Finally. I have finally done it. I've reached the chapter that I promised that Reddit user three months ago. THIS is what I've been writing this whole things for.

And now I've hit it. I kind of ran away with the chapter for a bit.

Will this keep going afterwards? Perhaps. But this... this felt nice.

I hope you guys enjoy. Please let me know how it was.

~Redyoshi14

The Prankster King of Konoha

Chapter 6:

The Ultimate Payoff

Something was wrong. Gaara had felt fear before, but this wasn't quite fear. This was more base, more primal. Something down in his very core reacted to what was in front of him, freezing him on the spot and preventing him from calling upon his chakra. He wanted to fight. Failing that, he wanted to run. But he couldn't do either. It was as if his entire body had simply given up.

"M-mother?" Gaara asked. When everything else failed, he could always call upon her. She was strong. She was unfathomable. She was endless. She was his guiding light and unshakable pillar. If he couldn't resist this abomination, then surely she would be able to. "Mother, can you take over?"

Instead of the deep, calming tones that he was used to, however, he was met with silence. He waited for a few seconds, a time that his opponent took to stare at his fingers but did not receive a response. When she finally spoke, it was not the words that he was expecting to hear.

"Run," was all she said. "Flee. Escape. Get the fuck out of dodge!". Her voice was panicked, quivering with every other syllable. It was so unusual, so out of character, that Gaara was caught flat-footed.

"Mother?" he asked. His mind wandered as he tried to make sense of things. He almost tried to reach out to her mentally.

That moment of indecision cost him.

Pain blossomed across his cheek. Burning, searing, splitting, piercing. All those and more assaulted his senses as he caterwauled. The world spun as he did, falling to the forest floor. He eventually managed to straighten himself, but when he did, it was only to the sight of that dreaded fly looking down on him from the branch he still stood on.

Light, as golden as the sunlight and flickering off his clothes as if flames, radiated from every bit of his body. It suffused his clothing, turning the orange of his ugly jumpsuit into resplendent embers. It imbued his hair, turning those yellow strands into strings of flickering flame. His eyes, once blue, were now a deep red, and his irises were slit like a fox's.

"Lesson one," the insufferable monster said. His arm was still outstretched from the haymaker he just hit Gaara with. "Always use the element of surprise. A good prank is one that no one sees coming!"

Gaara snarled, his anger overcoming the unfamiliar feeling of pain. His mother's unusual behavior ebbed from his mind as the sand responded to his will.

A prank? That was nothing more than a surprise attack. They had failed before, but just because he managed one meant nothing.

Gaara would prove his existence, and nothing would get in his way to do it.

XxX

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," Naruto called. Smoke erupted on the many branches around him, and several dozen perfect copies of himself looked back at him when it cleared.

"We have to pull off our biggest prank yet. I know that we were saving it for the old man, but I don't think I have anything else that could break through this bastard's defenses."

One of his clones frowned. It knew everything that he did, so he knew that the question being asked was more just him thinking to himself. "But that punch you just did worked out pretty well. Why can't we do it again? Why don't we just punch him until everything is better?"

"Because my chakra is the thing that's allowing you to break through it," Kurama said. His voice echoed through all their minds simultaneously. "Shukaku knows that I'm here now, so he's likely shaking in his boots. He used to be controlling part of the sand defense, but it seems the boy is able to control it himself, too."

"I don't see how that means we can't punch him."

The original sucked his teeth. "We could, but we don't know how much punching we need to do before we beat him. Besides, the point of this was to embarrass him."

"I think that getting the shit beaten out of you is pretty embarrassing."

"But the prank is more fun."

The Naruto clones looked amongst each other, then nodded as one. All of them turned back to the original and grunted.

"You know the plan, and you know what we need for it. Five minutes, or a little bit less than that now, isn't a lot of time, but if we push ourselves, we might be able to pull it off. Are you all ready?"

"Yosh!" the small army of clones responded.

"Then go! I'll distract the big baby."

The clones brought their hands up into a seal, then they all vanished in a swirl of leaves. Below, the sounds of breaking foliage was getting slowly closer. It wasn't anywhere near as quickly as it was before, but it was still unreasonably fast. The trees in the Forest of Death were several stories tall, and judging by the speed that Gaara was climbing, he would be up here in seconds.

"I hope that no one moved our stash of supplies in the central tower," the Fox growled. "If they did, this plan becomes much harder."

Naruto shrugged. Gaara was in sight now. The sandy half of his body was much messier than before, with the armor seeming to be melting now that only Gaara was in control of its usage. His transformed eye flickered between the normal teal and the sandy brown, as if Gaara was holding onto the fading power with everything he had.

"Fox, what did you do to Shukaku to make him so flustered at the mere thought of your presence?"

"Let's just say that my vindictive streak didn't start with you."

XxX

"Mother!" Gaara howled. His words did nothing more than bounce around his empty mind. Usually, his head was full to bursting with the presence of his mother. She used to talk to him constantly—guiding him, nurturing him, teaching him. Even when she wasn't speaking, Gaara could feel her there. He could feel her watching, judging, protecting. Now, however, she was nowhere. Gaara couldn't feel even a little of her presence.

It felt… empty. Unusual. New. Scary. Maddening. Where was she? She had promised to always be there! Where was she?

"Mother!" Gaara shouted. He thrust his arm forward, shooting out a stream of sand as he did. The golden fly above him simply stepped to the side, allowing his attack to pass by harmlessly.

"I'm not your mother, kid," the fly said. The smile he wore was taunting. It drove Gaara insane. "Wrong parts for that. If you want, though, I could spank you like one."

Gaara snarled. He lifted his arm again, only to watch as the sand on it melted off once more. He tried to will it back to what it once was, but without Mother's help the concentration required to both maintain it and use it was staggering.

"You," Gaara growled from his place on a lower branch. "What did you do to Mother? Where did she go?"

The fly seemed to ponder on the question for a bit. The golden embers drifted from his sun-kissed hair. Somehow that pissed off Gaara even more.

"I highly doubt that creature in your head is your mother. Though, if she is, your father's genes are impressively strong."

