Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Seven Deadly Nins ❯ Lust: Gaara ( Chapter 5 )

Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

 

Seven Deadly Nins

By Niobe Jones

 

Lust

 

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Her blood called to me.

 

I had almost tasted it when we were both twelve and at our first Chuunin exam. Pinned beneath my sand, her bones creaking from the increasing pressure, I wanted to feel her warmth spill around me. Her pain was beautiful.

 

It excited me.

 

But that Uchiha and Uzumaki had interfered, leaving my desires unsated.

 

I had the chance to taste her blood again over a year later, once again at the Chuunin exams. I had seen her with her new team during the first and second exams however our paths did not cross until the third exam.

 

There, she surprised me with her strength. She took out the weapon-throwing kunoichi from Rock Lee's team in her first match and the dog boy in her second. Neither match was spectacular, both failing to keep my interest for long. My siblings' matches were only of slightly more interest, Kankuro lost to Temari and Temari lost to me. It was amusing, more to watch the relief on their faces that I did not kill them than any technique they used.

 

When the examiner called our names, I admit that I was mildly surprised that my opponent was the Kyuubi's pink-haired teammate. I remembered her weakness and feel of her flesh beneath my sand.

 

I was not the only one who remembered; Shukaku recalled her agony as well. His desire for her death assaulted me and I forced him back into his prison. After my defeat by Uzumaki, I had no desire to let the Ichibi control me. I needed to become strong to fulfill my reason for existence as Sand's Kazekage.

 

To do that, I needed to prove my strength. And this weak kunoichi would not do that.

 

I glanced at her and noted she was watching me warily. I tilted my head slightly and she sighed.

 

“Gaara-san?” she asked after a moment.

 

“Hm?”

 

“I just wanted to let you know that I am not going to give up. I'm going to fight you to the best of my ability, to show that Konoha is strong.”

 

“Your point?”

 

“Don't kill me, okay?”

 

“No.” I don't make promises like that. I had a reputation to uphold, however I had no intention of killing anyone needlessly. However, she didn't need to know that.

 

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Fine. Then I won't promise not to kill you.”

 

I smirked at her. As if she could harm me.

 

“Are you done?” The bored voice of the examiner broke into our conversation.

 

Flicking my eyes over to him, I answered. “No.”

 

“Well, hurry it up. The spectators are getting anxious,” he muttered.

 

Sakura smiled at the jounin. “We're almost done. Just laying some ground rules before we fight.”

 

“That's supposed to be my job,” the examiner protested.

 

“What are you proposing?” I asked, ignoring the spluttering coming from the older ninja.

 

She smirked back at me. “Just a real test of skill. We all know that you can kill me easily.”

 

I nodded.

 

“We also know that unless some miracle happens, I am not strong enough to defeat you. At least, not yet.”

 

I inclined my head again. I was becoming intrigued in spite of myself. Any ninja who knows how they measure in relation to their opponent is one who is likely to survive to battle another day. “Continue.”

 

“So what I propose is this: If I can land a solid hit on you, I win. If you can capture and immobilize me without killing me, you win. Sound fair?”

 

“No.” I still had the advantage. My sand would protect me and unless she was as fast as Lee or the Uchiha she wouldn't be able to score a hit on me.

 

She stomped her foot. “Then what would be fair?”

 

“Nothing. But I agree to your terms. You will still lose, however.”

 

“We'll see,” she said, her smirk widening. Reaching into her belt pouch, she withdrew a pair of fingerless gloves and pulled them on. “You ready?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Okay,” she said turning to the examiner. “You can start the match now.”

 

---------

 

The match took longer than I expected, lasting for over ten minutes. She did well evading my sand while attempting to score a hit on me. She even got close once, ensnaring me with a genjutsu then attacking. However my sand protected me, like it always did.

 

It was a good match. But one doomed from the start. I captured her in my sand and pulled her toward me.

 

Her right cheek had been cut by one of her kunai thrown back at her and was bleeding slightly. I could feel my bloodlust rising.

 

“I believe I have won,” I murmured, feeling her struggle within my sand's grasp.

