Gaara's eye twitched as one of his two genins attempted to skip a stone across the small, winding stream. It scratched across a rock and Gaara stood up quickly, gritting his teeth and scaring the other genin so much that they fell off the rock which they had been perched on and Gaara closed his eyes in annoyance, pinching the bridge of his nose with the tips of his fingers.
How did I get stuck with such idiots?
"Sorry Lord Gaara, I just want-" The genin who had thrown the stone began to apologize, his voice stuttering over the words.
"It doesn't matter." Gaara told him, his voice monotone. He picked up his gourd and strung it across his back, fixing it in place with its strap, it felt a little heavier than normal but that was probably just because he was tired. Their mission had been to check out an old border post to see if anyone had taken advantage of it. There had been four shinobi holed up in the post and they had been taken care of by Gaara's sand, putting up a strong fight but in the end were eliminated. The documents that had remained, deciphered by the two genin, had shown Gaara that they had been planning to attack the sand later that month. The two genin carried the documents in their satchels as Gaara thought they would be safer there, he was the captain and any normal shinobi would attack him first for the information, letting the genin escape.
Gaara walked over the stream but stopped at the other side, waiting for his genin to gather their things quickly and join him. Unlike him, they did not walk on the water but jumped over it, landing on the other side halfway clumsily. They may not be the best genin but they accepted Gaara as their team leader and had the skills necessary to decipher the codes, leaving Gaara as the main fighter of the group. The sun was still high in the sky, warming the forest and creating shadows all around them. He would have let them rest longer to build up their chakra again but in order to reach the Sand by nightfall they had to get moving. Gaara had promised his siblings to be back by that night and he was already behind schedule, both the deciphering and the enemy had taken more time than he had expected. He didn't expect any trouble on the way back to the Sand village though, so he decided to let his chakra build as he walked.
The three of them began to walk towards the direction of the desert in silence; it wasn't a daunting silence but an easy one. As they walked the trees became less dense and the air became dryer, indicating their closeness to the beginning of the desert. After a few more minutes, the trees ended and the ground became sandy. Here Gaara and the two genin felt the true heat of the day and all three wished that they were back under the shade of the trees. The sun beat down onto the sand and their clothes quickly became sticky on their backs.
Gaara stopped suddenly, causing the two genin to glance at each other. He looked back the way they had come, the forest still within sight, its mass hiding cool air and creatures shuffling about. "What is it Lord Gaara?" The taller of the two genins asked, curiosity stronger than his nervousness.
"It's nothing." Gaara muttered, turning forwards again and shaking off a feeling of dread, almost a feeling of someone watching them. He only took a few steps more before stopping again, this time turning faster and spotting a flash of black disappearing in the forest. He took a few steps towards the forest, almost tempted to follow the black flash, the two genin shared apprehensive looks before following slowly, their only thought was that they were going in the opposite direction of home.
Gaara narrowed his eyes at the forest, he had definitely seen the flash of black but now it was gone and he thought for a second that it was nothing more than a bat that had risen far too early or even a large cat which were known to be common around those woods. After seeing nothing more after staring for a few seconds he turned back towards his genin, brow furrowed and eyes focused on the sand at his feet.
"LORD GAARA!" A genin shouted as he fell to the ground, covered in red and with kunai protruding from his back, warning Gaara of the approaching danger. Gaara's eyes snapped up and he raised his sand shield to protect himself, glancing round and plucking the other genin assigned to him from the ground and behind the shield with a coil of his sand. That genin let out what could only be described as a shriek but stopped as he realised that Gaara was protecting him and not attacking him. Kunai hit the other side of the sand wall in multitude and Gaara felt his forehead furrow as he puzzled out the enemy's motives.
Why are they hitting something which cannot be broken by kunai?
He looked down at the genin who had shouted a warning, bleeding and most likely dead, his last words used to warn Gaara. The other stood shaking at one end of the dome scared by both the sudden darkness and the sight of the other ninja they were faced with. The mission was meant to be routine, a simple border patrol and he had definitely not expected these alien shinobi to appear in their masses. Even a full team of jounin would most likely be defeated by these shinobi, all appearing fierce and wore faces of experience and bloody fights. Looking at the trembling genin, Gaara realised that he was pretty much alone to fight off shinobi who all appeared ferocious in their own right. More Kunai hit the sand wall and Gaara took a step back, closing his right eye and covering it with his hand. The sand outside the wall began to shift, forming a small eyeball and his optic nerve connected, allowing him to look outside the domed wall. He could now see that the shinobi were not of any village, or if they were, their forehead protectors were hidden. He assumed that they were rogue shinobi looking for a good bounty, and Gaara was that bounty, the Shukaku inside of him being worth a great deal to the shady dealers of the shinobi world. His third eye glanced round the shinobi as Gaara reopened his right eye and removed his hand. The shinobi all carried weapons of sorts, some with simple kunai and others with more elaborate looking ones, all looking more than capable of handling them.
