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Going Against the Grain

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By Airyo

Prologue

It was dark in the orphanage. Dark, and much too quiet. Ino fought to muffle her sobs in her threadbare pillow. Even breathing sounded too loud to her and if the caretakers found her awake, they will whip her again. She tried to inhale slowly through her nose as taught to calm herself down, but her nose was too full of snot.

A choked whimper escaped her lips. She froze as the door to the dormitory opened. Ino held her breath, her heart thrashed against her ribs like some struggling wild animal. Then finally, after what seemed to be three lifetimes to the five-year-old girl, Ino heard the door close again.

As soon as she was sure the caretaker had left, she slipped out of her cot silently. Even as her bottom lip quivered from homesickness, Ino was still a shinobi trained especially in stealth. She made her way along the line of cots all holding orphans taken up from Wave. It was almost too easy to pick the lock on the door and sneak outside.

The moon was bright, shining on a clear path from the orphanage to the Sand village walls. All she had to do was get through the gates. As part of her training, Ino had committed the terrain of the Wind and Fire countries to perfect memory. She could find her way back to Konoha. Her faltering steps grew swifter as the exit out of hell grew near. Her teary eyes now glittered with hope as she darted from shadow to -

Ino yelped as the back of her shirt suddenly hoisted her into the air.

"I'm afraid no children are allowed near the outer walls, little miss," a polite voice informed her as her captor set her back on her feet. She turned to see that it was chuunin guard with kind blue eyes. He smiled down at her.

"You should be getting back to bed." A firm push directed her away from her goal. Ino meekly obeyed. Until she turned the corner and was out of his sight, anyways. Once she was sure she'd waited an appropriate amount of time, the little girl peeked out to see the stubby ponytail of the chuunin bobbing away. The coast was clear.

Ino ran as fast she could for the wall. She was skilled with chakra climbing, but who knew if another pesky guard would discover her again.

She made it six steps up vertically before she found herself dangling in the air by the back of her shirt. Again.

"Oi. What the hell do you think you're doing here, Wave brat?" This chuunin guard turned her to face him. He was a lot uglier than the last one.

"I want to go home!" Ino snapped back. "Lemme go, Fartface!"

He laughed in her face.

"Tough luck. You're not allowed to- YOW!" Ino released her teeth from his arm as he dropped her. But before she could run, a hard slap knocked her to the ground.

"Little brat! That is no way to repay Sand hospitality," Fartface raged. Ino gathered pooling blood in her little mouth and spat the glob of red mucus at him. Not the smartest idea. He roared with anger and raised his meaty fist. Ino shrank away, squeezing her eyes shut for impact.

"That's enough, Shiro-san."

Ino gingerly opened her eyes to see Stubby Ponytail holding her attacker's fist immobile.

"She bit me, Daisuke!"

"She is a child." Daisuke's voice was commanding. Ino watched with admiring eyes as he easily held back a man twice his size. There was moment where she thought Fartface might actually retaliate, but he just jerked his arm away out of the other chuunin's grip and stomped away.

"Little miss, you really should get back to the orphanage. The guards were ordered not to let you guys out of Suna." Ino nodded. She knew Daisuke was telling her that there was no way she'll get out here. She walked back, fighting tears. She missed Mommy and Daddy so much. She'd never been hit before, yet her first week here, she had already been slapped around more times than she could count. Ino hated Suna. It was a hot, horrid, dusty place full of mean bullies.

Even the orphanage loomed like some dark demon. She couldn't bring herself to go back in, so she walked circles around the building. Eventually, her feet led her to a small playground. She crawled under the slide, hugging her knees tight to her chest. The harsh sobs she had pushing down all day bubbled back with a vengeance. Her face crumpled into a blotchy mess of snot and tears.

"Um..."

Her head shot up. A little red-headed boy looked at her worriedly.

"Are you okay?" he whispered carefully. Ino bared her teeth at him.

"Does it look like I'm okay, Monkey-Butt?"

"Mon...key...butt?" He tilted his head in confusion, dark-ringed eyes squinted in an effort to think. Ino looked at him, perturbed by how dumb he was. She made the motions of a monkey before tilting her hips and patting her own rear end.

"Monkey butt," she confirmed. He still looked at her like she was some sort of alien.

"Because of your red hair, and because you're a butt," Ino explained slowly. There was no flash of understanding in his green eyes. She rolled her eyes in childish disgust, unaware that she was inching out of her hiding place under the slide, having long forgotten about her sorrows.

"You're a progidee, aren't ya?" she concluded, chubby arms akimbo on her hips as she faced him. "My Mom says that only progidees are this retarded, 'cuz all they do is train." She took his silence as a confirmation. "I was calling you a mean name 'cuz you asked a dumb question."

"Why aren't you running away?" he finally asked.

"I'm not scared of you just 'cuz you're a progidee," Ino sneered. She sniffed toughly and then remembered to wipe her nose with her sleeve.

"But-"

She jabbed a finger in his chest.

"I'm not weak just because I'm a girl! I beat up boys all the time."

He stared at her finger where it connected with his chest. Insulted that he was ignoring her in favor of her finger, she gripped his shoulders and shook him to punctuate her words.

"All. The. Time!"

"...Okay..." Monkey-Butt agreed in a strained voice. Shaking her head, Ino let him go.

"You're really weird," she told him with a grin.

"No, I'm not," he muttered sullenly. Delighted to get some sort of reaction out of him, Ino laughed.

"Yes you are, Monkey-Butt!"

"No, I'm not," he reiterated stubbornly.

"Guess what?" she suddenly asked, a sly glint in her eyes.

"What?" he allowed suspiciously.

"Monkey-butt! Wahahahahah!"

"That's not my name," he contradicted solemnly, a frown where his eyebrows should be.

"Then what is it?" Ino asked, genuinely curious. Before he could answer, dark figures surrounded them both. She stood frozen, terrified.

"I need to go," he told her sadly. Then they disappeared in swirls of sand.

"Wait!"

Her call echoed in the empty playground.

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AN: Ino is five-years-old. She is also a little ninja. She's not going to act like a normal ninja, nor a normal little girl.

Gaara didn't become seriously messed up around after age 6, when people tried to kill him continuously. Also, he's not actually retarded, just very, very surprised that another kid his age was even talking to him. And, I'm going with the assumption people can touch him when their intent isn't malicious.