His eyes scrutinize the overly fussy nurse, watching her fret to and fro over the comfort of her patient, asking if the pillow needs to be fluffed, because she swears that blasted thing was a brick and are you sure you don't need a thicker blanket since you're such a tiny missy that surely struggles through cold nights like these! But her ward, ever so polite, waves off the generous offers, thanking her for her consideration but really, there's no need for all of this, all the while beaming the sweetest smile. Sighing in defeat—you are a stubborn one, no doubt! Be lucky that you're too precious to say no to—the motherly employee exits the room to oversee her other charges but not before wishing the little darling a good night's rest and turning off the lights. Listening to the decrescendo of her footsteps, Gaara finally disappears from his perch on the sturdy branch heavily enshrouded with leaves and materializes with a swirl of sand by Hinata's bedside. Now inside, he silently pulls up the chair closer and, giving it a moment's thought, awkwardly shrugs off the burdensome gourd. Without the weight on his back, his shoulders feel lighter and although he doesn't hunch over, his shoulders do tend to lean forward the slightest bit carrying it around all the time—really, no one can entirely blame him when he thinks it's becoming a little cumbersome (not that anyone will actually hear him say that aloud)—so its absence causes him to recline on the back of the chair with a sense of relief he has never felt before.

His line of sight never strays from the unconscious figure in front of him, not even to blink. Reflecting on it now, the red head thinks of how... abnormal this seems. But this is what friends do, yeah? Look after the other when they're feeling unwell? He's pretty sure having her internal organs severely ruptured by that heartless fiend of a cousin (he still wishes he buried him when he had the chance, finalizing the fate he bestowed upon himself the second he laid a hand on her) calls for a friendly visit. Now if only she were awa—oh, look. She is.

Her luminescent eyes flutter open and once they register the boy in front of her, the faint upturn of her lips says she been expecting his arrival for a while. After some rustling, the tucked in blankets give way to her wriggling arm and her small, delicate hand peeks through. She gravitates to the marginally larger hand resting on his lap and habitually, albeit shyly, interlock their fingers—and she's happy to note the lack of resistance from his end. Despite the gesture being so commonplace amongst others, Hinata still marvels at the lovely spectacle, having never indulged in this practice enough times in the past. Both hands were rather pale, the back of Gaara's hand being coarse yet his palm is oddly smooth; her skinnier, shorter fingers are engulfed by his much larger digits. Even though the pair were unfamiliar with the concept of physical affection, the sensation is... nice and warm.

Hinata falls asleep with a miniscule smile gracing her face, as Gaara watches.


Naruto glances at the offered fruit basket once again, pondering how lucky Chouji is to have such a thoughtful friend, no matter how lazy he turns out to be. It's quite a shame, though, that the big lug can't even enjoy the present due to his upset stomach... The mischievous blond perks up at his hatching plan, a large grin splitting his face in half. Said lazy friend looks over when he doesn't say anything the past few minutes, to see Naruto has a scheming gleam in his azure eyes, and he raises an eyebrow in suspicion, "Huh? What?"

A devilish chuckle escapes from him. "We should totally eat it in front of Chouji." Oh, the expression on his face would be priceless!

"...You are tiring me out..." And Shikamaru's not even the idiot laying on the hospital bed because of chakra exhaustion. Just then, the two hear a faint sound, in a higher register so it must be a girl—maybe even someone around their age—and now that they're paying closer attention to it, it sounds somewhat like... a giggle? Now they're both intrigued. Shikamaru knows that Ino is manning the flower shop currently, so he rules out her, and it can't be Sakura either, because the only rooms she visits are Sasuke's vacant one and Rock Lee's, but both are in the opposite direction of the source. The only choice left is the only girl they know that's staying in a hospital (he still cringes thinking about how she ended up here): Hinata. While the fact that it's Hinata giggling doesn't confuse him, what does confuse him is why is she giggling, and what—or who—is causing it? He passed by a sprinting Kiba and Akamaru on his way here, who shouted over his shoulder that now that Shino is participating in the finals, the active members of Team 8 are preparing his upcoming match with the Suna shinobi. That rules out her team, and he immediately rules out the entirety of the Hyuuga clan, knowing their nature is quite... cold.

