Revised at around 22/4/08.
Shifting Sands
Most people wouldn't even consider taking this route.
Even for the people of Suna, people who knew and used the desert to its fullest, even they were not totally comfortable in its environment. They stayed out of the desert and stayed in their houses and in behind the walls of their city, where'd they'd occasionally look out and shake their heads with sympathy for anyone travelling through it. But for Gaara, well, he walked for about a hour through the desert every single day.
It wasn't as if he especially had some special affinity with the desert- Gaara scoffed at the people, people like Naruto, who thought that this demon child actually had an ounce of sentamentality within it.
It wasn't as if the route was actually shorter. The route through the desert was a long wide arc around the outer walls of Suna, and took an extra forty-five minutes to get home walking.
No, he took this route because it was just such a pain in the neck to go the other way. The way that Temari and Kankuro went. After awhile, it just became kind of became kind of idiotic to continuously force himself through a mass of staring, glaring and often frightened villagers, resist the continuous urges of bloodlust and ignore the whimpers of young children... just, to get home.
Temari often tried to coax him to come back with her and Kankuro after training, but he normally refused. Kankuro sometimes offered to take him out to see a performance in town, but he also refused. It's not as if they knows what it's like, he thought bitterly, it's not as if they'd actually try to stop them, or if they actually wanted to do something with me. With a cold, stark sense of surity, Gaara knew that the only thing keeping him and his siblings in the same house for over thirteen years was the formal title of 'family'.
Perhaps, maybe it was about then, that he first caught sight of the lamp. It was a just a glimmer of bronze, a glimmer of colour in the vast white of the desert. But he'd noticed it, and with mild curiousity, he brought it over to him with a small stretch of the hand. The sand obliged and he stared at it within the palm of his hand.
Gaara scanned it over a few times, but seeing no point of interest in it (they had quite a few lamps back in the house), he clenched his fist, trying to crush it within his grasp.
Nothing happened.
Annoyed, he tried again. Still nothing. Stumped by this unusual pice of metal that wouldn't break, he eventually gave up and tossed it back onto the desert. He wasn't going to get into bloodlust for a such a trivial, almost boring thing. As it hit the ground, there was a small flash of blue and Gaara snapped his head in further annoyance. What the heck was this?
Before him was a blue skinned man, floating in the air, evidently pleased to be out of the lamp. He rose up in the air high, scanning his surroundings, a smile adorning his features. Finally, after what seemed to be a long time, he looked down at Gaara with mild interest.
"Have you made your wish yet?" he asked.
Gaara stared. All he wanted to do today was go home, take a shower, and have some peace and quiet. Not, to be attacked by the after effects of someone's ninjutsu gone wrong. He started walking again, leaving whatever it was behind him.
The thing followed, evidently getting just as annoyed as him.
"I'm a djinn, and at that, a lamp bound one- freedom at the cost of a wish... you've probably heard of that, right? Wealth, love, riches- anything that you don't have, I can grant. Surely that's not too hard for you?"
Gaara paused, and for a moment, laughed darkly.
"I'd gladly give you Shukaku, but I doubt you'd take him. Give me someone who actually cares for me and I'll be really impressed."
Gaara looked behind him, and pleased that the djinn or whatever it was was gone, continued on his way home.
The door shut quietly, and Termari looked up from where she had been making dinner. Gaara was back. He took off his shoes at the door and walked past her and a pile of chopped broccoli.
"Did anything… happen today?" Gaara's voice was detached as was the norm, but even then... was there some sort of expectancy to it?
"Ah…No. Well, what do you mean?" Temari glanced at an equally started Kankuro, who had been making adjustments to another puppet of his. It was rare that Gaara started a conversation, or even spoke.
He looked between the door of them with an unreadable expression, before saying brusquely, "Nothing you should know," and walking out of the room.
"Dinner will be ready soon." She called, and was greeted by the slam of Gaara's bedroom door.
"Brat," muttered Kankuro, but even he looked slightly worried.
The two of them sighed and brushed the thoughts away.
Gaara flopped down on his bed, growing more and more irratated. For some reason, it bothered him, that 'nothing had happened', and because of that, it bothered him even more that he had had the naiivety to even ask Temari such a stupid, stupid thing. The djinn was probably a genjutsu or a ninjutsu, maybe the prank of a small child or genin.
And again, there came a flash of blue, and on reflex, Gaara brought a shield of sand up. The same djinn appeared again, mirroring the same irritation on Gaara's face.
"You don't get it, do you?" said the being, clearly exasperated, "You need to wish for something you don't have. From what I've seen, you already have at least two who 'care for you'."
He paused and then dropped three slips of paper onto Gaara's lap from seemingly nowhere, "I'll just give you these instead, okay? They're tickets to the first night of a Kabuki performance at the town hall in your city."
In another flash, the djinn was gone, and Gaara sat up, startled.
And then, Temari was there, apron still on but fan at her back, Kankuro behind her. He looked at them and felt some reassurance flow through him, and it made feel not so alone, just seeing the two of them. He pushed it down.
"What happened? Did someone come in, threaten you?" Temari asked, worried.
"This would've been the third time..." growled Kankuro, "I'm going to complain to the Council-"
"You were mistaken," said Gaara shortly, "I'm fine okay?"
"Oh okay..." Temari seemed slightly offput, and Gaara strangely felt guilty.
"I'm quickly going out to the market. Someone finished off tonight's noodles as a snack yesterday, " she said, glaring at Kankuro.
Kankuro shrugged sheepishly.
Gaara paused and then on the spur of the moment, stood up and said, "Let's have dinner out. Kankuro, this is the show you wanted to see, right?"
He held up the three tickets the djinn had given him.
"Uh, yeah." Kankuro squinted at the writing, a bit shell shocked as to what Gaara was saying.
"So, are we going? I'll pay for dinner," said Gaara quietly.
His siblings nodded mutely and just kind of stared at him.
The pleasant surprise on both of their faces was more than enough to make him not regret the decision.