Tsunade visited her again the following morning for another check up. "You're healing very well," she commented.
"I heal quickly," Calixta replied.
"Apparently. You should be good to go home tomorrow. You have so many visitors that it's causing quite a commotion," she teased.
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that," she honestly replied.
"You should be glad. It's better for the healing process," she added. "What's that?" she started a little at the little bug crawling on Calixta's hand.
"Oh, this? Just a ladybug," she shrugged, smiling as it crawled up and down her fingers.
"Here, I'll get rid of it for you," she tried to swat it but Calixta stopped her.
"Oh, no! Please, don't hurt it! It's one of Shino little bugs, stowed away on the flowers they brought for me."
Tsunade gave a sigh of exasperation. "I see. Well, make sure you take it with you when you go. I can't have bugs crawling around the hospital," she playfully scolded.
Just then, there was a careful rapping on the door.
"Come in," Tsunade called and was surprised to see Inuzuka Tsume enter. "I've just finished my check up."
"Oh? And how are we doing?" the woman asked.
"Better than expected. Luckily, none of her internal organs were severely damaged," Tsunade answered.
"That's good to hear. I was worried when Kiba didn't return with Akamaru last night. Those two are practically inseparable."
With that, Tsunade left.
"You must be Kiba's mother. It's nice to meet you," Calixta carefully greeted.
"I've been meaning to make your acquaintance for some time," Tsume answered.
"Oh? I hope-" Calixta began.
"Don't worry. I'm not worried about your relationship with my son. He's a good young man and Akamaru here wouldn't let him trust someone with ill motives so easily," she assured her.
Calixta breathed a sigh of relief. "Then…to what do I owe the visit?"
"Your affinity with animals has come to my attention," she began.
Calixta laughed but allowed the woman to continue.
"My dog, Kuromaru, is expecting puppies any day now. I was wondering if you might like one of them?" she asked.
The young woman's smile grew wide. "I would love that very much! Kakashi-sensei has suggested more than once that I get a pet but I didn't want to get one while living with him, you know how pets can be, and with everything that's happened since I moved out, it sort of took a backseat," she babbled.
"I'm happy to hear that," Tsume smiled back. "Would you like to be there for the birth?"
"You said it's any day now?" Calixta verified.
"Yes. I'll understand if you're not up to it," she replied.
"I would love to. I'm sure I'll be fine. Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me!" she nearly started to cry.
"It's nothing. I'm sure you'll take good care of it. You can choose whichever one you like after they're born."
"Oh, I'm not sure I could make such a choice but I'll try," she half-joked.
"That's good to hear. I'll let you rest now," Tsume started for the door.
"Here, take Akamaru with you. I'm sure Kiba-san misses him greatly. As you said, they're hardly ever apart." She held the pup up to the mother who took him with her. "And thank him for me, if you would. He was a great comfort."
Temari had just sat down to have dinner with Kankuro when she noticed her teammate looked a little odd. "Hey, what's up?" she greeted with more enthusiasm than warranted by the situation in hopes of snapping him out of it.
The large young man almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of his sister's voice, "Ah! Wh-? Oh, hey," he managed.
"You think too hard like that for too long and your brain's gunna start leakin' out your ear," she teased.
A foolish little smile danced across his lips. If he had been thinking of anything other than what he was, he would have been offended. However, in the short time he spent with Calixta over those strange few days, he realized that she might very well be able to make his brain leak out his ears. He nodded and laughed with his sister.
"What were you makin' that serious face for anyway? If it's about what Gaara said earlier-" she tried to ease.
"Oh, no it's not that…" he dismissed, "I know not to take stuff like that too seriously anymore," he told her.
"Then what is it?" she pressed.
He knew his sister wouldn't understand but just getting it out rather than being pestered by her was preferable. "I was thinking about Calixta," he admitted, unable to suppress a slight blush.
"Oh…what about'er?" Temari grumbled.
"I dunno," he shrugged, "Just her. You got to spend more time with her than anybody. What was she like?" he asked genuinely.
"I dunno. She was really weird but all things considered, nice enough," she managed.
"She was nice? That's all you've got?" he teased.
"What do you want me to tell you? She hardly spoke to me unless she had to and most of the time, she locked herself up in her room and just stayed in there," she managed. "She's a pretty good cook," she shrugged, remembering that much of the little time they spent together was while they were eating. "You like her, don't you?" she countered.
"I don't know how I feel about her," he honestly admitted. "I want to like her because she really tried to help us even though we kidnapped her."
"But what?" Temari prompted.
"But seeing her with Gaara gave me the creeps," he almost shamefully told her.
"Look, I don't really know what happened between them but it doesn't matter. You're too good to get hung up on a girl like that. Sure, she's got looks but don't you remember how she manipulated you? I'd think that someone as tangled up in puppetry as you would have realized he was being strung around like a doll," she harshly told him.
"She only did it in self defense," he weakly argued.
"Tch, that time she did but that's not something someone can just do without practice. What about next time? She's working with another clan, her allegiances lie there," she pointed out.
"She's not like the rest of them. She didn't want to control me and having her do it wasn't a total loss. It helped her realize that we weren't going to hurt her, that we wanted her help," he explained.
"If you know so much then why are you asking me what she's like?" Temari snapped.
"I was just curious," he shrugged, finding her abrasive words less scathing than usual.
Temari was just about to snap at him again when they noticed Gaara walking past the ramen cart they were seated at. When they made eye contact, Gaara shot his teammates suspicious looks but didn't say anything.
"Where you goin' so late tonight?" Temari carefully called when she realized he wasn't even going to greet them.
"That's none of your business," Gaara hissed and kept walking.
"Was it just me or is he a little…off today?" Temari asked Kankuro.
The young man pursed his lips. "Now that you mention it, it has been a really strange day," he replied. When they were finished eating a few minutes later, he started off in the direction that Gaara had headed.
"You gunna follow him?" Temari asked.
"I thought about it," he admitted though he hadn't realized until she pointed it out that he had started off in the same direction as their teammate.
She matched his step.
"You're gunna follow me?" he defensively accused.
"If I was following you, I'd be behind you. I thought we might follow Gaara together," she dryly mused.
