"I could ask you the same question," Kotori murmured.
Gaara observed the small girl in front of him. Her silver hair shone in a strange way in the morning light and her dark blood red eyes smouldered, as if she were angry. Her lips were set in a straight line, no evident sign of a smile or frown and her small, bony fingers held a kunai, poised to throw or defend; her body tensed, expecting battle.
"Who are you?" Gaara asked again, as monotonously as before.
"Go to hell," She stated indifferently, staring back into his icy eyes with her smouldering red ones. The two stared at each other, both stubbornly not looking away, but both wondering and anticipating what the other would do.
Suddenly, Kotori turned around and sprinted, hoping to run away, before she had to fight, not because she was afraid of him, simply because she couldn't be bothered to.
She ran back to where the tree she had stood on was, hoping to lose him in the forest that lay beyond, but before she could jump into the tree, something grainy, yet firm wrapped around her ankle, pulling her upside-down as she hung in midair. The boy walked towards her, in no rush to collect his prisoner. Kotori realised that what had wrapped around her foot was, in fact, sand. Recognising it as one of the enemies' jutsu, she stared at the boy approaching, wondering why on earth he was in a group that had attacked and slaughtered a village.
"I'll ask you again," he said emotionlessly, standing right in front of her, "who are you and what are you doing here?"
"You asked a second question that you didn't ask before," Kotori commented, unfazed by her position. Gaara stared at her, indifferent to what she had said, waiting for her to answer, "besides, why would I want to make my identity known to enemy shinobi, shinobi that killed one of my teammates?"
"So, you're from the group of rogue shinobi," he stated, not asked.
"Don't fake innocence, son, you're in that group of shinobi, so you should know that I'm not. You fought us. You know? The shinobi from Konoha? Yeah, I was in that team, now let me go. Unless you want me to kill you," she murmured. A small smile played on Gaara's lips, so small, that Kotori didn't realise he was smiling.
"You can't kill me," he stated. Kotori rolled her eyes, "anyway, we would have been told that Konoha shinobi were coming here, because we're allies; you're lying."
"It's not a lie," she murmured, forming air hand seals, "you attacked us and now you're pretending you didn't. The person you killed wasn't any concern of mine, so I won't avenge him, or whatever, but, since you did kill a Konoha ninja, you'll have to answer to Tsunade-sama. I'll save her the trouble, though, I'll kill you right here,"
Suddenly, Kotori's body seemed to disappear. Gaara narrowed his eyes, his sand suspended in the air, waiting to find its prey.
"Like I said," she whispered in his ear from behind, "you will die," she brought her kunai up to his throat. Gaara's eyes widened, realising she had executed a wind replacement and snuck up behind him, "ja, sayonara," she whispered, driving the kunai into his neck.
She waited for the scream and the spray of blood that never came. Instead, she watched as a layer of sand appeared on his skin, stopping the kunai from piercing him. The monotonous expression was present on his face again, as the sand encased her arm in a strangely ticklish, yet firm, way. Without one of her arms, she wasn't able to execute any jutsu and she wasn't particularly strong to break free from it, since she guessed it was some special sort of sand. Thinking on her feet, she immediately took out explosive tags, throwing them on the sand above her arm and on him.
As they exploded, she ripped her arm from the sand, finding blood rapidly flowing out of it. As it travelled down her arm, the fabric of what she was wearing started sticking to her skin, her blood glueing the two together, as it dried. Finding it bothersome, she ripped the fabric off her skin, feeling some of her tissue get separated along with the fabric. Ignoring the pain, she formed fire hand seals.
"Katon: Goukakyuu No Jutsu," she shouted. A stream of fire escaped her lips, her aiming at the boy standing slightly further away from her, due to his evading the explosive tags. She saw that his skin had strangely cracked and crumbled, causing her to furrow her eyebrows in confusion, as the flames engulfed him.
Once she was done, she watched in fascination, as his skin crumbled and cracked, falling to the ground. What she expected to find was flesh underneath, but instead, saw nothing but hollow, black emptiness.
