I'm still in a pretty crappy mood, but I decided to whip something up until I rekindle my muse...it has been revived, but very picky...The contents of the previous filler chapter do NOT apply to the story, just to let y'all know.

BTW - I love the Linkin Park Piano instrumentals.

--

Gaara woke that next morning to descover that he was no longer on the roof. In fact, he realized with a sudden nonstalgia of his past life that he was in his old room, everything left untouched but actually the room being quite clean. He stretched and yawned loudly, glad that there was no longer Shukaku, the demon, that kept him up all night. Rather, there was Kazesuna greeting him as he had done for the past three years. Sighing, he mused over the changes in himself as a whole since he left home.

He let a short laugh escape him as he stood in the bathroom, analyzing the facsimile of his old body. He had encountered what he dubbed a "Naruto change". Vaguely remembering the fact of Naruto explaining his life in a nutshell during the Chuunin Exams when they were thirteen and that change had led him to this naming. Now, he found himself more light-hearted, less dull and antisocial and...happy. He entered the shower and basked in the warmth that somehow washed away the sweat that shined his body from the humid morning, and he chuckled at the irony that he, once of this same desert, was acting akin to a slab of ice in a mircowave. Once he stepped out a fresh wave hit him, and then he realized, as he stepped out in nothing but a towel that it was his sister that had opened the windows, allowing the occasional drift of sand carried on the breeze into the room. She turned to see him, and was shocked for a moment before she smiled.

"Good morning Gaara...I had almost thought that the past two days were a dream."

Gaara laughed slightly. "That's understandable. But...I have one question. How did I get back here? I thought I fell asleep on the roof." She chuckled slightly.

"Ichigo brought you back here slung over his shoulder. It was quite a shock for us, actually." He rose an eyebrow at the last statement.

Temari now poked his forehead. "Remember, boke, that you never slept when you were alive because of Shukaku."

"Well, luckily he's Kazesuna now." Now her eyebrow rose and he covered his mouth. "Oops...I wasn't meaning to tell you that..."

"Who is Kazesuna?" She asked. He held up his sword.

"My zanpakuto. It's weird...but we're literally connected as one soul." He shrugged. "We melded over the years because originally your zanpakuto is part of your soul." There was an awkward silence before he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Um...If you wouldn't mind I need to get dressed..."

She paused and then noted that he was dripping wet and only wearing a towel around his waist. "Oh, sorry...I forgot you took a shower. But anyways, I'm making breakfast...want any?"

"What're you making?" He asked.

She smiled. "Kankurou asked for me to make pancakes because its Saturday."

"Saturday? Oh, right...Kazekage's day off."

And she left the boy, a bittersweet feeling in her chest that left her wiping a tear from her eye.

--

Kankurou awoke groggily, yawning loudly as he rolled over in his bed, basking in the warmth as he found himself unusually cold that day. As he made to go back to bed, he started sniffing. The smell of pancakes roused him from his sleep, leaving him trudging to the kitchen and rubbing his eyes. Temari looked up from the stove, and smiled again.

"Morning sleepy-head." He opened one eye slightly, still half-asleep and confused by her perkiness.

He yawned yet again and laid his head on the table. "You're never so perky in the morning...what's up? Did you get to see Baki utterly humiliate himself by getting drunk off his ass and start singing that stupid Llama song or something?" She snorted at the idea.

"No, but that would be very amusing. The reason is right in front of you." Now Kankurou shook himself a little more awake to see Gaara staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Gaara!" He jumped out of his seat, almost suffering from a heart attack. "I thought you were dead! Or am I still dreaming?"

Gaara simply turned to give a look to Temari, who was stifling laughter before Gaara also chuckled a little, before the two siblings broke into a fit of laughter at Kankurou's confusion. "What's going on here?! I'm being serious!" He cried.

"You don't remember! Man, the look on your face!" Temari cried, her eyes watering from all the laughter. And then the memories crashed in once he was fully awake.

"...Oh...Sorry Gaara..."

"I expected that. You were half-asleep. But still, it was funny."

"Oh? What's this? Gaara-taichou relaxing! Man, where's a camera when you need it?!" They now saw Ichigo sitting in the window sill, a mischeivous cat-like smile on his face. However, that was before the sand grabbed his leg and hung him upside-down. Spluttering indignantly, he thrashed around, shouting, "Cut it out dammit!"

Gaara mocked surprise. "OH! I'm sorry Kurosaki, I thought you were a rogue ninja."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." He now huffed with narrowed eyes as finally the boy dropped him rather harshly on the tiled floor. Grumbling, he gingerly rubbed his sore back-side, before standing and stretching.

