Chapter Seven: Found Out
A/N: Whoo! Seventh Chapter!
It was another night with a full moon. Gaara waited patiently atop his roof for the girl to come out. He knew she would be coming out any time now. His assumption had been correct because a few minutes later a figure came from Sand Castle and walked onto Sand's empty streets. This time, the girl looked anxiously up to the moon and decided that she wouldn't be able to make it to the secluded palm tree and had to execute her Inazuma Strike right there in front of Sand Castle.
She performed her series of hand seals rapidly and aimed her fingers at herself once again. Sparks emanated from her fingertips and the moon shot out a single bolt of lightning. The bolt struck her and she flew into the air. Instead of landing on the hard ground she had felt her body hit something soft but she had also heard a strange grunt. Sachiko knew she hadn't been the one to make the grunt.
Sachiko groaned as she pulled herself off of whomever or whatever she had landed on. When she stood back up she saw a young man, most likely a bit older than her. The frightened look that he bore on his face was one she had seen in Cloud; it was the same look people gave her when she tried to talk to them. For fear of repeating nightmarish memories Sachiko extended her hand to the boy and attempted to smile in a friendly way.
The boy took her hand and brushed himself off. He was shaking for some reason and Sachiko couldn't help but feel maybe it was her that was scaring him.
"What's wrong," she asked him with a concerned tone.
"T-t-this… is where the Kazekage lives… His son is going to kill me!" He attempted to run but Sachiko grabbed his shirt and pulled him back.
"What do you mean kill you? He's not here right now," Sachiko tried to assure him.
"No, you don't understand… Cloud girl, he lies in wait at night… To feed his bloodlust and kill," the young man said as he tried to break free from her grasp, "That is why none of us from Sand wander at night…Because he is waiting."
"You're wandering around at night," Sachiko pointed out as she let go of him, "I'm wandering around at night… Where does he hide or wait at?"
The terrified young man took off running and shouted back to her, "Right above you!—on the roof!"
Gaara hid in the darkest point of Sand Castle, in the smallest cranny he could fit himself in. He would not risk being seen and getting in trouble by the Kazekage again. If he was found, his reputation would be shattered.
The Kazekage had threatened to remove him from the Chunin Exams if he didn't behave, and that was bad enough already. The villagers of Sand would no longer fear him if they knew he was stalking the Cloud girl, and then he would have to kill more of them to make them fear him again. Not that he didn't mind killing more, but the Kazekage had already told Gaara that if he killed too many villagers that would also remove him from the Chunin Exams.
Gaara clenched his fists until they were white as Sachiko looked up to the roof. She had half the sense to go up there and look for him but she was in no condition to fight after she shocked herself. Her chakra was all used up from the self-attack. She wasn't even sure if she could make it back to her room. She bit her lip and performed some hand seals to create her cloud. It was longer than the last cloud she made so she could lay on it.
Sachiko was crossing her fingers that cloud would carry her all the way up to her new room, but that would mean that Gaara knew where she was staying at. Kankuro had warned her not to let him see. There was no where for her to run or hide. Her only thought to deceive the sand master was to go in through the balcony of her old room.
The cloud began to carry her back to the high balcony of her old room. Gaara felt tense as she approached his hiding place and tucked himself further into the shadows. Just as Sachiko was about to reach the balcony her cloud began to soften. "Kuso," she cursed as the cloud completely dissolved and dropped her.
She tumbled from the roof until finally hitting the ground. She had lost consciousness when a tile from the roof gave her a good knock on the back of the head. She was spiraling straight to her death.
"Wake up! Wake up Sachiko! Wake up!!"
Sachiko could no longer hear Chihoko this time and the beast was frightened for its own life as well as Sachiko's. There was nothing Chihoko could do at this point but attempt to wake her.
As Sachiko plummeted toward the ground Gaara's sand wrapped around her torso, giving her a small squeeze. The sand began to pull her up from the ground. Gaara had used his sand to save her but not because he had taken a liking to her, he did it for another few reasons.
"You saved her," Shukaku laughed at him, "Why would you do that?"
"I… I want to be the one to kill her," Gaara replied hesitantly, truly not sure why he had done so.
