*Obligatory 'I don't own Naruto so please don't sue me' header*

Subjugation Arc:

Chapter 13 - Detonation

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Sabaku no Gaara himself. Come to take back your title, I take it?"

Silence. Only the sounds of shouting, screaming, and fighting from below the Kazekage tower could be heard, echoing through the sandstone building like the wails of a ghost.

Turquoise-green eyes narrowed to slits, as they stared down Tonma Oukui's ash greys.

After receiving no indication that the auburn-haired teen would respond to him, Tonma simply smirked, before leaning back in his chair from behind the Kazekage's desk; his green, squared hat, adorned with the kanji for 'wind' across the front, shifted slightly to allow him to take in the sight of his predecessor more clearly.

Gaara was standing a few feet into his old office, hands clenched into fists – one at his side, the other in his bandaged sling. Temari was standing to his right, her massive fan clenched between her fists before her. To Gaara's left was his older brother, the puppet master Kankurou. He was simply glaring at the man, arms folded in front of his chest, yet still ready to jump into action at a moment's notice.

"You know, they gave me their word that they would kill you," Tonma stated suddenly, as his eyes ran over Gaara's bandaged body. He was a veritable mess, Tonma thought, meaning he could take him out easily. He grinned evilly at that. "Oh well. I suppose that the Akatsuki were really never to be trusted with matters as important as these, were they? I mean, they are S-ranked missing-nin." He brought his hands up and leaned forward onto the desk, folding them together in a ball as he glared at Gaara. "Well, I'm sure you know the old saying. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself."

Kankurou and Temari's eyes widened in horror and anger at this, and the Kazekage's sister scowled, her mouth beginning to open in order to shout a retort at the man.

But to everyone's surprise, even his siblings', Gaara spoke first.

"Tonma."

Gaara's gravelly voice echoed through the large office, causing the Oukui clan head's eyes to widen slightly, before he recovered and smirked again.

"Ah, so you can talk. I was beginning to think that I was mumbling at a brick wall."

"What do you think you're doing, Tonma?" he said, devoid of any emotion.

"What is it you think I'm doing? I'm taking your place, after your… unfortunate demise," the portly man said, with a bit of venom in his voice.

Gaara suddenly lowered his head, and sighed in a rare sign of exasperation. Temari and Kankurou exchanged quick glances from behind their brother's back. If Gaara was this frustrated, frustrated to the point that he would sigh like this, then things were about to get ugly.

Really ugly.

"Am I to take it that your previous statement regarding the Akatsuki was a confession?" Gaara asked coolly, bringing his head up slightly to glare at the man through his shadowy eyes.

Tonma suddenly began to cackle in laughter, his sharp and shrill bursts of amusement ricocheting off of the walls, making Temari cringe in anger. "A confession? Boy, you don't deserve even that!" He laughed for another few moments, before leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his wide chest. "As far as this village is concerned, you are trash. Worthless trash that needs disposing of."

He untangled his arms and grabbed the hat from his head, slamming it down into the desk with a bang.

"You are a demon. A demon that was tainted forever with the evil presence of the Sand Priest Shukaku. Filth like you aren't fit to lead something as powerful as a village. No. You were supposed to be tamed by it, molded by it until you were a tool worthy of defending the Sand in its greatest times of need." He narrowed his eyes at the red-clad teen, before shifting glances back and forth across all three Sand shinobi.

"But no. You failed at that as well. You are a broken tool, Lord Gaara. Your father could see that. Your village could see that. The council of elders could see that. And that is why you must die here, properly. Your existence is detrimental to the wellbeing of this village, and to the Oukui people. Therefore, it is my first duty as Sixth Kazekage of the Hidden Sand to wipe the floor with your valueless existence!"

Silence.

Only screams from below.

Then, suddenly, the unthinkable happened.

Gaara smiled.

Temari immediately paled, and took a step back. This was bad.

"Tell me, Tonma," Gaara said with a gleam in his eye. The ground began to rattle, plants and paintings and unsecured furniture started to topple to the ground with a crash all across the Kazekage Tower. "You say that my existence is detrimental to this village, and to the Oukui people."

