Okay, sorry this took so long, but this is, of course, an important chapter. Picks up right after where the last chapter left off. Kankuro and Temari will be trying to be a bit more proactive, and another secret of the Kazekage will be revealed here.

I hope you all enjoy and maybe even leave me a little review! Have fun!

generic disclaimer

btw, for Just Subliminal only, since you have the PMing thing deactivated on your profile, i don't suppose I could ask you here to indulge me and let me know who recommended my story, could you? I feel flattered that they did so and want to thank them.

Yashamaru found Gaara crying in his work place later that evening. He'd heard about Gaara attacking someone in an ally, but looking at his small figure, all curled up and fragile seeming, he couldn't believe the version of the story he'd heard.

"Gaara? What happened?" To his surprise Gaara did run to hug and cry into him like he was want to do; rather he jumped up and crab walked into a corner.

"St, st, stay away from me," he yelled at Yashamaru, his sand stirring as if to form a protective circle around him, though not rising more than a few inches from the ground. Yashamaru scrunched his eyebrows in though, contemplating what to do next. After a moment of Gaara staring wild eyed at him, he spread his arms out, showing on an instinctive level that he was no threat.

"Gaara, I heard what happened, but I want to hear it from you. I promise, it will be okay, just tell me what happened." Gaara whimpered, covering his face and shaking his head, trying to get rid of the memory of all the blood and the people running away from him.

"I just wanted to play; I just wanted to play…"

"Play what?" There was a pause.

"I practiced really hard; I just wanted to play, to be like them, but that man…" He shuddered as he began to rock back and forth. Yashamaru began taking slow steps towards him.

"What about the man, Gaara? What did he do?"

"He-he tried to hurt me…"

"When?"

"When, when I was waiting to play…I, I was just standing there, in the alley, and then, and then he, from behind…" Gaara started when he felt Yashamaru put a hand on his shoulder.

"No! Stay away!" His sand began pushing at him like blows from a club, but he refused to move.

"It-wasn't- your- fault- Gaara," he said between blows. The blows stopped.

"But, but I, my sand-"

"Protected you. You did nothing wrong," his uncle said soothingly. "And it's alright now." Tears flowed down Gaara's face.

"But everyone, they all saw it, and they ran away…they want me to be alone…" Yashamaru leaned down and gave him a hug that he almost released as another headache came upon him. He fought through it, refusing to let it stop him from comforting his nephew.

"Not everyone wants you to be alone…"

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The Kazekage ranted and raved for the better part of an hour. How could such an inept child, so worthless, still be a monkey wrench in his plans? That brat lived to foil him. At every step, he did exactly what he didn't want him to do. When he wanted him to be cold, he sought warmth; when he wanted him to be strong, he was weak; and when he wanted him to die that blasted child lived. No more; no more would he let his plans be continuously foiled. Gaara would die! There was no other course. He had to die for the being the constant frustration that he was. Obviously, though, he needed a stronger shinobi to destroy his son.

Meanwhile Kankurō, who had coming to the office to ask his dad about ninjutsu, closed the door softly. His father had been speaking aloud, and it scared Kankurō to hear those things. He had always tried to ignore the things around him that caused pain, but now he had to stop running. It was time to face it.

Walking aimlessly through the village he finally considered all the things that had happened around Gaara. When they were still little, he remembered being thrown into walls by Gaara's sand, but he knew that baby Gaara couldn't control that. He made a disgusted face as he thought of babies. They were always so noisy. He'd had to help take care of a few babies. Everyone always said they were really cute and fun to play with. Well, they had lied; all Kankurō got out of that experience was set of clothing covered in puke, and broken ear drums- at least it felt like they were broken. He realized that babies had very little control, and no idea how to communicate. Gaara had been just like that, but he was family, too, and ka-san wanted them to protect him.

He hadn't thought about that in years. The night that Temari had snuck into his room to tell him that tou-san wanted Gaara away from them, he had been more than happy to stay away from Gaara. He was scary to him then. It had become a habit to avoid him, though he admitted, grudgingly, that his little red headed brother was a cute kid with the exception of the constant rings around his eyes.

