"Gaara-sama, I'm sorry." Yashamaru put a hand heavily on his charge's shoulder, finding himself rather disturbed at the sight before him.
It used to be a teddy bear.
The poor thing was burned almost beyond recognition, with its white entrails sprinkled around the outside of the damage zone. One eye was missing from the beginning, but the one that remained was melted into a mottled black lump that hung uselessly from the eye socket of the decapitated cranium. And the sight could not do justice to the smell of burning synthetic hair and melted fibers.
This happened every so often. Things like time-outs never really seemed appropriate for Gaara, so Kazekage-sama sometimes took things to an extreme that guaranteed a memorable lesson. Teddy bears were what really got to the kid, so...
Gaara didn't take his eyes from the sight, but he spoke with a calm that Yashamaru hadn't heard from him yet. "It's okay. Did you know that in Ancient Egypt Pharaohs could sentence people to exile, and their children were sent with them? Even if they didn't do anything." He looked at the bear, probably one of the only emotional ties he'd ever valued, with completely vacant eyes. "Sometimes they were impaled on a stake, decapitated, drowned in the Nile, or sometimes burned alive."
Yashamaru looked at his charge, not sure whether to feel pity or alarm. He changed the subject. "Come on, let's get you a new bear."
Yashamaru was cooking later. It was a usual sight around 5:30, as was a minor panic when he reached for the knife block and saw one missing. His eyes quickly grew wide, despite the routine and lack of real danger.
He knocked on the child's door, opening it quickly. "Gaara-sama?" He gasped at the sight. "Gaara-sama what are you doing?"
Gaara looked over his shoulder, not really taking his attention from his work on the bed. He looked back down and continued calmly extract the stuffing from the bear's snout, leaving Yashamaru to look around for what was left of the actual nose.
"Gaara-sama, why are you destroying your bear?" He asked, mortified.
Gaara finished the head before responding. "In Ancient Egypt, people had their organs taken out through the nose after they died. It guaranteed them a glorious afterlife." He explained. He grabbed the suspected knife from the pillow and hashed into the poor creature's stomach, taking out the rest of the stuffing quickly and jamming it into the growing pile on the bed.