Dark Soul, part 1

[shi_koi]

Okay, this fic is too long to post in one go, so I'l going to post what I've completed thus far in sections.

Title: Dark Soul
Series: Story #2. Sequel to 'Sand Walker'

Title: Dark Soul

Series: Story #2. Sequel to 'Sand Walker'

Fandom: Naruto / SG-1

Author: Shi-koi

Warnings: Gaara-centric, violence, blood. Normal Naruto-verse stuff. Alternate timeline – Gaara isn't the Kazekage yet. Note the 'yet'. The writing style changes from present to past tense in places, usually when Gaara has to interact directly to another person during a scene, so be prepared for that. Eventually it will have chunks from Naruto's perspective as well, but not for a long time.

Genre: Crossover, action/adventure, mild angst.

Pairings: None

Summary: [Crossover] [Naruto – SG-1] Sequel to 'Sand Walker'.

Feedback: Oh would you, please?

Notes: God, when I saw six-year-old Chibi-Gaara I just wanted to wrap him up in a great big tight hug and never let him go.

Writing Playlist: 'Crucify My Love', 'Kurenai', 'Dahlia', 'Forever Love', 'Tears', 'Longing ~Togireta Melody' and 'Longing ~Setsubou No Yoru' by X-Japan, 'Redefine' by Soil, 'Anywhere' by Avantasia, 'Le Ciel' and 'Beast of Blood' by Malice Mizer and 'Nine Spiral', 'Kimi no Tameni Dekiru Koto (7th Night)' and 'Hoshi no Suna (7th Night)' by Gackt. From the NARUTO Best Hit Collection – 'Wind' by Akeboshi, 'ALIVE' by Raiko, 'Ima Made Nandomo' by The Massmissile, 'Kanashimi wo Yasashisa ni' by little by little and 'Haruka Kanata' by Asian Kung-Fu Generation. 'Seishun Kyousoukyoku' by Sambomaster. By Captain Straydum there are 'Northern Flower', 'Mountain a Go Go Two' and 'Yarukiresu (Live at SHIBUYA-AX)'. There's also 'Never Forget' by Morning Musume. Lastly, 'Tobira no Mukou He' by YeLLOW Generation, from the Fullmetal Alchemist soundtrack.

I don't think I'd ever have been able to write any of this series without this music to listen to. Three kids tend to have a knack of disturbing the mood. These songs made sure the mood and feel of the series was never lost to me.

Translations for certain terms are at the end of the story.

Other: I've seen Water translated as Wave, so the term 'Water Country' can also be read as 'Wave Country'. I'm staying with water, as the others (fire, wind, stone, lightning and sound) suit water best in my mind. Of course, if anyone has a better translation of the Naruto manga I'd appreciate it.

::

Dark Soul

By Shi-koi

::

Sunagakure (The Hidden Village of Sand)

It's barely ten in the morning and Gaara's covered in blood.

None of it is his.

Gaara's as happy as he can be right now, which means he's not currently murderous. Behind him his older brother Kankurou is dragging their middle sibling, Gaara's elder sister Temari. Both of them are cut and scraped and bleeding. The blood on them is theirs and their victims.

Unlike Gaara.

The guards at the gate of their village flinch when he walks past, but Gaara ignores them. He's used to fear. And hatred.

Kankurou takes his sister to the hospital while Gaara stares silently at their backs. He might have cared for them. He might not. Kankurou isn't quite sure. Gaara hasn't killed them yet, so Kankurou is leaning towards indifferent.

Which isn't a bad thing.

When they're out of sight Gaara starts walking. He knows Temari will have to stay in a few nights extra, she was wounded almost to the point of death, and Kankurou would be by her side until she recovered. Gaara doesn't know how to show he cares with words, so he goes to take care of the mission reports for them both.

Gaara knows they still probably wouldn't understand.

The Kazekage sees him instantly, despite the backlog of work he has to oversee, But then, no-one in their right mind would dare tell Gaara of the Desert to wait. Elite shinobi are no exception.

Gaara's been in the hall many times. His father was the previous Kazekage, and before his murder Gaara had been a useful tool to him – never mind the fact that he would constantly send out agents to kill his own son, and had been doing so since Gaara was only six.

This Kazekage is different. He's smart enough not to rile Gaara up.

