Naruto 1. plastic words

Chapter #1 Monster

Disclaimer: Naruto and any characters or scenes u recognize from the series all belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Keira and all characters/ scenes that are different are mine unless I say they aren't.  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Setting: Mountain cliff

"NO I WON'T LET YOU HARM HER!" a new mother shouted at her attacker from the edge of a steep cliff.

"But auntie," A young man started. "That little chunk of chaos will doom us all and all that we have blessed if she doesn't die today." He heaved a dramatic sigh. "Why do you still resist my father's orders?"

"Because my brother sees my daughter as a threat to his ruling status does not mean that he controls her, or anyone else's, fate" Shiamenoi shot her filthy brothers son a glare that made him utter an almost inaudible squeak and take a step back. She then smirked slightly at the demonstration of her nephew's self preservation instincts, and then looked down at the sleeping newborn in her arms.

The tiny baby fluttered her shocking green eyes open to the silhouette of her mother. She couldn't make out any features but whoever it was wasn't harming her so she simply gurgled a little and reached a tiny hand up to latch on to a lock of the persons hair.

Shiamenoi smiled sadly at the display. She'd known right from when she and her mate had conceived this child that she would have to hide it somewhere until she herself came to power. But there was no way that she would kill it. No way in hell. She would hide it in a human household deep in the desert below until the time when it would be safe to bring her back.

Her nephew lunged at her savagely, an acidic aura dripping from his fingers. Shiamenoi simply held her baby close and dropped backwards off the edge.

Bright scarlet feather burst into a small cyclone as she spread her enormous rose color wings and pulled out of her free fall. She heard her brother's twisted child cursing fluently below her. She knew it was because he had provoked her into the air where he was at a disadvantage.

This was so because it was the nature of their people to be more of a threat in the air, and coupled with the newly found maternal instincts he knew he'd be killed if he made any attempt to follow. But he also knew she couldn't stay up there for long and his aunt couldn't seek the safety of cloud cover as was normal to do in this situation as her baby hadn't yet gotten used to the lack of air or temperature and would either suffocate or freeze.

They both knew the plan to weasel out of the other's plan, but only Shiamenoi was in a position to do anything about it. So simply put she bent the air with the force of her retreat.

Dodging fireballs, literally (damn that man and his pyromaniac son) she twisted through the trees on the side of the mountain across the valley from her previous position and disappeared over the top.

- Five years later -

The wind blew little torrents of sand and a few scarce leaves across the dusty floor of a playground occupied by five children, four of which were kicking each other's already battered shins attempting to acquire the ball.

"Pass it!" Yelled one especially rambunctious young boy running and shouting with glee to his comrade.

On the swing set in the corner another little boy, a few years younger than the rest, watched them with longing but knew he would never be allowed to join. He clutched his worn teddy bear by the arm, hating the fact that it wasn't because he was younger than the rest of them that he couldn't possibly ask to play. Then...

"OH CRAP!"

The children looked up with frustration. Their ball had gotten stuck, way up on the top of a, fifty or so foot, wall.

Looking at the ground. "What do we do?" asked one. "We haven't mastered climbing walls by use of chakra yet..." observed the only girl in the group. But a small rustling sound brought their attention back up to the ball, which coincidently was now floating high above their heads. They all watched in amazement as their plaything drifted slowly through the air and down into the outstretched arms of the younger boy, bear momentarily forgotten under his seat on the swing set.

All four took various stances of shock and terror and the girl made another quivering observation.

"Y- you, you're... "She was too scared to finish her shocked statement and could feel the impulse to scream rising in her throat.

The thud of shoes making hasty foot prints. Voices screaming and one high pitched one in particular. The sound of the ball bouncing away from where it dropped from his shocked hands all rang sharply through Gaara's already throbbing head.

'Away... alone ... screaming... no! I won't be alone again! NO! I won't let you leave me alone again! '

"GAARA STOP IT!"

Gaara's train of incomplete thoughts was suddenly derailed with a crash as Yashamaru's voice suddenly yanked his consciousness back to earth. His beloved uncle was standing protectively over the girl, who had his sand all over her with her arm bleeding from the shallow erosion of the sand on her skin.

The sight scared him, though if asked why he probably wouldn't be able to give an honest answer. Even the fact that he couldn't find an answer scared him and he hated it. He couldn't ever answer his own lonesome inner puzzlings most likely because he wasn't really sure why he would care if he hurt someone. All they did was tell him to just hurry up and die already. All they had ever done was wish he had never existed, whether they voiced it or simply ran screaming their wishes to him anyway even though in their fear they could rarely form coherent words.

He hated it, them, everything, he couldn't always tell anymore. They hated him for something they themselves had created, and forced him to endure. It wasn't fair! Why did they have to treat him like this for something that he wasn't even given a choice about?

His face began to twist into a frustrated scowl once more.

"Gaara, I will take this girl home and then we can talk back at our own." Here he gave his nephew a small smile. "Alright?"

Gaara looked up finally and gave a small, stiff nod. But the moment Yashamaru was out of ear shot even that tiny smile dropped.

"Home."

'Home' He repeated the word inside his head. It felt foreign and plastic like something that was simply there to give a name to that structure that he shared with those hunks of living flesh that the only word he had to describe was...

'Family'

Another foreign word echoed through his head. It was one of many words that he was only vaguely aware had any meaning at all. He knew he should know what they meant but... just for whatever reason couldn't bring himself to understand.  
Along with home and family other words under the little list in his head sadly titled his 'fake words' list, were Pain, Love, Trust, Happiness, Peace and Rest. And they would stay there until he got an answer.  
Tears had been on that list for a while, long ago, Pain as well. But he knew what they were now and had been moved to his mental list titled 'Things I wish I didn't know.'

Gaara was once again jerked out his, quickly turning into a demonic kaleidoscope, whirl of thoughts when his already cluttered brain had sorted through everything he was feeling and registered the feeling of a finger briefly tapping his shoulder...

Gaara's face whipped around, a scowl set onto his eyes, ready for anybody to just make his day and try something.

But his brain simply froze at the sight.

A little girl, only just slightly shorter than himself, stood before him, arms outstretched, offering him the forgotten renegade ball. She looked him straight in the face and didn't even blink. 'Innocent...'

Another one of his fake words jumped unbidden to the forefront of his mind. Also a foreign feeling of his sand being completely unmoving around him. It was strange but he felt himself start to subliminally let down his defenses just staring at her face, completely unbiased, utterly unafraid.

That look wasn't just foreign... It was completely alien to him. Nobody had ever looked at him like that. It also scared him a little but it wasn't the same as that other kind of fear. He knew somewhere in his head he wasn't afraid out of any danger to his life or anything. It was just bizarre.

It was the soft weight in his hands that turned his eyes down to the ball which had now been simply dropped in his upturned palms. He didn't even recall nodding and holding out his hands. He didn't even know how he somehow knew he had done these things in the first place. This was all very strange.

The girl was now staring pointedly at the ball, her eyes slightly out of focus, sucking on her pinky finger and her teeth chewing on her bottom lip. It was beyond him how she was doing both these things at once without biting her finger at some point. She was obviously torn about something. He was just about to ask what the hell she was staring at when she spoke and through that option of attack right out the proverbial window.

"Can... I play with you?"

Gaara simply stared at her, shocked into silence before he'd even started talking. He'd never in his life been asked to socialize with anyone let alone 'play'. He also noted that her voice was a little scratchy... as if she didn't use it all that much. He didn't know how to respond so he simply stared some more, only vaguely aware that he had a look of someone shocked into a dumb stare... but of coarse he was after all so he supposed there wasn't much that could be done about it.

When he continued to stare the girl turned her gaze to the ground, a small blush on her face, sure she had offended him somehow and still sucking on her finger. She turned to leave.

"Sor..." she started. Gaara was suddenly so terrified of this one girl leaving him alone as well that he decided to leap into some unfamiliar territory.

"Do you ...really want to?"

