Hola Readers, did you miss me? I mean if you were reading Class Cupid you wouldn't be, just saying…
Anyway welcome to the "What if" series in which I will be exploring the various "what if" scenarios that never happened in the plot. Today's scenario: What if Kankuro had actually found the lamp? This picks on Chapter 16: "Promises Are Made to be Broken"'s scene where Kankuro, Bisuke and Ameno are searching for traces of Raccoon left around the village and follow a scent to Gaara's childhood room.
I hope you all enjoy it!
Thoughts are in italics
Memories/flashbacks are in bold italics
Bold if not for emphasis, is for my beginning/endnotes
Disclaimer: You should know Naruto isn't mine because Gaara would've had a muuuuuuch better childhood, just saying.
What If Scenario: Ruthless Pursuit of the Truth
"You're sure it was here?" He questioned the dog over his shoulder, he saw the hound bristle in the corner of his eye and huff.
"Yes! It smells like her right now, like she's—" the ninken hesitated, "well, inside?" He sniffed once more for good measure before nodding once as if confirming it to his own self. He nudged his snout next to Kankuro's hand on the lock and nodded.
Voices warred inside Kankuro's head as he stared at the small lock on the chest in his hand. He quickly moved past the childhood notions that wanted him to believe that he'd find the body parts of Gaara's past victims inside, but what remained was the strange feeling that he'd be able to help his brother if he looked in this untouched toy box and the logical argument that this was a waste of time.
To hell with it though—what did he have to lose? Bisuke might be mistaken, but weirder things had happened that day.
A small screwdriver was in his hand in the next second, tongue bitten lightly between his front teeth as he picked the lock until he heard a satisfying click. The lid was thrown open in the next second, and Bisuke was hanging over the side of the chest sniffing wildly while Kankuro carefully pawed at Gaara's childhood trinkets.
On the very top was a stuffed bear nearly as big as the chest was wide and certainly as large as Gaara when he was a child. Tied to its neck was a gauzy purple ribbon that Kankuro couldn't remember to save his life, but when Bisuke only momentarily seemed to sniff it in interest before diving back in, he gently placed it to the side to worry over later.
Kankuro displaced a medium sized snowglobe that oddly had nothing in the center of it and was filled with purple glitter instead of fake snow, a lilac and cream colored wind up box, and a bag of small figurines that were a dark purple—since when had Gaara been so into purple? Finally they reached the bottom, Bisuke practically inside of the chest himself as he nosed another, albeit smaller, brown bear with something dark tucked between it's armpit.
"There! The smell is coming from that dark bottle!" Bisuke yipped, tail wagging rapidly, but face folded in confusion.
Kankuro wiggled the dark bottle from the bear's arms, eyes narrowing at the small bottle, barely large enough to fit in his palm, and wondering how Bisuke could've possibly gotten Raccoon's scent from…pottery. In Gaara's room? Since when did Gaara have something like this anyway? Well, he shot all the other toys and purple accessories a glance, he didn't really know his brother all that well did he?
"And you said that it smelled like she was…in there?" Ameno questioned behind them.
Bisuke gave a nod, pawing at Kankuro's hand though he was also confused.
Kankuro turned his attention back to the bottle, noting the golden symbols and small print on the outside, though it was a little dusty and therefore hard to read. He smoothed his thumb over the bottom of the lamp and squinted, nearly dropping the bottle when it started to glow in surprise.
"The hell?!" He really did drop the bottle, luckily onto his folded legs so it didn't suffer any damage, as it started to pool out dark purple smoke that gathered to slowly form a hazy figure.
Behind him, he heard Ameno whip out a kunai as he hauled himself to his feet to the tune of Bisuke's low growl, muscles tensed so hard his wound started to ache beneath his bandages. The small bottle made a tiny clink against the wood floors, but continued to spill out plumes of smoke.