"Oh, is that it," Shukaku said with a cackle, "I thought you were going to be a pervert and just take a peek—"
"Silence! I will be the one… to kill her but not now," hissed Gaara into the depths of his own mind where Shukaku could hear him perfectly, "Later I will kill her… when she is awake and can scream for mercy…"
When Shukaku didn't say anything more Gaara knew the conversation was over. Gaara felt disgusted at what Shukaku had told him about taking a peek at certain things that Gaara just didn't have the need to see at all. He could hear the raccoon snickering in his mind as a scowl engraved itself on Gaara's face.
Gaara growled slightly as he let his sand drop Sachiko in her new room. Of course he knew where she was sleeping. He could feel it, sense it in his fingertips and the rest of his being as well. Kankuro was foolish to tell her otherwise. But Kankuro had only told her that to keep her from worrying too much.
The Cloud girl was now in her bed. Gaara remembered the red mark on her forehead and was tempted to look to see what it was but he pushed away such feelings. He could look at the mark after she was dead.
XXX
Sachiko finally woke up sometime in the late afternoon of the next day. "Training," she moaned out as she pushed herself up, "I missed training… They're all going to kill me…"
Slowly, memories of last night began to fill her head and she bore an astonished look on her face as she gazed at her surroundings.
"What the heck happened," she groaned as she rubbed the painful spot on the back of her head.
"He saved you," Chihoko purred, "Who knows why…"
"Kankuro saved me? Well he's kind of my friend so it makes sense," Sachiko replied with a smile. It was nice to finally have a friend.
"Not him… The vessel of Shukaku… He saved you."
"What," Sachiko hollered out loud as she searched around the room again to make sure Gaara wasn't in there.
"I got the distinct feeling it wasn't out of kindness so don't get your hopes up… He probably wants to kill you himself."
"Oh great," Sachiko muttered inwardly to the cat, "Just lovely…"
Sachiko ran down to the dinning hall to find all three Sand Siblings eating without her. Gaara refused to look at her but Kankuro and Temari gave her friendly smiles.
"Good morning Sleeping Beauty," Kankuro said with a chuckle.
"I thought you were going to train with us," Temari told her, "What happened?"
"Well… I, uh… I'm not sure," she muttered as she took a seat in between Kankuro and Temari; sitting across from Gaara. At that moment it struck her that no one sat at his side of the table.
"Not sure," Kankuro asked with an amused look, "You don't remember what happened to you last night?"
Sachiko was hesitant at first but said, "I bumped my head pretty hard… I don't remember."
She had lied to them but that was okay because she didn't want Gaara to know that she knew he had saved her for whatever reason he might have done so. She couldn't believe at what an expert Gaara was at hiding things. He had given no sign, not even a tiny hint that any of what was being said bothered him.
"You shouldn't have missed training," Temari said firmly, "I don't think we can allow you to train with us if you'd rather be taking naps."
Sachiko hung her head low in shame. It hadn't been her fault, well sort of, but still it wasn't fair to do that to her. "I understand," she said sadly, "I'll just train on my own…"
"Sorry Sachiko but that's usually the rules," Temari said as she wiped her face with the corner of her napkin to remove any possible crumbs, "We can't train with someone who is going to flake out even if it was a one time thing…"
"Shut up Temari," Gaara suddenly said, "She's been excused."
"By who," Temari asked as she cocked a blonde eyebrow in disbelief.
"Me," he said in a voice that told her to not even dare argue.
"Oh… I see," Temari muttered as she got up from the table and left to do what she had planned to do that day.
XXX
The next day Sachiko made sure she would be at training and had even showed up early in the sandy 'meadow' in the center of Sand Castle that Kankuro had described to her. She meditated atop her cloud, patiently waiting for the three Sand Siblings to arrive.
"Hey Sleeping Beauty," said Kankuro, "You're actually awake this time and early."
Sachiko opened one of her dark eyes and smiled, "Uhuh."
"Enough," hissed Gaara.
Sachiko had to open her other eye to see the red haired shinobi glaring at her. She felt that he couldn't possibly have saved her even if he had wanted to kill her himself. Temari also came into view.
"Sachiko," Temari said with a slightly friendly smile, "You and I will spar together."
