As the footsteps got closer, Neji began to get nervous. He had no knowledge of who this mystery person was. He was also completely clueless when it came to the strength of his opponent.

Neji lay on the stone dirt floor feigning sleep. He forced himself to take slow even breaths to not only calm himself down, but also to keep up the illusion that he was trying so hard to portray. He had to stay both calm and quiet. However, he couldn't stop the small tremor from running down his back when he heard the clang of metal against metal. At first he thought the he was being attacked by kunai, and that the clang had come from the sharp object hitting the metal bars that encased him. But, after further analysis, he realized with a light and heavy heart that the sound had come from keys being shoved roughly into the lock of his cage.

Neji closed his eyes tightly when the stranger kneeled beside him.

But, his eyes flew open at the sudden tender touch that the stranger graced his swollen wrists with. He wanted to use his sight to see just who this person was because, for some odd reason his heart had begun to beat uncontrollably. His mind and body were both beyond any doubt on two different pages. To say he was shocked when the stranger placed gentle hands on his shackles would be a severe understatement. He was so confused. He wanted to escape, but then again he just wanted to lie there and let this stranger coddle him.

Gaara looked at the fragile body of Neji Hyuuga. It was hard for him to believe that this was the same Neji Hyuuga that was considered one of the best child protégés of Konoha. The man in front of him was tall and lean just like he remembered but, there was just something about his appearance that made Gaara a little unsettled.

Gaara took the dungeon keys from out of his kage robes and clumsily unlocked the cell door. For some reason he was unable to hold a steady hand when he unlocked the door. He hadn't failed to notice the small tremor that shook the Hyuuga's tall frame, when he had finally gotten the keys into the lock. He thought at first that the man must have been terrified but then he began to think differently, after all this was one of Konoha's elite. Gaara, after moments of quick thinking, came to the conclusion that the cause of the shiver was because of the slight draft that could be found down in the dungeons during even the hottest of suna's summers.

Gaara walked into the cell and kneeled down right next to Neji's head. He had a strange urge to run his fingers through the silky smooth dark ebony locks. However, instead of Gaara giving in to his temptations, he just mentally slapped himself and decided that he had been spending way too much time with his brother Kankuro.

Gaara looked down at the shackles that were constricting the man's pale and slender (not so slender any more because of swelling) wrists. He put the keys in his hand, down on the floor in a quick and quiet movement. He placed his gentle on the cuffs, turning those pale wrists slowly. He was looking for the pin in the shackles that would open and release those poor abused wrists.

After Gaara had found and pulled the pin, he looked up towards the face that could have been painted by angels. His heart did that weird stuttering thing again and his usually pale white and stoic face took on a lovely burgundy glow, and a strange bewildered look. He was defiantly out of his element.

As Gaara continued to stare at Neji he realized that the man's eyes weren't really looking at him, they were just looking in his general direction. He immediately realized that the young man in front of him was blind. His heart lurched and he was filled with the desire to mollycoddle the Hyuuga boy.

Naturally Gaara blamed all these emotions and feelings and Neji's blindness on Konkuro.

Neji was filled with a sense of relief when he had been freed from the confines of the chains and shackles. His relief on the other hand his relief quickly faded when he felt strange eyes boring into the skin on his face. He looked towards the general direction of the gaze and tried to look helpless, after all if he looked helpless maybe the stranger would go easy on him.

Neji felt strong arms wrap around his midsection and pull him up onto his feet.

Neji shivered when a deep husky voice spoke into his ear.

"Can you stand?" Neji could only nod his head yes. He had recognized the voice of the man who came and released him. The voice was defiantly deeper and less sinister, but he would recognize that voice anywhere.

"Gaara." The arms around him tightened and he thought he heard a small chuckle but of course that's impossible, demons don't laugh.

"So my pale eyed friend, you remember me."

A/N: I apologise I had been planning to write a lot more than I actually did. I'm really lazy and well, I fell asleep and when I woke up I forgot about this chapter until about a few minutes ago, and I really wanted t post it and not right more so yeah my fault or actually serta mattress companie's fault for making my bed so comfortable.