Here it is, the next chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter Seven

It was late at night as the revellers spilled out of the bar and onto the street with much giggling and stumbling. Four of the party goers were blind rotten drunk and unsteady on their feet whilst the other two were still sober and guiding the other four to stop them from falling over their own feet. Kankuro, Naruto, Kohana and Kuro were all laughing and talking at the tops of their lungs as they stumbled along. Temari had a hold of Kankuro and Naruto whilst Gaara was supporting Kohana and Kuro. With a look of suffering Gaara looked over at his sister.

"Could you take those two home?"

Temari gave a wry smile, "Yes, your house is on the way to mine so I'm heading that way anyway."

"Thank you. I will take these two back to the inn." Gaara grabbed the collar of Kuro's shirt before he walked into a lamp post. As Temari prodded her two in the right direction Gaara heard Naruto start up a drunken song, of which Kankuro took up enthusiastically. He gave a shake of his head, he really hoped that they would pass out before he got home.

"Come on, let's get you two back to the inn." he said putting his hand under Kohana's elbow to steady her as she started to veer towards the wall.

Normally the walk would have only taken about five minutes, but with these two in their current state that five minute walk instead took about twenty minutes. Gaara had to keep cajoling, and at times dragging, them in the right direction, but eventually the inn came into sight. As they approach a shadow detached itself from the front door and came towards them. The shadow resolved itself to be Grey.

"Here I'll take this one." he said as he grabbed Kuro by the back of the collar and frog marched him inside.

Gaara put his arm around Kohana to guide her inside and steady her. But before they went inside Kohana stopped, digging her heels in.

"Wait a mini." she said, a little slurred.

Gaara patiently stopped. Kohana turned and rested her palms on his chest and looked up at Gaara.

"You are weally, weally hot." she said. Gaara just looked at her, she continued, "and I've been wantin' to do this for a long time..." suddenly she leaned up and planted her lips on his.

Gaara's heart started to pound wildly and his eyes widened for a moment before they slid shut and he responded instinctively to the kiss, his hand sliding from her shoulder to the back of her head.

A few moments later common sense smacked Gaara around the head and he gently pulled away, not without regret.

"You need to go to bed. Your drunk." he said gently.

She held up one hand, her thumb and forefinger held about a centimetre apart, "Just a little bit." she responded with a grin, "Want to come to bed with me?"

Gaara almost choked as his heart leapt into his throat, "I can't." he managed to choke out before gritting his teeth. That was the last thing in the world that he wanted to say at that moment, as it was he was nearly undone by her pout. Remember she is intoxicated, he thought to himself, her inhibitions are lowered and she may regret it in the morning.

"Can I at least get a good night kiss?" She said still pouting as she slid her arms around his neck.

Gritting his teeth and mentally steeling himself Gaara gently unwrapped her arms from his neck and, on an impulse, gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"How about in the morning?" He said.

She brightened a bit, "Ok." She suddenly wrapped her arms around him in a hug before releasing him and walking unsteadily in the door, almost running into Grey whom had come back out to see what was taking so long. He caught Kohana and swept her up into his arms.

"Tch, the things I do." He looked over at Gaara, "Are you alright? You look a bit strange."

"I'm fine." Gaara said sounding a bit strained, "I'm tired, I've gotta get home. Good night." he turned and walked away. When he was out of sight of the inn he broke into a run and didn't stop until he reached home. Letting himself in he was relieved to find that both Naruto and Kankuro were securely in bed. Locking the front door behind him he went to his own bedroom where he got undressed and climbed beneath his covers, his mind churning over what had just happened. He touched his lips, oh how badly he wanted to race back to the inn and take up Kohana's offer. He closed his eyes firmly; he would worry about it in the morning. When he finally got to sleep his dreams were filled with dark blue eyes filled with lust and long silky blue-black hair running through his fingers.

***

"Wakey, wakey!" a bright cheery voice pierced Kohana's slumber, bringing her back to the world of the living and her hung-over body. She gave a groan into her pillow as a sharp headache stabbed at her temple. She heard a similar moan from Kuro's bed on the other side of the room followed by his muffled "go 'way".

"Come on, you guys are the one who requested the wake up call." Azami's voice pierced her skull, each syllable making her headache worse. With another groan Kohana threw back her covers and rolled off her bed to the floor where she lay with her pounding head against the carpet. She heard Kuro give a strangled hiss as Azami ripped his covers off him. Finally she cracked her eyes open and squinted, groping around the drawers she pulled out the first thing that her hands laid upon and dragged herself into the tiny bathroom to try and drown her headache in the shower.

