Sabaku no Gaara was having a good day. Granted, there were many problems to be addressed. Just yesterday, he had stared down Uchiha Sasuke –one of the first people to actually hurt him- and his accomplices, only to have Uchiha Madara himself declare war on him, his village, and the whole of the shinobi world. Then he had to break the news to his first and greatest friend and rival, Uzumaki Naruto. That could have gone better.

Nevertheless… Today, the sun shone bright. He would soon be back to his beloved desert, he had had a great breakfast, and regardless of the circumstances he was glad to have been able to talk to his friend. Of course, there was the whole gearing up Suna for war business waiting for him, but that was for another day. Talking the daimyo into it was going to be the most annoying part of that chore.

Oh, and then there would be the whole fighting part.

He couldn't help but feel some amount of trepidation when he thought about it. Getting Shukaku extracted had been more than a hit to his chakra reserves –they had gone from monstrous to humongous. It had been a sobering hit to his pride, the bitter realization that he really was far from invincible. Naruto was another jinchūriki, losing to him had been inconceivable at the time, but he had long since rationalized it. Deidara, however, had 'just' been unimaginably skilled and powerful, worthy of the designation 'S-rank ninja.' Knowing that he would soon have to face foes just as skilled, if not more, was an intimidating prospect.

Beyond that… Intellectually, he knew that he would lead his men to war, and that many of them would die. And since he had accepted a great responsibility in the chain of command, 'his men' would encompass more than just his own people. He also knew that there had been no alternative, that Madara had to be stopped no matter the cost. Emotionally, it was not as clear cut. Many of the emotions he felt while thinking about it were foreign to him, not totally unknown, but he would refrain from labeling them carelessly. He still had not totally got the hang of his whole range of emotional responses, but it was a work in progress. At the forefront of it all however, was a fierce determination.

The determination to protect those he was in charge of : his shinobi, his villagers, his fellow countrymen. By his pride as a Kage, he would lay waste to their enemies, and none of his charges would shed a single drop of blood if he could help it.

Wishful thinking, he supposed. A Shinobi World War would no doubt create casualties. But as Kage, he would put his life on the line to keep them at a minimum.

He suddenly interrupted his musings. With a couple of signs, he pointed his findings to his siblings, which were escorting him.

"Hey ! Wild raspberries !" Kankurō exclaimed. "Wait for me guys."

Temari's eyelid began to twitch, a visible sign of her sudden exasperation. She stopped along with Kankurō and started to berate him. Meanwhile, Gaara continued at a more sedate pace to let his siblings catch up to him eventually. After a couple hundred meters, he reached a wide river and started to cross it by waterwalking. 15 meters later, he had reached the middle of the stream when the trap was sprung.

A patch of water gave way under his feet, sinking like a pithole. Immediately, his sand burst from his gourd but before he could ride on it an onslaught of metal beset him from the water, coming from all directions. Mainly swords and spears, they were fast enough that he had only the time to wrap himself in his cocoon of sand. Then, a rain of kunai launched a second earlier began to fall on him, some of them sporting explosive tags. He decided to complete his ultimate defense by shielding himself in a perfect sphere of sand, then rose from the hole in the water.

As soon as he was above the surface of the water, he peeled a small patch of sand in front of him just in time to witness the next step in the trap : a veritable tsunami coming from upstream, which fell on his defense like a wall of water. He was submerged for a few seconds, and when his shield was visible again three dozen shinobi in tight-fitting clothes and rebreathers had emerged around him.

"Alright !" brayed a ninja with a ninja-to strapped to his back. "Now we just swarm him while his sand… is…"

Gaara had unraveled his protection, ribbons of sand orbiting his figure standing on a platform of the stuff. Said sand was decidedly not the soggy mess they had hoped to turn it into, it didn't even look damp.

