AUTHOR'S NOTE: In exchange for a long wait I give you a chapter about 3 times as long as the previous one. This is not a chapter to be taken lightly! Quite a lot of inner and outer battles going on here...including the one that went on in my own head trying to write this damn thing.
Gaara's Magnet Release "sparkling metallic sand" is from Gaara Hiden, just so you know. Therefore, I consider it canon.
I will try to update again as soon as possible. Give me about a week to turn a jumble of thoughts in my head into a brilliant Chapter 3.
Chapter 2: Desert Versus The Desert
Deserts have two sides, and sand spirits have two faces.
One is the calm side of the desert, the cool, collected face of the sand spirit.
The side of the desert where the sun casts a warm glow on the golden sand dunes, the sand shifting subtly under pleasant drafts of cool wind, the sky clear and a soft blue...the face of the sand spirit that is levelheaded and logical, even-tempered and unwavering, and fiercely loyal to the people it protects.
That was Gaara.
Gaara had assumed that he was the equivalent of the desert, and Sunagakure's sand spirit. But he'd forgotten the other half...
The other is the violent side of the desert, the twisted, unhinged face of the sand spirit.
The side of the desert where life is either literally sucked away by the dry heat and blindingly and stiflingly blistering sun, or is torn to bloody shreds by furious, inescapable, unrelenting sandstorms. The face of the sand spirit that is maniacal and psychopathic, demented and bipolar, and tremendously loathing all living things other than itself.
That was Shukaku.
The two halves completed each other with a past of hate and bonds of pain, and now, after years of separation, their doomed reunion had finally begun.
When Shukaku saw the green eye of sand configure right before him, he released an unbridled, wild roar, but not one of rage.
It was a roar of anticipation, to see, for the first time in years, a certain redheaded Suna shinobi he today had come so far for.
It took about five seconds for Gaara to teleport himself in a swirl of sand to the location of the One-Tailed Tanuki.
There wouldn't be one single human being or one single shinobi in the entire world, who would say that Gaara arriving from his office in Sunagakure to the middle of the desert miles away from Sunagakure's outer walls in a matter of five seconds wasn't an extremely impressive feet. Or even a miracle. In their view, he'd have completely re-defined the meaning of "long-range fighter".
But Shukaku wasn't a shinobi or even a human being. At this point, it wasn't even the fact that he was a tailed beast that made him come to a realization: it was because of the fact that he himself was the other half of the desert.
To Shukaku, the five seconds that it'd taken Gaara to arrive was five seconds too long. Living with an automatic sand defense since birth had taught Gaara to have nearly automatic reflexes as well. It'd taken Gaara five full seconds to arrive—that meant five full seconds to regain his composure.
Which meant he'd lost his composure in the first place.
Shukaku took great pride in the fact that he'd been able to unnerve the apparently emotionless, detached, fearless and stone-faced Kazekage, before the actual confrontation itself.
When Gaara did swirl into existence as expected, Shukaku was in for an even bigger treat. The Kazekage stood in the full glory of his infamous pose; feet standing shoulder-width apart on his Desert Suspension, back straight as a board with the humongous gourd strapped across it, arms crossed proudly in front of his chest, and the pale face under that shock of blood red hair cold, expressionless, and unreadable to any other human being.
But Shukaku wasn't a human, but a monster who'd lived inside Gaara's head and was the one Gaara'd desperately called "Mother", and the one whose sick demands and urges Gaara succumbed himself to. He looked into Gaara's tanuki-like eyes, which were yet another reminder of how similar they were, and saw beyond the stoic facade puzzlement, anger, and best of all, fear.
Shukaku felt himself filling to the brim and overflowing with a sick satisfaction that he'd been able to do this much to Gaara in a matter of seconds and no words at all. He made no hesitation in voicing this, either.
"GYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shukaku howled, throwing his beastly head back in a fit of ecstasy. Even after the matter failed to amuse to him anymore, he continued shrieking into the desert night, unwilling to let the sound of his own hellish voice die away.
