The lights shone brightly, reflecting off of the sterile white walls. Dark-lined eyes squinted against the harshness of it, their owner shifting in his wheelchair. His vision was unfocused, mind too lost in itself to pay much attention to his surroundings. Later he would remember the walk to the institution as little more than a long stretch of white hallway dotted with windows that looked out to onto a wide, fenced in courtyard and the embarrassment of having to be pushed when he was very capable of walking.

Finally they stopped in front of a large, reinforced door. The man escorting him walked forward, pulling a key forth from his pocket and unlocking the door before doubling back to push the boy inside.

The others were gathered around a long table, listening quietly to a woman with long, glistening hair that was so dark it shone blue. She spoke in soft, quiet tones, but commanded the attention of the gathered group with a silent authority. Even so, the boy could feel eyes on his back as he was wheeled to the side of a desk. The man seated at it glanced up with eyes dark as coal and smiled a white, toothy grin.

"Ah, is this Gaara? Welcome, welcome. Please, take a seat. My name is Maito, but everyone calls me Gai. It's nice to meet you." He extended a large, calloused hand forward. The redhead merely stared at it as he stood and sat in the chair situated across from the man. Gai pulled back, still smiling, but the expression had faded a little around the edges.

"Ah, it's quite alright." He said, as if the boy had apologized for his lack of greeting, "I'm sure you weren't expecting this kind of welcome. Anyways, I run the morning shift here at the Konoha Psych Center. You'll meet the night workers in a few hours, along with the volunteers that come in at various times. You're lucky today, you'll have missed the school session once you get settled. Now, while we get your other paperwork ready, you'll need to fill out this packet. Don't worry about anything, just fill it out truthfully and as accurately as you can. We don't judge here." He flashed another dazzling smile as he finished, handing the boy a stack of stapled papers. Gaara stared blankly at it for a moment before pulling it towards himself and beginning to fill it out.

He answered the first half quickly, signing his name, age, and other such hard facts with ease. However, he began to hesitate as the answers asked more personal, lengthy questions. But after a few seconds of though, he decided to resort to cold, hard truth without any unneeded emotional details. After all, Gaara didn't believe in emotions, despite feeling them. He merely thought of them as figments of his mind and imagination.

Reason for admittance into Konoha Psych Center:
Attempted suicide by pills

He answered the remaining questions mechanically, thinking back to his reason for being sent there,

It had started a few night prior… No. Truthfully, it had started at his birth, and worsened over the years until a few nights ago, where it had become unbearable. Blamed for his mother's death at an early age, called a monster by father and siblings alike, Gaara had never known love and therefore knew no reason to live. Since he was young he had wanted to die, but never had the means to bring about his own demise. At first he had hoped that as his father beat him he would go farther than he had ever done, cross that one last threshold and give his son his one true wish and end it all.

But the years passed and still Gaara lived. His father failed in the mission silently given to him by his youngest child. So the redhead was forced to find his own way down death's path.

At first he attempted the most obvious, gruesome ways. He tried knives and cutting, but it was almost as if an invisible force field prevented any sharp instrument from touching his flesh. For years he tried and failed. Then, finally, he heard of overdosing on drugs. That night had been the first night he tried it.

After a severe beating from his father and yet another failed attempt to procure help from his siblings, Gaara had decided that that night was the night. With his mind a fuzzy, apathetic, jumbled mess, he walked straight into the kitchen, expecting resistance but getting none. His brother and sister had fled to their rooms at the sound of his screams, retreating to the little bit of silence they could obtain behind closed doors. He grabbed a bottle from above the sink, where the medicines were kept, and opened it in one fluid motion. He didn't check the label, just downed twelve of the light blue pills, dry. He had trouble swallowing them, but after a few attempts every one of them had finally slid down his throat. The bottle he tossed aside, the remaining pills scattering across the floor in every direction, but he didn't care.

A sound of movement came from the sitting room and Gaara glanced up, before turning and slipping out the back door into the night. A breeze was cool against his warm face. He walked slowly over to the swing and sat down. It was several minutes before he head the door open.

"Boy!"

Gaara ignored the shout, remaining seated where he was. The man who was his father marched over and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him from the swing.

"Why's there shit strewn all over the fucking place?" He yelled, dragging his offspring through the open door and throwing him down to the floor, "Pick it up."

