The sand village was very quiet today, but then it was always quiet. There was nothing to see or do in the sand village, and for the most part no one wanted to come out and play unless there was a large group of them at once. All because Gaara of the Sands might show up, and heaven forbid he wanted to play with them. Kumi honestly could not understand entirely why he was feared, for one he was two years younger than her and cried a lot.
She understood he had a demon in him, but it was not really his choice, and she knew she would be lying if she said she had not been afraid of him at first as well. Once she got round to speaking to him, and occasionally bumping into him at the park, she had found he was not at all scary. Actually, sometimes it was fun having him around. If she was bored she could get him to make sand snowmen and castles, or convince him to put sand in people's beverages when she was feeling particularly mischievous.

Kumi sometimes wished she had the ability to move sand about in fact, because she would cause all kinds of trouble. From tripping people over to scaring away that one kid who was older than her and would not give up the swing, even though he was too old to be in a play park. Right now she was alone in the park though, all the kids had gone home for dinner, and now it was getting late.
Sighing the young child rolled onto her back, her entire body lazier than usual because of the hot sun. Observing the cloudless sky above her she blindly grabbed about for the bowl she had emptied of its contents and put it over her face to block out the glare of the sun, a hum parting her lips as she slowly shut her eyes.

After some time the silver haired girl grunted, she could not find any peace now that someone was creeping up to her as she lay there. A crunch of dirt, the snap of a rock being kicked; this attacker was about as agile as a small elephant. Carefully they slowly reached their hand out to poke her, but they screamed and fell back when Kumi shot up from her resting position and roared at them.
"Ahh!" Gaara squealed, putting his hands on top of his head in self defence, some of his sand shooting up to become a barrier.
"What? Oh, it's just you." Kumi uttered, lifting the bowl up onto the top of her head.
"Why did you do that?" he bleated, taking his hands away to frown at her.
"I thought you were attacking me." the young woman huffed, flopping back down onto her back.
"Have you got my ball?" he asked, while she simply tilted her head to look at him.
"Why would I want your ball?" Kumi asked through a heaved sigh.
"My classmates kicked it away from me, so it ended up over here." he explained, frowning gently.

Grunting she narrowed her gaze a little when the sun hit her eyes.
"Again with this. You shouldn't let those little brats pick on you." Kumi mumbled, while he just blinked.
"We were playing, they don't pick on me." he spoke defensively, though she could tell even he did not believe that.
"Kicking it too hard is one thing, but every day?" she enquired, hitching her eyebrow. For a moment Gaara remained quiet, his firm expression slowly fading away. "To think they'd pick on the leader's kid." she commented, crossing her arms as she remained laying on the ground. "I was only your age two years ago, but the people in my class didn't dare pick on anyone important." she added, tilting her head back up to observe the sky. "You sure it landed here, I didn't see it." she uttered, while he nodded his head.
Sitting up the young Senju glanced about the empty field in front of them, her shut eyelids shifting as her eyes moved about.
"How can you see?" Gaara enquired, frowning at her.
"I'm not blind, I just have a different face from most people." Kumi spoke, crinkling her eyebrows.
"But I can't see your eyes." the sand child uttered, holding open one of his eyelids.
"My eyes aren't completely shut, it just looks like I have a sleepy face." she grumbled, still looking for this stupid ball. Not that his rude comments were making her want to find it any faster.

Lifting her hand she soon spoke, while he gave her a confused expression and looked in the direction of her hand.
"It's there, see that red lump?" she enquired, while Gaara just nodded and ran off to find it. After a short period of time Kumi slowly stood up, her head turning as she tried to locate the nuisance. "Oi, Gaara, where are you?" she called, placing both her hands near her permanent smile.
"Here!" she heard someone reply, gaining her attention. He had managed to get his foot caught between two rocks, which only made her roll her eyes and come over to help him. How anyone was afraid of this child was beyond her.
"How did you manage that?" she asked, kneeling down to help dislodge his foot. "It's stuck in there good." she then commented, tugging on the sandal.

After some more pushing and pulling she soon took her hands away to think, she was only making things worse by trying to get his foot out with force.
"We might need to amputate." she jested, but he did not seem to find it funny. "I'm kidding." she spoke, trying to calm him down.
"You better be." he replied, holding his knee as if that would protect his leg.
"I'll probably have to dig the rock loose." she mumbled, un-strapping his sandal so he could wriggle out of the shoe.
"The sand's hot." he complained when he was free and able to put his foot down.
"Then put it on my lap then you whiner." she uttered, patting her thigh as she kept trying to get the shoe out.
After a good fifteen minutes Kumi finally retrieved the item, a glad groan passing her lips as she handed it to him and squeezed her aching wrist.
"Thanks." he uttered, smiling at her once his shoe was back on.
"Just don't get it stuck again." she huffed, standing up to wipe the sand from her clothes.

