"Yes, that's the boy. Can you believe it?"
"Now way! But… but… impossible!"
"That's how he makes it look. He looks so innocent too."
"He the cause of all this pain. What right does he have to be live, huh?"
"He's a murderer."
Their voices hushed as the one they were speaking of walked closer to them. It was a young boy, with red hair and pitch black rings around his eyes. Love was written on his forehead, in Japanese of course. He had silver-blue teal eyes and had his head down, short red bangs hanging over his eyes.
The boy wore black t-shirt, shorts, a white belt and a huge gourd on his back that was almost as big as the young boy himself.
He looked up momentarily and stared straight into the eyes of the women. The one who had asked about the young boy's right to live drew back in horror. His eyes wore sad, but she couldn't seem to break eye contact with him. Though sad, they were also angry and annoyed. His eyes narrowed and she stared back. His eyes seemed to shove into the woman's eyes, tear straight into her heart.
"What are you staring at?" He asked, his voice a low hiss, with a raspy type of tone.
"N-n-nothing!" The woman stuttered.
The young boy narrowed his teal eyes at her. "You're lying." He hissed, and slowly the cap on the huge gourd behind his back unscrewed, and dropped onto his hand.
"N-n-no!" Both the woman screamed as the young boy reached out his hand. Waves of rippling sand pushed out towards them and grabbed them both by the ankles. The grains of sand slowly crawled up and wrapped around the woman and the boy squeezed his hand in a fist.
"Sand coffin!" He yelled, his voice a low growl.
Their screams filled the air, yet oddly enough, nobody went to help them. They all feared the boy. Gaara, Jinchuriki of the Sand.
XxXxXxXxX
"I'm home!" A young girl with short little bungs on either side of her head said cheerfully as she opened the door.
A boy wearing a black cloak and purple face paint on his nose and cheeks looked up from a table where he had been working. "Oh, hello Temari." He said, smiling.
Temari smiled back at the boy, her fingers momentarily sliding over the pitch black edges of a huge fan on her back, almost as tall as the young girl herself. "Hey Kankuro." She paused and closed her eyes, blinking for a second too long. The look in her eyes showed that she had thought of something. "I-is Gaara home?" She asked.
Kankuro shook his head. "Not yet. Hopefully he's got somebody else. As much as I hate to say it, I'd prefer that somebody else be the victim than us."
Temari smiled, relieved. "Okay then!" She said, returning to her cheerful self. "So, what are you working on Kankuro?"
"Oh, nothing much. Just this little puppet, I want to see if I can make something cool and new." Kankuro brightened up. "I learned about this cool puppet guy… Sasori of the sand! But…" Kankuro looked down on the ground. "He turned bad."
"What do you mean, bad?" Temari asked curiously.
Kankuro sighed sadly. "I mean, bad."
"Oh." Temari didn't question him any more.
Creak. The door creaked as it opened and Gaara walked in.
"G-Gaara!" Temari exclaimed. "How was your day?" She asked him, struggling to keep calm, but kept her voice low and even.
"Great." Gaara said, but by the flatness in his voice it was obvious that he, as usual, wasn't really that great. He looked up and stared at Temari. "Some people stared at me today."
Temari smiled, relieved. Gaara's dark grayish teal eyes were freaky, but they weren't the eyes of a demon. "That totally sucks." She grinned, the young girl now relieved that she wouldn't be killed, returned her voice to a soft sisterly love. "Are you okay about that?" She asked softly. "People staring at you sucks… I know that I'd be really pissed off at them for doing that. Like, sheesh, stare at yourselves! Right?"
Gaara almost managed a smile. Almost. "Yeah, I really ripped it in them."
Kankuro laughed. "Uh huh. I bet that you really did." He paused. "So, do you want to do anything?" He asked mischievously.
"What do you mean?" Gaara asked, he was now suspicious. The young boy's voice was cautious. Kankuro wasn't the joking prank type, but he still was pretty smart and could come up with fairly fun things to do. Well, when he wasn't blabbing on and on about puppets and stuff.
"Yeah, what do you mean?" Temari asked, Her voice was just as suspicious.
"So, does this mean that you're in?" Kankuro asked, smirking.
