A/N: This is mainly a GaaraxHinata fanfic. It is rated M for in case. Please enjoy.
The rain poured down with a vengeance. Hinata struggled to keep her vision from going dark. Her skin stung from the icy rain that fell relentlessly. Before her lay a fallen adversary. Hinata had not known the person who had attacked her out of the blue. She only knew that he was dead now.
"Na-Naruto..." she whimpered. Her knees buckled. Her entire body suddenly went numb as she hit the ground. A strange feeling of disembodiment floated through her weary body. Blood stained the rain around her a vibrant crimson colour.
"Is this where I die?" she wondered before the dark claws of sleep tugged her mind into forced slumber.
Gaara was lost. His usual midnight stroll had gotten him lost in the forests of the hidden leaf, and to top it off it was raining. He was soaked to the bone but still felt the need to wander aimlessly around the beautiful forest. For some reason he felt drawn to a certain path as though led by destiny.
'How naïve. Destiny cannot control actions,' he thought privately. He was just restless he decided. Tired of the day-by-day routine. Tired of life. But not physically tired. He was never physically tired.
He froze when a hot and very familiar scent stung his sensitive nose. He had tasted it enough to recognize the smell of blood from afar. Who would be out in the rain, bleeding?
Gaara wondered for a moment before his curiosity got the better of him. He heard a faint whimper and the sound of a body hitting the ground. When he reached where the sound had come from, Gaara was surprised to find two people lying in the floor in respective pools of blood. His sand sought chakra – the man was already dead. He moved his gaze to the faint pulse on his right. What he saw made his breath catch.
She was strangely beautiful. She was covered in cuts and bruises, but even the crimson blood tainting her skin was beautiful to him. She had extremely long, jet black hair that made her already pale skin stand out like snow or marble. Behind the half-closed eyelids were the most stunning opal coloured eyes. They complimented her nearly blue black hair. As if to remove the darkness of her hair, soft pink stained her cheekbones.
Without realizing it he had drifted closer until his sandal was mere inches from her clenched fist. He crouched and pulled a few stray hairs from her face. Her cheeks were warm against his frozen fingers and for a moment he wanted to draw her heat into himself.
'What is she doing here?' he wondered. He sent the corpse a glance. 'A fight?'
"Naruto..." she mumbled. Her voice was filled with sorrow, but it was low and pleasing to the ear. He felt a strange yearning to remove the sorrow from her voice. Why was this beautiful girl so sad?
'She's here all alone. Alone – just like me,' he mused. She knew Naruto too. Perhaps he would know what to make of this mess.
Gingerly her reached forward and gathered her up. When she whimpered again he pulled her close to his body – trying to shield her from the frosty rain that continued to pour patiently around them. Was he hurting her? Would she wake up soon? Why did he care? He wondered to himself.
Ever so carefully he carried her to Ichiraku's. Naruto would be there, and maybe even Sakura. The pink-haired girl could heal her for sure.
'She's so frail,' he thought, fascinated by the beauty who lay nestled in his arms.
Temari hadn't seen it coming. When she and Kankurou joined Naruto and the girl named Sakura at Ichiraku's she wouldn't in a million years have expected Gaara to appear with a dying girl in his arms!
"Gaara!" She screamed, leapt up from the tumbling barstool and went closer to help him. Gaara stood in the rain with his shoulders hunched. Uncertainty danced through his blank eyes. Temari had never seen Gaara look hesitant before.
"Can you heal her?" he demanded of Sakura who shout "Hinata!" in perfect unison with Naruto. Kankurou was still choking on his noodles.
"What happened?" Temari shrieked even as Sakura moved closer to help. She watched the girl examine Hinata's wounds efficiently. She was entirely calm around Gaara... How new all this was to them.
"I found her in the forest. There's another corpse out there. Will she live?" Gaara demanded of the healer. Temari nearly swallowed her tongue in shock. Gaara had spoken three consecutive sentences!
"Naruto, call Tsunade and let Neiji know where the corpse is. Gaara, bring her with me. Be careful to keep her out of the rain," Sakura took charge like a true medical ninja.
"What can we do?" Kankurou asked upon seeing Temari still gaping at their brother. Neither of the siblings fully understood what was going on. Gaara wasn't the source of this girl's wounds? Gaara was voluntarily helping out?
"Get my kit and head for the hospital. I'll heal her immediately. Come, Gaara," she responded calmly. All of her attention was focussed on keeping Hinata alive. Gaara, still preoccupied with the wounded girl in his arms followed her orders without comment.
Gaara followed orders...
With a concerned glance to Kankurou, Temari took off. The sooner she got back, the better.
Hinata was in pain. Not the icy, stinging pain she had last felt when she'd been conscious, but a dull constant pain through her entire body.
"Wh-What happened?" she croaked. Her throat felt rusty from dryness and disuse. How long had she been out? The pain proved that she was still alive... The warmth against her skin meant that she was probably indoors.
"Hinata?" the voice was unfamiliar, yet it sent a shiver of pleasure down her spine. Why did her name sound so sweet on a stranger's lips?
Slowly, carefully, she pried her burning eyes open. The white ceiling she knew well enough by now – she was in the hospital again. The knowledge was like a cold rock being tied to her heart and weighing it down. She knew that she could never protect Naruto like this.
