Sumara

Stupid Gaara and his stupid need to be in control! Stupid me recognizing that weird ninja. Stupid life for being so stupid! Gah, what was going on? Those ninja were here to help, I knew that. But what was I supposed to do? I felt totally useless now! I walked back and forth in front of the doorway to my room, shuffling my feet as to perfectly match each step in tone. I just wanted to leave, but I knew I couldn't. I needed to stay here, for both myself and my people. Even if stupid Gaara wanted me to stay, that wasn't why I was staying, right? Of course not! I needed to stay, end up story.

I sighed and tugged the elastic band out of my hair. The plaits of my braid slowly unraveled. My hair dusted the back of my knees. I grinned to myself. Time for a haircut!

That was one of the many things I always did for myself. I never let anyone else touch my hair, cut my hair, style my hair, or anything else of the sort. This was mine to have and no one else's. I held my kunai up to the edge of my jawbone. How short did I want it? I knew Gaara had been looking at my appearance that morning while I had been talking to him. Those thoughts were always fun. To see the way someone else saw you was a delicious way to either boost self-esteem or totally tear yourself down. Gaara had thought I would look good without my hair in a braid, if he cared. He always tried not to care. But, again, the point came up that I hardly knew him. How did I know that he always tried not to care? Because it's written all over his face AND mind, I answered myself.

I took my hair back in my fist and just chopped, not caring how it would look. When I saw my reflection, I smirked. Looks like Gaara would be able to see me with short hair. My hair was now exactly at jaw length. It looked just like ink. I found some scissors in the dresser I had sat in front of and cut some random jags into my hair to give it a bit more depth. My dark blue eyes looked almost black in the dim light of the sunrise. I tied my headband on my left arm. There was no time to rest. This was time to get started.

I slammed open the door to Gaara's room. Go me and ignoring the whole authority and power he had over me! Yeah, it probably wasn't the smartest move to pull. I was throwing caution to the wind. Yep, that was me, Caution-Throwing Sumara!

"Quite an entrance," I heard a slightly familiar voice say.

I looked over and saw Naruto sitting in a chair. I felt my cheeks warm. How about, Total-Fool Sumara?

"Oh, uh, hi," I said awkwardly.

Then Naruto burst out laughing. "Hey, don't sweat it! I do stuff like that all the time, except I don't normally do that to the door of the Kazekage," he said nodding to the door I still held fast to by the cold brass doorknob.

I glanced at it momentarily and realized that it had cracked in half by the full impact of my amazing entrance. Great, now I had to apologize to Gaara. I did NOT want to do that.

"So, what's your deal with Gaara?"

"Nothing, I just came for some help, that's all."

He nodded. "Yeah, we all heard. So people have been vanishing, huh? That kinda sucks. But why did you decide to destroy Gaara's door like that?"

I ignored his question. I asked him one instead. "Why are you here, in the room I mean?"

Naruto rubbed his head absentmindedly. "I was just waiting for Gaara to come back. He said that he had something to show me. Hey wait!" He paused and stepped up really close to me. I could feel his breath on my face. I could see three thin black lines on both of his cheeks. He was a good three inches taller than me. I must be really short. He leaned forward and picked up a piece of my hair. "Your hair looks different!" he exclaimed. I looked in his big blue eyes and studied both is subconscious and conscious mind. Looks like he was really focused on this conversation. I expanded my range to include several other minds in the vicinity.

Naruto suddenly jumped back. "Whoa, that's some serious chakra you have there."

I felt my face heat up again and then I realized we were no longer alone. Gaara was standing right behind me. I probed his mind to see where he had been. I followed his journey to a secret room hidden within the sandy floor. In it was an extremely ancient scroll. The text on it was completely exotic to me. Then I found his thoughts now, both on the surface and underneath. His conscious mind was completely ignoring my hair, more worried about getting everything prepared properly. His subconscious mind really liked my hair. I could tell he was trying to cover it up, but it was starting to creep into his mainstream thoughts. I glanced over my shoulder to see his facial expression. Complete and utter pain. He noticed my glance, and glared. Looks like he knows that I know.

