A/N: I only like the fighting part, not too happy with what happened after that though. My fingers have a mind of its own, and refuses to follow my original story plan. Bah, enjoy this chapter though, I took a lot of time to do it.

Hurting

Gaara panted slightly as his sand blocked yet another one of Seki's lightning fast kunais. He heard a thump to his side as the sand stopped one of her kicks, and a second punch to his shoulder. She was fast, but Gaara's sand was to be the ultimate defense, and unless she had obtained speed as fast as light, there was no breaking through it. Gaara swiped his hand towards the agile girl, who easily avoided the wave of sand with a few jumps. He opened his palm towards her.

"Sabaku Kyu!"

Gaara's sand wrapped itself around Seki tightly, and he nearly formed a smirk when suddenly Seki grinned mischievously and evaporated into the air. The sand dropped to the ground as the wind clone disappeared and the real on squatted on the ground behind it, grinning evilly.

Gaara knew his chakra would be drained if he continued to launch fruitless attacks at her. He decided to wait for her next move, which she delivered immediately. A few seals later, Seki had jumped onto a tree branch and aimed her fingers at Gaara.

"Kaze Hari!"

Gaara quickly commanded his sand to enclose him in a cocoon, having seen her attack and knew that the needles did not appear only from her fingers, but from the air around as well. Several clicks were heard as the needles lodged themselves into the sand so fast that it did not harden in time. Gaara felt confident though, since the needles could not pierce through his defense

"Kaze no Rensei Hari!"

Gaara's eyes widened as he watched, half horrified and half amazed when a silver tip of a needle appeared in front of him. He fell backwards as that needle shot straight across, followed by a hundred others. A net of wind seemed to have formed above him as he lay on his back. Some of the needles that aimed for the bottom scratched into his sand armor, not too deep, but the impact gave Gaara a slight shock.

How did she..?

The sand guard fell back to the ground after it sensed the lack of danger – for now. Gaara got up, and saw Seki panting as much as him, whether exhaustion or surprise, he didn't know. The only thing he was paying attention to, was Shukaku's sudden presence in his mind.

She is strong. Maybe I should give you a hand.

No, wait...!

... Hn?

I'll... handle it myself.

Gaara heard no reply and dodged a flying needle, even though it was already blocked by a wall of sand. He focused his ocean colored eyes on her posture and her chest as it rose and fell.

She's weakening. Good.

Gaara knew her stamina was not yet up to standard, but apparently some of her training had paid off. It was already close to an hour and Seki had not shown any signs of returning back to normal. Gaara did not know if she would be alright, but felt that stopping her is exactly what she wanted.

What he had wanted.

Seki formed similar seals, and Gaara's sand rose to build a cocoon around him once more. A shout was heard and the red head saw the air needles drilling through his sand again. He willed his sand to harden even more, while wondering why the needles could penetrate his defense He watched the needle slow down its drilling as the sand became too thick to drill through and took a closer look. The air needle was motionless for a moment, before it dissolved back into the air. Gaara racked his brains frantically, although no one would have known by his emotionless expression. More needles were penetrating, pushing the sand towards Gaara and into his clothes as the area around him grew smaller. He felt sand seep into his shirt and pockets, making him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Pockets.

Gaara's sand broke down as he leaped into the air, above the killing needles. Seki's magenta eyes followed him and aimed more needles at his floating figure. Even at such a height, Gaara paid more attention to his opponent's weapons.

Just as he thought, the needles grew bigger and sharper as it drilled through the air towards him. Gaara landed down onto a sand cloud that protected him once again from the needles made of air. This time, it dissolved quickly back as wind, as Seki had not much stamina left to make them last longer.

He watched as her pupils drifted from magenta back to bright red. She was weak, tired of all that fighting and her mind could no longer take it. As a last resort, Seki wrapped her wind chakra over herself and dashed towards Gaara, who frowned.

He didn't want to hurt her. Not at all.

But he had to, and increased the shield's toughness as it rose up to defend its master one more time. Seki's insane mind did not predict that, and pummeled head first into the sand wall, now almost as tough as iron. As the wall fell away, Gaara looked upon the slim figure sprawled on the sandy ground.

Her face somehow seemed much kinder than a few minutes ago, looking as though she was sleeping peacefully. Gaara reached out with both hands, hesitated, then picked her up bridal style before leaping away in a flash.

-

"Oh, Seki-chan! Not again!"

