Human

The night before would have seemed incredibly boring to anyone watching the young medical-nin. None of them understood it. They couldn't comprehend the fascination, the intrigue that filled her, just crouching down upon a high rooftop and watching him. Watching the stillness of his form, the coldness in his eyes, and the murderous intent that raged off of him on certain nights. It was as close as she'd ever get to being with him. And if that was all she could get, then so be it. She couldn't bring herself to actually encounter him. But, at the same time, she could never get her mind to forget about him, and leave him completely.

She couldn't leave him completely alone.

So, she stayed that night, watching him as he stared up into the moon in complete silence, totally still. She was used to it. On her first time, she had thought him dead or asleep – something. Now, she as accustomed to it. In fact, it worried her whenever he moved about Suna. Those nights, were the times his body radiated murder.

Watching him kill was strange… It was, though horrible to say, refreshing. Though the vision was never welcomed, the look on his face afterwards made her… Happy. There was feeling, and emotion, though only glinting there for a moment. It was soon after witnessing his messy killings, that she realized how much she really missed him. She didn't care about the people he killed, who would miss them, who would cry for them, or who would suffer over the loss. As long as she could see something in his features, she was happy.

It made her sick to her stomach.

Even now, watching that exited glint in his teal eyes, made her insides squirm, while a smile curved her lips. Slowly, her eyes moved away from the man's covered form, and returned to his face, jus watching, and ignoring the clamping of his fist. Following soon after, blood splattered, and the emotion seeped away.

Akemi sighed softly, closing her eyes, and gripping the branch, on which she was now crouched. The Sand Siblings of Sunagakure had been gathered early that morning to be sent on a mission. Obviously, it was nothing big, as they traveled without their sensei, a common occurrence. Gaara, of course, had just completed said mission in exactly one hour, if not including the time it took them to travel this far.

"Good, no we can start heading –" the oldest of the three, Temari, had begun to speak, only to be stopped quite abruptly but a normally silent Gaara.

"Not yet," he stated shortly, his voice cold and commanding. Even if he was merely their baby brother, the older two went silent, looking to him as if waiting an explanation. Of course, the red head didn't give one.

This wasn't uncommon, in all truth. It was often, normally after Gaara had killed, that he would sense Akemi's presence about them. He always managed to stop dead in his tracks to search for her. Surely it had begun to unnerve his siblings, but it wasn't often that he cared for what they thought.

Kankuro, as expected, was the first to pop. "What the hell – You need to get over your damn paranoia. Let's go, we can get home before it gets late if we leave –"

"Not yet," Gaara repeated, breaking his brother off this time. This only angered the purple-faced boy more.

"Hell, Gaara! There isn't anything – or anybody – here!"

The younger brother seemed to be ignoring his rant, his eyes having already focused to the thinner branch Akemi perched. Her black rimmed eyes narrowed into a heated glare, looking right at her but seeing nothing. He knew something was there, and it angered him.

Without a second thought, sand had enveloped him, a move Akemi recognized the moment it had begun.

Her red eyes narrowed, darting to the side as sand gathered upon the very branch she sat. Processing what was about to happen quickly, her body shifted slightly, then pushed off, her knees straightening to throw herself off the branch and to another.

Below, Temari's eyes were wide. She'd seen the sudden movement, and no doubt, Gaara had to.

Akemi's heart raced, the calm, collected thought that was needed to keep the jutsu in tacked was slowly slipping away from her troubled mind. She needed to settle down. Gaara couldn't follow her movements, as long as nothing around her gave it away. The branch had to be too thick to move and…

And his eyes had already shifted down; staring at Akemi with anger, she had not seen in some time. Gaara was watching her, without actually seeing her. His eyes almost seemed to be able to dig holes into her red irises.

"Kankuro," Temari muttered from below, capturing the middle brother's attention. His eyes cast to her, questioning her. "Look."

Kankuro wasted no time, lifting his gaze to follow her own, until they froze upon the figure high into the trees. Shadowed as a silhouette, they could only make out the outline, but to their brother, looking down upon the figure, he could see everything.

It only took a moment for Akemi to realize Gaara was digging holes into her eyes. He could see her. And he recognized her. She didn't know if she should be happy about it, or scared. Her insides squeezed, her body acting on it's own. Pushing itself off the branch, it turned landing and flinging itself away again, away from them, and away from him.

Until finally, her shadow was gone, the older siblings left to gawk after her, while the youngest merely stared. It wasn't common for Gaara to be caught off guard or confused. And even now, no one would know about it, with his cold face twisted to stone.

By the time Akemi had managed to get her body to stop, hours had past, and night had set in. Sitting across the branch, the forest creaked and moaned with sounds, animals chirping and moving about as they found a place for the night, or were just leaving their homes for the nightly meal.

Whichever it may be, the darkness seemed full of life.

Breathing in a large breath, she let it out slowly. Even after so long of movement, her body hardly felt tired. Her mind, however, was another story. It craned, and thumped with pain from its racing thoughts. That alone made her feel warn out.

