Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Way We Change ❯ Gaara's Demon ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two

Dew clung to the grass and dripped from the leaves overhead. Maybe a wayward drop falling on her face was what had woken her. Either way, Sakura was awake. And now she couldn't get back to sleep.

The sky was a cloudless indigo blue. The stars had disappeared and a languid gray was crawling up the eastern horizon, indicating that sunrise would come in about an hour.

Sakura glanced around and shivered slightly at the chill, damp air. Tenten was missing, which meant she was on watch, probably crouched in a tree somewhere nearby. The haziness of sleep had left her body completely now, and she found that her chakra reserves were nearly back to normal. Naruto was sprawled on his mat with a bit of drool hanging at the corner of his mouth. She suddenly recalled what he had said the night before. "Sakura-chan, it might have something to do with the Shukaku. The Akatsuki were trying to mess with it right? Maybe they did something to it."

And then it hit her like a ton of bricks. Perhaps Naruto, in all his idiot glory, had indeed stumbled upon the reason for Gaara's near death-like trance. If the demon was somehow responsible, there was one way she might be able to help. She quickly surveyed the camp. Everyone was deeply asleep, recovering their strength. She reached over and gently shook Naruto by the shoulder, clamping her had over his mouth when it appeared he was about to yell. She slowly removed her hand.

"What is it Sakura-chan?" he whispered.

"I have an idea about how to help Gaara, but I need you to look out for me. Kakashi-sensei and Chiyobaa-sama might not like it."

She got up stealthily and crept over to the hollow of the tree, motioning Naruto to follow. Inside, she sat down next to Gaara's body and waited for Naruto to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"So what's the deal Sakura-chan?" he asked in a whisper.

"Well...if the demon is the reason that he's like this," she motioned to the prone body, "then I might be able to figure out a way to wake him up using a technique I've been developing."

"What does it do?"

In truth, Sakura had been working on the technique to use on Naruto. After discovering the secret of the Kyuubi from one of the forbidden scrolls in Tsunade's library, everything about Naruto had made sense: his awesome power and chakra reserves, and his lonely life as a child, feared and detested. Sakura's burning desire to gain knowledge of Kyuubi and the seal from a medical point of view had led her to confront Tsunade about it. After much arguing with the Hokage, Sakura had finally managed to convince her to let her develop the special jutsu. But Tsunade was not going to be of use for the nature of this particular technique. To develop it, Sakura had gone to Yamanaka Inoshi: Ino's father and master of their family's form of mental jutsu.

Needless to say, Inoshi had been thoroughly surprised to learn that Sakura knew the truth about the Kyuubi's container. But after a very long explanation, Inoshi had agreed to help, though Ino could not be in on it due to the decree of silence pertaining to the nine-tails' vessel.

After four grueling months of intense mental abuse, she had finally managed to make it work in theory. It was not a jutsu that would be of any use in combat. In fact, it would leave her very vulnerable. She had not even fully tested it yet. When the time came, she would ask Naruto permission to probe the depths of his subconscious, but for now, it was time to finally test it for real... on Gaara.

"Naruto, this jutsu will allow me to..." she trailed off, trying to think of the best way to explain it. "Well, let's just say I'll be able to poke around in his head to figure out what's wrong with him."

"But...couldn't that be dangerous? Are you sure you can do it?"

"It's the only thing I can think of to do for him. Now help me. I need him to be sitting upright."

So together they propped Gaara's limp body up against the bark and folded his legs so she could kneel directly in front of him.

"Ok, here I go."

"Right. I've got your back Sakura-chan." Naruto nodded his head tensely. She closed her eyes and brought her hands up into a seal and began chanting under her breath. They were old words, dead, archaic words. Naruto could not understand them, but he knew Sakura could handle herself when it came to completing jutsus with precise chakra control. Sakura slowly formed different hand seals, constantly chanting in a whisper. Finally, she brought the tips of her thumbs and fingers together in a triangle shape and stopped chanting. Naruto watched with baited breath as her face twitched and her eyes moved from side to side under closed eyelids.

A tingling sensation in her brain. A jerking pull from the back of her head. And she was plunged into darkness.

A pale image of herself floated through misty black and crimson. Her feet touched ground that didn't really exist. Images. Shapes. Wispy figures and dark muted colors drifted in and out of her vision. This is Gaara's mind? It's so dark and gloomy.

