Chapter 11

He watched his sister scan his room, a look of disdain on her face contorting her features. It was obvious she didn't like his accomidations, and it only added to his amusement. Her teal colored eyes showed concern and agitation.

His sharp eyes followed her movements as she slowly walked the perimeter of his room. Leaning against the far wall, he kept both siblings in front of him, never taking his eyes off them for more than a few seconds.

Maybe it was just out of habit, how he watched them. He wasn't used to the human contact, aside from nurses and his personal doctor. It felt like the moment he let his guard down around them, they would cut his defenses and leave him helpless. And he did not, in the slightest, like any situation where he did not have the upper hand.

His sister glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes before she moved to his bedside. "How about right here on your end table?" she asked as she put the picture down to see how it looked in it's new place.

To him, it looked out of place. An oddball. Just like him. Not belonging anywhere.

He nodded mutely. Kankurou's eyes flashed to the red-head and then back to his sister who was arranging the photo on the table to face the door openly.

Shrugging off the wall, Gaara stepped next to his siblings. Though they didn't flinch away like they used to, he could still sense their tension in the air, and a crazed smirk almost found its' way to his lips.

"What do you think Gaara?" Temari asked as she turned to face him. Her eyes were tight, but even he could tell she wanted an answer. A verbal answer and not the monosyllabic ones he usually gave. Since when did they start to care so much? What had changed?

He answered the best he could, with question of his own. "Were we really so happy back then?" his deep voice echoed slightly in the room, and he saw Kankuruo next to him droop his head slightly.

His sister's eyes saddened, and she looked over her shoulder to the picture. "Yes." she said slowly as a sad smile grazed her thin lips. "We were so close back then." she paused, and the smile faded into a grimace with pained blue-green eyes. "But he ruined all that didn't he." her voice was hard and cold as ice.

Gaara stared blankly at her, wondering if she was refering to him. But then Kankurou put a hand on his shoulder, and shook his head slightly when his jade eyes glanced up at him.

"Temari." Kankurou's deep, warm voice held a warning. "Don't start on it."

She surprised them both by whirling around, her eyes flashing dangerously, her teeth bared in a way that reminded Gaara of himself, and her fists clenched at her sides. "No." she snarled. "It was his fault. He tore us apart and sent Gaara here. They both did. If Mother were alive..." her voice broke as her features contorted in pain. "If Mother were alive....she wouldn't have let any of this happen." she whispered as she looked down at the ground, hiding her face from her brothers.

They both knew she wasn't crying. She had to much pride. That is the way the all were, to prideful. To proud to admit what they were truely feeling. It was a blessing...and a curse.

Kankurou took a step toward his sister, to comfort her. He was stopped however, by Gaara putting his arm out and halting his steps effectively. The brunette's eyes shot to his younger brother's face, searching for an answer.

Gaara merely shrugged and looked at his sister. Watching. Waiting. His eyes vigilent and bright. Kankurou's words died on his lips. He had never seen his brother this way, it was odd to see him taking an interest in his sister. Or anyone for that matter.

"It's good they are both dead." Temari's voice broke both male's from their own thoughts and their eyes rested on her. She rose her face back to meet them, and she wore a mask of coldness. Gaara could see the resemblance of himself in that look.

"Temari.." Kankurou began but was cut off by her hard look. Her eyes like stone.

"What? Are you saying that you want them back?" she demanded. "Do you miss them?"

Kankurou let a smirk play on his features, and Temari eyed him warily. "Hardly. I only wish I could have helped Gaara that night."

Understanding dawned on the youngest sibling as he realized what they were speaking of. Then he felt slightly surprised of their feelings for his sin. Could they really be happy about what he had done? What he had committed all those years ago?

Temari gazed at her brown-haired brother, shocked at what he had said. "Kankurou?" she asked, awed at the fact that this was really her brother before her.

Kankurou turned to Gaara, who watched him from the corner of his eyes. "We never thanked you for that night, did we?" he shook his head in what Gaara guessed to be wonderment. "I know it's wrong, but I couldn't be happier that it happened. I just wish.." the oldest brother locked gazes with the red-head. His dark eyes solemn. "I just wish that you didn't have to pay the price for what we all wanted."

His voice was serious and dark. Gaara could see all the resemblances in himself with his brother and sister. Sometimes he had wondered if they ever truely shared the same blood, apparently they did. They all had the same looks of coldness and a dark part in their souls. It just so happened that Gaara's was more prominent and ever-present while his siblings' was just an emotion hidden in the recess of their minds, until called forth.

Temari, tentatively and slowly, rested her hand on Gaara's shoulder. "Thank-you, Gaara..." her voice was serious and held not the slightest tremor. She wasn't nervous or afraid as he gazed into her eyes.

