The first time he saw Naruto, it was the hair that attracted little Gaara's attention. It was the brightest color he had ever seen. Light in color with a fluffy and soft look that Gaara wanted to touch. He had never seen anything like it. The eyes were the same. A piercing blue that added color to the otherwise sterile environment. The child had been so light, his appearance so stimulating, he was unable to look at him.

Unfamiliar things had always caused him pain. Anything he didn't recognize was a threat. Plus, he was just another kid. Just like him. The other kids like him never lasted long. He had seen many kids. Coming and going. They spoke different languages, but the children always reacted the same. They were always very quiet. They would go to their cell and curl up, just like him. They were broken like him. They had no spirit or will. By the time they fell into Orochimaru's hands, they were nothing more than dolls. Most didn't put up a fight.

Gaara had watched so many of these children come and go, even such a unique looking child like Naruto only gained Gaara's attention for a few precious seconds. After that, Gaara went to ignoring him, or at least he tried to.

Gaara quickly discovered the boy liked talking, and it was in the language he could understand. Mostly. There were a lot of things he didn't understand, but the boy was lively. He would smile and talk as much as he was able. At first, Gaara found it annoying. He was would growl and snap his teeth at the child when it got bad enough like a wild animal, and that would work to a degree. Naruto would quiet down then he would talk to himself. To someone named Kurama. But what did Gaara care? That child, like all the others, would eventually be killed too. Gaara had seen it. This weird behavior wouldn't last long.

Whenever he came back hurt and in pain, Naruto was there to talk to him. It wasn't as lively then. He would mute his tone to something soothing. Little by little, Gaara started to listen to what he was saying. He grew invested in the stories, and he started to anticipate them. It grew to a point that when Naruto went missing for three days, Gaara learned what it meant to be worried for another. And when Naruto returned, scared and broken, and Gaara offered his name, speaking for the first time. It was the first show empathy and consideration for another person.

Orochimaru picked up on it immediately, but Gaara didn't know that. The day after, Gaara was let out for social time for the first time since killing that guard a few days before Naruto's arrival, and his social time was with Naruto.

For the first time, they were in the same room, and Gaara had no idea how to interact with him.

"Aki-chan!" Naruto shouted with such glee, he ran over to him. Gaara shrunk back, pressing himself into a corner, like a scared animal, ready to attack if needed.

At Gaara's reaction, Naruto stopped his running, stopping at a rather respectable distance where Gaara could escape if needed. Instead, he squatted, hugging his small legs as he looked at Gaara with those big blue eyes. Smiling, he pulled out a brown bear from behind him. "I found Kuma-kun." He then pulled out a small rabbit too, "And Usa-chan. Wanna play?"

Gaara glanced at the two stuffed animals for a long time, then shook his head no. Naruto didn't get discouraged. He stayed where he was, playing with the two animals and acting out one of his stories. He said it was from a TV show he saw once. He even started singing at some point.

"That place is nice, I wish I could go there. This country, that island, there are many of them though. He makes me go everywhere I want to. He does with his futuristic machines. I want to go on a world trip. 'Uhuhu, anywhere door'. Ah ah ah, I like you very much, Doraemon!"

Gaara watched him with amazement, unsure of what he was doing. Naruto jumped to the feet, singing the last verse with enthusiasm and pumping his small fist into the air. "Ah, Ah, ah, I like you very much, Doraemon."

When Gaara didn't join in, Naruto frowned, crossing his arms and pouting. "Don't you know that song?"

Gaara didn't answer, but he had uncurled from his corner a little over the course of an hour.

Naruto shook his head. "You have to know it. Everyone knows it," he exclaimed. "It's Doraemon!"

What was a Doraemon, Gaara thought but didn't voice it.

Naruto took it upon himself to teach Gaara the song, singing it over and over again to what was probably an annoying degree. "C'mon. Sing it with me. 'Ah, ah, ah'," he would sing over and over again. Gaara refused to sing, just watching the display Naruto put on. None of the other children paid so much attention to him before. If they did manage to gain the courage to talk to him, they would quit when he didn't respond or growled at them.

