Lost and Found

By: Junsui Kegasu

A/N: Whoo! Those long chapters didn't take that long to write (Four days!) So, I'll make more!

Disclaimer: Don' own it, never will.

Chapter Nine
"So…Temari, what's so exciting?" Kankurou inquired of the blonde as she twirled into the doorway of their house.

"It's Wednesday! WEDNESDAY!" She laughed aloud, flopping down on the couch.

"…What about Wednesday?" Gaara asked quietly.

"EVEN YOU DON'T KNOW? Wednesday is when Dad is ALWAYS out drinking 'till midway through Thursday! We don't have to worry about him until tomorrow! I'm so happy! It's such a weight off my chest. You two didn't remember it?" She asked, pausing in her glee to blink at her younger brothers.

"…I remember there was a day when nothing happened…" Gaara said after a long while. "Once a week…yeah…I never bothered keeping track of it." he shrugged and walked up to his room.

"So…is there anything you wanted to do?" Kankurou gave her a quizzical look. There must have been something else going on, or she wouldn't be freaking out this much.

"WELL! Every Wednesday, there's this thing that goes on after school. Like a pep rally 'n stuff!" She squealed, sounding very delighted.

Kankurou stared. She'd gotten lucky. Their father had never permitted them to do any after school stuff, unless they were on a Wednesday, because he didn't know about it then.

"So…you'll start that…next week?" he said, painted eyebrow still raised.

She nodded enthusiastically. "I'm so happy! You and Gaara should find something you two could do every Wednesday."

"We should. Hm…" he dug around in his pockets for a while before finding a slip of paper that Neji had given him with his number on it. Finding it, he smoothed it out and went to page the portable phone from wherever it was in the house.

Up in his room, Gaara flipped the switch for his stereo and put in Papa Roach (One of the authoresses new favorites!) He automatically went to his favorite song, which he could now play without fear.

'I tear my heart open. I sew myself shut. My weakness is that I care too much. And our scars remind me that the past is real. I tear my heart open just to feel.'

He would never have been able to play that with his father present. He didn't own a CD player; he never really knew why he owned the stereo. It had used to be Kankurou's.

Suddenly feeling the need for hygiene, he reached into the plastic bags he had brought up with him and pulled out a pair of black pants littered with red string sewed in odd patterns as well as numerous chains crisscrossing all over the place. Reaching into another, he pulled out a black shirt that said 'I'm not racist. I hate everybody equally.' in grey and bright red. Reaching into the third, he pulled out the pair of fishnet sleeves that Kankurou had so graciously bought him and grabbing a few other clothing items, walked into the bathroom.

He didn't know why he felt the need to shower, he just did. Maybe it was to take advantage of their father's absence. And since he knew he wasn't going to be home for a while, no fear plagued him.

He almost felt normal. Kind of like how he had felt around Neji.

Checking the temperature of the water, he stripped and stepped in, reveling in the heat from the water trailing down years of suffering. He closed his eyes. The hot water felt really good against some of the new markings, and made the scars fade a little for the time being.

He would've stood there all evening if Kankurou hadn't come banging on the door five minutes later.

"Neji's coming over!" he called cheerfully.

"Again?" His voice echoed through the steam and water.

"Yeah! Sure! But, I need to take your temp when you get outta there. Your fever went up at the mall." He said apologetically, knowing Gaara's intense hatred of a thermometer.

The redhead sighed. "Fine." He said disdainfully.

"Yeah, that means don't take forever."

"….Oh."

Scowling, he relaxed in the water for a few more minutes before washing his hair and doing a gentle scrub down of his body. As he was stepping out of the shower, he noticed a pink razor that must have belonged to Temari. Curious, he gently plucked the thing from the shower ledge and studied it. It looked sharp and dangerous.

This is what girls use, boy.

Gaara scowled at the stupid voice in his head. He placed the blade on his wrist, right over an area where three largish veins could be seen through his pale skin.

The demon laughed at him. Gaara closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and swiped. Opening one insomnia-lined eye, he stared at the sand hovering hardly a millimeter over his wrist, with a deep double-lined imprint in it.

The laughing grew louder.

You really thought it'd work? Here, I'll humor you.

A small tendril of sand snaked its way to his right index finger. There was a slight sting, and then a drop of blood grew.

Amuse yourself with that for a while. Put the razor down; you'll never get to use that.

Staring in fascination at his bleeding fingertip, he placed the razor down on the ledge again, dried off (being careful to avoid the blood that was now running down his finger) and continued to stare.

