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Posted on: 08-20-2013

UNBETAED!

Chapter 5

Even Angels Have Their Evil Schemes

Warm hands with slender fingers traveled along her backside and left nothing but burning flesh and anticipation in their way. Hot breath ghosted along the column of her neck and strong hands wrapped around the breathless torso, making every cell in her body twitch and writhe in desire.

"Do you want me to touch you?" A deep voice whispered in her ear and bit the shell seductively. Naruto was on fire, she was burning, she was being tortured slowly and painfully. She has never been surer about anything in her entire life.

"Yes," the girl breathed out and leaned against the body as she reached up a trembling hand and buried shaky fingers in the mop of hair.

The mop of messy red hair.

The blonde could feel the man's lips curling upwards against her neck, "where do you want me to touch you?" the deep voice made goose bumps appear along the girl's trembling body: she was completely left on the man's will.

"Everywhere" the girl breathed with lidded eyes and felt herself melting in this heat – the heat of the man with red hair.

His smile stretched wider against her neck and the hot breath traveled up and towards her ear "come to me then" he whispered and his strong arms held her tighter, and tighter, clutching her, crushing her, then something sharp – his nails – dug hard along her abdomen and split the flesh wide open.

Naruto's eyes shot open and she held her breath. Despite the jolt of sharp pain that shot through her body at the action, she looked around. Tap. Tap. Tap. The familiar sound of sandals hitting the thick bark of the trees filled her ears. The rhythmic and monotone sound seemed to somewhat calm her and she released a shaky breath when she realized she was dashing trough the forest. And, as she took in account a millisecond later, she was on Shikamaru's back.

"Huh?" Shika spun his head around to look at her and a mop of lazily tied up hair brushed her face and, if it wasn't for her still thumping heart and shock, the girl would have wrinkled her nose. The male stopped on the next tree branch with a dull thud and helped her slide off of his back. The moment Naruto stepped on her legs, they gave out. Shika caught her in the last moment and she softly bumped her back against the tree.

"Naruto? Are you…all…" Shika watched as the girl hastily lifted her jacket and the shirt underneath, and frantically fell about the sun-kissed abdomen. There was nothing inappropriate about the scene, but Shika had the urge to look away until he heard her sigh in relief. The girl leaned her head against the tree and closed her eyes. She couldn't quite remember her dream: blurry images danced before her closed lids and slurred whispers echoed in her ears, but the feel, the sensation was more than alive. So was the pain that overcame her when his claws ripped her flesh open…

Was he…the man in her dream…was he…

Gaara?

Her heart skipped a beat and she lolled forward. Familiar and oh-so-torturing heat licked her torso from the inside and started spreading along her body. Her hair fell loose in front of her face as she supported herself on shaky hands.

"We need to find out what's going on, Naruto. And you need to rest." Shikamaru was immediately by her side and put a hand on her shoulder to push her back. She didn't move though, and the boy recalled with rising fear how she had held him down with an iron grip. He straightened his back and reached for a kunai.

"Konoha…" nothing but a whisper was heard behind the veil of unruly golden locks. "Konoha…I need to go to Konoha…" Shikamaru knew Naruto and Naruto's voice was definitely not that deep. The girl's shoulders trembled and a deep chuckle rose from her throat. And then Shikamaru saw it. Nothing more but a few uncovered inches of her face made him freeze: a pink tongue licking long, sharp canines as the barely audible deep chuckle shook her body.

Shikamaru pulled out a kunai. Naruto stood up.

And to his surprise, instead of attacking him, as he, frankly, thought she would, she reached and took her backpack.

"Geez, Shikamaru, are you going to sit and laze around whole day? How much more have we got until we reach Konoha?" The girl asked annoyed and tied her hair up. Then she grinned. And, questioning his sanity and eyesight, the male noted her shiny teeth…with no sight of long and sharp canines, whatsoever. Shikamaru blinked.

Naruto bent to the still sitting boy and waved a hand before his eyes, "helloooo, stop spacing out, you lazy ass, and let's go back home. I'm tired of this damned forest."

Shika furrowed and came up and onto his legs, "I went back to get our things and then carried you while you were out for a few hours." Shika said as he adjusted his backpack where it belonged. He wanted to see her reaction at his allusive tone.

She turned her back to him and made a few hard steps on the steady branch. "How. Far. Away. From. Konoha." She repeated in a low and menacing voice. His suspicions were confirmed and his heart swelled.

The girl before him, by no means, was the Uzumaki Naruto he knew.

Not entirely, that is.

He sighed and put the kunai away. She wasn't causing trouble. For now. "We're probably a day away."

She abruptly looked at him and smiled her usual stupid smile, "perfect." Then she made a sign for him to follow, "come on. Let's get out of here."

She jumped and Shikamaru followed her. He kept an eye on her and if he wasn't so busy analyzing and thinking about what the fuck was going on and how to handle it, he might have heard the girl whisper, "I'm coming to you."

He might have even noticed her animalistic gaze and trembling lips, holding back crazed-out laughter and hiding deadly canines.

"Kankuro-sama, Temari-sama," the leader of the medic-nins traveling with them addressed them, "aside from the high temperature of his body, which is gradually falling, we could find nothing wrong with the young Kazekage."

"Aah. Thank you." The nin bowed and went off. Temari and Kankuro exchanged gazes, then looked at their little brother, who was leaning against the stalk of a massive tree with a wet cloth on his forehead. They went and kneeled by him.

"Gaara," Temari started with a hard voice, "you're hiding somet-"

"I'm not fucking hiding anything!" Gaara shouted and jumped up, throwing the cloth away. "Can't you see that I know as much as you do?" His sister's expression softened as she, too, stood up, followed by Kankuro.

