A/N: So... Chapter 7, yeah? :D Read and review for a bowl of yummy ramen? :P

They were less than a day away from Suna when a sandstorm hit. Forced to find shelter, Gaara guided Emi to a small network of sandstone caves. The cave Gaara chose was small but the entrance was shielded from the ferocity of howling wind and whipping sand. Emi unpacked her bedroll as the sun began to set, crawling beneath the covers. Although the wind was hot, the temperature dropped to near freezing in the middle of the desert. Suna was surrounded by rock and earth so it retained some heat, but the areas straight off the sand plains were cold.

"How long do you think the storm will last?" Emi asked Gaara, sitting on the opposite side of the cave with his head turned towards the entrance. His arms were crossed, his gourd resting beside him. He didn't face her when he answered.

"It is close towards the end of the season. It should be clear in the morning."

Emi sighed, tucking one arm beneath her head as she faced him. The light was quickly fading and soon enough they were cloaked in darkness.

"Gaara sensei?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

Although she couldn't see his face, she knew he was probably frowning. "For what?"

Emi sighed. "I don't know exactly. It's not a single thing."

Silence stretched between them, the sound only broken by the tidal wave of wind thrashing angrily outside.

"You never ask what my bloodline limit is," Emi said softly. "Would… would you like to see?" She sat up, her sleeping bag drooping to settle at her waist. She took his silence as a yes.

Holding out her palm, Emi swirled her chakra, letting it flow freely and pool in the centre until she held an orb of soft, pulsating white light. The light was enough to illuminate her and Gaara in the small cave. His eyes were fixated on the rippling orb or chakra as Emi split it and wove it through her fingers like water until she moulded them back together again.

"The bloodline limit is called 'The Light' for a reason. I can harness pure white light and release it however I want, storing it as chakra. Full moon light seems to be the best. It can light up a room like this or I can intensify it to blind and burn." She split the orb in half and let it float towards Gaara. He eyed it with curious eyes, although his face was blank.

"It looks like moonlight," he rasped. Emi smiled. Her thoughts exactly.

"You can grasp it if you like."

After a moment's hesitation, Gaara reached up and Emi guided the white light towards his palm. The moment it made contact, the orb shivered, splitting into small streams to wind through his fingers like water.

"It ironic, don't you think?" Emi whispered, her focus now on her own glowing orbs which she was currently shaping into animals. "I can manipulate light, something so beautiful in its simplicity and yet my life feels anything but simple." Emi let out a dry chuckle before facing Gaara. Emerald met azure. "Why did you accept to teach me?" she asked suddenly.

"Why did you ask for me to be your sensei?" he countered calmly.

Emi frowned before she drew the tendrils of white light out of Gaara's fingers to join with her own before thinning it out to a glowing white sheet. She let the light wrap around her birth marked side, dimming it until her skin was all the same colour. For a moment, she could pretend she was the same as everybody else.

"I saw how the others looked at you," Emi admitted softly. "It reminded me of how others looked at me. I empathised, I guess. To have people fear or hate you because of what you look like or what's inside of you… No one should have to go through that alone."
Gaara was silent for long moments. Sighing, Emi let the light trickle off her skin to form into an orb once more, brightening it to illuminate the room. She spared a glance at Gaara. His face was unreadable. She averted her gaze.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"You challenged me."
Emi frowned as she turned her head back to her sensei. Wordlessly, she told him to explain.

"You protected a fellow student when others simply stood by. You faced me head on when others cowered. You trained harder than your peers and faced your fears. That's why I chose you as my student."

Emi blushed under his intense gaze, her light wavering a little before she settled it once again.

"Why did you become a ninja?" Gaara rasped.

Emi sighed before her light began to shrink until disappearing completely and plunging them into black once again. She shuffled into her sleeping bag and settled as much as she could on the cave floor. When she next spoke, her voice was soft and small. If she said the next words in the dark, it would feel as though no one was actually listening. She could pretend that Gaara wasn't there.

"At first I went to get away from home, but then I found freedom and acceptance. I want to protect what's precious to me. I… I want to protect you…"

The silence was deafening as Emi hid her face in her sleeping bag, not regretting her words but wishing Gaara would say something.

She drifted off into an uneasy sleep to nothing but the rushing winds.

The storm had passed overnight. The pace Gaara forced Emi to endure the next day was gruelling. He had woken her up before dawn had broken and told her to be outside in five minutes flat under threat of a torturously long training session. Emi couldn't say she was surprised. She had practically told him she liked him and he wasn't handling it well. She was his pupil, and her was her sensei. It was ridiculous to begin with.

But somewhere along the line Emi's feelings had morphed from admiration to infatuation. She wouldn't take a kunai through the shoulder for anyone. As soon as she saw that Takumi nin going to Gaara with a kunai, she had simply reacted in instinct, darting to intercept the blow. It wasn't until she pulled the knife out that she remembered Gaara's sand automatically protected him. But she still didn't regret it.

Sand kicked up beneath Emi's feet as she travelled a little ways behind Gaara. He was angry, she knew that much. And it was all her fault. She should have just spun the whole 'proud to serve Suna' drabble so many others answered with. But the truth was, she felt true freedom in being a kunoichi and had the Sand Siblings not taken her under their wing she would probably be dead either by her step fathers hand or her own.

Emi was pushing herself harder to keep up but still Gaara managed to pull ahead. She was silently cursing the Shukaku's chakra and the red heads stamina when a resounding crack rent the air. Emi barely had time to scream as she fell through the side of an abandoned caravan uncovered by the storm. She felt wood splinter and something pierce her side before everything went black.

Gaara knew he was pushing her hard, but he didn't know what else to do. Her small admission in the cave they sought refuge in made him confused, and confusion led to anger. He had sworn to himself that he would never be that monster again, the monster that killed for the sake of feeling alive. Instead, he poured his frustration into getting back to Suna as fast as possible.

Deep in thought he had pulled ahead of Emi slightly. A slight shift of sand made his eyes go wide and before he managed to stop, Emi's shriek cut through him like a knife. He spun on his heel and sped back towards her, the scent of fresh blood and old dust wafting up from inside the decrepit caravan. Gaara leapt down into the spacious, wooden caravan only to have his lungs seize and heart skip when he saw Emi unconscious, skewered on a splintered wood panel. His sand burst out of his gourd and cut the wood in a frenzy as he darted forward to cradle Emi to his chest. She was lighter than he thought.

Blood poured out of her side, wood chips still lodged in her flesh as he leapt back out into the desert, summoning a tidal wave of sand to propel him to Suna. He had never been more scared in his life as he searched her shockingly pale face for signs of life.