Mesaal's POV
Last night, my clothes were washed and Gaa-kun slept in my room. I set Shukaku asleep for him so he could finally get some rest.
"Gaa-kun. Wake up, breakfast soon." I shake him lightly. He groans lightly before opening his eyes.
"Mesaal, did you get any sleep?"
"No. Don't worry though, I can't, not anymore."
"Insomnia?"
"Yes."
"You should get it sorted."
"It's not that easy. You know that first hand."
"Yeah." Gaa-kun stands up and stretches. "It's been a while since I last went to sleep."
"I know. Sit back on the bed." He complies and I massage his shoulders then back. He groans in ecstasy. "Better?"
"Much. Thanks Mesaal."
"No problem. What should I make for breakfast?"
"Anything."
"I should have known you would say that. I have to feed them something edible." He just shrugs. "How about tempura?"
"Sure. I'll get Temari and Kankuro up."
"Ok. Try not to kill them."
"No promises."
'It's nice when me and Gaa-kun can have a normal conversation like normal people.'
'It's not something you should get used to, he's not always going to be like that.'
'I know. I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts.'
'If you say so kid.'
'I do say so.' I reach the kitchen and prepare everything I need for tempura. (A/N I don't know this recipe also in media). When I was done, I realised there was a crowd of participants waiting eagerly for their breakfast. Everyone was drooling at the smell of the freshly fried tempura and other dishes.
"One team come up here." I ordered. Shi, Mi and Fumi stepped up. "Here's your breakfast. Enjoy." I give them a tray for three. "Next." And the procedure kept on going until I had to make a new batch. It started again until everyone was fed.
"You work yourself too hard." Mari shakes her head at me as she helped my dry the dishes.
"As much as I don't want to, I have to agree with her." Mi calls from putting away some cups.
"It's nothing." I wave it off from my position at the sink.
"We could call the senseis in for their opinion." Shi tells me from the door.
"No need for that, right? Nai-sensei lectured me about it yesterday."
"A good thing too." Kuro cuts in. "If she didn't, you would be working all night too." I turned away from him at that. "Wait, what were you doing all last night?"
"Helping Gaa-kun sleep."
"You set Shukaku to sleep?" Mari tilts her head.
"Yeah. Shukaku still falls asleep to a certain lullaby."
"So you got no sleep?" Fumi interrupts.
"Yes. Stop fussing over me. It creeps me out." I shiver remembering last time.
"You still remember that?" Mari looks at me.
"Of course. It was one of the most creepy experiences of my life."
"What are you talking about?" Everyone looks at us.
"Nothing." We simultaneously smile at them.
"Whatever you say." Mi turns back to putting the dishes away. Soon, we were finished and I headed to the living room to read. When I got there, everyone was already there and bowing to me - other than Gaa-kun.
"Arigato!" They thanked me in unison.
"You really don't have to bow down! Please just get up!"
"But we are thanking you, Mesaal-senpai." One ninja opposed.
"I didn't do much! All I did was cook! It's nothing to thank me for!"
"But you did it for all of us!" Another protested.
"Just get up! I can't stand people bowing to me."
'It makes me wonder how this lot got through the Forest of Death.'
'Who knows. Maybe this is all an act.'
'Anything has the possibility of being and act.'
'My point still stands. It could be an act. You said it yourself.'
'I wasn't denying it!' I focused back on the crowd of people no longer bowing to me.
"Mesaal-senpai! Would you teach me to cook like that?!"
"No."
"Why not?!"
"Because we're opponents no matter how you look at it. I will kill anyone who gets in my way, friend or not."
"You're cruel." One spoke up.
"I always have been." I turned away from them and walked to a corner of the room, leaned against the wall and began reading. Murmurs passed around the room.
"It's true. She mercilessly kills." Gaa-kun tells them all.
"Somehow I can imagine that." Shi mutters.
"Me too."
"Yeah! Did you see how she broke all the bones in Shiro's arm and then act like it was nothing?!" Mi splutters. "She even told the proctor that he wants her in the T&I unit! He never denied it!"
(Time Skip)
I decided to just relax for the rest of the day and talk to Min. So, I left the living room and walked to the room I was given in the tower. When I arrived, I looked in the mirror and saw I had eyebags from mot sleeping for so long. After some thinking, I decide to have a nap before making lunch for everyone again.
'Min, wake me up if you think I'm going to start screaming.'
'I'll try. Get some sleep now.'
'Hai, Kaa-san.' I roll my eyes at her before laying on the bed and closing my eyes for a long awaited slumber.
[Dream]
I was chained to a wall and something was being injected into my neck. Once it was done, my body fell limp and it seemed like she was in a deep slumber. This me was younger than the current and scars showed all over her body from the rags she called clothes.
