Her Tears


It was a beautiful day in Sunagakure. Everything was peaceful and everyone was happy except her.

About half past seven, the Kazekage Gaara was already busy dealing with the enormous pile of paperwork on his desk. He was planning to finish the whole lot before dinnertime until he heard it. It was a faint sound coming from above him on the roof of the Kazekage Tower. Gaara walked towards the window to see what was going on. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything but now he could hear it clearly. The faint sound that he had heard was crying.

“Hey Gaara what’s up.” Gaara averted his attention from the window to the door where his older brother Kankuro was standing. “Nothing just taking a short break.” Kankuro just brushed it off as he started his daily routine.

Before Gaara got back to his work, he took one last look out the window and caught a glimpse of something. It was long, dull, light green hair almost the color of Gaara’s eyes. Gaara stood there a little longer wanting to see more but soon gave up and got back to work.

XXX

Six days had past and that same event had replayed its self each day.

As usual, Gaara was listening to the crying, but this time decided to do something different. He opened the window and shouted only loud enough for the person on the roof to hear. “Why do you always cry every day?”

Suddenly the crying stopped and a sweet yet harsh voice replied, “Why do you listen every day.”

The red head was a little shocked at response brushed it off. “Fare enough, but why there? Of all places you could go to why there?”

“I come here because it’s peaceful and I thought it was secluded, but since it’s not I’ll find a new place so I won’t bother you.”

“No wait!” Gaara called out before the mysterious person could leave. “You’re not bothering me, I was just curious about the reason for your tears.”

It was quiet for a few minutes and the red head started to think the person left until a soft sound was heard. The mysterious person was humming a song of unknown origins. It was soft and beautiful. Gaara drifted off to his own world enjoying the music.

Once the song was finished they were both silent for a few minutes until Gaara broke the silence. “I guess I should apologize. I haven’t introduced myself yet, my name is Gaara.”

With a soft, sweet voice, the mysterious person replied. “My name is Ari and it’s a pleasure to meet you Gaara.” Both of them smiled sincerely even though they could not see one another.

Come With Me

Two weeks went by and in that time, they had gotten to know more about each other.

Gaara a 20 year old male, the Kazekage of Sunagakure, has an older brother named Kankuro and older sister named Temari, doesn’t enjoy a lot of things (except talking to Ari which he would never admit), and he even told her about the demon inside him, Shukaku.

Ari a 16 year old female, traveling singer visiting Sunagakure (and won’t let Gaara hear her sing just to annoy him), no siblings, loves stargazing, high places, annoying Gaara, and talking with him (which made Gaara blush when she told him that).

“So what else do you like Ari?”

“Well there is something that I love more than anything else.”

Gaara couldn’t help but get curious of this “What is it?”

“RAMEN!!”

Gaara fell out and couldn’t help but laugh.

Ari puffed up her cheeks and frowned “Hey, it’s not that funny!”

“Sorry, it’s just that I have a friend that’s insane about ramen.”

“What’s wrong with that ramen is delicious!”

Gaara’s smile started to fade into a smirk “Ari, when are you going to let me hear you sing?”

“Not anytime soon.” That made Gaara start to frown and Ari could feel he was upset. “How about this. If you sing to me, I mean really sing from the heart, then I’ll give you your own personal concert. Deal?”

Gaara was quit for a moment puzzled by the proposal but smiled “Okay”

They both smiled looking toward the person they couldn’t see until there peaceful moment was interrupted by a knock on the door.

XXX

Today was a bad day for the Kazekage. He had recently been informed that the Hokage Tsunade needed to see him in Konoha right away and that his business there would last for at least five months. In that time he wouldn’t be there to protect his village, his piles of paper work would become mountains, and most importantly, he wouldn’t be able to see Ari.

It was already dark and Gaara was to leave for Konoha by noon but he couldn’t get Ari off of his mind. Even though it might lead to a dead end, Gaara went to go see Ari on the roof.

