It was Monday and a certain redhead was extremely nervous about the next day. He, Tsunade, and Yumi had already gone over what the procedure for Tuesday was going to be. It was only now that he was beginning to have second thoughts. He was still afraid that he was going to hurt someone, even though he was going to be restrained.

Gaara didn't like losing control of himself. When he lost control, it was like he was losing time. He wasn't able to remember anything that happened during that time period. It was aggravating and it made him miserable. He could kill someone and he wouldn't remember it.

Just then, the door opened and two people walked in. Gaara stared at the man walking alongside Yumi, taking in his features. He focused on the two large scars on his face.

"Gaara, this is my professor Ibiki Morino." The redhead nodded, pulling his legs to his chest. "He's going to help us tomorrow, so I wanted to introduce you two before then."

"What happened?" Gaara asked the tall man. Ibiki raised an eyebrow in confusion. The redhead used his index finger to draw an invisible line across his face. The older man laughed.

"I wasn't always a psychology professor," he told the young patient. "I was in the military for awhile." Gaara nodded in understanding. That was all he really needed to know.

"Do we have to shake hands?" he asked, looking into the man's brown eyes. Ibiki smirked at his question.

"Why do you ask that?" Gaara cast an accusatory glance at Yumi.

"She told me that it was polite to shake hands when I meet someone new." The professor slowly approached the redhead and extended his hand. Gaara slowly reached out, grasped a hold of it and shook it. He was slightly amused at how big the adult's hand was compared to his.

The redhead took his hand back and looked up at Yumi to see then that she was smiling at him. She looked like she was enjoying everything that was happening, but he wasn't sure what she was so amused about.

"I told Ibiki that you liked playing checkers." The man nodded.

"I know that Yumi isn't much of a challenge, so while I'm here, would you like to play a game?" The redhead thought for a moment before nodding.

Yumi watched as the two males sat down on the floor and played a game of checkers. The two of them were relatively quiet. Every now and then, Gaara would ask the older man questions about himself. Ibiki would answer them and follow them up with questions of his own. The redhead would sometimes look up at Yumi, almost as if he was making sure he was doing everything right. The brunette would just give him a smile and he would look away again.

Yumi knew that Gaara wouldn't have accepted Ibiki so easily if she hadn't been there. He had grown to trust her somewhat and knew that she would make sure nothing happened to him. If the woman said he was safe, then he would have to trust her. She hadn't lied to him yet and did her best not to give him false information. There had been one time that she had accidentally given him the wrong information. As soon as she learned of her mistake, she immediately corrected it though.

After about twenty minutes of playing, Ibiki had jumped Gaara's last piece. The redhead sighed in defeat and looked up at the instructor with bored eyes. The man smirked and started picking the pieces up.

"You're pretty good, Gaara," he told him. The redhead thanked him and helped him clean up.

Once the board had been picked up and put away, Ibiki looked down at his watch and sighed. "I have to be going now," he told Yumi. He then looked back down at Gaara and smirked. "It was nice to meet you. I guess I'll be seeing you again tomorrow." The redhead frowned and nodded. He watched as the man took his leave before standing up and taking a seat on his bed.

"Will he be in the room with us tomorrow?" he asked the female. Yumi sighed and took a seat beside him.

"He's going to observe from the outside," she told him. "Tsunade is going to be in the room for the first half and then I will come in and try to calm you down." The redhead nodded, folding his hands in his lap. He cringed upon feeling Yumi's hand on his shoulder.

"I want you to practice your deep breathing and relaxing exercises tonight. You remember what I'm talking about, right? We practiced them last week." Gaara sighed and nodded.

"Yes, I remember." The brunette smiled and giggled at his reaction. She rubbed his shoulder a little bit before pulling her hand away.

"Something is bothering you. I can tell." He bit his bottom lip for a moment before nodding again.

"I'm nervous."

"That is what your deep breathing exercises are for. You have no reason to be nervous anyway. This isn't a test, so there's no way for you to fail. We just want to observe your reaction and see if there is anything we can do to lessen or eliminate it."

"Can you tell me what's going to happen again?" Yumi nodded.

"We're going to strap you into a chair, just like you and Tsunade had agreed. I won't be in there for the first few minutes. Tsunade will expose you to the blood and I'll be watching your reaction from outside. She'll leave and you'll be alone for a couple of moments before I come in. I'll ask you some questions and try to talk with you, stuff we normally do."

"You won't hate me afterwards, will you?" Yumi's eyes widened with shock.

"Of course not, Gaara!" she assured him. "I promise that I won't hate you. You would have to do so much more than that to make me change my feelings towards you." The pre-teen smiled weakly and nodded.

Yumi looked down at her watch and sighed. "Before I leave, tell me what you are going to do tonight."

He rolled his eyes at her and shook his head. "Practice my deep breathing and relaxing technique." The older woman grinned and nodded. She ruffled his hair and stood up.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

Once he was alone, the real worry began to set in. He tried to focus on his deep breathing like Yumi had told him, but his thoughts started to wander. The redhead made things worse for himself, torturing himself with the thoughts of "what if".

After about two hours of agony, Gaara was able to get himself to calm down again. He lay on his bed, thinking of his past conversations with his female friend. He counted the days that she had been with him. Of course, Yumi had been with him longer than any of the other staff members and visited him more than any of the others.

Gaara didn't sleep that night, which wasn't surprising. He did, however, manage to keep himself rather calm for the rest of the night. Once Yumi and Tsunade came into his room the next morning, though, all his fear returned.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Look what you guys made me do! You made me post early again! Not that that's a bad thing! But seriously, 11 REVIEWS!! And all of them are at least 2 LINES LONG!! That combined with how excited I am about the next chapter crushed me like a bug and I couldn't withstand the waiting any longer. So I'll post chapter 11 soon after this. Hmmm... if I can get 11 reviews again, I can assure you that it will be before Wednesday. So what did you all think of the guest character, or whatever you want to call it.

A gigantic thank you to all the following reviewers!

Gaara-frenzy, Dynasty Artemis, Kitsune Slave, kitkat kezia, LadyAmazon, AddictedtoBleach, Kina Lupi, AP-Rhapsody slack-jawed cheese hugger, Sorami-san, and Cuzisme.

You guys rock the boat!

Okay, so next chapter you get to see how Gaara acts around blood. Anyway, I'm sure you're all curious as to what happens to Gaara, so the more reviews I get, the more persuaded I am to post early, as you have all witnessed. Also, the longer the better.

PLEASE REVIEW!!