"What the fuck," she murmured.
The boy's sand shot towards her, him standing indifferently, with his arms crossed, watching the scene play before him. Kotori dodged the sand, throwing kunai with explosive tags on the moving force, however, no matter how much the sand exploded, it immediately reformed again, still edging towards her, gradually, gradually getting closer.
Kotori gasped, feeling something sharp lodge into her neck, she pulled it out, whilst still dodging the attacks of the sand. Glistening, red blood trickled out of her neck, making her skin sticky. It trickled into her clothes, causing her to feel discomfort and made her hair stick to her neck.
Suddenly, Kotori stumbled onto the floor, with no clear indication as to why; there was nothing around her that would have caused her to fall and, she was far too advanced a kunoichi to make such a simple mistake as that. However, doubt filled her mind; perhaps she really did fall by accident, she thought, attempting to get up, but realising she had lost feeling in her legs.
She glanced at the shuriken that had pierced her neck, whilst throwing another kunai with an explosive tag at the approaching sand to buy her time. Kotori immediately realised that the shuriken had poison on it. Purple liquid, mixed with her blood, dripped from the shuriken onto the dusty floor. Kotori immediately dropped the shuriken.
"Kuso," she cursed quietly, feeling the effects of the poison intensify.
Because she couldn't run away, she sat still, waiting for the sand to reach her. Within a second, it was upon her, like a dragon, eagerly wrapping around her body tightly and lifting her up into the air. The boy approached her, as she lost feeling in her arms. She groaned in annoyance, still feeling blood escape from her neck and arm, the only feeling she felt there now.
"If you really are from Konoha, where's your hitai-ate?" He asked in his bored, uncaring tone.
Kotori sighed, falling limp against the sand, she couldn't even look at him anymore; all feeling was lost in her body.
"I don't wear it," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
Gaara gazed are the girl in front of him, wondering why she was acting so strangely and not in the way she had before. It was taking all his self control not to allow Shukaku to kill her and he didn't really care if he did, but he had to keep her prisoner so questions could be answered.
"Then, I have no reason to believe you," he stated in his monotone. A quiet, harsh scoff escaped her mouth.
"Don't believe me," she said, her voice still barely above a whisper. Pain had started flowing through her body, as if she were being stabbed multiple times with a blunt kunai with great force behind it. She gasped as another wave of pain hit her; she had already come to terms with the fact she was going to die, but decided, what was the harm in making this guy's life more difficult, "I can't fight anymore," she confessed, "you can kill me."
Gaara observed her; deciding that, from her behaviour, she was in pain and could not move. However, it still came as a mild surprise to him when she disappeared again. But, he immediately relaxed when he saw her lying down on her back, her face looking up at the sky. Blood now gushed from her neck. As her hair was pooled around her head, it seeped into it, making strands glue together. The blood stained her silver hair, causing it to glimmer a murky shade of red, as the stain became larger and larger.
"I hope...this...poison...kills me...before you...do. I still...wonder...how...you...managed...to distract...me...so...easily," she whispered, pausing each time a spasm of pain hit her. A choked gasp escaped from her lips, as she gradually and quietly descended into unconsciousness, and her death beyond. All the while, the boy's sand wrapped around her, while he wondered who had poisoned her.
Gaara decided he wouldn't kill her; she would die anyway, so he just tightly wrapped the sand around her again.
"Gaara! Wait!" He heard a male voice shout from a distance. He saw Kakashi and Sakura running towards him, the teacher carrying someone on his shoulders, "don't kill her," Kakashi said, once he reached him.
"Who is she?" Gaara asked indifferently.
"She's a Konoha kunoichi, she's on our team," Kakashi informed, "we were attacked by shinobi, who we guessed, were the ones to attack this village. They killed one of our teammates, so she said she'd go on to check on the village, while we go home to Konoha to give Hiroshi a proper burial. When she'd left, we checked the body of the person she killed-"
"Oi! Gaara!" A voice from a distance shouted. Temari and Kankuro ran towards their younger sibling, "the body's not there," Kankuro said.
