Sorry I took so long. My dog ate my hard drive. Enjoy the pun in the second paragraph.

I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, so on and so forth.

Chapter Fourteen: Brotherly Love

"Hey, Gaara."

Gaara was using his bed for the first time in months. He was not actually sleeping, of course, but it was the best way to rest himself while recovering from his injuries. As a consequence of using so much of Shukaku's power during his match, the demon had apparently withdrawn his healing powers for a time. Gaara had received no serious injuries, but he was still drained from handling so much demonic chakra. A glance at his window showed Naruto hanging in the frame like a monkey. He opened the window further and let himself into the room. Since it was almost never used, Gaara's bedroom was extremely neat and clean, like the guest room of someone who did not entertain guests very often.

The chunin exam preliminaries had ended three days ago. Just as Shukaku had said, Gaara had fractured Lee's spine during their fight. The older boy had sunken into a coma when Gaara had finally knocked him out, and he had not woken up yet. Gaara had asked Naruto if he could help Lee like he had Hinata. Although he had tried his hardest, he was unable to duplicate the technique. Naruto had been mad with fury at Neji when he had healed her, and he just could not summon the same kind of resentment towards his best friend.

Gaara sat up. "What's up?"

"Well, I was training today, and I met this pervy-sage guy," Naruto replied.

"Did you just say 'pervy-sage guy'?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Just checking. What about him?"

"He kicked the shit out of the guy that was training me, so he's going to train me instead. I'm going to be gone for the rest of the month."

"Okay," Gaara said, monotonously.

"Look, you haven't been yourself since your fight. I know you're upset, but judging by what you told me, you didn't have any choice but to work with Shukaku."

Gaara closed his eyes. "I should have found a way. I should never have dropped my guard and even fallen into a situation like that in the first place."

Naruto frowned. "You're being too hard on yourself. You are only human, after all."

"Yes, but Shukaku isn't human, and my seal doesn't insulate me as well as yours does. I have to be better than human. I have to be."

"You're wrong. You don't have to be superhuman. Do you know why?"

"Tell me."

"Because you're not alone. You've got me, and you've got Yashamaru. We don't hang around to complement the scenery, you know. By the sounds of it, Yashamaru almost picked a fight with your dad when he thought he had threatened you. When I thought that Haku had killed you on the bridge, I almost killed him. People who don't care don't do that kind of stuff for each other. We're here to catch you when you fall, just like you do when one of us is in trouble. You're my brother, in every way that counts if not by blood. If you ever need me, for anything, all you have to do is call. And if anyone should try to stop me…" Naruto laid a hand on his stomach, over the seal that held in a monster that shattered mountains with a passing gesture. "Then they'll be sorry."

Gaara swallowed and bowed his head. He swept his hands across his eyes, to wipe away the unshed tears.

"You okay?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah," Gaara replied. He smirked. "I just got some sand in my eye."

Naruto grinned back. "Right. See you in a month."

"Yes."

Naruto climbed back out of the window and disappeared down the street. Gaara got up, and his stomach rumbled. Now that he thought about it, he had not eaten anything for almost a day now. Gaara winced when he realized Yashamaru was not home yet, which meant he would have to fend for himself if he wanted food. He walked into the kitchen, and thankfully there were enough leftovers that Gaara did not have to use a heating element. Yashamaru walked in half an hour later.

"Hey," Gaara said.

"Hey," Yashamaru replied. He frowned. "Did you make those?"

Gaara held up a leftover rice ball. "Nope. Found them in the refrigerator."

"I made those almost two weeks ago."

Gaara's stomach gurgled. "Whoops."

"Tomorrow will be interesting for you."

"Nah. Demonic healing factor and all that."

"I'm glad to see that you're up."

"Naruto swung by earlier."

"Ah."

"We talked for a bit."

"Ah."

"You're annoying me a little."

"Ah."

"Stop it."

"Ah."

Gaara threw a rice ball at him. Yashamaru dodged, and it flew out of the open window. Gaara faintly heard a muffled curse come from the street below.

"Um," Gaara said, "At least they won't be able to tell which window it came from."

"Ah."

The next morning, Yashamaru rose early. He and Gaara had an early breakfast, and then Yashamaru told Gaara to follow him before leaping out of the window. Once he had gotten his heart rate under control, Gaara followed his uncle through most of the village until they reached the training grounds.

"What are we doing here?" Gaara asked.

"Picnic," Yashamaru replied easily.

