Title: Koumajutsu
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I do not own "Naruto" or "Inuyasha". This will be Canon Naruto and Alternate Universe Inuyasha.

Chapter 36: Sleep Tea

Gaara of Sunagakure very rarely found himself in the position to be able to sleep. To say that he never slept would be close to the truth, but not quite there. He could, but only with medication. Once he took that medicine, he would be out like a burnt out light-bulb within the space of an hour, and the medicine would relax his body to such an extent that the demon inside of him, Shukaku of the Sand, would be unable to take control of him.

The jar of medicine was on his desk, shipped to him in a larger quantity and earlier than usual because the person who was in charge of putting the medicine together for him had fished a half dead man out of the river and was going to deliver him to Konohagakure and the shinobi there. That had been almost two months ago, though.

The letter had stated, "I don't anticipate being there longer than a few days. Added to that the time it will take to travel, this amount should get you through until I can put together more." The medicine was in the form of tea ingredients. He needed only one regular sized tea-cup of it and he could sleep for three hours straight.

He couldn't use more than a half tablespoon of it at a time because he was already pushing the dosage. More than a half tablespoon would put him to sleep in such a way that he wouldn't wake up again. He had to settle for three hours of sleep out of thirty hours, because it took that long for it to filter out of his system. So, running on thirty hour days (twenty-seven of those hours awake) and with him being incredibly strong and able to control Shukaku's sand element, Gaara was the best choice to be Kazekage of Sunagakure.

After Gaara's battle with Naruto Uzumaki (Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja), Gaara had decided he too would shoot for the stars and make being Kazekage his life goal. One year ago, he had been asked to take up the position. He had accepted it—conditionally, of course. His brother, Kankuro, and his sister, Temari, would work as his advisors and in the event that he had to have someone as an ambassador to another shinobi village it would be either Kankuro or Temari. Whichever was available at that time would go.

The Elder Council of Sunagakure agreed readily. Then, they threw the bombshell at Gaara after he had been sworn into office. He couldn't change his status as Kazekage unless he choose a successor—not that he wanted to after working so hard to even be considered for the position—but as Kazekage, he would have to break his family's original arrangements with the Yobidasu.

To be more precise, the arrangements were marital. Two weeks after he had been born, he had been betrothed to an unborn child. It was Ai Higurashi's child he was betrothed to. An ultrasound taken at the time revealed her child to be a girl, but after birth there was a surprise: twins were born. The agreement was put temporarily on the back burner until it could be decided which twin would be married to Gaara.

In the meantime, Gaara went to the Yobidasu for two weeks out of every year to spend with the girls. He could remember always being exhausted those days, and the younger twin always asked why. The older twin seemed to know why without asking. Shukaku had already been sealed inside him by then, and he was already taking medicine to help him sleep, but he was still considered to have full-blown insomnia.

As he grew up away from the twins, he was trained in the shinobi arts to become the ultimate weapon of Sunagakure. By the time the girls were three, they were already starting their training as Summoners and had already attached to their Level 3 summons. By the time he was five, he had already spilled blood. By the time he and the girls—they were only a few months younger—were six, it was decided that the younger twin would marry Gaara. He didn't even have to ask why. The elder twin disliked him and the younger twin followed him everywhere when he came to visit those two weeks of the year.

By the time they were eight, the younger twin—Kagome was her name—was told to take over the task of making his medicine. She was trained diligently for a full year before her father allowed her to do the job herself with only supervision. By the time they were twelve, she was released to do the job on her own not because her clan thought she was ready, but because the rest of her clan had died.

At the same time her clan was being massacred, Gaara had been part of an invasion planned on Konoha. He'd stopped taking the medicine she would mail him. He didn't care at the time if anyone else got hurt if Shukaku took him over. Mostly Shukaku would just take him hunting and after a full meal of bloody, uncooked meat, Shukaku would curl up in his body on the ground and sleep. He would be able to sleep then too.

