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Whilst the Hyuga clan settled into their new home, a young boy with red hair was being carried by Jiro. He was dumped at the abandoned area of the village, far away from any buildings. This place had originally been the Sandaime Kazekage's personal training ground so metal shards littered the sand. Jiro sneered at him and spat out.

"Stay there demon, no one wants you." He then vanished in a swirl of sand. The young boy just lay where he had been dropped, dazed. This wasn't the first time this had happened so he knew that no one would look for him or worry that he was gone. Not since Uncle Yashumaru had died. And apparently, his only light in a world of darkness had been lying about caring for him anyway. Gaara could feel the betrayal wash over him like one of the freezing nights of the desert.

He swore he could hear a sinister chuckle in his head at the bad thought. As he thought about it, it occurred to him that the voice appeared whenever he had negative feelings. His father had said it was the demon inside him. His father also said that he was a demon. Gaara believed his father. He had killed his own mother after all. Who would do that? Only a demon would.

The thoughts swirled around in his head as he lay against the hot sand.

Unbeknownst to the young boy, a blue haired girl was walking through the sand. Hinata had an insatiable curiosity for the world around her and with her father's permission and an escort, was now wandering around her new home town.

She had been drawn to a small grove of green in the middle of the yellow shifting sands. Although the plants were not like the ones that were back in Konoha, they still fascinated her. After all, not many lush green plants could survive in such a harsh environment. She spent more than a few hours studying the leaves and just reminiscing about her old home.

Now, normally one would not expect such a scientific and developed understanding of the fauna at such a young age but Hina, Hinata's mother, had had a beautiful garden which Hinata had helped her tend to for as long as she could remember.

Hinata's memories were interrupted by the darkening of the sky above her. She looked around for the Hyuga that should be near her and realised with a start that he was not there. Tall sand dunes surrounded her and the only defining feature of the landscape was the wall that encircled the village. Having lost sense of where she was, she headed towards the wall hoping to find a solution to get her home.

Shards of discarded metal started appearing in her path. She nimbly jumped over the larger bits, turning her trek into a sort of game. A sound reached her sensitive ears when she reached the epicentre of the metal field. It was soon identified as a muffled cry. A red head of hair appeared soon after she started following the noise.

"Hello?" Hinata cautiously called. Shocked teal eyes met hers. A single tear could be seen running down his cheek. She immediately closed the distance between them. "Are you alright? Why are you out here?" Gaara regained his senses and tried to move away from her.

"Stay away from me!" His voice came out broken and distorted with emotion. 'This girl,' he thought, 'she has to get away before I hurt her'. He stumbled to his feet and started to move away from Hinata.

Hinata could only watch in confusion as he struggled to avoid the shards and escape at the same time. She watched as the boy tripped over his own feet, leading to a significant gash on his leg. Hinata rushed towards him again, ignoring his earlier statement.

"Please don't move. You've hurt yourself." She spoke quietly.

"No…I haven't." Gaara replied, showing her his leg which, as he had said, was without a cut or blood. Surprise crossed Hinata's face before she remembered the manners her mother had taught her.

"My name is Hinata, what's yours?" The expectant smile on her face confused Gaara. Everyone knew that he was dangerous and had to be avoided. Was she just pretending to be nice? Or maybe, she didn't know him by sight. Yeah…that was a much better explanation. He knew she'd be running for the hills as soon as he told her his name. The sooner the better then.

"Gaara." Came his monotone reply. The girl's smile increased and she offered her hand to help him up.

"It's nice to meet you Gaara-san. You wouldn't know how to get back to the buildings, would you? I got lost." Gaara froze in shock. 'She didn't run! Why didn't she run?'

"A-ano…Gaara-san? Gaara-san?" She waved her hand in front of the unresponsive boy. "Hellooo?" A finger pointed in to the direction behind her. Hinata realised that he was pointing to home almost immediately. She smiled at him. "Thank you so much. We should probably get back, ne?" Without waiting for his response, she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the village.

Hope you enjoyed this. I know it's quite boring at the moment but what can you do? Reviews are appreciated. Hinata is 7 years old at the moment by the way. The plant was Wadi Rum Desert Plant, I just thought it was nice :)