Chapter Thirty-Seven: How to Save a Life

A/N: OH SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY. BUT IT IS HERE!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I do not own the song How to Save a Life. I do not own The Fray either… But that would be pretty cool if I did!

Startled, the dark blue-haired girl woke up with a jolt. Something was not right. She glanced to the left side of her bed. Empty. He was gone. Her eyes flickered to the clock to find that it was five in the morning. Usually on Sundays, Gaara stayed with her until at least noon. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow. A lurid dream had disturbed her. The nightmare had been about Gaara. She dreamt that she was running toward him as if trying to save him from some kind of danger, and then some dark cloaked figure ripped him away from her grasp. As Sachiko climbed out of bed, she decided to go to Gaara's office. She would just make sure he was okay to put her paranoid worries to rest.

Sachiko slipped on some proper attire and then strode down the hallway. A puzzled look formed upon Sachiko's face as her brows furrowed. There were no maids in sight which was odd. At least two maids attended her wherever she went. Frowning, Sachiko walked down another corridor. It was also abandoned. Frantic, Sachiko ran to the closest window. The courtyard was usually booming with people but as her eyes scanned the beautiful court, there wasn't a soul in sight. Her heart began to pound feverishly, overworking itself, as she realized that Sunagakure must have been under attack. Why had no one alerted her? Had no one thought of her? Even more important, was Gaara okay?

The young woman ran out from Suna Bastion as fast as she could, legs never working so hard in her life. She felt her heart begin to seek as the sound of a thunderous explosion reached her eyes. She noticed it was incredibly dark, as if something had blocked out the sun. Looking up into the sky to see the meaning of the peculiarly darkened firmament, she found that a super massive thicket of sand covered all of Suna in a protective-like manner.

"Gaara-kun," she breathed out, her lungs feeling as if they might collapse.

Her legs pumped even faster as she ran toward the source of the clod of sand that sheltered Sunagakure. There was no longer a doubt in her mind that Suna was indeed under attack. Who would attack Sand at this time?

"GAARA!"

"KAZEKAGE-SAMA!"

Sachiko could hear others screaming her husband's name. She saw a wave of ninjas attempting to help their Kazekage but they could offer him no assistance. He was helpless. Sachiko scanned the area and immediately found Kankuro. She wasted no time in closing the distance between her and her brother-in-law. "Kankuro," she nearly hollered at the hooded shinobi. The boy turned to her, a sad look in his eyes.

"We can't reach Gaara from down here." The young man turned his face-painted visage away from her. He couldn't look his sister-in-law in the eye; not when there was nothing he could do to save her husband, his brother. Akatsuki, she had heard one of the ANBU refer to Gaara's attacker as. For some reason, the word was familiar to her and she knew it that it wasn't a good thing.

Sachiko let out a howl of frustration and disappeared from Kankuro's sight. Fierce determination was her expression as she hopped from rooftop to rooftop. Surely she could launch herself up high enough to reach Gaara. A thought crossed her mind suddenly. She had been told that she once was able to summon clouds to carry her. Perhaps in her moment of dire need, she could do so again.

"Concentrate," she said to herself obediently. "Cloud… Cloud…" She repeated this mantra over and over again. Many seconds passed by that seemed like countless hours but she continued her chant, unwaveringly. She felt her body become weightless suddenly but did not stop. She had to keep going. "Cloud. Cloud." She was more confident now as she said the word. Into the sky she was raised, a small cloud underneath her feet. The cloud picked up speed as it carried her quickly to her husband, the Kazekage. The sand veil from before was disintegrating. Gaara had been hit. Sachiko could only watch, horrified. Her cloud didn't carry her fast enough. It was too late. Sabaku no Gaara, once thought invincible and invulnerable, was falling from the sky, a frail mortal.

Sachiko caught her husband in her arms. "Gaara," she sobbed, burying her face into his chest. She inhaled deeply, wanting to remember his scent. Her hands stroked his face tenderly. His black rimmed eyes cracked open for a brief moment.

"Sachiko," he said in a weak voice, barely audible. Gaara strained to look at her, agonized concern embedded deep within his teal orbs. "Sachiko," he had breathed again. "I don't want you getting hurt. Stay out of this." She shook her head no. She would not stay out of it and allow him to perish. He called her name again but could not make any other utterance.

"I'm here," she kept saying to her husband, but she could feel his life force slipping away from already. He needed medical care urgently. She willed her cloud to bring them back to the ground and she was almost triumphant in her return to ground level. Her husband was safe in her arms, or so she had believed. However, Sachiko had forgotten a very major detail. The Kazekage's attacker hadn't been subdued and therefore was still there lying in wait. "Kuso!" Sachiko cursed through gritted teeth as a blonde haired shinobi clad in a black cloak decorated with sinister red clouds appeared. She had been too caught up with catching Gaara before he fell to his death that she had she had completely forgotten about the assailant.

"I'll be taking him off your hands," the cloaked shinobi said to her with a smirk. Clay birds spun around her, making her feel dizzy.

