"You will be attending the Chūnin Exams being held in Konoha next week."

Gaara stared at his father, expression implacable. Beside him, but still several feet away, his older sister Temari and older brother Kankurō exchanged brief glances. "For what purpose?" Temari asked. When the Kazekage's eyes – black, analytical, piercing – shifted to her, she added with exaggerated politeness, "Kazekage-sama."

The leader of the Hidden Sand Village let out a curt 'hm'. "We have fallen out of favor with the daimyō and are suffering for it. Where Sunagakure was once a thriving, representative metropolis of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, we are now in decline. An opportunity has presented itself for us to reestablish our legacy, and it begins with infiltrating the Chūnin Exams."

"What do you wish us to do?" Kankurō asked. His father's gaze swiveled to him, and he swallowed and added, "Kazekage-sama."

"You only need to pass. Do you think you can manage that?" he posed, a bite of condescension in his voice.

Gaara became the sole target of his father's stare as his siblings murmured their assent. Teal eyes met black, no shred of emotion reflected in either pair. After several moments of unyielding silence, the Kazekage stated coolly, "You will be required to obey this directive, Gaara. I will not ask again."

"…I will go." Suna's leader stared at him, but Gaara did not yield like his siblings, refusing to tack on the man's title. He'd long ago lost the capacity to fear his father – to feel anything, really – in the explosion that had taken Yashamaru's life. Every successive assassination attempt had only further dulled those feelings.

Eventually, the older man gave up on trying to silently pressure his youngest's subservience, offering a thin-lipped smile to his children. It didn't reach his eyes. "With this mission, you will finally prove your worth to Sunagakure." Dark eyes flicked over to the redhead. "Especially you, Gaara. Your purpose will finally be fulfilled."

-l-l-l-

For once in his life, Gaara spent most of the night staring at something other than the moon above him. Instead, his gaze remained on the small gemstone Rōshi had given him – a garnet, the Iwa-nin had called it – allowing the moonlight to glimmer along its scarlet surface, feeling its sharp edges with hands unused to the sensation of touch.

Rōshi had said the color was like his hair, but the Suna-nin was reminded more of blood, freshly spilt, seeping through the porous makeup of his sand and saturating the silica in his gourd; of the red rivulets that had run down his own chest from where Uchiha Sasuke had injured him, hurting him in a way no one else ever had.

Vaguely, the Suna-nin became aware of the lightening sky around him as night changed to dawn. When he was young, Yashamaru would sometimes join him on the roof of their home and comment on the beauty of the sunrise over the Hidden Sand Village. He hadn't understood at the time, and no one else had been able to teach him after his uncle's failed assassination-cum-suicide, so over the years, each new sunrise had just become the announcement of another day in which he would try to prove his existence.

Now he wondered if he'd been wrong to dismiss his uncle's words; as wrong as his views on how to be strong.

"Fū! Just wait, please!"

Gaara looked down to spy to a dark-haired figure dressed in light blue catch up to a slight person with mint green hair who stood in the middle of the courtyard. When they were next to each other, they began conversing too quietly for the redhead to hear. Fū eventually shouted, "They've already judged us-ssu!"

Her head swiveled suddenly to meet Gaara's teal eyes, and he couldn't decipher the full tumult of emotions in her gaze, though anger was clear; Naruto's face had looked similar whenever he'd started arguing against Gaara's worldview on their mission, and the redhead had eventually connected the emotion to the facial expression.

The figure beside Fū noticed that she was no longer paying attention, and a second gaze looked up to find Gaara staring back. With her companion's attention gone, the green-haired girl dashed away, fleeing for refuge in a separate part of the compound. By the time the blue-clad person noticed, Fū was long gone.

Instead of giving chase, the dark-haired figure jumped up to the roof, mimicking the same motions Rōshi had taken the night before. Gaara turned to face his new companion, though he remained silent, allowing the male brunet to make the first move. A single golden eye scrutinized the redhead from head to toe, momentarily pausing on the hitae-ate tied wrapped around the belt holding his gourd on his back. "You're…Gaara, right? The Ichibi Jin—container."

"Hn."

"Sorry, I don't really know anything about you aside from your name and your…status."

"Status?"

"You know, being a…Jinchūriki," he whispered. Gaara stared silently at him, and the brunet elaborated, "Fū doesn't react well to hearing…what we are, so I'm trying to stop saying it. That term, Jinchūriki…it's not wrong necessarily, but it could be construed as…offensive. We've been hurt enough by others that engaging in self-harm isn't exactly constructive."

"…Self-harm?"

"You know, hurting ourselves? Just because others have poor opinions of us doesn't mean that we should sustain their beliefs."

Gaara continued to stare at the other male, expression blank. "You are very different from Rōshi," he decided.

The brunet grinned a little. "Is that a bad thing? I think that's better than the alternative. I'm Utakata, by the way."

"You are Naruto's other…friend."

"Is that what he told you?"

Gaara thought the older boy looked…happy? "Yes."

"That's good." He fell silent, seemingly unsure of what to say next. Gaara turned away from him and looked over the ground below, absently scanning the area for Fū. He was almost…curious…how she had known where he was when he'd done nothing to give himself away; the villagers of the Hidden Sand had always been more interested in staying away from him than seeking him out, and to find someone who searched for him was…unusual.

Naruto had been the first in quite a long time.

"So I guess you and Naruto are friends, too, huh?"

Gaara turned back to the brunet, blinked once, and then turned away again. "No."

"No?" That sounded like…surprise. "Then…why are you here?"

"I failed to kill him. Jiraiya freed me from prison. We found Tsunade and then returned here."