That was probably why Gaara was a vegetarian. He wouldn't even eat fake meat. He could get needed nutrition from vitamin supplements rather than the real source. He always spent mornings after Shukaku's take-over vomiting when he saw what he had done. Just thinking about it brought the memory of metallic blood to his mouth and he had to gulp the water on his desk before he started gagging.

After his fight with Naruto, he'd started taking his medicine again. All the medicine he'd decided not to take got him through until he started receiving shipments from Kagome again. She had survived the attack on her clan and apologized for the lateness of the medication but her fields had been burned so she had to go farther than usual to get the needed herbs. In her letter at the time, she had also said he didn't need to come for his yearly visit to see her.

He hadn't listened. Six months later, his usual visiting time came around and he packed up and made his way to the Yobidasu. At the time, he had known there was an attack on the Yobidasu clan, but he didn't really know the extent of the damage. Kagome was still making repairs with the measly help of five others. Behind the once-great shrine, the Yobidasu gravestone was huge.

The cheerful happiness of his betrothed simply wasn't there anymore. She was mellow, covered in mud and grime, and she burst into tears when she saw him. "I told you not to come!" she had yelled. She ranted at him for coming, and he had ignored every word. He couldn't even remember all the things she'd said to him anymore.

"What really happened?" he asked her, but he received no answer as she hid her face in her hair shamefully and ran away from him. She used to have so many places she could hide, he remembered, but now those places had burned to the ground.

Her cousin, Sango, stepped forward to answer. Gaara had always liked Sango well enough. She wasn't as nice as Kagome, or as open, but she was very loyal to those she considered her friends. "It was Kikyou. She lost her mind and just attacked everyone. Kagome and I are the only ones left." He had glanced pointedly at the other four working on repairs to the building. "They're not really… well, human…" Sango had explained.

"Well, I'm not leaving." Gaara had said it, and meant it. He had stayed and helped as much as and wherever he could. The shrine had once been a formidable base, surrounded in a massive stone wall that was impregnable. The attack had clearly come from the inside. Blood and scorch marks stained the white stone of the wall and the courtyard. The front gate was off its hinges, but it seemed to have been battered out instead of in.

The many buildings of the shrine were not much more than low walls and ash. A temporary shelter had been set up as they cleared debris away and attempted to rebuild one of the smaller buildings to take shelter in during the coming winter. Gaara had been able to work long hours due to his inability to sleep anyway, so as the others slept he would continue working. He'd managed to help them get two small buildings erected in those two weeks.

He'd even managed to catch Kagome alone and was able to talk to her about what happened to him and about what happened to her. She needed to vent about what happened to her and he needed someone to know what he was told he was. He needed someone to confirm that Naruto was right when he said Gaara didn't have to be a weapon. He figured if there was anyone in the world who would tell him he wasn't just a tool, Kagome would be that person.

Instead, when he asked her she said the strangest thing. "But you are a weapon, Gaara. That's why you're a shinobi. Its how you use yourself that makes the difference." At first, he wasn't reassured. He'd gone back home a few days after their discussion and while she seemed to be doing better after talking to him, he was only more confused.

Then when they were fourteen and after Gaara had been sworn into Kazekage office, Gaara had been told he would have to break off his engagement to Kagome. They had heard she was now head of her clan—he'd had to tell the Elder Council what happened—and the Kazekage couldn't marry the head of a clan. He felt it was more an issue of how she ended up clan head than simply because she was clan head.

She was so angry with him when he broke off the engagement; she nearly strangled him to death. She might have if Sango and Itachi hadn't held her back. That woman could be downright scary when angered. Sunagakure almost lost another Kazekage that day. He was lucky she still felt it her duty to send his medicine after that. The brief letter he got with the large jar of medicine over two months ago was actually the first words she'd said to him.

She could hold grudges like no one else. Over a year had passed since he'd had to break off their engagement and she'd not said one thing to him. All of his letters to her had been returned unopened. He didn't even dare try going to see her. If she would return all his letters without even opening them, he would bet anything she would kill him on sight.

