Sabaku No Gaara

It felt like I was starting to lose consciousness, which is never a good sign for someone like me. If I pass out, who knows what Shukaku will do to my soul and personality? But it hardly matters. Right now, with the last of my strength, I have to remove that shield above the city; if I get abducted or knocked unconscious, the jutsu will dissipate and dump Kami knows how much sand in that area. It'd be like a flood, and I can't ruin my people that way, not after what happened tonight.

That Akatsuki guy would not cease. He loomed closer, as if he were waiting for me to fall. I probably was.

Briefly I realized the men below were trying to attack with arrows, the tips carrying paper bombs. But at the moment, all I wanted to do was get the shield off the town below. "Just a little farther, Gaara!" my brother called to me. When I saw it hovering above the desert just beyond the gates, I relaxed my fist and let it fall.

Soon I too would be falling, because right now I felt my eyes ease shut for the first time in ages.

Uzumaki Naruto

Talking to Iruka, it made me become conscious of how much farther I have to go. I mean, because of Gaara, I never got to finish my Chunnin exams. Everyone else I knew was now a chunnin except me, the lonely gennin. "I won't let Gaara outdo me," I told Iruka. "I will be the future Hokage!"

"You know when I said you really grew up?" Iruka said.

I nodded.

"Well, I don't take it back, but it seems on some things, you haven't changed."

I brought my ramen bowl up to my lips, sipping the last of the broth. "Yeah, well, I could say the same about you, Iruka-sensei!"

"I'm not your sensei anymore, really," he says lightly, a slightly sad reminder.

I give him a look. "You're still Iruka-sensei to me either way." Because you were always there for me.

He smiles. "Whatever you say, Naruto."

Sabaku No Gaara

I think I was dreaming. It was swirling around, everything swirling: my hair, my clothes, my sand. All of it whirling around and brushing up to tickle my face and hands, and distantly it felt like my face armor was cracking. I more heard the impact than felt it, but suddenly everything slowed down as I lay – or thought I was laying down, since my head was tipped back – in something thick and mud-like.

I hoped I was dreaming. Because if I wasn't, that meant I was conscious but closed-eyed, and at the moment would be taken hostage by the self-proclaimed artist of the Akatsuki. If I was or wasn't dreaming, or if only the swirling part was the dream, I didn't know. But I hoped the impact part was a dream along with the swirling, or else it'd mean I was lying somewhere on that owl-like bird made of clay (or paper, or whatever).

I was too tired to move, too exhausted to even open my eyes. So I played dead, awaiting whatever fate that claimed me.

It didn't take long for Kankurou to go racing out after the Akatsuki member, determined to fetch his brother. Brashness would be his downfall, though. Because he hadn't expected a second party to be traveling with the high flying first, and he soon found out it was Master Sasori, the very man who created the puppets Kankurou was so known for. This gave the other an upper hand, and soon Kankurou found himself poisoned, laying face-down in the sand as the enemies got away.

Temari took him to their hospital and sent in for every medical nin she could, but the poison was taking it's toll.

It took even less time for Konoha, Suna's allies, to get a messenger hawk regarding their situation.

The second Naruto heard of it, he felt sick to his stomach. He wanted to say all sorts of things, shout them frantically, and demand to be taken to Suna straight away. And yet he found himself falling silent and still, like a yellow-topped slab of marble.

"You have to send us out there to help!" Sakura pleaded to Tsunade, also worried. Plus, she knew, her medical ninjutsu could come in handy.

"Believe me," Tsunade told her, "This is exactly the kind of mission I wanted to give Team Kakashi. And anyway, I realize it's a personal matter for… some of you…" she hinted, meaning the eerily silent Naruto. "Which in this sort of situation may be of use. But I'm having Team Gai come to back you up." She adds.

Kakashi rolled one gray eye. 'Great' the expression said sarcastically.

"I want you at Suna as soon as possible, so travel quickly; we don't know how many are hurt, or how far the Akatsuki has fled by now with the Kazekage."

There were short nods, a bow on the exit, and bodies racing home to hasty pack. Naruto was first into the forest on the way to Sunakagure, jumping tree to tree and not stopping. With his developed stamina and high levels of chakra stored up, he expected to cut the usual three days time to travel to Sunakagure in half.

Speaking of the Village of Sand, Chiyo, one of the elders still living, came to try and fix things. As much as she didn't want to work with the Leaf, it was their only choice. Besides, with a 'kage leader kidnapped, she thinks everything should be done to get them back. If they were good leaders and helped the city, they deserve to come back to it and keep their rule. That's generally her idea of things, although she did protest having a Jinchuuriki (and it be a young boy if that) as their 'leader'.

Uzumaki Naruto

I never knew time could pass so slowly. It felt like every minute – every second – that I was sitting, standing, or even sleeping, I was wasting time. Even when I was in the hospital in Suna, when I was stopping to camp while we were on the Akatsuki's trail, I felt like I was losing precious time, and possible one of my precious comrades. It was like losing Sasuke all over again, but to what this time? A disgusting, rotting part of my lower gut told me, 'to Death'. I bet it was that damn Kyuubi muttering it to make to make me feel worse than I already was. But I can't be sure.

Tonight, though, while we were camping in some woods that smelled like rainwater and moss, Sakura noticed my anxious way of fidgeting around in my sleeping bag. "Naruto," she said in a whisper, since Chiyo-baasama seemed to be asleep. "What's wrong with you? Normally you're snoring before the rest of any of us."

