-7-

Unfamiliar Eyes

The moon was full and bright, washing Suna in pale light. I could practically see everything from here on top of the Kazekage building. I wasn't here to take in the view though. I was here to find Gaara. Maybe it was nothing, and I really shouldn't have been worrying, but it wasn't like I could stop it. I hadn't even thought about what I was saying earlier...I told him to go talk to Yashamaru about love.

Now...my memory is crap. I never imagined I'd get stuck in SUNA of all places, yet alone in a world I thought was a damn anime. I don't remember half the shit that happens in the Leaf, so my knowledge on the history of Suna is even worse. I can't remember much of what happened with Gaara...and I have no clue when this was all supposed to happen, but I know he was talking to Yashamaru about something during the day...before stuff went down and Yashamaru got ordered to kill Gaara...or test him...or what ever. I could be wrong...but weren't they talking about love?

And I fucking told the kid to do it too. Isn't that rich?

Now...maybe I was wrong, and nothing bad was going to happen...but what if I had almost saved Gaara, only to ruin everything? I was there to help him...I told him people loved him and I never showed how scared I was of him. He wasn't alone anymore. He was giving me gifts on my birthday and admitting we were friends...I'd gotten somewhere with him, hadn't I?

What if Gaara was changing? What if the Kazekage hadn't been thinking about ordering Yashamaru to do that...and Gaara wasn't going to snap...UNTIL I opened my trap and set things back in order? I should have just blundered through an explanation to 'what is love?', instead of shoving that onto someone else. Sure I wasn't alll that sure what love was either...but hell. I could have tried...

Aaaaaaand now? I couldn't fucking sleep. I was exhausted, thank you Takeo, but too stressed to fall asleep. I know I've probably said it before...but I don't like many people in this village. Sure my list of people I do like has expanded, but there still aren't many that my feeling for go past 'I don't want to scare you'. Gaara and 'Daddy', were at the very top. They were my most important people...my 'precious' people, as Haku would say.

The rest of the people in this place can die a slow and brutal death for all I care but...those two...they were different. I know I've been manipulating both of them...but that doesn't mean I didn't get attached too.

I never put any thought into how I'd prevent it, but I didn't want Gaara to snap either.

Which was why I was up here, in the middle of the night, under the full moon, getting sand blown in my face, trying to find a five year old who might be about to be attacked with no plan what-so-ever.

There was a flicker of motion a block or so away. It was the person I was looking for. I nodded to myself and took off in that direction, leaping across the gap between buildings without pause. I was getting pretty good at this, yeah?

Gaara was sitting on the roof when I got to him. His expression brightened when he saw me, so much that he actually smiled, to my surprise. It wasn't the first time...but it practically never happened...and it was never so bright. For a moment, you'd think he was Naruto...if you ignored the colouring.

I sat beside him, "What's up with you?"

"My Uncle told me what love is!"

"Oh? That's good." I said, smiling as happily as I could while wondering if we were going to be attacked.

"It's nice...being loved." He said, still giving me that smile.

"Yeah. I dunno what'd happen to me if I wasn't loved." I said, trying not to laugh. He looked so...fucking adorable smiling like that. He needed to stop, before I hugged him or something. What I said wasn't a lie. I was already pretty...unhinged as it was...without Taiki there to spew crap about family values, Saki loving me and all that kind of nonsense, I'd have probably lost it years ago...which is bad since I've only endured a few short years in this world.

He nodded in agreement, "I'm really...happy?"

"You should be." I told him. Suddenly, I had an idea...it would be a risk though. I didn't bother to think about it, and just went with it, "There are some people in this world that don't have anyone...I heard a story about this boy in the Leaf."

Naruto was a government secret. NO ONE knew about him and his problem. I wasn't going to flat out tell Gaara that Naruto had a demon stuffed in his gut...but maybe if I told Gaara about someone like us that no one loved...someone like Naruto...maybe I could change something?

"What's the story about?" I had his interest.

I turned so I was facing him completely as I continued. I just hoped I wouldn't regret it...and if Gaara remembered this, he'd forgive me. Because...if I told him Naruto's story...or as much as I remembered...he'd surely pick up on the truths in it some day. And then he'd realize that I knew everything that was going to happen to him.

