Chapter 2: Love and War
I awoke a little stiff and confused. It was nearly dawn with the sun just breaking the horizon. Bright oranges and pink mix with dark blues and purples. The clouds of darkness were retreating as the light pushed on. It was the perfect setting to the perfect morning. I look down beside me and realize where I am. "Well Ino must be wondering where I am." I mumbled as I tried to stand up. Next to me was my sleeping dark god.
He looked like my own guardian angel, a fallen one. A peaceful saint. I didn't want to wake him but I knew it was impolite to just walk away. I felt like I was in a rock and a hard place, when suddenly he awoke. His hair was in a mess, but it looked hot. He groaned as he stretched every joint popping from his stiffness. He turned towards me and smiled. I couldn't help but smile back.
"Looks like you're up." He said in a husky voice, quite similar to Naruto's. I frowned as he got up. I remembered when Naruto pretended to be Sasuke. I never wanted the incident to repeat itself again. He noticed my frown and quickly became confused. "What?" he said in his voice from last night. He seemed alarm as if he had upset me. "Oh, nothing. I'm just stiff from sleeping on the cold ground." I said sheepishly. He nodded and got up. "Well I better get home. Temari and Kankuro are going to wonder where I am." He said a little disappointed. I yawned as I stood up. "Yeah I better get back home too. Ino is going to kill me." I said a little annoyed but sort of relieved. Gaara smiled his smile that made me want to melt. "Well, when do I get to see you?" Gaara asked casually. I looked down. "Um… what about Saturday?" I said a little uncertain. He nodded. "Ok, um at eight." He said in a low voice. I nodded and he smiled one last time, before he dashed away into the tree line.
I better start running back to Ino's. I looked down and saw the heels of hell that were killing me as I just stood there. I smirked and unlaced them with careful grace. I carried them in my hands, back to Ino's house. My hair drooped down to my side as I stopped in front of the blonde's house. I took a deep breath and entered the unlocked doors. I noticed the sweet humming and the low voice of some one familiar.
I ran around the corner to see who was here. I stopped dead in my tracks. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the unimaginable image that was going on in the kitchen. I saw a raven haired boy with his face buried into the blonde's. I gulped as he pulled away and I caught his gaze. "Oh. Hey Sakura. I didn't hear you come in." said a blushing Ino. Hot furry was building at an alarming rate within me. I felt as though I was going to explode with all the light headedness. This didn't make sense. Ino hated Sasuke. Sasuke hated Ino. Why are they kissing in the kitchen? It was too early in the morning to figure it out.
Ino looked at the clock and frowned. "You were out past normal time. Why?" I looked at her, dead in the eyes. "I met someone." I said in a mocking voice of Gaara's. Ino's frowned turned into an intriguing smile. I knew what was coming so I opened my mouth. "Nothing happened. We just talked at the little pond by the academy. It was late so I fell asleep." I said in a yawn. She looked as though that answer didn't satisfy her. She looked at Sasuke and said, "I'll see you later ok?" Sasuke nodded and gave her a small peck on the lips. It was unbearable to watch. When it was done, he was out the door in a matter of seconds.
Ino sat down and beckoned me to sit next to her. "So what really happened?" she asked as I sat down. "Nothing happened." I said looking down. "You're lying. Did you kiss him? Who is he?" She shot out the questions. Each one was like a bullet from a gun that penetrated my protective little shell labeled privacy. "Well, we did kiss. His name is Gaara. Um… I met him at the punch bowl." She smiled. "Is he from the sand village? Was the kiss a peck, French, or just a kiss that you see in movies? No tongue." She said as she inched closer to me. "It was a no tongue kiss, almost like the ones in movies. Um… why does it matter what village he's from?" I asked confused by the question.
She recoiled, like I had stricken her. "Didn't you hear?" "Hear what?" she looked around as if someone might hear us. "The sand announced this morning a message of war by killing one of our Anbu last night. We have been ordered to attack any one from the sand without hesitation by lady Hokage herself." Ino said the information quickly and my reaction was of pure horror. Why would they want to have a war with us now? It doesn't make sense. We haven't done anything to them. We haven't attacked them, but forgiven them. I remembered the chunin exams from last year. The sand had attacked us but had they been deceived. I remembered the red head attacking Sasuke. Sasuke had said his name. This was beginning to become a burden to me until Ino shifted her weight.
I looked up to see Ino a little worried. "What's wrong?" I asked a little bit of her emotion was rubbing off and onto to me. She looked up at me; tears were forming in her eyes. "Sasuke might go out to the front lines. I don't want him to be in that much danger." A couple of tears slipped down her cheek. I thought back to Gaara and how much it would hurt to see him in danger. It seemed like nothing could touch him, but I knew all men had an Achilles heel. A could feel a couple of tears clouding my vision.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of Ino weeping. I scooped her up and tried to comfort her as well as myself. The thought of Gaara dying was killing me on the inside. I wished Ino had never brought up the thoughts of Sasuke getting hurt. It was killing me to feel this way and to see her break down into tears. All of this emotional crap continued for a few hours. I had about enough of this when Sasuke came back as saw the weeping mess of Ino in my arms. He ran over and took my place. She started to blubber out words that sounded like a strange tongue I had never heard of before.
