PHANTOM OF THE SAND
ACT 2 : Scene 5
Things couldn't have been tenser than they were at that moment. It seemed the entire world had pulled itself to a stop in breathless silence. Time raced back to the instant where the two nins had faced each other in the Chuunin exam. Their battle then had been cut short due to the war. In all truth is annoyed Sasuke to no end. He had been on the winning end, having drawn the "untouchable" Gaara's blood. When their fight had continued in the woods afterward he had lost the upper hand. The Shukaku had begun to surface and his cursed seal had been causing him trouble. If the circumstances had been different he was sure he would have won. Here he stood again in front of his undefeated foe, detesting the bland look on Gaara's face more than ever.
Gaara remained poised in the same position he always did – a calm, cool posture with his arms crossed over his chest. The pose coupled with his predatory expression always seemed to silently prod, 'Go ahead. I dare you'. Whether the arrogance he exuded was intentional or not, no one could really argue with its presence. Gaara seemingly had every right to smolder with self-pride. For ages he had remained untouched and had killed anyone and anything that came in his way. Sasuke had been the first to make him bleed, (save his own engraving of his tattoo) but it seemed to do very little to hurt his pride. It was another of the reasons Sasuke was not fond of him at all.
How would this battle end, without anything to hinder them? To the two hidden nins in the trees the question was more complicated than that. Naruto had told Sakura everything he knew about Sasuke's growing abilities – having been on the receiving end of most of them at one time or another. Rock Lee had been quick to relate the tales of Gaara's own growth and of new, vastly dangerous techniques. It would be a wonder if the two didn't end up destroying Konoha if they started seriously going at it. The thought of the worst possible outcome made Naruto and Sakura both incredibly nervous.
In his own head, Naruto was trying to pre-empt the battle. It was slightly daunting that he felt more confident in knowing how Gaara would act than Sasuke. Of the two, and again with the utmost irony, Sasuke was the most unpredictable to him. Knowing the things he did about Gaara proved to Naruto that the sand-nin was not completely out of control. The circumstances of his life had cost him a lot, but in the end he was no different than the fox-boy. Naturally he could not shake Gaara's words about needing to kill others to feel alive, but he had a limit. He DID stop. Naruto vaguely remembered in his battle worn fatigue that Gaara himself had declared the end of the fight between them. He had gone away peacefully. The fact that he and his siblings had answered the requests of the Hokage with little hesitation also spoke greatly for him. He had readily assisted a recovering Rock Lee – a boy that had not so long ago been his prey in the exams…..a boy who he had almost crippled for life.
If there was one thing Naruto wasn't sure of, it was how much Sakura was going to affect all this. Gaara fought for himself and loved only himself – these were his own words. At first glance it would seem almost nothing had changed in him, but to highly trained eyes like Naruto's there was something hidden there. Naruto, in all his isolation, was able to read people even in the minutest ways. He had never missed a glimmer of the disgust held for himself by the people of Konoha when he was small. Beyond the unwavering expression, his own personal mask of disgust for the world, Naruto saw it in Gaara's eyes.
He knew it because he had looked at her the same way a multitude of times before. But Gaara did not blush and fiddle with his fingers and grin like a complete doofus around anybody - much less girls. He had been trained in nothing more than the cold, stone-faced ways he had now. But even the best warrior couldn't stop that warmth from coming to his eyes when he looked at a woman he loved.
Subaku no Gaara did love someone beyond himself.
His sand hissed up behind and around him protectively as it always had and Sasuke remained motionless before him, assessing the situation. He knew how Gaara fought and knew the techniques he would use. Best of all he knew that they weren't as flawless as most wanted to think. Just as long as he didn't summon up his inner demon things were sure to be fine.
"Never one to make the first move were you," Sasuke found himself chiding a little. From the beginning it usually seemed that Gaara began his fights defensively and then became offensive later when his opponents became more of a threat. It wasn't a bad tactic since it allowed him to assess his enemy thoroughly before attacking. To a lot of onlookers it may have seemed a sort of moot point, though, since once Gaara did attack it was soon over and done with.
