Magic Gone Wrong! Chapter 16, Part 2
Title: Magic Gone Wrong!
Chapter: 16/18
Previous Chapters: One, Two, Three, Four 1, Four 2, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen 1, Fourteen 2, Fifteen Part 1, Fifteen Part 2, Sixteen Part 1
Alternate Links: AO3, AFF
Authors:
lucklessmallory and
chinesethorn
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: LeexGaara
Summary: Tentacles, ftw?! Gaara is a sorcerer outside of the small town where Lee works as a smith. When Lee sits in on one of Gaara's ritual summonings, something starts to go terribly wrong...
~*~*~*~
Shukaku was old, but his magic was honed from the dark energies that flowed through him. Sand swept in to guard his body, but part of Naruto and Gaara’s joint attack slipped through the mass, leaving cracks in Shukaku’s armor. The sorcerer sent erupting waves of sand and magic from both hands, whirling as the ground beneath their feet began to shake.
In a flash, Lee was in the fray, eyes dark and a strange glint in his smile as he weaved between Gaara and Naruto. The demon’s presence brought a roar in the air and a darkening aura around Shukaku’s withered frame. Twisted faces were appearing around the old man, a menagerie of claws and scales and horns that wrapped around him like a cloak.
Sand swirled and raked at Naruto’s robes until they caught his leg and began to claw up the sage. Lee darted in with sharp tentacles severing the hold, barely looking at the blond man before leaping away again.
Gaara stepped forward, casting curse after spell after curse upon the old man and his armor, trying to break through and leave him vulnerable. Naruto’s strikes weren’t as fast, but each was incredibly powerful as it wailed against Shukaku’s barriers, leaving behind a residual ringing sound with each clash against the swirling, screaming sand. Gaara unlatched the gourd from his shoulders and let it fall beside him with a thump that was almost unheard over the commotion of the fight.
Raising his hands and beginning to sign in front of him with quick, practiced fingers, Gaara chanted in a low voice. His stomach twisted in disgust as he watched his old master’s power growing and twisting, roiling with decay as he fought. So many souls had been consumed by this man, so many evils risen, and so much innocent blood shed. Gaara chanted quicker, raising his voice though the roar. He could feel something in the sand around him trying to cut him down, but he held it at bay as the cork on his gourd popped loose. A low swipe of sand blades like claws tore at his face, but he focused on his spell. Cuts appeared above his temple, but he knew it was superficial wounds and let the blood fall without pause.
Shukaku’s head whipped towards Gaara at the chanting. The attacks that had been keeping Lee and Naruto at bay now began to focus all their attention in destroying the sorcerer and the gourd he’d laid on the ground.
Before Shukaku even had time to react, a spike of blue light hit him square on the back from behind, Naruto grinning tightly behind him with his eyes narrowed into slits. It almost looked like he had fangs for a moment.
Lee was not far behind, sinking the sharp black tendrils through the thick mass of demonic energy surrounding the old man. Marks crawled on his skin, erupting into more tendrils until only the skin around his eyes still bore his tanned color. Shukaku roared with the echo of a thousand demons as the demon inside Lee began to feed.
The sand around Shukaku suddenly loosened into a whirlpool of rusted grains, bones emerging from the ground only to be scraped to dust. The sand sucked on their legs while Shukaku’s eyes rolled back into his head and his body trembled against the onslaught.
Gaara’s hands were beginning to shake, but he still continued to sign and chant. Shukaku’s power bore down on him, heavy even as he was weakened by Lee and Naruto’s attack. The skeletal hand of one of Shukaku’s dead followers reached up from the depths of sand and tore its jagged bone-tips down Gaara’s leg, forcing him to one knee before the hand crumbled and blew away. The sorcerer didn’t stop chanting, his eyes growing progressively wider as the words of power and sealing rose and tore from his body.
“Almost there, Gaara, keep going!” Naruto shouted.
The gourd was shaking violently and pain was forming in the redhead’s temples, but Gaara could finally feel the first leaks of Shukaku’s spirit being coaxed into the gourd’s narrow opening.
