บท 4: End to the Battle
"Sand Tsunami"
Kankuro's face went very pale after I said those two words. He then pulled back a handful of his dummies while sending the rest crashing towards me. Unfortunately for Kankuro, I was much faster than his temporary puppets. An enormous wave of sand that used up most of the arena's sand floor flowed straight towards the training dummies. I didn't hold back for the dummies since they were literally made to be crushed. Kankuro had seemingly used a few training dummies to form a wall as he used another to carry him away. As the wave descended on Kankuro, the puppet he was on jumped high into the air. I realized that he was trying to escape my Sand Tsunami by getting to the under level of the arena. I hadn't put enough chakra in to make it that tall which meant he would be safe there. I was definitely happy with the ingenuity Kankuro was showing in the face of such a terrifying attack. I decided that I had done enough for today and cancelled the Sand Tsunami before it took down the arena walls.
"Gaara what is the meaning of this" spoke a voice with anger and power in it. I flinched as I recognized the voice. Painful memories of the man rose to the surface with feelings of despair but I forced them back down. This man was responsible for much of my pain in the past. I looked to the upper level of the arena to find my suspicions correct. Kankuro stood by the man's side with his last remaining training dummy.
It was my father Rasa, the Kazekage.
I felt a bit of terror travel at my spine just looking at him. He was the reason my life was so messed up and Gaara was a monster. He hadn't viewed me as a son, he'd viewed me as a weapon that cost him his wife. I doubt I would ever be able to get him to look at me in a positive light, at least not in the near future.
"I am training father, is there a problem with that?"
Rasa seemed very agitated with my answer. I guess when he gave orders as the Kazekage he wanted them followed to the letter. I had of course broken the rule he had put in place a very long time ago, something, not even the old Gaara had dared try. I wasn't supposed to fight fellow Hidden Sand shinobi so I wouldn't kill them. This would weaken The Village Hidden in Sands' ability to fight if I just kept killing off our shinobi. Memories popped up of when the rule was put in place. I was a small child, barely older than six years old. It was after I had killed two shinobi assigned to watch over me. Apparently, the old Gaara had grown frustrated with them constantly following him around so he simply killed them. Rasa hadn't been angry for me killing two loyal shinobi, he had been mad that I had made him look bad. A Kazekage who couldn't even control his Jinchuriki is what they had called him. It had been very bad publicity for him which he really didn't like.
"You know very well that I have forbidden you from training with others so why do you disobey my orders?" He was talking in a very angry tone that made me think I should be careful with my response.
"I had no intention of killing them, I was pulling my punches the whole time. Do you really think they would still be alive if I didn't want it?"
He mulled over my answer for a while before looking at me suspiciously. Of course, he wouldn't trust me after I said only one reasonable thing to him. Being Kazekage meant you had to look at it from every angle along with past experience.
"How do I know this isn't just a ploy for me to get rid of the rule so you can simply do what you please?" Rasa was not one to get duped easily and Gaara had tried things like this before. They were not as elaborate or reasonable as of this one though.
"You don't but I will continue to train with my team no matter what you try and do to stop me." I was determined to build up my standing no matter the cost. It seemed that I had miscalculated, however, as golden sand rose up around me and grabbed me. I frowned and wondered how he could have snuck the sand around without me sensing it. The sand in my gourd wasn't quick enough to stop it and couldn't put a dent in its grip as much as it tried to. The golden sand raised me off the floor to be level with my father. Kankuro now looked more afraid of what our father would do to me than what he was earlier.
"Father he speaks the truth, he was holding back the whole time. Gaara could have easily killed me when he stopped Crow but instead, he let me get away," said Kankuro with as much confidence as he could muster. I respected Kankuro for sticking up for me even after everything I had done in the past. I realized he must truly care for me no matter how awful I was, which brought a little warmth to me. His statement wasn't totally true though since I was forced to turn my attention back to Baki and Temari.
"Never have heard such insolence and rebellion from anyone" Rasa growled angrily. His golden sand tightened as he spoke, which left me feeling pain throughout my body. I grimaced and hoped he would let me go soon. I couldn't even consider fighting him die to low chakra levels which I even doubt I could beat him if I wasn't low on chakra.
"Lord Kazekage please stop" muttered a weak voice from below me. I couldn't turn my head to see who it was but I could guess from their voice it was Baki. He sounded pretty out of breath, maybe I should've gone a little easier on him with my attacks.
"What is it now Baki?" Rasa was logical enough to listen to someone who was on the Sand Council that advised the Kazekage. He also wouldn't want Baki to report what he was doing to the council. The Kazekage crushing their Jinchuriki with his golden sand wasn't exactly a good look, no matter how dangerous I may be to them.
"Kankuro is right, Gaara was pulling his punches and simply training"
Rasa now showed surprise on his face from what Baki had told. It was one thing to hear it from me yet another thing entirely to hear it from a trusted advisor. I was very happy that Baki had come to my side, I was starting to get worried Rasa would lock me up for disobeying him.
"Very well then Gaara I shall let this go, I want you to come and talk to me in my office tomorrow afternoon." Rasa promptly canceled his golden sand kekkei genkai after saying that and walking away. I plummeted to the ground as the once-solid sand now was limp. I brought sand up from the ground which then shot up into a pillar to land on. My first meeting with Rasa as Gaara had been far more unnerving than I had wanted it to be. I really didn't want to go for an extended conversation in his office tomorrow but I think I'd disobeyed him enough. I lowered myself to the ground thinking about what he would want to discuss with me. Probably my sudden change in attitude since he would've punished me right now if I was in trouble. Or was it my involvement as the main weapon against the Hidden Leaf in the upcoming chunin exams? I really couldn't tell since this world was so different from the original series it felt like.
