Beautiful Silence

Chapter 19: The Pursuit

It was almost the end of the time extension given to Sasuke. Riko thought that it was maybe for the best if Sasuke just didn't show up. Looking once more at Gaara, she was pained to see him filled with so much madness that it seemed to be blinding him from everything else.

The leaves in the arena then suddenly started swirling. It was just slowly at first, but the swirling soon picked up the pace, lifted by an increasingly intense gust of wind. Amongst the dust and leaves, two figures appeared in the middle of the arena. They were back to back. Riko gulped inwardly as she discovered the identity of the two. It was Sasuke and Kakashi. The crowd cheered as soon as they realized that Uchiha Sasuke had finally made his entrance. Gaara, without a word, without looking at anyone, turned around and headed for the staircase leading down to the arena. Riko wanted to follow him. She wanted to get up and run after him. But she didn't do that. She sat there, clenching the cloth of her skirt. She was scared. Riko was scared to face Gaara as he was. She felt powerless. All she could do was sit there and watch as the events that would start to unfold in front of her.

"Riko-san? Is everything alright?"

Tsubomi's voice snapped Riko out of her inner turmoil. She gave Tsubomi an innocent smile to reassure her. She then started to wonder why it took Gaara so long to get to the arena.

On his way down, Gaara was confronted with two men that were hired by those betting on Sasuke's victory. At that point, his bloodlust was almost completely out of control. Without hesitation, almost not even acknowledging that they were threatening him, he crushed them with his sand, ignoring their cries. For him, they were just easy targets to feed his violent urges. Naruto and Shikamaru, who were on their way up, witnessed the whole scene. They stood there, frozen in fear as he walked passed them, ignoring their existence. As soon as he left, their legs gave out from the fear they had just experienced, and they sat down on the stairs.

Riko's heart leaped as she saw Gaara making his way to face Sasuke. It leaped mostly in fear. She then noticed how he had his hand up to his head. People usually did that when they had headaches. Riko thought that it was probably not a normal headache either, judging by how unsteadily Gaara was walking. She bit her lower lip in worry. After Genma announced the beginning of the match, Sasuke leaped at Gaara with incredible speed. He was so fast that Riko couldn't see him, just like how Lee was against Gaara. The sand shield couldn't keep up with Sasuke's movements, resulting in him landing many hit on Gaara. Riko couldn't help but gasp. She really hated to see Gaara getting hurt like this.

"Come on, Riko-san, you've been reacting really weirdly."

Tsubomi looked at Riko with suspicious eyes. The latter couldn't even hear anything, being too focused on what was happening to Gaara. He had now started forming a cocoon of sand around him. Sasuke then quickly weaved a bunch of signs.

"Chidori!"

His voice echoed as lighting started to form in his hand. The screeching sounds filled the arena as he ran towards Gaara, attacking him and piercing through the sand dome. There was then a momentary silence before Gaara let out a terrifying scream.

"Blood! It's my blood!"

That was what tipped Riko's emotions to overflow. She stood up, tears rolling down her cheeks, and ran to the stairs.

"Riko-san!"

Tsubomi called out to her, but Riko was already long gone. Before Tsubomi could get up and follow her, she felt a sudden drowsiness and fell into a deep sleep, just like almost all the other spectators, falling under the effect of Kabuto's Genjutsu. Most shinobi ranked higher than Genin were able to dispel the Genjutsu on themselves and started to fight back against the assailants.

When Riko arrived to where Gaara was, she found him in the middle of the half collapsed dome. Sasuke was standing further away, his arm injured. Without hesitating, Riko ran towards Gaara, who's shoulder was bleeding profusely.

"Move!"

Before she could reach him, Kankuro knocked her out of the way, causing her to fall on the ground. He and Temari then took Gaara away and headed for the forest.

"I won't let you!"

Sasuke got up and started chasing after them. Riko quickly got back up and started running towards where they went. She had to catch up to them and fast, but she knew she wasn't as quick as fully-fledged shinobi. She told herself that it was all for Gaara's sake and that she absolutely had to catch up to them. As she was jumping through the trees, she felt her steps getting lighter. Every jump she made, propelled her further than ever before. After a certain point, she realized that she wasn't even jumping anymore, but simply gliding through the air at high speed. She didn't think much of it, however, since she was getting used to all the weird phenomena that happened when she deeply wished for something. And now was no different. She wanted Gaara safe. Riko knew that if she let Sasuke get to him first, Gaara would get hurt again and he would also hurt Sasuke. No matter what, she had to catch up to them before any of that happened.

As she glided through the air, she found Sasuke and Temari confronting each other, but she payed no attention to them, focusing instead on getting to Kankuro and Gaara who were further ahead. As she did, Temari and Sasuke noticed her and stared, wide-eyed at what they saw. Temari then started to pursue Riko, since she realized that she was after Gaara. Sasuke followed close behind, also wanting to reach Gaara.