Chapter Three

I stretched out my hand, allowing the sand to mimic my motions, moving from shape to shape as Rasa had taught me last week. After two months with Baki focused only on taijutsu, Rasa had begun to show up and help me with my sand. He gave me exercises and goals to complete. Everything he asked me to do was done with ease, but the more things he asked for at the same time, the harder it became to maintain.

With how things stood, I suspected that the first 50 levels gave me total control over sand, but the true multitasking I needed to take things to the next level would be found in the next twenty-five. In that same vein, I suspected the last twenty-five levels of the skill would centre around transforming my body into sand itself and learning to fully transform into the One tailed racoon. Fuck, I could already drool at the awesomeness.

Even with Rasa's attention though, I still spent most of my days with The Bastard. We didn't focus on taijutsu as religiously as we used to. Instead, we switched things up and were now working on nature transformation and chakra control. My wind nature had already gone up 4 levels in the past few weeks and I'd learned a fuck ton of jutsu in the relatively short period. I'd thought jutsu had to be difficult to learn, but with the power of the Gamer, it was easy as pie. I just had to perform the jutsu successfully once and then the jutsu was counted as learned. All I had to do was then train my mastery of the jutsu itself over time to incvrease its effectiveness and efficiency.

Speaking of jutsu, I moved my sand into a barrier to block the wind breakthrough that Baki sent at me from the left. I kept a careful eye on the sand that was still going through shapes as it was supposed to. The first time Baki had tried a surprise attack like that, I'd fucked up the exercise because of how surprised I'd been and been forced to start the entire thing again to appease The Bastard. Now, it was just part of the daily training. Speaking of training, I moved part of my chakra in a specific pattern, trying to use one of the few original jutsu I had in my disposal. The sand clone formed out of the ground beneath me, only to fall apart at virtually the last second. Fuck, sealless jutsu was still beyond me. I grinded my teeth together at the thought. Sand was easy. I could control sand. It was second fucking nature. But for some reason, when I tried to add the chakra components that allowed me to make a sand clone, it fell apart when I didn't use the seals I'd set aside for it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.

Perhaps I should be experimenting with an easier jutsu like the regular bunshin or kawarimi, but they weren't as useful to me right now as the sand clone jutsu, and so there wasn't as much use in learning them without seals. Perhaps the only disadvantage I'd seen in being the gamer was that skills so rarely translated from one area to another. Learning to use one jutsu without the seals was not going to help with using others. It was a question of each jutsu's individual level and sand clone just wasn't there yet.

I looked at the jutsu's page with a scowl on my face.

Suna Bunshin no jutsu; Level 43- User creates a clone made of sand that shares the user's consciousness. Cost- Half of User's CC

That bit about sharing consciousness was no joke at all. I couldn't just spam Suna Bunshin the way Naruto could spam Kage Bunshin. Every clone was me, and I was every clone. Quite literally. It was like directing two bodies with the same brain. I don't know how to accurately describe it without sounding a bit barmy. The cost was also something else. Every clone I created cost a half of my total available chakra capacity. Even when I created one and then created another. I couldn't even try gaming the system by creating more than one at a time; it just didn't work.

Even with all those downsides, I still felt like the jutsu I created was better than the one I was trying to reverse engineer. Baki swept right at me from the right, and I dodged away from him, picking up a kunai I'd begun to store on my person when he started whipping out the bladed weapons in our fights. Funny enough, Kunai use in hand to hand combat still fell under taijutsu so I hadn't gained a kenjutsu or even Bukijutsu skill when I'd picked it up.

His first attempt to kick my head off my head was denied as I dodged backwards again, taking a deep breath as I forced my hands to form seals around the kunai clutched in my left. Tiger → Ox → Dog → Rabbit → Snake, I mentally recited to myself as my fingers contorted themselves into the strange movements I'd been forced to get used to over the last few months. "Wind Release; Great Breakthrough" I thought to myself in the space between taking a deep breath and preparing to exhale. This jutsu shared similarities with the great fireball jutsu those Uchiha fuckers were so fond of. It was a C-rank jutsu at base, but with the right amount of chakra and skill, there was literally no limit to where one could take the move. With a literal nuclear reactor in my gut, all I had to do was stoke the winds I'd inhaled with all the power I could safely add and exhale a fucking hurricane. The winds blew apart everything in front of me, picking up the sand that had sat peacefully on the floor and creating a literal sandstorm. The jutsu was only level 40 so far, but with this much power already, I didn't mind the slow progression.

