Chapter warnings: implied self harm, panic attack, violence, abuse and abortion.

Everyone was in black clothes. The sky mocked the Sabaku household with its bright blue colour and unforgiving sun. In a way the weather matched Gaara's mood; he was unforgiving. Another year, another trouble all for the woman he never even knew.

"Gaara?" Temari's solemn voice broke through the silence of his room. There was an hesitant pause before the door slid open and Temari's blond head poked in. Gaara was staring mindlessly at his sand collection. "I brought your breakfast."

The girl stepped into the room, trying not to make any noise that would set her volatile brother off, and dropped the food tray by the bed stand. She felt Gaara's aura spike at the sight of the piece of cake beside the food and gulped. It was honestly scary to think of what his reaction to the cake would be.

Gaara didn't say anything and Temari didn't know whether to be relieved or sad. She half wanted to hear his thoughts about the cake. This was okay though. Temari stalked out of the room with a few words stuck in her throat.

'Happy birthday.'

But that was a lot farfetched. Gaara's birthday was never happy, neither has it ever been celebrated for his birth. The day was always dedicated to their dead mother.

Gaara stayed in his room throughout the funeral ritual. He had never attended his mother's death anniversary because of Rasa. He heard that the older man went ballistic when Yashamaru brought him to the ceremony when he was younger but Gaara didn't remember.

Gaara doesn't even know how Karura, his mother, looked like. He has never asked; never been curious about it. Maybe when he was younger yes but after his harsh discovery when Yashamaru died his curiosity died out.

The redhead winced when his dull nails managed to reopen some of the scars left on his skin from his last panic attack. He looked down at his arms with a slight scowl directed at the blood trickling down the both of them. Once again he didn't know that he was reopening his wounds. It was like a subconscious action or a coping mechanism.

Against Gaara's will his heart picked up its pace when he discovered that the ceremony was over. His father and siblings were back from their mother's grave. What happened after this moment was something the siblings were unfortunately familiar with. The rantings began.

Kankuro internally felt that Gaara was not the only one in their familiar in need of a shrink but his sentiments remained hidden. He didn't need his father breathing down his neck too like the way he did Gaara. Temari on the other hand went straight to her room and locked the door.

She tried to say something to Rasa but words refused to form in her mouth. Her legs felt too heavy to move and in simple words, she chickened out on her brother again. It was so difficult, more so than how she pictured it to be.

Temari heard Gaara being called into their father's study and fell unto her bed. She buried her head under her numerous pillows to drown out the sounds but on days like this sound seemed to travel through the house faster and better. She hated herself for putting Gaara through this again.

Gaara closed the door to the study behind him. Behind those closed doors nobody knew what happened. Everyone just chalked his injuries and bruises down to street fights because of his delinquent tendencies; not one person had ever imagined that his father contributed to most of the bruises he had.

The boy stayed away from the door but not to close to Rasa's table. He was glad that his room remained untouched. If his father placed a hand on his sand collection, Gaara didn't know what he would do. He was that protective of his sand.

There was silence between the two for a long while that got Gaara into thinking that Rasa would be calm this time. He was wrong. As usual the day started off with rants mostly about him and some regrets.

"You don't even look like me or her, whose child are you?" Rasa asked rhetorically. "Those damned doctors. I specifically told them to save Karura but they didn't listen. We weren't even supposed to have you, did you know that? Kankuro and Temari were enough for us but you came along by an accident. An accident!"

Gaara dug his fingers inside his palms and his teeth gritted against each other as Rasa spoke regardless of his feelings.

"Carrying you was eating her life little by little but she stubbornly kept you despite the doctor's advice to abort. I never did like you and neither did she. Keeping you was to appease her conscience."

Yashamaru's dying words came back to Gaara again. The trauma from that day bore deep into his skin and still disturbed him even with therapy. The fading warmth of Yashamaru's blood spewing from his mouth as he talked– confessed just how much he detested him never left Gaara's skin. The pain from the scar he acquired from the relative he thought cared from him still throbbed and hurt like it was still fresh.

Gaara's hands still shook and trembled at the sight of a knife, at the memories knives brought back to him. Memories of how he killed his uncle.

Stop.

Gaara clutched his hair in a tight grip and doubled over in an attempt to stop the memories and his father's words. Rasa was unrelenting though. "Stop." Gaara whispered. His voice was hoarse with raw emotions and his eyes erratically shrunken. "Stop or I'll kill you." He whispered.

"His true colours have been revealed!" Rasa exclaimed with a humourless laugh. "I know you are plotting to kill us all but I would not allow it, you demon!"