Gaara didn't mind the attention though. Naruto seemed back to normal. He still wasn't sure what possessed him to try to fix the kid, just that he was satisfied that it had worked.

"Naruto-kun," that sickly sweet voice of that black-haired doctor, entered the room. "Time to go."

Fear flashed in Naruto's eyes. He lost his voice and his lively personality was smothered to a hollow form of it. "See ya later, Aki-chan."

Gaara stayed put for a while. No one came for him, so he wasn't inclined to move. Little by little, he scooted over to the two animals Naruto had been playing with, picking up the rabbit. The material was softer than it looked. He didn't dislike it. He recalled how Naruto had played with it, copying the movements for a little bit. The movements were clumsy and lethargic. "Ah…ah…ah," he whispered, much slower and without rhythm.

That day was the first time he had ever played with a toy. He didn't understand why Naruto had done those things. Even copying him, he didn't understand, but he kept repeating it until someone came to take him back to his cell.

The next day, they put them in a room together again. Gaara had arrived first. He had clutched the rabbit to his small body. He decided he liked the soft material against his skin. Naruto however wanted to play something else, grabbing some tops and showing Gaara how to play.

Every day, they put them in a room together for two weeks, and slowly, Gaara stopped being in his corner, still clutching the rabbit like a safety blanket, and Gaara began to understand why Naruto did those silly things. It made Naruto smile, and as he got Gaara to do them too, Gaara felt nice. Naruto would smile and Gaara would feel good seeing him smile.

Gaara still didn't speak much, but Naruto could talk enough for the both of them. "Hey, Aki-chan?"

"Hm?" it was the closest Gaara ever got to responding to Naruto.

"Why is your skin different?" Naruto asked full of innocence. Gaara had allowed Naruto to get pretty close to him at this point. There was less than half a meter between them. Naruto was staring at Gaara's arm with a look that screamed that the young boy wanted to touch. "Do you stay inside a lot?"

Gaara's eyebrows furrowed, looking at his hands. They were indeed a different color. Was that bad? Gaara began to worry if it was a bad thing. He had never really noticed his skin was a different color before. Occasionally, he saw people with much darker skin, but during that time, Gaara barely paid attention to anyone else.

"If I go inside more, will it be like yours?"

Gaara didn't know what staying inside had to do with skin color, but Naruto seemed to like it, so he put the thought out of his small head. As long as Naruto liked it, it was okay. Lifting his rabbit, Gaara showed Naruto he wanted to play with the stuffed animals again. Quickly, both children forgot about the skin question, running off to get more animals to play with.

This life continued for one more week. It was their last day of peace, unbeknownst to either of them. Gaara spoke up for the first time, asking his first question out loud. "Why do you call me, Aki?" Gaara had worked on this question for a long time, working on how and when to ask for nearly 4 days. Gaara still wasn't comfortable with speaking and always worried Naruto wouldn't understand him for some reason. He also didn't want to make Naruto angry.

Naruto, who had been drawing at the time, laughed. "Because your other name is too hard," he said happily, continuing to draw. "And your hair is red. Like leaves. So Aki-chan."

Gaara, at the time, was much smaller and frail looking than Naruto. Naruto had admitted he had thought Gaara was younger than him and had added "chan". Unlike when the doctor called him that, the way Naruto used it brought a warm feeling that filled Gaara's chest every time Naruto used it.

He felt the corners of his lips pull upwards. The smile was small, and the small Gaara became bashful, hiding his face in his stuffed bunny as his face burned red. This feeling Naruto brought to him. It felt light, energetic, excited. He did not know that this was what happiness felt like. All Gaara knew was that he wanted to feel like this all the time. Since being in this room with Naruto, he hadn't been taken away. He hadn't been treated badly, poked with needles and suffered in pain. He thought that maybe he wouldn't be hurt anymore.

How wrong he was. So very wrong.

Gaara was waiting for Naruto to arrive in the playroom, entertaining himself quietly in the corner with his rabbit. He had grown quite fond of the rabbit and was even allowed to bring it back to his cell with him. He hummed the Doraemon theme song quietly to himself, not hearing the men come into the room until he was pulled back by the collar.