Gaara roared, though even he had to realize that it was decidedly less bestial than it was before. He thrust his untransformed hand forward and watched as more bullets of sand rose from his melting arm and shot towards the fly.

Rather than dodge again, the fly just smiled. The bullets neared him, growing closer and closer until—

The fly blurred. His entire body blurred as if he were made of pencil lead and someone smudged him out. The bullets hit him, but rather than bore holes through him like they should've, they simply passed through. Dull thuds rang through the otherwise silent forest as the bullets embedded themselves in the bark of the tree behind the fly, before the fly came back into focus.

"This is a new fight, Gaara," it said. The smile was larger now, and it seemed to be growing directly proportional to Gaara's fury. "Please do try to keep up."

He blurred once more, but this time he vanished completely from sight. He reappeared on another branch a distance away, but he blurred away once more.

"No," Gaara muttered. His voice cracked as the demonic influence of his bijuu's chakra was slowly burned out of his system. "Come back!"

He tried to jump after the boy, but the weight of the massive amount of sand covering half of his body prevented him from moving. He tried to will it, but he could already feel the strain of trying to muster that much concentration. Finally deciding to let it drop, he sighed as the burden of maintaining that form fell with the enchanted sand.

Now no longer needing to do so, it was much simpler to will his non-Bijuu ammo. He pointed, and this time far more bullets formed in the air.

"Sand bullet!"

XxX

"How is it somehow harder now that he's not using Shukaku's power?" Naruto asked. The Fox's chakra burned, invigorating his body and amplifying his senses. He moved, and for that one second he was able to nearly teleport with the speed he was using. Gaara's sand sailed harmlessly past where he was, leaving him perfectly safe from the attack.

Not three seconds later did more sand bullets come after him.

"Shukaku has always been a brute. He was all power and no finesse. The human brat seems to have attained a mastery over his power that my little brother never possessed." The Fox scoffed. "I couldn't say that I'm surprised about that."

Naruto looked back. Gaara had abandoned the pretense of running and was now being carried by his sand once more. He was still snarling, spit coming out of his mouth, but his eyes were back to normal. He lifted his hands, fingers bent like claws, towards Naruto.

"Sand Coffin!"

"Sand-what?" Naruto asked. He felt tempted to ask, but no sooner had that urge appeared did the answer to his question also burst from the trees around him. Sand, enough to fill a classroom, surrounded the young blonde. It arced around him like a swarm of locusts, with all the force of an iron vice.

The Fox's chakra flared once more. Naruto blurred out just as the sand crushed the spot he once stood in. Naruto blurred once more, allowing the rush of chakra to move him to where he was currently looking. His feet landed on a branch—

—the sand that was on the branch lurched. It coiled around his leg, fusing together slightly under the heat of his chakra. Naruto tried to blur once more, but the sand held quick. More sand lurched from around him. Naruto's slit eyes flitted around, taking stock of his situation. The sand that was surrounding him from every angle was not looking good.

"I don't think we can run for much longer," Naruto thought.

"I don't think so either. Do you think we can survive?"

Naruto sighed. He took a deep breath, then let go. The chakra flooded his body unrestrained. On the inside, it was exhilarating. It felt like he was floating through space, and all the world was in zero gravity waiting for him to move it. The outside, however? The outside was much more chaotic. Chakra exploded from him, expelling the sand and pushing the sediments away. The light sound of tinkling echoed around the empty forest as the small shards of glass shattered against the bark.

Naruto blinked. The Fox's chakra was wafting off him like radiation from a nuclear plant. The sand was still there, in fact, it was still trying to reach him. Every time it got close, however, it was pushed away by a tendril of pure, unfiltered power.

"You're running through my power like an unrestrained water hose. You won't last the full five minutes like this."

Naruto grunted. "This was part of the plan. Nothing has changed."

"This wasn't supposed to happen so soon."

Naruto shifted. His ears twitched to the wooden creak of a branch, and he turned to see Gaara staring hatefully at him. Naruto's own eyes narrowed along with Gaara's own, and the two bared teeth.

"Well, then we're just going to have to make it work."

XxX

"Mother?" Gaara asked. Echoes. Silence. His own words came back to haunt him. "Mother, please. I need you. Answer me."

"I told you to run. Why are you not running?"

"We… we don't run away from our enemies. Running makes us weak. Being weak makes us nonexistent!"

Silence. Echoes. Words like ghosts. Gaara snarled, and the fly in front of him snarled back. The two boys, one like the other, stared at one another.

The signal to start didn't exist. The two lurched, nonetheless. Gaara's hands came up, then fell down. The sand he controlled followed. It rose from the forest floor before falling down to land on top of the fly.

Gaara almost snarled once more. He could feel his sand being incinerated before it could touch his prey. If he had Mother, he could…

"Mother!"

Silence, echoes, words coming back at him.

Gaara yelled, his voice coming out as a scratchy, guttural roar. He recalled his own sand, then allowed it to lift him off the ground.

There was more than one way to skin a cat.

The fly stood unmoving as Gaara shifted around him. Sand moved as tendrils, zipping through the air like eels through water. The eels bent and turned, then shot towards the fly. As before they all burned up before they were able to reach him.

The fly turned, his red slit eyes tracking Gaara's. He didn't move, instead allowing his chakra to burn around him. He shone like a bonfire and, like a bonfire, he burned all that came into contact with him. Gaara didn't say anything. He just directed sand towards the ground.

"This won't end the way that you want it to," the fly buzzed. It's voice was just as annoying as every other fly's. "By the end of the day you're going to be gagged and bound."

"I… I'm going to…" Gaara said. He stumbled on his words. Why was it so hard to talk? "You're going to die."

The fly frowned. It turned from him and looked around the forest as if the very leaves held the answer to everything the world had to offer. After a while, he turned back. "Well, I guess that you're just going to have to get to it."

Gaara snarled.

The sand erupted from the forest floor.

XxX

Light erupted all around the world. Or, at least, that was what it looked like. Naruto was turning. Moving, dashing, running, turning. Naruto was gliding through the air and letting off enough chakra to power the entire village for a week. Sand was being incinerated at every turn, and yet, this wasn't enough.

