Past to Future

Chapter 4: Gaara's mission. Shukaku sealed?!

Aw-wite! Chapter 4 is up!!! BTW I'm changing Nekobi's name to Ryuhi. It just makes more sense. Look it up in a Japanese dictionary you'll get it.

10 minutes after Gaara came back down Shino-mirai was creaming Neji-mirai at Kankurou-mirai and Gaara-mirai's stash of video games. Kiba-mirai (who was currently high on sugar) was daring both Gaara's to each eat an entire bucket of ice cream. Gaara-mirai tried to ignore him.

"What's ice—" Gaara-mirai clamped his hand over his younger self's mouth.

"The work of the devil," he told him. "It makes people do strange things."

"....?"

"Can you picture Neji, Shino, Sasuke and me—you—us," Gaara-mirai paused.

"I get it."

"Singing 'If it makes you happy'?...Together?...In public?"

"No."

"It happened. Temari has it on tape and I can't find it." Gaara-mirai said. "And it was all thanks a single bowl of ice cream." Gaara-mirai turned and started to walk away.

"Gaara..." Kiba looked at him with a sly grin. "Are you...scared?"

"....." Gaara-mirai turned to the dog-using nin.

"Actually Kiba..." Temari-mirai cut in. "I think it's a good idea to..expose this Gaara," she placed a hand on the younger Gaara's shoulder, "to ice cream. It could change the whole future."

"Their futures already messed up thanks to Gaara. A little more can't hurt."

"What's a Chidori?" Sasuke asked his older self from the other sofa.

Kiba-mirai: ".....O.O...."

"Don't even think about it pretty boy!" Naruto-mirai jumped on top of Sasuke-mirai, knocking the whole sofa over.

Temari-mirai groaned. "There goes my clean living room..."

"What are you doing, last dead?!"

"You can't teach your younger self new moves!! That's like cheating!" Naruto-mirai yelled. "If you get to teach your past self your new tricks I should too!"

"No way!" Kiba-mirai shrieked. "If your future self learns new tricks I might have a problem in our match!!"

"Dude, you already had problems in our match." Naruto-mirai said.

Gaara-mirai stepped back out of the fray as all the future nins began yelling at each other. Neji-mirai and Shino-mirai turned and told them to shut up. Of course no one listened. The past nins looked awkward as they watch the arguments continue. The only one not participating was Gaara- mirai. He was leaning against the counter with an annoyed look on his face. Ryuhi gave a nervous whine and climbed up onto Gaara-mirai's shoulder.

"Yeah me too," he said. After a few more minutes he decided to stop them. "Hey." No one paid attention/heard. "Hey!" a little louder. No response. "ALRIGHT KNOCK IT OFF!!!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. Dead silence.

Tsunade came over while the girls were cleaning up from desert. Lee-mirai, Naruto-mirai, Gaara-mirai, Sasuke-mirai, and Neji-mirai were sitting on the floor between the coffee table and the sofa taking turns with the two video game controllers. Temari-mirai came over and sat down behind her youngest brother. Much to the past sand nins surprise she placed her arms around his neck and rested her chin on his head.

"Now can we have them?" she asked with a little pout.

"Get off my back woman, I'm fighting!" Gaara-mirai said keeping his eyes on the tv. Temari frowned and gave his hair a soft yank. "Fine. Go get it," he told his pet.

"What is that thing really?" Kakashi asked Gaara-mirai. "There's a spell surrounding that creature."

Gaara-mirai glanced at him then up at Temari who was scowling down at him. "Boy, what are you bringing in my house?"

"Um...Ryuhi's a dragon."

"Ha! I knew it wasn't a cat!" Kankurou-mirai said pointing.

"Really?" Tsunade said. "I've never seen one before. I should like to see it's true form."

The said dragon came down that moment with Gaara's sand colored cape. Naruto-mirai paused the game and stared at the cape as the sand nin took it. "I will figure it out." He told Gaara-mirai talking about the cape, but only a few people knew what he was talking about. Gaara-mirai gave him a what ever look and laid it flat on the table. Everyone looked at the cape then at Gaara-mirai, he motioned them to wait then flipped the cape over onto its other side. Suddenly there were several boxes and bags laying on the cape or sticking out of pockets. Gaara-mirai glanced at Naruto-mirai with a grin as the blonde nin muttered 'crap'.

"Holy crap! How'd you do that?" Ino demanded. She swore the cape was just an ordinary piece of cloth a few minutes ago. Where'd all this stuff come from?

None of the future nins seemed bothered by this and wasted no time looking for their presents.

"So Gaara," Lee-mirai said as he sorted through the random items. "What all did you do on this mission of yours?"

"Yes," Tsunade said (there's only one Tsunade so she's not going to have the –mirai). "You only told me about the Cards. Nothing else."

