.
The First Shifting Grains
CADEL
CHAPTER 2
When dawn broke the next day, Baki found himself standing in front of an assembly of council members.
The whispers and the tired air of grimness soaked itself into the clay wall of the council room.
The Jounin instructor for all three of the Kazekage's children already had expectations on how this meeting would go and only wished for his part to be over. He sighed inwardly and waited for his leader to begin the meeting.
A man with blue spectacles stood up and called for the attention of everyone in the room.
"We were summoned here due to yesterday's events regarding the Ichibi-Jinchuriki which occurred thirteen hours ago. The incident has called for a voted meeting in which the majority of the council has brought forth their concerns in regards to one Sabaku-no-Gaara, Jinchuriki of One-tails."
Baki blocked out the other formal drabble until his named was called forward.
The Jounin stood straight and moved closer towards the panel. Baki was asked to report what he had observed from yesterday's events which he did dutifully. Once in a while, someone would ask him to elaborate further. Truthfully, Baki only saw most of the end of Gaara's rampage and was certain that they had already heard more detailed account from the other patrolling ninjas that were also present.
They only needed an official statement from him due to the fact that he was Gaara's instructor; a needed formality.
"The boy stopped on his own and eventually managed to calm himself down in which he later collapsed." Baki reported.
A civilian council member suddenly spoke up.
"There were three casualties and eleven severely injured and one ninja whom may never walk again. Even when the boy is in control, he kills more of his own comrades than enemies, it is clear the demon is out of control! Something must be done!"
Baki resisted the urge to sigh. Three casualties only? That was a blessing in comparison to Gaara's usual kill count during his 'episodes'.
Another council member nodded in agreement.
"The boy is too dangerous and we have tolerated his out of control behavior for far too long. I believe it is time that we permanently deal with the problem."
"I don't think dealing with the Jinchuriki will solve anything. We are having hostilities from both Cloud and Stone with flimsy treaties in place and Cloud has two jinchuriki at their disposal. We cannot risk losing our weapon."
The voices escalated.
"The boy was deemed unreliable and dangerously unstable to be of any use a long time ago." Another elder declared. "Although we had hoped he would be able to control the monster as he grew, it has now become a double-edged sword. He has more control now than he did a few years ago but in return he has become more blood-thirsty and without a single shred of fear for authority. He is a weapon, but the child is also a very dangerous liability to this village. His most recent display of terror only contributes to the growing need to deal with this problem." the man stated standing up from his seat.
There were low nods and sounds of agreement.
Baki watched the Kazekage remain quite in his seat as he listened to the potential plans on the assassination of his youngest son. Although Baki knew most members wanted Gaara dead, there were some inclined to be indifferent and few even against outright eliminating the child.
It was awkward because usually this would be a military concern, but Gaara's massacres affected both the political and social departments.
A woman with a red fan raised her voice to voice her opinion.
"Your plans to kill the child would all be pointless as many assassination attempts have already been carried out and failed. No point repeating inevitable failure. It will be just a waste of time."
She did not favor the jinchuuriki, but she was not against reason as her instincts saw best fit, and her instincts told her it would be a waste of time and resource to kill the demon container.
"Besides, until yesterday, the boy has been relatively functional in his genin unit and despite being unstable, he has shown relative skill in being a shinobi. We don't know the outcome of what kind of ninja he'll be in the future but it seems that there is still some hope of harnessing a relatively stable weapon. Despite violent tendencies, the Jinchuriki is still a powerful force to be reckoned with and as much of a danger he may be to the village, he is even more dangerous to our enemies."
Another man to the left of the Kazekage cleared his throat.
"I think most of our concerns come from specifically the event that occurred yesterday evening. The jinchuriki has always let a specific level of Ichibi leak out and influence him, but the demon has never had as much control as it did yesterday." the elder paused then continued. "The demon had actually begun manifesting a physical body; it has never reached to that level before…not since the incident years ago. Concerns about the seal have been brought forth."
Many agreed with the man's statement, but many also knew the seal was just another dead end.
Baki knew that the seal placed on Gaara had been mediocre at best and had a plethora of glitches compared to the seal created by the Yondaime Hokage. But regardless, what's done is done. Talk about improving the seal was impossible.
The woman spoke up again.
"I think perhaps that another factor influenced the boy in losing control of One-Tails." she paused to make sure everyone was listening. "His fever."
"Fever?" an elder cut in.
"Yes." the female elder now turned to Baki specifically. "It is not true that the boy has never been sick a day in his life?"
Baki nodded. "That is correct. I believe, just like the automatic sand defense, that the Ichibi is responsible for protecting the boy against internal illness."
"So it was very strange to find that he had an extremely high fever when he was found unconscious?"
The jounin paused then nodded.
"Yes." Baki answered obediently. "It is unprecedented."
She looked at Baki and asked, "You have been his jounin instructor for a year now, what do you think of this?"
The jounin paused momentarily due to being put on the spot but answered honestly.
"I'm not sure." He answered cautiously. "I suspect it's possible that his fever had something to do with yesterday's event…but the opposite can also be true."
"Where is the demon container now?" ask another man.
"He's sleeping in the private infirmary." Baki answered plainly.
