A/N: My Capricorn sister made a lovely drawing inspired by this story that I'd love to share with you all. You can view it by visiting my Tumblr, Seltap, or visiting hers, ashley0-0maltese.
I'd recommend visiting her Tumblr as it consists more of her wonderful art as well as some good GaaSaku writing.
Chapter Thirty-nine
Once, long ago, a boy was born.
He came into this world coated in blood and sand. He carried that cloak of red grains on his back for many years, staining it darker from the slaughter of others.
"He is a monster," the world would say.
Their echoes were not quiet, and so the boy sought solace through his uncle.
"You are not a monster," his uncle told him. "You are a human."
The young boy had wonder in him. The young boy had wishes in him. The young boy had knowledge in him. The young boy had needs in him. The young boy deciphered right from wrong. The young boy had passion in him. The young boy had desires in him. The young boy had dreams in him. The young boy laughed. The young boy smiled.
The young boy loved.
Inside the young boy was an ocean of emotions, and his uncle's words were enough for him to agree.
"I am a human," the young boy would say. "I am not a monster. I know what love is."
...
Once, long ago, the young boy was born again.
He wrapped that robe of sand tighter around him, and dyed it even more crimson with the blood of his uncle.
"You are a monster," something much darker whispered in his mind. "You are not a human."
The dark gnarl was vile, but the boy desired its vow.
The boy was numb of pain. The boy viewed the world as gray. The boy's existence and care did not venture away from his own desires. The boy did not recognize what was right or wrong. The boy's dreams turned into nightmares. The boy's desires came with bloodshed. The boy did not care that the world cast him aside. The boy trusted no one. The boy frowned. The boy hissed.
The boy hated.
Inside the young boy was an empty abyss, and the murmurs from the darkness in his mind were enough for him to agree.
"I am a monster," the young boy would say. "I am not a human. I do not know love."
…
If you were lucky, if you still had a breath to ask him, sometimes the boy would say more.
"I once was human. Before my uncle attacked me, and tore my heart apart, I knew what love was."
Ask him more.
"I am thoughtless. I am empty. I do not know why they made me, but I use to know what love was."
Ask him again, and he will reply slow.
"All I require now is blood and purpose. I do not know love. I am a monster."
…
Once, long ago, the monster met a human.
Another boy, with golden hair, whose soul was so full of passion and fire that it scorched the monster's heart. The blonde boy had pointed his finger at the monster while crying out to it.
"You do know love. You are no monster. You are a human, just like me."
This was true, the blonde boy was just like him, with dark whispers in his mind. Yet, despite the echoes, this blonde boy refused to be viewed as a monster. He had set his own path despite the words of others, and he defied what the monster had been taught all these years.
It was then the monster was born again, a third time, into a young man.
This time, as the young man grew, he did not sway in his mind ever again. Instead, when people asked him, he would reply.
"I am a human. I am not a monster. I know what love is."
He did not lie. He was not born again. Instead, he was able to grow into a fine man.
The blonde boy had helped to make this young man the hero of a story.
Sakura opens her eyes.
With the weight on her arm now gone, she instead turns her head around to take in the bright void around her.
'This place again,' she thinks in her mind.
The sensation is like being submerged in water, but the world around her is anything but liquid. It's simply white. Familiar with this scenario, Sakura does a quick move with her fingers, trying to release this world one would assume to be an illusion. Not surprisingly, the world around her remains the same and she winces as soon as her body begs for breath.
'Does this mean,' Sakura thinks, now swimming her way through the empty void. 'I'm going back? Am I finally going back home?'
She stops her ministrations, floating once more as she tries to decipher which way is up and down. Yet, as she takes a moment to think, her eyes widen and only bubbles come forth as she tries to gasp once realization hits her dead on.
'Gaara!' she cries in her mind. 'I didn't get a chance to explain. I didn't give him a goodbye!'
Everything, then, happens in a flash. Tall mirrors suddenly appear all around her. Their reflection empty as Sakura swims up to examine one, and before she can even ask herself what is happening, familiar-sounding tears suddenly reach her ears.
'Gaara!' Sakura thinks, able to decipher that young wail easily.
The crying is faint, and as Sakura turns in its direction she can see a lone mirror off in the distance that the other mirrors lead toward, like a path. There is no doubt in her mind then. Gaara is crying, he needs her, and Sakura swims as quickly, as she can, towards that lone mirror.
"Sakura. This way."
To that new voice, Sakura stops for a moment. It is the same voice that beckoned her into the oasis, and she glares towards the familiar shadow that now resides in the mirror next to her. Like on the surface, the shadow holds a hand out towards her.
