I don't own Naruto. It's Gaara's turn. Beware Gaara is paired up with an original character in the continuum.

The Twenty Times Gaara Needed Love

By:

CrazyGirlOfManyNames

One

Ichibi no Shukaku is the bane Sabaku no Gaara's existence. The Tanuki Youkai never let him sleep and never shut up. Gaara hates the demon more than anything in the world. But when the demon was ripped from his body and soul, Gaara feels empty. He always had Shukaku, no matter if he wanted to admit it or not, he had gotten used to the demon's presence.

And luckily, some of the demon's power remained with Gaara. He had to train more to control the sand and his own body more. It was a pain in the ass to do so, but it was worth it.

Two

When Gaara was a child, his only friend was his bear that he carried around with him. Unknown to almost everybody, he still has the bear in his room on his bed that he barely uses. It is worn and beaten and one more than one occasion he made Temari wash it and fix any holes. He used to talk to the bear because no one else ever listened to him.

But one day it disappeared and Gaara freaked out, not in the Naruto freaking out sense but the more I-want-my-damn-bear-back-or-I'll-make-your-life-hell kind. To his surprise on his sixteenth birthday, Temari and Kankurou give him a present. It was his bear but completely fixed up and looked like new (he knew it was not brand new because they don't make these bears anymore, Gaara checked).

That was best birthday at the time.

Three

Gaara never hated Temari. He just wanted her to love him, but he did not know how to deal with it. Gaara knew for the first twelve years of his life, she feared him. But whenever he got a bit too bloodthirsty, she always asked him to calm down for big sister. He always did because he 

did not want to disappoint her, because she looked so much like mother and maybe he thought that if Temari loved him, mother would love him more.

He never had to worry about Temari, because she had to be strong to protect herself. But he knew that she was not always the strong-willed, smart, pretty kunoichi. When he was ten, he found out about womanly issues. Temari was thirteen and Kankurou was not home (he was getting food, since it was his turn). Of course, Gaara was not nice at ten but when he passed his sister's room he heard sobbing.

He entered and found Temari in pain on the ground. Gaara, then, did not know what the hell to do, so he just watched and tried to control Shukaku so not to kill her. He smelled blood but he did not know where from.

"Gaara," said Temari, jumping up and attempting to stop crying. "I'm sorry did I bother you."

"Why," asked Gaara.

"Um, you wouldn't understand," said Temari, getting red in the face. Gaara glared at her and she knew she had to answer. "I have my period and it hurts okay?" Of course, he had no idea what she was talking about. His glare intensified ten-fold at her for saying something he did not understand. "It's something only girls go through. And I really don't know how to explain it to you."

"I smell blood," stated Gaara.

"That's the reason, I'll try to explain it to you when you're older," said Temari. He left her alone and went to the library of the house. He looked up period and found it was something called menstruation. Gaara looked that up and felt sick that blood came out of there once a month for girls.

Gaara then found that girls get moody before hand and began counting the days. By the time Temari was fourteen; Gaara had her menstrual cycle down and knew when to stay away. Even though he probably could kill her, he knew that she could get freakishly strong when anger as he seen Kankurou get pounded to the ground when Temari was enticed.

He never told her that, because he knew it was embarrassing for her.

Four

Gaara never hated Kankurou, either. But the problem Gaara had originally with Kankurou was that he looked almost like their father. Gaara hated their father with much passion. Gaara actually was happy when Kankurou began putting paint on his face, so he did not have to look at a look-a-like of their father.

But Gaara soon began to get used to seeing Kankurou with and without his face paint and began seeing more of mother in his older brother than father.

Brothers, Gaara found out, had a much more subtle but equally strong bond of that of brother and sister or sisters. Brothers talked to each other about problems or about nothing in particular. And brothers like Gaara and Kankurou had more common ground because neither wanted to invoke their sister's wrath.

Especially when Temari went into her nagging mother-mode as Kankurou called it, Gaara and Kankurou usually tried to avoid her on these days.

Five

Gaara wanted a parent's love. He hated his father and wanted his mother to love him. His mother, he knew for he has an excellent memory as Naruto, hated him. His father merely feared the monster he created in his son. He once thought of Yashamaru as a father, but was sorely disappointed again in his life.

He found parents in his brother and sister, because they were the ones who took care of him, no matter how shitty he treated them.

Six

Gaara's first human friend was Uzumaki Naruto. He holds Naruto in high regard as his best friend. They have a special bond because of their demons. Gaara is happy that Naruto was the one came to save him from Akatsuki, because then he knew Naruto cared about him. He finds it funny that Naruto has three emotionally unstable and cold people calling him their best friend. Gaara fights it out with Sasuke and Neji all the time when he is in Konoha for the title of Naruto's best friend.

