The three day trip to Sunagakure was exhausting. Niiane was tired, sleepy, and bored. She didn't know why she had to come along on one of her grandfather's uninteresting errands. She was excited when they were getting prepared back in Konoha, but once the first day was over, she had had enough of the desert.
The carriage bumped and swayed as it rolled through the sand. Niiane rested her head on her hand and her elbow on the window of the carriage. She stared up at the blazing sun and squinted. It was too hot out here in the desert for her.
"Are we there yet?" Niiane grumbled.
"Almost, Niiane," the Third Hokage told her for what seemed like the tenth time. He wasn't angry, just a little annoyed with her constant questioning and whining. Nevertheless, the Hokage couldn't blame her for complaining. She was only six years old and this torrid wasteland just wasn't the place for a child. He really didn't want to bring her on this trip, but—
"Why did I have to go, Grandfather?" Niiane whined. She moved away from the window and sat down in the seat facing her grandfather.
"I'm not sure," the Hokage told her. "But the Kazekage did ask for you to come. He and I have a meeting about this treaty we're going to form, don't you remember? Konoha and Suna will soon be allies. Wouldn't that be—"
The Hokage paused when he saw Niiane almost nodding off to sleep. Her eye lips kept sliding over her eyes and her head bobbled up and down to the bouncing of the carriage.
"Ahem..." the Third Hokage purposely cleared his throat to try and get her attention.
The young girl snapped awake again and gave him an apologetic look.
"Sorry, Grandfather," Niiane blushed. "I'm just really bored..."
The Hokage sighed. "I know, I know."
"And I'm tired, but I can't wait to get to Suna! I want to see the village. Is it like Konoha? Are there ninjas here too?"
"You'll see."
"Lord Hokage sir," Kakashi's voice came from the front of the carriage. "We're nearing the village. We'll be there, let's say around 10 minutes?"
"Alright then. Thank you, Kakashi."
"Yay! We're almost there!" Niiane jumped out of her seat and smiled.
They were finally at the village. The Hokage and Kakashi held onto Niiane's hands and walked together to the Kazekage's office. To her surprise, Niiane found that the Hidden Sand Village was so much different from her own village. The houses were made of sand and they were mostly all shaped like domes. There were many people out in the streets and markets but not as many as there were in Konoha.
Niiane didn't really get a chance to enjoy the new place because she was practically being dragged along by the Hokage and Kakashi. It didn't take them very long to reach their destination. The Kazekage's office was huge through Niiane's eyes. Was it because it really was large, or was it because she was small? There wasn't much time to think. They were now in a big office with two guards, who looked like s, standing at the door. The man in a white robe like the Hokage stood up from his desk.
"Welcome, Hokage-sama," he said. Niiane couldn't see his face because he covered it with a white cloth. Only his eyes were exposed. 'Must be the sand...' she thought.
"Thank you, Kazekage-sama," the Hokage said.
"Come on in," the Kazekage gestured them all into his office. "You must all be tired from that long trip. Well, you're here now and— oh this must be..." He looked down at Niiane with those eyes. She let go of Kakashi's hand and hung onto her grandfather's robes. She gave him a half-glare. She wasn't afraid of the him; she just didn't seem to trust him.
"Yes," the Hokage said and gave her a little push away from his robes. He kept his hands on her tiny shoulders. "This is my eldest grandchild, Niiane."
"She's quite adorable," the Kazekage said and patted her on the head. "How old are you?" he asked her.
"I'm six, sir," Niiane said politely.
"Really? My youngest son is the same age as you are." he moved his hand away from her head and looked back at the Hokage.
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask Niiane?" the Hokage asked. "You did request that she came along."
"Ah, yes. I did. Well Niiane," the Kazekage turned to her. "I asked your grandfather to take you here because I wanted to ask you something."
Niiane nodded. "Okay..."
"Do you have any... special abilities or gifts, child?"
Everyone gave him confused stares. When Niiane was about to open her mouth to answer him, the Hokage stepped in.
"Um, Kazekage-sama, we really should be getting on with the—"
"Ah...yes, let's get on with the treaty, Hokage-sama. I think my little question can wait." The Kazekage and Hokage walked over to the long table and sat down. The Kazekage gave him a little glare when he had stopped little Niiane from answering. She noticed but she didn't understand what it was about. All she knew was that she wanted to go explore this new village.
Kakashi walked after him and stood behind the Hokage's seat. Niiane walked up to Kakashi and tugged lightly on his jounin uniform pants.
"Hm?" he looked down to see her.
"Can I go outside and play?" Niiane asked. "I'm really bored."
"Oh...Well... alright but just stay out of trouble," Kakashi rubbed his head.
"Thank you!" Niiane hugged his legs and ran quietly out of the office. Kakashi looked thoughtful for a moment. Who am I kidding, I'm going with her. He decided. He knew better than to trust Niiane by herself.
Niiane walked and admired the village at the same time. She hated the crowed streets and markets; they were just too nosy for her liking. So she found her way to a playground of some sort. There, she saw a bunch of kids playing ball. They all seemed a few years older than her so she decided against playing with them. She scanned the grounds with her gray eyes until she spotted a little boy.
He appeared to be around her age with blood red hair and dark rings around his eyes... his sad eyes. Niiane's heart sank. He was sitting all by himself on that lonely swing with a teddy bear on his lap. He looked so sad that she pitied him. Niiane then smiled and made her way to him.
Kakashi had finally caught up with her. He stayed up on a nearby cliff and watched over Niiane, but let her do as she wanted. She walked up to that boy on the swing.
"Hello," Niiane said shyly. The boy slowly looked up at her. His eyes are pretty, Niiane thought.
"Hi," he said quietly, almost like a whisper.
