Hey guys! Now that I'm almost finished with this first story, there will be a continuation and again, it will also be based off on the original series. But mostly, I will be writing the plot twists about this pairing. Anyway, please read & review this chapter! Enjoy :)

CHAPTER 26: TWO SIDES OF GAARA

Sakura skimmed her eyes over the curse seal that was consuming Sasuke's body. "He must've fought out of control like that. But Kakashi-sensei said that the mark was taken care of! I don't understand." She said in mind, perplexed.

"Sa-sakura... Sakura!" Naruto called out without looking behind him.

"I know!" Sakura gritted her teeth worriedly and thought. "There's got to be another way out of this."

"You... you're the one I failed to kill at that time," Gaara remembered the blonde-haired kid, who recognized his dark, sunken eyes and his words being spoken to him. "I'd figured that maybe now, I can go for it instead of waiting." He started flexing his beast claw and watches Naruto attack after summoning his multi-shadow clone jutsu.

"Ahh!" He collided his fists and kicks with the beast claw but got swung back hard on the branch. He threw many shurikens and kunai knives with bomb tags attached to them. "Take this!"

Gaara held his beast claw up for a defense shield. There was only a small effect on it which crumbled the sand into pieces. But it regenerates back into the same form that made his smirk widened maliciously at Naruto's fearful expression. His tail began to swing across his direction, yet he missed him.

One of the tree branches broke off with a thud onto the ground while Naruto jumps off to create a plan in his mind. "This guy... just what does he intend to do? Killing people off to make him feel alive and strong? Tsch... He's insane. If only I could somehow get through to him... Wait! That's it." An idea popped into his head when he remembered what he had learned during his training with Jiraiya. Days of mastering the jutsu with a bit of struggles, he finally endured to what he knew what was coming towards his opponent.

"Well! Are you going to fight me or do you want to get preyed on?!" Gaara growled and reminded himself. "I am to become the strongest shinobi. I was born to be a monster."

Naruto closed his eyes to concentrate on his chakra and made a few hand signs, indicating a technique that is about to be perform. "This got to work."

Gaara suddenly had his head throbbing in pain as he begins to have a few flashbacks from his past. He grunted deeply and dropped down to his knees, screaming in agony and causing Naruto to defer his technique, much to the others' astonishment.

FLASHBACK:

A fit of cute giggles echoed through the high top mountains on a bright, sunny day where young Sakura is watching her redheaded best friend performing different shapes and forms of animals in awe. She gasped in delight and her eyes moved around the sand.

"Do it again. Do it again." she said eagerly with a smile and clapping for more.

"Okay," he made a sand eagle that was floating in mid-air, giving a fresh breeze until it dissolves down.

"Awww... can you try the raccoon?" Young Sakura asked excitedly while sitting diligently on the rock.

Young Gaara stared blankly at her for a moment, closing his eyes and looked away. "Well... It's not possible."

"Why not?" She asked curiously.

"I might hurt you," he answered quietly and continued. "You know how it will turn out to be."

"I see... But it's just you making different forms of your sand. There's no way it would affect me that badly," she pointed out.

"It's not that easy," he approached to sit down beside her on the rock as they looked at the view. "I can only make any kind of animal, except that because once I've made it, I'll get consumed by the beast's power inside me." He looked down as he started fidgeting his fingertips lightly with the sand.

"You don't have to be ashamed of that power. It may not be the best thing that anyone can have. Though, I can assure you that you're in control of it and you can decide whether you want to use it for good or for the worse. I understand what you're going through, but I can help, you know," she stated simply while watching the two birds fly by in the sky. "You see those birds up there?"

"Yeah," he said surprisingly. "They're always together."

Young Sakura giggled and said. "It means that they have a connection. A strong connection as loved ones. Pretty amazing, huh?"

"My first time seeing them here," he said softly. "There's not much of any creatures in this village anyways."

"Really? Well now, you do. Just by looking at those birds, they remind me of my parents since they care and support one another during rough times. Other days, they get into some petty arguments and sometimes, they get into a deep, serious conversations about work. In the end, they still love each other," she said positively.

"Love?" He repeated in mind as his cheeks tinged pink. He recalled to what his uncle had said to him one night. "Of course."

Young Sakura glanced at him and asked. "How about you? What do they remind you of?"

