Chapter 2
Midnight Crowd
Temari sat there in the office staring at Gaara. He simply ignored her, trying to continue with his work. He couldn't be bother with oldest sand sibling. She continue to stare crinkling her noise every once in a while. Eventually Gaara got annoyed with her constant staring, he begrudgingly faced her, his monotone features didn't looked impressed. "What do you want now?" He asked in a low grumble. She smiled at him with an evil sort of smile.
"You haven't assigned the Hyuuga girl to any missions yet. I was knid of think we should throw her a test see how good she is... What do you think?" Temari asked with an idea obviously in her mind. Gaara ponder the thought for a moment. It was true that they didn't know the skills of this girl from Konaha a Hyuuga no less. He looked at her with a slight willingness to listen to his sister's crazy idea.
"What do you have in mind?" He asked, see the excitement in her eyes he instantly regretted asking.
"Well I was thinking a duel!" She said cheerfully.
"Ah yes a duel will be fine, it be good to see you two fight it out since your quite strong" Gaara said in agreement with the unfinished idea.
"Oh Gaara you silly brother, I didn't me against me. I think she should go up against you." Gaara eyed her, not liking where this idea was going. "Oh come on Gaara you know it's a good idea, plus it will make the people happy to see you do it!" She said adding emphasis to her idea. "And Kanki already agreed with it too." Gaara just stared at her for a minute before facing his paperwork, contemplating the idea deeply. He looked back at her and simply nodded. Temari jumped up with joy, and quickly headed for the door. "I'll go tell Hyuuga-san. Thank you Gaara for liking my idea." She left with that same evil smile, making him wonder if he should be regretting this idea.
'Sweetness, sweetness never suits me, when I get up to take you home maybe it's love, love at first slightly drunk now I'm walking with the sun in my mouth'
Hinata was wandering through the village; the heat had rose since she woke. Her feet quietly move along the sand stone roads. She looked into the windows of various shops, amazed at the beautiful object the plagued the shelves. She passed a flower shop, something she didn't think she would see here in Suna. She touched a red rose that had been near the enterence, her finger caressed and the memories returned.
Hinata had been walking through the forest after a long day of training. She saw Naruto up ahead and instantly became nervous. He saw her and smiled. She smiled back at him as she approached him. "Hi Hinata-chan, I'm glad I finally found you." He said with a genuine smile, and brought something out from behind him. A red rose. Hinata face became a flame from the blushing. "Hinata this rose is for you. All these years I never really noticed you until the day you saved my life. I wanted to tell that I had loved you but never had the chance."
She quickly removed her hand from the rose and held to her chest, a tear slide down her face. "Why?" she quietly whispered to no one. She turned and ran from the flower shop hoping the memory would leave its self there. But fate had other ideas for her, as she began to run she crashed into something soft and both ended up on the ground.
"Gees girl what scared you a ghost?" Temari voice boomed with comedy as she chuckled to herself. Hinata looked over at her then quickly blushed in embarrassment.
"Oh Temari-san I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." She squeaked out.
"Don't worry its okay" Temari smiled at her as she picked herself up off of the ground. She put her hand out offering it to Hinata. She took it pulling herself up from the ground. Now standing Temari turned to her, brushing herself off. "Gaara wanted me to give you a message about your first task here. He wants see how goods of a shinobi you are." She said with triumphant. Hinata shivered at the thought of fighting someone here, but she continued to look Temari in the eye. She expects that she'd be fighting either her or her brother Kankuro. From what she remember they were hard to beat. "Gaara has decided that he will be battling you since he is one of the strongest from our village." When those words left Temari's mouth she froze.
'Me... Fight Gaara, I'm doomed to fail.' She thought her eyes were wide now. "What?" She question out loud. Temari just laugh at her.
"I wouldn't worry much we are just testing your skill not trying to kill you." She smiled at the blackish blue hair girl trying to give her some relief.
'Worry, worry is a well, going to let it fall tonight, from where we stand'
Hinata now stood in a arena, tall tan walls surround the main grounds, few spectators stood in the windows of the towers. Hinata looked down at her hands, black fingerless gloves stared back at her. A gift from Naruto, she couldn't bring herself to throwing them away since they made fighting easier. She heard some cheering and looked up to see the fiery haired boy standing there no longer wearing the kazekage robes. The ominous gourd sat on his back, no longer shaking like it had before when he still contained the demon. It had been years since his death and resurrection and many more since the time when she had seen him kill right before her and her team mates eyes. 'Kiba... Shino...' She missed them very much; they had been long gone before her though. Gaara approached her, his face was straight and uninterested in the battle that was about to take place.
"We shall fight till the first one falls or gives up" He said in a bored monotone voice. "Ready?" He asked this time looking right at her. She shivered under his stare as she nodded looking at him straight in the eyes. She moved into her battle stance, her feet were apart and her hands were outstretched in front of her. She quickly activated her Byakugan and readied herself. She lunged at Gaara making the first move, only to hit a wall of sand. She quickly movee around the sand trying to get closer, she notice sand heading towards from the corner of her eye, she dodged it. She set down on her tip toes throwing her hand to the sky. Strings of chakra flowed from her hands, she began to move her hands at a fast pace. The chakra strings acted as razors slicing at the sand that head her way. The faded and she pushed herself forward past the sand up close to him, with a kunai in hand she threw it towards him, he had to jump to dodge it. He hadn't seen her coming, slowly he made hand movements. More sand came barrelling towards her; she used her chakra to form a shield to protect herself. The fight continued for an hour, the darkness was creeping up around the arena. She felt herself get tired but she knew she had to keep going prove to herself she could do it. On the other hand she knew she was impressing the people of sand especially Gaara. She was sure he expected this fight to be over long ago. Gaara still seem to just stand there uninterested but there was a glint of excitement in his eyes. Hinata lunged forward once more but was abruptly stopped. She hadn't seen the sand coming up from under her, now it surrounded her like a blanket holding her in the same spot. She struggled trying to break free. Next thing she knew Gaara's face was inches from her, his eyes pierced down into hers, she felt scarred for the first time since she'd been there. He held a smile on his face like some invisible joke had been said.
"I am impressed." His words were almost a whisper, a ghost on the wind. "I didn't think you would last." He reached his hand down and ran it across her cheek. 'She's actually kind of cute' He thought to himself, keeping the smile on his face. He moved closer, she could feel his breathe on her face; she shivered eyes wide as a full moon. But then as fast as he had been there he was gone, the sand dropped away from her slowly almost caressing her as it went. She looked up to see Gaara retreating to the entrance. "Report to my office tomorrow, I will be giving you your first mission." He turned and face her one last time, which was back to the a straight frown. "Don't be late." Then he was gone. Hinata sat there clutching her heart; it was racing at 1000 beats a minute. Her face was a deep crimson from the blush. '
'Why did he come so close? What just happened there?' She kept asking herself. She picked herself off of the ground and slowly headed back to her apartment.
Gaara sat there behind his desk contemplating what just happened. `Why did I do that?' He thought to himself. He hadn't felt these feelings before. He felt safe around the girl; this of course was something that was new to him. He would have to talk to Kankuro about this later. Right now he just wanted to finish the paper work that had been left behind before this battle that had taken place.
' Sickness, weakness at
the thought, of how you're going to play, how long should I
stay?
Promises, promises never cease to assist it, now I'm back on
my back, please bite your words, hurry, hurry to believe, I can
always trust, as much as you deceive'
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Thank you for the reviews! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I think I have the next chapter all planned up in my head so hopefully I will keep them coming for you.
Remember to read and review I want to know what you all think. And the song used in this chapter is Midnight Crowd by Stars.
