It was his skin. It didn't look white and healthy. It was dark, burned, pruned, wounded… But how… how this had happened?...
'Father!...' Daichi shouted, turning to the side, only to see one of the doors of the gates. There was no one beside him. And neither there was his mother. Only a piece of sleeve and a glove dangled from his thin, branchy fingers, like lonely fruits of grotesque tree. He screamed.
It was not his mother! It was an ugly doll that kept moving him toward the sky, the horrific face of a monster up and up, making him lose his balance, making him tangle in chakra strings that weren't bounded to anything- …he let go of the hand. The puppet had flew away, crashing against the surface of the smile like if it was made of glass. The satisfied murmur of happiness could be heard around him. He blinked his eyes, feeling the pain in his side and no ground under his feet. Something cried under him and he looked down, only to notice a small dot of red and suddenly fall down with his stomach up his throat as the pressure has lessened sharply, only to make him get into a wild swirl on both sides, much too similar to carousel. Oh gods!...
He shook his head faintly, trying to grab onto the walls into this completely maddening situation only to move them back, feeling how his skin tore on the tips of his fingers. Then he hit onto some tree with a hiss and fell out of a swirl, only to get flying on the height he never thought he would see from above, even if he would build the greatest Kazekage tower in ages. He felt green. But then his stomach felt empty and there was very little too vomit, so he simply didn't throw up, breathing heavily. His memory worked in small, quick moves…
Minato… it was Minato… and then… they got to Konoha… and then… the monster… and Gaara… and Gaara suddenly attacked him… and then they came to this place… and he followed… and seals… Shukaku… Shukaku… He was in the middle of the Shukaku cyclone. Holly shit. Where was Gaara?...
He turned his head to look around, but then the wind tossed him up in the higher heights again and making him fall with a gasp. With a corner of an eye he saw yet another puppet being steered at him, but too far away to grab it or do anything with it. He recognized that style. It was a style of Chiyo-gran and it was probably her trying to help him. But how she was getting the things through that thick wall of moving sands?...
There was no time for thinking about that. He concentrated with difficulty trying to find chakra sign of Gaara, but his brain buzzed and sloshed like a broken bottle, barely getting on the right paths. Gods, what's happened to his head, it was all sticky with blood… he couldn't remember getting such a hard blow anywhere near it- but then, he couldn't barely anything that concerned the tornado he was in.
But then his brain has finally locked on the right paths and sensed some small chakra points of people he knew he could recognize – one was indeed gran. The second he knew he should recognize, but for some reason he couldn't, and then it was that older brat of Minato. But no signs of Gaara. Could it be…? 'Gaa-!' he shouted, but the shout has went down his throat as he had to hold his breath when the wind had tossed him up again, almost like if he was a living bouncing ball. That begged for a stomach revolution. Seriously.
'Damn you, Shukaku!...' he hissed through his lips and choked as the wind now shot him almost across up only to let him go to make him fall had down to his own death. He knew that if he fell right on his face it would be an instant death and it didn't seem that the monster was ready to kill him off. Oh no, not this time!...
'Screw you!' he shouted, catching on some branch that was lost in another whirlpool on the side. Thanks to that he landed on carousel again, but at least he didn't fall down on another plaything of the monster. But so far, Shukaku only chuckled, seeming to be even more amused by his opposing. He tsked. He slowly started to hate all raccoons on the whole world. 'Gaara!' he shouted out loud this time, letting the wind blow his hair wildly and toss the sand into his mouth as he opened them. No response. He jumped higher on madly swinging wood, looking further up from himself and searching the grounds. There was no redhead anywhere.
'Gaa-aa-raaa!' he shouted again, hoping against the hope and dodging the punch from sand with bare hand, obtaining a big violet bruise. 'Gaa-aa-raaa! It's me, father!...' Something meeped again. At first he didn't notice as the deafening sound of the sand grinding was overwhelming, but now as he heard it again, it was obvious it didn't belong to the waterfall of sands. It was almost like a meow of a kitten. And sand, whatever it did, couldn't imitate cats that good. He waited, listening, then hopped from the branch he was on to another that was passing nearby with top speed, making him feel like if he was riding a bicycle at top speed. He shouted again.
And this time, it was more than clear.
'…er!...' meowed at him from downside and he turned his head there, looking, searching… Gaara was nowhere to be seen. Unless he was hidden in the sands, but he doubted the kid could hide in those moving masses. Or inside the old trunk that drifted quite calmly on lower pressure at least half of a kilometer lower.
He had too much to risk to try to jump at such unsteady surface. But then he had much more to risk if he wouldn't have tried and Gaara would be waiting there. With a quick pray to all gods that could be listening to him he waited for the branch to move to the best position and landed on the old surface that indeed, broke under his feet. But only partially. At least he could've grab on it when his feet slipped.
But still, there was no Gaara in it. He looked around, trying to spot from where the crying choke had came but as close as he heard it, he couldn't see a strand of the redhead. So he either became invisible or… He turned his head when a cry had suddenly became much louder and fainted as he moved further from it. No.
'Gaara?...' he shouted, searching with his eyes for any sudden possible sign of appearance. Nothing has happened.
'Father!...' it shouted quite clearly at him. Daichi felt his hair standing up on ends. But yes. Why not. Shukaku was cruel. Gaara was on other side of tornado. He didn't want to even imagine what kind of images the kid could've seen from that height. But why were Chiyo's puppets not reaching out for him?... For all it seemed, the redhead was not moving at all as the cry was getting further away from him as he moved, but stayed at the same spot when the branch made the full circle. Could it be that he was stuck on completely different side of cyclone?... How could he not swirl there?
'Father!...' sobbed the redhead in helpless cry as he once again passed the spot from where the cry came. He looked at it with helplessness then punched it with force, only to shred his skin on knuckles. The moving sand was like a sandpaper that could tear metals to dust. He knew. He checked. The kunai he had on him remaining in the pocket simply got down to half until it became useless. A completely hopeless situation. If he only knew a normal lightening jutsu!... He was weak at those like if he was only chunnin, and with electricity that could make the battery alive he could only made false earrings. Which he did quite nicely if nobody interrupted him. That meant it was at least ten years ago.
Once again he tried to beat against the wall, but he only managed to bloody up his hand and look as the sign he made with blood flew away further on moving sand. Then he sighed. It seemed he had no choice.
'Raiton!' he shouted, making the golden eyes look from above at him with frown and the half eaten kunai in his hand glow. He already felt how bad it was, he hadn't made that jutsu for ages 'Raiseishi!'
And then the metal in his hand screeched with thunder, making the sand wiggle to punch him, only barely missing. It seemed it was hard for Shukaku to aim at objects by sand when it had to swirl around. He smiled to himself at irony of the situation, the luck in bad luck and he jumped at one punch, falling from it only to beat the wall with glowing kunai with all his might and praying that he was hitting sand and not Gaara. It was hard to decide at what to punch where everything was the same.
The kunai flew out from a hole. Success. The redhead looked at him with teary face, not hurt by thunder. Another success. The hole was the size of his palm and it was tightening. Shit.
'Gaara!...' he shouted, taking his hand out to the redhead and grabbing him, only to yell in pain as the sand had tightened around his arm and moved him through the normal swirl up above. His fingers tightened on the little shoulder with strength he had only reserved for enemies, making the sand press at them. But Gaara was now moving with him, prisoned just as him.
Great. Only he could have had made the worst situation even worse for himself. All sands that moved above sooner or later met up with big facial expression of Shukaku, and from what he saw, the chakra in there was so condensed it made things blow up. Great. Just great!...
'Let me go!' he shouted, beating at the walls with his other hand, tearing his elbow to meat and not obtaining anything but an amused rumble. Damn it!...
The only answer he's got was a deep laughing rumble. He closed his eyes. No use… there was no use in anything. Seriously, what was he thinking… that he would be able to stand against Shukaku and win with it? No mere human could stand against gods, and that was what he was – a human that was called god but was valued only like a more entertaining insect in eyes of the bijuu. Because who was he?... A shadow of the wind?... Wind never needed any shadow…
He hung his head lowly, relaxing the muscles in his locked arm, making the bone hurt in it twice times more. He was only meters away, he felt his skin prickling with the high condensation of chakra…
'I'm sorry…' he muttered against the wall, letting his skin feel how cold it was in the place where wind howled nonstop and how shaken was his body after all the things that happened already. He closed his eyes, almost touching the surface of the sand with his forehead 'There's nothing else I can do… I'm sorry.'
