I didn't need to open my eyes to know we were in the desert from the blistering sun beating down on my pale body. Someone was carrying me; I'm guessing it was Kitty. I couldn't sense any other chakra signatures nearby so we were alone probably heading for the prison mentioned earlier. The blistering heat had dried out my lips making my tongue instinctively run across them attempting to moisten them, but they were too cracked.
"You're awake?" I heard Kitty question as his pace started to slow.
"How long have I been out?"
"You were exhausted, so I let you sleep, you slept through everyone cheering and making a lot of noise this morning. When was the last time you slept?"
"Slept peacefully? Hm I'd have to say not since Sasuke killed my Father. Always had to keep my guard up, even when I was staying with Hikaru." Just the mention of his name made me miss my cousin, we didn't have a proper goodbye.
"We left at dawn, which was about five hours ago, we split from the group maybe an hour ago. Gaara is allowing me to take you to the prison instead of Anbu, I thought you'd appreciate that more."
"How long until we get there?" I asked hoping it would be a while.
"Couple more hours," he answered eventually slowing to a stop. He set me down then pulled out a canteen, took a sip then handed it to me. "Drink as much as you need, I have two more."
I didn't realize how thirsty I was until I chugged the whole bottle wiping the droplets off my chin. I looked up at Kitty who gave me a smile making me return the gesture stirring feelings within me.
"What kind of prisoners are in the prison?" I had to know what kind of prison this was. It was probably nothing compared to Father's prison, but I've seen enough in the year and a half at that prison to know what goes on.
"Criminals and rogue ninja...some of them we caught recently were uh...your father's prisoners." He was reluctant to share this information, but he knew I deserved to know that. Those prisoners were let out by Sasuke after Father's death and if they find out who I am, they might look for revenge for how I treated them. My time there turned me into a cruel person, if I was bored, I'd practically toy with the prisoners.
"Is that why Gaara told me to behave? I'll be a target and if I fight to defend myself it'll still look bad on me, right?"
"Yes, Gaara knows that the Raikage will fight to keep you in prison if you show defiance and aren't a model prisoner."
I let out a heavy sigh seeing now my situation had gotten worse. Many of the prisoners were violent and I had to discipline them to the point where they weren't a problem anymore; they could do the same to me and I'll just have to take it.
"How are you feeling?" He was concerned for my safety, and my face probably gave away what I was thinking.
"Hopeless, if I can't defend myself then I'm dead. I made enemies in Father's prison."
"Lots of fights?" He questioned holding out his hand for the canteen. My fingers lightly brushed his as I gave it to him feeling a tingling sensation course through them.
"That and well those men have been lonely so rape as well. I tried to intervene many times but I couldn't help all of them. Everyone was shoved into many cells creating a tense environment, so fights broke out all the time. Father didn't care if someone died and at the time, I didn't either."
"I can assure you that this prison won't be like that. The genders are separated, and you're not shoved into a small cell."
"Yeah but am I sharing a cell with people?"
"From what I remember there are four to a cell."
"Great, three against one." I crossed my arms hugging my body trying to find some comfort.
"What's your favorite color?" He inquired out of the blue making me give him a questioning look.
"What? Where did that come from?" I wasn't sure what he was doing but it was a good distraction from my current situation.
"I want to get to know you Kitten," he laughed making me smile. I wish I could hear that laugh every day.
"Weird time to want to know that information." I tried to hide my blush from him but of course it was impossible, so I shifted my weight to my left attempting to turn away from him.
"Keeps your mind off of everything, now answer the question."
"Um I don't know. I've always loved the color of my eyes, so I guess red?" I had never thought about such trivial things before but I guess this was what normal people thought about.
"There you go, you're getting to know yourself as well. Mine is purple, but you could've guessed from the face paint." He motioned to the faded paint on his face. "So, when you're out of jail, what will be your new dream?"
"Could've sworn I've told you this before but, I want a home. With my Father I never felt at home, the Leaf was the closest thing I had to one but I wasn't welcomed there." I looked at the ground remembering my time at the Leaf. It wasn't a bad experience, quite the opposite but I had ruined any connections I had there.
"You know, home isn't a house or a village. Home is where you feel comfortable, safe, and surrounded by loved ones. I think that's what you really need."
I let his words sink in internalizing his meaning of home. I did have a place to stay everywhere I went but it never felt like home, even when I was living with Father in the Sound village. My time at the Leaf was different from living with Father but I was treated differently. In the academy no one liked me and I never felt welcomed, except by the Hokage who foolishly let me live there. It wasn't that bad living there though; I was treated with kindness by my team and some of the other teams as well.