Seven

When Gaara was offered the position of Kazekage, he was shocked. He was only thirteen and was not even a Chuunin yet. He knew it was plot to watch over him so he does not go AWOL 

again. Temari and Kankurou warn him that this may just be another assassination attempt, which it was but that's beside the point.

The only reason he took the position was to prove him self that he was not a bloodthirsty monster anymore. After the failed assassination attempt, in which Gaara did not kill the offender, the Council of Suna deemed Gaara worthy of the position of Godaime Kazekage.

Eight

Gaara never planned to take on a student, but he really had nothing to do (this was before he become Kazekage). Meeting Matsuri helped him win some more people over; she was a good student and listened to what he had to say in regards to training. He knew she loved him, but he really only thought of her as a younger sister.

Gaara, at the time, only needed family love. Matsuri understood that and waited to see if someday he might love her and in the mean time beat off any prospective rivals. Gaara found that useful to avoid his fan club.

Nine

When he died, he knew something was wrong. He was not supposed to die, then. It was not his time. But he felt so alone and could not fight it.

But then he opened his eyes and saw Naruto, Sakura, his sister, his brother and half of his shinobi, Gaara knew that it was not his time to die, thanks to Chiyo-baa-sama. If it was not for her, Gaara knew he would be dead.

Ten

Like Naruto, Gaara pitied the pawns of Uchiha Mandara and wished for their deaths though. But before he found out about Mandara, he hated the Akatsuki. Tsunade was keeping him posted on their moves. Before he knew they had seven out of the nine bijuu sealed in the King of Hell statue.

When he heard of the Hachibi's capture by Uchiha Sasuke, he knew that someone was on there way to get Naruto. And for the first time ever, Gaara panicked. His siblings had to stop him from going to Konoha to help protect Naruto. He needed to stay in Suna for he was their leader. So in his stead, he sent both Temari and Kankurou to Konoha to aid in protecting Naruto.

Then Pain and Konan had attacked Konoha. Kisame and Zetsu burned down the scholarly capital and destroyed the underground fighting place, then were spotted heading towards Suna to make sure that they would not be able to aid Konoha.

Gaara was in a less than happy mood at this point and stood to defend Suna again from Akatsuki. Akatsuki had many nuke-ninja working for them at this point. Gaara knew they were waiting for Naruto to get captured so then Akatsuki would have all the demons to unleash on the world.

Luckily, Kisame and Zetsu pissed off the scholars (they burned their books) and underground fighters and they came in the direction of Konoha. Tsunade sent them (there were some in Konoha to fight off Pain and Konan). Most of them knew Naruto, so Gaara let them help. The scholars immediately came up with a plan.

Before he knew it, Tsunade sent him a message saying that everything was over with. Gaara was able to take out Kisame and some others took out Zetsu. Naruto was alive and the only Jinchuuriki left alive.

Gaara then created a specialized ANBU team to guard the King of Hell statue on a request from Tsunade (from Naruto, whose idea it was).

Eleven

Gaara met his future wife, officially, right after Akatsuki was defeated. She was one of the scholars that came to aid Suna, she was Miki. She and the others that came to Suna had no where left to go, so he let them stay (Konoha let scholars and fighters stay). Most of the underground fighters became ninja and the scholar found normal jobs around Suna.

It was when she and Kankurou's future wife entered his office one day, a couple of weeks after the defeat Akatsuki. They wanted his permission to open a restaurant. Miki smiled at him, brightly and Gaara's heart did a flip flop.

He did not know it at the time but he fell in love with her at that moment. She asked him out first and waited patiently as she taught Gaara things about a relationship. She never touched him unless he initiated it at first. However, after a while of getting to know Gaara well enough she gave him hugs and kisses when she knew he needed them. When Gaara turned eighteen, he asked her to marry him.

She said 'yes'.

Twelve

It took a couple of years before Gaara consummated his marriage with Miki. He was looking forward to having children, actually. In his fifth year of marriage, Miki became pregnant. Unfortunately, nine months later the infant died because the umbilical cord strangled the infant. It was a boy.

Gaara was heartbroken over the loss of his son, but Miki was more so devastated. So every night for the following four years, Gaara had to hold his wife close as she cried herself to sleep. But somehow, she slowly began to think of trying for another child. Gaara agreed.

When Gaara was twenty-eight, his daughter was born. They named her Ai; she had Gaara's red hair and Miki's hazel eyes. Naruto was made godfather along with Kankurou and Temari was godmother. Gaara loved his baby girl unconditionally and vowed to always protect her and Miki from harm. Ai was a quiet baby, but when she learned to talk, she talked a lot.