He glanced at the shirt. He'd have to wash the blood off before putting it on. Reluctantly, he ran the sink water on cold and placed the bleeding digit under the flow of water.

Once all the blood was washed off, he went to his shirt and slipped it on easily. He was pretty sure they had gotten a small, but it still seemed big on him, coming past his hips.

He slipped on a pair of black boxers and the pants, snapping and zipping something that hadn't been before, and arranging the chains to his tastes. Slipping his arms through the fishnet sleeves, he quickly rubbed his hair dry with a towel and ran a comb through it before walking out.

Neji hung up with Kankurou, who had told him to just be right over, wrote a note to his uncle, and decided to time how fast he could get over there. Neji was quite an athletic person, even though he decidedly didn't do any sports at school. All the boys who did sports at school were the jocks like Uzumaki Naruto or Uchiha Sasuke. Wasn't his type.

Turning the corner about thirty seconds after leaving his house, he came to theirs. Pleased, he walked up the steps and knocked on the door.

Kankurou stared, bewildered at the door. It couldn't be Neji. No way in hell was that Neji. He still decided to chance it, even though it was probably one of his father's friends or something…

Cautiously, he opened the white door. His eyes grew to saucers.

"HOLY FIZZLE, NEJI, HOW THE HOLY HELL DID YOU DO THAT!" he exclaimed at the hardly-out-of-breath figure on his porch. The boy just shrugged and sheepishly put a hand behind his head.

Gaara chose that time to come down the stairs, an inquiring look on his face directed towards his older brother. "Hi Neji." He told the person in the doorway. "What were you screaming about?"

"Uh…nothing." Kankurou said, wondering if Neji had skillz. Gaara just shrugged it off. "So…what're we gonna do today?" he asked.

Neji blinked. "We didn't have anything planned yet?"

"Uh…nope!"

"We could…hang out, walk around, probably wouldn't be best to go to the mall again…" he listed many other suggestions before shrugging.

"I like the 'hang out' one." Gaara said quietly.

"Alright! Sure. There's hardly anything to do here; unlike what most people think, Gaara is an arcade bum and doesn't own DDR, but if he did, man, even I play that game!" he said proudly.

"…Yeah, on LIGHT." Gaara laughed.

Neji was completely lost (and so are half of you, so I'll explain it at the end of the chapter).

"Um…speaking of, Gaara, how IS your fever." Neji asked, hoping Kankurou didn't invite him over knowing Gaara was sick.

"What fever?" Temari insisted, but was ignored.

"I feel fine. Don't come near me with that thing, I'm liable to bite." He warned at Kankurou, who held the thermometer.

Kankurou considered this. "It'd be high anyways. Neji, you don't know hot showers until you know how hot Gaara takes them. Even in the friggen DESERT."

Neji laughed at Gaara attempting to explain himself to his brother, which involved a lot of arm waving and stammering.

"…Gaara, are you bleeding?" Temari asked from her spot on the couch.

'Crap!' Gaara thought, looking at his finger. Sure enough, the small drop of blood had come back and was enlarging itself. He sunk into the couch, mesmerized once more by the flowing liquid, not caring who or what was watching.

Kankurou's brow furrowed. "C'mon, let's go wrap it up…" he pulled the boy from the couch and upstairs to the bathroom.

'That was…odd…' Neji thought. 'To be so mesmerized with blood…huh.' He shrugged that off too. Maybe Gaara was afraid of it, and was in shock. He didn't know!

Upstairs, Kankurou gently held the bleeding digit. "H-how..?" was the only thing he could manage.

Biting his lip, Gaara thought of how to explain this. "W-well…I…" he sighed. He'd just have to explain it from the start. "I…saw Temari's razor on the shelf thingie…and I got curious…but the sand stopped it."

"GOOD!"

"…And then the demon was talking to me…and he did this to 'amuse me'."

Kankurou sighed, biting his lip. "And…are you amused?"

The redhead looked down, afraid to meet his brother's eyes. "…Kinda…"

Kankurou sighed and embraced the smaller boy. "Gaara…I know you want to…and that's the only reason I'm grateful for that damned demon. I know appealing it seems, but it doesn't help."

Gaara stared, fighting tears. He'd disappointed Kankurou, he knew it.

The older boy sighed again. "I know because…because I tried it. Sure, it helped for a while, but after I'd been doing it for about three months, it stopped helping. You still got hurt, Temari still cried, and that bastard was still here. And…all I was doing was hurting myself. It…wasn't solving anything." He rolled up his sweatshirt sleeve to show him. "They've faded, so it'd kind of hard, but Gaara, please trust me on this, it won't help as much as you think."

