Temari was bored.
She had polished her fan a hundred times, waiting for something to happen. Gaara still hadn't returned, and her sensei had been called away to another audience with the Hyuuga. Surprisingly, Kankurou had opted to join them this time, leaving her with nothing to do.
Heaving out another melodramatic sigh, she decided to take a walk. Surely someone was doing something interesting in this military camp they called a mansion...
He hadn't meant to return to the training grounds today, but something pulled him back. This time, he took a roundabout path there, not wanting Kankurou to follow him. His brother seemed to take an interest in everything Gaara did these days.
Sure enough, Hinata was there again. And this time, she had four others with her. Surprisingly, Hinata had friends. Gaara's eyes hardened; two of them were Genins here. He immediately dismissed the other two present; they were meaningless faces, not even Shinobi.
Gaara had no interest in people without any Chakra-molding ability. If they got in his way, he would kill them. Shukaku, however, had other ideas.
Look at them all. Look how they mock you
Mock me?
Gaara scoffed silently. You're getting desperate, aren't you? he dared to ask the demon, taunting its clumsy manipulation tactic.
Then he fell to his knees, his mind full of discord.
"M...mother?" he choked aloud. Orienting on the sound, the training Genin were suddenly at his side as he grasped his head, trying to clear it.
"Gaara-kun!" Hinata gasped, recognising the tormented Shinobi. "Da... daijoubou?"
Through the fire, Gaara twisted one eye up to look at her. Shukaku didn't let up, screaming in his mind. Worse, he could clearly see the shadow of his mother superimposed over his vision.
"Go... gomen!" he gasped at it. "I'll... give you what you want!" Not understanding his words, the Shinobi crowded in closer.
They screamed with one voice as the youngest, barely more than a child with stark purple hair, was devoured by the sand. Kunai flew fast, caught by Shukaku's absolute defense. Then a solid wall of sand shot up between them, knocking the Genin back into the open of the training field and hiding Gaara.
When the barrier vanished, Gaara stood behind it, completely composed. Drops of blood coloured his pale skin; sand kissed them away. Shukaku purred in his mind, quiet and content after the feast.
"Wha... what are you? Demon! Oni!" one of the Genin cried. He held a shuriken as if he knew how to use it, Gaara noted. Not that it would matter. Following his usual practice, he mentally ordered a thin wall of sand to encircle the training ground, a precaution against anyone sensing the rush of Chakra in a battle. Not that it was necessary. It was a training ground, and even if one of the Hyuuga came to investigate, it was only Hinata after all.
She wasn't worth dying for.
She was the only one who wasn't ready to strike him, her hands indecisively in front of her mouth again. The other two Genins stalked Gaara, shuriken and kunai in hand. The non-Shinobi shrieked again and ran for the door back into the building, but Gaara caught him by the feet and crushed the life from him without a thought.
Shukaku drank this one quickly, anticipating the next kill. The coming blood would be so much sweeter.
The shuriken whirled in, a solid blur caught by sand and launched straight back at its wielder. Gaara chuckled as it took him in the shoulder, Shukaku's hot bloodlust infusing his own feelings through their intimate link and appealing to his human brutality. He had no objections to killing, not really. These wouldn't matter too much, anyway, would they?
"Gaara-kun... what are you doing..." Hinata asked helplessly. Gaara glanced at her once and dismissed her, bothered by the twinges her huge eyes were giving him.
The other Genin leapt forward, led by a storm of kunai. Every one stuck in the sudden solid shell around the Sand-nin, and so did the Shinobi, slamming in face-first, hard, and spitting blood when he hit the ground.
Gaara watched him curiously through a crack in the shell, wondering what he would do next.
"Gaara... GAARA-KUN!" Hinata cried, trying to get his attention. "Stop! Why are you..."
"Urusei." Not a flicker of emotion. Tiring of the game, he toppled his protective shell forward like a wall on top of the prone, stunned Shinobi.
And Shukaku feasted again.
Becoming truly bored now, Gaara turned to the remaining, wounded Shinobi facing him. This one couldn't even dodge a slow-moving shuriken. Barely worth killing, and certainly not worthy of Shukaku. At least the other Genin had had the courage to attack the specter that was Gaara.
