One Day

A story by Songstone

Songstone: I have to put up all of my stories again in this new account since my older sister won't let me back into her account. She changed the email...basically said to get rid of my stories and put them in my own account. She won't change the email to mine either since she doesn't want to have to put 'watch' again in her own account. Anyway, I really, really hope that you guys will review this story again. I had nearly beaten my old record of 61. I want to make it to 62 so badly and I nearly had that. Please, enjoy this story the second time around.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, or the show.

Chapter 1: Search And Rescue

"The wind is picking up. We'll stop for camp in a few minutes." Gaara kept his vision straight ahead of himself as he spoke, leading his cell of Sand Jounin's back home.

The group of grateful Sand nins heaved a silent sigh of relief at that. All eleven of them were worn to the bone from searching the desert these past three days. They had all insisted to their Kazekage that he should stay in Sunagakure and watch their village, but the redheaded leader had insistsed that he accompany them on this S-rank mission since it involved some Konoha alliances.

Not only did the Kazekage himself join them, but so had his right hand man, his brother. Kankuro had insisted that he "tag along" just in case they needed extra help--but the Kazekage had trasnslated that his older brother simply didn't want to stick around in Suna and be stuck with the piles of paperwork that would be building up in the young man's leave.

The Kazekage was right about the wind growing in strength. The sand on the desert floor was kicking up small dust devils around the group of Suna elites. They covered their faces with their gear reserved for sandstorms and tucked their heads down to their chests as the wind whipped around them.

"Gaara . . . put this on." Kankuro was arguing with his younger sibling, ordering that he wear some type of headgear to protect himelf from the sandstorm.

"I'm fine." The redhead said, and to show his brother that he didn't need anything, a sudden wave of chakra sent the incoming sand billowing above and around the Kazekage. He smirked when his brother growled and tugged the sides of his own headgear over his nose and mouth.

"Lucky . . ." Kankuro muttered as he pulled on a pair of worn and used goggles to protect his eyes.

"Not luck. Skill." Gaara corrected, a small safe spot in the storm forming around him as he walked. He walked the path back to Suna by memory, but his mind wandered back in time as he recalled getting a letter from Konoha's Hokage about a mission she would need his participation in.

She had informed him that one of her best men had gone missing. She mentioned that they suspected the Akatsuki. The same people who had kidnapped Gaara and extracted his demon six years ago. He shuddered at the memory and concentrated on remembering what had happened next.

Tsunade had gone on explaining that she needed a group of his best troops to patrol around and outside of Suna to look for their missing man. Gaara would have agreed quickly to the mission either way, but when he learned that the missing man was Rock Lee, he decided that he would join his men in their quest.

Rock Lee. Of all people to get captured, Gaara would have never thought of Rock Lee. Not that boy with the bowl cut and leg warmers and the incredible determination. Not the kid who recovered even when everyone said that he should give up his dream. Surely she didn't mean that Rock Lee . . .

Apparently the taijutsuist had never returned from his mission to Suna. Gaara remembered when he came bounding into the Kazekage's office, package in hand and a wide grin across his face.

"Here you go, Kazekage-sama! I made it here in a day and a half!"

He had held out the package to the younger male and gave him his signature "nice guy pose" acompanied with a dazzling smile. The older boy had obviously gone through ridiculous lengths to get to Suna early, that being obvious by the way his breathing heaved in his chest and the crimson color his skin had taken during his journey. He still wore his usual green spandex and yellow leg warmers, despite the scorching desert heat. His hair was ragged and messy and stuck to the sides of his face because of the perspiration dripping from his forehead.

Gaara, seeing how worn and exhausted the older male was, had offered the Leaf Jounin a place to stay so he could rest up and recover, but the taijutsuist had politely refused.

"That's all right, Kazekage-sama. I don't want to bother you anymore than I already have. I'll take my leave after I refill my canteen of water."

Gaara had insisted that Lee stay a while and recuperate, but the large brow\wed boy had kept refusing, so the Kazekage had eventually given up and let him take his leave--but only after he forced him to eat a full meal and refill his water flask.

Lee was grateful, thanking Gaara many times for his hospitality, and then he left. Just as quickly as he had come, he took off running into the humid desert heat, promising to make it back to Konoha in two days. One if he was feeling risky, which Gaara hoped, for Lee's health and safety, that he wasn't.

