Gaara's Room

Gaara glared at the locked steal door in annoyance. "Great. I wonder who set it off this time." His voice had changed. It was lower in pitch, and seemed more monstrous. It was closer to a growl, and it was resonating with annoyance. He obviously was not pleased with the early lockdown, but for him, the worst part was the effects that that are soon to come. He felt annoyed that he will have no control over himself. What bugged him more is that Shukaku is going to pop up soon.

"Sup Dude!" Speak of the devil. Gaara looked over at the brown haired man. He was Japanese, but he had a surfer's tan. He popped up when Gaara first had the "problem," and Shukaku was annoying the hell out of him.

When Gaara did nothing but glare at him, the entity just held his hands up in defense. "Chill dude. You know the drill."

Gaara merely snorted to show his disagreement. Shukaku sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Dude, I don't care if you don't like it, you stuck with me 'till you almost done with the tails and ears."

Gaara snorts at him before looking at him directly in the eye. "And how long will THAT be." Man, Gaara can get really scary, but Shukaku seems unfazed.

Shukaku sighed as he looked tiredly at Gaara. "For you: two weeks. For the others, I don't know. Naruto and Sasuke are gonna experience it for the first time in a couple of days, and Neji is gonna start to get a pattern soon. Sakura… well, I just don't know."

Gaara went over to the darkest corner and slid down into a sitting position before looking back at Shukaku, who was smiling like an idiot. He couldn't stand idiots, and the only reason he could stand to be around Naruto was because he could relate and knew when Gaara didn't want to be disturbed. He also had interesting conversations about life, despite what most people think of him, he actually thinks a lot.

"Can I ask you a question?" Gaara's silhouette was barely visible through the shadows, but his eyes glowed with an eeriness that would cause most people nightmares.

Shukaku smiled at Gaara stupidly as he answered. "Gaara? Asking?" Gaara merely glared at Shukaku and his stupidity before he decided to go on. "Well it's obviously because I'm the only one who isn't terrified of you."

Gaara didn't buy it, and he made it known. "Stop with the bullshitting and answer the damn question."

Shukaku sighed in defeat as he looked at Gaara with serious eyes. "You're not gonna believe me and you're not gonna like it." Gaara's experience merely read 'try me.' Shukaku sighed before telling Gaara the reason behind himself. "I'm you're cousin who was gonna come and live with you guys after your mother died, but I was killed during a freak surfing accident, even though I know that I was assassinated as an operation to get rid of everyone on your mother's side of the family including her children. They got rid of everyone except you and your siblings, but they were waiting for a time were they could make it an accident."

"That doesn't explain why your with me." Shukaku holds up his hand to silence Gaara.

"I'm getting to that." He took a deep breath and started to continue on with his explanation. "Your mother had a wish before she gave birth that she told me. She wanted me to take care of you and your siblings while you guys grew up. I have been with you guys with you the entire time, being one of those ominous forces that stopped all of the many near death accidents. But, one day, when you guys barely made it out and you guys were in the waterfall, I had to make sure that you were able to heal enough so that you wouldn't die, and that's when I felt a strong spiritual presence. I stayed with you as I sent out my own message of distress to that presence, and after a little, the little boy you know as Naruto popped up with Neji. I was surprised that he was the one I felt, but then I also felt someone else hanging around that Neji boy. So, to sum it all up, you can say I stole the job of guardian angel, without being your official guardian angel."

Shukaku too a deep breath as he caught his breath over what he just said, and so that Gaara would be able to process what he said. But then again, he's dead, so why is he trying to catch his breath? He stared straight into Gaara's eyes, and saw that they had softened. For some reason, that made him more scared than his glare ever could, but maybe it's because he's never been on the receiving end of that look before. A long silence stretched over a period of time, where neither of them spoke, but Shukaku was trying his hardest to keep eye contact, but it was difficult for him, since Gaara had a look in his eye that he couldn't read.

"Thank you."

Shukaku looked straight into Gaara's eyes, and he seemed to have tensed up at hearing that rare declaration from Gaara. "Huh?"

Gaara smirked at Shukaku's faltering before repeating himself. "Thank you."

There was a moment of silence, in which most of all the tension that Shukaku felt seemed to have fallen off and roll away, but Shukaku couldn't help but smile at Gaara. After so long with him being scared that Gaara wasn't going to accept him, but instead run him off was all out of false expectations.

"You're welcome."

