I do not own Naruto! Please read and review! Thank you!
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Just keep moving, that's all you have to do, don't stop.
No matter how much she told herself, Avery knew that her legs weren't going to last much longer at this rate. Each step was taking its toll on her physical strength, while her energy was already on its last thread. The heat wasn't helping the situation either; since she had entered the desert each step almost seemed to take more from her.
She knew she didn't do well in heat. She had never been comfortable in it even as a child; she hated summers unless she had access to popsicles and air conditioning. The sun was beginning to sink down past the horizon, giving her some hope she might actually make it to shelter before she passed out either from exhaustion or heatstroke, as long as she could push past the pain she was already in from using her energy levels to near non-existence.
As she walked, she tried to keep herself focused on finding shelter; someplace safe that she could hide and rest. But her mind kept wandering back to what had made her run in the first place. Her home was destroyed by the one person she trusted most to protect it. With cold and unforgiving eyes he had killed her entire clan, her family, in his search for their most precious heirloom, the source of their power. Avery knew that she was lucky to have had enough energy left to grab it and run far enough to orb without him detecting her. It would take him a long time to find her now in this new land, if he ever did.
Not that Avery had any idea where she was, all she knew was she was away from there. For all she knew, or cared, she could be in Narnia.
I won't be safe until I find shelter, I need something. The only relief now was the temperature beginning to drop as the sun disappeared from sight, but she knew she wouldn't last the night without a shelter of some kind. Her legs were beginning to shake so hard she wondered how she was still standing, until she wasn't.
One of her knees buckled under the weight of her step and her backpack suddenly felt twice as heavy as it had previous. With a new, furious, pounding in her head, and a ragged breath she looked around her. Just to her left she realized there was a structure she had been staring unseeingly past. If she could make it there she might be able to make it through the night.
With the thought of rest fresh in her mind, she managed to get back to her feet and force herself to keep moving holding tightly to the straps of her backpack. Only her will was left to force her forward with one agonizing step at a time. As she grew closer, she could see something there at the opening of the giant structure.
It was a person… no two people, standing just outside the structure.
If I could just get there, they might know where I can rest. She took another step, her vision swimming and her knees shaking hard. One more step and her knee buckled under her taking her to the ground again. She groaned in defeat; knowing that she wouldn't get back up from that one. She was done for now. But, as she lost consciousness, she thought she could just barely see the two figures approaching her.
Maybe…
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All that could be heard in his office was the sound of a pen scratching against paper with calm confidence over the reports that littered his desk. Gaara was intent on his work; not wanting to spend more time in his office than he already did. He practically lived in it as it was, because it was where he would escape to when he couldn't sleep or wanted to be alone. He was new to the concept of sleep, after losing the Shukaku he found he could actually sleep without risk, but found it didn't always come easily. As he finished the last report for the evening, he set down his pen and sat back in his chair. The silence in his office was usual, comforting, when his mind was anything but silent. Of course, silence meant he could hear when someone was coming and from the sound of the footsteps, it was urgent.
Well, there goes what would have been my evening.
"Come in," He called before whoever it was coming to interrupt could even knock.
The door opened, "My Lord, we found a traveler unconscious just outside the village. We can't tell where she came from, but she is really bad shape." The man speaking was one of the village's Jonin that was posted at the village gates. He seemed short of breath, must have run here to get Gaara's permission to do something with their visitor.
"Transfer her to the hospital. Have them take care of her; I want someone stationed to check on her every hour until she wakes. Did she have any belongings with her?"
"Yes, a backpack."
"Take it to be searched, when it has been cleared, bring it to her hospital room. And I want to be informed as soon as she wakes," Gaara added.
"Yes sir," the Jonin said before he backed out of the office and ran back down the hallway, leaving Gaara to his silence once again.
Random travelers were not a common occurrence in Sunagakure. The desert was usually enough that if someone who was unfamiliar with where they were, they would generally avoid it altogether, especially since they usually knew the only thing out here was Suna. That led Gaara to believe that whoever this visitor was, she was not from around the Ninja Nation.
He settled back in his chair, and closed his eyes; allowing the silence to flow through him. It was always so calming here. Anytime someone would ask him why he didn't get a fan or something that would make noise, he just shrugged in response. No one understood the peace that came with total silence. Especially after having someone constantly whispering to you from the depths of your mind. Something so out of control like that could transform the suffocation of total silence into complete serenity. He took a deep breath before he stood and tucked his chair in, time to go home.
