Chapter 14
Sunagakure
Kankuro knew the time for the inevitable was here. He didn't want to do it… but he had to. So without seeming suspicious he took the key he held in his hand and opened Matsuri's office door.
Matsuri was out on an off site visit to a neighboring village so he had figured this would be the easiest time to go into her office without suspicion. If someone asked he could always say he needed a staff file on an urgent matter. The younger girls office was tidy... It was a fairly large office with a sitting area and a desk and there were many file cabinets in the room that he would need to inspect.
Kankuro sighed.
Matsuri had been caught going to a hidden bunker in the Northern wall for no apparent reason a few days ago by the anbu tailing her. The individual hadn't of course been able to get close to her to know what happened in the building. But it was definitely a suspicious activity and the only lead he had to go on at the moment… He just hoped it wasn't leading to something concrete.
Gaara had been through enough… having his first student, his protege and trusted advisor linked to treason would be too much… plus Matsuri reminded Kankuro of their mother… another reason Gaara and the family were so protective of the girl.
Fuck… he muttered under his breath as he perused the office. Her desk contained nothing… not that he expected it to. The correspondence on the to and from slots were menial. He had already looked through her calendar and that had been fine as well.
Kankuro was going through the room in a bored manner until all of a sudden he stepped on a floor board that seemed creakier than the rest. He knelt down curiously to investigate and was able to prop open the floor board.
A cloak and a bird mask… he frowned. What the hell? Was she into some sort of kinky cosplay Kankuro though as he closed the gap on the floor…
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Konohagakure, Hinata's Apartment
After shopping at the Thursday Konoha market, Hinata came home and opened her door with difficulty while juggling groceries. She walked into the kitchen and was in the process of putting away the produce when she heard a voice speaking from behind her.
"You look quite nice bending over like that."
She froze and screamed, feeling her entire back lock up in fear. This was not a voice she recognized. She was a shinobi, but was off active duty and had no weapons on her at the moment. On top of that for some reason she felt as if all of her limbs were immobilized. Perhaps her past trauma sneaking up on her…
With increasing dread Hinata turned to see who this was speaking and she was surprised when it turned out to be a white greyish being.
"Z-zensu" she whispered.
"Oh you know me already?" he asked with a head tilt. "I'm flattered Hinata-chan."
Hinata was starting to feel light headed as her heart was speeding to an unhealthy rate.
"Why are you so scared of me?" he asked curiously. "Does my reputation proceed me?"
Hinata whimpered, sweat gathering on her forehead and neck. Was she going to die now? Would anyone find her anytime soon? No one would be looking for her for days, she hadn't made any solid plans for this weekend.
"I don't want to kill you… but… I work on a commission basis and I can't dissatisfy my clients" he shifted his weight looking at her up and down.
"I-I have some questions" she finally spoke steeling her spine. "Who wants me dead?" If she was going to die she at least deserved to know this much.
"Ohhhh" he whispered gleefully. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Is it Matsuri?" she asked, notching her chin up.
"Hmmm. Well I know them as Larke… that is their code name, but I guess I do also know who they are… Larke is silly to come in front of me everytime dressed in a cloak and mask. As if I wouldn't know everything about them…"
She looked at Zensu blinking, it was being obtuse on purpose and it was infuriating. "You killed Oto?" she asked, pressing on.
"Yes" it admitted, surprising her.
She scanned her brain for another relevant question but nothing else was coming up. She was running out of time. There was a lot more she had to ask him she was sure, but in this moment confronted with that eerie face her confidence started to falter… as fear took over.
"Hinata… I appreciate your stall tactics… but I'm getting bored" Zensu smiled at her in that blank way of his and her heart dropped to her stomach.
She had barely blinked when a white material sped her way and Hinata knew with certainty that it was coming right to her heart. At least it would be quick she thought as she closed her eyes ready to die.
In seconds no pain came and instead there was a gust of wind in front of her face. Hinata opened her eyes in shock to see that a sand wall had materialized in front of was standing beside her shielding her and whisking her into a sand dome.
What happened? she blinked, fainting onto the floor in shock.
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Konohagakure - Executive Meeting Room
Gaara suddenly stood in the meeting he was part of regarding logistics and supply chain management for resource distribution and immediately left, leaving the room speechless, as information from his clone rapidly reached over to him.
When he got to Hinata's apartment one of his clones had Hinata enclosed in a sand ball and the other had a white squirming figure pinned down. His clone had embedded their sand within the being to keep him from dematerializing. He'd seen these things during the last war and was familiar with how they worked.