Basically, everyone he knows is ruled out, which leaves the mystery unsolved.

Now, Shikamaru is not one to intervene with anyone's personal business (the effort to do so and the reprecussions of said meddling are way too troublesome in his honest opinion), but when his curiosity is piqued, coupled with the iota of worry he feels for the little kunoichi, he feels compelled to find out who this anonymous person is, and maybe even thank them for raising the girl's otherwise low spirits. With his goal in mind, he silently gestures to Naruto to follow his lead, and both slink out of the room making as little noise as possible. At each door, the brunet peeks through the slim window and peruses the interior to find a familiar girl with blue-like hair; six doors later, he peers in to see his blue-headed target with her eyes aglow with mirth and a smile lighting her countenance. He catches the motion of a pale hand nearing her face in his limited sight, and then his heart stops as he sees the wisps of sand coming closer to her fragile form.

In that instant, he doesn't think—he acts.

With a slam, the door is slid out of the way as the lackadaisical genius quickly skids in, his clan's secret jutsu reaching out to trap Gaara and prevent him moving any closer. Naruto recognizes the boy and, as per his impulsive nature, punches him in the face. Now, seeing as Shikamaru is linked to the receiver of the punch, he recoils along with the red-head. Steadying his footing, his arm reaches out to tenderly touch his face where the phantom pain radiates. "Hey Naruto, while I'm using Kagemane, I move the same as him." He looks forward to see Gaara copying his stance, and his eyes widen.

"Sorry Shikamaru..." His voice ebbs away as he faces the object of his ire, and then sees the object of his worry standing protectively in front of him.

Seeing all of the attention is on her, her face unceremoniously flushes a tomato scarlet, and in her tiny voice, she stutters out, "T-Thank you for your consideration, N-Nara-san and N-N-Naruto-kun, e-even though you two are mi-misunderstanding the situation... B-But you went out of y-your way to protect me from a p-potential enemy, which I a-appreciate g-greatly! H-However, i-it was also wrong for you to hurt Gaara-kun since he'll never hurt me... T-That is... We're friends..." Her wavering tone belies her firm stance and the fire ablaze in her eyes. Her weakened state also made her outstretched arms shake a bit due to exertion, and oh dear, she might drop in the next few seconds. But Gaara-kun is still trapped in Kagemane and she can't crumble when trying to make her point and freeing him—and knowing how stubborn those two, that would take a while. Oh dear, oh dear, she's feeling faint. "S-S-So Nara-san, can you p-please re-release Gaara-kun since he bears no i-ill will?"Oh my, she can feel her knees about to fail her, and she would so give into the urge to curse her frail and useless condition if it weren't for her heiress training forbidding her to do so.

Shikamaru analyzes the situation at hand, mulling over the pros and cons of releasing his shadow; on the one hand, the second his jutsu is released, the Suna nin can beckon his sand to encase the three of them in a cocoon of sand and end all their lives within five seconds. On the other hand, Gaara may not be as monstrously horrible his first impression made him out to be and may actually be the friend Hinata claims he is. It's not that he distrusts the girl—he has no track record of her ever lying to anyone, and doubt there will be one—but there is always the possibility that Hinata is forced into defending the creep because he would kill her if she doesn't. However, the blunette's eyes shine with the determination to protect her precious person (talk about Will of Fire) which wouldn't be present if she were coerced into doing this. And then there's Gaara... not once, not even to look at him, has Gaara's eyes strayed from Hinata. There's no sign of him wanting to kill her—or Shikamaru and Naruto for that matter, even though they are the ones holding him captive (heck, the idiot even punched him in the face earlier!)—and now that he's deeply looking into the red head's eyes (not in the really weird way that would be too troublesome to deal with) he can see a flicker of protection in the jade depths, as if he... cares about Hinata's fragile state. Huh.

