Chapter 1

The streets of Sunagakure were oddly peaceful in the night. Gentle winds blew small patches of sand across the empty streets, illuminated by the odd lantern sitting in the windowsill of a village resident who had chosen to stay up late into the night. It was in this peace that Gaara found himself walking through his home. He had returned late to the village with his siblings after completing a mission and while his elder brother had run off almost instantly after passing through the village gates, likely eager to wash off his face-paint and go to bed, his sister had instead remained with Gaara and saw the mission report successfully completed. Afterwards she bid Gaara an awkward "goodnight" and made for their home. Instead of accompanying her, Gaara had instead elected to wonder the streets. Preferring to spend time alone with his thoughts than return to the sibling's shared apartment and experience the feeling of that same awkward aura once again.

He knew things had improved over the last few months. His brother and sister no longer watched him carefully, afraid he might snap at any given moment and kill either of them. There were times when his brother Kankuro would subtly flinch when Gaara got too close, before looking away with a hint of shame in his eyes. His sister Temari had noticeably begun speaking with Gaara slightly more than before. Where once it was only during missions where communication was imperative to success, now there were moments when she would ask about his wellbeing or offer a greeting upon seeing him. They were small changes, and admittedly not something most siblings would have to work on and yet Gaara knew that this was his doing.

His time as a Jinchuriki, a host for a powerful demon known as Shukaku, had twisted him into a shinobi who craved only violence. The beast had taken to calling itself 'mother' and demanded blood wherever Gaara walked, a wish he had happily fulfilled. It had even taken to whispering about how, should he fall asleep, it would take control of his body and slaughter everyone, and on a full moon the demon would become even more insistent, thrashing in the cage that was his mind and demanding to be let out, leaving Gaara with severe headaches and an inability to do anything. All of this added up to Gaara never truly having a moment for himself and to actively avoid falling asleep.

Although, as with his siblings, things had changed for the better. Shukaku had been silent recently, only acting up on full moons, but now it was nothing more than a minor inconvenience betrayed by a subtle twitch of the eye. He supposed it all tied back to the event several months ago. During an unsuccessful attack by Sunagakure on their neighboring village of Konoha. There he had battled a fellow Jinchuriki, one who carried a far more positive outlook compared to his own. The fight had ended with Gaara's defeat and a change in his own perspective.

This, Gaara knew, had been the catalyst for change in his life. One corner of his lips curved into an almost invisible smile as he continued his way down the street. Perhaps one day he would return the favor.

The sudden sound of sand harshly shifting caught Gaara's ear and pulled him from his reverie. His own steps were soft and measured, meaning it could not possibly have come from him, and the lack of any strong wind meant it was unlikely to be natural. Gaara waited a moment longer, drawing shallow breaths to better take stock of his surroundings. When no further sound came, Gaara's eyes narrowed as he surveyed the surrounding area.

"I know I heard something." He thought. When the silence continued Gaara hesitantly relented. "Perhaps something fell from a windowsill."

Then the sound returned, though this time it was as if someone was taking far more measured steps as if to avoid any unnecessary noise. "Just like my own." Gaara summarized. Without delay he made toward the sound, jumping to a nearby rooftop to gain the high ground and obtain the drop on the suspected intruder if the need arose. Grabbing the strap that kept his large sand gourd secured to his back as it shifted ever so slightly.

The sound once again stopped before returning to the loud, hasty sound of sand shifting. Whoever this person was had no interest in being caught. Perhaps it was a security detail meant to keep an eye on him, or even a citizen of the village out for a walk like himself. However, those two things didn't add up. Any security that he spotted would vanish if he attempted to approach, not run. And a citizen would not have run from a shinobi of the village.

"They would if they saw it was you." A voice whispered at the back of his mind. Gaara was quick to shake the thought. If it was a villager, he would confirm it before making his leave.

Gaara's own speed was much greater than this unknown person's and it was not long before Gaara had them in his sight. A black cloak snapping in the wind, obscuring anything else from view. It made telling if the individual was male or female impossible.

Likely deducing that they would soon be caught, the cloaked figure took a sudden sharp turn down a nearby alleyway. Perhaps to throw him off the mark. Gaara used his own internal map of the city and began to use the stranger's own strategy against him. He started running along the edges of buildings watching the stranger dart from alleyway to alleyway in a vain attempt to shake him off. Unbeknownst to Gaara's target, he was truly being corralled into an alley with only one escape, something Gaara had every intention of using against him.

