Here is the first chapter of my new Naruto fic! :D
I hope you all like it, and I'd love to know what you think, positive or not!

Basically, the back story is that the Akatsuki/Madara were defeated and the Naruto defeated Sasuke as well. (There's a little more info on that in the chapter)
I don't want to spoil anything for any of you who aren't up to date, so just warning you now!

Dedicated to darkaquarian96 for her birthday! Happy 14th 3 :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing except this storyline and my OC.

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, although it wasn't too hot, and the breeze was blowing, although it wasn't too cold. White fluffy clouds dotted the blue sky. Perfect for some training with my brand spanking new katana, she thought excitedly as she walked through the small village that had one of her favourite places in the world. The blacksmith's that was run by an old friend of hers. People were walking around the village, occasionally there was a mother holding or walking with their child, and the father walking next to them happily, or a few young children running around and playing with whatever they could find.

She did notice that everyone had the slightest bit of worry written on their face, and that some of the adults were looking around wearily. She had been to this town many times before, and most of the people recognised her and would usually send a kind smile her way, but there was nothing like that this time. In fact, they eyed her with almost suspicious glances. There was also a few broken doors and windows around as well. She ignored it and kept going.

The blacksmith's was a little bit outside the village, and she was almost there. She could already see her old friend Imono walking around out the front. Now that she thought about it, he looked a little flustered, maybe even a bit frantic, and subconsciously she sped up, wondering if something was wrong. He was a little taller than the average male, therefore almost towering over the much smaller woman walking towards him, and he had pale blonde hair, dirtied with dust and dirt from working all day, and brown eyes that always held kindness in their depths.

Imono saw her walking towards him, and tensed violently, so much so that she could see him do it from fifty metres away. She sped up a little more and when she got there a few moments later, she could see that he looked rather upset. With a confused expression she approached him slowly.

"Imono, is something wrong?" she asked softly.

"I'm so sorry, but the village was raided by some rogue ninja a few days ago. I-I had just finished your wakizashi, and....they took it." said the large man slowly, in his usual deep, gruff voice that was laced with apology.

"That's okay. As long as everyone is alright. Is there anyone I can tend to in the village?" she asked, knowing that there might be injured people around.

"No, everyone is fine. I'm just so sorry that I lost it. I know that you paid a lot for it, even though I insisted to give it to you for cheaper since you are my best customer. It was beautifully made as well. I delayed several other orders to finish it for you in case you came a few days earlier...but -"

"Imono. It's fine. I promise." she said firmly, but with a tiny gentle smile, trying to convince her old friend that it was okay. "There is one thing that you can do for me though. Tell me what you saw."

"Well, come in first. We'll talk over some tea." he invited her in and they sat down in his small kitchen out the back of his workshop where he lived and he made some tea while he told her about what happened.

"I was just closing up the workshop and I heard some of the villagers screaming. I grabbed my axe and ran to see what was going on, and I saw about ten shinobi running through the streets and reeking havoc on pretty much everything in sight. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand up to them, even with your small training that you've given me when you are here. So I ran back to the shop and I tried to hide your order, along with a few other valuables, but one of them found me when I was half way through it." he sighed and shook his head before drinking some of his tea.

"They took some money, a few other katana and weapons I had in the shop and your wakizashi as well as food and money from the other villagers, but no one was hurt." his gaze was inward as he spoke, his mind's eye reeling with the images of the event in question. At least that explained why everyone was a little weary of her. Because she was a shinobi.

"Imono, that's so terrible. I'm sorry that there are some pathetic shinobi like that. They must have been missing-nin, since I doubt that any allied nin would do such a thing. Can you tell me about what they looked like? Any memorable features or anything?" she asked, hoping that she might be able to help out on tracking them down, and also wondering whether black cloaks with red clouds might be involved. It was doubtful, but there was always that tiny reminder in the back of her mind that someone might try to use the Akatsuki's reputation for who knows what purpose.

"Hmm...most of them all wore the kind of clothes that most of the shinobi do and they all looked pretty normal. Nothing really stood out about them, aside that they were strong. I couldn't see any hitai-ite on them either. Sorry I can't be of more help."

"Don't worry about it. With a large group like that, it shouldn't been too hard to track them down." she said and she drank some of her hot tea.

"Track them down? Are you planning on going after them?" he asked, his voice filled with worry. He knew that she was incredibly strong, but against ten of them? Maybe not.