Twenty minutes later she emerged feeling a tiny bit better. Her hair was unbound and hanging down her back so that it could dry in the hot desert sun. As soon as she stepped out Kuro walked in, not even bothering to close the door. Kohana sat down on her bed and gulped down the glass of water that Azami had left for her. Why, oh why did she agree to go out drinking? She hated hangovers, hell; she hated to get drunk in general. She always found that after her seventh or eighth drink her memory got fuzzy. She had no idea how Kuro and herself managed to make it back to the inn last night. Although she did remember dreaming about Gaara last night. Suddenly Kuro walked past, stark naked and dripping wet. He got to his drawer and grabbed the first pair of pants he saw and put them on before turning to Kohana.

"Let's go and get this over with so that I can go back to bed." he mumbled quietly.

Kohana nodded as she stood up, sending a stab of pain through her head. They left the room and walked downstairs and out the front. Both of them winced when they were hit with the bright sunlight of the morning. Kohana grabbed Kuro's arm before he could retreat back inside and dragged him off the Gaara's house. Soon they were knocking on the front door only to have it opened by a disgustingly cheery Naruto. They quickly entered and headed for the lounge room where Kuro dropped to the ground and curled up on the floor whilst Kohana curled herself up on the couch. Naruto walked in behind them with a grin.

"And how are you two this morning?"

Kuro just curled up tighter as Kohana gave a wince.

"Not so loud." She groaned, "My head hurts."

"Hmm, give me a sec." Naruto got up and left.

Kohana was just starting to drift into a doze when Naruto returned. A glass of something purple and smelling very strangely was shoved under nose.

"Here, drink this. It will make you feel better."

Kohana took the glass, suppressing an urge to gag at the smell and gulped it down in a few large swallows.

"Ug, it tastes disgusting." Kohana said, putting the empty glass on the coffee table.

"No it doesn't," Kuro said setting his glass next to hers, "That tastes great, what is it?"

"Just something that will help with the hangover." Naruto replied.

"You would like something that tastes like worms." Kohana muttered to Kuro. However, she did admit that the potion was working. She was feeling better and her headache had reduced itself to dull ache that could be ignored. Even Kuro had uncurled himself and was now sitting up.

"So did you have fun last night?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Yeah, at the beginning of the night." Kohana replied, "I can't remember the rest. I still have no clue how we got back to the inn."

"I escorted you and Kuro back to the inn last night after we left the bar." Gaara said from the doorway, his wet hair showing that he had just gotten out of the shower, "I doubted your ability to reach the inn safely by yourselves."

"Pfft, we would have been fine." Kuro said with a wave of his hand.

Gaara crossed his arms and gave a smug smile, "You almost walked into at least seven different lamp posts, you fell into the gutter twice and even tripped over your own feet."

Kuro absently scratched at his bare chest, "Yeah, we would have been fine."

Gaara just shook his head before turning to Kohana, "You really don't have any memory of the end of last night?"

Kohana shook her head, "None what so ever." A horrible thought occurred to her, "I didn't say or do anything stupid, did I?" she said slowly, covering her face afraid of what the answer might be. The last thing she wanted was to be teased for any stupid stunt she might have done. After a moment she realised that no answer was forthcoming. She slid her hands down slowly and peered at Gaara, only to find that he was blushing. Oh god, what had she done!

"Oh no, don't tell me I tried to do a strip dance at the bar again." She said horrified.

Gaara just turned a brighter shade of red whilst Naruto and Kuro burst out laughing.

"What strip dance?" Kankuro said walking in, "Did I miss a strip dance?" his voice had a whine.

"No, you didn't miss any strip dance." Naruto said still laughing, "But what do you mean by 'again'?"

Kohana hid her face back in her hands. Her bloody mouth again, would she ever learn? Kuro just laughed harder.

"I remember that! It was a birthday party, Kohana got absolutely blind drunk and attempted to do a strip dance on the bar. She would have done it too if the bouncers hadn't stopped her." Kuro ducked the cushion that was thrown at him and continued to laugh at the very red faced Kohana.

"Leave me alone, I don't remember it so for all I know you guys could've just told me that for a laugh." She gave a huff as she crossed her arms. Gaara had a peculiar look on his face as he remained very silent.

She didn't remember! Gaara didn't know if that was a bad thing or a good thing, all he knew was that he had done the right thing by turning down her invitation last night. He didn't think he wanted to deal with the awkwardness that would have resulted if she had woken up with him in her bed and no memory of what happened. He wondered if he should tell her the truth?

"Urg! Tell me, what did I do last night? I know I did something! You have a really weird look on your face." Kohana was looking right at him now with the kind of look that said she just wanted to get it out of the way.

"It was nothing." Gaara mumbled, he sure as hell wasn't going to say anything with Kankuro in the room. He would never hear the end of it.

Kohana just gave a groan, "Now I know it's something really bad."

"Well, too bad I can't stick around and find out but I've got to get back home." Naruto said as he stood up.

