(beams) Konichiwa minna-san! (smile) This is my very first Naruto fanfiction! I hope y'all enjoy it.

When the wolf cries

Chapter 1: The encounter

"C'mon! We have the day off! Hurry up, we're gonna go to the river!" shouted a sixteen year-old pink haired girl, waving at me. I smiled, fully aware of why she really wanted to be there faster.

I am Yamiho Yukiko, and I have a terrible secret: something that I can't tell Sakura-chan, not yet anyways. I was born and raised in the village of Kumogakure until I turned five, and then my sister and I fled to Kohona. I won't give the details, but we basically got booted out of the village.

"Yuki-chan, hurry up, I wanna get there quick!" Sakura shouted back to me.

I broke into a run and raced along side her. I grinned madly, wrinkling my nose as I did so, "The only reason why you wanna get there so damn quick is because Naruto-kun and you used to picnic there before."

Sakura's eyes twitched and her face turned a bright red. I laughed as she glared at me, but I still knew she had a thing for him. She had told me about Sasuke, and told me how she was over him. Sakura explained that they still never found him, but he was probably still roaming around trying to kill his brother Itachi. The silly girl was still in denial about her secret feelings, but I still loved to tease.

"I told you a thousand times I don't feel like that about him, Yuki-chan!" Sakura protested as they ran through the forest, towards the river.

"Whatever," I said grinning and we continued our journey in silence.

Within a few minutes, we arrived at the river, and we greeted Shikamaru-kun and Ino-chan. Shika had mentioned that he wanted to go cloud gazing in the meadow today, and Ino suggested that we all meet by the river, to go for a quick swim.

"Heeey! Sakura-chan, Yuki-chan! 'Bout time you got here!" shouted Ino and waved the pair over, "We were going to start without you if you hadn't gotten her a few minutes later."

"Your delay kept us from swimming… how trouble some," muttered Shikamaru with his usual deadpan face.

"Gomen-ne, It's my fault… I wanted to make lunch, so I made Sakura stay with me. I'm so sorry," I said, bowing my head in apology.

"Well, you were late for a good cause, besides I'm hungy," Noted Ino with a large smirk.

"Is anyone else hungy?" I asked as I retrieved my cooked meal from my pack. I turned and saw everyone with their hand up, and I chuckled as I pulled the box lunches from the pack and set them down on a blanket.

I watched as Shikamaru opened his and proceeded to scarf it down. I had made a large amount of omelet, Shika-kun's favorite treat. Ino-chan opened hers and inhaled.

"It smells delicious," she noted and broke her chopsticks apart. I smiled at the fact that everyone was enjoying my cooking, and bit into a shrimp. I chewed at the cooked little piece of seafood and breathed deeply.

Plit

I stopped in mid bite as I heard the noise. Great… a day off of the job and I'm already having to focus on something other than the good food and the serenity of the forest. I kept my guard up just incase, but I continued to eat my lunch silently.

"Is something wrong?"

I looked up from my meal, apparently no one else had heard the noise. I looked at Shikamaru, his expression unchanged. There was a slight possibility that he had noticed, his I.Q. was well over two hundred, but he was probably too lazy to mention anything. Perhaps I hadn't hear anything at all…

"I'm fine, I think I ate a piece of the shell," I stated in reference to the shrimp I was consuming. Sakura gave me a funny look, then shrugged it off and continued eating. I gave a weak smile, it was probably just me.

Plit

"Okay, Maybe I am hearing something," I thought as I stood up, "Suminasen, I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Piped Sakura. I Turned to her and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Gonna go wash my hands," I told her. It wasn't technically a lie – my hands were really sticky and I did need to wash them, but at the same time I was going to go check out the area near the river, because that's where the sound came from.

I strolled down the path that led to the running water. Bending over, I stuck my hands in the cool stream and rubbed them together to rid them of the sticky juices.

Plit

I craned my head around, searching the thickets of the forest with my eyes. Something was out there. I continued to scan the scenery, fixing my eyes on a mass of moonfire flowers, a very rare breed of blossoms. They grew in the desert, and they only bloomed at night, soaking up the light of the moon. I knew it to be most suspicious to see the flowers here in the outskirts of Kohona, and I drew a kunai from my pack. My cold weapon in hand, I moved towards the patch of flowers, positioning myself to strike.

With a swift movement, the knife left my hand and struck the patch. Something let out a scream as I ran over to it, another knife in hand.

I bent down to look at what I had hit. A young rabbit had been pinned by my knife.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you, little one," I crooned as I pulled my knife out of its cottontail. The hare scampered off and I sighed with relief, as I stood up and turned around.

Crack

I spun around instinctively as the noise broke the silence. A young man had broken a twig as he dragged himself through the flowers, his blood soaking the white moonfire blossoms.

I sharply inhaled as I looked at him: He had thick mahogany colored hair and he looked as if he hadn't slept for a very long time because there were bags under his eyes. His wounds were very large, and his blood leaked out of them. He opened his eyes; they were a pale emerald. He glared at me and opened his mouth to say something, but a fit of coughs and the spitting of blood prevented him from doing so. Then I became aware of that med kit inside my pack back at the picnic site.

I knelt down besides him and tore at the wrappings around my left arm that hid a few scars I had received from when I was younger.

"My name is Yamiho Yukiko, let me help you," I told him calmly, "I need to stop the bleeding, let me see your arm."

As I reached out to help him, he snarled at me, and batted my hand away with a kunai. I drew back my now bloody hand, and reached out again, "I won't hurt you, honest. Please let me help you."

He tried to bat away my hand again and I withdrew it as he swiped. He covered the lesion on his arm with his hand, wincing in pain. I quickly gazed at his body, making sure he had no broken bones; he didn't. I crouched as I put my plan into action.

