Hey everyone! I told you I was almost finished! I was kind of hoping to get a response to my last message before this came out, but it's okay, now you guys can just leave your ideas here with the new update :) Speaking of which! I've actually been so inspired by this latest chapter that I went back and started rewriting the older ones! It's mostly been to update the writing style from the less preferential first person thing I started out doing initially, but I did make some changes to scenes themselves too so make sure you go back and re-read to make sure you don't feel like there are continuity errors.

I really am sorry I made you guys wait so long, it's just very hard to find time to write these days. Most of what I've done lately has been an hour or two during the day for correcting errors and then about 6 hours of continuous story progression after midnight hits. It's just a weird schedule. I've also been planning the ending of this story very carefully. With all of that aside though, I would like to respond to the most recent of the reviews. Please don't feel so left out if I don't reply to yours either! It's been so long that it's hard to judge exactly when things were going on for me that I received these reviews, so it's difficult for me to recall if I responded by other means of the chapter intro to certain ones.

So first off! The most recent one, posted to chapter five, almost immediately before I updated it!

Raxe Rhapsodos: Lol don't feel bad, I completely understand where you're coming from. That's exactly what iI was going for when I was writing Shukaku. He experiences everything through Gaara so it makes sense doesn't it?

the shadow of nature: It's so sweet of you to say I'm a genius! Thank you, That means a lot!

Lauren .souliere: I'm glad you liked that scene with Gaara and Kiki, it was one of the most fun to write.

Gemini's Revenge: I'm glad you have a love for this story. I've loved seeing your name repeat through the reviews! Again I'm very sorry it took so long to update

And despite me having already said it in the last update I want to stress this again, to everyone who wished me happiness with my now husband, who understood that I needed a bit of a break from this story, and pushed for my recovery with mental health, thank you. Thank you so much. You are amazing and a gift everyday to me. I love you, every one of you. You are amazing!

I'll not make you wait for this any longer! Chapter 12 is officially here! But here's something beforehand that we haven't done in a while: The song for this chapter is "Heavy" by Linkin Park and Kiarra. Rest in peace Chester /3

What The Hell Do I Feel?

It was rough walking after so long. Her body was perfectly fine, but she had hardly moved in weeks so the stiffness was painfully apparent. Her legs felt like jelly and her ass was sore as hell. Not to mention she had to endure the shame of a nurse helping to remove the catheter that was placed on her in her comatose state. Despite the shame everyone had given her a warm greeting. Toshimora had yet to leave her side since she woke, and anyone who dared to suggest he do so was met with a lethal glare. She was still being kept one more night for surveillance but she was up and moving around the hospital at least. Toshimora was at her side of course, ready to catch her if she stumbled.

"Hey sleeping beauty." She blinked from her vacant stare that was trained at the end of the hall, turning to see two people she missed terribly. Sapphire blue eyes were trained on her with a gentle smile on pale lips. Shaggy black hair was unkept but not wild. Behind him was her favorite contortionist with a huge toothy grin between an unzipped zipper and mismatched eyes bright in happiness.

"Hey guys." The two approach and Cavuto gives her a gentle hug. "I'm not going to fall apart you know. I can have full on hugs," she teases.

"You're still healing," Kai interjects.

"You kidding me? I could drop kick a mountain right about now!" she beams, giving him a playful shove. She was walking fine on her own even though she ached and even then she was losing those sensations rapidly. "I'm not a fragile doll you know."

"Yeah Kai, give her a little credit. She heals faster than anyone we know after all," Cavuto adds while putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Thankfully," her father chips. The chakra reader was reluctant but he visibly lightened up, nodding slightly as he was suddenly pulled in by a black gloved hand and pushed into a hug that Cavuto initiated. He was nuzzling his head into Kiki's crimson locks and had placed Kai's on the other side so that all three were touching. With an initial look of confusion, the two others slowly melded into the action and smiles were shared, Kiki laughing while Kai smirked and sighed. Relieved, Toshimora gives a sigh and pats his students on the head.

"So how's your training been going?" the redhead asks as the hug ends.