Kohana jumped up and gave him a hug, "It was good meeting you, I hope you have a safe trip home." she released him and stepped back, "Oh by the way do have the recipe for that hangover drink?"

Naruto scratched his head, "Er, no, a friend of mine back home makes it. I just always carry some with me, just in case."

"Oh." Her shoulders slumped a bit.

"You could always come to Konoha and visit me." Naruto suggested with a cheeky grin, "You could get the recipe then."

Kohana's face brightened, "Thanks, I might do that."

Kuro gave a cheeky grin before giving Naruto a bone crushing hug.

"Urk! Not so hard." Naruto wheezed out. Kuro released him and ruffled the hair on top of his head.

"See ya around." he said.

"Well if everyone else is giving you hugs, then who am I to argue." Kankuro said as he wrapped his arms around Naruto in a hug that lifted him off the ground. Gaara stepped forward when Naruto was released by his brother. Naruto held up his hand.

"Wait, let me just get some air back into my brain before you squeeze it out of me again."

Gaara just laughed as he clapped his hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave a squeeze.

"Don't worry, I won't be hugging you. Have a safe trip my friend."

Naruto grinned, "Thanks." He picked his pack up from the floor where it had been resting next to the couch, "Well I best be off. See you later."

They all followed him to the front door and waved as he went off down the street. When he was out of sight Kohana turned to the brothers.

"Well, Naruto's hangover cure has worked wonders and I am starving so I am going to go back to the inn and get some breakfast before I expire of hunger."

"Do you mind if I join you?" Gaara asked, "I need to see Azami."

Kohana just gave a shrug, "Sure. She's meeting us at in the dining room at the inn so you can catch her there."

Gaara held out a hand in front of him, "Lead the way then." Kankuro disappeared back into the house muttering something about leftover Chinese for breakfast.

Arriving at the inn Kohana and Kuro made a beeline straight for the dining room and the food buffet table that was laid out for breakfast for the guests, leaving Gaara to look for Azami. With a quick scan of the room he found Azami and Grey sitting at a table over next to the window. He wove his way through the mostly empty tables to come up next to theirs.

"Why, hello Kazekage." Azami said waving her had towards an empty seat, "Would you care to join us?"

"Thank you." Gaara replied as he sat down in the seat, "I've actually come to tell you that the council has made a decision regarding your request."

"Yes?" Azami leaned forward with interest.

"They have denied it."

"Oh. That's a pity."

"I'm sorry."

Azami waved her hand and gave smile, "It's alright. I appreciate you asking for me." She gave Grey a poke in the ribs, "Slow down or you'll choke."

Grey swallowed his mouthful and started to eat a little more slowly. Kohana and Kuro arrived with plates laden with food and sat down at the table.

"Well that's all I needed to tell you so I'll leave you too your breakfast."

"What was it?" Kohana asked?

"The council denied my request to study their medical chakra techniques." Azami replied.

"Bummer." Kohana jumped up from her seat and hooked her arm through Gaaras as he got up, "Wait a mini, I want to ask you something."

Curious, Gaara allowed himself to be steered a couple of metres away from the table. Abruptly they stopped and Kohana swung around to look at him.

"I wanna know what it was that I did last night?" She asked.

He went red and rubbed the back of his neck, "I, uh, it was nothing. Really."

Kohana just gave a look that said that she didn't believe him. He gave a sigh.

"Fine. You... you kissed me." he stuttered out, still blushing, "Then... then you asked me to... to spend the... the night with... with you." Oh no, he thought, what am I doing? His eyes were staring at the floor now, too embarrassed to meet her eyes.

Relief spread through Kohana.

"Oh thank goodness. It's not that bad."

Gaaras' head snapped up to look at her, surprised written all over his face. She raised an eyebrow with amusement.

"Please, there are much worse things I could have done then wake up next to you." She screwed her face up, "I hate the fact that I can't remember. Was it at least a good kiss?"

Gaaras eyes just widened. She started to giggle at his expression as his blush returned full force.

"I'm going to go back to my breakfast. I'll let you go now." she said with a grin.

Muttering something Gaara fled the room. Kohana gave another small giggle before returning back to the table. As she sat down Kuro looked over at her.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I found out what I did last night." she replied.

"What did you do?" Grey paused in his food inhalation for a moment, "That poor boy practically ran away from the inn last night."

Kohana just gave a wave of her hand, "Oh nothing bad, I kissed him then propositioned him for sex."

Kuro choked on his food as he started to laugh, "That would explain why he fled just now."

Azami just shook her head as Grey continued eating, silently laughing.

"Hurry up and finish your food Kohana. We don't want to miss Soji's class." She looked at the two demons, "you two are free to do what you want today."

