Hello everyone. This is the rewritten version of Tears of Sand: Original because the previous one really sucked.

I hope that this version will be slightly more pleasing.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for my OC character. I get no money from writing and posting this (my writing isn't even worth half a penny anyway). I just do it because I'm bored.

"Talking"

Flashback, Writing

Sound

Chapter 1: Pitiful

Strolling down an empty street at the dead of night, was our favorite crimson-haired Kazekage, Gaara. As he walked, his soft aqua eyes focused solely on the luminescent glow of the moon, his only welcomed nighttime companion. To wander aimlessly around the dirt streets of Sunagakure when the citizens were asleep became one of the small rituals that he had come up with after his Kazekage ceremony. It helped him cope with the stress of having mountains of paperwork stacked so high that he was completely hidden from view if someone were to pop in, but it also allowed him some peace and quiet to reflect on his day and the decisions that he made, whether they be about politics, the economy, or his almost non-existent social life.

It had been an especially long day in the office for Gaara. There was now three times more paperwork thanks to the growing suspicion that Hariganegakure* was secretly manufacturing weapons and building their ninja forces in a plan to invade Suna. The Council speculated that their motive was to replace Suna as the most powerful hidden village in Kaze no Kuni. The history of Harigane was never a peaceful one. They have went through countless bloody civil wars over power and money. Their government was disorganized, divided, and corrupt. The population was either starving or bathing in gold. Even today, the village hadn't made much progress. In fact, they became even worse. Their leaders were extremely violent, spiteful, and paranoid towards both outsiders, and their own people. If they had the slightest inkling of doubt in a villager's or a ninja's loyalty to the higher ups, they were immediately interrogated, tortured, and slaughtered in order to squash a possible rebellion before it spirals into mutiny. Their ninja patrolled the perimeters and surrounding area of the village. Any ninjas or travelers they encountered were detained and interrogated for weeks, sometimes even months, before swiping their memory and releasing them in the middle of nowhere. In an attempt to placate the situation, Gaara and the Council were taking steps to peacefully negotiate with them. It was tough being the Kazekage.

The crimson haired Kazekage made his way to his house and there, sleeping at the dining table with long, glossy, raven black hair sprawled over her pale face, was Aiko, his wife.

She wore a simple but elegant yukata* that was cut short so it would reach just above her knees to show-off her slender legs. It was a pale shade of lavender with black vines swirling around the sleeves, thighs, and chest. The obi* was also black but had a white obijime*.

Her golden honey eyes popped open at the creak of the opening door and an angelic smile crossed her lips. Her head swerved to meet her beloved husband standing in the doorway.

"Ah, Gaara, you have returned! I made dinner in case you have not had anything to eat yet; it's your favorite!" she exclaimed, pulling out his chair and gesturing him to come and sit down.

"... I've told you not to wait for me." he said, unfazed by her upbeat gesture.

"Oh, y-you are right, I-I am sorry. I... just was hoping that maybe we could... ummm... have dinner together since we do not get to see each other much anymore." Aiko stuttered with a shade of red covering her cheeks, twiddling her fingers while looking nervously around the room.

"I'm not hungry." Gaara stated coldly as he headed for his room.

"Oh, well, then... do you... do you want to go on the roof and watch the stars with me? They are quite beautiful tonight." she suggested, desperate to spend some time with her husband, since they only got to see each other late at night when he finally came home after work, that is, if he decided to come home at all. Sometimes, he would spend the night in the office finishing paperwork. His record for staying locked in his office was two months.

"No thanks. Aiko, just go to bed. It's late." and with that, he quietly closed the door behind him.

"Oh… okay, goodnight Gaara..." she faked a smile, disappointed, while a delicate tear streamed down her face. Drip, drop. The sound of tears hitting the clay floor echoed in the empty dining room. The carefully prepared meal and romantic candles were now forgotten.

