Gaara wakes up and looks around. A confused expression forms on this face as he realizes he has no idea where he is. Shouldn't he be dead? He remembers fighting all of those ninja, being injured. He must have passed out. But this isn't the forest. He was in a cloud-colored room. Fluorescent lights beamed down at him from the ceiling. Sitting up, he scratches his head and looks around the room again. There's nothing in the room but a door on the far wall. What's going on? Where is he? Why isn't he dead? Questions run through his head, and he can't seem to answer a single one of them. As he stands, the door on the other side of the room opens and a girl steps through. She looks very familiar, but he can't really place it. She has long, blue-black hair that falls all the way down to her waist and eyes as white as snow. Gaara knows he's seen her somewhere before.
"I see you're awake." She says, taking a few steps closer. She wears a princess-looking dress that sucks in to flatter her small figure, with the skirt of the dress bouncing out and going all the way to the floor.
"Uh….yeah. W-what's going on?" He asks. She looks up at him and smiles.
"How do I put this gently…um…..Gaara, I'm afraid you're dead." She says. His eyes widen.
"What?! I mean, I know I'm supposed to be, but why am I…..living and stuff?" He asks.
"This is what happens when you die. You come here, and then we have to go talk to the Divines, and they'll determine what to do with you then."
"Divines?" He asks.
"Yes, Divines. They are the five rulers of this world. They decide who goes up, and who goes down, if you know what I mean." She says.
"Oh….I see. But….who are you? You seem really familiar." He says. She looks a little surprised.
"I'm Hinata. Hinata Hyuuga. You may have known me in the real world, but I doubt it." She says. He shakes his head.
"No, I remember you now. You had a cousin or something….."
"Yeah, Neji. There's no time for this! The Divines are waiting!" She says, grabbing his hand and rushing them both through the door, where they're met with a pearly staircase. She drags him up, her dress making ruffling noises on the stairs. She takes him to what sort of looks like a graveyard, it has five very large statues in the middle. They're all animal statues an eagle, a dragon, a tiger, a horse, and a wolf. Hinata drags Gaara to the middle of them and bows, and after an elbow from Hinata, Gaara bows too. She looks at each of them as if they're talking, and following a conversation, but Gaara doesn't hear anything. After a little bit, Hinata looks at the ground and sighs.
"What happened?" Gaara asks. Hinata looks over at him and sighs again.
"They said that you must learn something before you can be deemed to rest, so they're sending you back to the real world, and you have a whole year to learn something." She explains. Gaara nods.
"Alright, how do I get back?" He asks.
"Well, " Hinata says, starting down the staircase again, "We go back in the room you were in before and go in the other door. But there's just one thing you should know." Hinata says.
"What's that?" He asks.
"Y'see, they said that I have to go back with you, to the real world I mean. I have to keep track of you." She says, looking at the ground.
"Oh. Uh, alright." Gaara says.
"But it's not that simple. You see, when you return to the real world, nobody will know who you are. Remember those siblings you had? They don't know you exist. To everyone, you're just a new student. Nobody knows I exist either, though."
"New student?" Gaara asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh. Yeah, and also it's sort of as if we've moved back in time. Both of us will be fourteen when we return to the real world."
"Oh. This is….really confusing."
"Yeah, sorry. I can explain more later, but right now we have to leave." She says, leading him to the room, and through the other door he hadn't noticed before, and once they step through, there wasn't any going back.