Teal eyes to the sky his brow was furrowed at the darkening clouds that hung above them. A drop of water hit him in the nose and he unintentionally flinched, suddenly very irritated. Sabaku no Gaara did not like the rain.
"Rain isn't a good omen." The man accompanying him vocalized his own thoughts and Gaara shot his mentor a look. Baki shrugged his shoulders and fell silent.
"Baki-san, Gaara-sama, I believe we found something." A crouched figure appeared next to Gaara and the jōnin standing next to him. The ANBU was as silent and visible as a shadow, and the dark grey contrast of the ANBU's mask brought slight attention to the demonic and mouthless face that stared back at him as Gaara gazed down at the man silently. Through the holes in the mask Gaara could barely make out the man's forest green eyes. He held the man's gaze for several moments before he nodded, "Show me."
It had been a little over a year since Uchiha Sasuke had been kidnapped from Konohagakure by Orochimaru. In that time the Allied nations of Konoha had made a concentrated effort to attempt to uncover Orochimaru's whereabouts and ultimately his plan; so far all attempts had been futile. Sunagakure had made it their priority to put Gaara on as many missions to aid the allied village as much as possible as it would look favorably if the potential future Kazekage went above and beyond for his allies.
They found their way to the base of a large, extraordinarily unremarkable granite rocky outcrop. The anxious rumbling in his skull nearly matched the thunder they could hear far in the sky as Gaara eyed the rock formation warily. "You're sure this is it?" The ANBU nodded. "My intel is good, the people of this country are experts themselves in espionage and I have trustworthy contacts that reside here." Gaara nodded, somewhat skeptical as the ANBU continued, "We also found what appears to be the entrance. I split some of the squad off to investigate the surrounding area for any abnormalities or anything else of potential interest, and I sent the rest of the squad ahead to scout and determine if it would be safe to continue. If it is one of Orochimaru's bases the dangerousness and severity of this mission has increased tenfold and we cannot take any unnecessary risks." Gaara inhaled deeply and attempted to ignore the itch at the base of his skull; the anticipation of the potential bloodshed was beginning to get to him but he knew it was crucial to restrain it. He was a different person now; there would be no room for any slip ups. "Good job, Omega." The ANBU nodded, and continued to wait, crouched down. Gaara's mentor and friend stood next to him, and spoke softly to his student. "It's good that the Council saw fit to send you on a mission of this much importance, they're starting to trust you." Gaara's scowl deepened as he turned to the taller man, "This is a dangerous mission and you know just as well as I do that they do not trust me. Their hope is that I'll be outmatched or something will cause me to lose control of Shukaku and it will give the ANBU an excuse to finally execute me. They've been sending me on more dangerous missions lately and I'm not stupid. I know what they are trying to do."Baki shrugged aloofly as he grinned at Gaara, not allowing his surprise at Gaara's observation to show on his face, "Well, I'm still impressed by how far you've progressed, hell they even made you the leader of the ANBU and myself for this mission! That's got to mean something!"
"Theta comes." The ANBU, Omega stated quietly standing from his crouched position in front of the two men and turning, interrupting the conversation and not regarding either man's words as if neither had spoken at all. Gaara did not react as three shinobi appeared behind them kneeling. "Sir, the area is entirely clear and void of any human life. Nothing out of the ordinary was discovered in the surrounding environment. We were unable to detect anything similar to what we found at the rock face ahead and suspect that our suspicions were correct: this is one of Orochimaru's hidden bases." Gaara turned slightly to the kneeling ANBU and nodded to the masked.
From the rock emerged a dark figure that shot out of a well hidden and nearly invisible crack at an inhuman speed, only to collapse in a heap on the ground a small distance away. The dark figure removed something from its face, and Gaara realized with a start that this was one of the ANBU. The man dropped his mask on the ground next to him carelessly and he emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground and wretched violently. Theta did not move, but Omega's stance became visibly on edge. "What is this, Omega?" Omega said nothing for a moment before answering, "I- I do not know." Gaara glanced to Baki who looked as confused and alarmed as Omega seemed to be before the group began to approach the lone ANBU who seemed to be done vomiting. Omega spoke quietly to the group as they approached, "Gaara-sama, it appears to be Rho, one of the sensor shinobi of our squad." Gaara's brow furrowed, but he said nothing.
