Chapter 10: The Girl Who Cried Monster
(In which the Princess begins to have doubts and ultimately doesn't know what to think)

An apple rolled in our direction from the spilt fruit basket. The girl, who had been holding the basket a few seconds earlier, screamed and ran back into the town.

"Wh-," I started, but stopped short when Gaara turned to look at me. He looked annoyed and…scary. So, I clamped my mouth shut, setting it in a firm line. Instead, I turned to look at the fruit and they (Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou) all resumed walking.

I leaned over and picked up the apple and the rest of the fruit littering the ground, set them in the basket, and picked up the basket. I tucked it under my arm and picked up my pace to catch up with them.

We walked, together, up the road to the town, and nobody questioned why I had picked up the basket. When we reached the town, I was shocked to see a group of town people, possibly all of the citizens who lived there, gathered on the road just inside the town.

Feeling scared, I was sure people didn't normally gather to meet every person who entered their town -especially with men looking menacing and women looking terrified-, I stepped closer to Gaara.

There was tenseness in the air, but as I stepped closer to Gaara, I felt like I had entered his calm bubble, and the tenseness inside myself eased away. How could Gaara stand there so stoic and unaffected? How he did it, I don't know, but it was infectious, and I was relieved to be close to him. I also felt safer standing by the man with the icy stare and chain mail.

"Stay out of our town, Monster!" A man with dark hair and light eyes called from the front ranks of the gathered people. Everyone around him nodded in agreement, even the terrified women.

"Monster?" I whispered with a gasp.

"Go away! You are not welcome here!" Another man shouted.

"Monster!"

"Murderer!"

"Stay out!"

"Monster!"

"Leave us alone!"

Everyone was shouting out at once, and somebody threw a rock and hit Gaara in the chest. It bounced off his chest plate, and his glare didn't falter. Then another rock was thrown. Then two more rocks.

"Stop!" I yelled, standing in front of the still crazily-calm Gaara, and everything dropped to silence. The people froze, looking at me with surprise and hanging-open mouths.

"Ino," Gaara said.

"He's not a monster!" I yelled, "He saved my life!"

"He doesn't save lives! He takes them!" The raven-haired man shouted.

"I still live, don't I? Gaara saved me from the Akatsuki!" I yelled, still standing in front of Gaara and feeling tears prickling at my eyes.

The citizens began murmuring and muttering amongst themselves.

"Ino," Gaara repeated.

"What?" I asked, turning to look at him.

"Give them the basket," He said, walking past me, "We need to stock up and move on."

Gaara walked through the crowd, it parted for him. Not out of respect, though. No. Not out of love or admiration. They parted because they feared him, they didn't want him to touch them. They didn't want him to look at them.

I was so confused. Temari said they had passed through this town a couple of times. Honichi, where they stocked up. But, why had the townspeople reacted to his presence so violently? Why had the girl screamed when she spotted them?

I had so many questions, and no answers. No solutions. I looked to Temari, but I knew now was not the time to ask. I would ask later, when we were in camp. When Gaara wasn't around.

Temari was already following Gaara, walking through the part, but Kankurou was waiting for me. Looking at me with concerned eyes.

"Are you alright?" He asked me. I wiped my face and realized I was crying.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, tucking the basket under my arm once again and walking through the crowd, Kankurou following close behind me. I stopped when I spotted the girl in the crowd. She was clutching tightly to who I assumed was her mother, her hands balled up in the dress fabric.

"Here's your basket," I said, setting the basket in front of the girl. Taking a deep breath and squeezing my mother's ring tightly in my hand, I turned and walked on down the path. Up farther ahead I saw Temari waiting under a tree, with Gaara nowhere in sight. I turned to look at Kankurou.

"I'm so confused," I said quietly.

"I know you are," He answered, just as quietly. I crossed my arms and pouted, realizing he wasn't going to be giving me any answers. At least not just yet.

Gaara, couldn't be a monster. Could he?

"No," He said, simply. I saw that he was wet, like I was, and I remembered an arm wrapping around my waist, taking me to safety.

"You rescued me," I said, "You saved my life."

Then, I did something I've been doing a lot lately. I cried.

"Did you not want me to save you?" He asked. Through my tears, I saw that he looked uncomfortable. I laughed, and rubbed my eyes.

"Ino," Gaara said. I stopped and turned to look at him, "I found this."

He held up a silver chain with a golden ring attached to it, and I felt my heart leap with joy. My mother's ring!

"It had your name on it," He said, holding it out to me. I reached out to take it, and squeezed it tightly in my hand.

But…walking up ahead all by himself…Gaara looked so lonely. I felt bad for him. Taking a deep breath, and making a decision, I picked up my pace and fell into step beside the red-haired man. After all, he saved my life.

"Hi," I said, when I caught up with him. He turned to look at me with shock on his face, and I smiled. Shock was an emotion, and it was an expression. It was better then nothing.

"Hi," Gaara replied, his expression once again cold and unreadable.

No, Gaara couldn't be a monster. He just couldn't.

"It's probably best they escaped," I said, "I hate to think of you guys fighting them. It'd be unfair to you two, anyways. The Akatsuki outnumber you greatly."

"You haven't heard of Gaara before?" Kankurou asked, looking at me strangely.

"No, I haven't. Before I was kidnapped, I had never even heard of the Akatsuki," I admitted.

I released my grip on the ring, letting it fall against my chest on the silver chain, when we approached Temari.

"Here," She said, handing my some gold coins, "Go buy yourself some clothes and meet us back at this tree."

"Where's Gaara?" I asked, cradling the coins with both hands close to my stomach.

"Who knows?" Temari said with a shrug, "But we'll meet up with him before we leave."