The girl who loved Gaara

(After the chunin exams)

Gaara was silently walking down a dirt path when the wind picked up. His hair blew slightly and he covered his arms for warmth.

' Love… Naruto gets his strength from love not hate. How can I be loved…?' He thought to himself in his snakelike voice. The character 'Love' on his forehead flashed in a small light that was coming from downwind. His eyes located where the light was coming from. A lantern was broken and on the ground near a small creek. The scent of a small amount of blood came to his nose.

'Blood has been spilled…'

Mainly out of curiosity he pursued the scent. Trees brushed past him as he walked towards the creek. The scent of blood grew stronger. He pulled back a branch of another tree just near the creek's edge and his eyes barely widened. A girl was bleeding on the ground. She had slashes across her torso and arms.

Gaara noticed she was a young teenager from his village.

'Dead? No, she's merely in a fixed state in which of having too much blood loss. Why should I care… she means nothing to me. I'll let her rot here…'

Suddenly a trembling arm reached up and grabbed Gaara's leg. He retaliated with his sand around her neck. Pain filled the girl's face once more.

"Please… help me!" she choked out. Then her eyes filled with fear.

'She must've recognized who I am. She fears me just like everyone else!' Anger filled Gaara's eyes.

"Be-Behind you!" She shouted and Gaara felt the presence of a person behind him. In a matter of seconds the attacker was crushed in his sand. Blood stained the ground and the girl struggled not to gag, with a hand over her mouth.

"What's going on here…?" Gaara hissed. The girl whimpered a little.

"T-that man attacked me when I was on my way home. He chased me through these woods. Then he threw a Chinese star at me and I fell unconscious for a while. He was just about to finish me off when you came through those trees. Ugh! coughs up more blood." She explained and then slumped back down to the ground. Her face was buried in the wet moss under her.

Gaara scowled a little and started to walk away. However, something in his mind told him to help her. Anger swept over him once more.

"You! Girl, can you stand?" He snarled and glared at her. Her face was pale with all the blood she has lost.

"N-no. Its too painful."

"I asked if you could stand not if it hurt. Stand or I'll leave you here for the vultures to pick at your flesh."

Terrified she used a sturdy branch to force herself up. Pain tore up her chest and shoulder, yet she managed to stand.

"I can stand, but I can't walk. My leg muscles are damaged." She said in a painful voice.

Gaara scowled again. He went over to her and threw her over his shoulder. She coughed up a little more blood and she grew light-headed.

The girl gripped his shirt in her right fist and rested her chin on his shoulder.

"Thank you. Thank you, Gaara." She said in a soft tone.

Gaara slightly widened his eyes. 'She knows my identity, but she isn't running away from me. That's only because she cannot run.' He thought to himself.

He took her to a village healer and left without a word. He didn't even ask her name in return.

Several weeks later…

In the clinic Jess (the girl from before) was healing pretty well. She was to be let out of the clinic the next day but for now she was instructed to rest.

"That boy, um from before…did he come by at all lately?" Jess asked a nurse that came by to change her bandages.

"No, he hasn't been back since that night." She replied. Jess was a little bummed about the news that day.

'I wonder if Gaara would've actually let me die out there. I mean… when we were kids I saw everyone run from him…like he was some sort of monster. Is he a monster? I never saw him as one. Maybe I'm out of my mind for wanting to find him and thank him once more.' Jess thought as she drifted off to sleep.

The next day Jess exited the hospital with only one bandage on her neck. The nurses waved to her as she left. Slowly she tied her sand Village headband around her waist.

'To think I was stupid enough not to defend myself from that man. Surely I could've taken him down. What was it that made me fear him over Gaara?' She wondered as she walked down the village streets. Without noticing she passed Gaara. He stared at her with that same cold look he always had. She perplexed him. Why did she not fear him? Everyone hated and feared him in this village or treated him like a weapon to be used. She's no saint, but just a foolish girl.

Jess wandered the village until she reached the academy. Calmly she looked at it with glassy eyes. Memories of her child life there flooded into her thoughts.

'He never spoke to me in class. I was just a shadow to him and everyone else. I have no talent or any uniqueness about me. I'm still that same shadow as before. He helped me out of pity, pure pity of my retched state. I'm such a fool.'

Jess turned away from the academy and started heading home. Down from the sky sand fell. Her sand goggles became clouded with the grains and she wiped them away along with a single tear. What is my purpose in life?

Slowly she opened the door to her family's home and rested her upper body on the wooded counter. Her stringy long black hair curled over her arm. Then she sensed something… the emptiness that lingered in her home. She felt a cold chill run down her spine as she lifted up her chin.

"Mom…? Father…?" She whispered in fear that her voice would fail her.

No answer to her call. Jess turned around and saw a limp figure on the floor of the living room.