"You handle my chakra like a fool who picked up a sword for the first time." The Nine-Tails yawned. His voice echoed around his mind like a cavern. "You're using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. You're using a chainsaw to cut a piece of paper."

"Well, I've never had to deal with this before. How often do you think I manipulate chakra so finely?"

"Considering I raised you, I know that you very rarely do. You make up for your terrible control with carefully planned pranks."

Sand burst from the ground, turning miles of forest floor into erupting craters of sediment. Naruto cursed, then clenched his hand. Arms of chakra sprouted from his back and grabbed at the nearest ones. Gold and crimson chakra fought for dominance before, finally, the eruptions stopped.

"You're running low!" the Fox growled, and Naruto had to agree. The world seemed to be getting dimmer. His muscles felt heavier.

"A couple more moments, Fox!"

XxX

Gaara could see it. The little fly's wings were getting tired. The flame-like glow that emanated from him like a cloak grew dimmer with every attack that was thwarted. It had receded from being clothing to almost clinging to his skin, and even his eyes had returned from being red to being a soft, almost purple, blue.

"I almost have you!" Gaara yelled. He thrust his arm outwards and a lance of sand followed his command. It cut through the air and, this time, the boy didn't phase out of its path. He tilted his head, allowing the sand to pass harmlessly by, but this time it wasn't enough. Gaara could smell it in the air.

"Blood," he cackled. "I can smell it. Your blood. I can harm you!"

The fly clicked its tongue, and before Gaara could realize what was happening it had faded from existence once more. The world went white, then black, as Gaara's focus was drawn straight back to the forest floor. He hit it, and the sound of breaking rocks and uprooted trees assaulted his ears. That sound was nothing compared to the pain now blossoming on his head though.

"He… he hit me. Again!" Gaara raged. He searched for his mother's response to his emotions, but they just weren't there. That, however, only served to enrage him more, and he turned back to the fly still standing in its trees with a burning rage in his gut.

What he saw, however, brought a smile to his face.

The fly was breathing hard, his entire body shaking with the effort to keep himself standing. Though his fist was still brazenly outstretched from when he threw a sucker punch, the golden light on his body had receded to just his hair.

Gaara smiled despite the blood now flowing freely down his face.

"You're… you're tired, fly! You don't have much left in you, do you?"

The fly, in return, flipped him off. His eyelids fluttered as he struggled to keep them open, and that pleased Gaara in ways that he could never have imagined before.

Soon. Soon he would be able to prove his existence against an enemy that even Mother feared. The joy that he would gain from crushing this fly's spine would be exquisite.

Sand rose as Gaara brought himself fully to his feet. The sand that he had churning under the ground all froze as he bid its attention. "It's over. It's over. It's over!"

Gaara exerted some effort, and the culmination of all the sand he was created came up at once. The sand rose from the ground as if a wave, rising higher and higher above even the extraordinarily tall trees of the Forest of Death. The fly could only watch as the sand blotted out even the sun, before crashing down.

"You… you're going to be caught too!" the fly screamed, but Gaara could barely hear it.

The only thing that Gaara could hear was the breaking of limb and bone.

XxX

Silence. That was all that he could hear. Silence, and the soft, hissing whisper of sand particles shifting around him. Gaara smiled as he thought what that meant. He was in the middle of his Sand Burial, and that meant that everything around him was now dead. The trees were dead, the animals were dead and, most importantly, that annoying fly was dead. Its blood would saturate his sands and be an eternal mark of proof for Gaara's existence.

For the first time in a long time, Gaara felt content. He flexed his fingers, and was pleased with how it didn't immediately move to accommodate him. It was a while since he was truly exhausted, and even then he still had Mother to fall back on. Now devoid of even that, he was left with a feeling of true tiredness. It was surprisingly comforting, especially after such hard work.

Speaking of, however, where was Mother? He hadn't heard from her since the fight started, and that was unusual. She was usually the first to want to jump into a fight, and yet…

"Mother," Gaara asked. He was met with silence. He waited for a few seconds before prying once more. "Mother!"

Silence again. And it was this silence that, rather than soothe Gaara, infuriated him to no end. The sand vibrated in response to his mood, and the vibrations only served to pierce Gaara's tranquility even more.

"Mother! I am calling you! Didn't you say that you would always be there? So where are you, Mother?"

Silence. And it was this silence that broke Gaara's patience. Rather than wait, he pushed harder than he ever had before.

Right into his seal.

Gaara's eyes widened as he was dropped into a place he had never been before. There was sand here, quite a lot of it, to the point where it almost seemed like he was back home in the desert of Suna. There was, however, something intensely wrong with it. Gaara just couldn't put his finger on it.

He reached into the shifting dunes and pulled out a handful. Ah, that's what it was.

Blue lines. Shimmering cords of ethereal blue chakra ran like threads between every strand of sand. It was faint and, had Gaara not been looking for it, he would have never noticed. This wasn't a desert at all. This was—

"Mother!" Gaara yelled. He jumped to his feet and looked around. The dunes continued to shift, causing the blue threads to glint occasionally in the harsh sunlight, but there was no answer. "I know you can hear me, Mother! Answer me!"

Silence, save for the wind that carried the pieces of his mother's body. Gaara reached for it and tried to will it to his command. It did not respond. The bubble of anger heated his stomach once more, and his teeth grinded as he grabbed at the sand once more. This time, it did respond, but not in the way he expected. A roar echoed across the artificial desert, and sand spilled off the colossal being that rose from the depths.

It turned slowly, and Gaara was introduced to his Mother's face. Rather than the spike filled sneer he was used to, however, he was met with a quivering lip and shaking eyes.

Gaara snarled.

"Gaara," she spoke. Her voice was overwhelming, even in this mindscape. It thundered and boomed across the dunes, shattering clumps of sand and ringing in Gaara's ears. Gaara's eyes narrowed. It was precisely because it was so loud that Gaara could hear the way it trembled. "Did I not tell you to run?"

And it was here that Gaara decided that he would do something that he had never thought to do before. He yelled. At his mother. At first, there were no words, only a simple, guttural scream as he vented all of his pent-up frustrations from the past hour or so at her. Then, once he finally got that out, he spoke.

