9 Kankuro’s Rematch

As the three sand spears raced toward Kohara, I thought for a moment that perhaps I was taking things too far with this sparring. I was about to divert the sand spears and call the match when Kohara did the unexpected. She swung herself directly towards the spears in and began rapidly flipping forward until she was nothing but a white cloth. It was too late to stop the spears, Kohara was moving far too fast. I watched in concern as they raced towards each other. Except, when they finally met it wasn't the reaction I was expecting at all. Kohara completely tore through the three sand spears as if they were made of dust. After that, I realized the rotating wheel of death that was Kohara was headed straight for me. I took all of the chakra-infused sand from my gourd and then shot it in the form of a pillar towards Kohara. She met the pillar, tearing into it as if my greatest defense was paper. Kohara began slowing down as she got about halfway through but was still rotating at a frightening speed. I brought up sand from the floor and used it to blast Kohara. I heard a cry of pain and Kohara's rotation ended abruptly. She was sent flying through the air landed violently on the ground. I stopped all of my Jutsu along with sand and ran to her quickly, terrified that I may have severely injured Kohara. When I got there I saw that most of her cloth were in tatters from being hit by my sand. Kohara herself didn't look to be in great shape, covered in bruises with blood coming from a small gash on her forehead.

"Kohara are you alright? Answer my Kohara," I said desperately as I shook her lightly. Had I actually killed her? I felt my blood run cold at having more blood on my ledger. I had already killed so many people in my short life, had I killed someone who I had just met yesterday? I was the one that had told her to fight me, it was all my fault. Tears started to form and I began to lose composure.

"Gaara, don't cry I'm fine it's just a few bruises." My eyes darted to find Kohara giving me a weak smile while trying to get up. I quickly wiped my tears and used the sand around Kohara to gently pick her up. I was also using it to restrain her movements so she wouldn't injure herself any further.

"Kohara stop, you are injured and need medical attention. I'll use my sand to float you to the infirmary down the hall. It'll be quicker than going to the hospital on the other side of the village." I picked her up and began to float Kohara toward the down when I felt her grab my arm. I turned to her to find that she was laughing, just a small chuckle at first but it slowly evolved into a laughing fit. I stood there extremely confused about what she thought was so hilarious. Did she really think that me almost killing her was funny?

"You should see your face Gaara, I had no idea you could express any of the emotions your showing right now. Usually your so serious or look bored to death," giggled Kohara between laughs. Her laughter was truly contagious and I began laughing myself. I guess she was right, I had freaked out pretty badly at seeing her injured.

"I had a reason to be so distraught you know, I thought I'd killed you." At that remark, she suddenly got a very serious expression on her face.

"You're very different than what everyone told me you were like, you know that Gaara? Everyone said I should stay away from you at all costs, that you didn't care about anyone but yourself. It certainly seems like that was the case in the past, but I noticed you pulling your punches on me until the end. The way you reacted to me being injured, even though it wasn't that serious. You don't have to worry so much about hurting people that are friends Gaara, they are strong." I stood there, absolutely speechless from what Kohara had just told me. Did she call herself my friend? I had only just met her the other day though, all I had done was simply tell her I'd help her if she needed it.

"You view me as a friend," I asked with disbelief heavy in my voice. I didn't understand at all, she should know that I was a monster that I'd killed people from our own village. Kohara getting injured by me should've even reinforced that assessment of me in her mind.

"I know I haven't known you for long, less than a whole twenty-four hours actually. Yet when you offered me help yesterday, I already knew that we would become friends. I don't have a lot of friends myself, and I know you don't either. So, I hope I'm not overstepping when I say that we are friends." Kohara was slowly but surely reverting back to her usual nervous self, ending off her speaking with her eyes glued to the ground. I offered her out my hand. Kohara paused for a second, confused about what I was doing, before taking it. I helped her up off the sand cloud I'd made for her before letting go.

"I am grateful that you want to be friends with me Kohara, very few people have ever wanted to." Kohara grinned but then winced as her injuries caused her pain when she smiled.

"I hope this doesn't mean that you'll beat this bad every time we spar," she grumbled while rubbing her sore spots.

"Sorry, but you'll just have to figure out how to not get injured that bad, I can't be seen going easy on my friends," I told her with a small smirk. Kohara definitely didn't seem too happy when I told her that.

"Did my moves impress you? I know they aren't that cool since it's just throwing a cloth around. I feel bad I didn't give you more of a challenge, you easily stopped my Spinning Cloth Cutter and ripped my chakra-infused cloth to shreds in the process." I didn't know how it was possible for a person to take an exemplary performance against a foe far stronger than themselves and turn it into an utter loss. Kohara truly did have a crushing criticism for herself and her abilities. She definitely should give herself far more credit considering just how close she came to getting through my sand shield.

