A/N: Thanks to Gissriver for taking off the pressure and to Lee/Guest for giving back the pressure. For both types of review, the timing was perfect. And to abbyhatake…for giving me a why do people read this…
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Chapter 101
Days Earlier
"Go to Konoha and tell Kamaru in order to save a life he must take a life," orders the Kazekage.
The fact that Gaara was suddenly called to appear in his father's office has made him edgy. On his way to meet the Kazekage, he was thinking that it could be that he was finally caught hiding something or rather someone in his room. Now, discovering that it isn't the case has made him able to ask, quite casually, "Whose, father?"
"Konoha's jinchuriki."
"Naruto?"
"So you know who Konoha's jinchuriki is." The Kazekage, surprised by his youngest son's knowledge, gives a triumphant chuckle. "Your brother must have told you. Good."
Gaara realizes his mistake belatedly, however, there's nothing he can do but nod his head in agreement.
The Kazekage steeples his fingers with his elbows resting on his desk, savoring the fact that he has just received a valuable information. "My plans are working."
"Your plans are working?" Gaara utters, allowing a cold smile of derision to contort his lips. "I doubt niisan can succeed. He will just die trying to defeat Naruto."
"My boy," gloats the Kazekage, sitting behind his desk with his face still wreathed in triumph, "it was never my intention for your brother to defeat Konoha's jinchuriki. I have you for that. That's why I'm sending you. You will be the one that will defeat Konoha's jinchuriki and bring him here. While Kamaru—Kamaru's role was to know the lay of the land and to find a way to ingratiate himself to the Konoha people that nobody would suspect him once he lures the jinchuriki, your way."
"Your niisan is a strategist. He weighs his options before he decides. Therefore, he knows that disobeying me will be the biggest—deadliest—mistake he can ever make," continues the Kazekage. "So you see my plan will definitely work."
Gaara doesn't even blink as the Kazekage spills things further in his excitement.
"Now that we know who Konoha's jinchuriki is, the time has come," rasps the Kazekage. "Kamaru dislikes fighting and killing more people than necessary so tell him he can just lead Naruto outside of Konoha, then you'll take over with the ambush."
The Kazekage's plan is now clear. Gaara is being sent to Konoha to defeat Naruto while his brother…Kamaru-niisan might not even be aware of it yet but he is playing right into their father's plan. He was sent ahead to befriend the people of Konoha and gather information.
Even Gaara is convinced that his niisan can actually just ask Naruto on some errand and nobody will suspect that he has laid out a plan to kidnap him. "When shall I set out for Konoha?" Gaara asks.
"Early tomorrow."
Gaara nods his head.
"By now, your brother might be hearing some gossip about an immortal," utters the Kazekage. That immortal—Hidan of Yugakure—came highly recommended by Kouzan for the task, but he never personally met the shinobi. He made sure that the connection between them can never be established…
Hidan should be in Konoha by now, his orders is to silently locate Konoha's jinchuriki but Kouzan has reassured the Kazekage that Hidan is a loud, pompous fool. Soon, Konoha's intel would learn of Hidan. Perfect. When Konoha's jinchuriki goes missing, Yugakure will be blamed, not—never Sunakagure.
"Immortal?" questions Gaara although he knows…the one that hurt Matsuri. Anger swells in his chest but he hides it well. If he loses his control, he will bring more harm to her…just when his father looks unsuspicious of him.
"I never have the pleasure of meeting him but your brother might." The Kazekage laughs. "Ask that of your niisan, boy. If he's still alive, he can tell you what a monster that one is. Then don't forget to tell him that I know more nins like that."
The threat isn't lost to Gaara. He recognizes what their father meant… If his niisan refuses, Rasa will just keep on sending someone to Konoha to do his task—someone who lacks his big niisan's finesse.
"Also tell Kamaru, when everything is prepared, he should bring his wife here. If he wants me to save her during childbirth, he has to comply with all my orders," states the Kazekage in a tone that won't accept disobedience.
"But mother—" Gaara's mask starts to crumble as dismay and anger roughens his voice. "—died giving birth to me. How can you be sure that Temari won't?"
"I won't let that happen again. Not again."
Knowing that there's a sure way for that not to happen—but that needs his father to stop now. With his voice heavy with laden meaning, Gaara probes. "It that your dream, father? To gain power by using any means necessary."
