It's been almost an hour since Akane went to bed. She was sleeping motionlessly, apparently unaware of anything around her. Gaara was standing next to the bed, watching her intensively. She is as careless as ever... How did this woman become a shinobi in the first place is beyond me. He was about to turn around to leave when he felt cold steel pressed to his neck. "What are you doing here?"

A woman that was supposedly lying on the bed sleeping was now standing next to him with her sword on his throat. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and smirked. Maybe I underestimated her a little.

"Well?" Akane was getting very irritated very fast. This guy... Not only that he had the nerve to come here again, but he doesn't seem to be planning on saying anything about it!

He turned his head to the side, facing her. "I didn't come to kill you, if that's what you're worried about." He looked at her, but their gazes didn't meet – she had her eyes closed, although she was still steadily holding the sword. The second later her eyes flashed open, revealing her unspoken anger. Gaara's eyes widened for a moment, before he regained his composure. To his, yet another surprise, she removed the blade that she previously held close to him.

"Do you really think I care about that?" She held her sword on her side, her voice barely more than a whisper, but still strong enough for him to hear her. Although she tried to cover it, he didn't miss the rage that radiated out of her every word. "What do you care about, if it isn't your life?"

"Come with me and find out." With that she went to the window and jumped outside.

Gaara's eyes narrowed skeptically while he was staring at the spot Akane occupied a second ago. What is she up to? He sighed. There's only one way to find out. I just hope I wont regret this later... Than he went after her.

What is going on in that mind of hers? They were standing on a large clearing in the middle of the forest, a few miles outside the town. "Why are we here?"

Akane was just watching him for a while before she spoke. "You think I'm weak, right?" She didn't expect him to answer, because that was more of a statement that a question. After noticing a confused look on his face, she continued. "I want to prove you wrong."

"Why? Does it really matter what I think? You must be a pretty shallow person to care so much about an opinion of a stranger."

Akane slightly chuckled. "Shallow? I think you misunderstood. I don't care what you think about me, it's what you think about my skills that bothers me. Besides, you're not really a stranger."

Gaara had an amused smirk on his face. He wasn't sure where this was going, but he didn't want to end it now. "Really? How so?"

"Well, we've been seeing each other for quite a while, we know each others' names, not to mention that your sister told me some stuff about you..." She was counting on her fingers while trying to remember other reasons, when he interrupted her. "You were talking to Temari? When?"

"Today. We had lunch and went shopping together. Oh and, you might want to check how much money you've got left, since I don't think there was a store she didn't buy something from, and I honestly doubt that she can afford all that even with her jounin budget."

Gaara went wide eyed. "She took my money?"

"Yeah... Sorry about that, but if you don't mind putting that aside for now, I would like us to get on with why we were here in the first place. You can freak out later."

His eyes narrowed at her, but he decided to remain calm. "Fine. You want a fight, I'll give you one." He smirked. "But don't complain if I accidentally kill you."

Akane was now smirking herself, confidence was never a problem for an Uchiha. "Like you could."

"Said the person who I left half dead in the desert."

"That was different."

"The situation yes, but the outcome will be the same."

"Enough talk, lets fight."

It was around midnight when they were finally tired enough to admit it. They both had scratches all over them. Akane's right hand was still bleeding from the wound Gaara's sand caused after he tried to crush it – she managed to pull it out in time. Gaara on the other hand, had his left shoulder pierced – he hadn't counted on her to charge at him with that raikiri. Did she miss his chest on purpose, or was it the sand that helped him avoid the fatal blow, he wasn't sure nor was planning on wasting his energy to find out – it didn't matter anyway.

They've been just sitting on the ground, staring at each other while panting, until Akane gathered enough breath to speak. "So?"

Gaara couldn't believe that she actually had enough strength and will left to talk. He definitely wasn't in the mood for talking. "What?" He asked, irritated, while hoping that she'll ignore her feminine instincts and keep her mouth shut.

