Sumara
The smoke was clogging my lungs. My vision was beginning to blur. What was I going to do? I didn't know any techniques that would douse a fire. I began to cough hysterically, my body trying to eject the toxic fumes. I had to close my eyes. But I needed to see Gaara, he was here. I knew he would save me, I just knew it.
I heard nothing but the fire around my crackling and spitting as it danced around me and the other precious ones. It was happy to have other things besides wood to burn. Gaara would not be able to beat Ukaza, I knew that. I was the only one who could. Then, I remembered an ancient technique that would not require anything but me. I tried to shout to Gaara, but at that moment the fire began to consume me. I was going to die.
Gaara
"It's the Sand Man! You little dead-walker, you!" Ukaza yelled at Gaara as he came running in. He looked fervently around and realized that the orange glow he had seen from a distance was the fire. Sumara was going to burn.
"NO!" Gaara cried. He flung his sand over to the fire but Ukaza stopped it.
"Silly Sand Man, you little dead-walker. You can't save her."
Gaara did not turn around when he heard the others arrive. He just yelled at them over the roar of the fire. "Try and put out the fire! They are going to burn if you're to late!"
Ukaza just ignored them. He seemed to be really interested in Gaara.
"So, Sand Man, you have found a precious one, eh?"
Gaara just glared at Ukaza. The particles of sand around him began to shake and stir as his rage grew. Gaara threw a few kunai at him but Ukaza just ignored them, letting them sink into his skin.
"Sand Man, aren't you the least bit curious what is going to happen?"
Gaara continued to try and attack Ukaza. He lifted his sand so it would be raised in a hard sedimentary rock over Ukaza's head. He made a motion with his hands and the rock followed suit, slamming down. It didn't do anything. The rock just melted into the bubbly lava skin of the demon.
"I know what's going to happen," Gaara snarled. "They are all going to die."
"So you do know! Well, that's better."
Gaara tried again and again to try and injure the beast, but to no avail. Please, please, please! I cannot let her die! Don't let her die, Gaara! he yelled at himself in his head. What was he supposed to do? This Ukaza thing was not effected by any of his attacks. He needed to think of something and fast.
He glanced around Ukaza to see that his comrades were having no luck getting the fire out. It seemed to have a sort of force field around it that kept anyone and anything from penetrating it. There seemed to be no way to beat this thing.
Gaara tried to keep Ukaza distracted. "Why do you call me a dead-walker?"
Ukaza roared with laughter. "Are you trying to distract me, Sand Man? Well, I'll humor you. I call you a dead-walker because I can see the death that surrounds you. You went to the Land of the Dead and returned. Only a few souls can say they ever did that. You reek of that place. There is a constant flux of energy around you as well. It changes from black to white all the time."
Gaara nodded. Yes, he had already known that himself. There was no need for Ukaza to continue.
Gaara glanced over at the fire again. It was getting worse. He could see a few people beginning to burn as the efforts of the others failed completely. Death was eminent.
Sumara
I knew what I had to do. The technique was easy if you knew how to do it. Luckily, I had some practice.
I clasped my hands together, taking one final breath. The key to this jutsu was, I could not breath. Not once. I had practiced holding my breath for fun when I was little. Turns out things like that really do come in handy. The whole point of not breathing is so my soul won't be released. I know, it sounds creepy and all, but I had to keep my soul locked up or else I would die. This technique was similar to the one I had described to Gaara and Naruto before. What I had to do was push my spirit into the beast's mind. Then I would be able to control what he sees as reality. I can make it seem to this demon that he won. But then, he would be stuck in that trance of the alternate reality, and it will be really easy to kill him. The precious ones were burned and Gaara died. The one problem was, if I failed at this, I would die. And if I took a breath, I would die. It was a bit of a loose-loose situation.
I gathered myself like a coil, ready to be sprung. Now! I screamed at myself. I shot out of my body and into Ukaza. I was in his mind and I saw everything. I thought about this for a moment. This jutsu was kind of like the Mind-Transfer Jutsu, which I know is commonly used in the Leaf Village. But unlike that jutsu, this one involved controlling the mind, not just being in it. I searched around. I finally found what I needed. I coiled myself up again, and took my shot.
Perfect, now I just needed to feed some of my images into his mind. I began to think about Gaara, cold and dead on the ground. I had to keep myself from screaming. I was so terrified that image may come true. I thought of everyone burning, I could feel my flesh begin to singe and I could smell the smoke. I imagined Ukaza eating the ash. I imagined it all. But my mind kept flashing back to that image of Gaara, dead. I detached myself from this one part of Ukaza's mind and watched Gaara and him fight. The effects of my jutsu was beginning to set in, but I didn't realize. I saw Ukaza send one master blow. Gaara went down, blood pooling around his head.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" I screamed. That was it, I took a breath. My soul had been released. There was nothing I could do.