"Yep. I can't let shinobi run around terrorising villages. That's just wrong. And besides, I would like to get my katana and your money and other things back. As well as anything else I can get from them and return to you guys." she crossed her arms and smirked at him, hoping that he would realise that he couldn't stop her.

"Alright then. I know you are probably too stubborn to listen to me anyway. But you don't have to bother about getting the other things back, just get your katana. The village will be fine. And I'll be fine with the huge amount of money you paid for your order, luckily they didn't get that." he said with relief, recalling how glad he was when he realised they didn't take the sum of money that the black-haired woman had given him, stubbornly refusing to pay any less for his work.

"Okay. Well, I'm not sure how long it will take me, but I'm a pretty good tracker and I'll move much faster than ten shinobi. It shouldn't be too hard for me to catch up within a day or two. I'll try and be back as soon as I can." she said as she got up from the wooden chair and walked over to the door that led out to his workshop and the blond-haired man followed after her.

"Just please contact me in a few days, if you can." he said, trying to convince himself that she would be alright. "And Hitori-san....be careful."

She grinned and chuckled. "I'll be fine. Ja ne." she walked off, waving over her shoulder and walked back into the village, planning on getting something to eat before she left since it was probably about 3:30-4pm in the afternoon and she hadn't had a chance to eat all day since she wanted to get her katana and be back at home by dark. She just hadn't planned to end up going on a wild goose chase for a bunch of missing-nin so she could have the katana that she had waited way too long for.

She strolled up to a small stand and asked for some onigiri to be packaged for her, as well as some she could eat now. The middle-aged woman recognised her, since she came to buy off her every time she was in town. Hitori asked the woman whether she knew anything about the shinobi that terrorised the village the other day, and she replied with a sad voice and downcast eyes while she prepared her customers order.

"Yes. I had just closed up about ten minutes before and I had just gotten home and was about to get into bed when the ninja came into the village. You could hear the villagers yelling in fear before you knew exactly what was going on. It was very scary, but I just stayed inside and hoped that they wouldn't come in. Luckily for me, they didn't. But they stole money and valuables from many of the other villagers."

"Do you know what direction they went in, or anything that might help me track them down?" Hitori asked, as she munched on the wonderful onigiri that the woman had made.

"I don't think you should try and track them down by yourself. Imono-san said that he couldn't stand up to them, and he has had some training from you." the brown haired woman answered without really answering, her tone holding slight worry.

"Heh, don't worry. I'm much stronger than I look." the slate-eyed girl replied, with a soft laugh at the fact that the statement was actually more true than even Imono realised.

"Well, as long as you don't get hurt, my dear. I didn't see what direction they went in, but one of the other ladies said that they were yelling out things about going to a place called 'Suna'. I just assumed it was a hidden village." she said as she finished up putting the other onigiri in the small package.

"Yeah, it's a hidden village in the Land Of Wind. I don't know why they're going there, but from here, it's probably about three and a half days away. So they wouldn't be there yet, which means I'd probably be able to catch up with them." Hitori said, the last part mainly directed at herself, and she stopped eating for a moment to think about her calculations.

The woman tried to convince her not to follow them, but Hitori told her that it would be fine, and thanked her for her concern. She paid the woman and took the packaged onigiri which she put in her small pack for later. Hitori bid the woman goodbye, and strolled out of the village, in the direction of the route she would have to take to get to the Village Hidden in the Sand, thinking about how much she didn't expect this to have happened.

The Godaime Kazekage, Gaara, was sitting in his office, mechanically filling out some sort of paper work that he wasn't really paying attention to. He was waiting for something to happen that would bring some life and interest to this monotonous day. Even though he very much enjoyed his job, no matter how much work he had to do, it still got boring sometimes. It was certainly surprising that there were actually quiet days in the life of a Kazekage as well.

Usually there was someone coming in, telling him about something or other that had happened in some place that got his attention, or an odd mission that he had to give to whoever was qualified to do it. Either that or Kankuro would be in his office whining about his hangover and getting rejected by a girl the night before. Temari would usually visit him as well, and bring him lunch if she wasn't busy, but today they were both busy, so he hadn't seen either of them since breakfast early this morning.

