Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [3]

☾ 24 ☽

"Uchiha Sasuke was in the village,"

Tsukiko blinked at Gaara, taken aback, and even more so that Sasuke of all people would be in Sunagakure of all places. Even during the times that Tsukiko had managed to locate Sasuke, the time he had his Chakra open for her to notice, she had never seen him near Sunagakure.

Next to her, Sakura's eyes had flown open as well, but unlike with Tsukiko's pure suspicion, a smile very nearly floated up onto her lips. But from Gaara's tone and expression, she fortunately kept her grin in check, instead speaking, "Really?! Sasuke's here?"

"Why?" Ino asked, her voice overlapping Sakura's as the two of them spoke about the same time. Tsukiko continued to look at Gaara for further answers.

Gaara clasped his hands together on top of the round table and let out a deep breath.

"I'm not quite sure where to start," Gaara replied. "I suppose it would be best to simply tell you what happened as it happened. Two evenings ago, Uchiha Sasuke contacted terrorists hiding themselves in our village,"

"What?!" Ino shouted, her voice wild while Tsukiko and Sakura stared in silence. "Hold on a minute. Why would Sasuke talk to terrorists –"

"Ino," interjected Temari. "Gaara will talk first. Save your questions for after,"

"Sorry," Ino apologised.

"Please, continue, Gaara," Tsukiko said seriously and Gaara nodded.

"Two evenings ago, members of the ANBU and I surrounded the terrorist base," Gaara continued. He saw Tsukiko's lips thin out so he quickly added, "... normally, the leader of the village would not directly accompany such missions, but the situation being what it is..."

The terrorists were originally Ninja from Sunagakure, but they opposed Gaara's appointment as Kazekage and left the village to form an anti-government group. For a ANBU time, Gaara hadn't been able to pin down their location, but a month or so earlier one of the ANBU had discovered their base, and the group had been placed under ANBU monitoring.

That group had made a move about a week earlier. A lone man visited their base to talk with the terrorist leader. The member of the ANBU on monitoring duty had reported that the man visiting the base soon exited the tent and disappeared.

With the meeting being so short, the ANBU hadn't been able to eavesdrop on their conversation. But a concerning report from one of the ANBU was brought to Gaara.

"The man who appeared at the base very strongly resembled Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha," Gaara said. "I thought that it was a mistake, an accidental resemblance. But I was reluctant to simply dismiss the matter so easily. So, I decided to join the ANBU the next day on their monitoring mission,"

Gaara would have been able to peek inside the tent with his Sand eye, and if he manipulated the sand, it was an easy matter to plant a listening device.

A few days after he joined the monitoring team, Uchiha Sasuke appeared at the terrorist base. Once he was there, he began negotiating with the terrorist leader, "Sasuke pushed at the leader and demanded that they become his subordinates,"

"Subordinates?" Tsukiko inquired. Gaara nodded.

"Sasuke came to them," Gaara replied. "With the idea that they become his subordinates and help him destroy Konoha. If they did, he would help them with their own terrorist attacks,"

"But that's –" Sakura cried out reflexively but Gaara overlooked it.

"The terrorist rejected Sasuke's demands," Gaara continued. "So, the negotiations broke down. But rather than leaving then and there, Sasuke killed the terrorist leader. He said he couldn't let him live now that he knew Sasuke's plan to destroy Konoha,"