"But really, why are you here?"

"Well, you don't expect me to let so much sand get in my face do you?" He asked. "Besides, Namikaze-taichou sent us a Hell Butterfly with new information." He nodded as the butterfly entered and then landed on his finger.

"There have been a noticed change in Aizen's motives. A majority of his attention is now diverted to the shinobi world. As a result, Hitsugaya-taichou will be redirected to the current location of Sabaku-taichou and Kurosaki-taichou to rendezvous, Matsumoto-fukutaichou will be sent to Hitsugaya-taichou's location, Ikkaku and Yumichika will be sent to Konoha, and according to Namikaze-taichou, there will be a meeting of the village leaders held in a weeks time - as such, Hitsugaya-taichou and Matsumoto-fukutaichou will only leave upon the ending of such meeting."

"Well Kankurou, looks like there is a Kage meeting for you to attend in a week." They looked at Gaara oddly.

"How do you?..."

"Kazekage-sama!" A sand shinobi entered the room, holding a scroll. "Baki-sama sent this to you." He then looked and saw the two shinigami. "G-Godaime-sama!" But then he bowed his head. "Gomen, I will be taking my leave." And after Gaara took hold of the scroll, the ninja left.

"Well, news of your return has likely spread all across Suna." Temari began dully. "But...on the other hand...you were right...!" They had only then just looked over the scroll.

"Shinigami communication is more efficient and faster due to the fact that only Shinigami can understand the Hell Butterfly's messages." He said. Then, the red-head lifted the butterfly to eye level and stared at it for a moment. "Now go!" Then he sent the butterfly away, and it flew out the window.

"What did you say?" Ichigo asked plainly. "I wasn't paying attention to catch the damn thing."

"We're going to be leaving in three days, so I sent the message to warn them of a raging strawberry travelling several hundreds of miles per hour...damn, and I just got here too." Sighing, he shrugged. "The life of a Shinigami..."

--

And it was as it turned out - they engaged in an uneventful trip to return to where they had been only several days before. Upon entry, Hitsugaya was smoothered in a large bust of a bubbly orange-haired female.

"Taichou~!" She grinned heartily as Hitsugaya muffled something as he struggled violently against the death grip of his vice-captain, most likely "I CAN'T BREATHE". She pulled away and he took in a large gulp of air.

"How many times have I told you not to do that?!" And now he got a full look of her, and twitched. "And people thought your outfit was revealing before."

She used mesh. Lots. And lots. Of mesh. She had a full mesh shirt under a skimpy dark blue tank shirt (that failed to cover fully her stomach and also had a low neck-line), which extended all the way to her black gloves. She wore a white mini-skirt with black short-shorts underneath and thigh-high ninja boots. And meeting the boots were more mesh.

"Dude...Hot babe!" Kankurou said, eyes wide as he let out a long whistle. "Nice figure." She smiled.

"Surprisingly, the men I've met in the ninja world are more respectable."

"No, there are perverts around here, I assure you." Gaara said. "Example...this one guy...friend of Naruto...Hmm...can't remember his name."

"Jiraiya?" Temari suggested. He snapped his fingers in realization.

"Yeah! That's it. Jiraiya." But then he saw the shinobi that hadn't been there earlier because they'd been on missions - Lee, Neji, Tenten, Shino, Hinata, Kiba, Ino, and Chouji; all had been on several different missions, and as such were wide-eyed when they saw him.

"Is that?..." Naruto, who had also been in the group - the group was all of the Konoha 11, plus Sai - seemed a little shocked.

"Oops, I forgot to tell you about that, didn't I?" They gave him a look. But then Shikamaru and Sakura too shrugged slightly.

"We also forgot." But aside from that, Naruto came up to him and dragged him over, despite his minor protests.

"Gaara's back...kind of." He felt a little awkward around them, especially since he did not know them too well. Neji rose an eyebrow.

"Kind of? What do you mean kind of?"

"The fact that he's still dead." Now Hitsugaya, tired of being smothered by Matsumoto, walked over to their company.

"You - You're that boy -"

"The one that sent me to Soul Society, Hitsugaya Toshirou. The current situation is actually spiraling downward at this point." Gaara said, filling in for the snowy-haired captain.

"Current situation?" Gaara's eyes rolled.

"Naruto...you haven't...told them...anything..." He growled, having now grabbed his collar. Naruto chuckled nervously.

