Chapter Seven: Lost and Found
"There he is," Temari breathed, barely audible to her companion. Kankurou nodded.
"Do your stuff Crow," he whispered. His marionette took on the form of a shinobi donning the enemy crest, a sun etched into the headband, and slipped inconspicuously into the crowd.
"You sure this'll work?"
"Positive. No one will notice"
Temari sighed, and thought she saw someone leaving the hospital. A maroon haired, red clad someone. …Masao? Suddenly she was behind them kneeling next to Kankurou. Temari blinked, not surprised as much as she was confused
"Temari-san, I have a plan to get Gaara out of there." Kankurou jumped, not noticing her until she spoke. "I just wanted to warn you, what you're about to see is nothing more than an illusion. I'm just going to try and get him out of here. By the way Kankurou?" He raised an eyebrow. "I would advise getting your doll out of there before I begin a little reformation."
She vanished and Temari shot Kankurou a sarcastic smile. "No one will notice, eh?"
"Shut up! How can we trust this girl Temari? We don't even know her!" His sister made no reply. Irritated, he turned back to the scene in the camp. Masao's face was solemn and angry, but she moved normally as if nothing were wrong. She limped slightly from a leg wound Gaara gave her, but otherwise looked all right. The crowd parted as she made her way to the center, where they had Gaara tied and chained to a thick pole. His head hung limply and his gourd was tossed to the side.
"Masao?" Kenji asked as she passed by him. Ignoring him, she stopped in from of Gaara and knelt before him. She grew absolutely furious, but didn't show it. The chains left purple bruises on his pale neck and he had cuts on his face where they had dragged him on the gravel. Rope burns adorned his arms, discoloring them red. She lightly stroked his hair for a moment, and lifted his head up gently.
"So this is the demon that killed my brother?" She put so much emotion in her voice that Temari actually thought she was serious. But she trusted Masao to keep Gaara safe. Besides, it was only an illusion right?
"Now!" she cried, pulling a mess of different weapons out of numerous containers hidden in her clothes. "To get revenge for Raiden!" The crowd cheered. Masao could barely do it; even if it was a figment of their imagination it was still her Gaara. Biting her lip nervously, although this wasn't evident to the crowd she was fooling, and began her normal routine. She began at his forehead, pulling the skin from his skull; scalping him. Misapprehension or no, it made her want to cry.
Kankurou and Temari stared in carefully disguised horror. Even though they knew it wasn't really happening it was still awful to watch.
Gaara stirred and his darkened lids opened. He tugged slightly on the chains attaching him to the shaft and felt them fall to the ground. Glancing up, he saw with wide eyes the very last person he had expected. "Masao? What's going on?" She made no reply, but her face was deathly pale and sweat beaded down her skin. When he was free he backed away from her. "How do I know you're the real Masao?"
"How the hell… should I know?" she replied, her voice becoming a hardship to use. "I suppose… you'll just have… to trust me…" She panted heavily, but still smiled at him. He looked at the captivated crowd cheering and some looking slightly green. She answered his unspoken question, "I made quite a show… of me… torturing you. I have to say I may… be taking it a little far." Suddenly, she collapsed towards the ground, but Gaara caught her before she hit it.
"Masao!"
"I think I used a smidgen too much chakra," she huffed affably.
"Can you get up?" She tried, she really did, but as soon as she rose to her feet she fell to her knees. He pulled her arm around his shoulder and placed his around her waist. She gasped.
"Gaara, we need to get out of here. Now! My chakra is all gone!"
"Should I call back Crow?" Temari was about to reply, but something in the scene below caught her eye. The illusion had vanished, and the initial shock of seeing the young man Masao should have been torturing carrying her away started to wear off the crowd. Her chakra was depleted and she and Gaara were in danger.
"No and we're going to help!" She swung her legs over the ledge of the roof of the house and hit the ground. In one fluid movement from falling to running she made her way towards the mob that began the assault on her brother. With a cry, she knocked from their feet the first few people nearest her.
