Yes this is a testament to me having no life - here's the next chapter for you already! Yay for my lame-ness :D. (Could do my work I suppose but it's not likely).
Cheh - Hehe yeah something about Neji just oozes possessive type! I agree Gaara ain't exactly the type to be forward cause it would leave him a bit vulnerable; although stuff that happens later might surprise you, heehee.
Gaara-Kaibutsu - Awww Beautiful, why thankee! offers next chapter on a platter
Blackeelamgal9 - Thankee very much, I'm heavily complimented blush :D.
On to the show my lovelies!
Neji had never felt more uncertain of himself than he did at that moment. What was he doing standing outside Hinata-sama's door? Despite his words upon his departure from the others he had found he couldn't sleep, and in his aimless wanderings he had ended up here. He didn't even need to use his Byakugan to feel her presence on the other side of this wall. She seemed to be sleeping. Overcome by a sensation of restlessness and indecision he rested his forehead against the door, trying to calm himself.
A presence off to his left, behind him, alerted him and he span instantly in a defensive gesture, one hand readily raised. His silver eyes locked immediately with the impassive blue of Gaara's who stood in the central garden, wind blowing through his hair. He lowered his hand, but not entirely, viewing him with a grim smile "Do you always wander around other people's estates at night?" he enquired. Gaara returned the dark smile "I go where I please." his eyes trailed past Neji to Hinata's door and Neji stiffened, the defensive hand shooting up again. Gaara's smile increased "Restless night?".
Not expecting a question, let alone much conversation from Gaara at all, he slowly lowered his guard and stepped down from his fighting posture. "Yes. I couldn't sleep." Gaara snorted, his eyes roaming up to look at the gleaming full moon hanging pendulously over them. "Me neither.". Deliberately slow, he paced his way up on to the platform towards Neji, who instantly dropped down into his stance once more, muscles tense. Gaara passed him before pausing and looking back at him "Relax Hyuuga. I'm not after your woman." he drawled quietly before entering Hogo's room.
Neji relaxed almost to the point of collapsing, leaning against the wall and letting out a long breath. It wasn't fear of Gaara that caused his wavering. Gaara's words however, had sent a shock through him like a live wire being touched to his skin. What on Earth did he think he was doing, prowling outside Hinata's room late at night?
Growling at himself in irritation, he span on his heel and stormed back to his room, determined to stay there for the rest of the night even if he couldn't sleep.
Flashback...
The day had been scorchingly hot, when they had been sent to retrieve Baki. Who better to send than Gaara and his siblings, and the new member of their team, Hogo of the Jiyuujin clan. Who better to clean up this mess as quickly as possible, before it became worse than a mess and turned into an incident. They did not know at that stage of course, that it was too late for a clean up job. The dancing planes of desert sand, filled with pirouetting dust storms, was not the place to hide. Nor was it the place to find someone, but it would appear that both were possible. As they had ventured out miles in the blinding sunshine, Hogo and Kankarou taking the front with Temari covering the back, Gaara in the middle, Hogo had doubted the possibility of finding anything. The goggles she wore to protect her eyes from the sand did nothing to stop the burning hot sprays from lacerating her face, which she grimly put up with, wishing she could avoid it as easily as Gaara.
"Jeez it's hot." complained Kankarou, tugging the neckline of his black suit in discomfort, wincing slightly. Hogo grinned across at him, throwing him her sand cape to wipe his sweating face. If it was between being brutalised by the sand and boiling to death, she'd take the sand. "Relax Kankarou-san, enjoy yourself. Think of it as a field trip." she said with mock-buoyancy, springing forward into the desert in jutting leaps. A mutual delight in bettering themselves through fighting had bonded her and Temari. An idiotic sense of humour had made her firm friends with Kankarou. His laughter reached her even before he managed to catch up "Field trip, yeah sure I can do that, did you bring snacks?"
"Of course of course! And fruit juice for if the kids get irritable!" she continued, giggling herself as she span through the sand.
"Unless you really DID bring snacks then stay quiet up front, you're making me hungry!" yelled Temari from the back in complaint. Hogo smirked at Kankurou but managed to keep her laughter in, sticking her tongue out in Temari's direction. "I saw that!"
