Chapter 19

Jinrou POV

It's been a few weeks. I found lots of stuff about my parents. I had to be sneaky here and there, but it was worth it. I visited the house they used to live in. It was a nice little home. I had to sneak into the Hokage's office to get more information like files and pictures, but it was worth it. I had it all in a messenger bag as I raced my way through the village. I noticed that ever since Itachi put that seal on me, it's been much easier to control my chakra. When I got to some trees on the outside of the village I made my chakra come out of me. It formed a wolf that was about a foot taller than me. I jumped on it like a horse and we went running through the trees. Many hours later, I got to the village gates. I made my chakra go away and walked in. I smiled as I walked and the ninja guarding the gates smiled and waved at me. I went in and went looking for my team. They were in a field training.

"Guess who!" I yelled as I ran at them. They all looked up in shock and ran at me. Sakura tackled me to the ground.

"Jinrou! We were all so worried!" She yelled as she almost squeezed the life out of me.

"Thanks, now let me up before I suffocate." I said. She got up and offered me a hand. I got up and smiled at everyone. "What's up?" I asked. Sasuke and Naruto grinned at me.

"Nothing much. Just the chunnin exams." Sasuke said. I nodded.

"But they already started. The final rounds are gonna be the day after tomorrow." Naruto said. I bit my lip.

"Awe man." I said frowning. Kakashi spoke up.

"Don't worry, I spoke with the Hokage and he said you can still participate." I smiled.

"That's great." I said happily.

"By the way that boy, Takashi, is also participating." Kakashi said. I nodded.

"Okay." I said. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura walked with me into the village. We were going to get some ramen and they told me all about what had happened so far.

"Oh, and there's this one guy. He's from the village of the sand. He uses his sand to attack." Sakura said. My eyes widened in surprise.

"Wow. That's pretty impressive." I said. I've only met one person who can control sand like that, but it probably wasn't him.

"I guess. But he seems pretty stuck up to me." Sakura said. Naruto and Sasuke stopped.

"Look, there he is now." Naruto said. He was pointing at a guy with dark flaming red hair, green eyes with no pupils, pale skin, and a giant sand gourd on his back. My eyes widened.

"He's-" Sasuke started.

"Gaara!" I yelled as I ran toward him. He turned around in surprise and his eyes widened.

"Jinrou." He said my name in his monotone voice. He opened his arms just as I jumped into them. The sand came out of his gourd and floated around me. It flew through my hair and tickled my skin as if in greeting. It made a sand Gaara and it hugged me. I hugged the warm sand back. I made my chakra come out and made a chakra me. It hugged the sand Gaara and they went back to random shapes as they coiled around each other.

Naruto POV

We could only stare as Jinrou ran at Gaara and hugged him. We were so confused. His sand fluttered around her and turned into a sand Gaara who also hugged her. Her chakra and his sand were coiling around each other. We all stared at each other. I remembered what Kankuro told us about Gaara.

"His sand protects him, it's alive. That's why no one has ever been able to touch him."

We stared at the two. Jinrou was talking excitedly and he had a small smile on his usually emotionless face.

"Why can she touch him?" We all asked quietly at no one in particular. We watched as Jinrou ran back to us with a big smile on her face.

"Do you guys mind if I skip out on the ramen today?" She asked. Sakura shook her head.

"No, um, you go ahead." She said. Jinrou nodded.

"Thanks you guys!" She said as she ran back to Gaara and held his hand. She started running and he followed after her with that small smile on his face.

Jinrou POV

I ran with Gaara to the waterfall. I still can't believe it's him! I smiled as we sat by the waterfall and just talked while messing around. Despite Takashi being the first person to accept me for who I was and was my best friend in the village, he wasn't my first friend.

~flashback~

I was running away again. I was about six years old. I was running as fast as I could but I was getting tired.

'Ookami, help me!' I yelled in my mind. I could feel myself turn into blue smoke and land on something soft, I think it was sand, I only caught a glimpse of a little boy before passing out.

When I woke up, I was lying on my back in the sand. The little boy looked worried and put a cool towel on my face. I stood up and looked at him. He stared back. We both jumped back at the same time. I tried approaching him and the sand from the sand box rose and shielded him. I focused and my hair turned white with blue as I used my chakra to try and get through the wall of sand. The little boy looked my age with red hair and was carrying a little brown bear in his arms. My chakra and his sand kept hitting each other but neither could pass the other. I stopped and he did the same when he saw I wouldn't do anything. I went back to my normal appearance.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

"Gaara." He said in a monotone voice.

"I'm Jinrou." I said. He gave me a tiny smile and I grinned at him. We sat down on some swings and he told me all about himself. I did the same and we smiled at each other when we saw how much we had in common. I eventually had to go back. Right before I left, I hugged him and he seemed shocked, but after a bit he hugged me back. "I'll see you again someday. And we'll have to have a match." I said smiling. He nodded and I let him go. "Goodbye Gaara! I'll see you again someday!" I said just as I dissaoeared into blue smoke. I'll have to remember to ask Ookami about the whole smoke thing later.

~end flashback~

"I found out many things about my parents." I said. He looked at me curiously.

"Really? Like what?" He asked in a monotone voice. I opened my messenger bag and showed him all the files I found with pictures. There was a picture of their house, of them, and a picture of me as a baby.

"My mother's name was Suteki Motohara and my father's name was Tsuyoi Motohara." I said and showed him pictures of them both. I grabbed the file of me. "I found out what my birth name is." I said opening the file. There was a picture of a baby me. "My name was Amaimono, it means sweetie. So it turns out the Hokage was calling me by name the whole time." I said. He nodded at me.

"How did you get all of this?" He asked with an eyebrow raised. I bit my lip.

"I might've...maybe... sort of... snuck into the Hokage's office." I said. His eyes widened before he chuckled at me. "So," I said standing up. "You wanna have that match now?" I asked. He nodded and also stood up. I put my messenger bag under a tree and changed my appearance. I looked at him with excited blue eyes. "Lets go." I said. My chakra lashed out at the same time his sand flew out of his gourd.

Suteki (her mom's name) means Lovely. Tsuyoi (her dad's name) means Strong. And Amaimono (her birth name) means Sweetie.