Okay guys. I rewrote something in the middle, so I'd appreciate you rereading, if that would be nice. I changed how Temari was found, because, as it was put oh-so-kindly to me, it was "stupid". I personally don't give half a damn whether someone thinks my ideas are stupid or not, but I changed it because my flamer did politely suggest a different approach that I actually do like more than how I had written it in the first place.

Please tell me what you think of the new revision? Just whether you liked it more than the other way please? Also, I'd love any constructive criticism you may have, if it's constructive and helps the story out. I'd also love to hear your suggestions, predictions and the like. Or just whether you like it or not. Thank you ^^

Oh, and PS guys? If you don't like it, you really don't have to read it. I mean, there is this little button up at the top that has an arrow pointing to the left. I'm sure we all know how to use it if we don't like or want the page we're on, don't we? I'm not trying to be rude; I promise. Just placing my opinion. Because really, flames do make me happy. They make me laugh actually.

Disclaimer: Though I would love to own Naruto, sadly I do not. If I did, we all know the story probably would not exist... Rated M for a reason.

"Konnichi wa, Gaara!"

Gaara looked up as a familiar blonde man barged into the office. He sighed, feigning annoyance, though in all honestly, he was extremely surprised.

"What are you doing here, Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes widened and he pushed his lower lip out subtly, not too much, just enough as he pretended to be hurt. "Gaara! I can't believe you! Oh, it hurts! You forgot about me?!" He threw a hand over his chest dramatically, mimicking a heart-wrenching pain. "I can't believe it! With how close we are, and you actually forgot I was coming to visit? Oh how it hurts!"

Gaara had leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed patiently as he waited for the blonde to finish. "Tsunade gave you time off, didn't she?" he stated knowingly.

Naruto grinned. "Hehe, surprise!" he laughed. "Yeah, bachaan let me go. I think I was getting on her nerves again, or something like that."

"Really? And what would make you think that?"

"The fact that she said I was getting on her nerves again." His grin grew larger, pleased with himself that he could annoy his adopted grandmother like so. "Anyway, she gave me some leave. Something about getting me out of her hair."

"I believe it," Gaara muttered, truly not surprised. Still, he was happy to see his best friend had thought to come see him on his well-deserved – and probably highly needed – time off.

She supposed she was mind-numb of some sort. She was so calm, so indifferent about what she was doing, as if she were taking a normal bath. She grinned. Just a normal bath.

She closed her eyes, resting her head back against the tub. After a few minutes she opened them again. It was time. She was really going to do it. She was really going to kill herself. Simple as that.

She shook her head clear, ignoring the pain her headache sent rippling through her body. The bath was about half-filled now, and she was shaking. The cold was getting to her quickly. She'd probably die from hypothermia before blood loss. She was suddenly impatient. Just do it already.

She took a few deep painful breaths, sending herself into another coughing fit from the stress on her lungs. She was shivering more from the cold now. Her whole body was cold, and not reacting well to it. She bit her tongue open from her teeth chattering and swallowed the blood before looking to the kunai again.

She imagined it sneering at her, smirking in triumph. She just smiled sweetly back at it. She picked up the sharp metal and stared at it. She could make out her reflection in it. Her reflection was trembling. No. She was trembling. Her shaking was getting worse.

The water was still running, but she ignored it. She brought the weapon to her wrist, pressing the steel against her soft skin. She sliced before she even thought about it, hard and fast.

The blood billowed before she even removed it from the wound.

Naruto laughed again. "Well I guess I'll go look for everyone. You know, get settled in and get out of your hair for a little while too."

"You'll only find Temari. Kankurou is out on a Jounin solitaire mission. As for Temari..." He trailed off, then sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "She's been acting so...different the past few weeks. I don't think I can really understand it. I don't know what to do, how to react. She's been..." The redhead looked at Naruto seriously as he searched his mind for a way to describe how his beloved sister had acted recently. "She's been withdrawn, and getting worse. She's making herself sick."

Naruto took a deep breath. The other twenty-year-old had gotten a fair grasp over things like emotions. But there were still mysteries to him. And he was genuinely worried and – though he hid it well – scared for his sister.

