Recap

Maybe being on team 7 isn't so bad.

"Coming Hitomi-Chan?" yelled Sakura, noticing me lagging behind them.

Not so bad at all.

End recap

As we walked into the ramen shop, I observed the different people sitting in there. Our group found a booth and begun discussing the other teams. After Naruto's 10th bowl of ramen, we got up and went our separate ways. I was simply wondering around town when I came across a tree that would provide me shade from the sun and cover from anyone that would walk by. Not long after I got in the tree, I heard Konohamaru talk about someone with a big forehead. I had a pretty good idea of who he was talking about. Not soon after, I hear Naruto, Konohamaru, and the rest of Konohamaru's group run away screaming, when all of a sudden, I hear complete silence except the sound of someone running into something else.

"That hurt," I didn't know the voice, but it sounded vaguely familiar.

I let myself hang off the branch of the tree to try and see the owner of the voice when I was hit with an immense amount of power. I pulled myself up on the branch I was hanging from and slid into the darkness the tree leaves provided. I pulled a branch to the side to give myself a better view of the people. The owner of the voice was Kankuro. His sister Temari was standing next to him. Kankuro had Konohamaru on the top of his shirt, His painted face contorted with anger.

"That hurt you little piece of shit," Kankuro spoke sharply to scare poor Konohamaru even more.

You could hear Konohamaru struggling to be released from his attacker's grasp. Temari, being the ever so careful girl she always was, looked at Kankuro and gave him a warning of types.

"Don't, we'll get yelled at later."

After Temari's comment, Kankuro faltered ever so slightly. It would have gone unnoticed to the untrained eye. That one comment seemed to frightened Sakura even more as she was shaking even harder than before.

"I'm sorry, I was messing around..." Sakura muttered as quickly as possible. Although, it seemed that only her, Konohamaru and his teammates were scared. Naruto looked as if he was gonna burst at the seems from anger. Sasuke was on the branch next to me, waiting for the right moment to interact. Me, well, I was wondering who Temari and Kankuro we're so afraid of.

"HEY FATTASS!!! LET GO OF HIM!!! BASTARD!!" All I could see was an orange blur headed toward Kankuro, who only looked at Naruto with complete disinterest.

"Let's play a little before the boss comes." Kankuro decided to kick Naruto back, stopping his launch.

"Oh, Leaf Genins... are weak."

Since I was now a Leaf genin, I took a slight offense to Kankuro's statement and decided to make myself know by speaking up.

"Now Kankuro, not all leaf genin are weak. Take me, for example." There was silence as they all looked around for the source of the comment. I moved from the shadows, allowing myself to be seen. Temari was the first to spot me.

"Hitomi!? Is this where you disappeared off to?"

"It is. It's a pretty safe place to stop and train."

"Why didn't you-" Temari had started but was cut off by Konohamaru's plead.

"Let go of me..."

"HEY!! YOU FAT PIG!! IF YOU DON'T LET HIM GO, I'LL MAKE YOU PAY!! FATASS!! IDIOT!!"

The next moment Sakura had Naruto in a headlock and whisper-yelling in his ear about how he was an idiot and everything else. Which, in turn, caught Kankuro's attention.

"Hey, you're annoying... Basically... I hate midgets... Especially younger ones that are rude... It makes me want to kill them."

Temari looked at me as if she lost all hope for helping her brother from their mysterious boss and said, "Oh well... I'm not involved..."

"YOU BASTARD!!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, after this one I'll take care of that other annoying midget." Kankuro moved to punch Konohamaru as Naruto rushed towards him.

"HEY!!" Naruto couldn't seem to get his next words out as he was interrupted by Kankuro

"HEY!" A pebble had been thrown at Kankuro, causing him to drop Konohamaru. The culprit for the thrown pebble was Sasuke.

"What are you bastards doing in our village?"

"SASUKE-KUN" Sakura exclaimed, happy to see Sasuke 'coming to her rescue. Not so surprising, I caught Temari blushing ever so slightly at the sight of Sasuke.

"Ah... Another guy who pisses me off." Kankuro stated as he turned to face Sasuke and me.

"Get lost." With that one comment, Sakura lost her cool, as heart eyes appeared on her face. Naruto and Konohamaru were off to the side talking in quiet whispers.

