Disclaimer: Yes, Naruto is mine. And if you believe that, I have a bridge in Indonesia I'm trying to sell off real cheap.

Notes: Sorry for the shortness of my chapters. I've been out of the fic writing for a bit, and this helps me get things out faster. Otherwise I have tendencies to get stuck on a long chapter and you won't hear anything from me for a long time…

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CHAPTER ONE – Rather Disturbing

It was to frantic cries that Lee also woke.

He would have thought himself in the same place, with the same voices vying for his attention, if he hadn't almost immediately noticed a difference in the tones of them. There were still two voices – one male and one female – but the girl's voice had deepened, seemed older somehow, while the male voice sounded younger and somewhat more quirky. Different voices meant different people. Different people meant no Gai-sensei and Tenten.

That bit of information was all Lee needed to have him prying his eyes open, squinting against the early morning light.

He was lying on his back, he realized, and the two people calling his name were leaning over him. They were mere silhouettes against the sky, unrecognizable, and he tried harder to get them into focus.

As they realized he was awake, the two voices quieted down, one hushing the other.

His eyes adjusted slowly, so he let them wander the area. This wasn't the same place he'd blacked out in, that much was certain. There were no trees in sight. Neither was it a room in Konoha's hospital. He sat up quickly in surprise, only to fall back again.

Something was very off.

His body didn't feel right. The mass, the proportions… something wasn't as it should be. He felt at a loss for balance, and he was more careful as he tried to rise a second time. The figures above him moved abruptly as though they were going to offer help, but then stopped themselves.

His hands scraped against something grainy, and he glanced downwards. Sand. Why was he lying in sand?

"Gaara," he heard the girl ask. "Are you all right?"

Gaara? Lee looked around, trying to catch sight of the red-headed Sand-nin, but seeing no one aside from the two others already with him. Though, if Gaara was there, that would certainly explain the sand.

Turning back, he realized his vision had adjusted enough to see his visitors clearly. He blinked, immediately recognizing one. "T-Temari-san?" he asked. Immediately afterwards, he slapped a hand over his own mouth, eyes widening. He didn't even sound like himself.

His question seemed to surprise Temari as well. She sat back from him slightly, blinking equally wide eyes and looking generally startled. Her companion looked between the two of them worriedly, and he muttered "…San?" as though it was unusual for him to add such an honorific.

Lee turned his eyes to the young man. He was taller, of a sturdier build than himself, with a prominent nose and dark brown hair mussed every which way. Unlike Temari, who was dressed and ready for the day, this boy appeared to have woken up not long before. He was, in fact, still dressed in worn black pajamas. Noticing Lee's attention upon him, he offered an awkward sort of smile. There was something familiar about him, but Lee couldn't place it.

"Gaara?" the boy asked, smile fading into another worried look.

And there it was again. For a second time Lee twisted his head around, trying to catch a glimpse of the other boy anywhere nearby and still seeing nothing. "Where…?"

"You seem to have passed out on the balcony," Temari answered quickly, mistaking the meaning to his question. "Do you remember what happened?"

The balcony? That was ridiculous. He'd passed out in the woods. Hadn't he?

Well, if he was that far removed from where he'd originally been, then perhaps there had been other circumstances in between that had led him to this current predicament. In that case, he supposed he didn't remember what had happened. Had he been drunk? He certainly didn't feel like he had. All he could do was shake his head and hope to get some answers from these two.

His visitors glanced at each other again. The situation obviously had them worried. Lee only wished he could help, but he himself was clueless.

"Why don't we get you inside," the brown-haired boy said, offering Lee a hand. As he reached out to take it, something flashed in the other boy's eyes, and his free hand went for Lee's throat. Before he could block it himself, he found his vision obscured by a wall of sand, and he heard rather than saw the other boy get thrown back.

"Kankuro!" Temari called out, somewhat panicked. "What were you trying to do?"

The sand receded, and Lee could see the other boy sprawled against the balcony rail looking baffled. The girl's words finally made him understand why his face had seemed familiar. He'd never seen Gaara's brother Kankuro without his hood and make-up.

"Well, I thought…" Kankuro appeared slightly embarrassed about his actions now, "I thought he might be an imposter."

Temari seemed to consider what he said, looking Lee over again. "But the sand…"

"Yeah," her brother finished for her. "It has to be him."

Lee glanced from one to the other and back again, equally confused. "I am sorry…" he said sheepishly. "I am not sure what is going on."

