Author's Note:
Sorry for the delay. I have been having computer troubles (slaps computer). These next two weeks will be busy for me, so I might not be updating as often as I'd like to. For that I apologize for the future.
And again, thank you all for your encouraging reviews. They mean a lot to me, and please keep sending them whether they are encouraging or corrections (hey, no one is perfect).
I hope you enjoy!
Chapter 32:
"Come on, Gaara! Let's get going before it's lunch time!"
Raxiel was running ahead of Gaara with a huge smile on her face while Gaara was standing way behind her, his face revealing no emotion.
"She doesn't even know where she's going…" Gaara thought to himself as she ran farther away into the heated desert just north of his house. Gaara sighed with irritation. "She's not even going the right way…"
Once Raxiel had disappeared out of sight for a few minutes, Gaara decided it was time to correct her mistake, and quickly he disappeared into a vortex of sand. After a few seconds, he reappeared right in front of Raxiel who had been taken by surprise and stopped quickly in her tracks.
Gaara knew he had scared her…
Gaara also knew that what her face revealed was not happiness… more like… angriness…?
"Why did you have to do that?" Raxiel snapped at him.
Gaara smirked. He had finally wiped that goofy smile off of her face. Now that he had her full attention, they could actually get going and, this time, the right way.
Calmly, Gaara replied to her question. "The village is the opposite way of where you are running to," he stated.
Raxiel's eyes widened. "Oh… Well, sorry. I was just in a hurry to get going."
"Being in a hurry doesn't always mean you can get things done faster," Gaara stated bluntly.
"Okay, you're right. Lead the way then!" Raxiel stated cheerfully. Soon, Gaara and Raxiel started to walk the correct way to the village.
"So which village are we going to?" Raxiel asked with curiosity.
"We're going to one that's west of the village you had first been to."
"How many villages were damaged by the war?"
"A few. At least ten."
"Wow… So where did you send the townspeople to?"
"The townspeople retreated to a hidden village that's south of here," Gaara replied. He was wondering when she would stop asking questions.
"Have they got any provisions or enough houses to stay in?"
"I think so. The village is pretty big, and it has enough to house at least two hundred people comfortably."
Raxiel started the wonder how many people Gaara had in his country. Besides the guards she had first been introduced to and Kankuro, she had not seen another person in his land. She wondered if they were as… serious as Gaara was.
Maybe they were a bit livelier.
"Are there a lot of women and children?"
Gaara sighed. He knew they could have been at the village by now if she wouldn't have asked so many questions. He turned around to look at her face. "Could you wait until we get there?" he asked bluntly.
Raxiel soon noticed his irritation from her, and her smile quickly faded. She knew his mind was on a lot of other things, and she was disrupting him. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Sorry."
Gaara did not want her to be disappointed. He wished he had enough concentration to try to get her smile back…
But right now, his mind was on what had to be done for his country.
Her smile was going to have to wait…
His mind filled with thoughts of her was going to have to wait…
Some things matter more than others at times, and he knew that well enough to try to push her out of his mind for a while.
As they continued to walk for another fifteen minutes, the only thing that could be heard was their feet crunching in the sand and a gentle breeze every now and then. Gaara could soon make out the village that they were going to. Another few minutes, and they would be there.
Gaara looked behind him at Raxiel who was looking down at the sand. He knew exactly how to get her smile back now…
"We're almost there."
Raxiel looked up at Gaara to see what he meant, and swiftly Raxiel looked at where Gaara was pointing ahead of them. Sure enough, the village was in sight. Raxiel gave Gaara a half-smile and nodded in acknowledgement of what he was showing her.
Gaara was glad to have her cheerfulness back…
Even though it sometimes irritated him, she wasn't the same without her smile.
"When we get there, stay close by me. There are a few Sound ninja left in a few villages that were left behind, and I don't know if any of them are still there or not."
"Why are they still in some villages? Weren't they defeated?"
"They were too proud of themselves to retreat. Orochimaru has many followers, but some of them are not the smartest people."
Raxiel started to wonder what this village would look like. Did they all look as bad as the one she had seen? Was this village going to be even worse?
"I guess I'll just have to wait and see, like Gaara said," she thought to herself. But what they saw was something Raxiel had never seen before.
Something horrifying…
Something they'd both be scarred with for life…
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"Sit down, and I'll fix us something to eat."
Raxiel sat down at the dinner table as Gaara walked into the kitchen to find something to eat. She was still in a shock of traumatism. What she had seen at that village had made her lose her appetite, and she wasn't sure how Gaara could even be thinking about eating.
Those dead bodies…
Those bloody corpses…
Hundreds of them... lying there rotting away…
And the landscaping?
The town?
There was no town left. It was… a barren desert with mutilated corpses lying everywhere. No matter where you stepped, you stepped on either bloody sand or a dead body.