Just in time, the demon sucking on Shukaku’s protective wards finally broke the last of them, causing the old man’s body to wither and disintegrate with the sand along with whatever trace of humanity he’d had left. But while his physical body was gone, the malevolent mass of Shukaku’s spirit struggled against Gaara’s spell. Inside the mass, two bright eyes opened, as black as Lee’s eyes were, but with a sickly yellow starburst for pupils.They gleamed with intelligence as it was pulled towards the gourd, laughing at Gaara despite what was happening to it.
Lee’s tentacles were still connected to the black mass, and the demonic aura around him was thick and bloated with those it had devoured. The smith’s boots dug against the sand as he was pulled along with Shukaku’s spirit, the demon inside of him still gnawing on the rich source of power.
Naruto appeared beside Gaara and added his power to the sorcerer’s. The Kyuubi’s fire lashed around Shukaku and reeled him towards the gourd. “Got’cha," he growled, shutting one eye tight against the sand scraping against their bodies.
Their joint efforts finally brought Shukaku to the lip of the gourd, his spirit forced into the shuddering vessel. “You are just like me. One day, you will face a similar fate," he whispered, echoed by the violent wind as it was sucked down into the gourd with him.
With a snap, Lee’s demon pulled off its tentacles from Shukaku, and the gourd’s cork seal jammed tight against the opening.
Gaara gasped and finally stopped his chant, his lungs heaving as the wind began to die and the sand in the air slowly descended and settled on the ground. He put a hand on the gourd and leaned against it, feeling the twisted spirit of Shukaku inside. His old master was trapped, and would remain that way from now on.
“Were either of you hurt?” Gaara rasped, looking up at Naruto and Lee. His temples still throbbed, but relief outweighed that. The sorcerer started to stand, but changed his mind and allowed himself to rest on his knee.
“I’m fine.” Naruto grinned and clapped Gaara boisterously on the shoulder. His face was covered in dirt and sweat, making his white teeth stand in the sunlight, which was growing brighter without the sandstorm to filter through. “Fucking exhausted, but not hurt.”
Lee’s eyes were lidded and dark, and a small crooked smile marred his features. “This body’s unhurt with only minor scratches," the demon replied, “His body is more resilient than I thought.” The markings on Lee’s body seemed to stand out even more with the power absorbed from lesser demons. They didn’t glow so much as suck the very light that fell on Lee’s body. The demon offered a hand towards Gaara while Naruto casually kicked the side of the gourd.
“Yep, that bastard’s not getting out of that any time soon,” Naruto declared. “What are you planning to do with him?”
“I’m going to keep him close, at least until I’m sure the seal will hold.” Gaara took Lee’s hand and slowly pulled himself up. The obvious amount of power that Asmodeus had gained made Gaara feel uneasy, but he was sure the demon had spent a lot, too. When it came right down to it as well, he was grateful that the demon was powerful enough to keep Lee safe, even if the circumstances weren’t the best.
“We should get some distance, then I want to bury this gorge.” Gaara pulled a small flask from his waistband and took a long drink, then passed it to Lee. “I don’t think there’s anything dangerous left here, but it would be a good precaution.”
Lee took a single drink before passing it back. He stood back slightly, eyes roving across the scratches on Gaara’s skin and the ragged strips of his pants where he’d been raked at.
“Yeah, this place gives me the creeps,” Naruto said, wiping his sage robes clean of sand and shaking some of the grains out of his hair. “Hey you, the demon inside bushybrows, why don’t you go ahead and get the horses? Me and Gaara will take care of this fucker.” He clasped Gaara’s arm in camaraderie, nudging him in the side with an elbow.
“Master Gaara?” Lee’s brows raised in question, though the demon still had that unsettling smile on his face.
“Go ahead.” Gaara nodded and glanced sideways at Naruto. “Stay on your toes in case we missed anything.”
