Arashi No Takara [Gaara Story] [Chapter 01: Normal]

Her arms twitched slightly.

"Has the iron sand been unlocked?"

"Yes."

// //

"We can't find them anywhere, Kakashi."

"Where was the last place you located them?"

"Over there. About 300 yards in that direction."

"I see."

Kakashi sighed, taking off in that direction. He couldn't find his daughters. Both of them, gone, disappeared almost.

Had they been taken? Did they leave on their own? What had happened to them? Were they killed? He wasn't sure, but he knew both ways the out come was not going to be good.

He had come to a halt, something catching his eye. How the Anbu had missed this was beside him, nonetheless he pulled the kunai out of the tree; a red slip following.

He frowned. They had been kidnapped. And this red slip of paper confirmed it.

// //

He laid on a hospital bed, staring up at the ceiling in deep thought.

'Uzumaki Naruto...Love...'

He turned onto his side. The sun shown on his face through the window. He was thinking about her again.

"Still love only yourself, Raccoon-dog?"

"You hate me. I can see it in your eyes, Raccoon-dog."

"Maybe after the chuunin exams I could try to convince the Raikage to let me move back to Suna or Konoha...one of the two."

"Your eyes are just like mine, only green."

Oh how she had tried relentlessly to get to him. To try and get things back to the way they used to be. With the petty insults, sly smirks, and innocent eyes she had tried. And he only pushed her away.

Had she given up? Broken, as she calls it. Yes she had. And it was because he refused to let her talk to him. She had so many one sided conversations with him. And now it could be all too late.

'One day, will I be able to...?'

// //

Her eyes opened suddenly, and she rolled onto her side. Her body felt weird. It felt all gritty and it hurt to move.

"...Takara...what happened to you?" A voice whispered behind her, trying hard to be heard. "...You look...dead."

At that Takara rolled over. She was most definitely not dead. She was merely in a lot of pain. "...Aki-neechan....I feel so weird."

"Huh? What? Why?" Tamaki crawled over to here sister, barely able to see in the dark shadows of the dungeon. "I feel...gritty. Like my blood..." her breath quickened. "...Kinishinai. I'll take care of it."

A smile lightly graced Tamaki's lips, and Takara closed her sad eyes.

'Lies...She's not going to help me 'cause I'm a... Bakemono."

// //

"Kakashi...during the prelims, what was that black stuff that surrounded Takara?" Tamaki stood in the doorway of the house. Sasuke and Takara were arguing in her room.

Kakashi face looked even more serious than usual. "That stuff –you can't tell anyone, not even Takara – was iron sand. It is from your mother's bloodline limit."

Tamaki's eyes widened. She remembered that stuff from when she was little. Even then she wasn’t allowed to talk about it in front of her sister.

"Listen to me if this stuff is unlocked, it could kill her. And then it will seek after you and kill you too. So if it gets unlocked you must..."

// //

"Wake up Takara!! Come on wake up!!"

Tears fell to the floor and she collapsed on top of her sister. She had done everything Kakashi had said to do, and she still didn’t wake up. Maybe she didn’t do it in time. Yes that was it. She didn’t help her sister in time because she was so selfish. Or maybe her sister had given up fighting the sand within her body. No, it was definitely her fault.

"I'm so sorry...so sorry." She sobbed quietly. Trying to keep her composure, she continued, "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have said those things. I didn’t mean them...Just wake up...please wake up..."

She laid there, for what seemed like an eternity, quietly crying; every once and a while she would try to shake her sister awake again, with no results. She had to do something. It was all up to her now. It was up to her to get them out of there out of Orochimaru's clutches.

She froze, her body stiffened as two pairs of feet approached.

"Are they still out?"

"They both regained consciousness, but they must have passed out, again."

"Did you get some of their blood, Kabuto?"

"No lord Orochimaru, the iron sand is protecting both of them." Kabuto stared at the two girls, lying on the floor. Orochimaru frowned. "My patience is wearing thin...I will need her abilities later, Kabuto. She dies, you die."

Inwardly sighing, Kabuto changed the subject. "Lord Orochimaru, I think we should focus on finding Tsunade..."

Orochimaru smirked and nodded.

'Find Tsunade? The legendary Sannin Tsunade? That’s it!!'

// //

Gaara glanced at the doctor, who swallowed nervously.

"Y-You're free to go, Gaara-sama." The doctor said, stammering a bit in fear. Gaara stared at him before inclining his head and exiting the room. His injuries had finally been completely healed after two days of the whole Konoha incident, and he was ready to leave this place. It reeked of sickly bodies. Quietly, he walked into the waiting room, and frowned when the room suddenly went silent. Inwardly sighing, he made his way across the room, eyes sweeping over the villagers.

He made his way to the door, only to inwardly frown as a sickly infant began to cry. 'This hospital should be rebuilt; it's obviously not large enough for the entire village.'

// //

It was dark; that was the only way she would and could ever describe this place.

She let out a whimper against her will, but immediately hissed afterwards; her insides were beginning to burn.

'Damn...'

She hissed again and clenched at the endless ground, her back arching in pain and black sand slowly began to protrude from her spine. She hated this; she hated how in this damned place, she was so vulnerable.

She hated how easily she was hurt in here, how easily she broke.

She gave a weak cry when a giant tail wrapped around her, resulting in a numbing pain across her entire back. Panting now, she winced when red chakra began to leak out of her body, swirling around in the darkness forming the shape of a rose.

She sighed in contentment; the burning sensation was gone. However, it was now replaced with a stinging pain and the chakra began to swirl around her tearing the tail away from her body.

