Disclaimer: Nope, I've never owned Naruto and will never do either. Go sue someone else.
Inspiration: I happened to see a headline in the newspaper wich was(translated) 'sandbox war' and this together with recent 'Gaara-in-a-sandbox' thoughts/pics and a little chibi-story, all found in the Gaara Fanclub at Gaia Online, inspired me to write this. Hope you enjoy!
Gaara was, like quite often nowadays, playing in the sandbox. And like always, he was alone. Looking around at the empty playground Gaara sighed and felt even more lonely than usual. No one to play with, no one even in sight and no one would come to look for him. He could stay here the whole night and no one would even miss him. Sitting in the midst of his not even half-finished sandcastle Gaara felt abandoned and betrayed by the whole world. Unable to hold it in any longer he let a tear slide down his cheek. The lonesome tear was soon followed by a whole river as he cried out his heart that the cold, cruel world wouldn't accept him. Sobbing like there was no tomorrow Gaara felt his heart shatter into millions of pieces.
And that was how Naruto found him half an hour later. And being the fearless idiotic moron he is he went over to see what was wrong with the red-haired boy in the sandbox.
"Why you crying?" he asked, patting Gaara on the shoulder. Gaara didn't respond, just continued to cry. Naruto then sat down beside Gaara and patted him on the head until his crying subsided.
"Why you crying?" Naruto asked again. Gaara hesitated before answering.
"Everybody hates me" he sniffed.
"Why they hate you?" Naruto asked completely confused.
"They say I'm a monster" Gaara answered and began to cry again.
"But you're no monster" Naruto said like it was the most natural thing in the world. "You cute" he said.
"Huh?" Gaara looked at Naruto through his tears, confused by what he just had said.
"You cute" Naruto repeated, smiling. Gaara... stared. He couldn't believe what he just had heard. Looking at the smiling boy beside him he slowly took in what had happened. He tried to smile back a bit and was rewarded with a huge grin. Wiping away his tears Gaara smiled a bit more and asked:
"You play with me?"
"Sure" Naruto grinned and they began to build on the sandcastle Gaara had begun building. Though it soon evolved into a playfight and then into an all-out war. A sandbox war. And Gaara had never been happier in his whole life. He finally had a friend to play with.