Since he had become the Kazekage, he was living in the huge house that previously belonged to his father, as well as the three Kazekage's before him. Temari and Kankuro lived with him in the massive place as well, and he wouldn't have it any other way. They always tried to eat one meal a day together, since with Gaara being busy mostly all day, and Temari and Kankuro's unpredictable schedules made it difficult for them to see each other sometimes.

Gaara had become a much more open person over the years, and he was able to have fun, smile and laugh a little with his siblings when Kankuro would stumble home drunk, and trip over something and pass out on the floor where he landed, or when Temari would blush when Gaara told her about Shikamaru coming to visit, which Kankuro would never let her live down. He was still a little emotionally stunted, but being with his brother and sister had helped him immensely over the years. Probably more than they realised.

Kankuro would always be telling him about the girls that asked about him, and telling him that he should start looking for a partner or at least start noticing the opposite sex entirely. That wasn't entirely true though. He did notice the opposite sex. But there wasn't really anyone that grabbed his attention. And he certainly did notice his ever-growing fan base ranging from 12 year old genin and 20-something year olds, and even middle aged women who thought he was 'cute'.

His appearance was quite different than when he first became Kazekage though. The boy-ish features that once made up his face had thinned out into fine-boned features of a very unorthodox looking, but very attractive young man. The brick-red hair was the same but it had grown much longer, despite Temari's telling him to get it cut, as well as the dark rings around his light-turquoise eyes from a majority of his life being an insomniac, a trait that he still hadn't gotten rid of yet. The kanji for love on his forehead was still there as well, reminding him of his past.

The past...he thought as he continued to write mindlessly on the sheet of paper in front of him. He recalled the Kage Summit, and Sasuke attacking them all recklessly, as well as the leader of the Akatsuki, Uchiha Madara telling them about his 'Eye Of The Moon Plan' and him declaring the Fourth Great Shinobi World War against them. Fortunately, this war had been won by the cooperation of the Five Shinobi Villages, as well as some of the smaller hidden villages such as Takigakure and Amegakure, which was now under Konan's command and had come to Konoha's aid at Naruto's personal request.

Many had been lost in that time, but they had succeeded due to everyone's determination. The Hachibi or the Kyubi hadn't been caught, and Naruto had become more mature in his realisation that Sasuke had to be stopped. They met in a battle that would be forever remembered in shinobi history, the likes of which equalling or even surpassing the final battle between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara all those years ago at what would become known as the Valley of the End.

Another valley, almost identical to it had been created during the battle and statues of both shinobi had been built to commemorate the two participants in the epic battle, which would end in Naruto's victory. It had been called 'Valley of the Beginning', representing the change that it made in the shinobi world. Naruto had fulfilled his promise of changing the shinobi world and had also fulfilled his promise to be acknowledged by the people of his village, and he was now the official Rokudaime Hokage.

The maturity, strength and intelligence he had shown during those times had shown everyone what a great Hokage he would be, and he was named as such quickly after he had recovered from his fight with Sasuke. Even though it had taken him a while to adjust and come to terms with everything that had happened, he took the job, wanting to continue helping his village and the world of ninja. And despite the face that he was the Hokage, he still hit up Ichiraku for ramen at least once a week.

He abruptly realised that he had stopped writing completely and had been thinking for an unknown period of time a moment before Temari and Kankuro barged in the door loudly, with a faint look of urgency written on both their faces.

"Gaara. We just received news that a small village about three and a half days from here was raided by a large group of shinobi." Kankuro exclaimed with slight seriousness.

"They can't be any of ours. They're probably just missing-nin, trying to cause trouble." Temari said as her and her younger brother walked in, shut the door behind them and sat down to talk with the Kazekage, who was her other younger brother.

"It's quite unusual that they've grouped together like that. I can't help but suspect that they have some sort of higher goal." the red-haired Kazekage spoke in a soft, but calculating and professional voice.

"I agree. Either way we'll keep a close eye on it and look out for any possible signs that they're causing more trouble. If they get inside our borders and keep doing what they're doing, we'll have no choice but to deal with them." Kankuro spoke up, his tone showing that he could be professional too when needed to be.

Gaara nodded, and they talked a little more over the matter for a while until a chunin team came in to give their report to him on the mission they had just returned from. The two siblings left, and Gaara tried very hard to listen to the mission report, but his mind kept going back to what Kankuro and Temari had told him. He couldn't help but think that something was very odd about it all.

