Chapter Four: We All Have Our Demons
A/N: Yes… Fourth Chapter!
The following morning, Gaara had decided to tell his siblings the plan he had come up with to make sure an eye was kept on the Cloud girl. He would make his brother or sister befriend the girl and then invite her to train with them. After telling his siblings his plan, Gaara head out into the village. He had his usual responsibility assigned to him by his father, his morning watch. His job was just to make sure everyone in the village was doing what they were supposed to be doing and no one was causing trouble.
He watched as the people of Sand filtered out of there homes to begin their daily routines. Some of the men were carpenters and went to work right away and some men were merchants. The successful merchants would work early in the morning like the carpenters and the unsuccessful merchants lazily slept in until the afternoon. Some mothers allowed their children to scamper about and play as they prepared breakfast. Gaara hated watching over the children; disgusting and cruel creatures that they were.
When he was young, no one played with him. They all ran away from him and called him monster. They were horrid things, all of those children. "And that's why they all died by my hand," Gaara murmured to himself with a small grin. His grin vanished as soon as he saw jet black blue hair fly by the children as they played.
Gaara felt an odd and compelling sensation tug at his feet as if they were being pulled by his own rebellious shadow. He was led by his feet, his shadow, or whatever it was compelling him. His feet seemed to be chasing after the girl and though Gaara commanded his feet to stop they would not. Gaara eventually gave into his disobedient feet and he allowed them to follow her.
He couldn't help but notice her pig tails. They looked slightly static touched, probably from her striking herself with lightning, as she weaved through the crowds and some people shouted, "Ow, you shocked me."
"Sorry," Sachiko muttered as she merged through crowds filled with startled village members.
The Cloud native finally went back to the remote shady palm tree that she had met on her second day in Suna. He could see why she had chosen it to be her sort of 'spot.' It was far from the rest of the village and no one bother her there.
She sat underneath the tree and pulled out a juice box and a scroll. She slurped from the juice box in a thirsty manner and then set it down to bring her attention to the scroll. She seemed to be studying, most likely new jutsus. Her hands moved quickly in an unfamiliar matter as she created little sparks of electricity flying about.
Gaara had come to the conclusion that her practice of her Kekkai Genkai wasn't a good idea and that he would put a stop to it immediately. He approached his victim and spoke in his menacingly low growl of a voice, "What is it you are doing?"
Sachiko accidentally pointed her hand signs at Gaara and sent a jolt of electricity flying at him. The jolt was a startled one that had even sent her flying right into the trunk of the palm tree. Luckily for her, Gaara's sand shield rose up to greet the spark and smothered the sharp electricity with dull sand.
He breathed out heavily and it almost sounded like an annoyed growl. He saw that Sachiko had flown in to the tree. A coconut fell from the palm tree and hit her in the head, knocking her unconscious. He let out another low growl and hesitated in what he did next.
Gaara stepped closer to the girl and picked her up. He couldn't help the strong bloodlust he got as he carried her. He wanted so badly to kill her and he wasn't sure why but he knew that it was her blood that he had been craving last night. Just as he felt the urge to use sand coffin and kill her right then and there, Gaara was hit with another emotion. It was an emotion he rarely felt; he was enthralled. Not enthralled like the way he felt when he killed but enthralled like he was mesmerized by her.
He shook his red head of hair and set the girl down on her own balcony at Sand Castle. He thought about setting her in her bed but he almost felt that was being nice; it was bad enough he picked her up and brought her safely back to Sand Castle. He scowled and glared at her unconscious body that was sprawled out on her balcony floor.
XXX
Sachiko woke up as soon as she felt the water hit her. She sat up and pushed her wet hair out of her face. "What gives," she snarled at whoever had thrown the water. She almost bit her tongue when she saw that it was Sabaku no Gaara but then she reminded herself that she shouldn't be afraid of him. "What's your problem!"
A strange rumbling growl erupted from his throat as he gave her a dirty look. His teal eyes looked like two serpents dying to bite her and inject their sweet poison, and his red hair looked like hell's flame; this boy was truly demonic.
