Chapter 2: Discussion with his Sister

Nighttime had fallen and the three of them returned home after a difficult day of warfare. Temari and Kankurou ate their dinner while Gaara went straight to his room to ponder. Confusion still erupted in his mind. Confusion, surprise, and… fear?

Masao had instilled in him what he had been unable to make her feel. Fear.

But fear of what? He asked himself.

Fear that everything you thought the world to be was wrong. Fear that you were wrong. Fear that the world may have others out there that care. Could see past all of it. Fear of something you didn't understand.

"Gaara?"

He looked up at his older sister who stood in the doorway of his room. She adorned a dark blue tank top and shorts and her hair dripped with water from a recent shower. Temari looked at him expressionlessly.

"May I come in?" she asked. That was another thing that separated her from the rest of the cruel world. Anyone else would have barged in, uncaring about how he felt about it, but she waits, diplomatically, for him to allow her entry. His blacked eyes met hers, hers full of compassion and honesty, and jerked his head in a nod.

Every time he made contact with Temari, he felt the scars on his heart healing, little by little. Yashamaru had been right about love being the only medicine for a wound of the heart. It worked in small amounts, but it did indeed work. There was still a long way to go though, for his wounds were deep and his scars many. And some would never heal.

She sat next to him on the bed, her hands in her lap. A palpable, but comfortable, silence overtook them. They sat like that for awhile, until Temari broke it by asking, "You wanted to tell me something this morning?" She watched him carefully as his pale blue eyes stared blankly forward at the white wall. Gaara's face was emotionless. He then turned to look at her. Temari smiled softly at her brother, urging him to tell her. That he could trust her.

He faced the wall again and the golden-haired girl sighed. "If you're not going to say, may I ask you something?" Gaara glanced up at her, waiting. "What happened during the fight with that kunoichi? You froze." His eyes narrowed in anger, not at her, but at himself.

"I don't know," he replied uncertainly. "She used some sort of genjutsu on me to make me see someone we killed. It was our first mission, you remember? We killed her brother." Temari nodded slowly. "She had come to avenge his death with my death." His eyes thinned even more, making them look like thick black lines drawn on his face. "I couldn't fight her off when she tackled me to the ground."

"I can only discern Gaara. Just Gaara. Why is that?" Her words resounded in his mind, and that and the tenderness in her eyes made his head throb painfully. He clutched at his vermillion hair with his long pale fingers and choked out a strangled yell.

"Gaara!" Temari called worriedly.

"I see a boy. Just a boy…" Another scream escaped his throat and his sister hugged him close, stroking his crimson hair. "Calm down Gaara! Please, calm down!" Her face smiled in his mind's eye.

"I don't see a monster." A spasm jerked his body around, but Temari didn't let him go.

"You can't be the same one" The look in her eyes when she absorbed his own. Her broken, bloody body on the ground. Her hand on his forehead. It squirming excitedly.

Suddenly, he was back to Earth in the warm arms of his sister. She hummed a familiar, long lost melody in his ear, one their mother used to sing when she was alive. The tune calmed him down, stopped his spasms, and cleared his vision. "Feel better?" she questioned. He made no reply. "Do you want to finish or wait until some other time?"

Temari saw that his face was emotionless, as if he had not just been screaming bloody-murder for the past three or so minutes. He hid his weakness, whatever it was, well from even her. It made her feel slightly uneasy.

For the first time, Gaara felt weak. Not physically or mentally, but emotionally. It was the most trying feeling he's ever had. He slid away from Temari and grasped his elbows. He wanted to scream again; he wanted to run until he became exhausted to the point of death; he wanted to kill something. His fist grasped tightly against his chest.

"GAARA!" Temari cried out in pain. He glanced up, and saw with wide eyes that in his rage his mother's sand had begun to press upon her forcefully. He loosened his fist and she fell to the ground, gasping for air. He didn't mean to do it, but didn't say. She already knew.

He said nothing to her, but Temari had not expected him to. She sat back upon the bed like nothing had happened and watched him somberly. He began unexpectedly, startling her, "She was like you sister. She refused to call me a monster. She said… all she saw was Gaara. Just Gaara." He met her eyes. "Tell, me why did she say that? I don't understand"

Temari bit her lip. He couldn't understand; so used to the scorn and hate he had been shown in the village. He had no idea there were others out there that could be caring. "Gaara," she began tentatively. "There are other kind people out there. People like me. You just have yet to meet them"

He stared long and hard at her. "Kind people," he repeated. She smiled. "Temari, do people like her… have some sort of hold that makes it hard to stop thinking about them?" She blinked, and slid closer to her brother, knitting her brow.

"What do you mean?" Gaara made no reply. Obviously not. There was something about Masao that kept her in his mind. It seemed to find her appealing, but he didn't know at all what It meant. His head throbbed again and a small groan escaped him.

They sat there for a long while, watching the shadows display odd patterns on the walls and ceiling, saying nothing. Finally, without a word, Temari stood up and stretched. She left his room with a friendly wave and entered hers across the hall. "'Night," she called quietly to him.

"Good-night sister," he thought to himself, not saying aloud.