The first time Temari sees Shukaku's influence over Gaara...They may be a bit old for this scene, but I wanted to make sure that Gaara was old enough that he could speak well. Not much else to say, so I hope you like it!

Distant

Nine-year-old Temari sat on her bed with her younger brothers, playing a board game. Ever since the night the three of them had spent together they often gathered in one of the three's rooms to play a game together. It was sort of like a family bonding tradition. Temari enjoyed it quite thoroughly, despite Kankuro's annoying complaints and Gaara's silence.

She had just finished her turn. Kankuro was just reaching for the dice when Temari heard what sounded like a hushed footstep.

"Quiet!" she hissed suddenly. Both her brothers looked up at her in shock, before looking at her curiously, wanting an explanation. She offered none as she strained to hear another noise, something that would tell her it wasn't just her mind playing tricks on her.

Sure enough, she heard another footstep. It was silent, almost unnoticeable, but Temari had worked hard to heighten her senses; her ears had been trained to hear the slightest sounds, ones that usually only higher-level ninja taught to listen for such noises like chunin and jonin could hear.

"There's someone nearby," Temari finally elaborated to her brothers. "I want you two to act like you don't know, okay?"

She watched, satisfied, as her two little brothers nodded their understanding. Kankuro grabbed the dice and rolled, as Gaara watched silently as usual. Temari could swear that if he weren't right in front of her to see, she wouldn't notice his presence at all. He was quiet. Much quieter than the 'stealthy' person sneaking around.

As she watched Kankuro take his turn, then Gaara his, she listened for the person's footsteps. She couldn't hear them anymore, though she was sure they were still there; either the person had realized they had been heard or they had simply stopped moving.

Temari knew that they couldn't remain sitting defenceless like that for long. If the person was an assassin of some sort, it would be all too easy to kill them. She decided to grab one of her kunai, hopefully without the person realizing what she was doing. She had to be cautious; otherwise the person could kill her or her brothers before she could even touch it.

Slowly and almost unnoticeably, one of the hands she was leaning on began slipping backward, toward the kunai kept secretly under her pillow. To anyone other than a ninja trained in the ways of being observant it would look like her hand was simply giving slowly under her weight. Pausing for a moment, she listened intently. She couldn't hear anything other than the sound of Gaara finishing with his turn and Kankuro fiddling with his miniature puppet. It seemed that the person either didn't realize what she was doing or watching silently. Or, of course, there was always the option she was being too paranoid, and the footsteps had merely been someone in one of the lower levels of the building.

But Temari, even at her young age, was never one to take chances. Not when there were things that mattered on the line. Like the lives of her brothers.

Her hand brushed the edge of the pillow, and she slowly slid it underneath the soft white cushion. A few centimetres further, and she could feel the cool metal of her kunai. Her fingers inched forward to grasp the small weapon...

In an instant a figure appeared behind Gaara. Temari whipped out her kunai and threw it at the man, only for him to knock it away easily with his katana.

Temari narrowed her eyes and let out a low growl. "What do you want?"

She couldn't see the man for his face was shadowed by the hood he wore, but she knew he was smirking. "To carry out a mission," was his response.

As the man began to bring his blade down upon Temari's youngest brother, she lunged forward, hoping to at least knock Gaara away and take the hit instead. But as she put pressure beneath her hands to spring forward, a hand made of sand gripped the katana and stopped it. She froze, shocked. Sand? That meant...

In one swift move the sand yanked the sword out of the man's hand and stabbed him with it, leaving his bleeding form to collapse onto the floor. Temari wanted to move, but found she couldn't. She shifted her eyes to Gaara, who was watching her with an innocent look, but somewhere within the depths of his pale green gaze was something slightly more demonic...

"G-Gaara?" she said, her voice a hoarse whisper.

Her brother didn't seem to hear her. He was mumbling to himself. "He tried to hurt me..."

"Gaara, it's okay, everything's fine now—"

"He tried to hurt me!" Gaara's eyes were wide with fear. "Why? Why did he try to hurt me?"

Temari knew her brother was beginning to panic, and she tried to calm him down. "I don't know, but it doesn't matter. You're safe now."

She pulled him into a hug to try and soothe him. He didn't pull away, nor did he hug back. He simply sat there, limp in her arms, eyes distant, lost in his own world that neither she nor her brother could see...