Aznpuffyhair: Gaara is a mysterious…boy. He can sense many things. Or maybe not. I don't know, I'll tell you in this chapter. XD

Sephynarutocloud: Lol, that's what I intend on doing. And I'll try to make the chapters longer, as long as I don't get writers' block, I think I'm okay, ha ha ha.

Ak1k0-chan: my character's name is Akiko as well o.o; Thanks for the review XD

Candy44: Thanks, but what did you mean by "unlike the way you updated the last one..."

Oh, right. Ha ha ha, that was my fault; I used to be so lazy. I should probably not do that anymore. Thanks for the review!

Agent vash: does nice guy pose back ALRIGHT! XD

Chapter 3: Solitude



Akiko lay in her bed for the rest of the day. The doctor had long gone, and she was left alone to herself to think. It was that guy again, the same guy. Why was he after her again? And Gaara…how did he know where she was? Akiko got up and walked to the bathroom; she looked at herself in the mirror and sighed. She had straight, light brown hair that reached a little below her shoulders. She had brown eyes, and she had quite a small head. She was always self-conscious of her head, but there was nothing she could really do about it. She splashed her face with water and dried it and then went back to her bed. She closed her eyes, and went back to that day…

It was a cold, autumn's day and she was hanging up the laundry in her back yard. She lived by herself in the sand village, and she didn't have relatives that she knew about, it became harder and harder to live. She lived next to Gaara, and every day she would talk to him and play with him. But she knew that Gaara was always getting picked on, and she always wanted to stop those other children from doing that, but she couldn't. She had no strength. She always just watched from the back, and now, she always regretted doing that. She wished she could have stopped them. Every day, she would talk to Gaara and he would tell her what those kids would say and they would both cry. She felt he was more in pain then she was. But one day, something happened. Gaara suddenly stopped talking to her and he stopped visiting her. She heard rumors about him, saying he killed everyone and that he was just some psycho person. When she saw him again, he looked completely different. She always got scared.

Then, Akiko got poorer and poorer because she wasn't working because she couldn't, she was still too young. So, she decided to become a ninja, she heard that ninjas did missions and got money. And she also heard that some of the kids in her village were becoming ninjas as well. As the years went by, she grew more and more strong and got paid for all her missions. Then, one day, as she was sitting in her back yard, on the porch, late at night. She looked up at the stars and began wondering what her life would have been if she didn't become a ninja. What would she have been doing now? She heard a noise from across the street and looked at neighbor's house. The lights were on, and the window was open. She could tell that Temari was making food. The door opened and out stepped Gaara. He stopped half-way and looked at Akiko. Akiko quickly looked away. Gaara continued looking at her, and then disappeared. When Akiko finally thought he was gone, she looked up again. Gaara was sitting on his roof, looking at the moon. Akiko just stared at him with big, wide eyes. He sits on his roof? Akiko started getting this weird feeling in her, like she wanted to say something to him, but then again she didn't. So, she decided to keep quiet. After a couple of minutes, she heard a noise from the bushes nearby. She looked at the bushes strangely.

"It's kind of late for a rabbit to be out this late at night…" she murmured. She shrugged that thought off and continued thinking about stuff. Then, that noise came again, only this time, it was from behind her. She turned around quickly and stared at her back yard door. It was made of glass, so she could look inside. Everything was dark, there was no light on, but she swore she left the lights on. She got up and walked to her door and slid it open. She stepped inside and closed the door. It was really dark, and she was trying to find the switch to turn the lights on. It felt so eerie in here, for some odd reason. She was walking quietly and she remained silent.

"Hello?" she called out.

She switched the lights on, and found nothing there. But…then what turned the lights off? She heard a strange noise coming from the bathroom, like the mirror breaking, so she grabbed her kunai knives and ran to the bathroom. When she reached the bathroom, she saw some kind of creature staring at her at her with blood-shot eyes. It was a little girl, dressed in a white dress. Her arms and legs had cuts all over them and she just blankly stared at Akiko. Akiko stepped back.

"Wh-who are you?" she asked.

The girl started to cry, but instead of tears coming out, a stream of blood ran from her eyes.

"What the—who the hell are you?" Akiko screamed out. The girl suddenly stopped crying and looked up at Akiko. She smiled evilly, and then started laughing. Akiko held her knives tightly in her hands, and then threw them angrily at the girl. The girl suddenly just disappeared, and the knives pinned the wall.

"What the…" she muttered. Suddenly, as if nothing happened, the lights turned back on.

