Gaara's eyes snapped open, cool air brushed past his cheek in a gentle breeze and for a few seconds it was pitch black. After his eyes had adjusted to the low light he began to pay attention to his surroundings. He noticed a rough stone wall of a cave and a jagged roof above him. There was the flickering of a fire to his right, the flames lighting the cave subtly, creating an effect of dancing light. He attempted to sit up groggily, taking his time to keep dizziness at bay, head still spinning and his stomach feeling sick, the dizziness overcame him and he lay down again, waiting for it to pass. He could see that the cave was large, its mouth seeming to peer down into a valley.
They were above ground level and he could see trees outside the entrance along with large boulders, they seemed to give some sort of cover for the cave, making it hard to see from the outside. Looking round the cave he couldn't spot anyone else and, as soon as the dizziness passed, he sat up slowly and blinked as a blanket fell off, as if someone had been looking after him. Gaara glanced around and his eyes and nose honed in on some food left beside him, consisting of an apple, a small, thick loaf of bread and a fish, all looking fresh. There was a container of what he assumed was water. Unable to stop himself he grabbed the loaf of bread and tore a piece off, swallowing it almost whole and taking another chunk as his stomach growled at him. He set the last half of the bread down and ate the fish, it was still warm, indicating it had recently been cooked and he ate it greedily, chugging down the container of water in the process. While finishing the last half of the bread he took a closer look around the cave, taking everything in that he could.
He had been lying on the smooth, rock floor and had been covered with a woollen blanket; his head had been propped up by his own scarf. He picked up the white, slightly dirtied scarf and wrapped it around his body, fixing it so it hung loosely from his right shoulder. He brushed the majority of the dirt off it, but there were a few stains that wouldn't brush off, blood for example was dotted over it, standing out against the white material. He swung his head slowly around, his eyes searching for his gourd, if it was even there. After a few seconds however he managed to spy his gourd of sand leaning on the wall behind him, unbroken despite the earlier fight and filled with sand, even though Gaara recalled that it had been empty before he had lost consciousness. He took note of the missing kunai from his pocket but soon spotted them on the ground beside the gourd, piled up neatly.
He popped the last piece of the bread into his mouth and stood up, picking up the apple as he did. His legs were weaker than he thought and he stumbled forwards and hit the wall, throwing his hand out to stop his fall and leaning against the stone for support as his legs shook. The cool wall woke him up a bit further and he pushed off the wall and made his way shakily towards the mouth of the cave. Upon reaching the mouth of the cave he glanced at the fire, the flames were high and warm, and the wood looked like it had been added to the fire recently. He found himself wondering where the group of white haired shinobi who had appeared just before he lost consciousness had gone and where exactly he was. Gaara felt himself sway and he leant against the wall again, legs wobbling. His vision blurred and he squeezed his eyes shut. When he reopened them, his vision was clear and he let out a shaky breath.
"You shouldn't be standing, you'll just fall over." A soft voice scolded from somewhere in front of him. Scrunching up his eyes he looked around, attempting to spot the owner of the voice. He couldn't see anyone on the ground in front of beside him and he looked up almost in desperation at the stars. He spotted a silhouette crouched on top of a large boulder a few metres in front of him, almost mistaking it for a shadow at first. Although the silhouette looked feminine, Gaara couldn't confirm anything else about them.
"Who are you?" He asked, surprised at how weak his voice sounded in the cool night. The silhouette looked up at the sky, silent for a few moments before responding.
"I'm a wandering shinobi, no one in particular." The silhouette told him, the voice was definitely female. Gaara felt a wave of dizziness rise up and he swayed again and began to fall forwards towards the ground and this time there was no wall to catch himself on so he threw his arms out in front of himself to catch his fall while still trying to steady himself. A hand met his shoulder as he fell and pushed him back up slowly, he almost expected it to leave his shoulder but it stayed as the woman stared at him, her face lit by the fire. Her eyes were unnaturally green, boring into his own and they made his skin crawl slightly. "You need to sit down now Gaara." She told him forcefully, narrowing her eyes.
Gaara's head snapped up, making his vision blur and his head spin. For a brief second he forgot what he was going to say but it came back to him quickly. "How do you know-?"
"You are a targeted Sand shinobi carrying a heavy gourd of sand. It wasn't particularly hard to figure out." The reply came, sounding both soft and irked at the same time. Her brow was furrowed and her mouth was set in a hard line. In the light of the fire Gaara could make out more of her features and even someone like him who didn't particularly pay attention to exteriors could see how beautiful she was. He supposed she'd be the type of woman that men would fall in love with by only glancing at her. It then occurred to him that she had carried his gourd, and maybe even him while the white haired shinobi had fought off his attackers before.
