Chapter 5: The Truth about the Demon
Naoko awoke and smiled. Last night had been interesting. Fun, even. She'd never imagined that sand could be used as a weapon. Gaara really was full of surprises. And he'd SMILED! He'd even laughed! That was the first time she'd seen that kind of reaction from him. That had to mean something, right? Then again, maybe I'm just kidding myself, she thought. Maybe I'm just seeing something that isn't there. I'm the most foul-mouthed girl he's ever met… what did he mean by that? Is it a good thing? Naoko was frustrated at the way he'd avoided answering the question properly. Did he like her is what she wanted to know. Sabaku no Gaara was an enigma. He seemed determined to keep his real thoughts and feelings hidden. She knew hardly anything about him.
She spread out in the luxuriously soft double bed. She was so warm and comfortable she didn't want to get up. And the ridiculous, loved-up smile that was pasted across her face was beginning to irritate her. But it just wouldn't go away. She was starting to feel like a school girl with a secret forbidden crush. And that crush was Lord Kazekage of Sunagakure. What an insane turn of events, she mused. Who would have guessed?
She clumsily dragged herself out of bed, before stubbing her toe and swearing. After the barrage of expletives she made her way to the large, pristine bathroom. She peeled away her nightclothes and stood in front of the full-length mirror. She traced her eyes over the girl reflected before her. She was petite and always had been. She ran through the positives and negatives in her mind: Her knees were kinda knobbly, and her feet were bigger than average. Her eyes floated up to her chest. She'd never been big chested, and she cursed her genes for it. Despite all her cocky arrogance and feigned coolness, secretly she was a deeply shy girl, and especially unconfident when it came to her body. She was still a virgin and the thought of allowing someone to see her naked made her nervous. She felt inferior compared to other girls, especially Yuki. Yuki's breasts were like two shopping bags. She could use her chest as a shelf when she needed extra storage space. Lucky bitch, Naoko thought. Her eyes focussed on her mirror image. So her breasts were on the smallish side, but they were perfectly formed. Cute, some might say. Creamy flesh peaked into soft, pink nipples that were neither too big nor too small. She wondered to herself whether Gaara preferred big chested women. Had he ever had a girlfriend? If so, did Naoko compare favourably?
Her eyes moved on. Next. She examined her curvy hips. Now hips she had. Turning slightly, she glanced over her rear. She smiled. She had always been proud of her ass. The soft, full flesh of her buttocks was womanly. She faced forward again. Her favourite asset was her eyes. A thousand shades of the deepest noble green: emerald, forest, khaki; the iris was outlined by a rim of black. And with her thousand shade eyes came a thousand emotions. Her expressive eyes could convey anything: limitless elation, the inner chaos of despair. With a quick, sarcastic raise of her highly arched brows she could transform even the most conceited person into a puddle of inferiority.
She swept a final glance over her body. Sure, she was by no means perfect, but she wasn't bad, she evaluated. She was slender and willowy, and her skin was smooth and clear.
She showered quickly and dressed in a black, racer back vest top and black jeans, finished with the boots. Not much variation in her choice of clothing. She rushed out of the door and headed for the village. She hadn't had chance to explore yet, and she needed to pick up some supplies from the electrical hardware store.
After about an hour of browsing the technical beauty on display in the shop, she purchased the required items and left. She had inspected them carefully, turning them in her hands, checking the wires. She stopped at a small teahouse for lunch.
"Hey!" a shrill voice cried. Naoko turned to see the blond kunoichi, Gaara's and Kankuro's sister. The kunoichi strolled over to Naoko's table with a curious smile.
"You're one of the engineers, right?"
"Hai. Temari, isn't it?" Naoko replied.
"Yeah. Do you mind if I join you? I've been training since first thing this morning and I'm starving"
The two girls settled into a pleasant conversation. Naoko found Temari to be funny and quick-witted, and instantly liked her.
"Kankuro told me about the incident in Gaara's office. Sorry about him. He can be a little bad tempered."
"I noticed" Naoko smiled.
"But from what Kankuro said, you gave Gaara a run for his money" the blond giggled.
Naoko smirked. There was a pause. Naoko shifted nervously.
"What's the deal with him anyway?"
"Huh? What d'you mean?" Temari replied through a mouth full of sandwich.
"…Well…I hardly know anything about him. We spoke last night on the balcony and I practically told him my life story. But he seems so reluctant to talk about himself. Why is that?". Temari raised her eyebrows.
"You spoke to him last night? Sounds like you got further than most people do. He tends to avoid conversation when he can." She shrugged "Maybe he likes you…The truth is, Gaara doesn't open up to people. He's afraid to get close to anyone"
Naoko gazed at Temari with wide eyes. She was listening intently now. This was what she wanted to find out about.
"Why?" She asked. Temari shifted uncomfortably.
