Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Papercut by Linkin Park
"Speaking"
'Thinking'
flash back
"Demon Speaking"
'Demon Thinking"
A/N read it's kinda important
Gaara is only ten in the start of this fic
Gaara sat at home on his roof all alone watching the sun begin to set bathing the sky in shades of red. It looked like someone had cut the sky and it was now bleeding, dying, it's life fading into darkness, he could feel the sand in his gourd stir at the sight of the bleeding sky.
"Time to go then" he said to himself as he jumped down off the roof landing gracefully an his feet. He then started to walk towards the worst side of suna in search of a victim to quell the Shukaku's blood lust.
As he walked the buildings around him decayed more and more the number of boarded windows and graffiti increased as the number of viciously accusing eyes on his back decreased. The people on this side of suna feared and respected Gaara, he could take any of them at anytime and no one would care, and they knew it. These people were the real scum of suna, they were the violent drug addicts and alcoholics who hurt the ones they loved, the prostitutes that sold themselves for a price, the kidnappers who sold young girls as slaves to the sick pedophiles and pimps, and violent gangs that took the lives of anyone who even looked at them wrong and tortured the families of their enemies. It was dead silent here except for the occasional sounds of money being exchanged and hurried feet trying to escape from feeling the wrath of Gaara's sand.
As he neared a corner Gaara could hear the scuffling of panicked feet connecting with concrete and metal along with the violent clinking of a chain against metal accompanied with soft crying and whimpering. He continued to walk forward towards the noises when he reached the corner he turned and was a bit shocked to see a panicked looking girl with dark brown hair wearing a torn and dirty once-white dress all alone with her hands handcuffed around a tall lamp post, one cuff on each wrist biting into her pale flesh leaving red welts and bruises as she pulled away from the post pushing and kicking it with her feet. Judging on what she was dressed in and the terrified look on her face as she struggled to get free Gaara had come to the conclusion that she was a victim of kidnaping.
He slowly approached the girl attempting to draw out the seller when he noticed that there was a card board sign attached around her neck as she thrashed trying to get away from who ever had terrified her so badly. Suddenly her head snapped in the direction of Gaara and she ran around the post in a sad attempt to hide as she sunk to her knees crying and whimpering, she clenched her eyes shut not able to move as Gaara slowly approached her emotionlessly. When he reached the girl he crouched down to look at the sign "FOR SALE" was sloppily written in black marker on the dirty piece of card board hanging from an old rope. She continued to whimper and cry quietly shaking violently.
Gaara stood back up scanning the street for any sign of life and soon saw a man huddled in a dark corner with his hands over his mouth and wide eyes. The sand in his gourd stirred again and then the top flew off in an explosion of sand that rushed towards the man who screamed as the sand quickly consumed him causing the girls eyes to fly open as she turned towards the screams of her captor.
"Desert coffin" Gaara said as he raised his hand and the man was covered in sand "Sand burial" he said twisting his hand as he clenched it into a tight fist. Blood was spattered everywhere tainting the walls of a few nearby buildings with the glistening red liquid, Gaara remaining clean by using a small sand barrier to deflect it. Gaara looked back down at the girl who was also now spattered with blood. She looked up at him tears still streaming down her face mixing with and washing away the blood on her face.
"Jinchuriki?" she asked in a small scared voice. Gaara snapped the chain of the handcuffs with his sand. The girl looked down at her now freed hands then back up at Gaara confused. He started to walk away from her motioning with one hand for her to follow. She hesitated for a moment then obediently began to follow him stumbling after him like a lost puppy.
Gaara had no idea why he'd kept her alive but something compelled him to save her, he didn't really want to kill her so he just dismissed it as not feeling like killing her and taking pity on the poor pathetic creature. He looked back over his shoulder just enough to see her limping after him, he turned around to face her completely allowing her to catch up. When she caught up to him he saw that there was a jagged cut on the outside of her leg. Suddenly Gaara picked her up and slung her over his shoulder.
"Try anything funny," He said in his usual monotone, "and I will kill you." He then began walking again as though she weighed nothing, which she practically did.
"Jinchuriki?" she timidly asked again after a few minutes
Gaara just quirked an eyebrow and kept walking 'is she referring to me as Jinchuriki?' he thought silently.
"Are you?" she asked quietly
"Yes" he answered emotionlessly 'it's not like it's a secret'
"M-May I a-ask w-which one?" she asked timidly
"You just did," Gaara said bluntly, "it's Shukaku."
She then promptly passed out from exhaustion going limp on Gaara's shoulder.
'Did she die?' he wondered glancing at her
"No" Shukaku answered in Gaara's head
"Hn" Gaara replied looking back to the road as the boards on the windows and graffiti began to fade away and the hateful stares of those still out returned attempting to glare holes through him. Gaara could hear whispers about what they thought his intentions with the girl were. He stopped abruptly and turned to glare at a large group of teenage girls instantly dispersing them.