Suddenly a chill ran up her spine, a thrill of terror, as a deep rumbling sound came from the depths of the abyss around her. Slowly, a shadowy figure came into view, huge and bestial with faintly glowing yellow eyes. Sakura looked up into the face of Shukaku and suddenly felt very small and insignificant. She now realized just how vulnerable she was as she saw there was nothing protecting her from the demon that had been plaguing Gaara for more than fifteen years. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...

A HUMAN the giant beast rumbled, HOW INTERESTING THAT YOU WOULD DARE VENTURE HERE. A huge demented grin stretched across Shukaku's face.

Ok, it was VERY bad idea!! she screamed in her head.

MY CONTAINER HAS NOT LET ME TASTE BLOOD FOR A WHILE. YOU...I SENSE THAT YOU ARE STRONG. SUCH A PRETTY PINK THING. YOU WILL BE FUN TO KILL. Shukaku's toothy grin grew wider and Sakura began shaking, cold sweat running down her face. What was I thinking!? It was madness coming here!!

THOSE FOOLS WHO THOUGHT THEY COULD PULL ME OUT... THAT WAS NOT FUN. NOT FUN. NOT FUN. HEH HEH.

Suddenly the demon swiped at her. She screamed out loud and skidded across the imaginary ground at the force of the blow.

"No!!" shouted a voice from somewhere, a voice that was vaguely familiar. She looked around, panicking, and a wispy , translucent figure with red hair hovered over her protectively. She brought her hands together in a seal. Familiar voices filled her head, echoing everywhere. Her vision blurred and she felt a pulling sensation at the back of her scull. Her arms hurt like they were caught in a vice. The see-through figure with the red hair turned, but her world went black before she could see it properly and dots of multi-colored light danced across the inside of her mind and then her eyes wrenched open.

Wide, pale green eyes stared back at her. Who...? Her hazy mind took in the red hair, the black markings around the eyes, the tattoo. There were hands shaking her.

"Sakura-chan! Are you ok?"

But Naruto's question went unanswered as her eyes locked with Gaara's. She was sure she must have looked frightened. There was a twinge of fear in his eyes too, mixed with anger and desperation.

"I don't know what you did..." His voice was deep and raspy from disuse and dehydration. "But don't do it again," he said almost dangerously.

"Sakura-chan! Say something!" She finally turned her head to look at Naruto but couldn't get any words out as her mouth hung slightly open. Why can't I move? She looked back at Gaara and realized he was shaking slightly and gripping her upper arms. No longer looking at her, he stared at some point near her left shoulder, breathing heavily. Sakura finally remembered how to speak.

"Good. You're awa-" but she never finished because Gaara abruptly clutched his head in pain and let out a strangled noise.

"Kazekage-sama! Are you ok?" she asked. The formal address seemed to finally break through to him and he looked up. Sakura looked around and realized that Naruto had not been the only one calling her name through the mental haze. Kakashi was towering behind Naruto, Gai standing by him, and since there was no more room inside the tree, Lee was crouched at the opening, apparently relating what was going on to Tenten and Neji who were standing outside.

"Hey, what happened? Why did Sakura-san scream?" Lee asked frantically. Sakura had to catch her breath before she could answer.

"Well...we woke him up." She grinned stupidly.

"Sakura." Kakashi's voice was commanding. "Why did you scream?" She couldn't tell Kakashi-sensei and Gai-sensei what she had done. She knew they wouldn't be pleased.

"O-oh, Gaara-san just startled me w-when he woke up. He grabbed my arms. It just scared me, that's all." Kakashi and Gai looked at each other meaningfully, but didn't ask anything more.

"Well then..." Gai straightened up, his head almost hitting the inner bark of the tree. "Since we're all up, lets cook some breakfast!" He punched the air and ushered Lee, Tenten, and Neji away to start the fire again. With the opening clear, a new head poked through. Chiyobaa looked at Gaara through sleepy eyes, but he was not yet completely coherent and didn't notice her. She did not speak, just nodded her head towards Kakashi and left.

Kakashi addressed Gaara. "Kazekage-sama, it's good to see that you are awake."

"Yeah. Hey there Gaara." Naruto gave him his best fox-grin. Gaara finally began to take in his surroundings as he noticed the blonde for the first time.

"U-Uzumaki?" Naruto smiled at him and held out his hand to help him up.

"Ne, Gaara, you can call me Naruto!"

