21. Trap

The next week flies by with shocking speed.  My routine is the same as before; sparring with Kankuro and Temari during the day, and spending my nights in Gaara’s arms.  He holds me at every opportunity now, as if sheltering me with his own form.  I still occasionally get nauseous when I think about the danger we’re all in, but it passes soon enough.  I’ve been able to hide it from them better when it hasn’t faded.  The worry and the constant sparring are wearing me down though.  I wonder if I may need to back off soon.  Every day I feel more tired. 

Today, I am out shopping in the village with Temari.  I asked to take a break from sparring with the excuse that I was wearing out all my nice clothes.  As I try on some beautiful little black shorts, I frown into the mirror.  “Ugh…” I say in disgust. 

Temari leans her head in and asks, “What?  What’s wrong?”

“Look at me.” I mutter, glaring at my stomach.  “I look bloated in these…. maybe I am getting sick.  God… it’s a wonder your brother still wants to sleep with me.”

Temari bursts out laughing.  “Yeah right, sweetheart.  If Gaara were capable of drooling, he’d do it every time you walked by.  Besides… there’s nothing wrong with a girl who’s got a little meat on her bones.”  She sticks her nose in the air as if insulted, but I know she’s just teasing. 

“Oh, come on,” I chide her.  “I didn’t mean anything by it.  I just figured working my ass off like I have been would… well literally work my ass OFF, I guess.”  I laugh.

“Says the half-starved and sickly woman who first came into my house carried like a dead weight.”  She rolls her eyes.

“True.”  I spin around in a circle checking out the shorts from behind. 

We continue on into the village looking for new shoes.  The Suna sun is hot and bright, high in the sky.  There is only a soft breeze on the wind, enough to break up the monotonous heat every few minutes.  Suddenly, I am overwhelmed with a feeling of dread – of danger.  I spin around to look behind me, and Temari drops into a defensive stance.

“What is it?” she asks softly.

“I don’t know…” I keep looking around, searching, but the feeling is gone.  “I felt… danger.”

“Have you felt this before… before now?”  Her eyes move back and forth across the crowd restlessly.

“No… well… maybe.”  I am unsure.  “I’ve felt it before during my travels, but nothing ever came of it.  I’m probably just being paranoid…”  I mentally reach out into the crowd for several miles in all directions, well outside the walls of the city, but find nothing.  “I don’t sense anything unusual now… not for miles.”

“I don’t want to risk it,” she says as she grabs my hand.  “Let’s head back.”

We head for the house.  I shuffle inside, dropping my bags just inside the front door and head towards the living room.  I gasp in shock at the stranger standing in the living room.  It is no one I have ever seen before, but I cannot hear their thoughts!

“Temari!” I shout, turning to see her crumple to the ground as someone else, who I also did not hear, strikes her hard over the head.  “No!”

I lash out mentally at both people in the living room, pouring all the pain I can draw upon.  The one that hit Temari crumples to the ground as if dead, but the one standing in front of me doesn’t react.  It’s as if my powers don’t exist.

“Come now, my sweet,” a sickly sweet voice from my past calls to me from an unfamiliar face.  “Is that how you treat your old Sensei?”

Oh no…

A hand holding a cloth presses firmly against my face from behind, cutting off my scream and overwhelming my senses with a thick choking smell.  The stranger was not dead, only faking! 

Gaara!!!!!!  I mentally scream out as far as I can, just as everything around me goes black. 

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I am flying… no being carried, by… someone.  Someone above me grunts and pauses… and then I smell the thick awful spice again…

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PAIN.  The world is once again filled with pain.  My entire abdomen burns.  It feels as if I am being crushed from the inside.  I scream out against the pain and feel terror freezing through my veins.  What’s happening?!  Where am I?  I can hear voices beginning to fade in, past the pain, past the darkness as the whole world shakes.

“What is going on?!” I hear Orochimaru’s sing-song voice yell from right beside me.

PAIN.  My stomach begins crushing me again, and I scream.  I try to move, but I am bound to a table.  I open my eyes as the pain subsides again, but I am blinded by lights.  My legs feel wet, like I am lying in a puddle. 

“I don’t know!” shouts another familiar voice… Kabuto!  “She’s having a reaction to the anesthesia.  I think her body is rejecting it!”

“Get them out then!” Orochimaru shouts.

Suddenly the entire world shakes again, as if we are in a building under siege.

“I can’t!” Kabuto yells back.  “I’m sorry master, but we have failed.  We struck too soon and they’re too young!”

What is he talking abo….PAIN.  I scream again, and my legs feel wetter.  My stomach is trying to tear itself out of my body.  I need to escape!  But I am so weak… I can’t even fight this pain.

“You see!” Kabuto shouts again, and I realize they are shouting to be heard over a terrible noise. 

Are we really under siege?  As if in confirmation, the world shakes again and there is a loud sound like thunder or an explosion all around me.

“Leave her, and let’s be done with this mess,” a cold unfamiliar voice calls.  I turn to see two red Sharingan eyes staring back at me from a handsome yet demonic face.  “She is of no use to you now.  This was a waste of time.”

“Orochimaru!” Kabuto shouts again.  “We must let them have her!  If she is going to survive this… she needs Tsunade!  I cannot stop this reaction.”

“Fine,” I hear his anger and I am afraid.

PAIN.  The next wave of pain from my stomach is met with a sharper pain in my chest. 

They have stabbed me!  I can feel wetness running from the pain in my chest and down my sides to pool beneath me.  I scream again and the world fades to black.

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“Mizuki!!” A familiar, faint voice calls me back from the depths.  As I resurface, I am met again with the terrible pain.  “Oh God!  Mizuki!!”  Temari’s voice is hysterical.  “Someone get Gaara!  Now!”

It’s hard to breathe, and I can feel more blood spilling from the sharp wound in my chest.  The knife must still be in it… 

“Jirahya!” Another voice… Naruto… shouts. “They’re killing her!”  Someone starts tearing off the bindings holding me to the table.

“Let me through Naruto!” Jirahaya’s voice barks.  Someone starts to lift me from the table, but my eyes are too weak to open. 

“There’s blood everywhere,” Temari’s voice sounds raw with pain.  “What have they done to her?  Is this torture?”

“No.”  Jirahya’s voice is now more solemn and even angrier.  “No, this is something much worse.  We must leave!  Now!”

I feel my body pulled roughly from the table and I am flying again.  I feel fresh air on my face… PAIN!  I scream again, and thrash against my devil stomach.  I hear a distant blood-curdling cry of rage.  Suddenly, I am surrounded, suspended by the rough sensation of sand.

“Gaara!” Jirayha’s voice screams, “Gaara listen to me!  We must get her to Tsunade now!  She doesn’t have much time!  She is losing too much blood!”

The wind is faster now, and I hear the furious hiss of sand all around me.  I can feel the strength of his body beneath me, and I wish I could feel its warmth as well.  I struggle to open my eyes.  I want to see his face again.  I may not get another chance!  But it is useless… I am too weak to open them. 

“Gaara,” I whisper, “I love you.”

PAIN!!  I scream again, and my entire world AGAIN goes black.