Chapter 21
"It's been very hard getting you alone. The Kazekage keeps you on a short leash." I can't breathe. I try to but only choke on the dry desert air. "Luckily for me the raid separated you two." I can't breathe. This can't be happening. "And here I thought I was going to have to kill him to get you all to myself." Kill Gaara? That can't be possible, can it? I feel sick, that can't be possible. I mean they've fought before; he can't possibly beat Gaara, but I still feel so sick at the prospect.
Kaito presses the kunai to my throat, "We're going to quietly slip out of town while everyone is running around and you're not going to be difficult about it are you?" I shake my head no as much as I can without accidentally having the blade cut me. I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. I try to think of a way out, but I can't come up with anything. While this kunai is attached to my throat, I'm completely at Kaito's mercy.
Ok calm down, Gaara can sense my emotions. They're damn near screaming at this point so I should be easy to find, but what if he does find me. I still won't be able to get away. If Gaara comes to close, then Kaito could easily just slit my throat. It would only take a second for me to disappear from this Earth completely. Which means I need to figure out how to get out of this position so Gaara can save me.
Kaito jerked me backwards, threatening to cut my throat on accident, leading me towards the back of the alley. "Come this way and be quiet." The back of the alley leads to more alleys and the backs of buildings. It's eerily quiet compared to the uproar of panic to the sides of us. The more he dragged me down the maze of backstreets, the less I could hear people screaming and the closer we got to the edge of town.
We moved slow, Kaito refused to take the kunai from my neck. I need him to though in order to have a chance at escaping, but that's probably why he won't move it from my neck. He jerks me again, this time to the right, "This way." The kunai makes a small cut on my throat and I whimper from fear. The kunai is to close to my neck, I feel like I can't breathe without cutting myself on the blade. Kaito squeezed my arm so hard that I just knew it would create a bruise. He leans down to whisper yell in my ear, "I said be quiet."
Suddenly he stops and looks around; his anger grows. Kaito presses the blade to my throat to the point that if I made any movements, I would get sliced open. He yells out, "I know you're there, show yourself." A sphere of sand appears and disappears in an instant; in its place stood Gaara, arms crossed and face as cold as a statue. He's a mix of anger and fear; he looks at me for a brief moment and his fear increases.
He finally noticed them. There were four people following us, I had just hoped it was Gaara and the ninja team that came to guard Gaara and I. Or are they Kaito's men? I can't tell and it's unnerving. What if it was Gaara against a team of four, would he lose? It's uncomfortable how quiet Gaara and Kaito are, both just staring each other down. As the silence goes on the kunai on my neck slips and cuts me again; I break down and start crying softly. It's all too much.
Gaara looks at me, worry growing, but looks back at Kaito once he starts talking, "I'm sure you came to be a hero," the kunai begins to dig into my skin, "but I think its best if you let us pass. Like I said, I have a little side quest with her and I'm on a time crunch." What? Wasn't the night under the temple the quest? Kaito seemed so insistent that we get there by the lunar eclipse. What more could there possibly be?
Gaara shakes his head, "That won't be happening." I can feel Kaito's anger grow within him. The level of which makes me whimper out of fear. "Now gaara," Kaito spoke again, "it would be a shame if I had to cut her throat." The idea of it makes me sick. Gaara also reacts from it, his anger and fear growing as soon as Kaito suggests it. He looks briefly at me, if I had blinked I would have missed it, "That won't be happening either."
What's Gaara thinking? What's his plan for this situation? Who are those three other people? The ninja team that came with us? If it was Kaito's men then I would have assumed they'd come out by now, four against one would be an advantage that I doubt Kaito would refuse to use, unless he has an unhealthy level of pride. Plus he hasn't seemed to notice him. And what about Gaara? He wouldn't be that prideful, he doesn't seem the type; especially with my life at risk. So who are those three people?
My mind is reeling. I'm so scared and it makes me feel awful. Gaara can feel every emotion I'm feeling right now. Will it distract him? He's never fought while he felt my emotions before. How will he be at fighting while he can? He's already focusing on me, what if that continues and he gets hurt? What should I do? I don't want to distract him; I don't want him to get hurt.
Suddenly one of the three people hiding behind Kaito and my backs. He barely has time to use the kunai to the assailant's own weapon. I can finally breathe easy again except I can't. I feel like I can't breathe at all. Another one of Gaara's ninja appears ahead of us; Kaito has to leapbackwards to avoid their kunai, finally letting me go. The two ninjas fight Kaito, leading him further away from me. It all happened so fast that I didn't completely register it at first.
