Kage of the Graves:

Intermission(Part 1): Tears fallen upon Sand

"What!"

"You heard me, Temari. I'm glad he's gone." There was an utter silence following, and Gaara could feel the disbelief - the hurt - radiating from his sister. But she didn't understand, he knew - nobody ever did. Until the vicious and snarling monster that had been Shukaku was ripped from him, sundering his soul and temporarily ending his life, Gaara had suffered the constant stigma of fear and hatred. Even his siblings had, for a time, lived under constant fear of his wrath. Gaara, who had gradually descended into a psychotic detachment encompassed within sleep deprived insanity, had become largely immune to the gamut of emotions people went through whenever he was around. He knew that Naruto, however, hadn't had the luxury of psychosis to escape the anguish - and was profoundly affected - afflicted by a never ended depression that bordered on an obsession of reckless endangerment and personal sacrifice.

"But… How can you say that Gaara? I… I thought he was your friend!"

"He was, and so he shall always be. Death has not changed that, or allowed me to forget what he has done for me. No, Temari, I'm not glad he's dead because I wished him any ill will - quite the opposite in fact. Although you don't seem to grasp the fact - granted I'm not making it easy to do so - I am in fact quite hurt inside."

Unconsciously, as he always did when talking about feelings, his hand drifted to hover over his heart. He had long ago taken the time to understand emotions on a better scale, so that he knew exactly what he was feeling - but old habits die hard. When his sister suddenly leaned forward to slap him across the cheek, with eyes rimmed in tears, Gaara hardly reacted. The sand that continued to protect him - although now it was with a conscious effort, an impossibly large chakra drain, and an obscene supply of soldier pills - swirled briefly but was then caused to fall still.

"I'm happy you can not understand, my dear sister. It is a tragedy that only a Jinchuuriki should ever have to bear. You see, I am happy-" Gaara lifted a hand to for-stall the immediate interruption of his sister. "I am happy - for him - that he no longer has to deal with the pain of his own existence. He does not have to feel the constant ignorant hatred, nor the fear for his life, or even the hopeless veil of invisibility that settles over one such as ourselves when the only option left to the people around us is to 'ignore them and hope they go away'… Do you understand what the feels like? Of course you don't, and it would break my heart into a thousand pieces if you did."

"Oh Gaara…" Temari finally relinquished the tears that had been cloaking her vision for some time and lunged forward to sweep her little brother up in her arms. Gaara remained his usual stoic self as the Kunoichi allowed her barriers to drop in her grief. Many people had commented upon his sister. Weather it be for her beauty, her grace, her cold and calculating attitude toward anything and everything combat related, or the nickname that all of these combined attributes had formed - The Dry Ice Queen of Sunagakura - something that Gaara, and his brother before Kankuro had fallen to a vicious assault that had been meant for his Kazekage brother, had done all in their power to quell. No one would ever get the chance to comment on the side of her that kept a picture of her departed brother tucked into her bra, just over her heart - or the part that collapsed on a bed filled with small stuffed animals that she had received from her beau in Konoha. No, Temari was very careful over what emotions she let show, and especially to whom.

After a time, he gently disengaged himself from his sister and took her hand in his own - leading her over to a comfy couch in the next room. "Temari, I want you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you. I… I also want you to promise not to hate me for what I'm about to tell you, okay?"

When he'd received an affirmative, the usually fearless Kage of the Sands took a deep breath and delivered a shocking blow.

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"You knew! What the fuck do you mean, you knew?" Temari was aghast, shocked and surprised. She wasn't sure what words were good enough to explain exactly how she felt. Her little brother claimed to have adequate time to prepare for a friends death because he had had advance warning? Her little brother, who just so happened to be the Kazekage had been told by his friend somehow, that he was going to kill himself… and he'd done nothing? The desire to comfort him warred with disgust and a need to hurt the little… uncaring bastard!

"Please, sister. Listen to me! I do not mean to say that I knew before he killed himself. I mean I have known since the final moments of his life, he… Naruto sent me a messenger, as it were."

Temari was confused, but before she had a chance to raise a question, or rail away another accusation, Gaara slowly lifted up his shirt - face scrunching slightly as he concentrated Chakra. She had all of a second to wonder what was going on, when an oddly familiar spiral began to show itself on her brothers abdomen. Her shock translated to a harsh whisper a second later. "The Kyuubi!"

"Indeed, Temari. I am now the current holder of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Or, at least a part of him."

"A part of him, what do you mean? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I have been scared! There! I admit it Temari, I didn't know what to do and I was afraid I would lose the last bit of family I have left if I told you I carried a demon inside of me again!"

"Oh Gaara…" Temari could understand his concern, for she remembered all to well how fearfully she and Kankuro acted around Gaara. "You could never lose me again, little brother. Never!" She shook her head forcefully and embraced the diminutive Kazekage a second time, allowing her tears to wet his shoulder once again.

After a time though, she softly whispered into her ear that she needed some time alone to think, to which her brother simply nodded and let her leave without protest. She retired to her room and collapsed onto her bed - finding sanctuary in her dreams of better times.

(AN:Well now, this is the first part of my Intermission to the sand. Naruto's ghost can't be drifitng around Konoha and Suna, so no Ghost Naruto this time. But soon, soon I tell you.)

Dirtwater.