He took a single step forward, and the tremors immediately tripled in strength and intensity, causing the windows to rattle in their frame. The sun outside began to dim slightly, as if a storm was beginning to move in.

"But what about the rest of the village? Unless, of course, you plan on exterminating them all, just like you are doing now." His smile immediately shifted into a scowl, and he took another step forward.

The light coming in the windows from outside began to grow dimmer and dimmer, until the only thing illuminating the room was a faint blue glow that began to seep out of Gaara's body.

Tonma's eyes widened in surprise. 'I thought he was still in an injured state! How can he still be so powerful?!'

"If that is the case, then unfortunately, it is my duty to inform you that as Fifth Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand, as well as an honorable shinobi amongst the ranks of the Village Hidden in the Sand, you are committing treason of the highest caliper. Your actions are unspeakable, and must be dealt with in an equal – or greater – fashion. Tonma Oukui, leader of the Oukui clan, I hereby sentence you to death by execution for the attempt at my life, as well as the murder of countless civilians."

Gaara's expression steeled again as he rattled off the all-too-familiar verdict for someone on death row. His eyes were cold and calculating, and the fire that was beginning to burn behind them sent a shiver of fear down Tonma's spine.

Gaara's chakra spiked, and a massive orb of blue energy began to pulse around him, cracking the floor and the walls and the ceiling of the office. The windows finally shattered outward, sending shards of glass shrapnel down onto the panicking streets below.

"Tonma Oukui," Gaara repeated, this time shouting in rage. "You will die today!"

"Are you sure about that?"

Gai blinked, and turned a little to the side with a smile. "I thought I had heard something. It appears that teamwork in the Akatsuki is as youthful as I would have imagined."

"Hn," came the voice from behind him, and Kisame's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "I was wondering if you were going to show up. We were causing quite the commotion."

The voice ignored this. "Have you completed your objective?" She said calmly.

Kisame snorted. "Of course not. Do you know how hard it is to get into the Hidden Waterfall village without being detected? I thought that the leader didn't want us to blow our cover too much just yet. Obliterating a Hidden village would certainly do that, wouldn't you agree, Konan?"

Gai took a step to the side and observed the newcomer properly. He was surprised to see a woman, adorned in the traditional Akatsuki robes, flying several feet above the ground.

Her hair was a vibrant electric blue; it dipped down past the large collar of her cloak to an unknown length, while most of it was wrapped in a small bun on the left side of her head. Her amber colored eyes bore into Kisame's, accented only by the lavender eyeshadow that coated her upper lids in a menacingly beautiful fashion. Her lower lip was pierced, adding to the powerful and almost god-like persona she exuded.

Most surprisingly, however, was the fact that her figure looked to be disjointed and broken in multiple places, and her cloaked arms and legs faded to an off-white hue before disappearing completely. Attached across her back were two massive paper wings, pulsing slightly as she hovered, displacing the paper that floated around her in a disorganized fashion.

The large, light blue paper flower in her hair fluttered slightly in the wind as she turned to look at Gai, who was panting slightly and taking a position that was better suited for defense. There were two opponents now, and he had never seen nor heard of this Konan individual before.

"You will not fail the leader. If I must assist you in defending yourself, so be it," she replied emotionlessly, narrowing her eyes at the green, spandex-adorned man.

"Bah! Do I look like I need your help?" Kisame smirked, before sticking a ringed hand out in front of him. Nothing happened for a few moments, before suddenly the massive form of Samehada could be seen rocketing through the trees to its master. It connected with Kisame's outstretched palm with a small slap and began to wrap itself around his body and glow.

Almost immediately, any and all wounds that Kisame had amassed during his short brawl with Gai began to evaporate and disappear completely. Gai blinked in morbid fascination as the Tailless Tailed Beast called upon his power.

"I hope you're warmed up, Might Gai," he smirked at the man, before turning and giving a slight scowl to the woman. "And just stay out of my way, Konan. You'll get the Seven-Tails."

"Very well. When you are finished here, join the others. The leader has already succeeded in capturing the Six-Tails. Sealing is to begin immediately," she stated plainly, before exploding into a wave of paper and riding the air currents off into the distance.

Gai took advantage of the distraction, and immediately leapt into the air. If he was going to win this battle, he would need to do it fast.

He was already beginning to run on empty.

Beneath the Kazekage's tower, the Oukui clan was having its way with the Village Hidden in the Sand. What little shinobi the honorable clan held was made up for with the support of mercenaries and other for-hire workmen. As the villagers ran around the bloodied streets in unadulterated terror, the Oukui ninja battled it out with the shinobi of their rival clan, the Yoku.

Although neither was fighting for honor. No. They were fighting for victory – for absolute control over the other. Finally, after nearly a century of having to coexist, one clan would come out on top as the rightful superpower of the Hidden Sand.

At the base of Gaara's old office tower, Tonto Oukui and Reima Yoku, the second-in-command for each of their clan's forces, were battling to the death in a heated exchange of kunai, puppetry, and wind-based ninjutsu attacks. It was an impressive display of power for two of the most infamous shinobi the Hidden Sand had ever produced, and their exhibition was doing quite a number on the landscape and surrounding buildings throughout the central district of the city.

They had actually drawn quite the crowd; shinobi and mercenaries from each side stopped for a moment in awe to observe the power of the Sand village at its highest. However, after the fighting dragged on for more than thirty minutes, they were left to their own devices, battling each other in the streets alone.

After a rather lengthy taijutsu spout between the two men, they leapt back several feet in opposite directions in order to compose themselves and prepare for the next attack.

Tonto smirked knowingly at his greatest rival, finally seeing the end of their tumultuous relationship in sight. He was going to end the low-life Yoku trash once and for all, and finally rise to the top of his clan in a few years. Of course, that would all happen after his father, Tonma, died as well, but one bridge at a time. "You know, Reima, we can go at this for hours. I'd much like to finish this so I can finally take out the rest of your pathetic clan."

Reima scowled at the rather large, hairless man, before screaming back at him in rage. "How dare you! I will destroy you, and once and for all the Yoku clan can destroy your pathetic oil industry! It has done nothing but cause pain and suffering for us since its inception!"

"HAHA!" Tonto bellowed, pointing a mocking finger at the slim, red-haired figure across the street from him. "You really think that your puny puppets can actually stand a chance against our superior wind jutsu? WE are what give this village its purpose! You Yoku simply get in our way!"

Reima screamed in anger, and charged at his rival once again, before pulling a pair of small scrolls out of the sleeves of his standard-issue Sand shinobi outfit and materializing a pair of small wooden spheres. With a contorted twist of his hands and fingers, the spheres began to float in the air, before suddenly splitting on the equator. Both puppets extended a pair of long, spindly arms – each with a rotating saw blade at the end, dripping in a purple, menacing looking fluid. The puppets then began to spin in midair, creating a pair of deadly rotating orbs of sawblade and poison, forcing Tonto back a few feet.

With another roar, Reima thrust his palms outwards, and the two massive spheres of metal shot forwards. Tonto immediately somersaulted to the side in an attempt to evade, but the puppets changed course and began to follow him as he fled. He ducked and weaved as long, sharp swords shot out at him, also dripping with poison.

"My greatest creation!" Reima shouted with a crazed smile. "These puppets are unstoppable! Give up and accept death!"

Tonto was forced to lean nearly completely backwards on his feet to avoid the thrust of yet another massive blade, before rolling to the side.

Suddenly, another blade appeared in front of his face, coming at him much too quickly for him to simply dodge.

CLANG!

Tonto was now on his feet, wielding a kunai, as it blocked the blade in a shower of sparks and sound. He glared in fury at the spindly little man that was standing off to the side of the field, operating the puppets from the sidelines, and immediately began to hatch a plan.

He quickly dipped his hand into the small pouch at his side, and leapt back away from the spiraling puppet of death as he pulled a second kunai from his person. Without skipping a beat, he shot both knives at Reima, accelerating them further with a blast of wind chakra, before being forced to duck another blade that shot out at his neck.