After a minute, Naruto nodded. "I'm guessing this means she'll be home then."

Gaara nodded.

"Alright, I'll go see her. And don't worry; I'll knock so she doesn't try killing me again for another suspected surprise attack," he joked, shuddering at the memory.

"That would be the smart idea, unless you want to die."

"Isn't that the truth," Naruto muttered smiling. "Well, I'm off. It's time for me to beat it, seeing as how you're far too busy for even your best friend." He fake-sniffed.

Gaara rolled his eyes.

Her flesh opened easily, just as easily as that of any of her enemies on the field. The blood flowed easily, flowing right into the clear water. She gaze fixed on it in fascination. It probably wasn't enough, but it sure was pretty.

She cut again, just as deep, over and over again. The feeling of her flesh shredding must have hurt, should have, but right then she thought it felt amazing. The thought suddenly occurred to her that maybe she was losing her mind. After all, who thought pain felt like this? Well, besides the immortal – what was his name? Hidan? – from the Akatsuki that he dismembered and buried underground. She'd heard some messed up things about him. He'd acted as if pain was like sex for him.

Maybe it really was for him.

The blood all but poured down her arm, mixing in with the cold water. She was probably just imagining it, but it seemed to make the water feel warmer, though her body was now spasming violently from the cold. She was surprised she was even able to make the cuts, though the jerky movement had probably helped make them deeper.

She finally put the kunai on the side of the tub, satisfied with her work. Well, not satisfied, per say, as she thought about it. She just wasn't able to do any more. Besides, it was definitely enough. She glanced down at the bath water, and found herself suddenly laughing hysterically again.

She was literally bathing in blood. Had she really lost that much already? She struggled to think back to the little she knew about the human body, but she couldn't really think. Her head hurt more by the minute. But it didn't really matter anyway.

It was the water, she vaguely realized. The blood had diluted itself into the water, spreading itself about within every molecule of the once-clear liquid, and had tinted it deep crimson. She laughed more. She had just happened to remember that little fact. Her giggles sounded choked. She was about to die, and she was still thinking like an idiot. The thought amused her to no end.

Her laughter slowly ceased as she realized she was genuinely exhausted. She didn't even have the energy for the tired chuckles and snorts of amusement that kept trying to slip out with every other breath. She coughed again. So tired... She closed her eyes, not noticing the water rising higher around her, or the crimson of it growing deeper. At least her body wasn't shuddering from cold anymore.

"When Kankurou gets back from his mission, let him know I'm here. And don't forget me this time, " Naruto teased as he pushed himself away from the door and made his way to the window.

"Just get out of here," Gaara waved him away.

He rolled his eyes at his friend as he perched himself on the sill in his normal fashion. "See ya later," he waved, leaping into the air.

Gaara merely shook his head before returning to his paperwork.

Naruto made his way through the city, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. It had been awhile since he was last here, and it showed by the sweat that dripped from his hairline and moved down. He adjusted his hitai-ate to catch it better and wipe at the rest of his face, his hand coming back wet. Sometimes he wondered how the hell these villagers handled living in a desert.

As he neared the apartment Gaara shared with his siblings, his nose twitched. There was a mineral scent in the air, and it was getting stronger as he moved closer. It smelled familiar, though he couldn't quite pinpoint the source. He shrugged it off, almost to his destination.

It was when he reached the apartment that he realized what it was, and exactly where it was coming from. It was blood, and a lot of it.

His hand found itself in his weapon's pouch, pulling out a kunai. He gripped it close to his chest as he put his head against the door. He couldn't hear anyone inside, couldn't make out anything but a faint whirring, like water running. He narrowed his eyes in confusion.

He knocked on the door. Nothing. No reply, no sound of a surprised enemy trying to flee or the like. He knocked again, more frantically this time, yelling, "Temari-chan? Are you in there?"

He found himself growing more worried by the second. He knocked one more time, yelling her name again, before deciding to knock the door down, sending it to splinters instantly.

The smell was stronger inside, as was the sound he'd heard, which now he knew for sure was running water. He could almost taste the blood, and recognized the icy trace of wind-based chakra in it. Wasn't Temari a wind user?

