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See the last 9 disclaimers and take a guess.

The girl dropped her possessions and began to run, dodging the remaining ninjas who were fighting. She ran for only a few seconds, yet they felt more like hours as she frantically went through the littered streets. After only a minute of searching, her eyes finally fell on the boy she loved. Kenoyo stopped in the street, her feet refusing to go farther as a single word left her throat in a scream, "Gaara!"

Chapter Ten: The Destruction

Kenoyo was standing about fifteen feet from Gaara and the sight that met her eyes that day would haunt her for the rest of her life. He was standing in front of a much taller, stronger man, but his health was obviously degrading by the second. Gaara's side was bleeding and he was stumbling around as if his legs were injured also. He wasn't smiling like he usually did in combats, instead his face was strained and he was breathing with obvious difficulty.

Meanwhile, his opponent didn't seem to be too affected. In fact, he was probably the leader of the attacking village; he had obviously waited until Gaara would step forward to fight him. Yet the Sand Ninja had practically no more chakra left in him and even if he should never do so in a combat, he turned his head when he heard her voice.

"Stay back," he snapped at Kenoyo before turning back to his enemy.

"You are too weak, Sand Ninja! Now back down and I may spare your life!" the man hissed at him cruelly, but Gaara squared his shoulders in pride. He would never back down in front of an enemy, especially one who would probably kill Kenoyo if he did. Seeing her close to him boosted his confidence and he gathered all the rest of his chakra to swallow his opponent in his Desert Coffin attack. The man started to struggle, but so did Gaara. His legs began to shake even more and his attack began to weaken after a few seconds.

Kenoyo shrunk back in the shadows, even if she knew that she should be helping him. But when she saw his attack weakening, she took a few steps forward, worried to death about his safety.

Yet Gaara turned his head and saw Kenoyo's worried face. He couldn't let anything happen to this beautiful girl. He had already used a full day's worth of chakra, but he forced himself to draw in more to finally do his Desert Funeral.

The man didn't even scream as the sand crushed him, but then everything fell silent as Gaara's legs gave out from under him. He sunk to his knees to finally end up face first in the sand, not moving. Kenoyo then noticed that quite a few villagers had been watching the scene, but no one moved in to see if he was alright. She burst into a run and covered up the few feet quickly, then fell to her knees beside the unconscious Gaara and turned him around so she could see his pale face.

"Gaara…" she whispered, pulling him close to her as villagers began to walk towards her carefully. But the sand shinobi didn't move, his body was limp, and the wound in his side wouldn't stop bleeding. "Can anyone help him?" she called out, looking around frantically for a doctor.

Kenoyo's eyes stopped on two of them, who seemed to be as scared as Gaara as they were of the man who had just been eliminated. Her eyes fired as she shouted, "Hey! You two! Come over here and help him! Please! He just saved you all from that guy, the least you can do is check him up!"

One of the doctors came forward shyly, then uttered, "I'm sorry miss, but if he wakes up… I value my life…" He looked away as she rolled her eyes at how badly he was a coward. But only for Gaara's sake, she leaned over towards the doctor and murmured, "Listen, first I'll hold his head so that if he wakes, I'll be the first thing he sees. If he's in a completely delirious state and kills me, then you'll have time to bolt. Second, he used up all his chakra and his energy, plus he has a bleeding wound. What can he do? Third reason, this guy just saved your ass! So get to work!"

The doctor didn't seem much more convinced by her little speech of arguments, but he knelt down beside the unconscious figure and pulled off his shirt. Kenoyo could now see the reason for the blood on his side and she turned her head around in both shock and pain for him. A long gash, yet probably not that deep, was spread in a diagonal line across his left ribs.

"It's not deep," the doctor murmured to Kenoyo, seeing her face drain with color at the sight of the wound on her lover. He brough a kit forward and pulled out some needle and thread, and even though they were in the middle of the desert, he started to sew him up. Kenoyo dropped her forehead to Gaara's and closed her eyes. She had seen much more horrid scenes than this one before, but just seeing the guy she loved bleeding was excruciating enough.

"All he has to do is take it easy for a few days and he shouldn't pick up his gourd for a while. The weight would probably tear the stitches," he explained, wrapping Gaara's chest with long white gauze and then slipping his ripped shirt over it. Kenoyo nodded and stared slightly as two men came to pick him up to bring him back home.

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"Gaara," Kenoyo whispered tenderly, hoping with all of her heart for a reaction from the late Kazekage's son. Sadly, he didn't move a muscle and she sighed with discouragement. He was lying on his bed while she was sitting beside him. Stroking his face tenderly, she called out to him now and then, trying to get him to move a little. Yet he stayed in a state of unconsciousness, and Kenoyo was fearful that he'd have fallen asleep.

She gave a small moan of despair and let herself slip off the bed and onto the ground as she closed her eyes. But soon after, the door of the bedroom opened and closed and Kenoyo's eyes snapped open to see who it was. A sob of happiness escaped her lips as she got up and went to hug Temari.

"I heard you were back, I'm sorry it took so long. I was trying to find Kankuro, I have no clue where he went," Gaara's sister apologized, letting her go. But then she looked down at the younger girl and frowned, "You should go to bed, Kenoyo. You look exhausted."

Going to sleep and leaving Gaara behind was probably the last thing on her mind. There were so many things she wanted to ask, so many questions in her mind. But she couldn't ask a simple one. There were just too much information, it had all went by too fast for her. Finally, she stammered out, "What happened?"

Temari sighed and made Kenoyo sit down on a chair opposite from where Gaara was resting and sat on one right beside hers. "I don't know. We all woke up this morning because of a woman screaming. Pretty much everyone ran outside and there was this legion of ninjas. They never told us anything, they just started to attack at about 6 am…"

Kenoyo was only staring at Gaara, concern evident on her face. "Atleast there's no damage to our house," Temari said, but then noticed her interlocutor wasn't quite following. The older girl sighed, patted Kenoyo's shoulder, then left the pair alone.

The girl pulled off the Leaf Village headband that she had kept on her head and tossed it on the ground, then went to sit on the floor beside the bed. She looked at Gaara lovingly, taking in small details that she had missed so much during her trip. After a few minutes, she closed her eyes and leaned her head on the mattress, hoping with all her might that he would come out of unconsciousness very soon.

A/N: Heh. Those were some awesome reviews I got! XD Especially from Crazy4Neji! Your review's the only reason I've bee writing like crazy for… nearly 4 hours now! Woot!

Something I found out while writing this chapter: I just suck at action writing, I'm better at angsty romances.

I'm sorry that it actually took a whole two days to finish this, and it's not even good. I'll do better next chapter for you fluff lovers.

…Wow, since when do I rhyme like that! XD

Take care!