Chapter TEN
Gaara felt something welling up withing him.
Something he hadn't felt in some time. Something he was recently feeling quite often.
Panic.
His sand wasn't fast enough to keep up with the Uchiha's movements. Said movements reminded Gaara of his fight with Lee. Now that he thought about it, they were moving in similar ways.
He was cut off of this thoughts when he was kicked into one of the stand walls. He half expected Sakura to appear in front of him, and reminded himself that this was a fight he had to fight alone in.
Sometimes, he thought that his greatest defense wasn't his sand, but a human shield known as Sakura.
Soon, his panic reached a certain point. He held up his hands a sign and narrowed his sand began to rise around him, forming his sphere shield. He could see his siblings beginning to panic from the corner of his eyes, but he didn't care.
He would kill Uchiha Sasuke.
His shield completely surrounded him. He created his third eye with his sand, then began the set of hand seals.
"No. Gaara's completely forgotten about the plan." Temari hissed. "He's transforming."
"I know. What should we do?" Kankuro whispered back. "Sakura! Can't you do something? Yell at him to stop?"
"No! Sakura, don't listen to him." While Kankuro didn't know about how dangerous the relationship between Sakura and Gaara was, Temari did.
"But-"
"There isn't anything we can do!"
Sakura glanced down at her arm, where words were forming on the sand covering her. She swept her fingers over the sand and it dispersed. She had to get ready.
Sasuke jumped at the shield, only to have to jump away when spikes rose towards him.
'It's now or never.'
He held up his hand and channeled his chakra.
Soon, the sound of chirping birds surrounded him. He could faintly hear the sound of shock and surprise running through the audience.
He ran at the shield, his hand held out in front of him. "CHIDORI!"
He smashed his attack through the shield, tearing through it with some effort. The sand gripped him again, but he knew he had hit his mark when something warm and wet dripped down his arm.
There was a moment of silence, before the sand began to squeeze. Sasuke tried to pull his limb out, but found that he couldn't. He ran chakra through his arm again, and yanked his arm out when the sand broke away. Something lashed out at him and he quickly jumped away. He glanced up and noticed the huge clawed limb slither back into dome through a hole.
He glanced inside it and pushed away his sudden unease. The eye that glared out at him wasn't that of a person's.
No one understood what was happening next. A smoke bomb was set off, and no one could see what was going on in the fight below. Feather began to fall, landing softly. One by one, the people present began to collapse.
Sasuke removed his arm from his face, and let out a growl.
The redheaded teacher of the Suna team stood in front of Gaara, scrolls in hand. Temari and Kankuro stood behind their sibling while Sakura hovered beside Gaara, hands glowing green.
"Sakura, Temari, Kankuro." Said three looked up at the commanding tone in Sasori's voice. The usual laziness was gone. "Gaara's injured, and won't be able to help in the fight. Take him and retreat."
Temari looks ready to protest, but stopped when Sakura brushed past her, supporting Gaara. The older girl glanced at Kankuro, before they chase after the pinkette.
Sasuke had no idea what was going on, but decided to follow, only for Sasori to block his path.
Gaara let out another growl.
"Gaara-sama...?"
"I'm fine." He hissed.
"Temari-sama, Kankuro-san, someone is approaching us." Sakura murmured. "It's the Uchiha."
Kakuro stiffened, before slowing his steps. "You guys go ahead." He said. "I'll take him out."
Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Some one else, approaching from behind." She added. "I believe that it is the Aburame."
Kankuro readied Karasu and shook them off. "Just go."
The three of them continue for a while, before Sakura raised her voice again. "It seems like the Aburame is fighting Kankuro-san. The Uchiha is still following us."
This time, Temari reached for her weapon, but Gaara's growl stopped her. His sand whirled around him, knocking his sister away. He then grabbed Sakura by the arm, stopping her on a tree.
Kill...
Using the pinkette to help him balance, he turned around to face the approaching Uchiha.
Kill...
Sasuke burst out of the trees, panting slightly. He drew a weapon.
