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© "Naruto" is created and copyrighted by Kishimoto Masashi and owned by Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd. and TV Tokyo.
Slight warning for non-descriptive autoerotic behaviour.
Alive And Victorious
Chapter 3. Control issues
Matsuri was sitting on the stand, impatiently waiting for the chuunin exam to start. Twelve participants who made this far were standing in a row in the middle of the fighting ground. Gaara stood first; his red hair was perfectly visible even from that large distance. Matsuri still wondered why he had to take this exam since his skills were those of an experienced jounin and he had led many missions as a captain even though he was still a genin.
"Formalities," he had said to her.
As for now those formalities made other participants almost wet their pants with fear. When they began to pick the numbers from the box which examiner was holding, some of them looked like they were sticking their hands into the sandworm's mouth.
Matsuri sighed heavily. Even if she had been Gaara's student for six months and continuously worked over people to change their minds about her teacher, this task was still far from completing. The villagers' distrust was deep-rooted and strong. They hadn't been expressing it earlier due to the terror, but now, when the fear subsided, suppressed hatred began to surface. The only good thing in all of this was the indirect acknowledgment of the change in Gaara's personality.
If Matsuri was a genin already, she would gladly fight him during the exam. She knew there was no reason to be afraid. Her sensei fought with her many times and his attacks were always carefully measured to gain the upper hand but not to crush her. If they took the exam together it would still be the same and Gaara would have won, but Matsuri wouldn't care the slightest bit.
The randomization ended and participants were brought in pairs. The genin standing next to Gaara looked like he was positively sick and about to faint, even if he was a head taller than his opponent and supposedly twice as heavy.
The first fight began and Matsuri watched it, still pondering. Before Suna's invasion chuunin exams were usually taking place in allied Konoha. Now there were no more joint exams and shinobi from Sunagakure were banned from approaching Konoha, except of envoys and negotiators. Besides, the rumours began to rise that the elders wouldn't let most of the shinobi leave the village at the same time. The council still didn't choose the next Kazekage and the threat of the other villages to assault Suna was still existing.
The fight ended before Matsuri could realize what happened.
"Boring," Sari commented, pouting. "He settled it in no time."
Matsuri nodded absent-mindedly.
To choose the Kage meant to pick up the strongest shinobi from the village. His most important duty was to protect the village from danger, just like Yondaime who was powerful enough to stop raging Shukaku. Matsuri made a mental list including almost every shinobi she knew, and with a certain surprise she concluded none of them was as strong as Gaara.
The girl couldn't imagine him taking this position though. The council would never agree on that, as well as the people from the village. Gaara was too young, too inexperienced in politics, but above all he was still considered to be dangerous and unpredictable.
Matsuri saddened a bit. She still couldn't understand how the Yondaime Kazekage could allow for such a horrible thing happen to his child. He was the Kazekage, moreover Gaara's father and for some reason he let his son suffer. Matsuri decided she would ask her teacher about it someday. Maybe in a year. Maybe in two.
Sari interrupted her musings, leaning forward and exclaiming. "Look, look!"
Matsuri glanced at the arena where Gaara was striding towards the centre with his usual slow pace. His opponent didn't move an inch. Instead he whispered something to the proctor who nodded and waved his hand in Gaara's direction.
"The winner is Gaara!"
The stands rustled with whispers. The boy obviously let Gaara win by default. Matsuri sighed and sank into the seat while her sensei disappeared in the cloud of the sand dust.
She remembered vividly when she wished him luck before the exam. He made the puzzling face then and Matsuri couldn't figure out what he was thinking. Now she knew that he was perfectly aware that all his opponents will let him win by default.
And he wasn't happy about it.
o0o0o0o
Kankurou adjusted the straps fastening the puppets to his back. He felt regret he didn't have time to perfect manipulating Sanshōuo but fighting while using three puppets was still beyond his power. Not that the third puppet would change the outcome of the upcoming fight. Kankurou knew already who would be the victor but he wished he could keep up with his brother long enough not to hurt his pride too much.
