Gaara woke up to the feeling of something tickling his nose.

"Aachoo!" Gaara sneezed, and he jolted upright on his bed. He sniffled a little, befote he looked up at the clock on the wall.

5:17

Still early morning, and still gave him a good 3 or 4 hours to still sleep and get ready for his arrangement with Velvet's team.

Now that Gaara thought about it, what was Velvet's team name?

However, before Gaara could think more on it, he heard someone clear their throat.

Gaara turned to see Kimimaro sitting on a chair in the corner of the room. Gaara jumped off his bed, and was in a standing position with his fists raised, ready to fight.

Gaara looked around for a moment and saw his Sand Gourd next to Kimimaro, who had a hand on top of the cork that was inside the lid.

"Calm down," Kimimaro said quietly, "We wouldn't want to wake up your friends."

"How are you still alive?" Gaara quietly demanded

Kimimaro shrugged, and responded, "Luck, I suppose."

Gaara was in quite a pickle right now. He could try to use his sand gourd, but once Gaara popped off its cork, Kimimaro would already be on him, and Gaara knew that he was no match for Kimimaro when it came to taijutsu. Kimimaro would kill him instantly.

Although he could turn the gourd itself into sand, it wouldn't be quick enough to stop Kimimaro.

So, weighed by the only option that Gaara had, especially because of his team, who were still asleep, would be easy pickings for Kimimaro, Gaara lowered his fists, and begrudgingly crossed his arms.

Kimimaro sighed, and Gaara inquired, "Why didn't you kill me? I was asleep. You had the perfect opportunity."

Kimimaro made a offended look at Gaara, and said, "What reason do I have to kill you? I only fought you back there out of defense. You attacked me first. What reason did you have for attacking me?"

"Because," Gaara responded, "You would have ended up hurting someone."

"Only if if they were trying to kill me," Kimimaro added, "Otherwise, I would hurt no one."

"Not so," Gaara said, "You were trying to kill me and the taijutsu expert back then."

"That," Kimimaro answered while pointing a finger accusingly at Gaara, "Was because I was trying to get anyone from getting to the Uchiha, whom Lord Orouchimaru needed. But other than that, I would never kill unless I needed to or if I was ordered directly by Lord Orouchimaru himself, for killing is distasteful to me."

Gaara was taken aback by this. He never really pictured Kimimaro as like this. He figured that anyone, except for Sasuke, that was aligned with the Sannin was not able to be redempted. He never saw Kimimaro so…human. And what surprised Gaara even more was how Kimimaro could serve someone who, other than for his Kekkei Genkai, cared not one iota about him.

Kimimaro sighed, and observed, "You don't believe me, do you? I don't really blame you. Many mistake me for a monster just because I take orders from the Sannin. However, they fail to see deeper within."

Gaara knew what it felt like. He understood what Kimimaro said, about being misunderstood because of their past. And it was then that Gaara realized that he shouldn't have judged Kimimaro, believing that he was evil and merciless.

Gaara shook his head, and said, "I understand what it is like. People think that you are a monster, judging you based on what they see outside, instead of on the inside."

Kimimaro eyed him, and asked, "Out of curiosity, what gave the people who viewed you as such?"

Gaars sighed, and looked at Hanzo and Pierce and Clarice, who were all asleep. Gaara then looked back up at Kimimaro and replied while gesturing to his team with his head, "Not here. I don't want to wake them."

Kimimaro nodded, and stood up.

"Let's go then," Kimimaro said, but he kept Gaara's gourd with him.

Gaara got up and walked Kimimaro out of the room and into the halls of Beacon.

As Gaara and Kimimaro walked through the academy, Gaara asked, "By the way, how did you get into my room?"

"You left your window open," Kimimaro replied simply.

Gaara usually kept the window open now, in case the butterfly ever decided to come and visit. He should probably do that less often.

"So tell me," Kimimaro asked, "What is your story?"

Gaara looked down at the floor as he walked alongside Kimimaro, and replied, "I was a Jinchuriki."

Kimimaro turned to Gaara, a surprised look on his face, and he replied, "Well, that would certainly explain your power. You were holding back in our fight, weren't you?"

