Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Year of Change ❯ Chapter 2, Part 4 ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the coolness that goes with it. I just write fanfiction for it in hopes that it can live up to the awesomeness of the actual thing. That being said, everything else is mine. I am not making any money from this nor am I trying to rip anyone off. Tis for pure enjoyment only.

 

Warning: This chapter is a little… darker then the others. If you aren't ok with physical or sexual abuse, then you might not want to read the bottom bit. It's not detailed, but is strongly hinted. Gaara is telling the story from a first person point of view, however I did it a little different to easy for the reader.

 

Chapter 2, Part Four: Holiday Cheer and The First Piece Moves.

 

They day of the concert was actually the last day of the school before the winter break started. Everyone was bustling around with Santa clause hats, some were holding little stacks of presents to hand out to friends. With it, to Gaara's dismay, had come snow. He had it watched it fall the night before, praying that it would stop when the sun rose, but it didn't, much to everyone else's delight.

 

“It's not that bad.” Sakura said. She had been grinning all more when she had seen him. Along with his heavy jacket, scarf and hat, he had added ear muffs and some mittens. All he needed was a snowboard and anyone looking at him would thinking he was going to the slops. “Think of it like a blank piece of paper waiting be drawn on.”

 

“I'd rather think of it like this!” Naruto said, sweeping down to pick a handful. “Hey! Shikamaru!” He hurled the snowball at another youth some ways away. It hit him in the back of the head. Shikamaru turned to glare at Naruto before squatting down to pick up his own handful. Naruto was able to doge the first, but not the second one that Shikamaru and thrown at him with his other hand.

 

“Can we go inside now? I don't like the cold.” Gaara said to Sakura, shifting from foot to foot. He nuzzled his face back down into his scarf and breathed some warm air from his mouth in the attempt to warm his face up.

 

“Sure. They'll be at it for awhile.”

 

By the time they had climbed the stairs to the school, a full out snow ball battle had started in front of the school. Sakura and Gaara stepped to the side to let a few teachers out who were rushing to stop it. Gaara took off his hat and scarf once they were inside. He noticed that a few people in the hallway were staring at him, but dismissed it, thinking it was only because he was a little… overdressed.

 

“So, are you nervous about today?”

 

“A little.” He followed her down the hallway to the section where their lockers were. “My brother and sister are coming too. Kankuro is threatening to bring a camera.”

 

“Oh good, I forgot mine.”

 

Gaara gave her a look. “Please tell me you are kidding.”

 

“No, I'm not.” She poked him in the side. “There are other things going on besides the chorus concert today. The chorus is something being done by the seniors, I think the Freshmen are doing a play and…” She pointed down a hall that had been decorated with seasonal colors. “The juniors are doing something, but I am not sure. The clubs are also doing fund raisers today.”

 

“I don't remember anyone mentioning this…” Gaara readjusted his bag. “I wonder why I even brought my books now.” He noticed that people were still staring at him. Some were even talking behind hands while a few pointed. `Is it because I am in the chorus?' he wondered.

 

“Well, I am rather found of mine.” She gave him a humorous smile. “I don't plan on going to play, so I thought I would go to the library and study a little.”

 

Gaara opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. His attention had gone to the large group of people that were standing in his locker area… No. They were standing in front of his locker. The kids were all murmuring to each other while a few others were standing on tip toe to see what everyone else was looking at.

 

“Excuse me…” He said one of the students at the back of the small crowed. The sound of his voice had a strange effect. The people closest to him all turned to see him while a few others moved away. His stomach did flip flops and he started to muscle his way through the crowed. Once on the other side, he could see what it was that had gotten his attention.

 

His locker had been vandalized. Going the long way were the words “Daddy Killer” were sprayed on in a bright red color. He stared stupidly at it for a moment before he noticed that there was a picture on the wall above it.

 

I'll find you… you can't hide from me you little brat.