As the smoke stopped circling the figure took solid form. The first thing he noticed was the long golden sandals that stretched to just below the knee—the contrast against the developed bronze calves aesthetically exquisite to a craftsman like himself. Above that knee was the uninterrupted path of brown skin into nearly microscopic dark purple shorts that were skin tight. Connecting those...arguably underwear to a purple tube top, was two suspender-like strips of cloth. From that tube top was another strip that led to a golden necklace with small golden chains spilling over both soldiers, some hanging into her chest haphazardly.
But what made Kankuro freeze up wasn't how…well frankly hot this woman/clone/jutsu was. It was that long dark mane of wild curls falling over one shoulder. The way the lower half of her face was covered by a sheer veil hooked across her face with another golden chain.
And then there were those purple eyes that pierced through him –ones he hadn't seen in 3 years.
"Kankuro." She broke the silence, her voice just as inexplicable as before. Somehow melodic and tortured as he remembered. But what right did she have? After what she'd done to them—to Gaara, especially after this discovery! To be under their nose the entire time, in Gaara's childhood room at that.
"This is…Maki Miyako." Ameno's voice cut through the tension in the room and in a moment's notice everything shifted.
Bisuke launched himself up, mouth open to bite, while Ameno lunged, pushing him lightly aside and brandishing a kunai with a determined glint in her eye. When he looked into Miyako's eyes for a moment his stomach dropped in fear that they were going to die.
It happened in slow motion—Miyako lifted one golden chained hand up towards Bisuke and he disappeared in a puff of smoke, with the other hand she flicked and Ameno suddenly froze, a ripple of purple energy following swiftly after across the room.
"We don't have time for this." Miyako sighed, stepping around Ameno easily and leveling Kankuro with an unimpressed stare. He inched backwards suddenly aware that he was dealing with an at least Jounin-level tactician with unknown skillsets without his primary weapon.
He surveyed his surroundings as she stepped towards him, eye catching Ameno's weapon pouch as Miyako came to stand in front of him, though leaving a foot of space between still.
"Listen to me, I know you have no reason to trust me but Gaara is dying and we can't delay any further—so just," she sighed, closing her eyes and bringing her fingertips to rub at her temples. Seeing his chance, Kankuro swiftly stepped forward to deliver a jab to her neck, only to have his hand caught and wrenched around. He winced, but followed the motion by getting onto his knees and attempting to offset her balance with a chop to the back of the knee.
With speed he wasn't aware she possessed, his offending wrist was pinned to the floor by her foot and she continued to stare bored down at his snarl.
"Kankuro, please." She huffed, as if he was acting outrageously. He would be gob smacked if his heart wasn't beating in both anger and panic.
"This bottle, you see it?" She pointed down to the small bottle near her foot. "When you rubbed it you took," she paused with a dark look momentarily, "ownership of the power of the lamp." When he looked both pissed off and confused, she elaborated. "Kankuro, I'm a genie." She said slowly.
The struggle he had been trying to put up paused, eyes blown wide as he digested the words that came from her mouth. She let him process, but only released his wrist from her iron grip.
'A genie…does she think I'm some kind of child? What is her angle here? Does she really believe I'll fall for something so trivial?'
As his expressions changed, honestly Kankuro was such an open book Miyako wasn't sure how he could lie to save his life on missions, Miyako opened her mouth to prepare to ask what he needed to see to prove she was what she said she was, his face suddenly smoothed out. Miyako might've felt better about it if it weren't for the simple fact that she knew Kankuro, and that was not a reassuring look.
"A genie?" He repeated. "So you'll give me 3 wishes?" Most men would be salivating over a chance like this—most believing men, Kankuro however laid boneless on the floor and his questions were asked blankly.
"17." She corrected, and rather than react with glee at this new discovery—again, like most men before him—he only pitched an eyebrow up…in disbelief.
'Dammit to hell, what can I show him that will make him believe I am what I say I am? I can't keep up this freeze-frame that long.'
Miyako groaned. "Look, you obviously don't believe me, but as I said we don't have time for this—and if you were thinking that I'd fall for that pathetic performance you've obviously forgotten that I know you better than that. You're not a good actor." To her glee the boy's jaw fell open below her in scandalous anger.
