Authors note: trying to update it as fast as possible
All original characters belong to me.
Again this story is written for myself so I can have it down on paper to re-read whenever I deem worthy.
Chapter 5 A strange mission
It had been a month and a half, give or take a few days, since the miserably failed destruction of the Leaf. Word had it that although the leaf was now considered a lesser nation it had already re-organized itself and found a new Hokage. The sand could only be so lucky. The position of Kazekage had yet to be filled and the village as of current was being run by a circle of elders. The position was soon to be filled but know one knew or had the time to think about who would be the next in the leaders seat. Since the attack on the leaf more missions began to flock in. Word had it the sand and sound had not lost by much, and the leaf was struggling to complete the missions it had. This calmed the nerves of all but one in the village.
Since his first encounter with freedom Gaara had been on edge and had broken the vow he had made to himself to spare the people from his wrath. Little by little Gaara was able to learn for himself why the demon trapped inside of him was so condescending of the people that crossed his path. Everyone was petty, everyone except for the children, and if the children were the only ones not petty it was a wonder this village was still standing. The first life Gaara took was on a mission and it couldn't be helped. However the second stung in Gaara's mind so painfully that he wanted to crush the man. And crush him he did.
Walking down the street after one of the missions he had received since his arrival back to the village he herd a loud man and some laughing. His curiosity got the better of him and he sent the sand to spy on the small party while he moved along the rooftops to get a better view at what was going on. A man was on a small stage prancing around like an idiot. At first Gaara was terribly confused, until the man began to speak. He was cracking jokes about the people around him and the village, and the current state of the world. Gaara actually found it somewhat amusing till the man brought his name up.
"Who does that Gaara kid think he is anyway?" The man said facing the bulk of the crowd. "Walking around looking down on us…"
The man proceeded to Act out exactly what he thought Gaara looked like while walking through the city.
"It's like this!" The man said continuing his jaunt earning cheers and laughter from the crowd. " 'Look I am Gaara, I am a spoiled brat, No one likes me, they all hate me, I think I am going to mess up the mission just to draw attention to myself. My demon makes me better then you…"
The list went on and Gaara was more then shocked as the man mimicked his sand swishing around everybody then turning around to grab someone's neck in a fake chokehold. All the while the people were laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. It just got worse, and by the end of it Gaara was in tears. He knew what he did, but allot of the things said were untrue. Anger replaced tears and Gaara's rage got the best of him as he jumped from the building he was hiding on down in front of the man. The crowd was speechless.
"Hit me." Gaara said looking at the man with his eyes not yet dried. "Hit me, just once."
The man was so startled that instead of doing as told he retorted back.
"Hit you what are you crazy?!" The man said earning a punch from Gaara in the chest.
"I Said hit me." Gaara said again.
Everything was silent.
"Who here has the guts to hit me?!" Gaara said turning towards the stunned crowed. "Or am I to low for you to hit? Do you not want to lay a hand on me for fear of your life? What makes my body any different then yours?"
People were still stunned into silence. Gaara frustrated with the reaction took a kunai out of his leg pocket and held handle tightly.
"You all wonder why I go around hating like I do." Gaara said his tone remaining early quiet throughout the whole of the thing. "Look at yourselves, laughing at another's misfortune. How low do you have to be to mock someone for a place in their life they can not help, weather it is a disability, or a curse."
He raked the Kunai across his palm spilling his own blood for the first time without the true protection of the sand.
"None of you chose to hit me," He said watching as his own blood dripped from his palm and onto the dusty street. "So none of you have the right to accuse me of condescendence. And those that cast the first stone without reason should be pummeled by one thousand stones."
He turned back to the funny man on the street.
The rest was history. People began chatter that Gaara had either gone mad or had gone completely sane. His mentality was questioned as he walked the streets. A great deal of the people that heard the story by word of mouth had though Gaara spoke wisely. The rest didn't care or didn't state their opinion. This suited Gaara just fine. The others he had killed because a group of fully grown men were tormenting a small desert Fox. Gaara did the killing in that without thinking about the men, because he cared more about the small creature in their grasps.
