Dear "Angry Reader",
Thank you so much! I have sort of been in a slump lately and haven't had the inspiration to write or post anything. I now know that there must be someone who wants to read my story. Sorry it has been such a long wait but I hope you enjoy this chapter. I will try to start writing again. Enjoy :)

~X~X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~

Chapter 10

3 months later

The front door to the house slammed shut causing Temari to look up from her spot in the living room. Kankuro and Rayne walked through the kitchen after returning from their latest mission. A long cut was carved into Rayne's upper arm and blood covered her forearm. The wound wasn't too new. The blood had already dried. She threw her staff and bag onto the floor as she came into the living room. Temari watched them settle into the room. Kankuro fell into a plush chair and Rayne walked past her and flopped onto the same sofa she was sitting on.

"How'd the mission go?" asked the sand Kunoichi.

All she got from Rayne was a muffled moan. Her face was buried into the sofa pillows.

"It went fine. It was a success and we had only a few injuries." replied Kankuro. More angry mumbles came from the pillow.

"What did she say?" laughed Temari.

"She's just mad. Akio wasn't paying attention and she got cut while saving him." replied Kankuro. Lucky for him Akio and Rayne had been getting a lot better now. The two of them were still far from getting along but at least they weren't always trying to kill each other. Akio had started acting a little more friendly after Rayne had saved his life on that B ranked mission. They had been sticking to simpler missions since then.

"Yeah I noticed her arm. Rayne do something with that. Your going to get blood on the couch."

Rayne just mumbled something into the pillow again. Temari smiled then got up and went into the kitchen, returning with a wet rag. She grabbed Rayne's arm and began to wipe the blood off her arm. Rayne mumbled something that sounded like a 'thank you'.

"Should I take you to the hospital to get this checked out really quick?" asked Temari. This had become a joke between them. Temari had soon learned that Rayne would never go to the hospital but she still insisted on asking because it annoyed the hell out of Rayne.

Gaara heard Rayne and Kankuro come in after their mission from in his office. It seemed their mission was a success. So far their team had only failed one mission, which had been the house they demolished on their first mission. The past three months had gone by rather well for their team. Rayne had gotten closer to both her team and his family. Unfortunately he still hasn't been able to get more information out of her. At the first mention of her past she instantly shuts him off. She also kept whatever special jutsu's of hers, if she even had any, completely secret. On the bright side she had at least managed to stay out of too much trouble while here. The only real problem they had was when he had to go pick her up after she gotten drunk, started a bar fight and got kicked out by the owner. It had looked bad for him when he had to go pick her up but the issue had been resolved quickly. All in all things had been going well.

It was soon after she returned home that Rayne started to feel it. There wasn't something wrong with her physically but she couldn't sit still. She was easily distracted and kept spacing out. She knew what was going on. It had happened many times before. Gaara had been giving her worried glances all day like he could tell something was wrong. It was odd having him home all day. He didn't have to into work until later that night and Temari and Kankuro were both free from work today, leaving all three siblings at home.

It wasn't till that afternoon when she began to physically feel it. In a matter of minutes the temperature in the room felt like it had dropped by 50 degrees. She stared to worry now. She didn't want the others to see her like this. It had been bad enough when Gaara had found her the first time. She tried to calmly get out off the couch without attracting attention but ended up getting up a little faster than she planned to, causing Gaara to shoot her another worried look. She gave him a quick smile before heading into the kitchen. She got a glass of water and set it down on the counter. She was shivering now and gripped the edges of the counter hard, her knuckles turning white.

"Calm down, calm down" she repeated to herself. Having a panic attack would do nothing to help her. She reached her hand up to her neck and found her pulse. Counting her heartbeats always seemed to help calm her down. There was nothing she could do now, she reminded herself, this was going to happen no matter what.

"Rayne? Are you alright?"

The Kunoichi jumped and quickly whirled around to see Gaara standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "Gaara? " She laughed nervously. "You snuck up on me"

"Rayne, what's going on?" he asked. He leaned on the door frame, blocking the only exit out of the kitchen.

"Nothing's wrong." She grabbed her glass of water and took a sip. "I was just thirsty so I came to get a drink."