"You're not giving yourself enough credit, you held up far better than what I expected. Your Spinning Cloth Cutter almost had me on the ropes, if you had caught me when I was off-guard I wouldn't have stood a chance against it." Just saying that made me realize I'd need to find a way so that my sand couldn't be drilled through so easily. I could just use the iron sand but I kinda wanted to figure something out for my regular sand as well. Kohara definitely looked squeamish at being given a compliment.

"Your cloth techniques are far more advanced than I had hoped they would be, I know more than a few shinobi that would struggle against it." Judging from the expression Kohara had on her face, she vehemently disagreed with my praise.

"Your Restless Desert Hands were quite amazing too Gaara, they are the whole reason I was forced to use a risky move like Spinning Clothe Cutter. As strong as it may be, most of these cuts and bruises on my body are from the strain of using it," Kohara said with a deflated tone. Did her negativity ever end? It was really starting to get annoying at this point.

"Enough with that, you still need to get your injuries taken care of Kohara."

"Fine, I'll go get them checked out now, you should work more on that iron sand since I kinda distracted you." Ignoring her comment, I nodded and started pushing her out of the arena. Kohara pushed my hand off her and began walking slowly out of the arena.

"I look forward to our next sparring session, how about we do this same time tomorrow?" All I received in response was a groan followed by grumbling under her breath. I watched her slowly leave before returning back to the iron sand.

"You should have killed her, it would have been very enjoyable to watch," said Shukaku. Just when I thought I'd forgotten about him being in my head he just has to pop back up.

"Must you always say stuff like that? I already told you she's my friend, so it wouldn't make sense to kill. I didn't have a reason to anyways." I tried to give an explanation that would appeal to Shukaku without losing my temper. Hopefully, this would be good enough for him.

"Hmm, I think that she is a waste of our time, you could've trained with the iron sand instead of fighting a one-sided fight." Was I just surrounded by overly critical and negative people? I didn't even respond to Shukaku since I didn't want to deal with whatever response he would think up. I moved my way back to the iron sand when I heard footsteps coming from the entrance. I quickly got out my summoning scroll and recalled the iron sand, not wanting anyone to see it. It was one thing to have Kohara see since she wasn't one to go blabbing her mouth but others might not be the same way. I put the scroll back on my sling before turning just in time to who had arrived. I smiled when I saw them, excited for what would come in the near future. Kankuro stood at the lower entrance to the arena with two boxes on his back. I frowned, I doubted that either of these boxes contained Black Ant or Crow. So the question was what did they contain?

"It's good to see you Kankuro, I take it you are here for a rematch? I don't see your usual Crow puppet so I assume you've made yourself some new puppets." Kankuro nodded at my assessment, a determined look on his face. He seemed very serious, probably hoping to regain some lost pride after his defeat yesterday. I could tell that it had upset Kankuro when he'd been defeated so easily and quickly. He had redeemed himself a little when he used the training dummies as puppets but both of us knew that if he was a real enemy, I would have never given him the chance to get those training dummies.

"If you don't have anything you want to say, then let us start," I said as I gestured for him to move opposite to me. Kankuro quickly moved to where I had pointed and for a few minutes, we simply stood there, waiting to see who would make the first move. It turned out I was more impatient than Kankuro so I decided to just go first. Bringing my chakra-infused sand into my palm, I formed it into a ball before flicking it. This was my Sand Bullet, which was basically an actual bullet. It raced towards Kankuro but he had seen what I was up to. He was already dodging out of the way by the time the Sand Bullet left my hand. The two boxes on his back sprung open and out came the two mystery puppets. The first puppet was in the shape of a young boy, it didn't have any hair or marking on it, it had a very basic appearance. The second puppet was quite larger, especially in the stomach. It reminded me of Black Ant's trap stomach. The second puppet had three spikes on its forehead and long pale hair. It had jagged fangs for its teeth, giving it an overall bizarre appearance.

"Are those your big trump card? They don't look too impressive." I was trying to get under Kankuro's skin but in reality, I was dead serious under my act. I had no idea what those puppets did while Kankuro knew my powers and move set very well. He most likely applied that knowledge when he created these puppets. That put me at a big disadvantage, so there wasn't time to pull punches. I had no intention of losing this battle, I had a reputation to uphold.

