"Temari?"

"Hai, Gaara-san?" His sister asked, looking up from the magazine she'd been reading. They were in the waiting room in the Konoha hospital, awaiting further instructions while the Hokage worked on Chouji, whom they'd considered hopeless. Still, Tsunade wasn't called Sannin for nothing - perhaps she would yet work some miracle.

"I want to stay in Konoha. Would you and Kankurou be willing to stay with me?" he asked, looking as close to nervous as she'd ever seen. It was the ponderous way he asked it, the way that his stare fell so resolutely just left of her face - usually he either looked at the ground or dead-on, which was haunting in itself. Ad there was that slight, shifting noise - of sand stirring in his gourd quietly.

"Well... We'd have to ask Hokage-sama and the council in Suna, but I don't suppose there's much holding us there anymore anyway..." she said almost thoughtfully. She was surprised to find herself considering the option seriously. It would be nice, though, to live in Konoha's peaceful world, with a steady, comfortable climate instead of days that scorched you to the bone and nights that chilled as deep.

It would be nice to start off anew, without worrying about people avoiding her because of Gaara or blaming her and Kankurou for his mishaps and assuming the two would take charge of Gaara. And Gaara seemed to be infected with Konoha's peace - perhaps staying here would be good for him. If not, they could always leave and go back to the Suna village. If staying here could truly help him, Temari would sacrifice anything for it. It would be nice to no longer fear his insanity and his temper.

"I don't know about Kankurou, but I think I'd be willing to stay with you..." she replied with a shrug. She'd always been the one more concerned of Gaara's well-being: perhaps the only one to see in him the victim, though there was nothing she could do about it before. And though it had only been a few days, Gaara seemed so markedly different already. She was willing to shove her fear away in hope. She'd been trying to hope for so long...

Gaara nodded. "Arigatou. Will you talk to him and the Hokage? As soon as possible?" he asked, with an alien sense of urgency. Temari couldn't help but be surprised again. He was so full of changes lately! She wished she understood better what he'd been talking about, in explaining the fight with Uzumaki Naruto. She nodded with a faint smile.

"Sure, Gaara. I'll go find Kankurou now. Here," she dug through her coin purse and handed Gaara some money. "Go get something to eat!" she told him, feeling slightly worried, wondering if he would take it as an order and grow angry. If so, then that would be the end of the confusion - it would be the old Gaara again.

Gaara took it and pocketed it with a nod. "Hai," he murmured, turning and going to find Lee, hoping the Green Beast's good will would extend to showing him a good place to eat. Temari watched his receding figure with enhanced confusion, then broke into a wide grin. Perhaps it was too soon to be jumping to conclusions like she was, and she was a bit surprised she was so quick to accept the change, but it was such a relief to think her little brother might become a normal person! She began searching for Kankurou, planning on getting him to agree if she had to use force!

"Lee-san," Gaara said, pushing open the door to the hospital room Lee occupied, sitting comfortably on the bed.

Lee looked up and smiled. "Gaara-san. Worried about little old me?" Lee snickered. "I'll be fine," he said casually, thinking that his concern lay more in the others. He'd seen that Neji had been hurt badly, and one of the rookies: he thought the name was Chouji.

"I was hoping you'd be able to direct me to some place with good food," Gaara said, almost entirely oblivious of the joke, though glad to hear that Lee was all right. He had seemed fine, and Gaara had not been concerned, only barely able to understand what concern was, but he was glad to confirm that Lee was indeed fine.

"Oh, well," Lee scratched his head in thought, "That would depend on what you liked, I guess..." he said. Loud footsteps were heard in the hall, as someone slammed the door open.

"LEE! Thank Kami-sama you're - Wait, what are you doing here? AGAIN! You keep your damn sand away from my Lee!" Gai-sensei yelled, wrapping an arm around Lee protectively upon noticing Gaara. Gaara looked away, appearing properly downtrodden.

