Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto! If I did then very bad things would happen to Kabuto...
Sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes! This is my first fanfiction, so it may not be very good.
Thud... a round, cherry red ball dropped from the dull blue sky into Gaara's pale arms. He was finally going to prove to the children of the Village Hidden in the Sands who feared the boy that he, Gaara, and the monster thriving inside of him, Shukaku were two exceptionally different beings, seperate conciences, individuals bound together for eternity, but lent the freedom of their own minds and personalites. Atleast most of the time. After some hesitation, the panda-eyed child developed a cheerful smile and potruded the toy in the direction of the shocked crowd of children paralyzed in fear before him. "Here" Gaara shyly announced, resulting in a look of sheer terror that spread across each one of the watchers' faces.
"I-It's him"!
A young boy had finally developed the guts to react to the situation playing out before him. This remark was followed by a young girl, mousy brown hair thrown into a ratty ponytail, who exclaimed
"It's that Gaara"!
"He's really creepy..." another child said in agreement.
Gaara's smile quickly drooped to an ashamed frown. He had failed. Again. Although all hope had seemed lost for this auburn haired outcast, a certain female villager, the same age as the young jinchuriki , seemed to appear out of nowhere and quickly dashed to Gaara's aid.
"Leave him alone! What did he do to deserve this kind of treatment! He just rescued your stupid ball and all you can say to thank him is that he's creepy?!" She shouted at the astonished crowd of children.
After a long pause, including an exchanged look of confusion mixed with terror among the frightened children, someone decided to speak up.
"Bu-but, didn't you hear?! He has a monster living inside of him!" the same ratty-haired girl from before exclaimed.
A glistening tear formed in the villagers eye. It deeply pained her, enough to result in various drops of clear, salty liquid to cascade down her cheeks, now red with fury and rage, mixed with the bitterness of utter sadness.
"That doesn't mean that he's a monster! Gaara is actually braver than all of us, putting up with your mean names and insults, being lonely every day of his life because everyone fears what's inside of him! Imagine if you had to carry a monster in your body and everyone hated you and disrespected you because they thought that you were just a container for that demon"!
Then, there was complete silence. The crowd would've liked to protest to this, but all were speechless as the young girl dropped to her knees and burst into a flood of salty tears.
"D-do you think that Gaara wanted to have a monster inside of h-him?! Do you think that it was his decision?" she said, but the children were finally struck with reality.
"Well maybe if you want to stick up for that weirdo, then you're a creep like him as well!" a boy amongst the crowd shouted at the weeping girl.
"Come on, let's go! Forget the stinkin' ball"!
And with a hasty shuffle of feet they were all gone, leaving the mystery girl and Gaara to theirselves.
"T-t-thank you...for sticking up for me...What's your name?" Gaara questioned the girl.
"T-tora...Tora Suzuki..." She replied, still recovering from an onstraught of wet tears.
A long pause followed after that, in which Gaara played the graceful name a thousand times in his mind. Tora. What a pretty name... the pale child thought, but his daydream was abruptly interrupted by a warm embrace. Startled, Gaara looked up at the person who had dragged him back down to his sandy reality from the comfort of his own mind and found himself blushing. Long, black, windswept hair ladden with knotted tangles from where the sandy wind had its way with her midnight colored locks, a milky white complexion similar to his own except for the various thin scratches covering her arms and legs, and dim, dark, coal colored eyes. It was Tora.
"Don't worry, you'll never have to be alone again, Gaara..." she said, promise lining every word she declared.
Is this what it feels like, Gaara asked himself, to feel emotions other than the sorrow of being lonely? Is this what it's like to feel...loved?
Almost as if reading his mind, Tora exclaimed "Gaara, I know all of the others fear you, I know that they hate you. But I can make the hurting go away. I'll be your friend".
The shy child wondered if this was true, as all others had abandoned him in the past, but as Gaara met the starry gaze of the mysterious girl, Tora, he knew that the painful, dark, horrible, and endless pit of lonliness could not contain him anymore.
He was free.