Chapter One

Light In The Darkness

It was a restless night for Gaara again. He was sitting on a rooftop and staring into the endless night which had been his only comfort for a long time.

He felt a little more in peace since he wasn't able to sleep. The only exception was when the full moon rose up which awakened Shukaku's power more than usually. He had given up his will to resist against his power in the past. In fact he had let Shukaku's bloodlust consume him mixed with his despair which only flamed his bloodlust more. But he didn't care back then since he had hated this world. This would have go on if he hadn't met Naruto in Konohagakure. He showed him a glimmer of hope that even a Jinjuruki could be worthshipped by others.

There were people, his friends who treated Naruto good. Gaara closed his eyes. It was definetly hard to change his mentality and character but he was working on it. He realised that killing people was wrong and he didn't want to do that in the first place but it was his being he was doomed of, he told himself countless times in the past.

The path of becoming a better person and getting acknowledged by the village was surely difficult. He couldn't erase the fear in the hearts of Suna's people but it seemed like his siblings noticed that he wasn't the same anymore and were obviously not uncertain of it. He started to talk with them more and shared his thoughts , especially with Kankuro who could be a good listener. It seemed like Kankuro wanted to understand him more and started to care about his little brother. They were siblings after all.

When some time passed Gaara decided to test his role as a teacher because he saw it as an oppurtunity to interact more with the people of his village and he had surely more experience in fighting and was stronger than most older chunins and jonins.

Gaara had become calmer until that point and his new attitude was stabilizising. He looked at the world with different eyes than before.

When he met Matsuri he was slightly confused that she wanted to become his student. Compared to him she was fragile and had a fear of weapons. Ironically she choosed the ultimative weapon of the village as her mentor. But it seemed like she didn't care about his reputation or she was unaware of it. What surprised him even more was that she insisted to stay his student after she saw him transforming into Shukaku in a fight against Seimei. She wasn't terrified of him. Maybe in that moment but for some reason she continued to treat him with respect and not respect caused by fear which was the only recognition Gaara knew. Above all she was kind and probably goodhearted because she didn't judge him in any way.

Hadn't she heared of his actions and the gossip around Sunagakure? He was well known after all. When they returned to Sunagakure people were beginning to wonder about the teacher/student relationship and were obviously telling her stories or some were even afraid to talk to her but she never spoke about it. Gaara noticed a few times that she talked with Temari about him and the gossip but she never told him about their conversation.

Gaara couldn't really understand Matsuri. She was the only person apart his family who accepted him. Even his siblings flinched in the past when he was transforming into Shukaku. Matsuri just worthsipped that he was helping her to work on her fear of weapons. He didn't expect that someone would actually want to bound with him. He thought that it was him who had to work on that. This feeling was very unusal.

This girl started to take much place in his mind. He was observing her often, curious about what was going on inside her. He wanted to get to know her better. Through her other people would start realising that he wasn't that bad after all and he could experience how it's like to befriend with someone. Before a year he would had never considered such a thought. He realised that for once he had luck.

This realisation was unrealistic. And because it seemed so unrealistic he didn't really know how to make her his friend. Gaara closed his eyes. He knew from the first moment that changing his path would be difficult but he didn't want to give up his dream.

Matsuri…

She was probably sleeping now, something he could only dream of if he was able to dream. They have had several lessons together. She still kept her fear of weapons. After losing her parents this wasn't easy to overcome he understood that. But what he learnt from Naruto was that one could fight to protect people not only to harm them.

With that in mind Matsuri became more courageous. She was learning to use her her johyo with more confidence but she also had to work on hear accuracy and strength after that he could try a fight with her. Not really a fight for him for he had to only use minimum of his power. They were really contradictive for sure. Still, he was able to understand her. His siblings couldn't help her in that matter because thes weren't that patient. Somehow it pleased him. She kind of needed him to become a better kunoichi and he would help her.

Something is changing…

Gaara could feel it even if it was a small step. With his brutal past he was able to see every glimmer of light.

Light? Yeah he guessed he could say that. With her his life in Sunagakure didn't seem as dark as before.