Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I wish I owned Gaara ;)


*several years later*

I jogged down the streets of Suna, hustling to meet up with my team for a new assignment. I had received the summons while I was still in bed, the sudden pounding on my door rousing me in a bad mood and unfortunately I may have said a few unpleasant words to the messenger. It was disgustingly early, and I had cussed while getting dressed. Now as I hustled to meet with my team captain, I grumbled under my breath.

I pushed myself faster, using a little wind chakra to speed up. Thinking back now to how I became a ninja reminded me of how lucky I was, to have escaped the loneliness of a friendless street orphan.

After Gaara disappeared, after his "episode" he was more closely guarded and put into training. I missed Gaara dearly, mourning the loss of his presence within my life. The few short months we had had together had felt like heaven, like I had finally found someone precious. Someone that felt the same way about me. Or so I had thought.

After having been alone all my life, forced to live without the comfort of another human being, companionship, or love, I had been overtaken with glee to find a friend in Gaara, to no longer be alone. But now I was alone again, my new friend had disappeared and I was left wanting, desperately searching for him.

I had heard that he was becoming a ninja, which made sense since he was the son of the Kazekage, so I had tried to seek him out at the ninja compound, but was unable to gain entrance. Likewise I wasn't able to get anywhere near his house. He was in lockdown, all the adults in his life doing their best to isolate him, to keep him away from everyone else, worried that he was a danger to society. Which technically he was.

After months of searching, seeking ways to reach him, I finally gave up. I resigned myself to living a life with no-one to love. The pain I experienced upon my decision was immense, and I closed myself off, promising that I would never let myself be hurt like that again. I had been weak to let myself depend on someone else so deeply. I would never let myself care so deeply again, never let anyone so deeply into my heart; shield myself with a 50 foot wall, barbed wire, and a mote. The pain wasn't worth it.

And so it was with this new state of mind that my new life began. I shut off all emotion and began to do what I had to do to survive. Though I had scorned the other orphans for stealing I began to do the same, realizing the cold harsh truth of my situation, and frankly not giving a fuck anymore.

I stole the food I needed, no longer as skinny as I had been when I had resorted to begging for scraps and not stealing. Sure I still felt a little guilty for doing it, knowing that the people I stole from needed the income from their produce, but I suppressed those emotions too.

As I ate more, I was able to develop more muscles, and with that I was able to run faster, farther, and so I was able to steal more while still avoiding the angry patrons unwillingly feeding me. I quickly adapted to my new lifestyle, gaining strength that I hadn't known myself capable of possessing. I was soon quite agile, quick, and strong.

The boys that used to torment me so much tried to start back up after Gaara left me, feeling secure that they wouldn't be killed like their comrade. Their anger over his death led them to be much more vicious, intent on retribution. At first, the beatings were often and severe. But with my new abilities I was soon able to run from them, to avoid them altogether. I learned stealth, from both stealing and avoiding the bullies. From these lessons I taught myself to climb, to get onto the rooftops with the agility of a cat. I fell a lot at first. It's a miracle I didn't break anything.

After a while though, none of the boys had a chance in hell of catching me. I was strong now, healthier. I continued to push myself, to go faster, farther. This approach only worked for so long however, my attackers were persistent, and pissed off. The death of their comrade and hit them all hard, and they wanted revenge. They set a trap, luring me into an alleyway with smooth walls, nothing that I could scale to escape. Once cornered, they thought they had me.

They weren't the only ones with anger issues though. I had worked my way through the grieving process of losing Gaara, and I got stuck at being angry. Not at him, just the world in general. I still had pain, still cried myself to sleep at night, still missed my only friend with every fiber of my being, but now I was also extremely angry and antisocial. Not a very good mix.

I first experienced terror, nearly having a flashback to that time months ago when I had been beaten so badly, cut and humiliated. The nightmares of that had stayed with me, preventing me from sleeping at night. The terror morphed into rage relatively easily though, this time I wouldn't let them have the pleasure of beating me.