Let it not be said that the leader of the ambushers was stupid. Wondering what went wrong, he recalled in a flash the dense, rock-like appearance of the protection of the Kazekage when he protected himself from attacks from all angles. Apparently, when in "total defense" mode, the sand was compressed enough that the water could find little purchase to it. Yes, there ! In the platform were patches of wet sand, the outermost layer of the shield. The water could not penetrate further, but acted as intended to a point. Well, plan B should still have some effect then…

"Men ! Suiton !"

That was enough to get his underlings moving, along with Gaara. Staying stationary on his perch, the Kazekage sent a couple of streamers of sand flowing towards his enemies, hoping to catch them and kill them. The aquatic ninja retaliated with blobs and blades of water, battering against his remaining defenses, while jumping and running around the river to avoid retaliation. Some were not so lucky and got caught and crushed. Some let themselves sink in the water to attack from a safe position, others tried to run interference and soak the sand attacking them.

Soon, half of Gaara's sand was soaked through, which made him turn his impassive face into an actual glare. Wet sand was heavier and harder to shape. That said, it had more cohesion. He quickly shaped one of his attacking streamers of sand, completely soaked, into several blobs the size of a human head. Before his opponents could wonder what that was about, he had them orbit around him to pick up speed, like slingshots, before chucking them towards his foes. The farther they got the more difficult it was to manipulate them, but he could still alter their trajectory somewhat to compensate for their targets' frantic attempt at dodging.

Soon, he was the center of a twisted planetarium of wet sand orbs describing complex trajectories around him, breaking necks and bones when they impacted. Meanwhile, the rest of his sand was shared between a shifting shield blocking all attacks towards him, and tentacles that slipped under the water to catch his targets unawares.

"It's going well," commented Kankurō. He was then hit by a vicious blow from behind. "Ow, what the hell Temari ! Why are you still mad ?"

"Because you're still stupid," answered the twitching blonde. "Seriously ? Wild raspberries ? You don't even know what those look like, you crossdressing moron !"

"Well, it was as good an excuse as any…"

"No, it was terrible ! And there was no one to deceive yet anyway ! Gaara told us to stay behind so he could spring the trap, not to goof off. Seriously, I'm sure I lost braincells just by hearing that !"

Both siblings settled in a grumpy silence, watching their brother play cat and mouse with the attackers. Kankurō then raised a painted eyebrow.

"Oh ? There's a guy there that won't be crushed, apparently. A doton user ?"

"Maybe. But you know Gaara's sand can't be controlled so easily, I think it's actually a chakra trick on the suit, I've heard of Kiri ninja that do it to protect themselves from the water pressure when they have to dive deep fast."

They suppressed a wince when Gaara had the upper part of the sand coffin around the guy go in one direction, and the lower part in another. As far as tearing a man apart goes, it was a surprisingly clean method, but there was still blood and guts flying around.

"So… Think they are Kiri nin ? The Mizukage seemed onboard with the whole plan…"

"No, they are probably Ame ninja," Temari answered. "That Lake Shigure they have is pretty deep too, so they could have stolen or developed the method. Besides, since their "god" died, the place went straight to hell. I wouldn't be surprised if a rogue group was working for Madara, or just trying to get themselves a reputation. We can ask the prisoner later."

Indeed, after they had stopped where they had noticed the signs of a scouting party, the two Suna siblings had followed after their brother, only to be attacked by a small group of ninja with the supposed intent to kill or delay them to prevent them from reinforcing Gaara. They had left one alive for subsequent interrogation. One.

"Feh," Kankurō scoffed. "Wouldn't surprise me from the Ame hicks. I mean, seriously, water ? It's common knowledge father tried to off Gaara for years, do they really think we in Suna are too stupid to have tried that ? It's a Kami-damned insult, that's what it is ! How many assassination attempts is he at, anyway ? 318 ?"

"319 actually. When I said I would kill the moron for what he did at my birthday, I meant it !"

"Ha ! Yeah, I remember, that was…"

"Stop. Talking."

