Frostbitten Sand (Naruto Fanfic)

Misty Answers

 "So you're still small..."

Gaara wondered what his father wanted to say to him, but the auburn haired man quickly found himself interrupted by his sandy haired daughter. "Don't." The auburn haired teen turned his head to look at his sister, wondering why Temari had become upset with their father. Instead Temari gave him the look with her indigo eyes indicating she'd switched to protective big sister mode, and Gaara found rather quickly that his sister could potentially be scarier then he ever had been. "Hey, could you stay with me in my room tonight Gaara?"

The young kazekage heard his father take a deep breath, and Gaara turned to look at the auburn haired man with his sea foam green eyes. The young teen couldn't help but notice that Rasa didn't seem pleased with Temari's situation, and the urge to talk to his father also remained. The deep feeling of anxiety settled down into the pit of his stomach, and Gaara's eyes darted to the ground while his hands clenched up. "But..."

"I need to talk to him alone."

"I want to talk to him to. Does Temari even remember her promise, to give him a chance?" The auburn haired teen muttered under his breath. "You said..."

"I'm going to keep my promise. To do that though, I need to talk to him a bit. Alright?"

Rather reluctantly Gaara stood up, glancing up at Rasa for a bit, and noticed the rather stern look plastered to the auburn haired man's face, and the young teen began to worry his lip, but then shook his head, complying to Temari's request. For some reason Gaara didn't go straight to the room, and instead hung around the hallway leading away to the rooms. His thin fingers clenched together into fists, the inability to hear the conversation aggravating him.

Eventually though his father came down the hall on his crutches, the auburn haired man closely followed by Baki. Rasa stopped at seeing his youngest. "Gaara?"

The fourteen year old looked up, his lips pushing together in frustration. Gaara's mouth opened to say something, only to stop upon seeing the pain in his father's dark brown eyes. The auburn haired teen felt his mouth snap shut, his jaw setting.

"Didn't your sister ask you to go to her room?"

Gaara leaned his head to the side so that his sea foam green eyes didn't look into those of his father. "Did Temari keep her promise?" The teen shook his head, his auburn locks getting in front of his eyes slightly. "Never mind. You don't know what I'm talking about."

"Actually, Temari told me about the promise she made you." Rasa's comment made Gaara look the man in the eye, only to see an uncomfortable amount of pain in the man's eyes, making the teen look away again. "She let me know she's not pleased with the fact I got out as early as I did, as it's going to make keeping her promise harder."

"Then she didn't keep her promise?" Gaara swallowed, looking his father in the eye again, wondering why things weren't going the way the auburn haired teen would have liked.

Rasa's eyes widened, and the auburn haired man's facial features twisted up in confusion, his voice straining slightly as he spoke to Gaara. "No, Temari kept her promise. She was simply making a legit point, that I got out of the hospital sooner then she expected, so she doesn't have as much time to get used to the idea that I'm back in your lives. She..." The man paused, as if he decided it was better to not say something. "Gaara, why didn't you do what your sister asked of you?"

Two sea foam green eyes widened, and Gaara felt a strange feeling settle over his body, the sensation of getting in trouble rushing over him. His voice strained slightly. "I..." The words "... wanted to see you," refused to come out of his mouth. "Never mind. It doesn't matter."