It was too dark to see anything on the tower so Gaara called out to Ari “Ari are you up here?”

“Yeah I’m over here” and sure enough there she was standing only a few feet from Gaara.

Ari got a worried look on her face sensing that Gaara wasn’t himself “Gaara are you okay? Is something wrong?” Ari stepped closer to Gaara so that there was only a foot between them.

“Yeah I’m fine, it’s just… I have to go to Konoha on business.”

Ari was a little worried about this but tried not to show it “When and how long?”

“I leave tomorrow at noon and I’ll be gone for at least five months.”

Ari was starting to tear up. “We won’t be able to see each other for five months.” She couldn’t hold her tears back any more a started to cry.

“But Gaara-” Ari was stopped in the middle of her sentence by Gaara’s gentle hand on her cheek pulling them closer together.

Gaara could see Ari’s face clearly now. Her skin was paler than Gaara’s, long, dull, jade green hair that touched the ground, and even duller jade green eyes.

A blush appeared on Ari’s face from their closeness. “Ari, I don’t want to be apart from you for so long. Will you… will you go with me?”

Ari smiled as tears continued to flow “Of course.”

XXX

“Where is he?!” Temari was starting to get impatient with her little brother who has supposed to meet Kankuro and her at the gate 20 minutes ago. As soon as she said that Gaara appeared.

“Hey Gaara, what took you so long,” Kankuro started to complain until he saw Ari. She was wearing a green cloak that draped down to her ankles and she tied a white bow at the end of her hair. Ari had been hiding behind Gaara a little shy about meeting Gaara’s siblings.

Temari directed her attention to the read head about to scream at him until she noticed Ari behind him. “Um G-Gaara who is she?”

“This is Ari, she will be accompanying us on our visit to Konoha.”

“N-nice to meet you.”

“W-wait” Temari was cut off to shaken up by Gaara’s death stare to continue.

“G-Gaara, are you sure it’s okay for me to come?”

Gaara smiled and placed a hand on Ari’s head, “Don’t worry, it’ll fine.”

“D-did you just see that Temari? Gaara, he smiled. Gaara never smiles.”

“I know. Who is that girl?”

“Temari! Kankuro! What are you waiting for let’s go!”

“Who do you think you are rushing us? You’re the one who was late!”

Enter Kiko, the Wolf Demon

“Mmm, delicious!!” said Ari finishing her 16th cup of ramen for the night.

Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, and Ari had gone through a day’s worth of walking, so they decided to set up camp for the night.

The three siblings were gawking at all the ramen consumed by the mysterious girl. “How is it remotely possible to eat that much ramen? She’s as bad as Naruto if not worse.” said Kankuro. (anime sweat forming for all as Ari got another cup of ramen)

Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro suddenly got alert noticing the presence of someone else. Just as they reached for their weapons, a barrage of kunai came hurdling towards Ari. Right as the kunai were about to hit their mark, Ari reached out for yet another cup of ramen, just barely dodging the attack. Another round of kunai were flung her way, but were swiftly dodged as Ari reached for the soy sauce.

Kankuro, Gaara, and Temari were completely shocked as they watched this strange battle-taking place, wondering if Ari’s dodging was luck or skill. (anime sweat drop forming as another attack is dodged)

The fun little game of ‘Dodge Kunai’ soon ended as a round of kunai from every direction came hurdling towards Ari. Right before impact a strange, green object wrapped around Ari protecting her from the attack. This same green object darted into the trees pulling out a woman. The green object, that was apparently a tail, pulled the woman closer. “Hi Kiko, would you like some ramen?” asked Ari with a big smile, holding out a cup of ramen. Kiko and Ari were in the middle of a staring contest upon the words spoken.

Moments later, they were sitting side-by-side eating ramen. (apparently, Ari won the staring contest) Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara were obviously confused about the incident that just took place between these two. Temari, who was pissed, started yelling, “What the hell is going on here? What’s up with the tail? Why was she attacking you? Who is she? And for that matter who the hell are you?”

