sunshineverse | [open] I fell into a burning ring of fire

Who: Kushina (in Gaara's body) and you
When: March... 6th, I think. Also open to March 7th
Where: Sunagakure, will also have option for Konohagakure
Notes: Tophie and Elle swapped accounts for the body swap thingy, some options for meeting Kushina-as-Gaara below.

Suna

Kushina was not a happy camper. One minute, she was on her mission and someone bumped into her. The next... She was surrounded by desert, feeling like utter rubbish, and immediately hit with a feeling that something was very wrong. Not only was she not supposed to be anywhere near Wind Country, but there was a very different presence within her. She knew her seal inside and out and whatever was on her now wasn't right. This wasn't hers and neither was the tailed beast that she had a very, very long and heated conversation with before heading for the village.

It was taking some adjustment to walk with this new body, but the looks she was getting from the villagers when they didn't scurry off in another direction were downright unnerving and pissed her off. Which led her to yell at anyone who stared too long. And hearing a young man's voice instead of her own come out when she opened 'her' mouth was really weird. At least the yelling made them stop staring in a hurry.

She needed to find this guy's passport and get to Konoha as fast as possible and find out what was going on. And she wasn't about to let anyone or anything stop her. Not a desert full of sand, not a fucking raccoon demon with one tail, and certainly not the odd dense weight that she could feel covering the body she inhabited.

...But who the hell was she?

Konoha

Things were going marginally better, given the circumstances. But she was still pretty grumpy. With a little help, she managed to make her bid for freedom to the nearest travel seal. On her trip back home, she mostly debated what to do first. Finding her body and demanding answers with whoever stole it from her seemed like a solid course of action. Though making a beeline for Obito's office to explain as best she could and make him believe her story should be her first priority.

Even if she wasn't getting the same looks here as she had in Suna, it was taking some restraint not to stop and say hi to anyone she recognized. She could catch up with friends and make excuses for any odd behavior when she figured out how to get back in her own body and thoroughly punish whoever did this to her. But first, her mind was finally made up. She had to find Obito.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Obito's intervention earned a half-hearted swat with some sand following to assist her, but she got her arm to readjust under his anyway to allow him movement. The other stayed, looping over his shoulder.

But she pulled back a little to look him in the eyes. Concern was writ all over her face as some of what he said got through.

"You killed them all? As in more than one? And what do you mean by your defense? The sand?"

"Here, the only attempts on her were kidnappings, not assassinations, and those were from outsiders. Assassinations of any kind are not something I call out on my people, nor Minato-sensei before me." He tilted his head toward her, voice quiet as he continued to pet Gaara's head. "She's the previous Hokage's wife, and they have a son, it's a love relationship and he's known about this for a very long time."

He let out a soft sigh. "People also don't actually know she's a jinchuuriki at all, and it's better that way, to an extent." He looked to Kushina then, wry as he heard her questions. Well, Gaara, you're on your own with that.

"There weren't that many," he pointed out after nodding a confirmation that 'defense' meant 'sand', trying to be reasonable about her odd reaction. That said, he didn't remember how many there had been beyond 'more than six'; Shukaku was the one who kept a tally and reminded him at odd moments, while his own memories of them were fragmented at best. Anyway, he'd stopped counting the people he'd killed after a while. Blood was blood.

"Yeah... I knew that no one knew." Everyone was too nice. There was no possibility in his mind that the general populace knew what she was, not when they acted the way they did towards her. But then, even the Hokage's response made sense, when she was clearly a functional host with total control. "Everyone loves Kushina-san, after all."

"Even one's too many..." Her hold tightened for a moment, fingers digging into long red hair as if doing so could make some of the pain of the memories go away.

"And it wasn't always that way, y'know. Even if no one knew, even if barely anyone knows now. It still took a lot of time and hard work to gain peoples' respect and love. But it was worth it."

"Yeah, people can be really biased." He gave Kushina a sad smile. "I know that well. First Uchiha in office, remember?" He looked back to Gaara, tilting his head to guage his expression without the long hair blocking his view.

He almost ducked away as Kushina's fingers pressed against the back of his skull, but it wasn't an unpleasant sensation. He was growing more interested as the conversation calmed and returned to concepts and reactions he could understand.

"How many people did you kill as a child?"

He was curious, honestly. If it had taken her as long a time as she'd said, perhaps she'd had the same problems. Even if they hadn't known the reason behind the murders, as Suna had.

She hummed thoughtfully at his question and pulled back as she thought. Though she left a hand on his shoulder when she started talking.

"Not really any, but I sure beat a lot of the boys that teased me half to death. You see, I was born in Uzushio and I was brought to Konoha to become the new jinchuuriki because of my special chakra. I was a loud-mouth and declared on my first day in the academy that I'd be the first female Hokage. So I was made fun of for that and because of my round face and red hair." Maybe she was just getting a little tied up in her memories for a moment. A small smile appeared at the recollection, and it grew into something a little more twisted on Gaara's features as she continued. ""Tomato" they called me, but I made those bullies into squashed tomatoes."

He slipped around behind Gaara, watching Kushina and resting his hand on his unoccupied shoulder. No, of course he wasn't putting Gaara between them like a barrier, not at all. He was grinning though, as he leaned down, murmuring. "It's Habanero these days."

He nodded, satisfied with that as an answer. The fox didn't seem like the same kind of warlike wraith, or if he was, he was subdued to a point that he couldn't manifest like Shukaku did. Her own slips wouldn't have been as universally lethal. It explained the difference.

"Habanero sounds better," he murmured, absent-minded as he thought about her tale. "What changed?"

[open] I fell into a burning ring of fire

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...didn't think i'd get to use this icon

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