Chapter 442: Wonderful
Morning twilight filtered through Sunagakure's sand-proof latticed windows, softly spilling into a neatly arranged, warm bedroom.
"Gaara-sama, it's time to wake up."
A gentle voice like desert's soft flowing sand quietly sounded beside the bed.
Little Gaara curled in soft bedding, slowly opening sleepy eyes.
The first thing he saw was hair like sun-warmed sand with a soft luster, and a male face leaning down with soft features, brows and eyes carrying loving smile.
"Yashamaru..."
Gaara unconsciously murmured this name carved deep in memory with just-awakened confusion.
"Yes, it's me." Yashamaru's smile deepened. He extended his hand, using his finger backs to extremely gently brush Gaara's still-drowsy cheek. "You should get up. Today's your first day at the ninja academy. Can't be late."
"Oh... I understand..."
Gaara obediently nodded, allowing Yashamaru to help pull back the covers and skillfully dress him in that small casual outfit.
Under Yashamaru's guidance, Gaara came to the home's living room. Food fragrance drifted through the air.
"Gaara, good morning."
A gentle woman's figure already waited by the dining table. She also had sand-yellow colored hair, currently using those eyes full of undisguised loving affection to quietly watch her youngest son.
Sunlight shone on her, enveloping her entire person in a layer of soft halo.
"Mother...?"
Gaara's footsteps paused slightly. Raising his small face to look at the woman before him, his expression showed a mixture of familiarity and uncertainty, appearing somewhat confused.
"What's wrong, Gaara? It's Mother." Karura looked at her son's somewhat unclear adorable appearance, couldn't help laughing softly. She stood and walked before him, extending her hand to stroke his short red hair. "Why make such a strange expression? Haven't woken up yet?"
Gaara felt the warm touch belonging to his mother transmitted from his head, his body instinctively relaxing somewhat, but the confusion in his eyes hadn't completely dispersed.
He only quietly responded with a low "Mm."
"Alright! Time to eat!"
An energetic, somewhat overly loud boyish voice broke this moment's tranquility.
"Today's Gaara's first school day! As his older brother, I'll definitely set a good example for Gaara at school!"
Kankuro waved a small wooden puppet in his hands, excitedly running over from the room's other end.
"Too loud, Kankuro. Keep it down this early." Temari slowly followed behind, yawning, appearing not fully awake yet.
"Alright, alright, everyone's here." Karura clapped her hands, face carrying a satisfied smile, indicating everyone should take seats. "Eat quickly. Yashamaru, Kankuro, Temari—I'm counting on you to bring Gaara to school shortly."
Her gaze deliberately paused on Kankuro and Temari, instructing them.
"Because Gaara's a transfer student, he's still unfamiliar with the school. You two as older siblings must take good care of Gaara. Introduce him to new friends, tell him where the classroom is, and... Kankuro, don't use your puppets to scare classmates at school."
"Yes! I understand, Mother!"
"Yes." Temari also responded concisely, picking up a piece of bread.
Gaara quietly sat in his position. Before him was already arranged abundant breakfast—steaming miso soup, perfectly fried eggs and sausage. He picked up chopsticks, eating in small bites, movements proper, but expression still carrying a trace of confusion.
While attending to the other children's meals, Karura didn't forget to concernedly ask Gaara.
"How is it, Gaara? How's the taste?" Her voice carried expectation and pride. "All the food was made by Mother's own hands."
Gaara stopped his chopsticks, seriously chewing, then swallowing. He raised his head, looking at Karura, answering very honestly.
"Mm... very delicious."
His small face showed no particularly excited expression, but his gaze was peaceful.
"However..." He hesitated, still adding quietly.
"However what?"
"It seems... there's someone... whose cooking tastes much better than this..."
Hearing this, Karura not only wasn't displeased but her eyes brightened, smile becoming even gentler. She set down her utensils, seriously looking at Gaara.
"Is that so? That's wonderful."
Her tone was full of encouragement and curiosity.
"Then in the future, if Gaara meets that person again, you must introduce them to Mother."
"Mother will learn carefully from that person, striving to make food Gaara finds even more delicious."
Gaara looked at his mother's gentle, serious face. He lightly nodded, responding quietly.
"...Mm."
At the dining table, Yashamaru smiled with gratification. Kankuro chattered about school's interesting stories, Temari occasionally made sarcastic comments, and Karura busily added food to the children's bowls.
After finishing breakfast, Karura and Yashamaru saw the children to the entryway. Kankuro already impatiently shouldered his homemade small bag, Temari had organized her ninja tool pouch, and Gaara wore a brand-new, properly-sized small backpack.
"I'm heading out." Temari, as eldest sister, spoke first.
"Mm, be careful on the way." Karura stood at the door, patting each of the three children's heads in turn, finally especially gently patting Gaara's shoulder.
Plain, warm, utterly ordinary family farewell.
Arriving at the school gate during morning rush, many children and parents gathered here, voices clamorous. Temari and Kankuro as "seniors" needed to head to their own classes first.