"I said STOP!" Gaara lost every bit of composure he had after Rasa's last word. The redhead charged for the older man with a speed that made him appear like a red blur and pushed Rasa off the chair he sat at. Straddling him, Gaara clenched his hands around Rasa's neck tight enough to break bones if Rasa was not Rasa.

Somehow the man knew that Gaara was aiming for his neck and used his hand to guard against it. He had the upper hand in strength and experience so it was fairly easy to turn Gaara over and grab his hands away from his neck. Gaara was thrashing and screaming. Cold sweat matted his hair against his forehead and drenched his clothes.

"You can't kill me!" Rasa stood up from Gaara and reached for a golf club.

Temari threw the pillows off her head and raced outside her room when she had enough of what she was hearing. Kankuro seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her because he was already kicking the study's door and yelling loudly for their father to stop.

The door finally gave way beneath Kankuro's feet and Temari rushed in. The sight she was met with made her cry out in horror and anguish. "FATHER! GAARA!!" Temari raced towards the two of them and grabbed the golf club from his hands while Kankuro restricted Gaara's wild movements.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T TOUCH ME! I'LL KILL YOU!" Gaara raved madly in Kankuro's hold. His skin was badly bruised and injured from the impact of the golf club but he also did Rasa a number. He had enough of putting up with everything; he was out to kill.

"I'D KILL YOU FIRST, MURDERER! SHOULD HAVE DONE IT EARLIER BUT NOW I HAVE A CANDID REASON NOT TO KEEP YOU ALIVE!" Rasa struggled with Temari for the golf club. If he wasn't so blinded by anger, all he had to do was to release the club and take another from the rack beside him but it was a good thing he was blinded by anger.

"KANKURO, GET GAARA OUT OF HERE!" Temari yelled an instruction to her twin.

"CALM DOWN GAARA!" Kankuro grunted as Gaara hit him multiple times in his attempts to break free. It was a struggle to get the youngest out of there but once he was inside the safe confines of his room and with his sand collection, Gaara relatively calmed down.

Kankuro left him in his room and took the key in case Gaara developed less than funny ideas, and ran to the study to assist Temari with their father. Rasa was livid, beyond livid even and Temari was equally pissed.

"Now you're on that killer's side uh?! What has he done to charm you?!" Rasa raved.

"He did nothing! You need to get over yourself father, Mother is gone!" Temari yelled back angrily. Her hair was displaced out of its pigtails and she was heaving because of the struggle to get Rasa off of Gaara. Kankuro was no better.

It was official. Their house was a mad house.

Xxx symphony xxX

Kakashi held the carelessly designed placard up lazily in one hand and a copy of Icha Icha Paradise in the other. Never mind the displeased looks he got from passersby who could recognise the orange paperback of the literature porn anywhere, Kakashi was too into the book to care.

At least that was what he looked like to outsiders. In reality Kakashi was nervous and that was saying something. He was at the airport waiting for a special person's arrival. The last time he saw the person was years ago. Kakashi even doubted that he would recognise him anymore.

"Kakashi-san!" A cheery and enthusiastic voice calling out for him made the silver haired man look up from his book (he never read beyond a paragraph) and close it. He caught sight of a figure waving and speed walking towards him with a trolley following behind him.

Nostalgia hit Kakashi in a massive wave. The last time he saw the boy was years before the accident at Fire Nation's Grand Opera House. "Tobi." He acknowledged.

Tobi was back in Konoha after many years of being away from it. He had been living with his grand mother for personal reasons but now she was dead and his parents...

Anyways, the only person he had apart from his cousins was Kakashi. He chose to stay with Kakashi because he was not as comfortable with his cousins as with the white haired man so here he was

"Kakashi-san!" Tobi waved sporadically as he dragged his trolley towards him. Said man tucked his signature orange Make Out Paradise book into his pocket and focused his attention on the brunet. Tobi released his trolley when he reached Kakashi and his cardboard bill and wrapped his arms around the man.

Kakashi chuckled. "Hello Tobi. How are you?" He ruffled the adolescent's short black hair affectionately. He was like the child he never had. Of course, he was his godfather after all.

"Tobi is fine!" Tobi chirped in third person speech form. "Wow, Konoha is different!" He gaped.

"I'd take you on a tour after you've settled. Let's go." Kakashi helped Tobi with his luggage and the both of them walked to the man's car, all the way making small chat. "Would you like to see them?" Kakashi questioned the teen softly. Tobi was not around during the accident at the Opera House. It must have been tough hearing about it and being unable to visit.

Tobi shook his head. "No. I'm not ready." The change in speech form did not go unnoticed by Kakashi who kept quiet about it.