He was certainly correct when he said that missing-nin didn't usually gather together like that. Normally they just stayed on their own and did everything they could to survive. The last time that any group of missing-nin had come together was when the Akatsuki were around, and that was years ago. Subconsciously, he placed a pale-skinned hand over his chest, 'feeling' the tiny void that never used to be there before Shukaku was extracted from him by the Akatsuki.

It's not like he could complain about Shukaku being gone, but it was just that he felt so much more...empty. There wasn't that second voice in his head that told him to kill so he could satiate its extreme lust for blood. His two siblings had become much closer to him and they had filled that void for the most part, as well as his love for his village and his desire to protect it. But there was still something missing. He didn't know what it was, since he had never experienced this before, but it was just...something.

While the chunin team talked, he nodded at random intervals until they left a few minutes later, and he was left to his thoughts. He had finished pretty much all of his work, and he decided to just sit for a while since he usually didn't leave his office until around 5pm and it was only about 4:20. He closed his eyes on the premise of 'just resting them for a bit' and for once, he slowly fell into a very rare and light slumber.

Hitori was munching on her last onigiri while she ran – a trait that most shinobi had managed to master down to an art – and just wished that the group of shinobi could show up in front of her, bowing respectfully in apology and holding out her wakizashi and everything they stole from the village. Wishful thinking, but she would make damn sure that it happened when she caught up with them. She'd probably have to kill them after though, just for good measure and to make sure they didn't continue to run rampant. They might be in the Bingo Book as well, meaning she might be able to pick up some money for killing them.

She ate the last of the small meal made up of rice and as she continued to run, she began to see the beginnings of the desert in the distance. The actual desert itself never bothered her, with the endless sand and the heat. No it was the fact that it was so damn hard to navigate through. Hitori had only been to Suna a few times over the years, and it was usually just to deliver or pick up some medicinal herbs and any other medical supplies from their hospital. But it was enough to know how to get there, and she thanked her sense of direction and instincts for existing.

It had been about a day and a half since she had started running and she had been tracking the large gathering of shinobi, which wasn't too hard. They were capable of covering their trail for the most part, but not enough for her to not be able to track them. Especially when there was at least ten of them.

This whole thing was just ridiculous. It had taken her quite a while to save up money from missions to pay for the katana to be made, since she insisted on paying a very good price for Imono's great work and it just had to go and get stolen by a stupid bunch of shinobi who would undoubtedly get the absolute piss beaten out of them for this. To say the least anyway.

She just sincerely hoped that they hadn't already gotten to Suna or they hadn't already been stopped by their shinobi, since that would most likely mean that her katana wouldn't be found. And that would certainly throw a wrench in her plans. Not that she really had any plans, but she had hoped to have a brand new wakizashi made when she had the money since the last one she commissioned Imono to make was quite old and she just used it to train with now.

Groaning at the predicament, the landscape slowly began to change as she got further and further into the Land of Wind. Sand was starting to whip around in the air and it was getting even hotter and dryer than before. She stopped quickly to pull a long black scarf out of her pack that she kept in there permanently and wrapped it around her neck, and most of her face as well before she continued.

It was going to be a very long week...

It was a new day, and Gaara was sitting in his office. Again. It was supposed to be his day off for training with Temari and Kankuro, but here he was. Early this morning, they had received a warning that the large group of shinobi (approximately ten of them) had raided another village and that they were only about two days away from them inside the Land of Wind border. He had decided to send out Kankuro and Temari to warn the villages close to them, and sent out a few chunin teams to some of the bigger villages that could hopefully help somehow, even though there wasn't really much he could do unless he knew where they were.

He read over the note again and it said that some of the shinobi were talking about going to Suna for some reason which they didn't mention. That concerned him a little. If there were ten of them, then that may mean that individually they aren't too strong, or it may mean that they are all quite capable shinobi and that they may be joining together to complete their goals. Either way, they would just have to wait and see what happened.

Without knowing being able to gauge how strong they were, he couldn't just send out a few of his jonin and hope for the best. He decided to send a few ANBU teams to the places that they had already raided inside the Land of Wind borders just to see what the damage was, and send help if it was necessary to do so.

Apparently they hadn't done much damage to buildings and such, but they had stolen a lot of money and other valuables from the villages, and that would take time and effort to restore. He summoned two ANBU teams and told them to go investigate and report back to him as soon as possible. They left and he sighed softly, hoping that this ordeal didn't cause too much trouble. Even though it was causing enough annoyance already.