The puppeteer glanced at Gaara. The redhead was walking downstairs and the other genins eagerly stepped aside. Kankurou thought to himself that the fate had a strange sense of humour, making the short, delicately looking boy the reason of the fear of the entire village. He chuckled inwardly, remembering his two students talking about Gaara and Matsuri, unaware that he could hear them. According to their words, Matsuri picked Gaara to teach her because she considered him to be the least intimidating from three siblings. Kankurou still didn't know how it was possible that Matsuri was ignorant about Gaara but in this case the saying "ignorance is bliss" was very apt. The girl's effort to make villagers see his younger brother in a different light began to pay off and the people slowly started to accept the fact that Gaara had changed for the better. The puppeteer was very grateful to Matsuri and, even if she didn't know about it, was willing to help her in any matter.
The puppeteer let the long exhalation through his nose and made for the arena. It was sure Gaara would kick his ass but Kankurou still hoped for his inevitable defeat not to be very spectacular.
If Kankurou wasn't his last opponent, Gaara would probably make a chuunin by default, so the puppeteer was partly happy that they would face each other instead. Partly – that was the key word.
o0o0o0o
Kankurou went to the infirmary to have his minor wounds tended and Gaara was waiting for his older brother when he saw Matsuri running towards him.
"Congratulations, Gaara-sensei!" she exclaimed, bringing herself to a halt just in front of him, with a huge happy grin adorning her lips. "You're the chuunin now!"
He nodded in acknowledgment, glad that the exam was over. From the very beginning he claimed that if he would participate in the exam the other candidates would panic but the council stubbornly insisted on him to take the exam to get the rank.
„This is my friend, Sari," Matsuri uttered cheerfully. Gaara glanced at the said girl who was timidly hiding behind his student's back. Matsuri turned to her and waved at her, calling. „Sari, come on!" Then she looked back at him. „She really wanted to meet you, sensei."
Gaara could see that the shinobi standing near were observing them with curiosity. He wondered if the girls schemed all of it together or Matsuri's friend genuinely wanted to meet him. If it was the latter, the redhead couldn't figure her reasons at all. Even if he remembered her face only vaguely, he was still certain she lived in Sunagakure. Therefore she had to be aware of his past. Maybe she was even one of the people who were speaking "things" to Matsuri.
The long-haired girl approached them shyly. She didn't look avid for the sensation. In her eyes he could spot only anxiety and interest.
"Gaara-sensei, this is Sari, my best friend," Matsuri introduced her and Gaara nodded. Sari's bashful smile grew wider. "Sari, this is Gaara-sensei I told you about."
Sari nodded too, still eyeing him curiously.
"They let you win two rounds by default, this is so boring!" Matsuri grimaced hilariously. "But Kankurou-san faced you bravely, didn't he?" The girl sank in her thoughts and before Gaara or Sari could comment on her words, she furrowed. "Gaara-sensei," she opened, "Tell me, have you ever been defeated by anyone?"
Sari glanced at her friend, apparently frightened. "Matsuri!" she whispered reproachingly.
"What?" Matsuri gazed at her innocently and when Sari didn't answer, she turned to Gaara again.
"Sensei?"
The redhead was used already to his student's ways so her blunt question didn't surprise him but Sari still seemed to be positively shocked.
"Once," Gaara said after a while.
"Huh? Once? You mean once in a lifetime?" Matsuri's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Wow... I mean..." she stuttered, when Gaara nodded. "It's amazing..." The girl's face brightened. "Gaara-sensei, you're amazing!" she exclaimed. "Right, Sari?"
Her companion nodded eagerly in agreement. The shinobi scattered around pretended to ignore them but Gaara could see clearly that they'd been listening to every word.
Matsuri stepped back.
"Gaara-sensei, we're going to go now," she said and bowed slightly. "Sorry for bothering you. See you tomorrow on the training ground!"
"Gaara-san, it was nice to meet you," Sari said politely and bowed as well. "Good bye."
The redhead nodded in silence and watched them leaving. Finally his gaze reached the infirmary and to his contentment he could see Kankurou walking out of the place with the dressing on his forehead and his wrist bandaged. Once the puppeteer reached him, he pointed at the girls with his chin.
"And who was that?"
o0o0o0o
Gaara and Kankurou were walking down the main street in the village. For a couple of last weeks they had been extremely busy. The village got many assignments and most of the shinobi were continuously sent on missions. It was a long time since the village received that many assignments and the council was determined to take advantage of it. The village's funds were really low and needed immediate support.