Both Ari and Kiko slurped up their ramen at the same time a little surprised by the sudden outburst, but Kiko soon spoke up. “Well, I could ask you the same question. Who are you to ask of my name when you have not given your own?”

Temari was taken aback by the answer, only getting more upset. “What the hell, fine. I’m Temari, and these two are my brothers Kankuro and Gaara. Now who the ing hell are you?” said Temari as she pointed at her brothers, who were backing off. Not even Gaara messed with her when she got this mad, I mean whom do you think taught Gaara how to scare people out of their wits with just a stare?

“Now that’s better. I am the wolf demon leader Kiko, and the rest is none of your damn business so back off before I decide to shred you into tiny pieces.” Said Kiko as she walked towards Temari with a smirk, just to piss her off, and it worked.

“What did you say you wolf bitch?”

“Oh, so you have a hearing problem as well?”

The two were at the verge of a fight until- “Ahhhh!!” The two girls had stomped on to the ground at the same time triggering a land mine that Kiko apparently set as a trap for Ari. There was a huge explosion but their bad luck didn’t end there. Both of them went flying in opposite directions slamming (and I mean really slamming) into the nearest trees, leaving permanent marks on the trees.

Now silent, Kankuro and Gaara just sat there looking at the two unconscious girls, but their silent moment was soon interrupted. “Well, since they won’t be waking up any time soon, want some ramen?” asked Ari holding out two cups of ramen. Giving up, Gaara and Kankuro took the ramen and left them to sleep, except for a second glance towards Kiko by Kankuro.

After the ramen, the three-left conscious went to sleep knowing the conversation between Temari and Kiko would have to continue the next day. The questions of who Ari and Kiko are have to be answered one way or another.

Oh My God, He’s Hot!

Kiko finally woke up the next morning. ‘(Yawn) looks like no one’s up yet, guess I’ll go take a bath at the river then.’

Kiko got up and headed towards the river noticing all the cups of ramen. (anime sweat drop) ‘I guess Ari had a filling night.’ Unfortunately, Kiko was too busy gawking at the 25 empty cups of ramen to notice Kankuro wasn’t there.

Kiko had reached the river and undressed behind a bush. Kiko was about to enter the water with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body when she heard a splash. Kiko jumped back on instinct and went into a defensive stance. Looking around she spotted Kankuro completely naked in the water. Kiko gulped, for without the makeup and baggy clothes, Kankuro looked totally HOT!!

Kankuro noticed Kiko standing there in nothing but a towel and got… well… horny.

“Hey Kiko, would you like to join me, the water’s great.” Kankuro said with a smirk and seductive voice.

Kiko quickly looked down to hide the deep red blush forming on her face. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t know anyone was here, I-I’ll just-”

Kiko was too busy looking down to notice Kankuro getting out of the water and coming towards her.

“You’ll just what?” asked Kankuro as he pinned her to a tree still smirking all the while.

Kiko’s face had turned crimson red by the closeness of their bodies and turned completely stiff. From certain incidences in her past, Kiko wasn’t too good with the opposite sex, especially when it dealt with actual contact. Besides that, saying Kankuro was hot, was a total understatement, he was ing sexy from head to- Oh My God!!

Kiko forgot Kankuro was naked as she was scoping him down, and once she hit that spot blood started to rundown her nose, and her skin couldn’t get any redder.

“I-I-I’ll j-j-just”

Kankuro came closer and closer to Kiko, until they were only an inch away from each other.

“You’ll what?”

“I-I’ll” the space between their lips had just been reduced to nothing. Without warning they were in a deep kiss and the first chance he got, Kankuro entered his tongue into her mouth.

“Kankuro, Kiko!!” called out a familiar voice from a distance.