Once Lee had left, Gaara gave a long sigh and turned to face the great gorge that Shukaku had been hiding in. His old master had sunk so low over time, even more than he could have predicted years ago. He was glad to finally have the mad man under wraps, harmless and sealed away in the gourd. For now, at least.
“I’m glad you and Lee weren’t hurt.” Gaara wiped a long trail of blood that had been crawling down the side of his face. Except for the wounds on his leg, the scratches were shallow and more annoying than painful. The blood made them look worse than they felt.
“Heh, that old geezer never stood a chance against us,” Naruto said haughtily while he glanced over the edge of the gorge. The hole must have held countless victims and willing sacrifices for Shukaku’s cause. And though Naruto kept silent about it, the hair on the back of his neck rose knowing that any sorcerer could end up like Shukaku in their quest for power. “Let’s bury this fucking hole in the ground and leave.”
He shot a brief current of healing power through his body to eject the sand particles residing in his wounds, then touched Gaara’s arm to heal his friend. Together, they worked to disperse the tainted magic lingering inside the gorge, and cleared the place of spirits. Once all trace of Shukaku’s deeds were gone, they filled the gorge with sand from the nearby dunes until all that was left were uneven splotches of sand.
Wiping his forehead, Naruto wrapped his cloth over his head and mouth again in preparation for their trip back to camp. Turning to the other sorcerer, he tilted his head in question. “What are you going to do now that he’s dead?”
“His body is dead,” Gaara corrected, hoisting the gourd onto his back and strapping it into place. He pulled a cloth over his head and around his face as Naruto did. “His spirit is still alive. I’m going to drain him in small increments if I can, though his power might be too twisted for me to absorb. If nothing else, I’m going to keep an eye on him.”
Gaara paused as he was tucking the edge of the cloth into his neckline, then glanced at his friend with a sardonic twist of his lip. “Oh,” he said. “You meant what am I going to do with my life? Not just Shukaku.”
“Bastard, now I’ll have nightmares of you leeching off Shukaku’s spirit and getting sand powers.” Naruto snorted, “So what’ll you do? Go off on another quest? Take an apprentice?” He shook his head as they walked over the hot sand. It was calmer now with Shukaku sealed away, but the sun was no less harsh especially after a tiring battle.
“I can’t imagine you teaching some idiot novice.” He faced his friend. “Or settling down with anyone at this time.”
Gaara kept his eyes on the stretch of sand ahead, but he could feel Naruto’s eyes on him. He shook his head slowly. “No... there won’t be any settling down. I don’t plan on it, anyway.”
Gaara frowned and sighed, rubbing his chest under the gourd strap. “I think I’ve grown too attached to Lee. He has more sway over my life than anyone else has before. He told me about an apprenticeship position in a smithy for him, and I became unreasonably possessive of him. Now he wants more from me.”
“Damn right you have. You’ve never been upset enough to ‘take a walk’ before, or let anyone take advantage of you when you’re sleeping. Oh wait, there was that time you did. After punching me.” Naruto snickered but quelled it at the disturbed look on Gaara’s face. “What exactly does he want from you? Because I can see how sickeningly attached he is to you too.”
“I think he wants something real between us.” Gaara’s lips twisted, showing his discomfort. “I don’t know what to call him sometimes. Friend, lover, partner, and I think that’s part of the problem. It’s complicated. I don’t want to be tied down, but I feel like there’s an anchor in his body keeping me close to him.”
Gaara sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, wiping away the sweat from the desert sun. “I agreed to work on... whatever we decide to do, after our quest was over. Now I don’t know what to do with myself.”
Naruto frowned at Gaara, not used to the redhead’s confusion. With Gaara, his decisions were usually clear cut and always the choice that benefited him the most. “It looks to me that whatever’s between you is already real. But take it from me. If you don’t feel the same way he does, and if you two can’t reach a compromise, break it off before you get in too deep.”
He slapped Gaara’s back in sympathy. “Bushybrows is a good guy. I don’t think he’ll force you into anything you don’t want to do.”
Gaara nodded, allowing a smirk for his friend’s support. He elbowed Naruto in return for the slap on the back, and turned his eyes back to the sandy ground ahead.