"I...guess." He managed to reply, glancing down at his feet and noticing how they seemed to move of their own accord, and then it appeared he had more than two of them and he shut his eyes again. He allowed himself to be moved gently into a sitting position and with hardly any realisation he bit into the apple that he had managed to grip onto despite his faulty concept of up. "The genin I was with... are they..."
"Dead" Her reply was blunt but not uncivil, if anything it had a hint of annoyance, not directed at Gaara but the shinobi herself.
"I see." Gaara muttered, putting his head in his hands, did his siblings know what had become of him? Had they discovered the bodies of the genin yet? Were they looking for him now and fearing the worst? Gaara calmed his thoughts, it was dark, so he doubted his siblings would be doing anything other than sleeping at this point, although, they genuinely seemed to care for him and he wondered if they were awake, worrying about him.
The woman raised her eyebrows at him, looking torn between concern and keeping a cool, unemotional exterior. She, like the other ninja who had originally attacked him, wore no forehead protector but had the air of a seasoned shinobi and despite her seemingly friendly manner; Gaara knew he couldn't trust her. He glanced at her, noting two katanas strapped to her back and he had no doubt that she could use them well. For a moment he contemplated running but knew that it was pointless, he had already shown her that he barely had the strength to stand and he wondered if she planned to kill him and claim the bounty the others had spoken of.
"If I had wanted you dead then you would not be awake right now." She told him, as if reading his thoughts, he was shocked for a brief second before he realised it was his expression that had given him away and the attempted tension in his body which didn't appear to be working out.
"What about the bounty on my head?" Gaara asked, his suspicion undying. Although his gourd was close as were his kunai, he barely had the energy to move, and his chakra was doing little more than keeping him sitting upright, he couldn't fight, he could barely even move, his life was entrusted to this stranger who may or may not be an enemy. Even if he had some strength in his body, he highly doubted his odds against this female shinobi, she looked harmless but he'd already seen how fast she'd moved and had an idea of how strong she was.
"You've been asleep for two full days, I had plenty of time." She told him, moving gracefully to take a seat on the other side of the fire. She added a log to the flames and they grew suddenly before lulling again. She took a drink from a carton similar to his own and sat still, watching him with her emerald eyes. She seemed to ponder something inside her head before deciding to speak again. "Besides, I don't want, or need, the money. You should get some more rest, before you fall into the fire."
Gaara blinked, only now realising how far from the present he had been, her words forcing him back to the real world from his own. His face was warm, almost burning, from the flames which were dangerously close to his face, licking the air beside his nose. It appeared that he had slowly been drifting forward, his weary body slouching. He jolted back and ended up losing what little balance he had and lying on the ground with a grunt. There was a quickly stifled, pretty laugh from the other side of the warm fire and Gaara felt his eyes narrow and his mouth take on a hard line from his new position on the ground. He would have argued venomously with her laugh if he had the energy but he simply felt too tired to move his lips. Instead he allowed the fire to warm his body and closed his eyes again, realising once more how heavy his eyelids seemed to be. Yet again he found himself listening to the world around him, which for a few minutes was silent, save for the fire crackling beside his ear and the wind blowing through the trees outside of the cave.
Then he heard the shinobi stand and walk over to his side of the fire, pausing for a few seconds before making her way towards the inside of the cave where he had been lying previously. She stayed there for a few minutes and Gaara heard the clinking of his carton as she picked it up and made her way back towards him. She dropped the blanket of his softly and knelt down beside him. For a moment Gaara though that she was going to tuck him in but she simply sighed, muttering something incoherent before moving away out the mouth of the cave. Gaara assumed that she would take the same position she had earlier, sitting on the boulder outside of the cave, acting almost as a sentry as he slept. More than likely she was waiting for the other shinobi to arrive so she could sleep.
As the night became silent again, Gaara's thoughts drifted again towards his siblings and he hope that they were alright and hadn't done anything foolish in an attempt to find him. As he began to lose consciousness he found himself wondering where exactly he was, and how much longer it would be until he could move by himself and use any of his ninjutsu again. He had almost completely lost consciousness when a single, worrying thought occurred to him, he could no longer hear Shukaku grumbling at him and worse still, he had slept soundly for two nights and now for the third, he felt no distress at allowing himself to dream. The problem with him sleeping soundly was the simple fact that Shukaku should be keeping him awake but his head was empty and no voice grumbled at him from inside. Before he could ask the shinobi what had happened he drifted off, unaware of unnaturally green eyes watching him from the shadows once more.