And now, they were on a search and rescue mission to bring him back safely from the Akatsuki.

How could this have happened? Why do they want Lee? Lee, of all people? He doesn't have any connection to their plans. Gaara wondered to himself as he lead his team back to Suna. They had been gone for three days, searching the deserts terrain for any signs of the Leaf Jounin. So far, they had found nothing that could explain why Lee hadn't shown up back at Konoha.

They were another day's journey from reaching Suna. Gaara felt guilty as he made his way over then sand dunes and past dust devils toward his village. He should have tried harder to get Lee to stay. He should have held him down, kicking and screaming, and made him rest. Otherwise, none of this would have happened--

Gaara stopped walking suddenly. Kankuro bumped into him from behind and cursed under his breath.

"Why'd you stop?" His elder brother asked, tapping his shoulder, trying to get his attention.

Gaara nodded his head toward a small sand dune that lay a few feet in front of them. He stepped forward and as he approached, he felt something cold and hard settle in the pit of his stomach. He felt more guilt wash over him, and a shower of worry made him feel sick.

A steady flow of chakra pushed back the blowing wind and sand, clearing a path as Gaara made his way toward his target. He crouched down and saw that under the thin layer of sand, was a patch of green, and a black circular shape was poking out at the top. Gaara crouched down and extended a hand. His hand pushed past the grainy material of the sand and brushed smooth skin. This better not be what I think it is . . .

He felt himself hold his breath as he used both hands to overturn whatever was lying in the sand.

Gaara bit his lip when his assumptions were proved true. Rock Lee, the boy who had been jumping around Suna just a few days ago, was lying half buried in the sand, unconscious.

"What the hell . . .? That's Lee!" Kankuro said, running forward and kneeling next to his brother. He let out a low whistle of shock when he got a close up of their ally.

Gaara felt a bit surprised as well. Once he had moved Lee to lie on his back, he looked him up and down to make sure he was all right. That was when he saw the wounds. Lee's green suit had been slashed open from the front and all the way around to his back. His bare chest was cut and dried blood and sand was caked in around the wounds. His legs and arms were also mauled viciously, and his face . . .

Gaara caught himself staring at his face most of all.

The raven haired boy had scratches that looked like nail marks raked all the way over his closed eyelids and down front of his face and nose. His upper lip had been split open and Gaara saw, as Lee's mouth hung open loosely, that a tooth at the back of his mouth had been knocked out and the blood covered his tongue and the rest of his teeth.

Gaara's eyes narrowed. It seemed wrong. Looking at Lee and seeing what he had been put through . . . it just seemed wrong.

"Oy, is he even breathing?" Kankuro asked, pulling Gaara back into his right mind.

"I haven't checked." Gaara replied, and then leaned in toward the older Leaf nin. He put his ear to the injured boy's nose and listened carefully. A soft, warm breeze tickled his ear, and he heard a faint rattling from the Jounin's chest with every intake of air, most likely from all the sand he had swallowed. He pulled back and sat straight, balancing on his heels. "He's alive, if not half dead already. We need to take him back to Suna for medical treatment."

Kankuro nodded, his eyes widening slightly as he looked over Lee's beaten and broken body. "We should hurry then. This looks bad." The puppeteer moved closer and lifted the foreign Jounin's wrist and checked his veins. "He's severely dehydrated. Looks like he hasn't eaten in days . . . the kid'll die if we don't get him there soon--"

Gaara shrugged off the gourd and pulled Lee's hand away from Kankuro's grasp. He began to ease his robes off of his shoulders. He worked on getting the piece of clothing around the Leaf's body. He buttoned and snapped the buckles of his coat around Lee's wait, felt the bones of his ribs which showed how malnourished he was . . . There. That would protect the Leaf nin from the dropping temperature and prevent any sand from getting into his open wounds. Gaara had created a safe spot with his chakra, the wind and sand blew over his defense and left them unscathed, so he wasn't worried about Lee ingesting more sand.

"Hurry up. We need to get him to Suna." Kankuro said, tugging his brother's sleeve, gesturing toward the direction of the village.

"He needs water." Gaara stated flatly. He looked back down at Lee, who still lay motionless on the cold desert floor. He frowned, concerned that the Leaf hadn't moved, and supported the older boy's neck as he eased him into a halfway sitting position. He supported the boy's light weight against his knee and pulled out a flask of water from his belt.Gaara lifted Lee's head and placed the mouth of the cantine against the Leaf Jounin's lips, urging him to swallow the water. Gently and slowly, he tilted back the flask and poured the water into the boy's mouth.

