"Just wait out here for a sec while I get my stuff, ok?"

The red-head still looked disturbed, but his eyes were no longer that wide and he was able to form coherent sentences, not just words.

"Ok."

Asami quietly opened the door and stepped inside the house, ready to face the matron's hellish wrath.

Gaara stood outside the orphanage, patiently waiting for the girl to come out. He could hear the Shukaku quietly muttering inside his head, and tried his best to ignore the voice that haunted him so.

Of course, he could only do so much. ( Gaara hoped Asami came back soon. )

….

Asami did her best to not make her presence known to the matron, she really did, but it was no use. Yuko had her arms crossed and a scowl on her usually smiling face, and the young orphan immediately knew that she was in for the longest scolding of her life.

…

Asami walked beside Gaara, her feet barely making any sound at all. The night sky was bright with stars and wow, was the moon always this pretty? Despite all the time that Asami spent staring up at the constellations, she had never noticed that the moon was able to shine this brightly.

The Kazekage's home was right around the corner, and even though she had been the one to suggest the idea, Asami wasn't looking forward to meeting Gaara's father. She couldn't back out now though, so she kept going with a determined look on her face. She was gonna make Gaara feel better no matter what, dammit! (the guilt kept coming and it seemed like it was never gonna stop. Never before had Asami felt so confused and unsure about something.)

"Do you want to sneak in from the window?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you looked a little uncomfortable, and I know that my father can be both intimidating and, well, a bit frightening."

Asami thought this over. On one hand, this way she wouldn't have to make any form of contact with the man she so despised, but she wasn't a coward! She could face anything, and she certainly wasn't gonna back out just cause she was sort of intimidated.

"I'm not uncomfortable! Well, not that much. I can take it!"

Gaara stared at her, looking confused.

"Are you sure?"

Asami's mouth opened and closed like she wanted to say something, but didn't know how to say it.

"No, I'm not. But what i am sure about is that I'm not a coward, and I'm not scared! Unless you don't feel like facing him, in which case I'm fine with sneaking in by the window."

The young red-head smiled at her softly, and instead of waling to the front entrance like he usually did, Gaara completely avoided it. (and by extension the gaze of the shinobi guarding the door) Instead, he opted to go for the back of the building, where the window of his room was.

"Have you learned to walk on walls yet?" He asked her. His curriculum was completely different from the academy's, and even though he himself had already learned to mould chakra and use it to walk on walls, he wasn't sure in the academy students had been taught that particular skill.

"No, I haven't. They only teach you that kind of stuff when you're in your sixth year."

"Okay then. Would you feel comfortable if i used my sand to bring you up?"

Asami's mind flashed briefly to the moment when Gaara had smashed the man's arm and a small jolt of fear (which thankfully went unseen) went through her. Of course, answering that question with a no would only make the poor boy feel worse about himself, so Asami pushed it down and said:

"Yeah, that's fine."

….

Being hoisted up by sand that was hovering in mid-air was as bizarre as it was fun. The platform that was holding her up felt like what Asami assumed were clouds, and looking down into the village from high above made her feel significant (weird, right?).

The kazekage's residence was commonly referred to as 'The Tower'. Because, as the name suggested, it was a tower. That was it. Sure, it was the tallest building in suna, but it didn't even compare to the skyscrapers that could be found everywhere in her previous world.

That didn't stop it from being exhilarating, though.

Gaara's room was on the top floor of The Tower, which meant she still had a ways to go before reaching her destination. Gaara had hoisted himself up first before doing the same to Asami so that he could better concentrate on making sure the sand platform didn't break midway.

Asami looked once more at the moon and sighed softly.

(She missed home more than she cared to admit.)

….

"That's the one tail, that's the two-tails and that's the three-tails. I can't find it right now, but my favourite one is the eight-tails." Asami was pointing out the figures in the stars with her small fingers, eyes squinting to get a better look at the shapes that adorned the sky.

"How do you know all these constellations?"

"Well, I've never really been able to sleep well, so one day when I saw a book about constellations while i was at the library i figured i might as well learn something new instead of doing nothing."

Both of them were quiet for a minute until Gaara broke the silence and said:

"Do you have any more constellations that you can show me?"

…...

Golden rays of sunlight light up the sand paved streets of sunagakure, and unlike the rest of the children both Gaara and Asami had not even gotten close to sleeping yet.

The young blond didn't really mind, actually. It would not have been the first all-nighter she had pulled, both in her previous life and this one.

"Don't you have to go to school now?"

The young boy asked Asami. He had been dreading the time when the sun would come up, but it had been fun to spend time with Asam, and he understood that she had to go.

"Surprisingly, no."

That was a surprise.