"You've been out of it all day and your shaking" Rayne looked down at the glass of water in her hand. She was indeed shaking still and ripples could be seen in the water.

"What? That's nothing. It's just too damn cold in your house."

"We live in a dessert, it's never cold here in the day."

"Well that's a matter of opinion. I think it's cold." She placed her glass back down on the counter and walked towards the door. She meant to move around the young Kazekage but he placed his hand out, blocking her from leaving.

"Rayne?" he said. He sounded generally concerned to her. She sighed and looked up at him. "I just want to make sure that you are okay. Are you going to... I mean, you're not going to get sick again are you?"

"You don't need to worry about me. I can tell if its going to happen, hours before it even does. Regardless, there is nothing you would be able to do for me." She gave him one last almost apologetic look and pushed past him, returning to the living room where the others were. Gaara couldn't help but notice how hot she felt as she pushed past him.

Around 6 o'clock that night Gaara left for his meeting, leaving the others to stay at home for the night. He wasn't too eager to leave, especially with the way Rayne was acting, but he went anyways. It was an important meeting he couldn't really afford to miss.

Rayne sat in the living room with the other two sand siblings. Temari was reading a book in one chair while Kankuro was messing with one of his puppets in the other. Rayne sat on what she had declared "her couch" with a book in her lap. It was some sappy romance novel Temari had loaned her but she was finding it hard to pay attention too. Even under normal circumstances she would have found the book difficult to read, seeing as that genre didn't interest her at all, but right now the thing that was distracting her from the book was the intense pain in her head. She was having trouble thinking straight. All she knew was that she had to get out of there, very soon. She slowly got off the couch and headed down the hall way. Moving caused sharp stabs of pain to go through her skull.

"Rayne? You alright?" called Kankuro.

"Yeah. Bathroom" was all she managed to choke out through clenched teeth, trying to sound as normal as possible. She headed down the hallway. She had done well up until now in hiding the fact that she was in pain, but now it was becoming unbearable. The sharp pain was now building in her chest. She stumbled into Gaara's room and flung the bathroom door open. Her hands were shaking terribly as she locked the door behind her. Her temperature was rising far beyond normal now and she ran cold water from the sink and splashed it into her face trying to cool herself down. Another sharp pain shot through her chest and she grunted in pain. She gripped the counter tighter trying to prevent herself from falling. Rayne staggered over to the wall and leaned against it. She slowly slipped down and collapsed on the floor. Her whole body started to feel like it was on fire and she dug her nails into her skin. She brought her hand to her mouth and bit down hard to keep herself from crying out. Her abnormally sharp teeth sank into her skin and blood well up from the wound. Her mouth was filled with it's copper taste and tears rolled down her face. All she could do is sit in pain and wait for it to pass.

A loud banging comes from the other side of the door. "Hey, are you alright?" called Temari. Rayne couldn't answer, she just squeezed her eyes shut. Blood from her hand now ran down her arm and onto the cold bathroom tiles. She curled up into a tighter ball.

"Rayne!" Came her worried voice again. There was still no response. "Hey, if you don't answer me, I'm coming in there!" Rayne wanted nothing more than to say she was okay and keep the two other sand siblings from worrying but she couldn't form the words or even the thoughts to say anything.

There was more pounding on the door then it went quite again. After a few minutes Rayne again heard someone at the door again, but she was starting to loose consciousness. The door burst open and she opened her eyes to see Temari kneel down in front of her. Kankuro's face was visible peering into the bathroom. Both of them looked frightened. Soon blackness started to take over her vision and Rayne blacked out.

Temari looked down at Rayne. Blood was pouring down her arm now and she had fallen unconscious. She looked almost as bad as she did the night Gaara had first brought her here. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain. Her skin burned with a fever again and all the colour had drained from her face. She looked over her shoulder at her worried brother. "Get Gaara"

A few hours later Rayne woke up. Someone had pilled blankets on her and she was covered in sweat from the heat. She was back on her couch in the living room and it had gone dark. She weakly raised her arms and started pulling off blankets.

"Why'd you lie to me?" Gaara was standing by the window on the far-side of the room. His face was illuminated by the moonlight.

"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to inconvenience anyone." She looked over at him but he kept his gaze on the window. An uncomfortable silenced settled on the room. "What time is it?"