Assassination and murder were more or less facts of life for the young Kazekage. They became so when his own father declared open season on him for being too unstable as a jinchūriki. Several dozen attempts only yielded corpses and headaches, and they stopped when it became apparent that Gaara's mentality had become more or less suitable for a human weapon. They came back in force when after his defeat in Konoha he expressed his desire to become Kage. That particular string was marked by a severe decrease in variety and lethality –he may have been an asshole, but let it not be said that the Yondaime Kazekage was not imaginative when it came to finding ways to kill his son- and an unprecedented lack of retaliation. Gaara had decided to gain the trust and love of his people, and he really put his best effort into it, refraining from killing a single would-be assassin. Another half-hearted series of attempts occurred after the extraction of Shukaku, but they came from the most resentful of the families of his past victims, and the rest of Suna had actually grown fond of their young Kage. Beyond these domestic incidents, Gaara had to deal with an average amount of assassination attempts from the rest of Kaze no Kuni and other villages. Par for the course for anyone in a position of power, really.

All in all, this particular trap was only noteworthy because of the number of attackers, and barely so. After the Uchiha's attempt to crash the Gokage meeting, it was underwhelming.

"Nee-chan."

"I know."

With a mighty yell, Temari swung her fan and unleashed a large gust of wind, tearing apart a tree and the Ame ninja who was concealed behind holding a canister.

Now, scentless invisible poison gases are not totally unknown to the Elemental Nations, but shinobi don't like to use them because they are hard to control. You won't notice when the canister is broken and poisoning you in your sleep, and you can't keep track of it on the battlefield, which is a great friendly fire hazard. Plus, they tend to be damn expensive. Finally, to safely make use of their stealth potential, one has to disperse them with subtlety, and stay upwind of one's opponents. Obviously, their enterprising foe had underestimated the noses of the two desert ninja, and forgotten to buy scentless soap.

"Feh… Trying to poison a Suna puppet master, how cocky !"

"I don't know, it worked pretty well last time…"

"Oh, come on ! You can't compare Akasuna no Sasori with this schmuck !"

"Keep sharp, is all I'm saying…"

The battle had reached a new phase on the river. There were no more Ame nin above the surface, all of the survivors had retreated underwater and were peppering Gaara with a wide assortment of Suiton jutsu and thrown weapons. While the latter were not dangerous to the young Kage, slowed as they were by the water, he was not keen on making this a battle of attrition. His shield had yet to be penetrated, but the weight of his wet sand meant that he was forced on the defensive. His protection was still fast enough to close up as needed any openings his opponents tried to exploit, but not to catch the dozen ninja still darting around in the water. A different approach was needed, it seemed.

His foes could only watch, bewildered, as he recalled his sand in a perfect sphere and let himself sink. Above the water, for a moment, there was only silence.

Then the river churned and swelled, overflowing as its course became suddenly muddy. It seemed as if the very bottom of the stream was trying to break through, a couple of limbs sticking out of it. A head even broke the surface for a second, letting out a shriek before being suddenly sucked under the muddy water.

Then the sand and grime of the stream retreated back to the bottom, and the river was clear once more.

Gaara rose out of it, letting his sand bubble flow underfoot as it broke the surface. He was dry as a bone and fiddling with a scavenged kunai. Suddenly, he launched the weapon forward and up in an academic, precise fashion, letting it fly towards the branches of a tree in the opposite bank of the river.

Two figures got out of the tree, one running away as if he had all the Bijū at his heels, the other crumpling underneath the canopy, dead.

"So… Want me to catch that one ?" Kankurō asked, he and Temari calmly walking towards their brother.

"No. We already have a prisoner." Gaara did not so much as glance towards his brother's Kuroari, but the puppet indeed carried the only other survivor of the ambush, properly sedated and restrained.

"Ok… Well, it was good exercise before lunch. Can we go now ?"

"A moment."

Gaara transported himself to the bank, and then manipulated his sand in a single lump before him. The sand was kneaded and churned, the moisture wringed out of it and dripping down. When the Kazekage was done, his sand was still a bit damp but no longer soaked through, and he could –barely- squeeze it in his jar.

And with that, the trio took off again, towards Kaze no Kuni and Sunagakure.