"I asked the matron last night if I could skip school just today, and in return, I would endeavour to not make a fuss when the teacher came for me. She said okay, and that she would tell sensei that I was sick today."

The idea of missing out on school sounded tempting at first, but Asami didn't really want to risk missing any important information that could aid her in the future, This was way more important, however, and Asami had promised herself to spend as much time as possible with the jinchuuriki as she could. Hopefully, she would be enough to distract him from Shukaku's ugly thoughts.

"So, what do you wanna do today?"

…

Shukaku was pissed. Unbelievably pissed.

And it was all because of the little pest that somehow managed to distract his vessel from the killing he so desired. No matter how much he whispered into his vessel's ears that she was only using him and that he should kill her before she betrayed him too, it seemed that Gaara was managing to ignore him. The brat.

Never before had he wanted someone gone so badly.

…..

This was probably the hottest day Asami had ever gone through (in both lives, mind you). It wasn't even noon yet and she could feel the sun burning her skin and turning it red. Gaara didn't really seem to mind the heat, maybe because of his sand armour, but whatever it was he was a lucky bastard to have it.

The universe was so unfair sometimes.

Then, the most brilliant idea came to mind.

The pool.

…

The public pool was mostly empty, except for the shinobi stationed there to help if someone ever began to drown. Which was the perfect setting. Asami couldn't have asked for a better way to spend this hot day other than an empty pool.

They had made a quick trip to the orphanage in order to get a bathing suit for Asami ( The matron seemed to feel slightly uncomfortable near Gaara, but she had reacted better than most civilians, who usually ran away screaming bloody murder.)

"Yes!"

Asami ran to the swimming pool, sighing in relief when the cool water hit her skin.

It was sort of like a ramp, with the end being deeper for the adults and the front of it being shallow enough for Asami's feet to comfortably touch the ground.

Gaara seemed reluctant to jump in, which wasn't surprising since he had probably never been near the swimming pool before.

"Aren't you gonna get it?"

He paused before answering.

"I can't swim."

"That's okay, i can teach you. I'm not that great, but I know enough to get by."

He still looked wary, but in the end, Gaara cautiously used the pool stairs to get into the water and shivered. He shivered!

"How can you shiver?! It's so hot I felt like being cooked alive outside! "

"My sand armour protects me from the heat, but not the cold."

So it was the sand armour!

"That's cool. At least you'll never get sunburned."

….

It was a war. Cold and brutal and cruel. How dare he splash her like that?! After all she had done for him, Asami thought they were friends!

"You betrayed me!"

"It's only a water fight!"

"You took my trust and you crushed it! I thought you had my back there!"

Asami had been trying to teach Gaara how to swim, but then he slashed her! He had declared war.

"I'll GET YOU BACK FOR THIS!"

She swam as fast as she could (which was frankly just a little faster than a snail.) and tried to splash Gaara back.

He laughed at her frustrated face when she realized that she was never gonna catch up, and splashed her again.

Asami sputtered and sank, coming back up for air. Something was wrong, however. That didn't seem normal.

The young boy rushed over to her, desperate to help when he felt something grab his ankle.

Just as he realized what it was, Asami dragged him down.

After a moment, both of them rose back up to the surface. Asami grinned, victorious and happy that she had taken her revenge on him.

"I told you id get you back!"

"You triced me! I thought you were hurt!"

"I regret nothing!"

….

The sun was finally setting (thank god!) and both Gaara and Asami were dripping wet.

It had, overall, ben a pleasant day, even with the heat.

"I have to go back to the orphanage now."

The young boy's face fell.

"Ok."

"Today was fun. We should do this some other time! See you tomorrow, okay."

He still seemed sad, but this time, There were also some traces of happiness.

"Okay! See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

Asami ran off, eager to wash off the chlorine, and for a moment, everything seemed okay.

(That was but an illusion that would be broken with time.)

….

Jackal watched the girl he was assigned to watch run, and as his shift was nearly at an end, he decided to return and report to the council. Nothing very interesting had happened, but he figured it was better to say something than to leave it out and get scolded for it later.

Suna was cruel to its shinobi, and he was dreading the day that the blond kunoichi realised that.

He dreaded the day that would crush her spirits and wipe the happy smile off her face.

That day had come for him ages ago, and if he could, she would spare every shinobi that cold fate.

( It was but wishful thinking. He knew he couldn't.

But a man could dream)

….

Hello readers! I'm sorry that this chapter was so short, I've just been very busy lately, I'll try to make the next chapter much longer than usual though, and i think that i might be out next week (Please don't be alarmed if it doesn't, time skips are a little bit hard to plan.)

Thank you very much for reading, and please review! I love reading what you think!

Disclaimer: i own nothing but my OC's, naruto belongs to Kishimoto.