"That's a pretty big storm!" Exclaimed one of the waiting passengers in awe.
Sakura had been at the docks, waiting for her chance to board the ferry along with the small group of travelers when the wind suddenly picked up speed. Not too much, but just enough to catch Sakura's attention.
On instinct, she turned around and spotted the impressive sandstorm in the distance. The gigantic wall of dust and debris had to be at least four hundred meters high; oddly enough, it also appeared entirely stationary. Concentrated.
She immediately thought about Gaara and Karura. Were they going to be alright in that sandstorm?
A couple of hours ago she'd finally given in and accepted Gaara's invitation to dine with them. Sakura saw no harm in eating supper with them, seeing as she was going to leave that night. She thought it would be nice to spend a little more time with them before leaving.
Their house appeared sturdy enough to withstand most things, and Karura had confided in her that the house was actually much stronger than the usual desert homes because the building material was the same one used by the Kazekage's tower in Suna, the most defensible fortress in the village. It had been the work of the first Kazekage, meant to guard against Kumogakure's signature lightning-based ninjutsu during the Second Secret War.
So as long as the mother and the son stayed indoors, Sakura was reasonably sure they would be safe from natural disasters. Plus, they had more experience with the dangers of the desert than Sakura, so they wouldn't be caught unaware.
They would be fine.
In the desert, there is a voice ringing out that no one can get used to.
A shudder raced through her.
Sakura cradled herself with her own arms, trying to ward off the sudden chill that she could feel in her skin. In her blood.
...What was that sound just now?
Green eyes stared hard at the whirling, angry mass in the desert. It was so big and thick, she couldn't even see the stars that she had always relied on to guide her. Could she have imagined hearing the sound? No matter how hard she focused, the only sounds she could hear now was the frightening high-pitched howl of strong winds.
Her musing was interrupted by a shout from the ship's bow. "All aboard!"
Sakura shot one last glance over her shoulder at the sandstorm before straightening. She gracefully hopping up onto the boat. A deck hand was waiting patiently on the side, arms held out expectantly. Sakura slid her travel pack of her shoulders. "Hey, are sandstorms of this size normal in the desert?" She asked him casually.
"We get at least two of them a year. Three, if we're unlucky," the sailor replied, easily lifting Sakura's pack. "Not powerful enough to overturn houses, but it'd be best to get out while you still can. You're lucky you caught the last ship out, miss."
"I figured that was the case," Sakura grumbled good-naturedly.
As they chatted, the ropes that kept the boat secured were cut. The anchor was raised, and the vessel pushed offshore.
Sakura's new lead was taking her west to the Land of the Moon - the most richest and most beautiful kingdom in the world. Supposedly, there was a fearsome beast that had taken up residence near the Moon Kingdom's white beaches, causing chaos among the fishermen that lived there.
The voice echoes, saying, "You are a part of me".
There it was again...!
It was an unmistakable, haunting sound echoing fleetingly towards her from the general direction of the desert... as if carried by the air currents, and permeating her very soul. Now that she had heard it a second time, Sakura was beginning to think that she had heard this peculiar sound somewhere before.
"Miss?" The sailor tried again. Sakura had yet to let go of her travel pack. Her hands were pale and shaking as they gripped the straps.
"...I'm sorry. I need to get off the ship."
"Bwuh?! Are you sure?! This isn't really the best time to go back to the desert, miss!" The travel pack was abruptly ripped from the sailor's grasp. Sakura jumped into the water, landing lightly on the surface with a splash before running over the water towards the shore. "...Miss?! Hold on, it's dangerous!" His warning went completely ignored.
Sakura definitely heard this sound before, but she wasn't entirely sure why she was hearing it now of all times.
But it definitely wasn't a hallucination of any sort. She'd had too many encounters with spirits to brush off unexplained phenomenon like this.
That was why, when she heard the sound of Gaara's voice calling her name once more, she poured even more chakra into her legs and sped up, running straight for the angry whirling mass that had encompassed the desert.
The Misadventures of Zodiac and Cub
Episode 1: "The Voice that Calls From the Cage" (END)
Gaara had kept one other detail to himself during his talk with Sakura:
Ever since he had been trapped, he had been unable to sleep.
There was no need to reveal it to her. After their cooperative experiment, Gaara had formed a theory of what truly happened to him eight years ago, on the day Karura shared her "water of life" with him to drink. He did not want any outsiders to involve themselves in the private situation between himself and his mother. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of keeping Sakura out of the loop because he sincerely liked her, so he had felt both relieved and guilty that Sakura herself had decided to simply let things be and continue on her journey.
