Chapter 20
Slosh. Slosh. Drip.
The milk from the bucket swished around, finally spitting out a couple drops of the white liquid. I glanced down at the spilled milk as I walked. I heaved the bucket onto the wagon that was stationed at our farm to go into the main part of Konoha to sell.
Two years after Naruto left, and all I had to show for it were new clothes, and a new weapon.
I walked back to the house, smoothing out my long-sleeved, bell-shaped black shirt with a gloved hand.
It was then that I ran into Gaara.
He appeared in a swirl of sand, and he looked around for a second until he caught sight of me.
"Amaya," he said, walking over to me.
"Gaara," I said shortly, and brushed past him.
He followed, saying, "Amaya, will you please come back with me to Suna?"
I closed my eyes, my back toward him.
After the mission where almost everybody went besides Tenten and Aika, I had left Konoha for a little bit to come live with Gaara and his siblings in Suna. I had willingly stayed there for a year, doing missions with them, until Gaara broke his promise to me.
He lost his temper, and he killed someone through blind fury.
That night, I packed up, and went home.
This was the first time Gaara had visited me in a year.
I turned to face Gaara. I stepped back a foot, surprised at how close Gaara had been standing behind me.
"No."
"Amaya, please-"
"I'm not a little kid anymore!" I had burst, "You can't get me to come back with you by begging anymore."
"No, I didn't mean it like tha-"
"Yes, you did. Here, I'll prove it," I looked about wildly, finally grabbing my staff a couple feet away, leaning on the barn, "Fight me."
"No, I don't-"
"Fight me," I said through gritted teeth, "If I win, I don't have to come back with you, and I'll never have to see you again. If I lose, I'll come to Suna without a fuss."
I reached for my staff, which was standing a couple yards away, and swung it around my back.
"Amaya." Gaara said, as if talking would change my mind, "You know what will happen if we fight."
"We'll do it anyway."
I thrust the tip my staff into his chest, but the sand took hold before I could reach. It crawled up the wood, and Gaara looked at me.
"Sorry," he muttered.
I looked at him in surprise, but I figured out what happened soon.
The sand hit me full in the chest, and I flew backward, hitting my head on the wooden wall of the barn.
The last thing I remember was Gaara slowly walking over to me.
- - -
I sat in my old room in Suna three days later reading a letter that had been held for me for about five months. It was a letter from Aika, who has been on an undercover mission for one and a half years now in Taigakure, or the Village Hidden in a Waterfall. She had included a picture of her and a black-haired boy. She wore a red shawl, much like the cloth that used to be around her waist, and a black shirt and white pants. Her Konoha headband was gone, replaced with a Waterfall one neatly tied around her neck.
At the end of her letter, she wrote,
This cutie I'm with in the picture is Corbin. He's another one of the Leader's junior advisors (I did tell you I was one, right, Amaya?) By the way, something's wrong here. The leader is getting more and more secretive, barely letting in his normal advisors, let alone us. Also, the jounin I have to report to are asking stranger questions. I can't wait to get home. I'd miss Corbin, though.
Your friend,
Aika
I tossed the letter down, and stuck the picture in the rim of the window. Then I stared out of it, taking in the view that had been gone from me for a year.
A soft knock interrupted my thoughts.
"Come in," I said, turning around.
Gaara walked in, and I turned back around.
"You can still go home," he said.
"I made a promise," I whispered, "And I'm keeping it."
He sat down, and stared out of the window with me. Then he did something he never did in all of the years I knew him (besides the ones that I was three days away from him.) He touched me. He took me by my hand and pulled me away from the window to look at him.
"Amaya," he said to my surprised face, "I'm so sorry. I know I broke my promise, and I swear on my life that I'll never break it again. Just forgive me."
He twined his fingers around mine until our pinkies linked.
I looked down at our hands, and then looked back at his serious face, his tattoo morphed with the lines creased in his face.
"Promise?" I said.
"Promise."
Our pinkies tightened around each other, and we let go. Warmth that had been missing came back, and I relaxed.
"So, where are your friends? Kudzu, wasn't it? And the girl in red?"
"Kudzu's a plant," I said, "Katsu's on a mission, which he does a lot, after they figured out that he can find practically anything or anyone with his soil. And Aika has been undercover for a year and a half. Where are your siblings?"
"No idea."
"But you're the Kazekage."
"Gimme a break. I don't keep track of every in Suna."
"Yeah. Only Konoha ninjas you met at age six."
"Well, someone's crabby."
Life has gotten better.
- - -
I woke up suddenly from my sleep by shouting that sounded above me. I got out of bed and pulled on my shoes.
I hurried upstairs, only to see Kankurou and other ninjas looking at the sky. Kankurou glanced at me, and answered my questioning glance with a finger pointing at the battle.
I gasped.
A ball of sand and a giant bird were floating in the air, with a blonde man on it.
We stood there, watching the sky at the combat above us.
I never took my eyes off Gaara until he was flown out of sight.
"No," I whispered, "No!"
I took a step forward, preparing to somehow get Gaara back by jumping into the night sky, but Kankurou stepped by my side and held me by my waist to stop me. He was much stronger than how he used to be when I trained with him two years back.
"Let me go!" I yelled at him, "We need to get him back!"
He looked at me fiercely, "I'm going. You stay here, and be my backup."
"No," I said, "I'm coming with you."
He looked at me, his painted forehead creased, and nodded. "Okay. I'll need you." We left, running at top speed, following Gaara's sand that had dripped from his face. But we were forced to stop, when the Akatsuki had left a trick.