Chapter 1: An Emptiness Which Fills My Lungs
Alone in agony, alone for eternity.
That was always how it was for the fifth Kazekage. Atleast, that was how he thought it would always be like for him before the benevolent sun shone on his barren desert.
When the only person to have ever shown him of compassion attempted to assassinate him in his early childhood, he lost all hope he had of being seen as something more than the monster that they had sealed in his body. Instead, fueled with hate, he accepted that monster as himself. And, with the realization that no one truly loved him after all, he carved the character of 'Love' on his forehead in pure spite.
At that time, the mark served as a reminder of what he was never to attain. But, when he later met his sun, a boy who bore a similar fate, yet, kept pushing on without letting hate cloud his vision, the mark became a symbol of a promise, of friendship, of his life and achievements. It wasn't long after that he became the fifth Kazekage of Suna.
But, just when everything was starting to turn better for him, he had lost it all far too quickly.
In just three days, the Akatsuki managed to capture him, stripped him of Shukaku, and killed him.
Gaara floated aimlessly within the dark void of his memories, wondering if this was what death truly was. Just a dark void for eternity until someone manages to call upon his soul once again.
"It's a shame, I still haven't gotten to see him become the Hokage."
ZZzzip
Off in the distance, a faint light blinked, attracting Gaara's attention. It was only for a short moment, but something about it felt nostalgic; like the scent of sand that was ever present within the wind as it blew across Suna, or the faint smell of ramen which always seemed to cling on Naruto's clothes.
It was a calling; a beckoning for his soul. Someone was trying to revive him. With the exchange of a soul for another soul, they were giving him another life. But, he had already died for too long and his soul was too heavy with all of the sins he had accumulated. The bloody arms of all the lives he'd taken had a firm grasp on his back, dragging him further down into the dark void.
It was already too late for him to get out scot-free. Therefore, he did the only thing he could think of.
With his hands forming 16 seals, he performed a forbidden technique only used on the vilest of criminals of Suna and directed it towards his own soul.
[Forbidden Technique: Soul Cutting]
From the top of his head, towards his feet, his soul was split into two equal parts. He was in immense agony but, he was far from done.
While the bloodied arms momentarily lost their grasp on him, he quickly launched half of his soul towards the light where he knew his sun was waiting for him with his other half hurtling back towards the the void and into the awaiting arms of the departed.
"Perhaps, we'll still have that drink together after all." Slowly sinking into the sea of blood within the void, Gaara smiled as he felt his connection to the half of his soul disappear. "Just not completely."
With eyes closed, he allowed himself to be pulled further down, the silence lulling him into a pleasant sleep.
It was unknown how much time he spent in that state, but, at some point, occasional splashes began to disturb the silence as what seemed to be the souls of many shinobi hurtled towards the sea.
The war had begun, it seemed.
But, as quickly as it came, the disturbance ceased, and for a while, it was just silence once again, until a bright golden light pierced the dark void.
It was a golden chain and, with it, a tiny ten tailed beast was dragged along, hurtling towards the sea of blood.
SHhik
With a sharp whistling sound, the sharp end of the chain pierced Gaara's chest, causing him to open his eyes in shock.
The chain, with the tailed beast, hurtled across the sea like a golden meteor which pulled Gaara out of the sea but, the arms of the departed were relentless. They refused to let go, even when the chains dragged his body far away.
Suddenly, he felt a searing pain from his middle, where he split himself in half. Where the half of his soul was missing, a golden light took its place as the visage of the ten tailed beast seemed to be growing dimmer.
As more and more of the golden light took over and began to fix his split soul, the chain grew shorter, retreating into his body with the ten tailed beast.
Still, the chain kept its hold on him, pulling him towards a certain direction at breakneck speed, creating a portal of light within the void.
And, with a flash of light which blinded him, the dark void split open, right when the golden light retreated into his body, revealing his perfectly fixed soul.
...
Silence blanketed the city of Tottori on this particular Friday evening as underground heroes went about their patrol routes, all feeling a strange heaviness in the air as though the whole world was waiting for something to happen.
