50 Reasons Why

Chapter Seventeen

                  This has been the most boring and infuriating walk I have yet to endure. For some odd reason, none of us have felt compelled to quicken the process. Possibly due to the conflicting emotions that each one of us are trying to overcome. I have been trying to calm myself from thinking of death and torture for the past ten minutes. The blonde beauty that trailed only three feet behind has spoken a word since our argument. She held true to her word and that was shocking. Yamanaka Ino being quiet was rare indeed. It almost made me angrier for some odd reason. I was hoping for her to continue a small fight or at least speak freely like she always does. Alas, her silence greeted my brother and I and it didn't sit well with me. Then again, if she was speaking and bothering me, the past ten minutes I spent trying to calm myself would disintegrate. Emotions, I still dislike them and dealing with them brings out a new hate I didn't know I possessed.

"Gaara, do you see anything up ahead?" A voice rang through the cave. The female voice echoed through the cave and I took a moment longer to listen to it. It sounded strained and unused. It was... odd. Wait, she broke her promise. Twelve minutes and twenty-eight seconds was the most she went without speaking, outside of her sleep that is. Yet, even in her sleep she would mumble and sigh every so often. Yamanaka Ino just cannot remain quiet. It is outside of her nature.

"No," I responded when I realized I haven't yet.

"Ino, I think its best you leave him be. He's still pretty pissed." My brother interjected towards her.

"I know I pissed him off pretty bad," she responded quietly. She did indeed, but it wasn't her fighting or arguing that made me angriest. It was her betrayal. I wonder if she has discovered that yet.

"I don't think he's exactly pissed off at you, but more like the whole situation we are in," Kankuro commented further. He was trying to soothe her. He knew my rage was directed only towards her. This situation wouldn't have occurred if she would have just listened for once.

She responded, but I could not make it out. Their voices sounded further and my only guess was they had fallen back to speak to each other in privacy. It only made my anger churn inside. They have left me to battle my own silence and demands that I still cannot name. The emotions conflicting in me were beginning to wear on my body. I not only felt anger, but I felt relief, content, and some other third emotion that almost made me feel nauseous and sweaty. Maybe I was catching an unknown illness, or possibly my brother may know the diagnoses. He has mentioned something similar about a week ago that night I showed her back to her apartment. I am unsure but all I know is when we return, I am getting a full check-up.

I came to a halt as I stared down at the dimly lit abbess at the edge of our path. A light could be seen at the end of the dark path. There was a pathway down there and more than likely, they are in that direction. We were close. I heard a sigh from behind me and I looked in the direction but I did not turn my head. That sigh was too known to me and I knew it was a sigh of relief from the blonde. I even felt a small wave of relief flow through me.

"Let me check it out first, Gaara," Kankuro insisted while taking a place next to my side. I looked at my elder brother and studied his face paint. Has it always been purple? Suddenly, that color has become a big part of my life and the meaning to it sent a wave of that same unknown emotion through me. I think I am getting sick.

I finally nodded for my brother to take the lead. The sand flew from my gourd out of instinct. A bed of it formed over the edge and my brother took his place on it. I could see the small struggle he had with balancing on it. I can understand why. A bed of sand is difficult to maintain your balance. Lucky for him he is only heading down, try standing on it a hundred meters in the sky while moving back, forward, and side to side.