"Excuse me, Sabaku no Gaara-sama," she forced herself to apologize, "I didn't realize it was you." He gave her another dirty look which made her mutter, "If only looks could kill."
Suddenly, Sachiko felt herself being squeezed by the sand the exploded from the gourd on his back. "If only they did… Then I wouldn't have to kill you myself," Gaara sneered at her as the sand tightened its grip.
They stayed like that for several minutes. Luckily for Sachiko, Gaara's sand stopped tightening around her, so she wasn't too worried. Gaara continued his unearthly glare and Sachiko returned it with her rebellious stare. He finally let the sand loosen and slowly dropped her back to the ground. The two were quiet, none with anything to say for quite a while.
"What is your purpose?" Gaara suddenly asked her as the sand flowed back into his gourd.
She gave him a crazed look as if he just came out of the shinobi mental hospital but forced her composure to maintain itself. "My purpose?"
"What is it you live for," he persisted in his low voice; dangerous and grave.
Sachiko shrugged. "What is there to live for," she countered as she cocked an eyebrow.
He was taken aback by her question for a moment but then replied, "I live to kill…"
Sachiko chuckled slightly and said, "I can tell…"
Now it was Gaara's turn to give her a crazed look. No one laughed at what he lived for. She had to be crazy. If he had told even his brother and sister that they would take cover elsewhere but she was laughing. Gaara just couldn't figure out what was wrong with her.
Sachiko noticed Gaara's confused look and sighed. "Well Gaara-sama… I guess I live for… revenge."
"Who?" He asked, more curious this time.
"My father," she replied sourly, "And my village."
He nodded as if he understood what she meant. After all, his own father and village were unkind sorts and he figured her father and village maybe were too.
"I see," he said with narrow eyes.
Before waiting for her to respond, Gaara vanished without saying goodbye. He allowed himself to reappear on the roof, a place he could watch her from without being noticed.
"We live to kill. We live for bloodshed. That is the merit of our Existence," said the demon inside of her.
"Not I, Nibi… I live for revenge," Sachiko murmured but Gaara's ears picked it up anyway.
"Revenge is just as peachy… It leads to hate… And hate leads to bloodshed," purred the contemptuous beast.
"You stupid kitty. You disgust me," Sachiko said loudly enough for Gaara to hear again, "You really are sick."
"Think what you like," the cat demon purred at her, "The boy is listening to you from the roof."
"He's what," Sachiko asked in a startled voice, making sure to switch to speaking to Chihoko with her thoughts.
"He thinks he's concealed himself quite well actually… But of course, I can detect him… I am the two tailed demon… Shukaku, that stupid raccoon, has only one tail… The boy was also watching you when you so wickedly sealed me back inside you during that full moon," Chihoko warned her as she cackled viciously.
"I hope you hack up a hairball… Thanks for telling me earlier…"
"Maybe if you would have let me out to play a bit… I wouldn't have concealed it from you."
Sachiko performed various hand seals and suddenly her trusty cloud appeared at the bottom of her feet. She allowed it to carry her back to the palm tree.
"What are you doing now," Chihoko asked her with a hiss.
"I want to see if he follows me," Sachiko said as she glanced behind her but she saw nothing, "You'll tell me right?"
"I suppose," Chihoko replied to her bitterly, "But I do recall a certain hack up a hairball comment…"
"Just tell me if he is or not you stupid cat."
XXX
Gaara was very careful in concealing himself within any shadow he found dark enough to hide him. He had a feeling she had something up her sleeve so he kept himself distanced from her.
Sachiko had been traveling very rapidly on that little cloud of hers as she zipped through the Sand Village. Gaara found it a bit difficult to keep himself distanced and keep up with her at the same time so he followed her more closely. Sachiko kept looking back to see if she was being followed but she still couldn't see anyone and Chihoko said nothing to her. Sachiko bit her lip, fearing maybe she angered the stupid beast and so she wouldn't tell her anything as if it were punishment.
"Is he following?" Sachiko's cloud almost smacked her into a tall building but Sachiko used her chakra control to guide it upward, and missed being squished onto someone's five-story Inn.
"I'm sorry what was that? It seems I was hacking up a hairball," Chihoko said innocently.
