Arc Zero: Prologue

Is This A Dream?

Heavy sobs filled the ice cold air, the pitiful sound harshly slicing through the darkness.

"I...I hate you..."

The death of the shinobi went unheard...until he went up in a powerful explosion of fire. Illuminating the once dark street, the fire consumed the man, leaving no trace that he had even been there.

The chakra induced fire went out, and the smoke and dust cleared away only to reveal a large dome of sand.

A loud wail pierced the night once more, and the dome abruptly shattered, streams of sand and bits of glass flying everywhere. The sand quickly circled itself back in, some lifting off the ground into a halo of spikes. In the midst of all the sand was a child. He was crying, and rubbing his streaming eyes with his fists. Blood red hair flopped into his darkly circled eyes, which he cracked open to reveal to be a watery teal color.

Gaara's sobs gave way to sleepy hiccups, although he had not calmed down not one bit.

The man who had raised him, the man he looked up to more than he did his own father... He said he hated him...

"...I..I thought I could learn to love you...I was WRONG."

Gaara thought he was a good boy. He did everything that anyone asked of him, even though most people were mean to him. His father approved of him, at least Gaara thought he did...

"You shouldn't...be allowed to live...the only person you could ever love is yourself...you're a MONSTER..."

Tears came forth in Gaara's eyes once more. He wasn't a monster, was he? That's just one of the mean names grown ups and bullies call him...right?

"I was actually a bit...relieved when the Kazekage gave me this mission...to kill the demon..."

Well he had to be a monster then, if Father had sent someone to kill him... And his guardian did say that monsters only loved themselves... Gaara couldn't think of anyone else alive that he loved.

The sneaky tendrils of sleep curled around Gaara, pulling him into unconsciousness. Gaara can hear the exited screeching of insanity clawing inside his head, willing him to make an opening. To go to sleep...

The last thought that went through Gaara's mind was, So that's it then...I'm a monster... I have to love myself, and only myself...I am a monster.

The poor child's eyes finally slid closed as his sand circled back to him increasing him into another airtight sphere.

For a few seconds, all that could be heard was the soft sound of the sand moving. Then an impossibly loud laugh boomed through the night, followed by an exhilarated, "FINALLY! HAHA, I'D FORGOTTEN HOW IT FELT TO BE FREE AGAIN!"

Those words were immediately followed by a deafening screech, and then silence.

Some excess sand trickled from the child's dome, before the entire thing crumbled away, revealing the boy's small shivering body. He was still crying, though he seems to be sleeping.

"Hey!"

Gaara's eyes shot open. There was light...wasn't it nighttime a second ago? Gaara sat up, sand rolling off of his clothes. He saw a fire... And those tall things around it, were those trees? Gaara didn't have any trees where he came from...

"Hey! Boy!"

Gaara's eyes widened. Was someone talking to him? No one ever speaks to him...directly, at least.

"Hm...well, this different." A pair of eyes appeared in Gaara's vision, and he toppled backward in surprise. The eyes were bright blue, and seemed to glow in the flickering light of the fire, and the pupils were slit like a fox.

The newcomer bounced away to show a small body and an untamed head of golden blonde hair. Six large cuts were bleeding on his face, three on each cheek carefully arranged like whiskers.

The boy looked to be no older than six, not much older than Gaara himself.

"Hi!"

Gaara jumped again. That boy was definitely talking to him. "O-Oh...Hi..." Gaara mumbled, getting back on his tiny feet.

The boy in front of him grinned, showing scarily large canines. Blue eyes landed on his own, and Gaara could see a glint of insanity as the fox-like eyes widened happily.

The blonde's grin grew wider. "Well?" he asked. Gaara blinked, and pointed at himself. The blonde giggled and nodded.

"Yeah you, dummy! Well? Aren't you going to pick up?" he grinned, eyes flicking down to Gaara's feet, then locking back on his eyes.

Gaara ignored the boy's terrible speech as he glanced down at his feet. Mere inches from his bare toes sat a brown stuffed bear. It was his wasn't it? He can't remember...how had it gotten there? Had he dropped it? Gaara leaned down to pick up the bear. He could almost feel the blonde boy's eyes burning the back of his head...

Gaara's hand reached out to grab the bear by it's arm when he froze. Where was his sand? Only soft green grass peeked out between his toes, and the feeling was quite unfamiliar. Gaara quickly straightened, and upon seeing the playful grin on the blond's face, shot him a glare of his own.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Gaara demanded angrily.

The blue eyed boy scoffed, "More like why you here. I here first, so there." he stuck his tounge out at the redhead. "And I can't tell you name. It hurts." he puffed his cheeks out.

Gaara frowned again. "Well, my name is-"

Gaara tried to say his name but his voice suddenly stopped working. A sharp pain split through his skull, before his mouth moved on it's own.

