Hey guys call me Ai-san (for those who don't know me or Ai-chan for those who do) and this is my first story and I just want to say… I DON'T OWN NARUTO!!! As much as I wish I did I don't. However I do own the character named Ai and anyone who wishes to use her in any stories must ask me for permission first otherwise I will be mad. Also my friend Clarissa has copyright to Ai Mitsuki so same goes for that character you'll have to ask me to ask her if that's ok. But this is my first story postingso please don't get mad at me. And I love reviews so if there are any requests from anyone then tell me and I'll start typing!! =D This is a GaaraxOC pairing so Gaara fan girls don't get mad at me for what may happen in the story. Kay here's the story!!!
Chapter 1: Memories
The air was cool, and the scent of pine rode on the wind. The sun had fallen behind the vast expanse of trees leaving its place in the sky to be taken by the pale blue light of the crescent moon. The stars twinkled and danced in the black sky above all the while everything around just became calm and quiet, with the exception of the crickets sweet chirps. Ai lied on the cold grass not too far from her, now sleeping, teammates and sensei. Her long, dark brown hair spread out over the grass, as she placed her hand on her bare stomach, giving her goose bumps from the touch of her cold palm on her warm skin. Her other hand rested just above her head as her legs formed a small 'v' shape on the ground. The past couple of days were very tiring, frustrating, and a bit annoying. She couldn't help but sigh in relief and look back at her resting teammates and sensei. Sleep was threatening to overtake her body as Sokou started to relax and slowly drift into a deep slumber. But before she fell asleep, she looked at the moon as she had done when she was young and smiled remembering a small bit of her childhood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Flash Back~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Holding her doll she sat on the cliffs edge looking over Sunagakure, admiring the village. Though she thought Suna looked prettier at night. She smiled thinking about the pretty sight in her head and squeezed her doll looking down to see the children playing one of her favorite ball games. Her smile faded at the thought because every time she would try to play with the others they were mean and often threw things at her. They even went as far as to threaten to break her bones to make her go away. Her eyes started to tear up and she held her doll closer to her.
"Why do the others not like me? I've tried being nice and I even let them be mean to me so then I could play but..." tears started to roll down her cheeks when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Ai-chan?"
She turned to look at who the person was, though she already knew who it was. And, just as she thought, there was the crimson haired, black out-lined, baby-blue eyed boy that she had come to befriending.
"Are you ok? Why are you crying?" She smiled at him and wiped her tears on the back of her hand and looked at him.
"I just was thinking about something sad but I'm better now that you're here Gaara-kun." His eyes lit up when he saw her smile and in turn smiled back sitting next to her on the edge with his teddy bear in hand. He looked down and saw the other children play and hold hands the way that 'friends' would do. And that made him wonder as he looked at Ai-chan.
"Um.... Ai-chan"
"Yeah?"
He looked at her with a bit of a scared face that made her a bit concerned. Gaara rarely ever, at least when she was around him, showed any fear while she was in his presence but when he did it normally involved an assassination on him with her in the crossfire or something along those lines.
"What's wrong Ga-kun?"
"D-do you think me and you....."
She looked at him eager to hear what he wanted to tell her. "Yes Gaara?"
"Um... well... will we be friends forever?"
She looked at him for a bit making Gaara a bit sad because he knew that that would never happen. 'Why would she want to be best friends with a monster?' She could tell he was sad and smiled knowing just what would make him happy. She hugged him with her free hand and laughed a bit when she saw how Gaara reacted.
"Ga-kun we'll be the bestest friends forever and ever. I promise!" If it weren't for the fact that they were both only 6 years old they would have had deeper feelings for one another. And because of that Ai's parents weren't happy with that at all, let alone her even looking at him in a 'friend' kinda way. But Ai wanted Gaara to be her first real friend and she wanted the same for Gaara. He smiled and hugged her back feeling a sense of worth for once in his life and same with her. "Yeah! And I'll be your bestest friend forever too Ai-chan!!!!"