"Oh, right, whatever," he agreed.
They caught up with their youngest teammate just as he was leaving the outskirts of their village.
"Hey, where are you going?" Temari called after him once they were close enough.
"Are you trying to stop me?" Gaara snapped back.
"Uh, well, no. Not exactly. I just wanna know why you're leaving the village. It would be nice to know where you are if we need you," she tried with forced confidence.
"Don't follow me," he told them plainly and started walking again.
Once he was out of earshot, Kankuro spoke, "What do you think we should do?"
"I'm gunna tell Baki and let him deal with it," she answered, feeling defeated.
"I'll follow Gaara then," Kankuro added.
"What? He just told us not to and he sounded pretty serious. He'll kick your ass if he catches you," she told him.
"Then he won't catch me. I'll keep a safe distance. Besides, he looked pretty distracted," he told her and then started out.
"Fine," she agreed because she could tell there was no arguing with him and went to get their instructor.
Gaara was about half way to the Village Hidden in the Leaves when he suddenly stopped. His eyes widened and he started to look about, taking in his surroundings as though waiting for some sort of attack even though he knew there would be none. He stood there like that for nearly an hour before calling out to the one he knew had been following him, but didn't care to waste the time to confront him. "Kankuro, come out," he called.
Kankuro flinched at the sound of his own name and hesitated.
Gaara made a sound of frustration, "Now! Get out here now! I want to talk to you," he ordered harshly.
The older teen slowly emerged because he hadn't been threatened with violence.
"You weren't following me, were you?" he accused.
"What? Yeah, I was following you," he admitted.
"So you're either an idiot or a liar," Gaara sneered.
"What are you talking about?" Kankuro took a step back.
"No," Gaara corrected after a moment, "You're a liar because if you were an idiot you'd've check back with Temari and Baki who are actually following us," he grumbled.
"I told Temari that I'd follow you; that's what I'm doing," Kankuro defended.
"Then why haven't you checked in with them since you left the village?" Gaara scoffed. "You were going the same direction as me; you weren't following me," he accused. "Why? Why are you going this way?" he pointed the direction they'd been headed.
"What? I don't know what you're talking about," Kankuro lied.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" Gaara decided to throw his teammate a bone in hopes of further cooperation.
"Felt it?" Kankuro blinked almost stupidly. "Felt what, exactly?" he tried.
"Something was calling you or pulling you this way," he pointed again.
"Now that you mention it, it was kinda like that," the larger teen admitted. "I thought it was my imagination. You felt it too?"
"You don't know what it was?" Gaara pressed.
"I-I don't know. I wanted to find out," he replied.
Gaara snickered. "Don't bother. Turn back now and make the others go back as well," he ordered.
"What? You know what it is?"
"If you continue to go this way, I will bury you in sand," the shorter teen threatened and then was gone.
Gaara himself had realized he was being influenced by an external force even as he left the village but he hadn't realized it was Calixta's chakra until it had suddenly, almost violently, stopped. It stopped him dead in his tracks and he was left with a ringing silence in his ears that made him sick to his stomach and faded into a dark warmth. As angry as he was that she could do that to him, after all that, he had to know what happened. Because whatever it was had caused a protective air to well up in him, he dismissed his companion as best he could. He knew they would continue to follow him but he hoped his warning would buy him a little extra time.
Gaara arrived in the Leaf village very early the following morning and immediately started looking for Calixta. After feeling her chakra so intensely for so long, now he could barely sense it. However, it still didn't take him very long to find out that she was in the hospital, sneak in, and get at least a look at her.
To his surprise, she was awake so he just walked in. Had she been sleeping, he might have considered knocking.
"Isn't it a bit early to be drinking?" he chided as he entered and saw that she had the hand not being used to drip fluids into her system, lazily wrapped around the neck of a sake bottle.
"Gaara-san?" she greeted with a smile.
"Don't play coy with me," he snapped as he stepped up to the foot of her bed.
She quirked an odd look for a moment before giving a sad little sigh. "A late comer," she mused. "But I'm not calling out any more. Why are you here?"
"I want to know why you drew me here!" he nearly yelled.
It took her a long moment to answer him. When she did answer him, she explained as carefully as she could what had happened over the last few days, making sure to emphasize that he was not the only one that had been affected so that he wouldn't think he was being targeted. She did, however, leave out the part of trying to kill herself because she wasn't sure how he would react to the notion.
"So it's not going to happen again, right?" he surmised rudely.
"I'd like to promise you that but it's not something I can do," she informed.
"That's not good enough," he snapped.
"I can say that it's much less likely to happen again anytime soon because of how…intensely problematic it was," she had to pause to make sure she chose her words well.
"Fine, if that's the best you can do, I guess I'll have to take it," he sneered.
"But all that was over for some time now. Why did you come the rest of the way?" she pressed.
Gaara rolled his eyes and quickly walked over to her bedside. She was lethargic that it was easy for him to snatch the bottle of alcohol from her hand. "What kind of idiot doctor would give a patient sake while they're in the hospital?" he quietly demanded.
"It helps with the pain," she told him evenly.
He gave her an odd sideways glance and examined her IV.
"Stop messing with things! You don't know what you're doing," she accused even though he wasn't even really touching anything.
"You already have something for the pain," he pointed to one of the drugs listed on her IV bag.
"Look, I haven't slept very well lately. I was just having a couple sips to knock me out," she reasoned defensively before giving in to a little smile. "You can have some if you want. There's more than enough there," she offered.
He gave her a curious look as he put the bottle to his lips. He had been hoping that she wasn't just trying to bribe him, that perhaps it wasn't simply a bottle of alcohol. His hopes were left wanting and it made a bitter little scowl play across his lips. "It's not even very good," he rudely remarked.
"I'm sorry you came here…like this," she added quietly. Actually, she liked seeing him again so soon but she wished it was under different circumstances. "If you're not going to drink that, I'd like it back," she told him as playfully as she could, motioning to the bottle.
