Author's Note:

Guys… I've made a terrible mistake. I'VE BEEN CALLING THEM TRANSPORT SEALS WHEN THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CALLED STORAGE SEALS! I look like an idiot! I don't think it is big enough to warrant me going through all of the chapters and finding it and changing it to what it is supposed to be, but I am still upset that I made such a stupid error q-q. That being said, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, getting a lot of time to write has really helped me boost these thing out, and I am loving it. At this rate I might be getting Ch 11 out by New Year's… MAYBE NO PROMISE THOUGH!

BTW be forewarned, shit gets pretty fucking dark this chapter… then it gets violent… then it gets mushy. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Eyes of the Predator

Chapter 10

Hikari was waiting at the gate for her sensei while she went over the last of her 75 sealing matrixes that she needed to know. Yesterday's training had been more of the same, and today the two of them were supposed to be delivering a scroll to the Kazekage in the Village Hidden in the Sands. It was probably the formal invitation to the chunin exams that would be happening in a little over a year. If Hikari was being honest, she was surprised that they were giving such a long notice for something that was only a couple days walk, but apparently it was a pretty big deal.

Sunagakure was going to be a 2-3 day long trip there depending upon how quickly they were expected to go. Which meant that she would be most likely be back in Konoha when her birthday came around. Hikari was pretty sure if she missed her birthday spar with her "eternal rival" he might just break down into tears.

Kakashi appeared next to her in a shunshin of leaves and smoke. "What are you waiting around here for? We have a job that needs to get done."

Hikari was considering replying with her usual sarcasm, but figured they might as well get on the road. It was noon and he had told her to be there at "8 o'clock sharp"… maybe that was code word for noon cause he'd made that mistake three days in a row, that couldn't possibly be coincidence.

She stood up and placed all of her assorted books and scrolls into her transport seals. She had been practicing her new genjutsus on squirrels… well not the imitation one, obviously. She couldn't really tell if the paralysis one was working or if the squirrel was just staring at her, but the torture one was definitely working. Those pained squeaks still haunted her waking hours, there was just something so very wrong about torturing the poor animals that hadn't done anything to incur her wrath. That being said she wasn't going to hesitate to use it on an enemy ninja.

"We are already behind schedule, so I guess that means we are going a bit quicker to make up for it." Hikari said as she began walking out of the gate towards Sunagakure.

"Yea, I guess it's for the best that we didn't bring your new training weights, we need to get there before the year ends, and I'll be honest, you probably wouldn't have made it." He said as he ran past her and took to the trees. "You did remember to bring your old weights right?" She jumped next to him and held up her arm showing him her weights. "Good. Wouldn't want your new muscle to go to waste from lack of use."

"That would be a shame, even with these weights on I feel as light as a feather without those monstrosities crushing my bones." She said with a slight smile on her face. It really was a relief being out of those damned weights, she was still sore all over, but she hoped that by this mission was going to be simple and relaxing. Like her other C-class mission that had been boring as hell. She would like a little bit of boring.

WRONG

They were a day and a half out from Konoha when they saw it. Hikari and Kakashi hopped to the ground when they came across a series of upturned carts lying in the middle of the road. Upon closer inspection, it had been a slaughter. Blood pooled where merchants and the horses they had used for transport had been butchered. Their wares strewn across the road. Soaked in blood. Bodies lay slumped over the carts, but some had been simply butchered in the streets. There had been a woman traveling with them, and it had been obvious that whoever had done this to them had had something extra in mind for the young woman.

Hikari was filled with a nearly unquenchable rage, this had happened right outside the border of fire country, and she would not stand for it. "We are finding who did this." Hikari said her tone was absolute and final. She would not be taking no for an answer. She somewhat reluctantly took a taste of the air. Blood and piss. Still relatively fresh. These people had been slaughtered within the last 12 hours.

"Hikari, I understand your upset, but this is technically Suna land, this-" He motioned to the grisly display in front of them. "is their responsibility. As much as I understand the desire to see them pay for their crimes, we are simply outside of our jurisdiction."

Hikari didn't even hear a word he had said, she was focusing on recreating what had happened, she wasn't an expert tracker, but she had picked up quite a few things on her hunts with Mamoru. She could find them. She would find them. "So are you going to help me kill them, or what?"