And she held his hand and he held hers both smiling and happy to be with each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Flash Back~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.::Earlier the next morning::.
"Ai-San... Ai-San wake up."
"She's not waking up what should we do?"
"I don't know you Baka! Just find a way to wake her without waking Kakashi-sensei."
"Awww why do I have to Sakura? OW!!"
"Shut up baka Naruto. God damn I feel like I'm talking to myself."
Sakura and Naruto tried waking Ai without much luck but they weren't about to give up. Then Sakura had an idea pop into her skull that made her smile and look at Naruto. She had known for the past year that Naruto liked Ai more than just a friend and that he's always wanted to kiss her so... this would be a wonderful opportunity for Naruto to see what it's like. She turned to Naruto who was now looking at her with a somewhat scared and confused face.
"S-s-sakura.... Why are you l-looking at me like t-that?" Her smile only widened into a cat grin. "Naruto I've known for while that you like Ai-San more than a friend and I just had an idea. You've always wanted to kiss her and here she is lying on the grass practically begging for you to kiss her. What do you say Naru-kun?" He looked at Ai who lay peacefully asleep on the ground. He couldn't help but blush as he looked her over from her slender yet muscular legs to her flowing brown hair and full lips. "I guess it could wake her up a bit." he said as his blush deepened not yet turning a red nor spreading to more of his face. "Well then go on.... kiss her." The blonde looked at the beautiful brown haired girl in front of him and lowered himself so his lips barely grazed against hers. His hot breathe hitting her lips which made her groan a bit which suprised the blonde and only made him blush more.
"S-sakura I don't think I can do this. I'm starting to get a hard on and I know she likes someone else."
"What do you mean 'someone else'?" a look of shock came across her face.
"She likes a guy around her age and has been her friend for a while. Figure it out." he moved off of her and shook her shoulder lightly instead which... actually worked. "Hmmm…. 5 more minutes…" At this Naruto and Sakura giggled a bit under their breath.
Ai yawned and stretched waking up finally after what seemed like ages of worthless effort. "Good morning Ai-san!" said Naruto with his normal 'Naruto is happy' smile. She blinked a few times to adjust to the light of the early morning. "Hey Naru-kun. What's up? Are we leaving already?" She looked to the side and saw Sakura smiling at her. "Sakura-chan, Ohayoowa gozaimasu." Ai smiled to her as she greeted her pink haired teammate. "Arigatoo Ai-san and good morning to you too." She sat up and stretched a bit more and yawned, letting her reptilian like tongue fall out and slither back into her mouth.
"So you slept well I assume?"
"I did and it was great! It'll give me at least a good two weeks or so before I sleep like that again." She smiled her sweet smile to both Sakura and Naruto.
"Hey Ai-san? Why the hell did it take so damn long to wake you up? We could have been fighting and playing loud ass music and you'd still be asleep but if you hear a twig snap you're up in the blink of an eye. I don't get that." Naruto complained with his childish expression which made Ai chuckle a bit.
"Oh Naru-kun you know I can't control my sleep. You of all people should know."
"Yeah that's true the demon spirits are hard to control but you have it down way better than me."
"With time and hard training you can control the Nine Tailed Fox to do your biding. It's not impossible."
"Yeah it is he's hopeless."
"NANI!?!?!?"
"Sakura don't be mean to Naruto just because you pretend to hate him doesn't mean you need to humiliate him... though it's obvious that you're desperately in love with him." She looked at Sakura with a devious smirk.
"I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH THAT BAKA!!!!!" Sakura hissed, blushing a deep red.
Ai chuckled a bit. "Your blush says otherwise Sakura-chan." She looked from, the now enraged, pink haired girl to the shocked blonde on her other side, blushing a deep red. Ai knew he liked Sakura before liking her and she honestly thought it was cute. Though she thought Hinata-chan was better for him.
"Oh Sakura I'm only telling you the truth! Or can you not handle it?"
