Unrest in the Hidden Waterfall

"So far, around forty percent of our jonin are missing, disappearing during the middle of the night. Another ten percent are wounded along with a handful of chunin. It seems they are specifically targeting our most powerful shinobi. The majority of our current ranks are made up of genin and a handful of chunin, which is why the village is currently under an order to not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary," explained Shibuki grimly. That was why the village had been so barren, everyone had been hiding inside their homes. I wondered where Fu was, I really did want to meet her. Maybe asking Shibuki after the brief would get me an idea of where to find her. Putting that aside for a moment, it was starting to sink in how dire the situation was for Takigakure. Their jonin were being targeted and disappearing for unknown reasons and they didn't even know the identity of their foe.

"That means you have genin and chunin for most of your fighting force. They are lacking in experience which will show during any confrontation, it would be best if you divide them up so a chunin can guide them," said Baki. The Hidden Sand jonin looked to be deep in thought, I admired his ability to try and formulate a plan when he was working with next to no information.

"We have already done that," said Azumaki stiffly. Looks like she still had some resistance to us working together.

"Excellent, please continue then," said Baki without skipping a beat. He knew how Azumaki felt but he wasn't going to let that slow him down, something I should also do.

"Do we have to sit through this boring talk," questioned Shukaku with a grumble. I winced, it had slipped my mind that I had gotten Shukaku's attention for a singular question. Now I had his attention, which I needed to do something with before he got angry or bored.

"Baki, why don't I go and personally look at their defenses while you talk strategy," I said quickly. Baki glared at me before deciding and then nodding, excusing me from the meeting. Looking at the defenses of the Hidden Waterfall would be beneficial and I wouldn't be going any good here. I was not a brilliant tactician, at least not yet anyway.

"Make sure to make a detailed observation Lord Gaara, this isn't a time to be relaxing," reminded Baki as I grabbed the handle of the door.

"Should we send a guide with you," asked Shibuki. Azumaki stared daggers into me, knowing what would happen if I said yes. Not wanting to anger the jonin, I decided I could figure out how to get around Takigakure without getting lost.

"I'll be fine on my own, "I reassured them as I exited the room. Both the ANBU outside of the room stared me down just as they had before. I shrugged it off and kept walking, noticing that all of the shinobi I had seen on the way in looked even younger now. Most of them were my age, chatting in groups nervously until they saw me. They would then bolt to their stations and try their best to look impressive. The chunin stood out as well, a singular adult in each group who stood separate from the genin. I doubted any of these chunin had much experience, most of them were too young. I knew I was a bit of a hypocrite saying that about them when I wasn't even a chunin yet and my experience was only slightly above average. After leaving the house, I stopped to think about where to go first. I glanced around and then realized it was pretty obvious where I should start. The charred wreckage where shinobi were removing dead bodies would give me a good understanding of what we were up against. It was a short walk to the wreckage, the carnage looking even closer than it had when we had seen it from afar. Roughly a dozen shinobi who looked older, possibly a few of them jonin, were organizing the deceased. They glanced up at me solemnly before turning right back to their work. Looks like they weren't in the mood to question why I was here. Making a quick observation of the area, I found a shinobi that stood out. He wasn't lifting or moving bodies, he was just staring off into space. He looked to be only a little older than me, easily the youngest Waterfall shinobi here. He was about my height, with black scraggly hair that looked unkempt. His physique was surprisingly muscular and from what I could tell he had no scars. Strapped across his back was a naginata, a weapon I had only ever seen once before. It wasn't exactly your conventional ninja tool but it was a deadly weapon. A naginata looked like a long staff that had a curved blade attached at one end. Taking my thoughts off the weapon, I silently wondered why the boy had been assigned the gruesome task of cleaning up bodies. Was it possible he was already a jonin or maybe a chunin? It might be worthwhile to approach him and see if you could give me any details.

"Hey, you alright," I asked him quietly. The boy didn't even flinch, he continued staring down at the ground ahead of him.

"Do you humans normally do this? Or is this just another one of your flaws," whined Shukaku from inside my head. I ignored him and followed the gaze of the boy. Two corpses are what I found, both semi-recognizable in their current states. Both of them were male, one looked to be much older while the second was around my age from what I could tell. The older one had dull orange hair that was mostly hidden by a burnt hood. If I had to guess by the rest of his appearance, he was a shinobi, probably a jonin. The younger body had blonde hair, wore brightly colored clothes, and had broken glasses on his nose. Both of the corpses were covered with ash as well as blood. It truly was a gruesome sight that I didn't look too long at.

