Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Immortal Bitches ❯ Gaara and Alex ( Chapter 5 )

 

Chapter 5: Gaara and Alex

 

“It looks like a pretty creepy place.” Said Sakura, a little shakily. Anko began to continue her explanation of the Forest.

 

“You're about to find out firsthand why they call this the Forest of Death!” Naruto began to do an impression of her, mimicking with a girlish falsetto voice.

 

“Ooh, you're about to find out firsthand why they call this the Forest of Death!” He mocked.

 

“Naruto… you're a baka, do you know that?” said Rouyakan, crossing her arms (like every other time).

 

“Like that's really gonna scare us! You're trying to psych us out and I'm not gonna fall for it!!” yelled Naruto.

 

“Why I think he's the biggest baka we've met since that guy that stalked us! Even bigger than Alex!” Cassie found this rather amusing, and Rouyakan suppressed a chuckle.

 

“Yeah! ... Wait, what do you mean by that?!” Alex glared at Cassie before smacking her upside the head. Hard. “Hmph!”

 

“I—Itai…” whimpered Cassie, holding her head. Anko began to respond to what Naruto said.

 

“Oh really? You're pretty cocky, huh?” she said. She took a kunai out from her sleeve of her shirt, throwing it at him with impressive speed. It just barely grazed his cheek and landed between some other ninjas and now Anko was behind Naruto, licking the blood from his cheek. “Heh. Your kind is always the first to go. Spilling all that rich, red, lovely, luscious blood.”

 

“Just beautiful, we have a vampire. Anyone got some ofudas?” said Rouyakan out loud, so everyone heard her but, of course, no one questioned it since it was a large crowd. Anko had sensed another presence and took out another kunai but a long tongue held her other kunai out to her.

 

“Your kunai knife; I believe you dropped it?” Said the woman.

 

“Gee, thanks.” Anko's voice dripped with sarcasm. Naruto had a `omgwtf that's crazy liek woah' face on which was quite amusing. Anko stood there a second longer and said, “Don't just stand behind me radiating bloodlust… unless you're in a hurry to die.”

 

“I'll try to keep it under control… but the sight of warm, fresh blood makes me a little crazy.” she said with a wicked smile. She disappeared, going back to join her group. Anko went back up to the front of the group.

 

“Before we begin the second exam, there's something I have to hand out!” Anko yelled, holding up a stack of white papers.

 

“They are consent forms. Everybody has to sign one, or they will not be allowed to go on to the second part of the exam.”

 

“Why?” asked Naruto, doing his `fox-face' (E/N: that squinty-eyed thing he does, y'know?)

 

“It's saying that we examiners won't be held responsible if you die. We want all the details covered before the first deaths occur, sign before you go in so we can't be held liable. You wouldn't want me to get in trouble, would you?” said Anko, making a few of the shinobi groups squirm uncomfortably.

 

“First, I'll explain what the second exam entails. Then you can sign the forms. With the other two members of your cell, bring the forms to the hut behind you and submit them. Got that? Good. Now about the exam… to put it simply… it's a no-holds-barred survival test. Let me explain the terrain to you: Training Ground #44 is bordered by a circular perimeter, interrupted at regular intervals are forty-four locked gates. The whole thing is one giant forest, with a river running through it. In the center is a tower about ten kilometers from those gates. Within the confines of the carefully designated area, you're going to undergo the ultimate survival test. During the course of that test, you may use any shinobi jutsu's you know or any weapons you have at your disposal. In order to get into the tower, you must have at least one `heaven' and one `earth' scroll by the end of five days or you will fail the test. Also, there is one rule that must be followed: Until you have reached the inside of the tower, at no time during the test are you allowed to look at the contents of the two scrolls. That is forbidden. Got it?”

 

“What happens if we sneak a peek?” asked Naruto.

 

“That's for those who look to find out!” answered Anko. “If any of you make it the Chunin level, there will be times when you'll be entrusted with top-secret documents, so consider this a test of you trustworthiness. That's all the explanation you get. We'll trade one scroll for every three forms, so that's one scroll for each team of three. When you've got yours, choose the gate you want to start from. Everyone will begin at the same time. And one more piece of advice: Stay alive.” And thus the papers were filled out and the scrolls were distributed. Sasuke was deep in thought when he heard someone walked up behind him. He whirled around and saw Alex

 

“Oh, it's just you.” He said, like she was a pet he saw every day. She sat down beside him and he scooted away from her.

 

“I know you don't like me and all, but I want to tell you this: you're not going to die out here. I would have felt it.”

 

“How would you know?” asked Sasuke bitterly.

