Chapter Ten.

A couple more moments pass with Lee continuing his nice-guy pose, Shira shifting awkwardly and Gaara just standing.

Shira flicks her eyes either side in a futile attempt to find something of interest to make conversation about.

"Soo, nice weather, huh?" She questioned, nodding awkwardly.

"Yes! It is a most youthful day!" Lee cheerily agrees. Gaara does not react. Shira shifts awkwardly.

Of all the ways I've imagined getting to see Gaara again, it was never this awkward! Shira thought furiously.

Her face sets in determination as she opens her mouth to say something to Gaara, only to be interrupted by the boy himself.

"Who are you?"

Shira froze, mouth partially open as her thought process skidded to halt, her world stopped spinning, her breathing caught, the sound of woodland animals becoming increasingly loud competing with her pounding heart, before her entire being shattered as the words "Who are you?" echoed around and around her head.

Gaara and Lee puzzled at the sudden, deathly paleness and deathly stillness overcame the girl. Just as Lee shot a puzzled look towards Gaara, Shira exploded.

"What the Hell do you mean 'Who are you?'!?" She yelled. "I'm your best friend!" She screeched. "I've been your best friend since we were kids! In Suna! With, you, I – We practically grew up together!" She waved her arms around as if that would help Gaara remember quicker. Gaara just watched the raving girl in front of him with slightly widened eyes, not comprehending her at all. "Is this cause I left!? You know I had no choice in that! I went to live with my aunt in Grass! And then, and then! I went from one relative to the other! And it turns out, they're not even relatives! Just friends of friends, who knew or know whoever! And, and, I don't even remember half of them! I went from the Leaf to Sand to Grass to Waterfall to somewhere in the Land of Hot Water! Only to be shipped off to some Shinobi she knew in Yuga cause I wanted to be a ninja and had some training, but oh no! I have no ties to the village! I have no allegiance or paper work or anything like that! So, of course, I could be a missing-nin." Her voice had gone from hysterical to mocking and sarcastic as she finished off.

As Shira spends some time gaining her breath back, Gaara goes to ask how any of that was relevant when she shoves an accusing finger in his face and growls; "I'm. Not. Done. Yet!" Gaara wisely keeps his mouth shut, whereas Lee is too busy impersonating a dying fish, all wide eyes and gaping mouth and bobbing head as he looks between the two, to interject anything himself.

"So I'm running." She says, false carelessly, throwing her arms up in a 'hey, whatever' type of way. "And I meet guy. On the road. He's like-" Here, Shira pauses before breathing in slightly, puffing up her chest and shoulders whilst dipping her head and lowering her voice. "'Hey, cutie. Where you going? You seem to be in a rush.'" She breathes out before speaking normally, "So I said I'm running for my life cause Hey!" She lifts her hands slightly whilst her voice takes on a sarcastic edge once again. "I'm obviously a missing-nin. And he laughs. And he laughs." Shira suddenly shouts loudly. "And he won't stop fucking laughing! So I kick him." She finishes flippantly. "Between the legs. Really hard." There's a sadistic glint in her eyes that causes both Lee and Gaara to become nervous.

She is so very youthful! Lee thinks to himself. And so very scary right now.

She is very emotional. Her emotions are her strength, just like Naruto. Gaara thought, having taken on the habit of comparing everyone to his new aspiration, Naruto Uzumaki.

"And he finally stops!" Shira lifts her hands and looks up as if praising the lord above. Gaara quickly checks there's no one up there as this could have been one rather elaborate ambush and that the signal to attack. There was no one. Reassured, Gaara turned back to the overly emotional, ranting girl in front of him. "And I go to walk by, on my merry way!" She says in a false cheerful tone as she demonstrates how she walked, it was more strutted than walked, away from the guy she kicked. She suddenly spins around to face Gaara and Lee again, her hair flinging around as she does, and by now Gaara is wishing he had a whole role of duck-tape as he fears a couple strips wouldn't suffice. "But no! He grabs my hand! And he says…" She puffs up again before deepening her voice. "I'm from a Hidden Village called Sound-"

Gaara and Lee startle at that as they realise she may actually have a point to all of her useless monologue, besides her life story that no one asked for.