"No!" he yelled, his thus unused vocal cords straining even as a mental version of himself. "No more! Where is Mother, and what have you done with her?"

Mother, or the being masquerading as her, seemed to recoil at his anger, and that only hammered in Gaara's suspicions. Mother wasn't afraid of anything. Mother was the strongest. She was always there for him, and she would always protect him. Since no one was stronger than she was, they could never harm him if she was protecting him. That was why he needed to beat everyone—to prove that he could be strong like Mother. If he ever lost, then that would prove that he could not protect himself. That Mother couldn't protect him.

And thus, he would die. There were always people coming to kill him.

So he couldn't lose. With every win, he would prove himself strong. He would prove himself unbeatable. He would prove his right to live. He would prove his existence. And Mother was the cornerstone of that ideology.

But… this coward? This coward wasn't Mother. Gaara wasn't sure how they had supplanted Mother or where they had taken her, but he would find out.

"You will tell me where you have taken Mother," Gaara growled. His voice churned like the grittiness of the roiling sands. "You will tell me, or I will end you." He pulled at the sediments once more and, to his surprise, they actually obeyed. They were harder to control than his normal sand, that was for sure, but they were still malleable. Still able to be used as a weapon.

"Gaara," the imposter called. "I am your mo—" It stopped, then seemed to be considering its words. It watched as he slowly stalked closer, then closed its eyes. When it finally opened them again Gaara was significantly closer, though he hadn't deigned to attack. "No, Gaara. I suppose that now is as good a time as any to tell you the truth. I am not your mother."

The sand under Gaara's control vibrated madly as Gaara digested those words. It didn't take long for the redhead to stop it, however. "Of course you aren't. I've said as much, already. Tell me where you've hidden her, or prepare to die."

The fake mother seemed to want to respond. It opened its mouth, but Gaara cut her off. Deciding that he was already tired of her babbling, he urged his sand forward. It shot, rather sluggishly, towards her, but stopped just before reaching her titanic frame.

Gaara frowned. There was only one other person capable of controlling sand like that.

"Mo-Mother?"

Before he could respond, however, the very air itself seemed to scream. A horrid, vicious energy seemed to seep into he world, tearing apart at the basis of reality. Glowing white lines etched themselves into reality, drawing themselves into a facsimile of a sign. When the sigil was done, Gaara and his Mother were left looking at a large, seal-like sigil floating almost as tall as Mother herself.

Then, without warning, it started to screech. Gaara had to cover his ears as a hole, dark and foreboding, rent through reality itself. Dark red energy burst out of it like gas out a balloon, and stumbling from the folds was none other than—

"You," Gaara cursed. His blood boiled as he looked at his orange garbed adversary. "You!"

The fly looked around, blue eyes curious and completely unafraid. After taking in everything that he could, he turned back to Gaara, the exhaustion he was exhibiting earlier seemingly gone.

"So, this is what another person's mindscape looks like, huh? I gotta say, I feel totally cheated."

XxX

Naruto wasn't the smartest of his peers. As cunning as he was, he knew that there were just some things that he couldn't abide by. He couldn't stand studying, and the thought of writing a history paper literally scared him. He also wasn't the strongest. On his prank escapades around town, he had run into Gai several times. He knew the amazing things that the man could do, and he knew that he was no match for him.

Where Naruto lacked in smarts and pure, unadulterated power, however, he made up for in unmatched creativity and ingenuity. And that was where this prank came from.

"If my mindscape looked even a little as elaborate and appealing as this, then maybe I would visit more, Fox," he said. Then he frowned. Right. He wasn't in his own mind anymore. For the first time in a long time, his thoughts were purely his own.

It was… unsettling, to say the least. He didn't like not having anyone to answer him.

Still, that wasn't a problem that he could sustain for long. He looked over to the two beings currently staring at him—one in open-mouthed horror and one in complete, mind-altering rage—and smiled.

"Oh," he said. "New mind buddies! Aren't I glad to see you two! It means that my prank worked! Either that, or it didn't, and I'm in a very serious coma."

"Why are you here, worm!" Gaara screamed, and Naruto had to note the way that even the boy's fingers twitched in abject rage. "I killed you! I proved my existence!"

And it was here that Naruto had to finally stop. It was something that he was meaning to ask about, but he never got about to doing so on account of trying to survive being murdered. "Okay, so, what do you mean by that? How does killing me prove your existence?"

Gaara opened his mouth. He never got a chance to respond.

"Don't bother, I just realized that I don't care. Okay, this is what's happening right now. Right now, in the outside world, you are surrounded by a seal matrix that extends in every direction for about three or so miles. That's a seal array that is roughly the size of the Forest of Death."

The giant sand racoon looked suitably distressed. But, as expected, the uncultured redhead seemed to be ignorant of what those words meant.

"It means that you're trapped, and no matter how hard you struggle you won't be able to leave it."

"I don't see what a measly seal is meant to do to me. I'm strong, Stronger than your stupid seal!"

And it was here that Naruto was suitably offended. He raised his hand to his chest and feigned gall. "I'll have you know that it took upwards of several dozen clones working together in perfect tandem for that seal to get made! I had to get my assed kicked, methodically, for the better half of an hour for this! And since all of those clones were basically just me, and you never noticed, I had to make a seal spanning several miles and using several gallons of my backup ink just to restrain you! Can't you at least appreciate the artistry of such a thing? Can't you appreciate the effort of this prank?"

Gaara flashed his plebian teeth and snarled. "I don't have time to waste on weakling."

"Well, you better," Naruto responded. "Because you're going to be trapped in here with one for the foreseeable future."

And it was here that Gaara had finally had enough. He lifted his hands, and the sands of the desert agreed all too pliably. It rose like a wave to his command, before lurching forwards towards his enemy. Before Naruto could move, the sand under his feet latched onto his ankles, keeping him locked firmly in place.

Naruto raised an eyebrow. He didn't blink as death hurtled his way. The sand lurched like a snake, ready and willing to maim, but before it could reach Naruto it simply stopped.

Lines emerged from the sand, glowing like the sun as they made their presence known. Each one was as thick as one of the main streets of Konoha, which were wide enough to accommodate at least a dozen people walking shoulder to shoulder.

