A/N: So yeah...guess there really aren't many people here. Oh well.
Awakening
By DarkLordRising
Chapter 1
A slight jab in the shoulder gained my attention. I turned to my companion.
"What?" I asked.
"You were staring." He said, placing a slight emphasis on the last word. I blinked, turning back to the person I had apparently been staring at. She looked back at me, a bit confused by my behavior.
Her sleek blond hair flowed in the wind, her skin glistening in the warm sun. She had a slight pink tint around her cheek. She was quite a sight yet the only thing I could think about her was pinpointing the places where she had placed her weapons. The places were a bit obvious to me.
"What are you looking at, punk?" A loud voice averted my attention. Her companion, a weird tattoo'ed guy glared at me. I looked away, turning back to her.
However, I was surprised by my partner putting a hand around my neck.
"Sorry about him. He's been a bit weird since we arrived." He said. I looked down. We couldn't afford to blow our cover right now.
"Whatever." The tattoo'ed guy said, turning his back on us. We followed him across to the Kazekage's office. Our cover dictated that we were delivering a message from the Konoha Council. It enabled us to get a bit time to scope out the place.
"All right, listen up." My partner said. I looked at him grumpily. He had woken me up in the middle of the night when we had just arrived a few hours ago at Suna. "Those guards allowed us entry because of this." He gave me an envelope. I just stared back at him to explain it quickly.
"It's a message from the Konoha Council to the Kazekage. For our cover, master gave us the disguises of a messenger." He said. "Now, it would be extremely bad if they noticed that it was Konoha shinobi who assassinated the Kazekage's sister. We have to make it seem like a Suna shinobi did that. Thus, this cover will only help us to scope out the place. We get only one chance to check out this place. Don't blow it. I checked your file. I don't what is it with other people. It's not that impressive." He said, obviously jealous.
I nodded and went back to sleep after flipping him off.
My eyes surveyed the place, carefully noting the windows where we could make our entry. The tattoo'ed guy stopped in front of a door and ushered us through. My companion and the target went inside while the guy pushed me back.
"I don't like you staring at my sister." The guy said, Kankuro, I think his name was. "I'll be watching you." I shrugged and went inside.
The Kazekage's office was not unlike the other offices in the building. It only consisted of a small bookshelf, a desk and a few chairs to accommodate visitors. The walls were painted a dull grey and there were only two windows, one of which was blocked by the Kazekage.
The Kazekage turned around at my entry and surveyed the two of us as we did the same to him. He was a tall, red-haired man, supposedly having been the strongest Genin of my batch. The large scar on the right of his cheek was given to him by the Copy-Cat Ninja of Konoha for 'misbehaving' in the historic Chunin exams of my decade. I had heard what had happened during the famous exam but I had been dispatched at that time, thus I had been unable to fight in the battle against Oto and Suna.
Now there was peace between our villages. If it could even be considered peace. I am not sure how I could just accept things like this, especially with the Kazekage's behavior during the exam. He had killed many innocent civilians that day before Kakashi-san had been able to disable him.
I controlled my feelings. We were Root. We were ninja. Emotions didn't exist for a ninja.
I offered him the letter without another word. He didn't move his gaze from my eyes. I stared back, wondering if he was onto us. It would be extremely dangerous if he were.
"Gaara?" Kankuro interrupted, a bit confused at our staring contest. The interruption broke the contest as we both turned towards him, silencing him. I turned back to the Kazekage, only to notice that he had taken the note from my hand. I hadn't noticed.
"Get out." The Kazekage said, perusing the letter. That was it. We left the building without another word. We were only messengers after all and it looked like the Kazekage didn't want to reply.
"Wait!" A voice made us halt just as we were approaching Suna's gates. I turned. It was the target.
"Gaara- Erm, the Kazekage would like you two to stay at Suna for a few days." She said, panting. "He would like to send a reply to Konoha."
My partner nodded, and together we followed her to a hotel where they had undoubtedly placed a watcher on us. It was to make sure we did everything normally. Like a messenger, of course. After the invasion, the 'thread of trust' between the two villages had become extremely thin. It was only at the Third's influence that Konoha was not at war with Suna right now.
"Thank you." My partner said, as we bowed formally and left her at the entrance. The receptionist guided us to the rooms personally and left, leaving us to our own devices.
"So, how do we proceed?" My partner asked, settling down beside me. We were only given one small room as accommodation. They wouldn't want to spend spare much expense for only 'messengers'. The treatment and budget would have been vastly different if a Daimyo was involved.
"Let's go explore the village." I said. He nodded.
Together we changed our clothes into more comfortable ones we found in the closet and made our way into the shopping district of the village. Having known my reputation, my companion knew my quirks. I believed that the shopping district was the best place to spot the watchers and discern if we could shake them.
"How many?" I asked.
"Two. A man and a woman." My partner said.
"The one in the red shirt and the woman who's acting too drunk?" I remarked. He nodded.
"Don't look too experienced." He said.
"Looks can be deceiving." I replied. "Let's take two more watchers just to be safe."
"Two more?" He said. "You are pushing it. One more is the best bet."
"Whatever." I said, dropping the garment I was pretending to to look at. "Let's go."
We headed back to our hotel, pretending to get lost on the way to throw off a bit of suspicion as we did.
"We have approximately two more days." My partner said. "We'll go to the office tomorrow asking if the Kazekage has a reply. He probably wouldn't and we get to scope it out a bit more."