The desert's fiery fury was interrupted by its own cold, sharp wind. What interrupted Shukaku's mad laughing fit was just as cold and sharp as the cutting desert wind at night. "Shukaku," Gaara intoned.
It seemed that as much as Shukaku was able to affect Gaara, Gaara was able to return the effect to Shukaku as well. The One-Tailed Beast actually shivered slightly at the sound of his own name spoken with Gaara's inflectionless yet icy tone.
The beast swallowed its laughter, which resulted in a savage growling sound tearing from his throat. Shukaku acknowledged Gaara, eye to eye, soundlessly and in a split second of deceiving calmness.
Then fell into a fit of raging laughter once again.
The place between where Gaara's eyebrows would have been was tightly knit. It was a subtle facial expression, but for Gaara, it was practically a loud declaration of confusion and displeasure.
Shukaku finally reined in his laughter, and, throwing a feral glare with his yellow and black eyes at Gaara, wordlessly challenged the redhead to speak.
Gaara simply stood there, arms crossed, robes fluttering about his unnervingly still form. He didn't blink, he didn't budge. It was questionable he even breathed. An eternity passed before taut lips moved a centimeter to speak in a raspy low voice that somehow still resonated clearly through the night.
"What are you doing here?"
The words themselves were extremely uninteresting, bland, and predictable, but to Shukaku, nothing that came out of Gaara's mouth was uninteresting. In fact, every sound, every movement Gaara made something powerful rise up in Shukaku's chest. He wasn't even sure what it was, but it lit the fuse so quickly that the only reaction Shukaku was aware of was the explosion he felt inside him.
"OIIIII! What's wrong with going anywhere to meet an old friend? And is that really how you greet an old friend like me, my esteemed self Shukaku,? Who do you think you are, you, you BRAT!" A truly cruel smirk crept up Shukaku's jagged lips. "Mother taught you better."
The flinch that flashed across Gaara's eyes was only there for a fraction of a second, but was clearly visible.
"And here I was so excited to see my old friend. How severely disappointed I am in him! It's been years, you know, and I simply wanted to catch up on the good old days! Will Mother have to punish the rude little boy like before? I'm sure you remember, don't you—Hahahahahahahahaha! Hahahaha! I guess I—"
"I never said anything was wrong with meeting an old friend, but you were the one to imply it. However, you know as well as I do that we are not friends, Shukaku, and that I find no joy in meeting you again, whether in a few years or in a millennium," Gaara said, his hoarse voice sounding even hoarser than before. The slight crack and wavering of his voice indicated his distress, but other than that, it was colder than ever. Waves of pain seemed to radiate from his eyes, however. "We may have come to terms years ago in a time of need, but friendly bonds are not something we share, then, or now. And you know it."
"HMPH! You insolent brat! But then perhaps it is because I am bored. I live to kill and for years I've roamed the earth with no silly little unloved brat to torture. I've come back to you now, so entertain my esteemed self!"
Silence ensued for a moment as Gaara shut his eyes, shielding his pale green eyes from Shukaku's view with black lids. A moment passed and although Shukaku could think he wanted to yell at Gaara, he had already been captured by the spell of Gaara's hypnotizing presence and every scream died before it reached his throat.
Torturously slowly, black lids lifted to reveal to glassy sea-foam green orbs. The knit of frustration between them was gone. Any trace of emotion had been sucked away from them, and in their place were hollow, empty tunnels. Devoid of expression. Dead.
"I am the Kazekage of the Sand and you have wasted enough of my time today. I don't know what you're up to, but I can positively say that as the protector of this village I do not welcome it. State your purpose, and leave."
Shukaku had always loved inflicting pain on others. Their strangled screams were music to his ears, spilt blood the sweetest smell, and the light of life slowly draining away from the eyes of the dying—to him, that was the most beautiful sight.
But with Gaara's every callous, uncaring, emotionless word, Shukaku could feel a sharp sword pierce through his entire being. This was pain—more than Shukaku's riled mind could comprehend—and he didn't like it one bit.
And after a few moments, Shukaku simply, utterly, and completely—
Lost it.
