Forgotten Darkness (Naruto FanFic)

Chapter Thirty Seven

I had a white knuckled grip on the railing. The match was about to begin. The question was, Who do I want to win?

I know, I should cheer for my teammate, but if he won... I wouldn't be able to fight Gaara. I sigh. He's my teammate. I can fight Gaara some other time. I would cheer for Sasuke, of course.

The match begins, and sand starts to pour out of Gaara's gourd. Sasuke leaps back several yards. Gaara begins muttering to himself, gripping his head in pain. I stare at him in worry. Is he okay?

"I'm sorry I made you taste such awful blood... but this blood will be good.... Agh! Please, don't be so angry with me!" Gaara begged, ".... Mother...." All the sand falls to the ground, and Gaara breathes raggedly.

Sasuke attacks face on, then dissapears behind Gaara's back. "Look out, Gaara!" I shout, then clap my hands over my own mouth. What? Why did I warn him? Stupid mouth, talking without my permission. Sasuke is fast, and lands a hit on Gaara.

I'm biting my knuckles to keep from shouting out. Why is Gaara being in danger effecting me so? Everytime he nearly got hit, evertime I caught his wild, slightly panicked gaze as he swung around in confusion, my heart dropped.

Blood trickled down my hand as I bit harder on it to stop myself from calling out to Gaara. Sasuke had gotten inside his sand barrier, and was beating him up. They jump apart, and Gaara glares, his face cracked and sand trickling off.

Gaara creates a hand sign, and the sand creates a sphere around him. It looks impenetrable. Sasuke tries to land a hit on the sand ball, but he is fended off by the sand. An eye is created above the sand, supposedly so Gaara can see outside the sphere. 

Chanting reaches my ears, low and deadly. Sasuke runs up the wall, and grabs his wrist, a look of concentration on his face. A high pitched chirping fills the arena. Lightning begins to form in his hand. 

I stare in shock. Kakashi's chidori.... Sasuke throws his hand to the side, keeping his other hand on his arm to direct the chakra flow. He begins to sprint down the wall and towards Gaara's sphere. I bite down hard on my knuckles, the blood welling in my mouth. What was going to happen?

Sasuke jabs his hand into the sand ball. "GAARA!" I shout in pain. Is he okay? Did Sasuke hit him? I feel the shock and pain in his mind. So Gaara wasn't dead... but he's been hit. 

"Keira-chan, what's wrong with you? You're cheering for the wrong person, believe it!" NAruto shouts in my face.

I look at Naruto, confusion swimming in my eyes. "I-I don't know!" I whimper slightly. "I don't know what's wrong with me!"

Naruto turns back to the match, and I follow suit, deeply unsettled. I'm staring with worried eyes at Gaara's sphere of sand. "What is this?" Gaara's frightened, shocked voice asked wuietly. My ears could barely pick it up. "It's so warm... and wet... MOther what is it?" Blood.

It's so silent, then...

"Ahhhhh!!! BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!!!" Pain and terror and shock and hurt and confusion and... it's all so plain in his voice. It makes me feel the need to jump down, reassure him it will all be all right. But I can't. I grasp my heart, pained to hear him in pain.

It's strange. I desperately hate him and care for him at the same time. He's the enemy... but something about him makes me need to protect him.

Sasuke begins to jerk his hand back desperately. The sand is slowly closing around it. He reactivates the chidori, and Gaara screams again. Sasuke manages to pull his hand out of the sand, grasping it in pain.

A large hand follows him, then slithers back into the sand sphere. A low growling resounds throughout the arena.  Suddenly, an eye looks through the hole in the sand sphere. It's yellow, with a strange pupil. A roar comes from the sand sphere.