Chapter Three

The next morning Kohana was delighted by a tour of the city by Kankuro. They walked a nice, slow easy route so that she could manage with her crutches. This took up the entire morning so that when lunch rolled around, Kankuro took her into a noodle shop to shout her some food. As she settled into the chair, leaning her crutches against the table, she looked around in wonder.

"This is great!" she exclaimed.

"I'm glad you think so." Kankuro said as he turned to her after ordering their lunch, "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yep. Today has been great." Kohana said with a wide a grin.

When their food came Kohana breathed it in deep and immediately started to eat. All conversation was paused while they consumed their meal in silence. When they had finished Kankuro paid and they left. Slowly they strolled down the street, making their way back to the house.

"Oh, it was good to go out, get some fresh air, and do something." she said, pausing for a moment to relish the bright sun.

"Yeah, I figured you were close to going stir crazy in the hospital." Kankuro said his hands tucked into his pockets.

Today he had forgone wearing the magenta face paint and for the first time Kohana could see his face properly. She could see the similarities between him and Gaara more clearly now. But even in light of this new information she still preferred to perv on Gaara.

"Hey! Kohana!"

Kohana stopped and turned to the sound of her name being called, only to find Dai running down the street towards her.

"Hey, Dai." Kohana said giving a wave.

Dai practically skidded to a halt in front of them both, a wide grin on her face.

"So I heard you had managed to escape the confines of the hospital."

"You heard correctly." Kohana replied with a grin of her own, "And Kankuro graciously offered to let me stay at his place, now he is giving me a tour of your lovely village."

Dai gave him a suspicious pointed look, "Yes, 'cause he's such a gentleman." she said, sarcasm lightly lacing her words.

Kankuro just grinned and stuffed his hands into his pockets, wisely deciding that it would be best to just not say a word.

"So what are you doing?" Kohana asked, forcing Dai to focus her attention back to her.

"Just a few errands." she replied, "Speaking of which, I gotta go."

"Oh, ok. Well have fun." Kohana said as Dai moved off.

Dai waved back at her, "You too. See ya!" And with that she disappeared into the crowd.

Kohana turned to Kankuro, a suspicious look now on her face.

"A gentleman, huh?"

He turned away from her with a grin, "I refuse to say anything on the grounds that it may just incriminate me."

Kohana just laughed and shook her head.

"Come on, let's get back to the house, the heat is starting to get to me." she said.

"Gladly." Kankuro replied, he waved his hand in front of him, "Ladies first."

She laughed again as they made their way down the street.

***

The night was late and as usual, Gaara was still awake. He sat in the armchair, a book in his lap, the only light coming from the lamp that sat on a small round table next to him, and stared out the window to the streets. It happened sometimes, this insomnia, lasting anywhere from a day up to several weeks. He usually filled in the extra waking hours with work, but tonight he didn't feel like reading report after report. Not that he could concentrate on any work anyway, not with his thoughts constantly pulling him back to the dark-haired woman that currently resided in the spare room. An ache began to throb behind his eyes and he massaged the bridge of his nose. He didn't know why he couldn't stop thinking of her, it was frustrating. His mind flashed to the delicious massage that she gave him last night and his eyes half closed in memory. That had been wonderful, something that he would jump at the chance to have again. A thought struck him then, would she do it again? He wasn't sure. He could always ask, but that would be rude.

But...

She had said 'anytime'. Surely that was an indication that she would be willing to do it again? Gaara stood up, catching the book before it slid off his lap and setting it on the coffee table, and he walked out of the lounge room and to her bedroom door. As he raised his knuckles to give a light tap on the closed door he stopped. This was madness! It was late and she was probably asleep by now, what on earth was he thinking!

The door suddenly opened and Gaara was frozen to the spot, hand still raised. Kohana stood there, an amused expression on her face.

"You took too long to knock." she said, "It was starting to enter the territory of 'lurking'."

Gaara lowered his hand, "Sorry. I only realised that you might have been asleep and waking you just seemed... rude." he muttered, his face starting to go red with a blush. Why the hell was he blushing!

Kohana's shoulders shook with silent laughter, "How can I help you?" she asked once she managed to regain use of her voice.

"Uh... I..." Gaara's words fled from his mind leaving him garbled, "wondering...?" his voice trailed off as he face grew more heated, he felt like a fool. Luckily Kohana seemed to understand.

