I had a white knuckled grip on the railing. The match was about to begin. The question was, Who do I want to win?

I know, I should cheer for my teammate, but if he won... I wouldn't be able to fight Gaara. I sigh. He's my teammate. I can fight Gaara some other time. I would cheer for Sasuke, of course.

The match begins, and sand starts to pour out of Gaara's gourd. Sasuke leaps back several yards. Gaara begins muttering to himself, gripping his head in pain. I stare at him in worry. Is he okay?

"I'm sorry I made you taste such awful blood... but this blood will be good.... Agh! Please, don't be so angry with me!" Gaara begged, ".... Mother...." All the sand falls to the ground, and Gaara breathes raggedly.

Sasuke attacks face on, then dissapears behind Gaara's back. "Look out, Gaara!" I shout, then clap my hands over my own mouth. What? Why did I warn him? Stupid mouth, talking without my permission. Sasuke is fast, and lands a hit on Gaara.

I'm biting my knuckles to keep from shouting out. Why is Gaara being in danger effecting me so? Everytime he nearly got hit, evertime I caught his wild, slightly panicked gaze as he swung around in confusion, my heart dropped.

Blood trickled down my hand as I bit harder on it to stop myself from calling out to Gaara. Sasuke had gotten inside his sand barrier, and was beating him up. They jump apart, and Gaara glares, his face cracked and sand trickling off.

Gaara creates a hand sign, and the sand creates a sphere around him. It looks impenetrable. Sasuke tries to land a hit on the sand ball, but he is fended off by the sand. An eye is created above the sand, supposedly so Gaara can see outside the sphere. 

Chanting reaches my ears, low and deadly. Sasuke runs up the wall, and grabs his wrist, a look of concentration on his face. A high pitched chirping fills the arena. Lightning begins to form in his hand. 

I stare in shock. Kakashi's chidori.... Sasuke throws his hand to the side, keeping his other hand on his arm to direct the chakra flow. He begins to sprint down the wall and towards Gaara's sphere. I bite down hard on my knuckles, the blood welling in my mouth. What was going to happen?

Sasuke jabs his hand into the sand ball. "GAARA!" I shout in pain. Is he okay? Did Sasuke hit him? I feel the shock and pain in his mind. So Gaara wasn't dead... but he's been hit. 

"Keira-chan, what's wrong with you? You're cheering for the wrong person, believe it!" NAruto shouts in my face.

I look at Naruto, confusion swimming in my eyes. "I-I don't know!" I whimper slightly. "I don't know what's wrong with me!"

Naruto turns back to the match, and I follow suit, deeply unsettled. I'm staring with worried eyes at Gaara's sphere of sand. "What is this?" Gaara's frightened, shocked voice asked wuietly. My ears could barely pick it up. "It's so warm... and wet... MOther what is it?" Blood.

It's so silent, then...

"Ahhhhh!!! BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!!!" Pain and terror and shock and hurt and confusion and... it's all so plain in his voice. It makes me feel the need to jump down, reassure him it will all be all right. But I can't. I grasp my heart, pained to hear him in pain.

It's strange. I desperately hate him and care for him at the same time. He's the enemy... but something about him makes me need to protect him.

Sasuke begins to jerk his hand back desperately. The sand is slowly closing around it. He reactivates the chidori, and Gaara screams again. Sasuke manages to pull his hand out of the sand, grasping it in pain.

A large hand follows him, then slithers back into the sand sphere. A low growling resounds throughout the arena.  Suddenly, an eye looks through the hole in the sand sphere. It's yellow, with a strange pupil. A roar comes from the sand sphere.

The sand cracks, then begins to collapse. I stare, eyes wide with horror filled fascination. Gaara appears, breathing heavily and holding his bleeding left shoulder. Oh, no... he is hurt.

Feathers begin to fall down around the arena. I begin to feel terribly tired, as though... I was about to... fall... asleep.

Wait! This isn't right! I can never fall asleep! I always lay in bed, eyes closed, wishing to sleep, but never manage to! So why now? A genjutsu... I form a hand sign. "Release!" I say sharply.. My drowsiness leaves me in time to see Kankuro and Temari grab Gaara and jump out of the arena.