"This way," it repeats.
Yet if her glare were to speak for itself, it would be telling the shadow that she does not trust it. It is at fault for bringing her here anyway. Above that, there is the small cry she can still hear and her instinct now is to reach the child.
'Gaara, just hold on,' Sakura thinks as she begins swimming once again to that lone mirror. 'Don't cry, I'll be right there. I still have to tell you the truth.'
Unbeknownst to her, as she swims past the many, lined up mirrors, the shadow quickly follows her from one mirror to the next.
"Sakura. This way," it continues to speak, trying desperately to draw her attention back to it.
Sakura ignores it, instead stopping short in front of the lone mirror. Her eyes waver as she spots the familiar, crying boy in its reflection. With eyes closed, he wipes at his tears while kneeling on the floor. Sakura tries to call his name, but her voice is lost to this, seemingly, world of unseen water.
"Sakura," the shadow tries again, stopping in a mirror next to her. "This way."
With its voice already lost to her, Sakura instead searches for a way to get Gaara's attention. She brings a fist up towards the mirror, tapping on the glass. Still, the boy does not look up to her.
'Gaara,' Sakura begs in her mind. 'Bring me to Gaara, please!'
"Sakura," the shadow calls. "This way!"
Sakura locks her fist tight, bringing it as far back as she can before striking the mirror in front of her hard. She surprises herself as a crack in the glass suddenly appears, but smiles once the boy, in the reflection, finally brings his swollen eyes up to look at her. She grins when his wet eyes meet her emerald gaze.
"Sakura!" the shadow's voice grows. "This way!"
Sakura waves at the little boy as he continues to stare at her.
'I'm here,' she speaks in her mind. 'Please, don't cry anymore.'
"Sakura!" the shadow cries one last time.
The boy in the mirror sniffles before his arms stretch for Sakura. Despite the glass, Sakura reaches for him as well, hoping to embrace and comfort him like she has been doing. It doesn't even phase her as her hands pass through the clear glass, and the warmth of the child is soon felt as they begin to wrap themselves into one another.
"This time," the boy whispers as Sakura pulls him towards her. "Don't let go."
The boy's warmth suddenly disappears, and before the rosette can even back away to look to where he has gone, she slams into green ground under her. Though there was no sense of falling, the impact feels as though she has fallen from a very high place, and she is quick to draw in a deep breath before she moans at the ache in her body and rolls herself to her backside.
"Again?" she whispers, remembering the impact of when she had first fallen into the past.
Yet, at the remembrance of the ordeal, Sakura shoots her back straight up and glances at the scene around her.
"Gaara!" she tries calling, recalling the crying boy.
Her call echoes through the vast forest around her, but the only reply she receives are from the tweeting birds around her. She takes note of the flourish, green scenery around her, trying to decipher where she is.
"Definitely not Wind Country," the rosette murmurs to herself, eyeing the familiar looking trees. "I'm back in Fire country."
To that thought, Sakura lowers her head with her mind full of questions. Her eyebrows pinch together and her eyes waver as she stares at the green, grassy ground.
'How did I get back here?' she wonders. 'We were almost to Suna.'
Her eyes narrow all the more and as she recalls the surreal moment that just happened to her, she lifts her head up and widens her eyes as another possibility hits her dead on.
'Am I back in my own time?!'
A chance, she knows, as the same ordeal had happened to her when she ended up in the past. Hopefully, she has transcended ahead than back and looks behind her to see if she can spot her bag that contains the scroll.
'But I...' she thinks, and blinks when she spots nothing behind her. 'I didn't even look at the scroll, or touch it. Does this mean it meant nothing at all?'
She stares long at the empty spot and her heart sinks once she recalls another she has left behind.
"Gaara..." she whispers.
Sakura takes her time sitting there and thinks back on where she had left the boy. She searches inside of her to find the courage she needs to accept that Gaara was capable of finding his way back home. She tells herself he had his siblings and friends now, and that he has the people in his life to help him continue to path of happiness.
Still…
"I didn't get to say goodbye…"
That idea, itself, is a lot harder to accept as it sinks in more and more into the rosette. In the end, Sakura has to fall back on one of their last conversations, the one where they had expressed their love for one another, to help her pull through in the moment.
"Who knows," she even murmurs to herself. "Maybe, I'm still in the past. Maybe, I still have a chance..."
At this point, she knows what she has to do. She will abdicate those thoughts of the child and head towards the nearest town to verify what time she is now in. After that, once she knows what time she is in, she will decide whether to head towards Konoha to report all to Kakashi that has transpired, or race towards Suna and search for the little boy.
