* * * * * * * * * * * *10
He silently followed his guards as they led him to the Sanctuary's gate.
The place had been worse that he would have thought.
It was quiet. Awfully quiet.
No sound but soft painful moans, heart-drying, asking for forgiveness.
He ignored these cries he knew by heart.
He didn't want them to remind him.
He didn't want to remember how empty he had felt the day he'd entered the place.
The Sanctuary was nothing but pure nothingness to whoever put a step in it.
He had felt that nothingness.
He had felt it's cold embrace.
Why did he come here in the first place?
Ah, yes. Him.
He had come here because of him. Because he had said it was for his own sake.
Did it change anything in him?
He didn't know.
He looked up.
He didn't care either, because today was another day.
After three years of complete darkness, the light would be given back to him.
The sun would be given back to him.
He would see Naruto again.
He shivered.
The guards closed the door on his face.
He saw their wicked smile.
It was the last time he would, he swore to himself.
"Gaara..."
*
He froze as he recognised the voice.
He had been dying to hear it.
He had been dying to see its owner.
He had been dying for three years.
He blinked as the familiar feeling seized his body.
He was alive again.
Naruto was smiling at him.
He felt that smile was for him. Only him.
He smiled back.
Naruto hadn't changed that much.
He still displayed his feelings openly.
Right now surprise could be read on his face.
His face hadn't changed that much either. It only looked a little sharper around the edges. It somehow reminded him of a carved face he had seen in the heights of the Leaf village.
The hair was still shamelessly challenging the sky with its wild spikes.
The eyes remained eternally shining with blue naïvety.
The smile showed life wasn't only made of pain, but also joy.
"Hello..." Naruto said.
He took several steps forward.
He came closer to the blond ninja.
He hugged him.
He felt their chests release a deep sigh.
He smiled.
He smirked.
Once again, they were together.
Never again would he let him go.
Wind blew a long strand of deep red hair away from his face.
Carved on his forehead, a kanji.
A bloody kanji.
A bloody feeling.
A bloody 'Love'.
*
Soshite pareedo wa tsuzuku...
(And this parade continues...)