"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, BOY? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ME ALREADY, YOU DAMNED BRAT! I AM SHUKAKU, THE ONE-TAILED BEAST AND THE GREAT TANUKI OF THE DESERT! THE DESERT! THIS ENTIRE BLASTED, UNHOLY DESERT BELONGS TO ME AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY WHERE OR WHEN I AM WELCOME! THIS DESERT IS KINGDOM AND MY ESTEEMED SELF WELCOMES MYSELF. THERE IS NO PLACE MY ESTEEMED SELF IS NOT WELCOME. EVERY GRAIN OF THIS SAND IS IN MY POWER AND I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT TO IT AND GO WHEREVER I WANT ON IT. EVEN IF THAT MEANS SUNAGAKURE, THAT SHITTY VILLAGE YOU CALL YOURSELF THE ALMIGHTY KAZEKAGE OF. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK! AT ALL!
"YOU CALL YOURSELF THE PROTECTOR OF THE VILLAGE BUT IT IS WITH THE STOLEN POWERS OF MY ESTEEMED SELF THAT YOU DO SO! WHO DO YOU HAVE TO THANK FOR THAT STUPID SAND OF YOURS? IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE MY SAND MANIPULATION, DO YOU REALLY THINK THOSE ASSHOLES BACK IN SUNAGAKURE WOULD GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT YOU? HUH? THEY STICK TO YOU LIKE LEECHES BECAUSE YOU'RE POWERFUL. IF YOU'D LOST YOUR POWERS WHEN YOU WERE SEPARATED FROM ME, WOULD YOU STILL BE KAZEKAGE? WOULD YOU STILL BE LOVED? FORGET IT, NOBODY HAS OR EVER WILL LOVE YOU. IT IS THEIR SELFISHNESS THAT CAUSES THEM TO STICK TO YOU, NOT THEIR LOVE."
Gaara's eyes flitted down towards his own chest for a millisecond. He knew it wasn't bleeding, but his heart was hurting a lot. Although he had experienced it for countless years as a child, it was still unpleasant. And the fact that Gaara believed, deep down, that Shukaku's words were absolutely true, rubbed salt onto the injury inside his chest.
"YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE SOME STRANGER! IT IS MY POWER THAT PROTECTS SUNAGAKURE NOW AND YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE SOME UNWELCOME STRANGER! THAT MAKES ME HATE YOU! THAT MAKES ME LOATHE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE! THAT MAKES ME WANT TO RIP YOU APART AND RAIN YOUR BRAINS AND BLOOD ALL OVER YOUR PRECIOUS VILLAGE!
"TALKING TO YOU IS LIKE TALKING TO A WALL! YOUR STUPID NONCHALANT VOICE MAKES ME SICK! YOUR EMOTIONLESSNESS MAKES ME SICK! THAT IMPASSIVE FACE—MAKES ME SICK! COME ON, TALK TO MOTHER LIKE YOU USED TO, BOY! I KNOW THAT INDIFFERENCE OF YOURS IS JUST AN ACT! IT'S ALL FAKE! SHOW ME THE MONSTER THAT'S HIDING BEHIND THAT SICK WALL FACADE OF YOURS, GAARA! I KNOW IT'S THERE! SPEAK UP; SAY SOMETHING! GET RID OF THAT SICK, FAKE INDIFFERENCE OF YOURS AND SAY SOMETHING TO SHOW ME WHAT YOU'RE REALLY FEELING!"
Gaara was silent.
