Gaara hid in the coma patents room. As the Kazekage he would sometimes do hospital visits to shinobi of such, usually only if his brother or sister's team came in. And that would be an excuse for him to escape the duties of work for a few hours and hide in a vacant room. But his usual room was no longer vacant; there was the grey haired girl he found earlier. She was in a coma, so it wasn't like he was going to disturb her any. And any way, this was one of the only rooms that got T.V. Land; he needed his fix of The Beverly Hillbillies. Don't judge him!

It was kind of nice having company, he didn't feel so lonely. Looking over to the girl he smiled a sad smile, her family must be missing her dearly, but she had no identification on her, so they couldn't contact any one. She was a very pretty girl, serene in the way her eyes closed.

Her heart monitor gave a little beep, Gaara's curiosity over took him and he walked over to see if everything was all right.

---- - - - - - -

Yamato was in no condition to start training, but as the Hokage said, she wanted his two remaining Gennin in the chunnin exam no matter what! So he had to get up and do something, as Shikimaru would say, what a drag.

Yamato was not a morning person; there were only two things he could do in the morning. 1 take a shower, 2 and most important, make coffee. And he only took the shower so he had something to do while waiting for the coffee to be made. Anything before that would be lost on him, before coffee you could tell yamato that the whole of Konoha was explode, and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Asuma was addicted to cigarettes, Kakashi had his literature erotica (it's technically not porn because it doesn't have pictures), Gai had his spandex, Anko was turned on by blood, Neji was addicted to being emotionally unavailable. Yamato had coffee, as far as addictions went, he got off easy. Don't judge him!

After his daily fix Yamato went to work, he had told the two to meat him at the usual grounds at around 6:30 it was 6:15 now he had time to get there.

---- -- -- - --------

"Wakey wakey!" A female voice said to Max as light shown in on his eyes.

"What time is it?" He asked, to his surprise the female voice was from Sara, Max sat up "What are you still doing here? I thought you were just going to leave a cryptic message." He told the ghost who was in the same outfit as before.

"You know so did I, but apparently I have to stay and be your conscious, kind of like jiminy cricket, but I'm not a cricket. OHh before I forget only you can see me," Sara said as she sat on Max's bed.

"Wait so you're like stuck in my head?"

"Yeah,"

"So if somebody walked in the room right now,"

"It would look like your talking to yourself." Sara finished his sentence.

Max was in shock, he had thought yesterday's episode of talking to dead people, was a once and a life time thing. Like it was never ever going to happen again, but he was wrong. Here he was talking to Sara, who was dead. Or was she? Max tried to poke her, it went right through.

The women on his bed sighed "Do you believe me now?" She asked impatiently.

Max shook his head yes, and then shook his head no. This was way to confusing, "If this was midnight shamalons the 6th sense would I be…Bruce Willis's character?"

Sara shook her hands and her head, "No darling, I would be Bruce Willis's character, you're the little kid."

"But I don't want to be the creepy little kid,"

"Well sense I'm the dead one, it means you're the one seeing dead people." Sara reasoned. That reasoning didn't make Max feel better though.

Until this encounter with Sara, Max had never realized just how much Zaki was like her. The mannerisms were just way to similar, it was creepy. The way they moved their hands and answered questions was quit similar. "So is Zaki still not dead?"

"She's not dead, she's not even nearly dead, and she's just sleeping." Sara explained.

"Where is she sleeping?"

"Can't tell you that," Sara smiled apologetically.

Max sighed, "Do I have to like, fulfill something, or you know get something for you to go away?"

"You know I think you do have to fulfill something…" Sara said absentmindedly she stroked her chin while she was thinking.

"Like…"

"I don't know, I really don't, just something's going to happen, and I'm going to disappear."

They sat there for a few minuets in silence; Max wondered if she could read his thoughts, his musing was interrupted by her, "yes Maxwell I can read your thoughts."

"oh"

--- - - - - --- - - ---

Kaida woke up, yesterday had been amazing. That man Kiba had let her ride his dog Akamaru all the way home. He was so kind, Kaida usually didn't take kindly to strangers, but there was something about that man that she trusted completely, it was probably the dog.

As she crept around the apartment Kaida got the cereal from the counter, Kiba was right there was no sense in throwing away everything from the past. But that doesn't mean Kaida can't try to change. Instead of waking her mother to make her breakfast, Kaida decided to make it herself. Nothing fancy like pancakes but she knew how to make cereal just fine. Things she would usually ask adults to do for her, she would do herself. Nothing major, but it was something.

But Kiba had made a great point about her being so young and a shinobi, nobody ever expected a cute girl her age to be a dangerous shinobi. If she could play up her naivety, she could use it as a weapon. Maybe at the chunnin exams, it was an idea to mull over.