As she presses against her hands to stand, she winces at the pain in one of her wrists before she sits back down and brings her hand up to examine it.
"I must have hurt it during the fall, it's swelling," she murmurs to herself.
Her impact had been a hard one and she narrows her eyes up towards the sky in wonder.
"Where would I have fallen from?" she wonders, staring up at the trees. "A teleportation jutsu?"
Though high, any fall from a tree nearby wouldn't have cast her this much hurt and she grimaces at the wonder happening around her.
'Why is it, now, I'm finding new, crazy jutsus that create a new past that toss you to fall into?' she thinks while shaking her head.
She can't wait to speak to the Hokage about this, but not before giving him a piece of her mind. She begins to focus her chakra into her hand, hoping to help the swelling on the other, but is surprised to find that her chakra level is suddenly scarce. It's like a light flickering onto her hand before giving out.
This, has never happened to her before.
Despite the small panic in her, she holds her composure while trying to focus her chakra towards her feet. Like her hand, there is a brief surge before her strength is suddenly lost.
'What is going on?' she thinks, cupping her hand to her chest.
Inside herself, she can feel her chakra still. Her incredible power is still inside of her, but it doesn't respond as she tries to call it out. Once more, she tries focusing it towards her hand, but her power does not respond to her mind. After that, she quickly hops to her feet and looks out towards the direction of the nearest town.
She really needs to have a talk with Kakashi, and the piece of mind can wait now.
She takes the opportunity, as she stands, to examine herself once more. Again, as she tries to focus her chakra to a certain spot, she feels her power still reside within her chest and sighs to this. She can't blame this ordeal on fatigue, for, as she begins to run, her speed is as quick as ever and her breath is not of a tired one. Though, she will admit she feels a little off, but squares the reason solely on her lack of response from her chakra.
'Maybe this is an after effect,' she thinks. 'Maybe my body took an ordeal through all this mess and just needs to recoup.'
As the more possible reasoning at the moment, Sakura feels herself relax a little more knowing that she just needs some time before her body and chakra will weave back together in balance.
She races on. Of course, leaping from tree to tree would be faster, but she makes due with her legs and raw strength alone, and it will only take her a little over an hour before she can see a town in the distance within a clearing. Though, before she draws near to it, does a troubling smell fill her senses. It had actually made her stop once before the minute she smelled it a while back into her run, and she had peered around the forest searching for the source.
"Smoke," she murmurs, turning to try and find the fire that burns.
She presses on closer, but as she looks towards the town, she stops with wide eyes and peers at it from a distance. Though obviously contained, smoke rises into the sky from one spot within the town and the rosette can also pick up another, horrendous smell.
"They're burning bodies..." she whispers, covering her nose to rid the stench.
At the moment she is flabbergasted.
Though big, the town houses nothing but families and a few leisure spots. Never would this charming place draw attention from any sort of enemy. The people here always keep to themselves that she doubts anyone of interest would hide within those walls that would have others attacking the place. Not to mention, whatever fairness comes from war, this town is off limits and generally out of the cross-fires of Konoha. Yet, as Sakura thinks of those options, she realizes then three things are very wrong with this picture.
First, that, if back in her time, there is currently peace among their world despite the small enemies that pop up from time to time. If these are flames of fighting, they are severely misplaced within this country. Second, if this truly is an attack on this town, where are her colleagues at? Where are the men and women, from Konoha, she knows to come to aid this town? Third, if bodies are being burned and not buried then the ones fanning the hot flames are…
She wastes no time and runs as fast as she can closer towards the town. As soon as she senses the presence of others, she makes due with what lone trees, bushes, and boulders she can hide behind. With men and women making rounds outside the village, Sakura conceals herself all the more to watch the people pass by. She bites her lip once she realizes the men in front of her are not dressed in normal attire the people of this town typically wear.
'They're trained like ninjas...' she realizes, watching and figuring out their pattern in their rounds.
She studies each one that passes by, scowling when she spots that none of them are wearing the typical forehead protectors that would help her figure out where they come from. She scans their appearances, she scans the weapons they carry. Hell, she even watches carefully to see if they will make a reaction to the weather here or stop to glance at the trees and flowers like one unfamiliar with such habitat. She looks for anything that will help her place where this enemy comes from. Yet, the more she watches, the more frustrated she becomes when she sees that each person is drastically different from the next.
'Maybe they're a group of bandits...' Sakura thinks.