Kankuro and Kiko’s lips parted and once they did Kiko collapsed, blood now pouring out of her nose. Kankuro looked at her puzzled for a second then smirked. Basking in his nakedness, he thought to himself ‘a job well done, too bad we couldn’t have more… fun’

“Oh well, maybe next time my little wolf.”

Kankuro grabbed Kiko, her clothes, and his clothes, and headed back to their campsite humming a joyful tune on the way back, but he didn’t get to far. Out of nowhere Kankuro was attacked!

Last Time: Kankuro grabbed Kiko, her clothes, and his clothes, and headed back to their campsite humming a joyful tune on the way back, but he didn’t get too far. Out of nowhere, Kankuro was attacked!


Tsumi, the Cat Demon

Kankuro was off guard so the attack sent him back causing both him and Kiko to fall into the water. Kankuro was pissed and ready to fight now, but his attacker was nowhere in sight. The only thing there was a squirrel with a bloody nose and Gaara, Ari, and Temari looking freaked. Then Kankuro realized he was naked and hovering over the now naked body (towel came off when they fell) of an unconscious Kiko. Temari automatically thinks the worst and starts yelling. “What the hell are you doing Kankuro?!” Before Kankuro could get anything out, he was being attacked again, this time by his sister.

Ari looks at the squirrel, it has a blue stripe down its back, and kind of looks familiar, but her train of thought his interrupted by laughter. Temari stops killing Kankuro, Gaara stops thinking ‘my siblings are morons’, and even Kiko wakes up hearing this laughter. They all look up to find a dull pink haired girl on a branch laughing. She’s laughing so hard tears are flowing down her face and she ends up losing her balance. She falls off the tree, hits a rock, and lands in the deep end of the river. Temari and Gaara just stared, Kankuro gets dressed and watches the event too, and Kiko and Ari pulled the, apparently, drowning girl out of the water.

“Tsumi what the hell were you doing on a branch above the water, you know you can’t swims” said Kiko as she and Ari dragged Tsumi out of the water.

“Sorry, I was enjoying the show too much. It’s amazing how the fearless wolf demon Kiko can faint so easily because of a guy,” says Tsumi still laughing.

Hearing this Kiko gets embarrassed but it soon fades into rage as she picks Tsumi up by her collar throwing her into the nearest tree yelling, “What the hell do you know?!”

Kiko gets dressed, as Tsumi struggles to get up but when she does she bolts toward Kiko kicking her in the side. “I know you’re weak and pathetic around guys.”

At this point, the two are randomly attacking each other hitting as hard as they can.

“How are you suppose to protect the people if you can’t even manage to face a guy?!”

“Well you don’t have it worry about the villagers anymore.”

“Why is that, you quiting, cause if you did then we’d at least have a chance against an enemy.”

The attacks stop and Kiko looks down, tears flowing down her face. Tsumi looks at Kiko confused. Kiko’s not the type to just start crying out of nowhere. “K-Kiko?”

All of a sudden Kiko starts screaming “THEY’RE ALL DEAD! IT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL DEAD!”

It is now completely silent. Kiko is still crying while Tsumi is frozen in shock. Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro are shocked at hearing this as well but Temari speaks up anyways. “W-what happened to them?” she asks out of concern.

Kiko turns to face Ari. She is still crying but now there is rage and hate in her eyes. “I don’t know, why don’t you ask Ari?” Ari just looks away not saying a thing.

Kiko can’t take it anymore and flees the scene getting away quickly jumping from one tree to another. “Shit,” says Kankuro as he runs after Kiko to make sure she dosen’t do anything drastic.

There was another awkward silence but this time Tsumi breaks it. Her eyes have changed from their usual sapphire blue to yellow cat like eyes. She punches Ari in the face full force, but Ari dosen’t even flinch from this.

“What did you do? What the did you do?” Ari just stares at her with dull jade eyes.

Tsumi starts to panic, she tries to keep calm, but can’t hide the fear in her voice. “Where’s Conan? Where is my brother?!”