Aiko had not eaten and waited all evening for Gaara so they could eat together. In the hours before Gaara return, her stomach had been growling vigorously, but now, she had completely lost her appetite. And besides, food never tasted any good when you were eating it by yourself. She should know, since it was like that for her during the first few years of her existence. She removed the plates, cups, and silverware and stored away the untouched dishes of cuisine in the refrigerator. The compartments were practically overflowing with previous meals that Gaara also didn't eat. Aiko made a mental note that she should buy a bigger refrigerator soon.

She trudged to her own room, separate from Gaara's. It was unusual for a married couple not to share the same room and bed, but it was not always like this. During their engagement and the first years of marriage, they were as happy and close as could be. However, that perfect life didn't last for long. Little by little, he drifted away from her. The signs were subtle enough that she was able to ignore it and pretend that nothing was wrong, that he was just stressed and tired from the responsibilities of being Kazekage. But once he moved into a new room in the house, she had to accept the fact that their married life was falling apart. Aiko lied down on the queen sized bed. They use to comfortably fit in this bed together, like two pieces in a puzzle, but once he left, there was an incomplete puzzle with only one piece. She hated this bed. It was too big for her. And when she would wake up in the morning and go to bed in the night, there was always an empty space next to her, which made her feel even lonelier than before.

She, like every other night, would slip into the cold bed and softly hum herself to sleep with a lullaby. She held her small hand in front of her face as she lay and longingly gazed at the shiny ring on her finger. Absentmindedly placing a chaste kiss on the piece of silver around her ring finger, she whispered soft chants before sleep overtook her, "Come back to me."

(Flashback)

"Hey, why are you crying?" the young girl asked.

The boy looked up in surprise but didn't reply. His voice was caught in his throat from shock. The silence droned on for so long that any normal person would have already walked away from impatience.

The girl gave a bright smile and assured, "It's okay if you don't want to talk now; I'll wait." Plopping down on the swing to his right, she patiently waited. There again was a long pause, he was stunned that someone would approach him and even sit down next to him. Didn't she know who he was? What he could do?

Finally gathering his courage, the little boy spoke, clutching the chain of the swing, "I… don't like it here. No one will come near me. They all scream. It's lonely. I hate it."

"But… I'm right here. I'm sitting right next to you," The girl said, grasping the edge of his sleeve. "You're not alone anymore. Look. I'm right here."

"… You… won't go anywhere?" he asked, his hope rising.

"Nope, I'll stay right here." she assured with a confident grin, gripping his sleeve even tighter to make her point.

"… I see." the boy mumbled in relief at her words of comfort.

"So, what's your name? Mine is Aiko." the girl introduced proudly, pointing to herself.

"..." the boy turned his head away, afraid that his new friend would go back on her word and run away if she knew who he was. Even if she didn't know what he looked like, she must certainly know his name. Everyone did.

Sensing the boy's discomfort, the girl tried to delicately coax it out of him, "I'm sure your name isn't be that bad. Besides, your parents thought long and hard to give you that name so you should be proud of it, not embarrassed."

Willing himself to take a chance, he muttered under his breath, "G-Gaara, Sabaku no Gaara." He shut his eyes and waited for the screams of terror that was all too familiar. He waited and waited, but it never came. He peeked out and saw the girl slightly confused by his action.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Does it hurt somewhere?" she placed her hand on his forehead in concern.

"Y-you're not afraid?" the boy asked in disbelief, his eyes wide.

The girl's eyebrows knit in confusion, "Of what, your name? Well, I guess it is uncommon, but it's not scary. So," stretching out her hand, she asked again with a warm smile on her face, "now that we know each others' names, will you play with me?"

At a loss of words the boy nodded and took the girl's small, cool hand, which was unusual in Suna since the weather was always hot and dry. But it was comfortable.

Aiko awoke from her dream of the past, only to find herself in an uncomfortable position on the floor beside the bed; she must have fallen off during the night. She unraveled herself from the twisted blankets that fell with her and made her bed.

"I better go make breakfast for Gaara." she told herself as she smoothed out the last wrinkle in the sheets.