---- - ----- - -- --- ---

Keiji got up; somehow he knew that training with Yamato would do him no good. Well that wasn't true, it would teach him more of the basics, but it wouldn't solve his immediate problem. He needed to find out what his animal guardian was. He was told that there was nothing to do but wait and it will come when needed.

But Keiji had needed it at that gorge, and it didn't come. Waiting for it to magically appear was going to do no good. Taking an initiative was the only way to get it. He was useless until then, just a bunch of fury with no direction. The only thing he was a danger to at this point in time was his team mate.

But his grandfather wanted nothing to do with the ninja world. He didn't even want Keiji to talk about training. The third dying had been hard on grandpa. Before then he was reluctant to talk about it, but now even the mention of shinobi was a sin in the house. Keiji wasn't going to take it though; he was going to force grandpa to help him, even if he had to break that mans arm in the process, its not like Keiji could actually break grandpa's arm, but he would certainly try almost anything to make the old coot help him.

-------- -------- - - ----- --- -

Zaki opened her eyes slowly, why was everything so bright? A man was hovering over her, "Max?" She asked, was she home?

"No," A gravely and dark voice said.

It wasn't max it was some stranger with red hair and piercing aqua marine eyes. He was surrounded by a bright light. His face was only feet away from hers; he bent down to inspect her. Zaki scooted away, and with out even thinking she threw a punch in his direction.

The man caught it easily, he held onto her wrist "Who are you?"

-------- - - - - - - - - - ------

Gaara looked down at the girl; she had called him max, probably her brother. He had his hand wrapped around her small wrists. Her eyes a brilliant shade off hazel looked at him straight in the eye. They burned with challenge and distrust. "Who are you?" She asked; Gaara let her wrists go and backed away slowly.

The girl looked at him; she looked older when she was awake, heavy in a way. She was sitting up straight and her mouth was in a small scowl. Her eyes were harsh and calculating. Gaara kept silent for it to sink in that she was in a hospital. The girl looked around, "Where am I?"

"Suna's main hospital, I found you yesterday half dead by the river." Gaara explained, the girl looked at him even more harshly.

"And like I asked before who are you?"

"I am…" Gaara was going to introduce himself as the Kazekage but something stopped him. "Gaara."

"Gaara?" She tested out the name; He liked to hear his name from her lips.

"Now may I ask, what's your name, I would like to contact your relatives as soon as possible." Gaara notified her.

"Zaki, I'm a Gennin in Konoha." Gaara raised an eyebrow; he was going to need her full name. The girl shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Nariko Zakuro. That's my full name"

Gaara left and go find the doctors. With in a couple of seconds he found one, "The Coma patient I brought in yesterday just woke up, go attend to her needs and give me a full report as quickly as possible."

---- - ---- - ----- - - - - - - -- - -

Adara walked to training on time today, Neji stopped and scowled at her. He nodded to the other two to start on the laps before him. "Looked who decided to show up today." His voice snarled sarcastically.

"Yup,"

"May I ask why you weren't here yesterday?"

"Yes you can ask why I wasn't here yesterday." There was no point in trying to appease this man.

Neji gave another snarl, "Why weren't you here yesterday, the Chunnin exams are in less then a month."

"I needed to help a friend." Was all Adara was going to say, she wasn't going to tell him anything more; he didn't need to know anything about Zaki. Lifting her chin defiantly and staring right at her Sensei's eyes she silently dared him to ask more. Neji eyed her up and a strange looked crossed his eyes. Was it understanding or admiration, Adara didn't know.

Neji backed up and nodded, "You'll be doing 3 extra laps to make up for yesterday,"

Adara bit back a retort and started to follow Lee and Hinabi.

---- - -- ----- -- -- - - -------

Gaara cursed himself for going back to work early, though he had a TV in his office, if he watched anything besides mission reports and news and crap people would start complaining. Suddenly his secretary Mizuki stepped in.

"Yes?" He asked her.

"Sir, I don't know if you remember but I'm going to be leaving the office early today." Mizuki informed him, Gaara thought that he remembered her asking off this afternoon, but he wasn't sure.

"I think so, what is it for again?"

The girl turned a nice shade of pink, "I have a date sir."

"Ok, you may leave" Gaara informed her, he knew of the feelings she used to have for him, it relieved him that she was getting over him. Now that there was nobody there to baby sit him there was no reason for him not to watch the Beverly Hillbillies marathon! Gaara quickly opened the cabinet and turned on the tube. It was commercial now one of his favorites.

