Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Art of the Angel ❯ Chapter 3 ( Chapter 3 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Inyoku 
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.09.2007 | Pages: 1 | Words: 4.4K | Visits: 362 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 04.09.2007 | Pages: 1 | Words: 4.4K | Visits: 362 | Status: Completed
’s eyes opened slowly as the early morning light momentarily blinded her. She yawned and stretched out. I can’t believe I actually slept tonight. She thought, getting out of her bed slowly. She must have tired herself out lost in thought. She didn’t even remember when her eyes finally closed to sleep. She was just so concerned about her youngest brother. There had been days when he was out, and didn’t come home for the longest time. It worried her a little bit, but when Gaara came home, he looked okay. He just didn’t talk to anyone very much. This time… was very different. It was about to be lunchtime, she remembered Yashamaru calling them in. Kankuro was there, absolutely ready to eat whatever came in front of him, but Gaara was nowhere. Yashamaru noticed and asked both of them where he could be. Temari didn’t see him since early morning, he seemed to go outside to take a walk or something. Kankuro shrugged. “I don’t really care, I’m sure the little squirt will come home.” he said. No one decided to take much worry into it.. Until an hour or so later.
Gaara burst through the door and was like a blur, going straight through the living room, down the hall to his room. Temari was right at the end of the hall, just getting out of her room. She saw him, it was absolutely dreadful. He had tears running down his face, and she could clearly see he was trying to hide his pain. His arm covered his face, but not so well. He reached to close the door, but stopped a second. He saw that she was looking at him. His teary eyes looked right at her for a second, and he slammed the door before she could say a word. Temari ran up to the door and tried to talk him into opening the door. Gaara wasn’t going to listen, a part of her knew that, but… He looked so hurt, it made her feel so bad for her little brother. That sister-to-brother feel came to her. She sometimes wished she could help Gaara. She knew she could never fully understand what it was like to be like him, hated by pretty much everyone, and always hurt the worst way… mentally. But he was unpredictable sometimes, especially when he was mad or depressed. It could be dangerous just to look at him with sympathy. She didn’t know what to do.
All Temari could do that night was check on Gaara’s door until she had to go to bed. She even saw Kankuro there once. But he just sighed and told her “Yeah, he’s still in there.” She didn’t even need to ask. Shortly after that, he walked away to go into his room and do whatever. Temari listened closely against the door, he was still crying, it was heard so clearly from the other side of the door. After a while, she couldn’t take much more, and she groggily went back to her room and laid in bed until she fell asleep.
Temari walked into the kitchen to see breakfast was at the table. Kankuro was there, eating away. He looked over at her and smirked a bit. “Well, about time you got up. I was ready to eat your food.” He said, waving some food with in his chopsticks around. She sat on the table and just stared right at the food. “Whatever Kankuro. I don’t care.” She told him. His eyebrow raised. “What’s up with you?” He asked. Her eyes lowered sadly and covered her mouth as she yawned. “It’s nothing.” Kankuro looked at Temari. “By the way, Gaara left a while ago.” Temari looked away from her food. “What was that?” Kankuro nodded. “Yeah, I saw him leave a while ago. He sure looked in a good mood compared to last night. Me and Uncle Yashamaru were pretty shocked.” He continued on, eating his food. Temari sat there, a little in shock, but then smiled. “Well, it’s good that he feels better, but-” she looked over at her brother, who shortly looked back at her. “-what is he planning?” Kankuro smiled. “Wanna spy?” Temari smacked Kankuro across the face. She was happy something got Gaara back going again, even after such a night. A weight of worry seemed to lift off as she began to eat her breakfast. Have a good day Gaara. she thought to herself, sort of wishing she could have seen him leave for herself.
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Gaara ran as fast as he could, remembering the whole trail so well. He was excited, he just couldn’t wait to see Hikari. He would do things that friends do. Normal friends do. He still seemed a little tense about going around though with her. The possibility of trouble arousing because of him was still hanging over his head. He just hoped no one would make him feel bad. Maybe he could show people he means no harm, by playing with Hikari. And Hikari.. She could show how happy she was with him. Maybe they wont see him as such a bad person. It was overboard, but it never hurt to be optimistic. Gaara had something to be optimistic about. He started to get to them familiar alleyway, and turned the corner, to stop immediately. There was the debris from yesterday… he didn’t realize how badly he destroyed the area around him. There was so much damage on the walls, it was amazing it didn’t fall to pieces. It looked like something came through the area angrily. Tearing the walls to pieces. Does.. Hikari know I did all of this? he wondered, looking around nervously. If she didn’t, what would she do? She would see just a glimpse of how destructive can be. Gaara walked past the area, looking down. I’ll try to make her not see it. I can’t let her see that.. He thought. He was thinking a plan when he saw her coming. She was in the same azure shirt as yesterday, but had a darker blue skirt blowing in the light breeze. She had on a big smile and waving. She didn’t have her pad like the first time they met, but s small tan bag around her shoulder. “Hey! Gaara!” She called, waving her arm. He walked up to her direction, deciding to just go the opposite direction of where the disaster he made was. “Hi Hikari.” He called back, weakly waving back.