"Orient yourself." Omega spoke, his voice deadly as they gazed upon the bare face of the blonde haired teenager. The ANBU, Rho, wiped his mouth hastily before re-donning his mask. "Stand." Omega commanded harshly and the boy did as he was told, slightly unsteady on his feet, Gaara noted. "Report." Omega's voice was solid and frightening as he spoke to his subordinate. "Sir, it- I-I cannot even explain the atrocities that are down there… I-I have never seen anything like that before… the experiments and the horrible things done to those people… it-it's simply barbaric…" Omega said nothing as Rho's voice died away. Gaara noticed that the ANBU was trembling. Omega closed the distance between the two quickly and grabbed each side of his head abruptly bringing his masked face closer to his own, his voice dangerously calm. "Show me these atrocities."
After several moments Omega dropped his hands from the man's head and nodded wordlessly to him and the ANBU known as Rho took a few steps backwards and placed a hand over one of the eye holes of his mask, his shoulders slumping as he attempted to calm his tremors and tried to emotionally collect himself. "What did you see, Omega?" Gaara asked his voice even and calm. Omega shook his head, "The others come, and as such I suspect they have completed their scouting. What he saw is difficult to explain, you'll have to see for yourself. Rho was correct in calling the things done to those people atrocities, the absolute carnage and state those victims were left in is truly disturbing and utterly inhumane." Gaara sighed, hard to explain meant difficult paperwork for his report when they got back to the village.
Within five minutes his ANBU began to appear at the same place in the rock that Rho had. One of the masked shinobi made his way to Rho, not noticing the other members of the party as he grabbed his teammate by the collar and shook him, "What were you thinking running out like that?! You could have been killed you idiot! Not to mention you abandoned the squad, we are a team!" "Kappa!" The last ANBU to exist the rock spoke abruptly, "Now is not the time. Rho will be dealt with accordingly when we return to Sunagakure." The angry man dropped the boy and stepped back in line with his teammates, his stance still angry. "Report, Alpha." Omega spoke to the ANBU who had commanded the other and he bowed his head. "It does appear to be a deserted base; my only assumption is that it belonged to Orochimaru. The reports we have been receiving from Konohagakure about the layout and state of the other bases of his that they have uncovered were almost identical to this one. They appear to have primarily used it as a medical and scientific research center but upon extensive examination and investigation the laboratory is clear of hostiles... and friendlies. Orochimaru appears to have left suddenly, as if something unexpected took him away. The state of the base is in disarray and is disorganized but it appears as though he had intended to return at some point as we discovered some research data that appears to be valuable. They appear to have taken a lot of their research materials and data with them, but left a sloppy amount of information behind, thus my suspect for why they had not planned their departure, but instead had to leave." The ANBU paused, his eyes darting from side to side as he searched for the words to vocalize his findings, "There are… hundreds of corpses. They appear to have left their experiments and captives to die. It is apparent that some of the captives had been used for their scientific and medical studies and while some had been tested on others had not yet been. It appears as though many subjects were deceased prior to their departure… But most were not. Many appear to have starved to death, cannibalized one another in an attempt to survive, and killed each other out of desperation in an attempt to escape, but we were unable to detect any survivors amongst the cells these people were caged in. I do not believe Orochimaru or any of his men have been to this hideout in a while, several months at least. I also suspect they either didn't expect that anyone would find it, or they did not expect for anyone to have found it before they were able to return considering so much of the documented research is intact. Orochimaru was careless here… This is also suspect as he is usually very thorough." Gaara and Omega both nodded at the ANBU who hesitated before continuing. "Sir, we found something extraordinarily unusual that you need to see."
Gaara and Baki squeezed through the almost undetectable crack in the rock formation and followed the ANBU into the abandoned underground laboratory that had once been occupied by the legendary Sannin and his followers. Gaara's footsteps were quiet as he traversed the long and winding hallways that descended down. The itch at the base of his skull started again as Shukaku began to get apprehensive as the delved deeper into the structure. Gaara could smell the blood and the death before they even happened across it, and he knew that Shukaku could smell it too.
"Gaara."
The voice in his head boomed suddenly, startling him.
"I feel… weird."
Gaara said nothing as the Tanuki spoke, his gravelly voice founded uneasy.
"I'm not sure I've ever felt this before." The Demon continued, "It's… strange. I don't like it."
Gaara frowned, "that isn't very helpful, you know." he thought back in response.
