Alright Chapter 7! Finally some good action in this chapter.
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Chapter 7
It was noon. The sun was at its highest and they were in the middle of a rocky desert. Rei had never been so hot in her life. The sun baked rock beneath them seemed to be radiating more heat. She could feel the beads of sweat rolling down her skin. How can Gaara live here all year? They were only a few miles away from the Sand Village and Rei couldn't wait to get there. Her pale skin felt like it was burning from it's over exposure to the shade-less desert.
The heat must have been getting to them because Gaara and Rei were both unable to notice when an unwanted guest appeared behind them.
"Well, what do we have here, a couple of lost shinobi?" asked a male voice.
Gaara and Rei quickly spun around. A man in a black cloak with bright red clouds on it stood a few yards away. A large straw hat covered his face and a large sword wrapped in bandages was strapped to his back. A strong wind blew, knocking his hat off, revealing his blue skin and shark-like appearance
"Kisame" growled Gaara "What do you want?"
The Akatsuki from the Seven Swordsman of the Mist? What is he doing here? thought Rei.
"Who's your friend Gaara?" questioned Kisame
"Answer my question first" snapped Gaara.
"Haha! Very well. Let's just say that someone with a lot of money wants you dead"
"What?"
"Now don't be rude. You have to answer my question." smirked Kisame, flashing two rows of pointed teeth.
"I can introduce myself you know." interrupted the kunoichi, "My name is Reiko, and let me tell you right now you oversized tuna, if you lay a hand on Gaara I will personally tear you throat out!" she threatened.
"Reiko! Get out of here"
"What? No!"
"You're no match for this guy"
"What's this?" Kisame smiled. "Gaara, is this little brat your girlfriend?" Kisame started laughing. If their faces weren't already flushed from the heat, Kisame would have noticed both Gaara and Rei blush. "How could anyone like a monster like you?" He continued to laugh.
"I'm not a monster anymore. I guess I have you guys to thank for that." Gaara launched a large wave of san towards Kisame.
He quickly jumped above it and brought his large sword, Samehada, down, slicing the wave in half. The wrappings around the sword shredded at the top, revealing its dark shark-skin texture. Gaara pulled more sand out of his gourd and sent it flying at Kisame. Each time the sand was about to hit, it was blocked by Kisame's blade. Gaara was loosing twice as much chakra as usual. It's that damn sword! Gaara shot a bunch of sand shurikan, but Kisame dodged all of them. He lunged forward and stabbed Gaara in the chest. As Kisame pulled his sword out, Gaara turned to sand. Kisame turned around just as Gaara shot more sand towards him. He blocked all but one. It grazed him on the arm.
"Hey, not bad kid. There aren't too many people that can even touch me. Well, I'm done messing around here. I got other things to do today. Let's see how good you are without your sand." Kisame clapped his hands together. "Water Seal: Aquatic Shockwave!" He sucked in a bunch of air then opened his mouth, releasing a flood of water. Rei and Gaara were swept back as a giant wave crashed over them. Rei summoned a giant steel spike out of the ground, cutting the stream of water so it went around her. She quickly grabbed Gaara as he floated by.
"Oi! Are you alright?" she asked. Gaara's whole body had turned a dark brown color.
"I thought I told you to leave!"
"And I told you no. I'm staying here with you. I'm going to help. Plus, you don't look too good."
"I'm fine. My sand is wet"
"I don't think so. Let me take care of this bastard." Said Rei, jumping up. Gaara reached up and grabbed her wrist.
"No! If you won't leave, then stay here. This guy is too strong for you. You will only get in my way."
"But…"
"Let me handle this. I'm not letting you get hurt."
"Well you can't fight with wet sand. I won't just let you go out there and get killed!"
Is she really worried about me? "I'll be fine."
"Oh how sweet" said Kisame as he appeared above them, standing on the steel spike. "Sorry to cut this short but let's finish this up." He jumped down swinging his sword at where Gaara and Rei would have been if they had not rolled out of the way at the last second. Rei ducked as Kisame swung again. It missed her head by an inch. He lunged at Gaara. He tried to raise up a wall of sand but it was heavy and too slow. Kisame landed a deep cut on Gaara's shoulder. His crimson blood splashed on the ground. He quickly jumped back before Kisame could swing again.
"Gaara!" yelled Rei as she ran towards him. Kisame swung his blade but Rei flipped over it, landing next to Gaara. Before she could say anything, Kisame appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her by the back of the neck. "Get out of here you silly little girl" he said as he threw her into a large rock. He turned to Gaara. "We killed you once and now I will kill you again. This time I'll cut you to ribbons!" he yelled as he raised his sword.
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Ooh cliffhanger! Yay! Didn't I tell you it was going to get better? I tried to keep everyone in character but i'm not sure how well I did. Kisame isn't one of my favorite characters so I don't know too much about him and don't really pay too much attention to him. I just needed to find someone who could easily deffeat Gaara and I remembered how he couldn't fight too well when wet(hehe) so I thought Kisame would be perfect for the part. I also tried really hard to keep Gaara in character while still showing that he was protective and worried about Reiko. I had to rewrite his lines quite a few times until I liked them. Well I really liked the chapter and I hope you did too. Let me know what you think :)
~Reiko