It was the last noise Hogo heard before a searing pain ripped through her stomach and she was hurled to one side. As she skidded across a sand dune, blearily finding the world going red, she saw two further Shinobi's emerging up out of the sand at astonishing speed, flying at Kankarou. Recovering quickly she threw herself back into the midst of it, intercepting one of the missing-nin before he was even within ten feet of Kankarou and delivering a precise dropkick under his chin. The crack of his jawbone was more than satisfying as he sprawled a foot or so backwards, but she caught up with him again before he hit the floor, performing a seal as she did so. "Koganemushi no Shinsuu!" Scarab Infestation
His eyes widened in horror as glossy blue-black beetles the size of cats crawled all over him. He started to scream hysterically, reaching for a kunai, intent on killing them, on getting them off him. Hogo looked on impassively as he stabbed himself in the heart before turning and diving back to the fight.
Twenty. Twenty missing-nin. Where had they all come from? Racing back into it, grateful for the speed she'd had to cultivate for hand seals, she tried to calculate in her head. Three on Temari, two now on Kankarou. That left fifteen of them on Gaara. They weren't stupid, she'd give them that at least. That burning agony shot through her again and she cursed, forced to slow her speed as she buckled slightly. Glancing down, she saw with astonishment that she was bleeding, enough so that it was seeping into her dress, turning the red material black, in a steadily growing circle. She let out a growl of annoyance, furious with herself. Pathetic. How pathetically careless of her. Much as he wouldn't appreciate it, she knew her next priority was to start picking off the ninjas around Gaara. He was the most outnumbered in terms of semantics even if he was more than capable of dealing with it. She was practically blind to what was going on around him. Sand was flying in all directions, whirling columns of it flying up into the sky. Temari's wind techniques weren't exactly helping visibility.
But of course. They were using this as element of their attack - limited vision amidst the combined techniques of Temari and Gaara. She smirked to herself nastily "Clever bastards." she snarled before recklessly diving through one of the twisting columns of sand.
Sand filled her nose, eyes and mouth, and it all tasted of blood and death and the nauseating stench of fear. She was buffeted and hurled left and right, stinging sand gouging at her. It felt like she was being skinned by a threshing machine even as she was violently torn to pieces. Desperately giving a swell of chakra into the bottom of her feet, she managed to roll out of the other side, into the midst of the sand typhoon Gaara had created around him. She was for a moment frozen in sheer awe, crouched on the floor with her eyes wide, only capable of watching.
Ten tornadoes of sand viciously turned in a blurring mass around him, whipping left and right, thrashing like animals, pulsing with sheer power. The wind that whipped relentlessly through them was almost deafening, a hollow shriek of air forced into motion. She wouldn't have been surprised if her skin was being torn off by the ferocity of it. Amidst the dizzying forest of sand towers the missing nin were desperately fighting their way forwards, dodging both wind and tornadoes to try and get close to Gaara. Even as Hogo watched two of them were sucked up into tornadoes, shrieking piteously as they were ripped to pieces.
His face was as studiously blank as ever, concentrating, his arms crossed casually in front of him. If he had noticed her in the middle of his little world he hadn't shown it. The wind blew his already wild red hair straight up out of his blue-green eyes, eyes which had no trace of doubt, no trace of fear in them. Hogo felt almost paralysed in the face of this, a terrified admiration flowing through her as the wind whipped her hair into her eyes. He was... unbelievably strong. How did she suppose she could control him?
Forcing herself into action, she reached for a Kunai and focused on the two missing nin nearest her.
"Saian'ya!" Darkest Night
The two of them looked stunned for a second before clawing their hands at their eyes, yelling in panic. "I can't see! I can't see!" This genjutsu of seeming blindness was nasty but effective. The ninja that staggered backwards, attempting to stumble out of the chaos, was caught up in a tornado, whilst the other she crept up behind and slit the throat of as mercifully as she could manage. She was having difficulty standing, let alone moving in this blistering frenzy of wind and sand.
"Hogo..."
His voice carried her name easily through the noise and she looked up from covering her eyes, almost being overwhelmed all over again by the incredible chakra resonating from him. His eyes flickered to her briefly before focusing out again into nothingness. "You're in the way."