"Eh, Naruto, you should show more respect to him," Kakashi chided. Gaara looked from Kakashi to Naruto to Sakura, and finally took Naruto's hand and attempted to stand up.

"Ah, you should take it easy Kazekage-sama," Sakura tried, but Gaara simply waved his hand at her.

"I'm all right. Wh-what are you all doing here?"

"Let me explain," said Kakashi. "We received word in Konoha that the Akatsuki had attacked Suna and captured you. Hokage-sama dispatched us to help and later Gai's team joined us. When we arrived in Suna, we discovered that your brother, Kankuro-san, had attempted to pursue you and was defeated and poisoned." At the news that his brother had been injured, Gaara shifter nervously. "But Sakura here fixed him up quickly and we went after you." His posture relaxed and he glanced at the pink-haired kunoichi on his right.

"When we found you, Gai's team helped us break the barrier into the cave you were being held in. They were preoccupied by a trap as we infiltrated the area. Oh, I almost forgot...Chiyobaa-sama joined us when we were in Suna. She and Sakura took on Sasori of the Red Sands, and Naruto and I pursued Deidara, who had taken your body. Both are now dead," he finished. Gaara sighed and held his head in one hand as he took in all the new information. Chiyo-sama is here? She and this kunoichi defeated the legendary puppet master? I thought he was dead. Apparently not. Gaara's thoughts raced. He struggled to remain standing and Naruto pulled Gaara's arm over his shoulder to support him.

"What about Suna? Was the city damaged?"

"Well, the city its self is fine, though I understand that there were a few shinobi casualties caused by the Akatsuki's infiltration. Something about a spy." Gaara cursed under his breath at the mention of a spy.

"Suna is in your debt then." Gaara's head hung. "As am I."

"Hey, don't sweat it! What kind of friends or allies would we be if we didn't come to help?" Naruto's grin threatened to split his face in half. Gaara's eyes widened a little as he stared at the loud blonde shinobi.

Sakura, who had until now still been dealing with the shock of seeing and being mentally attacked by Shukaku, chose to help Naruto support Gaara as they led him outside. Kakashi strolled over to roll up his sleeping mat.

"Kunoichi..."

"Eh?"

"You...and Chiyo-sama...you defeated Sasori of the Red Sands?"

"Yup. We did." She smiled. "It was freaking hard though! I nearly died. He impaled me with a sword. Chiyobaa-sama fixed me up though." One of Gaara's non-existent eyebrows rose a little.

"Ah! Sakura-chan. That bastard did what!?" Naruto cried.

"Don't worry, Naruto. I'm fine now. I'm way stronger than I was before!" Inner Sakura punched the air in her head. Hell yeah I am!! "Ah, you probably don't remember me Kazekage-sama. I'm Haruno Sakura. I know you remember Naruto. Heh, he's pretty hard to forget."

No. I remember you. I nearly killed you once. Don't you remember? he thought, but he did not say anything. They sat down near the campfire where Tenten and Gai were cooking more rabbit for breakfast. Sakura let Naruto sit and talk with Gaara as she moved around the campsite to heal everyone's injuries more thoroughly now that her chakra level had returned to normal. All the deep bruises Lee, Gai, and Neji had acquired were quickly dealt with. As soon as he was healed, Lee bounded over to Gaara and Naruto.

"Gaara-san! It's been a while since that last mission I had in Suna. I wish we were meeting under happier circumstances, but it's still good to see you again."

"Lee," he acknowledged him with a nod.

"Eh? You guys know each other?" Naruto questioned.

"Lee visited Suna about two years ago on a mission. I was not yet Kazekage then."

Sakura was vaguely listening to what the others were saying as she finished healing some of Tenten's more serious cuts, which she had only been able to bandage last night. She soon finished and looked up to the sky. It was a cloudless gray, with a tint of fiery orange crowning the tops of the distant eastern hills and gilding the tops of trees. Kakashi and Neji had now joined the camp circle and were eating the cooked rabbit. Naruto and Lee were talking animatedly to Gaara, who still seemed slightly dazed, and he winced once in a while as if he had a splitting headache. He probably did. She would have given him some pain killers, but she doubted they would help. Aspirin wasn't very effective against enraged demons.

Her eyes suddenly drifted over to Chiyo, who was sitting under the same tree she had slept under. Walking over, Sakura spoke to her in a low voice.

