AN: Cringy mushy emotional stuff warning or whatever. Seriously if you don't like that stuff then ayyy... Also, the situation with Sarutobi and Rasa will be expanded on in due time. Apologies if the pacing is meh. And as someone asked awhile back, regarding Naruto being cared for by someone... Hm, probably gonna be Sarutobi just having a more impactful role on his growth. No special training, but more life advice, helping him mature, etc. Who knows.

And I have no idea when I'll next update so fair warning there. I write on and off, eons apart, all that.

Short chapter update go.

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One month later, Suna.

Infuriating.

It was the only word the tired girl known as Gaara knew to use for what she was thinking of, for what she was experiencing. It was infuriating.

A small container she had, one of the few personal items she ventured to buy, was now filled to the brim with letters. At first she wasn't even aware someone was trying to send her letters, courtesy of her father no doubt, though for whatever reasons she was properly getting them now. She really, really wished she wasn't getting them now. The annoying boy who was still on the top of her list, the unbearable orange wearing and sunshine smile holding boy, Naruto Uzamaki, was sending her letters.

Letters...

Needless to say, Gaara wasn't happy in the slightest. One cursory glance over the useless, generally poorly handwritten and sometimes torn notes had her seething. Nothing of use in terms of information was in them, just nonsensical babble regarding training, dreams of being the Hokage, food, his day. and questions for herself of course. A good amount involved how her day was and so many potential followup questions for so many potential, and never given, answers.

She didn't understand how a person could continue sending letters without response from the person they were meant for, for a month, and still have things to talk about. Shukaku was none too pleased either, of course, the voice that always tormented her so making its aggravation clear with what the boy was doing.

Uzumaki Naruto... What a persistently annoying pest he was proving to be.

She had considered destroying the 'gifts', though using them as a reminder of her goal was a more productive use of them in the end she figured.

There wasn't even one part of her, one shoved back and beaten down part, that actually had the faintest grain of hope and enjoyment out of the attention. She wouldn't allow that part to exist, to be heard, to be entertained to any degree for it was weak and pathetic. It was the useless dreams of a child, the child she'd no longer be, given all that had transpired so far in her few years upon the Earth. Friendship was for the meek, those incapable of surviving alone, nothing more.

Now, during the whole month that had passed since their last meeting, the young girl had noted the extra messenger bird or two delivering to her father's tower, and one or two extra promptly leaving in the direction of the Leaf village. She didn't like it, at all. She supposed the Hokage of the other hidden village, the famed 'God of Shinobi', was speaking with the despicable traitor of a parent she had for one reason or another. Whatever those reasons, she found out one morning they lead up to an invitation to the Leaf as honored guests.

Her father accepted.

Which was why, right now, she was in the tower of the Leaf's reigning Hokage.

To be specific, she was in the guest room with her siblings, one of the two anyway, whilst her father and Sarutobi spoke.

Kankuro had opted to wait outside, no doubt out of fear of the youngest of the trio. Temari couldn't help but glance over at Gaara every now and then, barely resisting a flinch when the sand using girl's icy green eyes caught her as she did so. The older teen had never seen her younger sibling so mad before, it was terrifying. Nothing about her body gave it away, nor her voice, but her eyes were open windows.

Naruto was present as well, and he was, of course, seemingly clueless to all of this.

"So.. Can you guys do stuff with sand too?"

"No, kid, we can't..." The sound of her sister's tense voice filled the space for a reply, Gaara glancing over during it.

Then the youngest of the sand siblings just returned to staring ahead, daggers digging into the beautiful pool of ocean blue eyes of the boy ahead of her.

"Temari."

Said girl finally flinched in her chair.

"Leave."

Gaara had no intention of trying to physically harm the fellow Jinchuriki by any means just yet, she wasn't stupid. She just needed to ask why, why he was being so persistent, what did he aim to gain from this? She should've saw the answer coming a mile away, she might've if she knew just how genuine of a person Naruto Uzumaki was. But she just couldn't imagine genuine empathy anymore. She had cut herself off from such emotions, a way for her mind to cope with all the traumas over the years. It had harmed her just as much as it shielded her though, evident in the inability to believe even this once a person could be genuine to her. She was just a child trying to defend herself from the world and its darkness, that gaping void untouched by the light, sucking in everything beautiful and pure and spitting it out in some cracked shell of what it use to be. Her defense was a messy thing of course, when she had cut her emotions off she only burned away the ones that made her feel vulnerable.

