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Description
For three years Shigure stayed a ninja in Konoha. But it wasn’t like before, true she was still an excellent ninja, her ninja skills had improved dramatically but now she’d changed from the last time she’d seen Gaara. Now she seemed to be colder. Three years and she had barely seen him; during the three-year period she slowly grew this coldness, it seemed to grow like a weed slowly wrapping its self around her heart to prevent warmth to reach its core. The last time she had seen Gaara was a year ago, he hadn’t come to visit her since and hasn’t been able to sent mail.
With only seeing him rarely with out any time to spend together she grew colder with no one to show her the affection Gaara had. Now she actually seemed to enjoy the kill. She prided herself on how efficient of a ninja she was. And again her appearance had changed, now she looked allot different since Gaara had seen her last. Her long silver hair was still tied back in its usual plait though it now reached the base of her but. Her chest had gotten larger; she was almost as big as Hinata. She no longer wore her dark jeans and black boob tube, but a short gray and black-checkered skirt that ended just above her knees. Her shirt was replaced by another black boob tube that covered down to her hips, with sleeves that dipped over her arm but didn’t hold the shirt up, they were more or less for decoration, her chest held the shirt up on its own. Over her shirt she wore a black leather coat. It was shorter than her skirt but ended between her knees and hips and inside carried all her scrolls, potions and her ANBU mask. The style fitted her body shape perfectly.
Her charka control had doubled ten-fold. Instead of her Kakai genkai enabling her to sense people and their charka, she could screw with their charka as well. She had become part of the ANBU Black ops early the previous year; she was one of the youngest in her squadron but easily kept pace with the older ANBU. What troubled her most about her new learned abilities though was the change in appearance. When she released a certain amount of charka her red eyes would change color, from fiery red to fiery blue. It seamed as though the fires behind her eyes increased to the burning unbearable blue flame and was almost unbearable to look into. Her canine teeth seemed slightly more pronounced constantly these days but only if you cared to look. Nonetheless the look suited her.
Today she walked along the main road of Konoha, a small traveling bag slung around her shoulder. Today she just wanted to focus her charka; she had a mission to guide a young man to the village hidden in the sand.
That was it; she was going with a one-man/woman squad to the village hidden in the sand. And when she arrived she had a day to waste courtesy of their Kazekage. But on this train of thought Shigure stared to think, “the last Kazekage that I remember, that lasted I might say, was Gaara’s father, who could have replaced him?” She spoke out loud, lost in thought as she walked outside the gates of Konoha.
She walked to the first tree in the woods and jumped up to a sturdy branch and waited for the man she was to guard on their way to Suna.
As she waited she put her black ANBU cloak inside her traveling bag with her white and red cat mask in one of its pockets, to carry it around would just cause suspicion. She crossed her legs on the branch and opened her mind to absorb the morning relief that surrounded her. She sighed as she thought of what she would have to face when she saw Gaara again. This would be the first assignment she had been given in Suna in ages, since before she had seen Gaara last.
‘He is bound to be either really busy to not have come back to Konoha. Or he is… no its Gaara, he is alive no doubt about it.’ She thought confidently, how could such a thought go into her mind anyway? She rose from her seat and jumped to the ground. The young man she was to guard had just walked threw the city gates.
Once she explained the basic foolproof procedure they were going to use to get to Suna to her ‘client’, as it were. She turned to leave Konoha but just before she did she took one final look at her home as she always did.
She continued into the forest with the man she was to guard. She never bothered to learn any of her clients names it caused too much attachment, so she stuck with calling him ‘old man.’ True he was only 5 years her elder but this way was easier.
What puzzled her the most was that one ANBU black ops was sent to guard this man. The mission briefing said it was a simple escorting mission, but why would they send an ANBU? Tsunade was kind of drunk, that may have helped her decision, but still ANBU always traveled in squads of 3-4, sometimes more. This way was more her style but it was still unheard of. Secondly ANBU mostly operate in S-A and sometimes B ranked missions and this mission from the briefing was just a C or a D ranked mission, Tsunade said it herself. Again she was tipsy but the only logical explanation would have to be the Chuunin exams. The majority of the Gennin were training, the Jonnin were making preparations along with the Chuunin. Only the ANBU, the elite had nothing to. And because of the low level of the mission it explains why only she was asked to do it. ‘Well that explains it I guess’ she thought as she disappeared threw the bulk of the Konoha forest.

She spent the next two days walking with the 22 year old man. It was a quiet trip; the only conversation was when the man would continually try to flirt with her at least 5 times per day. By the end of the second day traveling she turned abruptly and punched him in the mouth.
He landed with a soft thud on the hot sand that they’d been traveling on for the past 2 hours. “Hey what was that for gorgeous?” he called after her as she walked away in him annoying strong prudent accent, as he sat on the sand and wiped the blood from his lip. “Your supposed to protect me, not hit me!” he cried after her figure, which was slowly getting further and further away. He got to his shaky feet and started to follow her again with a dirty scowl.
“Im here to protect you from ninja’s who want to kill you, I just want to hurt you.” She called to him with a sly smile and her usual sweet, mocking and cunning voice. He scowled further and followed her threw the vast dry desert they were now crossing.
As he walked he watched her long silver plat, slide out from it’s binding’s. It blew so softly in the deserts breeze, so soft, it just seemed to dance in the winds. He found himself wondering how she could have such a heart to bind such playful hair.
