Sasuke and Sakura returned to the large room just as the next group of names appeared on the screen. Sasuke frowned at the names, but when he turned to Zabuza and Haku he saw that neither of them looked particularly bothered by it. Instead Zabuza was looking curiously at Sasuke while he and Haku made their way down to the lower floor. Sasuke shrugged at him and Zabuza turned away to whisper in Haku's ear.

Both Haku and Zabuza quietly took their places next to the sound ninjas that they were to be partnered with. Kabuto's two teammates were trying to tell Haku and Zabuza not to get in the way, but neither of them was listening. Both were watching as the propter re-explained the rules. Apparently they weren't expecting for there to be so much death and near death fighting in the two fights so he was trying to reassert that they should stop the violence as soon as it wasn't even necessary. He finally sighed when he realized that nobody was listening and motioned for the match to begin.

As soon as the match began Zabuza did a couple of hand signs and the room began to fill with mist. "I told you not to get in my way!" yelled the sound ninja who was on Zabuza's side. A loud laugh reverberated out of the mist only to be followed by a blood curdling scream. After a few seconds of silence the mist began to crystalize into a house shaped by mirrors. Zabuza stood outside of the house cleaning his huge sword of the blood that was dripping onto a barely recognizable body.

Through the cracks in the house of mirrors Sasuke could see as the needles that had once been attacking him and his love flew straight towards the only remaining sound ninja on the floor. The needles were thrown so hard that they pierced through the man and merge with the mirrors again. After only seconds the man fell to the ground and the mirrors melted to reveal Haku unscathed. He turned to the judge, bowed, and then walked off of the floor leaving only Zabuza to win the match.

Gaara watched with a detached expression as the people who had just spilled so much blood ended the match with a simple forfeit. He couldn't inhale the smell of the sweet blood that his mother always craved. He couldn't wait to go down there and do the same to whoever his opponent would be. He hungered for that blood that would feed his mother. The sand swirled around him as it sensed his excitement at having his name appear on the screen along with Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, and Rock Lee. The sand surrounded him and brought him down to the ground where his teammate, Neji, joined him a moment later.

Gaara growled when he realized that the propter was going through another one of his no kill speech, but then he felt a presence come into the room that entered his head and calmed his mind. It was warm and bright with a golden glow that exploded in his senses. He turned to the person that owned that comforting presence he saw that golden haired boy with blue eyes, he remembered the golden boy's name being Naruto, smiling straight at him. Gaara could feel his sand swirling around in happiness.

He kept staring at that smiling face until his own sand blocked his way. That's when he realized that the match had begun and that his sand had blocked an attack from the boy with the bowl cut and the bushy eyebrows. The boy had attacked him and then went straight back to fighting with the other man. Gaara hated to be ignored and that was exactly what was going on. He strengthened his sand with his own anger and sent it flying towards the boy wearing the green leotard. The sand slipped under the boy's feet and waited there until the perfect moment to strike arose.

Finally the boy, who Gaara assumed was named Lee, slipped on his sand and lost his footing sending him straight towards the attack Gaara was waiting for. He forced the chakra in his sand to move upward and encase all but the boy's head so he could watch the man that would take away his red blood. He put his hand forward and readied himself to feed his mother that blood that she so craved. As he began to close his hand he could feel the adrenaline course through his veins until it was replaced by shock.

A wall of sand passed in front of him and all of a sudden he was just outside of Sunagakure. "Where am I?" he muttered, knowing that he couldn't really be in his hometown.

"In a memory," a voice came from behind him.

Gaara turned to see Naruto standing there watching the sand before him move with the wind. "A memory? Which one?"

Naruto grinned. "Not your memory," he answered, "This memory is from your sand."

"My sand?" asked Gaara.

"Well of course," he answered, "Before you started carrying it around on your back all that sand that you have was in the air and on the ground of Sunagakure collecting memories."

"Sand can't have memories," Gaara said.

"Well of course it can," answered Naruto, "It's just hard for a human to read it after some time has passed."

"Sand can't have memories," Gaara repeated.

Naruto laughed, "Then I'll give you an example. A foot print left in the sand can only be seen by humans for a short amount of time, but it remains on the sand forever. Or a better example would be the blood from people that you kill. You can only see it for a short time on your sand but it will always remain there. Inanimate objects do have memories. Just not in the same way that a living creature does."

