Stage Eight: Gaara's Revenge

I was woken abruptly with an explosion rattling the walls and windows. I clutched the sheets beside me in fear for the sleeping Uchiha beside me, but he wasn't there. Shouts filled the corridors and my ears as the various members ran past Itachi's door. I then realized that I didn't cause the discharge. The room wasn't destroyed and I wasn't drenched in sweat. If I didn't cause the explosion, then who did?

I grabbed my Katana that was resting against the wall and slid open the door to find out for myself. I made it to the central "lounge" area before I found the source. Well, the source found me. I was encased in a familiar jutsu: the Sand Coffin Jutsu. I knew how to counter it. I built up the pressurized air between my skin and my sand, pushing outward. The sand retracted against me, so I had to increase my chakura and push harder. One final tighten of the sand broke my bubble of air and suffocated me, forcing all air out of my lungs before backing off.

I felt a dizzying sensation around me, as though I was getting motion sick. I closed my eyes to calm the feeling, and opened them to see myself in an empty void. It wasn't long before I was thrown into the technicolor world of surrounding forest again, to face a pissed-off red head. "You betrayed me," he growled.

"How have I managed to betray you this time?" I asked.

"Orochimaru sent you here."

"No, he didn't. I was abducted," I informed him.

"Then why was he so sure that you were where he thought you to be?" Gaara growled.

"Did he tell you where he thought I was?" I asked.

"He wouldn't tell us."

"There you go. If he wouldn't tell you, then he didn't know. For your information, I went to Sunagakure. The last place either of you would look for me."

Gaara relaxed slightly."Why would you go there?" he asked.

"If no one has told you already, I was born there. I lived there for six years before I was forced out by the Akatsuki."

"Then why go back?" he asked.

"I'm looking for answers to questions I have had for years. I need to know who I am and where I come from. Orochimaru has been lying to me about everything."

"Does that surprise you?" Gaara growled. "He killed my father."

"Does that surprise you?" I countered. "You hate your father anyway."

Gaara turned from me.

"What did you want to accomplish by kidnapping me back?" I asked him, changing the subject quickly.

"You're not leaving my sight," he stated. "I don't care if I have to imprison you inside my sand until the day you die."

"And why is that?" I growled.

"So when I kill everyone around you, I can kill you myself," he announced. "I don't want to have to search all over the map for you. When I am ready, I want you beside me to take what ever torture I deal to you."

"All because you think I made you love me?"

"No, I don't think you made me. I think you tricked me, and aren't going to stop."

"What do you want from me?" I hissed. "Would it make you happy if I loved you, or if I disappeared? Do you want me dead, or just out of your life?" I asked.

"I want you to suffer," he informed me. "I want you to feel as I do."

"Confused?" I asked. "Or like the one you love will never return it for you?"

"Both," he answered.

"Then technically, I've already payed that price." I began walking.

Sand surrounded my ankle. "You're not leaving my sight," he glared.

I turned around and began stalking toward him. "Fine, I won't leave your sight. You're going to wish I do by the end of this, mark my words."

"Consider them marked," he growled.

I raised my hand to slap him when he seized my wrist. "Let go of me."

"You can't hurt me," he hissed. "No point in trying."

"I can hurt you, if I have to exhaust every thought I have."

"Then try." He threw my wrist down, glaring at me.

I stepped toward him with a smirk on my face. "You handed that power to me ages ago," I whispered. I placed my hand on his cheek. Sand began to rise in defense, but it was too late. I laced my thin fingers in his flaming red hair and pulled him to me, locking his lips to mine. Kissing was becoming a form of deceit to me, and would never have meaning again as far I as I was concerned. I had no need for it.

I heard the sand drop as Gaara wrapped his hands around me, getting tighter and tighter. My body was soon pressed to his, and I could feel him smile under the kiss. I soon couldn't breathe as he kept squeezing me. His nails dug into my skin, drawing blood under the fabric of my tunic at the small of my back. It was soon soaked and stained, and I was beginning to get light headed from lack of oxygen. I had to do something.

I released my grip on his hair and tried to back away from him. He spun around and backed me to a tree, pinning me to him. I gasped as my wounds hit the bark, but the sound was muffled by the lack of air. His tongue slid into my open lips, feeling the tip of my own. It was a sensation of mystery to me, as I didn't know if the tingling was from suffocation or from his kiss.

He soon parted from me, but kept me in his death grip. "This is how you intended to hurt me?" he inquired. "Looks like you're the one in pain."

"I can't breathe," I mouthed.

His lips fell to mine once more. He then smiled and said, "I know, and I was hoping you would fight me, if only for air." He dropped me, allowing me to fall to my knees.