Gaara panicked. His hands grabbing blindly behind him, his nails catching and digging into flesh until blood flowed freely. Still, he wasn't released as another set of hands help wrestle him to the ground. Gaara didn't scream. He only growled, trying to turn his head to bite. His head was struck multiple times to stun him, but that never worked long. Power flowed through his small body, nearly overpowering the two full-grown men on top of him. Gaara didn't even notice the blood that flowed into his eyes from his own wounds he had accumulated from the scuffle.

"Stop it! Don't hurt him!"

Gaara latched onto Naruto's voice. He fought with all his might, to turn his head to catch a glimpse of the boy. Naruto was being held back by the long-haired doctor. A single hand on the child's small shoulder kept the small child firmly in place.

"I would be happy to let him go, Naruto-kun," the sickly sweet voice sang. "But you know what you have to do right? You have to do as I say. No more tantrums. Promise?"

Naruto tried to run to Gaara's side. His eyes were watery, but he didn't cry. Naruto saw Gaara watching him, and he offered a small smile before turning to the doctor with his chest puffed out in fake bravado. "Promise?"

The doctor smiled back at him with too much teeth. "Promise."

Naruto was escorted from the room by a nurse, not putting up a single fight. His body was shaking with every step, but he was still keeping his head high, trying to pretend to brave. The doctor's eyes watched him, his eyes shining with glee as he pulled out a tape recorder.

The doctor spoke under his breath across the room. Normally, Gaara wouldn't have been able to hear him. Lately, his hearing was getting better and better. He was unable to tune out the voice that plagued his sleep and made him grow nauseous every time he heard it.

"It's quite remarkable. Subject 91 has continued to show high levels of emotional intelligence, empathy, and compassion for his age. Other subjects, even the older ones, have not been able to display similar results. It makes me wonder if it is this ability that has influenced his test results as they have. It is a matter I intend to delve into. Additional subjects may be needed to act as controls as the current subjects fall outside the norm for human behavior." The doctor's eyes landed on Gaara.

"Addendum. Look into the concept of mates. Subject 32 has shown responses to Subject 91's advances. Feral behaviors in Subject 32 have decreased and he has started to show signs of empathy. Despite previous attempts, Subject 32 had not responded to any other subject. While Subject 91 has been compatible with other subjects, he also seems to favor Subject 32 the most. There has been little information about vampire mates or how they work, may be worth investigating further. Until then, I plan to use each of them to help keep both under control."

Gaara didn't understand what the man was talking about. He was simply sent back to his room for a short period of time until the doctor came to get him personally. Whenever the doctor came instead of the guards, it was never a good thing. The doctor was much smaller than the guards and he never carried a gun either. Even so, Gaara didn't try to attack him. He had learned the hard way that the doctor was far more dangerous than the guards and angering the doctor always resulted in the hurt lasting longer. It didn't mean that Gaara never looked for a chance to escape though.

The doctor didn't take him through the usual door. Instead, it was the one next to it. The door opened, and Naruto's screams assaulted his ears. Gaara immediately covered his ears, wincing at how loud it was. The doctor pushed him forward, further into the room. A large window overlooked the room Gaara was familiar with. Inside that room, Naruto was the one strapped to the table, screaming his head off, tears and snot, streaming down his face, his eyes bulging, and mouth opened. His screams were only interrupted by gurgled sounds of choking when Naruto struggled to breathe.

Gaara wanted to run to the glass. He wanted to go to Naruto and make those people stop hurting him, but he was afraid to go. His body remembered the pain well. He didn't want to go through that again, and a simple thought went through Gaara's head. It's not me.

"Naruto-kun is in a lot of pain right now, Gaara-chan. Do you know why?"

Gaara shook his head no, flinching when Naruto let out a particularly loud scream made him flinch.

"He heard you were going to be in pain and volunteered for you. Wasn't that nice of him?"

Gaara's bottom lip quivered. He felt something new. His chest felt tight and his eyes were stinging. He was about to cry, but he wasn't in pain. He only cried when he was in pain so why was he about to cry now?

"Do you want to take Naruto-kun's place?"

No. No, he didn't. He was scared. He didn't like pain.

"If you don't, Naruto-kun might not play with you anymore. He'll be mad at you."