"That's…uh…I'm not sure I understand. Could you maybe provide a little more detail?"

"Yo, kid!" Jiraiya was standing below them, looking sprier than his five decades would suggest, and was cheerily waving one hand up at the two of them. "Come on down, we've got things to discuss!"

"Sure," Utakata replied. "Give me—"

"No no, not you. I want Gaara."

"Oh." Again, there was a note of what the redhead guessed to be surprise in the brunet's voice. "I guess I'll just…leave you to it then."

Gaara ignored the older Jinchūriki, instead rising to his feet and jumping down to the courtyard, maintaining a healthy distance from Jiraiya. The Sannin motioned with his head to the inside of the complex, and Gaara followed him, their steps unhurried. He was led into a room lined with filled bookshelves, a large wooden table set at its center.

Tsunade stood next to the table; Rōshi was tucked into one corner of the room, arms folded over his chest. Jiraiya walked over to the Hokage and motioned to the lone piece of furniture. "Alright, kid, it's your turn," he said. "Hop on up."

Gaara obeyed with meticulous slowness, liberating himself from both the white sash and tan belt that crossed his body in an 'x' from shoulder to hip, the gourd he carried on his back falling with the belt. His posture straightened at the sudden loss of weight, and the redhead found himself fixated by the discarded objects with an unknown feeling. He'd carried the burden of his gourd for so long, using the sand within – Mother's sand – to prove his existence, that to willingly divest himself of it was…strange.

But if he was trying to be stronger than the person he was before he'd met Naruto, maybe it was better this way.

"Gaara?"

The redhead looked up to find both Sannin looking at him, Jiraiya's expression more concerned than the blonde's. Tone cautious, the older man probed, "Everything okay?"

"Yes." He hoisted himself onto the table, laying supine at Tsunade's direction. All was quiet as she ran hands glowing with green chakra over him. From his periphery, he could see Jiraiya scribbling ink on the walls in patterns beyond the Suna-nin's comprehension. Eventually, the older man put away his writing instruments and held his hand up to the squiggles. The markings spread along the walls, ceiling, and floor at his touch, forming an interconnected matrix of glowing blue glyphs throughout the room.

"Well, there's nothing physically wrong with him," Tsunade eventually announced. The sound of shuffling papers made its way to Gaara's ears, and he returned his attention to the female Sannin. "These reports say he's never been injured on a mission, and he's apparently completed a B-rank solo, so I guess that makes sense."

"Sounds like a Jinchūriki ter me," Rōshi commented dryly.

"Hm. I'm more concerned about this psych evaluation that was done while we had him incarcerated. Narcissistic, socio- and psychopathic tendencies, bloodthirsty, not to mention a political prisoner of war… Jeez, Jiraiya, why the hell would you ever vouch for him?"

"Because if Naruto had been in the room, he would've."

"Aye, but th' brat ain't th' sharpest rock."

"You didn't see them together when we were searching for Tsunade," Jiraiya rebutted. "Gaara's learning to be normal."

"Jinchūriki ain't normal!" Rōshi argued.

"I already regret this," Tsunade muttered. Louder, she announced, "Okay, enough. I have actual responsibilities to get to, and we're here for a reason."

"Ah, right. Good point, hime." Jiraiya approached the table and stood directly in Gaara's field of vision. "Gaara, I'm going to check your seal now."

"I assumed," the Suna-nin intoned.

"Yes, well, this is not gonna be as easy as Tsunade's evaluation just was. See, when I stopped you before, I applied a Gogyō Fūin."

"That is why I lack power."

"It is a nifty little trick," Jiraiya said, sounding pleased with himself. More soberly, he continued, "The problem is, I can't properly check your seal without removing the Gogyō Fūin. And that'll probably hurt."

"Hurt…" Gaara repeated, testing the word. "I will be…in pain?" Naruto had said he would be able to heal the pain the Suna-nin felt, yet now he was being told he would have to endure more.

Jiraiya looked…sad? "Unfortunately yes. Given your history, we're taking precautions, but we don't know what to expect once I undo the seal. Can't say I've ever had to use this trick on a Jinchūriki before."

The redhead was quiet for a long moment, musing over what the Sannin had told him. "Very well."

"Okay," Jiraiya agreed. He nodded to Rōshi, who approached the table, and to Tsunade, who stood near the boy's feet. The Iwa-nin twisted his fingers through seals, and lava bubbled to life within his palms. He approached the younger redhead's left side, cupping his hands over his wrist until a band of shiny black obsidian strapped the limb to the table. He repeated that for the Sand shinobi's other wrist and both ankles, flat teal eyes watching his every movement. When all four limbs were restrained, Rōshi moved to stand opposite Jiraiya, molten globules no bigger than an apple in each hand. He nodded at the Sannin.

Jiraiya rubbed his hands together. "Alright, kid, we're about to get started. Friendly reminder, this will probably hurt. A lot. But we're on your side, and we're doing this to make sure you're okay. Okay?"

"Yes."

"Alright then." The fingertips of his right hand glowed blue with chakra; Gaara could barely make out kanji within each chakra flame before the white-haired man plunged his hand into the boy's stomach.

Power flooded Gaara's veins as the Five Elements Seal came undone, and for a second, he remembered what it felt like to be strong.

Then the strength morphed into something ugly, and Gaara screamed, a high-pitched, ear-piercing howl. Streams of sand rose from his body, his Armor of Sand cracking and becoming patchwork as it was used to create the fine tendrils of silica.

"Rōshi!"

"Aye, I see 'em!"

"PAIN!"

