Author: Che Heh

Chapter 2:

"What am I going to do?" Says Naruto as he continues his search for a shirt that would not be as tight as his pants were. He picks up the biggest shirt he could find in the piled mess "Great, all I have is this black t-shirt that's also tight..." he looks to the other shirts that were even smaller than the one he was holding. "Oh well. It's the only one left. I guess I have to go shopping...Meaning... I have to reveal my new self to the village. I wonder how they're going to react."

As he slowly puts on the tight shirt, he goes through different scenes through his mind of how everyone in the village would react and frankly, each and every one of those scenes had no good side. He tried to ignore the thoughts and get them out of his head. He walks to the door and puts his shoes on. But as Naruto was about to open the door, stops his hand as it reached for the knob.

Can I do this? Can I face the world with another day of rejection? What if they hate the new me even more? He takes a step back. The hair upon my head is longer than I am used to, for it's up to my neck. My body is scrawny because I hadn't had much to eat. I look more like a girl then a boy. Maybe I should use the sexy-technique... On second thoughts... maybe not.

As his tension ran out of his body, Naruto recovers as much courage he could find in himself and opens the door of his small apartment with his fingers trembling as he turned the brass knob. Well world, I'm taking this my last chance to be noticed. So..... WATCH OUT!!. He swings the door open and lets a bright light enter the dark room his eyes were accustomed to.

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As he walks through the village as if nothing had happened in the valley, many stares were upon him and he already knew why all their gazes were fixed on him. They were afraid. All of them. Now why was that? Ah. The most reasonable explanation is probably because he had confined himself for three months. Gaara keeps walking down the street, staring at all the children playing together and laughing together.

If... if I didn't have this monster inside me then... I would have been like them. I could have been loved and cherished by friends and by family. All because of this... thing. All because of it, I am truly alone.

He reaches his 'home' and walks into the darkness as the sun rose higher. But suddenly, he feels extremely cold fingers gently touch the back of his neck. Fear runs up his body.

Gaara turns his body expecting to see some strong person, but there was no one there in his sight range. He quickly runs deeper into the dark empty hallway. What was that? He looks around more, only to find disappointment of not finding what he was looking for. "Gaara.... " A familiar voice changed to sound more frightening echoed in the dark halls.

"Ya...Ya...Yashamaru?" Gaara trembles as he whispers the name. The memories of Yashamaru rush through his mind, every single one of them bringing him pain.

Flashback

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Gaara-age (I think he was 5 or 6)

Gaara is in the room he was given and feels sad after the incident at the valley grounds. Mother? Did I do something to scare the other children away? He thinks as he stares at the only picture he had of her. He picks a knife up and holds its sharp end downward, letting it glisten under the artificial light in the room. As he lowered the knife to stab his hand, sand stops the small blade from going any further then an inch from his untouchable skin. "It's no use... The sand interferes." He says as a sad expression comes over the small boy.

"Gaara-sama"

"Ya...Yashamaru!" Gaara says in shock with his small weak voice.

Yashamaru walks over to the small, young boy. "I was ordered by Kaze-kage-sama to be your caretaker." He tilts his head and puts a weak smile on his face. "Please don't do such a think in front of me."

Gaara looks down with a cheerless face upon it.

"Hehe. But then again the sand will protect you." He says as he rubs the back of his head.

"Yashamaru, I'm sorry." Gaara says with the same expression that never goes away.

"Huh? Oh. This." He says with a crack of a smile as he looks at his arm and touches his forehead lightly, remembering what had happened at the children's valley. "It's only a scratch."

Gaara looks up at him with a combination of curiosity and sadness. "Do wounds... itaii?

"Just a little. It will heal quickly, though." Still with a small smile.

"Hey, Yashamaru?"

"Yes?"

"What does pain feel like?" Yashamaru stares at Gaara with a solemn face. "I've never been hurt before, so I was wondering how it felt..."

"Hmm...How should I explain this...?" His eyes wonder as he tries to think of an explanation understandable to a child. "It's painful and unbearable... like when a person is shot or cut, he becomes very ill at ease and he can't think normally. Haha, I can't explain it very well, but to simply put it, it's not a very good condition to be in." He rubs the back of his head again in embarrassment.

Gaara stares attentively at the covered wound on Yashamaru's arm. Then his eyes start to water. "Yashamaru."

"Hai?"

"Then, do you hate me, Yashamaru?" He says, trying to look like as if he didn't care, but does not succeed. Yashamaru gazes at Gaara's gloomy, down casted eyes with his own in shock of what he had just heard out of the little boy in front of him.

"People hurt each other and get hurt during their lifetimes. Demo it is difficult to hate another."

Gaara's eyes brighten up as a smile grows upon his face. "Arigato, Yashamaru! I think I understand what itaii is, now."

"Really?"

"Maybe I'm injured, too, like everyone else. I'm always hurt here..." He guides his hand to his chest where his heart beats. "I'm not bleeding, demo my chest hurts here."