"They were my sensei and teammate," said the boy suddenly. He sniffled and tears dripped down his cheeks. I closed my eyes and took a moment to imagine the pain this poor kid was going through. If I lost Baki, Temari, or Kankuro I had no idea what I would do. How could someone even function after losing someone that was their mentor or comrade? I stepped closer and put my arm around the boy, slowly turning him away from the horrific view. The boy resisted and forced his eyes to turn back and look at the bodies. Sand poured out of my gourd, quickly covering the remains. He turned and looked at me, a mask of anger covering his face. It vanished when he noticed the solemn look on my face. The boy paused before even more tears streamed down his face.

"I'm sorry that this happened to you. I'm Gaara from the Hidden Sand, I'm here to try and help your village stop these attacks. Could you possibly tell me some details about the attack, "I said softly. It felt kind of insensitive to be asking questions like that when the boy was trying to grieve but I had a job to do. Getting distracted could cause another person just like him to lose their comrades or friends. I wouldn't allow that to happen on my watch, especially when it was my mission. The boy sniffled and wiped his tears away before putting on a determined face.

"They came out of nowhere, without any kind of warning. It was night too, so we could hardly see where they were coming from. That is the exact reason why there were so many casualties, we were unable to get ourselves a moment to organize. Ohano sensei was trying his best to get all of our shinobi into a coordinated defense around Lord Shibuki's house when a massive Jutsu hit us," he explained while sniffling. I turned to look back at the carnage in awe. A single attack had done all this damage? I could only hope it had been a combined effort from many attackers and not a single powerful enemy. There would be serious trouble if we had a shinobi that strong as our enemy.

"Thank you for telling me that, please continue, "I said politely. The boy nodded but stopped himself.

"You said your name was Gaara right? My name is Rigawa Tadika," he said firmly. Looks like he was getting some determination in his veins. I could tell Rigawa was quickly turning his emotions towards helping me. As good as that was for me, I didn't want him to become a homicidal revenge killer. Which meant I needed to keep a close eye on him so he wouldn't do anything stupid.

"It is nice to meet you Rigawa. I only wish it was under better circumstances," I said regretfully.

"As do I. Now then, allow me to continue telling you about the attack. The ANBU assigned to Lord Shibuki managed to set up a barrier before the Jutsu hit his home. They held it while the rest of us who had been caught in the blast did our best to repel the attackers," said Rigawa with distant eyes. I could only imagine what he was reliving by telling about that fateful night. Glancing back, I could see the definite line where the barrier had been placed around Shibuki's house. If the ANBU hadn't placed that barrier who knows what could have happened to Shibuki.

"After the blast, I was separated from my team. I ended up fighting alongside a ragtag group of ninjas from different teams and divisions. We fought for what felt like hours before the ninjas eventually stopped jumping out of the dark at us," Rigawa said with a sigh. From what he was saying, the attackers had used the cover of darkness and the element of surprise to inflict such a devastating blow to the Hidden Waterfall. They must have had rogue shinobi or possibly a spy that informed them of how to enter the Hidden Waterfall undetected. That part bothered me since Azumaki had made it clear they took the secrecy of their village very seriously.

"What can you tell me about the disappearing jonin," I asked next. It was undoubtedly linked to the attacks on Takigakure. It might possibly even be their real motive for attacking the village.

"Not much, only that both jonin and ANBU simply vanish during the night. They go out on patrol or are on their way to their post when they vanish. There are usually signs of struggle but never a body or survivors. It has all of us a little shaken by how efficiently our strongest shinobi are being taken down, "Rigawa admitted. I gritted my teeth, who could possibly be behind all of this? It must be one of the major players like Orochimaru or possibly the Akatsuki. The method of the attacks made me doubt it was Akatsuki, they didn't attack in hordes of masked shinobi. It could be another Hidden Village, maybe even a Great Nation such as the Hidden Stone. There were too many blanks for me to make a definitive guess, unfortunately.

"Your village has a jinchuriki, correct? Has there been any attempts to try and take her," I asked. Jinchuriki's wielded immense power, anyone who obtained the power of one would become ten times stronger. I couldn't allow Fu to fall victim to the Akatsuki or anyone else trying to get her Tailed Beast.

"No, she lives on the outskirts of the village by herself. No one really checks on her though so I could be wrong," Rigawa said with an uncaring shrug. I gritted my teeth a little at how heartless his attitude was toward Fu. He wasn't acting any different than most people did towards jinchuriki such as myself.

"Can you show me to where she lives," I asked as nicely as I could. It was hard to hold back my irritation at his attitude.

"I can't do that, that place is cursed," said Rigawa with a weird look.

"Can we kill him now," complained Shukaku.

