The White Flash

Sabaku no Gaara

Nothing. His eyes shot wide. The sand surrounding her body grew heavy and fell away from her limbs in clumps. The outer layer retreated to its owner. Ayumi fell. Landing heavily on her feet, she fell to one knee. The solidified quartz of his sand falling into the pool of lava that stretched from her feet. She took heavy breathes, welcoming air back into her lungs. Her limbs felt heavy. It was an odd feeling. Like a carbonated drink after being shook, close to popping. That was some pressure... Lips pulled back over red-stained teeth. Lava slid through a clenched fist. A picture of the marked kunai she gave him flashed through her mind.

She was there.

Spine twisting and muscles contracting, she threw all that she could into the Sand Genin's cheek. A hard shell gave way beneath her knuckles. They met soft skin. Her other arm followed. Delivering the same amount of damage to his other cheek. Her body followed the movement of her last swing. One foot out, it nailed the same spot. Gaara stumbled. Sand rushed her.

She vanished.

Dropping to the ground, she knocked his feet out from under him. She stood. Left leg raising in the air, the heel smashed against his gut. The gourd exploded into a pile of sand on impact. He drove through. The sand splashed like a wave parting. His back met ground. As the sand reached for her ankles, Ayumi jumped back. Once. Twice. Three times to be safe.

It's easy to hurt if you've never felt pain yourself. Ignorant to what you inflict upon others. Her limbs grew lighter, depressurized. Green orbs fell to the pulsing veins under her skin. They gave a strange orange glow, hot against her flesh. Though, it was a comforting warmth. Like a campfire on a cold night. The strength it returned to her body made one thing clear. If it wasn't for this, I would be dead right now. She looked to Gaara, staggering to his feet. Feel that, Gaara-san? That's what pain feels like. He swayed as he straightened.

She was there.

Both arms swung wide, palms flat she brought them to both cheeks. Instinctively his eyes closed, expecting another jab. Ayumi gently held them in place. The sand shot upwards in preparation to defend him. "Are you calm now?" The sand stopped; his eyes opened. She kept her voice calm, brushing a thumb across his cheekbone. When she was little and throwing a fit, it was a motion her mother did that instantly put her at ease. "We are a team. If we go batshit crazy, then we go batshit crazy together. At the enemy. Not the family. Not each other." His eyes widened, his body frozen, and the sand fell. The intensity that weighed on the air lifted. With a nod, she stepped back. "Okay, now back to the task at hand."

"You sure that you're okay?" Hiro asked, wandering to them whilst rubbing his arm. A bruise already forming from where he hit the wall.

"Not the first time I've been hair's width from death," she shrugged.

Hiro shook his head, "I don't think that's a very healthy mindset to have." Rubbing the back of his head, he looked at her feet. "You're ruining the floor." The subtle crackling of small flames pulled her eyes to her feet. The pool was three feet by three feet, sizzling against the sand and singing the grass of the courtyard. Ayumi focused on the pool, trying to suck it back through her feet or harden it like she did before. However, during her fight with Zabuza she acted on adrenaline alone. She couldn't remember how.

"I-I can't control it, I don't remember how."

"Then don't." An aged voice turned attention towards it. An elderly man stood two feet from the edge of the pool, bruises marked his wrinkled features, the silk kimono he wore marred with tears and mud, and his fists clenched at his sides. She looked beyond; the remainder of his group being escorted out the exit. Bisuke waited at the doorframe, dark eyes watching them. "There was..." Ayumi looked back to the noble, his baby blues scanned the roof of the estate. "A hundred and thirty of us living in these walls. When I last counted, there was only forty left." His tongue clicked, eyes squinting at the burning blades of grass. "I don't care if you burn down this entire estate if it means the end of those mercenaries."