Little warm fingers caught him by his grabbing hand on the other side, clasping tightly. He felt the wet breath coming from lips against his skin.
'No!...' the kid mewled pitifully on the other side and tightened the little warm hold. Daichi smiled ironically. So much for having a son 'No, father! Please… please!'
He shook his head hopelessly even if he knew that the kid couldn't see it. What he could do in this situation? They were seconds away from final death or at least he was. He didn't know if the kid would obtain the same treatment as he lost the awareness of the fact if Shukaku protected or tortured him out there. He smiled hopelessly.
'Maybe if he let go…' he said, chuckling, not believing it himself. The overwhelming loud laughter boomed to them straight from a few meters above.
'Do you really think I could let go?...' it asked with satisfied grin, squinting big golden eyes at the saffron haired man 'You're an insect and nothing more than that, playable, playful and interesting and you had my gratitude for letting me out from that kettle…' The kid whimpered as the particularly strong wind hit from the other side and Daichi hissed as something had scrapped against his fingers. Funny, how little things hurt more than big…
'…but that had ended when you started pulling out those strange seals against me. Silly, silly Daichi!... And to think I let you go when you were on the verge of dying…' The redhead on the other side had moved nervously. Daichi felt another pressure on bone, but didn't react to it with more than tired wince. What the hell was this monster talking about…
'Father!... Father!...' cried the person on the other side of the wall 'Seals!... use the seals!... Please!... Don't give up… father!'
Daichi smiled weakly. Like if he could…
'You can try, brat.' said the voice with the amused tone, much louder this time. Daichi could've sworn that he could smell the breath of it, even if he knew that such a beast couldn't have any smell beside the one of sands and winds themselves 'The Kazekage-brat is out of chakra at all and even if he tried he wouldn't do anything… good luck, hahaha… funny how the kid tries to wake you up with the same words you tried to wake your parents up, must be the damn bloodline limit…'
Daichi snorted sarcastically.
'Don't you know, Shukaku, it's not nice to eavesdrop from kettle when people are dying and not help?...' he muttered. Obviously, the demon could listen to all sands on the world even when it was locked. Probably that was the reason why it was not rebelling against the prison so much since boredom didn't bother it that much. 'You could've stopped the sandstorm… that Khamsin…'
'Oh but I did, I did help!...' said the monster, steering the pair of big golden pupils exactly at him. Daichi, despite being already lost in his lack of motivation, shivered. So that was what they called 'the eye of a god' that watched from above 'I let you go, didn't I?...'
That made Daichi's smile freeze. He slowly rose his eyes up, looking at the fact that was now near him, making his skin jiggle and push against the other side as the pressure grew. Huh?...
'You did what?...' he asked quietly. He didn't have to speak up louder. The sands heard everything.
'I let you come back to your village.' answered the Shukaku with slight edge of mercy in voice 'It was funny how you skipped through the storm like if it was perfectly sunny weather anyway, so why not? I was expecting much more fun from you and my predictions came out well. This pair of brats tried following you anyway, but then that was boring so…'
The monster paused, then let go a high amused laughter in his face, which had already paled even more, though it seemed impossible already. He did what?... How… how could he…?
'You… you let me live?...' he muttered with dry lips. The kid on the other side of wall cried with higher pitch now, scared twice as much as they were getting almost too close to the highest point of the cyclone, but to him it seemed to be happening completely outside the situation 'You… you…'
'What a pity, little Kazekage-brat.' said the Shukaku, interrupting almost lightly with malicious voice 'You couldn't save your parents, you can't save your brats and also now the whole another village will become desert and get taken to my terrority in the West sands… You're entertaining beyond reasons! Hahaha!...'
Daichi didn't answer. The cut he made himself on his lower lips with his teeth, somehow hurt more than the high pressure that started to press against his muscles, wanting to tear them to all sides of the world. Move forward, Daichi. Never stop. He couldn't stop. He blinked, feeling his eyes glint with the last force of chakra he restrained to stay conscious, feeling how gathering it started pulsing in his brain in dark dots and blots of light. It didn't matter. It completely didn't matter.
'You took away my past and my present…' he muttered, hearing the painful shouts of Gaara who was probably getting the same treatment as himself. The monster smiled at him and everything he did with sarcasm. 'Leave my future alone!'
'And what can you do to stop me?' laughed the bijuu 'Blow me to the Moon?'
'The world is enough.' said Daichi with snicker. And then, with all strength that was left in him, putting the maximum pressure on the hand locked in the sand and not minding the particularly deep scratch of the wind against his chest, he pushed his free hand right in the centre of the of the raccoon face, watching the skin tear like paper and splash on his shoulders with blood.
'First seal…' he muttered through his gritted teeth. The black-golden eyes widened.
'You!...' it growled. He didn't let it end.
'…activate!' he howled and closed his eyes as bright light of chakra shook with his body for the second time, blowing right to the big, nosy face of a monster. The wind hit him with the high pressure and cold temperature, at the same time unlocking his prisoned arm, along with Gaara. When he finally opened his eyes – both the lightness and Shukaku were gone.
The cyclone of the sand had started falling around them like a godless dry rain, an unwanted and unintended gift from dry lands he accidentally brought with himself. With one move he curled his hands to himself, hiding the pale warm body in his wounded chest, looking at it with something close to tenderness.
'We're free.' he whispered to the pale green eyes that looked at him with fear and then hid in a hug, holding onto him with trust. And they were falling.
#+#+#+#+#+#
'Chiyo-baa-sama, are you all right?' The old woman chuckled. The way Itachi posed that question sounded almost like if she was giving birth to her first baby, it was so concerned. Too bad her first husband never was like that. Konohans were really soft creatures after all.
'Of course I'm all right, it's only a bit of healing.' she said cheerfully, moving her hands over the broken jaw of the Hokage, locking the bones and mending them in the rhythm of pulse of her own chakra 'Who would I be if I couldn't heal such a minor injury? That's nothing for a woman like me.'
With that, she winked at the blood-eyed boy, but it seemed he didn't caught on the joke. Hm. So soft and totally humorless… she liked that a little less. With one shine over the light scratch on the nose, she clasped her hands in a mimic of clap.
'Here, done.' she said with a smile, letting the youngster admire her job. And truthfully, it was a masterpiece, because no one wound could be spotted on the white skin and if he looked inside – also there. Sure, she was a little out of breath, but she didn't heal Hokages everyday, and especially in such short time. But as all her puppets went to pieces inside the big tornado, she had little to no other options there. Hopefully, when Minato would be up, he would know what they could do now.
'Okay, enough starring, it's time to wake him up-' she said, getting up from her knees. And the next time she knew, she was flying, taken in arms of another charming young man who had one eye red and other black, scooping also the healed body in other hand and making it scrap against the ground as he had skipped wildly through the bushes.
'Ruuun!' screamed Kakashi, turning to Itachi, who looked at him confused, then up to see what was going on-
'Holly hell.' he muttered and immediately spun after the younger male. The moment after, on the place he was standing, fell a big pierce of stone, crushing two pines in one go. And two next as it landed on the other side. The cyclone was falling down. In pieces.
But then, he stopped.
'Wait!' heard Kakashi, as Itachi out of sudden decided to not follow them and started dancing around the stones big like buildings falling down and crushing into the sand only then 'Kazekage-sama and his son are still up there!'
It was Kakashi's time to stop.
'But how do you want to help them?' he asked, also jumping from a big boulder heading for him and crushing the place he was standing on. 'They're… they're… oh shit, they're…!'
'…falling so fast.' ended Itachi with deadly whisper. And then he moved back to the centre of where cyclone previously was. But he didn't made even three steps, as two bodies hit the ground with such a loud crash, it made the ground shake and crumble in thin lines of the pressure. Itachi shuddered, reactivating his running again and getting close to the place of landing not without dread. How could they end up in such big hole?... Could it be Gaara's sand, that was so heavy?...
But then, the two figures had slowly emerged from the clouds of dust that flew up, covering the place with grayness. Itachi held his breath. Kazekage's eyes glowed in violet.
'Second seal…' he muttered with dry lips, as his skin glowed like glass, covering his arms with lines of tattoo that seemed to be more like vascular breaking and veins bursting than an actual drawing '…activate.'
