I like this. I like this a lot.

Nestled against Gaara's chest, my arms wrapped around him and my leg dangling over his hips, I grinned. If I had learnt that 'sleeping together' would be so comfortable, I would have done it a long time ago. Surprisingly though, Gaara is a little body self-conscious, so he didn't take off his shirt. In fact, it took me a full ten minutes to wriggle onto him without his cheeks blushing through the colour spectrum of reds.

I slept soundly that night, feeling his heartbeat against my chest as I drifted off. It had a calming effect.

In the morning, I woke and gazed at Gaara, wondering how he managed to look so innocent while he slept. He looked like a cuddly panda bear.

My daydream state was destroyed however, when I heard Temari knock at the door. I jumped out of my skin, and Gaara woke up immediately, rolling over on top of me in a flash as if we were being ambushed. I squeaked with surprise, but then erupted in a fit of giggles when Gaara looked down at me quizzically.

"It's Temari," I explained, slinging my arms around his neck, "She wakes me up early so that I don't sleep into the afternoon…"

His lips quirked in amusement, and he rolled off me with an apology. His hair was sticking up all over the place, and I couldn't help but lean over and ruffle it. Seriously, I was shocking myself with how confident I was in touching him, but he didn't mind at all. Gaara turned, catching me in his arms, kissing my forehead.

"Do you know how cute you are in the morning?" he whispered, nuzzling my neck.

Jeez, this was just beautiful. If all mornings were like this I think I would be the happiest girl alive…

"Hmmm…Gaara?" I asked, ruffling up his hair some more, ignoring his statement, "We have to get to Temari, or she will come in here with the pans, bashing them together and all."

Chuckling, he kissed the space below my collarbone.

"That sounds like Temari…"

Another knock at the door sounded, thunderous, and we dived around the room trying to prepare ourselves for looking decent. When we emerged from my room, Temari's mouth dropped open in disbelief, and she lifted the two pans and let out a giant sigh.

"Please tell me you two didn't have sex?" she hissed, brandishing the pans towards us as if willing to clunk us across the heads with them.

Total confusion swept over me.

"Sex?"

Gaara coughed uncomfortably behind me, signalling for the topic to change, and Temari waved us towards the kitchen with her pans.

"Come in, Naruto and Sasuke are here with ramen," she told us…wearing kitten slippers?

I raised my eyebrows in hilarity, catching Gaara's hand in mine in order to lead him into the kitchen. He followed, but he hesitated, and I knew why. Sasuke was here, and according to my brief slither of a memory, I apparently knew him.

We both entered the kitchen cautiously, hearing Naruto cursing and muttering at a certain someone. His mouth was partially full of ramen, his blue eyes snapping a scowl towards the black haired guy sitting silently opposite.

I stared, meeting his onyx eyes, feeling familiarity stir in my mind. I remembered him, oh yes I did, standing in the darkness, Sharingan flashing a dangerous red, his monotone voice nonchalant as he calmly addressed Orochimaru.

Damn, his face seemed to find itself implanted in a lot of my memories. He was there for a long time, and we rarely spoke. He was dangerous. Not someone to annoy or anger lest you perish. Every time we saw each other we would train together, but most of my time was spent in that dark room.

The raven head locked his eyes with mine, surprise flashing through them.

"Kuromoto Akuma?" he said to me from across the room, silencing everyone, "I thought you were dead."

Akuma? My real name is Akuma? Nothing sweet like Saki or Hana…? No, instead I get the name meaning demon.

I felt Gaara tense behind me, his hands resting on my shoulders, and Naruto's eyes passed between me and Sasuke with great awkwardness. My skin prickled with dread, and I went to sit down. Temari began making tea.

"Sasuke…what happened to me?" I asked, receiving a bowl of ramen from Naruto.

We all sat down to listen, and I saw Gaara eye Sasuke with distrust. For reasons unknown to me, he did not like Uchiha…

Sasuke waited calmly for everyone to settle, looking thoughtful over his bowl of plain rice. When I leaned forward with urgency, I felt Gaara lend me his hand to provide comfort.

"Orochimaru found you in Amegakure, an orphan. You had just watched your family die in a house fire, and he had heard of you and your Kekkei Genkai. That's the reason he came to find you, since he knew your blood manipulation was a rare talent," Sasuke began, but then paused for a drink of tea.

Meanwhile, my mind was racing. My fear of fire had just being explained, and I had no family. The sole purpose for me surviving was because Orochimaru had an interest in my Kekkei Genkai.

"He gave you the name Akuma, and took you to his secret research base in Amegakure. Kabuto raised you, more or less, and Orochimaru would carry out a lot of experiments on you…more experiments then what the human body can withstand. He was convinced your blood had a unique healing property of some kind…though that was never proven…"

When he paused I nodded, urging him to continue.

"When I went to Orochimaru he introduced me to you. He wanted to test out how your new Sharingan would work against me…we would train whenever you weren't recovering from surgery, but fire jutsu was strictly off limits. If I used fire jutsu, he warned, you would kill me."

Naruto's eyes widened, but he didn't seem to think it improbable that I was that dangerous. Besides, I had almost ripped him apart from the inside out during our training session together. I was just, quite honestly, doubting that I was as innocent as I had hoped I was.

"Before I killed Orochimaru, he had let you go."

Temari frowned, setting her cup down hard.

"What do you mean, 'he had let you go'? Was it really that easy?" she inquired, pinning her eyes on him.

He nodded.

