Pain shot throughout Akira's body, burning through her insides better than boiling water. Everything was scolded and, whether she was moving or not, Akira was in more pain than she could ever have imagined. But the girl refused to give in. She pushed through the pain and with a terrible yell, went through with the summoning jutsu. There was a terrible rumble from deep within the earth, striking fear in the insects and beasts of the Forest of Death. The ground began to shake and Akira was nearly sent off balance, more so when she began rising into the air at an incredible speed. Akira steadied herself as she rose and she grinned, watching as everything below her was becoming very small. When the summoning jutsu's smoke cleared, she could see the white scales of a great serpent beneath her feet. It hissed, fangs bared.

"You're lucky," Maru said from below. "You've summoned Shiro."
"Why am I lucky?"
"He's one of the more... reasonable serpents."

Another debilitating wave of pain struck Akira's body. She fell to her knees and slipped, toppling over the giant serpent's head. Thankfully, Shiro, as Maru had called him, coiled himself around her. The snake stared at her, verdant eyes examining.

"You are the one who summoned me," he began, "a pathetic human that cannot even stand on her own?"

Akira looked over to Maru, a deadpan expression on her face. This was supposed to be a reasonable summon? Akira looked back at the serpent and stared, silent. It wasn't a smart idea, as Maru noted, since Shiro could crush her like an insect at any second, but Akira was determined to get this snake's respect. The air around them was fraught with tension; it was a battle of who was the most stubborn, the proudest—Uchiha or Ryūchi Cave serpent.

"You do not speak either?" Shiro spat.
"Not unless spoken to with respect," Akira replied.

The snake squeezed her more tightly, and Akira fought the urge to scrunch up her face in pain. Not only was the curse mark ravaging her body, but Shiro's tight grip was definitely going to leave a bruise.

"You do not deserve respect," the serpent stated. "You who cannot stand, you whose body is controlled by pain, you whose arms are scarred and burned."
"I still managed to summon you, didn't I? If I'm so weak, what does that say about you?"

Shiro hissed and squeezed Akira more tightly.

"If I'm so weak and was only able to summon you, does that mean you are lesser than you claim to be?"
"I am Shiro!" the serpent hissed angrily. "I am rival to the Great Manda—you will not insult me this way!"
"I didn't," Akira said simply. "You said I was weak. I only made a logical deduction."

Slowly, the grip on Akira began to loosen and Shiro gently brought Akira to the ground.

"What is your name?"
"I am Akira Uchiha."
"Whenever I am needed, I will be at your disposal, Akira-sama."
"Woah, woah—drop that title, there," Akira chuckled. "Just Akira is fine."
"As you wish."

The snake bowed to Akira and she awkwardly returned the bow before Shiro vanished in a puff of smoke. Then Akira rapidly turned to Maru, looking annoyed.

"That was supposed to be reasonable!?" she said, exasperated. "He could have killed me!"
"Most others would have killed you," Maru reasoned.
"And he was rude! I can't help that I'm scarred and burned! Well..."
"Still, Shiro has bowed to you."
"Yeah, that was weird. And sama? Do I look like sama material to you?"

Maru shook his head and he couldn't help but laugh this time.

"Don't laugh, it's creepy," Akira said, pulling a face at Maru.
"Come."

Akira frowned at Maru but she went over to him anyway, jumping over a few tree roots to reach him. He took her right hand and placed his own over hers. There was a soft burning sensation underneath his hands and a small amount of smoke rose from between his fingers. When Maru removed his hands, the cut she'd made on her thumb earlier was gone, replaced by a fresh pink scar that joined the many others that littered her skin. Akira frowned. Another wound that would never completely heal.

"Shiro was wrong about one thing," Maru said. If Akira didn't know better, she thought he sounded almost gentle. "Your scars should not be something to be ashamed of. They are a testament to what you have done, to what you have been through, and to what you can still endure."
"All right, drama queen," Akira said in a sarcastic tone. She pulled her hand away. "It's time for some training."

