Me: I had fun writing this one. I thought I should put some cute stuff in this chapter.
13 : ...
Me: ':l
I mean, cough, uh, not cute,umm, whats the word, nice, err, heartwarming!
13 : Hmph.
Me: :P
Oh well. See what you think.
13 : Enjoy.
After two weeks the rumors had died down and switched to some thief that had been spotted near by.
Sasuke was glad for that. It was hard enough to try to forget what had happened without everyone around him talking about it and reminding him.
"Hey." Gaara arrived to school and sat down.
"Hey."
Sasuke had come to the conclusion that Gaara was one of the few people he could stand in this school.
Nearly everyone else just seemed annoying. Especially the other kids in class.
Sence he was now friends with Gaara a lot of the kids had stopped harassing him while he hung out with him, but there were still the others that didn't seem to catch on.
"Come on. You can sit with us today. You don't have to sit next to the weirdo." Miu said.
She and her friends were the worst. They seemed to belive that Gaara was forcing Sasuke to be nice to him.
"I'm fine." He answered politely just like every other time she asked.
She went back to her desk as Manabu-sensei arrived.
"Today we'll be starting off with some history so listen closely."
Sasuke tuned him out. He'd already read what he was talking about last week.
After school, Gaara often came back to train with Sasuke while he waited on his uncle.
"So, how are you so good at hitting the target?" Gaara asked as Sasuke nearly hit the bull's-eye.
"I'm not, yet." Sasuke said quietly.
Gaara walked off to sit in the shade of the building.
"Hey wanna train with us?" Some kids from class asked Sasuke.
"No."
A boy with short spiky hair scowled.
"You know I heard your friend was a monster." He said hoping to get Sasukes attention.
Gaara had already started to come back but paused as he heard that comment.
"Yeah my dad says if you get him angry he'll kill you." Another kid said.
"My mom told me to stay away from him."
Sasuke looked bored and threw another kunia. It hit the bull's-eye.
The first kid spoke up with a smirk.
"My big brother said if you touch him you'll die immediately."
"Really?" asked a girl with wide eyes.
"Yep." He answered in a matter of fact kind of way.
Sasuke had had enough. That was the stupidest lie yet.
"Hmm." He said purposefully gaining their attention as he walked past them towards Gaara.
Gaara looked uncomfortable as he approached. Sasuke stopped in front of him and put his hand on top of his head where the other kids could see him.
"Your brothers pretty stupid." He said.
The other kids stood shocked. Then turned and left. Sasuke still had his hand on top of Gaaras head.
Gaara looked at him and wondered why he'd done that.
Suddenly Sasuke ruffled his hair.
"Your hairs soft." He said grinning.
Gaara felt surprised.
"What?!" Then he rolled his eyes. "Get your hand off my head."
He said waving his hand causing some sand to push Sasukes hand away from him.
"Fine." Sasuke said taking it off. Then he waked back to the target.
"Gaara! It's time to go." Yashamaru called.
Sasuke started to walk with Gaara.
"So, where do you live?" Yashamaru asked Sasuke politely. "We could drop you off."
Sasuke was quiet for a moment.
"Umm, I don't have to go home for a while." He said avoiding the answer.
"Okay." Yashamaru said looking at Sasuke. "Well I was thinking we could go to the play ground. What do you think Gaara?"
"Okay." Gaara said looking at the ground.
Yashamaru lead them to the play ground. It was empty but Gaara said he didn't want to play kick ball.
"Gaara is there something wrong?" Yashamaru asked concerned.
Gaara didn't answer.
"Some of the kids at school were being mean." Sasuke said quietly.
"Oh. Are you okay?"
Gaara nodded his head.
"But it doesn't feel nice?" Yashamaru asked. Gaara nodded again.
"I know. It hurts." He looked sympathetic. "But you know there is a way to make it feel better."
Gaara looked up.
"How?"
"Well, first you need love, then you need time heal."
"What do you mean love?" Sasuke asked.
"Well there's all types of love. Love you feel for a friend or a family member. Love you give to someone in need. It helps to mend a hurt heart."
"How do you know when you feel love?" Gaara asked.
"That's easy." His Uncle smiled. "You know you feel love for someone when you don't want to see them hurt and it makes you happy to see them smile. You'd do anything for someone you love."
Gaara sat on a swing and thought about that.
"So who do you love?" Sasuke asked.
"I love a lot of people. The people I help, my friends, my neighbors," he hesitated,"my family."
"Who?" Sasuke asked.
"My sister. She's dead but I still love her."He said wistfully "And the rest of them I suppose." He added as an afterthought.
"So you love Gaara?" Sasuke asked innocently.
"Of course," He said smiling, "he's my nephew, that makes him family."
"Oh," Sasuke said pretending to have not realized, "Okay."
"So who do you love?"
Sasuke debated on pretending to have not heard him or answer it.
"Can you love someone that's hurt you?" He asked instead.
"What do you mean?" Yashamaru looked curious.
"Well." Sasuke felt awkward. He barely knew this man, but if he could answer the question it might help him sort out a few problems in his head.
"If someone you love a lot does something really bad and hurts you, but you still ,sort of, don't want to see them hurt, does it mean that you love them?"
Yashamaru looked thoughtful.
"Yes. I think it does." He smiled again. "I think it's our hearts telling us that we should try to forgive them and that no matter what they do you may always love them."
"But what if you can't forgive them?" Sasuke asked sadly.
"Well, I don't know. That type of love can withstand nearly anything because the person you give it to has to earn it. But it hurts when the person you gave it to does something wrong. So it might just continue to hurt until you find a way to forgive them."
"Oh." Sasuke went and sat next to Gaara on the swing set and thought about what Yashamaru had said.
'That was an interesting conversation.' Yashamaru thought to himself tiredly.
