Disclaimer: If I did own Naruto, Gaara would be mine! But, since he's not mine (cry) I don't own it.

I might come back to this story later on and finish it, but right now, I don't have the time, so until then, it'll just be a one-shot. Please review and enjoy.

Summary: Emiko, a girl who understands every pain Gaara has gone through, might just change fate.

NOT ALONE

She saw him sitting there, by himself, the others not playing with him. Clutching a teddy bear tightly to his chest and staring into space, he looked lonely, but the girl recognized that look. She knew it all too well. The other kids wouldn't play with her either. None of them did. Nor did they look at her. She knew how it felt to be alone, and she knew this was how it was for the boy- she'd been watching him for some time. It was a horrible feeling to feel like you were not loved. Like if you died, no one would know but you. No one would recognize that you'd left.

She watched from the side of the playing field. Maybe I should go over there? But…what if he runs too? What if it's all just a waste of time, and everyone will hate me more? What if he…kills…me? Like I've seen him do so many times before. But…what if he doesn't?

The girl couldn't make up her mind about him. It'd been that way for nearly a month now. Ever since she moved to Suna with her mother and older brother and sister. They'd made friends easily enough, but the group never stayed and talked to Emiko, but why would they? Why would they risk their lives to just speak to her? Why would they take that precious chance and give her 5 minutes? Just 5 minutes each day would be like paradise. Instead, it was always the same: silence. Glares. And when they did speak, it was never anything nice.

She had no one. No one to go to. No one to tell her she was special, or kind, or that she was loved. Total isolation existed where something else should have. What was pain? She knew it by name. The feeling that existed where anything else should have been. The feeling that shredded her into nothingness, healed her, and then shredded her again. No blood, no broken bones, only rivers of salt water that ran each day. Emiko would wake up, go to school, be ignored, and come home. Of course, some glares would be added in, but other that that…

No! Don't think about that! Emiko thought, pushing the horrid thoughts out of her mind. She tried to escape, but it was obvious she wouldn't be able to. Tears formed at the edges of her crystal blue eyes. No one else had these eyes. No one else had the long grey hair that symbolized what she was. Two ponytails hung long down her back, filled with the fluffy greyness. Only he is even like me in a way…he has different colored hair and eyes. He understands what it's like. What it's all like to be different than others. To be shunned away for what you can't help.

He had never spoken to her. He had most likely never even looked at her. At least the others did. And they didn't even know her! Emiko had been trying to catch his eye for that entire month now, but nothing had worked. No spark was ignited like in her dreams. The same dreams that told her that there was a better future for her, and that she couldn't lose hope this early. That there was a quicker and easier way than death.

'Why do you glare? Why do you hate me so? I can't help what I was born as. I can't help that my father chose me among all the other children to be the carrying case for this…this…!'

"Go away! What are you looking at, monster?"

"Don't look at her."

"Is that her? Don't go near her. That's Emiko. That's…"

"That's…?" A nod and a dirty glare responded.

Tears brimmed Emiko's eyes as they had done so many times before. Why did this happen? What had she ever done? She couldn't help that she was who she was. That she had become this person at birth. Why take it out on her? Huh? Why not her dead father?

The two had walked away by the time she had looked up again. She wasn't deadly. She wasn't mean. It was this thing inside. This thing haunting her thoughts, that never left her alone. This thing that made these dreams burden her sleep. It never ended.

'Don't hate me. Please, don't. What have I ever done to deserve this? Why am I the only one?' Then she'd moved to Suna and seen that she wasn't the only one. There was another, but he didn't know it yet.

Cry. Cry. No one cares for you. No one cares if you die. No one loves you. Why keep on living, monster? Why keep giving this pain to yourself?

But she rebelled against Uugami, the four-tailed wolf demon, saying that she'd never give in. Nothing could tear her down, but each day, this promise became thinner and thinner.
Now, that promise seemed like it was worth barely anything. Nothing was able to defeat this feeling. The feeling that overcame you with such a greatness that no force, no matter how strong, could ever defeat it. It was a trapped feeling. One that cannot be measured.

The teacher called in his students from their break time. I'll speak to him tomorrow. Emiko thought, but as an empty promise. She never kept her promises to herself anymore.

There he was again. In his swing, bear held tightly to his chest. The kids played around him, avoiding him at all costs. His eyes were cast downward, but he noticed every person to walk by. So did Emiko, who was standing near the building. She was in her own world, completely controlled by herself. No one, except Him could tell her what to do here. No one except Him could bully her to tears, and no one could put her down.