The gentle sounds of sand falling into the bottom half of an hourglass and the sliding of Go stones across a board were intermingled with the beeping of machines and the barely audible muttering of the nurses in the hallways. Once in a while, a snore rose amongst the other noises. Akira was losing at another game of Go against Shikamaru as they watched over Naruto who, once again, had over-exerted himself while training with Jiraya. It had been a few days now and he still hadn't woken up. Akira had just come back from training with Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi and she hadn't changed out of her training outfit, leaving all her scars in plain sight for Shikamaru to unsuccessfully ignore.

"Losing at Go again isn't enough to distract me from the fact you're so incapable of not looking at my arms, Shikamaru," Akira said, moving a black stone on the board in front of her.
"I know your skin's usually a pain, but I'm sure the Medical-nin would be able to remove at least some of the scars," Shikamaru said as he captured three of Akira's stones.
"My scars are a testament to what I've been through and what I can endure."
"Who're you quoting?"
"Who said I was quoting?" Akira defended. She frowned at the board. "Damn, I've lost again."
"Your tone of voice," Shikamaru said, clearing the board for a new game. "Besides, you've always hated those scars. Someone must have made you change your mind."
"I was quoting a friend."
"Well, tell your friend he's very dramatic."
"Oh, he knows."

Shikamaru chuckled quietly and Akira turned to look at Naruto. He was still sleeping, his chest rising and falling steadily. The last time he'd been out so long, he and the rest of Team 7 had just come back from their mission in the Land of Waves. She couldn't imagine what Jiraya was putting the boy through. For a moment, she considered that he had used the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra, but Akira hadn't felt its presence like she did in the Land of Waves, so it couldn't have been that.

Just then, as if the universe was reading her mind, a vile feeling rose in the air. Akira paused and turned to look at the hourglass. A final grain of sand fell to the bottom, but the rest didn't fall. It rested in the top half, defying the laws of physics.

"Akira?" Shikamaru asked, concerned.
"Stay with Naruto," she said, distracted. "I'll be right back. I just want to check something."

Before Shikamaru could protest, Akira was out the door. She followed where the uneasy feeling in her stomach led, no matter where it took her. The hospital seemed nearly deserted, as Akira didn't cross anyone as she roamed the halls in search of the source of the malevolent feeling in the air. After a short while, it became stronger and, upon reaching Rock Lee's room, the feeling nearly overwhelmed her. She was taken with a wave of nausea and stumbled back, forced to stop a moment to get her bearings and do some breathing exercises. Then, Akira stepped into the room. Gaara was there, shaking and growling with anger, like a rabid animal—or better yet, a demon. He was standing over Lee's bed, tendrils of sand extending from him towards the unconscious boy, ready to crush him in a coffin of sand.

"Gaara... don't"

A tendril of sand shot at Akira but she flicked it to the ground with a wave of her hand. A stream of water had shot out from Akira's new gourd and turned the water to mud. Gaara glared at her and she slowly rose her arms up to show she meant no harm. With a flick of her hand, the water came away from the sand, returning it to its naturally dry state.

"I know you want to do this. I know you could kill me right now to do it," Akira said softly.

She knew that trying to reason with a demon was a bad idea, but there was something inside Akira that seemed to be compelling her to try.

"I know you're angry at him." Akira glanced at Lee. "I know you're angry at Guy-sensei. But this isn't the way."

Akira's gaze softened and she took a hesitant step toward Gaara. He growled at her and she stopped for a moment, then Akira took another step forward and didn't stop until she was within arm's reach. She glanced at the kanji on Gaara's forehead.

"Love... You don't understand it, do you?" Akira said with a sigh. "This isn't the way to understand it, Gaara. You won't learn anything if you hurt Lee."

Gaara was still growling. Looking into his eyes, Akira couldn't see anything but viciousness.

"Gaara... I know you're in there somewhere. I want to talk to you, not the demon."

Slowly, the growling began to subside. Akira took it as an encouraging sign and kept going.