Kankurō shook his head to bring his thoughts back to focus. What was important was that Gaara was now in danger, and he didn't what know to do. He wasn't smart enough, but he did know someone who was…

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Temari was busy working with the big fan she'd been given at the academy when she'd inadvertently shown that she could use wind chakra. It was during a lesson on formalities. It made Temari roll her eyes to think about it. She wouldn't say that she was a very conventional person, even at her young age. Yes, like most girls she enjoyed skirts and dresses, but she also enjoyed fighting. She really wanted to be a Kunoichi. As good a one as she could, hence her frustration. It had been building up more and more over the last few weeks, especially after she saw Gaara doing…that the previous week. It unsettled her that her brother wanted to hurt himself so badly, especially since she felt there was little she could do. She didn't want him believing she hated him, but there was still father to deal with.

It was in the midst of such a thought that, while they were practicing opening and waving their fans, she'd let loose a bit of chakra. The results had been devastating to a group of seven and eight year old girls. The two directly to her left had been blown off their feet, kimono's completely askew. The next three had all lost a grip on their fans and the first had lost her headdress. The most telling occurrence, however, as the cracked wooden pillar and beam behind and above her. They had quickly removed the girls from the room before sending for a carpenter and fetching for a chakra specialist. After a paper test it was officially discovered that she possessed wind chakra. Father, of course, commended her for the intensity and ambition he perceived in her and upped her lessons. She was given the fan and several kata's and exercises to practice with at home.

Opening her fan about half way, she gave it a large wave, aiming at tightly packed hill of sand. She ended on one knee with her fan, once again closed, extended behind her. She smirked as the sand was blasted away. She stood up and looked over her shoulder.

"What is it, Kankurō?" The black suited boy rolled his eyes. He'd shown up a few seconds ago but, fearing his sisters wrath at a break in her concentration, decided to sit on an upturned trash can (courtesy of Temari's practicing) and wait for her to acknowledge him.

"You always show off Temari." The girl chuckled.

"It's not showing off if you just plain old happen to be better."

"Yeah whatever," he muttered, waving a hand at her from her seat. He remained silent, causing Temari to frown.

"Kankurō? What is it?" The small boy fought to keep the tears from his eyes. It was hard to speak, now that he was actually going to voice his thoughts that he'd had the whole way there, ever since hearing his father -his Kazekage- saying. Temari extended a worried hand, not sure what to do. It was rare to see her tough little brother acting this way. It unnerved her.

"I…overheard Kazekage-sama…a little while ago." She cocked her head in surprise.

"You mean tou-san? What are you talking about? What was he saying?" Kankurō took halted breathes as he relayed to his sister what their father had done, and his plans he had still for their younger brother.

It turned out that he'd overheard a lot. Not only had he talked about Gaara, but also their little sister…not that he know anything about her. Kankurō just managed to figure out what he was talking about. It was a lot for Temari to take in. Not only was her little brother housing a demon, for which their father had decided he was too dangerous to live and now needed to die, but he'd planned on doing the same thing to their sister Naruto! She massaged her temples as Kankurō unfolded the tale, trying to decide what to do next.

"And he said, he said he wasn't going to stop until Gaara's dead! That's, that's just not right! Gaara doesn't deserve that, even if he is scary." Temari couldn't even chuckle at the thought her brother had just stated; the situation was much too heavy for that. Instead, she stood.

"First off, we still have to call him dad even if we don't want him to be." Kankurō looked at her in shock.

"But he-"

"No, if we do that he'll know that we know. We have to act on this one, too. I don't like it either, but it's what we gotta do.

"Next, we need to talk to uncle Yashamaru. He cares about Gaara."

"But what if… dad, tried to kill him again." Temari frowned.

"I don't think it'll work…not for a while anyways. You know better than some how his sand it, and dad's wanted him to get strong until now, so he probably never tried to think of how to defeat it. I don't think anyone else has either, so Gaara should be safe for now."

"Okay…if you say so. I still don't want to leave him by himself. I, I want to…"

"Protect him?" Kankurō nodded as Temari put and hand on his shoulder.

"Me too, and that's why we need to talk to Yashamaru first. He'll know best what to do to protect Gaara." Kankurō nodded in agreement and started walking.

"Alright, better get there before he goes home, then. I think the clinic will be best to catch him alone without anyone being able to over hear us." Temari did chuckle then. He'd actually had a good idea!

"Yes, let's go now." When they got there, thought, they saw something that they didn't expect. Little Gaara was beating Yashamaru with his sand, evidently trying to get away from him, while the latter was doing his best to hold on despite the pain.

"No! Stay away!"

"It-wasn't- your- fault- Gaara." Kankurō and Temari watched in awe as Gaara's sand stopped, their uncle breathing heavily as he held onto their younger brother. They saw Gaara break down, crying harder than they ever would have guessed he could. Temari noticed Yashamaru wincing as he hugged Gaara, his temple trembling violently. She tapped her brother on his shoulder, motioning that they should move away.