The first couple of weeks he had gone without sleep, Karura had been worrying over his health nonstop. Gaara really didn't know how to explain to her that he no longer needed sleep without bringing her even more guilt.
So he'd pretended to sleep for her peace of mind.
Tonight was no different; Gaara had been lying on his sleeping mat, eyes closed and breaths even, but he was not asleep. Instead of drifting off, he had come to utilize a form of deep meditation that helped him relax, and after years of practice he could stay completely still for very long periods of time.
His meditative state was disturbed by the sensation of movement to his immediate left. He continued to breathe deeply and evenly, keeping his eyes closed, his four other senses highly alert. There was the telltale rustle of clothing.
And then Karura carefully reached out, gently petting his red hair before finally leaving their shared bedroom on silent feet.
Gaara knew from the sound of wood lightly squeaking from beyond the walls to the north of his head that she was accessing his personal toolbox.
What was she doing? His mind recalled the events of a couple hours prior.
Karura had been beside herself with joy when Gaara had brought Sakura home for dinner, simultaneously embarrassing the pair for different reasons. Other than that, his mother at the time seemed like her usual happy and doting self. For the first time, Gaara had someone other than himself eat his cooking, which only made the older woman even more excited. Karura had also been terribly enraptured by the stories of faraway lands that Sakura had been to.
But his mother had never inquired after their investigation into the tea kettle. Gaara knew that Karura was aware of their efforts to break free from the desert's trap, and he was completely prepared to tell her that he had already given up on leaving had she asked. That he was prepared to live out the rest of his life with her among the dunes, and he had no regrets.
If Karura wasn't showing curiosity in their investigation, it meant that she already knew what they had found, and was keeping quiet about it...
Gaara waited for several more heartbeats before silently trailing after his mother outside of their home. Instead of following her immediately, he decided it would be best to wait for her to gain some distance so he wouldn't be caught sneaking after her.
When he looked up and saw the stars, he was immediately reminded of the zodiac, Sakura. He absently wondered if she was also looking up at the night sky at this very moment, wherever she was. The image of her face, flushed with excitement as she babbled on about the heavenly bodies that she adored so much, brought a tiny smile to his lips.
Two days ago, he never would have believed that meeting the exotic foreigner would radically change his life forever. When he found her at his usual gathering spot yesterday, he never would have guessed how quickly everything would escalate...
His thoughts about Sakura inevitably turned to thoughts about the Kaguya constellation she'd told him about. The Ichibi and the nine Bijuu. The havoc they supposedly caused mankind by simply existing on the mortal plane. Despite her clear cut explanations, the redhead still had a hard time wrapping his mind around the concept.
But he couldn't deny that whatever power that had so thoroughly entrapped him in the desert was not of this world...
Gaara clenched his fists and determinedly began to walk in the direction he saw his mother go off in. He would ruminate on those topics later. First, he needed to make sure his mother was safe and bring her back home.
To his growing apprehension, Karura was indeed heading straight for the tea kettle's ceremonial altar. It looked very foreboding beneath the light of the moon. Those who were superstitious couldn't help but notice the way the wind kicked up the sand, completely engulfing the altar in a shimmering haze. The way the yellow four point star that decorated the side of the tea kettle appeared to glow eerily in the shadows, as if alive.
But Karura clearly wasn't deterred in the slightest. Gaara watched his mother boldly step up to the altar from a safe distance. He was close enough to see everything she was doing.
He watched her place a hand on the tea kettle, stroking it as if it were a beloved pet.
And then Karura leaned down and picked up the iron hammer that she'd brought along with her, taken from Gaara's personal toolbox.
Gaara stepped closer, his jaw hanging open. Was Karura truly going to destroy the tea kettle? But why?
"-destroying the tea kettle would probably bring about consequences that I can't foresee."
Sakura was more experienced than Gaara on Bijuu and the Ichibi, and even she didn't want to destroy the thing when the solution was brought up and discussed.
Gaara was suddenly struck with a painful premonition.
In that moment, he knew. He knew what would happen if Karura succeeded in her task.
As if in a trance, Karura raised the hammer high above her head, the smooth metal reflecting the moonlight. Gaara opened his mouth and ran towards her, intent on stopping her before it was too late. The hammer fell down-
"Mother, don't do it!"