Gaara stared at him.

"I'm just kidding. We're going to train."

"I'm no good at medical ninjutsu. You know that."

Yashamaru just grinned at him. Then he shot forward so fast that Gaara could not even see him. When he came to a halt, Yashamaru was a bare inch from Gaara. He reached out and tweaked Gaara's nose as his sand rose belatedly to defend him. If Yashamaru had been attacking Gaara, he would have been able to land one hell of a blow.

Just like Lee.

"Medical jutsu wasn't what I had in mind," Yashamaru said cheerfully, stepping out of Gaara's personal space.

"I've been wondering about that," Gaara said, "When did you get so good at taijutsu? You lifted that jerk at the hospital with one hand like he was stuffed with feathers-"

"More like hot air," Yashamaru corrected.

"-and you got in Father's face so quickly it surprised even him," Gaara continued, ignoring his uncle's interruption, "I thought that you didn't like to fight."

"That's true, I didn't. But then your father tried to kill us."

"Ah," Gaara said, understanding.

"It's possible I had issues after that."

"Ah."

"Stop it. And it's possible that I worked through those issues at the gym."

"Who did you train with, exactly?"

Yashamaru grinned. "Kakashi."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. He threw me around for a couple of months until my taijutsu got up to scratch. Then he threw me around for a few more before I developed my jutsu."

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you made your own jutsu. What is it? Why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Hey, everyone has stuff they keep to themselves right? Like, maybe, you almost being killed in the Land of Waves?"

Gaara winced. "You heard about that, huh?"

"Word gets around. And I still meet up with Kakashi occasionally to spar."

"Sorry."

"It's no problem. You're okay, and that's all that matters. So you get my point?"

"Yes. So, what is this jutsu of yours?"

"It's kind of like when that Lee character opens the inner gates to fuel his techniques, but without all of the nasty side effects."

"You found a way to control the inner gates better?"

Yashamaru laughed. "No. If I wasn't such a damn good medic, I probably never would have even thought of it, much less actually done it."

"Don't hold back on my account. Go ahead and give yourself a pat on the back."

"Oh, I will. You see, the first time I used the technique in a match with Kakashi…"

"What?"

Yashamaru smirked evilly. "I pulled his mask off."

Gaara's jaw dropped. "No way."

"Yes way."

"What does he look like?"

"I'll never tell. Besides, he swore me to secrecy when I did it."

"Naruto and Sakura would sell their souls to find out what he looks like under the mask."

"Looks like they're going to be hanging onto them for awhile, then, because I'm not saying a word. Anyway, back to the jutsu."

"Yes."

"Basically, I use my chakra to increase the speed of the electrical signals in my nervous system. Opening the inner gates can accomplish the same thing, but since it's my own chakra the strain isn't as great. Extended use can cause the nerves to deteriorate, but I only use it in bursts to avoid that."

"And if you ever do go too far, at least you'll have a medic on hand," Gaara said sardonically.

"Indeed. I've refined it over the years, so I can fight for almost twenty minutes straight while using it without harming myself. I estimate that I could use it for maybe ten minutes more before I run out of chakra. Of course, real fights never last that long anyway, so it's not really relevant."

"So, you're going to teach me this technique?"

"Hell, no!" Yashamaru said sharply, "The jutsu is incredibly dangerous. If you put too much chakra it, it's like swallowing a bolt of lightning. And like you said, you're horrible at medical jutsu."

"Okay, calm down," Gaara said, "So if you're not going to teach it to me, why bother telling me about it at all?"

"Because," Yashamaru explained, "I'm going to be using this technique to train you to compensate for high-speed opponents. Twice, now, you've been overcome by enemies that use speed to overcome your sand barrier. When it happened, you were completely taken off your guard because you aren't used to defending yourself. Over the years, you've become totally reliant on the sand barrier as your only means of defense. It has lulled you into a false sense of security, and you get knocked right on your ass every time it fails."

Gaara winced. "Okay, okay, I get it. So, how do I defend against a high-speed opponent?"

"It's actually quite simple, especially for you. All you have to do is dodge. Think about this for a second. When you're standing still, only the fastest of opponents can bypass your sand barrier. If you start moving around as well, your opponent will not only have to hit a moving target, they'll have to hit a moving target that has an automatic shield as well."

"So all we're going to do today is have you attack me while I try to dodge?"

