Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
7 Days, Come What May
Chapter XX: Unfair Play
All the color in Emiko's faced was drained.
'No, not Gaara. Anyone but Sabaku no Gaara.'
"Tell us where you kept the hostages!" the voice startled the Sound nin out of her thoughts.
She looked up at the person who had just shouted that to her. It was the Nara genius. Emiko thought he looked more nervous than usual.
'What should I do? I really don't want to fight Gaara…'
"Hey, idiot. What's taking you so long to just answer us?" Sasuke snarled at her.
Gaara lowered the Sand transporter until both he, Shikamaru, and Kiba were standing on the ground.
"Give up, Sound nin," Gaara told Emiko in a voice that was either hateful or loving.
"I-I…NO!" Emiko glared at him, trying to conceal her fear of him.
"Heh. Dumb girl. You're as stubborn as your brother! We already captured him and had him tied up, you know!" Kiba said, then turned to Gaara. "Go on, Gaara! Tell her what you're made of!"
The redhead didn't need any telling twice. Already, he was walking slowly, step by step, towards Emiko. He had no guards up, no tension in his body. It was as if he was casually walking to pick some flowers. Of course, the Sand shinobi had no need to put up his guard. His sand was already the perfect barrier.
However, Emiko couldn't be any more nervous. No one could really blame her. This is Sabaku no Gaara we're talking about. All of her attempts to conceal her fear were in vain. Gaara could see through all of this. He had seen enough people being afraid of him. He knew she was afraid of him.
Gaara walked closer, closer…closer to Emiko until he was only one arm-length away from her. Emiko's knees were literally shaking. Sakura, who was tied to the tree behind Emiko, watched in awe at the redhead. The pink-haired girl thought she now knew what made Gaara so scary sometimes.
"W-What do you want!" the fear was in Emiko's voice.
"….You know what I want, Sound nin," was Gaara's dry reply.
"Tell us or die," Sasuke added in, even icier than Gaara.
Emiko looked around. There was a practically legendary redhead standing in front of her, an Uchiha at the west side, a Nara on her right…and to top it all off, a dog-boy backing them up. This was bad. Very bad.
The blue-haired Sound nin knew that even if there was no one there with her except Gaara, she would still lose. Gaara alone was too much. But this, this was Gaara plus a bunch of other fairly good people. Emiko gulped and forced herself to look into Gaara's eyes.
'I am not going down without a fight!' She thought.
"F-Fine. I don't want to die now…I give up," Emiko told the redhead quietly.
There was only a hint of a smirk on Gaara's face. Emiko now slowly stepped backwards slowly.
"I…will untie Sakura for you now. Don't kill me, o-okay, Sabaku no Gaara?" she eyed him for a brief moment and turned around to untie Sakura.
Once she had Sakura untied, she helped the pink-haired girl up.
"Thank you-"started Sakura, but she couldn't even finish her sentence.
All of a sudden, Sakura felt herself falling, falling…falling.
"Ahhhhhhh!" she cried out, frightened.
Sakura saw the cliff above her getting smaller and smaller as she fell farther down.
"Y-You! That's unfair play!" Kiba shouted at the dishonest Sound nin.
"Heh. There's no 'fair play' in this world…" was Emiko's reply.
Indeed, Emiko had done unfair play. She had untied Sakura, then purposely pushed the girl down the cliff that was behind the tree. Sasuke's Sharingan activated immediately. He was angry. In the blink of an eye, his face was only an inch away from Emiko's.
It made the Sound nin shudder with fear…those scary red eyes.
'T-This…This is even scarier than Gaara…' Emiko thought.
"If Sakura is hurt, you are dead…" the Uchiha spat into her face, and then swiftly followed down after Sakura.
"Gaara, Kiba, let's tie this girl up before she makes any more trouble," Shikamaru was the first to come to his senses after the Sound nin's unexpected actions.
Kiba nodded.
"Gaara, could you secure her legs and arms with sand for a moment?" Kiba told the redhead.
The Sand shinobi did as he was told, his fearsome eyes never leaving her. Any one could've thought that Emiko would be scared to death by now, but then, the blue-haired girl started laughing. She laughed like a maniac, and didn't stop.
"What are you laughing about!" the Nara demanded.
Emiko was laughing so hard that a single stray teardrop had formed in the corner of her right eye. She wiped it away, and then giggled a bit more.
"Hahahaha…you know, I was always a sore loser…ever since I was little…" she told them.
"…What the fuck? What does this have to do with where the other hostages are?" Kiba shouted at her.
"Hahahahaha! That…" she giggled. "…Is what I'm about to tell you. You'll know soon enough where the other hostages are…by the sound of the bomb!"
Shikamaru's eyes widened. "What? What the hell do you mean, you fucking Sound nin!"
The Nara was apparently very, very worried about his hostages, especially…
The sand bonds on Emiko's arms and legs tightened. It hurt.
