Chapter 16 - Midnight Matchup

"So, how long are you gonna keep on reflecting, Fleshbag?"

If Gaara wanted to, he could have imagined his mindscape slowly filling up with water, just so he could drown out Shukaku for a little while.

If the tanuki was going to keep flooding his head with his incessant words, then why not do the same with the element he's least comfortable with.

Then he thought better of it . . . He knew that Shukaku would not take such a petty move likely, and if he wanted to avoid the hell that would result from it, it was best to just bear it until the tanuki fell silent for a while.

The redhead had been quiet ever since he arrived at his perch on a building in the northern part of Konoha. He had wanted to get away from the hotel to spend some time alone with his thoughts, but with his mind being so muddled by thoughts of the past, mixed with Shukaku's incessant two cents coming in here and there, he couldn't really find that much solace in his surroundings.

No matter how hard he tried. . .

"Could things really have been different the day I was born?"

"Obviously yes!" Shukaku replied, his tone indignant as his vessel continued to watch the village from his high perch. "For starters, if your old man had just decided to buck royal tradition, then we wouldn't be having this fucking conversation in the first place, now would we?"

"No, we wouldn't," Gaara agreed as he pulled his leg up to his chest, resting his elbow right on the knee. "If that was the case, you would still be stuck in a teapot deep in the bowels of the palace, while I would be living a normal life where I could actually sleep without the risk of being taken over by any malicious, bloodthirsty chakra beings."

"Um, correction. You're a royal. By default, your life would NEVER be normal . . . And seriously?! You just had to remind me of that damn teapot!"

For a second, Gaara thought he felt the tanuki shivering when he said that. "That infernal thing is a terrible excuse for a holding cell!"

"You're only saying that because it's always kept damp whenever you occupy it."

"You humans just know how to kick me I'm at my weakest," Shukaku grumbled in return. "And come the fuck on! Out of all the different containers out there in the world that I could have been sealed in, it's always the teapot. THAT FUCKING TEAPOT!"

"I see you still suffer from the trauma of such actions. . . Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I don't want to talk about it . . . But thanks for asking."

"Did . . . did you just thank me?"

"Don't get used to it kid."

Gaara's face was completely neutral, but on the inside, he was quite shocked to hear his tenant thank him and be genuine about it.

Sure, Shukaku has thanked him in the past, but that was either out of sheer sarcasm or within the frames of a barely veiled threat. This time, there was no hint of malice or negativity that Gaara could detect. . .

. . . It was a little startling, but not entirely unwelcome, but Shukaku was probably right.

He shouldn't get used to it.

Taking in a deep breath, Gaara continued to take in the scenery around him, paying particular attention to the royal palace in the distance.

It was something that Shukaku didn't miss either.

"Hey, if you want to go talk to her, then just go already!"

"Are you kidding me? I think the palace security would take issue with that."

"Not if you don't get caught."

"I'm not going to break into the Fire Palace to talk to Shizuka. . ."

"Oh, so it's just Shizuka now?" The tanuki teased, his words more than enough to make the redhead grow a little flustered now that he realized his own misstep. "When did we get so personal, hmm?"

"Don't even go there Shukaku. . ."

"Go where?" The One-Tails asked. "I was only making an observation."

"As my brother would like to say at times: Observation my ass."

"Oh fleshbag, I didn't peg you for someone who curses," Shukaku continued to tease as Gaara looked off to the side. "And please, don't try to play dumb with me! I share this body too you know, so don't act like I haven't been noticing your growing interest in the girl from the moment you first saw her."

"I'm interested in her skills as a shinobi. That's all."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that."

"It's your choice to believe me or not."

"Good, because I don't."

"Fine then. . ."

Gaara came out of that conversation more unnerved than he would like, and not in the 'disturbed by the bloodthirsty tanuki' kind of way.

Wanting to take his mind off what was just said, he moved his gaze along the village's skyline, his gaze landing on a certain landmark, a mountain about a couple of miles behind the palace. It was an integral part of the surrounding environment, having seen the moment the first settlers made the area under it their home, to the Warring States period - where it was caught in the crossfire of the ongoing fighting - to now.

As it stood, it served as a monument to the previous rulers of the kingdom. There were numerous faces carved into its stony facade with pinpoint accuracy, but it was the one the furthest left that garnered his attention the most.