 

Alex just smiled. “Because you're too stubborn to die.” She turned to leave then turned around. “Oh, and Sasuke? The dead don't want revenge, they just want their loved one's to live peacefully, that's all.” Leaving Sasuke to think that over, she turned back around and walked over to Rouyakan.

 

“Yo. I came to tell you I won't be starting out with you guys. I have to send a few souls to the other side.” Alex said this like she was just going grocery shopping.

 

“… Okay, but hurry back. Team Seven will need all the help they can get, I can sense it.” whispered Rouyakan as all of Naruto's team assembled at gate number Twelve.

 

“Hey Rouyakan?” whispered Sakura, tugging her billowy sleeve.

 

“Hmm?” Rouyakan looked down at her.

 

“Where's Alex? I thought she was with you.” Asked Sakura.

 

“She's off sending people souls to the other side. Maybe some of the people from the exam will be there…” said Rouyakan, looking very nonchalant about the whole `crossing-the-souls-over” thing.

 

“… Right.” Sakura paled and clamped on a little harder to Rouyakan's sleeve.

 

“Part Two of the Chunin shinobi selection exam begins… now!” yelled Anko, and all the teams left the gates. When Naruto's team took off further into the forest, Cassie and Rouyakan took off their concealment spells and followed, close enough to aid in protecting, but far enough to not interfere completely.

 

At that moment, Alex was flying on her scythe trying to sense any new deaths, and when she sensed something, she flew off towards the east. Flying around for a couple of hours, she found the people who were `supposed' to die. She saw three crouching figures, one of whom she recognized as Hinata, the blue-haired girl from the first part of the exam. Alex went up behind her and what she guessed was Hinata's team and said, “Hey, can you guys tell me why you guys are behind these bushes?” The trio jumped and Hinata nearly screamed when she saw Alex, almost beginning to whimper.

 

“Who are you?” said one boy with a fur-lined hood and a dog.

 

`Hmm… that's Kiba, if I remember right.'

 

“I'm Alex, Daughter of Death at your service!” said Alex quietly, but very professionally.

 

“…” the trench-coat boy, Shino, said nothing.

 

“Okay, I suppose you think I'm here to take you. Well I'm not, so Hinata, you can relax, and I'm not a shinobi `cause I'm not going to take your scroll.”

 

“…Alright.” said Kiba.

 

“So can you tell me what's going on?” asked Alex again.

 

“Basically, it's this: we wanted to steal more scrolls so that we'd be insured entrance to the tower even though we have a set already. Now we're here spying on those shinobi over there.” Kiba pointed, and they looked through the bushes and saw six figures. Alex recognized Gaara, the Sand shinobi, immediately.

 

`Kuso! Why is it every time I'm by myself I meet up with him somehow?!' thought Alex as she shook her head in frustration.

 

Kiba's dog, nestled in his hoodie, whined and shivered closer to Kiba.

 

“My dog, Akamaru, says `the big one is very dangerous'.” translated Kiba.

 

“Don't worry! As I've said before, I'm not here to take you guys but to take whoever dies out there.” said Alex, and they began to watch, sensing a fight was about to begin.

 

Out in the small clearing, the two shinobi groups, one from Hidden-In-Rain and one from Hidden-In-Sand, prepared to face off.

 

“Prepare to meet your maker!” said one of the Rain shinobi's, the tallest and obviously the leader of the team. He looked pretty fierce and battle-hardened.

 

“Are you going to fight us… or talk us to death? We don't take orders from the likes of you, even if you do `wow' them back home.” said Gaara, cool and confident.

 

`I can't tell whether this group has the `heaven' scroll… or `earth'! Maybe someone else has already ambushed them… and now they don't have either!' thought Kankuro. “Hey, Gaara, I thought we had agreed we wouldn't fight anyone until we found out if they had the scroll we need!” Kankuro called. “There's no point in attacking if we can't profit by it… we should only fight if there's something to be gained.”

 

“I don't want to hear it!” snapped Gaara, narrowing his eyes dangerously. “Anyone who crosses me is dead meat!”

 

`I hate it when he gets like this. He's so creepy!' thought Kankuro with a small shudder.

 

“Sounds good to me!” exclaimed the leader of the Rain.

 

“Ready or not, here I come!” He took a few parasols from where they were strapped to his back and threw them up into the air. “Secret Jutsu! One Thousand Needles!” The Rain leader yelled as one thousand needles shot out from the parasols from all directions, honed in on Gaara with chakura. “You can't dodge this! There are no blind spots, and no openings in which you can escape!” The Rain shinobi smirked. “You're finished!”

 

“Well this has gotten interesting.” stated Alex matter-of-factly.

 

“What do you mean?! That's pretty weird.” Kiba forgot his fear for a moment, pointing at the battle.