Gaara
Ukaza froze suddenly, as if caught in a trance. Gaara glanced over at Sumara's body, seeing that it was beginning to be eaten by the hungry fire. She had slumped over like a limp doll. Gaara wrapped his sand around the beast's frozen form.
"Sand Coffin!" he yelled as he pulled his hand into a fist. The beast exploded into a pile of ash. The sand immediately retreated, as did the fire and barrier around it.
Naruto fell on top of one of the precious ones in another attempt at breaking down the barrier. It was a petite blond who had minor burns to her clothing. Otherwise she was fine.
"Oops, sorry!" Naruto exclaimed as he scurried back to a standing position.
The girl glared at him, then took another look. Then she gave him 'The-Eye.' "Can you help me?" she asked him.
Naruto, clueless as ever, walked over and put his hand down to help her up. "Uh, sure."
Gaara stood back, waiting to see Sumara pop up and start glaring at him for just standing there and doing nothing. He needed that, as a sign that everything could be normal, if there was such a thing. He stared at her with an intensity that only this Kazekage could muster. She still did not stir.
Naruto helped the girl stand. She looked a bit disappointed, but to make up for his stupidity, she leaned on him heavily. "I feel so weak," she murmured.
"Do you want some water?" Naruto asked her.
Gaara continued to stare at Sumara, never wavering. Kankuro glanced over at his brother, so did Temari. There was something so broken about the way Gaara was standing, how he just seemed lost again. It was like he was a Jinchuriki all over again. Gaara blinked, hoping maybe that would change what he was seeing. He fell to his knees.
"Sumara," he whispered.
Sumara
I was still in the cave, floating around. I saw everything pan out the way it should. Everything happened the right way. Except I died. How was is supposed to get back to my body. I tried and tried to reenter myself, but I could not.
I watched Gaara stare at my body. I wished so hard that he could see my spirit. I floated over to my body for about the hundredth time and tried again to get in. An odd form appeared before me. He was a tall thin man with a long black beard and long flowing black hair with a small bun on top of his head held with chop-sticks.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I need to go back."
"You want to go back," he corrected me. "But you are not needed." He made a sweeping gesture towards everyone in that cave. "I cannot find a single thing in any of their minds that they need you."
"Check Gaara, that Sand ninja over there!" I pointed frantically.
"There is no conscious need there."
This being could only read the conscious mind. I pushed myself into Gaara's head and looked around, trying to get past the wall that he had built around his subconscious. He learned too fast for his own good.
"Did you check his subconscious?"
"Pardon?" the man said.
I glared at him. "Did. You. Check. His. Subconscious?" I asked again, pronouncing each word as its own sentence.
The figure closed his eyes for a moment. Then he looked at me with wide eyes. "Yes, you are correct. There is a subconscious need. Fine you may return, but on one condition."
I was growing impatient. "And that is?"
"You will never be able to read minds again. You can remain a Dream Watcher, but you cannot read minds ever."
I nodded. "Okay, I accept that condition."
The man made some unusual hand signs that were undoubtedly lost to the living world. "Return!" he screamed like a small girl after a boy who took her favorite doll.
I sucked in a choked breath as my pulse returned to me. "Gaara," I gasped.
I struggled to turn my head and look at him. My body felt stiff, wrong. But I had to look at him. "Gaara," I gasped again.
That's when I saw him. He was sitting there, crying. "Sumara," he whispered. "You should not have died. It is all my fault for being so selfish."
I began to cough hysterically. Blood spewed from my mouth. My body was not happy that I left it.
"Oh my God, Gaara! Sumara, she--she's alive!" Temari yelled to her sobbing brother.
He glanced up momentarily, and I wanted to be there, in his mind. I wanted to know what he was thinking. Did he know how much I needed him? Did he need me?
I pushed myself to my feet, my body screaming for me to stop. Please, just get me to him, I begged my aching form. It quieted down and I was able to walk stiffly to him. My knees gave out just as I reached him. I grabbed his face between my hands. He stared into my eyes; he looked so lost, so terrified.
"Sumara," he whispered.
I wiped away a tear from his cheek, just like he had done to me earlier. "We don't have to be alone anymore, Gaara. You don't have to be alone."
His next words proved to me, how much he truly needed me. "I don't have to be alone anymore. Because I have you," he murmured softly. And then he kissed me.
It was the sweetest kiss. I felt like if he did not exist, I would not be able to keep going. His sand gently cradled me against him. I totally forgot that everyone must have been staring at us. But I didn't care. All I knew was that I was no longer alone. Gaara was no longer alone. I had fed his subconscious need, and he had fed mine.