Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Gaara was one to look down upon those who loved and those who could love in return. He looked down upon them because he thought it was a weakness. "That is nothing to be admired," he would say to bring them down. Normally he would succeed, but when he met Naruto, he met his match. There was nothing he could say that would throw this boy off.

They both had been on the same path and yet they both ended up on two different roads at the end. One was rewarded with laughter and friendship; the other was banished to live in his corrupted thinking. He soon adjusted and was met with many adversaries, just like Naruto. Both of them defeated them, only Naruto came out learning something in the end. Gaara didn't benefit, only Shukaku did. It was a mistake to leave Gaara to his ways where he wasn't reprimanded. He was only encouraged to kill for the sake of living; if anyone wanted to, no one dared. They were all afraid of him.

He didn't care; he wanted their fear and their blood, but once it became apparent that he was being gypped out of a life. He wanted out of this deal with the beast, but fate, body and soul bound him. There was nothing he could do because this occurred before he was born—the binding that would eventually destroy him.

His father didn't want a child, but a machine.

Then he wanted him dead. There was no way that Shukaku would have Gaara die so soon, because he was needed to finish the prerequisites for Shukaku's new life—a life that would cause Gaara's death.

He continued living as though it were for himself, but he was living for two if even that many. The game had to be set right and it was. It was played brilliantly to the "T" and Gaara was blissfully unaware and by blissfully, he was maliciously unaware of the tumor growing on his soul…

There was nothing that could have stopped it from spreading and once it exposed itself, Gaara was gone, forever trapped in its shadow. No one feared this day, but prayed for it. Naruto was the only one who didn't want to see him disappear because he understood having a demon in his body, but he didn't understand what it was to have the demon be a parasite. Gaara was ill-fated from the beginning and now he is considered to be too young to be one of the deceased. The hand that extended out to him to help was the hand to deal that fatal blow. It wasn't as though Naruto had a choice, but he wish he had.

How he wish he had more time to decide, to react…and to just…

Help.

The darkness he embraced now choked him into submission. His mistake was that he never enjoyed the liveliness Naruto showed him or… He did. That was the one time—the final time—he ever heard his own heart beat. Yes… That one time separated by time and space was what made him feel alive.

The precious sound of his own beating heart actually set him free.