For those weeks Gaara couldn't see Matsuri at all. He had no time for it, just like his siblings didn't have time for their own students. It made Kankurou happy, but Temari used to grumble at her students going to forget most of what she had taught them. It turned out that Sari, an enterprising girl as she was, solved that problem quite cleverly. She gathered all the students and interviewed them about who was best at which field; after that they had been asked to instruct the others.
"They're managing rather nicely without us," Temari had commented and Gaara couldn't guess if she was glad or annoyed.
The day before they had been endowed with two days off duty and they could rest, but just after a few hours of sitting at home the initial contentment quickly turned into boredom. Kankurou and Temari, apparently frustrated by the lack of an adrenaline, began to argue, while Gaara discovered that his urge for being alone started to increase with a rapid pace. So their bonding time ended with the three of them leaving an empty house behind. Temari made for the training ground while her brothers decided to take a walk.
They've been just walking down the shopping district when Gaara spotted a familiar girl figure in a crowd. She was carrying a large box in her outstretched hands and carefully putting her steps. When she noticed them, her eyes widened with an astonishment.
"Gaara-san," she greeted him. "Ohayo."
The redhead nodded silently, irked with Kankurou elbowing him in the ribs.
"Sari," Gaara uttered. "This is my brother, Kankurou." The puppeteer nodded, and the girl smiled kindly. "Kankurou, this is Sari," Gaara continued. "Matsuri's friend," he added on the second thought.
"May I help you with this box?" Kankurou asked with a sweet voice, reaching for the said box. "It looks heavy."
Gaara curiously watched his manoeuvres.
"No, thank you," Sari said with a smile. "My dad's waiting for me just there."
The boys looked back to see a man standing next to the one of the stalls. He slanted a glance at them, his lips pursed, and waved at Sari with an impatient gesture.
"I have to go," the girl winced a bit. "See you soon, Gaara-san. Kankurou-san." She nodded and made for her father, still managing not to lose her balance.
The puppeteer sighed.
"No luck. Such a pretty girl though, don't you think? Temari's student if I'm not mistaken. Where did you meet her?"
Gaara shrugged and stepped forward.
"Matsuri introduced her to me after the chuunin exam."
"Huh? I don't remember."
"You were in the infirmary then."
Kankurou's features reflected a quick realization.
"Of course," he said and nodded. "No wonder I couldn't recognize her. I've seen only her back then." He raised his arms and put them at the back of his head with a heavy sigh tearing out of his chest. "Man, what a damn life. We don't even have a time to date nice girls."
Gaara glanced at his brother without a word. Kankurou was often expressing his willingness to date girls but never did anything about that. All that he was doing was complaining about the lack of time.
"And what do you think about her?" the puppeteer asked.
"About who?" Gaara said, surprised.
"About that Sari, of course."
The redhead pondered for a time before he gave his answer..
"I don't know her at all—"
"I'm not asking about that," Kankurou interrupted. "Do you like her?"
Gaara shrugged again because he didn't know what to say. In opposite to Kankurou, he never deliberated upon unknown girls' looks.
"No?" the puppeteer pressed. "Maybe someone else? Maybe Matsuri?"
Gaara glanced at him wordlessly.
"So it's Matsuri after all!" Kankurou guessed, his eyebrows raising, and chuckled shortly. "Not my type. You can date her if you want."
The feeling that he was losing control over the conversation sparked within Gaara and increased to the point where he narrowed his eyes and drawled with a low voice. "Kankurou?"
"Huh?" the puppeteer cast a quick glance at his younger brother and laughed nervously at his expression, raising his hands with a defensive gesture.
"I don't plan to date Matsuri nor anyone else. Do you understand?" Gaara drawled. The last word sounded quite menacing.
"Okay, okay!" Kankurou exclaimed. "I was just asking!"
Gaara crossed his arms upon his chest, even if it was not the most comfortable position while still walking, and was quickly lost in his thoughts. Until now he was just too absorbed with pursuing his goal: gaining villagers' acceptance and taking a Kazekage's seat in the further prospect, to be concerned about his social life, or rather the lack of it. All his thoughts were focused on the path he had decided to walk and it was his only dream. The dream which – he was certain of it – he was able to make true.
He had never spared a single thought for girls. He didn't even know if he found the concept of dating endearing or rather annoying. But even if he did... Well, Gaara had learned that lesson long ago.