The redhead sniffled, nodding. He didn't wanna cry; Neji was downstairs. He didn't wanna worry Neji; that'd make him a burden. He wasn't supposed to hold it in, but he was going to.

Kankurou rubbed his back, knowing that he was trying not to cry. He almost winced as he could feel all the little bones in his back far too clearly. There had to be something they could do to help him put on weight. Their father was convinced the boy 'ate too much'.

Pfft. According to Temari, Gaara was over ten pounds underweight. Releasing the redhead, he gave him a smile and ruffled his hair. Taking out a band-aid, he quickly bandaged the finger and led him downstairs with a promise to not tell Temari.

Neji took a curious glance at Gaara's finger as the two siblings came downstairs. Only a band-aid..? Not that it had been that bad, but the two brothers were up there for a while…only for a band-aid? He wondered what was really going on, but it wasn't any of his business, so he didn't pry.

"So…uhh…what should we do?" he asked, trying to lighten the mood.

The other three occupants shrugged. Neji inwardly sighed. "Um…okay…" he thought of something to say. "Where did you guys come from?"

"Sunaga, it's in the desert."

"Oh."

More silence passed until Neji proclaimed that his uncle wanted him home for dinner and he'd have to leave. All three thanked him for coming over, and Kankurou apologized for the uneventfulness, and told him that even with that, he was welcome any Wednesday.

"Why Wednesday?"

The junior shrugged. "It's a good day." He said.

"..Okay."

As he was walking home, he realized that he had never seen their parents. He wondered why. Well, maybe he shouldn't. He'd only been there once, but they didn't even mention their parental figures.

Well, granted, they didn't really talk. He wondered why Gaara's finger was such a big deal. Anybody could cut it. Maybe he had been afraid of the blood. Now that he thought about it, the smaller boy had come down looking like he either had cried or wanted to, but he didn't mention it.

Turning back into his driveway, he reentered the house. Glancing at his cousin, Hinata and her sister, Hanabi, he went upstairs to his room to continue to think about that.

He hadn't looked afraid, he had looked immersed. That kind of scared him, but everyone was different. His cousin downstairs, Hanabi, who was nine was a junior cheerleader at her elementary school but hated the 'preps'.

He snorted. The girl hardly knew the stereotypes. Either way, it was just an example to show how odd some people were, so he wasn't going to rat on his cousin for it.

It still bugged him, but he didn't want to lose sleep over it, even though through the day, he had made up his mind. He had a crush on Gaara.

"…That could have gone better." Temari remarked after Neji left.

"Yeah, I know. But, we can't help what goes on." Kankurou sighed.

"What was that about?" she asked. Gaara had gone back up to his room, and smiling, the noted he was once again blasting his stereo. That gave the older two the opportunity to talk.

"It was nothing." He said quickly, pulling a jug of milk from the refrigerator and a box of cookies from the cupboards.

"Don't eat those all, Dad'll get mad."

"Dad can go fuck himself."

"Kankurou, you know you're not making things any better if you keep pissing him off."

"Yeah, well I refuse to live in fear of him. I can kick his ass, and I know it. But he has ties. If he beats Gaara, it's perfectly okay, because no one will suspect it. But with us, we were known as social outcasts and tended to be kind of violent to begin with. So if we beat him, we're going to be the ones in trouble. Society's too ignorant to even take note of the fact that Gaara's bruised and scarred. They won't believe it because he has political resources, and we're just his outcast children."

Temari stared at her brother as he finished his speech for a while. Then she sighed. "I know, Kankurou. I know. We can't do anything. But at least we tried."

"All the bastard did was move us to here when we tried! That's all that happened! No watch, no nothing!" he almost yelled, but he didn't in case Gaara was somehow listening.

It was the truth. That was why they had moved. Kankurou and Temari, finally fed up of their home life, built up the courage to report child abuse to the police in Sunaga. All they had done was notify him of being reported, and he automatically figured it out. That had been the first time Kankurou and Temari had ever been hit by him.

FLASHBACK (I didn't wanna do this flashback, but then it's like…fine…)

"Where are you going?" Temari whispered. It was dead of night, and Kankurou was pulling on a light jacket.

"I can't take this anymore."

"You're running away?"

"No. I'm reporting child abuse to the police. I can't take watching this happen."

"Kankurou! We can't!"

"Temari, I'm not living in fear! We CAN, and I will. Are you coming?"

She sighed, hesitating in her answer.

"You don't have to, if you feel that living in fear is a whole lot better." He said sarcastically. The blonde glared at him.

"I'm going." She said, quickly and quietly running upstairs for her own jacket.

