Perfect Chaos.

Chapter Two. Elemental.

He walked down the street, trying not to listen to the buzzing of the insects. But soon it was all around him, and the clay brick walls around him rose higher and higher as the buzzing became louder and more shrill. The humans around him, he could see behind the walls. They were all morphed into insects somehow, and their faces became distorted and alien and greedy. They were talking and chattering and buzzing and touching and...

It scared him because he did not know what it was to be one of them. Did he even want to be one of them?

But he was safe. There was a wall.

Yes there was a wall, but that did not stop the buzzing.

Why is there a wall!?

There was a shaking of temple bells. He turned. The moon was high above him, set like a jewel into a purple velvet sky. The edges of the sky burned red like fire, and the smell of opium incense filled the air.

The walls rose higher still, the bricks becoming wider. Then behind him appeared a golden archway, adorned with bells and yellow leaves. Ethereal figures appeared beneath the arch, shaking the bells he had heard earlier. They wore saffron robes and ancient expressions. They looked at him, and they knew what he was. He was naked under their gaze. He tried to shake the bells out of his head and the perfumed smell out of his nose. The sounds of the insects behind the walls grew louder while the monks chanted words he could not hear. He was bound by some invisible energy, unable to move or have release.

Not good. Overwhelming. Sounds reached fever pitch. Mouth not moving to scream. Shouting inside his head instead.

i want to scream and let blood flow down the streets until we are drowned in it

-

They arrived at the training grounds early.

It was a Wednesday, which meant it was a training day for the three siblings. They had been keeping this habit up for around three months now, which had surprised their fellow ninja, who were now starting to believe that maybe Gaara did have the capacity to be sociable, or at least the capacity to fight without killing anyone, after all.

The sun was only just beginning to rise. The early morning air was cool and pleasant, and likely to remain so for a few more hours, until the sun climbed higher. All across the arid, flat training ground, shimmers of sunlight splayed out in an orange-yellow haze. At this stage of the morning, dust and sand appeared like a thin layer of mist just above the ground. Swirling particles caught in the sun's rays if he looked closely. Gaara liked watching these patterns.

The land was so flat and open; it was a whole world apart from the jaunty dream that had woken him from his usual couple of hours of sleep this morning.

The three of them slowed to a halt simultaneously. Temari's voice brought Gaara back into focus.

'I can't believe that they've got us due to start another mission tomorrow!' She exclaimed, setting down her pack on the dry earth.

'Hah, you're just thinking about that lover-boy of yours back at Konoha,' Kankurou said with a smirk. Temari's eyes flashed at him angrily.

'He is not my boyfriend!' She groaned in mock despair. Kankurou grinned.

'Anyway, this new mission. How much does it suck, eh? Geez, Gaara, count yourself lucky!'

Gaara raised an eyebrow quizzically. He did not need to speak. The expression was more than enough.

'What, you mean you don't know?' Kankurou blurted out loudly. He winced at the volume of his voice, and said a little more quietly, 'We thought Captain Baki had found you last night.'

Gaara focused on his older brother with eyes that said 'Well clearly he did not.'

'So what is it I should know?' he said bluntly.

'Oh, uh...' Kankurou faltered for a second. The pause probably meant that he was trying to think of a specific and very roundabout way to phrase something. He did this sometimes. 'Well, it's just that, um, you're... you're allowed to bail on the next mission. You get off easy.'

Gaara simply stared. Meaning?

'It means you're relieved from your duty for the next mission,' Temari interjected, and then steeled herself for some kind of reaction from Gaara. He thought about it for a minute. So the village officials were still reluctant to send him out on so many missions then.

'I see,' he said. And that was all he had to say on the subject. It did not bother him in particular.

'Anyway, let's start on some training,' Kankurou said cheerily, a broad grin making comical shapes over his painted face.

Apart from the grand exception of Gaara's gourd, they left the things they had brought with them on the sidelines. They began in the usual format they had fallen into. Kankurou and Temari would jump off and have a little warm-up against each other. This usually lasted until Gaara got bored and began sending out jets of sand to interfere with their warm-up. Upon which they would turn to him and unleash some of their slightly stronger attacks, all of which were warded off by the Sand Defence without so much as the bat of an eyelid from Gaara. They both knew there was no real danger of hitting Gaara – it took the superhuman speed and strength of a Taijutsu master like Rock Lee to even come close to penetrating that barrier.

There was no doubt about it. Gaara made an excellent practising target.

Eventually Gaara would get bored of this too and would start chasing them around with stabs of sand again, this time a little more violently, giving his older sister and brother a good workout in the process.

Before every training session, Temari made sure they were all clear on the signal to stop. This simple hand sign functioned like a safe-word, just in case things got out of control. Now, about five minutes into the dodging-Gaara's-sand-attacks part of the routine, Temari made the sign, bringing them all to a stop.

Gaara's brow furrowed ever so slightly. Had he done something wrong? A look, perhaps, that he was not aware of?

