A/N: Okay. I have no excuse for taking so long to update. So I'm not even gonna bother lying to you people. However, you should be happy with this seeing as it is over 4000 words long, my longest chapter to date. Also it has a lot of important stuff happening in it. Okay so please forgive me for the long wait!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. Nor do I own any other copyrighted material that may or may not be featured in the following.

Warning: Extreme OOCness and crappy attempts at humour and plot development.


Gaara walked through his front door with a large smile on his face. His grandmother was here! He hadn't seen her in almost a year now, the last time she had come to stay they had ended up being kicked out of the mall for inappropriate behaviour and disturbing the peace. He wondered what insanity they would get up to this time...He didn't have to wait long.

"Gaara!" His grandmother shouted as soon as she saw him before pulling him into a hug. "Look! We're having a Mexican-themed month this month! Here's your Sombrero and Maracas!" She exclaimed excitedly, jamming a large hat onto his head and shoving the musical instruments into his hands. Everyone stared at the woman for a few minutes before she cracked up laughing and used the tired old 'V for victory' sign. "Heeheeheehee! I was only pretending to be stupid!" Gaara was the first to start laughing at his grandmother's antics. His sister and brother soon joined him and then another laugh echoed throughout the house. Gaara only then realised that his cousin Sasori was there.

"Sasori!" He yelled and glomped the unfortunate youth. "How long have you been there?!" He jittered, still clinging to the older boy. This was one of the only times Gaara got to express his extroverted tendencies and like hell was he going to miss his chance!

"The entire time, Gaara-chan," Sasori replied with a look of mock hurt. "I can't believe you didn't notice me! You're gonna make me turn emo!" He shouted dramatically and Gaara stopped hugging him with a look of disgust. "No! You have to hug me! I'm an emo, hug me! I need attention! Gaa-chan!!!!" Sasori yelled and began chasing Gaara around the house, every now and then yelling things like: "I need to be NOTICED!!!!" and "I cut myself to feel alive!" or my personal favourite: "There is no god! If there was he'd buy me skinny jeans!"

Eventually, Sasori caught Gaara and tackled him, although Gaara playfully slapped him round the head and said: "Stop crying you little potato!" to which Sasori burst into laughter and collapsed upon Gaara, unable to support himself anymore. After they had all sufficiently recovered from their giggling fits, they got down to the real reason Chiyo-Baachan and Sasori were visiting.

"We'll be visiting the cemetery on the 24th as it's the Saturday closest to the real date. Was the agreement that you could bring a friend this time?" Chiyo asked the teenagers, to which three of them nodded eagerly but Gaara just shrugged; he had no one to invite. Chiyo noticed but decided now wasn't the time to discuss Gaara's social skills. "Alright then, but only someone you truly trust. We don't want anything to go wrong that we can physically stop. So we have 23 days to plan!" Chiyo stopped speaking and the talk returned to lighter subjects like how Ville Valo resembles nothing more than an emaciated wombat. Gaara suddenly felt he needed a shower and so excused himself from the conversation.

As he stepped under the warm jet of water, he felt a great heat wash over him that had nothing to do with the shower. Gaara suddenly noticed he was becoming hard. "What? Again?" Gaara demanded of nothing in particular. Hadn't he masturbated yesterday? This had to be some sort of conspiracy, never had he been this horny all the time! He eventually decided to ignore his penis, hoping against hope that it would calm down. It did and he breathed a sigh of relief and got on with massaging shampoo into his hair.

Gaara felt a lot better after his shower and so went downstairs to see what was for dinner. As he descended the beautiful aroma of butter chicken wafted past his nose, making him speed up his pace. He entered the kitchen to find his grandmother standing in front of a frying pan full of gently bubbling orange liquid full of small lumps of chicken and a steaming pot, presumably full of rice. Gaara walked over to the kitchen table and began to set it, collecting an extra chair from the computer. Gaara always set the table. Always. It was a commemoration to the fact that his mother had trusted him to do that when he was younger. Just because she was gone, shouldn't mean that she couldn't trust Gaara anymore, he would live up to her expectations, even though she wouldn't know. Because that's what morals are, aren't they? The desire to do something because you believe it is right, not to impress others. That's probably where Christianity fails, Gaara thought to himself. People should be good without the promise of Heaven, just because it's the right thing to do.

