Confessions

Temari climbed to the top of an abandoned building, the chakra in her feet sticking her to side of the wall, like a hawk at its perch.

Everyone was already making their way into the shelter in neat, hurried lines. She scanned the crowd, looking for one face in particular.

Surely, he'd know they'd figured out who he was by the trap he left? There's no way he'd hide in the shelter with the rest. It would make him a fish in the barrel.

No, he was hiding somewhere in the empty village and she was going to sniff him out like the rat he was.

She'd thought about tracking him by foot, but then remembered who it was she hunted; Yashida, fourth son of the Sato clan, master of traps.

Temari approved of his application to the council herself, though it was more nepotism than anything else. The Sato clan long held a seat beside the Kazekage for their tactful minds. It made sense to earn favor with the head trappers in the village.

She looked down at the road beside her and noticed the faintest disturbance in the dirt. "Gotcha."

Temari threw a kunai down to the spot and an explosion set off where she would have stepped. "You little bastard."

The hastily-laid trap was unlike the careful man, but she knew he was pressed for time. He'd anticipated the Sand guard's pursuit, but he underestimated one thing; a powerful and pissed off woman.

She waited for the right moment, testing the breeze with her open hand and extended her fan, letting the wind carry her over the top of the alleys.

Along the way, she threw down various weaponry, triggering his traps.

It slowed down her hunt, but the thought of a child stepping on them made her blood boil. The Captain fully intended to live up to the Sand's reputation for dealing with traitors... personally.

The wind roared over the village, nearly forcing her off her perch. Temari had to maintain balance, while still searching and was coming up empty.

"Where are you?" She snarled.

The final trap ignited at the Southern wall, where this whole thing began.

Temari pointed her body into a nose dive, slamming her fan closed and opening it again just before she landed.

The standing guards saluted her. "Captain!"

"Has anyone passed through the hole? Speak!"

"No ma'am!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, ma'am! We've been watching the entire time. Ever since the councilman told us you were coming and told us to close the space off behind him."

"What?"

One of the guards looked from the wall, to Temari. "Councilman Sato, ma'am. He told us you were on your way to assist with the terrorist, who may be escaping and to be ready to fight."

She closed the distance between them, grabbing the man's collar, her voice deadly in the night. "When have I ever relied on a weakling councilman to give my orders, soldier?"

"Um..I.."

"The next answer you give me, will determine if I shed only one man's blood tonight. Where did Yashida Sato go after he spoke with you?"

He swallowed, cold sweat pouring down his back. "He went through the wall, ma'am. Said he was setting traps on the outside, in case the terrorist from the Sound escaped your grasp."

"How long ago?"

"Just now, ma'am. Five minutes at most."

She threw him away from herself and climbed the steps to the top of wall. Her keen eyes scanned the desert sand, trying to find a figure amongst the shadows.

Of course, he'd come through the South wall. He'd planned that from the beginning, in case things went badly.

Clever little rat.

That's when she saw him, a mere speck against the darkness.

She scoffed. "Bet you think you've escaped me. Think again."

Extending her fan to its full form, Temari bit her thumb and trailed the blood across it. "Summoning Jutsu: Kamatari!"

The white, one-eyed weasel sprang forth from her fan, it's scythe at the ready.

She pointed to the fading image of her prey. "Cut him down, Kamatari, but leave some for me."

The demon shot through the sky like an arrow from a bow, straight and true. It drew its scythe back and sliced the escaping man out from under his knees, sending him spiraling down a dune.

Temari smiled. "Perfection."

Using the fierce desert winds, she glided towards her captive, who'd rolled down about twenty feet and was still trying to crawl to his freedom.

Kamatari curled around her, satisfied at its attack.

Temari ran her fingers down its soft, white coat as it faded away back to the world of yokai.

She could hear Yashida's sobbing grunts echoing off the dunes, each one more pathetic than the last, as she made her way towards him.

"That was quite a stunt you pulled, councilman. You'd very nearly escaped us. If I wasn't so insulted by your final ploy with my guards, I'd almost be impressed."

He twisted on his back, throwing a shuriken at her. "Get away from me!"

