*Obligatory 'I don't own Naruto so please don't sue me' header*
Subjugation Arc:
Chapter 11 - Politics
"You can't be serious. The next Kazekage should remain in the family! Kankurou is the obvious choice!"
"Of course not! That is preposterous! The very fact that the Hidden Sand has experienced some of the worst conflict in years under the previous line of Kazekage should be reason enough to let the council elect one, much the same way the Hidden Leaf does now!"
"Why would we dare to stoop so low as to follow the lead of the Leaf?"
"Hey, yeah! The Leaf had Lord Fifth eating out of their hands!"
Temari grimaced as she heard the Council of Elders for the Hidden Sand village bicker amongst themselves. Mostly, though, she was angry that they would so quickly betray her brother after his death.
She sighed, and ran her fingers through her blond hair, trying to restrain her fury. 'How dare they… after all he did for them… and for what little respect he was given even then…'
"That demon deserved to die! It gave us the opportunity to reevaluate the Sand's position amongst the five great nations!"
That was it. She couldn't hold back any more.
"YOU BASTARDS! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH HE WENT THROUGH AS A CHILD? HOW MUCH HE WENT THROUGH AS A KAGE? AFTER ALL THE SHIT YOU ASSHOLES PUT HIM THROUGH, HE ALWAYS DUSTED HIMSELF OFF, AND KEPT GOING." She was standing now, in front of her position on the council, chair blown back and on the ground, fists clenched and shaking. She was oozing hatred.
She took a deep breath, and narrowed her eyes at all of the old geezers that had the gall to call themselves village representatives. When she spoke again, it was through gritted teeth, and sent shivers down everyone's spines.
"Gaara was the best thing to ever come out of this village. He was a kind soul. Even after everything he went through in the early years."
A brave man towards the other end of the long, oval-shaped table piped up at this. "He was a monster! He killed for the sake of killing! He deserved to die by the hands of the Akatsuki!"
Murmurs of agreement echoed through the council chambers.
"THAT MONSTER WAS NEVER GAARA. THAT MONSTER WAS SOMETHING YOU ALL CREATED, BY STEEPING HIM IN HIS OWN SELF HATRED." Her fingernails were now so deeply ingrained in the soft flesh of her palms that blood was pouring out like a leaky pipe. "Gaara was a damn good friend. Gaara was a damn good brother. But most of all, Gaara was a damn good Kazekage. And I don't give a rat's ass if you think otherwise."
Grumblings from the men and women around her were her only response, before a tall, lanky man stood up, pressing his long, billowing white robes to his figure as he did so, in a vain attempt to appear more sophisticated than he was.
Temari almost hissed as the man began to talk.
"Regardless of our previous Kage," he said sagely, not taking his eyes off of Temari, before shifting his gaze to each of the councilmembers, "we must move forward in choosing the Sixth Kazekage." He couldn't hold the menacing grin on his lips back any longer as he continued. "I, Rei of the Yoku clan, nominate myself for position of Sixth Kazekage."
Half of the council murmured fervently in agreement, while the other half scowled.
One of the scowling men shot out of his seat to challenge Rei. His large figure was poorly masked by his grey robes, which billowed over him in a haphazard fashion. "Rei, this is preposterous! The Yoku do not have the capacity in the slightest of running a Hidden Village." He smirked proudly before speaking again. "Only the Oukui clan can do such a thing. Therefore, I, Tonma Oukui, head of the Oukui clan, nominate myself for the seat of Sixth Kazekage."
Rei glared back at the portly man before slamming his hands down on the table. "You Oukui are nothing more than a bunch of bureaucratic misfits. You live for yourselves, and not the people of this village!"
"At least I understand politics, you peasant-faced scum of this village!" spat Tonma. "The position of Kazekage is one to be respected, not laughed at."
From the explosion of arguing that erupted in the council chambers, it appeared that most council members sided with one of the heads of two of the most powerful clans in the Sand. Only one person spoke up in defense of the Sabaku clan, the clan that had held the position of Kazekage since the early days of the village.
