Note: This is the last chapter for Part I- its kinda sad but just go with it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor do I own the Naruto storyline.
Chapter Ten:
This Thing They Call Love
Tears- they're like broken glass, once they've fallen and shattered you can never put them back together again.
The thing about glass is that even if you put it back together again there will always be the cracks- like inner scars- and nothing can or will ever change that. Broken glass is like death- nothing will ever be the same after the glass has shattered.
Its funny how the human heart and spirit is so much like glass- even the hardest and cruelest crimmals need someone to love and be loved in return otherwise they don't want to live- and their hearts are easily broken just like every one elses.
Gaara was a prime example of that- as a young child his father often tried to kill him and in the end his pain over came is sanity.
The truth is that he- even when his sanity was only a hair strand thick- wanted to be loved and needed just like I did and do.
You could see it in the manner he acted and sometimes you could even see it in his eyes.
Anyways, we finally arrived in Suna- the sun was setting in the West in an explosion of warm colors.
"Sasuke and Temari," Gaara began giving out the orders he and I had recieved- I was willing to let him take charge, "Take the Section One in the West."
"Right," Sasuke said as Temari nodded her head.
They both took off in the direction that he had told them- that was the last time I ever saw her alive.
Even now I have tears falling down my cheeks- do you see them?
That night of the betrayal still haunts me in my dreams- I often have nightmares about it and the other event; people like you- people who have never lost someone in battle or has never seen all the ones you cherish fall in front of your eyes- will never understand. You try you tell me that its not my fault- that there was nothing I could do, but your wrong. There was plenty I could have- no should have- done to stop him from doing what he did.
But I didn't...
Its all my fault.
The guilt will never wash away- I don't want it too.
You say its unhealthly for me to hold it all in- this is way your interviewing me isn't it?
I told you that I'm not broken- so you can put all thoughts of fixing me out of your head; you think you know everything but you don't- you really don't.
"Kankuro and Naruto you two are to take Section Two in the East," he pointed in the direction they were suppose to search.
"Okay then," Naruto's bubbly voice was full of excitement and hope, "We can do this, believe it!"
"Shut up kid and lets go," Kankuro ordered him taking off their assign section.
"Who are you telling to shut up?" Naruto yelled taking off after him, "I'm gonna be the next Hokage, you need to show me some respect!"
"That leaves us with Section Three and Four in the North and South," I told Gaara with a half cocked smile.
He nodded his head and we took off as well.
We found where Shik's house was about half an hour into our mission- the night sky was lit up with sparkling white stars that resembled tiny dimonds on black velvet.
"Is that it?" I asked Gaara as we crossed the street using the shadows as our cover.
"Yes," he kicked off the ground so hard that he landed on top of the building, then motioned for me to do the same.
"We should signal for the others to come," I told him reaching for the small microphone ear piece I wore in my ear.
"Wait," he held his hand up and then explained, "We need to make sure its his house first."
"Right," I nodded my head as he walked down to the right, back side of the window looking for a window.
The dessert winds were not blowing as rough as they were known to- which at the time I thought to be lucky for us.
He opened up the window without making even the slightest creak, and swung himself in- I followed shortly afterwards. The window lead into a small room which I assumed to belong to Shik's eight year old daughter, from the bed we heard something stir. Gaara released his sand ready to kill whatever had moved, but something- I don't know what it was- made me signal to him not to attack.
At first he shot me a look like I was crazy but then pulled back the sand, once he had, I walked over to the bed to see that there was indeed a little girl in it.
I motioned for him to check outside the door so we could leave- I didn't have the heart to kill the little girl.
Using his third eye to see beyound the door, he opened it and we exited the child's room; when I shut the door he said, "The mission is to kill him and his family."
I shook my head, "She's just a little kid, she can't hurt us."
He grunted- I could tell that he wasn't happy with my discission, but he went along with it anyways.
We slowly crept down the hall when a disturbance crackled through the ear pieces we were wear- you see the ear pieces were used in the manner that we could call each other for help or whatever without actually sending a ninja to play messagner- : Someone help!
Both of us froze, niether of us prepared to what came next: Hes a traitor!
"Thats Temari's voice," Gaara's voice was surprised.
I was also surprised to hear her voice and the things she was saying.
"Temari?" I spoke into the microphone, but the static was becoming increasingly louder, "Temari whats wrong?"
Traitor!
Her voice echoed in my mind, my legs had become weak and body was shaking voilently.
Hes betrayed...
Her voice was cut off by static.
I looked at Gaara, waiting for what he wanted to do.
His sand exploded from the goard on his back, his eyes wide with anger, "You betrayed us!"
"N-n-no," I stammered waving my hands in front of my face.
Through the main room's window we both heard a crash and then a familiar voice say, "Sakura where are you?"
It was Naruto.
I couldn't speak, no matter how hard I wanted too I couldn't seem to make my voice come out.
Out of one of the rooms in the hall a man came rushing out at us with a traditional style sword in his hand, Gaara- in his rage- sent his sand at the man knocking him against the wall just as a woman came out of the very same room. The woman let out a shrilling cry as she too was sent flying into the back wall, by this time the small child we had come across had opened her door.
Naruto came rushing into the hall just as Gaara was about to turn his sand on the child, jumping in front of the crying little girl Naruto yelled, "Gaara stop it!"
Stopping his sand right in front of Naruto's face he growled, "What did you do to Kankuro and Temari?"
"Sakura we're aborting the mission," Naruto yelled at me, then said to Gaara, "Kankuro has gone after Sasuke, Temari-"
His voice dropped and I knew then what had happend: Sasuke had betrayed her along with us.
"Where is she?" Gaara's voice was became dangerously deadly.
"We found her- Gaara," Naruto's voice was filled with anger and at the same time hurt, "Shes dead- you have to go stop Kankuro or he'll die too."
Without another word the sand controller vanished in the middle of his sand leaving me, Naruto, and the crying little girl alone- grabbing my wrist Naruto said, "Come on we have to get you out of Suna before dawn."
"What do you mean me? What about Sasuke?"
"As soon as I get you out of here I'm going after him," he pulled me out of the hall and into the eight year old's bedroom, making me run into the small desk beside the door.
I heard the sound of glass breaking, so I looked down and saw a tiny glass music box in the shape of a blooming rose.