Wow, I am so sorry. Bet everyone gave up on this one. Life has been a bit hectic…to say the least…..

So I swore I wouldn't give up on this story and I shall not.

They way he was looking at his legs you would have thought they had been chopped off. He didn't seem to be in pain, just confused, then pensive. Gaara looked up at her and asked "What was the situation when you recovered me from the Akatsuki?"

"I wasn't there during the initial storm into the fortress. But from my understanding, one of the assailants tried to escape with you, but Naruto defeated him and got you back. We all thought you were dead though." Tenten noted the frown that appeared on his face. "Why do you ask?"

"It's gone."

Sweet Buddha what is he talking about? "What's gone?"

"The Shukaku demon." He replied matter-of-factually, like it explained everything. After a bit of awkward silence he continued to explain. "It's a bit complicated but we'll just leave it at: I can no longer control the sand, at least not as well as I could before, if at all."

"Oh…" Tenten really had no idea what he was talking about but it soon dawned upon her that he couldn't use the sand, which meant he was more or less, helpless. "So you can't fight. Well, I'm sure it will come back to you once you're fully recovered. You were in pretty bad shape when we reclaimed you."

Gaara could see that this wasn't going to get far without a full explanation, but he didn't feel like giving one. Not that she needed to fully understand the situation anyway. So he gave a halfhearted "Maybe," and left it at that.

She smiled, "We'll be back in Suna in a couple days and you can receive full treatment."

He tried his legs a second time and was far more successful than his first attempt. He stretched and popped his back into alignment, which hurt immensely, but soon made him feel a lot better than he had. He was on his feet but still a bit off balance. Traveling will not be easy and they had quite a ways to go. "I'm not going to be able to light-foot with my injuries; we're going to have to walk to Suna. Do you know our currant location?"

Tenten pulled out a map and determined their location. Gaara pointed out the location of Suna on the map, which was quite a distance away. Tenten looked at the map incredulously. "That could take a week at walking speed!"

"Actually, once we hit the desert our speed will have decrease dramatically, or we'll exhaust ourselves. So we'll probably be looking at two weeks."

"Two weeks!"

"Unless you want to carry me, yes."

Tenten leaned back on her hands. Two weeks on the road crossing a desert with Mr. Sarcastic. Joy.

Calling Gaara quiet would be an understatement, as he only seems to speak to her when he has a command or a sarcastic remark. It would be another understatement to call Gaara weird. First, he insisted on stopping to gather a bunch of gourds that they had found, but never had an answer as to why. Then, he started gathering sticks and carving them so they were perfectly straight. Gaara is quiet, demanding, sarcastic, and weird.

But this, this is the straw that broke the camel's back. While Tenten was asleep, (which brough up yet another oddity. She hasn't seen Gaara sleep once since he regained consciousness their first night traveling) Gaara had unraveled one of her scrolls to make two parasols out of the sticks he had been carving.

Tenten is normally patient. Its defense she's built up after many years of working with Lee. But Lee never messed with her scrolls. And of course he couldn't have chosen a small scroll. No, he had to grab a particularly large and complicated scroll. So she plastered on a big smile and asked "Gaara why did you use my scroll to make two parasols?"

"Simple. One for me, one for you."

Tenten wanted to kick him. She wanted to scream at him. Four days of putting up with his disagreeable nature and smart mouth has worn her thin. But instead of giving him the reaming he deserved, she took the parasol he made for her, and busted it over a nearby rock. She turned and stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to glower at her destroying his bizarre little project, only to be disappointed and angered to his complete indifference as he shrugged it off.

The next day they had made it to the barren desert of the Wind Country. Gaara stopped and handed her three of the gourds he had gathered, but now they were full of water. "Here. These should give you enough water to last the journey through the desert."

Tenten didn't know what to say. So she just took the gourds and packed them away.

Later, the sun had finally gotten to her. She told Gaara to stop for a moment as she rolled up her pants legs. She was going to rip her sleeves off but before she did Gaara interrupted her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. If I were you, I'd want to keep as much of my body out of direct sunlight as possible."

"Why?"

"Because without proper protection, your skin will burn, blister, and crack. The sun will literally cook you alive. Also, the cloth of your clothing will buy you some time if we're caught in a wind storm."

Tenten was completely horrified. "Wind storm."

"Yep. Winds so fast they'll rip the flesh from your bones."

Dear God this place is hell. She looked up at the young Kazekage who stood beneath the shade of his parasol. "You made the parasols to keep the sun off of us."

His reply was a mere smirk. Then in an unfathomable gesture of generosity, he tossed the parasol to her. She caught it and looked up at him in confusion as he untucked a hood from his coat 1 and shoved his hands in his pockets, sufficiently covering the small amount of exposed skin on his body. He turned and continued on his way.

Tenten stood a watched him for a moment then ran to catch up with him. "Um…Thanks."

Thanks for reading! C&C is always welcome.

OH! Question: Do you want Gaara to regain the Shukaku, or do you want him to continue on without it?

1. I know, this is impossible in Gaara's new duds but let's just pretend ok.

Okie-doo, seeing as how there is a three way tie between yes, no, and undecided to the great Shukaku question, I gave it a bit more thought and I think I know what I'm going to do.

Oh