A/N: I was going to make you all wait, but I couldn't do that to you so here's the next chapter. Oh and thank you to all of you who made the sound ninja when I asked, they really helped! And I'm starting another story so please tell me if that ones any good! This chapter is slightly gory in this part.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 11

Gaara was standing in the middle of the dessert alone, returned to the familiar body from his childhood. But this time the desert was different; the sand was red and burned his skin as the wind kicked it up. He looked around; nothing was insight, until his eyes landed on a cloaked figure. The only thought Gaara had was that he needed to reach that person no matter what. Sprinting as fast as he could across the sand he reached the figure and pulled lightly on their cloak.

"I'm lost can you help me find my mommy?" Gaara asked, his mind going completely blank, except for the fact that he had to find his mother.

The cloaked figure turned around and held out their hand, Gaara gladly took it. The two people walked in silence through the dessert and no matter how many times Gaara whimpered as his skin was singed by the flaming dessert sand the stranger never slowed down and continued to lead him. Soon enough Suna was within their eyesight, and the stranger seemed to speed up.

As they entered Suna, silence enveloped them, not even the wind blew. Gaara looked around frantically for anyone other then him and the stranger. Letting go of the stranger's hand he looked for his mother.

"Mommy!" Gaara called. "Momma!? MOMMY!"

But no matter how loud he yelled there was no response, he turned to go back and found himself face to face with the stranger.

"I can't find momma," Gaara whimpered close to tears.

The stranger did nothing, except point somewhere behind Gaara. He turned around excitedly only to be met with countless mangled human bodies, the over powering smell of blood clouding his senses. Slowly turning his eyes clouded with fear, he saw the stranger holding Hinata with one hand around her throat as she struggled to get free. Without another thought his hand found the other side of her face and snapped her neck. The loud cracking sound echoed in the empty streets. Her eyes became dull and lifeless, and blood poured out of her mouth. Dropping her the stranger dusted off his hands, finally finishing his job. Gaara ran to Hinata's corpse and shook it lightly, then shook her harder; there was nothing, so the child sobbed over her body.

"Why?" he moaned. "Why did you hurt Hinata-chan?"

He looked at the stranger one last time, before deciding to bury her, somewhere close so that he could always see her. As he sat her up the stranger pulled her away from him again, he reached for her helplessly. The stranger didn't even look at Gaara this time he held Hinata overhead and began ripping her limb from limb. Gaara fell to his knees in shock, only being reminded of reality when Hinata's head had landed in his lap. Quickly he scrambled to his feet, trying to get rid of the blood on his clothes. A deep chuckle emitted from the stranger, stopping Gaara. The cloaked figure lifted their bloody hand to their mouth and began to lap it up. In a sudden fit of anger Gaara ran, and began punching the mysterious person with weak inexperienced fists.

"I hate you," he said. "I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I HATE YOU!" Gaara screamed.

With one hand the stranger captured Gaara's wrists and used his other hand to remove the hood. What Gaara saw made him vomit, which caused the figure to laugh, a deep maniacal laugh. The first thing that shocked Gaara the most was how the flaming sand matches his hair perfect. That's right the strange man was none other then older Gaara himself.

"Oh now don't be a baby," the older one growled, taking another blood coated finger and shoving it into Gaara's mouth, making him gag. "See? Now doesn't she taste as good as I told you?"

Smaller Gaara tried desperately to rid himself of the taste of Hinata's blood, one because he didn't want it to be Hinata's blood and the other because it was actually starting to taste good. Older Gaara laughed again, this time making younger Gaara shiver.

"You may deny me now, but you will soon join me," he hissed, just as a sound like rushing water filled little Gaara's ears. "And if you don't I will slowly drown you in sorrow."

Little Gaara could no longer ignore the sound getting louder and louder each second. He turned just in time to see a river of blood flow over him, consuming him. He couldn't breathe and he struggled against the ever-flowing blood. Just as he felt he was about to die something cold was pressed to his neck, he grabbed it on instinct. Realizing nothing was there Gaara finally found out the true nature of the world of red sand.

Gaara's eyes snapped open and immediately searched for the cold object that saved him from his nightmare. Kankurou was the one that held a kunai to his neck, he was slightly panting but his arm stayed, never faltering. Temari stood across the room, fan brandished, and one of her arms slightly bleeding.