"You should eat Chiyobaa-sama. We'll all need our strength for the travel back to Suna." Chiyo nodded and rose shakily. She slowly walked over to the others and stood near Gaara.

"Kazekage-sama." She bowed her head a bit.

"Chiyo-sama." He looked at her with a strange expression in his eye, as if they were speaking telepathically.

"Good to see you among the land of the living again." She gave a rueful smile. He nodded, and the tension around the campfire that nobody had quite noticed was there, disappeared. Chiyo sat down and pulled a skewer of rabbit meat towards herself. Gaara sat and did not eat. He just sipped water from one of Naruto's spare canteens. The water was warm, but soothing to his dry scratchy throat. Gaara had never been a big eater to begin with, and he suspected that if he tried to eat anything now, it wouldn't stay down for long. His muscles ached, like he'd been given a full-body electric shock, but there was no point in saying anything.

Once everyone was done eating, Kakashi addressed them all. "We should move out as soon as possible. Sakura, is everyone well enough to travel?"

"I think so." she mused. "That is if..." she trailed off, looking at Gaara. He sensed her question.

"I'm ready to go when you are," he said. That wasn't entirely true. He was still fatigued, but no amount of sitting in front of a campfire would alleviate that. Sakura looked at him skeptically for a second, but turned back to Kakashi.

"Well then, I think everyone is well enough to move out."

"All right! Let's go!" Naruto shouted, springing from his seat. Gai clasped his fist to his chest as tears streaked down his face.

"Ah! Such youth Naruto-kun!" he blubbered.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee mimicked Gai's pose. Everyone but Gaara and Chiyo sweat-dropped. The latter of which looked at them like they had two heads, the former showing no outward signs of annoyance. Neji's eye twitched, and Tenten chanted in her head, must not kill...must not maim...

--

After everyone had stored their gear in their packs, and put out the fire, it was time to leave. Gai and Lee erased all signs of the campsite and Kakashi removed all his traps from the surrounding area. Once all that was done, everyone gathered in the center of the clearing and leaned over a topographical map.

"Here's where we found the cave..." said Kakashi as he marked the map with a pencil.

"That whole area is demolished now," said Chiyo. Kakashi nodded and made a mental note, then continued marking the map.

"Right now, we're about...here." Another pencil mark. "Suna is here..."Kakashi added a little X to the map several inches away from the previous one. "There's not much besides forest and desert between us and Suna. We'll travel south-southwest." With that Kakashi folded up the map and slipped it into one of the breast pockets of his jounin vest, then hoisted his pack onto his shoulder. "All right, let's move out."

"Yosh!" shouted Naruto, and in a second, the clearing was empty.

--

Their pace was slow at first, due to fatigue, but they picked up speed as their bodies warmed up. The sun had risen properly a few hours ago and Gaara guessed it was about nine o'clock. At their slower pace it would take about a day and a half of travel, which meant they would reach Sunagakure sometime in the afternoon of the next day.

As soon as they had started out, Gaara had dropped to the back of the line, so Kakashi and Chiyo could lead. Neji, Tenten, and Lee were farther out in the trees on one side, while Gai flanked the other side, both groups hidden from the others by foliage as they sped through the tree tops. Sakura drifted in the middle of the formation and Naruto hung back by Gaara, who was obviously tired. Even though he was keeping up, he was landing heavily on each branch and pushing off with more effort than should be necessary for a ninja of his caliber. Then again, the others had not gone through what he had. And they had gotten to sleep. If he slips...he's gonna face-plant right into a tree, thought Naruto with a sweatdrop.

The day wore on and the sun began sinking towards the western edge of the sky. The company of ninja had been in silence for hours when Neji suddenly burst through the leaves to the right with Tenten and Lee close behind.

"There are two people up ahead coming our direction. Ninja!"

Everyone dropped to the forest floor and hid themselves from the oncoming ninja. A few minutes passed, and Neji's brow furrowed in concentration.

"What is it Neji? What do you see?" whispered Naruto, who lay on his stomach, hidden by the undergrowth to Neji's left. Neji squinted more, the veins around his Byakugan bulging.

"Their chakra... it seems a bit familiar, but I'm not sure...Ah! Here they come!"

Sure enough, the unknown shinobi burst through the trees, headed in the direction the others had come from. Naruto sighed in relief at the sight of four blonde pig-tails and a giant folded fan.

