Chapter 3

Gaara sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair with his eyes closed. The young Kazekage wasn't sleeping; he was thinking. The day wasn't even half over, and already it had gone from peaceful and boring to quite interesting. As usual, following his instincts had led Gaara to a new adventure. Of course, most of his past adventures had been missions, and he'd left Sunagokure, whereas this time he hadn't left home.

The giant hawk still perched on Gaara's shoulder, and it was persistently trying to peck him but was always blocked by the sand that protected him. Gaara didn't really notice the hawk. At least, he didn't pay much attention to it until he felt a sharp pain in the back of his hand. The hawk had finally managed to evade Gaara's sand and made contact with his hand.

"Ouch. Damn bird," Gaara grumbled, swiping at the hawk, "You're the one who decided to stay with me. Why didn't you just follow your master?"

The hawk tried to peck Gaara's hand again as if to say that Gaara had been rude. Gaara didn't care. He knew he was rude; he didn't care.

"Um…excuse me, sir?"

Gaara looked away from the hawk and toward the voice. The elderly medic nin had returned.

"Hm?"

"Um, well, we-we did our best, Kazekage-sama. The girl-she can-I mean-you can see her now-I-I'd better go-"

"Wait." Gaara grabbed the woman's sleeve. "Her room?"

"Her room-?" The woman was so flustered that she could barely stammer out the words. "Oh-you mean where? "

Gaara nodded.

"It's-it's j-just down the hall and-and to the left."

"Number?"

"6-613."

"Thanks."

Gaara stood, and the medic nin turned and ran back the way she'd come. Geez, were people still so afraid of him? Were they afraid he was going to squash them like a bug, or was it just intimidating to speak to the Kazekage? Eh, it didn't matter. Oh, here was the room. Gaara opened the door and the hawk flew off his shoulder to perch on the railing around the girl's bed.

Gaara had only been in a hospital room once before, and it had been, well, different. That time, he had been in Konoha, and the invalid had been a freakish, beetle-browed boy, and there had been a vase of flowers on the bedside table. This time, Gaara was back home in Sunagokure, the invalid was female, and only the girl's belongings were on the bedside table. The hawk sidled along the railing it perched on till it sat by the girl's head and glared at Gaara.

Gaara stared coolly back at the hawk and sat in a lounge-chair by the bed. At this closer range, Gaara noticed a few small details that he had missed before. For one, the color of this mysterious Jane Doe's hair. Instead of the light auburn Gaara had thought it before, the young woman's hair was red! Not the dark red of his own hair, but a bright, fiery, orangey red that gradually darkened to black at the tips. The long, red waves snaked across the pillow and over the girl's chest. She had long eyelashes, too. On the girl's brow, just above her eyes, was a small scar-tattoo?-a perfect six-pointed star. That was odd. The scar was too precise to have been received during a fight. Had this girl been tortured? That might explain her appearance in the center of the forest, where nobody would have found her had they not been looking. A force deeper than mere curiosity impelled Gaara to touch the girl's brow. He didn't know why, but he didn't resist the impulse and reached out a hand. Strong wings batted Gaara's hand away, breaking the spell, and a deep voice came from the hawk beside the girl's pillow.

"Don't touch her!"

Gaara jerked back and looked at the hawk in surprise and, oddly, annoyance.

"What the hell?!"

"Don't touch her!"

"Did you just talk ?"

"Yeah, I did. What of it? Never seen a talking animal before?"

"Sure I have, they've just usually had more than one tail. Like the Shukaku and Kyuubi."

"Never heard of 'em. Doesn't matter, just don't touch shinobi-san."

"Why not? I was just looking at that scar."

"Don't. It's more than a scar. Don't touch it."

"Uh huh. Sure."

The hawk didn't bother talking anymore; it just stared at Gaara. This was quickly becoming one of the weirdest days of his life.