Walking him home Kumi watched as everyone darted about, her eyes slowly rolling as she stopped at his door.
"Don't get in trouble again." she mumbled, scuffing his hair before she wandered off. Of course she knew he would do tomorrow anyway, but she let it go to go home too. After a few more days Kumi had been wandering about looking for something to do, but with a really crap park, with only a swing in it, and no one to really play with she was stuck for ideas.
Hearing shouting she soon came towards the park, where she was met with the sight of the kids tossing Gaara's bear back and forth. The sand-child himself was nowhere to be seen though, which probably explained why they were acting so ballsy.
"Where'd you get the bear?" Kumi asked, grinning.
"We found it." they explained, giving her a suspicious look.
"Can I play?" Kumi enquired, tilting her head to the side.

Glancing between one another they slowly agreed and continued playing, while Kumi remained at the back trying to catch the teddy. When she finally got it she found everyone was gasping and freaking out, her smirking dissipating when she found Gaara was watching.
"It's Gaara of the Sands, run!" she heard the others yelp, while she just pouted and lowered her arms.
"I got your bear back." she stated, showing him it. He did not look pleased at all, in fact he looked hurt to find her like this. "Gaara?" she called, while he just turned and began to stomp off. "Hey, wait, I got your bear!" the young child shouted, trying to chase after him. He whipped round when she refused to stop following him however, an angry look coming over his face.
"Leave me alone!" he shouted, his sand lashing out to knock her backwards.

Wincing Kumi grabbed her shoulder, her face scrunching up as she looked to her shoulder.
"That hurt." she hissed, but when she went to tell him off he was gone. Frowning the young Senju stood up, her hand moving away to check how deep the wound was, there was a lot of blood at any rate. Gaara really needed to learn how to control himself when he was angry. Deciding to go home Kumi entered the house, her eyes drifting down to look at the bear. She was not quite sure why she was still holding the wretched thing when Gaara had lashed out at her, she had a good mind to shred the thing or set it on fire.
Heading into the kitchen to find her mum with tears in her eyes the young child sniffled, the pain setting in from the gash on her shoulder.
"What happened?" her mother asked, clearly shocked by the state of her daughter.
"I was teasing Gaara and he attacked me." Kumi huffed, while her mother went about healing her shoulder.
"I've told you not to go near that boy." her mother hissed, smacking her child behind the head.
"I was playing with the other kids and he saw I had his bear." she grumbled, drawing away from her mother when she tried to take the tatty looking thing from her. "No, I want to keep it." she protested, glaring a little. "If he's going to be mean, I'm going to- ouch!" she went on to protest, squeaking when her mother was being too rough with her wound.

That evening Kumi was sitting in her room, a fermenting glare plastered onto her face as she sat on her bed glaring at the bear who was staring back at her.
"I should burn you." she muttered, crossing her arms. "If Gaara had actually bothered to listen to me then this wouldn't have happened." she huffed, picking it up to toss it across the room and then flop over to face away from it. Remaining there for a few minutes the silver haired child slowly began to relax and let her scrunched up face loosen up, a sigh leaving her lungs as she turned over to look at the bear again. She would give him one last chance to listen to her, after that she was definitely going to scorch the bear with a magnifying glass.

That morning Kumi went looking for Gaara, who was not that hard to find if she followed the villagers who were freaking out like a bunch of headless chickens.
"Gaara." she called, finally catching up to him. Thankfully he stopped at least, but he did not look that happy to see her. "Will you stop glaring at me, you didn't even let me explain what happened." she huffed, pulling the bear out of her bag to give it back to him.
"I saw what happened." he responded bitterly.
"I found those kids throwing the bear about, so I pretended to play along so I could get it back." she explained, unfurling the furrowed glare on his face. "It was just bad timing that you came along and saw me catch it." she grumbled, giving it back to him.
"I don't believe you." he mumbled, holding the bear closer to his chest.
"Well I'm telling you the truth." she retorted firmly, putting her hands onto her hips.
"Just stay away from me." Gaara stated, turning to leave.
"You're such an ungrateful, whiney…" she hissed, screwing up her face. "Fine! See if I care, take your stupid bear." she shouted as he wandered off, a few adults staring at her in disbelief. "That's the last time I do anything nice for you." she muttered, stomping off.