"Well we were focusing on it alone before we found out you were in the hospital. We only put in so many hours a day after that," Cavuto offers.

"You guys know you're pussies right?"

"The biggest."

Kai rolls his eyes. "I'm surrounded by morons." Already exhausted from all the excitement, Toshimora nods to the boys and says farewell to Kiki before heading to collect his things and go back to the hotel. No one had cleaned in almost three weeks after all.

"I'm gonna go too and finish my training for the day," the contortionist adds, earning a nod from the ginger.

"Thanks for stopping by goofball."

"I'd be an ass if I didn't!" he calls as he exits the building. Kai was left at her side, running a hand through his hair.

"So, how's the shorter hair doing you?" she asks him as she starts walking again. He blinks up at her, stopping to grab the tip of the strand of hair he had been messing with. It only reached about the middle of his neck.

"I'll manage. I preferred it long though," he sighs. She starts giggling at him, flipping her own hair behind her shoulder.

"Hehe, you would think you were a girl the way you talk about your hair like that," she teases. He rolls his eyes, releasing his hair and shaking his head.

"I assure you I'm no girl..." She laughs once more, raising a brow at him.

"Oh yeah?"

He looks at her and quirks a brow. "Alright what's going on in that sick head of yours?" he asks seriously. She smirks.

"What's makes you think something's going on?" He narrows his gaze, frowning.

"You always have something planned when you get that mischievous look," he accuses. She places a hand over her chest in mock hurt.

"Kai! How dare you accuse me of such a thing! I thought we were friends." She continues by skipping ahead of him, not noticing as he cringes at the word 'friend'. What did it take to just up and say that he wanted more? Probably an apocalypse... He sighs to himself, rubbing his temples as Kiki allows a smirk to spread across her mouth. The redhead was looking around the corner and leaning on her toes as if to catch something. When the ebony haired male finally reached her he gave her a confused look.

"What are you doing?"

"Shh!" She tenses and takes a step forward. Suddenly without warning she grabs his arm and takes off at a sprint, dragging him abruptly from his spot and prompting him to give a surprised yelp as she pulled him through the adjacent hall, through the lobby and out of the front entrance of the hospital.

"Miss! You can't leave yet!" Nurses left and right were calling after them only to be ignored and outran by the redhead still in her hospital gown. Feet hit the pavement first and then the dirt, only a cloud of dust hinting at the presence of anyone as they passed on.

"K-Kiki!" the sensory ninja yelps with a blazing face. His view of the redhead wasn't exactly ideal for the public considering the back of the paper dress was open and her red underwear was painfully in his direct line of sight. "Would you please stop?!"

"Never!" He groans in frustration, focusing on how he was going to keep from hitting the ground face first with her dragging him. He didn't even want to think about all the people that were seeing this whole escapade. He even thought he heard Cavuto when they passed the training grounds...

"There goes the neighborhood! Kiki is back!"

"The gods hate me..." the sensory type groans in defeat, completely halting his attempts at escape. The redhead changed directions abruptly, slinging him around the corner with great force before dragging him behind once more. Damn, why did everyone and their brother have to be standing on the sidewalk?

A blonde squealed as the brunette in the ponytail next to her fell over. "What was that?!"

The male with tired eyes was gaping down the street from his spot on the ground. "Somebody with no shame whatsoever...Man women are troublesome." His cheeks went pink but the blonde didn't see enough to know why, only that someone was responsible for ruining her hair.

"Bark!"

"Look out Akamaru!" The redhead narrowly avoided mowing over the brunette boy with the ninja hound, jumping up and onto a shop roof. Kai let out a yelp as he stumbled on the shingles, barely having made the jump himself. "Watch where you're going ya maniacs!"

"W-wasn't that the girl from the exams?" Hinata asks meekly.

"She's on the run from the hospital. How do I know this? Because her gown is nearly gone..."

"What seriously?! And I missed it?!"