"Hai," Sachiko said as she got up from her cloud, allowing it to evaporate into the air and give her back her chakra.
Kankuro and Gaara ended up sparring together as Temari unleashed her fan's fury upon Sachiko. The wind from Temari's fan had cut Sachiko's flesh in several places, at least, that's what Gaara had seen but the wounds seemed to be healing themselves and vanished within five minutes after they were made. He felt angry all of a sudden and wanted to fight her himself.
"Temari back off," Gaara growled at his sister, "I want to fight her."
"But Gaara you're not supposed to—"
"Shut up Kankuro," Gaara hissed as he dragged his siblings away with the sand.
Temari and Kankuro exchanged worried glances as Gaara approached Sachiko saying, "I'm your opponent now… fight me."
Sachiko gritted her teeth and had known that this time would come eventually but now was a little too soon for her taste. Still, Sachiko had to give it her all and fight.
Gaara came closer to her, their shadows made contact but it didn't matter now because they were in the fight. Gaara felt a strange feeling being released from him, a burden lifted as he sent his sand to attack Sachiko.
Sachiko dodged the sand and summoned her cloud. "Try catching me while I'm in the air," she thought as the cloud lifted her high into the sky. Her cloud had taken her to some courtyard attached to their mock battlefield.
Gaara followed her with a quick pace and so did his sand. It had caught Sachiko off guard and pulled her off her cloud. Gaara began to use sand coffin and squeezed Sachiko but when he released the sand a tree stump was in its place. Gaara growled that he had fallen for her substitution jutsu and began to scan the area for her.
The demon of Sand finally found her on the left roof. He sent his sand to grasp her immediately but then her figure disappeared. It had been a clone! Gaara growled again, frustrated that he couldn't kill her.
Meanwhile, some Sand Village hired hands had been setting up a brand new statue of the Kazekage in the next part of the courtyard. It was a grey marble statue that bore the same malicious look as the Kazekage himself. Gaara grimaced as he looked at it. Then he realized something.
Gaara sent his sand out at the carpenters and only one of them dodged the attack. His sand threw the real hired hands away carelessly. They cried out in pain as they flew into the pillars and concrete. The fake hired hand transformed back into its original. Sachiko scowled that she had been found out because she had thought her idea to have been a very good one. She expected Gaara to figure it out but not so soon.
"I can help you," offered Chihoko.
"No… not unless he uses his," Sachiko hissed to her inner demon.
"Very well…"
Sachiko jumped to stand on the top of the Kazekage's statue, just as she was doing so the Kazekage looked out of one of many windows that overlooked the courtyard in Sand Castle. He frowned at what he saw. Gaara's sand hurled itself at Sachiko, desperately trying to grasp her. She jumped nimbly out of the way and the Kazekage's statue was caught instead.
"Sand Burial," Gaara snarled as he made the hand motions.
The statue was destroyed easily and the Kazekage had seen enough. The Kazekage grabbed his son by the shoulder and threw him down. Gaara's sand would have normally protected him from such an assault but seeing as it was the Kazekage, the sand stayed in his gourd. The Kazekage performed some hand seals and suddenly Sachiko was in a mountain of sand, rendered immobile.
"Enough," roared the Kazekage with the same malicious expression his statue used to have, "Your fighting is getting in the way… Sand's reputation is going to pots. I'm assigning you to each other for the rest of Sachiko's stay… If you fight once more, there will be dire consequences for the both of you. The farthest you can stand from one another is the length of your shadows. One shadow must always be touching the other… Kankuro, you will see that they keep my orders and Temari, you as well."
The Kazekage said no more and vanished in a cloud of smoke just as mysteriously as Gaara would have himself. Sachiko could hear Gaara's throat rumbling in a low growl and backed away slowly.
"That's pretty harsh," murmured Kankuro and he quickly shut up once Gaara sent him a death glare.
Temari was speechless and had no clue what to say. She also didn't want Gaara to give her a glare, seeing as she had been glare free from him all day that day. "Kankuro, you can keep first watch," she said as she disappeared, happy to get away.
A/N: Bwuahahha. Feel my evil fury!!
Sachiko: But Author-sama isn't evil and doesn't have fury….
Author: Well… eh whatever… REVIEW!