Well, here's the next update in my story! It features one of our most beloved characters: Gaara! Yay!
I don't really have much to say except that I don't own Naruto, or Gaara, or anyone, so...enjoy!
Gaara
Naruto spends most of his time after school with Neji or Kiba. He asks questions and gets answers but none of them trigger any memories. He's told names of people that he should know but they don't do anything for him and he always forgets the name by the next day. It's frustrating all of them that he can't remember but until he actually meets any of the people they talk about he'll never get it.
"So he's got red hair and green eyes and-"
"Is creepy as fuck," Kiba finishes for him. The boy's mother shoots him a disapproving look and clucks her tongue and Naruto laughs as the boy ducks his head in shame.
"He's a good fighter though," Akamaru pipes up.
"He used to be," Kiba corrects. "We don't know what he is in this time."
"Ki- Kasey," Naruto says at the last minute as their mother walks by again, "is there anything else about him?"
Kiba shudders. "That name is weird coming from you. It feels wrong.
Naruto shrugs. "I can't call you by that name while your mother is around. She'll think I'm crazy."
"Yeah, yeah, I get-"
"Kasey!" the aforementioned woman yells. "Take out the trash and then come eat! You too, Andy!"
Naruto glances at the clock. "I should get going anyway. My parents expect me home soon." He stands and gathers his things. "Thanks for having me," he says as he heads to the door.
"Wait, Naruto!" The blonde turns as Akamaru comes up to him. "Gaara is also…he used to be…sad. You…understood him, Naruto." The boy bites his lip. "That's…that's all I can tell you." The blonde nods and leaves.
He can't sleep that night. He tosses and turns in bed and kicks off covers and pulls them back on until he can't take it anymore. He gets out of bed, throws some clothes on, and leaves the apartment, careful not to wake his parents. He heads down the street, uncaring, as his feet carry him somewhere. He stares at the ground as he walks, observing the cracks in the sidewalk.
Needless to say it's a rude awakening when he crashes into someone and falls back. "I'm so sorry! I-" But the words die in his throat as the man turns to face him and green eyes catch his attention. "I…"
"…need to watch where you're going," the man finishes for him. "It's not the best time of day for you to be running into people."
Naruto gets up and dusts himself off. "I know and I'm so sorry and-" He pauses as the man pushes his red bangs back. "And you're missing something."
The man's eyes narrow. "I'm sorry?"
The blonde points at the redhead's forehead. "You're missing something," he repeats. His brain tells him to shut up but he can't stop his mouth from moving. "Right there. It's gone."
"You're crazy." The man turns to leave but Naruto grabs his arm without thinking. Shock flits across both their faces.
"I'm not crazy, I swear! I'm normally normal! It's just you!" His brain is telling him that he really needs to shut up now.
A pierced, non-existent eyebrow goes up. "I make you crazy?"
"Yes!" Naruto blurts. "No!" He looks up at the man meekly and whispers, "Yes?"
"I'm leaving." The man yanks his arm out of the blonde's grasp and walks off.
"Wait! Don't you…don't you feel incomplete?" Naruto's fairly certain that he's about to start crying but he doesn't know how to fix this situation.
The redhead glances at him over his shoulder. Those jade eyes glitter in the moonlight and give the man an almost maniac look. "Don't even try to pretend you know how I feel." Even the tone of voice is dangerous.
But Naruto isn't fazed by that look for very long. "You think you're all alone, right? Maybe a little crazy?" The man shakes his head and keeps walking away. "You go to bed and pray that you don't have those nightmares again because you don't understand why they hurt but they do! And you walk by people on the street and you catch their eye and some part of you knows them and you try to make a connection but you can't because it's all locked away, just out of reach!" The man stops. "And you feel hollow and no amount of anything that you do fills that space!"
The man faces him. "You're fucking with me."
Naruto steps forward, holding out his hand. "I can…I can help make it go away."
The redhead sneers, recoiling from his hand. "What is this, some crappy cliché movie?"
"Please," the blonde begs.
The man shakes his head. "You may know what I'm going through but you don't know how to solve this problem any more than I do." He walks away.
"I had him!" Naruto slams his fist into Neji's kitchen wall. "He was right there and-"
"Are you sure it was him? You could've had the wrong guy."
"No," the blonde snaps. "I know it was him. He was just missing something." Naruto motions to his forehead. "I just don't know what."
