a/n – slight modification. Gaara asking questions seems a little desperate and OOC…in short, it's been fixed-ish.

(It's hella difficult to make Gaara nice w/o seeming OOC! Belive me, I'm trying my best, even if it doesn't seem like it . )

Chapter 6

The Kazekage walked solemnly down the street, a freshly killed hare wrapped in the brown paper package he carried in his right hand. Temari had requested that the recovering Kankuro be brought something 'nutritious' and this was all he could find. The market was empty, each store had but a few root vegetables and desert grasses for sale, meat was impossible to find and grain was a rare come by. How much had –

He was suddenly disturbed by the loud bawling of a child standing in the middle of the road. Gaara frowned as he scanned the perimeter, no one paid the child any attention and his guardian was seemingly nowhere to be found. He took a step toward the child but halted when he saw the brunette from the party of bounty hunters approach the small boy.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Oka-san. I can't find her!" he sobbed.

She patted the child on the head and picked him up, "come on, we'll go look for her" she reassured the child. She stood still as she scanned the street, pointing this way and that, only to be told 'no' each time. The boy began to sob once again, "I'm never going to find her again!" he cried.

"Shhh…that's not true" she reassured him. Gaara observed silently as she scurried down the street, poking her head into one stand after another – it appeared as if the mother was truly nowhere to be found.

"Hayato!" a voice called.

Rae set the child down, "mother's here!" she said with a smile.

"What were you doing with my baby?!" the woman snapped angrily.

"I was –"

"Stay away from my Hayato..." she snapped then tugged the child away.

The girl sighed softly and a sad smile spread over her face as she turned and walked away. Seeing this, Gaara approached her to apologize for the woman's actions. "Rae-san" he called out after her.

She turned around, "oh…Kazekage-sama" she said with a bow.

"I saw what happened…and I would like to apologize on her behalf…"

She smiled and shook her head, "it's quite alright; I would have been equally hostile had I seen my child with a complete stranger"

Gaara nodded.

"How is Kankuro-san?"

"He has made a full recovery"

Rae nodded then disappeared into the sparse cover of the crowd; Gaara walked on clutching the prized hare tightly in his right fist, unaware of the animal's warm blood slowly trickling down the back of his hand.

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Rae 'hunted' alone tonight. Forever stopping to scan the area around her, she little progress. Having properly learned her lesson from the attack several nights ago, Rae knew that she could no longer rely solely on being able to identify the presence of an anomaly. She also had to be able to overcome it….and if not, she at least had to be able to escape alive. In her present condition, anything more difficult than the assassin she had encountered three nights ago would prove to be problematic. And he was, at best, only chuunin level. She froze, having sensed a large pool of chakra approaching. It drew closer and closer still; she had to make a choice now: to fight or to fle –

"Rae-san!"

She breathed a sigh of relief, good God…

"Yes?"

"Hunting alone tonight?"

Rae nodded, "and yourself, Kazekage-sama, on patrol duty?"

He replied the affirmative and they walked on in awkward silence. Rae opened her mouth to speak but promptly decided against it and yawned softly instead. It was only when the silence became unbearable she finally asked her companion whether he had seen anything out of the ordinary thus far, to which he replied 'no'. Part of her wanted to find an excuse to send him away but another part of her insisted that she was safe in his presence. Rae decided she would trust the latter and dropped her guard.

"You suddenly stopped scanning the area, Rae-san"

"Hmm? Scan?"

Gaara nodded, "do you not send your chakra out in a circular wave around you?"

Rae nodded slowly, taken aback by his comment. I suppose he's not the Kazekage for nothing…she thought. Rarely, if ever, were people able to sense the minimal amount of chakra she spread out around her.

She nodded, "yes…I did"

"I had intended to ask you about that" he continued, "how is it done?"

Rae thought for a moment, "it's a simple matter of concentrating the chakra and letting it flow outward from the centre of your body" she explained, "even in minimal amounts, I find it wasteful and rather taxing"

The Kazekage nodded and took a deep breath. He's going to try it... Rae smirked. It had taken her nearly a year to perfect and another to be able to be able to sustain it for more than several minutes. But being one of such skill and capacity, Rae would not be surprised if he was able to perform it on his first try. He did…and it swept outward toward her. The sheer force of it stunned her, literally. "Wow"

"Not exactly like that, huh?"

Rae smiled, "slower and with less chakra" she said.

The second try was feebler than the first but still much too obvious, she explained, the object of the technique was to create 'waves' so minute that they were undetectable. "You still need to work on it yourself then, Rae-san" Gaara sneered. She stared him blankly then let out a soft chuckle, "of course, of course. Perfection is unattainable" she said, "it took me a year to reach your currently level of control. At this rate, you will surpass me in a matter of days, Kazakage-sama"

"But never reach perfection?"

She shrugged, "oh, I don't know. Kages are the best of the best…are they not?" after a short pause, Rae resumed her habitual tone of polite indifference, "I've disturbed you for too long, Kazekage-sama…"

"Not at all, Rae-san" he said with an uneasy smile, "thank you for your time"

Rae bowed and retreated into the shelter of the darkness. What the hell am I doing? She shook her head furiously to clear her mind of the unnecessary thoughts that now crowded her objective. She was beginning to grow too fond of this God forsaken place and much too fond of the Kazekage. Despite his cold and detached appearance, there was something fragile and tangible about him. She had sensed while he dreamt and again when she'd accidentally allowed herself to wander too far and delve too deep.

Rae pinched herself.

Here I go again…on and on about him…But what else was there to think about? Kai-san and how had sent that bastard after her three nights ago? It only aroused her anger and deepened her hate. Her mind still could not grasp the concept of how, and moreover, why he tried to kill (or frighten her, at least)? Rae wondered for a moment whether her growing infatuation with the Kazakage was simply a product of her hidden knowledge and discreetly boiling anger; her way of repaying Kai's 'kindly' gesture….

….what then? She would pursue her obsession and repay the deed in full. Suddenly the prospect of failing the task lost its frightening grip. After all, it was Kai-san who needed her, not the other way around. He would be a fool to let her die and a greater fool still to continue trying her patience and intelligence.