Gaara opened his eyes slowly, the light was terribly bright in his room for some reason. His whole body felt relaxed and rejuvenated but at the same time his head was throbbing and heavy. Why was he laying on a futon? He sat up and immediately regretted it. He wanted to throw up. He grabbed his head in an attempt to stop it from swirling.

The door swung up. Gaara felt as if he could hear ever grain of wood in it scream and pierce his brain. "Good morning, Gaara!" called out a chipper voice. A loud, happy, chipper voice that needed to shut up and go away. He opened and eye and looked up at Temari. She was looking at him intensely.

"What? Do? You? Want?" Gaara said each word separately. His tongue felt dirty and weighed down. Also, thinking of simple sentences made his throbbing head hurt more. What was going on?

"So, I see you're sober today. Go ahead and get cleaned up. A cold shower should do it. And take these." She handed him a few pills. "They'll get rid of the headache."

How did she know about the headache? Gaara shook his head then groaned. It wasn't worth thinking over. At least not at the moment. He struggled to get to his feet and immediately sought a wall to cling to. The bathroom never looked so far even though it was only a few feet from his door.

The cold floor felt good. He didn't even bother taking off his clothes before turning on the cold water to the shower and sinking into the bottom of the bath tub. Gaara struggled to remember what had happened a few nights earlier but he didn't remember anything at all. He rubbed his eyes and noticed that there was dried crust in them. Had he slept? Surely, everyone would not be acting so calmly if the Shukaku had come out but sleep is impossible so… The headache pounded on his skull to tell him to shut up. Gaara complied and lied in the tub, one leg hanging out.

Kankurou found him like that five minutes later as he came inside to brush his teeth. He grinned as he remembered all of the things that they had done. To think that deep down inside, deep, deep, deep down inside and hidden in the form of a demon, Gaara was actually a party animal. It made Kankurou feel proud of his little brother. He walked over to the bath tub and looked down. Gaara's eyes were closed.

"You look like crap," he greeted smiling. Gaara opened an eye to a slit.

"I'll kill you."

Kankurou smiled. "Yep, same old Gaara. Had fun these last couple of days, eh?" Kankurou began to brush his molars, hand in pocket as he drilled Gaara. In spite of the hateful glare in his eyes, he could tell that even blinking was a labored task. He couldn't so much as kick sand at him.

"Stop…yelling."

"Huh? I'm not."

"My head is imploding."

"That's what a hangover feels like," Kankurou said a matter-of-factly.

"What?"

Kankurou walked over to the sink and spit. He then sat on the counter and clasped his hands together as he leaned on his thighs. Gaara was sitting up by now. He looked like how a wet cat felt: a mess. "Hehe. Don't remember a thing do you?"

Gaara turned off the water and crawled out of the tub to lie on the floor as a soggy mess. "Not a thing. What happened to me?" Kankurou sighed and walked out of the bathroom, he came back with a towel and some clothes for Gaara.

He knelt down and started drying his baby brother off. "Well, you got into a drinking contest with Old Maid Tsunade." He paused in the drying of his hair. "You won by the way." He resumed. "Well, you passed out and I was going to take you home when you woke up…well…" He put the towel in his lap and started tugging at Gaara's shirt. Instinctively Gaara's raised his arms and the shirt slipped over his head. "Well, the Shukaku woke up. You were still passed out."

Gaara whirled around. "The Shukaku! Wha-Aaaaeeeeeh…."He held his head and sank back in Kankurou's arms.

"Take it easy, shrimp. You'll hurl if you make any quick movements like that." He put the new shirt on Gaara and began doing the buttons. "Yeah, so it was the Shukaku. I didn't know. I just thought you were drunk and wanted to party. It was a lot of fun, you know. You and me went to a few bars. Met a few ladies." He winked at Gaara who was staring at him with a look of sheer disbelief and amazement. "Sorry it had to end…" He gave Gaara the towel and stood up. "You do the rest. I'll go make you some breakfast."

Gaara blinked. Did Kankurou just…bond with him. He dried his hair, gave him a shirt and…Did he just say he was going to make breakfast? The young boy finished drying off and getting dressed then proceeded to give himself a good looking over in the mirror. He still had red hair, he still had the love kanji written into his fore head. His eyes were still green and rimmed in black. He touched his neck. He had a few small red marks on it. "Eh?"

Temari walked by and saw Gaara craning his neck in the mirror. "Gaara, what's the matter?"

"Look…I have a rash or something." She walked over and rolled her eyes.

"This is what you get for drinking!" Gaara winced at her loud voice. "Those aren't rashes, those are hickies."

Gaara blinked. "Hickies? What the hell is that??"

"You get those from making-out."

"Making out what??"

"With girls, Gaara." Temari disgustedly grabbed his wet clothes and the towel to take them away. "Kissing. You get those from kissing."

Something in Gaara's stomach did a flip. His first kiss and he had missed it entirely. No…the Shukaku had stolen a precious part of his life. "GOD DAMMIT!" He noticed a sparkle in his ear. "Eh??" It was an earring…four to be exact and three in the other. "EH???"

Kankurou poked his head in as Gaara fingered the piercing. "Oh, we got those together on the first night. I only got two but you…uh… the Shukaku went kind of crazy I guess. Suits you though."

Gaara sank down, looking at his reflection with apprehension. Who was he now? What had the demon inside of him made him do? Made him miss? What the hell was going on?

"We got them right before we went to karaoke," Kankuro gave him the headache pills sitting on the counter and some water. Gaara stared at his older brother.

"I karaoke?"

"And you sing really good."

"I sing?"

"And that's when you got the hickey on your chest."

"I got a ….a hic-….where?"

"Take your medicine you'll feel better." He forced the pills in Gaara's mouth but Gaara willingly took the water. "We went dancing too."

"I DANCE?!" There was a knock at the door. Gaara fell down and lied on his back. He drank, danced, sang, made out, got pierced, and heaven knows what else. But why couldn't he remember anything? Not a tidbit of the memory remained. "I…karaoke?…I'm a good kisser?…"

Down the stairs, an angry looking older man was at the door. "I'm the accountant for Shinobi's."