By midday on the third day of travel they reached Suna. Shigure accompanied the man to his house and bade him a stiff farewell and left to find the hotel she was to stay at until tomorrow.
She found the place easy, as she would have when she was young growing up in this city. It was such a relief to be back there.
When she finally reached the hotel she was greeted with the soft sweet, intoxicating smell of butternut. She was lead but a pudgy kind of woman with plain brown hair and plain brown eyes, she seemed to remember Shigure and refused to look her in the eye as she lead her to her room. She was shocked to see the room the Kazekage had hired out for her, it was without a doubt the most beautiful, graceful thing she’d ever seen. First thing she noticed was the large king sized bed that was off to the size of her room, it was massive. A thin insect net was softly placed around all the edges except the one closest to the door. The one that was opened was enticing her to go straight to it and jump on the bed just to get rid of the composed look. Using her ninja skills she removed her eyes from the bed, which she now noticed to had a thin gold thread intertwined to nearly every part of the bed, and turned to the anxious obviously scarred woman. She was shorter than Shigure, and rounder than her but she couldn’t understand why she was so afraid. She decided to dismiss it; she was now used to fear and tipped the girl her age. When she looked up at Shigure for the proper honorifics Shigure finally realized why she looked so familiar. The girl who had bullied herself and Gaara when she was younger now stood quivering in front of her. She turned her ‘supposedly nice’ gaze into a harsh stare as the girl ran from her room. She smiled to herself and explored her gorgeous room.
She walked around the room and found her bathroom and again her mouth fell agape. It was just as beautiful as her bed. She couldn’t help but admire the carefully decorated room. Her bath was big enough two fit a large man in width and at least two in depth. It was a plain white concrete bath but along the ridges a gold plate ran along it, the design was of beautiful water lilies, clearly made in the land of waves. She smiled as she ran her fingers along the fine grade gold before she turned to take in the rest of the bathroom.
The sink was of exact design to the bath and the tiles were two, though they were white with an extremely thin silver lining to each tile. Basically all of the room was the same, gold or silver plated rimmed and white stone.
She briefly swept the rest of her hotel room in a hurry. Once she had looked at it all she ran back to her bathroom and stripped. She turned the hot and cold water on to create the right temperature before she swept herself into its warmth. Her softly tanned and toned body quickly and gracefully stepped into the bath. Something no one except her ever saw was now clearly visible, her red and blue ball of flame. She had it tattooed onto her hip as soon as she was of age. It started blue at its base and as it reached the top it turned into a red tipped flame, the tattooist she used had expert chakra control and added an amount of chakra that he was using into the ink to create the effect of real flames. Before she slipped under its depths she added a large amount of bubble bath and then sunk deep below the waters surface.
As millions of bubbles floated around her bathroom she laid at the bottom and she slid her slender fingers threw her long and luxuriously soft hair. All the sand from the days of traveling slid from her slender form to the bottom of the bath. For ages she held her breath under the water until it hurt her lungs to do so any longer, so she let go of the bottom and swiftly floated to the top of the water. She stood in the bath and performed a few quick hand signals she had learnt when she was a girl in Suna and summoned the sand from the bottom and out of the bathtub and quickly tried to sink back under the water, when she was distracted by a load cry from outside her window.
She wrapped a towel around her and walked to the window to see a large amount of ninja’s in the street bellow. Shigure shrugged, “probably just a drunken bar fight.” She thought irritably as she made her way back to her tub.
She sat in that water for a short amount of time before a load knocking interrupted her again. She moaned “for god’s sake! Why tonight?” she cried to herself as she dried herself with the towel and slipped on a sliver nightdress and then wrapped a silver nightgown around her. She walked to her hotel door and opened it to see a young man, around 20 at the door dressed in a full sand ninja outfit.
“May I help you sir?” she asked irritably as she leaned against the doorway to show her impatience.
“Ma’am, its I who wish to help you.” When she gave him a blank annoyed stare he continued. “You are recuperating from a journey so you are not needed to help, but we need to evacuate villagers. We are under attack and our Kazekage is fighting an Akatsuki member at this moment. It’s escalating so we need to evacuate all villagers.” He finished looking even more anxious.
She stood straight at the news, “hai sir, I shall dress and go with-“
“Im sorry ma’am” he interrupted her rudely “but there is no time, you must come with me now” he added as he stepped aside to usher her out of the room.
Reluctantly she nodded and walked out the door. As they walked down the crowded corridor she herd a young kid call to his mother with tears in his eyes, “but what about Kazekage-sama? Is he ok?” A sweet smile played upon his mothers lips, “Kazekage-sama is the strongest in the village, he will protect us at all costs, but he knows we need him so he will protect himself too!” she said as she lifted her child into her arms and continued to walk away with the crowd.
Once Shigure and her escort were out of the building she turned to him, “who is the new Kazekage?” she asked, the question had been bugging her for some time now. Her escort pointed to the sky were she was horrified to see what she saw. A large white origami owl was in combat with a large rapidly moving amounts of sand, which were being controlled by a sand sphere, were she could just make out the outline of vivid red hair in a gap in the sphere. A massive sand wall was covering the majority of the city; she only saw this because her hotel was on the outskirts so she could still see the fight as she moved. She was horrified because she saw Gaara in his half formed impenetrable defense. She saw the Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand fighting an Akatsuki member, she saw her love protecting his village, protecting her, and finally being excepted who exactly who he was. Tears stung her eyes when she saw this “Gaara-sama” she vaguely her escort say before grabbing her elbow and leading her to the civilians.