Her face whipped around just as his had done when she'd first spoken. For the first time he saw something familiar in her eyes. Yes, that feeling of shock that she'd actually ask him to play with her, was now mirrored in her eyes, but now it was... shock that he'd actually agree?

Also for the first time he spied a small white scar on the side of her stomach just above her hip bone, momentarily visible when she'd turned, lifting her overly long shirt for just a second. He wondered vaguely where she'd gotten it. Some feeling was bubbling below the surface at the sight, but he couldn't place what... no wait ... it was, anger? Over what? He tried to place it for a second but couldn't so he gave up and pushed it away.

She nodded.

"What do you want to play?" He asked, not knowing any games himself.

The girl had that torn look again... well not really torn this time, more like contemplating.


	2. Unexpected Mirrors

Okay...wow it has bin a while has it not oooo and ...-falls off chair- 0o OMGZ!!!! Reveiws?! plural?!?!?!...sweet!!! XD keep em coming ...oh and thanks fer the semi violent poke there u two I need one of those every once in a while '  
-  
Chapter two: Mirrors 

Gaara could never have known that his predicament was shared by this girl. She didn't know any games either but she had a good imagination and eyed the wall with a gleam in her eyes. She stepped forward and lifted the ball from his hands. She motioned with a quick flick of her head for him to follow her. They were both stnding in front of it now and Gaara was beginning to wonder about this "game" thing she seemed to have dreamt up.

Suddenly the girl held the ball high above her head with both hands, took one step forward, and ...WHUMP! Suddenly Gaara was of the desert was knoked flat on his behind, the ball glued to his stomach and the wind knocked out of him. He coughed and attempted to get his lungs to remember how to inhale properly.

Suddenly she was beside him, one hand over her mouth she looked as if she were on the verge of tears. One of her hands hovered an inch above her shoulder as if even that was simply an instinctive act and she was afraid. At her actions he surmised that her intentions hadn't meant to end up as Gaara's uncomfortable stomach and him falling in the dirt.

Then it hit him harder than the ball and he himself clasped his hands over his mouth in an effort to stifle a gasp of surprise. He apperantly failed as his companions hand conected with his shoulder and she had bent to look him in his wide shocked eyes.

'The Sand!' He thought wildly, 'The sand didn't stop it!' It was true. His absolute defence hadn't so much as waved a grain of sand to stop the projectile. He raked his fingers through the motionless sand all around him. Nothing. Not even a flick that may have stated 'I'm tired kid, piss off.' 'Huh so maybe this is that "pain" stuff,' He mused, refering to the dull ache in his stomach. 'I guess I really knew what it was all along.' He thought, a sad, small smile emerging on his face.  
He jumped when the girl spoke.

"A- are you okay?" She looked scared now as she peered down at her hands as though she wished she could tear them off. "I'm sorry."

Gaara was stunned once more. She was really sorry, even though now that he could make a connection with pain he realised that this was nothing and his stomach was already feeling better.

"You don't have to say that." He said. "It doesn't hurt any more," Seeing that she still felt guilty he continued. "And I'm not mad at you or anything, um... I forgive you."

Her head snapped up at this and for a second he thought she didn't beleive him. Then something stirred inside him as a broad smile stretched slowly into its place on her lips and her eyes soffened to complete the expression somehow.

He then picked up the ball again and sat down on the ground, an idea for another game forming in his head. She took the hint and sat down facing him. Gaara then gently bounced the ball to her and she caught it and her smile only widened. Gaara absently wondered if smiles could take up whole faces as he wasn't quite as sure of human anatomy as he would like to be, especially in the smile catagory. Then the ball was bounced back into his lap and they continued back and forth like that for a long time. It was dark when glass broke somewhere near by and they realized that they had been playing this game for hours. The girl stood in a panic and looked around frantically.

"Oh no," She said, scared far beyoned the sort of fear that had gripped her when Gaara had been hurt. "She's gonna..." She trailed off then, trembling lip wedged firmly between her teeth, arms crossed over her chest and hands grasping her own shoulders in a white knuckled grip. She gasped in poorly suppressed shock when Gaara gripped her arm and stared at her, head tilted to the side in question and forehead slightly crinkled in concern.

She seemed to calm down and tore her eyes away from his. Her habit took over again for a moment and she nodded curtly to herself when she made a decision. Gaara had let go of her arm when her finger had retreated into her mouth, somehow calming him as well. "It's worth it...," She all but whispered. A small smile graced her lips again and she looked him straight in the eye and nodded again. "Definately, most definatly worth it."

Then she was once again chewing on her finger and biting her lip. She seemed to do that alot. Gaara supposed this was one of those subcontious habit things Yashamaru had told him about when he had inquired as to why Temari was always biting her nails, especially around him.

"Um, if you can... um could you come back here... t-tomorrow?" She was staring at her feet, distinctly nevous and it was clear it took alot for her to speak up.

He breifly wondered why and it crossed his mind to ask but he decided that if he agreed he'd find out and if that little nagging part of his brain that seemed constantly paranoid, was in the right then he supposed it wouldn't matter.

"Alright."

"Really?!"

He nodded

She smiled again and turned to walk away. As Gaara watched her go he made a secret decision of his own. If she was telling the truth and he saw her again tomorrow he would never again doubt that one little girl who smiled at him, that wasn't to say he wouldn't harbour those feelings for the rest of these people but, he said to himself, baby steps, baby steps.

Little did he know he wouldn't have to wait quite nearly that long.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------.

Hehe yes I have the next part in my head I'll write it up and post it as soon as possible. he he I love suspence and there will be lots of it... once again poke me if I take to long posting... if anything gets me going its my conscience.

well this is waffle signing off!


	3. The real demons of Suna

A,N: Hello there bin a bit of a long time I guess. Well anyway I promised myself that I would post the next chapter today as sort of a marker. Yes I am as of today, May 29 2007, leaving the world of those who can't drive. It's mah B-day today so anyone who reads this can think of it like a party favour or something, All I ask for is a few reviews and that you should all know that If anyone mentions sweet sixteen today I'm gonna loose it and u will be shot. AK47 people. Ah well this is waffle saying happy b-day to me **:p **woo -eye roll-

Disclaimer: ok to tired to come up with anything snazy here so really naruto doesn't belong to me tho... if anyone wants to make my day they could let me -sigh-

* * *

Later that night Gaara stood alone once more in his house staring at a photo. In front of his mothers soft smile captured in time, Gaara raised a small thin knife above his wrist and let it hover lazily atop the looping pulsing veins which held his very life force. 'How very… fragile.' He mused, and let his hand holding the blade succumb to gravity. "It's no use…," He sighed "The dumb sand gets in my way." He sighed again at how utterly childish that had sounded but turned sharply in alarm at soft words coming from a voice borne on the equally soft footfalls of his uncle.

"Gaara…," Breathed the distinctly worried sounds. "As a member of the medical squad that your father, the Kazekage, has commanded the duty of protecting you from any harm, please you really mustn't do such things." Then the gentle concern turned to an suiting sheepish look, tone and mannerism as Yashamaru continued. "…Although of coarse that sand will protect you anyway I suppose, heh heh." Gaara contemplated telling Yashamaru about the tiny lapse in that protection earlier that evening, but thought better of it as then Yashamaru would ask many more question, practically all of which he had absolutely no answers to. The rest could simply be answered only in ways that would lead to more questions and Gaara decided that neither of them could answer anything so it would be better to not trouble his uncle with anything else. But still he had one question that he was fairly sure that Yashamaru could answer.

"Yashamaru, I'm sorry." Yashamaru saw the utter guilt shining in his nephews eyes but let him continue. "Do… your injuries… hurt you?" Yashamaru looked skyward even though he knew it was silly to try to see his own forehead, and tugged lightly on the bandages wrapped around the shallow scrapes on his head with two fingers, and gave a very non-chalent smile, one that seemed to say no harm done you silly goose.

"Oh, you mean this little thing?" Yashamaru said, referring to his wound as if he had forgotten all about it, which incidentally, he had so it sounded very convincing. "Well it does a little bit now that you bring it up, but it's nothing serious.

