[OPEN / bodyswap event] so she said what's the problem baby

[ghostpepper]

Who: Gaara in Kushina's body, OPEN
Where: Konoha for the majority of the event.
When: March 6th
Notes: Tophie and Elle have switched journals for the event for ease of icons/ID! Missive thread included inside.

[ The actual switch goes far too smoothly - aching from a night spent out in the deep desert under the full moon, Gaara isn't anywhere near alert when he all but trips over a... he doesn't know, doesn't have time to know, because then there's a seal burning through his foot and he's suddenly... somewhere else.

And he feels fine. Better than fine, he's never felt so healthy in his life, even as he's staggering from someone running into him. That's the first red flag. Not the health, not the seething silence in the back of his mind where cursing and grit should be. The proximity. No one ever gets that close. What happened? He spins, trying to catch sight of the runner, promptly falls over in a whirl of red hair and hopelessly altered balance...

And the sand doesn't catch him.

Gaara hasn't screamed in real fear or real anger since he was thirteen years old, but he barely suppresses it now. Instead, he can't help the hiss-whimper of terror as he looks down at a body not his own, in a country not his own, and in the chambers of his - not his - mind, a creature stirs with too many tails and fur like fire. What happened, he repeats, and Shukaku doesn't hear him.

It takes him too long to reach the travel seal with this light body with reflexes and a ground-eating stride alien to him, and the passports this body is holding - and it's a real person, she's a real person, an Uzumaki - won't take him to Suna. "You're scheduled for Konoha," he's told, and goes through the seals with a dazed obedience.

And then, as he emerges into familiar streets to a chorus of 'Kushina-sama's from the attendant shinobi, he realises. If he's a real person, if he's been switched, rather than transformed and kidnapped, then his body is still back in the ranges north of Sunagakure with a semi-berserk bijuu draining it of chakra.

He has to find the Hokage. ]

[ OOC NOTE: As far as anyone can see, Kushina has returned a little early from a courier mission to north Tea country, and is making her way towards the Hokage tower. She looks unsteady and a little panicked, and flinches if people move too close to her. Have fun. ]

Comments

[scarecrowboy]

Skidding home after his own ridiculous exchange in the body department, with the face of a tiny dog sticking out from the half open zipper of his flak jacket and an alarming missive scroll clutched in hand, Kakashi was definitely not game for any more nasty surprises.

When he crossed paths with Kushina on his way to Hokage Tower, therefore, he let out a quiet breath of relief at the sight of a familiar face, and sidled up to her side.

"Welcome back," he greeted with a little eye-smile. "Good trip?"

[ghostpepper]

"Who--" He had no idea who this man was. Years of briefing and intel provided a name, moniker and basic speculated statistics to go with what he could see of the face, along with a standing order never to engage, but nothing beyond that.

None of that helped. And Gaara wasn't the dissembling type on a good day. Should he attack? No, he was someone close to Obito. This could be taken as a breach of treaty. The Kazekage would be informed. He stalled, hands twitching in the first movements for a switch technique. Kushina's expression flickered into bare calm.

"It was fine?"

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi tilted his head, confusion evident in his expression. Was that... a question? In return to a question? She sounded uncertain, at the very least, and if Kakashi bothered to cast his mind back, he was pretty certain he couldn't remember a time when he'd seen Kushina uncertain.

"...Did something happen on your mission?" he asked, his visible eyebrow raised in question.

[ghostpepper]

Did it? If something had happened to this woman like the ambush in the canyon, then it would need to be reported... but not to this man. He moved further towards the tower street with as polite a nod as he could manage. "Yes. Excuse me, Hatake-san."

[scarecrowboy]

Yes? What kind of answer was that? If something had happened to Kushina, the last thing he'd expected was a truth as blunt as that one, and--

Wait. Had she just called him by his surname?

He paused, watching her retreating back for a moment while his mind processed the information he'd soaked up. After the debacle of the last few days, and the missive from Gai clutched in his other hand, this could only mean...

"Who are you? Or, should I say, where is Kushina-sama?"

[ghostpepper]

"I can't answer that," came the immediate reply. He didn't know where that person was, although he suspected, and if he was right... that meant that answering either question would cause more trouble. "I need to see the Hokage."

