Hello again everybody! I just want to thank everyone who has read this story, whether you have reviewed, favorited or followed it~! You guys give me so much motivation!

I have had a recent stroke of inspiration for where this story will lead to, so I hope you all stick around to find out what that is ;)

So without further a due, please enjoy this chapter!

Gaara sat alone, his favorite stuffed bear clutched tightly in his small hand, slowly swinging himself back and forth as he watched a group of kids close to his own age kick a ball around in the dirt a close distance away. He kept stealing glances at them every few minutes, the jealousy evident in his eyes.

"Pass it!" a short boy with unruly blonde hair called, waving his arms in the air.

"No, over here!" shouted a girl, arms outstretched, her black hair flowing in the wind.

Their laughter reverberated throughout the playground as the ball went flying and Gaara's chest tightened, leaving him gasping, unable to place the source of his discomfort.

"Awhhh..."

"Oh crap!"

"Now what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know. I haven't mastered climbing up walls yet..."

Looking up at the sound of their disappointed voices, he discovered the ball had gotten stuck on top of a shelf of sand. Taking this an an opportunity to join their game, he controlled some of the sand around him to fly upwards and retrieve the ball. The children's faces filled with surprise as their ball floated down from the ledge and into the arms of...him. The one their parents had warned them about. His appearance was well-known around the village and the kids instantly recognized him by his trademark black eyes rings and short, spiky auburn hair.

Gaara held the ball out in front of him without saying anything, silently hoping he would receive an invitation to play now that he had helped them. But to his shock, they all stepped backwards, frightened expressions displayed across their faces.

"You-you're that Gaara of the Sand!" one of them cried.

"My mom said he's dangerous!" another said.

"Run for it!" And they all took off in opposite directions.

"No wait! Please don't leave me alone!" Gaara pleaded in a small panicky voice as he extended his arm, thin hand grasping at air, his wide-eyed expression verging on insane."I don't want to be alone anymore!"

All of a sudden the sand surrounding him moved on its own accord as if it were alive, reeling the nearest kid in, sending her crashing to the ground and engulfing the lower half of her body.

"Ahhh! Help!" She screamed in pain as it tightened around her waist. But no one responded to her pleas. Two of the kids had successfully escaped the reach of the sand and had already exited the playground. Unfortunately, the blonde boy had not been so lucky. Backed up against a tree, cornered by a wall of sand, he had nowhere to run.

"Nooooooo!" the boy howled, sinking to his knees, hopelessly shielding his body with his arms as a natural defense, but it did not prevent the sand from enclosing around his legs.

Meanwhile, Gaara stood firmly rooted to the floor, frozen in place, not completely registering the scene taking place in front of him.

"Lord Gaara! Stop!" A soft voice rang out, "Please. You have got to control yourself! Calm down!"

Awaking from his trance, Gaara glanced up to find his Uncle Yashamaru standing in front of the boy, blocking the sand's attack. The girl lay nearby, grunting in pain, her body no longer held captive by the sand.

Immediately understanding he had almost killed them, Gaara pointedly looked down, ashamed, wanting to avoid Yashamaru's disappointed gaze.

But Yashamaru wasn't disappointed. He was sad.

Later that night, after Yashamaru had left to escort both kids to the hospital, Gaara wandered aimlessly throughout the village, lost in his own thoughts, not paying attention to his surroundings. He couldn't understand why the villagers hated and feared him as much as they did. Unbearably lonely, he longed to be liked. To have a friend. Gaara desperately tried to be friendly toward everyone, but interacting with other people only left them injured or worse. He never intended to harm anyone, but when the sand acted against his own will, inflicting pain onto others was inevitable.

Hey watch it boy!" a harsh voice broke Gaara out of his thoughts. Stopping in his tracks, he slowly turned his head to look at the man, who was accompanied by a small child.

As soon as he glimpsed Gaara's face the man instinctively recoiled.

"He-hey. You're him! You're that kid," the man stammered, his trepidation so obviously apparent in his voice Gaara could smell it.

He stared the man down, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Why me...?" he muttered. "Why do they only look at me like that!?"

Cringing in fear, the man roughly pushed the kid out of the way as Gaara's expression became angry, his eyebrows furrowed.

Emotions raging out of control, the sand swirled around the man, completely absorbing his body within a matter of seconds. Gaara, unable to stop it, watched helplessly as the man screamed in agony, his face scrunched up in excruciating pain. A short time later, the man's body dropped down next to Gaara, limp and unmoving, his eyes lifeless and his mouth agape. The young child started crying.

Doors slammed all up and down the street as people rushed over to see what had happened.

"He's dead!" a woman yelled.

"It's that kid again," a raspy voiced pointed out.

Gaara fled from the scene, sprinting the entire way home. Upon arriving, he flung open the door and ran straight into... his father, his arms crossed, eyes full of loathing. Temari and Kankuro, his older siblings, stood in the background, fear evident in their eyes. The young boy cowered under his father's look of disdain, rushed back out the door and continued running with no destination in mind, eyes brimming with tears.