"Hey, Yashamaru…,"

"Yes, Gaara?" Gaara then took a deep, calming breath before continuing.

"What is… what does… pain, feel like?" He had an idea now but he wanted to know if what he had felt had actually been pain, and if so, if that was the only type of pain one could feel.

"I… I'm not sure if I've ever been injured so I wondered if you could tell me what it's like just in case I ever do."

"Hmmm…" Yashamaru had too thing for a moment to get the words out to describe pain in a way that Gaara could understand, which actually was easier than it sounded as Gaara was unusually bright for his age. "How should I put it…?" He mused out loud. "Afflictive… of dreadful… like when one is being cut or beaten… in short your body is brought forcefully into an unbearable condition in which you want to escape and that you feel that you're unable to keep your usual sense of self," Yashamaru adopted that sheepish look again. I know that wasn't a very good explanation, but I think I can say with confidence that It is unpleasant and something you really would rather avoid, except in special cases of people who enjoy pain for some reason, those people are called masochists, but I don't think being that way would be very pleasant either." Silence followed until…

"Yashamaru then that must mean, I mean then do you…hate me?" Yashamaru's face dropped it's embarrassed tone and took on one of pity, and then another smile.

"In a person's lifetime it's impossible not to be hurt by someone, or cause someone else pain in someway at least once… but even then it takes a lot of work to hate someone from such an experience," Gaara looked up and the most relieved smile Yashamaru had ever seen in his life was stretched into place on his nephew's face. "And the one's who would hate you simply from one confrontation where you cause them pain you really mustn't let eat away at you and change you with guilt."

"Thank you, Yashamaru I think I understand what pain is now."

"Is that so…"

"Yashamaru… does pain mean a dull ache or a feeling that can be described like a thunderclap, big and shocking?" Yashamaru looked at Gaara with a question in his eyes but said nothing so Gaara continued.

"Because then I guess I feel pain every minute of every day, and I am injured just like everyone else." Yashamaru simply stared in silence. "Although I've never seen it bleeding," Gaara, now with a sad smile and the hand that still held the knife, clutched the fabric directly over his heart. "This part, right here, hurts so much." Yashamaru grew sad as well also contemplating, when he knelt down at Gaara's feet and gently took the knife out of Gaara's small clutches. Gaara looked up at him, confused. Then Gaara drew in a sharp gasp when Yashamaru let the blade sink into the soft pink flesh of his right ring finger. Gaara stared with a mixture of horror and confusion at his uncles actions, and wondered if Yashamaru had been speaking from personal experience when he spoke of masochists.

"A body bleeds when inflicted with physical injuries and the may look extremely hurtful but eventually the pain will ebb away as time passes and the heal faster if given medical aid," Yashamaru stated with a knowing look. "What are infinitely more serious are the scars the hurt from the inside out, the scars on our emotions, they are the hardest by far to heal or forgive."

Gaara looked confused. "Emotional scars?"

"Physical and emotional scars are quite different, unlike physical ones there are no creams and no amount of bandages can heal it, and it is quite possible that the pain will never go away." Gaara looked down in sadness, fully expecting this conversation to come to a prompt and morbid close at this. "Though there is one thing that can heal this sort of heart ache." The hope now in Gaara's eyes could've drowned the desert if it were water. "However, troublesome as it may seem, this cure can only be given by someone other than yourself and not just anyone can give it." Yashamaru continued with a glance at the photo of his beloved sister gracing Gaara's table.

"What is it?" Asked Gaara urgently. "Please tell me Yashamaru, please."

With a small wink Yashamaru was silent for a moment teasing his nephew. "It's… Love!"

"Love?"

Small padding footsteps hurried across dirt roads and wound through people in the darkened streets. Gaara ran, though was careful not to drop his package. His destination was in sight. A distinctly shabby looking house in one of the worst places to be in Suna, especially at night. Gaara wasn't worried though, not many would come near him he knew, and the ones that would he was protected from anywise. Turning the last corner however his luck ran out.

For the second time that evening Gaara found himself flat on his rear. Although this time it was his head that was hurting. '_Huh, I'm getting all sorts of information on pain tonight it seems.' _He thought in annoyance. But shock hit him as, for also the second time that day the little girl from before sat in front of him, a look of shock written on her face as well. She recovered quickly though and was already on her feet extending out her hand to help him up and attempting to stutter out an apology. She quieted when he shook his head, a smile coming to his face and telling her he wasn't mad.

He did not notice, however, her arm being hastily bent behind her back and out of view, or the slight wince that went with the action. Gaara then looked down, wholly expecting to see the contents of his package littering the ground at their feet. However he was shocked to find that the girl had caught it in her lap as she fell and was now holding it out to him in place of her hand. He took it and nodded in thanks.

"What are you doing here?" said two voices at once. The girl giggled and decided to answer first.

"I live around here, but farther that way." She said jabbing her thumb over shoulder and referring to the dark street from which she had bin walking. "What are you doing here?" she repeated.

"I'm going to give something to help someone I hurt by accident." He stated and it was true, he had asked to borrow some of Yashamaru's healing ointments to give to the girl he had hurt. He had also learned from him where he could find and deliver the medicine to.

"Oh wow that's really nice of you," The girl said with a smile. "Where are you taking it around here?"

"Just there." He replied. Pointing to the house across the street from them.

"Oh," She was doing that habit thing again and he braced himself for something unexpected. Which was good as her next words were very unexpected to him. "Could I, maybe, come with you?" she asked shyly.

"Uhhhh," and Gaara suddenly cursed himself for that being the first thing out of his mouth. He quickly shook himself out of the stupor he was in. "Sure if you want." Gaara couldn't imagine why she would want to but he wasn't complaining, he enjoyed her company for some reason. She grinned at this and they walked together to the bottom of the stairs of there destination.

When they reached the door, the girl stood behind him, hidden and apparently very out of place, while Gaara knocked on the door. Another girl with brown hair and a scowl opened the door.

"Hi I'm really sorry for earlier but ummm this'll make you feel better…" But the door had been slammed in his face coupled with a shriek from the girl. He stood wide eyed for a moment, but turned around solemnly without a word and stalked down the stares dropping his parcel on the way. His new friend raced down the stairs and grabbed his sleeve.

"Wait here." she muttered in a harsh voice that made him stare after her as she went hurriedly back up the stairs and rapped harshly on the door.

"Go away freak!" Came the voice from the other side.

"It's not him." The girl said in a sugary sweet tone that made Gaara cringe. The door creaked open slightly and the girl inside the house was met with pitch black, haunted looking eyes and a sinister smile.

"How about you go back in there, find a mirror and say that again." Said the black haired one with a glare and an utterly demonic whisper that seemed to echo and hiss every syllable, then she seemed too shake herself and her eyes returned to normal. The door had been slammed again long before. She herself then stomped back down the stairs to where Gaara was still standing, staring avidly at her.

"What was that?!" Gaara asked her loudly, more loudly than he had intended. She jumped slightly as if she had forgotten why she was mad.

"That was horrible." She said simply.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Gaara didn't know what she had whispered to the other girl but he had seen the look of horror on her face before she had slammed the door.

"I mean she hurt you with her words for trying to do something nice," She was glaring again at just the memory and Gaara thought it looked bizarre on the face of the one he had seen smile so brightly only hours before. "That's horrible, though I really wasn't sure anyone did that to anyone other than me." She had whispered the last part so he wasn't sure if he had heard properly. He grabbed her arm to make her look at him and say it again, but the girl yelped and tugged away. She was now sitting on the ground, clutching her arm and biting her lip so hard from trying to keep in the sounds that marked her pain, that it was bleeding. Gaara suddenly registered the feel of his hand being wet.

The girls blood was hot and sticky and absolutely coated every finger on that hand and was beginning to make a slow lazy trip down his wrist from where he held it in front of his face in shock. He hadn't known she had been hurt. She hadn't betrayed a thing. She was hurt and Gaara felt that anger again just trying to figure out who would hurt her. He realized now wasn't the time though and offered his hand to her. She grabbed it with her good hand and he hauled her up but he didn't let go of her hand.