-and missed the tea kettle completely, crashing onto the rocky floor instead.
With an angry shout, Karura raised the hammer and swung it downwards once more.
...And missed again.
She raised the hammer.
She missed.
Again and again she tried to destroy the tea kettle, with all of her strength behind each wild swing. But no matter what she did, Karura kept missing the tea kettle by inches. As if something was redirecting the force of the blow against her will. And with every attempt, her arms grew fatigued until she could no longer keep up her assault, her shoulders heaving from the wasted efforts.
Gaara took one step. Another step. And another. He didn't stop until he was close enough to see the sweat and tears trickling down Karura's face.
"...Mother. Let's go home."
A choked sob escaped her lips.
Gaara paused, but he did not get a response. He took another step towards her again, his hand already reaching out to touch her trembling shoulder. "You can't stay out in the cold like this-"
"Why?!" Karura cried. Her voice was so thick with despair, it pierced his heart and made him hesitate. "Why can't I do a single thing right?!"
The hammer crashed heavily to the stone floor. Karura slumped down to her knees not long after.
"All this time... after all this time, why?! Why do I always...?! Why?! Why?!"
She buried her face in her hands and let out an anguished scream.
"Mother, you shouldn't be able to harm the shape-shifting raccoon dog," Gaara murmured. A bridge connected in his mind. "...You overheard my conversation with Sakura earlier, didn't you? You can't destroy it because you are a part of its body. In the same way your arms and legs can't refuse an order from your brain. And neither can I."
"I stole away your chance to return to Suna with your siblings! It's all my fault!" Karura wept bitterly.
"Mother..."
Gaara knelt down beside her, and drew Karura's shaking body into a tight embrace.
"I'm so sorry, Gaara...! I'm so sorry! If only I wasn't born this way! If only you were born to some different woman! If only-... if only I'd died back then, then you wouldn't have ended up this way!"
She clutched at him like a child, a complete reversal of their roles. Her cries sounded as if they reverberated from the deepest part of her. For several minutes, Gaara simply held his mother tightly in his arms, wrapping himself around her protectively. It was all he could do.
Until at long last, he responded to her. His voice was as hard and unyielding as steel, but the passion behind his words was unmistakable.
"Perhaps you're right. Perhaps I wouldn't have ended up this way if the situation was different. But I prefer not waste time thinking about what could have been. I don't care who your parents are, or what you did in the past. You are my mother, and I enjoyed every moment I spent living with you out in the desert."
"G-Gaara..."
After several more minutes, Karura's tears began to die down, and she more or less regained control over herself.
"Gaara," she sniffled. "Thank you... thank you, thank you..."
"Let's go home, mother. The night is growing colder."
Despite what he said, they didn't rise to their feet until several minutes later. Karura picked up the hammer that she'd brought, and Gaara had taken three steps forward before noticing that Karura wasn't following him back.
That was his mistake.
"Thank you... and I'm sorry..."
When he turned around, Karura stood facing the tea kettle once more, hammer raised high above. The premonition struck him even more painfully than before.
"Mother!"
In the next instant, both mother and son were swallowed up by a malicious, primordial wave. Gaara fought hard against the currents of sand, wind and stone, stretching his arms out towards Karura, but he his efforts were in vain.
The last thing Gaara heard before he drowned was the howl of a great beast. The last thing he saw was a gigantic, shadowed claw reaching for him.
And then everything went dark.
.
.
.
.
Gaara shivered violently.
It was as if a cold wind was passing through his body.
Above him, the sky was overcast in white, the clouds moving slowly away in an arc. The sand was blinding yellow, firm and packed beneath his bare feet. On the horizon was a cluster of mountains, shimmering in the desert heat. It was a view he was intimately familiar with after spending time outside the house, in the mornings that were especially cool.
Some mornings, Karura would join him and they'd talk about whatever came to mind. But when Gaara was alone, he would stand completely still and close his eyes. It was moments like these when he felt connected to every single grain in existence.
Moments like right now.
Gaara was about to close his eyes, when suddenly a vision descended upon him.
.
.
.
.
It was all her fault.
Gaara was dying, and it was all her fault.
Karura clutched his motionless body closer. Right before her very eyes, her son's life was being eaten away by an endless, insatiable black Hunger. The youngest and the brightest, slowly being consumed by an insurmountable force that she could barely understand. And once it was done with that, Gaara's empty body was the next to be devoured, inside out...
