Impossible to Forget

Chapter 41: The Sand

As soon as I started running again, Kakashi was out like a light. And he probably was not going to wake up again until I got him to a medic-nin.

My pace had slowed from running to jogging to shuffling quickly. But no matter what I did, I just couldn't make my legs move any faster. I'm not in mission shape. I have a desk job. Yes, I still train and work out, but that's different from the strength that you acquire when on missions.

I could feel what little strength that I had left waning. I had been running on nothing but willpower alone for the last several hours, and even the strong desire that I felt to save Kakashi wasn't going to be enough at some point.

I could feel my knees wobbling beneath me dangerously.

I had already drunk the last remaining mouthfuls of our water, and it felt like there was a savannah on my tongue and a desert in my throat.

I was done for when my foot caught a rock that I didn't see.

In an ungraceful lunge, I flew forward, and Kakashi landed on top of my back, pinning me to the ground. I could not make my muscles move. No matter how many angry signals that my brain sent out, I was completely fried. I could not twist to the side, move my arms, roll Kakashi's dead weight off me, and I could barely find the strength to breathe. My pulse rang in my ears like a percussionist, and I was certain that that was how I was going to die.

It seemed that death had come to me when Kakashi's weight had finally been lifted from my back. But when strong hands gripped me under the arms and hauled me onto a floating cloud of sand, I was absolutely positive that I was dead.

However, when a teal pair of eyes handed me a full canteen of water, I knew that I was incredibly lucky.

My vision cleared enough to see that I was whizzing over the ground at a terminal speed on a cloud of sand, and I was certain that I was about throw the water that I had just drunk back up.

"Gaara?" I stared at the person sitting calmly next to me. "I mean, Lord Kazekage, what's going on?"

He looked at me carefully, "First, I have to ask you where Nori is."

"Dead." I took another large gulp of water, spilling half of it down my front, but I couldn't care less. "Anzu, where's Anzu?"

"Safe." I sighed with relief. "I came across her and Tadao on my way out of the village. When they told me what happened, I went out right away, and Temari took the two of them back to the Leaf for you."

I wanted to cry with relief. Anzu wasn't dead. She hadn't starved to death on some dead-end path that she and Tadao had accidently turned onto. They had followed the road back and run into the Kazekage.

Gaara went back to sitting stoically, "You should get some rest. We'll be back at the village later today."

I nodded and looked over at Kakashi, who was so deeply asleep that he was actually drooling a little. Wait, his mask was down. We had never pulled it back up after he ate this morning, oops.

I pulled the fabric back over the bridge of his nose, and Gaara looked back to see what I was doing. "We'll just not tell him about that."

The Kazekage shrugged then nodded before going back to being stoic. I fell fast asleep.