KILL...
Gaara began to enter his transformation stage. The sand crawled onto him, covering half his body and face. He sprouted an arm, which he used to propel himself towards Sasuke. The Uchiha jumped away, but managed to see the damage the arm left in it's wake. It seemed to make the redhead faster too.
He dodged another attack, not liking where this was going.
If things kept going in this direction, he might just have to use the Chidori again.
He threw a few kunai, but they were swiped away by the sand.
Gaara smirked, this time sprouting a tail.
Sasuke dodged the attack, but could feel himself tiring. Gaara, on the other hand, simply just regrew all the damaged sand limbs.
"Teme!" Sasuke could hear Naruto approaching. When it came down to it, they could work very well together. He was about to move so that he was closer to the blonde, when a sudden weight crashed into him.
Sakura had her arms and legs wrapped around him from behind, pinning his arms to his side and causing him to lose his balance.
Sasuke gritted his teeth, trying to escape the grip, when from the corner of his eye, noticed something looming up behind the girl. He shook jumped back and slammed the girl's body against a tree. From pain or shock, Sasuke didn't know, but the girl loosened her grip, giving Sasuke the time to escape.
Sasuke jumped away, breathing heavily. Then Naruto erupted form the trees, flying at Gaara without a word. Sakura quickly moved to intercept him, leaving Gaara with the Uchiha. And through Naruto didn't want to admit it, this girl was strong. He found himself more on the defense.
"Why are you doing this, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked. "I thought you were a good person!"
Sakura nimbly dodged Naruto's attack. "Whether a someone is good or not depends on the view of each person. I...have to be a good person for Gaara-sama." She said. "In order to be a good person for him, I cannot be a good person for you."
She paused. "I want to be needed." She admitted. "When I'm with Gaara-sama, I get this warm feeling my chest. It makes me feel lighter, and it makes me want to be with him."
"But you're just hurting yourself!" Naruto said. "The way this Gaara kid's treating you is wrong!"
And the girl, who hadn't shown an ounce of emotion ever since Naruto had first met her, smiled. It was a small, barely visible smiled, but Naruto had spent his whole life being friends with Uchiha Sasuke.
"It doesn't matter." Sakura said. "I wish to stay with Gaara-sama, regardless of how he views me."
And Naruto was reminded of the very painful, sad moments of a boy who had referred to himself as a weapon until his last breath. And he saw something flash before his eyes.
Sasuke was slowly but surely reaching his limit. He had been dodging the sand attacks, and was never getting close enough to land an attack of his own.
An especially large wave of sand came at him, and he decided to just risk it. His hand began to let out sparks. He decided to just go for it, and instead of attacking the wall, he charged right through with his Chidori in front of him him, tearing through the attack, and headed right for Gaara. Gaara's sand rose to defend him but the Chidori ripped right through the defense. Sasuke jumped into the air to give himself more momentum, when something appeared in front of him. "Gaara-sama!"
Everything seemed to slow down. Still, Sasuke couldn't stop himself in time, and his arm tore right through Sakura.
This story is almost complete...almost...(Wish we could make the words smaller...)
Dunno if that's a good thing or not. At least we managed to do the whole 'short story' thing.
Also, we don't want Sasuke to activate his Cursed Seal (Dunno if he even has it) and leave, or anything, cause then, we wouldn't know when to end the story. Plus, the Uchiha clan's still here.
Raven: So, my brother just got this thing called a MakeyMakey. It's pretty cool. It's like this game controller thing. You attach random objects to the wires on the MakeyMakey and you can use them as the game controller.
Darque: Try searching up a youtube video, or something. They're really cool.
Raven: Anyways, my brother went on a toilet break, or something, and I switched around the controller objects. He came back and messed up his level. I ad to hide from him for the rest of the day. Apparently, he didn't save it and had to go back to his last checkpoint, which was around fifteen levels back.
Darque: Yeah. Your brother called me to complain about it. My poor adorable puppy.
Raven: I still don't get how my older brother is a 'adorable puppy'.
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