I searched the area around me for the bastard. A quick check with my senses told me he hadn't gone underground. Not like anyone would be stupid enough to try anything like that against me, in the middle of the fucking desert. Not even being a fucking Jounin boogeyman would save the bastard if he immersed himself so deeply in my domain. I dodged to the left, relying on instincts I'd built from practice sessions, and found myself dodging right into a massive left hook. The punch sent me spiralling, seeing stars. Fuck. Level 17 pain resistance, and every hit still hit like a tank and hurt like a motherfucker. At this point, I was beginning to suspect that he was accounting for my growing pain resistance and modulating his strength to make sure every hit hurt as much as possible. It was just the kind of assholery I'd come to expect from the bastard.

The wave of sand I'd instinctively sent at him had done nothing but slow his advance by a few seconds and our taijutsu dance began anew. The better I got at the physical combat that marked taijutsu, the more enjoyable these were.

I leaned out of the way of a punch ,jumping and using my smaller size to my advantage to stay ahead of his lumbering hits. My kunai remained clutched in my hand as I took swipes and stabs at him whenever he slowed his attack for more than a second and gave me room to attempt countering. It was annoying how easily he fended me off, but still fun. I could no longer feel myself getting better as easily as I once did, but it was still there. I felt something when I changed how I punched or blocked or dodged in minute ways. Being the gamer was actually a fucking headache. The question of whether growing in levels would give me skill or whether growing in skill was the only way to level up was like a chicken or egg question. It was nearly impossible for me to pinpoint whether I learned things on the go and that helped me level up particular skills, or just levelled up skills, and suddenly gained the knowledge required to use them better.

It was all irrelevant though, as I got hit by another moving train and dove straight into the ground. The amount of time I was allowed to spend in the ground was limited to thirty seconds. The Bastard's face when I'd submerged myself and refused to come out had been the most hilarious thing ever. I gathered the sand around me and lashed out at him. He dodged away from the grasping tendrils, and I had the sand shoot me out straight at him.

'Fuck. I definitely didn't think this through' I thought to myself as I sailed through the air uncontrollably. I'd underestimate the power my sand could have as a platform, especially when enhanced by wind release chakra. I flew at a speed beyond what I could even keep up with and didn't stop until I flew straight into a fist shaped brick wall. I felt my body fold around the punch with the kind of detachment that only came with the most extreme forms of pain. I felt nothing but pain, and nothing at all in a few seconds. Fuck. That was just brutal.

"I don't need to tell you that that was a monumentally stupid idea. I'm surprised you could come up with such stupidity on your own." I ignored the bastard's voice ringing in my ear as I coughed and tried to find my feet.

"That is enough for today. Practise the other jutsu I gave you to work on. We will be going on our first mission tomorrow." I couldn't even gather the energy to be surprised by the declaration as I remained slumped on the floor, grounded by the debilitating attack. It felt like he'd actually broken a few of my ribs this time. My hp was slowly regenerating, so it was only a matter of time till I felt fit as rain, but this pain was still a bitch and a half to deal with.

XXXXXX

I stood at the training ground we always met in, waiting with frantic energy for the Bastard. My first mission. It had to be something good. I knew it couldn't be a D-Rank. I remember Baki's reaction when I'd brought up the idea.

"Baki. When will we be going on missions? All the other genin have gone on a few?" I asked while doing my seventieth push up of the day, resting on a platform of sand.

"Stupid monster. All the other Genin are going on D-rank missions" He'd replied without even looking at me

"So when will I be getting one of those?" I asked, ignoring what was practically a term of endearment at this point.

"Never. You are Suna's weapon. Do you think the village will waste its resources by having you clean gutters and paint houses. You might bear the rank, but you are no Genin. Don't get it twisted. When war breaks out, the 'other genin' as you call them will be messengers, specially kept away from combat. Where do you think you will be?" He asked, his tone getting into that unique flavour of disdain that I'd become accustomed to hearing from him.

"Right in the thick of it, I imagine." I said sarcastically.

"Indeed. The higher-ups will toss you at all the most dangerous enemy shinobi until you kill them or they kill you. That is the sum of your worth, Gaara of the Desert. Maybe if you kill enough enemy shinobi, the village might even mourn you for a day before replacing you."

"Well, aren't you just a ball of sunshine" I tried to inject as much venom in my tone as possible. Fucking bastard.

