It was several hours later, well past the sun set and the moon was high in the star cut sky. Even now, the stars seemed to have a cast of red to them – as if they were relishing from a sacrifice.

Gaara entered the village with the barest of nods towards the guards – his grim expression and the burden in his arms enough to still the questions that were on the tip of their tongues.

Not Temari's though, the wind possessing kunoichi rushed forward as soon as he passed the entrance. Her garb the same mess as it had been when she had walked away from the eerie fight. It was odd, but as her wide teal eyes anxiously sought his out as she came to hover a foot away from him, it was the first time that his sister had looked so womanly.

"Gaara?"

For once it wasn't a questioning tone about, his well-being or sanity but towards the limp body that he cradled close to him.

Kankuro and Matsuri were quiet in their appearance, simply falling in a step behind him as they made their way towards the Kazekage tower. Their battle splattered appearances and the cold expression on their leaders face was enough to keep any person from coming forward to ask what happened. Halfway Baki grimly joined their march.

But the unconscious and battered form of the Konoha's ambassador was enough to send the spark of rumors throughout the village.

Tightening his hold on her, letting the threatening air around him expand until the few people that were out swallowed nervously and shifted back towards whatever they were doing.

Once having been a murderous terror did have its usage.

Reaching the doors of their residence, he didn't pause to allow Temari to open the door. Leaning back, he brought a leg up and viciously kicked open the doors; striding through them without a backward glance.

The secretary bolted up from her seat; rushing around the desk to hurry up to him.

"Kazekage! Is she injured? Shall I summon a medic?"

This caused a pause, and he turned to catch his sister's eyes. Her eyes searched his for answers, but nodded in response to the unspoken favor. Throwing out a hand to stop their sensei, she began speaking to the wide eyed woman in a low voice.

Kankuro crept up to his side. His paint smeared, and Gaara caught the shadow of blood on his chin and noticed his student's absence but didn't spare a longer thought as he murmured.

"I think it's better to take her to my room…"

As they reached the end of hall where his suite was, Kankuro picked up the pace to open the doors for him. Catching his eyes- the puppeteer simply shrugged.

"We can't afford anymore broken doors."

Ignoring him, he marched up to the unused bed that was situated in the corner room. Gently laying Ino down on the wrinkle free cream and crimson blankets – he turned away to unhook his gourd to put it in its customary corner before turning back.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, he brushed the dirty hair away from her closed lids.

"Did she see?"

A damp cloth was held out by his face, and with a nod towards Kankuro he took it and began to softly wipe at the grime that was on her face.

"Stopped her before..I shouldn't have..but.."

The hand resting on the covers convulsed and sand across the room rattled in its case as the memory of the last few hours replayed in his mind.

"Gaara."

The firm hand on his shoulders had him forcibly relax again and he resumed his ministrations. He hated feeling helpless. Watching the strong woman lying in front of him and cry like she was being tortured been almost too much for him. Emotions were dangerously unknown to him in the sense that others didn't often give theirs to him.

Ino had, she was the first person since Naruto who had bluntly told him to quit living in the past and focus on the future. Who stood up to him, yet even when she was berating him she still defended him and comforted him in her odd insulting way.

Ino had become a friend since the day she had told him to stop being so sensitive about stuff, had become something much more than anyone else since the day she had touched his mark of being some monster and asked to kiss him –after feeling her shake from pain that he couldn't fix, Gaara wasn't sure he knew what he was doing anymore. Not that he had to begin with.

Feeling drained, he let his shoulders slump. Something he would only ever allow to happen in front of his siblings and now Ino. Though it didn't count for her right now as she was unconscious.

"I..don't know what to do for her."

Kankuro's eyes widened at the admission before narrowing with emotion unseen to the red head.

"Well, first you two need to leave so I can get her out of those clothes."

Temari's voice of reason had both guys jumping guiltily while turning to face where she was standing in the door with a bundle of what was presumed to be fresh clothes. She didn't let her expression show that she had witness the scene, and the lump in her throat was forcefully swallowed as she continued while walking towards the other side of the bed.