"Shut up Ai-San..." the enraged girl hissed grabbing a shuriken from her thigh pouch, threating the long haired brunette lying before her.
"S-sakura!" Naruto held her back. "Don't hurt her s-she was just kidding... Right Ai-san?" Giving Ai a look of despair, as well as a pleading look.
"No I wasn't I was being serious and Sakura-chan... Do you really want to mess with the Four Tailed Sokou?" looking at the pink haired ninja with a certain glint in her eye.
Seeing this Sakura suddenly felt a wave of pure fear. 'What the hell? Why did I...' She looked deeper into Ai's, normally light brown, eyes only to have that fear renewed 10 fold. Ai's eyes weren't their warm and inviting light brown that everyone was so fond of but instead she was staring into the very pupils of none other than Sokou the demon reptile. 'This isn't Ai-San anymore... No it's far from her.' the, now terrified, pink haired girl thought franticly to herself.
"What's wrong little girl? A second ago you had the look of a ninja ready to fight mercilessly... But now you look like someone who's seen..." Ai said in a deep demonic voice and smirked baring a mouth filled with deadly serrated teeth. "A monster." Sakura and Naruto both backed up quite a bit a ways from her as her reptilian tongue flicked out tasting the air like a snake.
"A-ai s-san? A-are y-you ok-kay?" stuttered Naruto with a gulp.
Ai looked toward her companions with her sweet smile that made both of the terrified teens feel a bit more at ease.
"Of course I am Naruto-kun!" she said in a 'no duh' kind of way.
"Phew! I thought you were going to kill us... Er at least Sakura-chan."
"Haha no why would I do that? I just wanted to scare you two."
"Hmph! That's so fucking screwed up Ai-san!!!" yelled Naruto
"Yeah it was Ai-san." Sakura said almost in a whisper. Still shaken with the fear she had just experienced, which refused to leave her be.
"Gomeisai Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan." she apologized.
"It's ok Ai-San but don't do that again please!!!" both Naruto and Sakura pleaded.
"Alright alright I promise I won't do that again... At least not to you anyways." A dangerous smile spread across her full lips which made both teens a bit uneasy.
"Well how long are you going to just stand there and gawk... Kakashi-sensei?"
Both the blonde and pink haired teammates looked behind them in shock and disbelief. 'How long has Kakashi-sensei being watching us?!' Sakura thought while Naruto just sat there gawking back at his sensei.
"Nothing gets past your sight huh Ai-san?"
She chuckled a bit, "Well not usually Kakashi-sensei. A ninja must always be alert so as to not miss any possible threats that could jeopardize the mission such as our A class one at his very moment."
"Very good Ai-san."
She smiles her sweet, warm, and inviting smile that could melt anyone in their place. "I did learn from the best!" her smile widening showing two rows of perfectly nice teeth.
"Well it's time that we head out we should reach Sunagakura before noon and even then we're barely going to make the meeting and the exchange of Kazekage-sama."
"Yeah we should go then." Sakura looked at both Ai and Naruto.
"Yes! The soon the better I haven't seen Gaara in ages!!" retorted the overly excited blonde.
"Ai, are there any objections?" the copy nin asked helping his, now, teammate up.
"Not at all!" her face painted with excitement. 'Gaara...' she repeated quickly in her head, drowning out all other thoughts and sounds, his name filling her head like a balloon with air. 'Gaara... I finally get to see you again after these long years.' she thought with a broad smile a crossed her face. How long had it really been since she last seen or made any contact with the infamous sand nin? 'Too damn long!' she said loudly internally to herself.
With that all four ninjas packed up and quickly raced to Sunagakura. Naruto couldn't help being impatient as well as Ai, though she didn't show it, felt even more impatient then the blonde racing right behind her did. So to make the remaining distance between them, which was about 25 more miles or so, decrease faster Naruto cockly anounced that he would be the first to give Gaara-sama the greetings and also give him the first hug? Hearing this Ai had made a bet with Naruto that she would beat him to the Kazekage's tower before him giving her the right to give him the greetings and first hug. So needless to say it was hard for Sakura and Kakashi to keep up with the competitive teens racing a bit a ways in front of them.
