Ok guys, I've redone this chapter. I'll be redoing the entire story, so you should check it out! It should be much better lol I wrote the previous version when I was 12. Sorry, it's still kinda lame. Bear with me!

The stars twinkled down on a quiet town. Nearly all the inhabitants were sleeping, resting up for the Chuunin matches the next day. There appeared to be only one awake. The redheaded boy sat on a roof staring up at the moon with unreadable aquamarine eyes. Dark black shadows under his eyes showed that the soul inside was troubled, if anyone cared to try to reach him.

But so far, no one had.

He stared around the city, thinking, 'So this is Konoha? It's certainly well-kept...no crumbling statues in this village.' As he looked over at a neighboring building, he was surprised to see a girl who looked to be about his age climbing out the window. He wasn't sure if she was contemplating suicide or what, until she jumped onto the top of her roof, letting him know that she wasn't suicidal, but that she was a ninja. Then, she jumped over beside him.

1st Person View

I jumped in surprise. "Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you there. Mind if I sit with you? I'd go somewhere else, but this is my favorite roof." I smiled. "You picked a good spot."

He leaned forward, into the light of the moon, letting me see his face. "You're not afraid of me?"

"No...why should I be afraid?" I was far from afraid. Actually, I thought he was kind of cute.

"I...I don't know, but most people take a look at my eyes and are terrified."

I looked into his eyes to see for myself what was supposed to be so scary. "Hmm..." I said thoughtfully, thinking that the circles under his eyes showed me more than I was supposed to know. "...there's nothing there but a lot of sadness and pain."

It was his turn to be surprised. "Who...who are you?" He asked me incredulously, like he couldn't believe that I actually cared about him being sad. I didn't know then that he was thinking exactly that.

"Saruberu Marurita. But...you can call me Maru." I smiled.

(A/N Oh dear...hahaha I can't believe I wrote this thing. MAJOR revising needed. It should probably go into third person. but idk.)

"My...my name is Gaara. Gaara of the Desert Waterfall."

"I've heard of you!" I said excitedly, annoying even myself with my tone of voice. I settled down a little to add, "Naruto was telling me that you saved Konohamaru from...oh...what was his name?...Kankurou, I think."

"Yes, it's Kankurou. My older brother."

"Oh? And so Temari is your sister?"

"That's right. I'm 12, Kankarou's 14, and Temari is 16."

(A/N I wrote a story where the main characters are 12?! WTF?)

"I see."

As we talked, he ended up telling me about his father trying to assassinate him, and finally about his uncle that pretended to care, then told him that no one had ever loved him.

"That's horrible! I hope you didn't believe him, Gaara. What kind of a bastard tells an innocent child that no one..." I snorted. "I hope you knew that's not true."

Gaara looked at me in surprise, thinking, 'Not true? Just who is this girl? She doesn't seem to be afraid...not even a little bit. Either she's stupid, or she's very brave.'

Then, after that, he told me about Shukaku. "I...I hate him, so much. Shukaku is the reason I can't sleep at night. If I sleep, he eats away at my personality and I do a full-body transformation, into him. I haven't slept in twelve years."

"Gaara...wow, that's...absolutely incredible. You've gone twelve years without sleep to protect people from Shukaku. I'm glad Tatsu's not like that. I like to sleep." I smiled.

"Tatsu?" Gaara asked me with a questioning, urgent look in his eyes. It took me a minute to realize that the expression there was hope. Hope that someone understood, at long last.

"Yeah...he's a ten-tailed dragon. He's not a demon, but he still lives inside me, and I can still draw off of his power sometimes. See, I've lived in this village all my life, but my dad and mom only came here because I was dying. Dad sealed Tatsu inside of me when I was a baby because Tatsu was the last of his kind, and he was going to be killed. So instead of letting him die, Dad put him in me, but something went wrong, and the seal was balanced wrong. Konoha was the closest village, and they brought me there. They healed me and fixed the seal, and mom and dad decided to stay here in case I should have any problems with Tatsu in the future. We're moving soon, though. They think that I'd be better off somewhere else."

We talked all night, and then Gaara asked, rather abruptly, "Are you going to go watch the Chuunin exams tomorrow morning?"

"I wish! No...I have a solo mission to do tomorrow, actually."

As I looked at him, I thought he looked a bit relieved. Then, unable to think of a reason why he'd be glad I wasn't at the Chuunin exams, unless he didn't want me to see him fight, I decided that it was a trick of the light.

He sighed and then spoke. "Sometimes...there are things that you don't want to happen, but you know they must. I hate it when that happens."

He was trying to give me a hint, but I only realized that in hindsight, looking back on that night on a much later date. At the time, I just smiled at him, thinking he was making conversation. "Yeah...I know what you mean."

An hour or so later, Gaara and I were sitting side by side, and he was telling me about his childhood. Not just the bare details, like he had been before...no, now he was telling me how he had felt.

He finished a long, heartfelt dialogue with the next sentence. "No one...no one cared about me. No one ever has...and no one ever will." Then he shut his bright eyes sadly.

He opened them in shock when he felt my arms around him. Even I was a bit surprised at my own daring, but I spoke anyway. "Gaara...I know we only just met, but I care about you, very much. So please, don't feel like you don't have any friends. I might not be much, or the most popular, or the smartest...but I'm a friend."

"And...that's enough. That's all I've ever needed." I saw the pain hidden behind his eyes as he asked, "Do you know how it feels, Maru? To just want a friend, and to have them fear you when you try to join their games?"

"I...know how it is, Gaara. It's not so easy having Tatsu inside of me, either. I've always been so strong, because of the training I had to go through to be able to hold him and because of the fight for my life...the other kids were afraid of me. Now, they're catching up to me, but everyone but Naruto and Hinata are still afraid. It hurts, Gaara. It hurts."

He looked over at me, but I wasn't watching him. I was staring out into the distance, memories coursing through my head. Therefore, I missed the look he gave me. If I had seen it, I would've known without a doubt that Sabaku no Gaara had found a friend.

I looked at my watch and saw that it was almost five A.M. I groaned inwardly, knowing that I had to leave for my mission at eight. I yawned in anticipation of the next day's tired feeling. "I'd better go to sleep, Gaara. I only have about two and a half hours to rest."

He told me later that he was never sure why he did and said what he did and said next, but also that he was glad he did."Then sleep." He slid his arm around me. "I won't let you fall."

I smiled at him. "Gaara...you're sweet." Then, I fell asleep.

He stared down at me and wondered what it would be like if he could sleep. Knowing that it would be bad if my parents found me missing, he hugged me to him, took me down to the window I had come out of, laid me down in my bed, covered me up, and kissed my cheek gently and instinctively. Then, feeling vaguely confused, he set the alarm for 7:30 and went back to his roof to prepare for his task. He found it very hard to do, now that he had met me, and instead wrote a letter to me. He slipped it in my window, holding it in place with the sill.

His next words were murmured to me through my window as he balanced on the sill. "You might not know it, Maru...but you're the most kind-hearted person I've ever met. And...I thank you."

So yeah. Chapter one lol. I think it's better than it was, but it still needs some revising, and Idk if I want to switch to third person or what. I dunno.

Well, please don't flame it. I already know it sucks!