Gaara's Experiment

Gaara sat at his desk in his big office; thinking about what Yashamaru had told him so many years ago before he had tried to kill him. He thought about the pain in his heart and grasped his chest. Would it ever heal?

He turned around and looked out of his window. It was a beautiful day- the sun was out, but not too hot, and the air was warm, but not muggy. He could see lots of little kids running around, throwing a ball at one another. Gaara sighed. He wondered what it was like to be like that.

There was a knock on the door. Gaara turned around as Baki Sensei walked in. "Kazekage- Sama?" he said. "How are you doing?"

Gaara looked at his Sensei. "Baki-Sensei," he said, lowering his gaze to his desk, "Try to explain love to me again."

Baki bit his tongue. When Gaara said 'again' he meant for the fifth or sixth time since he had become kazekage. Baki sat down in the visitor's chair across from Gaara. "There are… several different types of love. The most powerful is probably the love between a mother and child."

Gaara tapped his foot lightly against the stone ground. He didn't have that one.

"The second is the one between close friends… The kind that gives a person strength to do incredible things."

Gaara thought about that. Did he have any close friends? He had Baki. But he was not sure if he was a friend. He did have strength, though. That was why he was kazekage.

"The third is the love of another person… The kind of love that makes people do crazy things or makes a person act shy or cocky."

Gaara snarled. He did not have that love and he did not want it.

"And than there's the love between siblings and cousins. That love is a lot like close friend love, but there are blood ties."

Gaara froze. Temari and Kankuro. Did they love him? He knew that they had picked him up and carried him home when he could not move or had fainted many times before, but he thought that it was out of respect or fear. He usually treated both of them pretty badly, too. He began to grind his teeth as he reminded himself that he was the littlest brother of the three.

Baki stopped and glanced at Gaara. Had he gone too far and said something that had awakened bad memories? Gaara did not have that look in his eyes like he did when Shakaku showed itself, which (thankfully) hadn't happened in a while. No, he was in deep thought. But when Gaara thought, it was usually about killing someone, and with Baki being the only person in the room…

Baki blinked. He wasn't just in a room with Gaara of the Desert; he was in a room with Kazekage-Sama. And Kazekage-Sama was trustworthy. Baki relaxed. He was safe.

Gaara slowly looked up at his Sensei, and to Baki's surprise there was a tiny smile on his lips. "Thank-you, Sensei…" he said slowly, as if trying out a new word. His face grew serious and he stood up. "Can you take my place for a while?" Gaara asked. "There's something I need to… experiment with something."

"I…I guess so," Baki said, slowly sitting down in the office chair. "How long do you plan of being gone?"

"A few hours," Gaara replied, heading out the door with a secret smile on his face.

…

He found who he was looking for at the training grounds, practicing her aim.

"Temari!"

The female sand ninja turned around to face him. "Kazekage-Sama," she said. "Gaara. What's up?"

"Dom't go anywhere," Gaara panted, being out of breath from his search.

"O…kay," Temari said slowly.

Gaara closed his eyes made a hand sign. A big sand eye appeared over his left shoulder.

"What's that for?" Temari asked worriedly.

In a moment the eye was gone, setting out in search for only something Gaara knew about, at an incredible speed.

…

Half an hour passed. Neither of the two had moved. Temari had not taken her eyes off of Gaara, and Gaara had not opened his eyes.

Suddenly the cork on Gaara's gourd popped off and the sand began to fly out and into the air. The cloud formed into a curved wall, and headed off in the same direction as the eye.

…

Finally, another half an hour later, Temari began to hear the "fssshhhhhhh" of Gaara's sand in the distance. A moment later she saw a rushing was of sand and an eye made of sand coming toward her. She was about to jump out of the way, but something on the sand wall caught her eye. Embedded on the inside of the wall, bound in sand so that he could not move, was a wide-eyed Shikamaru.

Temari froze in surprise, so much so that she did not notice the sand wall forming behind her. Suddenly the wall stopped, inches from her. She turned her head to look at Gaara for answers, but before she could the wall behind her thrust her forward and the walls joined and closed in around her.

It was pitch black. Temari heard Shikamaru mumble something through a mouthful of sand and blushed, remembering that he was in there, too. A small hole formed in the top of the ball of sand, sending warm sunlight pouring through. Suddenly the sand binding Shikamaru fell away and he slunk to the ground, spitting sand.

"What the hell," he growled. "What just happened?"

Temari did not answer; only looked at Shikamaru in the dim light. She had had a dream like this once, except it was not Gaara's doing. She did not know what Gaara meant by this, but she was going to take the chance to so something that she had been wanting to do for a while now…

Shikamaru stood up and shook the sand off his shirt.

