Vindicated

Chapter four: The forgotten birthday

Ah...gomen gomen for taking so long. I'm kinda grounded and not allowed on the computer. (shukaku: and one must ask why you're on now) ahem...on with the chapter!

ooh! did anyone else see the toonami preview for Naruto? yatta! I'm so excited! I know people are upset about the voices and all but I don't really care.

(4th period Gym-Gaara)

"Hi Gaara!"

Gaara looked up in surprise from where he sat on the bleachers. Sakura was running up to him with a big smile on her face. She had a bag in her hand was looked thoroughly pleased with herself.

"Hi Sakura," Gaara replied.

"You're back! I've been worried! Guess what!"

"What?" he asked, curiously.

"You're going to play with us today," she said, brightly.

Gaara frowned, turning away and biting his lip. "I don't want to," he told her. The shorts and t-shirt revealed too much of himself for him to be comfortable.

"I don't care."

Gaara's face turned into the 'damn it' anime face. He'd heard that before. It meant he didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Look, look!" she shoved the bag into his lap. "I thought that maybe you didn't like to wear the shorts and stuff or something. Lots of people don't like wearing shorts. I do, I wear them all the time," here Gaara leaned down to rest his head on his hands. This could take a while. "Well, I mean, when I'm not wearing skirts or it's too cold to wear shorts. I mean it is winter and all that so I haven't been wearing any lately, but maybe you didn't cause I know Tenten doesn't like wearing shorts or skirts and she's a girl and you might be the same cause you're a boy. So, anyway, I talked to Anko-sensei and she got you a special uniform." She patted the bag on his lap. "Go change," she said pushing him towards the boys locker room.

Inwardly groaning and wondering how Sakura doesn't die from lack of breath, Gaara walked into the locker room and searched for his locker. Thankfully it was in the back where the left over lockers for late transfers were, where no one could watch him change. Taking out the clothes she gave him and quickly glancing around. Seeing no one, he quickly pulled his shirt off and pulled the new one on, just as fast. It was a small, but still made him look small himself. He switched pants next, noting that his new ones were the kind of athletic pants Neji wore a lot, though in his opinion they looked better on Neji then on his scrawny body, but they were light and also comfortable to move in.

After shoving his things in his locker, he looked into the mirror, making sure no marks or scars could be seen. He then quickly headed towards the door. All the boys stared at him as he passed. Two weeks had gone by and they hadn't seen him dress once. Gaara left the room as fast as he could and went to hide on the bleachers.

Two weeks… had they really been there that long? Gaara stared up at the ceiling deep in thought. Yeah they had been there two weeks, but he had missed all of last week and most of this week; so, technically, he'd only been there for two days.

Gingerly, he reached down and touched himself. Everywhere still hurt from last Sunday. He laughed quietly to himself. Blood Sunday, isn't that the song they played this morning before homeroom? Yes it was. And that was what it had been. His father's friends had come over that night. They'd gotten drunk and things got rough. On top of that, his father had found the new clothes and decided that he stole money from him and punished him for that as well. Temari and Kankurou lied the whole time he was out to their father, telling him he was at school or at a friend's house, while he was really in Kankurou's room, where their father never went. Not wanting to stay in the house anymore, Gaara insisted on coming to school that day. He was glad Sakura had gotten him long pants. His legs had large bruises on them and were almost as thin as his arms. Sighing sadly, Gaara wrapped his arms around his drawn up knees and buried his face in them. His thoughts and quiet peace was interrupted when Anko-sensei came over after she had started the class running warm ups.

"Gaara-san, I'm very happy your back and I appreciate you dressing today, but I'd like it if you would participate," she said.

Gaara sighed and stiffly stood up. Instead of jogging however, he decided to just walk. It still hurt to move, let along run. However, some people didn't want him to walk.

"Hey new kid!" said a loud voice behind him.

Turning, he saw a kid with spiky blond hair and bright blue eyes jogging in place behind him.

"Why aren't you running?" he asked.

Gaara didn't answer. Another boy, apparently the blond's friend, came up on his other side.

"Running's fun," the other boy said.

Gaara still didn't answer, hoping they'd just go away. They didn't. Instead they both grabbed his arms and wrist and began running dragging him along. The healing cuts and bruises wrenched, it was all he could do to keep the tears that jerked to his eyes from falling.

