AN: New chapter.

"You're leaving."

"I have to head back home."

"I'll be alone again."

"No you won't."

"But you'll be gone."

"That doesn't mean I won't still be here. Or here. As long as you keep me in your thoughts, in your heart, you won't ever be alone again."

It hurt to see the boy look so lost, be so clearly in pain at the thought of her leaving. But she had already overstayed the length of her mission by three days. If she stayed any longer, Minato would think something happened to her. Even if it hurt her to leave him alone, leave him in a place like this, she didn't have a choice.

The Kazekage wanted her gone.

All she could hope for was that he would keep what she had taught him in his heart, keep it safe from all the hate he would face in his life.

"Will I ever see you again?"

"I hope so. And sometimes that's all we can do."

The boy didn't hesitate like he would've at the start, wrapped his arms around her. She held him just as tight as he held her.

"I-I'll miss you Kushina."

"I'll miss you too Gaara."

'So this is what it's like…to share the pain of being a Jinchuriki.' Her heart ached, all she wanted to do was take Gaara with her, take him away from a place like this. Take him to a place filled with love and care and everything a child needed to grow up happy.

But she couldn't.

Even if she could do it, if she could change his life for the better, the cost would be too high.

'Gaara…you don't deserve this life. No child does. To be burdened with something like this…' She wished she could change things for the better, that she could save all the children like Gaara in the world.

But she couldn't.

Even if Jade would be behind her one hundred percent, she couldn't do it.

"I know it'll be hard Gaara, that you'll feel this loneliness but please, don't let it consume you. Don't let all their hate and anger become yours." She didn't want to cry but she couldn't stop herself, couldn't deny the tears streaming down her face. "As much as they try, don't let them decide your life for you. Even if you're a Jinchuriki, you're still a human being. You always have the chance to make a choice."

"I-I won't let them change me." His words were quiet but they were a promise. "I won't become what they want me to."

"All you have to do is try. Even when trying feels like the hardest thing in the world, that it's easier to give in to what you're feeling, all I ask is that you try. Try and keep trying." She drew back only enough to look him in the eye. Even if it was shaky, she smiled at him. "Just remember all I taught you, ok? I fixed up your seal just like I promised so you have to take it from here, ok?"

"I have to try." Gaara nodded, the boy so close to Naruto's age it hurt to see the pain in his eyes.

"You're so brave Gaara." She wished she could just keep hugging him, keep giving him the love and affection the boy had been denied all his life but her time in the Hidden Sand was over.

She had done all she could at least.

The One-Tails could no longer torment him at least. His mind was all his own for possibly the first time in his life.

"If you ever can, come to the Hidden Leaf Village. I want you to mee my son, Naruto. He would love to meet you."

"I…I would like the meet him too."

It hurt to have to pull away but she knew her time was up.

All she could do was wipe her tears, offer Gaara one last smile with her goodbye.

She had to leave him in this near empty room, leave him in a place so cold and devoid of love.

The door opened behind her.

She hated that she had to turn away from him and face the Fourth Kazekage, Gaara's father.

He didn't even look at his son.

"Your time is up." He was ordering her away.

She left even if her heart ached.

He sealed the door behind her.

"My Shinobi will escort you out of the village and out of the Land of Wind. Do not return."

For a single moment, Kushina wished she was the violent monster everyone had seen her as when she was still a child.

For a single moment, she wished she could show the man in front of her exactly what he was turning his son into.

For a single moment, she wanted to be the beast instead of the Jinchuriki.

"Don't bother." She didn't give in to the temptation. She called and, with a fair amount of surprise coming from the other end, she was answered.

The hall they walked down was plunged into a sea of darkness.

Jade emerged at the end, her red eyes glowing bright in the world of shadows she had called forth. The Kazekage didn't attack her like his two guards tried to do, didn't end up on the floor when two of her Ninjakhan emerged from the darkness. Both were only gently but relentlessly dragged into the emptiness that dwelled all around them, struggled pointless until only their eyes were left to see what happened next.

"You rang?" Jade's fangs were on full display. She could sense her mood after all, likely knew how much she disliked the man next to her.

"Take me home Jade." Kushina stepped into the darkness without fear, knew it wouldn't harm her.

Jade wouldn't hurt her. She never had.

"Your wish is my command." She lifted a hand wreathed in Shadow Magic even if it was unnecessary when they were surrounded by darkness. With a flourish, a gate emerged behind Jade, a demonic visage identical to the mask she usually wore serving as the doors. They flung themselves open with a tempest of power, revealed a swirling mass of shadows within.

Red eyes glanced to her with a hint of worry as she passed through. They flickered to the man at the end of the hall.

"You can have these back." Her Shadowkhan ripped the two trembling Shinobi out of the pools of shadows they had been nearly engulfed in. Minus their muffled sobbing and shaking, they didn't have any physical wounds.

She slipped into the darkness herself.

She emerged in the apartment just like Kushina did. She had dropped her off in her room.

She was only numbly sitting on the bed, exhaustion all Jade could feel from her at the moment. The rage that had been the spark to call her was nearly entirely gone, only an ember left after it all.

"Hey, you alright?" Jade joined her, gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "It's okay not to be alright."

All Kushina could do was lean against Jade, let all her heartbreak out in her tears.

AN: Well. That was a chapter.

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Peace.