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Beta-reading: Katakiari (katakiari . deviantart . com)
Story image by tariah23 . deviantart . com
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© "Naruto" is created and copyrighted by Kishimoto Masashi and owned by Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. and TV Tokyo.
Enjoy.
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Alive And Victorious
Chapter 8. Realization
Gaara rolled the quill in his fingers, gazing down at the paper lying in front of him on his desk. For a few minutes he had been trying to sign it but...
Matsuri came to me today when I was at the training ground. She asked me about you.
Young Kazekage inhaled deeply and put the quill to the paper where his signature was supposed to be left.
They should have known better when they had chosen Temari-san or Kankurou-san! Nobody wanted you to teach them but now, when they have enough of Temari-san's caustic remarks or Kankurou-san's impatience- I mean that some of them begin to regret not choosing you for the instructor. Poor ones, they don't have luck.
He wrote down five kanji marks and put the quill aside, staring at the document. After a few minutes he grabbed the paper and put it aside, propping his elbows on the desktop and leaning his chin against his palms.
Yes, we will have missions... Will we go on missions together?
Slowly his surroundings came into blur and the familiar face appeared in his imagination.
Gaara-sensei, you're amazing! Right, Sari?
The corners of his mouth unexpectedly twitched but then footsteps reverberated in the corridor and someone knocked at his office's door, asking for permission to come in. Gaara recognized Kankurou's voice.
"Come in," he answered and the puppeteer opened the door.
Matsuri? Not my type. You can date her if you want.
The redhead watched his brother approaching the desk. He had heard many comments concerning girls' looks from Kankurou and knew his brother considered Matsuri less than average looking. Appearances meant much to Kankurou, after all that was why he couldn't quite embrace Gaara's decision to remove Kotori from assisstant's position even if he didn't openly object.
Gaara didn't know what to think of it. He himself was forced to watch people from a distance for the most of his life and it didn't take him long to learn that appearances could be very deceiving. In fact Yashamaru's betrayal was his very first experience with the mask of trivial courtesies and false beauty being ripped away, revealing the devastating, frightening truth hidden behind, and since then he began to master the ability to look into people's hearts and find out who they truly were, no matter if they were men or women.
People are... pestering me. They tell me things... about you.
"Gaara?" Kankurou asked. "Everything fine?"
Kazekage nodded and was quickly lost in his thoughts again. He had been intently watching Matsuri from the very beginning and after a time he apparently came to an unintentional conclusion: she was beautiful.
I just don't understand, sensei. I know you would never hurt me. I'm absolutely sure of it. I trust you. I would trust you with my life.
She was understanding, considerate, forgiving, trusting, selfless. Cheerful and kind-hearted.
Just beautiful.
Gaara-sensei, do you remember when Shitenshounin kidnapped me? You came to help me, even if I was abducted by shinobi powerful enough to dare to challenge you. And you saved me. Now I saved you. I paid off my debt. So please, don't tell me I didn't have to do that.
Clumsy at first, right before his eyes she changed into a determined, strong kunoichi.
The senbon. She jabbed herself with it.
She was willing to sacrifice her life for him. Actually, he still couldn't believe that someone except for Naruto and his siblings would go to such lengths to protect him.
"Gaara?" Kankurou insisted, furrowing. "You haven't signed it yet?" he asked, flipping through the heap of papers lying next to Gaara's elbow.
"I've been... thinking," the redhead admitted and pulled closer the documents demanding his attention.
"Thinking?" the puppeteer echoed, surprised. "About what?"
Do you think I'm standing in a way of Matsuri's happiness?
"No, nothing. I'll finish it soon."
Kankurou scrutinized his face and eventually nodded, tapping with his index finger at the mission reports he had brought with himself. Gaara glanced at them and Kankurou turned away, walking towards the door. When he put his hand on the doorknob, Gaara decided to make his request at last.
"Kankurou, please do me a favour." The puppeteer looked at the Kazekage over his shoulder. "Find Baki and tell him I want to talk to him."
Kankurou's eyes narrowed slightly as if the request rised a suspicion within him but then he shrugged and nodded, his features softening.
"Sure," he answered and went out.
o0o0o0o
The jounin peeked at his former student sceptically.
"Matsuri? Why did you decide to take care of her training all of a sudden?"