It was like Uchiha Sasuke had shoved his lightning-covered fist into every cell of his body, but this time there was no entry wound, no blood, just an unending agony that was magnitudes worse than anything he'd felt before. He shouted for Mother, trying to find a tether of familiarity to cling to—

"LET ME OUT, LET ME OUT, FREEE MEEEE!"

Mother was shrieking, a white-hot knife stabbing repeatedly into his brain and setting his ears ringing. He screamed again, louder, longer, but it still couldn't drown out the sound of Mother's unceasing wails for freedom, for blood, for mayhem—

"Gogyō Fūin!"

Gaara gasped soundlessly when a weight struck his stomach, voice depleted from screaming. Teal eyes opened wide and his body jackknifed upright, stopped by the restraints around his wrists and ankles. Splayed around him like deformed sentinels were spindly towers of dark rock. He tried to ask about them, but the only thing to escape his throat was a raw, raspy exhale. "I wouldn't try talking just yet," Jiraiya advised. "You've got nothing left in the tank. Rōshi, can you, you know—" he gestured towards the Suna-nin.

"Aye, if that's what yeh want."

The Iwa-nin walked around the table, placing his hands upon each restraint and forcing them to crumble with a quick application of chakra. When Gaara's hands were free, he took the glass of water Tsunade offered him and drank from it in small sips. When the blonde Sannin held a hand glowing with medical chakra up to his throat, he jerked away, spilling several drops of liquid onto his hand. "I'm not going to hurt you," Tsunade said, sounding…annoyed? But her words were also…gentle, like Yashamaru had been before— "I'm trying to help."

Naruto's eager visage flashed in his mind's eye, the blond's reassurance that people would help him echoing where Mother's shrieks had left a cavernous silence. He made a noise of consent, and Tsunade proceeded to raise her hand to his throat, soothing the raw feeling within. When it felt like he could finally speak, he croaked a raspy, unsure, "…Thank…you."

"Hmph." She turned to Jiraiya, hands fisted on her hips. "Hope you got what you needed. That's an hour of my life I'd rather not relive."

"Yeh think that was bad, try fightin' th' Ichibi."

"By definition what we're currently trying to prevent," Tsunade deadpanned. "Jiraiya?"

The white-haired man exhaled a heavy sigh. "Well, the good news is, I got a good enough look at the seal that we don't have to do this again."

Tsunade arched an eyebrow. "And the bad news?"

Gaara observed both Sannin, expression unreadable. It appeared to be mirrored in the faces of those who were evaluating him, though it might have been that the only thing making them unreadable was his inability to perceive their thoughts. Tsunade looked…stern…and Jiraiya appeared…thoughtful? Or maybe sad.

He angled his head to look at Rōshi, standing to his left, but the older redhead offered no further insight, his brow furrowed in deep scowl. Hmm…

Jiraiya coughed. "Well, that's complicated. The seal is stable…ish."

"Stable-ish?" Tsunade repeated through clenched teeth. "That's not a thing. We don't classify patients as 'stable-ish', they're either stable or critical, so which is it?"

"I'm sorry, but in this case it's stable-ish!" Jiraiya insisted. His teammate opened her mouth to protest, but he quickly cut across her, saying, "Just give me a chance to explain, hime.

"By all accounts, his seal appears to be working as intended. Keep in mind, fūinjutsu is not a universal art, so each village has its own, ah…style, let's say, and I'm not exactly an expert on every variation."

"Yeh looked over my seal," Rōshi noted.

"There aren't too many seals that can contain a Bijū," Jiraiya explained. "Only a handful of arrays can handle that much chakra, especially from back in the days when you were sealed. If I'm being honest, I'm doing some guesswork based on what I know of how seals are supposed to overlay and interact.

"Gaara's seal has some more modern elements, which is helpful, but the design is…strange. Actually, when I was examining it, I was reminded a little of when Sensei had us dissect those puppets during the war, figure out how they ticked, remember, hime?"

"How could I forget?" Tsunade grumbled. "Chiyo and her damn poisons made my life a living hell. So you're saying, what, Gaara's a puppet?"

"Hah!" Rōshi scoffed. "Ain't that th' truth."

Both Sannin shot the Iwa-nin a displeased side-eye before Jiraiya elaborated, "Obviously it's a bit more complicated than that, but otherwise, yeah, you could probably say that. For all intents and purposes, a Jinchūriki is basically a human storage scroll for an unfathomable amount of chakra, not unlike how puppeteers use puppets to store weapons and traps. Sorry if I'm being insensitive," he said to the two redheads. Rōshi merely shrugged.

The Toad Sannin's explanation continued, "Of course, since puppets aren't human, there are less constraints when applying seals to them than to a person. That's why Jinchūriki seals like Naruto's or Rōshi's are much more complex in design, because humans are going to have to grow and adapt to what's sealed inside them, whereas a puppet is not."

Tsunade was nodding along with her teammate's dissertation. "So Suna basically created an autonomous puppet that would release…what, chakra? Constantly?"

"That seems to be the gist, yeah. See, the seal is…loose might be the best way to describe it, but it appears to be intentional. It seems to have been designed to allow constant two-way interaction between the Bijū and the host, which is definitely not what puppeteering seals are intended to do. I can't say what it would be like to constantly struggle against another entity for control, but—" he glanced at Gaara, "—I'm guessing we're looking at the result."

Rōshi snorted. "Explains a lot."

"So again, is he stable?" Tsunade asked.

"The Gogyō Fūin is an odd-arrayed fūinjutsu, and whatever primary seal they used looks like some version of a Dō-Suzu Fūin, which is a pretty old-school even-arrayed fūinjutsu—"

"Yes or no, Jiraiya," she growled.

