I did not know how long I had been out of it, but it must have been a while because the sky above had grown very dark. If it had not been for the barrier above us refracting and amplifying the starlight in a warm yet fantastical way, I would not have been able to see Gaara clearly. The light shimmered softly across the stone, turning the entire place into something strangely beautiful. Gaara was exactly where I had left him, lying in the middle of the now empty seal circle. All the seal formulas had moved into his One Tail seal, yet the kid looked frozen as he stared upward at the sky reflected within the barrier. A knot of worry tightened in my chest, and for a moment I wondered if I had done something wrong.
I wanted to speak but the exposure to the One Tail's chakra had done a number on me. My body still felt weak and every breath carried a faint wave of nausea. I took several deep breaths and tried my best to calm myself down until the feeling slowly faded enough for me to speak. "Gaara, are you okay?" Gaara startled with a look of pure fear drawn across his face, but the moment he realized it was me speaking the tension disappeared. He looked back at the sky again before whispering slowly, almost as if he did not trust his own words. "I… I cannot hear it anymore."
He stayed completely still after saying that, staring at the beautiful sky reflected in the barrier before speaking again in a soft, almost disbelieving voice. "Since I can remember that scary sound has always been there, but now… I finally… I cannot hear it." The moment the words left his mouth, his emotions broke completely. He started crying, tears streaming down his face as his shoulders shook violently. The poor kid looked like he might pass out from how rarely he could take a breath between his wails.
I approached carefully, observing the sand that hovered around him. The grains shifted gently in the air, almost serenely, nothing like the violent storm from earlier. It felt calmer now. I reached out and patted Gaara on the shoulder, but the moment I touched him he shot forward and crashed into my chest, clinging to me as if his life depended on it. His salty tears did not help the numerous cuts across my body, the sting spreading across my skin, but honestly I did not care. A bit of pain was nothing compared to what this poor child had endured since he was born.
Still, the situation outside the barrier made me nervous. Even from here I could see several shinobi becoming more agitated as they searched for Gaara, while the Kazekage observed from afar, clearly ready to intervene if something seemed wrong. We did not have much time. "Gaara," I said softly, but he did not react, clinging to me tightly, afraid I might disappear. I sighed quietly and waited.
Eventually his crying slowed and the shaking of his body eased as he finally pulled back and looked up at me. His face was still wet with tears and when he tried to speak the words refused to come out. He was just a small kid overwhelmed by emotions. I gave him a small smile and said gently, "From your reaction I am guessing it worked." He nodded slowly, disbelief still lingering in his eyes.
"Good. How do you feel?" Gaara remained quiet for a long time, his green eyes reflecting the soft starlight above us as he searched for the right words. "Peaceful," he finally whispered. "I do not hear screaming. I do not feel anger. I… I do not know what I should be feeling." He looked at me as if hoping I had the answer.
"Try feeling happy," I said simply. He blinked once before nodding, a small chuckle escaping him as pure joy slowly appeared in his eyes. After a moment the laughter faded again as he tried to steady his emotions. It was clear he was learning how to handle them for the first time. I spoke again gently. "I have to go now, but before I do I need to ask you for a few things." Gaara trusted me by now, so he nodded with a surprisingly serious face that made me smile.
"First, never tell anyone about what happened here. If people learn about it, I could be in serious danger." Gaara looked worried but nodded immediately. "Second, I want you to try getting closer to your siblings." A complicated look appeared on his face, so I clarified calmly. "I am not saying do it today. First learn who you truly are. Then start talking with them, train with them, play with them. Having siblings is one of the greatest blessings anyone can have. Now that the monster is no longer screaming in your ear all day, every day, you can finally enjoy those moments with them."
A determined look appeared in his eyes as he nodded firmly. "I will try my best." I raised a third finger and continued, "Third, never harm people without reason anymore. You can defend yourself, your family, your village, and hopefully your friends soon, but outside of that do not hurt anyone, especially your family. The anger and resentment that controlled you before should fade now and you should finally be able to live in peace." Gaara thought about that carefully before nodding again.
I raised a fourth finger and added, "Eat well, sleep well, train well, and meditate as much as you can, at least in the beginning until you have a good handle over yourself. The next time we meet I want you to be stronger than me. You have a huge advantage over me after all." His excitement rose immediately at that idea, and his sand began shifting and swirling happily around him, sharing his joy or affected by it, maybe even a mix of both.
Finally I raised my last finger and smiled slightly. "And my final condition. Enjoy your life. Have fun. Play a lot. Be a good kid." That was the final straw. Gaara jumped to his feet and started bouncing in place, laughing freely as the sand danced around him. Under the glowing starlight reflected by the barrier the entire scene looked almost surreal.
I really wished I could draw it, but my hands were shaking badly and several of my fingers were still bleeding. Instead I simply balled my hands into fists and tried to control my shivering, aching body while Gaara slowly settled down. When he finally calmed, I spoke again. "Alright, I will see you in the finals tomorrow. I will give you a thumbs up. If you reply with the same, it means you were able to sleep well and…" Before I could finish, Gaara spoke in a soft voice that almost sounded dreamy. "Sleep." I grinned despite the pain running through my body. "Yes. Now you should actually be able to sleep well. So reply with a thumbs up if you did, alright?"
The kid looked like he was about to cry again, so I hurried to push him away before the situation turned into another emotional storm. "Go now before things get too chaotic outside. Hide and only appear far from here. I will clean up this place. Now go. Enjoy your life." Gaara looked at me for a moment, then suddenly stepped forward again and hugged me tightly one last time. After a few quiet and genuine seconds he let go and nodded to me with a huge smile. I opened a small gap in the barrier to let him pass as he moved outside. The opening sealed again the moment he slipped through it, his small figure moving quietly into the darkness.
Once he was gone I created a shadow clone with the little bit of chakra I had managed to recover. The clone immediately started cleaning the area while I pulled bandages and spare clothes from a storage scroll. Wrapping the wounds across my body was far more painful than I expected and I could not stop myself from groaning as I tightened the bandages across the deeper cuts before changing into fresh clothes.
Through the barrier I could already see a lot of movement inside the village. Apparently Gaara had been found because I soon saw the Kazekage himself flicker across the rooftops toward the disturbance. I took a slow breath and carefully released the barrier, keeping my chakra signature as quiet as possible while I slipped away and began making my way toward the hospital.
When I finally approached the quiet hospital entrance, the reaction was immediate. The medical nin froze the moment they saw me approaching from a field of complete darkness, covered in blood-stained bandages with one particularly large stain right over my heart. I must have looked like something that had crawled out of a grave rather than someone who had walked there on his own two feet. My face was probably stuck in a completely exhausted "I hate my life" expression, and my steps were slow and uneven.
For a moment none of them moved, just staring as if trying to decide whether I was a patient or a ghost. It apparently scared the hell out of them, which honestly felt impressive considering the kind of horrors the average medical ninja deals with on a daily basis, as one of them focused on my face, which sent a shiver across his body before whispering in horror, "I think he is the Tyrant."