Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Spring's Shadow- The Tale of Izumi Kumori ❯ To Know Acceptance ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Izumi stared down at Gaara.

"He's figured it out... he's not going to want to be my friend now... he's not going to want anything to do with me!"

She clutched her head. She heard so many voices echoing through her head: Gaara's, Shouji-sensei's, Temari's, her parents, all of those kids who had picked on her... She dropped to her knees.

Kankuro looked to Temari. "We need to go inform the Kazekage of Sensei's condition."

Temari nodded, looking at the passed out Sensei. She then turned to Izumi and Gaara. "Gaara, we'll be back quickly."

Gaara nodded to Temari and she and Kankuro speed off, leaving only the passed out sensei, Gaara, and the trembling Izumi, still clutching her head.

Gaara bent down. "I-... Izumi-chan? Are you ok?"

"So... many... voices... I can't... concentrate..."

Gaara put a hand on Izumi's shoulder. "I-"

"I'm sorry..."

Gaara was surprised. "Wh-what? Why are you apologizing? She just beat Shouji-sensei..."

Izumi kept her eyes locked on the ground. "I'm sorry... that I didn't tell you... that I was... possessed..." Tears started to stream down her face. "It's... called... the Ryukami... the Thousand Tailed Shadow Cat... I'm sorry..."

She kept muttering how sorry she was, over and over. Gaara looked down at the crying Izumi, shaking with her sobs. He bent down and hugged her. "It's ok... you don't have to apologize for it, Izumi-chan...!"

Izumi slowly started to hug Gaara back. In a few minutes, her shaking decreased then ceased, along with her tears. She looked up at him, one tear still left on her bottom eyelid. "I'm all right! Thank you."

All of a sudden, Temari and Kankuro appeared with three medical ninja.

Temari pointed to the passed out Shouji. "Take care of him now; we'll bring Izumi-chan there shortly." Two of the medical ninja nodded, picked up Shouji, then ran off.

Kankuro walked over to Gaara and Izumi. "Hey, Gaara... you might want to take her inside. Those wounds are only gonna get worse."

Gaara nodded, and picked up Izumi's hand, guiding her inside.

Izumi barely looked at her surroundings as she passed down the hallway filled with the colors of sand. He led her into an off-white room, with a bed, desk, and bookshelf. He led her over to the bed. Izumi sat down, staring down at the floor.

He looked worriedly at her. "I'll be right back... I'm just going to go get the medical ninja."

Izumi nodded again, still staring sadly at the floor. Gaara reluctantly left.

Thoughts swarmed through her mind. "He knows... he knows! He's never going to want to play with me again... he won't want me to train with him... he won't even want me to see me again!"

She thought of the people back in Konoha who would ignore her because of what she was. She clutched her head again, wishing the thoughts and memories to leave. "He's going to be just like them!" the voice in her head screamed.

She clutched her head harder, wishing the added pressure would make the cursed voices of Konoha stop. Dizziness swept through her head and she lost her balance. Izumi fell over onto the cot, hitting the edge, then fell onto the floor. She automatically curled up into a ball in pain. Blood stained the floor in splotches around her from her bleeding shoulder, side, and leg. Her whole body shook as she suffered a torture from within.

The door was thrown open. "What's happened?!"

Izumi didn't even realize someone was there, let alone look up. One of the medical ninja, followed by Gaara, ran into the room and knelt by Izumi's body. The medical ninja raised his hands as if he was going to help move Izumi, but stopped about halfway.

Gaara knelt by Izumi's head. "What's wrong with her?"

Izumi rocked back and forth. "No... please... don't say that... don't-" She fell silently into more pain.

The medical ninja looked put his hands down. "She's lost a lot of blood... and I believe that something that happened during the battle brought up bad memories or something... it's scarred her so much that she can't escape the hold of her own mind." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a scroll. "I need to get some more equipment... the stuff I have now isn't enough... I'll be back shortly."

"Wait!" Gaara said. "Don't we nee-"

But the medical ninja was already gone.

Gaara sighed, and looked down at Izumi. Her eyes were open, her pupils almost lost in her yellow-green irises. He closed his eyes, concentrating, then opened his eyes, looking out the window. A stream of sand came floating into the room. The sand moved underneath Izumi, creating a sand-hammock. It lifted her up off of the floor and onto the bed. The sand then moved away from Izumi and out the window. Gaara nodded to it on its way out, as if saying a quick "thank you."