Gaara was sitting silently on the roof overlooking the village, he hadn't been out long enough to really look though. Actually he was getting a break from inside. Temari and Kankuro were arguing again. He could only ignore it for so long before he started to get angry and he just wasn't in the mood today. He wanted nothing more than peace and quiet. No demon. No siblings. No headache. If nothing else he wanted to be alone with his thoughts, and it wasn't like he couldjust sleep through it... Kiki had woken up that morning and he hadn't stuck around to see what happened with the doctors. He could only imagine what condition she was in and what caused it all in the first place. He wasn't a medic himself so honestly he had no clue.

The truth is he was trying for clearing his mind but he couldn't get that moment from earlier out of his head... When he was watching her sleep and she murmured his name she had reached for and taken his hand in hers. No interference from sand and without knowing if it was really him standing there, unless she could hear her surroundings while she was unconscious, in which case he didn't know what he would say if she ever confronted him. He'd always kept the people around him worried with what he might do next but truthfully this girl had that same effect on him. He was afraid she was more trouble than he could handle mentally. He was already fragile minded as was, so he wasn't sure his psyche could handle much more.

Soft bell sweet giggling drew him from his thoughts and he flinched, closed eyes slowly opening until they were looking directly in front of him over the edge of the roof. He was questioning where the sound had come from when a flash of red, followed by black, darted in front of him. Staring wide eyed at the same spot for several moments he processes what he believed he saw, but he had to blink and turn to make sure... He looks to his right at the retreating figures, sure enough seeing two of the three Rain ninja, and Kiki's rather bare body... If he wasn't wearing his sand armor his cheeks would've been intense pink, his blank yet incredulous expression ignoring Kai for the time being. He was too focused on the giggling girl's red clad posterior. He was almost certain that the chakra reader hadn't seen him, but the emerald green eyes that winked back at him showed that he definitely hadn't gone unnoticed.

They were gone as quick as they came, and for several minutes he didn't know what to do besides stare blankly at the space where she had been. Why couldn't he seem to be rid of her?

Kiki laughed innocently when Kai had finally had enough of her antics and gave one of the most frustrated growls she had ever heard from him. He jerked his arm back and she released him this time as he skidded to a halt in the grass behind her. She spun on her bare heel and took a stance, legs parted and one hand on her hip as the other hung limp beside her. Though he wore a pissed expression she merely tilted her head and grinned crookedly. She could see the emotion in his icy blue eyes everytime he glared, meanwhile he felt he could see the wheels turning in her head. She never did things on a whim, she planned this.

"If you wanted to train so badly you could've asked you know..." he grumbles as he regains his composure.

A knowing smirk crosses her features and she stands straight with her hip jutting out. "Now where's the fun in that?" No doubt the chakra expert would be bombarded with questions later on and she could only imagine the discomfort it would bring him.

"There's plenty, and it's better when you actually wear clothes and don't leave yourself open to attacks." He charges her in his agitation, an act she wasn't expecting...

His fist forces itself into her lower abdomen, the shock reverberating throughout her body before the impact sent her skidding backwards nearly twenty feet, air leaving her lungs in a violent rush and pain stinging her stomach. When she finally stopped she doubled over and gripped her torso, violent coughing with specks of blood ensuing as a result. Her gasps for breath were not pleasing to the ear but Kai remained stoic with the smallest of upturns gracing his lips. Once recovered for the most part she stares up at him through her hair, the blood on the grass before her as well as the flecks riddling her white gown distressing in her mind as he nods at her.

"You're rusty," he states. "You've been out of practice for too long."

She narrows her gaze. "You know as well as I do I'm not supposed to use the Kessaigan until I'm fully recovered."

"All the more reason for you to be on guard, you're not healing up anytime within the next couple hours. Your body has been too dependent on your hospital care." He releases a kunai aimed for her head, something she narrowly avoids by leaning to the side.

"And here I thought you liked me!" she bellows as she charges him. Without any weapons and without being able to use her kekkei genkai, she surprises him by rushing past him and dealing her attack as she passed. His sapphire eyes widen as a ball of flame engulfs her fist and it slams into his gut and sends him back faster than she could run. "Right Hand of Scourn!"