He relaxed his shoulders knowing that Hinata was safe.
For some reason after talking to Hinata a few days ago Gaara had started the process of tailing her with his sand eye at all times. He had asked Kankuro to watch over Matsuri… and he had done the same with Hinata. He just hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen and he had been right.
"Bring it into interrogation" he snapped to his clone as well as the Konoha Anbu that had followed him to the scene.
As his other clone dematerialized Hinata's figure emerged as the sand started to disappear. She had fainted in shock so he bent down to pick her up.
He needed to go interrogate the Zensu right away and luckily Temari appeared at that moment confused as to what was happening. When she saw Hinata passed out and a white squirming thing being hoisted out she put two and two together.
"Temari please take care of her?" Gaara implored and his sister nodded. She seemed to be in a bit of shock as well.
Gaara left immediately using a sand platform. He couldn't risk the Zensu slipping away again.
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Konoha underground interrogation bunker
Hidden deep beneath the bustling streets of Konoha, concealed from prying eyes, lies the Konoha underground bunker. It was the heart of intelligence gathering and interrogation for the city before criminals were processed and sent to other places. Ibiki met Gaara on the outside and guided him into a bunker through a secret jutsu technique.
"He's here because he wants to be" Is how Kakashi turned to greet Gaara as he entered the special operations building.
Shikamaru also turned to Gaara, "Intelligence from the war suggests that beings like Zensu can materialize and dematerialize at will, therefore he's here for a reason. I doubt it's the sand keeping him here."
"Well I'm not about to take the sand away and risk finding out," Gaara snapped back in a steely voice many hadn't heard since the last shinobi war. Sand around Gaara was swirling in particular aggression and the folks in the room gradually turned towards him inquisitively.
"Gaara," Kakashi eyed his fellow Kage, "you need to calm down before we go in."
The problem was Gaara wasn't sure how to calm down. He hadn't been this agitated … perhaps ever. When Suna was attacked he had been mad, but there had been a level of rationality to it. He was a Kage, he knew how to handle those situations. When Hinata had lost her memory, he had been devastated, but they were shinobi, tragedy was a risk of the trade. But now… this was all unraveling and promising to be the machinations of some person. His life and Hinata's had been ripped apart by some HUMAN. A human person he could also rip apart….easily.
"Gaara?" Kakashi asked again, trying to get the redheads attention.
"He just tried to kill Hinata right in front of me…" Gaara bit out with clenched teeth. "I want to kill him."
There was a storm brewing inside him. It wasn't an ice storm like Sasuke or a fiery one like Naruto. This was brittle like metal. In fact he felt as if he could taste blood in the back of his throat... similar to the states he had been in when he was classified as a psycopath...
"Yes that is fair, but if you kill him you aren't going to get to the bottom of what's going on" Shikamaru exchanged a glance with Kakashi.
"I will go in," Kakashi said decisively. "You can all watch from the gallery."
Gaara couldn't argue with that… he was usually so level headed and right now he wanted to destroy everything… and that was a weakness. He knew that.
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"Oh… the copy ninja… I wasn't expecting you." Zensu greeted Kakashi with that eerie smile on his face.
"Yeah well… I don't want to be here but here we are. You tried to kill a Konoha citizen… who happens to be my executive assistant and the Kazekage's ex-fiance. So let's get to the point shall we? Why did you try to do that?"
"Oh… who can tell with us… the Akatsuki usually moves at the will of the people who pay them"
"You are being paid to do this?"
"Actually… payment is late…" Zensu's smile dropped. "I doubt payment is ever coming. The person is way over their heads at this point."
"The person?" Kakashi paused, "Who is this person?"
"Why the Kazekage's current girlfriend and Chief of Staff of course," Zensu continued blithely smiling at the two way glass.
Kakashi cringed as the door to the interrogation room was blasted off by Gaara's sand as the man in question stormed in.
"How fucking dare you" is how Gaara choose to open his dialogue before using his sand to slam Zensu into a wall with a chokehold.
"Gaara… calm down" Kakashi said under his breath moving to the Kazekage's side.
"How dare you bring Matsuri into this" Gaara shook with rage. "You despicable scum."
"I have nothing to gain with lies," Zensu said back in a wheezy voice.
"You expect me to believe that my Chief of Staff, my student… arranged to kill Hinata?"
Kakashi didn't think it was that far off honestly, but he wasn't tied to Matsuri the way Gaara was.