Temari sighed, and then she glanced at Gaara. She could tell by his face that he was just as curious as she was. He slightly dipped his head down, to show that he agreed. Yes, both of their curiosities simply had to be satisfied.
The blond haired girl turned to Kankuro. "We're in. What do you have in mind?"
Kankuro grinned. "Have you noticed how tired and winded dad has been lately?" He asked, still smirking impishly.
"Well… yeah. I guess." Gaara replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "But you know, he's the Kazekage, right?"
"Well… I've got an idea. How about I make a couple of Gaara and Temari and Kankuro puppets? It might be a little embarrassing for the great Kazekage, sure, but…"
Temari laughed. "I see where you're going with this Kankuro. The poor man will think he's crazy!" But she giggled, pressing her fingers over her lips.
"Exactly!" Kankuro exclaimed. "I can control a Gaara puppet and a Temari puppet… and then…"
"Yes, Gaara and I can make sand clones!" Temari exclaimed, getting into the spirit of things. "Just a couple mind you… you know, here and there."
Gaara smirked slightly. "Let's do it." He said, and then he unscrewed his cap from the huge gourd, practically as big as the young boy was himself.
Temari drew back. "Hey, hey, hey!" She exclaimed. "What on earth do you think you're doing with that?" She demanded, placing a hand on her hip.
Kankuro laughed. "My, my. Aren't we a little jumpy today?" He asked, smirking. "Eh, Temari?"
Temari went bright pink. "Oh shut up." She said, flushing in embarrassment.
"Sheesh. I'm just going to make a couple of sand clones!" Gaara exclaimed, and for one rare moment he was smiling at his brother and sister. "After all, I have plenty of sand to spare, right?"
Temari nodded, feeling like a total idiot. An embarrassed idiot, to add to the annoyance. "Ready?" She asked, grinning.
Kankuro smirked, pulling a Temari puppet and a Gaara puppet from the table, half dragging it across the wood. A few things such as silver knives and huge tubes of paint fell to the ground. A few drops of yellow paint fell to the ground, about the same color as Temari's hair. He moved his hand, and the puppets stood up. "Ready as any time." He said, smirking as the puppets folded their arms over their wooden chests.
Gaara put the cap into his pocket and traced his fingers in midair, creating small swirls. The sand spun around wildly and formed a couple of clones, and color slowly added to them. There were five Gaara clones, but his brother and sister both knew that Gaara was capable of much, much more than that.
Temari held out her hand, her fingers quickly forming the hand seals. Tiger, serpent, tiger, ox. "Suna Kuron-jutsu!" She said, and five Temari clones stood beside the original. Temari smiled at Kankuro. "You sure that you yourself aren't going to take any part in this?" She asked him.
Kankuro pushed back a few strands of thick brown bangs from his forehead and grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure. After all, I only have two hands, and doing that is pushing the limit already. Don't you know? Puppets need chakra strings to control them, and I can't spare more than this much."
Gaara rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah." He said. "We get it. You've talked about it often enough."
Temari grinned. "Hey, you total idiots. Less talking, more scheming."
"Scheming?" Kankuro asked, laughing. "I would hardly call it scheming, as you so calmly put it."
Gaara, or at least one of the Gaara clones, smirked. "Come on. Let's just get going already." He said, but the young boy said it patiently.
Kankuro remembered once… a half possession. He and Temari had been freaked out of their wits. Why shouldn't they? After all, they were still only 5 at the time. That had been about three years ago.
He remembered hearing Gaara speak… even though it was not to them… only it wasn't his little brother's voice. It was the demon, in a low, raspy voice like Gaara's. Only deeper, and not to mention much more frightening. Come on. Let's get going already. I do not like to be kept waiting. It had been speaking to Gaara… Kankuro shook his head, and the thoughts quickly disintegrated. Why was he thinking about that anyways? The demon. Kankuro thought sadly. If only it weren't for the demon…
"Hey, Kankuro." Temari said, her lips slightly upturned in a smirk, a hand resting casually on her hip. "Wake up. We're going to do this now."
Kankuro grinned and straightened up. "Let's do this."