Yashamaru stares at him again with a solemn face mixed with sadness. He walks toward Gaara and then levels his body so that he was the same height as him. He takes the knife from the small boy and stares at it for a bit until he pressed the cold, sharp steel against his own finger without a flinch.

Gaara immediately gasps in shock of what Yashamaru had just done to himself before his eyes. He stares at the blood trickling down unto the floor.

"Flesh wounds bleed, and they may seem painful...demo... as time goes by, the pain eases and eventually will disappear. And if you use medicine the wound will heal even faster. But the tricky wounds are the ones in your heart. Those are difficult to heal."

Gaara, still within deep shock, looks up from the petite wound on Yashamaru's finger. "A wound of the heart?"

"A wound of the heart is different from a flesh wound. Unlike a flesh wound, there is no ointments to heal it and, and there are times when they never heal." Yashamaru explains.

Gaara again has his hand reach and touch the part of his chest where his heart lies. His eyes avoid Yashamaru's with great sadness.

Yashamaru continues "Demo; there is one thing that can heal a wound of the heart." Gaara's attention was caught. "It's a troublesome medicine and only you can receive it from another person."

"Nanni? How can I heal this...?" Gaara asks with great interest.

Yashamaru cracks yet another smile and replies as he stares at his late twin sister, Gaara's mother. "The thing that can heal this wound of the heart ... Is Ai chyodesu..."

"Ai Chyo?"

"Hai."

"H-How can I get that? What should I do to get rid of this pain?"

"Gaara-sama, you have already received it."

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End of Flashback

The end of the flashback came as the pain slowly left his head. Gasping for air, Gaara notices he is sitting against the wall he had bumped into earlier. The sand did not raze to protect me from that hand. Why? Unless. NO. It couldn't be a ghost. Could it?

Remembering the lost voice he had heard just a moment ago, he feels a chill crawl down his spine. Was that really Yashamaru? But he's dead... isn't he?

"Ai Chyo..." The voice whispered.

Love? Gaara's eyes, more awaken than before, looks down both ways of the hall with fear growing in him

"Who's there?" He yells. NO answer comes to his question. "What do you want?" He yells another question. This time a respond occurred.

"You are not alone... you need to find your other half... then you shall be whole and find true happiness..."The voice was loud and clear, it had an echo follow the sound as it traveled through the hallways.

After a minute or so, no sound came to be through the halls. Its silence made Gaara fear grow rapidly.

"Yashamaru? Yashamaru?! ONE GAI! Don't leave me again! YASHAMARU!" Gaara yells with great grief and fear in the trembling voice as tears yet again fill his eyes, only this time of fear and sadness. He sat there crying, knowing no one would hear, he still cried out for his late caretaker.

"Yashamaru...Dooshite?" He manages to speak with his unstable voice as he still sat against the wall crying. "And what do you mean by 'My other half'?" Still sitting, unable to stand up, He looks up into the deeply shadowed ceiling as the tears roll out of his dark circled eyes and down his pale cheek.

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As he had expected, many of the villagers gave him stares as he entered the market place. Yet, they weren't the stares he had anticipated. Instead of the hateful eyes he was used to, the stares were of two, curiosity by the men and flirty eyes by women with open, smiling mouths.

What? Do I look like a ramen bowl or something?

He kept walking until he finally reaches he destination, the clothing store. As he steps in, the women in the store all gasp and start whispering to each other while still staring at him with blushes all over their faces. Ignoring them he quickly walks toward the men's side of the stare and looks through the clothing. I knew I should have tried to find a larger shirt. He thought as he pulled the unyielding shirt down as it slowly rises every so and so.

A women near by comes over to Naruto shyly. "Ohayoo Gozaimasu. May I help you with anything in particular? A shirt? Pants? Underwear? A girlfriends outfit?" She blushes and turns even more red then blood.

"Oh, uh... I just need some shirts and some pants." He rubs the back of his neck with his hands. "Sorry I don't have a girlfriend."

Once he said that the girl turned to the other women who worked at the store and whispered some words he could not hear. But he did not have hear for he already knew what she had told them by the way all of them rushed their way towards him.

"Hey cutie!"

"Are you from Konoha?"

"What brings you to our small village?"

"How come I haven't seen you around here honey?"

"What's your name?"

The women were practically hugging him. Naruto blushes like crazy and becomes a bit embarrassed. "Umm... you don't recognize me? It's me. Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." All the women froze in place of what they were doing and had faces of extreme surprise. Then the one girl that came to him first laughs. "AHAHAHAHA! Your such a funny guy! I guess you already know about the fox kid?" All the other girls joined her in laughing.

"Well... Hajimemashite to you too." Naruto says with a little sarcasm. "So I guess I'm a 'Fox Kid Hottie' now?"

All the women stopped laughing and gawked at him with stares of astonishment. No sound came... until...

"EEEEHHHIII?!?!?!?!?" They all shriek at the top of their lungs. What did I do?

I'll update soon.