Reima narrowed his eyes at the oncoming projectiles, and summoned another puppet in one fluid motion from a seal on his wrist. This puppet was also sphere-shaped, although much larger and completely covered in metal plating. The puppet immediately split into eight segments, and the four closest to the incoming kunai shot open and folded outwards into the shape of a medium-sized satellite dish.

All of this took place over the span of less than half a second, as the kunai approached him at blinding speed.

They moved closer and closer, before suddenly-

CRASH!

The pair of kunai struck a large wall of blue chakra, before falling to the ground harmlessly. The chakra shield began to flicker and fade, as Reima simply smirked from behind his defensive-style orb puppet.

"You'll have to try harder than that! This puppet is indestructible!" he laughed, as Tonto continued to evade the ever-encroaching presence of his two attack puppets.

With a roar, Tonto clenched his fists and let loose a massive wave of pure chakra, stopping the two incoming puppets by interfering with the chakra strings that gave them their instruction.

Not one to waste moments of opportunity like this, Tonto immediately flew into a series of hand seals. Reima looked on in anger as he pumped more chakra into his strings in an effort to get his puppets back on the offensive, but to no avail. How could he have overlooked such a serious flaw with his ultimate designs?

Tonto took a deep breath as he finished the last seal.

"Wind Style! Air Bullets!"

True to its name, the jutsu blasted out of Tonto's mouth at terrifying speeds, catapaulting at the two wooden spheres in rapid succession.

Reima could do nothing but watch in horror as the blobs of deadly wind approached his prized puppets. Without thinking it over, he roared in fury, pumping an astronomical amount of chakra through his strings in an effort to 'reboot' his tools, in a sense.

Ten consecutive blasts of air crashed into the first puppet, shattering it to pieces in an instant. The leftover fragments of metal framing, gears, levers, and poisonous blades were obliterated by the next round of bullets, sending the pieces rocketing in every direction. Chunks of wood and metal embedded themselves in the compacted sand streets, the sides of the nearby buildings, and into both Reima and Tonto themselves.

Reima screamed in both anger and pain, as he watched one of his puppets become dust before his eyes. Luckily, his attempt to save them was enough to thrust one of the offensive puppets out of the way of the attack, but he expelled so much chakra in the maneuver that he was unable to reconnect the threads to get it moving again. As such, the wooden sphere was now simply imbedded in the wall of the nearby home, blades lying limp at its sides.

He then turned his attention to himself, and noticed he had a few wooden splinters that were impaled in his arms and legs. Luckily, however, his defensive puppet was able to stop the majority of the shards, protecting the more vital parts of his body. Now, however, due to his chakra depletion, the sphere crashed to the ground in a useless heap at his feet.

Tonto, on the other hand, was not as lucky. As soon as the bullets struck the puppet, he immediately regretted his jutsu choice, as he was struck by dozens of small, needlelike pieces of debris. He howled in pain, gripping his right eye, as a piece of metal had embedded itself deep into his socket and into the back of his skull. He fell to the floor, coughing, as blood began to seep out of his eye and past his hand to the ground.

"You… you bastard," he croaked out, before looking up with his good eye at the weak figure of his opponent.

From the looks of things, Reima wasn't faring much better. He was now panting heavily, and leaning up against a nearby building, positioned behind the damaged frame of his defensive puppet.

Tonto smirked, and attempted to stand up to finish the job, when he felt a searing pain ricochet off of his spine and up into his head. He opened his eyes in horror.

'The poison… it must have been all over that puppet…'

He gulped, and willed himself to stand, even though his body was screaming at him to just lay down and rest.

It seemed that Reima had the same idea, because he too began to rise – albeit shakily. "I… I see you've noticed that the effects of the poison have begun to take hold…" he croaked with a weak grin, before attempting to take a step forward and stumbling a bit.

"…I don't think… you're any better off… Reima…" Tonma spat. "I doubt… you can counteract… your own poison in your current state…"

Reima chuckled quietly, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a lone kunai. "No… probably not…" he coughed and wheezed for a moment into his hand, and his eyes widened when he saw it was coated in blood now. "That's why… I'm going to take you down with me."

Both shinobi began to move towards one another in their last stand – each brandishing a single kunai.