Now that he was within arm's reach of her, he could feel some of her emotions as he had about a week before in his own village. As uncomfortable as that made him, he felt it gave him an advantage in their conversation that he wouldn't have talking to anyone else. "Where were you hurt?" he asked suddenly, setting the bottle on the table a few feet from the bed and out of her immediate reach.
She carefully pulled away part of her blanket and lifted the right side of hospital gown, not thinking about how immodest he might find the sudden exposure of so much of her skin. Then, she carefully pulled aside the long bandage on her side.
Upon close examination, Gaara had a slightly disturbing revelation. He himself had only been injured on rare occasions, like his fight with Naruto. However, there was one kind of wound that he was familiar with, the self inflicted kind. It didn't look exactly like that but it was close enough to make him worry. "You said it was a kunai?" he verified.
"Yeah," she nodded.
"Who's hand was on the handle when it happened?" he pressed.
"Sasuke and I were fighting over it at the time," she managed.
"You already told me that. I'm asking who was actually touching it when you were injured," he elaborated curtly. To his surprise, she stopped to think about it before answering him.
She had it. Then, he had gotten it away from her but she managed to get it back into her hand before it sank into her skin. "I-I was," she told him after a moment.
Gaara leveled his gaze on her for a moment to take her in. He could tell she wasn't lying to him. "I thought you didn't wish for death anymore," he commented but had to turn his back to her to do it. Even then, he could feel her glaring at his back.
Because he wouldn't even look at her anymore, she pulled her gown back down and carefully swung her legs over the side of the bed. Then, using the IV-stand for balance, she made her way over to the table where she sat down and started drinking again. "I thought so too," she replied after her first sip.
"You know that shit makes your blood thin, right? That you're not going to heal as quickly if your blood can't clot," he grumbled.
"Don't care," she grumbled. "Look if you're just here to give me shit about not taking better care of myself, don't bother. I may be self-destructive but I'm not an idiot. Besides, the only reason you give a damn is because you're still bothered by why you came here," she snapped.
"Of course it bothers me," he hissed. "You shouldn't be able to do that…to anybody, least of all me. I can understand that idiot Kankuro getting all hung up on you but to me, you're just a fuckin' milk tank."
That made her laugh loudly, almost obnoxiously because she was really starting to feel the sake she'd been nursing take effect. "If you say so. Speaking of which, I'm feeling a bit heavy. Would you mind?" she lifted one of her breasts and dropped it for effect. Normally, if she was that swollen and she did something like that, it would have at least caused her to wince with discomfort, which made her realize that the painkillers in her IV were most likely working their magic on her nerves.
"Don't tempt me. You're not up for it," he taunted.
She giggled. "I'm so numb right now I doubt you could hurt me."
"Tch, then it wouldn't be worth it," he told her with a dark grin tugging at the corners of his lips.
She took a moment to examine him, now that she could see his face again. He probably would have been able to tell what she was doing anyway but the fact that she was intoxicated, hopped up on painkillers, and exhausted made her sloppy.
Gaara's eyes narrowed dangerously and he swiftly stepped behind where she was seated. He felt her start slightly when his fingertips brushed across her cheek on their way to her throat. "Tell me, what do you sense from me?" he asked in a hushed but still somewhat threatening voice.
"That's a silly question. You know how you feel, don't you? Why do you need me to tell you? That's something that people in denial do," she told him. Once his hand settled, her momentary flash of anxiety had dissipated, even if it wasn't in the most reassuring place, just beneath her jaw where the tips of his fingers could still tease her windpipe.
"Why don't you fear me?" he asked suddenly, sounding genuinely curious rather than annoyed or angry.
"Should I?" she almost laughed.
"I could kill you right here like this," he mused, shifting his fingers just a bit so that she could feel his fingernails.
"You could have killed me from across the room with just as little effort," she replied. "The point is that either I know you're not going to do such a rash thing or I don't care even if you do."
"You think could still stop me if I tried," he added to the list.
"No…not like this. Perhaps last time but then again, that time you came out and told me that you didn't hate me, as much as you would have liked to. Has that feeling changed? No, it hasn't," she answered for him, finally reaching her own hand up to touch his. "Which means you're touching me just for the fun of it," she mused, taking his hand in hers and raising it further to press against her lips. When her lips met his palm, she could feel the difference in his skin, he wasn't wearing his sand armor.
Gaara couldn't suppress the shiver that ran up his arm, then up and down his spine. It gave him goosebumps and he jerked his hand away only to hesitate for a second before leaning down to kiss her. He couldn't help smirking slightly as she kissed back lazily, almost sloppily due to the strange angle and her intoxication.
To his surprise, she was the one to break their kiss a few intense moments later. She gave a slight gasp and he marveled at the way she tried to focus her vision on him. She did, eventually, but only with the help of a slight squint.
He only gave her a few seconds of eye contact before suddenly pulling her chair away from the little table and moving around to face her. Placing his hands on the ends of arm rests, he leaned over and eyed her critically.
"What's that look for?" she giggled, tapping the end of his nose with her index finger.
"You're really messed up," he told her evenly.
"Normally, I'd slap somebody for saying something like that but coming from you, it sounds kinda cute," she teased.
"Not like that," he rolled his eyes. "I mean like…you're shit-faced," he told her.
"Is that your professional opinion, doctor?" she playfully taunted.
"It's messing with your chakra," he informed.
"I take it back. You're not a doctor, you're just captain obvious," she continued.
"You can still feel what I feel, right?" he ignored her taunt in favor of interrogating her.
"Yeah, mostly, why?" she blinked curiously.
Gaara's smirk grew. "I have to think about it to sense what you feel even when you're trying," he informed.
She thought for a long moment about what he was saying, longer than she should have because her thoughts were something of a jumble at the moment. "'Kay…so?" she quirked an eyebrow.
He had just parted his lips to speak when she cupped her hand over his mouth.
"Sh!" Her eyes grew wide and darted from side to side. She received an incredulous look and he almost spoke again before she interrupted him. "They come once an hour on regular rounds. If they catch you here, they'll kick you out, maybe call the authorities," she told him.
A split second later, he was gone and the door knob was turning. She gave the nurse a bemused look when she entered, obviously surprised to find the young woman not only awake but away from her bed.
