I will be honest. There isn't much going on in this chapter but it is still important. I tried to make some parts a little humorous but they might not be funny at all. Also two familiar characters appear. Who could they be? Only one way to find out though. Please read and enjoy. I don't own any of the characters or places because this is a fanfic
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Chapter 9

Rei found herself lying in a comfortable bed in a dark room when she woke up. She sat up and immediately felt light-headed. Her skin hurt when she moved and was beat red from her sun burn. There were fresh bandages on her back and her side was tightly wrapped in bandages too which made it difficult to move. She was also wearing different clothes that were a bit too big for her. Her head hurt so she lay back down again and within a few minutes she was had fallen asleep.

Reiko woke with a start as someone slammed a door. She sat up quickly, causing her side to burn. A girl, who looked to be a few years older than Rei, with sandy blond hair had just walked into the room. She was wearing a black long sleeved dress with a red sash around her waist. An iron fan was strapped to her back. She turned around and saw Rei staring at her

"Oh, I'm sorry if I woke you up. Some crazy people from the hospital were just causing problems again. So, how are you feeling?"

"Where's Gaara?" Rei asked. Her voice was hoarse and it hurt to talk.

"Don't worry about him right now. Just focus on resting so you can get better.

"But-"

"Relax. He's alive, so please take it easy."

"Fine" she replied, too tired to argue

The girl turned and opened the door.

"Well, I just wanted to see if you're okay. I'll be back to check on you later and you better be sleeping" she said with a smile. She then walked out the door and gently closed it behind her.

Rei lay back down. She had no idea where she was or what was going on. I'm safe right now and Gaara is alive at least.

She woke up again and stretched, causing her skin to sting. She looked out of the window that was in her room. It was late at night but she could tell she was somewhere in the sand village. She heard someone shouting outside and tried to get up to investigate. She had only managed to swing her legs over the side of the bed when the door opened and a boy dressed in all black came in. closing the door behind him.

"You better get back in bed before Temari comes in and yells at both of us." The boy sat down in a chair next to her bed and pulled down his black hood. "So how are you feeling?" he asked

"Just spiffy" she replied sarcastically

"Haha. That's good. You were in pretty bad shape when we found you."

"How's Gaara? Where is he?"

The boy's expression suddenly changed. "We'll… I don't know how to tell you this. He… he didn't make it."

"What!?" Rei grabbed the boy by the front of his shirt. "What happened?!" she growled

The boy started cracking up. "Oi, relax! I was only joking! Easy!"

Rei let go of the boy's shirt. "What the hell is wrong with you? That's not funny!"

"I'm so sorry. I couldn't help it! You should have seen the look on your face!" he continued to laugh. "Actually Gaara woke up a few minutes ago. We brought you both her two nights ago. The people at the hospital weren't' to happy about us taking him home, especially since we stole you out of there too. They were worried about you being an enemy or something? You're not are you?"

"Well that depends, who are you? And where am I?"

"Haha, maybe I should have started with that. Well, my name's Kankuro and the girl you met earlier was my sister Temari. We're Gaara's older siblings. You're in our house in the Sand Village."

"Really? Then no, I'm not an enemy"

"Alright, that's good. I didn't want to have to kill you. Well, Gaara is right across the hall. I can take you to see him in the morning if you want."

"Alright."

"Okay, well it's late. I'm going to bed. My room is right down the hall so yell if you need anything. Oh, and don't worry we'll explain everything tomorrow. See you in the morning." He got up and walked out the door. "Night" he said as he closed the door.

Rei woke up the next morning and changed back into her regular clothes, which she found repaired and clean on the dresser. She looked into the mirror on the wall and fixed her hair. It had been a while since she had last looked in at her own reflection. A large pale scar had formed across her nose from the fight in her village. Unlike most girls her age, having an ugly scar across her face didn't bother her. Ha! Who looks bad-ass? That's right I do! A few minutes later Temari came in and they headed out into the hallway. They immediately heard shouting from the room across the hall.

"What the hell do you mean 'she died'?!" yelled a familiar voice.

