I don't know where this will be going so I'll change the rating should I need to, but for now...

I own nothing

Naruto swayed slightly on the seat, staring at the ground as though it held all the answers. His tears had started falling at the looks that the villagers were giving him. The parents and caregivers had pulled all the children away from him, always leaving when they saw him trying to interact with the children. Once alone, the children would treat Naruto much the same as their parents did. Except they were free to throw stones.

In another village, people were calling a boy by the name of 'Demon'. He would try to interact, sand gripping those trying to get away. But he didn't mean any harm. The boy's uncle jumped in front of the girl that he hadn't meant to attack, the sand hitting him instead. The boy cried out. Back in his room, his uncle spoke about external wounds and wounds to the heart. He was excited that external wounds could be healed with medicine, it meant he could help the girl.
He knocked on her door late that night, offering the medicine out to her. She denied him, shutting the door in his face. He remembered the look on her face, wondering 'why me?'
He had bumped into a drunk man, who was sorry and begging not to be killed. The boy kept wondering 'Why me?' Killing the drunk. His father stood in the shadows, staring the boy down with disapproving eyes.

In the light of the full moon sat the boy, staring into the night over the horizon. Shock made his body go still, before slowly panning to look at the assailant.
The boy had ended up hurting the person with the sand that seemed to so love blood. THe person could no longer move, his mask was just one tug away from revealing the face. It was the one face that he thought he wouldn't see. His uncle.
His uncle attacking him, the order from the Kazekage that he could have declined, but chose to accept. The one man that treated him differently, was no better than everyone else. Everyone who had looked at him like a demon. He was condemned.
"Gaara, the demon who must love only himself."

Naruto stood close to the gate, wondering when there would be a group leaving that he would be able to sneak out with. His chance came late in the day, a group with a large cart that he would be able to hide in. Quickly he hid inside getting past the chunin that were guarding the gate. Waiting until he was sure that they were far enough away from the village before setting off into the forest.

Gaara stood by the gates, the guards backing away in fear of him. One felt brave enough to try and stop him, only to result in his death, and the death of his comrades. Gaara clutched his clothes tighter to him, each step forward carrying him further away from the village.

Both boys, through some miracle had made it safely to a large deserted underground cavern. Two entrances had them separated for many days. Little rooms heading off corridors that seemed endless to the two, keeping them occupied with the thought that it would become their new home. Now whether it was by chance that they happened to met in one of these rooms or not, it happened. And at first they seemed wary of each other, until it became clear that since neither knew of the others' past, they would actually have someone that was there for them.

Naruto was the first to introduce himself, knowing from how the other boy looked and acted, that he should be quite quiet and reserved. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I want to know what you're doing in my new home!"
Gaara though, knew from looking at the clothing that the strange boy was wearing and how he spoke, that they were at opposite ends of the scale personality wise.
"Gaara." He murmured. Naruto couldn't hear him and moved closer. Gaara scrambled back, not really trusting this stranger, even if he seemed friendly enough now, they always harboured feelings of hate towards him. "No! Stay back!"
Naruto shook his head, moving closer and closer. "I didn't hear your name. I'm not going to hurt you."
His smile was like the sun to Gaara. Even after walking all that way through the desert, to him it had felt like the first time in days that he had felt warm. "Gaara."
Naruto's smile brightened. "That wasn't so hard was it? Now that we've found this place, why don't we go outside for a bit, I want to feel the sun again."
Gaara took the out-stretched hand, feeling a smile tug at the edges of his mouth.

They looked at each other and laughed a little once they have reached the outside. Gaara's red hair, just like Naruto's blonde hair was now dirty and scruffy. Naruto noticed the rings around Gaara's eyes, naively asking about them. Gaara had shrugged it off as just not having slept well while traveling, and asked Naruto about the whiskers on his cheeks. Although he was lying, Naruto muttered that he was trying to imitate a fox, and this was the result.
Gaara left it alone after that, figuring that if Naruto really wanted to tell him he would.

By the time that the sun was going down, Gaara had realized two things about Naruto. One was that he was always trying to hide the pain that had been inflicted on him behind his chipper demeanor, and two was that Naruto was probably one of the least judgemental people that he had come across in his life so far.
Naruto had also realized that Gaara was going to be the quiet person that he would rely on when he was in trouble.
"What are we going to do about dinner?" Naruto's stomach growled halfway through.
"We go hunt what we have been."
Naruto laughed, holding his hand out to Gaara. "Why don't we go to another village for a little. We can try to get food from there."
Gaara hesitantly took his hand, clutching the other over his heart. Naruto let him have the time that he needed to be able to leave with him. When Gaara finally nodded, they left the underground cavern, knowing that they should avoid both konoha and Suna.
"So what way are we going in?"
Gaara pointed in a direction that he knew was heading towards Suna, but they would be able to change direction shortly after they had reached a river that he had found earlier. Naruto tugged him close and they set off.

Gaara looked over his shoulder as Naruto kept pulling him forwards. Something didn't feel right to him. "Naruto?"
Naruto stopped pulling him, hearing how silent it was around them.
"C'mon, there's -"
Both boys had scrambled into nearby bushes as they heard the voice of a woman.
"Huh? What was that?" The woman was moving closer to the place where Naruto and Gaara were hiding.
"It was probably just an animal. There are a few large creatures out here." A man had said. To both Naruto and Gaara, he had sounded rich.
"We'll still need to check to make sure." This was a voice that Naruto knew. A ninja that was made to look after him in Konoha.
"I'll go check it out, Kakashi."
In the next minute, a woman's face appeared above the boys. She blinked a couple of times, making sure that she was actually seeing what she saw. There were two boys who looked no older than five, huddled together. She pulled back her head, sticking her head back into the bush, still not believing that there were two kids there.
"Kakashi! I think I'm going insane!" The woman called back, over her shoulder. Turning her attention back to the boys'.
"What did you find, Umino?" Kakashi asked poking his head into the bush next to Umino's. He looked just as surprised as a Umino had at first.
Naruto held Gaara close to him, figuring that Kakashi would drag him back to the village. Kakashi pulled Umino back to talk to her about the kids hiding in the bushes.
"When I say go, you had better run for it Gaara." Naruto stared at the boy, making sure that he understood. "I'll try to be back at the hideout soon."
Gaara nodded, waiting for Naruto to tell him when he should run. Kakashi popped his head back in, reaching for both Naruto and Gaara. Naruto moved so that he was the only one who would be reached and whispered for Gaara to move.
As soon as he had started moving, Kakashi had basically thrown Naruto to Umino while he went after the red head. Gaara's defense though, had kicked in, catching Kakashi before he could actually touch Gaara. Umino, worried about her partner, moved to help him, letting Naruto go in the process.
The blonde moved to help his friend, but had already been pulled by another little hand, which belonged to the original red head. They ran, hoping that the ninja wouldn't catch up to them.
Both ninja, had caught up reasonably easily to the two young boys, only now Kakashi was wary of the red haired boy. They hadn't expected the two boys to jump into the fast flowing river when they were cornered, but they had.
"There isn't anyway that they are going to survive that, is there?" Umino sounded sad, knowing that she had just let one of the leaf's missing persons just basically scanned the river, hoping that either Naruto or the red haired boy would pop up somewhere down the river, but neither did. "The Hokage isn't going to be overtly happy is he."
He knew that it wasn't a question, so stayed quiet. Both mourning the loss of two young boys that would have made for great ninja from what they had seen. "Let's head back now."

Okay, I wanted to post this to see how it would go. Umm… second chapter will hopefully be posted soon, you know… depending.
But let me know what you think…