Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Enlightenment ❯ The Shadows ( Chapter 1 )

Author's Notes: *Sigh* I haven't updated for a while… Oh, well. I must make it up to Fanfiction.net! And so, I give to you… (fanfare) "Enlightenment." I got the idea while I read a songbook in the church. I got bored while listening to the priest, (Evil me) so I opened the book and started scanning through the pages. Then I found this song (can't remember the title) and thought, "Oooh! Ficcie must be made!!!" (I am so retarded)

Warning: Gaara-centric.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto's canon character, Gaara.

Summary: "Like a sapling he grew in front of us, like a root in arid land. Without beauty, without majesty we saw him, no looks to attract our eyes: a thing despised, rejected by man, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. We thought of him as someone punished, struck by God and brought low…"

~Text: Ruth 1:16; Jeremiah 53: 1-5 © 1966 The Jerusalem Bible

"The web of our life is of mingled yarn, good and ill together," quote by William Shakespeare.

Is life always filled with misfortune? And if it is so, must we hate our neighbors and ourselves? Gaara seems to believe so.

Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you (1 Pet. 5:7)

Chapter 1: The Shadows

Onyx-lined eyes opened slowly, fluttering as if unsure. Darkness presented itself to him. Cold aquamarine colored eyes searched the place in bafflement, where was he and why was he here? He squinted through the blankets of emptiness, expecting a smallest sign of light.

No lights. Nothing.

He clutched his red hair with both hands, struggling to remember any recollection involving his being placed in this darkness.

None came.

He lay there waiting for anything that would come to him, but was, unfortunately (at the same time fortunate), welcomed with nothingness.

Pushing himself to a sitting position, he looked side ways. The place was covered in shadows, nothing there, nothing here.

He tried again to look for daylight, but the search seemed fruitless.

He was confused, alright, but more of impatient. He did not want to be stuck in the middle of nowhere, sightless. Nor did he want to be there with no idea why he was there. He did not want to wait for somebody to get him out or kill him. What if a challenge or an enemy came by and greeted him, was he to be left helpless?

Then something struck him. In his preoccupied thoughts of escaping the situation, he has forgotten a couple of things: the weight he almost always carried on his back was nowhere to be found, where is his gourd? The burden in his head that tormented him every waking moment also vanished; is Shukaku gone, for how long? Is this permanent?

The sudden disappearances of his weapons left him bewildered and more puzzling questions made their way into his head, none of which were answered.

He stood noiselessly, thinking, and probably fearing, that something would come and claim his life if he made a sound.

A sound did come and this cut him off of his train of thoughts. His muscles tense and his fists clenched tightly, he looked around the area trying to sense for an oncoming enemy. Was someone watching his every move? A stalker?

He suddenly felt paranoid.

Silence. Once more, nobody approached. The muscles in his joint ached slightly, and he forced his body to relax.

He started to walk straight. With no light for accompaniment, he trailed along blindly. His outstretched hand fumbled for something… anything.

After of about a few minutes, he finally reached something. A wall? Both of his hands searched for the door… or maybe the knob.

His left hand touched cold metal, small with two flat sides and a slight bump. The other hand searched a little more before coming in contact with another smooth metal, this time, shaped in a bulb. A doorknob? He twisted it and the door budged, light was coming in. Pushing it some more, the door opened widely, light flooded the room.

Squinting through the bright sunlight, he waited for his eyes to adjust, as he seemed unused with it. Finally, his eyes slowly got accustomed with the brightness and he could see clearly.

The room/house seemed to be located in a dark forest, one he did not know of. This isn't Konoha, certainly not. He had visited the place a couple of times now and he knows the forests there quite well, especially as he had to stay there for 3 days during the Chuunin Exam.

The sun's rays pierced through the trees around the house, which made that position bright. It looked strange with all the shade covering the extension of the forest.

He gazed around the vicinity, maintaining his stoned expression. His calmness seemed odd in his current situation; one would run around screaming for somebody to get him. Of course he wouldn't, that was just not him.

Through the thicket, he spotted a figure, which immediately disappeared back into the trees as sudden as it came.

A person… A female? Maybe. She had long hair. Apparently.

He decided to follow. He demanded answers and that's what he'll get. Threaten her if there was a need; he couldn't stand feeling perplexed.

He looked back at the place he had been, it looked strangely familiar. He felt attached to it as if it was his own. The small house with the open door had nothing on the inside. It was empty, just sunlight bounced on its bare walls and nothing more.

The person had gone into the woods, how was he to know where she was going to? He didn't care about that anymore, he just needed know what was going on and he wanted the information, now; the sooner, the better. If she was a way to get out of here, then that's good.

Stealthily, he paced the woods and looked for her tracks. Amazingly, there was no sight of her.

How frustrating.

This was picking on the last of his tolerance.

After running around the trees for a period of time, he found something that confused him a lot more. There, standing in the thick growth of trees was a fork road. One was wide and the other narrow. It was cemented like streets on the villages or the cities; who built something like this in the middle of a forest? Did it lead to a village, Konoha perhaps? He pondered on how it got there for a while, and then started to walk towards the larger path. The narrow one seemed to end tightly between a row of bamboo shoots and wild grasses.

He walked unhurriedly on the path, surely this road lead to a village. As he went farther and farther into the route, it seemed to have another division: another fork road. What is going on? He was getting really annoyed now. And if he caught sight of that female, he would most definitely kill her.

This was becoming of much trouble to him and it was taking him nowhere.

Yet the emotion on his face showed nothing of his irritation, he looked composed through it all. This was a strange personality of his: containment of emotion. It made him appear cold and inhuman… a monster.

Walking faster this time, he sought for the girl he had seen through the bushes. This made him think; was she real or a figment of his imagination? Through all that confusion he must have envisioned somebody there even if there was actually none. Now probing through the area with more vigilance, he was doubtful of his actions. Maybe he should have stayed there at the house.

No use for that now. He was too far from the place to be able to go back.

Again, he held his head tightly with one hand; a headache was throbbing through it now, all because of that female. This thought cemented his decision into killing the girl. It would be entertaining to watch her bleed, to listen to her bones crack and to hear her piercing scream.

He walked farther, again, coming across another fork road. He stopped this time and looked down his feet. A smile crept on his face; a laugh, skin crawling, escaped through his lips. With a flash of a moment, his body turned around, his right hand clawed and extended to a figure watching his back intently. His breathing sped up; adrenaline was raging through his blood.

His eyes crazed and wild were wide with excitement, now given a chance to kill her. There was an evident frown on her pale face as she reached both hands to his right arm, forcing it gently to lower down.

His breathing slowed, his tense body calmed and he faced her with no emotion on his face.

She smiled at him, which made him think she was mocking his abilities. He cringed.

Then a question popped out of her mouth, one sentence that made him stop and look at her in puzzlement, "Why is it easier to go through a wider and brighter path than to that of a narrow and dangerous road, Sabaku no Gaara?"

Author's Notes: Ah, finally done! It's 10:20 in the evening and I feel sleepy. Well, is it good? Is Gaara out of character? Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Please, no flames. I thought of this well and that is the last thing I want to see on a review. Let's be good to each other, my fellow Christians, don't destroy someone's soul in writing. Words are powerful and they can either hurt or help. Oooh! I sound preachy! Sorry if I did, though. Hehe… Forgive my writing style; I am merely 14 years old. Sorry if it was short and it didn't meet your demands. Belated Merry Christmas, readers! And um… Happy New Year!