Chapter 2: Insomnia

Although all of this happened so fast, he immediately accepted it, mostly because of Gaara's memories that he felt okay being Gaara.

….

'According to my memory, my father has been training me since I was 2 years old. And also, it doesn't seem like Shukaku can hear my thoughts, and I can't hear his thoughts either. Unless I intentionally talked to him or he wanted to talk to me or if I talk out loud. He usually talks to me every night, saying that he would take over my body once I fell asleep and start killing everyone around me. Well, he did just that last night but was immediately taken down by my father and the Honoured Siblings.' - (Gaara)

*Tok! Tok!*

A knock on the door was heard.

Hearing this, Gaara immediately lay back on his bed. The door opened, revealing Rasa and his siblings. Kankuro and Temari ran towards him to see if he's okay but Rasa stopped them before they could step further.

"Stay back, you two." - (Rasa)

"B-but father-" - (Kankuro) tried to say something but Rasa just ignored him and walked towards Gaara.

"So you're back huh?" - (Rasa)

"Considering everything you've done, this is nothing new to me." - (Gaara)

"Hn, can't believe you've let Shukaku rampage inside the village. You're such a disappointment, Gaara."- (Rasa)

After that, he gestured to his kids and left the room.

"G-gaara." - (Temari) said worriedly before leaving the room with Kankuro reluctantly.

"Tsk!" - (Gaara) greeted his teeth and closed his eyes.

'For some reason, when I see that father of mine in person, I feel like I'm burning with rage. That guy is a piece of shït. After killing mother indirectly, he wants to vent all his anger and resentment onto me. I remember during training, I tried to kill him multiple times but the outcome was very obvious. Right now, I'm still nothing compared to him.' - (Gaara)

He lay on his bed and almost fell asleep but then he remembered Shukaku so he forced himself to stay awake. Unleashing Shukaku really took a huge toll on him. It's only thanks to the Honored Siblings for reinforcing the seal that Shukaku wasn't able to take over again during his sleep last night.

He remembered meditating in the past but it's like the same thing with sleeping, his consciousness will just drift away so that's also out of the question.

'How am I supposed to rest?' - (Gaara)

Then he got a spark of inspiration. In this world there is something called mindscape, especially for a jinjuriki like him. So he decided to go there and try to sleep if possible. That will be much safer since both Shukaku and his ethereal body will be in the same place than to sleep in real life where he will be vulnerable from inside.

He sat on his bed and entered a meditative position.

–Mindscape–

Gaara appeared in a huge dark room with water reaching his toe. The ceiling is so high and the room is so wide that he couldn't even see the end of it. He had been here many times before so he was able to enter easily.

Deeper in the room, he could see 2 black shuriken-like pupils and yellow irises. The eyes get closer and closer, revealing a huge sand-like body with black markings all over it.

"What are you doing here, brat?!" - (Shukaku) said in a squeaky but hoarse voice.

Gaara just ignored him and lay on the ground. The water under him is quite cold but he doesn't care, he really needs to rest right now. He used his palms as a pillow and proceeded to sleep.

"Who do you think you are, ignoring me?!" - (Shukaku) exclaimed and swung his arm down towards Gaara.

*Boom*

–Real world–

Gaara opened his eyes, irritated.

'That fat @ss.' - (Gaara)

He closed his eyes again and entered his mindscape. Seconds later, he's back to reality. He repeated it many times until he grew tired of it.

'No shït sherlock, it's obviously not gonna work. I either live my life without sleeping or make a deal with that guy.' - (Gaara)

Contrary to what it looks like, the houses here are quite chill, only the outside is very hot because of the sun. He got off his bed and decided to just relax in a hot bathtub. While he's relaxing, he plays with his sand manipulation, creating different kinds of things like weapons, armors etc.

'This ability is really handy, it's versatile and very useful in many situations.' - (Gaara)

As the sand hovered around him, he changed its form again and created a head-size sphere from it. He extended his left arm and squeezed his fist with all his might. While he did that, the sphere responded and shrunk to half of its previous size.

'Density is the most powerful part of this ability. I can have both high offense and defense with it. In terms of potential, it should be around Hashirama's wood style.' - (Gaara)

After an hour of relaxing, he got back to his room. Although he felt much better now, he still felt fatigue.

3 days passed by. Gaara spent his time thinking about what to do in order to have an agreement with Shukaku. He also went to their residence's library from time to time to learn more about this world.

During that time, he learned that not sleeping doesn't really affect him as much as he thought it would be. When he's still an ordinary teenager on earth, not sleeping for 24 or more hours will totally make him a walking zombie. But in this magical world, it only makes him feel a little bit drained.

Turns out that his mental fatigue was only caused by trying to stop Shukaku during the rampage. Having insomnia at such a young age allows him to adapt to it much faster that he unconsciously releases chakra to his brain which helps in healing it and preventing him from going insane. That's what the doctor said when they checked him up, at least.

Hearing that relieved Gaara's worries. He really thought that he would also go insane at some point like in the series if he doesn't sleep. This makes him think that Gaara became crazy only because of his life experiences and Shukaku. Hearing some dude talking inside your head every time since birth will really make you think that it's your inner self or something.

But now it is different. He has an extra 16 years of experience which means that he won't get influenced easily.

He also didn't forget to do some work out and sand experiments during these 3 days. And now, he's currently at the training ground with his father.

….