"Come with me." Was all he said before tugging her back in the direction from which he had come and the two disappeared down the street.

(AN) alright here yahs go much love waffle


	4. Silent, silken agony

Okay… its bin like a bazillion years since mah last update… cool I'm getting better at this….not . 

Naruto not mine… screams into a sofa cushion for a few hours… tis … ok I can do this -deep breaths- Masashi Kishimoto's …v.v

* * *

Crossing Keira Chapter 4: Silent, silken agony

Gaara still hadn't let go of the girls hand but he was no longer dragging her along at such a brisk pace. They walked beside each other stride for stride down the street. The girl was staring pointedly at her feet, the fingers of her injured arm grasping the fabric of the opposite side of her shirt in a crude sling. Blood was still making a steady 'drip drip' off her elbow. Gaara's voice broke the silence.

"Who hurt you?" He asked, trying very hard not to look anywhere but right in front of him, lest he miss the street he needed to turn down. Her eyes glanced in his direction sharply. But as quick as she had given him a shocked stare, she was suddenly making it a point to not look at him at all. He waited until they had reached the right street and turned the corner before bending slightly to look her in the face.

Her features went cold. There was no other word for that look. Just like the glare from before it looked bizarre to Gaara. Yet at the same time it seemed to naturally smooth itself into place, like she was used to wearing it.

"Nobody I'd ever dignify with a title," She stated simply after a time, with the cold look still in place, "Just someone that I know is in a position that makes her somebody I should be able to trust, but obviously that would be a fairly stupid thing to try." She stated glancing at her arm. Gaara supposed that this was a bit of a morbid subject so simply told himself to not under any means press this particular topic any further. He figured he would keep his wandering questions to himself and force himself to be content with a simple "Oh."

They stopped in front of a huge building. Well Gaara didn't stop initially but the girl was staring with her head all the way back and was rooted to the spot in awe.

"D-Do you …_live_ here?"

"Uhhh yeah." Gaara raised a non-existent eyebrow at her. Then realized he'd started yet another answer with 'uhhh' and mentally kicked himself…again. Then a thought popped into his head. 'Has she never been this far into the village before?' He asked himself.

Instead of repeating the question out loud he gave a sharp tug on his companions arm and got her following him up the stairs. He felt her arm muscles pulling and glanced back. He jumped and dropped her wrist in surprise. He wasn't altogether shocked, that particular emotion had long since maxed out its overtime for today, only surprised.

He had initially thought that the girls torso from roughly the waist up had vanished. But it seemed that she was bending backwards in such an outrages way that her shoulders and head had been hidden by her legs and the deep black hair that was now dragging on the ground. Gaara just stared. She seemed to be doing this ludicrous feat of flexibility, balance and muscle control without giving her brain conscious permission to execute it. He smiled then. 'She's going to make a great ninja someday.'

There was a small, surprised "Oh." And her face reappeared. She had a blush on her face because, unknown to Gaara, he was staring quite piercingly at her. Gaara shook himself and grabbed her hand again.

They made it all the way to Gaara's room without much more confusion. The only thing was Temari sticking her head out the door to her room as they passed, giving a surprised squeak as she spotted her little brother then a furtive glance at the girl and slamming the door. She grabbed a pillow and prepared to hear some screaming in the near future.

Gaara motioned for her to sit on the lone chair sitting beside the window. He then promptly left in search of his uncle.

* * *

He found Yashamaru with Kankurou in the small closed off laboratory that his older brother spent a few hours each day learning and experimenting with poisons for his puppets. Yashamaru appeared to be assisting him in finding an antidote for his latest concoction. Some puppet's left arm was on the table in front of them and Kankurou appeared frustrated about something and was waving his arms quite animatedly.

Gaara was only about a meter away when Yashamaru noticed him and held a finger up in a signal for Gaara to wait a moment. Gaara frowned in annoyance, not being one to like waiting, but did as requested. Kankurou narrowly missed hitting his sibling in the face as he flailed, having a sort of mini tantrum about something or another. He was only a little over seven years old so it was understandable that his temper would be on a shorter fuse than most but Gaara was not about to let the boy whack him in the face, on purpose or not.

Yashamaru saw the glare on the younger boys' face and figured it wouldn't do to have his family become any smaller because of a simple mistake. "Gaara, is there something you needed?" At the mention of his younger brothers name Kankurou froze comically, mid flail, fell flat on his ass and scuttled like a frantic crab under the table. There were a few seconds of stunned silence before Kankurou realized he was sitting in a puddle of spilled corrosive material. A thud and a yell of pain later Gaara and his uncle were left alone in the room staring out the door where the could hear a large amount of running water behind the door of the bathroom across the hall.

Yashamaru chuckled softly at his eldest nephew's antics and turned his attention to the younger. Gaara was still staring out the door and was biting his lip to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.

"Gaara, is there something you needed?" He repeated.

"Yes." he looked into his uncles eyes, and Yashamaru saw something there that he never thought he'd see. His nephew looked like he was helpless. Yashamaru had seen the boy sad, broken and an inch from insanity… but never had he looked out of his element like this before.

"Gaara is there something wrong?"

"Sort of," Gaara glanced down at the floor and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. "I mean…"

"Did somebody get hurt again Gaara?"

"Well… Yes," Gaara noticed the fallen look on his uncles face and quickly added, "B-but not by me." Yashamaru's relief was given an audible form by the obvious sigh he let free. "I- well…ummm," Gaara was stuttering, and Yashamaru took it as a very odd sign and mentally steadied himself. Gaara took a deep breath and explained himself in one, rather large and fast, strung together statement. "ImetsomeonewhosmiledatmeandIrealisedthatIreallyreallyreallywantafriendandIthoughtmaybeifIhelpedhershewouldbemyfriendandnotcareevenifshefoundoutaboutShukakuandwhatI'vedoneinthepastandeverythingsocanyoupleasehelpmehealherYashamaru?"(1) Gasping for air Gaara waited with his eyes clenched tight and a small tinge of red on his cheeks for who knew what reason.

Yashamaru blinked.

He blinked again.

And a third time.

He raised one delicate eyebrow as he mentally rewound, slowed down and, only when he thought he, quite possibly, could swear his brain just might be smoking, closed his eyes and pressed the blinking green triangle marked 'play' in his mind. With the jeopardy theme song playing in the back ground, Yashamaru pondered. Gaara, cracking open an eye cautiously at all the uncustomary silence on the other end of the conversation, could have sworn he heard a small 'ding' resound throughout the room when his uncle's eyes snapped open.

"Oh of coarse, that's wonderful that you've made a friend Gaara!" He said ruffling his nephews deep red hair and snatching his medical bag from the ground a few feet away. "Lets go!" He said, grabbing Gaara by the wrist and leading them towards the stairs that would take them down to the street.

Gaara snagged a random doorknob however, and brought them to an abrupt halt.

"She's in my room."

* * *

Yashamaru followed eagerly behind his youngest nephew. Gaara wanted him to heal someone he actually_ cared_ about. Yashamaru was truly happy, but at the same time very sad. Whoever this was would most likely end up scorning his nephew for one reason or another by the end of the hour. Yashamaru didn't wish this, but that just how things were, however regrettable.

The pair finally reached Gaara's bedroom door. Yashamaru was surprised that Gaara would have taken this person into his bedroom, of all places to wait for him. They reached the door and Yashamaru wasn't entirely surprised to see the distinct blood pool and immediately assumed Gaara had hurt someone again and felt guilty about it for once.

To his infinite shock however, Gaara walked right up to the tiny little girl and when she noticed him she smiled quite sweetly.

"This is Yashamaru, my uncle," Gaara started with the introduction as the girl had infinitesimally curled in on herself when she had spotted his uncle. "He's a great healer, and he's really nice, he said he'd take a look at your arm." She responded with a rather blank, long blink, as if the words didn't make much sense.

"Hello." Short and soft and very sweet, Yashamaru couldn't help but smile in return.

