Waking

I had been drifting in and out of consciousness for awhile. I was floating when I wasn't drifting. It was like I was a lost balloon cable, slipped away from the hand, cut off from the balloon itself; just floating around aimlessly.

While I was floating I saw and heard many things: voices, shadows, and monsters. Terrifying monsters; it was like a nightmare, and it was the kind where you are running and running from the monster but really you aren't going anywhere.

But then the murmuring grew louder and clearer and it was making my headache.

"Won't you shut up." I tried to mumble; it was hard.

"Did she say something?"

"What did she say?"

"Shut up all of you!"

The hushed whispers stopped, as if waiting for something.

"What am I supposed to do, turn into a rabbit?" I said again. I tried harder this time, and it felt coherent to me.

"Whoa, did she just say-"

"Shut up."

I sighed inwardly (because I couldn't outwardly, otherwise that would hurt too much). I guess I had better do something amazing then. But I couldn't.

I tried to move. The pain came to me like a tidal wave, and it washed over my body. I gasped and fell back, my eyes flying open.

Mixed Emotions

"RENNA!"

"You're awake."

"Good job Sakura; that didn't take long."

The pain was now registering: how had I not noticed it before? It was so all-consuming. I couldn't even speak correctly.

"The--pain--" I gasped.

"Not enough painkillers," Sakura said. "But you don't want too many…damn I'm low on medical supplies. I didn't know the genin would be in such bad shape…I cant treat them fully, so we have to hurry back to Suna as quick as possible." Sakura raised a glowing hand and pressed it too my body. The pain subsided briefly, then when she stopped it came back again. It was decreased by such an indiscernible amount that I didn't notice.

"Sorry," Sakura sighed, sensing that it did me no good. "I'm running out of chakra…I had to treat 12 genin, plus Gaara kind of…" she trailed off, her eyes straying to the redhead.

I looked over at him too. He was standing on a tree a few feet away from us, his back turned. His posture was rigid. He had a ton of scratches and bruises, and one deep gauge on his leg. It did not look cleaned up at all. Maybe transforming into Shukaku took a bigger toll on him than I thought.
"Did you…heal him at all?" I asked.

"Well he barely let me take care of his leg before shrugging me off," Sakura said bitterly.

I sighed inwardly again.

What to do. He would be so angry with himself. I guess I had better go talk to him, but I was still kind of angry with him.

Stupid emotions.

They were messing with my head.

Part of me felt sorry for Gaara. After he fought so hard to not be a monster, here he had gone and almost killed me. He would feel terrible.

But then again, I thought resentfully, he hates me now…he wouldn't care.

I was so disappointed. I wasn't able to keep my promise, the most important one in my life.

Leg

After about a half an hour of resting, and while Sakura tried to get me something to eat ("I'm not hungry, Sak, and my throat probably couldn't handle it.") I finally decided it was time to get a move on.

"Well lets go then, if we need to get the genin back to Suna." I nodded towards the 12 genin, all camped outside the building on top of the tree branches. Kankuro was with him, which was kind of questionable, because he looked like he was a kidnapper himself. It kept the genin inline real well.

"Um, Ren, are you sure? You don't look so great," Naruto commented.

"Yes. You obviously aren't in a fit shape to travel," Temari scoffed.

"I'm fine," I glared at Temari.

I tried to get up, wincing as I sat up straight. Then I concentrated on getting my feet up.

"Hmph. At this rate we should get about 2 feet by sunset," Temari said.

"Shut up I got it-" But then I gasped as I tried to move my other leg.

"My leg!?"

It felt like 1000 pounds, and every time I moved it, it throbbed like hell.

"Er, yeah you hit that leg really hard. Well you hit both of them hard on that fall, but that one was the worst," Sakura said apologetically.

"What the fuck? Are we stuck here?" I was extremely irritated. How long would it be until this damn leg was good enough to move again? It seemed like it would take weeks before I could move effectively again, as I looked at the bloody mass that was my leg.

I would be the stupid reason we were held back.

"Don't worry it's not your fault," Sakura said, reading my thoughts again.

"I guess," I sighed.

But then I caught the look Sakura gave to Gaara, who hadn't moved an inch.

"It's not his fault either," I hissed fiercely.

She seemed taken aback that I even noticed.

"No, no of course not! Hehe, well if it was anybody's it was Toru who riled him up," she said hastily.

Temari rolled her eyes. "You know what let's just camp here for tonight. Then by tomorrow hopefully Sakura will have enough chakra to heal your leg."

"Yeah okay," Naruto said.

"Yes but I won't be able to heal her leg completely all at once," Sakura said. "We may need to wait until tomorrow night to start traveling…or maybe even the next day."

Temari rolled her eyes and sighed.

She went over to Kankuro and explained things. He nodded and pointed to the building.

Then she went over to try to talk to Gaara, who must've said something because a moment later she walked away. He was still a statue over here, not moving at all.

"What's he trying to accomplish over there, not moving at all?" I said hissed.

"Hey not so hard on him Ren! He feels horrible," Naruto said.

He had been pretty quiet till now, so I was privately surprised that he spoke up in his defense.

"Whatevs…what's in that building? Can we sleep there?"

"There's a few cots in there that the genin had to share…so crowded. All of us can't possibly fit in there, but how bout you and me and a couple genin sleep in there? The rest can try to fit into our tents…"

I snorted. There was barely enough tents for the six of us. How were we supposed to fit in 6 more genin?

"You don't have to baby me," I pouted. "I could probably actually fall asleep right where I am."
Sakura wouldn't have any of that. I ended up spending the night in the stuffy building anyways, plus a few more complaining, snuffling genin.

A/N: ehhh i have this story all planned out but from here on out i gotta say it gets pretty weird...Dx like i said this is an experiment,,,,guess im not very good at romance!? anyway thanks to my wonderful reviewers!!!!! 3