Raxiel couldn't get the scene out of her head. Sunagakure had had something much bigger than a war…
It was a massacre…
"This Orochimaru guy… He's sure no dunce," Raxiel thought as she stared at the doors that led to the kitchen. Raxiel was waiting for Gaara to come out. "He's not a dunce… he's a maniac. What leader would throw away their followers so quickly only to lose to a battle?"
The sun had been beating down on those corpses for a week or so, causing the left over skin to be melting and sinking slowly into the sand. All of the fallen warriors didn't even get a proper burial.
"And there's no way Sunagakure can just rebuild over that," Raxiel thought disgustedly. It was as if Suna had been scarred immensely, and no one could ever repair those scars.
Gaara was right…
It was going to take a long time to rebuild Suna…
XxXxXxXxXxXx
"How can Raxiel want to eat after seeing what was left of that village?" Gaara thought as he started to search for some kind of food out of the crowded cabinets. When he had told her he would get them some food, Raxiel had not refused which made him think that she might be used to the scenes from her other world where she used to live.
Just thinking about food made Gaara sick…
It almost made him want to vomit…
Fortunately, no Sound ninja were spotted, but he had not seen so many dead since when he had the demon inside of him and he had been going on "killing sprees." Sure, he was almost used to it, but after not having seen it for a few years, now it disgusted him. The blood that had lied in front of him only brought back unwanted memories. He almost cringed at the sight of it, which was something he had never done.
Gaara looked over at one of the counters to see a bowl holding apples in it. He picked up two of them and started to leave the kitchen.
Apples were the only things he could force himself to eat right now if he had to, since they brought back more pleasant memories…
Memories of her…
As he came out of the kitchen into the dining room, he noticed Raxiel's face which had not changed emotionally at all, but her face looked a little paler than usual…
"Raxiel," Gaara mumbled.
No response…
Gaara noticed she had not even made eye contact with him, and she was still looking at the same spot on the floor next to the wall.
"Raxiel," Gaara snapped, this time, a little more persistently.
He noticed her pupils were dilated…
Gaara quickly walked over to her and slammed the apples onto the table in front of her. The abrupt sound made Raxiel jump from her seat, snapping her back to reality. Raxiel looked up at Gaara's eyes to see seriousness… almost angriness in his eyes.
But Raxiel knew better…
His eyes that looked angry were only eyes with fierce concernment…
"Gaara?" Raxiel asked him with bewilderment as to why he had caused her to snap out of her mesmerization.
"You wouldn't respond when I called your name," Gaara stated, now sighing with relief.
"I'm sorry, Gaara. I was just thinking about the village we saw," Raxiel truthfully explained to him.
"You seemed like you were used to it. Are you?" Gaara asked calmly.
"Oh, no! Not at all. I thought it was sickening."
Gaara finally realized why she hadn't said anything on their way back to his house…
She was really traumatized by it.
But one thing did catch his attention, in addition to her truth she had just said. The whole four hours they had been at the remains of that village, she hadn't cowered away. She didn't cringe; she didn't even complain about the scene or the smell of the bloody corpses.
To Gaara's surprise, she was strong…
Strong mentally…
"So, that's what makes her strong," Gaara thought as Raxiel fixed her eyes on the two apples Gaara had carelessly slammed down onto the table.
"Raxiel, I'm not hungry. You're welcome to eat, if you want," Gaara mumbled as he got up to walk away into the family room. Raxiel watched as he disappeared into the other room. Quickly, she got up from her chair and ran into the family room to follow him.
As Gaara sat down to look outside for a minute before he left, he sensed Raxiel in the room as she sat down next to him. Soon, she was back to asking questions again. "Are you… used to the scene?"
Gaara finally shifted his eyes to the brunette that was sitting beside him. Her eyes were curiously fixed onto him, waiting for an answer. "When I was younger and was hated by all, I used to… you could say, crawl in the darkness, killing whomever looked at me with disgust. I killed at least two-dozen people when the demon was living in me, but it was because he lived in me that I wanted to kill more. It was my way of feeling… feeling something inside of me. I was used to it, but since it's been a few years and the demon has been taken out of me, I can only say that what I saw today disgusted me because it brought back those horrid memories."
Raxiel looked at him, her eyes were filled with concernment. "You have bad memories, Gaara?"
Gaara looked away towards the window. "Yes, most memories of mine are unpleasant. There are only a few memories I dare to look back on."
"…I'm sorry. I wish somehow, you could forget them; that's something no one should have."
Gaara glanced at her to see that she was also looking out towards the window, and for some reason, he was glad. Glad she had… sympathy for him?
"You shouldn't be sorry. It wasn't your fault."
"Yeah, but I know what you mean. I'm sure everybody knows partly what you mean. Everyone has bad memories they don't want. I even have a few that I wish I could forget, but having your whole childhood taken away from you, that's got to be a memory that can never be taken out of you. For that, I feel sad for you.
And then, Gaara saw something even more… pleasant in her…
Something… beautiful…
As beautiful as her physical appearance…
Maybe even more stunning…
Her heart…
It was beautiful…
He saw in her something that had made him even more attracted to her…
Something that was one of a kind…
Red…