"Thank you Baki, I am in your debt," I told him as I reached the ground.
"I only spoke the truth Lord Gaara, I was as skeptical as he was when you wanted to train. I was shocked when you attacked us but I now realize what you were doing. You attacked us to make us feel real actual danger and push us. This was obviously more for Kankuro and Temari but even I still learned a thing or two from your attacks." Baki spoke with a surprising amount of praise for such an emotionless person. I didn't think he'd figure out my plan down to the last letter. Why was he so familiar with this tactic?
"How do you know this so confidently," I questioned him. I was curious about his answer since there was no way he could have blindly deduced all of it.
"There were many similar methods back when there was much more conflict than now. In order to quickly train the inexperienced genin along with chunin, many villages sent them into blind battles to get rid of the weak and create hardened shinobi." Baki said this very coldly and didn't look me in the eye while talking. I frowned and wondered if he was a product of this method. It did sound effective yet ruthless at the same time.
"What was that wind-style Jutsu you used on my sand whips? It even made my sand shield shake a little." Baki had a bit of pride in his expression when I said that. He was probably very happy that his Jutsu had made my shield shake just a little.
"That is a powerful wind style called Wind Vortex Shockwave. I imagine you saw it with your Desert Eye Jutsu while hidden under the sand shield didn't you?" Baki looked at me with his eyes cocked, obviously hoping his guess was correct. I nodded which prompted a slight smile at the edge of his mouth from being correct. I was starting to understand it was pretty hard to get anything past an experienced jonin. Baki wasn't green around the gills, he was a battle-hardened jonin which meant I would need to start taking that into account. I had underestimated his battle smarts as well as abilities. This led to him easily deducing my real intentions. I didn't like him knowing what I was doing even though it had helped me in this situation.
"Gaara what the hell was that," shouted Temari as she walked towards me angrily. I almost laughed at how furious she looked compared to her scared look earlier. She must have gained confidence from defending against my sand whips. Temari must've thought I had been fighting at full strength, resulting in her believing she didn't have to worry as much about me. That was precisely what I had hoped for, a more open and human response without fear.
"I saw you were struggling against Baki earlier, so I gave you a little help"
"Help? How is trying to kill us all helping me? I can't exactly get better if I'm dead, can I?
"You're not seeing the bigger picture. Your movements and reaction time were slow which is why you struggled so much. After only one season with my sand whips, I can already see that you've gotten faster"
The word shocked wouldn't even come close to describing the look on Temari's face. She couldn't seem to comprehend that Gaara had just done something to help her. Even looking through my memories I couldn't find a time when I had helped with anything. I wanted this Gaara to be different, not just a simple emotionless side character like before but someone that cared about his comrades and friends. I was going to make that happen no matter what.
"Gaara, you think that you'd want to train with us again tomorrow? I didn't really stand much of a chance so I want to see if I can find a way to at least defend against you," said Kanukuro from above. I glanced up to see a nervous look on his face, unsure if he was treading on some dangerous ground or not. I didn't understand why but a surge of happiness that almost made me cry enveloped me. Kankuro had just asked me to help him. The enormity of that question hit me like a sack of bricks as the only memories I ever had of Kankuro were looks of disgust along with fear. I looked up at him with a small smirk.
"Don't expect me to go easy on you again, I rip you to pieces if it means I can get better. You learning along the way is just a bonus for yourselves to enjoy."
With that, I began my slow walk out of the arena to let them think about what I had just told them. I may have sounded a little cruel but I kinda enjoyed the little stunt I had just pulled, I thought it was very Gaara-like. I still had plenty of time in the day although I was completely exhausted from how carelessly I had spent my chakra. I'd have to wait a while before trying out some of my other Jutsu along with my kekkei genkai. I hadn't used my kekkei genkai because I didn't want anyone to get too familiar with it. Using Magnet Release was a last resort move so not everyone would plan ahead on how to defeat it. Even my own team would need to be kept in the dark on it for that reason. It was in fact a basic rule of being a shinobi, don't let your enemy understand your Jutsu so they can't counter it.
I made my way to the Sand Archives, a place the old Gaara had only visited once to pick up an item for a mission. I was hoping I could find some new hand sign Jutsu that I could practice later. I wanted to diversify my options as much as possible, and with Gaara having wind, earth, and lightning chakra nature transformations. The options were very broad with such a diverse set of abilities. Checking for new sand Jutsu to use as well wouldn't hurt either. Just as I had finally made my way to the entrance, I heard a crash behind me. I turned and found a girl with light blonde hair on the ground with books scattered all around her. Taking sand from my gourd, I lifted the girl up and stacked the books neatly at her feet. The girl's eyes opened with confusion as she wasn't sure what had lifted her up off the ground. She then looked straight ahead and found me looking at her blankly. I watched her eyes widen before she took a step backward. I sighed as I expected her to run away screaming for help. Instead, she simply fell backward and crashed to the ground with a massive thud.
"What was that?" was all I could say as she lay on the floor out cold.
((Hello, I just wanted to say thanks for the support some of you have shown toward my writing, I am very appreciative of that. I thought now would be a good time to lay out how I was planning for this story to go. This Gaara that I am writing is not going to be a copy of the original nor will the story be a copy because that would be very boring to write. There will be major plot changes along the road, many characters other than Gaara will also get changed as well. As of right now, I don't have a direct plan for the direction of the plot, except for when Gaara goes to the chunin exams, so if you have any suggestions please tell me. Any new Jutsu ideas are also very welcome because I am not a genius with everything. I also apologize if the chapters seem short, let me know if you want them longer. Once again, thanks for reading my adaptation of the Naruto series))
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