Warning: This story contains blood, sweat and tears. AKA Swearing, gore/blood, sex, Death, Violence etc. Not for little children, hence the rating.

Disclaimer - I do not own Naruto or anything to do with it.

Chapter 1

Awake

"Kakashi!" Tsunade called. For such a late hour she was neither drunk or asleep. Tsunade was alert and on edge as she approached Kakashi quickly with a rare serious look on her face. "Has she been delivered?" she asked with urgency. Kakashi looked just as severe with both eyes visible and his headband pulled up.

"Yes. She struggled though, we had to take her down. She's currently knocked out in the hospital. Shall I send Sakura to heal her?" Kakashi looked off guard. Sweat trickled down the side of his face. The trip had been long and hard. He had met the ANBU halfway to Konoha. After that the journey had been disastrous, they had been forced to stop constantly due to traps and confrontations.

"No." Tsunade answered calmly. "Healing her would be a mistake right now. I'm almost sure the seal will break at any moments use." Tsunade paused for a moment, her face illuminated in the pale light of the moon. "Has there been any word from Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked, trying to cover the hope in her voice.

"Pakkun says Jiraiya should be here within the next three weeks. We'll have to keep the girl under control until then." Kakashi murmured.

The room was silent with tension for a few minutes until Tsunade spoke again. "Kakashi.."

"I know." He cut in. The Grass was out of control. They had been attacked just outside of the borders. It appeared they already knew what was going on. War was sure the break out over this.

"Do you think you can handle her? Kazekage spoke of her instability in passing but I'd imagine it'd be much worse" Tsunade said. Her voice spoke of insecurity and held a twinge of fear. Suddenly she slammed her fist into the table making Kakashi raise his eyebrows. "I just hate this! There they go again! Dumping their problems on us! For all we know she's really a spy! This stupid alliance!" Tsunade yelled breathing heavily over her splintered desk.

"Tsuande calm down. We don't have any choice. Suna could cripple us if they wished. Besides, with this new threat we need all the friends we can get. We'll just have to comply with Gaara." Kakashi said while calmly placing a hand on her shoulder. The room was silent again. Kakashi couldn't help but feel surprised. Sure Tsunade lost her cool sometimes but she nearly never freaked out. Finally Tsunade sighed.

"Yes, I know you're right. I want you there when she awakes and at least two ANBU on watch at all times. You are dismissed." Tsunade stood up, recomposing herself.

"Hai Tsuande sama." With that Kakashi disappeared in a puff of smoke but not before casting a worried glance towards the direction of the hokage.

Tsunade stood there for a minute staring out her window at the rock faces of Hokages past. She had already seen one ninja war, her heart truly desired not to see another. She was sick of seeing those she loved die.

Ayame was awake. But where was she? It wasn't her shack. Her vision blurred and as she tried to sit up she suddenly felt pain. It was everywhere, tightening it's hold on her bodym, sinking it's teeth into her skin. Still, Ayame slowly found her vision and sat up.

It was then that she noticed she wasn't alone in the room. There was a jounin with silver hair sitting beside her bed, reading a dirty book and giggling. His headband told her all she needed to know. She was no longer in the village of sand but in the leaf. Confusion took her mind over and she struggled to find a reason for her placement. 'Why am I here?' She thought strangely.

She reached for a kunai but to her horror she found that she had been stripped of all weapons. She wore nothing but bandages and a stupid-looking white gown. She looked around for anything to use to her advantage but saw nothing. 'I'm in a hospital room.' She realised suddenly with anger. Sure enough the white walls were hung with medical instruments and the place smelled only too sterile. 'I had to have been beaten to land myself here.' She realised becoming even more angry.

Without calling attention to herself she silently reviewed what she could see without moving her head. There were no chains or straps to stop her from escaping, there were no bars on the windows to mark her confinement. Her legs and arms felt the itch of rough bandages as she saw no other gaurds in her view. It didnt seem like a jail hospital or a prisoner's ward, just a hospital. It appeared she was more of a patient than a prisoner. Kidnapped by the Leaf and waking up in a hospital bed...Guarded by a pervert.

Ayame tried flexing her leg muscles and held back a hiss of pain. She was in no shape to fight. No wonder they hadn't bothered to strap her down, she couldn't even get up. So confused and frustrated and humiliated obviously fighting hadn't gotten her anywhere...