"Is he," Sachiko persisted, ignoring the cat's sarcasm.
The cat demon seemed to sigh and said, "Yes… he is… You'll run right into him if you stop right about… now."
As soon as Chihoko said, 'now', Sachiko stomped on the cloud, notifying it to stop. She wound up face to face with the red headed demon of Sunakagure. "Please, stop following me," Sachiko said as politely as she could but still using a tone of voice that attempted to convey she didn't appreciate stalkers.
"Are you afraid of me?" His question threw her off guard, something he had been doing a lot that day. He was grinning something nasty and she wanted nothing more but to wipe that smug smile off of his face.
Sachiko stared straight into his teal eyes to show him she had no fear and she would tell him the truth. "I am a little scared, I suppose."
His smug grin quickly vanished and turned into a disgusted look. "It is because of my demon, correct?" Instead of his question sounding like a threat it sounded more curious and that is why Sachiko chose to answer it.
"You think I'm scared because of that demon of yours don't you?" His eyes were wide in shock but she continued talking, "I should be though, shouldn't I?" She wore a strange smile on her face and Gaara just couldn't seem to read her hazy purple eyes. She shrugged and said, "It's not that scary if you ask me." Sachiko clicked her heels together and the cloud suddenly came back to life underneath her feet. "We all have our demons," she said as the cloud engulfed her and she vanished, leaving Gaara to think about it or go back to his morning responsibilities.
XXX
Gaara had chosen to return to his Kazekage-in-training duties. He walked through the village as crowds of people parted so he could walk freely. One person failed to get out the way in time and Gaara's sand had flown out of his gourd and smacked the man out of the way. "Idiot," Gaara cursed as he continued his walk through the fearful crowd.
But Gaara wasn't calling the man an idiot. Gaara had been thinking of the Cloud girl and calling her an idiot. To not be afraid of a demon was sheer idiocy, Gaara was convinced of this. Gaara found a lonely bench to sit on and replayed the incident in his head.
"I'm a little scared I suppose… You think I'm scared because of that demon of yours don't you? It's not that scary if you ask me…"
"We all have our demons."
"What does she mean by that…?" He asked himself with a frown, "We all have our demons?"
"Maybe she's a lunatic like you," Shukaku the raccoon demon mocked with a series of chuckling.
"She isn't a lunatic like me," Gaara thought back to the raccoon.
"Well at least you admit you're a lunatic… So we know you're not in denial," snickered the Tanuki demon, "I tell you some of these people you've met give me weird vibes like they're dying to feed their bloodlust and… kill."
"Hn."
"Be fun if they did," Shukaku laughed, letting it ring in Gaara's head for a while but Gaara said nothing in reply.
A/N: Well that was interesting, no? (Grins)
Sachiko: Well I'm excited for you to write the next chapter… my character will slowly develop and then I'll get lots of fans like Sasume-san and then at your next Christmas Party I will show off!
Author: Maybe I won't have a Christmas Party this year…
Sachiko: (shakes author and is wailing) But you HAVE to! If you don't Sasume will always hang all those 175 review over my head… plus she'll probably have more by then… I MUST beat her.
Author: (whining) But it's not even a contest.
Sachiko: Oh yes it is and it is one that I will win!
Chihoko: Watch you both lose.
Sachiko: (cocks an eyebrow) Then whom, may I ask you, Chihoko, will win?
Chihoko: (scoffs) I will.
Author: (smacks forehead as Sachiko and her demon argue) How about we're all winners?
Sachiko and Chihoko in unison: That is SO lame and clichéd and you KNOW it!
Author: (roaring) OMG SHUT UP ALREADY!
Sachiko: Geez… Somebody needs anger management.
Chihoko: That child's temper is worse than some of the worst demons I've met.
Sachiko: Seriously, author needs to sleep more… That is probably why she is so cranky.
Author: Author is so cranky because nobody ever shuts up and lets her say Goodbyeeee to the Readers and tell them to REVIEW PLEASE!
Sachiko: You kinda just did.
Chihoko: Moron.
Author: (sweat drops and sighs) I give up with these people… they are just too good… review if you share my pain? o.O