The Man Behind The Mask

Chapter Nine

Gaara POV
A few more days pass but these days are different. We walk together now, side by side. We always sit together for at least a half an hour and usually hold hands. She smiles at me more and I feel happier to be around her. I never thought I would enjoy her company this much. We went hunting again and I got a few rabbits. We are on our last day before we reach the Hidden Mist. It feels weird being this close to leaving her. I don't really want this journey to end, not yet.
We have down most of our walking for today and only have a little bit farther before we stop. Suddenly I hear a whizzing sound and four kunai come flying at Elizabeth from all different directions. My sand instantly flies out and deflects the kunai. A shinobi jumps from the trees and lands in front of us. "What do you want?" I ask while shielding Elizabeth. "I want to kill the feudal lords grand daughter," is all he says before lunging at us.
I throw sand at him but he dodges, I note his impressive speed. He pulls four needles out and shoot them straight at Elizabeth. I step over and block her with my sand. I throw a series of attacks at him which he deflects. It seems he has no interest in fighting me, just killing my client. I jump towards him and hit him in the chest hard. The blow knocks him down but he gets back up. "The Land of Waves will suffer!" He shouts and runs straight towards Elizabeth. I leap foreword and attempt to hit him with my sand but he evaded the attack, or so he thinks. He lands directly onto the pile of sand I deployed when he first attacked. "Sand burial!" I shout and pull my sand around him. Everything that happens next seems to go in slow motion. As I lift my sand around him he pulls out six more needles and hurls them at Elizabeth right before he is surrounded. I tighten the sand and crush him as the needles fly foreword. My sand deflects all of them but one. "Elizabeth!" I shout as the last needle hits her in the chest.
I run to her side to catch her fall. The needle is dripping a purple liquid onto her shirt. Poison. "It's poison, what do I do?" I ask her frantically. She winces and looks down at her wound. "Elizabeth what do I do!?" I say louder. "Start by pulling out the needle," she wheezes, the poison is starting to spread through her blood system. I pull the needle out as quickly and gently as possible. "Lift my hand to the wound for me," she says. I grab her arm and raise it to her wound.
Green light emits from her hand onto the hole. "This is a simple poison, I have an antidote in my bag," she coughs. I lift her up and pull the bag off of her back. I rip it open and search for her first aid kit. I find it and pull it out of the bag. The clips pop open and I grab the three antidote vials I see. "Which one?" I ask her. She looks up and weakly lifts her hand but it falls. "Elizabeth which one will save you?!" I shout. She lifts her arm again and points to the middle vial. I tear the cap off of it and put it into the needle. My hands shake as I push the needle into her arm and inject the antidote. "That..should...work," she whispers.
Her eyes are fluttering and threatening to close. I squeeze tears away from my eyes and pull her into my arms. All I can do now is wait for the antidote to work, if it does at all. No, it will work, it has to. I stand up shakily and start walking to find a water source. Elizabeth is still struggling to keep consciousness as she lays against my chest. Looking at her in this state makes me sick to my stomach so I look forward. A tear escapes my eye and slides down my face only to get caught by my mask.
After a few minutes I find a stream to stop at. I sit down, still holding Elizabeth, and wait for her to wake up. I look down at her face which has lost most of its color and feel another wave of nausea. The day turns into to night and I am getting more and more worried about the antidote working. I shake her gently to try to get her to wake up and she does not respond. "Elizabeth?" I whisper. She is still, her heart beat very faint. "Please wake up, please," I choke through tears that are slowly forming in my eyes. A stream of tears fall down my face, most of them getting stopped by my mask. One of them falls down and lands onto her cheek. "Please," I beg and pull her to my chest as more tears flow down my face. "Ga...Gaara." I open my eyes to see her blue ones staring back at me. A surge of joy overwhelms me. "I'm here Elizabeth," I tell her. I put my hand on her heart to see that her heart beat has grown stronger. The color is returning to her face and her eyes are now fully opened.
"Oh Elizabeth," I whisper and put my hand on her soft cheek. She smiles slightly. Her hand raises to my face and holds the edge of my mask. I lift my hand and pull the mask off my face completely. I lean down and kiss her soft lips while another tear escapes my eyes. I put my hand on her face and rub her cheek with my thumb. I pull away just enough to look into her cyan eyes. She brings her hand to my uncovered face and rubs the tear away. I smile at her and take a deep breath in. "I love you Elizabeth," I whisper and kiss her again. We hold this kiss for a while until I pull away. I gaze into her face and admire her small smile. "I love you," I repeat. "I love you too Gaara," she whispers.
I pull her into a hug with one of my hands on the back of her head and the other on her back. I inhale the faint scent of her orange soap as she wraps her arms tightly around my torso. "Don't ever do that again," I say into her hair. "I won't, I promise," she whispers back. We sit together, interlocked with each other. I can tell she is still weak so I lay her down to let her sleep. I start to get up but she grabs my hand. "Lay with me," she whispers.
I lay down behind her and wrap my arm protectively around her waist. We lay together, embracing each others warmth. My eyes begin to grow heavy from the exhausting day. She locks her hand with mine and interlaces her fingers. "Goodnight Gaara, I love you," she whispers. "I love you too."