* Brothers*
… … … …
The least you need to know : Yashamaru is a few steps from trying to kill Gaara.
Disclaimer : …not mine…
Yashamaru sent the redhead out with a small smile and a pat on the head. The child waved back at him already a block away and clutching the teddy bear tightly to his chest.
The door closed.
The smile dropped immediately after.
He made his way to the basement, locking the door behind him before opening the door to the cabinet at the furthermost left corner. It was there that he had hidden his shinobi uniform and weapons. Most of the weapons were hidden among and under a pile of old moth-eaten rags. His niece and nephews had never bothered to investigate the seemingly junk filled cabinet.
He would do it soon.
The Kazekage wouldn't be made to wait much longer…and neither would his sister.
Yashamaru carefully pulled out his weapon pouch and kunai holster. After a minute of carefully groping around and blindly searching for the weapons, his hand closed around the steel handle of a kunai. He spent a few moments repeating this action until both the pouch and holster were well stocked. Next, Yashamaru felt around for his vest and forehead protector. These were a little more difficult to find among the pile of cloth, but in the end they came up just as the weapons had. He had been busy preparing for a while when his back straightened abruptly.
There it was again.
For a couple days now, he had been feeling as if someone was watching him. It wasn't every minute of every day, just a few fleeting moments at a time and then the feeling would disappear. Each time, he would look around discretely and try to assure himself that he had nothing to worry about. Shaking the feeling off as nothing more than paranoia, Yashamaru would then continue on as if nothing was wrong. Even from down in the basement, however, he could feel the stare of a hunter watching its prey.
Cold.
Calm.
Confident.
He knew it was impossible, nobody could see him down there. There weren't any windows in the basement in an attempt to keep as much sand out of the house as possible. That only left one option. Nobody could see him…but he could feel their piercing stare nonetheless.
Donning his civilian clothes once more, Yashamaru carefully placed his uniform and weapons back in the cabinet, hiding a couple of kunai up his sleeves before walking up the stairs and out of the basement.
The house was dark and silent but he didn't bother flicking on the light and instead calmly opened the front door. A cool night breeze swept his short yellow locks around his head, making the sand at his feet swirl softly. He held a hand to his face, brushing the hair from his eyes and closed the door behind him.
Most of Suna was nestled safe and warm in their house. It was still early enough that the day's warmth had yet to completely disappear before the subzero temperatures of the night claimed the desert village. Everything was quiet, only the hushed sound of swirling sand disturbed the silence of the night.
Yashamaru wasn't fooled.
Across the street, a lone figure calmly detached itself from the shadows. A man - no, he was still too young though his every move indicated he had lived through much in his short years - clad in a black cloak with red cloud patterns walked a few paces towards him. He stopped directly under the streetlight across from Yashamaru. His hair was long and dark, held in a loose ponytail, and a scratched forehead protector with the Konoha leaf symbol adorned his forehead.
Yashamaru smiled a smile so practiced it was almost second nature now. The young man simply raised his face to stare directly at him. His eyes flashed crimson for a split second before becoming dark. A shiver ran up Yashamaru's spine as he took an involuntary step backwards.
"You still serve him."
"Who are you?" It had been so long since he had fought yet his body hadn't forgotten. Yashamaru still remembered the feeling of adrenaline pumping through his veins, the tingle in his legs, the itch in his hands - this was a very dangerous game they were playing.
A strange breeze blew quite unexpectedly and all light within the city went out at once. Yashamaru spun around, weapons grasped firmly in both hands, searching for more foreign ninja but there was no other presence. The temperature immediately dropped making his breath visible as he exhaled slowly in an attempt to calm himself. Yashamaru quickly turned back to the dark haired man but he had disappeared.
Something was wrong. No sound, not even the shifting sand, was heard. Everything was so quiet and still almost as if all sound had been sucked out of Suna. Try as he might, Yashamaru was having trouble detecting the presence of his adversary or of anyone really.
"You still serve him." The voice of the young man repeated. Echoing throughout the seemingly empty village of sand, Yashamaru was unable to locate its point of origin.
The voice continued. "He destroyed that which was most precious to you, took your shinobi life away and in the process forced you to look after the very thing that kil-" "Shut up! Shut up!" Trembling, Yashamaru crumpled to the floor fists pressed tightly against his ears as the kunai fell, no longer caring about an enemy attack.
Only silence greeted Yashamaru a few seconds later when he finally dropped onto all fours. He didn't bother looking around or even picking the silver weapons lying in the sand only a few inches from his hands. Shivers were still running all over his body as he whispered, "What do you want?"
"No, its what do you want?" His breath was coming in short pants. The cold shivers intensifying somewhat. Impossible, surely this stranger wasn't suggesting what he thought he was.
"He should have been the one to die." The voice was no longer echoing, instead sounding close by. It took Yashamaru a few tries to get his voice to stop shaking long enough to speak, "No, the Kazekage…he is, he is irreproachable." While Yashamaru's voice seemed to grow fainter and fainter by the second, the stranger's only seemed to get louder. "After what he did, it would only be right for you to deliver his final punishment." The dark haired young man's voice was so close now
Yashamaru swallowed a large gulp of air unexpectedly. No, no, no he couldn't! A small part of him had briefly fostered the idea of killing the Kazekage but it had been squashed and shoved to the deepest, darkest corner of his being. A single salty tear fell to be absorbed into the sand followed by another and another.
A single hiccup. "I c-can't."
"Avenge your sister." A pale slender hand with long calloused fingers appeared before his blurry eyes.
