Oh and by the way, I know the licking in the last chapter was a bit… off, and I'll try to explain it.

As a child, Hitomi had always been sheltered and brought up in a house filled with joy. Her parents had never cried in front of her and even after her mother's death, her father had continued to smile. Thus she has never seen anyone other than herself cry and she used to have a dog that would always lick her face especially if she were crying (you know how they say animals can sense when you are sad). She takes from her own experiences with the dog that that is what you're supposed to do when someone cries because she doesn't know what to do thus licking Gaara's tears. However, Gaara has never had anyone do this to him before and somehow gets this message that that is how Hitomi shows her affection. So right before Gaara leaves, he licks Hitomi's cheek like she did his to show his affection. Very childish, I know but it goes to show the sense of an innocent child's love.

I don't own Gaara nor do I own any other Naruto characters. Tis a pity, I know.

Chapter 2: Hunter-nin

"Arigatou, Hokage-sama." The young lady with long locks of mahogany chestnut hair bowed deeply in respect but shook with excitement and couldn't take it anymore. She ran across the Hokage's office filled with books managing to dodge the large desk and reach the blonde woman standing by the window where she gave the woman a death gripped-hug. Had it not been for the blonde woman's inhuman strength, she probably would have suffered from the aftermath. "Thank you so much, Tsunade! Thank you! It's a great honor!"

The blonde woman let a smile escape onto her features as she looked down upon the younger girl's head.

"Hitomi, this first mission I've assigned to you is quite dangerous. You need to be serious. This mission may take a while since the subject only ever appears every so often in Suna." Hitomi's velvety brown eyes looked up at Tsunade's golden-brown ones and grinned. She stood up straight and saluted.

"I promise to complete my first mission as a full-fledged hunter-nin." Hitomi allowed the two words of her new ranking roll off her tongue and decided that it was most definitely one of her favorite to use. She took the folder of her first hunter-nin mission from Tsunade and left her office, throwing back a wink and a peace sign.

Hitomi flopped herself onto her bed of satin sheets in her apartment and allowed her waist-length hair to spread itself. She opened the folder of her first assignment with anticipation and read it quickly.

'Rank: S

Mission Info:

A missing-nin of Konoha that has recently been spotted in the city of Sunakagure. Files on this ninja-

Name: Satoshi, Ken

Age: 20

Hair color: red

Eye color: blue

Specialties: taijutsu, weaponry

Level: ANBU

Wanted for: rape (2 counts), murder (38 counts), attempts in stealing and selling off Konoha blueprints to enemy villages.

Other notes: He will most likely be back in Sunagakure as soon as the Ayako festival begins. There is information pointing to a desire of something in the black market. Further information on this is unavailable at this time.

That was all that Hitomi needed to read before she flipped the file closed and cheered.

"Hell yeah! Time to take on my first mission ever! Hear that Otou-san?" She jumped off her bed and barged into her otou-san's room next door. Her smile faded as she couldn't find a trace of her otou-san. 'Where'd he go this time?' Her thoughts were cut short when she felt someone tickling her from behind. "Ah! Hahahaha- stop! Haha- I mean- hah- it!"

"How are you going to succeed in this mission if you can't even fend off your own otou-san from tickling you?" The strong deep voice sent recognition through Hitomi's system.

"I just didn't fend you off because 1) you're my otou-san and 2) you're too strong for me! But I won't fail. I promise!" Hitomi turned and smiled warmly at her otou-san's tan skinned face adorned with black hair and random wisps of gray. His face bore the wrinkles and scars of many battles as well as the stress accumulated over the years due to Hitomi's constant energy and ideas. He could never be seen wearing anything other than white pants and a black kimono with a detailed blue dragon printed on one of the corners sewn on years ago by Hitomi's Okaa-san herself.

"Hitomi, you know as well as I that I am much too old to be as strong as you anymore. That is why I have faith in you to complete this mission and if you don't then I don't care. You will always be this old geezer's little Hitomi." He caught Hitomi in a headlock and gave her a noogie.

"Otou-san! I'm not little anymore!" She wrenched herself from her otou-san's grip and grinned with a head full of messy straight locks. "I'm going to be late so I'm leaving now. I think this mission will take a while. Possibly even a week, so be safe. I won't disappoint you. See ya!" Hitomi rushed through the door grabbing her bag of belongings on the way and waved one last time before she left for Sunakagure.

Hitomi's otou-san stood by the door watching his sweet little child run off on her first mission of the ranking she had always aspired for all those many years. He gave a weak smile.

"Good-bye my dear Hitomi. Watch out for yourself…" He whispered into the wind.

Two days passed after Hitomi left Konoha for the Wind country's Sunakagure. On the third day she had finally managed to find Sunakagure. It wasn't that hard due to the fact that it was the only designated location throughout an entire flat and scorching desert.

As Hitomi approached Suna, she donned on her newly upgraded attire of a low v-cut black halter top and a black skirt with fishnet gloves extending from the top of her elbows to her hands where they were covered with red fingerless short gloves on top. She wore knee-high black boots with white feathers rimming the top. On her waist was her hitae-ate tied proudly as a belt and on her neck lay a black chocker with a key attached to it as an ornament which she made sure to tuck safely within the crevice of her breasts. As an addition to the desert scenery, Hitomi topped it all off with a long white cloak complete with golden detailing designs on the bottom and a long katana tied to her waist. She nodded in approval of this new attire she had just thrown together and masked herself with Konoha's special hunter-nin mask which was an ivory with the konoha symbol on its' forehead and red outlining on the eyes. 'And I'm ready for some ass-kicking.' Hitomi smiled beneath the mask and cracked her knuckles before she flew up onto the roof of a Suna home and completely disregarded the entrance gate and guards.