"I guess you're right, so do we still have to go to prison?" I questioned giving him a sheepish smile batting my eyes hoping he would change his mind. "We can just run away together."
He sighed, shaking his head. "I wish but that would be impossible. What happened when you were on the run? Bounty hunters still managed to find you right?"
I let out a defeated sigh knowing he was right. "Yeah, I just don't want to do this. There's so much I ugh... want to experience in life."
"Like what?"
"Well a normal childhood but I know it's too late for that. Having actual relationships with people, friendships, having a rival, being enemies with someone over something trivial, a Father who cares about me...a Mom." My eyes shifted to him and I felt my cheeks heating up. "Being in a relationship with someone who loves me and uh well a certain relationship."
"What kind of relationship?" He questioned raising a brow most likely knowing what I was referring to.
"N-nothing, forget I said anything." I quickly said feeling embarrassed at what I said.
"Nah I wanna know what you meant."
"I don't know what you're talking about." I turned my head away from him trying to hide my embarrassment by covering my face with my hair.
"Uh huh, sure Kitten whatever you say."
"I'm very vulnerable at the moment, give me a break and for some reason I can't hide anything from you." I got up and started to walk away from him in a random direction. "Okay I'm ready for prison now, I can find my own way." I just wanted to get out of there, he's never going to let this down now.
"You're going the wrong way!" He shouted making me turn on my heel towards another direction but once again he corrected me. I hung my head in defeat letting him lead the way chuckling at my behavior.
Our journey to the prison was spent having many conversions of different topics. Kitty surprisingly had a lot to talk about from his childhood to his experiences as a shinobi of the Sand. I was mostly silent, but I occasionally asked him about life in his village which he answered in detail. There wasn't much for me to talk about since basically he knew everything already. Anyone who knows what my father has done in the past nineteen years already knows my life. As of now, Kitty was talking about his relationship with his siblings until he abruptly stopped when the wind started to pick up.
"What's wrong?" I questioned him as he looked around in a panic. "Kitty?" He held a stern expression making me worry and curious as to what was going on.
"We need to find cover, there's a sandstorm approaching."
I gave him a confused look as I looked around for any sign of change in weather seeing nothing but clear skies. I looked back at him seeing him bite his lip in frustration as he searched for any type of shelter. The sand around us whipped around as the wind started to get stronger making me believe his statement; he's lived here longer than me so I don't doubt he knows when one is coming.
"Do you trust me?" I asked, giving him a serious look. When our eyes met I could see the conflict in them as he debated my question. "Do you?"
"Yes," he answered but I could tell he was still skeptical.
"Uncuff me," the wind started to get stronger by the minute, "I can create a shelter. Please Kitty, if you give me access to my chakra I can create an earth barrier."
He let out a heavy sigh then pulled out the key as I saw the sandstorm start to form in the distance. The sand flurries became continuous sheets of sand hurtling across the desert surface making its way towards us. The sunlight soon started to dim quickly turning into darkness as if there was an eclipse.
Larger pebbles started to strike against my shins, knees, and thighs. The spray of dancing sand grains climbed my body striking my face making me shield my eyes. The sky was shut out, all but the nearest rock formations faded from view, the scenery was filled with hurtling, pelting, stinging, biting legions of torment. It was as if some great monster of fabled size and unearthly power were puffing out these hurtling blasts of sand upon our heads. The sound it emitted was like a giant hand drawing rough fingers in regular rhythm across tightly stretched silk.
Kitty quickly unlocked the cuffs freeing me. I instinctively wove hand signs slamming my hands to the ground creating a shelter around us. It was pitch black but at least we were safe from the storm; I could hear the sand hitting the walls trying to get through. As expected, I couldn't even see Kitty who I guessed was in front of me.
"Do you have any wood? I can make a fire." I suggested as I activated my Subete Miru in order to see him and what was around us. "I can't see anyone else around us, do you think everyone else got caught in the storm as well?"
"They might've found cover. The village has built shelters throughout the years for these situations, we were unlucky enough to be far from one." He reached into his weapons pouch pulling out a scroll followed by pouring chakra into his finger tip and setting it on the scroll. He pulled out a few scraps of wood setting the rest on the side while a few pieces sat between us on the solid ground I had created. "I carry spare parts for my puppets just in case."
I wove seals blowing out a small ball of fire onto the wood setting them a blaze illuminating the small shelter I created. "How long do these things usually last?" I questioned turning off my kekkei genkai.
"Could be a few hours to days."
