Chapter 1
You sighed as you walked through the Village hidden by Sand. It was one of those days that you had to walk around following your gut. After a while, you found yourself at the playground. You stared at the entrance of the playground, wondering if your subconsciousness wanted to bask in the nostalgia of a long gone childhood; before you had aspirations, before you realize the reality of living as an adult.
Not knowing what to do else, you decided to lean against the wall, watching a group of kids play ball. Their laughter brought a small smile to your face, before you caught something in the corner of your eye. Your eyes wandered to a kid with red hair alone by his wholesome.
You stared at him before your eyes narrowed down in worry. Why was he out there alone? Where are his friends or his guardians? His parents or siblings? You did a quick scan around to have some indication of company belonging to the boy, yet nothing stood out to you.
You heard the ball fly and your head turned back to the playground. The ball that the group of kids were playing rolled to the lonely kid as he stared at it like it was a foreign object. So foreign yet so familiar.
After a few seconds, he picked it up and seemed to want to give it back to the kids but you quickly caught the look of absolute fear and disgust, as they yelled something about a demon or some sort. They all ran away as the kid seemed awfully depressed as he watched the kids run away from him like he was going to kill them.
Your heart clenched at the face he was making ad before you knew it, your feet had carried you over to him. You made sure to make your footsteps known before you gently touched his shoulder. Yet he jumped still as if he was spooked. His head whipped towards you and stared at you with frightened, wide eyes. The sand seemed to rattle and you thought it was the wind, but the voice in the back of your mind whispered something else.
You didn’t want to scare and agitate him any further so you took a step back, hands up in the air with the best non-threatening gesture you could muster. You saw his tensed shoulders drop slightly and the agitated sand from before, seemed to go silent almost. A suspicion and realization was forming in your mind, but you were committed and crouched to his level. You gave him a smile, your hands still open for him to see.
He seemed to relax more, making you smile more.
“Hey” you greeted first.
“Hi…” he said, a bit afraid like he wasn’t used to talking to people.
“What’s your name?” you asked him.
“G-Gaara…” and you blinked at the name. So this was Kaze-Kage's son? From what you’ve heard, he has one of the tailed beast inside him; the Shukaku. Now you were starting to get the picture and the voice in your mind was becoming more right.
“Hey Gaara.” you greeted once more, “My name is [first name].”
“Hi…” He said meekly.
“Why are you out here, alone?” you asked him, a bit worried.
He looked down like he was about to cry. Immediately, you begun to panic while feeling like an idiot. Trying to cheer him up, you searched through your back pocket. It was a weak gesture but you grabbed a bunch of objects and held it out to him. He looked at your hand while you slowly revealed some candy to him.
“Here…want some?” you asked, stuttering with your heart beating against your chest with cold sweat prickling on your skin.
He stared at it before shaking his head. You were confused and more worried, as you kept up your appearance and tilted your head at him, “You don’t like candy?”
He shook his head, “No…I like Candy.” He said, “But I don’t know if it’s poisoned or not.”
That threw you in for a loop as you blinked at him in surprise. He already knew about food having poison in them? This kid’s life must be tough. Was your thought before it transitioned to “man is this what being generations of ninjas have to deal with? To the horrifying thought, “Oh dear Kami, someone has tried to poison before.”
You looked at the colourful sweets in your hand, pondered for a moment before you looked at him, “I promise there isn't any poison in them, but if you’re not sure, why don’t you pick a few out and I’ll eat it, okay?”
He stared at you before looking at your hand. He seemed to ponder and probably thought you were bluffing before pointing a few out. True to your word, he picked those up the most colourful candies and you opened your mouth. He slowly unwrapped one before dropping one inside. You closed it and chewed it, crunching it. You then grinned and tried not to show how you were going to regret this decision, “Come on, did I say to pick out a few more?”
Gaara looked at you bizarrely before you opened your mouth waiting and he quickly unwrapped a few ones and it wasn’t long before your mouth was stuffed with candy. You then puffed your cheeks to exaggerate how much candy you had and imitating yourself as a hamster. Garra giggled and the sweetness of it almost made your heart burst (Nooo, it wasn’t the rush of sugar that was sitting in your mouth, what were you talking about?)
After a while, letting it dissolve, you then opened your mouth to show him it was all gone. You waited for a few minutes while playing Tic-Tac toe in the sand, before Gaara seemed to be convinced there wasn't any poison in it.
He looked expectantly at the candy and you patiently held them out. He seemed to ponder the flavours and colours before he picked one up and tentatively ate it. His whole face brightened up as you giggled. Without thinking, you softly patted his head as he seemed surprised but quickly seemed to enjoy it. You tried not to let your face falter as you felt your heart breaking at the reaction, even more so as he tentatively held your hand to lean his head more.
You got up before you held your hand to him, leading him home. A ninja appeared in front of me as Gaara yelled “Yashamaru”.
You merely let go of Gaara’s hand as he ran up to him. Seeing as he knew the ninja and he was happy, you began to leave; now that Gaara is now with his guardian. (you wondered where he was this entire time…was he watching you this entire time? But if that was the case, then he should’ve appeared earlier… questions begun to fill you and the sugary sweetness of the candy in your gut begun to turn bitter-)
You turned around to go back to your own home and give yourself a long teeth brushing session, when you felt a tug on my leg. You stopped to look down and saw Gaara, looking at you with his light wide, turquoise eyes. You then knelt down to his level as he gripped your arm like an actual child.
You smiled softly at him, tilting your head to the side as you saw Yashamaru not too far away. “What’s wrong Gaara?”
He looked down like he was struggling to say something but you waited. He looked up like he was a bit hesitant but he finally got the courage to speak, “Will I ever see you again [f/n]-Nee/Nii?”
You blinked at Gaara; thinking me as his older sister already but you merely smirked at him. You messed the top of his head, tickling him.
“Of course! All you have to do is call me and you’ll see me~” you said, giving him a grin.
He beamed before giving me a hug. You admittedly froze for a moment before you returned back with a warm hug and a kiss to the forehead before he ran to the ninja waiting for him. You stood back up while waving him good bye as he did the same. (You could see Yashamaru silently observing and deducing you from over his shoulder and you had a feeling you were going to be interrogated later).
When they were out of sight, you merely sighed to yourself before smiling. Whatever it may be, you had a feeling you were going to this kid no matter what, for a long long time.