"What are you doing out of bed?" the nurse fretted.
"Tsunade-sama left it behind after my check up," she pointed to the sake on the table.
"You mustn't to that!" she rushed over and scooped up the young woman, plopping her down in her bed and tightly tucking her in. "I will speak with Lady Tsunade tomorrow about her lackadaisical mistake," she remembered that the new leader and head healer had been looking for such a bottle before she left for the evening. "As for you, I'll forgo the safety restraints this time but if you do something like that again, I won't hesitate to use them." The young woman didn't appear as convinced as she thought she should so she added, "And I'll take the painkillers out of your IV."
"That's cruel, isn't it? You're supposed to keep me comfortable," she pointed out.
"They're for your comfort but they're not necessary. The rest of your medicines can be given without them," the nurse informed.
"Fine, whatever. I only drank it 'cause it was here and I was havin' trouble sleepin'," she covered.
The nurse didn't reply to that. She simply took the open bottle with her when she left.
When Calixta couldn't hear the older woman's steps anymore, she quietly called out, "She's gone…for now."
Gaara was standing on the ledge outside her window. He almost went back inside but stopped himself short. He could sense that she was incredibly fatigued and that any further badgering from him might actually do her further harm, so he just left. That didn't stop him from returning the following night.
However, he met up with his instructor and two teammates that afternoon and was forced to spend the rest of the day with them, which wasn't all bad because after a quick stop at Kakashi's home, they went to visit Calixta in the hospital. He wondered if she would rat him out for his visit the night before.
Kakashi entered first with a nurse, "Calixta, there are some people here to see you," he said carefully as he slipped inside.
"Who is it?" she perked up a bit.
The sensei hesitated a moment before answering.
"Then let them in? Unless you want to leave them waiting for a reason," she teased.
"Are you sure?" he pressed.
"The sooner I see them, the sooner they can leave. I know how their presence unnerves you."
"If you say so," he shrugged and let them in.
She greeted them with a smile and briefly explained what happened, promising not to allow it to happen again. Her promise made Gaara give her a dark look because she would not give him the same word during the dark hours of the morning. He knew that this time, she was lying to make Baki and the others feel better. Not only that but she was giving him the chance to correct her and reveal his secret visit himself.
The rest of their visit was non-eventful and because the elders of the Leaf wanted to meet with Baki and his students, they stayed that night.
After the firm scolding from the early morning nurse, Tsunade left her sake in her office while she made her rounds the following day and ended up chiding Calixta for getting caught more than drinking in the hospital. However, that just meant that Gaara had to find his own bottle of sake to tempt her with which, he quickly found out, was much easier in this village than it would have been at his.
He waited until the nurse came and left before hopping in her open window.
"Gaara-san," she greeted with a smile, "I thought I wouldn't get to see you again before you left."
"I brought you a present," he pulled the bottle out from behind his back.
"Thank you but I probably shouldn't. I don't know if you heard that nurse after you left but I'm gunna get in big trouble if I get caught with another bottle of sake," she sadly joked.
"Aw, come on. I went through a lot of trouble to get this for you and when they come to check on you, I'll just take it with me when I hide," he coaxed.
"Fine, but just a little and you have to have some with me," she agreed with an impish grin.
He nodded and sat down next to her on the hospital bed. "They emptied ya from last night," he commented nudging her breast with his elbow.
"Well yeah, it starts to hurt if I wait too long," she laughed.
He took the first sip of sake as he uncorked the bottle as a sign of his good will. "I bet they get huge!" he teased, making exaggerated hand motions as he handed over the bottle.
She giggled, "Not quite that bad. I do have my limits."
"How long can you go before the milk has to come out?" he asked curiously.
"I like to wait six hours at the most. Though, sometimes I wait eight or nine if I sleep in," she answered.
He nodded and they drank until she warned him of the nurse's approach. He waited until the last second and then scooped her up, planted her in the chair and set the open bottle on the table. Then, he was gone.
She was so stunned that she didn't hear the door open.
"Calixta!" the nurse scolded. "I warned you about this!"
"But, I didn't-" she stammered but to no effect.
"Don't argue with me. I don't want to hear your excuses. I can smell it on you from here!" The angry nurse put her back into her bed and instead of tucking her in, she pulled the restraints around from the bottom and fastened the young woman to the bed.
"I really-ugh, please, don't do this! It's not what it looks like," she pleaded.
"Don't fight me young lady! This is for your own good!" The nurse finished the restraints and changed her IV. "This will be a tough lesson for you, I'm sure, but you need it." Before she left, she set the call button in the young woman's hand, just in case.
As soon as the angry woman was gone, Gaara appeared at the foot of her bed.
"Why? Why would you do that?" she demanded fitfully.
"Oh, come now, don't tell me you didn't sense that I was up to something," he taunted.
She had sensed his mischief but chocked it up to helping her bend the rules rather than a venture to get her into trouble. "I-I did…I just didn't think you would…"
"Set you up?" he snickered as he crawled up the bed and subsequently her body, slipping the call button from her hand and setting it out of her reach. "What are you going to do about it?" he taunted.
She gave him the meanest look he'd ever seen her give to anyone.
"You're actually angry with me," he marveled, only allowing himself to feel her negative emotions after seeing the dirty look.
Calixta sneered and turned away.
Gaara snickered again as he pulled her blankets down. "Aren't you even going to try?" he continued taunting her.
"No. What's the point?" she replied curtly. As he pointed out during his last private visit to her, while she was under chemical influence, her influence over others was significantly diminished. It was better to wait, recover her sense as quickly as she could, and come at him when she actually had a chance. She wasn't about to struggle uselessly just because it amused him.
Even with this conviction in mind, she couldn't help the slight gasp she gave when one of his hands slipped behind her to untie her gown. He didn't hesitate to pull it down and expose her breasts. She gasped again and he took the opportunity to feel the ambient chakra of the hospital room, knowing that because she was having difficulty focusing her chakra, it would be a good way to see how she was feeling without reaching out to her with his own energy.
"But this doesn't make you angry?" he half-teased while lightly pinching one of her swollen nipples.
