Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Just Mayu and my other fanfic OOCs. Just so you know. I went directly by what the episodes said for this so if you already seen it, skip pass and go to the bottem of the page to read the non-past stuff.
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Gaara stood in front of the table that contained his mother's picture on it. He stood and stared, then raised his arm, knife in hand. He gave an attempt to stab his hand. Sand appeared, guarding the attack.
"It's no use... The sand interferes..." Gaara sighed. The sand bubbled then disappeared.
"Gaara-Sama"
Gaara jumped, startled. He looked to the door to find Yashamaru standing there, looking at him. He had his arm and forehead bandaged.
"Yashamaru"
Yashamaru walked up to him and told him that the Kazekage ordered him to be his caretaker. "I am to keep an eye on your health and protect you. Please don't do such a thing in front of me" he said, meaning the knife with the stabbing.
Gaara sighed and looked down. He had a very upsetting face. "But then again, the sand will protect you" Yashamaru smiled, rubbing the back of his head. Gaara continued to look at the ground, then looked up at Yashamaru with an innocent face.
"Yashamaru, I'm sorry"
Yashamaru stared confused for a moment, then noticed Gaara staring at his bandages. "Oh this? It's just a scratch" Yashamaru smiled, patting his head and looking at his arm.
"Do wounds hurt?"
Yashamaru was shocked by this question then smiled, "Just a little. It will heal quickly, though." A few minutes passed by in silence.
"Hey, Yashamaru"
"Yes?"
"What does pain feel like? I've never been hurt before, so I was wondering how it felt..." Gaara explained, staring at his hand smiling but upsetting.
Yashamaru frowned. "How should I explain this..." he stared. "It's painful and unbearable... Like, when a person is shot or cut, they become very ill at ease and they can't think normally. I can't explain it well, but simply put, it's not a very good condition to be in" Yashamaru concluded.
Gaara stared and tried to understand what he meant. Once he understood, he stared at the bandage on his arm, then his eyes started to look as if he was about to cry.
"Yashamaru..."
Yashamaru looked down at Gaara, confused, "Yes?"
"Then, do you hate me, Yashamaru?" Gaara asked, looking away.
Yashamaru was shocked again by the question, then smiled, "People hurt each other and get hurt during their lifetimes...But it's difficult to hate another"
Gaara looked up at him and smiled, "Thanks, Yashamaru! I think I understand what hurting is now"
"Really?"
"Maybe I'm injured too, like everyone else. I always hurt here" Gaara explained, lifting his right hand up to his chest where his heart was and holding, "I'm not bleeding, but my chest really hurts here"
Yashamaru stared at him with upsetting eyes. He couldn't help but feel ashamed and happy at the same time. Then after a moment, Yashamaru walked over to Gaara and bent down on one knee, taking the knife from Gaara's hands. He sliced a small wound on his finger and let it bleed. Gaara stared at it, panicking.
"Flesh wounds bleed, and they may seem painful...but as time goes by, the pain eventually disappears. And if you use medicine, the wounds heal even faster. But the tricky wounds are the ones in your heart. Those are difficult to heal"
"A wound of the heart?" Gaara asked.
"A wound of the heart is different from a flesh wound. Unlike a flesh wound, there are no ointments to heal it, and their are times when they never heal" Yashamaru explained. They stood there a few minutes, without talking or moving. Then Gaara raised his hand to his chest again, holding his hand there.
"But there is one thing that can heal a wound of the heart" Yashamaru mentioned. Gaara's eye's widen. "It's a troublesome medicine and you can only receive it from another person"
"What? How can I heal this?" Gaara begged.
Yashamaru stared at the photo of his sister, who was Gaara's mom, "The thing that can heal a wound of heart is...love"
"Love?" Gaara asked, confused.
"Yes"
"How can I get that?" Gaara asked, almost demanding. "What should I do to get rid of this pain?"
"Gaara-sama, you have already received it" Yashamaru smiled. "Love is the spirit of devoting yourself to someone important and close to you...It is expressed by caring for and protecting that person. Just like my sister. I believe that my sister always loved you, Gaara-sama. The Shukaku of the Sand is a living soul that is usually used for combat purposes. The sand automatically protects you because of love. I believe the will of your mother is inside the sand. My sister probably wanted to protect you, even after her death"
"Yashamaru..." Gaara interupted.
"Yes Gaara-sama?"
"Thanks back there... for stopping me" Gaara smiled.