But all that brought Gaara back to his original problem. He couldn't sleep and he was getting worried. As Kazekage, his duty to his people was to protect them. How could he protect them from himself? The people of Suna still feared him even though he was Kazekage. A very minute amount of that fear came from his new title, but most of it came from Shukaku.

They all knew what Shukaku was capable of. What made that fear even worse was that they thought Gaara and Shukaku were one being. When they looked at him, they saw the raccoon demon. So, inevitably, they feared him as a consequence.

And that jar of medicine was getting incredibly low. He'd noticed last night when he watched Temari make his nightly dose of medicated tea. It was an awful tasting concoction that could, unfortunately, not be sweetened with sugar or milk without losing its medicated properties. He usually didn't bother watching Temari make it. He would usually stare out of the large window-wall over the city he protected and ran over his thoughts.

Where was his usual shipment? Had something happened to Kagome? He supposed it was possible. Three weeks prior, Sango had showed up in Suna with a Sunagakure native Gaara didn't exactly know. She had come to see Gaara and pay her respects when she first arrived. He had taken time out of a too-busy schedule much to the Elder Council's disappointment to show Sango around and her friend—a religious man by his robes—had been delighted to meet the Kazekage personally.

Sango had said Kagome left to go home a couple days before Sango had left to come to Sunagakure. It took approximately seven days to walk to Sunagakure from Konohagakure. The trip from Konohagakure to the Yobidasu territory was about a week and a half worth of travel, if pushed.

Not only could he not sleep on his own, and he had to worry over the safety of Suna from him, but honestly he was worried for the safety of Kagome. Just because he couldn't marry her due to technicalities, he still loved her as much as he loved Temari. Granted, he couldn't actually picture himself ever loving her in any intimate form, but if they had married he was sure he would have ended up learning to love her like that.

So where was she? And what was she doing?

He turned to face the window that took up an entire wall in his office. The sun was rising, finally. Temari would get up soon and she'd wake Kankuro. The two would get ready for their day before heading to Kazekage tower to help Gaara sort through infinite amounts of problems. Their day would be interrupted several times by one or more of the Elder Council or some other nut job that needed something. Temari would deal with handling the mission distribution for Suna's few Genin teams and their Jounin leaders. Kankuro would meet up with the three Chunin shinobi currently assigned to the newly formed Suna shinobi academy and find out how the young students were faring.

It was probably going to be a rather ordinary day. He had a lot of those 'ordinary' days, if twenty-seven hour days could be considered ordinary. He did more in one day than anyone else around did. He hoped Kagome was okay. He would have to see if Sango had heard from her later in the day. He wouldn't disturb Sango so early in the morning. Last he heard, she was sharing bed with a monk, and that was disturbing just to think about. Walking in on something like that…? Out of the question.

With a sigh, he turned the lamp on his desk. The bulb cast a yellow glow across the surface of his desk, but wasn't so bright it would light up the whole room. He could see, and that's all he cared about. He brought the stack of papers toward him that he'd been going through when he woke up. It was all old news, most of it telegraphed messages from his spies in Konohagakure.

There were a lot of interesting things going on in Konoha. It was definitely no secret that Naruto Uzumaki had returned to Konoha, and from the look of things, he'd brought home a missing-nin. Sasuke Uchiha. Gaara recalled the boy, though if he were truthful, Sasuke hadn't made as much an impression on Gaara as Naruto did. That was probably why Gaara didn't give half a rat's ass whether or not Sasuke had returned.

Naruto's return did interest Gaara though. He had one spy specifically assigned to bring any and all information they could on Naruto. For two and a half years, Naruto had practically disappeared from the face of the earth, except for a single visit he'd apparently made to Sunagakure two years prior. Gaara had no idea why he came, and to him it was only hear-say since he had no proof the boy had come. Gaara certainly hadn't seen him then, and that was before Gaara was Kazekage.

He read a few reports from various spies pertaining to the local economy in Konoha and how that affected Konoha's populace, and a few reports that dealt with techniques witnessed being taught in Konoha's medical academy. Then he got to the interesting reports he wanted to see. Naruto Uzumaki. Temari said Gaara had an unhealthy obsession over Naruto, but Kankuro disagreed and said it was a healthy rivalry.

