Something to Fight For (Naruto)

Waking

Gaara woke up. That was the first thing he noticed was wrong. He had never once fell asleep, so he had never once woken up. The second thing he noticed was his head. It hurt.

He's had headaches before, whenever Mother was angry at him, but this was different. His skull pounded, and the skin felt tender on one part. Sitting up, he reached a hand to the part that was in pain. The second he made contact, it flared up, making him cringe.

After a second of blinking, it all came back to him. The girl. The Hug. The chase. And, the knockout. He stood, wide eyed, and just stared at a wall.

She had touched him. She had touched him, hit him, and was most likely still alive. His eye started twitching against his will as he kept his eyes trained on the wall. For ten minutes, he stayed like that, frozen with a huge eye twitch.

Temari, carrying a cold towel and a drink, slowly opened the door to Gaara's room. She didn't know if he was awake or not, and if he was, she didn't want to be killed by surprising him.

Craning her head around the door, she saw him. He was awake and standing, but not moving. He just kept looking at a wall, twitching. There was a bit of sweat on his forehead, but he didn't even wipe it away as it trickled into his eye.

"G-gaara? Are you okay?" Temari asked, hesitantly. He didn't move, ignoring her completely.

Slowly, she walked closer, still staying a few feet away. She set the drink on a dresser and laid the towel on his bed. When he still didn't move, Temari stepped in front of him, fear tightening her stomach.

He kept looking through her, blank eyed. Raising her hand, she waved it back and forth in front of his face, even snapped, but to no avail. He showed no sign of hearing her.

What should she do? If he was anyone else, she would have shook them, felt their forehead, and guided them back to bed. But this was Gaara, and if she touched him he would most likely kill her.

Leaving the room, she went to find Kankuro. After a few minutes, she found him in his room, working on some puppets.

"Kankuro, someting's wrong with Gaara." She said, making him look up from the wooden arm he had been working on.

"What do you mean?" He asked, standing and walking over.

Temari just shook her head and led him over to Gaara's room, where he was still in the exact same place. She stood in front of him, snapping her fingers in his face but not touching him.

"Whoa." Kankuro murmured, seeing Gaara not even react. Normally, if anyone even got that close to him, he would crush them with his sand. Yet, he didn't even seem to notice.

"Yeah." Temari agreed. "What should we do?"

Kankuro shrugged, at a loss. "Why don't we try calling that girl over, see if she gets a reaction out of him. She can obviously handle herself." He said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

Temari nodded, leaving to head over to Haruka's apartment. She knew where they were staying, since her father was the Kazekage. It was only one building over, making it a very quick trip.

Knocking on the door, she waited a minute until it opened, revealing Sai. He had been changing his shirt, since it was dirty after their journey, but stopped to answer the door.

"Yes?" He asked Temari.

Temari blinked, seeing him shirtless. She went on her tip-toes to try and see Haruka, but couldn't from his height. What had the two been doing before she came?

"I need Har... Nee-san." She demanded, only remembering the last second her promise. Sai moved out of the way and went to get his shirt, not caring if she came in.

Temari walked in to see Haruka asleep. She sweatdropped to see she was sleeping on her back, still rigid in posture even when not awake. Not having any qualms about waking her up, she bent over and shook her shoulder.

Haruka jerked up and jumped on Temari, pinning her with a senbon at her throat, eyes only half open. Sai didn't even bother looking over, drinking a cup of tea at the table.

"Hey!" Temari yelled, surprised.

Haruka fully opened her eyes and saw what she had been doing. Standing and putting the weapon away, she bowed. "I apologize, but you caught me off guard." Turning away, she started putting her shirt back on and strapping her knives onto her hips as Temari rubbed her throat, a small frown on her face.

"I need you to come and fix Gaara." Temari said, stepping closer.

Facing her, Haruka nodded. She didn't bother asking what was wrong with him, knowing that she'll be able to see for herself. They headed out, Temari leading the way. Sai stood and followed them, leaving his tea discarded on the table.

A minute later, they were at their home and in Gaara's room. Haruka stood in front of him as his siblings watched on, wondering what she would do. She tried snapping like Temari did, frowning when he didn't even blink. As she reached out to touch his shoulder, Temari went to stop her, but Kankuro restrained her, shaking his head. Haruka could handle herself, hopefully, enough to at least dodge his attacks. 

She placed her hand on his shoulder, making his head snap to her and his eyes widen even more. He stumbled back, falling. Why didn't his sand even try to stop her?

He started backpedaling, still on the floor, until he hit the wall. Haruka stared back quietly, head cocked to the side. After a minute of seeing him press himself against the wall and stare back into her eyes, she nodded, as if he had just answered a question for her.

Turning to his siblings, she frowned. "I am sorry, but he is broken." She said, looking them in the eye.

They sweatdropped, hearing her plain answer. "Can you... 'fix' 'im?" Kankuro asked, making quotation marks with his fingers when he said fix. Haruka just shrugged, and turned back to Gaara.

She started advancing to him, as he started shaking. He didn't even bother trying to attack her with sand, he was so afraid. Here was someone who could kill him, easily, and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn't know how to feel about that, or how to react to it.

Crouching in front of him, Haruka raised a finger. Gaara cringed and turned his head to the side as her finger crept closer and closer. Poking him in the cheek, she waited to see if anything changed. He just stayed still, clamping his eyes shut.

Sighing, she went on to plan B. Medical ninjutsu wouldn't work, seeing as his ailment was mental, not physical and she wasn't advanced enough. Since his problem revolved around shock, she decided to give him another to wake him up.

She licked him.

Yelling, Gaara pushed Haruka away and jumped up. He glared at everyone, growling under his breath. Swinging around to the window, he jumped out and ran off randomly.

Haruka stood and brushed herself off, facing Gaara's siblings. "I fixed him." She stated plainly, leaving to go back to the apartment with Sai trailing behind her.

Temari and Kankuro stood, frozen, staring at the window that Gaara had jumped through. After a few minutes, Kankuro broke the silence.

"What. The hell."

Current Count: 29

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Sooooooooooo...

I had way too much fun with this chapter....

The song is ther just 'cuz it's got the word panda in it... Even though it had nothing to do with them, sadly.

Picture is not mine. I cannot draw Gaara that awesomely. It belongs to a Deviant person/group named We-Love-Gaara-club. Very cool name, might I add. So if you wanna see pictures of Gaara, there you go.

Love? Like? Dislike? Hate?