To Guest: I know you are 'out' but I have to answer you nonetheless: I have no clue where you read that Naruto loved Hinata. 'He could have loved her' is diametrically different with 'He loved her', after all... Chances are nonexistent that you would be reading this considering your comment but I would like to thank you for taking the time to review my story. :)

To Anon Reader: Thank you for your lovely reviews, dear! :D I feel honoured that you would take the time to review every chapter. ^_^ I don't feel like the part about Kankuro and Temari is a spoiler but as you could have guessed, they are part of the 'old Gaara'. The wind is the memory of Temari, yes. :) Nothing gruesome happened, I can assure you that. Well, nothing gruesome happened to them. They died of old age. Don't worry, they will be part on Gaara's conscience in next chapter. ^_^

I'm already back, two weeks later! :) Thank you for those who joined me back in this and forgave me for the very long hiatus: welcome back, guys! Of course, welcome to newcomers! :D

Now, on to the story: enjoy! :)

-X-

Naruto watched his worlds collide, his cerulean eyes reddening as it reflected the moon.

The motions of the night exploded in twisting shades trying to break free of the pressure cleaving both worlds. Naruto leaned back in the darkness of the room, sparks of green light reaching out to him. The souls screeched, pleading, while teeth sank in their loose vaporous limbs. He remembered when a demon first ate him and the pain rippled through him. He remembered the wet pain soaking him, sucking him in the darkness. The flames came after, twirling and hot until he wasn't human anymore. The screams could have been his own, the way they rose inhuman, crawling under his skin until it became rigid. Nothing could break a demon's skin.

Abruptly, Naruto closed the window, panting as he flexed his human body. It had been too long, he thought, shakily. The memories were assaults now; pounding onto him until he remembered everything that happened before he turned into what he was. He glanced over at Sakura, through blond bags. Unflinching, she stared back at him, her pale skin repelling quivering shadows. Human skin was so fragile. Her loose pink locks covered her collar bone. Slowly, he licked his lips tasting her blood on his tongue.

What they had was even more fragile.

"Are you thinking about what happened at the market?" She pursued her lips, pushing the bed sheets away from her moist skin. "You told me that her wish-"

"It's not that. You have to believe me." he closed his palm around her neck, massaging his way through her pink locks.

Even his voice had changed; it didn't rasp, deep velvet, the way it used to. Sakura relaxed, moaning as she pulled him closer. His skin was pliable under her fingers. His eyes widened. He had stayed human for too long. It was all too natural, too subtle, too intoxicating. His movements stilled.

"I wonder what is real."

A part of him panicked. She fell in love with a demon, she wouldn't want him, dull and human. He watched her face contracted as she grasped the meaning of her thickened words.

He knew Sakura spoke above the memory of a park that faded sometimes, the cadaver of a friend in the legion whose face was never clear enough. She shuddered; she had wished for it. She should smile for the memories he had given her. For the bond he had given her. He had built her and she had let him, thinking it was for the best. There were nights, though, were the strings of her memory snapped and bile filed her throat, her blood hammering her skull. She had wished for another reality.

Those were the nights he feared the most because he had never been able to shake the feeling he needed her more than she needed him. After all, he was nothing but destruction and she was fragile.

Naruto's hands fell on her shoulders, the flames within him bursting and reaching for her crackling soul. Inwardly, he told her that he was still hellish and brutally him. Inwardly, he told her she could still love him. He clenched his jaw, terrified and panting. Sakura looked around the room, blinking, her uneasiness fading. The sun had blazed above them when they had played in the park, bathing them in hues of orange and red. His face held them all together, his warm smile guiding her trough the darkness. He had done it his whole life; she couldn't get lost with him grounding her.

"I wonder what is real," she repeated louder, holding on to her body, her green eyes clouded. "I wished for this."

"I am real, Sakura. You have to believe that."

It wasn't just about implanting memories in her that erased the twisted shades that had once pursued them. Naruto had taken away her nightmares when she wished for them to be normal. When she wished for smiles and warmth that didn't make her boil and scream, he gave them all to her. At the beginning, they were fake. Now, they were real. Or he hoped they were.

Naruto leaned in closer, gripping her wrists in his clawed hands.

"Believe in me," he muttered before claiming her lips.

They were cold and scorched and he pulled her closer, his hands turning human again.

He wished for the rustles of his past human to still in the wind of his present one. He wished for his secret to stay bury in Sakura's body. She held both her and his souls and if a demon found out, he would lose it all.