He landed back into a tree, pain shooting through his body and making him gasp out. Despite being a little worn and her body giving a shake as the flames faded from her fist, Kai was surprised she had managed to fight back as much as she had given the circumstance. He knew she could perform some Fire and Water style jutsu, but it was so rare that she ever used them. It was almost surreal. As she smirks up at him he finds himself brushing his pain off, ignoring the scorch mark on his thin shirt and returning the expression.

.

.

They fought for what seemed like hours, and it was. It was nearly sundown when Kai, out of tactics and clean ways to fight, finally called acquits for them both and bid her to get some rest.

"Night goofball," he says. "Don't forget to actually put some clothes on either. The final exams are in two days, so no more slacking." She rolls her eyes, leaning back against a tree that had burn marks riddling it from her attacks.

"Yeah yeah..." She sighed when he finally left, leaving her in the recent dusk to herself. It was just after sunset, so that sky was that dark navy where you could still see the afterglow of day, but the moon and stars were also fading into view. It was nice...

But she felt herself craving company ever since she woke up that morning. There had been people swarming her from that moment so she hadn't really felt it, but with Kai now gone, it was finally sinking in that she didn't want to be left alone. She slides down to the ground, lifting her hands into hand signs. "Summoning jutsu." From the ground beside her smoke bellowed and light paws and tan and brown fur emerged from the spot. Kiki looks up at the massive canine, emerald eyes locking on their identical counterparts.

"Kiki," it spoke.

"Mother."

"You usually only summon me when you're troubled, is everything alright?" The redhead nods, looking up to the canopy in relaxation. Reassured, Kyoto sits and lays on the dirt beside Kiki, large paws crossing over one another as her hind legs stretch out and her tail curls to the side.

Was she troubled? "Just wanted the company I guess." Kyoto follows her gaze upwards, the tree tops above lit by the glow of the rising moon. But Kiki could feel the exact moment that the gaze of emerald slid to her, regardless of where she herself was looking. It took her a moment, but she exhaled deeply and turned to face her mother, whose very being held a look of concern and...hurt? She had a feeling she knew why. "I guess Toshi told you huh?*

"About your long term visit to the hospital?" she answers, nodding down to her torn and singed gown. "Yes, thankfully. On the more unfortunate side of things, I was also in fact the last to find out." Kiki lowered her gaze, pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her arms and head upon her knees.

"Sorry... I would've told you but I was kinda the one unconscious."

Kyoto ignored the sarcasm and nodded. "I know. I suppose though..." She faded from her statement, gaze lowering to the ground as Kiki's was. Said teen was now curious, glancing up at the lovely jackal heiress.

"What?"

Kyoto sighed. "Sometimes I wish I could... No, that I was, more prominent in your life." She uncrossed her paws and frowned. "I knew when I left you with Edo and Kamakura what it was that i was doing. I knew it was necessary. But of course I never wanted to leave my own pup..." She looks over at Kiki solemnly. "But that was just it, you aren't a pup. I couldn't have hoped to care for you in the way you needed. You belong with humans."

Kiki frowns, visibly upset. "It's not like they accept me as one. Or others of their kind for that matter. They kill their weak and torture their young."

"Kiki-"

"That's what happened isn't it? Mankind turned on itself and that's why they were killed?" The young girl's voice raises. "That's why he left me alive and did those awful things right?! Humans are so much more loving than a jackal could be to her own child!"

"Kiki you know if I could've prevented it I would have! What's gotten in to you?!" Kyoto shifts onto her paws and moves to stand just as Kiki does.

"What's gotten in to me?! I've lived with this my whole life! My mother is an animal that would've rather left me with strangers than risk criticism from her pack!"

"You know that's not true!" Kyoto barks. "The needs of a human child and a jackal pup are two completely different things. You needed to be cared for by a human!"

"Then why didn't you give me to my father!" Kyoto is physically affected by the verbal attack, wincing and silencing. Tears were forming in her daughter's eyes. "My dad was human wasn't he?! Why didn't you give me to him?! You could've seen me anytime! Does he even know about me?!"