 

“Believe me, the training I did as a kid to get my powers under hand were not that easy.” Alex shot back.

 

“How is that easy?! The guy just said there are no blind spots!” Kiba nearly yelled at her.

 

The three groups, one hidden and two out on the battleground, watched as the attack rained down on Gaara, sending up a cloud of dust. As the dust cleared, they saw some sort of rounded shape. They all gasped as the last of the dust cleared. Gaara had shielded himself with a blanket of sand! The needles were caught in the sand shell, useless.

 

“Is that all you've got?” He sneered at the Rain shinobis.

 

“I-Impossible! Not one needle touched him!” exclaimed the Rain guy. He tried shooting more needles at Gaara, but the sand shell shielded Gaara again. The needles clattered harmlessly off it.

 

“A downpour of `One Thousand' needles, ne? Well now it's my turn… to respond with a deluge of blood!” said Gaara.

 

Kiba sniffed the air, grimacing. “His chakura is immense! And that sand… it smells of…!”

 

“What does it smell like?” prompted Shino, speaking for the first time since Alex appeared.

 

“It stinks of blood!” gasped Kiba.

 

“Wow, you can speak!” Alex said to Shino “And yeah, even I smell all that blood. It stinks to high heaven and back.” She made a face, completely unfazed by the scent of blood.

 

“A wall of sand--!” the Rain guy stuttered, scared out of his mind.

 

“Exactly. Infinitely inaccessible from the outside; an impenetrable defense!!” said Kankuro. “Only Gaara has ever mastered this jutsu. He draws the sand around the sphere of his own massive chakura… then manipulates it in to the shape he needs and renders it utterly solid! Even more remarkably, it is done with no conscious effort on his part. It happens when he needs it to independent of his will; any frontal assault on Gaara is doomed to fail.” boasted Kankuro.

 

“Kuso!” the Rain guy stepped back a bit.

 

“You're not got good enough to touch Gaara! Give up, you can't win.” said Kankuro.

 

“Shut up, you!!” The Rain leader shouted at Kankuro, then began to charge at Gaara.

 

Gaara made a few hand seals, then held out his hand, palm towards the Rain shinobi and sand began to encircle the man.

 

“Desert Coffin!” Gaara swiftly closed his hand into a loose fist, catching the man in a wrap of sand.

 

“Well I'm gonna go, It was nice to meet all of you,” said Alex, then she turned and said, “Oh don't move from here `til you see them go, okay?” She walked a bit more, then turned around again and said, “You, Kiba, I think you're a cocky son of a bitch who needs your ass kicked but you're cool in my book; Hinata, I think you're the sweetest thing ever; And you, Shino… hmm… Yeah, I think you're kind of cute! If you ever need to cop a feel be sure to call, `kay? Bye now!”

 

Kiba looked a little offended, Hinata blushed and smiled, and Shino gave her a `What the hell?! Who do you think I am?' look.

 

“Well, see you guys! I need to make my grand exit!” And with that she flew up in the air on her scythe so no one would see her.

 

Back on the battlefield, the Rain-nin was struggling to break free of the sand.

 

“As you can see, Gaara has total mastery over the sand, on the ground and in the air as well.” said Temari, leaning on something that looked like a giant strip of black plexiglass.

 

“I can free myself… e-easily… Augh!!” said the rain guy, struggling harder.

 

“If you don't stop yapping I'll seal your lips… and cut off your air, but you're hardly worth it.” Gaara's cold voice was commanding. Gaara then stretched out his hand and closed it into a tight fist. “Desert Funeral!”

 

The man was wrapped completely in sand and crushed, his bones making a sickening `crunch' as they were ground together, before the sand ballooned out like there had been and explosion inside of it, spraying blood everywhere. Gaara covered himself with one of the parasols as blood splattered down on the clearing.

 

“It's quick and painless. I used far more force than was necessary to ensure that.” Shrugged Gaara. “Bitter crimson tears flow from lifeless eyes and mingle with the endless sands, bestowing ever greater power upon the demon god.”

 

The other two shinobi's got scared and began to beg for mercy, but the sand wrapped around them. Gaara made another set of seals, then said in his same impassive voice, “Desert Funeral.”

 

Alex, who was still hovering close by, thought to herself, `That was a bit entertaining… Oh well, time to make my spectacular entrance!' Alex smirked and giggled out loud as she thought how she was going to make her `spectacular entrance'. She then summoned thunder, lighting and dark clouds to appear overhead. Then she flew down to the three dead shinobi's souls.

 

“Hello and welcome! You guys are now officially dead!” she said as she rested her scythe on her shoulder. So that wasn't the nicest way to say it, but bluntness usually worked best with guys.

