Summery: A young five-year-old Gaara meets a mysterious girl who has lost her memory. Will they become friends? Or will Gaara accidentally kill the first friend he ever had?

A/N: Just to let all of you know this was originally a random idea that I wrote down in a journal I had lying around. I continued writing whatever idea came into my head and finally showed some of it to a friend who told me it was pretty good. So after some revising I came up with this.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Naruto. The only characters I own are the OC's

Fox in a Desert

Chapter 1 Discovery

Nothing. Nothing but an endless sea of sand and unbearable, scorching heat. The only sound that could be heard was the howling wind. "Wh-where am I? What am I doing here?"

A lone figure was stumbling along, lost, and alone in the seemingly endless desert. The figure was a small child; its clothes were torn, ripped, and covered in blood. The child's face was also covered in blood and sand, so much so that it was unrecognizable. "It's so hot… Everything hurts. I'm… alone…"

"Your not alone..."

"Huh?" The child turned and looked around, startled by the sound. But noone was there. "Who are you? Where are you?"

"You will know in time. You must keep going."

"I can't."

"Yes you can."

The world began to turn and everything went black. "I'm I dying?" the child fell to the ground, and remembered no more.

Border patrol? That's what I've been assigned on? Thought a young Chunin. That has to be one of the easiest mission's ever. This Chunin's name was Yura, and he was rather disappointed that his first mission as a new Chunin of the Hidden Sand was something as simple as border patrol. "Yura! Pay attention!" Snapped the commanding officer. His name was Baki.

Yura immediately snapped to attention. "Sorry sir." He said, ashamed he had let his mind wander off. Baki only nodded, and turned to address the rest of the ninja in the patrol squad.

"Now, as I was saying, we will be checking out the border we share with the Land of Fire. We've been receiving reports about a band of rouge ninja who've been operating in that area. Which is exactly why only Chunin and Jonin are being sent on this mission. We need to deal with the problem quickly before it can get out of hand."

"Sir, exactly how many ninja are we talking about?" asked Yura.

"Ten I believe. Or that's what the reports we have received from the Leaf Village have said. Most of them are Chunin and Jonin from the Land of Earth." Baki told the men.

Stone ninja? As if the desert was dangerous enough on it's own, Now this? Yura thought worriedly.

"Are there any more questions?" All the ninja shook their heads. "Good. Let's move out!"

"Yes sir!"

The patrol group had been running for about an hour or so when Yura notice something unusual lying in the sand. "Baki, what's that over there?" he said, pointing at whatever was lying in the sand, a few yards ahead.

Baki looked in the direction Yura had indicated and ordered the men to stop. "I don't know Yura."

"Maybe we should check it out."

"Hmm, alright the rest of you fan out and see if you can find anything. Report to me immediately if you do."

"Yes sir."

As the ninja spread out, Baki and Yura make their way to the object lying in the sand. When they where a few feet away Yura realized what he was looking at. "Baki…" he said in a low voice. "I think it's a child…"

"What?" Baki exclaimed.

"And it has crimson red hair." Yura continued in the same low tone.

Baki stopped, shocked at what Yura had just said and looked at the child. "But- but that's not possible… He's in the village."

Yura stood next to the body, it was covered in blood and sand; the clothes were torn and revealed numerous slash marks and bruises. On the child's back was a rather nasty looking, ragged gash, from a sword, by the look of it.

"Who could have done this…?" Yura said in a shocked voice, "Is the child even still alive?"

"I don't know Yura…" Baki was in complete shock. He'd seen many things during the Ninja Wars, but never, in all his time as a Jonin, had he seen anything like this.

Yura bent down to take a closer look. "The child's still alive!" he exclaimed, "I can sense a slight pulse but it's not that strong."

"Get that child to the village at once!"

"Yes sir!" Yura said, picking the child up in his arms. It feels so fragile. He thought sadly. I will not allow this child to die. "Should I take the child to Yashamaru?" he asked standing up again.

"Yes. But go quickly! You have to get there as fast as you can!"

"Right!" Yura said, speeding off in the direction of the Sand Village.

As Baki watched Yura depart he heard a shout from one of the other ninja. "Baki-san, come quick! There's something over here that you really need to see!"

"I'm on my way!" Baki called to the other ninja, taking one last look in the direction that Yura had gone, and ran to where all the other patrol members were starting to gather.

What he saw when he got there made his blood run cold. "What in the-?"

It was a man. Or what used to be a man. Someone or something had ravaged the body so much that it was hard to tell it had even been a man.

"We've identified the body as a former Jonin from the Land of Earth. And we suspect that he is the leader of the rouge ninja."

"I want three of you to take the body back to the sand for a full autopsy report. The rest of you are to follow me so that we can see if there are any more bodies in the area."

"Yes sir!"

Meanwhile the man called Yashamaru was attending to a young boy with crimson red hair and black rings around his aqua blue eyes. "So Gaara," Yashamaru said, "how are you today?" "I'm fine Yashamaru." Gaara told his uncle in a small voice. Yashamaru smiled a little and said "Alright. I've got to go and check on the medical report, I'll be back in a while."

"Ok."

Gaara watched as his kind uncle left, and sighed. He was lying when he said that he was fine. In truth He was a little sad. He was sad because no matter what he did or how hard he tried all other kids in the Sand were afraid of him. Whenever they saw him coming they screamed and ran off. It was all because of Shukaku.

Gaara walked over to a mirror and stared blankly at his reflection. It was all because of Shukaku, the sand demon that was sealed inside of him. Shukaku was the cause of all of Gaara's grief, and the reason why he couldn't sleep. Gaara never fell asleep because when he did… well, it wasn't pretty. Shukaku also gave Gaara the power to control sand, and that was also why Gaara had never been hurt in his life; the sand always protected him. Gaara sighed again and glanced over to the picture of his mother. He never knew her because she died when he was born; again because of Shukaku.

His father was always busy, but that was because he was Kazekage. So the only one to take care of him and his older siblings, Temari and Kankuro, was Yashamaru. Yashamaru was their mother's younger twin brother and was very kind. Gaara felt at ease around Yashamaru and liked him very much. And even though Temari and Kankuro were his siblings, they were afraid of him too.

Yashamaru was sure that Gaara was lying when he had said he was fine. But nothing he could do about that he had to go get the medical report. Then he'd have to have a word with Temari and Kankuro about getting along with each other.

Yura made it to the village in record time. "Yura what is it? And who is that?" Yura had no time to answer the sentry-nin's questions, the child needed help.

"Quick I need you to get Yashamaru! This child needs medical care!" Yura said. "I'll get the child to the mansion."

"You got it." The sentry didn't need to be told twice, he saw how bad the child's condition was. He ran off as fast as he could to the hospital. He had to get Yashamaru.

Yura, meanwhile, was running pull-mell to the Kazekage's mansion. Ignoring the stares he was getting from villagers as he ran past.

Yashamaru was already at the hospital reading up on the medical report for the week. Everything seemed to be ok nothing major and no one had died. Then one of the sentry-nin burst in. "Yashamaru!" the men yelled.

"What? What is it?" Yashamaru said alarmed.

"A child. Yura brought a young child into the village. The child is unconscious and in terrible shape. Yura is taking it to the Kazekage's mansion." The ninja said in a rush. "Alright. You go back to the gate, I'll get there as fast as I can."

"Yes sir!" Yashamaru ran back to the mansion, everything else forgotten.

A/N: So what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Or just clicked on the wrong link. Whatever you think, tell me, because I would love to know. Send me your reviews!