"Today, my dear Mesaal, we are going to test something. We need to see if he will seal into you and stay there." A doctor entered the room with multiple others. They each pulled out a sealing scroll or medical tools. A scalpel neared my right eye before cutting into it.
"Sir. We have a right to believe she has taken a sleeping dosage. We will have to wait until she wakes up to give her the sealing." A new scientist came in and explained.
"I see. How long will we need to wait?"
"If we give her this." He pulls out another injection. "About five minutes. Without it, I'd say around five to six hours."
"Give me it." He puts his hand out and the new doctor handed the needle to him. He injects the younger me with it and stands back. "Have you prepared it to seal? Remember, if this doesn't go right, the entire human race could be destroyed."
"Who are you sealing in her eye?"
"Ace. He is eager for blood and he is powerful. She will make the perfect tool once she follows our orders. Until then, she can stay locked up. She's much too powerful to be let loose."
"Ok. Should we send jolts of electric into her afterwards?"
"Yes. In yesterday's training, she attacked me. She can have twenty jolts and eighty whips for that." He smirks deviously. The younger me begins to wake up and doesn't go unnoticed by the doctors. "My dear, Mesaal, are you ready?" He is met with silence.
"Just do it. Then we can give her, her punishment." One of them smirked.
"Indeed. Prepare for the sealing!" Everyone gets in their positions, surrounding the little me. The main doctor walks up to her and begins cutting around and in her right eye. It was black, just like the other, until everyone made the tiger seal and words and pictures from the scrolls flowed into her right eye. She shut them both in pain and screamed loudly. When she finally opened them again, the eye Ace was sealed in was galactic.
"We have no way of knowing if she can wield Ace's power until she uses his chakra. Prepare the electric jolts and the whip! Her favourite." People in white suits rushed into the control room only separated by a wall of glass. Another rushed into the room with a whip, it was a long red whip (I presumed the red was from the blood) with many thorn like pricks poking out of the sides.
"Twenty jolts! Twenty in each limb!"
They complied and twenty electric shots travelled through the metal chains and into the shackles on her wrists and ankles. She screamed out in pain as it went through. Next, was the whipping. Tears threatened to roll out of her eyes as the conductor counted how many times she was struck with the whip. Suddenly, everything went black.
[End of Dream]
I woke up panting and sweating.
'So, his name is Ace, huh?'
'It seems so. Lunch should be made soon. Everyone's stomachs are growling.'
'Alright. I'm just going to make miso soup and sushi. Simple and quick.' I make my way to the kitchen and make lunch for myself only. Other people can make their own. I made all of theirs yesterday and today for breakfast.
"Itadakimasu." I wish myself before digging in. I washed the dishes before drying them and putting them back in their rightful places. I strolled up to the room I was given and laid down on the bed again.
'What was that dream? Why was it shown? Is Ace the person sealed inside of my eye?' Questions filled my head and I didn't realise people were at my door and knocking.
I was brought out of my daze when someone called my name. "Mesaal?" I recognised the voice as Shi's.
"What do you want?"
"I wanted you to make us lunch."
"No. I'm busy."
"What are you doing?" This time it was Mari's voice.
"Nothing that should concern you."
"But it does. We're your friends."
"You wouldn't understand."
"Then help us understand." It was Mi's voice this time.
"No. Now, leave me alone before I come out there." A hint of a threat in the last sentence.
"Just tell us if you need something." Fumi sighs before guiding his team away. I sense Mari and Kuro also walk away. The only one left is Gaa-kun. He opens the door and walks to my bed, where I'm laying down.
"Is there something you need?"
"I want you to tell me what's wrong. I also want you to make me lunch."
"Ask someone else to make you lunch."
"But no-one can cook as good as you."
"Depends, will you tell anyone else I've cooked for you?"
"No."
"Then I will. I won't be cooking anything, just warming up the remainders of my lunch."
"Fine with me. I don't eat much anyway." Gaa-kun shrugs and sits on the bed next to me. I snap my fingers as I sit up and the left-overs of my lunch appear in my hands. I form the dog, monkey, ox and dragon seals and a blue flame forms in my hands. My hands hover near the food as it heats up. I stop and check the temperature.
"Open wide~" I hold the food up to Gaa-kun's mouth for him to eat. He opens his mouth, so I slide the food in and he eats the piece of sushi. "Nice?"
"Yes." He finishes eating soon after and I make the dishes disappear. Gaa-kun motions for me to come over to him, so I do.
"Something you need?"
"Lay your head on my lap."
"Why?"
"You seem distressed."
"And?"
"Just do it."
"Ok, ok." I lay my head on his lap and Gaa-kun begins thoroughly running his fingers through my hair. "I forgot how nice this is." I sigh in relaxation.
"It feels good, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. Arigato for doing this."
"It was no problem. It feels nice for me too."