Gaara calmly looked him in the eye. Of course he could avoid asking for Baki's opinion but he wanted to make things official, and Kaze no Yaiba's master was in charge of arranging training for chuunin exam candidates.
"I owe her much," the Kazekage said and Baki nodded cautiously.
"Of course," he agreed smoothly. "The girl was very useful about changing your image. It was wise to choose her for your student."
"I didn't choose her," Gaara answered sharply. "She chose me."
Baki seemed to be slightly nonplussed but didn't comment on it, eyeing the Kazekage's features as if searching for a hidden meaning in his words.
"The council will be disgruntled."
"I know," Gaara said indifferently because the elders' protests would be the last thing which could prevent him from having things his way.
"I also think it is not a wise decision."
"And that would be because..."
"Full schedule. Many other problems to solve. Political reasons. Besides-" Baki broke off and pursed his lips.
"Besides?"
"Have you ever considered they could try to use her against you?"
Gaara shook his head.
"I don't think Matsuri would let someone use her that easily."
"She's still a naive girl," Baki insisted.
"Do I have to remind you that that 'naive girl' concussed the chuunin and nearly crushed the other's testicles when they called her a 'monster's plaything'?" Gaara asked ironically and the jounin winced with disgust at the memory.
"You may be right," he admitted, rubbing his chin. "But she wasn't, I hope?"
"She wasn't what?"
"Your plaything."
The redhead faltered, blinking.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm sorry for asking personal questions but your relationship poses a certain threat," Baki continued and Gaara had a strange feeling he totally lost control over the conversation.
"What relationship?" he asked in a dangerous voice, feeling compelled to knock the absurd thoughts out of Baki's head, and quick. "What threat?"
"I'm sorry to pry into your private affairs- -"
"Matsuri is not my 'private affair'!" Gaara interrupted angrily and the tall jounin glanced down upon him wordlessly. For a quite long while they looked into each other's eyes with an inflexible resolution until Baki cleared his throat, not looking convinced at all.
"As I told you earlier, my intentions are not to pry into your business until it poses a threat for you or the village," he said.
"You consider Matsuri a threat?" the redhead asked with disbelief.
"Do I really have to remind you an incident from over two years ago, concerning a certain group of ninjas who called themselves Shitenshounin?"
The Kazekage mused silently over his former teacher's words. There was no denying Baki had a point and even if he was partly mistaken about Gaara's intentions, the safety of the village had been still his highest priority and it was definitely worth listening to him.
"I see what you are hinting at," Gaara acknowledged with a nod. "I'll think about it."
o0o0o0o
Matsuri opened her eyes and sat on the bed with a rapid motion. Shaken out of the deep slumber, she couldn't realize at first what was happening. Someone banged at the door again and she recognized it as a noise that awakened her.
"Matsuri?" the person located on the other side of the door cried impatiently. "Get up, we have an alert of the highest degree!"
The girl felt her heart leaping to her throat. Such alert meant the village was in a direct danger. It could be a sandstorm but Matsuri was aware that the last sandstorm powerful enough to raise such alarm occured before she was even born. The other possibility was, and the girl shivered at the thought, a war.
The banging repeated.
"Matsuri, are you there?" the voice yelled and she recovered from her initial bewilderment and terror.
"Y-yes!" she answered loudly and jumped from her bed, not even switching the light on since the full moon, glancing through the window, was giving enough of its pale glow to distinct her familiar surroundings.
"Report at the A-10!" she had heard an order.
"I'm leaving immediately!" she yelled back, dressing her clothes on and fastening the pouch to her belt. Suddenly the moonlight became considerably obscured and Matsuri instinctively glanced through the window.
She could see the full moon on the night sky, and something was moving against its fair globe. Something huge, something enormous. The girl froze motionless, watching the exotic phenomenon with her heart pounding and the blood hissing in her ears. Then the earth shook and the giant spirals and ribbons of sand rose in the air, ascending higher and higher, until they completely obscured the view.
With the inflow of adrenaline pumped into her body with every beat of her heart, Matsuri jumped to the window and skipped across the windowsill, not troubling herself with running downstairs. She gazed around, taking the breath-taking scene in.