She whimpered and squirmed under him but when he laughed at her again, she drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, allowing much of her tension to dissipate, much to his dismay. Annoyed by her passive defiance, he pinched her a little harder than he originally intended. When he saw that she was about to yelp, he cupped his other hand over her mouth.
"Not a single sound out of you," he quickly wove a sign that would seal her lips.
Out of anger, Calixta screwed her eyes shut, denying any sort of benefit that eye contact might give him. Unfortunately, the bed was already spinning, so to speak, and to anchor herself a little better, she had to open her eyes for the benefit of visual landmarks. She looked down at him with pleading eyes and started trembling.
He gave a sigh of exasperation and rolled his eyes, releasing the chakra holding her mouth shut. "What is it?"
"Please don't hurt me…" she pleaded seriously.
"I can't promise that, but it wasn't my intention," he chidingly replied as he took her hand, lacing their fingers together and allowing her to squeeze his hand. Then, he shot a nervous look at the door. "I'll be back after your next check-in," he told her as he pulled her gown back up. He didn't bother to tie it, simply tucking the strings behind her because they would be covered by her blanket anyway.
However, when he went to pull his hand away, she didn't let go. His empathetic gesture seemed to have backfired.
"Let go!" he hissed. "Or I'll break your fingers," he threatened.
"Don't hurt me. Promise not to and I'll let you go," she bargained quietly.
"And if I do?" he countered.
"Then I'm not responsible for what happens after that, not even a little bit," she told him.
"Fine, deal," he hastily agreed and got out just in the nick of time.
Upon feeling his weight suddenly gone from above her, Calixta closed her eyes and steadied her breath.
"How are you feeling, dear?" the nurse asked upon entering.
"Tired, but good. Thank you," she meekly replied.
"Oh, don't start with that. I've heard it all before."
"No, really. I mean it. I understand if you don't believe me but I had to say it. Though, I think I should tell you that I am stronger than I appear," she told her flatly.
"Then I'll make a deal with you," she leveled a serious stare at the young woman on her back, "You exercise your self control and stay put, and I won't tell your sensei about all this nonsense," she bargained.
"Really?"
"Yeah, prove to me that you can do that little thing for me and I'll make sure Kakashi-sensei doesn't hear of this," she repeated.
"Make that a promise, swear on it and I'll agree. Otherwise, don't toy with me," Calixta further bargained.
"Yeah, sure, geeze, you're serious all of a sudden. But, yeah, okay. It's a deal." Then, she gave the young woman one last visual sweep before leaving her to sleep. That was when she noticed the call button was out of her reach. "Oh, dear, you must be more careful. Here," she taped it into the young woman's hand.
"Thank you," Calixta managed. "If I'm asleep when you come back, would you mind keeping the check up to a minimum. I'm not sure how soundly I'll be able to sleep but I need the rest."
"I'll do what's necessary," the nurse curtly replied.
Calixta nodded and closed her eyes, centering herself for the few moments between when the nurse left her beside and when Gaara was a top her once again. "There's the game. You still wanna play?" she snapped.
He studied her for a long moment before replying. "Okay, on one condition. You have to give warning if I start to hurt you," he countered.
"Fair enough but if you don't back off, Nurse Testy will be in here before you can blink," she warned him.
"Now, where was I?" he pulled down her blanket and gown again, where he started toying with her nipples again, this time more gently.
She gave a heated gasp. "Kiss me, please," she quietly pleaded.
He complied because it muffled her little whimpers of pleasure. He only pulled away when his fingers started to feel wet. Then, he placed his first two fingers of his left hand at her lips while his mouth went to her left nipple.
She did manage to keep her voice down but only by biting her bottom lip. Afraid that she might bruise herself, he used his fingers to coax her lip from between her teeth, letting her nibble on those instead, something that he found oddly enjoyable.
When he got her going to the point where a light squeeze produced a fair shot of milk, he spoke to her again. "If this stuff heals so well, why don't you drink it yourself?" he pried with genuine curiosity before trying to squirt her in the face.
She made a sound of frustration. "It doesn't work for me," she admitted. "My body heals itself fairly well, or so I'm told, but it does nothing more than take up space in my belly if I drink it," she told him.
"Did you see any scorpions while you were in our region?" he asked suddenly and so that she might take him seriously went back to lapping at her breast, reveling in how teasing her nipple with his tongue sometimes caused fitful little spurts.
"Wh-…?" she thought for a moment, "Yeah, Temari showed me a little one so that I would know what to look for," she replied.
"Did you know that they're immune to their own poison? Because of their body shape, it's possible they might sting themselves, so it's like a failsafe against accidental suicide."
"So?" she wiggled a little, hoping for a little more physical contact because that was one of the few thing she enjoyed more than his strange pillow talk.
He didn't reply, simply switched from one breast to the other.
"Hey, you didn't finish the first one," she complained.
"So what?" he shrugged. "Does it hurt you if I don't finish it right away?" he taunted.
She faltered at that. "No, I suppose not," she agreed.
With that, he went back to what he was doing. All this took nearly an hour and he was just about finished with that breast when he realized his time was running out. So, instead of finishing, he covered her up. During this, she didn't bother to speak, opting instead to focus her slowly coalescing concentration on evening out her breath so that she might feign sleep when the nurse returned. It worked but only because Gaara didn't wait until the last possible second to step out onto the ledge.
Gaara was just about to hop back into her room on the second floor when suddenly there was a voice beside him.
"Yo," Naruto greeted in a playful but still accusatory tone.
"You," the sand ninja hissed.
"Visiting Calixta?" the blonde rudely surmised.
"What business is it of yours?" Gaara snapped, taking of a defensive posture.
"Since you got into town this afternoon, Kakashi-sensei asked me to keep an eye on her," Naruto replied seriously.
"You intend to interfere," the smaller ninja flatly surmised. "I won't let you interfere," he added evenly. "More importantly, tell me, does she know you're 'keeping an eye on her,'?" he questioned seriously but with a wild look dancing in his eyes.
"What's it to you? I caught you creepin' up to her window," he accused. "If you leave now, I won't tell anybody you were here."
