I think I remember that Gaara was happier in the past… that he actually smiled and such… so yeah! This is all before he finds out what he is…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Konoka's and Gaara's flashback…
They were in a day watch, a place were some people were to come once in a while to watch a bunch of kids while the parent are busy.
It was a nice sunny day… the clouds were giving shade, the temperature was perfect… the grass was welcoming and snacks were passed out time once in a while.
Some kids were inside and the others were outside, enjoying the sun rays, all enjoying each other's company one way or another. Some where talking and laughing, some where pulling each others hair, getting into fights, some were in a huge crowd, surrounding someone. It was perfect…
Well… only for those that enjoyed hanging out with other people.
"Hey… Kono-chan… you wanna hang out?" a boy with jet black hair with a group of girls that had a nice smile walked up to Konoka when she was sitting down next to Takara, both making flower rings. It was a bad day for Konoka… and she didn't like other villagers for the evil deed they did.
"Itteyoshi!" Konoka glares at the boy.
"Hey! Don't you dare talk to Sasuke-kun like he did something bad to you!"
"Gotta problem with that youkai? I can say what ever I want to anyone!" Konoka turn her glare to the girl with blonde hair, making the other girls shiver a bit.
"How dare you call her that you outcast!" a girl with dark blue hair stepped up to the blonde girl's defense. Konoka and Takara were just staring at the girls, giving them a deadpanned look. The girls were starting to surround the two twins when some kid came to them.
"Leave them alone…" a boy with red hair and red shirt and black shorts crossed his arms and glared at the girls. His glare said it all.
Mess with them and you mess with me…
"Forget them Sasuke-kun! Let's go and play somewhere else!" the girls then backed off and were shivering like mad. Then the girls pulled a reluctant Sasuke with them. Gaara and Takara swore that he was looking at Konoka with a pled for help and sadness.
"Thanks for making them go away! I'm Takara and this is Konoka…" Takara looked at Gaara who turn his gaze at them. He reached his hand out and Takara took it, he then smiled happily.
"I'm Gaara… what's the matter?" Gaara squatted next to Konoka, looking into her eyes. She then looks at his, not blinking for a long time. A no blinking contest…
"She… doesn't like to talk much…" Takara looks at her sisters eyes and read it. "She thinks that you are a pest… do I have to say that Konoka?" Konoka nodded and Takara sighed.
"She says itteyoshi…" Gaara was confused… why did she say that to him?
"No…" Gaara crossed his arms, grinning at the girl.
Glare. All he got was a glare.
"Itteyoshi!" Konoka shouted at him, mad at him. She stands up and tried to kick him, but was blocked by sand, pushing her down onto the ground. He was confused but he calmed down. He then smiles, a really happy, huge grin at Konoka.
"I wanna know you…"
"I don't want a friend that will someday back stab you or lead you into their evil little trap!" Konoka's glare intensifies at Gaara.
"I won't… believe me…" Konoka's eyes widen when Gaara smile grew bigger. Konoka then looked at her sister and Takara understood.
"She doesn't believe you… you know… life's hard for her… something hard happen to us…"
"I will protect you… I won't hurt you…" after a long silence of deep thinking and glancing at each other's eyes, Konoka came to a conclusion.
"Will you leave us alone!"
"No…"
"Leave!"
"Never…"
"Why? Why the heck you wanna be friends with a person like me?"
"I wanna know you… believe me that I won't hurt you…"
"Promise?" Konoka asked, tilting her head to the side. A friend would be a nice thing to have…
"Promise…" She then smiles a bit. Takara then smiles also. Gaara then pulls Konoka up and handed her a flower with red pedals with white strips at the end, sand was wrapped around it. A special friend that can control sand…
That was how Gaara became Konoka's first friend…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"I can't believe you said 'itteyoshi' at him Konoka!" Takara grinned at her sister who was blushing lightly. Temari was on the couch while the four best friends were on the carpet, leaning on the couch.
"Then our little bro drag you to our home one day and you met our family!" Temari happily chirped, clasping her hands together in a hyper way. She then ruffles Konoka's hair, making the once silky hair turn into a minor mess.
Konoka then lean on Gaara and untie her necklace around his neck, grinning at the older boy.
"Just till I come back!" Konoka then reach into her pocket and pulled out a package, she tears it open and laying on the wrapping was a sliver necklace that had the kanji of love (right? They have that?), and she puts it around Gaara's neck.
"It took me two years to save up for that, so I hope you like it!" Konoka then looked like she was holding her breath. Gaara reached out to touch it and smiled.
"I… like it Noka-chan… thanks…" Gaara gave Konoka a hug, making her sigh in relief.
"Aww! That's so sweet Konoka!"