Several blocks away from the scene they had just witnessed, Temari motioned her confused sibling into a public building and drew him back into a small room in the back. There, she finally sat down after scanning behind them and closing the door.

"Temari, what's going on? I thought we were going to talk to uncle Yashamaru. Shouldn't we at least wait and talk with him later?" Temari shook her head.

"No, I don't think so. Father is doing even more than we thought."

"What?" She pointed to her temple.

"What is my temple doing?" Kankurō shrugged.

"Nothing." Temari glared at him. "Okay okay!" He sighed and took a closer look. He noticed then that there was a slight tremor, like a heart beat…

"Hey, is your heart doing that?"

"Sort of. Remember from academy lessons, the heart pumps blood all over the body? Well, that means that wherever there are blood veins, you can see the beat of the heart. That's mostly what happens, but when someone messes with your head, more blood rushes to your brain, shrinking the space available in your skull and pushing the blood vessels against your skin. There's less room so the 'beats' from your heart become more intense."

"Sounds like it hurts." Temari nodded.

"Yes, it does, and someone, probably dad, is messing with uncles head." Kankurō's eyes widened.

"So…dad's using Yashamaru to…help Gaara? I don't get it. I heard him saying that he'd kill him." Temari shook her head.

"I don't think so; uncle was holding onto Gaara in a nice way, like he really cared and was fighting against whatever the pain was. I think that he likes Gaara, and papa is trying to use him a different way." Kankurō nodded.

"I guess I see that." He looked up at his sister. I guess, since dad's working on him so hard, that we should let him be and watch Gaara ourselves. Like you said, his sand is good, but if something really bad happens, where uncle can't help him 'cause of pa…we need to be there and be ready for him." Temari's eyes widened slightly. She liked the idea…

"How would we do it?" Kankurō's brow furled as he thought.

"Well, we can't be obvious since we know that dad's working on uncle, so we need to takes turns, and we pick times when it's more likely that something will happen. Dad's going to try and kill Gaara without letting people see, like in the alley today. That just didn't work out like he wanted, but he'll try to set up situations like that again.

"What we do, is we spend a little time to see if Gaara does things in a general order, then we arrange to switch who shadows him without getting caught." Temari wanted to laugh. Kankurō was trickier than he let on; or maybe he was just finally in his element.

"Alright, we'll do that, for now; until we can find a way to stop dad altogether." Kankurō nodded, grinning. Maybe he was actually getting something right, and now he could actually act like a big brother.

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Eventually Gaara stopped crying, and Yashamaru sat him on one of his examination tables, telling him he could stay until it was time to go home. He didn't want to think about why his brother in law would do such a thing to his youngest son, so he didn't. It seemed so easy to push away those thoughts, to focus on his paper work, nearly forgetting Gaara's presence. He was only reminded when Gaara would give a faint sniffle as he hugged his bear.

For his part, Gaara remained deep in thought, for a five year old. He decided that if the other kids understood that he had been attacked, they'd be okay and still let him play. He knew it would be hard, but uncle Yashamaru believed in him, so why not them? So he kept trying, going to the play grounds and trying to make friends. More often than not, they would run away at the sight of him. Still, some of them seemed to become acquainted to his presence and though they would when he was nearby, any time he tried to get close to them they would run away just like all the others. He spent so much time watching the other children and trying to find a way to interact with them successfully that he never even noticed when Temari or Kankurō would watch over him. Their observations resulted in many midnight conversations.

"He never does anything to them! It's so unfair that they just run at the sight of him."

"Kankurō, you know why they run. Besides, you might run, too, if you hadn't been his brother." The boy gave his sister a death glare.

"I'm not a scardy cat," he said as gruffly as he could (a difficult task for a seven year old). "I wouldn't run away."

"You probably wouldn't let him play, either." Kankurō pursed his lips and folded his arms angrily, looking away.

"Still, he deserves a chance."

"It's probably because of dad trying to kill him, though…"

"Except that they only try when no one's around to see. People forget things fast. I never even hear people talk about the first one anymore, and most don't hear about the new ones. Dad doesn't want them to know how many people die 'cause of Gaara's sand." Temari nodded slowly.

"Maybe…you might be right, but I'm gonna have to see it myself before I decide. I'll figure out why they never let him play."

"Good. You only watch him when he's all alone anyways."

"Hey! It's not my fault that our schedules worked out like that, okay! I want to be there for him just as much as you." Her brother grimaced.