Do not yearn for what you can't have.
o0o0o0o
Matsuri wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was tired. Exhausted even. Her teacher wasn't going easy on her. Each time she was beginning to think she was growing better, stronger, faster, he'd been attacking her with techniques on even higher level, and Matsuri couldn't help but stare in awe at those power. Yes, she had known from the very beginning there was a difference between them – but she didn't have a slightest idea, how enormous it was.
Gaara approached her when she was still trying to catch her breath, with her hands supported on her knees. She raised her head, looked at him and slowly pulled herself to a standing position. When she had met him for the first time they had been the same height, but as the months went by he slowly started to grow taller than her.
He put his hand inside the pouch, the action interrupting her musings, and took out the hitai-ate with Sunagakure's symbol carved on it.
"Matsuri," he uttered, "You're a genin starting from today. Here you are." He outstretched his arm, handing her the protector. Matsuri didn't take it; she only gaped at it with her eyes widened. Finally she gazed at her sensei's face. "You have a right to wear it now," Gaara added and repeated the gesture. "In Konohagakure they have a ceremony to give hitai-ate to new genins. In Suna there is no such thing; it's teacher's resposibility to give his student the hitai-ate."
Matsuri carefully reached for the band and unfolded it, unable to choke out a word. The redhead looked like he was confused by the prolonging silence.
"From now on you're a shinobi," he announced seriously. "Prepare yourself for being assigned a mission at any time."
"Sensei, I— Thank you!" the girl beamed and made a move like she wanted to throw her arms around his neck but she immediately stopped herself. With a nervous giggle she tied the protector around her neck like a choker. "Gaara-sensei..." she said quite grimly. "I... Uh, I mean..." she stuttered. "I don't want to question your decision, but... is it not too early? As far as I remember, students from Konoha attend the Academy for four years before they become genins. And I'm training under you for only seven months..."
"That's true," Gaara answered. "If it was up only to me, I would wait for the next seven months at least."
Matsuri glanced at him curiously and, when he didn't continue, she pressed:
"What do you mean?"
"The council puts the pressure upon us," he explained, "to promote as many new genins as we can." Seeing her face, he added hastily. "I think you're ready to go on simple D-ranked missions. It works on your favour that we have one-on-one trainings."
The girl giggled. "They should have known better when they had chosen Temari-san or Kankurou-san!"
He cast a questioning look at her.
"Nobody wanted you to teach them," Matsuri expounded, taking a mockingly superior expression, "but now, when they have enough of Temari-san's caustic remarks or Kankurou-san' impatience—" she broke off and flushed. "Gaara-sensei, I'm sorry. I didn't want to badmouth your siblings."
The redhead nodded, not looking offended, and Matsuri took a deep breath and resumed speaking.
"I mean that some of them begin to regret not choosing you for the instructor. Poor ones, they don't have luck." Suddenly the girl gazed at him gravely. "Sensei..." she said uncertainly. "What about our training?"
"We definitely won't be able to train together as often as before," he answered and Matsuri nodded absent-mindedly. It was quite obvious. Now, when she had become a genin, they would be very busy, both of them. She would have to train alone.
"Yes, we will have missions..." She beamed a smile at him. "Will we go on missions together?"
He shook his head slowly. "I don't think so."
The girl sighed. She should have been expecting that. He was a chuunin after all, for a long time being assigned difficult missions where there was no need for such a callow genin like her. Well, they would train together from time to time, maybe it'd be sufficient. She would have to work by herself to get even more skills and strength.
Matsuri lowered her head and happily watched the protector hanging around her neck. She stroked it with her fingertips, thinking about the long road she had been walking since her family had sent her to the hidden village to have become a shinobi. Suddenly an unpleasant thought hit her; what if her relatives would stop giving her money? Being a genin she couldn't expect earning much, at least not that much to make a living.
The girl bit her lower lip. If they would stop helping her, so be it. She couldn't change their minds about that. The amount of money she was getting from them was slender already.
She would just have to cope with it.
o0o0o0o
Gaara was sitting on his bed, staring at the darkness. The moon was full so he tightly curtained his window off; not that it could help if Ichibi had decided to roar. But this night the demon was relatively calm, its chakra quiet like a peaceful lake just under the surface of his host's consciousness.
So why did he feel so restless?
It was not the first time when this particular feeling appeared within him. It had been stuck down his body and mind for quite a long time, but he was ignoring and suppressing it. But this night it was more overwhelming than usual. It had been suffocating him until he couldn't breathe, and pouring the exotic heat into his body.
