Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Flowers in the Sand ❯ Chapter 24

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Chapter 24

 

Safaia sat silently on the lone swing hanging from a tree in front of the Academy, idly drifting back and forth as her unfocused gaze stared at the ground. Day after tomorrow… I'll be married. To Neji. Not Gaara… Neji.

 

Foolish girl. Why are you mating the white-eyed one? I told you your destiny lies with Shukaku's former host.

 

I am sorry, Gobi. Gaara is not interested in me, and without your guidance, I made choices that I thought were for the best. Neji needed someone to bear his children so that his bloodline would not die out. I am useless- therefore, the perfect candidate.

 

Gobi snorted. Baka human! Does not his cousin bear the bloodline? She has already whelped one pup and is gravid with another. The Hyuuga bloodline would not die out if you refused to mate him!

 

Safaia shook her head slightly. I still do not see the purpose in denying him this. He has been so kind to me- he is one of my very first friends. He, at least, deserves happiness.

 

And you do not?

 

No. I do not.

 

Tears slipped down her cheeks and fell onto her lap, causing dark circles in the fabric where they landed. She had no right to be happy. No right to enjoy life with another. She had taken lives. She had killed her family. True, at the time she had felt they deserved it, but after seeing all her friends with their families, she realized what a terrible crime she had committed. Instead of giving into rage and hatred, she should have simply left- better to abandon those she thought had loved her than destroy their futures. The future she was now faced with.

 

“Why are you crying?”

 

Safaia lifted her chin to see the very last person she expected staring down at her curiously, his dark eyes unreadable. “Why does it concern you?”

 

Sasuke shrugged. “Call it morbid curiosity.”

 

She regarded him coolly, as if she hadn't been weeping moments before. “Why are you still breathing? I would have thought Naruto Hokage would've disemboweled you by now.”

 

Sasuke raised a black eyebrow. “Still holding a grudge against me in our little ruse against Orochimaru and the Akatsuki, are you?”

 

“You forced a pregnant woman- one who is your friend and former teammate, I might add- to give birth alone in an enemy's lair. If anyone should be holding a grudge, it should be Sakura and Naruto Hokage.”

 

“Yet they do not, because I helped to bring an end to a major evil in the world. Why can you not be grateful that you don't have to hide any longer?”

 

Safaia glared as she stood up and stared into his eyes. “I have no reason to be grateful to someone who hurts my friends willingly.”

 

Sasuke sighed. “I did not come here to fight with you, woman. I came to apologize and offer a truce of friendship.”

 

Now Safaia raised an eyebrow. “Friendship? Do you even know what that word means?”

 

“Probably more than you do, I'm sure. Now- do you accept my apology?”

 

She scowled. He had an abrupt, rude manner that apparently every female in Konoha (and other villages too, it seemed) classified as “cool” or “sexy.” Keh… not in my book.

 

Mine either. Accept his so-called “apology” and get rid of him.

 

Finally she nodded once and gave him a brilliant (if fake) smile of agreement. “Very well, Uchiha. I accept your apology.”

 

For a moment, the unshakable man looked completely flustered. That smile… she could conquer nations with it alone… Coming to his senses, which seem to have abandoned him for the moment, he managed gave her a charming grin in return, one that always had the girls swooning (much to his disgust). He never could stand simpering females.

 

Safaia merely looked at him as if he were a particularly irritating bug on the wall. A pretty bug, like a butterfly or dragonfly, but a bug nonetheless. It was quite emasculating.

 

Well. One cure for that.

 

He leaned down and very gently, kissed her on her surprised lips.

 

“There,” he murmured with a cocky smirk. “Now you've accepted my apology and we can be friends.”

 

Safaia stared at him in confused horror for several moments. “W-wh-wha…? Wh-what did you… just do?”

 

Sasuke looked puzzled. “I merely gave you a little friendship kiss. Why? And I wanted to be the first to kiss the bride.”

 

“Kiss?”

 

Now he seemed annoyed. “Don't tell me you've never had a kiss before.”

 

“N-n-no…” She was distinctly and enchantingly rattled. “N-no one ever wanted to t-touch me… even hug m-me.”

 

“Well, now you've had your first kiss. I'm sure it won't be your last.”

 

“It just might be yours, Uchiha,” a voice as cold as ice hissed from behind him. Sasuke turned abruptly just to be hauled into the air by a large coil of sand and hung upside down like meat for the slaughter.

 

Which, judging by the scowl on Gaara's face, was probably accurate. “You deserve to die,” he whispered harshly, his teeth clenched in a snarl.

 

“Gaara?” Safaia whispered in disbelief. “No… it can't be. I'm dreaming. None of this is happening. It's just another dream…” She covered her ears and closed her eyes tight, shaking her head back and forth. “You aren't here. You wouldn't come for me. You didn't want me…” She fell to her knees, continuing with her adamant denial, her mind flickering between past and present. “They didn't want me… no one wants me…”

 

“…Safaia! You're so useless! Why couldn't you have been born normal?” Yumiko whined, whacking her little sister on the head with some sort of blunt object, causing the little girl to fall face-first into the mud.

 

“I… I'm sorry, sister,” Safaia whimpered, wincing because she wasn't sure if another blow was forthcoming. One disadvantage she had learned quickly by being blind was that you could never tell where a beating would come from. “I'll try to do better.”

 

“How could you do better, you pathetic brat? You're not good for anything, except maybe plant fodder.”

 

Safaia tried to stop the tear that slid down her cheek and splashed in the dirt below her chin. “N-no, sister. Please… don't be angry any more.”