"Did you want a massage?" she asked gently.

Mutely, he nodded, his eyes fixed to the floor.

"Ok," his head shot up to stared at her in surprise, "But I'm going to do it properly this time. Go back out to the lounge room and push that coffee table to the side of the room." she flapped her hands at him, "I'll be out in a minute."

Shocked, Gaara obeyed. Kohana just gave a smile and hobbled over to her bag. Her foot was basically healed by now and the crutches were no longer really needed. She searched through her clothes until she found a small black lacquered box. Clutching it she limped out to the lounge room to find Gaara sitting on the edge of the couch, his back straight and tense. The coffee table had been pushed to the side leaving a nice clear spot in the middle of the floor. Kohana settled herself on the floor and patted the empty ground in front of her.

"Down here." She said to Gaara.

A little confused Gaara slid from the couch to the floor and shuffled around until he sat with his back to her.

"Now, I need you to take off your shirt."

Gaara shot her a shocked look, this was new. She tilted her head slightly to the side and gave a reassuring smile.

"It's alright, I said I wanted to do this properly, and that requires skin contact."

He still hesitated.

"Trust me."

A shiver ran down his spine. Those words again, those words that required surrendering something of himself to her. Did she understand the full implication of those two words? He looked at her and realised that yes, she did understand. Slowly he lifted his shirt up, slowly surrendering.

Kohana watched as he took off his shirt. She simply waited. She had seen the shock in his eyes when she had asked him to remove his shirt, the reluctance. She had realised something in that moment, the Kazekage was much, much more vulnerable then she first realised. She suddenly remembered that this man had once carried a demon soul within his body. What had that done to him? That invasion of his soul by someone who probably didn't want to even be there. What scars had that experience left him with? He dropped the shirt to the side.

"Now lay down on your stomach." her words were soft, quiet and reassuring. Barely louder than a whisper.

But he obeyed.

Stretched out before her he pillowed his head on his arms, his face turned towards her. Kohana opened the black lacquered box and pulled out a glass jar of scented oil. She poured a little on his back then a little into her cupped hand before replacing the stopper, setting it back in the box, and rubbed her hands together. Once her hands were warmed she then placed them on Gaara's back and started to rub.

When the little jar of oil was opened Gaara was hit with a sharp citrus scent, which after a few moments mellowed out. He almost gave a moan of pleasure when her hands started to press into the muscles on his back, soothing away all the knots of tension that had built up over the day. His eyes slid shut as her fingers worked around his shoulders.

Her hands glided over his skin, drawing patterns that had been drummed into her for months, allowing her mind to wonder off a bit. She just couldn't get over just how perfectly sculpted his back was, just how smooth and flawless the skin was. She gave a quiet sigh of envy; she wished her skin looked as good as his did. All the training and fighting that he had gone through in his life had sculpted his muscles to almost perfection. She feel them all under her fingers as she massaged out the knots, this led her to wonder what the muscles in the other parts of his body would feel like under her fingers. The thought was so attractive that she was sorely tempted to just grope his perfect backside. But with a slight shudder she restrained herself. She couldn't do that, it would betray the small piece of trust that he had given her, and somehow she knew that once gone, that trust could never be gotten again. Now that the Kazekage was nice and relaxed she decided to ask him a question that had been floating around her brain since she first laid eyes on him.

"Gaara," she said softly, "I was wondering, why you have got the character for 'love' on your forehead?"

The tension that ran across his shoulders told Kohana that she had hit upon a somewhat sore spot. Smoothly she moved her hands to rub out the new line of tension.

"It's alright if you don't want to tell me," She continued, "I was just merely curious."

Slowly Gaara relaxed again. But his mind whirled, what would she do if she found out the truth? He was suddenly afraid of what her reaction would be, what if she couldn't accept it?

The silence stretched out for a few minutes before Gaara took a deep breath. Only one way to find out because at the same time that he was afraid, he also desperately wanted her to know.

"When I was born," he began his voice barely louder than a whisper, and even though she hadn't moved he knew that all her attention was focused in on him. He closed his eyes, hoping that it would somehow make it easier to talk about. "A... horrible thing was done to me. I grew up alone and the day that I found out just how alone I was, I put the character on my forehead. To remind me that only I alone could love me. Because no one else would."

"The sad fate of all Jinchuriki.'" Kohana said quietly, her heart going out to the boy he once was.