I tried to act like it was nothing. "Just… nerves, I guess. I'll be fine, 'ttebayo."

She gave me a look I knew well; it was her 'you aren't fooling me' look.

I sighed. "It's just… what if… what if I'm too late?" I choke out. "Who knows what the hell they want with him, or what they have to do to get it. I mean, why Gaara? Why not… why not someone else?" Why not me? Wasn't Itachi after me just a few years ago? Is this what they were going to do if they had me instead? That way I could have been in his place, and they wouldn't have to go and… and…

I don't know how, but she seemed to understand me perfectly. And after my thoughts had drifted away, she reassures me: "We won't be too late, you'll see."

For resting's sake, I pretend to believe her; if I do, I'll (hopefully) sleep a little more soundly.

Sabaku No Gaara

It all started to get very, very fuzzy. My world became hazy in all my senses, as if I were drifting off to a foamy, foggy sea of sleep. But that pleasant hazy feeling began to erode away as I felt my body levitate, and a sort of air encircle around me. But it wasn't a normal kind of air. It felt like chakra in large quantities, most likely omitting from more than one person.

A terribly painful heat that was so hot it was cold started to crawl up my flesh from my stomach. It was so coarse that it left my insides raw and bleeding, the pain pouring out my mouth and shock-white eyes. I didn't apprehend that I was yelling, nearly screaming, until I heard it echo off the walls of wherever I was. All the while that pain coursed though me like a nasty poison, sucking me dry.

So this is what it was like to have the Ichibi demon torn like a still-beating heart from my body… I thought bitterly, my thinking patterns contorted and hardly coherent. Pain sure knocks you senseless; but I never knew raw, physical hurt this way, not once in my entire existence.

I suppose now I know.

But, does this mean… I was going to die?

Sad, I never even got to see Uzumaki Naruto again, and he was the true reason for me becoming who I have: the Kazekage, the sane ex-homicide case (as Temari sometimes playfully calls me), the new Gaara. Yet, in this feeling of unceasing, wrenching injury, I feel like it doesn't matter.

Was I ever even special to anyone, let alone someone like him? Maybe he doesn't realize or much remember the people he impacts.

And then what about my remaining family? They might be almost forced to care about me, being flesh and blood, but who knows, it could all be a charade.

Either way, I guess it doesn't matter now. With each tremor of draining pain, Shukaku left me, and so did the remainder of my time to live.

Uzumaki Naruto

We hopped through the trees, and with each passing moment I could sense where Gaara was. I sensed his chakra, the same chakra that holds a thread of demon woven in it. But it felt like it was getting faint, but I knew I was getting closer. My stomach felt unsettling, as if I was about to throw up. Good thing I had a small breakfast.

Behind me, Chiyo-baasama started talking to Kakashi. They thought I couldn't hear them, but they forget I have the ears of a kitsune. I didn't slow my pace or try to pick up their words more; if anything, I just happened to hear them. And they were talking about me.

"Why does he care so much about a ninja that isn't even from his Village?" the old woman asked in a grumbling tone. "What loyalty does he even have? What reason?"

Kakashi made a noise, something light in the air I could hardly catch. Maybe I didn't even hear it at all.

"Just… what is he?"

I waited for it. I waited for him to tell her. The copy ninja didn't let me down. "He's also a Jinchuuriki."

I heard a surprised, "Huh?" come from the elder. Part of me wanted to laugh. Must everyone be so shocked when they find out what I am?

"He has the Nine Tails sealed within him. Naruto hardly cares about the sand village itself, really; But Gaara-kun is someone just like him, someone who understands. And in turn, he probably understands your Kazekage better than anyone in your Village. No matter where they are, all Jinchuuriki are treated the same way."

I stopped listening after that; a lump had formed in my throat at the memories. I purposely hopped ever faster to get farther away from the two. I was too determined to stick around to hear them chatting, anyway. I started to feel that fox's power flowing through me, turning my eyes red and my whisker marks longer and deeper, like a cut on my face. I disregarded the feeling, though; all I cared about was reaching my friend in time.

Sabaku No Gaara

Suddenly, the pain was gone. Everything turned white before me, blinding me. A hand was in front of my face, the fingers bent at the knuckles. "Who's hand… is this?" I thought. But it echoed, as if I had spoken it; maybe I had. I tried to move the hand, ad when it obeyed, I thought (or said, I'm still not sure), "Huh? It's… my hand?"

There seemed to be a wind blowing softly, and I welcomed it's gentle toss in my hair and across my skin. It felt like my sand armor had disappeared, but in a serene place like this, I felt safe even without it or my gourd.

Again I asked myself, "Did my existence become necessary to anyone?" Like Temari, or Kankurou, or anyone else I've met; even the villagers, since I was their Kazekage. But did it matter? Or was it all… futile?

I curled my hand and looked passed it, into the white oblivion. The lack of pain made my brain function better, and I curiously looked at a figure ahead of me. "Huh? What's that?"

The figure was dressed in red, even their hair. Their eyes were dull and soft, almost dead-looking. And in the weird light, the aquamarine was gray. "That's… me."

The me someone else's existence needed. Doushite… why did I want to become like that? Why did I desire it so badly?

"Those eyes… that nose… that mouth… how is that 'Gaara'?" I said to the other me, subtly demanding an answer.

But the answer was right there: I used to be inside of that. I used to be that 'Gaara'. But in one state of consciousness, what did it used to be?

It was just… a small… feeling.

The figure faded away. Slowly, slowly… I slipped into darkness, a sleep I was sure I would never wake from.