Moments pass and Hinata's about ready to keel over and he's pretty sure Naruto really wants to land another punch on Gaara's face, but eventually Shikamaru huffs a sigh of defeat and the shadow reluctantly recedes to its owner. Now free of its hold, Gaara immediately reaches out for Hinata, to Shikamaru's and Naruto's surprise. They are about to launch another attack on him thinking he does indeed have intentions to hurt poor Hinata, but they stop a few steps away when they realize that Gaara's arms are cradling her as she slumps from fatigue. His embrace has no inkling of malicious intent at all; the way he deflects Hinata's feeble protests demanding (in a really small, kind of cute way) to let her go because she's really fine and just a bit dizzy from standing for too long with a stern, unwavering stare of what looks like friendly concern, and how he gently positions her on her bed while pulling up his chair so he can still hold her hand stuns the duo into shocked silence. Here they are, trying to save their friend thinking this guy is a menace, but it turns out there's no need to do much of anything when said guy is treating her like a princess—it's actually pretty sweet.

'And a huge waste of time—how troublesome,' Shikamaru sighs. Thinking back on it, his impulsive reaction earlier was pretty out of character for his lazy self... and draining. Randomly saving people when they don't need it is so troublesome. Still, from his viewpoint from outside the door, the situation did look pretty bad... "What were you doing with your sand so close to Hinata anyway, if it wasn't going to hurt her?"

The duo of weirdly-colored hair look back to the interrogator, realizing they've been ignoring Shikamaru and Naruto for a while, and Gaara replies after a moment or so of hesitation, "To make her this." He repeats the action of raising his hand, noting the sudden stiffness in their shoulders, most likely from habit, and focuses on the gathering sand. With his palm facing him, he slowly curls his hand into a fist as the sand gathers around it, and once he's done, the floating sand condensed into—

"Flowers?!" Naruto yells—oddly enough it's only the second time he's opened his mouth while in this room. "I punched you in the face thinking you were going to do that weird sand burial thingy that you did on Lee, and now we find out you're making her flowers?!" Shikamaru's brow also twitched a little, mentally hitting his head against the wall because he thought his friend was in danger five minutes ago (of course he would never do this overtly and show any sign of irritation because that's too troublesome and he'd rather be calm and collected rather than waste energy shouting). Instead, it turns out Gaara is really... cheesy.

"Y-Y-Y-You r-remembered?" Her cheeks flush with joy as she eyes the gift in awe. Why, it's been almost 7 years since she had that conversation with her friend about their likes and dislikes! She only has a fuzzy recollection of her tinier self telling a tinier Gaara how purple lilacs are her favorite flowers and how Gaara likes growing cacti. She remembers being putting on a rather distasteful face when her friend told her he really likes gizzard—in her defense, it sounds a bit gross. She catches his whispered comment of "I can't make them purple," before reaching out to take the sandy bouquet and she instinctively imbues a little of that chakra with its flaming reds and oranges as opposed to the norm of blue into the sand and watches it heat into glass.

"Whoa! I didn't know you can do that, Hinata-chan! I can totally beat up Sasuke with that move and show him who's the true badass! Teach me, teach me!"

"Naruto, if you to learn how to make glass, go to an actual glass industry. Besides, I really doubt Hinata can teach you to heat your chakra to 2,300 degrees Celsius without getting yourself hurt." 'What I really want to know is how did she do that without hurting herself. Is it some hidden technique in her family—wait, they wouldn't care about that kind of thing. Where would she learn it then?' He observes the lack of burns on Hinata's hands and the nonchalance emitted by Hinata and Gaara (he's curious as to how he feels so calm being in the same room of some deranged creep that was probably a murderer in Suna) which shows how commonplace this is. Maybe Gaara has given her multiple sand-based gifts in the past (that's a really weird thought) and Hinata has learned this skill to preserve her gifts. Sure, that explains their indifference, but it still doesn't satisfy the question of how she attained said skill. Geez, his curiosity is getting him into some troublesome business.