"Yes I was," Gaara responded, "Anyways, my village, Sunagakure, was in a time of crisis. We were weakened, or so my studies have said. And so, my father, the Fourth Kazekage, decided to create a weapon to help give Suna an edge over the other villages. So while I was still a fetus, he sealed the One Tailed Beast, the sand spirit Shukaku, within me."

"Sealing a tailed beast within an unborn child," Kimimaro pondered, "That is sick. Yet it would likely be a subject that could interest Lord Orouchimaru."

Gaara nodded his agreement, and continued, "I was born prematurely, and so in turn, stole the life of the one I would have called mother. At first, my father spoiled me, and kept me entertained, but soon I found out that he feared the beast that he had sealed within me, and that it was all just to try and appease me."

"Hmph. Maybe he should have never done so," Kimimaro commented, and Gaara continued, "Anyway, after so many years of trying to keep me from destroying Suna, he then ordered numerous assasination attempts on my life. However, each in turn failed. It didn't matter though, because even before that, many of Suna's inhabitants feared me because I was the One-Tailed Jinchuriki. The only one I felt that was with me was my maternal uncle, Yashamaru."

Kimimaro nodded, and soon they arrived at the entrance of Beacon, and they stopped and faced each other, and Kimimaro asked, "So what happened?"

"Hmm?" Gaara replied

"Your maternal uncle. What happened to him?"

Gaara looked away, and replied, "He's dead."

Kimimaro nodded in respect and understanding, and knew that if he pushed anymore, he would be treading on personal space.

Kimimaro dropped the sand gourd at Gaara's feet, and replied, "Just know that the feeling is mutual. However, I don't think that this is the last time we will meet."

"Likewise," Gaara replied, and Kimimaro began to leave when Gaara stopped him and asked, "Kimimaro. Didn't you have some sort of illness?"

Kimimari turned to Gaara, his facial expression in deep thought, and he replied, "Yes. I did."

Kimimaro then held up his hands, and looked at them while saying, "Funny thing, ever since I entered this world, it felt as if I had become lighter, more active and energetic, so to say."

Gaara nodded, and Kimimaro then walked away.

As Gaara watched him leave, he thought it ironic that now Kimimarowas freed from the very thing that took his life, the very thing that saved both Rock Lee's and his own life.

/

Kimimaro looked back at the academy as he left its grounds, and then turned away and kept walking into an unknown, strange city. Kimimaro wouldn't really call it a large village. Its architecture was foreign to him, and the written language here was rather foreign as well. He could speak and understand their language, but oddly enough, couldn't read it very well. Some could call it looney, but speaking and reading were two well different things.

Kimimaro pondered Gaara's question about his illness. It was odd, one moment he was in a rather very difficult fight against an unpredictable, drunken taijutsu Genin, the next he was sent to another world and was crushed underneath a mountain of sand.

The transition to this world was painful and sudden. He had taken a step forward to attack his green opponent when suddenly it felt as if his foot stepped on air instead of grass and dirt, and he plummeted into a mass of swirling black and electricity, where it felt as if every cell in his body, every atom was picked apart from his body, and he was reduced to atoms and scattered about before he was then reassembled once again. It was hell in 10 seconds, being picked apart and then thrown into random dimensions, one after another, until it seemed that whatever brought him here made up its mind and finally landed him into this world while putting him back in one piece.

Kimimaro wondered, could that short transition of traveling to another dimension be what had taken away his illness?

But Kimimaro was so wrapped up in his thoughts when he heard the shattering of glass.

Kimimaro turned to his left and saw a small little shop, named "Sparks n Explosions." What confused Kimimaro more were three giant, black cube-ish containers with windows in the front, all parked at the side of the building.

Kimimaro came closer for a better look, he saw something that was really intriguing. Men and women dressed in white and black uniforms, all the while wearing the bony masks of some sort of animal. And what was even more intriguing was that each one of them had an animalistic trait of some sort. Kimimaro counted about 17 altogether

"What in the great sage's name is happening?" Kimimaro said out loud as he neared the building, and each of the mens and womens heads veered towards him, and even with masks on, Kimimaro could quite literally sense their discomfort and contempt.

Kimimaro scanned the scene of disorder before him, and as he walked through the large display window, asked, "Is this some sort of robbery?"