She continues to watch, silent, studying their pattern still, but stops and blinks as soon as she hears music begin playing within the town. The more carefully she listens, the more she can make out the chatter and laughter. Loud laughter, and festive music. To that, Sakura grounds her teeth.
'They're celebrating,' she thinks. 'Those bastards.'
Ninja, bandit, samurai; war or no war, never would there be honor in taking lives from those both innocent, and incapable of defending themselves. She tries to believe the children were at least spared. She knows the folk here are not trained in combat, they rely on Konoha for that, and it blindly angers Sakura hearing the cheers within while wondering why her village has failed this town.
Sakura has had enough. Watching the scouts here give her no answers, only more questions. She decides to sneak her way around their pattern, one that she has just memorized, and make her way towards the back wall of the town. With its only entrance in the front, she smirks at the enemies ignorance for leaving the back less heavily guarded. It is almost a blessing for her as she stops short of a tall tree that towers above the town's high walls. Sakura glances around her, making sure the enemies eyes are not on her before she whispers to herself.
"Let's get a closer look at these assholes."
She makes a running start towards the tree and uses the momentum, and her raw strength, to easily swing and climb her way high up into the tree. She conceals herself within the leaves once she finds a decent spot to survey. Yet, the more she takes in, the more her eyes widen.
Like she has guessed, a celebration is happening. Yet, the people cheering and drinking look to all be ninja. Save a few who look not trained in combat, but still smile while dancing, playing music, and running around so as to not to let any cup empty of the alcohol they graciously pour. Sakura balls her fists in anger when she spots the pile of burning bodies and counts the many men and women cheering around it.
The pile is small compared to the large army. There wasn't even enough in this village to bleed on every blade each man in there now hold.
"This is a massacre..." Sakura murmurs, shaking her head as her eyes continue to catch sight of the many unsightly acts.
Facing her is a tall, wooden platform and frame, and she swallows hard when she can easily spot the red stain that pools on the brown wood. The men and women are leisurely relaxing around it while sipping their drink and celebrating their victory. Their voices suddenly boom, and Sakura catches sight of a prisoner being led up the platform. With their head in a bag, and arms tied behind them, Sakura's heart races when she sees the prisoner pushed roughly down to kneel within the pool of blood.
Sakura's instinct then is to make her move, to reach out and be that Konoha ninja this person needs before their neck meets a kunai. However, her body holds her back, reminding her that she is just one. Even with her strength, without her chakra, this unknown army of enemies could be her downfall. Instead, she watches. Watches as the executioner pulls off the bag, revealing an old man who hangs his head low. Though she can't hear, the executioner speaks to the old man before waving her hand towards Sakura's direction.
The rosette narrows her eyes, baffled by this display. She then spots a man, who sits some distance away in front of the platform, stand from the only seat within the army.
'That must be their leader,' Sakura thinks while narrowing her angry eyes.
Sakura's angry grip sinks somewhat into the bark of the tree she holds onto now. From his seat does Sakura stare at the tall glass this man holds, as well as the many scantily clad women that seem to settle around him and look up towards him with admiration. As Sakura eyes each girl one by one, she makes a realization.
'Not just women,' she thinks. "Men too."
Yet, the leader and the old man suddenly conversing draws her attention back to the two, and she watches for a moment as they speak before the old man shakes his head. After that, the leader, gives the executioner a motion with his hand, and Sakura averts her eyes away from the old man and the blade. Instead, her gaze falls back to the leader.
Sakura continues to stare at him as cheers erupt once more and music is played. She chews on her lip when she watches the man throw his hands up into the air, beckoning his army to boom all the louder. She sneers as he begins to turn, facing her direction now as he looks down to one of the women who relaxes next to his chair.
Sakura gasps once she is given a better view of his face.
She knows that red hair. She knows that teal gaze that black skin wraps around. She knows that kanji etched on the side of his head.
"Gaara!" she hisses under her breath before sneering at the scene in front of her.
The tree receives more of her punishment then as her fingers slightly bend and break the wood. She's got her answers now. More answers then she expected, and quickly she makes her way down the tree, sneaks past the look outs, and literally throws herself back into the forest and sprints towards Konoha.
'Gaara,' she thinks with a snarl. 'How could you?!'
Despite him not being the same child, Sakura can't help but feel betrayed as she swiftly runs. Even if Gaara of her own world holds no bond with her, her mind can't help but fall to the child she cared for. Never did she think she would be betrayed so badly once again in her lifetime.
Back in the town where the celebration continues, and the small pile of bodies grow and grow, the man with red hair has yet to take his seat and his distant eyes speak to only one other who draws up once he notices his leader's gaze.