Kakashi sighed before he went through a series of hand signs and placed his hand on the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" He yelled as a plume of smoke rose up from where his hand impacted the ground. The smoke cleared to reveal a rather adorable pug.

The pug jumped away from Hikari and growled. "When did Orochimaru get so short?" He paused before he decided to post an addendum. "And get breasts?"

Hikari's eye twitched and she could swear she heard glass shatter somewhere. This pug is no longer cute, I don't like him he is an asshole.

Mamoru was just laughing his non-existent ass off.

Kakashi quickly covered the pug's mouth and began whispering quietly into his ears. Understanding began to dawn on the pug's face. "Oh, so she's his abandoned pup." Hikari was absolutely bristling with killing intent. Kakashi smacked his forehead with the hand that wasn't holding the pug. "She smells like snake, but I can hardly blame her for that." He looked around the grisly scene surrounding the carts. "Why don't you ever summon me some place nice, like a park? It's always a warzone or tracking with you."

"Sorry, Pakkun." Kakashi said rather unenthusiastically. "We need your help tracking the people who did this. I'm pretty sure it is just a garden variety brand of bandits. Ninjas wouldn't have been this sloppy."

Pakkun began to sniff the ground and walked around the scene. "You're right, doesn't smell like ninjas. This must have happened within the last four to six hours. Should be pretty easy to follow, I'm estimating a bandit group about 20 strong. We should expect the leader to be high-genin to mid-chunin level strength." He began moving to the right of the road they had been traveling. They went this way."

The three of them took to the trees. The hunt was on.

Gako sat at the entrance of their little "bandit camp." Guard duty was pointless, even on a night after a robbery. Their outfit was too small to warrant anyone actually coming after them and too large to be stopped by the bunch of farmers and low-level merchant that lived around here. Their most recent "score" as the boss called it was a paltry amount of coin, some food that was going to market, and some useless knick knacks that weren't worth much of anything. The girls they had been escorting were pretty good. Too bad the prettiest one tried to get violent while the boss was taking her, she probably would have been a good lay. The other two were a bit more… cooperative after they saw their friend's throat slit in front of them. They still cried when they were passed around the camp, but it wasn't any fun if they didn't resist a little.

After the first couple of rounds they had completely stripped them down before throwing them into one of the larger tents and tying them to a post. In such a way that they had their bare asses presented to the boys, no point making it harder to take them than necessary. He was in the mood for another round, he'd probably head over after he had finished with this boring ass guard duty.

He didn't get any further with that thought. He heard a squishy thud and then found it impossible to breath. He held his hand up to his neck to find it gushing his warm blood. A small thin piece of metal was protruding out of his neck. He tried to hold his hand up to his neck to help stem the flow, but began choking on his own blood instead. He pulled out the metal and a stream of blood was expulsed from his neck. Dead within seconds.

Hikari looked over the corpse of the "guard" that hadn't been paying near enough attention to the world around him. He had not suffered nearly enough, but she would make up for it. Make up for it in spades. Hikari moved amongst the tents killing the few people that were supposed to be keeping watch for people like her. Their deaths were quick, silent better than they deserved.

When everyone who could have raised an alarm had been routinely slaughtered she began to hear crying. Light, quiet sobs that weren't supposed to be heard. Desperate and hurting. It was coming from one of the tents near the outskirts of the encampment. She opened up the flaps silently and peeked inside. What she saw made her sick. Two young women, completely naked and covered in small cuts and large bruises were tied to a post, in such a way that they were forced onto their knees, bodies slumped against the posts that they had clung to. Their bodies were still, whoever had used them last had decided that they had exhausted their usefulness, and spilt their blood all over the floor. Hikari's heart filled with rage.

THEY. WOULD. BURN.

Hikari turned away from the tent. She could feel her curse mark pulsing with power. She would use it, just this once, just so that she could have the power she needed to burn this place to the ground. Strange black markings began to emanate from the curse mark, and her entire being felt invigorated.

POWER. SO MUCH POWER.