Unfortunately for him, Akane had other things in mind. "What do you mean what? Here I am, almost dying to prove you that I'm not a weakling, and you don't even know what to say?"

This just isn't my day... Soon it became clear to the young Kazekage how right he was, and how, without any doubt, all women are the same. "What do you want me to say?" Of course, as soon as those words left his mouth, he knew that was the wrong answer.

"You... jerk! What do I want you to say? I can't believe you just said that! I always knew most men were complete idiots, like that pervert brother of yours, but deep inside my heart, I've always hoped that some of you had at least one half of your brain fully functional left! Out of all..." And she kept going... Gaara just set there, looking at her. Where does she find the energy? Even Temari would be tired of yelling by now... The line of his thoughts was cut short when Akane suddenly froze. She just looked at him for a second, and then, without a warning, collapsed.

Later next morning, Gaara was sitting on his bed, listening to, yet another woman yell. When Temari found out what happened, saying that she didn't take it well would be an understatement. He chose to ignore her since he was to tired to deal with her at the moment. The Hokage took the whole thing extremely good. I expected her to demand an explanation of some sort, or even to decide that she doesn't want to make an alliance between our villages. The way women' mind works is very confusing.

That night/morning

After Akane went on shut down, Gaara simply picked her up and went towards the hotel. He first woke up his siblings, after what he had planned on going to Tsunade herself. Temari's reaction saved him the walk, since she started screaming like mad when she saw her youngest brother carrying her newest friend trough the door. She freaked out even more when she noticed the blood on both of them. That, eventually woke up the rest of the hotel, including the leaf shinobi. Tsunade, Shizune and Sakura practically ran into Temari's room, with Shikamaru close behind. While Sakura worked on Akane, Tsunade offered to heal Gaara herself. "What happened Kazekage-sama?"

He decided to make his answers short. The quicker they get through this, the better. "We fought."

"You were attacked?" The old woman sounded worried.

"No. We fought against each other."

Tsunade stopped healing him for a moment, shocked. "Why?"

"She wanted to prove to me that she wasn't weak."

To his surprise, she smiled and went on with the healing. "So, did she? Prove herself to you that is."

"Yes." With that he turned his head to the side to see Akane still lying unconscious on his sister's bed while Sakura was healing her.

Tsunade followed his gaze. "She can be very difficult at times, I'm not surprised things came out this way."

He gave her a worried look. "I never meant for it to go this far."

"Don't worry, this doesn't change anything. Sure, one of my joinin is lying out cold after fighting a leader of the Sand village, but that's Akane we're talking about, and something tells me she would've gotten herself into some kind of trouble one way or another..." After seeing a confused look on the young man's face she continued. "I know that the last thing she attended to do is get in the way of our negotiation, so we might as well forget about the whole thing. Besides, if I know anything about that kid, then it's that she's one tough nut. You can be sure that she'll be up and running all over my nerves first thing in the morning!" Tsunade finished that statement with a sound of annoyance in her voice.

After getting Gaara and Akane fixed, Tsunade, Sakura and Shizune left along with Shikamaru who carried out Akane. Gaara went to his room with his siblings behind him. He ignored them and went to take a shower. Then he got out and sat on his bed, while Temari started screaming at him. It went on...

Later in the morning, when Temari realized that Gaara wasn't paying any attention to her, she took a deep breath in the attempt to calm herself – and the time began to exist again, but just for a moment. "Just forget it! I don't know why I'm even wasting my breath! You almost killed Akane and yourself, you kept us up all night -"

"Actually, Temari, you kept us up all night..." Kankurou was sleeping on a chair, and woke up after hearing the absence of his sister's voice for a moment. He regretted waking up after she started yelling at him for not being supportive and how he has nothing to complain about since he did sleep.

Meanwhile, Akane finally woke up in her room just in time to face Tsunade. "You're awake. Good. Now you can explain to me why you fought the Kazekage."

Akane looked at her and gulped. Busted.