"That was weird." She told herself. She walked into the bathroom and took out her knives from the wall. She looked at the mirror and all the shattered pieces. She sighed and began picking up the pieces. She started thinking about the girl, when suddenly her thoughts when to Gaara. He was looking at her before, but why…

Wait a minute. Akiko thought back to when she was outside. Gaara wasn't looking at her, he was looking behind her.

'Behind me… then he must have seen…" Akiko shoved that thought out of her head and finished picking up the pieces.

That night, she couldn't sleep at all.

Akiko opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling. Maybe…that guy that came after her yesterday… was he working with that girl? Akiko got a bit scared at that thought. The door opened and an old man and an old woman walked in. They stopped at Akiko's bed.

"Uh…hello. Can you I help you?" Akiko asked.

The man and the woman looked at each other and then pulled out a picture of a boy, about Akiko's age, with blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing an orange jumpsuit and he had a leaf headband tied around his forehead.

"This is Uzumaki Naruto. He's your brother," said the man. Akiko stared at the man and woman like they were crazy.

"Wh-what are you saying?" she stammered.

"We believe…all the things you've seen so far…the girl and the man that was in your house the other day…You're not safe here. We've decided that it's best if you leave this village." Replied the woman.

"B-But where am I supposed to go?" asked Akiko.

"He lives in Konaha Village in the Fire Country," said the old man. He put the picture on the desk that was next to Akiko's bed. "It'll take you 3 days to get there, as soon as you're released from the hospital, you can start getting packed up."

"B…But how am I supposed to get there? I don't know where it is!" exclaimed Akiko. This was not fair.

"That's why there are such things as maps," said the woman. And then, the man and the woman bowed down to Akiko and left the room. Akiko turned sideways to look at the picture. She picked it up and then threw it on the ground.

"Hmph..." Akiko closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.


"I need strength…I need power."

Gaara closed his eyes. He remembered that night. He was cornered by some kind of monster…a man with no legs. He had a top hat on his head, and had blond hair. When he looked up at Gaara…he had no eyes. Just black liquid was flowing down from his eyes. Behind him stood a small girl in a white dress and beside her was some kind of clown, with his face painted white, and he was wearing a medieval sort of suit on him, with bells attached on it (A jester XD). Gaara didn't know why this guy was after him, he said he needed "power". What kind of power? They defeated him once…took him to some sort of cellar somewhere, and kept him locked up. They took away his sand gourd too. But he escaped easily. He thought he defeated them then…but he was wrong. They came after her…

Gaara looked up at the moon. When he went to get Akiko, when he reached there, the man was gone, but Akiko was lying on the floor, with blood coming out of her stomach. Gaara took her to the hospital, but he wasn't planning on staying. Why did she have to get involved? This wasn't her fight.

He looked across the street to Akiko's house. The house was empty, no lights were on. It was dark inside.

"Aww…You miss the poor girl, don't you?"

Gaara whirled around and saw the man with no legs floating behind him.

"What do you want?" asked Gaara. He was in no mood to fight at the moment. But if he had to…

"I'm sorry; we didn't get a chance to meet properly last time, did we? Well, my name is Hiro, at your service." He bowed.

Gaara narrowed his eyes at him.

"Why are you here?"

"Just here…to warn you…to not meddle in my plans!" Hiro yelled at him, angrily. Then he looked at Akiko's house, and smiled. "She's quite strong…has a lot of sorrow in her, she'd be great,"

Suddenly, a great wave of sand hit him in the face and he fell down. When he sat up, he saw Gaara looked down at him menacingly.

"You stay away from her,"

Hiro smiled at Gaara.

"Jealous, are we?" Hiro got up and bowed again. "Sorry for the inconvenience, I promise I won't touch your little fri—"

Another wave of sand blasted him from ahead. This time, he got thrown back far, away from the roof. He landed in a nearby tree, and looked at Gaara, mad.

Then, without saying another word, he vanished. Gaara looked back at Akiko's house, and glared down at it.


"We just received information that she's headed this way, Hokage-sama,"

"Alright, I want you to tell Naruto to come to my office in three days,"

"Ok,"

Tsunade sighed and massaged her temples. This was hard work, being a hokage.

So, she's headed this way, huh? Hope she's not as a big of a brat as Naruto is.

She smiled.

Shizune suddenly opened the door, holding Tonton in her hands.

"Tsunade-sama, more paperwork!"

And then, as soon as she said that, five men came scrambling into her office and placed piles and piles of paper on her desk. Tsunade just sat there, feeling numb.


Yes, quite a long chapter this time. Mwahahahaha, this chapter was a bit harder to write, but I got it! I picked the name "Hiro" from somone I know heh heh heh. R and R!