Finally! Another chaper up! I know its very short, but each chapter revolves around one certain thing that happens, therefore some will be much shorter than others. Anyway, sorry to keep you waiting so long and I hope you enjoy it.

All OCs so far belong to me and my friend Tsukiko.

All things Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.


The girl ignored Gaara's words. She knew she needed to get out of the forest and she had no doubt that following Gaara's team would achieve that goal. Keeping out of sight, she followed the sand shinobi for nearly fifteen minutes without being noticed. When the group finally stopped in a clearing ahead of her, she feared she'd been spotted. Then she saw another group of shinobi standing in their way.

There was some brief conversation that was hard to hear from the distance between the two groups and the girl, and then Gaara released sand from the gourd on his back. Just as it had done with the girl, the sand twined about the man's body, rendering him immobile. Unlike the situation earlier that day however, Gaara used the sand to crush his victim's body and a spray of blood rained down on the clearing. Gaara didn't hesitate to let the other two shinobi share in their leaders' fate. There was a very short argument between Kankuro and Gaara then, before finally they started on their way again.

As they traveled along, Gaara fell to the back of the group. Temari and Kankuro cast questioning glances in his direction, but knew better than to ask what he was doing. If he wanted to fall behind, he undoubtedly had a reason and would catch up again soon. It was probably safer for them if they just let him be. Gaara knew this was how they felt and therefore didn't think twice about stopping to confront the girl that he noticed was still following them. "Why are you still following me?" Gaara growled as the girl skidded to a halt just out of his sight. "Are you begging to die?"

The girl stepped out of the bushes and stood before Gaara. Almost immediately Gaara noted that the girl's blue eyes still held the same gentleness and compassion towards him as they had earlier. He didn't understand it. He knew without a doubt that she'd seen him kill those shinobi from the Rain village just minutes before. What's more, this girl was from his village—he'd seen her once or twice with one of Kankuro's friends. So why didn't she hate him?

Gaara's thoughts were cut short as the girl answered, "I just need to get out of the forest. Right now, following you is my only option. Kill me if you want, I don't care." Her voice was calm and even and not a single sign of fear showed in her eyes. Gaara considered that perhaps the loss of memory she'd mentioned earlier had something to do with why she wasn't terrified of him, but even that didn't explain why she wasn't frightened after seeing him murder those three shinobi. Between the look in her eyes and the amount of confusion she caused him, Gaara still couldn't bring himself to kill this girl. She stood before him—waiting for a response—her eyes still staring gently into his and he could do nothing. When he didn't respond to her comment after several moments, she prodded, "Well?"

"You are such a stubborn little brat. I'll tell you one more time: Stop following me, Kataiko." Gaara commanded. He jumped into the nearest tree and yelled back. "Next time I won't hesitate to kill you."

"Kataiko?" The girl questioned.

Gaara paused briefly and glared back at her. "I needed to call you something." He said bluntly. And then he was gone.