Blood Release - Chapter 1

His knees were already shaking violently as he slowly squatted down next to the boy, not caring that his white pants were being dirtied, or that the long shawl wrapped around his neck was touching the ground. As he raised a hand and placed it on the blond's arm and felt the boy's body trembling beneath his touch, he felt a shiver of raw emotion that he couldn't quite place a finger on. After all, Gaara had never been very perceptive about his own temperament. Years of hatred and rejection, and the presence of Shukaku within himself, had blended fear, sadness, and rage into a lethal concoction within his fragile thirteen-year-old mind, making the separate emotions nearly undecipherable from each other. This time, however, one of the three was slowly winning out over the others.

Then, a new feeling arose in his chest. He had never felt this one before. It was warm and light, but somehow cold and heavy at the same time. He watched as Naruto mumbled incoherently, blood still leaking from the wounds all over his body. Naruto was strong, he knew that. He was the first one who had beat him in a fight, after all. He knew that he could defend himself. So why hadn't he? And what was up with all the men standing around them? Is this what Naruto had to face every single day? Gaara was a jinchuuriki too. So why was it that he was feared back in Sunagakure, while Naruto felt fear here in Konohagure? Didn't Naruto say that he understood Gaara's pain? So why was it that Gaara couldn't understand his pain?

It had been three months since Gaara's first visit and return from Konohagure. He had wasted none of that trying to come to terms with the demon racoon hiding deep within him. It had been an uphill battle, and even now Gaara didn't have proper control over the monster, but his bloodlust, in the wake of Naruto's declaration of empathy and his desire to protect his friends, had waned significantly. He was still as tired as ever, Shukaku tormenting him endlessly in the night with nightmares even whilst he was forcing himself awake, but something had changed in the red-haired boy. That change was, perhaps, most clear to his siblings. The new Gaara no longer threw death threats at them, or inexplicably crushed people with his sand coffins, or persistently spoke to "mother".

It seemed that Uzumaki Naruto, the one person who had thus far defeated Gaara in battle and broken the barriers that he had erected around his mind, was also the one person whose presence could set Gaara off, in more ways than one.

He bit his lip. Hard. Tasted his own blood in his mouth as his teeth penetrated the thin layer of sand covering every inch of his body. He moved his hand from the boy's arm to his face. Watched as the boy whimpered visibly at his touch and squeaked out a small plea to stop hurting him. Felt his heart clench at the sight of his first friend in such a vulnerable state. Glared at the men who were standing around them, their sticks still stained with blood, some looking apprehensive at the appearance of an unfamiliar red-haired child and some still looking like they were having the time of their life beating up on an innocent boy.

Shukaku growled menacingly inside him, speaking to him in cruel, evil whispers. Mother was hungry. She wanted to see blood. No, mother, I can't. I made Naruto a promise. Well look at him, boy. Look at him now. See what state his stupid, idealistic ways have gotten him. Look at him all bruised and bleeding. You know what to do brat, you know how to fix things. There's so much blood on him, so much blood. Stop shaking, you useless little thing. The annoying fox kid is your friend, right? Do something for him then, you brat.

Naruto's head then lolled to the side. He had passed out.

The men surrounding them stepped forward, looking excited to proceed with committing whatever unspeakable acts to the completely defenceless blond boy, only to step back hesitantly when the redhead standing over their victim raised his eyes in their direction, his eyes glowing red with barely restrained anger, the air around him suddenly rife with raw killing intent. The men were too entranced by Gaara's eyes, seemingly enlarged by the dark rings of black encircling them, to realise that not only was the cork of the gourd on his back absent, but that sand had slowly snaked its way across the ground and puddled around their legs.

One of the men ventured a shout.

"Oi! Boy! Stay out of this if you know what's good for ya!"

"...Mother is hungry..."

"Back away from the damned demon brat!"

Snap.

"Hokage-sama!"

Without warning, the door to the Hokage's office was forcibly pushed open, breaking up the meeting between Tsunade, the Godaime, and the acting Kazekage of the Sands that was occurring within it. The sudden interruption startled both village leaders, and Tsunade scowled as she threw a dirty look at the Leaf Chunnin responsible. It was testament to his already existing fear that he did not flinch at her anger.

"I specifically said that we were not to be interrupted!"

"Hokage-sama...we have a problem. The red-haired boy from the Sands, the one-tail jinchuuriki..."