"My nephew here, says you have an injury he'd like me to take a look at for him, could you show me?" She scrunched her yes closed but other wise there was no response.

"You can show him." Gaara said to her softly. She opened her eyes and stared at him. Her eyes gave off a sadistically amused aura and her next comment brought him back to the definition of 'masochist' that Yashamaru had told him only hours before.

"Can't move it." She murmured. What made Gaara stare back, was that she didn't say this with panic or any hint of the pain she had voiced earlier. She just said it. A hint of amusement like a thin silk ribbon, laced loosely in between every syllable. It was like going to the store you go to every day of your life, over and over and then one day find out they're having a discount on apples. Calm, amused, inquiry.

Gaara glanced at Yashamaru to see if this sounded… off to him too. But the man had taken the initiative. If anything sounded off to him he wasn't wasting a second being overly paranoid about it. He pushed up her sleeve gingerly. Yashamaru saw that the damage went at least all the way to her shoulder. He took out a scalpel and ripped away the dirt smeared material that obscured his view.

Gaara didn't want to get any closer for fear of jarring his uncle's hands, but he still wanted to see the damage. He wanted more clues about pain, and he figured seeing wounds on somebody he didn't hate would be a good way to sympathize with a person in pain. He stood on his bed, which was nearby and peered over his uncle's shoulder.

Yashamaru was examining the shattered limb with practiced care and purpose. Gaara winced internally at the sight of fragmented bones moving beneath his companion's skin. The skin was smeared with dirt and, what appeared to be rust in some places. There weren't any slashes or cuts from a blade of any kind. The blood was from where pressure had been applied all around the arm and the skin had burst from the displaced blood and shards of bone. Gaara could see little squared-off half moons pierced into red marks on the skin where Yashamaru had wiped away the blood and grime.

* * *

**(1) Here he's just taking a big breath and saying everything all at once cuz he's embarrassed -squee- XDDD **: "I met someone who smiled at me and I realised that I really, really, really, want a friend and I thought maybe if I helped her she would be my friend and not care even if she found out about Shukaku and what I've done in the past and everything so can you please help me heal her Yashamaru?"

Please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease R&R!!! im the sort of person who needs a swift kick to get my lazy plot bunnies jumping.

- oh an a big kudos to BloodyOracle who has commented on every chapter so far. Whoot me thinks I gots me a fan :DDD


	5. Echo & Rain

HEY!!... damn I need to start baking cookies for u guys if I'm gonna be perpetually lazy like this... .

* * *

Chapter 5: Echo & Rain

The man wasn't hurting her. Of coarse the red haired boy had told her he wouldn't and he wasn't lying. She could tell. She could always tell.

She could see the red haired boy staring at her from his bed. She flushed and apparently thought that the morbid state of her arm was a more pressing and tolerable scene then the knowledge that he was staring so intently. It was like he was scrutinizing the reality of either her existence, or the blood still slipping in crimson beads down her arm. Either way there was a stirring she could nearly smell inside him. But it wasn't him stirring, she could see. His expression hadn't changed.

Noticing that his expression hadn't drastically changed since his uncle had started this impromptu examination distracted her from the restlessness she felt pulsing from him. Instead her mind began to meander towards the notion that she didn't really have any clue what the expression he was sporting was called at all. She was expecting disgust, or even regret. The former emotion because she knew her arm was in pretty despicable shape. The latter because he was realizing that he was wasting his time helping someone like her.

She didn't like not knowing, but emotions were something she had a hard time connecting with words, simply through observation. She had seen people blush a thousand times, but only just realized recently, that the emotion this expressed was called embarrassment. She'd heard the word embarrassment before, it was just that her initiative was somewhat lacking when it came to actually connecting the word with something.

Deciding she would take a mental note of the expression and then figure it out another day, she focused back on the odd sensation of the man rolling her elbow. It didn't quite hurt yet, but she could tell that if he kept at it she'd have to pluck up the nerve to ask him to stop when it finally did teeter over that proverbial precipice.

She began to stare out the small window across the room on their left. There was a sand storm blowing, a big one. As she stared she suppressed a sigh of resigned frustration. She'd have to walk back to the house in this. Great. She wondered idly, if perhaps she had drowned some especially fluffy kittens in a past life or something.

Still staring out the window and pondering what a drowning kitten might sound like, and not liking the imaginary gurgling in the least, she and the red headed boy jumped at the sound of a resounding 'Snap!' The man, Yashamaru, looked at her with yet another expression she couldn't name.

* * *

"Sorry… I needed to realign your elbow." She supposed that he expected her to start crying or something utterly stupid like that, judging from the way the man kept throwing furtive looks over his shoulder at her and worrying his bottom lip between his teeth as he went through the bag he had brought with him.

"Didn't that hurt?" Gaara decided to ask as the girl had merely jumped at the sound her abused joint had made and then settled for staring at it with a distinct lack of concern that he was pretty sure didn't belong on a person who's elbow had just made a sound like_ that, _no matter what the circumstances.

She just blinked at him. A long, slow blink that gave the impression that she was falling asleep in the chair.

A furrowed brow.

Loss of eye contact.

...

Silence.

The silence stretched on. Gaara didn't mind silence. Usually he was a scant inch from demanding it from the people in his presence, not that there were usually that many to begin with. It wasn't that he hated being ignored either, that he was used to. It was just irritating when he was ignored when he'd actually made an effort to involve himself in conversation.

* * *

"Nearly," Keira, looked at him, confused. "Should it have?"

The boy looked a bit taken aback by her response. Then he tilted his head back slightly and she could tell that he was gnawing on his tongue in contemplation.

'Alright, mental note number two: realigned elbows, and most likely other joints are, in fact, supposed to hurt.'

Mental notes, she sighed to herself, she had a feeling she'd be taking a few of those today. Not that she really had a huge choice in the matter.

She always remembered every detail of everything she saw, heard, or felt. Her brain was weird; she'd figured that out as soon as she'd gone into the village library and looked up the term 'forget'. She never forgot, anything, ever. She'd realized this difference in herself when she'd concluded that; why would anyone bother inventing a word like 'forget' if everyone was like her and never did.

She looked back up and the boy shrugged slightly.

"I don't know, probably." was his simple answer.

The man, Yashamaru, had returned with a roll of gauze, a needle, a spool of black wiry thread, what looked like a pillow case, and a long piece of ridged plastic that looked like a halved piece of pipe.

"This is going to hurt." He told her. Then he threaded the odd needle and came to the first wound. To Keira's astonishment he started to literally sew her arm back together. She'd been under the impression that he was going to sew the gauze to the plastic or something. Not actually start reattaching her flesh! It also did hurt a bit. It felt like the time she'd bin stung by a scorpion but without the need to go swipe some medic nin's all purpose antidote.

She bit her lip and heard the man apologize for the pain. The boy asked if it hurt.

"A little," She told him, "It's more irritating than anything else, but it's fine."

Soon Yashamaru put a layer of gauze around the twenty or so inch long lacerations that were now sewn straight and shut with a few dozen little black stitches. Then he snipped a triangle out of the middle of the plastic and bent it to a 90 degree angle, nestled her arm into the shape 'to brace it' he'd said and preceded to put a few more layers of gauze around that and clipped the gauze to itself as to not come undone.

When he was done tying the sling around her neck, he told her that she was very brave. She blinked owlishly at him and was about to ask just what for, when a small explosion coated the three of them in a layer of dust from the ceiling.

Yashamaru gasped and shot out of the room like a bat out of hell, snagging his dropped medical bag, the words "Shoot, Kankuro!" tumbling from his mouth.

Both Gaara and Keira stared out the door after him for a while.

"Who's Kankuro?" Keira asked him.

"My brother, I guess, probably mixed an acid with a base over an open flame again (1)." He didn't really expect her to understand what he was talking about. He also knew that he shouldn't even know what he was taking about, so it surprised him when she nodded, hiked up a corner of her mouth into a smirk, that didn't look quite so out of place on her features as he would've thought, turned to him and said "I'll bet he looks just spectacular without eyebrows."

