The Sand Meets the Light (A Naruto fanfiction)

Chapter 1: Tumble

"It's going to rain, huh?" Gaara thought as he stared above, watching the dark clouds looming above them. His slow footsteps crackled on the dirt and leaves as he walked in this territory surrounded by nothing but a sparse forest and a slight fog hanging about.

The Kazekage was travelling with his usual companions, his older siblings; his sister Temari and brother, Kankuro up to the Northern part of the Land of the Wind to uncharted territories, unknown and unmarked on the map. This wasn't an area he was used to be in. Usually he'd be visiting east where The Leaf Village was, in the Land of Fire. That's where most of his friends were.

"Not much of a vacation, isn't it?" Kankuro remarked, putting his hand behind his head, feeling relaxed but bored as he fought off a yawn.

"You'd think after the war, things would look a little less... depressing," Temari commented, looking around with a frown.

"We're not here on a break," Gaara turned to them. "We're here to scout new territories and maybe find a new village or two that we don't know about yet."

"The war is over," Kankuro replied, obviously not comprehending his decision. "And besides, you should be focusing on looking after the village, not travelling for information. You could have sent people to do this."

"I told you two to take over while I'm away but you insisted on tagging along," Gaara pointed out, feeling annoyed. Temari wrapped her arm around him affectionately, with a smug look on her face.

"We can't let our little brother travel alone, could we? And besides, it's a chance for us to get away for a while. All that sand could really get into our brains," Temari joked. Kankuro laughed in amusement.

"And this is exciting. Meeting new people, seeing new places," Kankuro said with an energetic tone. Gaara narrowed his eyes at his siblings, sceptical of their intentions but he brushed it off. At least they were good company to keep around and reliable ninjas, though they could be a little annoying at times. But anything was better than their relationships many years ago so he'd take what he can get.

After thirty minutes passed, they stumbled upon a huge rocky canyon. Looking upwards, it had to be at least a hundred feet high. There was a passage they could walk through, but it screamed of an ambush waiting to happen. Kankuro brought out his map and scratched his head.

"I think we're lost," he remarked, confused. Feeling irritated, Temari slapped the back of his head.

"You were supposed to keep track of where we were," she snapped. Kankuro frowned.

"Well then, let me do my job!" he raised his voice as he studied the map, both Gaara and Temari waiting for any feedback from him. After a minute, he showed the map to his siblings.

"Okay, so we were here before. I recognized the area," he pointed to a part of the map. "So if we just turn back right now, we could just go home."

"What's wrong with going through here?" Temari asked.

"Do you see the valley of death?" Kankuro gestured with his hands towards the canyon frantically. "And I have no idea where it goes to. That part of the map is not drawn here."

"Why don't we just continue on until we find a village or at least encounter some people? That's the point of this expedition, isn't it, Gaara?" Temari turned to Gaara, followed by Kankuro. Gaara stared at the canyon, thinking hard. After a few seconds, he turned to them.

"Temari's right. We'll keep walking," he made his choice. Temari with a cocky expression scoffed at Kankuro, who groaned in frustration.

The three of them carefully walked through, observing their surroundings. The canyon were made of rocks, grey and slightly brown in colour all over and some grass here and there, but there was nothing much in it. It seemed to be going on for so long too when they travelled along through it.

All of a sudden, Kankuro noticed sounds coming from above the canyons. He looked up and saw a couple of movements. Black figures were crawling all around but he couldn't see what they actually were.

"Guys," he whispered. Temari and Gaara stopped, noticing that Kankuro was looking up above. They followed his gaze and were alerted by the incoming danger.

A huge bug-like creature was crawling down the side of the canyon, followed by many others, all around them. They looked like huge crickets, but more sinister-looking and larger, almost the same size as regular humans. The Sand Siblings prepared to defend themselves, taking out their weapons.

A bug nearby suddenly jumped towards them, opening its mouth to grab them. Temari blasted it away with her wind by swinging her fan and the bug was sent smacking against the rocks. However the other bugs started to crawl down the valley all over them and swarm them. The Sand Siblings looked around, panic starting to rise, until Gaara lifted his hands up and activated his Sand ability.

The entire canyon was shaking and the granules of sand were lifted from the surface of the rocks and ground everywhere as Gaara moved the sand around him and his siblings and proceeded to push the bugs off by force with the sand. The bugs were successfully thrown off but the ground below them suddenly started to crack, revealing a hole underneath.

"Gaara!" Temari called out to her brother to do something.

They all started to fall down as the ground below them was completely broken off. Gaara moved some sand below as an attempt to lift them up, but before he could form a completely solid platform, a piece of rock hit his head and knocked him out. In the end, all three of them fell below, but before they hit the ground, Temari used her fan to glide them all down safely.

"Thanks, Temari," Kankuro told her as he brushed off some small rocks and pebbles off of his shoulders, as he was holding and supporting his unconscious brother with his other hand.

Temari and Kankuro looked above. It was a high way up if they wanted to climb and they saw the bugs crawling all over the opening above, covering over almost any light that could come in. With Gaara injured, they couldn't make it out on their own. Kankuro stood up and supported Gaara, wrapping his arm around his neck.

"We have to find a way out," Kankuro told his sister.

"Not with those things up there," Temari replied with her hands on her hips. She surveyed the hole they were in and noticed a path going out of the hole. It seemed that this hole was manmade and people have created a route, a tunnel of sort branching off the cavern area. "Come on, there's a tunnel over there. Maybe we can find another way."