"Oh… "
Naruto was stunned speechless. Suddenly all of the questions he had in mind were answered. He realized why the kazekage let them stay in the village rather easily, and even treated them with such affability, arranging for them to live with his family. He felt a cold shiver down his spine.
"Your younger brother, Gaara… Why is he living somewhere else?" Naruto asked carefully.
"Answer me first," Temari snapped. "Are you Konoha's jinchuriki?"
A drop of cold sweat trickled down the back of Naruto's neck. He lowered his gaze and said in a small voice, "Yes, I am..."
Temari and Kankuro exchanged looks of horror. "We have to tell Yashamaru," Kankuro said to Temari anxiously.
"Right, let's go see him tomorrow."
"Wait, let me know what is happening to him! I… I know what it's like to be a jinchuriki, so -"
Kankuro scowled at Naruto. "Why? Why did Father choose you as Gaara's substitute? Your tailed beast doesn't threaten to take over your body when you sleep?" he asked angrily.
Naruto stared open-mouthed at him. "No… I… I'm friends with mine," he admitted.
Temari sighed and shook her head in dismay. "Then you don't know anything," she said. "The nightmares Gaara has about the demon Shukaku. The torture of waking up startled in the middle of every night. We can only imagine how much he must be suffering."
"A demon that causes its host to have trouble with sleep?" Kimimaro tried to process what he had just heard.
"Yes, and lately he doesn't go to sleep at all," said Kankuro. "Not only that. Gaara has been having trouble controlling his powers that come from Shukaku. One day when Temari and I were at school, he attacked some kids in the park, but he said he didn't do it on purpose. Several weeks later the same thing happened again, so Father kicked him out of our house and left him living basically alone."
"Father forbids us to visit Gaara," Temari added. "He says it's for protecting us. But I don't think Gaara wanted to hurt them, he's such a sweet baby brother." She lowered her head, tears welling up in her eyes. "I miss him…"
Silence. The woman in the kitchen had long left the house. Steam no longer rose up from the pot of soup on the dinner table. Naruto couldn't believe that there would be someone so similar yet so different to him, having a tailed beast of a sadistic nature instead of a compassionate one like his. He remembered 's words. "The only reason you aren't beaten to death is because the hokage wants you alive. As a deterrent to possible invaders." To Sunagakure, Gaara was probably merely a weapon too, but now he is no longer needed alive because they have found a replacement. A suffocating feeling of guilt and regret crept over Naruto. He ran away from his home only to become another village's weapon, and because of his decision, a kindred spirit is in peril.
"I'm not hungry." Kankuro pushed his plate away and stood up.
"Eat all you want." Temari left the table and followed Kankuro upstairs.
Tayuya shrugged and picked up her pair of chopsticks. "Well, you heard her."
The three children ate their first dinner at the kazekage's residence quietly and went to bed.
"Heh, that dumb tanuki," boomed Kurama's voice in Naruto's head.
Naruto flung his eyes open. "Tanuki?" he asked in his mind.
"The one-tailed Shukaku, seems that he forgot that he'd die too if his host dies."
"You know him, ? Do you know how to help Gaara?" No matter whether Gaara really attacked people on purpose, Naruto was going to find a way to save him.
"I'm itching to remind him why he's the weakest tailed beast," Kurama scoffed. "Now, listen, brat."
"Baki-san, please let us see Kazekage-sama!" Naruto called Baki, who had just walked out of the kazekage's office when Naruto and Kimimaro arrived at the building. Temari and Kankuro had gone to school, while Tayuya had locked herself in her room and was probably still sleeping.
"What are you two doing here? Kazekage-sama is very busy."
"We heard that a man called Tojuro is scheming to get Gaara killed," said Kimimaro.
"What?!" The head of the personnel department was surely a cunning man, but Baki didn't think he'd go that far. "Alright, but only Naruto can come with me, Kazekage-sama doesn't like to be bothered by kids."
Naruto looked at Kimimaro with furrowed brows. He was deemed more important than his friends, but for a depressing reason.
