Thank you everybody who faved and/or added this story to their story alert. I haven't updated in a little while. I blame my allergy, because my nose is stuffed, I can't breathe and all I want to do is sleep off the meds… But nevertheless, here you are.

BTW, I am sorry to disappoint those who expected me to hook up Temari and Shikamaru. I had one of the Grass ninja in my mind for her, but then I decided to skip that story line to keep the main plot clear and easy-going…

***

Shikamaru walked down the corridors of the Kazekage tower and frowned. This was getting out of hand.

Sakura only managed to tell them that Lee will live before she passed out due to the exhaustion from the operation.

He and his team were taking turns together with the Sand siblings by his bed before the taijutsu master finally woke up from the coma, at which moment Sakura kicked them out of the room and talked with the black-haired shinobi for a long while. Eventually the door opened again and she called them back in.

They all piled back in, only to find Lee sitting up in his bed looking somber.

This was so unusual, that Chouji stopped in the middle of the door, causing Kankuro to trip and crash down, taking Temari with him. It would be funny, but neither of them cursed or laughed. Something was wrong in this room and they wanted to know.

Sakura took a deep breath, before speaking in a low voice. "The operation was successful as far as Lee's mobility is concerned. He will be able to walk again soon."

Kankuro frowned. "This is good news, definitely. Why so serious, then? What are you not telling us?"

The medic-nin looked at Lee again, frowning, hesitating.

The Nara genius knew her well enough to realize that this is going to be something really bad. And it was.

"The strain on his muscles was too much this time." She hesitated again.

Shikamaru finally dared to ask. "Is he going to be able to continue as a ninja?"

Sakura shook her head sadly. "No."

Temari gasped.

The pink-haired woman continued. "The tissue is too frail and with the strain of Lee's usual training, they would tear constantly. Civilian style of life is going to be okay, but no running too fast, no lifting of heavy burdens, no strong hits…" Her voice trailed off and she took a deep breath. "Tsunade-sama was able to repair some of the damage in the past, but the bones around the spine were already too messed up even before the last injury. Now that the muscles are worn out like this, there isn't much left to hold together. No missions and no being shinobi."

Chouji hid his pack of chips. "Not even in administrative?"

It was the puppeteer who answered his question. "Even the ninja in the administration are required to go on missions and be able to serve as a backup in the case of need."

Shikamaru heard a rustle of clothes from behind him and footsteps fading into the background. He took in the sliver of hurt in Lee's eyes and he knew instantly, who left.

Gaara had not come to visit Lee ever since.

The strategist of Konoha finally arrived to the Kazekage's antechambers and greeted Kankuro.

The puppeteer looked overworked, his kabuki paint was slightly smudged, stubble showing through and his clothes looked rumpled. "Hey man, what's up?"

"You have a moment?" Shikamaru didn't want to talk about it here, but he would if he had to.

Kankuro sighed. "No, not really. I haven't realized how much we started to rely on Lee and how much easier it was to work with him. What is it about?"

The dark-haired man rolled his eyes in the direction of Gaara's door. "About him."

"Oh." The other shinobi rubbed his hands over his face in a tired gesture, not caring about smearing his paint further and thought for a while. Finally he said in a hoarse voice, "Fine. I need to eat something anyhow. Let's go for lunch." He called a chuunin and told him to take over for a while.

When the two men were seated at the back of a small café near the Kazekage tower and ordered their food, Shikamaru lit his cigarette and started. "So, what's going on between them?" He knew that Kankuro did not need any specification.

"Don't know, man. Best pals, probably having hots for each other, but now, I don't know…" the voice of his masked companion trailed off as their drinks arrived. He thanked the waitress and continued, "He's literally barricaded in the office, starting early at the morning and leaving late at night, just like he used to do before Lee's 'eh attacks'."

Shikamaru nodded, "So he got you too, huh? Anyhow, I talked to Sakura before she left and she told me that Gaara might feel guilty about the whole thing. How about that?"

