Nonexistent Mourning
by tovanell
-AU- An assassination attempt on ten year old Gaara is successful, and Temari and Kankurou mourn for the brother they never really had.
The trip back to Suna was strange.
For one thing, Gaara wasn't there anymore. Kankurou had been so used to flanking Gaara, standing, walking, doing everything behind and to the left of him, and now that Gaara was gone, it kinda threw him off balance. Just Temari next to him, Baki behind them, and this big empty space in front of him. Made him feel a little exposed too, somehow.
Another thing – you would think not having a psycho, homicidal demon-possessed little brother with you anymore would be relaxing. No more death threats, no more him worrying that Gaara would snap and just obliterate them without warning. No, if anything, he was more tense and more nervous. Not that he showed it. And underneath all that, he still can't believe that Gaara is gone now. Dead. The only time 'dead' and 'Gaara' were in the same sentence was 'Someone was dead because of Gaara'.
Kankurou didn't remember much of the trip home besides those two things. He was distracted and tired, and just walked almost absentmindedly through the desert. He was still a shinobi, of course, so he was still aware of his surroundings and all, but he did that half-heartedly, mind kept wandering elsewhere. He doesn't even remember what elsewhere was about either.
He did, however, remembered with perfect clarity what had happened when they got home, when they got back to the gates of Suna, just him, Temari and Baki-sensei.
They checked in with the guards at the gate, waiting for the chuunin to finish writing down their names, the date and the time, when the man suddenly stopped, lifted his head up and looked at the three of them, each of them. Looked past them, out into the desert, searching for the fourth member of their group. Then looked back at them.
"Wha- Er, where is…?" They were always afraid to say Gaara's name. Like he would hear and suddenly pop up to kill them.
Temari didn't say anything. Neither did Kankurou. From behind them, Baki sighed.
"Gaara has been killed in action."
There. Again. Those words just didn't seem to register in Kankurou's mind. Neither had they registered in the chuunin's mind either, it seemed, the way he stared blankly at Baki for a few seconds, uncomprehending.
"Wha…" The chuunin frowned, going over those words. "G-Ga... Killed?" Disbelief on his face.
Then, a hesitant smile.
"Dead? He's dead? Seriously? He finally died?" The chuunin was all joy now, big wide grin, happiness replacing disbelief, so happy. It's almost disgusting, that cheerfulness.
Kankurou suddenly felt the urge to punch him hard, to rip that stupid, annoying grin off his face.
But he was controlling himself.
"Yeah, Gaara's dead, ja. Celebrate later; hurry up and let us go." Kankurou snapped, shoving his hands in his pocket and scowling. He glanced at Temari, who looked impassive, but her eyes were hard.
The chuunin nodded and quickly finished everything up, still smiling the whole time.
Word traveled fast. By the time they arrived at the Kazekage's dome, they were told to go to the morgue. The kunoichi that relayed the information kept her face blank, but you could tell she was happy too.
Kankurou wondered if he should be happy too. He probably should, because Gaara was finally dead, but he wasn't feeling it.
Before yesterday, he had liked the idea of Dead Gaara greatly, because he was fucking tired of walking on eggshells all the damn time. A day without having to watch what he said around the little brat, without receiving death threats and feeling killer intent all the freaking time? Awesome.
But the reality was different.
They walked over to the hospital, through the doors, and down the stairs into the basement, the morgue. Kankurou grimaced at the smell – he has never been here before, because no one he cared about ever died.
But here he was, because Gaara's one of the many corpses in here now. Did he care, at all?
One of the nurses was waiting for them, and she led them to Autopsy Room 1. It was a large room, with an autopsy table right in the middle of it, and the lights shining above it the only lights in the room. The Kazekage was already there, standing off to the side in the shadows, while two medic-nin – the coroners – stood next to the table, waiting for them.
The Kazekage walked up to them. They saluted and Kankurou and Temari both stepped aside, parting way for Baki.
"I see the mission was successful, Baki. Were the Kumo-nin enough, or did you have to finish the job?"
"The Kumo-nin were enough, Kazekage-sama. Gaara managed to kill them all, but succumbed to his injures in the end."
"Let's see those injures, then." The Kazekage held out a hand, and Baki gave him the storage scroll that held Gaara's body. He walked over to the table, placed the scroll in the middle of it, and made a hand seal. A poof of smoke, and there was Gaara, small and bloody and dead.
The Kazekage wore his hat and mask, but his eyes were visible, and Kankurou could see the triumph in them. The Kazekage looked coldly down at the body, studying it for a good while before speaking again.
"Baki, you will tell me every single detail of the mission while the coroners," he said, eyes shifting to look at the two medic-nin, who quickly got to work, "clean up and examine the body."
Baki took a deep breath and began. Kankurou stood straight and still where he was, not listening to Baki, but instead watched the coroners handle his little brother's corpse.
The body laid on the table, blood and sand washed off, and naked except for a white sheet covering the waist and below. They all stood around it, listening to the coroners reporting their findings.
