Chapter 1: Unsettled
The Kazekage paced in his office, sand from his gourd swirling restlessly at his feet. His arms were crossed firmly over his chest, locked in place. He knew something was wrong with him.
Sabaku no Gaara didn't pace.
This self-knowledge did nothing to sooth his mood, however. For the first time since the removal of Shukaku, he felt… strangely unsettled.
Disturbed seemed to be the more appropriate term, Gaara decided.
He was tense, or at least, far more so than usual. He could feel his fingernails digging into the skin of his arms even through his robes, and the slight pain that had manifested above his left eye at the start of the week had evolved to a full-fledged throbbing ache. He rubbed the kanji on his forehead absently.
A week. A week since this restlessness had started. A week since he had woken up with a jolt, a cold sweat on his skin and an image of the Kyuubi destroying Konohagakure burned into his eyes. In his dream, the streets had run with blood.
The Kazekage had not slept since.
Gaara had tried to dismiss this dream as the product of his rather unorthodox experiences as an ex-Jinchuuriki. Or perhaps he had some latent violent tendencies he had yet to address. This roused a question in the Kazekage's mind. Why would the Kyuubi attack Konoha in a dream about my unstable past? With a shake of his head, Gaara had eventually decided to push the nightmare out of his head and ignore it for what it was: a stupid dream. That was, at least, until three days later.
A soft knock at the door echoed through the well-lit office. "Kazekage-sama?" a voice sounded from the hall.
Sending a hand of sand to open the door, Gaara looked up from his loathsome mountain of paperwork. He dropped the hand that had been rubbing his temple – part of his futile effort to relieve the headache that had developed since that dream – and folded them neatly on the desk. Even after all the years he spent proving himself to be a powerful and worthy Kazekage, Gaara wanted nothing less than to exhibit weakness in front of his shinobi. "Yes?" he said with an air of mild interest as a rather puzzled looking nin entered his office. Gaara recognized him as a runner from the aviary (Akuzo, he remembered vaguely), yet he carried no scrolls or message capsules.
"Kazekage-sama, I came straight from the aviary. Four messenger hawks from Konoha –
Gaara tensed imperceptibly at the mention of their most powerful ally.
– just arrived." The nin paused and shifted his weight from one leg to the other – a sign of distress. When Gaara merely blinked at him, waiting emotionlessly for him to continue, the runner carried on. "None of the birds carried any messages…"
Gaara could tell from the disconcerted expression on his shinobi's face that he hadn't heard all this nin had to say, but he would need coax the rest of the information out of him. "What is troubling you Akuzo-san?"
The man across from him frowned. "Well, the birds are extremely distressed, Kazekage-sama. We had to sedate them to get them into cages." His frown deepened. "And some of their feathers were damaged. They looked singed, like they'd flown through flames. It probably wasn't a forest fire; the birds would have avoided it. But I do not believe the hawks were intercepted while delivering messages and manhandled in the process, either. Any nin that caught them to steal information would have destroyed them, not just singe their wings a bit."
Gaara nodded, and something cold tightened in his stomach. He had a bad idea where this was going. "You think something happened in Konoha." It was not a question.
The aviary shinobi shifted uncomfortably again. "It's a possibility. But it was probably just a fire in the Konoha aviary." The nin didn't sound so sure.
The Kazekage nodded, resisting the urge to send his hand to his forehead. It ached. "If that is all, send for Kankuro. Then tend to the injured birds."
The nin snapped to attention. "Hai, Kazekage-sama!" he said with a salute and exited the office.
When the door was safely shut behind the retreating sand nin, Gaara brought his hands to his temples and rubbed small circles with his index and pointer fingers. The redhead did not place much faith in omens, but for some reason, he could not shake the growing sense of unease in his chest. He closed his eyes, and the vision of the snarling Kyuubi from his dream rose unbidden in his mind. The demon was wreathed in flame and chakra and blood. It demolished buildings with its nine whipping tails as it circled its opponent: a dark, hooded figure with flashing red eyes. But the worst part was the screams -
"What's up little bro'?"Kankuro asked with a grin as he stepped unannounced into the room, effectively snapping Gaara from his dark reverie. "Akuzo-san said you wanted to have a word with me."
Gaara dropped his hands and looked up at his brother. "I need you to go to Konoha. Get Matsuko-san and leave tonight."
The tone Gaara used was one that would have left any other shinobi without so much as the thought to argue. But Kankuro could not bring himself to resist this opportunity to jilt his younger brother. He folded his arms and leaned his back against the wall. "Mind telling me the occasion? It isn't every day that the Kazekage has two of his fastest shinobi to race off to Konoha in the dead of night." A cocky, joking smirk crossed his lips, "Have you finally decided to cave into those old bastards on the council and plead with the Hokage to give you a Leaf kunoichi for a bride?"
Gaara gave his brother a withering look.
"I knew that once it made it through that thick skull of yours that Ino has made me happier than I've ever been you'd jump on the bandwagon."The smirk deepened.
The look darkened.