Hikari slowed down to stop a couple feet away from Gaara. “Good morning, and how are you doing?” she asked. “Good.” he answered. Good for now… Hikari smiled. “Great, wanna come with me to the marketplace?
I got to go get some food.” She said, rubbing her stomach. “I haven’t had breakfast.” Gaara had a very big breakfast in the morning, since he didn’t have lunch and dinner, he was starving in the morning, he ate the food so fast. He recalled his brother Kankuro just looking at him like he was going to cause the end of the world. “The food isn’t going to run away from you..” he joked as he slowly left the room, unsure of his safety to be there with Gaara. He was completely stuffed now, and didn’t feel much like eating. “You didn’t eat yet?” he asked. Hikari nodded no. “I didn’t. I have to get it this morning cause I’m low with food at my house. My dad hasn’t gone shopping lately.” She said, laughing to herself. She started to run, grabbing Gaara’s arm. “C’mon, lets get going.” They were heading in the direction of that place he ruined..
NO! Don’t go there! His mind screamed. His eyes widened in fear. Instantly, some sand formed around Hikari’s arm, plummeting her face into the ground. Gaara immediately fell held his hand out to Hikari, starting to sweat nervously. “I-I’m sorry Hikari! I-I didn’t mean to do that!” he said agitatedly. Hikari lifted her head and spit out some sand. “Ugh… I got sand in my mouth.” She mumbled to herself. He looked at Gaara’s outstretched hand, and grabbed it. She got up and looked at the ground. “Well, that was odd..” she said. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. You’re not hurt, are you?” Gaara asked, searching Hikari. Hikari didn’t answer for a second, but then started to giggle, her cheeks a little pink. “Gaara, you sounded just like Rei right there. I’m okay. It’s not like you cut my arm off or something.” She said. Gaara didn’t answer for a second. Hikari looked off the alleyway. “Is something wrong, Gaara?”
Gaara looked out to the alleyway. “D-Do you know what’s down there?” he asked. Hikari nodded. “That wrecked wall? I do, why?” she asked. Gaara glanced at her. “Why? It… It’s horrible. I did that. Don’t you think that’s a little scary?” he asked. He didn’t understand this girl at all. She wasn’t scared by that. From what he had seen, it’s not normal for six-year-olds like Gaara to do that with sand that he can control… Hikari frowned. “No Gaara. I don’t. It doesn’t affect I feel about you. Now, wanna come with me?” She asked, holding her hand out. Gaara looked at her hand. He really did feel like the boy that was supposedly Hikari’s father as a young, battered and bruised pained boy taking the hand of the nice angel that was Hikari’s mother in Hikari‘s picture. Was it possible… that Hikari was his angel? It was absurd… but maybe… He took Hikari’s hand, but seemed a little hesitant at first. Hikari got a good grip on Gaara’s hand and looked ahead of her. “Get ready, I heard I’m a fast runner.” Hikari warned.
They reached the marketplace in what seemed only a moment. There was this small vendor with a middle-aged woman. The vendor seemed to sell small baked goods and candies. The vendor had a giant canvas roof towering over it, providing comfortable shade. The woman saw Hikari and smiled warmly. “My best customer is here.” She said. Hikari smiled back at the woman. “Morning lady Kaede.” She greeted. “I’m getting two of my usual today.” The lady Kaede raised her brow. “Two, what’s the occasion?” she asked. “Not much, just gotta get one for Rei’s sister. She likes them too!” Hikari answered. Gaara wished he knew what they were talking about. He felt a little left out, but then again it looked like Kaede completely ignored him. He swore she looked right at him when she saw Hikari. Kaede was given some money, and she gave Hikari a small basket wit a white cloth wrapped around it. “Specially made, the way you like them.” Kaede said. “Thank you.” Hikari said with a nod and waved goodbye as she returned to Gaara’s side. He noticed Kaede’s gaze as Hikari went closer to him. She looked a little surprised, and quickly walked away from the vendor. She was talking with this man at another vendor and pointing at him.
Gaara looked away from the woman at Hikari’s basket. “So, what did you get?” Hikari grinned and reached into the basket. “My breakfast.” She pulled out a muffin. It was a big muffin, light brown with what seemed to be red and tan pieces in it. Sugar pieces coated the top. “A raspberry walnut muffin, Lady Kaede makes the best!” Hikari said, taking off a small piece and handed it to him. “Try it.” Gaara stared at the muffin. Someone was giving him something, sharing something. A smile came to his face. He took the piece with a “thank you.” and ate it. It was sweet… but had a strange wood like aftertaste. “It’s my favorite food.” Hikari said, taking a huge bite out of the muffin. Gaara couldn’t believe she could fit so much food in her mouth. “So… what shall we do now?” Gaara asked as Hikari enjoyed her muffin. She put the unfinished muffin in the basket. “Just follow me! By the way, what’s your favorite food? Curiosity.”
