Gaara opened his eyes, twitching at the vast amount of sunlight that trailed in from his window directly onto his bed. He threw himself onto his other side and groaned, feeling the rough cloth rubbing against his body and reminding him to buy new sheets eventually.

A bird flew into the tree just outside his window and began to chirp merrily, only further serving to piss him off. He reached down, hand flopping about to find something big and hard to chuck. His fingertips brushed up against something fitting his description and, without a pause, he threw whatever-it-was over his shoulder and into the tree. A smirk graces his features at the loud "wark" and the following, blessed silence until he realized…

God damnit that was his shoe. Now he had to get up.

He groaned and swung his legs out from the bed, shivering at the cold early spring air brushing up against his bare legs. Wobbling a bit on sleepy limbs, he glanced down at the pile of brown and black clothing he had thrown on the floor before slipping into bed. They would be so full of sand and grit and would be a terrible annoyance to wear now that he had some place to settle down in for a while. But he hadn't thought to grab any clothes before he was…

He shook his head fiercely. He wasn't going to think about that anymore.

Ignoring the fact that his feet were starting to go numb from constant contact with the cold floor, he made his way over to the closet.

---

Sakura looked up sleepily, blinking her watery black eyes as the door to the barn swung open. She chewed at the air for a moment as she watched the new guy approach her. He was dressed in a pair of stupid looking denim overalls with a black stain across the chest and a large rip in the left knee. A long-sleeved red shirt covered his chest, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Black boots clomped on the ground, swirling up dust and small flakes of dead grass. In his gloved hands, he held a bucket and a small stool and on his face was a really confused look.

He looked at her for a moment, contemplating, before walking over and setting down the objects he held. He looked so adorably lost, that Sakura nudged his shoulder and snorted at him. He gave her an odd look, and muttered something to himself before setting the stool down and sitting on it. There was a moment's pause before a leathery hand was placed on her udder.

"This had better be the right thing, or so help me I will kill that perverted bastard," he grumbled and Sakura vaguely wondered who he was talking about. Probably that guy that kept giggling every time he milked her. She would have contemplated on whether or not to ponder this further, but there was a tug and…

Ahhh...

She mooed loudly in content, causing the new guy to jump slightly, and give her a funny look. But that didn't matter – she loved being milked probably as much as he loved doing whatever it was he did (not that she really cared what he did, but that man's giggling had perked her interest slightly). She began to chew at the air again, making a little humming noise in the back of her throat as he continued, finishing all too soon for her liking.

He stood and picked up the bucket, now sloshing over with her milk at his sudden movements and walked around to look her in the eyes. There was a bit of an awkward silence before he quickly patted her on the top of the head and left. She tilted her head, slightly, mooing and chewing at the air when she realized he wouldn't be back any time soon.

Gaara hefted the bucket of milk onto his kitchen counter, staring it down like it would reveal all the secrets of the world to him. What had that scarecrow told him to do with it now…? He blinked and quickly reached under the sink to pull out three tin bottles and what he had been told was a "milk strainer" (in his opinion it like a pair of his sister's pantyhose). Figuring he would be the only one to drink the stuff and therefore the only one to suffer, he placed the strainer over the bottle and poured the milk over it, being as careful as he could not to splash it everywhere. Filling two of the bottles and only about a fourth of the third, he put the bucket and the strainer in the sink to wash later and snagged the bottles to drag them out to the storage center where he had seen a refrigeration unit the other day when the scarecrow had shown him how to use the ledger.

Storing the bottles away in the chilly metal box, Gaara watched the entire area out of the corner of his eye, noting how tiny details had been changed from the previous day. Like how the ledger had been turned about eight degrees to the right, the pages flipped and slightly torn at the edges. An odd scent wafted across his sensitized nose, and he noticed what looked like muddy prints were tracked on the floor.

The door opened and after a short pause, he heard the scarecrow say, "… You wouldn't be wrong in investing in a watchdog."

"You didn't do this?" Gaara asked skeptically.

"I leave this place as I find it. And I sure as hell have no idea where the mud came from – it hasn't rained in about four days."

Gaara nodded to himself, vaguely hearing himself say, "I'll do that…"

Kakashi nodded and quickly stepped over to check the icebox and the ledger to see if there were any outgoing crops, dairy products, or animals. Finding nothing of the sort, he began to walk away, pausing long enough to say, "You should go and meet some of the people here. You could be here for a while yet and it wouldn't do well to be some kind of hermit farmer who only gives advice to wary travelers on the full moon."

Gaara gave the vacant space where Kakshi had been a confused look, wondering just what was wrong with the scarecrow's brain, before shaking his head sadly and leaving the storage center himself.

