Here's chapter 13! Sorry, but Alleria isn't explained until next chapter... But things are going to start looking up very soon! You all probably want to strangle me for not having Sakura and Gaara get back together fast enough, but I promise it will be soon. *rubs the back of her head with a nervous laugh* Anyways, enjoy the chapter regardless, please.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. But I do own clumsy, accident prone, apparently-picked-the-wrong-life-job Carpenter Hatsuri! Whose name I just realized sounds like Matsuri... Curses!
Also, I was going to wait another day to post this, but Amethyst224 convinced me otherwise with her review! It made me smile, so I jumped on the second I read it and posted this for you all. So here's to you, Amethyst! ^^
Grr! Are you kidding me? Stupid internet being stupid and stupidly uploading the wrong chapter! D: Sorry about that!
"Sakura… Who is Alleria?" I froze. Then I slowly turned and looked at Gaara with narrowed eyes.
"Where did you hear that name?" I asked blankly.
"You took none of your things with you. I was emptying everything out of the house when I came across the name." He said calmly and I hissed at him softly.
"You had no right." I spat angrily and he frowned.
"Who is she, Sakura?" Gaara asked again and I snarled softly.
"It is none of your damn business, Kazekage-sama." I hissed the name and Gaara frowned deeply, looking almost hurt. "And my name isn't Sakura anymore. It's Saki Mashika, and don't you dare forget it because I stopped being Sakura the moment I found my new family. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a family to return to." I spat furiously before whipping around and leaping away, leaving a secretly hurt and confused Gaara behind.
I raced through the snowy wasteland, completely blinded by rage. How dare he? What right did he have to ask me that? And what right did he have to go through my things? I wondered furiously as I ran back towards my home.
"Saki-sama!" Miyuki squealed as she barreled into me, squeezing me tightly. I smiled tightly, hugging the nine year old girl back.
"Saki? You're back." Hatsuri walked into the entrance room and smiled lightly with relief.
"Did you get my letter?" I asked him and he nodded.
"Torri refused to give it to me." Miyuki said with a huff and I laughed softly.
"I told her not to, Miyuki. I wrote it for father." I reminded her and she grumbled under her breath.
"Miyuki, don't you have to go look at your friend?" Hatsuri gently reminded her, and she instantly straightened.
"Oh yeah! Gotta run!" Miyuki squeaked before dashing past me and out the door. I watched her until she was out of sight, then looked back at Hatsuri questioningly.
"Her friend burnt her arm while cooking." He explained and I nodded with a weak smile. "It was rough for the first two weeks after you disappeared. We thought you were dead, Saki. The Kazekage told us you had been heavily wounded and there was a lot of blood loss. They hadn't found you when the sand storm hit, and we thought for sure you were out in the middle of the desert when it hit, too weak to make it to the next town, and we didn't know there were any caves or anything like that for shelter…"
"I would have died, honestly. I had such bad wounds that I couldn't reach the mountain before my legs gave out. But I crawled the rest of the way and got into a cave. I was extremely lucky that Mivara was nearby when the sandstorm hit. She found me unconscious and bleeding to death and patched me up enough for me to survive. But because of the crawling, sand got into the wound and got infected. I was conscious long enough to remove the infection, but she pretty much had to carry me all the way to the next town." I explained with a sigh.
"I see… But you're back now, and you're healthy… But why are you upset?" Hatsuri asked and I blinked at him in surprise. "I can tell you're unhappy, Saki. I've known you long enough… What's happened?"
"It's… complicated…" I murmured as I sat down in the living room, looking at my hands that were folded in my lap. "Father… I remember my whole past. But… that's all it is to me. My past. This is my present, and Saki Mashika is my future." I said quickly, looking up to meet his eyes as he sat down on the chair across from me.
"I'm glad to hear that… but what is it you're trying to say?" He asked calmly and I sighed.