"That's alright. You need some time after all." The silveret hummed and focused on his driving. The rest of the afternoon and week was spent catching up and fitting in. Tobi was enrolling into KSA this upcoming term. However eccentric he was, the teen was smart and could definitely ace the entrance test.

Xxx symphony xxX

As usual every week before the school officially reopens, the staff resume work in order to prepare for the upcoming term. In KSA all teachers were assembled in the conference room with principal Tsunade. The discussion was on a very serious issue that gave every teacher that really loved their jobs concern; the recuperative classes.

The outcome of the previous term's exams were very bad, especially for the tenth graders. Iruka had almost developed a high blood pressure when he saw the class average and general performance of the students. It was bad and bad was just a light term for it.

"Are you teachers so incompetent that you can not explain things in a way even teens with half brains would understand?" Tsunade lamented bitterly. The results she was given would lower the academic standard of the school but she didn't want to revoke the scholarships.

Not everyone was made for studying, she knew that but still there were some things that even the dullest person could understand if they just had proper explanations.

"Our method is not working." Tsunade decided not to keep hounding the teachers. That might just be the problem; teachers. They were overrated and some of them might be unapproachable. "So I have decided to change strategies to student mentoring."

"Student mentoring?" Virtually every teacher in the conference room echoed.

"Yes. Each student from the recuperative classes would be paired with smart students from normal classes minus those with dyslexia and learning disorders. I would assign suitable teachers to those set of students." Tsunade announced. "I want you teachers to pair the students in an order of compatibility and submit your lists before Friday."

The conference was over after some discussions on what to do about new students and many other things and the teachers were dismissed.

Kurenai and Iruka met up at Iruka's office desk to discuss about which student to pair with the other in their classes.

"My main concerns are Yukata, Tenten, Naruto and Gaara." Iruka told the ruby eyed teacher. "Yukata makes honest efforts to learn but she just does not grasp things fast. She isn't dyslexic, she is just very (read: VERY) slow at grasping things." The man's face creased with worry.

Whoever was Yukata's student tutor had to be patient. Very patient. Neji, the smartest overall would have been a good match for her but Iruka had seen how Neji interacted with others; he was not going to be the best tutor for his little rock (as he had dubbed her). Shikamaru would have been good if he was counting book smarts alone but knowing that boy, he would just have the both of them nap through lessons. That in itself needed to be fixed.

Kurenai had a thoughtful look on her face. "Hmm, I think I have the perfect person for her." She spoke after giving it some thought and wrote down the names of their first pair. Iruka's eyes lit up at the person Kurenai chose for Yukata.

"That's good!" The person was definitely the best student tutor for Yukata. Now for Tenten... "Tenten is just seriously under motivated for everything other than dancing. If she scribbles something down in a test it's because she found a cheat or just so that her script isn't blank."

The girl was notorious for turning in answer scripts with smiley faces and badly drawn pandas sketched unto them in the short period of time she had spent in the school so even if Kurenai was the Ballet dance teacher and Tenten was not taking ballet classes, she had heard enough from many teachers (especially her husband) to know the girl.

Her case was concerning. "Do you think she needs counselling?" Kurenai asked in concern.

"We're not the only ones who felt this. Fortunately, Anko-sensei has taken it upon herself to find out if there is anything wrong with her. Who do you suggest we pair her up with?" Iruka asked. "This person?! Are you sure?"

Kurenai gave an affirmative nod. "While they are surely not on friendly terms with each other, they compliment each other rather well."

Iruka was still wary about the pair but he decided to trust Kurenai's motherly instincts. "Then there is Naruto. He is very easily distracted and aside from that we still have the prejudice against him to deal with." Even though his classmates talked to him, Iruka was not blind to the judgemental looks Naruto got on occasion. "I feel like this person would be good enough."

Iruka allowed Kurenai to write down the pair. She had no objections about the pair up so that was settled. They moved up to their biggest concern of the day; Gaara. Both teachers were stumped on what to do about the delinquent.

"Do you think he is a special case?" Kurenai asked.

"No teacher is prepared to handle his volatility, or any student for that matter." Iruka countered.

"Wait, I think I have a person..." Kurenai wrote down the name. Iruka pondered over it a bit before shrugging.

"Seems good enough. I just hope they would not suffocate each other with silence." Iruka half joked and was half serious. The pair they just wrote down were too quiet for their own goods. "Now that our major concerns are settled, let's move on to the others."

Xxx symphony xxX

Collective groans could be heard from different houses as alarms rang for 7am. School was reopening, not a the best thing to look forward too. The winter break was too short! Wishes that every break was as long as summer break caused practically all students to grumble.

