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The First Shifting Grains
CADEL
CHAPTER 11
A blaze, a shudder then complete silence, the next few seconds were nothing short of disorientating hell.
The landscape stilled, the clouds reversed and the wind decayed and dissipated till everything stopped in putrid suspension.
Disembodied red eyes hovered oppressively, filling his vision with a haunting wash of scarlet from an apocalyptic moon.
Gaara had heard about Tsukuyomi but he had never visioned himself within it, trapped beneath its power, like a caged insect in the hands of a sadistic child with a magnifying glass. No longer was he standing freely on his pillar of stone, instead the genin found his body under a debilitating paralysis, nailed to a slab of sandstone by his hands.
The pain from the impaled palms felt unsettlingly real, the blood dripping down his arms were not warm but cold instead.
The jinchuuriki inhaled to calm his heart and settle his mind. This will be a test of resolve from now on.
Itachi was suspended in the air, staring eye to eye with the genin. The missing-nin gave nothing away, as he directed a cool, calculating gaze towards the genin. So Gaara looked back in kind, determined to not yet say anything till Itachi deemed it appropriate to break their silence.
It felt like an age when the Uchiha finally decided to speak.
"You play a strange game jinchuuriki."
He didn't give Gaara time to respond. Lifting his hands to his mouth, Itachi blew out a blazing stream of fire.
The flamed licked and seared Gaara's skin. His hair curled, his flesh blistered and all the genin could do was scream. But when he tried, no sound came out. It made the pain more unbearable. The heat ravaged him and surely his ribs must be exposed by now, the skin melted off, but when Gaara looked down, his body remained intact and whole. But the inferno continued to devour him. And through the gaps of pain and clarity, Gaara could see Itachi from beyond the corrosive fire and knew why this man had earned his fearsome moniker and reputation.
After what seemed like hours of mind altering agony, the fire dissipated into nothing, taking the pain along with it. But it still remained in his sense memory.
"What is your name?"
The boy swallowed thickly and forced his mind to forget about what he had just endured and answered, "You know who I am."
"Answer." Itachi's voice never rose.
After a moment, the boy complied. "Gaara of the Desert."
"And you know who I am." A statement, not a question.
"Yes." The boy answered again. The simple questions allowed the boy to focus his mind on something and gave his heart a chance to calm down.
"You shouldn't." Itachi's voice was low and calm. The missing-nin's eyes turned around slowly as he stared at Gaara. There was something there that the boy could see in the man's countenance, some small trace of caution in his normally cool façade and Gaara knew exactly why. "You deliberately looked into my sharingan despite knowing I could use Tsukuyomi."
Gaara merely confirmed by not saying anything at all.
A long ninjato appeared in Itachi's hand and despite the blade being pointed downwards to the ground, there was a menacing feel to the glinting metal. Itachi was showing an uncharacteristically large amount of aggression. Gaara imagine he might have found some alarm in the way he caught the shinobi's attention.
The genin decided to initiate the conversation this time.
"I'll admit I was surprised that you answered my call." Itachi said nothing on the matter and continued to hold the ninjato with unnerving calm. "I wasn't sure if even I wanted you to answer. But someone of your calibre spying around my village was remarkably hard to ignore."
The high collared cloak covered most of Itachi's face but it only made the red eyes of his become doubly more expressive. "Your method of getting my attention was effective." It wasn't a compliment, not with that level of killing intent emitting like a dark cloud.
"As I said, a shinobi of your reputation is hard to ignore. Getting your attention would've been challenging, if I hadn't known the chink in your armour." The genin's skin began to feel a little prickly, like the residual pain of the fire was still licking his skin. "I've got your attention but there was no guarantee that you would talk to me face to face and without violent confrontation. But I ensured that I would have both by using the one debilitating weakness that Uchiha Itachi could never ignore." Pale, dew green eyes gazed calmly into deep red. "Your brother."