All in all the weeks he had been back had been uneasy and he had been ill at rest. And allot of the time he spent pacing waiting for missions, or waiting for his body to get tired enough to go back into that wonderful little world called sleep. Right now he was pacing again, his steps bringing him through the marketplace and to a familiar sight. The small park he was so fond of as a boy. Again like always there were children. He quickly went over to his favorite spot on an outcropping that was about 7 feet up and swung himself up there to watch the children play. He was lucky in that his place was relatively hidden from view because of the large cliff that surrounded three sides of the area. So Often times parents wouldn't even come down to the area to come looking for their children they would just call. Gaara watched as they played with a slight smile.
Children, especially young ones, are the sages of the world. They are so wise but people take them for granted often spilling secrets to them. Gaara enjoyed watching them because in a way he was putting himself back into the childhood he never had. He sighed and leaned back letting the children's laughter lull him into a light sleep.
"Gaara Gaara? Are you there?" Tamari's crackling voice ripped through Gaara snapping him awake.
He quickly fiddled with his ear piece and adjusted the small mic.
"Yes I am here what is it?" Gaara said hopping his voice didn't sound to drowsy.
"We have another mission." Temari said earning a frustrated sigh from Gaara. "Get to the Mission station and I will explain it to you there."
Gaara quickly made his reply and jumped into the top edge of the cliff and headed into town again. Only one day of rest and they were off again. Quickly as possible Gaara found his way to the large building known as the mission station and pushed open the double doors. The inside was huge and it was bustling with activity, here people stopped to see who was in for just a moment or so, and it was no different for Gaara. Everyone had things to do and places to be so they would ignore the boy, which was fine with him.
HE saw an arm waving for him and he quickly slid his way through the lines and found Temari and a rather disheveled looking Kankurou.
"Ok good all you three are here." The man behind the desk said adjusting his glasses. "Because your instructor is MIA and considered either a POW or a DDC We can no longer give you A and S rank missions until we find another, but you can still take B-rank missions."
Two of the group nodded, Gaara was distracted by one of the male school instructors flitting back and fourth nervously.
"Your mission today is to locate and retrieve a girl, be her dead or alive from Marobak Canyon. She fell about 20 miles north of the Sabaku bridge near one of the suspended bridges known as the Kajik. She is in Brokskus's territory which is why it is ranked as a B-rank mission." The man in front of them said. "As well as a new twist, only one individual member can be down in the canyon at any one time, He is creating Jutsu's that prevent us from reaching him. You three need to leave immediately because…."
"Yes please… Please bring her back I am begging you!" All three Ninja's turned to look at the man, it was the school teacher Gaara had noticed before. "She is an orphan and I am her caretaker. I feel so foolish for getting angry at her, she is such a sweet child, if she wasn't such a clutz."
"Ok wait a minute who are we going after again?" Kankurou said looking back at the man with the scroll.
"Her name is Mai Morioshi…"
"Also known as Sabaku no Baka." Kankurou sighed. "Why do we have to go find her, she always gets into these messes…"
"Fine we will take the mission." Gaara said running Kankurou over and getting a strange look from Temari. "We will leave as soon as we have packed provisions."
"Gaara?!?" Temari said confusion filling her voice. "You didn't let us decide!"
"I decided for you." Gaara said turning around. "She will be worth the rescue."
"Why do you say that?!?" Kankurou said obviously upset that he didn't get to play the roll of leader.
"Because it is no named losers like her that become great things later." Gaara said walking towards the crowd again leaving behind four very stunned people.
As soon as he was out of earshot he added.
"And great things need to have someone to look up to who doesn't look down on them."
Gaara was back at the house and packed meals, clothes and everything else before Temari and Kankurou set foot in the house again. He was in the kitchen shuffling around for a snack when the two rather disgruntled teens came barging into the house.
"Gaara why did you do that, it doesn't even pay that well!" Kankurou said slamming the door and tromping up to his room to get dressed.
"Gaara I have to say I am questioning this too." Temari said coming into the kitchen with her hands on her hips.
Faster then she could see sand wove it's way around her neck and began to squeeze ever so slightly.
"Do not question me Temari." He said his eyes burning with a passion that Temari had never seen before. "I have my own personal reasons for wanting to rescue her, and if you can't deal with me wanting to do one personal mission out of the thousands we have completed, then I can rescue her without you and Kankurou."
