Naruto: Reborn as Gaara!

Earth Affinity has gained a level

I smiled at the notification as I watched the wall form from my jutsu. The clone across from me moved at my signal and went through hand signs before blowing a nearly invisible series of bullets from his mouth. I smiled as I noted that the wall was undamaged from my side. I jumped over it and admired the marks the wind bullets had made as they ravaged the wall. They'd failed to penetrate, but they'd come quite close.

I exchanged a thumbs-up with my clone as I finally considered myself passable with the Earth Wall jutsu. At least now, I had a good defensive option. With one of the jutsus in the scroll successfully learned, I opened it even further to look at the next one. Instead of a defensive jutsu, this one was more supplementary, and not for the first time, I wondered where Rasa had gotten the scroll from. I wasn't naive enough to think Suna ninja made it, especially when we had so few Earth Release users within our walls, and our environment made it close to impossible for anyone to build such an affinity to this level. The scroll went into a lot of detail on the jutsu themselves, clearly written by a master.

Now, the only thing I wondered was if it was written by someone from Iwa or Konoha. Those were the obvious suspects and also the two villages Suna had most contact with. We had an old rivalry with Iwa and an alliance with Konoha. So the scroll was probably stolen from one of those villages. I leaned more towards Iwa since no one in their right mind would risk an alliance with the greatest of the Five to get their hands on some B and A-rank techniques. Yes, you heard me right. Greatest of the fucking Five. No matter how much the books might have tried to make me believe otherwise, knowledge of canon made it easy for me to detect the exaggerations in their portrayal of Suna's role in events.

After all, one of the history books even went as far as saying the Third Kazekage was so feared by Suna's enemies that they formed a coalition to assassinate him to challenge Suna's dominance. Considering I knew Sasori was responsible for that particular death, and that there were lots of ninja in other villages who could have taken out the Third Kazekage with little trouble, I didn't place much stock in anything the history books claimed as fact. Konoha won the Third Great Ninja War, and even if they'd suffered from the Kyuubi attack and the Uchiha massacre, I was loath to rule them out of the running for the position. Kumo was a strong contender, but I knew too much about the strength of Konoha's monsters to give them the throne. After all, Tsunade was immortal, and Jiraiya had been able to give Pain a good fight with his Sage Mode. Those two, along with the God of Shinobi, were enough to tip the scales in Konoha's favor. For now, at least. I'd soon be stronger than them all. Okay, maybe not so soon, but eventually.

The Bastard whistled for me to join the caravans, and I packed up as we made our way back to the road. Lord Chigiri was clearly enjoying this weather as he called for way more stops here than he had in Suna. We moved through the Land of Rivers slower than we should have, but our multiple stops were useful for my training, so I tolerated them. Without as much sand to rely on, my Wind and Earth ninjutsu were my primary focus, and they saw much improvement.

Even my taijutsu had improved by a small bit, so that was good. Everything was going surprisingly well on this road trip. Of course, that had to change eventually.

After all, the only things truly certain in life are death, taxes, and getting screwed over. Hold on, speaking of taxes, did I have to pay them? Did ninja pay taxes? I mean, there had to be some sort of taxation system to keep the economy running, but were ninjas exempt? We were kind of the major source of business in Suna, so I didn't think so. But I also found it difficult to believe that taxes would have followed me across universes. That was some serious dedication to messing with my life. Well, they were taxes. Even the Bible mentioned them. 'The last enemy to be destroyed is tax,' or something like that. I was never the best Bible scholar in my past life, and here, ninjas did not have religion. Not massive organized ones, at least. Most people prayed to one of the old gods or the other. Some psychopaths even worshiped the Bijuu. Yashamaru had been very clear when he warned me to stay away from them.

Where was I? Oh, getting screwed over. Well, according to Baki, Lord Chigiri had made this journey fifteen times with no trouble. Of course, the sixteenth time had to be the charm.

It started quietly. I was awake, practicing my chakra control in the dead of the night, and that might have been the only reason I survived the first attack. Senses trained from months fighting against a Jounin much stronger than me allowed me to move out of the way of the initial surprise attack. I rolled backwards, moving out of my lotus position into a crouch, and ran through hand signs reflexively. I was forced to duck again as a sword moved through the space my head had just occupied, and I finally got a glimpse of my attacker. Black combat clothes with a plain mask were all I noted before I was kicked and sent flying through the air. I felt blood build in my chest as I noted the quest notification that appeared in my vision.

