The Tail Of A Beast {A Naruto Fan-Fic)

Chapter 17

Well, here you go!  Chapter 17!  ...Wow, can you believe that this is really the 17th chapter?!  This is the farthest I've gotten on any story I've ever written!  Thanks, guys!  Your support is what got me off of my lazy butt and over to the computer so I could type up this way overdue chapter!  XD

Now, you may enjoy (hopefully)...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17

(Naruto's POV)

The group had finally all arrived, and we were preparing to head back to the Leaf.  I still couldn't believe, or understand it.  I couldn't begin to.

I had never experienced the feeling of a mission being left 'Incomplete' - but it was more than that.  That mission was personal, it hit close to home in a way that no other possibly could have, and I had failed.  I failed my village, Granny Tsunade, the Sand Village, Gaara... and I'd failed myself.

And Ookami was there, with them.

Gritting my teeth at the reminder, I shook my head, as though the thoughts would go away by some sort of magic, but they obstinately remained, engraved in my mind.  They nagged at my conscious, ignoring my feeble attempts to dismiss them.

As we turned back in the direction I knew would take us home, I ran through several things in my mind, searching desperately for a reason to stay.  Something - anything - that would provide reason for us to remain on the mission for only a night longer.  Something to give me just enough time to figure out things that I hadn't had the chance to thoroughly think through.  Regardless to say, I wound up with nothing that could possibly have been of use to me.

With my spirits hitting an all-time low, the last thing I expected was to hear a very confused, very familiar voice behind us, asking, "What's going on?"

His words were husky and slightly slurred, as though he had only just been woken up from a very deep sleep, but it was unmistakable - that was Gaara.  I froze, turning slowly to face him, praying that my ears hadn't deceived me. 

They hadn't.

In front of me stood the same red-headed, teal-eyed man that I'd seen not long before, I confirmed in my head, a grin making it's way across my face as I felt ecstatic joy spread through me like wildfire, but then logic came into play.  Not only I, but Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, and even that old Granny Chiyo had seen Gaara's body.  He had been absolutely, positively, 100% dead then... so why was he suddenly very much alive?

"Wait, Gaara..." I spoke, my voice carrying out over the celebration and catching the attention of everyone, too.  "You were dead.  How are you alive now?"

Those who I had travelled with wore frowns of concentration as they waited patiently for the confused red-headed man's answer.

Gaara swallowed, "I - All I remember is...."

"All you remember is what?" encouraged Sakura-chan, leaning forward with the rest of us.  We were all listening raptly, unconscious to exactly how eager we were to know the truth.

"Is seeing these... these eyes..." he said, the confusion and frustration on his face evident as he elaborated, "These big, yellow eyes looking down at me....  Almost as if they were waiting for me to wake up."

My mouth fell open slightly in shock as I blinked twice, slowly, taking in the information.  It couldn't have been... could it have?  She was with the Akatsuki!  But... but Gaara said yellow eyes.  There weren't exactly that many pairs of yellow eyes around at all, let alone in the same area that she was actually in.  Could it really have been Ookami to revive Gaara?