Warning: EXTREMELY OUT OF CHARACER!! Don't kill me please! looks down AAAAAAAH! BOOM
Gaara sat at his desk rubbing his temples. It had taken all day and into the night, but he had finally finished a stack of papers that was almost half his height. He opened a drawer in his desk and took out the bottle of aspirin he had for such occasions. Once he had taken the pill he rose from his desk and slowly made his way towards the window. He saw the village enjoying the annual summer festival and started to tense up with mild irritation. Garra saw all of the colorful lights, and bustling people and all the stalls filled with food and games. He saw all the happy faces and heard very soft, but clearly audible laughter.
The Kazekage's irritation only continued to grow as he continued to watch this event unfold. He looked at the clock. '10:43,' he thought, 'only an hour and 17 minutes until midnight.' Gaara had been watching the clock ever since he had first started the papers. He knew that at midnight Suna's festival would end with a display of fireworks. As much as the Kazekage hated all the merriness of the actual festival, he would always enjoy going to the roof to watch the magnificent display of fireworks. As long as he could remember, he had always watched them alone. He had always secretly wished that he could watch them with a special someone, but he knew that that would be absolutely out of the question. He knew that no one in their right mind would want a monster as their special someone. He heard a knock at the door, which brought him out of his thoughts.
"Come in." He said without even turning around. In walked Temari. She was dressed in a beautiful lavender summer kimono.
"Hey Gaara," she said softly and then turned around and said not nearly as soft, "Kankuro, get over here." Gaara heard several grumbles and then a loud thwack. Kankuro followed his sister into the room, all the while rubbing his now throbbing head.
"Hey Bro—" he started to say.
"No." Gaara simply stated. He knew why they were here.
"Why not Gaara?" Temari asked impatiently. Losing the gentle tone in her voice. Her voice was now one of sheer irritation.
"You know why." Gaara said, finally turning around.
Temari sighed an exasperated sigh. "Fine Gaara. We'll see you later. C'mon Kankuro."
"See you later Gaara." Kankuro said as he closed the door behind him and Temari. Gaara turned to face the window again. He put his hand up to the glass. His mind began to drift back to when he was little…
"Wow!" Gaara couldn't help but say this out loud, even though there was no one there, or so he thought.
"Yeah, you're right! I heard Suna's fireworks were amazing, but I never expected this!" Gaara wheeled around to find the owner of this unexpected voice. "Up here!" It called. Gaara looked up and saw a little boy with jet-black hair in a braid down to his waist. The stranger hopped down from his position in the tree. Gaara stood there with an emotionless expression plastered onto his face.
"Hi!" The eager little boy said extending his hand, " I'm—" the boy didn't get to finish before he tripped over one of the tree's roots and fell on his face, foot hooked on the root, butt in the air, and mouth full of dirt. The boy gave an expression that was both quizzical and disgusted. (A/N: the point is, it was a funny face ok?!) His eyes widened even more and spat out the dirt and started to make rather funny sounding gagging and sputtering noises. Gaara's emotionless face broke out into a smile and soon after he started to laugh a little.
After the boy spat out the last bit of dirt, he smiled and reintroduced himself.
"Heh heh, sorry about that. Anyway, as I was saying, hi! I'm Rock Lee," he said extending his hand from his spot on the ground, "But you can call me Lee! What's you name?"
Gaara took a step back and put his arms in front of him in a defensive and scared way.
"Hmm? What's wrong?" Lee asked. Worry spread across his features. Lee got up from the ground and bushed himself off. "Did I do something wrong?" Lee stretched out his hand to the redhead, only to get a small whimper. He withdrew his hand when he saw the poor boy on the ground with his hands over his head. When Gaara didn't feel any pain from a hit or a slap or any other form of abuse he looked up, still scared, but confused.
"You….You aren't going to hurt me?" Gaara asked still on the ground. Lee looked confused and saddened at the thought of the boy only expecting pain from any physical contact.
"Why would I want to hurt you?" Lee asked, more concerned than ever.
"Everyone else wants to so I assumed..." Gaara trailed off. Lee kneeled down next to the little red-haired boy. "I'm sorry," Gaara's eyes opened as wide as they could, "But I would never want to hurt you." Lee smiled, "So, what's your name?"
"G-Gaara…just Gaara." Gaara said taking his hands off his head, "W…Will you—"
"LITTLE BOY!" Lee felt a firm hand on his shoulder. "Ahh!" Lee shouted surprised and scared. "Little boy, I can tell you're not from here so I'll tell you something you should know." The man swaggered a little. He was obviously drunk and he had a big, almost empty sake bottle in his other hand. "That kid," he pointed at Gaara, "Is a MONSTER! He'll Kiiill yaaaa…kiiiilllll yaaa-ha-ha…" He said chugging the last bit of his sake, "Go to hellll! hic MONSTER!" He said throwing the bottle at Gaara. It hit Gaara's barrier of sand and crashed onto the ground. Gaara looked from the bottle to Lee with tears in his eyes. He turned around and was about to run when he heard a cry.
"YOU TRIED TO HURT MY FRIEND! HE'S NOT THE MONSTER! YOU ARE!" Lee screamed and hit the man in the stomach, which made him fall to the ground and throw up the contents of his stomach, which mainly consisted of alcoholic beverages. Soon after he collapsed on the ground, unconscious from his massive intake of alcohol. Lee turned to face a now stunned Gaara. Lee ran over, gave him a quick hug, and holding onto his shoulders said, "I have to go now Gaara, I hope we'll meet again." He released his new friend and as he was running towards the center of town he shouted over his shoulder, "I'll miss you Gaara-san! And don't worry, I'll come back!"
'It has been eight years since then.' Gaara thought, 'A lot has changed since we were eight Lee. I hope even after all these years, you will still keep your promise and return to Suna.' Gaara hadn't seen Lee since that night Lee had defended him. Gaara looked at the clock, 11:04. He turned his gaze back out the window with a softer expression gracing his features. 'I hope we're still friends…Lee."