Chapter 35

-Matsuri's POV-

I glanced over at the two Subaku brothers yet again as we walked silently. Last night, while drunk, I made an absolute fool of myself. Not only did I jump Gaara, but I did it in front of his brother! If Kankuro remembers what happened, he wasn't saying anything. I prayed he didn't. He'd been much drunker than us, so hopefully his entire night was blacked out.

The tall man caught me looking and I averted my gaze to the ground in front of me with a bright blush. I jumped slightly when he suddenly removed his scarf and handed it to me, "You should cover your face, Matsu. It looks like you're already getting frostbite."

My eyes shot over to meet his and he gave me a big grin before focusing back on the road. With a humiliated frown, I did as he said, if only to take advantage of the excuse he'd just given me that explained my red cheeks. Kiba was on his other side and made a teasing comment about how chivalrous he was just then, but I tuned them out and looked over at Gaara with my brow furrowed.

When I passed out last night, I'd been on top of him and he'd been completely stunned. This morning when I woke up, though, all three of us were in bed like normal, only he wasn't cuddling me and had his back turned. A guilty heat rose into my face and my eyes watered up. I tried to blink them back as I looked away from the handsome boy.

My hesitation to come clean about my feelings for him was because I thought he wouldn't react well to such foreign emotions and actions. Even if it was my fault for rushing a bit while inebriated, it was starting to feel like I'd been correct to worry.

We've been traveling for maybe five or six hours now and according to our maps, it was going to take at least another five or six hours to reach our destination.

A weird sensation crossed my mind, reminiscent of how it felt to partake in M.A.T., but it faded as quickly as it'd risen. I blinked a few times in confusion, but it didn't happen again so I brushed it off as my mind playing tricks.

We continued traveling throughout the day and what I thought was a one time slip in my imagination, occurred multiple more times. After setting up multiple traps around the entrance of the small building, the four of us called it a day at the edge of the business district in a small law office because it didn't have many windows or cold linoleum floors.

We hadn't run into anyone the entire way here and Kiba said he hadn't heard anything either, but I still couldn't fall asleep.

Gaara was cuddled up behind me with his arms wrapped firmly around my waist, but I couldn't feel relieved because there was no heat in this building, meaning we'd reverted to relying on one another's body heat. I frowned as I felt Kankuro's chest rise and fall against my face. The man was big on cuddling, as everyone knows, and had his arms wrapped loosely around my head to hold me against him.

While I should be grateful because I wasn't cold in the slightest, I was still annoyed that he and Kiba hadn't switched places. The Inuzuka boy lay on his other side, curled up against the taller man's back.

Finally, after hours of laying there, I managed to fall asleep.

When I woke in the morning, I was on someone's back. My eyes crept open and I saw red hair, almost letting out a sigh of relief that it was Gaara and not one of the others. I pulled back slightly to rest my forehead against his shoulder and groaned before tapping him softly, "Can you put me down?"

The other two turned back to look at us as he bent slightly so I could reach the ground without a word. I rubbed my eyes, noticing Kankuro hand Gaara his backpack, and then we were walking once more, "Why didn't you guys wake me up?"

Kiba smiled empathetically, "They both said you kept tossing and turning all night so they wanted to let you rest." I glanced at the brothers and Kankuro gave me a sheepish grin while Gaara continued facing forward.

A frown tugged at my lips, "Next time, wake me up. It isn't fair to you guys."

Kiba let out a small laugh, "It's not like anyone cares. They even fought over who got to carry you." My cheeks warmed and I gave all three of them an embarrassed glare before refocusing on the road.

It was silent for almost two hours when we finally arrived at a car dealership, completely abandoned. "You know the drill," Kankuro said and then we split up to look for the best possible vehicles available.

My skin prickled everytime I peeked into a car because a wave of deja vu would come over me and I'd turn around to make sure no strange men were approaching me like last time. An hour or so later, we decided which ones to take and checked inside to see if we could find the keys rather than hotwiring. Luckily, they were all in an unlocked drawer, unlike at the last place.

I chose to go with Gaara when asked who I wanted to ride back with, but began to worry I'd made the wrong decision when he didn't say anything even after we started driving. After about fifteen minutes, the silence started to make my skin crawl so I turned the radio on and started to search through the channels just in case someone was broadcasting something.

Nothing but white noise played lightly out of the speakers, no matter where I turned the dial, and I was about to turn it off when there was a waver in the sound and Gaara and I looked at one another in surprise. When I turned it back to where it was, it was obvious someone was sending something out there, but it was just too faint for us to make out the words.

After figuring out which way we were facing, Gaara turned down a side road that faced south, the direction of Konoha. After driving another few minutes, the broadcast got clearer and clearer until we could finally make out the words.

It was a woman's voice, obviously recorded and being played on a continuous loop, "If you're out there and are looking for food or shelter, wait inside the house located at the coordinates at the end of this broadcast. This message will repeat. Humanity still has a chance."

