Velvet waves of an inky sky held captive the moon and the stars, as the young and brave Kazekage walked towards the Marble Palace. Home, it was rumoured, of Love herself. The man walked tall and steady through the long grass, feeling the dew that lingered on petals as his fingertips brushed gently by them. The air was thick with warmth and humidity; the tropical climate this part of the world inherited from its borders with Suna and Ame gave birth to the jungle. Great vines twisted and crept along tree trunks and red clay. Giant, fantastical flowers opened and closed as though the entire jungle were alive and breathing as it watched this handsome stranger, his eyes a colour unknown to these tropics, wander towards the Palace.
His gentle and austere demeanour could not cloud the rumble beneath his soft sighs, nor the darkness in his furrowed brow. It seemed the sky was mirroring his temperament; a storm was moving close, threatening to hover above the Palace in a matter of minutes. The calm before the storm entered with Gaara in the dead of night; a gentle breeze, a teasing wind- it made the low branches of the willow trees sway as though nature was bowing to the shinobi's power. The crackle of electricity hummed in the air, waiting to snap, waiting for the handsome warrior to give the signal of war.
It had been three days since the incident at The Iron Vault. Kankuro's efforts with Suna's reconnaissance teams had been running especially smoothly for the past few months and they were able to locate Ai's whereabouts within hours. The other Kage had briefed Gaara with his mission that morning: find out Ai's use and plans with the Akatsuki and try to win her back to our side.
As Gaara strode confidently towards the doors of the marble palace he thought for a moment about the girl called Love. Win her back? He could barely contain his disappointed laughter; Ai was as stubborn as she was smart, as full of emotion as she was beautiful and as ill-fated as the Kazekage himself. There was a dismally slim chance that Gaara could get his first love to change her mind. Whenever he needed to in the past he would simply grab her by the skin and touch her until she gave in. Just a twist of her arm, a bite of her neck, a well-placed fingertip, could make Ai do exactly as he said. But, as he had discovered at the Summit, it seemed someone else had taken on that role.
Gaara glanced up at the Palace; the building seemed to heave and huff, like the great head of a mythical beast, He could hear the heartbeat in its walls and the inviting, warm breath from the windows. There was a power that he had come to test; he could feel the will of the enemy lurking in the darkened corners like a serpent beneath a still lake. The Palace was coming closer as the Kazekage's feet pounded on the soft, fertile soil of the gardens. The whole world seemed to hold its breath as the man of power arrived to greet his equally-ferocious enemy. The moment of meeting would soon be underway.
The crash of thunder alerted the Kazekage to the giant wooden doors that were creaking open, inviting him in to a warm and shimmering light. Like a beacon warning ships of the rocky shore, the light form inside the Palace seemed to entrance and worry him; eerily quiet, beautifully structured, enchanting in its form…the place was every inch of her.
Ai's sweet and innocent face came into his mind once more; those beautiful blue eyes, deliciously plump lips, small, fragile, breakable waist…Would it still be there? The spark, the flame, the excitement? The hate, the love, the lust? What made Gaara and Ai themselves, the perfectly imperfect pairing of beauty and beast- would it still exist in all it's aching beauty?
The Kazekage ascended the steps into the Marble Palace.
不忠/Betrayal
The lanterns guided his way to a beautiful room of gold and metallic spun silk. He entered where red velvet curtains parted at an archway to find a room full of treasures and precious things; a library, a courtyard, a bedroom a garden…it was hard to give an exact name to this room's function. A large round room lined with archways, contained under a glass dome ceiling, littered with bookshelves and floristry…it was Ai. This entire place was a breathing ecosystem entirely devoted to that girl.
The smell of jasmine flowers floated on the surface of the water that bubbled and swished from a beautiful marble fountain that stood impressively in the middle of the room on a platform with steps leading to it. The sound of trickling water echoed in the archways, its calming sound eerily soothing in this mystical room. Velvet drapes were accompanied by beautiful silk dresses piled high to the ceiling; their metallic thread glittering in the candlelight, the entire pile swaying, threatening to fall. Parchment with scribbles of the dead language, desks with sheafs of papers, ink bottles and writing tools were littered about the place. Poetry books, writing on economics, politics, war and ninjutsu were lying open. The room was so large and so full of clearly unending activity that it seemed as though a hundred scholars, tailors, dancers, politicians, shinobi, birds, flowers and women could enter the room every day. But, of course, it was only Ai.