"It happened didn't it?" Gaara asked unusually quite.

Kankurou nodded and withdrew his arm as Temari turned her head and refused to look at him. His mind suddenly stopped on the thought of Hinata, and before he knew it he blurted out his question.

"What about Hinata, where is she?" Gaara asked, his monotone returning.

Both Temari and Kankurou's eyes darted over to his left side, he then finally noticed the light pressure and looked. His eyes widened, Hinata lay face down on the bed her hand hanging limply in his own. Without warning he shook her as hard as he could earning a squeak as she fell from her chair by the bed, but unfortunately not letting go of Gaara's hand causing the Kazekage to pitch forward. And although the Kazekage was strong the momentum from the fall almost made him fall off the bed, luckily his sand caught him at the edge.

"Oh g-gomen, Gaara-sama! Gomen!" Hinata cried bowing her head and blushing, not even realizing that she still held his hand.

"Hyuuga-san please release my hand," Gaara said, realizing that the sand was lasing strength.

She turned an even brighter red then before, releasing his hand and burying her burning face in her hands. Temari smirked thinking of another way to tease her friend.

"Yeah Gaara, you should have seen her," Temari began.

"Temari-chan please stop!" Hinata begged jumping to her feet and running to Temari.

"It was really quite sweet," She continued, sparing a brief glance at Hinata.

"Temari-chan please don't say anything!" Hinata pleaded pulling on Temari's arm.

"And even though we told her it was dangerous she still sat there…" the fan mistress continued shaking Hinata off her arm.

"Be quiet!" Hinata cried shoving her hand over Temari's mouth, before quickly withdrawing and wiping it on her pants.

"In yet she sat there for two days holding your hand barely eating and sleeping." Temari said, smirking at her brothers now openly confused face.

Hinata quickly walked away and picked up a bouquet of flowers and a pair of scissors, trying to hide her face behind the exotic colors.

"Hinata-san is this true?" Gaara asked, still as confused as ever.

"Hai Gaara-sama," Hinata mumbled chopping frantically at the stems, and accidentally nicking herself.

She squeaked slightly and dropped both items onto the floor, her finger going to her mouth.

"Oh, Hinata, you should really be more careful," Temari berated picking up the scattered flowers while Kankurou searched for a band-aid.

Without a word Gaara stood and pushed Hinata onto the hospital bed instead and sat in the chair that was once occupied.

"I'm fine, really Gaara-sama," Hinata said without taking her finger from her mouth.

Gaara shook his head as he noticed a thin line of blood running down her arm. He took his index finger and slowly wiped up the trail. Looking around the room he noticed that there was no sink. Everyone knew that the Kazekage was not a big fan of water but this was just ridiculous. Hinata noticed the same problem at the same time, she looked nervously at him. He brought his finger to his mouth slowly, as if waiting for permission. Smiling encouragingly she nodded and he put the finger in his mouth. Shockwaves irrupted in his brain, the only thought that was understandable was the fact that Hinata's blood tasted better then it did in the dream. An irony taste but then something sweet almost like raspberries, a fruit he hadn't had a privilege to try until he went to Konoha.

Before he realized it he was tracing Hinata's visible veins, they tempted him like water tempted a thirsty man. His eyes lingered on her finger in her mouth and he growled quietly.

"Gaara-sama are you okay?" Hinata asked, one of her hands going to his forehead.

'Maybe if I bite that finger I can have more.' A small childlike voice said in his head. 'Do it Gaara do it! Do it Gaara! Do it Do it!

The voice said increasing in force and tone, finally revealing it to be the Shukaku. 'DO IT NOW!' he screamed making Gaara hold his head and pull away from Hinata.

Without a word jumped to his feet and bolted out of the room hands holding his pounding head.

"Gaara-sama!" Hinata cried, wrapping a piece of torn cloth around her finger and following Gaara out the door, almost knocking Kankurou over in the process.

Temari looked confused at the door as Kankurou entered looking equally confused.

"So did I just get this band-aid for nothing?' Kankurou asked.

Temari sighed and rolled her eyes and continued to clean up without a word.