Kankuro shrugged and sipped his coffee. "That's probably it. I mean, I did feel guilty about his scars, yunno, those he got from Gaara at the exams? And it wasn't me who put them there, so imagine how my brother feels." He swallowed a shot of alcohol he ordered with his drink and exhaled. "Shit, we were still wondering how comes he doesn't hate us. I mean, like the whole family…"

The tanned shinobi dragged on his cigarette. "And now Lee took the hit meant for him and because of the injuries Gaara caused in the past, he's off the active roster. I can see that." He stubbed the cancer stick out and drank his tea. "Hasn't your brother realized, that Lee doesn't do hate? I am sure that the guy understands the concept of such an emotion, but he seems to be totally incapable of anything like that. Angry? Yes. Annoyed? Totally. Hurt? That too. In fact," Shikamaru paused only to light another nicotine treat. "In fact I think that 'hurt' is exactly what Lee is doing right now. I think that he probably depends on this bond with your brother a lot. Definitely more than Gaara seems to realize."

The waitress came with their food at that moment, giving Kankuro time to think about what his companion said.

The puppeteer leaned back in his seat, breaking his chopsticks. "I know that. But you have to realize one thing – none of us exactly know how to behave in such a situation and he's the worst of us. I mean, everybody being afraid of you, treating you like a monster, telling you to die and trying to kill you, that has to damage something, yunno? And me and Temari, we did a number on him ourselves too. Fuck, he had Shukkaku sealed inside and our mom had died after giving birth to him. And the Yondaime went crazy after she was gone, even though he basically killed her himself." Kankuro's voice was impersonal and his expression distant, as he spoke about his family.

Shikamaru noticed he didn't call the man who sired him "father" but chose not to comment on it. He took his own chopsticks, snapped them apart and started to eat, while listening to the other man.

"What I mean, Gaara doesn't know much about human feelings. Hell, he never had the opportunity to learn about them, other than books and later Naruto and you guys. Lee's probably the closest person he ever had and now he went and hurt him. Again. This is what he probably thinks. It's Yashamaru all over again, only from the other side."

The Konohan shinobi interrupted him, "Yashamaru was your uncle?"

Kankuro swallowed the mouthful of food and nodded, "Yeah. The one who told him he loves him and then tried to blow him up. How about that?"

Shikamaru sighed. "So troublesome. Still, he should try and wrap his mind around the fact that Lee isn't like most people he's ever met. I know that your brother is probably having a hard time, but you know, he's hurting my friend right now."

The puppeteer finished his food silently, drank the rest of the coffee and finally said, "Fine. I will try and talk to him about it tonight."

The other man looked at him for a while. "That would be good. Lee's getting discharged tomorrow."

"What? Already?" Kankuro was surprised. It was about two weeks since Sakura and Shizune ran the operation and he expected the recovery to last much longer.

Shikamaru left some bills on the table and stood up. "Yeah. He hates hospitals and he's doing fine enough to be released into a home treatment. He's not allowed to get back to work yet, but he's allowed to start moving around a bit. But this also means that somebody has to keep an eye on him." He turned to Kankuro and looked him straight in the eyes. "If you can't get some sense into your brother's head, then it would be probably better to get his things moved back to barracks, so we can help him. If you know what I mean."

The Kazekage's brother took a deep breath before replying, "Look, I can't guarantee he would be even willing to talk to me. But I'll try, okay man? I'll try." He stood there and watched the other man going away, before he turned and returned to Gaara's office. This was going to be a long talk, but he had to try at least and get the point across.

***

Lee was sneaking along the street or, at least, tried to sneak as well as a completely bandaged person could sneak. That meant surprisingly well, albeit uncomfortably. The cast around his chest was chaffing and the wound on his back was itching badly, but he knew he shouldn't touch it. He did have enough patience when it came to wounds, especially after the talk Tsunade-sama gave him all those years ago, when she caught him picking on scabs on his left arm.

The man grinned. He ran from the hospital, so what. He was supposed to be discharged today, after all, so he could as well discharge himself a little bit earlier and get under the radar for a while.

His friends were definitely caring, but they were treating him like a deathly-sick most of the time, except for Shikamaru. And except for Gaara.

The shinobi with the pineapple-shaped ponytail spent hours playing the shogi with him, bringing him news from both Konoha and Suna shinobi, or lazed around with him in the hospital garden.

Lee learned quickly that Shikamaru's favorite pastime, the cloud-gazing, was a lot like the meditation and sometimes they spent a whole afternoon simply looking up silently, with Shika lighting a cigarette from time to time.