Unintentionally, he yelled at them angrily to stop. Surprised, they did and asked what was wrong. Again, he didn't answer them. Turning, he ran into the gym's side hallway where the water fountains were. Wrapping his arms around himself to try to repress the pain shooting through his whole body, he slumped down against the wall to the floor and stayed there, shaking horribly and trying to even out his breath again.

A few minutes later, Sakura came into the hallway with Ino and the two boys.

"Gaara-kun, are you ok?" she asked.

Gaara nodded.

"Sorry man," the second boy, who had dark brown hair and red marks on his face, said. "We didn't mean to pull so hard." The blond nodded his agreement.

Gaara continued to stare at the floor and mumbled that it was ok. They hadn't pulled hard, but he wasn't about to tell them that.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto," said the blond. "And this is Inuzuma Kiba."

"Gaara," came the quiet reply.

"Hey! You know what? You're in our 1st period class!" Naruto said.

Gaara nodded. He knew. He'd seen him earlier that morning complaining about work to Genma. Kiba was in there too. He sat next to the boy who never talked and wore sunglasses inside.

Sakura and Ino knelt down in front of him. "You wanna come play with us?" Sakura asked. "We wont do anything big, just pass the ball around." She held her hand out for him to take.

"Wont you be bored just passing the ball around?" he asked them.

"No. Duh!" Ino said, casually flick-waving her hand. "You could seriously break something doing that! Like a nail or something!"

Gaara stared up at her almost laughing. She was serious. He took Sakura's hand and she hauled him up to his feet. They pushed him back into the gym and Kiba went and found a ball. They moved to their own little space and started bouncing the ball to each other chatting away.

"Hey, Hinata told me you hang out with her cousin," Kiba said to Gaara.

"I went over his house on Saturday, but 2nd period today was the first time since then I've seen him," Gaara replied passing the ball to Ino.

"Yeah, where've you been!" Sakura asked. "You've been gone for, like, forever."

"Sick." Gaara mumbled, not looking at her.

"I can't believe you went over Neji's house," Ino squealed.

Gaara looked confused for a minute. "But…you were there too," he reminded her.

"Yeah, but I was with Hinata-chan," Ino said. "You were hanging out with Neji! Do you realize how lucky you are?"

Gaara shook his head.

"You were with Neji," she screeched in a quiet voice. "He's like one of the hottest guys in school! Why did you get to do it?"

"I—I'm sorry…" Gaara replied, starting to fear her frantically insane voice.

"Hey Gaara, you know how Kiba knows Hinata?" Naruto said changing the subject. A mischievous grin plastered on his face.

Gaara shrugged.

"She's like his girlfriend," Naruto said.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Kiba argued. "She's just a friend who happens to be a girl. Just like….Haku's a boy that happens to be gay. This makes the world diverse."

As Gaara wondered who this Haku was, a sudden voice sounded from behind Kiba.

"Why does it matter if I'm gay?"

Gaara looked up at the kid standing behind the boy. Gaara had seen a lot of interesting people in his life. Lots of strange boy. Lots of strange girls. Lots of normal boys and lots of normal girls. This person however, beat them all. He didn't fit any category. He was his own category. Gaara tilted his head to one side and peered. This guy was definitely … genderless. Yes he was wearing a boys gym uniform. Yes he was on the boys side. Yes Kiba said Haku was a boy. But Haku did not look like a boy and Gaara was very confused. Wait, didn't Kankurou have a word for these? 'poigs', person of indeterminate gender. That's what it was. Haku was a 'poig'.

"Hey Haku," the four replied.

"Ooh, who's this?" Haku asked when he caught sight of Gaara.

"This is Gaara, he just moved here," Kiba said. "Gaara, Haku."

Haku peered at Gaara leaning WAY into his personal bubble. He had a funny look in his eyes he later found out from Sakura were called 'bedroom eyes'. Gaara swallowed hard, feeling suddenly nervous.

"Is that so?" he practically purred.

Gaara broke out in a sweat.

"Welcome to the school," he said leaning in closer. "I could show you around if you want."

Gaara was near freaking out and was extremely thankful when Sakura and Ino pulled him away from that long haired….poig.

"Geez, Haku…don't molest the kid on his first day back!" Ino said glaring.