Everyone turned to Gaara-mirai expectingly. Gaara-mirai looked very serious for a moment. "That's...." everyone leaned forward. "none of your business." He said in monotone. Everyone did the traditional anime 'crash'. Several people jumped up, surrounded in flames, towering over him with the words TELL US NOW hovering over them. Gaara-mirai sighed then complied.

(Gaara-mirai narrating)

After I left Konohagure I traveled around the surrounding villages inside Konoha's territory. Then proceeded to Kumogakure. I spoke to many Shinobi and the leaders of Kunogakure, but no one knew of a jitsu that could seal a demon spirit with in a vessel. I didn't plan on staying there long after I learned that but I discovered something that was really interesting. (Both Naruto's: "What? What?" Both Sakura's: "Shut up!") I discovered that sand does the most interesting thing when it gets struck by lightning. (pauses for effect) It turns to glass. (Hinata-mirai: "Really?" Kiba: "Cool.") I learned that if I concentrate enough I can make the glass while the lightning's still touching it do whatever I want. The ninja's there use lightning as a jutsu so after a little negociations (Kankurou-mirai: "Negociations my butt.") I convinced them to teach me to use the same kind of Jutsu. I tried it once on my sand and got this. (points at Ryuhi) She's not really a flesh and blood dragon. She's made of glass from sand and my Chakra. (several people whistle in amazement). Ryuhi takes this form so she doesn't attract attention.

After that I went to Iwagakure with the same results no one knew of the jutsu I was looking for. I decided to skip Sunagakure because that would be pointless and went to Kirigakure and the surrounding villages. Because of all the water there, there are a lot of pirates. One pirate ship attacked the one I was on and I killed them all. I explored their ship and found lots of treasure on board including that cape: a opening to a space of nothingness that can be controlled with chakra. As long as the cape can cover it, anything can be carried, and any amount.

I stayed in Kirigakure for a really long time tracking down pirates, taking some of their treasure, then turning them in for a reward. (Temari: "Isn't that piracy it's self? You get a reward after taking their stolen treasure?" shrug. "I guess. I don't care I got a lot of money off of it." Temari: "...") It was about a month before I had to return to Konoha that I found the Cards. I had no idea what they were and was going to leave them, but Ryuhi thought I should take them too. So I did. I learned about the Cards later and what they were supose to do. So naturally I went home and tried them out. The first one I tried was Sand, since I figured that was the easiest one for me. But simply summoning it left me exausted and I couldn't control it. He had to come out to help me. (most of the past nins: ??? All of the future nins: "!!") It took two full days to recover from summoning Sand Card then of course I used another one and the same thing happened, but I could control it for a bit. I gradually learned how to control each one and have used them a lot. Except for two. One is Mind Card, which is suppose to allow the releaser to control or erase memories. The other is Time Card, and you know the result of that.

"I think your leaving a lot out," Tsunade said, narrowing her eyes.

Gaara-mirai looked like he could care less.

"You said you found a seal," Lee-mirai said. "You left that part out."

"That was in a scroll I found on the first pirate ship," Gaara-mirai said, now tired of talking. "I learned that Jutsu before I found the Cards." Naruto-mirai leaned forward. Gaara-mirai leaned the other way.

"Show us."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Later?"

"Maybe."

"Alright."

The doorbell rang and Sakura-mirai got up to answer it. She came back a few minutes later. "Hinata-chan, your father wants you to come home now."

Hinata-mirai nodded and stood. "Um...Neji, are you coming home?"

"No I'll stay here." Neji-mirai answered, not bothering to ask if he could stay, the past nins noticed, but apparently this happened often and none of the sand nins cared. Soon all the future nins had left except Neji-mirai, Lee-mirai, Sasuke-mirai, and Naruto-mirai. They set up futons on the living room floor while Temari-mirai set up beds futons in the guest rooms for the past nins.

Naruto-mirai asked Gaara-mirai again to show them the seal and he complied. Placing his hands in the Tiger seal then did ten other seals. Chakra became visible in his hand and he pushed his hand to his chest, pushing the chakra into his body. He grimaced a moment then slumped forward gasping. Then he sighed and sat up. "The sand is sealed for the next twenty four hours," he told them.

"Whoa..." Kankurou-mirai whistled.

"Ano sa, ano sa!" Naruto-mirai said. "Does that mean I can hit you? You can get beat up and stuff?"

"Ye—no," Gaara-mirai said, inching away from his friend. The past nins went to their rooms and to bed except for Gaara who sat at the kitchen counter/table unnoticed watching the five future nins in the living room.

"Can you sleep?" Neji-mirai was asking.

"If I wanted to," Gaara-mirai replied from his seat on the overstuffed chair next to the sofa. 'But I'm not going to' hung in the air unspoken.

Someone thumping on the ceiling above interrupted the silence. "Shut up and go to sleep down there!" Temari-mirai yelled from her room.

