Characters: Yondaime Kazekage, Gaara, mentions of others
Summary: He doesn't want to see his son. Spoilers for 525.
Pairings: None
Author's Note: As a note, I like to think that the Yondaime Kazekage—having been dead for quite a while—isn't well-informed enough to know that Orochimaru is dead.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Nidaime Mizukage, Nidaime Tsuchikage, Sandaime Raikage… These are all deeply feared and respected men, renowned for having been among the strongest shinobi of their day, yet he is the only one to even sense the Third Eye, let alone see it.
But then, he is far more intimately acquainted with this particular technique than any of the other men.
Gaara…
Truth be told, he can not be sure if the thought of confronting his youngest child again fills him with anticipation, dread, or something else entirely.
His name is Sabaku no Takeo, though there are few who remember him by that name. Instead, he is remembered by nearly all simply as the Yondaime Kazekage, and he is content to be remembered that way. He knew quite well when he took the position of Kazekage that he was no longer a man answerable to himself. What identity he had became irrelevant; he instead became the village, and was no longer simply a man.
He does, however, wish that it hadn't been taken quite to the extent that it, as of this moment, seems to have been.
Orochimaru, apparently, seems to have seen fit to resurrect him; the Yondaime isn't entirely sure why or to what end. It doesn't make much sense to him, to resurrect a man that he once decided to murder; there's no logic to it, none at all.
Then again, little of what Orochimaru does has any logic to it. Why should this be any different?
The Yondaime has no idea how much time has passed between his death and resurrection, only the sense that maybe it has been more than the passing of a few days and nights, much more than that. He has no idea for what purpose he has been brought back, but that doesn't matter; the reason will doubtless be revealed soon enough. For now, the matter of Gaara is to the Yondaime far more immediate a concern.
The Yondaime Kazekage is well aware that he's not the sort that any would term a stellar parent. He also knows that he is neither the first nor the only kage to have sealed a bijuu into his child—the Sandaime Raikage did the same thing and it's probably the worst-kept secret in the five nations that the present jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi (at least present at the time of his death) is the Yondaime Hokage's son—and that some are remembered better than others. He is remembered out of the three the least fondly but the Yondaime has never been aiming to win any popularity contests—only to augment the strength of Sunagakure. Nothing more, nothing less. He doesn't care how he'll end up being remembered.
Still, he's not sure that he wants to see Gaara again.
With all the clarity of memory that comes from a life of observing the world closely, the Yondaime can remember how it was. Gaara was becoming nearly impossible for even him to control; insanely, the Kazekage had found himself half-hoping Gaara would be killed during the invasion of Konoha, if only so that the ever-growing threat he posed to Suna could finally be nullified. He was finally beginning to understand what Chiyo had meant about what the risk a jinchuuriki of the Shukaku would be to any village who found such a person in their "possession"; Gaara could have leveled Suna if he wanted to.
Temari and Kankuro were the only ones Gaara had never injured with the Shukaku's sand; the Yondaime could only assume that Gaara stayed his hand out of some latent sense of familial loyalty (God knows it never manifested itself consciously, at least not to the Kazekage's knowledge). Said sense of familial loyalty did not extend to his father, apparently; the Kazekage remembers quite vividly the copious number of times there would be places under his clothes where the skin was completely scoured away by sand. Still, he did not hand Gaara off to another nin; there was no one in that village strong enough to handle him without ending up dead.
No one but his father.
And all the while, he watched as Gaara became less and less human, more monstrous, more animal in his manner and demeanor. A savage, ravaging beast. He was barely recognizable as the timid, eager-to-please child he'd been.
The Yondaime decided that maybe he shouldn't have had Yashamaru act on all the rage he'd bottled up after all. The medic certainly hadn't had the courage to strike out without his brother-in-law's prior approval; Yashamaru probably would have lived the rest of his life without ever giving Gaara any indication of just how much he loathed him.
There was just one thing the Kazekage couldn't understand at the time of Yashamaru's death. Why was it Gaara that he directed his hatred towards? Why not the true source?
Now, he understands. Gaara, Yashamaru thought, was far more accessible to be the object of his hatred than he ever was, regardless of who truly deserved it.
It still doesn't bother the Kazekage that Yashamaru hated him so much. It was to be expected, given the circumstances.
With a start, he returns to the present.
He didn't want to see anyone. Frankly, he didn't want to be pulled back to life in the first place—the Yondaime is of the firm opinion that the dead need to stay dead—but there's no getting past the fact that he is, once more, in a way, very much alive, so he'd rather focus on other things.
The one the Yondaime really doesn't want to see is the one he will doubtless be seeing in an especially short period of time.
Maybe it's just some latent guilt starting to worm its way towards the surface of his consciousness. The sense that the sacrifice made wasn't worth it, that he made things worse when he tried to make them better.
And that, seeing as sealing the Shukaku into Gaara only put Suna in the peril he was trying to avert, that a failed sacrifice wasn't worth Gaara's life. Or Karura's. Or even Yashamaru's, though the Kazekage has never held the medic in the highest regard.
If that's his legacy, of having been the source of senseless suffering for those he should have as Kazekage protected, and danger for Sunagakure, it's the only thing out of all the things he's been forced to put up with during his lifetime that he isn't willing to be saddled with.
But then, the Kazekage almost smiles as he thinks of the way Gaara might react when he sees him again. He has visions of being crushed by sand, but given something Orochimaru told him about Impure World Resurrection, he gets the impression that that wouldn't be enough to leave him dead again. Amazing. I taught him to use Sabaku Kyuu believing that it would kill anything unfortunate enough to be caught in it. But apparently, it can't kill the dead.
He turns his attention to the other kages present, and can barely hide his contempt when he realizes the sort of conversation they're having. We have been raised from the dead, sent to a place none of us can identify for a reason none of us knows, a large army only a couple of kilometers away from us, and they're talking about how much they want to kill each other? Having been raised in Suna, he supposes, a harsh place where even survival is something only the strongest can manage, has made him much more pragmatic than the others.
Time to put an end to this.
"Gentlemen, I hate to cut short the pleasantries, but I feel the need to inform you that this conversation is no longer private."
The dark hollows of the Nidaime Tsuchikage's eyes swing on him. "And are you aware of who the eavesdropper is, Kazekage-dono?" Evidently the reports of the late Tsuchikage's courtesy even to those not his allies was not exaggerated.
The Kazekage stares them down grimly, and even though these are all far older men, they all seem to wilt just a little bit beneath his stare; everyone does. "Yes. My son."
He wonders briefly if Gaara has changed at all, since Orochimaru's sword slid through his ribs, or if he's simply just as much an animal as he was before.
.
The answer, it seems, when it comes to the Yondaime barely a minute later, is yes.
It's plainly been at least a few years since he died; Gaara is a little over a head taller than he was at twelve years old, though he is still, his father guesses, small for his age. That's to be expected; all of the jinchuuriki of the Shukaku have been on the short side.
Yes, Gaara has changed. He is calmer, without the turmoil of chaos and bloodlust roiling beneath his skin. No longer a monster, nor a beast. He stares at his father with eyes that are both calm and perturbed at the same time. If there is any loathing, he must hide it exceptionally well.
The Yondaime doesn't know whether to be pleased or disconcerted at this change.
Someone has done what he could not.