Swan Song of the Sand: Aria and Gaara

Chapter 1: Recognition

"FATHER!!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!"

Aria woke up with a start, with tears streaming down her face and her long black hair plastered against her forehead. She sat up on her thin tatami mat and wrapped her arms around her knees, her sobs wracking her body in spasms as the remnants of her nightmares swirled around her mind. After a few minutes of crying, Aria clenched her fists and forced herself to push the tears away. "No point crying now." she thought as she wiped the tears away with her sleeve and sighed quietly. Who was she trying to kid? Ever since she was six, she has never had a decent night's sleep, without being haunted by the memories of her past. As long as she did not feel safe in her surroundings, Aria knew she didn't have a chance at restful sleep. She stood up and rolled her mat, before hiding it behind a pile of rocks in the cave she called home. Too poor to afford lodging in the town area, Aria had resorted to settling down in a spacious cavernous area concealed by a small waterfall. The water was cold and refreshing and Aria enjoyed training by the waterfall at night. Although she was nowhere near a full fledged shinobi's standard, Aria knew the basics that her father had taught her. Her precious oto-san...

Pushing those memories out of her head, Aria picked up her training belt and wrapped it around her waist. It was filled with small wooden kunais that she had carved out herself from tree branches. Not having access to Sunagakure's ninja academy meant she had to make do with home-made weapons. That didn't matter to her; she had stronger weapons than kunais and shurikens.

As she stepped out of her cave into the training area, she thought of the sand shinobi that had caught her eye. She was curious about him but all she could remember about him were his queer eyes and red hair. But as she started her throwing practice, the memory of their meeting drifted further and further away from her mind, until all she thought about was becoming stronger and becoming a shinobi like her father.

Gaara hopped onto the rooftop of the Sunagakure temple and sat down at his usual corner with a glorious view of the moon. The moon used to bring back the worse kind of memories, of Yashamaru and of all the bloodshed that surrounded him. It almost made the demon in him stronger, by feeding it the anger he felt.

But now, the moon calmed him and gave him a little control over the demon Shukaku. All he had to do was keep thinking about what Naruto said about giving his life to protect the people he loved.

Tonight however, he didn't think about his uncle or his loneliness. He thought instead of the black haired girl who had looked so lonely and frightened. Perhaps she was the one who needed protection and she could be the one to teach him the meaning of Naruto's words. He would seek her out tomorrow and pray hard that she would not ook upon him like all the other villagers. For the first time in his life, Gaara began to feel a little hopeful about the future.

The soapy water sloshed around in the bucket that Aria was carrying and splashed onto her shoes. Aria pulled the damp rag from the inside of her apron pocket and rinsed it in the bucket of water. Even though the shop keeper had several assistants, the disliked task of cleaning the shop front and polishing the figurines on display had always fallen on Aria. Haruno, the owner had always claimed Aria had no talent in glass crafting, even though she knew it was because outsiders were despised in the village. Many people had been suspicious of her when she first came to the village to seek employment and they became even more so when she claimed to have no family and no home. She heard the whispers behind her back that she could have killed her own family, just like the prodigious son from the number one Konoha clan had done. Because of that, she had been extremely grateful that Haruno had given her a job, even though the pay was meager and the job tedious.

Aria set to work polishing the four majestic life-size kazekages that Haruno had created specially to attract people's attention. As she cleaned the fourth kazekage figurine, she thought about the state of the sand village. Ever since news that the fourth had died in an attack on leaf village, the country had been in turmoil, The council of elders were disorganized in their search for the new kazekage, the people were in limber without a leader and the ninja suffered from a chronic lack of missions. Haruno's business had suffered greatly and so he had created these displays hoping more people would buy a figurine out of loyalty to the village. But business had not increased very much at all and Aria had feared she would lose her job if this continued.

Aria was distracted from her task by loud shouts from the opposite street. She looked up to see parents snatching their playing children from the street and slamming their doors shut. Some of the remaining children whose parents were not around were shouting out in fear and running desperately away. Aria tensed, prepared for an enemy attack, but was surprised to see that the children had fled from the boy she met just last night. "Who is this guy? Why is he so feared?" Aria thought as she watched the boy walk slowly down the street. He did look slightly menacing with his shinobi attire and the sand gourd slung around his shoulders. But Aria noticed that he kept his face down, as if trying to avoid looking at the children and scaring them even further. She immediately felt pity for him, and was puzzled that these children would run from someone who was not even trying to harm them. It was then that she remembered the word that had been in her mind when she walked near him. Monster... Could it be that he was a real monster?

Before she could walk out to talk to him, Aria felt a hard blow on the back of her head. She spun around quickly to face Haruno who cried out in displeasure, "Are you stupid, little girl? You must have a death wish to stare at the monster that will kill anyone who meets his eye! Now stop wasting my time and get to work"

When Aria had turned back around to look at the streets, the monster of the sand was long gone.