Chapter 14
Disclaimer
I do not own any rights to Naruto (story or characters). Just the characters I make up along the way! I have full love and respect for Masashi Kishimoto!
Translation
Kokkyō-mura = A village name directly translates to "Border Village."
Shiki Fūjin = a sealing technique developed by the Uzumaki clan to call upon the power of the Shinigami. (Source: Dead Demon Consuming Seal - Fandom Powered By Wikia. (n.d.). Retrieved from wiki/Dead_Demon_Consuming_Seal)
இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—இڿڰۣ-ڰۣ—
When Gaara walked into his office Kakashi chuckled down at the orange book in his hand. Gaara chose to ignore him when the man acted weird. "Sasuke-teme!" Naruto called out walking up to his best friend. Seeing Sasuke leaning against the wall of his office was a surprise, to say the least. The last he heard the man was off on an extended mission. Sasuke opened one eye looking over at Gaara before turning his focus onto Naruto. "Dobe." Naruto only seemed to brighten at being called an idiot. Those two had always had a strange way of interacting.
It had already been a long day, and Gaara desperately wanted this meeting to be done. Taking his spot behind his desk, Gaara let the three of them greet each other before beginning the meeting. He needed a second to process the conversation Naruto, and he had before they entered the building anyway. Love wasn't something he ever thought about, not in the way Naruto meant. Falling in love with someone only happened in stories, and not something Gaara ever pictured for himself. As Kazekage he was expected to find a wife and have children, but it would be nothing but a marriage of convenience. He knew what this meant when he took the position. So why could he not stop thinking about it?
"I'd like to keep this quiet until we have more information." Kakashi's voice drew Gaara out of his thoughts. These kinds of thoughts could wait until later. Sitting in his chair, Gaara turned his focus on the three people before him. "Sasuke." Kakashi offered the floor to the Uchiha taking a spot near the edge of Gaara's desk. The Uchiha looked better than Gaara would have thought. He still bore that same dark look to his eyes, but there was a light in there that he hadn't seen in many years.
"I passed through Kokkyō-mura up north. The village was normal when I left. When I passed through the next day it was completely destroyed." He recalled, gaining Gaara's full attention. Over the past four years, more and more villages were being wiped off the map. At first, it was small towns hidden away from the rest of the world. They were so widespread that there seemed to be no connection. The latest village, however, had taken a larger toll. Over one thousand people had disappeared overnight. Not one person had survived.
"I was able to track the attacker's movements for a few miles before I lost track of them." If Sasuke wasn't able to track them, then things were far worse than Gaara first thought. Without knowing who they were up against, there was no way to prepare for the next attack. This left them playing catch up, and more and more people would lose their lives. The fear of impending attack had people starting to blame other Shinobi villages. Gaara had done what he could to keep those kinds of rumors from spreading, but it would only work for so long. "Damn it!" Naruto shouted fist hitting the solid wood of Gaara's desk. "Why are they doing this?"
As far as Gaara could tell there was no pattern behind their attacks. A random village would just disappear overnight with no warning. Gaara hadn't realized how far spread these attacks were until Kakashi had mentioned his own concerns. Letter's had arrived after he got back to Suna from both the Tsuchikage and the Mizukage. Both spoke about similar incidents in their own lands. It had prompted Gaara to meet in with Kakashi in advance of the Chunin exams. If Kakashi agreed with him, Gaara wanted to call a Kage council. "This makes twenty villages in total across nine countries. I think it's time we got all the Kage's involved." Gaara suggested looking to the Hokage for confirmation. Kakashi nodded in agreement.
"I found a survivor." All three men turned to the dark haired man as he unfurled a scroll. "A survivor?!" Naruto asked incredulously. "I overheard mentions of a man claiming to be from Kokkyō-mura, so I followed them to a small farm." Naruto looked over at the scroll that Sasuke placed on the Kazekage's desk. "He was barely coherent, screaming about demons coming to steal his soul. I managed to enter his mind before he had to be sedated."
The image that waited for them on the scroll was out of folk lore. Sasuke had drawn out exactly what he had seen in the man's mind; a Shinigami with wild hair and a demon's face. He was dressed in a kimono with patterns on his bare arms and beads wrapped around his wrists. "Shinigami?" Kakashi questioned unbelieving of the sketch before him. "There have been other sightings as well. Rumors of this supposed God of Death making appearances all across the Wind Country." Gaara offered as he pulled the image closer. "The God of Death," Naruto muttered under his breath.
Rumors were spreading across the Wind Country talking of omens and spirits of the dead coming back to life. Most people ignored the crazy talk, but many saw this as a sign of the end of days. It was ridiculous but people were starting to believe the rumors. "So they weren't just hearsay," Naruto asked turning to confirm with Kakashi. "There's more." Sasuke rolled the scroll out more showing an image of the Shinigami reaching through the chest of what appeared to be a young woman. "Is that Shiki Fujin?" Kakashi asked going white in the face.
Gaara had heard about this technique. It was the one that the Yondaime Hokage used to steal the Kyuubi's chakra and seal it inside Naruto as a baby. Was this a technique similar to the Shiki Fujin? If so, how did one civilian manage to escape the destruction of his village? "He hid under a pile of bodies," Sasuke answered and Gaara realized he spoke his thought out loud. At Sasuke's words, Naruto turned green.
