Pint-Sized Demons and Cookies

Pint-sized Demons and Cookies

This story is being typed on my other computer; so many chapters will probably not have an author note at the beginning. You also may see this story uploaded in its entirety in one day, or at least a lot of chapters. This story is rated teen for some violence and language, but nothing extreme. This is supposed to be a very cute/heartwarming, with lots of comfort food. Gaahina, as usual, but they won't be a romantic couple at first. You'll see why soon. I don't own Naruto.

Chapter One

Pint-sized Destruction

It was all because he had become too strong. That and he had a mind of his own, and refused to obey his father, the Kazekage. So, Orochimaru and his back stabbing, cowardly, and inept father decided to bring him down to size. Literally. They cast a jutsu on him, turning him into a six-year-old boy, with only a few dim recollections and a sensation of constant heartache for memories. However, they made a minor miscalculation; he was still the equivalent of his older self in power. However, they decided that, in the long run, this was much better than the mature Gaara.

He was taken to Konoha, where he was, unknowingly, the center of a hideous plot, which is where our story begins, on the outskirts of the village hidden in the leaves.

He didn't know where he was, and this, coupled with being chased by a bunch of ANBU from his village, frightened him. They kept yelling at him, they wanted him to release it. They hated him, and the worst part about it was the fact that he didn't know why. He barely knew them, yet here they were, chasing him around and throwing various weapons at him.

He had to stop, because he had been running for so long. He was gasping for breath. His sides and feet hurt, and he had no energy left; he hadn't been able to eat for days because they kept poisoning his food, and he was in a strange land, with no knowledge of what was good to eat. His head hurt too, because it was stirring, and about to wake up, and that was bad. It was to be used as a last resort only, even though it was his only ally. It always went too far, and killed the people around him. He had never actually seen this happen, the boy only knew that that's what would happen.

That seemed all too often the case, he just knew things, with no particular reason why. The knowledge came in tidbits, and when he tried to search for a memory that fit the knowledge, all he got was vague images and sounds in a thick fog. Oh, and a headache. He knew only a few things for certain.

His name was Gaara. Everyone hated him and wanted him dead. He could control sand, and something really bad happened to him a long time ago. He knew he couldn't sleep, or else it would get loose.

"Hey, there it is!" The boy spun around in alarm to see three ANBU coming after him. Three more cut off his escape rout. They surrounded him and drew their weapons.

"Stop it! Go away! Leave me alone!" His distress only brought sneers behind their masks.

"Filthy monster! You don't deserve to live!"

"Freak! You killed your own mother, you murderer!"

"They should've cut your throat when you were born!"

"You're such a failure, you can't even do this right! You don't deserve to be alive!"

The final straw came when they threw an explosion tag at him. He knew, somehow, that explosives were a part of the bad thing that happened to him, and they never failed to wake it up.

His body contorted painfully, and began to expand as Shukaku emerged to defend his host. Claws emerged and ripped through the ninja, chopping them into various chunks of meat and bone. Then he descended on the sleeping village, leveling buildings, tearing through houses, and slaughtering many of the inhabitants. Many Ninja emerged, throwing kunai, shurikan, and senbon at the beast. Explosive tags were attached to many of the weapons, in the hopes of making them more effective. Shukaku, however, only laughed at them. They couldn't wake up Gaara, because he had been under for too long now.

"You fools! You think you can stop me?! You little bugs are too weak to kill me, and you cannot seal away what is already imprisoned!" he roared savagely as he swept a building clean of its roof and defenders. He used great blasts of air to blow distant buildings and clusters of ninja apart. On the other side of the village large boas had been summoned and had crushed a section of the outer wall, thereby allowing a mixture of sound and Sand ninja in. Hand to hand combat was heavy in that area, and the air was thick with battle cries, barked orders, and the screams of the dying. It was music to the demon's ears.

