Broken Lives Go So Well Together (Gaara Story)

Chapter 20

"The leaf village lotus blooms twice." He said. "I've heard that somewhere before!" Sakura said, "Yea! Lee told me that!"
"But... Gai no! You didn't..." Kakashi said. Even I knew that it was stupid to do that, it could kill Lee! "Yes, Kakashi I did." Gai replied. I stepped forwards as I hit the Jounin in the face. "Idiot that could kill him!" I hissed. He gave me a glare as he caught my arm before I hit him again. "So that Genin, that boy is able to open the 8 inner gates of the hidden lotus?!" Kakashi asked. 'I have to admit that is impressive, but he could still get so severely injured!' I thought to myself.
"That's correct." Gai said."Well," Kakashi said, "Honoka was right to hit you! But how many of the inner gates is he able to open now?" "5 gates." Gai answered. "Okay so what exactly are these 8 inner gates you are talking about? And the 'hidden lotus'?" Sakura asked. I sighed, "The 8 gates are like bounds. Or chakra limiters that must be opened if one is to release the hidden lotus." I said. "I'm still not following! And how would you know?" she asked snobbily."I know cuz I'm not stupid." I replied as Kakashi lifted his head band to look at the match with the sharingan, and I activated mine. "There are gates along the chakra network. Located at those points in the body where the chakra is most concentrated, starting at the head. They are the gate of opening and the gate of rest, of life, of pain, of closing, of joy, of shock, and the gate of death. These are what's called, 'the 8 inner gates'." He finished."The purpose is to limit the chakra flow throughout the body. But the lotus exerts tremendous pressure on these gates, literally forcing the gates open." I said, "This releases the restraints from the chakra, the results being a person's strength can be increased 10 fold, or more." "The primary lotus only opens the first gate, the gate of opening, releasing the brain's restraints on the muscles. Freeing a person to bring forth its body's strength to its fullest extent. You've seen the results." He finished. "And the hidden lotus?" Sakura asked. I looked over at Neji to see him looking at his sensei but still trying to look uninterested in the topic. "That's the second gate, the gate of rest." I said while watching Lee jump out of the way of another sand jet as Sakura asked what would happen if Lee opened any other gates. "All I can tell you," I began, "is that if he opens the 8th gate, He'll die." I turned to Gai and gave him a glare that I'm pretty sure had killed some people.Gaara stood looking annoyed at Lee as he began opening the 3rd gate and everyone in the room, including Dosu (the last sound ninja) looked surprised.I watched as Gaara began to form another hand sign, "I don't know what you think you're planning right now, but this match is over for you." My eyes widened in fear for Lee, "You have to stop him!" I said to the Jounin, they looked over at me confused, "Gaara's done playing! Lee is going to die!" I hissed. I looked back at the match as Lee's hair began to rise and his forehead got veiny and red. Everybody, including me starred at the match, I was not only surprised that Lee could open the 3rd gate, but Gaara looked almost... scared.Some people seemed to want to point out the obvious around me, but it seemed that Neji and I where the only ones to continue to look at the arena without distraction. Unfortunately I couldn't hold my demeanor when he opened the fourth gate. My mouth flew open as I looked at Gai and said, "And you people think I'm the monster." I couldn't stand being by him anymore, 'Who would teach their student that? Something that could make that student die!' I thought. –I don't know all I know is that he looks pretty scary!- Bakeneko said. I looked at the fight now as I was standing by myself in the space between Shino and Kankuro. With a bend of Lee's knee the ground tore and rubble was replaced to show Lee kicking Gaara under the jaw again. "Gaara!" Kankuro exclaimed in concern as I looked at Kankuro'Maybe he cares about Gaara after all...' I thought but was quickly distracted by my concern for Gaara.He was thrown in the air, his armor cracking for real this time, because it was actually him, he was wincing in pain. The sand rose in desperation to save Gaara. "Hiding behind that sand armor again eh? Well we will see about that!" Lee said as he pushed Gaara back and forth in the air before that sand could even hope of stopping him. I watched as his armor began to crumble, and Gaara seemed to notice to because he was beginning to panic. Lee got ready to punch Gaara as his muscles tore themselves. Kakashi noticed this with his sharingan and I even saw Neji with his Byakugan activated, and for once he looked baffled.Lee did another punch that pushed Gaara to the ground, as he was about to pound against it Lee grabbed onto one of Gaara's while cloths and pulled Gaara back towards himself to deliver the final blow. Gaara gasped as he was hit with the 'hidden lotus' and smashed into the ground. Dust was raised everywhere, but I could just make out Gaara being saved by the sand of his gourd. I smiled, 'Good, if he died I would've been pissed.'
Lee rolled out from the debris and didn't get up from exhaustion. "Unbelievable he did it!" Naruto said happily. "Gaara!" Kankuro exclaimed. "Don't worry Gaara's fine..." I said to Kankuro. "What did you even see that blow?" Naruto asked, "How could anybody be 'fine' after that?" Not wanting to spoil the surprise I said, "You'll see.""Is it over?" Sakura asked hopefully. "What is that? Down there!" Ino asked as the sight of Gaara being saved by the sand was shown to everybody else in the room. He was breathing heavily and shaking, but to my relief, alive. He reached his shaking hand to Lee who was now sitting up. Lee was trying to crawl away but couldn't because of the pain caused by the lotus. The sand began to rush at Lee looking like a hand. "I know what's coming now!" Shino said quietly. I looked over at Shino and said sadly, "So do I." Shino looked at me and I said, "But I'll stop it." He looked at me questionably as I made a telepathic connection with Gai. I played with his mind to make him realize what was coming as well, without knowing I was in his head.By the time I was out of Gai's head I saw Lee screaming in pain as Gaara smushed his arm and one of his legs with the sand. As Lee flew to the ground I dispersed my telepathy jutsu and began to transport to the ring, not caring of the consequence. I knew that Gai would stop Gaara's sand, it was just the matter of stopping Gaara from hurting Gai too. "Now you die!" Gaara exclaimed as I used some of my fire and lightning to stop the attack. (Like Gaara can control sand, I have a jutsu that controls fire and lightning). Gaara looked up surprised as Gai stopped some of the sand, and I contained the rest of it in the fire ball. I walked up to him and dispersed my jutsu while placing the sand at Gaara's side. Gaara's eyes widened and I knew he was thinking about his 'uncle' again. I sighed and bent down beside him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He looked at me still in shock and I smiled warmly at him. He grabbed him head in pain and asked Gai, "But why? He failed! Why save him?"I looked up at Gai, he did have his reasons for wanting to save Lee, but he will never know why he knew to do it. "Because he's..." Gai paused for a second thinking, "Because he's my student and also because he is precious to me." Gaara looked up in confusion and so did I.
We stayed like that for a minute until Temari exclaimed, "He's precious to him? A student?" I looked at the sensei still and said, "Why would he be precious to you, it isn't like he's your child." the sensei looked taken aback, "And even then, why would he be precious to you?" I asked thinking of my parents and how they despised me. I continued to stare at the man, because it seemed like he couldn't answer the question. Gaara's gourd began to reform onto his back and stood up. I did this as well and he began to walk away, as did I alongside him.Gai gasped as we did this and watched us walk off. "I quit..." Gaara said. I looked over at him surprised and asked, "Why?" silently. "He what? He quits?" Sakura asked. "But it's too late for Lee." Kakashi said, "He lost the match the minute Gai intervened." The proctor turned to us as we walked off, he raised his hand to us, "The winner is..." he turned to Lee to see him standing up. Everybody gasped, Gaara grunted. We both turned to the green dressed boy.