"That makes all of us," murmured Kankuro, earning him another glare from his sister. He ignored it, standing once more and offering his hand to Lee a second time. The was a pause before the younger boy accepted it, but when he did he was simply pulled to his feet as he had expected to be from the start. He swayed only a moment, and was quickly straightened by the other boy's hands on his shoulders.

The feeling of something being off came back with a vengeance now. As Temari stepped closer to join them, he began to see why. Somehow he'd gotten smaller. He didn't recall being so much shorter than the girl the last time they'd met. How odd. He checked the ground. Perhaps she was standing on something…

It was at that point that he noticed it. His clothing – it wasn't the light and comfortable spandex he was so used to. This cloth was heavier, and there were several layers of it. And it was red. Dark red. He never wore that color red. His eyes traveled upwards, to the sash, to the leather harness. These weren't his at all. In fact, these were…

"Gaara's…" he whispered out loud. The two siblings watched him worriedly, occasionally glancing at each other and back again.

"What?" Temari asked.

Lee looked up at both of them. They seemed to find every expression on his face startling. "These are Gaara's clothes," he explained.

Blinking all around.

"Yeeeaah…" Kankuro answered slowly, wondering when his brother had started speaking in third person. "Those are yours, Gaara."

"Mine…?" he asked. He could only imagine how silly he looked at that moment, utterly baffled beyond reason as he was. The voice, the height, the clothes… not his own. "Ah…" he said softly. "I understand. I am dreaming." He backed away from them slowly, turning to face the building behind them.

There he was brought up short again. In front of him was a sliding glass doorway, and in the glass he caught sight of his own reflection. Or rather, he caught sight of Gaara's reflection, for that's what it was. Before him he saw only Gaara, and the boy moved as he did, dressed in the same clothes as he was. "This is not right…" he whispered.

"Kankuro-san! Temari-san!" he spun around, his cries so sudden and unexpected that both siblings jumped back at least a foot, throwing their arms up in warding off gestures. "This is not right! I am not Gaara! It is me, Rock Lee!"

There was silence after this. Kankuro and Temari stared at each other again, the worry in their faces only increasing. "That's it," the former said. "Our brother is delusional. I'm getting Baki."

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Gaara was sleeping.

He couldn't explain why he was sleeping, or why he was allowing himself to sleep, or why the demon Shukaku wasn't tearing through his soul at that very moment. He simply knew that he hadn't felt that comfortable in a very long time, and he wasn't about to move if he could help it.

Of course, the other voices in the room weren't helping him rest at all.

"I'm telling you I've had him checked over several times already. There's nothing physically wrong with him."

"So you're saying my Lee has some sort of mental distress? Is that it?"

"I can't say, Gai. Everything registers normal – chackra levels, vital signs, brain activity… Are you sure he wasn't simply exhausted?"

There was a moment of silence.

"I… suppose it's possible that Lee was so intent upon training to strengthen himself that he ignored all signs of weariness… Oh, Lee. You're such a determined boy!"

"…Lee?"

This last voice was softer – a girl's voice – and it was much closer as well. It was loud enough to rouse Gaara from slumber, which caused him quite a bit of annoyance. He opened his eyes, slowly, and turned upon the girl at his bedside with a harsh glare.

She seemed quite taken back by this. "So you're awake," she said, frowning.

Gaara said nothing, but raised himself into a sitting position in order to get a better look at where he was. A hospital? And if he recognized it correctly, this was a hospital in Konoha.

What had happened while he was out?

"LEE!" That shout was the only warning Gaara had before he was suddenly attacked by something large and very green. Well, it wasn't so much an attack as it was a humungous bear hug, but to him they were both the same. He squirmed in the person's grip, the physical contact causing him to grit his teeth in discomfort.

Then he stopped, falling loose from his former stiff position. This was an odd feeling, this hug. Where was the thin skin of sand in between him and this man? In fact… where was his sand at all?

Was this what a dream was like? He'd heard they could be surreal.

Even so. One didn't just freely hug Sabaku no Gaara. "Get off," he rasped, having to attempt at physically removing the man's arms without the sand to do it for him.

He was released quite suddenly. Gai stepped back, a frown to match Tenten's set on his face. "Lee?" he asked, at once all business. "Are you all right."

Gaara glanced around. Seeing Rock Lee nowhere in sight, he turned back to Gai with a short "What?"

"I asked if you were all right, Lee." The man's expression became worried. If he started crying, Gaara made up his mind to slug him then and there.

"My name isn't Lee," growled Gaara in a deep and twisted version of Lee's voice. "My name is Sabaku no Gaara. You will tell me what's going on now, or I will rip a confession out of you."

…to be continued…