Shukaku raked his claws along the ground, crushing rocks and concrete and turning them into sand. The new sand was used to make more sand, until large dunes drifted throughout the village. Shukaku spotted something; a young girl, by the looks of it. Wide lavender eyes gazed at him in shock, her navy hair whipping in the wind. He raised a claw to crush her, but something held him back. This one was an innocent, and although that had never stopped him before, this time was different for some reason. Something about her was different, although he couldn't quite put his claw on it. Curiosity got the best of him, and, on a whim, he decided to spare her, just to see what would happen.

She seemed to get the message, and she gracefully leaped from the pile of rubble to escape into the streets, pausing to look back on him once, with what seemed to be gratitude. He watched for a while, then turned back to the slaughter, forgetting about the strange girl.

Another demon host was now before him, about the age his container should be, and would've been if those bastards hadn't interfered. The blond kid was holding some sort of spinning blue ball of light. An interesting jutsu, but not a major threat, even when the brat launched himself at him with a loud cry he wasn't fazed. Looking at the damage to his claw, Shukaku conceded that, if he had been smaller, he might have been in a bad way, but he had felt nothing more than a pinprick. He simply filled his claw in with sand, to repair the damage, and batted the kid away

Moments later a large toad came after him with the kid on top of his head. The water bullets were easy enough to counter-act, all he had to do was use his air bullets. He even managed to score with one shot, knocking his amphibian nemesis into a nearby apartment complex. The toad got back up, and spewed some oil at him, which the kid set alight with an explosive tag. Fire, however, was never very threatening to Shukaku, the minerals that he was made of had a very high melting point; much higher than the flames that he was faced with. However, this presented a golden opportunity, and he lunged forward through the flames, grappling with the toad.

With a great cry, the toad chief managed to twist free, but he had sustained several deep gashes. That was when the kid and the toad transformed into Kyuubi, the nine-tailed fox demon. Shukaku growled, considering his new foe. Kyuubi had always been fast and nimble, but, amongst the demons, not particularly strong, or adept at long range attacks. The fox favored a hit and run style of battle with other demons. Shukaku was fast and strong, but only at close range, and had excellent long ranged attacks. The fox, however, could easily evade his distance attacks, so those were pointless. Shukaku's only option was to grapple with Kyuubi and pin him to the ground.

This, however, wasn't the real Kyuubi, so he might have a better chance, if he was patient. These foes had proven tenacious and cunning, but not unbeatable. His container was far too important to him to let anyone harm him, and besides, it wasn't his fault that they were in this situation. It was wrong for them to blame his little Gaara for all of their problems.

Kyuubi lunged foreword and sank his fangs painfully in his arm, one of his tails knocking into Gaara. Shukaku swiftly drew him inside, cuccooning him in a safe pocket of air, all the while cursing his carelessness. That blow could have killed the boy! He felt him stirring restlessly, and for a fleeting instant he feared that he would wake, and be defenseless against his enemies. But it was okay, he was having a bad dream, and he soon settled back down as it faded away.

Shukaku angrily seized the fox, pinning him to the ground. He used his great weight to keep him on his back as Shukaku brought his fangs down on his throat, tearing savagely. The transformation faded, leaving behind an unconscious boy and the wounded toad. The toad poofed away, and a ninja with white hair was able to get the boy just before his claw came crashing down. Shukaku roared his anger, but he lost the jonin in the crowd of defenders. Another blast of air was sent their way, catching many of them, but some managed to jump away just in the nick of time.

Shukaku turned away from them, heading towards the battling kages. The Kazekage was losing to the old man, much to Shukaku's delight. But he would have his say first. He snatched up the overgrown rat, glaring at him down his snout.

"You filthy little rat, did you think you were safe? Did you think that I would forget all you have done to him? Well, I have news for you," he squeezed the man's legs painfully, snapping them in many places. "I don't forgive or forget, and the next time we meet I will kill you. You can spend the next few months in a hospital bed, and think about the choices you have made." He threw him to the ground contemptuously. He then lumbered out into the woods, hoping to find a peaceful place to rest.

