A/N: I use some CB Radio talk in this one while using the radio. Most phrases are self-explanatory but I will put a glossary at the end.

Gaara froze in mid-step, waiting for Shukaku to explode in his mind. It didn't come and he relaxed fractionally when he realized that it wouldn't. He was always forgetting that Shukaku was gone. "Gaara?" Kankuro asked, momentarily forgetting the title that his brother never made him use.

"Kazakage-sama," one of Gaara's advisors said, emphasizing his title while glaring at Kankuro. Kankuro, ignoring the advisor, moved around Gaara to look at his face. He frowned at the lingering traces of panic in his brother's light green eyes.

"Dismissed," Kankuro said firmly. The small man bristled in outrage and the other advisors, three women, whispered amongst themselves. Gaara seemed to collect himself enough to nod his head.

"Kazakage-same!" Kankuro narrowed his eyes and gave the small man a look that could have melted stone.

"Dismissed." He said the one word so firmly that the wizened little man could do nothing but glare and gather his voluminous robes to flounce away with the ladies. When they had left them alone Kankuro turned again to his brother. "What's wrong," he asked softly, searching their surroundings for any sign of an enemy. Gaara shook his head and pressed the palm of one hand against his forehead, covering the kanji on the left side. He gasped slightly, trying to calm himself. Kankuro rested his hand lightly on his brother's shoulder.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. "I keep forgetting that he's gone." He said by way of explanation. Kankuro frowned.

"Who?" Gaara gave him a wry smile.

"Shukaku." Kankuro turned to his brother sharply. He hadn't mentioned the demon in years.

"What?" he asked carefully. Though he wasn't afraid of his little brother anymore he was wary of the sand that moved, even without Gaara's prompting, with the changes in his mood.

"Two years," Gaara said, his voice faint, his eyes taking on a far off look. "I never got used to being alone in my body." He gave a humorless laugh. "I keep expecting to have to fight with him with every shift of my emotions. Sometimes I feel like he's still with me."

"That's because I am," he heard Shukaku whisper in his head, his laugh harsh and grating.

Kankuro watched the panicked look come to his brother's eyes and again shake his head, seemingly at him self. He visibly focused on something and Kankuro frowned in confusion. "Blood," he said finally, his eyes opening. Sand shifted to form a floating platform that lifted Gaara away from the ground.

"Hey!" Kankuro said in surprise as the sand carried his brother away at a startling rate. "Gaara! Wait up!" Of course he didn't and Kankuro quickly pulled out a scroll to summon a Sidewinder puppet to ride on. Kankuro sighed as he quickly lost sight of his brother and pressed his puppet on ward, following Gaara's chakra trail.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Gaara moved swiftly through the trees, following the smell of blood. It was starting to make him excited in a way that he hadn't felt in two long years. Since Shukaku. Shaking that thought from his head he focused on finding the source of the blood. He found Sakura crumpled on the ground like a forgotten doll and he jerked in surprise when he realized how easily he had remembered the name of the girl he had tried to kill so long ago. Normally he wouldn't even remember the faces of the people he killed but one look at those pink locks had made the connection in his mind.

"The one that got away," Shukaku seemed to whisper in his mind. Gaara gasped and pressed his hands to his forehead. This is nothing, he told himself. It's only insanity from living with Shukaku for so long. It's not real. He kept repeating that phrase over and over again but he could almost hear Shukaku's dark laughter from the recesses of his demented mind. He shook his head roughly and looked up to see a man with dark hair move to stand over Sakura.

"You are a beauty. Under any other circumstances I would keep you as a prize," he said with a slight smile.

"You mean whore," Sakura muttered raggedly through clenched teeth. The man chuckled.

"You are spirited. It is a shame that I have to exterminate you. It would have been quite pleasurable breaking you." Gaara could barely feel Shukaku moving restlessly in the back of his consciousness.

"If anyone will break that girl it will be us not him," Shukaku's indignant voice slithered through Gaara's senses. "Her blood will be on our hands not his. Kill him. No man will touch what is ours." Without stopping to analyze the meaning of that last thought Gaara moved his sand to wrap around the man's ankles.

"If you are going to kill someone, do it. Don't stand around talking about it," he deadpanned from behind them. The man tried to turn to face him but fell to his hands and knees when his feet, incased in sand, refused to move with the rest of his body. Using a miniature version of Ryūsa Bakuryū to suck the man down into the earth he used Sabaku Sōsō quietly whispering Sand Burial before crushing the man. Blood gushed from the sand in a small fountain and Gaara turned to a now unconscious Sakura to find her lifted on a small platform of sand. He looked her over and found that her wounds had the potential to be fatal if he didn't get her to a medic soon.

Gaara sighed and focused on making and using twenty Daisan no Me. "Third Eye," he said then closed his left, placing his index and middle finger over it and frowned in concentration. The eyes all formed in different locations searching for some sign of help closer than the hospital in Sunagakure. Finding nothing but a group of four ninja's and his brother coming towards them he dispersed the eyes then raised four walls around himself and the pink haired medic-nin, careful to make sure he didn't block Kankuro out.

Finally spotting the pink head set Sakura was wearing Gaara picked it up and switched on the mouthpiece as Kankuro appeared through the trees and stopped next to him and Sakura. He held up one finger, signaling to Kankuro to give him a minute, as he found the right frequency. "Breaker, requesting go ahead," he said calmly into the receiver.