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When three days had passed with no word on the strange visitor, Gaara decided it was time he went down himself to check on her progress. Temari and Kankuro, his elder siblings, joined him as they usually did on such ventures. They walked together over to the hospital in silence. It reminded him of when they used to walk as children, only now there was none of the tension that had often been associated with a possible rampage on his part. Once they reached the hospital, they walked inside and up to the front desk.
The nurse at the front desk was young and clearly not expecting to look up into the eyes of her Kazekage. She blushed profusely before jumping to her feet. "Lord Gaara! What can I do for you?" she asked nervously.
"I need to know where the unknown traveler is staying," Gaara said in an even tone. Not smiling, but also not unkind.
"Right! Umm…" The young medic ninja searched the papers scattered around before turning to find her superior.
"Lord Kazekage," A nurse walked out of the hallway from the right, "You must be looking for our visitor. This way, I've just come from checking on her."
The sand siblings followed the nurse to a room at the end of the hallway. She was the only patient in this room; attached to an IV drip, as well as a heart monitor. As they walked into the room, Gaara felt the energy stirring, she was just waking.
"Can you give me any information on her situation?" Gaara requested of the medical ninja, clearly more advanced than the young girl at the front desk.
"She was found just outside the village, unconscious, and brought here. We still don't know who she is or where she may have come from. She was unconscious when she was found at the gates." The medical ninja gave her report confidently. "Her vitals have all been stable since we got her in but she hasn't woken yet."
"Everything she had with her? Has it been searched?" Temari asked in a commanding tone as she raised her arms to cross over her chest, her weight shifted ever so slightly to one side which leaned her hip out
"Yes Ma'am, it's all here and has been searched thoroughly. We found nothing to deem dangerous and have not conducted any further searches."
"Thank you, that will be all," Kankuro said dismissively.
"Yes, Lord Kankuro." The med ninja bowed her head before exiting the room.
There was a brief silence in the room.
Avery was awake now but had not opened her eyes, she wasn't totally sure it would do her any good in this state to try to sit up. She knew she didn't have enough energy for a fight, and she knew nothing about the people who stood in the room with her, so she stayed silent; listening as they evaluated the situation.
"I don't see a headband, what village could she have come from?" Temari wondered aloud as she searched over the woman and her belongings.
"Not sure; seems like she was on the run from something. It's possible she may be a rogue from outside the Land of Fire." Kankuro offered.
"If she was rogue, why come here?" Gaara asked of his siblings without looking at them. He walked around toward the "sleeping" visitor, taking notice of a few things he was sure his siblings hadn't picked up on.
"I don't think she is from around here. I believe she may be from another world."
"Why would you think that, Gaara?" Temari asked.
"Look at her and look at her belongings," He carefully lifted her right hand where a small symbol was etched into the skin on her palm. "She is no ninja."
"You might be right, the same symbol on her palm is here on this book," Kankuro said holding the book he had removed from her bag. "However the inside is blank."
"That's odd," Temari said. Her right hand resting on her face to cradle her cheek and chin, with her left arm folded across her body. "Why carry around a blank book?"
"Possibly to write in?" Kankuro suggested.
"Or it may be a defense tactic," Gaara said. He could feel the same power within the book that was stirring inside the woman pretending to sleep. As he said it he felt the energy stir and he knew he was right.
"A defense tactic? But it's a book!" Temari countered.
"I can feel power from it, it isn't quite the same as the chakra building within her, but they are connected," Gaara explained.
Avery stayed still as she listened to her visitors. She could tell that Gaara, whoever he was, had more sense abilities than his male and female companions, as they had not picked up on the book having power. She thought it a miracle that he didn't know she was awake.
"Yes, but even if they are connected, who has ever heard of a book defending itself? And that only begs the question: what is she, or the book, hiding?" Temari pressed.
"You may be over thinking this a little, Temari." Kankuro said, clearly unconcerned so far with what they had learned but not so much so that he wasn't still wary.
"We should let her rest, she's not awake yet. We'll check in her again tomorrow." Gaara decided walking across the room to the door.
"But she has already been out for three days." Temari protested as she and Kankuro left the room. They didn't wait for Gaara knowing he would be behind them as Kankuro was saying something about extreme fatigue.
Gaara waited in the doorway until he was sure no one would hear. "That was for your benefit that I didn't tell them. Maybe you'll feel more apt to conversation in the morning," He said before shutting the door and following his siblings.
Avery froze for an instant; he did know she was awake. She waited until she couldn't hear their footsteps anymore before she opened her eyes. The only light in the room now was the light from the window. Looking around told her she was the only resident of the small hospital room they had her in. Three days? That doesn't seem possible! She thought as she tried to sit up. Her body didn't seem to want to move let alone hold itself up. She reached her right hand out, "book," she said softly.
