Black Sand

Author: Zimm

Pairings: Eventually SAIxGAA (whoo!) ShikaTem(past-ish)

Chapter Warnings: Character death Minor or Major it depends om your view. Introduction of OC's but with purpose and they are not ninja so there.

Author Note: Okay so we have jetisoned back in time from the last chapter to the beginning of how Sai and Gaara got together. Please bare with me, it is pain staking to keep Sai in character, and thus this story will be updated in random spurts until I can dedicate myself to it more fully. Also Replies to those who reviewed will be at the end! Thank you.



Chapter One





It was three weeks, two days, seven hours, and thirty minuets after the return of the fallen Temari Subaku’s lifeless body. The memorial service being held two days after her return. He hadn’t been there for the service himself as he was on a mission at the time, but he had quickly volunteered to be escort for Gaara and family. Temari had been primary care taker of three children between Shikamaru Nara and herself and now with out a mother they were to be returned to their father.



Gaara was personally going to deliver the children, as per the treaty between the nations when concerning children of mixed births, one escort must be from the receiving nation. Sai had returned from one mission only to turn around and leave for this one. He had respect for Shikamaru and Temari so he would go and help bring home their children.



The door to the left opened and in ran two children, a blond who could only be the eldest at five years of age, a brunette who looked remarkably like his father age three, and Gaara holding the youngest at nine months, bushy fiery hair on top her head. The quiet stern leader quietly closed the door behind himself and gracefully walked towards Sai.



“Sai.” Gaara said to the man nodding his head at him.



“Kazekage.” Sai replied bowing slightly. “I have been informed that it is proper etiquette to use the phrase I apologize for your loss. Though I’m not sure how I am at fault for this.”



Gaara blinked, slightly taken aback by what the other had said, but then remembered that Naruto told him not to take anything Sai said personally. His mind flashed back to the moment with Naruto using his fingers to make quotation marks around the word “special” when describing the man who used ink as a weapon. Naruto was right, the man had a way of saying things that just didn’t really make one feel better about the subject at hand.



“Thank you for your…” he paused suddenly aware that Sai probably didn’t really feel the emotion behind the sentence. “Words.”



“You’re weird.” The blond five year old stated staring up at him from his knee.



“Seiko!” Gaara reprimanded.



The girl looked sheepish and bowed her head in shame, “Well he is…”



Sai crouched down, “I said something to make you think this.”



The little boy piped up, “Yesh, yous said that it your fault.”



Sai’s dark eyes studied the ruddy face of the three year and mulled over what he had said. Apparently when you apologize for someone’s death that you didn’t have anything to do with it didn’t mean you were taking blame for it. Curious, he had never thought of it that way, but it made a sort of strange sense. Standing he looked back at the Kazekage who was frowning at the two children.



“It is alright, I can not learn things properly unless I am corrected, even if the information comes from somewhere unexpected.” He informed Gaara stretching his face into a smile.



He heard the children giggle and realized that he still didn’t quite have that expression down yet. Instead of keeping the unfamiliar expression in place he went back to his regular one. He recalled Naruto commenting on how sometimes that look made people think that he might kill them at any moment and he frowned.



“Something troubling you?” the redhead asked.



“No, just remembering something.” he replied.



“Uncle Kaze, do we really have to travel the whole time with him?”



Gaara sighed, he was already starting to reach his patience level with his sister’s children. He was about to reprimand her when Sai put his gloved hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair.



“I’m afraid that is my mission. I hope that I do not bother you to much with my strangeness.”



This time Sai had gotten the smile right and it seemed to pacify the children, much to Gaara’s relief.



“We will head off in an hour, and set up camp at the edge of the canyon.”



“Yes sir.” Sai replied. “I calculate that it will be about a week and half travel with three children.”



“Probably. Assuming we are not attacked.”



“Is Kankurou coming as well?”



“Uncle Rou isn’t coming.” Seiko replied looking displeased.



Gaara’s pale green eyes looked at her while he replied, “No, he is staying to watch over the village in my stead and his wife is expecting to give birth any day now.”