Haku stared at her poking his fingers together with a 'aren't I cute? Why are you yelling at me?' face. "Why would I do that? Is that all you really think I am? Ino-chan your so mean!" he glared at her. "Fine I'll leave!"

Haku gave a humph and walked away, but not before tilting his head so he could see Gaara and gave him a smile and a wink.

The four turned back to Gaara who had officially turned to stone.

"Gaara-san! Please come here!" Anko-sensei called from where she stood with her clip board.

Sakura and Ino pushed Gaara over to her.

"That's Haku?" Gaara said in a funny voice.

"Yep!"

"You don't seem to like him that much…"

"What makes you think that?" Sakura asked.

"We've been friend since like we were in like kindergarden and he was like in 3rd grade. He lives like right next door," Ino said, smiling.

"…oh…." Gaara said still stone.

"I need your information," Anko said, smiling as they came up to her. "What's your birthday?"

Silence.

"Gaara?"

Sakura poked him.

"Huh?" Gaara blinked and came out of his daze.

"Birthday?"

"Oh…um…January 19th—"

"Tomorrow!" Sakura asked, happily.

Gaara was quiet for a while. "…….yes…tomorrow…"

Anko smiled at him. "Fourteen?"

Gaara nodded.

Anko got the rest of his information such as his height and weight, etc. Gaara answered or did what she asked him, but he became distant and very quiet. When they were done, Gaara didn't feel like playing anymore and snuck off into the locker room, changed back into his clothes and stayed there until all the other boys came into the room to change themselves. He slipped up the stairs and out the gym door. He had lunch next, but instead of going to the cafeteria, he went into his hiding spot, where he could sit and not be stared at by all the kids in the cafeteria, in between the vending machines to eat the lunch Temari packed.

He ate a few small bites of the sandwich, but his stomach hurt and wasn't hungry so he put it down. He hadn't eaten in a while, but he still didn't feel like eating. His father was punishing him for sneaking food from the kitchen. Temari and Kankurou snuck him as much food as they could, but their father could always tell and yelled at them and punished him later. He was starving, but he couldn't force the food down.

Tomorrow was his birthday, he'd forgotten. Kankurou and Temari would do something tomorrow morning before school or later in the night; they always did. But his father was always harsher around his birthday. He didn't know why.

Shaking his head to clear the thoughts away, he looked out and watched the people walk by, completely oblivious to his presence.

Great.

Now he was depressed.

(7th period English Neji Kankurou)

"WHAT!"

"Neji-san! One more out burst from you will get you standing in the hall!"

"Sorry sensei," Neji said, sitting back down. He turned to the amused Kankurou and said in a much quieter voice, "tomorrow's Gaara's birthday?"

"Yep," Kankurou said, grinning.

"We should have a party," Hinata commented, voice low and calm as usual, as she tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear, only to let it fall right back in front of it.

Neji nodded eagerly.

"A sleepover!" Kiba put in excitedly. "No wait!...A SURPRISE sleepover!"

"Gaara's never had a party or been to a sleepover before," Kankurou mused aloud absentmindedly.

"NO!" the two boys cried in shock, while Hinata simply raised an eye brow.

"Our family's not big on birthdays…and Gaara's never really had friends before," Kankurou explained.

"Well, he's got lots of friends now," Kiba said. He held out his fingers and began counting. "Me (they just met, but that was enough for Kiba), Naruto (see last (…)), Sakura, Ino, Neji and Hinata and I guess Haku, but I'm not sure we should invite him….but then again he'll come anyway… That's a bunch of people, and everyone likes parties so…."

Neji suddenly stood and raised his hand. "Sensei, I forgot, I need to use the phone to call my uncle about something important. May I do that now?" he asked.

"Take the pass."

Neji went downstairs. As he passed though the second floor (why someone made a school where you have to pass through each floor to get to the next was beyond him), he happened to glance into one classroom and saw Gaara sitting at his desk. He smiled as he peeked in at him, but it disappeared when he saw his expression. The redhead looked very upset or depressed and was staring at his desk. Every once and a while, he touched his stomach and side, wincing slightly at every touch.

Flashback of when Neji saw Gaara's face in the 7/11

Flashback of when they first saw each other in the office, Gaara rubbing his neck

'Bruises…' Neji stared wide-eyed again. 'What the hell…?'