"Did you have to fight too?" Kakashi asked.
"One of them killed one of ours and we killed one of theirs," Gaara confirmed.
"What was weird was the one who killed our shinobi used about four elements. Not even Gaara could've taken him on and won," Temari said, scowling.
"Did you see his face?" Kakashi asked, feeling the scenario worryingly similar.
Kankuro shook his head
"W-" He started.
"Guys, I don't mean to change the subject, but Kuro-san needs medical attention immediately. She's been poisoned," Sakura said, lifting Kotori's limp head, as she continued being held in mid-air by Gaara's sand.
"You poisoned her?" Kakashi asked, turning to face Gaara, "I didn't think you were the type to use poison."
"I didn't," Gaara replied, "I can take her to Sunagakure ahead of you, she might already be dead, so I should go now."
Kakashi nodded.
"See you in Suna," he said, watching Gaara be lifted up by his sand, Kotori hanging limp beside him, wrapped up in his sand.
-/-/-/-/-/-
Darkness surrounded Kotori, but she could still hear everyone talking.
"...needs to be done now..."
"...spreading too fast..."
"...don't have much time..."
"...incurable poison..."
"...surprised she's not dead yet..."
She couldn't concentrate on what was being said; a familiar pain had settled in her body. Pain she had thought she'd long forgotten, as she'd only felt such everyday as a child. She sighed inwardly. All her training had been for nothing. She never wanted to feel this pain again; that was why she trained, why she was a kunoichi, why she pushed herself to her absolute limits.
Kotori screamed and shot up, the people around her pushing her body down onto the bed again. Her eyes were closed, nonetheless colourful words escaped her mouth, making the medical ninja surrounding her shocked to hear such foul language. However, no matter how much she screamed and writhed, the operation continued.
After hours and hours of relentless agony, Kotori drifted into welcoming unconsciousness again.
-/-/-/-/-/-
"...so, we were made to fight each other, because we looked like the enemy shinobi. That would explain the missing bodies; they take the form of our comrades. We went after Kuro-chan immediately, once we found no trace of the body," she heard Kakashi say in his lazy, but serious tone.
"And the poison?" An uncaring male voice, which Kotori couldn't recognise, asked.
"It's safe to say that it was the enemy as well," Kakashi replied.
Kotori stopped listening after that and decided to sit up, but only managed to make her head spin and throb painfully. She fell back down onto the clean, white bed, before realising she had no idea where she was.
Sun flooded through the open window to her right, showing the sandy streets below and the heat in the room was almost unbearable, even though the window was open. Kotori sighed, staring up at the plain white ceiling. A small bedside table stood to her left, which had a bouquet of a variety of colourful flowers, a translucent jug of water that was almost full, a packet of hard boiled sweets and her shinobi mask.
Without getting up, Kotori grabbed the pack of sweets and took one out, popping it into her mouth and sucking on it. Her face scrunched up, not used to the sourness of the sweet.
"It wasn't my choice of sweets," she heard a male voice say. Kotori stared in front of her to see the red haired boy she had fought.
"Considering I'm not dead, I can only guess you want something from me, or our fight was because of a misunderstanding," she murmured, ignoring his comment.
Gaara opened his mouth to speak, but got interrupted by Kakashi and Sakura entering the room.
"Yo, Kuro-chan," Kakashi said in his carefree and lazy tone.
"Kakashi-sensei," Kotori acknowledged.
"Are you feeling better, Kuro-san?" Sakura asked politely.
"I'm not dead, so yeah, I guess," Kotori replied, staring up at the ceiling. Gaara's lips twitched upwards at her words.
Sakura deadpanned, not knowing how to reply to that comment.
"Well, I suppose you should thank Sakura for saving your life, since she did carry out the operation," Kakashi mused.
"Thank you, Sakura-san," Kotori said, almost automatically.
"There's nothing to thank me for. Kakashi-sensei, you're being silly. We're friends, after all," Sakura replied warmly, closing her eyes and smiling at her.