A flare of hurt and anger sparked off inside her chest, as red hot as the pain in her stomach. "Actually I'm helping you inconsiderate bastard!" she yelled as best as she could over the noise, but she didn't even know if he heard her. His words, and the fire they generated in her, made it easier to move through the winds as she focused on the remaining six that were scattered around the rippling mindfield of sand. One she dispatched of with sheer speed, bulleting up alongside him and turnkicking him backwards into one of the tornadoes. The next two she overwhelmed with the same Scarab technique of earlier, but as she turned to the forth he was speedily consumed in sand.
"I told you, that you were in the way. I can't keep avoiding you forever, moron." Gaara stated coldly amidst the screams. She turned to retort only to find the steely strength of a coil of sand wrapped around her wrist. Gaara's eyes locked with hers briefly before she found herself being dragged forcefully out through the tornadoes.
The heat of the sunshine, so long forgotten amidst the howling cold of the winds in that place, hit her like a punch in the stomach as she was flung backwards, hitting a sand dune. She let out a choked gasp as all the air left her lungs and lay there, unable to move for a few moments, staring at the spitefully blue sky, feeling the goosebumps on her skin be replaced with sweat once more. Her deafened ears slowly became acclimatised to more subtle noises and she heard the clanging of kunais and wood, the clacking of Karasu, Temari's yells of triumph. She slowly found she was able to take small breaths again and wheezily sat up, just in time to move her feet up from the descending body that was flung her way. Blinking incomprehendingly at the dead ninja that she had barely just moved out of the way of, she looked up at Temari who flashed her a brilliant smile. She looked an absolute mess, blood streaming from her nose and scratches and bruises covering her, but she looked ferociously pleased. "Not bad huh?" she declared, digging the end of her fan into the sand with a vigorous 'thunk'.
They had tended to Kankarou first, who had in the end fared the worst against their attackers. Seven more, seemingly brought in by the sounds of battle, had rounded on him after Hogo had thrown herself into the sand column. He shrugged off her apologies for not coming back for him, letting out a grunt of pain as they bandaged his various kunai wounds before grinning 'I'm amazed you even managed to get IN to the mess that Gaara was creating, I'm doubly impressed that you managed to get out!" She said nothing to this, continuing to daub antiseptic on his shoulder, tense with anger at Gaara. He made no indication that he was aware of her annoyance, busily looking through the forehead protectors they had collected. "Some of these ninjas weren't Sand." he stated quietly, his tone thoughtful. Temari glanced up in surprise from where she'd slumped down in the tent they'd hastily set up out of the sun. "How long do you think Baki has been planning for?"
"God knows." said Kankarou, yelping as Hogo applied the last bandage.
"What did you make of it Hogo?" asked Temari as she came and sat down to be bandaged herself. Although her wounds were relatively minor Hogo had insisted she went before her. Gaara naturally, was untouched. She frowned in thought as she washed the wounds on Temari's neck and shoulders. "We're at a disadvantage because we're familiar to them. They knew that the Elders would send us out specifically. They knew the combination of Temari and Gaara's techniques would make it difficult for us to see. Provided they moved fast enough it wouldn't be a problem for them however." she grimaced and tried not to tighten her grip over her stomach wound. "They knew I was the fastest, and so they incapacitated me first. And naturally they knew Gaara would be the hardest to deal with. It wouldn't have been a problem if they hadn't taken us by surprise. We didn't have the opportunity to form a strategy like they did."
"This could be an annoyance," continued Gaara, broodingly looking into the distance "We never know who they're going to send out to counter attack. They probably have someone situated outside the village to see what teams are sent out. It gives them time to plan against weaknesses."
"Are you suggesting I'm a weakness Gaara?" spat Hogo, teeth gritted to keep her annoyance in, careful not to take her rage out on the gash on Temari's leg that she was tending. "You were sloppy. You weren't paying attention and you almost got yourself killed." he said disinterestedly. Temari put a soothing hand on Hogo's trembling shoulder before she flew across and did something stupid, giving her an anxious smile. She took a deep breath and managed to simply distill all her physical and emotional hurt and anger, not just at Gaara but at herself, into a muttered
"Go to Hell Gaara."