She continued to watch the fight, as she was slowly led to the center of the village. Gaara narrowly avoided a bomb by summoning his Shikaku infested sand to replace the sand that was missing from his sphere, she’d gathered he had used some of his sand to make the normal desert sand go faster but now his barrier was complete. She let herself relax ‘he’s a lot faster since last time I saw him’ she thought with a smirk. As she watched the sphere something happened, the area of the sphere seemed to expand suddenly with lumps as though something exploded from inside. She stopped dead in her tracks as the sand around him started to fall to the ground. “No” she whispered as she shook her head. Last time she saw his impenetrable sphere slink down like that Sasuke had electrocuted him and left him wounded and bleeding. From the air his sand just fell down to the sand covering the majority of the village until all that was there was the clear from of Gaara, covered in his own sand floating there in the sand. The Akatsuki person on the white owl started to fly towards Gaara, sand ninja’s everywhere started to sprint along the sand to get to their Kazekage, to aid him, to help him get away form the Akatsuki member. Her escort joined the ninja to get Gaara, but just as he leapt into the air and Shigure went to go after him the sand began to move. The sand protecting the village slowly moved across the village. Gaara was using the last of his strength to make sure that the sand didn’t crush the village. “No, you cant do this Gaara, please I cant do anything without you!” she cried to the air above her were Gaara was slowly sliding down in the air, slowly towards the ground.
Shigure looked around to see everyone watching the sand move across the village towards the vast expanse of desert were it couldn’t crush anyone. Everyone had their eyes on the sand, but only the ninja watched helplessly at Gaara.
He pushed the last of the sand over the borders of the village and dropped it. An almighty cheer went up around the village. He began to fall. Slowly at first gathering speed quickly though. The Akatsuki person started his assault again, after having stopped to let Gaara save the villagers, he swooped at Gaara as he fell. “ NO!” Shigure let out an almightily cry as she leapt onto the nearest building and tried to focus her chakra to form a net around him. She looked up at him; his soft green eyes met hers in a week smile. Tears sprung to her eyes as she watched her love fall. “No” she whispered again when she realized she lost her focus, her net failed before she could even put it around him. Again she tried using hand signals she’d learnt to help the technique but she screwed that up to. She fell to her knees when the blonde ninja in the black cloak with the red clouds swept in so his bird caught Gaara with its tail feathers.
At the distance between the two Shigure wasn’t actually sure if this ‘man’ was a man or a woman but then the thought struck her ‘he’s taking him away. He is taking his body away!’ she cried as she sprinted along the rooftops after the white bird and the near dead Gaara. Kunkuro started to run along the parallel rooftops after his brother. He jumped in front of Shigure and sent her flying against a wall. She went headfirst and blacked out. She woke up moments later with blood falling from her forehead. She turned and saw Kunkuro and a squad, enter the city exit/entry. She jumped to her feet again, her long silver nightgown trailing furiously at her ankles as she started after Kunkuro and Gaara.
She quickly reached the crevice that was the gates of entry/exit of the city when she saw a paper note explode. She had just entered the small area when the exploding note exploded. She was sent flying against the nearest wall. A rounded rock a little bit bigger than her head hit her in the same place were Kunkuro had hit her, blood running crimson red instantly dripped from her head, gushing down making her instantly woozy. She had only a moment to take in the injury when a pointed rock when flying after her. It impaled her to the stonewall behind her.
Everything in her vision seemed to be tinted white as she felt the cold stone pierce her skin. She looked down to see a large spiked chunk of rock producing from her ribs, right at her heart. The whiteness around her vision seemed to become more pronounced until all she could see was white. A dull throbbing was all the pain the rock had left her with. She her someone whisper next to her “my god she’s dying, it’s a civilian” the rest of the ninja’s words were cut off by her own.
“T-tell Gaara, I Love him. I a-always have a-and always w-will.” As she spoke she felt the coldness of the stone spread threw her body like a cold shower. “t-t-t-ell h-h-im” she whispered.
“Aright ma’am, please medical nin’s are on their way, please hold on!” he called to her knowing she could barely her anything.
“T-there’s n-n-no p-p-point w-w-without h-him” she whispered as tears fell down her pale skin. She briefly opened the eyes she could no longer see threw. If Gaara was alive and came back he would no the message came from the girl with the fires in her eyes, he would know she loved him.
The only warmth she could feel was the warm blood pouring down her torso to her legs, but even that sensation seemed to fade. “You’re the girl!” She herd in a barely audible whisper, “the Kazekage’s ‘fire within’” the ninja spoke just those words and made her day, her last day. She smiled as she felt all sensation drip away ‘His fire within. I know the true you, I know the true Gaara.’ She thought as she inhaled her shuddering last breath.
___________________________
After a period when the pain had stopped and left her with just numbness, she was barely conscious of everything, just the soft breeze around her and the sensation of floating. Shigure was stumped; she had never felt like this before. The pleasantness of it made her stay there, her eyes closed drifting in an unknown space, were she knew not were she was nor how long she laid there, or stood there, again she could not tell. A small tingling started in her fingertips and made it’s way up to her arm. Again a pleasant feeling but she decided to open her eyes to absorb her surroundings.