"If you think I'm going to release you so you can try to make a grab for Ameno's weapons or a dash to alert someone then you obviously don't know me very well." She continued before he could interrupt. "You're not being released until you believe me. I am a genie, that is my lamp, and if you want to save Gaara in time before he dies you'll give me the benefit of the doubt." Then, knowing that Kankuro was a man who needing to see to believe –he and Gaara were much too similar, Miyako flicked her hand outward to summon the smoke that shimmered like glitter in sunlight before swirling into a circle above Kankuro's head; an image taking shape in the middle of Gaara, surrounded by green, eyes wide and mouth ripped open into a silent scream as red poured from his body.
"Gaara!" Miyako shuttered her eyes at the tormented twist of Kankuro's features, only barely catching the moment his fingers passed through the haze of the image as he tried to desperately grab for him.
"That's what I'm talking about." She choked. "If we don't move quickly Shukaku will be taken from Gaara fully and he will be dead."
Kankuro's hand clenched into a fist below her as he bit his lip. "If you mean to save Gaara—" he took a deep breath and passed his free hand roughly over his face to control the shakiness in his voice, "then why can't you stop it here and now?"
"That's not how my magic and this curse works!" She snapped, rolling her shoulders under his intense scrutiny to quell her anger that he would even dare imply she didn't want to save Gaara.
"To be able to perform any feats of magic for extended periods of time," she huffed as, so ironically, the coil to the control she had on the freeze-frame spell started to loosen, "my master needs to believe in magic and more importantly believe me."
Kankuro squirmed looking back and forth from the dark image that confirmed his brother was dying to Miyako's hardened Amethyst eyes.
"Even if you were…a genie, why would I believe that this isn't all some sort of scheme against Sand? You've played us once before."
Miyako groaned and just as the spell broke with an audible snap, she removed her foot from his remaining wrist, bent down and hauled him up by his arm and spun around just as Ameno was fumbling on the ground to regain her footing and relocate Miyako.
"Ameno." Miyako trilled, and the girl barely had a chance to orient herself before Miyako dropped her sugar sweet mask and demanded flatly: "sleep."
Kankuro gaped as the woman's eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body collapsed into a heap onto the floor, soft snored flowing not long after.
"You—"
"You want to know why this isn't some elaborate scheme? Because for nearly 3 years Kankuro I have been either been ensuring Gaara gets exactly what he needs or keeping him alive long enough to see it. Need I remind you who you followed Kakashi's nindog in here to find?"
At the reminder, Kankuro forced himself out of her grip, looking at her suddenly in a new light. "No, you're—"
"Raccoon, yes. You know, the ANBU black ops that has bribed, maimed and even killed to ensure Gaara had everything he ever desired?" Before Kankuro could continue to question her, she groaned. "Again, time, Kankuro. I will be more than happy to explain to you my motivations once we return with Gaara, alive. For now, does it really matter if I'm enemy or friend if I can get you to Gaara faster than you would on your own?"
Kankuro practically bit his lip in half as he surveyed the hazy image of his brother, Miyako's voice pulling a shuddering breath from his chest as she said, "it is unlike any pain you can imagine." As he whipped his head to her, the look in her eyes let him know not to question how she could know such a thing.
"Take me to him."
K/M
Temari nearly ran into Kankuro and whoever was behind him as she rushed down the hallway.
"Kankuro!" She turned her body and nearly choked on her own tongue as Raccoon leisurely followed behind him looking none the worse for wear considering they'd only found a bloody mask of hers three days ago.
"Rac-Raccoon?"
The ANBU inclined her head to the eldest sister, but her posture was strangely stiff, before Temari could launch into a tirade of questions, Kankuro gruffly interrupted.
"Temari, please tell me you were rushing to find me so we could set out after Gaara, Council's opinion be damned?"
