You have rachel the gleek to thank for how fast this chapter was out.

Pressure is the best medicine if you're stuck.

Disclaimer: I own Ayaka, Kaito, Kai and Susumu.

Chapter Two

Long Days and Long Nights

The three genin exchanged a startled glance before Kaito made some hand signs.

"Lightning Storm Jutsu." The sky, which had been clear a moment earlier, filled with clouds and lightning began striking at Ayaka while a harsh wind nearly knocked her off her feet.

"Oh, we have an Arashi." Ayaka said thoughtfully, dodging a bolt of lightning. Kaito smirked.

"You figured that out pretty quickly." He said. Ayaka suddenly gasped and pointed at Kaito.

"You're Kai Arashi's son!" She exclaimed. All three genin looked surprised.

"How do you know my dad?" Kaito asked suspiciously, the wind picking up slightly. Ayaka laughed.

"He was my sensei. It's a small world after all..." She sang, grinning. Then she did some hand signs and the storm dispelled.

"How did you..." Kaito trailed off, shocked. He had never seen anyone eliminate the storm jutsu so easily.

"I figured it out while training with Kai-sensei." Ayaka said with a shrug.

"Alright, my turn." Susumu said, doing his own set of hand signs. "Earth Capture Jutsu." He slapped his palms to the ground and suddenly dozens of hands made of earth erupted from the ground, attempting to grab Ayaka.

"OH MY GOD! It's like the ultimate perv jutsu!" Ayaka yelled, dodging the earthen hands. Just when she thought she was in the clear, one of the hands grabbed her.

"We got her!" Matsuri said. All three genin grinned, that is, until the Ayaka in the hand disappeared and the real one reappeared, holding a kunai to Susumu's throat.

"Sorry, kiddies, but you can't get me that easily. They don't call me the Wind Shadow for nothing." She hissed. Susumu shuddered, feeling Ayaka's breath on the back of his neck.

"Wind Shadow..." Kaito murmured, the title tugging at his mind.

"Well, it's been fun. See you later." Ayaka said, silkily. Then she seemed to poke Susumu's ribs and disappeared. Susumu grunted in pain and held his side.

"Susumu! What's wrong?" Matsuri asked in concern. Susumu grimaced.

"I don't know what that bitch did, but I think she broke a few of my ribs." He hissed. Kaito and Matsuri exchanged a panicked glance. They were just beginning to understand what they were up against.

...

Ayaka reappeared beside Gaara and tried to hit him over the head, only to have his sand block the blow.

"Why didn't you tell me they had such high level attacks? They almost caught me off guard!" She hissed. Gaara smirked.

"Think of this as I test for them... And for you." He replied. Ayaka groaned.

"Fine. I think I'll leave them for now. I'll attack again at midnight." She said, begrudgingly. Gaara nodded.

"Good. That will give them time to heal Susumu and regroup. What did you do to him, anyway?" He looked at her curiously.

"It's a technique I created based on the Hyuuga Clan's gentle fist technique. You channel your chakra into a thin needle and drill it into your opponent's body. It does internal damage, it can even damage organs, if you channel it correctly." Ayaka paused, noting Gaara's warning glance. "Don't give me that look, I only did it enough to break a few ribs."

"Good. What will you do until midnight?" Gaara asked suspiciously. Ayaka laid back against the trunk of the tree and closed her eyes.

"Sleep. I'm going to be playing boogieman all night, I'll take my rest where I can get it." She replied. Gaara sighed and turned to watch his students in the clearing.

-Midnight-

Kaito sat awake beside his sleeping teammates, watching the forest carefully. A small fire burned in front of him. Normally, they wouldn't dare light a fire when they were in risk of being attacked, however, they knew Ayaka would find them whether they had a fire or not, so there was no point.

"That woman is strange... Dangerous, but strange. And that title... Wind Shadow... There's something about it... She's puzzling." Kaito murmured to himself, poking at the fire with a stick.