"I do not have much time," and he knew that if Naruto even looked in the window at Calixta, he wouldn't be able to spend any more time with her while she was incapacitated. "And I won't let you drive me away."
Naruto gave the strange young man an odd look, surprised that although the sand ninja's tone was harsh, he received no violent death threats, which commonly spouted from him as easily as most people say, 'Hello, good day.' "You really like her, don't you?" he asked seriously.
"My preferences are no concern of yours," he snapped, wondering if the young woman inside could hear them.
"Well, I was just thinkin', you're like the toughest guy I know," Naruto teasingly complimented.
"What are you babbling about?" Gaara glared.
"Just that, if you really liked her that means you'd probably go out of your way to make sure she was safe…especially at a time like this," the blonde ninja reasoned.
"Is there a point to this or are you just wasting time?"
"I think she really cares about you," the young leaf ninja continued.
"You're just wasting time," Gaara spat. "You're worse than my idiot brother," he added because he knew he couldn't just intimidate the blonde into leaving him be.
"Lemme go talk to her first, make sure she wants to see you. I'm sure she will, so it'll only take a minute," he bargained.
"That is unacceptable. I won't have you dictate to me," the smaller teen snapped defensively.
"Look, I don't wanna stop you. If she wasn't in the hospital, I wouldn't have bothered you about it but my sensei told me to look out for her because you were in town. I won't look very good if I just let you traipse into her hospital room in the middle of the night," Naruto teased with a slight wink.
Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to stop the most friendly enemy he ever had without a fight, he gave in. "Fine," he looked around for anyone else that might be observing them and, finding none, stepped to the side. "Don't take all day and when she tells you she wants to see me, don't waste your time trying to talk her out of it. As I mentioned earlier, time is something of a quickly diminishing reserve for me. Baki intends to leave when the sun comes up and I am expected to go with them."
Naruto nodded and hopped inside. Much to Gaara's dismay, he shut the window behind him and pulled the blinds, so the disgruntled sand ninja perched himself in a tree on the nearby lawn. He was furious and incredibly sexually frustrated. He had fully intended to penetrate her almost as soon as he joined her again. This left him to deal with Naruto interfering in that plan while also dealing with an almost painful erection. As he sat, looking up at her window, he begrudgingly came to terms with the fact that he was not going to be satisfied.
Calixta didn't open her eyes when she heard the footsteps entering her window. "Gaara-san?" she called again.
"Sorry, no. It's just me," Naruto giggled.
"Naruto!" she gasped. "What are you doing here?"
The nearly panicked tone in her voice startled him. "I saw Gaara about to sneak in and I thought I'd make sure you wanted to see him first," he told her as he approached. Before she could reply, he noticed her restraints, "What's this? Has he already been in here?" he started to undo the straps.
"No! Naruto, stop! Don't do that!" she pulled away the small, ineffectual distance she could.
"What? Why not?" he didn't stop.
"Gaara didn't do this!" she half-lied.
He had just finished freeing her kicking ankles when the nurse, drawn by the sound of Calixta shouting, came barging in.
"What is the meaning of this? Some patients are trying to sleep around here you know!" she scolded. "Naruto? What are you doing?"
"Who did this?" he motioned to the straps as he unsinched the strap across Calixta's hips. "Some caretaker you are letting her get all tied down like this!" he scolded.
"Young man, I tied her down!" the nurse snapped.
"What's the matter with you?" Naruto nearly yelled.
"Miss Calixta wouldn't stay in her bed," the nurse replied. "If she doesn't stop getting up, she won't heal."
"I'll stay with her then, for the rest of the night. You can unstrap her and I'll make sure she doesn't go anywhere," he vowed seriously.
The nurse gave an impressed nod at the rambunctious teen's mature response. "Alright, but if you leave her side for even a second, you're in twice as much trouble as she is."
"Naruto, please. This is embarrassing enough as it is. Please, don't make me do this in front of you," Calixta suddenly pleaded.
With a thoughtful frown, the nurse made a few quick checks and unfastened the straps restraining her patient. Then, she checked the clock on the wall. "I'll be back in an hour," she told them and exited, only refraining from slamming the door because of how late it was.
"Sweet," Naruto smiled victoriously, thinking that even if she did want to see Gaara, he shouldn't make too much trouble in an hour. "So you knew Gaara was outside?" he questioned.
"He wasn't exactly trying to hide from me," she dryly mused.
"Then why were you being so stubborn?" the blonde pressed, his hand idly toying with one of the loose straps as he stood at her bedside.
"He's expecting me to be restrained. I'm not sure how he'll react if that situation changes," she told him.
"Why do you care so much about his expectations?" he asked seriously.
"He's still angry about what happened. And because he won't even think to hurt me if I'm helpless," she informed.
"That's crazy!" he almost slapped her.
"That's his way," she replied wistfully. Then, after a long moment of thought, she smiled. "Make it look like I'm still restrained. That way he can have what he expects and I'll still be able to move if I have to," she proposed.
"I get to stay while he's here," Naruto told her as he examined how best to make it appear she was still strapped to the bed without actually restraining her.
"I knew you'd say that and out of respect, I won't try to ask you to leave. I can't make any promises for Gaara-san though. He may debate your vigilance," she half-joked.
Once she was set, Naruto opened the window. He was about to call out when the other young ninja appeared before him.
"I told you I don't have time to waste," Gaara snapped.
"You have most of an hour," Naruto corrected sitting down at the little table.
"You're staying?" the shorter teen incredulously hissed.
"Yeah, of course," Naruto scoffed. "I'm not an idiot."
"Yes you are but now you're an inconsiderate idiot," Gaara growled as he approached her bedside.
Naruto didn't reply to the taunt. He was too busy watching to see if Gaara would notice her straps weren't secure.
"Naruto, you know why I'm here," he commented evenly, reaching up to run the back of his hand along her flushed cheek. He might have noticed the fraud if he hadn't been marveling at the way she turned ever so slightly to lean into his touch.
"You never said," the blonde replied, "but I can guess."
"Then maybe you're not inconsiderate. Maybe you're just a little pervert," Gaara continued to taunt.
"You're the freak who wants to do that kind of thing to her while she's all tied down," Naruto snapped defensively.