"Any means necessary?" drawls the Kazekage. "Do I detect from your tone that you expect me to fail?! I will not! I will not repeat the same mistake I did before with your mother. This time, Kamaru's wife will be fine so long as he chooses to do what I tell him to do!"
The raised voice of the Kazekage reverberates inside the office and an uneasy silence descends and lingers until Gaara decides to break it.
"Somebody once told me that one fights strongest when one is fighting for his own dream," speaks Gaara. "If you are convinced that your dream is everything to you, I should see that you would fight hard for it, father. I should see how it has made you stronger. Therefore, father…I want you to fight me."
The Kazekage straightens in his chair.
"You, father, want me to fight Naruto for the fulfilment of your own dream and the destruction of niisan's. Clearly, you see me as just a tool..." With eyes filled with a cold light, Gaara glances at his hands, his hands that have killed a lot of human beings. Finally, raising his head to face his father, he speaks clearly, determinedly, "Before I allow myself to be used, I want you, father, to fight me. Fight me armed with your dream. Show me that indeed a person with a dream fights stronger than someone who doesn't even know how to dream. Just like what Naruto said."
"What garbage are you spouting about now?" rasps the Kazekage, banging a fist on the table.
"Fight me, father. Rather than just tell me, show me, how much you want your dream to come true." And with that, Gaara turns around, heading out of the office, knowing that his father will follow him.
—o0o—
"You can't win against me, Gaara."
"Look around you, father." Gaara gestures at their desert surroundings. "There's sand even beneath your feet." With that said, a gigantic hand-like structure made of sand rises from the ground to make a grab of Rasa's feet.
Easily evading the sand-hand by quickly springing out of its way backward, the Kazekage sneers, "Is that all you've got?"
Suddenly, a gigantic tsunami made of sand appears, roaring loudly as it comes. Doing a seal, the Kazekage then immediately bends on his knees, going down with his hands reaching for the ground. Gold dust, which the Kazekage manipulates with his magnet style, starts to float and gather around.
The gold dust too becomes enormous, rivaling the size of the sand tsunami. Together, the two humongous lumps of small grains duel it out until the heaviness of the gold dust mixing with the sand particles overwhelms the sand.
The Kazekage has won that round but it was not easy. The sweat on his brow is proof that he has just exerted an enormous amount of chakra to control his gold dust. The Kazekage, surprised that his son has gained that much control over his bijuu, can only ask Gaara in disbelief, "You were able to do that without calling out Shikaku?"
"I don't need it in this fight," Gaara, crossing his hands on his chest, says succinctly.
"Fool!" shouts the Kazekage.
Gaara's sand starts to get out from his gourd on his back.
"Let me see what you are worth without the One-tail!" challenges the Kazekage. "Can you really defeat me without resorting to using it?!"
The sand from Gaara's gourd flows, twisting out like a large snake going for the kill. The Kazekage counters it with his gold dust acting the same. The particles swirl and clash in midair when Gaara, suddenly, putting his hand up, declares, "Sand hail."
The Kazekage is then forced to raise his own hands, to lift the gold dust from the ground to form a cover over his head, protecting himself from the onslaught of stone like clumps of sand raining down on him, when suddenly he realizes that the sand hail is just a diversion for him to raise his gold dust from the ground. The sand beneath his feet is now able to act like a quick sand engulfing him. Everything happened so fast that his feet is caught then his hand. Before his other hand becomes useless, he's able to move it, controlling his gold dust to attack straight towards Gaara.
Only, even without willing it, Gaara is protected by large hands made of sand that immediately forms a canopy over his head, warding off the Kazekage's fatal attack.
Just like an image of a mother protecting her young, Gaara is enveloped by sheltering hands, saved.
"Karura, you live on inside that child…" the Kazekage murmurs more to himself as that realization hits him in the gut right after he just attacked his own son with a lethal jutsu.
Karura, his wife, the mother of his children, even in death, she continues to live. Whereas he… he lives and he continues to live but for what? To gain strength? To gain power to protect those important to him?
With the unpalatable answer to that question, his eyes are forced open. Finally, the Kazekage sees things as they are. He can only speak quietly, awe and disbelief lacing his voice, "You've become stronger, Gaara, not because of the One-Tail—but because of your mother."
"Because of mother?" echoes Gaara, realizing that what his father has said is true. Somehow, in this fight, his control to subdue the beast in him is at its strongest. He can feel himself winning against the One-Tail who is always trying to take over his body.
