Hi everyone! I'm a little late posting this week, but hey. Sometimes the writing comes easy, sometimes you have to beat it into submission. This week was like chasing down a toddler that just chugged a half gallon of chocolate milk and was set loose in a petting zoo. Anyway, please enjoy, and know I look forward to hearing from you all. Reviews make me very happy and I am also happy to answer any questions you all have via PM.

As much as she pretended otherwise in the presence of her friends now that she was in the clear, Ren had been on the brink of death. Lying there on the gravel in a damp cave hundreds of miles from home and realizing that she was bleeding out, that she would never see home again, left scars on Ren she was quite certain would never heal. Oh, and the pain. Ren cringed and ran her fingers along her forearm where her tibia had broken through the skin.

Ren remembered the sheer bloody panic of being trapped in the doll as her oxygen supply ran out. She had thought that nothing would ever affect her on such a visceral level the way running out of air did. Growing up at an ancient shrine and then spending time in the main ninja village, Ren always liked to ruminate on how people kept making progress. Every decade saw new technological advances, medicines, and fashions. In that moment, though, all her pretensions of being highly evolved were stripped from her. At the end of the day, she realized, people were just animals.

That was the thought that was going through her head as the world went black. A voice called out to her in response. At the time, she swore it was from somewhere else inside that godforsaken doll, but looking back it very well must have come from inside herself.

"Yes," the voice had said. "And animals fight back."

Ren's terror had overflowed and it was like she blew a fuse on the inside. An entire lifetime's worth of conditioning to avoid self-harm went out the window. Ren was going to get out of that doll, take a few deep breaths, and rip the throat out of the bitch who put her there.

That's when the thoughts stopped happening. Ren's body moved on its own, desperate for release and tearing itself apart to escape. She heard the bones breaking and felt the warmth of blood soaking her clothes but she was detached. It was almost as if it was happening to someone else and she got to watch from the sidelines.

Yuu was there. Ren remembered that as soon as the doll broke open she had thrown herself on Yuu. Bo had torn her away and Ren had gone after Borei, too. Part of her was terrified by what she had done, the pure savagery of it, but there was this other part of her that was proud. They tried to kill me, she thought. I didn't let them. Team Hunter thought they were springing a trap on the weak and accidentally awoke Ren's powers.

Since then, she had been in and out of consciousness. The medical staff at the Kumogakure hospital was surprisingly accommodating once they heard the story of how she ended up in the hospital in the first place. More than once she had been slipped an extra jello cup for her valor.

Beki and Daiske came to see her every day. Even on the days she was all doped up on painkillers, through the fog she could remember their presence. She was finally stable enough that the nurses said her visitors could stay longer than twenty minutes. Beki had smuggled in some treats from the bakery and hot decaf coffee in a thermos.

"Are you sure this won't interfere with anything you're taking?" Beki shot Ren a look of concern as she handed over the thermos.

"No," Ren sipped on it happily. "Because the coffee's decaf it won't react with anything."

Beki nodded and shifted in her seat. "So you look like you're getting your strength back. Dai and I have been worried sick. That Sand ninja that saved you in the caves, Yo, he's been coming to see you, too. Do you remember?"

Ren furrowed her brows. "I remember you guys but I don't remember the Suna ninja." She shook her head. "Anyway, there was something serious I wanted to talk to you about."

Beki stared down into her coffee mug and gave Ren a tiny nod of consent. Konoha must really be forcing her to mature, Ren thought. Growing up, any time a serious topic came up Beki made a point of cracking jokes or trying to change the subject.

"So about the whole Maiden thing…" Ren swirled the coffee in the thermos. "Does it get less freaky after a while?"

Beki sighed. "I know it's weird. You feel like your body is getting hijacked, but at the same time deep down you know it's still just you."

"Yeah, exactly," Ren nodded.

"It gets less freaky," Beki sighed. "Turning into the Drowned Maiden doesn't faze me anymore. Sometimes when I get freaked out I turn without meaning to, but other than that I think of it as just putting on a mask to scare people with."