The way he loved her, he could lose his tails.

Their worlds collided in the sky and they held on.

-X-

Wish for Silence

by Clementive

-X-

Hinata Hyuuga pushed the curtains aside, watching the paling cloudless sky. It was a world of stilled snow in the middle of blooming summer. The light blinded them, binding her to the slow puffs crossing her trembling lips and the sounds of her escort. They moved forward, but their steps were muffled by the howling wind. The branches hung above her head like crooked fingers, clawing their way through the stillness of the white colour. They gleamed, coaxing the trees in levels of whiteness that matched Hyuuga robes.

She blinked, thinking they were lost on a road that swallowed them whole.

Hinata shivered leaning back against the cushions inside the palanquin. Sweat bathed her forehead and the fear was all too familiar. She couldn't shake the uneasiness snaking between her shoulder blades, slowing her movements.

She was extinguishing, accepting her fate in hues of light that masked the darkness twisting between the escort. Bile rose in her mouth and she looked down at her trembling hands. She was carried away by men that made her world sway in a regular gait. The branches continued their languid and brutal dance as the wind shook them. It was a constant whisper that plastered the horses' ears on their head. It was a constant whisper that silenced the one compressing her chest.

Nervously, she reached for the curtains once more her pearl orbs found Gaara's tensed shoulders. His head titled towards the sky, his lips were set in a firm line. The ashen colour of the trees around him couldn't cloak his flaming hair or his dark robes. The branches stilled and she fought to breathe again.

The darkness rolled out between the trees, their steps muffled. They were shades that carried nothing but death. Gaara smelled the brutality that cloaked them. So human. So mundane.

He smirked and the curtains fell out of her hand.

The first arrows showered on the escort and her world went crashing down, a thin layer of dust raising above it all.

"Hinata-hime!" her name died on someone's lips and he fell forward, onto his horse.

Brutally, the palanquin dropped onto the ground and she flew across the wooden frame. Hinata cried out, her shoulders hitting the ground. Rocks dug in her skin as dazedly, she looked up to katana clashing against bones. Until then, she had thought death was filled with silence. She panted and they died, arrows embedded in their necks. Dizzily, she tried to stand up grasping at the tangible ground. The pain in her shoulder was dulled by branches breaking and bodies crashing down around her.

Blood stained the pure sky and for the briefest moment, she thought it was beautiful.

A rough hand pulled her up by the hair and the pain erupted in her scalp. She screamed, feeling her kimono loosened around her body. Out of habit she rose her palms, her breath knocked out of her lungs.

The release, the pain couldn't the silence falling inside her. She trembled, her escort falling around her amid shadows that were their own.

Her palm pressed again on the same deadly spot, the silence unbearable as it didn't fit the cries, death and gore. The mouth twisted in a silent scream and tears strung behind her eyes. The cadaver fell at her feet. Pearl eyes stared emptily at her. She spun on her heels, her palm exploding in jolts of pain on someone else's chest. Pearl eyes. Again. Always. They had always been her only enemies; her own flesh and blood.

Quietly, she wished for the silence of innocence.

Gaara licked his lips, watching her eyes narrowed, her mouth twisted in an inner scream that made him come undone. He had heard his wish.

The darkness poured out of his chest, the herbs and leaves dying at his feet. He smirked, terrible, his head filled with the sight of her, violent and unquiet. The air whipped the trees around him. He snapped his fingers and the rest of them burst into flames, shrilling into oblivion.

They were the only ones still standing.

His smirk widened. She still hadn't lowered her palms.

-X-

The wind blew the scent of burning flesh in the clearing, the sun still hidden above their head.

Gaara watched Hinata, his arms crossed his chest as she bent over the lake. Her bridal kimono was ripped and tainted, the rim darkened where it had gathered the dirt of the forest. He had seen her angry, her wish for silence echoing in her mind and now, she was broken again. Anger repelled her, the violence flowing in her veins, always denied. He shook, unstable, his stare intensifying as the waters shimmered around her.

He wanted to see it again, brutal and exploding across her skin. His hand fell on the katana at his hip. Gaara wondered was she would look like dressed in blood, wedded to innocence and violence, the fight that never ended within her. He just had never noticed it before and now he couldn't let it go.

Hinata paused glancing meekly above her naked shoulder. He wanted to make her scowl and feel his insides burn just as it had when she fought her own people. Gaara stepped closer as she avoided his glance, turning her attention back to washing her face. The water cooled her blush and rolled down her neck. Her kimono trailed behind her, cloaking her in stains of light and darkness.

