Title: A Demon's Tale
Author: swiftstar85
Genre: Drama/Friendship/Romance
Rating: T for some strong language, violence, suggestive material, and crude humor.

~Chapter Twenty-Five~

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, though I wouldn't mind if I did.

Gaara couldn't help himself but stare at this young boy with bewilderment. He was amazed of how young that Yagura was really. He hadn't thought that he would be this young. He had thought that he might have been a little older than this but here he was. There was a ten year old looking boy standing right on top of the twirling and twisting sea as if it was nothing but solid ground.

Yagura was quite small for his age, Gaara realized. He could have only reached the young Kazekage's shoulders from the top of his head. He did have some similarities to Yukimaru, proving that he was the brother of that one. His hair was almost pearl greenish grey while his eyes nearly matched Yukimaru's in the violet color, that looked so dull and lifeless. They looked older than he did. Gaara could only question himself of what this young boy could have seen in his life that made him so old and tired looking. He was wearing what looked like a short sleeved body suit with a sea green scarf wrapped around his waist and one around his neck. Unlike most ninja, he was wearing knee length brown leather boots, that could have been water proofed but Gaara didn't really know about it. Around Yagura's waist, serving as a belt was his Mist ninja headband.

But the oddest thing about Yagura was the nearly six foot tall curved black staff with a pale green green flower sitting directly before the curve. Gaara had never seen a weapon such as that before. But then again, he had didn't know too much about other Countries' weapons too much.

Staring almost lifelessly back at Gaara, the young boy was looking him over before he glanced to Shukaku who was watching him just as curiously as his host was. It bothered the Kazekage to see how deadpanned this boy was. He looked too old for someone who looked only ten years old.

"Who are you and why have you invaded my demon's mind? And my domain?" Yagura asked in a lifelss way.

Gaara stared back at him for a moment, bothered by how dull the boy sound. He didn't understand why there didn't seem to any emotion about this boy at all. He wasn't like Sai in any way. At least Sai made the attempts to have some kind of emotion. But this boy, he didn't seem care at all of how lifeless he looked.

Deciding to do something rash, Gaara stepped out from the protective embrace of Shukaku's tail, ignoring the growling protest from him and the threatening warning growl from Sanbi. The only thing that kept the Third Tail from attacking him was Yagura glancing sharply at him and shaking his head. So obviously, this boy had a good deal of control of his own demon.

"My name is Gaara of the Sand. I'm the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure and a former Ninja of Konohagakure." Gaara began carefully keeping some distance between him and the other boy. He didnt' want to startle him, though he doubted that it would. "Like you, I am a Jinchuriki. As you can see, I reign over the One Tailed, Shukaku. We've come looking for you and your Third Tail. We're not here to fight you, just to talk." He told him calmly. "You are Yagura, correct?"

Yagura practically stared dully at him before merely glancing at Sanbi then back at Gaara. "What gave that away, One Tail Jinchuriki?" He asked in dully sarcasm. "The Third Tail sitting right behind me?"

Irritation spread across Gaara's face but he kept his head about the entire thing. He was used to some sarcasm from others, even though not from other Jinchuriki. Though, seeing that he only knew Naruto, there wasn't any idea of what the others would be like. "Yagura, I've come to help you and your demon escape from the Sanin, Orochimaru. And to protect you from a top secret organization called the Akatsuki. They have been hunting for the Jinchuriki like animals in attempt to extract the Tailed Beasts from us. We don't know what purpose it is, but it's surely something good. Because it kills us if our Beasts are extracted." He told him.

"Really?" Yagura asked dully eyeing him before shifting his hand to his waist. "If these Akatsuki are so secret, then why do you know about them?"

Once again, Gaara was irritated by the way that this kid just spoke to him. He was not used to being talked to like this. More or less, the boy seemed more interested in the fact that he knew about the secret Akatsuki than he was interested in the fact that they were hunting down Jinchuriki. "Did you not hear what I just said...?" The young Kazekage was asking.

Rolling his dull eyes, Yagura shifted his weight to the other foot and looked impatiently at Gaara, which fueled his irritation. "I heard you just fine." He interrupted sharply. "And for your information, I already knew about the Akatsuki. I knew about them before they even created their own little organization. I have been in contact with one more than once in my life time and I seriously don't care about them. They know better than to even mess around with me. If they ever showed up here, Sanbi will take care of them."