Turning back he quickly ran down the hallway and downstairs to the nearest phone. He dialed the number and waited.

"Hyuga Hiashi's office."

"Hi, I'd like to speak to my uncle please; this is Neji," he said into the phone.

"Hold on."

….pause….

"Good afternoon, Neji. Is something wrong?"

"No nothing's wrong. I just have a favor."

"I'm listening."

"I just found out that Gaara's birthday is tomorrow and I was wondering if we could have a sleepover tomorrow night at the house for him."

"Of course, that's a good idea."

"But if I give you the number, will you call their dad when you're free and ask him? Kankurou doesn't think he'll let them go to a sleepover."

"I will call him tonight."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Get back to class."

Gaara looked up from where he laid on the floor doing his homework when a knock sounded at Kankurou's door. Kankurou had his head phone's on, so he got up and went over to the door and opened it, surprised to see his father.

"Why did I even give you a room of your own?" the man demanded the instant he saw his youngest son. Gaara started to stammer out an answer, but was interrupted. "I just got off the phone with a Mr. Hyuga Hiashi."

Gaara swallowed, finding his voice. "That's Neji's uncle," he said.

"Yes…he wants the three of you to come over to a sleepover with a few kids from school," he said, peering down at him. He frowned as Gaara's face lit up. Unable to stand his cheerful face, he lashed out smacking him across the face. "Get that stupid look off your face."

Gaara bit his lip and squeezed his eyes shut. Behind him Kankurou took his head phones off, anticipating.

"Do you want to go?"

Gaara stared, wondering how to answer.

"Answer me!"

"Yes! I—I want to go…" he looked down at the floor.

His father humphed and looked over him at Kankurou. Gaara stayed where he was, rubbing the red mark on his face, as his father told Kankurou the same thing. Casually, Kankurou said he remembered Neji saying something like that. Their father paused, then glanced back at Gaara, then returned to Kankurou.

"I'm allowing the three of you to go. Go home with the two Hyuga children tomorrow."

"Alright," Kankurou said, annoyance dripping in his voice, like he didn't care and wanted his father to leave.

Gaara watched their father walk away down the hall into his room before closing the door to Kankurou's room.

"How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"…..he…he said yes…"

Kankurou shrugged, taking the head phone out of his stereo so they both could listen. Gaara sat down next to the bed and leaned his head against it, sighing. Kankurou frowned at his homework and reached over, ruffling Gaara hair. He could tell that wasn't the 'how'd you do that?' Gaara had meant. If Gaara had talked to his father like that … Kankurou didn't want to think about that.

Kankurou's cell phone rang. Closer, Gaara reached over and picked it up. Glancing at the screen he held it up for his brother.

"Ichu Meato." Gaara said. "Who's that?"

"Here," Kankurou took the phone. "Yeah?" he said into it. "….what? are you serious?...when….alright I'll be there." Kankurou hung up and got off the bed. "I have to go. I'll be back later, kay?"

"Where're you going?"

"…out…"

Gaara watched him walked out and heard him open and shut the front door. Now bored, he got up himself and went downstairs and out into the back yard. Not tired at all, he climbed into a tree where he stayed the night, deep in thought.

He watched as the sun came up the next morning. When it did he smiled at it, rather sadly, and quietly sang happy birthday to himself as the first lights of morning spread from the top of the tree down to where he sat near the bottom.

After he finished he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew he hit the ground after being dragged out of the tree.

"What the fuck are you doing out here?"

'..oh, shit…'

A hand reached out and grabbed a handful of his hair, wrenching him upwards. His father continued to shout at him, but Gaara was to preoccupied with the pain from his hair to listen. A fist connected with his stomach, causing him to loose whatever was left of his meager dinner from last night. Ignoring this, his father turned and went back into the house, a firm grip still on Gaara's hair. When Gaara started to cry out in pain, his father stopped and turned, grabbing his face and roughly forcing him to look at him.

"I don't want to hear another sound out of you," was the only warning he gave before continuing back to the house, dragging Gaara with him.

Later when Temari came down to make breakfast she found Gaara under the table, leaning against the wall. As she leaned down to asking if he was alright, he quickly wiped his eyes and smiled saying he was fine. He tried to not let Temari see that he had been crying. She did, but didn't say anything.