I gasped for breath as I glared at him. "You're a monster," I hissed.

"You're the one who was trying to use my emotions against me," he growled. "I used them against you. I did miss the sweet taste of your lips, though." He crouched beside me. "And now they're mine when ever I find myself craving their taste." Gaara took a kiss from me once more, holding me in place by my neck. "Not so quick to kiss me now, are you? It's almost as if you've been broken. That didn't take much."

No one was going to assume anything about me. If he was going to try to defeat me, I was only going to prove him wrong. I wrapped my arms around his neck and parted his lips with my tongue. He stood up, pulling me with him. He fought with me, backing me to the tree once more. He licked the inside of my mouth with hunger as I battled him for my pride.

He began trembling slightly as he struggled to control me. He flattened himself against me as I felt the source of his pulsation brush against me, in perfect time with his heartbeat above. "Look what you started," he smirked. He buried his face in my neck, inhaling my scent. "I won't give you that satisfaction, even if I have to deny my own." He bit down on the base of my neck, almost on my shoulder.

At once my body shuddered, feeling the pain of his sharp bite mingle with the feeling of heightened sexual arousal. I cursed him, even though I now wanted him. I was no longer acting on pride, but on pure physical greed. I was relieved when he turned to kiss me once more, pulling me away from the tree. He felt the curve of my back, still wet with blood, and ventured lower. He felt up my backside, squeezing me at whim.

A wave of shivers crashed through my nerves as he handled me with roughness. His tongue slid once more to greet my own, mixing his taste with mine. It was a taste of blood. I failed to notice that my neck was bleeding, sending a warm flow of sweetness directly to his taste-buds. The rustic, salty taste fed a hunger inside of myself, even though it was my own. I wanted to have it, all of it, for myself.

He gave a firm grip on my ass, sending my hips to grind forward. He gasped as I brushed against his pulsating shaft. I growl lodged in his throat as hunger drove him to push against me back to the tree. "You torture me with my own body," he whispered into my ear. "Just when I thought I could stop your abuse."

"You call this abuse?" I asked.

"You're manipulating my entire body."

"Most of this is your fault," I whispered. I licked his jawline, watching him close his eyes in pleasure.

"This wouldn't have happened if you didn't kiss me in the first place."

I threaded my fingers through his hair. "Like this?" I asked, then kissed his red tattoo. Then I placed my lips to his, tonguing my way into his mouth. He growled again as he took over with ferocity, biting down on my tongue and lower lip at regular intervals. I found my hands at his pant line, pulling him to me by the hem.

"Don't do that," he whispered. "It makes it worse."

"I know it does," I answered. "What, have you had enough? No torturing me back?"

He left a light kiss on my lips. "You're torture has already begun."

*****

Gaara had taken me back to Sunagakure without another bout of affection. He became cold toward me, making me confused about him. Well, being intelligent, I figured that this was as far as he had gotten in the plans of torturing me since I turned his world upside-down when he retrieved me. He was going to ignore me like I ignored him, even though I merely left him to seek me out in his own curiosity. I wouldn't let this bother me. His torture rested in my reaction; a reaction he wouldn't get.

Nights were the worst on our trip. Even though we both could see well enough to keep going and neither of us slept, we made camp anyway. We spent the whole night staring in different directions without exchanging a word. I tried to leave him twice, but each time he encased me in a ball of sand and left me there until morning. He would then release the ball, grab my wrist, and move forward, without a word. All I got was a glare, if I was lucky.

Now we stood at the entrance of Sunagakure. The same guards looked at us as we walked in, none making a sound. Gaara frightened them more than I did when they found out I was alive. He led me down a familiar path into the center of Sunagakure, but I couldn't distinguish where he was taking me. I knew the places, and even where he was turning next, but I didn't know where we would end up.

Turns out, he led me to his own house. I said nothing about already knowing the path to it, but instead I watched him shut the door behind me. He turned to me and growled, "This is now your home, make the best of it."

"You realize that I'm going to go back to my home at some time or another, right?"

"Then I will go with you," he answered.

"What if you go on a mission?" I wondered. "How are you going to go with me then?"

"You will have the perfect opportunity to escape then, won't you?" he asked with sarcasm. "Until then, you remain in my sight."

"What if you blink?" I asked with my own sarcasm.

He grabbed my wrist. "Then I'll hold onto you at all times."

I glared at him intensely. "I hate you sometimes," I hissed.

"The feeling is mutual," he growled. "However, I'm not going to let you get away from me." He sounded like a predator, playing with its food before eating me alive.

"Just because you don't let me doesn't mean I won't leave anyway. I don't need to ask permission to do anything."

He growled at me, "Then I'll be there for everything you do."