"Yeah… hey… remember how we met Naruto? After we met Gaara…" Konoka asked everyone and got smiles as replies. She fixed her hair, using her fingers as a comb.
"Yeah… you guys were so kind to me…" Naruto playfully hits Takara who stuck her tongue at him.
"Oh… this sounds good! Tell me!" Temari asked, while taking another sip from her drink. She was giggling on the couch while she listened to Naruto's and Takara's first meeting.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"I wish I had someone to hang with… a friend…" Naruto wished, closing his eyes lazily, enjoying the nice cool breeze that Kami has grace with him today. A shadow cast over him and he noticed, but didn't move.
"Go home! You're not welcome here!" a boy threw a stick at Naruto who was on the grass under him. Naruto just moved around to the other trees, who care about that-
"He is welcome here! Believe it!" Naruto looks up at a black hair and blue bang girl who was throwing a rock at the same boy. They started shouting at each other and then into a fit fight, while a girl with black hair and red bangs was looking at them with a bored face.
After a while, the mystery girl was kicking that very same boy and he was on the ground, trying to block her kicks. It looked painful.
"Onee-chan… leave the baka alone and let's go…"
"No! This (kick) kid just threw a (kick) freaking stick at (kick) that kid (kick) and he doesn't (kick) have the right (kick) to even look (kick) at him! (kick)" the girl then jump up and body slam the boy, hard…
(Bk.: What she said for those who can't read: No! This kid just threw a freaking stick at that kid and he doesn't have the right to even look at him! … You're welcome…)
The red bang girl takes a step back and looks at the boy behind the tree, watching Naruto look at them with confuse, bewilderment, fear, and amusement.
"MAN YOU'RE HURTING ME!" the girl then got the boy into a headlock. He was clawing at her arms but she wouldn't let him go.
"Got something else to say to the boy punk?" the girl, shouted at him, tightening her grip.
"That is enough!" all four of them looked in the direction of the voice to find a very pissed Iruka. "Takara… you know better than to start a fight! Konoka why didn't you stop your sister?"
"This freaking punk threw a stick at that yellow hair boy and he didn't do anything!" Takara had her foot on the boy chest while she pointed to Naruto, who was came out of hiding and ran to Iruka. Naruto latched onto Iruka's left leg, hiding behind him but was peeking at the girls.
"Takara is dangerous when mad…" Konoka whisper, she turn her gaze and was now looking at the beaten boy. He had four cuts on his neck form Takara's nails, the teeth marks from where her sister bit him was bleeding freely, and he had a black ring forming around his left eye. Konoka turns her gaze and tilts her head so she could see a bit of Naruto's face, to see he had a small cut over his eye and three long cuts on his cheek.
"You're cute!" Konoka then smiles at Naruto, who then completely hides behind Iruka, blushing a bit.
"Konoka… Takara… we need to speak to your parents…" Iruka shook his head and sigh. "After we take this boy home and you say sorry to the parents…"
"Nani? NO! I won't say sorry to him after he abuses that boy! Nuh-huh! He should be the one saying 'sorry' to him!"
"I agree…" Konoka nods her head.
"Zazuki… I'll bring you home… Takara, Konoka, you girls follow me… Naruto… come with us." Iruka didn't ask, he demanded. Takara nodded and gave the boy a swift kick to the shin after she took her foot off his chest, causing him to clutch his leg in pain.
"Takara!" Iruka shook a finger at Takara.
"Accident!" the boy starts walking next to Iruka, but Konoka's leg 'accidentally' went in front of his leg and he tripped. Iruka caught him and he saw Konoka look away, trying to look innocent. Naruto snickers a bit, but he tried to hide it.
"Konoka…" Konoka looked at Iruka and pointed to herself, looking confuse. When Iruka glare a bit, the little girl shrugs her shoulders and half smile, half frown.
"Accident…" a sly smile graced her lips. Iruka then grabbed Konoka around the middle and placed her on his right hip, carrying her on his side. He made Naruto hang on his neck so that he can carry Takara on his other hip. Zazuki was holding on to his pants, glaring at Takara once in a while, earning a spine shivering glare from the mini Tsunade. He looked like a walking playground.
"Hey… Naru-kun… you okay?" Konoka whisper to Naruto, who buried his neck into Iruka's back, ignoring her. "Come on! Say something!" Konoka put on the puppy face and her lips turned into a pout. "Please speak!"
"I'm fine… just leave me alone…" Naruto whispers to the girl, which only made her smile.
"Takara! I got him to speak!" Konoka happily chirped to her sister, giving her a hi-five over Iruka's hair. They always saw the little blonde getting picked on by other kids at the day watch, and they wanted to help him.