On each and every rooftop and terrace ninjas were standing with their heads thrown back, their eyes watching the unprecedented fight between their Kazekage and his opponent, supposedly a short blonde woman wearing a long black cloak. Civilians poured out on the streets, staring in awe at two small figures floating high above Sunagakure. The sand was whooshing literally everywhere and Matsuri, even if aware Gaara wouldn't hurt the villagers, couldn't help but being deadly scared for a moment, wondering if it was really right to let the human being wield such an overwhelming power.
Judging by the chaos on the streets the battle must have been started not so long ago. Matsuri applied chakra to her feet and ran down the adobe wall, continuously glancing at the sky. Only when she bumped into a jounin who scolded her thoroughly before he went, or rather rushed, his way, she forced herself not to raise her eyes until she reached the rallying point.
Many ninjas were already waiting there and the jounin jumped from the nearest rooftop, commanding a dozen of chuunins to follow him. Matsuri waited, shifting restlessly like the others, wiping her sweaty hands against her jacket. They were supposed to fight by their leader's side... but unfortunately, they needed to learn how to fly first.
The sand formed a giant claw Matsuri had already seen once, and gripped the enemy's arm. All the spectators let out the triumphant exclamation when the blonde woman hovered in the air with one of her sleeves empty after her arm had been ripped off her body and mercilessly crushed by Gaara's trademark jutsu. The drops of blood sprinkled around and Matsuri furrowed, watching the redhead's opponent critically. At first she had been sure it was a woman, mistaken by the long hair covering half of the enemy's face, but then it seemed to her that it could also be a young man, judging by his posture. Not that it mattered much. She would learn every detail later, after the enemy was finally defeated.
Her musings were suddenly interrupted by another jounin who announced they were going to form two squads to protect the water reservoirs by Baki's orders. Matsuri was utterly happy she could do something at last, not only stand and gape at the fight. She had her task now to complete and even if her legs were slightly faltering and her heart was hammering, she still tried to keep calm, continuously asking herself the only question. What would Gaara-sensei do if he was in my place? Oddly enough, thinking about her former sensei strongly helped her to keep her cool and she threw her head back again only to see the giant white lump falling down onto the village in a hasty pace. She didn't even have time to let out a terrified squeak when the ground under her feet rippled with a low rumbling sound. Matsuri could barely stand on her legs while the unimaginable mass of sand ascended from the ground, forming a shield covering almost the entire village. The stifled sound of the explosion came from above the shield but the village wasn't harmed. The people stood still with their mouths gaping and Matsuri could easily imagine what they felt, because she felt exactly the same, the greatest admiration mixed with deadly fear.
She couldn't see what was transpiring above the vast sand shield but the longer her view was obscured the stronger her intuition grew that something was wrong. Her heart throbbed painfully and she pulled out her jouhyou, licking her dry lips and preparing for battle, while ninjas on the rooftops launched the ballist fire.
The loads of sand protecting the village began to move aside slowly, revealing Kazekage's lifeless body dangling limply in the midair, the sand sheath around him crumbling and falling down in cascades. Matsuri swallowed but the lump stuck down her throat didn't want to go away. The jouhyou slipped out from her trembling hand. Suddenly all the ninjas let out simultaneous gasp of horror when the last reserves of sand supporting the Kazekage's body dispersed and Gaara plummeted upside down.
Matsuri watched it, attempting to dash forward, but her body didn't listen to her, even if her mind was strangely clear. In a flash of unexpected, sudden realization all her thoughts, feelings and experiences crystallised into the single vivid notion that the red-haired Kazekage, who had been tumbling down to his death right before her eyes, was nothing but a world to her, and if she would have been able to swap their places by any chance she would have done it without a second thought.
Falling to her knees, Matsuri watched the enemy flying down on the awkward giant bird-like thing until the creature swept Gaara with its tail, saving him from falling but definitely not out of pity. The kidnapper started to fly away even easier since Suna ninjas had to cease fire. The entire village had been, in fact, helpless and Matsuri felt like the light had been gone from her world, leaving her standing completely alone in the darkness. Nothing could more accurately express the devastation she suffered than the desperate, terrified scream in which she recognized Kankurou's voice - the scream that had shaken the earth and the sky, echoing from Sunagakure's cliffs.
"GAARA! ! !"
The end of chapter 8.
The next chapter: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
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