[scarecrowboy]

If this was the same situation as he'd previously experienced, Kushina was probably trapped wherever this person had been previously - and if not, then Kakashi couldn't let this person out of his sight. However, when he thought about it their physicality was setting him entirely on edge, but... he couldn't sense anything else except Kushina's typical scent and a near palpable air of uncertainty. Somehow - call it a hunch - Kakashi couldn't see this person with any negative intentions.

"So do I," he continued as he caught up to the strangers stumbling gait (nothing like Kushina's usual bounding strides). "We can go together, and you can tell me who you are on the way."

[ghostpepper]

"I just said I can't answer that question," he all but growled, the flare of temper surprising him with how easily it came. But then, he was still reeling from the relief that this was some kind of recognisable phenomenon. Maybe this guy would be useful, if he could recognise the problem. It would be difficult to explain otherwise. He reined in his irritation, glad for the lack of sand to broadcast his thoughts and simultaneously entirely unaware that he was doing that just fine with Kushina's expressions. "Come if you want." And then, because he couldn't help it, "How did you know?"

[scarecrowboy]

Kakashi might have been mistaken, but he could have sworn Kushina's hair gave the slightest little lilt as her voice growled; a weak attempt at the usual firey flare it typically had, but a reminiscent trait none the less. Even her voice sounded different, like she had a sore throat almost.

"I know because I've only been back in this body all of a few hours.." he said, putting a hand to his chest, over a small bump in his flak jacket that wriggled when at the contact. "I switched with a complete stranger too."

[ghostpepper]

"Back-- You reversed it?" He asked despite himself. His eyes flicked down to the wriggling patch of flak jacket, but dismissed it as unimportant and he turned to face forward again in a flurry of hair that nearly threw him back off-balance.

"What kind of person is Kushina-san?"

[scarecrowboy]

"It reversed itself," Kakashi said with an idle shrug as he cast a side-long glance across the main street. "I didn't do anything. The seal simply faded and we switched back." No civilians were giving them strange looks - probably because to the best of their knowledge Kushina was acting as typical as usual - but Kakashi somehow still felt a little uncomfortable walking next to this unidentified stranger in the body of one of his closest.

But then he supposed his uncomfortableness was nothing compared to theirs.

"She's a strong woman, in both the physical and emotional sense. She's a pillar of support to everyone she touches, and I'd trust her with my life. Why do you ask?"

[ghostpepper]

"Is that so." It was an inadequate response already, but Gaara's renewed silence afterwards meant that it had to cover for both parcels of information at once and went from 'inadequate' to 'laughably so'. How could a jinchuuriki become a central part of their own community? Every piece of his own progress had been in Konoha, every friend and bond he'd made had been outside the walls of Suna.

Well, not every bond. The few were the exception that proved the rule. And here, wearing this woman's face and actually watching the people around them, he could detect faint motions, differences; someone drawing themselves up as he passed, someone smiling a greeting. A pillar of support. How had she done it?

His - her - jaw clenched.

"She could be in danger- no, if she and I have been switched, there's no 'could' about it." He bit off the rest of the explanation. The people around him whose reactions had given him the will to answer Kakashi were also the reason he couldn't say any more. Even in somewhere like Konoha, the news that two jinchuuriki were unstable and compromised would cause unrest. "Hatake-san, will you send a missive for me? To... Temari of Suna?"

[scarecrowboy]

The facts were, going by his own personal experience and the air of the body-jacker before him, that whoever was in Kushina's body did not want to be there, which also meant that wherever Kushina was would probably be somewhere she'd rather she wasn't. The finer details were Obito's doing, but this much he could definitely do - not only for Kushina, but for this poor soul too.

Kushina's body didn't smell right that much was true, but in her moment of contemplation the slightly strange scent took a turn and landed somewhere between sadness and defiance and Kakashi's hands moved as soon as the missive was requested. A quick flash of hand signs, a nick of blood and a cloud of smoke later, and a dog appeared sitting at his feet, looking between the two in question with an expectant look that turned slightly confused when he did a double take and double sniffed Kushina. Urushi was loyal, however, and straightened when Kakashi unzipped his flak to retrieve a scroll after scooping out the tiny dog nestled at his collar bone. He held the little ball of fluff out to the woman before him with a quick "Can you hold this for a second?" as he prepared the scroll.

"What's your message?"

