Warning: this is a sandcest story. As always, don't like, don't read. This story will eventually be dark and violent, so if that bothers you, don't read.

Otherwise, all comments are welcome.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the characters (I am only saying that once).

Chapter 1 - The Tools of Sunagakure

Gaara stood in the middle of the desert with his siblings a few steps behind him. His arms were folded over his chest, his face passive as always, though his eyes revealed the intense hate and blood lust that was overpowering his mind. It was the siblings’ first B-rank mission since they were put together as a team. It was an assassination mission. They were to kill a group of five shinobi who were attempting to run away from Suna. The mission was originally ranked as A, but as soon as Gaara’s team was assigned to it, it was reclassified. Temari and Kankuro always resented the Kazekage’s mission ranking when it came to their team. The missions were always easier for Gaara, and the Kazekage classed them as lower rank so he could pay them less. They also suspected that he wanted it to be appear as if he was not sending his children on missions that were far too advanced for their rank. Everyone knew that the Kazekage would be only too happy if Gaara was killed in a mission, and if it was ranked lower he could claim that this was simply due to the team’s incompetence and not his subjective mission assignment.

Gaara never seemed to care about this, or at least he never expressed any thoughts about it. He had done several missions with his siblings so far, and they were always effortless for him. He either didn’t notice or didn’t care the amount of strain these missions put on his siblings, and the amount of training they had to undergo to even attempt to keep up with him. Gaara never particularly cared that he was teamed up with his siblings. His feelings for them were the same as his feelings for everyone else – hate and indifference. He never saw them as siblings. In fact, he largely ignored their existence altogether. He was forced to live with them, but he spent little time at home, since he never allowed himself to sleep. The only advantage he gave to his siblings over everyone else was that he warned them that he would kill them if they got in his way.

During missions, he never cared about their safety. He never needed them and he was barely aware of their presence there. His sand was enough to destroy everything that came in his path. And the only missions his team received were ones where killing was required one way or another. As far as the village was concerned, that was the only thing Gaara was good for. While on missions, his siblings merely stood back and tried to avoid getting hurt while Gaara obliterated his opponents with a simple squeeze of his hand. The only times he had allowed them to participate in the battle was when the opponents were too weak for him to bother with. Gaara never had to worry about his safety, and if he felt bored with the fight he could merely stand back and watch. He had never been wounded, never so much as a scratch or even a speck of dirt on his clothes, while Temari and Kankuro had so far managed to get away with only minor injuries.

This mission was no different. They had easily caught up with their targets, using Gaara’s ability to find anything or anyone in the desert. And now Gaara stood with his arms folded over his chest as the sand swirled around him, simultaneously blocking all attacks that came towards him and charging at his opponents. Temari was using her fan and Kankuro his puppets merely to divert the attacks that missed Gaara and came towards them. This time it was harder for them to avoid injury, since the number of opponents was greater than they had ever faced before and their skill was of a higher level than the two siblings. Gaara, oblivious to his siblings’ struggle, was playing with his opponents. He had never had the chance to kill so many at once before and he was thoroughly enjoying the experience. He allowed his sand to enclose the shinobi one at a time, squeezing his hand enough to crush their bones and make blood ooze out from the cracks in their skin – but not enough to kill them.

Gaara was distracted when he suddenly heard a female scream from behind him. His opponents were all male and for a moment he could not understand what could have made that scream. He paused, as if analyzing the sound, slowly recalling that his “teammates” were with him. While the sand continued to deflect the attacks coming at him without any conscious effort from Gaara, he turned his head back slowly, seeing Temari crouched on the ground. Her hand was grasping her shoulder and he could see a steady flow of scarlet bubbling out between her fingers. Gaara considered her for a moment. There was something odd about seeing her bleed, her face contorted in pain. Slowly, Gaara turned back to his opponents. There were only two left who could still move freely. He reached out his hand towards them.

“Sabaku Kyu,” came his cold voice, forcing the sand two engulf both shinobi at the same time. Gaara watched them struggle for a moment, relishing in their screams before squeezing his hand. “Sabaku Sousou.”

