I do not own Naruto in any way. This story is dark. If you don't want people dead don't read.

"Temari!! Temari!!!" He called as he ran the silent sand covered streets.

"Gaara? I can't breath, Gaara. Help me!"

"Temari!" Everything was blurry around the edges and getting harder to make out as he drew closer to his sisters voice.

"Gaara! Kankuro can't see. He says his hands hurt. I'm scared! Gaara, help!"

"Where are you? Temari!" He turned a sharp corner and ran into the open square.

The wind whipped sand around the gathered villagers. The bodies turned toward the center of the circle were blank of features. He moved among them, pushing at men, women and children while making his way. Moving faster and faster though seeming to make no progress. The edges of his vision blurred more and more, making it harder and harder to maneuver.

"GAARA!!!"

A brake in the crowd showed a large wooden stake with two boards strapped four feet apart. There was a figure, not unlike Kankuros puppet, hanging limply from the horizontal boards.

"Gaara, PLEASE!!"

More breaks in the crowd showed another figure tied to a single stake, eyes covered in black cloth and bound at the wrist. As he watched the figure slumped and dropped hard to the ground. As he drew closer he realized its hands were painted red.

"I can't breath!!"

"Temari!!! TEMA…"

He broke through the last of the crowd. His vision blurred. His body heavy and blood flowing sluggishly through his pounding heart. He stared for a long moment not realizing his face was wet with tears and his voice was lost to the choking lump in the base of his throat.

"Help me…"

A young woman with yellow pigtails sat back on her knees. Her arms were bound behind her ramrod straight back. A man holding a bloody sword in his right hand stood over her. In his left hand gripped the pigtails and lifted her disembodied head.

"Gaara, I can't breathe. Help me."

Tears trailed down her cheeks and mingled with the blood pooling on the ground below.

"Help Kankuro. His hands hurt so much."

He stood staring at his sisters severed head as he brother whimpered from the single stake, hands crushed and bloodied. His sensei's body hung gutted and lifeless from the crucifixion stake.

"I'm sorry."

He tried moving his arms. They wouldn't obey him. The sand wouldn't come to him. His screams sounded loud in his own head but nothing came from his lips.

"Temari, I'm sorry."

"GAARA!! DON'T LEAVE US!!"

His vision blurred into a single pinpoint on his sisters slowly paling face, then everything unfocused and was gone.

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Tsunade looked on as Sakura treated the worst of the wounds to the now former Kazekage of Suna. Word of trouble in the land of wind had spread to the leaf and a scout mission had been sent. They'd returned with grim news and a heavily drugged and beaten Gaara Sabaku.

"He's stable now and as healed as he's going to get for a while. I can't be sure when he'll wake. The drugs were heavy, I assume, to ensure he couldn't make hand seals much less call sand. If he weren't uncommonly strong to begin with I doubt he would have survived the dosages they gave him." Sakura reported as she made notes on a small chart.

Tsunade nodded and watched on as the young red head twitched in his forced sleep. Whatever he was dreaming it wasn't pleasant.

"Sensei?"

The Hokage looked to her student. Sakura had grown a lot in the last few years. She'd be teaching on her own soon enough. Her skill had long since surpassed that of her master. Not that Tsunade was admitting it. Even so she was reluctant to answer too many question regarding their current charge. A large amount of it was now deemed classified. Until Gaara woke…

"I promise I'll answer all of your questions as soon as he wakes, Sakura. Until then, please refrain from questioning the guard or the patient. I want to know the moment he's conscious."

Sakura frowned and her fists clenched, snapping the pencil it two, but she nodded and bowed. "Yes, sensei."

Tsunade nodded and stepped out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. If only the pain would stay behind that door as well.

"Excuse me, Lady Tsunade." Kakashi Hatake stopped a few feet in front of her, his one visible eye intense.

"He's not awake." When the man said nothing she motioned him to follow, shutting them into one of the empty examination rooms.

"What have you found out?" She asked though she wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"His name is Kanaye Sasaki. He is a missing nin from the Land of River. We haven't been able to find out much else about him or his group. Apparently they walked right in and took over the place."