A flash by her side caught her attention. There was a guy standing there. He had fiery red hair, messily tousled as though he never bothered to comb it. His eyes were an unusual luminous blue-green colour that reminded her of a calm sea. They were even more striking with the dark rings around the edges...
"Wh-Who are y-you?" Hinata bit her lip when she realized that she'd stuttered. She hated how fearful she always sounded.
"Gaara," he replied uncertainly. She vaguely remembered Naruto speaking about such a person, but something else came to her attention before she could comment.
"I'm naked!" she exclaimed, yanking the blankets higher up toward her chin. She could already feel the blood pool into her cheeks. Why on earth was she naked? How much... could Gaara have seen?"
"Sakura said it was for warmth," Gaara mumbled. Hinata wasn't sure if he was embarrassed or just deep in thought.
"O-oh, yeah t-that makes sense," she replied still fully bewildered. This conversation felt like a dream to her. They stared at the floor for a while – neither was willing to make eye contact – then Hinata needed to ask.
"Were you the one who saved me?" She asked softly. Her gaze slipped back to those strikingly turquoise eyes.
"I carried you here," he answered hesitantly. He seemed slightly defensive as he said it. Had she been a nuisance to him too?
"Th-thank you. I wouldn't want to be a bother." she mumbled. Her cursed cheeks flushed again to give away her embarrassment. She traced the patterns on the tile floor with her eyes in the hopes that Gaara would either reply or leave. After a couple of moments the silence became unbearable. She twisted her hands painfully together as she waited for him to speak. When a feathery soft touch danced over her shoulder she gasped. His cold hand seemed to burn patterns into her skin.
"It wasn't any trouble," he murmured. His striking eyes bore into her mind. He seemed almost shocked by his own words, Hinata thought vaguely. His hand fell away quickly and once again there was nothing but silence. When the voices of Neiji, Kiba and Naruto drifted in from the hall Gaara shrugged a hurried farewell and left. Hinata found herself wondering about the strange red-haired boy even while Naruto chattered away in the hopes of cheering her up.
"Gaara, why did you save that girl?"
Temari heard Kankurou once again choking while she quizzed her little brother. She knew that to question Gaara was daring, but he had improved a lot since he'd met Naruto. She needed to know his motivation for saving Hinata.
"Temari, that-" Kankurou tried to interject but Gaara's violent glare made him falter. Sand swirled around the undecorated apartment. Temari could not help but gulp. The red-headed boy in front of her had never been one to trifle with.
Suddenly, though, the sand fell to the floor and Gaara's shoulders sagged.
"She was in pain," he replied. His hoarse whisper was barely audible to the siblings. For a moment no one spoke. To Temari her fierce little brother seemed oddly vulnerable – or as near to vulnerable as a demon could get.
"U-uhm... Is someone there?" the three siblings froze at the sound of someone calling by the door. Gaara's head snapped up. He recognized that shy voice! Instead of moving to open the door, however, he shot Temari a helpless look. She paused as realization dawned. Could Gaara have a little crush?
Hinata wanted to bolt. Once she'd been discharged from the hospital she'd decided to properly thank her saviour, but actually doing it seemed a little crazy. What is she was being a nuisance? What if he wasn't home or if...
"Hello, you must be Hinata? Please come in. Gaara is inside," when the tall, pretty blonde ushered her into the apartment Hinata couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. So Gaara had a pretty girlfriend after all? But wait, she loved Naruto. Why should it bother her that the red-head had his own lover?
"H-hello... I j-just wanted to thank him," Hinata stammered as she studied her feet.
"Thank him yourself," came the reply from Temari who was already leading the way to the living room where Gaara still had not moved. When Kankurou appeared with a bowl of newly sprung popcorn, Temari had to keep herself from chucking something potentially life-threatening at her brother's head. It was as though Kankurou never thought!
"Gaara-sama," Hinata took a deep breath, still blushing fiercely. "I just w-wanted to thank y-you for having saved me," Hinata murmured in Gaara's general direction. He stared at the flushed girl until Hinata squirmed uncomfortably.
"Do I scare you?" he puzzled and stepped closer to the girl. Both his siblings had seated themselves on the couch and were shovelling popcorn into their mouths as they watched the scene play out.
"N-no, no, n-no-!" Hinata mumbled nearly incoherently with her hand waving in the air as she physically retreated from Gaara. He followed her movements until she was trapped against the bare wall behind her. He wanted badly to reach out and stroke her dark hair out of her eyes, but the thought of actually doing that startled him. Something in his chest couldn't help hurting when she retreated from him like that.
"I-I just really love Naru-" Hinata tripped over her feet. Before she could fall flat on her face a blur of movement stopped her. Gaara tugged her to her feet a little too violently. With a fluid movement his lips closed softly on hers. A butterfly kiss – nearly too light to be the real thing. Yet Hinata's entire body suddenly felt ablaze. She arched slightly into his grasp. Gaara pulled back. He looked as shocked as Hinata felt. He had only meant to catch her, but something had pushed him forward! Or rather, someone... he sent a murderous glare at the suddenly empty couch.
"I have to go!" Hinata shouted and darted out of the door before Gaara had even registered that she was gone. His sand had nothing but an empty apartment to destroy – that and everything his siblings owned. But even as his fury worked out and overwhelming heat singed his body. Hinata's warm scent and the feel of her lips danced through his head. Had she said that she loved Naruto?
'I don't need her anyway,' he growled to himself. The thought made his fists clench.