"There was once a boy...named Nagato. Everyone in the village hated Nagato, but he didn't know why. Nagato's parents passed away when he was only a few hours old fighting off a terrible monster that a bad man set lose on the village. People in the village claimed the boy was that very same monster in the form of a human. The village all agreed, and from that day, they were cruel to Nagato. They over charged him when he bought food, if they even let him into the shop. They would beat him in the street, and no one lifted a hand to help him...not even the Hokage or the shinobi set to watch over him."

"Why did shinobi watch over him?"

"Because the Hokage was close with the boy's parents...and Nagato was kicked out of the orphanage when he was only four years old, so he was the village's responsibility."

"Oh...this does not sound like Konoha. Are they not...'tree huggers,' as you have put it?"

"Ah...the Leaf is known for creating powerful but kind shinobi, but there are times when no one is kind. You see, even some of the ninja believed that Nagato was the monster that destroyed their village...and if there is one thing that makes a Leaf shinobi cruel, it's when you harm a loved one." I told him before returning to the story, "Nagato continued to grow up in the village, with no one to love him. There were some people who grew to like the boy though, like the Hokage, his academy teacher and the owner of a ramen stand, which was the only place Nagato could get food without being over charged...there was another in the village, but she liked him in a different way. She grew to love the boy, but she was far too shy to tell him, and she was from a clan that would never let her be with him. As time went by, the villagers lashed out at him less and less, and only ignored him, like he wasn't there at all. They told their children to stay away from him...One day, after years and years, the boy became a ninja himself, although he was the last in his class, because no one had been there to help him with many things...like reading, writing, fixing his stances or his chakra control. Nagato trained hard with his team, and he helped many people. Some began to look up to Nagato, because despite all the bad things people said about him, and all the things they did to him, Nagato never gave up his dream of becoming Hokage, and he never let them see him , he only showed them a smile that could easily light up a room."

"Why did he help people, if they were only cruel to him?"

"Because Nagato was a good person, and he didn't want to hurt people...if he did, not only would he feel bad about it in the end, but he'd be proving everyone in the village right. And in the end, Nagato fought for his village and became a hero to them all."

"Why did you tell me this story?"

I sighed, "Because I want you to know that...I don't know...to know that even if no one did love us, we can still be better than the people who hate us? That we can still be happy, even if no one did love us?"

"I see." He said, "But...we wouldn't be able to not be loved."

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"Well, if both of us are still alive...then there's someone. You said earlier that...friends loved each other?"

I grinned, having completely forgotten about that, "Yeah."

We fell silent after that, which I was thankful for, mostly because all this love crap was giving me a stomach ache. There was only so much of it I could take...even if it did make me...happy?

As time went by, I found myself relaxing more and more, until I realized it was rather late, and I was slowly starting to get tired again. I decided to get up and head home. As I stood, there was a sudden flash and on instinct I dove, rolling across the roof as a kunai, or something like that, sailed through the very place I'd been standing.

More of the kunai flew after Gaara, but his sand had already risen to form a wall behind him. A shinobi with a mask stepped out from behind a small water tower that was on the roof, like many other houses in the village had. I already knew who it was. Yashamaru was here to kill Gaara, just like I knew he was going to. Yashamaru took another step forward, and the kunai floating in front of him were all poised to fly, but to my surprise...or was it really?...they weren't all pointing towards Gaara. I scrambled to my feet, feeling my heart pound in...fear? No...it didn't match. Anger? No...far from it. I was...fucked up. Really, I was. Because I was fucking excited! Someone was trying to kill us! And it wasn't a cowardly attempt either. It wasn't poison or letting civilians beat the snot out of me...they were standing right in front of me with their weapons RIGHT there. My heart hadn't beat like this since...

Since I last sat in my car, speeding down the road, swerving to only just miss a post, or turn a corner.

Was I smiling? I think I was...

"Why..." Gaara asked as he slowly got away from the ledge we'd been sitting on. His sand was moving furiously. I didn't want to set Yashamaru off, but I needed cover...somewhere to hide...but there was no where to really go and hide from the shinobi...unless I hid behind Gaara, which was probably one of the safest and most dangerous places I could possibly be. I slowly moved towards Gaara, not taking my eyes of the man. I knew that I could do nothing to protect myself though. I was a little kid! I couldn't do fuck all to this guy!

I wasn't the only one with this idea, because as Gaara got up, he moved towards me. All the while those knives kept pointing towards us.

"Why is it always us!?" Gaara asked, "Why are you attacking us?! You're one of my father's shinobi-"

I edged behind Gaara, relieved when his sand did nothing to hurt me.