"What… what is…" Gaara asked.

"I just told you, I sealed you. True, it's crude, and a better sealmaster would be able to do it in a lot less time with a lot less ink and far more efficiently, but I'm not a sealmaster. I'm just a kid. So I had to rewrite the same seals over and over again and weave them on top of each other. It was an extremely blunt and, honestly, a crude way of doing things, but it was all I could come up with at the time. Either way, it worked, and I am in control of everything that happens so long as we're at the center of my ridiculously large seal."

To prove his point, Naruto took a single step forward. The blue lines that ran between each grain of sand shattered under just this much, and the sand was left to flow without the control of anyone. Anyone, of course, except Naruto. He raised his hand, and the untethered sediment responded. It rose into the air as if guided by a single, unmatchable will.

It was a level of mastery that Gaara could only dream of.

"Of course, I can only do this so long as we're in a mindscape. My crude ass seal couldn't do this to real sand. But neither of us are leaving this mindscape any time soon, so for all intents and purposes, I am the master of this place."

Naruto then thrusted his hand forward. The sand complied to his request, and flew as if under the control of an impressive gale. Gaara raised his own hand, willing the sand into a shield, but it was all for naught. The blue lines lacing the sand he controlled broke apart on contact with Naruto's seal-augmented sand, and the redhead was left with little more than air as his defense. Naruto's sand bullets peppered the young boy until he was covered in angry red welts.

As they were mere mental representations of their true selves, the injuries faded in no time at all. Still, it hurt something fierce. Gaara's teeth grinded as he fended off the pain, but there was little he could do to actually stop it.

Naruto ended the barrage a few seconds later, then stared at his hand. He flexed it a few times, then smiled. "So this is what controlling an element is like. I have to say, I understand why you're so fond of it."

The redheaded psychopath glared at him through the stray strands of hair that blocked his face. He opened his mouth to speak, a few globs of spittle dripping out of it, but another beat him to it.

"Why are you here?" the giant sand creature asked. Its voice was loud, echoing across the blue-tinged dunes. "How did you break into my seal, human? Did Kurama help you?"

Naruto tilted his head, then laughed. It was far quieter than the beast's, but the sheer intensity of it allowed it to echo all the same. It took him a while, but the boy managed to bring himself under control.

"No," he finally said. "My entrance into your realm was all my own. I had to first seal your chakra, then your minds. It was hard, and Gaara almost killed me there at the end, but I had a secret technique to help me out."

The One-Tail seemed to accept that answer. Gaara, however, did not.

"You are not welcome here, fly," he said. He snarled once more as he struggled back to his feet. The sand still under control of Shukaku vibrated as he did so, before rising in shaky, unstable clumps. "I will expel you."

"Oh?" Naruto asked. He raised a hand. "Then, please do. We may be on your home turf, but we're in my element."

At this, Gaara roared, and the sand around him suddenly seized. Instead of shaking, it bent perfectly to his will. Gaara thrust his hands forward, and snake-like waves burst from the ground. They contorted as they darted through the air. Just like before, however, they froze mere inches from Naruto. The blonde smiled, then leaned forward. He blew on the tendrils, breaking the blue lines of chakra that laced the grains together.

"I thought we went over this," the boy said. His grin was maddening as he spoke. "We're in my element."

Naruto raised his hand, and the sand swirled around him. Naruto moved with it, though it was ultimately unnecessary, and thrust his own hands back at the boy. This time, Gaara didn't have a chance to protect himself. He was hit with the full weight of his own attack, and his small body was battered senselessly by his own element.

By the time that the counterattack ended, Gaara was face-up in the sand. His teal eyes stared blankly into the sky, as if searching for what kind of train just hit him.

Naruto chuckled. "I've got some things that I want to talk about with you."

XxX

Gaara grit his teeth. His bones weren't broken—he didn't have any bones to break in this place, it seemed—but that didn't stop him from hurting all over. A pain, not unlike a migraine, seemed to sprout in every part of his body. His arms, legs, feet, and chest all thrummed with a pulsing, ever-constant pain. He tried to push it away, tried to ignore it, but it was the same as trying to relieve a migraine. It just didn't work. That didn't stop him from trying to struggle to his feet, however. The sand that was cradling him shifted.

Somehow, that last fact only made Gaara even more upset.

"I don't need your help, worm," he spat. He turned to the creature that was towering over him with a glare. He could hear the fly buzzing about something, but he honestly couldn't care less about what it was. "I am strong. I don't need help from the likes of you."

His mother recoiled, but otherwise didn't seem to respond to his words. Her sand still supported him in his efforts to bring himself to his feet, and she was still, to some extent, aiding him in his control of it.

It sickened him, receiving the help of such a terrified and pathetic creature as it.

"Gaara," she said, her eyes downcast as she looked down on him. And from where did she draw that right? She was a coward, unwilling to fight. How dare she look down on him! "It's useless to fight. That's… that's Kurama's—"

"I don't care who Kurama is!" Gaara screamed. "I will not allow them to kill me! I will not let him wipe me from existence!"

Gaara pushed himself through the pain and, with it, managed himself to his feet. His body would barely listen to him, the simple action of raising his arm too much against the pain that protested his every action, but he managed it. The sand, again aided by his mother, was sluggish, but it responded to his command.

The fly raised one of his annoying blonde eyebrows. He tilted his head in confusion. "Didn't I tell you that I control this place? That won't work on me."

Gaara didn't care. He couldn't die in this place, could he? If he could, then those sand attacks would have taken his life long ago. No, as long as he was strong enough, he would continue to persist no matter how many times he was beaten down. And Gaara was strong. He would not fall before this insect.

Sand reared itself at his command, then shot itself forward in a barrage of tiny bullets that were comprised of so few particles as to be mere dots to the eye. They flew at the insect, sparkling in hues of blue and brown, and intending to run him through. The insect, as before, simply looked on them in interest. And, as before, they stopped mere inches from piercing his skull.

"Tiny sand bullets," it said. That impish smirk returned, showing off canines that were far too sharp for someone who was mere prey. "Ingenious. Had you used this on me in the real world I might not have been able to react."