Each of the masked burglars looked at each other, when one of them, a big man with a deep, gruff voice and a giant chainsaw and antlers on his head (or in Kimimaro's mind, a giant metal stick), stepped up and said, "My fellow faunus, this is White Fang business. I don't usually permit attacking another faunus, but if you get in the way, I'll be forced to reprimand you."

Kimimaro cocked his head to the side, and asked blatantly, "Who are you calling a faunus, you jumbo sized moose-head?"

The big man's face grew red, and he turned to his other comrades and gestured to Kimimaro, and said, "You know what? I changed my mind, let's kill him."

Suddenly, all of the faunus pulled out weapons, ranging from guns to melee weapons, each of them so exotic looking that Kimimaro didn't really know what they were.

The big man revved up his chainsaw, and as it roared to life, Kimimaro rubbed his forehead, saying to himself, "Isn't this a bit melodramatic?"

The big man charged at Kimimaro, and gave out a shout as he lifted the chainsaw over his head, its blade spinning violently, and he brought it down on Kimimaro's shoulder with all of his might.

To the man's surprise, however, a sheet of what seemed to be bone slid over Kimimaro's shoulder, and the blade of the chainsaw clanged on it, and then shattered in half.

Kimimaro stared into the eyes of the man, causing him to break into a light sweat, before Kimimaro commented, "The force of your strike wasn't half bad. But not really much against MY abilities."

Suddenly, before the man could react, Kimimaro's left fist shot up, and nailed a strong jab to the man's chin, sending him flying backwards and crashing through the windshield of one of the trucks.

Kimimaro suddenly heard a loud bang go off, and immediately something struck him in the shoulder. The force of the object was enough to make Kimimaro wince a little, but when he looked at where he was struck, there was only a flesh wound, while the bone underneath was not even harmed in the slightest. Kimimaro looked down, and saw a small piece of metal next to his foot.

Kimimaro veered over to who attacked him, and a woman with what seemed to be a wolf tail was holding up some sort of small contraption with both hands, smoke wafting out of the tip.

The woman fired another projectile at Kimimaro, but this time, the boy was prepared. Kimimaro dashed at the woman, while at the same time ducking, and Kimimaro heard and saw something whiz by the very spot where his head would have been had he not ducked.

Kimimaro jumped forward, and hit the woman square in the chest with a kick, sending her sprawling on the ground.

Kimimaro turned behind him, and saw three of the masked bandits rushing towards him, all three of them brandishing a sword.

Kimimaro reached out to his sides with both arms, fully extending them, and bone spikes sprouted out of his arms, legs, back, chest, and stomach.

Kimimaro dashed towards the three bandits and jumped up, and said, "Dance of the Willow."

Kimimaro then began to whirl around in the air, and became a blur of bony spikes, and the three men were helpless and unable to defend against Kimimaro's bone spikes. But what intrigued Kimimaro was when the bones hit, it was as if some sort of invisible force was protecting them, but it seemed to be limited, because when Kimimaro finished his onslaught, the three were sent sprawling on the ground, and it looked as if a different color on each of them appeared around them, as if they were encased in it, and it shattered, instantly disappearing as fast as it had appeared.

Kimimaro turned over to the rest of the men, but now they were all looking at him as if he were some kind of monster. The weapons that they held in their hands were shaking, and after a moment of Kimimaro staring them down, they finally lost their backbone and ran off to the trucks and drove off, the ones that Kimimaro had injured dragging themselves over to the trucks as well and leaving with them.

Kimimaro sighed as he then retracted the bones back into his body, before turning back to the owner of the shop.

A short man pulled himself up, and his head poked out from behind a counter. When he was sure that Kimimaro was not a threat either, the man began walking unsurely towards Kimimaro, and said, "Well, thanks for the help. Is there, uh, anything that I could do for you? I AM after all in your debt."

Kimimaro began to think about this offer, and after some thought, and then replied, "You know, I could actually use something to eat. Anything."

In no time, the man had left the room, and in a few minutes, came back bearing a bowl of Ramen.

Kimimaro, a bit taken aback by how quickly he had prepared a meal, slowly took the bowl, and using the fork that was provided, and he then slowly took a forkful of ramen, and put it in his mouth.

The flavor consisted of some sort of meat, more like chicken, and although Kimimaro wouldn't normally go for a meal like this, it would subside for now, and he was not picky.

