I don't own Naruto, dur!

Rae POV

My body was so heavy and everything hurt that when I even breathed I wanted to scream out in pain. I could here voices but they were all so muffled. I wanted to know who was with me. I squeezed my eyes tighter, trying to remember what had happened. I had woken up in an empty building, then went back to sleep. Then what? I couldn't remember. I groaned as I tried lifting my hand to my head.

"Hey, she's awake." I heard a familiar voice.

"Rae? Rae, its Temari. How are you feeling?" I barely cracked my eyes open. I hadn't the energy to talk, so I did my best grunt, but even that hurt.

"Rae, just go back to sleep. You still have a long recovery ahead of you." Temari said, worry in her voice. Recovery? Recovery from what? I wanted to ask her, but my mind drifted back into darkness.

I woke up again, this time able to open my eyes and focus. I was in my bedroom. I felt a small grip on my hand. I still couldn't move but out of the corner of my eye I could see a mop of red hair sitting on the edge of my bed.

"A…..ra…" Was all I could manage. He turned his head to me.

"Are you awake?" His voice sounded… different. It wasn't a growl, or threatening, it was just… tired.

"Yeah." I said so quietly I could barely hear myself.

"Good." He got up. My hand squeezed his. I didn't want him to leave.

"What happened?" My voice was still quiet, but a little stronger.

"You don't remember?"

"No."

"Good." He turned and jumped out of the window.

I wanted to call out for him, but didn't have the strength. I was restless all night. I couldn't move, but I kept trying. I wanted to know what had happened. Why was I this way? The sun started rising over the quiet village when I heard footsteps outside the door.

"I can't believe he found her like that." I heard Lee's voice outside the door in a hushed whisper.

"I know. It's amazing that she's alive at all. She wasn't breathing when they finally got a medic to see her, and honestly, I couldn't believe Gaara." Naruto was talking.

"I know!" Lee responded.

"It's like he's a different person. Not totally different because everyone's still afraid of him, but maybe she'll be able to break that shell of his. Kankuro said she was able to touch him, I didn't think that was possible." Naruto said. I heard the door click open. I was finally able to turn my head and speak a little.

"Hey." I said meekly.

"Rae!" Naruto yelled. He was about to give me a hug when he was yanked back.

"You're going to hurt her if you hug her like that." A cold voice said. Behind Naruto was Neji, holding the blond boy back. He looked at me with sad eyes. I smiled back.

"Hey. No hard feelings about me slapping you right? I got a little carried away. Sorry about that." My voice kept cracking from the strain. He snorted.

"Whatever." He walked out the door.

"It's okay Rae. He's just upset because Gaara blames him for what happened." Lee said.

"What DID happen? I can't remember anything." Lee and Naruto looked down.

"I don't really know how you got like you did, only Gaara knows that, but when the medic got to you, you were barely alive. It looked like you had gotten beaten up really bad. You had cuts everywhere and were bruised to hell, and you have at least 6 broken ribs. You've been out for almost a week." Naruto explained. I groaned.

This wasn't helping me feel any less useless.

"There's something else." Naruto continued, refusing to look into my eyes.

"Rae, they found you with no pants and your shirt ripped to shreds, and well, while we can't be sure, the doctor thinks you may have bee… " Naruto was cut off by sand being shoved into his mouth.

"Gaara!" Lee shouted at the red head.

"Meet me in the hall. Now." Gaara growled. Lee and Naruto followed him out into the hall and I could here lots of hushed whispers and then silence. Lee re-entered the room.

"The doctors asked me to come by and change your arm bandages. I hope you don't mind. They'll be in later to change the rest." He said sheepishly. I nodded. Once again, no one wanted to tell me anything. I felt a little betrayed, but hid it. It didn't matter anyway. Lee helped me sit up.

"Fuck. Balls. Cunt. Shit. Dick sucker. Cunt licker. FUCK!" I yelled as he helped me swing my legs over the edge of the bed. Lee was practically tomato red.

"What's wrong?" I asked. I was in so much pain that I was near tears and gasping for air.

"You… curse a lot." He stammered out. I smiled at him.

"Yeah, well, I hurt a lot." I wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

I was only wearing a tank top so he began unraveling the bandages. I looked down to see my entire arm slashed up and nearly purple from bruises. I shuddered. No wonder it all hurt so much.

"Lee, why won't you tell me what's going on?" I whispered, enraged that once again I was just a weakling, having every one else take care of me.

"Gaara asked us not to." Was all that he said. He took my hand gently after wrapping both arms.

"Rae," he started "Some things should be handled with time and delicacy. You are such a wonderful woman that first we need to help you heal your body before healing your mind. I, Naruto and everyone else will stand by your side." His eyes held such a serious determination.

"I AM NOT DELICATE!" I screamed. I had had ENOUGH! I didn't want to be treated like I was some sort of weak person that needed the protection of everyone. Lee backed off slightly. I swung my legs over the side of my bed and slid off, crumpling onto the floor in pain.

"Rae! Don't…" Lee took a step forward to help me.

"Shut up ya green idiot!" I couldn't shout anymore, it hurt too much, but he could feel the anger in my voice. All I wanted was to be treated like a person. I wanted my friends that knew I could handle myself. I wanted the privacy that was stripped away from me. I stood on shaky feet, every cell in my body screaming in pain.

