Alright, here's chapter three, I hope you enjoy it.
...and because I forgot disclaimers earlier...I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Three
"…and so, you have to get a bell. If you can get one, you get to eat lunch, the one who doesn't goes to the stump. You have until noon," Gaara finished, pointing out a stump, which he had actually brought back from Konoha for this training exercise, and a timer.
"Yes! I can do this," exclaimed Hagaimaru, "No sweat. Piece of Cake!"
Gaara found himself smiling ever so slightly in spite of himself. Hagaimaru's 'ready-to-go' attitude was rather contagious. It reminded Gaara of the Hokage in his adolescent years.
Seiseike looked slightly annoyed at the other boy's very loud display. Yaezaki looked ready, with a slight glint in her eye of excitement.
"Alright then," Gaara began, "Ready…set…Go."
Someone had enough insight to actually use a smoke bomb to cover the three genin's get-away. When the smoke cleared, it showed Gaara stood alone in the middle of the sand, hand up and gathering chakra, while he held his other hand up, sand swirling around it. The sand slowly took the form of an eye, and Gaara looked down to it, and it looked back up to him. He then crushed the sand eye, and the grains scattered, looking for the hidden genin of team 6.
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Seiseike looked from behind a sand dune. He looked closely at what his teacher did. As soon as he caught sight of the eye, he knew immediately that there was no good place to hide. He knew of the 'third eye' technique he guessed Gaara was using, and if he was in an area covered with sand, the eye would be able to find them easily, as the sand used in the technique would be indistinguishable from all of the sand around them.
He quickly ran away to a further dune. The best thing to do would be to stall the time it would take the eye to find him. He hoped his teammates knew the same.
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Hagaimaru kneeled behind another dune, planning an assault on Gaara, and ran out to attack…almost. He ended up colliding with Seiseike, who, as luck would have it, choose the same dune he had been about to run from as the place he would fall back to.
Hagaimaru, though annoyed, whispered harshly to Seiseike, "What the hell are you doing!"
Seiseike rubbed his eye, which had collided with his teammate's knee, "What do mean 'what the hell am I doing?' What the hell are you doing? Rushing to attack like a moron."
"Moron!" Hagaimaru kept his voice low still, "I'm the moron? You're one to talk! I can't…"
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Yaezaki caught sight of her teammates, talking very animatedly to each other.
Their probably coming up with a plan, She thought, and quickly ran over to them.
"Guys, what's happening?" She asked in the same hushed tones they were using.
Hagaimaru whispered back to her, "I was about to attack, and maybe get myself a bell and some lunch, when he," he motioned to Seiseike, "ran into me and told me to stay back."
"Because," Seiseike said to defend himself, " I saw Gaara-sensei use a technique that could jeopardize our positions."
"What jutsu?" asked Yaezaki.
"The third eye technique," answered Seiseike.
"We can just use some basic genjustsu to get around then," she replied, "but even if we get past being noticed by the third eye, we're still dealing with an elite jounin of Hidden Sand, Sabuko no Gaara."
"So," said Hagaimaru, "why's that matter?"
Seiseike let out an exasperated sigh, "you idiot, what's one of the most famous things Gaara is known for?"
Hagaimaru looked blankly at him, then confused, until after several moments his face lit up, "His--"
"His absolute defense," interrupted Yaezaki.
"I was about to say that!" complained Hagaimaru
"So…how do we get past it?" asked Seiseike.
"I've heard that if he's very low on chakra, it stops being able to protect him, or I suppose if you're somehow faster then it," Yaezaki said, "but I've never heard of anyone actually being able to get past it."
"Hey!" Said Hagaimaru suddenly, "I've got an idea…"
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Gaara watched Hagaimaru talk animatedly. He couldn't hear what was being said, the limitations of the third eye were substantial.
He shifted the eye to look at the other two children. They seemed surprised by something.
If I'm right, and Hagaimaru is like Naruto, he's come up with a plan.
He could only consider what the plan might be, but some aspect of it wasn't completely fine tuned, or so the seemingly very hard punch Yaezaki delivered to Hagaimaru's head led him to believe. He watched carefully as the both turned to Seiseike, who talked slowly and calmly, though once again, he couldn't tell what about.
The two other genin looked to him, nodded, and they split off into different directions.
Gaara stood silently, released the jutsu, and prepared himself for whatever oncoming attack they might make.
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"Then we know what to do," said Seiseike to his companions, "Let's go."
They split up, with Seiseike moving to a dune closest to their teacher, and Hagaimaru furthest away and behind Gaara, while Yaezaki stood in the middle and off to one side.
He held a smoke bomb carefully in one hand. He would be the one to start the plan; he was almost shaking with anticipation.
Yaezaki looked carefully around; she just had to make sure she wasn't noticed long enough to do her part.
Seiseike watched for the signs that would signal when he had to start. A bit of sweat trickled down his face.
Hagaimaru waited another moment, and then threw the smoke bomb to the opposite side of Gaara that Yaezaki was.
The small explosion and smoke caught Gaara's attention, and he looked over to see exactly what was happening. He didn't notice the kunai thrown at him from the opposite side. He didn't even flinch when he heard the sand blasting up from the ground to deflect them.
Now! Thought Seiseike, and ran through the seals. Boar, ox, bird, rat, snake…he rested on horse and ran out, feeling the chakra pulsing about to complete the technique.
Gaara noticed a figure running from out of a dune to his left, and turned to look. He saw a flash of blue and heard, "Akumu no Jutsu!"
The world faded away…
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Gaara looked down at his hands. He knew they were his, but they were smaller then he remembered them being just moments ago. He saw a teddy bear on the ground next to him, right by the swing he was sitting on.
There were children around him.
"Monster!"
"It's Gaara…Sabuko no Gaara.!"
"Run away, he's gonna kill us all!"
"Monster!"
"Monster!"
"Monster!"
He reached out a hand to the children, tried to tell them he wasn't a monster…but they faded away, leaving behind them an image of his father.
"What are you crying for? Crying will only make you weak!"
He tried to say something to his father, too, but he also faded away, leaving…Yashamaru. Dying…because of him.
"I always…resented you…"
Gaara's eyes grew wide. Yashamaru continued, "You were never loved…"
Never loved…
Never loved…
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The jutsu ended, and Gaara regained his senses, and looked impartially to his surroundings. Several more kunai littered the ground, and Seiseike stood panting, obviously almost out of chakra. The other two genin were still hidden, out of sight.
"Impressive technique," Gaara said to Seiseike, though loud enough to make sure the other two students heard, "but you miscalculated two things."
Seiseike looked annoyed, almost bitter that Gaara had taken his best jutsu with so little effect, and didn't answer.
Gaara continued, unphased, and raised on finger, "one: my shield of sand protects me regardless of my will, I have no control over it. Therefore, even if you attack me while I'm under the influence of genjutsu, it will protect me.
"Two," he raised a second finger, "no matter what kind of 'nightmares' your technique shows me, it isn't as terrible as anything I've already experienced in real life."
He ended his little speech, just as the timer rang, and walked away, bells jingling by his side.
Okay, hope you enjoyed that, please review. And Chapter 4 should be out soon.