Gaara didn't know what to call it. He only knew that Naruto was very similar to himself, and that he didn't want to be second to Naruto. He also knew Shukaku had something very personal against Kyuubi. If he was going to beat Naruto the next time they fought—and they would battle again—he needed all the leverage he could get against Naruto. If that meant he knew what Naruto's every secret was, then that's what he would get.

No one ever said war was fair, and playing dirty was something Shukaku had taught him from a young age. The little scamp was always whispering things to Gaara. The things he learned from Shukaku were useful, and they made him powerful. Since his battle with Naruto, he'd learned not to take Shukaku's power for granted, and not to rely so solely on Shukaku. But he was by no means turning honorable or good.

A devilish grin spread across his face as he delved into the reports. Besides… Raccoons were mischief makers, like foxes. And someone had to be king of the trash pile, right? There couldn't be two. He could hear Shukaku laughing from that prison inside him but ignored the raccoon.

Naruto was ordered to take charge of Sasuke Uchiha's probation. That was a little odd. Probate for missing-nin was usually three years with two ANBU to keep tabs on them. It was one of those standardized shinobi rules in most hidden villages. He pulled a yellow legal pad of paper toward him and grabbed a pen, uncapping it to write himself a note. He would have to have someone follow up on this information. Sasuke might be someone to investigate. Why would the standard rules not apply for that guy?

Of course, Gaara was hardly worried about Sasuke being a threat. The guy couldn't stand up to him before, but Naruto could. Naruto was the one to worry about. And aside from that, there was always the chance that the change had nothing to do with Sasuke. Naruto may have been involved in the decision to change the standard rules. He read a few more reports. They had piled up for a while now because Temari insisted he do real work (as though these reports weren't real work to read!) before messing around with his obsessions.

Naruto was serving community service for destroying an apartment complex scheduled for demolition. He'd always known Konoha was a waste of space. Now he knew also that Konoha also housed a populace of idiots (Naruto probably was the only one even worth anything there, since Konoha bred only weaklings). It made absolutely no sense to give someone community service for destroying something that was to be destroyed anyway. He made a note to have that further investigated as well. There had to be more to that story.

Naruto was being trained once more by Kakashi Hatake, though Naruto was to be treated as an equal to the Jounin. That certainly said a lot about Naruto's power levels. Gaara knew Naruto wasn't any higher level than a Genin formally. He might be higher informally though. As Kazekage, it was Gaara's privilege to watch the Chunin final exams (the tournament), and even before becoming Kazekage, he would watch the Chunin final exams simply to see if anyone ever looked like they might be worth more than half a pebble. It was unsurprising when he found none of them could ever compete with his own power levels, and he sometimes felt he had wasted a week of his life watching them.

Kakashi was training them in Training Ground 13, though what they did there was unknown. Access to the grounds was limited since the keys to the grounds were kept by the Hokage herself. All that report stated was that Team Kakashi would go into the training ground dry and come out wet. It was also stated that very loud, moving water could be heard from the training ground. Gaara's spy managed to get a glimpse into the grounds when the gate was open, but all he could see was a massive pit.

Gaara supposed it was possible that the pit contained water and that Kakashi was teaching his teammates water techniques that might not be learned at the Konoha Genin academy. It didn't seem like he was going to get more information on that one, but he knew his spy would try to do so.

Another report stated that it was likely that Naruto and his teammate Sakura Haruno were currently intimately involved. The spy had witnessed Naruto and Sakura kissing each other under a bridge after a dispute over Naruto's choice of reading material—apparently the boy liked porn novels and Sakura wouldn't let him 'be corrupted'. The two's intimacy was unsurprising, seeing how hard Naruto had fought against Gaara for the girl when Gaara practically had her hostage.