Kankuro rolled his eyes "Hey, you know I'm just messing with you. Although," he added with a wicked grin, "that Haruno Sakura chick is pretty damn fine."
"Kankuro…" Sand began swirling menacingly from the gourd leaning against the wall behind Gaara's desk.
"All right, all right, I'm done," the puppet master flashed his brother the palms of his hands as a sign of surrender. "So, are you going to tell me what's going on then?"
The mini sandstorm died down. It was a moment before Gaara spoke. "The aviary came to me with some unsettling news," he said lamely.
"…Unsettling news?"
"Four messenger hawks arrived from Konoha today. Akuzo-san said they were panicked."
Kankuro blinked. "You're going to send two jounin to Konoha because some birds got rustled?" he said incredulously.
Gaara let out an inaudible sigh, knowing he sounded suspiciously like an idiot. He was almost starting to doubt his decision himself. "It's more than that. I had a… I have a feeling."
Kankuro's eyes widened. His brother had a "feeling?"O-kay. Whatever the hell that meant. "All right, Gaara, whatever you say. What do you want us to do when we get there?"
"Nothing. Just send me a message when you arrive. Take it easy for a couple days and then head back. It's been months since you had a break."
Kankuro smiled at that. "Che, no kidding, Slave-driver," he joked, trying to lighten the mood."Ino and Temari will be pissed they couldn't come, but that's what they get for volunteering to go to Grass, ne?'Diplomatic civilities' my ass. They're probably holed up at that hot springs resort." He pulled open the door. "I'll head out as soon as I find Matsuko-baka. He's probably at the bar…" With a wave, he exited, leaving Gaara in silence once more.
Gaara ceased his pacing for a moment and looked out the row of circular windows behind his desk. The sun was setting, painting Suna with a blood-red glow. With a soft sigh, it occurred to him that wearing a hole in the carpet was doing nothing to calm his nerves. Perhaps some fresh air would help. The Kazekage doubted it, but it wasn't as though he was going to finish any more paperwork that evening anyway. He was far too restless to sit behind his desk. With a swirl of sand, he disappeared from his office and reappeared on the roof of the Kazekage tower. He stared off into the distance, watching the desert glitter like a sea of rubies beneath the dying sun. For some reason, the beauty only unsettled him even more.
Under normal circumstances, he would meditate to collect his thoughts, but every time he had closed his eyes during the past week, instead of being comforted by the darkness the back of his eyelids usually provided, he was haunted by a barrage of images from his dream.
A particularly acute pain blossomed in his skull. Grimacing, he massaged his kanji-branded forehead with the heel of his palm.
He'd suffered from migraines since his childhood, courtesy of Shukaku. But since the removal of his demon, headaches as painful as the one from which he was currently suffering were rare. He knew his bizarre new anxiety was feeding it.
This was stupid. In just a couple days, another Konoha messenger bird would arrive at the aviary with a note from Kankuro explaining that everything in Konoha was fine. The same note would contain an anecdote telling whether or not Yamanaka Inoichi had tried to kill him for stealing his daughter away to Sunagakure. Then his brother would come home with a scroll from that Nara kid for Temari (who had returned around noon from Grass, smelling suspiciously like hot spring minerals) and try to make a fool out of him for "having a bad feeling."
It was while his thoughts lingered on his brother that he sensed Kankuro's chakra signature. He was approaching quickly from the direction of Konoha, about an eighth of a mile outside the village wall. Letting a carpet of sand form beneath his feet and carry him swiftly to meet the approaching shinobi, his brow furrowed crossly. Kankuro had only been gone four days. A round trip took six days minimum. Why is he back already?
He did not expect what he found when he met his brother in the pass through the wall surrounding Suna. Kankuro and Matsuko ran at breakneck speed right past him, both carrying bloody somethings in their arms.
Gaara felt the freezing clench in his gut once more. He hurried after his returning shinobi. "Kankuro…?"
"We found them on the way, unconscious." He kicked open the door to the hospital and shouted, "WE NEED MEDICS!"
Gaara saw a flash of pink under his brother's arm mixed in with the blood.
The Kazekage found it was difficult to unclench his jaw. "Kankuro, who are they?" They hurried down the hallway, wide-eyed medic-nins ushering them into the closest room.
"Matsuko's got Nara Shikamaru, and I've got-"
"FOREHEAD!!!" Yamanaka Ino shrieked, snatching her friend from Kankuro and placing her on an operating table. "Oh God, SHIKAMARU!" Matsuko was soon relieved of the shadow nin by another kunoichi, and soon he, Kankuro, and Gaara were forced from the room by the swarm of medics.
Gaara looked at his brother. "That was Haruno-san?"
Kankuro nodded. He was sickly pale beneath his war paint. A few feet away, Matsuko stood shakily on his feet.
His posture painfully rigid, Gaara bore into his brother's eyes with his own, silently demanding an explanation.
Kankuro stared back. "We need to talk. Alone."
(A/N): Love it? Hate it? Let me know. I'm very interested in your feedback. This story is up for two reasons: to entertain YOU and to improve my style.