Calixta couldn' help giggling a little at their exchange, that is, until she felt the hand at her cheek twitch with irritation.
"He's not funny," Gaara told her matter-of-factly. Then, he took a minute to study her, take her in one more time before taking action. Her strength was coming back and fast. However, she still seemed content to submit to his will, something that pleased him greatly and he showed it with an almost maniacal grin.
Watching her squirm under his gaze made Naruto intensely uncomfortable. "What do you see in him anyway?" he snapped.
To her surprise, Gaara looked down at her expectantly. She slowly licked her lips to stall her reply while she got a feel for the other two in the room. She knew it would only be a brief, chaotic impression but it was better than nothing, which was pretty close to what she had. After the look she just received from Gaara, she wasn't surprised to find that he wanted her to answer. From Naruto, however, she was only able to discern general feelings of anxiety and irritation.
"Gaara-sama is very sexy," she replied with a lecherous smirk that made sparks run up and down the young sand ninja's spine. A split second later he was on top of her again, straddling her body on his hands and knees.
Naruto's eyes grew wide with a mix of incredulity and horror, "Y-You're encouraging him?"
Gaara tore his gaze from the young woman beneath him to narrow his eyes at the young man still seated across the room. "What did you think she was doing?" he scoffed.
"Humoring you? Placating you so that you don't cause any more damage than absolutely necessary?" Naruto replied.
"Naruto!" Calixta scolded, "I thought you knew me better than that. I don't take other people so lightly."
"I thought you were at least a little sane," the blonde retorted.
"You think she's crazy too?" Gaara suddenly interrupted with an odd tone of genuine curiosity.
"What? No! She's not crazy," he defensively replied, "You're not crazy," he hastily added so it wouldn't sound like they were talking about her like she wasn't there as Gaara seemed to like doing. "I just don't understand, I guess," he managed.
Calixta was about to reply but the young man on top of her spoke first, "I think he's just jealous," Gaara scoffed.
"Jealous? Me?" Naurto actually laughed. "I already know she thinks I'm sexy," he bragged.
The young sand ninja rolled his eyes with obvious disbelief. "Yeah, whatever," the dark-haired teen muttered distractedly.
Annoyed that his peer didn't believe him, Naruto stood and approached the bed. "I'll prove it," he announced.
Before Calixta could even think to stop him, Naurto disappeared into a puff of smoke before reappearing as a naked young female. She made a sound of incredible frustration but squirmed nonetheless.
Gaara stared for a moment in shock. "What the hell?" he managed.
"See?" Naruto giggled and pointed to Calixta's dripping nose.
Upon seeing the young woman's blood, something in Gaara snapped. He ran his thumb over her upper lip, smearing some of the blood onto it. "You made her bleed," he remarked darkly holding the digit up in his face. "You think I'm the monster here and you're some retarded little knight in shining armor but look at this! Look! You made her bleed!" he growled.
"Whoah! Chill out!" he eased, grabbing a couple tissues from the bedside stand, "It's just a silly pervert nosebleed."
"I know what it is, you idiot! It doesn't change anything!" Gaara was completely prepared to continue verbally berating the other young man but Calixta caught his attention.
"Naruto, please, don't…" she reached a hand up to push him away, not thinking about how it would reveal that she was no longer restrained.
"What's this?" Gaara mused as he took her wrist to examine the fraud. Her wrist was still secure in the buckle on that end but the line that had been attached to had been loosened, making it significantly easier for her to pull free.
With their deception revealed, Calixta didn't hesitate. Naruto may have been the one causing the tingling little snapping she felt along her brainstem but Gaara was the one touching her. She wrapped her legs and other arm around him, pulling his body flush with hers in a small burst of physical strength.
"Gaara, please, take me now. You said yourself we don't have much time," she pleaded, burying her face in the side of his neck.
"In front of this…person?" Gaara demanded incredulously, still processing the sudden shift of power. Actually, he found himself almost more pleased that she had chosen to remain restrained as a show of her submission than he was by her willingness to submit to him in the first place. He could feel now that much of the reason she had decided to grab him so suddenly like that was so he wouldn't just leave.
"I have a name ya know," Naruto interjected as he changed back to his normal self.
As Gaara pulled away from the woman beneath him, he couldn't help marveling at the little sound of intense disappointment she made as she looked up at him. Even more so when their eyes met and realized there was a challenging look in her eyes. However, his reason for pulling away had not been to torment or test her; it was much more practical than that. He wanted to see what time it was. "Fuck…" he grumbled and turned to Naurto, "Time's almost up, isn't it?"
The blonde glanced at the clock. "You got about another ten minutes before the nurse comes back," he under estimated the time just to play it safe.
"Let him come back again," Calixta suddenly requested.
"What?" the young leaf ninja blinked incredulously.
"Please," she grasped at the strong arms of the young man above her, "Please come back."
"Yeah, okay," Gaara nodded, barely holding back his smile as he leaned down and kissed her forehead before disappearing.
Naruto rushed over to help her get the rest of the way out of the straps before the nurse returned. "I don't get it. You're usually so strong. Why are you being so submissive to him?" he demanded.
"It's complicated," she managed but it was apparent he wanted a better answer than that. "You might not have realized this but he's the first person to make an intimate advance toward me since I got to the hospital," she pointed out, straightening her sheets. "Sit down. If you stand over me like that she's gunna think something's wrong," she advised.
Naruto nodded dumbly and complied. "Kakashi-sensei mentioned once that you sort of need to…be intimate," he managed, "with other people fairly often."
"Yeah," she barely replied, keeping her eyes on the door.
"I can go get someone else for you, like Ebisu, he's really nice and he really likes you," he tried.
"He could have crept into my window just as easily as you did," she commented.
"But he's a good guy and good guys don't just do that kind of thing," Naruto replied.
"Even if that's what needs to be done?" she countered.
"I'm sure you could have asked someone to come…uh…take care of you?" he tried.
"That's dumb. Why would I do that?"
"Look, I know you really like Gaara, but he's…temperamental, unpredictable. I wouldn't worry about it except you got injured bad enough to still be in the hospital."