She saw the way her little brother's eyes narrowed at the thought of leaving the blonde's side, and though it was sweet to see him acting so possessive towards the girl, but it wasn't helping.

"Gaara, she's not going to want to wake up in all of this. Besides she'd probably kill us all if she found out that I let you two change her."

Kankuro grinned at that, stepping back from the two while wisely not saying anything. Gaara simply stared down at Ino – his hand setting the wash cloth down so he could rest it gently at the base of her throat. The pulse was weak but steady, sending relief through his spine until Temari quietly spoke to him.

"Gaara.. it's not going to be her body that will be damaged," when his bright eyes that always reminded her of the treasured sea glass she collected, looked up full of something close to desperation, she laid her hand on top of his, "this is why she didn't want to work with children. She knows she too tender hearted, and that she gets too attached. She probably is going to think it is all her fault."

His glared didn't affect her.

"I know, but what do I do?"

And that was why she had come to love her baby brother.

Smiling sadly at him, Temari stood up and began to separate the items in the bundle she had brought.

"I'm not sure, we'll just have to wait till the little flower wakes up and then we will see."

Placing the last item on the end of the bed, she turned and began to usher Kankuro out of the room. Getting him to the door, she turned to tell Gaara to leave when the sight she saw had her moving to block the view from her other sibling.

Suna's 'heartless beast' was leaning over Konoha's 'flower' brushing the hair back from her dirty forehead before placing a kiss on the smooth skin and a few whispered words.

When Gaara turned to leave the room, he paused at the tall kunoichi's averted head as he walked past. He couldn't tell but he was sure her cheeks her wet but before he could ask she was all but shoving them out with a rough.

"I'll come get you when I'm done."

She waited until she had the doors securely shut before bringing a hand up to wipe at the tears that were running down her face. Going towards the bed she leaned over to trace the pale face on the pillow before choking out a whisper.

"He was right."

…………………

Baki was a man of old tastes. He preferred the old rigid rules and training in the school of ninja; thinking that these new ways were too lax. His gender role views were, admittedly outdated, but such ways of thinking were hard to change when it's how he has been living for the majority of his life.

This was why he never fully understood Temari.

Wild and tenacious with a bite of soft steel; respect forged out of thinly sharpened blades disguised in a feminine weapon, he had always considered her more of a wild card than Gaara pre-Chuuin exams. Her moods had been far more vast and complex than the demon possessed child, at least he was always on the lookout for a kill, a general dangerous sulking brat. No change there, a good solid routine.

She was anything but routine; it had been tiring to train her.

This wasn't to say that Baki hadn't realized and learned that she was an irreplaceable asset to the team and village, though he secretly admits that he shouldn't have let his sexism blind him from such things for so long, it had just taken a while.

Still, old ways are almost impossible to fix but given time might be able to; Chiyo had proven that with her sacrifice. A feat he will always been grateful for and ashamed of.

The children of the sand had not been what he wanted, he hadn't asked to raise and train three snot ragged and highly dangerous brats. He had been just as, if not more, reluctant than them when they found out that they were going to be put together.

A good ninja doesn't show his emotions though, so Baki had sucked it up, dealt with having a rather pigheaded girl on his genin team, or having to watch his back against the smallest member just in case the child decided to reassure himself of his existence.

On the outside they had appeared to be the failures of that generation. Kankuro was the obvious loser of the trio, wanting to learn an art from that was in the decline, yet having a poor attitude about the career in general. Temari was a snubbed nose mini bitch who was just as determined to use a weapon that no respectable ninja would want to train with. And Gaara, well Gaara was so mentally unstable that Baki honestly cannot remember much of his training.

These were all the thoughts that haunted him now.

Watching as Kankuro made his way back from the Kazekage's room, heading towards the older man; Baki couldn't help but feel the familiar twinge of guilt and shame in his gut. He had judged those kids with superficial assumptions, and it was the biggest mistake he had ever made.

"Temari kicked us out so she could change her."