"Run," he suggested. His eyes widened in surprise when his opponent shook his head, finally wrenching the shuriken from his arm with an agonized breath and turning to the still-silent Hyuuga girl.
"Hinata-san, what are you doing?" he asked in blank amazement. "Your Byakugan could help us! Tell me where to strike!"
"I... don't... don't want to..." Hinata stammered, seeming truly surprised by the words. "Maki-kun, doushiyou...?"
Maki glanced between the two, the girl with the powerful gift who wouldn't help him and the shadowed figure of the most awesome Shinobi he had ever faced. His life was unexpectedly prolonged; Gaara was staring at Hinata, mouth hanging open.
"N-nani?" he choked, unable to believe his ears. "What are you... why don't you hate me?" The sand rising behind him immediately dropped as he fell into a half-crouch, clutching his head again. He couldn't comprehend this. Why didn't she want to kill him? Why didn't she hate him? And why... why was she still alive?
His eyes snapped open, focusing quickly on the Shinobi girl with a snarl. His hand flew out with a snarl and the sand surged forward obediently—but at the last moment, as she raised her arms in a futile protection gesture, Gaara lost his nerve. His hand swung instead to Maki, and the Shinobi's eyes widened as he realised that he was the next target.
He was the next helpless victim. Shukaku finished it brutally quickly.
Gaara stood, breathing heavily. Something was wrong. Something was wrong with him. Why didn't he just kill the Hyuuga girl? Twice and thrice he clenched his hand, and sent the sand charging forward. Twice and thrice she flinched back, her vulnerability alone giving him pause.
And as the seconds passed, as the killing rage drained away, he sank back into resigned serenity. Why did he want to kill her so badly? he wondered. Surely she wasn't worth his time. Suddenly it wasn't so important. He spun around abruptly, meaning to leave.
But a solid wall of sand stood in front of his face, blocking his exit. He jerked back in surprise.
"What are you—"
An arm came out of the wall, touching Gaara's face and turning him back to face Hinata with a gentle but unstoppable touch. Sand took hold of her feet as she stared in horrible fascination. Had she tried to run then, she would have died. But she couldn't turn away from the battle of wills before her.
She's pretty, Shukaku noted inside his head.
So? Gaara responded warily.
I want you to kill her
At any other time, Gaara would have agreed. But he had had his fill of killing today. The moment was past.
No, Gaara said abruptly, making his mind up in an instant.
No!
I want you to kill her! Shukaku snapped. But Gaara took commands from no-one.
Yes!
There was an instant of silence, as if Shukaku had drawn in a deep breath. Gaara whimpered and flinched, bracing himself for a mighty contest of will.
There was no contest. Shukaku had gone too long without clean blood, unlike that from Pinto the priest, and now that it had the taste again, the demon simply couldn't wait any longer. Sand enveloped Gaara's arm like a sleeve and raised it; sand moulded his lips; sand struck him in the stomach. The expulsion of his breath formed words.
'Desert Coffin!' he choked, to his own revulsion.
The sand wrapping the helpless Leaf-nin's feet grabbed her, oozing up Hinata's body and binding her before she could react. Only her eyes were visible, white pupil-less eyes staring at Gaara through small cracks in the deadly grip.
"No!" Gaara managed through lips that were already shaping the next part of the jutsu. "I don't want to—"
DO WHAT YOU'RE TOLD!
The words blasted through his mind, fiery pain dawning in his temples. He gasped and dropped to his knees, the gourd on his back suddenly too heavy to carry. He turned his face up to the Hinata, his eyes blazing. "Desert—"
"GAARA!"
The jutsu fell apart his sister ran to Gaara's side. "Temari!" Gaara choked past the gag of sand. "Ariga..."
The world swam around her furious gaze and Gaara fainted dead away, Shukaku catching him and laying him gently on the ground.
The sand flowed back into his gourd. Temari swore it was laughing at her.
A/N: Karen ocampo, you just wanted a mention in the author's notes, didn't you? :P Thanks for all the reviews. And immortalrin and everyone else, too, I love the attention. Meet me back here late Tuesday/Wednesday for chapter 8- Betrayal. Temari is ready to explode. Will Hinata lie for Gaara after seeing him kill her friends? Will she manage to speak a complete sentence without blushing or stuttering? Probably not, but then again, it's not a soap opera. Watch this space...