All I Ever Wanted Was Love
Chapter 1- Dreaming Comes So Easily
Gaara felt tired, even more tired than he ever felt before. This was strange since he rarely ever slept. Breathing heavily, he glared at the figure standing across from him on another branch of a tree several yards away. The boy clothed in all black, except for the red and white fan on his back and bandages wrapped about his forearms and legs, was also panting as he steadied himself with the trunk of the tree. Red eyes, full of hate, shot back daggers at Gaara as he tried to ready himself for the next assault between Shukaku's arm and his Chidori.
Farther away, below in the lower branches, a blonde hair boy laid unconscious on his back with a girl clad in a red dress crouching next to him. Gaara had picked up the unconscious boy's name while the girl, 'Sakura', had been screaming his name as he knocked him out. Now the Sakura-girl was trying to shake the life back into Naruto with tears forming in her eyes.
'That girl,' Gaara thought loathsomely while gripping his forehead, 'Why does she care so much about that Naruto person? Why does she remind me of those I once thought loved and cared for me?'
However, he shook off those thoughts and gave an evil grin as he imagined the prospect of this turning into a bloody fight, and launched himself towards his opponent who had chakara focused in the palm of his hand. In an instant, their clash was over and the red haired boy felt the full pain searing in his left arm where the Chidori had cut through. Rather than scream in pain, Gaara began laughing his malevolent laugh with realization that if he killed this boy, he would have the greatest sensation of life than he had ever experienced.
The raven-haired boy collapsed from the strain of using his powerful technique on a branch a few yards behind Gaara. A shrill scream filled the usually quiet forest. Again, Gaara's attention was drawn towards the pink-haired Sakura-girl as her scream seemed to hang in midair.
'That girl, how senseless is she?'
His glare turned into an evil smirk once again as he turned to his opponent.
"Sasuke-kun, eh? Do you really mean that much to that pathetic girl?"
The boy called Sasuke turned towards him. Gaara noticed the look of hatred that passed over his face in a split second even though it was quickly replaced by a smirk resembling his own.
"No," Sasuke replied, "She just has unrealistic fantasies all the time. She's completely useless to everyone…" A look of despondency passed over the girl's features as Sasuke turned his smirk into a warm smile. "EXCEPT our Konohagakure shinobi team #7!"
Sakura's face lit up with hope and nodded with affirmation. Gaara scoffed at Sasuke's attempt to reassure Sakura of what they thought was their 'soon-to-be triumph' in this battle.
"No matter what she is to you or what any of you are to each other. I'll just kill you all. I'll show what true strength is when it comes from loving and fighting for only yourself." With that, more sand poured out of the gourd and formed into a spiky-looking tail. Using Shukaku's arm, the half-demonized boy pulled himself back and threw himself forwards like a slingshot. Sasuke did not have enough energy to move himself out of the catapulting demonic boy's way and was sent flying through tree limbs, eventually coming to a stop at the trunk of a very large tree. The injured boy coughed and droplets of blood spewed forth.
In the distance, he could hear Sakura screaming his name again. Sasuke willed for his body to move, but could not due to the immense pain from what felt like he had broken every bone in his body. Cursing silently, he prayed and hoped that Naruto would wake up in time to get himself and Sakura out of there and buy him some time to recover from the last blow.
Something was wrong.
Something was definitely wrong.
Naruto opened his eyes to a beautiful meadow that was carpeted with green. Splotches of color indicated the location of flowers that grew mainly in the field that he knew so well.
Something was amiss.
The sky was a clear blue with a few clouds lazily drifting along. Birds danced about happily and flew all around looking for good feeding grounds. It was like paradise.
A hellish paradise that is.
Naruto couldn't shake off the bad feeling he had. Sitting up he looked about his surroundings to find that Sakura and Sasuke were approaching him. Sakura wore a sweet smile while eyeing the dark, silent and brooding boy next to her.
Suddenly he realized what was missing.
Sound.
Sakura usually called out his name when approaching him but this time he had heard nothing announcing her presence. Sasuke's footsteps could always be heard even if he kept the silent and cool act on, yet no footsteps were heard. The birds' joyful singing could not be heard either.
It was surely a hellish paradise.
Naruto tried to speak, but found that he couldn't. He looked down at the palms of his hands where he noticed traces of sand left from the meadow ground.
'Sand?'
He looked towards Sakura and Sasuke to warn them, but he was too late. His teammates had frozen and their colors had slowly melted away into the color of sand. The young genin shouted, but once again, the deafening silence consumed any and all noises. Slowly, all the bright and wonderful colors of the happy meadows melted away into the tan color of sand. The whole meadow had turned into a desert-like setting with mounds and mounds of sand.
Naruto felt like throwing up everything in his stomach. The sand reeked of blood- old blood and fresh blood.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
The young boy looked up towards the sky as a droplet landed on his nose. Naruto wiped the liquid off the bridge of his nose to find that it was red… Blood.
He stood there trying to make himself realize that blood had just fallen from the sky. In an instant, more and more blood came pouring forth from the heavens, covering the bloodied sand with even more blood. Suddenly, a section of the sand in front of Naruto began moving. A head appeared, then a neck, shoulders, arms and body, then waist, legs, and feet.
That red-haired freaky guy!
Gaara.
The Sand shinobi's lips curled into a malicious smile, licking his lips where the rain of blood had splattered. The freaky boy tilted back his head, letting the blood fall into his open mouth. The red-haired boy's chest moved with laughter showing that he was truly taking pleasure in the moment. Instead, of hearing the boy's laugh, Naruto felt its murderous intent echoing through out the field of sand.
Fear crept all around the blonde ninja and immobilized him. By then, the blood rain had drenched both boys including the sand, giving a red haze to everything. Naruto's eyes were wide with terror. Gaara moved his arms in an upward motion and the sand all around rose up in a wave behind him. With a smirk, he brought his hands down before him and the wave of sand came rushing towards the horror-filled boy.
Naruto screamed.