She found herself drifting in no particular direction to nowhere in a plain black space. She did not stand, she did not sit, and she just floated around fascinated. Briefly an image would flicker past her vision. Sometimes the image she could see would be far off but they seemed somehow familiar. Until one in particular came in front of her. It was just a shimmer that seemed to move threw the wind and dissolve, like in a pond when you can see the moon, but the reflection gets easily wiped away by a gentle breeze. Though it didn’t seem to come back.
She saw Gaara standing there facing the image smiling at her with his arms out stretched, like he was caressing the image. Then before she could pinpoint why it was so familiar it withered away. She watched again intrigued by this display that reminded her of a dance. In the darkness the images seemed to dance and glitter around her before she could see them properly again one came up before her and she noticed it. Again it was Gaara, looking around at the shimmer with him arm out stretched holding a hand, the body she couldn’t see. But the joy on his face lit hers with a smile, a true smile she hadn’t felt in a very long time. These were her memories. All of Gaara she noticed when it flickered and she saw another in the distance.
Soft words escaped her mouth without her thought, like it wasn’t even her controlling her mouth but I moved and spoke. “Even threw death the memories of love remain strong in out hearts on this plane and the other. The love remains, in your heart and in his. You may choose to stay here and reminisce, or you can go on and wait for him there.” Shigure wasn’t sure why her mouth said these words but she knew them to be true. She wasn’t quite sure were the voice was telling her to go but she assumed it was a kind of heaven.
With her own voice she asked, “Can I say goodbye?” just those simple words bought tears to her eyes. It actually hit her that she was dead. It didn’t scare or hurt her that she wouldn’t see her sister or mother again, it didn’t joy her that she would see her father again, it hurt her to leave Gaara to face it all alone.
The thought that the voice would answer her no and Gaara would think she left him deliberately. She curled into a ball and wept.
She opened her eyes to another memory. It was of her leaving Gaara when they were younger. The first time she let him alone. Again she wept even more, her crystal tears floated around her. She herd herself call back to Gaara, 'please, never forget me Gaara!!! I love you!!!' she smiled at her foolish little quote, but even as she thought of it there was nothing better to say at the time.
She watched him fumble after she used her chakra to send her spirit using she Kakai Genkai of her face and kiss him on the cheek. He found her as kissed her on the forehead. She didn’t see this before; she was to far away to see it. But now she stood in front of the boy she fell in love with at the age of 7 in wonder. He lifted his hand to his cheek were she had kissed him and smiled the most genuine smile she had ever seen. No longer was he bothered by the taunts by the villagers, or the pain of Shikaku on his mind but genuine happiness. He smiled “Shigure, I love you so much, you will never know how much you mean to me, threw life and death, I will love you, from now and forever.” Such deep words just came from a 7 year old. Her heart seemed to swell up inside her; all her worries were washed away with that single phrase.
The image drifted from her eyes to be replaced by another much more disturbing one. The current Gaara was held around the waist by a whit owl, the Akatsuki’s bird. Gaara’s face was contorted with pain and his sand shield was badly cracked around his face and slowly dripping down to the sand below him.
Her heart broke. This was the current Gaara, right now, dying before her. “Gaara,” she whispered as she watched blood trickle down his mouth over the dried blood.
Feebly he opened an eye, “Shigure, is that….” With a gasp and sigh he cut off his sentence.
She jumped forward, in the dark space around her it was an awkward motion but it got her closer to the image. “Please don’t waste your energy, just listen,” she spoke clearly and softly to the image before her. She saw his face crack more when he smiled at her voice before grimacing in pain. “I wanted you to know, I love you so much, and because of the circumstances you will never know how much. You mean the world to me and threw both life and death, I will always love you with my entire heart, for now and forever.” As she spoke her voice cracked with tears.
His smile still partly in place increase, despite the blood trickling down his cracked lips he spoke again “I love you to, I always… have, and always will” he finished as he relaxed his body and closed his eyes, all that showed he still lived was his gentle, abnormally slow breathing.
She closed her red eyes and concentrated, she felt her chakra deep inside her, but slowly loosing the contact with her abilities she concentrated her chakra to her eyes and focused her Kakai Genkai she snapped her eyes open as the picture began to fade around the sides in front of her.
Her usual red fiery eyes shone a fiery and dangerous blue more bright than ever before. She mustered with an unusual amount of effort the same kind of sending that she used when she was younger, she focused her spirit/charka towards the image and pushed it threw until she was floating, nothing but an invisible body, alongside Gaara.
She looked around to see the world she stood in slowly fading away like the image in front of her body. She quickly turned to Gaara and placed her hands on his cheeks. She leaned in, the world around her only composing of Gaara, herself and a little bit of the bird that carried him, and placed her soft lips upon his for the last time on this world. His soft lips caressed hers, she could feel beneath his lips the tremor of pain but he held his lips to hers still. She closed her eyes for the kiss as a trickle of blood dripped from his lips onto her, when nothing but there upper bodies were visible when she reopened her eyes she spoke in his ear, aware of her time running out, “I love you.” He opened his eyes to meet hers; though he could not see hers he knew she could see his. She closed her eyes again, the feeling of his cracked hand upon her wet cheek before she disappeared from his world.
When she opened her eyes the image of Gaara had gone, but the blood on her lips remained. She didn’t wipe it away as she drifted backwards towards a light she was all too afraid to look at. She knew she would wait for the time when she could once again be with her one true love. She floated her arms around her, wrapped in the memory of his touch, of his face, of his voice, and especially his loving kiss.

..::The End::..

