Wow, I got 15 reviews last chapter! The previous record was thirteen for one chapter. Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! I'm sorry to say that this chapter isn't very exciting; but you do get to find out the legend behind the dragons.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The first thing Gaara noticed when he woke up was that he was lying down, a concerned – and slightly red – Hinata looking down at him.
The second thing he noticed was that his head was on her lap.
Feeling a light blush creep onto his face, he quickly sat up; he instantly regretted it as he felt dizzy and began to sway slightly. Hinata instinctively reached out and gently grabbed his shoulders to steady him. "P-please be careful, Gaara-kun. Y-you're not fully recovered y-yet." She smiled. "B-but you were really amazing!" Gaara stared at her, confused. "I-I mean, the way you fought. It was r-really incredible."
Gaara continued to stare at her. "It used up all my chakra, though, so I can't protect you anymore." This statement surprised both of the shinobi; Gaara wasn't used to protecting someone, and Hinata hadn't expected him to protect her in the first place. Hinata bent her head down. "I-I'm sorry that I've been such a b-bother on this mission," she said softly. "I-It seems that all I ever do is c-cause trouble for people…"
"Idiot," Gaara muttered, standing up and reaching out his hand. "It's not like you cause trouble on purpose. Besides, as long as you try your best, that's good enough." Hinata stared at Gaara's outstretched hand for a moment before taking it, smiling brightly. "Thank you, Gaara-kun."
Gaara noticed something as she stood up. "You're bleeding." Sure enough, when she looked down, she saw that there was blood dripping from the wound she had gotten during the battle with Rai. "O-oh, I didn't even realize…"
"Take your jacket off."
Hinata looked at him. "Take it off so I can bandage your wound," Gaara explained, holding up a piece of fabric that he had ripped from his shirt. Hinata did as she was told as the Sand shinobi went to the water's edge and dipped the cloth in. He then began to wrap it around her stomach, causing Hinata to blush slightly from his touch. When he was done, the makeshift bandage was wrapped tightly – if not sloppily – around the wound. Hinata grabbed her jacket and was about to thank him when she heard something.
"Gaara! Hinata!"
The two turned, and saw their comrades running towards them. Aside from a large gash on Kankuro's arm, the four seemed to be unharmed. "I'm glad you're both alright," Kiba said. "Did you have to fight one of those things too?" Hinata nodded, and her teammate allowed his eyes to drift down towards her stomach. "Hinata! What happened?"
"I-it's fine, Kiba-kun," she answered, shooting a sideways glance at the Sand ninja beside her. "G-Gaara-kun fixed it for me." Gaara narrowed his eyes as he felt four other pairs focus on him. "Gaara did? Seriously?" Temari asked incredulously.
"Would you stop acting so surprised?" Gaara said, glaring at everyone but Hinata. "It's not like there was anyone else here to do it." He gave his sister a warning look when she opened her mouth, daring her to say something more; she shut it immediately and gave him a crooked smile instead.
"Yeah…Well, the one we were fighting kept saying something about having 'orders' to destroy us or something. I thought it was pretty weird that some thousand-year-old dragon would be taking orders from someone."
"That means that there's someone else behind the scenes that was controlling them," Shino said. "I suppose we should try to find out who, and why they did all this."
"I can tell you."
All six shinobi turned to see that Rai had somehow managed to free herself from her sandy tomb. They instantly took defensive stances, ready to fight. "Calm down," the purple dragon said, lying down on the sand. "That little brat sealed off all my chakra points, remember?" She motioned to Hinata. "I couldn't attack you if I wanted to."
"Why would you tell us anything?" Kankuro asked suspiciously. "Aren't you our enemy?"
"Judging by the fact that all of you are here together, I'm assuming that my brothers lost." Kankuro nodded. "Well then, I'm sure that they're dead by now, whether you killed them or not. I'll meet the same fate soon, so I might as well tell you whatever you need to know."
"Wait a minute," Temari interrupted, confused. "What do you mean, they're probably dead? We didn't kill them, just so you know. Is someone else behind this?"
"Yes," Rai answered, sighing. "Perhaps it would be easier if I started at the beginning. I'm sure you're all familiar with the legend revolving around us, correct?" They nodded. "Well, that story isn't completely true. Yes, we did protect the village now known as Rairyuu, and we did require one sacrifice once a year. But you can't really blame us; after all, we dragons needed to keep our strength up in order to protect the people.
"Things were going well. We had a peaceful contract with the village, and protected them from anyone wanting to arm it. One year, however, we didn't get our offering at the appointed time. Because the village hadn't kept up its end of the deal, we agreed not to do anything to protect it until they did their part. We didn't know that the town had indeed sent the offering as they always did; apparently, something happened to it along the way to the lake at which we dwelled. Needless to say, the village wasn't very happy that we weren't protecting them anymore.
"After a few days, rumors began spreading about how we had been seen with an enemy town, and that we were aiding them in the war that was going on at the time. Of course, this was not true, seeing as how we had been at the lake the whole time, waiting for the village to realize their mistake at not sending us the sacrifice. Somehow, the rumors found their way to us, and we began to wonder just what was going on; so we decided to go and see for ourselves.
"We found ourselves watching a battle that was raging between the two nations. When we arrived, we saw that a large red dragon was fighting with the enemies. At the time, the art of the ninja was only just being discovered, and was not practiced or even known among many people, so no one seemed to realize that it was a genjutsu and not a real dragon.