"So long as the Gogyō Fūin is active, the connection between Gaara and his Bijū is cut off. Mostly."

"Mostly?" Tsunade was starting to sound like how she had in her office the day before, when Utakata and Rōshi had been reluctant to answer her questions. Angry, Gaara thought.

Jiraiya scratched the side of his face with a finger. "I can't explain it, but Gaara has been able to use his sand abilities despite the Gogyō Fūin. Little things mostly, so I haven't been all that concerned, but even that shouldn't be possible."

Rōshi started laughing, and all eyes turned to him. "Yer all daft."

Tsunade's eyebrow twitched. "Excuse me?"

"Th' sand ain't his Bijū ability."

"It's not?" the Sannin chorused. Gaara stared at the older redhead, curious what he would say next. "So what is it?" Jiraiya asked.

The Iwa-nin cast a strange look at the younger redhead before telling the taller Leaf shinobi, "Don' matter none if he's sealed."

Tsunade grunted, arms crossed over her chest. "Helpful. So, Jiraiya, what's the next step?"

The Toad Sannin shrugged. "Nothing much I can do. It's not typically a good idea to tamper with an existing seal, especially if you don't know exactly what it is. I kind of understand its base components, but that's not the whole picture, and sealing a Bijū…" He sighed. "It's not exactly a well-studied field, hime. I'm good, but even I wouldn't want to fiddle around with it. I don't know of any way to fix a Jinchūriki seal without completely reinventing it."

"Can you not do that?"

All eyes turned to Gaara. The redhead stared at them in turn, expression blank. He wondered if they'd forgotten he was in the room, since most of their discussion had seemed to ignore his presence. It was…unusual. The citizens of Suna had constantly been wary of him, even when they weren't worth his attention, that he'd always known he was being observed, too dangerous to leave unattended for any stretch of time.

But now, to be in a situation where he was the weakest person in the room, so much so that he could go ignored by everyone else, was…

He didn't know the word for what he felt. He'd told Rōshi the previous night that he was powerless, and despite the older man's claim to the contrary, it felt truer than ever. Before meeting Naruto, knowing there were people out there stronger than him but whom he couldn't kill would have driven him to madness. Now it just seemed…commonplace. Like another grain of sand within his gourd, indistinguishable from all the rest.

Jiraiya cleared his throat and answered, "Like I said, I'm not exactly an expert on Jinchūriki seals in particular, so I can't say for sure, but to do so would require extracting the Bijū, holding it in a temporary container, creating a new seal, and then resealing it—"

"It'll kill yeh," Rōshi announced bluntly.

Gaara blinked at the older redhead. "Ah."

"So you're telling me I agreed to take in a mentally unstable Jinchūriki with an equally unstable seal that we can't fix," Tsunade summarized. Her fingers were rubbing circles around her temples. "Wonderful. Is it too late to return him to Suna?"

"They will kill me."

Again, Gaara found three pairs of eyes on him, though this time they seemed less surprised and more…questioning? "The Kazekage is only interested in how valuable something is to the village," he explained, voice monotone. "He could not control me, and spent years trying to kill me because he could not use me for his intended purposes. I was more valuable dead…until he sought to use me for the invasion." The Suna-nin looked down at his hands. "That was a failure. What value I did have is gone, as is my reason for existing.

"Now, like this…" he flexed one hand experimentally, watching tiny granules of sand swirl around his palm, "he will certainly succeed in killing me."

Silence reigned for several moments before Jiraiya offered, "If it's any consolation, your father's dead, so no worries there."

Gaara blinked again. "Ah." He wondered if he should have felt something at that news, and if so, what. "It matters not. Suna does not tolerate failure."

"So he stays," Tsunade concluded.

Jiraiya nodded. "Seems that way."

"Great," she grumbled. "One more thing to add to the watchlist."

"So…you cannot help me."

Tsunade arched an eyebrow at the Sand Genin. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto…he said that people have helped him, and that those people would help me. Jiraiya helped Naruto when we were looking for you," he noted, "but he just said he cannot help me. You do not know how to help me," he addressed Tsunade. Teal eyes flickered to Rōshi. "He does not trust me enough to help."

"If yeh'd fought th' Ichibi, yeh'd know why."

"Look kid—" Jiraiya interjected, pausing when the Suna-nin turned to level him with an intense stare. The Sannin seemed to reconsider his words, saying instead, "Gaara…it's not that we don't want to help you, but in this case, it just may not be possible. You think Tsunade or I want to have a Jinchūriki with a questionable seal in the village?"

"The Kazekage did not." The redhead glanced at Tsunade before returning his attention to her teammate. "I imagine the Hokage would not either."

"That's right," Jiraiya agreed.

"Will you also try to kill me?"

"No," the Toad Sannin immediately asserted. "We'll do what we can to keep you on the straight and narrow here, but there are limits to our abilities, to what help we can provide. This…what you're asking may be stretching what's plausible."

"Hn."

"Gaara, you may not want to hear this, but sometimes the only way to get the help you need is to help yourself," Tsunade said.

He blinked at the Hokage. "Help…myself?"

"Your psychological evaluation has a lot of red flags that concern me. Between that and some of the things I've heard from both Jiraiya and Rōshi, I think you could benefit from professional help. You're not a shinobi of Konoha, and based on what Jiraiya's said, it doesn't seem like you're currently capable of losing control and causing harm to the village, so I'm not going to order you to do anything. My experience has been that forcing a patient to do something makes them more unwilling to receive the treatment they need, so if you really want help, you'll have to make that decision for yourself." She nodded to Jiraiya, throwing a curt bob of her head to Rōshi. "I'm done here. I trust you can finish up."