She trotted over to the kitchen and with a knife in hand, started chopping up ingredients. She had made raisin muffins, sunny-side up eggs, fluffy pancakes, crispy bacon, an omelet, and toasted hash browns. It was similar to a restaurant buffet. Kazekages do need their morning energy boost in order to get through the day without collapsing.

She sat down at the table, content with her work, and waited for her husband, in hope that they could eat together.

(Four hours pass)

Staring at the clock as it chimed ten o'clock, Aiko laughed bitterly, "Oh, how stupid of me. He always leaves before I wake up. Ha ha ha. What am I doing?" she laughed to herself as she lowered her head and silently cried. No matter what environment she was in, no matter how the details of the situation might have changed, it was only her who waited. Even when she was a child, it was always her.

Watching small droplets of tears pool on the table, Aiko thought back to a life she hoped she would never have to relive. She remembered that she use to live with her mother in Harigane. Or, maybe 'live' wasn't the right term for it, more like 'wasted away'. For the first four years of her life, all she knew were feelings of loneliness, hunger, and disappointment within a crumbling three room apartment. The biggest room, a 9'x9' space, had a tatami* mat floor. The walls were riddled with holes and peeling wallpaper so there was always a draft of icy wind during the night. The only pieces of furniture were a small, wooden table and one ragged futon*. Even though Aiko's mother was rarely home, she forbade Aiko from sleeping on the futon, claiming that once a "cockroach's filth" got on fabric, it would never come out. Therefore, Aiko always slept on the floor. The second room, a kitchen, was unused for two reasons. The first being that there was neither ingredients to cook, nor utensils to cook with since Aiko's mother never went grocery shopping. The second was that the power had been cut off because of neglected bills, therefore, the refrigerator, stove, and oven, were rendered useless. The third room, a bathroom, was the most used room in the apartment. The water for the sink and shower were cut off just like the electricity, however, there was a secret pipe behind the wall that was somehow connected to the water system of the room next door. So whenever the neighbors turned on the sink, water would flow through the pipe, giving Aiko's apartment free water.

To word it nicely, the living conditions were poor. And since there was no steady supply of food walking in the door, Aiko, from an early age, realized that the only way to live was to get it herself. So at five-years-old, she started stealing fruit, bread, and fish from market stalls. This, of course, did not help her to get in the good graces of the villagers. Whenever they saw her walking down the street, they would hit her with either their brooms, or their fists. And when they were too tired or too lazy to hurt her themselves, they would send their dogs to bite her and their children to stone her. But on good days, when the villagers were in a relatively content mood, they would yell, curse, and spit on her, saying that she would be doing the whole world a favour by staying in the gutter, like the "sewer rat" she was, and never coming out.

The first time Aiko heard this, she took it to heart and deeply pondered this for the rest of the day, through the night, and into the next morning. If she did not steal, she would die. The villagers told her not to steal, so, did it mean that they were telling her to die? This confused Aiko even more. Death was apparently a bad thing. She knew by looking out the window in the living room. When somebody died, people would veer away from their daily routines to gather and cry. Crying meant that they were sad. And since people were scheduling a time and place to cry, that meant that they were all very sad. So, why was it that the villagers said that they would be happier if she died? What was the difference between her and everybody else? What was it that made her different? Why was it that nobody wanted her to live? Aiko thought and thought but could not find the answers to any of these questions. She considered asking the villagers, but quickly subdued that idea, convincing herself that it was because if she just asked for the answer and didn't find it out on her own, there wouldn't be any satisfaction in knowing. However, deep within her subconscious, she knew that it was really because she didn't want to know the answer. Losing the desire to contemplate this further, Aiko pushed it out of her mind and decided to save it for a later date.

And so, life carried on for Aiko: she woke up, checked the house to see if her mother had returned while she was asleep, stole food, checked the house to see if her mother had returned while she was stealing, ate some stolen food, waited by the door for her mother to return, watched the villagers from the window, counted the number of bamboo straws in the tatami mat, ate some stolen food, waited by the door for her mother to return, collected pebbles, skipped pebbles in the river, dived for the pebbles, made a pebble pyramid, checked the house to see if her mother had returned while she was playing, ate the rest of the stolen food, stargazed/moongazed, made a wish for her mother to come home soon, fell asleep, and repeat. And one day, she got her wish.

