Chapter 6
Jiraiya assures Gaara and Roushi that he can protect his genin, and tells them to leave before he gets tired of looking at Roushi’s ugly face, which is probably a joke. They move on; in the absence of any other plan, they’re headed for one of Roushi’s safehouses. When they stop to make camp, Roushi goes to gather deadfall and Gaara sits in the clearing, meditating.
In the bijuu mindspace Fuu and Choumei are talking to Naruto about the last mission they went on. Or he might have just asked for embarrassing stories about Sasuke, because that’s what he’s getting. The nine-tails is nowhere to be seen. He’s probably skulking at the edges of this small reality, since he hates humans so much. Although Gaara has never considered jinchuuriki to be quite human. He’s certainly never considered himself to be human.
“Gaara! Shukaku!” Fuu bounces to her feet from the thick pile of rugs on the floor. “You’re still all right! So’re Roushi and Son, right?” He nods. “Great! I was telling Naruto about that time Sasuke didn’t sleep for three days on a dare and fell asleep in Shibuki’s office.”
“Fuu! You ruined the punchline!” says Naruto, though he doesn’t sound too upset about it. “It’s nice to see you again, Gaara. I was pretty pissed at the Pervert Sage when he made you guys leave so soon, ya know.”
“Where’s the nine-tails?” asks Gaara, sitting down by them under Choumei’s iridescent wings.
“He’s invisible or something?” says Naruto, squinting uncertainly. “I dunno. He’s a real stick in the mud. I don’t think he’s ever been to a party in his life, how sad is that? And he’s like a thousand years old or something!”
Fuu laughs. “It’s pretty hard for a bijuu to go to a human party, though, isn’t it? You’d have to be real careful not to step on anyone.”
“I’ve managed before,” says Choumei in her deep, buzzing voice. “I mostly sat down and talked to the humans. It was a festival in my honor, you know. I’m very lucky. Some people used to call me a god of luck.”
“Can you actually do luck magic?” asks Naruto. “That’s so cool!”
“GAARA!” Shukaku screams. “THOSE BASTARDS ARE HERE, COME ON!”
Gaara blinks, disoriented because suddenly he’s in a forest and not by a fire, but gets to his feet as quickly as he can. “Where are they?”
Five o’clock. I can feel how much they want us dead. Let’s SLAUGHTER these fuckers.
He spins around and sees his sand shield come up to block an enormous—sword? The man wielding it, tall and blue-skinned (scaled?), is pushed back a few meters but springs right back toward Gaara. Behind that man is a hunched pile of cloth that may contain a person, or not. Gaara doesn’t have time to register more than the red-on-black cloud pattern before the sharklike man hits his sand shield again with the force of a battering ram. Gaara uses a feint, stabbing at the shark, to spread sand over the ground behind him. The next time his shield comes up to block a strike, he creates a sand clone and slides down into the earth. Shukaku, he thinks as loudly as he can. He’s never talked to Shukaku except out loud. Can you contact Son and Roushi?
I’m already on it, what d’you think I’ve been doing? I can fight and talk at the same time.
You’re incredible, says Gaara gratefully.
I know, says Shukaku, smug.
Up above, Gaara can see through his sand clone’s Third Eye, the other Akatsuki member has revealed a steel scorpion tail and is trying to drill through the sand shield with it. Gaara brings up the sand on the ground, trying to catch the two in Desert Coffin, but they dodge every time it’s about to close on them. He creates another sand clone underground and lets it burst up under the scorpion as he dissolves the other one. With any luck they’ll think it’s the real thing. He sees, when the clone nearly breaks its fist on the underside of the scorpion, that the entire thing is a reinforced wooden puppet.
Where is the puppeteer? he asks Shukaku. Can you feel his malice?
Shukaku snorts. No, he barely cares about killing you. This close I can feel his chakra, though. He’s inside that thing. Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll tell Roushi. He’s coming.
The shark hits his clone in the gut, spikes standing out of the sword, and Gaara feels the chakra drain from the clone until it’s just a pillar of sand that collapses onto the ground. Does the sword have the ability to absorb chakra?
For a moment, Gaara can’t see what’s going on aboveground, and then the earth cracks, nearly crushing him. His sand shields him, but the ground that was hiding him is split open, showing him the shark and the scorpion silhouetted against the sky. He springs upward on a column of sand, using the rest from the ground to distract the Akatsuki so he can get free. By the time he looks down again, the scorpion is shooting hundreds of senbon that stick uselessly in his sand shield. The sand spits them back out at the shark, who blocks them with his sword.
Gaara is very glad he’s hovering when a wave of lava surges over the two Akatsuki members. He closes his eyes briefly to give thanks that Roushi is here. But a dome of black rock has formed in the lava, as if it’s being cooled from inside—and it breaks open in a rush of water that flashes into steam. Both of the men inside are unharmed.
“You really want to fight both of them?” says the shark, propping his sword on his shoulder. “It’s gonna be a pain in the ass and someone will probably die.”
“It will be you,” growls the scorpion. “And that would be inconvenient. Let’s go.” They both flicker away, leaving a clearing full of flaming trees and cracked earth. Gaara smothers the fires with his sand and lowers himself to the ground.
“Why’d you put those out?” asks Roushi, strolling into the clearing. “You do remember I left to get firewood, right? How are we going to heat up our dinner?”
Gaara stares at him, trying and failing to suppress laughter. “I wasn’t thinking,” he says with a smile. “You did find some firewood, though, right?”