So Ayame decided to take a new course of action. She looked at the man in the chair, who had yet to take notice of her. "Hey dirty old man, tell me, who are you and why am I here?" she waited hungrily for his answer.

I saw him look up at me and give me a lazy glare, but I never looked away. His look was nothing compared to the others who had held so much more hatred. What was he supposed to be? My guard? Memories started to trickle back to me as the word "guard" echoed in my mind. I was starting to get the picture already. Still, I was wracked with confusion as I struggled to fit the pieces together.

"First of all I'm not an old man, I'm 34 thank you and I'll ignore that dirty comment. You're here because you're here. Konoha is your current residence. You are not to travel back to Suna."

I saw his eye curve upwards as he answered me and I assumed he was happy…but I was not. I felt like exploding. Even though a few of my questions had been answered they had only sprouted new ones. One thing I did know, however, was that I certainly wasn't about to be told what to do by some pervert stranger. I inwardly snarled. This wasn't going to happen to me. I could do what I wanted!

"You've got a lot of nerve if you think you can just simply boss me around. I also won't stand for ring-around answers." I growled at him with my crackly voice that needed a drink really badly. I didn't care though. I was steaming. I hated not knowing things. Even more I hated it when someone else held the information I needed to know.

"Well actually, we can, and we are. Sorry if you don't like it. You can read my Icha Icha Paradise if you want to." He stated happily.

I rolled my eyes and didn't answer. I had no idea what was really going on, as obviously this guy was just going to play games with me.

'"We."' I thought to myself. So this guy wasn't alone. Automatically I assumed that meant he was acting under the orders of his village. I figured he musn't be a rogue, clearly due to the fact that his headband was intact. He was obviously smart too, in the way he kept dodging my questions, careful to give me tidbits, but nothing solid. Still, I knew the culprit that started this whole mess.

Gaara.

xxxx

I knew Gaara for a long time. I used to train with his siblings and sometimes he'd join. We all went to the same academy and even though I wasn't apart of their team I did missions with them sometimes. Over the years I'd come to learn who Gaara was and I idolized him for his power, his strength. I was just a poor kid, the runt in the village everyone hated.

So was he, except in my eyes, he was a royal prince feared for his power, alone isloated and hated but strong. The more I was around him, the more tales and stories I heard, the more I wanted to be just like him. I was hated, and alone, just like him. Except I was weak, pathetic. I don't know why they always made me train with the Kazekage's children, the others saw it unfair that I, an outsider orphan, be aloud to train with them unlike the others. Parents were also jealous and even instructors.

Suffice to say I didn't make friends easily and making it without parents was hard. I mostly lived in a shed-like small house, I found my food by growing, foraging and stealing. Officials from the Kazekage office were always knocking on my door or delivering messages with training instructions. They always told me the leader keeps and eye on the villages homeless but now that I'm older I'm not so sure.

Either way Gaara was everything I wanted to be. My passion made me brave and often dumb, over the years I tried numerous times to get his attention. Going out of my way to see him or be close. Often most times he either ignored me or worse, attacked me. For that I was punished and scolded and kept even farther from him, the Kazekage wanted me alive to continue partnering with Temari and Kankuro.

As I got a little older my frustration swelled. I was not aloud to join a team, even though a was of Genin rank. Something to do with being an outsider, but mainly to always be availible for the Kazekage's children. This often granted me imunnity from trouble, yet also got me into more trouble than I could count. I was sick of watching Gaara from a distance, unable to get his attention. Angry and unloved I would lash out at others as they would to me.

Until one afternoon. I was fighting off drunk men, all three had been found inside my house after a long days training. Drunk and angry, they'd broken in and destroyed what was inside. Refusing to leave they began to beat me. Forced to the ground as pain erupted from the blows and kicks it was in that moment I realised Gaara had been watching more closely than I'd realised. I never saw him but in an instant the men were suffocated in sand, forced to their deaths, leaving nothing behind. Most would be terrified but I could only cry in greatfulness. So Gaara noticed me after all.

Time passed, things happened and soon he was named Kazekage. He was no longer fear and alone. Well, Gaara had always been an insufferable, insane, killer. Though that changed a few years ago, he met some kids in Konoha at the Chuunin exams or whatever and changed his ways. However when he'd stepped up in power I realised he wasn't around anymore. 'Whatever. He'll start to miss me and call me back! Yeah that's right!.' I stupidly thought to myself.