"Gaara calm down" a feminine voice came from the back of the room and Gaara's attention faltered.
"Temari… what are you doing here? Where is Hinata?" he turned to look at his sister over his shoulder.
"She's with Tsunade-sama" Temari nodded in reassurance. "Why would Matsuri want to kill Hinata?" Temari turned to Zensu and asked without preliminaries.
"Because of the Kazekage of course. She's in love with him and has been for a while. Is this a surprise to anyone but the Kazekage?" Zensu asked the room and people shifted in silence.
"I won't believe baseless accusations against Matsuri because she's a convenient person for you to loop into this mess."
"Gaara… let's not be so rash to dismiss this" Temari voiced rationally. "It's been really difficult to find the leak in our systems which means it would have to be either myself, Kankuro, Matsuri… or you."
At that Gaara turned to his sister with a bleak expression.
"Well, I don't want to be here for a particularly long time, so let's get this over with." Zensu sighed. "Matsuri got in touch with Oto after your engagement to Hinata to leverage his help in disposing of your fiance. Oto was supposed to kill her, but instead his assassins didn't manage to fully dispose of her. They were careless. In return for killing Hinata, Matsuri was supposed to grant Oto special authorizations to make his black market dealings across Sunagakure easier, under the table support… all illegal ofcourse."
Gaara sat down as his legs turned to noodles.
"After finding out the assassination wasn't a success. Matsuri reneged on her promise and arrested Oto, she soon sent him packing to the Blood prison no less! She was probably scared to keep him close by… she wanted him away from you." Zensu smiled pleased watching the shock sinking into Gaara and Temari's faces.
"Eventually Oto reached out to the Akatsuki through his connections in the prison and asked that we launch an attack on Sunagakure. It seemed that he was pissed at all of you. The attack wasn't as successful as the Akatsuki would have liked and Matsuri figured out who orchestrated it. She reached out to us as a double agent wanting to counter pay to get rid of Oto - which we did and she hasn't paid for yet… I have it on good authority that she's struggling for funds. When Hinata started to regain her memory she wanted us to get rid of her out of desperation… she didn't buy this whole excuse about your visit for treaty negotiations by the way." Zensu smiled sarcastically. "Anyway I just butchered my attempt to kill Hinata, but…. since we likely wouldn't have gotten paid anyway even if I had succeeded I don't have anything to lose by telling you all this…"
The room was deadly silent after Zensu stopped speaking.
In a few seconds Gaara turned and left with a swarm of sand following him and Temari sighed looking at helplessly at Shikamaru.
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Sunagakure
Gaara had left immediately for Sunagakure before the news of Zensu's capture reached Matsuri. When Kankuro met him with an update about Matsuri it wasn't shocking anymore. He'd had the whole trek here to stew in his anger and to process his disbelief.
It still didn't make any sense. But… he supposed somethings never made sense. His whole life was a fuck up.. And there were many things that didn't made sense. That would never make sense.
Why he had been sealed with a Jinchuriki, why his father had experimented on him relentlessly, why his father had tried to kill him repeatedly, why his uncle agreed to kill him and why his mother had died giving birth to him...
And now the only bit of true happiness he had managed to find in life had been snatched away by one of the FEW people he had trusted.
He walked into Matsuri's office unannounced. She was doing something and had documents strewn across her desk in an uncharacteristic display of messiness.
She looked up as he entered the room and immediately got up stashing the documents into a folder looking at him nervously. Her face was a mixture of fear, trepidation and insecurity and Gaara felt his heart sink. He was disappointed, he was sick to his stomach and most of all he was furious. His expression was tense and filled with anger.
Matsuri stood up hesitantly realizing that something was very wrong.
"How could you?" is how he opened the dialogue with his face twisting with disgust.
"Gaara?" she spoke up with a step towards him, her voice breaking and eyes filling with tears but he put out his hand distancing her.
"We apprehended Zensu in Konohagakure. I know everything you've done" he vibrated with anger.
"Gaara… I... I can explain. It wasn't... It wasn't supposed to happen this way."
Gaara's gaze pierced Matsuri, his eyes burning with fury."Enlighten me then. How was it supposed to happen, Matsuri? The attempted murder of my fiance? How was that supposed to go?"
"I... I love you, Gaara…. I couldn't bear the thought of Hinata being with you, taking you away from me forever. I didn't want to hurt her; I just wanted her gone."