"Hm so if we don't show up, they'll assume we got caught in the storm and died? Hey, we can use that as an excuse and run away together." I suggested knowing he wouldn't agree but it's worth a shot.
"They would alert Gaara and have the whole village out looking for us. If you escaped, that would look bad on his reputation. The other Kage would think he let you escape."
"I knew you were going to say that." I let out a disappointed sigh placing my elbow on my thigh and rest my chin on my right palm. "Guess we're stuck in here for a while then. That storm came out of nowhere, are they usually like that?"
"Yeah, but in the village, we have a certain team that tracks the sandstorms and notifies the village to take shelter when one approaches. When the wind picks up in the desert it's usually not a good sign. You'll get use to it."
"What do you mean by that?"
"When you get out of prison, you're going to live in the Sand Village with me."
"I-I don't remember agreeing to that." I stammered taken aback from what he said but felt my stomach doing flips as my heart pounded.
"Ko, the Sand will be your best bet at achieving your dream. The village is full of good and understanding people and of course I'll be at your side the whole time. You can move in with me and we can go on that date we talked about." His words were going to make me faint.
"W-we didn't talk about a date."
"Yeah we did, the first night you entered the war and we were in the medical camp. You said and I quote 'where would we have a date? Prison? Or evading bounty hunters?'. He tried mimicking my voice but was terrible, his pitch was still too low. "And then we exchanged a few words then," he reached out to grab my chin making me face him, "we had our first kiss."
As I stared into his eyes, they were the same as that day. It felt like there was a magnet between us pulling us towards each other as if it were an addiction. He broke eye contact glimpsing down at my chapped lips causing me to look down at his as I remembered the tender kiss we had shared. I pressed my lips into a thin line trying to moisten them with my tongue. I felt the need to kiss him wanting to feel something good for once after everything that has happened during this war.
I leaned in as did he, feeling his soft breath tickling my lips in the instant before they made contact. Giddy happiness mingled with primal desire as our lips found each other moving passionately on their own. I felt his rough hands cup my jaw sliding down my neck pulling me closer. His lips moved against mine with a tender passion I'd never felt before. I roughly pushed him onto his back crawling on top of him never breaking the kiss.
He placed his arms around my back pulling me closer to him as I tangled my fingers in his spiked hair. I was the first to break the kiss trying to catch my breath as I leaned in planting kisses on his jaw trailing down his neck. I could feel a fire inside me as I yearned for him, I could feel from under me that he wanted this also; we were both taken over by desire and pleasure like normal teenagers. He grabbed my shoulders, flipping us over so he was on top of me.
I looked up at him as his hands roamed my body which instinctively made me flinch and pull away from any touch. Images flashed before me of when that trash of a man violated me. I shook my head trying to get away from those thoughts.
"Are you alright?" Kitty questioned stopping everything he was doing making me yearn for him even more.
"Yes, keep going." I assured him but he wasn't convinced.
"Do you want this Ko? I mean you haven't been yourself lately and I-"
I put a finger to his lips making him stop mid-sentence. I placed both hands on his cheeks making eye contact. "I am one hundred percent sure Kankuro. I want this, I want you. I let a man destroy my first kiss; I will not let him destroy this moment together. I don't know what will happen when I am in prison and if someone were to take advantage of me in there, I don't want that to be my first time. I want you to be my first." I told him as my hands slipped from his cheeks making their way down to his shirt. "If you're still not convinced, I made sure our shelter had a solid floor for this exact reason."
I grabbed the hem swiftly pulling it up revealing his toned torso making my hormones go crazy. I flashed him a smile as I took off my own shirt seeing his eyes bulge as he stared at my chest making me chuckle. He was hesitant, I couldn't blame him. He needed more coaxing so I grabbed his arms placing his hands on my breasts.
"It's okay," I reassured, placing my hand on the back of his head to pull him down to me. I placed his head next to my neck bringing his ear to my lips. "I want to love you," I whispered hoping he knew I didn't mean physically love him, I wanted to emotionally love him as well but I knew that would take time which is something we don't have at the moment. "You leave me breathless." I whispered leaving a kiss on his earlobe making him shiver.
This moment right now, is the one thing I knew I wanted. Out of everything I have done in my life, this was my choice, my decision and no one was going to take that away from me. The one thing I don't regret.
Finally the end! I rewrote the ending so many times but I think this is the best one out of them all
Fun fact: I'm actually not a Kankuro fan but I think he deserved some love XD
I was thinking of writing a sequel but I have no idea where to go with it. If anyone has ideas or things I can improve on for my next story feel free to message me.
Thank you everyone for the reads and follows :)