"Okay," Gaara said showing no sign of any emotion, "Why am I here?"

"I wanted to show you some stuff," answered Naruto, "and I don't want you to kill Lee."

"What stuff?" asked Gaara.

A great gust of wind blew around them and suddenly they were in a room with a pregnant woman that had blonde hair hanging straight to her shoulders, a little girl that had the same color hair pulled into four little pigtails, and a young boy sitting on the pregnant women's lap that had dark brown hair. Gaara's eyes widened a fraction. "Is that?"

"Yep," answered Naruto, "I believe she is six months pregnant. The little ones are five and three."

"Mommy?" asked the brown haired boy.

"Yes sweetheart?" asked her mother.

"Why is our little brother in your tummy?"

The woman laughed, "Because Gaara's not ready to come out yet."

"Why not?" he asked.

"That's a hard question to answer Kankurou," she said with a small smile.

"Because he's not grown up enough to play with us," answered the blonde little girl, "but when he comes out of your tummy can we play with him?"

"I'm afraid he still won't be quite strong enough to do that yet sweetheart," answered her mother.

"Why not?" she asked.

"You have to let him decide when he wants to play with you sweetheart."

"Mommy?" asked Kankurou.

"Yes?"

"Will he like us?"

"Well that's up to him," she answered, "but I'm sure that if you and Temari take good care of him he will surely like you."

"We will," said Temari with a determined expression, "I promise."

"Good," she laughed, "Why don't we go get a snack?"

"Yea!" cheered the two children as they followed their mother out.

"That didn't last long," grumbled Gaara not realizing that he was allowing some emotion to show.

"I wouldn't be quite so certain," answered Naruto making Gaara look at him curiously, "Shall we follow them?"

Gaara nodded before leading the way to where he knew the kitchen was only to find that when he opened the door he was in a hospital room. The nurses were scrambling all over the place trying to get everything ready for what they were just about to do. His father stood in the corner of the room watching with a detached expression. He watched as his mother screamed while she was trying to give birth to him. He didn't want to watch this. He didn't want to watch himself kill his own mother. "I don't want to see this," he said turning to Naruto, "I don't want to see this."

"You don't want to see what you think will happen," answered Naruto, "but I think you'll be surprised as to what really happens."

"Why are you doing this?" Gaara asked with a note of hysterics.

"Because I don't want to have to stand by and watch as a friend of mine suffers for no reason," answered Naruto, "Because I want you to know the truth about your life that your father has been keeping from you."

Suddenly a loud cry was heard in the room and Gaara turned to see himself as a little baby. His mother was gasping for breath, but still she held out her hands for the crying baby. "Leave us," his father practically growled.

"Hey my little baby boy," his mother cooed, "There's no need to cry. I've got you now. There's no need to cry."

"Love," said his father.

She turned to look at him with a bright smile, "Isn't he beautiful?"

"He's a weapon," answered his father.

"Oh not that again," she growled, "I already told you that I'm not going to let you use my son as a weapon. He's a boy not a weapon."

"I know," said his father as he moved towards them, "That's why I'm sorry, but I can't let you live to stop me."

She didn't even have time to scream before he plunged a kunai in her chest. The little baby in her arms screamed for her and the windows shattered as sand spilled into it. His father escaped through the door while the little baby screamed and the sand trashed everything in the room except for the bed that he and his mother lay on. Some of the sand wove around his mother's wound trying to create pressure to stop the bleeding, but it was already much too late because his father had pierced the kunai through her heart.

"I didn't kill my mother?" Gaara was shocked.

Naruto shook his head, "You tried to save her."

Gaara started to move forward wanting more than anything to touch his mother's skin. To feel how she felt, but Naruto grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "You can't touch her," he said, "This is only a memory."

Gaara stared for a moment longer until Naruto tugged him out of the room through the door they had come in through and into the kage's room. "How are you doing this?" asked Gaara.

"This jutsu allows me to go through memories of inanimate objects and decide what I want to look at." He neglected to mention that he was going through these memories so fast because he had shown them to the future Gaara already.

"Why are we here?" asked Gaara.

"Watch," said Naruto motioning for Gaara to move away from the door.

Just as Gaara moved the door opened to reveal a young Temari leading Kankurou into the room by the hand. "Where's Gaara?" asked Temari.

