Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Flowers in the Sand ❯ Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

“Help me?” She laughed, hollowly. “I've heard that before.” She turned around and gazed at the five assembled men. “Your kind of help involves destroying the Five-tails inside me.”

 

Gaara stared at her. He had never laid eyes on so lovely a woman before and most certainly had never seen such complete and utter emptiness in someone's eyes before. Even his own gaze, which could be quite cold and empty, never had this kind of depth.

 

She turned to Kiba and Akamaru. “I should've known two of your clan would find me eventually,” she said, almost sadly. “I don't want to hurt you- please leave.”

 

Kiba blinked in surprise. “Our clan? How do you know our clan?” Akamaru whimpered.

 

“It doesn't matter. I don't want to kill you. Take your brother and go.”

 

Naruto and Shikamaru exchanged a glance. Brother?

 

The woman turned back to Neji. “I know your scent. You were here before. Now you have brought reinforcements to kill me easier, eh?”

 

“I told you!” Naruto cried. “We're not here to kill you! We're here to stop you from getting killed!”

 

“Yumiko, please,” Neji pleaded. “We're here in peace. You have our word.”

 

The woman fixed a direct stare at the white-eyed Jounin. “How do you know that name?”

 

Neji blinked, confused. “Isn't that your name? It's carved on your knife handle.”

 

She narrowed her eyes at him, finally showing some irritation. “That name is dead to me,” she said softly. “My sister betrayed me, cast me into this loneliness because of her selfishness. I carved her name into my knife so that I would never forget who did this to me…”

 

“Then what is your name?” Kiba asked abruptly.

 

The woman gave him a somewhat softer look. “Not that it matters,” she said softly, “but I was known as Safaia.”

 

“Man,” Shikamaru muttered. “This is getting troublesome. Can we just grab her and go?”

 

Safaia's head snapped toward him. “Grab me and go? Go where? It's just as impossible to kill me here as anywhere else. You might as well die here.”

 

Gaara stepped forward, arms crossed as usual. “Quiet. We are not here to kill you.”

 

Finally she turned to the red-headed man and when she did, she froze. Sapphire eyes met aquamarine and locked. Neither blinked nor looked away.

 

Naruto nudged Neji. “What do you suppose happened?” he whispered in his friend's ear.

 

Neji looked equally confused. “I don't know. Battle of wills?”

 

Gaara's eyes slid over to glance at his friends. Without saying a word, sand slid out of his gourd and surrounded the woman in front of him. Finally Safaia blinked and lithely did a backflip, escaping the sand enclosure.

 

“I knew it,” she said, her voice monotone and her eyes shadowed by her bangs. “You tried to trick me.” She suddenly grabbed her head with one hand and fell to her knees. “No, Gobi! I don't care! They lied… I don't care what you say…”

 

Gaara stared at her, feeling a sense of déjà vu. How many times had he felt the same way with Shukaku?

 

The woman lifted her gaze and Naruto, Neji, and Shikamaru automatically took a step backward. Akamaru whined loudly. Sand swirled quietly around Gaara, ready if need be, and for good reason.

 

Her eyes had gone gold.

 

The five men watched in various levels of fascination as she tilted her head back and let out a bone-chilling howl. Her hair changed color, from brown and gold to purest white, and her nails lengthened into claws. Snow-white fur sprouted from her wrists and ankles and spread from there, covering her entire body. She lowered her head and landed on her hands, which had changed into large paws. Her amber gaze flickered from one man to the next, her face lengthening into a muzzle, her lips pulled back from razor-sharp fangs in a snarl.

 

She jumped into the air and did another graceful backflip, and as she did so, five long, fluffy tails appeared, one right after another. Two long, floppy ears appeared on her head. When she landed, she was no longer human.

 

Safaia was a five-tailed pure white dog. Gobi, the Five-tail Biju.

 

Kiba fell on his butt in complete and utter surprise. Akamaru whined and lowered his head even more.

 

Naruto stared in shock. How is she able to completely change like that? If I change into anything more than a four-tailed fox, I lose control of who I really am! But this girl simply shifted to Gobi as if it were no big deal!

 

Gaara, too, was stunned. When he had let Shukaku take over, he grew to enormous size. But this Gobi- it was only the size of a horse, perhaps larger. Was this as large as she got?

 

The Five-tailed Dog barked out a humorless laugh. “I am not your ordinary Jinchuriki,” she said in an altered voice. “I am Gobi and Gobi is me. We have joined our souls as only sisters can.”

