Naruto: Reborn as Gaara!

You have gained one level in meditation

The system flashed at me as I leaned out of the lotus position before standing up and beginning to stretch. We'd been on the road for six days now, and this was one of easily a hundred such stops we'd made in that period. For some reason, Lord Chigiri was intent on stopping the procession at every minor opportunity, to either have lunch, laze about or even just enjoy the night breeze. Travelling in the desert was inconvenient, and the noble didn't seem to realise that the longer he made us spend here, the longer he'd be spending in the desert that he seemed to loathe with all his being. The entire thing was just a mess, and taught me that bodyguard missions had to be the absolute worst. And the worst part was that since we were supposed to be protecting a client, I couldn't even train to my heart's content. That didn't stop me from practicing taijutsu with my clone or even meditation, but anything too flashy or likely to exhaust me had been banned by the bastard.

Even in this, he was determined to make my life here. I'd understand the rules if he put them in place when we reached the Land of Fire, or even in the Land of Rivers, but this was still in Suna. We were still in friendly territory, and he seemed to be keen on making me waste the opportunity.

"My young Genin friend" Lord Chigiri called from his carriage as he was being bustled in. "Would you care for a game of Shogi?" I just nodded at him, making my way into the carriage to join him. Fucking Baki. Fucking Kazekage.

"Do not get it twisted, our missions here are different. I am to safeguard this carriage, a mission you are thoroughly unsuited for. You, however, will be entertaining Lord Chigiri. He has a known preference for humans your age. Maybe he'll even mistake you for one" The Bastard sneered down at me. If I were a child, I might have even missed the subtext of what he was saying.

He was sending me to a known fucking pedophile? "Is this a honeypot mission?" I asked, trepidation building in my body. I wasn't yet ready to abandon Suna's protection.

"Do not be stupid. Of course it isn't. Any such advances are to be subtly discouraged. All you need to do is make sure he enjoys himself on the journey and is more likely to seek Suna's services in future."

That was a load off my back, but I still couldn't claim complete comfort with this idea. It was almost like Suna just had to find me the mission most likely to turn me into Rouge Ninja. While I had no love for the shinobi village, I also wasn't quite ready to strike out on my own. Akatsuki and all the other deadly fuckers out there would be gunning for me the moment word got out. I couldn't see Danzo of all people allowing a jinchuriki remain rogue without going after them, I also doubted Pain would hesitate to take me out even if he wasn't yet ready to go after the others.

Since that day, of course, I'd been doing my best to advance in my skills so when the day eventually came, I'd be ready to leave. I needed to become an S-rank in the next five years. It was just what needed to happen. Because Suna was a fucking stupid village. They managed to engineer the assassination of one of their own strongest shinobi. They had a history of making bad decisions, and I would never allow myself become one of those.

'Left, right, wave it aside, step in, haymaker to solar plexus. I mentally recited to myself as I engaged my clone in a bout of furious taijutusu. After our client displayed an interest in watching me train, Baki had been more willing to lift some of the restrictions placed on me when the mission started. So now, I was allowed to work on some more interesting things like taijutsu and even minor ninjutsu. Of course, I couldn't do anything too likely to exhaust me or cause damage to the carts or even scare the civilians and their camels. Yes, you heard that right. Camels. The very first time I ever see them, and I'm not exaggerating when I say those things are fucking glorious. Just aggressive trolls in every respect. In nine days of travelling, they'd already managed to cause seven injuries to their minders. I'd fallen in love with them when one bit off a minder's ear in the middle of an attempt to calm it down.

Turning my mind away from all that, I returned to the battle at hand. My clone couldn't truly think for itself since we were connected, but training with it was still good when it came to taijutsu. The goal wasn't to surprise myself with shocking moves or tactics, but to experience what it was like to fight myself, and study my own attacks and defense from an outside perspective. I'd already fixed a few holes in my defense in the last few hours of training. They weren't a lot since I was still at the same level of myself and couldn't train myself the same way Baki could, even if I was beginning to suspect that I'd soon reach the limit of Baki's own ability to help me get better. After all, he'd as much as admitted that he was no taijutsu master, and from what I'd seen with all the training chunin I'd gotten to watch, I was already better than they were. I was probably knocking on the door of Jounin level. I guess that's the power of single-minded focus on a single field, a jinchuriki's endurance and healing factor, as well as the power of The Gamer.