But then, suddenly –

The entire city began to shake violently, as already weakened buildings across the village collapsed one after another in heaps of sandstone and clouds of dust. The sound was overwhelming – like the earth was attempting to snuff itself out in one fell swoop.

Massive cracks began to form down the streets of the village, running up and down the entire desert, all centralized around one point -

The Kazekage tower.

Reima and Tonto looked at each other for a moment, as if asking the other if this was their doing. After a moment of receiving no answer one way or another, they both shrugged, and started walking towards one another once again.

But they stopped again. Tonto blinked his good eye, before leaning to the side a bit and cupping an oversized hand to his ear.

'Is that a… train? What the hell is making all that sound?'

Tonto had seen one of the large mechanical beasts lumbering through the hills of the Land of Iron a few months back on a reconnaissance mission, but was not expecting to see one here, of all places. What was going-?

A soft hissing sound began to bounce around off of the walls of the buildings lining the cracked streets. Tonto looked back up at his opponent, only to see pure terror etched across his face.

With a shaky finger, he pointed to the horizon, behind where Tonto was standing.

He smirked at first, expecting this to be a poorly executed attempt to get him to drop his guard, when he heard the sounds of clashing shinobi all across the village stop, and people beginning to scream much louder than before.

With a sigh, he turned as well, although only slightly. But when he saw the massive wall of sand rising up over the village, he forgot all about Reima immediately.

The entire horizon was swelling in a mass of flowing, twisting, turning sand, as it began to wrap itself around the village walls and rise up above like a dome. Small particles of sand began to drip down from the wall, onto the faces of the two warring shinobi, but neither noticed.

They were too busy trying to comprehend what was happening.

"SHUKAKU!" someone screamed from down the street, and people began to cry in terror. Everyone knew that if the Kazekage died, then there was a very real chance that the One-Tails would be let loose on the desert, and attempt to seek its revenge on the village that had locked it away for decades.

The village was plunged into absolute darkness, as the sea of sand began to flow and bubble tumultuously above them, almost like a stormcloud.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, the sand completely stopped.

"RUN!" people began to yell, as the figures of once battling shinobi began to try to save themselves from whatever came next.

Tonto just gulped, aware of the fact that his life was nearing its end anyway. At least it would be better to die by the hand of the beast quickly, than to succumb to the poison in his system after several agonizing days.

Before he could dwell too much more on his future, the sea of sand shot down from the sky in giant tendrils.

A massive explosion rocked the village as several dozen spires of sand blitzed down from the sky like lightning bolts and obliterated the Kazekage tower. Sand beams blasted through the glass windows, through the walls themselves, through the ceiling, and even through the floor. The sudden change in structural integrity caused the building to crackle and moan under the pressure of its own weight and the sand that was flying across it like a flooding river, before the ground around it began to buckle. Endlessly, the tower was pelted with wave after wave of the brown mist, piling onto itself until nothing but a massive orb was left where the central portion of the village used to be.

Tonto and Reima tried to flee from the incoming waves, as their battlefield was based around the bottom-most floor of the tower. But their efforts were to no avail. Everything – man, puppet, and building alike - was swept into the flowing sphere like quicksand. With bloodcurdling screams, the two clan heirs dipped under the surface, never to be seen again.

In the center of the sphere, Gaara stood tall atop a small platform of sand, big enough for his siblings and him to stand upon safely. They all watched as the terrified form of the Sixth Kazekage slipped from his precarious position atop of his desk, and the giant swirling, roaring, screaming spherical wall of sand grabbed hold of one of his legs.

He cried out in pain as the sand ripped it away from the rest of his body, peppering the walls of Gaara's jutsu with blood, which was quickly absorbed into the flowing mass of sand. He looked at Gaara pleadingly, and began to open his mouth to beg for mercy.

But Gaara would have none of that. His hair was whipping around his head at the center of the orb, and his eyes were completely white with power as his chakra flew around him, occasionally arcing like lightning to the surrounding sand as it rotated.

The Fifth Kazekage might have lost his thirst for blood after coming to terms with his own existence after his defeat during the chuunin exams nearly three and a half years ago. But this man… this traitor…

Gaara wanted Tonma to feel every ounce of his suffering before finally succumbing to the sweet embrace of death.