"Ehe...I haven't gotten around to it..." Then a polite cough interrupted them. They looked up to see Minato standing there. They were standing, gaping, while staring at the unforgettable person.

"Sabaku-taichou, you have a Hell Butterfly message addressed to you."

"Hi dad!" Naruto said, smiling. Gaara allowed the butterfly to land on his finger, but instantly repeled, his eyes wide and unfocused and a twitching, aggravated semi-amused look on his face before collapsing on the floor in a heap, mumbling what barely could be interpreted as curses towards the blond captain.

"What happened to him?!" Naruto asked. Analyzing the boy for a moment, Minato started laughing.

"Ah, its nothing. He's just temporarily been deafened by one of his mothers rants." Now Gaara slowly picked himself back up, still dazed with a strange ringing in his ears.

"Ow...Note to self...don't forget to write to parents...It comes with cruel and unusual punishment..." He gingerly rubbed his head.

"Aside from that, the meeting is going to start soon!" Matsumoto had now come over, smiling, and then she saw Gaara. She ignored the wolf-whistle of Kiba as she approached the red-head, who had begun to back away slowly. "Gaara-kun!" She hugged him too - resulting that his face was burried within the killer cleavage. "I miss my drinking buddy!" He struggled violently as Hitsugaya had done, and also recieved a sympathetic look from the shorter shinigami.

"Matsumoto..." Hitsugaya began. Gaara continued to struggle, but his efforts were dwindling.

"Ha~i, taichou?" She asked coyly.

"Please let go of Gaara-san, I fear he's choking to his second death." She did as she was told and Gaara immediately began gasping for air again, dizziness overclouding him.

"Dammit...Ran....what are you trying to do...kill me?"

"Gomen!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute, drinking buddy? What have you not told us about yet little brother?" Temari and Kankurou loomed over their third sibling, who chuckled sheepishly.

"I'm...going over there now..." He instantly made to depart; however, his siblings caught his coat. He sighed, knowing they would never leave him alone otherwise.

"Oh, don't worry Gaara-kun, I can speak." Matsumoto said. "Shortly after he came to Soul Society and was granted full captaincy, I noted how he was...well, stiff like a board. He never relaxed. Thus, I introduced him to the world of alcohol. He opened up pretty easily after that. Ichigo was actually pleased at the progress I made with this kid - he was almost as bad as Hitsugaya! But luckily we managed to pull him in too - sand does its wonders once in a while."

"...You're a light-weight?" Gaara scowled at his elder brother.

"Shut up."

"You drink alcohol?" Naruto asked, wide-eyed as well.

"....Shut up." He now trudged away.

"Even though I never knew him too well..." Neji began, slowly. "Its obvious that he's changed...drastically."

"Yeah, like Naruto-drastic." Kiba added.

"HEY!" Naruto cried, seeming extremely offended, but obviously exaggerating it.

"We treated him like a human. Not a weapon, or monster. Ostracizing is the wrong way to creating a person, and it leaves them messed up for a while. We only fixed him." Ichigo said. "The exact same thing that I said to that Baki guy - he was wondering the same thing a few days ago."

"The Gaara you see now - the sarcastic, antagonistic, but light-hearted, tempered and rather enjoyable Gaara you see now - is the Gaara that should have existed from the start." Now even the shinigami were looking at him oddly.

"Ichigo...did you finally grow a brain?" Renji had now appeared, and was asking this of the other male. However, this led very quickly to an escalating fist fight. Though, the further extension of the fight was quelled with Hitsugaya freezing them with Hyorinmaru.

"Ak! Toshirou, why the hell-" The using of his first name just led to more ice. Finally, Hitsugaya breathed out calmly, and relieved.

"Finally, no more annoyances." Then he followed in Gaara's direction while Matsumoto used Haineko to thaw out the ice.

"Ja! We'll introduce ourselves and get to know each other later, we have to attend that meeting!" Matsumoto said, and with that, they were off.

"Dude...normally I wouldn't say this...but man, they're crazy!" Kiba said.

"WE HEARD THAT!" Was a distant shout. Whether it was Gaara or Hitsugaya, it was unsure.

One thing was for certain, though. Well, several. One; the environment in the ninja world did crazy things to the shinigami. Two; Gaara certainly had changed, and with the current knowledge of his new personality it seemed for the better. Three...

"Kiba? Yeah, I suggest you start running. You have about an hour before you have two angry Shinigami after you...and boy, can they run fast. That one guy, Kurosaki, made it to Suna from here in an hour."

Temari smirked as her words made Kiba pale.

--

Bleh. Meeting next time. :D