"Yeah, I got it, hime." Tsunade left at her teammate's reassurance, and when she was gone, Jiraiya told Gaara, "You're free to go, too. I've got things to tend to, and I suspect you have things to think about."

At the white-haired man's dismissal, the redhead picked up his discarded sash and gourd and left through the same door Tsunade had. He found his way back outside, returning to the courtyard where he'd initially started his morning and finding a measure of solace in the isolation of the wide outdoors.

"Hey, Gaara!"

He turned his head to find Naruto walking through the entrance to the compound, a duffle bag thrown over his shoulder. The blond was waving at him with unbridled enthusiasm, and Gaara exhaled loudly through his nose in a rare expression of irritation. Handling Naruto while sealed and forced to suffer the Leaf shinobi's optimistic babbling had already been a test of his willpower; having to do it after he'd been told by the people the blond had said would help him that they couldn't help him was just…

Again, he couldn't put a word to the feeling.

That was also becoming annoying. Ever since Yashamaru had died, Gaara hadn't known an emotion stronger than the desire to kill those meant to prove his existence. Now, in the span of a month, he'd experienced too many instances of pain, loneliness, frustration, sadness…

And once, for a brief moment, a vague recollection from his childhood that felt unfamiliarly like hope.

It was too difficult to follow each emotion evoked from being around Naruto, not to mention trying to figure out what those around the blond – Jiraiya, Tsunade, Rōshi, Utakata – felt.

"This place is awesome! It's way bigger than my apartment, and—hey, are you okay?"

A hand landed on his shoulder, and Gaara twitched at the contact. He turned to face Naruto, who recoiled slightly at the quickness of the movement. The blond took a step backwards, remembering his fellow Jinchūriki's preference for space. "I…do not know how to feel."

"How to feel? You mean about bein' here? Did Tsunade and Jiraiya-sensei say something after I got kicked out yesterday? That sucked, by the way, they—"

The redhead shook his head, closing his eyes against the onslaught of questions. Even without Mother shrieking inside his skull, he could feel the familiar beginnings of a headache. "Shut up," he growled. Naruto immediately obeyed the directive, and when Gaara felt he could open his eyes again, he found the same concern Yashamaru had once shown him shimmering in azure blue irises. "You said people would help me, but there is nothing anyone can do for me."

"Eh? Whaddya mean?"

"I am…broken. My purpose was taken from me, and no one is able to fix me."

"What? That's crap!" Now Naruto looked mad; he'd seen that expression on some of the stronger shinobi in the Hidden Sand, those who had wanted to kill him but couldn't. "You're not broken, and you don't need to be fixed! Did Jiraiya-sensei tell you that?" He started marching towards the building's entrance. "I'm gonna beat the crap outta him!"

"Yeh ain't gonna git anythin' from 'im."

"Rōshi-oji!"

"Yer friend's dealin' with somethin' he's never thought o' afore," Rōshi said, ambling out of the same entrance Naruto had just been heading for, "an' it ain't Jiraiya's fault. Yeh gotta let 'im work it out."

"But…" the blond looked back at Gaara, "it's not right. I promised Gaara that we would help him, and now you're saying there's nothin' we can do?"

Rōshi shrugged. "Not th' way he wants."

"Can't you train him, like you trained me?"

The Iwa-nin barked a laugh before turning and walking back into their new abode. Naruto frowned as he departed, unable to interpret the older Jinchūriki's nonresponse. He turned back to face Gaara, stalking towards the Suna-nin and reaching out to grab his arm.

Gaara flinched away from the blond's touch, and for a moment, another emotion he couldn't identify…sadness maybe, but different?…flickered across Naruto's features. It disappeared from view when Naruto began to stalk around the courtyard, urging, "C'mon."

The redhead followed at a sedate pace. "Where are we going?"

"We're gonna find someone who can help," Naruto asserted. "There's gotta be someone. Rōshi-oji's not really great at the, uh, people thing."

Gaara stared at the back of the other boy's head. "…People thing?"

"He's kinda mean," the blond elaborated, "but he's not so bad when you get used to him. What we need is—hey, Utakata-nii!"

The brunet who had approached him earlier that morning was sitting in front of a small koi pond. Gaara could make out a small, intricate design of three overlapping spheres of different sizes at the nape of the teenager's blue kimono. At the sound of his name, Utakata turned to look at them. "Oh, Naruto. And Gaara. I guess your exams went well."

"No."

"No?" the brunet echoed.

"Utakata-nii, everyone's sayin' they can't help Gaara, but I promised him that we could," Naruto answered in the redhead's place. His voice was a little high-pitched, almost desperate, as he spoke to the older Jinchūriki. "You helped me, can you help him, too?"

Utakata smiled. "I'm more than happy to help out, Naruto, you know that." He turned to the Suna-nin. "What kind of help are you looking for?"

"Jiraiya says my seal is…stable-ish," Gaara intoned, "and Rōshi will not train me to become strong."

The Kiri-nin blinked at him. "Oh. Well, I understand why you came to me, but…I'm not sure there's anything I can do about those things. I'm not skilled in fūinjutsu, and I don't think I can really train you either. I use Suiton; I assume you're versed in Fūton?"

"Sand."

"Definitely not something I know how to train." Another expression that looked like sadness, yet different from how Naruto had looked. "I'm really sorry, you know I'd help if I could…"

Gaara turned to face Naruto. "As I said, no one can help me." He turned and walked away even as Naruto protested to Utakata and the pair engaged in a fierce debate.