"Why wouldn't we attack you? The monsters that think they deserve to live in our village? You're own father was the one that sent me. He wants me to remove the Demon from his village...and the girl."

"What do you mean...Demon?"

"You are a demon. When you were still inside your mother's womb, the Kazekage had a demon sealed inside your gut. You were born to be the Sand's ultimate weapon. A killing machine...and in the end, you killed your own mother because of that. You killed her, and it's all your fault. What's it like...when the first kill you make is your own flesh and blood?"

"Wh-what?"

Fuckfuckfuckityfuck...I needed to stop this or...something! This is why I should have just listened to Taiki.

"HEY! You with the mask to hide your ugly mug!" I snarled, stepping out from behind Gaara. His sand was still close enough that I'd be safe...maybe.

Yashamaru turned his head towards me ever so slightly.

"The hell is your problem? Gaara isn't a demon! I can't sit here and listen to you spouting this kind of crap! Even if the audible bullshit you're spewing was real, just because there is something in Gaara, that doesn't make him the same thing! It's INSIDE him, it is NOT HIM! It's people like you that make me wanna puke. Why the hell is the Kazekage ordering this? Where's your proof? Huh?" I was shaking with...rage? Maybe. Excitement? Probably.

"Aisako..." Gaara whispered, his sand tugging at my clothing like he was trying to pull me back behind him...damn brat...trying to protect me and...looking all concerned...stop it.

"AND ANOTHER THING! What the hell is the problem with me?" Might as well try...maybe Yashamaru would get pulled into the crazy 'I'm a villain and must spill secrets in drawn out monologue' feeling all bad guys seemed to have? "What did I ever do wrong? I'm a little girl...what have I ever done to any of the people here? It's been like this since I was a baby..."

Yashamaru simply stared at me, his foot tapping like he was impatient. Maybe I was a little angrier than I had been before?

"Have you finished screaming?"

I didn't bother answering him.

"I'm a shinobi of the Sand. I am loyal to my village and my Kage. I'm doing this because he ordered me to...and I don't need to prove that to a pair of monsters. And even if it wasn't a mission...I would probably get a promotion for what I've done. Why attack the girl as well? Because no one will miss her...not even her own family, who had to suffer because of her. And why the Demon? Because he was useless as a tool in the end...and not even his own father can love that monster."

And before I knew it, he was out of sight while more kunai came hurtling towards us. I was yanked back behind Gaara as his sand lashed out like a wave of furious cobras. There was a sound among it all that made my blood run cold. Gaara was snarling, like he was some kind of animal. He was mad. I'd never even seen him mad enough to growl like that before. Finally...I started getting afraid. Maybe it was the knowledge of what he could do...or what he would do? Or perhaps it was finally kicking in that this was actually happening and I was really here? Maybe the rush had faded already?

From my limited view, I watched as the sand wrapped around Yashamaru, raised him high up into the night sky and then flung him back down to the rooftop. He left a small crater, which was slowly filling with blood. His blood. Gaara moved forward and yanked off the mask Yashamaru had been using to him his identity and I think I physically felt something in Gaara begin to break.

"U-Uncle? Y-Yashamaru! Why? Why did you do this...why?"

Yashamaru looked up at us, with that face I knew was a mirror of Gaara's mother's.

"Because you killed her...you killed my sister."

"I-I didn't...I..."

"I've always hated you for that." Yashamaru told him, "It was painful even pretending that...I...cared about you."

"But...you said...you told me that you loved me..." Gaara whimpered. I put an arm on his shoulder, forgetting about the sand for a moment.

As inappropriate as it was, a small part of me almost wanted to laugh at that statement. It sounded more like Gaara was a needy girlfriend being dumped than a little boy who was just told the only living family he had that loved him actually hated him deep down.

"People lie, Gaara...no one really loves you."

"That's...that's no true! M-My mother loved me...Aisako loves me..."

"The creature...be...behind you can't love anything! It...doesn't know how!"

'Well fuck you. Hurry up and die already. Bastard.'

I shook my head, feeling the need to snarl. I know he was only lying to push Gaara even more, which ticked me off, but what the hell did he know about me?! I could love.

"And...you're mother never loved you. She...named you 'Gaara' out of her own...hate for this village."

Yashamaru was gasping for breath by now. I could see the way Gaara was trembling. It might have been fear, sadness...rage even. But it needed to stop.