She went through the hand seals needed for her Grand Fireball Jutsu, and let all of her rage and hatred bring the chakra to a boil in her chest. "Uchiha Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" She shouted as she engulfed half of the camp into a raging inferno. The screams of the dying nearly drowning the sounds of crackling wood as the fire raged on.

BURN.

Hikari was going to watch them die, she was going to bring them to the gates of hell personally. She drew her spear and coated it with the most painful poison she had at her disposal. It took three agonizing days filled with pain and misery as the poison broke down the body before the sweet bliss of death would be welcomed by her victims. She didn't have time to kill them this way, but they would hurt before she made them burn.

A few of the bandits seemed to have their senses knocked into them by the man that appeared to be in charge of the operation. He would be saved for last. The five bandits sprinted at her, hoping to overwhelm her with their superior numbers. Hikari's insane smile and tortured laugh was almost enough to make the criminals drop a load in their pants. She almost appear in front of them as she finished a set of hand signs. "Phoenix Fireball Jutsu." She said almost impassively, as if she was commenting on the weather. She shot a small ball of flame into each of her opponents' chests. The impact alone launched the men backwards into their flaming camp.

Their dying screams of agony were music to her ears.

"Stay back you monster!" The boss yelled as he raised a ninjato up with both hand. They were shaking, quivering even.

Hikari's Sharingan flashed into activity. "Do I frighten you?" She almost purred. Her strange black markings dissipating and returning to her neck. "You think I'm a monster?" She smiled before she started walking forward. Her entire being emanating a potent killing intent. "You haven't seen anything yet."

Kakashi was in the trees. Hikari had told him to take out any of the bastards that had tried to run away, but she had been… diligent to ensure that no one made it out of there. He heard the screams of pain echoing across the forest. The inferno that had been the camp would have been blinding.

The fires began to die down with an oncoming rain. Almost like mother nature was trying to wash away a stain upon her surface. Poetic thinking doesn't do anyone any good, and it just makes you look pretentious. Kakashi thought to himself as he observed the damages. He could only hear one man's scream tear across the clearing. Which meant Hikari wasn't going to kill the man, her plan was to torture him.

His eyes scanned the clearing until he came across the source of the screams. One man screaming his throat raw, as Hikari looked at him, utterly impassive to his pain. He sent a kunai flying and it impaled the man through the eye. It was messy, but it ended him.

Hikari turned to him eyes filled with rage as the rain made her hair start to clump. "Why did you do that!? He wasn't finished paying for his crimes!"

"We are done here Hikari!" Kakashi's tone was firm, final. "We do not torture to make people pay. We do it to gather information to protect the village. Leaf shinobi do not encourage suffering, we finish it."

Hikari's eyes were downcast. "The girl at the road… she wasn't the only one."

"What?" His eyes softened.

"Two more girls, probably barely even 15 if that… They killed them. I didn't save them, wasn't fast enough… didn't even know they were there till too late." The rage that had filled her eyes was replaced with grief.

Kakashi didn't know what to say. He had the emotional intelligence of a small child on his best days, he didn't know anything about consoling. He hadn't been trained to deal with this. She wasn't even upset about the 22 men she had just ruthlessly cut down. It was the people she had failed to save that haunted her… He understood that. The sting of failure, the inability to protect. He knew that far too well.

Hikari lifted her face. The momentary glimpse of sadness he had seen in her was replaced with stone. She wore a mask almost as effectively as he did. "We have a mission to accomplish, and we are even more behind schedule." She said as she turned her back to the camp once more and took to the trees.

Kakashi sighed once before he followed after the young girl. I can't help her sort through the emotional stuff, but maybe if I taught her a jutsu and kept her mind busy, she could sort through it herself.

"Kakashi-Sensei?" The girl asked from in front of him, she sounded… vulnerable. "What should I feel right now?"

Kakashi didn't have the first clue as to how to answer that question. "That's something you'll have to decide for yourself." That's vague enough to be helpful, good thinking brain.

"That isn't helpful at all." She said as her voice returned to its monotone.

Damn it! "I'm… not really good with emotions, or talking. As a matter of fact if it weren't for the fact that we had a mission to accomplish I would be avoiding this conversation like a plague. I don't know what you should feel. Some would say that you did the world a service by killing those men, others probably won't see it that way." Kakashi pulled up so that he was moving parallel to her "The important question is whether or not you can live with what you've done." His eyes seemed to be looking far away. "Because sometimes, just because someone says it isn't your fault or that you did what had to be done, doesn't make the hurt stop."

