Sam PoV. Do not worry; the Chunnin Exams are not far from occurring.….. For your patience, I shall reward you with a special PoV within my chapter.

One Final Stop Before I Go OCC

How much time do you think one spends pondering over a squared shaped cloth with a badly-drawn circle in the middle? Well, it depends of how much one is obsessed with such object. One person, like me, staring endlessly at the word 'Filled', looses a few neurons in the process of figuring out what it means. If it even means anything….

And having almost no food didn't help my thinking. All I was 'allowed' to eat was dried fruit and dried meat. Basically, raisins and beef jerky, all choked down with a bit of water. After a track meet, I usually wolfed up half a casserole of tortilla soup, so I was nowhere near satisfied!

Temari had already went I don't know where whenever I was eating, if it can be called that, and I was left alone to do whatever I pleased for the rest of that afternoon. As long as it was within the village of Sunagakure, I mean. Wouldn't want to upset his royal highness (Kazekage), now would we?

So I haunted the streets of said hidden village. Civilians who recognized me from my library trips and my association with Gaara stayed clear of me, and others who had seen me train but by no means knew of my 'friendship' with the demon vessel smiled forcefully at me. Those who had absolutely no idea who the shit I was simply stared at my weird hair.

I had no problem with this.

I ignored them altogether, the cloth clenched loosely in my right hand, still pondering…..

….. 0000000000000000000000000000…..

Step. Step. Step.

That was the third time the foreigner had circled the building I was perched upon. She had a bored look on her face, her strange hair pulled tightly in a band to keep its warmth away. Her fragile hands dug deep in her pockets, she reminded me of a few shinobi who have had the responsibility to watch me.

The only difference was that they were dead; she was not.

I held the first book she gave me on that room, the same story which was so unlike mine, yet had the same concept. I wonder why I did not kill her. 'Maybe she is not worth it…'

Step. Step. Step.

I could not stop looking at her. She has something…something NOT right…I just cannot put my finger on whatever is wrong with this girl. She is distracting me of my upcoming mission to Konoha. And that is unacceptable.

The Kazekage (for I refuse to call him Father) ordered her to keep an eye on me, seeing she was somewhat of a specialist with 'animals', but she has not been doing her job. I come and go as I please and not once have I caught her following me. She does not even acknowledge when I step in front of her when I retrieve my books. Just…holds them out for me.

I do not get it, but I accept it. Maybe I even appreciate it, but I do not know…

The foreigner suddenly stops but she does not turn around. I believe someone has called her. And, yes, a group of kids somewhere around our age confront her in front of me. Not that they are even aware of my presence, but I can see and, if I strain my ears, hear them well enough.

"Why do you hang out with the monster, chick? Don't you know you'll get killed?" a freckled boy asks the girl. I cannot remember her name…

"Why would that be any of your business?" Sa-something says coldly back to him, still giving her back to them. She sounds frigid, as if people talking to her were not a common action in her life. What was her name?... Satori? ….Sarante?

.

She takes two steps forward before the freckled kid, apparently the leader of the group, stepped up quickly behind her and grabbed a fistful of her ponytail. My eyes narrowed in interest when Sa…man…ta…spun around before the boy could yank the hair and embedded her foot in his stomach.

He gasped out loud and for some reason I felt my lips twist in a grin of satisfaction. Samanta, as I am sure is indeed her name, never once looked at the boy and turned her heel back once again. She started walking at a new path, away from the cluster of weaklings and into an alley I knew well enough from my late wanderings to be dangerous.

A couple of girls from the group shouted something at Samanta, but I was not paying attention to them any longer; the foreigner was heading towards trouble.

I did not think as my body was lifted by sheer impulse and I jumped from the building's roof. The impact my feet obtained when they met the ground was not great, but the ones around me gaped as I landed softly beside them. The boys' jaws slacked and the girls shrilled in fear, but I ignored them. My legs worked at a fast pace after a specific direction. The foreigner's direction.

I do not what I was thinking, but I had a feeling I could not let anything happen to the girl. I growled unexpectedly, anger pouring out of me at my own stupidity. "I just want to be the one who hurts her in the end…"

……

I heard some feminine voices yelling after me, but I tuned out the words. I knew those guys. Or at least, I'd seen them.

I had tried against my personality to befriend a couple of them when I was depressed. Obviously, as I had mentioned in previous chapters, that didn't go so well. I don't know what made them react that way, but I don't care; I am sick of retards acting as if they were so 'cool' and 'smart' by making others feel like shit.

As if I hadn't gone through enough of that.

I was mad, so I didn't see that I was heading toward a part of Suna I had yet to explore. Even if I'd noticed, I don't think it would've made a difference. I was seething, my teeth grinding against each other hard enough to make my gums bleed again.

And then I was in the dark. Alone.

I slumped into the sand of the alleyway, comforted by the noise of my own silence. If that makes sense. I decided to stretch a bit, to lose some of my stiffness and all, but then I heard a click. And then another.

I stood up and in the place where I had sat in was covered in needles. I hate those things. I, using the training my old track coach had given me, turned tail and sprinted with all my might toward the end of the alley. Sand flew from my sneakers, but since running to a dead-end with a more than possible threat at your heels is nut such I great idea, my effort was wasted in a useless attempt at escaping.

I felt an unnatural breeze as more sharp objects rained down to hit me. Once I reached the connecting wall, I don't know what I'd do, but I couldn't dwell on it as I dodged and evaded certain picks that had been thrown far too close to me for my liking.

Then, everything paused. I tripped on my shoe laces I hadn't noticed to be untied and I fell straight toward the ground. I expected to be stabbed the moment I stumbled and lost speed, but that didn't happen. The needle rain stopped.

I glanced up frantically and saw more than one shade of red before I regained my senses and got the hell out of there. I am ashamed to admit I did not look back to see my squared cloth sprawled on the floor,forgotten where I had fallen…

….…

There had been a small band of troublemakers that often were seen corrupting this part of the village. Jounins and Chuunins ignored them, saying they were but a wooden sword, far from lethal but overbearingly annoying.

I had never had a reason for going to these parts after I first discovered their 'hideout', but having the foreigner girl come across them was my business. She was but an insignificant part of my entertainment, yet she meant a lot to my late hours of solitude.

I cannot get books from anywhere else. Therefore, I eliminated the existence of those who threatened my night reliever. One day the books will run out and that's when I will get rid of the foreigner, but not today.

I saw her disappear from my sight, her feet a blur near the sand-covered ground, and I slowly slinked from view into the depths of dusk….right after I picked up the old drawing Samanta had carelessly dropped in haste, of course….

Done.