The sand let go and Temari rubbed her throat the annoyed look gone and replaced by one of admiration.
"You want to do this for her don't you." Temari said looking past the dining room to a window beyond. "You would have taken this mission even if it hadn't paid a thing would you have."
Gaara turned and looked toward the same window and nodded.
"You know it's ok to say that you want to help her because you think you need to." Temari said patting her brother on the shoulder. "I would have accepted that answer, and I do ok?"
Gaara nodded again turning his head to look at Temari again.
"She is important to this village," He said his tone racked with hidden feeling. "She is a hard worker, and though she often times makes mistakes, she is going to be something great."
A loud thunk followed by steady descending thunks announced that Kankurou was on his way down.
"How do you know her?" Temari said her voice hushed.
"From the pla…."
"Come on Lets get going, I want to be over with this one by sundown." Kankurou said annoyance still in his voice.
Gaara trudged towards the door a backpack replacing the unneeded gourd. When he reached Kankurou he scowled at him for all he was worth, which caused the larger teen to withdraw. Finally they were on their way.
They reached the canyon with little effort, Gaara's new found way of getting from place to place in the sand was a god send and it allowed all three to complete missions quicker. Now that they were supporting themselves it was key to keep the money flowing in for food, water, lights and cooling. When they reached the canyon a medical team was already there helping Another set of Shinobi who had obviously tried to find the girl and failed miserably.
"Hey you three." On of the medical nin said dabbing at the wound of a young man. "We will be waiting for whoever goes down there up here, if you get into danger and can't get any further come back. We have one man stationed at the bottom, but he will not go with you."
"Do you know how the girl fell?" Temari said walking over to the edge and peering down into the darkness.
"Yes, she was crossing Kajik, her nin jitsu and Chakara skills are not as refined as they should be and she fell in." One of the other medical doctors said. "There hasn't been any sound, so we think she is probably dead, but we need to recover her body She has some important skills in her that would be hell if someone else found them."
"You mean the idiot has some talent?" Kankurou said also looking down.
"I told you we need to find her." Said Gaara glaring at Kankurou once again. "She is important."
"Yes she is." Nodded the medical-nin solemnly. "She may only be 10 years old and a klutz, but half of her antics wouldn't be as disastrous as they are had she not had any power in her."
"Well fine then, Gaara you're the one that drug us out here, you're the one that gets to go down." Kankurou said his nose up in the air.
"S-sir?" The final of the three medical nin spoke up. "You shouldn't talk to him like that he could kill you."
"I would rather him talk to me how he is then receive groveling from the likes of you." Gaara said looking at the med-nin. "I will be back shortly, do not send another team down."
For the first time since he sealed him Gaara spoke to the Demon.
I need your help, are you willing to give it for a momentary freedom? Gaara said approaching the sealed chamber in his mind.
Yes sir, The demon said his voice sounding defeated. I realize my folly for underestimating you, and I would like to form a truce.
Talk with me about it later, right now I need your body and your Chakara I have to make a decent down the canyon and I need your claws and body to get me to the bottom safely. Gaara said opening his eyes and looking at everyone.
"Clear out, Demon's coming don't want him to crush anything." He said motioning everyone away.
"Gaara!" Temari said backing up. "You have never gave warning before, and I thought you said…"
A glare from Gaara shut her up.
Yes master right away.
The transformation started, sand flowed around him and formed a tight cocoon. There were gasps from the people when they felt the Demon's Chakara again. Many had not seen this, and the people that did normally didn't live to tell about it. Gaara changed as quickly as possible, this time not reveling in the fact that he had this power, but more wanted to get on with what he had to do. The demon took over quickly and did as was told. Soon Gaara had the control of a very large body.
With a small explosion the cocoon ruptured leaving Gaara exposed to the sunlight and trying to get hit wits about him.
"Gaara?!?" Temari called fear more then evident in her voice. "Gaara?! Are you ok?"
"I would be better," He said his voice rumbling through the desert sands. "If you would hold your tongue."
Temari winced and watched as the Now Badger demon turned towards the edge of the Canyon.
"Again, do not send anyone after me, if you do you will face my wrath." Gaara said sternly.