"Maybe that's how it is for you," Ren groaned. "Did you see what I did? I ripped Yuu's freaking neck off."

"I guess it would make sense if the different types of Maidens worked differently," Beki said. "How much of that night do you remember, anyway?"

Ren smiled and waved dismissively. "Not much, to be honest. It's all a blur after I got locked in the doll."

"That's a shame," Beki took a sip of her coffee. "See, the medic was doing some kind of procedure on you I wanted to ask you about. There was this clicking noise I kept hearing."

Ren blinked. "That was coming from you."

"What?" Beki blinked.

"That noise," Ren explained. "I remember hearing it, too. It was coming from you. I thought you were messing with your gauntlets because you were nervous."

…

"Beki, you have to help me," Daiske panted, his eyes darting frantically as he scanned the background. "You have to get me out of this."

"Nope," Beki turned the page of her magazine. "You told Lee you would go running with him, you're on the hook for it."

Daiske let out a groan of frustration. "I didn't realize he meant fifty laps around the entire city, Beki. I thought it was just going to be an easy little 5k or something."

There was a hammering sound in the distance and Beki slapped Daiske on the back. "You had better get going or he'll try to talk you into wearing the tights again."

"No," Daiske shook his head and started crawling under a nearby picnic bench. "I need a break. I'm just going to lie down for a minute. If you hear anything that sounds like crying, it's just a deep breathing exercise."

"Uh huh, sure," Beki smiled and shook her head as she went back to her reading. Since Ren's hospitalization, neither Beki or Daiske could bring themselves to do much in terms of training until they were sure their teammate was going to pull through. They still had the better part of the two weeks left but Beki figured resting at this point was more important than any last minute conditioning. She planned on squeezing in a few more sessions with her gauntlet and calibrating her gear. For the remainder of her time in Kumo, she decided to treat it like a vacation.

"Miss Tsukimori?"

Beki almost dropped her magazine as she snapped her neck in the direction of the voice.

"Gaara?"

He gave her a half bow and an almost imperceptible smile. Beki noticed he had his older brother with him as usual. Kankuro was keeping a respectful distance from the pair under the guise of scanning for possible threats. Beki had been seated on a retaining wall, so she dismounted and stuffed the magazine in her back pocket. Gaara cocked his head and glanced at the rolled up paper in her back pocket.

"What were you reading?"

Beki shuffled and flushed with embarrassment. "Oh, it's, well, it's the trash they sell the tourists. A history of the chunin exams in Kumogakure, that sort of thing."

Gaara stared at the paper a moment longer as if feeling out her reasoning before her continued. "I have to say, I was almost as pleased to hear you were participating in the exams as I was to hear one of the Suna ninja made it to the third portion of the exams."

"Oh, Yo? Yeah. He's an amazing medic," Beki smiled. Gaara gave her a look of confusion so she continued: "Oh, I met him during the second portion. It's a long story."

"Well, if I'm not mistaken we have quite some time before the finals to catch up," Gaara looked at Beki. "I went to see the Raikage but he was occupied with chunin exam business. I'm supposed to go back to see him later this evening, but in the mean time I could use a cup of coffee."

Gaara extended a hand to her. "Do you care to join me?"

Damn, Beki thought as she felt the heat rising up her neck. When did Gaara get this smooth? She actually felt like she was getting picked up and she wasn't sure how to feel about the Kazekage's newfound skill.

"Sure," Beki took his hand cautiously. It was surprisingly coarse and calloused.

"Hey!" Daiske called out as he scrambled out from under the picnic table. Oh no, Beki face palmed. She had forgotten her teammate was down there.

Daiske came storming up to them and Beki's gaze instantly shot to Gaara and Kankuro. To her relief and also her embarrassment, neither of them seemed to consider Daiske a threat. Gaara had very discretely released her hand, however.

"Daiske," Beki gave her teammate a warning smile. "This is the Kazekage."