Gaaras eyes shot open and he pushed himself up to a sitting position to face her directly.

"You know?" he asked urgently, grabbing her shoulders. How did she find out? No one in the village talked about it, no one!

Kohana bit her bottom lip as Gaara shot up, her bloody mouth again, this time it just dug a six foot deep grave for her. She looked straight in his eyes, the look that he had, the look of wanting and need that she saw there. He wanted her to understand and accept, he needed her to. She gave a quiet sigh, what are a few more feet to the grave?

"Yes. I know."

He looked at her, waiting.

"And if you don't relax then you will undo all the hard work I just did." she finished, wagging a finger in his face with a mock frown, "Now lay back down so I finish."

Something in Gaara relaxed, she wasn't repulsed, wasn't scared. He lay back down on his stomach and as Kohana resume her massage she made a sound of annoyance.

"Now look what you've done. You got yourself all tense again."

At the sound of the gentle chiding Gaara relaxed further beneath her skilled hands. She knew, and she accepted. But there was one last thing...

"How did you find out?" He asked after a few minutes.

Kohana sucked in a breath, "How about we call it intuition and leave it at that?"

He shifted to look at her, "Intuition?"

She pushed on his shoulders, forcing him back down, "Yes, healers intuition." she said firmly.

Gaara managed to shoot her a look from the floor. She looked back at him, pleading on her face.

"Please?"

He gave a slow blink, it would seem that he was not the only one to have secrets, "A healer, huh? That explains a lot."

She frowned, "what's that suppose to mean?"

He gave a small smile at her, "Healers and doctors always make the worst patients."

She gave an angry pout which sent his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. He would allow her her secrets.

For now, at least.

***

Kohana sat curled up on the armchair reading one of the books that she had found on the book shelf. Since both Gaara and Kankuro were busy today she assured them both that she would be fine by herself, and had spent most of the day curled up in the armchair. Suddenly her head snapped up, dropping the book she scrambled out of the chair and limped quickly over to the front door. She reached the door and yanked it open.

"Kuro!"

Kuro stood at the door, in his human form, his hand raised just about to knock. A grin broke over Kohana's face and she lunged forward to wrap her arms around his neck. With a grin of his own, Kuro simply wrapped his arms around her in return. After a minute Kuro detangled himself from Kohana and held her at arm's length.

"I see that you are healing well." he said, cocking his head to the side.

She shrugged his hands off, "Of course I am. In another couple of days I'll be able to take off the bandage, for now it's helping with the support." she grabbed his hand and dragged him inside, "What did Sensei say?"

Kuro pulled the backpack off before sitting down on the couch next to Kohana, a slight frown on his face.

"Well, actually... Sensei is coming here."

Silence, then...

"WHAT!"

"She'll be here roughly tomorrow evening." Kuro continued.

Kohana chewed her bottom lip, "She's coming 'cause of Gaara, isn't she?"

Kuro nodded. Kohana groaned, she liked her Sensei, she truly did, but she was a very formidable woman with no patience for idiots.

"Hmmm, I didn't realise that the whole Jinchuriki thing was serious enough to get her to actually come here." Kohana said, thinking out loud, a thought occurred to her, "How is Sensei getting here?"

A look of wicked mischief crossed Kuro's face, "Her and Grey are coming up on Jet, it was the fastest way that she could reach Suna."

A snort of laughter escaped from Kohana, that was going to be priceless. Her Sensei hated flying, Grey hated it as well.

"I take it Jet volunteered for this privilege?" she asked, barely able to keep in a fit of giggles.

"With great relish and the smug knowledge that they didn't really have any other choice of who they flew with." Kuro replied with a smug grin of his own.

Kohana couldn't help it, she broke down with laughter. Jet was Kuro's older brother, but was about twice the size of Kuro. Preferred when there were two passengers to consider. However, Jet had a very wicked sense of humour and she knew that the flight for her Sensei would be anything but soothing. He would tilt, dive, bank, and any other flying acrobat that he could get away with, just to fray her Sensei's nerves. After several minutes she managed to calm down enough to be able to speak again.

"I take it that is why you are currently in your human form?" She asked, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Yeah," Kuro replied giving the back of his neck a scratch, "Sensei insisted, she said that she didn't want to run the risk of anyone seeing either me or Grey change to human form anytime she had a question or something."

"Makes sense." She chewed on a fingernail, "I suppose I'll have to tell Gaara that you're a close friend or something."