Before anyone had time to react or anwser he was over the edge of the cliff and scaling down it's sides like a rather large lizard.
"Does he have control over it now??" One of the med-nin said to Temari. "After all these years he has finally learned to control it?"
"I…I don't know…" Temari said in all honesty.
Quiet, it was dead quiet minus the wind as Gaara made his way down the canyon walls. The further he went down, the less light there was and the cooler it got. This part of the canyon was deep, very deep, and it made Gaara shudder to think that he may find a broken body at the bottom.
"Oy!!!!!" Gaara heard someone calling from the bottom. "Who's there??"
"Gaara of the sand." Gaara said his deep demonic voice echoing off the walls.
"G-Gaara?" The surprised man at the bottom called up. "Why are you here? This is a rescue mission."
"It is my mission" Gaara said as he finally got the man in sight. "I am to rescue the girl and bring her back safely, if she is alive."
"Ok, well I am not going to question anything." The med-nin said. "All we know is she is somewhere following the west fork. Brokskus has set traps up that even your father couldn't get through, if that girl has lived it is a miracle. "
Gaara snorted when he reached the bottom allowing the sand to drip off his body and flow back into the ground below him. A hollow wind blew down the canyon. This wasn't it's deepest, or it's widest part, but it still was deep and about a half mile across. Looking up Gaara could see just barely the line that stretched the width of the canyon. It was a far drop, and even someone with extreme nin jutsu skills would have a problem landing without injury. However when he looked around the bottom there were no impart marks that were fresh, and there was no smell of blood. His blue eyes darted from side to side scanning for signs of travel. With trained eyes he could see someone was using a jutsu similar to his own sand to cover there travels along the canyon bottom. There were several meandering pathways suggesting that a person was walking here not to long ago. His eyes Narrowed as he looked at the dark side of the canyon, and his destination.
"How far to the traps?" Gaara said still analyzing his surroundings.
"About a kilometer." The med-nin said looking to the dark. "your going to go down another set of cliffs and the caves, that's where it starts. No one is sure exactly where Brokskus lives so how far you have to go before reaching him is unknown."
Gaara nodded and began walking.
"Thank you." He said swarming the sand up around his back.
The man was either to stunned to respond or didn't bother a response. Ether way Gaara was on his way cautiously through the canyon. He passed into the shadows and it got drastically cooler making his skin prickle up. Nothing was up ahead besides winding walls, but still something told him to keep his guard up and not get to relaxed. He had walked about a mile before his mind was about sending him reeling. That troubled mile came abruptly to a halt when he realized he had walked strait into a genjitsu Trap.
Quickly his hands moved and dispelled the Genjutsu only to realize he was standing at the edge of the forewarned cliffs. With the onset of reality came the onset of a terrible smell. Gaara looked down, though the drop wasn't that far it looked like several Sandnin had met their demise here and hadn't been removed. Gaara quickly scaled the cliffs to go take a look at the bodies. The closer he got the worse the smell got. Covering his nose and jumping the last several meters he landed and just about gagged at the sight. Half rotting corpses with Mice maggots and desert scarabs running in and out of empty eye sockets. Several of the corpses were swollen beyond recogniosion by the gasses of decomposition. Others looked like they had burst. He knew he would have to gather the dog tags to give back to the village for recording, and if he was the only one to get down here then he was the one with the responsibility. Hand firmly over his nose he crept closer to a carcass and turned the pile of flesh over disturbing the maggots resting inside of the body. He reached for the tags around the corpse's neck only to realize they weren't there. Again he turned the body over and opened up the back. Maybe it wasn't a Sandnin.
"AH! Stupid fool!" Gaara said withdrawing from the corps. "Genjitsu again?!?"
The seals were formed quickly this time and the scene around him shifted and shimmered. The bodies disappeared and the smell went with them. Gaara cursed himself. When he thought of traps eh thought of physical traps. Not ones that were launched mentally. These were no ordinary traps either. There were at a high enough level that it actually was going to force Gaara to put a genjitsu block on himself.
"Wow! You sure are wiser then the last folks who came through here!" A voice shouted sounding like it came from everywhere and no where at once. "Bulk Majority of them turned back!"