Gaara was about to say something, but a blinding pain stuck his words in his mouth. His leg, the source of such pain, gave out from under him, sending him falling to the desert floor. Upon closer inspection, Gaara found his own sand bullets impaled in his leg.

"Using it here is useless, though. How many times do I have to tell you? I own this place. You couldn't overcome me no matter how hard you tried."

Gaara hissed, and he could vaguely hear the whispers of his mother trickle into his mind. He paid them no heed, however, as he forced himself back up. Once again, his mental body protested the action, but Gaara was determined not to remain on the ground before him.

"Do you understand what's happening right now?" the fly asked. Gaara didn't bother to respond. The fly didn't care, it continued speaking regardless. "I'm attacking your mind Gaara. Your body represents your mental state. I'll be honest with you; you were never all there to begin with. If you keep fighting me, then you'll break what little sanity you have left."

Gaara didn't care. He planted his feet and twitched his fingers. Sand rose once more, but this time the fly didn't bother to let him attack. The sediments were ripped from his control before he could even get a real hold of them, and they surrounded him not unlike his Sand Burial.

"I'm sorry, kid," the fly said. Gone was the cocksure haughtiness that seeped his every word. Instead, there was a sort of pity there. It infuriated Gaara even more, somehow. "I'd rather not do this, but I can't let someone as dangerous as you continue to walk around without any supervision. This might break you, it might not. I'm hoping it doesn't."

Before Gaara could say anything, the sand went that final distance and covered his head. Like in his Sand Burial, he was surrounded. Unlike his Sand Burial, however, this was not by choice. Sand closed in on every side, reducing the small amount of breathing room he had and putting a strain on his muscles as they struggled in a futile attempt to ward off his death.

He pushed his chakra against the sand, only to realize that it was not obeying him. He pushed again, only to get the same response. The sand was oppressive now, forcing his arms against his sides. Still, he pushed.

"Let me help you," his mother called. He ignored her. His chakra pulsed against the sand once more. He thought he felt a little give in the way that the sand stopped. It continued shortly after, however, and once again the feeling of despair overcame him.

Was… was this it for him?

"Why won't you let me help you?" his mother asked. He could feel her chakra, large and dense and powerful, push against his own. He refused it. He shoved it away with all his heart, then pushed against his bindings.

It was just as futile as before, but the struggle felt strangely fulfilling. Doing it without the help of a coward and failing was more satisfying that succeeding with it. He pushed his chakra against his slowly shrinking prison, and this time he felt it move.

The constriction stopped. It was just for a moment, but it stopped. Gaara smiled. Perhaps he would be able to—

"You still have control?" asked the muffled voice of the fly. It sounded genuinely surprised, as if the idea was so unnatural that it had never occurred to it. Gaara gritted his teeth at the insult. "Well, that doesn't really matter. I just have to actually try."

His prison shivered, and Gaara could tell by the way the sand shifted in his control. For all of one second everything was perfectly, absolutely still.

Then, as if it were never there, his power over the sand was savagely ripped away. The sand cocoon shoved against his arm and his control, and Gaara felt something in him snap at the same time his mental arms did.

His mind went silent. No thoughts went through them. His head lolled limply to the side as all pretense of care drifted from it.

"Gaara?" his mother asked. Her rough, echoing voice was the one thing that he could still recognize. It came through fuzzy and muted, but he had heard it enough to recognize it even when he could barely recognize the pain as his body was crushed ever smaller. "Gaara? Can you hear me, child?"

He could, but the words simply would not come. Trying to speak was like trying to reach through an endless void. No matter how far he stretched, he could not grasp the words he needed to say.

There was a moment of quiet. Everything fell to nothingness as his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Just as it started getting hard to breath, a bit of the desert sun peeked through a hole in the sand coffin.

The sunlight was beautiful, Gaara thought. How had he taken it for granted all these years? If he had more time, he would surely spend more time simply enjoying the brilliant rays as they shined off the golden dunes of his hometown. There was no need to prove his existence if he could just watch them for all time.

"Gaara," his mother called. Her voice was like a whisper, now. She sounded so far away, and yet so close. He wanted to reach out for her, but the sand kept his arms so perilously close to his chest. The sand had closed in around his neck now, and soon it would snap it like he had done to so many others.

Was this how it felt to lose one's life? To be snuffed out of existence? It was a painfully cruel way to go, he decided. No one should ever be subjected to this.

His mother's voice echoed in his head once more, and Gaara could swear that she was closer. Her voice was no longer muffled, and it even sounded a bit… gentle.

The sand cradled him now, and he could feel the pressure evaporate as his consciousness faded. His last thought as he faded away was.

"Mother… I'm coming."

"You're not dead," his mother said, though, that was impossible. His mother had died when he was born. "I… Open your eyes."

Though it was hard, he did so. They strained against the overwhelming glare of the sun, but he managed. Staring down at him was his mother, her golden irises burning in her black sclera.

"Mother?" he asked. Though, he knew that she wasn't his real mother. He'd known for a while now.

"Gaara," his mother responded. "I… I managed…"

Instead of responding, she looked up. Gaara, though with some difficulty, managed to follow her gaze. What he saw surprised him.

The fly, still standing infuriatingly still in front of the void in space that he appeared from, had a look of shock on his face. His mouth hung open as he stared wordlessly at his mother. His hand, outstretched, was glowing the same white glow as the seal lines that ran across the desert, but it was remarkably diminished.

Instead, what shone the brightest was the tiny blue lines that connected every grain of sand. Mother's chakra flared as she actively resisted the seal that had bound them.

"That boy…" Mother started. Her voice still trembled, but it had a different quality to it now. She still sounded afraid, which was disgusting, but she seemed to be willful of it. Defiant of that fear. Gaara could respect that. "… he is like you. He holds my sibling inside of him."

Gaara's eyes widened. He stared at the insect standing so confidently before him and frowned. So that was how he was so powerful before.

"Which one?" Gaara asked.

"You know of us?"

"Of course I know of the Tailed Beasts. I have one inside of me."