"What's the matter?"
His leader says nothing, and just simply cranes his neck back for his eyes to peer better towards the tall tree behind the wall. He need say nothing, and the other man nods in understanding.
"I'll send some of my men out."
Gaara smirks then, chuckling in amusement just faint enough for his ears only before he returns to his seat and sips on his drink.
Meanwhile, a pink-haired women presses herself to run and not fall back, in her mind, on the child she had cared for.
'Gaara,' she keeps repeating in her mind. 'Why? Why? Why?!'
Revelations come forth quickly, and Sakura tries to compose herself while accepting them all. She has found her time again, great on her part, she decides. Probably her biggest tribulation was solving a problem she had no idea where to start with, and miraculously, it seems time decided to fix it for her. Even if the thought of the child she had spent time with to be gone forever and without a proper goodbye, is a hard one, Sakura pushes those thoughts aside when she remembers the massacre she has just stumbled upon. She will lament later, at a more proper time. For now, she takes it upon herself to make it her duty to return home and inform Kakashi about what she has come across.
With her speed, Konoha is still a ways away, and as her mind begins pointing out certain events that has come to past, Sakura's eyes widen once she realizes important words from her Rokudaime.
"This document was requested by the Kazekage himself," Kakashi had told her while handing her the scroll. "Sakura, do not let me down. This could possibly jeopardize our strong alliance with Suna. You got that? Failure is not an option."
Though out of her control, she had done exactly what Kakashi asked her not to. She disappeared, losing that damn scroll within the vast desert, and had spent her time playing with a child while leaving her family back home to fight a war she possibly started. Maybe Gaara had thought that she had run off with the scroll. The more Sakura thinks of the possibility, the more abundantly clear it becomes for her to accept that this is probably the case.
'Damn it!' she curses in her mind. 'It was out of my control!'
Instead of berating herself, she continues on with a new goal and newfound determination; She will explain herself. She will request an audience with Gaara and tell him her story, and hopefully, as understanding as she learned his younger self to be, so, too, will his older self understand Sakura's standpoint.
Still… a thought does trouble her.
'Gaara had led an army to keep Naruto safe, and now he is leading another in the direction of his home. Has he lost his compassion and empathy to those closest to him? To the point of taking innocent lives?!'
The thought is quickly forgotten as soon as Sakura senses a shower of shuriken aimed for her back. She sharply turns to dodge the sharp metal, and continues to crisscross through the trees in hopes of losing her pursuers. She counts the men after her, listening to them run with her through the tall trees and tries once more to reach within her to draw out her power.
'Not good,' she thinks, sensing the men circling above her.
Without her chakra, her speed is nothing compared to theirs. Though able to dodge all that is thrown at her, it doesn't take long for these men to form a circle around her. They even manage to stop Sakura in her tracks as their circle jumps from the trees and lands to her level, trapping her from all around.
"Give it up," one of the men calls out. "Just come with us quietly, and we promise not to roughen you up too much."
As the group around her chortle, Sakura sneers. She throws her fist towards the man in front of her, causing him to jump away and back towards the safety of the tree. With a clear path in front of her now, Sakura runs once more, and the rest of the men and women jump back and continue their pursue. Sakura continues on, dodging still the objects that are sent in her direction.
Their speed is, currently, faster than hers. They have chakra on their side, but where one will once in awhile have a backbone to approach her, Sakura sends them quickly back with a hard punch. Still, for the rosette, the more she punches, kicks, and knocks out one pursuer, she can sense more suddenly appear. It will be a long while, but eventually Sakura feels herself breaking out into a sweat, and her limbs begin to shake somewhat to her hard hits without her chakra. They are tiring her out with their many numbers, and to the point where Sakura finally decides to just settle with the cards she is dealt with.
'Fine,' she thinks with narrow eyes and grotesque face.
She halts her movements, and in one blink of her eyes she is surrounded once more.
"Take me to Gaara!" she tells them. "Before I pulverize your faces in one by one."
If this was going to be the audience she needs to speak with Gaara, then she will take it now.
"Don't you worry," one of the men laughs, keeping Sakura's eyes focused on him as another approaches her from behind. "You'll get your chance to speak to him before we slit your throat."
She puts up a struggle as soon as she feels a bag placed over her face, blinding her. Yet, she stills her own self somewhat when she feels the men and women piling on top of her to hold her down.
'I'll go like this,' she thinks angrily, 'but you better believe all hell is going to break lose once I'm in that town.'
