Band of the Forsaken
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I have been unable to obtain ownership of Naruto since the last chapter but I'll keep trying!
Flashback
'thoughts'
Demons talking
Hey there! Thanks to all of you who reviewed, it helps with the whole motivation thing. Ok on to business. Firstly there will be no yaoi and there may not be any pairings at all though I can't say for sure at this point. As for Sasuke wanting to kill Naruto I know why he spared him but I wanted to him to want to kill Naruto after he killed his brother because it would be his way of closing his story. Tying up the loose ends so to speak. Anyway enjoy chapter 3!
Chapter 3: Conversing Sands
"Gaara of the desert."
Naruto stood before the vessel of the one-tailed demon Shukaku and frowned. Despite what he had told Kakashi he was still slightly afraid of the sand boy. Regardless of his reasons he had killed dozens, perhaps even hundreds of people. Naruto felt that Gaara had the potential to be a good person but the fact was that it wasn't always Gaara who was in control. He remembered their fight during the chuunin exams and shivered slightly. The eyes that had stared at him from the abomination that had earlier been Gaara were anything but human and far from sane.
"What do you want?"
Gaara continued to stare at the boy before him. Naruto was a puzzle to him. He had managed to defeat him, the invincible Gaara, out of his desperation to save his friends. That had been a very…enlightening experience. He had always believed that to fight for one's self was true strength. But then along comes this annoying loudmouth preaching to him about "friendship" and "loyalty". He had begun to change his way of thinking since then and had tried to restrain himself. He turned away from the boy before him to stare at the moon.
"He gets restless when the moon is full." Gaara looked back at Naruto with a curious look on his face.
"But…He is no longer the one in control."
Naruto stared back at Gaara, contemplating what he had just heard.
"You mean that you control him now?"
Gaara shook his head. "We have reached something of a truce. Before, I had no reason to control him, nor any real desire to. I fought with him but it was a halfhearted attempt. I can keep him at bay if I promise to feed him on missions." He gave Naruto a piercing stare that caused the boy to flinch. "And what about you? Has your control faltered, or has it grown?"
Naruto stared at Gaara in shock. He had implied that he was a vessel to the boy in the past but had never outright told him. He thought he had been vague enough that he wouldn't figure it out.
"H-How did you know?" He managed to stutter out through his surprise.
"At the start of your fight with the Hyuuga I could feel it, when you first released your chakra. It had the taint of something that did not belong there, though your body handles the contrast better than mine does. No doubt that is a function of your seal. I doubt that anyone else would have noticed it. It would take a great understanding of demon chakra to recognize its influence on another chakra system." He turned away slightly, so that Naruto was staring at his side. "I have been in contact with my demon for my entire life, but you only recently faced yours correct?"
Naruto stared for awhile before sitting back down and turning to face the village. "Yeah. I met him during the month before the third part of the chuunin exam." He chuckled slightly. "He was almost as big of an ass as Sasuke."
Gaara's eyes narrowed at the name. He remembered the Uchiha boy very well. He had been such a…disappointment. He had been expecting more from the great Uchiha clan but their last member seemed to little more than an obsessed and egotistical crybaby with little skill other than what he had borrowed from others. He had been surprised that he had managed to defeat Naruto, though it was by a slight margin if the falling chakra levels had indicated anything.
"Uzumaki," he said turning to face the back of the blond.
Naruto turned his head so that he could see Gaara.
"What?"
"Why did you choose to follow him? He had clearly made his decision."
Naruto turned back again, a sad smile appearing on his face. "He was a comrade. We had been through so much as a team. Missions, the chuunin exams, and the invasion. I thought that it had meant something to him that it didn't. But the real reason is…he was one of the first people I could ever really consider a friend."
Gaara was stood silently for a while before sitting down on the ground. Sand began to trickle from the gourd he kept on his back, massing into a blob in front of him. Naruto turned, slightly startled by the sound. He tensed at the sight of the sand in front of him but calmed when it made no move for him.
"My mother lost her life so that the demon Shukaku could be sealed within me at birth. I never had any control and killed many people unintentionally. Because of this I was feared by my entire village. I was always alone," Gaara said as he raised his hands over the sand before him, causing it to shift. It took the shape of a group of children playing with a ball while a younger looking Gaara sat away from the group with his head buried in his knees. "When I grew up my father, the Kazekage, began to fear me as well. He was afraid that I could one day threaten him if left unchecked. He decided that my existence was too dangerous so he sent assassins to kill me. I was five when I killed the first one."
