I'm on a roll! Got this chapter done in about 8 hours altogether. There's a cute scene at the beginning of this one. And I'm actually getting started on my nonexistant plot, now that I've established characters. Please review! Makes me all warm and happy inside...sighs happily Thank you to those who have reviewed. You are forever in my gratitude.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, or any of its characters. They are the property of Masashi Kishimoto. Only my created characters are my own.

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"…" Kankuro stared down wordlessly at his brother. Gaara blinked back up at him a few times and slowly looked around. He was sitting on the floor with his legs wrapped up in his sheets and his pillow tucked under his arms.

"Gaara, what are you doing?" Kankuro tilted his head and laughed softly. Rarely did he get to see his brother in such an odd position.

"…sleeping?"

With a short snort of laughter, Kankuro leaned down and grabbed the sheets around his brother's ankles and yanked. Gaara slid forward a few inches and the sheets let loose their grip on him.

"Get ready. Thirty minutes till we gotta go." He tossed the sheets at Gaara and walked downstairs.

Grabbing the sheets with a frown and pushing them off of his head, Gaara glared at them. In his mind, he was wondering at another night of complete silence. He had slept deep enough to not even stir awake for a moment when he had rolled off the bed. Shukaku rarely stayed silent for more than four days, and it usually ended disastrously. Silence for too long was a bad omen. Shaking his head, Gaara stood up and tossed his pillow on the bed, glad that it had hidden his wrists from Kankuro.

Stepping over to his closet, he threw open the door and began rummaging for something to wear.

"Hey! Hey!" A hand waved in front of his face. "Are you listening to me?" Gaara cracked open a green eye and moved his arm up and over the top of his head so that he could glare at Naruto. The blond had accosted him after he had learned that they weren't working out today and saw that the redhead had laid down on the bleachers to rest.

"Would you go away if I said 'no'?" Gaara asked sedately. He had learned that being calm about things got much more result at Konoha than snapping loudly.

"No!"

"Then why should I listen to you? You're annoying." Gaara's arm dropped back over his face. "Now go away."

Naruto gaped at him, and turned to look at the shadow standing over his shoulder. It was Sasuke. The Uchiha was smirking as he pushed his bangs to the side, amused at the byplay.

"You do realize that he doesn't want to listen to you, dobe?" The brunets voice was smooth, although if you listened carefully, you might catch the hint of a chuckle. "There are much more important things to do than listen to you."

"What? Like sleep!" Naruto retorted, pointing at the reclining redhead.

"Exactly." Sasuke's smirk twitched a little higher at the look on the blond's face. However, it faded as students began moving towards the exit at the ring of the bell.

Sighing, Gaara picked himself up and grabbed his backpack. He needed to get to his locker early in case it decided to throw another fit. It had worked flawlessly the first time he had opened it and all throughout his first day, then it had given him hell after school was out. Now, it was opening again. It was almost like his locker had taken on the behavior of its former emo occupant.

Thankfully, it worked without trouble, and he made it to class with more than enough time. Sighing, Gaara set down the small orange book he had been assigned and opened it to the second chapter. It wasn't that the book wasn't well written, because it was very well written, but that the subject matter was questionable. Having only read one chapter, Gaara now knew more about the 'romantic love scene' than he had ever expected to learn in his entire life.

Settling his elbows on the desk and resting his head in his hands, Gaara settled down to read.

"Oh my god!!!!! It's you!!! You go to school here! Ukoooooooooooon! Ukon!" Sakon had his arms wrapped around an extremely shocked Gaara, and was shrieking for his twin. "Ukon! Oh my god! Ukon!"

Gaara's eyes were wide. If you thought about it, you might even say he looked a little…scared. Of what, he wouldn't tell you, although one might guess it had something to do with the exuberant Sakon hugging him at that very moment. With slow, jerky movements, Gaara's arms came up and his hands gripped Sakon's wrists. He pulled them from around him and set them at Sakon's sides before slowly releasing the other boy and stepping back. Sakon stared at him funnily for a moment before a fist smack him in the ear.

"Sakon, how many times do I have to tell you to leave people alone?" Ukon was standing with his arms crossed in front of him, staring with a raised brow as his younger twin pouted.

"Every time?" Sakon ventured from beneath his hanging bangs.

"Every time." Ukon but an arm around his brother's shoulders and the boy perked up. "But if you didn't, would you still be Sakon?" Sakon grinned haphazardly.

Ukon turned to Gaara who was walking slowly away, so as not to catch Sakon's attention. He gave the Sabaku a salute, and ushered his brother back into class. Now that he wasn't being held captive, Gaara was able to make it to Study Hall only a minute after the bell.

"Sabaku, you're late…" Raidou-sensei warned. Nodding, Gaara sat down and pulled out his sketch pad. The person he had began to draw for Art class was unfinished, and needed to be turned in first thing Monday. Sadly, the drawing had to be based off of a picture clipped from a magazine.

Laying down the freakishly interesting clipping of a samurai dressed in a festival haori and hakama, Gaara grabbed his selection of red colored pencils and began shading in the rather Kabuki-like face paint the man wore. Once done with that, he moved on to coloring the scarlet sash holding the man's katanas in place and the elaborately worked dragon fan he was holding. Ignoring the person who sat down in front of him, Gaara changed to a range of yellows and golds and began filling in the inlay of the samurai's armor.

A finger touched down on the paper in front of his pencil and followed the lines of a delicate trace work of gold inlaid flowers along the side of the breastplate.

"This is very well done. You have a talent." Hyuuga Neji's lowered voice was approving. "I think that Kakashi-sensei will be quite pleased with the work you have done."