I jump up to Kakashi as smoke billows out from where the Hokage was. Is he in danger? No! He'll be fine! He is the Hokage for a reason. He's strong. I see several enemy ninja in front of Kakashi and Gai. I shiver, about to escaoe from Gai, then sigh.

I gotta help my sensei. Two ninja jump towards Sakur, and I stab them with my twin daggers. Sakura is cowering slightly, expecting a blow, and I smirk. "You can look up, Sakura," I tease. 

Her head shoots up. "Keira-chan! Sasuke-kun is gone!" She shouts. 

I look down into the arena, not seeing him. "Ah, so he is," I agree amiably.

"How can you be so carefree at a time like this!?!" She shouts. I take out another ninja. "A time like what?" I ask lightly.

"Argh!" She shouts in frustration as I knock out another ninja. I cut down a ninja.

"Five!" I call out.

"Very un-youthful! I am on number seven!" Gai calls out. 

"I didn't ask you!" I shout. I stab a ninja who was about to take out Kakashi in the back

He turns to me with a close eyed smile. "Much appreciated," He said.

"No problem," I smiled back, before whirling around and kicking another ninja in the stomach.

"Sakura, Keira, go wake Shikamaru and Naruto! I'm going to explain your mission to you! You're first A-ranked mission since the land of waves. Track Gaara down and protect Sasuke! I'll send over some help in a second!" I nod. 

"You wake them up, I'll protect you!" I shout, taking a defensive stance. She nods. Only one ninja comes up to us, and I easily knock him out. Kakashi sends a dog towards us to track Gaara down.

"The names Pakkun," The dog muttered. Gai runs by with an enemy, shoving him through the wall. I stand at our new exit. 

"Much appreciated," I copy Kakashi's close eyed smile.

Kakashi jumps by us. "Copy cat," He muttered to me. I snickered. Oh, the irony...  "Track down Sasuke and stop him. Then find a safe location and await further orders," Sakura and Naruto jump out the window.

"If we complete the mission, as a reward, I'll let you touch my paws, or my pads," Pakkun bargains. I grab the dog by the back of his neck, and clench one of his paws in my hand. I stroke it softly as I jump out with Shikamaru.

"So... Soft," I murmur, rubbing it on my face before setting him down. Pakkun sends me a disgruntled look and jumps ahead. We follow Pakkun through the forest as he tracks Sasuke down. 

"C'mon you guys, hurry it up!" Pakkun ordered. "There's nine ninja following us!"

We walk back over our tracks in an attempt to lose the trackers. Shikamaru goes back to slow down the trackers. "And then there were three of them," I sigh.

"Hey!" Pakkun exclaims indigantly. I smirk. 

"No, I wasn't counting Sakura," I tease.

"Argh! Keira!" Sakura shouts.

"Relax, I was just making fun," I laugh.

"In this serious of a situation?" Naruto mutters.

"You're one to talk," I retort. 

We keep going. "He's just ahead!" I report, sensing Sasuke's mind, "We're catching up!"

Don't be a fool, Sasuke, Naruto thought.

Sasuke... Sakrua worried.

I hear several explosions up ahead, as do the others. "Woah, what was that?" Sakura asked.

"Gaara and his siblings are probably laying traps for Sasuke," I murmur. 

"Uh oh," Pakkun stops, and Sakura and I land beside him 

'Hey what's wrong?" Naruto asks, then slammed into a tree. I facepalm... a ninja... hitting a tree... Fail. 

"There are two people getting ready to fight. We should go around them, just to be safe," Pakkun declares. We nod and start moving again. 

"Sasuke has caught up to Gaara," I report some time later.

"How do you know?" Naruto asks.

"Uh, just trust me," I hesitate. Sakura gives me a knowing look. I glare slightly. Nows not exactly the right time to tell Naruto I read minds. We speed up, and arrive just in time to save Sasuke from Gaara.

"Gaara..." I whisper, eyes solely on him. He's in so much pain... I notice his sister in the tree, and jump over to her. She sees me and jumps into a defensive stance, eyes terrified. "I don't want to hurt you," I say, hands raised.

She slowly collapses back down. "The last time I saw him like this..." She shudders. "I hate it when this happens. I hate it! It's sickening when I'm so terrified of my little brother," She whispered. "And to see the paiin he's in, caused by that.. that thing! Ugh, It's horrible!" She sobs slightly.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "I'm going to try and help him," I whisper, then jump away. Sakura is being held against a tree branch, eyes closed in pain. 