"Gaara, wait for us here after school. Don't wander off." Temari instructed.
"Gaara, do your best!" Kankuro forcefully patted Gaara's back.
"Mm." Gaara nodded.
After seeing his siblings merge into different grade levels' crowds, Yashamaru held Gaara's hand, passing through the somewhat noisy corridor to arrive before a classroom marked "First Grade." The classroom door was open, already containing quite a few seated children, chattering sounds emerging.
Yashamaru crouched down, meeting Gaara at eye level, helping straighten his collar and somewhat raised red hair at his forehead.
"Alright, this is it, Gaara-sama."
"After entering, listen to the teacher. Try making many friends, playing with everyone. However..."
"If you encounter someone deliberately bullying you or doing excessively mean things to you... it's okay to hit back. Don't be afraid—Yashamaru and Mother, plus your older siblings, will all stand on your side."
Gaara raised his face, obediently listening, then solemnly nodded.
Yashamaru smiled, standing up, gently pushing open the classroom door, indicating Gaara should enter.
The classroom's clamorous sounds lowered slightly. Children's curious gazes directed over.
"Everyone, quiet down." The teacher at the podium clapped hands, signaling everyone to settle. "This is our class's new transfer student, Gaara. Everyone get along well with him."
The teacher's voice was gentle. Below, most children showed kind or purely curious expressions, examining this new classmate with striking red hair who appeared somewhat quiet.
"Gaara, sit in that empty seat over there." The teacher pointed in a direction. "First get familiar with surrounding classmates—we'll start class shortly."
"Yes." Gaara responded quietly, shouldering his small backpack, under many gazes' observation, walking toward that designated seat. His footsteps were somewhat light, heart experiencing that confused sense of unreality again.
He walked to that window-side seat and sat down, placing his bag properly. Slightly turning his head, he looked outside at Sunagakure's characteristic building contours appearing especially clear in morning light and distant vague sand dunes, trying to calm that inexplicable palpitation in his heart.
Just then, a voice came from beside him.
That voice was crisp, pleasant, carrying children's characteristic tender brightness and spirited energy.
"Your name is... Gaara, right?"
Gaara slowly, somewhat hesitantly turned his head.
Then—his gaze could no longer move away. That layer of confused, unreal mist in his mind thunderously retreated under this single glance, vanishing without trace.
In its place, his heart suddenly lost control in wild pounding, blood surging to flood his cheeks and ears, bringing waves of clearly discernible, uncontrollable scalding heat.
Entering his vision was a face seemingly gathering all sunshine and vitality.
Golden hair—not sand-yellow like Yashamaru's and Mother's, but more pure, bright, brilliant gold like molten metal.
The hair was styled into two lively twin-tails that gently swayed at her shoulders with her slight head tilt, hair tips dancing with scattered light points.
Skin fair and delicate, completely different from Sunagakure's common wind-sand-weathered complexion. Eyes like carved sapphires.
At this moment, these beautiful blue eyes carried friendly curiosity, filled with smile completely free of shadows, looking directly into Gaara's eyes widened from shock.
So cute...
This thought uncontrollably exploded in Gaara's blank mind. His heartbeat was so fast he could barely hear other classroom sounds.
The girl seemed not to notice Gaara's abnormality. She generously continued her self-introduction.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruko. Please take care of me from now on!"
As she spoke, she very naturally extended her right hand toward Gaara.
"Mm, yes..."
Gaara heard himself respond hoarsely, brain ceasing thought, only this brilliant smiling face and those sapphire-like blue eyes before him remaining.
Looking at that extended, fair small hand, Gaara didn't hesitate even slightly. He also raised his right hand, somewhat stiffly yet incomparably resolutely reaching toward that hand.
Closer, even closer...
He could see himself reflected clearly in her eyes—his dazed, completely flushed face.
The instant fingertips were about to touch, that excitement and heartbeat accumulated to the peak, that overwhelming enormous joy and palpitation could no longer be suppressed, violently impacting all his senses and consciousness—
"—!!!"
Gaara's eyes shot open abruptly!
Violent heartbeat hadn't calmed. His chest still echoed with that excitement's reverberations threatening to explode moments ago.
However, before his eyes was no longer the sunlight-filled classroom, no longer that close, brilliant adorable smiling face.
Entering his vision was a regular, hard-lined ceiling, a large heavy solid wood office desk with tall stacks of documents and scrolls.
Wall-mounted Sunagakure symbols and Kazekage hat emblems.
Intense afternoon sunlight streaming through windows—not morning light but somewhat glaring strong sunshine.
The Kazekage office.
The office belonging to the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara.
Gaara maintained his half-propped position from the office chair, frozen for quite a while. He slowly raised his right hand before his eyes.
Slender fingers, distinct knuckles—a hand belonging to an adult ninja accustomed to hand seals and controlling sand. Not the dream's small hand about to clasp another small hand.
"...It was a dream."
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...Nah Nah ..you can't tell me this is "bromance". Wait is Gaara gay in canon...now that I think about.....hmmm
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