"Your father was no male to care for anyone..." the jackal murmurs. "I would've been punishing you for my mistakes by sending you away to him. You were safest with kinder humans that longed for a child of their own-"

"Was I?! Look at me mom! I can't be with my real mom! My first family was slaughtered before my eyes! I was-! I was..." The tears begin to stream down her face, her body trembling. "I scare everyone away... I have a team and sometimes it feels like even they're scared of me... Was my dad so much worse than all of that? I don't know anything about who I am..." Kyoto says nothing, the newfound darkness of dusk hooding her eyes. "Why don't you talk about him? Why won't you tell me anything about who he was... I don't know his name, if I look like him, I don't even know if he's alive..."

There was silence. The breeze in the trees created a slight rustling to break it, but it was of no comfort. "I have my reasons. The only thing you need to know is that I do it for you. You don't need him in your life." Kyoto's words are firm.

Kiki clenched her fists, her tears never ceasing. "Maybe... Maybe I don't need any parents..."

Kyoto stumbles back as if she had been slapped, her eyes wide in shock and hurt. "Kiki..." Her gaze zeroed in on the slight movements of the girl's hand. "Kiki, don't..." Her palm lifted in front of her heart, a sign forming in her actions. "Kiki please dont do this," Kyoto pleads. But it's too late.

"Reverse summoning..." Eyes downcast, Kiki doesn't even see the look on Kyoto's face as she lifts a paw towards her before disappearing in a plume of smoke.

Kiki allows her arm to fall limp, her body slowly going slack. Face completely wet, she wipes at her eyes with her elbow, wandering out of the forest's edge and across the training field. The moon was completely visible now, casting a somber glow over the village of leaves nestled beneath the mountain of its past.

She hadn't made a sound going upstairs, nor did she alert anyone when she slinked into her room. The garment of scorched paper was discarded without thought, leaving her bare in the solace of her room with only underwear to break the illusion of nothingness on her flesh. Even in the dark of her suite though she didn't feel any more secure... Kai's parting words to her echoed like background noise in her ears as she absentmindedly dressed herself in night pants and a t-shirt, none too expertly either... She wasn't aware when she opened her window. She wasn't sure how she made it outside, or when she found herself on a familiar roof with fish style architecture.

Gaara didn't speak at first when the quiet was interrupted by footsteps, and he didn't address the approaching figure that crept over the edge of the roof like he might have in the past. He at first didn't even recognize the person, as he didn't know any short females that wore baggy clothing. The moon however soon betrayed their identity and he found himself rather shocked to see a familiar redhead. It wasn't her mere appearance that shocked him though, in fact he had expected her to be out and about the night following her release from the hospital. It was the lack of energy, the sheer absence of life in her very presence that shocked him. In every other instance she had come upon him by chance, she had always been sassy and optimistic. Even earlier that evening she had given him a discreet wink in her dramatic escape from public healthcare. He at least expected an obnoxious greeting that he would've replied grumpily too. But no, she walked barefoot onto the scene and didn't even seem to notice him. It wasn't a normal walk either, it seemed mechanical, like she was going through motions.

She wandered into the light not even six feet from him, shoulders slumped and eyes staring out at the village with no set fixed point of interest. He felt something when he looked at her face though... Those dead eyes... Gaara acted first for once, not waiting for her to initiate the encounter this time. "Jakkaru..." His tone is barely above normal, but he swore he saw something in her gaze change. She didn't look at him, but it was obvious that she acknowledged his presence.

"Gaara..." she breathes. She was so quiet.. "I didn't see you..."

"I see that..." he concurs. What was wrong with her? This new behavior felt unnatural. It felt... Unsettling. She seemed distant, like she was far from where he was.

"This village, i can't ever seem to find any comfort in it..." He blinks, following her gaze out to the center of the village. He found himself actually disagreeing with her for a solid moment. He had grown accompanied to the village's unconventional charms, living in its wake every day for nearly a month.

"It's quiet. That at least is comforting." He was surprised to find himself not questioning her presence, her reason for speaking to him once again even when she was obviously out of sorts.

"I never really noticed, I only really spent one night of my time here awake through the night ..."

Of course, she was in a coma. "Did they, ever tell you what was wrong with you?" he found himself asking.

