Lee looked up at Gaara, "Gaara-nii-chan!" He glomped Gaara, but was then abruptly pushed away. "Gaara-nii..." His eyes started to puddle up again, but Gaara would not remove his firm grasp on the leaf's shoulders, nor would he soften his angry face.

"Lee. You can NOT go running out like that!"

"Gaa-"

"You could've gotten yourself hurt! What if someone out there was trying to hurt you again?!"

"..sniffle...Nii-chan..."

"Those men could've STILL been after you! You could have DIED out there! YOU SCARED ME TO DEATH! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?"

Lee managed to squeak out a feeble sentence between sobs, "I sniffle sob just wan-sniff-wanted to be out s-side and play with sob Nii-chan." Lee broke down into a full-fledged fit. He was on the ground curled up sobbing. He was not used to Gaara yelling at him like this and he didn't like it. Gaara could feel guilt tugging at his shirtsleeve, but he knew that Lee had to learn his lesson. When Lee's crying had slowed a bit Gaara kneeled in front of him and placed a gentle hand on Lee's shoulder.

"Lee, I'm not sorry about the things I said, they were all true." Lee started crying hard again, "But I am sorry for yelling at you, I shouldn't have made you so upset." Gaara hugged Lee, "I'm sorry Lee."

Then Lee's crying stopped abruptly, his sad face turned into an evil smirk. He grabbed onto Gaara and surrounded him in a block of ice.

'Lee' chuckled maniacally, "Hmhmhm, you seem to have a lower guard than I expected demon." A poof of smoke and Lee was no longer in front of him, but some deathly pale man with steely blue eyes that showed no mercy.

"Who the hell are you?" Gaara tried to ask calmly, but his voice was shaky from surprise, "Where is Lee? What have you done to him!?"

"Lee? That gullible, little, leaf shinobi? Well, he was never here. Well, he was, but...Oh how rude of me I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kyojin Masashi" This mysterious man laughed again, "You seem a trifle confused, let me explain. Shall I start from the beginning?"

Gaara just glared.

"Well, here's how it goes:

"You remember a young woman that used to live here correct? Well, she was the heir to the noblest clan in your little dust bowl. Well, thanks to a young man we all know and love twitch it seems that my arrangements to move up in the world were set back a few years. I mean, she was a key part of my domination. You see, I was not planning on taking over the world be force, but instead—"

"You were going to use her." Gaara's voice was barely above a whisper, but his tone was enough to scare someone to the brink of insanity, or death if you were faint of heart.

"Well, yes. You didn't think I really LOVED her did you? Emotions are such a hindrance." Gaara's anger was reaching a point it never had before. His aura alone began to crack the ice. "Oh no you don't. I've worked hard to get you here."

He performed another technique that completely entrapped Gaara in a huge spherical ice structure that had been woven together with ungodly amounts of chakra.

"THEN you had to get me preaching and nobody likes listening to that jibber-jabber. But after he took out my underlings, twice I might add, I figured since he worked so hard to protect you all those years I just had to take him out, but you can understand that can't you?"

'He protected me? After all this time?' Gaara thought. He felt like crying, after all those years, Lee had always protected him, even though they had just met, Lee thought of him as much of a friend as Gaara thought of Lee. 'But what did Lee have to do with all of this?'

"And you see, this is the interesting part this is where your friend comes in." Kyojin was having too much fun teasing his prisoner to notice a creeping shadow along one of the back walls. "I froze him, in a block of ice, and simply made an ice clone, but here's the FUN part! I ABOSRBED the clone you see?! THAT IS MY SPECIAL ABILITY!! AND WHEN I ABSORB THEM I CAN BECOME THEM! I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM! I AM THEM! I CAN READ THEIR MINDS, I LEARN ALL THEIR MOVES AND NO ONE CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE!" He laughed maniacally for what seemed like eternity. This mission of becoming supreme had eaten away at his sanity

'He's mad! Completely insane! almost...RABID!'

"AND NOW! I GET THE CHANCE TO KILL YOU FOR INTERFERRING WITH MY PLANS AND ALL I NEED OF YOU IS YOUR CLONE!!"

Gaara would feel his chakra being pulled out of him. He felt his body getting weaker and weaker; if no one came to his aid, he would surely die. His vision blurred, all his muscles went slack, and he was losing consciousness.

'Lee, I'm sorry Lee. You did so much to protect me, and all these years I've done nothing. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry...' That was Gaara's last thought before he heard a dimming battle cry and the breaking of ice.