"Rae! You have to stop!" Lee whispered, almost begging.

"Please! I know you're pain. I know what it feels like to be so broken and to have everyone treat you like you'll break." He said, reaching to sit me back on the bed.

"If you know so much, then you should know that I can't just lay in this bed and wait for someone to tell me that I'm better!" I spat out at him. Lee looked taken aback.

"You're right. I was in the same position… and I couldn't just lay in bed. I wanted to continue being a ninja." Lee looked at the ground his fists clenched.

"Then stop trying to glare holes into the floor and help me." I said, holding out a shaking hand. Lee looked at me with a tearful smile

"Ok!" He struck his nice guy pose.

"AHAHAHAHAHA! You look RIDICULOUS!" I laughed so hard I collapsed back on the ground. After my fit of laughter, I sat up.

"Help me up please?" I held out a hand to him and he took, helping me back on my feet.

"Alright Lee! Stand over by the door and I'll try to walk over to you." I said, letting go of his hand. He did as he was told and stood by the door. It took all my strength just to take one step and keep my balance.

"Maybe we should try a shorter distance?" He suggested.

"NEVER!" I yelled, throwing my fists into the air. Much of the evening went in a similar fashion. Every time I fell to my knees before reaching Lee, I'd start over. It was dusk before anyone else came by.

Temari entered the room, a tray of food in her hands.

"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled, shoving the tray roughly into Lee. She stormed over to me, her green eyes blazing with anger.

"Ah! Temari! How nice to see you! Is that a new dress? It's really awesome!" I said as she approached me with such anger radiating off of her that I could have roasted a marshmallow.

"You are SUPPOSED to be resting! You could hurt yourself or…" She started yelling again.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE RESTING!" I yelled back, glaring at her.

"Huh?" Temari stood there stunned.

Gaara POV

Temari, Kankuro and I had been training all day. As the sun began to set Temari left to go run some errands and left Kankuro and myself to walk home.

"So… " Kankuro said.

"What?" I snapped at him.

"N-nothing. Sorry." He stuttered out and disappeared out of my sight. I snorted. It was amusing sometimes how he tried to act like a brother.

"Hey Gaara?" An obnoxious voice called out after me.

"What?" I growled at the blond. Why did everyone want to bother me today?

"How come you never said anything about getting hitched?" Naruto asked as we walked the busy streets. I snorted at his assumption that I would tell him anything.

"It's not something I want to do. It's arranged." I murmured. I hated how the blond always got so much out of me without even trying.

"Oh! Man, from the way she hit Neji, you wouldn't think it was arranged." Naruto snickered to himself. Gaara had to restrain himself from gaping at the fox host.

OH-HO! She managed to land a blow on that arrogant Hyuuga too? That woman's got guts!

I ignored the raccoon, but had to agree with him. That girl seemed to have a knack for catching people off guard.

"It was awesome! Neji said something mean about you and she just slapped him! You should have seen the look on his face! It was priceless!" Naruto continued to ramble as I smirked to myself. I had to admit that it made me feel a little… good that she slapped that arrogant bastard and not just me.

"Hey, so when's the wedding?" He asked, causing me to stop in my tracks I had forgotten that it was soon, but I couldn't remember HOW soon.

I'll have to get Temari to tell me if they've settled on a date yet. I thought to myself.

"I don't know yet." I told the blond.

"Oh. Well, you'll totally have to invite me!" He laughed. The others from his team approached.

"Hey guys!" Naruto waved them over. I smirked at the Hyuuga.

"Man, how troublesome, running into you two. Gaara, you're sister threw a fit at Rae and now the two of them are going at it. Women… I don't know why you'd want to marry one." Shikamaru sighed.

"What happened?" Naruto asked. Lee looked quite nervous.

"Well, I was supposed to change her arm bandages and make sure she stayed in bed, but then she wouldn't stay in bed, so I was helping her walk around. Then Temari came in and threw a fit and while I feel bad for leaving, I ran out of there! Temari is frightening!" The green boy said nervously.

"Why were you helping her?" I growled out. He shouldn't have been doing that. I told him and Naruto to make sure she got better and here he was, admitting to helping her walk around.

"Look, I know you asked me to make sure she stayed in bed, but she got really upset that people were treating her like she was delicate." Lee said, holding his hands up in a defensive gesture.

"She is weak. She has no chakra. She'll never be strong. I can't believe you'd marry someone so fragile." Neji scoffed. Her not having chakra was news to me.

"She managed to hit you didn't she?" I asked, malice my words. Neji glared at me, then Naruto.

"She caught me off guard." He hissed out.

"Whatev…" My words were cut short as lightening shot up my leg.

What the hell? The sensation kept racing up my leg. It started right were my kunai pouch was. I ripped open the small pouch and when my fingers grazed cold stone, the shocking feeling raced up my fingers as well. I pulled the necklace out of my pouch, holding it by the string, which seemed to deter the strange feeling it sent through my flesh.

I looked carefully at the stone. The flame had been replaced by a steady, pulsing blue light.

"What is that?" Naruto asked. I didn't bother answering him as I jumped out of sight and raced over the roof tops to Rae's room.