Konoha village's training field wasn't empty; not this near to the Chuunin exam. It was packed with Shinobi from different villages sparring with each other. Heads turned as the trio entered, however; these were the only Sand-nins present.
Gaara didn't notice. He led the others to an empty corner and sat on a squared-off tree stump to watch.
Neither his brother nor sister could battle him and hope to win. Kankurou and Temari would spar with each other.
Kankurou hesitated, resting the swathe of bandages concealing his marionette on the ground. "Is this a good idea here, Gaara? We will be revealing our techniques to other competitors."
"You're right," Temari told him, when Gaara showed no sign of answering. "We should work on basic techniques."
"My taijutsu could use practise," Kankurou nodded.
"Weakling," Gaara put in without looking up. Kankurou grit his teeth, but didn't respond.
"L-let's get started!" Temari said hastily. She lay her fan on the ground and Kankurou did the same with his puppet. Then they moved back, taking a measure of each other and squaring off.
Gaara wasn't interested. His bored gaze travelled around the training field, with its obstacles and targets and many students and aspiring Shinobi. Almost all Genins, but, he noticed suddenly, three Chuunins as well, and one full Jounin. His mind made up in an instant, he rose and headed towards the higher-ranking Shinobi with a purposeful stride, ignoring his siblings as they called out in surprise.
Academy students scattered before Gaara, unnerved by his mere presence. Other Genins, however, cocky and arrogant, blocked his path. One faced him down.
"What are you doing here? This is Konoha village! You can't train here!"
Gaara looked up into the grey eyes with no expression. "Are you stupid enough to try and stop me?"
The Genin looked surprised. "Hey, I'm not trying to start a fight! I just have to tell you the rules! There's Jounin over there—"
Gaara had heard enough. Sand leaked from his gourd, working its way under the taller boy's feet and lifting him into the air. He screamed in surprise as he rose and dropped, deposited unharmed several feet away.
Gaara took another step, but then a hand clamped down on his shoulder. Without thinking, he whirled.
"Desert Coffin!"
The sand rose, hurling itself at the attacker and encasing them to the neck in an eyeblink. Only then did Gaara see who had caught his arm.
It was Temari. She stared at him, trying to look unafraid, but she was already sweating in the sand's tight grip.
"Gaara," she said past the constricting prison, trying to keep her voice calm in the face of death. "Gaara, let me go."
Several Genins had gathered to watch, forming a semicircle around the pair. Gaara's hand was still in the air, and he held perfectly still for several moments. No one could guess at the inner dialogue taking place.
Do it!
No!
She touched you!
You LET her touch me!
She would have hurt you!
You LET her touch me!
I would never hurt you, little one! I will always keep you safe! You don't need her. Give her to me!
The sand fell away, flowing like water back into the gourd. Gaara fell to his knees, vomiting onto the grass.
Temari was untouched. Not a single speck of sand remained on her skin; it had all answered to Gaara's call. The other Genins dispersed as she ran to his side, putting a hand to his back without thinking and having it, predictably, intercepted by the sand. She gave an inward sigh of frustration.
"Gaara, are you okay? What happened?"
He turned his face up to her, the shadows around his eyes deeper than ever. "I... I'm sorry, Temari-chan," he whispered. Temari was shocked; Gaara apologising?
"What's wrong?" she asked again, gentler now. She saw Kankurou out of the corner of her eye, sitting on the stump and watching them, his gaze intent.
Gaara's eyes were shocking; more human than they had looked for years. What was it, Temari found herself wondering, that gave them that quality? Emotion, that was it, she decided, and her own eyes widened as she realised exactly what emotion it was.
Fear. Gaara was afraid.