But there was another reason he waited. He enjoyed watching his opponents try and fail. He enjoyed watching them hurt themselves while foolishly attacking him before even thinking. A lot of the time he felt they deserved it for being so stupid. He was and had always been a predatory animal waiting in the darkest shadows of the woods, reveling in the distraught looks on his prey's faces when they knew there was no way out. And once they had become boring or, in even rarer situations, when they became a threat, he ended it.
Perhaps that was why he offered Sasuke no response to his remark and seemed to stare right through him. Perhaps he was bored with Sasuke. Perhaps his mind was elsewhere.
Naruto glanced at Sakura sideways for a moment. The look on her face pained him a little bit, as it always did when she got upset. She was on her toes, looking as though she would spring forward into the middle of it all given the chance. Sasuke was a man she had loved for what seemed like forever and no doubt she held at least a small amount of affection for her theater phantom. Her inner turmoil and inability to defend one man was proof enough of that.
Sasuke huffed an unamused breath through his teeth and reached down to grasp his opposite wrist. There was no point in playing games here and wasting his chakra on techniques he already knew didn't work on Gaara. If the Chidori could blast a hole through his impenetrable sand defense then it was sure to defeat him alone. Just to make sure there would be no slip-ups, however, Sasuke allowed his cursed seal to spread over his body in a smear of black patches. He saw no need to let it go all the way and waste the energy. The chirping ball of chakra accumulated and pulsed harder in his readied hand.
"I'm sure you'll remember this one," he spat and raced forward towards Gaara with the burning mass behind him. The sand-nin stared at him as he came and then suddenly had his hands up, his fingers together to ready his jutsu.
"Saikou zettai bougyo…..shuukaku no tate," he murmured.
The ground trembled beneath them and it took all their chakra for Sakura and Naruto not to tumble out of the tree they were perched in. Both the eyes from the trees and the red ones of the Uchiha widened as a massive form sprouted up in front of him.
"What IS that?" Sakura asked, slightly dumbfounded as Naruto looked upon it in the same manner.
"It …it looks like Shukaku…!" Naruto offered, still confused. The masses of sand had sprung up to Gaara's defense against Sasuke's amplified Chidori, but not in the shell manner they had before. An immensely tall figure of Shukaku peered down on Sasuke's approaching form. Sasuke was already too close to stop himself even though he was unsure if the thing intercepting his attack was alive or not. His chidori crashed into the statue's lower belly and the force of it was enough to create a burst through the other side. He soon became aware that his upper arm was submerged in the softened sand – which suddenly became tight around his flesh. Almost instantly the faux Shukaku melted around him and he found Gaara's eyes staring him down. Before he could even respond, the sand grasping his arm was accompanied by other wisps around his torso and legs. They reared with him over Gaara's head and roughly slammed Sasuke backward. The force was so strong his flying body took out about three trees on its way down.
"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed and it was all Naruto could do to restrain her from going after him. Gaara's sand retracted back to hovering around his feet as he waited to see what else the Uchiha would attempt.
Just when it seemed Sasuke was out like a light, he was back on his feet and walking with an eerie calm back to where Gaara was standing. He wobbled a little on his bruised legs but remained straight as he eyed his opponent dangerously.
"So we're playing dirty…," he murmured. "Fine." Naruto wasn't very comforted by the tone in Sasuke's voice. It sounded almost darker than the one he had in their last fight before he left Konoha for good. There was a purpose in it….and it wasn't a good one. Sasuke lifted his head and cracked his neck to the side once before straightening again. His red eyes focused on Gaara and his own unwavering glare. "Mangekyou Sharingan!" The small dots in Sasuke's eyes suddenly swelled into each other and for a moment it was as if there was a shrill scream filling Gaara's ears.
"What's he doing?" Sakura asked frantically.