"I don't want to talk to the mindless beast that someone put inside you without a seal, without a way to control it. God, that's just torture..." Akira looked at him sadly. "I'm talking to Gaara, the boy from the Sand Village. Please, Gaara, push the rage back and don't let it take over. You're stronger than this, you're stronger than the demon."

Finally, the room fell quiet, the growls long gone. Gaara's eyes remained fixed on Akira, wide and staring, but no longer crazed.

"It'll kill you," Gaara said calmly. "No matter what I want, it'll kill. It'll kill because that's what it wants."
"I don't believe that," Akira said quietly. "I know you can overcome it."
"No, I can't. That's why they did it. That's why they put this demon inside me—to let it rampage whenever it was needed."
"Who would do this to you, Gaara? This must be torture..."
"It's like your yellow-haired idiot said... I came from a poor upbringing. I took the life of a woman some people might call my mother," Gaara said. There was no emotion on his face or in his voice. "So that I could become the strongest shinobi, my father brought his most powerful jutsu upon me. And so I became possessed by a sand spirit."
"Your father... tried to use you as a weapon?"
"I was born a monster. It's called Shukaku, the living wrath of an old monk from the Village Hidden in the Sand which was sealed inside a tea cauldron."
"You were not born a monster, Gaara," Akira said sounding almost desperate. "Someone put Shukaku inside of you. None of this is your fault. How could they expect a child to tame an untameable demon? To do this to someone you love... that's despicable."
"Love? Don't measure me by your standards. Family? Let me tell you what ties I have to my family; they're ties of hatred or murderous intent. My family's just lumps of flesh and my father—he's tried to assassinate me more times than I can count."
"Those who are strong are apt to become feared," Akira said softly. "Your father grew scared of you."
"Born through the jutsu, my mind was unstable. I guess the idiots in my village came to realise that I had emotional control problems. As for my father, the Kazekage... while being the ultimate weapon of the village, I was also a dangerous and fearsome presence when not in use."

Akira's eyebrows knitted into concern. The way he spoke of himself, not as a person, but as a tool to be used reminded her of Haku. It stirred old feelings of sadness deep inside her and Akira had to resist the urge to take hold of Gaara's hand.

"I was treated with respect simply because I was feared. Now, they just want me to disappear," Gaara said somberly. "Which begs the question... what do I have to live for? Why do I keep on living? When I asked myself that, I couldn't find an answer. As long as you are alive, you need an answer. If you don't have one... then that's the same as being dead, isn't it?"

Akira stared at Gaara in horror. Not only were his words utterly heartbreaking, the fact that he believed every word coming out of his mouth made Akira want to cry. What made it worse was that Akira had an idea of how he felt; Naruto spoke the same way and she'd listened to him run his mouth off on a number of occasions, including moments of intense vulnerability that made Akira's heart sink.

However, what terrified Akira the most was the fact that she knew, if her circumstances had been just a little bit different, she would feel the same way. Her entire clan had been removed from existence, murdered by a brother she once thought loved her. Now, he was rogue, a kill-on-sight ninja. The only things left living for were Sasuke and the dream of becoming the head of the Konoha Military Police Force. If Itachi had killed Sasuke, that was another thing gone, and Akira doubted that she'd be able to wish for a better future for herself if she'd been the sole survivor of Itachi's assault. It wasn't hard for her to imagine. She could see the bleakness of this alternate life all too easily, the desperation and anger that came from utter loneliness. Akira hadn't experienced it, and she didn't wish to, but she could understand Gaara by picturing it.

The person she looked up to the most had always preferred Itachi, and when he was no longer a suitable target for Fugaku's appreciation, he moved on to Sasuke. And that boy soaked up all the attention he could get his hands on. Not once did Akira get any of it. But she didn't need it, nor did she crave it, and she figured she would enjoy it if she had it. And it had never been an issue until now. Looking at Gaara, she could see what would have happened to her if she craved the attention Fugaku and Mikoto never gave her. The look of fury, of rage, of pure hatred—that could have been her.