"It's probably not my place to tell you…"
"No, please. Carry on…" Naoko begged. Temari sighed.
"Gaara was…manufactured…The prosperity of the village was decreasing and Suna was in need of skilled shinobi. And so my father, the Kazekage, decided to create a ninja that was superior to all others. A ninja that could protect the village and act as an ultimate weapon. When my mother got pregnant, the elders of the village implanted Shukaku within the foetus inside of her"
Naoko's brow furrowed a little. "Shukaku?"
"Shukaku was a sand demon. The one-tailed. A creature of terrifying power and destruction. My mother was used as a sacrifice to create this ultimate shinobi…The result was Gaara."
Naoko waited for Temari to continue.
"Because of the demon sealed within him, Gaara's mind became unstable. He couldn't control the evil force inside him and he began killing people. Everyone in the village feared and hated him, and Gaara had no friends, no one who cared. He was alone. When Gaara turned 6, my father decided that he was too great a liability…He could end up destroying the very village he was meant to protect. So my father ordered Gaara's assassination."
Naoko gasped in horror. This was all too crazy.
"Our uncle, Yashamaru, volunteered to kill Gaara. Gaara always thought that Yashamaru was the one person who cared about him, but the assassination attempt failed, and when Gaara realised that his attacker was Yashamaru, something inside him died. From that day forward, Gaara became a killing machine. He would slaughter people just for the fun of it. He uses the sand in his gourd to crush his victims to death. It's also his absolute defense. Even Kankuro and I feared for our lives. Gaara was a demon; a demon who loved only himself, and fought only for himself."
Naoko sat silently, trying to digest what she'd just heard. She knew that he had a dangerous temper, but she'd never imagined something of this scale. A manufactured shinobi, a demon, a ruthless murderer. Naoko remembered what had happened last night. Suddenly, she felt stupid. He could have killed her at any moment. She remembered how the sand had lifted her with ease, effortlessly wrapping itself around her body and squeezing. She shivered.
"What happened after that?" She asked Temari.
Temari explained how Gaara had had a change of heart. She told Naoko about his efforts to win back the trust of the people of Sunagakure, and his subsequent promotion to Kazekage. She described the battle against the Akatsuki and the way Gaara had risked him own life to save the village. The kidnapping. The extraction of Shukaku. Gaara's death. The rescue that followed. When she'd finished, she sat back in her chair, a pained expression on her face. "I should have been there for him more. None of the things that happened were his fault, and yet he paid the price for everyone else's mistakes"
Naoko didn't know what to think anymore. "It's not fair, is it?" she said quietly.
The blond agreed, taking a sip of tea. "Please don't tell Gaara that I told you all of this"
"Don't worry about it" Naoko reassured her.
Temari stood up to leave, saying her goodbyes to her new friend. The two girls agreed to have lunch again sometime. The blond strolled back to the training ground, wondering if she'd done the right thing. In her mind she argued back and forth, finally deciding that she'd made the right decision. She liked this Naoko; she was good-hearted and honest, and Temari believed that the girl had the right to know what she was dealing with. Especially since Naoko and Gaara seemed to be friends now. Afterall, Gaara wouldn't have told Naoko. He never spoke about it to anyone. So someone had to tell Naoko the truth, right? Temari decided to stop thinking about the whole situation. What's done is done, she concluded. If she hadn't said anything, her idiot brother Kankuro would have ended up blurting it out anyway. In a significantly less tactful manner and possibly in front of Gaara himself. Yes, she'd done the right thing. And secretly, Temari suspected that this girl, just maybe, this Naoko might be the one to end Gaara's suffering. His loneliness. At least, she hoped so.
Naoko remained at the table. She thought about Temari's words. Gaara had been alone, hated. He'd had to cope with the terror of the demon inside him, and he'd been punished for it. Every day of his life he was being punished for it. But he'd become a murderer. He had killed people for no reason other than he'd wanted to. Did this make him as bad as the people who'd killed her family, she wondered. The pain of her past came flooding back as strong as ever, and somehow, knowing Gaara's story made the pain fresher, as if an old wound had been opened anew. Tears stung her eyes. Gaara understood her pain and she understood his. Being completely alone in the world with no one to turn to… this was an experience they both had. And both had been haunted by a terrifying force: for Gaara, that terrifying force had been Shukaku, and for Naoko, it was the murderous wrath of the clan that had killed her own. And now, both of them tried desperately to hide that pain, acting tough in front of the people around them. Because the pain was still there, and they were still fighting it. We're fighting the same fight, on the same battlefield, but we never realised it, she thought.
Her thoughts returned to her own family, her own suffering. The memories washed over her and made her heart wrench in agony. She stumbled to her feet and proceeded to drift around the village aimlessly like a lost soul. In the midst of her inner turmoil, her eyes found a bar. Yeah, she could use a drink right now, she thought. She stepped inside and sat at the bar.
"A glass of sake, please".