But Gaara was changing. He was growing up. Opening up. He no longer viewed the world as one big monster trying to make his life miserable. Maybe that was because the world stopped viewing him as a freak of nature that was going to kill them all at any moments notice. I had begun to notice that over the past while, he had less and less time to be around me and was spending more and more time locked in his office with important people. No one seemed to care. Everyone was happy, everyone had a new place to belong in the new world Gaara was creating.. Except me, or at least that's how it felt.

I admit, I started breaking rules and being a rebel to get him to notice me. Immature, I know. Anything just to land myself in his office and have his attention. To have his cold gaze on me. Just glaring. He never had to say anything. I could practically read his mind. "Stop fucking around." Is what he would say if he'd needed to. But he didn't. I already knew. We both knew what it was all about. We both knew we couldn't change the circumstances. Gaara was growing up and changing. I wasn't. There was no room for the relationship I had been hoping for for so long. There was only so much I could do before his patience would run out and he would send me away. I was pretty sure this entire thing was because of him.

Still I had never expected him to banish me from the village! 'He's just doing this to teach me a lesson.' I figured quietly. I knew that really wasn't it. I had no idea what was going on. Villages didn't dump ninja's onto other villages. It just didn't happen.

So I supposed I could see Konoha as a mission. I would need to figure out what was going on and escape. I decided that I would use this 'prison sentence' as a way to show Gaara how much I could change and grow up too. If I found out Konoha's secrets, and then escape I could prove to him that I was the right woman after all. Not any of those stupid high-class village girls the officials kept offering him.

'Hold on Gaara, just wait and I'll show you how important I can be!' I thought with determination. Still, none of this explained why I was in a hospital bed, in pain and being watched over by some pervert with gray hair…. Or was it white...Silver?

'That's not important. I've just got to get out of here.' I quickly tried to stand up but I only found myself falling out of bed to the floor in pain. "Ouch! What's with the pain?" I asked as he walked over and heaved me back onto the bed. I couldn't help but blush with embarrassment.

"Don't you remember?" he asked me curiously. "We tried to take you here calmly but you put up quite the fight. Thus you got heavily wounded and we knocked you out. Tsk tsk, thinking you could take on all those ANBU. What were you thinking?" he asked with humour in his voice.

He was easily annoying me. There was nothing amusing about my situation! Still I found with my newly set goal I couldn't really be mad. Plus he was right, that "heavily wounded" part brought back flashes of previous events making me relive my last waking moments now only too well.

xxxxxxxxxxx

It was like hell had frozen over. Gaara had prodded me awake, just barging into my shack without knocking. Yeah, what an asshole. I had opened my eyes, red hair all over the place, morning breath and all. He had just stood there, glaring at me with a sad, sort of regretful look in his eyes, well, Gaara's version of it anyways. While I mentally tried to figure out what the hell was going on he opened his mouth and used his voice.

"I'm sending you away." Was all he said before he turned around and started walking away. I had sat there for a moment thinking what that could possibly mean. Were we going on vacation? That idea was quickly swept from my mind when I walked outside to follow and annoy him. Instead of hot sun and an empty, sandy pathway, my breakfast was ANBU. One look at them and my smile dissolved. I'd heard of these guys. They were strictly from Konoha. Why were they here?

"Come quietly and no on gets hurt." I heard one of them say to me.

If fear hadn't been wired through my bones I might have cackled at the lame line as I spied Gaara walking down the street. I froze for a moment, off guard and unsure of what to do, there was too many, I was too weak. I began to scream at Gaara and started to make a run at him. The ANBU moved in and held me back.

Why was he leaving me? What was happening? Why didn't he care? I remembered tears stinging my eyes as I felt the feeling of abandonment. I began to fight the ANBU in my tearful rage. I had to admit, this guy was right, what was I thinking taking on a bunch of elite fighters like that? I fought my best to the bitter end. The entire thing lasted about two minutes but two minutes was too long against the ANBU. My last vision of being in Suna was falling to the ground as my vision began to turn black. Trying to get a view of Gaara.


"What's your name?" I suddenly asked ignoring his "tsk tsk's" and trying to wash away those bitter thoughts. I might as well figure out who my perverted torturer was, after all he looked pretty familiar.