So, Gaara gives a verbal report, and quietly comments on being displeased should his siblings be disturbed. The Kazekage blanches along with his ANBU guards, and a messenger is dispatched as soon as Gaara is out of sight with instructions that Gaara's siblings be told they don't need to report until they are both healed and well.

Gaara wonders for a moment if Kankurou or Temari will understand this gesture. Then decides it doesn't really matter.

::

Gaara doesn't often take missions. He doesn't need the money. He'll accept only the 'S' class mission offered to him simply because nothing else challenges him enough for him to enjoy himself.

'S' class missions are rarer than gold dust. There are few people or situations which would need that rating. Three out of every ten shinobi on an 'S' class mission will die.

Gaara's completed over seventy 'S' class missions in the past three years. He's never failed. He's never been injured.

Gaara's only sixteen.

::

Gaara has a demon inside him.

His father wanted an unstoppable weapon. He created Gaara.

All Gaara has ever known is fear. Fear of him. Fear of his abilities. Fear of his demon.

Gaara called the demon 'Mother'.

::

When Gaara goes to the Kazekage and requests time off he gets an unrestricted pass to anywhere he wants to go. The Kazekage knows Gaara would have gone anyway.

Gaara fills his bag up with a few scrolls, full of useful summons like food and blankets and a tent. He probably won't use them, but he likes having them there. His gourd is strapped on his back as usual, his clothes clean of blood – even though the bitter scent still lingers, and his hitae-ate – his forehead protector engraved with the symbol proclaiming him to be a Sand shinobi is tied around the widest strap of the leather holding the gourd, just beside his waist.

If Gaara's hair wasn't quite as blood a red, or his skin as milk pale he could have passed as a desert-dweller, Until you saw his emotionless, empty, aqua-green eyes, rimmed a thick black, as though lined with Kohl. Even though that's natural.

He dressed like one, acted like one and knew the laws of the desert as well as any of them on any world.

Gaara hasn't slept. Ever. The demon Shukaku makes him stay awake, or fear losing himself completely.

On one of his last trips, Gaara followed a caravan across a desert, he doesn't know which one by name, only by how it feels, by how it calls itself. The people were swarthy, dark, large.

Gaara doesn't act like them. Gaara doesn't look like them.

But Gaara likes watching them.

Gaara listens, and he hears the travelers tell stories around their campfires, stories about a strange boy-child and he knows he should feel affronted. It's not his fault he's so small. But he also tastes the fear in their words as they speak of the wraith who sometimes appears out of the sands themselves, there one moment – gone the next.

They fear him.

Some tell of him as though he's a God, some speak of him as a demon.

Gaara wonders idly how many of them guess correctly.

A sandstorm is building as Gaara leaves Sunagakure, but it doesn't touch him. There's a bubble of air around him which the sand won't enter.

Gaara just keeps walking.

He can feel the change around him, the song of the sands shifting note to a deeper, thicker sound, and Gaara knows, he's not on his world any longer.

The caravan is long gone, but Gaara knows the way now by himself, and he walks through the day, and through the night without pause. He reaches the large sprawling city by mid-morning and he stops on the rise of a sand dune.

The language is different, new, and Gaara takes a moment to allow his mind to adjust to the language.

People have started to notice him.

A few individuals shriek. Stories of the strange boy-child have reached the city for months, but none believed them.

Gaara doesn't care.

The air is dry and hot. Sunlight glints off many wares spread out on massive sheet-type rugs on the ground, drawing the eyes. Delicious scents float on the heavy air, tantalising, teasing.

Gaara decides he likes them, although nothing shows on his face.

When Gaara walks into the bustling town, people part before him, none daring to touch him or invade his personal space. They flinch when he meets their gazes.

Gaara knows why. There's an aura of death that surrounds him.

Sharp green eyes take in the sights, ignoring the people. Everything is calm until someone comes running around a corner, obviously not seeing him. People close enough to guess at the collision wince, or gasp, or freeze.

The man trips and falls towards Gaara.

Gaara doesn't react. Not even when the sand lifts itself from the earth and forms a shield.

Someone screams.

Gaara ignores the sound. He's seen something that interests him. There's pandemonium behind him, and the stall-keeper in front of him is too terrified to move.