 

“Souls?” Naruto looked confused. He looked at Gaara. “I didn't think that was possible.”

 

“I have certainly never heard of such a thing, and Shukaku was sealed in me before I was born,” Gaara replied. “We were always separate.”

 

“Same here,” Naruto nodded. “Kyuubi and I have agreed to join forces, as it were, but if I let him take over too much, I start to forget who I really am.”

 

Gobi/Safaia blinked her golden eyes. “Kyuubi? Shukaku? What is this you speak of?” She took a small step forward and sniffed. Her eyes went wide and her ears perked up. “Kyuubi? Is that really you inside that boy?”

 

“Oi, woman!” Naruto grunted, shaking a fist at her in irritation. “I'm not a boy! I'm a man!”

 

Kyuubi, lurking in the back of Naruto's mind, made a grunting noise. I thought I recognized your scent, Gobi. So you have joined with the girl?

 

The Five-tails sat on her haunches and bowed her head at Naruto. “Forgive me, Kyuubi. You know me to be loyal to these humans. She needed comfort and I gave it to her.”

 

Neji and Shikamaru exchanged a glance. “She what?”

 

Kiba looked dead serious. “She can hear Kyuubi's thoughts inside Naruto,” he said in awe. He rested a hand on Akamaru's head.

 

Gobi/Safaia looked at Kiba. “And yours as well, brother,” she said.

 

Naruto scratched his head. “You can hear Kyuubi?”

 

She lowered her head and slowly shifted back to human form. Her hair went back to its original brown and gold streaks and her eyes went back to blue.

 

“Gobi can hear any of the Biju,” she said quietly when she had completely reverted. “I, myself, only have her increased sense of smell and hearing.” She turned her head toward Akamaru. “Brother?”

 

The large white dog got up on his feet and padded slowly toward her, much to Kiba's surprise. She laid a delicate hand on his head, petting the soft fur there. “You and your clan have served your family well,” she told the dog. “You have brought great honor to them all.”

 

Akamaru whuffed, bowing his head to her. Kiba stepped forward cautiously. “How do you know of our clan?”

 

Safaia merely blinked at him. “Who do you think gave your clan their first ninken?”

 

“Wow,” Naruto said, crossing his arms. “So, Gobi's kinda like your ancestor, huh, Akamaru?”

 

“That is right,” Safaia agreed. “The Inuzuka clan were chosen because of their closeness to dogs. No other clan has that honor.”

 

“Kakashi summons eight ninken,” Naruto pointed out. “What about him?”

 

“He merely signed a blood contract with them,” Shikamaru said. “Much like you and the frogs and Temari and her weasel.”

 

“True,” Safaia murmured.

 

Gaara moved closer to her. “Enough talk. You realize you are being targeted by the Akatsuki?”

 

Safaia blinked. “Akatsuki? What is that?”

 

“A group of evil guys who basically want to extract Gobi from you to use her in their conquest of the world,” Shikamaru replied, looking rather bored.

 

She looked slightly alarmed. “But… but that would…”

 

“Kill you,” Gaara finished, looking her dead in the eye. “Believe me- I know firsthand.”

 

“Don't confuse her just yet, sand-boy,” Shikamaru muttered to his brother-in-law. “We'll have time enough for that later, after we get her to safety.”

 

“And if I don't need your rescuing?”

 

“Don't you get it, Safaia? They're going to kill you!” Naruto looked irritated.

 

She shrugged. “Death comes to all of us. So what if mine comes sooner than yours?”

 

Gaara stared at her again, mystified at how much she seemed to not care. Having seen firsthand both death and how wonderful life could be, he couldn't understand why anyone would willingly throw it away. He regretted his bloodlust from his youth, but that was mostly Shukaku to blame. That raccoon was a vicious one…

 

“If you die,” Naruto replied, “Gobi dies. Simple fact.”

 

“Oh, no,” replied a low, slightly amused voice. “We have ways of keeping the Biju alive after they're removed from their hosts.”

 

The five men and Akamaru turned to see two figures standing on a branch in a nearby tree, gazing down at them. Immediately they all went on guard, except Gaara, whose “on guard” meant standing still with his arms crossed across his chest.

 

“Akatsuki bastards,” Naruto growled. “We won't let you have her!”

 

“Oh, I think you'll be too dead to stop us,” one replied.

