Auhtor's Note: I have something to explain about this chapter. As anyone can see, Gaara usually doesn't talk nearly as much as he does in this chapter. But the thing is, at this point in the story, I have pulled out a new aspect of Gaara's new personailty as seen in the Kimimaro episodes. After he fights Kimimaro, he talks to Lee and we see a huge change. He is very perceptive and can see the inner workings of people. That is the part of Gaara's character that I wanted people to see in this chapter. Normally, Gaara wouldn't have spoken this much, but I took a few liberities here since Gaara is, after all, a hormonal pregnant man trapped in a castle with a sick freak. The other thing to also remember, is the fact that the character he bitches out represents the thing he hates the most, a betrayal of trust (remember the whole, uncle wanting to kill him thing...ya).

The next two weeks for Gaara were full of interesting things to say the least. For a good ninety percent of this time, Gaara found himself basically living in the bathroom. He alternated between puking and peeing, neither of which made him very pleased. His puking had calmed once he had reached Konoha and he had thought that it would stay that way…apparently not. He'd never had the problem with the constant bathroom urges, so he found himself becoming very irritable as the time slowly crawled by one day at a time.

This part wasn't the most interesting portion of his life though. Orochimaru had taken an extreme liking to Gaara, much to his chagrin. The snake man would show up everyday at lunch time to sit and talk with his prisoner, who in turn, shot daggers at him from across the meal. Orochimaru would pointedly ignore these stares of death, or, changing tactics, he would start to talk about how pretty Gaara was, which only induced more rage from the red-head.

Gaara did however, consider himself lucky. Since the first day Orochimaru came to see him, the man had only twice since repeated his horrifyingly unspeakable act. Both times the pregnant boy had found himself with some broken limb or another (due to his struggling) that was mysteriously healed the next day. When he had mentioned this to Kabuto, the man had given him a knowing smile, which Gaara took to mean that Kabuto had healed him himself. Gaara wasn't complaining.

The evenings at the mansion were spent down in the dining hall where Gaara would sit with Kabuto and eat plates upon plates of decent food. Not that the food wasn't good. Gaara was only disappointed because it wasn't his sibling's homemade cooking; food which he had found himself attached to after so many months of pregnancy.

With the dining room as the destination, Kabuto lead Gaara with a deliberate slowness. Gaara had discovered that recently he was slowing considerably. He felt larger then ever and had noticed that walking for long periods of time was completely impossible now. He tired easily and couldn't seem to even get the strength to walk more then to the dining hall and back (he'd tried going on a longer walk with Kabuto one day after dinner, only to collapse five minutes later from exhaustion). Kabuto had slyly implied that perhaps this fatigue was a result of Gaara's extra baggage. These conversations had ended with a prone Gaara muttering what sounded to Kabuto like, 'mutter…death…mumble…entrails…murmur…I do like that weapon…grumble…castration…' Kabuto had only laughed. I mean, after all, Gaara had gained a total of fifty-five pounds already, although he adamantly insisted that no such change had occurred.

Now as he entered the long, faintly lit room, Gaara felt an overwhelming sense of relief. He was hungry enough that he was certain he could eat an entire chicken, maybe two. Kabuto and Gaara sat at a long, wooden table. At their respective places were plates of food; six or seven plates had been placed down for Gaara and another two had been laid down for Kabuto. Kabuto sat in a comfortable slouch, rattling on about some daily events; of course these were unimportant stories that were dull to say the least. Kabuto would never dream of revealing anything of relevance to him. Gaara understood. Kabuto was loyal to Orochimaru through and through, even if the guy was a creep. Gaara even wondered sometimes if Kabuto actually loved the man. It was sort of an obvious thing from Gaara's view point, but Gaara also knew he'd never say anything. He had grown a bit close to Kabuto throughout these last two weeks. But even so, Gaara didn't view Kabuto as his friend; in fact, if given a chance to escape, Gaara would have no qualms beating Kabuto's face into the ground.

Their dinner always seemed to pass by quickly. Soon, Kabuto was stacking plates for the servants to come pick up later. Just as Gaara was about to stand, a figure strode into the room, making barely a sound as he sat down at the table where a plate of food mysteriously appeared. He looked across the table at Kabuto and Gaara, speaking only one word. "Hey."

Gaara's eyes narrowed and he felt a coil of anger unfurl inside of him. He'd never been particularly fond of the boy sitting across from him, but after what he did…Gaara found himself feeling a deep sense of loathing that permeated every cell of his body. The pure obsidian eyes turned to him and an eyebrow lifted at Gaara's glare. "Is there something you'd like to say to me…Gaara?" Gaara felt a deep growl rumble deep in his throat. "Well, what is it? I'm not a very patient person."

Gaara let a small hiss slither from his throat. "Well that's an obvious statement. Do you have anything worthwhile to say that I don't know?"

The boy across from him narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said, baka. If you had any brain cells you wouldn't be here, now would you?"

"I did what had to be done." scoffed the boy.

"Yes, and I see how wonderfully that's working for you. I'm surprised you haven't jumped tail from here to try to find something better. I mean, that is the only thing you're good at; quitting that is."

"Listen you little slut! I'm doing what needs to be done! There is no other way to get the power that I need!"

"A slut? That's rich. I may be pregnant but at least I have yet to go selling my body for power. You see Uchiha Sasuke; I don't really give a fuck what you think. You are nothing to me. You are nothing but a coward who shies away from hard work. You had to go to someone else who would give you the power that you were too lazy to work for." Gaara stood up, surprisingly graceful, and looked down his nose at the black-haired prodigy across from him. "You know Uchiha, I find it ironic." Gaara's lip curled as he continued. "You who had so much have become so little. When back in Konoha, the one who's giving everything to get you back has become twice the man that you will ever be. And that, I find truly shocking, because the one who has the monster inside, is him."

Sasuke shot up. Snarling, he let out a fierce, whispered tirade, "You bloody bastard! You know nothing! You don't know anything about my life and about what I've had to do to get where I am! You know nothing of revenge or of the burden of being the only one who can carry it out. You don't know anything!" Sasuke glared at him from across the table.

Gaara turned to him and gave him a sneer. "Oh, of course Sasuke, you being the victim is the perfect role. Keep it up, it suits you."

Sasuke let out a roar as he leaped across the table. Kabuto moved in a flash, grasping the boy under the arms as he huffed. Gaara kept still and looked Sasuke in the eye. "Uchiha, you are the one that's wrong. You are the one who knows nothing. Until this last year, I have known nothing other then being alone. How would you have felt Uchiha, if your father had tried to have you assassinated when you were six? How would you feel, being shunned by everyone in your village? You, unlike me, had people who liked you and respected you. In fact, you had one person who wholly accepted you unconditionally, no strings attached. And you know what you did? You abandoned him. You accepted his friendship and his love, then up and decided that no, he wasn't good enough. The only thing that would be good enough would be to extract your fucking revenge. I think you've held onto the past a bit too long Sasuke. Sometimes, it's better to just let go." With that, Gaara turned on his heel, walking as fast as his body would let him out of the room, leaving behind a silent Sasuke.

Kabuto caught up with him in the hallway. "You know, you've really ruffled his feathers. He's really going to hate you now."

Gaara looked at him and smirked. "Hatred is one thing I'm good at."