Sai nodded, it was important to be there when ones offspring was to come into the world. Shikamaru had conveniently had missions in Suna for everyone of his children’s births. Naruto was sure to have such back dealings so the council couldn’t say otherwise. Naruto was a very good leader, and thought about his people, and his ninjas. It was a nice change and Sai believed in his Hokage, his ideas and followed him without question.



************



They had a day left before they arrived at Konoha borders and they quietly set up camp, the kids playing in the snow marveling in the cold white stuff. Little puffs of breath escaped their lips as they danced and laughed in the snow and Gaara watched them with a tenderness in his eyes Sai had never seen the red head have before.



“You care for them a lot.”



“Yes, they are exhausting, but fun.”



“Fun.” Sai repeated watching the children toss snow at one another.



“Hey hey! Sai look look!” The three year called out before falling backwards into the snow and waving his arms and legs around.



Sai walked over, pulled the child up and inspected the shape on the ground. The child looked at him expectantly, as if he was waiting for Sai’s approval. It was odd, having someone want his approval for anything. Approval was for people who had authority, not for someone like him.



“It is,” He looked at Gaara for guidance who gave him no help. “Shaped like you.”



The child in question looked at him with a frown, and for a moment Sai thought he had said the wrong thing again, but the boy brightened and hugged him tightly. Before Sai could decide what to do the three year old was gone, bounding through the snow drifts. Standing he shook his head and walked back over to start the fire.



“Though it worked, it would have been better if you had told him it was nice.” Gaara explained.



“I will remember that for the next time then.” Sai answered as the fire started up.



Gaara studied the man bent over near the fire as he pulled out the necessary previsions for the evening meal. Still sporting the gloves and pants that he had always had, Sai had changed his shirt, though it didn’t do any better a job hiding the body underneath as it was mesh. Apparently Sai was not ashamed of his body in the least, which wasn’t a bad thing, but it tended to make people - females in particular- blush and giggle. The man didn’t seem to notice it, or did notice it and assumed it was because he was strange.



Naruto called him special, Sakura called him weird, Kiba called him a freak, and he had even once gotten Neji to say something about the man, which wasn’t nice in the least. Sasuke fit into the group of friends much easier than Sai, and the man had gone traitor for years. For Gaara, Sai was just himself, granted he hadn’t known the man personally for very long, only a little over a week. Still he had known Naruto all of a day really and they had become friends.



Sai looked over his shoulder, “Is something troubling you?”



“No.” Gaara replied.



“Then why are you studying me?” Sai questioned with a frown.



Gaara stared at the man as the man stared back. What was one to say to such a question?



“I was thinking.”



“About?”



“How you are you.”



The statement gave Sai pause before he turned back at his task at hand. He poured the dust like substance into the pot and added water from his canteen. Using the wooden spoon he stirred the ingredients until they started to look like soup then placed the pot above the fire. He didn’t quite understand what Gaara had meant by those words.



“It means all the things you do, though strange to others, is just you.” Gaara answered his unasked question.



“Don’t you think that I am weird?”



“No more than Naruto who harbors a demon, no more than Kiba who believes he is a dog, and no more than me.”



“What is so weird about you?”



“I died and came back to life for one.”



“You died?” Seiko asked finally done playing in the snow her younger brother shortly behind her.



“Yes.”



“How are you still alive then?”



“An elder gave her life in exchange for mine.”



“How you die?” the young boy questioned.



“A group of bad men took my life because they wanted my dangerous power for themselves.”



“They dead?”



“I do believe so.” Gaara replied patting the child on the head.



“Then why did mommy die?”



Gaara winced, not able to answer the child. He wasn’t sure what to say to someone who lost their parent, a parent they were close to.



“Another group of bad people came and took her away from you.” Sai answered sounding wise.



The two children looked at him with tears in their eyes.



“Why can’t she be brought back?”



Sai took a moment to decide on what to say, “Because she gave her life in exchange for you three.”



The children looked at each other as tears began to fall. Sai realized he hadn’t said quite the right thing.



“You should be proud that you are loved that much. That you have family willing to do what it takes to be sure you can be happy.”



“But I not happy with out mommy.” The young boy sniffed.



“That takes time.”



“How long?” Seiko asked.



“It all depends on you.”



“You ever loose mommy?”



