10WARNING! Reading this fanfic you are going to find heavy spoilers if you haven't arrived yet to the 16th book of the manga or if you haven't seen to the episode 81 of the anime!
P.S. This is the English translation (thanks Kinopio for your help!) of the original story, "Un nuovo vento al tuo fianco", which is written in Italian language.
A new wind by your side
Chapter 1
«Let's stop».
«A-are you sure that…».
«I said to stop».
«Ok…».
Without further hesitations the two genin, a boy and a girl, put on the ground the kid they had hold up until that moment. By now the three of them had been running for many hours, but finally the shadows of Konoha's forest seemed to become thinner: they were approaching to the Fire Country's western ranges.
It was since the last battle that silence had descended on them… Not that they had ever communicated so much as well, save the strict necessary during missions. Even if they were in the same squad, the group's components spoke to each other almost as foreigners, not like who has often fought alongside. But an attentive observer would have soon understood that the three kids weren't simple companions… The three ninja were siblings.
Siblings united yet divided by a past they would in great part want to forget, and by a present difficult to accept, and who had reached a sort of mutual understanding only after many hardships. But then something had happened that shook their world…an unexpected fact which erased all they had managed to create, but opened new ways at the same time.
«Gaara are you sure you can make it by yourself?».
«Don't worry».
The black-hood ninja became silent again. Temari looked at him: Kankurou seemed very tired, maybe he had yet to regain his chakra drained by the bugs of that Konoha's extravagant ninja...
«Why don't we stop to rest, tonight? By now it's almost one day we have been running without a break», the kunoichi proposed taking advantage of that moment of pause.
«But some Leaf's ninja could be on our tracks…».
«I doubt it, they wouldn't push themselves so far towards their Country's ranges only to capture genin like us», the girl contradicted him.
As soon as the elder of her brothers was about to answer back, Gaara cut short saying: «I want to sleep, for tonight we are going to stop here».
Sleep? Gaara couldn't sleep! Did he want to provoke another disaster?!
Then the older teens looked at him and understood he had to be worn out, maybe more than them…whether he was to sleep or not, surely he needed some rest.
«I'm going to stand guard, all right?», Temari asked.
«Fine with me», was Kankurou's reply, while Gaara only nodded before retiring aside and disappearing in the shade.
Little by little the few trees were becoming scarce substituted by a wasteland, and their foliage stood out against a sky of a shade of red and getting darker by the passing of time. But soon, the sun disappeared to make room for a quiet night with no moon.
Everything was enveloped by silence, interrupted only by rare cries of some wild animals, sign evidence of the three genin being far from inhabited places…who could want to live in a such desolate land, after all? Not people from the Fire Country, surely. To Temari it seemed ironic that, on the other hand, it existed people born and raised in the desert like her.
The girl was used to put aside her own weaknesses and worries, but while she was awake alone ready to perceive the smallest suspicious noise, she found herself thinking about her home. What would happen, when they'd come back? Temari was worried about the consequences of a war she hadn't approved since the beginning…like many of other of their father the Kazekage's decisions. But she and her brothers weren't more than their village's tools, and to obey orders was every ninja's duty.
«Damn…», the girl cursed silently, then she sighed and tried to think about something else.
As it was predictable, the first thought that came up in her mind was the very one she had managed to push aside until then: what was Gaara doing, now? He said he wanted to sleep, but Temari hardly believed it was possible. Even if she had to admit that lately she was surprised more than once…
Turning her head, the kunoichi couldn't hide a smirk: Kankurou surely hadn't that type of problems, for he was deep asleep!
Coming back to survey their camp's surroundings, Temari noticed the sky was becoming brighter, even if the sun had yet to rise from behind the mountains. In a short time they would have to start to travel again.
The girl yawned trying to drive away the sleep. Unlike her brothers she didn't fight to the end of her strength and so had decided to stay up for them, but the battle of two days before against that Shikamaru had weakened her anyway. At the end he let her win, giving up…
«Another thing I have yet to understand», she thought, but soon remembered about much more urgent facts: where did Gaara get to?
«Better to search for him…».
After a brief exploration of the surroundings she found him resting on some uncomfortable looking rocks. Still he was sleeping without doubt… But why did he hide there, instead of remaining near the camp?
Probably her brother had acted that way out of habit, fearing someone could kill him while asleep. Maybe, Gaara decided to depart also to assure them a certain advantage to run away, if Shukaku would come into the open. But mainly, Temari believed that Gaara wanted to protect himself.
Yet the sand would have act by itself, in case he'd been attacked… Only then Temari understood: the sand, usually carried by him in the shape of a huge gourd, was scattered on the battle field.
«But his most powerful weapon is still hidden into his body…», she thought.
Her gaze went to her brother's black circled eyes, on his hair as red as the blood of his countless victims, and then over the sign indelibly impressed on his forehead. Temari always asked herself how he had gotten it…neither she or Kankurou ever found the courage to ask it, and naturally Gaara didn't give explanations about that matter. His two elder siblings only knew that symbol was in some way connected to the "incident" of many years before, the one when their uncle Yashamaru was killed.
What they knew for certain was that from that day Gaara changed. Temari couldn't remember any moment she hadn't felt fear close to her brother, but after Yashamaru's death Gaara's gaze became even more cold and distant. And since then, nobody could approach him anymore.
After all, Gaara had been betrayed by the only person he believed loved him…
Looking again at her sleeping brother, Temari became aware she wasn't frightened anymore.
She couldn't explain it, but a new feeling had replaced the fear, and it confused her.
After several minutes she had been watching him, Gaara didn't give hints of waking up yet.
Temari noticed his expression was strict even while unconscious…she didn't know how her brother could have managed to sleep, but she realized he could never put his guard down completely neither while asleep. If he had done it, the demon who possessed him from birth would get the upper hand and use him, destroying his personality little by little.
His clanged fists and the lids which tightened now and then, like if Gaara was fighting an invisible enemy, hadn't escaped Temari's acute gaze.
«All right then, I think I'm going to leave him asleep a little more», the kunoichi decided, and without doing the smallest noise she went out the thin stone hollow she has found him in.
At that moment she detected steps behind her…could it be that some Konoha's jounin followed them there? Finding in a moment her usually coldness again Temari suddenly turned, her hand to her huge fan she carried on her back: if it was necessary she was ready to fight… But in front of her she only saw Kankurou.
Her brother raised an eyebrow, bewildered by Temari's lightening reaction, then he beckoned her to follow him. After having go away of about twenty meters the boy turned to his sister, talking to her with an half-smile: «You shouldn't be so tense…by now we have almost arrived in the Wind Country! However I've come to tell you that I'm going to stand guard, for you should be tired».
«It seems Gaara wants to regain all the sleep he lost since he was born…», Kankurou added in low voice.
The kunoichi would have given everything for some hours of sleep, so she agreed his proposal with gratitude, even if she didn't show it, and lay down on the couch the brother had prepared the evening before.
Kankurou instead climbed up a tree a little taller than the others, a good place to keep eye on an area of about one hundred meters. «I shall keep my eyes wide open…», he thought, while placing next to him the pack he usually carried on his back. «If someone suddenly attacked us it will be better to have Karasu at hand», and saying it he loosened the bends which covered his lethal fighting puppet.
Meanwhile the sun had risen, and thanks to the light of the day it was possible to see the sands of the endless desert that took up most of his native land. From his hideout, Kankurou calculated that to reach the border they would take less than a day when Temari had regained her strength.
TO BE CONTINUED...
P.S. I hope it doesn't have errors, if it has please tell me!