Gaara could feel the way that his mother reacted. Hesitation and a bit of fear creeped into her, but it was an emotion that he had been exposed to enough by now to tolerate. He huffed and struggled to his feet. Had she really thought he was so foolish as to believe he had really believed her?

"It is the Kyuubi—the Nine-Tailed Fox," she answered, eventually. "Though we were all born at the same time, he insists on being called the oldest."

"Why?"

"Because he was also the strongest. No one of us could tell him otherwise, so he lorded his power over the rest of us. The only ones who got along with him was Gyuki and Matatabi. Gyuki because he was strong enough that to force the issue was a hassle, and Matatabi because she could control the dead."

Gaara turned back to his mother. "She could do what?"

"Anyway," the One-Tailed continued, ignoring his host, "In a desert, I was unbeatable to most of my kin, but I was weaker everywhere else. Because of this, that damned fox would bully me whenever he had the chance. Everyone else had ways of avoiding him, but not me. Isobu could dive into the deepest oceans and Chomei could take off into the skies, but all I could do was bunker down in the deserts."

"And that wasn't enough?" Gaara asked. "You're unbeatable in the desert!"

His mother looked down at him, and even though he was terrible at reading a face, he could see how uncomfortable she looked. "To any other of my siblings, that would be true. For Kurama, however… he just plowed through everything I threw at him and dragged me out. One time, he threw me into the ocean."

Gaara flinched. Having lived his entire life with his Beast, he had picked up on some of her mannerisms. He, too, would not like being thrown into the ocean.

"Ever since then, I had been bullied and tortured. I… I was afraid of ever meeting up with him again. So I promised myself something. I promised that I would never let anyone bully me again. I would prove my existence to the world, and make everyone notice me. The more people I killed the more I would prove my strength. The more I would prove that I was different than the Shukaku that got thrown into the ocean." The Beast looked at its hands. They were shaking. "But, now that I'm here, I realize that I'm not. I was never ready to see the Kyuubi. I'm still afraid of him."

Gaara, though he could feel the snarl coming up, decided not to voice his concern. He tried to raise himself from his place embedded in his mother's hand, only for his arms to fail him. As his back hit her palm once more, his vision suddenly went blurry as his mind nearly shattered once more.

"Calm yourself," she said. "You need to recover first."

"Th-the fly!" Gaara managed to croak out. "I can't leave him to—"

"I'll take care of him," she said. The smile she sent his way looked truly out of place on her, what with her jawed mouth, but it was somehow still reassuring, nonetheless. "I've decided to stop running away. Whether he's Kurama or just his host, I will fight back. Both as a Tailed Beast, and as your mother."

Shukaku then raised her hand and, with it, the blue lines that spread across the dunes glowed angrily. Suddenly, the sands glowed a dangerous crisscross of brilliant blue, before rising unsteadily into the air. The fly attempted to suppress it all and, to its credit, the glowing white of his palm did steady most of the desert. Great swathes of it still prevailed, however, and lurched as one towards it.

The fly, of course, dodged out of the way. He flipped and slid and in some cases ran on top of the sand as Mother hurled wave after wave at him.

"Even though it was massive, I suppose that such a crude sealing array could never fully contain a Tailed Beast, no matter how weak it is."

Gaara could hear the way his mother growled at that comment and could hear his own building in his chest. Sure, she was many things, but weak wasn't one of them. The world steadied as a new anger focuses his mind. Climbing to his feet became remarkably easy as he raised his own hands to mirror that of his mother's.

"Gaara?" his mother asked. "You should be resting."

"I can't," the redhead responded. "I haven't slept in so long, but I recall my siblings saying that they found it impossible to whenever a fly was buzzing around. Why don't we take care of this one?"

His mother looked down at him for a few moments, before nodding. "Yes. Let's."

Power and, most importantly, control seeped into Gaara as he was given sway over the immeasurable power that his mother wielded. Normally, he was only given a fraction to play with, and even that came with a loss of his own sanity. Now, however, he was given access to all of it.

It was like waking up from the best nap of his entire life. And also being on steroids.

His mother's power was unfathomable. Where Gaara had to exert real effort to move his sand, his mother could move the sand she controlled with just a thought. The measure of her power was just that great, that she didn't even feel as the grains resisted the unnatural movement. She just willed her element, and it responded. It was marvelous.

Still, she wielded her sand like it was a hammer. She threw and bashed it against everything with little concern for what she hit. For walls and such, that plan was fine. For hitting a fly, however…

"I would like to let you guys know that you're on a time limit," the fly buzzed. It was moving and dodging every split second, and yet it looked no worse for the wear. If anything, it seemed bored as it flitted around each attack his mother threw.

"Mother," Gaara said. His teeth grinded against each other as he stared unblinking at the target of his rage. "Can you let me take control of our sand? You supply the power, while I supply the direction. Is that okay?"

Shukaku, for once, did not dismiss his suggestion outright. Instead of trying to overpower him, she agreed without fuss, and Gaara could feel as the reins were handed over.

The change was immediate.

Tendrils broke off from the waves that were barreling towards the fly. They twisted and snaked around each other in a hypnotic, alluring dance before flying in arcing paths towards the fly. At first, the fly seemed confused, but it wasn't long before it was weaving through even those.

"This one is annoying," Mother growled. For the first time since he arrived in this mindscape, Gaara felt like he agreed.

"I will catch him," Gaara growled back. His fingers clenched slightly, drawing his hand into a sort of claws. The sand that his mother still controlled seized for but a second. The fly, not expecting this, dodged to where he would be safe.

Except he wasn't. Now, he was in the direct path of a sand tendril. Caught as he was, he had no way of canceling his momentum so quickly. Gaara snatched the fly out of the air, then brought his palms together in a clap. The sand mimicked the action, and soon the disgusting orange of the fly was encapsulated fully by the golden sands.

It was finally caught. Caught and in a sand coffin.

"We… we got him!" Gaara yelled. He could feel his mother's elation through their mental link. They had finally accomplished it!"

"Quick!" his mother urged. "We must crush him before he manages to break free!"

The sealing lines across the desert glowed to a white-hot intensity as its owner struggled against its bindings. Blue lines shattered as the seal exerted its dominance, but the combined efforts of both Shukaku and Gaara managed to retain the ones holding the fly in place.