And then, he swayed on his feet and fell onto his back, not hitting his ground. Gods, those kids were quick when they wanted to…
'Kazekage-sama! Kazekage-sama!...' shouted Itachi, along with Gaara crying by his side, but for a moment, Daichi felt like if he was pushed unwillingly into the deepest shores of the lake full of black water, deafening and blinding him completely. He knew that using the second seal in his state was madness. But he simply had no other ideas of what to use. So he prayed for protection to be a full circle and with the last gasp of air he used the last life-sources of chakra he could've used. Thankfully, he managed to pull it only a moment before hitting the earth, so it was only a blink of a second. After that, the spark had immediately dissipated. He felt it retreating on his skin… He barely could breathe.
'Father!...'
He opened his eyes. Gaara looked at him with scared, tearful face, holding onto his wounded skin tightly and trembled. Itachi still kept on shouting something to his ear, but he couldn't even hear what it was. Because all he could hear, was silence.
And scrapping of the sand, as the grains has slowly rose from the ground it hit, only to reconnect with dark stormy ginger cloud above them all, that gaped at them all with a frown, twinkling with two golden orbs. He knew that. He knew that it was not over. But what he could do?... Now, the monster wanted his blood. And nothing else. He felt the rage boiling even from that far away distance.
'You little vermins…' it growled from far away. Daichi held his breath.
'Go away.' he muttered, looking to the side. Itachi stopped, looking at him with fear and confusion. 'Go away I said!...'
'But Kazekage-sama…'
'Take Gaara with you and run!' he screeched, getting up to the sitting position and noticing three other people not far away. And, oh for gods' sake!... What was Minato still doing here? And unconscious to that!... 'Gran, you stupid old woman!... Get out of here, all of you!'
'No!...' mewled Gaara, pressing himself to his side with stubbornity and looking up with fear. Itachi also didn't seem to move. Thankfully, Kakashi seemed to caught on what was going on and vanished into the bushes in a moment.
'What are you doing, stupid kid, it's my grandson there!...' shouted Chiyo, already with a faint voice. Itachi looked up with face that showed that if there was anything that could surprise him, it had happened some time ago and he had enough of such already.
'I'm staying with you.' he said with cold tone. Daichi tsked and got up on his feet, looking the thirteen years old in the eye, noticing how cold the honorable Uchiha bloodline seemed to be. The cold, red blood.
'If you don't get out of here right now…' he muttered darkly, catching him by the brim of the shirt 'I'll hunt you down later and kill you. And make it all end in the war of ages.'
'I'm sorry, I'm still staying.' said the youngster, not fazed by his words a bit. Daichi scowled.
'Why you little!...'
'Father!...' squeaked the little redhead, grabbing his pants with strength he could only compare to claws of the vulture. Almost out of the instinct, he looked up. The sand was falling down. Shukaku was getting back to earth. And was already halfway here.
'Kazekage-sam-' started Itachi, already preparing to do something with his eyes, but without a word, Daichi just grabbed him tighter and threw him away, just as he did with Kakashi previously, his aim and strength being much more pitiful now and thus – much less effective. But then, it was still satisfying. The brat hit his head on the trunk and seemed to lose consciousness.
Good. Shukaku rarely was interested in corpses that didn't move. Not entertaining enough. He looked at his son, but Gaara seemed to be paralyzed, holding onto the pants for his dear life as he observed the sky with wide eyes and pale, a little opened lips. The monster was almost there. It was too late to do anything. And besides, the sand would probably follow him also, no matter what. The time for choosing has ended.
'Hold on tightly and don't let go no matter what.' he said quietly, putting up his hands in the lock he had already knew didn't work, but he knew he had to try anyway. Useless as he was almost blind from tiredness. But if the legs that seemed dead supported him, then why not hands that didn't seem to be alive? 'It's okay, son… it's only a bit of the wind.'
Gaara looked at him and nodded, obviously disbelieving, but he couldn't find any other words of consolation. His eyes locked on the sand rushing toward him.
'You piece of trash!' howled the beast, opening the big phynax and forming big sharp claws out of the cloud of sand running on him with ungodly speed. 'You will pay for everything, no matter if I owe you or nooot!'
Daichi smiled lightly.
'Watch me, father…' he thought again this day '…and lead me to hell if that's today I end my life.' Then he relocked his elbows, strengthening them. He felt no power and had no idea how to even flicker the chakra in himself as he felt weak like a third years old. The shadow of the sand and wind has covered his eyes. How wrong. He had no right. He was the shadow of the wind. He was the Kazekage!...
'I owe you nothing!' he shouted back and taking a deep breath. He felt powerless, but… 'Third seal! Activate!' Nothing has happened. Golden eyes rushed against him, covering everything in gold. The redhead shouted against his side. His face darkened under the shadow, pressure, smell… …and once again I lay my eyes on the Devil, oh fate, once again I lay…
'I said!...' he said, feeling how the grains touched his bare, wounded hands in the first contact '…ACTIVATE!'
Drip. He felt a drop of the water against his back. And then the sand has hit him, covering the whole world. Kakashi has stopped. The chakra… the chakra of Kazekage-sama…
'I said let me go, stupid kid, are you all Konohans that deaf and rude, when an old lady asks the gentleman has to listen so put me down you little!...' shouted the old woman against him, a very unbalanced comparison to heavy body of the blond on his other shoulder. Kakashi turned his head back, watching how the sand poured with all strength and masses on one spot, ignoring both of the bodies.
'Kazekage-sama…' he said in a whisper, making the old woman cut her yells and look at the place also. 'Impossible!...' The Kazekage had activated the third seal!... 'Amazing!...'
And he… he meant, his sensei wouldn't forgive him if he would abandon such view, especially as he was made sure that it would be the last move the Kazekage could make. He had to go and cop- help the Kazekage for sure. Now. In silence, he turned his steps back to the place he left. Almost like a game of blind tag.
#+#+#+#+#+#
Darkness. Darkness and thunder. And running of the water. That was what he felt. Death was surely a strange place. He couldn't hear his father was not anywhere near, but he doubted the man could hear him anyway. His parents had probably ended up in heaven…
'Father!...' he heard faintly, then louder, again. Funny, it sounded like Gaara. Had they ended up in one place together?... 'Father!'
'Gah!...' he gasped, and opened his eyes with tiredness. He felt the sharp claws biting at his skin somewhere at his knee level 'W-what…'
The sand roared wildly, pushing against his hands as he held them up above himself, almost like if they didn't belong to him. They glowed with lithe light, making an invisible shield above them and making the sand fall around them in waterfalls, so big they were covering them from all sides and shooting who knows where. The demon roared against him, forming deformed eyes and fangs against his wounded hands again and again, but it seemed it was impossible to bite on it. The same was with claws. Terrible. But amazing. That feel of sand sliding through his wounds without slightest hurt.
'I will get you, I will get you, I will get you!...' howled the beast, hitting at him again and again, making him pale even more if not lose all his blood already. Even if he knew a good remark, his head was empty now and it was still not a situation to mock anyone. His hands, even if they stood up on their own, they also swayed as his natural strength kept on bleeding out of him and making the shield shift. Only holding them up in place was tiring like if he had to carry the whole Shukaku on his arms. He felt his senses going numb. Gaara whimpered.
'Don't move, Gaara!...' he rasped, out of breath. Any deconcentration made his arms sway dangerously, and the last thing he wanted was to let the masses of sands to bury them alive and squish. Who knew how many was still there above them after all!... 'I said don't move! Hold on!...' The redhead whimpered, hugging himself to his leg tightly. There, that was good. But then, Shukaku has snickered. It was not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.
'So it's the brat that's interrupting you.' it murmured again in that big booming laughter 'I can fix that!' And then, something like an invisible blow got through the shield and made Gaara sway to the side for a moment. Daichi gasped, not being able to change position even for a millimeter.
'Hold on, Gaara!' he shouted, making the redhead shake his head and glue to his leg once again. This time tighter 'Don't let go of me no matter what!'
'Yes, fath-' said the boy and swayed again as the second, stronger blow came, making him let go of his pants. Thankfully, two of the fingers got stuck in the torn hole of the material. Daichi felt the hair on his neck prickling.
'Gaara!' he shouted, glancing at the kid and getting back his attention to the sands above them again and again. 'Gaara, for gods' sake!' The redhead once again shook his head and with a loud cry clasped the leg with both arms, circling it and soaking with tears. But then, the triumphing, booming roar of laughter roared at them from everywhere and in that breathless, impossibly hot for a winter atmosphere, Daichi felt his blood running cold. The monster was already celebrating hits victory.
'The only god here is me!' it howled in glee. Then again a big invisible blow came through the shield, resounding in the lacking air like a bullet that was shot from very far off distance. Gaara looked above for a moment with scared face, frozen in spot. And then, his head fell off on his chest, making his body sway and fall into the bottomless darkness.