"Hey, relax Gaara! I was only kidding!" laughed someone else. "She's not dead!"

"Don't joke like that Kankuro! Where is she? What happened to her?" yelled Gaara.

Rei couldn't hear what he said next but it had obviously pissed Gaara off.

"Darn it, Kankuro!" hissed Temari. "I'm going to kick his ass. I told him not to upset Gaara! Let's go in before someone gets hurt."

Temari opened the door and they walked in. Kankuro ducked as Gaara threw at lamp at him.

"Where the hell is-" Gaara turned to see the girl he was looking for standing by the door with a smile on her face. "Oh…" Gaara blushed bright red. "I… uh… well I just wanted to know if you were okay," He cleared his throat. "seeing as you saved me and all. You're alright then?"

"Yeah, just fantastic" she said sarcastically. The Kazekage's arm was in a sling and there was a bandage wrapped around his head. He was wearing a baggy black v-neck t-shirt. The white bandages that covered his chest and shoulder were visible above the neckline of his shirt. "Well I feel better than you look. How are you doing?"

"I've been better" he said.

"What the heck?!" yelled Kankuro as Temari struck him on the head with her fan.

"I told you not to upset Gaara. You got him all worked up for nothing. He needs his rest! What is wrong with you?!" she said as she swung her fan again.

"Oi! I said I was sorry!" he replied as he ducked beneath the fan.

Gaara sighed, obliviously annoyed with his arguing sibling. Rei couldn't help but laugh. Gaara motioned to the edge of the bed.

"You can sit down if you want."

She walked over and sat down next to him. "So this is where you live?"

"Yeah. Well…look, I wanted to thank you for what you did. If it weren't for you, I would have died.

"Now we are even" she smiled "It wasn't' a big deal."

"Rei, what happened after I was knocked out?"
"Not much really." She said casually. She didn't want to talk about it. She had a feeling it would upset him and she didn't want to stress him out. Temari and Kankuro had stopped fighting.

"Not much? Rei, we both almost died. It was my fault you got hurt."

"Look, I'm fine. It wasn't your fault anyway. How could it have been?"

"Kisame was after me. If you weren't with me you wouldn't have been hurt."

"And you would have died. How would that have been any better. Your being stupid. It was my own fault. You told me to leave but I stayed anyways."

"Rei, tell me what happened" he demanded

"Well…"

"Why don't you just start from the beginning?" interrupted Temari. "Kankuro and I would like to know what happened."

Rei reluctantly agreed. She told them of the attack on her village and how she was able to escape but then was ambushed and lost consciousness. Gaara then took over, telling how he had found the Village in the Ash destroyed and how he found Rei. He recounted how they had traveled to the desert (though he left out the embarrassing incident at the hot springs) and finally how they ran into Kisame. "I don't remember much of the fight but Kisame said that someone had hired him to kill me. Rei tell us what happened after"

Rei nodded and told them about their fight with Kisame and what had happened after. She noticed Gaara squeezing his sheets between his hands, his knuckles turning white. What's wrong with him? Is he mad that he was defeated so easily, or is it something else… "The last thing I remembered was being picked up by sand shinobi" finished Rei.

"Yeah, I was on patrol when a few of our scouts saw you heading towards the village. We decided to check it out. They quickly took Gaara to the hospital. I tried to talk to you but didn't respond. You passed out on the ground so I carried you to the hospital too. Temari and I took you two back her the next morning. That didn't make the nurses to happy" smiled Kankuro.

"Well I think you and Gaara have had enough excitement for now. You both need to rest" said Temari. She led Rei and Kankuro out of the room as Gaara waved good-bye.

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I hope that wasnt' too bad. Gaara and Rei are getting closer. Can't you feel it? Haha well if not you soon will. Gaara&Rei moment comming up in the next chapter. Hope I did okay with Temari and Kankuro. That's one reason why Rei is my favoirte character, it's easy to keep her in character because she is my own and she can do what ever I want her too. I'm really lazy so writting this much so far and working on the characters is very impressive for me. Keep reading to find out what happens next and let me know what you think
~Reiko