Yayz, Chapter one! I'm excited! Here goes nothing!!!

Before I do, I'd like to acknowledge those who reviewed the story….

aquamarine-acaia: Thank you! I totally appreciate it! Simplicity is bliss (especially when it comes to comments)

R&R is greatly appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

Enjoy!!

Fixing the Unfixable

Chapter one: Decisions and Confusion

Akari turned her attention back to Baki and her mother. " Y-you want me…..to join y-your squad!?" She asked Baki. He simply nodded. She made a strange noise that was a cross between a sigh and a squeak. ( Kinda like an "eep!" noise, but a little different. ) She didn't know what to do. Back home she was the only chuunin in her whole age level/ graduating class. So, this could definitely benefit her training and skills. But…..she didn't know if she could handle being around Gaara in the same group, let alone the possibility of bumping into him somewhere in the village.

She furrowed her brows, deep in thought, for about a minute. She finally spoke. "Could I have some time to decide? I'm sort of having a mental battle with myself at the moment, so I can't really give you an answer at the moment." She gave a weak smile, hoping she would get more time to think her options through properly.

"Of course. I want you to be certain of your decision. This is no light task. Please feel free to take as much time as you need. I would recommend getting to know the three of them better, to find out if you might work well with them." He smiled brightly at her. It was an odd thing to see, since you couldn't see half of it. Her thoughts once again traveled to what was under that mask…………

~*~*~*~*~*~

Akari was walking a little ways behind everybody else, so she could be by herself to think about her options.

'Well, the first option is to join their squad. It sounds great! Except for Gaara…..I just don't know if I could handle that voice of his too much. I've already practically broken down and started crying in front of him, who knows what will happen next time…

And then there's the other option, where I don't join their squad. That makes me feel more at ease, but my training level will probably stay the same. And I don't want to be at the level I'm at right now…I want to be at jounin level!' she sighed, stressed that it was so hard to figure out what to do.

'If only someone else could decide for me…Wait! no, I take that back. Please, no one decide for me. I

really want to decide for myself…..'She put her face in her hands, slowly dragging them down her face.

"What am I talking about? Have I gone completely insane?" She whispered so softly, that even if someone had their ear by her mouth, they wouldn't have known what she said.

She looked over at the siblings, just wondering what they were like. Then she focused on Gaara, having a strange urge to hear his voice again. 'Well, maybe it was just the way he said it that one time. Maybe that's not how he sounds normally.' She sighed. 'I sure hope so………….maybe I should go talk to him and the others, like Baki suggested.'

She hesitated a little before she walked towards the trio. Temari heard her when she was a few feet away from them. She turned around and faced Akari.

"Hey! I was wondering when you would come join us." She gave a sweet smile. Akari returned the gesture with a small one. She looked at the ground, before finding the right thing to reply with.

"Well, I had a few things on my mind that I needed to, um, sort out with myself. So, I was just trying to give my brain some breathing room, I suppose." She smiled lightly at her joke, while Temari lightly chuckled.

Kankuro was just staring at Akari throughout the girls small talk, until she noticed. Then he turned a little bit pink, while tried finding something interesting to look at that wasn't her, but ended up tripping over a rock and falling down. Temari burst out laughing, calling him a baka in between her breathes.

Akari smiled at how at ease she felt with the two siblings. She could see herself in their group, laughing alongside them.

She looked over at Gaara, who wasn't even paying attention to the scene behind him. He just kept walking as if nothing had happened. She furrowed her brows a bit. 'He's so distant from his siblings….I wonder why….'

Then it hit her. 'If he's so distant from his siblings, maybe he'll be distant with me. That way, I won't hear his voice too often, and I'll be able to train to be a Jounin! Alright then! That's settled. I am joining the group. Thank you Gaara!' A big smile grew on her face, now knowing how she would spend most of her time in Suna.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Akari and Temari, mainly Temari, talked most of the way to Suna. Kankuro would but in every once in a while if he found a line that he could make a move off of. He got hit on the head a lot during the trip. Gaara was still being silent, except once when Akari asked him something.

"Hey Gaara?" He glanced in her direction. She took that as his reply. "I know this is a bit random, and maybe a little rude, but I'm just so curious." There was a quick pause before she continued. "You are always so quiet. I'm just wondering why……" She looked at the ground, with her hand on the back of her head, embarrassed and wondering why she even asked.

