Resonance (Kakashi x OC, Gaara x OC) -- Book 2

Chapter 7: The Loss

Unfortunately, fate seemed to be against all the teams that day as the Akatsuki were already making their next move.

Keiko dropped Gaara back to his office and she went to sleep on the couch since she had been up through the night. He watched her sleeping form for a moment before breaking open the seal of a scroll on his desk. His eyes narrowed as they flew over the page. So movement of the Akatsuki had been noted nearby. He leaned back in the chair and put his fingertips together. Something was coming. Soon.

He watched Keiko for another minute and listened to the grains of sand flow through the kinetic timepiece on his desk. He traced the features of her face in his mind. She was very beautiful. He wondered for half a moment if he would have been happy in a life with her before abandoning the thought and looking back down at the scroll on his desk. He heard an explosion in the distance as the contents of his desk rattled slightly.

He stood and Keiko's eyes flew open. They both rushed to the sliding door of the balcony, throwing it open.

In the distance, they saw what appeared to be a large bird. Gaara's advisor's and guard appeared on his balcony. "This is the second one sighted. The ANBU just went after another invader in the canyon," said Baki.

Kankurō bared his teeth, "So they managed to draw protection away from the village."

"That is how it would appear," said Baki.

"Ready the defenses," said Gaara as sand surrounded him, lifting him into the air.

"That's amazing," said Keiko, "I've never seen his jutsu on this scale."

"The sand always protects him without him having to do anything, but it takes a lot of Chakra to lift himself with it, so he doesn't do it often," said Kankurō.

Keiko stood by Kankurō as they watched their attacker come closer into view. Gaara rose to meet him.

"You must be the sand demon," said the stranger.

Gaara glared wordlessly, arms crossed.

"Don't you want to know who I am?"

"Not really," said Gaara dispassionately, "but I do want to know what you're doing here and advise you to leave."

"Heh," scoffed the stranger. "My name's Deidara, and you are coming with me," he grinned.

The village watched as the battle unfolded, until their view was shielded by Gaara's protective sand.

Keiko shifted nervously. She wanted to help, but she didn't want to undermine his authority in front of the entire village. This was his battle.

An ANBU operative appeared next to them. "There's trouble, in the canyon," he said, "we were being overwhelmed."

"I will go," chimed Keiko. "If you please, back up your kazekage, I will do what I can."

Keiko looked when she reached the canyon and noticed the ANBU operative was gone. Strange. Perhaps he went back to protect the Kazekage. The canyon was a bloodbath. The shinobi were all already dead. She stood for a moment as her stomach lurched. She thought she was going to vomit. She felt a sharp pain but it passed. She had been in many battles, seen lots of death. She was not particularly bothered by it. But the realization that only one Akatsuki member did this made her worry for her friends. She never used to worry about loss beyond letting down a comrade in a sense of duty. She wasn't used to feeling particularly attached to any human over another. This was why her kind was against human attachment. They thought of it as weakness.