In an ordinary case scenario, that type of information could be used against his rival. However, as Gaara had learned early on, Naruto gained quite a bit of an edge when he was riled up. He couldn't use Sakura to his advantage. She would end up disadvantaging him, thus rendering the purpose she was supposed to serve absolutely useless and becoming a waste of effort.

The final report he had on Naruto was short. Naruto, Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake had been put in jail. His spy hadn't been able to get information on why they were in jail. All his spy knew was that the four were in jail until Friday morning. Gaara looked at the date provided on the report and saw that Naruto would be released today sometime. His spy would undoubtedly be waiting and ready to follow and hopefully find out why Naruto had been in jail. The news was strange. What could Naruto have done?

He made a note to have that investigated more, even though his spy would already know to do so.

He turned to the last reports from his spies and found something peculiar. They all spoke of a massive power outage in Konohagakure. The interesting thing was that even though many places in Konoha have back-up generators, the entire city was hit and stayed dark for over twenty-four hours. Only the hospitals and the prison remained with power. No one could explain the power outage. The reports had flooded in since Tuesday on the issue and said damages were still being calculated due to the power outage, but one of the spies did stumble on the information that the Konohagakure Sunday Edition Newspaper had been completely cleared out during the power outage.

Gaara frowned and made a note to have that investigated more. Why a newspaper? Why would someone steal all those newspapers? It seemed just too weird to be at all serious.

He jotted down a few notes on his legal pad; things he wanted to remember from the reports for the most part. Some of the notes were his thoughts, and others were specific passages from the reports that he thought were curious enough to warrant being written down. He was just about finished organizing his reports in their proper filing cabinets when Kankuro entered the room.

That was odd enough to warrant full attention. It was a half-hour too early, wasn't it? He checked his watch. Yes, it was. Kankuro and Temari usually had breakfast together and then they would come together to Hokage tower and bring Gaara a breakfast salad. Yes, it was strange for Gaara to live in the desert and be a vegetarian. There weren't all that many animals—his old hunts did nothing for the animal numbers—and it was a desert. They had cactuses in surplus, and tumbleweed by the dozens. However, most of their food was imported from other countries.

So why was Kankuro showing up alone this morning? "Is Temari alright?" he asked in his usual monotone voice. Homicidal Shukaku always whispered to him that he should cheer up a bit. Things could be worse, as Shukaku said. Shukaku would know, of course, because the demon always made those 'worse' things happen.

"Yes, Temi's okay," Kankuro frowned. Gaara already knew that 'worse' was about to happen, and it seemed this time it wouldn't even be Shukaku's fault. He usually knew when Shukaku could be to blame, being that he was by the general order of things always there when Shukaku caused problems.

"Then why are you here so early?"

"That's the thing…" Kankuro said in a delay tactic.

"Spit it out," Gaara told his brother.

"Well, Temi and I were on our way to breakfast where we usually go when we ran into someone…er…rather surprising."

Gaara fought the urge to tap his foot impatiently. "And that would be…?"

"Someone who you should probably see as soon as possible."

Could Gaara throttle his own brother and get away with it? Well, he was Kazekage after all, and many people thought he was either unstable or insane. He could probably scrape by with less than ten years in prison for unsanctioned murder. Then again, he was Kazekage… he could simply write out the order for Kankuro's death himself and no more questions would be asked. "Who is it?" Gaara demanded coldly. He could be patient if he really wanted to be.

"A woman who even gods have every right to fear? She-devil, to put it nicely… Otherwise known as your murderer if you don't get to Parson's Diner very quickly…" Gaara's eyes widened as he knew who Kankuro was talking about pretty much from the beginning. "Really, little bro, you shouldn't have broke off the engagement. She's still pissed about it."

He could even feel Shukaku shudder in terrified anticipation. "Parson's Diner?" he asked. He received a brief nod and was instantly out the door. If she was in Suna, he could stop worrying about her health…and focus on his own.

A few people glanced nervously at Gaara as he rushed past them on the street. He usually didn't leave Hokage tower until after 10 AM. He took his meals in private or with his siblings if he felt the fancy for company. That was how it had been since he'd been a boy and his uncle had betrayed him. He didn't trust people, because it would be broken anyway.