Description
For three years Shigure stayed a ninja in Konoha. But it wasn’t like before, true she was still an excellent ninja, her ninja skills had improved dramatically but now she’d changed from the last time she’d seen Gaara. Now she seemed to be colder. Three years and she had barely seen him; during the three-year period she slowly grew this coldness, it seemed to grow like a weed slowly wrapping its self around her heart to prevent warmth to reach its core. The last time she had seen Gaara was a year ago, he hadn’t come to visit her since and hasn’t been able to sent mail.
With only seeing him rarely with out any time to spend together she grew colder with no one to show her the affection Gaara had. Now she actually seemed to enjoy the kill. She prided herself on how efficient of a ninja she was. And again her appearance had changed, now she looked allot different since Gaara had seen her last. Her long silver hair was still tied back in its usual plait though it now reached the base of her but. Her chest had gotten larger; she was almost as big as Hinata. She no longer wore her dark jeans and black boob tube, but a short gray and black-checkered skirt that ended just above her knees. Her shirt was replaced by another black boob tube that covered down to her hips, with sleeves that dipped over her arm but didn’t hold the shirt up, they were more or less for decoration, her chest held the shirt up on its own. Over her shirt she wore a black leather coat. It was shorter than her skirt but ended between her knees and hips and inside carried all her scrolls, potions and her ANBU mask. The style fitted her body shape perfectly.
Her charka control had doubled ten-fold. Instead of her Kakai genkai enabling her to sense people and their charka, she could screw with their charka as well. She had become part of the ANBU Black ops early the previous year; she was one of the youngest in her squadron but easily kept pace with the older ANBU. What troubled her most about her new learned abilities though was the change in appearance. When she released a certain amount of charka her red eyes would change color, from fiery red to fiery blue. It seamed as though the fires behind her eyes increased to the burning unbearable blue flame and was almost unbearable to look into. Her canine teeth seemed slightly more pronounced constantly these days but only if you cared to look. Nonetheless the look suited her.
Today she walked along the main road of Konoha, a small traveling bag slung around her shoulder. Today she just wanted to focus her charka; she had a mission to guide a young man to the village hidden in the sand.
That was it; she was going with a one-man/woman squad to the village hidden in the sand. And when she arrived she had a day to waste courtesy of their Kazekage. But on this train of thought Shigure stared to think, “the last Kazekage that I remember, that lasted I might say, was Gaara’s father, who could have replaced him?” She spoke out loud, lost in thought as she walked outside the gates of Konoha.
She walked to the first tree in the woods and jumped up to a sturdy branch and waited for the man she was to guard on their way to Suna.
As she waited she put her black ANBU cloak inside her traveling bag with her white and red cat mask in one of its pockets, to carry it around would just cause suspicion. She crossed her legs on the branch and opened her mind to absorb the morning relief that surrounded her. She sighed as she thought of what she would have to face when she saw Gaara again. This would be the first assignment she had been given in Suna in ages, since before she had seen Gaara last.
‘He is bound to be either really busy to not have come back to Konoha. Or he is… no its Gaara, he is alive no doubt about it.’ She thought confidently, how could such a thought go into her mind anyway? She rose from her seat and jumped to the ground. The young man she was to guard had just walked threw the city gates.
Once she explained the basic foolproof procedure they were going to use to get to Suna to her ‘client’, as it were. She turned to leave Konoha but just before she did she took one final look at her home as she always did.
She continued into the forest with the man she was to guard. She never bothered to learn any of her clients names it caused too much attachment, so she stuck with calling him ‘old man.’ True he was only 5 years her elder but this way was easier.
What puzzled her the most was that one ANBU black ops was sent to guard this man. The mission briefing said it was a simple escorting mission, but why would they send an ANBU? Tsunade was kind of drunk, that may have helped her decision, but still ANBU always traveled in squads of 3-4, sometimes more. This way was more her style but it was still unheard of. Secondly ANBU mostly operate in S-A and sometimes B ranked missions and this mission from the briefing was just a C or a D ranked mission, Tsunade said it herself. Again she was tipsy but the only logical explanation would have to be the Chuunin exams. The majority of the Gennin were training, the Jonnin were making preparations along with the Chuunin. Only the ANBU, the elite had nothing to. And because of the low level of the mission it explains why only she was asked to do it. ‘Well that explains it I guess’ she thought as she disappeared threw the bulk of the Konoha forest.

She spent the next two days walking with the 22 year old man. It was a quiet trip; the only conversation was when the man would continually try to flirt with her at least 5 times per day. By the end of the second day traveling she turned abruptly and punched him in the mouth.
He landed with a soft thud on the hot sand that they’d been traveling on for the past 2 hours. “Hey what was that for gorgeous?” he called after her as she walked away in him annoying strong prudent accent, as he sat on the sand and wiped the blood from his lip. “Your supposed to protect me, not hit me!” he cried after her figure, which was slowly getting further and further away. He got to his shaky feet and started to follow her again with a dirty scowl.
“Im here to protect you from ninja’s who want to kill you, I just want to hurt you.” She called to him with a sly smile and her usual sweet, mocking and cunning voice. He scowled further and followed her threw the vast dry desert they were now crossing.
As he walked he watched her long silver plat, slide out from it’s binding’s. It blew so softly in the deserts breeze, so soft, it just seemed to dance in the winds. He found himself wondering how she could have such a heart to bind such playful hair.