They walked in near silence. Hardly any cars, hardly any pedestrians beside themselves. When they got to the police station, they entered quietly.

Inside, the officers looked like they were having some type of party in the main office. (A/N: I've never been to a police office except in fieldtrips. You can't honestly make me remember fieldtrips! So, please excuse the improvisation and the probable incorrectness.) They were laughing as they were watching Cops on TV.

"Excuse me." Kankurou said bravely. Temari was inching towards the door, ready to leave if they wouldn't accept them.

"Yeah? Whaddya want. Visiting hours are over." The man who answered then realized who they were. "Oh. You two. One of you get into another fight or something?" The crowd roared in laughter.

Kankurou glowered. "No. We're here to report the excessive and severe child abuse that has been happening in our home for ten years." He said firmly, so they would take him seriously.

"Sure, whatever, we'll check into it." the officer said, obviously bored. "Can't assure you what proof we'll find."

"So you don't believe us?" he exclaimed. "We have proof! Just LOOK at our brother! JUST LOOK AT HIM!"

"Kankurou! Stop it! Don't get yourself in trouble!" Temari grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the door.

"We'll look into it." The officer repeated, sounding more menacing.

"You better." Kankurou said back, just as menacing.

Temari tugged at his sleeve again and he followed her, sending another death glare that, though he denied it completely, he had inherited from their biological paternal figure. (A/N: RP: WHY DON'T YOU JUST TYPE FATHER? JK: HE AIN'T NO FATHER TO ME!)

"That did NOT go well." She told him on the way back. "I don't think they believed us at all!"

"No. But they said they'd look into it. There's a lot of evidence around the house. Take a glance and you know what goes on. I tried to get the blood off the walls, it won't give."

"Chances are, they won't…"

"Temari, you're the optimist! Help me out here! We need to get out of there, before he DOES kill Gaara!"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" She screamed. The few heads out there turned. "Don't say that…" she said quieter, her voice cracking.

They hadn't gotten any feedback for two whole weeks. Both Temari and Kankurou waited with listing hope, and had almost forgot about it, when one day, after school, their father wanted to talk to them both in a rare moment of him being sober.

"Yeah?" Kankurou said casually, strolling into the kitchen with his hands in his pockets.

"I got a phone call today. From the police. Apparently, you two reported child abuse." He said dangerously.

Temari broke out into a cold sweat. Her hands started shaking, so she too dug them deep into her pockets.

"Do you remember what I told you I'd do if I EVER got word that you were reporting it places?" he continued, his tone unchanging.

"Yeah, I know. Thing is, you can't do that as they drag you away." Kankurou ventured bravely. Temari wanted nothing more then to lash out at him, to tell him to stop or something bad would happen.

"Well, now. I have half a mind to show you, then. I'm not being 'dragged away'. Quite the contrary. They laughed it off, saying it was some adolescence thing. Good thing, hm? Some of the smarter ones wanted to examine your brother. You're goddamn lucky they didn't push it when I refused. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I'LL DO!" he suddenly screamed, grabbing a chair and throwing it at his two children. Temari screamed and ducked under the table. Kankurou dodged it, but didn't hide.

Why hide? He'd get them. He always would. Kankurou had given up hope completely now. The police wouldn't believe them.

There was no point.

It really wasn't going to end.

There was no happy ending.

The thought made him wish for the knife that he vowed to never use again. The man in front of him was screaming, but he couldn't hear him. When he hit him, he couldn't feel it.

Because he had given up hope.

Temari screamed and cried out with each blow. This was really breaking her from the inside out. Even if she tried to tell herself that Gaara had it so much worse, she couldn't help but be afraid.

By the time their father was done with them, both children had been beaten black and blue. Temari limped out of the kitchen, sobbing, wishing it would just all disappear. Just all go away, never to return in this household.

Kankurou suppressed his own pain as he walked out, a little ahead of his older sister. Pausing in front of their fathers room, he spat on one of the beer bottles littering the floor and continued.

He was glad their little brother had gotten an hour detention at school for not dressing in gym. He didn't want the redhead knowing about this, because he knew the first thing Gaara would do was blame himself.

END FLASHBACK

Kankurou sighed again. He had given up hope. A week and a half later, when the rumor started in one magazine (which ended up being dismissed and denied) was when they had moved to Konoha. All the hope that he had gained over the ten years hatred had reigned the house diminished in about that amount of time.

But, for some reason, he couldn't help but find hope in Neji. Why Neji, he didn't know.

Things just seemed a little brighter than they used to. A little more hopeful.