It took little time for Gaara's plan to reach its conclusion. With a final turn he watched the figure take one last sharp turn down a seemingly non-descript alleyway.

"Dead-end." Gaara thought. With a determined look Gaara moved toward the edge of the building closest to the alley and peered down, ready to catch the cloaked individual.

"Not catch." He chided himself. "Question."

With that in mind Gaara dropped into the alley, blocking the only exit and made ready for his confrontation, only to be caught off guard. Instead of a trapped figure backed against a wall, there was nothing. A quick check assured him that there was no genjutsu at play. His eyes narrowed at the realization and without hesitating Gaara jumped down and made to inspect the area.

He quickly realized that nothing was out of place. In fact, it almost seemed like he had been the only person here for some time. "I would have seen them leave any other way." He noted. Thinking quickly Gaara activated his third eye and had it float above the rooftops, scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Yet once again there was nothing.

"You're losing it." A voice whispered in the back of his mind. "It was only a matter of time."

"Be silent." Gaara whispered harshly. He was met with a distinct cackle before his request was accepted. If Gaara was unnerved by his demonic prisoners' sudden return to form, he showed no signs of it and instead chose to continue his investigation of the area.

There truly was no sign of any other living thing being in the area before Gaara's arrival. Even the sand was remarkably undisturbed, no tracks marked the ground except his own and a quick check outside the alley showed that as well. Had this been any other situation Gaara would have left, perhaps it truly was a shinobi. After all, no civilian could have possibly covered their tracks so well. Yet nothing else about the situation led him to accept that conclusion, and so he remained.

Gaara placed a palm on the wall and slowly moved it across the surface. Truthfully, he wasn't sure what he was looking for, only that he couldn't rest until he had inspected everything. The walls themselves felt and looked normal. Weathered as they were from time and sand, small nicks marked the stone in various places and none stood out in earnest, except one. One specific mark in the center of the back wall, more a cut than anything else, caught his searching gaze. On any other day he would have passed it over as just that, and likely anyone else who found themselves in the area.

"Perhaps from a skirmish." Gaara theorized. "A spy or criminal found themselves here before capture." The idea was quickly discarded like several others as he took on a more analytical thought process.

It seemed bizarre to investigate such a meaningless looking thing so intently, but Gaara couldn't seem to stop himself. It stood out for all the reasons it shouldn't have a lone cut so perfectly on a wall with almost a hundred marks scattered around with no precision. Running a thumb over the mark he could tell it went deeper than he initially believed.

Calling his sand, he made it slide into the cut to explore deeper in, once again not sure as to exactly what he would find yet still intent on searching nonetheless. The sand twisted into the gouge and within seconds it was filled. Gaara stood there eyes focused on the event, waiting for anything to come forth. Perhaps he'd find something of note inside, some clue to assure him that this wasn't part of his imagination, that he was chasing someone through the city streets. And then nothing happened.

"Of course." Gaara bitterly thought. "It was a foolish notion to begin with." Calling out his sand, Gaara made to perform one final sweep of the area before chalking it up to exhaustion from the mission, when a subtle click caught his ear. As if his sand had caught something on its way out. The crack swiftly split grew in size, morphing into the shape of a door. It took little time for the event to finish and once it did the new entryway slid open, revealing a dimly lit descending staircase and allowing a gust of wind to seemingly make its way out, erasing Gaara's footsteps. Had he wished Gaara would have allowed himself a smile at solving this bizarre mystery. As it was, however, he only narrowed his eyes.

"I should fall back now." He reasoned. "Alert others to this discovery and return in force." Instead of following his own advice, Gaara instead took a step forward.

"There's no telling what is happening right now." He thought. "If I leave now, what am I allowing them to do?"

Gaara's steps continued forward as he thought. "They likely believe that their escape was successful, now is the time to strike. I'll capture them and bring them in for questioning."

"You could always kill them and be done with it." The demonic voice cut in again. "Wouldn't that make things so much easier?" Instead of responding as he did earlier Gaara, elected to now ignore it. If Shukaku wanted to waste his breath taunting him, then so be it. He would not rise to the bait as he once did in the past.