If he was to choose one word to describe the feeling, it would be a 'tension'.
There was a time when he attributed the tension to the unsatisfied Shukaku's bloodthirst. During full moon nights Bijuu's chakra was pushing against his own rapaciously, aggressively. It had been whispering to him. Tempting him. And he learned how to muffle its enticing voice with his own will, to shift it down into the depths of his consciousness, to bottle it within himself so deep that it could almost drive him crazy. But this night was different. Even though the air was serene, even though the Ichibi seemed to sleep, Gaara still felt more and more restless.
The growing tension started to accumulate down his abdomen. The blood pounded in his ears when the hot, pulsating sensation enveloped the troublesome part of his body. Just like every time before he growled impatiently, determined to do something about that – but he didn't know what. During his life he had been observing many people from shadows, and gathered quite an amount of the snippets of information. He had been listening to the obscene jokes of the older shinobi, to mischievious banters of his siblings, to the conversations on the streets. Sometimes during his sleepless nights he could see men and women doing something he couldn't understand then. He only knew they'd been embracing each other, naked, but what was attracting him the most, and in the same time utterly disgusting him, was the expression of affection and devotion on their faces. He knew perfectly well such feelings would never fall to his lot and that was why he hated the cuddling couples from the bottom of his heart. He had been killing them, fast enough not to let them realize what happened. He'd been erasing their love from the world, because in his world there was no place for such feelings.
Intentionally or not, he just got familiar with that side of life and had a certain idea what lovers do and what consequences the said actions can have. It was basic knowledge for every other shinobi, because seduction could be a dangerous weapon. Ninjas have been undergoing a psychological training, how to use their own and other people's sexuality to complete the mission. He has never undergone such a training. No one in their right mind would let him. There was no risk after all anybody would try to seduce a serial killer, a murdering machine. He could still raise the topic with his siblings, but it was out of question.
He had to depend only on himself. He was sure there had to be a way to release that insufferable tension and was determined to discover it.
Gaara slowly slipped his hand into his trousers. With every stroke and pull it felt better and better, forcing the muffled moan to escape his lips. His breathing was ragged and he could feel his heartbeat growing from steady to frantic.
He could never imagine he could make himself feel so good.
The quiet, constant rustle absorbed his attention. Gaara opened his eyes and froze. For a moment such terror overwhelmed him that he literally couldn't move even a finger.
Something was moving in the darkness, slowly, tardily. The narrow spirals danced above the floor only to fall down inertly onto it. He recognized that whisper at once. He knew it as well as the sound of the beating of his own heart.
It was his sand.
The redhead pulled the hand back and glanced at the corner of the room. The gourd looked like a pale spot in the dark, and the sand was pouring from it in cascades like water. To his bewilderment, Gaara couldn't sense any disturbance. His own chakra was unstable from intense emotions but Shukaku's energy was still absolutely motionless; both chakras were in perfect equilibrium. So why did the sand...?
The longer Gaara pondered, the weaker sand's movements were. When his heartbeat had become even and his chakra had stabilised itself completely, the sand on the floor didn't shift anymore.
The redhead licked his dry lips, closed his eyes and resumed his previous ministrations. The sand reacted again but this time Gaara was aware of the reason of its movements, so he didn't stop. It felt too wonderful. The outside world seemed to disappear behind the ecstatic veil, until the only things he knew were his thumping heart and rapid breathing.
He felt so good.
He felt tipsy, even if he never drank in his life.
He felt mesmerised.
He felt like he was starting to lose control.
The redhead vehemently pulled his hand back and dropped onto the bed, panting and trembling. Losing control was too high price to pay for the upcoming release. He didn't like to lose control. He didn't want to lose control. He swore to himself he would never, ever lose it again, that he would go insane first from his pent-up feelings, from the terrible memories kept at bay with his will, from Shukaku's assaults on his integrity, than he would lose control once more.
This sensation was too much like letting go, and he couldn't let go. But... But the paralyzing mist, which had been enveloping his mind until all his rational thoughts faded away and he didn't know anymore who he was... It felt so good. His thoughts were scattering like a fistful of sand thrown on the wind... and what would left would be a pure delight.