Shukaku bristled, irritated by Gaara's answer. He had sat back and watched as Gaara attempted to change from the cold blooded killer to a respectable member of society, but he was still the same Shukaku at the end of the day and no Jinchūriki was going to change that.
"Just be careful you little shit. If you die that makes things much more troublesome for me. Something just feels weird. Not dangerous, just… weird…"
Gaara said nothing as he and Baki continued to follow the ANBU before him. They walked down stone hallways with no doors, hallways with doors that had all been left open, presumably by his ANBU during their search of the hideout. Glancing at the open rooms Gaara was surprised at the amount of bedrooms they passed, not having expected Orochimaru to care much about hospitality when it came to his subjects.
As they walked further the smell of decomposition increased substantially and was nearly overpowering as they reached a fork in the hallway and turned down another path which opened to a massive chamber in width and height that was dimly lit by torches lining the walls. As they entered the chamber Gaara was taken aback by the size of the bars that extended from floor to ceiling that lined both sides of the rooms. The cells were massive and filled with hundreds of corpses scattered throughout the grim chambers, some had bodies piled up one on top of another and another and so forth. Gaara could see the varying levels of decomposition in the corpses and the itch in his skull disappeared. Shukaku did not like this, and neither did he. These people had not all died at once; they had been left to their own fates to die one by one. Gaara glanced into a cell to see the blank stare of a decomposing child who gazed unseeing up through the bars at him and he frowned; Orochimaru apparently had not been discriminatory in his choosing of his victims. This was barbaric.
Alpha led the men out of the expansive death chamber and to a hallway that turned into another massive room lined with open doors. Gaara glanced around and observed that this chamber appeared to branch into the medical portion of Orochimaru's hideout and took note of the extensive medical equipment and beds throughout the chambers. Gaara noted that through one of the open doors he could barely make out the shapes of bodies on medical slabs, covered with sheets, and through another door he made out the figure of a person lying still on one of the hospital beds.
The far wall had a massive snake statue emerging from it, candles burning in the eyes. The mouth of the snake was open to reveal a long forked lolling tongue and sharp intimidating fangs. At the back of the snake's throat a large ornate door stood open. Alpha turned to Gaara and Baki, "The mouth of the snake was closed when we arrived in this chamber. The candles have to be lit by lightning chakra to open the mouth of the snake, revealing the secret chamber within the statue itself. It was purely by happenstance that we only had an impatient lightning user with us when we entered the room that noticed and lit the candles with a reckless justu before the fire user arrived in this chamber." Gaara nodded as Alpha turned back and led them into the statue.
As they entered the room, the first thing Gaara noticed was the ten test pillars that lined the walls of the room. The pillars were each connected to a dozen tubes and cords that emerged from the walls and ceilings. Each pillar had a small digital screen connected to it. Four of the ten pillars were broken open, their contents having spilled out a while ago, two of them were empty, and the last four had occupants.
Alpha led them to the back of the room where the last four pillars stood, two on one side of the room, and two on the other side. One of the pillars held a cat sized humanoid fetus looking creature that had long since calcified, the screen attached to the pillar flashing the word, 'FAILURE'. The next pillar held a naked child, no older than eight, who stared through the glass, unmoving with blank eyes open and mouth opened in what looked like a gasp, the screen attached to that pillar flashed the word 'FAILURE'; the liquid in this tank was a much darker green than the others. Across from those pillars stood the last two, the third pillar held a man who floated near the top of the pillar, the tubes coming from the top of it having somehow been disconnected from his body. The man was unmoving and his eyes were closed, the screen next to his pillar flashing the word 'FAILURE'. "Here," Alpha gestured to the fourth and final pillar.
Inside the pillar floated a naked girl, not much older than Gaara. She was still attached to the tubes and the wires, and her chest rose and fell with her breaths as clouds of liquid bubbled up around her mouth and nose. Gaara's eyes traveled up her nude figure to her face and was surprised by the ivory colored hair that floated behind her. Gaara turned his attention to the screen attached to her pillar.
'PROJECT NAME: 06660 - PROJECT HAEMA'
'NAME: TSUMI'
'STATUS: ALIVE; MEDICALLY COMATOSE'
'ARTIFICAL NUTRITION: 30mL/DAY'
'SURVIVAL CHANCE: 99.98% DUE TO BLOODLINE ABILITIES AND ADVANCED HEALING.'