"Unfortunately, we can't do that Shukaku. Just because he doesn't understand jinchuriki's doesn't mean we get to kill him," I said calmly.

"I don't see your point but fine," he replied.

"Rigawa, just show me where she lives," I said bluntly. Rigawa flinched for a moment before shaking his head.

"Fine, but I'm not going in with you okay? I'll be your guide but only since your here to help," he muttered as he walked away. He shot one last glance at the pile of sand covering his comrades, then shuffled away. I didn't want to remove the sand but I needed it, so u delicately put it back inside of my gourd and followed Rigawa. We walked through the village in silence, Rigawa giving me strange glances every couple of minutes. Before I asked about Fu he had been friendly toward me but now he was acting like I was crazy. I really couldn't place all the blame on him though, jinchurki wasn't known for being the most stable shinobi. Losing control of their Tailed Beast was a common occurrence, and the rampages they went on were devastating.

"What happened to your other teammate? Squads usually have three genin and a jonin leader," I asked finally. I needed to move his thoughts away from Fu for right now. Rigawa blabbing to other Hidden Waterfall shinobi about me visiting Fu could be a problem. I didn't want her to get any bad treatment because of me.

"She's is currently in the hospital with two broken legs," Rigawa replied bluntly. I cringed, of course, I had hit another sensitive topic.

"What about your team, surely you didn't come alone," said Rigawa. Whew, I really didn't want to have to ask him another loaded question.

"I came here with my sensei who is currently taking with your leader. My other two teammates are in the Hidden Leaf preparing for the chunin exams final," I explained to him. Surprisingly, Rigawa chuckled at my response. His chuckle turned into a full-fledged laugh that went on for a strangely long time.

"What's so funny," I asked, feeling more than a little perplexed. Rigawa gave me a knowing look, as if I wasn't in on some inside joke of some sort.

"It's just you saying that brought back memories," he replied with a shrug. Memories? Rigawa must be a chunin then if he was talking about the exams like this. It was also possible he had failed them but I wasn't going to assume that.

"Wanna tell me about them," I said as I moved to walk beside him. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious to hear what had been so funny to him.

"Well, my team made it to the final section of the chunin exams last time they were held. It was kinda a big surprise we made it that far, back then we weren't a very good team. Ohano sensei did his best but Yamisu and I never got along, we were always vying for the attention of Kosone," he said with a wistful smile. Chills of nostalgia raced down my spine, a squad dynamic like this sounded all too familiar in some regards.

"So what happened at the finals? Did all of you become chunin," I asked him.

"Well, Yamisu and I got matched up against each other. To say our fight was dramatic would be an understatement, it was easily the longest one of the final exam. The match was finally called a draw at the end, we were too evenly matched apparently," he said with distant eyes. I nodded to him, Yamisu must have been the boy that had killed along with Rigawa's sensei. From how Rigawa spoke of him, they had a very close yet competitive friendship. How would it feel to have that ripped away from you? I didn't want to think about it too much, it didn't feel good thinking about death.

"What about your other teammate, Kosone? Did she win her match," I questioned. Rigawa shook his head with another thin smile.

"Nope, she lost her match as well. All three of us were made chunin in the end though, probably since we were the only Hidden Waterfall team to attend that year. They try to keep the number of chunin and join in balanced as I'm sure you know. We had good enough skills so they saw no reason not to promote us," explained Rigawa. That was pretty lucky of them, not many got promoted to chunin on their first try.

"It sounds to me like you have some priceless memories with your team," I commented. Looking back, my team and I had many memories together too. We shared meals, training sessions, and helped the Hidden Artisan Village. The list went on and I could only hope it would continue to do so.

"Your right, I did have a lot of great memories with my team. They are a thing of the past now," Rigawa said quietly. Deafening silence except for the shuffle of our feet enveloped us, neither of us sure what to say after that.

"You still have Kosone, don't think that your life is over. Losing your teammate and sensei was a tragedy but it doesn't define you," I told him, trying to be hopeful. I knew the words I was saying were the correct ones but it was hard to deliver them with any meaning. Rigawa had just lost two important people in his life, words probably weren't doing much for him right now.

"That's easy for you to say," Rigawa responded. I didn't say anything else for fear of making him more bitter about his loss. That comment marked the end of our conversation, I didn't dare say another insensitive comment and he didn't want to talk it seemed.