As the years past this conflict remained, and as it continued Gaara seemed to spiral out of control. With the death of his uncle he had plonked himself down on a remote island within himself, where no one was allowed to step. Kumi would occasionally see him around the village, but she would keep to herself like everyone else did. As they got older the danger which surrounded him seemed to become stronger, as he became all the more unpredictable.
If he did not even like the look you gave him he had a tendency to toss you about like a pin-pong ball, and Kumi was no different from the rest of them. He seemed a bit more lenient with her, but she knew better than to go prancing up to him and just say 'hello' whenever it took her fancy.

As of right now she was basking on a flat rock, her entire body flattened out against it as she kept a still expression on her face while she mumbled occasionally. This was the only rock in the village, and it was her rock. The only problem with this spot was that if anyone needed her they knew where to find her, and in some cases it did not lead to her getting any peace and quiet.
Kumi knew fine well someone was always watching her from here as well, their eyes boring into her as she lay there aimlessly. Whenever she tried to see who it was she could never find them, and even when she told them she knew they were there they never revealed themselves. Part of her wondered if she was paranoid, but today she figured she could not have been as she spotted a shadow reach out across the sand.

Sitting up slowly she examined it, her eyes narrowing as she flicked her head round to try catch them out. They vanished just as quickly and made her curse, her body flipping over so she could get to her feet and follow them. Leaping up into the air Kumi latched onto the side of the rock and clawed her way up, a disgruntled series of noises parting her lips as she heaved herself up.
Flicking her head about the young woman tutted at the sight of the emptiness greeting her at the top of the rock, whoever it was had nowhere to hide anyway. Relaxing her tense muscles Kumi sighed and turned to look down at the ground below, at least she managed to jump up here, even if she struggled towards the end. How she was going to get down was another thing however, as she went around the cliff looking for an easier way down.

Feeling a little awkward she went back to where she was standing before, she was stuck up here it seemed.
"I need wings." she commented quietly, lifting her hand. Perhaps she could force some wood to come out of the ground, but that seemed a bit silly considering the environment she was in. Shutting her eyes she pursed her lips together and lowered her eyebrows to concentrate, her body tilting forward as she attempted to do something, anything. When nothing happened she huffed and flopped backwards to sit on her rump. At least if she sat up here she could avoid being annoyed for a little while.
Laying back with her arms crossed behind her head Kumi kicked her foot in the air once she crossed it over the other that was bent so her knee pointed to the sky. This was the easy life it seemed, no trouble, no noise, nothing. After a little while she felt the eyes from before pinning down on her again, but this time she knew they could not possibly hide from her. From here she could see everything about her, with only the village houses and towers looming over her.

Humming the silver haired teenager peered about, she knew it had to be someone who knew her well at least, as not everyone could tell the difference between her face when her eyes were open and when they were closed. After some searching she finally gave up, whoever it was that was watching her was way too fast for her. Going back to staring at the sky, so as not to put him off, Kumi kicked her foot patiently as she pondered the reason behind his daily stalking.
Every time she wondered if it was Gaara, but she would always shake her head in disagreement. As far as she knew he still hated her for 'lying' to him about the bear, even at his age he seemed a bit strung up by that. Kumi wondered if he had ever forgiven her for that incident but had never said anything. She could understand why he seldom spoke to anyone that was not family anymore, but he could have at least said something to her instead of letting this bitter feud, that she was already over, continue.

Sighing she shut her eyes and rolled onto her side to sprawl out at an angle, the hot rock burning her a little before it soon faded as her body's shadow fought away the sun that was once hitting it. Once it started to get dark the young woman finally decided it was time to move, her head lifting to peer about sleepily. Apparently she had dozed off, leaving herself with a rather nasty looking sunburn.
Going home Kumi ran herself a cold bath and threw some ice cubes in before she got undressed and got in, a deep groan passing her lips as she got comfy. Laying there for a good while she eventually got back out, her head stopping and her towel slowly lowering when she saw something strange on her chest. Coming closer to the mirror she leaned in and gently touched the mark on her skin, for some reason she was sunburned everywhere but in one place.

Glancing at her hand she put it over the mark and then took her hand away a little, it was too big to be hers, but it belonged to someone. Whoever did it must have been sitting there with her for long enough that their hand left an imprint, the very thought made her skin crawl. Heading to pick up her clothes she watched as a few stray grains of sand fell onto the ground, and for a moment she stared at the mess. Now, most people would just shrug it off, this was the sand village for goodness-sake, but Kumi could not let this slide.
A hand print on her chest, a fast, agile and sneaky stalker following her about, and now sand on her clothes. She did not want to suspect Gaara had something to do with this but it was starting to become awkwardly coincidental. There was only one way she was going to figure this out, and that was to trick them into coming out into the open.