"Let trivial feelings such as love and friendship cloud your focus and you'll only feel more pain," Gaara declared. I kicked the arm holding Sakura against the tree. To my surprise, it snapped off. More sand recreated the arm, while Sakura was still against the tree.

Naruto goes after Gaara, and the sand attacks him. I push Naruto out of the way, being blasted backwards. I'm going backwards fast, too fast. I'll die if I hit anything. "KEIRA-CHAN!" NAruto screams. No choice.

I flare my wings out, immidiately feeling myself slow. I collapse on a tree branch, feeling a bruise already forming on my jaw from where his sand hit me. I look up at Gaara with pain filled eyes, my wings hanging limply around me.

I hesitantly place a hand on my cheek, still staring at Gaara as he looks at me. I feel shock fill both our eyes.

"Hahaha!" Two giggling kids crawl into a tube on the playground. The one with brown hair sits in it, turning towards the red head. It''s me... I, in my five year old form, turn towards the red headed kid with a smile. "Ha! Hey, what do you think is strong? The strongest of anything?" I ask.

He rests his head on his hand. "Hmm... Well... I know my brother is really strong..." He trails off with a giggle. "But... I think... that Love is the strongest stuff,"

***

"Hey! Gaa-kun! I have some cookies!" I shout.

He turns hesitantly, smiling as he sees me. "Yum! I love cookies!" He smiles.

I hold one out to him and he takes it. Our fingers brush and he jumps away. "Oh, sorry," He apologizes quickly. 

I walk closer to him and link arms. "I don't mind at all!" I declare.

***

Gaara walked in with his siblings suspended in the air by his sand. "Gaara!" I exclaimed, shocked.

"What?" He looked genuinely confused. "They didn't want to come, so I made them come."

I walked up to him and flicked his forhead. "That is no way to treat your siblings, mister. Now, let them down. Gently." He did as I was told, and his siblings looked equal parts shocked and terrified. "Apologize to them." He opened his mouth to protest, "Now."

He snapped his mouth shut, then looked behind him, at his siblings. "Gomen." He muttered. 

"Who are you sorry to? And what for?" I prompted.

"Kankuro, Temari, gomennasai for forcing you to come when you didn't want to. I shouldn't have dragged you with my sand." He turned to me. "Happy?"

"We could work on your tone of voice, but it will do." I reply.

Gaara turned back t his siblings. "This is Tsukiko." He grabbed my hand. "She's my new friend."

"Gaa-kun is a good friend," I informed them. Gaara stayed quiet. I pinched his cheek slightly. "You're so quiet, Gaa-kun. What's wrong?"

"Quiet?" Temari asked, "Are you kidding? He's talked more in these ten minutes then he has in the past year." I rolled my eyes. I'm sure she was exagerating.

"Well, he talks more with me, right Gaa-kun?"

He smiled slightly and nodded. "Yeah, Kiko-chan. That's because I like you more."

I saw hurt flash across the siblings faces. "You and me are going to have a talk Gaara no Sabaku. If you would leave for a moment, Temari-san, Kankuro-san...?" They backed out of the kitchen.

"What?" Gaara asked.

"You're being mean!"

"They were mean first!" Gaara protested.

"Yeah? How so?"

"By treating me like a monster all my life!" He burst out. I fell silent. "Do you know what it feels like to bring fear to your own families eyes? Do you know what it is to be an outcast? Do you know what it feels like to be unloved, unwanted, a freak, a murderer, a monster? Do you? Do you Tsukiko? DO YOU!?!?!" 

With his last outburst the sand smacked into my face, scraping me and sending me falling back. I lay on the ground, and slowly sat up. I looked into Gaara's eyes, which were filled with regret, and said, "Yes, I do." I then stood slowly and walked out of the house.

***

I stare at Gaara in shock, seeing the remembrance in his eyes. "Gaa-kun," I whispered.

"Kiko-chan," He lowered his arm from his head. Both our eyes are wide.

Naruto looked back and forth between us. "Gaa-kun? Kiko-chan? WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON?" 

___________________________________________________

Chapter Thirty Seven!

I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK!!

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