The Shinobi rested among the thick branches of the Land of Frost, their division scattered among the trees as the stronger scouted out the area. An argument had sprang up but died quickly, cut off by Tsuchino's even tone.
"I'm fighting for the day when shinobi of different lands can look each other in the eyes. When they can keep from cursing the siblings of those that are willing to die beside them."
Nurui looked away, mouth pressed into a hard line. Tsuchino continued to stare, eyes narrowed into slits. The three of them had taken lunch together, polishing off their handful of rations in the tense air. The entreating calm of the afternoon sun filtered down through the branches to cast chunks of light onto the small group and the soggy forest floor. With the silence that followed, Ran swallowed her final bite of food and, pulling up her knee, rested her chin against it. She sighed, looking away into the canopy of leaves.
" 'Siblings of those that are willing to die beside you', huh? My brothers put up with me for years and still, to this day, think of nothing but my welfare… " She sighed heavily, lacing her fingers against her upraised knee.
"… If only we could go back to before the war… I know it just began but it seems like forever." Tsuchino glanced up and huffed loudly.
"Seriously?It just started. I can still remember the day we heard the news. The very day."
"Oh? Then please share, since we have plenty of time." She retorted.
"Alright, fine… It was hot. There, the end." Ran laughed and pointed one dainty finger at his slouched figure, who glared in response.
"Come on, Tsuchino. We're all dying of boredom. Can't we have a good story before we actually die?" Kayui sighed heavily, fiddling with a kunai. They went silent, looking away and trembling. There was no wind.
"But make it a good story." Nurui blurted out. A nervous chuckle betrayed him.
"Ok…. Fine, fine. The day we got news on the war: Every morning I fetch water for my family. Well that morning I was on my way back when I saw this scraggly cat laying in an alleyway. I thought it was dead so I went to investigate but it nearly bit off my finger when I tried to pick it up! So I gave it a drink and then tucked it into my jacket. When I got back my brother had already returned and Mom scolded me for taking so long with the water. That was when I opened my jacket. She was so shocked she just gaped for a moment, long enough for my brother to glance my way. Then they both laughed. I never even touched a live animal before." Kayui had leaned over, placing an arm on a branch that hung nearby, the beginnings of a smile on his face. The story of home drew each one of them near; filling the story with their own kitchens and families. Ran spoke softly, not really to know what happened but only to make it continue.
"Never before?"
"And never since." He answered casually. The silence that followed seemed incomplete, the other's havens cut short from them.
"And… and then what happened?" She pressed, leaning forward. The other two had managed to pick their way across the branches, now closer then before.
"I was embarrassed and… Kinda awkward about having the cat in my jacket so long. I demanded an answer from them and my brother responded by just pointing at it. But when I looked down I had to laugh too, it just looked so pathetic and weird, that tiny head sticking out of my jacket."
"… Is that why they laughed?" Nurui almost murmured, eyes fixated on Tsuchino but really on home. At that Tsuchino laughed. The rest of the group jumped, it was a foreign sound. Nurui flushed deeply upon the realization, turning his head away.
"No no, the cat was asleep, right? But he fell asleep with the tip of his tongue hanging out, so it looked like he was making a silly face. It was absolutely ridiculous." The others chuckled too, barely, as if only to share in the memory. It died down quickly, followed by the silence that pressed on them from all sides.
"Umm… tell us another story. A better one. One that happened way before the war, ok?" Ran said quickly, a small tremor in her voice. Tsuchino thought for a bit, then shifted and spoke quietly.
"Ok, here's one… One I'm not very proud of. But I need to say it I guess, just to get it off my chest before we enter battle… When I was a kid, there was this place in the village. It was at the base of the Kazekage's office building. It looked like a monster with iron teeth that loosely interlocked. It was an opening into the 'bad room'."
"What's the bad room?" Kayui asked. He had put away his kunai only to grip the branch in front of him, peering below it at Tsuchino, who flinched at the question.
"The 'bad room' was a special prison. It was crafted - poorly - to suppress and contain only one type of chakra. The Shukaku's chakra. The man who made it was a descendant of the man who forged a teapot that held the demon for a long time. And he was very proud. When the… Shukaku was thrown in, he would bet the children a ryō that they wouldn't be able to get so much as an emotional rise out of the creature…"
"What are you saying?" Kayui asked softly.
"I'm saying… That he would bet the village children money that they couldn't make Lord Gaara cry."
"How horrible…" Nurui pulled back a bit as he spoke, in a weak attempt to escape the new mood.
"Yeah it was. But we did it. Tried to make him cry I mean. I remember there were three kids that I knew of who claimed to have done it. And I wanted to be one of them. I was young, you know? And stupid. So of course I jumped at the chance..."
"You're defending yourself a lot. What exactly did you do, if you don't mind me asking?" Kayui leaned slowly back against the tree, eyebrows raising.
"Actually I do mind you all constantly interrupting my story, so shut up." Another angry huff was met with silence. Satisfied, Tsuchino continued.
"So I had a great plan. At least I thought it was great. After watching the crowds jeer and toss rocks I realized that wasn't going to work… Which was my first plan but-"
"They threw rocks at a child? In a cage?!" Ran blurted out.
"I thought we had established that. Also, I thought we had established that you were supposed to not interrupt anymore. And we were all kids so just keep that in mind."