Grey gave an evil glance at Kuro, "You got beaten by a human yesterday."

"Oh no, please no." Kuro whined.

"More training. This time we are going to find some of these ninja's for you to spar against. I'm sure we can find some willing volunteers."

"You're mean."

"Mean is the average and therefore should be expected." Grey replied calmly.

Kuro could only gaped and make a few strangled sounds as he struggled to form a comeback. In the end he gave up and continued his breakfast with a sulk. Kohana laughed silently as she finished her meal.

***

Laying on her bed in her room at the inn Kohana stretched out the fingers of her right hand with a grimace. All she had done all day was write notes down for Azami on a clipboard as they followed Sensei Soji around the hospital. The only thing she had to show for it was a sore hand, sore feet, and a dull headache. Looking over at Kuro she could see that his day wasn't any better. He was laying on his stomach on the bed with his eyes closed, exhaustion written all over his body. Apparently word had gotten out about the strangers whom sparred with such speed and grace on the training fields yesterday and every ninja with spare time came to watch them. As Grey said, they had plenty of volunteers for sparring against. Kuro had spent his day fighting against person after person, usually winning due to his demonic nature. Grey had even gone up against a couple.

Kohana rolled off her bed and walked over to sit on the edge of Kuros' bed. He opened his eyes but closed them again when he sensed chakra building up in her hands. She put her hands on his back and let the chakra flow throughout his body, searching out every sore muscle and ache and soothing it all out in a kind of deep tissue massage. Kuro sighed with relief and relaxed, this one of the perks of being a partner to a Healer, his health and wellbeing was always top priority.

"Kuro, I need advice." she said quietly.

Kuro raised an eyebrow and made an 'hmm' sound to show that he was listening.

"I've been thinking about what Gaara told me about what I did last night." She sighed and shifted her hands to a new spot on his back, "So he obviously knows I like him. I want to kiss him, whilst I'm sober, but I'm not sure if he likes me like that. What should I do?"

Kuro sat up and shifted around on the bed to look at her.

"Kohana, I don't think you have to worry too much." he gave a chuckle, "I can tell you with a high degree of certainty that Gaara would probably like nothing more than to get another kiss from you."

Kohanas' expression lightened. Kuro gave a smile but inside he was worried. He knew that Kohana would end up hurt, but he also knew that this was the kind of lesson that Kohana had to learn herself. He remembered when Kohana was fifteen Azami had taken him aside and told him that one day something like this would happen. And if it did, he shouldn't stop it, but just let it run its course. All he could do was to be there for her when she needed him. He still remembered the words that Azami had told him.

"We Healers and our Partners are different Kuro." She had a sad look on her face, "Healers live on the edge of humanity, never quite part of it anymore. We measure our lives differently. Kohana doesn't quite grasp this concept yet, she is still young. Unfortunately this is a lesson that she will have to learn for herself because no matter how many times you tell her she won't fully grasp it until she has experienced it. She is going to lose all her human constants and you will need to be there for her because you will be the only thing that will remain." She had given a laugh. "Heh, to serve and save humanity we have to give up a measure of our own."

So Kuro sat there and smiled at Kohana. It hurt him to let her do this but he had to let it happen. All he could do was catch her when she fell.

***

Kohana was too tired that day to visit Gaara and she was busy the next day as well, the hospital taking full advantage of the fact that they had two foreigners who could do chakra healing and were willing to lend their services for free whilst they were here in Suna. Kohana spent most of her day going from patient to patient with Soji and Azami. Azami quizzed her on every patient regarding what their illness was and how it could be most effectively treated. Some patients could be diagnosed without taking a scan with her chakra but some others were trickier. And some patients could be treated without the use of chakra, whilst others would need it.

She didn't always get it right.

"Remember Kohana, you can't just throw around your energy at every patient you meet. Otherwise when you find that you really need it you will be drained." Azamis' hands had flailed around as she made her point. "You have to learn to figure out which ones can do without and which ones can't."

Kuro had pretty much had a repeat of the previous day, except there was more wanting to challenge Grey and himself.

At the end they were both too tired to do much more then eat dinner and go straight to bed.

The next day Kohana was back at the hospital with Azami but this time Grey accompanied them, giving Kuro the day off. He bolted as soon as he finished breakfast in case Grey changed his mind. Kohana envied him but let him go. She knew how tiring all the spars had been and knew that he needed some time off. She picked through her own breakfast, this was going to be another long day and she still hadn't seen Gaara since that morning he told her what she had done when she was smashed. Perhaps if she wasn't so tired this evening she'll go visit him. She speared a piece of fruit on her plate with the fork and popped into her mouth, even if she was too tired she'll just get Kuro to carry her, since he did have the day off today he would still be fresh. With that thought to cheer her she finished off her breakfast with a grin.