Chapter: 16/18
Previous Chapters: One, Two, Three, Four 1, Four 2, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen 1, Fourteen 2, Fifteen Part 1, Fifteen Part 2, Sixteen Part 1
Alternate Links: AO3, AFF
Authors:
lucklessmallory and
chinesethorn
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: LeexGaara
Summary: Tentacles, ftw?! Gaara is a sorcerer outside of the small town where Lee works as a smith. When Lee sits in on one of Gaara's ritual summonings, something starts to go terribly wrong...
~*~*~*~
Shukaku was old, but his magic was honed from the dark energies that flowed through him. Sand swept in to guard his body, but part of Naruto and Gaara’s joint attack slipped through the mass, leaving cracks in Shukaku’s armor. The sorcerer sent erupting waves of sand and magic from both hands, whirling as the ground beneath their feet began to shake.
In a flash, Lee was in the fray, eyes dark and a strange glint in his smile as he weaved between Gaara and Naruto. The demon’s presence brought a roar in the air and a darkening aura around Shukaku’s withered frame. Twisted faces were appearing around the old man, a menagerie of claws and scales and horns that wrapped around him like a cloak.
Sand swirled and raked at Naruto’s robes until they caught his leg and began to claw up the sage. Lee darted in with sharp tentacles severing the hold, barely looking at the blond man before leaping away again.
Gaara stepped forward, casting curse after spell after curse upon the old man and his armor, trying to break through and leave him vulnerable. Naruto’s strikes weren’t as fast, but each was incredibly powerful as it wailed against Shukaku’s barriers, leaving behind a residual ringing sound with each clash against the swirling, screaming sand. Gaara unlatched the gourd from his shoulders and let it fall beside him with a thump that was almost unheard over the commotion of the fight.
Raising his hands and beginning to sign in front of him with quick, practiced fingers, Gaara chanted in a low voice. His stomach twisted in disgust as he watched his old master’s power growing and twisting, roiling with decay as he fought. So many souls had been consumed by this man, so many evils risen, and so much innocent blood shed. Gaara chanted quicker, raising his voice though the roar. He could feel something in the sand around him trying to cut him down, but he held it at bay as the cork on his gourd popped loose. A low swipe of sand blades like claws tore at his face, but he focused on his spell. Cuts appeared above his temple, but he knew it was superficial wounds and let the blood fall without pause.
Shukaku’s head whipped towards Gaara at the chanting. The attacks that had been keeping Lee and Naruto at bay now began to focus all their attention in destroying the sorcerer and the gourd he’d laid on the ground.
Before Shukaku even had time to react, a spike of blue light hit him square on the back from behind, Naruto grinning tightly behind him with his eyes narrowed into slits. It almost looked like he had fangs for a moment.
Lee was not far behind, sinking the sharp black tendrils through the thick mass of demonic energy surrounding the old man. Marks crawled on his skin, erupting into more tendrils until only the skin around his eyes still bore his tanned color. Shukaku roared with the echo of a thousand demons as the demon inside Lee began to feed.
The sand around Shukaku suddenly loosened into a whirlpool of rusted grains, bones emerging from the ground only to be scraped to dust. The sand sucked on their legs while Shukaku’s eyes rolled back into his head and his body trembled against the onslaught.
Gaara’s hands were beginning to shake, but he still continued to sign and chant. Shukaku’s power bore down on him, heavy even as he was weakened by Lee and Naruto’s attack. The skeletal hand of one of Shukaku’s dead followers reached up from the depths of sand and tore its jagged bone-tips down Gaara’s leg, forcing him to one knee before the hand crumbled and blew away. The sorcerer didn’t stop chanting, his eyes growing progressively wider as the words of power and sealing rose and tore from his body.
“Almost there, Gaara, keep going!” Naruto shouted.
The gourd was shaking violently and pain was forming in the redhead’s temples, but Gaara could finally feel the first leaks of Shukaku’s spirit being coaxed into the gourd’s narrow opening.