XxXxXxXxX
The Fourth Kazekage sighed as he walked out of his office. It had been a long and tiring, day, and he wasn't exactly in the best of moods. But, more of it, he was in an extremely sleepy mood. He took off his blue Kazekage cap and ran his fingers through his reddish brown hair. It was colored like dust, the red sand of the desert.
He had three children, his wife was dead, and it seemed like he was starting to avoid even his own children. The man sighed and shook his head. He loved his other son, even though he wasn't truly like a son to the man, but his daughter and his other son… The man sighed. It wasn't that he didn't love them, really, he did. It was simply that he never really did seem to have the time, let alone the strength to be the father that they had always wanted him to be.
Then he spotted his red headed son, Gaara, and his daughter, Temari. The Kazekage raised his hand in greeting, a smile on his lips. Perhaps it was time for him to start being a better father after all.
"Hello Temari." He said, a smile on his lips, and then he paused. "Hello Gaara." He said his voice hesitant, like it was an afterthought to speak to his youngest son.
But then didn't speak back, then simply stood there, heads pressed together, their backs turned to him. The Kazekage felt slightly insulted, so he walked up to them and tapped Temari on the shoulder. She still continued to pay to head to him, so he turned and started walking, then widened his eyes in shock when he saw Temari and Gaara again.
"Wow. Kids move fast these days." He murmured to himself. But when he turned his head, there they were again. Then the other corner… once again, talking to each other and laughing. He opened the door to his room and gasped when he saw Gaara and Temari again.
The Kazekage staggered back, pressing his hand to his forehead. "I'm going to their room." He muttered to himself. "To prove that I'm not mad."
He walked into their room when Temari, Gaara and Kankuro were sitting, all chatting and laughing over something. Kankuro was a little red in the face, so he supposed that the joke was at his brown haired son's expense.
"Hey kids… uh… have you been speeding around lately?" He asked. The three stopped laughing (or rather, blushing, in Kankuro's case) and turned to look at him.
There was a moment of awkward silence, with the three looking at him as if he had gone nuts. Finally, Kankuro spoke. Something not too intelligent though. "Huh?"
The Kazekage's cheeks went a bright red and he blushed. "Have you been using shadow clones lately?" He added.
"What's a shadow clone?" Gaara asked, an innocent look on his face. But then, he always looked innocent and he was a cold blooded murderer, so the young boy's expression didn't really mean that much.
"We've learned about clones in ninja school!" Temari said helpfully, but it was more of a slightly confused fashion.
"Oh yeah, shadow clones! I think I read about them in a textbook or something… they're like clones with a personality, right?" Kankuro asked eagerly.
"Oh, never mind. Well, have you been making any clones lately?" The Kazekage asked.
"In class?" Kankuro asked, and then he shook his head. "Nope, we're learning transformation jutsu."
"Oh." The Kazekage said. He walked out, then, just as he walked, he saw Gaara and Temari walking down the hall. The Kazekage fell over in a faint.
Temari smirked. "Mission accomplished."
Kankuro nodded, smiling. "Poor dad." He said, but he was grinning as well.
"Do you think we went too far in the prank?" Gaara asked. He paused, then exchanged glanced with Temari and Kankuro, who both burst out laughing.
"Nah." The three said together simultaneously.
Kankuro looked down and clicked his tongue against his teeth, making a clack clacking sound. "Well, we certainly can't leave dad right her on the floor, can we?"
"In a faint, no less." Temari added, the smirk still on her face. She found that she couldn't stop smirking, and inside she was doubling over in laughter.
"We'd better get rid of the sand clones." Gaara added helpfully.
"Definitely." Temari agreed. "Kankuro, you should get your puppets." She added.
"Oh yeah, right!" Kankuro exclaimed. "I would have forgot if you hadn't told me! Thanks, Temari." And the boy dashed off in search of his puppets.
"It's a wonder that he doesn't get hot in that." Temari said, but it was more of in a childish way, as she wasn't old enough to actually think too much about something.
"But it looks cool." Gaara said, as though that were a good reason why Kankuro would wear it, nevertheless.
Both looked down, feeling slightly uncomfortable. There was a brief moment of silence. Finally, Temari spoke. "Uh… do you think that we should get dad to his bed?" She asked.
"Yeah." Gaara agreed.