“Well…. I had some gizzards once. And I really liked them.” Hikari just stared at Gaara with a look of disgust on her face. “Wow… you’re very daring. Not to mention you have interesting taste…”
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They reached place where it looked like lines were drawn in the ground. Both were far away from each other, by guessing about seven feet There were two more that were about 3 feet away from each other.. There was a big yellow ball in the middle. “I want to show you a game my Dad taught me.” Hikari said. She walked over and picked up the ball. “Dad called it “borders.” We used to play it all the time. So listen up.” Gaara listened, he wanted to hear about this. After all he never was included in a game of any sort. Since the kids would just leave…
Hikari pointed at the farthest line to the left. “That is the score border. It will be my side. The point of the game is to go over that line, but-” She walked over to the two lines in the middle that was 3 feet away from each other. “-You can only throw the ball from this border. One the ball reaches my side, but doesn’t go across the line, I have three chances to hit you. If you get across my border, you get one point. If you don’t, I get the ball and try to hit you in three tries. If I hit you, you lose a point. If I don’t, then I move on to taking the throw across your line, got it?” Gaara nodded, trying to understand in his head. Hikari tossed the ball in her hands. “Good, then lets do a warm-up game so you can understand it better.” Gaara ran to his side of the line. Hikari looked around his area, grinning evilly as she lifted up the ball. “One.. Two…”
“THREE!”
The threw the ball to Gaara’s left abruptly. Gaara turned around to reach toward the ball but it sped by as it bounced and went right over his line. Hikari threw her head back and laughed. “You got to be quicker! I’m not going to go easy on you.” She said. Gaara ran to grab the ball. “That’s not fair! I’m new at this!” he said, but he couldn’t help but laugh a bit himself. He didn’t realize laughing could be so contagious. So Hikari got one point, it was his turn now. Hikari kept her eye’s right on the ball as Gaara got ready to throw. Like Hikari, he counted down to three and threw the ball. When he threw it, the ball soared across Hikari. It seemed to be too high for her to get. It looked like Gaara was going to get a point, but that changed. As the ball came back to the ground, it still had 1 foot before getting to her line. It rolled on the ground, and Hikari began to follow it. C’mon, c’mon get across the line! Gaara chanted in his mind as it rolled closer. But.. No luck. The ball stopped short and Hikari picked it up. “Nice try, but not good enough!” Hikari said. She walked up to the ending line of her side. “Now I’m gonna try to get you.” She warned.
She threw the ball the first time, but Gaara easily managed to dodge it. It was inches away from hit, though. Hikari ran up to retrieve the ball a second time. When she was ready, she threw again. Unlike the first time, this ball flew much faster at Gaara, and nearly hit him. He felt the air blow from it fly past his left side. It was Hikari’s last try. She had the ball once more, looking very focused on her target. Gaara wondered if she was taking this game really seriously. He never saw that many kids this serious on a game before. Hikari got ready, and threw the ball one more time. This one was fast-extremely fast. It was like a blur, and Gaara knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid the ball. He tried to miss it, but the ball was ready to get him. However, something happened. Gaara should have expected it… but he seemed to have a memory lapse on it. The ball was stopped as sand came right up from the ground and blocked him. He immediately felt like an idiot for not thinking it sooner: Hikari was never going to be able to actually hit him with the ball. He glanced over at her, who was staring straight at him.
“Um… y-you didn’t need to do that.” Hikari said, scratching the back of her head. “I wouldn’t throw a ball that hard.” Gaara looked down. “I don’t do that. The sand…” he looked at his hands. “…It protects me on it’s own.” He paused for a second. “You’ll never hit me with that ball.” He heard Hikari walk up to him. She put her hand on his shoulder. He looked into her icy eyes. They looked very distant… and sad. But she had a smile on her face. Gaara had this pang inside that he knew there was something bothering her with what he just said. “I don’t know about you, but you have quite the advantage then.” Hikari said. He could hear it in her voice.. She was trying to not sound sad. Was it pity for him that made her this way? A moment ago she was just fine. “You’re lucky you know, to have it protect you.” Hikari mumbled. “You never have to feel pain.” She’s wrong… Gaara thought. He did feel pain. It wasn’t hat pain that people get when he hurt them with the sand or when others hurt themselves with something physical… it hurts inside.
