This is my first fanfic. I remember seeing a picture of Gaara in an akatsuki cloak and began to wonder "what if?" so here it is, the first chapter of many... hopefully.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. if i did i wouldn't be writing fanfics of it.

It was a dark night in Suna. The winds were quiet and the sands were still. The inhabitants were in a deep slumber, with only the guards and vermin of the desert stalking shadows. The scene appeared to be tranquil. But all was not well.

Inside the hospital of Sunagakure, a woman was preparing for the birth of her baby and a Kazekage was preparing for the birth of his weapon.

On the roof of the hospital stood a lone figure bathed in the light of the full moon, the only discernable feature being his shining red eyes.

"Tonight is the night the ichibi is to be sealed." Madara thought to himself, "Now is probably the best time to take it."

The infamous Uchiha then leapt off the building to the wall of the one opposite, he then pivoted in midair so that his feet landed on the wall before he forced himself back off it and into the open hospital window.

Brushing the dust off his armour, Madara set off into the hallway, moving silently and listening intently. After checking a few of the rooms, concluding that the hospital was empty, he found a staircase and paused.

…

…

.."-ettle ready?"

"Hm?" The voice sounded as if it had come from downstairs. Treading lightly, Madara descended the staircase in search of the source.

"Yes Kazekage-sama, it is ready."

Madara reached the bottom of the staircase and found himself facing a door with a pale light shining through the opaque window.

"Chiyo-san, how is she holding up?" the Kazekage asked, although it was obvious he didn't care.

"She's fine Kazekage-sama, now can we get this over with? I'm supposed to be retiring!" the elder Chiyo replied.

"Chiyo?" Madara thought, "It would appear that there aren't many Suna shinobi that practice Fūinjutsu if all they have is that old crow."

He then silently picked the lock on the door and waited for the right moment to make his move.

"Everyone step around the circle and mould your chakra." the Kazekage ordered.

"Hai Kazekage-sama!" said everyone else in the room, excluding Chiyo who grumbled to herself.

Though unclear, Madara could see several figures form a wide circle and begin making hand signs, meanwhile a hysterical woman could be heard from inside.

"Please stop this, please… don't do this… STOP IT!" she screamed. However, when it became apparent that the Kazekage had no intentions of doing so, her attitude changed completely.

"…Hee-hee-hee. A-ha, aha-ha-ha-ha-ha… HAA-HA-HAA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!" suddenly she gasped, "Who's that?"

Madara tensed, had he been spotted?

"Is that? Yes, it is! It's him! He's coming, to kill you all! Come on, come out & kill them… GAARA!"

"Gaara?" Madara thought, "How interesting."

The woman continued laughing and cursing everyone in the room. She then started screaming in pain, which shortly ended in the sound of a baby's cry. But Madara's attention was suddenly diverted when he noticed chakra beginning to gather in the centre of the circle.

"Good, they are now focusing on their chakra. It's now or never."

* * * * *

It was Yashamaru who first spotted it, he was on his way to bring his sister some of her favourite books, knowing she would be bored out of her mind. But as he turned the corner the books he was carrying hit the ground with a dull thud. Smoke was pouring from out of the hospital. Yashamaru stood frozen for a few seconds before shaking his head & running towards the hospital.

"KARURA!" he yelled.

Hearing his voice, several of the shinobi on guard turned in the direction of the hospital & immediately sounded the alarm. In minutes the place was surrounded by ninja, all of them searching for survivors. Suddenly a jounin kunoichi appeared on top of a roof & called out.

"THE KAZEKAGE IS INSIDE!" she yelled.

On hearing this, everyone redoubled their efforts, they were all clearly desperate to rescue their leader.

Inside the building the smoke was thickening. A few shinobi used Fūton jutsu to blow the smoke away, but most had to make do holding pieces of cloth to their mouths.

"OVER HERE!" a chunin shouted.

Everyone who heard rushed in the direction of the voice, it had come from downstairs.

Outside the basement was where the smoke was thickest. The heat coming from the room was immense, but the shinobi couldn't see were it was coming from, the room was completely dark but a roaring sound could clearly be heard, almost like fire?

Confused the chunin decided to enter the room. A few seconds later two jounin reached the bottom of the stairs only to have the chunin barrel into them covered in flames… black flames.

* * * * *

On the roof a hotel on the other side of the village stood a lone figure bathed in the light of the full moon, the only discernable feature being his shining red eyes. In his arms was a small bundle, squirming and wailing.