Gaara snorted and shook his head at the ground, before stopping short and realizing fully that he'd just done both these things out loud in the presence of another human being. How about that.

Then he took her by the hand and led her out of the room, down a hallway and up some stairs. They emerged out the door at the top onto the roof. It was windy of course, but what else is new? The sandstorm had gone down and was now mildly pushing dozens of dust devils around the streets far below.

* * *

Gaara led her across the roof and plopped down on the edge. She joined him and they sat there side by side without speaking, legs swinging free, staring over the city.

"I never realized this place was so pretty." Keira whispered in awe.

"From up here I guess." Gaara said back.

"All the lights are like miles and miles of fire that doesn't burn, it's so pretty from up here," She was saying, "But when you get down there all the people come out and you see all the blemishes like on the flesh of some sad, sad concrete organism (2).

Gaara was staring at her with his mouth slightly open throughout her small mumbled tirade. She glanced at him and realized the morbidity of that particular opinion and started to apologize for being weird. Gaara had never heard another human being make that much sense in his life, and he told her so.

Keira nodded slightly, and then came to realize something important. She had gone to ask the boy if he wanted to play something here and now instead of tomorrow as planned, but she realized the only way she could form the question to draw his attention away from the view was to say, "Hey, you."

…

Now, needless to say "you" obviously wasn't his name, which swiftly turned her attention to another problem.

She didn't know his name.

…

Crap.

She knew she couldn't ask him his name without looking utterly idiotic so she decided to get the impending humiliation over with.

"Umm," Keira mentally kicked herself for starting an already awkward question with something like 'umm'. He turned to her though, and she showed an embarrassed half smile.

"I have no idea what your name is."

His eyes widened slightly. Apparently this had just occurred to him as well.

"I don't want to tell you,"

It hurt her and she realized she'd started to hope. But he continued hurriedly, seeing the look on her face. "And I don't want you to tell me your name either; It's not that I don't want to know it though."

Okay, now she was confused.

"It's just; do you remember that girl from before?"

Keira nodded.

"She hates me, for no other reason then that she knows who I am by name, she's never even spoken to me in conversation, like we're doing now," He said, "And I don't want you to hate me."

She looked at him owlishly. Then the look vanished with understanding.

"Why don't you want to know my name though?"

"Because when you do find out my name from somebody, someday, you will, like everyone else does and if I don't know your name then if I see you again I guess it won't hurt so much."

They were both silent with contemplation for a time.

"Are you really sure that I'll hate you?"

He nodded once with finality.

"Then what can I call you?" He turned to her, questioningly. "Well we can't just say 'Hey you' until then, that would be confusing so I think maybe we should have another name for each other, how does that sound?"

"Alright," And Gaara realized with a start that he was smiling, but couldn't stop. "But I get to pick yours and you pick mine." She nodded vigorously, agreeing with that plan at once. Then they sat in silence trying to pick a name for each other. They'd probably been sitting that way for a good hour before Keira decided to speak.

"Hey."

"Hmm?" Distracted from trying to find a bird that she reminded him of, Gaara looked over.

She had her little finger in her mouth.

Uh oh.

Brace for impact.

"That thing that everyone hates you for..."

She heard him grit his teeth.

"Is it that pulsing coming from here," She put her uninjured hand on the left side of his chest, right where the seal was.

...

Fuck.

Fuck!

'FUCK! CRAP!! WHORES SHIT!! GODDAMMIT!!...'

In the middle of the mental string of every profanity he knew, she caught his distress, grabbed his sleeve and shook him out of his ridged position.

"Well that answers that I guess, but I still have no idea what weird chakra has to do with that look you get from people," She said looking him straight in the eyes, "If you really don't want me to know what it is, then I wont ask you or anyone else about it, alright?"

Gaara at there, stunned.

Blinking he nodded dumbly, shook himself slightly, and lay down with his hands behind his head and his legs still hanging over the edge, staring at the sky above him. Still having not quite gotten the shock out of his system, Gaara spoke.

"You're,"

She looked down.

"Really weird."

Thinking he'd been about to announce the name he'd thought of for her she slumped slightly, but the small smile on his face said that he hadn't meant it as an insult so, pouting slightly she raised an eyebrow.

"How so?"

"You really mean it."

Her eyes widened sightly at this

"Of coarse I mean it, I try hard not to lie," She said turning her eyes back to his, "I won't lie to you, not ever." At the disbelieving look she received at that she added."If there's something I don't want to tell you then I'll say that I don't, but I won't lie."

He seemed to accept this when she didn't break eye contact.

Seconds later:

""I've got it!!"" They both said at once.

Keira recovered first, smiling. "You first."

"Rain," He said firmly, mentally denying the small blush on his cheeks, "You're Rain."

Her eyes unfocused, she looked stunned. Gaara thought maybe she didn't like that name and was about to speak when she whispered, "Rain, I love the rain."

Gaara, glad she liked it prompted her to keep talking, and couldn't hide the elated note in his tone. "You do?, Really?"

She nodded. "Everything smells better after it rains, and it touches you all over but it doesn't hurt all," She was smiling, "Sometimes I even feel like I can hear it."

She laid down beside him with her uninjured hand benieth her head.

"Echo." She said softly out of nowhere in the dark.

Gaara jumped, he'd been absorbed in staring at the stars.

"Hmm?"

She poked him.

"You, you're Echo."

He nodded.

"I like it."

She nodded back.

"Echo and Rain."

Pleaaaase someone kick me I wanna get this written so it's not _always _in my head. The stuff that gets written stops buzzing around my head so please review!

Yous cannot resist the puppy dog eyes of the reveiw button, and u know it !! -

(1) Think science fare volcano meets mini fire ball of doom.

(2) I give Jhonen Vasquez his props for that line, from book two of 'I feel sick' I'm putting that in for my grad quote next year so of coarse it has to be in my story somewhere.


	6. Tearless Sorrow

wow... saying I suck at updating is like saying the sun is a tad bit warm... shit... o.0

oh well here is chapter 6... finally.

Crossing Keira chapter 6: Tearless sorrow.

* * *

The pair lay there, side by side on the roof, staring at the stars for hours without so much as one word passing between them. It was only when the sky caught a hint of pale purple lightness, did Echo realize that the little girl beside him, who had proudly dubbed "Rain" a short time before, had stayed awake all night with him. Although she had been utterly silent all that time he knew, somehow, that she was still wide awake and staring at the sky, just as he was.

Echo was a bit surprised. He frowned mentally. Yashamaru ad told him he was very bright, as well as extremely observant for a boy his age. He had never spent this much time being surprised and confused in his life, let alone in the span of twenty four consecutive hours. Out loud he sighed. He, correctly, theorized that there was probably no getting around it. 'Ah, well.' Merely another daily quota to fill he supposed. It struck him then that, perhaps, Rain thought that falling asleep before him would be rude, and that was why she hadn't allowed herself to fall asleep. People slept. He knew that. Normal people slept every night usually, and if they didn't, he'd found that became rather irritable to say the least.

Yashamaru had told him, when he had thought to ask, that people "slept" because their bodies only stored enough energy to run properly for a certain amount of time and then they "slept", to regain that energy to a level where the body could function properly. Echo supposed that he didn't sleep because he never ran out of energy, thanks to the Shukaku sealed in him; therefore, he never needed to recharge and sleep. But Rain wasn't like him. Rain, needed to sleep, he concluded with a slight nod that softly scraped his scalp against the sand that had settled into his palms.

Then again…, seeing as how, number one; he wasn't much of an authority on sleep, and number two; Rain had proven, by quite a wide margin, to be the single oddest individual he'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. The proof you ask? Echo had never felt pleasure from meeting anyone before. Of coarse he felt pleasure, or at least something akin to it, when he was with Yashamaru, but he'd never actually had to meet him. He'd always just been there, a piece of incredibly welcome driftwood that he could latch on to, to keep his head above the dark, chaotic abyss of the insanity that everyone accused him of almost constantly, and he was sure he could feel coming closer with each second that passed.

