Sand Siblings

Part 3

....

"Yuudai! Please! Calm yourself!" screamed the frantic woman, trying to hold her brother down. To prevent him from running out of their house and trashing things. He swung around and faced her.
"Calm myself? How could you even say that Reina? How can I be calm when our Kazekage is a... a monster?" His eyes were filled with anger and pain. "He didn't care if the entire boat sunk and everyone died just as long as his own children perished! It didn't matter to him. He doesn't value anyone's life! He doesn't value family! He didn't care if on that ship was someone's lover! Or parent! Or child! Or... brother... Our brother. The Kazekage told me that he would live. That the mission wasn't supposed to... to kill him. That there was nothing to worry about. That all he had to do was sabotage the ship. And that he would escape. He... he should have escaped. He should be alive. He should be here with us..." Yuudai spun around and punched a hole into the wall. He screamed in agony and fury. His sister looked away from the damage and held back tears. They had already cried enough. She walked over to the man and put an arm around his shoulder.
"Yuudai... Nothing you do can change what happened. It's too late now. You are the one who gave him the report. The mission was a success. The boat sunk. It vanished, like it was supposed to. But, no one survived. Jiro is gone, Yuudai. Our brother is gone. And he will never come back."

...

Temari watched as Gaara stormed out of the clearing for the second time.
"Kankuro... What did you say this time?" sighed Temari. She had no idea what had happened between her brothers whilst she was out cold, but, whatever it was, it had changed both of them. When she had awoken, she had seen concern and care in Kankuro's eyes, when he used to be so immature and always got in trouble.
And, in those few hours together, she knew that Gaara had somehow changed as well. His eyes weren't filled with pure hate and bitterness like they once were. But, apart that, on the outside, it didn't look as if he was any different. But, Temari was his sister. She couldn't explain his constant death glares and stomping out of the clearing just to return a few minutes later with a blank expression. Then, he would rip branches off trees and help Kankuro with the shelter, only to storm out again when the older boy made him mad. No, she had no idea what was going on in his head. But, Kankuro was still alive. And that was enough to convince her that Gaara was somehow... different.

"I... uh... called him... little." muttered the puppet-nin, just loud enough for his sister to hear. Temari looked at him, shocked.
...Yes, if Kankuro was still alive after that...
"Something is wrong here." announced the kunoichi. Her brother raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"It's Gaara... Since this morning he is acting... so... patient. Kankuro... what really happened on the boat? And during and after the shipwreck?" Temari shifted slowly, to not further damage her butchered arm and leg. The other ninja sighed. He placed the wood he was holding on the floor.

"I'm not to sure. You know Gaara, he's... different. On the boat, the first weird thing happened. There was this little kid lying next to a Sand Coffin crushed dude. She said that Gaara had saved her when the guy attacked her. He apparently sabotaged the ship..." Kankuro silenced Temai when she gasped at that information. "Then that's when the boat tipped over and Gaara lost all his sand in the flood. I pulled him out of the bottom floor and we went looking for you. When we saw you lying there... Gaara just froze on spot. I picked you up but the boat flipped over. I found a floating door and pulled both of you onto it. For half the night, Gaara just stared at your face. Then, I fell asleep, so I have no idea what happened after that. When I woke up, he wasn't there. I made the bandages with my shirt, so that's why I'm half naked. After about an hour, he came back saying he found this clearing. I saw the river and cleaned up your wounds... with Gaara's shirt, that he offered. Don't ask me. I have no idea what was wrong with him either. But I'm glad that he did it. Then you woke up, and you know the rest."