"Apart from the normal stuff?" He blinks, the humor delivering without much feeling. "They have no clue what happened to me. For all they know, it could happen again at any time..." She slowy shifts, her arms cradling her sides. "At any moment I could be back in that hell. Another month could pass and it would feel like an eternity in a nightmare to me again."

He could hear the sorrow and fear in her voice, something he understood well enough.

'Ask her runt,' Shukaku voices in the silence of Gaara's mind. 'You know you want to.'

He was curious about something... "Did you hear anything while you were out?" His heart rate actually increased a little waiting for her response, but Kiki shakes her head. He exhales, but he was still curious. "This nightmare, what was it like?" He knew the doctors were concerned about her because she was reacting violently to nightmares when she was asleep, but only she knew what they were about.

He notices her grip tightening around herself, making him look at her with newfound interest as her face shows the first bit of emotion he'd seen since she had wandered to him. "There was a monster... A horrible monster that hurt everything it touched..." He blinks, the answer not registering. A monster? Something that she feared? The strange girl who actively sought him out just to be in his presence? What could be so awful that it had this poor girl so terrified?

...

He caught himself. Why would he think of her as some poor girl? Was he... pitying her? Sympathizing?

"Do you... Mind if I sit?" Her question breaks his thought.

"If I tell you to leave you usually stay anyway..." She turns at this, setting him looking straight ahead. "At this point I won't bother trying to scare you off. You're too headstrong to accept threats." Despite looking ahead to appear indifferent, his peripheral caught the small smile that his words caused on Kiki's lips. He thought he might've felt a bit of warmth knowing that he caused it, but the look was gone so quick he didn't quite register it. She was sitting next to him before he knew it, knees pulled up. The close proximity was familiar, welcomed. The same feeling he experienced when he was at her side in the hospital...

"People think I'm strong..." He looks at her in confusion, her head resting on her knees. "Everyone sees me as this crazy scary force of nature they have to be weary of. They tiptoe around me because they think I'm so formidable, but I'm only so strong and I can only take so much... And it's not this thing that just activates on its own, most of the time it's forced. Do you ever feel like that?"

He ponders this... "I'm not sure..." he states, prompting her to glance at him. "I don't feel like I have to force my strength to the surface, but I have a limit of what I can handle before I lose all rationality."

She nods. "Yeah, that's similar." She shifts, her fingers fidgeting. "Gaara?" He looks directly at her, no sound made, but the fact that she has his attention is apparent. "I was wondering... About how you felt about your family..." His right eye twitches as they both widen a fraction. "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it, but I was just curious..." She waits for several minutes but he doesn't speak a word. Respectfully she doesn't pressure him, but she does start talking again. "I'm sorry if I annoy you when I just pop up like this, I actually didn't do it on purpose this time. I asked about your family though because... Well... I don't know if I really have any..." At what point he turned to fully face her she didn't know, but it was comforting nonetheless. "I thought my adoptive parents were my real ones when I was little, and they weren't alive very long. Then when my sensei took me in he treated me like a daughter but he always seemed hesitant to tell me something. Then a few years ago he told me about my birth mother and had me meet her, but she had this story of me needing to be with people more fit to be parents than her, and that was her reasoning to why she never took care of me. I never asked her for much, but I finally got to the point today that I just blew up on her and demanded she tell me about my father. She's told Toshimora about it I know because I've heard him mention it to her before, but she refuses to even tell me what he looked like our what his name is, or was. I don't know if he's alive or not. She kept telling me she wouldn't tell me anything and that I didn't need any part of him in my life... But she doesn't know what it's like... I want a real family. I want my mom to actually take me in... I want to meet my dad and have him at least visit me and tell me about the things in me that remind him of himself... And I want us to actually be a family together..."

Gaara waits until she finishes, her want of family not seeming too unreasonable in his eyes. But he couldn't help but ask... "Why are you telling me any of this? Why not your teammates?"

