Chapter 14 - Preparations

Akara had tried to get in some training that afternoon. Temari and Kankuro had agreed to watch over Suna while Gaara was gone, and he sat in the shadows, watching.

Akara was standing in the center of the training area, stading before Neji, Lee, Kaori, and Naruto. From what Gaara could see, she'd challenged them to a sparring match. Gaara could only be skeptical.

She's got a death wish, hasn't she? Even I couldn't beat Lee, Neji, and Naruto on my own...

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Akara rose into her taijutsu position, an image of elegance and grace. She was poised, balancing on the ball of one foot, and her hands were held out in a T-shape, eyes focused intently at the ground. Lee came at her first, foot swinging around to connect with the side of her head.

"Konoha Hurricane!" Lee almost hit her, but her head snapped up and her hands grabbed his ankle. She then used his momentum against him, throwing him six meters across the training field.

Neji them came at her, Bayukugan activated and palms flaring with chakra. However, her Yashara was activated, and his hands were smacked away like annoying gnats. She gave him a casual flick in the forehead, and he too flew back, crashing into a post that usually held a practice dummy.

Kaori and Naruto, sensing that she couldn't be beaten alone, decided to team up and catch her off-guard. She simply tossed them to the side like rag dolls.

She repeated this process with everyone there, including Temari. But no one could get close enough to even touch her. As the entire group picked themselves off the sandy ground, they all congradulated her on a sparring session well done.

"Good match, Akara-chan!"

"You were a formidable opponent, Akara-san!"

"Destiny declared you the rightful winner. Congradulations, Akara-sama."

She waved them off. "It was nothing, really," she declared, eyes slitted and feral.

"So," she called out, "anyone else want to challange me?"

"I will," said a voice behind her.

~~~~~~~~~~

Everyone gaped.

Gaara stood behind Akara, eyes cold and forbidding. They all knew that look: Gaara was getting serious.

Dead serious.

Akara smirked at him. "Looking to lose again, Gaara-sama?"

He only scowled. "I won't lose."

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Akara and Gaara stood dead center, wind whipping their hair and clothing into a frenzy. They glared at one another, unblinking and willing to fight to the death.

At the very least.

Each went into their taijutsu stance. The others stared as Gaara sank low, lowering his center of gravity. They'd never known that he knew taijutsu: what else did they not know about him?

In a flash, they began.

All the shinobi in the vicinity dropped what they were doing to watch this awe-inspiring spectical. The two flowed easily from one move to the next, grace and poise evident in each tiny movement. The moves weren't your standard moves, taught to all shinobi; they were so smooth and fluid, it was like the fighters were dancing. But in the fray, only Kaori and Maria noticed Akara twitch in pain.

~~~~~~~~~~

Gaara was having a hard time: This girl was a master at this fighting style.

He dodged another fist, and went low to the ground to swing his leg and trip her. Before he could, though, he saw her twitch in pain, and she stopped. He watched in puzzlement and slight alarm as she clutched her head and screamed.

"NO! NO! NOT AGAIN!"

She coughed violently, horrible coughs that wracked her body and forced her to her knees. She let out a particularly horrid cough, and spit out blood.

Gaara went stock-still, frozen in shock.

"Gaara! What the hell did you do to her?!"

Kaori glared at Naruto. "Shut up! He didn't do anything! He didn't need to!"

Gaara only watched. Voice tremoring slightly, he spoke.

"You're a demon," he stated.

All talking and yelling ceased. All shinobi backed away slightly, suprised. Akara gave a bitter smirk.

"So you figured it out, have you?"

"It was obvious," he said, a little stronger now. "You know the Demon's Dance taijutsu technique."

"I told you in our first fight," she said, rising slowly, "I told you that you should fear a demon child. You should have feared me."

"Hold on," yelled Naruto, the conversation finally clicking in his head, "you have a demon too?"

"Worse," she said, spitting out a bit more blood, "I don't contain a demon...I am a demon."

"No you aren't, Akara-chan! You may have demon blood, but you aren't a demon yourself." Akara waved off Kaori's remark.

"You know full well that it takes all I have in me to control that blood, Kaori. If I don't, then I'm as good as a demon."

~~~~~~~~~~

That night was horrible.

Gaara might as well have not attempted sleep at all. After he and Akara walked home, she'd gone to her room without saying a word. Temari and Kankuro had simply shaken their heads at him, before they too went into their rooms.

Gaara didn't see the problem: he had a demon in him, and yet no one had reacted like this when he told them...maybe it was the fact that he was a guy?

Gaara rolled over for what felt like the thousandth time. Oh well...there wasn't much he could do. Besides, he had a mission tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~

The duo ran through the forest, neither one speaking. Although she desperately wanted to kill the readhead, Akara knew that it would have to wait until after they completed the mission.

They stopped around noon, pausing only to rest and attemp to eat. By nightfall, they had reached a small village on the edge of Fire Country.

"Alright," said Gaara, speaking for the first time that day, "What's our cover?"

"We are Aika and Jiro Masayoshi," said Akara, looking for a cheap hotel they could stay in, "You are twenty-one, so act like it. I'll be twenty. We're posing as small-time weapon dealers from the outskirts of Wind Country, right on the border of Bird Country. We're looking to make a good business deal."

"Sounds like a good cover. It should stick."

"What we need to do," said Akara, perusing the newspaper for rooms, "is go into an alleyway or someplace and disguse ourselves. You need to change your hair color and hide that tattoo."

"And you," he shot back, "need to hide your bangs."

They began to walk again, ducking into a small alley and performing a temporary genjutsu. Gaara's vivid red hair turned a light strawberry-blonde, his eyes a blue topaz, and his tattoo disappeared. Akara's red and black hair became brown-black, and her pocelain skin was kissed with sun.

They exited the alleyway, and took a moment to look each other over for imperfections. Finding none, they kept walking.

"Alright, remember: we're husband and wife, so act like it. That means holding open doors and being all-around chivalrous."

"Whatever," Gaara muttered, wrapping his arm around Akara's waist.

Akara nodded, then took a left turn. A small, rather tidy-looking hotel came up before them, and they ordered a small room.

"Alright, here's your key. Have a nice night," said the middle-aged woman at the desk. Gaara and Akra walked down the hall, unlocked room ten, and stopped.

There was only one bed.

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