When Angels Cry
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A/N: And so Gaara reunites with Matsuri! Sorry if this is going too fast... but techniqually this isn't a normal story. It's a collection of oneshots that follow in chronicological order. So... yeah. Don't complain. I haven't even gotten into Shippuden yet. -_-'

On another note... Um, no one entered my contest. So, I guess it's cancelled. And now I'm kind of sad. Oh, well.

Also... HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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Chapter XXI
"Homecoming"

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The walls of Suna held it's past for the village, but to Gaara the walls of Sunagakure were something more.

Before Yashamaru died, he told Gaara that the Shodai Kazekage had created the walls himself with the powers he had been blessed with by the Messiah. The walls were made to protect people from the ocean that surrounded them, but one day the sun came out and was so hot that it heated away the water. After that, The Shodai broke the wall and allowed his people to leave if they wished. Every villager was free, but instead they decided to stay even though they had the ability to go. They wanted to stay with their creator, their leader. The Shodai's name was Su, and since they lived in the world of the sand, they named the village Suna. Over time, it was known as Sunagakure.

Gaara used to love that story. He felt protected in the walls of Sunagakure, and every night he climbed the walls (more like used his sand to lift him up), and he imagined an ocean when there was nothing but dry sand.

But then 'the night' came, and then the walls were nothing but giant slabs of rock that trapped him within Sunagakure. With the monsters - he was convined he wasn't the monster, they were (in a way he was right, in another he was wrong) - that tortured him and ignored him all at the same time. With his acursed father and siblings (that were hardly even family to him), and trapped in a world that gave up on him.

He hated Yashamaru for telling him lies, so he gave up on the ocean and set course for the desert.

For many painful nights and days, Gaara thought of nothing but crushing those walls - to bring Suna into panic that they would no longer be protected from the outside. The walls were the hope, and he wanted to take away all hope that remained.

Then, Gaara went to Konohagakure. He was angry they had walls as well, just proving his uncle's lie. He wanted to take them down, and when Orochimaru destroyed some of it, he didn't feel proud. He thought he should have been, but he wasn't. Naruto beat him at his own game - not killing, rather fighting - and he went home a failure. He didn't speak to his siblings on the way back - he just thought about the past, the present, and the future. Those three days on the way back home, Gaara decided to rethink his life and start over. He knew it would be diffucult, but he tried his best.

When he came home, he saw the walls of Sunagakure. Usually he would scowl, but instead he found comfort. After that mind-blowing, world-turning experience, he was home.

Over the time, he found himself finding an odd desire to protect his home, his people. It overflowed in his once-nonexsistant heart, pouring out into his veins and taking control of his mind. Not that anyone would believe him, but he knew it himself and that was all that mattered. So he thought, to win the village's respect he must win the village's youth. And if not, he wanted to help lead the way for young shinobi (or kunoichi).

So he and his siblings took on a class to teach the young genins about weapons. (Ah, the irony.) That's where he met Matsuri.

It was only later that say that the ShitsenShounin came. So they left, going to rescue Matsuri, and that entire mission went on as it did. They (meaning the Sand Siblings, plus Matsuri) went to Konoha to bandage their wounds, then left for home. When they came home once more, Gaara felt secure again.

Gaara never saw the beauty in anything. It was there, that's all a sunset was. But after meeting her, he was taught the beauty of life, paintings, poetry, and the world. He learned that it wasn't just a sunset, it was a beautiful array of colors streaked out across the sky. A painter's vision, the ever-lasting canvas of the earth.

That was the world that Gaara came to knew, the world that he and Matsuri lived in together.

And as he stepped through the sand landscape, the walls of Sunagakure came into vision. Yaoki sighed, "Ahh! Finally home! I can't wait to see my little brother!"

Korobi nodded, "Haha, yeah! My girlfriend and I have a special night planned later on - if you know what I mean!"

"Korobi! You've only been dating her for eight months!"

"So? It's not like we're going to wait two years like you did."

"...shut up..."

Gaara almost sighed, but decided to refrain as to not catch their attention. But he was excited as well, it had been awhile that he had a break from all of these missions. Having one week as a break sounded like heaven to him. And he got to see Matsuri, which was -

"Gaara-sensei!"

"Nii-san!"

"Koro-kun!"

The young Ichibi-host blinked, looking up just to see Matsuri at the gates of Sunagakure. She was waving madly, and it took a moment to realize Kankuro was with her. Aside from them, was a young boy that seemed almost eight; and a girl who was long strawberry blond hair and fair-tanned skin.

Yaoki smiled, "That's my brother, always there when I come home. Does your family always wait for you?" It took a moment for Gaara to realize the question was aimed at him, so he nodded.

The silence continued, as Gaara watched the four people. The girl seemed nice, quite the type that Korobi would fall for (not that he knew, he barely knew the man). The small kid waved madly, jumping around frantically (a shinobi had to hold his collar so he wouldn't run out of the village - which is actually way more dangerous than it actually sounds). He seemed like a good kid, and from the looks from the small pouch on his hip it seemed like he wanted to be a shinobi one day.

Gaara never really paid attention to any other lives than his own, not until then...

Out of the silence, Korobi smiled and whispered, almost nostalgically, "Quite a homecoming, huh?"

Gaara couldn't agree more.