Parson's Diner was a quaint little place open at all hours of the day. It was where Temari and Kankuro ate breakfast every morning, and where they ordered his breakfast salad despite the cost of the imported fruits. Booths were lined up along the walls, and tables and chairs covered much of the space between the booths and the bar area. Not many people came to Parson's Diner for breakfast, but there were enough to keep the place open during that time.

Temari had sat in her usual booth with two people seated across from her; one had black hair, the other had silver hair. He knew who the black haired one was instantly. The silver haired one he figured he'd have to see their face first and that was a little hard with their backs to him. Temari looked uncomfortable, only smiling when she saw him. She flagged him over and he felt he was walking with something kin to what death row inmates felt as they went to the noose forming in his gut.

He made it to the table and realized, with some amount of surprise, that he knew the silver-haired man at least vaguely. Kabuto, he recalled was the name. Orochimaru's servant who had joined the Chunin exams under cover…

Kagome tapped a finger irritably on the table. "Gaara," she said his name as though it were poison on her tongue.

Temari hastily got out of her seat and grabbed Kabuto by the arm, dragging the man to his feet. "Come on. Give them some privacy." Temari said.

Gaara's eyes locked with Kagome's and he found he simply could not look away. It was as though he were hypnotized by the angry fires still burning in those dark blue orbs. She'd always been able to do that to him; stop him from thinking about anything other than just how beautiful she really was and how gorgeous her eyes were.

Somewhere in the distance, he heard Kabuto asking, "Uh, are you sure it's okay to leave them alone together?" He heard Temari's nervous laughter and a brief 'no', but he was so transfixed by those lovely, fiery blue eyes he didn't actually register the words.

"Sit down, you jerk!" Kagome snapped and he was abruptly released from the spell she seemed to have woven on him. It was terrible, because even though he kept thinking she was the most beautiful thing on the planet, and she was nice, and he did love her… he simply didn't love her in the way that marriage required.

He sat down, unable to even muster the energy for grace. "Kagome," he breathed, not sure what to think of her sudden arrival.

She frowned. "I have a lot to say, so shut up and listen." She told him seriously. "I'm not safe at home. Some freaky snake-man kidnapped me from my house in the middle of the night with the help of the villagers I promised to protect. He tortured Kabuto, stole some very important items from me, and was going to inject my body with all sorts of questionable potions. Ergo, I need a place to stay and the least you could do for me is give me that place to stay."

She was breathless when she finished. He blinked at her. "You're not here to kill me?" he questioned, almost suffering shell-shock from the knowledge.

She frowned. "I'm still debating it," she told him. "And your death is still favorable at this point."

His eyes went wide and he knew it. She probably could kill him too. That was not good. Angry woman with Summoning capabilities equaled Gaara mauled to death by rampant hungry demons. She wasn't the best in a fight with weapons, but he knew it was very likely that her vow to never Summon again would be broken in a heartbeat if she really felt vengeful towards him. He had really hurt her, after all.

Did she know that Temari and Kankuro had beaten him soundly for breaking the engagement in the first place? If she didn't know, should he tell her?

"Youcanstayatmyplaceifyouwantto." He spoke so fast, his head nearly started spinning.

She still managed to understand. "I don't want to stay in a place you stay in." she told him seriously. "Kabuto will be staying with me, and the place needs to have multiple rooms because I'm going to call Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara in to stay with me as well."

Gaara almost cringed under the overbearing pressure of her angry aura. "My house has plenty of rooms for you to use, and I don't stay there anyway. I sleep in my office at Kazekage tower now."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say to his ex-fiancé. Why was it that in his entire life, she was the only person he had ever come to fear unconditionally when she was angry? He knew very well that if given a weapon, she would be more likely to injure herself than cause anyone else injury. He also knew that she was still fairly weak at Summoning. The thing that made her strong was the sheer amount of Summoning she could do before tiring when she was at full strength and that was in direct relation to her being a Combination Summoner (which was by all accounts incredibly rare except she still sucked at it).