He stuck his palm out towards the man, much to his absolute terror, and Tonma began to shake his head and quake. "N…No! Please! You can have your job back! You can have your village back! Please, I beg you, don't ki-"

SPLAT.

"Spiraling Sand Coffin."

Blood flew everywhere from within the sphere of sand, splattering all over Gaara's unflinching form, as well as his siblings' horrified faces.

Where Tonma had been standing were now two solid plates of sandstone. They had come together in the middle, slowly, and pressed the life out of the man in excruciating detail. Still, it was much too quick for Gaara's liking. His only regret was that he could not have made the man suffer more than he did.

But that was old Gaara.

New Gaara had a village to save.

As his mind began to overcome his overwhelming rage, Gaara sank to his knees and cough heavily. The walls of sand began to deteriorate around them, spritzing them with blood-soaked sand. Temari and Kankurou rushed to the side of their brother in worry, before he waved them off with his free hand.

"No… I must concentrate. I cannot harm this village more than it already has been."

He grunted in determination, raising his head up level with the floor they were standing on. After a few moments the sand began to recede, and small patches of sunlight could be seen poking through holes in the sphere.

Temari looked at her brothers in confusion, before something clicked in her brain. 'He's moving the sand back away from the village so it does not harm anyone.'

He strained further, and a trickle of blood ran down from his nose. The platform they were standing on began to crumble at the edges, prompting Temari and Kankurou to etch closer to their brother in worry.

Finally, after a few moments, he raised his hands, and then whipped them to his sides in a swishing motion. Instantaneously, the sea of sand floating above the village flew off from where it had come – outside the city walls.

Blood was pouring out of his nose, his ears, his eyes – his exertion was so great that Temari could hear the blood vessels popping in his face. He was shaking uncontrollably, as he tried to hold onto consciousness and the last little bit of his chakra, until –

The waves of sand had just barely passed over the city walls when Gaara fell forward, unconscious, with a thump.

Instantly, the clouds of sand, which were floating several hundred feet in the air, fell from the sky in one solid chunk. They struck the desert around the Hidden Sand with a massive blast of energy and dust, and more buildings across the village collapsed under the significant quaking.

Temari grabbed ahold of Gaara, as the sand platform they were standing upon disintegrated as well, sending them tumbling down towards the place where the Kazekage tower used to stand.

Luckily, their shinobi training kicked in during the freefall, and Temari channeled all of her available chakra to her legs in order to prevent them from breaking under the heavy strain of landing with her younger brother in her arms.

They landed with an audible thump, and Temari immediately winced as she felt the bones in her legs scream at her under the pressure. But they held, much to her, and Kankurou's relief.

After a few moments, Temari set her brother down, and sat beside him, trying to process everything that had just happened. With wide eyes, she looked from her brother, to her fan, to her other brother, to the crater that used to be her brother's office.

Then, she turned to the side and threw up.

"Temari, we need to get out of here. Gaara is definitely hurt. We can't stay here now. We should go to the Leaf and get him looked at."

Kankurou leaned down and looked her paled sister in the eyes to show just how serious he was. "I mean it. It isn't safe here now. Not to mention the fact that the hospital is currently a pile of rubble. There's nothing more we can do right now, other than try to keep everyone calm and reassure them that we'll be back in a few days once Gaara is well enough to be back on his feet."

Temari didn't move for a few moments, before she simply nodded her head.

With a smile, Kankurou bent over and slung his unconscious brother over his shoulders. He blinked when he realized how little Gaara weighed, before he realized why. "Damn, Gaara is ridiculously light. It must be because his sand armor isn't on him right now."

Sure enough, when Temari stood and took a closer look at her brother, he seemed thinner – much thinner. His clothes and bandages were much baggier now than they were previously, and sand leaked out of the holes in his clothes like water, running down Kankurou's back and across his scrolls.

"Come on," Kankurou urged, as he began to take several steps towards the city wall – or, rather, what was left of it. Temari followed behind dumbly, as she observed the carnage of her village with a frown on her face. A lot had happened the last few hours, but now that all the action was over, Temari could barely stay standing from the weight of her village's suffering bearing down on her like a ton of bricks. She shook her head. "And that's why I am not fit for the job of Kazekage," she mumbled to herself.

