Disclaimer: I do not own the sand siblings and am not making a profit from this story.

Ever Changing Destinies

"Kankuro!" Temari shouted as she practically threw his bedroom door open. Her brother turned from where he had been sitting on the floor and working on a puppet to glare at her. Now that she had found him, she suddenly seemed out of breath. "There's a new prisoner," she stammered. "They just brought him in."

"I'm off duty. What do you want me to do about it?"

"It's Genji."

Kankuro's breath caught in his throat. "He's here. Now?"

Temari nodded. "They captured him. I just found out."

"Does Gaara know?" Kankuro asked and then mentally smacked himself. Of course someone would tell the Kazekage right away. "I'm going to see him."

"Are you sure…" Temari didn't finish as her brother nodded and started to get up. "Just… Be careful. He's not the same person you knew when we were kids."

"I know. It'll be okay. Thanks," Kankuro told her as he walked out of the room.

"It is you," Kankuro said in amazement.

"Well, hello to you too," a ninja about Kankuro's age smirked from behind the prison bars. Then the expression on his face turned almost friendly. "You're as polite as ever, I see."

Kankuro gave a humorless laugh. "So they caught you, huh?"

"Yeah."

They both stared ahead, waiting for the other to speak. The whole situation felt like a bad dream. "I always thought I would end up in this position before you. Never you..." the puppet master trailed.

Genji's lips twisted into a scowl. "Yeah, well, you know. Your brother."

Kankuro would have punched anyone else for these words, but the person in front of him used to be a very close friend. And Kankuro couldn't deny his pain. "Gaara's different now," he tried instead. "He's become a great leader. You should see..."

"That doesn't bring back what I lost!" the other boy shouted. He immediately looked ashamed of his outburst. The two glanced away from each other and remained silent for some time.

Kankuro spoke again first. "When we were kids, I never would have believed things could turn out like this. You were always the good one. And you, like so many of the other kids, wanted to be the next Kazekage."

"That was when I had my family behind me. My parents. My sister. She always wanted... But he murdered them all."

"You still had me," Kankuro responded quickly and then jerked back as though he regretted showing so much emotion. "You had all your friends."

"It wasn't the same! You know it wasn't!" Genji seemed to calm down. "Besides, you feel the same way. That... He has always been your primary reason for doing anything. Even when we first met and he wasn't living in the same house as you."

"Yes," Kankuro admitted. He shrugged. "I guess part of me always loved Gaara. Even back then." He turned red at this admission but could not take his eyes away from his former friend. When he looked at Genji, he still saw the cheerful, friendly little boy he once knew.

"That brat was always on your mind," Genji went on. "Remember what I said when we met?"

"That I must be holding a lot of pain inside to be so mean."

"You were a bully."

"And you never would have called any little kid a brat back in the day. You always loved children," Kankuro returned. "So yeah, Gaara was always important to me. So what?"

"He was the friend you always wanted." Genji swallowed. "But I like to think our friendship made things a little easier for you. You were a little nicer until..."

"You should never have left the village!" Kankuro shouted suddenly.

"Don't you dare..." Genji hissed. The venom in his voice made Kankuro take a step back. The puppet master remained speechless as his former friend seemed to struggle for breath. Genji's voice was hoarse when he could go on. "Even after he took them all from me, I stayed with the village and tried to be a good little ninja. Even when he turned good and your attention shifted..."

Kankuro felt a pang of guilt. "I didn't mean..."

Genji went on as if he hadn't heard him. "But when they made him the Kazekage..."

"You decided to become a missing ninja," Gaara interrupted.

Kankuro and Genji jumped. How long had he been there?

"When you killed my whole family, my life ended," the prisoner finally responded. " I wanted to die. In a sense, I did. It was as if I had been reborn in a sea of hatred."

Kankuro watched his brother's face. His expression remained as unreadable as ever, but the puppet master thought he saw a flash of emotion in his eyes. Was it pain, guilt, understanding, or something else? Kankuro didn't have time to decide before it was gone.

Gaara turned towards him. "Let me speak to him alone for a little while."

"Fine," Kankuro grumbled as he trudged out, thinking that this was a very bad idea.

The puppet master had barely moved since returning to his room. He stood starring out of his window without really seeing anything. After a while, he sensed his brother's presence.