This was the only time that this ever hurt; this place was the only place where Amaya had a strong hold on her, and this was the only area that made the black sand physically unbearable, physically painful trying to keep her and Amaya separate.

And it was growing worse.

"...Leave me alone..."

She could hear Amaya laughing manically at her request, but see couldn't see her; she never saw her, the only thing she ever saw were the six tails, teeth, claws, and the eyes of the demon rain tiger. "But kitten, you're hurting no? Isn't that why you came to me?"

A giant tail wrapped around her again, pulling Takara closer, until she was right next to the cage. The cage was the only other thing separating her from Amaya, and it was made of iron sand. "I can take the pain away, princess."

"...I wouldn’t hurt anymore..." she was so vulnerable. Amaya always knew what to say, to make everything better, but every time she agreed to what Amaya asked, the hurt always increased. And all she wanted was for the hurt to go away, and she would do anything to make it go away.

"If you want the pain to stop. If you want the hurt to leave. If you want to be freed from the memories..."

"More than anything though...I want....to be acknowledged by someone...but it will never happen....and that causes me more pain."

"I can take that pain away....I can help you. I'll acknowledge you. I'm always here for you, kitten."

"...I know." Takara said.

"Then let me take the pain away. Let me out, and there will be no more pain..."

"...Okay." Amaya's teeth widened her fangs clearly visible. She had gotten what she wanted, and without much of a fight; in fact there was not fight at all. "Good girl."

"...I'm a good girl...?"

"You do as you're told like a good girl. You make wise decisions."

"Takara is a good girl...just like mommy used to say..."

"But Mommy is dead. And so is Daddy. You killed him and he killed Mommy."

"They're both dead...all gone and dead...dead dead dead." Takara's eyes downcast, tears fell.
"That's right. Now just unlock the cage, and all the pain will go away kitten." Slowly she made her way to the giant lock, staring at it.

'...Sorry I let you down.'

And she reached for the lock.

// //

Tamaki hoisted her sister onto her back. She didn’t know how long they have been here. She knew here sister was alive, due to the rise and fall of her chest, but she hadn’t woken up.

But today, was a new day. And Orochimaru and Kabuto have left to go find Tsunade. And now was their only chance of escape.

"...Takara, once we get out of here you better wake up."

// //

"Don’t do that!! What are you? Stupid, princess?"

"Huh?" Takara spun on her heel, coming face to face with a boy around the age of sixteen. His golden brown spikes of hair cast over scrutinizing blue grey eyes. His khaki cargo pants were wrinkled and had dirt, blood, and grass stains here and there, reminders that mothers couldn’t get everything washed out, and his simple grey colored shirt had some grass stains as well. "What the hell are you doing, imouto? My soul was taken to keep you and that bitch –tiger separate!!! What do you think you're doing letting her out?!! Have you gotten stupid in nine years?!"

"Stay out of this boy!" Amaya hissed, retreating to the back of the cage. "She doesn’t even know who you are. I made sure of that."

"...Imouto...?" Takara froze, her gaze never leaving the boy standing in front of her. "...I have an older brother?" He grinned, shaking the hair out of his face. Takara looked more like him than her own mother. "Yep. And you obviously don’t remember me, thanks to that tiger over there. So...I guess I'm going to have to jog your memory."

"No!! You can't!!! Takara-hime, don't listen to him!!!!" Amaya screeched, rattling the entire cage. Takara covered her ears. "Shut up you stupid cat!!"

"This should do the trick imouto."

// //

A little girl of only three ran around in the outdoors, the sand whipping up behind her feet as she ran.

"Kara-hime! Get back here!" A fifteen year old boy ran after his little sister; she didn’t want to go inside, she wanted to stay outside and play. The boy easily caught up to the girl, scooping her up in his arms, a wide smile displayed on his face as his little sister giggled and squirmed in his arms.

"Ritsu-niisan!!" She giggled as Ritsu continued to tickle her. "Stop it!!!" He had finally stopped, knowing very well that if he didn’t get her home soon, he would be in so much trouble.

// //

She lay in her bed. It was around midnight and there was an awful sandstorm raging outside, frightening the little girl. "Ahhh!!!"

Leaping form under the covers, she grabbed the extra long string that went up into the attic where she knew she would find a sleeping older brother. She pulled the string like she had so many times in the past year, and stepped back as a small staircase fell down, going up to the ceiling.

She wasted no time in crawling up it and pulling it back up behind her.

"Ritsu-niisan...?" she called through the dark; it was even scarier up here, however, knowing that her brother was up here seemed to make the fear go away. "Ritsu-niisan...?" She made her way to the large bed climbing onto it. "Wha? Imouto...?" Ritsu rolled over, half asleep, pulling his frightened little sister in a hug.

"Ritsu-niisan...I'm scared." Ritsu chuckled lightly before pulling her under the covers. "Kara-hime you wanna know something cool about mommy and me?" Her face lit up and she nodded her head vigorously. "Yeah!!!"

"Well, you mommy is a really strong ninja, and hey not half bad myself, but me and mommy have earned names for ourselves. Mommy is Suna's Red Rose and I'm Suna's Iron Fist!"

"Really?"

"You bet!! And you know what? I bet you're going to be Suna's...uh Sandstorm one day!!"

// //

"Now that you remember you listen good! I can't talk for long imouto-hime. But you are not weak! And don’t you ever listen to that bitch-tiger again!! Understand?!!"

"...Hai, Ritsu-niisan..."

I'm here for you imouto...always --->
Ritsu