I entered the Kazekage's private room. I had been ordered here to assist him after the extraction of the bijuu.

Gaara was sitting on the hospital bed that had been put there for this purpose.

I wondered if he remembered me from before. I had been priestess to Suna all my life. I always did as the Kazekage ordered—until Rasa had ordered me to harm Gaara.

Rasa had ordered me to extract the bijuu back then. I had refused, retreated to my shrine and cried into the hot hearth flame.

I didn't deserve to be proud of how far Gaara had come. I had done nothing to get him here. I hadn't been his friend or anything. I had been content with the walls of my shrine.

It took me a moment to realize the Kazekage was speaking.

"I never got to thank you." Gaara said. "I heard the order my father gave to you. You...protected me."

I had never thought of it that way. "I broke the law."

I placed my hands on his chest and my reiki spilled out, silver light healing his inner wounds.

"You did it because you knew it was right." Gaara said. "Something about you changed. I...understand. But I'm flattered that you did it for me."

"I couldn't kill you." I said after a long silence. "You were as sad as I was. As trapped as I was. And now...I'm still trapped and here you are, free."

Xxx

There was a bitter tone to her voice.

Was the miko jealous of him? Gaara stared at her in surprise.

It was the second time she had surprised him. The first being when she had spared him from death.

"You are free to do anything you like." He offered.

Gaara wanted desperately to see her smile. For some reason, this woman's happiness was very important to him.

"Free?" Kuri smiled. "A miko is never free. Not to love, not really. Not like a normal woman...so..."

She trailed off, like she had forgotten who she was speaking to. She waved it off and stood, ready to leave.

Gaara caught her arm with his sand, not close enough to touch her. "You could love. You could start with me. You spared me so long ago...surely that means..."

"It means that I..." A small smile. "That I, like all humans, am hopeless."