Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Sand Blossom ❯ Confused Demon, Meaning of a Kiss ( Chapter 4 )

Gaara ran his hands through his hair, pondering and pondering what had just happened. What was that? An emotion? What?? The Shukaku demon inside of his body sent a shockwave to his brain. The evil spirit which ate away at Gaara's being was getting annoyed and Gaara knew it. Don't question yourself! Emotions are for the weak! Says you! Gaara blocked out that dark part of his mind and took deep breaths; he felt sweat dripping off his head. I have never felt like this. I've never felt like killing is not enough. But… she… she did something… He leapt into the trees and left the village. He panted as he jumped from tree to tree, forcing himself not to pass out from forcing his demon from knocking him out.

 

In the Hidden Sand Village, there was an apartment owned by Kankuro, Gaara's brother. His black attire was a must, but surprisingly he kept his hat and face paint off at night. Go figure. He sat in the middle of his room tinkering with Karasu, one of his puppets that he used in battle. Kankuro was a Puppet Master, specializing in the puppetry of people or his favorite puppets Karasu and Kuroari. “There, that should do it.” As he finished tinkering with Karasu's head he placed it down gently and narrowed his eyes, noticing that there was someone outside his window. He connected his chakra lines to his puppets and prepared to attack.

 

“Kankuro.” A low voice called to him from the other side of the room. Immediately Kankuro made a quick jump and dropped his puppets.

 

“Whoa! Gaara! Don't do that! You know that freaks me out!” Kankuro flailed his arms around wildly shaking off how tense his body was at the moment. Gaara seemed to make a gesture with his face that would have been more significant had he any eyebrows to make gestures with, but nonetheless he stayed true to his objective.

 

“Kankuro I have something serious to ask you, and I need you to give me as much information as you can.” Gaara's stern face shone. Kankuro sat down with his legs crossed in front of Gaara, and tried to straighten his attitude. “Okay, shoot.”

 

Gaara made an uneasy movement with his eyes, shifting a bit but not losing his focus. “I need to know what this is.” Gaara, knelt forward, his sand armor hiding a glint of blush in his cheeks as he drew ever closer to Kankuro's face with his lips at the ready. Awkward moment, stop! Kankuro's hand almost immediately flew out and stopped Gaara's face from getting any closer, “O-kay bro! I think I can get the gist of it!” Gaara calmly leaned back and sat back down, his face still clueless as to what he had done. Kankuro wiped the sweat off his head and relaxed himself into his sitting position.

 

“Alright, Gaara, I think what you were going for there was a kiss.” Kankuro got that over with nice and quick. Gaara turned his head slightly in curiosity.

 

“What is it? What does it mean?” Gaara established the best questions to find out why his head was bothering him.

 

“Eeh? Whoa, hmm…… `What is it?' Ummm… It's hard to explain Gaara. Hold on a minute, backtrack here what exactly happened this afternoon? Did you see someone do it? Was it Temari?” Kankuro asked.

 

Gaara remembered the earlier evening when he was following Sakura, “That woman from the Leaf Village, Sakura, was in Tatsumaki today. She was administering the vaccines for the virus to the villagers.” At this point Gaara's eyes seemed to turn cold and hate filled, “There were some drunk ninja who were going to harm her. I did my part and killed them before she got hurt.” The hate disappeared, “After that she stood around saying that she had to thank me for helping her. I told her that it was nothing to thank me for, after all our villages are allies. I started to leave… and that's when she came out of nowhere and `kissed' me.”

 

Kankuro tapped his fingers against the side of his cheek, analyzing Gaara's obviously eventful day. “Alright Gaara, from what you have told me, you saved Sakura's life. Or considerably extended it, but anyhow… It seems that - where did she kiss you?” Gaara made a lazy tap on his right cheek, “Alrighty then, phew. Close call. But um… yeah, the fact of the matter is that…… Sakura may have a thing for you Gaara.”

 

Gaara didn't seem at all surprised, actually he didn't get it… “She could like you!” Kankuro repeated.

 

“Can't you go into a little more detail than that?” Gaara said. Kankuro leaned forward putting his head to the ground for a little while then getting up, “Gaara! Couldn't you have taken care of this before the Kazekage ordered your assassination?” Wrong answer. Next thing Kankuro could feel were sand spikes starting to poke through his clothes, with two extremely sharp one aiming at his eyes at eye level. “Okay Gaara, I can help you in any way you want. Sorry to disappoint at first. Heeeeh……

 

The sand spikes died down and Kankuro's tense half frozen body limped down to the ground, “Ooohh……okay. Where do I start? Alright… don't suppose you'll want to know about the miracle of birth, right?” Gaara's eyes narrowed as his sand began to crawl around Kankuro's knees again. “Okay, okay, let's deal with your problem. Okay… to be liked… is… oh! Think about your kanji!” Kankuro pointed at Gaara's forehead where the kanji symbol was formed in blood red.

 

“What about it?” Gaara looked up towards where it would be ((left side of forehead)).

 

“Well think about what it means to you. You have sworn to love yourself and fight for only yourself right?” Kankuro asked to make sure.

 

“That's the gist of it.” Gaara confirmed. Kankuro leaned back and scratched the back of his head. “Right, so…… you think that you could kinda share that belief?” Kankuro's voice was calm, he knew this would confuse his younger brother.

 

Gaara's eyes widened, “What do you mean?”

 

“Could you love yourself and someone else? Fight for them? To protect them?” The sand at Kankuro's feet was retracting back into Gaara's gourd, he was thinking… trying to separate what made sense and what didn't. “You see the thing is that, Sakura could very well like you Gaara. Not that I don't see any reason not to, but this is the first time she has ever done that, right?”

 

“Yeah… what connection does this have to me?” Gaara crossed his arms and slightly looked at the floor.

 

“Well Gaara… think about what has happened recently. You haven't been able to think of anyone else but her this whole time right?” Gaara's head shot up… he had been thinking about her an irregular amount of time. “You could like her too. Maybe something stronger.”

 

Gaara's head was troubled… having realized that no human being could ever love him for himself because himself included his Shukaku demon spirit, Gaara could barely understand how love was supposed to feel on the receiving end. Gaara remembered back to his childhood, all the pain that had turned him into what he was now… “Yashamaru* did the same thing. How can I trust something that brings more pain?”

 

Kankuro leaned on his hands and looked up at the ceiling, “That's something that you'll have to figure out on your own Gaara. It does come down to a trust thing.”

 

“Hmm… thank you, Kankuro. I think I'll go see Temari now.” Gaara got up an headed for the window. One foot stepped out into the balcony and he stopped.

 

“Wait, Gaara!” Kankuro called to him.

 

“What is it?” Gaara didn't bother to turn his head, just listen.

 

“Be careful with this thing `kay?” Kankuro held silent for a bit to see if Gaara would respond. Gaara stepped out again and jumped to the next rooftop and into the night.

 

“Temari must be where she always is nowadays. The Kazekage's office.” Gaara ran all of the ideas through his head. Love, liking, that kiss… what did she mean by it if she had already said thank you? Shukaku… you keep your mouth shut.

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

*Yashamaru - is Gaara's caretaker from when he was young. He was one of the first assassins who tried to kill Gaara but ended up being killed instead. He was the only one whom had shown care and love to Gaara, but it all turned out to be a lie.