Izumi moaned as another wave of pain came through. Gaara looked down at her. Her eyes had closed, and she seemed more like she was sleeping. He turned to go out the door. "There's nothing more that I can do for her..."

"Wait!"

Gaara turned around. Izumi was sitting straight up in the bed, grasping his forearm. Her eyes were wide, frightened. Tears started to overflow, streaming down her face. "Please, don't leave!" she pleaded. "I don't want to be alone!"

She seemed to snap back, realizing what she was doing, and let go. She looked down, ashamed of her actions. One end of Gaara's mouth lifted up in a small half-smile. He sat down at the foot of her bed.

Izumi seemed to have calmed down and returned to the normal Izumi. She leaned back onto the pillow and sighed, closing her eyes.

"I'm sorry for not telling you... I guess, the subject never came up..." She paused. "No..." she said to herself quietly. "I didn't want to tell you..."

Gaara looked at her curiously. He hadn't thought she was the type to open up to most people.

"I thought that... if you saw me... like that... that you wouldn't want to have anything to do with me..." She looked up at him. "I thought I'd loose my only friend."

She then looked closely at his face. Her eyes opened wide. "Gaara... what happened...? Why do you have that scar on your face?"

Gaara looked down, eyes narrowed so much they were almost closed. "It's the symbol for-"

"Love, yes, I know... but why? What happened?" Izumi sat up, looking closely at Gaara.

He continued to stare coldly at the ground. "I've decided to love only myself and fight only for myself."

Izumi's eyes opened even wider than before.
Gaara continued. "I told you... about my uncle's death... I didn't tell you how he died..."

"You remember when we first met? When Yashamaru helped the girl out that I almost attacked? Well, after going to your house, I went home... to where Yashamaru and myself lived. I was trying to see if I could hurt myself, but I found out that the sand that protects me... protects me from anything trying to hurt me... I apologized to Yashamaru and asked what it meant to hurt... He explained what pain is, and I told him that I must hurt, too. It hurt in my heart... He explained that the only thing that can heal a wound of the heart is love. He then explained what love was."

"Later that night, I tried to go give medicine to the girl. She told me to go home, and called me a monster. As I walked home, more people gave me the 'look'..."

"A monster... what does he mean? Is he...?"

"Yes, they all call me a monster... In order to create an ultimate weapon for Sunagakure, my father sealed the One Tailed Shukaku within myself... and used my mother as a sacrifice. Ever since then, people have thought of me as a monster..."

"So I sat that night, wondering why people think of me that way? I was then attacked. Using my sand, I managed to blast the assassin back, wounding him greatly. I pulled off the mask and discovered... it was... Yashamaru..."

Izumi inhaled quickly. “But... why would Yashamaru attack his own nephew...?”

“He told me that my father had asked him to kill me... I was becoming too powerful, and if I was unable to control the Shukaku, I would become too dangerous to the village. I asked him if he only did it because he was asked to by my father, the Kazekage. He said that wasn’t entirely true... he had always resented me: the reason his sister was killed. He then activated the explosive notes strapped all over his body, trying to kill me along with himself. My sand protected me, and left me completely clean of any injury. That’s when I decided... that, since no one loved me... I would love only myself... and I created this tattoo on my forehead.”

Gaara then looked up, a guarded look on his face. “So do you understand?”

Izumi looked closely at his face. His eyes seemed to almost be pleading; wanting her to understand the pain he had felt. She nodded. “Yes, I understand...”

“Sumimasen?”

Izumi and Gaara looked up to see the medical ninja opening the door.

He smiled. “So you’ve managed to break out of that mind hold? Good... I just have to see if you’re all right and bandage your wounds, and then I think you’re god to go!”

He walked over to the bed, looking into her eyes. Gaara got off the bed.

“Izumi... I’ll see you at practice tomorrow... try and get some rest.”

Izumi watched as he left, staring at the door. “He’s just like me...”

“There you are! You’re good to go, Izumi-san.”

Izumi looked down to see all of her wounds bandaged. She had been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even noticed.

“Thank you very much... I think I’ll just go home now...”

She stood up, wincing at the momentary pain, then left through the window.