"Over my dead body," Sachiko retorted with a lioness-like hiss. She would die trying if she had to.

"That can be arranged," the blonde replied, still grinning. "However, I don't have time to toy with you. Sasori is going to be upset with me if I take too long." One of his clay birds struck Sachiko in the back of the head. She blacked out before anything could be done.

NARUTARDNARUTARDNARUTARDNARUTARD

She awoke to find herself in her bedroom. She would have called her strange memories another nightmare but she knew it was no dream because medical ninja were attending her instantly. There were many ANBU in the room as well. Her eyes fell on one in particular. His mask seemed to be laughing at her and that was oddly memorable as if he were familiar to her. She was distracted from her inner thoughts as medical ninjas asked her several questions. She ignored their inquiries, only worried of one thing.

"Where's Gaara?" she demanded but none of the medical ninja would answer. "Where is he," she shouted angrily, "I order you to tell me now."

"She needs to be sedated," said one of the medics as he readied a needle.

Sachiko, thinking quickly, jumped from the bed or at least attempted to. They had strapped her to the bed. Gritting her teeth she thought of lightning. As if the electricity surged through her, the friction seemed to release her from the straps that bound her. She was free. The blue haired kunoichi fled the room. She was too fast for them now. Sachiko ran to her husband's old room, the one that he had called his as a young boy. They wouldn't find her there for a while. She stumbled into the room, and sat herself in the dark closet. It seemed to comfort her.

Her head was throbbing horribly. Locked up memories seemed to be trying to get her attention but they were too unclear and vague for her to recognize any of them or allow them in. She had some brief flashes but thought them to be déjà vu. She shook them from her mind and pondered more imperative details. Most likely, all that was being done about Gaara's kidnapping was the call to Leaf for help and a rescue team being assigned to the mission. Sakura would probably be helping out.

"Had I known how to save a life?" She had mumbled, thinking that if what she said was the case she wouldn't be where she was. She could have rescued Gaara but she had allowed herself to turn her back on her enemy, a worst kind of error a ninja could make. Her terrible blundered had gotten her knocked unconscious with no hope to save him.

Gaara's teddy bear had suddenly popped in her head and she was glad to have been reminded of the keepsake. She found the small bear in the same place she found it last. She was careful as she pulled the fragile thing into her arms. A small note dropped from the bear. There was only one person it could be from.

Look in the top drawer of my nightstand…

There's something in there that belongs to you.

Puzzled, Sachiko stuck the note in a safe place. With the bear in her arms, she walked out of the closet and over to the nightstand. She opened the drawer slowly, expecting there to be some type of dolly or girly thing. Instead, Sachiko found a forehead protector. It seemed like more of a belt because of the length of the sash, she noted as she pulled the forehead protector. Sachiko gasped. She recognized the Cloud band. She wore it around her waist.

The ambiguous memories from before were now suddenly clear as they poured into her mind like an hourglass; each grain was an important memory that slowly made her realize exactly who she was and all she had forgotten. So many things had happened to her and she could barely fathom it. It was all so surreal and bizarre.

Looking back at old memories, she realized just how meant for each other Gaara and she were. Guilt struck her for a moment. How wrong she had been to be with Kiba. She had been wrong about several things. Mistakes she had made were now so apparent to her. But she decided not to blame herself. She couldn't hold herself accountable for some of the things she had done when she had had no memories of before.

The worst part of everything was the fact that she had fallen in love with her husband and that he had violently been stolen away from her without even knowing how she felt for him. Her plan had been to tell him of affections that very morning but with him missing, she could not reveal them to him. She had had so much to say to him. Sachiko shook her head, tears running down her cheeks quickly to get away from her sorrow filled eyes. Nobody understood her like Gaara did and yet she couldn't even keep a steady hold of him. She was constantly letting him down and he her. The two had relentlessly fought in a brutal and sadistic manner over every little thing, no matter how small the infraction. There had been a mountain between them, an impasse. She was dumb and wrong for all the things she had done. At the moment that her memories had been returned to her, she knew how she felt about Gaara now.

Clutching the bear to her chest, she couldn't believe all she had gone through that had led her to this point. Wishing desperately to turn everything that occurred back around, she knew only one person could fix this entire mess. Sachiko, still holding the stuffed teddy bear to her bosom, stood up from her position. She would find Midouri and beg her to set things right.

A/N: This was a very short chapter but it was originally a lot shorter than this. I added as much as I could to it but I'm afraid I could only muster up a bit more than three pages. Fear not, readers! The next chapter I have already written. The upcoming chapter is much longer and very exciting. You should all enjoy it. Sadly, this story will be coming to an end soon. I hope you've enjoyed it so far and thanks for coming along for the ride. (:

Sachiko: (Sighs) It's been good while its lasted.

Author-sama: It's not over yet!

Sachiko: But it will be soon!

Author-sama: Well I might do a few simple fluff scenes… Oops, I've already revealed too much! Onward with the reviewing!