"Hey, how do we know this isn't all a big show?" Hey...I'd already spilt a lot of crap when I told Gaara about 'Nagato'...I had might as well tear things apart. Maybe..it wouldn't end too badly? It wasn't like I even had a specific goal. I just didn't want to be weak. Other than that...I didn't mind if things failed to remain Cannon...but It would be nice if I could...make things better. Even if just a little. I crossed my arms and scowled at Yashamaru, after all, there was nothing for me to fear when I had Gaara's sand to protect me. Except for...you know. Gaara's sand. "If what you're saying about Gaara is true...that he...he's some kind of Host for this monster...and the Kazekage wanted to test how useful Gaara was? How do I know this isn't some plot to hurt Gaara...not by lying and saying the people who love him most hate him...but by breaking him? How do I know that that bastard we call a leader isn't trying to release the monster in Gaara?"

Yashamaru's tired eyes moved from Gaara's tear streaked face and he stared at me for a long moment. I could see the disbelief and...fear. Of course, there was fear. They were always scared.

"No...we only want...you dead...the world would be so much...better without...monsters like you." Something about the way he spoke, it seemed to me like those were going to be final words. I watched his every move as he shifted, and it was only because of that that I spotted the explosive tags under his vest.

"Gaara!" I snapped, before Yashamaru even had a chance to close his mouth, "Tags!"

I didn't know if he even understood what I had meant, but the sand did. It rose around us in a violent wave, pushing us closer together as it formed a thick cocoon around us. It was too dark to see anything, but could hear and feel Gaara flinch as we both heard the muffled 'bang' of Yashamaru's last resort. Gaara was full on bawling. I didn't know what to do. What do you do when a kid's Uncle just killed himself in front of them? Did I hug him or-

I didn't have time to do anything as the sand dropped around us, coating the roof. In front of use sat a perfectly circular crater. The only proof of what had happened to Yashamaru. Other that the bits and pieces that had been thrown about in the blast...slowly oozing down walls and forming red puddles. I just couldn't look away.

Gaara screamed. It was the most agonizing scream I'd ever heard. my blood ran cold, goosebumps covered my skin, my hair stood on end and every instinct in my body was telling my to do different things until I had no clue what to do anymore and I could only sit there.

Gaara was saying something, something about him being a monster. I don't know...I just couldn't...something was off. It was like I was being pushed down, slowly over time. My mind was kinda...scattered too. It was hard to focus on what he was saying.

"Gaara...you're not a monst-" I was cut off as Gaara threw his head back and screamed some more. I couldn't get through to him. It didn't matter what I said, he'd probably not even hear me...wouldn't listen. I tried to make him look at me, but he just kept crying and screaming, up at the bright full moon. Finally, I got so frustrated that I put myself in front of him. Kinda. I had to go into the crater, which still had tiny bits of Yashamaru. Once I was in the crater i crawled right up the side so i was directly in front of Gaara.

His eyes were clamped shut as he kept screaming. At some point, when I was in the pit, his screams had...changed. They weren't grief-stricken wails...they were...pained. Like something was tearing him apart. I was so close to him now that it was hard to ignore the pressure. When had that started? It was so heavy, I was sure I could cut the chakra and the...what ever it was with a kunai.

"Gaara!" I snapped, trying to get him to wake up. It was all I could do. it wasn't like I could slap him or something. if I tried that, the sand would definitely kill me. "Snap the fuck out of it! We need to get out of here! What if there are more of them?"

Gaara muttered something, his throat so raw it sounded like he was growling at me.

"Gaara?"

"Shut up."

"What?"

"SHUT UP! ShutupshutupshutupSHUTUP!"

His eyes snapped opened and I found myself staring into the eyes of a stranger. The unfamiliar eyes of Shukaku. The whites of his eyes were now as black as sin and those sea foam eyes I was so used to looking into were golden. They were also full of hate. It wasn't an angry impersonal hate, which I had seen in Gaara from time to time, although it was rare...

This was personal.

I scrambled back, mostly in shock...but it did seem like my instincts were getting their shit together. Which would be fabulous if I wasn't five. And this wasn't Shukaku.

He was laughing...Shukaku was laughing, I should say, because Gaara was screaming. It must have hurt. I didn't know what Gaara's transformation was like, but I knew that Naruto's involved bones breaking and skin melting off. Gaara kept on transforming the longer I watched. I got to my feet and quickly tried to crawl out of the crater. I could hear the sound of the sand moving around the roof, at any other time would have been a quiet whisper, the Shukaku was calling so much of it up at it was more like a roar than anything. It was a noise to go with Gaara's screams, which were sounding less and less human as it went on.