Daiske literally stopped dead in his tracks and the angry expression on his face evaporated. His looked at Beki and then at the Kazekage, where his eyes lingered as if he was trying to verify this.

"I am so sorry," Was the only thing Daiske could manage to squeeze out of his horrified face.

Gaara graciously extended his hand. "And you would be?"

"Sasaki Daiske. I'm Beki's teammate," Daiske shook the Kazekage's hand with a look of frightened wonder. "Beki, how do you know the Kazekage?"

Beki shot him an exasperated look. "What does my dad do for a living, again?"

"Oh. Duh. I guess you would meet a lot of kage," Daiske shuffled uncomfortably and then gave her a suspicious look. "How many kage do you know, anyway?"

"I've met all but the Tsuchikage, personally. I met the Mizukage when I was like, four, so I don't think that even counts, but whatever." Beki gave Daiske a very discrete dismissive wave. "Weren't you going to go run again?"

"Oh, yeah, that's, that's right." Daiske jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "I should go."

"Bye, Daiske," Beki waved and didn't stop waving until he was out of sight. "Sorry about that. He's a little on the over protective side."

"Which is funny," Kankuro chimed in. "Because it looks like you should be protecting him."

"Hey, he's a nice kid," Beki folded her arms. "He does a good job keeping heat off of me in a fight so he tries to do it on the street, too."

"Even though you're like, half ogre?" Kankuro joked but immediately shut up at the look Gaara gave him.

Beki hadn't seen that the two had almost bumped into her ten minutes earlier. Kankuro had been cracking jokes about how the environment was so inhospitable it did his job for him. No one would attempt an assassination with this climate. Gaara had suddenly ducked between two buildings and pulled Kankuro in after him with the sand. After realizing that Gaara's crush was dead ahead, Kankuro had to talk Gaara through a casual "Oh hey, fancy meeting you here," encounter five times. He had done surprisingly well during the execution phase but Kankuro could tell the interference of Beki's teammate had thrown his brother off his game.

"You know what, I think I'm going to go scope things out. For security purposes," Kankuro started to walk away. "Don't get in any trouble while I'm gone."

Gaara was tempted to drag him back by the ankles with the sand. Was Kankuro throwing him in the deep end to try to help him or was he trying to sabotage his brother? No turning back now, Gaara thought. Please don't let there be any more complications.

…

"Well this is nice," Beki smiled at the café of the hotel the Kazekage was staying at.

"Are you in similar lodgings as a competitor?" Gaara was doing his best to pretend she was another business meeting until he regained his composure.

"Pfft," Beki smiled over her menu. He had forgotten how infectious that smile was. He got caught up in it for a moment before he realized she had continued speaking. "We're stacked three to a room. Then again, I can't complain. The bathrooms aren't communal and we have central heating. I've been in worse."

Gaara didn't bother asking for clarification. He'd been in a few hellholes himself during missions. "If it has four walls and a roof, you're lucky."

"Agreed," Beki grinned. "Where's the worst place you've ever shacked up in?"

"Classified," Gaara said in a knee jerk fashion but Beki laughed. "I'm serious."

Beki shook her head. "I figure as much. It was just the way you said it."

It always amazed Gaara how people could be more amused by the manner something was said with than the content itself. He told jokes rather frequently, however Kankuro was the only person who consistently reacted to them.

"So you were going to tell me how you met Yo," Gaara watched how Beki absentmindedly rapped her knuckles on the table. Some of a shinobi's best assets were their silence and their stillness. Beki's quirks were endearing in public, but Gaara found himself concerned for her ability to reign them in during a fight.

"Oh, yeah, so," Beki set down her menu. "My team and I got blitzed twice in a row. The first team we wiped out no problem- "

"Iwagakure shinobi, if my memory serves," Gaara interjected.

"Right," Beki nodded. "You've really done your homework."

Gaara gave a half wave. "Comes with the job."