"Do you think that maybe the seal could have loosened and messed with your head?"

"No." I'm sure of Naruto's seal, he wanted to add, but his body started burning at the thought of her again. He clenched his teeth and spun around on his heels. Placing his right palm on the bark of the tree, he dug his nails and curled his fingers, leaving claw marks.

"Konoha…" he uttered.

"Gaara…"

"I need to get to Konoha as fast as possible," his mind spoke for him.

"Uhh…Gaara?" Kankuro sounded unsure and suspicious.

He was deaf to their calls. Excitement and anticipation bubbled inside of the young Kazekage and a sinister smile that the boy was unaware of stretched on his face. She was there. He knew he'd find her there. In Konoha.

"Gaara!" The boy snapped back to reality when Kankuro gripped his shoulder tightly and spun him around. The sinister smile that spoke of his secret plans was gone and, what was more interesting, Gaara didn't even remember it. His older brother was but an inch shorter than him and looked him dead in the eyes, appraisingly, suspiciously, still gripping his shoulders.

"Don't be stupid, Kankuro," Gaara brushed his hand away with his usual stoic façade on. "I clearly need an experienced medical check. And who is a better medic-nin and more experienced than Tsunade-sama?"

That night, as many, many nights before, Gaara couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't stop thinking how she, who he had clearly tried to kill, had cried for him, his enemy so many years ago. He couldn't escape the memory how, barely alive after the Akatsuki had kidnapped him, she had come to save him. The blurry memory of when he had opened his eyes and saw her teary, but happy eyes, and how he had heard her call for him in desperation, was his last memory of her. He had passed out due to his exhaustion, but later he was told about what she did for him and found out that she had made a seal that would let Shukaku's chakra mix with his own as time passed.

And it's been more than two years since then.

Gaara got up soundlessly and walked through the moonlit forest with slow steps. An owl hooted in the distance and it was like the sound triggered past regrets inside the man. He had tried to kill her. She probably hated him. Why would she save him them, he asked himself? It was probably her mission. She was a shinobi, shinobi did what they were told. They were weapons. Why did she cry then? They had told him how she had screamed about the unfairness and cruelty of being a jinchuuriki. She probably pitied him. And hated him.

He knew he deserved it.

And yet, his heart swelled at the thought and he clutched his chest. That blurry memory of her trigered more feelings that all of the love letters he had ever recieved from any other girl. Gaara came to the bank of the river that was silently flowing in the cool night. The ruble spiked his bear feet and it was as if even the little sharp stones wanted punishment for his deeds. Guilt ate at him and he bit his lip – something he never did in front of people – and stepped into the cold water. It calmed him and he liked to think that it somehow washed his sins away.

Then he looked up to the moon: the same moon he had stared blankly at for so many sleepless nights. The moon meant loneliness. Darkness. Sadness.

Gaara looked down at the clear water. It felt hotter than just moment ago. The river seemed to flow faster, as if wanting to take him somewhere. He looked up to where the river meandered through the valley, accompanied with miles of thick forest on both sides.

Maybe it was time for sun to shine for Gaara and drive away the evil moon.

Maybe.

But for now, Gaara just stepped out of the water.

Shikamaru sat up abruptly. Damn it, he had dozed off! He tsked and cursed loudly when he saw the empty and disarray sleeping bag. The moon lit his way as the male ran off towards the river bank – he could feel chakra gathering there and, with no doubt in his mind, he knew that Naruto was there.

It wasn't far away and it wasn't long before Shika reached the bank. The ruble rolled underneath his sandals that he had intentionally left on and he steadied himself. There, in the middle of the river, stood Naruto with her back to him, her long blonde hair cascading in mad waterfalls down her back, her slender figure lined out by the silky moon light. She was staring up. At the moon.

And then as if on slow motion, the girl spun her head around easily, not a single other muscle trembling at the action. Shika was ninja, an assassin, he had seen death and gore. And yet he remembered that one moment years after that: the way her neck twisted unnaturally to reveal her face where two crimson orbs shone in the dim light and the most sinister, the most demonic and menacing smile split her otherwise beautiful and affable features.

This wasn't Naruto.

This was the demon inside of her.

Shika breathed in abruptly. It was then that time started flowing again and the rest of her body came into view. Hands with long claws rested by her thighs. Apart from her usual orange shorts, she had only fishnet cloth wrapped around her breasts. The seal on her abdomen was visible.

And it was burning.

Just as the male was thinking through his plan, not that he really knew how to deal with that sort of thing, the seal's glowing faded away and the girl's stretched lips eased off. She lolled back with lidded eyes, but then caught herself and rubbed her forehead. Shika walked slowly to the water.

"Huh?" Naruto looked up at him. "Shika." She smiled the most genuine smile in full contrast to the one literally ripping her features mere moments ago. The male stepped into the water and went by her side. It was his Naruto again, he knew her by the smile.

Naruto looked up once again, "the moon is very beautiful tonight, ne, Shika?"

Shika nodded and stared at her with the corner of his eye. What was the most scary was not that his best friend housed a demon that apparently took over her.

It was the fact that she obviously didn't recall it happening.

And as Shika offered for them to go back to sleep and led her out of the water, it didn't escape his notice how her gaze lingered down the river. She then frowned and followed him back to their improvised camp.

TBC...

There! Hope you liked it because it fried my brain. I ate a tone of chocolate to keep myself awake until late at night to finish it. And guess what? Maybe, just maybe, Gaara and Naruto are going to meet in the next chapter. Wooohooo, I know, right?