A/N: I hate being sick! I have so much free time right now because I can't really do anything. My brain is like 'Let's blow this popsicle stand and DO something!' while my body is like 'HAH! Not a chance.' Bah!

So this chapter is super short. I wanted to write more, but I felt that it would be forcing too much if I did. But that's okay because DRAMA!

Enjoy!

Setsuko trudged her way back to the Inn in a haze. She could hear the grains of sand under her feet, the people's boisterous lives around her, sandy winds blow through the streets and smell food at almost every corner, but it was like none of it registered in her mind. When she finally made it to the front doors of the Inn, she hadn't even remembered how she got there. The guards recognized her and let her through without a word. She made her way up to the fourth floor and down the hallway that held Aoi's, Isamu's and her rooms. Standing in front of the door, gripping the knob, she finally seemed to wake up.

Her big blue eyes blinked and she looked around the lonely hallway. Removing her hand from the door, she tried to remember how she had gotten here. Instead of remembering what she wanted to, her mind went to the violation her body felt. The feel of his hands on her sent her body all a quiver with disgust. She needed a shower, and badly! Never again she did want to feel his clammy hands on her body, or the sting of his higher body temperature. Something like that, she personally felt, was only reserved for people she considered special to her. Hui and Maki were people like that; and…Gaara? She did consider him special, but was still a little unsure of how special. Naruto had touched her, but it was too brief for it to bother her as much as she was right now. That man, he had done it against her will; she had never wanted that!

How could she have allowed something like that happen to her? She knew she was at least stronger than that! Yet, she had done nothing but sit there and take it! After leaving Konoha with such confidence in herself she suddenly felt like she had lost it all; like she was right back at square one. What was she to do about her situation now? There was nothing really to do about it. He was dead now, all she had to do was take a nice long, scalding bath to rid herself of his touch and try to forget about it. Besides, she had far more important things to worry about.

"Princess?" a hardened but soft voice spoke beside her.

Setsuko looked up from her angry staring at the floor. "Aoi?" Her eyes flickered over to the ANBU's left, "Isamu? What's wrong?"

Isamu shook his head, "Nothing Ma'am, we just wanted to welcome you back. We're glad you made it here safely."

"Hn." She snorted absentmindedly. Safely huh? Not exactly.

"Did something happen Princess?" Aoi asked, both having heard the noise.

"Hm," she looked up like she didn't even realize what she had done. "Mm…no, no, nothing happened. I'm just going to take a long bath if you two don't mind."

The two ANBU looked at each other suspiciously before looking back to her, "Alright Ma'am, but let us go in first. No one has been in there since you left, we have to make sure it's safe." Isamu gently put his arm in front of her to guide her away from the door as Aoi opened it and stepped in first.

The three of them walked into the room, Isamu and Aoi in front of Setsuko to guard her from anything that may try to attack her. From the front door, everything looked to be in its proper place. The small kitchen was undisturbed and clean, the living room had a single book on the coffee table with light pouring in from the large windows. With utter silence, you could hear a pin drop in the room. To the ANBU though, silence meant danger. Only a few steps were taken to open the bedroom door; Setsuko had remembered leaving it open as she left. Suddenly her heart began to race at the mental realization. Aoi opened the door and their eyes widened in horror as the room ignited in a blinding light. Setsuko's eyes flashed a glowing blue and tiny hexagonal ice shards only had time to form around the vital spots on her body before the room exploded.

The building erupted into hundreds, no thousands of explosions at once, demolishing the building and throwing the three somewhere in the debris. When Gaara and Temari had arrived on the scene, Kankuro and a team of Jonin were already there helping people and rescuing anyone from debris that was still falling. The entire building was gone, just rubble on the ground. Without thinking, the cork on Gaara's gourd popped off and his sand began lifting up heavy pieces of stucco to rescue his people. Temari was helping the medics set up a trauma center close by for the people that had no time to make it back to the hospital.

Gaara was frantic, though it never showed, as he searched and searched through the rubble for Setsuko. This was the Inn where she was staying and yet there was no sign of her anywhere! They had come across some of her things as they were rescuing people, but never a body. Had she been obliterated in the blasts? No! He couldn't think like that! There was no way a stubborn girl like her, who constantly snuck out to do dangerous things, would die that easily. Somehow, the thought seemed to bring him some kind of comfort. Even in this disaster, the smile tugged at his lips from the thought.

Hours had passed, things were finally calming down. They had a total of ten dead, eight critical and three already sent on their way home. Surprisingly low numbers for an entire building being destroyed and they weren't even counting the two guards and the two ANBU. The sight of Aoi and Isamu made Gaara's gut wrench. He had seen so many mangled bodies in his time, almost all caused by him, but since things were different now, it seemed to bother him much more. And yet, no one had seen Setsuko's body yet. Maybe the blast had blown her out of the disaster radius. They had found remnants of the paper bombs and Temari deduced that to cover to destroy an entire building, there would have had to be too many to count. She still ended up counting, losing said count at around one hundred thousand. It was very possible that her body had been thrown a few feet away from the site.

"Spread out! Find the Princess now!" Gaara barked with authority.

He would find her! There was no doubt in his mind; he just had too! Using his sand as a sensory tool, he sent small waves of it throughout the village in hopes that it would be able to detect her body. He wouldn't let her die! Not only would it be an international disaster but it would be a personal one as well. Through his concentrating, he felt a ping in his heart that made him cringe in pain. Was he this worried about losing her? Just earlier in the day he was mad at her. Why had he been mad again? He tried to think of the reason but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. The thought of Setsuko dying seemed to be the only thing consuming his thoughts at the moment. But was it really necessary to remember why he was so mad at her? If she died he wouldn't see that annoyed glare she got whenever she looked at him, or the confused one when he said something too forward.

"I found her!" someone shouted suddenly that it snapped Gaara out of his thoughts instantly and he was running over to them.

The Sand Siblings, along with everyone else that followed the voice, were shocked at the bloody, mangled mess her body was in. To everyone's horror, she lay in a muddy puddle created by her own blood mixing with the dry sand. Her once beautiful blonde hair was now stained red and frayed, covering most of her face. Blood was smeared on her paler than usual face, covering everything but her left eye and one small spot on her bottom lip. Her right leg was in such bad shape that the tibia bone was exposed and from her knee to the ball of her foot was drenched in blood. On her forearms seemed to be similar wounds, like she tried to defend herself from the blast. A piece of the metal framing for the building was sticking out of her side, her clothes almost non-existent, but what was left were soaking wet, bloody messes of fabric clinging to her body. It looked like six fingers were broken when she tried to defend herself and she had multiple open gashes from flying debris; there was almost no part of her body not covered in blood.

Temari was nearly brought to tears by what she saw, having never seen someone she personal knew so badly hurt. Was she even alive? Many others had to run away so they could hurl; Kankuro was barely able to stomach the sight himself. Gaara stepped forward in silent shock. He was afraid to touch her in fear that she might be dead. With a deep breath, he bent down and gently placed two fingers against her bloody neck. There was a long pause of held breath from those that surrounded them. His eyes snapped open so suddenly that everyone jumped. She was alive! It was faint and he had to be fast, but she was alive! Without wasting time, he scooped up the mangled girl in his arms and disappeared in a flurry of sand. Temari and Kankuro were soon running for the hospital after watching their little brother leave.