He's hurting too, he doesn't like to show it, and would rather play the part of disinterested genius, but he cares about people. He's lost people he care for… I can see it in his eyes when he thinks no one is watching. Like right now. Hikari took a deep breath. "Thank you, Kakashi… I appreciate you trying to make me feel better." She turned her head back towards their destination, as thunder clapped over their heads. "How long until we reach the dessert?" The rain was ruining her hair.

The gates of Suna were imposing, if not exactly effective. Their large staggered steps looked like they would be pretty easy to jump from level to level, but at least it looked cool. Kakashi pulled her to the right and leaned forward to whisper something. "Try not to cause a diplomatic incident while we are here. Please? If you go 2 for 2 on C-Class missions we won't be allowed to go on them anymore."

"Fine." Hikari sounded a little too disappointed for his liking.

"Just practice the lightning jutsu I've been teaching you, that should keep you busy while I deliver this. Remember, we will be staying at the Desert Flower Hotel." Hikari stuck out her tongue when he turned his back to her. "Saw that."

Surely they have a training ground here somewhere… it can't all just be sand.

Can't it?

NO, IT CAN'T! How would they make their own food, I might not have paid much attention in desert survival class, but at least I know that agriculture isn't a booming business in sand… wait I have no idea where our hotel is supposed to be. KAKASHI NEVER TOLD ME WHERE IT WAS!

"What have we got here? A leaf Kunoichi all by her lonesome?" Some guy in weird purple face paint descended from the roof of one of the flat-roofed houses. He had something covered with bandages on his back. His jacket's hood was flipped up to give him the appearance of having cat ears.

You are here for less than 10 minutes and you've already managed to get yourself in trouble. Simply Amazing.

"Me? Oh, just delivering a message, looking for a training field, trying to find my hotel. Standard shinobi stuff really." She said as she plastered a smile onto her face. I really don't want to start a diplomatic incident, getting into a fight with a sand shinobi on sand land is probably an incident.

"I am not a fan of foreign shinobi, walking around without proper supervision." He said rather ominously

A blonde haired kunoichi walked from around the sides of one of the other houses. "And I suppose you think of yourself as this "proper supervision" that you are so worried about, Kankuro?" She put an arm around him. "Worried that she is going to try to steal all your little puppet secrets?" She said in a tone dripping with false ominousness.

"Temari! You ruin everything!" the boy named Kankuro said, only mildly upset. "I was going to be all ominous and cool."

She smiled wickedly. "Oh, I am so sorry I messed with your fun."

I'd feel bad if I interrupted them, their dynamic is humorous. Oh well. "Excuse me, but I am looking for a training field, would you mind?"

The blond girl turned to her. She smiled again Hikari thought it looked fake, forced. "The name is Temari, and this-" she pointed to the boy behind her. "is Kankuro."

"A pleasure." Hikari said entirely without emotion. "Hikari Hebi."

Temari's smile didn't falter. "A lady of few words, refreshing." She put her oversized fan into the sand. "I'll agree to show you the training field, if you agree to a spar."

Hikari's face twisted into a small grin. "I like those terms."

Oh yea, it isn't a diplomatic incident if she invites you to fight.

"Excellent, in that case follow me." Her smile never wavered. Hikari couldn't tell for what reason the girl had to act in front of her. If she was trying to make a good first impression, she had already succeeded in her book by making cat-boy over there upset.

The trio reached what Suna must have referred to as a "training field." To Hikari, it looked like a whole bunch of sand with some small, dry grassy areas and a small pool of water on the West side. It wasn't much to look at, but then again that was usually the case for Suna so it fit.

"Do we have any rules besides don't kill each other?" Hikari said as she started stretching a bit. Her neck ached from activating her curse seal yesterday, and her chakra still hadn't fully recovered. She was fighting at about 2/3 chakra capacity. Not dangerous, but not exactly optimal.

Temari opened up her fan revealing a single purple moon and held it out in front of her. "Nope, but by the time you see the third moon, I'll have won."