He noticed one of the shinobi make a hand sign and his eyes widened as the mass of kunai exploded, ripping the sand apart and throwing Gaara and the genin to the ground. Gaara's sand armour cracked from the blast and he could tell instantly that the genin hadn't made it, his body twisted in some unnatural form and his face bloody. Now that both of his genin were dead, Gaara stood alone against the rabble, moving his cool blue eyes from face to face. Many of them were smirking, as if knowing something that Gaara didn't. They could see his cracked sand armour and were already contemplating their success. Gaara narrowed his eyes, knowing he could only pretend to be strong; his chakra was running low due to the earlier scuffle, not to mention the intense amount of chakra he had used in this fight for both his sand armour and the domed wall which had been so easily demolished. He had a feeling that they were no ordinary explosives that had been used; any normal paper bomb wouldn't have been able to penetrate his sand shield. Nothing could, except for the few times when it had, such as during his chuunin exams with Sasuke's chidori or when it had been soaked in water another time. His ultimate shield was not as ultimate as it used to be, being invincible was a faint memory for Gaara and he would rarely return from a mission without some form of an injury. He was however always fascinated by the wounds and how they would create a scab to protect themselves, the body's own shield.
"What do you want?" He asked, attempting to appear stronger than he felt. His eyes were narrowed and his fists were clenched, sand pulsing at his feet. A few shinobi took a step or two back, convinced by his act while another, scarred and mean, laughed.
"We want the power of the shukaku, and the nice little bounty on your head, Gaara of the Sand." He pointed a katana at Gaara; its handle was worn and frayed. The blade had been recently sharpened and Gaara had no doubt many a person's blood had been spilt on the blade, despite how shiny it appeared. "And we know exactly how to get it."
Gaara felt his eyes widen the slightest bit, surprised at his answer. For a brief moment his only thought was not again but that quickly passed and changed into annoyance. He was tired of the bounty hunters and shinobi who wanted to test their strength against the Sand's ultimate weapon, they seemed to forget that he was human, although, just as Gaara had recently considered himself as such, he doubted the shinobi considered him as being human, rather a monster's vessel. He was growing tired of being a jinchuriki and seeing the looks of terror from his people every time he appeared unhappy. He focused his attention back on to the man. "And how do you-"
Gaara stopped, and glanced down at the ground, he had felt some sort of disturbance beneath his feet. He took a step back, releasing the third eye and keeping his attention focused on the dirt below his feet. A hand broke out of the earth with both speed and accuracy, locating Gaara's ankle and gripping it tightly. Immediately Gaara felt weaker, realising that the hand was stealing the little chakra that he had left. With his attention focused on removing his leg from his assailant's grip he ignored the other shinobi, attempting to wretch it from his assailant's hand. He couldn't free his ankle from its iron grip and began to feel weak. After a few painful seconds, Gaara fell to his knees, gasping for breath and feeling weaker than he ever had in his life. Shukaku began to grumble inside of him and Gaara attempted to shut him out, closing his eyes hard and forcing Shukaku back far behind the bars of his cage. Feeling weaker still, He glanced up at the scarred man, falling forwards as his strength was drained from him. He stretched his hand out over the sand desperately, trying to make it move but it wouldn't, not responding in the slightest to his severely depleted chakra.
"You see, Jerso here has a special jutsu. Not only can he suck the chakra from his target, he can also steal their life energy but don't worry, you won't die, not yet, after all we have plans for y-" The scarred man was shoved to the side by a flash of white, and Gaara felt his eyes widen slightly as another white flash knocked another shinobi flying. Suddenly more flashes of white light were attacking the men, moving so quickly that it didn't seem possible. The hand around his ankle disappeared but by then Gaara's consciousness was fading and he could barely see through his eyes at the unfolding battle.
"Kankuro, Temari... "He muttered, shutting his eyes and blocking out the now raging battle between the flashes of white and the rogue shinobi. His ears kept working for a few seconds longer however and he could hear the sound of metal clashing with metal and the sound of a lightning style jutsu meeting some sort of earth style. A cry of pain came from somewhere on his right and he tried to open his heavy eyelids but they refused to cooperate, taking his sight and the rest of his consciousness with them.