Aw... We didn't double the review! =( Oh well. I blame all you lazy readers who won't review xD Just kidding! I'm happy enough just knowing people are actually even reading! I hope you all like the story so far.
Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto! D: But I do own Gaara... *Holds up a poster of Gaara* Muahahahahaha!
"Aha…" I whisper-cheered as I found what I was looking for. I was in the middle of a forest in the night, my hands covered in dirt from digging. I held up the plant with a weak smile of success before I set it down. I pulled my medical bag off my back and set it down, kneeling down in the grass. Acting quickly, I smashed the several herbs around me using a bowl and masher I pulled from my bag.
After several minutes, over twenty, I was glad to see that the plants were now nothing more than mush. I grabbed several syringes and grabbed the mush in one hand, squeezing the juices from it. I filled each syringe with the liquid, able to fill three vials before I ran out. I scowled, but took what I could get and pocketed the syringes after safety capping them. I quickly dumped out the bowl, burying what fell out, and then headed back to the campsite, where everyone was sleeping. Might as well get a few hours of sleep.
"Gaaaara…" I murmured teasingly, and the teenager opened his eyes to see me straddling his waist. We were both naked, the sheets lying around my hips as I sat on top of him carefully. I knew he hadn't been sleeping, but I still liked the way I 'woke' him.
"What are you doing?" He questioned calmly, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Let me show you." I said with a grin as I leaned down to kiss him passionately.
I woke up with a jolt, my eyes flying open. The first thing I noticed is that I was covered in sweat and shaking furiously. "Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?" Temari spat but I didn't even look at her, I was staring to the east with wide eyes, trembling still. "First we couldn't wake you up, now five minutes later you're wide awake and freaking the hell out." Ignoring her, I leapt to my feet, still in my dirtied yukata and sandals.
"We got to get moving." I said quickly, looking behind me to see everyone slowly gathering their things. Except for Naruto, who was in as much of a rush as me. Almost.
"What's going on?" Naruto asked and I looked east again.
"They stopped moving. It must have been what woke me up." I said and heard Naruto growl softly.
"Well come on, then!" He snapped and I immediately burst into a run, not needing to be told twice. Naruto kept pace beside me, and I heard the others quickly follow. What's going on? I can't stop sweating… I feel like I'm going to be sick. I thought worriedly as I rushed towards the east where I sensed Gaara.
"They stopped in between the borders of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. About two and a half days away." I informed them as we ran swiftly. We ran for about ten minutes before I figured out the hard way why my body was freaking the fuck out when my mind had been calm. I had been intently watching the faint chakra in the depths of my mind when it suddenly exploded. When I say exploded, I mean it erupted so powerfully that I grabbed my head and screamed on the top of my lungs, collapsing. Naruto quickly caught me and landed on a thick tree branch, holding my shoulders as I grasped my head, screaming in pain.
"What the hell happened!" Naruto demanded in a panicked tone as I screamed, writhing in pain so strongly that he lost his grip on me. I smacked into my side, still holding my head as I screamed in pain, writhing on the branch.
"What's wrong with her?" Shikamaru asked, looking to Chiyo for answers. I wailed in pain, barely making out the voices over the thundering in my brain, tears flowing from my eyes at the pain. (A/N. The reason she's in so much pain is kind of a long explanation. First off, she doesn't sense Gaara's chakra. She feels it, which is why it slowly gets brighter as she gets closer. Because of how little chakra she could feel, she was focusing quite hard to feel it. The technique used to remove Gaara's Jinchuuriki is extremely painful, as stated and shown in the manga. In my mind since it wasn't really explained, what the technique does is breaks apart Gaara's chakra and leaves only the Jinchuuriki's chakra behind, then consumes it. During the entire process, Gaara was screaming in agony, if you recall. Now, because Sakura is feeling his chakra, and because in my mind this jutsu is quite literally entering his chakra and kicking it's ass, Sakura would feel this too, right?)
(At least, I think that makes sense. It does to me, anyways xD. Hopefully it makes sense to you guys too D: Also, since it would be kind of over-dramatic for her to be in the same amount of pain he was in, not to mention that much pain would probably kill you from the stress, it's dimmed down. So while she's in a crap ton of pain, it's not going to kill her, and she doesn't feel as much as Gaara does.)
