Long author's note! Please read, it's important. Though, you can always just skip to the chapter first then come back to this later :)
This is extremely late. I've started a new school year and... well, keep reading until the end of the author's note and you'll find out why else I haven't updated in ages.
Clarification for stuff I messed up (I'll go over the chapter before this one, as well as the Gaara-and-Temari-in-the-cave-waiting-for-Kankuro-to-return one (too much OOCness), once I finish the story, for now I'm just trying to wrap this up):
Yuudai doesn't forgive nor like Gaara. He just doesn't want him on his bad side (would you want Sabaku no Gaara as an enemy?). And hey, Yuudai is actually a nice guy deep, deep inside, believe it or not, so he has accepted that Gaara has changed. I know that this really wasn't clear, but I was writing the chapter from Gaara's point of view. Gaara doesn't know what Yuudai really thinks. It's just what he sees.
Gaara isn't in the 'after-the-fight-with-Naruto' mental state yet. He is still selfish and quite immature. He has come to the point where he realizes that he had done horrible things and he feels bad, but he can't bring himself to regret it because he was doing it to protect his life and existence. Since he is a pretty angsty guy, a lot of his self-hate makes him look compassionate to others, but I mostly saw it as self-pity. Thanks to his siblings, however, he learned the meaning of protecting those dear to him and dealing with his self-image. In other words, he would be willing to put his life on the line for Temari and Kankuro, but not for his village filled with people who hate him. He isn't that noble. Yet.
I agree, his character development was a little rushed, but Naruto managed to change him in 20 seconds in the heat of battle. I didn't find it too unrealistic to have Gaara - in a calm setting, surrounded by family members who don't hate him, over a longer period of time - become nicer.
Kazekage's nightmare: Imagine the Sand Sibs are innocent-eyed-zombiefied... That's how I picture it. I'll fix that too.
OK, so for why I have been MIA for ages...
During the holidays, I was busy chilling (just being honest), then I was hit with by the new school year with a heavy work/testload. Then, for the past few weeks I've been... emotionally hindered.
My 17 year old friend was cycling at night. He was going extremely fast and crashed into a car. He was declared brain dead a few days later and his parents have decided to donate his organs because he had wished to become a rescue helicopter pilot. He has saved 5 lives and died a hero.
Life can be horrible. Life can beautiful. But one thing is certain: life is short and fleeting.
So please... Drive safely. Cycle safely. Rest in peace A.P.
I've now gotten that off of my chest, so we can proceed to the chapter.
The majestic arch towered over the jinchuriki, the single kanji shining down at him. Wind.
Gaara took a long, shaky breath, not sure if he was ready to brave the whole village's hate and fear or if he should just stay away. Maybe hide in his loneliness. Forever.
For on the other side of this gate stood Gaara's greatest fear, the object of his purest hate, yet the person who's approval he yearned for the most.
His father. The man who ruined his childhood.
He used to think that the man ruined his whole life until he realized that his life had hardly even begun yet. He was twelve. He was a genin. He was a child.
He had his whole life ahead of him to try to make things better for himself. That is, unless his father murdered him first.
The redhead gulped, his eyes melting in terror and he took a step closer, being forced to follow the group marching towards the entrance to their village, but slowly trailing behind.
"Gaara...?" whispered Temari, her eyes narrowing in concern. Then she understood. "Oh. Don't think about it, we're here, OK?"
Kankuro squeezed his little brother's shoulder, hoping to be comforting whilst gently pushing him through the gates of Suna as well.
"There are many paths in life, brother. However, no matter which one you take, they all lead forward." he smiled, trying to be supportive.
Gaara mentally sighed and accepted his fate, feeling sick. Through the gates of Hell he went.
The trio marched into their native village. They could sense the villagers' excitement at seeing the search party, their confusion at the disappointed look on their shinobis' faces and then, finally, the feelings of horror and anger crushing down on top of them as the people noticed the three teens, namely Gaara.
All eyes turned to the trio, some gasped, some ran away, some muttered 'demon', some cursed out loud and someone, hidden in the crowd, screamed:
"How dare you? How dare you show your face here, monster! Die! Drown! Nobody wants you back!"
Gaara felt his stomach churn and felt as if he was going to be sick. He hid his pain by instinctively throwing a glare at the crowd, causing all of them to immediately quiet down for a moment. Temari had to hold onto Kankuro's good arm to prevent him from running into the group of gawking people and punch their teeth in for what they were saying about his little brother.
