Disclaimer: I still don´t own Naruto.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Gaaras illness is by no means a depiction of a real mental illness. I know that dissociative identity disorder or schizophrenia do not work like this so please don´t hate on me. Okay... I wanted to show all thrre POVs before the plot gets started but I have to admit Gaaras POV is pretty boring for now :/ More ShikaTema interaction coming next chapter :)

GAARAS POV

"Hahaha", Shukaku laughed loudly and stretched his arms wide. He resembled Gaara in everything but coloring. Like Gaara he was wearing black jeans, and a white scarf knotted around his waist in the fashion of Suna. But unlike Gaara, whose long-sleeved shirt was the color of rust and blood, Shukaku was wearing navy-blue. It doesn´t matter, Gaara reminded himself. He isn´t real.

Shukaku turned around. His arms stretched out wide, he balanced on the low fence between the rooftop and the fall down from it. Behind his back the sun was just starting to rise. The wind tousled his sand-colored hair and his eyes, which were black with a glowing yellow iris, were fixed on Gaara, who sat on the roof, knees drawn to his chest.

"Look at this!", his hallucination exclaimed "Trees! There are trees everywhere!", he shook his head and jumped back onto the rooftop. His combat-boots approaching Gaaras own. His second personality and hallucination bowed down to him. The dark-blue Kanji for "Love" prominent on his forehead. "We don´t belong here", he said, sitting down next to Gaara.

Gaara looked at the forest. The tree-tops were coming into view in a pale orange light. Gaara had climbed the rooftop, to spend the night gazing up at the stars and the moon, but his favorite times had always been sunrise and sunset. In Suna the sunrise is more beautiful.

Over the desert, dust and sand in the air caught the glowing red, orange and yellow, reflecting it and making the sky glow with the promise of a new day. Gaara knew that in more humid climates the sunrise was bound to look differently, but the subdued cooler colors were still a disappointment.

"Urgh", next to him Shukaku made gagging noises "At least the forest looks like it´s burning down". Gaara, who spend everyday battling his violent second personality, had to agree with it for once. The trees were catching the orange-glow now, and the thought was rather nice. Burn it all down to ashes.

He closed his eyes, imagining himself standing in a sea of gray ash-dunes, reaching all the way to the horizon. He smiled. "Tell you what. Next time you are so out of it, that you need me, I´ll get started on it", Shukaku chuckled.

In most days Gaara could see Shukaku only in the distance. Walking down a corridor, turning a corner, or sitting in an empty desk beside him. He could remember the day, that Shukaku first spoke to him, the day his father had noticed, the day the other children in Suna noticed.

In Gaaras world Shukaku had always been around. He had sat on play-grounds Temari and Kankuro took him to and had looked and acted like a real person. It had been quite a shock to find out, that his friend wasn´t real. And we were friends. Once, he looked sideways, finding Shukaku winking at him.

Gaara had never know he was talking to his second personality and his father had not bothered to explain it to him. He had just punished Gaara, trying to get it out of him. The other children had quickly started bullying him, and his friend, Shukaku had defended him.

Gaara remembered to have watched Shukaku fighting of his enemies many a time and only years later, he had learned, that this was a hallucination. That he was just imagining watching Shukaku do something, when his second personalty took over. Though sometimes I remember nothing.

Shukaku was violent by nature. Every fight Gaara had seen, every blow he took, Shukaku had learned from. Chiyo had tried to explain it to him once. Gaara forgot lots and lots of things, that didn´t interest him, like everyone else, but Shukaku was interested in different things. He learned different skills. Mostly dangerous ones.

Shukaku only took over, when Gaara was so furious or tired, that he was helpless. Gaara was a good fighter, Shukaku was unbeatable. At least up till now.

His second personality sighed and leaned back. "I remember when I could do what I wanted with us. Before you realized, that we are one and the same. I miss those days", he mused. "I would take us back to Suna. We belong there and you know it", he raised an accusing finger towards Gaara, who continued ignoring him.

