#F20 CH9

[chemicalmagecraft]

Foresight is 20/20 Chapter 9

"I'm assuming this is the desert," I said, looking over the sandy terrain. I was glad that I'd replaced my arm and leg warmers with a much lighter set that didn't warm me all, because even with the additional bit of heat resistance that having Kurama's chakra apparently granted me, I was getting a little hot. "Either that or we somehow managed to stumble upon a beach with no water."

"This is indeed the desert," Baki said. "We should arrive at the village by this evening at our current pace."

I sighed and reclined back on the Akuma Tensei construct that I was riding on, making sure to keep my parasol shading me. "This is boring," I complained.

"You consider riding a giant snake made of sand through a desert to be boring?" Baki asked incredulously from the back of his lindwurm.

"Yoooooouuuuuuuuth!" Gai agreed enthusiastically as his poor lindwurm was forced to go through a bunch of unnecessary tricks and expend more energy to keep up with us.

I shrugged. "The novelty wore off," I conceded, then turned around. "And Gai! Stop forcing your lindwurm to move around like that! It's gonna run out of energy if you keep it up like that!"

"These things can run out of energy?" Baki asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Of course they can run out." I gestured to the crown made of three demon gems that my lindwurm had. "My creations may regenerate energy and their unusual sage chakra means they're even more potent than one might expect and can gather natural energy even while on the move, but they still have limits and the rate we're going at would definitely wear out at least one gem long before we get to Suna. I think. The three gems mean they share the burden, but they'll run out eventually. Gai's just running the clock down in fast-forward. Speaking of which..."

I turned back to Gai. "Oi! Your lindwurm's probably gonna die before we get to Suna at that rate, Gai! Gather up the gems so I don't have to go looking for them when it does!" I faced Baki again and thought for a bit. It was mid-morning, which meant I still had a couple of hours before Suna if Baki was right. I shrugged, dropped my parasol so I could grab it with a chakra thread, then grabbed hold of two of my lindwurm's gems and yanked them out, causing it to start disintegrating. I used the gems to pull myself into the air, stepping on the third one as it fell to complete my impromptu flying 'machine.' I flew over to Baki, whose lindwurm slowed down a bit so I could fly over. "Catch," I told him as I dumped myself into his lap.

"Why?"

I placed the gems back onto my body and grabbed my parasol with my hand again. "I'm going to catch a quick nap so I'm well-rested for when we get there." He nodded. "Wake me up outside of the gates. I'm kind of a zombie when I first wake up, but I should be good if I walk around for a bit. The lindwurms should respond to 'start,' 'stop,' 'slow down,' and 'speed up,' but they're not the brightest so don't expect them to understand any other commands." I rubbed Baki's lindwurm. "No offense, Lindy-chan. Right, I'm gonna sleep now." Now, I used to be really bad at falling asleep when not in school, but I'd recently figured out a trick to it.

"Kurama-chan, can you pleeeeaaaase knock me out so I can take a good nap?" I pleaded over the connection I shared with him thanks to having his chakra.

I felt his disdainful 'glare' over our bond. "Do I look like sleep medicine to you?"

"Yeah, that's the point. Real sleepy meds make me all loopy, and for whatever reason they make my sleep not as refreshing..."

He grumbled. "Fine, just don't resist or you'll end up loopy and your sleep won't be refreshing. I'm not used to using genjutsu like this."

"Thanks..." I told him as I felt myself drifting off.

kukukuku~

"-ki-san. Kouki-san!" I groaned and just barely managed to lift up my glasses to rub my eyes. "We're here," Baki told me. I grumbled and rolled over.

And immediately fell onto the sand. "I hate mornings..." I said, then spent about a minute of brushing sand off and spitting it out, before remembering that I theoretically had the ability to control sand. I sent out a pulse of magnet release to throw off the remaining bits of sand that got everywhere. The good news was that I was definitely awake.

"It's the evening."

I shrugged. "I hate waking up then. Right, we should probably get a move on. Where are my gems, Gai?"

"Here they are!" he said, then chucked them at me. I stared at him as the gems slowed down and stopped in midair, then put them back where they were with but a thought.

I closed my parasol, flourished it around to point at the gates of the village, and declared, "Let us proceed!" really dramatically. As I opened my parasol back up, I had an idea, stuck my tongue out in concentration, and lifted into the air, shakily floating forwards a bit.