Hikari cracked her neck and smiled. "Interesting fan, I'll assume that you use Wind Nature and that you are primarily a mid to long range fighter." Temari's eyes narrowed. "Bet it also means you aren't quite as adept at close range Taijutsu, so I'll make this a bit harder for me. I won't take off my weights till you reveal your third moon."

Kankuro walked into the middle of them. "So I guess that I get to be the one who starts the fight… Yay." He said rather unenthusiastically. "Begin." He said before jumping out of the way of the two kunoichi.

Hikari activated her Sharingan and tossed a handful of senbon at her opponent. Temari batted them out of the way with her wind as she launched several wind blades at Hikari. Hikari dodged out of the way of them, narrowly avoiding one that sailed over her head by mere inches. She charged her opponent, it gave her less time to react to the blades, but it also would force Temari onto the defensive.

Temari was being sure to keep a very specific amount of distance between her and Hikari. Hikari hadn't demonstrated any skills, merely dodging her wind blades and attempting to close the distance. "Wind Style: Wind Cutter Technique!" Temari yelled as she revealed her second moon.

The amount of wind blades that Temari was launching at her had nearly doubled and they were much sharper than they had been mere moments before. One of them grazed Hikari's cheek and cut it open, leaving a small trail of blood. Hikari went through a few hand seals and filled her chest up with fire chakra before expelling six moderately sized fireballs at pretty high speeds at the sand kunoichi. The wind merely added intensity and wildness to the flames, but the blond girl managed to get out of it completely unscathed. Hikari still had some work to do with her fire jutsu, she had a problem aiming with her breath.

The two of them were breathing rather heavily, they weren't tired, but they had expelled a fair bit of chakra, and the running around in the hot sun didn't help with stamina. Hikari wasn't used to the sun being this punishing.

"So, a fire user. Makes using wind jutsu pretty difficult against you, but you only seem to have a few jutsu at most that help you in a mid-range fight." Temari said as she sized up her opponent. She was having fun, genuine fun. No one ever sparred her like this, they were all too afraid of hurting the Kazekage's eldest daughter.

Hikari nodded. "As I expected, Wind. You probably take great pride in keeping your opponents at bay, but you can't stop me if you can't move." Hikari locked eyes with Temari as her Sharingan began to spin, placing her under the effects of the paralysis genjutsu.

Hikari was careful to keep perfect eye contact with the blond girl as she began to close the distance between the two of them. She was about 10 feet away before Temari managed to break the genjutsu and quickly unfolded the entirety of her fan. Hikari quickly pulsed her chakra and the weights collapsed into the sand as the two female powerhouses collided. Hikari cleared the distance almost instantly and began to shut off the tenketsu point in Temari's right arm. Temari finished the swing of her fan and launched Hikari into the air with a veritable sea of wind blades in her wake.

Hikari collapsed onto the ground and slowly got up, she was covered in cuts and abrasions, but it wasn't life threatening. It stung all over though, and she could tell that she was definitely going to be feeling that in the morning.

Temari's right arm hung limply at her side, it tingled and she couldn't seem to get chakra to properly flow through it. "I suppose I yield." Temari said as she used her left hand to close her fan and place it onto her back. "Can't use this fan if I can only use one arm, and you'll simply use your superior speed to outclass me in a Taijutsu battle."

Hikari walked over to the blond and held her arm out in front of her. "Do you mind if I fix it?" Temari merely nodded. Hikari reactivated the tenketsu in the other girls arm. "It's probably going to be a little sore for the next few days."

Hikari tasted demonic chakra in the air. It hadn't slowly approached them it had simply appeared. "Temari, Kankuro, you are a disgrace." A monotone voice to Hikari's left said.

Temari looked frightened, almost downright terrified. Hikari turned her head to see a red haired boy with black eye liner (on closer inspection not black eye liner… yikes), the kanji for love over his left eye, and a gourd on his back. "G-Gaara! What are you doing here? Were you watching the whole time?"

His attentions switched to Hikari. "What is your name?" He delivered the question with the same monotone he had given to Temari's criticism.

"Hikari Hebi of Konohagakure. Mind if I ask you your name?" She didn't know how to interact with him, he didn't seem the type that had many friends.