"So they have sent the Kazekage to appease me when the sun sets?" Her beautiful voice, accompanied with the crashing of thunder, made Gaara tear gaze was torn from the pile of clothes as he was alerted by movement near the fountain. He was surprised to find his heart skipped a beat; for in a moment, there she was. Hidden amongst the silk and glass; the courtesan had been lying on the fountain's ledge on the side he could not see. She stood and walked around the fountain, coming into full view.
She was accompanied by the glittery, shimmering sound of her jewellery as it moved with her. Gold, rich and solid, thick bands, delicate chains, shining gemstones, hung on her effortlessly. The metal was twisted into a wreath on her head, small crystal flowers hung in her hair. Beneath the crown, her scar sat proudly at her hairline. In a royal blue dress with a dangerously low neckline, wrapped in a darker-than-blood-red shawl and white veil on her head that dragged along the floor behind her gave her an ethereal, angel-like look. Ai looked like the goddess she was meant to be. That slick flick of black lining her eyes, the shimmer of moonlight on her cheekbones, deep-red lips…she was no longer the innocent and flirtatious songbird Gaara had once known. Even the way she held herself, the way she walked, was arrogant, full of swagger and vanity. She was the beautiful and haunted manifestation of Renai.
The two appraised each other for a moment before she spoke again:
"Tell me," Gaara shivered; that flirtatious, courtesan tone he used to know so well! She lifted her chin at him defiantly. "How much is a night with the Kazekage worth?" The young warrior took a step forwards and folded his arms.
"An end to war." Ai closed her eyes and laughed a sweet laugh.
"Hahahaha," she bit her lip at him, "I think you and I both know that would be a gross overpayment."
The Kazekage stood so defiantly in the manner she remembered; his oceanic eyes giving nothing away but their beauty. Her defiant demeanour faltered for a second because she smiled…he had grown his hair until lustrous strands of crimson swept across his eyes. She had always known he would become even more handsome than when they first met. His build was even more heroic than she remembered as he stood, stiff, unmoving as a mountain. Even the furrow in his brow had a few more lines to it than she remembered. Wrapped up in that dark red, the lines around his eyes thinner but still striking against his light eyes…No, he was not the boy she had fallen in love with. He had become everything he had trained to be, everything that was expected of him, the man stood before her was not Sabaku no Gaara. This man was the Godaime Kazekage (A/N: Fifth Kazekage). A warrior, a hero, a leader. They took in the sight of one another without giving away their thoughts.
"Do not start this, Ai." The Kazekage warned as the girl stretched and yawned with ill-manner before sitting on the fountain's ledge, picking up a hairbrush in one hand, a mirror in the other and appraising her reflection with a soft smile as she began brushing the ends of her hair. She turned and looked at him with bored eyes.
"Did we ever have a choice, Gaara?" She asked softly, her big blue eyes shimmering with the reflection of the fountain water. The Kazekage took a step forwards and looked to her ankles; something was subduing her chakra. Just like him, there was a power behind her that was mighty and great. She could not control it, Gaara knew that but it did not stop him from being wary of her; this girl had gained the reputation of an enchantress…she could speak to creatures Gaara knew very well. Both were hiding the power that lay within them. Both were threatening to break.
"Ai!" The girl smiled as he spoke her name in that commanding tone he had mastered. "Do not go so far into darkness that I cannot reach out and drag you back to me!"
"Back to you?!" Ai stood, throwing her hair brush into a pile of messy papers and candles. The woman let the mirror slip from her grasp and into the waters of the fountain. She picked up her skirt and took a step down from the fountain. "How would your fiancé feel about you doing that?" There was hurt in her voice and the glisten of a tear in her eyes, she almost cried out when he simply stared back and said nothing. "Utterly, unashamedly, heartless!" She shouted at him in fury, her beautiful face screwing up into a snarl.
Ai's anger lifted her veil of superiority and power until, for the briefest of seconds, Gaara saw that lonely girl he had met on the beach all those nights ago. Her dark hair shimmering in the candlelight suddenly made her look younger, her look of utter loss stirred his primal instinct to protect her. Her vulnerability made him falter for a moment; this was that girl, wasn't it? What they had had was real!
Those few months ago, he had written to her, hadn't he? She had ignored him, hadn't she?
The woman's face softened as the icy feeling of betrayal nestled itself inside her stomach and the embarrassment of losing her temper settled in her chest. This handsome fool was as much of a fool as he ever was! Still…as she looked to him she could see his naivety behind those unyielding eyes. Those few months ago, why had he not written to her? Why had he not come to her rescue as he had once promised to? They caught each other's eye.
"Why did you-?"
"Why did you not-?"
They stopped short in frustration as they interrupted each other and scowled. How dare she shout at the Kazekage? How dare he demand anything from her? She's the one who had been acting a fool and fallen into the arms of another man so easily! And he was the one who abandoned her as soon as a princess gave him a look!