"Speaking of which, how did you end up here?" Kuro asked with a mock glare, "I went to the hospital and they told me you were staying at the Kazekage's house." he nudged her with his elbow and gave a suggestive wink.

Kohana blushed, "Actually, I'm here with the Kazekage and his brother." she smacked him across the arm, "And there is nothing going on between me or either of them."

Kuro just held up his hands, "If you say so."

She just shot him a dirty glare.

The front door opened and Kankuro walked in, stopping when he saw Kuro. Kohana gave him a bright smile.

"Kankuro this is my very good friend Kuro." she said brightly.

***

Gaara sat at the desk in his bedroom, his head in his hands as he gathered himself together. He could hear the other three talking and laughing. When he had walked into the house thirty minutes ago and had been introduced to Kohana's close friend he had felt a flash of an unfamiliar feeling flow through him. It made him want to be incredibly petty and sulky towards the new boy. It didn't make sense! He wanted to beat the other boy silly, this feeling baffled him. Right now he was trying to squash it deep down in his mind so that he could go out and join them without doing something incredibly stupid.

Slowly he breathed in and then out, then repeated the process. After a few more minutes he managed to wretch his wayward and baffling feelings together and stood up.

Kuro glanced up when he saw Gaara walk into the lounge room. He hadn't missed the flash of jealousy that had flickered across the Kazekage's face when Kohana introduced him, and he was pretty sure that Kohana missed it entirely. He gave a smile as he watched Gaara sit in the armchair out of the corner of his eye. If the Kazekage was having jealous attacks about Kohana's 'close male friends' then this was going to be very interesting. He looked at Kohana and gave a slight shake of his head, the girl had no idea. Although he had to grant that Gaara was very good at hiding his feelings so he supposed Kohana wasn't entirely to blame.

"Um... Gaara?" Kohana asked sweetly, when he looked at her directly she continued, "I was wondering if it was alright if Kuro could stay here as well for the next few days?"

Kuro bit the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing at the way that Gaara's jaw suddenly clenched. Kohana didn't seem to notice anything, but, interestingly enough, Kankuro did. It also looked like that Kankuro was fighting some urges to laugh as well. That was good, Kuro thought, he wasn't the only one. Kohana took the extended silence as hesitation, rather then what it really was, Gaara having an internal battle with his own emotions.

"Please?" she said, her bottom lip pouting ever so slightly, "He can sleep on the couch."

Gaara drew a deep breath and let it out in a gusty sigh, "Alright, but I will take the couch, you can take my bed and Kuro can take the guest bed."

Kohana gave a squeal of delight and a very large grin. Kuro could swear that Gaara practically melted into a puddle underneath that grin. He bit the inside of his cheek again; whatever was he going to do with her?

"Thank you Kazekage." Kuro said with bright grin of his own, might as well not give the Kazekage any more reason to hate him.

"It's quite alright." Gaara replied.

Gaara could find no real reason why he didn't like Kuro. He had been nothing but polite and nice, but there was just something about him that was... weird. Gaara gave up trying to decipher his feelings and concentrated instead on just squashing them and listening to the conversation. He would deal with them later.

"You have the same name as that crow that Kohana had with her, why is that?" Kankuro asked.

Kuro scratched his nose, "Actually 'Kuro' is more of a nick name of mine, and besides Kohana named the crow after me."

"That's 'cause you act like a pain-in-the-as-crow at times." Kohana said sweetly, "So, I figured why not have a crow with your name?"

They all had a laugh, even Kuro, even though he had been the butt of the jibe.

"Touché." Kuro said, merriment and mischief lighting up his dark eyes, "But, you forget, I came first."

He watched out of the corner of his eye to see if the remark had affected Gaara, the slight twitch told him that he succeeded. Oh this was going to be a fun. Kohana just pegged one of the small cushions from the couch at his head.

"That's 'cause nothing else could get around that ego of yours."

Kuro just stuck his tongue out at her.

Gaara watched, envious of the easy rapport that they had with each other.

Kankuro watched his brother and gave a quiet sigh. He knew that Kuro was baiting Gaara, and Gaara was falling for it without even knowing. He rested his chin on his hand, wondering what would happen first - Kohana's foot healing up enough for her to travel or Gaara giving into his urge to whack the smug grin off Kuro's face.

Only one way to find out.

Kankuro grinned and settled down to watch the show.