Temari and Kankuro came back about two and a half hours later and told him about what had happened. They had gone to three different villages that were close to Sunagakure and they had warned the citizens about the group of shinobi, and were in charge of the several chunin teams that had been sent to various villages until they parted ways.

"So, basically they were asking us why we can't just send shinobi out to stop them before they get to their villages." Kankuro said, while leaning back into the chair he was sitting on and scratching his head casually.

"And did you tell them what I told you to say?" Gaara asked while he sorted out some paper work on his desk.

"Yep. That we can't just spread our forces out so much since we don't know where they are or how strong they are yet and that if they really are coming for us specifically then our forces have to be as strong as possible...something like that anyway." he answered, still talking casually and ignoring Temari's glare at his last four words.

"Okay then. There isn't really more we can do until we find out their plan." Gaara said as he nodded slowly and the metaphorical cogs and wheels in his mind turned as he formulated a new plan. "I would like you two to warn the villages defence about this and tell them to keep an eye out and assuming they get here, I want you two go with the team that takes care of them."

Both Temari and Kankuro nodded once and set out to do just that. He thought about all the paper work and the trouble and organisation that this would require. Not to mention the meeting he would have to have with the Daimyo to explain what happened to the villages, what measures he took against the shinobi, what happened when they arrive and who took care of them etc...all in very close detail.

It was going to be a very long week...

"Far out!" Hitori yelled to no one as another large gust of wind whipped sand up into her face and hit her body with surprising force. It had been fairly slow going through the dunes, and she felt lucky that she accounted that extra half a day in preparation for this. She was probably only a few hours away from Suna now, according to her calculations and she was frequently looking around her for any signs of the shinobi being past this point.

Unfortunately it was near impossible to follow footprints and scents in the desert, since the terrain was constantly changing and the wind would blow away mostly any scent. So Hitori had to rely on her memory of how to get to Suna and just hope she showed up in time – hopefully a little bit before – the group of shinobi, so she could get her katana back and whatever else she could salvage before heading back to Imono's village and giving back what she had gotten, and then head home and hopefully have a few drinks with Tsunade after she slept for at least 48 hours, assuming that she would actually be able to sleep.

She had barely rested at all since she had started her journey, and the signs of fatigue were setting in, and she had to resort to slowing down her metabolism (since she hadn't eaten anything other than the onigiri she got from the stall in Imono's village), and releasing endorphins and adrenalin to keep herself going. She thanked the stars that she had a serious insomnia problem and it was only the lack of nourishment that was the problem. It would probably be a good idea to stop in at Suna and stuff her face before she left.

Abruptly, she was snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed something on the horizon that wasn't just a gentle smudging mix of blue sky and vast sand dunes that never seemed to end. There was a blurry black blob right smack bang in the middle of her line of vision. Since there was barely anything else aside sand, sand and more sand around here that it might be, she assumed (and hoped) that it was the shinobi and sped up as much as she could.

Luckily, she still had a fair bit of chakra left since she had a fairly bit amount naturally, although it was nothing compared to someone like Naruto. Her exceptional control over it as well allowed her to use the bare minimum for anything she needed it to use it for, and this came in handy at times like this. And her jutsu barely required any chakra usage since it was a clan jutsu, and it would pretty much allow her to get rid of all the shinobi before they even realised it. It was a jutsu that most shinobi would dream of having. But not in Hitori's case.

It registered with her that the blob was getting a little bigger, and it was beginning to get a lot clearer as well. Within another hour, it was almost five times the size it was when she first saw it, and she could clearly see that it was people, although she couldn't determine much from the distance. It only took another hour for her to be close enough to finally see that there was ten shinobi, and she masked her chakra instinctively. She was now close enough to sense theirs, but she didn't want to possibly give off her location by using chakra to have a quick 'feel' of theirs, just on the off chance that one of them was a medical ninja or a sensor type.

When they were only about two kilometres away from them, she used her jutsu instantly and disappeared from sight. It was a little unstable in these conditions, but she was able to hold it for the most part while her chakra was almost completely concealed. She went into work mode, and continued on her way. After a few more minutes, she noticed that the blob that how now almost completely formed people was getting much larger much quicker than it was five minutes ago. It only took her a few moments to realise...

They had stopped moving.