After dinner, Gaara sat and talked with the others for a while before excusing himself to go draw something. He drew every night; it was his way of calming down to go to sleep. Tonight he just let the pencil take control, allowing himself to be completely absorbed by his drawing, so much so that he stopped thinking. When he was finished an image of Haku was in front of him. He was standing in the middle of a field with one hand outstretched, offering Gaara the gentian flower it gently held aloft. With the other hand he held a basket full of flowers. Gaara stared at the drawing for a few moments. Why did he just draw a picture of Haku? Much less Haku entirely effeminate in a purple Kimono holding flowers. What the hell was up with that anyway?! Gaara sighed and decided he'd worry about it later. Now it was time for him to go to sleep. He pulled himself downstairs to say goodnight to his family before brushing his teeth and getting undressed. He habitually wore a t-shirt and boxers to bed but tonight was far too hot. He decided to forego the t-shirt and just sleep in boxers.

Unfortunately for Gaara, his body was a pervert and seemed to be aroused by his near-nudity. I'm not getting undressed for that Gaara thought to himself. But regardless, his body seemed to have decided that now was the time for either sex or castration. Gaara actually considered the latter option for a few seconds before deciding to hell with it. He grabbed his dick which was now sticking out of the fly in his boxers and began to stroke himself. Without hesitation his thoughts returned to Uchiha Sasuke. He remembered from a while ago when the school was forced to watch the final soccer game of the season, Sasuke had played in white shorts and Gaara had had a nice view of his ass. Using that image as a focus point, Gaara's mind began to do some very perverted things to Sasuke's clothes before moving on to Sasuke himself. Soon after imagining rubbing his cheek teasingly over Sasuke's covered erection, Gaara climaxed and had to fetch tissues from under his bed to clean himself up before drifting easily and quickly into a deep slumber. Go figure.

Gaara was very nervous the next day. He was auditioning for the Dance Club today, along with his second meeting with the guidance counsellor. It was not going to be fun. He half-hoped that he wouldn't make the try-outs or that Hinata would back out; he was only auditioning because he promised her he would. His father had always said that even if a man had nothing else, he could have his honour. Gaara tried to live by that axiom in all aspects of life so he couldn't let Hinata down. However, he really hoped she wasn't as proud as he was...

Once Gaara arrived at school he was in his usual, impassive state of apathy. Or that's what the world saw, but it had taken him years to perfect that well-crafted mask and every so often a crack would form and his true emotions would show, even if only slightly before the crack was repaired and his façade was perfect once more. Gaara was earlier than usual and so sat down on one of the benches placed around the school at regular intervals. To his surprise someone came and sat next to him.

"Good morning, Gaara," Haku's soft voice said quietly and Gaara turned to the feminine boy. Haku nodded encouragingly and Gaara realised he wanted him to say something back.

"Hello," Gaara said awkwardly. "Uh, why are you speaking to me?" Haku laughed at the question, but it wasn't a mocking laugh, it was genuine amusement.

"Because you seem like an interesting person which is more than I can say for most of the idiots around here. And because you never talk. I think that hello was the first word I've ever heard you say to a student. I just think that everyone should have someone they want to talk to, you know?" Haku said with a far away look in his eye before smiling and turning back to Gaara. "Anyway, good luck with the dance try-outs. See you later." And with that, Haku walked away. It was only a few minutes later that Gaara realised that he had never mentioned the dance try-outs to Haku. A shiver ran up his spine so he quickly got up and walked to his first period class. The early morning classes passed horrifically rapidly and so it was with a heavy heart that Gaara went to Art, after break that day. He couldn't concentrate on his painting properly so only did tasks that left no room for creative embellishment.