"Silence, all of you!" bellowed Kankarou. "Do you not see that the obvious choice for Kazekage is standing right before you?" He stood up from his seat next to Temari, which he had been relatively quiet in since the beginning of the meeting. He stuck out a robed hand. "Temari is the only one that has been at Gaara's side since the very beginning. She was his personal advisor. He trusted everything to her, and her he. Not to mention that she is the only daughter of the Fourth Kazekage, one of the most feared shinobi ever to come out of this village."
At this outburst, Rei and Tonma decided to team up, on this rare occasion.
"Oh, sure, you may have the pedigree," spat Rei, "but the Sabaku clan has proven time and time again that they are incapable of leading this village through times of strife! Take a look at this most recent attack! Lord Gaara, if you could even call him that, was not only unable to stop the Akatsuki's bombardment of our poor village, but he also lost his own life, costing the Sand its only Tailed Beast! We are now at a significant power loss compared to the rest of the Shinobi villages!"
Murmurs of agreement on both Oukui and Yoku sides of the council chambers were the only things that hid the low growl coming out of Temari's mouth.
She was very, very angry.
Of course all they cared about was the One-Tails. They didn't give a damn about Gaara. Not a single care in the world for the man who had single-handedly saved nearly the entire Sand village from the assault of the strange orange-haired child.
Tonma, not about to be outdone, piped up as well. "The Sabaku clan has nestled us up much too close to the Leaf village. After what they did to our forces three years ago, that is unforgivable. The Leaf must be punished for their insolence!"
Another round of cheers of agreement, before Rei turned to look at his rival with a furious face.
"Of course the Leaf need to be destroyed! They are scum!"
"Not as much scum as what you rat-dung-of-a-clan are, you Yoku plebe!"
The council chambers quickly dissolved back into a chaotic mess of arguing and light brawls, as Temari spun around on her heels, grabbed her fan, which had been leaning on the back wall, and stormed out of the building.
When she burst out of the beige council tower and out onto the windy, dusty streets of the Hidden Sand village, Temari couldn't restrain herself anymore. Tears began to flow down her face unhindered, as she took off in a sprint towards the city walls. The sun was nearly down all the way, and a large dust storm, typical for the time of year, was beginning to roll in through the desert.
Even as the wind and sand and rock pelted her face and skin, she kept going, until she reached the nearly completely obliterated front gates of the Sand village. Remnants from the attack were still visible around every corner – chunks of rock and stone littered the ground. Blood stained sand speckled the rocky surface, and charred rubble, indicative of the aftermath of explosive tags, crisscrossed the landscape like some sort of obscene piece of abstract art.
Temari stopped for a moment, pain and sorrow deeply embedded in her eyes, before moving on to the front gate itself. She paused only for a moment, looking out onto the far horizon, where a big black cloud of dust was accumulating, and heading their way. The wind whipped at her hair and cloak as she threw herself onto the far wall, sobbing uncontrollably.
'Gaara… you didn't deserve any of this. This world treated you with nothing but indifference at best. This world is nothing but pain for you. You… You're…'
She gasped for a second when she realized what she was about to say, before coming to terms with it and understanding that it was the harsh truth.
'You're better off dead now.'
It was for his own good. Nothing in this world was ever on his side. Maybe it was some sort of cruel test of the gods of his resolve, and now he was living life the way it was meant to be lived, in a better place.
She smiled slightly at the thought as she slid down the wall into a sitting position. He deserved it. No one, not a single person, could ever hope to understand the suffering her little brother went through at the hands of this village.
'Well, actually… there was one…'
"Temari?"
The soft voice was nearly completely drowned out by the whistling sound of the wind whipping its way through the front gates of the Sand, and Temari had nearly missed it. At first she thought it was her younger brother, confirming her dream that he was in a better way now.
But when a grey-cloaked figure peeked around the edge of the wall to look at her, she just sighed.
"Kankurou. What do you want."
It came out more as a statement than a question. Kankurou gave a pained smile, before approaching his sister properly and sitting down next to her.
"You know, you really put those councilmembers in their place by storming out like that," he tried to joke sarcastically, but when he saw his sister's face turn to look at his, he knew immediately that he had made a mistake.
He had never seen her like this before. Typically, when he mocked her like that playfully, she would smirk and sock him in the shoulder, and that would be that.