"Gaara!" Temari yelled in the hall way before she slammed open the door to the Kazekage's office, and saw Gaara looking at her with wide, confused eyes. "They're nearly here. Me and Kankuro have already sent out our team, but we're going to go meet up with them right now. Okay?" she said, slightly breathless from running all the way up here when she was basically on the other side of the village.

Gaara nodded once, and she took off, not even shutting the door. He was quite concerned and very much wanted to go out there himself, but he didn't want Kankuro and Temari to think that he didn't believe in them to take care of the invaders. He was worried about them getting hurt. He could only imagine their reaction if he told them that. Temari would probably hug him until he couldn't breathe, and Kankuro would ruffle his hair or something equally demeaning.

A few minutes later, he felt the chakra signatures of the Suna shinobi and the chakra signatures of their enemy appear. He couldn't take it any more. He stood up and walked out, already wearing his normal attire since he changed out of his Kazekage robes before because he was kind of expecting himself to go and fight for some reason that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

It only took him a few moments to get down to where Temari and Kankuro had begun fighting the nine remaining shinobi. He began to start releasing his sand from his gourd, but Kankuro noticed and yelled at him to stay back and let them handle it. Reluctantly, he agreed, but kept his sand floating around, ready to block any attacks that could possibly hit and injure either of his siblings.

He noticed Temari stop abruptly as her several opponents all went down in a few seconds. Then Kankuro did the same as the shinobi he was going up against fell to the ground with kunai in their chest, or neck. Gaara readied his sand, very confused as to what just happened, but then a small, black-haired girl with pale skin appeared out of thin air and she began to brush some splattered blood and sand off her clothes.

All three of them stood silently, watching as the girl walked around and inspected each body, before she removed a wakizashi from the belt of one of the shinobi. She unsheathed the weapon and swung it through the air a few times casually, as if she wasn't standing in the middle of the desert with ten bodies laying dead on the ground next to her. Lifting up the blade closer to her face, she looked at it closely and her eyes crinkled as if she was smiling at the weapon underneath her scarf before sheathing it and attaching it to her waist.

She looked around again at the bodies and finally lifted her head up to look at the three shinobi in front of her, with wide eyes and jaws dropped slightly. She nodded once curtly and turned to walk away when Gaara snapped out of his reverie and spoke.

"Wait!" was all he could manage as the mystery girl stopped walking and turned back around with a black eyebrow raised. He fumbled around with what to say for a moment before finally collecting himself. "Why did you do that?" he asked, noticing that she was definitely not a Sunagakure shinobi.

"They stole my katana." she said simply and pointed to the weapon as if she was talking about something as normal as signing your name on a piece of paper. She began to turn away again, and Gaara's voice stopped her again.

"Thank you for that. We think that they were going to invade our village." he explained, looking directly into the pale-grey eyes of the female shinobi.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, as I said, they stole my katana and I was just getting it back. There's no need to thank me for that. I wasn't doing it with helping you in mind." she said tonelessly as she looked straight back into the Kazekage's turquoise eyes. She recognised him instantly, and she also recognised the other two as Temari and Kankuro, who were Gaara's siblings. He looked away from her pointed stare for a moment, but looked back a moment later.

"Would you at least allow me to thank you as the Kazekage of Sunagakure? Even if you didn't do it for anything other than getting your katana back, you still indirectly helped us, and I would like to thank you properly." he stated diplomatically hoping that this girl would accept his offer. She raised an eyebrow again and tilted her head to the side in thought.

"Sure. Why not? I'm starving and I haven't slept in about 4 days." she accepted casually and began strolling towards them back into the hidden village.

It was quiet until Kankuro snapped out of it as Gaara and the woman began walking past him.

"Damn! That was really impressive! What kind of jutsu was that?" he said loudly, with an awed tone and expression. The woman fixed him with a cool glare that said she wasn't going to tell him and he smirked slightly and clammed up.

The silence didn't end until Gaara had figured out where she could stay for the night. "Would it be acceptable for you to stay in our accommodation usually used for official use?" he asked, referring to the small building that had several nicely furnished apartments that would house ambassadors and diplomats from other villages when they were here.

"I really don't care. Just give me a bed and some food." she spoke firmly, indicating her complete lack of care about where she stayed. "Some sake would go down nicely." she added quietly as an after-thought and Kankuro glanced at her and smirked mischievously. The corner of her mouth turned upwards enough to be noticeable and Kankuro chuckled softly, knowing that she clearly felt like a little more than 'some' sake.