Gaara wondered around, thanking nay god out there that Shukaku finally shut up. He slowly continued walking and decided to go to the front gates of Suna, maybe he could sneak out. He watched incoming traffic, the usual merchants who thought they could make a living in the toughest village around. But then something new caught his eye and Gaara did a double take. A pink haired girl stood in the middle of the street a pack on her back and a searching look on her face. Instead of approaching her Gaara decided just to observe.

Four men came from nowhere and decided to try to have a little fun with her. Again Gaara decided just to watch, unlike Hinata this girl wasn't in his care, and besides she did look like a ninja so let the fools test it at their own risk.

"Pink hair huh," one man, said.

"You sure stick out in a crowd, girly." The other sneered.

"If you'll let me I'll be on my way now," she said a plastic smile on her face.

"I don't think so you're awfully small," another one said.

That was when Gaara finally realized that it was a ninja from Konoha; he realized the dilemma and quickly stepped in.

"May I help you?" Gaara asked, making the four men turn to look at him.

"N-no Kazekage-sama I think we're okay," one said nervously.

"Good, because I expect you all to be courteous to our new allies," Gaara said, motioning to the girl.

"Of course!" One piped in. "Gomen, we'll be going now." And with that the four men disappeared.

"I could have handled that myself Kazekage-sama," the pink haired girl said.

"What's your name?" he said, turning away and ignoring her question.

"Sakura Haruno, I've come to check the medical staff pre agreement," she said matter-of-factly.

"Fine be on your way then," Gaara said, about to disappear again.

"Wait a minute!" Sakura said, grabbing his arm and pulling him back.

He turned, his unique eyes boring into her normal green ones. Although confusion was written across his face, his gaze stayed as intense as ever, making Sakura's cheeks slowly redden.

"Um never mind," she said, her trailing off.

He nodded, turned and walked away from her holding the place on his arm where she had touched him. She sighed, and then realized that she might be falling for the Kazekage. Sighing again she headed toward the hospital.

Hinata pushed through the many people searching for Gaara, only realizing that she had forgotten to put sun block on that morning. Her cheeks turned red along with her pale arms as she dodged threw the many people.

"Hinata-chan what are you doing?" Matsuri asked.

"I'm trying to find Gaara-sama can you help me?' Hinata pleaded.

"Yeah, of course!" and with that Matsuri was gone.

Hours ticked by and there still was no sign of Gaara anywhere. By now Hinata was thoroughly burned, but didn't care. Her vigilance became a thing of legend that day, it was around 9:00 o' clock at night when she finally found the red head.

"Gaara-sama!" she panted, resting for the first time that day.

He looked up at Hinata and raised a non-existent eyebrow as he saw her on the ground; he approached her and kneeled in front of her. His hand touched her cheek gently, making her turn even redder and wince at the stinging pain.

"Gaara-sama, what are you?" Hinata began before he touched her face with the other hand, and then moved slowly closer.

Her breath began to quicken, his face stopping a few inches away from hers.

"What is this?" he asked curiously as he pulled on Hinata's cheek, making her wince as he fingers pinched the sun burned skin.

"OW! Gaara-sama! That hurts,'" she cried as he pinched her cheek again, but he didn't seem to want to stop, so he kept trying to pull at it. "Please stop!" she said, laughing a little when she moved her face back his hand following close to see if he could pinch her again.

For a few minutes they battled silently, Hinata trying to pull away while Gaara tried to satisfy his curiosity of sunburn and touch. Finally Hinata moved to push him away when she felt something rough under her fingers instead of cloth. She looked up and saw a wall of sand separating them. After she withdrew her hand it slowly fell to the ground to reveal Gaara standing, and holding a hand out to Hinata. Looking at him sadly one last time, she gave him her hand and he helped her up. They walked back in relative silence until Gaara's curiosity grew, so he asked a question.

"What is sunburn, Hinata-san, and what does it feel like?" Gaara asked in a monotone, but his curiosity still showed.

"Well sunburn is when people with sensitive skin stay out in the sun to long without sun block, the sun turns it red and it hurts if you touch it," she said, as they reached the Kazekage tower.

"Well is there anyway to soothe the pain," Gaara asked, knowing that somehow this was his fault, and actually caring.

