Sorry that took so long everyone. I have been very busy with classes and finishing up final exams. Good news though. Break time at last! And I am somewhat better rested then I have been in while. So maybe I'll be able to write a little bit more often in these next few weeks.

And I would like to thank you my two little lonely reviewers. You made my day!

Now I hope you all enjoy! I know I will...hehe...

The ride was daunting- long. Long enough to bring maddness into the thoughts of the sane. Mixed along with the silence? Gaara smirked as the thought had crossed his mind, wrapping his arms in thte shape of an x tightly across his chest, bringing his eyes back to the floor.

He had spent much of the ride doing exactly that. Staring down at his feet in silence. No need to memorize the way home. He knew he would not be going back. Not this time. He was being sent away- vanished. And for what? So his father and older siblings could carry on having what was their idea of a normal life. Pertending he didn't even exist. Isn't that what they wanted?

A shift in the seat next to him proved his theory...the silence was defiently getting to his father. His eyes traveled back up o him for just a moment. Satisfied he returned at staring down to nothingness seeing the strain on the old mans face. What did he expect from him, really?

Three days now they had been driving on, trapped in a car, barely even stopping to rest. Maybe he was afraid his son would run away if given too much of the chance. But looking at his options and the situation? Gaara had chosen to stay. He couldn't say why himself. He for sure didn't beleive his father telling him this wasn't a punishment. And yet...something would not let him run. Something told him to stay. Making him slide even farther into his own thoughts, leaving his father to the silence.

At first the man had tried to keep the mood pleasent- despite the red heads ovious displeasure in being dragged along on this trip. Playing music he knew the boy liked, stopping places in attempts to sight see a little and spend time together. shopping for materials and art supplies once or twice without any change of expression or success. Not a word. No matter what he had tried. Even the attempts he made to start light conversations just seemed to go ignored. Unheard, or uncared for. In the end...he had decided the second of the two, and decided to give up.

Gaara wasn't having any of it. And come half way through their journy together the entire ride was then made in silence, appart from the taunting hum of the car engine- which Gaara knew he could not silence though he had tried.

It was nearing midnight when they finally approched the gates of the large school campus. Pulling in then up the long driveway leading them up to what Gaara had already deemed his own personal hell, his father cleared his thoat, in hope of trying once again.

"Now Gaara-" He started slow, "I want you to use your time here-Gaara, are you listening?"

With an almost bored look the otherwise expressionless eyes turned to meet him dead on. Arms still crossed tightly against the chest, around himself threatening in appearance. As close as a yes the man was going to get.

Masking all other emotions the teen sat and waited. Shifting his gaze from his father, taking in the darkness around him. No curiousity, or any real intrest, he noted the campus was actually quite large compared to most. Certianly more so then any of the other schools he had attended.

Telling the truth he had never taken the time or effort in learning about the place he would be sent this time. His thought was rather simple. He was being sent there. It was the school he was being sent away to. Making him the unwanted, and the school a horrible place he would never call home. Simple enough, easy enough to understand. Looking too much into the place would only complicate things. Confuse him. He could not have confusion...he would not exept their words, this is not a punishment.

Somewhere in his loss of thinking he realized his father had already stopped his trying to convince him. It took him a moment longer to realize the car had already stopped, been turned off, and his father already half way out of the car. Nearing his side, to enter the building too which they had pulled right up to the doors.

Without argument he followed out of the car and up to the doors. His eyes remained down as his father lead him to an office, hands shoved in his pockets. His half listened to his father and another man exstange words, hand shakes and formalities before his father patted him on the shoulder.

"This is my son, the one that will be staying here at the school here"

"Ah yes...Gaara, your youngest right?" The man who spoke sounded too nice to actually mean it, extending a hand in which to shake with the red head as he had his father.

Gaara looked up, eyes meeting the headmasters for one minute before the hand was recoiled.He smirked slightly before his father squeezed his shoulder in warning. The smirk fell from his face and green pools fell back to staring at the floor. At least the rugs were more intresting that back in the car. Staring at nothing but black for three days could try anyones patience really. The onlything worse would be white. White walls, white ceilings...white everything..

He took a step back recalling the room he had called his own, as much as his own as anything had even been for 15 years now. He shook his head, almost finding releif in the face he was not in fact back in that room. It was only a day dream. Since when did he day dream?

His father pushed him forward as his mind tried to catch up with things. He had missed a major part of the two mens conversation. If he remembered correctly the one who worked hear even asked him a few things. Had he answered? Of course not. He never answered. So...he supposed it didn't even matter if he heard the question. Shrugging it off, he followed. Down a few halls, and up an elevator.

The man who worked for the school was saying something again. This time Gaara actually found his self trying to listen. He was explaining the way things worked, meal times, breaks for classes, when school would start. None of that really mattered. But the way to his room would be most important if he was to make it through even the first day, finding his way back to his solitude. Heaven. Heaven in a place he had not known would exist.

Had the man just honestly said he would have a room completely to himself? He looked too his father just once a bit of a smile in his eyes...never a glimps of it on his face. His father smiled back approvingly nodding at the man as he continued. Apparently this had been an arrangment for Gaara to come here, for it was not normal for first years to get their own room. Rarer yet one coming in so late in the season.

Of course the light in his eyes was gone after a moment, and he found his way to open the door the worker had shown them to. Hand on the knob. So close...

"Now, will your son be needing anything? Help unpacking? Bags?"

Gaara paused bringing a hand to the stap that hung down over his shoulder. The single bag he had bothered to bring with him as everything else had already been sent ahead. His most important valubles resigned in that bag. Some art supplies he always carried with him, a journal, sketch book, and more. There were a few minor things in there as well that his father thought he should bring to amuse him self during the ride. Books and such things.

Not that he had touched anything during their trip. In fact, Gaara had made it a point not to even open his bag during the whole time of the car ride, or even amuse the thought to do so. The entire way there, the bag stayed securely strapped to his back just as it had always been.

Looking at the two men his father seemed to understand, all though the words never came from him, and the emotions stayed well hidden under the mask of his cold face.

"No...my son has the last of it with him."

And with the click of the door he had left the disturbance of his life out there waiting.

It was pointless to assume his fathers concerns for him were ever real. As pointless as it was for them to deny this wasn't a punishment. He already knew how much trouble he had caused.

Dropping the bag somewhere along the way, he wasted no time taking in the room. The youth hadn't slept now for days...and though this was normal behavior for him, he felt suddenly drained. Throwing himself down on the bed he didn't even remember the feeling of hitting the matress before he passed out. Darkness. Solitude. Both of these things greeted him with open arms. And with a sigh of fustration for all the days passing before this one simple moment, he slipped away from thought welcoming them as well.

Sorry for any mistakes in spelling or grammer. I tried to double check best I can but right now its five in the morning. xX I just need to get some sleep. But I wanted to give you guys something...let me know if you likes?

Next chapter: Enter Naruto