"I have to go to the bathroom," I smirked. "You're not going to join me for that."

"And risk letting you climb out the window?" he retorted. "I think not."

I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bathroom, even though I didn't really have to pee. I flicked on the lights to see him standing over me, with his arms folded, watching me. "Get out," I demanded.

He leaned against the wall, "No. You're not getting away from me."

I glared at him then stepped out of the bathroom. "I hate you sometimes!" I yelled back at him.

He grabbed me from behind and pinned me to the wall, forcing me to face his snarl. "I don't care if you hate me or if you somehow fall in love with me. I have set my sights on your pain and I won't rest until I have my satisfaction. If that involves me forcing you to stay here, then so be it. You think I want to endure seeing you every day?" he hissed. "I don't. When I am ready to end this, then I will end this."

"End what, Gaara?" I asked, angered. "You have me in your clutches. You don't even have to kill anyone else to get to me. I'm here. Torture me," I challenged.

I could see the hatred in his eyes as his snarl's intensity increased. I could feel the heat of loathing someone well inside me, dying to escape. I wanted to attack Gaara, to kill him. I could see my own hatred through the reflection in his eyes. When I noticed, his snarl turned to a smirk of contentment. "End your little charade," he whispered. "I'm going to keep you until I feel that your lies have ended."

"I am not lying to you," I hissed. "I hate you, I used you for information, and I don't regret it. I was working under orders."

"You want me," he growled. "You want me and you know it. You might hate me, Tsuki, but you want me."

"I want nothing to do with you," I snapped.

"Is that why you didn't fight my kiss?" he asked.

"I kissed you to prove you wrong."

"If I kissed you now, you wouldn't kiss me back?" he challenged.

"No, I wouldn't."

"Not even to satisfy your own body's cravings? You're a woman, Tsuki. Surely you must have wants and desires."

"None of them involve you."

"Just Orochimaru, right?" he hissed.

I slapped him, hearing the crack as his sand failed to react. "How dare you," I growled. "You keep trying to use him against me."

"You're determined to go to great lengths to prove you don't love him, yet it's so clear that you want him more than anything. I can see how you look at him; the same way I look at you. You resent him for never being able to return it, don't you?"

"I don't love him."

"You don't love him, you don't love me, and you don't love Sasuke."

"How did you know about Sasuke?" I asked.

"I'm not stupid, Tsuki. I could see the way he looked at you. He wants you just as I do, only he doesn't want to kill you. He went to Orochimaru just to see you again. Too bad you're not there. No, you're here with me." He parted my lips with his, brushing his tongue against mine briefly. "I wonder what he would do if he knew."

"Kill you," I growled.

"He couldn't lay a hand on me," Gaara arrogantly smirked. "You did more than he could. Do you have another plan?"

"Sasuke killing you was never in my 'plan'. I don't even have a plan for you."

"Why not?" he asked, hungered.

"You're not worth it," I retorted.

"I was expecting more from you," he whispered. "It's not like you to give up so soon. You're no fun at all."

"Perhaps you'll just get bored with me."

"I could never be bored with you, Tsuki. Even if I have to provoke a reaction, you're never boring." He brushed my hair off my neck and whispered in my ear, "Maybe you'll find me entertaining as well." The feeling of his warm breath sent shivers through me. "That's what I wanted," he whispered again. "See, you want me."

His lips brushed against mine as he pulled my from the wall and into his arms. I pushed against his chest, struggling against his strength. The gourd of sand he carries must be heavy enough to sculpt his torso muscles, because I couldn't pull away from him. I was strong for a konoichi, too. He was stronger.

"Stop fighting me, Tsuki. You can't get away from me," his rasping voice whispered. He nibbled my neck. "You're safe with me, for now."

"I will never stop fighting you," I hissed. "Not even if my life depends on it."

"You've already told me just how much you value your life," he whispered. "I don't care about killing you, I just want you to suffer. If you die, it's less hassle for me."

"That's nice to know," I hissed. "Let go of me." I pushed against him one more time, to fall to the floor. He released me, only to sit next to me.

"Your efforts are wasted," he spat. "I know you're never going to accept me for who I am, nor are you going to accept that you're mine."

"Maybe I don't want to be yours," I retorted.

"Maybe I don't want to love you," he answered.

"That's your own fault," I hissed.

"Because you're a flirtatious bitch? How the hell is that my fault?"

I had never heard Gaara curse before. "I wasn't flirting with you."

"No, you just kissed me," he growled.

"Don't pretend you didn't like it."

"You're right, I must have because you're here so I must want more."

I pulled him to me, forcing his lips to mine. He pushed me to the floor, on my back, with him over me. If he wants more, he'll get more.