HeavenlyHuntress has sprung from the grave and grasped Spring in My Heart with her bare hands. And she presents you the following chapter...(don't worry, I feel quite sane)

Recap: Hinata was kicked out of Konoha, rescued by the Kazekage himself (!). She resided in Suna for half a year, and then, with the secret help of Gaara, was forced back to Konoha by Sakura, Naruto and Neji. She rebelled immediately, first unable to believe she wasn't in Suna. She misses it terribly.


Spring in My Heart

Remembering Gaara

A month later.

I clutched the napkin in my hands, eyes glazed in horrified shock. The nurse fretfully dabbed at my eyes.

"Don't cry, Hinata-san, please. Don't cry, now."

I had cried for a month. What the hell did it matter?

I choked, feeling even more disconsolate. "D-don't. Don't..."

"There, there. It's going to be all right. You are alive. You are breathing, living. It doesn't matter now. Nothing matters but that you are living." Her eyes peered at me worriedly. "Make a new start," she suggested.

I jerked back; her words physically had stung me. "A new start?" I repeated, repulsed. "In K-konoha?" With my head in my hands I sobbed.

"Hinata...please - "

"It doesn't matter anymore!" My own violence frightened me. "Suna is all I'll ever love. Suna..suna-suna - Gaara..." The words were mixing, becoming desperately intermingled. My voice was incoherently weeping. These were the only basic words I knew how to say.

The nurse rested an awkward hand onto my knee. "Konoha isn't bad. It really isn't."

I dredged up my disbelief. "It doesn't m-matter anymore. I'd r-rather die than live here. I'd r-rather.. - "

"Hinata - " She looked as if she were running out of patience.

Anger flared in my eyes. "I'm fine," I told her. "Leave me be, please."

She gratefully shut the door behind her.

--

I could tell you that my life rose immediately upwards, but it would not be truthful.

I could tell you that I got used to Konoha. I didn't.

But if you asked me for the truth, I would reply this; the sole reason I survived my ordeal in Konoha was due to my teammates: Kiba and Shino, and a befriended smart aleck. Shikamaru.

I reunited with Kiba three weeks after I returned to Konoha - on the day I was released form the hospital.

"Hello, newly-improved Hinata," I remember Kiba had greeted me. Rather heartily.

I inquired coldly, "Improved? By returning to Konoha? I don't see how."

He chuckled. "Come on. Improved in general. I mean, you got way stronger, you managed to defeat Sakura in – I've heard – five minutes, gave Naruto quite the scare, and certainly made Tsunade reconsider kicking you out of Konoha. Aren't those accomplishments something to be proud of?"

I shrugged frostily, but inside I was looking at this in a whole new light. The way he put it outlined the positive aspects of my experience in Suna. My fists clenched. As much as I'd wanted to live there, it was nothing more than an experiment.

Something of the sort, according to Shikamaru.

"So I heard Gaara betrayed you," he dropped in casually two days later, slouching by the wall.

I was too tired to glare back. "Why would I believe you?"

"Naruto told me that the Kazekage himself knocked you out."

I smarted. "And I would trust Naruto because…?"

He looked me square in the eyes. "I believe Naruto. But even if you don't, it's your decision."

I'd walked away in frigid silence.

The thing was, I knew he and Naruto were correct. The way Gaara had acted in the last few weeks was slightly strange, if not suspicious. He'd spent weeks holed up in his office after the Hanabi incident, not talking to anyone, including Ibiki. And he never met my eyes anymore.

I rethought it, knowing in my secret heart that, inadvertently or not, Gaara had betrayed me.

At this I laughed aloud. My hands twisted. What could I change? I couldn't change even my feelings. He was still my best friend, even after this. I still considered him the best thing that ever happened in my life. He'd trained me into a newer person. He taught me never to give up.

In spite of this, I wanted, somehow, more. Now that I was away from him, I felt this emotion even stronger – it wasn't a liking to him, it was more of an obsession. Though he'd deceived me, I still thought of him everyday, desiring to see his smile. I wanted him beside me, pointing out the night stars, correcting my stance.

--

Shino, on the other hand, didn't attempt to speak to me. He simply followed to where I trained, collecting my shurikens after I was finished. I slowly grew accustomed to his presence and we trained together, sometimes with Kiba, reuniting our tattered team.

