Chapter 24

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I stared at the scene, Sakura pinned against a tree with hardened sand; Sasuke lying on the ground again; and Naruto was nowhere to be found. Instead, two large beasts wrestled against each other, a strange frog with a pipe and a light brown four-legged creature of some sort.

"Oh, there he is." I spotted Naruto on top of the giant frog with a smoking pipe, and as the frog's head rushed forward, Naruto's forehead crashed into Gaara's.

"WAKE UP!"

Naruto's scream seemed to help. Gaara's eyes slowly opened and looked cross-eyed at Naruto, a split second before the enormous beasts vanished and the two boys fell.

"At that height, they'll get brain damage for sure," I murmured, watching to the two fall. Yet I made no move to help break their fall.

The sound of sand falling came from behind me, and when I looked, I spotted Sakura falling from the tree trunk. Instantly, Sasuke was up and supporting her unconscious form. Seems It wasn't necessary for me to come as expected.

I wonder what will happen next, I thought, leaving my two teammates behind and rushing towards the tow boys. In the next several seconds, the trees will most likely break their fall and reduce minimal damage to their bodies. Well, that is, if they don't land on their heads.

I stepped into the clearing and stopped. Gaara lied on his back, head turned to look at Naruto who was on his stomach, shakily doing his best to crawl forward to Gaara.

"Why?" Gaara asked, confusion swirling in his eyes. Naruto continued to pant and inch his way slowly towards Gaara. "Why would you do this for anyone else but for yourself!?"

"Aisu...stay out of this...!" Naruto said, breathing hard. He looked ragged and worn out, but the intensity of his voice remained. I made a noise of agreement and stood back to watch.

"I...have a lot of people...important to me...so I won't let them get hurt. That's why I won't ever give up! Even if I have to kill you! I'm doing this for them, because they saved me from this loneliness. This pain. From myself!"

Naruto saw his friends around him as someone who drew him out of his darkness. He believed that they did something important to him and chose to repay them by protecting them.

From my point of view, people just do things for you because they either want something in return, or just want to uphold something about themselves. For example, Naruto wanted to uphold his idea of protecting friends close to him, namely his team. Another example would be Sakura trying to do things for Sasuke so that he would favor her more in the future. She wanted his attention in return for all the things she did for him. In her mind, that was equivalent to being his wife.

"That's enough, Naruto. Sakura's free," Sasuke voice called from the edge of the clearing.

Just then, the other two older siblings of Gaara came and stood in front of Gaara, teeth gritted and faces grim.

"That's enough," Gaara's said quietly from behind.

"But--" the two older siblings looked at their younger brother in shock.

"Alright. Let's go." Kankuro helped his brother up and slung an arm over his shoulder, while Temari stood their speechless. It wasn't until Kankuro looked at her that she seemed to snap out of it and left without a word to us.

"A few broken ribs, a fractured skull, suspected pictured lung," I listed shortly after they left. Sasuke glanced over at me before slinging Naruot's arm over his shoulders and hoisting him up.

"Go get Sakura."

I stared back impassively before snapping my fingers. In a minute, one of my chambermaid skeletons was carrying Sakura.

"Let's go."

"Hn."

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