Gaara's search was fruitless, but he did find out the Shina in fact was in town. He just had a feeling, an intuition that she wasn't far away, though everything was all uphill for Shina. As it turned out, her presence in Konoha had attracted little public attention. The Hokage was doing everything normally, including going ahead with her speech on brain damage in war veterans. It was in an outdoor setting. A small stage had been crafted on the edge of the forest just for this use. Shina would use this as an advantage because most of the village would be there-at least most of the ninja would definitely attend. Gaara would attend.
After a little planning with Iruka, everything was going to go over without a hitch. With his knowledge of jutsu and her near-limitless chakra reserves, there was little that could stop them from carrying out their plan.
Her seal was beginning to burn more all the time, and it was getting harder and harder to ignore. She was glad that she would soon get rid of some of it, lessening the burn, but she was also scared of this knowledge. What would happen if she kept the chakra? Would it burn her from the inside out? Would she suffering agony for the rest of her days? Or would the chakra burst out of her and destroy everything around? She had to think about these things-had to think about what having this seal meant for her future in the Leaf, in Gaara's life, and in her life.
Oh, who was she kidding? Would she really have a life with Gaara?
Shina was up on the roof of Iruka's house, too jumpy to go to sleep and too nervous to talk to Iruka. As she thought about the stars and her Kazekage, she could have sworn she saw his red mop of hair on a distant street. She threw away her wishful thoughts and zeroed in on the color that wasn't supposed to be there. She smiled.
He was doing the exact same thing-looking at the stars.
So she bit her lip and threw caution to the wind, sneaking over to him. Her clothes had been torn and bloodied, so Iruka brought her some of the forgotten clothes from the academy-the clothes that they make the kids wear if they go to school looking more risque than they should. She'd found a navy blue t-shirt that was suspiciously like the one she used to have: tight and formfitting. The pants were a bit more unfortunate. They were some shade of grey, Shina couldn't really tell. They... sagged in odd places. She made a mental note to get different pants by the next day.
The brown-haired ninja had to go far out of her way to make sure Gaara didn't see her, hopping on rooftop after rooftop. She estimated that he was only a half a block away from the Hokage Tower, so the place he was staying was probably courtesy of the Hokage. Which rose the question: why was he here? She found she didn't really care, but the feeling she got from sneaking up on one of the most powerful ninja in all the countries: priceless.
She dropped down next to him and lay out on the shingles.
"The first time we did this, the moon was barely a sliver," she commented. She felt him tense and then relax.
"Shina," he breathed and laid his hand over hers. "I need to say something." She only nodded, giving him silent permission to continue. "I shouldn't have gotten to angry at you. I just felt betrayed, but I see how ignorant of me that was. Can you forgive me?"
"I never heard an apology," she said stiffly and comically tossed up her chin. Gaara chuckled and kissed her hand.
"I'm sorry," he said and kissed her wrist. "I apologize." He kissed further up her arm. "Forgive me." He tried to kiss her on the lips, but she turned her head so his lips landed on her cheek. She shook her head and looked down.
"Why would you judge me for something I did before I became the person you know?" She asked shyly. "I accepted your past because you were no longer like that, and did you... Did you think I was the same?" She said, tears shining in her eyes. She blinked them back, determined not to cry more times than she had to. "Did you think I was the same person I had been?"
"I don't know," he answered, holding her face with his hands and forcing her to look into his eyes. "I haven't known you all that long, Shina. I don't... I didn't want to believe that I'd fallen in love with someone who was mixed up in all of this. The war and violence and ninja way. I was angry that you didn't trust me enough to tell me the truth."
"I was going to tell you, you know," she said, wiping at her eyes. "If you'd have stayed that morning. I was going to tell you everything." He didn't try to kiss her again, just hugged her tightly and went back to staring at the stars, hiding his own tears. He pressed something into her palm, and she stared at it. "Why did you take this?"
"I didn't want to believe you were a Leaf," he admitted. "But when I looked up your name..."
"But I never gave you my last name," she interjected.
"Shina isn't a very popular name," he said, and she nodded. "I thought you might want it back."
"Thanks," she said and secured her hair back with it. Gaara looked at her, to the stars, and back.
"Your hair," he said, astonished. He laced his fingers into the brown tresses and combed them out, feeling the loss of all her hair.
"I don't want to talk about it," she muttered and sat up. Gaara stared a her for a long while before nodding. Shina looked up at the descending moon and grimaced. "I should go," she said and turned to him. She was caught off guard by his lips crashing into hers. He kissed her fiercely and without remorse. She didn't hesitate a second before kissing back with just as much passion. When they finally pulled away, they were panting.
"I just thought that you should know," he panted and nodded.
"Yeah, now I should go," she said and dropped off the roof. He glance over the side and saw her racing off through he streets of Konoha.
