Chapter 14
It felt like the world froze in place as Gaara fell and the world sped up again when Sakura heard the soft crunch of his body hitting the gravel and Ino's cruel laughter, feeling her whole body turn cold and her blood turn to ice in hers veins with cold fury. Never before had Sakura wanted to kill someone. She wanted blood.
"Dammit, Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked hysterically, thrashing against Karin's grip frantically, ignoring the hot tears streaming down her face as she tried to free herself from the redhead's powerful grasp.
Sasuke gazed blankly at her tear stained cheeks while Ino wrapped her arms around his torso from behind. "Stop struggling," was all he said and Sakura screamed at him with fury and frustration, baring her fangs at him, growling and wailing loudly from the pain in her heart, like a piece of her soul had just been ripped from her body. She let her head fall forward, her hair falling forward to hide her face while she wept.
"Let go, Neji!" Tenten screamed at her captor and Karin sniggered. "It's not like he actually cares about you anymore. Just give up struggling like his cousin over here." Sakura could hear Hinata weeping softly as Kiba watched her, his face impassive. Tenten stilled and fell silent, realising that struggling was just a waste of time. Neji was too strong.
Sakura froze and went rigid with wide eyes trained on the gravel in front of her when she felt energy return to her limbs as Karin loosened her grasp.
"Let's go," Ino snapped before sneering down at Sakura as she walked passed her. "Leave the human to her grief. We can kill her another day. I want her to suffer." Sakura heard Karin snigger from behind but she watched the ground numbly, not reacting. Tenten spat at Ino's feet when Neji released her but the brunette didn't attack once she was free. She stayed on her knees and watched Sakura's grief-stricken face with concern.
"Come, Sasuke!" Karin called, releasing Sakura's arms, and Sasuke followed obediently after Ino, with Kiba, Neji and a sniggering Karin in tow. The five of them became blurs and vanished into the darkness. Sakura didn't care. The instant she felt Karin's grip relax, she ran to Gaara, her mind blank and numb and her vision blurred by tears of anguish and grief. She lost the sense of her surroundings, there was only Gaara.
She fell onto her knees beside him when she reached him. A huge bleeding hole on the left side of his chest gaped at her from where his heart had been and Sakura knew, with a bitter feeling, that he had died the moment he had whispered her name. She sank her teeth into the soft flesh of her arm and pressed the bleeding bite mark to his lips before letting her arm drop to her side when he didn't drink, the mark healing itself. She couldn't heal something that wasn't there.
She felt too numb to cry now as she held the fallen Kazekage's head in her lap, stroking his wild red hair and lightly brushing his cheeks with her fingertips. Sakura reached out, her face a blank mask, and gripped the small vial of her blood hanging around his neck gently. What was the point of having this?
A trembling hand touched her shoulder nervously. "Sakura, it's almost sunrise," Hinata whimpered, her left eye swollen shut from where Neji had struck her and the cut on her shoulder staining the white lace of her hoodie a dark red. "We need to take the Kazekage back to the Sand to be buried by his people."
Tenten growled as she lightly prodded the deep wound in her side, shutting her eyes tightly with pain as her fingers came away red and bloody.
"Those bitches will pay," she snarled through clenched teeth, her fangs bared with fury before her face contorted with sorrow as her eyes fell on Gaara.
"They're both gone," Sakura murmured, barely hearing what her friends were saying. "Come, Sakura," Tenten pleaded, leaning heavily against Hinata, her skin coated with a thin layer of sweat as her hand clutched her side tightly. "Tenten, that wound," Hinata squeaked, "Use the vial around your neck!"
Tenten nodded weakly.
"That's probably a good idea," she exhaled shakily, bringing the vile to her lips and swallowing the blood in one go; a relieved sigh escaped her as the wound healed and her strength returned to her. "You should drink yours, Hinata." The willowy girl shook her head. "These wounds aren't life threatening-" she stopped in midsentence, her silver eyes widening. Tenten's eyes followed where her friend was looking and the brunette gasped.
"Sakura!" She hissed and Sakura looked up and gaped at the enormous fox padding lightly towards her, forgetting her grief momentarily as it became replaced with surprise.
It was larger than a large dog, the biggest fox Sakura had ever seen, and it stopped in front of her and bowed its silky head before looking up at her with bright blue and intelligent eyes that said, "Move"
"It's you," Sakura breathed incredulously, "How did you grow so big?" The fox gave her the silent order again and Sakura stood wearily to join her friends, her legs feeling like they could collapse again at any given moment.
The fox brushed Gaara's kanji with its black nose, its eyes sorrowful and sad. Tenten frowned with confusion while Hinata and Sakura watched in silence. "Does the fox know him?" Hinata breathed and Sakura nodded sadly, "I think he does." Gaara. I'm so sorry.
I couldn't save you.
Sakura closed her eyes tightly when the world began to spin as a wave of nausea overtook her. "I think," she breathed, gripping Tenten's shoulder tightly; "I think I'm going into shock." Her knees gave out and she glimpsed a flash of red as the fox moved toward her before her eyes closed and she collapsed onto her knees. She fell forward as Tenten hissed and Hinata squeaked with astonishment, but she couldn't understand why.
Sakura didn't hit the gravel though, she felt strong and warm arms wrap around her as she fell against something warm and solid. She breathed in a pleasant and earthy scent and opened her eyes curiously as the nausea and dizziness subsided.
The boy holding her had soft, spiky golden hair and warm tanned skin and Sakura straightened up to look at his face, her arms wrapped around his bare, muscle-toned torso to support herself. The sharp bright-blue eyes of the fox stared back at her, two sapphires set into a beautiful and feral looking face.
"It's you," she breathed with astonishment and the boy watched her with a serious face and nodded. "You're the fox." Sakura reached up to touch his cheek, just to make sure the boy was really there and he released her and stood before offering her his hand. She took it wordlessly and he pulled her lightly to her feet.
Sakura couldn't bring herself to feel afraid because she knew the boy, the fox. She trusted him just as he had proven he had trusted her after weeks of visiting the tracks before she hadn't gotten herself in way above her head in a war between the supernatural.
"He's a Druid," Tenten murmured, keeping her distance and watching him wearily.
"You're a Druid?" Sakura asked softly and he nodded. "Animal-shifters. My clan and I take the forms of foxes."
"There's more of you?" Tenten gasped incredulously and the boy nodded again before moving to crouch beside Gaara with a pained and grave expression. "He was my friend." Sakura felt his grief.
"How was a Druid friends with the Kazekage?" Tenten demanded and the boy looked up at her with large and blue eyes with slitted fox-like, pupils. "He was once a Druid. The raccoon" Sakura's eyes widened with confusion and surprise and her companions frowned as what he said sunk in.
"I'll explain," the boy said quietly, gently folding Gaara's arms over his chest respectfully. "His mother was a Druid." Tenten's eyes widened with understanding.