Kankarou winced and tensed. No one spoke to Gaara like that, even now. He was amazed when Gaara's only reaction was a tiny smile of amusement.
"I'm going to have to cut your dress to see the wound properly, is that ok?" said Temari, removing a pair of scissors from the limited medical kit they had. Kankarou in the meantime went to be on watch. Hogo laughed and shrugged, a thin layer of sweat covering her face from more that just the heat "I've got four of the same one at home." she replied. Temari meticulously snipped her way through the blood-soaked material, letting out a small noise of surprise as the wound was properly revealed. "Hogo! What are you doing making me get bandaged first, this is serious!" she exclaimed, forcing Hogo to lie down. She was trembling slightly by now, wiping the sweat dazedly off her forehead "It's nothing, honest." She said feebly, giving Temari a challenging grin. "Nothing, like Hell it's nothing! What did they even use to do this to you anyway? It's such a jagged wound..." she continued, getting out a needle and thread. Hogo blinked. "It needs stitches?" Temari pulled a face. "None of us are medical nin Hogo. I don't want this to get infected before we can get you back to one." Hogo gave a breathless chuff of laughter, letting the back of her head thunk into the floor. "This is going to hurt isn't it?" she asked after a pause.
Temari likewise paused "Yes. Just grit your teeth and try to focus on something else." Hogo nodded slowly, clenching her jaw and looking round the tent desperately, wanting any distraction other than waiting for the pain. The scuffing of footsteps brought her head round to see Gaara standing just above her, eyes as ever impassive. Not caring in that moment of vulnerability how clingy, how weak it looked, she grasped feebly up his leg until she caught hold of his hand, holding it tightly.
His eyes widened in genuine and complete surprise as she tugged him down into a seating position. He complied slowly, crouching next to her, getting a more full grip of her hand as Temari began sewing. Hogo kept her eyes locked on his throughout, trying to ignore the strangled cries of pain that were coming from her own throat and just focusing solely on those ridiculously powerful, determinedly empty eyes.
Hogo shivered against the slightly cold breeze that told her night was coming to the Desert, clutching her dress protectively across her front. She had been made to remove it to the waist so Temari could deal with her back, vastly bruised and cut. She was grateful it could be unzipped from the back or she would have had to remove it altogether. She would not have been surprised if the majority of these cuts had come from being flung out of the Sand tornadoes by Gaara. Temari had begun to tell him to leave whilst this was done but had realised the pointlessness of this.
"Temari, can you come out here? I want you to check this for me." called Kankarou from a distance. She sighed in irritation, dropping the cloth she had been using to clean the wounds with and standing. "Gaara, could you finish up Hogo's wounds?" she said, trusting her little brother to be some degree of a gentleman. Hesitating, she crouched down again and asked Hogo quietly "Is that ok?" Chewing on her bottom lip, Hogo finally nodded. She was feeling far too vulnerable right now to really want it, but it couldn't be helped. Temari straightened again and lifted the flap of the tent, heading out into the setting sun.
"So what is it Kankarou?" she said impatiently, wiping her hands on her skirt. Kankarou shot her a devilish grin "Nothing. I just want to give those two some privacy." Temari blinked and then frowned in condecension. "What? Oh God are you really that immature? Give me a break..." she said, turning to go back inside only for Kankarou to grab her arm. "Oh come on! Seriously, have you ever seen him be as concerned about anyone as he is about her? It's not much, but its something, and I think we need to cultivate whatever that something is." he said insistently. Temari continued to frown for a minute before begrudgingly smiling. "You'd make a lousy poet brother." she said teasingly before sitting down to watch the sunset.
Hogo unconsciously tensed herself as Gaara's shadow fell over her, sensing him kneeling down behind her and picking through the medical kit. Feeling vaguely delerious from loss of blood was the last thing she cared about right now. Feeling pathetically weak. Knowing that she was soft and inferior, and worse, that her own clumsiness had made her seem even moreso in the eyes of the person she admired, was far too large an occupation in her thoughts. How could she expect him to see her as a useful guardian to him now? She had whimpered and held his hand as she was stitched up, she had buckled and failed. She let out an exclamation of pain as the sharp sting of antiseptic dug into one of the cuts "Easy, you don't have to be so rough!" she snapped, tightening her grip around her knees that were drawn up to her chin. She felt like a stupid little girl all over again, a weakling. He gave a grunt before muttering "Don't be so pathetic.", but there was no true nastiness in it and his touch became remarkably softer as he gently swiped antiseptic over each wound. She had to remember he wasn't used to treating wounds, knowing how much they hurt. "How would you know if I'm being pathetic? Pain is a novelty for you." she said quietly. "Yes, I suppose I do have a bit of an advantage." he murmured as he applied the first bandage.
