Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Onyx Rain ❯ Silver Stars ( Chapter 5 )

Night had fallen, bringing with it the intense coolness traditional of desert nights, though most seem to believe otherwise. The dunes, both bloodstained red and burnished copper, had become silhouettes, a frame for the masterpiece tapestry of the nighttime sky. Celestial bodies glowed and shined in the heavens - glimmers of hope in an ocean of inky blackness.

The girl whose eyes matched the pitch hue of the night sky began to speak, words flowing from her lips like water.

"That sand is yours, Gaara. I've been assigned to make sure that you wash it clean. In other words, I've been sent to help you redeem yourself."

Gaara's mind attempted to process the words that had come forth from her mouth. A mysterious girl appears, he tries to kill her, she hits him, she takes away the only thing that comforts him, she tries to befriend him? She tells him that he must redeem himself? Gaara couldn't help but snicker, something so unlike him that he surprised himself.

He could never be redeemed. Not in the eyes of the people of Hidden Sand Village. He had been both labeled and cursed the day he was born. He had been eternally damned before he had even learned how to walk. And now some stranger appears and tells him he can be redeemed? Ridiculous. The desert would sooner be flooded than the big guy in the sky redeem a demon.

"You think this is funny?!" the outraged girl yelled, her voice carrying on the night breeze that had begun to blow. She strode purposefully towards Gaara, the baggy cream garment she wore beginning to whip and billow in the wind.

She stopped when her face was inches away from Gaara's, and her onyx eyes stared him down. Gaara's own blue defiantly clashed with the black, but he felt himself being pulled in. The black was spreading, drowning him, pulling in and pushing out and pulsating like a living thing as it spread around his vision and devoured the scenery all around them.

The girl stepped away, but the black remained. Gaara blinked, assuming it to be some trick of the light, but the raven color was still there. Gaara could almost feel his lungs sucking it in. And it was cold. Colder than the desert at night, though usually at least the sand stayed warm from having absorbed the heat of day. This was freezing, arctic temperatures that were instigating a vigorous effect on his body.

"This is the void," the girl said. Her voice seemed smaller and less penetrating than it had in the desert. A somber mood hung over her now - a huge contrast to her earlier outrage. "You think you'll go to hell when you die? Hell is a blessing compared to this place. This place was made to make even the most cold, heartless bastard go insane. This is the only place where you'd be truly alone."

Alone. Gaara relished the word and welcomed it. He didn't understand what this girl was babbling about - he had been truly alone every day of his life. She obviously didn't quite comprehend who he was. Or what he was, for that matter.

His thoughts paused when she began to speak again.

"What I mean is, on Earth, you can be alone. But there are other people on Earth. Here, the only person you can hurt is yourself."

And then Gaara understood.

If he were to go to this void when he died, then he wouldn't be able to kill anyone ever again. He wouldn't have an outlet to ease the pain of being loathed by every being that he ever met. There was no need for a Satan and horde of demons to torture him.

He would destroy himself.

This realization sent a chill down his spine, and suddenly he wanted to be away from this frozen place as quickly as possible.

Gaara's monotone soon found its way to his mouth.

"I've seen enough."

The raven girl said nothing in reply, but the scenery began to return and the temperature returned to that of a normal desert night.

In the sky, the stitched silver stars twinkled and twirled on the cloak of pitch black, and spoke of hope.