For as long as Gaara could remember, the voice had always been there, whispering in his head.
When he was younger, while he was aware of the voice's presence, he did not understand it. It was purely a constant stream of noise; its volume and tone tended to vary by the day and it was relentless. He did not understand it, but it kept him up at nights when the rest of the village had gone to sleep and the sand of the desert shimmered like water in the moonlight.
It was on the night of a full moon that Gaara fell to his knees before the dying body of his uncle, and felt its blood boil for the first time. The sensation wracked the entire length of his body and it was unbearable. The sand that had always served as his protection erupted around him and everything that had been building up inside exploded into mindless, unadulterated rage.
By the time the sand settled down, he knew that it was not just a voice; it was the voice of the monster inside of him, and it told him he was alone in the world.
Over the years, Gaara's father—the Kazekage—tried to assassinate him five more times, but he survived and persisted. Shukaku continued to torment him, threatening to take over his body the moment he let down his guard, but while Gaara no longer slept, he continued to fight.
His father hated him. His siblings dreaded him. His village feared him.
Yet Gaara alone loved himself. And so, he lived.
When he grew older, he was placed in a three-man team with his siblings. However, while he was initially signed up to participate in the Chūnin Exams held at their village, upon receiving the list of registered genin from the other villages, his father withdrew Gaara from the exam. With Kankuro's promotion to the rank of chūnin, Gaara's current team consisted of his sister Temari and another genin whose name he didn't bother to remember. She was a replacement of a replacement; Gaara had killed the first following a disagreement on a mission.
He didn't expect the new genin to last much longer.
At some point, members of another village began to show up in his village—they were from Otogakure, the Hidden Sound. Though Gaara didn't know nor care for the details, he knew that the two villages were plotting to attack one of their former allies, the Hidden Leaf. Stating a period of mourning, Konoha had not held a public chūnin exam in some time. However this year, as hosts of the exams, they were finally opening their doors to the other villages once more. From the increased frequency of meetings between his father and the Sound's representatives, Gaara knew it was time to strike.
Nights passed, and the day of their departure grew closer. Gaara sometimes closed his eyes to rest them, but he dared not sleep.
In the full moon, its blood boiled.
...
It was a dark, quiet night. The moon hung low in the sky, a giant pale orb that witnessed all in silence.
He was there, standing before him.
"Foolish little brother. If you want to kill me, then blame me. Hate me. And live on in shame. Run and run..."
Glowing red eyes with spinning black tomoe pierced into him, and suddenly he could see the members of his clan falling in slow motion around him. One by one, they died in a spurt of red blood and soon, he was the only one left.
His brother turned his back to him. "Cling desperately to life. Then one day, come before me with the same eyes I bear now."
"Oi, Sasuke! Are you even listening to me?"
His eyes slightly widening, Sasuke refocused his gaze on his teammate. "Ah...sorry, what were you saying?"
From his reclining position against the railing, Menma rolled his eyes. "I said, I heard rumors that the Hidden Mist isn't participating in this year's chūnin exam. They're in mourning since their Mizukage died, or something."
"Show some respect, Menma," Sakura snapped. "How would you feel if it was the Lord Third who died?"
"That's a moot point because that old man's never going to die," said Menma in a smug tone.
Sasuke looked down his reflection in the water below the bridge. "It wasn't that long ago that our own village was in mourning."
In the corner of his eye, he observed both of his teammates exchanging somber looks.
"Well," Menma said in a fake cheerful voice. "It's the first time in years Konoha is hosting an open chūnin exam. I heard it's going to be a pretty big deal, with a bunch of villages attending. Everyone who's not on a mission is being called back for security." He hesitated. "Do you think Naruto will come back for it?"
"Who knows? Even Kakashi-sensei's been very hush-hush about the whole situation." Sakura gave Sasuke a coy look. "Has he told you anything, Sasuke-kun?"
Over the past two years, the jōnin known as Copy Ninja Kakashi had taken over their late teacher's responsibilities. In that time, Sasuke had come to realize that Kakashi's seemingly lackadaisical demeanor was merely a front—there was true steel to his gaze, and a lifetime of hard-fought battle experience to back it. Sasuke never asked any questions however; following the events of Wave country, there was a mutual unspoken understanding to let sleeping dogs lie.
"Not really," he said. Taking his hands off the railing, he left his teammates and began to head back towards the training grounds.
As they always did, Sasuke's thoughts trailed back to the moonlit events of his past.
He knew that he was growing stronger with every single passing day. But Itachi's words gnawed at him deep inside—had been gnawing at him. Going on B-rank missions and the occasional A-rank, sparring with his teammates, waiting to be promoted to the rank of jōnin... Was that all there was to it? Was that enough to kill his older brother?
Sasuke didn't have to search deep in his heart to know that it wasn't. The only way to defeat Itachi would be to obtain the same eyes as him. The question was—how?
This was where Kakashi came in. Sasuke knew that the jōnin somehow had the Sharingan; he had caught a glimpse of it once before, when a simple reconnaissance mission had turned into a full-on skirmish with enemy forces in Rain country. However, Kakashi had never brought it up again—until yesterday, when out of the blue, he had offered to train him one-on-one. Sasuke's cynicism warred with his frustration, and frustration won the bout. There was a restless energy inside of him that refused to subside, and he wondered whether training with Kakashi would be enough to subdue it.
Before Sasuke reached the training grounds, he caught sight of the figure of his thoughts and came to a stop.
Kakashi was standing in front of the memorial stone. Sasuke couldn't see his face, but even if he could, he doubted he would have been able to read anything in his masked expression.
Awash in the glow of twilight, there was a white carnation at the foot of the stone slab. He wondered whether Menma, whose clan ran a flower shop, had been by.
Sensing Sasuke's approach, Kakashi turned around and raised a hand in greeting. "Perfect timing. Ready for your training?"
"You're three hours late," Sasuke said, folding his arms across his chest.
Kakashi feigned a look of surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about."
...
There weren't enough cots in the medical tent for all the groaning ninja being carried in. Strewn across the hectic space, ninja with bloodstained bandages wrapped around their heads or the stumps of what had once been limbs, drifted fitfully in and out of consciousness. Shouts filled the air as medic-nin rushed back and forth, their palms glowing with medical ninjutsu.
One of them noticed Karin and impatiently waved her over. "Well, come on! It's about time you got here!"
The unhealed bite marks on her body were already starting to prickle. Karin hesitated—and the medic-nin, scowling, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to a man with a head wound. She braced herself as the man hefted himself up—then, baring his teeth around her wrist, he bit down. Hot pain seared through her body, and she felt the immediate loss of chakra.
This continued, bite after bite after bite, until Karin was so spent, she could no longer prop her own head up. Her whole body was covered in new bites; she felt as empty as a dried husk. But there must have been a few drops of chakra left within her, for she was still alive and with that, she was left to lie down in a corner to recover.
They had learned their lesson with her mother.