Atop the roof secluded building, an old man looked towards the sky with a contemplative expression. Tapping the subordinate beside him to lower the umbrella with the rain having settled down.
"Is something the matter, oyabun?" Noticing his boss's apparent interest in the sky despite there being nothing there, the subordinate asked quietly, prompting the teenager who had been discussing with another unrelated man to look towards them.
"Shh. Get down." The old man said as he crouched to the ground, his eyes never leaving a certain spot in the sky. The teenager, noticing the old man's gaze, crouched down as well as he looked towards the sky.
Barely a moment later, a large boom was heard throughout the whole prefecture as a hole was torn open in the sky, followed by a brilliant flash of gold.
The whole city shook as if an earthquake had struck with car alarms being triggered and all citizens having been rudely awakened from their slumber.
But, it was all far from done it seemed, as a wave of white sand began to fall from the sky, blanketing the city in a sheet of white but, never settling for too long as it gravitated towards a single point in the street below the building they were all crouched upon.
"W-what is this..?" Suddenly, a shocked voice gasped out, bringing the rest out of their frozen stupor. They all turned to look at the unrelated man who the teenager was conversing with before and found him staring at an elongated off-white object in his hand.
They all looked at the object, each coming to the same conclusion as they gazed upon the rest of the white tide.
"That... is a bone." The old man said, his appearance turning grim as he surveyed the increasing white surge below them.
"Then, the sand-" The teenager began, his voice wavering in both shock and disgust as he watched the tide turn into an intricate white pyramid.
"It should also be made of bones." The old man confirmed, causing the rest to show various signs of shock.
"That amount of - Just who could possibly-"
Boom!
With a thunderous sound, the pyramid fell apart, revealing the figure of a crouching child as the rest of the white sand was sucked into the child's body, making it seem as if none of it happened at all.
And just like that, silence returned once again in Tottori.
...
There was a strange scent of smoke and grease in the air as he took his first breath of air upon having been resurrected. His body was a bit unbalanced and felt much shorter than he remembered.
Then it struck him, snippets, visions, all that his sand had felt, heard, and seen as it traveled along this strange city, it all came to him at once, filling his mind with knowledge of all that he needed and not needed to know.
This wasn't his world anymore.
All his memories, his people, his sun. It wasn't here.
All of it wasn't here!
"What's the point of living again if it's not here! I have nothing! I can't go back to having nothing again!" Gaara shouted in a fit of blind rage, as he controlled his sand to turn into sharp spikes ready to impale himself. "Take me back!"
"Stop!" A voice shouted as an old man reached towards him, seemingly prepared to stop him from whatever he was about to do.
And he did indeed manage to catch Gaara unaware, causing him to turn towards the old man but, in that split second where they just stared at each other in surprise, a golden chain shot out from Gaara's chest and struck the old man's head.
"Oyabun! You-" Suddenly, the teenager who followed behind the old man shouted, his golden eyes gleaming with rage as he reached an ungloved hand towards the chain, but, before he could do anything, another chain emerged from Gaara's chest which struck him as well.
It was at this moment that an immense wave of fatigue hit all three of them, causing them to fall to the ground, succumbing to unconsciousness, leaving the sole subordinate to run around, not knowing what to do.
Soon after, the heroes finally arrived to take control of the situation. Or what was left of it.
...
The salty scent of sand, and the dryness in the wind.
When Chisaki Kai and Arima Kenji opened their eyes, they were not expecting to see a strange village in the middle of a desert, let alone to be floating above it as see-through visages.
At first they were confused and tried to talk to each other, only to be rendered helpless when they found their voices unable to reach the other.
Fortunately, they were soon tugged towards a certain structure where they saw a man speaking to a pregnant woman.
"The council has already decided. There will no longer be any changes to this decision. You should know this, Karura." A red haired man said coldly. "It is the child's fate to be a jinchuriki. This is what the village needs."
"But... he's our child." The woman said hesitantly.
"And that exactly why he must do it." The man declared, turning around to leave the room which marked the end of the conversation.
At this moment, the surroundings started to get blurry as the voices began to sound farther and farther away.
"Rasa, you might think that your-... nothing more than- vessel but I will- love... - child."
...
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