"Sorry sis. I'm just annoyed by the kids."

"I know," Temari said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But it won't be like this forever. Some time, hopefully soon, we'll be strong enough to show in front of everyone that we love Gaara, and that he's not a monster like dad tried to make him."

"Yeah…I hope so…"

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It was a few more days before they were able to work things so that Temari, who was still getting private tutoring thanks to her wind chakra, was able to watch over Gaara during his play time. Over all they had had to do little to watch over him. Gaara's sand proved to be more powerful than either of them had really thought. Temari had once cried out in warning before a shinobi came up behind him, but the matter seemed to be dealt with before Gaara even turned around, a tear falling from his eye as he saw another evidence of his father's hate.

Temari had almost come out of hiding to go comfort him, but uncle Yashamaru walked down the road first. Gaara had been headed to see him, so it wasn't so odd an occurrence. It had happened a couple times that Yashamaru would be coming back to the office from a meal or home visit and find Gaara waiting for him. The man reached down and carried Gaara inside, cradling him.

This evening, though, she'd managed to get out of practice when her tutor had gotten sick at the last minute and had no replacement for her. It happened to be a day that Kankurō was at the academy during the afternoon to late evening. He'd told her the other night that they thought he could be a puppeteer so they wanted him to stay late that day and test him. She was happy for him, but it had bothered her that neither of them would be there to watch Gaara…until now. She quickly ran to the route Kankurō said was his usual to get to the park. She caught up to him less than a quarter mile before the park the other children played at.

She sat on a roof, watching Gaara's hopeful look as he waited for a chance, then it came. One of the children kicked the ball so hard that it landed on a high ledge in the sand and rock wall that surrounded their village. The kids began to berate the one who had kicked the ball so, then they all froze in fright. Gaara had quietly walked up and sent his sand to retrieve the ball. Now he held it out, waiting for one of them to take it, to include him. Instead they all ran.

Gaara cried out, the pain of loneliness finally filling him to the point of frustration. Temari gasped as she saw him grab one of the children with his sand, crying about not being alone before he lost control. Even she could tell that what was going to happen next would hurt. At the last second an adult shot between the boy and Gaara's sand.

"Gaara, stop!" It was too late, of course, and Temari saw her uncle get battered by the oncoming sand before Gaara was able to stop it, but stop he did. Temari felt the wetness of her cheeks, and realized she'd been crying. It hurt to actually see her brother like this. She'd seen a couple assassination attempts, she'd seen Gaara trying to hurt himself, but to see how quick the other children were to run away from a boy who had so obviously been trying to be helpful and friendly cut her to the core.

Yashamaru leaned over the hurt boy, telling Gaara that he'd meet him at the hospital where he worked after taking care of the boy. Gaara nodded, crying as he ran off. Temari took off after him, not caring much for the boy that had shunned him so. She arrived first and hid herself in a closet, not wanting to miss what happened next. What would Yashamaru say? Was he going to punish Gaara? Would he turn against her brother, too?

As she watched, Gaara once again tried to inflict pain on himself. Like so many times that night, she had been about to intervene when Yashamaru once again appeared, stopping Gaara, even though, he said, his sand would have protected him. It hurt, he said, to see Gaara trying to hurt himself.

He does care! For sure, even though dad doesn't. I can feel it in his voice.

She listened to the two of them talk about pain, and then Gaara's new idea for getting a friend after all. He was going to take medicine to the boy to heal him. It would make him feel better. Yashamaru smiled and said it was a wonderful idea and even helped him pack some medicines. Temari stared in shock at the ones he picked. They were some of the best Suna had. Yashamaru was going all out to help Gaara stop feeling alone.

When Gaara left, have been given directions from Yashamaru who had taken the injured boy home, she cursed herself for not picking a better spot to sneak out from until her father came in and asked to speak to her uncle in his office. She snuck out then, pausing at the main door. She felt like she was missing something important, but what was more important than Gaara?

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"Go away, you monster," the boy muttered, shutting the door firmly. Gaara began to tear up, the ointments he had so carefully prepared with Yashamaru falling as though his fingers were lifeless, and he ran. He ran as hard as he could, fleeing all the loneliness inside him.

Meanwhile, a slightly older blonde girl jumped to the ground, fuming, and she rammed her hand on the door, causing it to shake with the force of her knocking.

"Go away, you stupid beast," the young boy said again.

"You better watch your mouth, you brat!" The door quickly opened, a different kind of fear now on the boys face.