Neji's Room

Neji looked around his room before he decided to fly up to one of the bars and swings hanging from his ceiling. He was glad for this improvement that Kankuro was able to add onto his room for it gave him a larger sense of freedom. He felt calm and relaxed, so he decided to just play around until she appeared. As he was hanging upside down, he felt her fly up behind him.

"'Bout Time you got here." Neji turned his head toward her, and there she was looking at him with an amused look in her eyes, but a still face. She had long dark brown hair like him, and she also had the same type of eyes as him. He knows that she's related to him, but he just doesn't know how. Every time they meet, he always forgets to ask her, or he just didn't see it as important at the time. But, seeing as how he is probably going to be stuck here for a while, so might as well ask now.

"Yeah, well, you just gonna be starting soon, but I'm gonna last until all of you guys finish up completely, same goes for the others." Neji nodded at the new found information before asking his own questions.

"Hanabi, how are you related to me?" The girl just looked at him kind of weirdly before answering with her own question.

"Why do you think we're related?" Neji just smirked at her in amusement before answering.

"You look a lot like me, and I don't think many people have the same colored eyes as me." Hanabi smirked at Neji's logic, but she also could use this to see just how perceptive he is.

"Then do you know that your cousin goes to your school?" Neji's eyes did flicker once, but he kept his facial expression cool. Hanabi decided to use her as a way of explanation. "Well, she's my older sister, but we really weren't able to bond that well since my father always kept us apart."

Neji nodded, and flew down to his bed so he could sit and talk to Hanabi more comfortably. "I remember her from when I was younger. Hinata, she always seemed like the shy type, but she seemed gloomier the last time I saw her."

"Yeah. I died a year after I was born, and also a month before you escaped. My father was a very cruel man, and said that Hinata was useless, and he said that I was going to be the stronger heir to the Hyuuga clan when he leaves his chair. Even though I was just a baby, my memory was still very vivid. He terrifies me to the core of my soul, but what made me more terrified of him was when I figured out why he killed your father."

Neji shot up straight and got as close to Hanabi as he could without going through her. "Why? Why did he have to kill my father? He never did anything that could have given him that punishment, so why?" Neji was hyperventilating as he let his anger release into the air. Hanabi was a little freaked out by this since she was so used to him always being so calm and emotionless, so seeing him break down like this was weird and scary for her, especially now since he was crying. It's times like these in which she wished that either Gaara or Naruto were right there with him.

Hanabi took a deep breath and looked directly straight into Neji's eyes before giving him her answer, and finally the truth of his father's death. "He was killed because he was seen as a threat toward the clan. My father thought that he was raising you to overthrow the clan's power, so he decided to get rid of him before hand. He killed him, but when he noticed that you were still progressing at a fast rate, he decided that you were still a threat, so he decided to eliminate you."

"It's weird though. I think that he was mentally ill, and still is." Hanabi looked at Neji, and Neji sat back down and buried his head into his hands.

"Why do you say that?" Neji was sad and he felt tired for no apparent reason. He wanted to go to sleep, but he felt like he had to listen to the rest of her story.

"Well, he would always talk to me about everything. Actually, the month I died, he was the one who killed me. He thought that he was keeping me safe from the intruders, so he put me under a bunch of blankets and sat on them as you came in. That I remember vividly, because I was dying and the last sounds I heard as I passed on were your screams as he beat you. I felt bad, and after all that I knew had happened because of my father, I had decided to watch over you. To me, you were my Onii-chan. I made sure that the beatings were stopped or not as bad. But, when you escaped and they came after you, I created obstacles and openings for you to run through so they wouldn't catch you. I helped you so that you could run for days, but after you collapsed, I called out for help. I felt someone strong spiritually, and he came, but I didn't know that it was Naruto. I doubted him at first, but after I saw how he took care of you, I was confident about your well being."

Neji let a small smile come across his face as he looked over his guardian angel, even though he knew that she wasn't officially, but in reality, for him, she was. Then again, he just remembered something.

"Why are you so old if you died when you were a baby?"

Indeed Hanabi was older than when she had died. In fact, she looked to be twenty years old, but very tomboyish in how she was presented.

"Because I wouldn't have been able to take care of you if I was a baby and with all that I knew, I had the knowledge and wisdom of a grown woman." Neji nodded as he understood what she meant, but he was getting sleepy. He was drifting off, but he just had to say one more thing before he did.

"Thank you."

Hanabi smiled warmly at his sleeping form. She went over and threw a cover over him so he wouldn't be cold. True she might be a spirit, but that didn't mean that she had no power.

"Night Neji."