"Gaara. It would seem your mother had a wish for you. Well, she was an unnecessary casualty so as a mercy I will grant her wish. And who knows? Perhaps one day you will be of use to me. So grow strong child, so you can repay the gift of power I shall grant you."

And so Madara stared deeply into the tiny baby's eyes and uttered the first words the child would hear.

"Mangekyo Sharingan."

* * * * *

Early the next morning the shinobi gave up. For some reason they could not douse the strange black flames, which were obviously a jutsu of some kind. They instead decided to bring the hospital down on top of the flames. As the dust settled some of the shinobi left. It was clear that they had been infiltrated and should try to find some evidence as to the location of the enemy shinobi.

Yashamaru, however, was too distraught to search and instead headed back to his apartment to get some rest. The sun was rising but the streets were still empty.

"Karura," he thought, "Why would someone do this? What was going on down there? And her baby too. God, Temari & Kankuro are all alone now."

"I guess… for you Karura" he whispered, "… I'll look after your children for you."

"How fortunate."

Yashamaru's head snapped upwards, locking on to a pair of red eyes. Then darkness.

* * * * *

Yashamaru opened his eyes, "What happened?" he thought, rubbing the back of his head.

He was laying down on the ground in the same alley, and judging from the sun's position in the sky, little to no time had passed.

Groaning, he rose unsteadily when he noticed something on the ground… a baby?

Picking the child up, Yashamaru lifted a fold in the cloth covering the baby and gasped.

"Is this? No, it can't be. It's impossible!"

"…Gaara." he whispered, then he froze.

Gaara? Who was that? Looking closer at the baby he thought for a second.

"This child is named Gaara. He is the child of the Kazekage and your sister. You shall raise him with his siblings."

"Yes." Yashamaru thought, smiling, "His name is Gaara. He is the child of the Kazekage and my sister. I shall raise him with his siblings."

* * * * *

"Uncle Yashamaru?"

A three year old Temari was just waking up, rubbing her eyes and peering between her fingers. Yashamaru was sitting in a chair and Temari saw a strange something in his arms. Even at such an early age, Temari was pretty clever.

"Is that?" she whispered, eyes widening.

All of a sudden she was wide awake, throwing her quilt off and running over, climbing up onto her uncles lap before peeking in through the folds of the cloth. When she saw who was there she let out a little gasp. Yashamaru watched the two as they stared into each others eyes, aww, they looked kinda cute.

"Hi." she said, before turning to Yashamaru, "What's his name?"

"Oh, its Gaara."

"How come he doesn't have any eyebrows?"

Yashamaru laughed lightly. Temari was more observant than most chunin in Suna.

"I guess they just haven't grown in yet."

"How come his hair is red? Mommy & da- I mean, father have brown hair." she asked.

"That sometimes happens, I mean, you have blonde hair." Yashamaru explained, already tired with her inquisitive mind.

Apparently she was satisfied with this as she turned back towards Gaara, getting so close her nose touched his. Letting out a giggle, she jumped off the bed and dashed out of her room. Yashamaru chuckled and turned his attention towards Gaara and frowned when he thought he saw an annoyed look on the baby's face. Great, he was gonna be such a bundle of joy.

It was then that Temari rushed backed into the room, dragging Kankuro in with her. By his foot.

"Temari!" Yashamaru said, shocked.

"What?" Temari asked innocently, while her little brother struggled furiously.

"Put. Your brother. Down." Yashamaru replied sternly.

Temari smiled sweetly "OK!" and let go.

"Ow!" Kankuro yelled, landing on the floor.

Temari giggled, "Look Kanky, the baby's here!"

"I'm not a baby!" Kankuro huffed, fixing his hood which was covering his face. Yashamaru was sure that it was the Kazekage who decided Kankuro would dress like that, Karura definitely wouldn't have been so cruel as to make her child wear heavy black clothing in the middle of the desert.

Temari let out an sigh, "Not you, dummy. Baby." she said.

Yashamaru moved and crouched next to Kankuro, letting him see Gaara. Kankuro moved in as close as Temari had and Yashamaru could see him grinning broadly, before he leapt back with a yelp.

"He hit me!" he complained, and sure enough, they could see Gaara's tiny arm sticking out from the cloth, looking annoyed once more. Temari was rolling around on the floor, clutching her sides. Yashamaru was wearing a disapproving look but even he couldn't help it and started laughing too.

* * * * *

"How come you're here, uncle Yashamaru? Temari asked, crunching on her cereal.

Yashamaru was quiet for a while, he was feeding Gaara some formula he had bought on the way over and Kankuro, to Temari's disgust, was munching on a sandwich which had a filling of many different colours and textures.