He almost yanked it off her body to see his mark on her.

"Why did you save me? I thought I had to die." She whispered when Gaara stopped him right behind her.

"Why did you save yourself?"

Hinata bit her below lip, drying her supple hands on her knees. She didn't know. She had hit them until they crumbled and she couldn't stop. Her insides had boiled, her palms open and deadly. It was their blood and hers. Their name and hers. She had hit them harder their heart exploding in their chest when the thought had flashed through her mind. Even then, she had refused to acknowledge Gaara smirking at her side. He had made heads roll in scorched agony, his hands quickly moving her body so she wouldn't step on them. Quietly moving her so she would keep fighting. But they had been no one else. It was her and him, her quiet world clashing with his gory one. He didn't seem to mind the way she did.

She clenched her fists on her knees.

"Because I'm weak," Hinata rasped, thinking of the strength it took Neji to accept his place within the clan and his love for Tenten.

Unlike him, she had never been able to accept who she was. She had always fought herself with all her might and failed every time.

Amused at her troubled expression, Gaara crouched down so they would be at the same level. She blushed at the sudden proximity, transfixed by the quiet flames dancing in the green of his eyes. She almost reached forward to press her fingers against his tattoo that mirrored her own. Love. Did it all come down to that? Loving Naruto. Hating herself.

"No, you aren't," he growled ferociously. "You aren't scared of death. You defied them for yourself. You are selfish, Hinata, in the most fascinating way."

The wind blew around them and he could almost hear a female voice: 'love only yourself. Fight only for yourself'. He scowled and her eyes widened, her scent too strong to overcome. He growled again, wishing it would remain in the silence of his demoniac aura. Her red lips parted, his eyes flickering over them. Gaara saw teal and moving puppets hidden in the darkness of the forest.

"You will have to die, Hinata-hime," he spoked above his memories, pushing them away so they wouldn't stand between them. So, they wouldn't ruin her. "For me, but not for them."

"So you will kill me, now," Hinata didn't flinch, her voice too quiet to disturb the distance between them.

Gaara thought of the days left to make her fall. Somehow, he thought it didn't mattered when she looked lost and at his mercy. He didn't like her defeated. He wanted her to stand again and fight. Stubbornly, she didn't look away, her hands still pressed on her knees.

It did matter, he realized and he felt puppets sand grazed his skin.

"No," he straightened his back, stepping away from her as if burnt. "You can't die by any other hand but your own. Your soul is chained to your body and that makes your an immortal." His eyes blackened, losing his yellow gleam, but his voice hardened, merciless. "You will marry and have children. They will all die, one by one, and you won't age so you will have to watch them die. You will be hopeless and clinging to their lives. When you'll realize life is futile for you, you will take your life and your soul will be mine."

In her head, her family still called her weak but she saw herself standing over their cadavers. The blazing rush was back buried in the pit of her stomach. She could stand over them if she chose life. She could watch their humanity bending their back, their age breaking down their body. And she would still stand.

"I can fight," Hinata realized aloud, looking down at her palms.

His insides froze. Gaara almost felt human even if the heart within him didn't beat. Vaguely, he had the notion that it would have hammered his skull. He realized he could lose her to immortality. He realized he could lose his tail now that she knew she could fight. Now that she knew she could keep on living, her soul sparkling yet still chained.

She was intoxicating and he didn't want to lose her.

He sprung on her, pinning her down under him. Her vision faltered, her senses suddenly assaulted by the scent of burnt flesh, earth and moist leaves. Strands of her hair fell across her face, her kimono clinging to her, humid. Grumbling, he pushed her hair away, drinking in her fear. He could taste her soul still out of his reach as he leaned in closer.

"You are so brittle. So broken and to think," he growled low in his throat and it echoed through her. "And to think I wasn't the one doing this to you. I have watched you for so long, Hinata. You should be mine, not his." His nose nuzzled her neck, his unbearable heat washing over her.

Angrily, he pulled away to stand over her. Her world swayed, her lips parted in a silent scream. The white sky around him seemed to boil as a cruel smirk curved his lips.

"It's up to you if you want to go back to Konoha," he pressed a dagger between them and her hand closed around it, dazzled by his proximity.

Hyuuga died in honour and it all came to down to choosing who she was; his or theirs.

-X-

Thank you for reading! :) I hope you had enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. ^_^ Please take the time to tell me what you thought!