The Man Behind The Mask

Chapter Two

Gaara POV
I get up the next morning at exactly six o'clock. I unpack two breakfast bars and a flask of water for each of us to use throughout the day. I then neatly roll my sleeping mat and fold my blanket then put them back in my bag. As I finishing packing up my items I hear Elizabeth start to stir awake. "What time is it?" She slurs. "Probably 6:05 in the morning." She groans at this news and shoves her face back into her pillow. "You should get up so we don't have to walk through the afternoon heat to make our desired progress today," I tell her. "Oh okay," she replies and starts to get up. I watch her as she gets up and rolls up her sleeping bag then gets out her clothing.
I turn around just as she is about to ask me to do so. When she is finished dressing she comes over and sits next to me. I hand her a breakfast bar and her flask of water. I can tell she is stealing glances at me while we eat our breakfast. I finish my breakfast and stand up to get ready to leave. She notices this and shoves the rest of her food in her mouth causing her to choke. I fall to her side and grab her flask of water. She is coughing loudly which means she's breathing so she just needs to drink something. "Here ma'am, please drink some of this," I say and put the flask to her lips.
She takes a drink and a little bit of water falls down her face. When she starts breathing clearly I move away from her and she wipes her mouth. "Sorry about that," she mutters embarrassed. "It's fine, are you ready to go?" I ask her. "Um yeah let me grab my bags," she says and stands up to walk to her bags. While she does that I raise my hand and pull away the sand one I created last night. "It will be difficult to climb this dune so we can both just ride on my sand," I tell her. She nods and comes to stand next to me. I make a small platform of my sand for us both to get on. She steps on and sits down, I follow suit and move the sand up the side of the dune.
We both climb off when we reach the top and I pull my sand back into the gourd on my back. "Thanks," she says to me. "Of course ma'am," I respond just as monotone as ever. We begin walking in silence again across the desert. She walks in front of me so I can better protect her. It's actually convenient that she doesn't seem to tire from our walking. I am grateful that she doesn't complain about the desert heat. After a few hours I tell her to stop so we can eat a lunch of raw cactus. She unscrews her flask but fumbles with the cap and it slips from her fingers. She catches it before it can even fall halfway to the ground. When did her reflexes get good enough to do that? She notices me staring at her hand and quickly puts the cap on the flask and turns away from me.
We sit and eat in silence then continue walking. Once in a while she wipes the sweat from her face or pulls her hair away from her neck but she doesn't slow or complain. At around three o'clock we finally reach the forest and leave behind the harsh desert. "We need to find a water source to refill our supply before we stop for the day," I say to her. "If we head downhill and look for wet soil then we will probably find a stream," she says quietly, like she doesn't want to show that she knows this.
"You're right, let's go," I say. She heads downhill and I follow behind her. She begins to get farther away as she expertly navigates the forest. "Ma'am? Can you please stay close to me, it will help me protect you better," I ask her. "Oh..yeah sorry, I got carried away," she responds and backtracks to me. She's now only about arms length away from me which makes me feel better about her safety. She stops suddenly and I turn quickly to look for threats. "Did you see something?" I ask protectively. "I'm listening, I found a water source." She turns and walks to the right of us. About five minutes later we reach a pool with a small waterfall leading into it. How did she hear from so far away? I didn't even detect until we got a little closer.
"This is good, it's starting to get dark so we can camp here also," I say. She nods and lays down her bags a few feet away then grabs her flask. I set down my bags and head back into the woods to collect dry wood for a fire. When I get back she has a lot of water ready to boil. I set up the wood and start the fire then start boiling the water to purify it. While that boils I walk around the perimeter of our clearing and set up a string trap to notify me if someone comes near us. I turn back to the fire but Elizabeth has already taken the water and put it in the large ouch and started cooking some more pork cabbage soup. "Would you want to bathe while I watch this," she offers. "Will you be okay to be unsupervised for a little while," I ask hesitantly. "Yeah, go do what you need to do," she replies kindly. "It won't be long ma'am, thank you," I say to her. She gives me a small smile then turns back to the soup. I grab the soap and rough towel I brought and walk to the other side of the pool which is covered by vines.
I pull of my chest plate and arm covers and then my mask. I strip my under clothes and step into the pool. The water is cool and refreshing but I waste no time bathing and getting back out. I pull back on my clothes and armor then walk back through the vines to our little camp. The smell of soup hits me as I walk towards Elizabeth and the fire. She dishes out two bowls of soup and hands me one of them. "Thank you," I say to her and walk over to sit across the small fire from her.
When I take a bite of my soup I notice it tastes a lot better than mines is yesterday. "What did you put in this?" I ask hesitantly. She blushes slightly and turns her head down. "I brought some of the herbs I got from the market at your village," she tells me. "It's good, maybe you should cook, if you don't mind," I tell her. "Yeah I don't mind, I'm happy to do it," she says quietly. We both finish our soup in silence, watching the fire burn down and listening to the waterfall. I walk over to Elizabeth and take her bowl so I can wash it out. I go to the pool and pour water over the bowls to wash them out. I return to the fire and Elizabeth is rifling through her bag. "Im gonna go take a bath," she says, holding a towel and her own soap. "Okay, I will be here, please yell if something happens," I tell her. "Yeah," she mutters and walks away. I sit and star out at the forest, scanning for something that might be a threat. Ten minutes later Elizabeth emerges from behind the vines and walks to sit next to me.
The smell of her orange ginger soap is refreshing compared to the smell of the fire smoke."Anything happen while I was gone," she jokes hesitantly. "No, everything is the same," I say. "Oh, okay," she says softly and looks out at the forest. We sit beside each other for a little bit and shift my position because my hand is going numb. A drop of water falls from her hair and falls onto the back of my hand. I pull my hand away and start to wipe off the water. She realizes what happened and starts to blush. She pulls her hair around her shoulder and wrings it out a little more. "I'm really sorry...um..what's your name again?" She asks. "I don't think it is necessary for you to know," I tell her. It is not customary for ANBU to reveal there names to anyone, even their clients. "But I mean, you know my name," she argues. "You're right. I know your name because you're my client. You don't need to know my name because I am simply here to serve and protect you," I say. "We could still be friends," she mutters and walks away to her sleeping bag. I put out the fire and get into my own makeshift bed. I am about to fall asleep when I hear a soft "goodnight" from a few feet away.