She stopped loving when her father tried to have her killed, when her siblings left her alone in her suffering. Now all that was left was the hatred that bubbled up from it all, ever pooling in the pit of her stomach, ready to be wretched up and used like a sword.

She stopped caring when so many eyes saw her pain, and did nothing, when so many heard her, but didn't listen. Now in its place she felt disregard, no one and nothing was of importance anymore, just as she was to them.

She stopped hoping when a door was slammed in her face amidst an apology, an accident from her sand that shattered another cord to someone else. And then the night ended with the death of a loved one, in memory, in body, and in spirit.

But the horrid truth, one she knew deep down from so much time to think and ponder, was that she could feel it all again.

She could love, but she needed a heart that wasn't broken, that wasn't hissing like a cornered animal at anything bright and gentle that came towards it.

She could care, but she had to learn to love people again, to reach out despite that overwhelming terror of no one being there to meet her.

She could hope, but her eyes needed to open to the light that was still there, the thing that blotted out the pain and gave her the ability to try again.

But today she couldn't do any of that. She still didn't believe in anyone, let alone the boy before her.

"Why?" She had to ask.

"I want to be your friend."

"Why?"

"Because you looked alone."

"I want to be alone."

"Did you throw away the letters?"

"Shut up..." Her teeth grit together, that ire bubbling up. She had been simmering in her anger for this boy for a whole month.

"Y'know, we have a ramen stand here too, ya' wanna-"

"Shut up!"

A sudden weight filled the small room, suffocating with its awful rage, the thick hatred making it hard to breathe for the various shinobi hidden up in the shadows. The girl of sand with grains stained so thick with red bared her teeth like an animal, staring forward at the fellow container with nothing but unrestrained malice. He was everything she turned her back towards, everything she hated in people bundled up together into some disgusting ball of hope. And he was offering it to her in everything he did so far. Sparring with her, dragging her along to eat, offering to be her friend, the letters, and now.

She'd murder him for doing something so pathetic. Shukaku wouldn't shut up about it, every second of the day and every moment of the night, the voice cried out for his blood. Begged for it, really.

Despite her personal internal struggles she was now more than aware of the fact that every shinobi within twenty feet was ready to strike her down. Every ANBU in the room was poised with a weapon, her father's chakra had readied, so had the Hokage's hosting their presence. They were in another damn room and were still prepared at the drop of a hat for battle. Her own siblings had flared their chakra defensively, readying for the youngest child's rage to take over.

And the idiot in orange, as she deemed him, just looked back at her with an infuriating smile.

"I hate you..."

Now it was Naruto's turn to ask, "Why?"

"...You're weak. You rely on others, you're trying to drag me down by making me rely on you. You're pathetic."

"What's wrong with relying on people? Not like you can catch yourself falling backwards." He was very happy he remembered some of Jiji's advice right now, more or less. He thought that sounded rather sagely.

"Come on," He continued, ever unfazed by what, to him, was nothing in terms of anger directed his way, "Give it one more try?" His tone was sincere, his eyes were hopeful, his heart practically poured out love, it was...

'Disgusting...'

And then he offered her his hand.

'Disgusting...'

And now her hand was raising, just a little. She'd blame it years later on the fact that humans were social creatures.

Still, she stopped herself halfway. She'd not shake his hand. She refused, so vehemently she refused.

And then he reached out anyway and took hers in his own.

'Disgusting...'

The voice ever tormenting her nights and days went silent once their hands met. Her sand didn't rise up to protect her from something so clearly not a threat.

And then the shake was over.

Yet still she was so confused... He had touched her, he shook her hand... It made her freeze up. She couldn't remember when that had last happened. It made certain buried emotions give out a ring in her heart, one that ached, that demanded to be heard.

"Cool, now we're friends!"

The glare sent Naruto's way was clearly getting ready to protest that.