Temari dodged it easily, his movements were getting sloppy. "Are you really still fighting? Even with your legs gone and your blood pouring out?"

Yashida panted, the loss of blood gaining on him.

The Captain wasn't more than five feet away now. "You wasted your talents on the council. Clearly, you have more fight than you let on."

He stopped crawling and laid on the ground, watching her close the distance between us. "Please! Please don't kill me."

"Mm hm."

He started to cry. She hated when they cried. "Come now, councilman. Let's take this like a warrior, shall we?"

"It's not fair."

That caught her attention. "What isn't? You've turned against your village, your Kazekage. You endangered the lives of everyone around you. What isn't fair about that?"

Yashida sobbed, covering his face with his hands. "I never wanted to do any of that. I don't even know why I did it."

"I'd like to know that as well. The Sato family has always been loyal to the Sand."

"I am!"

Temari closed her fan and crossed her arms, but her fingers stayed on the kunai hidden in her belt. "Well, you certainly have an interesting way of showing your devotion. Why did you do it, Yashida? Why did you want to hurt your village."

"She made me!"

"She?"

His cries were feral, pitching and falling in his misery.

The broken cry of a wounded animal.

"I... I never wanted to hurt anyone. I don't even know why I did these things. They just sounded so right at the time. She said it would be all right. She promised I was doing the right thing, but now, I don't understand it. I don't understand anything!"

Temari felt a string of pity pull in her heart.

This wasn't her first kill; she'd lost count of the men she'd slaughtered in the past. The light leaving their eyes, the cries for mercy, all of it, she knew, but this felt different.

He felt different.

She knelt down beside him, taking his hand into her own, her voice a whisper against his sobs. "Your life is ending, Yashida. The scythe slit your femoral arteries. I don't expect you to survive another ten minutes at this rate."

His breath hitched.

She squeezed his hand. "But, you have a chance now, to die a traitor or, one last time, serve your Kazekage. Tell me what happened and I'll see to it, that your family doesn't know the extent of your involvement."

Yashida inhaled, the rattle in the back of his throat, confirming her suspicions. "It started out in the darkness."

~

Gaara was falling.

The world rushed past him, darkness shrouding his descent. Up and down, left or right, nothing made sense in this place.

His hands flailed around him, trying to catch onto any foothold to steady himself and found none.

He brushed an arm past his head. "Sand Wall!"

For the first time in his life, the ever-present force didn't come to his aid. He tried again, pulling both arms up and the result remained the same.

Wherever he was, his sand wasn't welcomed.

Panic flittered on the edges of his mind. Where was he? Why was he falling and worse, what would be waiting at the bottom?

"Wait a second..." He focused his mind, his memories piecing together the image of Rin slamming her hand against his forehead, the haunting tone of her voice when she induced over him.

There was a flash of light to his side, pulling his attention to the right and the image of white walls and hands gripping onto the arms of a metal chair, assaulted him.

Gaara covered his face with his arms, when a wicked looking scalpel came near the host's eyes, piercing them. The world around him turned red, the blood of the past, dripping down the walls of this mind in raging currents.

"This isn't my memory. This isn't my mind. How does Rin do this?"

"Take a breath, always start the journey with a deep, cleansing breath." Her voice came to his mind and he followed her instructions.

Breathe in... 1...2...3... and out...3...2...1.

He tried, though it was difficult with the sensation of lost gravity and a mind that was showing him horrific images at every turn.

Finally, though it took more times than he'd liked, Gaara calmed himself and the world around him complied.

His feet settled on fleshy ground, soft and malleable beneath him. The sensation reminded him of trudging through mud, sinking his footsteps down with each step. The experience of walking through a mind, that wasn't his own, made him feel like an intruder.

It felt wrong, he wasn't supposed to be here.

Gaara noticed the chains hanging from the walls. "This isn't my kind of darkness."

He weighted the chain in his hand and narrowed his gaze when it came back red. "This is a different form of cruelty."

A scream made him jump, dropping the bloodied shackles.

It reverberated the walls surrounding him and rippled the floor in angry waves, causing him to nearly lose his footing.

How Rin managed to walk through the mind so easily was impressive.