 

“Nani?!” exclaimed the three guys, looking at her in disbelief.

 

“Yeah, didn't you see how you were crushed?” said Alex. Then she swung her scythe and cut the air, making a portal with sparkling lights appear.

 

“Okay, just go through that portal.” Alex gestured to the vortex, “Oh, and before I forget,” she handed them three cards, “If I by accident send you to Hell, just give those to my Grandma and she'll send you to Heaven.” And she sent them on their way. She then turned around to face the Gaara's group. She then saw Kankuro approach Gaara and attempt to reason with his bloodlust-y companion.

 

“That's enough. Just for once, Gaara listen to what your big brother tells you!”

 

`Brother, huh? I didn't know that they allowed siblings to be in the same team together…' Alex mused.

 

“I've never thought of either of you as my siblings. Cross me and I will kill you.” said Gaara simply.

 

`I'd better go. I'm not part of this.' thought Alex. She was about to mount her scythe, but she found she couldn't move. She looked down and saw that sand had encircled her feet, legs, and scythe, efficiently immobilizing her.

 

“Looks like you caught me,” said Alex with a wry smile.

 

Kankuro and Temari turned towards Alex and Kankuro gasped and stuttered “I-it's you! Y-you can't be here! You're not a shinobi!”

 

“Yeah I know, but I am here. What are you planning to do about it, `panty ruin-er'?” snapped Alex

 

“I wouldn't say that if I were you.” Gaara turned pale eyes on her.

 

“Is that a threat, huh?”

 

Temari then stepped forward. “Really, who are you?” she asked.

 

“As I've told you guys before I'm Alexandria Sharhson, but call me Alex. You call me Alexandria, my foot and your ass will get acquainted,” stated Alex smugly.

 

“No, no. I meant what are you? You can't be human.”

 

“Well, I'm the Daughter of Death. I was just doing his job a bit to help out. Why the hell else do you think I carry a scythe around?” Alex was a bit peeved at having to explain herself for the umpteenth time.

 

Gaara's eye began to twitch. He had always been considered `death', and now this girl was saying that death was her father and all he did was send people to the other side.

 

“You lie!” screamed Gaara, thoroughly displeased that she dare take his title.

 

“Yeah, no way can you be the `Daughter of Death'!” Kankuro made little air quotation marks with his fingers.

 

“Do you want me to prove it to you?” said Alex

 

“Yes.” replied Kankuro and Temari in unison.

 

“Okay…” Alex reached for the long black glove that covered her left arm and pulled it down to reveal her arm made of bone.

 

Gaara looked unfazed by this. Temari and Kankuro cringed a bit.

 

“I told you the truth, so can you let me go?” Alex pulled the glove back up over her arm.

 

“No.” said Gaara simply. He had that weird look in his eyes that indicated his wild bloodlust had returned and Alex would do well enough to satisfy it. He incased her in sand that went up to her neck. “Now… you die.” said Gaara unemotionally, once again curling his hand into a fist.

 

Alex just yawned as Gaara did `Desert Funeral' on her. She felt immense pressure but all did was crack her back.

 

`Wow, this is great for cracking my back!' thought Alex.

 

“Why isn't she dead?!” Kankuro whispered to Temari.

 

“I don't know.” answered Temari, just as confused.

 

“Oh, did I forget to mention I'm immortal?” said Alex like she had forgot to take out the trash. She took her scythe from within the sand and cut through the sand, freeing herself.

 

“Don't think you can get away that easily,” said Gaara, “Just because you're immortal!” He tried to cover her up with the sand again.

 

The sand began to try and cover her up again, but Alex dodged it all with swift grace and timed precision. Using her scythe, she cut at the sand, rendering it useless when Gaara tried to use it again. Alex then jumped up and landed swiftly on her scythe and called down, “I'd love to stay and kick you ass but I need to meet my friends. Oh and before I go I have this to say,” Alex pointed to Temari and said, “I think you're cool! We should be friends.” Temari looked utterly confused by that.

 

“You,” she pointed at Kankuro, “You owe me another pair of panties!” Kankuro blanched, remembering about the first time he met her.

 

She then turned to Gaara, “You just need your ass kicked by someone.” With that said, Alex flew off to where her friends were.

 

“I swear this now: I will have her blood!” seethed Gaara, and began to walk of towards the tower.

 

“But Gaara! She said she was immortal. What can you do against an immortal?” asked Temari. Gaara just turned and glared at her, then continued walking.

 

`Ugh… that's why I hate kids!' thought Kankuro, `But damn, that girl is scary! She's even the Daughter of Death!' He shuddered when he thought of her arm made of bone. Temari and Kankuro ran to catch up with their teammate.