Young Gaara thought sadly and replied. "No... nobody."

"What do you mean?" She asked in wonder.

"My parents once had that. But right before I was born, my father had placed a beast inside my mother's womb in order to save the village. As a result after she gave birth to me, I killed her in the process," he explained quietly and ashamed.

"Don't ever feel guilty or even blame yourself for your mother's death. It wasn't your fault and neither is your father's," she said slowly and placed her hand on his for assurance. "Don't dwell on what you cannot change in the past. But you can control on what is in the present."

Young Gaara curtly nodded and his lips curled halfway. "Thank you. It's just I can't help but feel like this sometimes."

Young Sakura understood this and said enthusiastically. "I know. But don't worry, everything that happened back then is over. As your friend, I want you to look forward to something better. Some of the good and new things that you will want to remember for the rest of your life and never forget. Okay?"

Young Gaara smiled and took her advice by heart. "Right. Oh speaking of which, I'm getting a bit hungry. Do you want to buy some dumplings or sushi?"

Young Sakura placed her finger to think and decided out loud. "Sushi."

He chuckled and grabbed her hand. "Okay. Let's go." They ran back down from one of the top of the mountains cheerfully.

Later on, they were standing outside the food shop, eating and chewing happily and peacefully. Young Gaara noticed that his two siblings were surrounded in a circle by a group of teenagers, mocking them.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at the members ganging up on them.

Young Sakura looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened in shock. "Oh my. Wait, before we do that, we should think-"

Young Gaara didn't listened to her as he started making his way towards the bullies with confrontation.

"Dude, I don't get why you have a purple paint on your face. Are you a girl or something? You should try joining one of those beauty pageants instead of becoming a ninja. They suit you," one of the big spiky-haired guys snickered as the others started laughing at him.

Temari said defensively. "Well maybe you should look in the mirror and see how much of a douchebag you really are, you twat. You can't even pick up a good fight."

The big spiky-haired guy stopped laughing and glared at her threateningly. "Why you-" He picked up a rock and throw it against her.

Luckily, the sand came up to build a wall in front of them, catching everyone's attention on the young red headed boy. They whispered quietly to each other and muttered under their breath as they looked at him in fear.

"It's that kid," one of them exclaimed.

"Our young brother. You got problem with that?" Kankuro asked protectively.

"Ugh. Why do we even bother? We don't want to get murdered by a monster," The big spiky-haired guy told his gang to leave before things get out of hand. They agreed to do so, not wanting to get into so much trouble.

Kankuro tried to hurl himself at him, but Temari prevented him from trying to punch the guy.

"Hey. It's alright. I'm used to it," young Gaara muttered.

"Used to it? You're giving them want they want. It's not right, Gaara," Kankuro pointed out towards them walking away to go somewhere else. "You have to stand up to them somehow."

Young Gaara was about to say something, but young Sakura came beside him and said.

"Violence is not the answer," she quoted wisely.

"Yeah, she's right. What good does it do? They're not gonna change their minds unless they experience something that they've never been through before," Temari stated and continued on. "But it depends on the person whether they understand how the other is feeling or not. It's all up to the level of their perception."

Kankuro sighed tiredly and said. "Whatever, man. I'm worn out today from training. I need something to eat."

"Here," young Sakura gave him the leftovers from earlier.

He took it and politely said. "Thanks, pinky."

"Pinky?" She squawked at him and laughed. "You need to come up with a good nickname or I will smack you."

"Oh, please do. I've been wanting to have someone to do that," Temari said chuckling at Kankuro's annoyed expression.

"Jeez," he murmured as he continued to shove the sushis in his mouth.

"Come on. Father is probably asking us to do some responsibilities in the house. Otherwise, we'll get punished for not taking care of them properly. We'll see you later, Gaara. Have a good night, Sakura. Enjoy, you two," Temari waved her hand at them, along with Kankuro, who keeps chewing noisily.

Young Gaara and Sakura laughed non-stopped as he and Temari head back home while they watched them disappear from a distance. They stood for a moment of silence till one of them spoke.

"So... what do you want to do?" She asked.

"Hm. I want to see your abilities," he said, looking forwardly.

"They need more improvement but I'll show you how they are for now," she shrugged off and began to walk. "Let's go someplace private, so we don't disturb other people working around here."

"Alright," he said as he followed her.