"I am Garra of the Desert, and I am going to kill you." Perfectly maintained monotone.

"Hardly seems like an effective method at making friends, typically you wait for someone to give you a reason to dislike them before you threaten to end their life." Hikari said with a smile. "I'm pretty likable once you get to know me, surely a handsome boy like yourself knows how to make a better first impression than that."

All three sand shinobi remained perfectly still. Temari and Kankuro because they were almost positive the mouth on Hikari was going to get her killed, and Gaara because no one had ever called him handsome before. In fact, almost no one had ever talked to him without fear in their eyes.

Why was this leaf shinobi different? It didn't make sense, everyone hated him and he hated everyone but himself, but she somehow did not fit the mold. How could she not hate him?

A few seconds of silence followed before Hikari decided she could talk some more. "So, Gaara of the Sand, have I done something that would make you want to kill me? I could understand dislike, because let's be honest I am not everyone's cup of tea, and I am cool with that."

The sand siblings were even more confused at Gaara's lack of killy killy sandy deathy.

"I will kill you to confirm my existence. To prove I am alive." His ability to maintain monotone was honestly very impressive.

"I'd like to think that the fact that you and I are conversing together is enough to prove your existence, I don't make it a habit to talk to things that aren't real." She said as a smile began to wash over her face. "You know, I get the feeling that you and I are more alike than you would expect, Gaara-Kun."

His eyes narrowed slightly at her statement. "You don't know anything about me."

"Maybe, but I can at least make a couple of inferences." She began pacing back and forth as if she was deep in thought. "Ever since you can remember, the citizens have looked upon you with a combination of hate and fear in their eyes, due entirely to circumstances outside of your control, and no matter how hard you tried to get them to like you, they only saw you as a monster. At least, that was my childhood. Does it ring any bells, Gaara of the Sand?"

She… she knows? She's knows what it's like to be hated by everyone? But how? How can people like Temari and Kankuro accept her so readily if she really is the monster she claims to be?

"I was lucky enough to have someone who loved me, even if everyone else saw a monster, my protector. Always there for me when I needed something. Did you have that Gaara? Or were you forced to face the world on your own?" Hikari's voice was soft and sad, if she had been forced to face the world without Mamoru she wouldn't know if she would have survived.

*Sniffle*

Mamoru! Are you crying?

NO! YOU KNOW I DON'T HAVE TEAR DUCTS! That's ridiculous.

Oh yea, sure.

"What type of monster are you?" Gaara asked. He sounded like saying the words made him physically hurt.

"I'm the daughter of Konoha's most hated individual, they saw me and were reminded of him every time without fail. The village I love with my whole heart, despises me because of who my father was."

"Then why do you love them?" Gaara was staring at her intently. Temari and Kankuro had never heard Gaara speak this much, typically he would just say "do (blank) or I'll kill you" and then he'd go kill people. They had never seen him converse with anyone before, let alone an outsider.

"Someone I cared for had a dream. A dream of ensuring the safety of the Leaf Village. He died for his dream, so I suppose, it is my way of honoring his memory, so that I'll never forget him." Hikari smiled slightly. "I had almost forgotten about that, wanting to protect the village is almost second nature to me now."

Gaara disappeared into a sand shunshin.

"That is actually one of the better first interactions I've had with a jinchuriki." Hikari said with a smile. "He might not even want to kill me anymore, which is definitely a plus." Hikari turned her attention back to Temari. "Would you mind showing me to my hotel? I have no idea where it is."

Hikari and Kakashi had been given separate rooms. Hikari suspected he paid for the second room out of his own pocket so that he wouldn't have to go on record as sleeping with a 12 year old girl, but she didn't mind.

Hikari could taste his presence outside her window before she actually heard him. She quietly walked over and opened it. He was sitting on the roof overhanging her window. She could only see his feet dangling over the edge, but it was easy enough to tell it was him.

She exited her window and joined him on the roof. "Any particular reason you decided you wanted to see me? Or am I just that irresistible?" She said with an impish grin.

His gaze never left the stars. "I don't understand you."