Just in time, the demon sucking on Shukaku’s protective wards finally broke the last of them, causing the old man’s body to wither and disintegrate with the sand along with whatever trace of humanity he’d had left. But while his physical body was gone, the malevolent mass of Shukaku’s spirit struggled against Gaara’s spell. Inside the mass, two bright eyes opened, as black as Lee’s eyes were, but with a sickly yellow starburst for pupils.They gleamed with intelligence as it was pulled towards the gourd, laughing at Gaara despite what was happening to it.
Lee’s tentacles were still connected to the black mass, and the demonic aura around him was thick and bloated with those it had devoured. The smith’s boots dug against the sand as he was pulled along with Shukaku’s spirit, the demon inside of him still gnawing on the rich source of power.
Naruto appeared beside Gaara and added his power to the sorcerer’s. The Kyuubi’s fire lashed around Shukaku and reeled him towards the gourd. “Got’cha," he growled, shutting one eye tight against the sand scraping against their bodies.
Their joint efforts finally brought Shukaku to the lip of the gourd, his spirit forced into the shuddering vessel. “You are just like me. One day, you will face a similar fate," he whispered, echoed by the violent wind as it was sucked down into the gourd with him.
With a snap, Lee’s demon pulled off its tentacles from Shukaku, and the gourd’s cork seal jammed tight against the opening.
Gaara gasped and finally stopped his chant, his lungs heaving as the wind began to die and the sand in the air slowly descended and settled on the ground. He put a hand on the gourd and leaned against it, feeling the twisted spirit of Shukaku inside. His old master was trapped, and would remain that way from now on.
“Were either of you hurt?” Gaara rasped, looking up at Naruto and Lee. His temples still throbbed, but relief outweighed that. The sorcerer started to stand, but changed his mind and allowed himself to rest on his knee.
“I’m fine.” Naruto grinned and clapped Gaara boisterously on the shoulder. His face was covered in dirt and sweat, making his white teeth stand in the sunlight, which was growing brighter without the sandstorm to filter through. “Fucking exhausted, but not hurt.”
Lee’s eyes were lidded and dark, and a small crooked smile marred his features. “This body’s unhurt with only minor scratches," the demon replied, “His body is more resilient than I thought.” The markings on Lee’s body seemed to stand out even more with the power absorbed from lesser demons. They didn’t glow so much as suck the very light that fell on Lee’s body. The demon offered a hand towards Gaara while Naruto casually kicked the side of the gourd.
“Yep, that bastard’s not getting out of that any time soon,” Naruto declared. “What are you planning to do with him?”
“I’m going to keep him close, at least until I’m sure the seal will hold.” Gaara took Lee’s hand and slowly pulled himself up. The obvious amount of power that Asmodeus had gained made Gaara feel uneasy, but he was sure the demon had spent a lot, too. When it came right down to it as well, he was grateful that the demon was powerful enough to keep Lee safe, even if the circumstances weren’t the best.
“We should get some distance, then I want to bury this gorge.” Gaara pulled a small flask from his waistband and took a long drink, then passed it to Lee. “I don’t think there’s anything dangerous left here, but it would be a good precaution.”
Lee took a single drink before passing it back. He stood back slightly, eyes roving across the scratches on Gaara’s skin and the ragged strips of his pants where he’d been raked at.
“Yeah, this place gives me the creeps,” Naruto said, wiping his sage robes clean of sand and shaking some of the grains out of his hair. “Hey you, the demon inside bushybrows, why don’t you go ahead and get the horses? Me and Gaara will take care of this fucker.” He clasped Gaara’s arm in camaraderie, nudging him in the side with an elbow.
“Master Gaara?” Lee’s brows raised in question, though the demon still had that unsettling smile on his face.
“Go ahead.” Gaara nodded and glanced sideways at Naruto. “Stay on your toes in case we missed anything.”
Once Lee had left, Gaara gave a long sigh and turned to face the great gorge that Shukaku had been hiding in. His old master had sunk so low over time, even more than he could have predicted years ago. He was glad to finally have the mad man under wraps, harmless and sealed away in the gourd. For now, at least.
