Like Father Like Son
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Yuki smiled as he looked down at his extremely clean body and his new clothes. He touched the small jar of sand on the chain around his neck for reassurance, and headed out of his room. He hadn't even been here for a day and he already knew that he loved it here. He just had to be careful around Gaara. He still wasn't sure. Trust didn't come naturally to him. How could it with a father like that? He wasn't very good at making friends, either.
"Yuki?" He turned to see a woman with sandy hair in four buns walking up the stairs, an extremely large fan strapped to her back. She smiled kindly. "Hey, you can call me Aunt Temari. I'm Gaara's sister. I thought you could use a little feminine companionship. Hai?" She smiled again, but stayed where she was, having talked to Gaara about him already.
Yuki looked tentatively at the fan and nodded. He slowly took a step toward her, and she moved to the side of the stairs to get out of his way. He sprinted past her and down the stairs, accidentally knocking down one of the pictures on his way. He stopped and stared at the cracked glass, and then heard the footsteps coming from the kitchen. He immediately fell back on the ground and covered his face with his arms. He started shaking violently, scared stiff of what was going to happen.
He heard the footsteps stop, but kept his eyes closed, waiting for the first punch. "I'm not going to hurt you, Yuki. It was an accident, that's all. Don't worry." Yuki looked over his arms, and saw Gaara kneeling next to the picture frame, cleaning up the glass. He couldn't stop shaking, but put his arms down to support his weight. The picture was of the sandy hai- Aunt Temari and the guy with hair shaped like a pineapple.
"I-I-I'm s-sorry." He looked down, and kept on shaking. Gaara looked up at him, and saw his shaking, guessing that he was frightened. He tried to think of a way to get him to calm down. He thought as he cleaned the remains of the picture. When he looked up at his son once more, he saw the jar of sand around his neck. This gave him an idea.
"I think…we have another picture frame in the basement. Want to go and look with me?" Yuki looked up at Gaara's smiling face, and apprehensively nodded. "Hey, Temari, can you clean up the rest of this?"
"Yeah! Oh, we're leaving at 6 for the rehearsal dinner, okay?" Gaara quickly looked at his watch. 3:00.
"Hai." He smiled at Yuki and motioned for him to follow. Yuki quickly scrambled up and followed Gaara. He made sure not to bump into anything in case he broke that too. Gaara led him to a door at the end of the hallway that was painted a deep gray. They walked down a set of spiral staircase, opened a door, and stepped into a large, almost empty room, painted red and black. In the center of the room was a narrow box that stretched from one end of the room to the other, right down the middle. The box was covered by a long piece of cloth, and Yuki's curiosity burned.
"Want to know what's in it?" Yuki looked up at his father, and nodded slowly. "Go ahead and open it." Before the words had finished leaving his mouth, Yuki was sprinting toward the box, desperately wanting to know what was in it. He knelt down next to the box, and lifted the cloth up and peeked underneath. Seeing what was in the box he threw off the cloth. His eyes widened as he saw at least 1,000 pounds of sand. Pure white sand, that was cool at the touch. He made a few grains rise and chase each other. He grinned as he made them do flips and spirals through the air.
He stood and got more sand in the air, moving his arms about, smoothly and slowly, making complex designs. Gaara's smile grew and grew with every new thing that his son did. While he had his mother's byakugon, he had his father's sand ability. Who knew it was genetic?
He created sculptures and paintings. He was the artist, and for the first time in his life, Yuki was happy.
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Three hours later, father and son trudged up the stairs, exhausted but happy. Yuki's fingers tingled with the excitement of it all. A sand arena, in his own house! He could play with sand all day of he wanted! All day. He had never had all day before. He either sat in his room, afraid, or he was with his father.
He shuddered at the thought. Gaara noticed, but didn't say anything, not wanting to pry. To be honest, Gaara was frustrated. He wanted his son to trust him. To love him. But he knew it would take time, and now he was glad that he had shown him the Sand Theatre. Maybe he could teach Yuki how to harness his powers.
When they got top the top of the spiral stairs, they heard 'Aunt' Temari screaming at them through the locked door. "GAARA NO SOBUKO YOU COME UP HERE THIS INSTANT AND UNLOCK THIS DOOR!" Bang, bang, bang. "WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!!"
Gaara smiled sheepishly and opened the door. There stood a fuming Temari, looking as though she was going to take off their heads. Yuki's chest clenched with fear, having seen that look in her eyes before, and his smile disappeared. He took a step back, forgetting where he was. He fell down the stairs hitting his head a few times, and coming to a crash landing 20 steps down.
"YUKI!" Gaara sprinted down the stairs two at a time, and rushed to Yuki's side. "Are you okay, where does it hurt?" Gaara saw the blood dripping down his face, and scooped him into his arms. He felt Yuki freeze in his arms, but kept on going.
He rushed past a worried Temari and into the kitchen. He set Yuki down carefully on the counter and flung open one of the cupboards. He grabbed the med kit and turned back to the boy. Yuki was shaking in fear again, and looked like he was going to cry. Gaara set the med kit down next to him and opened the lid. When he looked back up, Yuki had closed his eyes, too afraid to look.
He patted the cotton ball drowned in alcohol on the cut. Yuki flinched, but then realized what was happening. He wasn't getting hurt. He opened his eyes and saw Gaara pick up the bandages out of the box. He had never seen a box like it before. It was completely white with a red cross on the lid. Gaara started to wrap the bandages around his head and he slowly began to calm down, realizing that he was helping him.
Gaara felt the boy's shaking subside, and got a small happy feeling inside. He tied the bandages off and smiled. "There. How does that feel?" He looked at Yuki who looked up at him with his beautiful eyes.
"Thank you."
Gaara smiled and helped Yuki down from the counter, and as he put away the med kit, he thought with a chuckle, he's so much like his mother.
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AN- YEAH! SAND!! I thought that since he had the byakugon from his mother, he should get something else from his father. Oh, just FYI, if anyone guesses whose getting married at the wedding, I'll give them a virtual cookie!!