 

Gaara's insides went cold and hot at the same time, giving him a strange quizzes feeling. The picture was like the ones taken at a crime scene. In it was a man laying on his back in a small pool of blood. His face had a mix of anger and horror, where were reflected in the eyes that had not been closed yet. Sticking out of his neck was a hunting knife.

 

It took all of Gaara's will power to not run away at that moment. Instead, he swallowed down the lump that had formed in his throat. He slowly stepped forward, did the combination, placed his books inside his locker and turned to head to his home room. The small crowed of people parted for him easily. Sakura was looked at his locker with hand over her mouth, a small horrified look in her eyes.

 

“I'm going to go to the office. I'll meet you in home room.” He waited for her to look back at him. She nodded and walked off to where her own locker was. Gaara watched her for a moment and then headed off to the principals office.

 

As he walked down the hall, he saw Sasuke. He was leaning against the wall talking to one of Kendo team mates. Gaara watched as Sasuke turned to look at him and give him a small, deliberate, wink.

 

And he knew.

 

He knew who had done it.

 

Gaara gritted his teeth and walked a little faster down the hall. His mind was racing with thoughts, possibilities and fear.

 

0o0o0o0o0

 

By lunch time, the school was buzzing. Most of it from holiday cheer and some from school gossip. Sadly, the school had not been able to anything about the spray panted words, but had managed to take down most of the picture that had been super glued to the wall. They said they would hire a contractor to come in and repaint his locker over the holidays. Gaara would just simply have to deal with seeing “Daddy Killer” on the door till then.

 

Gaara desperately wanted to go and be alone on the roof, but the combination of cold and falling snow had forced him to stay inside with the rest of the student population. Lunch was a free for all. With all the fund raisers and whatnot, lunch was not restricted to the cafeteria. Naruto had grabbed him and Sakura and brought them into the soccer club hamburger joint they were doing. They sat down at a round table with a group of people Gaara had seen Naruto hanging out with before.

 

“So what are you going to do for the holiday?” Hinata had asked when they sat down.

 

“I don't know… I want to stay home, but my parents are making me go and visit family. It's troublesome.” Shikamaru said around a mouthful of burger.

 

“I'll be helping my parents with the store. Christmas time is a great time to make some money. I might be able to get myself a nice little present if all goes well.” Ino grinned.

 

Naruto ran over to two plates of food in front of Sakura and Gaara. “On the house.” He said before running off to help the rest of the team.

 

“What about you two?” Hinata turned to them.

 

“My family doesn't really do anything.” Gaara said.

 

“Study, study…” Sakura added before taking a bite out of her own food.

 

“We should all get together and do something!” The blur that was Naruto said as he ran off to give an order to another table.

 

“Like what?” Shikamaru asked. “Parties take too much effort to put together… Lots of places will be closed.”

 

“How about something simple? Maybe some ice skating at the park and then a movie marathon?” Sakura said, covering her mouth to prevent anyone to see the large amount of food in her mouth.

Hinata clapped her hands together. “That's a wonderful idea.”

 

Gaara chewed his food slowly, wondering how many layers of cloths he was going to have to wear for the ice skating event.

 

“So, whose place are we going to watch the movies at?” Choji stuffed another hamburger into his mouth, earning a disgusted look from Neji.

 

0o0o0o0o0o0

 

“I thought you did really well today.” Sakura said as they walked home. She was holding Kankuro's camera in one hand. He had rushed off back to work and told her to take some more pictures for him before leaving. Much to Gaara's annoyance, she did just that. It was a good thing that his brother and saved up to by a digital camera, because she would have gone through at least four rolls of film at the end of the day. Gaara counted his blessing that no one had brought an actual film recorder with them.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“So… see you tomorrow?” She asked while stopping at her door. Gaara looked at her for a moment, his head tilted to the side.

 

“Will you come up with me for a little while?”

 

“Now?”

 

He nodded. “I want to tell you something.”

 

“Sure… just let me drop myself things inside and tell my parents where I am.”