Gaara didn't answer. It was just silent. Akari quickly added, "It's okay if you don't want to answer. I understand. Sorry that I asked; I don't know why I did in the first place. Heh." More awkward silence. Akari sighed. 'Why did I even bother to ask him that? Now he probably just thinks I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to keep her nose out of other people's business. And to think that I just wanted to have as little contact with him as possible. So, of course I ask him the question exactly opposite of what I mean to do. Sheesh! What's wi-' She was cut off by the sound of Gaara's voice.

"I grew up with no one wanting to be near me, and being shunned from my community. I have had many people try to assassinate me, with no success, obviously. So, I don't really trust people with my emotions. That's why I keep to myself." He stopped walking, and looked at her very intensely. " That's why I'm so quiet. Because no one wants to be with me. No one cares about what I think, or want, or need. I rely totally and completely on myself. And I'm doing just fine as I am." His hands were balled up into fists, and his eyes looked a little bit crazed.

She shuddered. Akari was actually feeling a little bit intimidated by this guy. And the worst part was that her hope of him not sounding like her brother had totally been demolished. His voice sounded even more like her brother now than it did before.

Gaara was breathing heavily, and for a while, he just stood there in front of her, his arms by side, his chest heaving a lot more than you think it would, and his eyes still as crazed as before.

Akari had been shocked by the outburst before, not understanding what was happening. Then she registered his voice, and her face went from surprise, to confused, to depressed. Finally she just closed her eyes, and let out a long slow breath. "Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to get used to it, then.' She frowned.

When she opened her, eyes, Gaara wasn't in front of her anymore. He was about fifteen feet in front of her walking away in a very big hurry, it seemed. Akari looked confused. 'When did he leave? I didn't hear him move at all…..'

She looked around, trying to re-focus her attention on something else. She ended up looking at Temari and Kankuro, both of them staring at her with their mouths open, their eye blinking, well, a lot. Kankuro was the first to speak.

"H-how'd you d-do that……" He said as he slowly raised his finger pointing towards Gaara's slowly disappearing body. He then looked over towards Gaara, then back at Akari, then back at Gaara, so on and so forth.

Temari's reaction was similar. She nodded in agreement to Kankuro's question, and continued to look between Akari and Gaara with as much fierceness as Kankuro.

Akari just looked even more confused than before. She had no idea what they were talking about. 'How'd I do what?!?! Make him mad? What does he mean?!'

She sighed. (She does that a lot.) She tried to collect herself so she wasn't worrying about Gaara anymore, or at least look like she wasn't.

"Kankuro, you have to be more specific than, 'How'd you do that?!' It would help to know what it is I did, for example." She tried to smirk at his and Temari's dumbfounded-ness, but it came out quite fake. They didn't seem to notice though.

Temari jumped in then, having collected herself by then. "What Kankuro meant was, how did you make Gaara so nervous? We can hardly ever do that, let alone someone that just met him! It's amazing!"

She gave a confused look to Temari once again, feeling very out of the loop. "What do you mean nervous? Since when is telling a stranger your life story, then getting really mad about it and storming off a form of nervousness?" She gave her a, 'You're kidding, right?' looks to Temari, who sent a, 'You're so naive!' look right back to her.

"Well," Temari started. "I guess ever since Gaara was born. Heh. I guess that's when it became a form of nervousness. Kankuro, who had been very, well, stupid looking during this time, decided he should join the conversation.

"Yep, pretty much. He even told me that he felt nervous once when he was acting like that." He nodded his head with his eyes closed as if it would Akari understand Gaara's strange ways. She just threw her hands up in the air, with a loud, "Ugh!" sound, giving up on the topic. She just kept walking then, running over to her mom and Baki.

Temari and Kankuro looked at each other, then Akari, then Gaara. Kankuro sighed, feeling slightly depressed, knowing that this time Gaara would win the price that Kankuro had been after.

Temari gave a small smile, understanding why Kankuro sighed. 'Don't mess this up Gaara. And don't ignore it either. You need this. It's what you've needed all this time. It's just like your forehead says.'

~*~*~*~*~*~

(AN: Well, there you go! I hope it was okay. I'm sort of confused as to where this is going, but I have a rough idea. So, if some of the things seem kinda random, I'm sorry about that. I'm doing my best!!

And please, feel free to review. I would totally love you forever!!! Well, unless it's a flame. I don't think I would love you. But you're totally welcome to give me advice!! I would love you then, cuz you'd be helping me! And I love people who are helpful!

And one more thing. This is really random, but I'm curious. I want to know what's most popular: Milk, Dark, or White Chocolate………You should totally say what you like best. Unless you don't like chocolate, then you don't have to. O_O

Well, that's it!!! Thanks for reading chapter one!!! Have a good rest of your day/night/twilight zone!!!!

Yours truly,

~dkmmarie1125~