Gaara

What is SHE doing here? Gaara asked himself when he came back to face with Sumara. Wait, there was something different. Her hair! Her hair was much shorter and cut in odd little patches. Obviously she wanted it to look cool. Gaara felt a pain in his chest as he pushed his thoughts back to the mission. But he knew she was reading his mind. He knew she saw the truth. Gaara was in pain, so much pain. Then she glanced over her shoulder at him, he just glared. What was going on?

Sumara

"So, Gaara, where have you been?" Naruto asked, obviously trying to make the atmosphere less tense.

Gaara eyes me momentarily. I caught a thought in his head that was directed at me. Your hair is different, he thought

I nodded at him and his expression become even more pained. Then he thought again, but this time it was just another thought. Why does this hurt?

I kept my expression placid as he crossed to his desk. The scroll was held in the crook of his right arm.

"Uh, what's that?" Naruto asked.

"It's a special scroll with the ancient legend of the creature we are up against. Do not say its name, Naruto. If you do, it will appear right here and kill us. I cannot tell you its name, but I'll show you." Gaara lifted the scroll over to Naruto, who read it easily. What was that language?

I read his mind instead of the scroll. Ukaza, that's a weird name for a monster. It actually sounds kinda funny. Ukaza, Ukaza, Ukaza. Ha, this is fun. Naruto seriously needed to get some of his thoughts in line. At least now I knew what the beast's name is. Ukaza, just like Naruto had said, it is a weird name. I do not think it means anything if it were translated out. It is just a name, nothing more.

"Do not think it too much," Gaara warned, this immediately made Naruto look uneasy. "I am not sure of the rules exactly, so be careful with that name."

Naruto's mind was a jumble of mish-mash and he tried to keep himself from thinking the name. Idiot.

"Oh, and Naruto, Sumara can read minds. She can read both the thoughts you are actually THINKING and the thoughts and ideas that sometimes don't reach the surface. She might even visit you dreams and invade you privacy!"

This comment was obviously directed more at me than as a warning to Naruto. Maybe I'll visit Gaara's dreams on purpose tonight, just to mess with him. Naruto did not seem to mind at all. He was really excited to see how it works.

"Ok, read my mind right now!" and his face got all concentrated.

I looked into his mind and saw him eating ramen. He was hungry. "You're hungry, and you want ramen," I flatly stated.

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Naruto yelled. I bet most of the people in this building were awake by now from all the racket this guy was creating. "Now read Gaara's mind," Naruto stage-whispered to me with a sly smile.

So I did. Gaara was really trying to focus on the task at hand and not smack Naruto up the back-side of his head, and he was also really amused. Gaara, thinking something was funny, was I living in an alternate reality? Maybe I was being a bit harsh, but from what I've seen of Gaara so far, he doesn't find a lot of stuff amusing.

I glanced over at Naruto. "He's trying very hard to restrain himself from smacking you in the back of the head and he's also very amused by your antics."

"Hahaha! Wow, you really can read minds!!" He walked over to Gaara and leaned his head over next to him. "Go ahead, smack it, get it out of your system."

I saw Gaara's body began to shake and then he began laughing. I could tell this had shocked Naruto. He took a step back from his friend's shaking form and began to laugh with him. This was really weird. Gaara reached out and gently swat the back of Naruto's head in a friendly way. He was finally able to control himself.

"Okay, really, we need to focus," he said, smothering the last of his small grin and chuckles and putting the mask of indifference back on his face.

Gaara

"The legend says only this, and it's in some strange format. Here it is.

The beast rises from the blood of the young

Lives off the memories of the old

Summoned only by the call of destruction

Living only for the need of death

It will carry away everyone precious

And build them into a tower of flesh

Until the full moon will rise

And those held dear will burn

And the ash will fall from the sky

Dusting everything with its death

And all will hear the triumphant cries

Of the beast as it feasts upon the ash

And you will never hold your close ones close

Will never feel their sweet embrace evermore.

To kill such an ancient creature

Would mean to kill the creature itself

Not the beast as it is seen

But as the spirit which it bears."

Gaara snapped the scroll shut and sighed. Just as he had thought. The ancients were fools for encoding the legends with weird text. It was pretty straightforward though. Kill the beast before it burned all your loved ones. And the only way to kill it was by killing its spirit. That might be a problem.

"I know how to kill it!" Sumara exclaimed.

Or not.