As he made his way down Gaara heard the wall sliding back into place, briefly locking him in the darkness before all too quickly candles that he could not earlier make out came to life, guiding his way down. His concern at his new predicament was all too brief.

"I'll find a way out later. For now, I must focus on this task."

Gaara slowly continued his descent, attempting to make as little noise as possible to not alert his target. For an agonizing amount of time Gaara took silent, measured steps down the stairs. The only sound he heard the whole time was his own steadied breathing. Every time Gaara made it down several steps the lamps behind him would flicker out, leaving him without vision for a moment before the lights in front of him would come alight, almost as if they were acting as a guide. As unsettling as it was, Gaara paid little mind, instead choosing to focus on his goal.

At several points on his journey the staircase twisted, leaving his vision more obscured than if it was just the darkness alone he faced, he almost expected to find his quarry around one of the bends. Only to be met time and time again with the darkness of the staircase. It was at these moments Gaara pondered his earlier decision to pursue the figure instead of retreating for backup. Only to quickly dismiss the worries.

"It's pointless to worry about such things now." He reasoned. "I've made my choice, and I'll see this to the end. No matter the results."

Just when it seemed like the staircase would continue forever the lights in front of Gaara came to life, illuminating the end of his descent. A simple wooden door stood at the bottom of the staircase. Perhaps the figure didn't believe anyone would ever make it through his trick above ground and saw no reason for any further security measures. Regardless of what they thought, Gaara approached the door and crouched down. Eyeing a small gap between the door and ground, he called his sand to make its way between the space. Once it had done so, Gaara activated his third eye.

On the other side of the door the sand took the shape of his eye and began to scan the area. He couldn't see the shape of the cloaked figure, what he saw instead left him with even more questions.

On the other side was a room, simple in its basic design and a desk sat at the opposite end. The walls however were covered in a bizarre collection of items, he could make out the skulls of different small creatures like birds and foxes. Strange totem like objects were haphazardly nailed to the wall, leaving some to hang at odd angles. There were several more objects that Gaara could not identify or even begin to guess what they were.

"But no target." He noted.

Gaara twisted his third eye around to have it inspect the door for any traps or locks that would deny him entry. Seeing nothing of the sort, Gaara recalled his sand and made to enter the room. As he opened the door the whine of the hinges cut through the silence that Gaara had somewhat grown used to. Likely louder to him than it truly was, Gaara still stopped the door from moving any further and stood perfectly still, straining his ears for any other sound. When he was once again met with silence Gaara pushed the door open enough so he could slip through and chose to leave it open in case he needed to make a swift retreat.

Now that he was inside Gaara noted that room was even more curious in person. Up close he still had no idea what the other items on the wall were supposed to be, twisting metal decorated with purple cloth. Seemingly bent intoto shape for no discernable reason, and where the wall wasn't covered with an ornament Gaara saw there were instead bizarre markings, painted with what appeared to be purple ink. Running a finger across one such marking revealed the paint to be dry, likely meaning that this room had been here a decent amount of time.

Moving on from the wall Gaara made his way to the desk. On top Gaara saw what appeared to be a journal and a simple pencil. He took quick stock of the desk and saw no drawers and felt no mechanisms for any hidden compartments. With that out of the way Gaara opened the journal

"The prophet has called me to this land." The first page said in steady handwriting. "He bids me to prepare its people for the inevitable, he says that this land will offer great bounty to The Void. He has entrusted this task to me and me alone. I shall not fail him."

Gaara stared at the writing, trying to make sense of it.

"A new enemy." He reasoned. "Yet what is this void they write about? And who is this prophet?" Hoping that further reading would shine a better light on this, Gaara read on.

"This land is home to so called ninja, not too dissimilar in fashion to the Kinkou Order of my homeland. Their skills may pose some problems to the plans of my master. Still… I shall not fail him."

"The Kinkou." Gaara tossed the words around in his mind. Hoping to come up with something from his memory, yet nothing came. He wanted to pass it off as nonsense, written to place him or any potential pursuer onto the wrong path.

"Yet why go through all this trouble when leaving nothing behind would serve just as well." And so, Gaara read on.

"These ninjas are cautious of outsiders; they have forced me to act solely at night, less I draw their eye. Even then I must be careful, they are always watching. But I will succeed. I will not fail him."