Gaara scowled and began walking again. The voice was old, nerving, yet somehow familiar.
"Now what?" Gaara said weaving his way between rocks
"Chakara loss." The voice tossed back.
Gaara froze. He hadn't been without Chakara before. He took a step and another and another attempting to feel when and where the change took effect. Nothing happened. Confidence increasing he began to walk again. He wound his way around some more rocks and came to the entrance of a cave.
"Kid, what do you want?" The voice came from the cave. "I seriously don't have time for another teen to come traipsing through the last part of this just to get himself killed."
"I am here because a young girl fell from the bridge a few miles back." Gaara said approaching the cave. "I am here to ret retrieve her if she is alive, her teacher is concerned for her."
There was a chuckle from the cave followed by the sound of footsteps.
"Shukaku." The voice said causing Gaara to stiffen. "Of all the years I have wondered what it would take to bring you back to me once again I never once expected you to be after an unimportant girl."
Unimportant? Gaara's mind questioned the man his eyes wary of the darkness. She is not unimportant, she has effected people."
With a cringe Gaara grabbed his head where the Ai seal had been. It throbbed painfully reminding him that even now that it couldn't be seen it wasn't fully gone. A chuckle resounded through the cave.
"Still struggling with the sleep boy?" The voice was closer. "Or is the boy not awake any more and the demon has decided to keep his body for whatever reason?"
Gaara chuckled.
"Quite the opposite actually." He said letting distain taint his otherwise emotionless voice. "I sleep calmly and peacefully on the nights I choose to sleep, and the demon is bent to my will."
"Impossible." The voice replied.
"Come see for yourself old man, or are you going to make me walk through the traps?" Gaara said a small trickle of hope filling his mind. He may have been completely guarded, but he wasn't about to test himself against an unknown if he didn't have to.
The steps got closer and Gaara squinted the darkness of the tunnel wasn't so great that he could have not been able to see his enemy before now. But he had still not appeared. He gathered up the sand in a paper thin armor around his body preparing for the worst.
"Look up boy." The voice said calmly about sending Gaara out of his skin.
The sand reacted automatically and swatted the startle out of harms way. Gaara cursed momentarily and turned to face where the form had fell. The form began to move and shudder. At first Gaara thought he had maybe dealt a killing blow but the shuddering slowly gained volume and turned into a full blooded laugh.
"Ah HA!" The old man said stumbling up to his feet the force of the laugh making his feet unsteady. "Sabaku no Gaara, it's been years! Thirteen to be precise! You were nothing but a little pile of meat when I last saw you!"
Gaara backed up against a rock his eyes wide.
"Let me guess, your in the dark about everything that happened to you right?" Gaara was to shocked to reply. "Good! Then that means you get to stay with me and the girl a while."
Gaara still hadn't gotten a good look at the man, he was wearing a thick earth brown cloak with the hood pulled up over his face.
"Who are… Where is the girl? Is she safe?" Gaara stuttered over his words. His mission was to find the girl, not to learn about his past.
"Yes she is safe, she happened into fortune that day she fell." The man said quickly approaching Gaara. "You on the other hand are one giant mess!"
An arm shot out and grabbed Gaara by the shoulder. The sand didn't shift or move so there was no threat.
"Ah, what's this? The sand…" The man quickly reached up to brush Gaara's bangs off his forehead. "The seal??!"
"Destroyed." Gaara said his voice still wavering. "Who are you."
"Ah yes, I wouldn't expect you to remember me, all those sleepless nights should have erased me from your memory." The man said stepping back. "I'm your grandfather."
Gaara's eyes went wide as the man brushed back the cloak to revile bright red hair with silvery strands of white running through it and large kind brown eyes. The face looked exactly like his own, like his fathers, only older and time warn.
"You and I have allot to discuss boy." The man said. "And this is not the place to do it."
"There wont be another team down." Gaara said. "I told them not to send anyone, they wont. Most of the people around here still think my control over the demon isn't complete so they wont come after me in hopes that maybe I will die and the demon along with me."
"Good show boy." The man said grabbing his wrist and heading for the cave. "Your hit did me good boy. I haven't been hit like that since before you were born! It's good to feel pain every now and then to make you feel like your alive."
