Vision came back to Gaara slowly. He waited a few moments before rising, trying to get his bearings. Fainting spells had become a regular part of his life, whenever Shukaku reveled in an orgy of bloodletting after a fast. It was lucky the demon drew a distinction between sleep and coma.

"He's awake," he heard Kankurou grunt, followed by a footstep.

"Gaara?" Temari asked, both worry and anger in her tone. "What happened? When I arrived, you had that girl wrapped up in sand! A Hyuuga girl!"

"Hai. Gomen nasai, Temari," Gaara muttered, not looking at her. Temari fell silent, all her bluster stolen by those two words. Kankurou, however, wasn't so easily pacified.

"Are you trying to get us all killed?" he demanded in a harsh whisper. "This mansion is packed with Jounin-rank Byakugan specialists! Do you know what they would do to us?"

Gaara's eyes snapped up, focusing on his brother with intense ferocity. From Temari he might accept it, but Kankurou had dictated their relationship by his own words years ago.

"'To me, Gaara, you're just a longer kunai, a faster punch, a stronger jutsu. No more than another weapon,'" he mimicked the words that had haunted him most of his life. "Mind your words, Kanku-kun." Driving the threat home, he dropped his hand down the gourd at his bedside without taking his gaze away. He knew precisely where it sat.

Kankurou predictably quieted, although he still seethed.

"A... ano?" a hesitant voice put in. "Gaara-kun... was training with me."

"Stay out of this, Hinata-san," Temari ordered, keeping her eyes on Gaara. "Is that true?"

Of course... there was no sign of the bodies, not even a drop of blood from the victims. Shukaku had swallowed them whole...

Ignoring Temari's question, Gaara rose from the Hyuuga futon and confronted Hinata. "What are you—"

"You... were training with me, remember, Gaara-kun?" Dimly, he heard Kankurou's intake of breath at the name she gave him, but Gaara didn't care. "You tied me up and... you were showing me your jutsu when you fainted..." Her voice died away quickly under his incredulous stare.

The sudden confused pain in his head almost made him lose consciousness again. "N-nani?!" he gasped.

"Train with me again, Gaara-kun," was the only response, Hinata's voice growing stronger as Hinata left the room. As soon as the door slid closed, though, Gaara heard her demure footsteps turn into a dead run.

Temari and Kankurou exchanged glances, somewhat relieved by the Hyuuga girl's simple lie. "I guess we were worried for nothing," Temari admitted, blowing out a long breath. "I'd better tell Baki-sensei what happened."

"No," Kankurou told her unexpectedly, eyeing Gaara suspiciously and suspecting the truth about the sister's story. "If they were only training, then it's unimportant. Baki-sensei doesn't like useless information, Temari-chan."

"You're right," she replied after a moment's thought. She turned to her youngest brother. "It's late, Gaara. You were out for hours." She had meant to add that he should get some sleep, but caught the stupid words before they were out. Baka, she scolded herself. He hasn't slept for all these years, and you still don't remember!

Gaara didn't respond. After a moment, his siblings left the room.

There was a single window in this room, originally covered with rice paper. Gaara had torn that out as soon as he arrived, allowing the cool wind to enter the room. It was difficult for him to relax without the cold nights he had grown accustomed to, in the desert. But now he regretted that decision; the moon was close to full, and it tugged at him in a way he couldn't describe. A few days, no more.

Right in time for the Chuunin exam... He wouldn't be able to use Shukaku's full power, then, needing to keep the demon out of his mind as much as he could.

If it broke free again...

Gaara shook his head and glanced back at his gourd unconsciously. It was still there; unmoving, defiant. Without changing expression, he spat vehemently at it.

What's wrong, little one? Shukaku asked, the whisper in Gaara's mind shaking his small frame.

"You tried to hurt Hinata," Gaara replied aloud.

There was silence for a moment. I? You killed her friends. You wanted her dead

No I didn't!

Yes, you did. Admit it, Gaara. You wanted to see her bleed

No!

You wanted to eat her. Go. Do it! Do it like you wanted to then!