Kankurou put his calloused hand on his other shoulder, and gave a slight squeeze. He then finished what Temari had began to say. "For killing Yashamaru."

As he looked at his siblings, he couldn't help but have the same morbid thought running through his head like a broken record. 'Nothing like a trail of blood to find your way back home.'

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

She stared out the window, and watched silently as snow danced in the wind before settling silently on the cold ground. Pink strands of hair fell in front of her emerald gaze, and she brushed them away absently.

They had been in his room for an hour now and the visit should be almost finished. The growing anticipation and nervousness was knotting in her stomach as she waited in the lobby for the older siblings.

The questions were plauging her mind, and she wanted - no needed - the answers. Not just to save Gaara and remove him permenantly from the facility, though that was the main reason, but she also wanted to placate her own raging curiousity.

"Sakura?"

The woman in question tore her gaze away from the window and looked over her shoulder. Tsunade stood across the room from her with her arms crossed over her busty chest and her honey colored eyes trained on the pinkette.

"Yes, Tsunade?" Sakura asked as she stood from her seat.

The older blonde crossed the room and stood in front of the young doctor. "Has the visit been going well?" she asked as she cocked her head to the side as her orbs of liquid warmth searched Sakura's emerald gaze.

Sakura nodded. "Yes. There have been no disputes, and they entered Gaara's room a little while ago. It seems they are getting along fine." she gave a small smile.

Tsunade grinned happily. "That is good news. Are you hoping to meet with Temari and Kankurou afterwards?"

"Yes. I was wanting to get answers...."

"Answers that the Institution cannot provide." Tsunade finished the sentence and nodded while smiling sadly. "I'm sorry we don't have that information."

The young woman before her shook her head. "No, don't apologize. How could you have answers, there was no one here to give them." She unconsciously picked at the hem of her scrub shirt. "But now that there is people with the answers, I intend to get them and help my patient."

Tsunade put a hand on her shoulder, and locked gazes with the pinkette. "Admiral. Very admiral, Sakura. I wish the other workers here would be so determined." she laughed slightly. "I hope you get the answers you want."

"Me to." Sakura smiled.

Nodding, Tsunade removed her hand from Sakura and turned to make her way back to her office.

"You know," she started, and turned to face Sakura with a dangerous smirk on her face. "He is a very handsome young man." she clucked her tongue while shaking her head slowly. "I'd be willing to bet any amount of money that if he was out there, in the real world, he wouldn't be single for long."

With that said she smirked at the flustered and shocked young doctor before her, and walked back from whence she had came. Making sure to pick up a small wage from an angry looking Daichi who stood against the wall outside the lobby.

"Care to make another bet, Daichi? I have a feeling that a certain red-headed patient is going to be just as flustered as her pretty soon." she smiled devilishly at her co-worker. He grumbled and walked off in the opposite direction with an aura of a hurt and wounded ego.

The blonde smiled and laughed giddly as she counted out the money in her hand.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

"What happened to him." Gaara's voice demanded in a dark voice as he gazed at his brother and sister.

"Who? Uncle or Father?" The middle child asked as he met his brother's look.

"Father." he spoke the name with enough venom to freeze the devil himself.

Temari sat down on his bed, and looked across the room at his leaning figure. "He died of fear."

His cold jade eyes glanced at her before straying to the picture on his bedside table. "How."

Kankurou snorted, and the red-head's attention snapped to him. Kankurou looked at him blankly and replied, "You were covered in blood, who wouldn't have had a heart-attack?"

"Kankurou." Temari half-heartedly scolded her brother for his bluntness, but also gave him an appraising look for saying it outloud so openly.

"How long did he last?" Gaara asked in quiet voice, but still rough and filled with the malice he never got to show to the man dubbed his 'father'.

Temari yawned from her seat on the bed and replied, "He was dead when the ambulance got there."

Gaara gave a slight nod and looked at the floor. So his father had died not long after he fled back to the instiution that night. He had caused both of their deaths...And he felt no form of remorse or regret. His brother and sister had not hated him through the years, and they still did not. They stood in front of him now with smiles on their faces as they spoke so casually of the deaths of family members. They did this because they had seceretly hoped, prayed, and wished in their childhood for it to happen.

Looking back up at them, and meeting them both stare for stare, he was beginning to see the resemblance more and more. That smile on both their faces, and the odd sensation in his stomach that wanted him to return it, but he couldn't. Their eyes bright and dark at the same time, like his. And their feelings mirrored one anothers for the two men that had made it a living hell to grow up.

Then, there was the want. The want to have someone back that was gone. A woman that had loved her children but was gone before she saw them have the chance to grow up. Their mother.