I sprang over him with a quick jump, and span to fast for the injured man to turn. I gently sprang onto him and hugged his back. This prevented two things: the large gaping gash on his back from bleeding anymore, and it also prevented him from striking me again. I pressed my self into him, and I felt his warm blood soak into my dress.

He thrashed against my grip as I held onto him, letting my dress stop the blood flow. After two full minutes of wriggling, he stopped.

"I'll kill you," he choked, his mouth dripping with fresh scarlet liquid.

"You're in no condition to kill now," I snorted, making the last hand symbol for a paralyzing jutsu. His movements ceased, and I released him from my grip.

"Sorry, I had to do this, but you just wouldn't agree with me," I said to him. The boy was quite handsome, and on his forehead was a tattoo that read 'ai'. I took my wrappings and bound his other wounds: the one on his back had finally stopped gushing blood.

Once finished, I stood up; half wondering why nobody had heard this.

"Stay here and don't move – which you can't, I'll be back to dress your wounds properly," I told him, and his eyes shone with a look of hate on them.

I sprinted at full speed back to our picnic sight, and everyone looked at me with horrified expressions, even Shika looked slightly rattled.

"What-"

"It's not my blood," I explained to Sakura, and dumped my pack, and picked up my medical kit, "someone's been hurt, and they aren't being cooperative with me."

"B-but, your soaked in blood," Ino stuttered with an apprehensive expression. I looked down and sure enough I was covered in red liquid.

"Take us with you, we'll help," said Sakura, leaping up from her sitting place. The rest followed suit, and I dashed back down the path, everyone in pursuit. I scurried over to the bleeding boys side and didn't notice that everyone had stopped dead in there tracks. I pulled out my antiseptic wash, and pulled off the now blood-soaked bandages.

His cuts were pretty nasty, but they hadn't been infected yet. I squirted a fair amount of wash onto a cloth and rubbed it on his arm. He growled though his teeth, and I lifted the justsu on his head so I could talk with him.

"You're mangled pretty badly, but its nothing I can't fix," I told him as stitched up the wound on his arm. I climbed over him, and tore away at his shirt, gaping at what I saw.

His wound was very deep, but it had already started to heal by itself.

"What the-"

"-hell are you doing?" screeched Sakura. I turned my head and looked at her and everyone else: they all had a look of shock on their faces.

"That's Gaara of the sand! He kills anything in his path! Stop helping him!" Screamed Sakura, "Not to mention he's possessed by that demon Shukaku."

I stared at the boy called Gaara. No wonder he didn't look like he hadn't gotten any sleep; the demon inside him must not be very controllable. That's also explains his healing wound, and why he knocked my hand away.

I looked into the eyes of Gaara: past the shield of hatred, and I knew exactly what I saw in him.

Pain.

"He must have been the same…" I muttered to myself. I looked down at him as I stood up.

"There is a difference," I said out loud, "between being a monster, and being a container for the monster."

There was absolute silence from the other four standing at the edge of the river. Naruto had a painful look plastered on to his face. I knew why, and I know that I'm not going to tell anyone else about Kyuubi.

"He's not a monster," I said, and released the bindings on him completely.

Bad mistake.

Gaara pulled up into a kneeling position, and within seconds had me in a tight grip of sand. I looked at the sneer on his face, and I knew that he had killed many before, but I also knew he wouldn't kill me.

"It… must have been painful," I said. His eyes widened every so slightly at what I said.

"It must have been painful," I repeated, looking into his eyes, "To be shunned by all, right?"

He tightened his grip on me, but hesitated to kill. I started to feel hot tears running down my cheeks.

"It must have been painful, to stay awake every night," I said sobbing, "and fear that the demon would take control, and kill people, wasn't it? To not be loved, to be called a monster, to be-"

"Shut up," he snapped and tightened his grip further. I felt crushed by the sand, but he still hadn't killed me.

"But you're not," I cried. Everyone stared at me, shouting at this boy I didn't know, but I already knew him well, "You're not a monster, and you aren't a demon. You're a human, just like me, just like Sakura, Ino, Shika, and everyone else! You're just a person that's carrying something horrible inside you, and it's not your fault! It wasn't your choice, but the Kazekage sealed it to you, and now you have to carry this awful burden.

You don't have to kill everything, you don't deserve to be hated: no one does. You don't have to listen to the demon, and you don't have to be ruled by it. You don't have to feel lonely!"

Warm tears ran down my cheeks and fell to the ground. I looked at Gaara of the Sand, and he wasn't scowling at me. His face was emotionless, and within a few seconds he let me loose. I fell to the ground sobbing as he limped away from us.

Sakura and Ino rushed to my side, and tried to comfort me, but I didn't pay attention, I was too busy thinking about Gaara. I didn't want to see him flaunt hatred at everything he saw.

I didn't want any person to experience what happened to me…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gaara limped through the forest irritated. His wounds were almost healed and he was extremely puzzled.

"I couldn't I kill that girl," he fumed nonchalantly, "why the hell couldn't I kill that girl? It's not like she understood…"

"He must have been the same…"

Gaara covered his ears and hissed. For the first time ever, something actually was putting him out of his calm and collected mood. What the hell did that girl know anyways?

"My name is Yamiho Yukiko…"

What the hell did he care for? He was Gaara of the sand. Gaara: the synonym of death to many. He only fought for and loved himself, and that's all the love he needed. He was Gaara, and for the very first time… he hadn't killed someone he had meant to.

Okay sorry about the short chapter, but I didn't want to reveal too much… you'll learn about Yukiko's past in the next chapter so be prepared for a very angsty past!

Ja ne!