"What if he has it?" I said.
"Then we leave quietly and silently return." My partner said, throwing himself down onto the futon. "If we are lucky, using the disguises of our watchers would be our best bet in hoping for a silent return."
"I think we can execute the target using Points mark." I said. My companion couldn't hide his surprise.
"Points mark? That didn't work for the Daimyo's hit, you know. Are you sure?" He asked.
"I am positive. It will work this time." I said. "I won't miss." I stared right at him.
"I don't like this." He said. "True it would make it a bit easier for us to place the blame on a Suna ninja but I think we should stick to the basics. Many things could go wrong if you miss."
I nodded but I could not help but think he wasn't saying everything. He was just a bit of a stickler to the rules and normal protocols.
"HOLD YOURSELF BETTER!" A voice screamed at my face, spraying spittle on me. The man walked on.
"YOU ARE ALL NOW OFFICIALLY A PART OF ROOT!" Danzo-sama exclaimed. "WE HAVE NO VOICE. WE HAVE NO ORDER. WE ARE UNCONTROLLED. WE ACT IN THE SHADOWS. DUE TO OUR SACRIFICE, MANY CAN LIVE PEACEFULLY."
"WE HAVE NO NEED FOR MINDLESS IDIOTS. WE NEED SOMEONE WHO CAN ADAPT TO ANY SITUATION. SETTING ASIDE HIS PERSONAL FEELINGS AND THINKING ONLY OF THE VILLAGE. THERE IS A REASON ROOT WORKS IN THE SHADOWS." Danzo-sama said, halting for breath. "WAR DOESN'T START NOR DOES IT END DUE TO THE MINDLESS ALBEIT COURAGEOUS BATTLES THAT A VILLAGE'S SOLDIERS FACE. IT STARTS WHEN THE CORRECT PAWN FALLS AND ENDS WHEN THE CORRECT PAWN FALLS."
"WE WORK IN THE SHADOWS. WE AVOID THE HEAD-ON BATTLES. FOR A BATTLE IS WON NOT ON THE BATTLEFIELD BUT OUTSIDE IT! LOOK ALIVE!"
We screamed in confirmation after that inauguration speech. I soaked up all his wisdom, believed all his tales. Now...I am not so sure. I find myself doubting everything the man has said. That 'memory' has evoked something in me. A small desire. A desire to find my true identity. Why did I grow to trust this man so much? Especially after the way I behaved when I first met him. What happened to me?
It was all a haze of darkness, waiting to be uncovered. But I was not ready yet. I wasn't ready to face the truth.
Even if war was quickly approaching.
"Yes, he was expecting you. Right this way." The target said. She led us inside towards the Kazekage's office. I looked at my partner. It looked like we would have to sneak back in this time.
"Enter." The Kazekage's voice ordered when she knocked on the office door. We were ushered in. I stood to a halt in front of the Kazekage's desk, bowing slightly in greeting.
"It is highly unorthodox for the Fifth Hokage to send me a message especially before I am about to head out to the summit myself." The Kazekage said, staring deeply at us. His gaze lingered a bit longer on me but he finally turned away and focused on the letter.
"This letter...The contents of which, warn me of something that I already know due to my own sources. Waiting for this message has caused me a great deal of inconvenience." The Kazekage said. "I do not like inconvenience."
"The Hokage was just looking out for your best interests, sir." My partner said.
"I do not trust your Hokage." The Kazekage replied, simply. "This message makes me questions his motives. Out of my sight. You leave my village now."
We gave a stiff nod and saw ourselves out.
"Three of them." I mumbled, as the two of us approached Suna's entrance.
"Four." My partner said. "Missed the one near the monument."
I nodded in acknowledgement.
"Which ones?"
"Doing it your way is easy." My companion said. I smirked.
"Who needs easy?" I remarked, turning about with a kunai in hand.
"True." My companion smiled.
"Cover me." I said, widening my eyes as I made a seal. A small burst of lightning crashed out of my hand and thrust into the ground. The four watchers stared in astonishment as my other hand grabbed the jet of lightning and pulled it backwards, forming a small arc.
"This was easy." My partner said, thrusting his hands to the floor. At once dozens of hedgehogs burst from the ground, awaiting his command.
"I know." I said, gazing at the four watchers in turn. "...Hmm...Locked."
"Loaded." My companion replied, with a smile as his summons vanished.
I didn't need another incentive as I strummed the fingers of the hand that was 'pulling' the lightning stream. In a flash, four waves of lightning burst forth from the jet and struck our watchers in the head, knocking them out.
"Good work." My partner said, staring into my eyes. I stared back and grabbed his hand. When I looked around again, we were back on our way to Suna's gates, only our four watchers had collapsed.
"That's a handy ability." I said. Letting them focus their attention on me while he disabled them quickly. I was a bit glad I was his partner.
"Those idiots couldn't even comprehend that they were in an illusion." My partner replied. "If only they had been able to react...gave us a bit of fun." I doubted they could react if they wanted to. My partner was known for being on par with an Uchiha when it came to illusions and these were only low-level shinobi meant to raise the alarm if we did something unexpected. The real challenge lay ahead.
"We better get moving." He said. I nodded.
"Yeah..."
"I think we should go with the Points mark this time." He said. I stopped, turning to him in surprise.
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"I took out four people with a complex illusion. You should be able to take out one person with a simple technique." He said.
"Don't call it simple."
"Just get on with it."