I ran up stairs and changed into my black Thirty Seconds from Mars t-shirt and some old torn jeans. I slipped on my sandals and leaped out of window in less than a second. I knew that I had to get away from that. From the hurt that had become enveloping my heart every second I stayed inside that house. I just ran until I couldn't run anymore. I ran past the academy and went down to the little pond that I claimed would be our pond. The sand still held onto our imprint. I sat down on a rock that stuck out of the sand and just let loose my tears. I was so into my emotional moment that I didn't notice the presence in the bushes until I was scooped up and was flying through the trees.
I looked at my kidnaper's face to only see an Anbu mask instead. I was a little confused but our village's sign on the mask. I tried to wipe my eyes of the tears but more came. I was an emotional mess with in a stranger's arms. I felt so weak. I felt so worthless at that moment than any other point. I wished that I wasn't as weak as I was known to be. I motioned for the Anbu to put me down, but he didn't. "Put me down, now." I ordered them, but they didn't even acknowledge me. I frowned and said in a louder voice. "Put me down. I mean it. Now." I stated. The frustration was rolling thickly off of my voice. The Anbu just looked at me and chuckled. I stiffened as I knew that chuckle. It was his chuckle. My god. My love. My life. A single tear fell down my cheek.
"Gaara?" I asked. Confusion was replacing my frustration. We stopped about a few minutes after I said the name. In front of us was a little shack that looked like it had been abandoned for many years. The masked person was right in front of me. "Gaara?" I repeated. I needed to know if it was him. I didn't want it to be him.
A creek came from the shack and two people came out. "How could you do this? You have blown our cover. I'm so disappointed." Said the woman. She had blonde hair into four distinct pony tails. She wore only purple and fish netting. The man next to her looked like a cat with his hood. The paint on his face didn't look too good. He didn't say anything, but just nodded. The mask stranger just shrugged. He reached up to the mask and revealed his face. My face was showing total shock and my eyes showed terror. My body locked up. I felt like a dead weight. I couldn't move. I didn't believe it. Why? Why are you doing this? Did you kill our Anbu? All of these questions raced through my mind. "Gaara, why?" he looked a little taken aback by my reaction. It looked like it hurt him.
His turquoise eyes sparkled in the light. He was still my god, but not the one I had known. He was my killing demon. He looked down and said softly, "You must hate me. Think of me as a monster." I was shocked that he had said that. "No. no. Never. I would never think of you that way." I shouted at him. He looked up at me. "Then why are you looking at me that way? Why are you looking as though I might kill you? That you're on the defensive. You know that I care about. I would never hurt you." he said pleading and broken at the same time. All I wanted to do was scoop him up into my arms and comfort him, but in this situation, he was the enemy.
"I just need to know two things. Did you come to the village to destroy the leaf village and did you really mean it last night?" I asked when such uncertainty that it shocked me that I had even said those things. He looked up at me. "I did come here to destroy the leaf village, but only ordered to until I met you and everyone that was nice to me there. Last night was real. Everything was true. I can't believe you would think that." he said as he closed the gap between us. I looked up at him and kissed him. "I'm sorry I doubted you." I said as he pulled away. "You know that I will always love you."
A low hiss came from the air. A kunai landed on a tree. There was a string attached to it. Just then, Sasuke was walking out from the tree line. A smirk spread a crossed his face. "Sasuke Uchiha." Gaara spat out. "Gaara of the sand." Sasuke spat back. Both were in ready positions. "Sasuke looked up at me. "Sakura! You bastard. You didn't harm her did you? Looks like you couldn't wait for another's blood upon your hands, you monster." Sasuke spat angrily. "I wish not to harm her." Gaara said calmly. Sasuke looked at Gaara and then at me. "Sakura. Go home. I'll take care of him." Sasuke said as he lunged forward. "NO!" I shouted at Sasuke as he took a kunai and tried to stab Gaara from behind. A sudden wall of sand protected him from sudden death.
"Sasuke. Please don't kill him." I shouted. Sasuke looked at me with disbelief. "Why are you trying to protect him? He's a monster. He's a murder." Sasuke spat in disgust. I looked down. "Because. I love him, even if he is a monster or a murder. He makes me feel like I'm enough for him. Like I'm not some trash that you can kick to the curb at anytime you want." I said with clenched fists. I looked up at the raven-haired boy. He pulled out a kunai. "Well, then Sakura. Prepare to die."