Kimimaro nodded at the man and thanked him, when the man began to eye him rather uncomfortably.

"Is there something about me that intrigues you?" Kimimaro asked

The man looked unsurely at Kimimaro, and then answered, "Actually, yeah. Your Semblance, son. What is it called?"

"Semblance?" Kimimaro asked, "What is a semblance?."

The man seemed to be a bit confused about Kimimaro's answer, and replied hesitantly, "Well, a Semblance is like a special ability that is unique to you."

"Oh," Kimimaro said, and then he lifted his arm and a few small bone spikes protruded out, and Kimimato asked, "Is this what you are asking about?"

"Yeah," the man answered, "Tell me abou-"

However, he was cut off by Kimimaro, who said, "Sorry, but that's personal information."

The man nodded in understanding, and backed off, and he then went back into the back rooms of the Dust shop, leaving Kimimaro to himself and his meal.

/

Gaara tightened the strap that held his gourd to his back, but not too tight to where it would be uncomfortable.

He was a bit discomforted by the fact that Kimimaro had found him so soon, and the fact that Kimimaro had survived his attack.

He made a mental note to make sure his opponent will stay down after Gaara deals a death blow.

Gaara looked up at the clock that hung up on the wall.

8:08

He still had a few minutes before his team would have to go.

Gaara sighed, as he then went and walked over to the restroom, but when he got their, he saw himself in the mirror.

His red hair was, as always, spiky and uncombed. He began to wonder whether he should comb his hair for this occasion.

"Hmmm," Gaara wondered, when he finally said to himself, "Naw, it's fine."

Clarice walked into the bathroom, a small rectangular plate in her hand, and a small brush in her other hand, and she turned towards the mirror and began to apply makeup to her face.

"Good Morning," Gaara greeted, and she simply nodded in response.

"Best to leave her for now," Gaara thought, and he walked out of the bathroom.

When he walked out, he saw Pierce, once again shirtless and doing push-ups on the floor next to his bed, while Hanzo was simply sitting on his bed with his legs crossed, a medium-sized, square shaped piece of brown leather spread out in front of him. The leather had pouches in it, and Hanzo had pulled a rectangular, small block of stone from it, and was sharpening one of his blue Sai's with it, while the second one lay next to him.

Gaara greeted them, and after Pierce said good morning back, and Hanzo nodded to him, Gaara said, "I am going to go for a walk before we go. A short one."

As Gaara began to open the door and leave, he heard Hanzo comment, "Don't be late."

Gaara closed the door behind him, and it clicked shut. He began to walk down the hall, and when he turned the corner, he saw Cardin walking down the hall. Gaara and Cardin passed each other with no words, but the tension that came during the quick moment that they passed each other was indescribable.

Gaara found his way out of the academy building, and he walked through the doors and breathed in a mouthful of fresh morning air.

Gaara sighed, as he began to walk down the steps of the stone stairs that had lead up to the entrance of Beacon Academy, and began to make his way over to the courtyard.

As soon as Gaara reached the courtyard, he sat back on one of the stone benches that had been built in and around near a water fountain, and he stared and analyzed the fountain, and the way that the flowing water shot around here and there within the fountain, and how the water sparkled in the sunlight.

Gaara gave out a sigh, and said to himself, "What am I going to do?"

Ever since he had joined Beacon as a huntsman a few weeks ago, he had still been trying to figure out a way to get back home, and had come with nothing.

However, since his meeting with Kimimaro yesterday, he couldn't help but be intrigued. How was it that other people from his world were ending up here in remnant, but even more, people from different time eras?

It all confused Gaara, and instead of shedding more light on how he could get home, it only added more shades of black onto it.

Gaara pinched the bridge of his nose as he kept thinking, what was going on? Could this thing that sent him here be able to do more than travel dimensions, but also travel back and forth through time? Was there even a way that he could get home without it? Could he possibly create a jutsu that could send him home? But even if he did, how much chakra would it have to consume? Would he even have enough?

Gaara kept theorizing, and thinking, and asking himself the same question over and over again, how could he get home?

Gaara felt a sharp headache suddenly hit him out of nowhere, and he felt himself instinctively clutch his head.

