Notes from the Authoress

This is a gift for Mareo and Anime because he's drawing a scene for me from one of my other stories! He asked for Gaara x Hinata where Hinata literally bumps into Gaara when he's in one of his evil modes around the chuunin exam arc. You know that one episode/chapter where Gaara tries to kill Lee in the hospital and Naruto, Shikamaru, and Gai spoil it? Yeah, this is after they spoil his death-driven plot. I don't really know where Hinata was at this point of time, but work with me here.
Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue. I don't own Naruto, and neither do you.

Close Encounters

One Shot

Hinata paced the halls of the hospital slowly, her cheeks burning red and her hands wringing together as she went. She had recently been discharged from the hospital herself, but Naruto was in and she desperately wanted to visit him. She thought she had enough courage to see him, but now that she was in the hospital, her courage had failed her. She stopped her pacing, closed her eyes, took several deep breaths, and squeezed her hands together tightly. I can do this, I can do this, She chanted in thought. She took one last steadying breath, dropped her arms by her sides, and opened her eyes, immediately taking a determined step in the direction of Naruto's hospital room.

Only to get a mouthful of sand. She coughed and waved her hand in front of her face to disperse the torrent of sand, quickly closing her pale eyes when the sand scratched against them. She stumbled forward, trying to find her way out of this whirlwind that had appeared out of no where, only to crash into someone, hard. She fell onto her butt, accidentally opening her mouth as she fell and getting another mouthful of sand. She coughed hard, and the sand stopped scratching against her skin, almost as if it had disappeared. Hinata cracked an eye open, reaching one hand up to try to rub the sand out, but before she could she felt someone grasp her forearm with harsh fingers. She looked upward with her watering eyes, and immediately her breathing stopped. A red-haired boy with startling green eyes had hold of her arm, and his other hand was pressed against his forehead as if he was in great pain. She recognized him instantaneously. This was the boy she and her teammates had seen in the Shi no Mori, the one who killed someone without even touching him. Her heart was beating faster on adrenaline and her brain was freezing up from fear. She tried to jerk her arm away out of instinct, but that brought the boy back to reality. He stared down at her before his other hand dropped from his forehead to encircle around her throat. He released her arm and pulled her up from the ground by her neck, his posture straightening and his grip tightening. He had a murderous intent in his eyes, and Hinata reached up to try to rip his hand away. Her fingers clawed against his arm frantically, not realizing that she was scraping at the sand, but she couldn't bring enough mind back to think to use chakra. Her body was still weak from her fight with Neji.

The redhead said something, something that she couldn't hear over the sound of ringing in her ears. Her frantic clawing slowed as breath left her body and the edges of her vision darkened. She tried to choke out words but there was no possible way sound could depart. Her strength left her body and her hands fell away, unable to continue her attempts at escape. Her eyes began to inch shut. She knew this was it; she knew that if he didn't suffocate her to death or break her neck, he would surely crush her with his sand attack. Her eyes closed completely, but a rush of adrenaline shot through her body again and her eyes snapped open as she sent her foot sailing towards him, ready to kick him hard enough that he would drop her and she could have a chance to escape. It was a harder move to complete with her body hanging in the air and her lack of strength, but she felt her foot connect with something solid.

It took her a moment to realize it was just a barrier of sand, but the grip loosened on her neck before she tumbled to the floor. She put her hand over her throat, coughing and gasping for air. The sand in her mouth and eyes were forgotten as the ache from nearly being suffocated set in. Get up; get away, Her mind insisted, and she tried to rise but couldn't gather the strength just yet. That didn't stop her and she began to crawl away, struggling to get to her feet as she went but falling every time. She must have been a sight, but that was the last thing on her mind. She needed to get away, to get away fast, to run. Just as she managed to rise to her feet and stay there, she felt something grainy wrap around her ankles and jerk her back down. She tried to scream out, to call for help, but her compressed windpipe wouldn't let out a sound loud enough. Where was everyone? Hospital staff walking by now would have been great!

But that would be too good to be true. She felt herself being dragged back and she raked her nails against the floor to stop herself, but the only cause was a few of her nails breaking. The sand stopped and she twisted her body at an awkward angle to look up to the murderous boy who was surely standing above her, and oh, he was. Every contour of his face showed anger, and he looked pained at the same time. He showed no pity for her. "P-p…please," She managed to murmur, but her word had no effect as more sand rose from the gourd strapped to his back. The sand around her ankles moved up her legs and flipped her twisted body so that she was on her back, causing her to gasp in pain as her body twisted into a more awkward position. She quickly righted herself, sitting up with a little struggle. "Please," She tried again, trying to ignore the pain. She reached down to where the sand had stopped and tried to push it away, but the sand was firmly in place. Her hands became sore rapidly as she kept her eyes on the sand, trying to thrust it away in one last attempt.