The two lifeless bodies dropped to the ground. Gaara turned his glare filled with murderous intent to the remaining three, who immediately began to scream, seeing the fate of their comrades. The two commands were repeated mercilessly by Gaara, never giving the survivors a chance to struggle as the sand crushed their bodies beyond recognition. Before the bodies even hit the ground, Gaara turned away as the blood-filled sand rushed back into his gourd.

He stopped, his gaze fixed on Temari who was still kneeling on the ground. Kankuro had come over to her and was checking her wound while Temari winced in pain. Gaara’s eyes narrowed, watching the flow of blood. Even standing a few feet away, he could smell its scent, hearing the heartbeat pumping the thick liquid out of the body. It seemed somehow different from the blood he had seen before. There was almost something sweet about it.

Slowly Gaara stepped towards his siblings. They never noticed his intense gaze until he stood only a step away from them. Temari gasped as she looked up, her eyes meeting Gaara’s. The expression on his face was unreadable as always, his eyes still glimmering with the blood lust sparked by the fight. Gaara remained motionless as Kankuro put Temari’s arm around his shoulders, lifting her up to her feet. Both siblings were visibly shaken by Gaara’s proximity, but they were afraid to say anything to him.

Gaara continued to stare at Temari as she stood up, slightly taller than him. His eyes drifted from her face to the wound on her shoulder. He tilted his head to the side slightly as he looked at the blood that continued to trickle over the exposed skin. His siblings remained standing in the same spot, afraid to move, unsure of Gaara’s intentions. After what seemed like an eternity, Gaara finally stepped past his siblings, heading back in the direction of the village, not bothering to ask if they needed help or even if Temari would be able to walk. The two exchanged a worried look before they began to follow their little brother, Temari still leaning on Kankuro’s shoulder for support.

When they got back to the village, Gaara disappeared. He never reported to the Kazekage after missions, and he only received his orders indirectly through Baki or his siblings. He avoided all contact with his father – an isolation that was mutual, the Kazekage being fully aware that if he was left alone with Gaara, his life would be crushed out of his body before he could ever attempt to defend himself. Kankuro took Temari to the hospital before going to the Kazekage’s office to give the mission report. He left out Gaara’s strange behavior at the end of the mission, knowing that it would make no difference. The Kazekage had been trying to assassinate Gaara unsuccessfully for the past six years. Telling him something that made him worry even more about Gaara’s existence would not benefit anyone.

Meanwhile Temari was lying in bed at the hospital. Her wound had been healed and bandaged. As she stared at the ceiling, she kept thinking back of Gaara’s expression when he looked at her. It was strange. He has never looked at her that way before. In fact, he rarely ever looked at her at all. He never seemed to care about her existence. Why did he act the way he did this time? Was he suddenly concerned for her safety? He killed all those shinobi immediately after she was wounded. But was Gaara even capable of caring about someone? Temari frowned, her thoughts confused, unable to understand what happened. She decided that she was probably just over-analyzing it. Most likely Gaara was simply aroused by the blood from Temari’s wound. It probably had nothing to do with her.

As Temari relaxed in her bed, she never saw Gaara sitting on a rooftop opposite her room and watching her through the window. He looked at her with indifferent eyes, his mouth contorted in a slight frown. He had never really noticed her before. She had grown up, she had become a woman. She was no longer the little girl standing by daddy’s side, hiding from him as all the other children in the village. Something about her seemed different. Gaara knew that she was still terrified of him as she always had been. But she did not back down when he stood in front of her earlier that day. He wondered, if she was not wounded, would she have run away from him?

Temari shivered uncomfortably, irrationally feeling that she was being watched. Her gaze turned towards the window. Looking outside she saw only an empty rooftop and a distant moon glowing in the midnight sky.

The next day, Kankuro came to visit Temari at the hospital. He pulled up a chair beside her bed, sitting down with a slight frown on his face. The door was closed. He looked outside the window to make sure there was no one there.