"But", Gaaras inner demon sat up straight "we both know, I don´t have to wait much longer", he chuckled. "You are getting tired. I can tell. Usually I am just a side-product of your mind. You know it to be true Gaara", he taunted "every time you see more of me, you are losing it".

Gaara pressed his eyes shut and his finger to his temples and tried to focus. The head-ache is real. The roof beneath me is real. The light of the morning and the damned trees. Missing Suna is real. He opened his eyes again and looked past Shukaku, then he stared straight at him, trying to picture, what he should see, what was behind his hallucination.

"If you want to stay awake so badly, we could always watch "Fight-Club" again", his second personality quipped giving him a pitiful smile. Gaara closed his eyes, focused on the sound of the wind in the leaves, the birds in the trees and the sound of his own boot tapping nervously on the ground.

Relax, he told himself, and crossed his legs, starting a small meditation-exercise. When the sun had crept up far enough for him to feel some of its warmth on his face, Gaara opened his eyes again. I am alone. He decided it was time to get down to his first day of school.

At least I don´t have Home-Ed or Health today, he mused and made his way back to his room just in time, to wait a minute for his alarm to start. The recording of the old children´s lullaby was the only thing waking him up safely. Whenever he fell asleep, when he woke up, he was usually surrounded by some sort of mess or unconcious bodies Shukaku had left.

Chiyo had said, that his mother had been like Gaara, but since he had never met her, he couldn´t ask for advise on how to deal with Shukaku.

Gaara collected a half-sleeved fishnet-shirt, a simple black T-Shirt and fresh underwear from one of the two build-in drawers at the bottom of his closet, that he actually used. He hardly had any clothes requiring a hanger, and couldn´t even imagine filling such a big piece of furniture.

After his shower he cleared away the last bits of eyeliner, that had survived the water with a tissue. I look so different.

From the mirror an exhausted sickly version of himself regarded him calmly. The shadows around and under his eyes were grayish and purple and just looked like a sickness, without his eyeliner. Before the insomnia had taken over Gaaras features, his eyes had always stood in big contrast to his hair, and lining them with black, drawing the eye from the shadows under them, was merely restoring that state.

He didn´t care much for appearance, but still waited a moment, to give the liquid eyeliner he used time to dry. Smirched eyeliner did after all hold a strong association to crying. While he focused to keep his eyes still, his mirror-image suddenly winked at him.

The soap-dispenser clattered, as he winced and knocked it over. I need to meditate more.

With the promise to his own sanity, to do so after class in mind, he took out two pills from the medication-organizer Temari had gotten him and crashed them with the soap-dispenser, before watering them down the drain.

He left the bathroom with a wet tissue and walked over to the windowsill, where he had lined up his array of cacti. He carefully wrung drops over the plants, that could use a bit of water, and filled the tiny glass bottle from his night-stand with a little sand from the gourd, he had made Kankuro drive over from Suna.

After storing the bottle and his books, writing utensils, time-table and folder in his messenger-bag, he left his room to go down to the cafeteria.

Breakfast at Konoha-Acadamy was very different than in Suna-Academy. In Suna there was usually exactly one kind of mush the kitchen staff liked to call porridge and one could grab some dates or oranges or varying other fruits with it. It was one of the reason, why Gaara and his siblings had commuted to the Academy, instead of staying there.

In Konoha-Acadamy there was a buffet featuring everything from yogurt for diet-obsessed girls to bacon and eggs. Gaara, who had skipped dinner last night and didn´t feel like having breakfast either, opted for black coffee and collected an orange from the fruit-basket to eat later. It definitely lacks dates.

He took a seat in the most shadowy corner he could find. The architects of the building had build in a line of windows allowing to view the school-grounds towards the lake. Gaara couldn´t care less about it. He was here to observe the students.