Gaara's irritation was now tipping over the edge of becoming angry. He wasn't liking the way that Yagura even talked to him. He acted like he was older than the young Kazekage. He was sure talking as if he was. Especially with how he was saying how he met an Akatsuki member before it even formed. "I don't think you're taking the Akatsuki seriously. They are full of powerful Rogue ninja. They have already killed a few Jinchuriki and captured their demons. They will do the same to you if you don't be careful. They've already tried to extract the One Tail from me." He told him with irritation.

"And yet, you are still here, with the Shukaku. So it seems to me that you managed to get away." Yagura said dully, starting to turn away as if he was going to leave.

"Barely." ground out Gaara through his teeth. His and Shukaku's sand were starting to swirl around him, admitting that he was losing his patience with Yagura. They both ignored the growls coming from Sanbi as they eyed Yagura with sour looks. "The Akatsuki almost killed me, Yagura. In fact, they did. But if it wasn't for a seal that one of the Akatsuki members put on me, one who is not 100 percent loyal to them, I would have lost Shukaku and my life."

Yagura frowned slightly as he glanced back at Gaara before turning his back onto him. He didn't say anything for a moment until he turned slightly back. "Then you got lucky. Between me and you, it won't happen to me." He said dully.

And then he started to flicker with surrounding mist, announcing that he was about to leave.

Now, Gaara was angry. He was getting tired of being talked down to by a kid that was younger than he was. He hated it when someone did it but to be talked down to by Yagura, it was starting to get on his nerves. But instead of reacting rashly, he decided to play a leaf out of Ibiki Morino's book.

Quickly making the correct hand signs that he remembered seeing from the scarred ANBU Commander, Gaara concentrated hard. He could only hope that it would work. But he was sure that it would. He had nearly a whole month going through it while during the Chunin Exams.

"Mind Observing Jutsu." Gaara merely said before quickly swooping down and pressing his hand against the ground. He wasn't sure if that would work but it was worth the try.

And as Gaara had hoped, the stormy sky high above their heads exploded in lights, startling both Yagura and Sanbi to spin around and look to see what was happening. They watched in surprise as the stormy sky was replaced with sparkling orbs like stars dancing all around like. It looked very much like they were actually in the sky with the stars. The sight amazed Yagura and for the first time that Gaara even laid eyes on him, the young boy actually looked astonished other than blankly without life. His eyes had actually lit up in interest as he looked around all of the orbs of red, gold and silver, eyeing them carefully.

After a moment, Yagura frowned and looked over at Gaara with a curious look, one eye squinching in confusion. "What did you do? What kind of Jutsu attack is this?" He asked cautiously.

Gaara merely shook his head as he stood up and faced Yagura. He almost smiled to see that he had definitely caught the young boy off guard like this. It was kind of amusing. "It's not an attack, Yagura. It's a Mind Observation technique that I learned from a good of mine. He spent some time using it on me, trying to train me how to control Shukaku and learning about me." He looked around at all of the nearly thousands of memories dancing all around them. "These are all of my memories. The silver orbs are every day memories that I have lived through. The red ones are the bad memories that I have lived with. And the gold ones are my most treasured memories." He looked back at Yagura, who was eyeing all of the red ones and then the gold ones. "There's a memory I would like you to see. It might help change your mind."

And therefor, Gaara reached out to one of the red memories, allowing it to drift into his hand and open up like a flower. All around them, the entire scenery changed into the night scene of the Sand Village.

"This is the memory when I fought for my home village and was defeated and captured." The young Kazekage told him.

It was the memory of when Gaara returned to the Sand village for the second time to liberate it from the clutches of the Akatsuki. It started from when he found the beaten up Quoi and comforted him. Slowly it turned into the terrible fight of his life and for the Sand Village with the Akatsuki member, Deidara.

Yagura watched as the Past Gaara fought boldly with the Clay Bomber and used every inch of his strength to protect the village and its people. He watched silently as the newly made Kazekage was captured by Deidara and taken to the Akatsuki headquarters to have Shukaku extracted. He frowned as he watched what kind of pain that Gaara had gone through while trapped in the darkness of dying sleep with Shukaku. He watched as Shukaku admitted that he had always admired Gaara for all of the compassion he held within himself for Naruto and the rest of the Konoha Village.

For the first time, Gaara saw Yagura's eyes starting to soften and grow faint as if he was remembering something, himself. He could only wonder what exactly the younger boy was thinking.

But he watched with solemn pain as his Past self was hanging on in the darkness, dying from the false extraction.