The blond blinked, brain firing rapidly to move past the fact that Raccoon was standing in front of her and Kankuro was openly and loudly defying the Council. But this was their little brother they were talking about, and they had no idea what was happening to him at this moment, so it made sense enough for her to blurt out her next sentence, questions buzzing in her head pushed away for now.
"Of course."
"Great." He grunted, turning his body slightly to Raccoon. "Because Raccoon knows the way."
K/M
"When you said, "take me to him" earlier I thought you meant you and Temari, not a whole platoon of people." Raccoon hissed to her new master at the front of the pack.
"Neither did I, but what was I supposed to say!" He grunted. "We're lucky Temari let me out of bed at all." He rolled his eyes until they settled back onto the masked woman. "Shouldn't you be concentrating on finding Gaara instead of hissing at me?"
It was disconcerting that he knew Miyako—my god they'd literally been harboring and friends with a fugitive for years—well enough to know she was glaring sideways at him with zero indication in her body language.
"It's not that easy when I'm not connected with him any longer, and he's getting weaker by the minute. Besides even if I did find him in time, at the pace we're traveling he'd already be long…" she choked on the word and breathed out slowly.
"You said you could get us there faster!" Kankuro accused with a growl, full on glowering at her now as they ran.
"Us. Kankuro, as in you, me, maybe Temari. But you still don't fully believe me and how are we supposed to explain to the others suddenly disappearing?" Raccoon didn't relish in winning nearly as much in this situation when Kankuro grunted in defeat.
"Then it will just have to be you and me." He grumbled under his breath. "Temari!" He shouted, Raccoon looking on at him curiously as he yelled back to his sister, only paces away from him. She furrowed her brow at the intense look on his face as he swiveled slightly to face her.
"We're going ahead!"
"What?" She sputtered, darting her eyes between the two of them, feeling distinctly as if she was being left out of something. Kankuro and Raccoon had been acting a little…off since she'd run into them earlier, but she'd had no time to question it, as both of them had been vibrating with the need to leave at the gates.
"Raccoon has a jutsu that can get us to Gaara faster but she can only perform it on so many people." Kankuro lied in a rush.
"What?" Temari repeated looking at the back of the ANBU in front of her. "You're injured!" She finally protested. "At least—"
"Temari we don't have time to argue, I'm going." Kankuro thundered. "Raccoon!" He barked, just barely covering the girl's snort as she grasped onto his wrist. In the next second there were only wisps of dark purple smoke where they had once been standing, the gasps of the rest of the party echoing in their ears.
K/M
Kankuro, after having his atoms put back in place, had to drag Miyako along the rest of the way to clearing gasping.
"Are you about to puke?" He groused, picking up his pace when he heard the sounds of fighting.
"Only, ugh—" she stumbled after him with one hand to her head, "because you don't—fuck not so fast!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll believe in you when my brother is safely back in his own country." His voice sounded plenty strained on that last sentiment, wondering if the fighting was necessarily a good thing.
The two finally came to the edge of a group of trees with a small patch of green in the center. There, surrounded on all sides was the blonde that had thrown them all into this chaos in the first place. Raccoon, despite how weak their connection was, felt the intertwining of their visceral hatred like pinpricks in her belly. Kankuro may not have been as nearly as strong as Gaara, but his emotions were just as volatile and spread through Raccoon like a poison.
Raccoon counted 8 around the blonde, not including the Naruto clones ahead and slightly to the left of her who had—
Several things happened at once—the blonde started shoving something white into his mouth, Miyako zeroed in on Gaara hanging limp in two Naruto clones' grip and realized all that was left of Gaara's aura was emptiness, the sparkler burnt out, and then she turned her gaze back to the blonde with only one thought—kill.
The blond paused in his ingestion, his heart suddenly stuttering before his lungs seized and the clay he hadn't gotten past his esophagus came violently back up. He cursed, shooting the enemies surrounding him a glare through his coughing fit. He scrambled at the dirt as he tried to make a sign, but there wasn't enough oxygen, he felt greedy as he gasped for more and more air that he just couldn't retain.
