Chapter 66

Title: Gaara's Wonder And Mysterious Man

...

Sunagakure, for the last two years, had undergone a drastic change.

Normally, change in the Shinobi world was bad, but in the case of the Sand Village, it was a good and very welcomed change.

After the Attack on Konoha, they had placed numerous sanctions on Sunagakure due to the peace treaty they had signed under the reigns of both Minato and Rasa....

Of course, the majority of these sanctions were brought up by Danzo in his bid to have Sunagakure go under Konoha's sovereignty.

Of course with Tsunade quickly installed as the fifth Hokage, all his plans were immediately crushed, also, had it been escalated into a full blown war, although Sunagakure would suffer a crushing defeat, Konoha won't be let off easy.

Following the period before the attack, under the guise of Rasa, Orochimaru had sent off the heavy hitters, or rather, Hitter of the Village, Pakura on a wild goose chase in order to keep her away from the village.

Upon returning, she immediately visited Tsunade and offered an apology, and considering her status in Sunagakure, Tsunade had all the more reason to let the matter go with a few restrictions placed on the sand village.

Upon returning, she took it upon herself to rearrange Sunagakure's Shinobi System and their ways of life.

Of course, she didn't sit on the seat of Kage. That position was only available to the Kaze Clan.

In short, Sunagakure and Kumogakure both practiced a low-key Monarch System of Government with the Kaze Clan for Sunagakure and the Raika Clan for Kumogakure.

(A/N: Kaze is basically Wind and Raika, thunder.)

With her help, Gaara, the strongest of the Sand Trio and the entire clan quickly became the Kazekage. Coupled with the fact that he was the Jinchuriki and had the Sand Release of the First Kazekage, it was a smooth sailing experience.

That didn't mean some people didn't bear some form of dissatisfaction, such as Hōichi who had schemed against him in the recent Chunin in Sunagakure.

Hōichi was a member of the Kaze Clan and was their distant cousin. He held hopes of becoming the Kazekage but due to the above mentioned reasons, he was cast aside.

He was a bonafide Elite Jounin, but when it came down to it, he didn't possess any form of magnet release.

(A/N: Magnet Release covers anything that has to do with Lightning and Earth: Sand, Gold Dust, Black Sand, etc.)

Currently, Pakura was constable acting as his guard with Temari, but due to Gaara's insistence, no one followed him around, afterall, he currently boasted the ultimate defense.

In as much as he could sense it, no attack could reach him. He was that confident in himself.

As for Temari, under Pakura's tutoring, she had become even more formidable with the Wind Release, however, contrary to the original timeline, she wasn't the strongest Wind Release User, Pakura was.

One had to understand that the Scorch Release was a Kekkai Genkai formed by the combination of Extreme Fire and Extreme Wind, and considering the fact that Pakura didn't die, her Mastery over Elemental Manipulation only increased with age.

Shinobis were that hax.

In the Kazekage office, Gaara sat in circumspection as he browsed through the documents he had to sign through.

After his defeat and talk with Naruto, he had found a new lease on life, a new outlook and a new purpose. He didn't care whether people hated him any longer, all he needed was to be able to protect those who he cared for.

Those were his initial thoughts when he aspired to become Kage, however...

He wasn't saying it was all that bad, but the documents...This wasn't exactly what he signed up for, was it?

Where were all the enemies of the Village he needed to fight against?

For some reason, he felt like he had been duped, but...he did enjoy the feeling of changing the previous status quo. It was both freeing and endearing.

Picking up the last document on his table, he saw that it was a report from their neighboring, or rather, sister village, Roran.

To him, this was the most advanced village he had ever come across, granted, he hasn't gone round the world, but the little he had ventured made him see the village as the most advanced and beautiful.

Despite being like them, situated in a desert, they still managed to progress so much, and to make matters worse, there were no Shinobi in that village, there was only a Clan.

The Shizukana Clan.

This was a clan of top tiered assassins focused on Bodily manipulation.

No one knew their secret, only that they had little to no interaction with the world outside.

From what his predecessors had gathered, they didn't marry outside the clan which was normal in preserving bloodlines, but their numbers didn't really reduce or increase past a certain amount.

It was confusing to say the least, but there was nothing they could do, you couldn't possibly launch an attack within the Village, and even if you were physically strong, and managed to do some damage, once those fellows appeared, you were as good as dead.

As neighbors, Sunagakure had managed to get them to teach them their bodily manipulation abilities, however they found that it was simply turning one's body into puppets.

It was shocking but that explained a lot. It explained why they didn't seem to age till they died, it explained why they were so strong and unresponsive to pain.

Of course that's what anyone would think, but those were the first set of Puppets given sentience created by Shun years ago who didn't have any purpose other than maintaining the village Hinami, Ria and Kaguya built.

And today, Gaara just received a document stating that the batch of students he has sent to learn from them would be returned in due time under the command of Kankuro.

Kankuro was a puppet-master, so it was given he'd be in charge of anything puppet related.

"So he's finally coming back." Gaara muttered to himself without a change in his expression, however, his time showed he was faintly relieved.

Picking his brush, he quickly penned down his signature as a sign of him receiving the report before placing the document with the rest.

He looked around his table in scrutiny to make sure that there was nothing else for him to do, and seeing there was nothing, he immediately relaxed on his chair.

'Finally! Some peace and quiet to myself.' Gaara thought happily, yet, his face didn't even twitch to show his happiness.

It was time like this that he focused on Refining his chakra control.

He had previously wondered how these Kages still managed to maintain their peak strength despite the paperwork they were subjected to on a daily basis.

That was when he found out from Pakura that it was all about discipline. An average person would immediately relax or sleep in a little, but a disciplined Kage would immediately jump into training.

She had cited the fact that the Fourth Raikage rarely sat on his chair to sign any documents. All of that was left to his secretary while he continued working on his body.

According to her, his office was basically his training ground.

He had thought of hiring her to be his Secretary, but the heat that suddenly assaulted his office left him wondering whether the sun found some form of fault with him at that moment.

Letting out a deep breath, he closed his eyes and immediately found himself in a sandy landscape. It was all sand for as far as his eyes could see, and at the center of this realm, laid a mountain sized raccoon and a white haired man seated opposite the raccoon...

'WAIT!!!! A WHITE HAIRED MAN!?' Gaara thought in mild horror as he squinted his eyes to have another look at the scene.

This time however, there was no one other than the raccoon.

"Hmm, that was weird." He muttered with a thoughtful look.

"What was weird?" A soft voice asked from his back causing him to turn abruptly in shock.

Now, he was the Kage and this was his Mind-scape, there was no way he'd get scared and yell a 'Kyaa' like he had seen his sister do on so many occasions.

He found it appalling that someone as strong as her would squeal at a small fright.

"You...Who are you?" Gaara asked as he observed the white haired man.

Yes. Man. Not a young man.

"Me...? Now that's difficult..."

"Simplify it then." Gaara demanded but the man chuckled.

"That's also a tad bit difficult." He shook his head and then continued. "You just need to know that I'm not your enemy. I only felt a small change in my little brother over here and thought to pay a visit."

"Eh? Little Brother?" Gaara asked, his expression showing bewilderment at the man's words.

"Yeah, but enough about that. You're a curious one aren't you?" The man said and abruptly appeared before him, his previously shut eyes immediately opened and Gaara saw something that he'd never forget in his life.

The man's eyes didn't seem like those of mere human eyes; they held an otherworldly brilliance, resembling the gaze of a god-like being.

Gaara found himself captivated by the profound wisdom and ancient power that emanated from those eyes. It was as if his secrets... no, scratch that...the secrets of the world were hidden within their depths, leaving Gaara both awestruck and slightly uneasy.

No Shinobi liked the feeling of being seen though so completely.

"You truly are curious, there's a residual soul clinging to you ever so strongly...Ah. Love, that's the energy I feel... Endless, Boundless love... must be your mother's. You had a truly strong one. No wonder you and little Shukaku can't get along." The man said before shutting his eyes once again.

Before Gaara could comprehend what he had said, the man opened his mouth and continued. "You'll meet a... drastic misfortune...a tribulation so to say. You'll be forced to make a choice."

"Tribulation? A choice?" Gaara asked in confusion.

He had totally given up on understanding the person in front of him and was just listening to his words.

"Hm, but you have to remember. We don't make choices, it's the choices we make that make us." The man said mysteriously.

"Ah...isn't that the same thing?" Gaara asked, causing the man to smile.

"Literally, it's the same thing, however you'll come to understand when you arrive at the threshold. Although I already know what choice you'll make, me telling you about it is bound to change a thing or two. I'll be watching..." The man's voice sounded all around the dimension that was his Mind-scape before both the voice and presence disappeared.

Gaara stood, perplexed at the incident that just took place. After a few minutes standing in the spiritual sand, he walked up to Shukaku.

"I've come again Shukaku."

"Humph." Shukaku snorted, raising a massive cloud of dust and sand that engulfed Gaara.

But as the dust cleared, it showed Gaara standing there unfazed by his assault. From the look on his face, one could easily deduce that this was a normal occurrence.

"You're interrupting my beauty sleep, brat. Beat it." Shukaku said and turned his body, creating a sandstorm greater than the previous ones.

However, it still had no effects in Gaara causing him to clock his tongue.

"Alright... however, I'm curious, who was that man?" Gaara asked in genuine curiosity.

"Beats me. Since he didn't tell you, then you don't need to know. Leave it at that." Shukaku said with a sneer before closing his eyes, however, a small smile crept up his massive mouth which didn't escape Gaara's perception.

Still, he nodded and immediately left his Mind-scape.

And as soon as he did, Shukaku opened his eyes and looked at where Gaara once stood. "That brat? Like hell I'll allow him to use my chakra. I wonder what Aniki is thinking."

Yup. The man from Earlier was Shun in his soul form.

Not just any Illusion of his consciousness, but his true Soul. The original fragment cut out from Shun's main body.

Although his current body as Shun Tengoku had a slight resemblance to his original body due to his soul's influence, they still weren't identical.

This was why the Tailed beast didn't recognise him whenever they met, they at most felt he felt familiar, but that was it.

Centuries of racism had blinded them to the possibility of Shun being alive, so like Hagoromo, he could only appear to them in his soul, so as not to arouse suspicions or influence them unnecessarily.

As for why he was here, it was to ask Shukaku to allow Gaara to use his chakra in his battle against the future Deidara.

He knew how strong the Deidara of now was, years ago during the Jounin Exams, he could already use the Dust Release. Although he knew that with his ego, he wouldn't use anything other than Explosives, he still felt like giving Gaara a little power boost in the person of Shukaku.

Perhaps in doing so, The battle would take on a different trajectory.

That was something he really looked forward to.

As for him being kidnapped in the end, it was granted. Even if he manages to defeat Deidara, there is still Sasori. And no matter how much control Shukaku exerts when supplying chakra, Gaara could still be exhausted while Sasori was a Puppet in all but Heart and Brain.

The Guy even went as far as to draw a Fuin inscription on his eyes to simulate a Dojutsu. Shun was impressed when he found out, but still, it wasn't all that much

The point was. Sasori was a beast Gaara couldn't possibly hope to win against.

It was an indelible fact.