"He's with your uncle Temari," his dad answered without even looking up.

"Okay," she said as they both turned to leave.

"I don't want you seeing him," their father said.

"Why not?" asked Temari as she turned back to look at the kage.

"Because he's a monster," he answered.

"Gaara's not a monster!" yelled Kankurou, "A monster is something that lives under your bed and eats you."

"He killed your mother," said their father.

For this Kankurou had to look at his sister. He had heard the word a few times, but he still had yet to figure out what it meant. Temari had stiffened at the word and her hand had clenched against Kankurou's so hard that it looked almost painful. "That's not true," she said.

"It's true," answered their father.

"You're a liar!" she screamed, "Gaara would never do that!" suddenly she seemed to get ahold of herself and she turned to Kankurou, "Come on little brother let's go see Gaara."

"I said you weren't to see him," growled their father.

"I don't care!" she screamed as they both ran out the door.

Two ANBU members appeared in the room and looked at the Kazekage for their orders. "I don't care how you do it. Just keep them away from Gaara." The ANBU bowed and disappeared.

Naruto pulled the shocked Gaara out of the room into a street that he knew was on the way to his uncle's house from the Kazekage's office. He heard the loud footfalls of two children running as quickly as they could down the road until they were stopped by the two ANBU that were in the room earlier. Right in front of Gaara and Naruto the ANBU picked up the two children and brought them into an alleyway just to the right even though they were kicking and screaming. "We have been instructed to use whatever means necessary to keep you away from Gaara," said one of the ANBU.

"So we must ask you to turn back and go home now before we have to do so," said the other.

"We're going to see our little brother!" yelled Temari.

"Very well," said the ANBU. Fists flew and screams echoed in the air as the ANBU beat the little children until they could no longer move. Naruto had to stop Gaara from attempting to save them again. When the children were unconscious the ANBU picked them up and headed towards their home.

"Those bastards," growled Gaara as his fists clenched.

"I know," Naruto nodded. The sand on the ground lifted around them and when it disappeared they found themselves in a tiny apartment where Kankurou was in bed with bandages all around him and Temari, with just as many bandages and a limp to her step, was making some sandwiches for them to eat.

"Nee-chan," said Kankurou from his place in the one bed, "Why did they do that? We just wanted to see outoutou. They didn't have to hurt us."

"Kankurou," she answered, "You're only three."

"I'm three and a half," Kankurou interrupted.

"You're only three and a half. You shouldn't have to understand these things."

"Neither should you," Gaara muttered.

"Unfortunately," answered Naruto, "She's is the daughter of a bastard kazekage and she has been forced to take care of Kankurou all by herself. She doesn't have a choice, but to understand the world around her."

"Why isn't my father taking care of them?" The only answer he received was a look that clearly said 'You know why.'

"Maybe Gaara's still too weak to see us," Kankurou said hopefully, "Maybe when he gets stronger and older then we can see him."

"Maybe," said Temari with a sad smile as she climbed into the uncomfortable bed with Kankurou, "After this we have to go to bed."

"Why?" whined Kankurou.

"Because we want to be strong enough to meet Gaara when he's strong enough to meet us and it will make the time go faster."

"Okay," said Kankurou. He quickly finished his sandwich and buried himself into the covers urging his sister to finish quickly and turn off the lights.

After a couple of seconds Kankurou was fast asleep and Temari snuck out of the bed and out of the room. "Should we follow her?" asked Gaara.

"No," answered Naruto, "She'll be back soon."

Only a few moments later two ANBU appeared with a bloody and bruised little girl that they deposited onto the bed and left without a second thought.

"She tried again?" asked Gaara with another shocked expression.

"Every day," answered Naruto.

Gaara turned to him with anger in his eyes, "They did that to her every day?"

"Yes," Naruto nodded.

"I'll kill them," Gaara growled.

"They're already dead," answered Naruto, "Temari is one strong little girl when her mind is set on something, and those men had become too cocky."

"She killed them?"

Naruto nodded. "It was an accident though."

There was a clanging sound in the kitchen and Gaara turned to see a ten year old Temari making some ramen. She seemed upset and had already burned herself on the cooktop.

"Is this?"

"Just after she killed those men. Yes."

"I'm home," yelled an eight year old Kankurou as he bound into the room.