"So… uh… how are we going to carry him?" Temari asked, she looked so stumped that Gaara almost laughed out loud. Indeed, how were an 8 year old and a 10 year old supposed to carry a full grown adult?
Instantly Gaara's face lit up as he thought of something. "I know! We'll call an adult!"
"Duh." Temari said, rolling her eyes.
Gaara's eyes flashed. "Then why didn't you think of it?" He asked his voice dangerously low, but as he was only eight, it didn't sound that dangerous to be honest.
Temari widened her bluish eyes. "I don't know." She muttered, in an annoyed way, but not enough to stir her brother's anger.
Just then, they spotted someone coming towards them. "Hey!" Temari yelled. "Dad fainted."
The person, who they now identified as a Shinobi by his Suna headband, blinked as he walked closed to them. "Kazekage sir!" He exclaimed, sounding extremely shocked. He turned to the stare at Gaara. "What happened to the Kazekage?" He asked sternly.
"It was amazing!" Temari exclaimed, spreading her arms out to add extra emphasis. "Dad came in, talking about shadow clones and speeding! And then he was about to go out, then fainted!"
The Shinobi nodded, seeming a little flustered by the young girl's explanation. "I see…" He said slowly, but by the dubious look on his face it was obvious that he didn't see.
"Do you think that dad was tired?" Temari asked curiously.
"What?" The Shinobi snapped his head up.
"I mean, do you think that he was sleepy, and wanted his mom to tuck him into bed, then just got so sleepy that he decided to sleep on the floor?" Temari asked, working the innocent layer thick on.
"Er…."
Gaara grinned. His sister, Temari, was a brilliant actress. "Well, whatever the case, we should get him to bed, don't you think?" Gaara asked.
"Yeah…" The Shinobi said, nodding. Then, he picked up the Kazekage, looking like he felt extremely awkward holding him, then walked off to the Kazekage's room.
Just then, Kankuro came back, holding his puppets. They now looked limp and old in his hands. "Did I miss anything?" He asked.
"You bet you did!" Gaara exclaimed, jerking his thumb towards Temari. "She's a brilliant actress! Played the innocent game, so good! You couldn't tell that she was part of the prank!"
Kankuro laughed. "Nice going Temari." He said, smirking slightly. "I guess our prank worked pretty nicely after all."
"Definitely." Temari agreed, grinning.
"You'd better hide those puppets, and quick." Gaara said. "Don't want dad to find out it was us, right?"
Temari chuckled. "Poor man. Too much work, though it did work pretty well in our favor, don't you agree?"
"Totally agree." Gaara said, grinning. "That look on his face… like, ugh, too much work." He grinned. "Do you think it was a bit too much of an overload?"
They exchanged glanced momentarily. "Nah." Temari and Kankuro said. "It was brilliant."
"Yeah, you're good Kankuro." Gaara said, his voice shoving slight approval.
"I know." Kankuro said, smirking.
Temari lightly punched him on the arm, but it was with a sisterly love.
"I'm going to go out for a walk." Gaara declared.
Kankuro blinked, for a second too long. "Are you sure that's… uh… wise, Gaara?"
Gaara narrowed his eyes, all the happiness suddenly gone. "What do you mean wise? Are you questioning my judgment?"
"No, no." Kankuro said quickly. "It's just that, it's getting dark, you know? It'll be cold, and you know, dark." He just shrugged.
Gaara relaxed. "Yeah, you're right. It will be dark, and about the cold, I'll just bring a jacket." He smiled again, and Kankuro relaxed. "But you know, I still feel like walking."
"But don't you want to get some rest?" Temari asked.
"I don't sleep, remember?" Gaara asked, staring at her.
Temari smiled weakly. "Right. Just joking around."
Gaara stared at her for a moment, as though trying to determine whether she was truly joking or not. "Right… well, I'm heading out."
He went, got a jacket, wrapped it around his shoulders, and actually turned his head to smile at Kankuro and Temari. They were shocked. They actually... had lots of fun with him. Usually, they were just scared of him (no offense to the boy, but honestly!).
Gaara turned his head again. "Oh yeah, don't wait for me to come back. I may as well be gone for all the night." Yeah, the two knew that this was a possibility with the young redhead.