"Wow. It really hasn't changed much." Hitomi took in the overview of Suna and compared it to the older version stored deep inside her memory. She sat on the roof for a few minutes before she glanced at the setting sun and decided that it was time to hunt down this little snitch. Hitomi was about to hop down from the roof before she glanced back out at the fiery desert landscape. She thought she saw something and squinted her eyes to look closer in defiance of the sun's pink rays.

'Red. It's red hair. Wait- red hair?' She did a triple take and nearly lost her balance from the edge of the roof. 'But the Ayako festival isn't even going to start for another 4 days… But I suppose the sooner I get this over with, the sooner I can go home.' Smiling, she dashed off into the ocean of sand ready to take down her opponent.

Meanwhile, in the peaceful midst of the sand, a young man with a head-full of messy blood-red hair practiced on a newly developed jutsu versus his sister with dirty blonde hair that was tied up into four pigtails in the back of her head.

"Temari, you're getting slower. Go home and rest." The younger brother said monotonously and looked at Temari out of the corner of his eye to which Temari sighed.

"I am pretty beat. That last mission you sent me on was utterly impossible."

"It can't be impossible if Shikamaru could complete it for you." Gaara watched as Temari twitched at the mention of Shikamaru and how he had upstaged her.

"Whatever. Come home soon for- what?!" Temari watched as a wall of sand instantly shot up to defend her younger brother from an onslaught of shuriken. Both she and her sibling looked just in time to see a shroud of white and black descend onto the desert grounds. The both of them instantly noticed the hunter-nin mask bearing the powerful symbol of Konoha- their ally. "What's the meaning of this?" Temari kept her hand on the hilt of her fan ready to attack.

Hitomi stood cloaked in the white garment unsure of what to do. 'What do I do? Do I state that I'm here to kill him and list off all the naughty things he's done? Or do I go with the latter and just attack?' She pondered before she stared into the man's aquamarine eyes and was instantly captivated by its brilliance. 'I guess the latter!'

She quickly unsheathed her katana and dashed forward towards the man with a quick swing. The katana sliced through but Hitomi soon realized it was a replacement as sand poured instead of blood. She looked around and found the red haired man rising from a mountain of sand. She positioned herself to make another dash towards the opponent but found that she couldn't as a bout of sand had taken a hold of her ankle. She tried to wriggle her foot out but only managed to have her other foot sink into the sand and soon, she was being engulfed by the sand that traveled all the way up to her waist. It took a firm hold of her cloak and katana and begun to pull her towards the sandy abyss by these objects.

She quickly made several hands signs that released a powerful current of cool water from deep underground and canceled out the sand upon her bottom half. She managed to slide out but lost her katana to the sandy tentacles and landed on another patch of sand. 'If he's this good at ninjutsu then I'd hate to see his taijutsu and weapon-wielding.' Hitomi reached up at the bow of the heavy cloak and yanked on one of the ends and allowed it to pool at her feet revealing the rest of her body and adding speed at the lost weight. 'Damn it! I'm on his playground but…'

"I'll get serious this time. Let's get down to business." Hitomi tossed shuriken at the man to which his sand automatically blocked. He sent his sand over to Hitomi and crushed her. However, this was only a shadow clone and poofed instantly after the sand's crushing blow. The man could not see where Hitomi was and began to panic on the inside, scouring the desert landscape with his eyes but not prevailing. Suddenly, from the side of his head came a kick that was delivered at an amazing speed and nearly knocked the man over.

'This is… Just like Lee's battle…' The red haired thought as his ultimate defense rebuilt all of the sand around him in an invisible barrier. Hitomi landed softly on the sand that glistened in the light of the last rays of the setting sun. The man straightened himself out, but Temari ran in front of him and glared at Hitomi.

"State your business with the Kazekage." Temari growled.

"Kaze… Wait, you're not Satoshi, Ken?" Hitomi's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Of course he's not! He's the kazekage!" Temari exclaimed and Hitomi's face paled considerably. She picked up her katana from the sand a few feet away from her and drew it back in it's sheathe and scratched the back of her head with a weak smile.

"Heheh. Woops. I guess I should have read the rest of the portfolio, huh?"

"Woops?!" Temari gained plenty of angry veins on her head and clenched her fists. "You don't just attack someone then apologize later after they're hurt!"

"Gomen! Gomen! I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me Kazekage-sama. I accidentally mistook you for another man I'm supposed to find. He has red hair too with blue eyes and since it's not a very common hair type, I just assumed that you were… Gomen." Hitomi bowed deeply at the kazekage in apology. 'Oh my god. First mission as an official hunter-nin and I go attacking the Kazekage! I'm such a dumbass!'

"Hn." The kazekage turned swiftly and headed towards the city before he stopped and without looking back he said, "This time get checked in with the guards and stay in a hotel. Not a roof." And he continued to walk away. Hitomi blushed and hung her head low with embarrassment.

"He knows…" Hitomi sighed. Temari felt downright sorry for the younger girl and laid a reassuring hand upon Hitomi's shoulder.

"Meh, he knows everything. C'mon, let's get you checked in."

"Thank you. And sorry again… I guess I'm just a bit anxious to finish the mission."

" How about you pay for dinner as a little apology gift, eh?" Temari grinned down at Hitomi in acceptance of the apology and led her towards the entrance gates.

Author's Note:

This chapter was… blah. But I've finally figured out what to do with this story and it may just be a very long fan fiction. Depends if I'll still want to use the main plot later as I plan to now.

Same as last time. Constructive criticism welcomed very much so. I do love to hear what I need to do to improve and such. If you have the time to spare a few moments to review, please do.