"Friends, huh?" Kotori murmured. Sakura nodded her head, a comfortable silence falling on the four people in the room.
"Ja, Kuro-chan, we need to get back to Konoha and, since you're in no fit state to travel, we're going to have to leave you here and have someone escort you back," Kakashi stated seriously.
"I don't need an escort," Kotori replied immediately.
"But you should be able to see the need for it. That poison is new; we don't know what side effects there are to it," the red-haired boy spoke up, in his unamused tone that never seemed to change.
Kotori sighed, staring up at the ceiling, then nodded.
"Right," she murmured.
"We'll be leaving now, then. Tsunade-sama will want to know about what happened," Kakashi said. Kotori nodded.
"See you guys in Konoha," she murmured.
After they exchanged goodbyes, the Jounin and medical nin left the room, allowing an awkward silence to enter. Kotori continued staring up at the ceiling, letting her mind wander, however, her thoughts were disrupted by the red-haired boy suddenly speaking.
"You give up easily," he noted.
"I don't see why I should try," she replied, "besides, the situation was obvious. I was going to die; hoping otherwise would have been stupid."
"Yet, you're still alive," Gaara said, a hint of a smile present on his lips.
"Just by chance," she replied.
"Why didn't you use all the elements when fighting me? You could've won," he stated in the same monotone. Kotori stayed silent, not wanting to tell him the true reason. How could she? What if they fought again? He'd know how to defeat her; she couldn't tell him.
"I just didn't want to," she replied finally.
"Instead of lying, you could say you don't want to tell me. I won't kill you," he stated, as emotionless as ever. Kotori smiled drily.
"The irony," she murmured. A smile seemed to graze his lips, but immediately went away, "what's your name, oh strange red-haired boy?"
Gaara stared at her with mild curiosity, before replying.
"Gaara,"
Kotori nodded.
"Kotori," she said simply.
"Are you and Kakashi related?" He asked emotionlessly.
"You'd think so, right? We both have silver hair, we both wear shinobi masks and he has one red eye, that being the sharingan, and I got my red eyes because of experimentation," she mused, "but, no, we're not related."
Gaara nodded.
"He thinks highly of you," he stated.
"He doesn't know me very well. I'd kill him and every single person in Konoha, just to satisfy a whim I'd get," she murmured.
"You only live for yourself, then," Gaara stated, not asked. Kotori still hadn't looked at him properly, and she didn't intend to.
"Correct. Why live for anyone else?" She mused, continuing to stare at the ceiling.
"I used to think that, but then I came across someone. He was really strong and I didn't know why or how. He told me he fought for his friends; to keep them safe, to protect them. I still don't understand it completely, but I now fight for those important to me," Gaara told her, feeling she was how he used to be and wanting her to change. Strangely, Kotori found herself thinking of her six-year-old's sensei's words, then scoffed. If Gaara was surprised by her reaction, he didn't show it.
"You're talking about love, aren't you," She stated, not asked.
"I don't really understand it particularly. No one seems to be able to explain what love is. Everyone has a different answer," Gaara said monotonously. Again, Kotori's mind drifted to what her sensei had said, but she shook herself out of her thoughts.
"I'll tell you what love is," she murmured emotionlessly, "it's the most accurate description you'll get."
Gaara remained silent, waiting for her to continue.
"Love is a form of genjutsu that everyone seems to be able to do. Those who fall into it are weak and stupid, because its the simplest genjutsu anyone can fall into. Save yourself and stay away from anyone who says they love you. They've already fallen into the illusion," she murmured coolly.
"And, you've never loved?"
Kotori shook her head.
"Of course not," she murmured amusedly, "I'm the strongest person I know."
"Then how do you know for sure?" He asked, with the smallest amount of amusement heard in his voice.
Kotori remained silent. Now that she thought about it, how did she know for sure?
An awkward silence settled over the two, but Kotori didn't seem to notice.
"I just do," she muttered, a sense of finality heard in her tone.