Before he could say anything, her sad look turned into a smile and she clapped her hands. “Let’s not talk about this. I have an idea to change the rules a bit.” She told him if his sand protects him, that will count as a hit. He agreed to it, cause it was all they could really do, and played. It was a good day, Gaara really enjoyed playing most of the day. He got really good at it at about the fifth round, after getting used to it. He had 16 points, while Hikari had 22 points. But while they played, something about Hikari seemed to bother him slightly. It was how sad she looked. She was hiding something that really got to her. He did just meet her, so he didn’t feel it was right to ask her what was the problem just yet. He’ll just wait until Hikari wants to talk about or until they got to know each other better. At about lunch, Hikari said she had to go home because her father wanted her home at about lunchtime. He didn’t see her the rest of the day, but that was okay. He was a good enough mood. He spent a good amount of the day with a friend. It was all he needed.
That was what the two mostly did throughout he week. It was fun, Gaara liked it. Every now and then Hikari brought some of her new pictures to show him. They all were wonderful, as usual. There was a picture of some kids playing jump rope, a elderly man leaning against the wall, smiling, a kid and his cat asleep on a chair, and a strange picture of some teenage boys smoking. “They’re some guys I met at a restraunt. They’re nice guys, despite their smoking thing. Dad told me I should never do things like that, smoking.” She said. There was this one picture she kept skipping, and she wouldn’t let Gaara see it. It made him wonder each time she passed it, but each time he asked, she smiled and said. “That one isn’t done yet, I’ll show you when it’s ready.” Gaara asked one time if she could teach him to draw like that. She told him okay, and went to his house with him after playing. There she met Yashamaru, Temari, and Kankuro. His father wasn’t there to see her, but he usually wasn’t there. Everyone seemed to like her, and it was the same with her.
When they were in his room,. Hikari began to show Gaara how she did it. “How about we start with something simple.” She looked over and saw Gaara’s teddy. “Aww! That bear is adorable! It will be perfect to use!” She said. “Okay, we can use it.” Gaara said, looking at his teddy. “What I do is I’ll look at the bear for a while, then, once you have a simple memory of the thing you’re drawing, you start.” She took a look at the bear for about 45 seconds, and she looked down and started with simple shapes-circles and ovals. She then moved on to details. The ears were added, the eyes, and the pi-shaped nose… all in what seemed only five minutes, she had a full-detail picture of Gaara’s teddy bear. “It takes some practice, but you can get it down quickly. I did after a couple times practicing.” Hikari said as she began working on a background. Gaara didn’t need to look at his teddy, he’s seen it so much from all his times with it that he had the picture of it clearly in his head. He’s had so many sad memories with it….
He followed what Hikari did, starting with simple shapes. They didn’t seem to come out as cleanly and straight as Hikari’s, but Hikari told him that it’s because of her experience. He worked on the details of his teddy, those didn’t some out as good as Hikari’s either, but it was close. The face of his teddy wasn’t hat complicated, like a human face. “Hey Hikari?” Gaara asked as he kept working on the picture.
“Yes Gaara.”
“Did your Dad teach you to draw?”
Hikari didn’t answer for a second. He put down her drawing pad and put her pencil on her ear. “Well… Yes. He kind of did. He told me that when he was younger, he would draw things like maps and environments because of how well he could memorize places. He showed me some of the maps and pictures he drew. They were amazing, and I asked him to teach me. He told me to try and memorize something simple. I did a picture of a slide at the playground here. It came out almost perfect. A little messy, but still wonderful. I loved what I was doing and kept going. I first started drawing at four years old.”
“Wow, four years old. Even for a six year old, those pictures are amazing.” Another voice said from behind them. They both looked to see Yashamaru was looking from behind them. He smiled warmly. “Sorry to barge in, but I wanted to see how our guest was doing.” He said. He was looking at Hikari’s drawing. “You do very well. Do you have any other art I can see?” He asked. Hikari grabbed her pan and smiled. “Of course.” She flipped through the pad, skipping that one certain page, but Gaara’s uncle didn’t seem to ask anything, he just studied the pictures. He seemed to be thinking really hard as he admired Hikari’s art. “I recall you saying your father taught you how to draw. Who is your father?” Hikari lowered her eyes, a sad sort of look came over. “His name is Saburo. Saburo Ninomiya.” Hikari answered. Yashamaru was quiet for a second. Gaara noticed his Uncle’s eyes widened for a second. “Hikari, do you have a mother?”
“No…” Hikari answered in an even sadder tone. “Dad told me Mommy died giving birth to me.” She doesn’t have a mother either? Gaara thought, looking at Hikari’s sad expression. He wanted to help her feel better. It hurt him to see her so sad. “Oh, I’m sorry…” Yashamaru said. “Who do you live with then?” he asked. Hikari glanced at Yashamaru. “I live with my Dad.” Yashamaru seemed to stare at her with wonder. Hikari looked annoyed with Yashamaru’s look, and picked up her stuff. “I got to get home. Dad will worry about me If I don’t get home.” And she walked out the door. But before she left, she poked her head in Gaara’s room. “Night Gaara, I’ll see you later.” Gaara watched as Yashamaru followed her out the door. Something didn’t feel right; Gaara could tell. It was like a bad odor in the air, and it made him feel a little nervous.