Gaara stumbled forward into the cave as he was being lead. His mouth quirked up in a rare true smile when his supposed grandfather said those words.
"You have no idea." Gaara smiled. "How do I know you are who you say you are?"
"For now, you'll just have to trust me." The man said leading Gaara into a passage that was guarded by a carefully placed Genjutsu. "Right now I have no proof on me. That girl, she is important to you?"
Gaara scowled at the sudden change in conversation.
"Important in that she is a mission I have to complete and if she is alive I get paid more." Gaara said safeguarding his tone.
"Bullshit boy." The man said still leading Gaara onward. "She obviously means something to you or your seal would still be sitting there on your forehead. Yashamaru went through allot of trouble to give you that. He certainly didn't want to, and he had to set you up so you would fall or he would have lost his wife and children. But that's not what I am here to talk about. Don't worry about the space that is coming up there is a Chakara Bridge there that will hold both our weight even though it can't be seen."
The man was talking to fast, and Gaara was getting questions and loosing them as fast as they flew into his head.
"Yashamaru? But he didn't care for me!" Gaara gasped his wall broken and emotion flowing through his voice. "No one did, how would you know what Yashamaru thought anyway?"
Something stung his eyes that he thought he would never feel again, tears. He was just about to pull away from the man when he came out into open daylight and was standing on air above a fall that was so deep he couldn't see the bottom.
"Again, no time for explanations. Trying to move fast." The man said picking up his speed. "There are ninja on opposite sides of us trying to see where we walk. I have Chakara to conceal myself but concealing us both is a hard trick. They have been trying to figure out where I live for years. Recent days have brought about a change in pace but they are still up there watching."
Their feet touched solid ground again and Gaara looked backwards. They were now at the widest part of the Canyon and at one of the deeper points. The ground was sandy and Gaara took notice and bubbled the sand around him and the old man.
"What the??!? Oh yeah, the sand." The old man said sighing and relaxing. "Not to far now."
Gaara opened up a small space in the front of their invisible shield to allow the man to see and they were off again.
"I guess I should start this now." Said the old man walking at a much more even pace. "This is going to be quick and I dislike repeating myself so you are going to have to take it all up in one sitting."
"Fine." Gaara said annoyance gracing his voice. "However I want a name."
"Alright fair enough." The man let go of his hand. "My name is Brokskus, Second Kazekage of the wind country. And had they let me have my say we would have been the sand country because yes it is windy, but there is far more sand then wind says I"
Gaara blanched. It was a well known fact that the second kazekage had gone insane and had tried to kill his son who was the most recent Kazekage. His eyes became skeptical.
"You mean to tell me I have to believe you?" Gaara said stopping momentarily. "The texts say your insane."
"The texts also say you were born with your seal nowadays don't they." Brokskus said turning and raising a brow at Gaara.
Gaara thought on it and he indeed in passing had seen that the news and texts said he was born with the Ai seal.
"I guess books do lie." Gaara said continuing forward. "And I didn't get rid of the seal for that girl, she has just managed to catch my attention."
"Fair enough, who got you to break the seal?" The man said now walking side by side with Gaara.
"A boy, Naruto, from the hidden leaf." Brokskus looked at Gaara with wide eyes.
"A boy?!? Hidden leaf?!?" He man said smacking his hand on his face. "Oh god, Your father would be turning in his grave."
Gaara arched an eyebrow at him confused as to the outburst.
"He is the same as me, and we fought, his demon against mine." Gaara continued carefully watching the reactions of the older man. "He taught me that I needed to find my own way, that it was ok to express myself, he taught me there was a way to control my demon. We would be friends if we had not had to travel different paths. It hasn't been that long, just over a month since we parted ways, and it is hard to begin to live by ideals I never knew existed."
"As well it should be!" The man said entering another cave. "One can't change overnight, and if the people around him can't sense that there is a change, that change is even harder to complete. From What I hear the killings in the city have dramatically decreased since you have returned home. You obviously have some control issues still, but that will change in time…"
Gaara let down the dome and looked at the eerily glowing cave.