"It's... going to take me over, Temari-chan," Gaara whispered, dropping his gaze to the beaten grass. "First the travel... and the coming full moon... Baki-sensei should have let me kill those brigands." He was referring to the would-be highwaymen that had accosted them on the road, a dangerous career in a land populated by Shinobi whose power lay in their deceptive appearance. Their team leader had ordered Gaara to keep out of the battle as he had quickly disposed of the robbers himself; surprisingly, Gaara had obeyed. Orochimaru had made his own deal with Shukaku without working through Gaara, and part of that deal involved fasting until the Chuunin exam peaked with the Sound invasion. The snakelike Shinobi had promised the demon rivers of blood in return for its co-operation, and so, Shukaku had encouraged Gaara to hold back.
But the demon's cravings were strong, and Gaara's condition was becoming more unstable by the day. A feast would quiet Shukaku for a time, but at the same time, it would strengthen Gaara's resistance. The invasion of Konoha village would likely not succeed without the help of the demon's pure form.
Gaara coughed a final time and stood up slowly, his face once more unreadable. Temari stood up with him and offered a smile, but he turned away quickly.
He glanced over his shoulder once. "Don't touch me. I'll kill you," he promised evenly, and Temari knew he meant every word.
"You know what he's going to do," Kankurou told her, coming up behind her as Gaara walked away along his previous course. "He's going to go challenge that Jounin. He's always wanted to kill a Jounin."
"He's as if nothing had happened at all!" Temari growled, not taking her eyes from her brother. "What if that Jounin kills him? Shouldn't we stop him?"
Kankurou laughed at the thought of harm coming to Gaara, but agreed that they should stop the young Genin. "You're right. Baki-sensei will punish us if we let him get out of hand." He considered that for a moment. "We should probably keep him out of all the fights we can. A single kill now could tip him over the edge."
Both ran to catch up to Gaara, who had caught the attention of the Jounin. Flanked by Chuunin, he regarded Gaara curiously with one eye, the other concealed by his forehead protector as a makeshift patch. A large shock of spiked silver hair and a mask concealing the rest of his face gave his whiplike frame an appearance as sharp as a kunai.
"That was an interesting jutsu you used there, young one," he observed, his visible eye unimpressed. For just a moment, Gaara felt a little less sure of himself—this man was sincerely confident. But Shukaku urged him on.
"I want to kill you," Gaara told the Shinobi bluntly. Again, he seemed unsurprised.
"I refuse," he shrugged, sounding bored. "And Hagata cited the rules correctly. You should not be here. It is viewed as spying for you to observe Konoha Shinobi training."
Gaara's eyes narrowed. "Make me leave." Sand poured from the gourd, rising around him again. "Make me feel..." His lips curled back. "Alive!"
The Jounin's eye narrowed in response. "I am Hatake Kakashi. I do not want to fight you, it would be undiplomatic between our villages."
"Die!" Gaara howled, sweeping his hand forward at the insolent Shinobi. The sand flooded forward, crashing down on—nothing. His blur of motion stopping behind Gaara, Kakashi took a single step forward and swung one burning fist, folding Chakra around the punch. The sand came up, of course—but didn't catch the fist, Kakashi's hand stopping barely an inch from Gaara's nose.
His hand held a kunai, brushing Gaara's skin.
Sand flowed up Kakashi's arm, oozing towards his torso, but again, he reacted with speed too fast for Gaara to follow. He reappeared in front of the Sand-nin, and grimly reached up to remove his forehead protector. He caught Gaara with a hard stare.
"If I take this off, you will die. Back down now. I am a Jounin."
"Gaara!" Kankurou called, only now reaching his volatile brother. "Please stop! There is no need for this!"
In truth, Gaara was only too happy for the excuse to back down. Although he felt no fear of Kakashi, the man's unnerving speed and precision dictated caution even to him.
The sand flowed back into Gaara's gourd slowly, and he held Kakashi's gaze with his own every moment as it did so. Finally, it was done. He turned without a word and left the training grounds, his siblings running again to catch up to him.
Kakashi scratched his head. "Hmm."
"Trouble?" one of the Chuunins asked, coming up to his former sensei.
"Not for me," Kakashi responded in his typical cryptic manner, watching the departing Sand-nins with more than a little curiousity.