"It's only 9" he replied roughly

"What about your meeting? I thought it wasn't over until later?"

You were more important he thought. "It wasn't that important. I told them I had a family emergency and they understood."

"You didn't need to do that. I would have been fine."

He finally turned around to face her. "And how would I know that? I don't know what's wrong with you. You haven't told me a thing Rayne. Everytime I try to ask you compleatly ignore me. You have too many secrets. You've been with us for a few months and we still barely know anything about you."

"I know, and I'm sorry, I just can't tell you."

"Why? I don't get whats wrong."

"It would be bad for both of us if you ended up knowing too much. Trust me."

"How can I trust you? You don't even trust us." he had walked over closer to the couch. She could tell from his tone of voice he was starting to loose patience.

"Yeah well if you knew what happened last time I tried to trust people you would be a little more understanding. I've tried to trust people but then I end up getting screwed! Why would you be any different?" She looked away from him and starred at the back of the couch.

He sat down in a chair near the couch. "How many of those people had demon's sealed inside of them too?"

"So you figured that out."

"Rayne, if anyone would understand it would be me. I know what its like to live like that, where everyone hates you. Or where people are afraid to be around you. My own father tried to kill me."

She looked him in the eyes. She was good at hiding her emotions. Not a clue of what she was thinking was shown on her face. "But-"

"You can trust me." He stated strongly. He got up and sat on the end of the couch.

She now looked conflicted. She wasn't sure if she even wanted to tell him. It wasn't something she liked to talk about. But, he had done so much to help her, even if he hadn't realized it. Didn't he deserve to know?

"Oh fuck you." she growled before painfully pushing herself into a sitting position. Her whole body was still sore from earlier. She began to carefully pull her shirts over her head until all that was left was her strapless gray shirt.

"Wh-what are you doing?" he asked hoping she didn't notice his stutter. A slight blush crept into his face but was hard to notice in the darkened room.

"Just shut up." She swung her legs over the side of the couch and got up. Gaara reached out and called her name in an annoyed protest. She pushed his hand away and walked over to the window where there was light. Her skin was smooth and pale in the moonlight. "Come over here" she called quietly. The Kazekage slowly stood up and followed her over to the window. As he stood by her she let out a heavy sigh. She had only told this story twice before. She turned her back to him and lifted up the back of her shirt, revealing the scar on her back. She was facing away from him so she didn't see his eyes widen a little in surprise but she heard his almost silent intake of breath. She flinched when he unexpectedly placed his warm hand gently on her scar. She turned around showing him the scar in the front.

His voice softened, "What happened?"

"It's a long story, are you sure you want to stand to hear it all" she laughed. Gaara simply nodded. "Well a few years ago, when I was back in the leaf, my team was assigned to a mission. It wasn't supposed to be anything hard, it was just before the chunin exams and my team was going to compete. Things ended up going all wrong, and I ended up getting killed..."

Cold wind was blowing hard and the snow was falling at an almost blinding rate. Rayne raced through the trees, the cold air stinging her lungs. Her face and feet had gone numb from running through the snow and ice. A loud snarl echoed behind her. She took a quick glance behind her to see the massive wolf demon chasing behind them still. It was the size of a large house and had jet black fur. She looked to the sides to make sure her team mates were still behind her. Himiko went crashing into a tree in front of them, hitting it with a sickening thud. Her long brown hair was strewn around her face as she laid unconscious on the ground.

Their sensei skidded to a stop and quickly turned around. "Rayne! Kaede! Grab Himiko and get her out of here." He ran towards the wolf demon to try and hold it off, trying to allow his young students to escape.

Kaede dashed over to Himiko and Rayne followed him. They both grabbed one of her arms and put it around their necks while dragging her to her feet. She let out a small moan as she regained consciousness. They three of them kept running ahead while their sensei tried to hold the demon back.

Rayne still didn't understand what had caused it to attack in the first place. Their mission was to escort someone back to their village and back, not to deal with this monster. They had completed their mission and while heading back that thing had come out of nowhere. The wolf came charging at them through the forest and Rayne barely avoided it's first attack. It was normally a rather peaceful demon, according to the town people but something had enraged it, sending it into a blind fury.