Upon hearing his words, the Sands' ambassador shot to his feet, the alarm visible in his eyes. The temporary leader (upon the unfortunate death of their former Kazekage at the hands of Orochimaru) had brought along their village's little red-haired jinchuuriki and his siblings as part of his protection detail, fully aware of the fact that the jinchuuriki's presence would increase the temporary political standings that he had with the Hokage. Though the boy had mellowed somewhat after the incident of Orochimaru's attempted takeover of Konoha, his heart still seized every time the boy, feared by the people of his own country, was addressed as a subject.

It was unfortunate, but it seemed that the sound of Gaara's name inevitably brought about news of chaos.

"What has happened to Gaara?"

"Kazekage-sama...he's gone wild in one of the housing districts. From the reports that we've already obtained from bystanders, it appears that he's already killed a few civilians."

Tsunade sat unmoving for a moment, stunned into silence. She then rose from her own chair in panic and rage, her fist clenched in a threatening fashion, thoughts of past events and the death of the Sandaime, her sensei, already springing to her head. Though it was true that Tsunade was new to the title of Leader of the Leaf Village, and had gone into self-exile right up to the point where her return was requested by the village elders, there was no doubt that she took her new position very seriously.

"Dammit, Kazekage! Just three months ago the Sands attempted an invasion of Konoha under Orochimaru, and now this?! I don't even know why Sarutobi-sama wanted to ally with you people in the first place!"

The acting Kazekage couldn't help but take a step back upon seeing the murderous expression on Tsunade's face. It was unwise for any village leader to show weakness in front of his allies, but the man was inexperienced, and Tsunade's reputation as one of the legendary sannin transcended all political barriers.

"I assure you, Hokage, I am unaware of what Gaara is doing, and I had no malicious intentions when bringing him or coming down here-"

"Bullshit! That boy of yours just killed some of my citizens! How the hell are you going to answer for that!"

Another person then burst into the tiny office for the second time that day, abruptly pausing the brewing argument. She brought in a cloud of dust with her, and as it settled the stand-in Kazekage widened his eyes at the sight of one of his own Sand ninja, looking positively flustered and dreadfully worried, her hands clutching tightly onto the large fan that was usually slung carelessly on her back. The usually brave girl looked afraid, which didn't bode well for the situation.

"Temari-chan?"

The young girl looked up at her leader with teary eyes, and the ambassador immediately knew that what the Leaf Chunnin said was not only true, but was far worse in severity than he could have ever imagined.

"Kazekage-sama...Gaara-kun...he's undergone his partial transformation."

The Kazekage felt as though the floor had collapsed from under him. He struggled to maintain composure, but nearly fell to his knees at the thought of seeing him again, and in his ally's village, of all places. Tsunade herself felt her blood run cold at the thought of another tailed demon running rampant through Konoha. She remembered the horrible stories of the nine-tailed demon fox and the resultant death of the Yondaime in an attempt to seal the demon. If the one-tail was about to be let loose, it would be the start of yet another horrible tragedy in Konoha's already blood-tainted historical timeline. Wheeling in her place, Tsunade spoke to the Chunnin with a voice trembling with anxiety and resolution.

"Get as many Chunnin and Jonin as you can to head towards the area. We need to stop this before the situation spirals out of control."

Without waiting for a reply, she then wrapped her hands around the wrists of the Kazekage and the girl who had barged into her office, practically dragging them out of the office with her.

"I don't know if you Sand people intended for this to happen, but for the sake of Sarutobi-sama's efforts, I'll believe you for now. I will not, however, allow your jinchuuriki to run rampant in our village. If need be, I'll need to subdue him, no matter the consequences. Do you understand, Kazekage?"

The Kazekage nodded weakly. Temari glanced in panic between the two Kages as she tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her chest.

Gaara...

It was a sound so familiar and yet so horrific that Kankuro immediately did a double take and dropped his food onto the ground upon hearing the menacing roar, instinctively jumping to his feet and racing off in the direction of the sound, the oblivious shopkeeper owning the food store shouting at him to pay for his meal. It was a sound that Kankuro dreaded, and though he had only heard it twice before in his life, it was two times too many. Unstrapping Karasu from his back, Kankuro clenched his teeth in frustration as he quickened his pace. He knew that if Gaara had somehow, against all odds, transformed into Shukaku yet again, he would be nearly powerless to stop it, but he would have to try.