Just like Suna-Academy Konoha-Acadamy had been founded as an army-project, encouraging the spirit of competition in the martial arts. The chunin-competitions were supposed to give an accurate display of a country´s strength, and the entrance exams weeded out those unworthy of higher training. A student who graduated an academy earned the right to call him- or herself a Shinobi. It was a higher degree and more well-rounded education than any High-school offered.

Of course the competitions got corrupted though. Gaara silently cursed whoever first had had the idea to add competitions in arts and stuff like shogi or chess to it and officially turned it from a competition into an exam.

He took a sip of his coffee. Let´s see who is training in the morning. At least one or two have to take their technique seriously enough.

He didn´t have to wait long for other students to appear. Temaris roommate entered the cafeteria yawning beside his sister. The two girls held a polite amount of conversation up, but both of them seemed tired, as they made their way down the buffet.

Temari and Tenten sat down at a table near the windows and Temari spotted him, motioning for him to come over. Shortly after that the long-haired guy from one of the pictures in Kankuros room and Kankuros roommate entered. The latters hair was still wet from the shower. No surprise there. Nobody keeps so many weights and a mat in his room, if he isn´t in a habit of exercising.

His black-haired companion however struck Gaara as more interesting. He was a tall teenager with the posture and high cheekbones of old aristocracy. Neji Hyuuga, Gaara recalled. He seemed awake and aware and the once-over he gave Gaara, while ignoring the chatter of the nuisance by his side, set the alarm in Gaaras head of.

He sees me, he thought. He recognizes me. It felt like he was getting an x-ray.

Most people didn´t spot a skinny fifteen-year old and classified him as dangerous. The things, that warn them of are my scars, and my eyes. But this guy... Gaara had never met a person who saw through him like that, when he wasn´t angry or at least tense. He could see the other boys pale eyes darting from one target to another.

My solar-plexus, my throat, my arms and hands, checking for muscles or scars, from experience. He knows exactly where to look.

Neji neither frowned nor smiled, but simply returned to his breakfast, accompanying his teammate over to Temaris and Tentens table. Interesting. Neji Hyuuga. He has a cousin here somewhere. I wonder, what she is like...

Gaara spotted Sasuke entering the cafeteria. Like him the Uchiha picked a table in the back of the room. Right. Sasuke. Gaara had not payed the Uchiha attention, while passing him the other day, but when the black-haired teenager had spoken up, he had payed him a closer look.

The Uchiha was interesting. His obviously trained muscles aside he moved with the quiet fluidity and grace, that could only come from exercising some sort of choreography, either dance or a series of martial-arts stances and moves. Gaara knew the latter, once he looked at Sasuke Uchihas face. The air of bored coolness was betrayed by an ambition and coldness burning once he set his eyes on Gaara.

Gaara wasn´t always good at reading peoples emotions, but hatred was the one he was familiar with. Only strange, that he doesn´t seem to hate me. I wonder who it is... Probably someone he loved once. Gaara chuckled silently. Love. It was almost sad, that someone who seemed to have Sasukes spirit for fighting should have such a silly reason as revenge for it.

Gaara touched the tattoo on his forehead and closed his eyes for a second, trying to fight his resurfacing head-ache back down. When he opened his eyes again, the cafeteria had several new visitors. There was a blond girl bickering with that Sakura-girl. Both of them threw more than one look towards Sasukes table, telling Gaara, they were probably fighting about him.

There was another boy, with ginger-brown hair and too much weight on his ribs to be of interest as an opponent, who laded his tray with virtually everything from the buffet. Gaaras stomach almost turned at the thought of eating so much. Especially in the morning. He quickly continued to look for newcomers and spotted a dark-haired boy with silky but spiky brown hair and sunglasses, who wore an over-coat inside. Gaara couldn´t decide whether he was a person of interest or not. He didn´t have Sasukes aura or Nejis obvious skill.