Rope and wiring, infused with chakra, is quickly tied to keep her hands behind her, but Sakura pays it no mind. As long as she gets to speak with Gaara, she will remember the faces here and beat them unrecognizable later. Their walk back is a long one, and Sakura's voice soon breaks the silence as agitation gets the better of her.
"You bastards do realize what you've done, right?!" she angrily starts. "The town's folk here had no way to protect themselves! How could Suna stoop so low? Has Gaara snapped?! Is this what he does as Kazekage?!"
It doesn't take long for the decision to gag Sakura is made, though the person who gagged her was left with a hard kick to the stomach and probably a few broken ribs. Yet, to her questions, one man does snicker before answering.
"Hold your tongue when speaking about our leader," the man spits at her. "And I would suggest you don't speak of Kazekages' in his presence lest you want to die right then. He isn't too keen on the title. Guess it brings back some bad memories of his old man or something. Never once has Gaara-sama labeled himself as the Kazekage or wished for a role like that."
A woman chortles then before saying her peace.
"Heh, as if there's a Suna to rule over anyway. I heard there is nothing left of that village."
Sakura halts her movements then and widens her eyes.
'What…?' she thinks, bewildered from their words. 'Suna is...gone? Gaara didn't want to be Kazekage anymore?'
"Keep moving!"
Sakura is roughly pushed, but even if her steps press on, her mind is running wild with new questions.
'What are they talking about?! This doesn't sound like the Gaara I know. Then again, the Gaara I know wouldn't bring an army here to slaughter. And what's happened to Suna?!'
Sakura feels as though a million pieces to a puzzle are now thrown right under her nose. Left on her own to put the pieces back together, she tries her best to reevaluate all she has seen, all she has learned, and all that she knows of Gaara. Slowly, but surely, she puts piece by piece together as their walk continues. Her thoughts go undeterred when she can even hear herself passing through the gates of the town and back to where the army cheers and sings. Even if the puzzle is far from complete, even if it will take her time to put all the pieces together, through what she has now she can see the clear picture this puzzle is turning out to be.
"I'll go get the captain. See what he wants to do with her."
Sakura's head shoots up then, and her heart sinks the lowest it ever has as she finally makes a realization.
'I'm still not back home. I'm not where I'm suppose to be. I'm in different time again!'
What time is she in now, she desperately wonders. Gaara had looked to be around the same age as her now. Why were all these unexplained events revolving around Gaara anyway? And who was she in this world? As she was about to meet a serene man in her world, who was a killer here, was she thought to be the same in this world too. Did she match the Sakura of this world, or would Gaara view her as unrecognizable?
But then, as cliché as she knew it to sound, the many movies and books she had watched and read about time travel made her question in her mind.
'Is this the same world I watched over Gaara? Is this his future? Did I do this?!'
No, she keeps telling herself. She had made him laugh. She had made him smile. She showered him with hugs and support. She praised his good ethics and taught him how to overcome the bad ones. This couldn't be her Gaara, she hadn't taught him to do a town in like this.
Her hearing perks, thoughts cast away, the moment a familiar voice hits her.
"So, there was one more out there after all," the man speaks, stepping closer towards Sakura. "Is she one of the town's folk?"
Another voice comes then, answering,
"I don't believe so, sir," the man begins, stepping closer towards Sakura. "She was headed in the direction of Konoha, a rebel for sure."
Silence after that, and Sakura feels that familiar presence draw near to her.
"Careful, she has one hell of a kick. I wouldn't get too close if I were you, Captain Kankuro."
Finally, the familiar voice has a name, and it is all Sakura needs before she tries to use her raw strength to break the chakra-infused bindings around her wrist. There is desperation in her now to speak with Kankuro and show him her familiar face. Yet, the break is slow, and therefore not quick enough to not be noticed.
"Hold her down!" a woman cries as Sakura begins kicking and using her body to knock back whoever lays hands on her then.
However, she is now in enemy territory and every mean manageable is used to bring her down until eventually Sakura finds herself pushed to the ground while bodies and hands scramble to hold her in place. Her struggle only stops when Kankuro's voice is heard once again.
"Keep still, or I'll drug you."
Her eyes narrow to the threat, but she does as she is told. There is no way she is going to speak her peace high on whatever they threatened to put in her.
"You know exactly what we do to rebels."
Silence again, and Sakura narrows her eyes more at the term rebel. She needs to find some way to reach out to Kankuro, and scours her thoughts thinking of a way. Yet, as she feels a foot settle on her head, slowly craning her neck to turn, she hisses through her gag.
"Renounce yourself in front of Gaara, join us, and maybe he'll spare you," Kankuro speaks.
