Wow everybody, I'm really sorry. I haven't updated anything (except Who Needs You?) since like...January. I'm really sorry. I'd make excuses, but the truth is, I lost my drive as a writer after my mom died. But I've come to realize that writing is the one way I have left to feel close to her, because she was a writer too. I'll be updating pretty much everything now, and I'm sorry it took so long, guys. Lots more to come!

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Gaara watched her go with surprise on his face that quickly turned to alarm. "Azami-!" He called after her, stretching out a hand. Immediately, he sent his sand towards her.

She, however, had no need of its help. She sprang backwards, barely avoiding the sword that slammed down onto the path where her head had been. A less experienced ninja would simply have gotten out of the way, but she sprang backwards, away from the sword and towards Gaara, the stronger of both of the two of them and her ally as well.

He reached out his arms and caught her, holding her shoulders from behind. "Are you alright?"

The tone in his voice upset her, and it upset her a lot. It wasn't that he had said it intending insult, because he hadn't. What upset her was how much he seemed to care, and also how weak he seemed to think she was. He had no right to care for her, since he had only known her for two days. In the same respect, he had no right to condemn her as weak when he hadn't even seen her in a fight. "Yes, Gaara, the precious, dependent kunoichi is somehow fine. I know it's hard to believe that I somehow managed to save myself from getting killed, but somehow, my weak, dainty little body had enough ninja skill in it to work." She spat, yanking her shoulders out of his grip.

He looked at her in surprise, taken aback. "T-that's not what I meant, Azami..."

She looked at his sad expression, feeling a mixture of regret and mild surprise. She had hurt the Kazekage's feelings? He mustn't be as established as she had heard. At the same time, though, the compassion that had always been circulating in Azami's blood took hold, and she felt regretful for what she had said. It wasn't his fault that he was surprised...she probably would have been too, had she been in his place. A beaten up girl from an assassinated village claims to be a ninja, cries in front of him, and tells him she would rather die than be alive. If she had been him, she would've been racing to save herself as well.

She let none of this show, though. She was a kunoichi, after all, and there was an enemy around. "We'll discuss this later, Kazekage-sama." She said briskly. "It appears this ninja has some business to attend to...or try to, at least."

Seeing that she was indeed correct, Gaara nodded, and they faced their assailant head-on. Expecting someone at least vaguely scary-looking, they were surprised to see a kunoichi standing there, all in pink and yellow. They looked at each other, and Azami raised an eyebrow. Then, the girl grinned at them, revealing a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth that dripped with blood.

Azami swallowed. "Something tells me that blood isn't from an animal..."

Gaara silently agreed, and added, "Human blood."

"Mmhmm." Smiled the kunoichi jovially. "And aren't you guys lucky? It's time for me to eat again."

'Something about her seems off.' Thought Azami. 'She's...I don't think she's right in the head.'

"Careful." Warned Gaara, murmuring in her ear. She blushed at his closeness, then mentally slapped herself for caring at all. "She doesn't seem to be mentally stable."

"Yeah." Azami turned her head so she was in his ear, accidentally brushing her lips against his cheek in the process. As the Kazekage turned beet-red, she whispered, "I know this kind. They're from the country south of Kawa. She's from a small clan that got kicked out of their village for cannibalism. Every generation has filed their teeth into that shape, but recently, the babies have been born with teeth already sharpened. When I say recently, I mean in the past thirty years. She's one of those babies. Crueler than the first generations, these ones don't just kill to eat...they kill for the fun of it. Also, they won't hesitate to use those teeth. If you give her one opening, she'll get you."

A still-red Gaara replied, "Do you know how they fight?"

Azami shook her head. "No one who has fought them is alive to know."

Gaara, now more solemn than before, looked away from Azami's face (or her lips, more specifically) and looked towards the cannibalistic kunoichi. She was grinning at them. "I see you're well-informed of my clan, little girl." She answered, not noticing nor caring when Azami's temple began to throb at her condescending attitude. "How cute that you possibly think you can win! My clan fights with-"

Gaara never knew what she was about to say, because just then, with a speed unrivaled in the shinobi world, Azami slashed her throat open. Gaara blinked in surprise, looking down to where she had been a millisecond ago to discover that it was indeed her. Wiping her kunai on the kunoichi's clothes, Azami stood up and turned to face Gaara from the twenty feet she had covered in less than a second. "Well. Let's go."

"Azami-" He began, about to apologize for however he had insulted her earlier.

"Walk and talk, shall we? We've wasted time here."

Obliging, he talked to her as they jogged at a twelve mile per hour clip. "Earlier, when I asked you if you were alright, I didn't mean that I thought you were weak." He said softly, not meeting her eyes. "I was just concerned for you."

She sighed, knowing that she had been in the wrong. "I know. It's alright. I guess I overreacted, Gaara. I just didn't want you feeling as though I couldn't handle myself when you hadn't even seen me in a fight."

He nodded. "I apologize once again, Azami. You were right...I shouldn't have said anything about it, and I definitely shouldn't have in the presence of that kunoichi."

Suddenly, Azami looked up at him. "Did I do it well?"

He looked at her, puzzled and raising a non-existant eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Killing her. Did I do it right?"

"Wait. You mean to tell me that she was your first kill?"

Azami blushed. "Well...yeah. That fight with the Sound ninja was my first fight ever. My village doesn't get many attackers, not like yours does. How did I do?"

"You..." He stopped, shaking his head. "You did amazingly. I can't say that I know any kunoichi who rival you at all, in any respect. Except maybe Sakura and Tsunade of the Leaf with their strength." He thought about it for a minute. "Will you do me a favor?"

She looked up at him questioningly. "What?"

"Punch the ground for me, as hard as you possibly can."

She looked at him oddly. "Why?"

"I'd like to test something, and this is the fastest way I know how to do it."

She shrugged. "Sure, if you want."

Gaara, by now expecting the very maximum from her, jumped into a tree at what he knew to be the inner edge of Sakura's range. He wasn't expecting her to reach him, seeing as how she didn't know how to use her chakra to attack, so he was calmly standing there. He was shocked when the tree he was standing on fell into the ground. He looked behind him to see just how far she had reached, and saw that the cracks in the ground had spread twenty-five feet behind him.

'Five yards more than Sakura, and without chakra manipulation?!' He thought. "What...what is she?"

Azami, meanwhile, picked herself up out of the hole she had created and looked at Gaara shyly.

"How was that?"

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There you go, guys. Review, please, and let me know how it is? Thanks!

~BD333, out!