'A young Gaara sat on a bench in Hidden Sand, his eyes sad, having recently hurt people after they ran from him when he tried to retrieve a ball. A hand reached out and gently tapped his shoulder, the sand must have thought he was about to get hurt, because it created a sheild, burning the hand that hand just touched him, and a small shocked cry of pain was heard, which was the main reason why Gaara turned around. A girl stood behing him, a stuffed dog and bear were held in her arm as she was staring at blood that was coming from part of a burn mark that ran from her left index finger tip to her wrist, covering part of her palm.
Tears were in the girls eyes, but she didn't cry at all, as she stuttered, "I-I f-found a b-be-ar and th-thought it-it was yours..." she glanced up from her hand, to look at him, and took the bear from her arm with her right hand and placed it by Gaara. Her head was low and she cuddled the stuffed puppy that the bear had been next to, making sure not to get blood on it as though she cherished it.
Gaara, still being little, smiled and nodded some, "thanks!" Then his attention directed to the cut that the sand had caused, as well as the near-bleeding burn marks on the girl's hand and frowned some, "I'm sorry..."
"D-don't be..." the girl smiled softly, her hair falling to cover her eyes, "it's onl-ly a scratch..." she assured him.
Gaara nodded some, still having a sad look.
"I've been hurt a few t-times before...it stings for a b-bit then goes away...so it should only hu-rt for a little while," the girl smiled faintly, still, as she tore a small amount of her shirt at the bottom of it, wrapping it around her cut like her mother did for her so many times, then hugged the stuffed puppy in her arms.
Gaara paused for a few moments, "does it hurt much?"
Hesitating, the girl nodded some, "it hurts, but it-t hurt more a minute ago," suddenly, she jumped topics, seeming to calm down a little more "do you want'a play?" she smiled faintly, ignoring people who were staring at her like she had a death-wish.
"Sure!" Gaara smiled some, and played most of the day with the girl. Once it became dark, the girl said she had to leave, and Gaara nodded. "Zaiaku, wanna play again tommorrow?" Gaara smiled some.
The girl, named Zaiaku, turned around and nodded, "okay! Meet me at my house, it's right...there!" She pointed out her house, "see you tommorrow!" and ran to the house, quickly entering.
The next morning, Gaara walked to the house and knocked on the door, seeming a little happier now that he had somebody to play with.
A woman answered the door, immediately slamming it shut upon seeing the person at the door, screaming "monster" as she did so..
Gaara's eyes widened some, "wh-?" he turned around, holding his chest, his heart hurt, and started walking away.He heard the door of the house slam shut and a girls voice, shouting his name, but ignored it.
Zaiaku stood at the door of the house, a woman begging her to return back inside from the safety of the house, and stood beside the door, her eyes wide and sad that he wouldn't even turn to see her. "Gaara?" Zaiaku took a few steps towards him, people in town had backed away from Gaara now, having heard his name.
He ignored her, only to continue walking until her found a quiet place alone, and sat down, crying while his grip tightened on his chest. Yesterday, it didn't hurt. Today, a new wound of the heart opened, re-opening the other one with it.
"Gaara?" a girl's voice neared.
"Go away..." Gaara said, sounding hurt.
Zaiaku could hear it, and walked closer to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I said go away!" He practically shouted at her, sand rose up, quickly hitting the same hand it had done this to the day before, ripping the medical tape that had recently been placed over it, and creating a small cut on the palm again.
"I-I don't want to go away..." Zaiaku pulled her hand back, creating a fist to prevent blood from dripping everywhere, and bringing the fist close to her heart.
"She called me a monster, everyone does...why do I have to be the monster?" Gaara still cried.
Zaiaku frowned, as if feeling the deep pain within his heart. Slowly, she sat down and wrapped her arms around him, "stop crying... you aren't a monster, you're nice, isn't that what matters?" The girl spoke in a calm voice, "I'm moving...tommorrow... Mommy said that we're going to go see Father...so... I can't see you anymore..." She could feel the hand that Gaara, hadn't had gripping his heart, on her back, which stopped her from moving.
"Do you like your father?" Gaara asked, which struck Zaiaku as a surprise.
"I-I don't know...I don't remember him..." her voice trailed off.
"Oh..." Gaara said before there wasn't any sound, letting go of her, "is it my fault?"