But this time…
Temari's eyes were hollow and lifeless. She looked him in the eye, but it was almost like she was just staring right through him. Tears ran down her face even as she looked at him, an expression of pure pain etched across it. It wasn't physical pain – although she looked rather pale and sickly. She had been neglecting herself ever since she found out that her brother was kidnapped and died under her watch. She should have been there, she argued; Temari wouldn't listen to reason when people, especially her brother, had told her there was nothing she could have done. She was out of the country on a diplomatic mission at the time.
No. What was carved onto her face, almost indelibly, was pure emotional duress.
Kankurou immediately realized this was bad. Very bad. His sister was a very strong shinobi, and a certain amount of psychological strength came with the job and its many less-than-enduring qualifications.
But Kankurou always imagined that once that barrier fell, and especially for someone like his sister, it would be devastating.
And from the way she looked at him, he suspected that it had finally happened.
"Temari…" he said softly, before scooting closer to her and laying his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in to a hug.
She gave in completely, and buried her head deep into his side, crying hysterically.
They sat like that for what seemed like a lifetime – Temari letting out all of her frustrations, her anger, her pain – and Kankurou holding her tightly and rubbing her arm soothingly, calmly whispering to her.
"It'll be okay… don't worry. It'll be okay."
The wind whipped up a cloud of sand into their faces, which Kankurou deflected with his free arm and the cloak that fell off of it in an unrestrained manner. The storm would be upon them soon.
Kankurou looked up at the less tumultuous portion of the sky to try and determine the time, but all he could see was a darkening stew of sand and cloud. He sighed internally, realizing that even if the sun hadn't gone down completely by now, which it most certainly had, the storm would block it out anyways.
He then turned his attention back to his sister, who had finally calmed down a bit, and was now just leaning herself into the underside of his arm and chest, trying to control her breathing.
A heartbeat.
Kankurou smiled a bit, and wrapped his other arm around to her and hugged her tightly. "Temari, I-"
"I… I want to go look for him."
The puppeteer blinked at her sudden strength in words. "What… what do you mean?"
"I mean… I want to go look for Gaara, Kankurou. I want to go find and bring back his… body."
She grimaced as she said the last word. The wound was still too fresh, too deep, but she had to come to terms with it now, or she never would.
"But Temari…" He had to choose his next words carefully, or risk breaking his sister's heart for good.
"I know the trail went cold. I know the Leaf ninja couldn't find him. But… I still think we should." She turned and looked up at him, letting out a wobbly sigh. "We have to. For him."
Kankurou just looked at her for a moment, before sighing as well. He closed his eyes, and nodded slowly. "Yeah. You're right. I was actually about to suggest we do it too."
A genuine smile graced Temari's face as she looked back out to the stormy horizon.
There were another few moments where brother and sister just sat together, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Kankurou broke the silence, even though he didn't want to.
"Temari… you know that if we leave, the council is going to move on without us. We could lose everything here in the Sa-"
"Fuck the council!" Temari roared, turning to look at her brother with an enraged look on her face. "Why the hell do you care what that group of shriveled-up, fossilized pieces of shit think? I sure as hell don't care. After what my little brother – our little brother – went through, nothing they say or do could change that." She looked him right in the eye, a familiar fire burning behind her pupils. "And I'm pissed that you even brought it up."
To her surprise, Kankurou just chuckled, and began to stand up. "No, I don't give a damn either. They can burn this place to the ground for all I care. Just felt the need to mention it." He then gave her an uneasy grin, and rubbed the back of his neck through his hood. "Plus… I wanted to make sure you were sure."
Temari roared, and slammed her fist into the side of her brother's arm, causing him to grunt and jump back.
"Ow! Hey, that hurt!" he shouted with a disgruntled huff.
Temari scoffed at him, but couldn't help but let a small smile slip from her face before she could turn away from him completely.
He jumped forward a bit with a grin, before slamming his arm around her shoulders, making her let out a slight 'OOF' in indignation.
"Well, come on then! Let's go get our little bro."
"SEVERE LEAF HURRICANE!"
A cloud of dust and debris billowed up into the sky in the woods outside of the Hidden Waterfall Village, blowing shockwaves through the trees and sending hundreds of nearby birds into flight.
