O.o My first Naruto fanfic. Ha ha ha! I fell in love with series not too long ago, but the Gaara/Naruto thing had me immediately. :p

Story inspired by true events. Woooot!

Chapter One
The Unexplained & The Unexpected

Gaara just laid there as the voices shouted at him. He could only lay there. There was nothing he could do about them. There was nothing anyone could do about them. The angry shouting didn't form anything intelligible, but he could tell they hated him.

The thick curtains on his bedroom window kept out as much light as possible and the lights in his room had long since been shattered when someone forgot and had turned them on, but he knew he would have to go out and face the glaring sunlight eventually. He'd have to willingly walk under the bright florescent lights of the school. He had no other choice.

At least he had done something about the noise problem. Schools had, apparently, always been loud. But ever since the voices came, it had become unbearable. After two days of growling at the kids to shut up, he snapped. He was hauled to the principals office after the teachers had been able to pull him off a particularly loud gum chewer. The principal had said there was nothing anyone could do about the noise of a school. That he should just not come until his head ache went away. Gaara didn't feel the need to tell him this head ache would not 'go away' until he died. The voices were vicious. There was no way they would just go away.

The principal had been wrong off course. As soon as Gaara showed up the next day, an odd silence fell across what seemed to be the entire school building. Hundreds of students moved to classes or watched him go by in silence. It would have be almost enjoyable if someone would have killed the fucking florescent lights.

For five months, five entire months, silence seemed to rein in the school. And in a few short months, Gaara would be graduating. He didn't know where he'd go. He'd just go. Probably crawl into a dark cave somewhere and try to drive the voices out of his head.

To call them voices was incorrect. They were really just sounds. Sounds that no one could explain. Sounds that no amount of pain killers could drive away. Gaara had almost OD'd before they finally decided pills weren't the answer. Neither was therapy. Or meditation. Or any other obscure thing they tried. Gaara had long ago accepted his head would forever be shared with the foreign screeching. Accepted he'd never sleep more than an hour a night for the rest of his life. Accepted the voices would be a part of him until he finally died. Or killed himself.

The last option was looking the most appealing this morning.

A knock so light anyone other than him would have missed it, making him sit up. He gathered his book bag quietly and opened the door, eyes narrowing slightly as the bright light of the hall flooded his dark room. Temari gave him a half smile. She was hoping one day, any day, the voices in her friends head would just go away. Gaara knew she was hoping they would. He also knew they wouldn't.

They walked silently down the hall of the orphanage that was their home. Due to Gaara's obvious pain at any sound, only older children who preferred silence themselves were housed around him and he and Temari left for school before the others woke up. Gaara didn't mind leaving early. It was less time he had to pretend to be asleep. He had managed to keep that part of his 'condition' a secret. With the help of the blond girl's eyeliner of course. He wore it so thickly around his pale eyes that it covered any sign of the bags only a few knew were there.

He hadn't cared that people stared the first time he did it. They had always been staring, but back then they had been staring at the brand on his forehead. A brand his own sadistic father had put there. He had been glad they had started staring at his horrible make-up skills than at the mark he wanted no one to ever look at. Luckily his hair had grown enough that it covered it up somewhat and the looks were few and far between.

Gaara barely winced as the early morning light hit his eyes suddenly and Temari gave him a look that said 'Told you so.' Gaara felt his eyes narrow and he stomped out into the early morning air and slipped inside the car of the lucky social worker selected to take them to school that day. Temari had been on him for months to wear the glasses of black plastic the doctors had given him to help with the light. They were like sunglasses, except no light could get through and Gaara would have to walk around like a blind man. It was bad enough they had given him ear plugs. Now they wanted him to be blind as well.

The red head felt more stubborn than practical at that moment and refused. Now both items lay on the table beside his bed with a bottle of Advil, all forgotten. Gaara was not weak. And he refused to show any weakness to anyone... unless he had to beat the fuck out of some kid to get them to shut up because they were giving him a head ache.

He sighed soundlessly and closed his eyes. The voices quieted slightly at the loss of the intensity of the light. He tried to pull at the sleep he felt at the egdes of his mind. It was like fighting sleep all the time, except it was backwards. He was fighting to get the sleep to come but the sleep didn't want to. It made him tired. And even that was stupid. No matter how tired he got, he couldn't sleep. Not unless there was absolute silence and complete darkness. And then before every ounce of tired left him, his eyes refused to stay shut after an hour.