I dodged out of the way of a wave of sand and continued my barrage of my clone. Now, it was a two-on-one thing, with one of my clones being relegated to long distance support. I needed more expertise with using my sand against actual targets. I was much better at Gaara had been in the first part of the anime, when it came to taijutsu, but my sand control lagged behind. Okay, that's a bit misleading. Not the sand control itself, but my ability to use the sand in battle. I had exactly zero experience in that field since Baki barred it when he trained with me, and even when he allowed it, he was much too fast for me to have even the slightest chance. Speaking of speed, I did my best to barrel roll in the air to weave through the shuriken made of sand sent at me before landing and dodging out of the way of a kick sent right at my head. 'Fuck this', I thought to myself as I slid out of the way of the follow-up kick and began weaving seals. I ended with the bird seal and puckered my lips, "wind release; Wind bullets" I said to myself as bullets made entirely of wind shot out of my mouth like a machine gun and went right for both clones. This jutsu would never make sense to me. There were no guns in this world, so where did the word, 'bullet' come from. One would think that if one wanted to make a jutsu for penetrating at a distance, they would have focused on making kunai or even arrows, which were the preferred weapons of this world. How did bullets even come into the picture in the first place?

The thought left me as quickly as it had come, as my attack was blocked by a wall of sand. I took in a deep breath and weaved even more seals. My great breakthrough scattered the wall of sand into the wind, creating a sand storm that surrounded the three of us. At this point, I was beginning to suspect that Baki would not be pleased at the end of this. He hadn't banned Ninjutsu as a whole, but I had a feeling that the great breakthrough was one of those jutsus he'd intended me to avoid using. Well, serves the Bastard right for not being more specific with his words. What did 'likely to cause damage to the carriage or delay our travels' even mean in the first place. Nothing useful, that's what.

I covered the ground between us, using the sand in the air to feel out my clones' locations as I made my way to them. The taijutsu clone swept in with an axe-kick from above. I just made a shield of sand block his attack. He pushed off, using the sand as a platform and moved backwards until he was caught in another platform of sand. He pushed off that one, heading straight at me like a bullet fired from a gun. I used the sand beneath my feet to drag me backwards, away from the attack and fired a gust of wind from my mouth to disperse a tendril of sand seeking to wrap itself around me. I smiled at the fact that I'd managed to do it seallessly, gaining a level in Wind Nature for my trouble.

I moved in for the ninjutsu clone, dodging around some more shuriken made of sand and trying to get in for close combat. Of course, the taijutsu clone just had to interfere at that moment.

XXXXXXXX

Finally out of the land of wind. When I observed the borders between the two countries, I almost cried. We lived in a land of endless sand, wind and hardship, while just across the border laid water. The land of rivers was named aptly. Even just a kilometer away from the land of wind, and I could see bountiful grasslands only broken up by streams and rivers that stretched as far as the eye could see. My eyes, at least. I didn't have the best eyesight out there.

I wanted nothing more than to just jump into one of the streams and enjoy the abundant water supply, but a stern look from the bastard stopped those thoughts in their tracks. We kept moving for a few hours before we finally stooped. The land or rivers was quite a bit smaller than the land of wind. It would only take us a week to make our way through the entire country at our present speed. The weather here was also so much more palatable. Not like the heat of the desert had been too debilitating for me with my durability, regeneration, endurance, as well as the benefit of being used to it from living there all my life.

Here though, everything was so blissfully cool, and the nights were shockingly warm. Even the very air was different. It was moist in a way the air in Suna could never have been. I would have felt right at paradise in this place if not for one key thing. The sand. Don't get me wrong, The Land of Rivers had more than its fair share of sand, but that still was nowhere near as abundant as it had been in the deserts I'd grown to call home. Without the ability to feel through the sand around me, I felt a bit blinded. That wasn't even the full extent of the situation. If it had been, there wouldn't have been much to truly complain about.

The sand here wasn't just less abundant, it was also different. The moisture in the air enriched the sand itself. Sand here wasn't as loose and coarse as the one I was used to. It was more packed, more smooth. I could control it just fine, but it seemed to perform every function a bit worse than desert sand. It moved slowly, sluggishly, and hit too softly. It was heavier so that meant it had more mass to work with, but that also made it move slowly. I had to put way too much focus to get it to hit with the same kind of force I could get at will with desert sand.