"Her house is right up ahead," he finally said after another ten minutes of walking. Saying Fu lived on the outskirts of the village was putting it lightly. You had to walk on a narrow path that twisted and turned through the forest around the village. After several minutes of that, the path straightened out to go directly to Fu's house. I walked up a slight incline, once I reached the top I immediately saw Fu's home. It was a run-down shack of a cabin that had definitely seen better days. It couldn't have more than two or three rooms inside of it judging by its size. After seeing her house, I noticed that there was a crowd outside it. A heavy sense of dread settled into my stomach. This wasn't looking good, crowds don't gather outside of a jinhcuriki's home for any good reason. As if they had heard my thoughts, an angry cheer came from the crowd which was followed by a volley of stones. The stones bounced harmlessly off the walls of the house but the message was clear. I could feel my blood starting to boil as well as the anger creeping into my head.

"Do you need my help with these worms," growled Shukaku.

"No, I am more than strong enough to deal with them," I responded icily.

"I'm here if you change your mind," Shukaku said. It was obvious he just wanted to teach the crowd a lesson himself but unfortunately for him, I wanted to teach them a lesson without killing them. I strode forward at an alarming pace, I could hear Rigawa scramble to catch up to me.

"Gaara! Don't do anything-,"

"Stay out of this," I snapped at him. Rigawa lunged forward to try and grab me but he had no idea who he was messing with. Sand flew out of my gourd and slapped his hand away. Rigawa stumbled back, cradling his right arm in pain. I didn't even glance back at him, I simply continued towards Fu's cabin. The crowd hadn't taken notice of us yet, they were still throwing stones at the side of the house. Many of the people in the crowd were children it teenagers, something that made me feel sick. They should be on Fu's side, they were the same age as her. The adults who must have been the parents of the teenagers and kids looked beyond angry. Veins bulging and brows twisted in anger, I doubted they were expecting any resistance. It was about time I changed that notion though. Ripping my scrolls from my sling, I summoned forth all of the sand I could. My gourd quickly emptied at my command, a pile of iron sand on my right while the normal sand was on my left. I stopped and listened to see what the crowd was screaming as they threw the stones.

"Get out of our village you freak!"

"You're the reason my husband is dead!"

"Our village is under attack because of the bad luck you bring upon us!"

"Why don't you just go die?"

I snapped, that last comment was just too much for me to handle. My normal sand races forward and quickly created a barrier between the crowd and the house. The barrage of stones they had launched bounced harmlessly off of my sand. A sea of faces suddenly turned my way, confusion and surprise evident in all of them.

"Who are you? Why are you sticking your nose in our business," yelled someone angrily.

"I'm Gaara of the Desert. I am on a mission to help your village rid itself of these attacks. I was recently made aware all of you should be at home until further notice. I'm simply enforcing the rules of your leader," I said coldly. I sensed uneasiness in the crowd, now that they were confronted many weren't sure of what they should do. A few faces remained contorted in rage though, not even flinching at my remark. Good, I was hoping they all wouldn't be pushovers.

"You have no right to tell us what to do you, outsider! You know nothing of our village," shouted one of the defiant ones. Many of the others began nodding, rallying to their original goal. I'd try to convince them to leave for a little longer. After that, I wasn't sure how well I could hold my anger back.

"Attacking this girl at her home won't change anything. She has nothing to do with these attacks and is a victim just like all of you," I yelled. This time the crowd looked much less unsure of themselves. I had just challenged deep routed hate of theirs, as well as discrediting their belief. A burly man stepped forward from the crowd, his arms rippling with muscles. He had a scruffy black beard and a greasy patch of hair on his head. To be honest, he looked much more like an ox than a human. The one thing that didn't worry me was that he had a Hidden Waterfall headband on, meaning he was a shinobi. A deadly confrontation wasn't what I wanted and having trained shinobi in the crowd would make that difficult.

"Leave before we make you leave," spat the man. He drew a kunai from his holster which made many in the crowd nervous. The majority of the crowd still sided with him it seemed.

"I'm not leaving you here to torment this girl," I said firmly. I hadn't even seen Fu yet which was a good thing and a bad thing. It was good since she didn't have to witness this emotional trauma, but bad since I couldn't keep an eye on her. I didn't want some of the crowd slipping away to attack her while I tried to deal with the majority. Luckily, I had a solution to that issue. A few hand signs later and there were three sand clones of me surrounding the crowd. The large man stared daggers into me. With a flick of his wrist, he sent his kunai flying at one of my sand clones. The speed and force behind it were breathtaking, my clone barely had time to raise up a wall of iron sand to block it.

"We can resolve this peacefully. There is no need to fight," I said with as much conviction I could put behind that statement. It was a lie, of course, I really wanted to teach them all a lesson but I doubt Baki would be too proud if I was the one starting the trouble. Luckily for me, the man didn't seem too keen to reason. With lightning-quick reflexes, he sent three shurikens flying at my face. All of my regular sand was being used to shield Fu's house so I had to manually raise an iron sand barrier to stop the shuriken. They bounce harmlessly off the shield, which didn't seem to surmise the man. His attacks weren't meant to be lethal, he was getting a grasp of my abilities. Quite smart for someone so quick to violence.