Temari took a few paces forward until she was within earshot.

'Gaara!' She called out. 'Let's do our favourite.'

-

Kankurou smiled and reclined back to the sidelines. Gaara relaxed. He uncrossed his arms as the faintest of smiles tugged at the corner of his lips. He disappeared in a whirlwind of sand and reappeared at the other end of the practise field. Spreading his arms wide, he signalled Temari to begin.

-

On the sidelines, Kankurou covered his face with a cloth shroud, and made sure his clothes were tight around him to prevent his skin from becoming sandblasted. As an afterthought, he quickly fished some goggles out of his pack and put them on, lowering the cloth so that he could witness the spectacle.

Temari whipped her fan open and leapt gracefully onto it, using perfect chakra control to keep it hovering three metres above ground. She made the hand sign for concentration, and closed her eyes.

There was a hazy lull in the atmosphere, like the calm before the storm. The very particles in the air seemed to buzz with energy, anticipating something big. The build-up was gradual, but intense. It made the hairs on the back of Gaara's neck prickle.

Then Temari let the power go, jumping up and catching the base of the fan in one smooth movement. Balanced on thin air, she swung the fan towards Gaara with all her might, uttering a loud yell as she did so. The wind rushed past Gaara's ears, eclipsing his sense of hearing until all that existed was a bass roar.

The first Sand Barrier came up to meet the wind, sending small particles of grit and sand all across the field as the two forces met like harsh waves crashing on a shore. The sight was tremendous; it was like watching a firework explode.

From behind the barrier, Gaara slammed his hands to the ground, sending a shockwave through the earth until a spire of sand leapt up fiercely right beneath Temari. She reacted fast as lightning, riding the winds higher and higher until she was at least fifty metres high. Gaara let the sand fall back to the ground.

Temari was becoming better at channelling the winds. Balanced in a rising current of air, she controlled the currents travelling around her until it was almost visible to the naked eye; strong gale-force winds spiralling around her body in an elegant dance. She looked almost suspended in time.

Gaara remembered why he liked this jutsu so much. For that brief moment of time that he saw Temari suspended there with her raw element, it was as though she was closer to understanding how he felt than anyone else. A tiny sliver of sand caressed his jaw line as he thought this and he smiled to himself. Then he let the power surge inside him until he was full to the brim. The sand roared high over his head, and he let himself become dragged up with it until he was on a level with Temari. Then, simultaneously, they let their power rush free.

This was the climax of the performance.

An enormous wall of sand rose up like a monolith as massive tornadoes of wind crashed into it. The sand licked up the wall like an out-of-control fire, and where the wind hit, it sent beautiful spirals of dust high into the sky. The ever-shifting sands eventually overpowered the tornadoes, crushing around the winds, and causing sand to splay out everywhere in the process. It was more dramatic than all the fireworks Suna had to offer. Due to the sheer scale of the battle, it was more like watching a battle between two elemental gods.

In one final surge, with chakra tearing at his every nerve, Gaara sent the sand to engulf the wind entirely. The wave crashed down, and the wind died, pressed harshly into the ground with a thunderous hiss. Gaara relaxed his control and let the grains of sand sink back into the earth he had dragged them up from. His familiar chunk of sand came back to him and re-formed into the gourd on his back, although a small space near the cork was missing. With all the energy he had just spent, his spine sagged a little under the weight of it. But he stood there, arms folded once again, and waited for Temari to emerge from the sand.

A moment later she rose up, spitting sand from her mouth and shaking her clothes fervently. Dust clouds unfurled around her. After dragging her fan out too, she made her way over to Kankurou. Gaara did the same.

-

Kankurou was a sight to see. Sitting on the wooden post, hands gripping his knees tightly, eyes staring straight forwards in either fright or delight. Gaara couldn't understand why Kankurou had that silly expression; he had seen their sand wall and tornado sequence before.

Temari shook Kankurou's shoulder and he snapped to, looking at the both of them with wide eyes. He unstuck his hand from his knee and ripped the cloth from his face.

'That... was... awesome.'

'Heh, you say that every time,' Temari commented, and shook her hair, creating another cloud of dust. 'Damn, Gaara, that bloody sand armour is the most uncomfortable thing ever!' She scratched at her skin agitatedly.

'Really?' Gaara said, puzzled. He shrugged slightly. The sand fell silently from Temari's skin and slithered back into the gourd, completing the missing section from around the cork. 'Well if you would rather get cut to pieces by our miniature sandstorm...'

His comment provoked a small yelp of 'Miniature!?' from a disbelieving Kankurou in the background. Meanwhile Temari smiled.

'Nah, you did a good job, bro. Now let's say we get some lunch?'

'Oh shit yeah...' Kankurou said as he removed his goggles and rubbed his eyes. 'Didn't realise how late it was!'

Gaara blinked and looked at the sun. It was noon already? He had been enjoying himself far too much.

'Mmm.' He nodded. The three of them set off back towards the village, leaving the myriad dust clouds to settle in their wake.