"No! Don't say that!" Zaiaku frowned, "you didn't do anything..." then she noticed Gaara's gaze had lowered to her bleeding hand, and noticed blood was dripping onto the ground, "...this?" she quieted, "I...don't blame you..." she murmered softly, then looked at him hearing a ripping sound, then pressure on her hand. Gaara had ripped part of his brown clothing and wrapped up her hand with it.
She quickly hugged him and ran towards her home to prepare to leave.
Zaiaku packed up her few belongings, then looked at her window, before walking out the door and following her mother out of the village, not taking one glance back. A year after this, she had switched through her first village, a place called An'ei-gakure, and Konohagakure, never having returned to Sunagakure. In Konoha, she killed her mother, learning of a curse that was placed upon her after this.'
"Zaiaku? Zaiaku! There you are!" a boy shouted, I, was a bit taller than him, still his age though, looked down from a tree, looking down at the blonde haired boy, who was wearing orange.
"Hi, Naruto!" I waved, my clothing consisting of a black tee, black baggy pants, fishnet leading down my left arm to my elbow and fishnet leading up the right arm to my elbow, my left hand being wrapped up, along with standard ninja shoes and a black konoha forehead protector quite loose around my neck, revealing a brown cloth that was around my neck like a choker, tied in the back. My blonde hair was reaching mid-back, not tied back.
"What are you doing up there?" Naruto looked at her blue-green eyes as I jumped down.
"I'm not up anymore, and I was just thinking," I smiled some.
"About what?" Naruto got a curious look on his face.
"My past, duh," I stuck my tongue out.
"Your...past? What's important about it? I've never heard you mention it before..." Naruto commented.
"Ah..." I looked up for a moment, "hn...I was born in the village hidden in the shadows, An'ei, then my father left when I was really small, I didn't ever meet him, I think...then people yelled at me a lot and ran...then my mom moved to Hidden Sand, Suna, when I was five, and when I was six, my mom said we were going to see my father, we moved back to An'ei for about two years, then I came here, where my mom died, found out my father had been dead for about all of my life, and enrolled in the academy, became a genin, and am standing here right now..." I smiled some.
Naruto nodded some, "uh-hu...I think I understood some of that..."
"Keyword: think," I laughed softly, "why were you looking for me? Kakashi didn't mention anything today..."
"Sakura hadn't seen you all day, which I thought wasn't normal, so I decided to look for you!" Naruto said with pride in his voice.
"Awww...so sweet! My hero!" I laughed some, and he did as well.
We both walked back to Konohagakure. I walked to Sakura's house and saw Sakura annoying a boy in dark blue and shorts, and laughed softly. Poor Sasuke. I ran over to rescue him from Sakura. "Hey, Sakura, Sasuke!"
"Hi!" Sakura turned and smiled, while Sasuke got a releived look on his face.
"What's up?" I asked calmly.
"Just asking Sasuke if he'd like to eat with me!" Sakura smiled.
"I told her no five times and she's followed me around town asking..." Sasuke sighed some.
Suddenly I got an idea, Sakura had looked at Sasuke, and I pretended to look sick, motioning him to try to fake an ill look. I went back to how I normally appeared, "hey, Sasuke, you feeling okay? Maybe you should go home and lay down, it wouldn't be good to eat and see it again later...don't you agree, Sakura?" I looked at her.
Sakura noticed Sasuke had attained an ill look, and nodded some in dissapointment, "yeah, he probably should. Would you like me to stay with you, Sasuke?"
"No, he wouldn't want you to catch anything! I'll make sure he gets home, then how about I meet you at your house in a few minutes?" I interupted to prevent Sasuke from having a chance to fail at this fake-out.
Sakura nodded some, "get well soon, Sasuke. If you need anything, just call me!" She shouted, walking back to her house.
Sasuke regained his normal appearance, as I walked alongside him, in case Sakura were to turn around, "thanks," he muttered.
"Any time. Sakura is nice, but clingy, so just pretend you need to leave if you get tired of her. It works well, don't you agree?" I smiled.
"Yeah..." Sasuke smirked some, stopping in front of his home, "see you," he smiled faintly, walking inside and closing the door as I turned around.
"Later," I smirked some, taking off across the village towards Sakura's house, then paused, relizing it was the 28th of March. I skidded to a stop and took off towards home. I was so stupid! I forgot!