"Well both Naruto and Ai-San are going to be very excited to see Gaara again.... More so then I had anticipated." Kakashi chuckled knowing full well how much this mission meant for Naruto and Ai. Sakura agreed with a nod but not fully listening to Kakashi.
"Sakura-chan is there something bothering you?"
"No" the girl stated but with little confidence that would have made her answer sound like the truth.
"What's wrong?"
She sighed a long and heavy sigh before answering his question. "It's about Ai-san..." her face twisted with concern, confusion, and most of all... fear. Seeing this, Kakashi had a look of concern.
"What about Ai-san?"
Sakura gulped. "She truly scares me.... More so then being close to death. I mean hell I thought I was staring death itself in the face." she looked at Kakashi her eyes filled with the fear that still stabbed at her heart.
"Why is that? Sure Ai-san can he a bit rough and at times go overboard with the four tails but she, herself, isn't scary. And I'm sure if you told her this she would be heart-broken. Being feared by those close to her is her worse nightmare and she'd never forgive herself if such a thing happened."
"I know but it's so hard for me to look her in the eyes because I'm afraid that 'his' eyes will be looking at me and not her gentle ones." a hint of sadness spread across her face.
"Now you know how Gaara had felt and how Naruto feels now, through Ai-san's eyes. When such a thing as feeling scared toward a friend and companion is seen... it can have devastating affects Sakura. Remember that neither Ai-san, nor any of the other people who share her fate, chose to be this way. It was forced upon them for the benefit of that particular village or peoples. You have to understand that she can never truly be normal unless she dies because the demon inside of her is attached to every fiber in her body. And since lady Chio gave up her life to save young Kazekage-sama, no one else could save her if the demon was extracted from her." his facial expression, a bit softer then before looks at the pink haired konichi and smiled. And all she could do in return was a weak smile.
"You're right Kakashi-sensei I don't truly understand but even you have to admit that Ai-san can be very intimidating at times right?" the girl looked at the copy nin waiting patiently for his answer. A look of displeasure came in place of his earlier softness.
"I can't lie... Even Lady Tsunade is intimidated by her even if it's just in the slightest form. I can't even begin to explain how horrifying she can truly be, Sakura-chan." he looked at her again with a hint of fear highlighting his deep onyx eye. "She has had me so scared to the point where my Sharingan doesn't even have an effect on her because of the demon within. But that doesn't stop me from seeing who she really is." He smiled again. Seeing his smile made Sakura ease up and relax.
"You're right Kakashi-sensei because Ai-san is such a wonderful and beautiful person. It's hard to believe she can be so scary and more often them most people can't help but feel sorry for her. But enough about this it seems we're almost to Sunagakura."
Kakashi laugh a bit. "Well at least Ai-san and Naruto will be happy and not bug me or you about not being able to see Gaara." Sakura laughed with Kakashi and eyed the outer wall that lead to the Village Hidden in the Sand. She saw Ai running up the familiar wall that she knew Ai had known and miss dearly, because after all this place was her birth home.
Ai reached the top before Naruto and over looked the sandy, hot, and rather large town. "Home..." she said smiling before seeing blonde, pink, and silver flash by her in a blur. 'Damn it I became too distracted now Naruto and the rest of them are in the lead.' She quickly raced to catch up with them. 'At least I'm home again and soon I'll see my best and beloved friend.'
Ok that's chapter one and I hope you like it! Please give me feedback and reviews so I can see where I need to improve in. Remember this isn't my first story but that this is my first time posting a story. Well chapter two will be started soon but probably won't be done for at least a couple of days but no more the three week ok? And yes Gaara-kun will be in the next chapter. Well tell me how I did and if there are any requests for the next or following chapters then please let me know!^_^ After all I'm here for all the readers out there, a servant if you will, so I'm at your service. Adios hope you like it!!