Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Given The Chance ❯ Gaara's Dreams ( Chapter 43 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter #43
Gaara's Dreams
 
 
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and Co.
 
Grr, there has been to much to do to be able to write much and it's driving me insane!! I wanted to have this up on Friday but I didn't have the time (I had it written beforehand) so I'm posting it now that I have a few minutes to relax.
 
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“Not good…”
 
As it turned out there was a lot more than one clone following after Gaara. As far as he could tell there were at least four, and they were all gaining fast. By the way they were appearing out of nowhere after pretending to fall behind Gaara was getting the feeling he was just being toyed with. They were just trying to make him tired so he wouldn't be able to fight later, and they were doing one hell of a job.
 
He had no chakra, no use of sand, no sense of direction, and he was in so much pain he wasn't even running strait. Even he had to admit it, and he loathed ever admitting he was being weakened.
 
Gaara was in serious trouble.
 
The Shukaku's overwhelming chakra rammed anxiously at the barrier of his consciousness. The demon could care less what happened to Gaara emotionally, physically, or otherwise. All he cared about was his own wellbeing, and the fact that if Gaara died so did he. Shukaku was more than willing to forcibly take over Gaara's body if it would save his own hide.
 
One of Yin's clones bolted in front of Gaara and forced him to look strait into the mirror. Two more flanked him on both sides, and one behind him, so he couldn't escape his own reflection if he wanted.
 
[Use the jutsu or I swear I will take control myself. That won't be fun for either of us!]
 
Chakra was almost literally starting to seep from Gaara's pours and the sand around him began reacting to the sudden spike in power.
 
`Stop it right now!'
 
[Too late!]
 
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It wasn't particularly hard to find Gaara. The scroll was like a homing device in itself, and it was practically drawn towards Faceless's seal. And even if there wasn't that affect with the seal, even a pedestrian would be able to sense the massive increase in chakra up ahead. It could only be Gaara.
 
`Hold on, hold on just a little longer.' The chant within her mind was half for Gaara, and half for herself. The wounds on her arm were still bleeding generously, her chakra was nearly gone, and her muscles were spent. Learning such harsh Taijutsu and Ninjutsu did come at a cost, and it didn't help that she was taking on a lot more than she could normally do in battle.
 
The sand in the wind ahead was beginning to pull together and form some kind of shape, possibly some kind of animal. One with light yellow skin, black markings, large amounts of chakra, and a loud cry that made Cassie's skin crawl. The sound made her skid to a halt only momentarily before she sped off again, completely determined to put any natural fear of the beast behind her and save Gaara at all costs.
 
The sand creature swiped its claws and took out all for clones easily before letting out another cry of rage and triumph.
 
“Shukaku…” murmured Cassie under her breath. She'd never actually seen the full demon form of Shukaku, and although it wasn't on her to do list to get crushed by a rampaging demon she still stepped forward determinedly. Gaara was still inside there somewhere, and if Faceless took hold while Shukaku was the one doing the attacking she wouldn't just have Gaara, she'd have a demon.
 
There were only a yards between them, but it didn't seem to take much notice of her at first. She could see Gaara's body on the Shukaku's head with his body slumped over, his dark ringed eyes closed, and fast asleep.
 
Summoning any chakra she had left she leapt up, using the buildings nearby as push off points to get the height she needed. Cassie didn't land as close to Gaara's real body as she'd hoped, but she was surprised that she got that far with the chakra reserves she still possessed. She'd landed somewhere on the Shukaku's nose, right between his eyes, and prepared any energy she could muster to run the rest of the way to Gaara when the sand shifted beneath her feet.
 
“Ack!” yelped Cassie in a mixture of surprise and pain. The sand swallowed her up past her knees and immediately began to crush her legs. The pressure was immense, and Cassie couldn't help but cry out in agony.
 
Gritting her teeth Cassandra clawed at the sand to try and pull herself out, “SHUKAKU!! I have the scroll! Let me go or that seal will activate!”
 
“It's about time, girl,” the Shukaku's voice rang out.
 
“You're crushing my legs,” Cassandra spat, “I can't move! I don't think I'll be able to walk!”
 
Amusement shone in the Shukaku's eyes but the sand gently began pushing Cassie towards Gaara none the less. “Your blood is very sweet. It's a shame you're carrying an infant, or I would kill you for your insolence.”
 
“I'll make a mental note, but for now move it,” Cassie seethed, her patience growing dangerously thin.
 
As a little reminder of who was the `alpha' Shukaku allowed the sand to constrict again very briefly, not as hard as before, but enough to make her yelp and give the sand around her legs a dirty glare. She was starting to understand a little better one of the reasons why Gaara found Shukaku a pest. Cassie was the one trying to save both of them and he still couldn't resist letting his sand taste her blood.
 