"It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature" the T.V Blurred at him. A small thump landed on the roof, he decided to ignore it. The show started, it was the one where they were trying to find Jethro a job because he was eating the rest of them out of house and home.

A small giggle came from the roof; Gaara didn't want to move from the sofa so he sent his sand after the intruder. A small gasp came from the outside, as he dragged the person into his office. "Excuses me but I do not appreciate eaves droppers when I am working," he scowled; his sand hand had entrapped the girl with grey hair, Zaki. "Shouldn't you be in the hospital young lady?"

The girl struggled against his sand, he let go, "I hate hospitals," She explained. "You watch the Beverly hillbillies?" She asked even though she all ready knew the answer.

"Yes what's it too you?"

"Nothing, it's nice to know another fan," She shrugged. Gaara relaxed anybody who likes the Beverly Hillbillies was a good person. She seemed to relax a bit too and sat down on the big comfy chair adjacent to the sofa. "Marathon?"

"Yeah,"

"Cool," Zaki looked Gaara up and down, she liked this man for some unknown reason. He seemed a bit harsh but he had good taste in TV shows. The office he had was big and lavish; they were in a small nook of it. This nook had a descent size TV and big comfy leather furnisher around it. The man in question was resting his head on the left side of the sofa as his feet and legs were spread out to the other side. Zaki had plopped herself on the right chair adjacent to the sofa. She was closest to his feet not even an arms length to touch and tickle. The desk at the office was pig and official looking with a computer and important looking documents spread across it. "So are you like an advisor to the Kazekage or something?" She asked him.

The mans no existent eyebrow raised at her his blue eyes piercing through her skin. "I am the Kazekage," Zaki started laughing he looked maybe 3-4 years older then him. He was defiantly not the Kazekage.

Gaara furrowed his eye brows at the grey haired girl, who was she to laugh at him. Maybe she was just jealous cause they were about the same age and she was still a Gennin. "What is so funny?" Her laugh wasn't exactly nice it was extremely harsh, but soothing at the same time.

"If you're the Kazekage I'm the queen of Sheba."

"I didn't know you were royalty!" Gaara sat up in fake exclamation. "Please your highness what can I get for you!"

Zaki pursed her lips "Ha ha very funny, no really what's with the nice office."

It was time for Gaara to give a little chuckle, "I'm the Kazekage."

"It's always really pathetic when a guy pretends his dads office is his, seriously are we going to get into trouble for being here?" She accused him. Gaara gave another chuckle and settled back down to watch the TV.

"What you don't think a person our age is capable of running a country?" Gaara asked her.

"Your only 13?" She asked.

"YOUR only 13?" He asked her.

"Yeah I'm 13," Gaara wasn't pleased to here that for some reason.

"Well I'm 16."

"A 16 year old can not be running a country." Zaki said dead tone. She thought back to Max he was only 17 and he would not be able to run a country, she doubt this guy could. "If you're the kazekage where's your outfit?" Zaki asked.

"At the cleaners."

"Sure…"

"The hat should be somewhere you can go look for it if you want." Gaara told the girl, this was quit amusing, "I hate that thing so I never wear it, it looks like a freaking piece of pie."

Zaki gave another laugh; Gaara was starting too really like that laugh.

---- - - - - - -

Max was walking around the dregs he had nothing better to do. He was on the outskirts of the forest only the tree's surrounding him. To his utter annoyance Sara's ghost walked right by him. "If you had a country what would you name it?" She asked him. Max finally knew what was so different about Sara and Zaki. Zaki was cool and liked silence, Sara on the other hand just kept talking and talking, and she was horribly clingy. That might be because he was the only one who could speak to her, but still the woman needed to know how to shut the hell up! "Come on Maxi boy tell me!"

"I don't know, Canada…" He said pulling out a random name from his head.

"Canada really? That sounds lame…"

"That sounds like a great country with you know lakes and bald eagles and nice people there. When I think of the name Canada I think of a nice country with nice people in it." Max defended.

"I think of people who kill baby seals!" Sara retorted blowing hair out of her face. They walked in silence again.

"So will I see Zaki again?" Max asked Sara, he had been pestering her all day at where Zaki could possibly be but she wouldn't budge.

"Don't know." She scowled at him. "I can't tell you any of these things will you drop it?"

"You know that's typical of you," Max almost yelled, "You didn't care about Zaki at all when you were living, and you still don't care about her." Sara looked like she wanted to slap him.

"My relationship with my daughter is private and none of your business." She hissed.

"No its not, you go out get high make her worry about you for weeks, show up again asking her for money so you can pay for your next high." Max scolded. Sara slapped him, it didn't do anything it went right through him, but still she seemed like if she could have laid a punch on him she would have.