She needed to sit, and think, and sort it all out. She needed company… She wanted food…

There was only one place to go.

"Eh, I thought you' be back early this time," he murmured, sitting at his normal place before the fire, his legs folded before him as he lounged there. Glancing up at her form across the fire, he grinned wide in greeting.

Akemi smiled in return, though it had no meaning behind it, and nodded her head in silence. Moving around the flames, she came to a sit beside him.

"Always a clever one, Daichi. Always easy to find to," she commented softly, glancing at the brown-haired boy from the corners of her eyes. He was clever, though his way of acting would never show it. He could have been a scholar if he just tried. But, of course, he'd waste that in this forest and deserts and God knows where else, wandering as if he had no purpose. She shook her head inwardly at the thought. "Have anything to eat?"

The older boy didn't skip a beat, reaching into his bag and tossing her an apple in one fluent motion. She caught it just as easily, taking to no time to bite into the smooth texture. Again, silence.

It stayed that way for some time, the forest, fire, and occasional crunch the only sound. Slowly, Daichi spoke up, his voice suddenly serious. "I ran into some ninja today," he commented. Another long silence passed, this time, not a sound escaped from either of them.

"Oh? What happened?" She asked slowly, trying to sound uninterested. Of course, it didn't work well.

"There were three of them. Our age, I think. Probably genin. But they seemed dangerous. They stopped me in the forest when I tried to pass."

Akemi's eyes had stopped upon her young companion, watching his features and waiting for him to continue. Seeing this from the corners of his own eyes, he did.

"They said they were searching for someone, likely a spy to the three. Well, the girl did anyway, she did most of the talking."

Her eyes closed, and for a moment, she questioned Daichi's loyalty. Though smart, he was also a bit of a coward. If they seemed to be a possible threat, he may have told about her… The could only hope he wasn't.

Suddenly, a chuckle broke her thoughts, causing her eyes to fly open and look to him again. "No worries, Akemi," he spoke softly, placing a hand upon her shoulder in a friendly manor. "I told 'em I hadn't seen anyone since my friend – you – left a few weeks ago. I think the red head was suspicious, but they left any way." He shrugged carelessly, grinning again.

Akemi chuckled softly, elbowing his side affectionately. "Knew I could count on ya, Daichi."

Just then, his eyes suddenly darkened, his face falling. "No, you were worried I'd betrayed you," he muttered. Another thing with Daichi: his mood could shift easily. "Akemi, I like to call you a friend of mine, a companion. You have helped me more way then one, and saved my life more then once. I have yet to repay you, and I wish I could. But… I don't know how," his head tilted back, his black eyes looking up into the sky. "When I'm around you, we're so close, yet you look so distant to me, Akemi-san. Your sentences are short, if you talk at all. You never sleep down here, around the fire, even though it'd be warmer. It's like… You don't trust me."

"Daichi, I –" she began, raising her hand to place it on his shoulder. He merely shrugged it off, shaking his head.

"No, let me finish, Akemi-san." Her mouth had opened to say something else, then closed, to allow him to continue. "You're so kind, and so friendly. Even when someone attacks you, you refuse to kill them, right? You've never hurt someone that bad, have you? You show everyone that kindness and respect, and you always manage to smile, even to the meanest of people. Yet, your eyes… They show so much pain and sorrow, like your heart aches sometimes. That's when you seem most distant, you know. You seem lost. And I want to help you find your way out… But I can't do that. You won't let me. You won't let me in. It hurts me, now."

For a second, she thought he was done. Only to have him start again once he had taken in a few quick breaths.

"You won't tell me why they were looking for you, and you won't tell me why you always look so far away. You won't share your thoughts or memories or anything. I want to know so bad… I really care about you, Akemi. And I need to know if you feel the same… Or how you feel at all," he finally finished, his head dropping between his shoulders as he hunched forward.

He listened as the sound of movement reached his ears, guessing she had stood up. It grabbed at his attention, forcing his head up to look directly into the young, scarlet eyes. "Yet, Daichi, I have hurt someone like that. Someone I cared for deeply. I won't allow that again. I won't get close to you, because being close to you will only get you hurt. I feel trapped, right now. That's how I feel." His body seemed to flinch, the coldness of her voice getting to him. Inside, her body did the same, yet outside she kept her stone cold look. Watching Gaara over the years must have taught her something.

She was glad. She needed to do this now.

"I feel I have to be this way. I have to push people away. If I let you in, you get hurt. That's how I show I care. Ignorance is the only way I can save you, right now." Taking in a sharp breath, her hand reached out, placing its palm upon his warm forehead.

His eyes quickly closed, as if trying to remember the simple touch and the cold chill that ran from her fingertips.

"You're… cold," he murmured, mainly to himself. Akemi nodded, nonetheless.

"My body is numb. I have a heart, I have blood, I have skin… Yet my body is cold. What kind of human am I, if I make others flinch from a mere touch?" her hand pulled away, lowering to her side as her body lifted into a stand. "The only answer I can think of is I'm not human. Forget about me, Daichi-kun. I'm not worth it."