The tension in the room was thick. The only one that seemed to be unfazed was Sasuke. Rolling up the scroll he stuffed it back in his bag before retaking his position against the wall. When he turned to face the room again, Gaara saw his one eye bleeding red. So he wasn't as unaffected as Gaara thought.
"Ah, Yuumei-chan you are looking as lovely as ever." Kakashi's greeting surprised Gaara. Looking up he watched as Yuumei entered the room shutting the door behind her. With all his meetings Gaara hadn't had a chance to speak with her since she returned from Konoha. Gaara looked Yuumei over making sure that she was okay; with Yuumei it was hard to tell.
"Kazekage." She greeted stepping fully into the room shooting the Hokage a glare at his greeting. She held a medical folder in her hands that was relatively thick. He hadn't asked for any reports, so he was confused as to why she was here. Stepping beside him, she set the folder down on on his desk. "Hello, Yuumei-chan it's good to finally meet you!" A delicate eyebrow arched as Naruto stood to greet her. "We literally just traveled together from Konoha yesterday." She deadpanned. "Ri-ight." Naruto stuttered rubbing the back of his head.
Watching Naruto try to convince Yuumei that he did remember her was painful. He kept going on about being focused and how there were so many people traveling with them, but it didn't help. Gaara rubbed the bridge of his nose hoping to stop a headache from forming. Sasuke looked as pained as Gaara felt watching the blonde as he kept talking.
Yuumei eventually put the blond out of his misery. "It's fine. I've spent years making myself invisible anyway." With a defeated sigh she took a seat on the edge of Gaara's chair arms crossed over her lap. "What were your results Yuumei-chan?" Kakashi offered to change the subject. The cold look Yuumei gave the man had the Hokage hanging his head in defeat.
From what he could gather from her letters the Hokage was not one of Yuumei's favorite people. Gaara found it funny that it had nothing to do with the man's personality and everything to do with his taste in literature. "He's reading porn while walking around the village, where children can see!" She had written in her last letter. Gaara wanted to assure her that Kakashi would never read actual porn around children but he couldn't lie. Naruto told him stories of the pervert reading his books on missions when they were Genin. Kakashi had made it his mission on the return trip to reassure her that he wasn't some deviant; so far it hadn't worked.
"The body Sasuke brought back was a male, between the ages of thirty to thirty-five. We could determine that other than a mild case of arthritis he was in perfect health when he died." She opened her report so the room could read it. "And the cause of death?" Kakashi asked. "There wasn't one." Naruto jerked his head up to Yuumei in shock. "What?"
"It was like his body… just stopped. I can't find any medical reason why he died."
The plant on his desk moved out of the corner of his eye, the closed bud opening its petals. Yuumei's hands were clenched in her lap as she talked, her chakra reacting to her anger. Reaching over Gaara let his fingers rest on her racing pulse, his fingers wrapping around her wrist. Running his fingers along her skin, he counted as her pulse began to stop beating so fast. Looking up he could see Kakashi looking over the folder with Naruto talking amongst themselves. Sasuke wasn't fooled. He stared at the bloom his eyebrows drawn in thought before turning to look at Yuumei.
Yuumei's ability was a top secret in Suna, one that he had managed to keep under wraps for years. The capacity to create life out of nothing was supposed to belong solely to the first Hokage. If other villages discovered her ability, Yuumei would become a target.
"Gaara." Her voice was soft meant only for him to hear. Gaara blinked up at her realizing that his sand had moved to wrap around her ankle. No one else seemed to notice his slip. "Sasuke why don't you debrief me on your latest mission while you walk me to my room," Kakashi said placing his hand on the Uchiha's shoulder. Sasuke shot Yuumei one more curious look before turning to leave. Kakashi offered a crinkled eye in farewell. "Good evening Kazekage-sama, Yuumei-chan."
Sitting back in his chair Gaara allowed his eyes to close. For a moment he just sat there listening to the silence. He focused on the steady rhythm of Yuumei's pulse against his fingertips; it always seemed to calm him down. "Ah-ha!" Naruto shouted making Yuumei jump; she nearly fell off the chair. Naruto stood there pointing at Gaara with a huge smile on his face. "Seriously!?" Yuumei yelled at the blonde pulling her wrist from Gaara's grip. "Uh, s-sorry," Naruto muttered terrified of the woman glaring down at him. "You can't just…" Instead of finishing her sentence Yuumei threw her hands up in the air in frustrations. "Stupid. Konoha. Shinobi." She grumbled grabbing the autopsy file of Gaara's desk and walking towards the door. Naruto leapt out of her way. Before she left, she turned and pointed to Gaara. "And you!" Gaara almost flinched. "You will be ready and be waiting for me in your room. I will be there no later than nine o'clock tonight, and if you are not there I won't be held accountable for my actions!" And with a slam of the door behind her Yuumei was gone. "Soooooo, in your room huh?"
Gaara was so focused on not cowering in front of his friend that he didn't hear what Naruto said at first. He may be the strongest Shinobi in the village but that meant nothing against Yuumei's wrath. "What?" Gaara asked eyeing the creepy look on his friend's face. "So how long has this been going on?"
"What?" Gaara asked again feeling even more confused. Naruto leaned forward on the desk a brilliant smile on his face. "You and Yuumei! How long have you two been dating?"