"Shadow and Sand"

(A/N): What should I say? Ah! One thing for those who read all my stories, sorry about the delay on "Secrets of the Uzumaki". I'm having a writer's block on that one. It's about my favorite pairing, so I want it to be good.

Disclaimer: Do donkeys fly?

Chapter 4

"Shadow Dancing"

I haven't seen Temari and Kankouro for a week now. It looks like they got caught up in something in Konoha. I didn't like the thought though. It meant that I had three more weeks to spend with crutches, with only Gaara for company, which he wasn't really good at doing mind you.

It was around 10 in the evening when I decided to spend the night on the rooftop. I liked the weather that evening and I hadn't been out since that incident 7 days ago. I quickly put some decent clothes on, tied my hair up as neatly as I can, and then I made my way to the rooftop, careful not to make too much noise with my temporary wooden crutches.

It was peaceful. Something I was not very used to. I liked chaos and stuff like that, but I also liked having my share of quietness, so this is not all that weird to me. I breathed in softly, closing my eyes and concentrating onto my shadow. As soon as I knew I was ready, I opened my eyes and looked down. I smiled happily as I realized that my old habit and talent was still in me.

Shadow dancing.

I would do this every time I felt positive, making my shadow grow large, and letting it dance gracefully on whatever was below me. Let it be grass of concrete. I loved doing it.

I remember when I was around 11 years old, I would sit with Ino and Hinata and we would all share our abilities in a graceful presentation, of course, one that no one would see.

Hinata would sing melodically, seeing that that was HER talent.

Ino would play the flute calmly, since she loved it and she was so good at it too.

And I would let my shadow dance with both the song and the tune, letting the whole thing actually turn out quite amazing. I miss doing that.

So as I let my mind fly back through the beautiful moments in my past, I let my shadow dance freely, hands gracefully waving in the air, and feet moving in pattern with every swing of the arm.

I watched intensely at the dancing shadow, my eyes ignoring the fact that my mind was telling it to pull away and to mind my own business. It was… I don't know how to explain since I have never commented anyone on anything before. But all I could say was that the dance was worth seeing, even I couldn't take my eyes of it.

I closed my eyes in disturbance, trying to push away any thoughts that were trying to register in my mind about the shadow AND the girl behind it.

I did the one thing that would help, I think… go out there and confront.

"You can't dance like that?"

I asked the girl coldly, my eyes still on the swaying shadow.

I thought that the dancing would stop as soon as the girl heard my voice, but to my surprise it continued, not bothered at all with my existence.

"No."

Came the simple and calm reply. I glanced back at the Nara, my face void from any emotion. Her face was calm and soothing; she was sitting politely, legs crossed and eyes on her dancing shadow. It didn't look like she was mad at me so I figured that I'd try something. I liked the way the shadow looked anyways, so I thought I'd make it look even better.

"Stretch and make the shadow of my sand bigger."

I said in mono tone, standing a few feet away from the shadow user.

"Why?"

"Let it over lap your shadow."

I ignored her question and continued to tell her what to do.

"Should I make it thin?"

She asked calmly, not bothered with my somewhat mean tone.

"Mhm."

I controlled the sand in my gourd and let thin waves play in my hands. The moment it was out, the girl made its shadow over lap her dancing one and made it thinner.

"Let it stay like that and do not control it, and let yours continue dancing." I ordered one last time, glancing briefly at the girl sitting beside my standing figure. I sat down and let the sand in my hands play around each other, knowing that as soon as the Nara returned to watching the shadow, she was indeed happy.

It was amazing. My shadow was still dancing gracefully, but something was new. As my shadow did even better moves than before, thin yet seeable waves surrounded it, making the image seem like my shadow was dancing either with water or sand. And it was believable too. It looked so wonderful.

It was graceful, beautiful, and sad too. The dance was slow so it made it look like a dance someone would do if she was down.

I glanced back at Gaara beside me, of course not too near, and to my surprise; he looked serious at what he was doing. His eyes were fixed onto the shadows while his hands played with the sand that came out from his gourd. I want to know why he was doing this; I want to know what made him actually come up here to talk to me. But again, all I was able to do was to thank him. I didn't want him mad at me again, and I certainly didn't want any more bones broken.

"Arigato."

I whispered out half kindly, my eyes returning to watch the shadows.

I didn't expect a response so when he said,

"Don't thank me.", I was surprised. Although it was not a "you're welcome" or even a meaningful "whatever", he still replied. This was not him really. Or at least the Gaara that I knew and hated.

I smiled to myself and continued to watch for half an hour. I didn't even get near being bored and by the looks of it, neither did Gaara, or else he could have gotten mad and screamed at me for wasting his time or something like that. But this WAS a bloodline and it used chakra, so I had to stop at some point.

"Gaara? My chakra's almost done. I'm going to stop now."

I looked back at Gaara to see if he got annoyed by what I said, but before I could even turn around, he had already stopped and returned his sand into his gourd and he was walking away towards the stairs that leaded back into the house.

"Sleep."

He said coldly, not bothering to look back from where he was heading.

I nodded silently, and stopped my bloodline from working, letting my shadow shrink back to normal. As I closed my eyes and readied myself to sleep up on the rooftop, I smirked happily.

Sabaku no Gaara was changing.

May: CHAPTER 5, HERE I COME!!!!

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