Part 1: Gaara of the Sand
I was born a host, and a monster. My father made me like this before I was even born. From as far back as I remember all the ninja of my village have looked at me with hated visible in their eyes.
"It's Gaara of the sand." Mothers would pull their little children away from me and even the men would back up.
"That boy, he's got a demon in him. He is a demon. Stay away from him, it's not safe." They barely took the trouble to lower their voices. I would hang my head when I heard this and those nights I cried on the roof alone. I lived with my family but they treated me almost the same. Temari would pull Kankuro out of my way. He was already confrontational; he challenged me to not listen to him. They were normal children. Or close to normal.
Kankuro always played with little puppets, making them move around with chakra strings. He was very bad at it but liked to practice. His dream was to become a puppeteer and father promised him that when he was old enough he would find a teacher. Temari was already considered a genius; she was always practicing her ninjustsu on little toys. She would set them up and attempt to use a wind technique to knock them over. She could do it too; small windblasts etched our house. She had found one of our father's scrolls of ninjutsu and he had found her under the bed reading it. That was where she learned wind techniques. After that he always gave her scrolls to practice with and ignored all criticism by saying, "Temari chose to learn it. And she is a genius."
And then there was me. The lonely little demon child who everyone hated. The one who was always sad. I was father's favorite and I thought he loved me. He spoiled me and let me do whatever I wanted but I didn't get the love he gave to my brother and sister.
By the time I was seven I didn't care any more; my uncle had already made the fact that no one loved me or ever could plain. I stopped crying on the roof. I wasn't lonely any more. I hadn't found a friend but I didn't need friends. Friends betrayed you. I couldn't trust anyone. My father still sent assassins to take my life but none of them succeeded. I found my reason for existing in annihilating all of those who threatened my existence. That was Gaara, me. I lived life totally on my own. The kanji I had on my forehead spoke for it's self. A demon who loves only himself; alone, always. I watched the other children of our village grow up in love and happiness but it didn't excite the same feelings as it did then.
I still sat on the roof at night while everyone else was sleeping. A sound on the ground below made me look down. It was Temari walking around. She slipped and fell onto her back. I saw fear flit rapidly across her face when she saw me. She seemed to be thinking of something that made her afraid. It was that she had been assigned her team. Temari, Kankuro and I were all to work together. Father had decided to give me another chance as a weapon and he had decided to put the three of us together. Not a great choice, the people I hated most were my brother and sister and they hated me. Temari was calculating her chances of getting father to change her team to have anyone but me working with her.
"Ga-Gaara?" she had decided to be friendly, she seemed to think we wouldn't be able to change teams at all. "What are you doing up there?" she hesitated for a moment before gliding up on her fan. I moved back. People only were nicer to me when they wanted something or for me to be the weapon. I was doomed only to be a monster or a tool to protect every one else. Shukaku made sure of that.
"Hello Temari. I'm just being here. Because of that monster that father sealed in me I am unable to sleep. Its nothing that should bother someone human like you." She flinched from my bitter usage of the word "human". "So we won't be able to change teams? You get to be stuck with the monster, huh? With both of your brothers." She looked shocked; evidentially she didn't realize I could read her face so well. I was good at interpreting all negative emotions since I was used to see all of them directed at me.
"Gaara, its not that. I thought that since we were a team we might want to try getting along…" Yeah right. Kankuro and Temari hated me like poison. If they weren't terrified of Shukaku I believe one of them would have tried to kill me. "You're not a monster. You're just…" she struggled for words.
"Not human? Was that what you were looking for? That I'm not normal and not like you?" she still held onto the look of concern though it was slipping at the edges.
"Gaara! I don't hate you! We need to get along!" she reached out her hand to put it on my shoulder. Instantly I called a wall of sand up to block her. My experience with the assassins had made me suspicious. She shied back like she had been stung.
"Don't hate me? Then why do you flinch back? You fear my existence, Temari!" rage filled me and I saw red. She pulled her fan that she had been carrying on her back up to block the sand that had been coming toward her. It moved around and tangled in it. She dropped it with a piercing shriek of true terror.
"Temari? Are you alright?" Kankuro stood in front of her with his arms crossed. "Are you ok?" she nodded and looked at her fan. The sand was still in it. The wave of sand moved again toward my brother and sister. Kankuro pulled Karauso, his puppet, from his back and yanked the wrap off it. It grabbed Temari and pulled her to another rooftop. Then it came back. The strings that connected Kankuro to it provided much of the light. She screamed again.
"Kankuro! No! You'll die!" he looked back at her and jumped nimbly across while making the puppet follow.
"Gaara, watch it. Listen to your…' he nerved himself, "brother. Don't do that to your sister or to me. Next time you'll regret it and if Temari wasn't here that time would be now." He pulled Temari along as he sped off. I sighed and looked down at Temari's fan where it lay wrapped in my sand. It would be many hours before she would risk coming up here to get it back and it would always bear the marks of my sand upon it.