"I nearly died that day but remained because of the bond that Naruto and I shared. Naruto is the Nine Tails Jinchuriki and basically my brother through the demons." Gaara spoke once the memory ended. "He used his own Chakra, and the Nine Tails' Chakra to help Elder Chiyo save my life.

For a long time, Yagura didn't speak. He stared nearly thoughtfully at all of the orbs hovering all around him, almost searching for another. He seemed to have found one because he pointed at it. "What is that one?" He asked.

Gaara frowned. He didn't want to show all of his memories to this kid but he figured that if he did show a few, it might help change Yagura's mind to helping him. So he reached out to another red memory, which it kept flickering into gold and plucked it down so that it would open up.

This memory was of the one when he lost control of Shukaku at the end of the Chunin exams and ended up fighting Naruto so that he could run away. Yagura watched wordlessly as he watched the fight between two friends before Naruto seemingly one by telling Gaara that they didn't have to lose their friendship. His eyes softened only a little when the blonde said that they could be monsters together and fight for everything they loved and wanted to protect. His eyes were flickering again with his own memories and it just made Gaara curiouser to know what it was that he was thinking.

Again, Yagura pointed to another once that memory ended and Gaara sighed as he plucked the memory down and allowed it to open.

It was the memory of when he was still just a young Genin with Team Seven going out on their first mission. The memory of when they ran into Zabuza Momochi and fought for their lives and Tazuna's life. It was a painful memory having to watch himself to have kill Haku and Zabuza again, even after they stopped being enemies. Gaara didn't like having to be reminded of his very first kill of his life.

But what startled the young Kazekage was when Yagura's head came up very sharply and he looked almost shocked to see Zabuza. Gaara realized that the young boy must have known the Rogue Ninja of the Mist.

"Wait! You've met Zabuza Momochi?" Yagura asked sharply as he looked at Gaara.

Gaara frowned by that comment but dipped his head into one nod. He knew he should have guessed that Yagura knew about Zabuza. He was in the Bingo books after all. All of the Mist Ninja must have known about Zabuza's reputation for his brutality. It was just a shame that no one could have seen the soft side of him. "Yes. I met Zabuza just after I turned Genin. We fought him because he was hired to kill Tazuna, the old man. To stop him from building a bridge to help a very poor..." He was saying.

"I know who Port City's Tazuna is." Yagura interrupted impatiently. He turned his attention back to the memory just as Zabuza was lying on Gaara's sand, dying from his injuries that he had taken to kill the business man, Gatou. His eyes lit up a little to hear what Zabuza had to say to Gaara's apology. He seemed surprised to hear such words coming from such a man like the Former Mist Ninja.

"Zabuza wasn't as mean and cruel as you might have known." Gaara said, softly. "He did care for Haku deeper than most Mist Ninja would have..."

Yagura gave Gaara an impatient look again but didn't snap at him like the young Kazekage thought that he would have. "I knew Zabuza. Probably a lot better than you did. He was my student and my personal body guard for a number of years before he defected from Kirigakure." He told him.

With that said, Gaara froze. He wasn't sure if he just heard that right. And he wasn't sure if he had. He wasn't sure if he had just heard Yagura say that Zabuza Momochi had been his student. But that couldn't be possible. This kid was just a ten year old. How could a ten year old have taught such a dangerous Mist Ninja who was probably ten times his age?

"What? What do you mean that Zabuza Momochi was your student? How could you have taught him if he was..." Gaara was saying.

Now, the young boy smirked dryly at him, raising one thin eyebrow. He seemed highly amused by Gaara's reaction. "How could have I taught him when I look like a child?" He shook his head and folded his arms, looking impatient but amused at the same time. "How old do you think I am, Gaara of the Sand?" He asked.

Somewhat bewildered, Gaara shook his head, his eyes narrowing in confusion. "You look ten years old. No older than my own student, Chiquoi. You couldn't have taught Zabuza Momochi. You're too young." He said, in confusion.

Again Yagura smirked and shook his head. He was enjoying this very much. "No. I am not ten years old. I only look like a child because of the Third Tail. Out of all Nine Tailed Beasts, the Third is the oldest demon in the entire world. Sea Turtles like him can live up for thousands of years. Or at least hundreds." He shrugged at Gaara's bewildered look. "I am currently supposed to be 37 years old. But because of the Third Tails power, I age very slowly. I am old enough to be your father, Gaara of the Sand. But my body isn't." He told him, adding onto Gaara's astonishment. "I'm not surprised that you are. It's not the first time that I surprised someone like this. You should have seen Zabuza's face when he found out that I was older than he was."