"Using a Sharingan… What's the Mangekyou?" Naruto replied.
"Mangekyou…! He has the mangekyou!"
Sasuke had a tight lock on Gaara's eyes and it wasn't long before the sand-nin's head swam into a bloody red illusionary vision. On the outside he flinched and his eyes widened before scrunching up again. He had never experienced anything like this before. He had experienced all his inner demons and his mother speaking to him, but what was this invader inside his head?
"Not feeling too good, are you," Sasuke murmured. "Didn't count on this, did you?" Gaara faltered, coming to his knees while his sand crumbled along with him.
"Get out…," he said lowly, bringing a hand to his head. He was in no real pain, but it felt way too foreign, too intimate, too invading. Images started swirling into his mind and he found himself standing in a pool of murky, dead water. No matter what he did or how he called, his sand would not come. His gourd was not there. His eyes wandered the empty space wildly until, suddenly, he plunged down into the depths of the water. It was thick and tasted coppery and he soon came to realize he was drowning in blood. He attempted not to swallow it, but his throat gagged and sucked some of it inward. He could feel it coursing down the back of his throat.
"I thought you liked bathing in the blood of others…," Sasuke's voice prodded from nowhere in the dark. "A little too much for you to swallow here? There's nothing to save you… Not so proud without your sand."
"He looks like he's choking!" Sakura exclaimed, leaping from the tree before a stunned Naruto could stop her.
It was getting harder to breathe and the air he managed to grasp came in small bubbles and gasps. He was down with his face in the dirt, his hands grasping the earth frantically. His sand flicked up and down again, seeming confused.
"Sasuke, stop! You don't want him to fall unconscious!" Naruto declared as he and Sakura came nearer.
"He won't be unconscious. He'll be dead," Sasuke replied, mostly to himself.
Suddenly, Gaara's sand flew up in the form of a claw and grasped at Sasuke's neck tightly. His attention suddenly diverted, Sasuke lost the illusion he was controlling. Gaara pressed himself to his hands and knees and lifted his head slowly, his eyes empty of anything but madness.
"Die…," he choked as the claw closed in around Sasuke's neck ever tighter.
Die, die, burst, explode…. Shukaku snickered in Gaara's mind.
"No, stop it right now!" Sakura screamed as she reached them and dove against the sand to shove her hands against Gaara's shoulders. Her boby broke the sand holding Sasuke and he fell backwards onto the ground gasping for air. Forced backward to his knees, Gaara instinctively seized Sakura's throat instead with his own bare hands. "Urk!"
"Blood…. So bittersweet…," he choked out, his eyes intently on hers as his fingers dug into her throat.
"Gaa…Gaa….ra," she gasped, squeezing his shoulders. Her head swam and everything in her vision faded to black. Slowly, as she fell unconscious against him, Gaara felt his senses drifting back to him. His panicked heart slowed and the smell and taste of blood faded from his mind. His eyes wandered down to her form and for a moment he just stared. Naruto rushed over and reached to pull Sakura up but for an instant Gaara's hands flew up to prevent him from moving her.
"I need to check if she's okay," Naruto said as calmly as he could. Gaara HAD just had been choking her, so he was a little more than rattled. Slowly, Gaara released Sakura and Naruto took her up with a sigh of relief. "Just unconscious…" Gaara watched Naruto as he slipped Sakura up in his arms to carry her. "I'm taking her back to the village." His eyes softened a little at Gaara's almost clueless look.
"What did I do?" he asked quietly. Naruto shook his head slightly.
"I think you had better lay low for a little while… okay? For her sake." The sand-nin regarded him coolly and he came to his feet but gave no visual acknowledgement of the request. His eyes wandered to the unconscious Uchiha not too far away and for a moment they narrowed. Much to Naruto's relief, though, he turned away from them and vanished from sight.
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Author's Note: Well, there ya go everyone. I hope that was as exciting as I wanted it to be lol. I just didn't want to make everyone wait any longer!