“So what do you think was up with Gaara?” he asked in a hushed voice.

Temari sat up slowly, propping up her pillows and leaning against the headboard. She sighed as she looked at Kankuro.

“I have no idea,” she answered finally. “I was thinking about that all night. The only thing I can guess is that he was just looking at the blood.”

“I thought so too,” Kankuro replied. “But he seemed weird. Weirder than usual I mean. He doesn’t usually look at his victims that way.”

“Well, it’s not like he was attacking me,” Temari said thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s why it was different.”

“Maybe,” Kankuro answered uncertainly. “But it still gives me the chills when he stands so close.”

“I can’t help but wonder,” Temari said quietly, “what it would have been like if we had been nicer to him when he was growing up.”

“Nande?” Kankuro said, surprised. “Are you suddenly feeling guilty?”

Temari shrugged. “Don’t you think it’s wrong that his own siblings are terrified of his presence?”

“Don’t start, Temari,” Kankuro answered sternly. “You know he has no concern for us. He’ll kill us just as easily as anyone else if we happen to be in his way.”

“I know,” she said with a sigh. “I guess it just makes me sad.”

“Well, it’s not like we chose for this to happen,” Kankuro said with a shrug. “It’s not our fault.”

Temari nodded with resignation, knowing that this conversation was pointless. Kankuro was right, they had no choice in these events. When they were still small children, they suddenly found themselves with a baby brother who was born with a demon inside him, while at the same time they were robbed of their mother. At first they used to resent him because he was the favored child, the one that received all the attention and all the pampering. They never got a chance to spend time with him because he was always training with the Kazekage, or left alone in his room full of toys while they were told to leave him alone.

But when he turned six, things suddenly changed. Everyone began to realize that Gaara had no control over Shukaku. Kankuro and Temari were warned to stay away from their little brother. They soon understood that their father was trying to have Gaara assassinated, with no success. Kankuro and Temari never had a chance to develop any kind of a relationship with their little brother, and by the time he was released from the watchful eyes of his many servants, he had become a monster who lived only to kill. They had begun to truly fear him, staying away from him not just because they were ordered to but because they were afraid for their lives whenever he was around.

It had been a shock to them when they were told they were to form a team with Gaara. Having failed in his assassination attempts, the Kazekage had allowed Gaara to graduate from the academy and decided that since he could not be rid of his existence, he might as well put him to the use that he was created for – to act as the village’s weapon of destruction. Gaara’s siblings were chosen as his teammates in the hopes that he would be more considerate towards them and would not immediately kill them when they came too close. It showed how little the Kazekage understood his youngest son. Gaara only killed those that for one reason or another stood in his way, or those that aroused his interest by being exceptionally powerful. It would have made no difference who was on his team, as long as they knew to stay back and not draw attention to themselves.

His siblings knew Gaara enough to never oppose him and never speak up against him, trying as much as possible to blend into the background and never give him a reason to want to kill them. Although Kankuro sometimes lost his temper, forgetting the danger and attempting to assert his authority over Gaara as his older brother, Temari had always been able to stop him before he went too far. She rambled hurried apologies to Gaara for both of them, and Gaara always walked away silently, never acknowledging her words.

Temari and Kankuro had grown accustomed to living in constant fear. They had lived with Gaara, and now they had to work with him. Although it seemed that Gaara would not kill them without a reason, Gaara was unstable and unpredictable. No one truly knew if he would one day snap and destroy the entire village. His siblings realized that at any moment their lives might be ended at Gaara’s whim, and they had been forced to accept this fact, knowing they had no choice in the matter. It seemed a pathetic existence, but as shinobi raised in the merciless Sunagakure they could hope for nothing more.

Temari settled back into the pillows as her and her brother fell into a heavy silence, seemingly thinking the same thing. No one could ever truly understand Gaara. No one could know what might have been. Gaara was a jinchuuriki, he was a monster, and they were stuck with his existence until he or someone else chose to end their lives.