[ghostpepper]

Suddenly holding a handful of dog, Gaara's first reaction was to almost drop it again as he realised what he'd just been handed and the aforementioned handful began to determinedly squirm towards his face. Was this a pet, or a ninken? He looked between it and the larger, competent dog with faint disdain and definite confusion. Didn't the dogs raise their own?

Fortunately, he had memorised Temari's set phrases, so he could reel the message text off regardless of small dogs. Which was useful, given that he had to juggle it again before he could open his mouth.

"Accept. Summer heat, winter fan. Heart."

[scarecrowboy]

Eien seemed intent on licking the face of who she thought was Kushina, apparently blissfully unaware of any strange scents her chakra might have been giving off (but then, given the size of Eien's teeny tiny nose, perhaps she hadn't picked up on it yet, or perhaps she was just too excited by physical attention to care about a silly difference in scent. How could anyone resist that level of adorable?)

Kakashi arranged the characters in his most readable chicken-scratch of untidily aligned strokes - apparently all the time the academy sensei had spent recently trying to shift his handwriting toward legible hadn't stuck so well - and once he'd finished, he thumbed the scroll, chakra sealed the exterior and knelt to hand it to the expectant canine at his feet, who promptly took off like a bullet; gone in a small plume of dirt.

"He's good with names, it'll be right with her." He held out a hand to take the dog from not-Kushina's person.

[sunshinenpcs]

[ He skids around the corner chasing a whisp of colour he's sure was-- There! His feet carry him loudly forwards, a quick tak tak tak on the slightly damp sidewalk. Man, he's so glad the snow is no more; while it had been fun for a little, it's nice to not fall over every step he takes. (It was definitely all to do with the weather and not to do with his general lack of co-ordination. Yup.) He has his eyes set on the back of the woman in front of him, hands poised before him ready to take his aim and finally catch his mother by surprise. In all honesty he's every bit expecting her to evade him somehow, but that's all part of the game, all part of their exchanges, and whatever way it goes any chance to tumble through the street with his mom is a good outcome, whether he gets a bonk on the head for it or not. The way his face lights up at the thought makes it seem like he hasn't seen her for weeks, let alone a short few days while she ran her courier errands in tea country, but.. he had vowed to make the most of all the time he had with her now that she was finally back in Konoha, and he'd be damned if he didn't keep his promise! He springs forward with a slightly loaded leap, his hands outstretched till they meet with her sides, and as he tickles her relentlessly he cries out happily-- ] Mom!

[ghostpepper]

[ Three things happen in quick succession. First, Gaara freezes at the unexpected assault. Second, years of training and the body's reflexes kick in as he wheels his arms around to knock Naruto's away. Third, he attempts to half-throw half-shove his assailant away.

Somewhere between the first and second, he makes a choked noise almost like a laugh, which he will never admit to anyone again.

The cry of 'mom!' sinks in halfway through step two, and by step three he's realised with a flash of alarm who it is. Then alarm becomes anger becomes a headache behind his eyes as his own emotions conflict with a surge of affection that isn't his own, and he pulls the last motions to try and steady the other boy. For the woman's sake, and probably for the sake of Naruto's teammates. ]

Uz-- Naruto.

[sunshinenpcs]

[ Naruto had been listening out for the indignant shout of surprise and mirth in response to his attack, or even a skillful dodge and rebuttal to punish him for thinking he could have ever gotten away with tickling in his mom, so the noise he hears definitely isn't what he expects. He has no reason to doubt the woman before him, however, and even if he did he's much too excited to let suspicion slow him down. He's expecting the physical contact for sure (though it's a little softer than he'd presumed it would be) and he steels himself against it. He swerves, leaning backwards and springing forward again as though he were made of elastic and the force hadn't even touched him. He's so invested in assumption, in fact, that when his 'mother' stumbles over his name, he barely even notices. ] Eh? Is that all ya got? You're not that tired out from your mission, are you? C'mon, I can take it, y'know! [ His hands are outstretched again, and he leans in to make another attempt at tickling her sides. He'll never learn. ]

[thebestuchiha]

He'd seen Kakashi out there too, but Kushina had been directed inside first. It made him frown, straightening in his chair as he looked her over, obviously searching out some kind of distress. Her bearing was weird, and he leaned forward, waving his ANBU to close his door.

"Okay, what's wrong? You're not... acting normal."