 

Another blow landed on her back, causing her to cry out in pain. “I have every right to be angry! If you hadn't been born, Mother and Father would have more time to spend with me. If you're gone, then everything will go back to the way it was before!” Another blow. “You deserve to die!”

 

“N-no… Yumiko… don't… please… don't hurt me… I'm sorry… I didn't mean it…”

 

Gaara turned his attention away from the dangling black-haired man to the cowering woman at his feet. Immediately his expression turned from murder to worry. “Safaia?”

 

“I didn't mean it…”

 

The Kazekage knelt before her, aware that her mind was far, far away. Sasuke dropped to the ground with a grunt as the sand released him. “Safaia… what's wrong? What didn't you mean to do?”

 

“I didn't mean to be born, Yumiko,” she whispered back, her voice rather young sounding and her eyes very, very vacant. “I'm sorry… I'm sorry I'm so useless…”

 

Gaara placed his hands on her shoulders, wishing he could shake her out of this but knowing that he, too, had gone through something very similar many years ago. “You are not useless… you have no reason to be sorry for anything.”

 

Suddenly her vacant gaze shifted from fear and sorrow to anger. Her voice shifted too, sounding older. “You did this to me, Yumiko. You told Mother and Father to seal the monster inside me… you are the reason they hate me now. You are the reason everyone hates me… fears me…”

 

“Safaia!” Gaara said sharply. “No one hates you or fears you! I promise you, no one hates you!” Damn, this is sounding way too familiar…

 

Her expression grew sad, depressed. She looked through Gaara, rather than at him, with those empty sapphire eyes.

 

“I am sorry, Gobi,” she said softly, apparently talking to the Five-tails inside her. “I told you before- Gaara is not interested in me. Without your direction, I made choices that I thought were for the best. Neji needs someone to bear his children so that his bloodline will not die out. I am useless- therefore, the perfect candidate.

 

“I… finally know… what love is… And I mourn the fact that I never knew it before those Konoha shinobi came for me. And now it's gone.” She sighed slightly. “Like sand in the wind.”

 

“Safaia!!” Gaara finally cried out, unable to take her misery any longer. “Dammit, it is not gone! Can't you understand that? Everyone cares about you, worries about you! You have friends now!”

 

Tears slipped down her cheeks and his heart broke a little more. “But not the man I love,” she whispered, so softly he almost didn't hear her. “I don't deserve him. I'm not good enough for him.”

 

The man she loves…? So… so she doesn't love me? I was mistaken? Gaara fought against the surge of panic threatening to wash over him like a sand waterfall. “…Who?” he finally asked. “W-who… is the… man you love? Is it… is it… Neji?” He flicked a glare at the neutral-seeming man behind him. “Or is it this Uchiha heir?”

 

Safaia lifted her chin and gazed unseeing at the trees above her head. “Gaara,” she breathed, the name sounding like a prayer. “You know that, Gobi. I love Gaara. I thought he had heard me when I told Sakura that night… but he went back to Suna anyway. You were wrong, Gobi.”

 

Oh, God… “Safaia, I… I had things I had to do before I could come back.”

 

Still her blank eyes didn't change. Dammit. What was he supposed to do to get through to her? Her muddled mind thought it was having a conversation with Gobi and was pretty much filtering out what he was trying to say to her.

 

“What's wrong, Kazekage?” Sasuke taunted quietly. “Can't work up the balls to do what I did? I guess you don't care about her as much as Naruto thinks you do.”

 

Gaara was on his feet and had Sasuke off his in a split second. “I love her, you self-centered bastard,” he hissed. “And I swear I will feed you to my sand if you ever so much as look at her again!”

 

Safaia gasped, jerking. She blinked several times, the light in her eyes finally reappearing. Slowly, almost painfully, she lifted her sapphire gaze and looked at Gaara. “You are here…” she murmured, sounding sanely surprised. “I'm not dreaming?”

 

Gaara turned back to her, his aquamarine eyes locked on hers. He dropped his grip on Sasuke's shirt. “Safaia? Are you all right now?”

 

She blinked slowly, as if just waking up from a horrible nightmare. “Gaara…” she whispered, a tinge of hope in that one word. Then her eyes turned accusing. “Why?”

 

He knew what she meant. “I am the Kazekage,” he reminded her (as if his blue and white robes weren't clue enough) as he moved in front of her. “I had things to take care of before I could come.”

 

Safaia stared at him mutely for a moment. “You are aware… that I am to be married?”

 

He nodded slowly. “I heard.”

 

“You do not care?”

 

“I am here, am I not?”

 

She raised an eyebrow. “You came to attend the wedding?”

 

“You might say that.”

 

Now she scowled. “I do not remember Neji adding you to the guest list.” Although, in truth, I never saw the guest list…

 

“I doubt I am on it.”

 

“Then why come?”

 

He gave her a level look as he stepped toward her, closing the distance between them to mere inches. “I do not intend to attend Neji's wedding,” he informed her.

 

Okay, he's confused me even more than I already am. “Then why did you say-!”

 

Gaara didn't move but the sand lying dormant on the ground swept around her and gave her a gentle nudge, interrupting her interrogation and causing her to stumble forward- and into Gaara's chest. His arms quickly came around her and enfolded her in an embrace neither dreamed they'd ever experience.

 

“I am certainly in Konoha to attend a wedding,” he murmured, his face achingly close to hers. “Mine.”

 

She blinked and tried to control her heart rate- with no success. “Y-y-yours?”

 

“That is correct. My wedding. To you, if you accept.”

 

-oOo-oOo-oOo-

 

A/N: ACK! -ducks rotten tomatoes- I REALLY didn't like this chapter. Nothing came out how I wanted. So do NOT be surprised if it gets revised. Many apologies to my few but faithful fans.