 

She made a few more attempts to free herself, before her shoulders slumped in defeat. “You're right.” She looked over to the examiner. “I give up.”

 

The man nodded once then announced the results to the crowd.

 

I tuned him out, focusing on the kunoichi before me. “You did well,” I offered.

 

She blinked and stared at me in shock. “What did you say?”

 

I didn't bother to respond, instead reaching a hand out to touch her cut.

 

She flinched away from my fingers. “What are you doing?” she whispered, her green eyes showing her trepidation.

 

“You are injured,” I stated, reaching forward once more. “You bleed.”

 

“I know. It stings,” she said matter-of-factly. “It hurts more if you touch it.”

 

“I see.”

 

“Are you going to let me go?” she asked, changing the subject.

 

I stifled my start of surprise. While I had known that she was still confined by my sand, it hadn't penetrated that I was consciously confining her. She was trying hard to mask it, but I could tell that she was becoming more and more afraid. A year ago, I would have completely reveled in the sensation. While a part of me still basked in her fear, a greater part of me wanted something else from her.

 

Friendship.

 

I released my sand, calling it back to the gourd on my back. I watched as she unconsciously brushed her arms.

 

“I did not leave any grains on you,” I said. “There is nothing for you to brush off.”

 

She glanced down at her body and then back up at me. “I see. I can still feel it on me though.”

 

“Hmph.” I motioned to her cheek. “You should get that looked at.”

 

She shook her head and gathered pale green chakra into her hands. “I can fix this myself,” she replied and demonstrated, healing the wound efficiently.

 

Unbidden, I reached out and wiped the blood away to see the unmarred skin beneath. Her cheek was smooth and colored faintly at my touch. I couldn't help feeling smug at that.

 

“It was a pleasure fighting you, Haruno Sakura. I will see you again.” Turning away from her, I walked out of the arena and rejoined my siblings. She intrigued me, but now was not the time to pursue that. I had other things that were more important to do.

 

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When we met two years later, everything and nothing had changed.

 

She was covered in barely healed scratches and wounds, her clothes dirty and battle-worn. She looked as if she had fought several battles and had emerged the loser. And from what I could gather from the conversation around me, that very nearly was the case.

 

She had battled Sasori and won, with Chiyo-sama's aid. However, she had not made through unscathed. It had taken nearly all of the old woman's strength to undo the damage wrought by this battle.

 

It had taken the rest to revive me.

 

Hers was a noble sacrifice.

 

Watching Sakura, I realized her blood still called to me. But it was no longer Shukaku who demanded it, but instead I was the one who desired to taste her. I felt connected to her, as if there were a cord tying the two of us together.

 

It was an unusual sensation.

 

Her eyes met mine and I could see a jolt of surprise flash in the emerald depths. She felt the connection between us, I could tell. She walked over to where I lay, and settled herself next to me.

 

“How are you doing?”

 

“I will live,” I stated. I reached a hand up to smooth away some of the dirt and dried blood from her cheek. “You bleed.”

 

She mirrored my actions and replied. “So do you.”

 

I started at her gentle touch. People did not seek contact with me, even after I became Kazekage. My siblings had warmed to me, but nevertheless they rarely touched me voluntarily.

 

I leant into her hand. “It hurts.” It wasn't a question and I wasn't referring to my minor injuries.

 

Her eyes showed her understanding and she moved her hand down to twine her fingers with mine. “Yes, it does,” she answered.

 

“How do you stop it?” I asked. I was the Kazekage. It was my right and my duty to protect the people precious to me, which encompassed the whole village of Suna. It hurt that Chiyo-sama had given her life for me. It hurt that I was the one who needed rescuing. It hurt to no longer have Shukaku a part of me.

 

I knew she would understand.

 

And she did.

 

Her eyes grew distant and her fingers gripped mine tighter. “I don't know,” she whispered with a sad smile. “No one's ever been able to give me a good answer.”

 

Grasping her hand, I brought it up between us so I could study it. They were callused and covered with a crisscross of scars that many ninja get. I carefully brushed away the dirt and dried blood, accidentally reopening a small cut on her index finger.

