Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I wish I have.

Author's note: Note that this story started out in the middle and Hinata will remember how it all started.

This chapter is translated by JeraldineSchreiber. Thank you.

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Chapter 1

Hostage

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At The Creek In Snow Country

"HINATA!" he shouted over and over again into the howling wind, and to her utter disbelief, he started walking out across the thin ice. Obviously, he thought she'd fallen through it and - just as obviously - he should have been glad that she was no longer a complication with which he had to contend.

"HINATA, ANSWER ME!" he shouted, stripping of his cloth. The ice around him begins to crack. Instead of trying to reach for safety, he grabbed a hold of one of the branches of the fallen aspen, and to Hinata's utter disbelief, he deliberately lowered himself into the icy water.

His shoulder disappeared and then his head. Hinata darted to the shelter of the next tree. He broke the surface for air, shouting her name again, and then he dove beneath the water and Hinata raced to the last tree. She can escape now and she's a few yards away to absolute freedom. She stopped, her gaze riveted helplessly on the stream where he had disappeared. Her mind shouted that Sabaku no Gaara was a murderer who had compounded his crime by killing the lord of the Hidden Sand Village with no mercy and taking her hostage. She had to leave now while she has the chance. Her conscience screamed that if she left him now, he would freeze to death because he'd tried to save her.

Suddenly, his redhead and shoulders broke the surface beside the submerged tree trunk and a sob of relief rose in her throat as she saw him haul himself up onto the ledge of ice. Dimly amazed by his sheer strength of will and body, Hinata watched him brace his hand on the ice, shove himself upright, and stagger over to the cloth he'd flung off. Instead of putting it on, he sank down beside it near a snow-covered boulder next to the stream.

The internal war between Hinata's mind and her heart escalated to tumultuous proportions. He hadn't drowned, he was safe for the moment. If she was going to leave him, it had to be now before he would look up and see her.

Paralyzed with indecision, she watched him lift the cloth in his hand. The moment of foolish relief she felt at the thought that he was going to put it on became horror as he did something that was the macabre opposite. He flung his cloth aside, and then he leaned his head against the boulder and closed his eyes. Snow swirled around him, clinging to his wet hair, face, and body while it slowly dawned on her that he wasn't even going to try to make it home! He obviously thought she had drowned trying to get away from him, and he had assigned himself to freeze-to-death sentence as his own punishment.

"Tell me that you believe I'm innocent," he ordered her last night and at that moment, Hinata knew beyond all doubt that the man who wanted to die because he'd cause her own "death" had to be exactly that-innocent.

Unaware that she'd either start crying or that start running, Hinata plunged silently down the slope to where he sat. When she was close enough to see his face, remorse and tenderness almost send her to her knees. With his head thrown back and his eyes shut, his face was a mask of ravaged regret.

The cold forgotten, she scooped up his jacket and held it out to him. "Gaara, please wake up, please."

When he didn't respond, she dropped to her knee and started to force his limp arm into his cloth. "Gaara, wake up." She cried. Her shoulders shaking with suppressed sob, she pulled him into her arm, cradling his head against her chest, trying to infuse some of her warmth into him, rocking back and fourth. His eyes were half open with half conscious.

Hinata remembered that very day, the day he had kidnapped her and they ended up here in Snow Country. Snow flakes begin to fall as she looks up into the white sky. She tries to remember every second she has been with him since she was kidnapped.

Hinata was at the Wind Country for a mission. It was an individual mission that you have to accomplish it on your own. She is a Chuunin now and there was nothing she had to be worry about.

Her mission has come to an end when she meets the Lord of the Wind Country and to get the scroll. She was planning on going back to Konoha after that, but the aroma of the food lead her to a restaurant and made her settle there for awhile.

Out in the dark alley, several Anbu was chasing an escaped convict. He was a dangerous one and the most feared one. He was none other than…….

"Sabaku no Gaara! Stop now!" One of the Anbu shouted out at him. He ignored them and ran out to the colorful-lit-up street. He looked around and found himself climbing up into a window. The Anbu ran passed it as they thought he would run out into the crowd.

Gaara was panting for air, but as he opened his eyes, he found himself inside a rest room. He sat there, recovering his breath for he just escaped from the prison that is specially made for him. The prison wall was made out of very hard alloy -there isn't any sand that can penetrate it. He was locked inside there because he was believed to have murdered one of the Lords of Sunagakure. He was going crazy as Shukaku was not at ease, too. Shukaku was being sealed with a special kind of jutsu and that made him quite angry. Gaara can feel "his" raft inside of him and he would get the most horrible headache that he would ever experience.

It was then that the door to the outside world was open and he can see the light again –light that he thought he won't be seeing it again. His eyes adjusted to the source of light and he saw a figure walking towards him. He was ready to fight, but stopped when he saw a familiar face.

"Temari?" He saw the sadness in her eyes as she saw his swollen body.

"Oh no, look what they have done to you. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. But now, I'm going to make it up to you. I'm going to take you out of here." Her hand caressed his face gently.

It wasn't long for them to discover that he was gone. They started a chase and Gaara suggested to Temari that he will go alone from here onward. He doesn't want to see his sister being dragged into any of his trouble. She handed him some money and he left in a whirl of wind, saying goodbye to the sister he loves and cares a lot for.

That memory of him being beaten and his demon that grant him the most deadliest of all powers being sealed made him sick and afraid that he can throw up every time he remembered it. It was horrible and it had left him a scar in his memory forever.

Just when he thought that he will be safe here for awhile, the door of the rest room open and a girl in a Chuunin vest stepped in and found him leaning against the wall. She stood there, paralyzed, her silvery eyes looking at him in disbelief. She was going to scream when he quickly went over to where she was and cupped his hand onto her mouth, shutting her up.

"Follow as I say, and you won't get hurt, you hear that?" he whispered into her ear.

She nodded and he carried her out of the rest room, and within minute, they were at the Sunagakure Gate. He has to get away from this place before they found him and send him back to that hell.

To Be Continue

Pandora: How was it?