XXX

It's finally here! Chapter 10! Sorry everyone for the wait, and thank you for the reviews while I was gone. For all of you who were wondering, I was at 4-H camp. : ) It's been a few days since I got back, and I wrote this chapter two days ago at like 3:30 in the morning, but fell asleep before I could publish it. :P Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in Naruto.

XXX

A Story for Myself

A Naruto Fanfic

Chapter 10

4:44 a.m.

Madara looked unto the sky as he took his last breath. He saw there a soul which equally matched his own. It was a girl, not of his blood, but of his heart and courage type. She was born in the future, but as he drifted off into death he smiled and gave his soul to her, his abilities and his strength.

"Take this, and use it wisely," he smiled and exhaled leaving this world behind.

Sakura jolted upright in her bed, making the covers go flying. She was breathing hard and broke into a cold sweat.

"Whoa." She said to herself as she pulled just her sheet over her again. "Now that, was a really, really... different dream,"

The alarm clock on the table beside her bed read 4:44 a.m.

What an odd number… Sakura thought as she closed her heavy eyelids.

Gaara still wasn't asleep, even though he had been so tired earlier. He hadn't slept really all night. In the time that he didn't sleep, however, he went over the conversation he had had with Lana just hours earlier. It must have been the millionth and first time that he reviewed each and every word.

"Your parents died, and they took away your memories after they died," She had started out.

"Okay," Gaara took in the information. He already knew that his parents were basically mercenaries for the village of Suna, but beyond that no one had really told him anything.

"They knew about Shukaku, because at the time that he was sealed in you, you were the only capable host."

"Wait, why was I the only one?" He asked her, just getting started. He was going to get everything he wanted to know that Lana had.

"Have you ever heard of Chakra?"

"Isn't that like a type of energy or something?"

"Yes, it's spiritual and physical energy within a person. All people have it."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You had a different kind of Chakra, Gaara, like yours was on a different frequency, and it was the right and same frequency as Shukaku's Chakra, not to mention you had loads of it that would be able to suppress Shukaku's Chakra, or blend it's with yours in the least." She explained patiently.

"Why didn't my parents stop them from sealing Shukaku in me, then?" Gaara said uneasily.

"They didn't know at first, the Elders took you from them without them knowing because they knew that your parents wouldn't have let that happen willingly." Lana said. "When they found out that something in your sealing was wrong and that they had to erase all of your memories, your parents wouldn't let them. By then you were already four years old. There was a possibility that you could have lost more memories than just of people and things. There was a risk that you could die from not remembering how to breathe, among other things. They were actually planning on transferring Shukaku to another child who had been born and had the right qualities of a host." She looked down at her fingers and wrung her hands and fingers, fidgeting.

And if they did that you would have died. Shukaku answered Gaara's question before he could open his mouth.

"Oh." He said aloud. Lana looked up curiously. "Then I would have died, if they transferred Shukaku, right?"

She nodded then spoke, "Your parents fought for you and loved you Gaara, no matter what you did,"

But he missed the sad tone that Lana had hidden under her thoughtful words. There was also another emotion there, but he has so many thoughts forming already that he didn't notice this either.

Gaara finally had to ask one of the many other nagging questions he had building, already, in his head so he could make more sense of the conversation so far.

"Who are they?"

Lana sighed.

"They are a secret organization in Suna, called the Anbu Black Ops. Every village has an organization of them. They're part spies, part ninja, highly trained, and deadly. They have power that has been basically unheard of since the past ages, power which was thought to have died out. They can control their Chakra, and awaken their dormant powers." She finished but then added, "Dormant powers, or abilities are in everyone, but people rarely awaken them and only a handful can keep them awake."

Gaara leaned back in his chair.

"So there has been an Anbu threatening you?" Gaara guessed.

"Well, yes and no."

Gaara silently told her to go on.

"Sheena is an Anbu that comes here every month to check in on you, Gaara," She started. "She came yesterday, and asked if anything new was happening, like she always does." Gaara noticed that Lana sounded annoyed, if anything, and he almost laughed as he realized that she must really not like this lady. "I made the petty mistake of hesitating before I answered and she caught on that something was happening. I told her that you were only regaining memories of yourself, not Shukaku, as you had said, but of course she didn't believe me."

"Why did she cut you?" Gaara asked cross.

Sheena and the Anbu from Suna are really starting to give me the impression of "A pain in the ass," Gaara thought.

Somewhere deep within his mind Shukaku's laughter rumbled quietly.

"She, of course, was being careless, as usual. Almost gave me a heart attack, too." Lana crossed her arms.

They were both silent for a minute.

"Gaara, I don't know what's going to happen, now that they know…" Lana said.

"What do you think they will do?" he asked her.