So why did he fear her again? He simply couldn't understand himself when it came to her.

"Oh, yes, how could I forget?" she demanded. "You're so career-oriented, you would not only give me the boot, but now even your house isn't worthy of your greatness so you sleep somewhere else?" She had a napkin in her hand and was shredding it to tiny pieces—SLOWLY. Shukaku demanded he crawl into a tree and hide, but he couldn't do that now or it would only get worse.

"It's not that," he tried, but excuses weren't what she wanted to hear.

"In case you didn't know," she bit out, "it really made me feel like crap to be rejected by you! In all my life, I'd never been more humiliated. It was hard enough to lose my family and friends in a massacre, but no, you felt it necessary to lay the final brick on me, huh? You had become the stability in my life. I felt like I could depend on you to always come back. I bet you couldn't wait to get rid of me after you found out what Kikyou did—after you found out what I am capable of doing!" She was glaring at him with hurt and disgust in her eyes. "Go on! Say it! You know you want to. I—AM—A—MONSTER! I'm just like my sister. Once a twin, always a twin, right Gaara? Isn't that what you said when we were ten?"

He was stunned. Was that how she felt? She was getting up out of the booth. He knew she was going to try running, so he got up too and grabbed her arms, spinning her to face him. "Don't run away from this." He told her. Tears splashed down her face and onto her dirty, sandy clothes. He had never gotten a chance to tell her why he broke off the engagement before she tried to kill him—quite literally—that day. He'd tried telling her in letters, but all of them were returned.

The issue was unresolved, and had been for over a year. "Why shouldn't I?" she asked hotly. "There's nothing more between us, because you're too scared of me. Who would want a monster like me anyway?"

She struggled to get him to remove his firm grip on her upper arms. He felt like shaking her, but refrained. Some of the local patrons were staring open-mouthed at Gaara and the dirty looking girl. There he was, Kazekage, in expensive clothes, trying to get someone who looked like no more than a pauper to listen to him. Add to that the fact that he wasn't using Shukaku's power to get his gains and people were confused. Even more confusing was that Gaara didn't have his gourd with him, and he took that everywhere.

"Stop it, Kagome," he told her. He almost spilled about the real reason why he broke their engagement—that it was by the Elder Council of Sunagakure's order—but decided against it. If it hadn't been for the Elder Council, he would have married Kagome when they were eighteen as the contract had said. But he wouldn't have liked it and he knew that now.

It would have been a decision he would have regretted for the rest of his life, because once it was made, he would never have left her nor would he have allowed her to leave. She was feeling inadequate now because he'd broken the engagement. He had been feeling inadequate his whole life and thought an arranged marriage was the only way he would ever have someone to love.

He had to figure out a way to explain his actions without involving the Elder Council. If he did that, her feelings of inadequacy would only remain, and honestly, he would do the same if it were Temari he were speaking to now. He wanted her to be happy. Besides that, a happy Kagome was a lot better than a seriously pissed off Kagome.

"Kagome, you aren't a monster. If you want to see a monster, open your eyes." She was squinting her eyes shut as she struggled. Her eyes flew open when he told her to look. "You're just an incredibly temperamental girl with anger management issues." He attempted a smile to tell her he was joking…even if he completely meant that part. "I, on the other hand, had a homicidal demon sealed in me after I was born. That's why I'm an insomniac—because if I sleep, the demon takes over and does whatever it feels like doing." Her shocked look told him she hadn't been aware of that fact.

"Does the medicine work?" she asked, calming considerably and seeming somewhat tentative toward their conversation.

"Yes, and by the way, I need more. But back on point, I don't think you're a monster. To say I of all people think that of you would be laughable—if I cared to laugh that is. What you are capable of doing doesn't scare me because I've already done a lot of it. I have been trained as a shinobi since I could walk. People don't stop and talk to me about the weather or ask how my day is going. They see me as a weapon, and people don't talk to their weapons. Just because I broke our engagement doesn't mean I don't love you, Kagome. The difference there is that if we married, we'd be stuck. You're like a… another Temari. Aggressive and not afraid to talk back to me. Granted, that is something I would want in a woman…" he had to admit that. He couldn't stand the thought of living the rest of his life with someone who thought they had to tip-toe around him every minute of the day.