'Gaaraa!' shouted Daichi, turning his head toward the black pitch where the body vanished, and then, without one thought, he tore his hands from the sand and followed his son into abyss, letting the sand close the curtain around him, into the black, black pitch.
#+#+#+#+#+#
Drip. Drip. Drip. Water, or?... Itachi slowly opened his eyes. No, not water. Blood. His head was covered in blood. And it hurt. He had to hit himself somewhere quite hard. Kazekage-sama surely had a lot of strength for a man on the verge of death. No wonder they called his hands one of the heaviest on the word. They made you redefine the word 'heavy' in the lifetime dictionary.
Itachi let go of a breath. Everything was covered in dark ginger dust, almost like if a bomb had blew up there. And probably it did. He didn't know, it seemed he had blackened out for a moment. But not knowing what the situation was on the battlefield and laying helpless like a baby was a mistake a rookie made. So, in a breath, he activated his sharingan again and looked around. Gods, the dust was so grand against delicate surface of the eyes. But also, the silence was deafening. Was it the end?... What's happened?... He turned around, searching for chakra signs, noticing Kakashi from not far away, along with Chiyo-sama and Hokage-sama. They were safe. And then…
…oh, there they were, thanks gods.
'Kazekage-sama!' he shouted, getting up from the spot and getting through the cracked ground as quickly as he could 'Gaara-sama! I'm glad that you're safe, what's happened to Shuka-' And then, the words died on his lips. The things he took for Kazekage and his son, were…
…a sculpture. A big gray sculpture made of grey stone, holding up high against something that seemed like big waterfall, also made of the same substance. It was exactly the human size, along with redhead glued to one pant, looking up with fear, as from the big frozen shape eyes and claws of a monster glared at both of them with anger and viciousness. Almost an art. But then…
Was Kazekage-sama jailed inside? He checked with his sharingan. Yes, he could spot the chakra circulatory system and also the beating heart, everything that could be found in a human that was sleeping in deep dream. Gaara's insides looked the same. But then… then it meant they had to free them from that prison!...
'Kazekage-sama, do forgive me my insolence, I'll help you right now!...' he breathed with shaking voice, running up to the figures, that looked even more mighty from close-up (if only it wasn't a living sculpture, even he, numb to art ANBU captain would have to compliment the maker… but he was not going to compliment such horrific statue!) and took out a kunai. Because if he decided to burn up the stone, it could be possible he would also burn the people inside. 'Just a moment, I… do excuse me but…'
'DOOONNNN'T!' howled something just right next to his ear and out of sudden he was on his back again, rolling toward some smaller crack in the ground, tackled like a pup from little kid's hug. 'Don't touch that thiiing! You will kill them all!'
'Wait- wait- Kakashi, shut up!' he yelled back, finally stopping from the rolling and landing just on the grey-haired man 'What the hell!... What do you mean 'kill them all'? They're under that stone, we have to help them-'
'They're not covered in stone!' howled Kakashi back, tearing the kunai from his hand and throwing it away so it was out of reach 'They're made of stone! If you break them, you will kill them!'
'How do you know!'
'Because I can see, idiot!' said the jounin, getting up to the sitting position and pushing him off himself 'Look inside! Don't you see? There's no other innards there beside hearts and circulatory system! What do you think everything else is, huh? Mr. ANBU Captain-sama!' Itachi blinked. Then turned his head in disbelief. And to his worst suspicions, Kakashi-was right.
'How come they're alive then?...' he asked. Kakashi shrugged, seeming to be as helpless as he was here. From not far away, the old woman slowly inspected the sculpture, almost like if she was in museum watching an exhibition. At one point she stopped and squinted her eyes. Yes, that was probably it.
The seal on the man's back glowed in bright violet, not completed but ever so slowly bleeding into the full shape. She didn't know from where he could've gotten the chakra to make it work, even so slowly like that. But if she knew right, that wouldn't end well once this would end.
'Oh, Daichi, Daichi… you child of unfortunate gods.' she muttered and slowly walked away.
As soon as he received the blow, Minato had fainted, so he had been luckily spared the worst part, which was actually feeling bones breaking. He wasn't so lucky now.
'Agh.' When was he, again? He's sleeping. At least he tells himself his sleeping, and by all kages, he's doing his best to appear asleep.
He deserves it. It's been three days of siege, and he's been up nonstop for the first two, unconscious for three hours, then back as soon as the healers patched up his fractured skull. He's only been down for who knows how long (he knows, he know it's been too little time, damn it) and the last he remembers is Yamanaka picking him up before the Fox can break his measly human ribs and crush his heart. Or that's what he's sure Yamanaka is sure of. Minato knows The Fox let them leave, even unconscious, know it to have been grinning at him. Just him. Why, why did he have to be singled out?
Three days, the fox having come out of nowhere without giving them time to do anything (only, had it really? Shouldn't they be all dead by now, if it really had wanted them to?) and shinobi dying left and right, everyone who goes against it… Except for him. He's gone against it time and time again and he's always barely left to rest before being sent out again. Even if he hadn't been the Hokage he does so because by now he is the only hope, and a fake hope is better than nothing when there's nothing else to have. It's a lost cause, and he knows it. Knew it from the first time he felt the restrained chakra and though –unwillingly, like all things he wanted to forget and couldn't help but remember- about the curse Suna's Kazekage has mistakenly unleashed upon his own village.
And who is to blame here? Could someone step up and say who are the ones that unleashed this monster on his life? Would someone please, please come forth and point at some particular person he can see, someone he can touch and torture and choke, so he can at least feel some sense of justice, a twinge of a feeling of retribution for all the losses and all this nightmare he's brows-deep in?
The quid of the question rests in the fact there is no one to be pointed at, and that's the real reason he feels so lost, so frightened, because in his life as a shinobi, things had always been clear and easy. There was always a goal, and that goal involved a target. Sometimes the target was retrieving something or finding something, but more often than not, the goal was only accomplished by eliminating the target. And who can be targeted, when the opponent is a demon spawned from God knows where, a thing with the closest emotions to human feelings are things like hunger and glee? Who can he tear to pieces and use as the world' squishiest on/off button to make thing gone?
He has no one to blame, only all of this choking anger he can't even direct at anything sentient, because, oh… he's sure It is aware of how much he hates it, but not why and not that it even cares at all. The Fox is having fun and that's all that matters to It. And he knows them, just as he's known since the first failed jutsu, that he isn't going to make it out of here alive, that no one will, that no one can stop a demon. That thing doesn't know what being alive means, only limits itself to being and wants nothing more and nothing less. There is no way to kill it.
There is no way, besides seals he is messing with, seals he took from a lab that still reeked of terror and blood and human waste, that cursed lab that was destroyed years ago -but not before Namikaze Minato, current Hokage and youngest Hokage in the history of any country could sneak in and steal whatever seemed worthy of taking. No one knows, and no one can know, because no one wants to know that their Hokage can be such a morally apathetic person, but that's exactly how he is. Minato always felt that the end justified the means, and damn it, if so many people were tortured because a madman of a genius (a genius of a madman?) wanted to see the things he could do, then didn't it make perfect rational and good sense to steal those things and give them some actual positive use?
The seals are good, but like always, instinctively, he knows what needs to be done to fix them. Everything needs fixing and if nothing else, Minato's specialty is seeing the flaws and correcting them in seals. Only this time… This time…? (I laid my eyes on the devil) You cannot kill something that has never been alive in the proper way of speaking. Demons can be tied down, and they could be contained, he is sure of that, but never permanently. And once whatever they were lucky enough to be able to trap it in wore out, broke (died?) then they were all back to square one, with a pissed off creature that had just been set lose, just like Daichi had condemned his wife and village over his own greed and arrogance.
Only this time he is messing with things he doesn't know what really are, and for the first time he is scared. The only way to kill one of these things was to render it mortal, and there are no means to do that. Unless.
'DOOONNNN'T! Don't touch that thiiing! You will kill them all!' When is he, damn it? He knows there is a now and a then, but he's lost any spectrum or ability to distinguish between the two of them. He can feel foreign chakra cursing through his body, an alien but not completely unpleasant sensation, but he can also feel most of the right part of his torso beating in tune with his hand a giant sore and source of agony, knows himself to be burning up from charka poisoning, knows himself to be all right.