"Shut up!" She roared at him.

"Why can't handle the truth?"

Sara put her hands over her ears, "Shut up, Shut up, Shut up Shut up, and Shut up!"

Max growled, "No you need to hear this your whole life people have always tried to make it more comfortable for you, not any more Sara you were a horrible selfish,"

"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF MY LIFE!" The ghost shrieked.

"I know as much about your life as you know about your daughters, AkA nothing!"

"Stop it stops it!"

"No"

"Then I'm leaving," Sara said stomping off into the forest.

"Good!" Max shouted after her. "Go to where you belong, HELL!" everything became quiet. Max looked around he was yelling at himself, Shaking it off he kept walking. God he needed a shrink.

--- -- ---- - - - - ---

Gaara was laughing, not chuckling LAUGHING, Zaki was throwing popcorn at his mouth and he was trying to unsuccessfully catch it. "Oh come on its not that hard, just stick out your tongue a bit more." Zaki told him.

"It would be easier if you actually threw the thing so it landed somewhere close to my mouth!" Gaara exclaimed. Zaki tossed a kernel in the air and it landed on Gaara's eye. "How is that any where close to my face?"

"That was totally your fault Gaara not mine!" Zaki responded. Gaara in retaliation took some pretzels and threw them across the room at Zaki, each one hitting her. "Hey no fair, Pretzels have more mass then Popcorn, they are easier to throw."

Gaara was rolling over he was laughing so hard. He never has laughed this hard before. He would usually consider it undignified. But Zaki was, well she was hilarious. Zaki took a piece of pretzel and threw it at him; it landed in his nostril. Gaara started coughing and sneezing, he got the piece of pretzel from his nose and held it up. "Snot pretzel, Yum" He said.

"I'll pay 3 dollars to eat it," Zaki said.

"NO, I have dignity."

Zaki rolled her eyes, "Fine 5 dollars god selfish pig,"

"No," Gaara.

"What kind of girl do you think I am, I'm not rolling around in money you know."

"I'm not going to eat the snot pretzel." Gaara said trying to make his voice sound commanding. The girl just laughed at him.

"Do you still want me to believe you're the Kazekage?"

"I AM THE KAZEKAGE!" He said exasperated. She just laughed more. "Are you like high or something? Cause seriously that wasn't funny." Gaara defended. She snorted at him. "This is ridiculous what do I have to do to make you believe me? I get Fan mail addressed to me."

"That's nothing my best friend Max gets fan mail addressed to him." Zaki countered.

"Really?" From what Zaki had explained from other things about Max was that he really didn't do anything but just floated through life. "Why?"

"He's in a band called Viagra." Zaki admitted.

"Why would they name themselves Viagra?"

"Cause they get people excited." It was time for Gaara to snort at this one.

"kazekage sir!" A voice said from behind the door.

"I told you I'm the Kazekage!" Gaara exclaimed. He then put on a more professional voice, "What is it?"

"That girl from Konoha that you wanted us to keep an eye on, we haven't seen her…"

"Wow, it's been 5 hours and they finally noticed, you suna nins are sooo competent!" Zaki snickered.

Gaara got up and opened the door, that man just ruined his day; opening up the door he let the man see Zaki. "Found her," He put on his shrill disappointed voice over the man. "She has been here with me the whole time, next time sir when a patient from another country especially one that we know little to nothing about go missing, you better not wait 5 hours to contact me about that."

"Ye-yes sir." The man gulped and left. Gaara closed the door.

"OUCH THAT WAS HARSH," Zaki said, "That was great acting from that man though. I didn't know you wanted to convince me that badly."

Gaara grimaced at her, "you're kidding right, and you still don't believe I'm the Kazekage."

"Nope" She sighed and looked at the clock, "I should probably get back to the hospital."

Gaara sighed, he had enjoyed the time with her immensely, "oh ok, see you tomorrow?"

"I don't' know maybe," Zaki then left out the window.

Gaara sat down at his desk, so much paper work to do…then a thought hit him. He hadn't sent a message to Konoha yet about Zaki. Quickly writing a letter then sealing it, Gaara got up and headed toward the bird room in the office.

"Sir!" the man in the room said he gave a salute.

"At ease, I need a message delivered to Konoha." Gaara said.

"Is it urgent sir?" The man asked.

Gaara hesitated, was it urgent? He was sure Zaki's family would need to know she was alive, but he might need faster birds for different messages. That was just an excuses he wanted just to keep Zaki here as long as possible, "No it's not incredibly urgent."

The man nodded and led Gaara to a couple different cages. "Here, we can use Flitter."
The bird looked like it was a schizo.

"Perfect," He told the man and handed him the note.