By midday on the third day of travel they reached Suna. Shigure accompanied the man to his house and bade him a stiff farewell and left to find the hotel she was to stay at until tomorrow.
She found the place easy, as she would have when she was young growing up in this city. It was such a relief to be back there.
When she finally reached the hotel she was greeted with the soft sweet, intoxicating smell of butternut. She was lead but a pudgy kind of woman with plain brown hair and plain brown eyes, she seemed to remember Shigure and refused to look her in the eye as she lead her to her room. She was shocked to see the room the Kazekage had hired out for her, it was without a doubt the most beautiful, graceful thing she’d ever seen. First thing she noticed was the large king sized bed that was off to the size of her room, it was massive. A thin insect net was softly placed around all the edges except the one closest to the door. The one that was opened was enticing her to go straight to it and jump on the bed just to get rid of the composed look. Using her ninja skills she removed her eyes from the bed, which she now noticed to had a thin gold thread intertwined to nearly every part of the bed, and turned to the anxious obviously scarred woman. She was shorter than Shigure, and rounder than her but she couldn’t understand why she was so afraid. She decided to dismiss it; she was now used to fear and tipped the girl her age. When she looked up at Shigure for the proper honorifics Shigure finally realized why she looked so familiar. The girl who had bullied herself and Gaara when she was younger now stood quivering in front of her. She turned her ‘supposedly nice’ gaze into a harsh stare as the girl ran from her room. She smiled to herself and explored her gorgeous room.
She walked around the room and found her bathroom and again her mouth fell agape. It was just as beautiful as her bed. She couldn’t help but admire the carefully decorated room. Her bath was big enough two fit a large man in width and at least two in depth. It was a plain white concrete bath but along the ridges a gold plate ran along it, the design was of beautiful water lilies, clearly made in the land of waves. She smiled as she ran her fingers along the fine grade gold before she turned to take in the rest of the bathroom.
The sink was of exact design to the bath and the tiles were two, though they were white with an extremely thin silver lining to each tile. Basically all of the room was the same, gold or silver plated rimmed and white stone.
She briefly swept the rest of her hotel room in a hurry. Once she had looked at it all she ran back to her bathroom and stripped. She turned the hot and cold water on to create the right temperature before she swept herself into its warmth. Her softly tanned and toned body quickly and gracefully stepped into the bath. Something no one except her ever saw was now clearly visible, her red and blue ball of flame. She had it tattooed onto her hip as soon as she was of age. It started blue at its base and as it reached the top it turned into a red tipped flame, the tattooist she used had expert chakra control and added an amount of chakra that he was using into the ink to create the effect of real flames. Before she slipped under its depths she added a large amount of bubble bath and then sunk deep below the waters surface.
As millions of bubbles floated around her bathroom she laid at the bottom and she slid her slender fingers threw her long and luxuriously soft hair. All the sand from the days of traveling slid from her slender form to the bottom of the bath. For ages she held her breath under the water until it hurt her lungs to do so any longer, so she let go of the bottom and swiftly floated to the top of the water. She stood in the bath and performed a few quick hand signals she had learnt when she was a girl in Suna and summoned the sand from the bottom and out of the bathtub and quickly tried to sink back under the water, when she was distracted by a load cry from outside her window.
She wrapped a towel around her and walked to the window to see a large amount of ninja’s in the street bellow. Shigure shrugged, “probably just a drunken bar fight.” She thought irritably as she made her way back to her tub.
She sat in that water for a short amount of time before a load knocking interrupted her again. She moaned “for god’s sake! Why tonight?” she cried to herself as she dried herself with the towel and slipped on a sliver nightdress and then wrapped a silver nightgown around her. She walked to her hotel door and opened it to see a young man, around 20 at the door dressed in a full sand ninja outfit.
“May I help you sir?” she asked irritably as she leaned against the doorway to show her impatience.
“Ma’am, its I who wish to help you.” When she gave him a blank annoyed stare he continued. “You are recuperating from a journey so you are not needed to help, but we need to evacuate villagers. We are under attack and our Kazekage is fighting an Akatsuki member at this moment. It’s escalating so we need to evacuate all villagers.” He finished looking even more anxious.
She stood straight at the news, “hai sir, I shall dress and go with-“
“Im sorry ma’am” he interrupted her rudely “but there is no time, you must come with me now” he added as he stepped aside to usher her out of the room.
Reluctantly she nodded and walked out the door. As they walked down the crowded corridor she herd a young kid call to his mother with tears in his eyes, “but what about Kazekage-sama? Is he ok?” A sweet smile played upon his mothers lips, “Kazekage-sama is the strongest in the village, he will protect us at all costs, but he knows we need him so he will protect himself too!” she said as she lifted her child into her arms and continued to walk away with the crowd.
Once Shigure and her escort were out of the building she turned to him, “who is the new Kazekage?” she asked, the question had been bugging her for some time now. Her escort pointed to the sky were she was horrified to see what she saw. A large white origami owl was in combat with a large rapidly moving amounts of sand, which were being controlled by a sand sphere, were she could just make out the outline of vivid red hair in a gap in the sphere. A massive sand wall was covering the majority of the city; she only saw this because her hotel was on the outskirts so she could still see the fight as she moved. She was horrified because she saw Gaara in his half formed impenetrable defense. She saw the Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand fighting an Akatsuki member, she saw her love protecting his village, protecting her, and finally being excepted who exactly who he was. Tears stung her eyes when she saw this “Gaara-sama” she vaguely her escort say before grabbing her elbow and leading her to the civilians.