As Shikamaru deals with the mystery of Hinata's prowess with scorching chakra, Naruto wonders with a childlike innocence what kind of close bond the two developed. Rarely does the blond witness friends care for each other so intimately; Shikamaru and Chouji have a silent, almost telepathic understanding of each other, Kiba and Akamaru, while loud, really cover each other's back, which he saw that firsthand when he fought the canine duo, and even the catty Sakura and Ino show their care in a roundabout way. That's pretty much all he uses to form the foundation of his knowledge of friendship, having never experienced the feelings of a true, close connection to someone else; his rivalry with Sasuke is the closest he can get to that, even if the rival doesn't acknowledge the relationship at all. But seeing Hinata, who he knows is incredibly shy and awfully introverted, and Gaara, a killing machine with nary a hint of emotion, sitting together (or in this case, lying down and sitting next to her) absorbed in their own little world where Hinata has this healthy pink dusting across her cheek while holding a glass bouquet of whatever as she talks—in a low volume, of course—cheerfully and Gaara can lean back in his chair and nod every now and again in a way that means he's really listening and not as if he is pretending he's paying attention, his expression blank as always but calm, as if in peace with himself. And the two didn't let go of their hands at all—it's like they can't let go and threads are entwined between their hands to keep them there forever.

He wonders what it's like.

"How'd you two meet in the first place?"


Hehe, "duo of weirdly-colored hair".

I abused the heck out of the word troublesome.

I have never had gizzard. ^^;

I'm also going to ignore the actual, scientific process used to form glass from sand for the purposes of fluff. :D

This chapter was especially hard to write due to the infamous fight between Hinata and Neji—I had this inner debate as to how would I approach it: Would I alter it? Would I basically rewrite the entire match, but with a lot more monologues (because those are super funsies!)? Should I write it in Gaara's perspective? Should I copy my approach with my Iris one-shot and write it in Sasuke's? How about Naruto's? Should it be a flashback so I can move on to a scene I badly wanted to write? And that's when I came to the decision to scrap the idea of writing the match and instead fast forward past that, because I knew I wasn't going to do anything major with it in the first place. So I put in a lot more plot in this chapter because I knew you guys would appreciate this!

By the by, purple lilacs in the language of flowers mean first emotions of love, and in Hanakotoba (the Japanese language of flowers) lilacs represent first love. Isn't that darling~?! (Also, has anyone been reading The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh? Ooh, I am in love with that book!)

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... Please don't kill me... School happened, marching band was killer (but it's kay because I AM A NATIONAL CHAMPION!), I actually have friends that I hang out with in the bajillion clubs I joined over the years, and I also acquired a loving boyfriend that I've been seeing for the past (almost!) 10 months.

None of that really excuses my lack of updates, and I'm sorry for that (I promised myself I'd never be that one author that updates stuff early on but leaves everyone hanging for over two years but look where I am now! TT^TT), but I'm just glad that I'm back in the writing groove for once (although I have no idea how long this will last). I WILL get around to updating Duty, and then I'm actually considering putting up a poll: in order to get stuff actually done, I may have to resort to just focusing on only one of my multi-chapter stories, so I may ask you, my fans (ooh, I have fans! That's exciting!), to decide whether you want me to finish Watch or Duty first. If you have any opinions on this decision, feel free to put them in a review or a PM.

And yes, I changed my name again because looking at it for too long will remind me how much of a weirdo I was and how depressing my self-esteem was back when I was 13 (aren't 7th grade issues the best?!). My boyfriend got me into Doctor Who, and I felt i was a good idea to incorporate my new-found love in my name (I guess you could say in my new regeneration ;D). I had adored River Song so I wanted to include that somehow, but it was taken, along with some variations. So I went with Uta since it means song in Japanese, and I realized "Wow, this also shows my passion to be a music therapist! Boy, I'm clever!" and then tada! New name created (for some strange reason, it won't save my username when I edited this thing—that's going to cause some problems)! Feel free to still call me Failure-chan, since that's what I pretty much signed off with for everything, but I just wanted to get the name out of the way.

So! I'm done! Go review, or close this tab, or whatever!

—The Doctor (wow, that's going to take some getting used to! I really like using parenthetical statements!)