Two blurred figures shot out of the still-expanding smoke cloud – one landing on the treetops gently, the other a slightly less gently.
Kisame took a few deep breaths to steady himself, before smirking at the green figure a few trees down from him. "As formidable as always, Might Gai."
Gai raised an eyebrow calmly, as he readied himself once again, falling back into another taijutsu pose.
"However," grinned Kisame, "This time, I think we'll do things my way."
Narrowing his eyes, Gai watched in morbid curiosity as the shark-man wove his way through a half dozen hand seals in a blur of motion. They had been fighting for only a few minutes already, and Gai could tell that his Akatsuki friend was only getting warmed up.
"Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave!"
The ground began to shake as Kisame crossed his arms nonchalantly, cocking an eyebrow at the taijutsu master. After a few moments, plumes of water billowed out of all the trees around them, as well as through the earth below, sending chunks flying off in different directions.
The mass of water started to conglomerate around Kisame, who began to rise up off the treetops as the sheer amount of the water began to increase exponentially.
Gai gulped. What stood in front of him now was a massive wall of water, adorned with the swordsman on top. But what really alarmed him was the fact that it was moving – although very slowly.
That began to change, however, as the wave started to pick up speed. Pretty soon, it was rocketing towards him like a steam train.
Gai leapt into the air, and began to swirl in an attempt to strike Kisame from his position on top of the rapidly approaching water wall. But Kisame dodged out of the way of his kick just in time, sending Gai flying back and onto the water behind him.
The green-clad jounin began to turn to counterattack from atop the water, but quickly realized he was in serious trouble. The water he was standing on began to climb up his legs, enveloping him in a thin sheet of liquid, forcing him to stand still.
Kisame turned with a maniacal grin, as he finished another hand seal combination. "Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu."
Gai's eyes widened as he saw more and more liquid work its way over his body, before it bubbled outward into a perfect sphere of floating water.
The wave began to die down around the two shinobi, until water simply covered the first foot or so of the forest floor.
Gai grimaced. "Well then, I guess I have no other choice."
The shark-nin's beady eyes widened in anticipation. "Ooh, now I'm curious."
The jounin simply closed his eyes and lowered his head.
A heartbeat.
"Gates One through Three – Open!"
A tremendous surge of power surged through Gai, enveloping him in a thin sheet of chakra, giving his body a glowing appearance. His skin was now a vibrant red color, shimmering through the reflective haze of the water like blood.
Kisame's grip on the jutsu wavered slightly, before he was able to stabilize it again by pumping more of his own chakra into it.
"Tch Tch Tch. Too bad, Gai, you almost had m-"
"Fourth Gate of Pain – Open!"
The water surrounding Gai evaporated immediately under the tremendous friction power of the raw chakra. Kisame, disgruntled that his gloating opportunity was cut short, began pumping even more chakra into the jutsu, but it was to no avail – the water was completely gone…
…as was Gai.
'Wh..what? Where'd he g-'
BAM!
Kisame took a direct blow to the face, as the taijutsu master's knee embedded itself into his cheekbone. Blood began seeping out of the shark-nin's mouth even before Gai broke contact, splattering all over his green jumpsuit and dying it a dark brown color in spotty places.
The time for warm-up was over. Kisame frowned and spit out a few teeth, before reaching behind him and brandishing Samehada, his prized sword and companion.
Kisame was about to make a snide retort about how sharks regrow teeth, but he was forced to focus instead on the barrage of attacks that were flying his way at a nearly incomprehensible speed.
He thanked his lucky stars he was partnered with an expert wielder of the Sharingan, who had given him tips on how to fight with someone that was faster than he was.
And he was the first to admit that he wasn't really a speed kind of fighter.
More of a brute force kind of guy, he surmised, before one of Gai's kicks broke through his defenses and tore into his lower abdomen, leaving a sizeable bruise and forcing him to stagger back a few feet.
Kisame smirked at his opponent, who had jumped back to his previous position on top of a tree, and stepping into yet another taijutsu pose. His body was still shimmering, and his eyes took on a pupilless white glow that Kisame found strangely hypnotic.
"I've said it before… and I'll say it again… I'm not a taijutsu fighter. Oh no, not at all. You see, my strength lies in m-"
Gai vanished in a flash of pure speed, once again spiraling Kisame in punch after punch; kick after kick.
