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Chapter One: Crushed

Disclaimer: "Naruto", and all canon characters and characteristics remain the property and rights of Kishimoto Masashi. All I own is the writing itself, and any original features and / or attributes portrayed within said writing.

Warnings: Violence, spoilers about Gaara's past.

I--I

Requested by:
reese-puff

Requested Pairing / Theme:
Gaara-centricism

Requested Genre:
Angst / Horror

Prompt:
Skulls

I--I

The experience was always mind-numbing.

The homicidal vehemence coursing through his veins somehow managed to muffle his hearing completely, deafening him from the horrified screams piercing the cold night air. The hesitation was absent whilst the graceful flow of sand drifted through the sky upon his command, the foreboding wave of earth encasing their pathetic bodies, raising the soon-to-be corpses higher and higher from the ground. He could feel their skulls crush under his effortless force as their very beings merged with guts and sand, their physicalities churning until neither one could be discerned from the other.

Their last, desperate cling to life would drift absently from their bodies; their instinctive struggles, nothing more than reflexive attempts at freedom which grew weaker and weaker as the seconds passed by. The familiar scent of blood wandered into his perception as he watched the final flicker of life fade from his enemy's eyes.

The feeling of holding such physical ascendancy in his hands was...indescribably satisfying.

The Shukaku Jinchuuriki was addicted to the experience; a mere prisoner to the sensation.

Over the years, his conscience had become desensitized, if not desirous towards the prospect of human slaughter. Each subsequent murder became easier than the last. The purity of the sand which protected him became tainted with the flesh and bones of the unworthy. With every attempt he took to verify his own existence, his identity was washed over with the blood of his victims, leaving nothing behind but an empty shell of a boy who could have been.

Whenever he assumed a piece of their soul, a part of his own escaped him.

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