KSA was bustling with activity. Groups of friends formed here and there to catch up on the time they've missed apart, early pranks were being pulled and pleasantries were being exchanged. All in all, it was a nice morning until a particular redhead walked through the gates.

The whole school shut down with baited silence as it always did whenever Gaara came in with serious injuries across his body. Whispers always followed after he had passed and today was no different.

"Did you see the bruises? He must've been in another street fight. How unethical." A girl whispered to her group of friends from somewhere in the hallway.

"Note to self, never cross the red devil's path today." A boy muttered, commenting on the obvious dark cloud hovering above Gaara's head.

"How come he has not been expelled yet?" Another whispered.

"He's the son of the Kazekage, of course he won't be expelled!" Somebody whispered back.

"Good –!" Naruto cut off his words sharply at the blanch look Gaara sent his way when he wanted to greet the redhead. The blond would normally ignore the redhead's glare and say good morning anyway but there was something about that blank look that sent shivers down Naruto's spine.

Not today, Naruto thought, Gaara was unapproachable today.

The day went by without a hitch and it was lunch time before Naruto could say ramen 1064 times. Since the weather was cold, the cafeteria served chicken soup for lunch today much to the pleasure of most.

Ino and Sakura walked together to the cafeteria as always, chatting about how Sasuke had been less frequent on Instagram. It wasn't as if Sasuke was a regular on Instagram in the first place. He only posted to his story once in a few months and changed profile pictures to show that he was still alive but the amount of followers he had was like a celebrity's.

The girls were on their way to their table after a brief chat with Ino's brother from another mother, Deidara-senpai, when something horrible happened. Sakura's heeled shoe broke. The heels were just an inch elevation from the ground and must have been a low quality for it to break but that wasn't where the horror was.

She lost her balance and her chicken soup all but turned over...on Gaara.

Sakura's heart thrummed loudly despite herself as the full situation sank in. The hall grew graveyard silent as everyone's attention were drawn to the scene. Sakura was internally panicking. How deep in her conversation with Ino was she to not notice that they were walking near Gaara's table in the middle of the hall?!

Ino was equally panic stricken. They needed to run!

"S-sorry!" Sakura squeaked when the boy stood up, head hung low and eyes obscured by his wet bangs. She quickly removed a pink handkerchief from her pocket and used it to frantically clean the soup off Gaara, an action she would come to realise as a grave mistake in a few seconds to come.

The second the hanky touched Gaara, the boy gripped her wrist in a deadly grip. "Don't touch me." He all but growled as he did not release Sakura's wrist, twisting it further until the girl squirmed in pain.

"Sakura!" Ino shrieked. "Let her go you jerk!" The blond screamed and tried to pull off Gaara's death grip. The back hand that came as a retaliation for touching him was too fast to follow. Ino only had the time to scream and close her eyes before she felt the neck cracking pain of the slap.

It didn't come.

Ino opened her eyes at the sounds of screams and scrambling of feet. In front of her, Gaara was being tackled by Lee from class D while some seniors were running towards the scene.

Gaara was literally a mad man with the way he screamed and raved. Lee had to be the really good at martial arts or something because he was doing a really good job of holding the raving devil down until for the prefects until he suddenly wasn't.

"Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me. Don't touch me." Gaara kept repeating the sentence as he bucked his hips and rolled he and Lee over till he was on top.

"GAARA NO!" Temari yelled as she ran faster to the place. "MOVE!" She screamed at the students blocking her path because they had formed a circle around the scene.

"GAARA!" Kankuro screamed.

But Gaara was far too gone to even hear their voices as he stood up and stepped on Lee's shoulder and thigh, taking the taller boy's arm in his hand and pinning his head down with another. Lee squirmed but it was useless.

"DON'T FUCKING TOUCH ME!"

The horrible crack of dislocation reverberated through the whole room followed by Lee's pained scream and horrified screams from surrounding girls. The whole cafeteria was in utter chaos as students ran helter skelter.

The realisation of what he did only began to settle in when Kankuro and Temari pulled him away from Lee and the prefects surrounded the squirming boy. The teachers, alerted by the screams, were already in the cafeteria and could only balk when they saw the amount of damage Gaara had done this time.

Said boy slumped in his siblings' holds with defeat. He was going to be expelled for sure and locked up in a psychiatric ward.

Oh boy. Gaara is in trouble.

I would really appreciate it if you reviewed but it's okay if you don't, I don't mind. But I really want to hear your thoughts about Symphony so ultimately...I do mind if you don't.

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