It was all her fault.
" A sip! It was just a little sip of water!" Karura sobbed, clutching at Gaara's small, failing body.
This was her punishment for disobeying her dying mother's final warning to her. This was her karma for not protecting what was sacred.
Meanwhile, the young Gaara could hear his mother crying his name in agony, but he was too numb to move.
His eyelids were too heavy to open.
And bit by bit, the sound of his mother's wails and sobs faded away as Gaara slipped into unconsciousness.
His final dream consisted of memories of growing up in Suna,
of his father and siblings, before everything was blotted out by a dark,
aching emptiness.
.
.
.
.
"Is that... me...?" Gaara muttered absently, staring at the redheaded child swaddled in a blanket, eyes tightly closed. "And that's mother..."
Playing out in front of him was a familiar scene, like a video reel.
The cries of Karura's lamentation cut through the stillness like pure plasma, tearing into his heart.
It might have been a scene from a past that Gaara couldn't recall before. It's as if it was imprinted upon his body, stored away as an unknown trauma suppressed from his memories. It could have been any number of things, but Gaara couldn't explain why he was seeing this now.
.
.
.
.
Karura gently laid Gaara down on the stone floor of the altar, still sobbing.
"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..."
She started a fire, and set the tea kettle above the dancing flames.
Her movements were stilted, entirely on automatic. The only difference was, the tea kettle itself was devoid of any water.
Karura could not save Gaara's life.
But she could at least prevent the rest of him from being senselessly eaten away by the insatiable black Hunger.
According to her late mother, when the tea kettle was warmed by fire without anything inside it,
a certain "something else" would come out of its spout. It was horrible, it was unspeakably evil...
but it was the only answer Karura could think of in the face of this insanity.
.
.
.
.
"Just a little more ways to go. I can do this!" Sakura repeated those words to herself like a mantra. Her grip on her metal shakujo tightened. Her pink hair was flying crazily about. "I can do this!"
She could barely hear her own voice over the roaring winds, but she didn't dare speak any louder lest her special bubble-like barrier was destroyed. The technique she was using required her to remain fiercely concentrated on the emotions that the Bijuu was exhibiting, sympathizing with those emotions while internalizing them as her own in order to power the barrier. She couldn't afford to be distracted!
A human's perception of the physical world was limited to his five senses, and thus could only interact with his environment using those five senses. But zodiacs, the followers of the Sage of the Six Paths, trained themselves tirelessly in order to overcome this human weakness. For once those things restricting his five senses vanished, he could transcend to a new plane of existence. A new level of understanding.
That level was ninshu.
Right now Sakura was using ninshu to safely walk through the storm and find out where this feeling of aching emptiness was coming from, while moving in that direction.
Sakura came to a sudden halt just as a humongous clawed hand reached out from the eye of the sand storm - the place she was slowly and carefully walking towards - and began heading right for her at an incredible speed.
"Don't be afraid." Saying it out loud had always helped her focus. Sakura wasn't a master at ninshu yet, so she did everything she could to prop herself up when her raw skills came up short.
The giant clawed hand rushed towards her, clearly attempting to grab her off the ground.
"Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't be-"
Like a mirage of the desert, the deadly clawed hand harmlessly passed right through her barrier, and Sakura, with a loud woosh.
Sakura throttled the urge to whoop with relief. She wasn't out of danger just yet!
After several more agonizing minutes, Sakura finally reached the eye of the sand storm, which was the origin of the aching emptiness that had completely engulfed the desert. Unable to help herself, Sakura gasped aloud, her emerald eyes widened in shock. Towering high above her was a gargantuan raccoon dog that was several stories tall. It had unsettling yellow eyes, a single dangerous jagged tail, and Curse Marks all over its skin. There was no doubt about it; this was the Ichibi, the Star of Bottomless Gluttony!
Although... there was something off about the Ichibi. In her studies, the Bijuu each had a unique personality. Kyuubi was prideful. Gyuuki was brotherly. Niibi was competitive. This 'Ichibi' she was seeing now was just blank, as if robbed of its original personality. Why?
Sakura screamed in terror as the Ichibi abruptly turned in her direction and fired a powerful ball of energy from its open mouth. Luckily, she managed to keep ahold of her concentration by the barest of threads, and the attack zoomed right through her without any damage whatsoever.