 

“Konoha vermin,” the second one spat. “You'll pay for what you did to Orochimaru and Itachi.”

 

“Hey, wait,” the first one said, leaning forward and peering at their group. “Isn't that the weakling punk that Shukaku was sealed in?”

 

The second one took a closer look. “Sure is. I thought we killed him.”

 

Gaara's eyes hardened, the only thing that changed on him following the Akatsuki members' discussion. “Naruto,” he said stiffly.

 

Naruto clenched a fist but didn't take his eyes off the two ninjas in the tree. “Yeah?”

 

“They're mine.”

 

The Konoha shinobi understood immediately and backed up, forming a four-man (plus dog) protective stance around Safaia.

 

The Kazekage simply stood as usual, his eyes locked on the figures in the tree. Sand stirred in his gourd and proceeded to slide out, swirling in the air around him.

 

The two unidentified Akatsuki members chortled. “Your sand may be fast,” the first one said.

 

“But you'll see that we are faster,” the second one finished.

 

Gaara didn't respond. Instead, the sand surrounding him suddenly rushed toward the duo, forcing them to leap off the branch they had been occupying.

 

Shit, that sand's faster than we thought! The first ninja bounced off a couple of tree trunks before landing upside down on a branch. He quickly formed some seals.

 

Before he could finish, Gaara's sand caught him from behind and hoisted him off the tree, dangling him in midair. More and more sand filtered out to wrap around him.

 

“No, hey, wait!” the ninja protested as sand quickly covered his head. Gaara lifted a hand and clenched his fingers in a clutching motion. “Sabaku Kyou,” he murmured.

 

Safaia blinked slowly. “Your friend,” she said in Naruto's ear. “He had Shukaku sealed inside him?”

 

“And removed,” Naruto agreed, not taking his eyes off his friend. “It killed him, but an old lady from his village sacrificed her life to bring him back to us.”

 

“Bastard!” the second ninja snarled, coming up with a kunai on Gaara's other side, thinking him to be vulnerable. “I'll kill you once more!”

 

Safaia took a nimble leap through the air, over Naruto's and Neji's heads. She landed between Gaara and the second ninja, fully transformed into Gobi. She snarled at him.

 

The ninja couldn't stop his attack and ended up driving the kunai towards Gobi's neck. “Dammit!” he swore, knowing he wasn't supposed to kill the Jinchuriki.

 

He blinked in surprise when he saw the sand wall between himself and the Five-tails, his kunai lodged in the sand. Gobi, on the other hand, had his neck in her jaws at the same time he noticed the sand wall.

 

“Die,” she growled as she ripped out his throat, blood splashing against her pure white fur and the sand wall protecting her.

 

Gaara had turned his head to stare at the Five-tails, his hand still held up in the same clutching position. A voice could be heard from inside the sand, pleading for release.

 

“Sabuku Sousou,” he murmured, closing his fist tightly. The sand responded, imploding on the trapped ninja and causing blood to splatter out from the sand.

 

Shikamaru shook his head. No matter how many times he saw it, it still freaked him out. Also-

 

“That was too easy,” Neji remarked.

 

“I agree,” Shikamaru replied. “They didn't act like normal members of Akatsuki.”

 

Kiba knelt down next to the ninja Gobi had killed. “He doesn't bear a ring,” he commented, looking at both hands.

 

“Must just be agents then,” Naruto muttered.

 

Gobi sat on her haunches, her five tails swishing independently. She looked at Gaara with unblinking gold eyes.

 

Gaara stared at the Five-tails. “Why did you do that?” he asked her. “I do not need your help.”

 

“He was about to strike you with his strange weapon,” she replied, her ears flattening slightly.

 

“My sand protects me,” he told her, his face stern. “Nothing can touch me.”

 

In response, Gobi stood up and walked slowly toward him, her tails even with her back. She stepped right up to him and looked him right in the eye. She was tall enough in this form that she met his height.

 

“Nothing?” she said, with almost a tone of humor in her altered voice.

 

The sand around him stirred and released the remains of the one ninja, flowing back into his gourd. The other sand shifted around their legs as they stared at one another.

 

Then, slowly, leisurely, the Five-tails leaned forward and licked the sand-master on the cheek.

 

-oOo-oOo-oOo-

 

A/N: Safaia- “sapphire”

Sabaku Kyou- “Desert Coffin”

Sabaku Sousou- “Desert Funeral”