"My name's Hatake Kakashi and yours is Ayame Chou is it?" He asked cheerfully.

"Yes its nice to meet you Kakashi-san " I answered back trying to be friendly. So this guy knew my name, he definitely was a top dog. Hatake Kakashi. My memory whistled like a kettle as his name clicked in. The bingo book. The son of The White Fang. The copy Ninja. This guy was legend, and I was under his watch. Maybe he knew more than I thought. I decided right then that if I was going to be staying here I may as well play along and make him my friend. Something I wanted but was afraid to have. I didn't make friends easily. Gaara and I were much alike in the fact that people didn't like to get close to us. People hated us. Isolated us. That's also what set us apart. People stopped hating Gaara. They still hated me. People were cruel monsters and I was afraid of being hurt by them.

"Pleasure's all mi-" Kakashi was suddenly cut off by the bursting of the door open. All at once a loud, obnoxious voice entered the room.

"Kakashi where have you been? You were supposed to train with us today!" A loud guy about my age, probably 19 or 20 walked in, he had spiky blond hair and was wearing orange pants and a black jacket. His skin was tanned and there were weird whisker markings on his face. All in all, he looked pretty sexy. He was also followed by a girl about my age as well with cherry blossom pink hair in a doctors coat. I figured she must work here. Lastly came one more guy. His hair was black and his skin pale. I could see his muscles from his opened white shirt then I noticed to insignia on the shoulder. Uchiha. Oh yes I knew who he was. I had heard quite a bit about him and his clan, he had also earned himself a place in the bingo books.

I could easily see that this must be Kakashi's team. These kids looked to be too old to be genin, but too young to be senseis or ANBU. The girl with the pink hair came over and began checking my bandages while the blonde guy walked over to Kakashi. Uchiha kept his distance and eyed me with a blank expression. I stared back. This guy was a traitor. Everyone knew about him. Every village, every country. The fact that he was here was a mystery. I had heard he'd finally come back to Konoha but I didn't know the details. He must have done something pretty heroic not to be dead right now. It was then that the blonde noticed me as well. He looked at me and smiled.

"Well who's this beautiful woman?" He said in a manly voice which I easily figured wasn't his. I knew he was fooling around but I couldn't help but feel a few butterflies flap around in my stomach. He was pretty cute. It had been too long since someone had spoken to me this way.

Before I could even reply Kakashi cut me off. "Well this is the super duper 'A' class mission I was telling you about! Your new team member!" Everyone was silent for the next minute. The girl stopped checking me over, Uchiha took his eyes off me to look at Kakashi and the blonde guy didn't blink. I was a mission? That didn't make any sense!

"You mean our mission is the girl?" The blonde asked, sounding more serious this time, completely ignoring my presence.

"Yes. Priority 'A' class. The four of us are to guard this girl with our lives, while also keeping her confined to this village." Kakashi's one visible eye creased in what looked to be happiness.

'What the fuck is going on?' I thought lividly. None of this was making sense. Me? An 'A' class mission? This sounded a lot different than the idea I had in my head. This sounded nothing like Gaara just simply sending me away to teach me a lesson. This sounded really serious. Yet, I hadn't done anything serious. I had been ...well I hadn't been behaved but it's not like I was a traitor or anything. Just a nuisance. Plus guarding me? I didn't need to be guarded. Besides, what did I need guarding from? More importantly, why was that Konoha's business?

How dare these people go around making all these decisions without my knowledge? What if I didn't want to be on a team? Or be a ninja here! Did Gaara know about any of this? What would he say? I needed to speak to him. Tell him how wrongly I was being treated. Surely after hearing what was happening he'd call me right back to be by his side. Surely. I came from a village that perished quite some years ago. The village of the Night. When the village burned. I was lost and some how found myself in a village of sand. I had been 6 then. I don't really remember much about it. I was young then. Gaara and I had gotten close over the years. The land of the Sand was my home. It was where I truly wanted to be!

For right now though I would need to make the best of things. I knew by the looks of the other kids, that they didn't really know what was going on either. Everything would be explained in time. I supposed that for the moment I would work on information gathering and finding out the way to eascape smoothly. This country would soon learn I was not some toy to be tossed around. I was a chakra charged kunai, just raring to be thrown at someone. They'd learn to treat me with respect.

Chapter 1 end

Alright that's it. This chapter is revised now.