Chapter One
Seven Years Later
Saturday:
"Ahhh!" The scream rang out.
"Gaara, no! Leave her alone!" A woman cried before "CRACK!"
"NANA!" Another scream, then the sounds of sobbing can be heard.
Earlier that week, Monday before sunrise:
Nana Takashi awoke from her light slumber with a start. She sat up in her bed, the kunai from under her pillow in hand. "Who's there?" she called into the darkness, feeling for unfamiliar chakra signatures.
"Nana-chan, I'm scared," a little voice replied. Nana identified the voice at once and instantly relaxed. The speaker was none other than Sabaku no Gaara, the youngest child of the Kazekage.
"What's wrong, Gaara-kun?" Nana asked, putting her kunai back and walking over to Gaara.
"Yashamaru-san hasn't come home yet, and I think that something bad happened to him," Gaara answered, clinging tightly to his teddy bear.
"Oh, sweetie, come here." Nana cooed, holding her arms open for the little boy. The cyan-eyed boy eagerly embraced the woman that had become a mother-figure to him. "Don't worry about Yashamaru-san. He was sent on a week long mission, remember? So until he returns, it'll be just you, me, and Rika." Nana reminded the red head in her arms.
"Oh yeah, I forgot. Nana-chan, will you stay up and watch the sunrise with me? Yashamaru-san usually watches it with me, but he's not here. Please?" Gaara pleaded.
Nana chuckled and nodded. "Of course, I would love to watch the sunrise with you. You know, when you were a baby, I would hold you in my arms and we would go up on the roof of the Kazekage's tower and watch the sun rise. In fact, the first sunrise you saw was the morning after you were born."
Gaara smiled, then he frowned, "Why did you stop watching the sun rise with me? Did you start to hate watching it with me?"
"Don't you ever think that I hated it, ever. A few months after you were born, I became pregnant with my own baby, and a year after you, Rika was born and Yashamaru-san made take care of my own baby for a while. So then he started taking you to see the sun rise. But, watching you see the sun rise was, more often than not, the best part of my day."
Gaara looked at Nana in awe, "Really, Nana-chan? You mean that?"
"Of course I do, silly! You should know that I would never, ever say anything that I didn't mean to you." Nana chuckled.
"Kaa-san, I had a bad dream and I can't find Gaara-chan. Can I sleep with you?" Another little voice asked from the doorway.
"Of course, Rika. C'mere, hun." Nana replied to her daughter, arms open. "Gaara-kun is in here. That's why you couldn't find him."
Rika gasped, rushing to give her red-haired friend a hug. "Gaara-chan, did you have a bad dream too? Was the monster trying to eat you, too? He tried to eat me."
Gaara giggled, "No, I didn't have a bad dream. I can't sleep, remember? I just want to go watch the sun rise and was asking Nana-chan if she would take me. Wanna come?"
Rika nodded her head vigorously, "Yes, yes! Please, Kaa-san, please?"
Nana softly sighed before smiling. "Alright, but you both have to behave, otherwise we won't go again." She warned her mischievous daughter and charge.
Rika and Gaara cheered, jumping up and down, causing Nana to laugh out loud. "Hahaha, by the way you two are reacting, one would think that you are getting to go to the park or to see a play instead of watching the sun rise," she chuckled.
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