The look on Ari’s face never changes, and Tsumi knows what has happened. Her brother, annoying or not, is dead. Tsumi cracks, a blue light swirls around her, her eyes are glowing yellow now, and her hair was grown longer and wilder. Her teeth turn into fangs, her nails have grown twice as long as before, a pink tail and cat ears appear form on her body and she heads in for another attack. Ari closes her eyes standing there waiting for the attack to make impact, but it never does. Ari opens her eyes to see that a wall of sand that is barely holding her back has blocked Tsumi’s attack. Ari, who is now shocked, turns toward an angry Gaara.

“Apparently because of something Ari did you’re hurt, but that doesn’t mean I will allow you to harm her in any way.” Gaara gives one of his famous death stares to Tsumi, but this one is much more intense than any of the other ones he’s given.

Tsumi is stunned with fear and quickly heads off in the opposite direction of Kiko and Kankuro. Gaara tares at Temari for a second, and she gets the hint. She races off to catch up with Tsumi so that Gaara can talk to Ari alone.

Ari is still staring at Gaara shocked, but soon starts to cry. Gaara runs over to Ari and holds her tightly in his arms.

“Ari.”

“You should have let her hit me. Because of me her brother and everyone else in the village is dead!” Tears flow down Ari’s face as she falls onto the ground bringing Gaara down with her.

“It’s okay now. I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll take all your pain away.” Gaara said holding Ari even tighter. Ari gets a faint smile on her face from hit words but it soon melts away as her face is drowned in more tears.

Gaara is worried now. He has no choice but to question Ari about what happened to her village, and he knows this will only cause her more pain. Gaara decides to hold off on the question for as long as possible but he knows it is inevitable.

Sensei?

“Why? Why’d I let him stop me? I should have killed her right then and there.” Said Tsumi as she continued to run through the woods.

“I agree.” Said a voice from a distance.

Tsumi stopped and got into a defensive stance. “Who’s there?”

“Don’t worry, there’s no reason to be defensive around me, after all we have the same goal.”

“I asked who you are, so tell me.”

The leaves started rattling from behind, so Tsumi turned in the direction finding a man before her.

“Deidara of the Akatsuki, and I think you can be of some use to me.”

“Akatsuki? What does the Akatsuki want with me?”

“Well, it’s not you we’re after, it’s your friend Ari.”

“So what are you trying to do, use me as bait?”

“That’s the idea, but don’t worry as long as you cooperate we won’t harm you, much”

“Sorry I can’t do that, the only one allowed to kill Ari is me.” said Tsumi as she turned to walk away.

“Hold on” said Deidara as he ran toward Tsumi. “If that’s the case, maybe we can help each other out.”

“And why would you want to work with me, your enemy?” said Tsumi as she turned toward Deidara.

Deidara smiled looking into Tsumi’s eyes “Because we have the same goal, and besides I like the rage in your eyes” said Deidara as he placed a hand on Tsumi’s cheek. “What do you say, our partnership dosen’t have to last long, only until Ari is dead?”

“Tsumi!” called a familiar voice.

Tsumi looked in the direction of the voice and saw Temari headed in their direction.

“We’ll finish this another time,” said Deidara as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

“Tsumi you-”

“We should go back.”

“W-what?” asked Temari a little confused about the change of heart. “But, I thought-” Temari stopped herself and decided this was a good think and she shouldn’t ruin it. “Okay, let’s go back then.

Tsumi took one last look at the spot Deidara stood, then turned around and headed back with Temari.

XXX

“Kiko wait!” yelled Kankuro as he tried to keep up with Kiko.

Kiko continued to run showing no signs of slowing down, so Kankuro speed up. He got closer and closer with each step until finally he caught her. Kankuro grabbed her from behind and pulled her into an embrace. “Just wait a minute.”

Kiko and Kankuro stayed that way for a while, and Kiko was crying the whole time.

“Kankuro,” said Kiko as she finally stopped crying.