" Kissy kissy makes me happy, honey, honey, sweet as candy

Kissy kissy take my hand, and come along with me

Kissy kissy makes me happy, honey, honey, sweet as candy

Kissy kissy love is grand with you, my sugar bee. "

The redhead blinked, the soft notes of a cappella drifting across his ears from… below him? He glanced about himself, peering over the edge of his property to see what looked like a pair of cat ears bouncing down the street. Frowning at this odd discovery, he maneuvered around his farm until he stood at the base of what he had deemed the "entrance hill" to get a good look at this bouncing, singing creature.

The first things he noticed were the soft red cat ears and the short, puffy red weasel tail attached to her otherwise human body. He also saw how her long-ish hair, half a soft auburn and the rest a deep black, was pulled into a loose bun at the back of her head, leaving a few wispy strands free and two long locks on either side of her head to cover where human ears should have been. Her eyes were currently closed in her joyous singing, a pair of thin-framed glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. She simply wore a deep green shit and a pair of dark blue jeans, torn halfway down her calves to reveal brown boots. And strangely, to him at least, she clutched a wicker basket to her chest, one arm draped loosely over the top in a discreet effort to keep the lid on.

" See the moon, and see the sun, shining down on everyone

They know how in love we are, I heard them tell it to a star

There's no mountain, there's no sea, to keep your love away from me

No matter what the distance is, you're still my favorite kiss. "

"Hey, you!" Gaara called before she could start up the next verse. She stopped in the middle of a twirl with her back to him, so she peered over her shoulder with soft, questioning chocolate eyes. "What are you?"

The confusion in those eyes was quickly replaced with annoyance as the woman said crossly, "Nice to meet you, too, jerk." She turned around the rest of the way and swayed her hips out slightly. "Can I ask who you are, or should I say "what" too?"

Gaara's non-existent eyebrow ticked, and he said, "That doesn't answer me."

"What are you, a kitsune?" she asked, still refusing to comply. "Sin of regret going to kill ya?" Without waiting for a response, nor seeing the flash of bemusement in his eyes, she continued. "My name is Angel and I live over there (she gestured to the farm across the bridge he has passed the other day with the hand holding the basket) with my sister. What about you? We don't exactly get tourists, and I haven't seen you around here, so..."

"My name is S-… Gaara. I arrived late yesterday." The basket in Angel's arms twitched and a small white paw peeked out before the woman could tighten her grip and he looked oddly at her. "What's in there?"

Her eyes narrowed and she took a step back, clutching the container protectively. "You keep your nose where it belongs before I bit it off. You're a farmer – I can tell. You'd kill him."

With the skill of his ninja past, Angel was suddenly left holding onto a large rock and Gaara opened the basket to see a pair of deep blue eyes peering up at him from within a bundle of soft white and rust red fur. "A fox?"

Angel looked confusedly at the rock in her arms before dropping it and turning a glare on the redhead. "You give him back. I won't let you kill a baby!"

The creature yipped and reached out of the basket in an attempt to gnaw at his wrist with sharp little milk teeth before Gaara grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and holding it up. His eyes softened slightly, and he asked, "Why would I kill a fox?"

"What kind of dip-shit farmer are you?" There went the softness in his eyes. "Foxes eat chickens. I'm sure you'll get a few if you don't already."

"Then maybe I don't want chickens. And what were you going to do with it anyway, farmer?" He smirked at her flushed expression as she flustered about, trying to explain herself to a stranger.

"I was going to raise it. Train it not to eat chickens. Now you give him back!"

Gaara shifted the creature so that it now rested in the crook of his elbow. It tried to bit him again, but only got a mouthful of red cloth and a scratching behind the ears. "I think I'd rather keep him. I need a watchdog, anyway."

Angel growled deep in her throat, and her eyes flicked between him and the fox kit, now with an expression of bliss on it's face. Finally, she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine. Keep him. But I warn you – I'll be sure to check in on him every day and if I find out you killed him or hurt him in any way, I'll be sure to whip your ass so bad, this place will let you go, you hear me?"

Gaara smirked and began to walk away, merely raising one hand in acknowledgement.

That girl sure was cute when she was all huffy-mad.

---

Hey, cool. This came out longer than I expected it to

Nine: And kept you up later than you expected it to.

Angel: I know. I mean, I knew Harvest Moon would keep me up, till, like, four again, but this thing… I just wanted to finish it ;; And also, in case anyone wants to get on my case, I've only milked a cow once in my life, and that was at a county fair thing so if anything it wrong about it, don't complain.

And speaking of cows, I was originally going to have Sakura hate Gaara, but after hearing him henge into a cow on Oh! Naruto Nippon, I decided to be nice and have her be sweet. And since I'm done rambling and need to get back to my game, Itachi can say the disclaimer.

Itachi: Angel doesn't own Naruto, Harvest Moon, or the song Kissy Kissy. She's just obsessed with all three.

Angel: Yosh! And so, till next time!