I fumbled through the glove box for a pen and found a pen. After writing the entire message down, with the coordinates, on a piece of the car's manual, I tore it from the small booklet and put it in my coat pocket. Gaara and I shared a look before he turned around to get back on the road that led to the house.

No longer was my mind stuck on whether the redhead was upset with me and instead it was reeling with what could possibly be waiting in the house at those coordinates. It was worth checking out, especially in Hinata's case because her sister might be there. Even if she wasn't, if it really was a group of survivors like us rather than a trick being played by the inhabited, we could lend a hand.

That odd M.A.T. feeling washed over me again and I closed my eyes in an attempt to not panic. Each time it happened, I became more worried that I was losing my mind.

"Did you feel something just now?"

My eyes shot open and I turned my head to look at Gaara, whose eyes were still trained on the road. There's now way he was experiencing that, too…Is there? "Ever since yesterday, I keep feeling…like when…" I wasn't sure how to say it, but he finished my sentence, "It feels like those machines with the helmets."

My heartbeat was pumping so quickly that I was almost breathing harder, "Y-Yes! So I'm not going crazy!"

He glanced at me before focusing back on driving, "When Naruto says he can feel Hinata, is this what he's talking about?"

Realization struck me and I sat back in my seat with wide eyes, "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot about that. You're probably right."

"So what do we do now?"

My brow furrowed and I crossed my arms loosely over my torso, "Is there anything we can do?" The redhead didn't respond even after multiple minutes so I gave up waiting for him and leaned my head against the window as I watched the buildings go by.

An hour or so passed before I was snapped out of my daze by him pulling the van over to the side of the road. I looked around outside, but didn't see anything other than a handful of abandoned cars. He was gone for multiple minutes and I started to get worried something had happened when he suddenly reappeared and handed me a big case with a zipper on it before resuming driving.

I gave him a confused look, but he ignored it, so I unzipped the case only to see dozens of CDs inside. When I looked at the dash, I realized the van had a CD player and smiled. I couldn't find anything to listen to on the radio so he found something else.

While flipping through the pages of discs, I absently asked, "What kind of music do you like?"

Gaara didn't respond immediately so I looked over at him and he spoke as though he didn't want to answer, "I don't really listen to music."

Rather than focus on the insinuation his words offered, I decided to try and keep the mood light, "So I can listen to whatever I want, then?"

He nodded wordlessly and I went back to flipping through my options before finding one that was likely to garner some kind of response from the stoic boy. I barely kept my composure as I slid the disc into the player and waited for it to be read. Guitar started playing and I watched his face as the artist began singing, only to burst out laughing when he glanced at me with a look of utter confusion and distaste.

"What's the matter? You don't like Country music?" He steeled his gaze back on the road and his jaw flexed, obviously annoyed that I was laughing at him. I sang along to the CD, laughing once in a while when I'd glance over at him and he looked like he was being tortured.

Songs passed before one of the more popular songs came on and he perked up ever so slightly.

"Do you know this one?"

He spoke in a flat voice, "Unfortunately."

It became hard not to smile at his obvious irritation and I decided to have mercy on the poor boy and reached over to hit the eject button on the CD player.

"It wasn't over. Why'd you take it out?"

I grinned to myself as I slid the disc back into the slot I'd taken it from, "You don't like it so I thought I'd try something else."

It was silent for a few moments as I browsed for a different genre, only to look back up when he suddenly spoke in a softer voice, "I like listening to you, though."

Warmth rose to my face and I struggled to come up with a response, "I, uh..T-Thank you?" The hardened look on his face softened slightly so it didn't bother me quite as much that he didn't say anything else.

The remainder of the trip back was less than two hours and I spent the entirety of it going through the CDs and trying to figure out what he liked only to end up more clueless than I began.

After pulling up to the curb behind the other two vehicles, since the other boys beat us back, we got out and grabbed our bags before heading inside. Chaos was going on there. Ino was immediately right in front of us with tears in her eyes, "Did you guys see Sakura or Sasuke while you were driving?" Gaara and I glanced at one another before shaking our heads and she let out an incredibly stressful sounding groan before pacing across the room with her hands on her head.

Hinata spoke from where she was standing near the entryway to the dining room, "We have to go look for them."

Sai argued, "If they're hiding somewhere, we might do more harm than good by interfering."

Ino turned to him with a look of disbelief, "Are you kidding right now? You want us to just wait here and do nothing? That's your brother out there!"

Everyone was silent as the couple that's never argued even once had finally ended up at odds. "What I'm saying is that I know my brother's capable of taking care of himself. Besides, we don't even know if something happened at all. They could've just taken off somewhere so they could have some privacy before we leave tomorrow."

Ino brought her arms out from her sides, "They've been gone for almost twenty-four hours, Sai! They didn't even take a backpack!"

My eyes widened, "Wait, what!"

The blond turned to me and nodded with her tears finally overflowing, "I'm going to look for them even if I have to go by myself," she turned back to face Sai, "and when I bring them back I hope Sasuke's pissed you didn't want to help."