 

Seeing the blood ooze from her finger triggered a memory of Yashamaru and how he had explained pain to me. I looked up at her. “When I was little, my caretaker told me that time would help.”

 

“Time helps, I guess.”

 

“But . . .” I prompted.

 

She glanced over toward the group of Konoha ninja and I followed her gaze to where it rested, on her teammate, Uzumaki Naruto. “Time doesn't help everything. Sometimes it makes the pain sharper.”

 

I nodded, that made sense. “What do you suggest?”

 

“Hmmm. I'm not really sure. It varies from person to person. But, sometimes, distractions can help.”

 

“Distractions?”

 

“Things like training. Having fun with friends. But the only thing that will really help in the end is to heal the original injury.”

 

“I understand,” I murmured. Lifting her injured finger to my lips, I carefully sucked away the blood.

 

Sakura gasped and looked down at me with wide eyes. “What are you doing?”

 

I caught her green orbs with my own, willing her to trust me. She radiated fear, nervousness, and something else I struggled to define. I withdrew her digit from my mouth. “I am helping heal your injury.”

 

Her eyes flashed fire. “I can heal myself.”

 

“I was not referring to the wound on your finger. Was that not enough of a distraction?”

 

I felt her slump against me. “Oh.”

 

I traced lines of scars on her hands. “Perhaps, you would be willing to help me heal as well.”

 

She looked down at me and I could almost feel her confusion at my request. I would not beg her. But I needed someone who would understand, who I had a connection with, to keep me from descending into the darkness of madness and bloodlust.

 

She nodded.

 

I smiled in relief. “Thank you.”

 

-----------------------

 

Night in Suna was a very lonely time. I knew this for the truth that it was. I had become intimately acquainted with the night during my time as Shukaku's host. Now, it was lonely without Shukaku's shrieks and whispers. The irony was not lost on me. It was still lonely at night. People still stared and kept away. But I endured. It was lonely without the Ichibi. It was lonelier, still, when Sakura was unable to be with me.

 

However, her absences were an unavoidable part of the agreement with the Godaime Hokage. In exchange for the presence of one Haruno Sakura two weeks a month, I, the Kazekage, agreed to provide the Leaf medic access to all of Suna's poison preparation texts and antidotes. In addition, I had to agree to send one of my siblings to Konoha for two weeks as well.

 

It was a fair trade, as much as I hated it. She had saved Kankuro's life and was aiding me in rebuilding my own.

 

From my place near the window, I looked over at the pink-haired kunoichi's slumbering form, trying to understand how she could lower her defenses enough to sleep. Even three months after Shukaku's removal, it was still a battle for me to sleep more than a few hours every couple of days. I rested easier when she was near me, but even so it was a struggle.

 

I chuckled softly under my breath. Who would have thought that the all powerful Subaku no Gaara, Fifth Kazekage, would need a teddy bear in the form of the Hokage's apprentice and the seemingly weakest member of the Konoha Rookie Nine.

 

It was almost poetic.

 

She stirred and her sleepy gaze caught my awake one. “Having trouble sleeping?” She rolled on her side to face me, the thin coverlet slipping from her bare shoulders.

 

“Yes.”

 

“What's bothering you?” she asked, stifling a yawn.

 

“Nothing.”

 

She raised an eyebrow at me. “I don't believe you. What's wrong?”

 

I decided to avoid the argument that would take place if I did not give her a satisfactory answer. “I don't understand how you can sleep.”

 

“How I can sleep? Or how you are supposed to be able to?”

 

I thought about it for a moment. “Both.”

 

She groaned. “Why do you always choose to have deep, meaningful conversations in the middle of the night?”

 

I shrugged. I could have given her several answers, but none of them would satisfy her. Instead, I said nothing.

 

“I don't know how I can sleep, I just do,” she said a few moments later. “My body says `I'm tired' and starts shutting down so I can sleep.”

 

“My body doesn't tell me that. It's been trained not to.”

 

“Then retrain it.”