END OF FLASHBACK

After the events of Sakura and her parents' visit and departure, leaving Gaara empty and lonely in his state of well-being, Kankuro and Temari had been trying to find ways to help him out of his misery. But they end up getting no good results coming from their younger brother who indirectly told them coldly that he does not want to get involved with their pointless activities. He prefers to remain isolated from almost everything and everyone in the village. Since then, he starts to crave and lust for blood when it comes to getting assigned on any missions. Times where he goes off on a killing spree because he feels like he needs it to make him have a purpose to why he exists on living. Yet, Kankuro and Temari had strongly disagree with his decision, but there is a part of them where they understood his situation based on what had happened with him and their uncle Yashamaru. Words and actions can totally change the person entirely for once, physically and mentally. But one thing for sure is that they never know if Sakura really betrayed Gaara or not.

Another one of the flashbacks appeared on his mind.

FLASHBACK:

"Ugh. Temari. Hurry up. Baki is waiting us at the entrance. We've been late for 10 minutes," Kankuro knocked hastily on the bathroom door.

"Okay," she slid the door open quickly and puffed out with a heavy sigh and brought out her big fan beside her. "Wow. I'm so not ready for this."

"Yes, you are. You've been training your ass off so hard almost every single day of the week," he said assuringly. "It may be our first time. But we'll get the hang of it."

"Hmph. Sure," she said sarcastically and said. "What are we waiting for? Let's get going."

Unaware of Gaara's third eye that was floating up at the very corner of the ceiling, they slammed the door shut closed and locked it safely without noticing it.

Both of them left the house and assumed that Gaara had already arrived there with their sensei.

For a few minutes later, they finally reached them and noticed how slightly annoyed Baki was for waiting.

"You kids should be thankful that I have enough patience. Next time, come early or else, I will sue you. Got that?" He said in a dull tone of his voice and received a nodding of agreement from them, whereas Gaara didn't seem to care nonetheless while crossing his arms as usual. "Good."

As they began their journey throughout the desert, Kankuro and Temari walked beside each other and discussed in a silent, low conversation about last night's one of the rampages that occurred. They stayed behind Baki and Gaara who were in front of them while they travel across a different land for a couple of hours.

"Is it normal for him to act this way?" Kankuro asked in a whisper and continued on. "Because what happened last night, it woke up the entire neighbourhood and a few of the citizens wouldn't stopped knocking on our doors and telling us when he will calm himself down."

"What do you expect? He's not the same as he used to. Quiet Frankly, it is frightening to see him go off on a killing innocent people at nighttime," she said pitifully.

"Just as I fear," Kankuro muttered. "That demon beast can really take control of a person's life and they have to deal with it."

"Precisely, but how do you supposed that we get to talk to Sakura one day? She can give us an clear explanation," Temari suggested.

"Sakura?" Kankuro repeated out loud, causing Gaara to stop and glared at their direction, giving a sand dust to his eyes harshly. "Ahhhh! What the hell!" He collapsed down to his knees and rubbed them off of his eyes that was affecting him.

"Gaara! Enough! There's no point of attacking your own teammate, especially a sibling," Baki lectured sternly. "We do not want a blind person fighting in a battle."

Temari checked up on Kankuro to see if his eyes were okay and hissed softly. "I told you not to mention her name loudly before. What did I tell you? Here, luckily I brought an extra pack of eyedrops for you to use." She shook her head as she looked at his younger brother, walking away and resumed without looking back at them unsympathetically.

Kankuro and Temari realized that Gaara has been eavesdropping at them secretly, using his Third Eye. So they decided that it is best not to have conversations between them because they knew that they were being watched and heard by him anyways. Better yet, staying silent without breaking off with a single word was the best thing as they continued for the rest of their journey.

END OF FLASHBACK

Back in the present time...

Naruto and the others were carefully observing Gaara's behavior and noticed that his state of well-being began to worsen.

Temari's eyes glittered nervously back and forth towards his half beast form. "His memories are probably jogging up on his brain." She thought concernedly.

Naruto continues to perform his technique, using his multi-shadow clone jutsu to create a spherical shape of blue chakra.

Sakura couldn't help but feel that fighting Gaara would be a terrible idea. She had to figure out a way to stop his madness. But what? What is his weakness?

NEXT CHAPTER: THE BROKEN PROMISE