The Power to Heal and Destroy by Phoenixsun

Chapter 14: As He Descended Into Madness

Kankuro kept looking back over his shoulder as he jumped from branch to branch. "Please... be alright..." The boy whispered, hopping that by some way, his sister would hear him.

It had already been twenty minutes since she went to try to hold off that blond boy, and five minutes since he was able to feel her chakra at all. The puppet user kept telling himself that it was all because they were now too far apart and he never bothered to hone his chakra detection skills. It was needless to say that it was failing miserably and he was getting more and more worried with every minute that passed.

The brown haired boy sighed. "At least you're still out..." He thought as he looked at the sleeping form of his younger brother, not daring speak it out of fear of jinxing it.

Suddenly, Kankuro's eyes shot open, he had been so preoccupied with his sister's status the he had not caught on to a more imminent problem. While he had been musing in his mind, the Uchiha guy had been getting closer and closer, to the point that, if Kankuro dared to look back again, he would now be able to see him approach.

Before the Sand genin could think of something to do, he was unexpectedly pushed aside against a tree. Opening his eyes, the boy froze in his place as he beheld the terrifying sight of his younger brother baring his fangs at someone. Forcing his neck to turn, Kankuro's eyes set on the raven haired genin that was now foolishly standing just a few branches from Gaara.

The redhead observed the Uchiha as he clenched his head in obvious pain, yet as a smile started to form in his face.

"Whatever it is you're trying to pull..." Sasuke began as he took out a kunai. "... It ends here..." The Sharingan appeared in the raven haired genin's eyes.

"End...?" Gaara asked, his voice coming out strained. "Nothing is going to end..." A weird, blue pattern appeared in his right arm as the hold of the redhead's left hand on his head tightened. "Nothing is going to end until Mother is satisfied...!" The Suna genin exclaimed as the blue pattern spread all the way to the right side of his face and he dropped to his knees.

Sasuke fought the urge to step back. His eyes watched in disbelieve as the redhead in front of him started to change.

Gaara's right arm had apparently changed into what appeared to be a sand claw, awfully similar to the thing that had grabbed his arm back in the stadium. The Sand genin's face had become a grotesque sight as his right side resembled that of a monster, all the while a frightening chakra seeped out of his body.

The Uchiha's Sharingan eyes widened when he felt the redhead's chakra, its terrorizing feeling seemed familiar to him, somehow, someway, the chakra reminded him of Naruto.

Snapping out of his trance, Sasuke jumped just before the Suna genin's sand claw came crashing through the tree branch he had been standing on. The Uchiha had little time to contemplate the situation as the sand arm immediately shot up, destroying everything in his path, and leaving the Leaf genin no other choice but to jump from tree to tree as the sand monstrosity chased him around.

The sand limb retracted back to the redhead. "What's the matter?!" Gaara's voice had become raspy and grunt-like. "It's no fun if you just jump all over the place; Mother won't like that at all." The Sand genin commented as he looked at his opponent.

Sasuke took notice at how the redhead's right eye had changed, it had become all black with a yellow pupil; it was the yellow color that got to him, it remind him of a certain blond, and the mere memory of his teammate, accompanied with the strange chakra that the Suna genin was giving off, put the Uchiha on edge. Shaking those thoughts off his mind, the raven haired boy took out a kunai just as the sand claw shot directly towards him. Jumping to meet the attack, Sasuke impaled his kunai right on claw's palm.