It was the face of King Hashirama, the First King and co-founder of the Fire Kingdom. A man of great power and influence, he, along with fellow co-founder Madara Uchiha, started the shinobi village system that gave rise to the kingdoms of today, and was a major reason as to why the Fire Kingdom was such a dominant force in the immediate years after the Warring States period ended.

"That man may be famous the world over for his damn power and strength, but trust me, he has no fans between me and my siblings."

"Is that so?" Gaara asked, immediately intrigued. "How come?"

"It should be obvious. I did mention his 'damn power and strength', didn't I?" Shukaku asked, letting a harsh chuckle escape past his jagged lips. "He was the one that initially captured most of us at one point!"

"Single-handedly?"

"Pretty much. I believe Ryuna and myself were the only ones who he didn't catch, but only because I was already in your family's possession, and she was the only one he simply couldn't find . . . Kinda ironic now that I think about it. Physically, Ryuna's the oldest and biggest one, but she's always been the hardest to find. . . Made Hide-and-Seek practically a nightmare when she was involved."

"Huh, never would have thought you were into a game such as that. . ."

"And why wouldn't I be? It helps to build tension for my victims."

"When you put it that way, it makes a lot more sense now."

"Still, it beats dealing with the first Fire King, though admittedly, he wasn't the first to start the whole 'sealing tailed beasts away in human bodies' trend. That was all his wife's doing. . ."

"Oh yes . . . The first Fire Queen," Gaara thought, grimacing slightly as he recalled his history lessons.

He had learned about the woman when he was younger, and he could recall how unenthused he became the more he learned about her.

Born Mito Uzumaki, the woman who would go on to become Queen Mito Senju met and married her husband as a part of an arranged marriage between the newly established kingdom of Fire and the more established Whirlpool Kingdom. Though the union made her the kingdom's first ever queen, it was what she would do later in her reign that would cement her part in history, as well as start a notorious trend that continues to this day.

At the tail end of the schism between King Hashirama and his now ex-friend Madara Uchiha, the latter had managed to capture the Kyuubi in his plans to destroy all that he and Hashirama had built together, all for the sake of remaking things in his own image.

King Hashirama managed to wrestle control of the fox away from him, and put an end to Madara's plans, but his wife went one step further and used her skills in fuinjutsu to seal the fox inside herself . . .

. . . And from that day forward, she was known as Queen Mito, the First Jinchuriki.

Legend says that her original intentions for sealing the Kyuubi within herself was to prevent anybody else from using the fox's power for personal gain, thus serving as its gatekeeper until her death.

Whatever her reasons, her actions, once they were officially known, started a trend that all the major royal families would certainly follow, much to the detriment to those that would become jinchuriki themselves.

"She may have had her reasons for sealing your brother within herself, but I highly doubt that she thought her actions would lead to such ramifications in the future."

"Considering it was Kurama that she sealed away, I would have been fine with it. Let him rot away in a human for a few decades for all I care . . ! But then the other royal families looked at her and thought 'Hey! If the Fire Kingdom has a jinchuriki in their royal line, then we must fucking follow suit'!" Shukaku bit back. "And thus, the 'Era of the Jinchuriki' began!"

"Yeah, I think I get your point," Gaara mumbled as he looked up at the sky. "King Hashirama . . . He was powerful enough to catch eight of your siblings, but how did seven of them fall into the other kingdoms' hands?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, my redheaded vessel. . . Maybe you should ask the Fire King next time you see him."

"We'll see about that, Shukaku," The redhead conceded, not knowing if he should take the tanuki seriously. "But thanks for the help anyway."

"Don't ever say I never helped you. I don't give advice that easily . . . And speaking of advice, we have company coming our way."

Even with the warning, Gaara didn't have to look far to find the culprit, looking forward to see that his mystery guest was brazenly walking up the tiled roof toward him. Dressed in gray and dark colors, the young prince didn't recognize him at first, though he didn't look much older than himself.

That's when some of the clouds opened to let a little more light shine through, allowing Gaara to see the bandages that covered the teenagers face, as well as the forehead protector that signaled his kingdom allegiance. . .

. . . Sound.

"The last remaining Sound shinobi in the Showcase. . ." Gaara realized. "Now what could he want with me?"

"Isn't it obvious? He wants to thin out the remaining competition he has."

"But Shizuka is the person he faces first in the finals-"

"And do you think he cares?" Shukaku cut in. "The less brats he has to beat, the better his odds for winning, and the same can be said for you if you do the same."