"Anyway as I was saying I am Brokskus, your grandfather, and your fathers father." Brokskus continued. "Your father and your mother met when they were still in the academy. She was absolutely smitten with him from the day she first laid eyes on him. Unfortunately he wanted nothing to do with her. As the story goes both of them were put on the same team, and she tried for years to woo him. But he is a hardheaded prick and refused to acknowledge her. Each passing day went by like an eternity for her, and she began to come to me for advice. I was the Kazekage then so often people would come to me for help. I felt so bad for her that I finally forced him to see her.
"Their first "date" went about as well as could be expected. It was absolutely miserable. However at the end your mother distraught asked your father if their was any way she could see him again." Brokskus said weaving into and out of passages. "He said yes. Surprised the hell out of me and out of your mom. They saw each other for a number of years before he was actually named Kazekage. After he had been appointed he found out that a man by the name of Orochimaru was creating a Jutsu that could seal a demon inside a child, however this Orochimaru was stationed in the village of the leaf. The sand had been falling for a number of years and both your father and myself were desperate to find a quick fix to the problems, however his quick fix involved a shortcut that I should have seen coming.
"I Laughed off the fact that this Leaf-nin had supposedly discovered this method of sealing a demon within a child. However my son didn't and he made it a point to go in and drop the hint to the leaf that Orochimaru was experimenting with bodies. The result was more to his liking then he could have hoped. Orochimaru originally sought refuge here in the sand and that is where this all went wrong. Orochimaru showed some of his research to your father, and your father was impressed. However Orochimaru was working off a theory he had never tested due to lack of random kids he could just up and kidnap. Your father in turn decided that he would Aid Orochimaru by providing children for the experiments, his own."
Gaara cringed. Orochimaru had been behind the fall of the sand, and of the leaf, and of so many other things that it was impossible to imagine where the man's sneaky snake fingers had wound themselves.
"And Provide he did. The first experiment was tried on Kankurou about a month after he was born." Brokskus said grabbing a lantern from a wall notch and lighting it. "It failed, but luckily the experiments were not fatal. I knew about the experiment, but I was told to keep quiet or else I would be silenced. Orochimaru was not a man I was particularly happy to be dealing with and his strength out did my own so I kept my mouth shut. Until Temari. Orochimaru had decided that the child needed to be younger still in order for the demon to be sealed correctly. By then he had come across and captured the Small demon Shukaku. Nothing more then a small runt, it was said that if he was bound to a body he would get huge, and be loyal to whomever he was bound to. Temari was just going to be born.
"Your mother had been in labor for 14 hours when both Orochimaru and your father stepped into the midwifes house." Gaara had to begin to watch his steps, the walls and the ground were becoming moist with condensation, but he still listened with intent. "Your father bluntly told her that the only reason he was having children was to seal them with a demon to create an unstoppable force for the sand to control. Your mother was so freaked out by it that her body reacted on it's own and out came Temari. I was there watching. Orochimaru took her and turned around out the door. You mom was screaming I followed as quickly as possible. By the time I tracked down Orochimaru an hour had passed, your father was standing by his side and Temari was wailing on an alter. The Shukaku was chained across the room. I watched as the seals were performed and Shukaku disappeared into wind. I got blasted backwards and knocked out. When I woke up I found Orochimaru slamming his hands on the alter and cursing. Temari was being held by your father. 'failed again Orochimaru. I can't assure you that I can have another child now that she knows what we are doing.' Was the last thing I heard again before passing out."
"Three months later your mother tried to run away." The down ward path finally straitened and had begun to widen. "She would have succeeded to, had Orochimaru not had his cronies all around the area making sure this exact thing didn't happen. Infuriated with her your father Raped her and again got her pregnant. This time it was with you."
Gaara stopped dead. He had no Idea about any of this and it was all sticking cleanly to his brain. He had never known the circumstances surrounding his birth. He was unknowingly letting his mind put faith in the man in front of him. It was the first man who wasn't afraid of him, wasn't afraid to touch him, and even though his statements seemed bold there was an air of truth hanging around him.
"You ok boy?" Brokskus asked turning and raising a brow at the redheaded boy. "I can stop."
"No, please continue." Gaara said reaching one hand up to attempt to quell a sudden headache. "If I don't find out now, I may never get the chance again, and if this is true I need this for myself. Continue."