"The jinchuuriki sustained electrical burns on his arms and back, but they were only second and third degree burns and non fatal. He was cut deeply on his right side, damaging the organs there and resulting in hemorrhaging. And, of course," One of the coroners pointed to the hole in Gaara's chest, "the heart. The blade cut pierced through the right atrium and the right lung, while the lightning burned the tissue surrounding the blade."
"In a normal person, a the blade through the heart – with electricity lining it, no less – would have stopped the heart the moment it was impaled, and he would have died instantly. If not, then at least the shock would have made the heart go into cardiac arrest, killing him as well."
"But it seemed the jinchuuriki – the bijuu was able to prevent that from happening. We found new, chakra-enriched tissue already trying to patch up the heart. But the Ichibi isn't known for regenerative healing abilities, and so while it managed to keep the heart beating, it ultimately failed in the end."
"So, the cause of death was a mixture of excessive blood loss of the chest and the side, and the damage to the heart." The coroner finished, glancing towards the Kazekage for his response.
He only nodded, eyes still on Gaara, taking in everything. "Any other findings?"
"Well, it's…interesting to note that the jinchuuriki was malnourished. Nothing too bad, but he was obviously not eating well. He's underweight for a boy of his age." The second coroner spoke up, waving his hand over Gaara's bony ribs to emphasize.
At the corner of his eye, Kankurou caught Baki glancing at Temari and him, obviously displeased about them not noticing Gaara's self-starvation or something. Well, not like they could have done anything. Gaara never ate with them at dinner, opting to raid the kitchen late at night when he got hungry, and Kankurou doubt anyone would bother to check if he's eating healthily or not. As long as Gaara could function, that was enough.
"Otherwise, there's nothing else. The sand did a good job protecting him until yesterday; there are no prior injures other than the…scar on his forehead." All eyes flicked to the kanji. There was an uncomfortable silence in the room. The other coroner broke that silence a few seconds later, cleared his throat and turned to the Kazekage.
"Kazekage-sama…Shall we prepare the body for cremation and the funeral…?" He asked.
"There's no need for a funeral." The Kazekage stepped back, finished here and ready to turn and go. "Just burn the body and throw away the ashes." With that, he left.
Kankurou glanced down at Gaara's body.
No need for a funeral
It was logical; fitting, really. The Kazekage hated Gaara, considered him a failure, a threat and menace to the village. And so did everyone else. Why waste money on a funeral for someone like that? If there was a funeral anyways, who would come? Besides happy villagers and shinobi who would just come to celebrate and cause trouble and make the funeral pointless.
-Monsters are slain, their deaths celebrated-
Kankurou didn't feel like celebrating. He just wanted this to blow over, and then he and Temari and everyone else will go back living their lives. He realized, that Gaara's death really didn't impact anything. The boy stood aloof from everyone else, except when he got bloodthirsty and went to find someone to kill; he wasn't part of the village, never was, and now that he was out of the picture, Suna will just relax, forget, and move on.
Kankurou was sure he didn't care, because Gaara was Gaara, and he was creepy, vile and insane. He made it clear he felt nothing for them except murderous hatred, and Kankurou gladly returned the sentiment, albeit not as extremely or openly. Yet all of this felt wrong, even if Gaara was a demon. Wrong that Gaara was dead and no one cared, not even his own family; wrong that the village was celebrating, and that he was going to be cremated and toss in the trash.
And that wrong intensified when he looked at those pale, bony shoulders and the small ashen face (and Kankurou could see the half-resemblance to their mother and that just made it worse) and he saw more of a little boy instead of the monster…
"Kankurou."
"What?" He replied, not missing a beat, but now his thoughts had broken off. He looked up and across the table at Temari and Baki. Both looked indifferent and he knew that his own face did too. No emotions, uncaring.
"We're leaving." Baki said, before glancing down at the body then back at Kankurou, "Unless you want to stay a little longer…?"
"Yeah, right." Kankurou scoffed, making his way around the table to join what's left of his team. "Let's go, ja."
Temari looked a tad bit annoyed at him, but otherwise didn't show any other emotions, won't let herself feel any other emotion. She was always better than Kankurou during emotional training, but Kankurou was an actor, and he can act his way through. He'll admit Gaara's death bothered him a little (just a little, and mostly because his life has just changed, no any other reason) but he's not going to show it.
Behind him, Kankurou heard the coroners move the body onto a stretcher and the stretcher being wheeled out to the furnace. There was an urge to turn and look back, because this is the last time he was going to see Gaara, and after that, he was gone from their lives forever.
-He's never going to see Gaara again-
Temari looked, and so did Baki, just a glance, but Kankurou couldn't bring himself to. He sighed in annoyance and walked for the exit, Temari and Baki following him a second later.
A/N: I love Kankurou. He's just awesome. And his little accent is adorable. And I hope that medical stuff sounded believable. I researched, heh.
Funny you mentioned perspective, Sincynati. Here's Kankurou's point of view. He's fun to write; more emotional than Temari, which I try to show here. As for the italics and parentheses, it's a style I'm trying out. I do want them to be side thoughts, or the little distant thoughts you think without realizing it, but I'll look into that. Thanks a lot!
Hope you guys enjoy this latest chapter. And keep the feedback and criticism coming.
tovanell