"It was. Akuma had broken out of her cell, and announced to him that she wanted to leave," Sasuke's eyes flashed to mine, deadly serious, "Kabuto demanded we should just kill you and use your parts for more research, but Orochimaru had developed a liking for you, despite how he treated you. He started acting odd, being reluctant to carry out anymore experiments on you."

I frowned. That made no sense. From the glimpses of my past I had learnt that Orochimaru had no liking for me whatsoever, and that I was just his test subject.

Sasuke paused.

"You remember how he took blood samples from Kimimaru in order to fix your bones?"

Gaara shook his head, disbelieving, but Sasuke ignored him.

"You were born with weak bones, and it was getting worse as you got older, until you couldn't walk without it being painful. He also used your blood in order to help Kimimaru, since he was slowly dying at the time, but it was too late for him…that's what Kabuto told me."

It made no sense. It made absolutely no sense. He treated me like shit but saved my life, and then let me go free after years of experimental surgery on me?

I hung my head in confusion, silently cursing my life. Why couldn't it be simple?

"It makes no sense," I whispered, clutching my cup of tea, "Why would he do that?"

Sasuke shrugged, "I don't know. You were his most secret most treasured pet, and he nurtured you into a powerful weapon. I would guess that perhaps it was because you were unique."

Humph! Right…I was unique, and he had kept me alive for research, but would willingly let me go? Something didn't add up, but Sasuke was eating, apparently finished with talking.

Gaara tightened his grip on my hand, gradually drawing me out of my irritated mind-set. There were still questions that needed to be answered, but for that to happen we would need Orochimaru himself, and that was out of the question. No one knew what had happened to him after the event of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

I hadn't the answers I needed, but I guess I shouldn't be disappointed with what I have learnt.

Further discussion into the matter revealed that Kabuto had messed with my memories in an attempt to cover his and Orochimaru's tracks. Since then, I had being gone for around three years, and that I probably don't remember much of those three years due to a head injury I had experienced.

When Naruto and Sasuke left, I turned to Temari and Gaara. They were both pondering about what we had all learned.

"That was certainly enlightening," Temari grunted, kicking off her kitten slippers, "So three years of your life is a blank…"

Moaning in protest against her musings, I leaned against Gaara, ready to just close my eyes and forget everything all over again. Something wasn't right, even now…

"Yet I don't know everything. Orochimaru letting me go makes no sense, and it feels like something else happened. Jeez, maybe I'm just paranoid, but this isn't right."

Thoughtful, Gaara traced the lines of my palm while I ranted.

"The arrival of the Ten-Tails could explain it. Could have knocked a few memories in your head loose?" Temari said, attempting helpfulness.

My head hurt. I was annoyed.

"Maybe, Temari…"

For the rest of the day I was left questioning myself, helping Temari keep house, and trying to ignore the gnawing feeling of unease. Gaara had to go to another meeting, and Kankuro had disappeared completely. Naruto and Sasuke were training-occasionally a horrific bang would sound, signalling their sparring.

My unease grew however, when I sat down to enjoy a nice peach. Somehow, staring at the sweet fruit caused memories to swirl inside my head at a dizzying pace.

Orochimaru would always bring me peaches and white roses. We would walk outside together. One memory in particular saw me licking the sticky residue of the peach I was eating, and I was still sore from surgery. Orochimaru was smiling.

"You look just like your mother," he told me, tucking a rose into my hair, "She also liked peaches, and white roses were her favourite."

This made me smile. He rarely spoke about my mother, but when he did it made me happy.

We both stopped to sit under a sakura tree, watching the petals fall in a beautiful disarray of pink confetti. In this memory, I was around about eleven years old, and wondering why Orochimaru was being so nice to me. For most of my life he had being a cold and evil, but now he was acting almost as if he cared about me.

Orochimaru threw me another peach, which I gladly accepted.

"Your mother…she was a wonderful woman," he had whispered to me, his yellow eyes finding my silver ones, "I feel such regret Akuma. I didn't know about you until I found you in Amegakure…"

This was unusual. He was saddened.

"I was with her for only a short while before I fled across the border from ninja, but that was enough time. It was easy to fall in love with her. Yet she was already married, and her husband would be returning soon…I had to leave before he came back."

At eleven years old, I didn't understand. I slurped at my peach, giddy with glee that I wasn't in my dark cell. Orochimaru had changed my cell into a proper bedroom, but he still locked it…

"Was mother pretty?" I asked, swinging my legs from the tree branch.

He nodded, peering up at me serenely.

"Very. The prettiest around, Akuma," he replied, offering his hand to let me down.

Silence fell around us as he observed our surroundings, before he finally ruffled my hair.

"I'm sorry, child. It seems I've harmed the one person I should never have harmed, but I only learnt the truth yesterday…your mother was two months pregnant when her husband returned home."

I sucked the peach juice from my fingers, examining him. Still, I didn't understand, but I knew what he was saying was important. Orochimaru hugged me to his side, letting out a silent string of expletives.

"I have done a lot wrong, but you are the best result I have ever achieved. An unexpected one, but the best all the same. I'm just glad I have spent so long with you, but I'm saddened that for most of it you were very unhappy."

At that point, I giggled nervously.

"I could deal with it. After all, you always came back for me."

I passed him one of my many white roses while he stared at me, humming as I did so. The look on his face…it was one of up most regret. Orochimaru sighed.

"I'm sorry…I just realised you share your mothers strength."

With that, the memory ended, concluding with me hugging my white roses to my chest, continuing my humming. Orochimaru just followed, silent, his expression grim.

If I had been paying more attention, I would have realised what he had been saying to me, and I would have stayed perhaps. If I had listened, I would have realised that he was someone important.

I would have realised he was my father.