Changed
Chapter 11

Tetsumari woke up the next day and saw the rose Gaara had given her from the night before lying near the teddy bear he had given her the previous year that was always close to her.

"Gaara…" she thought solemnly, "I hope you're okay…"

Tetsumari got off her futon and placed the rose in a vase with cold water in it. She then went to go wash up her face and changed to meet Granny in the kitchen for breakfast.

"Hey dear! Did Gaara come back?" Granny asked.

"Yeah… but he had to leave again…"

"Why?"

"He had to go to war ..."

"What?! Are they crazy! He's only 7!"

"I know…" Tetsumari looked down at her food and tried to eat some, but failed to, "Those people don't care about anything more than themselves…"

"Cheer up, he'll be back soon," Granny continued to eat her food.

"Be back soon Gaara… I'll be waiting for you," Tetsumari thought to herself.

A year has passed by and Gaara still hasn't come back yet. Tetsumari has been spending most of her time training by herself or with Granny. Other times would be spent with Temari and Kankurou like old times.

"Hey Tetsumari, let's go eat," Temari exclaimed.

"Okay," Tetsumari was out with Temari and Kankurou again after academy school like always. She was still feeling miserable that Gaara hasn't come back yet; Tetsumari just wished that she could at least know if he was alright or not.

"She's been acting so down since Gaara left," Kankurou whispered to Temari.

"Shh!" Temari whispered back noticing that Tetsumari was walking away now, "Don't say anything about Gaara or she's going to get worse!"

"Okay!" Kankurou snapped back. They caught up to Tetsumari and tried to cheer up. Soon, they were turning the corner to where the restaurant they usually eat was at.

"What would you like?" A waitress asked as they took their seats. Temari, Kankurou, and Tetsumari ordered. When the waitress had left, Temari eyed for Kankurou to leave them alone for awhile so she could talk to her.

"Be right back, I need to use the restroom real quickly," Kankurou said with a smile as he walked towards the men's room. Now, it was just Temari and Tetsumari who was quiet for awhile.

"You okay Tetsumari…" Temari asked, "I'm worried about you."

"Yeah… It's just, so different without having him around anymore and even if it was going to take another year I'd wait, but I just want to know if he's okay or not… I miss him…" Tetsumari spilled everything out to her best friend.

"I'm sure he's okay and that he'll be back soon so don't worry about it."

"How do you know?"

"Because he's my brother and also because he will for you; he'll do anything for you." Temari smiled at Tetsumari who was feeling better.

"Thanks Temari," Kankurou came back from the restroom and walked over to their tables. They talked for a little, but not as much until the food had came out. When they were all full, they paid for their food than split up to head for home. Tetsumari walked home by herself reminiscing all the time she had with Gaara, especially the first time when he first offered to walk her home. She thought about all those days until she got home.

"Hey Granny…" Tetsumari greeted as she walked through the front door.

"Hey dear," Granny said back

"Where are you going?" Tetsumari had noticed that Granny was putting on a coat and was carrying her bag that she usually brought around for missions. It had ointments and all the supplies that she would need,

"One of my good friend is sick so I'm going over to help her. I made dinner already; you'll just need to warm it up than it'll be all good to eat."

"Oh okay, take care." Tetsumari gave her a hug and kiss on the check before she left, "When will you be back?"

"Oh, I don't know, but watch the house okay. Love you dear," Granny smiled at her suspiciously and waved goodbye as she head off.

"Granny's acting strange…" Tetsumari thought and went to the back, outside of the house to train for awhile. After she was too exhausted to move, she lie down thinking about the last time Gaara and her were there, it was also the day Gaara had to leave on that dumb mission.

After she rest up and was finished thinking, she went inside to wash her sweaty body. When Tetsumari was finished and walked out the restroom, she had realized that there was a fresh bright red rose lying on her futon. It was just like the one Gaara had given her the last time she saw him.

"Huh?" Tetsumari wondered confused while picking the rose up to smell it.

"Tetsumari…" she heard a familiar guy's voice calling out to her from behind. Tetsumari could recognize that voice from anywhere and immediately turned around to see Gaara.

"Gaara! Is that really you?" she said running up to him with tears of joy in her eyes.