HAAA! Okay, this wasn't AS long as the last chapter, but it was still pretty long if I do say so myself. And I think I updated quite diligently!

Okay, before I answer reviews, I'm going to clear up the entire thing with DDR. DDR is a game that you can play in the arcade (Duh) and also at home (for those who didn't know that…) There are four or five different levels of difficulty for each song. Difficulty levels are:

Beginner – Very easy, no continuous arrows, always at least one beat in between. The stage to start out on, it follows the basic basic basic points of the song's melody.

Light – Arrows that go in a more continuous pattern (not as many rests and beats in between arrows as beginner) no 'eighth notes' speed arrows or anything faster. Follows the basic pattern of the beat.

Standard – Kind of the moderate/difficult level. There are hardly any beats in between arrows, and many fast notes that are like 'eighth notes' and are referred to as 'speed arrows'. Follows the beat pretty well, but not exactly all the time.

Heavy – Follows the beat almost exactly, no matter if it falls under 'eighth note' or not. Timing for steps is really difficult here, and the best you can do is fall in tune with the song.

Challenge – Only on some songs, is usually at heavy-level, but the song is usually a remix and faster or slower. Usually harder, but not always, than heavy.

…Yeah. You're probably still confused. Oh well.

Burning Tree – It would be. I can picture it quite clearly, actually. I LOVE After all. It's on UltraMix2, which we have for the Xbox, and it's AWESOME. Plus, he hears voices, so it all works out. I wanted to do Love 3 Shine, but chances are, that'd be way too happy for him. You gotta remember, his clothing is like…strait outta Hot Topic, so it'd look really weird. Neji the sex-offender is really amusing.

Hkokuryuha – Yeah, sorry about the Hot Topic thing. I know it's probably not true, but Gaara's so underweight, he'd have to go in the back for a specially-smaller waist band size, because his waist size would be like…too short in the leg area if he were to get it, if they stocked it. Yeah, he's that small. I had to make that up for the sake of his size. And Sunaga and Konoha are quite stereotypical; more than in America, so yeah. Clothing defines that a lot there.

Kanky-chan – It occupied EVERYONE for like…20 minutes. Not just you. I like making Kanky a concerned brother! I can't help it, it fits so well sometimes. ……Fine….you win. …….Jerk. I'm writing, I'm writing…

spirit element – THAT'S what's on Wednesday. See? Gaara got the break he needed. Here's the update (which came really fast this time!)

xxphatxbaybeexx – We're all quite immature. But it's quite fun. We're not your average middle schooler; I was not making those scenarios up on belief of behavior. That seriously happens. A lot. So what if it's immature? It's quite fun.

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black - :cringe: Yeah, maybe it was kind of stretched. Hm…you may have to define that for me. I don't get that a lot. Usually it's that my chapters are rushed. As for the humor, you might wanna point those out to, just so I know for future reference. I can't for the life of me place it, but I think I get a half-picture of what you're talking about.

Hurricane-rider – Yay! At least it scared SOMEONE. I HAVE BEEN ONLINE! I SWEAAAARR! Wow. Went on a shopping binge, have we? I haven't yet…I need to, soon.

Dragon Man 180 – Oh! I wasn't offended. Don't worry about it. Yes, I always think he'd be good at it. Maybe his height'd be restricting. (Mine is…) And there's Shuuki in this chapter! I realize I've left him out a lot… He will! He will! Patience is a virtue!

Chronic-fever – I know people that'll kill me if I don't, so keep looking for it! I'm considering starting it and a couple more stories that the plot bunnies are after me about during this, but I don't know if I can handle it just yet…I'm still quite new to this…

spork ai Yes, I have finally began the roots of shonen ai! I liked making Neji think random things about it. I used to think the same thing when I was a lot younger and my older cousins used to really go there. It DOES smell good, too! I worship DDR. Very much so. More brotherly moments here, and even a KankyTema sibling moment! I'm on a roll. I plan on doing that AND the DosuZaku. Maybe or maybe not at the same time, or even while I'm doing this, but I'm not sure. SasuNaru doesn't bug me too much, neither does KakaIru, but they both are really overrated… Mental health day? I want one.

Sabaku-no-Gaara-Sand-nin – Wow. I'm glad it took people that long. It keeps them occupied. DDR rocks my socks. …Wow, your mall isn't that impressive then. Our city actually has two malls; one really sucks and the other rocks socks. You don't live in the US! That might be it.

tiggra – Meh, I've never considered Neji hot before. Just…there. I've only started liking him when I started liking NejiGaa. Here's the pretty chappie!

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