Her blood ran cold. In which direction was the village of Suna located? She couldn't let the Ichibi attack her any more with those energy blasts! She needed to nip this in the bud before any more damage was caused!
So Sakura dashed closer to the Ichibi and began to circle it, inviting it to swipe at her with its claws and tail, all while keeping an eye out for Gaara. His voice was the reason why she was here in the first place, and she needed to find him as soon as possible.
"GAH!"
She cried out as a dark shadow bumped right into her. She wasn't hurt, but she'd momentarily lost control over her barrier. This was the closest to death that she had ever come to.
Heart pumping, she glanced up and saw that the Curse Marks that were once on the Ichibi's body were flowing off of it like water... and were heading right towards her. Sakura poured chakra into her legs and picked up the pace, jumping and dodging while trying to keep her ninshu barrier in place. Unfortunately, whenever a Curse Mark slammed into her barrier, it dropped and Sakura had to erect another one immediately after. At this rate, she'd be swallowed by the aching emptiness and become lost forever...!
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large swarm of Curse Energy clustered around a human figure lying on the ground, about several hundred feet away. Sakura felt her heart stop as two possibilities entered her mind:
Karura. Gaara.
Sakura moved as close as she dared until she was within range. She held her shakujo aloft and closed her eyes, putting out as much spiritual energy as she physically could.
It was no good. As if waiting for this very moment, the Ichibi quickly opened its mouth and fired another energy ball straight at her. Sakura adjusted her spiritual energy output at the last possible second, and the attack once again missed her completely, passing through her like air.
Sakura had no choice. She had to meet those hungry black shadows head on if she wanted to save whoever it was that the Curse Marks were eating away at!
Knowing that a single mistake would cost Sakura her very existence, she once again raised her shakujo and charged, crossing the desert sands faster than she had ever done in her whole life, without a shred of hesitance.
One hundred feet.
Seventy feet.
Forty.
Twenty.
Ten.
.
.
.
.
A human's perception of the physical world was limited to his five senses, and thus he could only interact
with his environment using those five senses. And so, spirits and the like were beyond the average mortal's reach.
But the kind of training zodiacs undergo isn't the only way to transcend into a new level of existence.
As long as those things restricting his five senses were removed completely, his five senses would naturally open up.
What word in the human language could accurately describe which restrains a mortal's senses?
...A 'soul'.
It was something close to that word.
If a human's 'soul' was removed from his body, then his body naturally would fall into a state that could allow him to move freely between
two different planes. But that begs the question: would he still be able to live without a soul?
The answer is 'yes'.
When the soul is removed from the body, as long as something else properly takes its place, it is possible.
This was the conclusion Karura had reached.
And that was why she stood off to the side and quietly watched the black haze, resonating with hungerhungerhunger,
slowly rise out of the tea kettle's spout like smoke.
Quietly watched it float towards Gaara, entering his lifeless body through his ears and nostrils.
After all... even the shape shifting raccoon dog, with its Hunger, wouldn't eat a part of its own body.
.
.
.
.
Gaara wondered what that smell was. It was kind of sweet... but also kind of bitter.
He opened his eyes.
Karura was hovering over him, her face streaked with tears.
"It worked...! Gaara, you're alive!"
His mother's embrace was both fierce and tender.
.
.
.
.
The memories flicked across his vision faster and faster, and somehow Gaara could still understand what he was seeing.
But then the angle of his sight completely changed, and suddenly he was standing on lush grass, surrounded by a dense forest.
He didn't recognize where he was at all.
Before he could regain his bearings however, he was assaulted by new visions. Most likely memories, like before.
Specifically, the image of a young female with exotic pink hair and emerald eyes. She was sitting in the tall grass at the very edge of the forest clearing, picking flowers. It wasn't difficult to guess who this person was, despite the unusually morose expression on her normally cheerful face.
"...Is that Sakura?" Gaara wondered. "But she's a child. This is from way before I first met her. Why would I see her memories?"
The young Sakura was whispering something. Gaara strained himself to hear.
.
.
.
.
"...My existence meant that little to him. It didn't matter what I said or did.
He wouldn't allow it to affect him at all. It was like I could have a 'real form' or not, for all the good it did it."
.
.
.
.
A strange sensation tickled Gaara's stomach, distracting him from watching the memory.
Suddenly-
Gaara's eyes snapped open. Bending over him was Sakura herself, glowing with a mysterious energy. Her hair was flying all over the place.
"You're awake! Thank goodness!" Sakura exclaimed over the roar of the sand storm.