Something unidentifiable pressed heavily onto his lungs and the air sizzled with acidic viscosity.
The Uchiha remained unchanged, like all the turbulence of the environment excluded him. He was the orchestrator – a god perched on a throne whilst pressing absently on the insect he decided would amuse him for the while and Itachi was aware that Gaara had gone with it willingly.
"You have my attention." Itachi added unnecessarily, the pressure suddenly lifting.
Gaara resisted the urge to gag as he engulfed air into his lungs. He ignored the blood running down from his impaled hands and recited the message stuck on some rock far away.
"'The avenger grows strong like a green sapling…bent in all the wrong directions.'"
Gaara's message remained clear and direct. He knew Itachi would have understood immediately.
"I mean no offence Uchiha-san, but once again, I didn't know how to get your audience."
The older ninja came closer to the jinchuuriki and leaned in.
"As I had said, you're playing a strange game. A dangerous one."
From the beginning, Itachi had found that the Ichibi jinchuuriki to be a little off – the way a straight screw was a little bent, only by the most miniscule margins but became glaringly obvious when it would not fit into its designated fissure. Whilst Itachi had always been a red leaf amongst the green, Gaara was a tree in the middle of the desert, only to be found as a deceptively alluring mirage. His appearance was completely shallow, revealing nothing of the truth underneath but Itachi knew something was amiss.
"You wish to talk?"
There was a small trickle of relief when the Uchiha seemed to be cooperating. "Why are you watching Suna?"
The Uchihas eyes had an assessing look then he answered. "I believe you already have some suspicions to the reasons why." Red pupils narrowed. "Though you shouldn't"
"My village is my home, you're a Leaf Nin with a notorious reputation and currently donning a uniform that I suspect isn't an ally of any village." Gaara answered quietly. "You also seem to know who I am even though we have never met."
Itachi didn't miss the way the boy had referred him as a leaf nin when it was obvious he had not been affiliated with Konoha for a long time. "You knew that I was watching you."
"I suspected." Gaara confirmed. "Is that what your organization does Uchiha-san? Do you hunt jinchuuriki?"
Bold statement. And not at all wrong but Itachi was ready for it.
"Gaara-san, you seem to have an uncanny knack for saying things that you shouldn't know." The missing-nin's voice was conversational but with an undercurrent of steel. "How do you know of my brother?"
"I don't know much about him at all." Gaara answered and it was partially true.
The missing-nin drawled out in a hush voice, "I have been generous so I would appreciate if you could indulge me with an answer."
"I truly don't know your brother." Itachi watched the boy gaze off to think, his expression only the smallest bit softer. "But he is close to someone I hold dear to me, a precious friend." Itachi was suddenly on the end of a very heavy gaze. "You love your brother, without even knowing you I can see it, but there are people I care about just as much. You planted a seed in the boy's mind long ago but how can you be certain it will grow healthy? No tree is better than a diseased one at the risk of contaminating others."
"You speak strongly of things you supposedly don't know." Itachi responded in kind. "And the future is hard to predict, I do not claim to be omniscient."
He gave Gaara a curious look. But are you?
The Uchiha's suspicion had gradually escalated since he'd seen the message left for him by the strange boy with red hair.
And the Ichibi jinchuuriki was nothing like he was reportedly supposed to be. Temperamental, unstable with a carnal lust for death, the boy in front of him was almost mockingly the opposite.
"Release me from the Tsukuyomi." Gaara stared daringly into swirling red orbs.
A beat later, Itachi suddenly dropped Gaara from his suspension, the nails through his palms disappearing along with the blood. The genin landed on the dark sand with a soundless crunch and noticed that the sky was no longer red, the moon was its normal pearly silver and the world was perfectly in place. The genin couldn't even tell when Itachi had dropped the genjutsu.
Gaara's sand defence shot up to defend the sensitive curb of his neck from Itachi's thrown kunai.