When she went to turn her head to look back in front of her, she noticed that Temari was clenching her jaw and limping a little. She looked down to see a large gash down the side of leg that stretched from half-way up her thigh to half-way down her calf. Stopping abruptly, she strolled over and dropped to one knee next to Temari who looked at her with a shocked expression and watched as the girl's hand glowed with medicinal green chakra and the large cut disappeared within a few moments.

Gaara watched on in silence, guessing that the girl seemed to have extremely good medical abilities for being able to completely heal such a wound so quickly. He made a mental note of it and reminded himself to ask her about it later.

"Temari, Kankuro. Would you escort her to the building and give her the room on the top floor?" he asked, and they both nodded in agreement. "And when she's settled, would you bring her to my office please?"

They both nodded again and turned away to lead her to the building and Gaara went in the opposite direction towards the large building his office was in, even though he was going to take a small detour before he went there...

"So, what's your name? What hidden village are you from?" Temari asked casually, trying to make conversation with the woman. "I'm Temari, and this is Kankuro" she added quickly, before the woman had replied.

"Sokkenai Hitori. I'm from Konoha." she answered casually and waved her hand dismissively before she unwrapped the scarf that was covering most of her face as they walked inside the building.

They both vaguely recognised her from the Bingo Book, but there was also something very familiar about her face when half of it was covered as well. When Kankuro got a look at her without it on, his jaw dropped over her for the second time that day. She was really attractive! She looked like she was around his age at least. Her pale skin contrasted with messy black hair and bangs that fell over her pale-grey, almost silver eyes occasionally. She had a finely structured face, that looked almost elegant and high cheekbones that might make her look a little gaunt in the right light.

Her small, but full pink lips curved into a small smirk when she noticed him gawking and Temari smacked him upside the head when she noticed as well. The blond woman shook her head and walked over to the guy who looked after the place. She was given the key to the top floor and gestured to Hitori and Kankuro to follow her.

They walked up the stairs and Temari unlocked and opened the door to reveal a quiet fancy looking room. There was a nice, squishy looking couch, as well as a large wooden dining table and chairs and the was also a small kitchen. Hitori strolled into the bedroom with her hand in her pockets and smirked happily at the sight of the rather massive bed that was in front of her. It could easily fit three of her on there, and she knew she would get a good sleep tonight. There was also a rather nicely done up bathroom with a massive bath as well as a shower.

She placed her pack down on the bed, and Temari gave her the key before reminding her that Gaara wanted to see her. All three of them left and went up the never-ending stairs to the Kazekage's office and opened the door to see Gaara sitting at his desk with several containers of take-away for them all. Hitori raised an eyebrow and he gave her a small smile as Temari and Kankuro pounced on the food and sat down.

"I wasn't exactly sure what you liked, so take your pick..." he trailed off, and scratched the back of his head absently. She just stared at him blankly, her eyes revealing nothing about what she was thinking. He couldn't help but admit to himself that he felt a little uncomfortable with her gaze. It was like she was looking straight through him.

Her eyes fell downwards and she picked up two containers and a pair of chopsticks and sat right there on the floor in front of his desk and ate as slowly as she could manage until both containers didn't have a scrap of food left in them. She sighed in satisfaction at finally having a full stomach, and mentally congratulated herself for eating so slowly even though she was so god damn hungry.

When they had all finished eating Hitori finally got up and took a seat as Gaara finally remembered that he had properly introduced himself yet. She sat down, crossed her arms and stared straight at him as if she knew he was about to start talking, and he tensed imperceptibly before mentally shaking it off and speaking.

"I'm sorry, I should have introduced myself earlier. I'm Gaa-"

"Sabaku no Gaara, youngest son of the Yondaime Kazekage, and currently the Godaime Kazekage. I know who you are." she cut him off, showing that she really did know exactly who he was. "Sokkenai Hitori. I'm from Konoha." she said just as simply as she had said to Temari and Kankuro and Gaara's expression went from a fractionally raised eyebrow, to both raised.

"Are you really from Konoha?" he asked incredulously and watched as she lifted up her black sleeveless shirt that was a little too long for her to reveal the hitai-ite with the Konoha symbol on it that was being used as a belt. "Sorry, I didn't realise. It's been a very long time since I visited Konoha." he apologised with a small smile.

