Inner Demons 5 - Fight for Existence
Screams, Screams as if the world is ending.
Louder than a sand storm, louder than a storm of any of the elements.
Louder than any war cry,
The screams of pure fear, as thousands chorus together in unrivaled terror, running and running to get away from…
…A little boy with red hair and blue eyes.
Have you ever woken up just feeling really, really pissed off?
A ray of bright, white sunlight dripped through the window cut into the faded tan-colored stone, shining in a small square in a room filled with dark shadows.
In the center of the room on the floor was a figure covered in sand and a single blanket.
It looked like a large jail cell, except for the entire floor was covered with sand. The only object remotely similar to furniture was the sand gourd leaned against a shadowed corner.
The only decorations the scars carved into the walls from claws, dark once red stains like an angry abstract cover the walls, and sand sticks to the ceiling and the walls, dripping down in silent waterfalls.
No, it didn't look like a jail cell, it looked like a tomb.
It smelled of death.
Tense emotions of Hate, Anger, Pain, and even fear were laced through the room like invisible spider webs, hung thickly in the air.
Voices, loud and angry were yelling far in the distance.
Roughly they yanked Gaara from blissful dark unconsciousness into the sharp daggers of reality.
"SHUT UP!" Gaara shouted, and rolled over, trying to bury himself in the security of the sand. That strange yet familiar pounding and burning sensation screamed through his head.
His head felt…why couldn't he describe that feeling? What was the word for it? Gaara only knew only one thing about this sensation.
He didn't like it.
The voices only increased in anger and volume. Gaara was fuming with anger, he shakily forced himself upward, nearly collapsing on his left arm though he wasn't sure why. Gaara angrily recognized the room as his own as he tried to stand without falling.
"What idiot let me fall asleep!" He shouted, against the stonewalls.
Stone, blood, and sand didn't answer.
Gaara tried to shake off the sick hateful, furious, there weren't words to describe the feelings so thick in the air that felt so familiar, but he hated so much.
He had to get away. He had to stop it now.
Gaara stormed towards the door, slamming it open so hard that it made the gash in the wall behind the doorknob even deeper than it already was.
"SHUT UP!" He shouted into the stone house, shaking with fatigue and anger. Downstairs below him stood Temari and another sand shinobi.
Silence. The darkness from his room had melted out after him, shadows giving him the form of a nightmarish demon.
Temari stared up at Gaara, who looked worse than absolutely miserable. Covered in sweat, sand and blood, wearing clothes ripped and faded from sun and dust. He was hunched over, tired and holding his head in obvious pain.
Temari turned to the sand shinobi. He was tall, wearing Kazekage office advisor robes, with a dark beard that matched his eyes and cruel, cowardly heart.
"I suggest you leave," Temari whispered angrily, "As much as I'd like to see you try and kill Gaara now, Binsala." Temari's eyes laughed mercilessly at the shinobi officer who had just about wet himself when Gaara had appeared.
"That's LORD Binsala." The Kazekage advisorwhipped aroundto faceher angrily, "Who have no right to defy me."
Gaara stumbled and grabbed the banister for support, when he saw the ripped and dirty bandage hanging off of his left shoulder, his eyes widened as he remembered what had happened. Every emotion, every memory and image sinking into place instantly. The realization hit him so hard he nearly fell.
"Get out." Temari laughed, "I really couldn't care less what rank you are, you're still a bloody coward."
"Don't mock me you little whore!" Binsalashouted atTemari, " Your rank is mere dirt below mine!"
Binsala's hand flashed as it struck towards Temari's face.
The hand splashed harmlessly against a wall of sand.
Binsala froze in shock, and slowly turned to face up where Gaara was standing.
"Do you want to die?" Gaara's voice loomed darkly from upstairs, "Just say the word and it will be quick and painless. Touch my sister again, and it won't be."
A fear-filled silence filled the wide room.
"Get. Out." Gaara said firmly.
"Lord Gaara, let me explain--," Binsala bowed, only to get a face-full of sand that smashed him backwards into the door.
"GET THE HELL OUT!"
Binsala frantically tried to make a break for it, but sand wrapped around his legs and pulled him back.
Gaara smiled darkly, "Too late."
Temari gasped and her eyes went wide with shock as crimson blood splashed against her face in a sickening wave.
A different kind of silence settled upon the room. Upstairs Temari heard Gaara's door shut behind him.
Why wasn't she happy? Gaara leaned against the back of his door and slid to the ground. The horrified expression that Temari had given was imprinted into his mind, her unspoken screams getting louder and louder.
"But I protected her. Just like He had, with Her." Gaara spoke barely audibly, thinking of a guy with blonde hair, and a girl with pink hair.
"Why? WHY!" The darkness was starting to set back in, crawling on his skin and seeping into his mind.
Gaara glared at his room, and raised his hand out towards the three walls he hated so much, and for the first time in his life, he cleaned his room.
A huge sandstorm ripped through his prison, scraping against the walls and floors. Bloodstains were worn off, scars were shredded smooth, and every grain of sand, and filth went out the window in a brilliant blast.
Gaara looked at the spotless and simple room that lay before him, and sighed with relief and a slight satisfaction, relaxing against the door. The sun had moved and the ray of light had gotten a little brighter, but dark shadows, still remained.