Whatever jutsu or chemical they'd used against him was spreading rapidly through his body, he could feel it make an agonizing trek through his chakra network and down swirling in his stomach until, despite his best efforts to retain it; he puked up all vestiges of his clay, half-digested.
K/M
"Are you doing that?"
It was a stupid question when Kankuro thought about it, Raccoon's hand was held out in front of her, directly in line with the shaking Akatsuki member as his body seem to breaking down before them. In a couple of ways it was like watching Gaara perform a Sand Coffin, except Raccoon had started with a fist and spread her fingers out, and instead of visibly watching sand rush an opponent to crush their bodies, she was performing something on a microscopic level. Scarier if he thought about it too long.
When she didn't answer, and it looked like the blonde was spitting up red instead of other, safer bodily fluids, he realized that she had no intention of simply immobilizing their opponent—she was aiming to kill him. He normally wouldn't have any qualms letting her continue, but he was much more valuable to them alive than dead. Even if Kankuro really, really wanted him dead.
"Stop." He commanded, and when she didn't immediately follow orders, he grasped the wrist of her attacking hand in his, only to find she was quivering. He jerked his eyes from her hand to the side of her face and in a moment of clarity understood Raccoon and Gaara were more alike than he'd ever realized. She was in some sort of killing haze, but unlike Gaara who would potentially turn on anyone who got in his way when he was younger, Raccoon had a singular concentration that was as impressive as it was terrifying—it was like Kankuro wasn't even there.
"Miyako, stop now." He hissed, firmly holding her in place with a grip to her waist as she jolted and shuddered.
"He," she gasped out, ripping her arm away from Kankuro so she could brace her hands on her knees and catch her breath, feeling drained but vindicated despite everything. "He killed Gaara."
K/M
Neji narrowed his eyes to the trees, sensing Kankuro and that mysterious ANBU black ops he'd last seen in the Demon Desert. He of course was grateful for the sudden assistance, but upon discovering the ANBU's strange chakra literally clawing it's way through their assailant—coating his insides with pulsing, thick, shimmering, sludge like energy—he felt perturbed. This was no ordinary chakra, if it could even be called chakra at all.
Though she seemed to cease the spread of the "jutsu", again if it could even be called that, the energy stayed glued to the chakra network of the Akatsuki member—and still appeared to be eating away at what it was attached to if the low grunts of pain he occasionally emitted were anything to go by.
"Neji?" Lee said next to him, still tensed to fight, but unsure whether to aim his body at their obvious foe or the new chakra sensed in the trees.
"It's Kankuro and the ANBU, Raccoon I believe?" He murmured, his teammates beside him slightly relaxed, but Neji continued to watch them when Kankuro's knees suddenly hit the ground, and Raccoon collapsed next to him, burying his face into her neck. Neji frowned, not needing to read lips to know that he must've just realized…he strayed his eyes over to the limp figure being protected by two Narutos.
Kakashi seemed to step forward cautiously, Neji figured to initiate capture, but Kankuro came bursting from the trees a moment later, the ANBU hot on his heels, posture rigid. Eyes snapped to the brunette puppet master who, though he seemed composed, was obviously barely containing his rage.
He stopped just a foot away from the blonde Akatsuki who still hadn't managed to recover from Raccoon's internal attack. The air was charged with tension as Kankuro stared down unseeingly at the hunched man and then there was just the sound of a solid thud as his kick made contact with his stomach, causing the man to shout and choke on a heave.
Raccoon shot out a hand to grab Kankuro's shoulder, reeling him back to her more acceptable 2 feet, but he shrugged her hand off with a scowl. Neji couldn't exactly make out what she was whispering to him, but he turned on her and hissed something right in her face. The ANBU grabbed the man by the nape of his neck and hauled him slightly away from everyone else so he could seethe. Neji got briefly caught up in his wild gestures and the minute movements of the ANBU before him, but quickly got pulled into the ensuing happenings between the Elder of Sand and Naruto.