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As Yashamaru opened the door to let Hikari out, he noticed the girl kept her head down. Her bangs covered her face, and she didn’t say a word on the way out. Saburo Ninomiya had a child? I never knew that… no one ever said that he was even married. He continued to watch the girl walk off. This doesn’t make sense…
..Saburo Ninomiya is dead…
Gaara burst through the door and was like a blur, going straight through the living room, down the hall to his room. Temari was right at the end of the hall, just getting out of her room. She saw him, it was absolutely dreadful. He had tears running down his face, and she could clearly see he was trying to hide his pain. His arm covered his face, but not so well. He reached to close the door, but stopped a second. He saw that she was looking at him. His teary eyes looked right at her for a second, and he slammed the door before she could say a word. Temari ran up to the door and tried to talk him into opening the door. Gaara wasn’t going to listen, a part of her knew that, but… He looked so hurt, it made her feel so bad for her little brother. That sister-to-brother feel came to her. She sometimes wished she could help Gaara. She knew she could never fully understand what it was like to be like him, hated by pretty much everyone, and always hurt the worst way… mentally. But he was unpredictable sometimes, especially when he was mad or depressed. It could be dangerous just to look at him with sympathy. She didn’t know what to do.
All Temari could do that night was check on Gaara’s door until she had to go to bed. She even saw Kankuro there once. But he just sighed and told her “Yeah, he’s still in there.” She didn’t even need to ask. Shortly after that, he walked away to go into his room and do whatever. Temari listened closely against the door, he was still crying, it was heard so clearly from the other side of the door. After a while, she couldn’t take much more, and she groggily went back to her room and laid in bed until she fell asleep.
Temari walked into the kitchen to see breakfast was at the table. Kankuro was there, eating away. He looked over at her and smirked a bit. “Well, about time you got up. I was ready to eat your food.” He said, waving some food with in his chopsticks around. She sat on the table and just stared right at the food. “Whatever Kankuro. I don’t care.” She told him. His eyebrow raised. “What’s up with you?” He asked. Her eyes lowered sadly and covered her mouth as she yawned. “It’s nothing.” Kankuro looked at Temari. “By the way, Gaara left a while ago.” Temari looked away from her food. “What was that?” Kankuro nodded. “Yeah, I saw him leave a while ago. He sure looked in a good mood compared to last night. Me and Uncle Yashamaru were pretty shocked.” He continued on, eating his food. Temari sat there, a little in shock, but then smiled. “Well, it’s good that he feels better, but-” she looked over at her brother, who shortly looked back at her. “-what is he planning?” Kankuro smiled. “Wanna spy?” Temari smacked Kankuro across the face. She was happy something got Gaara back going again, even after such a night. A weight of worry seemed to lift off as she began to eat her breakfast. Have a good day Gaara. she thought to herself, sort of wishing she could have seen him leave for herself.
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Gaara ran as fast as he could, remembering the whole trail so well. He was excited, he just couldn’t wait to see Hikari. He would do things that friends do. Normal friends do. He still seemed a little tense about going around though with her. The possibility of trouble arousing because of him was still hanging over his head. He just hoped no one would make him feel bad. Maybe he could show people he means no harm, by playing with Hikari. And Hikari.. She could show how happy she was with him. Maybe they wont see him as such a bad person. It was overboard, but it never hurt to be optimistic. Gaara had something to be optimistic about. He started to get to them familiar alleyway, and turned the corner, to stop immediately. There was the debris from yesterday… he didn’t realize how badly he destroyed the area around him. There was so much damage on the walls, it was amazing it didn’t fall to pieces. It looked like something came through the area angrily. Tearing the walls to pieces. Does.. Hikari know I did all of this? he wondered, looking around nervously. If she didn’t, what would she do? She would see just a glimpse of how destructive can be. Gaara walked past the area, looking down. I’ll try to make her not see it. I can’t let her see that.. He thought. He was thinking a plan when he saw her coming. She was in the same azure shirt as yesterday, but had a darker blue skirt blowing in the light breeze. She had on a big smile and waving. She didn’t have her pad like the first time they met, but s small tan bag around her shoulder. “Hey! Gaara!” She called, waving her arm. He walked up to her direction, deciding to just go the opposite direction of where the disaster he made was. “Hi Hikari.” He called back, weakly waving back.
Hikari slowed down to stop a couple feet away from Gaara. “Good morning, and how are you doing?” she asked. “Good.” he answered. Good for now… Hikari smiled. “Great, wanna come with me to the marketplace?