"Sakura! What's wrong?" Chiyo demanded, and I felt her hand on my shoulder. I screamed even louder and hit her arm away, my eyes squeezed shut in pain. Oh god! What's happening to him! I wailed in my mind.
"Sakura, is it Gaara?" Kakashi questioned, no one trying to touch me after my reaction to Chiyo's touch, which felt like I was being burned. I nodded frantically between cries of pain, fighting to hold back my screams but failing for the most part.
"Where is he?" Temari demanded and I struggled to talk, but all that came out were screams and sobs.
"7…1…9…6…" I bit out through my screams, which I was slowly reducing to cries of pain.
"Naruto." Kakashi said in an instructing tone, and I heard a loud pop before I was pulling into someone arms. A burst of pain cause by the physical touch caused me to scream out as my sight blackened.
"What's wrong with her?" Naruto asked in a panicked voice as his clone carried an unconscious Sakura beside him.
"I'd rather not think about it." Shikamaru said with a sigh.
"She said it had to do with Gaara… Are they killing him?" Temari asked worriedly, her eyes wide with fear. She grabbed Shikamaru's hand for support, and he let her grip it tightly and make him run beside her.
"No…" Chiyo murmured calmly. "If they were killing him, she'd just feel his chakra disappear. You see, this herb doesn't let her sense chakra. It lets her feel his chakra, which is how she knows we're getting closer and that he stopped moving. Not even the strongest chakra sensor could sense chakra from three days away…"
"So what are they doing to him that would cause her so much pain?" Kakashi asked in his forever laid back tone.
"…They are likely trying to remove Shukaku."
"What!" Naruto shouted angrily, his eyes wide.
"You heard me. The process would be… Agonizing. It's the only thing I can think of that would explain them capturing him and the pain Sakura is feeling through his chakra. They must be removing Shukaku from him, which would affect his chakra, completely separating him from Shukaku." Chiyo explained heavily.
"But… But that would…" Temari stuttered, tears threatening to form in her eyes.
"Yes. It would kill him… But it's a very long process. If we hurry, we should be able to stop it." Chiyo said, narrowing her eyes. She didn't mention that if they didn't get to him very soon, which they wouldn't be able to, he would die even if they stopped the process. She would need to make sure they were too late to stop it, or else Gaara would still die, but Shukaku would be free.
"Sakura… What happened to your family?" Gaara asked me one evening. We were sitting on a mesa, watching the sun set in the distance.
"Oh… I thought Temari would have told you." I said with a frown. "I'm not sure. I never knew my family." I answered with a shrug.
"You're lying." Gaara said calmly, and I looked at him. "You bite your tongue when you lie."
"I do?" I asked with a thoughtful frown. "Huh… I never noticed that…"
"Sakura…" Gaara sighed and I pouted.
"All right, fine. Look, I never knew my parents, but… my 'father' was the third Kazekage." I admitted hesitantly, looking away from him and at the sky. "My mother died in childbirth, and my father couldn't take it. He abandoned Sunagakure and became a missing-nin. The Third Kazekage took me in. I don't know why, honestly. But before I was even a year old, he went missing." I frowned as I spoke. "Then, for some reason, Chiyo-sensei took me in. When I became best friends with Ino, I managed to convince her to train Ino as well."
"Sai was assigned as our teammate when we graduated from the academy, and I left Chiyo-sensei's training to train on my own. Ino stayed to learn more, and so Sai and I became the damage and her the healer." I explained. "When you think about it, I was really passed along a lot when I was an infant."
"Perhaps they all got sick of you." Gaara said, and I looked at him to see he was smiling lightly, his tone teasing. I stared at him for a moment before grinning brightly.
"That Uzumaki kid really got to you, didn't he?" I asked with a wide smile and he blinked slowly to confirm. "I'll have to thank him one day."
Ew. I think this chapter was actually shorter than the others. Curses! Anyways, I hope you guys liked the bits of fluff in this chapter! I also hope that explanation made sense. I'm not sure how else I could put it to make it sound sensible xD. Thanks for reading! Please review ^^