Gaara ended up staring at Yagura for a long moment before he realized that Sanbi was snickering. He glanced up at Shukaku, who didn't look surprised but he didn't look like he had expected this either. The Sand Demon was actually eyeing Yagura with suspicion.

"Wait a moment. If you're that old, then why do you still have Sanbi? From what I remember, anyone who carries that old buzzard ends up getting him extracted after fifteen years. Third Tail Jinchuriki aren't suppose to live past fifteen years old because of the slow aging. You should have lost him a long time ago. So how do you still have him?" He asked, looking between Yagura and Sanbi.

The other two, young looking boy and the Third Tail glanced at one another before looking back at Gaara and Shukaku, who the human was staring at his own demon. "It's actually quite simple." The former Mizukage stated, folding his arms.

"I chose to stay with Yagura as you chose to stay with your human, Shukaku. So far, he's been my favorite human." The old Turtle stated, waving his three tails behind him.

Gaara frowned but narrowed one eye at Yagura, who was watching him carefully. He now only had one question to even ask. "Your brother, Yukimaru, told us that you're his younger brother. If you're suppose to be 37, then how is it that he calls you his younger brother when you're older than him?" He asked the young boy.

Yagura shook his head, his eyes closing only for a fraction of a moment as he sighed. "Yukimaru isn't the age he's suppose to be either, Gaara of the Sand. And that is my doing. He is my older brother. He's suppose to be at least 41 years old but..." He sighed again shaking his head. "When we were very young, Yukimaru got very sick. It's due to the fact that he should have been the Third Tail Jinchuriki. But he was so sick that the Mist Village decided to not even waste their time sealing Sanbi into him. I was seven years old when I recieved the Third Tail. I was weakened for some time but I had enough power to try and cure Yukimaru's illness. We were closer than we should have been. In the Hidden Mist Village, it's actually forbidden to have such close relationships with family members or even with comrades. There are no such thing as friendships while a Mist Ninja. It's a harsh life but that's how it has always been. That's why the Hidden Mist Village is known as the Bloody Mist Village. That and because of the massacreing ritual of the Ninja Academy. It's a sign of true strength of our village. I've never liked that tradition and that's why I tried to change it after I became the Mizukage." He explained in a deadpanned sort of way. "It was unfortunate that I couldn't change it by the time that Zabuza had to go through the bloody ritual of becoming Mist Ninja."

"And Yukimaru?" Gaara asked, confused and tilting his head to the side.

Yagura shook his head as he looked away with a faraway look on his face. "Yukimaru was sixteen when I used the power of the Third Tail to cure him from his illness. It mostly worked but it changed his life as it had with mine. Because I had used the Chakra of Sanbi to cure him, he ages very slowly too. The strangest part about it was that with Yukimaru, it seemed to reverse a little for him. He was Sixteen, yet time seemed to move backwards a few years, making him look eleven years old. So he was sixteen in an eleven year old body." He folded his arms across his chest and moved slightly away from Gaara. "Every ten years, we move one year ahead. I was 17 years old when my body became eight. Nine years, I was 27 years old. and now I am 37 and I look ten years old. It's just the same as Yukimaru. During our four generations of staying young, Yukimaru and I had a little falling out. It surprises me that he still hangs around the Third Tail, keeping an eye on me. He's probably just doing it to make sure that Sanbi doesn't try anything. Not that he would."

Gaara frowned at all of the information he was getting. He couldn't really make any sense to it. But he figured it was the power of the Third Tail that was keeping Yagura so young while he was nearly in his middle years. He didn't understand one bit of it but he didn't think he needed to. "Then how is it that you taught Zabuza. From what I've heard, he was just a boy when he massacred his entire class mates for the title of Ninja." He said softly.

Yagura looked thoughtful again. "I wasn't Mizukage yet when that happened. But I became it shortly after he became a man. I wasn't Mizukage for too long before I had to fake my old death." He looked directly at Gaara when he frowned in confusion. "The reason why I faked my own death is because the Mist Elders did order to extract the Sanbi out of me. They betrayed me even after I tried to kill that tradition of extracting the Third Tail from a fifteen year old Jinchuriki. Zabuza was only a boy when I had him slaughter the Elders to keep myself alive. After he did that for me, I chose new elders. And I chose six other guardians to protect myself from any who dared to challenge me. I knew I should have never done that. But I was desperate to keeping the Sanbi within me so that I could live on with my life. It was not the way of the Mist Ninja but it was my way."