Gaara's expression hardened, a mix of disbelief and sadness crossing his face. "You think I would forgive someone for murder? You think there is any justification to that…"
"B-but, but you've murdered people yourself" she whispered with wide eyes, "Doesn't the end justify the means?"
Gaara continued to stare at his student. He'd met Matsuri after he had given up his rage and homicidal driven days. He'd thought he had mentored her in love and generosity…. What the fuck had he taught her?
"I'm sorry, Gaara. I never meant for things to escalate this far. Please understand, my feelings for you clouded my judgment. I never wanted to hurt anyone." she continued accurately reading Gaara's expression of disgust.
And he paused looking at her face now covered with tears and snot. She was hiccuping with the force of her crying and he did feel empathy. He truly did ...and he was sick at himself for feeling a stirring of pity so he steeled himself and sighed tiredly.
"Matsuri, what you did is unforgivable… You jeopardized not only the life of an innocent person, but also killed my unborn child and also took advantage of the trust and faith I placed in you as my Chief of Staff. I can't even look at you anymore." he turned away from her. "You could have come to me and told me how you felt and gone about all this in an honest way. I didn't kill people in the past whimsically out of my own will. I was ruled by a demon…"
Matsuri fell to her knees, renews sobs wrecking her body. "Please, Kazekage-sama, give me a chance to make amends. I'll do anything to prove myself and gain your trust again."
"Matsuri, you are relieved of your duties and will face the consequences of your actions. You should understand the crimes you will be tried against are heavy."
Matsuri's sobs intensified as Gaara walked out of her office, signaling to the guards he'd positioned outside to arrest her.
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A few days later - Konoha
A mere few days after all this commotion Hinata was called into the Kage office and she was surprised to find Gaara standing there. She hadn't heard he had come back to this country… but she had heard what Zensu had revealed.
She looked around the room nervously unsure what to expect.
"Hinata" Kakashi looked at her kindly. "There's something Gaara need's to ask you."
"Would you mind if we talk?" Gaara too spoke gently and after she nodded in agreement Kakashi left the office leaving them alone.
"Kazekage-sama" she bowed.
"Hinata please" he waved her away, "no formalities needed." and she quieted down awkwardly.
Gaara sighed, seeming exhausted.
"You heard what happened?" he asked after a few seconds.
Hinata nodded. She'd heard that Matsuri had been behind the whole thing including her attack as well as the attack on Suna.
"First of all… I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you… mentioned that Matsuri might be behind all this"
Hinata blinked at Gaara. "Well…." she looked down at her hands. "Matsuri-san was very important to you…"her mouth twisted downwards in sadness.
"I'm sorry" he said, speaking firmly, looking directly at her. "It was wrong of me not to give it serious thought. It was… wrong of me not to trust you."
She nodded at him that she understood but ... she had been disappointed at how Gaara had reacted.
"... I would like you to help determine what happens to Matsuri." Gaara leaned tiredly against the desk when she didn't respond.
" ….but why?"
"She's wronged you the most… trying to take away your life twice."
And taking away your memories laid unsaid between them.
"I guess in that case, I could advise the Suna council. When is the trial?"
"The day after tomorrow." Gaara nodded at her and she could see that he appreciated her agreeing to this.
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Sunagakure - Post Trial
"What happened with the trial?" Temari asked Kankuro as she loaded her large fan onto her luggage.
"She was sentenced to blood prison…" that made Temari pause in her actions and she looked at her younger brother grimly.
Trying to kill a Kage's spouse was treason and inciting an attack against their own village was a war crime. Both very heavy sentences unless someone stood up to try to lessen the penalty in some way.
They knew Gaara had stayed out of these trials and it didn't surprise them that Hinata nor the Elders Council of Sunagakure had been lenient on the girl.
"Is Gaara okay?" Temari asked nervously.
"I think so… he seems angry more than anything else. I don't honestly know what he felt towards Matsuri to try to evaluate his frame of mind."
"Well…" Temari looked off into the distance thoughtfully, "She was his first student… and she looked like our mom…"
Kankuro looked at his sister a bit surprised. He hadn't thought about it explicitly like that before but Temari was right.
"You are heading out?" he asked looking at her packing.
"Yeah… now that all this is wrapped up it's high time I get back to my husband."
"Hmph…. Do you think they will get back together?"
Temari paused in her packing again. She knew who Kankuro was asking about ...
"They'd be stupid not to…." She said resuming her packing of various books and clothes into her luggage."It's just a matter of how long it will take really."
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