"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Demon Talking"
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 22: Wounds of the Heart
Kakashi never means to be late, it just happens. This time was no different. It wasn't his fault that Sasuke too such a long time to pack up after their remote mountain training. What was there even to pack up when they were training on a mountain?
Well, it happened anyways. They were late to the Final Exams, but luckily, Sasuke had not been disqualified. Genma had started off the match, and the two genin were now fighting it out in the arena.
Sasuke had gotten much stronger and faster after training. The jounin hoped that it was enough for his student to have the upper hand. He even taught his own jutsu, the Chidori, to the boy in hopes that it would penetrate the jinchuuriki's impenetrable sand defense.
Right now, though, the jinchuuriki was toying with Sasuke badly. The tendrils of sand were nearly impossible for the boy to dodge, but his speed had gone up just enough that he managed. Well, Kakashi probably had no need to worry about death. Genma would definitely stop the match before it came to that.
The silver-haired man was currently occupied with a different task than watching his student battle. He was looking for his cute little blond student. Sakura was next to him in the stands cheering on the boy of her infatuations, but Naruto was nowhere to be seen. It didn't make sense. Did the boy's rivalry with Sasuke become so toxic that he hadn't even shown up to the Finals?
After finding his apartment empty, Kakashi had hoped to catch the boy at his other normal hangouts like Ichiraku's. Yet, he never saw the boy again. Too bad he had never introduced Pakkun to his team. Perhaps the pug could have helped him more in finding his student.
It might seem that Kakashi didn't care much about his students, but he was seriously trying. And like he said, he never meant to be late. Things just happened, and he seemed like a lackadaisical teacher because of it. He tried really hard to get to know Sasuke more during their training. He asked the boy about his daily life, but all the Uchiha had wanted was training and no talking. Not a healthy relationship brewing between them if you asked Kakashi.
His mind had always partly been on Naruto and how he vanished without a trace only days before Kakashi went off with Sasuke. How had his sensei's son, the loudest member of their team, just vanished?
When he had deduced that Naruto was his sensei's son, he couldn't deny that a part of him was overjoyed. That day almost thirteen years ago, he thought that he had lost the rest of his family. Being told that his sensei, his sensei's wife, and his sensei's unborn child had all perished in the attack had sunk him deeper in his misery. But not even four months ago, he discovered that he hadn't lost everything. He had a brother, although the blond boy didn't know of any family.
Considering that he couldn't find his brother anywhere was eating away at him. Where could the blond rascal be?
His eyes wandered past the stands and to the Hokage's balcony where the Hokage sat alone with two bodyguards standing behind him. The two bodyguards wore normal jounin outfits and were of average adult height, yet Kakashi couldn't shake this feeling that something was wrong with the two men standing beside the Hokage. He shouldn't be worried. The Hokage was called the Professor for a reason, and if the man wasn't worried about his seemingly strange bodyguards, then Kakashi shouldn't worry either.
The chirping sound of his jutsu snapped his eyes away from the Hokage and to his student who was currently standing on the arena wall. Guy berated him for teaching Sasuke the technique, but he brushed it off. The boy needed someway to win, and he now had the speed and the Sharingan for the Chidori.
As the sound abruptly stopped, Sasuke's hand became stuck in the strange sand cocoon which had wrapped itself around the jinchuuriki. The Uchiha yanked his hand out just in time for a shrill scream to echo through the arena. It screamed of pain and blood and terror. Had the Suna genin never been hurt before?
The cocoon burst as a creature not quite human emerged. It looked like a mix between a sand demon and boy. Two arms of sand with large blue veins stretched out and a tail protruded from the boy's backside. Although he couldn't see far enough to tell if the jinchuuriki was smiling, the bloodlust emanating off the Suna genin could be felt all the way from the high stands.
Not a second later, Sasuke was getting pummeled by a half-man half-demon. Kakashi could only watch as the boy tried to take cover in, well, nothing since all the trees were wiped away by the earlier tsunamis of sand.
As the Uchiha tried his best to fight back, there wasn't much he could do but dodge the sand bullets that rained down. The bloodlust spiked even higher, and the jinchuuriki's legs became encased in the demonic sand. That's when Kakashi felt it. A barrier had been erected. By whom he didn't know but he felt the chakra encase the entire arena such that the bystanders were protected from any attacks.
Genma tried to call the match as Sasuke was barely standing trying to pick up himself up by leaning on the arena wall. However, the jinchuuriki didn't stop and rushed forward.
What happened next, he would never be able to explain. He had to blink twice just to be sure he saw what he had just saw, but there was no trace of it left. He swore he saw a seal appear on the arena floor. Yet, there was no seal now, and the jinchuuriki collapsed as the chakra holding together the sand dissipated. All that was left was the unconscious body of the boy that had mere seconds ago been out for Sasuke's blood.
What had triggered such an instantaneous change in the jinchuuriki's behavior?
(Mere minutes ago)
'Wow, your brother is batshit crazy.'
