Chapter 2: Trouble.

The girl was not much shorter than he was. Pink tresses were bundled up in a loose band. Her white shirt had a trail of small butterflies up the side, the colors of the rainbow. Her skirt was about two sizes too small, but he wasn't going to complain about that. What really drew his attention was the little bruise under the flap of her shirt.

"Excuse me…can you move over a couple so we can sit here." Her voice was like music to him, like a- wait, we? He stood and saw what she'd mentioned. Those coal black eyes were fixed on him in a death glare. The guy wore almost the same pants as him but a long trench coat hung from his torso like a safety barrier. So this school had a underdog leader. His little gothic get up was disgustingly funny, and he had black hair to boot.

Rolling his eyes, Gaara stood, moving over. This was only at her request. He couldn't help but glance her way here and there. It was affection he'd not had ever, but he liked the feeling. The other guy caught his eyes and stared cruelly at him. Gaara replied with a wave and blew him a kiss. That really pissed him off, because the guy moved over towards him.

"You got a problem?" The tall dark haired boy growled out. It made the redhead laugh more at him. Gaara licked his lips and gave a snarling grin. This gave a chance for the little goth kid to see real filed down teeth. Someone once told Gaara he looked like a half-shark's kid. Maybe his friend had been right.

"We can make problems, but I'll sure as hell won't let you win anything." Gaara snarled back, standing so swiftly no one could've seen it. His gloved hand grasped the kid's open jacket and jerked him forward. He planted a pleasant full-size bite exactly on the right side of the kid's neck. This made his prey give out a bellowing shriek and pleased him to no end. He pulled back and released the kid simultaneously.

"Y-you're crazy! You're freaking mad!" hissed the other guy. Gaara's mouth was covered in blood. He spat out what he could and sat back down. All the other kids and teacher (who'd entered during the show) went silent, now fearing this surely insane fiend.

"Sasuke, are you o-" The said Sasuke kid pushed the pink haired girl away and walked out, blood still pulsing out of the wound. Gaara felt better telling off the other male. Something cruel in him also agreed without a sound. The girl looked back at him, expecting to see him proud.

Gaara's expression was mixed. Part of him was proud, another part wanted to beat the kid to a pulp, and the last part was just tired of it all. He gave her the tired part's eyes, but heated interest reared its ugly head. She blushed and then went out to help the other boy.

/They must be…something. / He sighed, giving everyone else a most wicked snarl and they stopped watching him. This school was going to be very fun to manipulate.

-…later that day…-

Gaara went to lunch, alone, happy, and… alone. Not one kid really wanted to be close to him at this point. The word had spread like wild fire. Girls shied away from him, as did some of the guys. A couple of morons challenged him. The first kid he'd pounded in one hit into the lockers, knocking him out cold. The second got a sleeper hold until he passed out.

He was so deep in thought that he never noticed who sat beside him. A hand waved in front of his face, making him jerk in his seat to see a smiling blonde kid. It was 'whiskers' again.

"What?" He put so much anger into one word it made the other kid blink, but he was no much for this stupidity.

"I saw you alone, you must be very new. I also heard what you did to that bastard Sasuke, I'm here to thank you for that." He grinned, those weird whisker things moving with his facial expressions.

"You have nothing to thank me for, I merely want him to know he's not top of the food chain for buying fake tough-guy clothes and having money." He growled, his fist gripped so hard on the plastic spork it snapped. He looked down and cursed. One was presented to him from the other kid.

"Here, use it, I have something that doesn't need it." He held up a thermos that stated 'Ramen' on it. "Oh yeah! I'm Uzamaki Naruto."

Gaara took the utensil and grunted, eating the rest of the crappy cafeteria food. His mind still raked over the girl from that morning. Pink hair flooded his mind with other images. Naruto was eating and then choked on his noodles, nudging Gaara and pointing at the girl he'd been thinking about all that morning.

"That's Haruno Sakura… I hope to date her one day, but she's attached to that no good Sasuke." Naruto made a small noise of his own saying the raven-haired kid's name who at that moment was leading the girl around like a pet.

Gaara felt like he should've taken a full bite out of that kid. Maybe it would take the fight out of him. The girl was smiling and talking to some friends as she passed by. The dark hair boy walked to his own group of little gothic retards. After ten minutes passed by, the bell rang.

Naruto was still babbling about little things but Gaara ignored him for the most part. He wanted to find that little strawberry haired girl alone and… His body got a rush from those thoughts. He and Naruto parted ways and they flowed into the mass of people. Something bumped into the redhead's side and his senses were flooded by the smell of a certain fruit.

The girl said a small 'sorry' but halted in the crowd. Those jade eyes were almost like hers and that hair… His eyes were wide open in some surprise, giving him an almost vulnerable look. He reminded her of Sasuke in so many ways but one. That look. She was about to speak when she felt a familiar presence. Sasuke. He dragged her away fast, but not before she handed the other kid a card.

Gaara watched them go and saw Sasuke's eyes. Cold, uncaring, and waiting to give someone a beating; maybe the girl was his object to hit when he couldn't fight any guys. Maybe. He looked down at the card, it was blank, he then flipped it over. It said, 'I need out…' and then had a number on it.

So it was an abusive relationship.

How cute.

Mr. Tough-Macho-Goth couldn't take punch without giving his girl grief.

This was going to be interesting…

A/N: (Hope you like this. It's a break from J.E. and I've always wanted to put them in a… modern kind of world. More coming soon.)