Chapter 7

Shiori POV

It was five at night, and the sun was starting to set. The sky starting to tinge a little bit of the desert reds and oranges and purples. I sighed and whipped the sweat from my brow. My arm shook I was so tired. I grabbed my water bottle and doused it all over me. A sigh of relief escaping my mouth. I looked over and saw Shin and Kyo starring at me. They looked away as soon as I caught them. They were panting and just as sweaty as me.

Everyone heard as my stomach growled.

"EEP!" I put my hand over it and rubbed. "I'm so hungry, sensei when can we go home." It was instinctual, even though it hurt, to grab what was thrown at me. An energy bar? I looked up at him, my eyebrows raised in question.

"Their dismissed, you are not." I fell immediately in exhaustion. Yes, it was a bit dramatic, but I was so tired and hot and sweaty and achy that anymore I was going to die. Shin and Kyo laughed, so did sensei.

"This is not funny." It came out muffled since I was face down in the dirt.

"Get up. It's not their fault they get to go home early. It's your fault…." He trailed off and I knew what he was going to say. I quietly thanked him because I didn't want my teammates to know.

"Sorry, Shiori." Kyo said as he walked away. Shin went with, quiet as usually. I rolled myself up and waved. I saw the way they looked as they walked away. Pity and curiosity.

"Alright, those kids are nosy so we're heading out."

"WHAT!" I stomped my foot, exasperated. "And where would we go?" He just grinned and looked up to the tree that shaded Gaara's figure.

"Gaara's going to take us to the desert." With that sensei walked up to Gaara. I watched as Gaara looked up at him, his expression blank. He looked so bored. And then his eyes flicked to me and I saw a fire ignite. Sensei's voice heightened, I think because Gaara didn't want to go. Sensei turned around and waved me over. I limped, which I knew didn't help sensei's case.

I neared and stood beside sensei.

"Convince him to take us to the desert. There is an oasis out there which will be perfect for honing your chakra element and starting to practice your kekkai genkai." Damn, sensei always too much sense, and as much as I wanted to sleep so that I could feel less tired, I knew I only had a short amount of time before the exams. I looked at Gaara.

I crawled down to my knees; I reached a gloved hand out to grab Gaara's. He didn't move his hand like he would with everyone else, but he looked away.

"Gaara-kun?' My voice was too sweet and I knew it, but I hope this worked.

"Hn." Was his only reply as he kept starring of to the left. I squeezed his hand a little.

"Please take us to the desert oasis. I want to become stronger." I looked at him through my eyelashes as he turned his head to look at me. His expression seemed to darken as he reached with his other hand and gently outlined my bruised face without touching me. His eyes snapped up to sensei's, whom I could hear gulp as Gaara's eyes turned into ocean slits.

"Don't hit her like that again." Sensei laughed quietly.

"She has to dodge next time, and that's why we need to get somewhere with her element, plus it will be cooler at night."

"What about her rest?" he squeezed my hand and I blushed. I hope sensei didn't notice. He didn't comment on it.

"I will allow her to come in later for tomorrow's training. Will that suffice?" He looked at me and I smiled. He looked back at sensei, standing slowly and pulling me up with him.

"Fine. Meet you there." It was the strangest sensation as Gaara wrapped a strong arm around my waist and pulled me close, sand whirled around us and teleported us to the oasis. It was so exhilarating to travel so fast. We were on a cloud of sand that flew in the sky. Gaara's hand tightened as I nearly slipped, from laughing so hard. I looked at him and he smiled at me, a secret, quiet smile just for me. We landed roughly and he stopped my from falling, both hands on my waist. I didn't realize how small I was until he grabbed me like nothing. His hands nearly going around my waist! He pulled me up and I realized I only came to his chin.

"Thank you, Gaara."

"Hn" and a blush was my only reply. Then I looked around and realized that a desert oasis was stunning. It was cooler now that it was nighttime, but I could feel the water, it was running nearby, trees from a tropical place surrounded it. It was like a small patch of the Amazon forest placed in the middle of the Suna desert.

I walked into the oasis more and saw the crystal turquoise water.

"Gaara do you come here often?" I put my hand into the cool water, my glove getting soak. I just wanted to dip in it, feel the water against my naked skin.

"Only occasionally for missions…. Do you like it here?" his question came out hesitant and I looked up at him. I saw that he watched me so closely.

"Yes…. I love it. I wish I could come out here all the time." A pink tinged his cheeks.

"I can take you here whenever you want." He looked away and I blushed, my hand splashing in the cool oasis water. I was about to say something when sensei arrived. He was breathing hard.

"Damn it, Gaara, I meant me too." Gaara shrugged and walked off to sit at the best of a tree. Sensei just glared at his back. He removed his jacket and put it on a nearby tree's hanging limbs.

"Eat that energy bar and drink some water. I'm going to teach you some water style jutsu's." I nodded as I took my gloves off and grabbed the energy bar in my side bag. It was going to taste like goat shit, but what else was there to eat that will give me what I need right now. I ate it down quickly and grabbed some water from the icy water of the oasis. I guzzled it down greedily

"Ok, take off your jacket, there will be no physical contact here. Once you learn to master your kekkai genkai that fear of skin on skin can go away." I nodded as I shrugged out of my stinky and sticky jacket.

