Senjutsu

Gaara was only six years old when he began this journey. Though not the typical six-year-old, he was young—some might even say too young. But his thoughts dwelled on the prospective future, perhaps revealing a maturity beyond his years.

Time passed in the blink of an eye. Now he sat in the middle of an endless desert, empty and quiet. Sometime after he had fallen into deep meditation, Shukaku emerged, unbeknownst to Gaara. He remained unaware, intent on tuning into the natural energy around him, but he found he could not absorb chakra. Gaara stayed in his trance for so long, striving to become one with the environment, that he lost all sense of time.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was shocked to find he could barely move. Trying to shake himself awake, he gradually clawed his way out of the darkness. He had been buried under the sand, though thankfully not too deeply. He clenched his fists and found his entire body coated in dust and mold, his hair and skin tinged with red sand until they nearly blended into the landscape.

As he took a deep breath, it felt as though he had slept for just a single night. Everything around him looked unchanged, yet something inside him had transformed. He could sense it—he had grown, not only in height but also in maturity. If he had a mirror, he would see his face had aged slightly; the dark rings around his eyes were now more defined, and his overgrown hair blended into the red sand around him.

But what was most striking was the power simmering within his body. His chakra reserves were about forty percent full—not much by ordinary standards but impressive for a young jinchuriki. And yet, it wasn't chakra that filled him; it was natural energy. He realized that sage energy, somehow, overpowered chakra, making it impossible for both to coexist within him.

He had likely remained in his meditative state for over a year and was only forty percent full of this potent energy. Just how powerful was it?

With that question in mind, he resolved to explore this newfound power. "But first, where is Shukaku?" he wondered. "Has he broken the contract and run off?" Gaara recalled Shukaku's words about the desert not being suitable for him, despite being a tailed beast—a sentient force of energy.

To test his abilities, Gaara attempted his first jutsu: the Shadow Clone Jutsu. With a single hand sign, he created five clones with a minuscule amount of sage energy. A smile spread across his face as he closed his eyes, seeing himself through his clones' eyes.

"This must be sage transformation," he murmured. Although incomplete, it was exhilarating, different from anything he had imagined. Deciding to survey the area, he placed a seal on each of his clones. "Courtesy of Shukaku," he thought, pleased with the results.

Sending his clones to explore, he turned his focus inward, and there—far away, buried deep underground—he sensed Shukaku. The tailed beast, like him, was completely immersed in its own training.

"I never thought I'd see the day a tailed beast trained," Gaara remarked with quiet amazement.