Lee groaned and tried to push his way out of Gai's protective grasp. "Sensei! You're - choking me!" he gasped. Gai loosened appropriately, but refused to let go, glaring a thousand painful deaths at Gaara. "He just beat me in the Chuunin Exam! It's nothing to get so worked up about! Besides, he just saved me!" Gaara nodded, wishing the 'busybody' would go away.

"He what? But he tried to kill you before!" Gai complained, looking confused and upset, and really confused!

"It was a fight, we were both doing it!" Lee said, wrestling his way free.

"No, after that, he tried to kill you in the hospital! And now you're saying he saved you?" Gai exclaimed, his attention no longer on Gaara but on Lee (though he still kept some of his awareness on the Suna-nin).

"What?" he asked, looking at Gaara for an answer. So did Gai, crossing his arms and waiting for an explanation. Gaara felt the weight of their eyes on him and groaned as his hands shot to his head. Everyone always stared at him! He was a monster, and they always stared! "Gaa-Gaara! Are you all right?" Lee asked, hopping over to the stricken boy and placing a comforting hand on Gaara's shoulder. Gaara flinched at the contact - he was so unused to being touched ever, certainly not outside of combat.

Gaara looked up and met Lee's concerned eyes. His own widened - he'd never seen anyone look at him like that. They scorned or hated or feared him, but no one looked like that. He recognized the concern as something he'd seen directed at other people and wondered if that was really what he saw in Lee's eyes, or if he was just more insane than he'd thought. But whatever he saw, it was very important he didn't lose it to disgust or hate. "Gomen, Lee-san..." he choked out through the pain of the thoughts and memories that turned his head inside out.

Lee looked shocked, and Gaara couldn't bear to watch him and see the anger he was sure would show up soon. He started backing towards the door, one step at a time, eyes on the floor. Naruto's path was not for him. He was bakemono, hopeless and damned to be alone, separated by his demons and insanity: forever the lonely killer with no greater purpose in his life.

"Why didn't you?" Lee asked, his tone curious and something like grateful, and something like wondrous. As Gai was about to answer, Gaara spoke.

"Uzumaki Naruto and a friend of his stopped me. And then your sensei," Gaara answered, wondering why Lee belabored the point: why he cared. Another step back, now it was just a little further and he could bolt. He could be gone in a heartbeat and find somewhere to wait till his head sewed itself back up again.

"Oh..." Lee said simply, apparently turning this over in his mind. Gaara was trembling. His head hurt so bad, the failure of his attempts stung so bitterly. How could Lee forgive this? Surely he would be enraged! Surely he would feel betrayed, perhaps, or suspicious! "Well, you didn't, and like I said, you did save me this time. Actually, you saved me twice against that guy, so I suppose we're even!" Lee said, shrugging and even grinning.

Gaara raised his eyes to Lee's in shock, trembling and sure the Konoha-nin was toying with him. Gai-sensei did not seem to be faring much better. After sputtering incoherently a moment, he gathered his thoughts together and scolded, "Lee! Are you kidding? He could have killed you! And-!"

"He could have, Gai-sensei, but he didn't! He also could have stood by and watched as that bone guy killed me, but he didn't do that either!" Lee yelled, cutting off his sensei with a frown, his hands at his hips. Gaara watched, as one shock led to another: no one had ever defended him before, least of all a stranger, and a stranger he'd wronged and tried to kill, more over! He winced as a new wave of pain raced through his troubled head, and Lee turned to him again. "Come on, let's get you some medicine. What's wrong; do you have a headache?" he asked, putting his arm around Gaara's back and leading him out.

"Sor- Sort of," Gaara groaned, risking a thousand sideways glances at Lee, who continued to look vaguely concerned and confident. And why did Lee keep touching him? He couldn't help but jolt each time Lee did it, though he found that, oddly, he didn't mind. After a moment, Gaara heard Gai-sensei catch up.