She giggled and wiped moist eyes. "I-I never realized that's how you felt," she said. "I mean, honestly, I kind of felt the same way. It's just that my papa wanted us to marry so bad…"

"I know." He released her, feeling assured she would not chase off. "I know you'd do anything to please your father…even after he died. It's just because I don't think we should be trapped in something like that. You're no monster. Please trust me when I say there is someone out there who will love you how you deserve, but I'm just not that—"

He had tried to finish. He wasn't used to making sentimental speeches to begin with, and then to have it interrupted because a girl had thrown herself at him and knocked him to the ground…he was startled. Startled enough to whack his head on the hard wood of the booth seat. "Bugger," he moaned, his head smarting.

"Sorry, sorry!" she yelped noisily. "I was just so happy."

"I see that," he groaned. He rubbed his hand on the back of his head and pulled away blood.

"I can fix that," she promised, but he shoved her back.

"Don't worry about it. I'd rather you didn't screw up any more of me than necessary. I could've died today, thank you very much." He pulled himself onto his feet, refusing the urge to sway as his head spun. He had been completely out of character, but she always drove that reaction out of him. He had no idea what special ability she possessed, but she could get the dead to act out of character if she tried hard enough.

"I'm sorry I didn't give you the chance to explain yourself sooner," she told him.

It was probably a good thing she hadn't, he thought, because otherwise she would have known the full truth: the Elder Council forced the decision. "You can repay me by cooking me dinner tonight," he told her shortly. "Vegetarian, if you don't mind."

"As long as you pay for the groceries." She told him. "I don't have any money."

He sighed. "Go figure. You never do." He rubbed his head again, wincing. "I'm going to the hospital." He waved over a waitress and the girl came with fear in her eyes. Coward, he thought. "Let this young lady order whatever she likes and bill me for it."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama," the waitress said, bowing hastily several times.

"You don't have to do that, Gaara," Kagome told him.

He rolled his eyes at her. "I owe you, and I always pay my dues." He said seriously. "Sit down and have a nice breakfast. I'll send someone to show you to my house, and alert Sango to your arrival."

"She's still here?" Kagome asked.

He glared at her. "I have a job to do, Kagome. Can I go do it now?"

"Oh, right… but you're still a career-oriented jerk," she insisted.

"If I wasn't, would you still recognize me?" he teased her, before wondering internally if he'd suffered brain damage from that blow to the head. Now that he had Kagome calmed down, he wondered what he had been so afraid of her for. He was bigger than her, stronger than her, and could keep his head in a fight ten times better than her. So she was a Combination Summoner—big deal? Not really, considering when push came to shove if she got into trouble she froze up and couldn't remember how to Summon.

Yes, she did have fast reflexes in her right hand and arm but slaps could only do so much damage and again…he was faster than her. So what was it about angry, violent women that terrified him? Or, in particular, THIS angry, violent woman. Temari was the same and didn't strike such fear in his heart…

He left Kagome at the restaurant and headed to the hospital. Damn, his head was really hurting. He hoped he didn't have a concussion. Wouldn't that just make his day?

Thanks to: supersillee06, Rilley Lily Nikita (welcome to the story), Dark Inu Fan, sn1ck3rD00dl3, Natsumi Tsuchi-Ookami, snowecat, DarkRavie, and of course, to everyone else who reviewed chapter 35 after I posted chapter 36.

ANSWER: Just in case you all didn't understand from this chapter, it is now the last day Team Kakashi will be in jail. They get released next chapter. And I laughed my ass off 'cause I made Sasuke and Naruto gay. -raises eyebrow- Scared yet? Please refer to this story's summary. Thanks for reading!

Time after time I lose again, night after night I wake up crying 'cause my world is dying (and no one is reviewing...).