"Yes, its called aloe, but I'm afraid that I forgot to buy some at the store today," Hinata said, already dreading the long night she would probably spend awake.

Hinata's chest rose and fell as she continued to sleep, lying on wet towels to soothe her inflamed skin. (A/N: believe it or not I've tried it and it works, if you don't have the aloe stuff.) Gaara looked at the bottle in his hand, then at the Hyuuga's sensitive pink skin. Was this stuff really supposed to work? Now you may be wondering where Gaara got a bottle of the aloe Vera, well lets just say our handsome young Kazekage has acquired a few fan girls of his own, and they were willing to get him a few things.

He hesitated for a moment before walking into the bathroom and placing the bottle on the counter. When he returned into the bedroom he saw something fall to the floor, kneeling he picked it up and realized it was a small stuffed bird. His fingers ran idly over its eyes, bringing up memories of another stuffed toy he had long ago. Standing he slipped it back into her arms then slipped out the window.

Waking up the next morning Hinata winced as she felt like her skin had shrunk. Slowly and painfully she stood putting the bird down on her bed and walking like a penguin towards the bathroom. She looked at her skin and poked her cheek.

"Ow," she said, before looking on the counter and finding a bottle of aloe Vera.

She looked at it confused, and then remembered what Gaara asked and all the tumblers fell into place. Smiling she opened the bottle and began to slather it on.

Gaara sat in his office signing more and more paperwork, the Haruno girl from the other day was already leaving, not like he cared, he just thought Hinata might have wanted to say hi or something. She had become part of the Sabuku family ever since she had come and he was sure she was probably homesick. He put another piece of paper in a file and continued to sign. Today would be a boring day. A soft knock sounded on his door, he didn't even look up when he told them to enter.

"Gaara-sama?" Hinata's small voice said, making the scratching sound of pen on parchment stop.

"What is it that you need, Hinata-san?" Gaara asked, motioning toward the chair in front of him.

"Well, I wanted to know, willyoutrainme!" Hinata said as fast as she could, after sitting.

"Gomen Hinata-san I can't understand you, I'm afraid you'll have to say it again," Gaara said, now noticing her skin seemed a little less red, all except for her face.

"Will you train me, Gaara-sama," Hinata said, her head bowed.

The Kazekage looked at the paper work on his desk, he gladly accepted the distraction. He quickly cleared off his desk and opened his gourd. Reaching his hand in he grabbed a handful and put it on his desk in front of Hinata.

"I know you can move water, but now you must try moving sand," Gaara explained. "Sand is much harder because of the separate grains and the friction it causes."

Hinata nodded and focused her chakra to her hands and placed them over the sand. In fusing her chakra with the grains was the easiest part. But when she tried to move it nothing happened, she tried again, and still nothing. On and on it went until finally Hinata was panting. She leaned forward to try one last time put Gaara raised his hand as a sign to stop.

"That's enough for today," Gaara said standing and moving the sand back into the gourd.

"Demo, Gaara-sama," Hinata whined.

"No, Hinata-san, you don't have enough chakra to move the sand, another try won't change that fact." He stated before leaving her in the office alone.

Hinata snuck down the halls of the Kazekage tower hoping no one would see her, she finally reached her definition and pushed open Gaara's office door. Flipping on the light switch she looked around the empty office, quite clean compared to Tsunade's. She approached the bookshelf and scanned for a book on increasing your chakra, sure enough she found it, at the top of the 11-foot tall bookshelf. She sighed, why did the office have to be so big.

Gaara sat on his balcony meditating quietly, the night bringing him peace that nothing else could, when he heard a loud crash come from his office. His eyes snapped open and he got to his feet quickly. Without a second thought he went to his office and noticed the light on. He opened the door as if he was about to start a new day, on the floor sat Hinata. She was holding her head and rocking back forth murmuring. All of his books surrounded her and the bookshelf sat on its side a few feet away.

"Hinata-san, are you okay?" Gaara asked, kneeling next to her.

"I don't want to disappoint you…" Hinata began, tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

"Did you hurt yourself?" he asked.

"I want to train!" she sobbed.

"You want to train? It's two in the morning Hinata-san…" Gaara said.

"Please Gaara-sama, train me, I have to be better! Train me! Teach me things give me more chakra! Help me!" she continued to cry.