"So immediately afterwards the other Getsu squad ran into us. They almost killed my teammate, the one you haven't met, Ren," Beki continued. "She was bleeding out, Daiske was out cold, and I have minimal medic training. Her bones were sticking out and there was blood everywhere- "

Beki stopped talking at looked up at Gaara, realizing she was going into impolite gory details. The passive interest on his face reminded her he had discussed eyeballs popping on their first date. He can handle it, Beki thought. Before she could continue the waitress approached to take their order. What surprised Beki the most was how courteous the girl was. She was the first local Beki had dealt with since she arrived that didn't shoot her dirty looks. After she had walked away, Beki turned back to Gaara.

"Your teammate was on the brink of death?" Gaara offered.

Beki nodded. "So I'm watching her bleed out and she's telling me not to surrender because we can avenge her by winning the finals. That's when Yo's team shows up. They were all pretty beat up as well, so we struck a deal. Yo stabilized Ren and Daiske and I protected the group until we got out of the caves."

"You don't usually see that kind of cooperation between opposing teams," Gaara nodded. "I'm glad it worked out."

Beki gave him a warm smile. "Hey, it's pretty dead in here. You can relax a little."

Gaara realized that with his nervousness, his body language and tone would sound put offish to Beki. He gave a small sigh and leaned toward her. "I apologize. This will be my first time meeting the Raikage in person."

"Uncle A is great. He'll come off as a real tough guy, like my dad, but deep down he cares a lot about his village," Beki said. "He believes in strength more than anything else, so bring your full 'I earned my position as a kage" attitude."

Gaara blinked. He hadn't considered that Beki could provide such valuable insight into working with other kage. What else could he ask her to give himself a leg up in his meeting with the Raikage? No Gaara, he thought. You did this the last time you got to see Beki. You need to make this date count. The waitress brought their coffee and Gaara took a deep breath.

"I'm glad we ran into each other, Beki," Gaara stared into his mug. "And I hope I'll be able to see you again before the exams are over."

"It's pretty great, right? We don't get to see each other very often," Beki smiled. "I'm glad you'll get to see me fight. That way I can prove I'm not just a pretty face."

Gaara gave her an odd look. "Why would I think you were just a pretty face?"

"It was a joke, Gaara," Beki reached over and patted his hand. As she sipped her coffee, her hand lingered on his. Gaara was not accustomed to such casual physical contact. It was exciting but at the same time increased his anxiety. He felt his heartrate pick up speed and he felt the urge to withdraw his hand. No Gaara, stop running away from her. What's the worst she'll do? Slap you?

Gaara took Beki's hand in his and gave it a squeeze. Time slowed down as he watched her face for a reaction. Instead of a look of repulsion or pulling her hand away, Beki gave him a reassuring smile and squeezed back. A wave of relief swept over him as they sat there, hand in hand. Something out the window caught Beki's attention and she turned away. Gaara was left staring at their interlaced hands wondering what this meant for their relationship. He would have to ask Kankuro what "base" holding hands was and where he should go from here. Was brushing her hair behind her ear okay? Would he be allowed to kiss her soon?

With the realization that he was far enough along in a relationship that kissing was on the table, Gaara's panic returned. This is working out, Gaara thought as he ran his thumb over Beki's palm. I might not mess this up. The approach of a third party drew both of their attention.

"Kazekage," A folded his arms. "If I had known you came to see me at my office I would have dismissed my other meeting."

Beki had let go of Gaara's hand and was trying to be as small as possible. She knew A would notice her any second and she would catch hell for not visiting him since her arrival in Kumogakure. Sure enough, A's gaze shifted over to Beki and his expression soured.

"And what are you doing here, Moonshine?"

"I was having coffee with the Kazekage?" Beki's voice cracked under the pressure. Gaara glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Was Beki afraid of the Raikage? She had been singing his praises only a few minutes before.

"Little girl, you had best be careful," the Raikage put a fist on top of Beki's head. To Gaara it seemed like a threatening gesture, however Beki's lack of a response indicated that this was some familiar form of greeting.