The Uchiha assessed the boy. "Your shield is quick, your demon protects you well."
The genin ignored Itachi's previous transgression and folded his arms whilst dropping the weapon to the ground. "It's not the demon which protects me."
The two ninja assessed each other.
It was strange to notice that the Uchiha was far younger here than the twenty-something year old Gaara had remembered in his previous life. His age though did not subtract the very real danger the young man posed as a potential enemy, although Gaara was certain Itachi would not be if given the chance.
"We will not fight." A statement again. "It doesn't seem to hold much meaning now since our cards have been revealed. How should our transgression move from here Gaara-san?" Itachi asked in his usual polite drawl.
The jinchuuriki gave his answer bluntly. "Leave."
The shinobi in black and red didn't blink as he accepted the answer easily. "Very well." The missing-nin agreed amiably. "Although before I leave, I require an answer."
"You'll ask me directly instead of spying?" Gaara's voice was a touch amused.
The older shinobi looked to the side and off to the unknown east.
"I won't bother with the light dancing and subtle words. I'm aware you know what it is my organisation does." He turned back to look at him. "What will you do when the day comes when you'll no longer be in possession of the demon you contain? Because you know that day will come." His voice was calm but full of foreboding.
Gaara answered him honestly. "I'll die."
He wrapped the older man with a cool expression that betrayed no hesitation. "But when that time comes, I hope not to meet you there Uchiha-san. I'm rather impartial to you."
Not a friend, not an ally but something that was ambiguous. It was a remarkable show of confidence. Was it naiveté? The Uchiha was not sure. Dangerous or not, Itachi decided that this jinchuuriki was more peculiar than he cared for.
"Then I will take my leave."
"Itachi-san." the child called out quietly.
The sharingan user stopped to listen.
"You still have time." The jinchuuriki and the missing-nin let the wind pass by them in a strange sort of stand still. "Your path cannot be set in stone."
The older shinobi shook his head.
"The wheels are turning and the motion is set. We all have our parts to play Gaara-san. I know mine. But I am no longer sure about you." Itachi stared off at the glittering expanse of midnight blue above and spoke with a steady timbre in his voice, "The sands are shifting. My time is nearly up."
Like an hourglass of grains, falling ever so slowly but surely into a chasm deep below, the fate of this young martyr was dripping towards the inevitable. Even Gaara knew that.
"Is there no other way?"
"Why do you care?" Itachi asked with genuine curiosity.
The boy didn't answer immediately, but when he did, he bowed his head ever so slightly.
"Unseen and unheard, only known by name and reputation, you are connected very closely to people I know." The jinchuuriki's gaze was a solid wall, full and viciously deep. "By extension Itachi-san, you are part of a wide network of bonds that bind us all. Enemy or ally, we are all connected."
The desert wind whispered and sand muttered, engulfing the two ninja in a strange ambiance. The words of the jinchuuriki delved deep into Itachi's skin and sent a strange shiver down his spine as the wind seemed to agree with his heavy words.
Itachi was almost nostalgic.
What a strange place to be reminded of trees when he was standing in the middle of a desert.
A small chuckle escaped from Itachi's lips, a strange almost melodic sound that was lost in the wind before anyone knew it was there.
"Had you not been marked by your village's stripes, I would have thought you to be of the leaf." He turned away. "The greenest kind."
The Uchiha jumped up and stood on a lonely pillar of stone.
Gaara thought he looked every bit as the stories had described him.
"I thought you might be interested to know," He threw something towards Gaara and the boy caught it in his small hands. "The ninja you caught last night didn't go without leaving a parting gift behind."
With that warning, he disappeared like a desert mirage and Gaara glanced down at the object in his hands.
Then he ran.
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A/N: I apologize for the shortness of the chapter. Think of this almost like a prologue to the next arc.
Thanks for reading. You guys are my muse.
CADEL
[EDITED – 15 APRIL 2015]