"Copy," a female voice came over the waves. "Step Down, Good Buddy. We got some Slave Drivers." Gaara switched to a lower channel as the woman had asked.

"Come back," he said.

"Walkin' Tall, Good Buddy. What's your Handle?" Gaara paused for a moment when the woman asked for his name then looked at his brother. Kankuro grinned. Sand Man he mouthed. Gaara smiled slightly and replied.

"Sand Man. Got a Pink Beaver here barely breathing."

"Well ain't you a Sunbeam! Play Dead, Sand Man, " the woman cried then spoke loudly to another party. "We got a Fog Lifter in the Basement, Captain, turn your Ears on." A man's voice promptly came over the airlines.

"Come on," he said.

"Sand Man's got a Pink Beaver and is awaiting instructions, over."

"What's your Twenty, Sand Man?" the man asked.

"About 21 kilometers east of Sunagakure in a sand box with four Cub Scouts coming my way. Request Band Aid Wrapper," Gaara said.

"Negative, Sand Man. We need you to make a delivery to nearest Chicken Coop," the man stated, sounding slightly frustrated. "Put down the Hammer, Sand Man."

"Affirmative," Gaara said. "What's their Twenty?"

"Three miles and closing. The Cub Scouts you mentioned," the man said. "Down."

"Keep on the defensive Sand Man," the woman said, coming back into the conversation. "Pink Beaver had some Boy Scouts at her Back Door."

"10-4, Out." Gaara turned off the mouthpiece.

Kankuro crossed his arms and leaned over Sakura frowning. "Haven't seen her in forever," he said and brushed her hair out of her face gently. Gaara said nothing and leaned back against a sand wall using his Third Eye to search for the Cub Scouts Captain had mentioned. He saw the four shinobi he had spotted earlier stop on the outside of the sand wall and the leader switched on his mouthpiece.

"Captain," he said. "We got a sand wall here." He sounded completely confused and Gaara knew the man was wondering when Suna had put up walls in this area. Gaara dropped the walls and smirked inwardly when he saw the four Leaf shinobi jump back in surprise, kunai and shuriken at the ready. When the realized that it was Suna's Kazekage and not enemy-nin they relaxed their guard and the medic-nin of the group rushed forward to see about Sakura.

Gaara watched the healing process with his usual unreadable expression but he also noticed that one of the Leaf ninja, obviously new to the group, watching him with a wary expression. He had every reason to fear Gaara since all the horror "stories" told about him were in actuality true but it still irked him that the boy feared him. He knew nothing but stories of the Kazekage and yet he sill acted as if Gaara would kill him slowly just to watch him bleed. He wasn't like that. Not anymore.

"Let's show him what real fear is," Shukaku said with his usual rough laugh and Gaara saw the sand that supported Sakura start to shift, to act out the demon's suggestion. Gaara's expression didn't change even when the medic-nin looked over at him curiously. He acted as if nothing had happened when inside he was close to screaming. No one seemed to notice his silent inner battle and he wasn't sure if he should be relieved or to yell at them all to look at him, to notice him. He wasn't sure what was the lesser of the two evils: Being insane and imagining that the demon that had inhabited his body for fifteen years was still with him or being sane and actually having the demon in his mind and body dictating his actions.

A/N: Okay so I made this week too. Yay me! bows to applause and blows kisses to adoring fans So I know that I pushed things a bit with the CB talk, stretching things so that they would fit in the story but bare with me. The following is a very long glossary of CB talk. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. Thanks for reading.

Breaker- A term, along with "Break," used when a CB operator wants others on a channel to break off routine chatter: "Breaker. Breaker…"

Copy- To receive a radio transmission with sufficient clarity to understand the message.

Step Down- To go down to another channel. Used when moving to another channel because of overcrowding.

Good Buddy- Like "Ole' Buddy," a term used among truckers and others as a salutation when the other operator's handle is unknown

Slave Drivers- Another of the many terms meaning a group of CBers who try to control a channel.

Come back, Come on, Over- Phrase used to tell another operator to talk

Walkin' Tall- Good sounding signal

Handle- An adopted nickname used for identification by CBers; for example, Gremlin, Geneses Bear, etc.

Beaver- Woman or girl.

Sunbeam- When things are rather gloomy on a channel, you're grateful for the sunbeam who comes along with a bright, lively conversation.

Play Dead- To stand by

Fog Lifter- Someone who brings something to a channel - an interesting CBer. Similar to a "Sunbeam."

Basement- Channel one.

Ears- Radio

Twenty- location

Cub Scouts- The local sheriff and his men. Generally they do not grow up to become Boy Scouts (state patrolmen). Cub Scouts also may be called "local yokels." (Used this to symbolize Boarder patrol.)

Band Aid Wrapper- An ambulance

Chicken Coop- A weigh-in station for trucks. (I used this one to symbolize where teams had made camp.)

Hammer- The accelerator pedal. (Mostly self-explanatory but I did use this one as just a way to say hurry up.)

Down- Off the air, as in "We're down." Usually used to announce the end of transmission in the senses of "We're gone" or "We'll be on the side."

Boy Scouts- A somewhat less common name for state patrolmen, who are generally known as "Smokies" or "Bears." (Unlike Cub Scouts, which I used for boarder patrol, I used Boy Scouts for actual Jounin and not just the usual Chuunin and Jounin.)

Back Door- Behind a vehicle.

10-4- Affirmative

Black Rose TD