Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter 35

Over the next couple days, Minoko found out that the chunin exams were happening in Kumo and the Kazekage went to go see the final rounds. He had taken quite a few higher ranked shinobi, so the jounins and chunins were running as many missions as possible to keep face that Suna was still strong even without their leader present. The newer chunins and genin were regulated to in-village tasks. Kankuro somehow got thrown into guard duty as a form of training. How that was supposed to work, she had no idea. It seemed like the only thing he was learning from the experience was how to be annoying. Though maybe that was it. Annoy a prisoner into giving over information. It could be a sound interrogation technique

"Yo, Kai-kun!"

Minoko twitched. Speak of the devil… "I told you not to call me –kun…"

Kankuro shrugged, "Whatever kid, that's really the only thing I've learned about you. Seriously, why don't we talk? I'm bored down here."

Minoko sighed and lightly banged her head against the stone wall she was sitting against, "Fine."

Kankuro perked up, a grin spreading across his face, "Really?"

"Yeah, you'll just keep bothering me, so why not?"

"Yes! So is your name really Kai?"

It's my surname technically. "Yes. Why would I lie about that?"

"Kai what?"

"Just Kai."

"Don't you have a family?"

"A dad. Don't know what happened to him though."

Kankuro went quiet for a moment and slowly nodded, "I could find out if you like. Not knowing must be killing you."

Minoko blinked and stopped the urge to agree right away. She would love to know what happened to her dad. She was worried about him. Never stopped worrying about him. He was alone now and she desperately wanted to know if he was ok. But…

But she wasn't Minoko anymore, no matter how she thought of herself in her own mind. If she gave Kankuro the information on her dad, he would inevitably find out that she wasn't a boy. She…couldn't let that happen.

She glanced away from him and faked an annoyed sigh, "No thanks. It's better for me to not know. If I don't know for sure, I won't have to grieve if he's gone. I can just imagine him living his life like always."

"…Ok, if you're sure."

Minoko nodded stiffly and glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. The boy looked skeptical and she was worried he would push the issue, "Anything else you wanna know?"

Kankuro shook himself and shifted closer to the bars. Really…how stupid was this guy? He was seriously lucky that no one here was violent.

"How did you get in here?"

This question again. "…confidential…"

Kankuro scrunched up his nose in annoyance and moaned out a petulant "…ok…"

"Anything else?" Minoko sighed.

Kankuro shrugged and thought for a moment, "What do you do for fun?"

Minoko gave him an 'are you stupid?' look and gestured to cell. Kankuro face palmed and winced. Yeah, not much to do.

Minoko grinned a bit, "I practice my taijutsu."

Kankuro brightened, "Hey, want me to show you some stuff? I'm training right now to be a genin you know!"

Minoko gave him a flat look from where she was seated and pointed to herself, "Chunin, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. How did that even happen?"

Minoko hesitated and looked away again, mumbling, "…I had to be promoted in order for them to legally give me certain missions."

"Such as…"

"Assassinations," she said in a dry tone.

"Assass-!"

"Now that that's settled, I'm going to sleep. Hard to keep up a witty banter when your opponent doesn't have much wit to speak of."

"Hey, wait a minute! Kai-kun!"

…

Kankuro watched as the boy walked away. He wasn't sure why he loved bugging the kid so much, but it was something to do and he was strangely interesting. One of the other inmates, a guy with shaggy blonde hair and purple eyes came and leaned against the bars, "Sorry about him," he said, "Kai doesn't really like talking about the past. None of us do, really. Kinda hard to talk about the worst day of your life."

The guy shrugged off the bars and went to ruffle Kai's hair before going to play a game of go with the older looking lady in the cell. The hair ruffle was a gesture that Kankuro thought the boy would hate, but he seemed to lean into it. Really, what a weird kid.

And he just blew him off! Yeah, he was asking personal questions, but you can't just drop a bomb like that and walk off. What a jerk!

Kankuro simmered for a moment before he got an idea. Kai had paused to talk with a grouchy looking dude and a guy that had way too many muscles to be healthy.

A mischievous smirk crossed his features as his fingers twitched and a thin string of chakra reached out with precision.