Gaara decided that losing control was sometimes not so bad at all.
o0o0o0o
Matsuri was getting closer and closer to Sunagakure's gate. Yaoki, the captain of the mission, was walking in front of her and next to her other genins were going. They had just finished their first mission and could finally go back to the village. Matsuri wasn't particularly happy, just like others, but she wasn't expressing it aloud like her friends.
"If every mission looks like that, I will get bored to death," Darui groaned again. "I'm not cut to be a babysitter!"
"But it was Matsuri who was looking after them," Yakku commented. "You only had to herd the livestock."
"Yeah, but what would have been if Matsuri wasn't with us?" Darui whined, frustrated.
The girl watched her friend with an interest and astonishment. Until now Darui was always rather reserved. He was not talking much and he particularly wasn't complaining in such manner. However their whimpers were completely ignored by the captain. He said to them before: "A mission is a mission. You get an assignment and carry it on as best as you can. No fussing, no picking. This is how shinobi's life goes."
Darui and Yakku only snarled at his words, but didn't look convinced. Soon they'd begun to grumble again. Matsuri agreed with them, but in her opinion such whining meant lack of professionalism. True, she expected something different from her first mission but she didn't think expressing her disappointment was a proper behaviour for a rookie genin.
When Darui's complaints grew louder and more bothersome, she decided to break it off.
"Gaara-sensei has never had a D-ranked mission," she stated, fully aware she's been throwing a firecracker.
"Huh?" Darui gaped with his mouth open, and Yakku snorted under his nose. Yaoki eyed her with an unreadable expression.
"Gaara-sensei this, Gaara-sensei that," Yakku sneered. "You can't even bear a few hours without talking about him. You sure you don't have a soft spot for him?"
"Are you jealous or what?" Matsuri answered, smirking, and to her bewilderment she noticed a slight flush creeping her friend's cheeks. Other genins let out the suppressed laughter.
"Forget it," Darui interjected, scanning Matsuri's face intensely. "How's it possible he has been never assigned to a D-ranked mission?"
"Because he is Gaara-sama," Yaoki uttered and genins glanced at him, surprised. Matsuri was the one most surprised since she had never heard before someone talking about her sensei with such obvious respect.
"Yaoki-san, what do you mean?" she asked, her tone quiet. The gate and the guards were too close to speak carefreely of those matters.
The young captain sent her an incomprehensible look.
"Since you're his student you should have known." Matsuri made a disoriented face and Yaoki continued. "He might have officially become chuunin not so long ago, but the demon sealed inside him gives him the power to defeat even the strongest jounins from our village."
Genins mutely deliberated over his words. Matsuri remembered the unfortunate joint mission with Konoha, when Gaara had been attacked by the ANBU assassination squad. Yaoki had been on that mission as well.
"Even ANBU are not a threat for him," she said quietly. The captain sent her an intense look and nodded.
"He would have been mad if he had been assigned to complete such a trivial task," he said.
They entered the village's gate at last. The sun's burning rays weren't reaching here and the air was considerately cooler than in an open desert. They passed by a group of shinobi heading for the mission and smiled briefly at the sight of the adobe buildings visible in the gap between cliffs.
"Is the council—" Matsuri uttered and broke off, watching Yaoki uncertainly. Their eyes met and she continued. "Is the council still planning to—"
The young captain furrowed and averted his eyes. "I don't know," he answered, shrugging. "People are still scared."
"But why?" she whispered.
"Even if he has good intentions, the demon still lives within him," Yaoki said with strange tint in his voice. Matsuri, to her bewilderment, recognised it as sadness. "Gaara-sama is very powerful, but this power is too unstable, too unpredictable. If the monster would attempt to break free—"
"Then Gaara-sensei would stop it with his will!" the girl exclaimed, clenching her fists. "Just like before!"
Yaoki and the other genins were apparently curious. Yakku and Darui had already heard that story, but they remained silent.
"He started to transform, but he stopped it," she said, gazing at her companions. "He will never allow it—"
"You've seen it?" Yaoki interrupted, suddenly coming to a halt. „You've seen Shukaku of the Sand?"
Matsuri couldn't help but sigh. He sounded exactly like Sari.
"Yes," she nodded. "The sand wrapped around his head," she gestured with her hands, seeing the disbelief on their faces. "And his arm. And here was such a huge claw..." she finished awkwardly.
"You've been lucky to survive it," Yaoki said and Matsuri shook her head.