She continued to watch the fight, as she was slowly led to the center of the village. Gaara narrowly avoided a bomb by summoning his Shikaku infested sand to replace the sand that was missing from his sphere, she’d gathered he had used some of his sand to make the normal desert sand go faster but now his barrier was complete. She let herself relax ‘he’s a lot faster since last time I saw him’ she thought with a smirk. As she watched the sphere something happened, the area of the sphere seemed to expand suddenly with lumps as though something exploded from inside. She stopped dead in her tracks as the sand around him started to fall to the ground. “No” she whispered as she shook her head. Last time she saw his impenetrable sphere slink down like that Sasuke had electrocuted him and left him wounded and bleeding. From the air his sand just fell down to the sand covering the majority of the village until all that was there was the clear from of Gaara, covered in his own sand floating there in the sand. The Akatsuki person on the white owl started to fly towards Gaara, sand ninja’s everywhere started to sprint along the sand to get to their Kazekage, to aid him, to help him get away form the Akatsuki member. Her escort joined the ninja to get Gaara, but just as he leapt into the air and Shigure went to go after him the sand began to move. The sand protecting the village slowly moved across the village. Gaara was using the last of his strength to make sure that the sand didn’t crush the village. “No, you cant do this Gaara, please I cant do anything without you!” she cried to the air above her were Gaara was slowly sliding down in the air, slowly towards the ground.
Shigure looked around to see everyone watching the sand move across the village towards the vast expanse of desert were it couldn’t crush anyone. Everyone had their eyes on the sand, but only the ninja watched helplessly at Gaara.
He pushed the last of the sand over the borders of the village and dropped it. An almighty cheer went up around the village. He began to fall. Slowly at first gathering speed quickly though. The Akatsuki person started his assault again, after having stopped to let Gaara save the villagers, he swooped at Gaara as he fell. “ NO!” Shigure let out an almightily cry as she leapt onto the nearest building and tried to focus her chakra to form a net around him. She looked up at him; his soft green eyes met hers in a week smile. Tears sprung to her eyes as she watched her love fall. “No” she whispered again when she realized she lost her focus, her net failed before she could even put it around him. Again she tried using hand signals she’d learnt to help the technique but she screwed that up to. She fell to her knees when the blonde ninja in the black cloak with the red clouds swept in so his bird caught Gaara with its tail feathers.
At the distance between the two Shigure wasn’t actually sure if this ‘man’ was a man or a woman but then the thought struck her ‘he’s taking him away. He is taking his body away!’ she cried as she sprinted along the rooftops after the white bird and the near dead Gaara. Kunkuro started to run along the parallel rooftops after his brother. He jumped in front of Shigure and sent her flying against a wall. She went headfirst and blacked out. She woke up moments later with blood falling from her forehead. She turned and saw Kunkuro and a squad, enter the city exit/entry. She jumped to her feet again, her long silver nightgown trailing furiously at her ankles as she started after Kunkuro and Gaara.
She quickly reached the crevice that was the gates of entry/exit of the city when she saw a paper note explode. She had just entered the small area when the exploding note exploded. She was sent flying against the nearest wall. A rounded rock a little bit bigger than her head hit her in the same place were Kunkuro had hit her, blood running crimson red instantly dripped from her head, gushing down making her instantly woozy. She had only a moment to take in the injury when a pointed rock when flying after her. It impaled her to the stonewall behind her.
Everything in her vision seemed to be tinted white as she felt the cold stone pierce her skin. She looked down to see a large spiked chunk of rock producing from her ribs, right at her heart. The whiteness around her vision seemed to become more pronounced until all she could see was white. A dull throbbing was all the pain the rock had left her with. She her someone whisper next to her “my god she’s dying, it’s a civilian” the rest of the ninja’s words were cut off by her own.
“T-tell Gaara, I Love him. I a-always have a-and always w-will.” As she spoke she felt the coldness of the stone spread threw her body like a cold shower. “t-t-t-ell h-h-im” she whispered.
“Aright ma’am, please medical nin’s are on their way, please hold on!” he called to her knowing she could barely her anything.
“T-there’s n-n-no p-p-point w-w-without h-him” she whispered as tears fell down her pale skin. She briefly opened the eyes she could no longer see threw. If Gaara was alive and came back he would no the message came from the girl with the fires in her eyes, he would know she loved him.
The only warmth she could feel was the warm blood pouring down her torso to her legs, but even that sensation seemed to fade. “You’re the girl!” She herd in a barely audible whisper, “the Kazekage’s ‘fire within’” the ninja spoke just those words and made her day, her last day. She smiled as she felt all sensation drip away ‘His fire within. I know the true you, I know the true Gaara.’ She thought as she inhaled her shuddering last breath.
___________________________
After a period when the pain had stopped and left her with just numbness, she was barely conscious of everything, just the soft breeze around her and the sensation of floating. Shigure was stumped; she had never felt like this before. The pleasantness of it made her stay there, her eyes closed drifting in an unknown space, were she knew not were she was nor how long she laid there, or stood there, again she could not tell. A small tingling started in her fingertips and made it’s way up to her arm. Again a pleasant feeling but she decided to open her eyes to absorb her surroundings.