A light wind swept by lazily, riding south towards the nearest town, carrying flecks of sand destined to get stuck in one's eye. Emiko thought. She thought about the boy, and whether or not she should talk to him. She was too lonely. And judging by him, so was he. And she was tired of it. Emiko just wanted it to end, to be finished with, but that was something that would never come true. She just knew it.

She looked up when she heard, "Monster!" being shouted. Emiko thought it was directed at her, but when she did look up, she saw a kid passing the boy on the swing, directing the statement to him. He must've tried to speak, or even look at the other kid, and the other must've seen this and retaliated with the only way he knew how. By calling him a monster.

Even though it wasn't directed at her, Emiko's heart burned fire. In her mind, she pounded the kid who said that. No one should ever be called that. No one was a monster on their own. That was when Emiko decided to walk over to him. Before she had a chance to back down, she was moving mechanically over to the boy, the other kid long since gone.

The boy swung on his swing slowly, barely pushing himself, eyes downcast. Emiko stopped right in front of him and stared. The boy didn't even look up, but instead braced himself for the attack, and the pain inhis heart that would follow. Just like Yashamaru had once said…No! Don't think about that! He thought.

Emiko opened her mouth and spoke, "Hi. I'mMisu Emiko. What's your name?"

These words sounded surreal to him. No way would somebody purposefully talk to him. He was a demon, a monster. Nobody in their right mind would ever talk to him. Is this a dream? He asked himself, unsure of how to react. Slowly, he looked up into blue eyes. He'd never seen blue eyes in the desert before. They were always brown, or some other dark color except blue…and his eyes of course. Then he saw grey hair streaming down her back. Grey hair? Blue eyes? Who was this? He'd never seen this girl before, but then something about her seemed to click. He had seen her before. She had moved to Suna over a month ago. No one spoke to her either. No one even was around her. She tried to smile, but it always broke midway. This time though, she was smiling sweetly, and it wasn't fake. It was true. Just like the look in her eyes. Something about her made him believe she was genuine.

"H-Hi. My name's Sabaku no Gaara." He stuttered, almost afraid that someone could stay and be nice to him for more than 5 seconds without fainting from overexposure.

The girl nodded. "Don't worry about those guys. Some people can just be mean."

There was an awkward silence. Emiko expected Gaara to say something, but he didn't. Instead, she spoke again. "Do you want to play ball with me?" This time, Gaara almost fainted from overexposure. Was this a trap? What was this girl's intentions? They couldn't be bad, the sand was as still as ever around his feet. Nervously, he nodded his head and stood up, bear with him. "Come on then! Race you!" Emiko seemed to come more and more out of her shell as she spoke to him.

She began running towards the equipment, but Gaara held back.

"It's Gaara…"

"Gaara of the Sand!"

"Run!"

The kids playing ball began to run, but this time, it wasn't to get the ball into the goal. It was to run away from him. Their eyes were big and looking over their shoulders at him as if he would jump out and pounce on them, tearing, ripping at their flesh while they screamed.

They hate you. They run from you. They are afraid. You are nothing but a monster.

"Wait! Don't leave me alone!" Gaara shouted out, scared of the voice in his head. The evil voice that never let him sleep: Shukaku of the sand.

But they kept running, faster even when the sand nipped at their heels, but they weren't fast enough to outrun it. In only seconds, they were being dragged back to Gaara like sacks of flour, screaming for help. Gaara couldn't hear them though. Shukaku was filling his head with thoughts.

"I…" he began, the sand constricting around his captives. A wave of it washed to a girl while she screamed, but a brown and gold figure jumped in front of her, arms crossed across his face as the sand slammed into him instead of the girl. He let the sand fall as Gaara's eyes widened.

"Gaara, please calm down!" the older man said.

"Yashamaru…" Gaara whispered, eyes wide, realizing what had just happened. When he finally did realize, his jade green eyes went back to the sand-covered ground where they belonged.

Now Gaara saw a girl running from him again, only this time, he knew somehow that this was a good kind of run. She wasn't running away from him technically, but she was racing him. As he comprehended this, she realized that Gaara wasn't running with her. She stopped and turned around.

"Are you coming?" She called out. Finally, after so many years, Gaara managed a small smile on his lips. He began running after her.

Yep, there it is! Worked on it after Naruto on Saturday, and it's finally up here! Yayness! Anyway, please review!

Olivia