"I do realize that the answer is most likely 'seal master' or 'demon gem,' but I would like to know exactly how it is you are floating," Baki said.

I turned around to stare at him, smiled slightly, and said, "Demon gem." I took a moment to internally snicker at his facial expression before continuing. "It's a new idea I thought of. I'm making five of the gems take control of the air around me to let me defy gravity. The gems on my limbs and head are doing most of the work, which theoretically means that they'll run out first, but I can easily swap them out with the unused gems. The one at my sternum is barely going down at all. I think it might take a day of continuous floating to run out at this rate, though high-speed flight will probably drain it faster." I twisted around a bit in midair to get a feel for my newfound flight powers. It was a little wonky at first, but I got the hang of it. "I'm pretty sure everyone will take me more seriously as some mysterious sealing genius if I disobey the laws of gravity."

"I see! What a youthful idea!" Gai exclaimed.

"I... suppose that that makes sense..." Baki agreed. "Shall we go?"

kukukuku~

The Kazekage stared at me. "...I was expecting you to be taller."

I shrugged and floated to reach eye-level with him. "Who'd expect the miracle seal master who offered to fix your son's seal to be about his age?"

"And you appear to be floating."

"Well why wouldn't a miracle seal master have the ability to float?"

He squinted at me for a moment, then nodded. "...Fair."

"Right, so I should probably get a look at Gaara-kun," I said, then ran my fingers through my hair. I sighed at how messy it felt. "And I forgot my brush at home. I don't suppose I could borrow one once I'm done with the seal?"

The Kazekage nodded. "That seems reasonable enough. Do you need any special equipment to work on Gaara?"

I shook my head. "I brought my stuff. Might change my mind if it's a more complicated job than I thought, but as of right now I doubt I'll need you to provide anything aside from the patient and an area in which I can set up the sealing circle in. Could you take both me and him there?"

He blinked. "You can do it now?"

"Yup."

kukukuku~

"So," I said, "what brings you to my office, young man?" Gaara, who was lying down, giggled lightly.

"Umm... don't you know already?" Kankuro asked me. He, Temari, the Kazekage, and Gaara's uncle who I couldn't remember the name of were watching. Also Gai was still escorting me, but he wasn't paying as much attention.

"It was a joke," I told him. "I know perfectly well what I need to do here, I just wanted Gaara-kun to be put at ease." I sat down cross-legged on the ground and closed my eyes. "Now, I'm going to be concentrating on this. Please stay still, Gaara-kun." In addition to using my chakra-sensing to make sure the seal was right, I linked to Kurama so I could get his opinion. Once we were both sure the seal was as good as it could be, I unsealed my ink and brushes and floated up so I could get a better look at my seal. The brushes floated around, constructing the seal stroke by stroke. When it was done, we gave it a once-over to make absolutely sure it was right and then I floated down a bit to finally take my hand from my pocket and put it on Gaara's forehead so I could collapse the seal. With an application of some chakra, the seal was completed. In its finished state, it looked almost exactly like the kanji scar he got after killing his uncle, but in a slightly different style and not made out of scar tissue, as a sort of nod on my part to his fate. "How's it feel?" I asked as I floated down to the floor.

Gaara brushed his hand over the freshly-made seal. "I... it's as if a weight I've had upon my shoulders my entire life has lifted..."

"That means it's working," I told him. "Or at least, I assume it is."

"What do you mean, 'you assume it is?'" Temari asked.

"I made the seal specifically for Gaara-kun," I explained, then licked my lips. "Really, it only works on the Jinchuriki of Shukaku, so my ability to test it was rather limited."

"Why only the Ichibi?" Kankuro asked.

"Much as he projects the image of and is a raving lunatic, Shukaku is deadly smart and has the most control out of any of the biju, even though he's technically the weakest. Kind of a deadly combination, meaning he can extend much more influence on his jinchuriki, as you've surely noticed." I shifted my attention back to Gaara.

"Now, I should probably tell you how to use the thing." I floated a small booklet over to him. "That's an instruction manual. Consult it if you forget anything. First thing you need to know is that there are three distinct settings. The one that's on now is the default and should be on the most. It should fix itself faster than Shukaku can degrade it. If you use a half ram hand seal to 'activate' the seal, it'll switch to sleep mode. At that level, it'll make you so resistant to Shukaku's influence that you should be able to sleep on the night of the full moon with naught but a bad dream, though I should warn that it will make you more than a little drowsy and it degrades to the point where it will automatically switch back to default after nine hours of continuous use."