Gaara stepped out the door, feeling the sharp breeze on his cheeks. Guess Kankuro was right. He thought to himself. It is pretty cold out here.
Then he noticed some people crowding and glaring at him. He was used to that. The Jinchuriki simply glared back at them, but finally was forced to lower his gaze, not just because of the pure ferocity and hate, but of the huge number of glares.
He shivered, and not because of the cold. He continued walking, though the young boy wasn't quite sure why. He kept walking and walking, and walking. Then, he reached the gates of Suna. And he remembered the place where he always went when he was upset, or sad or something like that. A cave… not too far outside of Suna.
The young redhead silently slipped out, and continued walking until he finally reached the cave. He climbed up, and was shocked to see a young girl there, a blissful smile on her lips as she looked up at the sky.
The girl had longish black hair which was pulled back in a braid, the end sticking down and slightly curved like a stinger. Her eyes were black, shimmering slightly as the moon reflected off of them. She wore a green t-shirt with a red and white fan on it and a pale green pair of shorts with a dark forest green skirt over it.
"Who are you?" He asked, his voice sharp and raspy.
"Erika." She replied, shortly, bluntly.
"What are you doing here?" He growled.
"Looking at the stars."
Gaara eyed the girl carefully. She wasn't from Suna, but it was obvious that she came here often enough. "Where are you from?" He asked.
"Konoha."
"Well, this is my spot." Gaara growled, and the cap began to unscrew.
The young girl laughed. "Are you sure you want to kill me?" She asked as she sand started to shoot towards her. She hadn't moved, and the Erika's eyes were still focused on the billions of stars dotting the dark blue night sky like buttons on a quilt.
The sand stopped, and Gaara stared, shocked. "How did you know?" He asked.
"I think that nobody in their right mind would come out here so late. It's not very close to anywhere, and even though the night's beautiful not much people like to look at it." She glanced momentarily at him. "I don't know how I knew, to be honest. I just guessed."
Gaara sat down next to her. "It was a pretty good guess." He growled. He wasn't quite sure if he liked this girl, or hated this girl. Whatever the case, he found her intriguing and fairly interesting.
She stared at him momentarily. "Do you want be friends?" She asked.
Gaara blinked. Whatever he had expected, this was not it. He had just tried to kill this girl… and she wanted to be friends? Talk about weird. "Why?" He asked suspiciously, sand weaving in and out of his fingers.
The girl sighed. "I don't know. For some reason I like you." She glanced momentarily at him. "You look about my age. Are you 8?"
Gaara nodded.
Erika grinned. "So am I." Then she paused. "You look sad." She said.
Gaara stared at her. Was she seriously only 8? "Yeah." He said.
Erika paused. "Care to share?" She asked.
Gaara didn't know why, but for some reason he trusted this weird girl. "I'm a Jinchuriki, which means that I've got a demon sealed inside of me. Everyone hates me."
Erika was silent for a moment. "Oh." She said in reply to his very brief explanation. "That must suck." She added.
"Obviously."
Then Erika laughed.
Gaara glared at her, feeling sort of ticked off. "What's so funny?" He asked angrily.
"People are so stupid though, that it's not much of a surprise that they hate you." Erika replied calmly.
Gaara blinked again. This girl was really weird… but… he liked her. She was nice. "Well, I guess we're friends." He said, shrugging as though it weren't a big deal.
Erika smiled. "Good." She replied. "Aren't people stupid for not liking you?"
Gaara felt as though something had lodged itself into his throat, he felt sad yet angry at the same time. It was an unexplainable feeling.
"Isn't it nice to have people like you? Good thing your family will always like you. I have two brothers." Erika said, smart enough to change the subject. "Do you have any siblings?"
Gaara nodded eagerly. "Yeah! I have a brother and a sister."
"I have one older brother, and one younger brother." Erika said.
"My brother and sister are both older than me." Gaara replied.
"Cool." Erika said. "What's it like being the youngest?" She asked.
Gaara shrugged. "I don't know. What's it like being the middle kid?"
Erika laughed again. "Hard to explain, eh?" She asked.
Gaara simply nodded.
