In a bright room filled with the scent of disinfectant, Naruto opened his eyes. He tried to get up but his body had no energy. Though his body seemed healed, he still couldn't move around freely.
"Wh-where am I?"
"You're in the hospital, Naruto."
"Shikamaru? How long have I been here?"
"About three days."
All of a sudden, a surge of chakra flowed through Naruto, erasing his weakness in an instant.
"WHAT? THREE DAYS? WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP SOONER? I gotta go. Where are my clothes?"
"What a drag. Where do you think you're going?" Shikamaru, already tired from the short exchange, decided to end it sooner rather than later.
"I gotta get back to training. Hey Shikamaru, when are the final rounds for the training exam?" Naruto asked, finding his clothes and starting to dress.
"It's tomorrow."
"TOMORROW? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"
"Hey, quiet down. Freaking out right before the final exam isn't going to help. Right now, resting is the best thing you can do to prepare for tomorrow."
Seeing the sense in Shikamaru's words, Naruto decided to listen. His eyes were drawn to the basket next to Shikamaru.
"Who's that for, Shikamaru?"
"Oh, this? I got this with Choji, but the doctor said he couldn't have any."
"Choji's here?"
"Yeah, but he's not in any danger. He's in for indigestion. He ate one too many ribs, and now the doctor won't allow him to eat anything extra."
"Hahaha, sounds just like him," Naruto laughed, picking up an apple. As he was about to bite into it, he stopped and looked at Shikamaru. "Let's go eat it in front of Choji."
Shikamaru stared at Naruto with a blank expression. "That's basically torture. I'm in." The two left the room with the basket of fruits.
---
In the hospital reception, Sakura stood alone, writing her name in the visitor log. It was quiet since she was the only one there. Suddenly, Sakura quickly turned around, only to find nothing. She shrugged it off and went to visit her fellow hospitalized genin. She opened a door and walked into Rock Lee's room.
Lee had lost a fight against Gaara. His arm and leg had been crushed by Gaara's living sand, not to mention his own technique, *The Eight Inner Gates*, had taken a heavy toll on his body, causing muscle tears and micro bone fractures all over. He lay in his hospital bed, sleeping peacefully.
Sakura quietly walked in, closing the door behind her. She placed a white flower in a vase on the shelf next to him. "I hope you like it," she said, watching over Lee with evident worry on her face. After a few minutes, Sakura left him to rest; she still had someone else to visit in the hospital.
---
In Choji's room, the person entering was revealed to be Ino Yamanaka. She was Choji's comrade and part of his four-man team.
"Hey Choji, you feeling better?"
"Ino?" Choji's thoughts raced, 'All right, a pretty girl with food. This is my lucky day.'
---
Back in Lee's room, Gaara walked in clutching his head.
"Uugh..." Gaara remembered fighting in the chunin exam, where he beat Lee and was about to kill him, but Guy stepped in and stopped him.
~"Why, he failed... Why save him?" Gaara clutched his head, groaning in pain and confusion.
Guy looked into Gaara's eyes. "Because he's my student, and because he's precious to me."~
The madness in Gaara's eyes was apparent. Memories of his unpleasant past flashed in his mind. Even though he wasn't bleeding, he felt pain in his chest. His sand flowed out of his gourd, slowly covering Lee with tendrils of sand. He was going to kill Lee. Suddenly, his body froze, and a punch landed on his face. Parts of his sand armor broke off, with sand flowing from the cracks.
"Go easy. I have him caught in my shadow possession jutsu. Any attack you land on him hurts me too." Shikamaru felt that punch just as much as Gaara did.
"Oh, sorry, Shikamaru." Naruto stepped back and stood next to Shikamaru.
"What exactly were you trying to do?" Naruto glared daggers at Gaara.
---
"Well...are you gonna tell us what you were gonna do?" Naruto got to the point.
"I was going to kill him." Naruto and Shikamaru were petrified from the shock. This was the first time they'd been in such a situation; their nerves weren't made of steel yet.
"Why's he so calm when he's caught in my shadow possession?" Shikamaru wondered. "Didn't you already beat him once? Wasn't that enough for you? Do you have some sort of personal grudge against him?"