Gaara obediently went to work, collecting each individual pill into his hand. As he went to fetch the container to put them back into, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. His father was peering down at the contents of his son's hands, momentarily puzzled. Then a sudden realization crossed across his face.

"Did you… these… What the FUCK did you DO?!" He roared, lifting Gaara off the ground and into the air, "How many did you take?! How many?!" He shook the redhead roughly; Gaara could feel his teeth rattle from the force. When his father finally ceased, he took a breath to answer, but was cut off.

"Throw it up! Throw it up NOW!" He screamed, as he forcefully shoved his fingers down his son's throat. Gaara gagged, choking, but his father didn't stop until he felt the bile rise up at his fingertips. The liquid that spewed from the boy's mouth was the same bluish tinge as the pills he had taken. Seconds after the stream hit the floor with a sickening splat the fingers were in Gaara's mouth again. Relentlessly his father forced him to regurgitate until nothing was left in the boy's stomach. Gaara felt dizzy, his throat burning from the constant rise of bile. He struggled to stand up as his father screamed curses at him, and slapped him across the face for his stupidity.

His memories from then on were fuzzy, like a film had been placed over his mind that made recollections blurry and out of focus. He had little sense of time, the events seeming to flow together.

His sister coming from her room, shouting at their father and panicking as she realized what had happened…

Her yell attracting Kankuro, who stood there gaping like some kind of fish…

A phone being dialed, a frantic Temari speaking while their father shouted and tried to wrestle the phone from her…

Kankuro snapping out of it and coming to his sisters aide, holding off their father as she completed the call…

Sirens, the flashing of lights, being carried off in a stretcher to the hospital…

From there on, his memories were even more vague. He hardly remembered the night spent in the hospital, the blood tests and observation. His first clear memory was waking up this morning and being hauled to this facility.

"Are you finished?" The man called Gai asked, and Gaara glanced up in surprise to find the man watching him as he zoned out. He murmured a short affirmative and handed over his packet. Gai smiled, thanking him.

"Now, you'll be in room 9 with a boy named Sasuke. I'll show you to your room after we do a full body check and get you some proper clothes. Follow me, please."

Gaara obeyed silently, following the adult to what was apparently the laundry room. He was asked to remove his clothes, and Gai, somewhat embarrassed, hurried along to record the various injuries on the boy's person and checked to make sure he wasn't concealing anything before instructing the boy to dress again.

"Oh, don't worry, I've got the laundry, I-- What? There's someone…?" The young man who entered seemed like a younger version of Gai at first glance. His hair was the same shining ebony, his eyebrows near the same thickness. But at closer inspection , the facial features were widely different. While Gai had a large, pronounced nose and slightly narrow eyes, this new male had a smaller, more average nose with wide, round eyes.

"LEE!"

At Gai's shout the younger male started, seeming realize at that moment what he was looking at. His face turned beet red as Gaara merely stared, completely naked but not seeming to care.

"GAH! Omigod, I'm so sorry!! I was just--" He shouted, closing his eyes tightly and covering them with his hands for extra measure.

"Lee! Get out!"

"Yes!!" He backed hurriedly out of the room, shutting the door quickly behind him. Gai sighed and turned to Gaara, apologizing profusely. The redhead merely shrugged and pulled on the robe the hospital had given him. As Gai apologized enough to his tastes, he took Gaara to a stack of shelves piled with clothes. The boy chose an outfit, then was escorted out and to the back of the building to his room after obtaining a towel and soap along the way. The door was like any other but for the large, black nine painted on the front.

"I really am sorry. I can assure you something like that won't happen again. Lee is a fairly new volunteer, not used to all the customs and procedures of this facility. Though his youthfulness and energy are…"

Gaara zoned out at this point, waiting patiently until Gai finished his spiel before nodding, murmuring an "It's alright."

"Alright, now go shower and meet the group out here at the table. There'll be another group soon, and you can join them."

Gaara nodded again. When at last Gai turned away, he entered his room and headed for the second door, which obviously lead to the bathroom. He glanced over at the shower as he set his items on the toilet seat. It was missing a curtain and the shower head was built into the mall instead of sticking out like most. They must really take the safety of their patients seriously here.

With a sigh, Gaara once again removed his robe and stepped onto the porcelain of the shower floor. Twisting the handle, he allowed the freezing stream of water to send a shock down his spine until it gradually warmed. Then, he began to bathe, all the while wondering what was in store for him once he walked back out into the lobby, which was now to be his world for a currently unknown amount of time.