He crawled out and, as he stood, she hugged him and whispered 'happy birthday' in his ear.

Half of Gaara wanted to know what was there to be happy about. The other half wanted to start crying again because she remembered. He did neither though. He simply hugged her back and said thank you.

Kankurou came into the room just as Temari finished packing their breakfast. He looked exhausted and blindly, half asleep, went over to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup of coffee. After he had a few large gulps of the dark liquid, Kankurou smiled at them and told Gaara happy birthday, smiling wider.

Gaara watched them from the stool where he had sat watching Temari make breakfast. Something was different about them, but he wasn't sure what it was. When it was time to go they picked up their book bags and bags of spare clothes. As they walked outside, they found their father waiting for them but his car.

"What time are you coming back tomorrow?" he asked.

"Sometime before lunch I guess," Temari said.

"All three of you?"

"…..why wouldn't we come together?" Kankurou demanded.

Their father paused, glaring at Kankurou, who didn't stand down from his glare at all, but glared back. Their father broke the staring contest by scoffing at them and getting in his car. He drove off, coming so close to them that Gaara had to jump back to avoid getting hit. As the car disappeared around the corner, Kankurou gave him the finger.

"…asshole…" he muttered, putting his head phones on.

(Homeroom-Gaara)

Gaara sat down in homeroom and opened the box Temari had given him. It was pancakes, he had watched her make them, but these had chocolate chips and little banana slices in them. He got a funny look on his face (dots for eyes and question marks floating around his head). When had she put them in? He'd been watching her the whole time…

Shrugging it off, he poured the syrup Temari had packed on top and scarfed up all three before the bell rang.

The day continued, passing slowly for everyone. Kankurou, Temari and a select few others were all looking forward to the party that night. Gaara was depressed all day, despite the pancakes and Temari's hug. None of his friends acknowledged his birthday; not even Sakura and Ino who knew about it said anything. He was use to this, no one before besides his siblings said anything about his birthday, but maybe he was just expecting more this year then he should've.
Hinata's father sent a black suv to pick the five of them up after school and take them to the house. After dropping their stuff off, Temari and Kankurou said they had forgotten something and left Gaara with Neji, who took Gaara out back.

"You wanna play some?" Neji asked, taking the ball from where he'd last left it.

"No, thanks…sorry," Gaara said sitting in the shade of a tree.

"Just a little? It's awfully boring to play alone," Neji said, tossing the ball from one hand to another.

"No," Gaara replied, still feeling depressed. "Sorry…I just don't wanna."

"Alright," Neji said and began kicking the ball from one end of the big yard to the other, chasing after it or tackling it, practicing each of the positions. He looked pretty ridiculous to Gaara, but he seemed to be having fun. Gaara zoned out watching him, but came back quickly when Neji called, "Catch!" before kicking the ball.

The ball was moving slowly and Neji was pretty far away. He could have caught it, it wasn't going to hurt him in the slightest, but Gaara reacted by covering his face with his arms and letting it hit him and fall to the ground. Concerned, Neji ran up to him and knelt down in front of him. The redhead was shaking, though he didn't appear to be hurt.

"Sorry," Gaara said, not looking at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Liar," Neji said moving so he could see his face better. "What's wrong?"

"I just don't want to play!" Gaara said insisted in an upset voice. Neji didn't move. He just waited patiently. Gaara glanced up at him from the corner of his eye. "…..do you know…what today it?"

"Friday," he replied, smiling, like he was a total genius.

"Yeah," Gaara said looking back down.

Neji sighed sadly. He'd wanted to keep it a secret, but he couldn't help it. He couldn't stand the expression on Gaara's face. He placed his hand's on Gaara's drawn up knees and rested his head on his hands so that all Gaara could see of his face was his nose and eyes.

"I know what today is," he said in a teasing voice.

Gaara blinked and looked up at him. "You do?"

"Yep. It's January 19th."

Gaara: ultimate depression.

"I'm kidding!" Neji cried laughing, sitting back on the grass. "Happy birthday. I'd sing, but I'm actually not that good…"

They say people can forget things when they get old, but can remember one specific thing about a person. The thing Neji would never forget would definitely be the way Gaara's face lit up so happily when he said that.