"So typical of you to try and lead a peace agreement-"
"So typical of you to be led!" Ai retorted within a second; lighting striking behind her in the gardens, a harsh wind blowing through the room, rocking the piles of clothes, threatening to blow out the candles.
Love and Gaara could not escape the paradox of the blood-love for it is all they were; enemies and lovers simultaneously. Wanting, so desperately to hear the other moan beneath them but equally desperate to make the other scream in frustration. The two exchanged glances of annoyance as a grandfather clock struck midnight.
原点/Origin
"What exactly do you think you can achieve by joining with the Akatsuki?" The Kazekage demanded, watching as Ai tucked her hair behind her ear and folded her arms, pulling her shawl tighter around her as she did so.
"A world of peace," she replied.
"Peace without free will is an illusion."
"Free will?" Ai barely let him finish his sentence. She smiled as though reminiscing, her whole face lighting up in that familiar. "Tell me, Kazekage, have your tutors given you as an advanced of an education as I ever did? Do you really wish to take up such a taxing debate in these twilight hours with me?" Ai smirked at him in such a delicious manner that the Kazekage could feel a slight pang in his chest, a numbness in his fingertips. He shook his head at her, his crimson waves of hair swaying as he did so.
"You cannot deny free will to mankind-"
"You have my mark on your forehead, I have yours on mine." Ai interrupted as though Gaara had not spoken at all, as though she was speaking to herself. She sat back down on the fountain ledge and peered over into the crystal-clear water at her reflection. Stark and stunning, her scar always looked fresh as though ready to ooze blood, as though waiting for Gaara's hands. "We have often forsaken kismet for this tragic end to our love," she spoke softly, "how can fate co-exist with free will? It is one or the other." The girl with the faces of a goddess turned to him sharply, her jewellery shining so brightly it almost looked like she were covered in fairy lights. "Tell me, Sabaku no Gaara, was it your choice to hurt in love as we have done? Or was the hurt thrust upon you by forces unknown?"
"Ai-"
"I am the key to happiness!" Ai stood again and exclaimed as though she still could not understand Gaara's unwillingness to join her. "I, with Madara can achieve what human beings are too meek to achieve alone!" She shouted. "Haven't you heard? I am creation itself! I grant death and take life! My origins are of a divine nature!" Her voice echoed in the circular room, bending the water from the fountain, swaying the stacked piled of parchment. The entire world was stood in awe of this beautiful and powerful being. Every inch of the world bar one man; Gaara looked at her with sympathy, with a look she could not understand.
"Is that what you think?" He asked softly. "I know you better, Ai. I will never concede to calling you by any other name. You were born out of my soul for that is where the wild things wander," he watched as Ai grew enchanted with his words, as her chest began to heave, her breathing became deeper. "Wild things like you; dark, twisted, beautiful creatures made of moonlight and lust," he began to walk towards her, igniting their old ritual of predator and prey. Enchanted, entranced with his beauty, Ai found herself unable to move, unable to tear her eyes away from him. "Where the dark meets the light, right there, upon the horizon that divides the two, lies the origin of your existence." Ai bit her lip as she watched him approach, unwillingly her fingertips were grasping the material of her clothes with a vicelike grip as she silently begged him not to come closer. "I used to find you where fantasies are, where my thoughts turned from the innocent want of Love to the reckless lust for death. You are made of love and violence, beautiful one. Of my insatiable desire to feel alive." Gaara stopped at the foot of the stairs to the fountain, looking up at her with all the emotion he remembered having for this woman. "I will never concede to call you by any other name." But her stubborn nature would not let her succumb to his charms.
"Do not claim me as yours, Kazekage-"
"Come home to me." Ai stopped short and jumped as thunder crashed and echoed around the room, doors unknown were blown open by a vicious wind as the Kazekage held his hand out to her.
愛/Love
"We are enemies, Kazekage," Ai said, staring at his hand as though it were the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. Her eyes then travelled to her face where she remained hypnotised. It had been so long since they had been in such close quarters. "You have chosen your side," Ai breathed, "I have chosen mine."
There it was. It passed between the two of them in an instant. That pang of achingly beautiful, reckless desire. Gaara ran up the steps to her and brought her into embrace. The dancer closed her eyes, not wanting to look at his face any longer for fear of giving in. But her body was not cooperating. Her hands clasped onto his chest, grasping onto his muscular, heroic figure, her knees were going weak as her hips moved towards him. They were breathing together, moving as one. Gaara put his forehead against hers and closed his eyes. He swallowed hard as his mouth was watering.