"I used to be a Sunagakure Medic-Nin under Chiyo, my great-grandmother. I didn't know she was my family until very recently. My mother was killed in childbirth, and I was born early so no one thought I would survive. My father, crushed and… crazed… by the news of his wife's death and his daughter's soon to follow, abandoned Sunagakure and became a missing-nin criminal. The Third Kazekage worried that he would return to Sunagakure and kill whoever was raising me so he could take me once he found out I was alive."
"So he took me in as a newborn. Chiyo came and used her skills to keep me alive until I was the proper age to have been born. But the Third was right. The Third Kazekage disappeared and Chiyo came out of retirement to raise me herself. She had a picture of my father, and she told me it was my father, but she never spoke his name or explained how she knew him. I would ask but she would never answer, so eventually I just stopped asking."
"When… When I ran off for two weeks, it was to go and save the man I loved. Chiyo and I fought off one enemy while the others went after the one that had G- the person I loved. We… I broke the puppet that the man was hiding in and… I recognized him as the person who Chiyo said was my father." I blinked back tears and Hatsuri put his hand over mine. "And then I remembered Chiyo telling one of the people I was traveling with that he was her grandson… I put two and two together. Chiyo's grandson was my father…"
"Father, I made a mistake almost two years ago." I teared up as I met Hatsuri's gaze again. "I agreed to take a mission to kill the person I would eventually fall in love with… And when he realized it, the man I loved ordered my exile from Sunagakure and the Land of Wind for committing treason. I should have been killed… I wasn't going to kill him, though. I really wasn't!" I broke into sobs and Hatsuri moved to sit beside me, wrapping his arm around me and hushing me softly.
"But you didn't, Saki. You saved him, remember?" He whispered and I nodded.
"I was too late, Father. When I got to him, he was dead." I sobbed harder at the memory of Gaara's unmoving body. "So I… I started to die as well, Father." Hatsuri tensed slightly. "I was trading my life for his, but Chiyo stopped me and died instead. But she was already dying and wasn't fast enough for me to cancel the jutsu and walk away unscathed. I'm sick, father. I'm not dying, but I lost a fraction of my life and gave it to him. I'm weak and I my chakra is imbalanced for some reason. I can't control it right and it makes things really difficult…"
"Saki." Hatsuri grabbed my shoulders and pushed me back a bit so he could meet my gaze firmly. "Stop this. Right now. You're blaming yourself for everything that isn't your fault. You accepted a mission without intending to follow through. You were willing to betray your country so someone else could live their life. That's something to be proud about. I know that I'm proud of you for it." He said sternly and I blinked. I hadn't thought of it like that…
"You didn't betray him, either. You were exiled because you didn't explain what happened, not because you did something wrong, because you didn't do anything wrong." He said the last part quickly. "Chiyo died because she was already dying. You were alive and well, and she wanted you to stay that way because she loved you. Your father died because he was apparently an evil and crazy son of a bitch. Your mother died because her body got funky and went into labor too soon. None of that has anything to do with you, Saki. Why can't you understand that?"
"Because everything goes wrong with people whenever I'm around!" I shouted with a small sob.
"Everything goes wrong everywhere, Saki." Hatsuri said with a sigh. "My wife was killed in a town raid. She was pregnant with Miyuki's brother or sister when it happened. That was eight years ago, Saki. You weren't here for that. My brother died when he was helping build a house for a young couple and a beam slipped and crushed him. You weren't there to cause it. Our last town leader died from cancer. You weren't there either."
"Don't you see it, Saki? Bad things happen to everyone no matter where they are, and no matter where you are. Konohagakure was destroyed while you were in a coma two countries away. Nothing I'm describing is your fault, and nothing you described was your fault either. You need to stop finding ways to blame everything on yourself." Hatsuri sighed again and I looked at him with a frown.
"It's not that, father… it's just that I loved Gaara so much I hated myself for having ever agreed to kill him." I explained, not realizing my slip up until Hatsuri's eyes widened with shock, and I'm sure my expression quickly mirrored his.
"The Kazekage?" He gaped at me, looking a bit like a fish out of water. "Saki, you… This…" He closed his mouth, recovering from his shock and nodded, tensely motioning for me to continue.