There is a way, of knowing, however, and it means looking more into what he is doing, those marks he is thinking about even when he knows it's dangerous to just think about them too much, because he really doesn't know what he is planning. He knows it's a summoning and he knows it is something that has the power to make the Fox mortal and finally rid him and everyone from this menace once and for all. But he doesn't know what it really is, or what will be the price to pay, so he is scared. Like he has never been, and all of it because this idea doesn't feel like it's come from him at all, and he wonders what he's really read, going through diaries with runny ink and dried blood, from things he's stolen from the outsiders without the academy or Kushina or Daichi knowing, things he has figured out and read, and maybe some things he hasn't read as much as been… taken by them?
State your price, he thinks, unhinged from what he knows to be coherent thought, as if he could read the future (which is really the past, the past he tossed down to that darkens within, where all dangerous things to think about eventually ended up for the sake of a sanity that has never felt so frail) as if he had known then what he knows now, he thinks, childishly frightened: And what if it doesn't?
He is aware of a young Uchiha whose name is unimportant right now fighting with Kakashi, but all he can think about right now is about unpaid debts and the prices things have, about promises made and never fulfilled for reason that are still in the dark - B U T O H S O C L O S E T O T H E S U R F A C E O H G O D - ideas and thoughts with minds of their own, independent of if he want to think about them or know about them at all, afraid of a decision he doesn't want to take and that's when he becomes aware (remembers, perhaps?) that Kakashi is, was there then.
'Sensei…?'
And he knows it, then, in that half-assed tent that lets in drifts of air, in his too dry throat, too weary body, too sore bones and that blazing fire that is eating his chest, that is smothering his brain with ideas more bereft of the heathens they fought against than a ninja and this chocking sensation of helplessness. He knows. And he thinks: Don't tell me. Don't tell me, please, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to know.
But he's still pretending to be asleep, or maybe he really is unconscious yet not resting because he makes no movement, gives no sign, does nothing to stop the young boy despite knowing that this is it, this is the clash and the final period, and after those words are said nothing will ever be the same again, and he is still powerless to stop him or change the words the white-haired boy is trying to choke out.
'Sensei… It's Kushina-sama.' And that's when then shatters like painfully fake china, like his mind did once before, and becomes now. 'Where do you think are you going?'
And now he is angry, and that's all right. He hardly ever gets really angry, but now he is and is also grateful for it. He is back up, glaring at the little woman as if all of this were her fault, and at least what she's doing right now is. Things aren't going according to plan, Daichi's grandmother is trying to leave and Kakashi and Itachi are going at it like first graders over stolen lunches and everything just makes him that more irate.
'Where do you think you are going!' he repeats demandingly, as if she were her subordinate and someone he could boss around. 'We are going to need a healer and you are the only one we have around so don't think you can just walk away after you have your fun, old lady!'
The old woman has turned around to him, looking at him as if he lost his mind.
'I'm too old for that. Call someone from younger squad.' she said, then she simply walked away to the nearest stone to sit down on it 'I was not having a break like some of us did.'
Minato gawks at the woman a little, as if wondering how does she dare talk to him like that, then looks at the kids. He doesn't know what's happened, or what happened to his sensei, or Gamabunta and his distorted, half-unconscious memories of what the kids were fighting about are not enough to explain what's happening, but the truth is that he doesn't really care about it, either. He's going from pissed off to raging mad, and it's a very strange situation and feeling, but it's strangely pleasant nonetheless. In fact, things start seeing a lot clearer and easier to handle, and the woman is still nearby, so that's all he care s about. That and… kids. With no sense of pride or finesse (none which they warrant, considering how they are ignoring their Hokage), he grabs them both by the back of their shirts and shakes them. Hard.
'Stop it you two!'
Both teens had immediately stopped, shaking in his hands like ragged dolls, clinking with their teeth against each other and making all pains harden by that. But finally, they let go of each other. Once the shock of seeing their Hokage act like that wore off. But since they saw so many things today, it wore off rather quickly.
'He started.' finally said Itachi, pointing at Kakashi. The jounin had shot him a betrayed glance.
'It's because you wanted to do the most stupid thing on the world.' Itachi quieted a bit, looking down.
'I did' he said finally, looking up 'Thanks for stopping me.' Kakashi shrugged.
'No problem.'
Chiyo, who watched them from affair, sighed. It would be almost funny if the atmosphere wasn't so gravy now. It reminded her of old days when Minato was the captain and both his wife and Daichi were under his command. Usually, it was one of those most gentle methods that actually worked on two heatened up redheads. Good, old times.
'That's nice, nice, really.' he said, his tone perfectly flat 'Now, if you two are done bonding, I need you two to focus on this.'
'Shikaku.' he turned back to his communicator, just now realizing it was still on, somehow having miraculously survived the hit.
'Hokage-sama.' was that a surprise he heard on the man's voice? How long had he been down? Moreover, what had taken him down?
'Inform status.' It took Nara half a minute to update Minato on the fact that his sensei was hiding somewhere nursing his wounds, Gamabunta had been accidentally dispelled but even so, was in no position to fight again, and finally, that the thing in front of him was apparently his friend and his friend's son. Wonderful, perfect, really.
'Chiyo-sama, we need to get Daichi more chakra. I'm open to suggestions.'
The old woman sighed again, looking at Minato like if he had already given her his best cake and it came out to be salted or unbaked.
'Why don't you feed his seal with chakra.' she said, looking at the statue with gravy gaze 'Though I don't know what's happening inside there so I'm not sure how it could work… have you done something like that before?...'
Minato stared at her in that same somewhat cold and definitely unfriendly new way he had woken up in, not really seeing her as much as going through his mind to make sure she was right. All he could come up with was seeing the tattoo's in Daichi's back partially covered by the mesh shirt and rather academically thinking how very, very badly he would have liked to fuck the older man there and then. That thought helped nothing at all at this current moment (for some reason, it seemed like he only ever really thought of sex in these situations, how frustrating) and decided to focus on the matter from another angle. He could use his own chakra to make the ink visible, he could use it to control the seal, ergo, more than likely, the thing could easily be fed his chakra.
Easy as pie. Which was actually a bitch to make, he knew for trying these past weeks. The matter remained being the fact that he had no idea what inside that thing was, or if Daichi was even conscious there.
'Right…' Pulling out a scroll from one of the pockets in his vest, he passed it to his student. It contained the seals he had remembered and copied from the secret scroll he had received from the Kazekage with some things he had adjusted. Not exactly the kettle he had promised, but oh, he couldn't wait to see what a kick in the proverbial balls of the creature this would be.
'Kakashi, explain to Itachi how to do this and draw it around the perimeter, with blood. Nara?'
'Yes.'
'Find sensei and send it over here. Oh!" there was a pause. '…if you could start thinking up some at least half credible explanation for all that's happened today that won't get me skinned alive, I would appreciate it. Out.' Turning to the old woman with one of his usual disarming smiles, he chuckled lightly. 'Would you mind sparing some chakra threads, Chiyo-sama?'
'I see that I'm left with no choice here…' muttered the old lady, looking at the blond with something close to observing glare. She desperately wanted to make a joke, but she saw that the situation was far from agreeable to jokes 'What exactly do you want me to do?'
Kakashi nodded to sensei, taking the scroll from him, even if he felt tense when it came to teaching the Uchiha anything. Itachi never was too keen to listen to him, especially once he became an ANBU captain. But alas, in the place they were in, they could do nothing but work together.
'Come, Uchiha.' he said 'I'll show you how this works.'
Itachi shrugged in response and followed. What else could he do? Especially under eye of such nervous Hokage.
Minato stared at the kids go with the same immovable smile.
'Overweight weaver seems to be too busy with whatever it's doing to those two in there, and I'd rather keep it like that till done.' he pointed to the quiet area and the fact both teens had actually gotten quite close without actually stirring the demon. 'I need a line going straight from me to the seal, have it leech my chakra. You can do that with your puppets, so why not transfer it?' he wasn't 100% perfect as far as chakra depletation went, but when the old woman had healed him it had done much more than he would have expected. No wonder she was so renamed even Tsunade-sama spoke highly of her.
Chiyo looked at him for a long, silent moment.
'You're crazy.' she said finally, deciding to let the kid go. If he knew that chakra strings were working on both sides and he could as well had transfer his chakra as had anything transferred up to him that way, she had no other words. In silence, she found a chakra point and jabbed there one of her stings, then walked up to the statue, still wondering how it must've feel to have something so large drawn on her own back. Then, the string was added gently to the grey, cold surface. The connection should've started immediately. She glanced at the blonde. Hopefully, he knew what he was doing…
'Egh.' Minato made a face as he looked at the almost see through line going from his wrist to the statue. 'Is this thing supposed to have a flavor?' Because it tasted. Tasted like ancient blood and dirt. He tried to make a comment describing the particularities from the sensation when he realized he suddenly felt quite drunk and that the world was sliding a little to the right. He'd forgotten how fast could a professional puppeteer could make these things work.