His thoughts were on what Haku had said to him this morning. That everyone needs someone to talk to, or something like that. He has a terrible memory. But did Gaara have anyone like that? Did he really have anything to talk about? Well, obviously this deserved great reflection so Gaara added it to his things-to-ponder list and put it out of his mind. As Gaara was walking back to his canvas from putting his paints back, he glanced at Haku's picture. Sketched on a white piece of thick paper was the likeness of a field covered in flowers. Each and every flower was perfect and meticulously detailed. In the middle of the field was an outline of a person's decapitated head speared onto the end of a bloody sword supported by a purple ribbon hanging from a sketched tree. From every branch of the tree, a different head was strung in the same manner. It was then that Gaara realised the first head was similar to Haku's own, only older and more feminine. His mother, a voice in his head stated matter-of-factly. Gaara heard a coughing sound from behind him and turned around to see Haku.

"I'd prefer if you didn't look at it until it's finished," He said with a smile but Gaara caught a sense of or else behind Haku's gentle tone. Not wanting to aggravate the boy, Gaara just nodded and finished clearing away his equipment and placing his canvas in the store room to dry. After art was lunch, the moment of reckoning. Hinata approached Gaara and together the two silently walked to room 43.

When they reached the classroom door and Gaara tentatively turned the handle, he noticed two things. The first thing was that the inside of room 43 was unlike any classroom Gaara had ever entered before. With its long, thin rectangular shape, he was reminded of nothing more than a coffin. The two longer sides were covered with mirrors while the short side opposite the door featured a long bar running lengthways along it.

The second was that Akamichi Chouji was inside dancing in front of a desk where two people sat, intently observing his movements. One of them was Haku. The other, a girl with her hair tied in two buns at either side of her head who was tapping her foot and sneering malevolently at Chouji who had finished his dance.

Like a child about to prod a jellyfish with a stick, Gaara mused. He, himself thought Chouji had delivered himself with grace belying his size and so felt sure the boy would be accepted into the club. The girl, however, had other ideas.

"That was pathetic!" She spat at the large youth who stared at her with hurt in his eyes. "You think just anyone can join this club? Don't make me laugh! We don't accept trash like you!" She laughed loudly as if there was nothing more amusing that insulting another person.

"That's enough, Tenten!" Haku said sternly to the girl who gave him a dark look. "I think that Chouji delivered himself amicably and should definitely be involved in the performance this year." Tenten laughed again and looked at Chouji like someone might something unpleasant other end of their shoe.

"You're right. He could always move furniture!" She snickered. Gaara saw that Chouji had tears welling up in his eyes and felt an incredible surge of anger towards the malevolent toad before him. "Aw! Look! Fatboy's crying!" Something in Gaara snapped.

"Shut up!" He yelled at the brunette, who turned to look at him, surprised. "What is wrong with you?!" He demanded glaring fiercely at her. "This boy just tried his best and did very well and all you can do is mock him?!"

"Who the hell are you?" Tenten asked, looking him up and down with a slight sneer. "Wait a second, aren't you that faggot, Gaara, who never talks?" she smirked as if this fact proved Gaara's unworthiness. Gaara just stared back evenly, measuring the situation. "I thought you were a freak who didn't say anything. What, are you in love with fatty over there?" Tenten snorted loudly at this and continued to smile maliciously. "Well, ya little gay cock-sucker, how about you and fatty and freaky-hime over there," She motioned to Hinata who was looking at Gaara with a look of admiration. "Go cry home to your mommy?" That was the last straw for Gaara; no one could make mother jokes against him.

"My mother died several years ago. If you dare insult her memory again, I will do everything in my power to hurt you as much as possible," Gaara replied, teeth clenched and eyes wild. There was a grating sound and everyone turned to see Haku standing up. Tenten smiled once again, this time setting her sights on Haku.

"Oh, that's right. Your mommy's dead too!" She cackled loudly.

"TENTEN!" Haku yelled with a mad look in his eye. "If you do not shut your mouth right now, I will shatter each of your teeth and use the fragments to gouge out your eyes. Is that clear?" He asked, his voice receding in volume but not venom. Tenten just stared at him. "IS THAT CLEAR?!" Haku shouted, turning his terrifying eyes on her once more as he repeated the question with a shout. Tenten meekly nodded and Haku took a deep breath and returned to his usual state of decorum. "Good. Now, Chouji, I think that you would prefer it if you were to work mainly backstage with your friend Shikamaru, is that right?" Haku asked in his normal tone of sweet sophistication.