“Yeah, what is it?”

Kiko turned to face Kankuro and leaned her head against his chest. “Thank you.”

Kankuro couldn’t help but blush “No a problem. Kiko… Kiko?”

Kiko’s face was crimson red, blood was flowing down her nose, and she had fainted. Kankuro looked at her in aw for a minute but soon smiled and carried her back.

XXX

Kiko, Tsumi, and Ari sat in silence making absolutely no progress.

They had all returned to the campsite moments earlier, Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari were hoping something would happen, but nothing did. Absolutely nothing at all. Them fighting again would have been better than this. They just sat there and converted oxygen into carbon dioxide. Temari was about to speak up when-

“Ow!”

“Ouch!”

“Ow!”

Something out of nowhere scratched them on the cheek.

“What the- (gasp)” Kiko started to say until she saw her attacker.

Both Ari and Tsumi looked shocked and terrified at the same time.

Simultaneously they all got out a “Sensei.”

The one who stood there was the absolute worst possible person to be there at the moment. For standing proudly before them was… was… was… the squirrel with the blue stripe down its back!

“What the hell? You’re that perverted squirrel from the river.” said Kankuro with pointing at the strange being before them.

(Refer to beginning of chapter 5)

“I resent that,” said the squirrel.

“Yeah right, if you aren’t a perv them why were you goggling Kiko’s body so mu- wait what the you can talk?” said Kankuro with his eyes bulging out of his head in shock, surprise, and another word for shocked.

“Why of course I can talk. After we’ve had this long of a conversation you just figured it out, and besides I didn’t see you rushing to get out of that position.”

“That was an accident. If I hadn’t of been attacked, that wouldn’t have happened, and besides I’ve got the feeling you’re the one behind the attack, right?”

“Well of course I was you, a stranger had one of my girls, what was I suppose to think? And girls, don’t think I forgot about you.” said the squirrel turning towards them.

The girls stiffened up and gulped, afraid of what might happen to them.

“B-but” Tsumi tried to get out.

“No buts. You girls should be ashamed of yourselves. None of you have much control over your demon powers, and yet each and everyone have you has used it recently, and one of the times it was against each other.”

“But you don’t understand it was-”

“Enough! I know full well of what happened to your village.”

All three of them looked at their sensei in shock but they were hiding the fact that they were more curious about what actually did happen.

Sensei Squirrel looked at them and sighed, “You girls are too transparent. You want to know what happened in the village don’t you?”

They hesitated for a moment then nodded their heads. This conversation also intrigued the now intensive listeners Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro.

The squirrel’s face got serious (well, as serious as a squirrel can look) “What happened to your village. I’m going to let you figure that out on your own, but to do so you must talk to the living dead.”

All six of them were disappointed with the answer, but also equally confused about their ‘hint’.

“Now listen ladies, I’ve got a few errands to run, and as much as I don’t want to leave you with these underlings, I have no choice. Go to Konoha Village and wait for me there, and get in as much training as possible.” said Sensei Squirrel as he left.

“So, who was that,” asked Temari still confused about the recent situation.

“He’s our sensei. He taught us everything we know.” said Ari.

“So you were taught by a squirrel?” asked Kankuro.

The three girls looked at each other for a second then laughed.

“Of course not, he’s in disguise. It may seem a bit extreme, but since he doesn’t know you, he’s not going to show you his true from.” said Tsumi amused by their confusion.

Temari and Kankuro were a bit skeptical about the disguise thing but Gaara seemed to understand, that or he really doesn’t give a damn.

“Well, now that we’ve got that settled, what’s our next step?” asked Kiko.

“Ramen!” yelled Tsumi and Ari at the same time. This made Tsumi glare at Ari and there was an unannounced eating contest.

“Figures, I’m going to bed,” said Kiko as she walked away followed by Kankuro.

The other two siblings watched in aw as they eat the ramen. (anime sweat drop)