Gaara's eyes softened, and he ignored the sobbing girl, he lifted the bookshelf and began to put the books away. Hinata had given up hope and had hid her face in her hands as she continued to cry. Then she felt something hard and a little heavy on her head, she looked up at Gaara and heard a soft thud next to her. She turned and saw one of the many books from the bookshelf next to her. Gaara bent down and picked up the book again, and laid it on her head.

"Gaara-sama, what are you?" Hinata asked.

"Chakra is built with balance, both of the mind and body. If you can keep this book on your head without letting it fall you can strengthen your body, and if you become my assistant you will be able to strengthen your mind." He said.

"Hai, Gaara-sama," Hinata said, with a watery smile.

It was another day in the Kazekage tower, Gaara sat in his office as usual when his door was thrown open. Gaara's newest assistant Alana came in, her hips slightly swaying trying to catch Gaara's attention.

"Gaara-sama?" she said over sweetly.

"Hai, Alana-san?" Gaara asked still signing papers.

"Aw come now Gaara-sama, I told you to call me Alana-chan," she said perching herself at the end of his desk.

If you were to look at Gaara's desk it was pretty bare, paperwork was usually the only thing that was there. But now there was one small picture frame, and Alana noticed. She turned it to face herself and looked at it scowling. It was picture of Gaara, Matsuri, and Hinata. No one had ever hated Hinata in her whole life, except Alana. Jealousy drove her to be cruel to her but she was still nice, making it even worse.

"Do you need, anything Gaara-sama?" She asked.

"No, you may go no Alana," Gaara said.

"All right, Gaara-sama," she said bowing and making sure the picture was face down, before leaving.

Gaara waited until he was sure she was gone before picking the picture up again, he looked at it for a long moment before setting it down again, this time face up and toward him, the memory playing through his head.

Flashback

"Alright smile," Hinata said, as she snapped another picture of Matsuri and Temari.

Gaara stood and watched as the book on Hinata's head stayed still even while she was taking pictures. Suddenly a white light blinded him, and although he tried to send out his sand but Temari had made him refuse to use his chakra.

"Gomen Gaara-sama," Hinata said. "I was trying to take a picture of Matsuri, she fell off of the tree and I wanted a picture of her getting back on."

"Why?" Gaara asked, confused. "Why are you taking a picture if she didn't do it right?"

"Because, it's not her accomplishments that make her who she is, it's how she deals with the whole experience that's important."

At the end of the day Matsuri finally was able to make it to the top of the tree.

"Hey Hinata, I did it!" she cried.

"That's fantastic!" Hinata said, jumping up next to Matsuri, leaving her camera on the ground.

Gaara bent down and picked it up before handing it to Temari and quietly giving her instructions. Hinata hugged Matsuri, then a bright flash shot across their vision.

"What was that?" Matsuri asked.

"I want a picture," Gaara said, standing on the same branch as the two girls.

"Of course Gaara-sama, now say cheese."

End flashback

Once again Gaara's door was opened, but this time in came Hinata and Temari. Both girls were panting but smiling and stopped in front of Gaara.

"So how did Hinata-san do?' Gaara asked.

"She did great! I'm serious, she almost beat me!" Temari exclaimed.

"I didn't do that good!" Hinata said blushing.

"Oh don't be so modest, seriously Gaara, you should really go back to training her," Temari said.

"I don't want to be a burden…" Hinata said.

"Come we will talk about it over dinner." Gaara said standing.

After dinner Hinata stood at her window, in her nightclothes and holding her bird as she stared into the night sky.

"Wow, my life is so great," she said, twirling.

Suddenly a loud bang went off in the distance, Hinata turned back to the window and looked outside, just as another bang went off.

(A/N: yeah end of this super long chapter, yeah at the sunburn part you probably thought I would have them kiss, but didn't! Oh and by the way, I NEED you guys to do me a huge favor. My friend on here has less self confidence then me, you guys have restored mine so please review his or I might, gulp have to hold my story hostage. He's rockleekicksas, so please, please at least give his and another special friend lovedless231 stories a chance. So please review, and even if you don't read their stories I'll probably update soon anyway, but it would make me go faster if you did!)