21.

Gaara has been distant the last few days. He no longer expresses his emotions to others, not Haku, not Kankuro, not Temari. No one. He's closing himself off to everyone. Well, almost everyone.

Mika still manages to get under his skin and make him open up.

Mostly he opens up in anger, she's done a lot of stuff to make him angry.

I was walking through Suna, I had forgotten awhile ago what I had originally set out to get.

I had the oddest feeling that I was being stared at.

It wasn't a creepy stare. I just had an odd feeling that someone was watching over me.

I looked around the people on the street, the people above the street, and the people around the street and found nothing out of place.

Then I spotted a shadow where there should be no shadow.

"….sh-shika-maruuu…?" I asked, the name tripping on my tongue.

He pulled himself out of the shadow and sighed.

"you never used to be so observant." he commented.

I tilted my head questioningly.

He sighed again and swung an arm over my shoulder, steering me around.

"you hungry?"

/

"Gaara….I think these forms are misfiled…." Haku remarked.

Gaara's head snapped up "what?"

"uh-um…who filed these? I think they're marked wrong…."

Gaara put a hand over his face in exasperation and closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry….I worked really hard on them…." Mika offered innocently from the doorway.

"throw out all the miss-marked ones, Haku. Congratulations, Mika, you're officially ruining my life now."

"aww… I didn't ruin your life, just your paperwork."

Haku started shoving thick stacks of files into the trashcan.

"tell you what though…." she started in a too-sweet-to-be-true tone. " I hid the real ones somewhere"

"where?" Gaara sigh-growled.

"un-uh. You have to play my game."

"how about I just kill you and redo all my paperwork?"

"that takes all the fun out of it!" she pouted.

"not for me."

"no, Gaara, all you have to do is….."

/

What is with people staring at me while I eat? Is it some sort of hobby? Or contest?

I stopped eating halfway through my bowl because Shikamaru was staring at me so intently.

"not hungry?" he asked.

I shook my head just as lightning flashed across the sky.

"hmph…"

"whey …. Why…..were you follllohhing me?" I asked. I really needed to practice talking or something, I was still fumbling over words.

" there is something about you that keeps nagging me. Why didn't Suna report your disappearance? Well, not like there required to or anything…but they intentionally lied. And why is this Yukio character after you?"

The wind.

He wanted my wind, my power.

My abilities were beyond that of a wind-based chakra. Mine were so much more and very special. And dangerous.

So dangerous the council had ordered my clan killed. Murdered. So dangerous they had once tried to sentence me to death, I remembered being in a cell. I also know that it's also what Yukio is after. What he needs it for I have no clue.

"the….Kishi….. The Kichi power."

"Kichi power? So you do know your name, you are Kyoki."

I shook my head.

"I'm n-not Kyoki…I don't know wh-what I uzed to be like….. But I know I'm not herrr anymore. My nome iz…name is Aani. Aani Kichi."

"what is the Kichi power?"

"I'll tell-ell you whennn I lurn how to talk rite."

"in a few words, what is it?"

"…."

" simple, basic, anything?"

"it's the wind."