It let out a loud snarl and then the team heard their sensei let out a pained yell. The three genin quickly turned around to see him thrown back from the wolf. Blood seeped out of a large gash in his chest.

"Sensei!" called Himiko in a panic. She was terrified. They all were.

"Run, get away from here!" he called to his students as he struggled to his feet.

Kaede looked back at Himiko and Rayne, then back to his sensei. He looked back to Rayne again. "Rayne take Himiko and get out of here. Send word to the village once your safe." he said shakily. He ducked out from beneath Himiko's arm and ran up to the wolf that was now slowly closing in on his sensei. Kaede had always had a thing for Rayne and she knew it. He figured now was his chance to protect her. Maybe if he could hold the monster off long enough for his sensei to recover they could stop it. He wanted everyone else to be okay, even if it meant sacrificing his own life. Something he wasn't even sure he would be able to do.

"Kaede, no! Get back here!" Himiko screamed after him, when she realized what he was doing. She tried to run after him but Rayne grabbed her and pulled her away. Himiko was a lot stronger than Rayne, her fighting advantage being her extraordinary strength, where as Rayne's was her speed, and it took Rayne a few moments to actually pull her away.

"No Himiko, I'll get him. Keep going!" replied Rayne sternly as she shoved Himiko away from the fight. She then took off after Kaede, who was now close the demon. Kaede reached into his side pocket removing a shurikan from it. He threw the shurikan at the wolf but it quickly deflected it with its tail. It turned it's head quickly and snarled at the young boy, flashing its razor sharp teeth. It backed away from their sensei and stepped towards Kaede. His eyes widened and he took a few steps back before turning around and sprinting back the way he came. Rayne skidded to a stop as well but stood where she was. The demon caught up to him before he even had a chance and swiped its massive paw at him. It's sharp claws ripped at his back and he went sprawling.

He landed face-first into the snow and heard Himiko scream his name again. His back burned where the wolf's claws tore open skin. He quickly turned over onto his back anyways and tried to get up but froze as he saw the wolf towering over him. It's teeth were bared and Kaede could only watch as it transformed it's tail into a large spear. All of a sudden he regretted going after the wolf. How could I have been so stupid? he thought to himself. He was now terrified to die. He threw his arms up in front of him and closed his eyes as he waited for the demon to kill him.

He heard it's tail strike though his skin but didn't feel any pain. He assumed he was in shock. Something warm splattered against his face. Himiko let out a terrible scream. He didn't want to open his eyes to see what had happened to him. He waiting for the pain and for the end. He didn't need to see what horrible thing had happened to his body when he died.

"Hey douche bag, I thought I told you to always think before you jumped into a fight." He heard Rayne say quietly. His eyes sprung open to see her standing in front of him, with her back facing him. Part of the demon's tale had gone completely through her and was only inches away from his face. It was dripping with blood.

"R-Rayne?" Slowly he began to register what happened.

She had just saved his life.

She had jumped in front of him at the last second.

Somehow she had stopped it's tail from hitting him.

She had just sacrificed herself to save him.

He heard his sensei call her name. He brought his hands up in front of his face to see his arms were covered in blood, her blood. He looked up at her in horror. She turned her head around and smiled at him. Bright blood ran down the corners of her mouth. "Don't just stand there, run Baka"

He realized then that she was going to die.

The demon pulled its tail out, spraying blood on the white snow as it returned it's tale to normal. Rayne collapsed to the ground and Kaede felt strong arms wrap around him and pull him up. Tears filled up in his eyes as he was pulled away from her body. A think pool of dark blood was spreading around Rayne, his Rayne. The girl he had fallen in love with, even at such an early age. She was the girl he had sworn to protect. "No!" he cried out. It wasn't supposed to have ended like this, he thought to himself. He was going to save her, he should have been the one to sacrifice himself, not her.

"It's too late for her!" yelled his sensei in his ear as he continued to pull him away. Kaede didn't want to believe it.

Rayne was laying dead on the ground.

~X~X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~ X~

Well, I hope you enjoyed it and it didn't find it too cliche. There might be a few things off with grammar and spelling but that is only because I tried so hard to get this up for all of you. Let me know what you think, even if its something bad. I'll try to post again soon.
~Reiko