," Hinata whispered. Naruto drew back, holding Hinata.
"Wh-what the heck? Sasuke?"
Dark waves of chakra began to roll off of him. He squared his shoulders and bowed his head, pressed his nails to the mark on his neck, drawing blood, and laughed once. "Dammiiit!" He lunged at the Shukaku. The others cried out for him.
Gaara laughed maniacally, spiked tail lashing, teeth showing. He reached for Sasuke who swept through his fingers and traveled the arm. Yes, Sasuke was fast, but he might as well have been flea on a dog. "What do you think you can do, Uchiha?" Gaara taunted, laughing still. The Shukaku's skin was literally alive, grabbing for Sasuke, throwing spike after spike, attempting at every step to pull him in.
Sasuke gave a single leap which catapulted him at eye height, but then the tail came down. It was like a mountain plummeting from the sky, pointed end first. Sasuke danced in the air, avoiding each individual spike, and even blasted through a few of them. Inevitably, however, he was overtaken. The tail was just too massive. His torso caught between two spikes, pushing him down, down, imminently in danger of being crushed death.
Naruto left Hinata's side and sprang a direct path down. His precision was well enough that he managed to snag Sasuke and send them both flying into the forest. The tail smashed against the ground with the force of an astroid. "Is that really the best you can do?" Gaara laughed wildly into the skies. The part of his tail which staked into the earth detached from his body, molding to the ground itself and creating lake of shifting sand. The tail regenerated quickly, this time with bigger and sharper spikes.
Hinata's heart almost collapsed. She really thought Sasuke was going to die. "He's not himself either," she said. Again she used the Byakugan to examine the Shukaku's forehead. Gaara's chakra pathway was like a glowing star in the midst of a void. "The Shukaku is empty," she observed. "Without Gaara-san it doesn't work. Improvise . . ."
Sasuke and Naruto reappeared quickly. Naruto had every clone he could spawn ready to attack, and Sasuke with his endless wave of phoenix fire. If they kept this up they'd be drawing on life energy soon. Hinata saw what they were doing. Distracting him. Distracting him because that's all they could do. Buying the village time. Buying her time.
Hinata watched in wide-eyed fascination as Gaara emerged from the forehead. He was obviously conscious, observing the scrambling scene below with intense satisfaction. "Pathetic!" he shouted, and laughed. "This is the best Konoha has to offer? What a waste of my time! I'm going to trample your village, do you hear me? I'm going to obliterate everything that you care about and leave you with nothing! Not even your lives . . ."
"Gaara-san!" Yes, a distraction was exactly what she needed. Gaara barely noticed her in time to turn around. Even with her injured leg, even with her depleted chakra, even in her cowardly state, she had managed to scale the Shukaku to get to him. To Gaara. But she did not attack him. She did not want to use the Gentle Fist or anything else for this.
"Wh-what the—"
She clasped him firmly by the shoulders and forced his eyes. "Look at me!" she cried. "Please, stop this!" And then more gently, "Please don't fight. Wake up."
"Hinata!" Naruto's voice echoed from below. "What the heck are you doing?"
"Gaara-san—" Gaara's eyes went wide, furious, confused, confounded. His hands lashed out and secured her neck.
"You meddling woman! You—" Hinata grabbed at the hands around her neck, wincing.
"Gaara-san . . ."
"Who are you to him?" he demanded. "What use can a woman like you possibly have to anyone? Why does he fight so hard for you? Why?"
"He is my . . . he is my . . ." she could not get the words out.
"If he loses you, what will he do then? Avenge you?" His voice turned mocking. "I would like to see him try. Oh, I would like to see him try . . ."
"Hinata!" Sasuke screamed. She could hear his voice drawing closer.
With his hands still around her neck, Gaara began to drag her into the Shukaku. The sand molded around his body, sucked him in as if it literally were quicksand. Sasuke's voice continued to grow louder, more desperate. "Hinata!" By the time he reached them it was too late. She was gone.
He ate her.
Gaara ate her.