K/M
"Taking out your anger on the Akatsuki member won't bring Gaara back." Raccoon droned, and Kankuro glared at her balefully, fury blinding him.
"He deserves it." Kankuro raked his fingers through his hair and breathed harshly. "He fucking deserves it." Then he looked up to Raccoon, hollowly for a moment, the longer he stared the more she seemed to wind up until he was in her space.
"I believe you." He grasped her hand tightly. "I believe it, all of it. Genies, magic, whatever, just please—" He stopped himself as she turned her head away.
"Don't Kankuro."
"You said—"He started, wetly. She held up a hand.
"It wouldn't matter if you believed in me or not." She droned. "I can't…"
"Miya—" She slapped a hand over his mouth before her name could be further ripped from his throat until it bled raw. He shoved her hand away.
"Magic comes at a price Kankuro—messing with the balance of Life and Death comes at a steep one, it's one of the few things I cannot successfully do." When it looked like he was gearing up to argue, Raccoon continued her explanation. "The Gaara you get may not be the Gaara you had. All manner of things could go wrong, he could brain-dead, he could be emotionless, I could accidentally tether his spirit here—and no, I don't have control as to what price I pay for trying to defy nature."
Kankuro stopped his pacing and clenched his hands. Raccoon's tongue was heavy with words which would be useless comfort to someone who had lost a loved one, she was chewing on what exactly to say or not say here when a spark danced across her vision. It took her a second to realize it wasn't the corporeal kind.
She whipped her head to their right and immediately caught the scene of the older woman she vaguely recognized, leaned over Gaara, her hands glowing—and whatever she was doing was working.
"Kankuro." She breathed, nudging him blindly until he followed her gaze. He squinted for a moment and Raccoon swallowed at the sight of tears on his lower eyelid. "She's…" he stuttered, eyes widening and two lone tears tracking down his face as he blinked rapidly. "That's the One's Own Life Reincarnation."
Kankuro couldn't see it, but the sparks of Gaara's aura were weakly dancing from him, sluggishly firing and branching off from his heart before flickering out of existence, but it was steadily picking up steam. Raccoon set her eyes on the drooping older woman funneling her miniscule chakra into his body—she was reviving him but—
"It's not enough." She croaked weakly, and Raccoon realized that she and Kankuro had mindlessly trekked closer to Gaara. Kankuro stepped forward, reaching for Gaara, but Naruto had already thrust his hands forward determinedly.
"You don't have enough either." Raccoon gently pulled Kankuro back, who sent her a nasty glare over his shoulder.
"I don't see you offering." He snapped quietly and Raccoon tightened her hand around his wrist momentarily before retracting backwards, biting her tongue harshly behind the mask so she wouldn't lash out at him. He had a right to his emotions, she reminded herself as she walked away from them and towards the bound Akatsuki member being carefully guarded by Team Gai. He'd just had a lot of things thrown in his face in the last few hours—learning that Suna's public enemy number one was under his nose the whole time and so close to his brother had to sting, and worse now that his brother was dead—even if it would now be only a temporary death.
She mechanically went through the motions, explaining in a clipped voice that Suna would be taking the bomber prisoner. They stepped back to let her make her fake handsigns, though she did feel a bit of glee from slamming a hand into the blond Akatsuki's chest and watching him writhe in even more pain as chains looped around his figure—which to her satisfaction was a rapidly paling, sweaty mess.
"This," he gulped down a breath with a growl, "shouldn't be possible, un." He sneered. "I saw Sasori-no-danna kill you, yeah!" She let him go through a coughing fit before leaning down with all the grace of a panther toying with a kill.
"Maybe you should make sure a body's cold before you leave it." She tsked at his snarl and yanked him up by the extra bit of chain hanging to act as a leash with which she would tug him all the way back to Suna with.
He swayed dangerously, looking positively ashen while also sporting a feverish flush she realized wasn't from her actions, but rather from his fury. Taunts pushed at her lips, but she thought better of it. She was already emotionally unbalanced, and just barely holding herself back from giving the blond a slow, torturous death. She didn't want to chance the information they could extract from him by picking a fight—he looked particularly adept at being annoying, and anything could trigger her at this point.