A foot connected hard with her chest and Hinata fell back against the ground with a heavy sound, her eyes closing upon impact. The only reason she didn't go flying across the floor was because the sand held her in place by her legs. She groaned heavily in pain, immediately clutching her chest and trying to regain air. She heard him moving, but when she felt his weight around her waist her eyes snapped open. Before she could sit up to look, his hand had fisted into her short hair and he wrenched her upward. She felt as if the strands were going to be ripped from her skull. He was straddling her gawkily, the gourd that had been on his back set aside but still pouring out sand. His left hand was gripping the hair on the side of her head with force, not lighting up even though he didn't pull her any higher. "My existence," He whispered in a strained voice. "You'll prove it for me. You always do."

Hinata could hear every word he said, but she couldn't understand the meaning. She had the feeling he wasn't talking about her specifically, but her mind was too muddled to try and make any sense of it. He pulled harder on her hair, making her grimace. She reached up to move his hands away, but before her fingers even brushed his skin another sand barrier was in the way, blocking her from touching him. The sand swirled before hitting her wrists, followed by a wave of sand that began to wrap around her arms. Her arms were yanked back down and the sand began to wrap around her chest, pinning her arms against her body. The redhead was mumbling things to himself. She heard the words existence, pain, and weak, but she couldn't make out anything else. Her breath was becoming shallow again, but the sand wasn't around her tight enough to take her breath away. Not yet.

She searched her head for his name. She knew it. Shino had told her when she asked how the other fights had faired. The simple name came to her within a moment, and she ground out the words despite herself. "Pl-please, stop. Please, G-Gaara…"

His head snapped up and he looked straight into her tear-filled eyes at the sound of his name. She saw something change in him, but what, she didn't know. He still looked as angry and as pained as he had before. She was about to try her plea again, to see if she could get through to him, to see if she could save her own life with words, but before she could open her mouth his lips came crashing down on hers. It took her a minute to realize he was kissing her, hard and rough and with the feeling of sand grating against her lips. She struggled to rips her arms away from her body to shove him off, but she was trapped where she was. She tried to keep her lips firmly shut and took an attempt at turning her head away, but he yanked her hair before she could move enough. His other hand was behind her head in a moment, pushing her harder into the kiss. She could finally feel the tears pouring down her cheeks; she had kept herself from crying for so long. The situation was hopeless to her now. One movement of his hand could cause the sand wrapped around her chest and legs to crush her. She felt his tongue run over her lips experimentally, and straight away she clenched her jaw shut and tried to keep her lips in a thin line. No…no, no, no… He forced his tongue passed her lips without as much trouble as she hoped he would have. She couldn't bring herself to bite down, which gave him full access to her mouth. His tongue was everywhere at once, wet and warm and with a distinctive, unpleasant taste.

Hinata gathered her courage again as she had done before she came to the hospital to visit Naruto. If she was going to die, she was not going to have herself degraded like this. She was already shivering from everything that happened, but a sharper shiver ran through her from fear. She did it anyway: she bit down as hard as she could, only opening her mouth to allow him to pull back and quickly closing her mouth again. She could taste blood; she had bit him good enough to make him bleed. His grip tightened even more on her hair as he pulled. She felt several of the strands rip from her skull, but when she focused her eyes on Gaara again, she could tell by the way his jaw set that he was sucking the blood from his tongue. He wasn't angry. He…liked it?

Gaara caught her gaze. He leaned forward and licked her lips forcefully, leaving saliva and blood behind before he went back and bit roughly into her bottom lip. She gasped in pain as his teeth sunk in, and he wrenched away, admiring as the blood began to gather. Then his head snapped up, all admiration gone as he focused on something ahead. He looked back at her, his sadistic smirk spreading across his face. "Time to die," He announced, still holding to her hair with one hand as he held the other in front of her face and began to close his fingers towards his palm. Hinata could feel the sand tightening around her body and she closed her eyes securely, readying herself to face death.

Then his weight was gone. Her eyes snapped open to find that sand was whirling around her again, and the sand around her body detached to join it. She covered her eyes with her hands and kept her mouth shut. She couldn't believe it. Why was he leaving? Why didn't he finish her off first? The sand soon stopped racing against her skin and she slowly opened her eyes. It was true. He was gone, and she was lying alone in the hospital hallway, bruised and beaten.

"Hyuuga-san!" She heard the call, but it sounded distant. Then the face of a nurse was hovering above her, and Hinata realized how out of it she was.

But she was alive, and she was safe.

End.

Notes from the Authoress

Poor Hinata didn't get to fight back all that much. D: Mareo-san, I know the whole bumping into thing couldn't have been exactly what you wanted, but this wouldn't leave me alone. I hope you at least like it a little bit. Was that a little too, ah, mean to Hinata-chan? Ahem. Everyone review! Oh, and random note. I was so tempted to make Hinata wake up from a dream, but decided against it. Could you imagine having a dream like that?