There's a frog, or toad, Gaara's not too sure which, about twice the size of his fists. It's black and orange and red and blue and coated with a clear enamel. It's got claws, which is unusual, but the sight of the strange scroll between them is not. Gaara likes scrolls. To someone unable to sleep, boredom is a vindictive enemy.

The frog-toad thing reminds him of Naruto, and Gaara is in two minds about the object. Uzumaki Naruto isn't a friend. But he also isn't an enemy.

Gaara decides to buy it anyway. Maybe he'll use it, maybe not, but at least the option will be there.

The man behind the stall is shaking, although he calms down a bit when Gaara asks in his flat tone of voice how much the object costs. The man stutters, but answers. He flinches a bit when a small handful of sand swirls up into the air, even though it doesn't go near him. Gaara opens his hand and a mismatched selection of precious and semi-precious gems tumble out of the sand into his waiting palm.

Gaara chooses one, a small one, and the man's eyes light up. He accepts Gaara's offer and throws in a few other smaller objects that caught Gaara's eye.

When Gaara turns around the streets are mostly empty down the center. The stalls are still there, but the buyers are peering around them. They seem to relax when no harm comes to the vendor Gaara buys his goods from and the streets start to fill again. Most of the people are still staring though, some with awe. More with fear.

Gaara's bag still feels half empty, and Gaara is still curious.

He tries the food, then goes and buys a necklace for Temari with some strange engravings on it. It's gold and has inlays of lapis lazuli in it. Temari doesn't often get to act like a girl, and Gaara knows she wouldn't buy something like this for herself. But she is getting to an age where she could find something like this nice. But because she's also a shinobi he buys her a few of their specially designed fans, one or two of which are bladed as an ornamentation. They probably wouldn't be of any use in a fight, but her room is pretty bare. She could put them on her walls.

He buys Kankurou a handful of carefully crafted dolls. Most of them are part animal, either their heads or their bodies. Only two are fully human. Gaara can appreciate the craftsmanship in them and he knows Kankurou would like them simply because dolls like this are rare. Kankurou is a Puppet Master, just as Temari is a Wind Master, so he's certain that these curiosities will please them.

He pushes aside the thought that it would be worth it just to see the shock on their faces when he gives them their gifts.

By the time Gaara has done two complete circuits of the enormous market he has gathered quite a large following. They stay far enough back not to bother him, but they watch his every move avidly.

When Gaara has everything he wants, dusk has long since fallen. He gazes up at the night sky and decides to go home. He wants to put his treasures away. He knows he has a long time ahead of him free, but he honestly doesn't want the day to end. Gaara rarely has any fun, and three years ago he would never have dreamt of simply going on an outing like he has done today.

But then, three years ago he was trying to eliminate every living creature off the face of the planet...one by one.

He wonders if Naruto ever understood just how much he changed Gaara from the inside.

Someone makes the mistake of getting too close to Gaara and the sand rises again in warning. Some of the crowd runs away, others take pictures, others gasp or 'Ooooh' or 'Aaaahhh' at the unintentional display.

The stars twinkle above him and the lanterns glow gently around him. Gaara realises that he's happy.

Gaara then realises he's happy without having killed or shed any blood.

This scares him.

Gaara turns away and starts to walk out of the center of the market. Still surrounded by his audience, Gaara's sand rises into the air around him in a twisting, terrifyingly tall whirlwind of gritty sand and dust, then falls to the barren earth.

Gaara's gone.

::

Comments

[cherry-san.livejournal.com]

...Nya. I give you major love.

I don't see enough Gaara sentric fics like these. Definately not. -squeals-

You don't know how happy I was to see you back again, especially on FF.net. I think I've been stalking you for the last 3 years. Seriously.

Meaning, that I check your profile page almsot daily. -though I admit this is mostly because I raid you favorite stories list- ... -shifty- Anywho~ This story added to your reappearence has made me beyond happy. 8D Cna't wait ot hear from you again~

-dies in happines- 8D

[shi-koi.livejournal.com]

::glomp::

Glad you liked it. ::makes happy face:: Ive written quite a bit but ff.net is grumping me out 'cos I have to majorly edit everything I want to post. ::goes cross-eyed::

I'm posting the rest now, hope you like it. ::gives hugs::