There were five of them, and one of me, the odds were not stacked my favor. Their mistake came when only two of them came at me to start with. If they had all come at once I really might have been done for, but as it was I was able to duck the first one. I came up behind him and grabbed his weapon, acting solely on instinct. He was carrying a stick, so I grabbed hold of the end and used it to swing him around and into the second bully coming at me. He let go of the stick when he hit his comrade, sending them both to the ground.

I backed up with my new weapon. One of the five had stayed down, the one that had been hit by the previous owner of my stick. When he fell he managed to hit his thick head against the wall of the alley, doing some of the work for me. I was grateful.

The adrenaline pumped through my body and I felt my concentration narrowing, centering on my body, on my muscles, on how I was going to defend myself from their next attack. When three came at me my concentration instinctively went to my feet, willing myself to go faster, to gain enough momentum to hit them before they hit me. I dashed forward, pushing off the ground with force I didn't know I had possessed, the intense focus having actually forcing chakra to my feet without my knowledge.

What I didn't know at the time was that I had been born with immense chakra, and was naturally inclined to use wind laced chakra. With the natural abilities, I was able to unconsciously unlock a certain amount of my chakra, and even managed to lace some of the wind into it, making me move at speeds that almost made me dizzy.

I shot forward like a bullet, faster than they could react. I hit the first one with my stick and he went flying into the wall. Another attacked me from the side, I whapped him upside the head too. He was unconscious before he hit the ground. Now there were only two left. They came at me together. One actually managed to land a punch, sending my head reeling a little. I recovered quickly enough to dodge the next blow, and retaliated with my own, kneeing him in the gut hard enough that I heard and felt a crack. He collapsed groaning onto the ground.

The last one ran away. Good riddance.

They never bothered me again after that, staying out of my way. I was happy with that, they were becoming a nuisance.

And so my life took on a reliable pattern. Wake up. Untangle self from bed/nest. Stagger outside. Squint. Cuss at the sun for being so fucking bright. Find a spigot. Wash face. Cuss at the water for being so damn gritty. Stalk to the food vendor carts. Select one for breakfast. Steal breakfast. Possibly run for life. Cuss out the stingy food vendors. Eat quickly. Repeat last several steps for lunch and dinner. Wander around aimlessly for hours glaring at random people. Sit under any sort of shade available. Sweat. Cuss at the sun some more for being too bright and an asshole. Wait for the sun to go down. Wander around some more. Eventually go back to hovel. Kick and shove on makeshift door until it closes. Sit on dirt floor and catch breath while cussing out stupid door. Then attempt to fluff up pathetic pile of rags for bed. Stand and scowl down at said dirty pile of rags. Sigh. Mutter a few last cuss words. Nestle into "bed." Go to sleep. Have a nightmare. Wake up screaming. Cuss out life in general.

I was not a very happy person.

It was during one of these days while I was stealing food for breakfast that my life would take a dramatic turn for the better. I had chosen fruit that day, noting a fresh shipment of produce had come in and stealthily made my way through the shadows towards my target. I snuck close, then ducked under the cart when the vendor wasn't looking. I waited for a few seconds, holding my breath to see if I had been noticed. I uttered a quite sigh of relief when nothing happened,

I waited for my chance and reached out to grab a few choice fruits dangling close to the edge of the cart. They probably would have fallen off anyway to be smushed. So really I was doing everyone a favor by preventing rotten fruit from cluttering the streets, which would attract flies, which carried diseases, which could start an epidemic. I should be given a medal.

I managed to snag some, but unfortunately my cover was blown. I busted out from beneath the cart, dashing off down one of the alleyways. I vaguely heard the owner yelling, "After her! She's been stealing from me for months!" I chanced a glance over my shoulder, wishing that I hadn't when I saw who was now pursuing me. Apparently my little stunt had been noted by a ninja who had also been buying breakfast. How unfortunate.

"Oh for fucking sake" I hissed, totally ticked off with my bad luck. I knew I would really have to kick it into top gear. With a ninja on my tail all my usual tricks weren't gonna cut it.

