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Chapter 5: To Plea No Contest

'Why was that girl running?' Gaara wondered as he followed as closely as possible. Don't get him wrong... he was only curious. Chikage didn't really matter to him at all. But after she'd gone ahead and said all of that stuff, instead of staying for the debate, she just took off like an army of jonin were after her.

And on the ground, every couple of feet or so, small drops of water had hit the parched sand, darkening it for the world to see. Up above, not a cloud was in the sky. No rain today, or tomorrow, or even next week.

'So... that means she's crying?' he asked himself. Chikage was a confusing person. He didn't understand why ANYONE would cry for something like him. Even when he'd seen her tears in her eyes and watched one slip down before she stood up to leave, he still had difficulty comprehending her actions.

Gaining speed, Gaara decided that the only way to stop that strange girl was to pin her down and keep her there. Sure, he could just use his sand... but that would be stupid. He'd just scare her and provoke himself into killing her. That was the old Gaara-- the demon Gaara. This new and slightly improved Gaara knew better than to act so brash... or did he?

Gaara kept gathering speed... and sand as he summoned it and ordered it to get Chikage to stop. So that's what the sand did. It rushed at her, covered her in it's grainy clutches, and stuck her onto the ground like a fly on flypaper.

But as the ex-demon bearer got closer, he couldn't hear anything. No shouts of freedom, no shreiks of terror, or wimpers of fear-- nothing but the sound of her beating heart. He saw her tear-stained face and his eyes almost softened at the sight. Her eyes, though teary, were shiny and all of the luster was shot back to life. Her nose was slightly red and her bottom lip was a little swollen from her biting onto it to keep herself from crying outloud.

Chikage looked so strange, laying there almost calm as day and wrapped in Gaara's blood-soaked sand. But she also appeared at home. "I'm sorry..."

The first noise to reach his ears was her apology as the tears came faster. She looked away from him and just cried silently except for the often "I'm sorry"s and "Forgive me"s.

'What are you trying to tell me, Chikage? You want to tell me that you were wrong? That you didn't mean it? That you... want me to kill you?' That last thought was especially painful for Gaara to swallow. "Why are you acting like this?" he asked as though unsure that was a plausible question.

"I... I betrayed you so long ago... Please, believe me when I say that I didn't mean to. I never meant to betray you to the point that I was just like those other people. That was the last thing I ever wanted to do..." Chikage's eyes flashed with pain. She was sounding like an excuse-making bitch. Everyone in town had made a plea like this one to Gaara and now, so had she. Closing her eyes and resigning her fate into Gaara's hands, she waited for his crushing reaction.