She realizes it is Kankuro's foot that settles on her, and he gives her head a quick, rough nudge with it before turning heel and marching away. With his departing steps is Sakura able to recollect something they shared, something from their past that entwines around them, and she shuts her eyes tight before humming.
'I can't believe it's come to this,' Sakura thinks as she continues to hum three familiar notes through her gag. 'He might not even know this song in this world.'
She tries to hum as loud as she can. It is his mother's song, the one Sakura had helped both him, and Temari, to take back from their father's room. As she repeats those three, familiar, ascending notes, the more the men and women around her suddenly boom with laughter.
"What the hell is she doing?" one man asks, amused.
"Is she trying to sing some stupid lullaby or something?"
"Maybe she's trying amuse our captain. She does have a pretty face, Captain. You could probably send her to the prisons and keep her for awhile."
Despite the laughter and boorish comments around her, Sakura continues to hum as loudly as she can, and focuses instead on Kankuro's footsteps through all the noise.
"Captain? You alright?"
Sakura's eyes widen when she hears Kankuro's footsteps stop, and as the noise around her dies, so, too, does she silence herself.
"What's wrong, Captain? You look like you've seen a ghost or something."
It would be that comment that makes Sakura's heart race.
'He recognizes it!' she realizes. 'He knows his mother's song!'
Sakura calls out his name, though still muffled by the gag. Kankuro's footsteps are now fast, and they practically race towards her. She feels him stop next to her before he lowers himself, and Sakura holds in her breath as she feels Kankuro slowly lifting the bag over her head.
"Where, uh-Where did you say you found her?" he asks while tugging the fabric from her face.
And as Kankuro's trembling fingers slowly pull at the bag, Sakura suddenly has a very disconcerting thought.
'Maybe this is the same world I looked after Gaara. After all, without me helping them break into Rasa's room, they wouldn't know their mother's-'
"Kankuro!"
A gasp leaves the man in front of Sakura, and he lets go of the bag around her face before standing back up to face the woman who has just called for him. For Sakura, though new wherever here is, she recognizes the woman's voice with no trouble.
'Temari,' Sakura puts a name on her.
"What's taking you so long?" Temari angrily bellows at her brother. "Gaara finished his speech long ago! She's the last one, right?!"
Kankuro, under his sister's pressure, suddenly fumbles with his words.
"No-No. I-I mean yes! Yes, she is, but she...I think. I mean. I don't know how, but Temari she, uh, knows. She knows-"
"Shut the hell up!" Temari cut him off, before her steps shake the ground as she draws up towards Sakura. "Grow a backbone already and speak right! You know what will happen if keep Gaara waiting and make him angry."
Kankuro gulps to his sister's harsh words, but says no more as he watches his sister motion his men to follow her with Sakura.
"Hurry up!" she tells them. "Let's get this done and over with!"
Sakura struggles against the sudden pull on her, but is unfortunately still pushed, and forced, towards the direction the many men are now carrying her. The rosette pays it little mind until she feels the sun hit her, and the roar of an army suddenly bellows as she is pushed in the direction Temari is headed.
"We're going up steps now," one man holding her tells her. "Pick your feet up."
And as Sakura recollects, from when she peered at the town earlier, the only wooden steps are those that lead up to the bloody platform.
'They're going to kill me!' Sakura thinks, now using her strength to struggle and push back against the men. 'Not like this! I need to get back home, back to everyone!'
The crowd around her cheers, laughing as they watch Sakura struggle to break loose. A few even toss stones in her direction, hoping to hit her. For the rosette, she is still pushing against them as they manage to get her down to one knee, but eventually she stills once she feels a blade pressing against her throat.
"I'll slit your throat right now if that's what you really want," Temari hisses at Sakura.
Sakura does not move, and instead remembers the words Kankuro had told her before.
"Renounce yourself in front of Gaara, and maybe he'll spare you."
With that thought, her opportunity to speak, Sakura lowers her other knee and keeps still as Temari smirks above her. Yet, with the blade on her neck, the rosette can feel the cool metal shake lightly against her warm skin from then hand that holds it.
'She's...scared?' Sakura wonders.
"Coward rebel," Temari whispers, keeping her blade set on Sakura's neck.
Sakura grimaces, thinking back on the scenario of the old man.
'Temari...' she thinks sadly. 'Don't tell me you were the executionerfor all those bodies.'