For his brother.

Kankuro was somewhat ashamed to admit to himself that both he and his older sister had, before the incident from months back, merely treated Gaara as a monster just like the rest of their village. It was hard not to, with Gaara's seemingly incessant need to kill and the constant threats against both his and Temari's lives, but Gaara wasn't the only person who had changed with their encounter with a certain fox-demon boy. The siblings witnessed their country's demon actually make an effort to become just their little brother again, and though the past few months were rife with awkward moments of affection where Gaara would suddenly feel the need to get a hug, or sit with them silently and watch as they worked on their ninja equipment, they were able to see a new side to Gaara, a side beneath the one-tailed demon that inhabited his body against his will.

Kankuro knew that Gaara transformed when he was under stress, and the thought that Gaara's transformation in Konohagure months ago was partly caused by years of neglect and stubborn selfishness on his and Temari's parts sent a clenching feeling of guilt into his heart. The fact remained that Gaara was their little brother, and was still practically a baby when it came down to emotional stability.

The puppet jutsu user could now smell a familiar faint tang of iron mixed with sand, which never bode well. He turned a corner, stopped abruptly, and nearly lost his half-eaten lunch in the process.

Blood, sand and corpses.

Everywhere.

Looking to and fro at the horror that adorned the housing district, Kankuro took cautious steps amidst dead bodies and screaming Konoha citizens towards what looked like a whirlwind of sand from a short distance away, all whilst shaking in his boots. A few Konoha ninja had already arrived at the scene, though from the looks of it, they were no match for the sheer power that the sand held. Kankuro then stopped when his sharp eyes caught sight of the cause of the miniature sandstorm, his throat seizing up instantly in fear.

Fuck...

Shukaku's half-transformation, for a person who had never seen it before, was a truly ghastly thing. Kankuro, despite the fact that he had seen Shukaku in his full unrestrained form before, was appalled whenever he saw sand clinging onto Gaara's side, with half the face of the demon racoon that terrorised Sunagakure, warping Gaara's emotionally weak personality and turning his little brother into a twisted remnant of his actual self. As the transformation became more and more complete, Gaara's personality eventually became lost into the demon's own, and as Kankuro watched Gaara's half-face twist into an expression of simultaneous rage and regret as he took control of his sand, he couldn't help but feel his brother's pain.

His gaze then brushed over the ground, and his heart plummeted at the sight of the boy who had beaten and changed Gaara, Uzumaki Naruto, lying comatose on the ground behind his brother.

No fucking way...

"Gaara!"

Kankuro didn't know if the thought that Gaara had actually killed the one person whom he admitted was a friend of his caused him to blurt out his brother's name in pointless desperation, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that Gaara had actually heard him. As brother faced brother, Gaara bit his lip in agony, and Kankuro merely stared in shock the sight of tears streaming down one side of Gaara's face.

His baby brother was crying.

Gaara's face then turned dark, the sand changing its course and lashing out at Kankuro without warning. Eyes widening in shock at the sudden attack, Kankuro pushed Karasu forward to shield himself from the attack, only to be forced back as the sand hit his puppet with nearly enough strength to shatter it. Just by feeling the magnitude of the hit through his puppet alone, Kankuro could instantly tell that he wasn't facing off against Gaara, but Shukaku. He retreated a few steps and reeled his puppet in towards himself, only to realise that Gaara's sand had gotten into some of Karasu's joints, making it not only incapable of proper combat, but also a dangerous liability.

Fuck fuck FUCK!

But he knew that he was the only person in the immediate vicinity who had any idea of how to deal with Gaara's sand, and as he watched the devil's dust spread out across the ground and envelop more and more screaming civilians, Kankuro knew that as long as he was there, he would have to try.

For his brother.

Author's Note - I originally intended for this to be a one-shot, but weeks of procrastinating made me decide to split it into either two or three parts (depending on how my stamina holds out) to give me the needed push to finish it. I hope you all like it so far. Gaara's easily one of my favourite Naruto characters to write about, because of his backstory finding its core in loneliness, a truly horrible thing to experience. Unstable-Gaara gives me the greatest reach in terms of character dynamic, and I hope I did well enough with it here.

Reviews Appreciated.

~SUITELIFEFAN