(The dreams are in Gaara's POV)

…

Ever since I was young, I can remember how the villagers looked down on me and treated me like dirt. They always avoided me and called me things like "monster" or "demon". I didn't like it; even my Uncle, Yashamaru, hated me in the end. He had been the only person who'd ever taken care of me. He had told me before he died that my father, the Kazekage, had told him to try to kill me. He had also told me that he could've refused had he thought of it. Yashamaru told me that he had tried to learn to love me because I was his older sister's third child, his second nephew, but couldn't because I took my mother's life at birth. It's because of the sand spirit, Shūkaku, inside of me that my mother and Yashamaru are dead. Sometimes I wish that Shūkaku would just go away!

The village kids knew to fear me because of Shūkaku, I killed many people when they got on my nerves or pissed me off. Whenever I was near them or an adult saw me nearby they would all runaway screaming. They were terrified of me.

After Yashamaru's death I stopped going home as much and started watching the village kids with their friends, their parents were always nearby just in case I showed up, but I made sure to conceal my presence.

I can remember the one time I was approached by someone, and not by someone who wanted to kill me, she didn't seem afraid of me at all. In fact she looked just as bad off as me, like a girl version of me.

She wore a long long-sleeved tattered light blue dress; her shoulder-length dark brown hair was tangled. But, despite the fact that she looked just as bad as me, her green eyes were filled with happiness. She looked to be about my age – which was six at the time.

She kneeled in front of me. "Hi. Why are you all alone?" She asked, smiling.

I glared at her. "Why do you care?"

She looked shocked. "Why shouldn't I care? I really would like a friend, please be my friend."

I looked at her face a little closer; she was serious. "Who're you?"

She looked happier than she did just a second ago. "Akiko Mizrahi. And you're…?"

I didn't say anything for a minute or two, scared that she would be afraid of me, but then said, "Gaara of the Desert."

Akiko smiled, stood up, and grabbed my hand, pulling me off the ground. "Well come on, Gaara. We're friends' now."

I was shocked for a moment or two but smiled back. "Okay, lets go."

I had thought that my days of being alone were over, I was so happy. I had thought that my worries of always being alone were over; it was so wonderful having a friend. I was being so naïve though, and that was a mistake.

We had entered a ramen shop in the middle of Sunagakure when a woman maybe in her mid-twenties ran up to Akiko and grabbed the back of her dress, pulling her out of the ramen shop.

I turned around and saw the woman looking at me with frightened eyes – it wasn't unusual for that reaction but I still didn't like it.

"Stay away from my daughter, monster!" The woman shouted at me.

I could feel rage building up inside of me and it must've shown in my eyes because Akiko looked scared, but, at the time, fascinated.

"How do I get eyes like that?" She asked me, the fascination in her voice was morbidly obvious.

I smiled evilly. "First you have to kill a few random people."

"…I can do that." Akiko said hesitantly.

"Then you have to kill some family members." I paused. "Can you do that?"

Akiko smiled widely. "Sure, I can do that."

Then Akiko's mother pulled her daughter away from me and that was the last I'd seen of her.

…

Gaara woke up and stared at the ceiling. Another dream about Akiko. I hope I see her again so these damn dreams will go away. It had been ten years since that day, he was sixteen now.

Ever since Shūkaku was taken from Gaara's body, and the soul of the old woman who sealed Shūkaku inside of him in the first place traded places, he's become less irritable. But the villagers still didn't completely trust him, some of them still called him "monster"; "demon", on the other hand, hasn't come out of anyone's mouth since the Leaf ninja saved him from the Akatsuki.

Gaara got out of bed and walked over to his closet, pulling out a net shirt, a dark red long-sleeved shirt, and red pants. He put them on – the net shirt under the long sleeve shirt - and walked out of his room, Temari and Kankuro would already be gone and he knew it. Gaara put on a dark red metal vest that snapped up in the front and had a red clothe tail thing sewn onto the back. He grabbed his gourd and walked out of the Kazekage mansion. It is true that Gaara no longer has Shūkaku inside of him but he still, for some reason, controls the sand without any effort.

After the Chunnin exams, the old Kazekage's – Temari, Kankuro, and Gaara's father – body was found in a hole not to far from the south end of Sunagakure. Kankuro didn't want to be Kazekage, neither did Temari, so Gaara became Kazekage. Gaara rarely wore the Kazekage robes unless there was a meeting about the villages' defenses or with Konoha's Hokage, Tsunade.

Gaara was going to the ramen shop to eat, as he always did before going to the academy to train his only pupil, when he sensed a presence approaching him from behind.

Not a moment later Gaara felt the cold metal of a kunai knife on his throat.

Gaara froze; he might strong, but not stupid. "You're holding me up." His eyes focused straight ahead.

The person laughed – Gaara could tell from the laugh that the person was a girl that was probably his age. "How do I get eyes like that?"

~~
Next Time:

Bittersweet Reunion;

Akiko makes a nice reappearance, but she says that she's not Akiko anymore. What could that mean?