Gaara spun on his heel, turning his back to the gourd. He couldn't quiet Shukaku's triumphant laughter, however, no matter how he tried.

He turned again suddenly and called for the sand. "Take me there. Take me to... Hyuuga Hinata."

It obeyed readily, bearing him on a gust of wind to the Leaf-nin's room. He had never been there before, but Shukaku knew her scent and carried him unerringly. Once inside, it carried him inches above the floor, erasing even the sound of his foosteps.

The light flooded into this room; the window was much larger than in Gaara's room. Hinata lay directly beneath it, tossing and turning in fitful sleep.

Nightmares, he assumed. He had heard of them, but had never had one himself. Surely anyone would develop nightmares after seeing what she had this day.

She was... pretty, he decided, like Shukaku had said. Delicate, like a desert rose. Pale, like a lily at a funeral. Exotic. What was that word Temari used? Beautiful? He didn't understand the word, but mentally applied it to Hinata anyway. The label seemed to fit the Hyuuga girl.

Gaara looked her over, her face and throat so white in the waxing moonlight. It was getting harder to control himself. He might not be able to stop the rage, he knew, even with Hinata. She slept so peacefully, so trusting. He could kill her now.

And oh, he wanted to. She was too pure for Shukaku; even Gaara's jaded heart rebelled against the demon simply swallowing her.

But when he raised a kunai, the only blade he carried, his sharp stab was caught and held.

By the sand.

Gaara recoiled in absolute shock, betrayed in a way he never expected. He called Shukaku without thinking and swept back to his room in a desert whirlwind. Hinata had no idea how close to death she had come in her slumber.

What are you doing? he screamed at Shukaku. Why wouldn't you let me end this torment!

Baka! The sand protects your flesh without my will!

Gaara's mind reeled.

I charged you to kill the girl!

Gaara slumped to his knees, putting his hands on the futon for support. "What's... happening to us?" He shook his head violently at his own words. "No, to me!  What is this village doing to me?" He held that pose for many minutes, trying to come to terms with his inability, his failure for the first time in his life to put unimportant thoughts, and lives, aside.

There came a knock at the door. Just one, and it somehow managed to sound hesitant. Gaara's head snapped up immediately, his face resuming its normal cold expression, even a tiny smile touching his lips. Maybe another kill would quiet his nerves. Maybe...

It was Hinata, as he had half-known it would be. Any hint of a smile vanished at the sight of her. "What do you want, Hinata-chan?" he asked, turning away. He didn't even notice the title he attached to her name, but she did, and wasn't sure whether to be pleased or not by his familiarity.

"G-Gaara-kun... I had to see you..." Her hands twisted endlessly around each other. Another irritating habit like her stammer, Gaara decided, even from just the sound of their rubbing together. He turned back to face her.

"Why? You should hate me." A sudden thought struck him, and he glanced back at her. "Did you come to kill me?"

Hinata recoiled at the eagerness in his voice. "No! I... I don't think so, anyway..." She dropped her gaze again, insofar as Gaara could tell with those white eyes of hers.

Despite himself, the Sand-nin was intrigued. Hinata seemed to genuinely have something to say. It felt strange; only minutes ago, he had seen her asleep, wishing he could kill her. Now he was interested in what she wanted to tell him? He stepped aside, indicating that she should enter the room. She did so, closing the door behind her.

"Gaara-kun..." Hinata didn't know where to start. She didn't even know what she was going to say to him. Looking at Gaara now, she couldn't believe it was the same person who had so callously dismissed human life, had decreed their death like some god of the underworld.

That analogy seemed strangely fitting to the Shinobi girl. Gaara was, as he had told her the first time they met, the angel of death. All-powerful, beautiful, and remote.

But did she care?

"I killed your friends," Gaara prodded, quickly becoming bored with her floundering. "Right in front of you. Why didn't you fight me?"

"Gaara-kun... when you... before you hurt Reika-chan, you looked almost like you were... crying." She glanced up at Gaara quickly, then looked away. "Why? Why did you... hurt them, Gaara-kun?" She seemed unable to say the word 'killed.'