"Agh!" Gaara heard himself stiffly shout. He had tried to keep himself quiet, but the headache was still very painful.

After a couple minutes of it, however, the headache subsided, leaving Gaara a bit shaken. He hadn't ever had something like that before. Suddenly, it hit him. Kimimaro had been sick, but after he ended up here, he was healthy as ever, and sick-free! But, could it also end up the other way around?

At first, for a moment, Gaara felt himself actually beginning to think to himself the numerous conditions that he could have contracted, when a reassuring thought came in.

"If I had a condition of any kind upon entering this world, wouldn't I already have noticed something abnormal about myself?"

That thought calmed Gaara down, when suddenly another alarming thought hit him.

"What time is it?"

/

Pierce rinsed out his mouth one last time before holding up his scroll and taking a look at the time

8:45

Pierce had begun to worry a little. Gaara had been gone for quite awhile, and they had to meet up with team CFVY at Beacon's entrance to its courtyard in 15 minutes.

Not that Pierce was extremely worried about it, mainly due to the fact that Gaara looks like a man of his honor, but still, he couldn't help but worry at least a little bit.

Clarice popped her head into the bathroom and asked, "Hey, ready to go?"

Pierce nodded, and said, "Has Gaara come back yet?"

Clarice shook her head and Pierce finished up and walked out of the bathroom and commented, "We HAVE to get him a scroll."

However, Hanzo, who had been meditating on his bed for almost 40 minutes, said without even opening his eyes, "If Gaara had not owned a scroll before we got here, then I doubt that he would know how to use one if we got him one."

"Buuuut," Clarice responded, "We could teach him how to use it. You know, like how to phone-call, or text."

"Uh, Clarice, I'm not sure Gaara would actually remember," Pierce said, mainly because he knows what usually happens when Clarice tries to teach anyone anything, "I mean, there are probably TOO many things on the scroll that YOU can teach him all at once."

Hell, he remembers what happened when she had tried to teach him how to make pasta. And then 8 minutes later, she was trying to teach him how to iron clothing, make pasta, and how to do arithmetic ALL AT ONCE. Yeah, he ended up burning the pasta. And accidentally dropped the iron in the pan. And failed the arithmetic and pissed Clarice off.

Clarice crossed her arms and gave Pierce a death eye, and said in an offended tone, "Mr. Perry, are you saying that I am a bad teacher?"

"No, I'm not," Pierce responded, "I'm saying that you're terrible!"

"What the!" Clarice said while spitting mad, "Why you little!"

Things like this were a common occurrence between Clarice and Pierce, and to be honest, Hanzo thought that it was comical at times, while Gaara just tried to stay out of their way. Both Hanzo and Gaara found out that once Clarice and Pierce went at it, there was no stopping them.

"Hey," Pierce raised his hands up, "I'm just being honest!"

Clarice's face contorted, and she growled, "Oh, I'm gonna scalp that pretty blonde hair of yours and hang it up on a pedestal!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Pierce challenged

"Oh yeah!?" Clarice asked, before reaching behind her and pulling Pierce's trident out of nowhere

"Huh?" Pierce said in confusion before reaching behind him, searching in vain for his weapon, before looking at Clarice who was now holding his weapon and wearing a very sinister smile.

"Alright, now time for that scalp!" Clarice shouted as she then charged at Pierce

It was then that Pierce gave out a small scream, but his voice broke at the last second, and made him sound more like a little girl screaming.

The second Pierce's scream turned into a girl scream, Clarice stopped in her tracks, and for a moment, stood there with the trident held menacingly, before she fell onto her knees laughing, clutching her stomach and dropping the trident, which clattered on the floor.

Meanwhile, Hanzo, who had finally opened one eye to see what was happening, saw the whole ordeal, and simply thought, "Is it just me or did it take only 5 minutes to end?"

10 minutes later…

Gaara looked around, first at Pierce, then at Clarice, and asked, "Mind explaining what happened here?"

The window to team GHPC's room was open, so Gaara had heard Pierce scream like a girl, only he didn't know that it was Pierce. However, he DID know that it had come from his dorm.

"Uhh," Pierce said while embarrassingly rubbing his hand on the back of his head, "Well, you see, it's a long story."

"It usually is," Gaara said nonchalantly, "Go on."