"His eyebrows?" Kiba asks, smirking as he sips his coke.
"No! This is serious, Kiba! I had him. I had him and he slipped through my fingers and you're making jokes?" The small brunette swallows thickly and looks to the ground. Naruto suddenly feels guilty but when he reaches out for the child Kiba steps out of his reach.
"His tattoo," the boy mutters darkly. "That's probably what he's missing."
"His tattoo?" And suddenly that tattoo, that bright red symbol, flashes through his mind. Then the barriers are there, slamming down and cutting off those memories.
"Love," Neji fills in before he can ask. "His tattoo was the kanji for love. He said no one would love him except for himself."
There's a long moment of silence as the blonde takes this in.
"We should discuss someone-"
"Why doesn't he remember?"
Neji is caught off guard by the interruption. "What?"
"Why doesn't he remember? He's just as lost as I am, just as confused. You remembered. Both of you. Why doesn't he?"
"I don't know, Naruto."
"This isn't fucking fair! Who decided that you got to remember and we didn't? Huh? Why you? What the hell have you done that makes you "worthy" enough to remember? And if you're "worthy" enough, then why aren't I? Were you better people? Did we fuck up somewhere?" A sob escapes the blonde's lips. "Why aren't we good enough? Why do we have to suffer like this? Why do you get to stand there and know everything and we get to be lost? Why? What did we do wrong?" He falls to his knees and breaks into tears. "Why?"
Neji, Kiba, and Akamaru don't have an answer.
"Back again?" the redhead asks. There's a smirk dancing on his lips and a glint in his eye that suggests that he finds the blonde amusing.
"Shut up," the teen snarls. "You're just as fucked up as I am, maybe even more so. So stop looking at me like I'm pathetic and go look in a fucking mirror sometime!"
The smirk slips off that face and those green eyes narrow dangerously. "Decided to man-up, did you?"
"Shut up. You're going to listen to me!" Naruto takes a step forward, blue eyes piercing.
Those green eyes widen and a maniacal grin spreads across that face. "I bet you cried yourself to sleep, right? Because you're pathetic. And you think you can suck it all up and talk to me that way? You're quite mistaken." The man lashes out and grabs Naruto's wrist, yanking the boy close. "You are so weak."
"No." The blonde stands his ground, eyes defiant. "I'm not the one avoiding my problem, my pain. You're the one running away! I'm trying to-"
The man claims his lips in a bruising kiss. Their teeth clack together from the force of it and a tongue darts into his mouth. He responds with a punch to that face, stumbling back as the man releases him. "The fuck is your problem?" But the redhead lunges at him and they both go down. Blows are exchanged. He's kicking and clawing and biting and the man is responding in kind. "Get off!" Naruto snarls and aims a fist towards the man's face again but it's caught and his arm is pinned. One by one his limbs are rendered immobile and he realizes that he's probably as good as dead.
But the redhead leans down so that their foreheads are touching. Those jade eyes stare deep into his blue ones. "Naruto," the man whispers and it sends chills up his spine. That voice sounds young, confused, scared, lost. "What am I missing?"
"Love," he answers softly.
Recognition flits through those eyes. "Naruto? Naruto, I-" And then the man clutches his head, groaning.
"Gaara?" The name is smooth coming off his lips, familiar, and his mind processes that Gaara was his friend. Is his friend. They had a bond.
"No," the man rasps out. "No, that's not…that's not my name." The recognition is gone, replaced with more confusion and anger. "I'm not Gaara and you're…you're still Naruto…"The blonde nods, crushed inside. He knows how it feels to be Kiba or Neji now, hoping for any sort of remembrance of their bond only to have it shattered seconds later when he doesn't remember. "What the hell are you doing to me?"
"Triggering," he answers.
"Triggering what?"
"Your memories. Of me. Of us."
The man stares at him for a long time, trying to find lies. Naruto's blue eyes glimmer brightly, never wavering from his. "Fuckin' hell."
And, um, ta-da! There was quite a bit of the f-word used in here but, I'm pretty sure you handled it well. Uh, yeah, I still don't have much to say.
I mean, um, yay that Naruto's found a buddy who doesn't remember like him! Yay for buddies!
Anyhoo, I'm glad you read this chapter. Please leave a review telling me what you thought!
Have a nice day, night, whatever you want to be nice!