"I'm telling you," she said with a pout like she was rebuking insolent children. "Gaara-sensei would never lose control."
o0o0o0o
Gaara was suspicious. Very suspicious.
They ran across the meadow, then plunged into the forest. Half a day until they would reach the desert. He wanted to cross the distance as fast as possible.
Matsuri must have realized eventually he was in a grim mood since she went quiet, only shooting glances at him from the corner of her eye. Her usual optimism and cheerfulness vanished because of his attitude, even if she didn't know the reason. For her it was a normal mission – well, maybe not as normal as always, since she had been sent only with him. It inflicted the honest happiness within her, and the immediately raising suspicions within him.
The councilman who had assigned him the task didn't give away that anything was wrong. Pinned by Gaara's distrustful, questioning look he smoothly announced that due to the lack of the available shinobi there would be only one genin accompanying him during the mission. Simple C-ranked mission, that's all.
However, the old rascal didn't say that particular genin would be Matsuri.
They completed the mission quickly and now were returning to Sunagakure. Gaara's anxiety and suspiciousness were growing in a hasty pace. If the council was planning something bad, now was the perfect chance to carry it on. They wouldn't let them reach the desert, where he would have the advantage, and surely they would try to use Matsuri in some way. Every time when they were resting, Gaara observed his student, wondering if someone was already impersonating her with Henge no Jutsu. But Matsuri was still herself, at least it seemed so. Of course they could try to maintain the illusion for a longer time to put him off guard.
There was still a chance his fears were groundless, but he knew it wasn't the case when he sensed the presence of the other shinobi, hidden amongst the trees.
"Matsuri!" he warned her and she halted at once. She gazed around and her legs seemed to fail when she fell from the tree trunk with a frightened cry. Gaara jumped towards her and cut the chakra thread attached to her foot, but it was too late. The tall, bulky shinobi wearing jounin flak jacket and ANBU mask caught Matsuri and landed on the trunk below. The kunoichi struggled and wriggled in his grasp, and he twisted her left arm behind her back until she cried in a high-pitched voice.
Gaara froze, perfectly aware Matsuri will be the first victim if he would attempt to do anything.
"Surrender," the ANBU commanded loudly. "Or the girl—"
Matsuri raised her head and sought Gaara's eyes, shaking her head. The man holding her twisted her arm even stronger and she drooped, biting her lower lip. Blood trickled down her chin, but her eyes still held an iron determination.
Gaara quickly analysed every aspect of their position, aware that he could depend only on himself. There was no Naruto anywhere to help him this time.
"No!" Matsuri yelled, her voice hoarse and almost unearthly. "No, no, noooo!"
Her shriek echoed through the woods when she jerked her arm. Joints and tendons gave up with an audible crunch and she managed to free her hand from the masked ANBU's grasp. Still screaming, she turned around in a flash, kicking with her knee at shinobi's groin, and threw herself back, with her left arm dangling limply at her side.
Plummeting, she put her hand into her pouch and took something out. Gaara darted towards her to rescue her from hitting the ground, but one of the ANBU was closer and caught Matsuri in the midair. He jumped down on the ground and after short examination shook the lifeless body like a puppet.
"The girl's dead," he announced contemptuously, casting the body aside. "She jabbed at her neck with the poisoned senbon."
Gaara could feel how Ichibi's chakra raged along with the sound of those heartless words, resonating with his own fury and despair. His blood boiled and for a moment he was willing to let Shukaku out, to lose control so they would have known his anger, but his student's innocent face appeared in his mind. She had believed in him. He couldn't betray her trust – even if she wasn't alive any longer.
Gaara strengthened his resolve and forced Shukaku to retreat. The long tendrils of sand raced from the gourd and the hell has been unleashed.
The end of chapter 3.
The next chapter: Paying off the debt
A/N:
I know there are no sandworms in Narutoverse, but I love "Dune" and I felt like mixing those two universes even if only a bit. (the call of the desert teehee)
In my story ninjas from Sunagakure don't form teams like they do in Konoha so Matsuri, Sari, Darui and Yakku will not always be together on missions.
Ohayo=hello
hitai-ate=forehead protector
Yaoki – Sunagakure ninja, appearing in "Naruto" fillers ep. 182. His rank wasn't given out but he probably wasn't a jounin, like he is in my story, plus he was rather "wimpy and cowardly around Gaara", as they wrote in Naruto Wikia LOL
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