I got to go get some food.” She said, rubbing her stomach. “I haven’t had breakfast.” Gaara had a very big breakfast in the morning, since he didn’t have lunch and dinner, he was starving in the morning, he ate the food so fast. He recalled his brother Kankuro just looking at him like he was going to cause the end of the world. “The food isn’t going to run away from you..” he joked as he slowly left the room, unsure of his safety to be there with Gaara. He was completely stuffed now, and didn’t feel much like eating. “You didn’t eat yet?” he asked. Hikari nodded no. “I didn’t. I have to get it this morning cause I’m low with food at my house. My dad hasn’t gone shopping lately.” She said, laughing to herself. She started to run, grabbing Gaara’s arm. “C’mon, lets get going.” They were heading in the direction of that place he ruined..
NO! Don’t go there! His mind screamed. His eyes widened in fear. Instantly, some sand formed around Hikari’s arm, plummeting her face into the ground. Gaara immediately fell held his hand out to Hikari, starting to sweat nervously. “I-I’m sorry Hikari! I-I didn’t mean to do that!” he said agitatedly. Hikari lifted her head and spit out some sand. “Ugh… I got sand in my mouth.” She mumbled to herself. He looked at Gaara’s outstretched hand, and grabbed it. She got up and looked at the ground. “Well, that was odd..” she said. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. You’re not hurt, are you?” Gaara asked, searching Hikari. Hikari didn’t answer for a second, but then started to giggle, her cheeks a little pink. “Gaara, you sounded just like Rei right there. I’m okay. It’s not like you cut my arm off or something.” She said. Gaara didn’t answer for a second. Hikari looked off the alleyway. “Is something wrong, Gaara?”
Gaara looked out to the alleyway. “D-Do you know what’s down there?” he asked. Hikari nodded. “That wrecked wall? I do, why?” she asked. Gaara glanced at her. “Why? It… It’s horrible. I did that. Don’t you think that’s a little scary?” he asked. He didn’t understand this girl at all. She wasn’t scared by that. From what he had seen, it’s not normal for six-year-olds like Gaara to do that with sand that he can control… Hikari frowned. “No Gaara. I don’t. It doesn’t affect I feel about you. Now, wanna come with me?” She asked, holding her hand out. Gaara looked at her hand. He really did feel like the boy that was supposedly Hikari’s father as a young, battered and bruised pained boy taking the hand of the nice angel that was Hikari’s mother in Hikari‘s picture. Was it possible… that Hikari was his angel? It was absurd… but maybe… He took Hikari’s hand, but seemed a little hesitant at first. Hikari got a good grip on Gaara’s hand and looked ahead of her. “Get ready, I heard I’m a fast runner.” Hikari warned.
They reached the marketplace in what seemed only a moment. There was this small vendor with a middle-aged woman. The vendor seemed to sell small baked goods and candies. The vendor had a giant canvas roof towering over it, providing comfortable shade. The woman saw Hikari and smiled warmly. “My best customer is here.” She said. Hikari smiled back at the woman. “Morning lady Kaede.” She greeted. “I’m getting two of my usual today.” The lady Kaede raised her brow. “Two, what’s the occasion?” she asked. “Not much, just gotta get one for Rei’s sister. She likes them too!” Hikari answered. Gaara wished he knew what they were talking about. He felt a little left out, but then again it looked like Kaede completely ignored him. He swore she looked right at him when she saw Hikari. Kaede was given some money, and she gave Hikari a small basket wit a white cloth wrapped around it. “Specially made, the way you like them.” Kaede said. “Thank you.” Hikari said with a nod and waved goodbye as she returned to Gaara’s side. He noticed Kaede’s gaze as Hikari went closer to him. She looked a little surprised, and quickly walked away from the vendor. She was talking with this man at another vendor and pointing at him.
Gaara looked away from the woman at Hikari’s basket. “So, what did you get?” Hikari grinned and reached into the basket. “My breakfast.” She pulled out a muffin. It was a big muffin, light brown with what seemed to be red and tan pieces in it. Sugar pieces coated the top. “A raspberry walnut muffin, Lady Kaede makes the best!” Hikari said, taking off a small piece and handed it to him. “Try it.” Gaara stared at the muffin. Someone was giving him something, sharing something. A smile came to his face. He took the piece with a “thank you.” and ate it. It was sweet… but had a strange wood like aftertaste. “It’s my favorite food.” Hikari said, taking a huge bite out of the muffin. Gaara couldn’t believe she could fit so much food in her mouth. “So… what shall we do now?” Gaara asked as Hikari enjoyed her muffin. She put the unfinished muffin in the basket. “Just follow me! By the way, what’s your favorite food? Curiosity.”