Hey Shikamaru," Temari said, a smile spreading across her face.

The Leaf Village chuunin turned toward her and began to say something, but before he got the chance Temari pushed her lips into his.

Temari waited until she felt him relax before she pulled away. "You had sand on your lip," she said. "I got it off for you."

Shikamaru stared into Temari's eyes, trying to plan ahead (as he traditionally did) but he couldn't. If he had seen that kiss coming, he would have reacted MUCH differently! He knew he liked the female sand ninja and he new she like him, but he hadn't expected that at all!

Temari stood watching him in the dim light. Her cheeks were on fire and she was desperately hoping that Shika wouldn't notice. He did not look too surprised to her, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

She was the corners of his mouth go up in an awkward smile, and a moment later their lips caught again.

…

Gaara watched from the outside of his sand ball, not expecting to see anything. And he didn't.

Gaara did know much about love. He only knew that Baki-Sensei had told him and what he remembered Yashamaru telling him as a little boy. But he wanted to learn about the love of two people-though he didn't want him for himself- and he thought he could if he waited long enough and would get some answers.

Gaara was sure that Temari and Shikamaru liked each other. He had been watching during the chunnin exams, and he knew that the attacks that Temari used were not her strongest. He had also overheard people say that Shikamaru could have done way more damage than he did because that Neji kid said that he still had some chakra left after he forfeited. If that was not the love of two people, Gaara really did not understand what Baki-Sensei talked about.

He looked at the sky. It had been at least a few hours. He figured that they had had enough time together for him to able to study their reaction. He jumped onto a roof, out of sight, and let the sand ball fall apart. He paid close attention to what happened.

As the sand fell to the ground, it revealed Shikamaru and Temari standing very close together. They quickly moved away from each other and faced one-another casually.

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru said, frowning. "Now I have to spend two days getting back to Kanoha."

"Well if you need any supplies I can show you a good store," said Temari, putting her hands on her hips.

"I don't," Shikamaru yawned, heading toward the gates of the village.

Temari's cheeks turned red and she shook she head. "Fine," she said sassily.

Shikamaru chuckled. "Troublesome woman." For a moment he blushed, but then it faded away and he continued walking.

Gaara frowned. He didn't know exactly how he expected them to act, but this wasn't what he had in mind. He wasn't sure that there was anything to research on, but he wasn't totally sure. He decided that it was not something to get upset over. He could find another way to learn. With that he returned his sand and its cork into his gourd and leapt away, back to his office. Baki-Sensei should be expecting him back by now.

Gaara did some paperwork in the morning and then left Baki in charge the next day. He took the day off to practice new techniques. He was at the same training ground that Temari had been at yesterday. He wasn't sure what had attracted him to that particular spot, but there he was.

He wanted to learn a new technique, but to use it took a high concentration of chakra. So he was sitting cross-legged on the ground with his sand spread out around him, trying to focus and build up chakra.

"GAAAAAAAAARRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!"

Gaara jumped at the sound and his concentration was broken. He cocked his head irritably to see Temari running at him full-speed. He stood up, but did nothing more.

She looked like she wanted to kill him. Her teeth were clenched tight together and she was glaring so hard that it looked like it was stuck that way.

Gaara had never seen her come at him like that. He thought that she would like the experiment as much as he did. Was he wrong? Did Temari not like Shikamaru?

Gaara was crestfallen. His research had failed miserably, and his sister was furious at him.

As she came closer and closer the sand swirled around his feet. He waited for it to jump up moments before she had the chance to touch him and block her blow.

Before Gaara knew that had happened he felt something that he had never felt before. Temari's arms wrapped around his neck loosely and she rested her head on his shoulder, close to the side of his head. "W-what is this?" Gaara gasped from shock and surprise.

"It's a hug, Gaara," Temari said sweetly. "What you did was probably the nicest thing you have ever done for anyone in your life. Thank you."

Gaara tensed. No one had ever touched him so closely before in his life. He knew that the intention was not a bad thing, but he did not know how to react. He honestly could not say that he hated it. In fact, he almost liked it, in a way.

But shock that the sand did not protect him from Temari made him stiffen even more so. He glanced down at the sand around his feet. It was swirling gently in a ring around him and Temari. "Mother…?" he murmured.

Temari slowly took her arms off Gaara's shoulders and stepped back. She smiled at him with a smile she had never shown to him, and then turned and walked away.

Gaara stood, frozen for several minutes, trying to make sense of what had just happened. But as he relaxed a smile slowly spread across his face. His experiment had not been a waste of time at all. He had studied one kind of love, and obtained another.