A/N-Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter-Kira, Gin-Inu and Karen-Chan for reviewing the last chapter. After some serious deliberation I have decided that I'm going to continue the story!…I have friends, namely the editors who read the raw copy as I wrote it who would kill me for not posting it after the contributed so many ideas…the story would have died after 10 chapters. Read and ireview…and in the reviews, as I stated in the first chapter, the reviewers can ask questions of the characters and they will answer…all in good fun.

Disclaimer-I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 4

"Thank you, have a nice day." Mika handed the customer their bag along with their receipt and smiled. When the customer was gone, she dropped her false cheery façade and let out a head-splitting yawn. Her luck was horrible…she had managed to land the morning shift after staying up super late. And while normally on Friday nights she was up late…she was never up as late as Kakashi had kept her up last night.

Kakashi. She still couldn't believe that she was thinking about that name in the context that…he was real. As this thought flew through her head she reached into her pocket and pulled out the small paper Shuriken. How could this flimsy thing protect her? She toyed with throwing it out but decided that such an action would probably only bring trouble. As she contemplated this, she was caught off guard when her supervisor, Rose, came up behind her and asked her to go and tidy up in the back of the store.

As she turned out her light and shuffled to the back of the store compliantly she was unaware of jade eyes watching her every move. In fact, it wasn't until she was wiping down a shelf with a cloth and came away with sand grains that she thought to look up. When she met his black-rimmed eyes she scowled deeply. Why the heck was he here? It wasn't like she needed to be watched…who was going to come after her?

She mouthed sharply 'Get lost before someone sees you.' He simply scowled before vanishing. As she turned back to the groceries, she couldn't help but take a leaf out of Nara Shikamaru's book as she thought 'How troublesome he is.' Her hand had barely touched the products, however, when she heard a scream which she recognized instantly. It was one of the cashiers. The scream was unceremoniously cut off and there was a muffled thump, which Mika distinctly recognized as a body dropping to the floor. 'Oh no…' she thought anxiously.

She made her way to the front, trying to keep as quiet as she possibly could. Luck was, for the first time that day, on her side. Four ninja stood at the front of the store, over Rose's limp body. Because of this, the attackers of the store were distracted and therefore didn't notice her presence. As one-by-one she happened to see their forehead protectors she noticed something.

Every single protector had a single slash across the middle. Something like that only meant one thing. These were all missing nins.

"What, precisely, did the informant say?" asked one, obviously the leader. "He said that the one who we seek-the last surviving member of the Yourusashi is a close friend with the one of the ones who carries a demon. Her friend doesn't know about the demon however, which will work in our favor as long as we don't let on about it. And in finding Yourusashi, we will kill 2 birds with one stone. We will find the demon vessel and we will gain the powers of Yourusashi."

'They're talking about someone who carries a demon…they're forehead protectors are slashed…could they be members of Akatsuki?' thought Mika as she tried to formulate a plan. She reached into her pocket for the shuriken. 'I hope that Gaara and Kakashi were right about my trait responding to me when I'm in danger, even if I'm untrained.'

"But I see noone hear who matches the distinctive description that matches Yourusashi…black hair and hazel eyes." Mika froze. 'They want me…?'

Mika focused her energy onto the piece of paper in her hand. 'Please let this work…' she thought desperately. Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, she felt a large amount of power surging through her. And with this, the paper she was holding grew heavy in her hand. "Oh my…" she whispered in awe.

Next she, aware of how little time she had, attempted a second jutsu, based on what she had seen on the show-the Kage Bunshin. She managed to produce one clone of herself. Thankfully the shuriken duplicated as well. Her clone ran around to the other aisle.

On her signal, her clone threw the shuriken… and it landed in one of the ninja's necks, killing him almost instantly. With a poof her clone vanished as the leader threw a kunai through it. "A Kage Bunshin. She's here somewhere. Come out…Yourusashi."

Mika wasn't about to give up her position as having the element of surprise…there was advantage to that. Therefore, she waited until the nin was almost upon her and she leapt out and attacked with her one remaining shuriken.