“Well…. I had some gizzards once. And I really liked them.” Hikari just stared at Gaara with a look of disgust on her face. “Wow… you’re very daring. Not to mention you have interesting taste…”
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They reached place where it looked like lines were drawn in the ground. Both were far away from each other, by guessing about seven feet There were two more that were about 3 feet away from each other.. There was a big yellow ball in the middle. “I want to show you a game my Dad taught me.” Hikari said. She walked over and picked up the ball. “Dad called it “borders.” We used to play it all the time. So listen up.” Gaara listened, he wanted to hear about this. After all he never was included in a game of any sort. Since the kids would just leave…
Hikari pointed at the farthest line to the left. “That is the score border. It will be my side. The point of the game is to go over that line, but-” She walked over to the two lines in the middle that was 3 feet away from each other. “-You can only throw the ball from this border. One the ball reaches my side, but doesn’t go across the line, I have three chances to hit you. If you get across my border, you get one point. If you don’t, I get the ball and try to hit you in three tries. If I hit you, you lose a point. If I don’t, then I move on to taking the throw across your line, got it?” Gaara nodded, trying to understand in his head. Hikari tossed the ball in her hands. “Good, then lets do a warm-up game so you can understand it better.” Gaara ran to his side of the line. Hikari looked around his area, grinning evilly as she lifted up the ball. “One.. Two…”
“THREE!”
The threw the ball to Gaara’s left abruptly. Gaara turned around to reach toward the ball but it sped by as it bounced and went right over his line. Hikari threw her head back and laughed. “You got to be quicker! I’m not going to go easy on you.” She said. Gaara ran to grab the ball. “That’s not fair! I’m new at this!” he said, but he couldn’t help but laugh a bit himself. He didn’t realize laughing could be so contagious. So Hikari got one point, it was his turn now. Hikari kept her eye’s right on the ball as Gaara got ready to throw. Like Hikari, he counted down to three and threw the ball. When he threw it, the ball soared across Hikari. It seemed to be too high for her to get. It looked like Gaara was going to get a point, but that changed. As the ball came back to the ground, it still had 1 foot before getting to her line. It rolled on the ground, and Hikari began to follow it. C’mon, c’mon get across the line! Gaara chanted in his mind as it rolled closer. But.. No luck. The ball stopped short and Hikari picked it up. “Nice try, but not good enough!” Hikari said. She walked up to the ending line of her side. “Now I’m gonna try to get you.” She warned.
She threw the ball the first time, but Gaara easily managed to dodge it. It was inches away from hit, though. Hikari ran up to retrieve the ball a second time. When she was ready, she threw again. Unlike the first time, this ball flew much faster at Gaara, and nearly hit him. He felt the air blow from it fly past his left side. It was Hikari’s last try. She had the ball once more, looking very focused on her target. Gaara wondered if she was taking this game really seriously. He never saw that many kids this serious on a game before. Hikari got ready, and threw the ball one more time. This one was fast-extremely fast. It was like a blur, and Gaara knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid the ball. He tried to miss it, but the ball was ready to get him. However, something happened. Gaara should have expected it… but he seemed to have a memory lapse on it. The ball was stopped as sand came right up from the ground and blocked him. He immediately felt like an idiot for not thinking it sooner: Hikari was never going to be able to actually hit him with the ball. He glanced over at her, who was staring straight at him.
“Um… y-you didn’t need to do that.” Hikari said, scratching the back of her head. “I wouldn’t throw a ball that hard.” Gaara looked down. “I don’t do that. The sand…” he looked at his hands. “…It protects me on it’s own.” He paused for a second. “You’ll never hit me with that ball.” He heard Hikari walk up to him. She put her hand on his shoulder. He looked into her icy eyes. They looked very distant… and sad. But she had a smile on her face. Gaara had this pang inside that he knew there was something bothering her with what he just said. “I don’t know about you, but you have quite the advantage then.” Hikari said. He could hear it in her voice.. She was trying to not sound sad. Was it pity for him that made her this way? A moment ago she was just fine. “You’re lucky you know, to have it protect you.” Hikari mumbled. “You never have to feel pain.” She’s wrong… Gaara thought. He did feel pain. It wasn’t hat pain that people get when he hurt them with the sand or when others hurt themselves with something physical… it hurts inside.
Before he could say anything, her sad look turned into a smile and she clapped her hands. “Let’s not talk about this. I have an idea to change the rules a bit.” She told him if his sand protects him, that will count as a hit. He agreed to it, cause it was all they could really do, and played. It was a good day, Gaara really enjoyed playing most of the day. He got really good at it at about the fifth round, after getting used to it. He had 16 points, while Hikari had 22 points. But while they played, something about Hikari seemed to bother him slightly. It was how sad she looked. She was hiding something that really got to her. He did just meet her, so he didn’t feel it was right to ask her what was the problem just yet. He’ll just wait until Hikari wants to talk about or until they got to know each other better. At about lunch, Hikari said she had to go home because her father wanted her home at about lunchtime. He didn’t see her the rest of the day, but that was okay. He was a good enough mood. He spent a good amount of the day with a friend. It was all he needed.
