DISCLAIMER--Unfourtunately I do not own Naruto or any of the characters associated with him.
When he finally made it to his room, Gaara surveyed the damage in front of his full length mirror. His left cheek was slightly swollen, and there was a light bruise forming on his cheekbone. His right wrist had bruises in the shape of fingerprints wrapping around it, and his left shoulder was bruised, with a cut in the center of the bruise. His right side already had dark bruises forming on the swollen flesh. The colors went from red to a purple so dark it was almost black. Gaara turned around, and twisted his head so he could see his back in the mirror. It was by far the worse out of all of his injuries. There were welts going up and down his back. Some of them were bleeding, and there were bruises everywhere.
Gaara glanced at the clock and cursed. There was no time to stop the bleeding. The bus would be here soon. He hastily put black eyeliner thickly around his eyes, and threw on a black shirt, hissing when the fabric touched his back. At least the blood wouldn't show very well on the black. He changed his pants, and put on his wristbands to hide the bruises on his wrist. He grabbed his binder and math book and left the house before his father decided that he needed to be punished for something else.
He reached the end of the street and breathed a sigh of relief. Even running late, he still managed to be the first one to arrive. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see Temari and Kankuro approaching the bus stop. Kankuro looked anywhere but at him, and Temari looked at him with guilty, pity filled eyes. "Gaara…"
"Don't worry about it," he interrupted her, a little too gruffly. He really couldn't stand the pity. She looked away from him, and he thought that he saw tears gathering in her eyes. He knew that she regretted what she said, and he couldn't really blame her for saying it, but the words still echo over and over in his head. Who would help a monster like you? Monster, monster, monster! Gaara shook his head, and turned away from his siblings.
Other students started trickling up to the bus stop. Gaara ignored them all. He was not in the mood to talk to anyone today. At least Naruto wasn't here. The hyperactive blond would probably try to force him to talk. He got a headache just thinking about Naruto.
Before long the bus pulled up. Everybody filed on, still talking and laughing with their friends. Gaara plopped down in a seat in the middle of the bus. He leaned his head on the back of the chair and breathed in deeply, thankful that for once the seat next to him was unoccupied. The stupid blond normally sat there and talked his ear off the way to school.
The bus driver was about to close the doors when shouts of "Wait! Wait for me!" came drifting through the air. A breathless Naruto came flying through the doors. He grinned sheepishly at the bus driver, then walked down the aisle and plopped down next to Gaara and immediately started talking a mile a minute. Gaara groaned and cursed under his breath. He was not in the mood to deal with Naruto today. He spent the rest of the bus ride grumbling under his breath. Temari, who was sitting behind him, chuckled with amusement. Naruto was completely oblivious to the mumbled phrases coming from the redhead in the seat next to him. "Stupid blond….too damn hyper….needs to learn how to shut up…why me?!...."
