The shinobi have an unhealthy relationship with power. They are frightened of it, grudging, never able to reach the level of wonder or awe, simply at the level of power. Power is always a weapon and an enemy for them. And that is how Gaara ends up alone, in a village that has now decided they don't want him any more. But as they say, play with fire and you'll get burnt.
Gaara always survives the assassination attempts. Nowadays, he doesn't really care about them. It was only the first attempt that he let hurt him. Now he knows it's a lot easier just to hate everyone. It means he's safe and that he won't get fooled into thinking that someone actually cares about him again. Other people have families and friends. He has no friends and his family is the root of all his problems, of what he is. He knows fathers don't normally try to kill their sons, nor are siblings terrified of their brother. But it's his life and there's not like there's any way to escape it. He did try to hurt himself before, of course, but it didn't worked. Now his life revolves around killing - letting that hatred out - and half hoping he'll actually meet someone strong enough to kill him one day. It's an idle thought, but not repugnant in the least to him. He hopes death is like a form of sleep. He so wants to sleep. But then he hears the whisper of the demon in his mind and he keeps his eyes open and manages to keep walking on it's chakra, when any other person would have collapsed with exhaustion by now.
He's not sure why he bothers sometimes, keeping the demon down, staying awake. No, he does know. It's because that's the one thing he can have control over. He can't avoid the glares or the fear emanating from everyone around him. He can't make his family care one jot about him. He can't bring his mother back. He can't have a life without the demon.
But he refuses to let it control him completely. A futile gesture perhaps, since the sleeplessness will make him insane eventually and let the demon through, but not yet.
When he hears they're going to the village of the Leaf to take part in an exam, he's not particularly interested. Considers refusing just for the sake of it. But then the Kazekage explains the plan. The blood. And Gaara is happy. He will get to kill and kill many in this invasion.
Sometimes he wonders whether the demon is influencing his thoughts, guiding his mind to kill, kill, kill. But then he gets to kill someone and he doesn't care any more, because it feels good.
He sets off in the usual team; Gaara, Temari, Kankuro. They're always together on missions, perhaps because everyone else was too scared to go with Gaara. Temari and Kankuro are no light weights themselves, but everyone is scared of Gaara. They're older than him and probably the people closest to him, which is sad to say, since he would still kill them if they disobeyed him in any way. At least he won't hurt them on a whim, like he will with everyone else. They're lucky, but they won't acknowledge it. Gaara's not one to encourage anything but fear.
They come across some others on their journey to Konohagakure. Gaara wraps them in sand and explodes them before they can say a word. They're not Leaf or Sand, so Gaara decides he's allowed to. Kankuro fishes out a scroll from the blood and splintered bone. He reads it.
"They were going to the Chuunin exam as well."
"Well, less competition then!" Temari replies.
They both glance at him. Gaara ignores them and walks on. He hears them talking about it later in the day, saying he shouldn't have killed them straight off.
"He could've waited," Temari whispers. "In case they had any good intel."
Kankuro shrugs. "Yeah, but it's Gaara."
And that is the end of that.
The thing is, Gaara doesn't have any loyalty to the village of the Sand and doesn't care about it's aims. It just happens to be a convenient place that allows him to kill. Once he finds a way, he'll probably go rogue. Problem is, the Kazekage is even more terrified of a Gaara that doesn't belong to him than having the threat around 24/7. Gaara doesn't want to fight an army yet. So he stays and waits.
What he won't admit, even to himself, is that he still wants the acceptance of the village, of his home. He loves only himself, because none of the others loved him. But he is still a child - still twelve years old - albeit a sociopathic one, and wants that acceptance. At the moment, he is a weapon. He doesn't mind. It's less irritating than being a target for assassination.
Eventually they reach the village, managing not to kill anyone else on the way. Temari shows their papers to the gate-keeper and he lets them in. Gaara watches him, slightly satisfied when he does the little pull back everyone does around him, no matter know polite they think they are.
"Keep that killing intent under control, kid." He says. "It's a friendly competition."
Gaara continues to stare at him. Not many people speak to him these days. People who aren't dead, anyway.
"Come on, Gaara." Kankuro says.
"What's your name?" Gaara asks. Everyone dies eventually.
"Genma." The shinobi replies. "ANBU, at your service."
"Come on!" Kankuro says. Gaara glares at him then walks on. "Jeez, Gaara, do you have to antagonize everyone?"
"What was an ANBU doing gate duty?" Temari asks. "Don't they have more important things to do?"
"Unless they know something…" Kankuro muses. Temari glares at him. "Okay, okay, it's probably just because of the exams. Lots of emerging talent to watch!"