Gaara blinked. "I can finally get a good night's sleep," he muttered.

"Yup," I nodded. "In fact, the drowsiness is side effect of using a pacification seal component on the biju of a jinchuriki and I specifically made sure to calibrate it to let you sleep." I leaned in close and muttered to him, "Just saying, if you still can stay up a couple days a week without a giant murder tanuki screaming in your inner ear, you should. You can get soooo much done like that." I backed back up and switched back to normal voice. "And aside from sleep, you should use it in the off-chance Shukaku manages to surface during the day. The other setting, by using half dragon instead of half ram, pretty much turns the seal off."

"Why would I do that?" Gaara asked me.

"First, I'd like you to turn it off under supervision at least twice a month, preferably more, so you are still at least somewhat acclimated to Shukaku. You get that Kazekage-sama?"

"I understand completely," he nodded.

"Good. I'm holding you to that. Second, it regenerates the seal at a greatly accelerated rate. Limited resources and stuff." I thought for a bit. "Pretty sure that's everything you should know about how to use it for now. Oh, and just so you know, intentional infliction of severe emotional trauma, perhaps from having a beloved family member attempt to assassinate Gaara and then having him or her tell him that he or she hates him and his deceased mother died cursing the name she gave him in an ill-advised attempt to get him to... I'unno, better harness the power of Shukaku or something, voids the warranty and you'll have to actually pay me actual money to fix the busting you get from that level of breakdown combined with Shukaku breaking free. And it won't be cheap."

I felt the Kazekage blanch without even having to look. Chakra-sensing is useful. "That... may or may not have been my first idea on how to deal with Gaara. Thankfully, you came along..."

I shrugged. "S'cool, just don't even think of anything like that again. Inadvertent trauma is covered, though, so don't worry." I placed a bit of pressure on him with a red chakra genjutsu for a moment. "And I will know if you meant to or not. Now that I'm done with the legal disclaimers, I'd like to watch Gaara sleep for the next three days."

"That's a little creepy..." Kankuro muttered.

"It's to make sure the seal is working, right?" Gaara's uncle asked.

I nodded. "Ja. I'm pretty sure it'll work properly, but it'd be pretty embarrassing if I had to turn back halfway through the trip home because sleep mode breaks under the full moon. And yeah, that's why I timed it so that tomorrow night will be the full moon. Day before the worst, at the worst, then the aftermath. If I'm gonna find any complications it's gonna be after the full moon. Right, I'm done for now. Can I have that brush now, Kazekage-sama?"

"I can help with that," Temari offered.

kukukuku~

I made a noise somewhere between a purr and a contented sigh. "Are you purring?" Temari asked as she brushed my hair.

"Feels nice..."

"Oh... kay." She continued to brush my hair. "Wow, this is pretty curly."

"Mhm..."

"Thank you for helping Gaara. I've wanted to do something to help him, but I don't know what to do..." That statement made me crack one of my eyes open slightly.

"Be there for him," I said in a reassuring tone. "As much as what I gave him will help him, the best thing he could ever receive is love, and there's no cap on that. Be there for him and shower him with as much love as you can. That's what you can do for him. Pass that on to the rest of your family, by the way." I closed my eye again and resumed enjoying the calming feeling of her brush on my scalp. I felt her fiddling a bit with my hair, but let her.

"There," she said. I opened my eyes and looked into the mirror in front of me and gasped. In addition to being neatly brushed, Temari had put my hair into two curly pigtails.

"Do you not like it?" she asked.

"It's cute!" I said as I moved my head around, making my new pigtails bounce around a bit. "I love it."

"Oh. Good."

I got up and stretched a bit. "Right, I should check on Gaara now. Thanks for the brushing."

"You're welcome," she said as I walked out the door.

kukukuku~

I attacked the food the Kazekage brought me, taking a few quick glances over at Gaara. He was sleeping like a baby, probably for the first time in his life. "Thanks for the food," I said after I finished off the curry.

"So did Temari give you pigtails?" he asked.

"Yeah!" I said. "They're cute, right?"

"Aren't you a boy?"

