Disclaimer: I still don't own Naruto.

Speeding Away
By: TailFear

ONE-SHOT

He stared across the cast, empty expanse as sand swept against him, almost burning his pale skin. Across the shimmering waves of heat lay trees, animals, green life. Across the shimmering sand lay (hopefully-possibly) acceptance, if only he were to leave Wind Country and the nearly endless sands.

It hadn't been hard to obtain permission to leave; no one in their right minds would really tell him what to do, especially if they valued their lives, and the Kazekage certainly valued his. So he was "given" permission to go wherever, only as long as he came back for missions (only the occasional one that was actually worthwhile) and didn't cause too much trouble for friendly villages (Leaf).

Rusty red hair blew into his green, almost blue eyes, not obscuring his vision for a moment. He was beyond being blinded by such trivial things as hair, or sand for that matter. The gourd strapped to his back shifted a little, all on its own as it tended to do. There was a benefit to sand, it would never disobey, hell, it was inanimate (and not all that bright), yet not such a fickle thing as water.

There wasn't anything to stop him, except maybe Temari since Kankuro was still scared witless around him, not that he could really blame his older brother. His dark ringed eyes stared back at his village for a moment, almost contemplating before shaking the doubts out of his head as well as irritable thoughts (courtesy of his own personal demon…Shukaku wasn't happy when he was ignored). He was going to leave.

Sand swirled around him, spilling from the suddenly corkless gourd as it started to dissolve around the edges as the amount of sand flying around him grew. It only took a second and some concentrated chakra to start him off as a sphere of sand speeding across the blazing desert. No one was foolish enough to try to stop him, certainly not anyone from the Sand. That was just the way things were. He, Gaara of the Desert, was feared even above the Kazekage and ANBU of Leaf together, and always had been.

The raccoon-eyed boy sped across the desert sands, never touching the ground. He had mote than enough energy to burn, even without sleeping. Sleeping was something he had never understood since all he was able to get was five to ten minutes at most. But he would rather be an insomniac that let the stupid fur-ball eat away at his personality. Anything above five or ten minutes was dangerous, more than just to him.

He was heading away from his life, towards a forest and leaves, and the only person that he had ever been afraid of, then felt a sort of bond with. He was heading towards whiskers and blue eyes, eyes that would occasionally turn as red as his hair.