"You are plucky, would have expected you to go nuts by now." The man said continuing through the now wide cave. "Anyway, your mother went to live with your brother and his family for the remainder of her pregnancy. I came to visit quite often, and at first she was suicidal. Then as the pregnancy wore on she decided that you were destined for great things. She began to love you even before you were born. Sadly the small peace that came during her pregnancy faded one night in her seventh month when she was kidnapped from her home.
"She was kidnapped by Orochimaru without permission from your father and he Preformed the ritual while you were still inside of her. The demon stuck inside of you but it sent her into a premature labor. By then your father found out and was piping mad about it. He confronted Orochimaru, as did your mother. It was a loosing battle and he cut your mother deep. This is where I came in. I quickly scooped up your mother and ran as fast as I could to the hospital. I got her their just in time to deliver you. But it wasn't over. Orochimaru was furious that your mother had risked herself and you to try and kill him and in turn wanted to return the favor."
Gaara had again stopped walking.
"He came blasting into the hospital and came right up to your mother as she held you in her arms." Brokskus said turning to face the boy. "He took a kunai and slit it across her stomach and disabled me, gloating about his success and her weakness to everyone that would care to listen. She was fading fast but got a determined look on her face and set you on her legs. Orochimaru was caught off guard when she performed some seals. The seals were unknown to me for a good reason, turns out that the women of the sand have a fail safe if they are to come into danger when their child was young. When she formed the seals she gave up her life in a contract to the gods of the sand to protect you from Orochimaru."
Gaara couldn't speak. So may things were running through his mind. He wanted to run, he wanted to cry, he wanted to disappear, he wanted to know about…
"Yashamaru…" Gaara choked out his voice sounding like an overused mill. "So Yashamaru… What Yashamaru said about my mother loving me and wanting to protect me with the sand was true? He wasn't lying?"
The silence that fell between then was deafening, Gaara could feel his face heat up and his body go numb. There was stinging at his eyes again as he waited for what seemed like an eternity for an answer.
"No Yashamaru didn't lie."
The dam broke and for the first time in his life since he was young tears began to stream down his face.
"Tears." Gaara said reaching up and tentatively touching the cascading bits of water. "I have never known… So many years of not knowing. She loved me, Yashamaru loved me, he didn't hate me… no one did, or should have. Why…. WHY?!?!??"
The tears began to flow in earnest, and Gaara colpased on the ground.
"NO one told me." He sobbed. "They killed him, they killed my mother, HE Killed my mother, and my father! My mind, it hurts, so much pain. This shouldn't have happened. Yashamaru… He did… lie… He told me no one cared."
Before he knew what was happening he was being embraced.
"He did tell you no one cared, but he did it to save the ones he loved." Brokskus said stroking Gaara's hair. "He loved you like a son but in order to save his family from your father he took his own life in a lie. Your father was so afraid of Orochimaru he bent to his every whim. He chose Yashamaru because Yashamaru was more of a father to you then he ever had been. And he hit Yashamaru's weakness. He banished me after Orochimaru told him to for fear of his own life. Your father was a pitiful man."
"But he was Kazekage!" Gaara yelled breaking away from the embrace and falling against the wall.
"He was the Kazekage, but even though his power was great and his planning greater he was still a weak afraid child who feared for his life. He cared about himself over others, he was willing to risk the well-being of the people around him solely for personal gain. He was weak."
"Then… Then I won't be weak!" Gaara said wiping away futilely at tears that refused to stop. "I am going to make sure my friends are cared for. I am not going to become a drone of someone else's."
"A boy like you should never have gone through what you went through Gaara." Brokskus said offering his hand as he stood up. "I may be an old fool, but a child deserves to have his childhood. I should have stopped it, but what's done is done."
There was a sudden noise of footsteps on the hard rock. The moment had been lost and both men went into ready stances. The steps got closer and Gaara tensed up.
A sudden yelp and the tumbling of a body with a lantern into view threw both men completely off guard.
The form slowly stood holding it's head.
Blue eyes met aqua and a sweet innocent voice called out in the cave…
"Gaara?"
Sorry this is taking so long to write but I am currently wrapped up in other projects. I promise I will continue it as soon as is humanly possible.