On the other hand he wears sunglasses and such a high collar. For all I know he could be hiding anything. Gaara decided to take a look at his female companion, to get a better picture. He felt his eyes widen slightly, as he took a double- and tripple-take of the girl.

At first he had just noted, that she seemed pretty, though boring and friendly, judging by the polite smile she constantly gave the guy with the sunglasses. A split-second later he realized his mistake. Could it be, that?

Her short black hair had a blueish shimmer, but taken that aside she had the same lilac eyes as Neji Hyuuga, and though she wore a beige jacket and blue jeans, that were unremarkable, it struck him as odd. Could this be the other Hyuuga? They seem nothing alike. Her entire posture screams insecurity.

Gaara subtly glanced at Neji, but the Hyuuga sat with his back towards him, effectively preventing a decent second look, so instead Gaara looked at the girl for a third time. This time more thoroughly.

Her black hair was only slightly different from her potential cousins. Gaara noted that her bangs complimented her delicate features. She had similar cheekbones to Neji Hyuugas. Her complexion seemed to be equally pale, and though she had longer lashes framing her extraordinary lilac eyes, the color seemed the same. She seemed to be... delicate. Gaara couldn´t find a better word to describe the way she looked.

It seemed to be something untouchable. Something evasive he couldn´t quite pin-point. Though she wore a loose jacket she seemed to have a petite frame. She didn´t wear a dress, or kept her hair awfully long, but something about her was definitely different.

And that has nothing to do with her insecurity. The girl never seemed to keep eye-contact and was nervously playing with her fingers now, before she grabbed her tray from the buffet, following the guy with the sunglasses. She was the polar opposite of Neji Hyuuga.

Still... Thar eye-color. They mustbe related. The girl stumbled, only barely managing to retain her balance and not spill her breakfast all over the floor. She looked around and spotted Gaara in his corner. She immediately evaded his eyes again, but for a tiny moment while she blushed heavily her eyes lingered on his tattoo and the scars on his arms.

Her companion came to her aid and she sat down with him, but Gaara saw the new tension in her posture and new, that something was changed. Maybe she is unsettled. He looked down onto his forearms, where an array of faint and not so faint cigarette-burns here and there broken by broader, but faint stripes with an occasional more beaded scar marked his skin from his pale elbows to his fingers. Or maybe, she saw some of the things her cousin spotted so easily?

Gaara finished his coffee to go and brush his teeth before class and succeeded in evading Temaris attempt to catch him before he left. Probably wants to ask, if I took my pills.

Gaara walked to his dormitory by way of the eastern staircase and passed the obnoxious Naruto-guy, a boy with red stripes and a wrinkle from his cushion in his face and a bit further up a yawning black-haired guy with a spiky ponytail.

Half a flight of stairs further up he passed his own brother, who had time for a "Morning, Gaara", before he rushed towards breakfast. Gaara didn´t bother to call out and tell Kankuro, that he wore his hoodie inside-out, or that he really should get up earlier. After all we are family, not friends.

The first lesson on Gaaras time-table was English-class with Sensei Iruka. Gaara was the first student to arrive in the classroom. He took a seat by the window in the back of the class. The Sensei turned out to be a ponytail-wearing tanned guy witch a prominent scar all the way from one side of his nose to the other.

To annoy Gaara even more than English-class did on its own account, the Sensei thought, or probably felt, it was a good idea to introduce him to his peers. The moment everyone was present (Naruto barging in a few minutes after class had begun) he started an introduction.

"Class, as you probably have all noticed", he smiled knowingly, since everyone kept glancing over at Gaara "we have a new student. Of course you will have the opportunity to introduce yourself. But to be fair, I think, we should introduce ourselves to. I am Iruka Umino, I am 26 years old. I like to teach and I do not like it, when students don´t pay attention. Maybe you could continue, Sakura".