With the blinds covering his eyes removed, the Kazekage takes a shaken breath, as he recognizes and acknowledges the extent of his past mistakes to his dead wife and his three—four children. "It seems I didn't possess the ability to see the true value of things until I loss them."
"What do you mean, father?"
"No matter when or what the sand will always protect you," the Kazekage says, matter of fact. Then a sad smile twitches his lips as he continues, "I should have realized it before. That's not Shukaku's power but it's your mother's—Karura's."
"How can you be sure it's mother's?"
"Because she loved you," the Kazekage states clearly.
The sand that still envelops the Kazekage suddenly retreats, until not one grain is left. With no encasing sand to hold him up, the Kazekage staggers upright.
Gaara can only stare at his father. His face, his stance is obviously shocked as he assimilates the fact that he had received love long before.
"I failed," With his shoulders having a defeated line to them, the Kazekage admits, "I failed to recognize then…I almost failed to recognize now, that a parent's love is a kind of power too."
Gaara looks on at the proud man before him, humbled by a sudden belated realization.
"I arbitrarily decided that you weren't worth anything. As I had done to your sister all those years ago. And now, I'm doing it again to her child."
Gaara frowns, catching the weird phrasing of his father's words. "Of course, Temari is my sister for marrying—"
The Kazekage shakes his head. "She's your flesh and blood."
"Temari can't be my sister—" Gaara reels in at the news. His father is lying. It can't be, not when… "—because that will mean Kamaru-niisan is…"
"Is not your real brother."
Nearby, a slight wind blows, gently lifting the particles of sand from the ground, only to drop the grains as soon as it disappears.
"Another one of your past sins, father." Gaara clenches his fists at his sides, as the burgeoning hate for the man standing before him becomes apparent in his eyes. "If I become the Kazekage, I will protect the people important to me. I will make sure they will be able to dream and find their own strength. I will not be like you."
The Kazekage smiles, one that makes his lips appear lopsided and his eyes radiate warmth, making him seem years younger. "You've become a fine man, son."
—o0o—
Days Later
"How—how did he die?" Shikamaru asks, his voice barely louder than a whisper.
"Heart attack," Kankuro answers. "But Gaara is convinced father committed suicide."
Shikamaru remains quiet. He came to Suna, ready to battle anyone that blocks his way to see the Kazekage, his father. Only, he arrived with people—shinobis and civilians alike—welcoming him home with saddened eyes.
The man who raised him up is dead. That realization is slowly sinking in to Shikamaru as Kankuro's voice drones on, disclosing a hushed information. According to Gaara, there was a possibility that their old man could have taken his own life.
There was that very small wound over the Kazekage's heart, so small that the medic who did the autopsy callously dismissed it as immaterial as there was no poison detected in the Kage's blood. Not saying a word to dispute the medic's finding, Gaara still believes that their father's gold dust entered his body that way and it carried with it electromagnetic properties. Before it disappeared, the metallic dust played havoc with the electrical conduction of their father's heart causing it to beat rapidly until it failed.
Heart attack but in reality…suicide.
Nobody but Gaara suspects it. Gaara then told Kankuro about it and now Kankuro tells him…It should remain a secret. It should not be publicly known, Shikamaru surmises. And he's sure that his brothers are also aware of the dangers if that information becomes known.
There would be a power struggle now that the Fourth Kazekage is dead. It's still quiet in Sunakagure but not for long. Once a respectable period of mourning has passed, fights will erupt between differing political factions. It will result in chaos and it will worsen the longer it takes to select a new Kazekage.
That cryptic message that someone was dead that Shikamaru received in Konoha, if that message fell to the wrong hands…Suna will be in danger from outside forces too.
The Fourth Kazekage knew more than anyone that with his death, his beloved Sunagakure would be in trouble.
Their father committing suicide sounds ridiculous especially to people that knew the man. So if indeed their father committed suicide, his reasons must far outweighed his reasons to live…
There must be a really good reason why their father did it. Shikamaru knows, he must discover that reason…
At the back of his head, no matter how hard he tries to subdue it, another thought is springing forward.
The man who posed a threat to Temari and their child is dead.
The danger to his family in Konoha is over…
It's over.
And with that Shikamaru is reminded that he and Yoshino made a deal. They both agreed that when it's over…Shikamaru must exit from Temari's and their child's lives permanently.
—o0o—
~4 3 11, 6 9 15AF P 6 20 15~
A/N: Whew finally. Again, hope you guys fill that box down there.