Slowly nodding to what Yagura said, Gaara could understand a little. He didn't think he could blame him too much for wanting to live and doing whatever it took to do it. "So you used Zabuza. That's why he always sprouted things about how Ninja were merely tools for the Villages to use." He said calmly. "You used him as a tool."

For a moment, Yagura looked insulted, eyeing Gaara in disgust and anger but it was quickly gone as he thought about it. He looked away and sighed. "I suppose I did use Zabuza." He turned his eyes back to him. "It was wrong for me to do it that way. But Zabuza was very determined to protect me. For the number of years that I pretended to be his friend, his very strange and unaging friend, I did become such a thing. We became very close and he chose the decision to do what it took to keep me safe." He shook his head. "It was Zabuza Momochi who urged me to becoming Mizukage. That way, I could change the old brutal traditions and put in new ones." He told Gaara. "There was only one problem. To become Mizukage, it's always been a tradition that I could never change that to become Mizukage, you have to challenge the former Mizukage to the death. So become the Fourth Mizukage, I killed the Third Mizukage."

Gaara didn't have anything to say about that. He didn't trust himself to contradict what was the Mist Village's ways and what wasn't. "I'm curious to know how Yukimaru fits in all of this. He's able to control you but how? Is it because of what you did for him?" He asked quietly.

"Yes and no. He doesn't control me but the Third Tail, Sanbi." Yagura stated calmly looking back into Gaara's eyes. "And the only reason why he can control Sanbi is because he has part of his Chakra. It's apart of him now because I saved his life with it. Before our falling out, some time before I became Mizukage, the Mist Village knew about how Yukimaru could control Sanbi and it scared them. He was never a Mist Ninja. He can't really fight like one at all. They wanted to use Yukimaru as only a back up plan just in case if something happened. Like, during the Ninja War. That's when I became the Mizukage. We were in the middle of war and the Mist Village wanted to hide Yukimaru from our enemies. Because if any enemy ninja found out about him, they could kidnap and use him to control the Third Tail to destroying our village.

"Well, they also afraid of what would happen if Yukimaru decided to destroy the village, himself because of the brutal rituals we were doing. So they sent him away by force without me knowing about it. I only found out because of Zabuza. He overheard other Mist Ninja talking about Yukimaru and he let me know." Yagura continued. "Short version of this long tale, I got mad and Zabuza suggested that I became Mizukage and use my influence to bring him back to me. Wanting my older brother back, I didn't think of anything else of it and did it."

"Problem was," Sanbi grunted, tilting his large head. "Yukimaru wasn't exactly too happy to hear what Yagura did to get him back."

Yagura nodded looking at Gaara with dry interest. "Exactly. When he found out that I killed the former Mizukage, he kind of yelled at me and told me I should have never done that. We got into an arguement about it and then stopped talking to one another for a very long time." He looked away with disgruntled look. "I appointed Zabuza as my personal body guard and he served right under me for a number of years. Him and the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He was the strongest other than another member, Kisame Hoshigaki. Kisame was the one who betrayed me. From what I know now, he's one of the Akatsuki. So he's the member of Akatsuki I told you about." He told Gaara and his demon.

"What happened?" Gaara asked frowning darkly. He hadn't liked hearing about an Akatsuki member being close to Yagura and then trying to stab him in the back.

A very dark look crossed over Yagura's face as he returned to his own memories. He looked highly angry at the memory of Kisame's betrayal against him. "To put it bluntly, I was nothing more than a puppet trapped in strings. I was unaware, and so was Sanbi that we were actually being controlled the entire time of being Mizukage." He looked darkly at Gaara. "Even Zabuza was being used until he somehow broke free of the trance he was under. None of us knew who it really was other than it was some man in the shadows called Madara. I heard Kisame only say that name once. But we never knew who he truly was or what village he was from. He was extremely powerful and I did eventually break free from his grip. I did it by ordering Zabuza to assassinate me."

Surprise flashed over Gaara's eyes as he stared at Yagura. That came as a shock. "You ordered Zabuza to assassinate you? Why?" He asked.