Gaara glanced irritably up before pushing the Hyuuga's hand away from his drawing and continuing his work. After a moment, the hand made its way over to Gaara's pencil bag and snatched one of the blues. Gaara's lips thinned in irritation, but he let Neji amuse himself in examining the pencil in hope that it would make the Hyuuga leave him alone.

"Kimberly General's. Good quality. You know your stuff." Neji commented idly, hoping to get some sort of comment from the redhead. Instead, all he got was a huff and having the pencil snatched away from him and put back in its proper place. After a few more minutes of the Hyuuga persistently annoying him, Gaara put his pencils down and pushed his drawing to the side before staring straight at Neji.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" Gaara asked, frustrated. "A book maybe? Anything that doesn't involve bothering me?"

Neji smiled softly at the rise he had gotten out of the redhead and sat back.

"No. I finished that yesterday." He reached up and pulled his hair up and over his left shoulder. "So I thought I'd watch you draw."

"I cannot draw with you bothering me." Gaara pointed out, ruffled by Neji's offhand manner. Why the Hyuuga should be so closed around everyone else and not him was aggravating. Grabbing his book bag, Gaara set it on his lap and began packing away his drawing supplies.

Something caught Neji's eye, and he pulled on the corner of the bag to see it more clearly.

"A fish?" Neji's voice was inquisitive. Gaara only glanced at him before putting his last set of pencils up. Intending to ignore him, Gaara folded his arms and laid his head down. However, Neji refused to be ignored. When he actually chose to speak to a person of his own will, he expected them to respond politely. He was not used to being ignored.

"Why a fish?" Several long moments of silence passed before Gaara finally peeked from between his arms.

"You're not going to go away, are you?" Gaara was glaring now. Inside, he could feel Shukaku's amusement.

"Answer my question, and I might." Stated Neji in a rather conceited manner. Gaara glared at him for another long moment before responding.

"My brother gave it to me. Good, now shut up." Shukaku's amusement seemed to grow, but surprisingly, the demon did not seem to feel like making a guest appearance. Neji's face went blank for a moment before he lowered his face close to Gaara's and glared at him.

"Do not tell me what to do, Sabaku." Neji's glare last for only so long as it took Gaara to lean back and bitchslap him.

"Next time, it'll be my fist, Hyuuga." Gaara growled before standing and stalking to the other side of the room. Staring at the redhead in shock, Neji didn't notice the stares he was getting, or the fact that his jaw was still hanging until the bell snapped him out of it.

Thinking to himself as he walked towards the bus stop, Gaara was quite satisfied by the look of utter disbelief that had flashed over Neji's face the moment after he had slapped him. Seeing the Hyuuga staring blankly with his jaw slack made him almost want to laugh out loud. Almost. Shukaku had been having a fine fit of laughter ever since, and Gaara actually didn't mind. Any of the times that Shukaku had ever been in high spirits, a rarity among rarities, Gaara found that he actually could like the demon. The few times that it had happened, Gaara actually found himself enjoying himself as the demon's good and often irresponsible natured humor infected him.

It was odd that Shukaku could be so blood thirsty most of the time, and yet become almost amiable when the mood struck him. It was not the first time that Gaara had considered trying to get the demon to take a survey on bipolar disorder. His reminiscing was shattered when the voice spoke up in his mind, talking to itself.

Fun, fun! Sweet, glorious shock. His face, elation, Shukaku was still chuckling in his depths. The white-eyed one is diverting,

'Do you even know how to make sense? All you do is rave.' Gaara remarked to Shukaku. He did not expect the demon to answer back. It had stopped that long ago, when he had began trying to hold his own against its baiting. Silence. A listening silence.

Sensible notions, hateful emotions. A child in a noose. His hands come up, his feet go down and at the last moment finds he is cut loose.

Gaara recognized the lines. He had read them in an old poetry book at the library in Suna. He had not thought that Shukaku would memorize them.

So you see, he is free and his little eyes weep, for the deed that he has been done. The demon inside, its golden eyes wide, realizes what has been done.

Sensing something important in the lines addressed to him, Gaara silently willed Shukaku to continue. After a pregnant pause, filled with a roiling in Shukaku's emotions, the demon spoke the last lines.

A loop in a knothole secured by a spoke, from it dangling the end of the rope. A single claw cut and a single good hope, it was the demon who separated the child and cable and realized that of compassion, he was enabled.

The last line was halting, questioning. And definitely directed at Gaara. In a way, what Shukaku said made a lot of sense. During the demon's four day silence, it had been thinking and rethinking those lines. However, Shukaku's exact intentions could probably never be fathomed.

'A truce?,' Gaara questioned the beast. The answering emotion was both a positive and a negative.

A method of control, Shukaku spoke slowly, and more soberly than Gaara had ever heard it. A way of keeping at bay. Locked up inside and with nothing to do, I become restless and then so do you. Taking part will help savor the heart, and make me as sane as you.

The implications were mind boggling. Gaara took a moment to think on them as he paid his bus fee and took a seat at the back. Settling into the plastic seat, Gaara propped his bag in the seat beside him and crossed his arms.

'We'll see,' Gaara thought at Shukaku and turned to glance out the window. He sensed a hint of satisfaction in return. Never had Shukaku spoken to him in such a manner. Usually, the demon tried to coax and taunt him into its wishes, or taking control and utilizing them itself. Many bad events had come about for Gaara that way, although the last of which that had sent Gaara to this new school was not such a bad thing for him. Relaxing into the seat, Gaara kicked back for the long ride back to Suna.