After a few minutes of forcing blank looks onto their faces and trying to ignore the cruel whispers, their sensei came to their aid.
"Temari. Kankuro. Gaara." The three turned to face Baki who had a furious but dead serious look. "You three should quickly go to the living quarters of the Kazekage's tower."
Or just get out of here, fast. Before you start a riot.
He didn't say it, but they understood.
However, the siblings hesitated for a second. Should they really run away? They weren't cowards.
Their sensei could sense their inner-dilemma.
"... It's an order." he clarified.
"OK. We'll... get cleaned up." agreed Temari.
The trio turned away to make their retreat, relief flooding their system against their will.
"One more thing..." added Baki in a whisper. "I will gather with the captains to prepare a mission report. I'm afraid that you three will have to be with us to deliver it. The Kazekage would want to see the survivors with his own eyes. Just... You know how this whole shipwreck incident started, so... Prepare yourselves, OK?"
His students nodded.
"Understood." deadpanned Kankuro.
Then the three sped off over the rooftops of Suna, shamelessly escaping the crowd, not wanting to be faced with reality just yet.
They weren't welcome. Not even in their own village.
The siblings had taken a shower Sunagakure style (using minimal water) and they were really starting to miss the flowing river in their campground... or even the waterfall further upstream that also held horrible memories.
However, the Suna way did the job and they they sat in their living room in silence, waiting for Baki to come get them, feeling spotless for the first time in ages.
Nails had been clipped, hair re-trimmed, clothes changed and, in Kankuro's case, the slight facial stubble had been shaved.
Any servants who walked into the room and spotted them would widen their eyes in shock, before bowing hastily and quickly backing out of the room.
"Home sweet home..." muttered Kankuro bitterly whilst bandaging his still broken arm. "The only good thing about being back is that we don't need to gut our own meals anymore. And the toilets, of course."
"We have to stop by the hospital later to get all of our wounds checked." pointed out the kunoichi. "If one of us ended up bringing an exotic disease back to the village with us, we could start an epidemic."
The puppet-nin snorted.
"Well, that would involve people actually getting close enough to us to catch something. Let's face it, we're on permanent quarantine. Nobody likes to be around us."
Gaara, who had been silent up until now, spoke up.
"Kankuro... You don't have to keep saying things like that. Though the villagers fear you and Temari out of respect, they don't hate you. I'm the one that they wish were dead." he said, frowning.
"None of us have a fan-club either." shrugged Temari, combing through her hair, then tied it up into four pigtails. She sighed with relief knowing that she hadn't hacked it off to the point where her usual hairstyle would be impossible. "I really wish that I could stop caring about what people think, but it easier said than done. People in our society like to act like emotionless robots, but it's all just an act. We're are all human beings. I wonder if all the villages take this charade as seriously as us."
"From what I've heard, Suna has got a pretty frightening reputation amongst the Five Great Shinobi Nations. Kirigakure's is worse, though, with their Hidden Mist Techniques and old graduation exam that consisted of murdering your own teammates. Apparently, Konohagakure ninja are the nice and fruity ones. They value comrades above missions and all that. They say that it makes them stronger." chuckled Kankuro.
"They might be right. They are the most powerful ninja nation, after all." sighed Temari, her fingers gliding over the smooth metal of a new kunai. "I miss my fan."
"Your fan? You can buy a new fan! Puppets are irreplaceable! I have to remake new ones! I can't even do that for the moment since I've only got one good arm." grumbled Kankuro.
"Oh please." sniggered Temari. "You can go to a flea market and buy a little girl's dolls anytime you want."
Gaara mentally sighed, knowing where this was going.
"Dolls? Dolls? For the last time, my puppets aren't dolls. Dolls don't have dangerous weapons built into them!" growled the brunet.
His sister lifted an eyebrow.
"Oh really? Mine did. When I was a little kid, of course."
Not wanting the argument to get out of hand, Gaara did something that he knew would shut his siblings up. He summoned sand from outside the living room window and created a new gourd for himself.
It worked. Kankuro and Temari both jumped up and stared bug-eyed at him, their little brother's actions obviously scaring the absolute crap out of them.
The redhead just shrugged. Better safe than sorry, especially with their father not too far away.