Echo decided he should ask her, instead of just blindly making assumptions, when he knew next to nothing about the concept he would address, or about the subject herself.

"Rain?" She jumped after a moment. She'd nearly not realized that Echo was calling for her attention.

"Hm?" Rain was attempting to sound as though she hadn't been stupid enough to not figure out that Echo was using her new name, instead of addressing some imminent phenomenon of the weather that she'd missed.

"Aren't you," a slight pause as Echo thought of the proper word for the context of his question. "… tired?"

Rain thought about it, and he was right, sort of. She knew she should be tired, exhausted actually because, unbeknownst to Echo, this was the third night in a row that she hadn't slept a wink. Oddly enough though, she wasn't. She wasn't tired at all, and knew she wouldn't be for quite a while, another couple of days at least. She realized it was nearly dawn and that Echo was still awake.

'He must be so tired.' She thought. The others all got tired and fell asleep every night, several hours before now. Echo must've been exhausted, but trying to be nice about it. She abruptly felt horrid. He'd helped her, had asked his uncle to help fix her arm, and now here she was, making him feel like he had some unknown, at least to her, obligation to stay awake to this ungodly hour.

"Sorry but, no I'm not." She replied at last. Echo was a little unnerved by that, though luckily, he'd been somewhat expecting an odd answer. He was fast adapting to the quirks of this strange newcomer in his life. 'She is', he realized abruptly. Somehow, someway, Rain had carved a permanent place for herself in his small, miserable, life in the short time he had known her. Echo suddenly found himself somehow knowing that he could someday lose to the monster that was continually gnawing on his mind, and forget all about Temari, Kankurou, Suna itself, and even Yashamaru someday, but he would never forget any detail of any moment of his life that he shared with this tiny, quirky, bright-green eyed, black haired little girl that he would, most likely, only ever know as Rain.

Something suddenly occurred to him. She'd said "sorry". Echo frowned to himself in slightly frustrated confusion.

"What are you apologizing for?"

Rain looked at him with close to the same expression she had worn that afternoon, when she had, somehow, accidentally knocked him over. The only difference in her expression was that she wasn't so frantically panicked this time.

"I'm keeping you up." She said then stared resolutely at her lap. Echo, meanwhile, was busying himself with trying to puzzle out what on earth she was talking about from her expression. She was apologizing, and she was also looking sad. He put those two things together and only got one answer. Guilt. Rain felt guilty for keeping him awake? The thought was more than a bit absurd to him. Then again, Rain apparently didn't have much of any idea about the Shukaku, past being able to sense the demon's chakra, a feat in and of itself seeing as she seem to have any formal shinobi training. Therefore she must also not know anything about his sleeping habits, or lack thereof, and felt bad about presumably keeping him from sleeping.

Echo decided he needed to rectify this. He found he didn't much care for the thought of Rain being sad, and also found that he liked it considerably less when it was because of him, even unintentionally.

"No you aren't." Rain's eyebrows bunched together.

"I'm not?" Echo shook his head, 'no', fully expecting that to be the end of it. Rain, on the other hand, was apparently having none of that however.

"How come?"

Echo was going to Dodge answering that for now.

"I could ask the same of you," he pointed out, "How come you aren't tired?"

Rain narrowed her eyes. She knew he was dodging the question, but he did have a point.

"It's scary to sleep, so I've just gotten used to going a long time without doing it."

Echo looked surprised. He sounded that way as well.

"Seriously?" Rain mentally revised that, not just surprised. Echo sounded sort of … hopeful, or something. She nodded and continued.

"When I fall asleep I can't look out for danger," she bit her lip and kept going.

"When I'm asleep I can't control what's real, I can't even close my eyes if I see something scary, because they're already closed." Rain sighed almost wistfully.

"I wish I never had to sleep." There was a small murmur from Echo beside her.

"What was that?" She asked, having not quite heard him.

"I don't." Echo answered a bit louder. Rain was now the puzzled one.

"Don't what?" she prompted him.

"Sleep." He responded, a little reluctantly. She wondered about that. Rain thought it would be great, but all she said was;

"Wow," and didn't pry any further.

This time when Echo presumed that the conversation was over he considered it a personal, miraculous, point of pride when he, in fact, had presumed correctly. They, once again, lapsed into a comfortable silence. The sun was still low enough that the sky wasn't yet a bright clear blue, but still not high enough that you couldn't still see any stars. The moon was just a chalky imprint on the bright sky the hung in for eternity, and Echo and Rain lay side by side on the rooftop, for once, completely unconcerned with the dusty, breathless world, which would soon finally stir from it's peaceful, tomblike coma around them.

The little boy marveled at being jolted so abruptly back towards his slowly forgotten humanity.

The little girl had shocked herself into silence at the realization of how quick she had tossed asunder a lifetime's worth of paranoia and mistrust in the face of the ability to, or not to, stay here beside this one boy. 'No,' she thought suddenly, a frightening amount of resolve in her thoughtful mental tone, 'this one friend.'

Rain felt her face pull itself into a frown. 'Friend', there was something wrong with that word. She looked through the corners of her eye at Echo, lying incredibly still and silent beside her. It wasn't that the word wasn't true. Echo and she were friends. Even if the previous experience concerning such things was mutually nonexistent for the pair, she, at least, was certain that 'friends' was what they were. No, she decided. It defiantly wasn't that it wasn't true; the word just seemed inherently… _wrong_ at the same time. The astonishing thing was that it didn't _sound_ wrong. It _sounded_ like a wonderful, impossible concept that, knowing through and through that it was true, made her a bit… giddy, if she was labeling the emotion correctly. It was just that 'friend' _felt_ so severely inadequate and understated and, just, _small_, that it felt almost insulting to think of Echo as her mere 'friend'.

Rain also felt unbelievably pathetic an that moment. Still frowning she brought her good arm behind her and., moving for the first time in quite a few hours, pushed her body so that she sat with her forehead touching her knees her palm flat against the ground behind her, as she stared furiously at her lap and wracked her brain with dizzying speed for any and every tiny insignificant moment in her life where she would have possibly heard or seen a word that she could use to accurately describe and categorize the boy beside her.

Rain sat there, with a look on her face that was, rather quickly, heading towards a full-blown scowl, for long enough that Echo had stopped staring at the gradually brightening sky, and began instead, to stare intently at her, feeling a bit more… helpless, he finally determined after close to fifteen minutes of this, with every passing moment. Echo also decided that he distinctly _loathed _being helpless and immediately set about attempting to alleviate the feeling. The only way to do that, he supposed was to figure out why Rain was making that expression. Rain looked… irritated about something. He looked at the ground. Nothing much had changed in the past several hours, except, perhaps, that it was swiftly becoming morning, but personally he couldn't see what was so annoying about that, other that the fact that the rest of the world would be up and about soon as well.

Echo thought that that was probably it. Then again he'd previously thought that he'd known what Rain was thinking and the apparent truth at the time had been practically the opposite. He mentally sighed and decided that from now on he wasn't going to bother with trying to figure out what went on in Rain's head, just squash whatever idiotically stubborn part of him that continuously kept trying, and just open his mouth, for once in his life, and ask.

"Rain," She jumped. Echo mentally sighed yet again. 'Well, at least I have her attention.' He thought to himself.

"What's wrong?" She was quick to answer.

"Nothing." But the tiny crease between her eyebrows and the finger in her mouth, vehemently suggested otherwise.

'She lied to me.' That was all Echo could think.

'She lied.' She'd said that she would never lie to him. He was quickly getting angry. Rain could see that.

"Echo…" She began, but he cut her off so abruptly and with such venom that she flinched, hard.

"You lied," he all but hissed at her.

"You're lying!" He all but yelled. He felt angry. He felt hatred. He felt betrayed. He felt immensely stupid. He felt himself slipping away. He felt … he felt her good hand gripping his sleeve. He opened the eye's he hadn't been aware he'd closed, the sudden confusion breaking through the whirling, hate filled, haze. Shouldn't she be running by now? Shouldn't she be scared? She didn't look scared. She looked; in all honestly she looked guilty. The haze nearly claimed him then, but it was the other thing that was etched into her features that had made his curiosity and confusion out way the rage and hurt, that had kept her breathing and him sane.