"Maybe. Poor guy, though. Now he's on Gaara's list."
"Yeah, whatever. Just leave him alone for the moment, right?" Kankuro says to Gaara.
Gaara lets some of the sand out, wraps it around Kankuro's arm, starts to close his fist.
"Okay, I'm sorry!" Kankuro yelps. "Do whatever the hell you want!"
The sand slips back into the gourd. Temari watches silently. Kankuro mutters;
"We're supposed to be a team."
Temari just shakes her head at him.
The next day, they decide to explore the village. Well, Gaara decides to find who's most powerful there, and Kankuro and Temari tag along and pretend they're sight-seeing. It's a small village and the two elder siblings get bored pretty fast. Gaara's always bored, except when he's killing, so he doesn't give it any mind. Besides, the demon is whispering louder than it usually does, which interests him a little. He dislikes this truce, where villages are joined and he's not allowed to kill anyone before time. He starts imagining the deaths of the shinobi walking past him - generally, he ignores the civilians completely because there would be no satisfaction in killing one of them. It would be about as exciting as stepping on an ant. He does as the ANBU shinobi said though, covering his basically permanent killing intent - just to amuse himself - but people still give him a wide berth. They know something is different - wrong - about him even though they don't know what it is.
Kankuro and Temari end up ahead of him, which suits him fine. He dislikes it when they try to talk to him.
Then the shouting starts. It's irritating. He sees that Kankuro's holding a squirming kid, Temari has got her fan out, facing a couple of Konoha… genins, he guesses. It's boring. The genins are asking them what right they have to be there and Kankuro's skirting around the answer. Seriously boring and a bit stupid for someone who knows the importance that their mission remains concealed. Gaara wonders idly whether to kill Kankuro or not. He's been annoying quite often lately. Pity he's the Kazekage's son as well and his death would have consequences.
"Let him go." Gaara says and Kankuro drops the kid like he's been burned. Temari folds her fan up, watching Gaara out of the corner of her eye. Wise.
"We're here for the Chuunin exams." She says, flashing the papers impatiently at the genins. She swallows. Gaara's still staring at her. "We're sorry for our actions, if they caused offence." She manages to choke out. She's not sorry at all. The genins are weak - far weaker than the two of them, not to mention Gaara - and deserve whatever they get. But Gaara doesn't like it, for whatever unfathomable reason - she gave up trying to understand him a long time ago - so she has to apologize.
The genins notice. Well, the dark-haired one - whom Temari has to admit is pretty good looking - notices. The one in orange is ranting on about something, the kid hiding behind him. The girl just looks confused. Temari almost feels sorry for her; she's the weakest of them all. Only almost sorry, though. She's been around Gaara long enough to know that power means everything and the weak deserve no pity. Gaara doesn't even notice the girl. He's standing perfectly still in that eerie way he has, his gaze resting on the dark-haired boy. An interested gleam in his eye that Temari knows means yet another victim has been adding to the list.
"Are you entering?" he asks. The boy is about to answer when the orange one interrupts.
"Of course we are! We have to protect the village from him!" he shouts, pointing at Kankuro. The girl pushes the orange boy angrily, which Temari thoroughly approves of, though unfortunately it seems to have no effect. Idiot. Because now Gaara's eyes have narrowed and he's turning his gaze on the orange one.
At some level, Gaara notices the demon is whispering louder and louder now. He thought it was anticipating a worthy opponent, at long last (the assassins were pathetically unprepared) but it seems not to be the dark-haired boy but this ridiculous glaring orange kid who-
Gaara's eyes open wide. Then he smiles.
Temari and Kankuro are backing off, exchanging swift glances; what the hell are we supposed to do if he kills now? They both know Gaara only smiles about killing. Nothing else.
"You're like me." Gaara says.
"What're you talking about?" the orange boy demands. "I'm Konoha and you're Suna, you've got evil team-mates and I've got Sasuke and Sakura-"
Gaara's walking forwards and thankfully - Temari thinks - the orange boy has enough brains to shut up.
"No. We're the same."
The orange boy looks thoroughly confused and not a little intimidated, though trying to hide it.
"I look forward to fighting you." Gaara says, and walks past him.
When he's gone, the orange boy spins to Kankuro and shouts (he always seems to be shouting);
"What the hell was that about?"
Kankuro raises an eyebrow, looking more closely at him, trying to see what interested Gaara. He doesn't seem to find it.
"No idea. But if he wants to fight you, you're screwed. It's probably better to withdraw from the exams now."
"I'm not scared of him!"
Temari's getting tired of the noise.