"I'm not hunting my competition to kill them before the finals,"Gaara declared, shaking his head. "That would surely get me disqualified anyway."

"Not if you don't get caught," Shukaku countered. "Plus, if he attacks you first, you can just claim self-defense."

"Hmm, you technically have a point there. . ."

"Don't I always?"

"I'm going to ignore that."

"Well, well, well . . . I didn't expect to see you out here Prince Gaara," Dosu admitted as he came to a stop about thirty feet from where the royal was sitting, his words ringing false to the redhead's ears. "Don't you ever sleep?"

"It's not really a thing I do," Gaara flatly stated as he stared the Sound shinobi down. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was taking a nice moonlit walk when I saw you traversing the rooftops. . ." He explained, his eyes narrowing slightly as he watched how unmoved the prince was at his 'reason'. "Even if I continue to say what I was going to say, you won't believe me, won't you?"

"It would be a waste of time if you continued on that path," Gaara admitted. "The fact that you cut yourself short and realized this proves that there are some brains underneath all those bandages after all."

"If I didn't have any, then I wouldn't have made it into the finals in the first place."

"True, but then again, confronting me like this outside of the finals does not reflect well on your intellect, now does it?" The redhead asked in return. "You're here to kill me, plain and simple, correct?"

"Eh, I figured I shouldn't wait a month to start wiping out the competition. Some may call me impatient; others, prudent," Dosu conceded, his billowy sleeves moving left and right in the wind. "You're facing the person I wanted to fight first in the finals, and if I kill you now, then my chances of facing Sasuke become that much better."

"So, this motherfucker wants to kill you because you're fighting the Uchiha first?" Shukaku asked, and Gaara could practically feel the tanuki rolling his eyes at the reasoning. "I'm all for claiming your kill, but damn, you're probably the worst person he could have chosen to face!"

"Because of you?"

"Of course, because of me! What other reason could there be?"

Gaara couldn't help but shake his head at Shukaku's ego-filled question, but he, admittedly, has a point. Thanks to the many high-profile names that remained in the competition, any death that could happen before the last phase of the Showcase could begin would be seen as highly suspicious to the public, and especially worrisome to the shinobi population.

Coupled with the fact that five of them were royalty and three of them, including himself, were jinchuriki, anyone wanting to cut the numbers down a little more would be hard-pressed to succeed in the coming weeks. It was a strategy that was high risk, high reward if it was successful, but completely detrimental if it went the other way.

Even though the strategy has been used before in prior Showcases, considering the current factors surrounding this iteration of the competition, the idea simply wasn't feasible this time around.

Gaara had already thought Kinuta was stupid for approaching him so brazenly, and after hearing his plan for the finals, he now thought that he was downright idiotic and reckless.

He was also a little annoyed that the other shinobi didn't appear to take him seriously, especially since he knew that he witnessed what he had done in his preliminary match against Lee.

Well, what Shukaku did, at least.

And after all that, he still wanted to fight him now? Gaara couldn't believe he was talking to such a dumb creature.

Shukaku simply wanted to crush him like a bug.

"So, you believe by taking me out, it'll get you that much closer to Sasuke," Gaara grumbled, successfully holding back the annoyance that was threatening to show in his tone. "If that's your plan, shouldn't you be going after your direct competition first?"

He disliked the question as soon as he said it.

Gaara knew that Shizuka was Dosu's first opponent, but the thought of him going against her was suddenly rubbing him the wrong way. He had a feeling that she could hold her own against him, but the idea of the Sound shinobi even being near her, especially after hearing his plans . . . Yes, it was not sitting right with him.

"I thought about that, but she's the Fire King's one and only daughter, and they happen to live in the most secure building in this entire village." Dosu calmly explained, sparing a glance at the building in question "I need a small army to get in there, and even if she was out in the open for whatever reason, I'm sure she has a decent sized ANBU squad following her to make sure she's not in any danger. The same goes for her brother. . . So, with that in mind, I decided to look for other prey, and here we are."

"HA!He's going to regret those words once we're done with him," Shukaku managed to say in between his chuckling. "So, shall we prove him wrong then? I would be more than happy to make him eat his words. Just give me five minutes and we won't have to deal with him any longer."

"Is it even worth it though?" Gaara questioned as Dosu ready his sound gauntlet. "He's just one guy."

"One guy who obviously has a death wish! Why not grant him what he seeks?" Shukaku asked, eager as always for some bloodshed. "To be honest, you would be doing the rest of your competition a favor by getting rid of him now, especially the princess . . . I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

"Shukaku, don't push it."