Kisame, to his credit this time, was prepared for this, and wielded the massive weight of Samehada splendidly, managing to stave Gai off for several continuous minutes.
Punch.
Kick.
Swipe.
Kick.
Kick.
Punch.
Slice.
Punch.
Parry.
Both shinobi jumped back panting.
"Well then, Kisame Hoshigaki, you certainly have earned your S rank." He said between breaths, before immediately jumping back into position. "This has been a most youthful battle. However, I must be going now. I appreciate the opportunity to spar with you, and trust we will meet again in the future."
"Not so fast, my green friend," grinned Kisame, before jumping right into another series of hand seals.
Another tremendous rumbling began to echo off the ground and trees, as the water leftover from Kisame's previous jutsu began to rise off the forest floor once again, forming another massive wave.
But this time, Gai could see small black orbs forming within the churning water. He narrowed his eyes and immediately tensed, preparing to have to strike at any moment.
"Water Style: Thousand Hungry Sharks!" Kisame bellowed, and almost immediately, the entire wall of water morphed and transformed into a giant moving mass of flesh and sharp teeth.
Gai began to panic. There was only one move he had that could keep up with this load, especially after his previous engagement with Kisame.
He began to focus internally, as he visualized his Eight Inner Gates, and focused on the first six.
"Gates Five! Six! Open!"
A giant beam of chakra shot out of Gai, rocketing off into the upper atmosphere. A cloud of vibrant chakra began to shroud the entire area in a haze of pure power, and a vortex of water began to swirl around him on its own accord.
The first wave of sharks was vaporized immediately upon Gai's release of the Sixth Gate, but the rest kept coming in a torrent of hunger and bloodlust.
Gai immediately coiled back in a pose unfamiliar to Kisame, but he had little time to think before he erupted into a giant ball of orange flame. The flames began to peel off of him and aim for each individual shark, exploding off of the jounin like bullets.
First, ten sharks were burnt to a crisp.
Then fifty.
Then two hundred.
There was another burst of chakra, as more flaming beams projected themselves at their targets, until there were none left.
Well, none that weren't summons, that is.
Kisame quickly raised Samehada in an attempt to absorb the flameballs, but quickly realized that it wasn't working. Instead, he simply used it as a shield, flashing it about in a blur to counter each attack.
He was successful at this – mostly.
One or two got through.
And they were devastating.
Kisame coughed up even more blood – it spilled down his mouth and into a small pool in his Akatsuki robes. He coughed and could feel a broken rib riding dangerously close to one of his lungs.
BAM!
Kisame was fully expecting another flame blast, but this time, he was at the receiving end of the fireballs' source.
Samehada tried its best to parry Gai's brutal roundhouse kick, but it was Kisame's wrist that gave out first, swiveling the sword down and away from the shark man.
Gai sensed the vulnerability in Kisame's defenses, and immediately descended upon him.
Punch. Slice. Punch. Kick.
PunchPunchPunchKick.
KickPunchPunchKickPunch.
Punch PunchPunchPunchPunchPunchPunchPunchPunch.
After the last barrage of attacks, Gai launched Kisame into the air, forcing Samehada out of his weakening grip, sending small red droplets of his blood shooting off in multiple directions.
Gai quickly materialized beside his ill-fated foe, and the two began to swirl in the air, picking up rotational speed.
Kisame began to panic. 'If this is what I think it is, I'm done for. I have to-'
"REVERSE LOTUS!"
Wha-BAM!
The water on the ground was instantly vaporized in a ten foot radius around the impact crater. The water outside of that radius was sent off in a massive tsunami-like wave that uprooted trees and sent dirt and rock blasting off in every direction.
The shockwave could be felt for miles.
Gai materialized a few feet away, panting and beginning to glow from fatigue. He observed his handiwork with skepticism.
And sure enough, as the dust cloud dissipated, he watched as the crumpled and disfigured form of Kisame liquefied into water and began to pool at the bottom of the impact site.
Out of the corner of his eye, however, he saw a limping black-and-red-cloaked figure scuttling away as fast as he could.
Kisame couldn't afford a defeat of this scale. He had to reach backup – as much as it would hurt his pride.