A female ninja appeared before me, "Lady Aiko, come with me." She grabs my hand and pulls me down one of the side alleys, leading me away from the fight. Wait, we're leaving? What about Gaara? I don't want to leave him. When I look back I see his sand shoot towards the three men fighting each other. "Lady Aiko, we must keep moving." Again I'm being dragged around the alley against my will. I know it would be dangerous for me to stay. I know my preasence is probably distracting and that Gaara would be a better fighter if I wasn't there. But I don't want to leave him there. I want to stay.
Back on the regular roads, the screaming has died down and the crowds have cleared out. "Come this way. The raiders have been caught so the hotel is safe again." Back in Gaara and my hotel room we sit and wait for word from Gaara or the other ninja, if we don't hear anything in the next five minutes then I'll be moved to another location. I'm scared of the implications of that. No, I have to think positively. There's no way Kaito can beat three skilled ninjas; he couldn't even beat Gaara the first time they fought. Plus Gaara is the Kazekage, the best ninja in Suna, there's no way he'll lose. But I can't stop myself from worrying.
Mai, the ninja watching over me, was attending to my wounds; cleaning and bandaging the cuts on my neck. She has a tan, probably from the Suna sun. Her spiky black hair is tied out of her face into a high ponytail. Her clothes were basic blues and blacks, easily forgettable which I guess is the point. I mean she is a ninja. It would be pretty bad if someone could recognize her because of her clothes.
We're almost to the five minute mark when I hear sounds coming from her earpiece. Who's talking right now? She presses a button before responding, "Yes… We're secure at location one…. Ok…. Ok" what are they saying? Did they catch Kaito or did he escape again? Do we have to move to a new location? Is Gaara ok? My heart races at that last question, what if he is hurt? I try to push the thought to the back of my mind. Gaara is fine. Of course Gaara is fine.
It didn't take long for Gaara to appear in the room. He immediately started to give instructions to Mai, "Kenta and Isamu have taken Kaito into custody and are returning to Suna now." So they have caught him this time, "Pack your and their things, we'll be leaving shortly." The longer I stand there waiting for Gaara to finish debriefing mai, the more the weight of what just happened pulls me down. Fear and sadness overtake me.
Once Mai takes her leave Gaara turns his entire attention towards me, and I see his stony façade fade away. He looks at me crestfallen and silently beckons me to come to him. A magnet pulls me towards him, and I crumple into his arms once I get close enough. Gaara wraps his arms around me and pulls me into a tight embrace. He's quiet for a while, just holding me, until he finally spoke, "I thought I was going to lose you." I could only squeak in response to him as I try to hold back tears. I still feel like I can't breathe.
"You're shaking." I am? He pulls me tighter into him, "You're safe now." I don't feel safe, I feel terrified. I could have died. Should have died. I doubt Kaito would have thought twice about cutting my throat. What would have happened if Gaara didn't find me before we left town? What would have happened if he came alone? The only reason Kaito moved his kunai from my neck was to defend himself. What would have happened if their plan didn't work, if kaito responded by just slicing my throat? All of the what ifs circle around my brain, I can't think or focus on anything else.
"Aiko breathe." I hadn't even noticed that I've started hyperventilating. I start taking long breathes to try to calm myself down but its hard to do that when my face is buried in his chest but I don't want to move it. My breathes aren't getting any less ragged. He pulls me away from him and looks at me sternly, "You need to breathe." I choke on air before nodding rapidly. Focus on breathing. Focus on breathing. In. Out. In. Out. I press my forehead to his chest; close enough to feel connected to him but far enough away that I can still breathe properly.
I don't know how long it took for me to calm down but by the time I did Mai was knocking on the door, waiting for us to leave. I pull away from Gaara, we hadn't even packed yet. He grabs my hand as I'm walking to the dresser, when I look back at him he asks, "Are you ok?" Am I ok? After everything that just happened? I slowly shake my head no, "I want to go home." All I want to do is go to our room and crawl into our bed, hiding from the world under the covers. He nods and lets me go, going to the dresser himself to pack his own things.
The entire train ride to Suna I was an anxious mess, but I tried to hide it as much as I could. I doubt I did it well though, especially with Gaara. He can feel everything I'm feeling and I can feel everything he is; he's an anxious mess too. The only difference between us is that he can actually hide his emotions. During the entire train ride back home he refused to leave my side, I don't know if to calm his own fears or mine. In either situation it helped. I've never been so appreciative of his hovering before.
And I've never been so upset at the prospect of him going to work before. As soon as we get home he'll have to immediately go to the Kazekage tower. He needed to debrief the situation, he said, but promised he'd come home as soon as he was finished. But, to be left alone so soon makes me feel abandoned even though I know its an unfair feeling. Gaara has to go into work. Gaara has to make sure Kaito made it into a prison cell and whatever else goes along with that. Gaara has to debrief his council about why we're home so early. Gaara has to leave as soon as we get home. But it still hurts that he's going to and I can't make these feelings go away.