He started teaching my basic hand seals that water style user's use. And we practiced that for a while. Once I mastered those, which was fairly easy since I studied my butt in the academy and new most of the hand seals it was easy to just cipher through and recognize those familiar with water style jutsu's.

"Alright, good. Now I'm going to teach you the water clone jutsu. It's a little more complex than making shadow clones." I nodded, tired but ready. That nasty energy bar doing the trick for now, but I was going to make sensei take me out to ramen after words.

"Ok, but before we do that, I have something I need to do." He just stared at me dumbfounded and crossed his arms over his chest, eyebrows raised.

"Ok. What is I-" I ran squealing into the oasis water. Jumping in cannonball style, a giant wave hit Honda-sensei. I emerged and saw both their faces. Sensei was wiping his face and Gaara looked to be containing laugher. I just smiled bright as I stood and got out of the water. I could feel his stare harden; it made my face blush as I shook off what I could. My hair was soaking and clung to me. I gave up.

"Ready."

"Oh, so you're ready now, then?" I nodded and smiled. He just rolled his eyes. "Well it was a nice wakeup call none the less." He then jumped right into the mechanics of the jutsu; I listened and stored the information into the unorganized archive that was my brain. It surprisingly only took me three tries before I got it, much to sensei's shock.

"Hmm... I knew, just knew you your chakra element was water." I nearly tripped as I heard that. So it was a guess to try and teach my water style seals and then a jutsu just based of a guess. I shook my head at my sensei. He threw another energy bar that I caught.

"Ugh, this is disgusting, I'll pass for now." Sensei just chuckled.

"No, you are going to need this one; it has more energy supplements then the last one." I hung my head. "We're going to get you to activate your kekkai genkai." With that it was in my mouth and swallowed down. I gagged three times but it's in there. I took another dive and swallowed water while I was in there. I shivered at the nasty taste of those energy bars.

"Come to the shallow end, the water might be able to help activate it." I waded to the shallow section, where sensei met and waited for me to join him. He turned around and shouted at Gaara. "Gaara, we are going to need you assistance." Within moments he was at the edge of the water.

"You don't want to get in?" he looked at like how I imagine a cat would look at water. I laughed and splashed him; the sand went up to protect him from the water. It melted away quickly, and I understand why water was such a dangerous weapon against him.

"Shiori, do you remember what it felt like when you activated the kekkai genkai." I remembered feeling different. I remember the feeling on my skin tingling, my throat aching to sing, like it was going to rip open if I didn't, burning hot with the need. I felt my eyes grow hard and it was strange, I could see the emotions, the feelings of the other person, feel them on my skin, taste them on my tongue.

And then I remember singing and it was a powerful feeling, one that took over my entire body. I could feel, taste everything around me, see it in ways I never felt before. I opened my eyes, my entire body was tingling and I felt so light, so powerful.

I looked to Honda-sensei who gasped as well as Gaara. I touched my neck and my lips; they felt like they were burning in the most delicious of ways.

"What?" And my voice was not my own. It came out like some soft melody, entangled with so many other sounds I got caught in the beauty of it. I just wanted to sing, to scream, to hear the beautiful sound. I looked up to Honda-sensei who looked spellbound, his eyes glazed over, his body swaying as though it was not of his control.

Then I felt it. The strings, invisible, were connecting between us. And I knew he was under my control. I softened my eyes, looking at him through my eyelashes and with them, I was demanding him to walk, and with the compulsion I was putting him under, he started walking. I gasped.

"Do you find me pretty?" I said in my hypnotizing voice that wrapped around him like a physical spell.

"Yes." and he kept walking towards me. I looked over as Gaara stood as well. I could feel the panic in him. He didn't understand how I could control Honda-sensei. So I dropped my gaze breaking complete contact with Honda-sensei. At this point I hadn't realized that I was breathing hard, it was getting hard to stay standing, to see straight. My throat was burning and I felt the chakra in that part of my body depleted, the chakra in my body pulling to my eyes and throat. My skin started losing is feeling and soon my vision was tunneling and I was falling to the ground unaware.

Moments later I snapped my eyes opened disoriented. Gaara and Honda-sensei both standing over me. Honda-sensei held a bottle of water over my mouth, which dripped in slowly, and I opened my mouth eagerly. My throat felt like the desert of Suna, draw and barren, stripped of everything. I coughed and blood came up. I saw the look in Gaara's turn murderous and I reached my hand out, clasping his hand, which was close to me since he was kneeling over me, starring at Honda-sensei. He visibly relaxed. Like butter melting in the sun.

I sat up, and Gaara had his hands around my shoulder's keeping me upright

"I think that's it for today. We'll regroup tomorrow and try again." I just sighed and leaned onto Gaara. The sun had set and it was chilling down and I was wet and cold, his heat felt comfortable. He didn't move away much to my surprise.