A storm of sand and blaze (Gaara fanfiction and The Love Story He Deserves)

Chapter 32: Demon power

"There are only three moments of my life that I can really say I experienced true happiness". Haru Kaito said to Shinki staring at his eyes. "The first one was when my father, the Third Kazekage, finally acknowledged me and let me study in the ninja academy. The second one was when I married Kaji Miyako..."

The kid was trapped in one of the underground chambers of the palace. The man had used strong sealings to tie Shinki's hands and feet, and the pain that they caused in his body could only be compared to be cut slowly with an incandescent knife. However, such pain was nothing compared to the drowning emptiness that oppressed his chest.

I failed.

As a Sunagakure shinobi, as nephew, as a brother and as a son. All the years dedicated to study and train to achieve excellence and to make his father feel proud were worth nothing when he faced the real menace of his own past.

And now, he was in front of the man who claimed to be his father, but he didn't even know his real face or his voice. He had the twisted shape of his uncle Kankuro and he was wearing the boy's iron sand as a cloak to protect his body. So yes, he perceived known elements on him, but his essence was so unfamiliar, so distant.

"...And the third one is the day I could bring you to life".

Shinki heard him talking, he knew he was miserable and that he was suffering. Perhaps, it would have helped in that situation to feel some pity for him, some sorrow. But he could not even get to fake it. The deep desolation of that man did not cause him any type of compassion. Furthermore, it just aggravated the anger he felt towards him.

"What about your daughter?" Shinki asked him after some minutes in silence with genuine curiosity.

"I don't have any daughter". Haru Kaito replied with disdain. From inside a big locked coffer, he got a scroll. His eyes looked at it steadily. "Kaji Feza is not blood from my blood. She is just the result of her mother's whim and solitude. Miyako didn't love me, even if I loved her. Moreover, her sadness became so great and unbearable after we married and she had to take a wife's role, that she prayed to the god of fire to give her a son that could ease her pain. She prayed for days and nights in the desert until one night of the red moon the god gave her what she wanted. That's why I always hated that girl the same way I hated the Kazekage clan members. Because she is the incarnation of the despise everyone felt for me just for not being lucky enough to belong to an important family... But you, Shinki, you are half fire half sand. You are all that Miyako and I could have had but unfortunately could not be".

A moment of silence passed and then Haru Kaito mumbled a series of words forming numerous hand sealing to open the scroll. A cloud of powder blinded the sight of Shinki and then, the light of a flame illuminated the chamber with a glow that was almost hypnotizing.

"I used the cells of Miyako, after she passed away, to create you". Haru Kaito said once again, taking with his hand the glass container where the flame was. "It took me years of learning and persistency, but in the end, I succeeded".

"Then why did you still look for revenge?" Shinki's voice trembled. He pressed so hard his fists that his nails cut his own skin. "Why was I not enough to make you start a new life?"

Haru Kaito did not answer immediately. He looked at the fire instead and contemplated its glow for some minutes as he cried silently. Shinki understood at that moment that behind those tears, the man also held on to a will that was bound to intense feelings of hatred. Because he was not driven by any trace of hope anymore, but by vengeance.

"I guess I wanted more". He said in a low voice. "I wanted the place that Rasa should have never had. I desired to become Kazekage to change the fate of poor children like me, who were never recognized by their parents, and that wander in the sandy streets looking for something to eat. But now that I'm here, I realize the only way in which new things can arise is by first burning them to ashes. Just as the crops need to be burnt every end of the season, Sunagakure needs to be torn down and start again".

"There must be another way!" Shinki screamed, "Innocent people live here that have done nothing wrong!"

Haru Kaito punched Shinki's jaw with a whip of iron sand to shut him. Then, he broke the container glass with his hands. The glass cut through his skin, forming strings of blood through his wrists and arms, but his eyes were so hypnotized by the fire that he did not even seem to notice.

"I'll use the fire jutsu of the Kaji clan," he said holding the fire and approaching it to his chest. "I'll seal it inside me and burn it all. To purge. To sacrifice. To revive".

Shinki contemplated with fear how the man used his bloodied hands to seal the fire in him and everything remained in darkness again.

"So, only women can use that fire jutsu of the Kaji clan?" Shinki remembered the time he asked Feza about her unconventional power, one summer night at the hot springs.

"Yeah, that's how it is".

"And if a man tries to use it?"

"Hmmm..." She thought for a second. "I am not sure, to be honest. But I guess a sort of curse would fall into that person. There are rules one simply cannot break, you know?"

Shinki understood the words of his sister until that very moment.

A curse.

The body of Haru Kaito was consumed, eaten, and morphed into a million black fired worms. They were so many that they could not fit inside the chamber anymore, breaking through the sealing as it kept growing like a demon made of black fire and rage.

The first sunbeams entered through the hole the monster had left on the building. Shinki felt strangely happy to see the sun one last time before the black worms finished to involve him. After all, he had lived all his life in a desert and for him, the sun meant not only another day but a new beginning.

Thanks for reading so far! It has been a long story but the end is so close now. (: