Chapter three:
~*~Two Years Later~*~
Fenix had grown her hair out to her lower back and tied it up high. She, like Gaara, had graduated early but Gaara had grown colder. They were heading out for the Chuunin exams soon.
"Fenix, Oi, Are you finished?" She placed her Katana on, which it went sideways on her back hips so she can pull it out on her right side. With her Kunai pouch on her left leg she placed some exploding tags in it and some wire.
"Yes Baki-Sensei, Ne, I'm ready to go!" Baki smiled and petted one of her ears. Since that incident with her real father the Kazekage had given her to Baki for training but Baki and Fenix had grown to be close, like a family relationship. Temari had become her best friend and had many of the same interests. She often met with Kankuro to train with his puppets and she and Gaara usually just stayed up during the night. She was usually too energetic to sleep; either that or she would fall asleep next to him smiling. She still said 'Ne' at the end or middle of her sentences and she never hid her ears or tail. Proud to be what she is.
"Alright, lets go meet with the others then." He left the room and Fenix followed sniffing the air for Gaara's scent she found him instantly by disappearing in a whirlwind of leaves and sand. She appeared next to Gaara she smiled at him and he just glanced her way a small smile at his lips disappearing as fast as it came. The circles under his eyes looked worse.
"Gaara-Kun, Ne, Shukaku isn't giving you any sleep at all is he?" Gaara just sighed. "Ah… so I was right, Ne?" He glared.
"It is… None of your concern…" He looked away and she frowned at him.
"It is since you are my Friend, Ne!" He looked at her and gave a small slight smile and it quickly disappeared as Temari, Kankuro and Baki-Sensei came over.
"Fenix your Teleportation is getting better." She grinned she had found out that her Element was both Wind and Earth; Which gave her advantages over her one affinity weakness. Earth's weakness was lightning while Lightning's weakness is wind. But her largest weakness was Fire because of her Plants. So when she used her teleportation her affinities showed. A whirlwind with leaves and because of the desert some sand.
"Arigatou Gozaimasu, Baki-Sensei!" Baki smiled at her and he looked at the others.
"Remember our REAL mission while in Konoha… Understand? Gaara-San, No going out of control. Kankuro, Keep a low profile and do not let them see Crow. Temari, don't let them see your powers. And Fenix… Please… Just try not to make friends." Fenix flattened her ears showing her distress.
"Baki-Senseeeeeei, Ne!"
"No."
"Bu-"
"No."
"Why No-"
"No."
"Come o-"
"Fenix-San I said No." she grumbled after his comment and sighed heading towards the direction of Konoha the others followed. She made sure that her seed pouch was attached tightly. She grinned and rushed ahead running hearing their sighs at her childish act. She laughed and she looked behind to see them running after her. Gaara, due to the fact that he was the slowest with his gourd, made a sand cloud and jumped on it.
"Lazy ass!" she called and he just looked at her and shrugged. They continued running and in a few hours they reached the border of Wind country and Fire country. She grinned it was like the first time she ever came to Fire country on a mission to the Village hidden in the Grass.
Fenix, age 7, smiled as she skipped through the village hidden in the grass. It was a nice lush village but she saddened when adults glared at her. She stopped at a clearing to a nice field noticing a giant Venus flytrap. She ran over to it noticing that it was a boy in the flytrap.
"Hi, Ne!" the boy had two skin tones one pure white and one pitch black. His eyes were a golden color and his white side smiled showing a row of sharp teeth.
"Well hello. Go away." She gave a little frown and walked up to him. "Are you not afraid of me? That can be arranged if you aren't." his black side glared and she smiled and replied.
"Nope! I think your really cool looking… I'm not the best to see either. Are you alone?" she looked down and noticed that there was a small splint on a little plant she kneeled down at the plant. The mysterious boy tilted his head to one way watching what she was doing. She looked and saw there weren't many plants near this one. She smiled and put her hands on both sides of the plant her hands glowed a dark purple as she healed the poor plant letting it grow a little more so that it wouldn't break as easily. It was a sprout to a tree.
She removed the splint and put more of her powers to let it grow tall enough to be noticed and not stepped on. It was a small Sakura tree. But nothing else surrounded it. There was some moss but no flowers of grass surrounded the little tree. She pulled out some seeds and sprinkled them around the base using her powers to add a lush mild dark green grass around it. She let the moss grow a little onto the tree and then she took out some wild flower seeds sprinkling those she let those grow. The sakura tree swayed a little in happiness.
"H-How did you-What are you?"
"My name is Fenix and as people call me they say I am a demoness… I love plants and my special power helps them grow and heal and in turn they keep me company." She smiled then asked. "What's your name?"
"None of your busi-Zetsu, our name is Zetsu."
"How old are you Zetsu-San, Ne?"
"Why should we tell you? We are 15. You have to tell her everything?! She's Nice, Not to mention cute." Fenix blushed at him.
"My name is Fenix, Ne." she bowed still blushing when she heard her father's voice.
"Come on now thing we have to go." Zetsu growled a little and his black side looked surprised at his white side, the side that growled.
"S-Sayonara, Zetsu-San." She waved and he waved back as she ran over to her father. "Hai Chichi-ue?" he snarled and grabbed her fox ear tugging she Yelped in pain as he did a handsign for a teleportation Jutsu the last thing she saw was Zetsu glaring in anger at her father.
"Fenix, Are you… alright?" She looked over at Gaara who was next to her while she jumped he was still riding on his Sand cloud.
"Yeah I'm fine just remembering some things." She said smiling at Gaara. 'I wonder if I will see Zetsu again…' she jumped to the next branch still smiling. At about sunset they stopped for camp. Fenix didn't really like sleeping on the dirt so she summoned some Vines and large leaves for a bed letting the plants know they could go back to their original places when she was done. She left the camp to go out hunting for food. When she returned she had found and caught 5 medium sized rabbits and 2 large pheasants. She returned to camp handing them to Temari to cook.
She then looked around camp and saw Baki-Sensei hovering over a map, Kankuro polishing Crow, his puppet, and Gaara sitting near her sleeping spot she smiled at him and walked over sitting next to Gaara. It still surprised Baki, Temari, and Kankuro that Gaara let her that close to him without killing her.
"You okay Gaara-kun, Ne?" she looked at him worriedly. The circles around his eyes were getting worse and she was worried about her friend.
"I'm fine." He moved his teal eyes to hers and she raised her hand and touched the dark circles.
"These tell me otherwise, Why don't you try and sleep tonight, Ne, I'll keep watch over you. Shukaku-San knows I don't take his crap, Ne!" his lips curved at the sides a little smile forming. She grinned at him and he nodded.
"Alright." Gaara gave in; He knew she could keep Shukaku at bay because he didn't want to hurt Fenix.
"Don't worry Gaara-Kun, Ne! I'll do my best!" She gave thumbs up and closed one eye smiling. Temari called them over saying that everything was cooked and ready to be eaten. Fenix smiled and took her part of the food.
"Itakidamasu, Ne!" she said and started to eat Kankuro, Baki, and Temari said the same not as loud as Fenix and Gaara said his low enough for them to hear but not as loud as everyones. After the meal Gaara had the first watch so that Fenix could sleep some before he slept.