Gaara is temporarily dead
"Who the hell are you?" Gaara asked. "And what did you do to Kankuro?"
"Kankuro?" Izuku laughed. "I just injected him with a little something. No biggie."
"No big- fuck."
Damn. Izuku really could cry from all that pain he caused.
But he could also cause more pain, and then cry! And that's much more productive. He decided to do that.
Gaara stood, transfixed. Izuku stepped toward him.
That's when his leg was impaled by, you guessed it, sand!
"Ow, fuck this," he muttered, kicking. "I borrowed this coat from Deidara, fucking hell- bloodstains? REALLY!" he yelled, as blood welled on the skirt of the cloak.
"What's your goal here," Gaara coldly asked.
"To kill you," Izuku said. Lied.
"Makes sense."
Then, Gaara punched him.
Izuku slid back, then turned, jumping out the window. He landed hard on the roof of another building, then ran.
Gaara, after a moment, followed.
"WHO ARE YOU?" he yelled again. And again, Izuku ignored him.
Then he stopped.
Gaara, however, did not, and continued forward, colliding with Izuku, who didn't move a bit.
Izuku had trained, a hell of a lot. He'd mastered one of his multiple quirks, Fa Jin, which stored kinetic energy to later be released.
In other words, he exploded.
Izuku let out a blast of energy, and Gaara flew back like a little birdie, but still somehow landing on his feet.
He made a "tch" noise, and sounding a lot like Bakugou in the process. Gaara ran at him, proceeding to kick him in the face, grabbing his hands to swing him to him, then put him in a choke hold.
"OW FUCK!" Izuku screamed. He twisted, and elbowed him in the stomach so hard Gaara spat blood.
God damn he was scrawny.
He attempted to kick him in the face again, but Gaara dodged and punched him instead.
It would've been badass if he hadn't knocked off Izuku's mask.
Dramatically, he fell, then curled in a fetal position, because it would be really awkward.
"What the fuck?" Gaara said. He kicked him. Then again. Then, he seemed to remember Kankuro dying, and kicked him harder.
"OW OKAY SCREW YOU!" Izuku said, then stood, brushing dust off his cloak thing. "You know, for a Kazekage, I really thought you'd be stronger."
Gaara didn't respond at first. He seemed to be choking on something.
"Izuku?" he eventually asked.
He sighed.
"Hey, Gaara-kun," he reluctantly said, waving.
There were no words between them, only an awkward silence.
And then, of course, at the worst possible time, Deidara appeared.
"Looked like you need help," he said. "Was I right?"
Izuku nodded.
"Yeah this is really awkward."
"Izuku you poisoned my brother."
"Not the time Gaara-kun."
"THIS IS THE PERFECT FUCKING TIME WHAT THE FU-"
"You wanna take over?" Izuku asked. "I need to go take care of Kankuro."
"Are you going to kill him?"
"Depends."
Gaara suddenly allowed the sand to rush at them, catching both of them in a full sand bodysuit.
"That was uncalled for," Izuku said.
But Gaara was just looking at Deidara.
"Why did you take him?" he asked. "Your target was me."
Deidara laughed nervously.
"Funny story, actually. . ." At Gaara's demanding glare, he continued. "I was told there would be only one of you, when I attacked. I wasn't given a picture beforehand of you, so I just took the closest dumbass and left."
Izuku snickered.
"We both know you're colorblind, idiot. Thought I was him, probably." After that, Gaara bound Izuku's mouth, too.
"Shut up. By the time. . . uh, my superior checked on me, I was already halfway back. When we tried to go back to swap you two, you'd been rescued."
Gaara grimaced.
I wonder what's going on in his head, Izuku thought.
I need to get back to Kankuro, Gaara decided.
Without saying anything, and leaving the dumbass duo there on purpose, he ran back to the tower, where Kankuro was still- hopefully- alive.
He tried to go as quickly as possible, but when he realized a shadow was growing over the village, he had to stop.
It was a giant white thing.
A giant white thing that looked ODDLY LIKE A FAMILIAR BOMB THAT HE WAS EXPLODED WITH ONE TIME.
Gaara swore morbidly, yes more morbid than fuck, and took all of his strong sand back from trapping the idiots.
In some sort of daze, he got to a high up spot and did a jutsu, taking control of a lot of the sand in the village.
It flew upwards in clumps, merging under the giant bomb thing. The only problem, however, was that Kankuro was in a lot of pain, maybe dead.
Oh well. Stopping the bomb first would give him more time to check up on his brother. Or less, if he died. Actually, the more time that passed, the less time he'd have to make sure Kankuro isn't dead.
That is how how time worked after all.
"The bomb exploded," Izuku said.
"How can you tell?" Deidara asked. "I'm blind by the damn thing already."
"Because I don't stare at the sun for fun."
The bomb had exploded. Not on the village, but on the sand. Gaara's sand.
Harenkinesis, Deidara though. Sounded like haremkinesis. Which isn't a word but it sounded like harem-
"Boom," Izuku said. "And with that, our job is done."
And he was right. Upon closer inspection, Gaara was on the brink of collapse.
"What a great day."
Izuku nodded in agreement.
