Scared. That was the only feeling Kiku could think of as she sat in the kitchen chair, her mother and the kazekage both staring down at her.
"I heard you befriended my son, Gaara." The kazekage stepped towards the small girl, kneeling to be at her eye level. She nodded her head slowly. Kiku didn't like the look he was giving her.
"Y-yes Kazekage-sama. I-is that a bad thing?"
"No, actually right now it could turn out to be a very good thing." He frowned and cast a look to the door to be sure the other children were still away from the room. He turned his attention back to Kiku.
"Before his death, Yashamaru told me you and Gaara frequently had picnics together. Is that right?"
She nodded.
The kazekage stood back up.
"Good. So tonight will just be a common occurance."
He nodded to Kiku's mother and she started to pack some of the leftover party snacks and cake into a bento box, shaking a small container of what Kiku suppossed were sprinkles on top.
"What do you mean, Kazekage-sama?" The child asked, quietly. "Am I supposed to do something?"
The kazekage seemed to think for a moment before nodding.
"Yes, little one. Consider this a mission...like something your father used to do for this village. It's very very important. You want to help the village, right?"
She nodded and smiled. "An important mission? What is it?"
The Kazekage pointed at the bento her mother was wrapping up.
"Gaara's been a little troublesome recently...so I think that since you two were so close you could help everyone by giving him some food from your party. It might help things settle down."
Kiku tried to understand and gave a questioning look to the Kazekage.
"So...Gaara's upset so I can have a picnic with him and make things better?"
"I guess you could look at it like that." He said.
"Well if he was sad why didn't he just come to my party?"
She didn't get a response.
"It's all done." her mother said quietly, holding out the small box. "Kiku...why don't you change into something else. I don't want that dress to be ruined from playing outside."
Kiku hopped out of the seat and left the room quickly, the door closed behind her and she ran to her room. She slipped the dress off, leaving it on the floor while she threw on a simple brown dress as fast as possible. She pulled off the headband and tossed it onto the bed as she ran out the door.
Kiku rarely changed that fast, but she couldn't wait to see Gaara again. A wide smile spread across her face just thinking about it, but the smile was quickly washed away as she approached the door.
"...what if he notices it's poisoned and hurts her? My daughter could be killed!"
Her mother's voice was quiet but forceful.
"I understand he's gone out of control, but if what Yashamaru said is true, then Gaara trusts your daughter quite a bit. He won't suspect anything. We just need him to take a bite or two of the food. Once that poison we added is in his system he'll be dead before he realizes it and has a chance to hurt her...and if by some chance it does come to that, I promise there will be more money to help ease the loss. This needs to be done soon. He's become more of a liability than an asset to this village and he needs to be stopped while he's still young enough to do so."
Kiku shot a hand up to her mouth, eyes opened wide in shock. They didn't want her to play with Gaara to cheer him up, they wanted her to kill him. Kiku knew her mother wouldn't agree to something like this... would she?
"Well...I guess we'll just hope for a favorable outcome I suppose." was her mother's only response.
Kiku didn't know what to do. It wasn't like she could yell at the kazekage and tell him he was wrong. The villagers of Suna had to respect and follow the order's of the Kazekage. He was in charge and she couldn't tell him what he was doing was wrong. She was just a little girl. She'd just get her whole family in trouble...but she couldn't kill Gaara. She just couldn't. Kiku stood silently outside the door for a few minutes, running the thoughts through her head.
"What's taking her so long..." she heard her mother mumble before the door swung open. Her mother looked down at her and grabbed the child's hand, smiling.
"There you are sweetie...here take the bento."
She placed the bento in Kiku's hands and started to push her through the kitchen to the back door of the house.
Before she even realized what was going on, Kiku was being led by the kazekage through the streets of Suna.
"I'll be nearby to make sure nothing happens to you, but don't mention that I'm around, alright."
Kiku felt her head nod.
"Now Gaara will probably be outside of Yashamaru's house right now. Just tell him you were sorry he missed your party and that you brought him some cake. Once he starts to eat it just come back here and find me, ok?"