"Good morning." Relief washed over Gaara at the sound of Neji's whisper.

Yesterday the bastard known as Kakashi had volunteered to drive them. That should have been the red flag. The guy shouted, slammed the door, used the horn excessively, somehow managed to dodge Gaara's fist and drive away. Gaara had decide he hated the man. The voices squirmed and raised their shouting just remembering it.

He must have winced because Neji apologised in a softer voice and started the almost silent car.

The trip to school was short. Nice and almost quiet. There was nothing anyone could do about the other drivers and this was a city. No one could silence a city. Not even the stubborn red head.

"Gaara?" Temari whispered.

His fingers went to work massaging his temples before he answered with a simple. "Hn."

"I heard yesterday... Some new kids registered. They're going to be there today." He heard the hesitation in her voice. He wasn't going to promise not to beat the kids up. As long as they stayed the hell away from him or kept their mouths shut, he would have no problem with them. Hopefully they were shy and quiet.

Hopefully.

"It's stupid to have a first day on friday. Especially in March." The boy muttered softly wondering if either of his companions heard his quiet response.

"We're here." Neji whispered from the front. Gaara opened his eyes slowly, fighting the wince he felt rolling through him. He nodded at the man and got out. Temari waved at him and mouthed a 'bye' before rushing off to her friends. He stood there for a minute, trying to calm the voices snarling in his head, before he gave up and walked into the tall brick building.

The hallways still echoed softly as the conversations dropped to whispers as he passed teachers and a few early kids. And as what they said found it's way to his ears, he refused to be grateful. He had heard so many rumors about himself it was crazy. Apparently he was in a gang, an assassin, a demon, possessed, the Anti-Christ, going through a nervous breakdown, psychotic, and, while being all of this, dating some actress he had never heard of. Gaara had almost snorted. The saddest part was, it seemed a lot of people seemed to believe them. A lot. And with all those rumors, no one had guessed the truth. He hoped they never would. The rumors are far more interesting. Although the dating some actress thing was just stupid.

Gaara entered his first class, which was thankfully empty, and laid down at his table in the back. He closed his eyes and tried a breathing exercise his therapist had taught him. The voices just seemed to laugh. Why wouldn't they just go away. The soft clanking of glass and the squeak of a bad wheel made Gaara look up. "Ah, Gaara. Of course. Do you feel like joining the lab today? Or would you rather watch?" His chemistry teacher, Orochimaru kept his voice soft, not a whisper, but nothing that sent fury thrashing through his brain.

Before the voices began, Gaara had excelled at the chemistry labs. But a nice sudden screeching erupting in his skull at the wrong moment had ended that. He dropped a beaker of sodium hypochlorite onto his lap and still had the burn marks on his legs and stomach as testimony to the dangerous powers of the raw chemical. He stared at the chemistry teacher and the teacher smiled. For some reason, the teachers smile had always sent an urge to shiver rolling down his back. "We're doing some simple work with hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide. Nothing too serious." Gaara thought about it for a minute. Neither of the chemicals could create the same pain as the sodium hypochlorite. Should be okay.

He nodded and put his head back down into his arms. He stayed that way for what felt like hours. The voices howling, screeching, and stabbing his head all in turn. He tried for numbness, but it was out of reach. After going through pain for a while one was supposed to go numb to it. No matter what, the pain should become a normal part of life and fade into the background. This pain wasn't. And that only led to one conclusion. The voices just became steadily louder, the pain just increasing.

Maybe his head was just preparing to explode.

When Gaara finally looked up again, the room was almost full and the clock above the door told him only twenty-five minutes had past. Fuck. Today was going to be a long day. He almost sighed out loud and a girl he remembered as Tenten smiled at him from across the room. He pretended not to notice and braced himself for the bell that would be ringing at any second. 'Breathe.' He told himself calmly. 'Just breathe...' The pep-talk did nothing as the bell rocked his entire body and the voices howled. No one seemed to notice. The only sign something was wrong was his sudden sharp intake of breathe, and even that had remained silent.