Ah, this was what was really eating him up.

Ino Yamanaka.

She had met them before, on much different circumstances, some that would have scarred any kind of cordial acquaintances, but not her. The bright blonde had simply walked into their village and embraced the three siblings as if they had never tried to invade her home village or had homicidal urges.

She unnerved him.

"Gaara should have taken her to the hospital."

He glanced at his side to catch the bemused gaze his oldest student threw at him before turning back to watch the corridor that the youngest sibling had taken.

"Ino really does bother you, and I get the feeling it's not because she has a vagina huh?"

Frowning at the language, Baki stilled for a moment while trying to decide what it was that bothered him. Next to him, use to the wait, the younger shinobi leaned against the wall with his arms crossed across his chest.

The question was a sound one because Baki really didn't know how the younger woman bothered him. It wasn't the same as with Temari and most of the other kunoichi in the village, it was more..personal.

It necessarily wasn't because of what she was doing, he was grateful to her presence being here and the improvements that it affecting. No, it had nothing to do with her being a kunoichi, or at least not all of it.

Carefully peeling back in his memories, Baki went through inventory that he had hoped he wouldn't even have to look at too closely.

"She accepted everyone much too easy."

Kankuro's smeared painted face was all surprise as he turned fully to him, before assuming an expression of calculation; as if his former pupil was trying to decipher a deeper meaning from him. It wasn't appealing to have the roles switched.

"Everyone as in …Gaara?"

He twitched his shoulders before straightening up and facing the ninja head on. It was unmanly to dance around a subject like this, and perhaps he needed to talk about it more than he had originally thought.

"Yes, she had seen him before and hadn't seen him after – hadn't witnessed his hard work…and yet she prances in here and suddenly Gaara can't even.."

He trailed off as the young man threw back his head and howled with laughter. Baki glared with promised violence until Kankuro quieted down, throwing the startled lobby woman an apologetic grin before turning back to give Baki a serious look that contradicted his past actions of a moment ago.

Baki almost thought he saw a bitter self mockery in it but didn't speak before Kankuro's voice came out low, his eyes now on the distant wall.

"There's no hiding with her, if you don't say it she already knows it or can guess it."

It was Baki's turn to stare now. That was it; Yamanaka bothered him because every time she was around, he was reminded on how he had shallowly judged three of the most important people to him now. How he had so closed mindedly shut them out when they had needed him the most, only to realize later how great they really were.

She reminded him of all of his regrets, and she didn't even need to say anything; it was the way she lived.

The Leaf ninja didn't feel fear towards Gaara, even though she had known his past, in fact there was obvious mutual attraction growing between them that set Baki's teeth on edge. She didn't judge carelessly on first impressive, but she observed. Hell, he knew she was watching everyone even when she was throwing random fits about aimless things, gauging people's responses. It was like, one glance from her cerulean eyes, and she knew exactly what a person's deepest thoughts were.

No ninja was use to such an exposed feelings. No ninja wanted someone to look at them and see the monster they had to be some times.

"Gaara would never be able to hide."

Startled again as Kankuro shrugged off the wall to swing around and face him, Baki took in the stiff set of his shoulders and the resigned look in his eyes. It was always a bit of a surprise to see the physical similarities between Kankuro and his tyrannical father, yet none of the similar personality traits.

He hesitated before deciding not to respond, letting the silence grow with unspoken questions and words that were gnawing at his gut. Yes, Gaara could never hide his past, and he deserved someone to see him as he should be seen.

The question was what was going to happen when she leaves?

……………

Temari wasn't a squeamish person; she didn't let things get to her that would send most people running from the uncomfortable implications of a situation.

This did not mean she didn't feel like an intruder as she slowly eased off the unconscious woman's clothes.

Being a kunoichi, Temari had been made well aware of certain missions that might be presented to her throughout her career as a deadly woman ninja. Fortunately it seemed like such missions were either extinct or the council simply didn't think she had the qualities of one that could easily seduce men without decapitating them first.