~A few hours later~

Standing on a building that overlooked the entire village was Gaara, waiting in the dark. For what—he didn't know. His Dad's expression of disapproval floated through his mind and he hugged his body closer, burying his head in his knees, wishing Yashamaru was there to comfort him. But then he remembered how sad his uncle looked earlier and couldn't help but think maybe he was all alone in this world.

"...Why am I a monster? Why me...why...why is it only me...why?" he whispered, his entire body trembling as tears streamed down his face. "Why am I always so alone?"

"...what am I..."

As the days passed into weeks, Sakura saw a significant amount of change in her friends. Except for Shikamaru who was lazy as ever. In fact, his grades somehow got worse. Even in classes such as flower arranging!

Naruto and Kiba, whose grades usually suffered, had seen a huge improvement. Instead of slacking off, they trained long and hard each and every day—until the sweat rolled off them like buckets, both possessing a strong determination to outdo the other. Even so, being the young children they were, the two of them continued to constantly goof off and cause trouble, randomly attacking each other during the middle of class, much to the displeasure of Iruka Sensei, or ambushing Sasuke after the school day had ended.

Choji's parents were especially happy, knowing that their son had almost always been left out of games a couple of years back. Choji and the group would often eat dinner together at his house as his parents were more than happy to prepare a hearty meal for the people who made Choji smile.

Hinata had never been happier. Apparently Neji had taken up training with her by his own accord, and she was improving so much, her father even noticed, praising both of them, causing Neji to truly smile for the first time since his father's death. Not to mention Naruto always partnered up with her during class activities, making her squeal with excitement in the inside. After hanging out with him and the others almost everyday, she no longer stuttered or blushed around the hyperactive blonde. Of course, there were moments where she reverted back to her old self, such as the time he grabbed her hand while practicing how to throw shuriken, or when he would accidentally brush up against her, or that time when all six of them hid from Iruka inside a closet and they were practically on top of each other. And even though she didn't particularly like fighting, training with her new found friends had been some of the best times of her life.

Sasuke continued to achieve high grades as well as excel at everything from hand to hand combat to kunai target hitting, however, he had been steadily growing silent and withdrawn, almost always unwilling to play or train with is friends due to the ever rising the tension within his household. However, he never took his anger out on them for he finally had special bonds with someone other than his own family, and he wasn't about to let that go. His friends were aware something was bothering him, but instead of prying into his private family matters at Shikamaru's suggestion, they tried to cheer him up by throwing random parties dedicated to him or training inhis favorite spots. Even though he didn't say anything, it meant a lot to Sasuke, and he was grateful he had met them.

Sakura had finally run into Lee one day after school, who proclaimed his love for her on the spot, causing Sasuke to twitch without realizing it while Kiba instinctively jumped on him, threatening to pummel the boy with bushy eyebrows into oblivion if he so much as thought about touching Sakura. Much to everyone's surprise, Lee instantly reversed their positions, Kiba's face landed in the dirt and Lee gave Sakura a thumbs up. Sakura could only laugh and happily invited him to feel free to hangout with them anytime while Sasuke, Kiba, and Naruto threw her suspicious looks and questioned her sanity. She had never seen Lee's face light up so fast. He proceeded to flash her his trademark smile, then bounded away on his hands proclaiming he would run around the village a hundred times before they would meet again.

In regards to the Sand Village, Iruka had been a little taken aback when Sakura had asked about it, nonetheless he told her all he knew. Sakura's face had fallen when he mentioned their villages were not on the best terms at the moment, making it difficult to travel between the two. Refusing to give up hope, Sakura had begged her parents to look into visiting Suna ever since they announced they were going on a family vacation. They couldn't promise her anything, but they said they would see what they could do.

After a long day of training, Sakura finally arrived home. She slung off her backpack and dived onto the couch, hoping to relax before her father returned home from work and pestered her to do her chores. Right as she was drifting off to sleep, her mother entered the room and lightly tapped her on the shoulders.

"Sakura! Wake up!"

"Huh? What? What is it?" Sakura asked sitting straight up, eyes blurry and unfocused.

"Well...we worked it out with the two villages. Both the Hokage and Kazekage granted us access to travel to Suna! And since the roads have been rather dangerous lately they've even given us ANBU protection! We had to pay a little extra but it's definitely worth it! I'd love to their skills in action." her mother smirked.

"Wait really!?" Sakura could barely contain her excitement! This was her chance to see Gaara!

"Yep. Although I'll never understand what made you want to go to Suna," the blonde haired woman shook her head. "Oh well. It'd be nice to get out of here. Oh, and we decided to leave in two weeks, since that's when your vacation time starts at the academy."

"Oh yeah, I forgot we had time off," Sakura mumbled. Her mother laughed and ruffled her daughter's hair.

"Since this is a birthday present, your father and I decided to allow you to bring a friend. Maybe two. Who knows."

Sakura instantly got up to hug her mother. "Thank you so much! Ah, I don't know who to bring though. Wait? ANBU? Did they say who would be taking us there?"

"Oh, well they're not usually allowed to divulge that information, but as I left the room I overheard the Hokage asking another ANBU member to get in contact with Itachi Uchiha about a new mission," her mother replied nonchalantly, leaving Sakura speechless.

Tell me what you thought! And have a great day everyone. You're all awesome !