Gaara P.O.V
On a second's notice, Aira had given up her citizenship at Konoha to protect me and Suna. Certainly it had been a long, long time since then...but nothing could have prepared me for the sight that greeted me.
I ran a finger across the small cut on my cheek. As expected, my finger was slightly smeared with blood.
An injury that I sustained past my absolute sand barrier...
And this injury was the very reason things turned out this way.
"Kakeru..."
It sounded more like an infernal growl. Aira's skin, which had been peeling off before, was now a dark, dark grey.
I'd heard from Haruno Sakura that when Naruto lost control of the tailed beast before, boiling red chakra had leaked out of him creating a cloak of the nine-tails around him. The chakra also seared and burned away at his skin.
The same thing was happening to Aira...just that grey skin replaced her corroded cells. But the hand that had Zetsu's cells was pure white, unaffected by Isobu's chakra.
It was an unsettling feeling. The realization that even Aira wasn't immune to hatred. This wasn't the usual her - the usual Aira would use her strategy, skill, determination and luck to turn things around - all with a proud, cheeky smile on her face.
The current Aira looked more like a ferocious beast that had its territory encroached upon...but Kakeru wasn't perturbed in the slightest. In fact, he was reveling in thrill of the situation.
Is this because he loves her?
NO.
The answer was simple. I don't know what he was looking at, but he certainly wasn't looking at her with love. If he truly loved her, he wouldn't have been able to bear the state she was currently in.
Aira: Secret technique : Moonlight reflection.
Kakeru: Water style : All seeing rain. It's no use, Aira. I'll always find you no matter how much you try to hide-
The rain misted the surroundings. I used my sand to rise above the pseudo clouds created by Kakeru's jutsu. He was using the rain water to scour for her location, but all I saw was a smirk on her face before disappeared from view.
I found it weird that Kakeru didn't react to it at all...moments later, I realized why. Ah...having experienced it first hand, I knew exactly why Kakeru fell victim to it. In the past, under its effects, I had hallucinated and seen Uzumaki Naruto as Uchiha Itachi, the one who I had thought of as Aira's killer.
Isobu's mist.
I wonder what Kakeru was seeing...me? But then, wouldn't he react when he sees the actual me and the one created by the hallucination?
Aira: He won't.
Aira?
Aira was standing right next to me, a wind jutsu was making her float in the air. The crazed look on her face made me realize that while her rational thinking was back, her rational behavior was not.
Kakeru was fighting against...thin air, but the look of hatred, now etched on his face, was unmistakable.
Gaara: What do you mean?
Aira: It seems the one Kakeru absolutely loathes...is not you, but my father.
Aira has a family?
Scratch that. Of course she would have had parents. Living or dead aside, they would surely exist. I've never heard her mention them before...but Kakeru, who she met way after she met me, knows them?
How?
But before I could ask her anything about it, she had returned back to the fight and dispelled Isobu's hallucinatory mist. Perhaps she was just trying to figure out Kakeru purpose and mentality.
I don't know who Aira's father is...but Kakeru's hatred for him was giving me a bad feeling about it.
Kakeru: Tch. I should have known that bastard wouldn't be here. I went through the trouble of killing him, after all.
Kakeru killed her father?
Aira: H-He is...dead?
Judging by the reaction on Aira's face, this piece of news was unexpected even to her...but she seemed more surprised about Kakeru's actions...than her father's death.
Kakeru: He didn't think I was trying to kill him.
Aira: So you really are the boy I met outside the cafe, that day...
Kakeru: I am. And Aira, you are the girl who broke her promise.
The boy she met outside the cafe? Didn't Aira meet him on the outskirts of the village with nothing on him? Had they met before?
Aira: That explains a lot of things...but don't expect me to pity you or go easy on you!
Kakeru: I don't need you to!
The cloak of grey chakra that surrounded Aira grew a second tail. The power of her attacks increased exponentially...but there was something weird about her movements. She had received training from the famed kenjutsu expert Gekko Hayate so her form and moves were polished...
But there was something wrong about it...and it seemed as if Aira hadn't noticed it.
'Kid, have you still not realized what is wrong?'
Isobu, the three-tails? Was he trying to get in touch with me through the last bit of Shukaku that was sealed in me?
Aira was using her hand(the one that white zetsu possessed) as a sort of shield - no matter how many times she injured it, white spores would ooze out and reform in a matter of seconds. This wasn't taken kindly by Kakeru. No matter what kind of damage he dealt with the help of black Zetsu, Aira simply sacrificed her arm to cancel out the attack and then grow it out again.
Kakeru: Damn it! This is messed up!
Aira: I don't want to hear that from you...
She was gritting her teeth, just barely suppressing her screams of pain. Her eyes, however, were an entirely different thing. They showed exactly how much torturous pain she was going through.
Overall, Aira had the upper hand.
She may not have all-types-of-chakra release like Kakeru did, but she was negating all of his attacks...not to mention, she could make innumerable white zetsu clones.
'Kid, stop her. Even if her physical injuries are being treated-'
Isobu's voice was growing fainter and fainter as he was focused on providing her with the chakra to continue the battle. He was right. Even if her injuries were being tended to, getting her hand hacked off time and again would place a huge stain on her mind.
And there is a reason he sought me...perhaps he had been trying to get through to Aira all this time, to no avail. But there was something I could do...
Something only I could do.
And I was not going to hesitate!
Aira: Today's the day I kill you, Kakeru-
Gaara: No...it is enough, rest for now...Aira.
Before her attack could reach Kakeru, I wrapped my arms around her. On cue, Isobu stopped supplying her with chakra. Having lost the source that powered her keep fighting, she slumped out of consciousness.
Gaara: I don't know how you know Aira...but that's enough. If you truly love her, you wouldn't wish for her death.
I half expected him to charge towards me...but he just gazed at the girl sleeping in my arms. He must have realized it half-way through the battle too...
Kakeru: Hurry up and take her to that Saaya woman.
With that, in an anti-climatic way, Kakeru walked away. So even he didn't want Aira dead. Kakeru was unreadable as ever...his plans were beyond my comprehension...but it seems even he didn't want Aira to fall into eternal sleep.
But he was right.
Aira needed a medical nin...and fast.
To think she'd forget that she wasn't the type to directly fight in a battle. To fight properly, one needs regular fighting lessons which Aira, as a strategist, has not taken. She'll end up injuring her muscles due to overexertion.
But that wasn't the worst part.
'Aira...pleasedon't slip into a coma because of the mental torture you've suffered... I hope we reach in time...'