His legs felt wobbly, as he tried to rush down the hallways. It reminded him of the first time he paid a visit to the Land of Waves and stepped off the boat.

Back then he had his sand to steady him, now, he was on his own.

Another flash of light appeared to his left, this time holding the image of a much younger Rin. She was sitting on a white bench, braiding her hair.

Gaara stopped to watch, smiling at the look of concentration on her face, as she mumbled to herself. "Right and then left and then middle. Right...left... middle?"

The braid knotted up in the middle and she let out a frustrated grunt, tossing it behind her.

Gaara's mouth opened to laugh, when a different voice did it for him.

"All that chakra control and you can't even tame your own hair, 18?"

Eighteen? What's eighteen?

"Shut up! It's harder than it looks."

"What's so hard about it? It's literally three steps."

Rin stuck her tongue out. "Then you try, oh great 15. Since you're so good at everything."

Gaara watched when the memory shifted and two hands, that didn't belong to him, came to her frazzled hair. "Okay, so it's left...middle...right."

"Nope."

"Um, middle... left and then right?"

Rin made a noise like a buzzer and Gaara smiled at her attitude. Her fire was prevalent even in her youth.

The hair in his hands fumbled together, knotting in the middle and he felt the same frustration his host did.

This shouldn't be that hard. Why was is it hard?

Rin turned her head and grinned at him. "Not so tough now, are you?"

Gaara memorized the playful smile on her face and felt his heart race. He wanted to kiss that mischievous smile, elicit the stream of giggles that made his head spin and he realized that he was, but it wasn't him doing it.

Gaara's smile faded, as the memory did.

He shouldn't feel jealous, of course Rin had a life before him, but watching another man spark that light in her eyes...

His feet quickly turned away from the image and he continued on towards the wailing, trying his best to ignore anything else that popped up to block him.

The screaming pitched and faded away, sounds of torture and agony drifting through the channels of his mind.

Gaara felt like he was going in circles, how was he supposed to navigate a brain that wasn't his own? Why did Rin bring him here in the first place? How was all of this possible?

Suddenly, a female scream joined the male's and it made him stop in his tracks.

He knew that voice.

Abandoning all sense of direction, the Kazekage shot forward through the darkness, tripping over chains and skeletal hands and all manner of things put up to stop him. Nothing would stop him from coming to her side, when she screamed like that.

Gaara turned one of the many corners and nearly stumbled over the sprawled form of Haru and the curled-up girl, right beside him.

"Rin!" He yelled, kneeling beside her.

"Stop it! Stop hurting him! Please!" She sobbed, holding her hands to her head.

Gaara slid his arms around her. "Rin. Open your eyes. It's me."

She threw her hands against his chest, shooting away from his grasp and throwing herself over Haru's body. "No more! Leave him alone!"

"Rin..." Gaara stood helpless.

"You're not going to save her." A voice made him startle.

He turned around, trying to peer through the near pitch black. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Funny little thing, isn't she? Always sticking her nose where it doesn't belong."

A shadow moved in the darkness.

Gaara's hand raised to summon his sand, before he remembered it wouldn't follow him here. "What's going on?"

The voice laughed. "I'd think it's quite obvious, though it may not be to someone who isn't a mind-melder. How did the Kazekage find his way here, I wonder?"

Gaara's eyes turned towards Rin, who was still covering Haru and watched as she lunged forward, fighting at something that wasn't there.

"Rin."

"Wait a second. You'll see where her efforts have been getting her." The voice sounded horrifically pleased with itself.

Rin conjured a knife out of thin air, her talents for imagination creating whatever arsenal she needed and she slashed it against the wall, cutting deep.

Both Haru and Rin screamed when the same wound appeared on their bodies.

The voice laughed. "Over and over she's done this and still hasn't figured it out. It's a little embarrassing, really."

"This is sick." Gaara snarled, trying to gain on whomever it was in the shadows.

"This is justice, Lord Kazekage. But, I'll ask again, how did you find yourself inside this mind? I know you haven't the ability to perform the Sleep-Walker Jutsu."

He stopped in his tracks. "How do you know about Rin's jutsu?"

A malicious chuckle rippled the walls around them. "Because I'm the one who invented it."