"-And my Kage, the Otokage' – he says it like it's some special achievement too!" She snorts before carrying on her impression of the guy no longer able to have children. "'accepts ninja that have nowhere to call home and helps train them as long as they're loyal to him, like any other Kage' you hear that? Like any other Kage… Bullshit!" Shira yelled in the faces, having come close when she mocked 'Like any other Kage.' Lee startles back a step and Gaara squints an eye. "So I go with him, thinking 'Hey! I'm not gonna let a good opportunity pass me by. And so me and Bob – that's not his name by the way, I just can't pronounce it but bob was in there somewhere, so I call him Bob – we go to Sound to meet the Otokage" She mocks the Kage title. "And it's this -" she looks at her hands as she gestures them in circle around each other, and Lee vaguely wonders if she's gonna start dancing too. "Orochimaru guy." She scrunches her face as she says his name before shuddering. "I really didn't like the feel he gave off." Her face is scrunched again. "Kind of … Paedophile-y-ish. Ya know? But I give him a chance, 'cause I'm a nice girl. I won't let first impressions dictate my entire view." She states it proudly before muttering to herself; "For the most part, but I'm human. I have my faults too."

Gaara looks to the sky and realises she's been ranting for about an hour now.

"I'm instated into the task force of Sound, and think 'Hmm, not too bad' but, of course, like everything else, there is a catch. And that catch, you ask?"

Gaara looks at her confused, because he didn't ask.

"He wants to put a Curse Mark on me. I'd already been there three days, and he tells me this after showing me around his labs, his frickin' fighting arena for experiments and his bedroom. Why they fuck, do I care, about his bedroom!? I'm disgusted so I'm like. 'Fuck you, you perverted, paedophile-y bastard of all bastards. I am leaving. And reporting and fuck you.' But that wasn't very acceptable I guess. He got mad. And very nearly killed me."

Gaara's eyes have sharpened and are studying her closely to see any signs of possible death, or injuries. Gaara realises, that yes, there are in fact very faint scars on her skin, all over in fact. But because of her fair skin and this faint shimmer around her, it's hard to notice. Gaara ponders what the shimmer is. Perhaps a type of genjutsu? He ponders.

"So I'm running. Again." Her voice has gone back to the annoyed mockingly sarcastic tone it held before going serious at the mention of Orochimaru. "Firstly, I run to the Land of Frost, 'cause it's slightly closer, before realising, yeah, that was a bad idea and continue to the Land of Lightning. I help a few people out, save a couple people, meet a jinchuriki called Yugito Nii, nice girl, pretty too. Then hop on a boat straight to the South of the Land of Fire and going into the Land of Rivers and heading towards Rain, cause if I got in … Bam!" she slapped her hands really hard, the sound that was created was not a clap, but the sound of a drum, confusing both boys. "I'm safe because no one else can come and go. But, of course, they don't let me in, even though I begged!" Here she sounds affronted, like they did her a personal wrong, but the boys understood when she finished with; "On my knees!"

Shira finally calms down and finishes, "By now I've kinda given up become a legitimate ninja, 'cause it ain't happening and I'm heading back to Sand cause, screw it. I want to see my best friend Gaara, and have some hot Coco. When I get there, I overheard some people talking about how Gaara was taking part in the Chunnin exams which are in Konoha, I wasn't planning on going to Konoha till my father's death anniversary in a couple months, but I figured I'd go cheer my best friend on. Except, when I get there, there is an invasion taking place, I help out a bit in fighting and then get stuck in T&I for, like, ever. And that concludes my tale, that went completely off course and came out of nowhere, 'cause Gaara pissed me off, because he forgot about me." She looks accusingly at Gaara. "I understand Temari forgetting about me, but come on! Even Yuuka remembered me! And we hate each other!"

Shira held her hands in front of her to show just how much she and Yuuka hate each other before looking pleadingly at Gaara as if to say, 'Look, puppy-eyes. You have to remember now, cause I brought out my sad, kicked puppy-eyes'.