He growled to himself suddenly. He knew exactly what he was smelling. She couldn't have. Wouldn't have.

Couldn't.

He ran the familiar path to the bathroom. Water seeped from under the door. Red water. "Temari, damn it!"

He found this door as well. He snapped the knob off and pushed – rather, slammed – the door open, and raged at the sight that greeted him. He was grateful that he and Kurama were no longer enemies, as he knew this was just the thing that would set him off enough for the demon to take control and go on a rampage.

"Temari!" He ran to the bathtub, tripping on the wet clothes she'd discarded in the middle of the floor. He dropped to his knees beside the tub, not noticing the bloody water soaking into his pants. "Oh, Kami no," he whispered.

The tub was spilling over from the scarlet-colored water, her kunai still sitting on the porcelain, water flowing past as if it were nothing. The water was dark enough that, though she was obviously naked, all that was visible was that above water. But her skin above water, that of her face, neck, shoulders and knees, was deathly pale, a fragile papery white. Her usually tanned skin was gone. She looked nothing like the person she was before. In his mind she was already gone.

Remembering she was right-handed, he quickly pulled her left arm out of the water and inspected what was left after her self-mutilation. Her flesh was solid ice. Cursing and holding her arm up, he stopped the water and pulled the plug. Grabbing a towel that was hanging from a towel rack beside the bath, he wrapped her arm, applying what pressure he could. Reaching for another, he began to pull her out of the water, and used it to cover her body. The blood-water was still running off her skin, leaving tracks of dark along the blood-stained skin of what was previously submerged. It slowly dripped from her body to the floor as he rushed her into the living room and laid her on the couch.

"Shit!" he cursed. The towel he'd wrapped around her wrist was already soaked red, and dripping. He ran to the bathroom and grabbed another, wrapping it around the first and applied pressure to her forearm with his hand. She'd lost way too much blood. Too much. There was no way –

Think! he yelled to himself. What had Sakura-chan and Tsunade taught him about medical ninjutsu. The Hokage had wanted him to do something useful with his limitless chakra, so she had started training him as a medic nin when he'd had spare time. His chakra control was excellent, and he had gotten the basics down on it easily. Teme! He cursed himself. He hadn't thought the medical training had been that important, and had spent his time doing stuff like trying to learn new jutsu and sparing, usually with Lee. He genuinely thought he needed to hone up on his ninjutsu and perfect his taijutsu, as nothing could be done about genjutsu for him. But if you asked him now, it was his brain that had needed the training, not his body!

Taking a deep breath, he kept the pressure up on her arm while he carefully removed the bloody towels. He tried remembering the tip Sakura-chan had told him for channeling and transforming the chakra for use, but he couldn't. Something about, what was it, focusing on the other person's chakra, somehow threading it together with your own... But how? He couldn't remember! "Son of a bitch!" he whispered to himself. "Baka!"

"Kit," Kurama's voice echoed through his thoughts. "I might know a few things of healing from my day. Would you mind?"

Naruto wasted no time. Kurama had been the definition of hatred and malevolence before, but if he was offering, it was not a time to question.

The Kyuubi took over. Naruto felt the chakra change immediately. The demon set to work, moving fast enough that Naruto struggled to keep track of what he was doing. But he wasn't about to ask him to slow down. It wasn't exactly a step-by-step learning opportunity here.

Temari's self-inflicted wounds were taken care of quickly, the wounds closed successfully, though the scars were thick and messy. She hadn't cut very straight for most of them. The fox continued over her body, inspecting it for more wounds, and hesitated once over her lower abdomen, but set back to work quickly enough that Naruto didn't question it. It was when her towel slipped enough from her thighs that Naruto gasped, this problem visible to him right off.

"Oh, Kami," Naruto whispered. Well, these explained a lot.

Kurama moved back to her stomach, moving the towel from the flesh. He ran his chakra over it again, this time to show Naruto what the blonde had missed the first time.

"Fuck," was all he had to say.

He summoned a clone to send to the Kazekage before gathering the towels around her the best he could, trying to cover her modestly before picking her up again. Then he was off.