It's been so long since I've written for this. I have no excuses and I am sorry. But i just want to thank starry123 for asking the same question I was asking myself that made me write another chapter. And thank you to all the reviewers and I hope you'll still enjoy this story. There's going to be one more chapter after this, which I will hopefully complete within the month.
Disclaimer: This story is my own but I do not own the characters created by Masashi Kishimoto.
"Don't Leave Me"
"We have to wait."
"Are you ordering me around?" Kai growled. His brown eyes held no compassion as he glared at me.
I explained. "I'm not trying to—it's just that, we have to wait. That's it."
He shoved his face in front of mine, the moonlight casting a shadow upon his face and on his hair, a deadly shine. "Weren't you with him? For a year was it, I heard? Not having any regrets are you?" Kai spat.
Of course not. How could he even say that to me?
"You seem so calm about this at times, are you really here as a shinobi of Suna? Do you really want to protect Suna?"
I hesitated saying my answer because I knew Kai would be offended. I have never care for Suna, I was only here for—
An image of Itachi's face came into my mind. His expressionless mask, the smile that's never existed on his lips. But I saw him extend his hand to me. It was a bright day, sunny, in a clearing next to the forest that sat upon a hill next to the town where I had lived with him. He smiled and I felt a weight being lifted off my chest and without hesitation I grabbed his hand and pulled myself to my feet.
"No," I responded, "I'm not here as a citizen of Suna."
And I saw Itachi's smile fade and the world grew dark. The skies turned and became ominous.
"Then why are you here?"
"Hey! You! Ugly! Leave her alone, ok?" Naruto walked her and pushed Kai away from me.
"Did you hear what she said, you idiot? She's not here for Suna, what if she wants to help Itachi? She could just turn on us and—"
"She won't."
I walked over to the ignorant boy and grabbed his face to force him to look into my eyes. I bared my teeth at him, my angry rising.
"Even if I'm not here to protect Suna, I swear I will fight with more effort and with more feeling than you ever will. Even if my bones break, I'd drag myself across the floor and fight. Do you know why?"
I tightened my grip on his face and I felt his breathing pace increase.
"Nozomi?" Naruto asked, worried.
"Shut up! He asked, so I'll tell him."
I released Kai, using only the hand that had grabbed his face to throw him back, his back landed on the concrete.
"I'm not here to defend this stupid village. I'm not here to save its people from Itachi, nor I am here to fight as a shinobi. I'm not here to save myself or to protect myself from death. I'm not here because of a love of fighting or killing."
And now an image of Gaara came into my mind, obliterating reality—all I saw was him. His blood red hair, his frown, how his eyes change with every emotion he tries to hide. How when I first met him, he had scared me more than anything, I had witnessed his unrelenting bloodlust, his inhuman demon, possessing him, suffocating the scared little boy inside him. I remembered the night I told him how I had been looking after him for his father. And when he chased me and I was more afraid than I had ever been in my life. The way his eyes had been lit with fear when I had told him I loved him.
"I'm here to protect someone, the only person I have. Can you understand that?"
Kai glared but I recognized respect when its given. Protecting someone is something we all do, something we can all relate to. But sometimes, fear shakes my frame and a darkness comes over my eyes. Because I don't have the confidence to protect the only person I have. Naruto, he's different, he fights to keep all those people. He has friends and teachers and people who he all treasures, but I've lost mine. Now, the only person who means anything to me is the Kazekage of a village, a dangerous position to be in. If Itachi as little as laid a hand on Gaara, I'd kill him.
But as the situation progressed, a battle seemed imminent. If Gaara was gone, I'd as well be dead. I can't, I would never be able to live without him. Did Kai understand the feeling of walking about life without anything to live on? Then, suddenly, like a slap on the face, waking up from a stupor to finally see the sky and realize how bright it always was? Has he ever literally been caged within himself?
I looked at him now and spoke with all honesty. "I can promise that I will be the last to give up on this battle. I will fight until we win, because if we lose this battle that means we will have lost the Kazekage." I looked away. "And I will be dead. I have nothing to gain from joining the other side." I mustered a weak smile in his direction and he seemed to accept my explanation.
I heard a shrill yelp, hundreds of feet away. I glanced at Naruto and Kai in alarm and realized they had not heard it.
"What's wrong Nozomi?" Naruto asked.
I inhaled a breath to calm my nerves and stop my hands from shaking.
"It's started," I whispered.
I sat on the roof, knees up against my chest with my face buried in them. I was rocking, trying to stay calm to no avail. I could hear their yells, their screams were going on for over twenty minutes already. I could picture those foot soldiers losing their lives. It was useless to even try. They didn't know Itachi like I did. I was surprised to learn that he didn't have a demon in him, his personality was so cold and calculating. But I didn't know what to do, I just knew I couldn't stay here any longer. I stood and asked Naruto "Why are we so far away from the entrance?" He looked puzzled, as if he hadn't thought of it.
"To back up the Kazekage of course," Kai responded.
"From this far back?" I challenged. "Yeah, bull."
He just wants to protect you.
By keeping me out of the fight?
He thinks it's the only sure way you'll be safe.
With Itachi, there's never a sure way.
I began walking forward and looked back at my teammates. "Let's move up some, we'll miss everything."
Kai protested, "B-but we were ordered to stay here, we can't move!"
"Suit yourself."
And I left them. I ran towards Temari, Kankuro and Sakura. Halfway between the team I left behind and the one I was about to join, a cold chill made its way up my spine. I cursed inwardly and began to run faster when I felt something hit me, the force propelled me sideways and I slid against the hard surface of the roof.