"Tell us," Gaara told her in a merciless voice.
Emiko stopped giggling, but just smiled at Gaara sweetly, like she had already lost her mind.
"…Your sand…it really is the most wonderful type of defense after all…" she said.
The sand tightened even more.
"Tell me now," Gaara hissed, his eyes dark.
"…Fine…." She smiled again. "….While you guys were in the confusion of my 'unfair play'…I pressed the bomb activation button in my pocket….it's going to activate the bomb that I've installed near the hostages' location….and…." Emiko paused, her eyes widening for a dramatic effect. "…BOOM! My bomb's gonna go off in five minutes…"
The blue-haired girl started laughing again. Shikamaru had gone white. He, as a genius, knew that to reach the actual location of the hostages in due time was almost impossible. He only had to hurry, and now. It seems that Gaara had already read the Nara's mind.
"Tell me the location of the hostages," Sabaku no Gaara used his fearful image to its fullest extent on the Sound nin.
"….Don't worry, guys, they will be long dead before you even reach them…I installed the bomb there in case that this would happen…never thought I'd actually use it…"
"Just tell me!" the Nara shouted impatiently.
"…Hahahaha worried, aren't you? Well, it's right down that path to your right…about two kilometers from here in a cave--"
"--Shut up, that's all I need to know!" Shikamaru cut her off, then quickly formulated a plan in his mind. "Gaara! I need you to transport me with your sand to the cave now, because there's no way I can cover 2 kilometers in 5 minutes! Kiba, you stay here and watch the Sound nin!"
Gaara nodded and quickly knocked Emiko unconscious with his sand. Kiba hurried over and tied up her arms and legs. In mere seconds, the Nara was riding on Gaara's sand transporter in its fastest speed across the dawning sky.
"Ahh…Man! I'm jealous of that Nara! He gets to ride on that speeding Sand transporter…." whispered Kiba, as he looked up at the sand transporter getting smaller and smaller.
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"…Argh! Sakura groaned.
She had tried to get a grip of a rock or something, but she couldn't. She had fallen too far away from the rock. The fact that she didn't have any weapons with her didn't help. Emiko had stripped her of all the weapons she had. Sakura fearfully took another look downwards, and saw a rushing stream with a huge cascading waterfall at the side.
'Ohh, no…I don't want to die now! I'm still young…' It wasn't that Sakura was afraid of heights. She wasn't. But anyone would be scared if they're falling freely through air.
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut, unable to take in any more sight of the height below her.
"I-I guess I'll make my last dying wish now…" she said aloud to herself. "…I wish for everyone to be safe and sound, for all the people at home to live happily ever after, and for Sasuke-kun not to forget me when I die…"
Now that Sakura really thought of it, it made her sad. Tears accidentally sprung to her squeezed-shut eyes. Then, she felt an arm encircle around her waist. Sakura immediately opened her eyes, to find the person she had previously thought of in her 'dying wish'.
Sakura had stopped falling, now that Sasuke had grabbed onto her waist. They were both hanging upside down. Sakura could see that Sasuke had tied a rope to his own waist, with the other end firmly secured on a kunai that was stuck on the rock ledge above.
The two stared at each other upside-down.
"Sakura, your last dying wish was stupid."
The pink-haired girl's eyes widened in protest. She had wished for him just not to forget her and this was how he returned her favor!
"…What! It was not! And it's also none of your business!"
Sasuke raised his eyebrows. "…None of my business, huh. My name was mentioned in there, so I would assume that it's my business."
"W-Whatever…" replied Sakura, reddening and trying to sound like she didn't care.
Besides, she couldn't find a clever comeback. Then, she sighed. No use getting so worked up over him now. They were hanging upside-down with only a single rope as their support…and if they fell down, it would be into the midst of the ever-running stream below.
"Yea, well then…thanks, anyways," Sakura told him. "But we better get out of here soon."
Sakura could feel all the blood in her body rushing down to her head. She took a look at Sasuke. His face was also red, because of all the blood.
"Heh. Good thinking for once, Sakura," he smirked.
Sakura held back her retort. She was too tired to get into any argument with him now.
"How, then?" she asked.
"Like this…" he clutched tighter onto her and began to rock his body back and forth, so that the rope swung more and more.
After a while of confusion, Sakura understood what he was trying to do. He was trying to make the rope swing enough so that they would reach the rock ledge that poked out from the cliff. Sakura looked up at the Uchiha and sighed.
'I hope it isn't wrong to stare at him like this when we're in a situation such as this…' She thought, a small smile creeping up to her face. '…It's ironic, I never felt so happy…'
She hadn't even noticed that Sasuke had already reached the rock ledge and had gently placed her down on it. He also sat down on the rock ledge.
"What do you think you're staring at, Sakura?"