Kai's arm swung out and hit the lankier guy in the gut. The black haired guy let out an oomf and glared at the kid. Kai looked at his hand in confused shock and started apologizing. Kankuro's smirk widened and attached a string to the other arm, forcing him to hit the bigger guy who blocked it automatically, giving Kai a curious look. Kai started to look a bit panicked as he looked at his limbs, saying yet another apology.

Kankuro grinned deviously and his fingers twitched once more. The kid clocked the biggest man under the chin, barely making the guy stagger back.

Kai looked around frantically and his eyes landed on him. Kankuro gave an innocent look that obviously looked too fake. The kid gained a look of realization and ducked just before the black haired man swung at him.

Kankuro watched as the older man aimed a kick at Kai's gut and the boy leaped back to put some distance between them. The man rushed forward surprisingly quickly and Kai ducked below another punch, moving to sweep the guy's legs out from under him. The man stumbled a bit but caught himself and aimed a kick to the boy's face. Kai barely leaned back enough to avoid the blow and reached out to grab the leg and pull. The black haired man fell completely with a huff and pulled his leg back. Kai let go before he overbalanced and went to drop kick the guy before he could recover. The kick landed in the guy's hand that he used to block the blow and pushed the boy back.

Kankuro watched in amazement and a bit of horror as the fight went on. He was starting to regret using chakra strings on the kid and was wondering if he should step in. He was a guard right? He was supposed to break up fights.

But as he looked closer, he noticed that the big guy never even moved to retaliate and just crossed his arms to observe. The two fighters had grins on their faces as they ducked and weaved between blows that could have laid them flat if they connected. Kankuro was amazed as he was drawn into the fight. Kai was holding out against a much older opponent and seemed to be having fun doing it. The guy had a sneer on his face, which seemed to be permanently attached at this point, but there was a spark of something almost fond in his eye.

Kai used his smaller size to get into the other man's guard and aimed a strong punch to the guy's stomach. Kankuro could hear the air being violently expelled from the guy as he fell to his knees, his hand raised in defeat.

Kai took a step back and looked to the big guy. He moved forward and ruffled Kai's hair and started to talk about the spar and the things he did well along with areas he could improve on. Kankuro saw the big guy look in his direction with a knowing smirk and shook his head at him. Kankuro knew he was found out and felt a blush creep up his face. He was never doing that again.

…

Minoko sighed after her close win against Hotoka. That was one of the more difficult spars she'd had in a while. The guy was serious about getting a good hit on her and her arms were already starting to bruise from where she blocked. She really hadn't meant to knock the wind out of the guy. One second she was talking to them and the next her arm moved without her permission. She was just lucky that Ganjou seemed to know what was happening and didn't join the fight.

She looked back over her shoulder at a stunned Kankuro. She raised an eyebrow, crossed arms, and gave him a deadpan look. He didn't even deserve a glare. She didn't know how, but he was somehow involved in what happened. The way-too innocent look before and the guilty expression he had now definitely proved it.

"Chakra strings," Ganjou said quietly.

She looked up to the taller man with a raised eyebrow.

"He said he was training to be a puppeteer. He used chakra strings on you to move your arms."

Minoko's eyes widened and she looked at the boy sitting on the other side of the bars. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before giving up and going to the back corner of the cell to grab a blanket. She was going to sleep.

She ignored the chuckling coming from the others in the cell and the humph from Hotoka as he was ribbed for losing so spectacularly by Mai. She was too tired for this. She fell asleep quickly to the familiar sounds of bantering.

…

Gaara looked at the small child that hung onto his hand with a small upturn of his lips.

Yuri had grown quickly and was now nearing four. She always smiled brightly and took his hand to show him her latest drawing or how her training in traditional dances were going. She wasn't the best artist, but he would never say anything about that. Her calligraphy was surprisingly good in comparison. Especially for her age. Most kids could barely even read hiragana or katakana at four.

He and …Minoko…were exceptions. As people always said, they were prodigies. Well, she was. He didn't sleep, so he had more time on his hands to learn the stuff that had come naturally to her.

Thinking about Minoko brought the usual pang to his heart. It had gotten easier to ignore over the last two years, but he tried to hold on to the feeling as much as he could. It proved that she had been real. That her existence was real.