Seki could not hear her uncle's cry as Gaara carried her into Keimyou's living room. Keimyou led him instead to her bedroom, where Gaara let his sand put her gently onto the mattress. Keimyou stumbled over his words of gratitude and thanks, rambling away about how he wasn't a very good guardian. Gaara paid his attention on his now sleeping opponent, and despite him wanting to keep his silent demeanor, he could not help but ask,

"What happened to her, Keimyou."

Just the mention of his name coming out from the always unspeaking teenager cut Keimyou short and made him direct his eyes over to his niece Her clothes were dirty and pants ripped. Her face was filthy and her hair was disheveled. Seki had obviously been in a battle, and probably fighting with Gaara. If that was the case...

"She fought with me, and I nearly lost."

That's gotta be a huge blow to his ego, Keimyou thought, amused. He kept his face straight however, concentrating on the fact that Seki had, indeed, been fighting with Gaara. His mind scrambled to an answer, the poison activated then.

"..."

Keimyou looked up at Gaara's pointed silence, and gave a grim smile.

"She's similar to you Gaara, except what resides in her is not a demon, but a poison."

Gaara remained emotionless, but if Seki was awake she would've seen the teal eyes betray him.

Poison...?

"12 years ago, an unknown demon bit Seki on the head when she was just born. It wasn't until a few years later did our clan and I realize that the fangs from the demon had poison which seeped into a small part of her brain. Whenever she is upset or angered, she gets an attack and the poison fills her whole chakra system. Seki then goes insane and attacks anyone in her path. She is both dangerous and powerful by then, but usually it hardly lasts for more than 10 minutes..."

"She fought for almost an hour."

"Well, at least her stamina training is working, ne?" Keimyou smiled weakly and sat on the side of Seki's bed, caressing her face as she gave a small hint of a smile. Gaara watched this, his heart pounding more than ever. Seki's life had almost been like his then, with the attacks most people would detest her, scorn her and shun her.

Loneliness. Helplessness. Pleading eyes, that just want to be loved regardless.

You suffered too, Seki. Gaara thought, his legs refusing to move at his command. He wanted to get out, and let Keimyou have his private time with Seki, but he couldn't. He didn't want to.

"I have told you a part of her past. There is still some things even I do not know, like her journey to come here. You can ask her if you want, just as I have told her to ask you, if she wants."

Gaara turned his head towards Keimyou, his sincere expression making Gaara suspicious.

"I believe Seki has told Temari almost everything. So, she shouldn't be too mad when she finds out I told you a bit too," Keimyou chuckled and looked back at Seki. This time, Gaara made it out of Keimyou's house. He shunshin to somewhere even he didn't know, just wasting his chakra so that he would feel too weak to think about anything. His heart was overflowing with emotions, overflowing with words. He had received so many, seemingly honest and kind. But which ones were really true. He suddenly thought about what Temari had said before he went back to see Seki. It was after they had left her at the restaurant, before he saw her other insane self.

-

"Ne, Temari-chan. Why are you friends with that girl?"

"Because i can finally have a conversation with someone smarter than you, baka," came Temari's answer to Kankurou's question. He grumbled quietly, and shoved his hands in his pockets. Gaara made no motion to this and continued to walk towards the Kazekage mansion.

"Gaara."

Gaara barely turned around at Temari's voice, flinching slightly at the use of his name. His sister knew she had his attention and went on, "Seki is really nice. I think you'll find that she has a lot in common with you."

Gaara turned on his heel and faced her. He was shorter than her, but his eyes intimidated her nonetheless.

"Shut up."

Temari froze at his words, and watched as he turned back to walk on. Usually, she would obey her otouto's words, but he was too stubborn at times.

"Why don't you ask her why she is not afraid of you?"

Gaara stopped, half wondering, and half aware that Temari had not done what he had told her to do. Kankurou stood at the side, expecting sand to crawl up Temari's legs any minute.

His brother, however, did a shunshin back to the restaurant.

Kankurou and Temari stared at the spot Gaara was a while ago, until Kankurou broke the silence.

"Why does he only threaten to kill ME?"

-

She knew.

Gaara realized as he thought about Temari's words.

She knew the reason Seki isn't scared of me.

Gaara sat up on the sand, running his hands through his hair. Pulling it, Gaara felt the pain, but his stress did not leave him. He raised his head, looking towards the barely visible gates of Sunagakure in a distance.

Maybe, I should ask her.

Maybe, she could understand.

-

A/N: This is a little shorter than the others, but I promise it'll be better with some reviews!

Sabaku Kyu - Desert Coffin
Kaze no Rensei Hari - Drilling Wind Needles

Fingers: review, please!

-JE