"Well, if that's what you think then, Lee... Hold up, I've got some medicine he can take," Gai called, grabbing Lee's shoulder upon catching up and holding him back. The genin turned around and Gai held out a pill and a small flask of water after a minute of digging through pouches on the jacket that marked him as a Konoha no Jounin. Gaara took it gratefully, though wondering at the Jounin's sudden generosity, and shoved the pill in his mouth, following it up quickly with the water, and finally returning the flask empty. "It's not instantaneous like some of the stuff Hokage-sama mixes, but it shouldn't take long, anyhow..." Gai muttered, stowing the empty flask with a glare at it's emptiness.

"Domo, Gai-sensei!" Lee beamed, offering a thumbs-up and one of his patented smiles. "I knew I could count on you!"

Gai beamed as well, mimicking Lee's pose. "Always!" he said, and the two proceeded to giggle like little girls. Gaara watched the procedure with incredulity. On the other hand, if having an important person meant acting like that, he might be better off a monster after all. He discarded that thought immediately. Naruto didn't act like that with his important people, and though Gaara didn't exactly want to act like Naruto either, he assumed that the difference meant there were other options available to him, too.

"So you'd wanted to get something to eat, didn't you, Gaara?" Lee asked mid-laugh, catching Gaara off guard. Confused but beginning to feel better due to the medicine already, Gaara lowered his hands, looking at Lee like he was even more insane than Gaara was.

"You're still willing to take me?" he asked, unable to retain his former, typical emotionless shell. "But... I admitted to it - I tried to kill you. In your sleep!" Gaara's eyes were wide with wonder.

Lee rolled his eyes. "I just convinced Gai-sensei that you were okay, don't tell me I have to convince you too!" he complained, faking a pout.

"I wouldn't say I was convinced," Gai whined. Gaara shrunk.

Lee groaned, "Gai-sensei! You didn't have to say that! Look at him! He's cute as a bunny now, whatever else he was before now!"

Gai and Gaara both raised an eyebrow. "Cute?" asked Gai. "I'm a bunny?" queried Gaara. Still, he was relieved that Lee made such a distinction between who he was now and then. Even if it was a strange way to think of another person, especially one such as Gaara...

Lee scratched the back of his head, looking awkward. "Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best analogy, but we're losing sight of the point, and besides, I'm hungry! Let's go!" he said, grabbing one of Gaara's hands and dragging him down the hall and out of the too-clinical hospital. Lee hated being hospitals.

"Gaara!" Temari grinned, dashing through the streets of Konoha, trying to figure out where Gaara went. She'd been looking in every restaurant she came across for the past 15 minutes, and was sure she'd find them soon. Finding another one, she stormed in looking for red hair or a gourd. And there it was! She hoped he'd be glad to hear, she was too excited about the possibilities this opened for him not to be.

She tried to be calm as she walked over to his table and sat down, noticing with surprise Gaara's choice of company - the odd-looking Konoha-nin he'd fought at the Chunnin Exams. His teacher, who was equally strange, was also there, though he didn't look particularly pleased. Lee was talking animatedly while Gaara listened and ate, and it seemed Gai sometimes interjected about something or other. Temari slid into the open seat which was next to Gai and across from Gaara, and leaned forward to tell Gaara the news.

"Gaara! I talked to Kankurou and he agreed to come with us if we got permission, and I talked to Hokage-sama after she was able to get Chouji in a stable condition and she said that not only were we allowed to stay, but that, because of the way the alliance was set up, she could request for us to stay in order to help clean up, so the Suna council won't be able to dismiss us as easily!" She talked quickly and dug out a scroll with the Hokage's seal on it as proof of Tsunade's words.

Gaara looked over the scroll and then at Temari. "We'll be able to stay?" he asked. Gai and Lee (who'd been cut off quite abruptly, by the way) listened, mystified.

Temari nodded, "Probably! We still have to talk to the council in Suna, but with a request from Tsunade-sama, they'll be hard pressed to keep us there!"