It was not long before two intruders disturbed his rest. One was a hulk, lumbering on the ground, with the tangy scent of poison clinging to him. The other was walking normally, and spoke with an odd accent. An acrid scent wafted from him, smelling of something that was burning, or of gunpowder, perhaps.

"Sasori, our sources tell us that he's in that village somewhere, un. Looks like a pitched battle is going on, un, we can sneak in and no one would notice him missing until it's too late, un."

"Deidara, those ninja couldn't have caused all of that damage all by themselves, not even Orochimaru is that destructive. Something doesn't smell right." The fools didn't even realize he was less than ten feet away; probably because, unless viewed from afar, he looked like a rocky outcropping. He listened in keenly, wondering about these two.

"Orochimaru can summon up giant snakes, un, and that's exactly what he did, look there, you can see them there, un." He pointed at the snakes in the distance.

"Yes, but what about all of that sand?"

"That's just ash and rubble from the wrecked buildings, and perhaps some residual effects from the sand ninjas' jutsus, nothing to concern ourselves with, now, let's get Shukaku's vessel and get out of here while we can use the confusion to our advantage, un."

"I'm from the desert, you moron, I know what sand looks like, and how most jutsus with sand work; they don't work like that! The only way there could be that much sand is if the brat released the demon!"

"oh really, un? Then where is he? I don't see a giant raccoon anywhere, un."

"I don't know! That's why we should wait and see! I'm telling you know, we can't fight the kid if he's let that thing out, especially if it's been free over a long period of time. I can't poison it, and your explosives are too small to do much damage. Even that big one you made won't blast him apart completely, and he has the ability to fill in any wounds with his sand, making it just like it never happened."

"While that may be true, the fact that he is a giant raccoon means that we would see him, or at least hear him coming, un. The fact that I don't see or hear anything means that he is still human, meaning that we can get him and extract the demon, un."

Shukaku's eyes narrowed. That would kill the boy, and he wasn't about to let that happen. These two, yes, he could kill them. It would be difficult if it was a prolonged battle, but he could. He was made of sand, and poisoning sand was useless, it wouldn't even spread to the boy, because he was cuccooned too deep within him. In order for poison to spread, you needed a circulatory system, and he didn't have one. The other one, though, he could apparently use large explosives. While he was far too dense for them to truly hurt him, the noise may wake up Gaara, and he would be defenseless against these two.

Shukaku would take care of the little pyromaniac first. He smirked slightly, revealing his teeth.

"If you can't see me, then you two must be blind, human scum."

They whipped around, coming face to face with his snout. His gin widened.

"I thought you said this was just a rocky outcropping, Deidara!"

"It appears like I may have been mistaken, un!"

"May have been?! There's no may have been about it!"

Shukaku's claw came down on Deidara, pinning him to the ground. He didn't know what sort of Justus the guy had, and he didn't want to find out. Using his other claw, he ripped him in two, and crushed his skull. The slashed headband would be kept. It could be a clue as to who this ninja was, and what the big idea with killing Gaara and taking him out away from him.

He turned to the other one, and knew that this one was an odd one. He knew this chakra, though, or rather, it's relative. Chiyo, yes, the one who sealed him in his host. Not her children, they were dead. A grandchild, perhaps? No matter, he had to be killed before he got away. His claw came down again, crushing the ninja. Just to be safe, he scattered the pieces, and took the headband. He tossed both bodies into one of the raging fires in the village, just to be safe. He was still uncertain as to what jutsus these guys had. For all he knew, they could be like Kabuto, and have super healing abilities. Even he, however, couldn't survive a crushed skull, or regenerate cauterized wounds. He watched the bodies burn away to nothingness from a safe distance.

Shukaku decided that he had had enough with killing rats for one night. The best thing he could do for Gaara was to take him home, away from his many enemies. It was a three-day journey to Suna on foot, if you were human. He, however, could cover it in one night, if he ran. So he bounded off, heading for home, where the wind sang lullabies to his container, and the warm sand was his blanket.