"That's a lot of talk Gaara, considering you don't know what Riptide and Oasis can do to your precious sand," said Kankuro as he grinned. Riptide and Oasis? The realization of what these puppets could do suddenly hit me. Kankuro didn't give any time for the information to sink in, as suddenly a hose sprang from the Oasis puppet to the Riptide puppet. The small little Riptide puppets' arms folded in half to reveal nozzles. A gurgling sound from the hose snapped me out of my daze as I realized what was going to happen. I needed to protect myself, I didn't have time to attack the puppets before their attack. Using all of my chakra-infused sand, I created a large shield between me and the puppets. The Riptide puppet jerked a little before the water came rushing out of its nozzle arms. Kankuro had quickly realized what my greatest weakness to my sand was. Once the sand became wet I couldn't hold its shape, making it useless. In the anime series, Hidden Sand ANBU who were tasked with killing Gaara used a similar strategy. Those puppets in the anime were not nearly as powerful as Riptide though, the puppet was on a whole new level. I could feel my sand shield crumbling into mush, I needed to attack before all my chakra-infused sand was rendered worthless.

"Feeling the pressure yet Gaara?" Kankuro literally had to shout to be heard over the sound of the water spraying from the nozzles. I grimaced at his taunt, things weren't looking good. I took some of my sand from the shield and formed a sand cloud to stand on. I flew up into the air right before my sand shield gave way, drenching the spot where I had stood moments before. Kankuro adjusted Riptide's aim, forcing me to fly around the room to avoid the streams of water. I couldn't really do much, if I stopped to control any more sand it was likely that I'd get hit by the water. I'd then fall from my sand cloud and probably get seriously injured.

"It looks like your using, can we switch? I'd kill him pretty easily unlike you." Shukaku was about one more bad comment away from me closing the seal on him.

"Your comments are really not helping me Shukaku, I'm not switching since this isn't life or death but I'd still be grateful for some help." Anything would be better than his constant complaining.

"Use the iron sand, or are you that clueless." With that, Shukaku went back to presumably napping. I guess he was right, the iron sand wasn't like my normal sand, its weakness was lightning-style moves, not water. Iron sand was also a direct weakness of puppets because the iron particles would get inside its mechanisms and jam them. I guess I could summon my regular sand from the two scrolls on my belt but they'd just meet the same fate as the sand before them. Did I have any other option? It really didn't seem that way in my current position, so I grabbed the iron sand scroll from my sling. I quickly unraveled it and summoned the iron sand right into the air in front of me. I grabbed control of it and then formed it into a shield. I swung it around to be straight in front of the jet of water. I was a little worried that I may be wrong, that I didn't have a strong enough control over the iron sand to stop the jet. Fortunately, I was right and the jet met its match against the iron sand shield. I could see Kankuro's visible shock from me using iron sand to counter the water jet. I floated back down to the ground with the iron sand protecting me the whole time. I gradually began walking closer and closer to Kankuro in order to get within range to attack. Kankuro turned up the pressure and my iron sand began to falter from it. I simply wasn't skilled enough to keep the iron sand together under that pressure. I had only a little amount of time before I'd be unable to hold the shield together. I put one hand on the ground, the other to hold up the shield. I raced my mind for a Jutsu to use and decided on the first one I thought of. Sand Chains was a Jutsu that made sand form into a tough chain that was optimal for capturing. The chains formed from the sand on the arena floor that wasn't soaking wet. Several of them grabbed the Riptide puppet while I managed to get one locked on Kankuro's right arm. Kankuro now looked infuriated that the match he had been so close to winning was now turned on its head. He attempted to use Riptide to destroy the sand chains but I had firmly trapped the puppet with Sand Chains Entrapment. The puppet's whole body was wrapped in chains, there was almost no possibility of it escaping. Kankuro quickly realized that Riptide was a lost cause and then moved to Oasis. As far as I knew, Oasis was just a puppet built to supply water to Riptide. I hadn't sent any chains to it because I thought it was useless with Riptide out of the equation. That had been a mistake it seemed as I heard clicking and whirring from the puppet as Kankuro did something to it. Suddenly, Oasis's stomach burst open and a huge wave of water poured out. I had no idea how Kankuro had fit so much water inside that puppet but it was ridiculous. Both Kankuro and I were swept away by the wave of water. My sand chains and iron sand both fell to the ground, the sand chains because of the water, and the iron sand due to lack of concentration.

I struggled as I was washed away in a mess of mud and water. I slammed into what I assumed was the back wall of the area, letting out a gasp of pain. I stumbled up, mud dripping off my clothes. I heard splashing and a grunt of pain from the left of me. I looked to find a muddy Kankuro struggling to stand up just as I was. Kankuro looked up and our eyes locked. We both had the same thing running through our heads, it's what both drove us to draw kunai. Neither of us wanted to lose, Kankuro had worked hard through the night to complete Riptide and Oasis, both of which were basically destroyed. I didn't want to lose either, losing to Kankuro would stain my reputation. Losing when using the iron sand would also be humiliating.

"Let's finish this Kankuro," I said as we both closed in on each other, kunai at the ready.

"Agreed, Gaara"

With that, we both charged at each other.