Gaara's eyes seemed to brighten a touch more, and something of a smile crossed his face, though the former cruelty that twisted his features in a smirk before was not altogether gone. "Good. They'll agree." Temari faltered, unsure of whether Gaara was planning to threaten the council if they disagreed at first, or if he was merely confident, and she was unused to such an expression on his face. Still, she sat back, not quite as sure of herself as before.

"Agree to what, stay where?" Lee asked, already pretty sure he'd pieced together what they were talking about, but wanting to clarify.

"Here," Gaara said. "In Konoha." Suddenly, he seemed a little tense, as with excitement. he fidgeted and his eyes were bright like they'd never been, though Temari almost wondered if, perhaps, they were a touch too bright... Had Gaara been acting all this time? Did he have some plot in mind, some disastrous design? She didn't think they would have trouble getting out of Suna - she imagined the leaders would be glad to rid themselves of Gaara the monster - but was that truly what he was? Was she about to unleash on Konoha the horrors Suna had suffered? She began to feel doubtful again, hoping against hope that she'd been right before, that Gaara was changing and that the move to Konoha would establish that positive change more firmly.

"Really? That's great! We could certainly use some more help right now!" Lee gushed, beaming and clapping Gaara on the back. Gaara winced a bit at the touch, but, as before, allowed it. Temari, however, remembering past instances when people had tried to touch Gaara, tensed, waiting for a volley of sand to assault Lee. When nothing happened, she sighed relief.

"The three of you are staying here? Where?" Gai-sensei asked Temari, as he still wasn't very happy about Gaara, and liked less the idea that the sand boy should move to Konoha and become a constant danger. Gai didn't trust him as far as he could throw him (which would have been quite a distance).

Temari shrugged. "I suppose we'll find an apartment or something. If we can't find anywhere, we're still shinobi: we'll make do." Still, she wasn't fond of the idea of leaving a house in Suna for a tent in Konoha, now that she thought about it. However, finding an apartment would probably not be too hard, and she could always talk to Hokage-sama if they were having trouble.

Gaara scooted his plate forward. "Here. I don't want anymore, so you can have it, Temari," he said.

"A-Arigatou," she said, looking at it. It was Gaara's favorite, which she happened to dislike. Her distaste, however, did not stop her from picking up a spare pair of chopsticks and choking some down, worrying that she might upset Gaara otherwise. He was trying to be nice (wasn't he?); she could at least try to appreciate it. It was another step in the right direction, but Temari was more careful not to blow it out of proportion now. It would be a while before her insane brother came even close to being what might be called 'normal', and it seemed she would still have to walk on eggshells around him, just in case.

Kankurou sighed. As he'd expected, the council ruling in the absence of a Kazekage had agreed to let them go, the benefits of getting rid of Gaara outweighing the problem of losing him and Temari. He didn't really want to leave, but Temari had been right when she'd said there was nothing for them in Suna, where Gaara's effect seemed to have tainted and separated them as much as him. And Temari's fist in his face had been a compelling reason too. He was no good at close range combat, especially without his puppets! Granted, melee wasn't Temari's specialty either, but she was pretty tough when she wanted to be!

So, at any rate, that left him packing up his rather sparse positions to move to Konoha. He dreaded being stuck in an apartment with Gaara again, this time for quite a while - perhaps years. It was bad enough sharing his father's large and rather extravagant house with the nutzo; Kankurou was positive that Gaara would have killed him within a week, and probably Temari within the next.

At least they would remain Suna-nin, as far as that was concerned. Kankurou didn't want to think of himself in terms of Konoha - Konoha was weak and peaceful and took everything for granted. He knew better than that, and he was certainly not weak like the Konoha-nin (despite having been defeated by a Konoha rookie - he had conveniently forgotten about Shino)! Besides, the Konoha band looked stupid, and while the Suna band wasn't exactly spectacular, at least it was familiar. "Baka Gaara and Temari..." he muttered, closing up the toolkit he used for fixing or modifying his puppet's and checking to make sure everything else had been packed. He thought so.