Sakura was startled out of her thoughts. "NO! Nothing, obviously…"
He smirked.
"No need to hide it, Sakura. I'm not stupid. I know I look good."
The pink-haired shinobi couldn't have turned more red.
Inner Sakura: 'Argh, his arrogance! So never-ending!'
In reality: "W-What! Whatever…Fine, I'll admit you look okay, but not the best, okay?"
Sasuke, who had stood up, trying to find a way to get off of the rock ledge, now sat back down, his eyes now serious.
"Then, who's the best, Sakura?"
Sakura hesitated for a moment, trying to think of someone that looked better than the arrogant Uchiha in front of her.
"Hmm….?" Sasuke pressed, leaning closer to her, a hint of triumph in his voice.
It was as if he thought she couldn't find anyone better-looking than himself. Sakura was set out to prove her supposed-crush wrong.
"G-Gaara!" Sakura burst out the first guy name that popped into her head.
The pink-haired girl didn't know why she burst out that name. Maybe it was because she remember how frightening and intimidating Gaara looked when talking to Emiko earlier.
The Uchiha literally froze for a tenth of a second. He quickly recovered.
"…You're not serious, Sakura," he said, his face void of emotion.
"Y-Yea! I am serious!"
Inner Sakura: "Hell yea! I broke his arrogance! Hell yea! I broke his pride!"
For a brief moment, Sakura thought she could spot something different in Sasuke's eyes…was it jealousy? Or something else? But she didn't have time to think over it, for the emotion was gone a moment later. He grabbed her arm and roughly forced her to stand up.
"Sakura, do you recall what I told you about you and other guys?"
F L A S H B A C K
"So, I say you are never allowed to flirt or do anything with any other guy except me," He said with an unemotional face.
He seemed to think that it was completely normal for him to say this. The idea that maybe he was being too possessive never entered his head. Normally, as a girl, Sakura felt rebellious.
"…Oh, yea? So what if I like you! What if I flirt with EVERY OTHER GUY, huh?" she gave him a fierce look, her cheeks turning into a deeper crimson.
No visible emotion showed on his face.
"Then, Sakura. I'm going to do this to you," he said, his eyes merciless.
He tilted his head down closer to her and roughly crushed his lips down onto hers. She had no time to protest.
F LA S H B A C K
"Well, yea…" Sakura blushed a little, remembering the scene. "Don't tell me...you're going to become overly paranoid about this stuff again?"
He smirked again.
'What's it with him and smirks!' she thought.
"…What if I am?" he said.
"…"
"…Rule number two, Sakura. Never say I'm second in looks to anyone…"
"H-Hey! But-" Sakura started.
Sasuke shushed her, then continued.
"...'Cause chances are, it won't be true. And…"
"…And?"
"You are mine, get that?" he proceeded to climb up from the rock ledge.
Sakura stood there in awe for a while, then began climbing up after the Uchiha.
"…Fine, then, you overly-paranoid boyfriend…" the pink-haired shinobi whispered to herself.
Inside, Inner Sakura couldn't help but admit that she was secretly glad.
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Joyce: And no, this is in no way GaaraXSakura:) In case any of you got confused:D...Sakura just said the first name that came to her mind:D No significant meaning to it:D...Here's my answer to some of your reviews…:)
To lunarangel: Glad you liked the sledding part:D Lol, I liked it too!
To The8thSin: Thanks for your review:) As for your question as to where Jiro is…well Kiba had him tied up somewhere where he can't escape! XD
To HarunoSakura's Tears: Wow, I'm so, so glad you think my fanfic is the best you have ever read! XD
To Tokyobabe2040: Lol…Gaara you panda bear! XD That's sweet:D Glad you liked my style of writing:D
To Shodaime Ramenkage: Lol, glad you liked my traps! XD It was fun thinking them up.
To TheGurlWithNoName: Lol, it does seem like the plot already exceeded 7 days, didn't it? Actually, I already have the whole story roughly planned out and already carefully counted the days:D If you're wondering, this story is currently on it's 6th day, about like…hmm…let's say, 4:00 A.M.? Lol:) Thanks for asking:D
To SociopathLover: Hello! Thanks for your review! I realize that I've been kind of cheesy:D…You're a good reader to notice that:)…So I promise that I will try harder, harder, and even harder until you will be pleased! Works ass off:D…XD…I really, really enjoyed reading your review very, very much, I really think it's helping me write better, reading all these reviews! XD…Thank you:)
To moonlightpath: Aww, you're so sweet:D Wonders who Ten Ten reminds you of….
To senx2: OOPS! I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really, TRULY sorry I spelt your name wrong:(….Hope you aren't offended or anything :)…Please, please, forgive me! Thanks for your review:D
….Whew! It took a long time answering all those reviews! Lol I got a lot more but that's all I'm going to answer for now, because I'm very busy:D