Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 9 Heart

Gaara slightly shifted. “Let me down, Temari,” he muttered.
“You’ve come to, Gaara?” his sister asked. She halted on a tree branch and carefully set him down. Gaara groaned and grabbed his head. Temari eyed him concerned. ‘It’s been awake since earlier. I don’t know when it’s going to emerge. This is bad. I can’t handle it on my own.’     Suddenly Gaara glared at her. “Temari get away from here.”
She looked at him confused. “Huh?”
He slammed her aside. “Just hurry up and get out of here! You’re in the way!”
Temari groaned as her body slammed against a tree and fell to the ground. Gaara didn’t even look at her. He held his gaze on the person in front of him. He narrowed his eyes.
‘Sasuke Uchiha.’ Temari thought, ‘what’s going on? Where’s Kankuro?’  
“I don’t know what you Sand ninja are plotting, but I’m going to stop you. Besides, I want to see what you really are.“
“You,“ Gaara said, “who has eyes just like mine. Eyes spilling over with hatred and intend to kill… By killing you, I can feel alive.” He doubled over, a look of insanity in his eyes. Slowly half of his body started to transform into that of a monster.
Temari looked on in terror. ‘It’s begun.’  
Sasuke stared at the creature and trembled slightly. ‘Shino… I don’t think I’ll be finished before you come help me after all.’

 

Shino jumped as Kankuro’s puppet cast out a blade that almost hit him. ‘The blade is poisoned?’  
Kankuro smirked and let a few kunai fly out. Shino disintegrated into a thousand beetles. “A clone huh. Clever.”
Shino grinned. “As a puppeteer, I judged you to be weak at close range battles. You’re technique requires you to concentrate on operating the puppet, making it easier to find an opening in your defense.”
“You’re pretty smart,” Kankuro said, “however, I’m not that average. Now you’ll see what Karasu can really do.” His puppet fired a smoke bomb at Shino.
Shino coughed. ‘Poison gas. And now he has hidden himself.’ He gasped when a puppet rose behind him. Quickly his beetles covered it.
Hidden in the bushes, Kankuro cursed. ‘I can’t move it with all those beetles on top of it.’ He watched as the creatures crawled towards him over the chakra threads. ‘Damn.’ Immediately he severed the strings.
Shino smirked as he heard Kankuro gasp. The beetles had found him then.
“How is this possible?!” Kankuro yelled.
Shino panted. “Those beetles crawling over your chakra strings were merely a decoy so you wouldn’t notice the ones crawling up behind you.”
Kankuro trembled in horror as the beetles crawled over him.
Shino slumped to the ground. ‘The poison has affected me. I’m sorry Sasuke. Looks like I won’t be able to come help you after all.’

 

Taryn landed on the ground and took out a scroll. Making a quick handseal, she revealed her fan and fiercely swung it at the beetles covering her brother. After that, her fan disappeared again and she hurried to Shino’s side. She felt his pulse and sighed relieved. He would be fine. She kneeled down next to Kankuro.
“Taryn,” he said in a raspy voice, “hurry after Gaara. He’s not doing well.”
They looked each other in the eye. Taryn glared at him. “You idiot,” she hissed, “what the hell is going on?”
“Not now,” Kankuro said, “I know how much you love him. He needs you. Please.”
Taryn closed her eyes for a moment.
“I’ll be fine,” Kankuro said, “I’ll be right behind you. I just need to catch my breath.”
When Taryn opened her eyes again, there was determination in them. She nodded and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Sasuke shivered as Gaara jumped at him. He managed to get away just before Gaara ripped apart the tree he’d been standing on. Hidden behind another tree, he tried to calm his nerves. Gaara chuckled darkly. “Do you fear me?” he asked, “Uchiha Sasuke.” It stayed silent for a long time. ‘Well?!” Gaara asked, “is that all you can do? Are you that weak?”
Suddenly Sasuke jumped from behind a tree and launched at Gaara with Chidori. It grazed Gaara in the side, but instead of wincing, he started laughing. “Ah, so that was it. This might get interesting after all.”  He smirked. “More! I want more!”
Both Temari and Sasuke gasped as a large tail appeared out of Gaara’s body.
‘This is bad,’ Temari shivered.
‘He’s even faster than before,’  Sasuke thought stunned. He groaned as sandattack made him fly into a tree. “Damn,” Sasuke muttered, “I can’t use another Chidori. I don’t have the strength for a second.”
”Sasuke!” Naruto and Sakura appeared on the other side of the clearing.
Sasuke looked up. Gaara slowly turned his head at the newcomers and smirked.
“Get out of the way!” Sasuke yelled as Gaara made ready for an attack.
Naruto jumped to block him while Sakura hurried to Sasuke’s side. Naruto gasped as the wind was knocked out of him and he was thrown to the ground.
Gaara turned back to Sasuke. “Die! Uchiha Sasuke!”
Before Gaara could hit him, Sakura had jumped in between and took a protective stance. Gaara grinned and slammed her aside, pinning her against a tree with sand.
“Foolish girl,” he growled.
“Gaara!” a new voice interrupted. Every head in the clearing turned to Taryn who stood a few feet above on a tree branch. “Don’t do this,” she whispered, a sad look in her eyes.

“Even your sister left you in the end.”

A silent reminder found his way to Gaara’s mind. He grabbed his head and fell to his knees. He groaned in pain. Several images crossed over each other.
The girl Sakura protecting Sasuke, Taryn protecting Naruto and Shikamaru in the hospital, Gai protecting Lee, Taryn again. He screamed.
Taryn winced in pain at the sound. “Gaara,” she whispered.