"I cannot say I will spare you on the battlefield," he whispered, stroking the tip of his nose against hers, feeling the heat of her breath on his lips.
"What would you do, Gaara?" She whispered back. "Kill me?"
"No," He answered instantly, his body almost shaking with want, his hips naturally pushing against her. "I would bind your hands and take you as my prisoner." He opened his eyes to watch Ai's lips part to speak.
"Are you not even the least bit concerned of what I might do to you?" She asked but it only made him smile.
"I know everything you could do to me." The pair jumped as lighting struck in the gardens of the palace, illuminated the room with a cold light, suddenly bringing some sense back to them. Ai opened her eyes and looked at him in determination.
"It is done," she confirmed. "I am the enemy." Gaara's arms slipped away from her.
"'Til battle." Ai fell to her knees as he resealed her and took his leave.
欲望/Lust
Entering the Palace in the Village of Sand barely an hour later, the Kazekage threw open the doors to his room, making its only inhabitant jump up from her seat on his bed. Taki grasped her nightdress around herself and was about to spill over with excuses for being in his private quarters so late but was silenced completely as the Kazekage reached her and pulled her in for a fierce kiss. Long and deep, Taki could barely contain herself. She was losing her senses as the man of her dreams let her into his watering mouth. He withdrew from the princess and shot her slightly far away look a smirk of approval.
"Say a word, any word-"
"What?" Taki asked, timid as a mouse.
"You need to have a word that will signal me to stop," the Kazekage informed her but the girl, her toes curling against the carpet, holding on to her blonde curls in apprehension, lost her voice as Gaara removed his shirt.
"Wh-wh…" Taki shook her head as she took in the sight of Gaara's abdomen, the lines of his hips, "why would I need a word?" She relaxed a little as Gaara took her face in his hands and kissed her cheeks softly.
"Because saying 'stop' will not save you in the slightest," he murmured and ended with a sharp bite of her lip that made something in Taki's stomach flutter so hard she thought she would be sick. "Do you trust me?" Gaara asked the wide-eyed princess as his hands travelled from her face to the neck of her nightdress which he pulled on teasingly. The girl let her grey eyes mist over with lust.
"Yes." She breathed as she let her head roll back and hit the wall beside the bed as Gaara sunk his teeth into her neck.
"Do you want this?" He asked, his hair brushing her chin.
"Yes," Taki breathed again, wanting desperately to put her hands on him. The kazekage stood to his full height and took her shaking hands in his. He looked at her with complete sincerity and lust.
"I can be all you want if you let down your guard and surrender everything to me," he kissed her fingers softly. Taki nodded slowly as though hypnotised, watching his lips push against her delicate hands.
"Okay," she said softly, her nerves kicking into overdrive as Gaara smirked at her in a way she had never seen before.
"Choose a word," the Kazekage instructed.
"Tsubuki (a red camelia flower)." Gaara nodded in encouragement before making the princess yelp by turning her around and pinning her hands to the wall above her. With her faec against the wall, the princess felt the heat between her legs intensify as Gaara pulled her rear towards him.
"Good girl," he whispered.
***
Ai could feel how wet the curls of dark hair were around Sasuke's dick as they fucked on her bed. Sat up in front of each other, the two were lost in heat and sweat and filthy words as they rocked back and forth. The girl was pulling at his hair, telling him how to fuck her until it hurt, begging him to give it to her like she deserved the pain.
Sasuke was lost, barely able to speak or breathe; he was entirely consumed by a fervent lust that led him barely able to move. He just inched his hips towards her, barely twitched, barely fucked as Ai's hips crashed against him. Her hair was wild and sticking to her back, their tongues were all over each other as they were desperate to taste every inch, every shiver, every moan.
The dancer threw her head back in ecstasy as she felt his dick harden inside of her, it grew just that extra little bit to make her lose her mind. Instantly, the two were grasping at each other as the waves of their climaxes took over. Gasping for air, groaning in satisfaction as though their bodies were entirely used up by the other.
Eventually, all was still and Ai was able to peel herself away from him. She stood and grabbed her shawl which she wrapped around her. The woman barely looked at her lover.
"I thought you said 'never again'?" Sasuke teased her, reaching over to her table for a glass of water.
The woman was staring out of the doors and into the garden, half hating herself, half begging for it to happen again.
"I suppose I was lying," she murmured to herself before turning back to him. Sasuke ran a hand through his dark hair and sighed as Ai let her shawl drop to the floor. "Aren't you a little pleased?" She put her hands on the bed and began to crawl towards him.
"Only a little," the man admitted with a small smile.