Taru had stopped talking about her after the one year anniversary of her death. He slowly distanced himself from Gaara as well. He didn't ignore Gaara, but he stopped inviting him to stay for supper and the conversations were sparse when he did go over.

Gaara didn't know if it was the reminder of Minoko or his reputation that caused the distance.

The assassinations, while slowing down over the last two years, still happened on a semi-frequent basis. He still tried to hold back when he remembered to, but the more often it happened, the more annoyed he got. Mother was annoyed too. She yelled and screamed to the point where his headaches lasted hours unless he satisfied her with the blood of those that dared attack them.

It was getting easier to just give in to her demands.

A pull on his hand brought him back to the present and he saw the orange haired, purple eyed young girl look at him with an adorably stern expression, "Gaa-a ok? What wrong? You look sad."

Gaara gently squeezed her hand and the upturn of his lips returned, "I'm ok. What were you going to show me today?"

The young girl looked at him in suspicion for a moment before her dazzling smile returned, "Come, come! I show you new picture. Mama said I did good."

Gaara let her drag him over to the shrine's side area where the miko sell charms to the shrine-goers. In the back of the tiny building was a rest area for the miko and where Yuri would spend a lot of her time when it got too hot to be outside.

"See, see! I drawed us playing! See, you has the red hair and I has the orange and mama and miko Kimura are in the back."

Gaara nodded along with her explanation and looked closely at the drawing filled with scribbles of color. He could see what appeared to be a blob of red and orange with sticks underneath that could be interpreted as bodies with two more smaller blobs of color in the in the top left side of the paper.

"I can see you worked very hard on this," he said indulgently to the young girl. Her smile seemed to somehow grow brighter as she nodded in agreement.

A chuckle came from the doorway and Gaara turned to see miko Kimura standing there looking kindly at Yuri, "She talks about you nonstop. You're probably her best friend. Kind of sad that she doesn't get out more to play with children her own age, but that's life." She barely glanced at him while talking, focusing more on the girl that started working on a new picture.

"She would make many friends if given the chance. I cannot see many that would deny her friendship if she asked."

Miko Kimura shifted slightly as he spoke. He knew that the other miko in the temple area had mostly gotten used to his presence, but they still remained a bit weary of him. Understandable.

"Yes. Perhaps when she starts school she can branch out more. She'll start next year."

Gaara raised a brow, "Already? That seems quite soon."

Miko Kimura finally looked at him and pointedly stared at his hitai-ate, "You were a shinobi at that age. Her waiting another year to start at the civilian school doesn't seem too soon in comparison."

It was Gaara's turn to shift slightly. He hadn't thought about it that way. It was hard to imagine that he and Minoko started their ninja career when they were about Yuri's age. It seemed…wrong. Though it's not the first time he'd thought one of the Kazekage's decisions to be wrong.

He bowed his head to concede her point. The woman nodded and turned to Yuri, "Yuri, sweetheart. Your mother wants to show you how to do the kagura dance. You wanted to learn right?"

Yuri squealed and raced out of the room to the amusement of the two left inside.

"You know," miko Kimura stated in an offhanded tone, "When she does start school, it may be difficult for her to keep friends with you around." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and started walking for the door, "Just a thought."

Gaara stood in the room a moment longer before exiting. He knew that already. He tried to keep his visits short and limited them to once a week so that the shrine wouldn't suffer from his presence. He didn't want to be the reason the shrine closed. It was one of the only places he felt comfortable in. Even with some of the other miko giving him appraising looks, they never showed genuine fear. Kana and Yuri were always there with a smile and a welcoming air. He felt loved here. He didn't want to give it up. And now that Taru was distancing himself, it was also one of his last real connections to Minoko.

He stepped outside and saw Yuri stumble over her own feet as she tried to copy her mother's graceful turn. The young girl giggled on the ground, not even phased by the bruises that were probably forming on her knees. She got up and tried the turn again with the same results. Kana grinned down at her daughter with soft eyes and Gaara felt his heart pull. That was the look of a mother's love. Something he never had.

And he would protect that bond for as long as he was able to.

Even if that meant protecting them from himself when the time came.

A/N: No one is commenting on any of the chapters and it's starting to become disheartening. Please let me know what you think!