"NOOOOO! JUST SHUT UP, YOU BRAT, JUST SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I NO LONGER WANT YOUR ACCURSED VOICE TO REACH THE EARS OF MY ESTEEMED SELF! I WAS LEFT TO WANDER THE WORLD IN FREEDOM AND ROAMED THIS DESERT FOR YEARS WITHOUT YOU, YET THAT ACCURSED VOICE OF YOURS CONTINUED TO IMPRISON ME! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE OF YOU BRAT AND YET YOU'VE FOLLOWED ME EVERYWHERE AND I CAN'T ESCAPE. MY ESTEEMED SELF IS THE GREAT SHUKAKU, ONE-TAILED BEAST AND DESERT TANUKI, AND YET I'M TRAPPED—I'M TRAPPED BY YOUUUUU! WHEN I SEE THE STARS IN THE COLD DESERT NIGHT I SEE YOUR COLD JUDGING EYES JUDGING ME! AND WHEN I HEAR THE MURMURING DESERT WIND AT NIGHT ALL I HEAR IS YOUR INDIFFERENT, UNLOVING VOICE, ALWAYS PREACHING ABOUT FRIENDSHIP THIS, FRIENDSHIP THAT, LOVE THIS, LOVE THAT—"
"YOU HAVE MADE ME YOUR PREY AND THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE! MY ESTEEMED SELF SHUKAKU REFUSES TO BECOME PREY TO THE LIKES OF SCUM LIKE YOU! AND TO EXPUNGE THIS ABOMINATION I MUST MAKE YOU MINE! I MUST MAKE YOU MY PREYYYYY!"
At this moment, it was clear as the desert sky. Put the two faces of the sand spirit together, and you get a demon. Put the two sides of the desert together, and you get hell.
Nightmares are meant to be wakened from, but tonight was like wakening to one.
The streets of Sunagakure were more crowded and noisier than a festival night. The village, however, had been rudely awoken from its slumber by no festival. The streets were dark as a grave, and the air hung over its people like a ghost.
It was several miles away from the village's outer walls, but because of the desert's flatness, they could see, quite clearly, a great sphere of rapidly moving sand seemingly have a battle with itself. Zipping about the sand in the great sphere was a small speck that could be made out to be the Kazekage they loved. But the clouds of sand sometimes made way to reveal something much larger and much more nightmarish underneath. Something from a nightmare that had repeated itself too many times in the past. Sunagakure thought they had been cured of the hellish dream, but right before their eyes, there it was.
Gathered on the balcony of the Kazekage Office was a small but significant crowd of Suna jounin, ANBU, and council members. At the forefront of them was a brown-haired puppet master whose face, for once, lacked its trademark purple paint. Having been woken in the dead of night to such a spectacle, he'd promptly ignored all requirements of his formal shinobi attire.
Kankuro and the man beside him, Baki, were reliving a different, but equally horrible, nightmare, as they watched their brother and student, respectively, fight the impossible battle to protect their village.
Long blonde hair and a black cloak imprinted with red clouds flurried in the wind on the back of a threatening, great white bird high above the village. One of the sleeves of the Akatsuki's cloak was torn and tattered at the upper arm, with blood dripping from the stump.
Despite having had his arm crushed to oblivion by a giant arm of sand, Deidara's intended spoils of the fight were too high a price for Sunagakure.
Something frail and maroon fell from the sky, and before it could reach the safety of its village below, the white bird swooped down and curled around its tail around its form, imprisoning it midair.
Kankuro, Baki and the rest of Sunagakure stood petrified in the village that had just miraculously survived unscathed from a bomb powerful enough to have easily obliterated it into nothing more than a scorch mark in the sand. They watched in despair as the enemy flew away with the one who had put his life on the line to protect them.
The Kazekage's brother and his fellow shinobi were completely helpless against the enemy too far away to reach and too powerful to fight, and the Kazekage was taken over the walls and into the sky, to his death.
"Gaara!" Kankuro cried, his agonized tone accurately describing a thousand words of misery.
"Gaara..." Baki whispered, almost to himself. "Not again...this time, you can't lose."
A couple of people behind them stood a crowd of Gaara's young, fervent admirers. There was a reason these people were the ones the Kazekage put his hopes and trust in for the future of the village. Behind their seemingly silly fangirl/fanboy air headedness was determination of steel and resolve of pure love and loyalty.
One of the longest-time members of the "fan club", as Kankuro had dubbed them, voiced her support first. "Lord Gaara is powerful and strong!" Matsuri exclaimed, effectively rallying the crowd beside her. "He is our Kazekage and we have to put our trust in him like always! Even from afar, we're here to support you, Lord Gaara!"