(Flashback)

Aiko had just finished the last bite of stolen bread when she heard a creaking door open from behind. "Mo-" Aiko began as she turned to greet the woman, but a sharp kick to the face interrupted her. Her tiny body went flying and crashed on the other side of the room. Her mother glided over with her arms crossed and stood in front of Aiko, who was still sprawled on the floor.

"You know," the woman calmly began, "I have been getting a lot of complaints from everybody about you. Something about... you stealing food?" Suddenly, the smooth voice was replaced with a shrill shout, "What did you think you were doing?" She kicked Aiko in the stomach. "Why do you have to cause me so much trouble?" She stomped on Aiko's ribcage. Crack. "You know what everybody's been saying about me?" She twisted Aiko's arm backwards. Snap. "They said that children are a reflection of their parents and that it's my fault you act this way!" She grabbed a fistful of Aiko's hair and threw her face onto the floor. Whack. Whack. Whack. "Do you want me to look bad?" She turned Aiko over, sat on her, and gripped her neck like a vice. "Ungrateful brat, you're the reason why he left me! My life would have been so much better if you had never existed!"

Gasping and scratching at the woman's hands, the world started to darken as Aiko slipped into unconsciousness. The room faded into the blackness and the only thing Aiko could see was her mother's contorted face that was consumed in a raging fury, like a wild fire. Aiko blinked slowly as blood cascaded down her face, weakly murmuring, "Mo...mmy..." before slipping into an empty world of numbness.

When Aiko finally regained conciousness, she found herself buried under heaps of black plastic bags. The rancid stench of rotting food and decomposing waste, coupled with the buzz of flies and squeak of vermin, hinted to her that she was no longer in an apartment, but in a dump cite. Aiko would admit that she was a bit lacking in the common sense department, but she wasn't so lacking that she was unaware of what her current situation meant. Her mother left her in a heap of garbage, a home for the scum of the Earth because no one wanted to keep them. She had been thrown away. Aiko knew that when trash was thrown away, nobody was expecting it to come back. Nobody wanted it back.

"I guess this is where it ends, huh?" She muttered, gazing up at the clear blue sky. The sun shining overhead with whips of cotton clouds floated by. Never before had Aiko seen such a beautiful day. However, for some reason, she could find no happiness in her heart to enjoy it.

Aiko then, faintly, remembered a voice echoing in her mind. It sounded like her mother's voice. Aiko probably heard this while she was semi-conscious, just before her mother left her to cultivate mold and maggots. Most likely, she was starting to wake up on the way to the dump cite, but after hearing what was said, she fell back asleep.

"Just go somewhere else. Anywhere is fine. I don't care what you do. Just do it somewhere far away from me. Somewhere where I will never have to look at you again."

"...'somewhere far away'...?" Aiko repeated. After a few more hours of staring at the sky, which was now washed in pink, gold, and orange, she clumsily picked herself up with her one good arm, since her other was twisted in an odd direction, and got onto her feet. She could feel something wrong in her chest and arm, but the haziness of her mind seemed to numb whatever pain might have been there. At her mother's last request to her, Aiko decided to follow them and shuffled her feet forward. With no destination in mind, she blindly wandered the streets until she came to the village gate. "Somewhere far away, somewhere far away, somewhere far away." Aiko chanted like a transportation spell. Her chest felt like it was getting tighter and heaved every time she took even the slightest breath. Speaking was also difficult challenge and she found herself panting after every word. So instead of chanting, she silently mouth out the words. Aiko moved like a zombie. Her arms swung limply at her side, her knotted hair fell over her face as she kept her head down, and she slowly stumbled around, as if unsure on how to put one foot in front of the other.