Tsunade shook her head with a frown. "Gaara isn't the type to allow that to happen. They had to have an in somewhere. It wouldn't be the first time that village was infiltrated. Though I'd hoped the security was better after that attack three years ago."

Kakashi shrugged but his eye was watching her intensely. She watched him for a moment before blowing out a breath.

"Spill it, Hatake. It's been a long night."

He nodded and pulled out his report. "It seems there have been rumors and speculation flying around the surrounding country side that the Kazekage is less than stable. Some state that he's lost considerable power since the loss of the one-tailed demon and is unable to hold Suna. And another says that he intends to destroy Suna all together in revenge for their… transgression."

"We've heard rumors like this before. It's nothing new, though I thought they would have died down by now." She cut in.

"True. But these rumors don't seem to have been started by simply minded villagers or angry ex-girlfriends." He paused and refolded the report before looking up again. "They came from current council members and guard within Gaaras inner circle."

"So it was an inside job." She pressed her thumb and forefinger to the bridge of her nose.

"Once the people believed, he simply walked in and took over." Kakashi finished.

"Only he didn't just walk in. He drugged and beat the boy then…"

"He's making an example of them. But something else is off. Kankuro wasn't with the others. Nor was Gaaras former student."

"Bargaining chips?" She mused.

"Or insurance."

She nodded and dropped into the seat against the wall.

"So what do we do now?" Kakashi asked.

"Nothing." She replied tiredly. "There's nothing we can do."

"If we harbor him it's quite possible it could start a war." He stated simply.

Tsunade sat and stared at the wall as if all the answers were written there and any moment they would make themselves known to her. A war. More death and destruction. All for a boy who'd once tried to kill them all simply because he was crazy only to lose to a boy that most likely was just as crazy. With a smile she turned to back see the copy nin watching her with a lazy eye.

"What do you think he would do?"

"Well," Kakashis one eye crinkled with his smile, "I'm sure he'd rant for a few moments, then scream out something like, 'Let them come! I'll take them all on! BELIEVE IT!' Or something along those lines."

Tsunade chuckled then stood and took the report Kakashi held out for her.

"Please keep the contents of this report to yourself and inform your team this information is not to become public until further notice. I want to speak with Gaara before we move forward."

The elite shinobi nodded and bowed before making a series of hand seals and disappearing in a puff of smoke. She sat for a long time holding the report in a loose grip. When the door opened and a medic walked in she stood to leave him to his duties. As she walked down the hall toward the exit she smiled with grim determination. She would find out what Kanaye Sasaki was up to and she would make him pay for the deaths of Gaaras sister and former sensei. And then she'd consign him to the deaths of whatever hell would take him.

"Believe it."

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Sakura stood over Gaara and cleaned the largest of the gashes on his head. A few would take some time to heal and would most likely scar. Not that anything could make the man less beautiful, but the reasons for such violence…

"Is there anything else you need, Sakura?"

She looked up at the young medic trainee and shook her head. "No, I can take it from here. You're free to go."

The young man bowed and left the room. The silence stretched as she pressed the new bandage to the wound and wrapped it in place with the bindings.

"T…m…i"

She stopped on the last wrap as she heard the soft sound slip from Gaara still lips.

"Gaara?" She stepped back and looked down at the red head.

"Te…ri…"

Awed, she watched as tears rolled slowly from his eyes to travel the slope of his softly rounded cheek. They merged at his pointed chin and dripped down into the hollow of his throat. She shook herself and reached for a tissue in the box by the sink. She'd never seen him cry. She doubted he even knew what he was doing.

"Te…mari"

Slowly, so as not to disturb him, she moped up the tears puddled on his skin and dried his eyes. The more he mumbled the more made sense and for a moment she thought it might be kinder to wake him, but she heeded Tsunades words and trusted in her judgment. In the end, the young pink haired medic simply stood by the former Kazekages bed and wiped the tears from his face as he repeated over and over again, "Temari, I'm sorry."

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I know it's short but it's the start. Not sure if this story is going to work so review would be welcome. I haven't re-read this and it's late some I'm tired. I look over it again tomorrow and correct any mistakes I find. Shouldn't be too bad though. Hope you like it. Let me know.