"Are you... all right?" Gaara asked as he came in.

"Yeah," Kankuro slowly turned to face him. He let out a deep breath. "About Genji..."

"I haven't decided what to do with him yet." Gaara paused for a moment. "I came to consult you. You were his best friend."

Kankuro snorted. "My friend died a long time ago. He was a different person when we were kids. Always cheerful. He never gave up on anything. Or anyone."

"He was... like Naruto?"

Kankuro flinched. "I guess so. I never thought about it. But yeah, he was a lot like Naruto. That all changed though after his family died."

"After I killed them."

An awkward silence followed. Kankuro had no idea what to say. He eventually continued with, "I wanted to be there for him. I tried to be, but it was never enough." He scratched the back of his head and looked away. "I never seemed to make much of a difference." As he finished this last sentence, he realized he hadn't just been talking about Genji.

Gaara didn't seem to notice as he tried his best to comfort his older brother. "It all started because I took away what was precious to him. I..."

They were interrupted by a knock at the door. A guard hurried inside. "Lord Kazekage, you must come quickly. The prisoner... committed hara-kiri. He killed himself."

Soon they were back at Genji's prison cell, watching as the guards took his body away. At first, Kankuro thought someone would have to restrain him from beating up the guards and screaming at them for their incompetence. How could they have left him alone for even a minute? How could they have missed that last concealed weapon? But as he and Gaara stood alone in the room, he found he could barely summon the energy to stand upright. So he settled for punching the wall. "That idiot," he whispered.

Gaara, who had remained quiet for some time, finally found his voice. "I wasn't going to sentence him to death. I told him that."

"I know." Kankuro took a shaky breath. "His family was everything to him. His sister especially. You don't know how he loved her."

Gaara stared at his brother. "He said his life ended after I killed his family."

"They were his strength. They were even more important to him than the village."

Gaara's eyes widened. "But..."

"Yeah, like the Leaf, we were taught to consider the whole village our family. To put it before everything else. But it wasn't like that for him. And that might be wrong, but I can understand him."

Gaara's gaze on Kankuro seemed to grow more intense.

The puppet master looked at the space where Genji's body had been found. "You know I'll never betray the village, and I'll never run from a fight. But if it somehow came down to a choice between protecting you or Temari and protecting the village, I believe... No, I'm certain I would put you guys first.

He dared to look back at Gaara to see how his brother had taken that admission. The Kazekage's face was a mask, but Kankuro again thought he caught a glimpse of something in his eyes. Disapproval maybe? Or maybe that was just Kankuro's own guilt. Not that he could blame Gaara. Such feelings could potentially put a lot of people in danger. But it was true. Like Genji, he loved his family more than anything, and he firmly believed that if Naruto Uzumaki had confessed such feelings to Gaara, his brother would not have found fault with them.

Whatever Gaara did think, he chose not to address this. After some time, he asked, "Why did he kill himself?"

"I don't know. Maybe he just finally realized he would never get his revenge. He thought he failed his family again."

"Perhaps he did it for you. He knew that if he did succeed in killing me, it would deeply hurt the one friend he had left. However, he also couldn't live without getting that revenge."

"That's too twisted."

"But I know what kind of state he was in." This time, Gaara glanced away. "When you're blinded by so much hatred, it is difficult to think rationally. It's difficult to see the light."

"Gaara..."

"He said I murdered his entire family." Gaara paused and looked straight at his brother. "I don't remember them. There were so many."

Kankuro stepped forward as if to comfort his little brother but stopped, uncertain of how such an attempt would be received.

Gaara's eyes remained fixed on Kankuro. "I know there are many things I cannot make amends for, but I will never stop trying to make the village a better place for all of the people here."

"I know. And I'll help you in any way possible." This time, Kankuro was certain the look in his brother's eyes was one of relief.

"I will need your help to arrange his burial," Gaara told him.

"His... Thank you," Kankuro replied. The brothers left together, both deep in thought. Kankuro felt exhausted thinking of all the old wounds that had been brought up this day. But also, despite everything, he felt as though these events had somehow strengthened his bond with Gaara. They were growing as a family and coming closer to truly understanding each other. And no matter how disturbing, Kankuro believed he partly had his friend to thank for this.