 

I snorted. “I do not believe it will be that easy.”

 

“I didn't say it would be easy, but you can do it. The worthwhile things are never easy.”

 

She had a point. “And sleep is worthwhile?”

 

“Is that a question?”

 

“Yes.”

 

She nodded. “It is. All medical aspects aside, it allows your mind to sort through and categorize what's happened to you. Sleep keeps you sane.”

 

“Interesting choice of words,” I said with a small smile.

 

She didn't say anything to me, but instead let her lips quirk mischievously.

 

“Do you have nightmares?” I asked, continuing with the subject.

 

“Of course.”

 

“How do you deal with them?”

 

“Normally, I try to change them as soon as I realize that I am in the middle of one. Dispel it. Make it go away.”

 

“I don't understand.”

 

“Nightmares are like genjutsu. They can really mess with you and cause you to lower your defenses. But normally when you figure out you are trapped in one, all it takes is a little something to disrupt it and the whole thing falls apart.”

 

“Example?”

 

“When I was little, I used to be horribly afraid of spiders. I used to dream of them crawling all over me and into my mouth.” She shivered in revulsion. “It got so bad that I would wake up with bloody scratches on my arms from where I had tried to get them off in my sleep.”

 

“What did you do?”

 

“I learned to recognize the start of that dream. Whenever the spider nightmare would start, I would switch it to another dream. One I liked better.”

 

“How?”

 

“I would change a few key details, like make them crawl all over my enemies, and that would normally be enough to keep the nightmare from ever getting any worse.”

 

“Does it work all the time?”

 

Her face darkened and she shook her head. “No. It doesn't. Some nightmares you can't get rid of that easily.”

 

I wanted to ask her what kind. But from what she had told me of her confrontation with her former teammate, I could hazard a guess.

 

She yawned again and rolled on to her back to stretch. “Do you have nightmares, Gaara? Is that why you can't sleep?”

 

I nodded. “Yes.”

 

“I wondered,” she murmured. “Come here. I don't think Suna would appreciate seeing the Kazekage in all of his glory.”

 

I pushed myself away from the window and walked over to the bed, settling myself next to her taking in her form. She was pale in the moonlight and my eyes were immediately drawn to a dark mark marring her skin.

 

Her eyes followed my movements, but she didn't say anything.

 

I traced the crescent shaped bite on her shoulder. “You bleed,” I murmured.

 

“It's okay. It doesn't bother me.”

 

“But I have caused you pain.”

 

She shook her head. “Not really. Besides you didn't mean to, and I really didn't mind at the time.” She smiled up at me. “I also know a way to kill two birds with one stone.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

She reached up and drew my head down towards hers, until we were only a few inches apart. “I mean, I know a way to help you fight those pesky nightmares you've been having as well as a way for me to get even for biting me earlier,” she whispered, huskily and pulled me down to meet her lips.

 

I felt my heart race as she deepened the kiss and my hand slipped from her shoulder to cradle her face.

 

I pulled back from her to stare down at her. She was not beautiful, but her features intrigued me. I let my hand trace her face gently moving from her cheek to smooth over lips.

 

She drew my index finger into her mouth and sucked on it swirling her tongue about the tip. I groaned as I imagined her doing that to another part of my anatomy. Looking down at her, I could see the triumph in her eyes as well as the growing desire.

 

However, I was in no mood to rush things. I wanted to savor this moment. I wanted to create a memory strong enough to banish the blood and death filled nightmares.

 

I pulled my finger from her mouth and leant down to give her a tender kiss. “Please, just let me . . .” I trailed off, unable to put into words my desire.

 

Her expressive eyes conveyed her understanding and I stifled a sigh in relief. Subaku no Gaara does not sigh. I continued my exploration of her face, tracing up her other cheek to run my fingers over her eyebrows and eyelids.

 

The trust that she showed me by closing her eyes under my ministrations warmed me more than her body. She trusted me not to hurt her, not to kill her. That one simple thing made me feel less of a monster than any of my siblings' or her words ever could.