"Hm." I say no more as we continue like this.
"Mesaal, why do you hide your right eye?"
"I have my own reasons, Gaa-kun."
"Would you show me?"
"What for?"
"I'm just curious. I want to see how it looks."
"No."
"Why not? You showed your sensei, didn't you?"
"How do you know about that?"
"I just do."
"Now, that's not helpful."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
"I don't need to show you. You're being mean."
"What do I have to do to make you show me?"
"Just stay like this for a while." I bury my head into his stomach and he carries on running his fingers through my hair.
"Why do you enjoy this?"
"I don't know. I guess it feels good and relaxes me."
"Hm." He hums and continues running his fingers through strands of hair.
(Time Skip)
"Will you show me now? We've been at this for about an hour."
"Fine." I lazily sat up and swung my legs around to sit on the edge of the bed.
"How comfortable do you feel, doing this?"
"Not very, but my sensei knows so you should too. You've been my friend for a long time now." I inhale sharply and exhale slowly. Carefully, my fingers linger around the edges of my eyepatch before pulling it off. Again, my eye is closed so he can't see anything.
"Where did you get the scar?"
"Someone gave it to me when they sealed Ace in my eye."
"So he's the reason you hide your right eye?"
"Indeed." I slowly open my right eye and face Gaa-kun so he can get a clear view.
"Wow." He muttered under his breath, barely audible.
"You think it's nice?" I tilted your head to the side.
"It looks pretty."
"But looks can deceive." I glanced away before pulling my eyepatch back down.
"Damn straight." He muttered again as he engulfed you in a small hug. I froze, sure I've given people hugs, I just wasn't used to people giving them to me. Slowly, I hugged him back and rubbed circles in his back, rocking him back and forth, lulling him to sleep. Soon, Gaa-kun was sleeping with his head on my shoulder and his arms wrapped around me. I laid him down on the bed and pulled the blanket over him.
"Sweet dreams~" I lightly kiss his forehead. I walk out of the room and quietly shut the door behind me.
"Mesaal? Where's Gaara?" Mari was the first one to notice me.
"Sleeping." Mari and Kuro stared at me incredulously.
"What?!" They exploded at the same time.
"What didn't you understand? Also, could you keep it down, I don't want him to wake up." I shush them.
"How did you get him to go to sleep?"
"It was easy. I just rocked him back and forth, really."
"Maybe he feels at ease with you." Shi popped up out of nowhere.
"He does." Kuro nods.
"Now that I think about it, you know more about Gaara than either of us. How did you get him to trust you so easily?"
"Because we are similar. We have been through many different experiences, most of them being people trying to kill us, but we survived them and learned from them. Me and Gaa-kun have many different things in common. Like how I share a secret with both of you that no-one else knows."
"That's true." Kuro mutters.
"I know it is. That's why I said it." I said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Yeah, yeah. Smartie pants." Mi rolled her eyes.
"Fumi is the smartie pants here."
"What's with that nickname?" Fumi questions, irritated.
"I have a nickname for everyone. Kakashi is Kaka-sensei. Naruto is Naru. Sasuke is Suke. Shiro is Shi. Ami is Mi. Gaara is Gaa-kun. Temari is Mari. Kankuro is Kuro. The Hokage is Old Man. Ibiki is Scarface. Neji is Ne. TenTen is Tenie. Lee is Youthful kid. Pink hair is Pink hair."
"Pink hair isn't her real name."
"Well, it should be."
"That's rude, Mesaal-senpai!" A ninja shouted.
"What's with the 'senpai'?" I am bewildered.
"You are definitely a higher up to them." Mari slung her arm round my shoulder.
"I know that. It doesn't mean they have to call me 'senpai'. They don't have to give the honorifics at all."
"But we want to, to express our gratitude." Another ninja speaks up.
"I give up! Arguing with you isn't on my to-do list today." I sigh before sitting on a couch next to some random rain ninja. I think he might be one of Oro's fake teammates because he smirks at me as I sit down. For the rest of the afternoon, I was either talking with people or reading about my clan's kekkei genkai.
"Mesaal, could you please make dinner?" Mari begs.
"I need to go check up on Gaa-kun first. I might afterwards." I stand up and teleport into my reserved room. I see Gaa-kun sleeping peacefully on my bed and hasn't moved an inch from a couple of hours ago. I lightly shake him.
"Hng.." He groans in displeasure as I wake him up.
"Gaa-kun, time to wake up. You've been sleeping for a couple of hours now and it's nearly dinner time." I whisper in his ear.
"Coming." Gaa-kun sits up and removes the blanket from himself. He bends down and retrieves his gourd from the ground.
"Have a nice nap?" I ask him as I wrap my arms around his neck in a hug. In return, Gaa-kun snakes his arms around my waist and pulls me to him.
