Disclaimer: If you don't know it by now, re-read chapter two. .

A/N: "Kankuro? Cat Head Kankuro? Where's your face and ears?" snicker couldn't help myself. XD

I stayed true to my word and kept silent the rest of the night. Once or twice there was a soft knock on my door but I ignored it. There were only two people that it could be, and both had left me with sand man, so I wasn't happy with either.

I was lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling when something tinked against one of the windows. With a sigh, I got up and looked out the window. Apparently I had failed to realize that my room looked down into a courtyard, and standing in the moonlight was Kankuro, still without his face paint and hood. He had a handful of pebbles. I opened the window.

"You mad at us?" He called up to me.

I nodded.

"You not speaking to us anymore?"

I shrugged.

"Then say something." He said as he dropped the pebbles on the ground.

I sighed. I had promised not to make any noise for the rest of the night, what was I supposed to do? I looked back in my room and noticed that there was a drawer in the nightstand. I pulled it open and there was a pad of paper and a pencil. I jotted down a quick note.

'I promised your brother I wouldn't make any noise for the rest of the night. If you want to talk, come up here, the door's unlocked.'

I balled it up and whipped it out the window at him. He caught it and looked slightly confused. I made the motion of opening a book in my hands and he unballed the paper and read it over. He looked back up at me and nodded before leaving the courtyard. A few minutes later there was a knock at my door. I crossed the room and opened it.

"Alright, first thing's first, why are you mad?" He demanded.

I walked back to the bed and sat down, "Because you guys left me alone with him."

"It would have been worse if he asked why we were talking about him. That's the only reason me and Temari left. Trust me."

I shrugged and leaned back on my elbows, "Is that why you were throwing stuff at my window?"

"Kind of. I also wanted to know what you said to Gaara after we left. He was acting weird all night." Kankuro said as he leaned against the wall.

"I apologized for hitting him."

Kankuro looked at me, the surprise clear on his face, "You did what?"

He sounded like Temari when I told her I hit Gaara.

"I said I was sorry." I laid back and resumed my stare down with the ceiling.

"Why? I think he deserved it."

I shrugged, "Maybe, but he didn't deserve what happened when you guys were kids." I said quietly. I was actually feeling bad for Sand Man. I was beginning to think that that was the reason I apologized.

"I...well. No, I guess not."

I looked over at Kankuro, "You guess not? Tch. You're a horrible horrible mean person if you think that shit was justified." I said with a dark look.

"It wasn't justified, but I mean. He did kill people." Kankuro said defensively.

"Tem-Chan said they were accidents. And don't you go counting the crazies that tried to kill him. They deserved it." I snapped. It wasn't until I said this that I remembered that his uncle was one of the 'crazies'. I returned my gaze to the ceiling.

Kankuro was silent for a minute or two before I heard him leave. He shut the door with a click and my room fell back into the complete silence that I was slowly getting used to. I rolled over on my side and stared out the open window. I could faintly see the stars and there was a nice cool breeze. I don't know how long I was staring out the window when I heard noises outside. I wasn't sure what it was, so I got up and peered out.

Standing in the courtyard were three men, all dressed the same. The blue jump suit and olive vest get-up. I narrowed my eyes and shut the window. They looked like the same men who blew up the gas station. I leaned back against the wall and held my breath. Who the hell were they and why were they here?

Okay, think, think, think. I gotta tell someone, but who? Kankuro was pissed and I didn't know where Tem-Chan was...Gaara. He was my only option at the moment. But where was he?

I remembered what Gaara had said last night, 'Your room is at the top of this flight of stairs. Mine is right next door.'

I slipped on my sandals and ran to the door. I opened it, switched off my light and ducked into the hall. It was dark and only the moonlight from the skylights lit the hall. I headed down the hall, the only way I could go and about twenty five feet from my door, was another. I took a deep breath and knocked.

"Come in." it was Gaara's voice, muffled by the door.

I pushed it open slowly and was welcomed with his usual glare.

"Why are you out of your room?" He demanded. He didn't look happy to see me in the least bit.

I pointed to his window, "There are people in the courtyard. Like the ones I saw before the explosion." I said quietly.

He looked at me curiously and then walked to his own window. After about two seconds, he turned and pushed past me and into the hall way, "Wait here." He said and dissolved into sand.

I sighed and leaned against the wall for about a minute before I heard voices in the courtyard. I ran to the window and peered out through the glass.

Gaara was standing off to one side and it looked like he had called out to the group. I opened the window a few inches and kneeled on the floor and looked and listened as best as I could.

"Who are you?" Gaara demanded of the three men.

All three turned to face Gaara, and none of them seemed too surprised to see him.

"Give us the woman." Demanded the biggest of the three. He looked like he was the leader.

The other two came up behind him and they formed a sort of triangle, with the big guy in front.

"Why would I do that?" Gaara sounded bored. He had his arms crossed and his eyes half closed.

"She belongs to us. Hand her over."

I raised an eyebrow, I belong to them? What the hell?

"She's in my possession now, so if you want her, you'll have to take her from me." Gaara said, he still sounded and looked bored with the whole situation. At least he wasn't giving me up. That was a good thing, right?

The big guy glanced at his two companions and they all moved so fast I could barely follow them. Big guy went right for Gaara head on, and the other two circled around him. All at once, they threw, what looked to me, like oversized needles.

I watched in disbelief as all the needles were stopped by Gaara's wall of sand and was surprised to see an amused look on Gaara's face.

The sand wall slowly crumbled and the needles fell to the ground. Once the sand was pooled at Gaara's feet he looked at the two smaller men and held out both hands, one towards each man.