"Heck yeah it is."
Gaara was about to die.
Well, fall unconscious.
Who knows what Shukaku would do.
He had better control, right?
Yeah. Unconsciousness would be okay because he was strong as hell. Total girlboss.
Yeah.
Well he wouldn't die painfully if he was unconscious.
Bye bye world, he supposed.
He fell to his knees, then his face.
The last thing he remembered was snorting sand.
There were things that couldn't be controlled.
Kankuro being almost dead wasn't one of the those things.
It should have been controlled. It shouldn't have happened.
But it did.
Temari had heard a scream, horrifying and tortured. Then yelling, and then what could only be described as a commotion.
And then only the screaming.
And then silence.
She'd ran through several hallways and stairwells, as the noise went quieter and then stopped.
A jolt of panic swept through her, and she ran faster.
Running into the Kazekage's office, Temari let out a breath.
Her blood ran cold, and her eyes widened and arms went slack as she saw what happened to her brother.
She couldn't remember what had happened next.
The first thought on Gaara's mind (after the fact that he thought he'd died) was Kankuro.
And then, incredible pain, as if his soul was being sucked out.
A muffled voice.
He died again.
Izuku finally got back to the base. He cried, because damn he just killed a hell of a ton of people and caused a huge amount of pain.
The preparations had been made before, so they could easily suck his soul out now. It would work, probably.
The base was actually pretty nice, but the cavern that they resided in was horrifying yet beautiful. There were giant statues of hands that they were to stand on to do the satanic ritual, and a giant weird monster thing that lived in the walls.
Izuku was irrationally impressed with the hand statues. Given how hard they were just to draw, it would have been hell to carve it.
His mind was wandering.
At the moment, he was standing on the hand and listening to instructions. He was good at not listening, but he needed to unlearn that.
King was silent. How fun. Not like he was needed to fuel chakra in order to take Shukaku but try to keep Gaara alive. No, never.
But the damn biblical angel was off in Izuku's room, playing with Legos. Cute, but utterly useless.
Ah hell. He was going to die.
It was true. Gaara knew it. He barely had grasp on reality, and what awareness he did have was partially drowned out by pain, deep in his body and soul. As if his very nerves were being slowly dragged out with burning. . . tweezers, probably.
It took a brief moment before he could realize that Deku did that. Deku, his friend. His first friend. His first. . . kiss? Crush? And now he was betrayed. Again. By the only person he had the nerve to trust. What an idiot. What a fool. What an asshole. Well, he supposed the writer of his favorite song was right. "Affections are just a high to throw away." Couldn't be more true. The thought of the kid had faded over the years, but his deep-rooted guilt hadn't. It was his fault, his idea, and now he's just gone. Well, not anymore. Deku- no, Izuku- was there and. . . killing him. Wow, Gaara almost forgot he was dying.
Even with all the regret he had with leaving him, although they were both was hurt and unconscious, he hoped that when he died, Izuku would feel guilt. He hoped he wouldn't be able to sleep at night and that he would visit his grave every day, apologizing and feeling like shit. He deserved it.
They both did.
His last conscious thought was filled with spite, regret, and self-pity.
"He's gonna kill me; I'm gonna die."
And he did, in a way.
Finally. The ritual was over with. Only took three days and several battles, none of which Izuku fought, luckily.
The monster in the wall's eyes opened, but it never moved, just sat. Waiting for something.
The relief Izuku'd felt when it was over was washed away when he saw Gaara's. . . corpse, hopefully not, fall from it's place in the air.
Oh god.
It dawned on Izuku, suddenly, that it was Gaara, not just the Kazekage but his old friend. His best friend, even after Uraraka and Iida and Kacchan and that one kid he knew when he was seven who he couldn't remember. The one he shared memories and bad ideas and stupidity with.
His friend.
He jumped off the hand statue and landed gracefully on the floor, then tried to find Gaara's pulse.
It was, in fact, there, just. . . quiet. Hell, it was almost gone.
"He's alive," Izuku muttered.
Deidara landed next to him.
"We can try and save him. I doubt it'll work, though."
"No. Better to leave him be." Izuku tried to laugh. "I doubt I could face him."
Deidara shrugged.
"Well, don't come to me when you're all depressed because of it."
He was putting on an act. Even with Izuku's failing social skills, he knew his friend would be there for him.
"I doubt that'll happen."
Another lie. Damn, they're good at lying.
The group cleaned up the bloody mess that they made. (Might have demand virgin blood, Izuku joked to himself. Nobody else would understand that. It was like a damn fantasy world.)
"Do you know how to Shadow clone shit?" Deidara asked Izuku.
"Yeah. Why?"
"Well, the nine tailed jinchuuriki is gonna come here with his friends, and we need to piss him off so we can kill him too, and that involves pretending that Gaara's dead, even though I don't think they were friends."
"They were," Izuku said. "So you're saying that you want me to shadow clone myself and turn into my dead friend. In order to piss off my other friend. And then you can kill him too?"
Deidara didn't look uncomfortable in the slightest.
"Yep. You in?"
Izuku sighed.
"Again my better judgement, yeah." He smiled, with some difficulty. "I'm in."