"I'll give you one last chance to back down," I told him with a glare.

"It's her fault we are in this mess. The people who attacked the village have been looking for her. If we get rid of her then they will leave. So, if you want to help us, get rid of her," shouted the man. A cheer of approval roared from the crowd which made my stomach twist with disgust. Hanging my head, I gritted my teeth and did my best to restrain myself.

"Gaara," muttered Shukaku.

"I know," I muttered to him.

"What's it gonna be kid," growled the man. He didn't have to wait long for my response, a wave of iron sand rushed toward him before he could even finish talking. The man balked and hurriedly leaped into the air to get away. That was exactly what I wanted him to do though, I snatched him straight from the air using some of my lighter regular sand. I held the man above the crowd in a bundle of sand with only his head sticking out.

"Anyone else want to try me," I asked frostily. The crowd was stunned, to say the least, almost all of them were looking for an escape route from me. Perfect, I didn't want to end up fighting all of these people. Some had likely gotten caught up in the moment or we were simply afraid of the current predicament.

"Hey, let him down!"

A group of about half a dozen shinobi pushed their way to the front of the crowd. Four of them were men and two of them were women. None of them looked too happy to see their comrade hanging in the air because of me.

"Leave and I will let him go," I replied.

"Water Style: Water Shark Blade," shouted the woman with long black hair. She weaved the signs and then brought her right hand to her mouth. Water spewed out of her mouth and immediately took the form of a sword with jagged teeth for its blade. The other five ninjas readied themselves as well, determined to get their friend back. Without giving it away, I removed some of my iron sand to start grinding up the earth so I could make new sand. Using my iron sand while the rest of my sand was protecting Fu's house would be a pain, hence the new sand. Until I made a usable amount of new and though, I would only have my iron sand. I guess I needed the practice with it anyways.

"Surrender or die," said the girl with the water blade. I guess she was the ringleader of this group of shinobi, at least while the bigger man was still in my grasp. She would be the perfect place to start then. I had a specific move in mind that I wanted to try now that I had grown more accustomed to the iron sand. Sasori had used it when fighting Chiyo and Sakura during their confrontation and it had worked well enough. Though, I would need to make sure I didn't kill any of these shinobi with it.

"Iron Sand: Spiking Limbs of Death," I said with a wicked smile. The iron sand collected itself above me and then began branching out into dozens of limbs. These limbs then gree even more limbs of their own until a jagged spiderweb of iron sand branches had formed. The crowd behind the shinobi began scattering at the sight of my iron sand, it certainly was terrifying to watch. The Hidden Waterfall shinobi also lost some of their spunk, many of them had their eyes bulging out of their sockets. All of them dept for the black-haired woman of course. She remained unwavering, her jagged water blade at the ready. So be it, if she was ready then I would send it her way. With a flick of my wrist, the iron sand web came crashing down on the shinobi. I was careful enough to make sure none of the limbs were inescapable so that none of the shinobi would be killed. The iron sand web hit the ground with a massive thud, sending up plumes of dust into the air.

"Your getting better Gaara, I never thought you could get so creative with your sand," complimented Shukaku with approval.

"I wouldn't be able to even move this iron sand without you Shukaku. You're the reason why I'm able to do any of this," I told him truthfully.

"I know," he chuckled. I sighed, why did he have to be so cocky.

"Don't think you've got us just yet," yelled a voice from within the dust. The second after that was said, the black-haired girl exploded out of the dust, slashing through my iron sand tendrils like they were paper. That water blade of hers was no joke, and it was now getting worryingly close to me. The woman suddenly lunged forward, closing the gap between us to only be a few feet. Just before the blade rescued me, my iron sand grabbed her arm and tossed her away from me. The woman tumbled through the air only to gracefully land on her feet. I now noticed she had several cuts on her seems as well as her face that had blood dripping out of them. Looks like she was definitely a fighter.

"I'm impressed you made it through my iron sand. That is quite the sword," I said with a cocky smirk. Her eyes narrowed, a tick of anger now in her eyes.

"My name is Tsuri Sumitsu. I've killed dozens of enemy shinobi in my life, many just like you. You won't be talking down about my Jutsu when it cuts you in half," she said menacingly. Quite the lip on her too, I hope she had the skills to back it up.

"This looks like it will be fun, don't you agree Gaara," asked Shukaku.

"You have no idea just how much I agree with you."