'The only flavor it has is what you want to feel from it.' said Chiyo, looking at the blond with calm face. 'I like the taste of old wood, but I guess feeling ancient blood is not exactly the same… sacrifices, sacrifices.' her eyes landed upon the two, standing in the never-ending battle, connected by one material and yet, completely silent, like of someone had stopped the movie on the camera. Erratically horrific, illusionary convenient. Almost a mirage. Hopefully, the consciousness of both didn't became as silent as their appearances seemed t be. Then, all effort to feed the seal – the mechanistic foreign sign on the body of one – would be useless.
#+#+#+#+#+#
Drop… Drip. Drop… Drip. Running. Step, step, step, step after step, step-step-step-, step-by-step, step-run-step-taptaptap, darkness. Drip. Drop… Drip… Breathing. , the pulse, rhythmical, quick, ba-dump, ba-dump, one, two, three, four, step-step-step-step-step… darkness. Drip… Drop. Drip… Drop…
Sweat. Falling, running, being, wetting, forehead, under his arms, between fingers, on chest, between legs. Glinting, blinking, shimmering, glimmering... cold. Darkness. Drip-drip… Drip-drip… Drop. Drop. Drop. Black!
'Gaara!' he shouted, calling, yelling, desperate, alone. Echoes echoed without echoing, a strange long resounding of what could have been a sound and yet, wasn't. He kept on running. He didn't know when did he start. He didn't know how did he start. The only thing he knew was that he ran. And that he had to move forward. Even if he didn't see anything. Walls, ceiling, even floor – all that didn't exist. He was stepping on blackness that could be dark only because there was no light or because it was black. Maybe it was air.
Or maybe water. It didn't feel warm or cold, soft or hard. And it didn't matter. He kept running. Forward.
'Gaara!' he howled, rasping, coughing, feverish, alone. And once again echoes echoed without echoing and once again nobody had answered. He had to find him, he knew he had to. He didn't know where he was and didn't know how to get there, but he knew he was not far enough, not deep enough. He felt his back bleeding through cold sweat and he knew,, he knew he had very little time…
'Gaara!...' he said, wheezing, hacking, exhausted, alone. And then, finally, he had stopped.
Where was he? He didn't know. All he knew that he couldn't see nor he could hear anything beside himself. No smell or feel has passed through him, no wind or ground has touched his body. Almost like nowhere… Almost like desert.
'If only mother's fan was there…' he muttered, illogical, sarcastic, hopeless, knowing that his comparisons were funny and small '…it would blow the darkness away, just like she did with sands of all Suna.'
In all godsdamned Suna. And then, his hand felt heavy. He looked at it, feeling the cold surface of alumina and blinked, not believing his eyes, but then, not astonished that much at all. Somehow, his question marks didn't really matter in that space, that time, that life. It was exactly this fan. Big, black, glimmering in darkness like a jewel, scrapped on the hand from using and perfectly strong to make a 360 circle, just enough to make the strongest possible wind of all fans. There was even the old touch of fingerprint on the paint, signaling it was hers, only hers…
'Thank you, mother.' he murmured, not really knowing why, and opened it, on full circle, amazed by how it weighted in his own hand, just the same way when he was young, almost like if he didn't grow up at all. Or maybe he was just too weak. He smiled. Or maybe it was because it wasn't really there.
Nevertheless, he bended, the perfect pose for discus throwing and veered to the other side, throwing the wind that nobody in Suna wouldn't fear or be amazed at. The darkness before him folded, bended and blew away like a black curtain from the stage, vanishing in the black and uncovering the blackness. Only with the hidden scene. Daichi smiled, and turned the fan to the side, only to discover it was no longer mother's fan which had been long lost on the eastern shores of the desert, but a small, light and beautifully decorated white fan with three lilac circles, the fan of his father he rarely used s he was never good at the wind techniques. Not surprising at all. Then he rose his head.
'How are you, Shukaku-sama.' he said politely, not mocking, not laughing, giving the proper honors to the grand, mighty statue of monster that wore a big hat and big bottle of sake on its back. This time it was not drinking though, both hands were clasped in a tight clap, almost a still figure 'We finally meet.' The figure moved, smiling with big fangs, its fur frushing lightly, almost too soft for being hard like stone.
'You can do nothing to me, vermin.' it said without opening big, lips-less mouth 'I have a hold on the brat and I will never let him go.'
Daichi's smile had switched off, like a suddenly blown out candle. The eyes glimmered with cold, unforgiving violet.
'So that's why he was not answering when I was calling him.' he said, and turned his body up, straight, like a mere warrior, but then, like the most proud warrior of them all 'Give him back.'
The raccoon had smiled, humorless, mocking.
'No.' it said. And there were no other words. Daichi bended on the other side, another perfect posing of muscles, and veered himself from one foot to another, making another strong blow of the wind. And fur, flesh and grin flew away in strands of sands just like that, uncovering the small body of the boy, who didn't seem to be aware that his hiding was gone.
It took only a moment to jump at the fan that now was bleakly gray, both black and white, both plain and decorated and yet hours to move to the falling body, only to catch him tightly in the arms. And then the fan was gone, suddenly, but not fiercely at all and his feet touched the ground no-ground, the mud, the water, the cake made from both, not wetting but not above the lack of wet at all. Green eyes fluttered.
'Daddy.' said the redhead and snuggled close, the helpless and safe homeless cat he became, the mouse that was in his hand, the little bead made of green and red and a child itself. Daichi's face has lit again.
'Son.' he said, acknowledging and welcoming the hug. And then his son was a bead again. He hid him in the safest place he knew – under his tongue. And turned his eyes to Shukaku. There were millions of them. One thousand to his left, two to his right, another pair of millions above his head and only fifteen under his feet. And then, it was the only one.
'Let's race.' it murmured and moved, making all of them move, but he stood still. His back kept bleeding, bleeding down in violet pattern, he could feel it through cloak that weighted nothing, and he knew it was not a good sign. Then he sunk in the ground, knee deep, with one knee, not even moving his position. Weakness. His leg was weak-ness now.
'No.' he whispered, rising his head. 'Let's fight.'
And he moved forward, catching his nonexistent breath that felt hot against his mouth and cold in his lungs and plunged right at Shukaku. Millions of them had moved and vanished, being sucked into one, the big one, smiling one, the one with golden eyes. And then it turned around.
'Let's race.' it said and flew away, covering floor and ceiling, making him close in a square of sand. He stopped. His other knee sunk in a swampy surface. His second leg was now weak-ness. And Shukaku laughed. He knew it. He knew he had little time.
'Let's race.' he said then, moving his tongue around the bead, showing it to the monster and snapping his mouth shut as the sand had suddenly flew to his mouth, a single claw threatening to pierce it and take it on the light thread of sand. It cut his lower lip. He howled inside as the poison bleached through it, but didn't move one of his teeth to move his jaw. The claw flew away.
'Race it is.' said Shukaku and started running 'Let's race to death then.'
And then, the light fell on the end of nowhere, where an old, hunched skeleton waited, holding an old clock.
'To death then.' he repeated in his mind and the thoughts of his has sounded everywhere. Shukaku smiled. And ran. Daichi followed.
The ground was slick, murky and his legs grew weak, making him lose his balance as his arms became weak-ness, making his back bleed more and the death slowly rise up from the stool, making it younger, healthier, thinner. He saw the clock's dial. The sand was almost gone. Ticked away. He had little time. He had to act. He rose one of his arms up, making the metallic rods grow up from the ground, separating him from Shukaku, but not from his sands. He had to bend as some of it turned toward him, and jump feeling how the it flew against him. And then, he fell forward as one punch pushed him onto the ground, poisoning his left shoulder, making him stay away. The rods stopped. His chest was becoming weak-ness. The clock ticked the sand away. The death's appearance became young and fruity.
Damn it!... He stood up.
'You're losing!' howled Shukaku, smiling at him from the ground and he had to jump, jump to not be eaten and fall on the ankle that didn't respond, making him fall on the face. Something was wrong here. Wrong in the whole thing. Why?... Why were they racing in the place where there were no ends? Why to the death when death was not in front but following him?... He bit on his lips, drawing blood. Shukaku was playing on time. Darn it! 'Let's not race!' he howled, getting up and flashing the bead through his teeth, getting attention of Shukaku immediately 'Let's fight.'
