Author's Note: I KNOW I should be focusing on my other fanfictions but I can't help it! I'm a sucker for inspirations. I always post stuff up without considering: 'Will I still be having this inspiration for months to come?'

I'm kinda stupid when it comes to stories. I always make new ones and never really update. Please forgive me, everyone!


Gaara

By: biacebaolck

Gaara…

The very word sent shivers up the spines of others.

Gaara…

The demon.

His hands crunched into fists as his eyes glared at the sky as if doing so would kill everyone around him. He hated them. He hated them all. He wanted to kill them all. Just like his mother had wanted him to.

He was alone. Alone.

Gaara.

Feared by all.

But there was one.

Uzumaki Naruto…

He felt his bruised cheek, the one that Naruto had punched just a few hours ago. His whole body ached, but he forced himself to continue standing on the cliff. He would not collapse. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

His pride would not allow him to.

Naruto…was just like him…but not so.

Naruto was lucky. And Gaara was grateful he hadn't been able to kill the blond who had been the one to have beat the sense into him. Plus, Shukaku was in deep slumber now. He knew…for a few nights anyway…he could sleep properly.

But sleeping didn't matter to him.

A flash. A brilliant idea. Call it what you may. If Shukaku was asleep and unable to do anything to him…then…

The demon carrier whirled around on his heel so that he was facing the rock wall. Slamming his fist into it, Gaara watched the wall still stand, his hand broken and bleeding. He felt it. He FELT the pain. He FELT his blood.

A tingle flew through him and he gazed at his broken open right hand as though it was a stranger. He gazed at it in wonder. He felt pain. He felt his blood. Dripping away from him, his blood was leaving his body.

It was a wondrous experience.

Gaara swallowed, unable to believe that all this was real.

He could FEEL PAIN!

A smile found its way to his lips. Not a sadistic one. Not a bloodthirsty one like the one he had on a few hours ago while fighting with Shukaku.

A genuine, grateful smile.

He felt like…he was stranger to all this. His smile gradually disappeared as he thought.

These emotions were wondrous to experience. They were so different from the ones he was used to. Like these had been taken from a stranger and given to him to try out. He felt like he was in a stranger's body. So much things he could now enjoy for a while and hate as he wished.

He could say words he normally wouldn't have been able to say…words he normally wouldn't have wanted to say at all. All thanks to Naruto.

Naruto…

The very name thought out was like a blessing again and again.

His blooded hand closed into a fist and Gaara felt the pain of his bones. A shivering lingering from the bottom of his spine rose up it. He laughed then. Not a sadistic laugh. Not a crazy laugh.

A happy laugh. A grateful laugh.

That was the laugh.

The laugh he had heard others laugh. The laugh he himself as a child had longed to have.

And now it was his.

And to add to the pleasure, the KazeKage had been killed. That father – father? The bastard hadn't even KNOWN what the word should've meant when he killed his mother just to bring out a demon – had been the source of his suffering. The reason he had been forced to live a prejudiced life on this difficult road of a Suna shinobi.

He knew what he had to do. He wouldn't let Shukaku rule his life.

He had his own life to live out.

And that was the exact moment…

The exact moment that he smiled up at the sky.

And inside his heart…his heart – if he still had it – was crying grateful tears.

Thank you, Naruto. Thank you for everything.