"I'm putting you down for a moment, Masao, but I'll be back." He leaned her against a building. She nodded weakly and, after a moment's hesitation, he kissed her swiftly on the cheek. He ran after his siblings. She rested her eyes, trying to regain her strength, but a solid body blocked the sunlight from penetrating her lids and she opened them.
They had long black hair, and a dark blue jumpsuit. Masao identified him. "Ken…ji?" she questioned feebly. His face was murderous and he grabbed her long maroon hair, pulling her up by it. She cried out in pain when her bad leg was bent awkwardly beneath her. He held her eye level, and his expression gave her the impression that he would very much like to kill her.
"All right," he spat. "I see what you are now. You were so willing to forsake your village just for an affair with that monster. Well, I'm not going to let you ruin Hikarigakure's chances of winning this war! I don't care if you're the Sorakage or the leader of the Black Ops!" He shook her and she bit back a whimper of pain. "I'm going to make you see reason by killing that bastard from Suna!" Dropping her, he fished in the case strapped to his leg and pulled out one of the most shameful of weapons that a shinobi could wield: a revolver.
She cried, "Stop this Kenji! Are you crazy!" She pulled herself to her feet only to collapse back onto her stomach after a moment. "Why are you doing this!"
"You don't get it do you Masao?" he roared "You're turning your back on your village, disowning the war we've been fighting so hard to win, to be with that abomination! You know that?"
"Disowning a war that should never have been started in the first place!" she replied, tears swelling into her eyes as she brought herself to her knees. "You pressured me into thinking it was the right thing to do; that Hikarigakure would be recognized as well as Oto or Suna or even Konoha! But I know now that it's the wrong thing to do!"
"You fool!" he growled, his whole body shaking. "You used to be so brave, so strong, but now you're nothing but a stupid, whimpering crybaby!"
"People change Kenji!" she snarled. Gaara heard the words and looked back at her in shock. "I've changed and Gaara's changed, each for the better. But you! You've changed for the absolute worst! Are you still so jealous that a girl got to be the Sorakage and you didn't?"
"You bitch!" He pitched a set of throwing stars at her, and she rolled to the side to avoid them.
She mocked, "You don't get it do you Kenji?" Each word came out loud and clear, though stressed. Standing up slowly, she pulled out a set ofsix senbon and placed them in-between her fingers, a fuuma shuriken in her mouth, a kunai in each of her clenched hands, and threw chained-scythe over her shoulder. "Gaara means more to me than the entire world put together. More than this dumb-ass war… and more than you! I would die for him!" He threw a kunai at her in fury, which she dodged easily. "And I know that those here wouldn't shame me for loving him if they truly were my friends. You know that!"
Gaara glanced at her in wonder as he continued to battle oncoming Hikari shinobi. She was willing to die for him, and he realized, he would do that and more for her. He loved her unconditionally, and he was willing to admit it. He loved her. He loved her so much he could hardly bear it. She was his life, and he couldn't remember how he had survived without her. Probably through ignorance of her existence. He hadn't known until he met her how much he needed her. But now he knew. Oh God did he know.
All at once, she hurled the smaller projectiles at Kenji and he leapt into the air to avoid them. He did an aerial corkscrew to avoid the scythe, but she pulled it back by its long chain and deeply cut his arm. Releasing the chain and taking the shuriken from her mouth, she opened it and vanished. How can she still have enough chakra to be doing any of this? he thought wildly.
He hit the ground from his airborne dodging and felt someone grasp him from behind and press cold steel to his jugular. "Sorakage-sama, you're not seriously going to kill me are you?"
"I would most certainly like to." She kicked the back of his knee and he fell to them with her still holding his arm behind his back and the shuriken to his throat. "You're an evil bastard that deserves to die!"
"Really?" He was gone, and she was clutching a log where he should have been. "Substitution jutsu. Simple, yet effective." A gun cocked behind her and she saw Kenji with his revolver.
