Okay, so please don't be angry with me if it's not exactly what you want. I like comments, but don't just leave something like, "dat sux." or something stupid like that.

It might have a few grammar errors. Once again, completely totally sorry about that.

Well, I love you guys! That's right. I love you.

Chapter One: Happy Birthday

Violet rubbed her eyes with her small hands wrapped in cotton sleeves. Her cold toes were also wrapped in the same fabric, as the blue and white striped pajamas were much too large for her. They made her feet make almost no sound across the wood floor as she walked. She hugged her arms close to her body. It was the dead of winter and the tall house hardly kept in any heat.

She tripped over her long pajama pants, landing on her hands, then finding no grip, slid flat onto her stomach. She grabbed the edge of the long dining table to help herself up, but was immediately shaken off her footing again by a person running past.

The person had two things in their hands. The person I recognized as Drew, one of the twins, threw a package wrapped in brown paper at me. "This is yours, twerp!" he yelled and tossed a football to his brother. Their baby blue eyes glinted as they concentrated, their fast reflexes making the game easy.

Violet picked up the package and stared down at it for just a moment. Then, through her sleepy haze, she recognized a signature on a little notecard loosely attatched by rough string. This was a very special signature indeed, and it had guided her all throughout her life.

She bolted to her room.

There was a four-bed-tall bunk bed leaned against the wall of the small room, barely large enough for the beds themselves. She climbed the ladder, not too worried about being loud because everyone was still awake even at one in the morning, and onto the very top bed. She almost screamed when she saw another girl up there with her. She was already so jittery from the excitement and wasn't expecting anyone to be in her bed.

A dim glow came from a candle in a small cake the girl was holding. "Happy eleventh, Violet," she smiled and held the cake out to me. Violet took it and put the candle up to the girl's face so she could see it better.

"Yuki!" she whispered ecstatically and hugged her. Yuki had been Violet's best friend for since the first time she had been excepted into a Young Ninja Battle. She was a little over a year older than her with long white hair and lavender eyes and a gift for water jutsu. "How'd you get here?" Violet asked.

"We walked some of the way, and when we got close enough to you, Gaara brought us in on sand," she smiled and tilted her head.

Violet pushed her eyebrows together. "What do you mean 'we'?"

Yuki smacked her head and laughed. "Oh, I almost forgot! The guys wanted to say happy birthday! Come on in!" she called through the window. One by one, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Gaara, Neji, Hinata, Lee, Kiba, and Tenten climbed through the window.

"Oh my gosh, guys!" she laughed and asked jokingly, "What, no Shikamaru and Choji?"

A two sets of eyes peeked through the window. "I think your bed might break if we come in," said Shikamaru.

Violet was laughing so hard now that she thought she might split her sides. "Well, thank you for your effort anyway," she said through giggles. "I can't believe you all came all this way just for my birthday!"

"Well believe it, girly!" Sakura hugged her and Violet hugged back warmly.

"We brought presents, too!" giggled Yuki and they all held out small boxes wrapped in violet ribbon.

Her hands went to the sides of her face instinctively. "You guys! You didn't have to do this!"

Sakura shook her finger. "Ah, ah, ah, but we did. You deserve to have at least one good birthday, and those jerks Drew and Jasper weren't going to give you one."

"Or did they?" Ino put her finger on the little brown package.

"O-oh, no, this isn't from them, actually... It's from my dad," Violet looked up at the shocked faces and then at Shikamaru and Choji. "You guys can come in if you want to stand on the ground."

They clambered in and jumped to the ground. "Your dad?" they asked wide-eyed.

"Well," Violet scratched her head nervously and smiled, "I haven't really told anyone, but every year on my birthday my dad sends me a present."

"Then why hasn't he come to get you?" asked Gaara angrily.

Violet shook her head. "I really don't know. But it's nice that he cares enough to send me a birthday present."

"Well, open it!" Sakura laughed.

She took and end of the string in her small, delicate hands and pulled the bow out. The paper crinkled as she carefully opened it, revealing a sleek, wooden violin and a bow to match.

Immediately, Gaara recognized it as the violin that had been stolen a few days ago. But he could definately, er, pull some strings to make the incident disappear. Just another added birthday present.

Lee leaned over to pick up the card that was about to fall off the bed. He put it between two of his fingers and read it out loud. "'A violin for my Violet - Dad'... Hey, wait... I know this insignia..."

Violet took it from his hand and said, "Must just be a coincidence."

Gaara caught a glimpse of it. He was sure he knew it too, but he couldn't quite place it. He made a note to look it up when he got home.

"PRESENT TIME!" Choji and Shikamaru threw their present up onto the bed.

Violet laughed. "Okay..." she said and opened theirs. "Wow!" she looked at it closer. "A black kunai knife! Thank you!" she leaned over the bed to tell them.

"It's from me, too," said Ino.

Almost everyone else sweat dropped. "What?"

"Well... That's what we got you." Naruto handed Violet three boxes, one with a white kunai, one with a light silver kunai, and one with a dark silver kunai. "Guys! Thank you so much!"

Yuki giggled. "Don't thank us, thank Gaara. He's the one who planned this."

He held out an open box to her. Insided was a hair clip with a rose entwined in it. "See, it's enchanted so it will live forever as long as you do and-" Gaara was stopped by a kiss on the cheek by Violet. His face blushed bright red.

"Thank you so much, Gaara."

He blinked and looked away. "It was no problem, really," he mumbled.

"Actually, it did take some planning. He got everything ready in advance, even got a special person to enchant that flower for you so that it would open more and more when you were close to him so you could find him if you ever needed help-" Sakura started, but was cutt off by Gaara.

"WELL THEN, I'm gonna go home, it's getting late, night everyone!" He waved and jumped out the window.

"Yeah, me, Lee, Kiba, Choji, and Neji have a few things to do in town here. Anyone want to come?" asked Shikamaru.

"I will!" Naruto smiled and jumped through the window, the rest following.

"For the record," Sasuke said, "I don't have business here. I don't want to follow them. I just want to leave."

"Okay, later." Violet rolled her eyes and Ino pushed him the rest of the way out. He yelled and grunted when he hit the ground.

Naruto caught up with Gaara and pounced on him from behind. "DUUUUDE! SCORE!"

Gaara blushed even more. "Shut up."

"Ooooh mah gawd. Violet." said Tenten.

"Hm?"

"You kissed him! Oh mah gawd!" Sakura waved her arms around.

"Aaaaand?"

Yuki put her hands on Violet's shoulders. "HE LIKES YOU! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU DID?"

"Well, of course he likes me. We've been friends for like, ever."

"NO- ugh. He like-likes you. You know. In the smoochy-huggy kind of way." Ino explained.

I laughed and the other girls gave me a weird look. "How could the son of the Kazekage like a little orphan girl like me?"

"I don't think she gets it yet, girls. Maybe we'll revisit this topic in a few years, eh?" said Ino.

"I guess," sighed Tenten.

"Well, it was great getting to see you again, Violet. Enjoy your presents."

"Thanks, guys," Violet hugged them all and they left through the window.

Violet knocked twice on the lid of a box her father had sent her on her ninth birthday to open the secret compartment and she stuffed the card in with every other card her father had sent her, always written in red ink. The little clay bird sat on top of it, just looking at her. The lid of the box wouldn't open until her fourteenth birthday when the bird would supposedly come to life and open it.

Not until that moment had Violet noticed the little 'D' carved into the wood.