Chapter 153 Sasuke VS Gaara
Gaara noticed that his mother had been very quiet lately.
Her deep voice grew duller and more distant, like a breeze on the sand instead of the storm he was used to.
She was usually so loud that Gaara couldn't think of anything but to follow her orders, her mind tightly wrapped around him, blending their voices together.
It was strange to be able to form thoughts amidst the noise, to find space in the desert of his mind quiet enough to form a thought or two of his own.
He was now able to think for himself, enough to know that something was wrong.
For the first time in his memory, he felt his mother was afraid.
Her fear showed in her petite frame and ocean-sky eyes filtered through her blonde hair.
He should have been dead.
Usually, the mother agrees.
They were all dangerous, all trying to catch him, to break him, to crush him, to destroy him. He had to destroy them first.
But she disagreed.
There was no desire to see blood, no lust to peel flesh from bones, no sticky, wet power seeping between death.
"It's too dangerous," she said. "It's not the right time yet."
So far, Gaara had been listening.
He was grateful for this quiet land.
This allowed him to spend more time with his blood, with the other creatures of his desert, with his brothers and sisters and teachers.
But now is the time.
The mother's fear was too dangerous, and the longer they stayed in this green place, the more dangerous it became.
However, there is a problem.
Someone stood between him and his mother's fear. A boy with gloomy eyes. If he wanted to eliminate his mother's fear, he had to deal with him first.
His sister had warned him that the boy was strong, and his mother agreed.
The boy now stood before him, eyes neutral, expression blank.
He looked a little tired, but Gaara wasn't stupid enough to think that meant he wasn't very dangerous anymore – there was already a Kumo-nin recovering in the hospital, having already made that mistake.
The mother sensed a danger that Gaara couldn't yet see, and he felt the sand begin to stir against his skin, weaving together to protect him, ready to defend him in an instant.
And immediate defense is necessary.
The speed was truly terrifying, because in the brief second that the game started, the boy came face to face.
The air rumbled as the Uchiha's attack collided with the protective ball of sand, and Gaara took the opportunity to push forward, coating the boy's fist with sand.
Gaara's keen nose picked up the distinct scent of ozone, and he felt the crackle of electricity in the sand before he saw it. The lightning hissed, sharp and hot, the flash forging the sand grains into thin crystals before shattering them.
Temari had also warned him that this strange taijutsu could summon elemental charges, so Gaara changed his tactics.
He leaps, moves, even as he pulls the sand back, twisting it in a dancing way around his opponent, his prey, in a spiral that compresses the desert.
But the dark-haired boy began to move before he could fully contract the sand burial into a column of bloody particles.
It seems that he can infuse more than just lightning into his taijutsu.
Gaara fluidly changed tactics again, firing hardened sand bullets that were dodged, causing the Uchiha to spin in the air and disappear, only to reappear behind him in Gaara's quickly recovering wave of desert sand.
The boy had a calm yet determined focus, and even when Gaara's attacks barely grazed him, he was able to wear down Gaara's defenses with methodical savagery.
Gaara took back the sand from his recent bombardment to regroup, his eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze firm and blank.
"Is this a game to you?" Gaara asked emotionlessly as the Uchiha stepped back from his latest series of parries and counterattacks, the wind rising around his legs and blowing his dark hair.
"I could ask you the same question," the dark-haired boy muttered boredly, his eyes narrowed in something akin to suspicion. "You don't seem too excited about this either. You have something else on your mind."
Gaara tilted his head, sensing a threat like an animal would.
"You're in my way, like everyone else," he said with cruel tenderness, the sand crawling dry and abrasive across his skin as he opened the chakra floodgates. It made his monster more ferocious, more difficult to control. "I'm going to see your blood, no matter what."
The sandstorms that Gaara whipped up must have been spectacular, but he knew that all the onlookers saw was a heaving sea of sand, churning and roaring like a real ocean, eager to obey his will and consume the dark Uchiha.
However, Uchiha Sasuke was like a ghost, moving as fast as lightning and almost impossible to catch.
This game of cat and mouse had gone on for too long, and he realized that his chakra was almost exhausted.
He felt his mother's anxiety growing, her energy colliding with his, making it sharper, more difficult to control.
"Go to sleep," she pleaded in a rough voice, "I will protect us."
"No," he retorted, "I will protect us."
She fell silent reluctantly, but did not try to forcibly control Gaara as she usually did.
She had learned the necessity of hiding their true power, at least for now.
Still, he had discovered something during his frustrating bouts with the Uchiha; for some reason - despite the obvious tactical advantages of doing so - the Uchiha seemed unwilling, perhaps even unable, to use any substantial jutsu against him.
Meeting two ninjas in a row with no real ninjutsu abilities seemed unlikely, but it wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever encountered.
The green-clad ninja was much easier to deal with, and he was nearly defeated by him, but if his suspicions were correct, Gaara would exploit the Uchiha's weakness.
However, just when he thought he had figured out the ways of the Leaf Village ninjas, things changed.
Suddenly, without any warning, Uchiha Sasuke disappeared, disappearing in the rolling sea of sand that he perceived.
The next second, Sasuke appeared above Gaara's head. His moving figure cast a distorted shadow, and the roar of the Chidori exploded in Gaara's ears.
Dazzling lightning burst from the boy's outstretched hand, sharp and deadly.
Gaara barely managed to raise his sand shield in time to block the fatal blow.
Even though the sand tore at the Uchiha's arms, the chakra still penetrated his defenses and tore through his shoulder.
---
Three minutes into this ridiculous fight, Sasuke knew he couldn't win.