Aiko figured that the fastest way to get out of the village was to hitch a ride in one of the caravans that passed by. Unnoticed, she climbed into a sleeping merchant's caravan and hid herself under the tarpaulin. Days passed and Aiko's plan seemed to be running smoothly without a hitch, however, once the caravan reached the desert and the sun shined full throttle, things started to go wrong. The heat did a wonderful job of making the merchants extra irritated; they would practically explode with frustration at the smallest things, like where that disgusting stench was coming from. Aiko hadn't bathed after she was abandoned, so the smell of garbage still clung to her. The merchants stopped the caravan, got out, and then proceeded to tare apart the caravan by violently hauling the cargo out of the caravan in an attempt to find the source of the odor. And once they found her, they promptly tossed her into a cactus bush and rode away, muttering under their breath about how annoying it was for vermin to always cling to their cart.

As Aiko lay there in the prickly plants, needles stabbing into her burning skin, she wondered if she was far away enough for her mother to be happy. The world spun and swirled, erasing the lines that defined the land and sky, the plants and animals, the sand and rocks, until it was all one big blur. She closed her eyes, deciding that once she woke up from her nap, she would start moving again and continue on her journey.

However, when Aiko did reopen her eyes, she noticed that she was no longer in the middle of nowhere, but a shockingly white room. She also noticed that she was now covered with bandages and had a tube sticking out of the arm that wasn't in a cast. A woman wearing a white dress and cap walked in with a clipboard and introduced herself as the head nurse. The nurse mentioned something about a broken arm and rib, concussion, dehydration, sunburn, and coma, but Aiko wasn't really listening until the nurse asked her where her parents were.

"..." Aiko was silent for a moment but slowly turned her head to gaze out the window. "Far away. In a place far away." She whispered.

Misinterpreting her response, the nurse assumed that her parents must have been dead and that Aiko was saying that they were in heaven. "Oh, you poor thing!" the nurse wailed. "Don't worry, everything will be okay. I'm sure we can find someone to take you in. I'll do everything in my power to make sure you have a happy life. Now, what's your name, Sweetie?"

Name. Name... What was it? Did she ever have one? Did her mother ever give her one? 'Kid'? 'Brat'? 'Thief'? 'Cockroach'? 'Scum'? Were those names? But since she was going to start a new life, she might as well have a new name, and there was one in particular that she liked. She averted her eyes from the scenery outside and looked the nurse straight in the eye. "Aiko," she declared. "My name is Aiko."

Soon after Aiko had awoken from her coma of apparently three months, she was kicked to the streets since they couldn't find a family to take her and the orphanage was full. Even though the nurse said she would do everything in her power to ensure that Aiko had a happy life, Aiko was neither upset nor bitter about the broken promise. She quickly concluded that it was stupid on her part to actually believe the words of a stranger when it is just human nature to spout empty words of condolence to a pitiful person in order to boost their own self-esteem for being such a caring person. She walked down the dirt road, curiously evaluating her new home. There were small shops, plain houses, and normal people leading their everyday lives. Aside from the climate, it appeared to be the same as her old village. But would the people in this village be the same as the people in her old village? Aiko looked up at the sky. What a stupid question. She frowned. Even if the environment changed, even if the situation changed, people were still the same: selfish, arrogant, and prideful; always looking out for their own self-interest, whether it be consciously or unconsciously.

As she continued on her stroll, she saw a flash of red and a muffled sound. Aiko stopped in her tracks and took another glance at the crimson blur. It was a little boy, probably a couple years younger than herself, with deep red hair who was sitting on the swings, whimpering like an abandoned puppy in the rain. She silently approached the boy, her legs moving on their own, and asked, "Hey, why are you crying?"

.

How pitiful.

.

.

.

He was just like her.

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Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Keep tuned for the next chapter.

Hariganegakure: Village Hidden in the Wire

Yukata: A light cotton kimono (worn during the summer)

Obi: A broad sash worn around the waist of a kimono

Obijime: A thin rope attached to an obi

Tatami: Straw matting used as a floor covering especially in a Japanese house

Futon: A Japanese quilted mattress rolled out on the floor for use as a bed