He stopped in front of his house, the same house that he had once shared with Yashamaru. Four years ago he had gathered up most of Yashamaru's things and crushed them into nothingness, all that was left of his things were his bed, and a few other furniture pieces. He pushed open the door, it was never locked because Yashamaru had had the key when he died and it didn't need to be locked, no one had the courage to come anywhere near the house.
Gaara carried her upstairs and placed her on Yashamaru's bed. He left only to return a few moments later with a two damp cloths, medicine, and bandaging which he used to clean her wounds on both her leg and her wrists. The ones on her wrists looked extremely painful and burn like so he cleaned them, put burn creme on them and bandaged them. He then moved to her leg with the new cloth, it was deeper than it looked at first and was covered in dirt. He cleaned it then pinched the flesh together using a butterfly bandage (A/N I think that's what their called, they look like two rounded rectangles connected by a thin line) and bandaged it, then left. He went down to the basement closing and locking the door behind him.
NIGHTnightNIGHTnightNIGHTnightNIGHTnightNIGHTnightNIGHTnightNIGHTnightNIGHT
The girl awoke the next day to music coming from somewhere in the house.
'Wait a minute' she thought bolting upright 'where am I?! What happened?!' she panicked then the night's events came back to her. The memories of her rescue and the murder of her captor all flooding back into her head at the same time. She climbed out of bed wincing at the pain in her leg, she looked down surprised to see that it had been bandaged and cleaned along with her wrists which still stung.
She managed to limp to where the stairs were and hobbled down them clinging to the railing for dear life. She made her way slowly down the steps only to trip and fall down the last three steps wincing and making a small pained noise that would have been a scream if she was like normal girls. She whimpered as she stood back up and continued to make her way to the basement door where the music was coming from only to find it locked. She sat next to the door listening to the music that she could hear more clearly now.
(A/N the italics (slanted writing) do not mean flashback here they mean that something is being sung lower within the song if that make any sense.)
"A face that they hold inside, a face that awaits when I close my eyes, a face that watches every time they lie, a face that laughs every time they fall, and watches everything. So you know that when it's time to sink or swim that the face inside is watching you too right inside your skin."
"It's like a, paranoia looking over my back! It's like a whirlwind inside of my head! It's like I can't stop what I'm feeling within! It's like the face inside is right beneath the skin, It's like a paranoia looking over my back it's like a whirlwind inside of my head, it's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within, It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin!"
"The face inside is right beneath your skin"
"the face inside is right beneath your skin"
"The face inside is right beneath your skin"
"The suuuuuuuuuuun goes dooooooooown, I feel the light betray me. The suuuuuuuuuuun goes dooooooooown, I feel the light betray me."
"It's like a, paranoia looking over my back! It's like a whirlwind inside of my head! It's like I
"The suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun"
can't stop what I'm feeling within! It's like the face inside is right beneath the skin.
"I feel the light betray me"
"It's like a, paranoia looking over my back! It's like a whirlwind inside of my head! It's like I
"The suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun
can't stop what I'm hearing within! It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within!"
"I feel the light betray me"
"It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within, It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin!"
"The suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun"
The song stopped and she could hear a stereo being turned off then footsteps coming up the stairs. He opened the door and looked down at her and she smiled smally back up at him
"Good Morning." she said quietly
"Hn." he grunted walking over to the cupboard in the kitchen and pulling out a box of cereal
"U-umm, p-please, let me m-make you breakfast, as a th-thanks f-for saving me a-and helping me."
"Hn." he grunted again putting the cereal back
She smiled then got up using the wall for support. She managed to get over to the fridge and searched until she found what she was looking for, an almost empty carton of eggs and a half empty package of bacon.
"How do you like your eggs?" she asked still a bit timid
"Scrambled is fine." he said sitting at the table.
Soon the sounds of bacon popping and sizzling and eggs being cooked could be heard throughout the kitchen as the scent filled the house.
She hummed a happy little tune as she cooked leaning on the counter for support, when she finished she served Gaara and sat across from him at the table grinning at him like a little kid that got an A+ on a spelling test.
He tried the eggs and gave a grunt of approval and continued to eat.
"You can eat something if you want to you know" he said after a few minutes.
"Thank you" she said bowing before going over to the cupboard and getting a bowl of the abandoned cereal.
Breakfast continued without a word from either of the two people eating at the table, after they finished she did the dishes and put them away quietly.
"Ummm," she said hesitantly after twenty minutes of silence, "c-can I ask you a qu-question?" she asked timidly.
"Sure" Gaara said emotionlessly
"Wh-what's your name?" she asked
"Gaara, you?"
"Hotaru." she said quietly.
"Hn."
How'd you like it? I'll update soon but please read and review, arigato!! Flame if you feel it's necessary.
Mitsukai-chan