Warning: You have attracted the attention of Shimura Danzo!

Survive the Root Anbu-

I couldn't finish reading because I had to get running again. Freaking Root. What kind of pure chaos was this? I couldn't even get a look around me as the Anbu guy occupied the entirety of my vision, not letting me weave seals or even take my eyes off him for a second. It was taking all I had to remain alive, and even then, I'd already secured a cut across my arm and a cracked rib. He moved in for another slash, and this time, I blocked with the kunai I hid in my boot. He came in again for another one, and I took a deep breath before infusing the kunai with all the wind chakra I could channel into it. It was rudimentary and terrible, but the blade lit up to my senses, and when we next crossed blades, I cut through the Anbu's blade like it wasn't even there and forced him to retreat to avoid losing his head."

With a second's respite, I formed the tiger seal with both hands and forced my chakra into the moist sand around me. I felt my chakra cut in half as I rose out of the ground in my second body. "Fuck. Would this ever not be trippy?" My clone shook his head at me, silently saying no as he moved after the ANBU member. I moved my eyes around the clearing, silently tracking the happenings. The night was still deathly silent for a few more seconds until one of the samurai sounded the alarm. I could see the rest of them begin to wake up and note the deaths around them. The Root ANBU had been ruthless. All the sentries were dead, and even some of the samurai guards had been killed in their sleep. The rest of them, awake as they were, were still being hunted in the chaos of the attack. Baki was nowhere to be found.

I ducked down, planted my hands on the ground, and lashed out with a kick as my clone had instructed me to do, and the ANBU behind me blocked with his vambrace. I took some pleasure at the creaking I heard. No other six-year-old could generate that kind of damage, then my sand clone came in from the side, wind chakra-enhanced kunai slicing through the air as he made for the ANBU's head.

The bastard dodged, wouldn't be much of an ANBU if he couldn't. He also dodged the extra edge created by wind chakra, so I silently cursed in my mind as I ran through hand signs, ending in the tiger seal and whispering under my breath, "Earth release: Earth flow river" and slamming my hands into the ground to channel my chakra into the medium.

The ground, where both the ANBU member and my clone dueled in furious taijutsu, was suddenly turned into mud and began to flow downhill, carrying the two of them with it. I smiled and executed the last bit of the combination my clone had whispered into my head, stretching out my hand and accepting control of my clone's body and thoroughly binding the Root agent in sand.

When I clenched my fist and performed Gaara's signature jutsu, I did it with a form of melancholy. Gamer's mind thoroughly shut off any form of guilt or hesitation I'd have felt at making my first kill, but I could still feel the gravity of the event. It was now, perhaps for the first time, that I could truly accept that I was now a member of this cursed world. I was one of them now, destined, perhaps cursed, to fight and kill and struggle to live.

"Blade over heart," I whispered to myself as my eyes searched the clearing. There seemed to be only 15 samurai left alive in the clearing, and they were being thoroughly trounced by three of the Root ANBU. I scowled and dove at one of the ANBU as he was about to cleave a samurai's head from his shoulder. The wind chakra in my kunai practically screamed in the air as I slashed right at the agent's throat. He leaned out of the way of the attack and even dodged the wind enhancement by some luck of the universe as he grabbed my wrist and kicked me back where I came from. Of course, I instantly collapsed into sand and reformed myself because I was nothing but a clone.

The original body appeared from a different direction, but his attempts to blend in with the night were obvious even to me. His surprise attack failed quite badly, and he joined me on the floor a few seconds later. Unlike me, however, the anbu kept on him. He rolled out of the way of a stab to the head and managed to block the slash that would have decapitated him with a twist of his kunai. That was one difference I had noticed between this world and the one in the anime. Throughout my training, Baki had taught me to always go for the head. It was the only sure target, and it seemed like literally every other ninja in this world learned a similar lesson. It made sense, I guess. Half the turnarounds we see in the anime would never have been possible if the attackers had just gone straight for the head out of hand. It was just common sense.

I scowled as the original body slipped up in his form a bit due to the panic he felt when his opponent's blade was suddenly lightning-enhanced. If he were thinking clearly, he would know that wind trumps lightning and squash the fear he was feeling. Sadly, he wasn't. I guess even with the Gamer's mind, killing someone was always killing someone.