"Go, Lord Gaara! We believe in you!" Sari gushed wholeheartedly.
"Lord Gaara will be just fine!" Ittetsu assured himself and his friends. "This time, he won't...he won't be defeated!"
Yukata continued equally as enthusiastically, "We can put our trust in Lord Gaara! He will definitely protect this village and keep it safe!"
Despite the situation, the fond yet honest words sparked cheers to erupt from the small crowd.
Kankuro would have been touched by the display of devotion if he had not felt a strong and growing sense of fear and hostility bourgeoning from somewhere amidst the gathering.
"I don't think we should trust him so easily."
The cheers cut off abruptly and turned into murmurs of puzzlement. Kankuro and Baki, hardly able to believe their ears, snapped their heads around to regard the offending party, an ANBU Black Ops, but Matsuri beat them to it.
"What in the world do you think you're saying, that we shouldn't trust Lord Gaara?! Have you forgotten who he is?"
"That's exactly what I haven't forgotten," piped up a jounin with a bitter tone to his voice. "Lord Gaara is the former One-Tail jinchuuriki. He may be powerful and the most suitable opponent for this...for Shukaku, but this is much more than a battle of skills."
"That's true," continued an elder council member. "This is, in a very literal sense, Lord Gaara's battle with his inner demon. We all know that when he battled with Shukaku within himself as a child, he turned out to be a failure. He submitted to Shukaku's rage and bloodlust and became the bane of our existence! We must consider the possibility that will happen again. He may very well lose his resolve when faced with the source of his former psychopathy."
Senile old man! Kankuro thought furiously. To think that with all of Gaara's efforts over the years, there were still those who treated and spoke of him like he was nothing but a tool that had failed its purpose. Kankuro would have gladly wiped out all such members of the council from their positions, if not for Gaara's insistence that, "Everyone deserves a second chance." Kankuro could not believe this was the way some people were using the second chance Gaara had given them.
"He may have hidden it well by becoming Kazekage, but inside, Lord Gaara has never been anything more than a pure evil, ruthless, cold-blooded murderer."
All reason was taken from Kankuro's mind at the sound of those cruel words. He would have have yelled, if the crowd on the Kazekage Office balcony hadn't reacted the same way, seeing as chaos had broken loose among the shinobi.
"How can you say something like that about Lord Gaara! Take it back! You should take it back!"
"You know it's true. Have you forgotten how many of our own shinobi's blood taints his sand?"
"You know that Lord Gaara's changed! He's protected all of us before!"
"His having changed doesn't mean anything in regard to what's already happened! Besides, how do you know it's not all just a facade?"
"He's fighting the Shukaku now, isn't he? If that's not protecting the village, what is?"
"Shukaku is the demon that resided inside Lord Gaara since even before birth! How could he feel anything more for us than it does for the monster? For all we know, he could be conspiring with Shukaku! He planned this attack all along to satisfy his bloodlust after all that time of gaining our trust!"
"That's not—"
"All of you, just SHUT UP!" Kankuro exploded, unable to contain himself any longer. Furiously, he turned his attention back on the whirling sand battle happening just outside Sunagakure. The unjustified arguments of the shinobi behind him, however, refused to leave his head.
Gaara...
"WIND RELEASE: DRILLING AIR BULLETS!" Shukaku bellowed, releasing rapid-fire torrents of wind from his powerful stomach. Gaara maneuvered swiftly around Shukaku's relentless wind attacks from the air, causing the air bullets to hit the desert behind him each time he made a breakneck turn and cause geyser-like eruptions in the sand. He zipped about at a speed to fast to nail an attack on—like an annoying fly buzzing around my head that's so hard to hit! I have to SQUASH it!
"What are you doing, Shukaku? Your actions at the moment are completely irrational! What is the reason for this?" Gaara was actually shouting, both to be heard over the tornadoes of sand and to convey his turbulent emotions. Shukaku tried to hit him again, but it was impossible when Gaara was zooming around so rapidly, becoming nothing more than a blur in his vision field.
