"That's not true..."
Temari lowered her head, her voice barely audible. Like a murmur in a dream, or a firm declaration to herself, it echoed softly through the silent basement.
"What?"
Naruto raised an eyebrow, not having caught her words.
Temari abruptly lifted her head. Her tears had yet to dry, but an almost obsessive resolve burned in her blue eyes. Her voice suddenly rose, thick with tears and adamant denial:
"Gaara isn't a monster! He's a poor child! He's my little brother!"
She practically shouted it, as though pouring every ounce of strength into searing those words into her own mind and everyone else's:
"Gaara never wanted to become like that! He's not a monster! He's a poor child!"
The sudden outburst of emotion and shift in perspective caught Naruto off guard.
He blinked, staring in surprise at the distraught Temari before him.
"Oh."
Naruto nodded, his response almost excessively flat. He genuinely couldn't keep up with the leaps in Temari's thoughts and emotions.
The last time they met, she had been terrified of Gaara's power. How had he suddenly become her "poor little brother"?
Right, so siblings could say whatever they wanted about each other, but no one else was allowed to?
He couldn't resist pointing it out. "Back in the desert, I saw the way you looked at your brother. You were scared out of your mind, like you wanted to stay a mile away from him.
"So why are you suddenly acting all 'he's my little brother, a poor child, and I'm the good big sister who protects him'?"
Naruto scratched his head, his face full of bewilderment. "Don't tell me you think shouting a couple of times that he isn't a monster will somehow move heaven and earth. Or... are you hoping someone will hear