But Gai had other plans.
"Well, well, well," he mocked, mimicking Kisame's entrance, as he materialized in front of the limping shinobi. "It looks like you should have just let me go. Although now it would seem that the two of us are both going to the Leaf." He chuckled, which Kisame found rather unsettling considering the way he looked. "At least now I have someone to talk to on the long walk home."
"Are you sure about that?" came an effeminate voice from behind him.
'Wh… who am I?'
'Am I a good person?'
'Am I… wait.'
'I don't…'
"AUGH!"
Gaara fell forward onto his face. He was too lost in contemplation to notice the massive root on the forest floor beneath him, and had subsequently tripped.
He groaned softly to himself, before curling into a small ball and holding his side.
'My ribs… they're still cracked, back from when I was fighting with Naruto.'
He blinked suddenly.
'Naruto?'
'…Naruto!'
What the hell was Naruto doing in the Akatsuki? What the hell was Naruto doing preaching about being the Nine-Tails? What the hell was-
"Aaah…"
He hissed slightly as his panic caused more pain to shoot through his body like a lightning bolt.
'You need to concentrate on getting back to the Hidden Sand village,' he thought to himself.
He waited for Shukaku's snarky reply.
And none came.
He slumped back over into the fetal position, not wanting to move.
'Oh. That's right. I was captured and had my Tailed Beast extracted from me by the Akatsuki.'
And that was when guilt and anger and sadness began to bubble up inside of him. 'How could I let something like that happen? I put my village in danger. My friends and family in danger. I just hope…'
A sickening feeling washed over Gaara as he tried to get ahold of himself.
'What if… what if I couldn't protect them? What if…'
'Temari… Kankurou…'
'…Naruto…'
His eyes widened suddenly.
'Naruto was in the Akatsuki. He was hunting his own kind – jinchuuriki. He was now a member of the very organization that he had been fighting, tooth and nail, for the past three years to defend himself from.'
He eased himself up, a determined glint reflecting off of his pale green eyes.
'I will save Naruto from himself. Of that I promise.'
He sat up again, this time taking careful consideration of his surroundings. He began to walk again, and his mind began to wander as well.
He had been walking for nearly half a day. From his brief self-examination, he was able to determine that he was experiencing significant blood loss, and had several cracked ribs, one or two broken ribs, a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder, chakra exhaustion, and physical fatigue from moving all day.
But he had to keep moving. If he stopped, he would die.
Simple as that.
His vision began to fog over, and he simply pressed a finger into his side to send a shot of pain through his system.
Adrenaline began to flow.
He could see clearly again.
'I cannot keep going like this for much longer. I cannot defend myself as it stands right now.'
Curiously, he stuck his free hand out in front of him and tried to channel what little chakra he had built up in his system from walking into his palm.
To his surprise, several small particles of sand floated up from the earth and began to swirl around one another above his outstretched hand.
'So my sand jutsu are unaffected due to the loss of Shukaku. This is interesting.'
He had tried this earlier, but couldn't manifest enough chakra to do anything, let alone manipulate sand. It annoyed him to no end to be useless, and now that's all he was.
In fact, he would be nothing more than a burden to anyone that found him.
'But find me they must,' Gaara announced in his head. 'I have a village to protect.'
'And a friend to save.'
Gaara could see a large cloud of sand and rain off in the distance – an obvious indicator of his proximity to the border with the Land of Wind. He didn't know where exactly he was, but he knew where he was going.
A few flashes of lightning from the dust storm cloud in the distance suddenly made Gaara's heart skip a beat.
'No one will be out in this weather anyway. I will have to make up the rest of the distance on foot.'
Gaara sighed, and resigned himself to focusing on his breathing and his walking. Each step was a victory to him, and brought him that much closer to his goal.
'I have to get back…'
His vision began to fade again, and his body went numb. He couldn't use pain anymore to keep himself from passing out due to exhaustion and overexertion.
'…Kankurou…'
Just one more step…
'…Temari…'
After a few more faltering steps, Sabaku no Gaara, the Kazekage of the Hidden Sand village, collapsed in a heap at the base of a large willow tree, less than a mile away from the border of the Wind Country.