She fought until the enemy managed to restrain her-not for long, in other words. "So you're the one who has the supposed 'rarest bloodline trait'? I was informed that you hadn't been trained in chakra control…how did you produce that pathetic looking clone?" Mika shrugged. "Don't ask me, I have no idea. It could have something to do with the fact that my bloodline reacts to when I'm in danger." "I see…" drawled the leader. "And tell me…do you know which of your friends is the carrier?"

This left Mika puzzled. "The carrier? I have no idea what your talking about." The enemy nodded. "Very well. Then you are of no further use to me." Without warning, he whipped out a kunai and sent it at Mika. She attempted to jump out of the way-not in time.

The kunai embedded itself in her leg, deeply. She hissed in pain and sank to the floor of the shop on her knees. A shaking hand rose to where the kunai was embedded in her leg, blood smearing on her hand. Her face was white and her entire body began to shake-hard.

A little know secret about Mika was this-she loathed the sight of blood. Unless it was on TV and she knew it was fake. But when it was real and it was coming out of her body. She hated it.

She pulled herself to her feet by supporting herself on a shelf. While she was attempting to stand, the three Akatsuki members had surrounded her and were preparing to kill her. It was at this moment, when all seemed lost when enemy nins were preparing to take her life that she remembered-the bottle. The small bottle of sand that Gaara had given to her earlier.

"You know what?" she said to them, her face hidden behind her black bangs. "You guys are cowards…you know that? Not only has every single one of you betrayed your village-and I hate traitors-but there are three fully trained ninja against an untrained one who is no higher than a Genin-not even. Only cowards would take those odds. Unfortunately for you, I have a very powerful ally."

As Mika finally got to her feet, she raised her hand several inches off of her pant leg. The ninjas tensed at what she was going to do but were confused when she did no more than slam her hand against her bad leg.

The glass cut into her and caused her to wince. She could feel the sand filter out of her pocket and onto the ground where it would definitely soak up a bit of her blood.

He was sitting on the roof of the store sensing nothing, feeling nothing. And then, blood.

The rouge nins looked around and, seeing no one, looked back at her. They were more than a little confused, however, when between them and her, stood a red-hared ninja with a gourd on his back and black rings around his eyes. The smirks that had been building on their faces from the lack of reinforcements died a quick death when they recognized who it was.

"Three on one? Not fair odds." He hissed. Sand slid out without a warning and within a minute the ninja from Akatsuki were dead.

As soon as Gaara let her, she ran over and checked Rose's pulse. Still alive. The other cashiers looked at her, dazed. "I'm going home." Rose's second-in-command, Carole, nodded dumbly, as Mika turned to leave. As she glanced over her shoulder at the door, she noticed that Gaara was forming rapid hand seals. A mind-erase Jutsu. As soon as this was done, and the bodies were taken care of, he was out the door and walking behind Mika.

With every step the Yourusashi took, blood dripped onto the ground. The kunai wound was deep and, Gaara was sure, it was causing her pain. But he couldn't help but admire her. She had just used her bloodline trait for the first time. She had fought against members of the Akatsuki (Gaara remembered one of them from his…brief stay with the rebel gang.) and she had come close to winning. Because of this newfound, fragile respect, the fact that she was walking in pain and bleeding out with every step didn't sit well with him.

"You are aware of how much blood that you are losing?" he said stoically. Mika she ignored him for as long as she could before he repeated his question, forcing her to answer. "I'm fine. I'll survive. But I must know…why didn't you help me if you were watching my every move?" she demanded, her voice rising with every syllable. "I. Went. Outside. As. Soon. As. You. Told. Me. To. Leave. How could I have know?" he demanded. "Well I don't need your help."

This amused Gaara. The girl was bleeding out and she insisted that she didn't need his help. 'She's stubborn. Might as well.' He thought.

Mika was caught off guard when she was scooped up bridal style. As her black hair settled back down from the sudden disturbance, she realized that it was Gaara who now held her.

"Thank you. And I'm sorry for yelling at you." She said semi-stiffly, a little uncomfortable at being held in the arms of a murderer. Gaara merely went "Hn." Caught off guard that she had apologized.

Knowing, that from Gaara at least that a Hn was the best 'your welcome' she was going to get from him, she nodded off as the Demon of the Sands carried her home.

A/N-There be the fourth chapter. Review!