"What are you talking about, Uncle A?" Beki looked up at him. "The Kazekage and I met in Konoha. We're just catching up."

"What I mean is, you're a young girl running around with all these different kage," A warned. "If you seem to friendly with all the kage, people will start questioning your alliances."

Beki puffed up her cheeks in frustration. "I'm not an ambassador yet, Uncle A."

"But you will be, Moonshine," He rubbed the fist into her head and she grimaced. "And on that day the free advice will stop."

Gaara looked down at his cup. It seemed as if his date would be ending prematurely. It had overall been a good date but he wished it would have had a more elegant closure. He wanted to test these new physical boundaries by brushing Beki's hair behind her ear. He would have to remember that for next time.

The Kazekage rose from the table and motioned for Beki not to stand. He gave her a polite bow. "Thank you for joining me for coffee. Until next time, Miss Tsukimori."

Beki nodded back and as she watched them both walk away, she called out "Play nice!" out of habit from working with the preschoolers in Konoha. Both A and Gaara shot her looks. A's was threatening and Gaara's was confused, but both cases left her feeling stupid for speaking.

After they walked out she sighed into her empty coffee cup. The waitress returned with the coffee pot and refilled Beki's mug.

"Thanks," Beki raised the cup in a gesture of thanks.

"You must be an important lady," The waitress gave her a small smile. "You had two kage talking to you, after all."

Beki shrugged. "My father does some government work here and there. I just know them by extension."

The waitress eyed her inquisitively. Beki noticed that she had pretty green eyes, like Gaara, but the waitress's were more of a jade color. She was a little older than Beki, but a little shorter. She had braided her wine colored hair on both sides of her crown. The braids joined at a ballerina bun on the back of the girl's crown. That's pretty, Beki thought. She was sick of the conch braid she always wore to a fight. This style might be something she could experiment with.

"My name is Nomura Miki, by the way," The waitress smiled at her. "I know the café is only for guests of the hotel, but if you let them know you're a friend of the Kazekage's I don't think they'll give you any trouble if you want to come back."

"That's really nice of you, thanks," Beki smiled. It was refreshing to be treated like a person again. "I'm Tsukimori Beki, by the way."

"Nice to meet you Beki," Miki shuffled and looked around the nearly empty café before leaning in closer. "Hey, I don't mean to pry, but you're a ninja, right?"

"Yes," Beki nodded. "I'm from Getsugakure. I'll be competing in the finals this year."

The waitress sighed. "I bet being a ninja is so exciting. You get to travel around and compete in front of the crowds for fame and glory…"

Beki let her indulge in her fantasy for a moment before interrupting. "It's not all sunshine and rainbows. It's an ugly business. Every time you go out on a mission you risk dying or watching people you love die. I almost lost my teammate in the second part of the exam."

Miki frowned. "I'm sorry. That's…that's really rough."

Beki shrugged. "We all know the risks going in. Someone's got to do it, right?"

"I guess that's true," Miki picked at her apron. "I bet you have important chunin exam business to take care of. It's been really fun talking to you. Not a lot of ninja have patience for civilians, especially curious ones."

Beki smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, Miki. I bet it all seems so mysterious and exciting from the outside."

Miki flushed with embarrassment. "Hey, it's usually pretty dead around this time of day and the shift manager is pretty laid back. If you come back and talk to me again, I'll hook you up with a free cup of joe, on the house?"

"That sounds good to me," Beki said. "This is the best coffee I've had since I got here."

...

As Beki walked back to the hotel, she wondered what it would be like to be someone like Miki. A noncombatant, completely unaware and uninvolved with the goings on of the ninja world. It must be so peaceful, watching the chunin exams like they were some kind of spectator sport without realizing the risks associated with it. Then again, Beki thought, how horrible would it be to get caught up in the conflicts between villages with no way to defend yourself?

She sighed and decided that if knowledge was a curse, she was willing to pay the price.