We don't own naruto, now please read and enjoy. :)
Emi
Memoirs of the Monster's Brother
The sand siblings. Everyone knows them. Temari, the Girl. Gaara, the (former) demon monster and the current Kazekage. And then, there's Kankuro, the middle son, the Puppet Master and the only one who would speak his mind around Gaara… to a point. How do you grow up with a monster brother? Especially when you're the older one?
Ch 1- Baby
The day my brother was born, I realized something. Everything I'd ever known to be true in my life was a lie. Peanut butter ice cream wasn't my favorite flavor. The color green looked repulsive to me. No one would play with me anymore. They were too busy looking at 'the baby'. No one had any time for me anymore. People would run in our home, scowling. There were a lot of people shouting and yelling. The baby didn't scream or cry. I thought all babies cried and screamed. I was wrong again.
I was really young when my brother was born, and I can still remember before it. Before I dealt with the terror of the sands. His name was 'Gaara'. He would be the heir. The youngest of us, and yet the most important. My sister and I, our tasks were clear. Watch the boy, grow up, train to be our best, and protect the 'ultimate weapon' at all costs. Our goal was always him. We were never meant to think that it was us with the worth. We were tools, to help our brother along the way.
I didn't get this when he was born. I just wondered why, that with all the people running around, no one was celebrating? No one was happy. From what my sister and my mother had told me, babies were a good thing. People loved it when children were born. I didn't get it then. I figured my mom would tell me later. But at the time, not one person looked even remotely happy that Gaara had been born. They'd been waiting nine months for their 'ultimate weapon' and I can only guess that father was disappointed that he was a baby and wouldn't be useful for many more years.
Maybe even then he was beginning to wonder if his precious weapon would ever be useful, or if his window of opportunity would be wasted by the time the boy was old enough to use his talents. Me and Temari were eventually shuffled off to our nursery. We hadn't gotten to see the baby or our mother yet, and both of us were pretty upset.
I don't remember when they told us that she was dead. I don't remember who did it, how they did it, or how they made our young minds understand. But we knew. And though that baby didn't cry, you can bet that we did.
I can remember my mom. I don't know how, apparently I have a good memory. I'm glad. You see, my father wasn't really much of a dad besides the whole 'look after the precious chosen weapon who will one day lead us to victory and greatness' thing. I guess to him, we weren't worth much. We were annoyances, minors he had to actually take care of before they were powerful ninjas who could help him advance in life.
Unlike what most people think, we weren't upset with Gaara for killing our mom. We knew it wasn't his fault, I wasn't that far out of babydom myself that I could blame the little infant for killing her. And, unlike what most people believe, I loved my baby brother. I got to hold him, mainly because I kept asking and no one else wanted to. I got to help feed him formula, and I tried to teach him how to talk when I barely knew myself. I used to point at random objects and try to pronounce their names, and half the time I got the object wrong. I was convinced that a chair was called a bed and a broom was a bear for the better half of my first five years of life… I confused Gaara so bad… it was great. I used to outline the baby in chalk, then me and Temari would investigate his 'murder'. I always laughed… it was fun. The only thing bad about having the baby was that we didn't have our mom anymore. At least we had Uncle Yashimaru for a while.
I never saw my father smile. Hell, I don't even know if I ever saw his face, it was always hidden behind that stupid veil. Whenever I did see him, he was watching Gaara with cold, calculating eyes. I remember, once, when I was two or three, Temari brought our father some flowers she'd picked. He took them and walked away. She was so happy, and to this day I think she still is proud. But I saw them two weeks later wilted and dead in the trash. I hid them under some other things so she would be happy. I didn't like upsetting my sister; she would chase me and hit me. I couldn't hit back because she was a girl.
She also used to make me wear dresses and drink tea. I was so happy when she became a tomboy and started tackling me in flag football instead. I prefer sand burns to lace and stuffed animals. That wasn't until we were older. But with the baby around, when we got out of our lessons to see him, I could make HIM attend Temari's teas! It's where he picked up the bear. He still has it somewhere, though he'd deny it to the ends of Suna and back. With the baby around, we had three people to play with. Even if one of them could only coo and puke, it was still relatively alright. Most of the time we got to play with him as a baby.
But he never slept, even as a baby, he wouldn't. If he did, we were far, far away and to this day I don't know if Shukaku was out or not. I'd rather not know, to be completely honest. He was such a cute baby, so nice, sweet-tempered, never cried. Apparently he was a blessing compared to me. I was colicky, fussy, loud, and had the nicest set of lungs a baby could ask for. Temari was spacey, and didn't really care as long as she was held. Set her down for a second and she'd wail like a banshee. She still did that up until the time Gaara was born. Then one day she was put down on the ground and she cried for four hours straight. Finally someone told her to shut up and slapped her. After that, I don't ever remember seeing my sister cry.
Things were usual when Gaara was a baby. He learned fast, crawling at five months, walking at ten, speaking well and understandably at a little less than a year. And his babyhood was over with by the time he was about twenty months old.
Some days I still miss it.