Characters: Gaara, Shukaku
Summary: There will be no surrender now.
Pairings: None
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
People whisper at how much determination he must have not to go to sleep, but really, Gaara wonders, how could anyone ever sleep with a disembodied voice always whispering in their ear?
How can anyone sleep, with those sorts of suggestions ringing in their ears?
Gaara spends his nights awake, either working on something, be it mission reports yet to be written (what Baki has discovered is that his youngest "student" is highly skilled at writing mission reports, having a keen eye for detail and the idea that mission reports should be thorough) or drawing with coal pencils or pastels (Gaara discovered a passion for drawing early in life). If there is nothing to occupy his attention, then he will roam silently, across Sunagakure and all of the desert.
He can remember, in the days when madness still gripped him and ruled every aspect of his life. In those days, the Shukaku's suggestions were met with consent. Either because Gaara agreed with the demon or because he simply wished to capitulate and be spared further trouble, his night wanderings involved slaughter and sluggish blood trails across the moon-washed dunes.
Gaara killed, killed almost constantly. He didn't care if the blood under his fingernails or passing over his lips was human or animal; animalistic murder was the only thing that could glut his pain and cause the Shukaku to grow quiet, for a time.
Then, it would start again.
Now, Gaara does not obey animal urges anymore. Gaara has, for lack of better term, seen the light, and he isn't going to listen to the Shukaku anymore just because it screams in his ears.
But it does scream, and all the more loudly now, desperate and more violent than ever.
It threatens, it howls, it screams. It claims that they have a contract and Gaara must fulfill his side of the bargain, but Gaara made no compact with the creature and he will not give in to its urgings just because of threats that it may not be able to back up.
And the Shukaku promises that if Gaara ever goes to sleep, it will not give him control of his body back. It will roam in him, for the rest of time, and Gaara will become the voice in the ear that tells him to murder and slaughter.
So Gaara knows.
He must never sleep again.
He has never slept much to begin with. But now there is an urgency.
If the Shukaku wants to play the game that way, then Gaara will too.
His nighttime wanderings will be spent awake, and Gaara will simply ignore the Shukaku and attribute its voice to the wailing winds of the desert.
There will be no surrender now.