Actually, there was a thought. There was no way they could carry all of their things to Konoha. Even though he never thought of himself as having much, he'd managed to fill several suitcases and crates. He knew Temari would have even more, though he wasn't sure about Gaara. Gaara probably had the most stuff out of the three of them since he'd been spoiled so much when he was younger, but Kankurou wasn't sure how much of it Gaara would actually want, especially these days.

No matter how much or little Gaara had, though, they'd have to borrow a cart or something from the village, he guessed. That meant they wouldn't travel very fast. That was an agonizing thought. Kankurou didn't like traveling much, nor camping, though it was a natural part of shinobi. He preferred urban life and streets and floors when it could be helped. And traveling with Gaara, in between villages where there wasn't even an opportunity to call for help... Uhg, Temari said Gaara was changing, but the thought still made him a bit squeamish. It was just sick the way he was afraid of his own little brother. Bakemono.

Gaara speculated that, had ever slept, he would not be able to tonight. They would leave tomorrow morning, and he was simply itching to go. The only thing that stopped him was that he knew Temari and Kankurou would not be inclined to go with him if he dragged them out of bed early. People wasted too much time sleeping. There were times he wished he could sleep, especially when he was younger, but, once you dealt with the loss of sanity, there were many benefits to not sleeping. For one thing, you got a lot more done, or you could, anyway.

Sleep was over-rated.

He still wouldn't mind trying it, but he'd never do it as often as the rest of the common populace did. That was for sure.

Did Naruto sleep? Gaara would have to ask. He'd wanted to talk to Naruto last time the suna-nin were in Konoha, but they never crossed paths, though Gaara'd heard he was in the hospital and had tried to visit him one day. Still, he would have plenty time now that he was going to be living there.

He couldn't wait, not at all. He wasn't customarily fidgety (unless you counted the shifting of the sand around him when he was in certain moods) but he simply couldn't stop, now. He paced his room, idly checked his sparse luggage for what felt like the millionth time, went through the many belongings he was leaving behind only to decide once again that he had no interest in the things, most of which were connected to bad memories and gave him headaches anyhow.

He'd packed primarily clothes along with a handful of utilitarian objects and one or two things from his childhood that carried too many memories to be left like trash, even if most the memories were bad. He'd only filled three medium sized cases, to Temari and Kankurou's half a dozen crates and cases.

He checked the window again, impatient for the sun to rise. At last, the sky was getting light. That was good enough for him - he went to wake Temari and Kankurou. They wouldn't be happy, but, for better or worse, he knew they still feared him too much to complain.

Kankurou sighed again from his position in the bench of the cart that Temari had eventually bought to carry their goods. He hated traveling, especially slowly like this. Why couldn't they live in big cities where there were cars and subways and things like that? He'd read about them, visited them sometimes on certain missions, tried to get missions that would take him to such centers of civilization. But as shinobi, what did they get? A cart with a couple of foul-smelling oxen to pull it. Naturally.

Luckily, they'd found a relatively clear forest path that would get them close to Konoha, at least. Granted they still had to clear it at places and sometimes it was too narrow, it at least cut down some of the work, which was more boring and monotonous than taxing, since Temari could use her fan to get rid of big obstructions and Gaara's sand and Kankurou's puppets could grind or cut away smaller ones.

But he was tired, too! His psychotic little brother had dragged Temari and him out of bed at the first barest glimpse of light, and though Kankurou was used to strange sleeping schedules, he'd been counting on at least another hour. "Oi, oi, you two? I'm going to sleep again," he told them, laying down on the bench and trying to get comfortable, which was difficult, especially considering the way the cart kept jostling.

As if reading his mind, Temari responded, "I don't know how you can on that thing, but whatever," with a shrug. Kankurou mumbled some vague obscenities and tried to get to sleep. He hadn't even been able to bother with his face paint, Gaara had wanted to go so fast, and he was certainly not going to try while riding that damnable cart. He felt oddly naked without it. He just hoped they didn't have to make camp for a night - he wanted to get back to civilization - any civilization - as soon as possible.