"Well… I'm gonna have to move you guys into my apartment for a while." he answered.

"Huh, why?" Temari asked, a concerned look on her face.

Yashamaru shifted uneasily, which didn't go unnoticed.

"Well, you see, there's gonna be a new Kazekage soon and he or she will move in here."

"But father is the Kazekage." Temari said, as if Yashamaru hadn't realized.

"…Your father is… he, uh… had to step down."

"Why?"

Yashamaru cringed. Clearly Temari wasn't going to make this easy for him.

"Because of recent events, which I can't talk about, he can no longer protect this village like he could so now someone else will have to replace him."

"Does this mean father is going to be around more often?" she asked, quietly.

At this Yashamaru nearly broke down. He could tell she was afraid of her father.

"Temari, could you watch Gaara for a little while? I have to get Kankuro dressed."

Temari's mood changed instantly as she smiled broadly and stretched out her arms to take Gaara. Yashamaru lifted Kankuro and held him under his arm, with Kankuro giggling like an idiot. He then walked into the bathroom and Temari's smiled even wider as she saw the look of terror on her little brother's face.

* * * * *

It had been three weeks since Temari & her brothers moved in with Yashamaru and in all honesty, he hadn't expected them to fit together so well. Temari was really helpful, always asking if she could lend a hand, which usually meant pinning Kankuro to the ground while Yashamaru wiped god-knows-what off his face.

And whenever Temari wasn't doing that, she was usually holding Gaara. Honestly, Temari loved her baby brother. It was strange that she could go from holding Kankuro in a headlock one moment to feeding Gaara in the next.

At nights Temari and Kankuro shared a bedroom which otherwise had gone spare, and Gaara was put in a cot in Yashamaru's room.

But Yashamaru was worried about Gaara. Recently some documents were unveiled that the Kazekage had ordered the teakettle containing the demon, Shukaku, be brought to him. Now the kettle was missing and Yashamaru had feeling that it was now empty, and all the signs indicated that the demon was inside the little one but...

Gaara didn't sleep. The dark rings starting to form around his eyes were enough to attest to that. But from the medical training Yashamaru had he knew that there was nothing physically wrong with Gaara. Yashamaru tried lots of things. The lullaby didn't work, the lavender potpourri didn't work, the mobile only made Gaara dizzy, that was scrapped immediately in case it Made Gaara sick. After many failed attempts Yashamaru looked up at the clock which read 12:03 am. Way too late for a baby to be awake. So Yashamaru decided to try giving him a very weak and diluted sedative to help him sleep. It seemed to work but almost immediately he noticed Gaara's Rapid Eye Movement, which surprised him, he didn't know newborn babies could dream.

But suddenly Yashamaru's expression changed from one of wonder to horror. Gaara was writhing, as if in pain.

Acting quickly, he used focused his chakra to remove the sedative from Gaara's system then he gently woke the child.

Gaara's eyes opened slowly, as if scared of what he might see. What did he see?

"Sorry little guy." Yashamaru said, picking up & gently rocking Gaara who was crying loudly. Almost immediately Temari was running out of her room to see what was wrong with her little baby brother. Yashamaru handed Gaara down to Temari who sat down on the floor and hugged him & stroked his hair.

"It's ok, don't cry." she said, over and over, rocking lightly on the floor. Yashamaru smiled at the two, Gaara had already stopped crying and had his hand in Temari's hair making the little noises babies do when they're happy.

Yashamaru noticed a head peer out of Temari & Kankuro's room. Seeing his brothers face Kankuro smirked to himself.

"Mamas boy." he said, before ducking back in his room.

Hearing this Temari whipped her head round to yell at her other brother, accidentally hitting Gaara with one of her pigtails. Yashamaru laughed at the stupefied look on the tiny baby's face, he could see Gaara wondering "What was that?!"

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Yashamaru shooed Temari back into her room, and sat on the sofa with Gaara lying in his lap staring up at his uncle.

"It's strange." Yashamaru thought, "All the evidence suggests that you are the Jinchūriki for Shukaku, the teakettle disappeared at the same time you appeared. The glyphs on the floor & Chiyo's body both make it obvious as to what the Kazekage was planning. You even seem to be suffering from having the demon inside you. But it's impossible for you to be the vessel because you don't have a seal on you. But if that's the case then why would you be having such vivid nightmares? Nothing that happened that night could have affected you so… could it?"

"What happened that night?" Yashamaru whispered. Gaara just stared with his hand in his mouth.