"One… last… push!" Gaara squeaked out. If anyone asked, he would deny that his voice ever squeaked. He pressed his interlocked fingers as tightly as he could, hoping he could squeeze the life out of the boy. He could feel his mother trying her best as well, but the seal was doing its utmost to resist their commands. This struggle continued for minutes that felt like years until, finally, something gave.

It, unfortunately, wasn't the boy.

The sound of breaking glass echoed across the dunes as the hole in reality that the boy entered through slowly grew. The very air itself cracked apart as the hole, with its impenetrable darkness, expanded outwards.

Red, malevolent chakra seeped from the hole, corroding everything it touched. Mother's blue lines melted as they came into contact with the evil miasma, and even the seal lines seemed to dim as the gaseous chakra seeped over them.

The sand seized as trepidation once more flooded his mother's soul. Gaara turned to the source of the disruption, only to pale.

The creature that forced its way through reality was not one that Gaara had ever intended to see. Dark black at its core, its body was covered in a pulsing jelly of red that somehow looked evil. Gaara's skin tingled at the very thought of fighting it, and the only thought that came to his mind, should he have to describe it, was hatred incarnate.

The Nine-Tailed Beast, the Kyuubi no Yoko, Kurama roared its dominance to the world as it settled on the previously calm dunes. The sand burned as the beast pressed its claws into the desert floor, and Gaara could feel himself lose control over that entire area.

"Mother… is this…?"

But his mother could not respond. Fear overwhelmed every part of her, paralyzing her to her very core.

For once, Gaara could not blame her.

XxX

Naruto laughed uncontrollably as he rolled on the now ravaged floor of the Forest of Death. All around him were the seal lines that his clones had so painstakingly created. They shined as almost foreign glyphs across sand, dirt and tree branch, and they all focused in on one impossibly small circle in their center.

It was a bitch and a half to get Gaara to stand there but at the very end he managed. With the boy now sealed, it was child's play to use the Tailed Beasts' shared mindscape as a tunnel from one seal to another. Once there, all he had to do was distract the two long enough for Kurama to break through, and then it was all over.

It took a while, but they managed, and now…

"I'm a little teapot, short and stout, here is my handle, here is my spout…"

It was gonna be hell explaining this one to old Grandpa Third, but seeing one of the Tailed Beasts hop around and sing a nursery rhyme was going to go as a one of the best memories he ever had. If he ever had children, he would tell them stories of this day. Probably as a measuring stick. If I could do this when I was twelve, why can't you?

"The tanuki is the same as they've ever been, though it is nice that they've finally chosen a gender."

The smugness coming off the old fox rubbed Naruto the wrong way. Sure, the Beast had never portrayed himself as a good person, but he definitely heard every word that Shukaku said to Gaara. They were less than hundred meters away from each other and the One-Tailed Beast didn't exactly have a small voice.

"Hey, Fox," Naruto asked. "I heard some stories about you. About your and Shukaku's past."

"Everything you've heard was probably true," the Fox quipped before Naruto could even say anything. The blond frowned, and not even the dancing tanuki could remedy that problem.

"What you did to your sister… that was kind of mean."

The Fox, to his credit, didn't laugh. He scoffed, and Naruto could feel the mocking affront that the beast was feeling. "If this is some kind of chivalry thing, then she wasn't a girl back when I bullied her. True, I bullied all of my siblings equally, regardless of gender, but she wasn't a she back then. She was just Shukaku."

Naruto shook his head. "No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about… don't you think that you went too far? You threw her in the ocean. She didn't like that."

"And do you think that any of the ANBU like waking up to itching powder on their masks? Or that the Hyuuga like having to clean graffiti off their walls? No one likes a prank when it's being done to them. The fun of it is for the pranker!"

Naruto frowned. He pulled at the seal still glowing under his feet and Shukaku stopped her prancing.

"I've only ever pranked people who could take it. My pranks are harmless."

The Kyuubi actually laughed at that. "Harmless? Mostly, yes. But if you think for a second that you've been getting away without hurting someone's feelings this entire time, then you're sorely mistaken. There have been consequences for your continued fun, whether you like it or not." The fox then huffed. "Don't go all 'high horse' on me now, boy. While I was definitely juvenile in my fun back then, I at the very least knew what I was doing."

Naruto felt an indignance rising in him. He moved to speak, but the Fox cut him off.

"I… can admit, however, that my pranks were excessive. I will… endeavor to find time to speak with my younger sibling and see if I can't help her with her puny problems."

"It would probably help if you didn't refer to her problems as 'puny'."

"I am making baby steps, boy. It would do you well to allow me my progress."

To that, Naruto was forced to agree. He backed off, and soon he found himself remarkably alone as Kurama traveled through the still open gate between his seal and Shukaku's. In the real world, the sand beast melted away as the seal lines crisscrossing the floor faded. He could, however, hear the echoing timber of two massive beasts in his mind.

"Well," Naruto decided. "If our prisoners are making all buddy-like, we might as well too."

And with that, Naruto was off. He zipped across the branches and landed just before Gaara as he drifted down from the collapsing sand tower that was once Shukaku.

"Hi," Naruto said. He wasn't expecting an answer, prepared as he was to do most of the talking with the murderous mute. That's why he was so shocked when he got one.

"Hello," Gaara responded. His voice was deep; far too deep for a boy that was both younger and shorter than even Naruto. His teal eyes seemed to stare directly into Naruto's soul, and had he not known that they were normally bloodthirsty and frenzied, Naruto would have been quite unnerved.

"So…" Naruto said into the awkward silence that had descended between them. "Got any hobbies?"

"Besides killing?" the little psychopath asked, his tone as bland as if he were asking what day it was.

"Yes," Naruto responded, his tone just as bland. "Besides killing."

The redhead seemed to ponder the question for a bit. After a moment of contemplation, he looked back up to Naruto and nodded.

"I like sleeping."

Naruto's eyes lit up. "There we go! That's not a bad hobby! What's your favorite thing about—"

But it was too late. The boy had already keeled over and fallen asleep face first on the ground.