"My older brother's a genius, so it's sort of hard." Erika said. "It's like… they expect me to be just like him. If I'm not, then they're disappointed and totally ignore me. But if I do what he did, he did it first, so it's just like, they ignore me anyways. I feel like I'm always invisible, and it's sort of disappointing, because it's as though they don't think that I'm worth any bit of their precious time. You know?"
Gaara stared at her, and then stared at the stars. "I don't know." The eight year old said quietly. "I think that sometimes… I wish that I could be invisible, that I could get everyone to just ignore me. Maybe I'd like that, instead of every single person in my village hating me all the time."
"Oh." Erika said quietly. "What's your sister's name and what's your brother's name?" She asked, changing the subject once again.
"Oh, my sister is Temari. You really couldn't tell that she's my sister though because she had blonde hair and blue eyes which she always wears in these funny looking ponytails. Four of them, one on each side of her head."
"Hm…" Erika said. She pushed a loose strand of black hair from her forehead. "That sounds a little fitting…"
"But you can only see two of them at a time usually. And my brother's Kankuro, but it's easy to tell him because he had brown hair, but you can't tell because he's always wearing this big black cape of his, you see. And he has this purple face paint on, but he won't let me put any on. Harrumph, if he can put it on why can't I?"
Erika nodded. "Yeah, sounds nice. Can you describe them for me?"
Gaara thought about it. "If you first tell me your brothers' names and what they look like, then I'll continue telling you about Temari and Kankuro."
Erika barely seemed to need to even thing about it. "Deal. I'll start by describing my older brother. His name's Itachi, and you can instantly tell that he's my brother because he looks a lot like me." (She seemed pretty proud of this fact, so Gaara figured that she must've looked up to Itachi as a role model.) "He has black hair, and it's sort of spikey, but in a not spikey way, you know?"
Gaara didn't really know, but he nodded anyways, going along with what Erika was saying.
"Except he has these shadows under his eyes, because he's always sort of tired, you know?" Then she glanced at Gaara's dark ringed eyes. "Though, they can't really compete with yours. My younger brother is named Sasuke, and he looks just like Itachi, except he doesn't ever really look tired at all. He's 6, two years younger than me." She grinned at Gaara. "You're turn."
"Well, Temari always carries this HUGE fan on her back. It's really pretty, with a black trim and it's yellowish white with three purple circles on it. I think they're moons or suns or something like that. I forget. Kankuro's a puppet master, and he always carries this weird looking mummy thing on his back with brown hair sticking out, so he looks sort of creepy but you're comfortable with him all the same, you know?"
Erika chuckled. "Is it stylish in Suna to wear things on your backs?" She asked.
"Huh?" Gaara asked dumbly.
"I mean like, Temari wears a fan on her back, Kankuro wears a mummy puppetry thingy on his back, and you have that big sand gourd! Is it fashionable or something? Because no offense but it's sort of weird."
Gaara shook his head. "No, it's not fashion. We just wear these because they're too big to go anywhere else."
Erika nodded. "Oh." She said, nodding in understanding. "Do you go to the Ninja academy in Suna?" She asked.
"Yep." Gaara said. He didn't mention that practically everyone there hated him.
Erika laughed. "I go to the Ninja academy in Konoha, you know. Just five more years and I'll graduate!" She exclaimed, sounding excited, and then sighed. "Ugh. Five years. I hate waiting." She fake pouted.
Gaara laughed. "Hey, it's not like you could speed up time." He said.
"Well, yeah." Erika said with a sigh, but in a duh way. "But I could try to graduate early! Itachi did, you know, but he's pretty much a genius." Then she narrowed her eyes in an annoyed way. "And you know, I suspect that dad wants me and Sasuke to do that to, fat chance of that…" Then she grinned at Gaara. "Not that you would want to hear me rant on and on, and blab about all of this, right?" Erika asked.
"Nah, if you let me get mad at people and rant on and on, then I'm perfectly fine with you ranting on." Gaara replied, smiling. He felt fairly comfortable around this odd girl.
Erika grinned. "Alright then." She said, smirking. "But you asked for it, so you can't blame me when you get annoyed."
When they finally finished talking Gaara was certain that she was his first ever friend. They agreed to meet the next day, and the young redhead simply couldn't wait.