"Fine… Sorry. It's just so horrible…"
"Yeah. Yeah it was. So anyway, I stayed away until it was nighttime and everyone was gone. I walked right up to the mouth of that cage and waited. After some time, he emerged from the shadows. I remember he looked so tiny and frightened I thought about how easy my plan would be. I introduced myself loudly and quickly asked his name. He was so surprised he blurted out 'monstaara'." Tsuchino chuckled at the memory, cringing away from his companions. No one laughed with him.
"Mostaara, can you believe it? He wasn't sure whether to say 'monster' or 'Gaara' so he kinda said both."
"That's not funny." Kayui said softly.
"No… It's not… So, after…After he clumsily introduced himself I smiled as big as I could manage asked him why he was in there. He said it was because he disobeyed. So I asked why he disobeyed. And this continued until I made him re-live everything that had led up to that point. He seemed genuinely depressed and I remember thinking I had him on the ropes. So I pressed further and asked how he thought he might be able to please the Kazekage next time. He said he didn't know and I bored into that hole until he was literally shaking. I was so pleased with myself I couldn't stop smiling, a real smile that is. I smelled victory. But no matter what sensitive spot I prodded he didn't cry. We went back and forth for well over an hour and I was starting to get really cold and really frustrated. I began to openly insult him in the form of questions like: 'How could you possibly be stupid enough to think Yashamaru cares about you? He's just doing his job, you know!' "
"Who's Yashamaru?" Nurui asked. Tsuchino seemed taken back and answered quickly.
"Oh. He was the uncle of Lady Temari and Lord Kankuro. Well, all of the siblings' uncle but, uhh… He was Lord Gaara's caregiver. Everyone knew once you saw Lord Gaara to go find Yashamaru as fast as possible before something… happened… But that doesn't matter anymore. He's dead - moving on.
So even though I was throwing those insults at him and I know they hurt - I saw it on his face - he would. Not. Cry. He stopped answering me altogether and just resigned himself to watch as I flipped out outside the cage. You see, I was told by the guy who built that thing that he was so sure I couldn't do it he'd stay up late to watch me. So this old man's been crouching behind the building this whole time watching me fail. Not only that, my yelling had woken up some people and they had gathered into the alleyways to watch. I couldn't afford to lose. So I tried my one last, immature option to get him to cry…" Tsuchino paused again. Kayui looked at him again, watching his face redden as he stared at the forest floor. Finally, after a moment, he sighed deeply and spoke without meeting their eyes.
"I peed on him." There was a beat of silence and then nervous chuckles. Ran made a disgusted sound and pulled back as far as she could from the rest of the group, genuine anger on her face.
"What?! You did what?" She nearly shouted, her face a mask of horror and surprise. Nurui continued to chuckle nervously.
"Whoa, you don't mean what I think you mean, right? Not even kids do that. Why…? You don't mean that..."
When they had quieted down Tsuchino spoke again, hands knuckle-white on the tree branch beneath him.
"Yeah… I peed on him. Nobody realized it at first, I did it so fast. Just jerked my pants open and peed on him. Their reaction time was pretty much the same as you guys. Except they burst out laughing."
"Did you get him?" Kayui's eyes were huge, his whole body leaned forward and hand turned slack on the branch. Tsuchino ground his teeth together for a moment before answering.
"Yeah… I got him. He moved out of the way as soon as he realized what was going on but I definitely got him. Get this; the sand didn't try to block it either so when he moved out from under my shadow I saw his right eye squinted shut and his hair was wet. Direct hit on his head."
"Why didn't the sand block it?" Kayui interrupted again, the only one who remained fully invested in the story. The rest had moved away, slightly, as if whatever had let him accomplish that might be contagious.
"I don't know… Because it wasn't a real threat, or maybe because it was a liquid... I don't know. For whatever reason the Shukaku was willing to let him suffer that humiliation. I saw it in his eyes; he was definitely humiliated. His face was bright red, and he stopped for a second to look directly at me, before he ran back to the shadows of the 'bad room'. He looked so fragile then, like he was going to shake apart. And if you had asked me that night I would have told you there'd be nothing inside. Nothing but dry bones and sand. And maybe I would have been right.
But I never found out, because the strangest sound echoed off the walls as soon as he had vanished, seemingly from nowhere. It sounded like a child was crying… and dripping. Everyone came running, nobody came as close as I was, but they certainly came running. The old man came up too and slapped a coin into my hand along with a hearty pat on the back. He said something to me, but I don't remember what it was. I didn't see him. I was trying to make out Lord Gaara's shape in the shadows. I felt I needed to. I never heard a cry like that before. It was more than just crying… it sounded as though he were begging… or even dying. It made my blood run cold. The way the cage was designed made it echo off the walls and seem to come from all around you at once. I heard it over the crowd behind me, like it was twisting through them to get back around. I turned to look and suddenly they all looked like monsters to me; writhing human-like things that made that horrible sound. I remember feeling as though it was me in that cage and I was humiliated. I ran home, all the way home, to escape it… But it never left me… Sometimes, when I'm alone at night, and everyone else is either dead or sleeping, I can hear the faintest sound. And then there it is again, whispering through to me. I'm sure now, that that's the call Death makes… I earned it back then, I guess…" There was a heavy silence, their meager lunches like rocks in their stomachs. Before more could be said, or re-lived, a red flare arched into the sky. With a shout from the commander they vanished into the trees, the only symbol of their presence the shower of leaves onto the forest floor.