"Uhh," Pierce began to sweat a little, not really on board with saying that he screamed like a girl, when suddenly Clarice said, "Oh, well look at that, Team CFVY is here!"

Gaara turned around, and saw four people walking towards them. Velvet was one of them, and she also had a brown camera hanging from her hip, while there was another girl who wore a black beret and a pair of sunglasses, and held a black suitcase in her hand.

There were also two boys behind the two girls, one of them towering over all of them and wearing dark green armor, and a large copper-colored sword on his back. The other, a dark red-haired boy in orange and long orange, with dark orange metallic bands that covered a good part of his forearm, was also with them.

Gaara straightened the strap holding his gourd a little, before standing tall, and once the team came close, he held out his hand and said, "Hello there, I am Gaara, and this," Gaara swept his arm behind him, gesturing to Hanzo, Pierce, and Clarice, "is my team."

"Hey," the girl with the beret said, "Name's Coco Adel, and as you probably know, leader of team CFVY."

Coco then turned and gestured to the large boy in green armor, and said, "He is Yatsuhashi, and you already know Velvet, and him," Coco said while gesturing to the red-haired boy, "His name is Fox."

"Greetings," Yatsuhashi said

"Hi Gaara," Velvet waved

"Hey," Fox greeted

Gaara gave a small smile to each of them, and greeted in return, "Hello there. This is my team members, Hanzo, Pierce, and Clarice."

"Hello there," Hanzo greeted

"Wassup," Pierce said

"Hi," Clarice waved

"Alright," Coco said, "Now that we all know each other, let's get this show on the road. The diner isn't that far from here."

As the two teams left the gates of Beacon, Velvet had sidled up next to Gaara and asked, "So, uhh, how is your morning?"

"Oh, well, besides a few choice events," Gaara said before shooting a quick look at Pierce and Clarice, "my morning was quite well. You?"

"Well, mine has been good so far," Velvet responded, before she lit up a little and pointed and said, "Oh, look, we're almost there!"

Gaara looked up ahead and saw where she was pointing. When Gaara first came to this world, he didn't know what a diner was. But in the time he had been here, he had seen multiple diners, but this one was much more different. The ones he had been to were all one story tall and were much smaller than this one. This one was 2 stories tall, and had a balcony on the second story, which had numerous tables and chairs on the balcony, and an umbrella was spread open above each table.

"Wow," Pierce commented, "This one's pretty big. How come I never saw it before?"

Clarice rubbed her head and said, "You never see a lot of things."

"Hey!" Pierce said, "I do too!"

Gaara heard Velvet giggle a little at Pierce's and Clarice's little interaction, and Gaara turned to Velvet, she stopped giggling, and her smile quickly disappeared. Gaara looked at her for a quick moment, before a smile made its way up onto his face.

Velvet, on the other hand, had thought that Gaara was upset with her because she had laughed at his teammates, so she was caught off guard when Gaara had smiled, and gave a small chuckle. Velvet's smile returned, and she was relieved that he wasn't upset.

Gaara gave a quick, small, quiet laugh, and said at a volume where Clarice and Pierce couldn't hear him, "Clarice and Pierce can get a lot worse than that. Sometimes I wonder if Pierce is just acting tough but is really scared of Clarice."

"Really? I mean, I've run into Clarice a few times around Beacon, and she seems really nice!"

Gaara responded, "She is, but let's just say that she has a short fuse. A VERY short fuse."

The two teams arrived at the very large diner, and when they entered, Gaara looked around. There wasn't really anyone here yet, but he could still smell the aroma of food being cooked from the kitchen. Gaara had been eating nothing but the food provided by the academy, which was good, but Gaara had been craving something else for quite some time.

Coco walked up to the greeter, and said, "Hey, Bob, back again. Can we have seats for 8 please?"

A man came up from behind the counter, who had a thick beard, and he said, "Ah, back again? Seats for 8, eh?"

Bob looked behind Coco and saw Gaara's team, and commented, "Oh, new friends? Alright, no problem. You're up on the balcony."

"Thanks," Coco said as she waved her team forward, and as Team GPHC passed by, Gaara said, "It's nice to meet you."

"Same here," Bob replied, "Welcome, since it's your first time."