"How come you're sitting all by yourself? Why don't you go join their game?" Niiane asked and nodded at the older kids. The little boy looked down again.
The boy didn't answer her right away. He glanced back down at the sand below his feet. "No one wants to play with me..." he said sadly.
"That's weird. How come?" Niiane sat down Indian style on the sand next to him.
"I don't know... No one wants to be near me."
"Humph," she said and looked from the boy to the kids and back again. I guess they're just big meanies, not letting you play with them. It's alright. I'll play with you, then." Niiane smiled brightly. He looked at her in shook.
"You...you will?"
"Uh-huh," Niiane said brightly. "I'm really bored and I don't have anyone to play with anyways." She smiled at him. "So... umm... let's make some sand castles!" Niiane started to get on her knees and started digging in the sand.
Without answering her, the boy also got down on his hands and knees beside her. He focused on his hands in the sand and the grains began to form and swirl around him.
Kakashi caught interest in this and gave a close watch.
Once the swirls of sand vanished, what took place of Gaara's hands when he pulled away was a perfectly made sand castle. Niiane stared wide eyed at the beautiful creation.
"Whoa..." she said with wide eyes. "You did that? How did you do that?"
The little boy shrugged and faced her. "I've always knew how, I guess."
"Really? You're... you're just like me." Niiane whispered.
"What...?" the redhead stared at her.
"Yeah," she said and nodded. "You're just like me. Well, similar to me. I've always known how to do this though."
Niiane moved her hands over the sand castle and concentrated. Vines began to grow up from the ground and twist around the sand castle making elegant swirls as decorations. Upon the vines, tiny pale blue flowers blossomed and gave the castle even more beauty.
Kakashi shook his head. That's not good...
Niiane pulled her hands back and smiled at her creation. "Like it?" she asked the little boy.
"How did you..."
"Like you said, I've always known how. Isn't it weird?"
"Yeah..."
They were silent for a while. Niiane looked at the boy and blushed. She was only six years old but something inside of her told her that this boy was very, cute. She was attracted to him somehow. Niiane tried to figure out what to say next as she got butterflies in her stomach.
"Hey, you never told me your name. What is it?"
"Gaara..." the boy said, almost shyly. "What's... yours?"
"My name's Niiane," she said happily. "It's nice to meet you, Gaara."
He nodded. "Same here." Then a faint smile started to appear on his lips.
Just then, the older children who were playing ball began to complain about something. Niiane and Gaara looked over at them. Somehow they had kicked their toy too high and ended it up on the cliff.
"What do we do now...?" one of them asked.
"We don't know how to use the cliff climbing jutsu yet..." another said.
"I guess we'll just go home..." another one of them suggested.
They all began to walk away with their heads downs, disappointed that they couldn't finish their game.
Gaara got up and left Niiane's side. He walked over to the group of kids. Then, the ball began to slowly float down toward them ridding on a small pile of sand. It landed into Gaara's tiny hands. He still looked sad, perhaps because they had not let him play, but he kindly held it out to them.
"Here," he said.
The kids turned back, some where relief and happy to hear that someone had gotten their ball back for them. But Niiane say that the looks on their faces where more of panic than anything.
"It's...it's Gaara!" one of the kids stuttered. Everyone began to back away in fear of his name for some reason. Niiane looked at the older kids then back at her new friend Gaara with confused eyes. What's going –
"Wait, don't go!" Gaara reached out a hand to them, but everyone started to run away, screaming. They ran away in some sort of fearfulness. Gaara somehow become reckless. "I don't want to be alone anymore...!"
His sand flew towards some of them and grabbed their ankles. It dragged them back towards him as its victim screamed for his or her life. They dug their hands into the sand below them to stop themselves from getting dragged any closer to Gaara. Those who weren't caught by the sand were already far from the scene. They didn't look back at the unfortunate ones. A girl screamed her lungs out, seeing waves of sand coming at her.
"Wait!" Niiane called to him. She got up on her feet and ran over to him, waving her arms in the air. "Stop! Don't hurt her!"
Suddenly a man came out in front of the girl and received the hit. He had his arms crossed in front to shield his face, but he still bled from the hit on his arms and forehead. Then he lowered his arms.
"Gaara-sama, please calm down," he said.
"Yashamaru..." Gaara whispered with wide eyes. He relaxed and hung his head.
The kids who were hit had finally been released. They sand that held them, returned to normal. They all ran away as fast as they could before something else happened.
The only child who didn't run away was Niiane. She stayed where she was and watched Gaara. He can't control his gift either...? She wondered. She had only gotten half way from the swings when that man came. She slowly continued the rest of the way towards Gaara. She placed a hand on his shoulder and asked him, "You ok?"
Gaara didn't answer.
"Hm?" Yashamaru looked at Niiane. "Who are you?"
"Oh, my name's Niiane," Niiane told him without even looking at him. She was only looked at Gaara with worried eyes.
Yashamaru gave her a strange look, but she ignored him and continued to worry over her little friend. He nodded to answer her question. He looked as if he wanted to cry and looked down at his small hands. They were shaking, but stopped when smaller hands gripped them.
"It's ok," Niiane said softly. "You can't control your gift right?"
"Gift?" Gaara faced her.
"Uh-huh. You didn't mean to hurt those older kids. You just can't control your gift very well yet, but it's alright. I can't with mine either."
Gaara looked up at her. He stared into her face and blushed. She's cute... And she didn't leave me alone... like everyone else... "You stayed... You're not... you're not afraid of me?"
"Hm?" Niiane tilted her head slightly. "Afraid of you? Why would I be afraid of my new friend?"
"Friend...?" The two looked at each other for a short time and Niiane nodded. She let go of his hands and stood in front of him. She held out a hand and said, "We're friends now right?"
He hesitated for a while, and then slowly took her hand.