A/N: Hey I'm back and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Let me make this clear that this fic is officially set in Japan with an emperor. I like clichés, too bad if you don't… XD

This fanfiction is written by fans only so please don't flame or plagiarize…

New Cast

Gaara

Temari

Kankuro

== Chapter Ten ==

In the midst of the night a young mahogany brown haired man sat quietly in a brothel drinking sake by himself. No matter how much he drank he was still sober as his tormented past kept him awake. His innocent mind was corrupted since the age of six; it was also his first time to have murdered someone. That person happened to be his own father.

Gaara despised his father ever since he saw the brutal ways he had treated his mother. His father was a pathetic alcoholic and gambler. He always took money off his mother and when she had no money to give him, he would give her a long beating. He hated hearing his mother scream in pain but what could he do? He had tried stopping his father once but he nearly got himself killed…

In contrast, his mother was a beautiful woman with flamboyant red hair and charming violet eyes. She was always kind to him and he would never forget the times she took him by the river to catch butterflies. His current life as an assassin has slowly eaten away his once present memories. Gaara waited patiently for his target to leave this distasteful place.

An ugly prostitute came up to him but he gave her his death glare. As soon as she saw Gaara's frightful dark circled eyes she got the message and ran to the other side. He continued drinking his sake and drifting back into his little world. He hated the noise, the women and most of all, the atmosphere in the room. Why was everyone so happy? What was happiness? He had no clue…

Finally his target decided to leave a few hours later. He followed him outside where the street was very quiet. His target was a high ranked official with a hideous hair style. The well-built man had the sides of his scalp shaved leaving a ponytail in the middle. Gaara grabbed his short bladed katana and ran towards the man from the back. Before the official could turn his head around Gaara had already sliced it off.

He wrapped the head with a black cloth and made his way back to the manor. He held a blank expression and was devoid in any sentimental emotions. He did not care who he killed as long as it was ordered by his master, Orochimaru. He did not like nor hate his master, he gave him orders and he listened to them. Without Orochimaru Gaara would not know what to do with his life. After all, he had obeyed to Orochimaru ever since he was six.

#

When Gaara entered the big manor his brother and sister came to greet him. He nodded his head before ignoring them and making his way to his master. In a way he had blamed his siblings for the death of his precious mother. He recalled the two of them would hide behind a closet whenever his father started hitting his mother. His mother's body had endured too much beating and finally one day it gave up.

Flash back

That night after his father had finished beating the crap out of her, he ran out to gambol again. Gaara witnessed his mother crawling painfully on the floor and then the coughing started. He watched his mother cough specks of blood and finally a mouth full of it. He ran towards her dying body and helped lay her against the wall. She tried to smile but began to cough again. This time more blood oozed out…

She placed her clean hand, the one without blood to Gaara's face. She wiped the tear sliding down his face and whispered, "Don't cry, I will love you always…" Her eyes closed slowly before her hand fell from Gaara's cheek. In that instant he knew his mother was dead and nothing could bring her back to life. However, a small part of him still believed she was alive.

He wiped the blood off his mother's face and went to the closet and knocked the door. His sister came out slowly and asked, "Is it over? Has he gone?" He nodded his head and pointed to his mother. Temari asked again, "Why isn't she moving?" Gaara didn't answer but stared at her with unblinking eyes. Kankuro moved up to the body to check for a pulse and signs of breathing but there was none.

"Sh-she's dead," he said with shock in his voice.

Temari didn't believe him until she saw the blood in her mother's hand and the small speckles of blood on the ground. That night, Temari and Kankuro helped Gaara carry the body to their mother's favourite spot. It took them more than an hour but they managed to bring her to the hill where she watched the sun set.

They had no shovel so Gaara used his bare hands to dig a grave. The hard dirt didn't give way so the more he dug the more his fingers bled but he didn't care. No pain was greater than the loss of his precious mother. His siblings stood behind him and waited for him to finish digging.

When he had finished and carefully placed his mother inside the burial he poured dirt on top of her. His siblings helped him shovel the dirt in and he hated them for that. He wanted to bury his mother slowly but the dirt they shoveled had covered her face already. When they had finished and patted the dirt dry, Gaara picked up a hard stone to engrave his mother's name on a large rock where she used to sit and watch the sun set.

When he got home his father was fast asleep and unaware of what had happened. Gaara's mind was filled with hatred and revenge. He ran to the kitchen to grab a knife before making his way to his father. He slit his father's throat and watched his eyes bulge as he suffered from the pain. All Gaara felt was satisfaction…

End of flashback

When Orochimaru saw the head he gave Gaara some money before retuning to his room. Over the years Orochimaru had treated Sasuke much better than Gaara. The little red head would stand by a corner and watch the snake eyed man play with the other kid. He wanted to join and once he tried Orochimaru stopped playing with Sasuke instantly.