"Yes, Haku-san," Chouji replied politely and Haku smiled at the boy.

"Lovely. Now, Hinata, Gaara. Ms Yuhi tells me that you are both exceptional dancers and wish to join our club. Would you mind doing a short performance for us so that we can judge you? That'll be perfect, thank you," Haku stated, smoothly moving the topic away from Chouji and over to Gaara and Hinata whilst leaving no room for either to argue against his conditions. Hinata looked slightly fearful and didn't move so Gaara decided he would have to go first. He moved to the place where Chouji had stood a few moments before and began to dance.

Although there was no music, Gaara allowed himself to move in time with a tuneless beat from inside his head. At first, his moves were slightly clumsy but then he just let all his nervousness go and allowed the dance to take control. He used the entire space available to him, performing flips, pirouettes and all manner of dips and motions. When he finally stopped he heard soft clapping and looked up from his position on the ground to see Haku smiling and clapping gently. Gaara sighed; relieved and vacated the space for Hinata to audition.

Hinata breathed deeply for a few moments before moving into a fast-paced dance blending in contemporary and South American styles to form her own unique masterpiece. When she stopped Haku again clapped and motioned the two over. "Alright," he said, a kind smile gracing his feminine features. "You are both now official members of the Dance Club of Konoha High. Welcome! We have to organise and perform in a large stage production this year so it's better now that there're four exceptionally talented dancers. We meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at lunch time to plan and discuss and practice and whatnot. So please convene here again on Friday. That's all, you can go," Haku stated in that manner of his that made people feel like he had complete control over their every thought.

Gaara was surprised to find that there was still 20 minutes lunch-break left and so quickly departed to his tree. However, as he approached, he realised that, again, someone was already sitting there. "Hey," Sasuke said with a smirk. Gaara ignored him completely and sat down on the other side of the wide trunk. "Aw! Don't ignore me, Gaara. You'll hurt my feelings."

"Why do you keep talking to me? Surely your fear that I'll rip out your heart and sacrifice it to some heathen god is greater than your desire to impress your idiotic school chums who obviously dared you to approach me," Gaara responded monotonously, referring to a rumour that had passed through the school previously. Sasuke just gave him a look of slight surprise. "So, what was it? Did you have to come and talk to me? Or earn my trust and then publicly humiliate me? Or perhaps to get me to admit that I'm gay?" Gaara snorted and rummaged in his bag for his tuna sandwich. Sasuke elegantly placed himself next to the redhead.

"It's not a dare," he said quietly as Gaara bit into his sandwich. "Your name is Sabaku no Gaara. You live on number 63 Summerfield Ave, you live with your brother Kankuro and your sister Temari. Every year, your grandmother and cousin Sasori visit you and you all go to the cemetery to see your parents. You always leave a single red rose for your mother and a lily for your father. Your favourite band is Nightwish and you own all of their albums. Your favourite colour is deep crimson. Your favourite food is roast chicken and your favourite drink is sparkling peach juice. Your birthday is on January the nineteenth and you never have a party because you think you aren't important enough to deserve one. I know you Gaara. Does any of that sound like a dare?" Sasuke had been looking at the ground the entire time he was speaking but now he glared at Gaara. "You ignoring me might not hurt, but please do not think of me as some petty, self-centred piece of shit. That may well hurt me. I'll see you later, Gaara."

Gaara stared at the Uchiha's retreating back. He could've sword he had seen tears welling up in the boy's eyes. What the hell was up with that guy?! Now he was making Gaara feel guilty! Fuck! He would not be affected by what Uchiha-bastard said! But regardless of how many times Gaara thought that to himself, he couldn't help but wonder if he really was the one in the wrong in all of this...A tolling chime echoed out across the school, causing Gaara to stand up and walk to Tsunade's office.