Ever since I had fought with those assholes in the alley, I had spent a good amount of time contemplating the strange power surge I had experienced and the accompanying burst of speed. I had gone over it step by step, finally determining that it had to do with the concentration I had applied to my feet. I had practiced for several weeks now, determined to figure it out, and certainly having plenty of times to exercise it, what with having to run from the owners of my food almost every meal.

I had sort of figured it out, I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but I knew it had something to do with the wind, since I could feel this strange surge in the wind currents around my body whenever I did it.

It was the only thing that might save me now. I concentrated hard, harder than I ever had before, visualizing that strange feeling, the sensation of energy prickling in the soles of my feet and the almost electric feeling in the breeze. The wind kicked up a notch, apparently startling the ninja pursuing me; I could hear him miss a step.

There …. I got it, that weird prickly feeling, and right on time my speed increased exponentially, letting me dash forwards. I heard the ninja behind me mutter something incomprehensible, but he sounded shocked. I chanced a glance over my shoulder and grinned when I saw his slack jawed expression and the way he was flagging behind me.

My elation was short lived when he suddenly appeared in front of me in a puff of smoke. "Shit!" I yelped. He was taking up the alleyway in front of me now, there was no getting past him, so I forced some more of that power to my feet, intoxicating myself with the feeling of flying I got from the wind whipping past me. When I did this, it felt like the wind was propelling me forwards, like I really could fly if I wanted to. Using the burst of speed I dashed up the nearly vertical wall to my left, only just making it to the ledge where I hooked my fingers, heaving myself up to the roof.

I was panting now, feeling the drain on my energy that I had already figured out came from the use of whatever it was that I was doing. I pushed myself up, forcing myself to run forwards, jumping over rooftops recklessly, nearly missing a few, but confidant enough in my agility to know that I could catch myself. I glanced to my right to see that the ninja was trailing me only slightly behind now. I had slowed down considerably, unable to keep my speed that high for very long.

The ninja threw some sort of smoke bomb in front of me, causing me to skid to a stop, the remaining "wind power" behind and under me enough to peel the first few layers of stone used for roofing from under me and send chips flying every which way. I managed to stop myself from running into the cloud, or from falling off the roof, but I had used up most of my energy and felt myself getting dangerously lightheaded.

I turned around to see that the ninja had come to a stop behind me and had his arms crossed. I would have expected him to look angry, but he looked more curious than angry. "Who are you girl?" he barked.

"What's it to you?" I barked back, using the same tone.

He raised an eyebrow over his one visible eye, the other blocked by a white veil of some sort. He almost seemed a little amused. "Do you know what you were just doing?" he inquired sternly.

I paused, "Um … stealing breakfast?" I was confused. Did he think I was incompetent?

He pursed his lips, unimpressed, "No. Not the stealing. The chakra control. Did you know what you were doing when you focused chakra to your feet as you just did to speed yourself up?"

I blinked, "Um … no? What's chakra?" I was curious now, it seemed that he knew how I was doing that power up thing.

"I see." He glanced to the side, seeming to be thinking about something. "Where are your parents?"

"I don't have any"

"What were their names?"

"I don't know"

"Interesting." After a moment he nodded, seeming to come to some sort of decision, "You have an enormous amount of chakra and natural talent for you to be able to do what you did. I think you may make a very good ninja. You could come back with me, there is a test you could take to get into the ninja training program if you wish."

My mouth dropped open, my mind blown. I was definitely not expecting that. I didn't have to think about it for very long, I had nothing to keep me where I was, no happiness, no friends, no family. Even if this turned out to be some sort of lie, I was willing to risk it if it could possibly mean that I might be able to join the ninja training program, become something more than just some orphan roaming the streets.

And that's how I had become a ninja. I went with Baki, who ironically ended up being my team leader, and I passed that test.

End Chapter 7


Author's Note:

I hope you liked the new chapter! Sorry about the long wait, college has been my mistress for the past week.