"Now, Sasu, be nice. I know them; they're cool."

"I don't care Hitomi. They are acting like complete jackasses for no reason."

"Hey punk, get down here. I hate show-offs like you the most."

"Now Kankuro no need to be calling anyone a show-off. Why don't we all just calm down and walk away? I don't feel like breaking up any fights right now."

"Not gonna happen, Hitomi. I want to fight." He reached behind him and pulled his puppet off his back.

"Hey, you're even gonna use Karasu?" Temari asked.

I opened my mouth to say something when I felt this dark chakra appear behind me.

"Kankuro, stop it," The owner of the dark arua ordered. I quickly pivoted around and saw nothing. I focused my energy to pinpoint that specific chakra. The person was under the same branch as Sasuke. I leaned forward to take a peak and almost lost balance on my tree branch. Oh my god, he was hot. I mean, he looked like he hasn't slept in years and he had no eyebrows, but wow. His eyes were a teal color, and his hair was so red, it could have been covered in blood. 

"You're an embarrassment to our village." I was startled when he spoke and fell out of the tree. I braced myself for the impact that never came. I was caught by something soft, but not soft, and it reeked of blood.

"Are you alright? That could've been a nasty injury." The object that caught me was sand, it seemed to be controlled by the mysterious stranger, as he willed it to let me down.

"Ga-Gaara." Kankuro stuttered out in shock.

"Hey, Hitomi, are you okay?" Temari asked me.

"Yeah, uh, I'm fine. Thank you for that, uhh." I paused as I wasn't sure if he was ok with me just calling him Garra.

"Gaara."

"Right. Hitomi. Pleased to make your acquaintance." I held out my hand, and he grabbed it as we shared a handshake.

"Hey, Hitomi? Doesn't he scare you even a little?" Sakura whispered, after pulling me back to stand with my team.

"No, why would he?"

"Oh, I don't know; it could be that he looks crazy and bloodthirsty," Sasuke answered for Sakura.

"I have no reason to fear Gaara as he hasn't given me one."

"Hitomi, can you just be careful? He doesn't sit right with me his aura seems really dark." Sakura said.

"If it will get you guys off my case, then yes I'll be careful but the handshake let me see into his mind, through his blood flow. He is battling something pretty dark in there."

"What do you mean? Tell us what you saw." Sasuke had an odd look on his face as he spoke. I was curious as to what was going through his mind.

"I can't explain it but it was scary." They left it alone after I finished speaking. We soon remembered why we were in this position in the first place and looked to see our guests turning to leave.

"Hey, wait... Judging by your head protectors, your ninja from the hidden sand village, right? You may be allied with the leaf village, but it is forbidden for shinobi to enter each other's village without permission. State your purpose. Depending on it, we may not be able to let you go..."

"Sakura-" I attempted to get Sakuras attention because she was missing one key detail on why they are here.

"Hey, talk about clueless. Don't you know anything? You're right, we are genin from the hidden sands. We have come to your village to take the chunin selection exam." Temari interrupted me to speak before they turned to walk away.

"Hey you, what's your name?" Sasuke's words put a halt in the group's step.

"Huh, you mean me?" Temari turned around to face Sasuke with a blush on her face.

"No. You with the gourd."

"Gaara of the desert... I'm also interested in you. Your name?"

"Its Uchiha Sasuke..."

"HEY, WHAT ABOUT ME? HUH?" Naruto yelled.

"Not interested. Let's go. Hitomi, would you show us around?" Garra asked, seemingly lost with the similar buildings in our village.

"Oh, yeah. Follow me." With that, I and the sand genins walked away, leaving my group behind.

"So Hitomi, why did you take off so suddenly when you were staying in our village?"

"I was running from someone."

"Who?" Kankuro turned towards me, curiosity was written across his face.

"My clans killer. I was tracking him but the tables turned and suddenly I became the hunted."

"We could have protected you if we had known."

"I know you would have, but it wasn't and still isn't your guys battle. I have to find and face this person on my own. He has to pay."

"We can help you. Please, Hitomi, let us help." Kankuro and Temari both look at me with big eyes.

"Alright, after the chunin exams, I'll talk to the Hokage. I can't stay there because of my team but going on a small leave wouldn't be too bad. Although, I would still have to go on missions so I would have to temporarily join a team."