"Gaara I want to see her."
Gaara ignored Shukaku as he attempted to process the information he just read. Her face, the name on the screen, it all felt too familiar for his liking.
"How has she survived this long? How long has she been in here?" Alpha shook his head, "it's impossible to tell until we are able to evaluate the pillar's information and the documented experimentation information that we found. I've already sent some of my squad to retrieve it and return it to Suna with haste."
"Gaara, I want to see her."
Gaara didn't acknowledge the demon who only he could hear, instead directing his attention back to Alpha, "is she salvageable? Could we extract her from the tube and resuscitate her? The screen says she's still alive." Alpha nodded and turned his attention toward the entrance of the room where two other ANBU now stood, and gestured them over. "Gamma is one of the best medical shinobi Suna has access to, and Iota is a technological specialist who believes he can figure out how the machine works." The ANBU explained.
"Gaara! I want to see her! Stop ignoring me you little fucker!"
Shukaku was starting to give him a headache but Gaara had no patience for his antics right now. "Do what you can, I want her alive and I want her evaluated and returned to Suna for further monitoring." Gaara turned to Baki only to find him transfixed on the pillar before them, and the girl inside. Baki had stepped closer to the tube and had his hand resting upon the glass and he gazed upon the face of the girl who floated, unconscious inside. "Baki?" Baki did not turn to him but his lips parted as he struggled to find his voice.
"GAARA, I WANT TO SEE HER!"
It felt like Shukaku had punched him in the brain as he shouted at his host. Gaara audibly snarled and raised a hand to his head. "Stop acting like an impudent child." He responded angrily as the Tanuki continued to shout at him and throw a tantrum. "Gaara-sama?" Gaara froze and dropped his head from his hand and looked up to the three ANBU staring at him. Baki stood unmoving, still transfixed by the girl in the tube. "I'm fine, just get to work." The ANBU nodded as they approached the test pillar and Iota plugged something into the screen, unfolded a small screen of his own, and began to type into it at a furious speed. Gaara stepped up next to Baki to get a closer look at the girl and to silence the demon in his head.
"Gaara I know her. We know her. I know her scent. I know her face. We know her face."
Shukaku wasn't angry anymore; he was suddenly just as much in awe as Baki appeared to be. Gaara snorted in irritation at the behavior of his mentor and the demon that resided within him. He didn't understand what their problem was. Sure she seemed familiar but the amount of attention the two seemed to be focusing on the girl seemed a little excessive to him.
"Sir, it appears as though she's been in this test pillar for… about six months… She's being artificially sustained as the screen initially said, and kept in a medically induced coma. Probably from something that's being pumped into her system either from the pillar itself or the tubes stuck into her. I believe I can figure out which is drugging her and I should be able to stop the delivery of the medication in hopes that she will leave the coma." Iota spoke; his fingers paused above the small keyboard before him as he stared at Gaara. Gamma nodded, "If he can stop the flow of the medication we can drain the pillar and extract her from within and she should be able to be resuscitated. It is possible that she could have further complications from being broken out of her coma so suddenly… She could undergo sudden organ or cardiovascular failure, she could have pulmonary complications as she has not been breathing naturally and on her own, the variables are numerable and unpredictable, but I believe I have the skill set to stabilize her regardless of the complications after we remove her from the tube. Depending on the severity of the possible medical complications we may need to expedite her arrival to Sunagakure… Even still, there's no telling how she will react when she wakes, she could be a hostile or she could be weak from malnutrition, I suspect that her muscles are atrophied after such an extensive amount of time without use. We have no way of telling until she wakes, Sir… If she wakes. It could be dangerous taking her to Sunagakure without a complete evaluation, there are too many unknown variables."
Gaara frowned; his brow furrowed in contemplation, and eyed the two ANBU. He wanted to be Sunagakure's next Kazekage, he wanted to protect the village and lead it and he had to do what was best for Suna and to do that he knew he was going to have to make difficult decisions, but how was he supposed to know what to do? He knew that being sent on this missing was a test by the Sunagakure Elders to determine if he would make a capable leader. Gaara turned to the girl in the pillar and gazed upon her face once more, his heart constricting painfully in his chest for a reason unknown to him and knew what he had to do."Do it. Just don't let her die." He gazed upon her face a moment more before turning away briefly, a good leader needed to have compassion for others.
