“Listen. Please listen.”
The red haze of his mother’s rage was almost comforting in its familiarity. When the whispering at the back of his mind turned to raucous screams of rage and hunger for blood it never even occurred to him to refuse her. What were the lives and suffering of these humans who denied any kinship, any kindness, any care or connection to him, what were they compared to the mother who had watched at the back of his mind all his life. He was born of a demon and the shifting sands, his mother was a cackle of rage and bloodlust wrapped around his soul, his father was a blaze of unforgiving heat and uncompromising barrenness wrapped around his village.
But there was a boy standing in front of him unflinching and unafraid and he said, “Listen”, and despite himself Gaara found himself letting the red haze of rage fade in the face of curiosity.
His soul was born of a demon and the desert itself, and while his teammates might share blood with his human shell, his soul should have no kin in this world. And yet, a blond boy stood in front of him, stood and looked him in the eyes without a trace of hesitation, and he felt like kin.
There was fire under the boy’s skin, Gaara could feel it, and from her mad but excited whispering his mother could feel it too. There was rage and wildness and the blaze of a forest fire, and Mother whispered older brother like a breath of air under water, like rainfall in the desert. His soul should have no kin in this world and yet somehow, utterly inexplicable, but true as the desert sun, the boy who stood in front of him was kin.
“Who are you?” He said and maybe it was more of a snarl than words but it was still more human than his earlier rage. The boy just smiled.
“I’m Naruto.” He said cheerfully. “You feel it too don’t you.” Gaara nodded. There was no need to ask what Naruto was talking about, they both knew, and Gaara was glad that neither of them was fool enough to speak it out loud where anyone could hear it for a possible weakness. They were kin, and they both had enough demon cunning not to let anyone know that.
“Why don’t you burn?” he asked, with honest curiosity because he could feel the wildfire under Naruto’s skin and he couldn’t understand why any kin of his would hold such destruction back.
“I don’t really want to.” Naruto blinked slowly. “Do I need another reason?”
“But why not?” Gaara couldn’t help but be frustrated, but Naruto didn’t even flinch back at the surge of power that accompanied his flash of irritation. Naruto paused for a moment to consider.
“Well.” He said eventually. “I guess it’s because there’s people I like that might get hurt if I did. And because there’s things I want to do that I couldn’t do if I lost control that way.” Gaara tilted his head in confusion.
“People you like?” Naruto nodded brightly.
“Yeah. You know, friends, family. Precious people.”
“I don’t have anyone like that.” Gaara looked away overwhelmed by a feeling he couldn’t name.
“Well you have me now don’t you?” Gaara considered, it was a good point. Naruto was kin, kin was family, he wasn’t alone anymore. Naruto continued without giving him a chance to respond. “And I’m sure you can find other people if you work at it. I was alone for a long time. People are afraid of demons after all. But in the end I found people that didn’t care about that, and they loved me anyway and that’s the best feeling in the world. Even better than having no-one scared of you to begin with.”
Gaara thought about that for a moment. Naruto was kin, was family, was a sudden not aloneness in the bitter wastes of existence. And Naruto had promised, in a sideways kind of way, to be family with Gaara. That was good, Gaara wanted that, and mother’s whispers of older brother, seemed to indicate she might want it too.
But Naruto wanted him to stop. That much was obvious, Naruto had people he wanted to keep in this village and if Gaara didn’t stop he might destroy them That would make Naruto unhappy. It might even make him not want to be family with Gaara. But if he did stop it would make Mother unhappy. It was a dilemma.
It was a dilemma, but maybe not as much of one as it seemed. Mother wanted blood, but then Mother always wanted blood. Nothing ever changed there, not really, it was a path as familiar and unchanging as the desert. Naruto wanted something new from him, and in return he offered a promise, that things could change, would change, that maybe he could have something more than a mad hungry voice in his head to care for him.
Maybe, just maybe, that was something worth taking a risk on.