"No, we're going to take it one step farther than that. While you were in the academy, the teachers barred you from sparring practice because they didn't want you to harm the other students. I'm going to teach you advanced taijutsu. I might not be of the same caliber as Kakashi or Might Guy, but what I can teach you should give you a significant edge against your opponents."

"Okay. Let's get started."

For the next several hours, Yashamaru tutored Gaara on the correct stances and postures of basic taijutsu. Although he did not often utilize taijutsu, Gaara had been a good student and remembered all of his forms from the academy, even if he hardly ever used them. Most of the stances Yashamaru taught Gaara were variations of the basic ones, with minor changes to allow for greater speed and balance. Once Gaara had learned the stances, Yashamaru began to guide him through what he called sequences. They were, he explained, series of blocks and attacks that were linked together. Through practice, a shinobi would learn a sequence so thoroughly that they would be able to repeat it on reflex when attacked. This was superior to learning moves individually because a shinobi would be able to block and then counter instantly, instead of having to consciously move from defense to attack.

At the end of the day, Gaara felt as if he had been sat on by an elephant. He had made sure to do the entire training session with his gourd strapped to his back, because it always would be on missions. Over the years, he had become accustomed to standing, walking, running, and even climbing with the gourd weighing him down. Taijutsu, though, was not something his muscles had been trained to cope with while carrying a weight that almost matched that of Gaara's entire body. Fortuitously, the simple circulation of chakra afforded by his nightly meditation was enough to rejuvenate his stressed muscles. By the next morning, Gaara was not sore at all.

When a week had passed, Gaara was able to keep up with Yashamaru in sparring matches relatively well. His uncle's predictions had proved true. When Gaara actually attempted to defend himself while using his shield, he was all but untouchable. Using his nerve enhancement jutsu, Yashamaru was still able to land occasional hits without much effort, but only while using his jutsu.

"I'm a little embarrassed," Yashamaru told Gaara on the eighth day of their training, "You've taken every lesson I learned about taijutsu in six years and mastered them in seven days."

"Well, you were outright trying to teach me," Gaara said, wiping sweat from his forehead, "And, of course, your student is a genius."

"Indeed, he is," Yashamaru agreed. Gaara would have gone red if he had not been already from the workout. "What do you say we go out to dinner tonight and celebrate?"

"You can pick," Gaara said, "Just not anyplace that serves ramen."

Yashamaru and Gaara took a leisurely walk through Konoha until they reached Yashamaru's favorite restaurant, a food stall near the hospital that served soba. They sat down on the curb next to the stall and spent several minutes eating and talking.

"I've been meaning to ask," Gaara said, "When do you have to go back to work?"

"Well, I have been working there for six years straight without taking a single sick day," Yashamaru replied, "That allowed me to accumulate a lot of vacation days and so on. I took the whole month off, plus the day of the chunin exam finals."

"That's a lot of time off."

"Yes, it's everything I had."

"You didn't have to do that."

"I wanted to. We don't get to hang out so often now that you're a fully fledged ninja."

"That and you want to make sure I don't bump into Father on my own again."

Yashamaru grinned, unrepentant. "Guilty."

"That works for me."

"He's still as creepy as when we left Suna."

"No kidding. He's been like that for as far back as I can remember. I don't think that's ever going to change."

Yashamaru stared contemplatively at his empty bowl. "He wasn't always like that. He used to be a good man. I was happy to have him as a brother-in-law."

Gaara gave him a sideways look. This was not a story he had heard before. "What do you mean?"

"When we were kids, your father and I were quite good friends. He met your mother from hanging out with me, in fact. He was never precisely a kind man, but he was loyal to his friends and allies, and to his village. And, of course, he was always a powerful and talented shinobi."

"What changed him then?"

Yashamaru frowned. "I'm not sure. He was a chunin during the last days of the last shinobi war. He was in this huge task force of our ninja that got sent out on a top secret mission. Even today, nobody knows what they were doing. The mission was a complete disaster. It was something like the third or fourth largest group of shinobi Suna has ever lost in one mission. Your father was the only one who returned, and that was six months later. Personally, I think he had been captured and then returned as part of post-war negotiations. It was many years before all of the repercussions hit him, though."

"What repercussions?" Gaara asked.

"It was little things at first. He would lose his temper at seemingly small provocations. Over the years, he grew increasingly cold and detached. Of course, that just made him seem like a better ninja to the people in charge at the time. He did his best to act like his old self for my sister and me. In retrospect, it was fairly obvious that it was an act, but we were so happy to have him back at the time that we convinced ourselves that he was all right."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. This all happened years before you were born. I have fond memories of the man he once was. That's enough."

