Naruto : Struggle Of Childhood

Heat of Battle

Gaara sometimes wished that people weren't so darned fragile.

They were kind of like grapefruit unless he was really, really careful. Gaara didn't really want to kill anyone that badly, but it was hard to control yourself with all the noise going on outside of and inside of his head. With Sandy Wandy's screaming and the Nara clan's attacks, it was amazing that Gaara had any control over his sand at all.

He had followed his siblings only to find that they had headed straight for the Hokage Monument and straight into the guard of ROOT nin who were protecting it. Apparently it wasn't used for civilians anymore. From the numbers of people around it, it was probably where the real Danzou was safely hidden with about ten or twenty of his more trusted men, and directing the battle from there. He was clever, but he wouldn't risk his own life in this battle, not when both attacking sides seemed to agree that he and ROOT should be disposed of first before trying to kill each other. Besides, he was unsure of who was loyal at the moment, and he wasn't going to risk himself.

Smart but not endearing to the rest of the ninja.

Gaara was standing in the center of a swirling dome of sand that was obeying his silent orders and attacking those around him. The Nara seemed to have been about to mount an attack when the Suna nin arrived, and he was now standing in front of a large group of them, including one Shikamaru, apparently an old friend of Naruto.

"This is such a pain", Shikamaru sighed as the man who had been frozen by Shikamaru's shadow was attacked by Temari's fan, "Whose side are we on anyways?"

"Ours," Gaara said, shooting his hand around the pair of them and making it snake out to attack one of Kankuro's puppets. (He really felt guilty about doing that.)

Shikamaru nodded a little in agreement and side stepped one of his mother's kunai. (Was that woman human? Her attacks were enough to honestly freak out Shakaku slightly. She'd just impaled that one guy.)

Shikamaru didn't seem like he was the greatest fighter in the world, but he was excellent at tactics. Gaara was pretty sure that he had a long, happy career ahead of him. Not that he actually wanted it, so maybe it would be the gods' way of getting back at him for his laziness. It was appropriate.

Gaara sent a tendril of sand out, surrounding Temari and Kankuro as a few more Suna nin appeared. He noticed as something came flying towards him but was blocked by his sand. Gaara moved his eyes to see the form of Matsuri, breathing hard and looking wildly at him.

"Leave my teammates alone!" she yelled, looking more terrified that she was being stupid enough to face him head on than anything else.

Gaara's sand wrapped around her before she could attack again. Matsuri's eyes widened and she struggled, but nothing happened. Finally, Matsuri took a deep breath, and Gaara raised an eyebrow.

She wasn't.

"Do-"

She was.

Gaara's sand wrapped around her mouth very quickly. There was absolutely no way that he was going to have poison spat at him. He had trained enough with Hinata to know that even when it was done alone, it was a dangerous technique.

"I'm surprised you figured out how to copy that jutsu after only seeing it once, Gaara admitted, "And by the surprised looks of your teammates, they didn't know you could accomplish that either."