"How was school?" she asked even though she was still slightly out of it.

"Why isn't she in school?" asked Gaara.

"She took an accelerated course so that she could take care of Kankurou and try to get to you. She already passed the tests and now she just has to wait until she is thirteen in order to get her hitai-ate."

"It was so cool. Everyone loved my puppets. I even got to put on a puppet show."

"That's great," Temari smiled at her brother as she poured them both a bowl, "Sorry I couldn't make anything better. We ran out of everything and I didn't go to the store."

"Are you okay?" asked Kankurou, "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," she smiled.

"What's wrong with her," asked Gaara.

"She killed her first person today. People who kill others as children often have to endure some sort of trauma. This is her form of trauma."

"I didn't feel any trauma."

"You're still going through your trauma," answered Naruto, "You just haven't realized it yet."

"I have to go out," said Temari as she put her now empty bowl in the sink, "Could you please wash the dishes when you're done."

"Sure," said Kankurou.

"Why is he just letting her leave?" asked Gaara, "hasn't he realized it."

"He has," said Naruto, "but he wants to see you just as much as she does."

"Then why doesn't he go with her?" he asked.

"Because he also knows that the reason she's trying to keep it a secret from him is because she's trying to protect him."

"Oh," said Gaara, "Why are they doing that?"

"Because they love their family," answered Naruto, "Well all but their father."

They followed after Temari to a roof top. "I recognize that roof top," said Gaara pointing to the one right across from them, "That's where I killed my uncle." Gaara's eyes widened when he realized that he had told one of his best kept secrets to a complete stranger

Naruto just pointed to Temari who had just landed on the roof top next to him and then turned back to the rooftop that Gaara had pointed out. As they watched he saw his uncle come out and attack him. Temari stood in frozen shock next to him as Gaara engraved the word love on his face and then fainted from the pain and blood loss. Temari quickly went and got him and pulled him to her own house.

Naruto pulled Gaara through the door back into the room where Kankurou was washing the dishes just in time to see Temari kick the door open to reveal her and her five year old brother. "Is he okay?" asked Kankurou.

"He'll be fine," answered Temari as she struggled to carry him over to the bed with all of her injuries that she had sustained from the ANBU on past days.

"Who did this to him," growled Kankurou, "I'll kill him."

"You shouldn't say that you'll kill someone so easily," answered Temari, "besides, he's already dead."

"Who was it?" asked Kankurou.

"I'll tell you later," answered Temari.

"To this day she still hasn't told him what happened," said Naruto, "Come on."

They went through the door to find the Kazekage at his desk. As they moved away from it the door burst open to reveal Temari, now sixteen, and Kankurou, now fourteen. "I want you to put Gaara on our team," she demanded of their father.

"No," he answered, "You already disobeyed me by seeing him. I will not allow you to have him on your team."

"Fine," said Temari. She left slamming the door after them.

They only waited a moment before the door opened again. "You called?" asked Temari with a smirk on her face.

"I heard that you beat up your teammate."

"Really?" asked Temari, "Is that what you heard Kankurou?"

"I heard that she was so badly injured that she might never be able to be a ninja again," answered Kankurou.

"Why?" growled the Kazekage.

"We want Gaara on our team."

"I already told you that wasn't going to happen."

"Then you are going to lose a lot more ninjas."

"How many did it take before he agreed?" asked Gaara.

"Seven," answered Naruto.

"Then they really wanted me on their team?" asked Gaara.

"Of course they did," answered Naruto, "That's all I wanted to show you."

"Why did you do this?" asked Gaara.

"I already told you. I don't want my friend to suffer."

Before Gaara could say anything a wall of sand separated him from Naruto and he found himself back on the floor where he had Lee wrapped in a deadly case of sand. He dropped his hand that was still in the position to do the sand coffin and looked over at Naruto to find him smiling at him. Then he looked over at his brother and sister to find that they looked really relieved though he didn't know why.

"Would you hurry up and get rid of him so we can move on?" said Neji next to him.

"Propter," said Gaara, "if you don't stop this match now I can kill him with one movement."

"No!" yelled Lee, "I can still fight!"

"Can you move?" asked Gaara. Lee didn't answer. "That means that you are unable to fight. Therefore we win."

"I guess that's true," said the propter, "Then Neji and Gaara win."

Yay new chappie