"Sabaku Kyuu!" He yelled and both men were engulfed in sand.

I gasped as I heard their yells of mingled surprise and pain. It looked like it was the same thing that Gaara had done to me, but at a greater degree. He had only got my wrist and waist, not my whole body. I listened as the big guy spoke again.

"Sabaku no Gaara..." The man sounded surprised, and angry all at the same time.

"Hai. That is what some people call me. Others call me monster. Call me what you like, it'll be the last words your worthless ass will say." Gaara had a look of pure venom on his face as he closed both fists.

I screamed as I watched the two men literally explode. Blood rained down on Gaara and the last of the intruders, but the big guy looked up and spotted me at Gaara's window. I felt frozen in place. My body didn't want to move so I just watched what happened next.

Big Guy ran in my direction, but Gaara shot out his hand and an arm of sand shot out from behind him towards his opponent. Big guy turned slightly and did something with his hands.

"Suiton; Teppou Dama!" He shouted and balls of water shot out of his mouth like bullets and hit the sand arm. It slowed down, but didn't stop. Either did Big guy. He jumped and launched himself at the window and I toppled backwards as he burst through the glass. He stood over me for a second and all I could do was stare up at him, eyes wide with terror.

He brought his hand back as if to smack me, and when he swung, I flinched.

Between me and the Big Guy was a wall of sand. I finally came back to my senses and scrambled for the door. I made it to the hallway before something hit me in the leg from behind. I cried out and fell to my knees.

It felt like my leg was on fire and it all seemed to be coming from one spot on my leg. I could feel something warm in that particular spot. There was a strange triangular knife with a ring in the handle embedded in my calf. The warm part was the blood oozing from the wound. I could feel tears burning in my eyes and it hurt to just look at my leg. So I did the only sensible thing. I reached out and pulled the damn knife out of my leg. Let me tell you something, it hurt more coming out than it did while it was in.

I held the knife in my hand and tried to stand. I had to use the wall for support and put most of my weight on my right leg while my left was just kind of there for the moment.

The big guy was in the door way now, glaring at me.

"Get the hell away from me!" I yelled and took a step backwards, left hand on the wall, right holding the knife up in front of me. Pain shot up my left leg but I tried to ignore it.

Big guy said nothing, but took a step closer. I took another step backwards and bumped into something solid. I whipped my knife hand around, but was stopped by someone grabbing my wrist, twisting me around, and pushing me against the wall. It was everyone's favorite red head. I relaxed slightly and watched as he held out a hand and more sand flew from the gourd on his back and encased Big Guy.

"Sabaku Sousou." Gaara said in a voice barely above a whisper and closed his hand slowly.

I covered my ears as the big guy let out a piercing scream that ended in a gurgle. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I fell to my knees again and covered my head with my hands.

I don't know how long I was sitting like that on the floor when I felt something touch my shoulder. I flinched and looked up. Gaara was kneeling in front of me.

"You're hurt." He said as he put a hand on my leg, over the wound.

I nodded and looked around. The Big Guy was gone, and in his place was a large pile of sand, but I could see a fair amount of red seeping out from underneath the sand and on the tan carpet that ran down the center of the hallway.

I heard footsteps echoing in the hall below us and then up the stairs. It was Kankuro followed by two men wearing sandy colored vests and veils over their faces.

Kankuro stopped short when he saw me on the ground and Gaara in front of me, blood running down my leg between Gaara's fingers. He glared at his brother, "What the hell did you do, Gaara!"

It took me a few seconds to realize that he must think that Gaara had hurt me, I opened my mouth to correct him when Gaara grabbed my free hand, pressed it to my leg, and stood up.

"What did you do?" Kankuro demanded again.

Gaara glanced over his shoulder at me before pushing past Kankuro and the two veiled men, "Nothing." and with that said, he dissolved into sand.

Kankuro looked at the spot where Gaara had been standing seconds before and then seemed to snap out of a trance. He ran to my side and kneeled beside me.

"Daijobu?" He asked me.

"Huh?" I was confused, and I was sure what ever he had said, was in another language.

"Are you okay?" He asked again.

I blinked a few times and looked down at my leg and looked back at him, "I...I don't know..."

He waved one of the veiled guys over and he came quickly to stand behind Kankuro and handed him a roll of white cloth. Most likely a bandage or something. I didn't know, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't seem to think straight.

Kankuro pulled my hand away from my leg and wound the cloth around the knife wound and checked me over.

"What happened? Did Gaara do this?" He asked seriously.

I shook my head, "No, but he did do that." I said and pointed to the sand and the blood stained carpet.

Kankuro looked over and his eyes widened and he glanced over his shoulder and both the veilded men tended to the mess.

Kankuro held out a hand and pulled me to my feet. He tried to put my arm around his shoulders and his arm around my waist but I pulled away.

"I don't need help, thanks." I said as I limped back down the hall towards my room.

Kankuro grabbed my wrist and forced me to face him, "What's your problem all of a sudden, I was just trying to help."

"We had everything under control." I stated as I pulled free of him.

"We?"

"Yeah, me and Gaara. Figures the first thing that comes out of your insensitive mouth is some half baked assumption that your brother did this to me. No. He defended me. He saved my miserable hide." I started back to my room once again, "I'm going to bed. When you see Tem-Chan, tell her I want to speak to her." by the time I finished my sentence I was already at my door. I pushed it open, flicked on the light, and shut the door behind me. I leaned back against the door with my eyes closed and sighed.

I opened my eyes and gasped at what awaited in my room.