The book in her bag was surrounded then in blue and white lights, disappearing from where it was only to reappear on the bed by her side. Her fingers gently brushed the symbol on the front, her family crest, before she opened it to reveal its pages were filled with words and illustrations including her family's lineage. Using what little energy she had stored she held her hand over the open book and flipped through the pages, trying to find anything possible about ninjas, but it was as she suspected. There was nothing in the book. She closed the book and using her eyes managed to place it back at the foot of her bed and tried once again to move, taking the IV out of her arm. However as soon as she sat up the room spun and she once again fell back into sleep.
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"We don't know when she woke, when we came to check on her a few hours after you left, we noticed her IV had come out and she was in a different position."
Gaara, Temari and Kankuro walked back into the room their visiting traveler was resting in. She was indeed in a different position than they had left her in and the nurse had replaced her IV.
Gaara was enraged.
"I thought I ordered hourly checks. Has anyone spoken to her yet!?" He bellowed as he looked around at the staff standing around them.
"No, My Lord, she has been asleep since we checked. I had appointed one of our newer trainees to perform her checks; she might not have checked very thoroughly." One of them said nervously.
"Please see to it that your trainees are doing their jobs properly." Temari commanded of the nurse before sending her away with anger and embarrassment stained on her cheeks.
The sound of voices woke Avery from her sleep. She stirred slightly and decided it might be time to wake up after all. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, adjusting to the light that was now on inside the room before she tried, with more success, to sit up. Her eyes found the source of the voices standing by the door.
When her eyes fell on the three people standing before her, she was surprised momentarily by their appearance. They were dressed differently from what she was used to seeing (that was for sure). The first that she registered was one of the two men. He was a little taller than her, and dressed completely in black. She wasn't sure quite what to call his outfit, but the pants reminded her somewhat of capri-style yoga pants.
She made a face, and then continued looking upward. His shirt was also strange. It seemed to flow almost like a short skirt over the top of his pants and to around mid-thigh, with a slim rope belt that seemed to be devised to hold the shirt in place. Lastly, she noted the black hood on his head that had what she could only describe as two conical cat ears on top. From the side of his face that she could see, she also noticed the streaks of purple paint smeared on his pale skin. She wasn't sure what they were for or what they meant, but she assumed they were there for something.
Or he just liked to paint up his face like a hooker...
The next person was the only woman out of the group and she was the only one whose face she could see straight on. She was about the same height as Avery, wearing a black, short sleeved kimono with a red sash holding it closed at her waist. She wore fishnets on her legs and fingerless black gloves on her hands. Her blonde hair was split into four short ponytails, two high, and two low, with her bangs falling over a headband with a stout lowercase I looking symbol on the metal plate that sat on her forehead.
From the way she spoke, Avery had gotten a feel for the woman's blunt personality, but, from the look of disdain on her face, it was blatantly clear that Avery wasn't far off.
Finally, her eyes came across the second man and the last of the three voices interrupting her rest. He was about the same height as Temari, with short red hair. She could only see the left side of his face, but from what she could see, he had a red symbol of something on his forehead like a tattoo, and black markings around his eyes. He wore a red armored robe with a metal vest and a couple belts sitting across his waist and hips. There was also a large gourd strapped to his back with black markings on it and a cap. He stood with his arms crossed across his chest while the others had their arms at their sides.
It didn't take them long to notice she was awake, especially since Temari was facing her. Temari's eyes widened, alerting the men to look toward her to see she was struggling to sit up. The two men turned to face her; Gaara was the first to speak.
"You're awake."
Upon being able to see the two men's full faces, Avery noticed that Kankuro's strange hood also had the metal plate that Temari's headband had. Gaara did not seem to have one but the red tattoo was the kanji symbol for love and the black markings around his eyes went all the way around making his aqua eyes seem like they glowed.
He looked like he needed a good night's sleep something fierce.
As Gaara began to walk over to Avery's bed, Temari reached out to him. "Don't approach her too fast; we don't want to startle her."
Uncertainty ran through Avery's bones and nerves like crazy. She had no idea if she could trust these three people. Even after just the few extra hours of sleep she felt a little stronger, still not sure she would make it through a fight of three on one. If I can just get a hand on my book… she thought; but then her stomach decided that its need was greater than escape and gurgled so loud that Kankuro started to laugh.
"Ugh," Avery groaned.
"Let me go see what the nurses have set for you to eat." Kankuro said, excusing himself, fits of laughter still rolling out from his body.
Temari stepped forward cautiously, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm just hungry." Avery replied, now holding her stomach as it made another gurgling sound. The two walked toward her slowly until they were standing next to her.