Gaara and his team walked up a flight of stairs, before they arrived up on the balcony, where he saw that Team CFVY had picked one of the more bigger tables, and were starting to sit down.

Gaara walked over to the tables, and took a seat in between Clarice and Hanzo, and Clarice was seated next to Pierce. On the other side of the table, Coco and Velvet took a seat across from Hanzo and Gaara, and Yatsuhashi and Fox sat down across from Clarice and Pierce.

Gaara looked to his right for a quick moment, and saw how Pierce and Clarice were both sharing a menu, which a waiter had just handed to them.

Gaara thanked the waiter as he received the menu. Gaara opened the laminated, folded paper, and took a look at its contents, and saw a whole bunch of foods with names that he did not recognize.

"Can I get you some sort of drink?" The waiter asked, and Gaara asked for hot chocolate. He had tasted one once while at Beacon, and while it wasn't usually his choice drink, he felt like drinking something with a bit of sweetness today.

Gaara took a peek at the others, and saw that Hanzo had already made up his mind and was now fiddling with a small green band on his wrist, meanwhile, Clarice and Pierce were chatting with Fox, and Yatsuhashi was listening in on them, and making a occasional comment. Gaara turned his gaze towards Coco, who was simply on her scroll, but when he turned towards Velvet, their eyes made contact, and almost instinctively, they both looked away, but that one moment that their eyes met, Gaara for some reason, he felt something stir inside of him.

However, even though Gaara went back to looking at his menu, he could still feel that feeling. It was something that he had never felt before, except with another friend back in Suna, a girl named Matsuri. It was back when he was still young. He had taken Matsuri as a pupil, and there was one moment when some villain of some sort had kidnapped her. He couldn't remember his name, but Gaara would have failed trying to rescue Matsuri had it not been for his siblings, Kankuro and Temari, and his friends, Naruto, Rock Lee, and the likes.

However, during his fight with the mastermind, he had been trapped. He knew that if he couldn't escape, then the chances of his friend and pupil surviving, Naruto and Matsuri, were gone. He had felt a burning desire to protect Naruto, but there wasn't much he could do without calling upon the One-Tailed Beast's power, and he was afraid of losing control. He had tried to, but he almost lost himself after he had broken out. But, right before Shukaku's lust for blood could take him over, he thought of Matsuri, and had beaten back Shukaku from taking control. That feeling from then was the same as now, but the one he was feeling right now wasn't as intense.

"What is this feeling? Wha-"

Gaara's thoughts were interrupted when he heard Velvet say, "Gaara, you alright?"

Gaara looked up from his menu, and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Velvet said, "You've been looking at that menu for quite some time, and you look as if you're disturbed."

"Yeah, uhh," Gaara said unsurely, before asking, "What are pancakes?"

Velvet's eyes had confusion written all over them, and everyone's eyes (except for Hanzo's) suddenly turned towards Gaara

"What?" Gaara asked, a bit alarmed, "Was it something I said?"

"Did you just literally say that?" Clarice asked

"Say what?" Gaara inquired

"You don't know what pancake's are? Are you blind or something? They're one of the best breakfast foods in the world," Fox said, "And that's coming from me!"

"What he said!" Pierce backed up

"Oooook," Gaara said slowly, not really liking this attention, and Coco slid her sunglasses off her nose a little, so that way Gaara could see her eyes, and they definitely did not look pleased.

"You never ate pancakes?" Coco asked

"No," Gaara said, "I have never seen one before."

Coco gave a small smile and said, "Well, you'll like it."

Suddenly, as if right on que, a waiter came, and asked, "Are you ready to take your order?"

Everyone nodded, except for Gaara, and Coco pointed at Gaara and said, "He'll take an order of pancakes."

Gaara gave a look at Coco, before handing his menu to the waiter, and once he left, Gaara asked, "So, how long have the four of you been at Beacon?"

"Well," Coco said, "We've been in Beacon for a year now. This year is the start of our second year."

Gaara nodded, when he said cautiously, "Um, not to be rude, but is Fox, well-"

"Blind?" Fox suddenly interrupted without even looking at Gaara, "Yeah, yeah I am. Being blind for so long, it's a joke. How did you know?"

Gaara didn't say anything, rather he picked up a fork, and asked, "What am I holding?"

