This is the story of Nikkaya and Gaara. Nikkaya first graces her presence in my one shot "I Can Be Your Hero" which would come much later in this story. Hope you like it! :)

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any part of the Naruto world, sadly I only own Nikkaya.

Chapter 1- Broken

I awoke to a friendly looking nurse. I was in a white bed in a white room. A hospital. My sigh seemed to surprise the lady in front of me and I would have apologized if I had enough air. "It may be difficult for you to breathe," the nurse said as I gasped for breath. "You were beat up pretty bad, you broke two ribs sweetie," she looked at me worriedly.

As I focused on breathing the nurse offered me a glass of water. My eyes were getting heavy and I could feel my heart beating quickly in my chest. Then everything went black.

The next time my eyes opened it was dark. Soft moonlight filtered in through the window. I couldn't tell if it was the same day or not, but my breathing didn't hurt as much. Slowly I sat up, a sharp pain shooting through my right abdomen where my ribs were broken. This time the nurse was not around. I picked up the water she left and drank, quenching a deep thirst, my dry throat feeling better. I put the glass down and turned my body, legs hanging off of the bed. My feet touched the floor and I gradually put my weight on them. It hurt.

'Where am I?' I thought to myself. I looked around the room frowning as I tried to remember what had happened.

*Flashback*

Running. My feet could not carry me fast enough as I ran from my attackers. They had ambushed me at my worst time, when I was just about to go to bed after a long tiring day. I had already used a lot of chakra earlier that day in a B-rank mission escorting a powerful business man to the Country of Earth and I had not eaten since I got home. 'Clever,' I thought to myself.

My attackers were working for Pain (Nagato) of course. In my current home Amegakure, Pain and Konan ruled with an iron fist after taking out our previous leader Hanzō. In order to stay alive, we all had to give our allegiance to Pain. It had saddened me to watch as my Amegakure headband was slashed horizontally through the middle. I had been having trouble keeping up the act of loyalty to Pain and I could have sworn my teammates had started to notice. I never dreamed they would be so heartless as to turn me in though.

I dodged more kunai and suddenly faced them as I ran backwards, ready to throw a jutsu at them when I backed into something…or someone. The person kicked me in the side and my breath was knocked out of me. That was when Koori took over and I blacked out.

*End Flashback*

I couldn't hear Koori now. I tried to reach out to her but to no avail. This often happened when she completely took over, she would use too much chakra and I wouldn't be able to find her in my head for a while.

My gaze drifted down to my hands. If I were a normal person, or even a jinjuriki for that matter, my hands would have been raw from overuse of chakra. But I was neither of these things.

I could feel my strength growing and I walked over to the window. The nurse came in the room and saw me about to exit through the window, "Wait!" she yelled. "You can't leave yet!"

"Why not?" I glared at her. Normally I would have been nicer but all the acting lately had put me in a bad mood. I knew I wasn't in the village hidden in the rain anymore. I was free.

"The Kazekage wants to speak with you," she said.

This news surprised me and made me stop reaching for the window. So I had made it to Sunagakure huh? I didn't know how I felt about this news. Suna had been my destination ever since Pain had taken over, but now that I was here I didn't know what to do. So I sat back down on the bed, "When is a good time for me to speak with him?" I said.

"He will be here sometime later today," the nurse said, looking relieved that I was going to stay. She let her hand slowly go down; it had been aimed at an alarm button used for threats or people who were trying to escape. I smiled oddly at her and she gave me an unsure look as she walked back into the hall. Her heels clicked down the hallway and when she thought she was out of hearing range I heard her whisper, "Keep an eye on room number six."

I was in room number six. I facepalmed myself which I regretted because it pained my broken ribs. Then I got ready for a long day of eating, sleeping, and some other 'unnamed' stuff.

At four o clock that afternoon, the Kazekage decided to grace me with his presence. He walked in with a serious look on his face, surrounded by his bodyguards. "Yondaime Kazekage," one of his guards said as he entered the room and I bowed as much as I could, wincing at the pain in my abdomen.

The Kazekage seated himself at a chair facing me and said, "State your name, rank, and business here."

No hello? How are you doing, you look like your hurt, blah blah? Oh well, "My name is Kaneko Nikkaya and I am a chunin of Amegakure. My village has been controlled by an S-rank ninja for a while now and my teammates stabbed me in the back last night by telling him that I do not truly support him," I said looking at the leader in front of me.

He stared at me for a while, searching for something in my face. Finally he looked away from me sighing. His eyes turned back to me and he said simply, "This is not good." I wanted to laugh at how stupid of a comment that was, but something in his eyes stopped me. He looked deeply worried and I didn't understand at first. "Who is this S-rank ninja?" he said.

I frowned, "His name is Pain. He is referred to as Lord Pain and his assistant is Lady Konan. They are part of the Akatsuki and they took control of Amegakure a while back."

The Kazekage looked as though I had just beaten him with a stick or something. "How were you able to get away?" he asked. This was the worst possible question he could have asked me. I got ready for a long explanation.

Thanks for reading! Please review and let me know what you think! :)