Masao turned to run, expecting to feel a bullet penetrating her body, but no shot was fired. She looked back at him, and tripped over something large and fell on her back. It rolled on top of her and its coarse surface scratched her skin. "A gourd?" She gasped and looked over at Gaara obliviously fighting another shinobi with Kenji stealthily coming up behind him. She tugged the cork on the gourd, trying desperately to tear it out.
"Good-bye, Demon from Hell," he snickered, his finger dragging back the trigger.
"NO!" Masao screamed, wrenching the stopper from the top of the gourd. The sand inside erupted and flew towards Gaara just as the bullet flew from the gun. His eyes widened and he fell backwards sharply, unmoving when he hit the ground. Too late, the sand formed a protective barrier around him. "Bastard!" Masao ran forward and tackled Kenji from behind, jerking the gun from his hand. She tore it apart piece by piece with her weapons and littered the parts on his face. Jumping back up, she stumbled hastily over to Gaara.
Masao pushed through the sand, which unexpectedly gave her easy passage and knelt down by his unnaturally still form. She cupped his cheeks. "Gaara?" she whimpered. He didn't reply and she shook horrifically, burying her face in the front of his shirt. She cried loudly, sad, bitter tears of sorrow. He was gone. Gone forever. Gone, gone, gone, gone! "GAARA!" She screamed his name over and over again, even though she knew it wouldn't bring him back. Her mind felt numb. Her body shook. She couldn't accept it.
The fighting had desisted, all of the Hikari shinobi watching their leader sadly. So this is what it had come to. This is what war brought to people. Pain, suffering, death. But in the end, it had to come to this for them to realize that war didn't solve anything. It only brought conflict and hatred. Losses of loved ones. More and more killing than the world would ever need in a lifetime.
Temari bristled in animosity and stormed to Kenji, flickering open her fan. Kankurou grabbed her arm, and she glared furious, angry daggers at him. "Look," he told her pointing. She turned around and saw with an amazed expression that Gaara began to stir.
Masao felt movement beneath her and sat upright in shock. He pushed himself up, grabbing his forehead. The large bullet was embedded there, but he was still alive. Gaara knocked it from his forehead and chunks of sand fell in small pieces from where the bullet hit. "Sand armor!" Temari whispered.
Kenji narrowed his eyes and stood up. "Dammit, you're not dead." He raised his hands to perform a hand sign. Gaara leapt up, furiously, and held Masao protectively to his side. Temari and Kankurou grabbed Kenji's arms and pulled him back.
"I think this had gone too far, what about you Kankurou?" She glanced at her brother who nodded. She looked out at the villagers. "Any objections?" No one spoke up. Gaara walked over with Masao and lifted up his gourd, putting the sand back inside. He wrapped his arms around Masao who blushed to be seen by so many people.
"I'm so glad you're safe," she whispered.
"Masao you little whore!" Kanji growled. "We could've won this war! We could've used your seduction of their little demon to our advantage! Now you've abandoned Hikari!"
"You keep singing the same old song, just give it up," Kankurou ordered. Kenji kicked his foot up backwards and dug the kunai he had attached to it with his chakra into Temari's leg. She gasped in pain and let his arm go then he pulled himself out of Kankurou's.
He began to run, but a voice called, "Stop right there Kenji!"
"Ryuki!" The nursemaid pressed Kenji against the wall.
"I told you not to stress her out, ne?" He grinned then vanished from her grip in a puff of smoke. She stared at the empty wall for a moment before stomping her foot. "Dammit! It was just a doppelganger!"
Gaara knelt by his sister. She smiled at him widely and he blinked. "Don't worry about it ni-san," she told him. "Doesn't even hurt." She pulled the knife out and tossed it aside. Masao smiled and fell to the ground in relief.
"I am so sorry I caused all of this trouble for the three of you…" she told them, hugging herself guiltily.
"Alls well that ends well, ne?" Temari commented. Kankurou said nothing, just wrapped up his golem and retied it to his back. Gaara strode over to Masao slowly and held out his hand without hesitation. She took it and he pulled her into a kiss.