Hogo blinked. That was the closest she had ever heard to Gaara attempting a joke.
"Those Jutsu's," he continued, his hot breath gently wafting against the nape of her neck. She was glad amidst all the stinging pain to find it quite pleasant "I didn't even see you performing hand seals."
"That's the reason I'm so fast. When my father realised that my talent was for genjutsu, he worked on enhancing my speed. The key to a truly powerful genjutsu is how believable it is. If someone sees you performing the hand seals, they expect something. If they never see it, they never get a chance to prepare themselves." she replied, stopping and starting at occasional twinges of pain. He said nothing to acknowledge her words but she knew he was listening, his calloused hands gently swathing bandages on to the wounds on her back. There was a long and pendulous pause where she felt painfully expectant of something, though she knew not what.
"You did nearly get yourself killed." he said again softly, affixing the last bandage to her back and leaving his hand there, the heat from his palm imprinting through the pain of the wound almost, reverberating into her spine. "I didn't exactly do it on purpose." she gritted quietly, tensing against the pain. "You were foolish." he repeated adamantly, gripping hold of her upper arm to emphasise the point. "I know. I know ok, I wasn't paying attention, ok?" she snarled back at him, turning her head to look at him. The intensity in his eyes almost stunned her into paralysis again "Your genjutsu is useful. You claim you want to be useful to your village - how can you do that if you are dead? Don't throw your life around so carelessly. You don't have the benefits that I do." he said fixedly, shaking her arm slightly to make sure she was paying attention to his words. She laughed quietly, almost to herself, too exhausted to try and shake her arm out of his grip "I wish I did." she said, instantly regretting this display of admiration and self-deprecation. His eyes hardened and he looked away "No. No you don't." he said, his voice a glacier of viciousness.
Before that she had never realised how, in the time they had known each other, his voice had softened towards her. Still it remained cool and unpredictable, but never the icy hate that she felt at that moment. She fell silent under it, her shame made twofold.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... I don't know what. I didn't meant to offend you." she said finally after a few minutes hesitant silence where she still didn't dare look round at him. Her back was fine now, there was no further reason other than her own fears to remain as she was. And yet she could not look at him. The feeling of the warmth of his arm looping round her waist astonished her, but she did not attempt to stop him. He was stronger than his wiry frame looked as he pulled her back against him, his breath still burning the nape of her neck, her earlobe, her throat.
"I'm tired. That genjutsu..." he mumbled, bringing her down to the floor with him almost as he fell to his side.
She nodded despite her feeling of exhaustion and began forming the hand seals.
Because no matter how much stronger than her he was, how easily he could destroy her, she would always want to protect him and make him feel safe.
"Mezame Neri" Waking Sleep
His eyes misted over into a smoky purple and he stayed utterly still, his arm still lazily roped around her. She maintained her concentration with gritted teeth, wanting to give him at least a few hours of this brief, artificial rest where his brain might think that he had been truly asleep. Most of his mind was still vitally awake, she knew that much, and so she tried to stay as still as possible lest she awaken the dormant sand. But the more active parts of his brain that dealt with daily interactions, the genjutsu seemed to have successfully deceived into thinking he slept. It had taken a great deal of trial and error, none of which she'd naturally attempted upon Gaara himself, but it seemed effective, making him feel at least somewhat refreshed when she broke the jutsu.
She risked a peek back round at him and marvelled at just how young he looked when he was sleeping. Her hands continued to tremble slightly but she clenched them tighter, concentrating harder.
One sleepless night for her in comparison to the hundreds that he had. It seemed a poor exchange, but it was the least she could offer him.
Awwwww, they're sooooo cuuuute XD heheheh, RnR my lovelies! XXX