 

“The door will be unlocked.” Gaara quickly made his way up the stairs. More to get out of the cold then anything else. Sakura went inside her apartment.

 

“I'm home~!”

 

No answer. She walked over to the dinning table and saw that her mother had left a note there.

 

You're father and I are at a business party tonight. We'll be home tomorrow, because they are having it too far for us to walk and you father wants to drink to night. So we'll be in a hotel. The numbers of the club and the hotel we are staying at are at the bottom. There are some leftover in the fridge. See you tomorrow honey.

~Mom.

 

`Well… That solves that…' Sakura walked down the hall and set her bag next to her bag. She paused for a moment and then opened her closet. She didn't want to go up in the reindeer sweater she had been wearing that day. She eyed a sweater and thought better of it. If they still kept the heating up the way they had before, she would melt in a sweater. She grabbed her red and white short sleeved hoodie instead. Pulling it over her head, she walked back down the hall.

 

She locked the door behind her and went up the stairs. She opened the door slowly and was once again hit by the heat wave, although it was welcomed after standing out in the snow filled air. She walked in quickly and closed the door behind her.

 

Gaara was sitting on the sofa looking at something on TV. A medium sized box was sitting on his lap. He also seemed to have a change of wardrobe, shedding his winter layers and changing out of his dress shirt and into a black shirt with red. Looking back over at her, he clicked off the TV. Sakura took a seat next to him, sitting close enough that he had to wrap an arm around her.

 

“What's up?”

 

“I know… I don't tell you a lot about myself…” He said slowly, pausing to pick his wards carfully. “And I don't because I don't like to… but… I think there are some things you should know.”

 

Sakura was silent. Sighing, Gaara opened the small wooden box in his lap. Inside were array of photos, a small doll with strings hanging off it's limbs and a few newspaper clipping. Gaara's hand filtered inside for a moment before pulling out a photo. He handed it to her. Looking at it, she saw his brother and sister standing with a man and a pregnant woman. It took her a moment to recognize the man, since he face a much kinder look to it and he was smiling warmly. She could see where he got his looks from.

 

“That's my mom.” He pointed to woman. “It was taken a few months before was born… she died in child labor. My dad was never the same after she died. That's what my sister says anyway.” He took a deep breath before going on.

 

At one time, there had been a family that was happy. The husband and wife had two beautiful children that were the best of both of them, with another on the way. Everyone was excited for the arrival for this new addiction to the family. However, something had gone horrible wrong at his birth. The doctors had only been able to save the baby and not the mother, who had but all her strength into bringing him into the world.

 

The husband became a mess. He cried all the time and wasn't able to take care of his three children, resulting in the grandparents having to step in for a short while. Once he had overcome the grieving stage, he tried to put his life back together. He worked, took care of the children and made sure the bills were paid on time.

 

It wasn't till a few years later when people noticed that something was wrong. The baby, who was now a toddler at this stage, had become withdrawn. He didn't want to play and when people would touch him he would cower. Everyone thought that it was just the way that he was, clearly he wasn't a very social child. It wasn't till his father had messed up and hit him too hard on the back, resulting to a trip to the hospital. The doctors keen eye had been able to pick up on the signs right away, and a social worker was sent to the home. Unknown to the rest of the family, the father had been exacting his revenge for the death of his beloved wife by the thing that caused her death; their youngest son.

 

All three children were taken away from and sent to live with their nearest living relative; their uncle. He was a loving man and took very good care of them. The two older children were in middle school around this time while the younger one was trying to finish up elementary. He was still anti-social, despite the efforts of his teachers and siblings. It was the middle child that was the next to notice that something was actually wrong with the youngest of the three. He had noted the tired look in his eyes, how when he did sleep all he had were vide nightmares that he wasn't able to wake from. The younger boy also stopped eating as much as he did and tried hiding in places that were hard for adults to get to.