Orochimaru's words were like poison, causing and preying on his weakness, breaking Gaara down little by little. Before Naruto's existence, his life had been bleak. He was barely going through life. When Gaara didn't agree at first, Orochimaru would bring him to watch Naruto's torture right after their playtime together.

Naruto would be tired and quieter than usual, but he was still attentive to Gaara. By the end of day five, when Naruto collapsed into having a seizure in front of Gaara, Gaara finally agreed to Orochimaru's demands. Gaara had seen some of the other children have seizures before. He had seen them frothing at the mouth, eyes rolling into the back of their heads before they stopped breathing. He was terrified Naruto would die like the others.

Gaara agreed to behave when he could, giving into Orochimaru's wants and demands. If it was for Naruto, it was okay. Orochimaru learned very quickly that Naruto was his kryptonite. Orochimaru would never let Gaara become comfortable. If Gaara acted up, Naruto suffered. If Gaara became too happy or content, Naruto would disappear for days. Orochimaru always timed it to the point where it would have the most effect on Gaara. Naruto became his punishment and reward.


A year passed, and the relationship between Naruto and Gaara changed. Naruto grew quieter, at times, feral as the being inside him occasionally took control and possessed him. His sparkling blue eyes dimmed into something cold and hard. Even so, he was still kind to Gaara, offering sympathy and comfort to Gaara when he could afford it. Meanwhile, Naruto had become practically a god to Gaara, struggling to do everything to keep the light in Naruto's eyes, to keep hearing his comforting stories, and not go back to the darkness he was in before he met the other boy. He became Gaara's lifeboat to his humanity through the torture. He would do anything to keep the smile on his face.

But that worship didn't come without side effects. With the genuine care Gaara had for Naruto, came resentment. It was small at first. Starting with the day he volunteered to go in Naruto's place. Why did he have to hurt for another, but his love for Naruto had overwhelmed those negative emotions. Over the year, his resentment grew under his nose, but Naruto's smile made him forget it, bathed in his sunlight.

And then Naruto left him.

It was a night like any other. Naruto had been kept in solitary confinement after another experiment. Gaara stared outside his cell, wondering if Naruto was alright. Then the alarms blared. The siren filled the halls to a deafening degree, the lights turning red and went to emergency power. Seeing something unknown, Gaara had grown frightened, unsure of what to do. This was outside his routine. He did not know what to expect and it was terrifying.

The doctor came for him, drugging him before picking him up and carrying him out of the building in a hurry. The smell of fire hit his noise, stirring him, and he saw a tuft of blond hair being carried away in the opposite direction. Seeing Naruto, he fought back, trying to get to him, but he was too weak, being thrown into a van and knocked unconscious.

He woke up in a new facility. This time, Naruto wasn't there with him. For a long time, he waited for Naruto's return, believed Naruto wouldn't leave him. Abandon him. But he never came, and the resentment reared its ugly head. Why was Naruto the lucky one? Why did he get to leave this place when he had suffered so much more? But even as his resentment grew, he could not forget Naruto's stories and how every time he recalled them and the sound of his voice it gave him comfort. As the years stretched on, it was those stories and Naruto's voice that kept him sane, gave him a shred of hope.

It would be another 6 years before he could escape. All thanks to luck and good timing. A particularly bad experiment caused Seth to almost take over all at once. There was a reason why the lords didn't force their way through and take over their host. Their powers were too potent for a human body to handle. Even a vampire body was not necessarily strong enough as the lords' powers were on the level of gods.

His body could not handle the strain even with his regenerative powers. Seth's power overwhelmed him, his power surging before his body gave out. For a short period of time. He had died. He didn't know for how long his heart had stopped. Long enough for Orochimaru to toss his body into a room, dubbing him a failure. Though not restrained or guarded, he could not move. It was like his brain and body had been fried, burned out from Seth's abundant power. He didn't know how long he laid there. His concept of time and sense of self had been damaged, unable to do anything other than look ahead blankly. Later, he was told it was about 2 maybe 3 days, but he was lucky.

Emergency power came on once more, reminding him of that night, and the smell of smoke drifted into the room. Soon enough, there was fire all around him, but he could not move or protect himself. His first coherent thought since being brought to the room was, "Will this nightmare finally end?"