His daughter had brains like her mother and partial sand control like her father. She wanted to be a shinobi so one day she could become Kazekage like her father. Gaara was very proud the day she graduated at the top of her class and was placed under Baki's guidance.

Thirteen

Around the time of his marriage, Shikamaru came to Suna to talk to both Kankurou and Gaara. He looked nervous, but he sat in front of them with resolve.

"I want to ask Temari to marry me and move to Konoha," said Shikamaru. Kankurou screamed profanities and Gaara's hand twitched. He was a very overprotective younger brother, but he knew Shikamaru and trusted him.

"As long as Temari agrees to marry you, she may leave to live with you," said Gaara, trying not to sound angry. Gaara knew Temari was going to say 'yes' because she loved the lazy genius. So a year after Gaara's marriage, Temari and Shikamaru married in Konoha. Gaara and Kankurou gave their sister away to Shikamaru.

He was going to miss his sister's presence, but he knew that she could not stay with them forever, besides Gaara had Miki to take care of him.

Fourteen

Gaara never had an outlook on days and nights until Shukaku was removed. He was able to sleep. At first, he did not but slowly with the help of siblings was able to sleep a couple of hours a night.

At forty years old, Gaara wakes up to the sight of wife sleeping soundly. He goes to his daughter's room to check up on her. Then he gets ready for the day for duties of being Kazekage. At lunch he comes home for lunch with Miki, his sister-in-law, and occasionally his nephews, brother and daughter if not on missions. He goes back to office and comes home usually after dinner.

He spends the rest of the evening with his wife and daughter and he could not be happier.

Fifteen

His first date with Miki went terrible to him at least. She found him cute. He took her to a restaurant and he had no idea what to talk about. Then the waiter spilled water all over Miki, which she just laughed about. She took over and asked Gaara questions.

After a while he got used to her and they talked about how they met Naruto. He told her about their fight when they were 12 and she told him about teaching him history of the ninja world.

"Actually, it was Naruto who told me that I should ask you out," admitted Miki, grinning. "I kind of thought you were cute and a good person, and I mentioned you to Naruto. He told me that you would not know anything about having a girlfriend, so yeah." Gaara, the next day, sent a letter to Naruto with only two words on it; thank you.

Sixteen

Gaara was horrified to learn that his precious baby girl had a giant crush on Yamanaka Jou, Ino and Sai's only son. But was less than surprised to learn that he did not like her back. Gaara would have gone on a bloody rampage for that moronic boy's blood for making his daughter cry but he was allies with Konoha, friends with both Ino and Sai, and Miki told him that it was just a small crush and Ai would get over it.

Jou was very lucky that Gaara listened to his wife's words.

Seventeen

Gaara was not surprised when his daughter at the age of twenty came to him with a challenge. She was a Jounin (and has long since gotten over her crush on Jou). Gaara accepted his 

daughter's challenge to a fight and lost (barely mind you). His daughter surpassed him and he was proud of her and disappointed in himself for losing (even if only by a hair).

Eighteen

Temari had one daughter and one son. Kankurou had three sons. Gaara spoiled them all with toys and anything they wanted in which his siblings wanted to kill him, especially Temari who had to drag everything back to Konoha.

He was glad that they were happy and happier that he had a good family of ninja and geniuses. But he would not tell them that.

Nineteen

Haruno Haru, one of the adopted children of Sakura, came to Suna one day. He came here to talk to Gaara about something important and Gaara had a strange feeling it had something to do with his daughter, who is a beautiful twenty-two year old Jounin.

"I want to ask Ai-chan to marry me," said Haru. Gaara glared at him for a moment.

"As long as she agrees and you never hurt her because even your mother or godfather will not save you from my wrath," said Gaara. A few months later, Haru moved to Suna and married Ai. Giving Ai away was the hardest day of Gaara's life but he does not regret it.

Twenty

"So, old friend," teased Naruto, the never aging man to the seventy year old Godaime Kazekage, "How's life?"

"You should know, I'm happy," said Gaara. "The Rokudaime Kazekage is good."

"Of course, she's your daughter," said Naruto. "How are the grandkids?"

"They're good but they think I'm a storyteller," said Gaara, "That's Miki's thing." He frowned at the thought of his deceased wife.

"Ah, yes, how are you holding up about her death," asked Naruto, solemn.

"I miss her but she lived a full life," said Gaara. Naruto nodded.

"I'm glad you found love. You deserve it."

"So do you." Then at the age of eighty, Sabaku no Gaara the Godaime Kazekage died with a content look on his face in his sleep.

End