The redhead returned to where his morning had started, taking a seat on the roof of the compound and staring out across Konoha with eyes that saw nothing. As he'd told Rōshi the night before, there was a part of him that wanted to believe the things Naruto said; he'd spent almost a month watching the blond work unyieldingly on whatever task Jiraiya had given him despite every setback, and that gave credence to the strength the redhead sought.

In that way, Naruto was someone he wished to emulate, and the Leaf native had promised him that the people he'd learned from would help him. Now that they'd tried and failed to get him that same aid, it felt like the blond had lied to him.

And that made him…

He frowned, unable to process the emotion. It was like being annoyed – a feeling he was becoming all too familiar with, between his brother's antics in the Chūnin Exams and how Naruto hovered over him – but much stronger.

"Gaara!" Teal eyes turned to find Naruto leaping to the roof. The blond paused in his approach. "Hey, don't be mad."

"…Mad?" He'd never had a reason to be mad before. Is this…anger?

Naruto continued talking. "It doesn't matter that Rōshi-oji and Utakata-nii don't know what to do. Or anyone else. I'll help you, no matter what! That's a promise, believe it!"

"Why?"

"Why?" the blond repeated. "Because we're friends, and that's what friends do." He scratched the side of his head with a finger. "I think, anyway…haven't really had many friends."

Gaara grunted, empathizing with the sentiment but unable to truly vocalize it. "Why should I believe you?"

"Eh?"

"You keep saying that people will help, or that you will help, but nothing supports your claims. You wish to be friends, but do not know what that means. You have said nothing true." He turned away from Naruto. "Following you was supposed to make me strong, but that does not seem possible."

"Why not?" Gaara returned his gaze to the blond, staring at him with an unyielding intensity that questioned if the other boy had even heard what he'd said. "It took me awhile to get strong, but I did it, and I'll keep gettin' stronger to protect everyone. Rōshi-oji and Utakata-nii always tell me that things take time." His brow furrowed. "It sucks, but that's just the way it is sometimes. You just gotta be patient."

"To what end?"

"To…get better?" the blond hedged. "I don't understand."

"Get…better…" Gaara repeated, tasting the words.

It wasn't the first time someone had mentioned that to him – Rōshi had suggested something similar the other night, and Tsunade had said the same this morning – but coming from Naruto, the one person he wanted to believe in, the idea gave him pause. For so long, he'd been listening to the blond say that he would be able to help and that things would be okay going forward, and in a way, the redhead had made decisions because he'd been relying upon those assertions.

"Hey, Gaara," Naruto began, drawing the redhead's attention back to him, "everything'll be okay, okay? You can believe in me. I know it might seem hard now, but it's nothing compared to what we've gone through so far, right?" He'd started walking towards the Ichibi Jinchūriki and was now within the Sand shinobi's personal space, closer than anyone else dared to get. With deliberate slowness, he reached out a hand and placed it on Gaara's shoulder. "Don't give up, okay? Things'll for sure get better, believe it."

Gaara shifted his gaze to stare at the tan hand resting on his shoulder; Naruto's desire to be close was starting to become familiar, and though he couldn't say he liked it, it didn't bother him as much as he thought it would. It had been a long time since anyone had wanted to be close to him, and without the urge to kill people echoing incessantly in his head, he could remember a time before he'd lived only for himself, when Yashamaru would get close and he didn't mind the nearness.

He didn't have a verbal response to the blond's optimism. Instead, his head bobbed once, slowly, in brief acknowledgment of what Naruto had said, though he still wasn't sure he fully believed the other boy.

Naruto smiled at him, and Gaara again felt the strange urge to believe the blond despite all his misgivings. "I've gotta go. Utakata-nii said he wants to pick up our training. You gonna be okay here?" The redhead blinked, expression implacable, which the other boy took as affirmation. "Alright, I'm gonna head out then. Let me know if you need somethin', okay? Anything. I'll be there, I swear it."

Gaara nodded again, and with one last backwards glance, the blond left. Teal eyes watched him go, waiting until he was out of sight before he resumed his vacant stare, this time at the entrance of the Senju complex. His conversations over the course of the day replayed in his mind as the sun traversed the sky. He wasn't used to talking with people, or having people focused on him, or…really any of what had taken place over the last several weeks, all of which had given him much to think about.

More than he'd ever needed to devote time to in years past, and that…confused him.

Worst of all, he didn't know where to go from here, and that was…annoying.

So he sat and waited, looking at nothing and waiting for something to make sense.

By the time the sun was low on the horizon, he had no more answers than he had when Naruto had left him. Movement caught his attention, the first he'd seen in hours, and teal eyes flickered over to where a figure with blonde hair was striding through the entranceway. His body moved of its own accord, jumping down to intersect Tsunade's path into the house. She assumed a defensive position automatically at his presence. "Gaara," she acknowledged, honey eyes narrowed and muscles tense, "I don't recommend doing that again. Some might consider it…hostile."

"Ah."

Tsunade noticed his lack of aggressive intent and relaxed her posture. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes." He didn't know how, but that seemed to be the right answer.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow at him when he didn't elaborate. "Okay…and how can I help you?"

-l-l-l-

"Hello Gaara. I don't know if you remember me—"

"I do."

Green eyes blinked at him. "Okay." The man watching at him had sandy blond hair styled similarly to Gaara's own short spikes in front, and a long ponytail held in place by a topknot in back. His hands were laced together in his lap, a sleeveless, auburn-colored vest held closed over Konoha's regulation green flak jacket. "Given the different circumstances we're under, I think it best to start over. I'm Yamanaka Inoichi. Tsunade-sama informed me that you'd like therapy."

"I need help," Gaara intoned.