"I am delayed. This land does not possess the natural magic of my own, the ritual will have to come about some other way. But I will not fail him."

"He is angry with me, I know this. Forgive me great prophet, this land has little in resources. I am forced to scavenge through scraps like an animal. But I will not fail you."

On and on the pages went, the handwriting slowly becoming shakier and harder to make out, with each page detailing various experiments and their resulting failures. Until Gaara reached the last page.

"I have come across a suitable source of energy for the ritual. With my limited resources I was able to learn of beings known as Jinchuriki, hosts to powerful demons. There is one in this city I am housed in. When the time is right, I will lay a trap for him. For now, I will watch him and learn his habits. It is my hope that this will be enough for the ritual to commence. Should I fail here I do not know what my next steps would be. But I will find a way, I will not fail you."

"You arrived far earlier than I wanted." Gaara spun around at the voice.

Before him stood the cloaked figure he had been chasing, this time with their hood drawn back. Now Gaara could make out the figure in his entirety. Olive skin clung tight to a lean frame, his cheeks sunken in from a lack of nutrition and thick black hair hung around his face. Even from a distance Gaara could see the sheen of his hair, likely caused by a lack of proper bathing.

"Who are you?" Gaara quickly asked. Dropping into a stance as he did.

"I had hoped to have more time to prepare the ritual, but I suppose in my excitement I grew careless." The man continued, seemingly ignoring the question. "Though now that you are here, I suppose it is as good a time as any. Some adjustments will have to be made but I'm sure the ritual will succeed with you here."

"Who are you?" Gaara asked again. This time putting more force into his voice.

The man stopped his speech and stared at Gaara blankly for a moment before his face softened, as if her were speaking to a child. "It does not matter who I am, for in the end we are all reduced to nothing."

A glint of flashing metal caught Gaara's eye as the man pulled a chipped knife from the folds of his cloak. Not wanting to give the man any time to act Gaara called forth his sand and directed it toward the stranger. Hoping to at the very least subdue him for more questions. Gaara watched as instead of attempting to attack him or defend from the attack the strange man instead dragged the knife across his own throat, spraying blood across the room and landing just inches away from Gaara's own feet. Yet despite the seemingly fatal wound the man's mouth continued to move, forming soundless words as Gaara's sand finally ensnared him.

Gaara made to step forward, to investigate the bizarre corpse of his target. Only to for him to immediately fall to his knees. Seemingly as if his own weight was too much for him to bear. His sand was quick to follow him, crashing hard into the ground and leaving the man, seemingly unaffected by the newfound force, standing. His arms were stretched out wide, like he was greeting an old friend.

The blood that had splattered across the floor now slithered across it. Making its way toward Gaara. He could do nothing as it slowly approached and spread across his body creating various symbols and marks as it did so, not too dissimilar to the ones that decorated the wall. And like the blood that mimicked them, the markings too mimicked the blood, sliding down the wall and making their way to the center of the room. From there the now melted symbols spread out and covered the floor in its entirety, creating various overlapping circles of symbols.

Try as he might, Gaara could not stand or offer any resistance to what was happening. Only watch as purple lights seeped out from the symbols, slowly at first before the light became almost blinding. And then the room exploded.

Gaara spun in a dizzying purple vortex of nothing, never sure of which way was up or down. In the corner of his vision, he could make out brief glimpses of buildings and people yet when he tried to turn to see them better, they would vanish without a trace. He could hear whispers of women and children, of men and elders but he could never make out what they were saying. Sometimes he could feel hands on his skin but his sand, which had once protected him from contact, seemed to do nothing about it. Whether it could or if it was even present with him was something he wasn't sure about.

Then he saw the eye, it was larger than any building he had ever seen before, its single purple iris seemed to stare right through him. As if he wasn't even there. And yet he couldn't shake the feeling that at the same time it was fully aware of his presence.

"I see you."

The voice was soft and loud at the same time, like a whisper trapped inside of his skull bouncing around trying to find its way out. It was then that his world mercifully faded to black.

And then, Shukaku roared.

(A/N) And there's the first chapter, I'd like to thank everyone who gave this a read. I'm excited to get into this whole story and explore so many of the fun characters League has to offer. But until then let me know what you all thought, what you liked, what you thought could be better. Maybe what you think is going to happen.