The pressure was too heavy for me to move, even though I wanted to...I don't know. I wanted to run, but only to survive...not to actually...get away. It was hard to explain. I waned to wake up Gaara again, because Shukaku was scarier than Saki, and she was scarier than fuck, and anything scarier than fuck was definitely meant to be avoided at all costs. Stupid damn sandcastle.

As Gaara grew and grew in size, the building under us began to crumble and fall, leaving me scrambling for the next rooftop. As I landed on the rough stone, something wrapped around my left leg, all the way up to the thigh. Sand. I could feel the tiny particles dig into my skin, slowly sanding it away. Its grip tightened as it lifted me off the roof, and it continued, even as the bones in my leg started to creak and fracture.

I screamed in agony as I heart dozens of loud snaps. I could feel the sharp, jagged shards of my shattered bones sliced through the muscles in my legs. The sand eagerly absorbed the blood, staining the golden grains red, but in the light of the moon, everything seemed monochrome. The pain was beginning to become too much, despite how I tried to stay conscious. I didn't want to be an even easier target than I already was. After all...I was just a fucking kid, and the god damn One Tailed Beast had me in its grasp already.

Those now-massive, unfamiliar, black and gold eyes stared at me as Shukaku seemed to smirk. I guess he didn't like me. I told Gaara to stay away from him...I tried to become Gaara's anchor. If I was gone...what was there to keep Gaara the way he was? Free of the monster's influence? Funny isn't it...that I was influencing him to keep him from being influenced in a worse way?

The sand on my leg began to creep further up. I felt more tears roll down...or up my face, since I was upside-down. I didn't even realized I was crying. Just as the sand reached my torso, the long limb of sand attached to me was blown apart by multiple mini-explosions, likely from explosive tags attached to kunai. I wasn't all that sure. There was a sudden loud, agonizing, tearing sound as the limb jerked and I found myself launched into the air, whipped away from the monster. Shukaku roared loudly in frustration.

'Suck it, bitch!'

Just when I was sure I had reached the end of the road, and by that I mean only a few moments away from becoming an Aisako pancake, strong arms wrapped around me, and my downward course was radically altered. The person who caught me landed on a building nearby, but didn't stop there. They dashed across the rooftops with the nimble warp-speed only a ninja could have. A part of me, that wasn't numbed by pain or fear, wondered who was actually willing to catch me, but it didn't really matter.

They smelled familiar though...so that was something. It was likely Taiki. I could see him saving me from the big bad tanuki.

I was gently set down, but that did about fuck all to stop it from hurting like a motherfucker. Another scream tore from my throat. The ninja, who's face was a blurred mess...probably from my tears...tried to stop me from looking down, but I jerked my jaw from their hand to stare down at my leg. I really wasn't prepared for what I saw, and I numbly tried to remember when it had happened.

After all.

I didn't have a left leg anymore. All that was left of it were a few ribbons of tattered flesh and a crap-ton of blood.

I give you chapter seven. I can't say I'm particularly proud of this chapter, but I couldn't really wait any longer to write it. So...the whole scene between Gaara and Yashamaru was probably completely off, which is okay, because having Aisako there would probably ruin everything anyways. unfortunately, my computer seems to hate all the sites I read manga on, or watch anime (most of the time), so this was all kinda...what I remembered. I haven't read that part of the manga in a very, very long time (give or take a few years) so I don't even know what was supposed to happen. It was also a little bit rushed, but I couldn't really go into too much detail about what was happening...after all, when you're being attacked by a monster...I don't thing you take the time to absorb everything you see...especially after you go into shock.

I'm likely to go back and do a bit of surgery on this chapter sometime in the future, so I'll be sure to let everyone know once I do the facelift, especially if anything important comes up.

Now, time to shower my reviewers with gratitude~! A great big thanks goes out to Enbi, Thefire1995, xbox432, KillerCupcakes, The Almighty Pyro, TheSecretNames, FleurSuoh, Lemini, Fellow(Guest), Trisana(Guest), Manillalu, Martesh, Orion's Left Arm(Guest) AND: SleepiPanda for reviewing! I love hearing people's opinions, and its nice to hear what you, my darling readers, think.

Demon Eyes now has 71 reviews, 285 followers, 180 favorites and is listed in 6 communities! You guys are fabulous!