I don't normally do this because this is a fan fiction website but here I go.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters there of. On the other hand, I do own my O.C.s and this story line is original.

"Good morning, Sakura," I said softly as I came down stairs. I had had a peaceful night, with strange dreams. I kept seeing Naruto and the nine-tailed fox he possessed. For some reason, I felt compelled to speak with Naruto, as if talking to him would make me closer to my own race.

"Good morning, Nari," she replied. She had already eaten breakfast and I declined wanting any. We walked out the door. "So what are your plans for today?"

"After training?" I asked sweetly, reminding her without outright saying it.

"You probably weren't paying attention but Kakashi said we weren't going to be training today." My mouth formed a small "o".

"Well, in that case, I think I'm going to explore." In truth, I wanted to find Naruto. While Gaara was interesting and all, Naruto was the one I should really be trying to figure out. After all, he was the second closest thing to a nine-tailed ninja.

"Do you want me to come with you?" she offered. I didn't want to hurt her feelings but I knew, with Sakura around, Naruto probably wouldn't pay any attention to me. She couldn't see it, but it was obvious how obsessed with her he was. No, I didn't want her tagging along at all.

"No, that's alright. No offense, but there's someone I have to meet up with and you can't be around. I enjoy your company, Sakura, and you're very nice to me, but I have to say no."

"Oh, okay. Well, I hope your day goes smoothly."

"Thanks, you too." I waved good-bye to Sakura as I headed in the opposite direction. I knew where Naruto lived but that didn't mean he'd be there. In fact, his scent hinted that he had already been around the town twice this morning. That was strange. I hadn't thought of him as an early-riser. That was, until, I found out where he was.

"I have to beat her. I have to prove I'm stronger than Sasuke." I peeked around a tree at Naruto. He was throwing shuriken at a tree.

"Good morning, Naruto," I called cheerily. He froze and turned to face me. "If you want to get past my defense, try a chakra based attack. Something blunt that goes fast. That way you don't just puncture the tree branches, but blast them to pieces."

"Why are you helping me?" he demanded.

"Because you fascinate me and I believe in you." He frowned slightly and then gave me a big grin.

"Good, because I'm going to be Hokage one day!"

"You already told me that," I muttered. His eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't understand you. I can't tell if you're mocking me or if you're speaking the truth." I laughed.

"I'm just telling the truth. Look, I've never really had a conversation with someone my own age. I'm used to people telling me to shut up and pay attention 'because…'"

"'I'm only going to say this once,'" he finished for me. "I always hated that."

"And they normally lied, saying it several times."

"Ha ha. Yeah. You have a point. They do, do that, don't they?" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head with a grin.

"So, anyway… You want to go on a walk with me?" I offered. He was shocked, a small blush flushing his cheeks. "We could get some ramen or something, if you want."

"Yeah! That'd be great!" Naruto ran over to me, both arms behind his head now as we walked. "Is there something you want to talk about, Nari?" So many things. There are so, so many things I want to talk about, but we should start out simple.

"Do you have any family?" I regretted asking the question as soon as it hit his ears. His smile disappeared and he looked down gloomily.

"No," he replied bluntly.

"I didn't think so. I was just making sure. Don't worry; I know what it's like. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You turned out surprisingly well without a family to look after you. Is that why you want to become Hokage? So that you feel like you have a family?" He stared at me as if I was crazy.

"I want to become Hokage so that everyone will look up to and respect me. That way no one ever ignores me again."

"You were ignored a lot as a child, weren't you?" He nodded. "Why?"

"I don't know. Someone once told me it's because I have a monster inside of me but I think he was lying. I mean, if I was a monster, I'd know by now. Right?" Obviously not.

"Not necessarily," I muttered. So I wasn't going to get anywhere along that line of questioning. "But if you had a monster sealed inside of you, that doesn't make you a monster. You could still be a good person despite what your body contains. It's our hearts and actions that define us, not our heritage and struggles." He just shrugged again, not really caring about my wisdom.

"What do you really think of Sakura," I pried randomly. The blush that crossed his face was adorable. I almost busted out laughing. Apparently, I knew how to read that kind of emotion. That was good. I had actually feared I wouldn't be able to understand people at all if I didn't have the ability to read their minds. It wasn't like I had been raised with people with normal emotions. Most rogues were kind of cold.