"Wow... Gaara sure knows how to kill the mood." huffed Kankuro, sinking back down into the couch.
The younger boy didn't know if he was supposed to glare or to ignore his brother's comment.
There was a moment of silence.
"How... do you think father will react to seeing us?" mumbled Temari, poking the tip of her kunai into her middle finger, wincing when she accidentally applied too much pressure and drew blood.
"I bet the he will choke on his coffee." huffed Kankuro humorlessly.
"I bet the he will stare at us with horrified eyes" added Gaara.
"I bet that he will stammer like a moron then go back to being professional." sighed the kunoichi.
"Well... you'll be seeing for yourselves soon."
The trio turned to face Baki, who was leaning against the door frame, a slight look of sadness lingering in his eyes. Seeing his students so calm like this... It hurt him. He had missed out on all their emotional growth but was proud of them for it. Now, they were worrying about how their father, who tried to eliminate them, was going to react.
Their sensei could tell that, no matter how cool they seemed, they were filled will nervousness and worry.
Because... deep inside... they wanted their father to love them. To be glad to see them.
But he knew that his boss was never going to show it, even if, by some miracle, a tiny part of him was relieved to see his own children alive.
Baki's fury towards the Kazekage had mellowed out during the past few days and he had started to think.
Was the Kazekage a truly, cruel, horrible man? He was.
But he was still human, like they all were... How could he have taken the decision to kill all three of his children?
Baki really wondered what went through that man's head. Maybe he had an alcohol problem that no one knew about.
He shook his head. Even after learning to despise his boss, it went against his nature to disrespect him.
The three teenagers stood up to follow their leader out of the room, to their father's office, feeling as if they were walking straight into a slaughterhouse.
All four of them had made a scarily accurate guess.
Hearing someone knock on his door, the Kazekage hastily stuffed the half empty bottle of sake into his top drawer. So... this is what the great sanin Tsunade felt like...
He combed his messy hair with his fingers, rubbed his exhausted eyes (praying that his bags weren't too visible... he didn't want to look like Gaara), straightened out his robe, took a long sip of coffee and cleared his throat before calling out:
"Come in!"
The door opened. Baki, Reina, Yuudai and the jonin he assigned to coordinate the mission entered the room. He frowned in suspicion and took another sip of coffee. Why were Baki and the siblings here? They weren't leaders of this mission.
Did Baki know about the sabotage? Did the captain know about the sabotage? Did everybody now know about the sabotage? Did they even find the shipwreck?
Temari, Kankuro and Gaara walked into the room, closing the door behind them.
The Kazekage proceeded to choke on his mouthful of coffee, spraying some onto his white robes.
He looked at his children, a look of utter disbelief on his face. He pinched himself.
"But... How..." he stammered.
No. This wasn't just another nightmare, playing cruel tricks on his mind, manipulating his emotions and showing him what he wanted to see.
Temari. Kankuro. Gaara.
All three of them were here. Alive. Safe.
Anything he felt was overwritten by one thought.
He was in deep shit.
The jonin captain stared at his boss, confused, whilst everyone else in the room gave their Kazekage an innocent, yet knowing, look.
He cleared his throat.
"Welcome back, everyone. Mission report?" he asked, mentally praising himself for getting his cool back so quickly.
A shinobi, especially a Kage ranked one, wasn't ever supposed to be taken by surprise. He had slipped up, but most people would deem that reaction normal for a ninja parent finding out that his children were alive.
Yes. That's right. He hadn't given anything away himself.
"A success! The shipwreck was located. However, there weren't any survivors. Apart from your children. All of the dead received a grave thanks to Gaara-sama, so maybe you could organize a few trips so that the villagers can visit their dead? Maybe built a shrine in their memory. They were mostly civilians, after all." suggest the captain, taking a bow.
The Kazekage's eyes narrowed. Did he hear correctly? Gaara?
He couldn't think too much about it now, or he was going to lose it again. He had to quickly bullshit his way out of this situation before getting his thoughts together.
"I see. Well, I'll bring this information to the council. Congratulations to the search party. And..." he was going to say something, anything, to his children, to welcome them back in an either professional or fatherly way. But he couldn't even look directly at them without getting the sudden overwhelming urge to cry. "... Baki-san, take your team to the hospital for a check up. You are all dismissed. Except for Reina-san and Yuudai-san. You two stay."
Two said jonins both gulped, ignoring the looks they got from their fellow jonin and the three children.
