Stage Two: Friendship

Gaara looked down upon me when I had called his name. "What do you want," he demanded. Dread filled his voice; he didn't want to talk to me.

"I don't want anything," I answered. I sat down on the swing and stared the other way, my back to the moon he was gazing at.

"Why are you here?" he hissed at me.

"The same reason you are," I answered, my tone equally cold.

He sighed again and got up, jumping from the tree to my level. "To think I was at peace," he said before disappearing in a cloud of sand.

"Then don't invade my spot," I growled. Kin's words of being the only one who can relate to him sounded in my head. It was my turn to sigh. "He's such a pain in the ass!" he yelled. I then became aware of the odd sensation I get when I am being watched: my neck itched. I scratched it, and looked over my shoulder to see Gaara's silhouette against the pale moon. He was looking at me. No, he was watching me.

I got up from the swing and began to walk toward him; I saw him shift uncomfortably. I passed the building he was sitting on and continued on my way, heading to the training field. I could hear him follow me, but I didn't pay any attention to him. He wanted to provoke me, and I could think of no other way to get me to start a fight than to annoy me.

I felt his presence at the edge of the trees when I jumped to the top of s thick, wooden pillar. I didn't know why he was watching me, I didn't want to know why. It was probably some attempt to learn something. If he really wanted to fight me, he would have attacked me by now. "I know you're there," I called to him.

I heard a rustle and a thud, telling me he had jumped down. He walked to the pillar adjacent to me and sat at its base. He was still watching me with cold, hate-filled eyes. "Now you can be sure that I'm here."

"What is your problem, Kid?" I asked.

His eyes cast me a glare that was set in an arctic chill. "Don't call me a Kid," he growled.

"I wouldn't have to if you weren't here," I answered.

He remained silent. I watched him rise and fall with each breath, counted every blink, and noted every rare shift in his position. I knew he was doing the same to me. I was being studied by someone I was observing myself. I knew that his night vision was developed enough to match mine with Shukaku, but I didn't know what it was he was looking for.

"What?" I eventually ended up shouting. I expected him to jump a little, but he didn't.

"You're not moving." All he managed to say was that I wasn't moving? What did this have to do with anything? "You're not running from me, you're not edging away from me, you're not even looking away."

"I'm not afraid of you," I hissed.

His eyes narrowed. "I can easily change that."

"Go ahead and try, kid."

The cork to his gourd shifted and rattled, but was then still. He had thought better of attacking me. "I can't, you're on my team."

"I am not on the same team as you and your arrogant brats for siblings. I would rather let you kill me than be subjected to that torture," I spat.

He blinked twice then answered, "There are days when I feel the same way." He continued to stare me down until I answered.

"Then kill them and move on with your life. Hell, kill your whole village. Saves me a lot of trouble," I retorted.

"That day will come, but for now, I must wait," he heartlessly informed me. "Your time will also come, when I am not bound to be your comrade."

"I eagerly await the day I will teach you a lesson." I folded my arms in annoyance. "What happened to the quiet kid who doesn't say anything to anyone? I think you killed him too."

A growl escaped his throat. "Don't pretend you know me. You don't know if I am normally quiet or if I prefer to talk all day."

"I do know. It's all in your posture and expressions. You look so uncomfortable, even one on one. It makes you irritable having me here, indifferent to your threats and curses. You hate it more than you think the world hates you!"

I struck a nerve. Sand poured out of its shell and began to surround me. I cast up a barrier of pressurized air around me before he went in for the kill. "I will kill you if you don't apologize."

"Rule number three, don't apologize. Try it, see how far you get," I challenged. He squeezed and became obscured from my vision by the grains of sentiment trying to trap me in its bounds. I had three minutes to wear down his defense before I ran out of air. Keeping my breathing normal, I sent out a burst of electricity through the barrier, charging the particles to super speed. They were much harder to control now that they were moving. Glass formed around my left side from the bolt and dropped to the ground only to shatter.

I could see the perspiration gather on his brow as he struggled to calm the sand. I thrust out the barrier, breaking for a split second to regain fresh air. Sand had fallen into my dome, but the chakura was broken from it. It lay inches above the grass, suspended by the unseen force of my bubble. The wave of sand that didn't become trapped settled to the ground where it lie motionless. Gaara was panting now; he had felt the full charge of my jutsu in his very core. I was shocked he was moving at all.

The sand retreated; he would become stronger the next time he challenged me. "Never before," he muttered in disbelief. "Why didn't you kill me?"

"I have no need to dispose of you," I answered with a glare. "You're not a threat to me or my life."

"What do you want from me," he asked.

"I want nothing from you," I replied.

"Then why do you remain where you are?" he asked.