"Yes, we are finally finished. It took awhile to sign an alliance treaty."

"Oh… are you okay though?"

"Yes."

"I'm so glad you're back," Tetsumari smiled up at Gaara, but when she looked at him, she noticed that something was different about his eyes they looked cold and scary. Tetsumari backed away from him and looked away, but didn't want to say anything.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come back any sooner," Gaara apologized.

"It's okay…" Tetsumari went to put the rose where the other rose Gaara gave her was, "You must be hungry, let's go eat."

"Okay," Gaara followed her.

"Granny's not here right now, so it's just you and me," Tetsumari said as she walked towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, she's helping all the other men that were injured."

"What, she told me…" Tetsumari now understood why Granny was acting weird; it was because she had known all along, "Oh never mind."

Tetsumari heated up the food and set the table then sat down to observe how much Gaara has changed. Tetsumari could feel his eyes looking at how much she had changed also. It has only been a year and they were now 8, but they still had changed quite a lot.

"I missed you a lot Gaara…" Tetsumari said.

"I did too…" Gaara gave her a smile, but it wasn't the same. It was even more different than the smiles he use to give her after the incident with Yashamaru. When they finished eating, they both went up to the roof to reminisce old times.

"I'm glad you're back," Tetsumari said again.

"It was a promise after all. Remember, I promised I'll be back for you. That was the only thing that motivated me during the bloodshed," Gaara got closer to Tetsumari to let her lay her head on his shoulder.

"Thanks Gaara," she said turning around to give him a hug and kiss on the forehead. Soon, she fell asleep so Gaara took her to her room and laid her down on her futon.

Couple months had passed by and it seemed that Gaara had gotten more and more over protected. One day, they both went out to have a walk around the village.

"Hey! Watch it punk!" A drunken guy yelled after he bumped into Tetsumari and pushed her down than mumbled to himself, "Kids these days…"

Before the guy could walk away, Gaara stopped him with his sand that was wrapped around his legs.

"Gaara!" he yelled almost crying, but Gaara didn't care and continued with his move.

"Sorry! Sorry!" He screamed, Gaara just gave him an evil smirk. Tetsumari got up and hung on Gaara.

"Stop it Gaara! It's okay, please stop!" Tetsumari yelled holding onto him, but it was too late, the guy was crushed and killed.

"He deserved it," Gaara said coldly and walked away after Tetsumari had let go of him. They began to walk back to Tetsumari's house.

"Gaara…" Tetsumari said breaking the long silence.

"Yeah?" Gaara replied not even looking.

"Why did you do that for?" she asked angrily.

"It was his fault," he said plainly.

"It wasn't that bad though!"

"I made you a promise Tetsumari…"

"I know, but I can watch myself too, you don't always have to be there for me. I know you want to keep me safe, but you take it too far sometimes Gaara… and it scares me…" Tetsumari looked down and stopped in front of the door. Gaara stopped too and looked at her.

"You're different now…" she said and walked inside not even bothering to look up at him. Gaara followed her inside as she walked towards the back where they train. Tetsumari tried to take out all her anger and sadness out as she trained while Gaara watched her.

"You know… you use to always smile and laugh when we hang out, but ever since you came back, I never see you do that anymore… You're always serious now…" Tetsumari said letting her back face Gaara. Hot stream of tears began to roll down her face.

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't mean it'll stop me from protecting you," Gaara stated.

"Yeah, but can you just listen to me sometimes," Tetsumari cried. Tears were pouring even more out of her eyes. Gaara walked over to face her.

"Can you?" Tetsumari repeated softly.

"Okay," he replied. Tetsumari smiled and hugged him than gave him a burning soft kiss on the lips that had surprised them both of them.

"Thanks Gaara…" she whispered, "I love you…"

"I love you too…" Gaara hugged her tighter never wanting to let go under the beautiful night.

Author's Note: Well there will be some changes in this story, I'm thinking about changing the names and the ending of if a little. So sorry if you get confused when I put up Part II just bare with me " I realized that some of the names didn't make sense so I had to change it. And by the way, the next part; Part II: Our Separte Paths, will be up as soon as I finish changing some things up in here. My appologies for not changing everything before I posted it up. Thank you, enjoy and review!