Ino was very sweet, always bringing fresh flowers and the newest gossip and jokes, but when she thought he wasn't looking, her eyes started to tear up.

Chouji brought him fresh fruit and was sneaking him snacks behind the nurses' backs.

Lee usually did not agree with junk food, but he had to admit, that they were much tastier than the bland hospital diet. He had a wound in his back, not in his stomach, after all.

Temari and Kankuro also stopped to see him from time to time, both looking very exhausted. The date of signature of the treaty with the Grass village was coming close and a lot of preparations had to be done, so they could not stay for long.

The Konoha shinobi was secretly glad for it. Sure, he liked both of them, but there was some strange awkwardness between them now.

A look of guilt and regret would fleet across Temari's face.

Or Kankuro would make an awkward pause in telling a story.

And both of them were avoiding talking about Gaara. The one time Lee asked about the Kazekage himself, Temari laughed uncomfortably and pulled the oh-look-it's-so-late trick.

And Gaara himself simply never came.

Well, if Kami-sama would not come to the mountain, the mountain has to go to Kami-sama, of course.

And so Lee sneaked out of his bed after his final check-up in the morning, knowing that nobody would disturb him until lunch. He knew that if he stayed there and waited for his friends to pick him up, they would fuss around him, maybe even put him in a wheelchair, and take him home and would not let him out. Well, he had slightly different plans, even though he looked more like a mummy.

He pulled on his clothes clumsily, what with his left arm bandaged from the fingertips up to his shoulder, the cast around his torso and his right knee and ankle bound tightly, picked the cane a nurse left in the corner for him yesterday and left the hospital building stealthily.

He might not be fit enough to be a ninja anymore, but he was still trained as one and sneaking around required careful movements anyhow and so he didn't consider it a strenuous activity. Sakura said he could do civilian-level and walking definitely was a civilian-level thing, if you thought about it. Lee paused for a while, thinking about how living in the Sabaku house changed his viewpoint on some things.

Yes, Kankuro's attitude was definitely rubbing off on him.

The bandaged man continued up the stairs, waving at the ninja walking around him busily, and greeting cheerfully those he usually worked with. Soon he was by the antechambers and now he only had to get past the older Sabaku brother. He relied on Kankuro's exhaustion to help mask his chakra, because he would not be able to hide his signature anyhow. Lee limped into a cabinet full of office supplies, left the door opened a crack and settled to wait. All too soon he heard familiar footsteps leaving the room, heading in the direction of the exit.

Good. Kankuro probably went to get something to eat.

But Lee definitely did not expect what happened next.

Light footsteps came running and slightly winded female voice yelled, "Kankuro, have you seen Lee?"

The man in question cringed. So his escape was noticed already, huh?

The puppeteer's deep voice sounded exhausted. "No. Wasn't he supposed to be discharged today?"

Ino's words had a shrill timbre. "Yes. But his room was empty when we came to pick him up and he's not at the hospital at all. Shikamaru ran a search with his shadow technique, but he was probably too far from the building already."

Kankuro sounded slightly alarmed now. "Have you tried asking people?"

Ino huffed, "Yeah, but try asking about a bandaged man around a hospital!"

Lee grinned. This was going to be better than he thought. Now he only needed the puppeteer to be too exhausted to think straight and forget about feeling for Lee's chakra.

"Oh, right. Damn it." The man sighed. He was silent for a while, then continued, "Okay. Here's what we do. Get Temari and inform her, but don't tell Gaara. The five of us should be able to find him sooner or later, so there's no need to raise an alarm yet. We'll know more soon – perhaps he simply had enough of the hospital already and went ahead. Have you checked at our place already?" His voice grew more and more distant, as they probably walked away to look for Lee.

The hidden shinobi chuckled. He did not expect this, but it was definitely a good way to get Kankuro out of his way to be able to talk to Gaara finally. He had no idea what happened since the fight near the Rabbit Oasis, but he was going to find out and he was going to find out now. Lee wasn't that straightforward when it came to the interpersonal relationships usually, but this was concerning him a lot.

He stepped out of the closet and walked up to the Kazekage's door. He opened it without knocking and went in, closing the door behind him silently. "Hello, Gaara."