I turned and dashed across the floor, joining the original as we pressured the Root anbu. As we danced with our unwilling partner, I thanked Kami that we had spent so much time focused on Taijutsu. Literally any other discipline, and we would probably already be dead. With Taijutsu though? We were good, yes, but that wasn't the entirety of our advantage. We could also rely on being smaller than every opponent the anbu had faced in a long while. It was taking the bastard time to adapt, and that was a lapse I used to my advantage. If he wasn't fully ready to deal with me, then I had to dispatch him before he got fully ready.

The original spun in the air as he lashed out with an axe-kick for our opponent's head, and I wove through our opponent's feet as I reached to slash his hamstring apart. He jumped, while leaning back, to avoid both of our blows. In an impressive display of acrobatics and sheer chakra bullshit, he somehow managed to actually do that while landing on his feet.

That still took time though, and we had the initiative as we finished going through our hand signs in unison. "Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" I shouted as the original shouted his own jutsu, "Earth Release: Earth Flow River!" Our quasi-combination jutsu took effect at nearly the same time as the ground around our opponent turned to mud while I created a veritable swarm of wind around him. The wind buffeted his clothes, but he dove right into the sea of mud before the jutsu could do any damage.

I felt my head turn to sand as a blade cleaved right through what had been my neck. The original got the warning from my own attack and was able to dodge the attack that would have turned us into a very dead jinchuuriki by the skin of his teeth. With the attack avoided, we were barely able to begin a reprisal before another of the anbu joined the battle. Fuck. I guess things were beginning to take a turn for the worse. I could see the original's chest heaving as he did his level best to keep up in the life-and-death battle. I could already feel my chakra capacity approach dangerously low levels.

Having to reform this body so many times was taxing, to say the least. Each reformation took nearly a fifth of the chakra I'd been granted at formation. Let's not even get into the crapload I was spending on physical enhancement to even let me keep up with this battle. The original was definitely going to feel the strain from enhancing his muscles so much in the morning. If we lived till then.

I searched the clearing and found Baki where I'd last seen him. He was engaging four of the fuckers this time and still managing to maintain a protective encirclement around Lord Chigiri's tent. It was impressive but managed to get on my nerves.

I knew I was nowhere near his level, but a reminder like this one might have been a bit excessive, especially when it was coming off the heels of certain revelations about my strength.

One of the Anbu, the one on the left, spoke to the other in blistering quick sign language, and they both moved in seeming unison. Only my chakra-enhanced brain allowed me to pick up on the fact that the one on the right had moved first and the lefty just matched his pace. Fuck. They were even faster. I scowled at nothing as I swept my hand out, reaching into the sand around me with a practical truckload of chakra and forcing it to do my bidding. The sand blocked their approach for a few seconds, and I had a 'eureka' moment right then and there.

I jumped back, begging the original to take my place in the battle.

XXXXXX

I moved in to take my clone's place as he retreated to parts unknown. Not truly, but you get my point either way. His idea was impressive, and if it worked, it would mean the difference between dying here and cementing myself as a future Kage level shinobi.

The first of the Anbu broke through the wall first, and he did his best to avoid engaging me on his lonesome. I guess they already figured out how deadly my taijutsu was. His efforts were for naught, though, as I was eventually able to force him to commit to a dans macabre with me as blades of wind and lightning flashed across the dark clearing.

In my seconds of clarity, I found myself wondering why this was so easy. I mean, I knew I was strong, stronger than any six-year-old had any right to be, but Anbu level? That was a bit of a stretch for even me to believe. Surely the combination of being the Gamer and the Ichibi 'Jinchuriki' couldn't just grant me so many advantages that I was rewriting what it even meant to progress as a ninja.

The other Root Anbu's success at breaking through removed my focus from that and forced me to consider other things, like how the fuck was I going to take on both of them at the same time, for one. The second consideration on my mind was whether the clone's plan was working. It seemed to be working, but it was a relatively slow process. Of course, that thought had me coming up with my own idea and sending it off to him.

We both smiled in unison, as even though the root Anbu were beginning to put me on the backfoot, for the first time since we entered the land of rivers , I was beginning to feel safe. I was beginning to feel like I could make it out of this unharmed. I docked under a punch, dismissing what felt like the hundredth notification to pop up in my line of sight as I blocked a slashing blade with my own. The screaming electricity ground against whistling wind for a few seconds before giving way. Of course, he managed to get his blade out of our lock before I could begin to damage it. Fucking Anbu. We moved in again, and seemed to be right where we started.

(End of Chapter)