Note: I may or may not get over the fact that I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. But regardless, I do not own it.
Chapter One: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Psycho Scorned
Wind whipped through the rooms of the tiny hut, carrying sand with them. It blasted the tiny home; nearly ripping the cloth door flaps free and scattered possessions everywhere. Without warning, Gaara burst through the entrance. His eyes were wide and his nostrils flared violently. In a flurry of sand, he stormed to the back of the hut and flopped down on his small futon. Slowly the sandstorm died down and all that was left was the sound of his heavy breathing.
Outside Gaara's hut stood a furious Kankuro. Beads of sweat ran through his purple face paint and smudged it, but he took no notice. He simply stared angrily at Gaara's front door flap. Finally, when he though he could take no more, he turned and stomped away. He didn't know where he was going, so long as Gaara was not there.
Kankuro took off down the street, past his own house – he did not want to go home. Then on to Temari's house. He stopped. Temari had also grown up with their volatile little brother; she would know how he was feeling.
Kankuro didn't stop to tug on the doorbell rope, but threw back the door flap and let himself in. The three siblings had placed protections on their homes when they moved in, and no one but those three could enter the door flaps of any of the huts uninvited. However, they lived on the outskirts of the Sand Village, and few ever ventured out there.
Temari heard someone enter the house.
"Gaara?" she called from her small kitchen "Or is that Kankuro?"
Kankuro didn't answer, but marched into the kitchen and flopped down on the nearest chair. Temari looked over from where she had been washing up the remains of her lunch.
"Hey, what's the matter with you?" she demanded.
"Ah, it's Gaara." He sighed.
"What's the little freak done this time?"
"Is it impossible for him to control himself? He nearly let his demon loose on a group of Jonin who were talking about him. You'd think he'd be used to it by now…"
Temari chuckled, "Yeah, that sounds just like him. C'mon Kankuro, let it go. I know it's not easy being the brother of a psychopath, but it can't be easy for him either."
"I dunno. And why are you taking his side?"
"Lighten up, Kankuro, I'm not taking anyone's side. You need to relax."
"And how am I supposed to do that?"
"Let's go into the village tonight. Go to a local restaurant or a bar or something."
"A bar sounds good. I can't take much more of this."
So the two headed out to the downtown parts of the village, opting to leave their deranged little brother in his home to cool down. He was too much a of a liability to take out for a night on the town, and the thought of Gaara drinking any sort of alcohol was enough to make them shudder.
The pair was not planning on staying out too late, especially as Gaara never seemed to sleep and leaving him out all night with no one around if something got out of hand was unwise. But one thing led to another and eventually Kankuro found himself stone drunk and Temari herself was a little tipsy. By the time they had staggered home, Gaara was outside on the roof of his hut, staring up at the moon. He heard them approach and leapt off his perch with surprising grace.
"Where….. have you……. been?" he growled.
"Geez, Gaara, keep it down, would'cha?" Kankuro protested. Temari giggled. Gaara's breath began to make a rattling noise.
"What…. have you…. done?" Gaara snarled. Gaara, being feared and despised by nearly everybody, had never been exposed to alcohol or anyone under its effects, and being socially inept, he did not see the swagger in his brother's step or the harshness of his sister's laughter.
"Hey, little psycho, just chill, would'cha?" Kankuro drawled. Temari giggled harder. The cork fell out of Gaara's gourd and a small stream of sand cascaded to his feet. Ordinarily, anyone who knew Gaara would have taken this as a warning sign but Temari and Kankuro were in no state to think reasonably.
"Psycho…" came the angry response from Gaara's lowered head. His breathing was louder than ever, nearly deafening in the otherwise silence, "Is that what I am to you?"
Kankuro and Temari didn't answer, they only laughed. This was not the response Gaara was looking for. With quiet fury, the sand around his feet rose up and began to spiral around his body. At this point, anyone who could get close to Gaara without being murdered should have been attempting to calm him down, but in their drunkenness, this did not occur to Kankuro or Temari. Finally, Kankuro opened his mouth to speak.
"You're crazy, Gaara! Little freak…." He burbled stupidly, and he began to launch into a hazy monologue of all the things he did not like about Gaara. Stories of his secret fear of Gaara's demon, recounts of the things their father had told them of Gaara, the fear they had seen in the villagers and fellow academy student's eyes and his resentment of Gaara's constant intent to kill tumbled out, ending with an accusation that Gaara had never loved anyone in his entire life. Had he been sober and not so angry, he never would have said any of those things; he didn't really mean them. But he had let his anger get the better of him. Temari continued to giggle between hiccups. Gaara's sand rose up into a wall behind him, a sure sign that he was about to explode. But, intoxicated as they were, the other two siblings took no notice.
Then suddenly Gaara's sand surged forward. At the same second, Kankuro slung Karasu off his back and Temari snapped open her fan. The three stopped and stared at each other. Though Gaara was the most powerful, he could not defeat his brother and sister together.
His sand recoiled and retreated back into his gourd. Without another word, he turned and walked off.
Ordinarily, this event would have been a crisis, but all Kankuro and Temari could think about was getting back to their own homes and going to sleep. They didn't even consider what Gaara might be up to.
Gaara stormed past his house, cursing his brother and sister. How dare they drop their guard and arrive home in this state! How dare they rally against him! Though he had become accustomed to the villager's remarks and whispered conversations, he did not expect them from his own siblings. What had driven them to strike out from their fear and stand up against him? And what enraged him the most was that he was not yet strong enough to defeat them both.
All the events of the day had compounded in his head until Gaara just couldn't take it anymore. For the first time in his life, he would not kill his problems. He would run away from them.