a desert near Jerusalem

Gaara stood in the midst of the desert sun as he watched the outlying road that the enemy would surely take. His eyes soulfully looked in the surrounding area as he realized that a destructive force would be arriving to sack Jerusalem. His heart sank at the thought; the empty blowing sand showed his feelings. The Fatamid army was prepared but Gaara felt it was not enough to take on the infidel.

"There must be a way to combat the polytheists back to their forest!"

He seemed angry at the defeats that had been dealt to the Turks; after all it was always better to have a known enemy that shared the same faith. Hours went by as Gaara sat in the sand thinking in a pensive state. Suddenly two large red eyes erupted from the ground. With it a toothy grin followed as he heard in a demonic tone.

"What troubles the great defender of Islam? heheheh"

Gaara immediately lifted himself with his sword lifted. He stared in horror at the nightmare he thought left him years ago. His tired eyes swung at the sand flinging it into the air. The thrown sand suddenly took form until it appeared as Gaara himself; only around the age of ten. Nothing seemed odd of the child at this point and soon it began talking getting more angry with each word.

"So...did you believe you could be free of me...the Shaytan of the sand?" Shaytan are Jin (spirits) that have turned evil "How long has it been Holy warrior; since we had our bloody adventures!" The spirit spoke in a sarcastic tone; mocking Gaara.

Flashback

Suddenly Gaara's memory returned to him as he recalled his possession. The day he gained consciousness of self the Shaytan Shukaku used him to do his bidding. He had been a happy child living as the son of a noble in Cairo. His father however was a widower and had bouts of coldness towards his son; leaving him in the care of others and taking long campaigns on purpose. Over the years this isolation led to embiderment; and the embiderment drew the attention of the Shaytan. Out of deceit the spirit plunged into the childs vulnerable mind; cutting into his forehead a blood red symbol for "love" in Arabic. The power and the evil overpowered the child and a bloodlust ran through his veins. Pulling out one of his father's swords the ten year old Gaara ran through the house and slaughtered any servants that came in his way. His mind had been fused with that of the Shukaku; a being once human but now a disgruntled spirit. Now with his mind taken over Gaara had the ability of a swordsman with two hundred years of experience. This however was not the frightening part.

Coming to the courtyard were the peasants worked in the nearby Nile; Gaara observed another power given by the spirit. The sand around him began spinning and rising as if it had a mind of it's own. Walking into the fields he quickly disposed of the peasants, crushing bones with his sand, or hacking limbs with his sword.

Gaara's father returned from a short campaign to see his manor drenched in the blood of his workers. The building was put to siege as a mob formed to kill the possessed child. Teams of highly skilled knights were killed as if nothing by the boy, he'd seep his sand within the openings in the armor and crush them from the inside.

Imam quelled the angry mob and explained to the father of Gaara that he had been possessed by a powerful demon. A exorcism was in order however this would prove impossible with that defensive shield around him.

"What do you suggest then holy Imams?" asked the embarrassed father as he saw the destruction.

"The boy clearly has no control of the demon...though perhaps we can break it's control over the boy. If we succeed truly this will be the finest example of an evil used in the name of good." responded the Imams

"Very well then; I shall speak with my son!" Said Gaara's father as he was handed a sword and shield.

Entering the manor the nobleman found rotting corpses of previous victims; some had sand that filled the entire body and dried the blood. The nobleman's nerve was shaken but not broken as he arrived at the room where his son was. Creaking open the door he heard mumbling inside and once he had opened it he heard his son speaking to himself in the direction of a dried out corpse of their maiden Sarah.

"Sarah...why have you stopped speaking to me? Please won't you talk to me?" Suddenly he turned his head to see his armed father at the door. At first a broken smile came from him as he whispered. "F..father..I" Suddenly the sand around him began to cover his skin until his terrified face was exchanged for a cold cynical mask of sand. His voice changed to one filled with hatred again as he yelled out. "Embrace you son father! So that I may taste your blood!"

Suddenly like a sand storm a wave of sand came at the Noble. However Gaara's father repelled it with his shield as he rolled to the side to reach his son. Pulling out his scimitar Gaara's father slashed at his son's cheek but only cracked the armor of sand.

A mind clash was breaking out in Gaara's mind as he fought to take back his body from this foreign invader. Finally the two sided assault worked as the control the demon had shattered sending him back into the symbol that he embedded on Gaara's head.

Gaara laid to the floor panting as the sand melted off his guilt stricken face. His mentality seemed to return but he dared not come closer to his father for fear that the sand would slay him too. So from a distances father and son sobbed at the freedom and lesson they had learned.

For the remainder of his life Gaara lived in the mosque in Cairo going through daily means of controlling his demon within. The sand did not kill at first sight but seemed to develop into a full time defense mechanism and was in Gaara's full control by age 13. However he knew that the exorcisms did not drive the evil out of him, and so at age 17 he took up arms as a Holy warrior in order to hopefully someday have peace from this curse.

End of flashback

Finishing his thoughts he said lowering his weapon. "So why have you crawled out of your dark corners of my mind?"

The demon changed shape to his original human form; a veil wearing man with sharp eyes as he said. "Your doubt and stress have been like siren calls to me. Heh you always had such a cool mind that I couldn't even get a word in to you, but now with these...Crusaders coming at your doorstep your power over me seems to slip." He walked around Gaara placing his sand created fingers around his face. With a short chuckle he continued.

"Reawaken me in your life and I shall create an assault on them the likes at which they've never seen! I can give you the power to win this war single handedly."

Gaara thought for a moment his mind unease at the reappearance of his demon. His head throbbed as it came closer to him, but he knew that the Shukaku was right and that giving it control would give them a automatic victory. Stepping back Gaara then said. "And what of after the battle? Am I to believe you will crawl back to the darkness and trouble me no more?"

Gaara gripped his sword and soon his sand rose as well as he said while slashing at the image of his demon. "No, I am in control from now on; and I will never let you free." The slash seemed to work as the sand image of the Shukaku disappeared and his mind finally relaxed again. However the mental exhaustion was too grave as he fell down only keeping to his knees with his sword. The sand rose too cushion him as he collapsed in the sand. He whispered to himself. "I am a Holy warrior..." and for once a smile appeared on Gaara's face as he closed his eyes to sleep under the deadly Arabian sand.

Luckily his sibling arrived just twenty minutes after his collapse after learning of his disappearance. Temari was the first to find Gaara in the sand as she and Kankuro lifted him up. The sand seemed to not attack either of them; proving that even at such a weak state Gaara maintained control.