The demon in his gut snorted. "He wasn't always like that. I hear the tanuki apparently did wonders, in a good way, to his attitude."
'Then why's he like this now?' Naruto watched as Sasuke fell against the arena wall and got pelted with sand bullets.
"Kit, you're asking me?"
The proctor tried to intervene, but Gaara wouldn't stop. That was Naruto's cue. He silently activated the seal he had placed on the arena floor while flashing away to a place he liked to call his personal pocket dimension (separate from the pocket dimension he sent the snake's soul). He had discovered how to create pocket dimensions a while ago, but this one held a special place in his heart.
Across from him was the snarling form of the Shukaku's container, who was not looking peachy. He flashed directly in front of the redhead (while patting himself on the back for laying Hiraishin seals on every inch of this dimension) and slapped a seal on his forehead.
A moment later, Naruto and Kurama found themselves in the middle of a sandstorm, a mental sandstorm.
"Wow, no wonder he's insane. His mindscape is literally a constant dust devil."
Kurama grabbed his hand and dragged him further through the storm. The brunet tried to resist but he just found himself being unable to fight against the fox's strength.
"Damn it Kurama. Let me go!"
"My brother is this way. We have to go help him." The sandstorm roared even louder.
"But I have to find Gaara! Can you imagine that boy out here, or in here, by himself?"
Kurama let go, and Naruto almost reached to rub his wrist. "Fine, I'll find my brother, and you can deal with the container." With that, Kurama disappeared into the raging storm.
Great.
Now he was stuck in the middle of who knows where without Kurama. Maybe, he should have stopped the fox before he wandered off. Now they were split up.
Squinting to try to find his way, Naruto tried to latch on to any emotions he felt to guide him. However, it was practically impossible when the entire desert emanated pain and loneliness. Was this how he could have felt if he hadn't had his family there for him? Yet, there was an even deeper emotion lingering: betrayal, and boy did the brunet understand that one.
Naruto didn't really mean to pry, but he latched onto the betrayal the most and stumbled into Sunagakure. He didn't recognize the village right away, but there were plenty of clues around.
Young children laughed in delight as they tossed a ball around. A boy kicked the ball just a little too hard and it rolled past Naruto. Turning around, that's when he saw him.
A young Gaara, no older than seven, picked up the ball in his pale hands. Stepping forward, he tried to offer the ball back, but the children screamed "Monster" and ran away.
The redhead looked down at the ball and back up at the children. He stretched out his arm and a tendril of sand followed. "Wait" escaped his lips as the sand wrapped around a boy's hand, who screamed and demanded to be let go.
"Gaara-sama." A man appeared, and the scene shifted.
They stood in a brightly lit room. Gaara was overly nervous and shifty. He spoke up then:
"Yashamaru, what is pain? I've never been hurt so…"
The man in the room knelt down and explained patiently. "Hm, it's sort of like hurting and unbearable. It's so hard to explain."
The boy looked down and something like fear crossed his face. "Then… Yashamaru… do you hate me?"
"Humans spend so much time hurting each other, but people still love more than hate." The man smiled down, and the boy looked a bit more upbeat.
"Thanks Yashamaru. So, does that mean I can hurt too?" The man looked in surprise as the redhead clutched the spot over his heart. "It always hurts… It doesn't bleed.. But it hurts right here." The look of distress on the child made Naruto feel sympathetic.
Grabbing a letter opener, Yashamaru cut his finger and showed it to Gaara, who looked so shocked that the man would do such a thing.
"A physical wound will bleed and look very painful, but the pain will be gone with time. And using medicine heals it even faster!" Gaara looked as he wanted to speak up, but he allowed Yashamaru to continue. "But the bothersome ones are wounds to the heart. They take so long to heal."
"Wounds of the heart?"
Yashamaru looked down. "They're a bit different. There are no medicines to heal them and sometimes, they never heal." The dejected look on the redhead's face told all that he was feeling. "But there is just one thing that can ease wounds of the heart, yet you can only get it from someone else."
Surprise settled on the boy's face. "What is it?"
"Love."
"Love?" the boy parroted.
"You've already received some Gaara-sama. I believed my sister loved you to the bottom of her heart, and you are very precious to me too."
The memory melted away once more until they were standing on a roof at nighttime. A ninja attacked Gaara with kunai and brutally fell victim to the young boy's sand.
Crawling forward, Gaara's hands shook as he unmasked the shinobi. To his and Naruto's surprise, it was Yashamaru, the man who he had just seen explaining love to a boy who did not understand.
"Why Yashamaru? Why?!"
As the dying man explained his orders and intentions, Naruto understood the source of betrayal he had latched onto. Gaara had been betrayed by this man whom he cared for very deeply, probably even loved.
Taking a step forward, Naruto found himself back in the desert. The storm was as strong as ever, and he kept walking until he was sure he was at the epicenter which reeked of negativity. Looking forward, he couldn't help but frown at what he saw.
There, sitting in the sand, was Gaara, clutching his chest and silently crying without the tears that typically should have fallen.
Updated: 18/5/20