"Well, they'll probably try to transfer Shukaku to another host, seeing as though he's not blocked from you're mind any longer."

"So they're going to try any kill me?"

"Perhaps…" She trailed off but then suddenly slammed her fist down on the table. "But damn it! I won't let that happen Gaara, we'll just have to figure something out,"

"What if they're coming to get me right now?" He asked solemnly.

She sighed again and sipped her tea.

"They'll need two weeks to find a new host, at least. It could possibly take them up to two months."

The rest of the conversation was nothing more important, just small details, like the fact that they erased his memories after his parents were dead because they weren't there to stop them, and they tricked Aunt Lana. They were going to talk about what to do sometime tomorrow.

Well actually today. He thought, seeing as though it wasn't night anymore, it was early morning.

Gaara. Do you know how your parents died? Shukaku's voice rumbled deeply throughout his skull. He laughed menacingly.

Lana said it was an accident when they were working… Gaara got the feeling it was something more. He felt a memory piecing itself back together in his mind.

You're about to find out.

Gaara's mother and father were in the living room, watching the news. A sand storm had hit a part of Suna the other day.

"That's just horrible," His mother said.

"Look at all that debris," His father said. "We'll probably be getting called out to work anytime now, people are probably traveling to other nations to stay somewhere else,"

Gaara stumbled into the living room from the kitchen and watched the sand on the screen as it whooshed around and around, stronger and stronger. He didn't pay any attention to the people or the things getting thrown around, though. He was only mesmerized by the sand.

"Naoki, Gaara is-" She started to say but was cut off when sand hit her face and made it start to bleed.

"Gaara, calm down," Naoki, his father, said calmly and gently.

His mother was holding her cheek, but slowly moved toward Gaara with only care and concern in her eyes. Gaara wasn't looking though. He was curled into a tiny ball, his little knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around him, holding himself together. Sand was swarming around the room, circling them faster and faster, whipping at high speeds before Gaara made a hard ball of sand around him and started sobbing, as he couldn't stop the sand storm going on in his own home. He couldn't control Shukaku's power as he remembered a past sandstorm that Shukaku had created and had killed thousands of people. He blacked out completely, only hearing screams and windows shattering, walls collapsing.

Then Shukaku took over.

He didn't know how much time had past or where he was when he woke up. Then he felt a hard dirt surface beneath him and winds whipping past him.

Shukaku, what happened while I was asleep? He asked the sand demon as he looked all around him.

You killed lots of people in Suna, who were going to kill you.

He looked around in a panic, to see buildings destroyed and sand everywhere. There were people laying on the streets and bloodstains on the road.

How do you know that they were going to kill me?! What if they were good?

You were meant to kill Gaara, that is your purpose, can't you see? All those people were afraid of you and had thoughts of "What if you didn't exist,"

Why am I meant to, though? How do you know?

Because I am you, Gaara, and you have the capability to kill like no one else, so don't you think you were meant to use it?

Well I guess, since those people were trying to kill me… and no one else can kill like I can?

No, Gaara, you're unique, one of a kind. The poor younger Gaara was being manipulated by Shukaku.

Oh. That's cool, I guess. He was only five years old.

Gaara ran over to two bodies that were close to his destroyed home. They were his mother and father, dead.

But… but I…

He started crying again.

Gaara's eyes were closed, and the memory was now his to keep. Tears silently rolled down his face, just like they did back then.

I killed them. He clenched his fists and hit his bed with a thud.

I killed my own parents. Gaara realized that there was sand flying all around him. Where the hell did all that come from? He thought, referring to the sand. Oh shit, it's happening again, just like it did with my parents.

He raised his hands in the air, and pictured the swirling sand dieing down, stopping.

Ah, much more control now, Gaara, you've come far.

Damn you, Shukaku, it wasn't me who killed my parents, it was you, your power.

But it was you who couldn't control it, Gaara.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers and his thumb.

My mom… And my dad…

With a throbbing headache he looked over at the clock on his windowsill. It was 4:44a.m as he was thrown into another memory. He screamed in pain.

That was it. He had had enough.

Gaara had snapped.

XXX

Things are just starting to reveal themselves, and Gaara still has to decide if he'll give in and start using Shukaku's powers or not! And if not, then what's he going to do about them? And if he does give in then what will happen? I guess you'll just have to subscibe or keep checking in to find out! ; )

Thanks everyone who reviews, and thanks for the good wishes I got from people when I went to camp. I hope you all are enjoying your summeras well, well I guess that depends on where you are in the world... hm, I hope you all are enjoying where ever you are! lol : )

Review, review, review! Please, and thanks. I do read every review and greatly appreciate good reviews and like good critique. Thank you for the suggestions, too. Reviewers and reviews are what make my stories, since they get me motivated to write and give me better ways to write the story.

XXX