"N-NO! GeT AWaY, GEt AwAY!" Gaara screamed in a warped voice, his hands clutching at his hair. His vision blurred and sharpened, teal blue eyes darkening before lightening to a sickly gold color, with black swirls around the iris. "We HaVE tO GeT awAy! H-He'S tOo CLo-oOsE-" Gaara shook violently, before the pain went away entirely, leaving him gasping for breath. After a few seconds of breathing, Gaara's eyes reverted back to his normal eye color.

Gaara weakly lifted his head to see the blonde laughing at him. "Ha! Hurt, didn't it? Okay, okay! Since you did it, I'll do too, it's only fair." he shrugged.

Gaara tried to tell him that he didn't have to, but gave up and continued controlling his breathing.

The blond's eyes flashed happily. "My name N-" the kid gasped in pain and doubled over, both hands now in the grass.

He groaned in pain, lowering his head. "Ugh...heh heh...heh heh heh...hahaHAHAhAHaHAhAh!"

The blonde kid raised his head, the blue in his eyes draining away to reveal an angry blood red. The slashes on his cheeks darkened and more blood streamed out of them.

Gaara took a step back as the kid's insane laughter grew louder. The grass around the boy blackened as if an intense heat was on it, and his golden hair degraded to a dirty blonde color. He continued laughing until he abruptly stopped, a pained look in his face.

"Oh...ow." he frowned. Then he started giggling again. "I feels stupid now." he laughed, rubbing his face.

Gaara's eyes watered once more. "Why are you doing this?"

The blue eyed boy stopped laughing and stood back up. "I thought this fun...this fun, right?" he asked.

Gaara shook his head. "N-No.. I don't know! Why are you being nice to me?! I'm a monster!" he cried.

The blue eyed boy froze. "You're...you're...monster?" He said quietly.

Gaara nodded and waited for the boy to run away. They always ran...

Gaara was shocked as the boy laughed and glomped him. "Ha! You've forgotten, ototou! I'm monster too!" he said happily.

Gaara choked and shoved the blonde off him and into the grass. Where was his sand when he needed it? He guessed he had used more force than he thought, because the boy flew off of him and skidded across the grass to the other side of the fire.

As soon as he slowed, the blonde jumped to his feet, tears streaming down his face. "That not nice! That not fair! A little guy like you should no be that strong!"

Gaara narrowed his eyes at the dramatic boy. He was not little.

The boy's tears disappeared in a record amount of time, "It doesn't matter! The point is, it's fun being monster! And now we be monsters together!" he tried to re-glomp Gaara, but he sidestepped.

The boy was about to faceplant, but he slowed himself, smile sliding off his face.

"Oh...oh no..." the boy frowned. Gaara looked at him curiously.

The blonde boy turned to Gaara with large sad blue eyes. "Aw... I'm not going to be monster no more... So we can't have fun together no more..." he pouted.

Despite how irritating the blonde was, Gaara still heard himself complain. "What? Why?" he whined.

The blond was upon him in seconds. "Oh, it alright ototou... Maybe I'll be back myself after while!" he ruffled Gaara's hair affectionately.

Gaara leaned into the impossibly warm touch. "B-But...what do you mean you're not going to be a monster anymore?"

The blue eyed boy shook his head. "The old man say he wants to 'fix me'..." he sneered. He huffed and crossed his arms. "Its cause of him I broken anyways. The stupid villagers call me demon, devil, monster..." he bared his teeth at nothing. "I give them demon, devil, MoNStEr..." he smiled. Gaara's eyes widened as one of the boy's blue eyes melted into red, and the slash marks bled more.

"They hurt me...I hurt them more. And now he says he fix me. I don't wanna...but he do it now, while I sleep." The blonde shook his head sadly.

Gaara frowned. "Sleep?"

The boy nodded, both slitted eyes blue again. "Yep. When I get out of here, I won't be me no more. I be... I don't know what I be when I get out..." he pouted.

Gaara frowned. "Then why don't you just stay here?"

"I don't know where here is. I here only when I sleep. But now you here. Only I ever here." the blonde shrugged. "I know I can't be monster no more, but you can." He pulled his hand away from Gaara's hair.

"I-I can?"

"Yep! Show them they don't mess with us! We better, and stronger, and they be mean to us!? No way! Don't let them be, ototou." The boy smiled sadly. Gaara felt the world shift. He looked down, and there was soft tan sand between his toes. The bear was still at his feet. He leaned down and grabbed it by the arm. He stood back up to see the blue eyed boy sinking into the sand.

"W-Wait! You said you won't be yourself anymore! Will I ever see you again?" Gaara asked willing his sand to pull him back up.

The boy lifted his head and looked at Gaara with wide eyes. "You know, that not bad idea. When we see each other again, you make me myself again, okay ototou?" Gaara's sand was turning to glass around the blonde boy.

"And just so you know," the boy winced, the slits in his eyes turning into circular pupils, "You is asleep, boy."

Gaara tilted his head at the blonde devil. "I-Is this...is this a dream?"

He shot him an insane grin. "DeFiNiTeLy."

Gaara's grip on him shattered into glass shards as the world pitched into darkness.

End Of Arc