"We are!" Naruto-mirai yelled up. He and the others climbed into their futons and began to fall asleep. Gaara-mirai remained curled up on his chair. He watched the others slowly drift off into the land of their dreams. When he was sure they were completely asleep he got up and went into the kitchen, pausing a moment when he saw younger Gaara, then went over to the fridge.

"Why don't you sleep?" Gaara asked.

"Same reason we didn't before we knew about him taking over." Gaara-mirai told him, opening the freezer. "There are still nightmares." He took out a carton of ice cream (sugar-free) and picked up two spoons and sat down next to Gaara, handing him one. After a few minutes of silence, Sakura came down muttering that she couldn't sleep either (she didn't know that neither of them slept). Gaara-mirai motion with his spoon to the silver ware drawer. She got out a spoon for herself and joined them for some ice cream.

They sat in silence for a while, eating the ice cream deep in their own thoughts. Gaara-mirai looked up suddenly, then dropped his spoon loudly on the kitchen floor. His younger self and Sakura frowned in question as he got down and picked it up. Gaara-mirai paused before standing and looked over when the leaf nins were sleeping. There were lots of little veins around Neji-mirai's eyes. He was looking at him with the Byakugan through his eyelids. Gaara-mirai gave him a look then stood up. He took the ice cream and put it back into the freezer.

Gaara-mirai grabbed Sakura and his younger self's arm and pulled him down below the counter as four kunai flew at them. Neji-mirai jumped up, purposely stepping on Sasuke-mirai and Lee-mirai, and ran to the Gaara's and Sakura behind the counter.

"There are eight," Neji-mirai told them. Back at the futons Sasuke-mirai sat up, thinking it was Naruto-mirai who had stepped on him, but was refrained from yelling as a kunai barely missed his head. Lee-mirai shook Naruto-mirai awake. "Gaara, go outside. There's no one out there." Gaara- mirai didn't move. "You don't have your sand protecting you anymore. You're at a disadvantage."

Growling in frustration, Gaara-mirai got up taking the two younger ninjas with him. He jumped through the kitchen window into the backyard. It took a few minutes for Sakura and Gaara to realize that the window hadn't shattered when they went through it. It was still intact. In his hand, Gaara noticed a red card in Gaara-mirai's hand. Seeing his younger self's expression Gaara-mirai showed him the Card.

"Ghost Card." He explained to them. "You use it to go through walls." They jumped into the trees, out of sight. 'Damn it...this isn't good. Those ninjas are jônins from Suna...again. If they attack me now....'

Two jônins jumped out of the window, shattering it, and onto the grass. "I'll kill them." Gaara whispered.

Gaara-mirai grabbed his wrist and shook his head. "Kage bushin no Justu," he said pointing at the sand nins below.

"Then what do you suggest?"

Gaara-mirai looked around suddenly. "Where's Ryuhi?" A chiming noise came from above them. Ryuhi sat on a branch above them. "Go get my sash." Gaara- mirai ordered the glass dragon. She climbed down squirril like down the tree and back into the house. Gaara frowned. Why the hell would he need—? "There!" Gaara-mirai through a kunai he'd picked up at a tree across the yard. One of the Kage bushin disappeared as the justu was broken. The sand automatically flew up to protect them as several kunai were thrown at them.

Ryuhi came back with Gaara-mirai's white sash in it's mouth. Gaara-mirai took it and wrapped the ends around each arm then took off through the trees, making sure the sand nins knew where he was, but leaving Gaara and Sakura behind. They were about to follow them when more kunai came at them, but was blocked by the sand. The ninjas that remained in the house came out, followed by Naruto-mirai, Neji-mirai, Sasuke-mirai, and Lee-mirai. Gaara glared at the sand nins and finished them off with a quick Sabaku Sousou. The leaf nins joined them in the tree.

"Where's Gaara?" Naruto-mirai asked. Sakura pointed in the direction Gaara- mirai had gone. "Let's go." The Byakugan and Sharingan appeared in the Hyuuga and Uchiha's eyes and the four leafs jumped in the indicated direction, with Gaara and Sakura trailing them.

When they reached Gaara-mirai, the sand nins were no where to be found and Gaara-mirai was unconscious on the ground with a clear liquidy cloth on the ground around him. The clear turned to a murky white then solid white with black seals on it. Then the seals disappeared leaving only a normal looking cloth both Gaara's use s a sash. The leaf nins didn't notice the cloth and went to Gaara-mirai.

Gaara reached down to pick the sash up. Don't touch it!! Gaara jumped back.

'Why?'

Something powerful is sealed in that cloth. It's filled with your chakra though. One mistake and it could harm us and I would not be able to protect you.

'What is it?'

I don't know. It's an old power, long before my time.

Ryuhi jumped up on Gaara's shoulder and looked at him with icy eyes. Then it jumped down and gathered the cloth together and stood as though protecting it. Sakura stared at Ryuhi then at the future leaf nins around Gaara-mirai. Something had happened here, Gaara-mirai had made it happen, but what in the world was it?