"I… hated myself for planning his demise. I was angry that I only ever got close to him because I was going to kill him." I said bitterly after much hesitation. "And with my father and mother, I don't blame myself for that. I just wish I could have known my father before he became the man he was… Father, he almost killed me. When I say that, I mean I would be long dead if Chiyo hadn't used the life-transfer jutsu to save me. She was already dying, so I don't blame myself for that." I added quickly. "But I realized that he still cared for me. He was in shock after stabbing me, and he let Chiyo kill him. At first I didn't understand why, but I realized it not too long ago. He still cared for me."
I let out a sigh. "And I'm thankful that Chiyo sacrificed herself to save Gaara. I loved him so much that I was more than willing to die so he could live... That makes me sound really emo, doesn't it?" I asked suddenly, grinning at Hatsuri. He laughed lightly.
"No. It just means you love him." He said with a shrug, seeming more relaxed. "But Saki… I think you need to figure out this problem you have. I don't mean to hurt you, but without your chakra working, your about as useless as the rest of us mortals." He said the last part with a teasing wink and I laughed.
"Gee, dad. Way to make a girl feel special!" I jabbed him with my elbow and jumped to my feet before he could retaliate. "I'll go to Sunagakure to get some research done tomorrow, okay?"
"But aren't you exiled?" Hatsuri asked with a frown.
"Yeah, but that hasn't stopped me yet." I said as I walked up the stairs to my room, laughing. I heard Hatsuri chuckle softly behind me as I closed my door. "Uhg…" I narrowed my eyes, instantly angry at the idea of going to Suna. "But he's right. I have to figure this out." I muttered unhappily, lying down on my bed and closing my eyes.
"Sakura, I'm going to teach you a very important lesson over the next several days, possibly weeks. Are you ready?" Chiyo asked me when I was seven. Frowning, I nodded at her in affirmation. "All right. As a medic-nin, attacking comes second. Do you understand why?"
"The medical ninja acts as support for the team. They should put medical support first and attacking second." I answered with a frown.
"Wrong!" Chiyo barked and I flinched at her loud tone. "The medical ninja should never be hit by the enemies attacks. When you face an opponent, evasion is the first priority." Chiyo growled and I frowned.
"Why?" I asked in confusion, and Chiyo let out a sigh.
"If the medical ninja were to die, who would keep her team alive?" She paused for a moment. "Now, I'm going to attack you. The training is avoiding all of my attacks… I will not hold back."
"Too slow!" I hissed as I easily hit Miyuki. The girl jumped backwards, wincing and rubbing her arm. "No stopping." I said as I attacked again. She barely got away and glared at me angrily.
"What's your problem!" She demanded and I met her glare.
"My problem is that you aren't even trying to dodge!"
"Maybe because you've got seventeen years of experience and I have two!" Miyuki spat and I narrowed my eyes.
"So now you're making excuses for your slowness and weakness? What kind of medic are you if you can't even dodge a simple punch?" I demanded and Miyuki's eyes widened with anger. Suddenly, I let out a gasp as my arm burst into flames. The rage faded instantly, replaced by shock and fear, and I made a quick hand sign, blowing water onto the flames and quenching them. Son of a bitch, it hurts! I thought as I hissed softly in pain.
"Oh my god! Are you okay! What happened!" Miyuki asked in a panicked tone as she raced to my side.
"Calm down, Miyuki. I told you that my chakra has been acting up, didn't I?" I lied calmly to soothe the girl's fear.
"So you just did that?" She asked with wide eyes and I forced a smile.
"There's no need to worry, Miyuki. It's lunchtime, so go home and eat with father, okay?" I said gently and she nodded, still looking shocked.
"What about you?"
"I need to get to Sunagakure. I had intended to leave an hour ago, but I got distracted." I assured her with a smile. I turned to leave quickly, but grinned at her over my shoulder. "Great job, by the way. You did way better than I did on my first time." I winked at her before jumping away, hoping she didn't realize I was getting away as fast as possible because now I had two reasons to go to Suna. How the hell did she do that?
Dun dun dun! What's happening now! :O All shall be revealed next chapter ^^ Please review!