 

But it wasn't till he woke in the middle of the night and heard his little brother crying that he realized what was going on. He woke his older sister who stormed into their uncle's room with a baseball bat and hit the man on the back of the head. Together they pulled him off their little brother, packed their things together and left the house.

 

The three of them were picked up and put into a foster home, where things slowly started to get better. The younger brother was sent to the thing that he needed the most: therapy. When he was about to enter his teenage hood, he had a huge set back that none of them had expected it. He had walked into his foster parents home to see that his father was there. Mad with grief and rage, he had come to find him and tried to kill him. Buy some metrical or luck, the boy had managed to fight off his father, take his knife… and stabbed him in the neck with it. When the police arrived, the boy was crouched against the wall, but had turned into a living doll. He didn't talk, more or anything else on his own. His mind had retreated in on itself, only allowing him to do the basic of eating and drinking.

 

He was then sent away to a mental hospital where they tried to treat him, with every little luck. It wasn't till six months later that he finally came out of it. His brother had showed up with one his hand made puppets and started to entertain his brother. While the doctors told him that nothing would happen, they were wrong. The younger brother had started to laugh at his brother's puppet., and almost as if nothing had happened, he went back to the way he was before.

 

At this point, the sister was trying to get custody of her little brothers so they could move out of their foster homes and live on their own. While the younger of the three, who was six-teen at this point, was home schooled himself to get him caught up with her peers, his sister and brother worked and worked. They didn't do well at first until something happened that changed their luck.

 

While they hadn't known their grandparents very well, they had been very loved by them. When they passed away, the three of them had all been left a large sum of money, under the condition that they use it to do something that they love. For the youngest, his money was placed in a trust fund till he turned eighteen, while his brother and sister used it to do just what they were asked to do. Something they loved.

 

Gaara swallowed, his throat dry like it had been the way day with Dr. Hatake.

 

“Why… why are you telling me this?” Sakura had been silent during his whole story. He had been afraid that she would get up and leave a few times, but she had stayed for the whole thing. She had lowered her head and her hair hide her face from him.

 

“Because,” He licked his dry lips. “I think that someone is going to use all that information against me and I didn't want you to be blind sided by it… and… I trust you.”

 

When she looked up at him, he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “Oh, Gaara…” She said before wrapping her arms around him. “I'm so sorry.” She said into his chest, her voice cracked with a sob. “I'm so, so sorry…” He wrapped his arms around. His vision blurred slightly and when he blinked, something hot ran down his cheek. Puzzled, he touched one finger to it. Looking at it, he saw that it was a tear.

 

In all of the eight years he had talked to doctors, psychologist and therapist, he had never cried. Now that it started, he wasn't able to stop it. The tears fell one by one down his face. His body trembled and his breath hitched. Without thinking about it, he pulled Sakura closer to him. He moved her so he could hide his face her shoulder.

 

Together they cried. For better or for worse, they cried.

 

0o0o0o0o0

 

When Kankuro got home, he was surprised by the sight in the living room. He was use to coming home and seeing Gaara watching TV… but the pink haired youth was a surprise indeed. He set his things down by the door and walked into kitchen. Looking over at them, the girl's head was laying in Gaara's lap, her eyes closed. Gaara's hand was lightly stroking her hair while he watched the flickering light of the TV.

 

There was something different in his brother's eyes. He wasn't sure what it was… but Gaara did look better.

 

“No dinner?” Kankuro asked

 

“I would, but I can't get up.”

 

The brown haired youth chuckled and started to make his own dinner.

 

 

AN

I wanted to write about chorus bit in this part, but I couldn't find a way to confay the thoughts or feelings I thought should go into it… so for now I am skipping it. Later on when the story is done and I am rewriting it, I will go back and add it in. Plus, there are a lot of singing terms I don't know, so I figured it could wait. It's a really moving bit though. I'll add it in soon!!

 

I did something OOC with the uncle, I'm sorry! Please don't hurt me!