She laughed a little. "Oh, I understand his temperament. He's fascinated by me because I don't fear him." Before she could elaborate on that, the nurse entered. She was disappointed that Calixta was still awake but she appeared to be in good spirits so she let it go, changing her IV, and letting them be a moment later.
"You don't what? Even his own brother and sister are scared of him!" Naruto scoffed.
"If you really want, I can try to explain it later. For now, get his ass back in here," she ordered.
To his surprise, Gaara wasn't waiting right outside the window. He went back to the tree because he was so disturbed at being caught by Naruto and didn't want any other visitors. Naruto motioned and he came flying in the window. He didn't hesitate in jumping on her bed again.
She gasped at the sudden physical contact but didn't waste time in pulling at his clothes. "I'll be quiet this time, I promise," she vowed.
"You better," Gaara teased back.
Naruto blushed furiously and turned his back to the pair so he could look out the open window instead. He couldn't believe what he was doing but he knew that, especially at this point, stopping what had already been set in motion would cause more ruckus now than just letting them go.
It's not like he didn't try to dissuade Calixta or at least make sure she was sure about what she wanted. She was stubborn that there was no arguing with her. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed that she was nearly naked and he was well on his way to joining her.
Even Calixta was surprised that Gaara had opted to strip almost completely for their encounter, leaving his shorts and underwear tangled around his ankles because by that time, he was past the point of caring. She guided his hands up her legs until they were beneath her knees.
"Please, take it easy on me, at least at first…if I pop a stitch, Naruto will get in trouble," she half-joked.
The blonde's stomach sank uncomfortably at the likelihood of such an event.
Gaara gave a silent nod and hitched one of her knees over his shoulder so that hand could cradle the small of her back. Her entire body shuddered as he slowly entered her but, to her credit, she let slip hardly a whimper.
She clawed at his legs and arms, any part of him that she could reach, as part of her effort to contain her verbal appreciations, leaving harsh red streaks on his fair bare skin. Before long, she was biting her bottom lip again.
"Quit that or you'll bite through your lip," Gaara playfully scolded.
She made a little sound of frustration and kicked a little but released her swollen lip from between her strong white teeth. With her mouth now open, Naruto could really hear her shallow gasps of pleasure. Neither of the individuals on the bed noticed when the blonde ninja moved a little further away to sit on the windowsill facing out over the village.
Gaara's pace was rather slow, much slower than he had intended to start with when the night began, but he enjoyed the way her eyes would roll as he took her slowly, methodically. Though, when she started to really squirm, he had to stop for a moment. "Are you in pain?" he asked evenly.
Naruto flinched on the windowsill and even held his breath so that he could better hear her answer.
"No, not at all," she gasped, shaking her head from side to side.
Her enthusiasm made Gaara second guess her judgment and he set down her leg to check under her bandage. As soon as he saw that she was significantly more healed than the last time he checked, almost to the point where she didn't need the stitches anymore. After smoothing the bandage back into place, his hand darted downward to suddenly tickle her clit.
Calixta almost screamed, giving Gaara the opportunity to lean forward and cover her mouth with his own. She tried to hold onto him as best she could but their new position left her with even less leverage than their last. Having let go of her right leg, most likely because her injury was on the right side of her stomach, he doubled her over with her left. The hand that had been on the small of her back moved to the back of her neck as he guided her face to the chook of his shoulder when their kiss broke.
She immediately started kissing and nibbling on his neck and shoulder, not thinking about whether or not she left any marks on him. Once Gaara could feel this abandon in her, he started to thrust a bit harder. As he hoped, she bit him, hard on his left shoulder. Gaara gave a low growl of pleasure and kept it up as long as he could. When he did finally give in a few minutes later, he had to bury his face in her pillow to keep his own sounds of pleasure in check.
He came almost violently inside her and then they stopped almost suddenly to listen, trying to listen to anyone who might have heard them but finding it difficult to hear anything over the sound of their own racing hearts and gasping breaths. After a long moment of silence, the pair on the bed started to giggle quietly.
When the idiotic laughter didn't quickly subside, Naruto turned around, "What's so funny?" he asked with morbid curiosity but before either of them could answer, he noticed something, "Gaara…you're bleeding!" he barely managed not to shout.
The strange little sand ninja gave a giddy grin and looked over his shoulder, disappointed that he couldn't see it for himself. "Really?"
Naruto wasn't surprised that the information pleased Gaara but it still disturbed him. With a groan of frustration, he hopped out of the window and snatched a box of bandages from the cabinet on the wall. "Put your pants back on," he grumbled.
Gaara snickered but complied. As Naruto dabbed some of the blood off the other young ninja's back and shoulders, he couldn't help staring down at the spent woman still lying naked on the hospital bed. The best part was, she was smiling right back at him.
With a slight smirk, the sand ninja reached up and gave one of her breasts a little squeeze, giggling foolishly when a few little spurts of milk came out.
"Please, drink some. It'll help with the damage I caused you," she pleaded gently.
"No way," he resolutely replied. "I want these scars."
"Good," Naruto interrupted. "'Cause you're time's up. You gotta scram."
Gaara gave a regretful nod and helped Calixta get covered again before dressing himself. By the time he was ready to go, she was sound asleep. "Naruto," he called back quietly just before stepping out the window.
"What?" he snapped.
"You really care for Calixta-san, don't you?" he asked seriously.
"Tch, duh! What a stupid question," Naruto scoffed.
"What is she to you?"
"What's with all the weird questions?" the blonde dodged.
"Is she just your teammate? Is she your friend? Do you love her?" Gaara listed.
"She's my teammate and my friend," he confidently answered.
"But you don't love her," the smaller teen verified.
"Well, there's a lot of different kinds of love but I don't think I love her how you mean," he managed. "She's a lot like a big sister to me."
Gaara gave a satisfied nod. "Then take care of her," he ordered.
"She can take care of herself," Naruto corrected.
"Right, you're only here because there are other people who don't think she can," Gaara bitterly surmised.
"Besides, if you care so much, you take care of her," he challenged.
Gaara smirked but the young man standing behind him didn't get to see it. "Thank you," he gave a slight nod and was gone.