Kankurou turned to look at her with a questioning gaze, no doubt about to ask her what she had just said, but the look on her face told him to save it. They could discuss it on the way to the Leaf.

After they walked for a mile or so, Gaara began to stir.

"Wh… what? What's going on? Temari? Kankurou? Where are we?"

Kankurou immediately stopped and set Gaara down, shoving a canteen of water in his face and sitting down next to him. The silhouette of the Sand Village, still smoking from the day's devastation, was positioned down the large sandy hill from them, as Temari took a seat in front of her weakened brother and began to try to feed him a soldier pill.

"We're on our way to the Hidden Leaf village. We need to get you back up to full strength before we return and start to rebuild," she said calmly, as Gaara began to chew the pill slowly.

"And before you say anything, most of the villagers had gone into hiding in their basements or the remains of their homes, so they're safe, for the time being. What little remained of our loyal Sand shinobi are working overtime to guard the walls from intruders until we can return. It will be a difficult job, but those men can handle it. The village will be fine, Gaara. You're its top priority right now. Without a decent figurehead, it will fall further than it did before."

Gaara blinked, still on the verge of saying something, before he closed his eyes and nodded. "Indeed. How far are we from the border? And what happened to Rei?"

Temari frowned in thought, before she snapped her fingers. "You know, I heard a civilian say something about how he was going to blow up the oil refinery that the Oukui built to the north in retaliation, after Tonma beat him to your office. I sent Baki-sensei to investigate. He'll be sitting in as your replacement until you return."

Gaara's eyes shot open at that, and he tried to jump to his feet. Temari pushed him back down, though, and he just looked back at her, eyes darting from his two siblings in terror.

"What? Gaara, what's wrong? Is it Baki? Should we have picked someone else?" Temari said with a questioning look.

"No. No. No! We have to get back… no… Temari, please – if we don't, then the village-"

BOOM!

For the seemingly hundredth time that day, the desert rocked with immense vibration.

On the horizon, past the Hidden Sand, a massive cloud of red-hot smoke and ash billowed into the sky like a second sun. As suddenly as the first, chain explosions began to detonate from around the first, like fireworks in the darkening twilight.

It looked like the explosions were approaching the Hidden Sand.

"When I mentioned that I was working on a diplomatic solution to the problems the Yoku and the Oukui were having, I had an ace in the hole," Gaara suddenly spoke, his tone like death.

"The Oukui weren't going to take no for an answer. So the only way for the compromise to work was if I blackmailed them." He looked up at Temari, who tore her eyes away from the increasingly intense waves of fire and devastation to look into his own.

They were completely broken. She gasped a little. "What do you mean, blackmail?" she whispered.

"I discovered something that the Oukui were desperate to keep the Yoku from knowing. Something that they did without asking for permission. Something incredibly stupid, and incredibly dangerous."

A tear worked its way down his face in a rare sign of pure emotion.

Temari's eyes opened wide at what she was seeing on her brother's face. It was making her heart pound in her chest, and her eyes bulge out of her sockets.

"Gaara… what are you saying…"

"I've failed. I've failed as Kazekage. I've failed to protect my village." He mumbled, another tear dripping from his darkened eyes.

"What are you talking about?! Gaara, what the hell are you saying!" she slapped him, surprising both Gaara and Kankurou, and even Temari.

"Another oil refinery." He closed his eyes as his voice began to waver, not even acknowledging the slap. It was like he was no longer in this plane. "One that was ten times the size of the one the built to the north. They connected it to their other one in order to reduce transportation costs. And they built it somewhere that would boost their profits."

The sky began to flicker in a brilliant orange glow, and Temari turned just in time as she saw the entire Hidden Sand village erupt in the biggest flash of power and energy and fire she had ever seen. It was nuclear in size and strength, and she screamed as her eyes began to burn in their sockets, before she turned away just barely in time, as the entire sky lit up in a brilliant white flash.

"It was built directly underneath the village."