Kurenai never did forgive me. Of course she acted warm and motherly, but her eyes grew wide with something akin to terror when she glimpsed my mangled eye. I knew she shunned me, even with her kindly words and smiles.

It was the sort of behavior Sakura, Ino, Rock Lee, and most of the rest held for me, the Special Case. TenTen and Neji never bothered to speak to me. I rarely saw them, if at all. Chouji, not so much. He sided with Shikamaru.

And then there was Naruto. He never got over that day. He'd never gotten over my transformation into the person I was now. He'd always expected a quiet, loitering shy girl stumbling behind him.

And because of this, along with the fact Sakura avoided me, Naruto also rejected me.

Somehow this hurt me above everything else.

I guess still waters run deep.

--

9:03 PM

Sunagakure

Temari slapped the last piece of cloth onto her fan and straightened. Gaara was examining the status device. Again.

She sighed, pushing her steel fan off of her lap, and stood beside him.

"Checking it again?" she queried softly.

He inclined his head. His messy red hair hadn't been combed for days. His movement was sluggish as he handed the device to his sister.

She studied it, scrutinizing the curves of blood levels and heart rate, noting the respiratory system.

"She's talking right now." Temari handed it back to Gaara, who took it wordlessly. The device recorded accordingly to Hinata's movements and body systems.

She sat down. "You know, this would have never happened if you – "

His head jerked upwards; he glared at her. His eyes were full of aggravated pain. Gaara had never been good at hiding emotion.

She continued on a different note. "The last few weeks all Hinata ever did was cry. You should be happy she's rediscovered friends."

He pushed at his temples. "I should," he mumbled, "but I'm not."

Temari stood up. She refrained from a 'It's your fault, you know.'

Instead, she stretched, looking outwards toward the waning dusk.

"You should really get off that, Gaara. Stop worrying."

"I'm not worrying," she heard him mutter as she exited his office. "Go away."

She shut the door. Even after all his stupid mistakes and decisions, he was still her little brother. She would help him get through this.

--

A week later-

I heard the sharp noise of a pebble hitting my window. The hospital had a new wing – of "orphans", basically. I was considered on of them.

I walked outside. Shikamaru perched on the hospital fence, waved in greeting.

"Hi."

"Hi," I yawned.

"Getting used to Konoha?" he asked briefly.

If he were someone else I would have surely beat the daylights out of him.

I frowned offhandedly. "I wouldn't call it getting used to. I'd call it…"

"…Barely getting by?" he supplied.

"Exactly."

He paused. "You know, you are so incredibly suited to Suna," he said, almost to himself.

"Hm.?"

"Your skin," he explained, "along with everything about you. Your skin never gets tanned, does it?"

"No, it doesn't," I conceded. "So?"

"Perfect for the harsh sun," he observed. "And your thin build and narrow feet make the ideal form for running through the desert. It's almost as if…"

I said nothing.

"…you are madefor Suna."

I felt like crying suddenly, but my tears had dried so long ago. "I am," I whispered. "That's why all these weeks in Konoha, it's like I'm just a zombie, going through the motions and – "

"SHIKAMARU!"

Our heads jerked up. Ino waved her arms, looking absurdly cold in her purple, scrawny attire. Her hair swung haphazardly.

She paid no heed to me, instead approaching Shikamaru, huffing and puffing. "Shikamaru! Dammit! I called your names a million times!"

"Oh? I didn't hear."

"Jerk," she complained. She placed her hands on her knees, out of breath. "You – you didn't hear, Shika?"

"No, I didn't," he said with a touch of annoyance.

Her eyes grew wide, in disbelief at his response.

"You're not serious. You've got be the single last person in all of Konoha." I noticed she ignored in mentioning me.

He pursed his lips. "Get to the point, Ino."

She took a shaky breath.

"Gaara - the Kazekage - has been abducted by the Akatsuki!"


I know I wrote hiatus, but I honestly considered quitting this story once and for all.

You can thank my continuation to my deranged sub-conscious. A few weeks ago I dreamed that an writer called "Annie Hippie" stole this story and got like a million reviews. I guess my ego just couldn't STAND someone doing that.

So, yeah. I'm very, very sorry about the loooooong wait. I honestly am.