"Why thank you, sweetheart." Ayaka's sugary voice whispered. Kaito froze as warm breath cascaded over his ear and one of Ayaka's slender hands grabbed him by his hair. Kaito opened his mouth to alert his team to the intruder, but Ayaka's hand tightened, pulling out strands of his fair hair.

"Don't mention it." Kaito hissed, letting a kunai slide into his hand from up his sleeve. Ayaka chuckled darkly, making the younger boy shiver.

"How old are you kids, anyway?" She asked, gently prying the kunai from Kaito's grasp. Kaito scowled, but he was in no position to defy her.

"We're all fourteen." He replied, begrudgingly. Ayaka brought her lips to his ear and blew against his earlobe, snickering at the way the boy cringed.

"I'll have fun playing with you." She whispered, digging her nails into his shoulder. Suddenly Matsuri groaned and rubbed her eyes.

"Kaito...? What are you doing? You look like you just saw a ghost." She said, looking at the silver-haired boy. Kaito was shocked to realize that Ayaka had disappeared, leaving behind only the faint smell of orchids.

"I... I'm fine." Kaito muttered, not meeting Matsuri's worried gaze. He didn't know exactly why he didn't tell her what happened. Maybe because it made him look weak and his teammates looked up to him.

"Okay... Hey, it's past midnight, I'll take the next shift. Get some rest." Matsuri gave Kaito a small smile and climbed out of her sleeping bag. Kaito nodded and laid down, quickly falling asleep.

"Hm, I wonder what happened to Kaito..." Matsuri mumbled, staring at the fire.

...

"That was rather creepy." Gaara commented, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I live for creepy." Ayaka quipped with a sinister grin. Gaara simply shook his head.

"What were you going for there, anyway?" He asked, his brow furrowed.

"I was going for creepy like Orochimaru, but like a sexy female Orochimaru." Ayaka chirped, hanging upside-down from a tree branch. Gaara resisted the urge to face palm.

"Mission accomplished." He murmured instead, his tone heavy with sarcasm.

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama." Ayaka teased. Gaara growled under his breath.

"That's worse than 'Panda-kun', coming from you." He muttered. Ayaka chuckled.

"Fine, Panda-kun it is!" She announced, flipping back to the ground and bowing dramatically to Gaara. "I must be going, Panda-kun. Genin to scare and what not." She finished in a snobby voice before disappearing.

Gaara sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"As Temari's secret leaf boyfriend would say, 'What a troublesome girl'."

...

All three genin jumped up as smoke filled their small clearing.

"It's a smoke bomb." Kaito observed.

"Very good, sweetheart." They could hear Ayaka's voice coming from all directions, confusing them.

"What is that, some cougar-ish pet name?" Matsuri sneered. A few kunai flew at the genin from all directions.

"I'm too young to be a cougar, and arrogant children aren't my type." Ayaka's voice purred, echoing through the clearing. Suddenly Ayaka appeared, wielding a long black whip.

"So now the real battle begins." Susumu grinned and opened a scroll. He bit his thumb and wiped the blood on the scroll, summoning a large black spider-like puppet. Kaito took out his own summoning scroll and, to Ayaka's slight surprise, summoned a huge sword. And Matsuri took out her rope javelin.

"Wow, those are some good weapons for a bunch of brats." Ayaka sneered, cracking her whip. Susumu's fingers twitched and the spider puppet sprang forward. Ayaka flicked her wrist and the whip lashed out, sending the puppet flying.

"If you aren't prepared to kill me, you won't defeat me." Ayaka taunted, clicking her tongue.

"Are you saying we have to kill you?" Matsuri asked, sounding shocked. Ayaka chuckled.

"No. I'm saying you have to try." She replied, seeming amused. "But enough talk." Ayaka's gaze swept over the genin and she scowled, realizing Kaito had disappeared.

Then, the next thing she knew, she was ducking as Kaito's huge sword sliced the air where her neck had been, cutting off a few strands of black and red hair.

Ayaka flicked her whip and coiled it around Kaito's leg, then she tightened it. Kaito cried out in pain and fell to his knees as the whip recoiled.