The pink-haired girl in the front row nodded and turned around. "Erm... my name is Haruno Sakura. I am sixteen years old. What I like...", her eyes flickered to Sasuke Uchiha and she blushed, struggling to keep talking. "What you don´t like, Sakura", Iruka reminded her.

"Naruto!", the pinkette called out, causing the blond boy to let his head fall, not even gently, onto his desk. Gaara couldn´t care less. While his new classmates blabbered on, he ignored their voices, only tuning back in , when it was Sasuke Uchihas turn.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things and I don´t particularly like anything".

There was a silence in the class, as everyone looked at the Uchiha. The whispering and chattering had stopped. That was until Naruto, who sat at the desk in front of Sasuke, in the line behind Sakura got up and started shouting how he was gonna surpass them all and make everybody notice him.

Gaaras head-ache got worse with the volume and he was almost glad, when Sakura shut her teammate up, by hitting him over the head, lecturing him about noise-levels during class. "Okay, okay- Calm down", Sensei Iruka flashed Gaara an apologetic smile. "Now, maybe you could introduce yourself?".

Gaara glared at him. What an idiot.

"My name is Sabaku-no Gaara. I am fifteen years old". There was a small pause. "And you like and dislike?", Sensei Iruka asked.

"I like to have a purpose and I hate failure", he glared at Sensei Iruka, whose smile vanished. "Erm... okay. Gaara transferred here from Suna-Academy. I hope you will be welcoming towards him. If you need help to catch up with the few weeks you missed, both Sakura and Hinata are know to keep useful notes".

Hinata? As in Hinata Hyuuga? Gaara tried to remember her introduction, but hadn´t listened. He didn´t even see her in the classroom. She is sitting between spiky-hair and cushion-face, Gaara finally realized. Unlike her cousin, who drew attention through his confident posture, Hinata seemed to do her best to vanish in the background. I wonder why.

The rest of English-class was pretty boring and lacked any sense in Gaaras opinion. Sensei Iruka had spent most of the term so far with repetition and now they were supposed to discuss the first chapter of "The Great Gatsby", which Gaara found exceptionally pointless. Even for English-class. And to think, that I have French next, he massaged his temples.

When the class finished, he found himself wishing, that he had been the one to put that scar in that awfully cheerful teachers face. Gaara trailed out into the corridor with the rest of the class. He walked down the corridor towards French and noticed, that some of his classmates followed the same path. The guy with the sunglasses and the Uchiha were amongst them. The raven-haired boy was closely pursued by Sakura and her blond counterpart, who kept on bickering about Sasuke-this and Sasuke-that, as long as they were out of earshot from him.

Sasuke Uchiha spend the entire minutes before class subtly measuring Gaara, who was leaning against a wall, eyes closed. Gaara was pretty sure he had scratched the Uchihas ego the day before and contentedly kept on ignoring him. Sakura was trying to get Sasukes attention, while the guy with the sunglasses seemed to run a last-minute-check on his homework.

A mere second before class the fat boy with the hair-color somewhere between real ginger and brown returned panting, a bag of chips clutched in his hands.

"Chouji! Where have you been?", the blond girl demanded to know. "Getting a snack", the boy answered opening the bag of chips with bacon flavor. "Seriously. We have just had breakfast!", the blond shook her head. "You want some, Ino? You only had like a spoonful of yogurt for breakfast", Chouji offered the bag to the disgusted blond.

"No eating in class, Chouji. We have been over this", a black-haired woman with actually blood-red eyes had appeared and opened the classroom-door. She didn´t make a fuzz like Sensei Iruka, merely introduced herself as Sensei Kurenai, and turned out to be a calm but strict teacher.

Unlike Sensei Iruka she didn´t make an effort to include everyone and motivate everyone. Instead she simply forced them into participation, by making them read out and translate passages from a text at the beginning of class. Ino and the guy with the coat, Shino, did rather poorly and though she pointed out every mistake they made, she did it in a polite manner.