He shrugged, not totally sure of the answer.  Why had he done that? His victims hadn't been worth the time it took them to fall. While he considered it, Hinata asked another question, one he had been trying to avoid thinking about since she entered the room.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

Gaara turned away from her. "I don't know." His voice was empty, icy again. "I couldn't. You have some power I don't understand." He closed his eyes. "Why don't you hate me?" he asked again. "Don't you want to take revenge?"

"Could I beat you?" Hinata asked simply, rhetorically. Gaara had to concede the point. "I... I know you killed them, and it was terrible, but you... I saw your eyes, Gaara-kun, they weren't your eyes! You..." Those pale aquamarine eyes rested on her now, and she stammered again, losing her momentum.

"Go on," Gaara asked her, not demanding now, but entreating. His voice sounded strange, even to him. Slowly, to her own surprise she did, talking in a sing-song voice as if to get the words out as quickly as she could without thinking about them.

"Your face looked like a demon's. The sand flew everywhere. I couldn't see. My eyes were too sore from using Byakugan all day. But you watched me, didn't you, Gaara-kun? I can't..." she stuttered again, but resolutely pushed on, "I can't forgive you for hurting my friends, but you saw me. You watched me training. You saw me with Neji. You were there to watch me training again. Why? Why did you care? You weren't scouting me out, you didn't need to. You could have killed me any of those times even before I knew it, but you didn't." She seemed to run out of words, and cringed, as if expecting him to strike her. When he didn't move, she drew in a deep breath and went on, choosing her words with care. "Gaara-kun, I can't forgive you. But... I can't hate you either. You're cold, but you care, don't you?" Glancing at his face again, those slashes of ice he called eyes, she was less sure. "Don't you?" she asked again, as if pleading. He didn't respond.

Hinata truly didn't understand why she didn't hate Gaara. Both her emotions and her conscious mind told her that she should want him dead. But when she looked at his cold eyes, his unimpressed face, even his bored stance, all arrogant in the knowledge of his true supremacy, something melted inside her.

"Gaara-kun," she whispered, unsure whether she had said too much. "I want to know your story. You said... your words sounded like you didn't want to kill them. Are... are you a slave, Gaara?"

Gaara rocked back at that, and stood still for a long moment, considering her words. When he finally spoke, he didn't answer directly. "Hinata-chan... you want to know my story? Then use your Byakugan."

"Naniyo?" she yelped, surprised. Then she coloured. Was he challenging her?

"Use your Byakugan," Gaara repeated, ignoring her sudden fear. He turned away from her again. "And look at that."

She followed his pointing finger to the gourd he always carried, realizing at once that this was the first time she had seen him not wearing it. A deep foreboding fell over her then, a sense that the last thing she should do was look into the gourd. "Why?" she asked, stalling for time.

Gaara was in no mood for arguing tonight. "Do it," he told her flatly. "I'll kill you."

Hinata stared. Part of her horror of him dissipated at that moment, though, replaced almost with amusement. She had no doubts that Gaara would do exactly as he threatened without a single twinge of conscience, but as long as she didn't cross him he had no reason to. She nodded, and that act of simple trust set him back once more.

Rat. Dog. Rat. Serpent. Release. "Byakugan!"

A/N: Was Hinata's acceptance too easy? Should I revamp that scene? Let me know. I was sort of taking a page out of Love Hina's "I don't particularly like you. But... I don't hate you either..." Well, feedback can only improve the piece.

Next, chapter 9- Nightmares. What did Hinata's Byakugan reveal? Not much. Will Hinata convince Gaara to open up? I doubt it. Has Gaara ever had a nightmare? Probably not, he has worse insomnia than me. Will I relent and throw in some sweetness and light? That one's more than likely… I'm going to have to space the next few chapters out owing to a need to study and a mild case of writer's block. Every time I finish a chapter from now on, I'll post up another one, so don't think I'm not doing my best.

Thanks, everyone.