Kankouro climbed in through the kitchen window carrying bags of supplies, struggling to set the stuff on the counter, he explained, "I saw blood underneath the front door. I'm guessing Gaara's gone back to normal."
He turned to his sister who was sitting in her seat at the table, blood was splashed on her face and she was shaking slightly, she half-stuttered, "D-depends on your definition of normal." She explained sounding agitated. Temari always sounded ticked off when she was scared real bad.
"So who'd he kill?" Kankouro grabbed out two candy bars andtossed one to Temari.
"Binsala." Temari opened the package shakily, "I haven't cleaned it up if you still want to see."
"No way," Kankouro said disbelievingly, "I was wondering when that bastard would get it. I hated that guy so much."
"Do you want to know the weird part?" Temari took a bite of the chocolate, "He killed him cause he was going to slap me."
"What?"
Gaara didn't laugh a whole lot, but the times he did it was because he had killed a whole lot of people, or when Temari had been slapped by Baki-sensei for not getting a jitsu right.
An awkward silence settled, Kankouro moved from where he had been leaning against the counter and sat in his seat at the table across from Temari.
Kankouro tried to change the subject, "You know what I really hate? Those stupid little brats back in Konoha. What did they have to be so freakin' happy about?"
Temari rolled her eyes in acknowledgement, "God I hated those kids." They both shook their heads.
"It would have been nice though, if when we were little…if we had someone looking out for us…you know?" Temari said thinking of how those morons Uchicha and those other two had protected the little kids. She was also thinking of all the days she and Kankouro had been picked on, and beaten by older kids, and sometimes adults. They had become a way of attacking Gaara, and getting away with it, that was until Temari and Kankouro had learned to fend for themselves, and make everyone else scared of them as well.
"So what's going on in Sunakagure?" Temari asked ending the painful reminiscing silence.
Kankouro let out a breath of disgust, "Pure chaos, not only are like half the desert ninjas dead from the battle, but there's a drought and people are dying, and now that our Kazekage's been dead for the past few weeks the whole place is divided into at least three major factions. Binsala was part of Al Kaeda's group."
"Yay." Temari twirled a finger around in mock excitement, "What do we do now?'
"How am I supposed to know?" Kankouro shrugged, "I got enough supplies to last us a week, but after that we'll have to something." He threw the candy wrapper behind him, not caring where it landed, "All of Sunakagre's gonna be history by the time we run out of food and water."
"Any word about Baki?"
"He's around, he said he'd stop by later. I think he's checking out the depths of the situation or what not." Kankouro got himself a drink of water before he paused, "He said he was glad we're alright."
"Do you mean he said he was glad Gaara was alright?" Temari spoke bitterly.
Kankouro drank his water so he wouldn't have to reply.
"What are we going to do about Gaara?" Temari brought up the main issue that was bothering them both.
"I think it's really what Gaara's gonna do to us," Kankouro said angrily, "Could we break out of here before he noticed?" he suggested.
"I don't know."
Silence.
Kankouro spoke for them both, "Damn Gaara. Damn this whole Damn Desert."
Kankouro stormed out of the kitchen angrily, once he got out of the kitchen door he froze, and looked up to see Gaara sitting on the ceiling.
The puppeteer stepped back in shock wishing he were in a thousand different places.
"Why do you hate me?"
"What?" Kankouro backed into a wall.
Gaara was suddenly in front of Kankouro yelling in his face, "WHY DO YOU HATE ME?"
"Gaara, I uh…"
"No! I Want An Answer Now!" Gaara held Kankouro's collar and pinned him against the wall, sand swishing around his feet.
Kankouro was too stunned out to speak.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" Gaara demanded.
Temari came out and gasped.
"Answer Me!" Faint traces of tears formed in Gaara's dark eyes, when Kankouro failed to answer Gaara angrily smashed his older brother into the wall with sand. Kankouro cried out in pain.
"GAARA STOP!" Temari shrieked before she could stop herself.
Gaara froze, and watched Kankouro fall to the ground bleeding, and gasping for breath. Temari ran to Kankouro and knelt at his side.
Gaara stared with wide eyes at his hands, and backed away, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
Nothing he could say would change the looks of horror and hate imprinted on Temari and Kankouro's faces.
Gaara turned and ran, disappearing in a cloud of sand and shadows.
"No wonder they hate me."
Author's Note; Hey people, thank you for reading! I'm sorry about all the previous errors that totally ruined the story. Since there isn't a lot of info available about the sand village I'm going to be making up some original characters…tell me if they suck, really. (Hey how'd you like Binsala? With Al Quaeda? I mean Kaeda :). Yes, he's Osama. (I guess was is a more appropriate term)You know I was thinking 'desert' and bad guys we all want to see die.
I took a while describing Gaara's room because your bedroom is a window into your mind. (A lot of the stuff in this story is symbolic if you like deep reading)
Thank you for the corrections (Sarichan, etc…) I never would have known I screwed that stuff up. I've been having a total war with uploading and editing stories trying to fix that junk. You guys all rock.
(Oh yeah, tell me what other characters from the manga you'd like to see involved, that'd be cool)
Next Chapter: Where do you run when you have no where to go?