All in all French was much more bearable than English and Kurenai assigned them a simple translation as homework.

Gaara decided to skip lunch in favor of his orange, and spend the break in the library, eating the fruit slice by slice and browsing the mathematics-section. From Algebra to Analysis, mathematics were his favorite subject. Gaara spotted a title about Hyperbolic functions, that struck his fancy, and decided to come back later and get it.

After lunch he ventured down to the fourth floor, where he had Geography next. By now he recognized a fair share of his classmates. There was Ino, the obnoxious blond, Naruto, the loud and obnoxious in a different way blond, Sasuke Uchiha, who was currently bickering with Naruto, while Ino agreed with everything he said and finally the guy with the red stripes in his face.

Is that even allowed? Gaara measured the small white and brown dog, comfortably poking out of the boys fur-lined jacket. Konoha-Acadamy really has lower standards.

The boy with the dog stared at Gaaras scarred arms. In recompense for annoying him Gaara gave his dog a look, that had the fur-ball shaking and whining so much, that Sensei Gai, the worst of the teachers Gaara had seen so far, send Kiba out of class after half of the time.

While the Geography-class most certainly explained, where Kankuros roommate had gotten his antics from, it did nothing to explain, why someone like spandex-senior was allowed to teach. They were currently on the topic "Tourism" and Sensei Gai was jumping back and forth between the blackboard and his power-point presentation, showering them in such an avalanche of information, that Gaara actually had trouble to keep notes.

If the teacher hadn´t stopped to occasionally give them a thumps-up, dazzling grin or chuck a piece of chalk at everyone, who wasn´t paying attention, Gaara wouldn´t have been able to keep up.

At the end of the lesson Sensei Gai was out of chalk (most of it had hit Kiba, for focusing on his pet instead of class) and Gaara felt, as if his brain had been fried. So far he had found the workload in every class lesser than in Suna. Geography on the other hand, seemed to be taught on a whole different level in Konoha.

When he heard, that Sensei Gai hardly ever gave homework, expecting them to go over their notes before the next lesson instead, Gaara was relieved. While he wasn´t brilliant at Geography, he had always done well, when he had tried. And more than that, he found himself looking forward to Gym-class, which was also taught by Sensei Gai.

True enough the guy is horrible, but he might actually be able to challenge me in Gym-class for once, Gaara thought, as he made his way back to his room. When he reached his door, he clenched his fists.

"Appointment with the Guidance Counselor. Friday 03:00 pm. -I.U."

Please let I.U. not mean Iruka Umino, Gaara hoped and wiped the message of his board, leaving only the red lettered Gaara and the Kanji for love, he had written behind his name.

Inside Shukaku was lounging on his chair, spinning round after round on it. "How was school?", he chuckled at his own wit, since he almost always knew, what Gaara did during the day. He pretended to pout, when Gaara didn´t answer.

"So, I´ve been thinking", Shukaku finally gave up on an answer. "That cute little message on our board. Why don´t you let me go? You could just take one of those crafty little sleeping pills. When they come knocking on our door, I am going to be woken up, not you. Wouldn´t that be nice? I swear, if I go, we only have to go once".

Gaara pretended that these words held no temptation. There was a part of him, that wanted to do exactly that. Just let go and sleep, he thought. He tried to remember when he had last slept and checked the calendar. It has been long, he thought.

And the last few days he had barely meditated, because of the move. No wonder, Shukaku is so present. He dropped his bag next to his desk and sat down on the rust-red rug he had brought from Suna. Just a few hours, he thought. Relax.

He set his alarm-clock just in case and closed his eyes. Clearing his head to sink into a trance-like state had taken years to learn, but it got very close to sleeping. When Gaara "woke up" several hours later, he turned his alarm clock off again and went to dinner. He had missed enough meals to be hungry and actually want to eat for a change.