"L, L, Lady Temari! Wha, what are you doing here?" She glared at him as she gave him a piece of her mind.

"You little piece of crap! Do you have any idea what you just did? My brother just wants a friend, and he actually felt sorry for hurting you, and what did you do! You threw it in his face! These are expensive," she yelled, shaking the medicine bag in his face. "You know that? It wasn't easy for him to come here and YOU called him a MONSTER!"

"But, but-" the boy spluttered, trying to find a way to appease the girl.

"But nothing," she yelled at him. "You have no excuse. Phe," she said, finally speaking normally, though her look was still threatening, and condescending, as she crossed her arms to look at him. "You called him a monster? Only a monster turns away a little boy trying so hard to be so nice. See if I ever watch your back when we become shinobi." With that, she turned away, not able to lay down a more grave threat since she wasn't supposed to even be around Gaara, much less care for him. She shook her head. She'd risked a lot tonight, but she decided that she needed to risk it one more time. She was going to talk to her uncle. It was high time they gave him their trust. She took to the rooftops to find the quickest way back to his clinic where he had been with Gaara when she saw the first explosion. Her eyes widened with fear, and she took off with only one thought in mind. Gaara…

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Kankurō was just coming back from the academy. He was already starting to enjoy working with puppets, and the teachers said he showed great promise and aptitude with them. Today they'd actually given him a puppet to take home and practice with. He never expected to see Gaara running down the road, tears in his eyes.

Where's Temari? Shouldn't she be out of her tutoring and shadowing Gaara by now? He didn't pause to look, checking to see if she was nearby as he went. He could feel in his gut that there was something that had gone drastically wrong with his brother. He jumped to the roof tops to follow the read head, keeping out of sight as best as he could. It was a little difficult with the puppet on his back, but he managed it anyways. He started to a stop, however, as he saw Gaara getting attacked once again, his sand exploding at his attacker. As it cleared, his jaw dropped, seeing who it was that attacked.

Uncle… What are you doing to Gaara? Why are you attacking him? Kankurō stayed low behind the wall of the building, trying to listen in on what was being said, holding the puppet to keep it from making any noise.

"I think, deep down, I always hated you," he heard, along with Gaara's cry of despair. Kankurō's eyes widened. He may not have loved his brother (he thought), but he cared for him as his brother, pitying him for not being able help the way people looked at him. He might have feared him if not for their experiences by his bed side years ago, but he knew that Gaara was like everyone else, as a person, and just wanted the same things that everyone else did: companionship. He looked down, feeling bad that he had never done anything to help Gaara feel that, but they had thought it was best to act different, to keep others from finding out about Gaara, and he'd felt depressed when he'd found out that his mom had died right in front of his eyes. Looking at Gaara just reminded him of that.

He raised his head in determination. Uncle was already done with this betrayal, and Kankurō was going to be the real deal. He didn't care anymore about hiding, he was going to show Gaara that someone cared for real, but he wanted to talk to his uncle before he died.

Peeking over the edge he realized that his plan might not work out so well. Yashamaru was revealing that he was covered in explosive tags. Having witnessed one or two assassination attempts, he knew that Gaara would live, but Yashamaru…he still needed to answer for this betrayal.

He acted without much thought, going by instinct from what he'd learned that day. It's a basic technique, they'd told him, to perform a substitution with your puppet; basic, but difficult. It will take you some time to get it right. He quickly made the signs, attaching chakra strings to the puppet and throwing a couple to his uncle. Chakra poured into the strings, and he closed his eyes as the explosion went off. Did I make it?

"How did you do that!" Kankurō jumped as he heard Temari's voice. She'd seen them all from below as she neared where she thought the first explosion was. She'd seen her Uncle reveal all the explosive notes on his body then, as Gaara lifted his hands to cover his eyes, she'd seen her uncle…shift, it seemed. Then she saw, just as the explosion took place, there was a puppet instead. She caught a glint and, looking up, she'd caught a glimpse of her other brother, and jumped up to him, finding him standing over her uncle, but looking down at their youngest brother on the lower roof. Now he was looking at her in surprise, not having expected to see her at such a pivotal moment.

"Temari! What are you doing here?" She rolled her eyes, arms crossed.

"Gaara had more crap happen to him today. I've been trailing him most of the day, just like I do all the time." Kankurō winced. Temari had always been better about making sure Gaara was watched over, even after they'd decided to start tailing him. She'd never been scared of him like Kankurō was. Being hit several times by Gaara's sand, even if he'd done it on purpose, could have that kind of effect. That said, it was impressive that he overcame that fear and proposed that they start watching over him in the first place. "So, what's going on?" Kankurō opened his mouth to answer, but Yashamaru spoke first.