"Temari! Kankuro!" he shouted, jumping out of the bushes to get their attention before they sped out of sight. The two sand-nin skidded to a halt and watched as the other nine ninja emerged from their hiding places in the forest. Their eyes searched nervously for one person in particular. They sighed in relief when Gaara dropped heavily from a low tree branch onto his feet, and stepped toward his siblings.

"Temari, Kankuro..." he started, but never finished. Before he knew it, Kankuro had him in a bear hug. Temari stood a few feet away with her face in her hands. She wasn't crying, but her knees were shaking. Sakura put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"K-Kankuro," Gaara choked out. Kankuro's hug was crushing him slightly. Gaara and his siblings had grown much closer in the past few years since the incident with Naruto, but close physical contact was still strange for him. "K-Kankuro! I'm fine, you can let go now..."

"Oh, sorry..." Kankuro let go and backed away with an apologetic smile. Naruto resisted the urge to go awwww .

"Hehe. I told you guys we would get him back! I never go back on my word!" He gave them the nice-guy pose. Sakura had the urge to hit him with something hard, but resisted, and smiled instead.

"Heh. You're a man of your word Naruto."

"That's right!" cried Lee. "That's always been Naruto-kun's way of the ninja! He even gave the nice-guy pose."

"W-was it really the spirit of the Shukaku that they were after?" Temari asked as she finally removed her hands from her face.

"It appears that way. They attempted to extract it from me."

"So... you guys interrupted them then? How? Didn't you have to fight nine Akatsuki members!?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No, Temari-san. There were only two that were there when we arrived. It seemed like they were already finished with Gaara-san. We thought we were too late. But he wasn't dead after all. We're not exactly sure why," he said comically.

"Yeah, grandma said you would die. We thought you were dead cuz they got Shukaku," said Naruto.

"I thought they got him too... I thought I was dead, but..." Gaara lifted his left hand and held the side of his face, his fingertips touching the tattoo. "...he's still there."

Everyone was silent for a moment. Neji, Tenten, and Gai were sort of at a loss as to what the others were talking about, so Lee quietly promised to fill them in later.

Suddenly Chiyo, who had not said a word since her greeting to Gaara that morning, decided to pose a rather strange question.

"Which do you think is more powerful, a group of missing-nins, strong as they may be...or a demon spirit that is thousands of years old?"

"What do you mean Chiyo-sama?" asked Temari.

"I would say the demon. Think about it. These Akatsuki people have not been around for very long. True, they are powerful, but the techniques that Suna's priests used to seal and imprison the demon are centuries old, and even then our strongest priests need ten days to complete such a jutsu. As for the two previous holders of the Shukaku... I don't know much about them. It was a long time ago. But they were weak, and they were not sealed with the demon before birth like Gaara-sama. Because of that, when the demon was taken out of them, the extraction was a bit easier, even though it killed them. I think the Shukaku simply did not allow itself to be removed. After all, which would rather be sealed in? A tea kettle, or a walking, talking human being?" Chiyo sighed and looked a little disturbed at what she said next. "I think... the Shukaku has chosen to stay with Gaara-sama."

"So then, the Akatsuki failed?" asked Kankuro.

"They did not get the Shukaku from me," said Gaara quietly, "but they did take most of the demon's chakra. It will take a while for it to build up again."

"Maybe they were fooled by that," Naruto mused. "They thought they got it, but all they really got was a whole bunch of chakra."

"Even if that is the case, the Akatsuki will not be fooled for long," Gaara said without looking at Naruto. His eyes were locked on some point on the ground.

Realizing that the conversation about the Akatsuki was depressing everyone, Kakashi figured it was time to get moving again. Gai seemed to have read his mind as the two glanced at each other and nodded in silent agreement.

"All right," Gai said, stepping forward, "we should continue on to Sunagakure. Everyone is probably wondering what's happened to us."

Kakashi smiled. "I bet they want their Kazekage back." Gaara nodded tersely. Everyone tried to shake off the dark cloud that seemed to have settled over them and took to the trees again. Gaara and his siblings were silent for the rest of the journey. No one dared to interrupt their verbal solitude.

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Woot, there it is. Chapter two. (dances) Just so everyone knows, this wont have any yaoi in it. Not that yaoi in and of itself is bad, there just wont be any here.

Read and Review!! The angry bunny commands you! .....please?