"Gaara I need to know she's real. I need to touch her. I just need to make sure… Gaara I need to touch her. Gaara I need to touch her. Gaara. I. Need. To. Touch. Her."
"Stop." He interrupted Shukaku's obsessive speech with angered words of his own. "Now is not a good time. I don't even know who she is, or if she will live. Calm down." Shukaku growled but fell silent. Gaara could feel him pacing within, anxious for reasons unknown to his host. "Baki, do you know her?" Gaara spoke, his voice irritated still, but his tone seemed to have worked to snap Baki out of his stupor. "It-it can't be. It's impossible." Gaara frowned, "What's impossible?" Baki shook his head, "She was supposed to be safe. It's impossible. She couldn't have been with him this whole time..." The screen attached to the test pillar suddenly began to beep frantically as Gaara whipped around to face the three ANBU before him. "What's happening?!"
"Sir, I've terminated the artificial nutrition delivery and the delivery of the medication that was keeping her in a coma. The pillar had an override to terminate these processes, but I am not sure why it's sounding an alarm…" Iota explained hastily as his fingers continued to dance over the keyboard before him. Gamma peered over his partner's shoulder as his eyes flew across the screen, soaking in every detail. The beeping continued as Gaara turned back to the pillar and watched as the liquid in the machine turned suddenly tumultuous. The tubes and wires connected to the girl suddenly detached from her body and a swirl of red followed them as the bond between the tubes and wires forced into her skin broke and she began to bleed. Suddenly the girl's body began to shudder and she gasped as her eyes flew open and frantically swiveled around in their sockets before locking onto Gaara.
Crimson met Teal as their eyes locked and Gaara's mouth opened in surprise. The girl tore her gaze his as she frantically looked around before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she began to seize inside the pillar. "Open it!" Gamma shouted at Iota who frantically continued to type on the keyboard, "Almost there, almost!" "NOW!" Gamma screamed shoving between Gaara and Baki to approach the tube. "Ok! Got it!" Iota exclaimed as the liquid within the machine began to drain.
The girl slumped to the bottom of the now empty tank and the glass slid upwards toward the ceiling to allow access to her. Gamma reached in to grab the girl, only to recoil quickly as white spikes exploded through her skin and she stopped seizing. The girl gasped, breathing in a deep lungful of oxygen as her eyes shot open and she stared at the masked man before her. "It's okay! I'm not here to hurt you! I'm here to help you! My name is Gamma and these are my friends! Do you have a name? It's okay; it's going to be okay." He spoke quickly, somewhat panicked and surprised himself as the girl's eyes flitted from person to person before locking eyes with his through his mask. "Are you Tsumi? The screen over there said your name is Tsumi. Is that right?" She stared wide eyed at the silver demon's face before her and nodded jerkily. "Tsumi, it's nice to meet you." Gamma reached behind himself as Alpha handed him a blanket, "Are you cold Tsumi? You look cold. Here, let me help you." Gamma slowly approached the girl, blanket outstretched as he attempted to show her he would not harm her. The girl, Tsumi, slowly and hesitantly retracted the white spikes into her body and allowed him to approach and wrap the blanket around her. Shukaku growled deeply in the back of Gaara's mind as his stomach flipped strangely. Those white spikes were oddly familiar to him, and he felt like he had seen them somewhere before.
Gamma wrapped Tsumi in the blanket before gingerly helping her out of the tube and into the middle of the room where the rest of his team stood. Tsumi stared at the men in the room wide eyed and opened her mouth seemingly to something but paused and locked eyes again with Gaara as her eyes rolled into the back of her head again and she collapsed into him. Gaara reflexively grabbed the girl and Shukaku made a strange sound in Gaara's head. Gamma ran glowing blue hands over the girl's unconscious form and shook his head. "Her respiratory and circulatory systems are going haywire and her organs are functioning bizarrely, we need to get her back to Suna immediately." Gaara nodded as Baki took the girl into his arms. "Gamma, you go with them and I will stay here with Iota. Understood?" Alpha instructed his teammate who nodded and turned to Gaara, Baki and Tsumi. Gaara stared for a moment at the girl draped over Baki's arms and Shukaku growled in Gaara's head again and he suddenly felt very emotionally and mentally exhausted. "Let's go, I want to get back to Suna before dawn."