She found herself drifting in no particular direction to nowhere in a plain black space. She did not stand, she did not sit, and she just floated around fascinated. Briefly an image would flicker past her vision. Sometimes the image she could see would be far off but they seemed somehow familiar. Until one in particular came in front of her. It was just a shimmer that seemed to move threw the wind and dissolve, like in a pond when you can see the moon, but the reflection gets easily wiped away by a gentle breeze. Though it didn’t seem to come back.
She saw Gaara standing there facing the image smiling at her with his arms out stretched, like he was caressing the image. Then before she could pinpoint why it was so familiar it withered away. She watched again intrigued by this display that reminded her of a dance. In the darkness the images seemed to dance and glitter around her before she could see them properly again one came up before her and she noticed it. Again it was Gaara, looking around at the shimmer with him arm out stretched holding a hand, the body she couldn’t see. But the joy on his face lit hers with a smile, a true smile she hadn’t felt in a very long time. These were her memories. All of Gaara she noticed when it flickered and she saw another in the distance.
Soft words escaped her mouth without her thought, like it wasn’t even her controlling her mouth but I moved and spoke. “Even threw death the memories of love remain strong in out hearts on this plane and the other. The love remains, in your heart and in his. You may choose to stay here and reminisce, or you can go on and wait for him there.” Shigure wasn’t sure why her mouth said these words but she knew them to be true. She wasn’t quite sure were the voice was telling her to go but she assumed it was a kind of heaven.
With her own voice she asked, “Can I say goodbye?” just those simple words bought tears to her eyes. It actually hit her that she was dead. It didn’t scare or hurt her that she wouldn’t see her sister or mother again, it didn’t joy her that she would see her father again, it hurt her to leave Gaara to face it all alone.
The thought that the voice would answer her no and Gaara would think she left him deliberately. She curled into a ball and wept.
She opened her eyes to another memory. It was of her leaving Gaara when they were younger. The first time she let him alone. Again she wept even more, her crystal tears floated around her. She herd herself call back to Gaara, 'please, never forget me Gaara!!! I love you!!!' she smiled at her foolish little quote, but even as she thought of it there was nothing better to say at the time.
She watched him fumble after she used her chakra to send her spirit using she Kakai Genkai of her face and kiss him on the cheek. He found her as kissed her on the forehead. She didn’t see this before; she was to far away to see it. But now she stood in front of the boy she fell in love with at the age of 7 in wonder. He lifted his hand to his cheek were she had kissed him and smiled the most genuine smile she had ever seen. No longer was he bothered by the taunts by the villagers, or the pain of Shikaku on his mind but genuine happiness. He smiled “Shigure, I love you so much, you will never know how much you mean to me, threw life and death, I will love you, from now and forever.” Such deep words just came from a 7 year old. Her heart seemed to swell up inside her; all her worries were washed away with that single phrase.
The image drifted from her eyes to be replaced by another much more disturbing one. The current Gaara was held around the waist by a whit owl, the Akatsuki’s bird. Gaara’s face was contorted with pain and his sand shield was badly cracked around his face and slowly dripping down to the sand below him.
Her heart broke. This was the current Gaara, right now, dying before her. “Gaara,” she whispered as she watched blood trickle down his mouth over the dried blood.
Feebly he opened an eye, “Shigure, is that….” With a gasp and sigh he cut off his sentence.
She jumped forward, in the dark space around her it was an awkward motion but it got her closer to the image. “Please don’t waste your energy, just listen,” she spoke clearly and softly to the image before her. She saw his face crack more when he smiled at her voice before grimacing in pain. “I wanted you to know, I love you so much, and because of the circumstances you will never know how much. You mean the world to me and threw both life and death, I will always love you with my entire heart, for now and forever.” As she spoke her voice cracked with tears.
His smile still partly in place increase, despite the blood trickling down his cracked lips he spoke again “I love you to, I always… have, and always will” he finished as he relaxed his body and closed his eyes, all that showed he still lived was his gentle, abnormally slow breathing.
She closed her red eyes and concentrated, she felt her chakra deep inside her, but slowly loosing the contact with her abilities she concentrated her chakra to her eyes and focused her Kakai Genkai she snapped her eyes open as the picture began to fade around the sides in front of her.
Her usual red fiery eyes shone a fiery and dangerous blue more bright than ever before. She mustered with an unusual amount of effort the same kind of sending that she used when she was younger, she focused her spirit/charka towards the image and pushed it threw until she was floating, nothing but an invisible body, alongside Gaara.
She looked around to see the world she stood in slowly fading away like the image in front of her body. She quickly turned to Gaara and placed her hands on his cheeks. She leaned in, the world around her only composing of Gaara, herself and a little bit of the bird that carried him, and placed her soft lips upon his for the last time on this world. His soft lips caressed hers, she could feel beneath his lips the tremor of pain but he held his lips to hers still. She closed her eyes for the kiss as a trickle of blood dripped from his lips onto her, when nothing but there upper bodies were visible when she reopened her eyes she spoke in his ear, aware of her time running out, “I love you.” He opened his eyes to meet hers; though he could not see hers he knew she could see his. She closed her eyes again, the feeling of his cracked hand upon her wet cheek before she disappeared from his world.
When she opened her eyes the image of Gaara had gone, but the blood on her lips remained. She didn’t wipe it away as she drifted backwards towards a light she was all too afraid to look at. She knew she would wait for the time when she could once again be with her one true love. She floated her arms around her, wrapped in the memory of his touch, of his face, of his voice, and especially his loving kiss.

..::The End::..