She didn't mind – mostly because it was true – she lacked the ability to manipulate the game of chase and catch with the opposite sex. The batting of the eye lashes, the false suggestions of innuendo that always seemed to send the smartest man floundering in his pants. She didn't have the patience, not the mind set.

This, of course, didn't mean Temari lacked sexuality because she definitely had that, even if she lacked the sex part.

Snorting at her thoughts, she gently lifted Ino up to remove the rest of the cropped top before setting her down. Ino had the perfect genetic make up for the game; she had the looks, the intelligence, but mostly the patience of a cunning fox waiting for her kill. The kind of set up that made ninja elders sit up and take attention to primp a seductive assassin. It was lucky in a way that the girl had only gone on one mission where it had led to the whole deal of rape and only then after the blonde had been bludgeoned.

It was just pathetic that being raped only once was seen as luck in their line of work.

The skin on her stomach was darker than of her chest, Temari grinned as she picked up the abandoned wet cloth to dab at the dirt that covered the hollow stomach. The contrast of skin tone wasn't much as if the girl had suddenly gained pigment so much as she was now a body of multi-tones of pale. This girl would always be a paste.

It wasn't so comical though, as she took notice of the forming bruises that were going to decorate her midsection in a few days. Catching her eye, Temari leaned closer to see that underneath the sickly yellow, there were a multitude of silver scars randomly places on the kunoichi's exposed skin. Reminders of battled fought and won. She had a few of her own.

Quickly removing the rest of the kunoichi's filthy clothes, Temari left her mind blank as she replaced them with the baggy pair of work out pants and sleeping shirt she had discovered in the girl's room. Her eyes didn't stray to the scars that layered her friend's inner thighs.

After tossing the remains of the dirty clothes into a corner, Gaara kept a clean room and she had accidently found that he didn't like laundry left out – something that her and Kankuro had taken turns annoying him with after they had grown closer, Temari dampened a fresh cloth and began to clean the cuts around Ino's palms and face.

They were small marks, as if the girl had brushed against jagged rocks or maybe even nail marks. Temari respectively cleaned away the debris out of the cuts before wiping away the dirt on her face, leaving no signs of the tear tracks that had been evident.

A small gift for what she had given to them since she had come to the village.

Ino was a person of…big personality, and at least Temari hadn't been too sure of her; this tall blonde who proclaimed constant diets and other such rubbish that Temari didn't bother with. Then the girl had started to shed her outer layers, the superficial ones that kept the rest of her protected in a world of harshness, and she had found that the lazy crybaby's teammate was a sharp funny ninja who had all the right morals in all the right places – even if she had goofy ways of showing them.

A female friend was something that was highly treasured in Temari's world.

Straightening up after efficiently laying a blanket over the girl, the long hair would have to wait for a real washing but Temari had cut the band that held it up in a tight ponytail. How the girl could even think with that much hair pulled back as tight as it was, she was shocked it hadn't blocked blood flow to the girl's brain – not that she wasn't sure it didn't.

She turned to the doorway where, without fail, Gaara appeared as if they were telepathically linked.

Taking in the appearance of her brother, Temari let her face show her disapproval. Not that he cared.

"Gaara, she isn't going to wake up anytime soon, at least go wash up or something."

His shadowed eyes didn't leave the place they had fallen to stare, somewhere between her and Ino on the bed, but she saw the twitch of finger and shifting of weight. It was a miracle to see that he reacted so far as he already has.

She understood, he needed something to do, something to keep his mind off of what might come when Ino wakes up. Temari just didn't know what to give him that would be useful. Casting a glance around, she sighed heavily before started towards the door.

"Gaara, I'm going to go talk to some people, please clean up and watch Ino for me. Thanks."

Then, without waiting for his response, Temari headed out to search for her brother.

…………………………………..

A/N: transition chapter, because I wanted to start a certain situation at the top of the next chapter and didn't really know how to get there. Snirk. Anyway, some of you might think this is overkill…but then this is INO we're talking about – and I had to get some explanations out of the way for future fun and games. Smirk.