"Not wanting our name to be ruined, we prepared to join the fight and prove that the one the village was fighting was a fake. We weren't paying much attention to anything else, however, and soon found ourselves in another genjutsu; this one put us to sleep for over a thousand years."
"Wait," Kiba said as she paused in her story. "So you're saying that you've been asleep for a thousand years? How is that possible?"
"I do not know," Rai replied. "All I know is that we were awakened not too long ago after our thousand-year sleep. The one who woke us up was the ancestor of the one who cast the spell in the first place. He told us that everything had been a plot by the villagers from the start because they were tired of offering a sacrifice each year. We became angry, and planned to take our revenge on the village. However, when we saw how peaceful it had become, we hesitated. It was only after we heard the legend about us that we went back to the man and told him that we didn't want to carry through with the attack, and wanted to resume the peaceful lives we once lived.
"He didn't like what he heard, however. He told us that it was too late, and there were plenty of witnesses that had already seen us. Because of the legend, he said that the village carried a grudge against us, and had hired some shinobi from another nation to exterminate us; in other words, you. He told us to get rid of you; if not, he said he had the power to kill us, and would do so. To prove it, he used some kind of technique that wiped out a whole forest, and all the creatures in it. Because he was the ancestor of the one that had placed the curse on us in the first place, we didn't doubt his power. And, because the one who did the spell in the first place was a ninja, we hated all shinobi, and had no problem doing the deed."
"And so you fought us," Temari said, finishing the story. Rai nodded. "When we saw how young you were, we didn't want to do it; but we didn't want to be killed, either. He promised us that after we disposed of you, we could return to our peaceful lives, and wouldn't have to fight or kill anymore. But now I see that that's never going to happen."
"P-please tell us who did this to y-you!" Hinata said, speaking for the first time since the story began. "W-we'll beat him for you! No one should have to go through all that…"
"Hinata…" Kiba said softly, more to himself than the kunoichi. Rarely did he see her so worked up over something. He, too, felt some compassion towards the dragons, though he couldn't help but think that it was their own fault for needing sacrifices in the first place.
Rai smiled. "Thank you, dear. His name is Hiroshi, and he–" She stopped as her face twisted in pain, and she fell to the ground. "My, my, aren't we talkative today?" Looking up, the shinobi saw a man standing on the cliff above, his hand glowing blue; a sign that he had just used some kind of technique. His long black hair, which matched his eyes, blew wildly in the wind, as did his dark blue cloak. He grinned down at the four. "Well, I see my little pets failed to finish you off, eh?"
"Who the hell are you?" Kiba yelled up at him. "Why did you do that to her? She didn't do anything to you!" The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh, you haven't realized? I am Hiroshi, the one who 'revived' the three dragons of legend."
"So you're the bastard that was manipulating them to do your dirty work," Temari said, taking out her fan. "Just a coward, hiding in the shadows." She glared at him. "I hate scum like you! Kamaitachi no Jutsu!" She created a giant whirlwind mixed with chakra that headed straight for Hiroshi; the man's grin only widened as he jumped off the cliff, performing a series of hand signs as he fell towards the sand. A cluster of flower petals appeared beneath him, and he landed gently on the ground.
"So, how did you like my Flower Cluster Jutsu?" he asked, bending down and picking up a petal, twirling it between his fingers. "They're so beautiful, aren't they? But they can be deadly if used right." He shifted his gaze to Temari. "That was very rude of you, my dear; just attacking me like that. I should pay you back." Performing more hand signs, he thrust his hand into the sand; suddenly, a collection of more petals sprung up from the ground, swirling around the Sand kunoichi. "Barrage of Flowers!" Before she could react, they all stopped and flew at her, revealing that they had very sharp edges. She quickly raised her fan and placed it in front of her to block some of them, but got hit with multiple petals in her back and on her sides. Screaming in pain, she collapsed on the ground, blood trickling from her various wounds.
"Temari!" Kiba yelled, bending down next to her; her eyes were squeezed shut in pain, and small moans escaped her lips. Kiba looked up at their companions. "You guys deal with that guy; I'll take care of her," he said. Akamaru, who had jumped out of his owner's shirt and was licking Temari's hand, barked in agreement. As the others nodded and ran towards their new opponent, Kiba shrugged his jacket off and placed it over her.
"I guess you want to die," Gaara said, taking the cork from his gourd, letting the sand spill out. Although he would never admit it, he had become somewhat protective of his siblings, and vowed to kill anyone who hurt them. He sent his sand flying towards Hiroshi, but it wasn't until he heard Hinata call out to him did he remember that he had used up all his chakra earlier. Hiroshi easily blocked the sand by creating a shield of flowers before sending another barrage of the deadly petals towards Gaara. The Sand shinobi created a wall of sand in front of him, but the petals surprised him by turning in midair, heading for his unprotected back; impact was inevitable.
As he was bracing himself to be hit, he saw a flash of gray jump in front of him; a moment later, Hinata screamed.
Author's notes:
You may be confused as to why Hiroshi's attacks are in English, while the others' are in Japanese. Part of it is because I'm not at all comfortable with my translating skills, and I'm not sure if I could give you a decent translation of them into Japanese. The other part is so you can know what I'm talking about; since his attacks obviously aren't in the anime, seeing as he's an OC, and I'm sure a lot of you wouldn't know what I'm talking about even if I did translate them.
Fear the OCCness! Hehe, there seems to be a lot of that lately. I'll apologize now for the cliffhanger, and hope you won't flame me too bad. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but reviews make me want to update faster. -hint hint- Thanks for reading!
Ja ne!