"Well, I'll go back and check on Tayuya, she should be awake by now," Kimimaro said.
Rasa wasn't expecting Naruto to be standing before him with a determined, almost angry look on his face.
"Kazekage-sama, what did you mean by investing in me instead of Gaara? What plans do you have for your son?"
Rasa looked at Baki, who sighed, "Must be Temari and Kankuro."
Ah, right. He had been returning home so late at night and going to the office so early that he hadn't seen his two kids for weeks. Rasa rested his cheek on his fist. "As you've probably known, Gaara is a jinchuriki like you, though his poor control over his tailed beast is concerning."
"Then can I go see him? I can help with his control," Naruto asked.
"How would you help?" Rasa narrowed his eyes. Is the little runaway jinchuriki from Konoha eager to show his loyalty to Suna? Or is he just being nosy?
"My tailed beast told me that he'll have Shukaku under control. Please give me a month to try," Naruto begged.
Rasa lifted his head off his fist and laced his fingers in contemplation. So far Gaara had shown little value to the village, and Tojuro had been suggesting that Shukaku be resealed into someone else, but he hadn't made up his mind. There seemed to be no problem in giving this boy a chance.
"Very well, let me see what additional value you may bring."
"Ready?"
"Wait!"
"Over here!"
"Pass!"
"Good one!"
"Go! go! go!"
Kashike, Tsuchino, Abiru, Torima, and two other kids. Gaara learned their names from watching them play soccer. All their names sounded so cool, because each time a kid called another's name, they would say it in a cheerful tone. Gaara hated his name. Because each time a kid said his name, they would say it in a trembling voice.
"Power shot!" Abiru kicked the ball hard, but the angle wasn't quite right. The ball sped away from the group of kids and came rolling towards the swing.
"…! It's Gaara!" Kashike gasped.
"The one with the sand!" exclaimed Torima.
"Waaah I don't want to get caught in sand again!" Tsuchino cried.
The six kids turned and ran away immediately, not even bothering to pick up their ball, which bounced back from the wall behind Gaara.
"Wait!" Gaara got up from the swing and made a few steps forward, reaching out a hand as he pleaded. The sand that always floated around him shot forward, moving faster than himself. "I just wanted to -" He stopped when the kids disappeared behind the corner. "Say sorry…"
Gaara roamed the streets thinking about what happened yesterday. He had only gone to the central park to apologize to the kids for hurting them, but they didn't want to see him at all. Ever since people witnessed the sand automatically block a running man who was about to bump into Gaara, he had been called the vessel of the evil sand spirit Shukaku. That night he also saw in his dream the incarnation of sand for the first time.
"Yeeaaahhoo!", shrieked the tremendous creature in delight. "The seal has weakened! Now I can take over your - ! Ugh!" A huge clawed paw stopped against a shield of sand, unable to crush Gaara right underneath, who woke up shaking and sobbing.
Wandering around aimlessly, Gaara cast his mind back to try to recall things that he could have done better. Father began training him when he turned 4, and it didn't take him long to learn every jutsu. But whenever he felt panic, frustration or loneliness, the sand seemed to respond to his negative emotions and get out of his control. As a result, Father stopped teaching him how to manipulate sand with his mind.
Gaara stopped a few meters away from the front gates of the ninja academy. If he had been normal, he would have been on the other side of those gates right now. Like his brother and sister. Like every kid he saw chatting with each other about their senseis and classmates in the park after a fun game of soccer. If only he had been normal.
"Why can't I control the sand properly?" Gaara crouched down and buried his face in his palms, lost in thoughts. "Why is my mind so unstable?" Tears streamed down his cheeks and fell onto the ground. "Why am I such a failure?"
A gentle touch on the left shoulder made Gaara jump. He turned his head and was met with eyes of the most calming blue. The boy had whisker-like facial marks and blonde hair brighter than the flowers of a desert marigold. Something about his affectionate gaze told Gaara he knew why he was crying.
"Hey, my name's Naruto, your name's Gaara, right?"