Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Onyx Rain ❯ White Calm ( Chapter 11 )

The drab clouds, having done their intended job, curled and lethargically began to swim to a new location where they were needed, like massive whales of the ocean. They opened up woven patches of sky that revealed the landscape below. Beneath the patches, at ground zero of the storm, there was a mess of muddy dunes.

On the peak of the largest muddy dune was a girl.

She was lying spread-eagled on the dune, her face tilted towards the sky. Her skin and the dirty garment she wore were pale, contrasting deeply with the silky matted mess of black that was her hair. Every part of her body said `soaked'. Her hair was stuck to her forehead and her clothes had become slightly translucent and heavy with the weight of water. Pearl drops slid down every available patch of skin. Her eyes were closed, and it appeared that she was resting peacefully.

Maizul wasn't alone for long, though. Another soaked figure with blindingly scarlet hair had appeared on the rim of the dune, and was soon kneeling next to her. This seemed to trigger a response in the girl, whose obsidian eyes flickered open.

"Ah, Gaara," Maizul whispered weakly. "Ha. I knew you wouldn't believe me if I told you, so I just left."

The question in his eyes caused Maizul to speak again.

"I'm. . . . well, a rain dragon."

A coughing fit began, and Gaara reached under Maizul's head, supporting it as specks of red flew from her mouth and stained the white cloth of her clothing. Maizul didn't appear to want to continue talking, but it all tumbled out anyway.

"An earth dragon would've had less problems with the desert, but. . ." Maizul paused, searching Gaara's bland face with half-lidded eyes. "I think what you really needed was a little bit of rain. And I think. . ."

She appeared to run out of breath, but gathered up enough to resume a whispery rattle.

"I think that you have enough power in you to end the drought. You can make it rain."

"Stupid girl, using all your energy," Gaara mumbled.

"Dummy. . . . making it rain isn't usually so hard. . . . . but my energy. . . ."

Her energy was gone. There had been so little left even before, so all of her remaining chakra had been used to create the storm.

"Just. . . . hand me your gourd. You. . . . . must do this. . . . . . from. . . . . the highest place. . . . ."

"Selfish," Gaara muttered, pulling the empty gourd off of his back and uncorking it. He placed it in the sand next to Maizul.

Her body seemed to suddenly absorb the drops of water that had been on her skin. It rippled gently and slowly turned aqua translucent. Transparency finally began to settle in, and the girl became a body of water.

"If anyone's being selfish. . . . .it's you." she whispered, her voice flowing like water over rocks, "Not wanting me to leave you alone again. . . . . dumbass. . . . ."

The water-body lost its shape, as if it had just been poured out of a jug, and it flowed downhill into the gourd. It left behind a stained, soaking white cloth that had been previously used as clothing.

Gaara stared at the place where Maizul had been only moments earlier. He didn't move for a very long time.

Maizul.

He didn't really even know what his relationship with her had been. They hadn't been enemies - the only time they had fought was in the beginning. They hadn't been lovers - neither of them had seemed capable of something of that magnitude. They hadn't really been friends, either. They had just sort of put up with each other - a mutual partnership of two people who were both lost, in a way.

Why had she sacrificed herself, then?

It wasn't as if she had to. She could have just let Gaara die and say that she had failed her mission or whatever.

Maybe there was something he hadn't understood about her, then. She had been very different from him.

She had thought him worth saving, though. It was something beyond Gaara's comprehension. He was worth nothing to everyone. Why. . . . ?

He must have been worth something, after all. He was worth something to Maizul, and it didn't matter why. She had sacrificed herself so he would live.

She was gone, but Gaara knew he was no longer alone. Even if she was gone, he could still feel her presence in the water. He could feel her presence in the air around him. Black lids closed over blue pupils, and opened again, renewed.

She had saved him. The least he could do for her was complete her last wish - for him to make it rain. He had a purpose now, something he felt he had been looking for all along.

Gaara pushed the cork back into the gourd and swung it onto his back. The gourd was heavy again, but this time it wasn't with bloodstained sand meant for vengeance. It was filled with water - something that had an entirely different purpose.

Gaara didn't look back as he stepped off of the dune's peak and towards a new horizon.

If he had, he would've seen something strange.

The red dunes were, in fact, no longer red. Neither were they the same color as the yellow dunes surrounding them, though.

The scarlet dunes had somehow been bleached a shining white.