Lee didn't swallow the water, but instead breathed it in and began to gag on it. He coughed and sputtered helplessly and Gaara quickly turned his head to the side to allow him to spit out the liquid that was choking him. His frown deepened. He lied the boy back down and put the cap on the flask.

"Lee-san." Gaara called, placing one hand on the older male's shoulder and shaking him once. "Lee-san, can you hear me? You need to drink the water." Lee's head bobbed from side to side as the Kazekage shook him, but otherwise he lay completely motionless and unresponsive.

"Gaara, he could have been out here for days. Look at the condition he's in, he not waking up anytime soon." Knakuro spoke up from behind the Kazekage. "We shouldn't waste time. We need to take him to a hospital."

"Wait." Seeing that the Leaf wasn't going to awaken that easily, Gaara turned to checking his injuries. He unbuckled his coat, now stained with blood and sweat, and looked down on Lee's bloody chest and abdomen. The slashes that ripped the Jounin's green suit were unearthly, vicious and might have been intending to kill the taijutsuist.

Slowly, Gaara pulled at the torn and useless spandex that had still managed to cling to Lee's limbs. He ripped it more from the top and slipped it out from underneath the sleeping Leaf nin. He growled at the wounds on Lee's chest when he saw them at their full velocity. They were deep, but not as deep as Gaara had once thought. They were treatable and the wounded Shinobi would be back to his old self quickly--that is, as soon as Gaara got him treated.

The Kazekage looked down at the Jounin's legs. The spandex pants weren't as bad as the shirt part, and Gaara was planning on leaving them on. He didn't think that Lee wore anything underneath the skin-tight uniform, so he was going to play it safe and leave the pants where they were. However, the leg warmers he could live without . . .

He quickly slipped off the yellow leg warmers and then his eyes widened a fraction when he saw that Lee was still wearing his weights. Gaara unstrapped the weights and pushed them away. He returned to examine the Leaf's mutilated chest. Lee was bruised almost everywhere and had dried blood and sand caked onto half of his body. The doctors would clean that off when they got to Suna . . .

"Gaara, hurry. He'll die if we waste anymore time."

"I said wait." The redhead looked back up at Lee and stared intently at his eyes. He saw no movement beneath the lids. Curiously, he lifted one of them gently, sympathetic to the scratches on them, and saw a black pupil completely unseeing and cloudy. He checked the other one and saw the same thing. He frowned deeper. He had a feeling that Lee was more than just unconscious.

"Something's wrong." He muttered, and Kankuro knelt next to him.

"What?" The Sand Jounin inquired, looking to his brother curiously.

"Look at his eyes. He's not moving . . . this is different than what we first thought." Gaara reopened the Leaf's eyes to show his brother exactly what he was talking about.

Kankuro's eyebrows met together in deep thought when he saw Lee's blank eyes. "You're right . . ."

"Kazekage-sama . . ."

Gaara looked over his shoulder at the man who had addressed him. A young Jounin who had graduated not to long ago. He stepped forward as he spoke, showing his leader that he had something to say. When Gaara nodded for him to continue, he stood straight and raised his voice so he could be heard over the howl of the wind. "Kazekage-sama, by looking at him and going by what I see, maybe he's been trapped in an illusionary technique."

If Gaara had any eyebrows they would have shot up. "A genjustu?"

The young Jounin nodded once, and then stepped back a little. "Yes, Sir."

Gaara nodded again, slowly, considering the idea. It would make more sense. Lee would have at least stirred when Gaara had called him, or tried to give him water. "Do you know how to dispell a genjutsu?"

The young soldier nodded quickly. "Yes Sir. If one wants to dispell a genjutsu, shaking or hitting the person will usually do the trick." The kid quoted, obviously pleased that he could be of use.

Gaara looked down at Lee. "I am not going to hit him." He stated to himself. He shook the Leaf again by the arm. "Lee-san. Wake up. Lee-san." He continued for a few minutes, but to no avail. Lee never moved. "Is there any other way to wake him?" The Kazekage inquired the young Jounin standing behind him.

"Uhm . . ." Was the only reply he got while the young man thought.

