Chapter 1

It was a hot and sunny day in a desert village known as Suna. All of the village's children were having fun at their local playground; smiling, laughing, chasing each other, building sand castles, and swinging on the swing sets like they didn't have a care in the world. Seeing these children in such a state of bliss, one would think that nothing is wrong with them.

Everything was going fine until a certain boy stepped in. He did not look much like any of the other kids. He had messy brick red hair, fair skin, and pupiless blue eyes with black rims around them. Immediately, they all stopped and stared, fear written all over their faces.

"Run for your lives, that monster's going to kill us all!" One boy shouted on the farthest side of the site. Immediately, everyone ran away in every which direction, leaving the redhead all alone almost immediately when he stepped into the place. He looked down at the ground.

"Of course they would run away. They ALWAYS run away..." He mumbled sadly.

The poor boy walked to a swing, and began slowly swinging himself to and fro with a sad expression, clearly not enjoying his time alone there. Even though he had two siblings (an older brother and sister), neither of them ever had much, if any, time to spend with him. They would always be busy training for future missions and learning how to serve the village properly as any loyal sand ninja would.

Why doesn't anyone see that I'm not bad? Sure I'm the host of one-tailed Shukaku whom everyone's afraid of, but I have never let him come out and attack anyone. All I want is a friend who takes me for who I am and doesn't mind that I have a monster inside me. Is that too much to ask, or am I really doomed for the rest of my life? Every unanswered question in the poor child's mind only served to add to his feeling of misery. The boy's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Gaara, time to come home!" The boy lifted his head with a smile to see a man he cared for.

"Coming, Uncle Yashamaru!" He replied, running to the man. Yashamaru smiled brightly at his nephew.

"So, did you make a new friend today, Gaara?" Gaara sadly shook his head, looking at the ground. Yashamaru continued to smile; it made Gaara wonder if he had something good to tell him.

When they got back home, Yashamaru asked his nephew to take a seat on the couch. Gaara obediently sat down and Yashamaru sat right next to him, gently wrapping his arm around his chest. "Gaara, I have some good news." Gaara looked up at his uncle, hope manifesting in his eyes.

"What is it, Uncle Yashamaru?" Gaara asked.

"Well I talked with the Kazekage earlier today, and we've finally decided what we're going to do to fix your situation." Gaara's smiled widened. He didn't know what Yashamaru had in mind, but he was sure he would like it. Yashamaru closed his eyes, preparing his words. He then opened them and said, "Gaara… we'll be moving to Konoha next week." Gaara was speechless. He didn't know what to think of his uncle's message. "I can't say for sure, but I think you'll be more likely to have a normal life over there than here. I understand you never made a friend here because everyone here knows you have Shukaku inside you, right? Gaara nodded his head. "Well don't you worry! When you get to Konoha, I'm sure you'll make at least one good friend there if not more." Gaara's spirits lifted. He felt ecstatic about the idea of finally getting a friend.

Later that night, Gaara sat on the roof staring at the moon with stars plastered everywhere in the sky. He smiled brightly; he couldn't stop thinking happily about finally making a friend in a new village.

I bet we'll have so much fun together. I hope we'll build sandcastles and play Hide-and-Seek. Wouldn't that be fun! After having been friendless his entire life, Gaara felt he was finally going to have his loneliness cured.

Out of the blue, three kunai came speeding directly at Gaara. Gaara looked in shock; he saw that someone was about to try hurting him. He could not make out who it was because his attacker was wearing a white mask. Luckily, a thick layer of sand appeared right in front of him to stop them just in the nick of time; this was indeed the power of Shukaku within of him. Garaa then threw a barrage of hardened sand spears at the masked man in retaliation at lightning speed, severely wounding his target. The sand spears disintegrated as Gaara walked toward his wounded attacker. Gaara, gulping with fear, pulled off the mask and was shocked to find who it was.

"Hello, monster!" said the attacker voice in a sickly tone. Gaara was so taken aback.

"Y-Yashamaru?" Gaara said stuttering in shock. He couldn't understand why his own uncle of all people tried to kill his own nephew. After every good thing Yashamaru had said and done for him, it certainly wouldn't make any sense for him to suddenly turn into a lethal enemy.

"Yes, Gaara! Surprised?" Yashamaru was gnashing his teeth. It seemed he had been deceiving Gaara the entire time, though for what reason, Gaara couldn't figure out. None of it made any sense to him.

"But why? I don't understand," Gaara said, voice trembling with shock and sadness. "I thought you loved me!" Tears began forming in his eyes as he watched his uncle struggle to lift his head. Yashamaru was clearly in pain, filled with such bitter anger and it made Gaara feel scared in addition to the bad feelings he was experiencing.

"Loved you? I actually hated you since the day you were born. You should have never existed! My sister died bringing you into this world and that's because of the monster inside of you!" Gaara covered his eyes and bit his lip, trying to contain his tears. Yashamaru somehow started seeming rather pleased himself. "I recently received new orders from the Kazekage. I'm sure you remember when I said you were going to move to a new village… well that's not at all what the Kazekage agreed to. Actually, he instructed me to do what's best for everyone here in Suna. He wants everyone in this village to never speak to you or speak of you to anyone ever again from this day forward." Gaara clenched his fists, about to strike his uncle, but Yashamaru lifted his head with a dastardly grin and yelled, "NOW DIE!" He pulled apart his jacket, revealing several explosion tags. Gaara's eyes widened in shocked. BOOM! A huge explosion came followed right after by a cloud of smoke enveloping the whole scene.

Instantly, the smoke cleared and Gaara was still standing – the sand shield quickly came up to protect him once again. The sand disappeared and Gaara stared down at his now lifeless uncle, filled with grief and anger, unsure of what to make of what had just transpired.

"I… I can't believe this… I'm… I'm truly alone now! Gaara now felt helpless and desolate. He covered his face with his hands, trying to suppress the tears that were to come. I don't have anyone but myself now. This isn't what I wanted, but... I guess… I'll have to live for myself now. Nobody loved me and nobody ever will! This is the curse that I must live with! With those words in mind, Gaara slowly lifted his hand to raise a lump of sand, streams of grains falling slowly to the ground. He thrusted the sand at the left side of his forehead to etch a kanji that read 'love.' There was quite a lot of blood flowing from the etch running down his face and over his left eye, but Gaara didn't mind; he was too filled with anguish and fury to think of anything else.

"Now, time to put an end to all my enemies!" Gaara raised his arms to move the sand up to the sky. With all the rage inside of him, Gaara was ready to flatten the entire village aside from himself because he brought up a sand barrier surrounding him. Before he could do it, however, a mysterious figure rushed in and quickly stuck a purple tag to Gaara's forehead, somehow bypassing Gaara's shield. Gaara immediately lost consciousness before falling to the ground on his side.

Well guys, thanks for reading the first chapter. What do you think so far? What do you like and/or dislike about this story so far? Please leave a review to let me know!