The whole room suddenly tensed at Baki's answer, and to be honest, Baki himself was not too comfortable with it either. Almost everyone in the room looked as if they were waiting for the ceiling to come down on their heads.
"Sleeping!" one civilian elder sputtered. His fear was reflected perfectly with everyone else in the room. "The jinchuuriki has always woken up after his episodes!"
Baki nodded grimly. "Yes, he's sleeping at the moment." Everyone had turned a strange shade of white at his confirmation. "But since losing consciousness yesterday, the boy has not shown any signs of being possessed or controlled by the demon. It seems whatever is wrong with the boy is severe enough that the demon has not taken over...for now. Lady Chiyo has already made an assessment, danger is minimal."
The council members relaxed, but only by a fraction. Their paranoia and fear were still palpable.
Baki admitted that he would feel a hell of a lot more comfortable when Gaara woke up.
III
They didn't know that Gaara had already woken, that he had been lying awake for almost three hours.
Three hours and he'd all but coiled into himself, sore muscles barely shifting and eye shut tight. However, he couldn't shut off his nose so instead he let the scents of home blanket him in disbelief and unimaginable incredibility. The mere smell of the air had the genin biting into his lip till they nearly bled.
His senses already knew where he was, but his mind was turbulent with confusion and a healthy amount of denial.
In the first hour of being lucid, Gaara had come up with an impressive collection of possible reasons for his current predicament, and then he had an intense inner battle about whether he should laugh or cry at his sudden realization that he was not stuck in a genjutsu - that all he believed in and all the people he loved were somewhere outside that small infirmary window.
The universe was either playing a sick joke on him or fate suddenly decided to love him with all the passion of a deranged fan girl.
The young Kazekage lay still under his white sheets and slowly opened his eyes for the first time since waking up. The light brown tones of Suna's stucco structures greeted him with a nostalgic familiarity that only made the boy want to close his eyes again.
He dare not look out the small round window to his left.
Gaara knew that behind the dusty window glass, was a sight he thought would never greet him again. Clean, healthy and whole. Gaara was completely at loss to what it was he was doing here at all.
He might have been overwhelmed with some hysterically dark version of happiness, but Gaara had always been pragmatic.
Seeing, hearing, smelling and touching his environment with all his sense was still not enough. His instincts still dictated a level of suspicion. Half his heart was already been won over, but still, he did not believe everything he was experiencing. Too many years of being chased, hunted, hated, loved, feared and depended on had made Gaara far too much of a realist.
Although…how nice it would be…
But the smell of dried-fruit market stalls and overheated clay under an ozone of midday heat was still preferable than everything else that laid underneath his bed sheets. He dare not look.
Ignore the small hands. Forget about the height. Don't look at the unblemished skin.
And if Gaara did notice these things…well, the breathing exercises were welcome. After all, mild panic attacks weren't becoming of a Kazekage.
Was he ten or eleven? He could not tell.
Gaara shifted his legs to the side of the bed and gently stood on his small feet. He felt a lot better than he would have expected and his physical strength was already on its way to being back to normal. Gaara walked back and forth in the room, trying to get used to the length of his shorter legs and equalizing the weight of his body to his own inner balance. His equilibrium felt uncomfortable off.
Gaara pressed his hand against the hidden seal. Ichibi was an entirely other matter.
It had been a long time since Gaara felt the demonic presence of Ichibi within his body.
It was like inviting a horrible guest back into your house and feeling a little repulsed at how normal it felt. How well they occupied your space. Parasite.
As horrible as the extraction by Akatsuki had been, it was also a small blessing. Dying had been worth it, since it meant being free from the demon's psychotic influence. Although afterwards Gaara had confessed to Naruto that he still considered himself a Jinchuriki despite the absence of the demon and much to his relief, he felt no shame for it.
Ripping the parasite that grew in him since birth never erased the feeling that he would always be 'Jinchuuriki' – human sacrifice.
Is that what this was? This place? That village beyond the window? Another sacrifice?
The genin sat down again and stretched out his hands and feet, feeling the stretch pull out into fingers and toes. The burn was welcoming.
Gaara - unlike the council - knew his fever did not cause him to lose control of Ichibi. Instead it was quite the opposite. It was because Ichibi had been so weak already that it could not prevent the fever. In one last final push, it had tried to regain some strength by breaking through Gaara's mental fortifications which - in a sense - was actually a good thing. Its rampage had actually helped the demon gain some of its former strength and in a sense, acclimatize itself for such a disorientating waking.
Shukaku, it seemed, did not know what to make of Gaara. Did not really know who its vessel was anymore.
Now Gaara could feel the presence again, he could feel the demonic chakra through his veins and the ambient thrumming that he knew was the very essence of the One-Tails, and he honestly didn't know whether he was upset or indifferent.
The previous night's massacre brought a red burning to his face that climbed to his ears. How ashamed he felt. He may be young again but he had all the will and mental strength of his older self.
Gaara resolved that he would never let the demon take control ever again.
He will never be a cause for fear to his family, friends and village. He made the oath once when he became the Godaime Kazekage and he will make the oath once again.
Provide, Promise and Protect.
.
A/N: And it continues. Bare with me my fellow readers.
CADEL
[Edited – 27 MARCH 2015]