Shukaku responded by ignoring all of the posed questions. "My esteemed self has noted that your speed has improved greatly, you pest! I can't get a hit on you when you're flying around so quickly!"
"Avoiding getting hit is my intention," Gaara deadpanned. "Incorporating Wind Release with my sand manipulation has the potential to increase its speed nearly tenfold. However, I can't help but notice you've diverted from the subject. Why are you avoiding my questions?" There's something obviously off about Shukaku, but I can't put my finger on it…
"Why should I answer to YOU? Are you trying to INTERROGATE me?" Shukaku growled, frustrated that Gaara had again disappeared from his vision field. He shook his beastly head from side to side, catching nothing but the desert's sandy color and a mop of crimson at the corner of his eye—"There you are, PEST!"
Shukaku directed his heavy tail in a gigantic sweep, creating a gust of air that blew away all the sand in the surrounding area that resulted in a deep crater-like impression in the desert, at the center of which was Shukaku. Gaara ttempted to speed away but was unable to avoid the large range of the tanuki's tail. Shukaku watched in glee as the Kazekage took the full force of a direct hit from the most enormous tail of all the Tailed Beasts.
"GYAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shukaku roared at the tiny human still dangling limply from his tail, "I've GOT YOU NOW—"
"Sand Coffin!"
The limp "corpse" suddenly sprung up and twisted itself into a giant arm of sand that grasped Shukaku's tail tightly.
"A sand clone?" Shukaku gasped.
Using the beast's surprise as an advantage, Gaara proceeded to swirl a massive amount of sand around it in its moment of distraction. "Grand Sand Mausoleum—"
With another giant sweep of his tail, Shukaku flung off the sand clinging to his body and tail, deepening the sand crater they were situated in even further. The sand landed up to several miles away with a thud.
"I know you're not stupid, Gaara! I'm MADE of sand! You can't possibly defeat me with my own sand!" However, sand is also HIS element and I can't beat HIM with sand either! This is getting frustrating…! What I should do?
…
Wait…
Gaara's blood suddenly ran cold as a look of deadly calm suddenly reached Shukaku's eyes.
"Hehehehehe…HAHAHAHAHAHA! Now Gaara, I don't actually have to land a hit on you to win, do I…?
"I know of another way to defeat you…"
Gaara paled. "What do you—"
"TAILED BEAST BOMB!" Shukaku hollered, a gigantic ball of chakra gathering at his jagged mouth.
Gaara's faced was completely drained of blood as the huge purple mass flew through the air, causing a giant cloud of sand and dust to erupt in its trail. It whizzed directly past him, causing his hair and robes to fly about him wildly—
And barreled directly towards his beloved village of Sunagakure.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The only comprehensible things at the moment were the earsplitting explosion ricocheting violently off one's eardrums, and the gigantic plume of sand that had reached the sky and spanned quite a few miles in radius.
After several minutes, the echoes of the Tailed Beast Bomb's detonation diminished into an eerie silence, and the flying sand settled to linger in the air like an oppressing dust fog.
Shukaku stood tensely in the spot that had but a few minutes ago been the epicenter of all chaos. He kept his eyes unblinkingly pried at where Sunagakure should have been. He had always wondered what the ruins of the village he detested would look like.
Growing impatient of the sand that had settled in the air and was currently blocking his line of vision to whatever Sunagakure had become, Shukaku flicked his tail, and the sand, sensing his command, immediately fell softly to the ground, leaving the coast clear for him survey whatever damage had been done to the city. Shukaku searched hungrily with his eyes for the delicious sight of destruction, only to find—
A shiny dome covering of the entire village of Sunagakure.
The rampage of thoughts bouncing unrestrainedly inside Shukaku's head was cut off abruptly by a crude voice. "The power of manipulating sand that derives from the One-Tailed Beast," here, pale foam green eyes flicked at Shukaku's direction, "is famous for its absolute defense. You yourself claimed that I inherited my powers directly from you, so you cannot expect that the sand defense for one whose motto is absolute defense would fail. In essence, you used your strongest spear against your shield, and in the end, your shield was stronger. However, that is not the only factor that determined the failure of your attack.