Inoichi nodded. "It's a good sign if you can recognize that. This may sound indelicate, but when I first did your psychological evaluation, you didn't seem like the type of person who would accept help."

"There are no other options available to me."

"That's unfortunate," Inoichi allowed. "Why do you feel that way?"

Gaara blinked. "Why?"

Inoichi leaned forward in his chair, one of two that had been placed across from each other in the same room Gaara's seal had been evaluated in. The redhead remained standing despite the other man's offer to take a seat at the beginning of their meeting. "I can offer you advice and guidance, but our sessions will require you to be honest with how you feel, and more importantly, why you feel that way. While I can guide you down the path to get to the root of your problems, you'll have to take the lead." He returned to a more lax position. "So, why don't you tell me why you feel like you have no other options."

Teal stared at green for a long time, during which the Yamanaka's gaze remained steadfast. It was strange that he didn't look away; Gaara was used to others being unable to deal with the intensity of his gaze. He blinked first, breaking their standoff, a feeling of defeat washing over him. "Naruto said he would help me, but he cannot. He said that others would help me, but they cannot. My seal is…faulty. My strength is diminished. I have no purpose." He'd lost track of how many times he'd heard or admitted those words throughout the day, and it seemed like the words got more definitive each time. "No…value."

"Well, I can understand why you seem to feel like you need help," Inoichi noted. "That's quite a list. Let's take it one at a time then. Why do you think your seal is faulty?"

"Jiraiya said so."

"That does seem fairly definitive, unfortunately. I can't say I understanding much about fūinjutsu, but Jiraiya-sama's reputation precedes him. There's no way to fix it?"

"None that he knows."

Inoichi's head bobbed up and down. "Do you want it fixed?"

Gaara stared at the older man. No one had asked him what he wanted before. "I…would," he replied slowly. He'd admitted as much during the evaluation. "It would help…fix me."

"Gaara, if you think of yourself as broken, the only one you hurt is yourself. Everyone needs help sometimes—"

"Do you?"

Inoichi let out a short laugh, so different from how Rōshi's sounded. For a brief moment, Gaara wished he knew why they were so dissimilar. "I'm guessing you don't know much about Konoha's clans. I don't mean to brag, but my teammates and I are kind of famous. My abilities are much more effective when used in conjunction with theirs. So yes, I need help as well." He cupped his chin with one hand. "Do you consider it a weakness to need help? You were a participant in the recent Chūnin Exams, so you must have had teammates of your own."

"Teammates…" Gaara repeated. "Yes. They were…my siblings."

"It must've been interesting to work with your siblings. I'm an only child, but having grown up with Shikaku and Chōza, I feel like I kind of know what it's like to have brothers."

"They were…present." Inoichi nodded once but didn't say anything. It felt like he wanted the redhead to speak without prompting, so Gaara continued, "I did not need their help. They were…a means to an end. They had no value but to get me into your village."

"That's a very utilitarian way of looking at things. Why do you say that?"

"That is how the Kazekage viewed his shinobi."

"The Kazekage is your father," Inoichi noted. "And you just spoke of him in the past tense, so I have to assume you know he's dead, but the way you talk about your family makes it seem like you don't care about them."

"They did not care about me, so why should I care about them," the redhead intoned, and even though it should have been a question, it was stated as a fact.

"Reciprocity is a fair way of looking at the world," the Leaf shinobi acknowledged, "but as a father myself, I have to say that your situation makes me a little sad."

"Sad?"

"My daughter's your age – you may have seen her in the Chūnin Exams – and to think of her living a life where she sees her teammates as…mission assets only, or me as a sort of authority figure incapable of love—"

"Love," Gaara interrupted. The word triggered something in him, and Inoichi's face seemed to morph into Yashamaru's in his mind's eye, their similar hair color helping his uncle's image superimpose itself on the therapist's. He closed his eyes and shook his head several times in an effort to rid himself of the image, his breathing becoming hitched.

"Gaara, are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I do not…love," he rasped. He continued shaking his head, falling into the chair that had been set out for him. "It…hurts…"

"Gaara, I need you to listen to me. Listen to my voice." His tone was calm and steady, soothing despite its deeper timbre. "Keep your eyes closed and breathe in. Deeply. Now breathe out. Good. Keep doing that, and then when you're ready, open your eyes. Take your time, there's no rush."

Following the Yamanaka's guidance, the redhead's breathing slowly evened out. When he eventually reopened his eyes, Inoichi's concerned visage greeted him. "You…helped me."

The sandy blond nodded. "It's what I do. Is that the first time you've experienced an anxiety attack?" Gaara shook his head. "I'll be honest, it would be a huge breakthrough if you're willing to talk about what triggers the attacks, but given how fresh this one was, I would understand if you don't want to."

"…My uncle," Gaara replied slowly. "He was…different. Like Naruto."

"You're referring to Uzumaki Naruto?" At the redhead's nod, Inoichi probed, "I'm not familiar with Naruto on a personal level, so how do you mean 'different'?"

"I…do not know how to describe it. They…care?"

Inoichi let out a low hum. "I think I understand. Based on how you've talked about your family, I'm going to guess that something happened with your uncle." Gaara nodded. "Something traumatic?" Another nod. "Can you be more specific?" The Suna-nin stared blankly ahead, and after several seconds of unresponsiveness, Inoichi gave his own nod. "That's okay, you may not be ready to talk about it."

The older man leaned forward in his chair and continued in an even voice, "Gaara, if you're really interested in getting help, I'm invested in helping you. And we'll move at your pace, no matter how long it takes. Truthfully, your progress since I performed your first evaluation is beyond what I would have expected given your pathologies. I think that, in order to keep moving forward, we should set small goals for you to achieve at the end of each session. Does that sound like something you're willing to work at?"