"Why else? To make this Madara character think I was dead. I think it worked because he didn't come looking for me. I never personally met him outside the trance. I only remember his voice and I never got to see his face. He was always in the shadows behind me when he was pulling my strings." Yagura explained with a shrug. "Well, either way, Zabuza wasn't too happy that he had to assassinate me. It was a ruse, of course. And that's what caused him to even become a Rogue ninja. But he was doing it for me. I eventually had to abandon him after he played the part of killing me and then stealing my body away from the Mist Village. I couldn't let him stay by side. It was too dangerous and I knew he could take care of himself. I heard he did very well over the years. Well, even after I abandoned Zabuza to fend for himself, I decided that it was time for me to just disappear. I let Sanbi take over and do whatever he wanted while I slept in the darkness of his mind. And then, you came along and here we are."

Gaara slowly nodded. He understood everything that Yagura was telling at the most part. "But you have known that Yukimaru was near by, controlling Sanbi, correct? You knew about Orochimaru?" He asked.

Yagura merely nodded as he looked back at him. "Yes. It was mostly just dreams to me. I was seeing through Sanbi's eyes, coming to me as dreams. I was always fully aware of what was going on. And I do know why this Orochimaru wants to use the Third Tail." He shrugged only once. "He wants to use Sanbi's Chakra to do exactly what happened to Yukimaru. He wants to slow down his aging process and restore whatever lost power he had."

"Yagura, do you still care for Yukimaru?" Gaara asked calmly yet cautiously.

Irritation flickered over Yagura's eyes at the very question. He actually looked insulted that Gaara had to even ask that question. "Yes, I do. I don't even know why I even told you practically my life's story." He said roughly.

Gaara just nodded. "You told it because you do care about Yukimaru. And if you really care about him, you will emerge again." He shook his head when Yagura looked like he was going to start snapping at him. "If Yukimaru keeps helping Orochimaru, he will die." He told him.

And before Yagura could argue any more, Gaara quickly looked up at the many orbs hovering all around them and plucked down a silver ordinary memory out of the air, allowing it open.

It was the memory of what happened when he and his comrades even arrived to the lake. The memory showed Yukimaru trying to summon Sanbi out of the lake while Guren and Kabuto were watching from behind them. And it showed the blood dripping out of Yukimaru's nose, while his eyes were flickering dully as he concentrated hard on controlling the Third Tail Turtle.

"Trying to control the Third Tail like he's doing is killing Yukimaru, Yagura." Gaara stated looking at the surprised look on the boy's face. He was somewhat satisfied to see it. It meant that he had no idea that Yukimaru was getting weakened by doing this all of the time. "It's too much strain on him. Either way, controlling the Third Tail or when he's through being useful to Orochimaru, it's going to kill him. Once Kabuto is done gathering whatever information he needs on Yukimaru and his power to control Sanbi, Orochimaru will have him killed. He knows too much about him and he can't let him tell anyone else. Yukimaru is going to be killed either by the strain or by Orochimaru. The only way to keep him safe and alive is if you take control again and you help us take Orochimaru down and the Akatsuki. That's why I came to talk to you. I had to give you a choice. Your exile or your brother's life."

Yagura did not speak for a very long time. He just stared at the memory of his older brother with blank surprise. He couldn't say anything. He didn't know what to say about it.

"Shit! Gaara!" Shukaku barked, now sharply looking down at the young Kazekage. "We got two problems! Guren's crystals technique has caught Temari and it's probably killing her and those guys she's been using is turning on her and that kid! They're not even listening to the death kid! Seems to me having to have that lady boss them around is starting to piss them off!"

Gaara's eyes flashed once before he looked quickly from Shukaku to Yagura then back. He knew that he couldn't linger on, talking with him. He needed to get back out there and help his siblings.

Looking sharply at Yagura, the young Kazekage stepped back against Shukaku's tail. "It's your decision, Yagura! You can help us take down the Akatsuki so that they won't hunt you down and probably kill Yukimaru or you can just stay here and wait for them to hunt you and Sanbi down and then probably kill Yukimaru! Shukaku, it's time for me return!" He told his Sand Demon.

Pouting, Shukaku glared down at him. "Aww, man. Come on, Gaara. I didn't even get to have some fun yet." He grunted but he nodded anyway and burst into a cloud of sand.

Gaara barely glanced over his shoulder at Yagura just as he gave the quick handsigns of release before he was thrust back out into the outside world. He noticed that both Yagura and Sanbi were watching him as he flickered out of view. But there was a thoughtful look on the former Mizukage's face and it at least gave him some hope.