He was jealous of Sasuke and he envied the tasks Sasuke got than him. He didn't understand why Orochimaru had accepted him yet ignored him. He only knew that it was his eyes that captured Orochimaru's attention. The mere truth was that Gaara had reminded Orochimaru much of himself and that was why he took him in…

#

Lee woke up and stretched his arms before putting on his daily clothes. He began to do a few push ups with one hand on the floor until some noise outside distracted him. He went up to his window and pushed it open. As soon as he saw the two hair buns he recognized it was Tenten.

"Hey, good morning Tenten!" he called.

"Huh," said Tenten as she looked towards the direction of the voice, "YOU, how did you know my name and what are you doing here?"

"I'm Naruto's friend and incase you didn't know I'm your new master for the next two weeks," he replied.

"You what? My master, in your dreams!" exclaimed Tenten.

"Why don't you ask him?" Lee smirked.

"I will," grunted Tenten before picking up the bucket of clothing she dropped.

Lee opened the door to follow her and offered to carry the bucket. Tenten refused and asked, "What do you want? Don't bother me."

"I'm going to take you to see Naruto and I order you to put that down," demanded Lee as he grabbed for her hand.

"Ok ok, don't touch me. I can walk myself," stammered Tenten.

Lee let go and guided her to Naruto's room but on their way they bumped into him. Lee held a face filled of triumph and stated, "Naruto didn't you agree to offer Tenten to me as MY personal maid?"

Naruto looked at Tenten then to Lee, back and forth while twirling his fingers and finally muttered, "Ye-yes."

"Why?" Tenten demanded as she moved her eyes to Sakura hoping for moral support.

Naruto shrugged, Sakura was speechless and Sasuke didn't care. Although Sakura felt a little sorry for Tenten because the fuzzy eyebrow guy wasn't what you'd call handsome, she didn't know what to say. All of them continued their staring game until Lee broke the silence.

"Ok. I'm hungry so you're coming with me to eat outside!" declared Lee.

Tenten shifted her eyebrows as she thought about the outside, 'What was it like?' Suddenly she began to like the idea, maybe mushroom head here wasn't as bad as he seemed. Though she hated him for kissing and seeing her naked, her little brain began to plot of ways to pay him back.

She grinned and announced, "Ok fuzzy eyebrows, we're going outside!"

"Really, let's go my little buns," he replied.

"You call me that again and I'd bash you up!" roared Tenten.

"Go ahead…" Lee challenged before offering his hand again to lead the way. Tenten slapped his hand away and walked beside him.

#

After Lee and Tenten had left, Sasuke directed his delirious notion again, "Let's go princess."

"Look I think you need a doctor," replied Sakura still not believing him.

"But I have showed you the evidence and that silver haired man can prove I'm not lying," beckoned Sasuke.

"What makes you so sure I'm the princess?" she asked.

"The tattoo on your back…" whispered Sasuke but Naruto had managed to overhear.

"Back? How did you get to see Sakura's back? I want to see!" declared Naruto.

"I won't let you see," stated Sakura.

"But he got to see!" whined Naruto.

"That's because…" trailed Sakura.

"What?"

"Nothing..."

"Come on lets leave," demanded Sasuke.

"If she's going with you, I'm coming too!" announced Naruto and added, "It's time I have a little holiday. I need to protect my Sakura away from crazy people like you!"

"Who's crazy? You mean yourself, right," replied Sasuke.

"Listen you two, if we really are going I want to see my parents first," said Sakura.

"What parents? I'm taking you to see your parents!" stated Sasuke.

"Her real parents ya dummy!" chipped in Naruto.

After their brief discussion, the three of them began to pack some clothes and money. Naruto left Iruka a message that he's going on a holiday with Sakura and to take care of Grandma Uzamaki. He also ordered Iruka to tell Ino that he's not going to go to the ball. All this time he realized that he didn't like Ino in that way at all. She was only a childhood crush. Last night when he lied about taking Sakura to be his partner he felt so bad that he couldn't sleep…

#

After Lee and Tenten had eaten some congee and noodles for breakfast they began to stroll around the market. Tenten stopped abruptly when her eyes landed on a green suit… 'That's the weirdest suit I've ever seen,' she thought.

"Don't you think that suit's pretty?" she cooed.

Lee took one glance at it and smiled happily, "AH! I finally found one that looks exactly the same as my Dads!"

"…" Tenten.

D U R I A N

Firstly, I'd like to thank all those who have reviewed and especially: Kurama1fangrl-Eiri, Mourning Fox, Ebensutaru, digital-tiffany, Lumella, oOoshortayoOo, yuki san1 in the last chapter. Please give me some feed back, what did you think of Gaara? Which pairings do you prefer e.g. Saku/Gaa? Naru/Saku? One thing is definite Lee/Ten, cute pairing! I prefer not to give too much of the story away but one thing: 'Do you really think Orochimaru will be good in this story?' I don't think so…

Your comments do matter and will contribute to the story. They also stimulate my motivation to update. I suppose I should study more rather than putting my time into this but I enjoy writing as much as I hope you enjoy reading. I think I update quite often, well at least I do update… You know, I also have a part time job and think of me as Naru (Love Hina) who is studying for her university entrance!  

Please give me some Pocky or durians, I love them both… XD