"What? We both know you're interested in her! Don't deny it!" The tanuki practically screeched back. "I felt your irritation when the Sound prick talked about her . . . Face it! You may be starting to like her more than you thought!"

"I'm not even going to answer that!"

"Then I won't stop talking about it!"

"You know what?" Gaara was quick to ask, wanting to end the conversation as fast as possible. "I'll let you take over, just to kill Kinuta, if you will just shut up for the rest of the night!"

"DEAL!" The tanuki was quick to say, always willing to take control if offered, which was exceptionally rare. "But remember, this conversation isn't over, fleshbag. We still have much to discuss . . ."

"I can't wait. . ."

"Cut the sarcasm boy!" Shukaku growled, now a little eager to get things started. "Now move over! It's time for me to take the reins for a bit!"

"So, shall we begin?" Dosu asked as he readied his gauntlet.

"Just a minute," Gaara conceded as he stood up, taking a deep breath as he let his consciousness fall back into the recesses of his mind while Shukaku's took hold, a sinister smile crossing his face as his eyes opened to reveal the tanuki's gold patterned irises instead of the prince's jade green ones. "I'm ready!"

"Oh shit. . ." The Sound ninja declared as the jinchuriki readied his first move, hoping he would survive the incoming onslaught. . .

. . . He didn't, and the chances of the Sound Kingdom leaving the Shinobi Showcase with the win died with him.

Gaara wasn't out for long in the end, waking up about three minutes later, surprised to find himself needing to take in some deep breaths as he stood amid a large cloud of dust that stretched across the entire roof.

Hopefully, it wouldn't attract too much of a crowd.

"That was quick. . ." Gaara grumbled as he finally evened his breathing. "That must be a record, even for you."

"The agreement was for me to kill the Sound brat if you wanted me to shut up for the rest of the night, and I did just that," He reminded his host, his tone blunt, almost insulted. "I may be a ballistic ball of chakra that many see as unstable, but I know when to keep my word."

"Well, at least for one night that is . . ." Gaara couldn't help but add as he walked over to what remained of Dosu's body.

Aside from his gauntlet covered arm, which was intact but highly bloody, the rest of the Sound shinobi's body was an unrecognizable pulp. It was a nauseating sight, but Gaara, thanks to Shukaku, had seen worse. "My father said that we needed to watch out for the Sound teams, and now they're all gone . . . You think they'll retaliate for what happened here?"

"Nah . . . He's more of a small fry, a bottom of the hierarchy scrub. I wouldn't worry about it too much." Shukaku quietly admitted after taking a moment to think it over. "Unless he was from some powerful clan back in his homeland, you should be fine from any possible retribution."

"For now, at least . . ." Gaara thought as he left the body behind, not wanting to linger any longer in case someone else shows up. "Anyway, that's one less person to deal with in the Finals."

"I'm sure the Fire Princess will greatly appreciate you giving her a free pass to the next round. . . Maybe she'll give you a kiss if you're lucky."

"Give it a rest already you damn tanuki!"Gaara was quick to say as he felt a weird sensation on his face, like a burning that wasn't too unbearable, but wasn't welcomed either. "Don't you have some hours of silence to get through!?"

"Fine! Suit yourself . . . But once daylight hits, I'm coming back with new material!"

"And that's what I'm afraid of . . ."

As Gaara headed back to his hotel, he failed to notice that he was being watched by various eyes throughout the area.

The first set, which belonged to his own sensei - well, a clone of his - was feeling relieved now that he knew that the prince had now re-claimed himself after temporarily giving himself over to his notorious tenant. He soon dispersed, relaying his intel back to the original.

The second set, which belonged to a certain princess that was becoming a cornerstone of the recent conversations that the prince and the tanuki were having, peaked with curiosity as she watched him from her hidden perch. As soon as Gaara was out of her line of sight, she disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing that she was a clone as well.

The third, and by far the most dangerous, set of eyes had watched from the porch of a nearby high rise, his intense gaze not hindered by the glasses he wore. He had watched the entire ordeal with a smile, not reacting in any other way as he witnessed the Sound genin's swift annihilation. He didn't mourn the loss either. Instead, he saw it as a fantastic opportunity to witness the strength of his opponent.

And he was certainly intrigued.

"The King will want to know about this."

And in the blink of an eye, he was gone too.

A/N: Leave a comment if you like!