"I was here first, and you're not a threat to me."

"There is something else there."

"Maybe there isn't," I retorted.

He looked across the line of threes he had come from. "You're different, Tsuki."

"How am I so different."

"You don't run from me, you don't fear me, and you won't be killed by me."

"Hmm," I sighed. "Well, it sounds like I think you're a regular person."

"I am not a regular person." He snapped his glare back at me. "Regular people don't have to deal with a demon living inside them!"

"Of all the people I have known to hold demons, you're the only one bent on killing everyone around you. Killing people who may not have any resentment for you at all."

"Why don't you resent me?" he asked

"Do you want me to?" I countered.

"Answer me!" he commanded.

I sighed. "I don't resent you because I know what you're going through, more so than you can ever imagine anyone to understand."

"How can you hope to understand what it is like to be a Jinchuriki?"

"Being one of the ten, I can't. But I do understand what it is like to be a demon."

Shock lightened his eyes. "How?"

"You don't think that the tailed beasts are the only demons, do you? Look at the Sanin! They summon demons all the time."

"So you're like me?" he asked.

"In a manor of speaking, yes."

"This is why Orochimaru wants you?"

"The only reason I can see fit."

"Why tell me this?" he asked. "Why trust me with something so powerful if used against you?"

"Because I know you won't," I answered. "You have no reason to." I bounded from the pillar and walked into the trees, leaving him in the dawning sunrise.

I had placed a lot of trust in Gaara. He didn't seem the type to use it against me, but what did I know? He just tried to kill me. I walked back to my apartment in silence, passing Sasuke on my way. He didn't notice me, so I kept my steady, rhythmic pace. I was worried about what Orochimaru would do when he finds out I told him.

Turns out, not a lot.

Orochimaru was waiting for me in the living room where I had met Kin earlier. "You met the boy, I take."

"I did, Sensei."

"What did you do?"

"Yelled at him a lot, then he stalked off. He watched me from a roof, then I stalked off. He followed me, I called him out, we argued for a while, he tried to kill me, I drained him, he asked me why I killed him, and I told him I didn't need to. He asked me why I didn't fear him, or resent him, and I told him that I know what he's going through."

"You told him what you are," Orochimaru concluded.

I sighed. "Yes, I told him what I was."

"If anything, he's going to think you're lying to him."

"Perhaps. He wants to know why I trust him with knowing, though."

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him that he has no reason to use it against me."

"Does Sasuke know, I wonder?"

"No, I never told Sasuke. He might think something, though."

"When you left Gaara, how did you feel?"

I arched an eyebrow in curiosity. "I felt as though I had just gotten done talking to Kabuto, to be honest. Annoyed, and as if I was wasting my time."

"If all goes well, it won't be a waste of time."

"If you say so, Sensei. I have no choice but to trust you."

He didn't say anything, but pulled out the journal I had presented to him. "It seems that the people know more than the Hokage does, doesn't it?"

"It does," I answered. "It seems he has just dismissed it as rumors that aren't true."

"Just to be mistaken," Orochimaru laughed. "The old man is a fool."

"A fool," I repeated. I was staring blankly out the window.

Orochimaru looked out there two, but when he saw nothing that would catch my interest, he asked, "What ails you, child?"

"It is nothing, just a sense of deja vu," I answered. "Have I ever been to the leaf village, Sir?" I looked into his golden eyes with hopes of an answer.

"Not that I am aware of, this should be your first visit." I feel he is hiding something from me, but I don't know what it is. All I remember is being six and taught by Orochimaru.

"I just can't shake the feeling that this place is important for some reason."

"Perhaps it is," he answered. "Do you like it here?"

"I hate it here," I honestly answered. "The feelings aren't good ones, Sensei. I feel as though something bad has happened."

"Or is about to happen," he added.

I eased up. "That could be it," I admitted.

"The guilt of knowing, dear child. That is all that ails you."

Relief hit me. "Thank you, Orochimaru."

He said nothing once more, and immersed himself once more in the leather bound journal. The only thing that disturbed him was the sound of someone at the door. I quickly answered it to see Kabuto standing there, flushed.

"Baki is furious at you, Tsuki."

Orochimaru closed the book and looked at him. "Why is he so angry with her?"

"Something is wrong with Gaara. No one can find him."

"This is my fault?" I asked.

Kabuto looked at me. "It's your fault he's angry."

"I didn't make him angrier than usual."

"Why did you confront him at all?" Kabuto yelled.

Orochimaru stepped in. "She was acting on orders from me, Kabuto."

"Orders?" he asked. He looked from Orochimaru, to me, then back again. "Orders to do what?" Orochimaru said nothing. Kabuto thought a while. "This is about your theory that they're withholding information?"