"Wha-?" Naruto looked up and felt his hair being ruffled by Takara.
"We wanna be your friends!" Takara told him in a playful tune.
"Friends?" Naruto asked, maybe his wish is coming true!
"Yeah! We always see you alone and Takara wanted to meet you!" Konoka answered him, ruffling his hair like her sister.
"I don't have any friends… why me?" Naruto tear his face away from Takara, looking at Iruka's neck sadly.
"You look like a great person to hang with! For this day till the end, you shall be my best friend!" Takara glared at Zuzuki when he scoffed. Konoka then swing her legs and kicked the boy's head. Hearing his shout of pain brought a satisfy grin to Takara. Iruka shot her a look and Konoka whisper 'accident' again.
"So we are friends… alright!"
"Yatta! You gotta come to our house now to celebrate!"
"You can meet Ga-kun!"
"Sure!" Naruto smiled a real smile. It has been years since he'd smiled like that. Iruka then smiles a bit, happy that Naruto got two good friends… now if only the girls can learn to stop fighting…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"WE got in a lot of trouble!" Takara laughed, spilling some of the popcorn onto the carpet.
"Yeah… hmm… Ga-kun… you never told me why you have that black mascara around your eyes since we were little…" Konoka tilt her head at her friend, getting a nervous glance from Temari and Gaara.
"Later…" Konoka knew she crossed a line somewhere so she nodded.
"Let's watch a movie!" Temari ran to the TV stand and started to look for a good DVD in the storage to watch. After a long time of searching, she found the movie she was digging around for. "Pirates of the Caribbean!"
"A pirate movie! Plop it in and let's enjoy!" Naruto grabbed a hand full of popcorn from the bowl in Takara's lap, stuffing everything into his mouth.
"Naru-chan… you're going to choke…" Takara then slapped his head when he grabbed his throat, making a choking sound. Naruto then swallow and gave Takara a thumbs-up side that he was ok. Temari fast forward to the beginning. She got bored so she fast forward again to the part were the pirates came to town, grabbing the girl as hostage and leaving.
"Ga-kun… is this scary?" Konoka moved closer to Gaara as soon as she saw the pirates trashing the town.
"Hmm… parts… why?" a look crossed Konoka's face in a flash, but was covered with a quick grin.
"No… reason…"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"My favorite part was the fight…" Naruto exclaim, lying on the ground on a mattress. They all decide to sleep in the parlor, after they watched a new scary movie that just came in the mail. Not even Temari watched it so the girls were a little spooked out.
"I couldn't watch it… Temari-onee-chan kept scaring me…" Konoka crossed her arms, frowning at Temari who ruffled her hair again. "Why you like doing that?" Konoka swat her hand away, giggling with the older girl, flattening her hair.
"Cause you are such a child!"
"How?"
"Remember the day we first met? It was… different…" Temari changed the subject, causing Konoka to frown a bit.
"You were such a goth Temari!"
"Tell me how much a pain it was to break through her barrier." Naruto asked Takara, who's smile grew.
"It all started when Gaara dragged Konoka to his house…"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Ga-kun! I don't wanna go!" Konoka was being pulled by her wrist, pouting to the red hair boy. Takara was running after them, grinning at her sister's protest, carrying both of their bags.
"I want you to come to my house!" Gaara said happily, not letting the girl go. They were running past the villagers, dodging them swiftly.
"But I'm scarrrrrred!" Konoka whined, trying to pull her hand away from him. Konoka still didn't like the villagers, and she talks a bit more than she used to, and Gaara then came up with the idea of them playing at his house.
"You'll like them! Please come!" Gaara pled, something deep down in Konoka was moving around, telling her stuff.
"Fine…" Konoka finally answer, picking up her pace. Takara just smile, her sister was turning into a softy for her friend.
After a few minutes of running, they came to this huge house with an hourglass symbol right over the door. Gaara pounded at the door for a few seconds and the huge door opens. They jetted past the guards, thinking they just saw Gaara-sama with girls. They were running down a pathway with houses on each side that also had the sand symbol over the door. Trees and bushes of flowers were nicely placed around the grass area. There was even a pond with koi fishes and a wooden bench under a nice shady tree was placed in a nice position to watch over the pond.
Gaara lived here!
Gaara and the girls then stopped at a huge house at the end of the pathway, knocking on the door and waited a bit.
The door open and Konoka and Takara saw some servants at one door or the other, bowing at Gaara and said 'welcome home Gaara-sama…' and they ran to the parlor, finding a girl with yellow hair tied in four different direction and had only black clothes on and tons of eyeliner sitting on the couch, watching a show with someone being torture. Konoka grabbed Gaara's shirt and hid behind him.