Stupid demon jerk.
 
None the less Shukaku did have a sense of self-preservation, and after having his `fun' he allowed the sand to push Cassie towards Gaara. Not that also didn't cause her a lot of pain because it was likely she had a fracture or two.
 
Cassandra was unsteady, her legs no longer able to hold her weight from the injuries and exhaustion, so she wrapped her arms around Gaara's middle to steady herself. Gaara's - who was obviously fast asleep - leaned into hers with his arms hanging limply at his sides and his head resting in the curve of her neck.
 
“Come on, Gaara, its time to wake up,” Cassie whispered in his ear as she pulled the scroll from her pocket, “This might sting a bit. I apologize in advance.”
 
The hand holding the scroll sunk slowly into the seal in Gaara's back like it was being absorbed by his flesh. When the scroll started touching the seal it glowed with bright hot energy as it tried to reject the outside force, but it was ultimately a useless attempt and only served to make it visible to the naked eye.
 
Gaara's brows drew together and made an expression between a wince and a scowl. Nothing more than a soft groan escaped his lips.
 
“Help me find her so I can draw her out,” she whispered softly in his ear, “Please, Gaara you have to wake up and help me find her…”
 
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Why was Gaara hated by everyone? Why was he the one always doomed to be alone? Why did he have a strong pain in his chest that never seemed to go away?
 
No child deserved the hatred, fear, and spite the villagers showed to him every day f his life. But of course no one thought of Gaara as a child, all they saw was a demon, something dangerous that was only created as a weapon. Something inhuman that deserved inhuman treatment. A creature that could neither receive love from others nor feel love himself.
 
A demon.
 
Even his own father wanted him dead, and what was even worse was that his uncle Yashamaru - the only person Gaara thought cared about him - was the one ordered to do it. Yashamaru accepted the mission because in actuality he never really loved Gaara, and only wanted to see him dead for the death of his sister.
 
Gaara stared disbelievingly at his dying uncle. The one person he trusted in the whole world, and the man with a sea of exploding tags attached to his chest as a last attempt at killing Gaara.
 
“This is it. Please die.”
 
The very sand that made everyone hate him so much ended up protecting young Gaara that night, and alive and unharmed he began to doubt the existence of `love'.
 
That night was the first and only time his sand would injure Gaara. It cut the kanji for `Ai' above his left eye to show that he would only love himself. He would only fight for himself, and he would prove his own existence. He had no need for others and their false emotion of love. All he had was himself.
 
“But that's not true…”
 
A pair of slender arms reached out from the sand behind him and wrapped around little Gaara. They pulled him into a warm embrace of a girl's bosom so he could hear her heart beating soothingly and the warmth of her body relaxed him. He was being cradled in the arms of a young woman like the child he was. No one had ever embraced Gaara like that…
 
(A/N: Hehe, that's the first time I've used `bosom' in a Fanfic … Teehee…)
 
His sea foam eyes widened and his body froze in shock. He tried to look into her face but her long black hair shielded it from the child's view.
 
She whispered and gently kissed the top of his head, “…I'll always be here for you.”
 
“Who are you?” demanded Gaara after he'd gotten over the shock of being kissed.
 
The sand shot up at Gaara's sudden violent emotion that hit him like a wave and made his heart flutter like a bird. It was something so foreign to him … something so strange it almost frightened him.
 
The sand pierced her flesh of her collarbone like thousands of tiny needles carving into her skin.
 
She let out a small stifled yelp, but nothing more. She just hugged Gaara tighter and bit her lip.
 
Now, on normally perfect porcelain skin, the lower left side of her collar bone was graced with kanji. The very same kanji that was put on Gaara only moments before.
 
`Mine,' the possessive and animal instinct side of Gaara thought. It surprised even Gaara who was still clueless to whom the woman even was.
 
Gaara's hand reached up, slowly and unsurely at first, and swept the dark hair out of the girl's face to expose her large deep green tear filled eyes.
 
`Her face…' Gaara cringed as broken memories scattered his brain, making it hard for him to think or even see. `Why is she so familiar…?'
 
Her hand reached out to stroke some hair of Gaara's face when she paused. The tips of her fingers were slowly turning to sand and blowing away in the breeze, even her tears turned into grains of sand when they rolled off her cheeks. She was slowly disappearing before his very eyes and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
 
“Wait,” Gaara yelled frantically in attempt to stop her from leaving. “Don't go, please, don't go! I don't … I don't want you to go away … I don't want to loose you again!”
 