"Oh, you know… She's beautiful, and smart, and…"

"Don't worry; I'm not going to tell her. Truly, how do you feel about her?"

"I really, really like Sakura but she's always obsessed with stupid Sasuke." He stuck his tongue out with the last name. "I don't see why girls are always swooning over him. He's not all that special."

"Yeah, he kind of is," I said truthfully. "But not in the way they think. They'll see his true colors one day. Trust me; guys like him…" Sasuke kind of reminded me of Orochimaru. They had that same one track mind but Sasuke was a little bit clearer in the head. He did have a better reason for wanting revenge. Still, the boy was a fool and he wasn't going to get any true satisfaction on the road he was traveling. Revenge never brought satisfaction. It only brought more pain.

"You sure seem to know a lot about people for being raised in the forest," Naruto pointed out.

"I have a gift for getting into people's heads." Literally.

"Can you get into mine?"

"Yes." But only metaphorically. "You're face is easy to read."

"Great," he drawled sarcastically. Suddenly, we both froze. Walking our way was Gaara. He walked by without a glance but both Naruto and I stared after him. After he was a way off, Naruto bent over and whispered, "That guy is creepy."

"Slightly," I admitted with a peal of laughter. "But most would say the same about me." He glared at me.

"You're not as creepy as him."

"You don't know that," I warned. I liked Naruto. He was amusing to be around. Sakura didn't know what she was missing out on. The rest of the day, Naruto and I switched around from talking and walking, eating, and training. We didn't separate until late at night. He went to bed and I headed towards the Hokage heads he had showed me. I climbed the massive staircase before going to sit on top of one of the heads.

As I stared across the peaceful village, another form caught my eye. Gaara, I thought with a grin. He was approaching me. Chances were he had caught sight of me first. I wasn't sure I liked that but I wasn't going to say anything. It only took him a minute or so to reach me from the bottom of the staircase.

"Good evening," I called out as he walked up behind me.

"Is it?" he inquired.

"Sure it is. The moon is getting smaller, more stars are visible, and it's a peaceful night. Not a cloud in the sky. It doesn't get much better than that." He said nothing as he came to stand to my left.

"The Chuunin Exams are tomorrow," he finally stated.

"I know. I won't be able to participate, sadly. But I'll be watching. They're two people participating that I want to keep an eye on. You being one of them."

"The other?"

"Naruto Uzumaki. I'm telling you; that kid has something special about him. If you face him, I doubt you'll come out unchanged. Then again, it's hard to tell with you, Gaara. Still…"

"No one's going to change me," he said coolly.

"Oh, really?" I demanded, sticking my hand out and touching his arm without his sand springing out to protect him. "I think someone already has," I muttered. Inwardly, I was delighted with the ability to touch his skin, although I didn't know why. "How strange. I expected you to be cold." In actuality, he was very warm to the touch, almost as though he had a fever but I knew that wasn't so. I wondered if he had ever gotten sick.

"You're very warm too," he admitted almost shyly. Or, perhaps, that was just me. "Did you find a way around my defense yet?" he asked in his usual monotone.

"No," I growled, pulling my hand back. I glanced up at him and I could've sworn a smirk touched his lips. If it had, it disappeared just as quickly as it had come. Suddenly, without thoroughly thinking my actions through, I grabbed his hand and yanked him down beside me. Surprise crossed his features and he glowered at me, his sand escaping from its gourd and floating around.

"Sorry," I gasped instinctively. I turned away, feeling a blush creep up my cheeks. What the Hell are you thinking, Nari Ninetails? Do you want to die? To my utter joy, his sand receded and I smiled at him. Then, feeling that it'd be better if I had someone to argue with, I performed my nine-tailed replication jutsu. The fox that popped up was tiny but had a brain. It curled up on my lap and I stroked its back as we sat in silence.

"Was that fear, Nari Ninetails?" Gaara demanded.

"No," I laughed. "That was embarrassment. I have no idea what I was thinking." No, you didn't, my clone agreed. And you're lucky you didn't pay the consequences for such a stupid action. I agreed grudgingly. We were there for only an hour when someone new appeared.