"I have nothing against him."
"Huh?"
"It's nothing complicated like that. I just want to kill him, that's all." His tone wasn't dark nor filled with madness. He said it with a bland voice and a plain expression, as if it were normal.
"YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU'RE SICK IN THE HEAD."
"You think we'll just sit back and let you do what you want?" Naruto's mind raced. 'This guy freaks me out. There's always been something off about him. If he decides to make a move, I'm not sure we can stop him.'
"If you get in my way, I'll have to kill you too."
"Let's see you try," Naruto tensed up, prepared to move at any time.
"Stand down, Naruto." Shikamaru wasn't about to let this situation become any more dangerous. 'Our best option is to bluff our way out of this.'
"Yeah, yeah. We watched your match with Lee. We know you're strong, but me and Naruto have something up our sleeves. We've been holding back in our matches. We're stronger than you know. On top of that, there's two of us. Take my advice and leave...quietly."
"I'll say it again: If you get in my way, I'll kill you." Gaara's eyes turned sharp. Whether it was a bluff or not never crossed his mind. He didn't care in the slightest.
'OK, plan B,' Shikamaru thought. He had to keep this talk going long enough to figure something out. "And I'll say it again, let's see you try," Naruto's legs tensed up, ready to leap in any direction.
"Back off. We don't wanna go there. Did you see him fight? He's like a demon on the battlefield."
"Heh, he can pretend to be a demon, but I got the real thing inside of me." Naruto wore a cocky grin on his face, ready to charge at any time.
Shikamaru elbowed him. "Idiot, don't make him mad."
"A demon, huh? My demon's as real as yours is," Gaara said, closing his eyes. His past played in his mind. "When I was born, I took the life of my own mother. In order for me to become the ultimate weapon, my father sealed within me the incarnation of sand. I was born a monster." Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. His mouth was wide open, and he no longer felt the urge to yell.
"Incarnation of sand?" Shikamaru was intrigued. He'd never heard of such a thing before.
"The demon within me is a sand spirit named Shukaku. It's the living spirit of an old Hidden Sand priest that used to be sealed within a kettle."
"A possession jutsu that allows one to be possessed before birth... To go that far... how sickening," Shikamaru was disturbed by the darkness that Gaara was birthed into.
'He also has something in him,' Naruto thought, invested. So far, both he and Gaara seemed to be born with the same burden weighing them down.
"Heh, some parent. What a twisted sense of love," Shikamaru remarked, with his own understanding of family and what it means, not quite grasping the true scale of Gaara's situation.
"Love? Do not compare me to you. Do you know what family means to me? They are pieces of flesh that bind me with hatred and murderous intent." Naruto was shocked that Gaara, despite having a family, would still feel alone.
"I was born as the village's greatest masterpiece, as the Kazekage's son. My father taught me the ninja arts, and I was spoiled. They let me do as I wished... I once thought that was love, until that incident occurred."
"That incident?" Naruto and Shikamaru had to know.
---
"..."
Gaara stood in silence, looking at the floor.
"What happened?" Naruto grew impatient.
The smile of a madman spread on Gaara's face. "...For the last six years, ever since I became six years of age, my own father has tried countless times to assassinate me."
Shock and confusion spread like wildfire.
---
"Didn't your father spoil you? What do you mean?" Shikamaru couldn't understand. There weren't enough pieces of information in his possession to solve this puzzle.
"A being too strong is feared. Born through unconventional means, my spirit is unstable. The foolish villagers finally noticed something was wrong. To my father, I was the trump card of the village but also a dangerous being. By the time I reached six years of age, it was determined that I was too dangerous. To them, I am simply an object from the past they wished would disappear," Gaara continued, the mood growing more intense the longer they listened.
"Then why do I exist? Why am I alive? When I thought about this, I could find no answer. But as you live, you need a reason or it's the same as being dead."
"What's he...talking about?" Shikamaru couldn't relate; he had never had such thoughts before. But Naruto...
'I... I can understand. He's...the same as me.'