"My pleasure" Yashamaru smiled, as he bit his wounded finger, trying to stop the stinging. "You are a person who is important and close to me after all, Gaara-sama"
Gaara walked up to Yashamaru and grabbed his arm of the wounded finger. Yashamaru stared, shocked. Gaara looked at the wound then bit down on it, just as Yashamaru was doing.
Yashamaru's eyes then got dull, "Can you feel my pain"
Gaara frown and took the finger out of his mouth, "It taste like metal"
A few moments later, Gaara looked up and smiled, "Hey Yashamaru. I have a favor to ask"
"What is it?"
"I want ointment."
Gaara ran down the path of the Sand Village with a bag of ointment in his arms. He ran smiling until he reached the house of the girl he may have injured at the park. He knocked and the door creeked open, showing the girl with a bandage on her cheek.
"I'm sorry about before. It hurt, right?" Gaara asked, smiling. He raised the bag of ointment, "Here, this is ointment. Use it if you want"
"Go home, monster!" the girl shouted, then shut the door. Gaara stood there, shaking in pain, his eyes showing sorrow as he dropped the bag. He left the house and started to walk back to Yashamaru's house. On the way there, a drunk walked passed him and bumped into him.
"What the... Be careful! You stupid kid." Gaara raised his head and glanced at him.
"You're..." the man started, startled. Gaara's eyes then started to shrink from sadness. 'Those eyes again... "Go home, monster!"... Why...? Why!' Gaara plead in his mind. Sand started to rise.
"Hey..." the man started, staring in fear. He screamed as the sand attacked, dropping his sake bottle as it busted on the ground. Three men came outside and ran to the injured man. As they looked at him, Gaara could hear them say that he was dead as he walked away.
Gaara continued walking and paused once he walked in front of the Kazekage office. He looked to find his dad standing against a pole, glaring at him. Gaara smiled then quickly faded to a frown.'Father'
As he glanced at his father, he started to walk off again and went to sit up on one of the office roof's. He sat, staring at his feet, the moon in full detail behind him. 'It didn't go well...' he sighed. He lifted and stared at his hands. 'Why am I the only one who is a monster?.' He covered his face with his hands. 'What am I?' 'The thing that can heal a wound in the heart... is love'
"Yashamaru..." Gaara sobbed. He lifted his hand and grabbed his chest again, sitting on the edge of the building. He continued his sobs until he heard something hit sand. He turned around to find sand covering his back, and kunai in the sand. The shinobi who launched the kunai stood a range of three yards away, hands in place to control the floating kunai.
Why? Why is it that I have to go through this! Gaara demanded in his head. He stood up, glaring at the shinobi who's face was covered and everything else. He launched more kunai but the sand protected Gaara from the assault. At that point, Gaara understood he needed to fight back. He raised his hand to control the sand, wrapping up the shinobi. As Gaara's fist closed, the sand coffin busted, throwing the wounded shinobi against the wall. Blood drops covered the wall from where the shinobi hit and laid. Gaara raised his hands to his chest, now frighten of what he had done.
"Who are you...? Why"
Gaara stared at the body and noticed a bandage on the same finger than Yashamaru cut earlier. He swallowed, then walked over to the body, lifting up the cloth that covered the face. As the face reveiled, Gaara stared, holding his chest, whining in pain.
"You are strong, as I expected... Gaara-sama" Yashamaru muttered. Blood ran down his forehead and mouth. Gaara then grabbed his chest with one hand, holding. He dropped to his knees, in so much pain that he couldn't move yet understand why.
"Yashamaru...?"
He held his head with his other hand and screamed. Tears streamed down his face. He didn't know what to do or how to handle such pain. Yashamaru coughed up more blood then rested his head against the building. Gaara raised his head to stare at him face to face.
"Why...Why? Yashamaru, why did you...Why? Why?" Gaara sobbed. 'Love is the spirit of devoting yourself to someone important and close to you... It is expressed by caring for and protecting that person. Just like my sister. You are a person who is important and close to me, Gaara-sama.' Gaara wiped his eyes, but the tears didn't disappear.
"You...You..." he sobbed. "I thought that you were..."
"It was an order" Yashamaru interupted. "I was ordered to kill you. By your father. Kazekage-sama"
"Father did...?" Gaara sobbed, then held his hand over his mouth, getting ill from all the tears and pain. "Father? Why? Why me?" Gaara demanded.
"You were born with the Shukaku of the Sand, and then observed like a guinea pig, Gaara-sama. But since you could not control the power of the living soul, Shukaku, and were unable to manipulate sand on your own...your existence was deemed a danger to the village. Before that happened..." Yashamaru explained.
"Then you did this unwillingly because father ordered you to..." Gaara smiled, trying to stop the tears again.