"Your father wants your brother dead," he said tonelessly, as if he didn't care.

"What? But why? And why are helping him!" Despite the large killing intent being focused on him, he didn't react.

"Because he's the reason your mother, my sister, died. If it wasn't for him-"

"If it wasn't for him, mother would have never been able to tell us about our-"

"Temari!" Temari meeped as she covered her mouth, realizing what she'd almost revealed. Yashamaru finally showed an emotion, curiosity.

"Karura couldn't have told you? Told you what? She died a long time ago, when Gaara was born." Kankurō sighed, shaking his head.

"No, she didn't die when Gaara was born," he said. "Tou-san saved her life so he could do what he did to Gaara again. That's when she ran away, but everyone knows about that. Don't you remember?" Yashamaru looked confused.

"Remember what? I remember Karura-chan dying, and being told to watch over Gaara after she died. I've been doing that ever since he was born." Temari and Kankurō exchanged a look of surprise, then nodded. Temari had been right about him after all. Kankurō looked away in the shame he felt for being so angry at his uncle a few moments before.

"Uncle, I think tou-san wiped your memory," Temari said.

"What? No, there's no way-"

"Then why don't you remember not taking care of Gaara when we went with tou-san to Konoha five years ago?" His eyes widened.

"You've never been to Konoha," he declared, trying to raise his wounded body up, but falling back in his weakened state.

"Yes, we have, and we stayed at the Hokage's tower, and walked through the giant gates. Yes, uncle, we have been to Konoha, and you don't even remember." Yashamaru gaped like a fish.

"But, but then, but when…what about Karura?" Temari hesitated and Kankurō took over.

"Kaa-san had another baby, and tou-san was going to do to her what he did to Gaara, so kaa-san ran away."

"No, no, that's not right, that can't be true, Kazekage sama wouldn't-" He was caught off by a slap. He stared at Temari.

"Uncle, stop it! You're better than this, and you did care about Gaara! So stop it!" Tears came to his eyes and he lay prone on the roof. They could all hear Gaara screaming in pain.

"Oh no," Kankurō muttered, looking down at his brother. "I don't like that look." Temari moved over to where Kankurō was looking down on their brother and gasped. She'd never seen such a look in Gaara's eyes. Always he had some sort of emotion, whether happiness and acceptance around Yashamaru, or fear and hurt around others that rejected him. Now there was…nothing. There was no emotion. His eyes, even from up where the three of them were, radiated coldness. And there was something on his forehead…

"From now on, I will love only myself, and live for only myself," she heard him say.

"Father, what have you done to him…" She cried freely. She was always looking forward to the day when she could openly show her love for her brother, when doing so would not make her father keep them apart. Would he even let her in now?"

"Gaara, is he okay? What's happened to Gaara!" Temari wiped the tears out of her eyes, and went over to kneel at her uncle's side, noticing now the blood that was seeping from his wound.

"Kankurō, get Chiyo oba-san. I, I think she'll manage to keep quiet about this." Kankurō nodded after Temari pointed out the blood coming from their uncle and began to run up to the old house the healer lived in, away from the village.

"Temari, is Gaara okay? I didn't…kill him, did I?" Temari shook her head as she began to do what she could to slow the bleeding. He may have tried to kill her brother, but he had been a pawn of her father, just like her mother and brother were…and probably her and Kankurō too, just not as bad.

"Gaara is alive, but I think whatever you did to him, destroyed him inside." Yashamaru was crying.

"What have I done? What can I do?" Temari looked around.

"You can keep a secret, and wait for when the time is right to come back." His eyes pleaded for the answer to stop his breaking heart.

"I'm going to tell you what mom died for…"

There is it! Sadly, yes, Gaara will still think he's alone, but as you can see, things are going to be drasticlly different for him anyways.

Next chapter will still focus on the sand sibs, but i'm not sure if it will be the after that chapter or the next that we get back to current time period. We'll just have to wait and see. And thanks for being so patient with me getting this chapter out. I hate taking a whole month to write a chapter, but accounting 302 is a REALLY hard class...that I am currently failing, actually. hehe. But, i'm getting better, believe it or not. Regardless I think I'll be pumping out more chapers next semester, but for now I don't know if I'll be able to be regular. :(

Hey, ya'll have a good one and don't forget to leave a review!