The Kazekage watched silently as everyone but the two siblings left the room.
Once they were alone, he immediately cut to the chase.
"Who else knows about the sabotage?" he snarled, glaring his two subordinates down. "And don't even try to lie."
"... A few people have figure out that someone must have been pulling the strings. None can really imagine that it was your doing all this time." answered Reina.
"It was a mistake letting you two join the search party." sighed the Kazekage. "... How many people have you told?"
Yuudai froze up, but his sister calmly did the talking.
"A few. So if you were to eliminate us, the people we told will immediately make that information public to the village. They will believe us, of course, since most people know that our brother was coincidentally on a secret mission on that boat."
"Who are these people?" asked the Kazekage, trying to keep a straight face.
"We aren't going to tell, of course. If you interrogate us, then you will have to tell the whole interrogation team what happened and that just wouldn't do, won't it? Many of them have lost family during that mission. In other words..." Reina leaned closer to her boss's desk, smiling darkly. "You really should have killed us the second you knew that our brother died. It's too late now."
She leaned back.
"However, we do value the village's safety over anything, so we won't be divulging that information to anyone else in fear of disrupting the peace and our already unstable government. It would be in your very best interest to keep up alive, Kazekage-sama."
Yuudai whistled, impressed by his sister's blackmailing and the village leader stared at the woman with dark, amused eyes.
The Kazekage suddenly let out a mad laugh, causing the two jonin to shiver.
"Oh, Reina-san... I did well in promoting you, didn't I? You really are one of our finest shinobi. Careful, Yuudai-san, or you might be overshadowed."
The man snorted and gave his boss a quick look over. He hated getting compared to his sister. He knew that she got the gift of acting and manipulation. However, he had gotten the gift of perceptibility and instinct.
"Bags. You are suffering from insomnia. Nightmares. Guilt, maybe? Ah... They involved your children or your late-wife... You placed that picture face down on your desk. You've been drinking heavily for at least seventeen hours. You're probably hiding a bottle of sake in your top drawer. Last night, you cried yourself to sleep, after taking a few sleeping pills. There is an empty box of medicine and loads of tissues in the waste paper basket. There are scratches on your desk. You've probably been falling asleep while working. Coffee. You probably want to sleep right now. Judging by your reaction when seeing your children, you were horrified that they were alive. Yet, there was a flicker of pure happiness in your eyes when you saw them. You missed them, you really..."
"Enough!" spat the Kazekage, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. "You are both deserving of your titles. Now, you are dismissed. Get out of my sight before I have you escorted."
The two jonins bowed quickly before scampering out the room. They knew that the man was the Kazekage for a reason, and crossing him again could mean that they would mysteriously disappear without even leaving a corpse behind.
Once he heard their steps fade away, he stood up, walk towards the closest wall and punched his fist through it.
"This is not happening..." he seethed, staring at his bloody knuckle.
His children. His children were alive. After he had sacrificed a whole shipload of civilians to get rid of them!
Temari. She had burns and scars on her face and running down her arms. Her hair was much shorter than he remembered and her eyes much sharper, stronger and accusative when they glared down at him. She knew the truth. She knew how he had betrayed them.
Kankuro. He had his arm in a sling, a bandage wrapped around his forehead and he looked... older. He now resembled his father much less, for some reason. It might have been the fact that his eyes were devoid of utter exhaustion, insomnia and soul crushing guilt. The man was glad for that.
Gaara... The Kazekage was most amazed by Gaara's appearance. Physically, he hadn't changed at all. But there was something different about the aura around that surrounded him. He no longer felt hate and blood lust crash down on him every time the redhead blinked.
His eyes... Oh, his eyes... The Kazekage couldn't exactly explain what was so different about them, since the boy still refused to meet his gaze. However, he had felt a strange connection between his children. What they had lived together on that island had brought them together. They had all become completely different people. He hardly even recognized them.
They looked like siblings now. Like a team.
The Kazekage couldn't help the feeling of terror from spreading through his body. Scared. He was scared of his children. United, he could only imagine what they were capable of.
He punched the wall again, ignoring the hot burn of pain when the already opened flesh on his hand scraped the sandy surface.
Yuudai was right. He had been extremely happy to see them. The Kazekage was going to give himself a minute to rejoice when he suddenly remembered something.
"The council..." he groaned. "The council doesn't care about anything but getting rid of Gaara."