“I never had a family, Chiharu.” Sai answered turning back to the soup stirring again.



The children looked surprised, they had never heard of such a thing. The two looked at each other before jumping onto Sai and hugging him. If not for his superb ninja skills, Gaara guessed he would have fallen into the fire.



“Then you are Uncle Sai!” They called out in unison.



Sai looked at the two hanging off his shoulders, at their wide smiles and felt a warmth inside his chest. He didn’t know what it was, but it was nice to feel so he didn’t worry about it. He made an act of thinking over what the children had said before slowly smiling.



“Nope, you’re doing it wrong again.” Seiko informed him.



“Oh.”



“Uncle Sai funny.” Chiharu giggled.



“What does being an uncle entail exactly?” Sai asked growing suspicious.



Seiko started to tick off all the responsibilities on her mittened fingers. “Well you have to visit us, and know our birthdays,”



“Yeah so we can get presents!” Chiharu added.



“You have to take us places we like to go,”



“Like park, or ice cream.”



“Gotta make us laugh, and happy, gotta be nice to us.”



“Yep nice.”



“Gotta make sure to give us things that annoy daddy. Uncles like to do things that frustrate so that they get a laugh out of it.”



Chiharu laughed placing his hands over his mouth while nodding in agreement.



“Oh! And you most definitely have to love us.” Seiko finished looking at him very seriously.



“I’m not sure how much of that I know how to do.” Sai confided.



Seiko studied him for a moment her blond brows knitted in as she thought that over. Then she sighed exaggeratedly placing her small fists on her hips.



“Well you can learn.”



Gaara felt a laugh burble up from his chest but covered it with a slight cough. It was a bit amusing to watch Sai interact with the kids. Seiko was so much like her mother sometimes is was a little ridiculous. Chiharu was in between, and the youngest Mairen still had yet to develop any obvious traits. The ink wielder was in for a lesson of his life, now that the children had adopted him, and Shikamaru was just going to have to go with the flow. Not that the man did much of anything else, he still didn’t see what his sister saw in that man.



“Okay, but I might have missions.” Sai explained.



“Well you gotta come say bye before you go.”



“Every time?”



Chiharu nodded.



“Lots of kisses and hugs to.”



Sai thought this over, he wasn’t sure how to hug, he hadn’t received many of those in his life time. Kisses hadn’t even happened at all.



“I will try.” He said slowly.



“So Uncle Sai my birthday is December 11th be sure to get me something.” The little girl smiled.



“I have a while to wait then.”



“Yeah, but Mairen’s first birthday is coming up in three months. It’s on the seventeenth.”



“Hm.”



“Don’t worry about it to much Sai.” Gaara told him.



“Uncle Sai?”



Sai looked at Chiharu expectantly.



“You want be Uncle?”



Sai gave a smile, that was half way decent and ruffled the boy’s hair.



“It will be nice.”



Sai had never had a family before, and the warmth in his chest had grown at the idea. He couldn’t really explain it to the child, but being an uncle was what he wanted. He had no idea what exactly he was to do, or even how to do it, but he would do his best. It was the first time he felt that he belonged and it was nice to feel such a thing. He looked up at Gaara who nodded at him, that meant he’d said the right thing then.



Pouring soup into individual bowls Sai gave one to each person before settling down and sipping his own. The children chatted excitedly about being able to stay with their dad, and play in the snow something they had never seen before. This too was nice, even though he did not contribute to the conversation, but this seemed normal as Gaara didn’t either. Once the children were in bed Sai walked around the camp putting up century seals and scattered his ink mice through out the area before heading to bed as well.



~TBC~

End Note: Special Thanks goes out to:



Msuzumaki here on aff.net THank you so much for again reading and reviewing yet another on of my stories. It makes me feel like I have one true fan out there! *huggles* I appreciate that you took the time to let me know what you thought about the story so far. I hope to hear from you more as the story continues to unfold. I love to hear what you have to say so please keep letting me know!

Mustang89 also hails from here on aff.net It's so good to know that you are excited for upcoming chapters. I hope to hear and await your thoughts and feeling of upcoming chapters. Please feel free to let know even if its a critique. *huggles* Hope you liked this chapter!