Chapter Two

His new Hobby

The first sunrays showed up. Gaara observed for a while how the sun rose up and lightened up Sunagakure. After a while he could see how the villagers appeared to start theiir daily routine. Some of them made their way to train, others were on their way to work. After coming back to Sunagakure he recognized how different it was than Konoha. The shinobis here were much more competitive, cold and suspicious to each other. Back then in Konoha he had thought that Konoha's shinobis were weak and weren't taking their role seriously. He had thought that the reason behind it was that they weren't trained trained good enough from their senseis and weren't as disciplined like the shinobis from Suna. Bud he had been wrong.

Apart from Naruto who put much importance into other people, there were other shinobis who considered each other as comrades. He had viewed Sasuke as a stronger shinobi because he fought alone, like him. In contrast to him he hadn't payed attention to Naruto at the beginning, he had even perceived him as annoying. Surprisingly it had been him who made Gaara question himself.

As Gaara continued to watch the villagers he realized that he stopped feeling hatred towards them but the pain of rejection still remained in his chest. He only wanted to be acknowledged as one of them and feel accepted. But these feelings shall not paralyze him, because of them he needed to do everything in his power to accomplish his goal. But how should he prove the villagers that he wasn't dangerous anymore? Gaara decided to stand up and go back to the village because staying there and to mope wouldn't change anything.

He went home and on the way people kept staring at him with the same fearful and hateful expression like always. He had been settling with that. Gaara closed his eyes.

Someday...they will accept me.

His siblings were sitting at the breakfast table when he returned home. When they noticed him they were slightly surprised and raised their heads.

"Gaara, it's you" his brother greeted him. Gaara only nodded and placed his sand container next to the wall before he joined them. His siblings always looked at him curiously after he changed his attitude towards them. But Gaara wasn't very communicative and they knew it. For breakfast grilled fish and pickled vegetable was served.

"Kankuro, do you have any plans for today?" Gaara wanted to start a conversation, which was something he and his siblings needed to get used to. Kankuro raised his gaze at him when he was about to bite into his food

"Hm? Well.. good question.." he cleared his throat. "I need to renew the screws from my puppets, the old ones are rusty after using them too often.",

"What about you Temari?" Temari turned her gaze from Kankuro to Gaara. "I don't have any plans for today, a bit boring.", "Hm maybe something comes to your mind."

After that the trio turned their attention back to the food. Of course the children from the yondaime Kazekage had kitchen services who cooked for them. It was always like this. They were spoiled but Gaara didn't benefit from it. Nevertheless he was glad about having dinner every day.

After the three were finished with dinner, everyone switched their attention to their own business. Temari went out, Gaara just looked after her as she told them that she would turn back soon and left the house. He didn't ask her where she was going because if she wanted to she would have told him before. Kankuro disappeared into his own room and Gaara was left alone. Again. With a sigh he stood up and looked at the clock. This afternoon he had a training session with Matsuri, but what could he do until then?

After a while he decided that it would be a good idea to speak with Kankuro. Even though Kankuro hesitated sometimes to get in contact with Gaara, he was more open than before and Gaara wanted to strengthen the bound with his older brother.

How ironic it was after he threatened him a couple times in the past. But it was a way tto cope with the fact that his older brother also had rejected him. Gaara hadn't viewed him as a brother back then but now… he wanted to feel how it was to have a family and apart from Kankuro and Temari no one was left.

He made his way through a corridor to the room of Kankuro in which he sat on the floor and was screwing at his puppets. Gaara could remember how he made them to fight, it was a lot of work. He spent months to make them function perfectly.

Gaara crossed his arms in his usual pose and leaned against a wall behind him. He stood there for a moment, waiting until his brother noticed him but Kankuro was deepened into his work. Gaara cleared his throat but Kankuro still didn't move. Gaara stared at his back turned towards him and finally said:

"Kankuro"

He raised his head and turned towards Gaara.

"Oh? Sorry, I didn't notice you Gaara. Is something wrong?" He asked with a little fear in his tone which he couldn't hide. Kankuro was used that Gaara could switch his moods from one second to another, like being really calm in one moment and threatening him in the other.

"No, I just wanted to talk to my brother" Kankuro's eyes widened a bit. Did he just say brother? That coming off his mouth was definetly something new. "Okay." Kankuro stared back at him with wonder.

"It's also something I need to get used to to call you my brother but you are biologically my brother so don't look at me like that"

Kankuro turned his back to Gaara again. "I just didn't expect it. What do you want to talk about?" Gaara never spoke much and he wasn't good at small talk but he wanted to try new ways. "I think I need a hobby." After a minute of silence Kankuro replied "Is there something you like to try out?" Gaara started to think of something but nothing crossed his mind. He was so used to being fixed at one goal which was becoming the strongest shinobi in the world that there wasn't time for anything like a hobby.

"People like to do things which calm them down after a rough day", "I see. What do they do for example?", "There are lots of things you can do, you just need to find out what… suits you best. Honestly I can't think of anything so you should just find it out yourself.", "I will."

And with that their little conversation ended. Kankuro shifted his attention back to his puppets and Gaara decided to leave the house.

He didn't like going under crowds because he felt out of the place always but a tactic from him was to avoid eye contact to other villagers. He couldn't stop the frightened noises and the fact that everybody kept their distance. It needed a lot of time to convince the villagers that he wouldn't harm them anymore. And for now it would have probably been a better idea to go somewhere quite and where not much people were. Something came into his mind and he stopped in his tracks. The Greenhouse.

Since nothing herbal would grow in the desert because the earth was missing and it was way too hot and dry, the Greenhouse was a special and useful place for cultivation of medical plants and other greenery. As Gaara arrived there he saw that he was the only person and that the plants keepers were gone. He relaxed a little bit and observed the diversity of plants and flowers until one special plant awoke his attention. A cactus. Somehow he was fascinated by it. It had a pillar shape and was medium long with a lot of spikes. Cacti needed a lot of sun and warmth to grow was the only thing he knew about them.

He was somehoe immediately interested to et to know more about cultivation of cacti. So he opened up an old brown, thick book which layed on a wooden table. It was about various plants and herbs. He looked up the chapter of cacti and began to read it.

1. Cacti are succulents that can retain water over time in their stems and tubers. For cactus care this means that the watering intervals should be rather generous. Pour penetratingly or better dip your cactus in water with little lime content until the substrate is completely moistened. Then stop watering it until the soil is completely dry.

2. In a small plant pot the few nutrients it contains are used up very quickly. SO it is quite important to fertilize the cactus regularly, especially if you want to make the cactus bloom. Use commerically available cactus fertilizers for fertilization.

Gaara internalized every single word and also read about potting and repotting cacti, taking care of them in different seasons and different types of cacti. His eyes wandered back to the cactus which stood next to the other plants. It hadn't bloomed yet which was a little disappointing. Below the cactus there was a drawer in which he found a box with cactus seeds. He took them as well as he took a plant pot with some soil in it. Sadly he didn't find a fertilizer so he decided to buy it at a flower shop later.

Hopefully the plant keepers didn't mind that he borrowed them for his own cactus. He was just very enthusiastic to cultivate one and watch it grow and maybe bloom. Which would take a while. Gaara was surprised of the interest he suddenly had on cacti. But it felt good. His mind went calm which was something he needed for once in a while.