Leaving

It was dark as can be, Zeref had a travel pack on and was marching towards the gate.

He had spoken to Sasuke after they both calmed down and came to the agreement that it was first come first serve.

If he wanted to save Itachi he had to be fast, so that was the plan.

Zerefs plan was to head to head to the dragon realm and increase his speed here, however to do so he needs to get to the land of Scales, a hidden land way above the mountains.

The darkness grew in his eyes as he stared blankly at the huge gates that lead to his escape.

He looked back to see Sasuke place the pink haird female on the bench before walking ahead of him, his eyes were completely covered by his hair.

He too was about to walk out of the gates, when a scared voice rung through his head.

"Don't" she begged.

He looked back, his inky eyes locking onto her pearly pair. He always loved the hint of lavender that rested in them and with the moon shining on her dark blue hair.... she looked angelic.

"I can't stay.."

"B- but must y-you go" she shot back.

His eyes could no longer gaze into he innocent ones, he felt guilt, he had to go, but she could not come with as much as his heart desired it.

"Please... don't make this difficult" he begged.

The figure ahead turned back, his eyes were harsh, and hurt.

"Are you coming or not" he demanded.

He got no response.

The angelic figure moved into her stance... no... their stance.

"I can't a-and w-w-won't let you d-do this... Zeref" her eyes held determination and promise.

Said male sighed, he dissapeared in a flash.

He stood behind her, and chopped the back of her neck, knocking her out cold.

Time moved in slow motion as the female fell and lost consciousness but she heard his regret filled voice.

"Forgive me.... Hinata" he said as she passed out into his arms. Zeref used the flying Rijin seal he had placed on his room and teleported Hinata onto his bed.

He continued to walk with His brother figure before the pair met up with a few others.

Zeref held out his fist.

"This is where we part... good luck Sasuke" he said.

"Hn, remember first come first serve. If I find Itachi I will kill him" he responded holding his fist up.

"Let the race..." Zeref started.

"Begin" they finished together, their fists connected, and Zeref flashed out of Sasuke's sight.

He didn't flash too far since he didn't mark anything out of the village, but it was far enough to give him a big head start from Konoha who will no doubt be onto Sasuke and him in a few hours.

It took 12 hours of running to get out of the land of fire.

He wasn't sure about Sakura, but Hinata would wake up in about 4, that meant he had 4 hours to get as far as possible.

He needed to get to Kumogakure, since the village was so high in the sky, it would give Kai a great head start to take him to the land of Dragons.

This was a race against time.

The sun was starting to rise, and Zeref used the opportunity to catch his breath.

If Tsuande was smart she would get Shikamaru and Naruto to no doubt be the ones to chase them.

Shikamaru is smart enough to know that Zeref would have doubled whatever they could even think of making so the smartest choice would be to go for Sasuke first.

However that means that....

Zeref's head snapped up and jumped dodging the sand by a hair.

His eyes narrowed at the seafoam pupiless eyes that glared back at him.

"Zeref, what do you think you're doing?" Gaara asked, his arms crossed.

Of course.. if Zeref was too far for Konoha Shinobi then the smartest choice would be to get other Shinobi to cut him off.

Mainly, Suna shinobi as the land of Wind is directly next to Konoha and Kumo...

"Leaving" Zeref replied.

Sand swirled around the area.

"I won't let you do this. You saved me from the darkness, so let me save you" Gaara stated.

Zeref's eyes burned red as fire slowly surrounded him.

" Its easy to be someone else's light. But to pull your self out of the darkness, like the one that surrounds my heart. That is impossible." Zeref muttered.

In a flash of red Zeref darted towards Gaara the hot flames slowly melting the sand, but it wasn't enough to stop it.

Gaara's sand caught Zeref and squeezed, not to kill him but to knock him out.

Zeref released more flames, and turned the sand Squeezing him into glass.

Using brute strength he smashed the glass around him and deepened his glare.

"Fire style: Dragons ROAR!"

A beam of flames flew at Gaara who created a dome of sand to protect him.

As soon as the dome was gone Zeref was nowhere to be seen.

Without warning Gaara's sand flew up and protected him from above, looking up he saw the burning red eyes of his friend.

With a sudden flash of blue Gaara was sent flying into a tree, cracking his sand armor.

Zeref was infront of him performing a series of hand signs.

Gaara was getting no time to breath.

Changing his stance, Zeref's right arm was covered in flames that Gaara could feel from the other side of the clearing.

A ball of flames slowly formed in Zeref's hand as scales appeared in the corner of Zeref's eyes.

Gaara narrowed his eyes, his eyes turned to slits, and the cracks in his armour on his face slowly turned blue as a sandy yellow aura surrounded him, the dirt around them formed into sand and began to float around the two.

"Nishoku!"

"Sand Tsunami!"

BOOOOOOOM!!!!

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Sasuke and Naruto were ready to have their final clash, when a large explosion caught their attention, seeing the mushroom cloud of fire and sand, they knew who it was.

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Zeref stood up from the cloud of dirt and sand.

Gaara was on the ground completely down for the count, he was burnt In many places, and had a bright red burn mark from his right cheek down to his chest.

Zeref had cuts and bruises everywhere and had many broken bones and had a huge open scar from his left shoulder down to his right hip.

Limping away, Zeref gave a smirk.

"We've both come so far.... I'm proud" he whispered before slashing his leaf headband and leaving it on Gaara's chest.

Walking into the forrest Zeref was officially a Rouge nin as he crossed the border to the land of lightning.

______________________________________

I'M DOOOOONE!!

This was officially the last chapter of this book.

A second book will be out at some point but this us it for this one.

Now for the winner if Zerefs heart...

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The winner...

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Is.

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Hinata!!!!!

I'm kidding, Hinata had a whopping 40 votes.

The true winner with 46 counted votes is

GAARA!!

Damm the shipping Gaara x Zeref was strong, it was so close.

Kinda crazy.

Anyway in book two their relationship will bloom a lot more.

Thanks for reading guys!!!