Gaara was suddenly his older self, a young man, but he still called out like a child to the girl who disappeared into the wind.
 
“She's waiting for you, you know.”
 
The red headed Kazekage spun around when he heard the voice. He'd been so distracted he hadn't even sensed the presence of the small boy behind him, looking up at him calmly with strikingly familiar green eyes. The same breeze that carried away the girl in the sand fingered through his dark red hair, mussing it around his face.
 
“Momma says we have to hurry or that Faceless lady will force us out,” the boy spoke softly again, “Momma is having a hard time holding on in this world because your memories have been blocked, but I can stay a little longer. You have no memories of me yet that can be erased.”
 
“Who was that girl,” Gaara was sick of so many unanswered questions, “and who are you?”
 
The boy's stoic face softened a little, “I have to hurry, or I'll be forced out too. This is your mind, you have to take control, and you have to have something worth fighting for to help you separate yourself from Faceless. You need to remember what you're fighting for.”
 
“I don't remember anything!”
 
“Really?”
 
“…” Gaara paused, thinking back to that girl, and all the strange occurrences surrounding her, wondering if maybe she was what he was forgetting.
 
“Try to remember, even a little, and take back your body. Faceless can't be taken out of your body without you being killed in the process if you don't sever the ties between the two of you.”
 
All those times Gaara heard that girl's voice, every mute picture he had in his head and the more recent memory of what it felt like to kiss her… Gaara tried desperately to rearrange them, piece them together, and get them to make sense, but it all came to the one conclusion Gaara had been denying all along.
 
Was this `Faceless' person counting on Gaara's natural stubbornness to keep him under control the whole time?
 
“I was in love…”
 
There was the slightest of smiles on the boy's face as he gave a small nod, “And her name…?”
 
“Her name…” the pain along Gaara's spine and skull was returning, but he fought against it with everything he had. “Her name was … Cassie.”
 
The little boy turned to leave, but Gaara still caught a glimpse of his growing smile, “Arigato. I have to go now, Momma is calling me.”
 
“W-what,” Gaara winced, struggling to stay focus with all the renewed memories clouding his mind. “What's your name, boy?”
 
“…It's Ryuu…” The boy ran off, jumping from one roof to the next, and in the distance there was someone waiting for him. Someone to pick him up, cuddle him, and show him all the love Gaara never got as a child…
 
Her hand was held out for him too. She was beckoning for him to follow as well.
“…I love you…”
 
`It's her…' Gaara suddenly looked determined and he striated his posture despite the pain, “This is my body! This is my mind! Faceless, whoever you are, GET OUT!!”
 
The strings were being severed one by one, and with each snap of a chakra string a new wave of hot sharp pain coursed through him. And with every sing detached he could start to see those memories, just a little clearer each time, and he could hear Cassie's voice again. Remember the feeling of her warmth…
 
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“This is the end of the line!”
 
A scream rang in Cassie's ears, a scream only those who once had the seal on them could hear. Anyone else wouldn't have heard a thing, but to the little raven haired girl the sound was so sharp, spiteful, and unbelievably loud she thought her skull might split open.
 
Who would have thought drawing Faceless out inside a scroll would be so … noisy.
 
The sand that once formed the Shukaku began to erode away, and Cassandra's arms didn't have the strength to hold on any longer. Her limp arms fell from Gaara and she felt her stomach rise as she plummeted, cursed scroll in her hand, the inside visibly sizzling from being exposed to the last remaining rays of sunlight.
 
Despite plummeting hundreds of feet Cassie reopened the scroll, exposing the writing on the inside to the setting sun. The ink on the page started burning when exposed to the light, releasing massive amounts of excess chakra, and turning the screams of anger from Faceless from anger to agony.
 
Spirits like her couldn't survive on their own in sunlight. They need hosts. Without them they die.
 
And if Cassie didn't do something about her freefall she would die too. There was no way she could survive an impact from such a high place, and on top of that her vision was blurring from exhaustion.
 
 
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Yes, I know, another cliffie, but I think Gaara's memories returning more than makes up for that!! You know, when I look back on my chapters I wanna kick a thesaurus or something because my vocabulary SUCKS! I have to read a dictionary or something because it's beginning to get on my nerves…
On to the `falling action' of my story filled with fluff to make up for the past couple `fluff deprived' chapters I've been posting lately!
 
Lil_Pix
 
Thanks to my reviewers:
 
theForbidden, Hiei81, Gaara Freak, Dudekiller, Fightingpheonix36, Gaara252, xXdonutsXx, BakaHanyouRahvin, deja blackey black, and everyone else! Thanks everyone for over 400 reviews!!!