"Your chakra."

Gaara looked up at his older brother curiously. "What?" He asked the puppeteer.

"Put some of your chakra into his body. It'll stop the illusion and wake him up." The older Jounin told him, nodding at Lee's motionless form on the ground.

Gaara turned his attention back to the Leaf Jounin lying in front of him. My chakra . . . Cautiously, the redhead placed both of his hands on Lee's shoulder--where he wasn't injured--and concentrated on keeping a steady flow of chakra going to his hands and down to his fingers. Gently, he gave it a push and--

He recoiled quickly, yanking his hands back into his lap, when Lee suddenly gave a start and began to cough. The older Jounin gasped and sputtered and tossed his head from side to side. Gaara placed his hands back onto Lee's shoulder and held him down gently. "Lee-san. Calm down." He called to the thrashing boy on the ground.

Lee groaned and coughed again, this time a thin trail of blood and saliva dripping from the corner of his mouth. Gaara quickly lifted him up slightly and propped him against his knee. He tilted his head to the side to assure the Leaf nin wouldn't choke on his own blood. Lee gaged again and more blood escaped past his lips, staining Gaara's pants and hitting the ground, dying the sand crimson.

"Lee-san." Gaara spoke his name slowly and clearly, making sure that it would be audible for the other Shinobi, who's coughing spasm had begun to slow down until he lay panting against Gaara's knee. The Kazekage used his free hand to feel the wounded man's forehead. The older Shinobi was sweating from his outburt, and was most likely in great pain due to his wounds. He whimpered slightly under Gaara's touch.

"Lee-san, can you open your eyes?" Gaara inquired, unsure if the other male was even conscious.

He waited for any type of response, and got one in the form of Lee's eyebrows furrowing together. The ebony-haired boy moaned, his left arm moving slightly in a weak attempt to grab his waist where he was injured. He pried one eye open a crack and gazed past Gaara to stare at the darkening desert sky.

"Lee-san?" Gaara asked, leaning his head over him more to examine the Leaf's slowly opening eyes, making sure he hadn't taken any damage to them.

"Ugh . . ." Lee groaned, finally focusing his vision on the redhead towering over him. His scratched eyelids dissapeard from sight as his eyes opened all the way. "K-K-Kaze . . . kage . . .s-s-sama . . ." He sputtered weakly, trying with all his remaining strength to sit upright.

"Lee-san, stay where you are. Don't move." Gaara held him down gently by the shoulders and reached to his belt again to retrieve his flask of water. He placed the opening of the bottle to the older boy's lips. "Drink." He commanded, and slowly tipped the bottle back to allow the water to get into Lee's mouth.

The Leaf nin jerked slightly at the sudden contact of the liquid on his tongue, but then gratefully began to take in the water, moaning in discomfort when Gaara pulled the flask away from him.

"You can't have too much. You'll make yourself sick." Gaara recapped the bottle of water and reattached it to his belt. He tenderly pulled Lee's arm to rest over his own chest, where he wasn't wounded as badly, and then shifted. He hooked his other arm beneath Lee's leg and then braced himself as he heaved upward and stood straight, supporting the other Jounin's weight in his arms.

Lee's breath caught in his throat and he cried out weakly, pain obvious in his features, which had twisted and contorted in a look of sheer agony. "K-Kazek-k-kage . . . sama . . ." He ground out from between clenched teeth.

"Don't talk. I'm taking you to a hospital in Suna. Just close your eyes and rest. We'll be there in a moment." When Lee had complied and his black eyes had slipped closed again, Gaara turned to Kankuro who had been standing by quietly. "I'm going on alone. It'll be quicker and safer for us, and especially Lee."

Kankuro nodded once, turning toward the men. "All right, we're going on ahead. If we hurry, we can make it back to Suna by morning." He returned his gaze to his younger brother, who had closed his eyes in order to concentrate on the jutsu he was about to use. "Be careful." He warned as the sand began to rise around the redhead and the wounded Leaf nin in his arms.

Gaara nodded once, and then the sand billowed around him like a mini dust devil. Whipping up and over his head, whirling and dancing with a life of its own.

When the dust had cleared and Kankuro reopened his eyes, his Kazekage and the Leaf were gone, probably halfway in Suna already.

Songstone: Please guys. I hate to be begging like this, but I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts once more.