Being in the Land of Rivers finally answered the question I'd always had when I watched Gaara in the anime. Why the gourd? I mean he could control sand, and sand was everywhere, so why did he need to carry his own sand with him. I guess the answer was in the quality. Desert sand was more useful for pretty much everything combat related, so he carried it around by himself. Fuck. My outfit of a pair of combat pants and a shirt did not lend itself well to having such an addition to my clothing. Besides, where would I even get a gourd at this time. I guess I could make one for myself, but did I even want one? The utility was undeniable, but it seemed more likely to make things inconvenient for me. A gourd would make taijutsu much harder by getting rid of all my flexibility and much of my speed. Was it even worth the tradeoff. I mean I could go the middle ground and get something similar to what Gaara had in the Boruto movie, small gourds attached to each waist, but I suspected there was more than a little bit of fuinjutsu involved in making those things work. Fuck. Just a few hours away from the Land of Wind, and I wanted to go back. I felt so naked out here. No sand, no defense. Fuck.

I hadn't thought this mission through at all, and noticing the Bastard staring at me, I turned to him with a significant look. Did he know?

"I see you've realized your foolishness. Sand out of Suna is worlds different from the sand in other places. The desert is your home. It gives you your name. It's the source of all your power. Never forget that." He said, giving me a significant look before walking away and I did my best to avoid showing my displeasure at his words.

Now, I could see whose idea this had been. The failed attempt to manipulate me stunk of Rasa. Of course, send me on a mission outside the village, leaving me stranded without my source of absolute defense to get me even more dependent on sand, and thus, Sunagakure. I would have even respected their bullshit if it wasn't being directed at me. It was an admirable method of indoctrinating a child into a certain ideology and inspiring a sense of nationalism. It was also very fucking risky. Were they really going to risk me outside the village without my primary form of defense? I tried to think it through from their perspective and I could already see the logic behind the risk. This mission was only a B-rank because of the distance being covered and the fact that Lord Chigiri was actual nobility. In terms of real danger, I found there was little to worry about. Lord Chigiri was going to visit his cousin, and made this trip twice every year, and according to the Bastard, there had never been an issue. The only real challenge would be the distance. I could see the rationale. Expose me to danger without actually exposing me to danger to teach me that Suna was safe, and everywhere else was not. Fucking bastards.

I turned away from Baki's back and split off two clones from myself. Even forming clones from the sand here was a bit different. The moist sand lent itself well to being molded so that was a bit easier, but the sand was still a bit heavier. In this case, it was actually a good thing since my chakra didn't have to do as much work in converting the sand sculptures into actual clones of me.

Both clones joined me by the water and began to practice ninjutsu. Without sand to fall back on, I had to make sure my ninjutsu was up to par. There was more at stake now. If even the slightest thing went wrong, I could end up dead as a fucking doornail. That could not happen. I would never let it.

Both my clones focused on wind release while I worked on earth release myself. As I kept using the jutsu, more and more things about my unique clone jutsu revealed themselves to me. For one, I could share consciousness with my clones, but they did have some consciousness of their own. They could make decisions and use jutsu, but I was still aware of every decision they made or jutsu they used and why. It felt less and less like I was one person in three bodies, but more like I had become three people in three bodies who shared a deep mental link. I don't think that description made much sense. All you need to know is that I experience things as my clones do, and through some form of chakra fuckery, I wasn't going mad from the experience. That would not have been fun, to say the least. I went through the hand seals as the scroll depicted them. Ram - Dog - Ox - Snake, I mentally recited to myself before saying out loud, Earth release: Earth wall, and slamming my hands into the ground, filling it with my chakra. Predictably, I wasn't able to create more than a small mound of loosely packed stone that only bore the most superficial similarity to an actual wall.

/An: Here is the Updated Stats for gaara

Name; Gaara of the Desert

Age; Six

Level; 3

Title; Genin of Sunagakure (10% increased growth when trained by Suna ninja); Jinchuriki of the Ichibi (+ 50 Sand Control; +20 Ninjutsu; 50% increased growth when training in the desert)

Chakra Capacity; 20,000/20,000 (Regeneration; 100 cp per minute)

Stamina; 102/120 (Regeneration; 1sp per minute)

Strength; 15

Dexterity; 12

Endurance; 59

Durability; 19

Stat Points; 20

Skills;

Taijutsu; 28

Ninjutsu; 39

Genjutsu; 2

Sand Control; 57

Pain tolerance; 19

Meditation; 13

Chakra affinities;

Wind; 32

Earth; 25

Jutsu;

Sand Release: Sand Clone- 52

Wind Release: Great Breakthrough- 40

Wind Release: Wind Bullets- 24

Earth Release: Earth Wall- 1