"It has been years since I have been free of you, and in the time of our separation I have far surpassed you. Using my Magnet Release, I create shields out of a sparkling metallic sand that increases the their durability by several times. Any attack is doomed to fail against it.
"In addition, there is something that I have that is ultimately more powerful than any attack you can come up with. The love I hold for my village...and my desire to protect them, can never be beat. That's what I've learned from my mother, not you, Shukaku, but the woman named Karura inside whom you were imprisoned for first nine months of my development and the last nine months of her life."
Shukaku looked down at the desert floor beneath him, and found it shining brilliantly under the unfiltered moonlight. The sparkling metallic sand slowly started to swirl and surround him, pressing down and constricting along his huge, sandy form.
"This metallic sand is several times denser and heavier than normal sand. The shield of sand I used to protect Sunagakure from such a great distance was taxing even on my abundant chakra reserves. However, what I have left of it and this special sand is more than enough to stop you. Ultimately, your defeat lies entirely in your underestimation of my powers."
The sparkling sand almost covered Shukaku's entire form by now, making it seem as if he were glowing. It revolved around the tanuki's body, slowly shaping itself into the shape of a familiar giant sand pyramid.
Gaara half expected Shukaku to thrash about wildly and scream profanities in attempt to free himself and save his pride. He expected for it to be very difficult to subdue Shukaku. He expected the beast to put up a great fight.
Instead, Shukaku visibly slumped in defeat, lowering the head that he normally carried so proudly on his broad shoulders. A low chuckling sound rumbled from his stomach, but it seemed that all the energy and frenzy from earlier had been drained from it. "No, Gaara...I didn't underestimate you. In fact, this is just what I expected of you after all. Hmmmmm..."
The sand continued forming a pyramid around Shukaku. Gaara furrowed his brow once more, and asked in a quiet, almost whispering voice, "Then why did you come to fight an unnecessary battle?"
Gaara's faltered slightly when he received only silence as a response from the normally fiery beast. Shukaku's sandy form was almost entirely invisible by now, trapped inside the shining sand structure. Taking a deep breath, Gaara took one last look at the last uncovered part of Shukaku's body, and found himself staring—
At himself.
Gaara saw diamond-shaped black and yellow eye filled with years of pain and hatred. Filled with exhaustion from years of unjustified lack of acceptance from others. Filled with hatred for a world in which it couldn't see its way out of the darkness.
An eye filled with loneliness.
At that very moment, time stopped.
When Sunagakure was almost completely destroyed by an explosion for the second time in its history, it could only watch with panicking, wide eyes as the huge purple ball ripped through the air towards it, only seconds away from wiping its existence from the face of the earth, decomposing the very molecules that held up the sandy walls until the only trace of Sunagakure left on the world was a pile of ash in the Wind Country desert.
The probability of survival diminishes for every second that an attack draws nearer, and the rapidly moving bomb seemed to move through the air in slow motion as it approached the village, and only its very final second and the disappearance of the last ray of disbelief and hope did Sunagakure finally witness an amazing phenomenon. Within a fraction of a second, entire sky painted a new canvas for itself, turning into a massive expanse of shining sand, and while the BOOOOOM that was the death of the village could be heard resonating clearly throughout it, it was otherwise completely unseen and unfelt, and Sunagakure looked down at itself, very much alive.
For the first few seconds of its miraculous survival, Sunagakure was as quiet as it would have been in death. For those moments, the village wondered if perhaps the color of death was not black after all, but this shiny metallic color. Only when shining metal painting the sky began to recede and the normal midnight blue had returned, did Sungakure realize that for the second time it had cheated death.
Roars of approval for the Kazekage who had saved them too many times from the eager grips of death sounded throughout the village. The spectators watched all too eagerly as the giant beast several miles away from their village became wrapped inside a swirling mass of metal sand.
"That's Lord Gaara!"
"Lord's Gaara done it! He's saved us and now he's going to put a stop to Shukaku!"
"This is all thanks to Lord Gaara!"
Kankuro heard the loud roars of the shinobi and civilians in the village that seemed to have sprung back to life, but most prominently, the pounding of his heart in his ears.
We all worried for nothing, he thought, still quite unable to believe it. This just proves once again that Gaara's sand attacks and defenses are unbeatable. The village is safe after all...Gaara is safe after all...
Sunagakure could barely wait any longer as the source of all its nightmares was seconds away from being put to sleep. They could see the beast slowly retracting from sight, disappearing within a sandy, inescapable trap.
Then, more quickly than anyone could register, the sand prison unfurled itself, and the monster of terror quickly appeared once more. There it was, standing in full glory with a shiny desert surrounding it.
Sunagakure hadn't been able to relish for long in its exclamations of ecstasy before all noise turned back into murmurs of confusion.
Kankuro watched, baffled, at the scene of the freed Tailed Beast before him. What was going on?
Shukaku had finally closed his eyes to embrace the imminent darkness he knew was to come, when he felt, for some unknown reason, the hands of the clock halt their journey. For the first time in his life, Shukaku opened his eyes, afraid of what he'd see on the other side. Would he something horrible? or even worse, would he be so enshrouded in darkness that he would see nothing at all?
When he cracked his eyes open, he immediately felt himself blinded by light surrounding him. Why is it...so bright? he wondered.
Several seconds later, he finally registered his surroundings. Directly ahead of him was the glowing full moon, and at his feet was sparkling metallic sand, unmoving, harmless, and so calm that he could almost see his own reflection in it. Standing in the sand a few feet in front of him was a crimson-haired man in maroon robes, whose face had none of its usual expressionlessness, but was instead filled with serenity and wisdom.
"What—what...is this...?" Shukaku gasped, thoroughly confused. He felt himself in the unfamiliar position of a child before its parent. A tanuki child who just so happened to be a few hundred feet taller than his human parent.
A soft smile appeared on Gaara's face. "I am able to understand, you, Shukaku, because..." Gaara said, looking down at his own hand before lifting it and placing it over his heart, "we share the same pain."
"There's no need to distinguish between human and beast. That's because a friend of the heart provides peace of mind, no matter the species," said Bunpuku, from a place and time long, long ago.
"You are one strange bastard. There isn't ever going to be another human like you again," Shukaku replied.
"No... I think youre wrong. Human souls are like reflecting water. People often speak or act opposite of their true feelings. But essentially, the human heart wishes to connect with and accept each other. Even with beasts."
Utter blankness filled Shukaku's mind for a split second before he felt the sudden urge to defend his pride.
But parents are always able to listen through the language of children to understand what they really mean to say.
"What would you know?" Shukaku began ranting. "You haven't been in my place for the past ten years, you're the oh-so-mighty Kazekage! You don't have any idea what it's like to apparently roam around with no destination!" Can you understand my suffering? Do you know what it's been like to experience the past ten years of loneliness?
"The other Tailed Beasts have found some kind of acceptance somewhere, and I'm not about to lose to that damned fox of Konohagakure, he's become some sort of hero there!" I don't want to be the only one to suffer through loneliness anymore.
"Shukaku," Gaara finally interrupted. "You don't need to explain yourself. I know you've come here for my help. I would even say...you're looking for a place to call home.
"And you've come with a request, haven't you?"
Shukaku's large eyes stared at Gaara for a full minute, before smirking. "HMPH! You were always a bright one. So you understand, after all. So yes, I do have...a request for you."
"I'm not surprised. What you're asking for is not something easily decided. You are essentially asking me of something that could potentially change the entire shinobi world."
"You can't say no!" Shukaku exploded. "I came all the way down here today...it wasn't just to hear you refuse! Sunagakure may be safe today, but if you turn away from me now...the same can't be said for tomorrow."
Please, don't leave me alone.
"I know," Gaara said.
Shukaku regarded Gaara a tinge suspiciously. "WELL? What's your answer?"
Gaara closed his eyes in contemplation. A spiky electric blonde mop of hair and energetic blue eyes filled his vision in his mind.
Everyone deserves a second chance.