After that conversation though, I'd removed the thought of missions from my head, and instead focused on getting better as quickly as possible. I had no doubts that Suna would place me right at the front lines in any conflict building between the villages. They wouldn't even hesitate to unleash the Ichibi if they felt it would give them the slightest advantage over the other villages. That's why, everyday I went to bed with the thought that I still wasn't doing enough in my head. It's why I trained from dawn to dusk in the burning Suna sun. It's why even now, I train. Almost as if on schedule, I gained another level in chakra control. I paid little attention to the beads I was sending running around my palms with chakra alone. Doing my best to both train my ability to focus on multiple subjects at the same time as well as my chakra control itself. It was good, hard work. I am the gamer. For me, hard work means more. I can see the fruits of my labour in real time. Everyday, I feel myself getting better. Perhaps, without this advantage, I'd have given up already. Training to be a ninja was hard. No one ever said it in the anime but jutsu were not easy things to learn or master. Taijutsu literally required you to beat yourself bloody day after day and keep going back for more. Genjutsu was even worse for me. As it didn't work on me, I had no frame of reference for making one. Baki didn't even bother teaching once he noticed what a drag it would have been. "What use does a blunt weapon have for a tool as nuanced as Genjutsu" He'd said when I pressured him to continue the lessons.

In case it hasn't sunk in for you yet, Baki is a Bastard. With a capital B. The man was petty, vindictive, and most annoyingly, an actually good teacher. A good teacher for me at least. It hadn't taken him any time to figure out what things I excelled in and what methods worked best for helping me get even better at those things. In four months under his tutelage, I'd gone from being just on the level of the average chunin to being able to take on Jounin. That's what Yashamaru said, at least, and I trusted my caretaker to at least be honest about things like this.

"Weapon. Don't just stand there looking around like an idiot. Move. We have a mission" Bastard said, appearing over my shoulder from nowhere and disappearing in shunshin a second later. I focused my chakra and followed along with him. My shunshin was nowhere near as good as his, but for a straight line within the village, following him was not difficult in the slightest. The jutsu worked in two ways. It created a corridor of chakra, eliminating things like air resistance and friction for the moving shinobi, while at the same time, giving the shinobi a boost like being shot out of slingshot. Because of that, following someone else's shunshin was easy enough. YOu just had to search out those corridors of chakra that marked the jutsu's path. The Bastard hadn't even taught me about that tidbit, he just kept following me when I used the jutsu during our spars until I figured it out. It was another one of his teaching tactics. Letting me figure things out for myself, while punishing me when I failed. Effective, but brutal.

When we arrived at the Village gates, we were met with a procession of carriages. The bastard had waited for me, and began to speak as we walked forward. "Our mission is to escort the Lord Chigiri on his visit to his cousin in the Land of Water. His safety is trusted in our hands, so we must not fail in this." I just nodded as we walked, not even commenting on his strange lack of insult in the entire sentence. I'd have expected to be called an idiot at least three times in that sentence. I guess he had to shape up around clients.

"You must be on your best behaviour. Lord Chigiri is aware of your nature and your behaviour will reflect on Suna. You must not show us as a village incapable of controlling our weapon." There it is. The dehumanisation. If I wasn't a whole adult who'd lived a fucked up life once already, his not-so-subtle attempts to change how I saw myself might even have worked.

I suspected that along with training me, the Kazekage had asked him to ensure I continued to view myself as Suna's tool. Joke's on them though. I'd never be giving up my life for Suna of all places. Not just Suna, really. Anything. No one in this world is worth dying for. I'm the only one here who truly matters. They are 0, and I am 1. I could spot the noble from a mile away. Flowing robes, surrounded by samurai and staring at everything around him with visible disdain. The black eyes, pug nose and obnoxiously high cheekbones weren't doing him any favours, to be honest. Not the most handsome of me, but not the ugliest I'd ever seen. The bastard took that throne. Why else would he cover half his face in a curtain?

When we got to him, Baki slightly inclined his head, and I did the same. Shinobi only bow to their kage. They spoke between themselves about the mission, but I tuned them out as I thought about what it would be like beyond Suna. Beyond the Land of Wind itself. Mizu no Kuni was a while away, and we'd have to cross through both Kawa no Kuni and Hi no Kuni before taking a boat to get to the Island country. Looking at the carriages around me, and trying to calculate the distances described on the maps I'd memorised, my best guess was that it would take us at least a whole month to even get there. Getting back was another matter. We'd be away from Suna for quite a while. This doesn't make any sense. Last I checked, I was supposed to be some sort of last resort weapon for Suna. Why would they be sending me away on such a long mission? Something else has to be going on here.