"Where did you go?" He lowly asked me as we let go of each other.
"I went downstairs so I didn't bother you. You looked peaceful."
"You shouldn't have worried about that. I could have gone with you."
"No need to be so protective." I assure him. "Come, I'm going to make dinner now."
"What are you making?"
"Okonomiyaki."
"Ok. Let's go." We both teleport to the kitchen and find everyone else already there.
"What are you doing just standing there like idiots?"
"We were waiting for you, Mesaal-senpai." A ninja informs me.
"Seriously? You're still with the 'senpai' thing?" I raise a brow at them.
"Of course, Mesaal-senpai."
"I can stop them if you want." Gaa-kun offers.
"It's alright. I don't want the stench of dead bodies today."
"How can they talk out that so casually?"
"Are they monsters?" Whispers are passed around.
"I am a monster. But don't ever call Gaa-kun a monster again or I'll send you to your graves." The temperature dropped several degrees as I glared at the shinobi.
"Gomenasai." They bowed to me.
"Don't apologise to me. Apologise to Gaa-kun."
"Gomenasai, Gaara-san." They bowed to Gaa-kun.
"Don't call yourself a monster, Mesaal. I am as much of a monster as you."
"No you're not. You are not a monster and I will not stand for you calling yourself one."
"What about you calling yourself a monster?" Kuro questions.
"It is the truth. You cannot change a fact."
"Enough of this conversation already, just cook dinner. I can't stand it if you keep calling yourself a monster." Mi butts in.
"Why should you care?"
"Because we're your friends." Shi backed Mi up.
"He's right. We're here for you." Fumi backs them up.
"Would you shut up?! Don't give some friendship crap! Me cooking for you should be enough! We are moving on from this conversation, do you understand?!" The room begins to get frosty from my powers.
"Mesaal, calm down. You're going to freeze them at this rate."
"Fine." I revert the room back to normal and people rub their arms.
"That was cold!" One of them complained.
"Oh? Would you like me to make your insides colder?" A sadistic smirk grew on my face.
"She means she wants to freeze you from inside to out. She would slowly concentrate her ice chakra to travel into your head and it would spread from there." Mari explains as a puzzled look crosses his face.
"No! Gomen!" He hides behind another ninja, presumably his teammate as he begins shaking.
"Now, would you like me to make dinner?"
"Yes please!" They chorused.
"Today's dinner is okonomiyaki." I inform them all as I collect the ingredients from their storage places and summon some other things I use.
"I can't wait." Mari leans on the doorframe as she watches me cook.
"I'm glad." I reply.
(Time Skip)
Everyone has gone to bed to ready themselves for tomorrow's event other than me. I was laying down on the roof, staring at the stars as I began to think about Obi.
'I wonder how he's doing.'
'He should be fine. He's in an evil organisation, pretending to be a man-child and be excited by the things a little kid would be.' Min sarcastically replies.
'I wasn't asking you for an answer!'
'I don't care! I gave you one anyway, if you couldn't tell.'
'No, I couldn't tell that you just gave me a sarcastic reply that I had to listen to.'
'You don't have to be so blunt and sarcastic.'
'I'm being just as sarcastic as you were.' I snapped.
'Calm down. No need to get so worked up.'
'Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say.' I ignore her from then on.
(Time Skip)
After I drifted off for a while, I sensed Gaa-kun near me and woke back up, looking up at his face,
"Would you put me to sleep?"
"Sure. Come in." I jump up, walk down the wall and into the bedroom window. Gaa-kun isn't far behind. He lays his head on my lap and closes his eyes as I run my fingers through his red hair. I softly sing Shukaku's favourite lullaby. I can sense the beast in his falling into a deep slumber. Soon after, Gaa-kun also falls asleep as I run my hands through his head, slowly lulling him to sleep. I sense someone else outside of the door, so when he finally falls asleep, I call out. "Come in. I know you're there." The door opens and reveals Kaka-sensei.
"Mesaal. What are you doing with Gaara?"
"Setting him to sleep. What do you want?"
"I just wanted to talk with you."
"What about?"
"About what happened yesterday. I don't remember anything after we practised genjutsu together. I shrugged it off yesterday, but now I wanted to look into it. None of the other senseis saw me before we all gathered in the tower, asking you to cook lunch for us."
"I don't know. After we practised genjutsu, you teleported somewhere. I didn't bother asking where because I knew I wasn't going to get an answer. I just thought you were going to the KIA stone or something." I lied.
"I see... Well, thanks for the information anyway." He waved before teleporting in a puff of smoke.
"Rude, you don't even close the door." I form ice and it closes the door before disappearing just as fast as it appeared. A soft smile graced my face as I looked at Gaa-kun's sleeping figure. His chest rose and deflated as he breathed deeply, in a deep slumber.