That was what the two mostly did throughout he week. It was fun, Gaara liked it. Every now and then Hikari brought some of her new pictures to show him. They all were wonderful, as usual. There was a picture of some kids playing jump rope, a elderly man leaning against the wall, smiling, a kid and his cat asleep on a chair, and a strange picture of some teenage boys smoking. “They’re some guys I met at a restraunt. They’re nice guys, despite their smoking thing. Dad told me I should never do things like that, smoking.” She said. There was this one picture she kept skipping, and she wouldn’t let Gaara see it. It made him wonder each time she passed it, but each time he asked, she smiled and said. “That one isn’t done yet, I’ll show you when it’s ready.” Gaara asked one time if she could teach him to draw like that. She told him okay, and went to his house with him after playing. There she met Yashamaru, Temari, and Kankuro. His father wasn’t there to see her, but he usually wasn’t there. Everyone seemed to like her, and it was the same with her.
When they were in his room,. Hikari began to show Gaara how she did it. “How about we start with something simple.” She looked over and saw Gaara’s teddy. “Aww! That bear is adorable! It will be perfect to use!” She said. “Okay, we can use it.” Gaara said, looking at his teddy. “What I do is I’ll look at the bear for a while, then, once you have a simple memory of the thing you’re drawing, you start.” She took a look at the bear for about 45 seconds, and she looked down and started with simple shapes-circles and ovals. She then moved on to details. The ears were added, the eyes, and the pi-shaped nose… all in what seemed only five minutes, she had a full-detail picture of Gaara’s teddy bear. “It takes some practice, but you can get it down quickly. I did after a couple times practicing.” Hikari said as she began working on a background. Gaara didn’t need to look at his teddy, he’s seen it so much from all his times with it that he had the picture of it clearly in his head. He’s had so many sad memories with it….
He followed what Hikari did, starting with simple shapes. They didn’t seem to come out as cleanly and straight as Hikari’s, but Hikari told him that it’s because of her experience. He worked on the details of his teddy, those didn’t some out as good as Hikari’s either, but it was close. The face of his teddy wasn’t hat complicated, like a human face. “Hey Hikari?” Gaara asked as he kept working on the picture.
“Yes Gaara.”
“Did your Dad teach you to draw?”
Hikari didn’t answer for a second. He put down her drawing pad and put her pencil on her ear. “Well… Yes. He kind of did. He told me that when he was younger, he would draw things like maps and environments because of how well he could memorize places. He showed me some of the maps and pictures he drew. They were amazing, and I asked him to teach me. He told me to try and memorize something simple. I did a picture of a slide at the playground here. It came out almost perfect. A little messy, but still wonderful. I loved what I was doing and kept going. I first started drawing at four years old.”
“Wow, four years old. Even for a six year old, those pictures are amazing.” Another voice said from behind them. They both looked to see Yashamaru was looking from behind them. He smiled warmly. “Sorry to barge in, but I wanted to see how our guest was doing.” He said. He was looking at Hikari’s drawing. “You do very well. Do you have any other art I can see?” He asked. Hikari grabbed her pan and smiled. “Of course.” She flipped through the pad, skipping that one certain page, but Gaara’s uncle didn’t seem to ask anything, he just studied the pictures. He seemed to be thinking really hard as he admired Hikari’s art. “I recall you saying your father taught you how to draw. Who is your father?” Hikari lowered her eyes, a sad sort of look came over. “His name is Saburo. Saburo Ninomiya.” Hikari answered. Yashamaru was quiet for a second. Gaara noticed his Uncle’s eyes widened for a second. “Hikari, do you have a mother?”
“No…” Hikari answered in an even sadder tone. “Dad told me Mommy died giving birth to me.” She doesn’t have a mother either? Gaara thought, looking at Hikari’s sad expression. He wanted to help her feel better. It hurt him to see her so sad. “Oh, I’m sorry…” Yashamaru said. “Who do you live with then?” he asked. Hikari glanced at Yashamaru. “I live with my Dad.” Yashamaru seemed to stare at her with wonder. Hikari looked annoyed with Yashamaru’s look, and picked up her stuff. “I got to get home. Dad will worry about me If I don’t get home.” And she walked out the door. But before she left, she poked her head in Gaara’s room. “Night Gaara, I’ll see you later.” Gaara watched as Yashamaru followed her out the door. Something didn’t feel right; Gaara could tell. It was like a bad odor in the air, and it made him feel a little nervous.
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As Yashamaru opened the door to let Hikari out, he noticed the girl kept her head down. Her bangs covered her face, and she didn’t say a word on the way out. Saburo Ninomiya had a child? I never knew that… no one ever said that he was even married. He continued to watch the girl walk off. This doesn’t make sense…
..Saburo Ninomiya is dead…