The redhead realized with a start that they were holding hands, and that they were both encased in some kind of bubble. "Sakura? What's-"
Gaara flicked his gaze behind Sakura. He saw a giant, scary-looking raccoon dog - most likely the Ichibi - staring down at the two of them menacingly with bright yellow eyes. He belatedly remembered that those yellow eyes were exactly the same as that four-pointed star on the side of the tea kettle.
The tea kettle! Karura!
"Sakura, is my mother alright?!"
"No time to explain!" Sakura blurted. "Just follow everything I tell you to do, and we'll be okay! Got it?!"
Gaara nodded quickly and scrambled to his feet, still holding onto Sakura's hand for balance. Sakura bent down and snatched up a brass shakujo from the ground.
The Ichibi reared its head back and unleashed a guttural growl. As if in response, the wind picked up even more strength. So much that the pair would have been knocked right off of their feet... but for some reason, they didn't. Gaara stared at the clear bubble they were standing in. Was it because of that, perhaps?
"Do you know how to chakra dash?!" She shouted at him.
Gaara jerked another nod.
"Okay, this is what we're going to do! We're-... oh crap-!"
Sakura cut herself off as the Ichibi unleashed a powerful blast of black energy from its mouth towards them. As one, Gaara and Sakura pushed off from the ground and allowed the shockwaves from the attack to propel them farther away.
"First things first!" She yelled. "Don't let that black energy touch you, or you'll end up unconscious and I'll have to waste time trying to free you again!" Sakura swore, causing Gaara to blink at her in surprise. He never thought she could say stuff like that. "Dammit! It just keeps pulling new attacks out of its ass!"
"What's your plan?!" Gaara asked her before she went off a new tangent.
"We're gonna get behind that thing, jump on its back, run up its body and seal its mouth shut!"
"How?!"
They dodged another ball of black energy, their hands still locked together. Gaara thought that the bubble barrier was kind of odd, being able to protect them from the storm but not from the energy attacks.
"Don't sweat the details, I'll handle the sealing part! Your role is to absorb that into yourself with this!"
Sakura held up a blank tag for sealing.
Gaara's eyes widened, and then narrowed suspiciously.
"And why would I do that?"
Sakura took a deep breath. And then, with the grim determination of someone who was about to do something highly unpleasant, she said:
"Because as the Ichibi, you should be able to reabsorb the power that's rightfully yours."
"I-... what?" Gaara had a hard time parsing what Sakura just told him. "I don't understand!"
"Gaara." Sakura's eyes and tone softened. "...You are the Ichibi."
"I don't believe you." Gaara nearly succeeded in wrenching his hand away from Sakura's hold, but she stubbornly held on to him.
"You know I'm telling the truth, Gaara!" Sakura insisted, meeting his icy gaze head on. "When I freed you from your 'fake sleep', I was able to see everything that you saw."
"No."
"And I was totally wrong. The true reason why you can't leave the desert is because you've willingly anchored yourself here! To stay with your lonely mother, who couldn't return to Suna! The water you drank was only the catalyst!"
"No."
"You are connected to every grain of sand in existence! And everything within this desert is a part of you! So of course you'd be able to see Karura's memories of what really happened! And I know that you know those visions were real memories!"
"I'm not the Ichibi!" Gaara shouted, real fear creeping into his voice. "I'm a human being! I eat, sleep, and breathe like a human being!"
"You're lying," Sakura said flatly. "I told you, I was able to see everything. I know that you haven't slept for eight years."
Gaara tried to rip his hand away from hers again, but still she held on tight. He couldn't pull away from her.
Another dark energy blast, this one much bigger than the first two, was fired right at them. They couldn't get out of the way fast enough, and both Sakura and Gaara were sent sprawling onto the ground. The bubble that protected them from the storm flickered, but miraculously held on.
But Gaara barely registered what had just happened. The only thing he could think was-
He was a monster.
-And the worst part was, he knew this to be true.
Maybe at one point, he was a human. But not anymore. Now he was some kind of freak of nature that... what did Sakura say last time? A monster that caused nothing but suffering for humans.
"Gaara..."
He was yanked back to reality by the sound of Sakura's anguished cry. Turning his head to his right, he saw that their hands were still connected.
"That's not true, Gaara," Sakura blubbered. The sight of her pretty green eyes, bright with fresh tears, stunned Gaara so much that he couldn't move. "You're not a monster, so stop thinking like that! If it was something I said, then... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you feel that way! I'm just so desperate to stop that thing that's rampaging through the desert!"