"Well, you should be." She snaps. She gestures and Kankuro joins her, waving at the little kid and smiling when he hides behind the orange boy again.
"Who is he?" the dark haired boy asks. Temari manages to draw up a smile for him.
"Sabaku no Gaara." She says. "Our brother."
The two of them walk off. Temari annoyed with Kankuro for starting all of it in the first place. They were supposed to be inconspicuous, weren't they? Oh well, she thinks, at least Gaara will wait for the exams to kill now. That's got to be a gift.
The next few days, Temari and Kankuro practice with each other. Gaara doesn't join in. He doesn't need to practice and besides, all his attacks are lethal. Neither of them want to be injured before the exams, to be put at a disadvantage. They don't know the form of the exam yet - that's keep from them until the last minute - but they've reasoned that there will be a chance to fight as a team and individually. It's what makes sense, given the objective of the exam - to find genins worthy of becoming chuunins. Most missions require shinobi to go in groups of three, but in real life, each may find themselves fighting different opponents, without any support from their team-mates. Hence the fighting individually component Kankuro and Temari expect.
They don't know what Gaara expects. He doesn't talk about little things like that. Only declarations of destruction are good enough for him.
Not for the first time, Temari wonders about what it would be like to have a normal little brother. One that doesn't scare her half to death. Oh, she knows the basic rules for survival with Gaara. Don't argue with him. Don't mention you're family. Under no circumstances mention our mother. Or our uncle. Don't annoy him - this is the hardest rule, because Gaara is unpredictable in what he considers annoying. And if he hasn't killed recently - well, you start to feel like the next meal. Kankuro is the worst at this. For some reason that Temari couldn't fathom, Kankuro continued trying to be friendly to Gaara, of all things. Of course, Gaara interpreted that as something else entirely and attacked. The most recent incident ended with Gaara breaking Kankuro's arm. He had also trapped him in a tomb of sand for a whole week at another point before the Kazekage "persuaded" him to let Kankuro go. The "persuasion" consisting of five fully trained shinobi attacking him at once to make Gaara use the sand trapping Kankuro to protect himself. Let it not be said that the Kazekage does not care for his children - all five of the shinobi died.
Temari keeps her interactions with Gaara to a bare, professional minimum because of this. She liked her limbs intact, thank you very much. She very much pitied whoever had to fight Gaara. Temari and Kankuro were, like most genins, happy with defeating opponents. Gaara seemed entirely un-aware of this line in the sand. In his mind, defeating an opponent was killing them. No more, no less. Poor, poor orange kid. He wouldn't even know what hit him. Or would he?
Temari and Kankuro decided to do some research on the orange kid, since Gaara was 100% unlikely to reveal what the "we're the same" comment meant.
Interestingly, they discovered he was well-known. Just describing the orange clothing was enough. More interesting was the reaction. Most of the civilians seemed to deeply hate him while the shinobi hid their emotions better - and they couldn't ask many shinobi, without arousing suspicion - but there was still a lot of emotion towards a kid who couldn't have done much yet. Especially not towards civilians. That kind of thing wasn't allowed. Civilians normally were held apart from the shinobi world - protected but not included. So the hatred couldn't only come from some purely shinobi feud. It included the rest of the village as well.
"They hate him, but they're not afraid of him." Kankuro says.
"Why would they be be afraid?" Temari asks, almost laughing at the image of people running from the orange boy - they do know his name is Naruto now, but "orange boy" seems to fit much better with them.
Kankuro shrugs. "Gaara's interested in fighting him. That means he has to do stronger than us, at least."
"I doubt that. Bark and no bite."
"Perhaps."
They walk a little longer, Temari keeping an one out to ensure they are not followed or watched.
"Everyone hates Gaara." Kankuro says, breaking the silence.
"They're terrified, rightly so."
"Yes, but both. They hate him and are afraid of him."
Temari catches his train of thought. "While they only hate, and aren't afraid of, the orange boy."
"Yeah."
"So 'we are the same' - both hated?"
"Something more than that. Strong and hated and feared, for Gaara at least."
Silence for a couple of minutes.
"Fuck." Temari says.
"Yep."
"There's more than one of them."
"Probably a different type. Our one's unique to the Sand." Kankuro says. They're both careful not to name names, now they see how deep this problem goes.
"What does this mean?" Temari asks. Both of them hear the unspoken end of the sentence; to the plan. Kankuro doesn't answer. "The Kazekage must know." Temari continues.
"Hope so."
"What are we going to do?"
"Continue with everything. It's a good little secret to have, anyway."
"Hmm."
They're almost back at their lodgings when Temari thinks to ask;
"But why aren't they afraid?"