"Yes," he answered.

"And you sent her to do this?!" he yelled. "We're never going to get anywhere."

"I'm not going to send you," he hissed.

"You might as well, for the results you're going to get."

"Kabuto, do you remember the last time you doubted Tsuki?" Orochimaru laughed.

I chuckled. The last time Kabuto doubted me was two years ago, when I had been given a Katana for advancing to chunin. He ended up in medical care for a month.

"Tsuki," Orochimaru barked. "Go find out where the boy is. Settle this."

"Yes, Sensei."

* * * * *

It wasn't that hard to find Gaara. He was where I left him this morning. He looked up at me when I approached him. "What?" he asked.

"Your sensei is mad at me."

"Me too," he answered bitterly.

"Well, you're going to have to face that," I retorted.

"I don't have to do anything," he hissed.

I dropped down next to him. "No, but I'm not leaving until this is resolved." I grabbed his wrist. "You're not, either."

He glared at me. "Why does it matter?" he asked. "Why do you care if Baki is mad at you anyway?"

"I don't feel like kicking his ass," I answered. "Besides, he isn't the problem. You are." I rolled my eyes.

He grabbed my wrist and removed it from his hand. "You're not going to get anything out of me."

"You're angry because you can't kill me," I stated.

He looked at me. "Yes."

"I'm here, defenseless and alone." I leaned in, a mere inch away from his ear. "Kill me," I whispered.

His eyes grew wide as sand instantly surrounded me. "Don't do that." He pushed me away from him and released me. "I can't kill you." He sounded desperate and lost. He looked vulnerable.

I approached him again. "Something is wrong here, and it isn't anger." I sat down across from him, looking him in the eye. "You can tell me. Otherwise this isn't going to go away."

"I don't want to tell you."

"Don't want to tell me, or don't know how to tell me?" I asked.

"Both!" he angrily shouted. His voice cracked, giving everything away.

"You're sad," I observed. It was strange to hear, from someone so angry with the world. I didn't think he could be sad.

"Wouldn't you be?"

"Well, I was," I answered. "For five years I was sad."

He looked at me with hatred. "What happened to you that was so bad?" he growled.

"I watched my parents die," I answered. "Slaughtered before my eyes. My sister, too. Everyone I had cared about was killed."

"Why were they killed?" he asked, slightly less angry.

"For power," I answered. "The Akatsuki thought one of us was a tailed beast."

"You're lying to me."

Orochimaru was right, he would just pass me off as a liar. "Perhaps I am, but either way I know what you're feeling: solitude, hatred, sorrow, pain, despair, loneliness. It's not new to the world."

"I was okay, being on my own," he growled. "I have no problem feeling these things. It's all I have ever known. You took that from me."

Shock filled my mind: he wanted this. He wanted to be the last person left. He wanted to be blood thirsty. I knew he didn't care about the people around him, but I didn't think he wanted it to be this way. "Then kill me and take it back," I answered.

"For someone who was so willing to fight for dominance, you're all too willing to throw your life away." He glared at me. "Do you not have any value for your own life?"

"Not really," I answered. "If I die, then I'm dead and there isn't anything I can do about it. If I was meant to be killed by you, so be it."

"You haven't even experienced life yet, and you're willing to die already."

"I've had my fill of life already."

"Have you ever loved anyone?" he asked.

My mind thought of Orochimaru, but I didn't love him. I couldn't love him. "No, I haven't." It was the truth.

"Then you haven't had your fill."

"Some people aren't supposed to be in love."

He looked at me. "You're right, but you're not one of them."

"How do you know?" I asked, insulted. Love is weakness to me. I could never subject myself to it.

"You care too much."

"Funny, you say I care when so many others say I'm heartless."

"Then why do you care about me?" he demanded. "Why can't you just leave me alone? Is there something wrong with me? You can't change me, so don't waste your time trying."

"Change you, no. Understand you, yes. For someone so quick to point fingers, you're ignoring what's going on with yourself. You don't have to talk to me, you can just ignore me."

"You won't let me."

"I can't make you do shit, Gaara."

"Then why can't I kill you?" he demanded. "Why do you bother me so badly? You're doing this on purpose!"

"I'm not doing anything to you. You're doing this to yourself."

"Why would I do this to myself?"

I took a deep breath. I put my hand on his arm, but he shifted out of my reach.

"Don't do that," he growled. "It makes things worse." I stood up. "Where are you going?" he asked. He stood up in protest. "I'm not done with you."

"I am going to leave you alone," I answered. I took one step forward and left a kiss on his Ai tattoo and turned back. I knew what I was doing.