The response came to his lips unthinkingly, pulled by the lure of help he'd so desperately been denied in recent days. "Yes."

Inoichi smiled at him. "That's good. My wife and daughter are waiting for me, so I'm going to have to leave shortly, but why don't we set a goal for next week? Is there something in particular you'd like to focus on?"

His first instinct was to say 'no', because he didn't fully understand what Inoichi was asking of him even though he'd agreed to it, but something familiar about what the Leaf shinobi was asking gave him pause. Slowly, as if was remembering the words as he spoke them, Gaara said, "Rōshi told me to find something to center myself."

"Something to center yourself," Inoichi repeated. "Like a hobby?" At Gaara's nod, he probed, "Okay, well, is there something you like to do?"

"Killing."

"How about something less destructive and more…relaxing?" Inoichi suggested. "What do you do when you have free time?'

"Nothing."

Inoichi quirked an eyebrow. "Nothing? I find that hard to believe. It's not an easy thing to remain completely unengaged for hours on end."

"I watch the moon."

"Hmm…" Inoichi rose from the chair and approached the bookshelves, running a finger along the spines of the tomes. After several minutes of reviewing the books, he let out an 'ah' of success, pulling a text from its place and walking back over to Gaara. He offered it to the redhead, who slowly reached out his own hand to receive it. "When you next have free time, take a look at this. It's from the Shodai's time, so it might be a little outdated, but you might find it interesting."

Gaara adjusted the book so that the cover was readable. "'The Night Sky'," he read.

"It's about astronomy," the Yamanaka said. "If you're going to watch the moon, you may as well learn about it, right? There's a lot you can learn if you take the time."

Time… That was something Gaara had in spades. "…Thank you."

Inoichi nodded. "One last thing before I leave. Everyone has value, including you, otherwise we as people wouldn't have purpose. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, even yourself." He opened the door with a parting, "I'll be by next week. Oh, Jiraiya-sama, good evening."

"Evenin' Inoichi."

Gaara looked on to find the white-haired Sannin leaning against the door frame, leveling the redhead with an even gaze. "So kid, how'd it go?"

The Suna-nin mulled over his conversation with Inoichi. It felt so different when compared to Rōshi's cynicism, Tsunade's frustration, Jiraiya's helplessness, or Naruto's anger…like the sandy blond wanted to help him and actually could. Actually had. It was… "Good."

"That's good." He gestured with his head towards the book in Gaara's hands. "What's that you got there?" The redhead held it up so Jiraiya could read the title for himself. One white eyebrow arched in surprise. "Didn't take you to be much of an astronomer. Or…a reader, to be honest."

"I am not." He turned the book over in his hands so the title was once more facing him. "Inoichi believes it will…interest me."

"It's not a bad thing to have a hobby."

"He said that as well."

"Inoichi's a smart guy," Jiraiya said. "You're in good hands with him."

"He also said you have a reputation in Konoha."

The Sannin smirked at him. "Ho ho, well, the great Toad Sage does have a way with the ladies—"

Gaara's eyebrows furrowed. "For fūinjutsu."

Jiraiya seemed to sober up at the interjection. "Ah. Well, yes, that's also true, but like I said earlier, my expertise only goes so far. I'm sorry that I can't help you—"

"Will you train me?"

The older man's eyes widened at the request. "Sorry?"

Even Gaara seemed surprised that he'd voiced the question, a brief silence settling between them as he processed what he'd said. "I…need help," he admitted slowly, working through his own thought process, "but I do not…possess the necessary skills. Naruto said Rōshi and Utakata would help me, but they cannot. You cannot fix me, but you have…knowledge I do not. I need that knowledge to…help myself."

"You want to learn fūinjutsu in order to…fix your own seal? Do I have that right?"

"In time."

"Can't say I saw this coming." Jiraiya fixed him with a gimlet eye, silently scrutinizing him for several moments. "Alright, kid, you seem pretty determined, and I'm kind of impressed by your dedication here. You keep working with Inoichi and don't cause any trouble, and I'll teach you what I know about fūinjutsu."

Gaara blinked. "…You will?"

"You're a friend of Naruto," Jiraiya offered by way of explanation, "and it seems like you're genuinely trying to be better. If you need my help to facilitate that, who am I to deny you? I'd rather see you trained right than left to fend for yourself; I suspect that's part of how you got to be the way you are."

"Mm." He made for the door, not yet willing to talk about his past with the older man, and stepped through it as Jiraiya moved aside for him. The Sannin's dark eyes stayed on his back as he ventured down the hallway and outside, finding the cool embrace of night waiting for him. One jump later found him back on the roof, where the moon shone down on him with white serenity.

As the events of the past couple days spun in his head, it felt a little like things had come full circle, especially since he was back where he'd started, except…now the circle was larger. His requests for help – to fix himself, to become strong in the same way Naruto had, to reclaim his purpose – were no longer completely unheeded. He was…worth something, and it felt…strange. But good.

So he opened The Night Sky to the first page and began reading.

-l-l-l-

Author's Note: I always thought Gaara's turn in canon deserved more elaboration, especially considering where he started and what he became, so this chapter provides some of the groundwork for his development. His changes (especially in chapters that don't focus on him) now have an explanation. Hope you like it.

Dō-Suzu Fūin = Copper-Tin Seal. Killer B has an Iron Armor Seal, so I thought the metals theme would be cool to follow, especially for a country like Suna that has Kazekage specializing in Magnet Release and control of iron/gold.