"You can join our team. It is tiring being the only girl on the team."

 "I agree but only if it's okay with Gaara."

"Of course. You aren't annoying, so working with you won't aggravate me." Our conversation ended as we reached where they were staying. I said goodbye and teleported home. I still had about 8 hours of daylight left and decided after my day, a nap was the best choice for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a pretty regular day in Ketsueki. Ketsueki was a village my clan had developed after being shipped off to the demon country. I was walking around doing absolutely nothing when I heard screams. They were coming from the center of town. Doing the only plausible thing I could think of at the moment, I ran towards my house, which was located near the center of the village. As I burst through the door, I saw something that would continue to scar me for the rest of my life. A man whom I had never met before was standing there, cornering my parents. They were bloodied and bruised. I could tell they had tried their hardest to fight him off but to no avail. My presence had yet to be noticed, so I stood in the doorway, trying to find the perfect time to attack. When I saw it, I pounced.

He threw me off in an instant. The only thing I had managed to do was cut him on his cheek. It was deep but useless. As he drew back to end my life, my mother screamed, and my father threw himself in front of me, taking the blow. Blood had splattered all over me, and I could see the katana sticking out of his back, missing me by an inch. My body went numb. My eyes watered, but the tears never fell. Through the ringing of my ears, I could hear my mother screaming. The attacker drew his katana from my father's body and turned towards my mother. My father's body fell, landing on me. I could see into his lifeless eyes, and I couldn't move. My mother was still screaming, and I wanted nothing more to protect her, but I couldn't. No matter how hard I willed my legs to move and get up, they didn't. Then the screams stopped. I heard something hit the ground. As I willed myself to look up, I saw the attacker right in front of me. I saw his mouth move, but the words had not entirely made it to my ears until he left.

"You will bear the pain of being the last of your people. Just like my brother and I will."

After the screams started to die down outside, I began to regain the use of my body. I moved out from under my father's body and walked out the door. What I saw was horrible, everyone was dead and in front of the house across from mine, the attacker held a child against the wall until he couldn't breathe any longer. Then he turned towards me and laughed. The next minute he was gone. When he left, I only had one thing embedded in my mind; it was his face covered in shadow with his red eyes blazing and his scent. His laugh kept repeating over and over and over until I couldn't take it, and in the disaster that was left behind, I fell down and screamed. Suddenly, it was dark.

I woke up screaming. When I calmed myself down, I checked the time it was 10. I climbed out of my window and onto the roof. I was completely startled to find I was not the only person up here tonight. Gaara was sitting there completely still almost like he was a statue. Then he slowly turned over to face me.

"Hey Gaara, what are you doing up here tonight?"

"I don't sleep."

"Well, why not?" I questioned

"because I just don't."

I slowly stood up and walked over to him. I touched him on the shoulder and gasped.

"He takes over... that's why you don't sleep. Because you're afraid that if you do, he will kill everyone."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I  can see your thoughts through touch. Your blood flow reveals everything you fear, love, and think about."

"You couldn't possibly understand. Fear? You don't even know the meaning of the word."

"I understand more than you think."

"How?" He looked at me, his face void of emotion by his eyes swimming with curiosity.

"Because I used to fear the same thing. Nobody knows this, but I have a Demon inside me, and when she first appeared, I was terrified because I couldn't control her. Now, she is a part of me. She helps me."

"How did you manage to control her?"

"Practice and love. My parents were very supportive of me when I was learning how to use my powers. Although I must admit, it was mostly practice. My parents were killed before I gained full control. To be honest, that set me back. I started to lose control, and she would rec havoc. But I got better, and I practiced with the demons in demon country. Now she is me, and I am her."

"How did you get through that? I was forced to kill my uncle. The only person that loved me and I killed him. All so, my father could turn me into this beast... this monster that I am, and he succeeded. I didn't even try to stop him."

"I could teach you. Help you gain control. Only if you want, of course."

"That would be great. You know I'm not normally this social."

"Really?! I would have never guessed." I said jokingly. He smiled, but I could tell that was the only thing he could really do. "Well, let's get started. It's now or never, right?"

"Yeah. Let's do this." He stood up, and we headed to a training ground.

Maybe I had been wrong to block people out of my life. I even pushed away Sasuke, but maybe, I can finally open up completely.

Thank you, Gaara