She looks up at him, emerald eyes painfully apparently bloodshot. "There's some things I don't want to hear that I know I would hear from them... But, you're really easy for me to talk to. Even if I don't always get feedback from you, I never feel like you're ignoring me. Honestly, I just like being around you. It's soothing in some weird way." He turns away, gaze narrowing in on the roof for no real reason it seemed. No reply is given on her reasoning, it's impact on him didn't need to be highlighted.

"My mother died bringing me into this world. My father has tried to take me out of it. My uncle died trying to do the same himself. And my siblings both fear and despise me. As far as I'm concerned, I have no family." She's surprised at the way he begins opening up to her in melancholy, but her knees slowly slide down and she places her hands at her sides.

"I'll concur that they're scared of you," she says, "but from what I can tell they don't hate you. If anything it seems like Temari is upset at the way people have made you and Kankuro seems like he just wishes that he was treated like your elder instead of your subordinate."

He scoffs. "They've never shown me any evidence that they've ever loved me," he insists.

Kiki seems to scoot closer to him, making him flush beneath his sand armour and feel out of place. "I'm sure if things keep up like they have been they'll show you soon enough." He avoids eye contact with her before she looks up at the sky again. "You know, I think the one thing I do like about this village is the constant view of the moon. It's really beautiful and otherworldly..." He looks up at it with her. "Your sand kind of reminds me of it."

"Why?"

She shrugs. "It's otherworldly too, like some kind of magic."

"Your blood isn't much different," he counters. "It has a mind as well, and more forms than my sand can take."

"Your sand can take different forms too," she says looking over to him. "Have you tried making things with it?"

"What would I make?" he asks. She turns to him so that they're sitting face to face, their knees almost touching and a smile grazing her lips.

"Okay here, just make any form you want with your sand, but make it small enough to fit in my hand." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously but sand from his gourd begins flowing in a small trickle to her open palm before making a form. Kiki watches intently as it collects and creates a miniature cactus blossom, something that she had no idea he was fond of. Using her other hand she presses her thumbnail into her finger and draws blood. Gaara watches as her eyes glow that brilliant red he had come to somewhat admire and the blood from her finger surround and encase his sand creation almost like a perfect fitting sleeve. With a noticeable blink the blood suddenly shimmers and he recognises the texture as the crystal she made from her own essence. Then to his surprise she lifts her free hand and performs several one handed signs with it. "Fire style: Phoenix Kiss." She purses her lips together and Gaara found his attention away from her hand. A small, controlled flame erupts from her mouth and surrounds the crystal. He thought it might end quickly, but she just kept it going, slowly increasing the intensity of the flame until the crystal began emitting a molten glow despite not changing form or melting. After about two minutes she halted the jutsu and breathed deeply, catching her breath and liquidating her blood once more. She smiles up at him. "Ready?" He just looks between her and her hand. The blood returns to the wound from which it came and Gaara finds himself wide eyed. Where his flower once sat now was a crystalline flora. As her hand healed she held up the creation with pride. "Feel it! It's cooled down." He hesitantly runs a couple fingers over it, the surface smooth and hard. "It's glass. So now I have something the renowned Gaara of the Desert made for me to keep!" He was still a bit mesmerized when she shifted and her eyes went wide in realization. "Oh!" She repunctures her hand and brings fourth blood once more, the scarlet liquid lifting before the male and taking a strange form. Once complete, he realizes it to be the same creature she was with on her first night in the village. It trembles and crystallizes before his eyes, falling into his palm that he didn't notice had even opened for it. "It's a crystal jackal. Now you have something I made too." He blinks up at her, her red gaze meeting his and holding.

He had this strange feeling of warmth again, and he held the little statuette like it was fragile despite it probably being stronger than anything he could hit it with. Kiki gave him a familiar look but, also foreign: a lopsided smile that made his stomach tickle in a strange way. He broke the contact first, placing the gift in his lap. She in turn set hers down, her eyes returning to green.

"Thank you..."

Kiki's face lit up and a mischievous smirk spread across her face.

( That's it! Thank you for reading and let me know what you think! And like I said in the last update, please tell me anything you would like to see in future chapters as well as what you like and dislike about the story so far.

I'll see you next time and remember, I love you. )