"Yea, well I'm pretty complicated sometimes." She fell back on the flat roof her shirt rode up a little and showed her belly, but she was too tired to fix it. "Any reason you can't sleep?"

"I never sleep." He said with his standard voice.

"Huh, I never dream." She didn't exactly know if this was contributing to the conversation or not, but she felt like sprinkling in that little tidbit of information regardless.

"Who did you find that loved you?" His eyes were glued to the stars.

"Mamoru was the first one, he taught me everything I knew about people, and how to speak and read. Then there was Minato, but he died not long after I got to know him. Then there was Sarutobi-Sama, he is a kind and gentle-hearted old man. After that, making friends comes pretty easy, you just need a good catalyst to get you through the door" She held her hand up and pretended to reach for the stars. "I love my village, but I'd do anything to protect my precious people."

"Precious people." He said contemplatively.

"Do you have anyone? Precious to you, I mean." She moved herself back into a more seated position.

"Only myself." He sounded almost bitter, there was definitely bits she was missing here, but she didn't know where she would find them.

"You know, I bet if you cut it out with the killing people to prove you're alive, and started using your strength to protect the village, people will find you out. I met some of my closest friends on accident."

He looked at her very confused.

"I'll give you some examples if you want them." He merely shook his head. "Let's see, I became friends with Hinata when I tried to make her stop crying. I became friends with Neji after I mistook him for a female. I became friends with Lee after I told him he was weak. I became friends with Sasuke after kicking him into a wall. I became friends with Naruto after throwing a kunai at him… ON SECOND THOUGHT! I might not be the best example you should follow." She said as she burst into laughter. "How about you try smiling a little? That might help diminish your intimidating persona."

IT DIDN'T HIS SMILE WAS THE TYPE OF THING THAT SPAWNS NIGHTMARES IN SMALL CHILDREN

"Okay, well. Smiling isn't for everyone. How about we try something small?" He turned his head back to the stars. "Can you think of someone that you know?"

He shrugged.

"Gaara, I'm trying to be a buddy over here, and get you some friends." In the land of the socially retarded the least maladjusted is queen.

You're welcome, I had a hand in that.

Yea, yea. Pat yourself on the back later. I've got a jinchuriki to teach to not murder.

"Does that make you, a precious person?" Gaara asked as he continued to look up at the sky.

"Sure, I'll be one of your precious people Gaara, but I am going to be leaving for Konoha pretty soon. So I am going to have to get you some secondary special people to keep you company while your favorite is gone." She said with a silly smile.

He turned his attention back to her. "How?"

"Why not start off with Temari and Kankuro? We walk up, talk to them for a moment, you apologize if you ever threatened to kill them. Then we group hug. WAM BAM WE DONE!" She said excitedly. She clapped her hand together to emphasize her point. The sudden exultation had surprised Gaara significantly.

Kakashi stuck his head out of his window. "Hikari! What are you doing!? It's 3 in the morning, you are making a huge racket!" He did the whisper scream thing that people did when they tried to yell at you, but wanted to do it discreetly.

"Sorry Kakashi-Sensei. I was talking to a friend." Hikari said as Kakashi closed his window and returned to his bed. She turned back to Gaara. "Meet me at the training field tomorrow morning, then we'll go out and find Kankuro and Temari. You aren't a bad guy, you just need a little push in the right direction." The two of them both stood, she decided that she would go for the hug, it might seem a little forward, but he seemed like the kind of person who could really use one.

She leaned forward and wrapped him in him in her arms. Sand suddenly rose up between the two of them and blocked all the points of contact, but she still managed to hold him for a second. "Bye, Gaara-Kun!" She said as she returned to her bedroom and shut her window.

I must say he is one of the most agreeable sociopaths I've ever had the pleasure of speaking to.

I DID ALL THE TALKING MAMORU!

Secondary Author's Note:

BOOM CH 10! I told you I'd get it out before New Year's... well I said I'd try to. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it is here that we are really going to start to see some of the AU-ness start to bubble up. It wasnt happening before, because Hikari's sphere of influence is relatively small, she regularly speaks to like 4 other people her age, and the rest are her Sensei and Hokage. A changed Gaara and orochimaru means a changed chunin exam which means a changed *shot for trying to give out spoilers*