The death bended toward him, looking at him with black hole with vague interest. He ignored the black hole of the face.
'I'm not dying today.' he said with pressure, facing the monster.
'You're already late for not dying.' said the figure. Daichi didn't answer. Now was not the time to speak about his time. This time was the time of fight. And then it begun. He didn't know, he didn't see. The flashes of light were quick and against him, making him feel bruises and blood where he wasn't really bleeding. The weak, stale parts of his paralyzed body didn't feel a thing and then, they were hurt the most, being tender and powerless. The laughter sounded in his ears like wheezing of the wind. He fell on his knees.
'I won.' said Shukaku and smiled at death. Death bended toward him.
'I said not yet.' he murmured and got up, ignoring the rattling bones falling all over the floor, the outraged skull clattering toward him in mute curses. 'Now's my turn.'
'A vermin can do nothing against the hurricane.'
'If only it's the hurricane's shadow, it can do everything.' and he rose his hands. It was fast, invisible to the eye and not surprising to Shukaku at all as he just sat, wagging his tail, slowly being encircled with bars that hadn't ended anywhere, just grew up to heavens that really weren't there.
'The winds of my kind has no shadows.' it murmured happily. He tsked, relocking the hands and making a big, brazen padlock appear on the gates.
'Then let's see what kind of wind is stronger.'
'You are no wind.' said Shukaku, turning to the padlock and frowning, losing the smile. He snickered.
'My name is Rih el Khamsin.' and he moved forward. Step. Step. Step. Drip… And there was no fourth step. His back shone with pain, making him yell and grab at it, feeling as his innards became weak-ness, and that he had no other part to sacrifice. No other part… His heart beat in his head. Not yet!...
'Not yet, not yet…' he muttered and Shukaku repeated, mockingly. 'Not yet, not yet, don't crush the vermin under your foot, fate.' he hissed and opened the golden eyes with joy and glee that returned to them 'You're funny rascal, thinking you can get the brat away from me, funny and hopeless, you will never make it and you will die here, lose the hope!'
The clock ticked. There was almost no sand in it… He felt himself sinking. Not yet. With a big gasp, he got out from the ground and moved on his knees, forward. Move forward. Move forward!...
'Fool!' boomed Shukaku, making his back drop with blood again and fall on his face with gasp, almost letting go of the bead in his mouth. 'Hahaha, a complete idiot!... Don't move forward, you can't make it!...'
'Yes, I can.' he said humorlessly, around the jewel and hid it in his mouth again, moving on elbows again as his feet became numb and stoned, almost like if they were two pieces of rocks 'Laugh all you want, I can sense your fear… you, who never feared anything.'
'I am not scared of any vermin!' howled the beast, losing its smile and frowning in rage. Another blow that sounded like a shoot from affair has hit him on back, making him go flat against the ground. But it didn't hurt that much when his knees and tights turned into stone, it didn't hurt that much, because he knew, he knew that Shukaku was scared and that he was now the one winning, a few steps away, only a few steps away… he started crawling on his elbows again.
'Not until the vermin is bigger than you.' he sneered, chuckling. The bead tingled against his tongue. And that made Shukaku roar. Roar after roar, punch after punch as he crawled forward, turning his body into stone and making it heavier, more useless as his hips became grey, as his fingers had stilled and as his sight shut close, making him blind, blind in the darkness of his own, the one he couldn't escape. But it didn't stop him from moving forward, knowing very well where the cage was, feeling that the time, this little time he had was so little and yet, all he had to have.
'You're pathetic!...' he said as he caught on the bars of the gate and as two hands of Karura caught him on his rock-hard fingers, pleading him to not go forward and not to hurt himself anymore
'My wife… would curse me to go on, only to see me die!'
'Then die, Daichi! Die!' hissed the figure, clasping around his arms and squeezing them, squeezing them to blood and crushing the bones as his lower back has hardened. He felt faint. Only so little… so little… Drip…
…so little chakra… was… left…
'More…' he murmured, climbing on the old bars, touching blindly around the padlock and feeling how the key has formed in it, already struggling out thanks to Shukaku. He caught it, with both hands as another punch fell on his wound, making his shoulders still and his teeth grind against each other. He couldn't let it out from the padlock… he couldn't… move….
'More!...' More chakra!... He used up everything, everything he had, to the last drop, last desperate sources, the last innards he had, making his lungs freeze and his brain go numb, even stopping the beating of his heart. He couldn't hear his own breathing. But he had no more. The key was moved halfway to the side. He froze in silence. End.
'Victory' murmured the monster, smiling triumphantly at him as the bead slowly fell from the frozen face, hanging lowly near the lower lip, crying with high pitched tones.
'Daddy!...' it hollered. Shukaku snickered.
'He is not a daddy no more.' It said, reaching for the glinting object 'Nor a bad father or no one… he is nothing. His time has ended.'
And as said, the last drop of sand had fell from the clock. The death rose up from the ground.
'Send him to hell.' said Shukaku, crouching to look at the bead stuck to the dead face 'He always wanted to be there.' 'The bones clattered. And then, smiled.
'Maybe not today.' it said. And then, the gates boomed, announcing the closing of the door. Shukaku budged, not understanding, then looked down. The key in frozen hands slowly crumbled, vanishing, becoming the light wind…
'You vermin!...' he murmured, frowning, grimacing angrily 'But how! How! Your body is dead!' The hands fell down from the figure, crashing onto the ground. The death chuckled, rising its hands. And then, slowly uncovered the black hole.
'That's because…' it said… '…it was not my time yet.'
And that was Daichi.
'Youuu!...' howled the monster, trashing against the cage, the padlock and the bars, but not getting anything, already jailed and restrained. Daichi chuckled, reaching for the little bead and curling it tightly in his hands as it became mouse, the cat and the child, that held on him tightly and safely, believing, trusting…
'Me.' he whispered, feeling how his sight has wavered and blurred, making the edges of his vision fall apart 'And you'd better remember my name.'
'Your name is vermin!' howled the bijuu in angered hopeless screams. Daichi chuckled.
'No. It's Sabaku no Daichi, the Fourth Kazekage.' he said, squinting his eyes in mimic of Shukaku's usual gleeing expression 'Or, if you'd rather, the child that survived through Rih el Khamsin and became one itself.'
This time there was no coherent answer from the beast as it howled in rage, smudging more, crunching, vanishing like an image on wet sand, carried away by lazy waves of ocean…
'Thanks, Minato…' he murmured with a smile, closing his eyes as he himself started crumbling away 'Without you I wouldn't make it…'
And then, he became one with nothing.
Silence were around them, and silence was sincere. The kids gawked at two figures of stone, making frown that made them look at least ten years older, like if they were watching the movie they didn't like and didn't want to watch. The comments were not nice either.
'The chakra system in legs has stopped flowing.' said Kakashi.
'Now the stoning reached the knees.' added Itachi.
'And tights.' said once again Kakashi.
'The arms are not working.'
'The heart is slowing down.'
'But then, Gaara is perfectly fine.'
'No circulation around the lungs.'
'That's what I call crawling to grave.'
'The heart has stopped.'
'Shit.'
Silence.
'I think he is de-'
'Oh shut up, you two!' shouted Chiyo at last, making both boys cringe and look at the ground. A few morning birds ceased the chirping, scared. 'All you do is yapping like useless pups, if you can't help then at least don't talk!'
'Yes ma'am.' They said in unison, slowly turning off their sharingans and turning heads to the sides. Kids!... Zero tact at all. She looked at the blond and stood up from the stone she was sitting on, knowing that if anything, he was also on the verge of his own strength and couldn't do a thing. In a moment he would become probably the one who will need the chakra transferring. That was enough.
'I'm cutting the thread off.' she said, not even looking at him as she didn't need or want his permission. The thread was her and she was deciding what to do with it, whether Minato liked it or not 'My grandson wouldn't want the pity anyway.' And yes, it was hard and yes, her hand has trembled as she moved it over the thread, but what else she could do?... She lived through so many deaths of her own children… it seemed that her tears dried up too much to even sniff at another loss. But what a pity. It seemed that she was supposed to outlive the whole line of Sabakus. Life could be ironic. Snap. The thread fell down on the ground and dissipated. That was the end.
Minato, who felt like if he'd been dunked head first into the worst tasting bowl of half-solid, tepid jell-o glared daggers.
'Old lady, don't you dare-' but that's as far as he got, because a dry hit to the back of his head sent him forward, only to be caught by strong hands. 'S-sensei…?'