“I’m glad you and Lee weren’t hurt.” Gaara wiped a long trail of blood that had been crawling down the side of his face. Except for the wounds on his leg, the scratches were shallow and more annoying than painful. The blood made them look worse than they felt.
“Heh, that old geezer never stood a chance against us,” Naruto said haughtily while he glanced over the edge of the gorge. The hole must have held countless victims and willing sacrifices for Shukaku’s cause. And though Naruto kept silent about it, the hair on the back of his neck rose knowing that any sorcerer could end up like Shukaku in their quest for power. “Let’s bury this fucking hole in the ground and leave.”
He shot a brief current of healing power through his body to eject the sand particles residing in his wounds, then touched Gaara’s arm to heal his friend. Together, they worked to disperse the tainted magic lingering inside the gorge, and cleared the place of spirits. Once all trace of Shukaku’s deeds were gone, they filled the gorge with sand from the nearby dunes until all that was left were uneven splotches of sand.
Wiping his forehead, Naruto wrapped his cloth over his head and mouth again in preparation for their trip back to camp. Turning to the other sorcerer, he tilted his head in question. “What are you going to do now that he’s dead?”
“His body is dead,” Gaara corrected, hoisting the gourd onto his back and strapping it into place. He pulled a cloth over his head and around his face as Naruto did. “His spirit is still alive. I’m going to drain him in small increments if I can, though his power might be too twisted for me to absorb. If nothing else, I’m going to keep an eye on him.”
Gaara paused as he was tucking the edge of the cloth into his neckline, then glanced at his friend with a sardonic twist of his lip. “Oh,” he said. “You meant what am I going to do with my life? Not just Shukaku.”
“Bastard, now I’ll have nightmares of you leeching off Shukaku’s spirit and getting sand powers.” Naruto snorted, “So what’ll you do? Go off on another quest? Take an apprentice?” He shook his head as they walked over the hot sand. It was calmer now with Shukaku sealed away, but the sun was no less harsh especially after a tiring battle.
“I can’t imagine you teaching some idiot novice.” He faced his friend. “Or settling down with anyone at this time.”
Gaara kept his eyes on the stretch of sand ahead, but he could feel Naruto’s eyes on him. He shook his head slowly. “No... there won’t be any settling down. I don’t plan on it, anyway.”
Gaara frowned and sighed, rubbing his chest under the gourd strap. “I think I’ve grown too attached to Lee. He has more sway over my life than anyone else has before. He told me about an apprenticeship position in a smithy for him, and I became unreasonably possessive of him. Now he wants more from me.”
“Damn right you have. You’ve never been upset enough to ‘take a walk’ before, or let anyone take advantage of you when you’re sleeping. Oh wait, there was that time you did. After punching me.” Naruto snickered but quelled it at the disturbed look on Gaara’s face. “What exactly does he want from you? Because I can see how sickeningly attached he is to you too.”
“I think he wants something real between us.” Gaara’s lips twisted, showing his discomfort. “I don’t know what to call him sometimes. Friend, lover, partner, and I think that’s part of the problem. It’s complicated. I don’t want to be tied down, but I feel like there’s an anchor in his body keeping me close to him.”
Gaara sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, wiping away the sweat from the desert sun. “I agreed to work on... whatever we decide to do, after our quest was over. Now I don’t know what to do with myself.”
Naruto frowned at Gaara, not used to the redhead’s confusion. With Gaara, his decisions were usually clear cut and always the choice that benefited him the most. “It looks to me that whatever’s between you is already real. But take it from me. If you don’t feel the same way he does, and if you two can’t reach a compromise, break it off before you get in too deep.”
He slapped Gaara’s back in sympathy. “Bushybrows is a good guy. I don’t think he’ll force you into anything you don’t want to do.”
Gaara nodded, allowing a smirk for his friend’s support. He elbowed Naruto in return for the slap on the back, and turned his eyes back to the sandy ground ahead.