They would be furious when they found out that the boy survived. Especially when they had been the ones who suggested 'taking extreme means for the greater good' to kill him, and that had resulted in the Kazekage organizing the sabotage.
The man debated on whether or not he should simply slit the throat of every damn old council geezer and Wind Lord he had to obey to. Why couldn't he just run his village the way he wanted to?
Ah, yes, something about "anti-dictatorships", "separation of powers" and "lack of experience".
But he was the one making all the damn sacrifices, doing all the dirty work!
Murdering his own son. He had thought it easy and relieving to do so, but after nearly losing his children... It was not something a parent wanted to go through twice, no matter how emotionally trained he was.
It sickened him. It made him want to hang himself. Betraying his late-wife's trust like that...
Yet, he knew that he would never hear the end of this from the council until Gaara was dead, his young, bleeding body at their feet, cremated to ash then buried to be forgotten forever. This time, the group of old farts would probably give him an ultimatum. Get rid of Gaara once and for all. Or they were going to replace him with another, more suitable candidate to be the leader of their village. They were already questioning his mental state, judging by the looks he got the day earlier.
If he lost his position... The new Kazekage would have no remorse ruthlessly torturing his son until he was begging for death.
The man nearly cried in horror at that thought. It made him want to get sick all over the floor.
No. He could never let that happen. His very limited moral code wouldn't allow a person to actually enjoy killing Gaara. That's why he had chosen Yashamaru to test his son, so many years ago. He wouldn't take pleasure in hurting the boy.
The only people now who would eliminate the jinchuriki in a more-or-less-merciful way were... his siblings and Baki. The Kazekage knew that they would never do it, not even as their duty as Suna shinobi. Especially not after he had ordered that ship sabotaged. He had lost a lot of trust.
The only other person who could accomplish that mission was... himself.
The Kazekage continuously punched the wall, letting blood gush freely down his sleeves.
Sick. Sick Sick.
"What was that about?" whispered Baki, taking a sip of his tea.
Reina looked over her shoulder before leaning closer to the man sitting across the table from her.
"Let's just say that, if my brother or I were to suddenly disappear, you and the other people who know about what really happened will have to make the truth public to the village. I had to blackmail him or he was definitely going to eliminate us." she sighed.
"Ah... Yes. Smart. If the villagers knew what the Kazekage had planned, they would definitely cause a bloody riot." replied the man.
The kunoichi nodded.
"How are your students?" she asked softly.
"They're hospital check-up came out clean. Otherwise... Not really well. They try to play it off as nothing, but what their father did really hurt them." huffed Baki. "And the village... I understand their anger, but I was still furious when I heard what that man said."
"I can only imagine. That was not fair for the children. Especially for Gaara-sama, since constant assassination attempts have been going on for years, right? Horrible. You can't expect a kid to be mentally stable after thar. I can really see why you were always so fond of them. They went through so much in their short lives, yet they keep becoming better people. It's amazing. I mean, you and I were young when the last war ended, we've been through Hell... Yet we constantly judge. We are unable to make true friends. We're both old and single. Honestly, I don't think that I've become a better person at any time in my life. I'm manipulative. I'm a liar. I feel as if I just get worse everyday." admitted Reina, not knowing whether telling Baki this was a good idea.
She figure that it was, once the man gave her an amused look.
"Well, you aren't as old as me, Reina-san, so you have plenty of time to grow as a person if you wish."
"I'm not that much younger than you are. Maybe you're right, though. It's not too late." she smiled.
The two jonins clinked glasses and down their tea as if it were sake.
"As long as we're alive, it's never too late to improve." Baki made a face. "As long as we're alive, our souls are at the mercy of our leaders."
The story is about to end! The next chapter is probably going to be the ending and the epilogue (which will actually partly be the first chapter of the sequel, so the epilogue and the first chapter of the sequel will be posted at the same time so that you can subscribe to both :). Unless, of course, my last few ideas take longer to write out.
Yeah. Kazekage is nice but still terrible. He is fun to write :)
Do you guys see what the sequel is gonna be about? If not, you'll find out once I update. Which will be as soon as I can (after another chapter of TBP). Once this story and its sequel are officially over, then I'll write a new Hetalia story.
So, read, review, love... Drive safely!
HimekoUchia (I realized that being really old can actually be an amazing thing. It means that your survived)