"Okay class. Today we'll be conducting a nice entry level lab. Easy stuff here kids. If you'd been listening to me at all these past three quarters, this should be cake." The class burst into excited chatter, but the volume lowered greatly as Gaara's shoulders went rigid. Where ever he went the volume was always set according to his body language. Relaxed meant you could get louder. Tense was the sign to drop the volume. Stiff but still moving seemed to be read as fine. And people said high schoolers were stupid.

The teacher went around slowly placing instructions, beakers, bottles, tea bags, and chemicals in front on each group of the black lab tables. "You'll be working with the lab partner at your table. No switching. No growling. No screaming... No fighting." He droned on, adding the 'No fighting' rule as he set Gaara's equipment out in front of him. The silent red head looked at the empty seat next to him. The seat had always been empty. Even before his 'episodes' and sudden obsession with the quiet, no one had ever sat next to him willingly. A part of Gaara felt a tiny bit of sadness. Another, louder part snorted at his disappointment and told him that was the way it would always be. He had been born to be alone.

The voices gave a sudden vicious wail and clawed at Gaara's brain with no obvious trigger. He was barely conscious his fingers twitched in pain and one of his eyes narrowed against the agony in his head. Seconds after the attack began, a blur of bright colors slammed the classroom door open and a voice shouted loudly. "Sorry I'm late! This stupid building's huge!" The blond grinned and immediately walked up to Orochimaru. The teacher seemed amused and pointed to the only open seat.

The seat next to Gaara.

Of course. Why not? The loud mouth got placed next to him. Gaara threw a glare at the teachers back. The blond smiled widely at him as his chair scraped loudly against the floor and threw his bag on the table with a slight 'bang'.

"Poor kid's gonna die." Someone whispered from in front of them. Gaara continued to glare at the insanely noisy kid and the blond continued to grin, though it began to falter and fall. The kid was the embodiment of everything Gaara avoided. Bright orange pants with neon orange converses. Blue shirt that somehow seemed to match the insane orange. A perfectly-matched-to-the-pants orange hoody. Blond hair that was almost gold. Deeply tanned skin with three slightly pale scars on each cheek that would have looked like some idiotic 'kawaii neko' shit if they hadn't obviously been scars. And blue eyes... bright blue eyes that took Gaara's breath away. Blue eyes that matched a cloudless sunny afternoon sky. The kind of sky Gaara could no longer look at without regretting it for days. This kid was the human form of everything that caused the red head unbearable pain. Gaara felt his glare slip.

"Name's Naruto!" The blond practically shouted, getting his smile back, and put his hand out. Gaara ignored it and looked away from the annoying blond. "So, uh, what's yours?" Naruto asked letting his hand fall.

"Open the tea bag." Gaara muttered quietly already pouring the hydrogen peroxide into the intended beaker. The blond just sat there as if he hadn't spoken. "Open the tea bag." Gaara tried a little louder. The kid still just sat there. 'What the fuck? Another moron. Of course. The world just hates me.' Gaara's thoughts snarled and he shoved the tea bag across the table towards the blond. "Open it." There was no way he couldn't have heard him that time. But the kid wasn't looking at him. His eyes were locked on something past Gaara's shoulder.

Paranoid, the red head stole a glance. Every set of eyes in the room were trained on him and whisker kid in an almost horrified manner. There was nothing wierd about the pair. Nothing was off. Gaara was actually fighting the ugre to beat the kid to a bloody pulp at the moment. Sure the kid was a spectical, a walking Vegas sign practically, but still nothing that deserved the amount of stares he was getting.

Unless they weren't staring at Naruto.

Everyone was staring at him. But why...?

Abruptly the red head turned back the his lab partner, pulled the kid towards him by the collar of his shirt and held him there letting the silence seep into his head.

Letting the complete silence wash through him.

His eyes didn't automatically narrow in the harsh glare of the schools lighting system. The bright kid didn't make his brain scream anything but the usual 'beat the idiot up'. And the overly loud movements the kid made hadn't sent him to the ground twitching. The voices were gone. There was actual silence.

And as thought sank in Gaara fell to the floor in sweet unconsciousness.

Eh. Could have been worse.... Right? :l

This chapter is brought to you by the song You're Cute When You Scream by Senses Fail.

I think I'll try to keep updates coming every week... what day is this? Oh god. This is doomed. Ha ha ha. Joking... i think.

Reviews are awesome. Ha ha ha!