"Sakura..."
Gaara didn't even question how she was able to understand his thoughts. He was too busy being distracted by the sensation of warmth gently wrapping around him like a tender embrace. It was as if her feelings were seeping into him through their connected hands. He could feel her sincerity.
He'd thought that he couldn't pull his hand away from hers because of his current weak state... but maybe it was because he didn't want to pull his hand away. So he tightened his grip instead.
"You're right. This isn't the time for this."
"H-huh?"
"Sakura, give me that blank seal tag. I'll do it. There's no time for words, only actions. I need to save my mother."
"...Right."
They both rose to their feet, still wobbly from the destructive attack that they'd barely managed to survive.
"Are you familiar with fuuinjutsu?"
"Yes. How do I absorb the... the fake raccoon-dog's energy?"
"He's not a 'fake' per se, but we'll get to that later. In theory, as the real Ichibi you should be able to command it to bend to your will since its just chakra, but you don't have the power to do that right now. I'm hoping that by using fuuinjutsu, we could make it easier on you."
Gaara thought it over. "Why do you need to seal the raccoon dog's mouth?"
"Because there is a chance it could still spit energy attacks at you while you're trying to absorb it. I don't want to take any chances."
After hashing out the rest of the details, Sakura and Gaara turned to face the phantom Ichibi.
"Ready, Gaara?"
"I am ready. My mother's life is still in danger; the longer we wait, the worse off she will be."
It was mercifully quick. The plan went off without any further complications.
As if beckoned by a will greater than Sakura could comprehend, Gaara managed to stop the 'blank' Ichibi's rampage, absorbing the chakra construct into his own body. When the storm died down at last, Sakura found both mother and son hugging each other tightly, and a brand new tattoo etched onto Gaara's pale face, on his left temple.
It was the kanji for 'love'.
For a while after Karura destroyed the tea kettle, mother and son continued to live alone in the desert in happiness. Sakura didn't need to stick around to explain anything, because the moment Gaara regained his wits, he was markedly different.
Still the same man who was polite and distantly kind, and yet different in how vast his scope of understanding was.
In a way, he was like Sakura now.
He'd transcended into a new plane of existence.
The water that Karura had been drinking was a poison for anyone else who drank it. Immediately upon consumption, the water - which was an extension of the Ichibi's Gluttony acted on its orders to feed. Gaara had lost something that day, and gained something else in its place. That was all there was to it. Questioning whether the Gaara before and the Gaara who drank the water was the same person was pointless.
Gaara was himself. Gaara was the Ichibi.
Also, he was able to leave the desert whenever he wanted to now that he was whole and firmly in control of his abilities. Karura had apologized to Gaara one more time for 'killing' him eight years ago, and broke down into tears when Gaara took her into his arms and sobbed into her shoulder. Sakura watched them from the sidelines with a smile.
In the end, Sakura decided to stick to her original plan. She would just come back and visit the pair once in a while and see how they were doing while she had been traveling around the world for the Bijuu.
After all, there was no point in trying to force Gaara to return to the heavens when he still had the rest of his mortal life to live.
.
.
.
In that desert, the incredible sandstorm that year was the topic of conversation for long afterward.
At the same time, an odd legend was born.
That particular sandstorm had been the work of the desert spirits, and brought a dead man back to life.
This man was immortal, and would guide lost travelers in the desert to safety.
.
.
.
Even now, the people of the village can hear that husky voice with an odd beauty to it.
Whispering tenderly across the dunes.
.
.
.
End of Episode 1
Characters
Sakura: A traveling zodiac. She came all the way to the desert in search of the nine Bijuu, powerful beings that represent the boundary between life and death when they come together and form the constellation known as 'Kaguya'. After parting ways with Gaara and Karura once more, Sakura boarded another boat to Moon Kingdom. This time, there was no need to jump off.
Gaara: His true identity is the Ichibi (One-Tail), the Star of Bottomless Gluttony. He has a preference for irony and dramatic reveals. He now has the ability to sleep, but he's so used to meditating that he has a hard time drifting off. His new hobby is sitting at the kitchen table, staring at his hand. He won't explain why, no matter how many times Karura asks him.
Karura: Gaara's mother. What will happen to her now that the tea kettle she uses to boil her "water of life" has been destroyed?