"Gaara, what are you doing?" a deep voice demanded. We both turned around to spy at a sand ninja. Half of his face was covered with a cloth. I peered into his mind and discovered his name was Baki. As I kept searching, I discovered, to my disappointment, that the sand ninja were in with Orochimaru. That meant I might just have to face Gaara again in order to stop the attack on the Hidden Leaf Village. I wasn't looking forward to that but Konoha was now my home. The Hokage had been sincere in his intentions to make me a genin of the village.

"I'm watching the moon," Gaara replied without a hint of emotion, turning back to the sky. Baki glanced from Gaara to me.

"And who's this?"

"My stalker." I couldn't help myself. I erupted with laughter. He was right, of course. Technically, I was stalking him but still.

"I guess I really am creepy," I mumbled to myself. Baki was taken aback. Is she a fan of his somehow? he thought. Baki knew Gaara was a jinchuriki so I had no fear of revealing anything new about Gaara if I spoke up to explain myself. "I'm just curious about demon children, is all," I assured him slightly louder. "But I guess you could consider it stalking." Gaara frowned.

"Gaara, we had a meeting tonight. You were supposed to be there," Baki scolded him.

"I already know what I'm supposed to do," Gaara growled.

"You were supposed to be there," the jounin repeated unrelentingly.

"Yeah, Gaara. You were supposed to be there," I teased, nudging him with my elbow, despite my clone's warning. Gaara shot me the laser eyes. My clone whined and scurried up my arm, curling around my neck. Next time you go to do something stupid, I'm going to choke you, it warned. I frowned but said nothing.

How is this girl still alive, Baki wondered, staring at me incredulously. Does she know something about Gaara we don't? "No, it's not that," I said, staring back at Baki, deciding to freak him out. "I can read minds, that's all. It gives me the advantage of knowing what I can and can't do."

You can't read Gaara's mind, my clone reminded me. And I thought we were going to keep that a secret. As I watched Baki's eyes go wide, I laughed. "I'm just kidding," I lied. "Wish I could though. That'd be nice. Guess I somehow was reading yours though, huh? No. People are just predictable." Baki relaxed slightly but he still kept an eye on me. He wanted to know how I managed to sit next to Gaara without fear of being attacked. He wanted to know how I had survived this long. Nice save, the beast complimented me.

Of course, I laughed inwardly. That's not knowledge for undeserving ears. It's my best asset. "What do you want," Gaara finally demanded when the jounin didn't leave. He sounded so bored. I felt bad for him, seeing that little boy again. The kid still didn't know how to live. Surprisingly, I did. I knew how to laugh. I knew that I had to keep high spirits if I wanted to get anywhere in my life. Depressing thoughts weren't going to get me anywhere. I had discovered that from others' minds easily. Maybe that was why. Because I had the ability to learn from others' mistakes before I made the same ones. Because I learned from experiences that weren't my own.

"Nothing," Baki finally replied. "Just don't miss another meeting again, or there will be consequences." Then he left.

"What kind of consequences can they spring on you?" Gaara didn't reply. And I never did find out, although I tried to get it out of him several times afterwards. Perhaps there weren't any. I would never know.

"Will you tell me something?" I started up again as dawn was soon approaching. Gaara paused for a second before giving a hesitant nod. "Did you actually know that none of those clones were me last night? Or did you just not care?"

"I saw you flee into the woods." I nodded.

"And with the nine-tailed fox clone? Was that just a guess?"

"I figured you probably hadn't mastered shape-shifting yet. Besides, I saw you produce those clones before the battle."

"Right, right. So you never intended to kill me yesterday?"

"That was exactly the point of the battle, to kill you." Thanks…, I sighed inwardly. "But even when you were trapped and as good as dead, you still weren't afraid. I want you to fear me when I kill you. Prey should be afraid of its predator." I shrugged.

"I guess you're never going to get to kill me, then, Gaara. I don't think I can find it in myself to fear you. That'd just be strange. You're just a kid. I'm the actual demon, remember?"

"You're a weak demon."

"Perhaps, but a demon nonetheless." We sat in silence as the sun rose. When it was fully revealed, Gaara stood and left without a word. I frowned slightly. I had enjoyed my day with the two jinchuriki. All well, I thought as I allowed my clone to disappear. I left the Hokage head and headed towards the center of the village. I couldn't get into the Chuunin Exams but that didn't mean I couldn't wait outside for the results.

Thanks for reading and please review. I greatly appreciate all of them.