"Hey brat… who's the little pipsqueaks with you?" the girls voice sounded strong and demanding. She flicked her eye to their direction but she never moved her neck.
"They are my friends! They came over to play…" Gaara said in a monotone voice. Temari walked over to them, bending down a bit so she was eye leveled with the chibis. She was staring and a thought crossed her mind. A very dark and gothic idea.
"They look delicious… mind if I take a bite?" Temari then grinned at Konoka, and the red bang girl saw her vampire like teeth. Takara then stood in front of her sister and 'hissed' at Temari, showing her teeth.
"Don't you dare touch my sister…" Takara voice sounded dark and she wasn't talking, she was growling. Temari looked at her teeth and found them to look very much like a vampires teeth. Heck… the little chibis own looked much scarier than hers.
"Hmph… whatever…" Temari went back to the couch, crossing her legs and eyes were being glued on the screen again. Gaara then decide for them to move to their room, which was all the way on the other side of the huge house. When he opened the door, the girls gasp and their eyes widen.
The room Gaara's walls were a lovely shade of lavender and the floor is hard wood. The twins noticed a window that goes from the ceiling to the floor, stretching over the wall. Dark blue curtains are drawn over this window, so you can't tell what time of day it is. The bed had silk comforter and was a huge queen-size bed. Takara walked over to it and jumped on it.
"One word Gaara… badass!" Takara laughed, trying to do a summersault on Gaara's bed. Gaara finally let go of Konoka's wrist and they both jumped on his bed, laughing when Takara was sent flying up when both friends cannon ball on either side of her. After an hour of fun, Konoka said she had to use the bathroom and Gaara told her it was next to the parlor. He offers to show her the way but Konoka rejected the offer and skipped happily out of the room, leaving them to their pillow fight.
"And then the village burned down, the people goes running, screaming their heads off, like when the blade meets the skin!" Konoka sang in a dark tone, passing the parlor. When she was done, she peeked into the parlor, looking at the older goth girl.
"I know you're there munchkin…" Temari said in a bored voice. Konoka then walked up to Temari, staring at the older girl.
"If you wanna bite me… go ahead…" Konoka said meekly, looking down on floor. Temari however, was shocked.
"What the heck you talking about girl?"
"I know you're lonely… and maybe if you stopped being all gothic… then we can actually be friends… so whatever you want to do with me… we can have fun…" Konoka looks at the goth, her face was all serious and she sounded convincing. More mature than her age.
"How old are you? Six years old?"
"Nope! I'm four!" Konoka held her hand out, showing four fingers to the older girl, a grin settling on her face.
"Hmm… I'll think about that offer munchkin…" Temari smirked. Konoka bowed and walked out of the room. Her head then reappear and Temari looked up again.
"My name is Konoka…" she disappears, going back to Gaara and Takara, who she found both of them on the ground gasping for breath, laughing and smiling.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Munchkin? Pipsqueak? You offer Temari to bite you?" Naruto asked, laughing a bit. Gaara was lying down, leaning on one side, his elbow was on his pillow and his head was resting in his hand.
"Since when?" Takara crossed her arms, glaring at Konoka.
"You didn't hear me? After I went to the bathroom!"
"Can I see your teeth Takara?" Takara open her mouth and Naruto saw her teeth were sharper than normal. When Naruto asked Konoka, she just grinned and Naruto gasp. "You guys have vampire teeth! Konoka's own is sharper than Takara's!"
"Can you rip things with those?" Temari asked, poking Konoka's cheek.
"Yeah… how do you think we eat our meat?" Takara grinned like her sister, showing her teeth.
"I'm tired… lets go to sleep…" Konoka sits next to the left side of Gaara's stomach, looking sideways and grinning at him. Takara then lay on Konoka's right leg, making the other girl giggle. Then Naruto rest his head on the left side of Takara's tummy, making Temari giggle.
"You know… we're all finally together again… it feels nice… like something deep down that was making me feel bad is finally gone… it feels good…" Konoka whisper, her eyes slowly closing on their own, sleep almost taking over her.
"Yeah… it was terrible without you guys…" Naruto felt his hair get ruffled by Takara, slightly growling, he tickled her only a bit so she could stop for the night.
"Tell us how…" Konoka whisper again, only this time she was more awake. She moved down a bit, this time her head was resting on Gaara's stomach.
"Maybe someday…" when Naruto and Konoka fell asleep, Temari bid them 'night' and left the room, leaving the teens quietly when the rest of the teens finally knocked out falling asleep on each other like that.
Best friends finally together again… reliving the old times and chatting away happily… and acting like nothing ever happen to them… that the girls went away for a long time, and finally coming back and they continue life with them.
Such a great feeling to have someone you miss so badly to come back to you…