Gaara had barely navigated his tray, under the curious looks of many fellow-students, towards his table in the back-corner and sat down, when his sister all but slammed her own tray down beside him, closely followed by her twin.

"Bad day, huh?". Kankuro chuckled and Temari gave him a glare, that had him raise his hands in mock-surrender. "What do you think?", she asked in a false sugary tone, that made Kankuro chuckle again.

"Temari and I had Health-class today. It sucked", Kankuro told Gaara. "She almost killed her seat-neighbour, because he spent the entire lesson asleep, and started drooling on the desk. And I am entirely grossed out by Shizunes graphic approach to teach us about STD´s", he eyed his chicken frowning.

"You haven´t heard the worst, Kankuro! I got teamed, teamed, with that-", Temari stabbed a potatoe so brutally, that the fork left a mark on her plate and growled an impressive assortment of insults under her breath.

"When did that happen?", Kankuro asked, around a potatoe of his own. "Don´t speak, while you are chewing!", Temari boxed his arm, and Kankuro started coughing, as his food went down the wrong pipe. "And in Spanish-class", Temari said, apparently oblivious to her twin, who was reaching for his glass with watering eyes.

"Shizune teaches Health-class?", Gaara asked over the still coughing Kankuro, who only increased the attention, that was already being payed to their table. Temari nodded, and rolled her eyes, then she hit Kankuro, not gently, on the back. Kankuro quickly emptied his glass and cleared his throat.

"I swear you deserve your team-up with ponytail. Letting me suffocate, like that", he croaked. "Oh, grow up", Temari huffed. "You grow up. It´s just Spanish", Kankuro said "It can´t be that bad to be teamed with him for one subject".

"Oh, sure", Temaris voice was dripping in sarcasm "I am sure, we will be best buddies. I will tell you all about our wonderful friendship, once he decides to actually show up!", she murdered another potatoe.

"So that got you all riled up. He skipped. Maybe I did judge him to quickly. Heavy weighs the head, which wears the... ponytail? Or was it crown?", Temari was about to reply, but Gaara cut her of.

"Don´t", he raised a hand. "Stop it. I am sick of listening to you two", he didn´t miss the look his siblings exchanged, but didn´t care for it either. They are such a bother.

Temari cleared her throat. "Right. Erm... what I wanted to ask you. Did you settle in well? And did you take your medicine?". Gaara glared at her. "Of course", he replied. Temari bit her lip and looked down, which finally was something, that pleased Gaara. "I found an interesting book in the library today. Do you know, if we need some sort of student´s pass to get them?", he rewarded his sister with an answer for her good behaviour.

"You have to tell the librarian, she keeps a list, that you have to sign", Kankuro surprised both Temari and Gaara. "You went to the library?", Temaris face lit up. Kankuro nodded "Sure. I needed somewhere to skip History-class and thought I would check it out".

"It is literally our first day here! You don´t even know, if you like History-class here"

"Is the History here any different from Suna?"

"Of course. The demographic and political changes in non-desert towns-"

"Blah. Blah. Blah. It´s a bore. You just repeat stuff that happened. If I ever need to know it, I will look it up on the internet", Kankuro shrugged. "Don´t force your weird obsession with long gone times on everyone else, Mari".

Temari opened her mouth, but thought better of it, when she caught Gaaras eye. "Which book?", she asked instead. "One about Hyperbolic functions", Gaara answered. "Isn´t that pretty advanced math?", his sister wanted to know. "Hardly", Gaara finished his food, and folded his napkin. "Meaning totally", Kankuro said.

"Well, I am glad you found a book about it", Temari smiled. Gaara stared for a moment, unsure what she wanted. When she didn´t say anything he got up to leave. "Good night", Temari wished him.

Gaara almost laughed. When do I ever have a good night, Temari?

When he was back in his room, he sat down to do his homework, and crossed another day of his calendar. That is sevendays without any sleep, he noted, before he started to translate the text Sensei Kurenai had assigned him.