Sakura tries to listen as Temari's voice suddenly roars. She relays to the men and women how they have found a rebel running away like a coward, and that Sakura ought not even be given the opportunity to even speak to Gaara. Somewhere within her speech, she speaks more and more hate about these so-called rebels, that Sakura eventually loses interest in the whole scenario. Instead, under the bag over her head, she narrows her eyes and grounds her teeth against the gag.
In Sakura's heart now is anger. It was not that long ago that all three, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro, were just little people smiling in her direction and wanting nothing more than someone to hold and play with them. Here, now, she listens at their rage, has seen all the blood they have spilled in this town, and wonders just how the hell their future had turned into this.
They were suppose to be good people. They were good people, in her world at least.
'No,' she tells herself. 'This isn't my fault. I showed them kindness.'
Her actions were suppose to lead Gaara down a righteous path.
'I showed him love!' she cries in her mind.
Even if she doesn't have a means to, Sakura can sense Gaara staring at her. She can't explain why, but she can feel his cold eyes looking at her now. A gaze she had thought to teach him to be rid of. Anger in her turns into disappointment, and Sakura swallows hard, trying to find anything in her mind that would explain the reasoning of the world around her.
'Ichibi?' she wonders then.
Had the beast managed his way into Gaara's soul once more? If so, where had Naruto's voice fallen to. Where was that reform that was suppose to happen?
Anger fills her again at the thought of Shukaku wrapping its sharp claws around Gaara's mind. Anger turns into rage, and Sakura finds herself, once again, tugging against her binds. Despite the cold blade still on her neck, it seems Temari takes no notice of Sakura's struggles as Temari instead turns towards the man in front of her to speak.
"What say you? Do you wish to speak to her, or do I kill this rebel scum now so that it may please you, Gaara-sama?"
Whether he made a motion or not, he remains silent. Sakura stills herself once she feels that sharp blade press more against her neck, but nonetheless feels some relief come over her as the bag is finally pulled off of her head
The rosette squints once the brightness of the sun hits her vision, and she tries to drown out the loud noises of the army around who cheer, scream, call her names, and bellow at Temari to finish her off. As her blinding vision settles, Sakura takes a moment to scan her eyes around the army.
'There's hundreds,' she thinks.
Her senses pick up the burning bodies next and as her eyes find the pile of ashes, bodies and flames, they narrow in anger. The men and women here, encouraging this catastrophe, will pay for this, Sakura decides then, and she hopes to a power above her that she will be the one to repay them each. Starting with the man who led this massacre and holds a mindset that it was alright to kill innocents.
'Gaara!' Sakura screams in her mind, casting her gaze in front of her so that he may quake under the rage in her eyes.
The blade on her neck falls instantly then, but Sakura pays the blonde no mind as Temari suddenly stumbles back and away from Sakura with wide eyes.
"Sa-Sakura?" Temari whispers with a gasp.
And if Temari's fall wasn't enough to cause the army around her some alarm, Gaara's own movements then still every man, and woman, with the crowd falling deaf silent watching their leader.
Sakura turns her eyes just in time to watch Gaara quickly uncross his legs and stand himself from his seat. His act is so rushed that the glass he drinks from tumbles from his arm rest, causing one woman sitting under him to cry out as the red liquid showers her hair before she scurries off.
Gaara's eyes go round, mouth agape, and he stares long and hard at the rosette who keeps her angry gaze settled on him. With his shocked features set entirely on her, Sakura is more than certain now that the man in front of her was, just yesterday, the same child she hugged, kissed, and had told that she loved him.
'Gaara,' Sakura thinks, disappointed at the sight all around, and in front of her. 'What happened to you?'
Once, long ago, the monster met a human.
This time it was a woman, and she smiled at the monster before he even knew her name. So young, the monster still teetered and wondered what he was meant to be. His uncle, he believed, had started him down a path of pain.
"I am a monster. I do not know love," he would tell the woman.
Like the blonde boy, she went against the monster's words.
"You do know love. You are no monster. You are a human, just like me. Your love will be as big as mine someday."
Her time with the monster was much longer, much more fervent, that it did not take the monster long to be born again, a third time, and tell the woman.
"I am a human. I am not a monster. I know what love is."
He did not lie. He was meant to grow into the fine man the woman always envisioned.
...Or so the woman had hoped.
In the end, her sudden abandonment would cause the young boy so much heartache and turmoil in his growing years, until eventually, if you dared ask, he might tell you.
"I am a monster. Until I had my heart torn apart, again, I knew what love was. I won't be fooled a third time."
He did not lie. He was born again, a fourth time, and grew into a depraved monster everyone else envisioned him to become.
The woman had helped to make this young man the villain of a story.