The other thing that lingered and mixed with the guilt aged her. It made she look like an adult. He couldn't place it. He was sure though, without having to think about it, that he'd never in his life, seen or even heard the word that would describe that look.

"Echo, I didn't lie to you," Rain held his gaze and he believed her. The guilt was gone, but the other thing had only intensified if nothing else. That un-namable expression was the only clue he had of her intentions and sincerity, and he realized that that wasn't really supposed to be all that reassuring, but it was like he knew that look instinctively and it put him at ease with no trouble at all.

"There really isn't anything wrong." Echo opened his mouth to dispute that statement, violently if necessary, but she cut him off.

"I'm annoyed about something stupid, and I'm also annoyed that I'm even letting it bother me at all, but there really isn't anything _wrong_." She emphasized the word "wrong" and Echo knew that whatever "it" was was apparently something, it was just that she wouldn't refer to whatever "it" was as "wrong" and therefore, technically, hadn't lied. He narrowed his eyes, sighed, out loud this time, and, if Kankurou had been there he might have had an aneurism, came dangerously close to pouting.

"Well then," He drawled in an exasperated tone as minor annoyance at the technicality seeped into his voice.

"What's so annoyingly stupid then?" She bit her lip. He glared. She proceeded to look a smidge guilty again and he was about to get very annoyed with her, when she opened her mouth.

"I'm trying to figure out what you are to me and I can't and it's annoying." She looked him full in the face and he couldn't help but see the truth in her answer.

"Really," she continued, "that's all."

That answer scared Echo, but it also made him fiercely curious. Along with that he felt confusion and a small amount of doubt that was currently festering just beyond the curiosity like a gaping infected wound.

He was confused because he had assumed that they were friends, well not that he was an expert in the field but if the were friends then shouldn't the answer to her frustration be kind of obvious? He was doubtful because if he was wrong then whatever it was the she thought they were was obviously not friends. He was scared because if, to her, they weren't friends, then were they lower, less important then that, maybe allies or cohorts or something. The thought that that was truly all she thought of him as really truly scared him. He was almost insanely curious because he needed to know. Now, before he lost any sort of logical contemplation capability he had to the stress.

He decided to voice all these things and just brace himself for the answer. He bit his lip. He wasn't really in the habit of doing such a thing because he was rarely, if ever, this anxious, and the sand on his lip felt odd on his teeth.

"Why can't you?" He murmured apprehensively.

"Because," Rain began, "I don't know the word for whatever it is that you are to me." Echo blinked, and then sighed for the umpteenth time in the past twenty four hours. Once again, he'd been completely blindsided by her response.

"Well," he began slowly as she looked over at him again, "aren't we," he hesitated, "friends?"

He scrutinized her face and was surprised when he found that she looked, well, a little disappointed if he was reading her expression properly.

"Yes, we're friends." He was surprised at her clipped tone. The way she had said "friends" made the word sound almost disgusting. With an apprehensive look on his face, for the second time in as many minutes, Echo opened his mouth.

"Do you," he paused, terrified of her answer but needing to hear it even more, "not want to be my friend?" He asked sadly. "Does the thought of being my friend make you sad?"

Rain was stunned. Echo was looking at his hands in his lap and looked like he was about to cry, which was fairly accurate actually. Rain opened her mouth but she was so shocked that all she could do was close it right back up again. Echo had a lone silent tear sliding down his face. He didn't move, even though he looked like he wanted to. She didn't know he couldn't.

"I-if you-". He was cut off when Rain tackled him. She forced him to catch himself on one arm as she scrambled into his lap and grabbed the front of his shirt in one tight fist. All this was done with a surprising amount of grace for her having tackled him with only one reasonably functional arm. A head of black hair buried itself in Echo's chest, under his chin. He was frozen, confused and couldn't have moved a muscle if his life had depended on it.

"No." Was heard from the head pressed below his own, muffled a bit by the shirt it had been said into. Echo heard her breathing ragged and almost panicky. Another muffled 'no,' broke through, followed swiftly by another and another, until she was almost chanting the word.

"We aren't friends Echo." She finally mumbled into his shirt, but before he could even formulate a mental conclusion, let alone a response, she continued.

"We're more then that." Echo didn't have a clue as to what to do with that so he just stayed silent. Rain wasn't finished talking yet anyway.

She looked up into his face then and he couldn't contain a gasp. Rain looked like she was crying but her face was completely dry. It was an odd thing, crying without tears, but that's exactly what was happening. She was crying and it utterly broke Echo's heart. They were both crying but Echo actually shed warm salty tears that dripped off his face, onto Rain's, and then finally trickled down her cheeks as well. It was like echo was shedding tears for the both of them. Rain rose up on her knees and pressed her small forehead against his own. She stared into his eyes unblinkingly; bright green and sea foam teal saw only each other.

They didn't speak or move. They were barely breathing. They breathed each other's air, swallowed each others breath. They did nothing but breathe and stare until the morning heat became noticeable again, chasing out the night time chill. It was rain who broke whatever spell they'd cast about themselves. Echo's face was finally completely dry again and she still had more to say. She gently unclenched her hand from its place in the fabric of his shirt.

"Even if I've never had a friend before," she began, "I know that even if I gain other friends later on, none of them will ever be as important to me as you."

Echo stared at her. She'd never had a friend before? How that could be possible was totally unfathomable to him. How could it be that no one had ever wanted to play with her? How could t be that no one had ever wanted to be around such a warm, interesting, calming, addictive, caring, soothing, embracing presence like the one she utterly exuded at all times? 'She must be lying again.' The eternally pessimistic part of him traitorously supplied. He fought it back and dismissed it though. Just because he couldn't fathom something, didn't automatically mean he was being deceived. Meanwhile Rain was speaking again.

"I don't know how I know that," she continued, "But I know that I'd be completely happy just sitting here like this with you for ever and ever." With that, she tucked her head beneath his chin again and brought her good arm around his neck, her tiny fist bunching the back of his shirt this time. Echo's mind went blank for a moment. What was she doing? This position was vaguely familiar to him; though he was sure he'd never been in it. 'Oh,' his mind supplied after a moment, 'this is a "hug".' He'd seen hugs but never actually received one before. Then his mind finally caught up to the reality of the situation. She was hugging him. Wasn't he supposed to do something back?

He brought one arm up and about her small waist and let it rest on her back.

Rain spoke again, and this time what he hears both stopped his mind and whirled it through every conceivable thought he could've ever had all in the same moment. Both made his heart skip maybe an hours worth of beats and sent it pounding so furiously that he was sure it was imprinting itself on his shirt.

"I still can't figure out the word for what you are to me, Echo, but," she said, voice clear even though her face was once again pressed into his chest, "I know that I would die for you."

Echo didn't know that he was shaking like a leaf, didn't realize that he was crying again. He didn't even realize that he wasn't breathing until his vision started to blur. All he knew was that what she'd just said was the truth. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. If it ever came down to that, she would die for him if necessary. Suddenly it was as if he was watching himself through a window and he wasn't really sure why on earth he was reacting so strongly. It seemed fairly obvious to him, a complete given somehow. Another thin that was fundamentally the truth was that, now that the thought had occurred to him at all that people did that sort of thing for each other, he knew he would die for her as well, and said so.

He had expected that realization to frighten him, frighten them both. Strangely enough, it seemed as if acknowledging that truth between them calmed him from his previous frantic, speechless, breathless state. It was like it was just another normal fact of nature, like the sun being hot and not cold, or the trees growing up and not down, or the rain falling down and not up. That knowledge was calming and comforting to them both for reasons that neither of them could or would be able to put into any half way decently appropriate words for several years to come.

Crossing Keira: Chapter 6 – End.

* * *

A/N: I got my brain checked out and updates should be faster... at least I swear that I'll never ever _ever_ take a whole year to update ever again.


End file.