"Nozomi!" I heard Naruto yell, a few roofs back. I really hoped that he wouldn't come to my aid, because the unshakable fear growing inside me was a clear indication of whom it was. I got back on my feet and looked around, seeing no one. I focused my chakra into my ears and heard a commotion coming from the entrance. "Where did he go? Kazekage-sama, Itachi's disappeared!"
"Shit," I cursed.
I began running, the adrenaline pumping through my legs, I jumped to reach the other roof and felt something pulling my legs back. My arms flailed out to reach the next roof and my body slammed against the side as my fingers gripped the edge, knocking the wind out of me. I pulled myself up a bit and saw Kankuro only two roofs ahead of me. I opened my mouth to yell out his name and stopped when Itachi appeared in front of me, blocking my view. I was still gripping the edge, although my fingers were now slipping, my body couldn't stop shaking. The moon was right behind his head, casting his face in shadow.
"Hello Nozomi."
He slammed his foot on my hands in one quick motion. Pain shot down my arms and I gasped, letting go of the roof. My back slammed onto the street below me and I laid there, for a moment letting the pain subside. But my hands shrieked in pain, and I bit my tongue, refusing to cry out.
Get up, now. Don't use your hands, your left one's broken.
I stood slowly and ran down the alley, too afraid to look up. At the end, a large wall stood, blocking my way. I turned and saw Itachi standing at the mouth of the alley, his hat covering his face. He walked up to me and then appeared by my side, grabbing my left hand and squeezing it.
I yelped out in pain and pushed him back with the other.
"I told you to never leave me again."
I threw a kunai at him and he simply dodged, unfazed.
"I had told you this would happen, so why are you even fighting it? The result is inevitable, you're just wasting your efforts."
"No, I'm not. I'm not going back with you, and you won't kill Gaara."
"Why do you think that?"
"I'd never let it happen. No matter what, no matter what I have to sacrifice."
Itachi quickly moved behind me and I jumped away from him, dodging the kunai he had in his hand.
"Stupid girl."
He was right behind me and I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. I fell and collapsed on my left arm, causing a shriek to emit from my throat. The last thing I heard was "I thought I had taught you better than this."
I envisioned a beautiful life, the one I had always wanted, the one I never got. I was sitting on a roof top, the wind cold and refreshing. I was smiling, laughing as I held hands with Gaara. I turned to look at him and he was smiling too, his reserved smile that I almost never saw but when I did, it would send chills throughout my body and cause my lungs to tighten and my mind to falter.
I laughed and held out my other hand as snow began to fall. The expanse was a white blanket, beautiful and still. I turned, wanting this moment to be crystallized, to stop so that I could always enjoy it, so that I would always be happy. Gaara pulled me in and pressed his lips to my head.
"Are you happy?" he asked.
I breathed in his scent and grabbed his face, forcing him to look me in the eyes. Although he had kept in his emotions for so many years and kept a composed face, his eyes always betrayed him. In them, I could seek the answer I found, I could tell if he was upset, angry, sad, happy.
Wake up Nozomi.
"I never thought I'd ever be this happy, in the beginning, everything was so messed up, so complicated and confusing, the events were all so wrong, the words all jumbled up. But now, it's all so simple. I'm certain of everything that was so confusing before."
Nozomi, snap out of it. Get up!
He smiled again and it broke my heart.
How long would this last? Would we ever change?
Get up! Now! We have to do something or else it'll end badly!
I started crying and dug my face into his chest.
"What's wrong Nozomi?"
"I'm scared I'll let you down." I confessed.
He lifted my head and sighed. He looked away from me, fear in his eyes.
"I'm afraid I've already let you down."
You're going to lose him.
My eyes opened and I gasped in oxygen. I was on the ground, sand beneath me, my whole body was aching, my arm throbbing, bruises forming on my back. The soft sand was comfortable and I didn't want to stand. But I lifted my head and saw that I was outside of Suna, about fifty feet from the entrance, everything around us was sand.
Itachi was twenty feet in front of me, his back towards me and he was fighting Gaara, who was breathing heavily, his armor cracked. He fell on one knee and fear rose in my throat. Itachi walked up to him and brought out a kunai, resting it against his throat.
I immediately stood up, not caring about the amount of pain that coursed through my body. I gritted my teeth infusing chakra into every inch of my body. Gaara looked weak, hurt. My eyes teared as I kept releasing my chakra into my own body, feeling the barrier between myself and the Hachimata shake. Anger, hate, hurt filled my senses. Through all this time, it had seemed as if life itself was a conspiracy against me. I always had been looking in from the outside, watching families when I had none. Experiencing happiness vicariously, feeling, for the most part, alone. I had never expected anything, but out of everything, this was not something that was going to be taken from me.
It was the only thing I cherished.
My body was morphing, all reasoning beyond me. I ran, faster than even I could comprehend and appeared behind Itachi. Time seemed to move slowly as I lifted my hand to strike Itachi and I saw that Gaara had seen me and his eyes widened. Itachi, noticing this, began to turn, the hand with the kunai facing me, but even as I saw this, I dug both of my hands into his shoulders, my claws digging into his flesh. I smelled blood and pulled him closer. My fangs dug into his neck and pain blossomed in my gut. But I held in, digging further just as the pain worsened. The force in which I had hit Itachi made us fly backwards and as we hit the sand, I bit down harder, forcing any doubts out of my mind. He had cared for me, feed me, trained me, but I still felt as if I had never known him. Like a faceless mannequin.
I heard him gagging, blood in my mouth but I held on. He struggled at first, shoving the kunai deeper into my stomach, but I didn't not budge.
"I told you," he whispered, "don't leave me."
I felt like vomiting and I finally released him, coughing up blood and I wheezed. The pain enveloped me like a sheet, spreading through every vein, filling every muscle and organ. Then I felt my body go limp, pushed beyond its limit and my mind grow black.