No sooner had he thought those words, the door exploded inward and people came rushing in, picking him up and evacuating the building.

His power surge had gained the attention of the medjay and the shinobi. His brother led the medjay attack while Tsunade led the shinobi. Teaming up together, Tsunade managed to get revenge for Naruto while his brother managed to bring him back to his birthplace.

Gaara could never call it home. Not having set foot onto his homeland's soil since he was 4, he had no pleasant memories, only a dark cell. He didn't see his brother much either. At the time, he did not even know he had a brother. He underwent treatment to heal his body from the botched experimentation, discovered his need to consume blood now to function, and his feral behavior came back. Having never been in society, he struggled to get used to a room, sleeping in a corner rather than a bed. He was terrified of pure darkness and couldn't stand the smell of antiseptic or white-colored rooms. He could only communicate in Japanese and was only calm when near large windows to the outside. Doors could never be closed, and guns set him off.

In hindsight, it was probably his brother's doing that kept the medjay from locking him up and killing him. Gaara had been highly unstable when he returned from the labs, and he had yet to learn to restrain Seth's power which was now always underneath the surface. However, Gaara had no intention of going back into society. He did not even know what it meant. He knew what he knew, and that was all.

It was Kankuro who eventually motivated him with temptation. "Do you want to see Naruto Uzumaki?"

Though he could not understand his words, he recognized Naruto's name, latching onto it with a mixture of feelings. He was still alive after all this time? Resentment filled his chest, feeling the abandonment once more. Still, his brother pushed, using a translator to communicate with him. If he worked to rejoin society, if he learned Arabic, if he learned control, in four years, he'd allow them to be together.

It was enough motivation to get Gaara moving. In truth, he did not know why seeing Naruto again motivated him. He worked until he made himself sick. Even today, there were things about society that made him uncomfortable or frightened, but he pushed through, working toward that agreed upon day.

And that day became the opening ceremony for the new freshman at Konoha High School.

He spotted Naruto almost the moment he walked through the gates. His bright blond hair, his joyful laugh drew his attention like a moth to a flame. His eyes sparkled as he once had when they were children, his smile just as bright. Ten years and he was the same as it was in his memories.

His first instinct was to hate it as jealousy consumed him. It was obvious Naruto had lived a good life while he was away. He could fit into society as he joked around with another student with shaggy brown hair. He had moved on without him.

It was this anger and jealousy that kept him from approaching Naruto at the ceremony. Sitting alone and ignoring those around him with his cold demeanor. He thought of just returning to his birth country and just letting the medjay kill him. He had not expected Naruto to approach him first.

Naruto bound up to him with a huge smile, talking to him and introducing himself with a reluctant Inuzuka by his side. Gaara tried to ignore him and walk past him, but Naruto persisted. His tone and body language were warm and alluring, making Gaara unable to dismiss him. Like when they were children, something about Naruto drew him, and Naruto's smile was a ray of sunshine in his dark world. No one smile at him like that. No one looked at him kindly. No one put out the effort to get close to him. Only Naruto.

Naruto kept approaching him and each time, Gaara's resentment and anger turned to guilt. After their first couple of meetings, he realized Naruto had no memories of their childhood, explaining his bright demeanor. The innocence Orochimaru had snuffed out had returned due to his lost memories. And like a vicious cycle, Gaara wanted to protect it, unable to deny Naruto's offered friendship.

Finally, Gaara offered his name to Naruto. Gaining that precious smile from Naruto that warmed Gaara's heart.

Once again, Gaara's life revolved around Naruto, protecting him from past memories, but the past for him could not be easily forgotten. There was still jealousy. Still anger. He could not bear the thought of Naruto abandoning him again. He would suffer in silence and do everything to keep Naruto safe, but he could not let Naruto get too close. In this new life, Gaara never referred to his old friend by his first name. Only the last.

And Gaara kept that relationship for three years. Staying close to the one he admired while keeping him at arm's length. Worshiping him and envying him. Uzumaki once again became his reason for living, and Gaara remained a shell of a person with no wants, dreams, or desires. As long as Uzumaki could be happy, he had no complaints.