sand heart [gaara x oc]

01: the beginning

I don't own Naruto or the settings, only my own characters and plot changes.

[flashback]

"c-can I play with you guys?"

"ah! it's the monster again!"

"get away from my son!"

as the exchange ended with the red-headed boy almost in tears, i watched from a distance in confusion of the poor treatment he received. his head was bowed down as he kicked the dirt beneath the swings of the now-abandoned playground.

he seemed nice, pretty cute too. though his dark circles were quite prominent at his age, i found them adorable, mimicking the eyes of a panda. pandas are well loved too, right?

perhaps im missing something but i couldn't see how he could be so harmful that everyone was too scared to even be next to him.

i felt sad that he was alone. maybe it was because i was alone too.

i wanted to know more, so i occupied the swings next to him. he seemed to flinch in response of my arrival.

"hi! what's your name?"

his eyes wide in shock as he turned to me and asked, "me?"

"well, of course! i mean, who else is here?" i replied.

"gaara..."

i reached over and grabbed his hand for a handshake and introduced myself back, "hi gaara, i'm satsuki, or tsukki for short if you'd like! i know we just met but it's getting late and i need to head home. here, you can have my stuffed panda bear as a token of our friendship! i might miss him but i'm sure we'll see each other again"

i put the stuffed animal in his hands as he asked, "why are you so nice to me?"

i frowned, "maybe we should be asking, 'why aren't people nice to you?' i'm sure whatever it is that happened wasn't your fault to begin with. it was never your fault, just the one inside of you."

i stood up and patted myself off, heading home with the hope that i helped cure the boy of a little of his loneliness, though there was no one at home to cure mine.

[end of flashback]

"gaara! chunin exams are in 4 days, and it takes 3 days to get there. hurry up!"

my name is akahitoha satsuki. as an akahitoha, i have the ability to read minds of people whom i've made eye contact with, rendering genjutsus useless on me.

as a result of mind-reading, i can copy jutsus that the opponent knows from their memory. however, there is a limit of 3 jutsus i can steal from a person.

sought out by power-hungry orochimaru, who wanted to steal our eyes, my clan was slaughtered and i was the remaining survivor.

with the chunin exams coming up soon, the opportunity to let the world know that my clan did not die on that day was approaching. i wanted to be recognized, and not live a fate where i hid for so long that the world was silent at the close-annihilation of my clan.

i'm a part of the "sand siblings" team which consists of gaara, kankuro, temari, and me.

we should've been on the way already but gaara is taking his sweet time, and i want to get to konoha as fast as possible.

i heard his light steps as he came down the stairs, ready for our trip. i don't know why, but the sight of him makes my stomach turn in ways it's not supposed to, and my heart beats a little faster than normal.

"let's go," he said.

[timeskip]

we split into pairs upon arriving at konoha. gaara with me, and temari with Kankuro.

gaara and i decided to explore konoha by watching where the other pair goes in secret since kankuro has an affinity for getting himself into trouble. 

just as we thought, he was picking a fight with some leaf-kid. gaara and i jumped onto a tree branch nearby to watch his brother being an idiot.

the leaf-kid's friends were there as well, 2 genin and 2 academy-aged kids.

"hey! let go of konohamaru!" the blond boy with whiskers on his face, said. i narrowed my eyes at him as i analyzed his features, he must be the nine-tails host.

they argued for a bit when some ravenette hit kankuro's hand with a pebble, causing him to let go of the kid.

we let them argue until it got boring and borderline embarrassing for us to watch, to be honest.

"kankuro, stop. "

kankuro, upon realizing the presence of his brother, said in fear, "but gaara--"

"shut up. or i'll kill you."

the konoha genin and kids looked at gaara with surprise at his threat to his own comrade. i maintained a blank face as to not show my emotions.

"understood. i won't do it again." 

it was only natural that kankuro would listen to people such as gaara and me. we are almost as strong as jonins but are only titled as genin officially.

the two of us jumped down from the tree branch, ready to leave the scene, when the ravenette asked, "what's your name?"

temari responded with a foolish blush on her face, "me?"

he rejected her on the spot with, "no, the red-head and the girl next to him."

i raised an eyebrow. He wants to know my name? i didn't even say anything.

"gaara of the desert."

i decided to create a nickname on the spot for myself since i feel like i can't say my name so casually after gaara said his.

"satsuki of the sand."

now it was gaara's turn to raise an... eyebrow? i don't know, he doesn't really have any so i imagined he did. i smiled in return. 

gaara asked him back, "you?"

the blond haired rudely interrupted, "hey! what about me?" though his efforts were wasted as we ignored him, waiting for the ravenette's response.

"sorry, i would've asked if i didn't already suspect that you were the nine-tails host" i thought to myself.

"uchiha, sasuke."

and with that, we were introduced to one of the leaf teams.

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