 

I dropped a quick kiss on her forehead. Her eyes snapped open and I couldn't resist a chuckle. She had a major hang up over the size of her forehead and it amused me that she would let such a trivial thing bother her.

 

She scowled at me and opened her mouth as if to berate me, but I put a finger to her lips to stop her.

 

Continuing my ministrations, I bent down and covered her face with little butterfly kisses. At the same time, my hand moved from her lips to stroke down her neck. I followed the curve to her shoulder feeling the muscles relax beneath my fingers.

 

I sat back up and looked down at her. She wasn't flushed just yet, but her breath was coming slightly quicker. I brought my other arm up and started tracing patterns down her chest, careful to avoid her breasts.

 

Her skin fascinated me with her little scars and calluses. It was so completely unlike my own. My sand still protected me, even after Shukaku's extraction, and I never needed to use taijutsu so my skin was still smooth, a blank canvas. Hers painted the true story of shinobi life and I worshipped the tale it told.

 

My hands stopped their movements as I dipped my head to lave my over one specific scar - a long thin line that started just under her jaw and ran into her hair line. She refused to tell me how she had gotten the mark, only saying that the person who did it was dead. I approved of that.

 

I nibbled and licked down her throat to the bite mark I had put there earlier. I gently kissed it and looked up at her. “I am sorry I hurt you.”

 

“I told you before, I don't mind,” she whispered.

 

Pressing another kiss to the mark, I maneuvered myself so that my face hovered over her chest. Her nipples were already partially erect and I bent down and captured one in my mouth. I rolled the bud with my tongue and lightly sucked on it.

 

She gasped and arched into my mouth. One hand reached up and lightly caressed her side, the underside of her other breast, her breastbone. Carefully, I began to spiral inward toward her areola, while my teeth grazed her other nipple.

 

“Gaara . . .” she trailed off.

 

I lifted my head to smile up at her. “What do you want?” I asked and slid my hand down her side to rest on her hip.

 

She looked up at me and her hands smoothed themselves over my shoulders. “You. I want you.”

 

A surge of triumph welled up in me and I maneuvered my body over hers until I was positioned at her entrance. She nodded once and I slipped into her. In that instant, I felt safe, complete and home.

 

I had not intended for us to become lovers but when it had happened I was not displeased. Nor do I think was she.

 

We both knew that this affair would soon have to come to an end. She had her duties and her vow to retrieve a certain Uchiha. And I was the Kazekage, politics would not allow for more. Her heart would always belong to Konoha and mind to Suna.

 

But for now, I would take what I had been given and enjoy the taste of her body and her blood.

 

It was what I had always lusted after.

 

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Note:

I admit this is my inner fangirl coming to life. I adore Gaara/Sakura fics and I needed to write one for myself. I've always been interested with how her protection of Sasuke caused him to flashback to the one person he cared about and who betrayed him. It is one hell of a leap in logic. I'm not totally happy with this, I think because I kept coming up with scenes and plot for a Gaara/Sakura fic in and of itself and I wanted to save them for that potential fic. I don't know when that will happen, because I plan on finishing this fic first.

 

A lot of people, my girlfriend included, argued that Gaara didn't fit the sin of lust. I disagree. Gaara shows different kinds of lust. Bloodlust and a minor lust for power, to name two. I could also see him as being very sensual and passionate underneath his exterior. He feels things more than Sasuke, the series' other brooding boy.

 

I am a little sorry for the wait. But not so much. I've been really upfront that I only write about 100 to 200 words a day if I am lucky. I wasn't lucky. I've been moved to the swing shift, which where I work means I fill in for the people who have those days off and if I want 40 hours, or more, a week I end up working a lot of different hours. If you want to know more about what's been going on, read my Livejournal. Author's notes aren't the place to go into it.

 

Story stats:

Word Count: 3810

Inspiration Music: Bare Naked Ladies - Lovers in Dangerous Times & - U2 - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.

Start date: 5/7/07

Finish date: 6/25/07 - main part. 9/1/07 edited part.

 

Up next: Sloth - I think we all know who this is going to be!