"No, that is not correct" Yashamaru replied. Gaara then stared, an upsetting expression, crying again.
"It is true I received the order from Kazekage-sama...but I could've refused it if I had wished to." Gaara stared in pain. "Gaara-sama... Deep within my heart...I hated you. You took the life of my beloved sister when you were born. My sister's memento... I tried to love you by thinking of you as her treasured child...But I couldn't. My sister did not wish for your birth. She became this village's sacrifice and she died cursing this village. After that, I carried a wound that could never heal." Gaara stared, holding his chest, tears drying up. "My sister gave you your name. Gaara. An Asura that loves himself. Love only yourself. And fight only for yourself. By doing so, you can continue to exist... Your name carries those wishes. But my sister did not give you the name because she cared for you or loved you. She gave you that name so that you could continue to exist...because she hated and cursed this village as she died, and she wanted her deep hatred...to exist and remain... To let others know of it. You were never loved." As Yashamaru finished telling Gaara that basically everything he told him before was a lie, and this is the truth, he opened his jonin jacket to reveal exploding tags taped to his body, now on flare.
"This is it. Please die" Yashamaru demanded, before the tags exploded. The tags exploded and a large hole was created on the side of the building.
Gaara's sobs were still active. In front of the hole created from the explosion, a sand wall slightly crumbled. Gaara sat, still crying and in unbearable pain, not injured at all thanks to the sand. 'I believed that my sister always loved you, Gaara-sama.' 'Love?' The painful lies that happened on that same night stabbed Gaara like a knife. He couldn't handle anymore pressure. 'The sand automatically protects you because of love.' Gaara sat there on his knees, clawing at the sand on the ground. He continued his deep sobs until it all shattered. Faith. Love. Feelings all but anger and hatred shattered. Then the letter "Love" was embedded on his forehead.
"That's so sad..." you said,depression covering your tone.
"After that, he believed what Yashamaru said and believed that he was alone. He hasn't cared for anyone or anything since then, until he faught Naruto" Temari concluded.
"He faught Naruto?" you asked, wondering why Naruto never told you about this person.
"He was fighting Sasuke in the battle to become a Chuunin. But that's when Gaara got wounded for his first time. The Uchiha runt used a move called Chidori and busted through Gaara's sand and wounded his left shoulder. When we were taking Gaara away to heal for the rest of the Leaf Village envasion-" Kankuro explained.
"You guys invaded Konoha!" you interupted.
"Orochimaru killed our father, the Kazekage and took his place at the Chuunin fights beside the Hokage. He tricked us into thinking he was the real Kage and made us attack Konoha" Temari sighed, "That's why we're helping now to defeat Orochimaru and his minions"
"Anywho... When Gaara faught Naruto, he understood that they were the same. But the reason Naruto was happy all the time was because of love, something Gaara wants to understand now so he doesn't have to live in Shukaku's life anymore" Kankuro concluded.
"So that's why he popped out of nowhere when Kimimaro attacked me. He was helping Konoha" you smiled bitterly.
"Yeah. Me and Temari were helping the others with the other sickminded minions of that snake" Kankuro snickered.
"Well, before you take me back to the village, I want to find Gaara" you demanded. The two shot you confused looks. "I want to be his friend, and to see if we both can change. Naruto changed if he's the same, so maybe if I and Gaara work together, we can change too" you smiled.
"But your not like the two... are you?" Temari asked, still staring confused.
"Oh, trust me" your smile faded, "We are much very like the same"
"Well, let's go find Gaara before he gets into any trouble" Kankuro agreed. Temari got up and helped you up, then you both left the Sand Village on search for Gaara.
"There he is" Temari whispered. You three were in the forest and found Gaara sitting by a river bank. He seemed to be staring off in the sky then switching his eyes to the water. You, Temari, Kankuro have yet to be noticed, hiding in the woods. You decide to be the first one to step out.
"Gaara...sama" you asked, walking out of the trees, your hood falling from your head from wind.
"Tell Kankuro and Temari to get out from behind the rock" Gaara demanded, not looking back. Temari and Kankuro scoot out of the woods, anime sweating.
"You three were going to escort me back to Konoha, weren't you?" you asked, almost reminding.
"Hn. Let's go then" he mumbled, standing up and dashing into the trees.
You frown then jump, following Gaara, Kankuro and Temari. You were behind the three and in clear of any attacks made, which one attempt just soon after you took off.
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Cliffyhanger muhahah... review and I might add a new chapter soon okay? Okay. Understood? OKAY... Your lying aren't you? o.-