She stayed vigilantly by the Akatsuki's side as Lee and Tenten wandered closer, and ignored Neji's undisguised looks of interest at the side of her face to instead watch as Gaara slowly came back to life under the Suna Elder and Naruto's hands. Kankuro, of course, was hovering close by, hands fisted as he watched—swirls of grief and helplessness nipped at her insides. She vaguely had to wonder if the urge to cry was her own or Kankuro's, she could tell that the only reason he hadn't yet was because everything was happening to fast for him to compute. She also wondered if he had decided it wasn't worth crying considering Gaara was getting a second chance at life—if Kankuro believed it wasn't worth it to cry, or that he didn't deserve it.
Raccoon, on the other hand, was using her anger as fuel right now to avoid blubbering like a baby. If Kankuro thought it was frustrating being told "no" after begging her to save his brother, he didn't realize how frustrating it was to wield all that power only to be have limits placed on what felt like infinity. Kankuro falsely thought that Raccoon wasn't trying hard enough—that she didn't care about Gaara enough to try at all, that she complacent in his death. It took everything inside of her not to ream him from one end of the field to the next. She wondered if she'd be able to hold her tongue so well when he demanded explanation.
Temari arrive trailed by the rest of the group left behind as Gaara started twitching. Raccoon observed how Kankuro intercepted her, turned her and the others away from the scene, and nearly jolted in place at the coil of guilt creeping in her stomach that wasn't her own. Was Kankuro…lying to her?
"You should go over there."
Raccoon calmly tilted her head to the soft voice next to her. Neji wasn't looking at her, in fact he wasn't looking at anything with both eyes shut, and yet her muscles still bunched with tension at the realization of what he could've seen. She couldn't recall if he was looking at her with his Byakugan earlier when she'd attacked the Akatsuki member's chakra network. She tried to relax, seeing as he didn't seem to want to talk about it right this second, and she didn't want to look suspicious.
"With the prisoner? No." Her denial was soft, a weakness that had Neji opening one eye to her.
"Gai-sensei and I can watch him." He opened both eyes now and turned to scan over the steadily weakening form of the criminal. "Whatever you did to him seems to have a…prolonged effect." He captured her eyes with his own through her mask, but she didn't rise to the bait.
"That's alright. Besides what could I do? I'm certainly not needed in a reunion." She nearly winced at the self-depreciating tone her voice took on, and swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth before she could spew more nonsense that Neji Hyuuga could see right through.
"I don't know about that." He tutted. "I may have only seen you interact with the Kazekage twice, but you struck me both times as being particularly close with him."
Raccoon was glad Neji couldn't see her look of longing as a crowd began to gather near the Kazekage—villagers, she realized, who had stolen out of Suna's walls to see him. And for a selfless moment, as she watched them clutch each other with worry and fervently pray, every loss she'd taken, every lie she'd told, every wrong turn seemed worth it.
"Maybe on the outside." She returned his remark hollowly. The truth was—she couldn't imagine Gaara being particularly forgiving, especially with Temari and Kankuro's own betrayal weighing on his decision, once she'd said her piece. She didn't see it mattering that she'd spent three years building Gaara up when the lies began to unravel themselves. She didn't think Gaara was a particularly cruel person, anymore, but Raccoon couldn't just turn off her pessimism when dealing with masters—so her options looked bleak. Maybe he wouldn't kill her, but in Raccoon's opinion there were many things worse than death.
KMKMKMKMMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMKMK
I had more, but I decided to stop here or else this was going to go on and on. If you want me to continue to explore this pathway then shoot me a review or a PM, I do love hearing from ya'll.
Anyway the sequel should be up soon—I still have the old first chapter up if you want to read that, but it will be replaced in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for reading this "what if!" see you in the next one.
Solo. Flexing. Acronym.