"What is your name?" Gaara asked.
Still feeling uncertain of whether or not she could trust these people, Avery did not answer right away. They did save my life, she thought weighing her options. She knew full well they could have left her there to die and she wasn't tied down or anything. She had all her things. They were showing that they were trusting so she figured she should be as well. With a sigh, she looked at Gaara. Looking into his face, she didn't know why but she felt like she could trust him.
"My name is Avery. Avery Moran."
"Hello Avery, my name is Gaara; I am the Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand." His voice was raspy and rough, like he swallowed too much sand or something.
"I am Temari, Gaara's older sister. The other man is Kankuro, our brother." Temari continued the introduction with a stable but cautious tone, not exactly welcoming.
Avery nodded slowly, taking in the information. "What's Kazekage?"
Temari and Gaara paused to look at each other. Gaara did not seem as surprised about what Avery said as Temari did, but he had also suspected she was not of this world.
"What village are you from?" Temari asked, avoiding Avery's question.
"I'm…not really from around here," Avery admitted. "I'm honestly not even sure where I am." She said as she glanced around herself.
"This is the village known as Sunagakure, or the Village Hidden in the Sand," Gaara explained. "I am the Kazekage; I'm the village's source of leadership and government under our land's Feudal Lord."
He is awfully young to be a leader.
"Where are you from then?" Temari asked.
"I am from fairly far away, I had to escape and I just kind of went wherever I could. I used the last of my strength to get here, knowing it would be far enough that I would go undetected." She explained slowly.
"What happened?"
"The man that had been trying to earn my affections, also happened to be the son of a close family friend, betrayed me and slaughtered my entire clan," Avery explained with a pained expression. She looked down at the fading marking of her family on her palm. It was the last time, at least for a long time, that the crest would appear there.
After a few moments of silence, Temari seemed to have noticed Avery was staring at her hand. "What's that symbol on your hand?"
"It's my family crest. It would always appear on our hands if someone in the clan was in danger, alerting us to come and help."
"It's also on the book in your bag," Gaara commented.
"Yes, it has been passed down through many generations. This is what Markus was after I am sure of it. So I grabbed it and fled because I knew I wasn't going to be able to beat him in the condition I was in." Avery explained. She motioned for Gaara to hand her the bag and when he did, she pulled the book into her lap and opened it to reveal its contents to them.
"Amazing! Gaara, you were right." Temari was unable to hide the surprised awe in her voice upon seeing that the book, was indeed, protecting itself.
"He was? That's new," Kankuro teased coming back with a bowl. "Sorry the nurses said you can only have broth until for right now. They want to see how your body handles this after not eating for nearly four days."
"Anything is better than nothing," Avery said taking the bowl carefully in her hands. "Thank you."
"So what are you then, some sort of powerful being?" Gaara asked quietly.
"Sort of, I am a witch," She explained, "I have special abilities we call powers. I am not here to harm anyone, as I assume that is what you're all worried about, I just needed a place to rest."
Immediately she saw a shared glance between the other two. It was curious, and a bit amusing, to see them both dart behind their younger brother in an instant.
Behind him, the two of them shared what could only be described as a crinkly eyed look of complete doubt. A witch? Really?! That was the story that she was going to go with? The two of them had heard better cover stories out of spies caught in Gaara's sand outside the borders begging for their lives.
"I think she may have knocked some brain cells loose…" Kankuro whispered behind the gourd. Temari gave a short sigh and nodded in return.
"I can't believe Gaara is actually buying this. I mean… come on… witches? That's like something that a teenager would write into some storyline they just made up to amuse themselves in their spare time…" She said as she put her hand to her forehead to cover her eyes in exasperation.
Avery watched as Gaara's expression changed in an instant, and his eyes seemed to drift to the corners to look behind him. He could hear them where she couldn't, and clearly he wasn't pleased with what he was hearing from his siblings. Ever so slightly she watched as his head turned until he was looking over his shoulder at his brother.
When it grew quiet, Kankuro felt a chill run up his spine. His eyes drifted up from his sister, and he stiffened when he saw his brother's black rimmed eye narrowed down at him. He felt as though his heart had dropped from his throat and into his stomach in an instant, and couldn't help standing back up as quickly as he could with one hand behind his head and a pretty pathetic smile on his face to try and cover for himself.
"Enough…" Was all Gaara said, then glanced to his sister who had straightened as well with a decidedly bored look on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest where they had been before. Gaara relaxed, and refocused on Avery before he took the book from her lap and set it aside.
"Well, when you're feeling better, we will get you out of here; and help find you somewhere to live while you're here in Suna."
Avery smiled and took a sip of her broth, "Thank you."