'I'm not having you kill yourself over Suna's business, Minato.' the white-haired man said calmly, holding the blond's body and carefully depositing it in the snow on his knees while Minato stared at him furiously, too dizzy to do anything but glare. The toad sage was holding his side with the hand not using to keep him from falling on his face.
'He did this to himself all on his own and it's no longer your responsibility to fix his mistakes.' he winced at the look the blonde gave him. '...I'm too young to take responsibility for your kid, brat.' At the reminding of Naruto, the Hokage suddenly realized that if Kakashi and Jiraiya were here, then no one he knew was with his son.
'Who...?'
Creak. Kakashi budged, poking Itachi in the ribs. Itachi turned on his sharingan again. What?...
'A crack.' said Hatake 'A crack on Kazekage-sama's figure.'
Itachi held his breath. And then, the crack has deepened. Creak, creak, creak, more, more, more, going up and down, widening on both Gaara's figure and Shukaku's deformed waterfalls, making the dust fall down and cover the place in quicker and quicker drops of grey grains (brown grains?) and covering everything in clouds of suffocating dry substance.
'It all flew apart!' shouted Itachi frightened, looking at the clouds where only sharingan could see. Chiyo's grimace deepened. A spectacular end for a man like him. 'It's destroyed…'
'Does that mean…' added Kakashi in horrified whisper, also turning on his sharingan 'I don't- ow! Why did you do that!' Itachi turned to Kakashi in surprise.
'Did what?' he asked, seeing as the grey haired boy held himself on the forehead.
'Threw that rock on me!' Itachi blinked.
'I didn't throw anything at you.' he said. Kakashi frowned.
'Then…' he muttered.
'It's a shame such a kid like you, being so close to the epicenter of cyclone got no battle wounds.' Chuckled the deep voice from affair 'Here, take it as a honor for already burying me.'
And then, the deeply tarnished, beaten up and wounded figure of Kazekage had emerged from the clouds.
'You look funny without mask.' said Gaara, hanging loosely from the arms of the man that were circled around him, with no sand added, if you didn't count the useless grains that were rolling down from the bruised shoulders. Somehow, the man looked like if he had gained additional beating by just standing frozen in the stone. 'Right, daddy?'
Daichi chuckled.
'Don't fraternize with me so suddenly.' he whispered in raspy tone, blinking his eyes as he cuddled the child a little tighter despite anything he said 'Only because I freed you from a big weaver doesn't mean I'm not a scary monster.'
'I like you more than mommy now.' said Gaara and then shrugged, laying his head down on the naked chest 'Okay, daddy.'
Daichi smiled at him with a little scolding frown. But then, he touched the red hair, he rarely had a chance to touch. Just like when he was born. Beautiful.
'Brat.' he muttered, smiling at him, and then his eyes rolled up to his head and just then, Sabaku no Daichi, has finally rightfully lost consciousness.
The Hokage stared at his ex-teammate in what could only be described as absolute relief. Not that he hadn't known this would work, because it was his plan and Minato's plan had a tendency to work rather well, provided he worked with professionals. And considering they had just defeated the One-tail with two kages, two teens, a middle aged pervert and a giant frog, he'd like to think he'd chosen his professionals wisely.
'I am so going to mock him for this afterwards.' he said to the old woman with a brilliant smile, watching as the kids moved closer to help the Suna Kage and his son. 'Shikaku?'
'Hokage-sama.'
'We are done here.' Oh, those were the most beautiful words he had heard since Yoshino had contracted bronchitis in her last mission and the doctor told him she wouldn't have a voice for at least a week.
'Please inform Sandaime-sama and switch me over to line thirty six. After that, pick up your stuff and disappear, if anyone asks, you were tending to the deer.'
'How troubling…'
'… And thank you for all your help. Feel free to take the rest of the week off, with payment included.' …he was wrong about the most beautiful words. The blond waited a moment for the tactician to change the frequencies they were in, then spoke. 'Baki-san? Namikaze here.'
'Baki here, waiting for orders. Over.' The words were said in unrelenting, steely tone, though if the Hokage could look at him and his little Suna squad of genjutsu users he would probably understand that such shade of skin was healthy only one ninjas living in Amegakure. Thankfully, he couldn't.
'We are done here, everything's all right.' And could he keep the smug tone off his voice? No. No he couldn't. 'Kindly come and remove your stubborn ass of a kage before he dies of hypothermia or someone sees the seals. I'll handle my own people, and you and your team, of course, saw nothing.'
'Understood. I'll be right there.' said Baki and clicked off the communicator. There was only one sickened look between him and all of his squad accompanied with a thumb up, making usually-not-so-pale people let go of their breath and relax against each other. Which meant simply sliding to the ground of more than twenty people. After that, Baki had vanished. Only to appear right next to the already freezing, dirty and sweated body of his own Kazekage.
'My, my, you look like if a bunch of raccoons had run you over, Kazekage-sama…' he murmured, circling the kid standing nearby (only for safety reasons, you never really knew after all) and scooping the body on his shoulders 'Now nobody will be able to say I'm a cold salary man.'
And with one nod toward the blond Hokage, he had vanished. Gaara blinked after him and grimaced.
'Me is sleepy.' he muttered, walking up simply to Chiyo and standing in front of her. It was her who kept him always awake when he had no one else he could turn to 'Granny…' The old woman smiled a little.
'I know a perfect cure for that.' she said and pushed the redhead lightly on the shoulder 'Tag, chase me!' Gaara blinked uneasily as the so usually slow woman had jumped like a desert wolf and started running away with vigor.
'But I don't wanna…' he muttered drowsily, looking after her with distaste. The woman stopped.
'Oh, don't be a pansy! A good run will wake you up enough.' she said and winked at Minato. It was obvious she was not going to run around but lead the child to the proper place and keep him awake long enough for everyone to be ready and fresh to react for any strange symptoms of Gaara sleeping. One never knew how those seals worked anyway. 'Come on, play with granny!'
Gaara whimpered, but the word 'play' seemed to work wonders on his mind. After a moment both of them were already running to the Hokage's mansion. Itachi blinked, losing his sharing.
'To be kid again…' he muttered, sounding like an old grandpa 'Right, Kakashi?...' In the answer, the grey haired nin snored rather audibly. A moment more, the loud thwack resounded in the air.
'What was that for!...' whined the Hatake, looking at the ground with tear-filled eyes 'Sensei. Itachi is being mean toward me again!...'
'Because you deserve it!'
'Enough you two, don't make me treat you like I did my old team. You wouldn't like it.' The older man snorted under his breath. Not liking it would be the understatement of the century. The methods the young Hokage had resorted to keep those two savages redheads focused, and more importantly, tamed had been… Less than orthodox. Word had it that Ibiki himself had adapted some of the most inventive techniques and happily employed them now in information gathering. 'Itachi-kun, come here.'
The younger nin blinked again and walked up, making a serious face.
'Yes, Hokage-sama?'
Once the kid was close enough, Minato reached for him with the hand that wasn't still bleeding heavily and feeling more raw that would be appreciated and ruffled his head affectionately.
'Thank you for all your help, but it would be better for you not to have been here, okay?' he finished with one last pat, once the impeccable ponytail was messed beyond measure. 'But don't be too surprised if there is an extra in your next bonus. Maybe not in paper, but...' And that meant no one in the Uchiha compound would have to know, least of them, the kid's parents. 'I'm in your debt. If you ever need me for anything, you can trust I will do my best to help.'
Uchiha stared back with slightly widened eyes and mouth opened, which was the most shocking expression you could get from the member of that clan. For once, the way his hair were slicked (or not slicked at all in that moment) didn't matter at all. So… extra money?... That was like a sign from heaven, money were all he needed now, every little paper he could get. But could he really… really… He bit on his lip, looking down for a moment.
But no, it wasn't really matter of that kind. He would put his clan to shame if he'd discuss it with highest instances which trusted upon him with it already. He steeled his face.
'Thank you very much, Hokage-sama.' he said, his face serious like at a warrior he was 'I'm deeply honored.' And with that, he had bowed and vanished away. Kakashi looked at the spot with a light frown.
'And me? Will I get any extras?' he asked almost with a puppy-whining tone, overbearing a little the usual ninja-Hokage border 'I was there too and I even helped taking care of you, sensei!...'
Minato turned towards the older ANBU captain and chuckled lightly, nothing but affection in his eyes.
'Where's my baby?' said affection was kind of missing from his voice. Jiraiya immediately paled and looked at the younger nin in open panic.
'Er…'