"It doesn't matter. I don't usually wear my hitai-ite anyway." she waved his apology away with her hand as she spoke. She usually didn't wear her hitai-ite at all, but these pair of pants were a little to big for her, and it was kind of necessary to use something as a belt, and that just happened to be the first thing she got.

He nodded in understanding and briefly looking out of the window to see the sun going down. "Well, it will be getting dark soon, and I'm sure you'd like to get some rest, so I will walk you back to your hostel if you like." Gaara offered kindly, even though in his mind he was wondering why the fuck he just said that and from the look on Temari and Kankuro's faces, they were as well.

"Nah, I'm fine. Thanks anyway." the black-haired woman said as she got up and walked towards the door. She began to daydream about having a nice hot bath before Gaara's voice broke her out of it.

"Sokkenai-san. I'd like for you to come to my office when you've awoken tomorrow, if you don't mind." he asked, confusing himself even more with all these odd things he was saying. Maybe it just wasn't his day.

"Yeah, sure. 'Night." she answered and waved to them over her shoulder and strolled home.

It was pretty lucky that Gaara had actually offered for her to stay the night, because she was dead tired, and was feeling more drowsy now that she had a full-stomach. When she got back to the building, she gave a small nod to the man who was in the same seat he was when she first got there, and walked up the many stairs to the top floor. She unlocked the door, and went in, locking it behind her.

In a matter of minutes, she had stripped out of her dirty, sweaty clothes, and was standing in the bathroom turning the taps on for the large bath. It didn't take too long for the water to heat up and while it was filling up, she took to looking around for something to wash her clothes with/in. There was a door from the kitchen leading into a small laundry room with a miniature washing machine and small clothing rack that came out from the wall and Hitori quickly grabbed all her clothes from her pack aside a large t-shirt she usually slept in (but hadn't need to use since she hadn't slept) and threw them in the small machine and used the powder provided.

While they were washing, she stayed in the bath the whole time, loving the way the hot water relaxed her muscles that were tense and knotted from days of running. She sent a small wave of chakra through her system, getting rid of any lactic acid build-up and just giving herself a basic check-up as she usually did after a mission or training. When she heard the faint humming sound of the washing machine stop, she pulled out the plug and got out of the bathtub.

She quickly dried herself down and threw on the t-shirt and wandered into the laundry room again and hung up her wet, but clean clothes on the small rack. Hoping that they'd be dry by when she woke up tomorrow, she dragged herself into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

Knowing that it would take her a while to get to sleep, as it always did, she tried to recall everything that had happened over the past few days that had all seemed to blend into one incredibly long, and ridiculous quest to retrieve her katana, which by the way, was absolutely perfect, she noted mentally. Fortunately, she believed that it was worth the trouble. She remembered first seeing Temari and Kankuro going up against the shinobi after the team they had originally put together were seemingly all injured.

Pale-grey eyes closed as she remembered seeing Gaara's turquoise eyes wide with surprise, and his brick-red hair flowing as the wind blew past them. At that moment, he seemed rather enamoured with her, which had taken her off guard. He wasn't just looking at her like Temari and Kankuro were...he was looking at her as if he was trying to tell her something. What that was, she didn't know, but it was something that looked very strange but familiar at the same time.

It didn't take her long to fall into a light slumber, and turquoise eyes appeared in her dreams...

There you have it! :D
As you can tell, it's a Gaara x Hitori fic, and Hitori will be a little bit different than what she is in 'A Cold Evening'.

I'm not sure when I'll update next, but I think I'm getting back in writing mode, so hopefully I might have another chapter up end of this week/early next week! :D

Til next time!

Chapter glossary -
1. Imono - Cast, metal, casting
2. Wakizashi - It's a type of sword that's a little shorter than a normal katana. Google it for more info...
3. Hitori - Alone, one person (Thought I'd chuck that in for those of you who haven't read my other Naruto fic)
4. Onigiri - A ball of rice, to put it simply. Again, Google...
5. Suna/Sunagakure - Village Hidden in The Sand
6. Godaime - Fifth
7. Takigakure - Village Hidden in a Waterfall
8. Amegakure - Village Hidden in the Rain
9. Sokkenai - Cold, blunt, short
10. Sabaku no Gaara - Gaara of the Sand Waterfall/Gaara of the Desert
11. Yondaime - Fourth