She nodded again, her eyes filling with tears. The Kazekage stopped at the end of the road, and pushed her forward to keep walking towards Gaara's home.
She walked slowly, hoping the whole time that he wouldn't be there. If he wasn't there then she wouldn't have to do this. She hoped and hoped that luck would be on her side.
...it wasn't.
She saw Gaara almost immediately upon reaching his home. She could never miss that red hair. It always caught Kiku's attention so fast.
His back was to her and he was staring up at the night sky.
"Gaara?"
Kiku's voice was just a whisper but he heard her and turned around. Kiku gasped.
It looked as if someone had carved a word on his forehead. She thought it looked like the word 'love' but it was dark and she wasn't the best reader at her age, so she wasn't entirely sure...and his eyes. The look in his eyes was almost empty. It was like he just wasn't all there anymore.
"W-what happened to your forehead? You're hurt." Kiku reached a hand towards him, but found herself pushed back by a wall of sand.
Gaara got up and stepped towards her.
"Liars...all the same. You all just want to get rid of me!" he yelled, "why?"
"I-I don't know!" Kiku yelled back. "I don't get it either!"
For a second he seemed shocked, she saw a flash of the real Gaara. Kiku pushed the bento into his hands tearfully.
"I-I brought this from my party." she said loudly, hoping the kazekage could hear it. Gaara opened the box and she lowered her head and dropped her voice low so only Gaara could hear her.
"Don't eat it...they poisoned it. I don't know why but they did."
Gaara dropped the box, his gaze turning cold, and a wave of sand swung against her, knocking her to the ground hard. Kiku let out a small gasp of pain as her elbow connected hard against a rock.
"Why can't I just exist!"
The sand swirled around them and then Gaara ran off. He probably hated her now, but he wasn't dead. Kiku at least grateful for that.
She sat up whimpering and a few moments later the kazekage was at her side.
"Why did he say my bento was bad?" she asked, lying. Kiku hoped the kazekage believed Gaara knew of it's intentions on his own and hadn't overheard her.
The kazekage cursed under his breath and picked the small girl up. Blood dripped onto the ground and she looked at the scrapes and small gash on her arm.
"Nevermind that." he said. "I just have to think of another plan."
The trip to the medic was silent after that.
The kazekage left Kiku with a kind young woman who bandaged her up. It hurt a lot, but Kiku didn't complain. The medic's name was Emiko, and she stayed with Kiku until her mother came to see her. Emiko was sweet and she talked about working as a medic nin. Kiku thought it sounded like a great job for helping people and told the medic how she wanted to grow up and have a job like that. Emiko laughed and told her it required a lot of training and lots of chakra. Kiku wondered how much chakra she herself possessed had, and Emiko told her that there were tests to find out. She told Kiku about ninja training and how much fun it was and how she had been about Kiku's age when she started.
The girl was having a great time listening to all of Emiko's stories when her mother finally decided to show up. She'd been there for nearly 2 hours.
"Is her arm alright? Will she be deformed?" Those were the first words from her mother's mouth as she made her way into the room.
Emiko just smiled and shook her head. "She'll be fine. It will heal up nicely. I already started her on the healing process. Nothing will look out of place I promise you."
Kiku's mother let out a sigh of relief.
"You've got a tough little girl there." said Emiko as she walked the two to the door. "Didn't cry one bit while she was here." She pat the child's head gently and Kiku smiled proudly.
"Have you thought of sending her to Ninja training? We could use another brave little kunoichi in Suna."
Kiku looked to her mother hopefully, wanting to live a life like the one Emiko had been describing, but her mother scowled at the woman.
"No child of mine will ever be a ninja. This one will be married off to someone respectable so she won't have to stoop that low."
Kiku could tell Emiko was displeased but she politely waved goodbye as her mother dragged Kiku back home.
The next day Kiku stayed in bed, but her mother brought her all of her favorite foods. She said Kiku's birthday went better than expected.
All Kiku could think was that it had been the worst birthday she could ever imagine.