Naruto stared at Gaara in shock. He had always wanted a family but had been told that his parents had died during the Kyuubi attack. He remembered watching the other kids with their parents and how happy they all seemed to him. He couldn't imagine a parent wanting to kill there own child.
'He must have had an even harder life than I did'
He snapped back out of his thoughts as Gaara continued his puppet show.
"The first person I ever considered a friend was my Uncle, Yashamaru." He shifted his hands above the sand and it changed to the figure of smiling man with a Sand forehead protector. "He took care of me for the first several years of my life. He made me feel loved for the first time."
The sand changed to a building with the same version of Gaara from earlier sitting on the edge. Suddenly a masked figure appeared on top of a raised section of the roof and hurled several shuriken at him. Just before they hit a wall of sand appeared and protected the boy from the weapons. The boy turned around and sent a wave of sand at his assailant, crushing him against the wall. The young Gaara walked towards the man and removed his mask to reveal Yashamaru.
"He was one of the assassins my father sent to kill me. He told me that he could have refused the assignment but he wanted to do it. He said that he had always resented me for taking the life of his sister. He also told me that my mother had never loved me and wanted me to live on as her revenge on the village for making her their sacrifice."
The miniature of Yashamaru suddenly exploded and the sand drifted back into the gourd on Gaara's back.
"You know what I became after that. Gaara, the demon who would love only himself." He stood up and began to walk away from the still stunned Naruto. He stopped before he reached the forest. "You could now become what I was, if that is your choice. Drive others away and live for yourself. Or you can continue the path you started and protect those who are still dear to you. Just remember that people are not always what they appear," he finished, disappearing in a whirlwind of sand.
Naruto stared at the spot that Gaara had occupied moments before, his mind working to process everything he had just been told.
'He's right. I thought I knew Sasuke but I never really understood him. If I had I would have seen this coming. I need to watch the behavior of the people around me more closely.' He stood up and stretched, watching night give way to the dawn. 'I guess I better get back to the hospital or Shizune will rip me a new one.' He smiled fondly thinking of the young woman. 'At least I know I'll always have her and the Old Lady.'
He began to make his way back to his hospital room, sprinting across the rooftops.
Gaara made his way back into the central part of the village. He wasn't really supposed to be out wandering around the village. The Hokage had warned him that there were many people who still resented the Sand for their part in the Sound invasion. He was unconcerned however as it was generally understood that it was dangerous to mess with him. The sun was beginning to rise and the people of Konoha began to rise along with it. He saw stores and restaurants opening while vendors rolled their carts out into the streets. Everything here was very different from the way it was in the Sand. There, everything had to be kept indoors to protect against the unpredictable sand storms and even then things tended to get sandy. He stopped at a stall and wordlessly bought some apples. Fresh fruit was another rarity in Hidden Sand and although he didn't really care it was still nice to have when he could get it. He checked the position the sun had taken just above the horizon and judged that Temari and Kankurou would be waking up soon.
'I suppose…I should head back.'
He turned down another street that led towards where he was staying with his sibling's. His mind wandered back to his encounter with the Uzumaki boy. He knew exactly what he was going through and hoped he would make a different choice than the one he had made, though he would not stop the boy if he chose to do so.
He stopped walking and opened the door of a small one story building practically right next to the village wall. It consisted of two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a sparsely furnished living room which connected directly to the front door. It was clearly made for foreign ninja teams staying short term in the village. He shut the door and heard a sound coming from the rooms only other doorway. He turned to find a half awake Kankurou leaning on the door frame sleepily, with his outfit hastily thrown on and lacking his usual face paint.
"Hey G-Gaara, wh-what's up," he said, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn.
Gaara stared at Kankurou with a look that approached amusement before dropping the bag with the apples in it on the single table in the middle of the room and brushing past him.
"Hey what's in the bag?" Kankurou asked the retreating figure of his brother.
"Breakfast."
"Oh. Ok." He blinked before walking over to the table and grabbed an apple out of the bag. He stared at the doorway where he had seen Gaara leave. "Sheesh. I'll never understand that guy," he muttered to himself before taking a bite out of his apple.
A/N
Okay I know I said this chapter would be longer and would come out faster but I haven't had the chance to right before today due to school and I just found out that I'm gonna be leaving town for a week and won't have access to the internet so I wanted to post something so as not to leave the impression that I wasn't going to update. I'll have all next week to right though so I'll be able to make it longer. Well I'm completely out of energy so I'm done here. Have a Merry Christmas! Oops I mean Happy Holidays! And remember to R&R!