I harrumphed. "Doesn't mean I can't look cute..."

"Sorry. So why exactly did you offer to help Gaara?" he asked.

"Can you keep a secret?" I asked him as I put down my plate, then put my hands behind my back.

"It depends. Would not revealing it compromise the safety of my village?"

"Most certainly not." I assured. "In fact, it would be most beneficial for you to know of this secret but only reveal it to a very, very trusted few. Hokage-sama and I have decided to entrust the secret on you, but only if you tell me you are trustworthy enough with absolute sincerity, so I will ask you again. Can I trust you to keep this matter a secret?"

"Yes, though I'd like to know how you plan on telling how I'm being sincere."

I shrugged and closed my eyes to do a small scan to see if anyone would overhear our conversation. "I can't detect sincerity, but I can feel malice and sense lies. Close enough."

"I suppose so. What is the secret?"

I looked over at him and opened my now-glowing eyes. "My eyes see that which is and that which is yet to come."

To his credit, he only blinked before processing that. Probably not the weirdest thing he'd seen considering both his job and the fact that he sealed a giant sand-controlling tanuki into his infant son. "Is that part of that Nocturne power Baki told me about?"

I shrugged. "Technically, Nocturne is more a part of it. The Shoraigan is a dojutsu that grants me future vision and farsight, at the cost of accelerated tiring. The future vision has a neat little quirk where I can see very far into the future if the future I'm seeing is a future where I don't exist."

"And in that future where you don't exist, I went through with my plan, traumatizing Gaara," he said with horror.

"Yup. And then there's more."

"What other stupid things am I going to do in the future?" he sighed.

"Secretly allying yourself with Orochimaru, letting him talk you into invading Konoha during the chunin exam, getting backstabbed like an idiot and replaced with a disguised Orochimaru, and dying alone in a ditch," I counted off.

"Dammit," he said softly. "I suppose I should secretly ally myself with the Hokage instead."

I nodded. "I'm only ever going to suggest things to you, as with Sarutobi, but I do suggest you do it. I have this plan of you double-crossing Orochimaru instead of Konoha if I haven't butterflied the Konoha Crush out of existence, though again, I'm only suggesting things."

He nodded. "I agree to your plan, I suppose. Is there anything else I should know?"

I held up my index finger. "First, there's gonna be a guy in a few years who's gonna apply to be a ninja despite being unable to use ninjutsu. He's got the potential to best jonin-level shinobi, make his own, less taxing version of the Eight Inner Gates, and develop semi-ninjustu that make him a literal pain to fight even for taijutsu specialists. Get him admitted into the academy, but make it clear to him that he's gonna have to work extra hard." I put up my middle finger too before putting my hand back down. "Second, Sasori's still alive and put some sort of dormant mind-control and/or sleeper agent jutsu into some of your men. Have fun with that."

He sighed. "Could you please tell me if any of the people I'm going to gather for the problem are infected?"

I made a quick check. "Some guy named Yura, thankfully only him, now please don't make me do that again or I won't be able to stay up for the third night."

"Thank you." He started to leave, but paused to look at eight of my cores standing on a seal tag. "What is that?"

"Surprised you didn't see that sooner," I noted. "The seal is siphoning off demon sage chakra as fast as they replenish it to gather power for an experiment of mine. And filtering it a little so it's less dangerous to be exposed to at the cost of some potency."

"Do you really need that much... 'demon sage chakra?'"

"If I have excess, then I have excess," I stated. "I want to have as much as possible for the project, for... optimal results."

"Why did that sound ominous?"

I grinned. "I'm throwing around power that can level villages to see what happens. Even if I follow safety precautions, it's still going to be pretty fun to look at."

He glared at me. "Please don't do it in my village."

"Can't, even if I wanted to. The plan is to see if giving someone with the potential to access a certain Kekkei Genkai enough demon sage chakra unlocks it for them." I gave a small chuckle. "Should be a lightshow."

He frowned for a moment, then said, "As long as it's not in my village... Do you need anything else?"

I shivered. "It's starting to get a bit cold. Do you have a spare blanket?"

"I'll have someone bring you one. Goodbye."

I told him goodbye and then spent the rest of the night watching a kid to make sure nothing bad happened to him in his sleep. I was honestly surprised I did not once burst out into song about Rose Quartz and how I loved her.