"You said we had to aim to kill. So I did." Kaito smirked, even through his pained expression as Susumu's puppet spat dozens of senbon (that Ayaka assumed were poisoned) at the crouched ANBU.

Ayaka rolled out of the way of most of the senbon. Only one managed to scratch her right arm, instantly numbing it and making her drop her whip. And before she could recover from her hap-hazard roll, Matsuri's rope javelin caught one of the necklaces, ripping it from her neck.

"Very impressive. When you three drag out the big guns and work together, you're quite a force to be reckoned with." Ayaka panted, rubbing her now red neck. "I underestimated you. That's a rookie mistake that I won't make again. See you later, kiddies." Ayaka smirked and grabbed her whip with her good hand before jumping into the trees.

"Should we follow her?" Susumu asked, looking back at Matsuri and Kaito. Matsuri had knelt beside Kaito, who had his injured leg stretched in front of him.

"I think Kaito's leg is broken. I'll need time to heal it." Matsuri said, laying her green-glowing hands on Kaito's leg. The silver-haired boy flinched, but didn't make a sound.

"Alright. I just hope that poison is enough to keep her occupied for a while..." Susumu murmured, staring out at the trees.

...

"Son of a motherfucking bitch." Ayaka grunted as Gaara took out a very large needle.

"Wow. Could you fit a few more curses in there?" He asked, rolling his eyes. Ayaka nodded, staring at the needle in terror as Gaara filled it with clear liquid.

"Son of a damn motherfucking goddamned bitch. There." She said. But her usually sharp-tongue wasn't in the sentence. She just sounded scared.

"Honestly. You spent six years gathering information on the Akatsuki, your parents were murdered in front of you when you were five, you have an IQ of 211, and you were an ANBU at the age of NINE. Yet, you are afraid of one tiny needle." Gaara shook his head in a condescending way.

"That thing is ANYTHING but TINY!" Ayaka exclaimed, pointing the offending object in Gaara's hand. Gaara sighed.

"That toxin will spread throughout your body, slowly numbing it and shutting down your organs until you die. Slowly. Do you want that?" Gaara's eyes turned steely and Ayaka could tell that his patience was gone. She held out her arm and closed her eyes.

"Hurry up before I change my mind." She said, shakily. Gaara smirked and jabbed the needle into her arm, earning a bloodcurdling scream from Ayaka.

"Done." Gaara grunted. Ayaka didn't hear him, because she was still screaming. Gaara growled and pressed his hand against her mouth. "Cut it out." He hissed. Ayaka's eyes snapped open and for a second they just stared at each other. Wide, bright amber versus narrowed, cold jade. Then Gaara let his hand drop and the moment was over.

"Thanks..." Ayaka murmured, suddenly feeling very conscious of how silly she had acted, which confused and frustrated her. She had always, ALWAYS acted quirky around Gaara, so why should she feel weird about it? For that, not even her 211 IQ had an answer.

"How do you feel?" Gaara asked, his gaze unfocused. Gaara was also confused. As children they had held hands, hugged, sparred, and Ayaka had even kissed him on the cheek before she left. Yet, the contact had never left a lasting impression, had never affected him. But now... Just the act of covering her mouth had made him feel something foreign. His hand tingled and his stomach seemed to be flipping. It was very unpleasant.

Ayaka rolled her shoulders and stretched out her right arm.

"Everything feels good. Thanks, Panda-kun." She gave Gaara a dazzling smile, which he acknowledged with a small smile.

"What are you going to do now?" He asked. Ayaka shrugged and sat back against a tree. Gaara smirked at how relaxed she looked.

"I think I'll let them hunt me now, let the prey become the predators."

So, there it is. I hope it wasn't confusing... :D

I still need lots of OCs.

-Five Sand Genin (at least)

-Five Leaf Genin (at least)

-Three Genin from other villages (at least)

Template can be found at the bottom of my profile.

P.S.: Thanks to rachel the gleek and Patissiere1683 for sending in OCs. ^_^