"A fork," Fox almost instantly answered, but what confused Gaara even more was that Fox's head wasn't even facing Gaara

Fox smiled, and said, "Confusing, eh? You see, my buddies here were the exact same way. I'll just cut to the chase and tell you."

Fox then tapped his head with a finger and said, "You see, I can sense other people's aura, and got extremely strong control over mine. So I can balance mine and orient my aura, and after a while, I can identify a person's aura. Also, on top of that, I got a little gadget."

Fox tapped his right ear, and at first Gaara saw nothing. But then once he looked closer, he saw an earpiece. It was nearly invisible, but there was no denying that it was there.

Fox then said, "This little thing is called an Accessibility Dialogue Assistant, or simply ADA, which sends Sonar pulses and scans the environment around me, and sends that image back to my brain, which gives me 'sight.' This thing also has a battle mode, which allows me to scan for anything nearby that could be used as a weapon, and will tell me my opponent's fighting style and what kind of weapon that they are using."

"Wow," Gaara said, amazed. Back in the Five Elemental Shinobi Nations, something like that would have been a dream. But here, it wasn't a dream, but rather a reality. This world's technology truly amazed him.

"Heh," Pierce said, "You know, Fox, I actually thought this entire time that you were not blind. Had me fooled the entire time.

Fox smiled, and said, "I get that a lot."

Pierce smiled, when Fox said, "Hey, Clarice, there's a bug on your shoulder."

"Kya!" Clarice jumped off her seat and started thrashing around, saying, "Get it off! Get it off!"

Fox bursted out laughing, and said, "I'm just kidding!"

Clarice stopped, and gave a deathly glare at Fox, but then she remembered that he was blind and that he wouldn't see that at all, which just made her even more mad, and her face turned a little red.

However, the expression on her face just for some reason made Pierce laugh, and Gaara heard Coco give a quiet chuckle, while Gaara couldn't help but see Yatsuhashi give a small smile.

However, the atmosphere was interrupted when suddenly they heard panicked screaming, and a roar came from afar off.

The two teams had jumped to their feet, and Gaara took a look at Coco, and the two nodded to each other. Coco held her scroll in one hand and began tapping on it furiously with only one finger, and she grabbed her case and began running down towards the exit, her team and Gaara's team following her.

Coco then shouted, "Fox, ADA has a longer range then we do, right? See if it or your semblance can see what's happening over there!"

"Right!" Fox confirmed, and as the two teams ran out the door, Coco shouted to Bob, "We'll be right back!"

The two teams exited the building, and began running to the place where they heard the sound come from, and Coco asked, "Fox, got anything?!"

Fox replied, "Yeah! I managed to pick up the thoughts of someone nearby! Something weird is going on not far ahead."

Clarice turned to Coco and said, "He can read thoughts!?"

"Yeah, my Semblance is telepathy!" Fox confirmed, when they began to reach the corner of a building block, and Fox shouted, "Once we turn this corner, the Grimm should be there!"

Gaara was impressed, but then he felt something. He couldn't quite pin it down, but whatever it was, he couldn't help but feel a trace of…chakra?

"Another one?" Gaara thought to himself

The two teams rounded the corner, but stopped in their tracks when they saw something that was confusing. Roots. Tree roots were everywhere, and not ordinary ones. They were large and thick, the biggest one being the size of a car. But what was even more confusing was that they weren't connected to the ground, and the roots all looked as if they were cut off a tree and were plopped down, and weren't connected to anything.

Coco held up a head to signal them to stop, and she said, "Never seen anything like this before."

Gaara walked forward, and that's when it hit him. The small traces of chakra that he was sensing, was it coming from those roots? Were they a part of the God Tree?

"No. No, that's impossible," Gaara thought to himself

However, the smoke and dust that was kicked up when the two teams arrived had begun to dissipate, and what surprised them was when a man came stumbling out of the smoke.

He looked bruised and battered, and was holding his left arm, and had pale white skin and white clothing, but what was even more shocking was when Gaara recognized him.

"A Otsutsuki!?"

Alright everyone, that's a wrap. Hope you like it so far. Anyway this one took a bit longer cause I was extending the length of this chapter then my usual length. Remember, feel free to criticize me if you don't like certain aspects of this chapter, but other than that, live, laugh, love everyone! Toodles!