Upon reaching the blonde's office, Gaara knocked twice and the door was almost immediately answered by the curvaceous woman. "Gaara! How prompt of you! Please go in and sit down and I'll be with you in a few moments," Tsunade said with a bravado of false cheer before bustling off muttering to herself. Gaara shrugged and stepped into the office, taking his first good look around the rectangular room. He saw two certificates on the wall, stating Tsunade Shodai had a PhD in psychology and a post-graduate diploma in anthropology. He snorted. If she was such a big shot academic, why on Earth was she a school's guidance counsellor?

Gaara walked over to one of the black armchairs situated opposite the dark-green swivel chair that rested behind a dark blue desk. The desk was covered in papers and books in varying stages of disorder. The woman certainly didn't seem particularly organised.

"Sorry about that," Tsunade said, walking over to her chair after closing the door with a decisive click. "So, Gaara, is there anything you feel like talking about today?" Gaara thought for a moment, considering whether he should talk or not. He then felt a dire need to tell someone about Sasuke and Haku and everything that had happened over the last three days. So he did.

"Okay, but just because I'm telling you this doesn't mean I trust you or respect you in any way shape or form," Gaara stated sternly, waiting for Tsunade to nod before continuing. "Well there's this guy, Sasuke, and I kind of like him, yes in that way. Recently he's been talking to me like he likes me like that too and at first I thought it was just a dare or some other idiocy like that but then he said all this stuff about how he's been stalking me. Then he looked really upset and said that if I think he's an arrogant bastard it'll hurt him or something like that. And now I feel really guilty and it's pissing me off!" Gaara stared at Tsunade as he realised that he had just bared his soul to this woman, having only met her twice. Maybe she wasn't such a crappy psychologist after all.

"Hmmm," Tsunade stated thoughtfully before realising that Gaara was on the verge of saying something else. "Oh? Is there more? May as well discuss that too." Gaara nodded and spoke again.

"Well there's this other guy called Haku and he's been really nice to me recently, as if he wants to be my friend. No one ever really talks to me here but he is and now this girl, Hinata, is as well. Then today Hinata and I auditioned for the Dance Club and we got in. Haku was judging the auditions with this girl called Tenten and when we got there, Tenten was being a total cow to this guy, Chouji. I got angry with her and then she started insulting me but then Haku intervened and she insulted him too. Haku got all pissed off after that and Tenten was terrified and he threatened her then we all got on with the auditions. It was strange. And it scares me because I think I kind of want Haku to be my friend," Gaara said rather quickly and gauged Tsunade's reaction. She didn't really do anything but after a few minutes, she started speaking.

"Well, you're a fairly normal teenager as far as psychological analysis goes," She laughed a little at this before continuing more seriously. "I think that you should try to make friends with Haku and Hinata. From what I hear from the other students, they seem like good people. With Sasuke, you should test your boundaries a little. I mean, you're already a social outcast for the most part, what have you got to lose?"

"Gee, thanks," Gaara said sarcastically, but still privately agreed with the woman. The bell rang loudly from outside the door and Tsunade and Gaara both rose.

"Well, Gaara," Tsunade said, clasping her hands together. "It was good to actually talk to you today. Try to take what I've said into account and I'll see you on Friday."

"Bye," Gaara replied shortly. Gaara actually liked that woman, in spite of his curtness.

"Remember not to over-think things!" Tsunade called out to him as he left and he raised one hand in farewell. As he made his way through the throng of students making their sluggish way home. Haku walked up to him.

"Hello, Gaara," Haku said kindly as he fell into step with the redhead. "Mind if I walk with you?" Gaara shrugged and so the two continued in a comfortable silence. After about ten minutes, Haku stopped outside a ridiculously large gate connected by a path of white shells connected to a large mansion. Gaara stared.

"You live here?!" He asked incredulously. Haku just smiled and entered a code onto the small panel of buttons found at shoulder-height on one of the gate's side supports. The gates swung smoothly inwards.

"See you later, Gaara," Haku said as he walked up the shell path to the house. After a few minutes the gates closed again and Gaara continued walking. He couldn't believe that he knew the guy who owned one of the two great mansions of Konoha...


A/N: So that's chapter three! Hopefully there'll be more Sasuke in the next chapter and you'll find out how Gaara's parents died sooon... Okay! So please read and review!

Oh and I made Tsunade's last name First Hokage for obvious reasons.