"What about the man he is now?"

Yashamaru's frown darkened. "He killed my sister, implanted a demon into his own son, and tried to kill both of us. My friend died long ago, and I've gotten over it. The man he is now won't find any mercy from me."

"Hey," Gaara said suddenly, "Isn't that Temari and Kankuro?"

The two Suna-nin were walking on the opposite side of the street, towards the hospital. The two of them looked like they had been stuffed into a trashcan full of dust and rocks and then rolled down a hill. Kankuro had his arm over Temari's shoulder and was being careful to hold one of his legs completely off the ground. His sister was supporting most of his weight as he hopped along, and his face was pale underneath the purple makeup. Wherever they had come from, it had to have been slow going with Kankuro being forced to bunny hop the entire way.

Yashamaru was up and across the street in a heartbeat. Gaara debated for a moment whether or not to follow, then got up and followed his uncle. Temari and Kankuro were his siblings, after all.

"Hello, uncle," Temari said. Kankuro gave a pained nod.

"What happened?" Yashamaru asked.

"We had a training session with Father today," Kankuro ground out through clenched teeth.

"Sit down. I'll patch you up," Yashamaru instructed. Gaara unfurled some of his sand to help, but Temari and Kankuro flinched hard enough to jostle Kankuro's injured leg. Gaara hurriedly put his sand away as Yashamaru helped Temari sit Kankuro down on a bench along the side of the street. Blue light emanated from Yashamaru's hand as he used a healing jutsu on Kankuro's leg. While Yashamaru worked on Kankuro, Gaara took the opportunity to covertly study his siblings. Both of them were sweaty, dirty, and looked roughed up. This was not necessarily a bad thing; in fact they could be the signs of a good workout.

However, the object of sparring was not to wound the opponent, and Temari and Kankuro were clearly wounded. Temari had a split lip, and her left eye was swollen and black. Kankuro's leg was taking a long time to heal, which heavily implied the damage had been done to his knee rather than just some random part of his leg. Joint injuries always took more time and effort to heal due to their delicacy. There was sparring and there was having the shit kicked out of you. Temari and Kankuro looked like they fell into the latter category.

"With Father, huh?" Gaara asked.

"Yeah," Temari replied.

Yashamaru looked up at her when she spoke. He had been focused on Kankuro before, and he froze when he saw her face. Miniature lightning bolts lanced from his hand to Kankuro's leg as his anger increased his chakra flow. Kankuro yelped, more out of surprise than pain, and Yashamaru hurriedly cut back on his chakra. Then he did something Gaara didn't know he was capable of. While simultaneously keeping up the healing jutsu on Kankuro's knee, Yashamaru brought up the same jutsu in his other hand and waved it across Temari's face. Her split lip and black eye were healed in one swipe of his hand.

"Wow," Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro said in unison. Using two jutsu at the same time, even the same jutsu, took tremendous skill and a thorough knowledge of the technique's workings. To the person doing it, using two separate jutsu would be like singing a song aloud and thinking through the lyrics of a different song in a different language. Most shinobi capable of it did not bother to do it because of the huge effort and mental strain it entailed. For Yashamaru to be able to do it meant he was nothing short of an extraordinary medic. That, combined with his nerve enhancement jutsu, made Gaara wonder why the Hokage had not promoted him to jonin.

"Yes, yes, I know," Yashamaru said as he finished with Kankuro's leg, "I am amazing."

"How long have you been able to do that?" Gaara asked.

"Only for a couple of months now, and only with that jutsu. Even I have my limits." He looked at Temari and Kankuro. "Any more injuries, you two?"

"No, that's it," Temari replied, "Thank you."

"Yeah, thanks," Kankuro echoed.

"You're welcome," Yashamaru said, his voice hardening, "Where is your father now?"

"You can't do anything to him," Kankuro said hurriedly, "He's the freaking Kazekage! You'll be executed for sure even if you don't start a war!"

"Besides, he's not here anymore," Temari cut in.

"He's not?" Gaara asked in surprise.

"No, there was some business in Suna he had to take care of. He'll be gone for the rest of the month, but he'll be back by the time the final round of the exam starts."

"What happened in Suna?"

"A coup attempt, I think."

Yashamaru snorted. "I can't help but notice you say that as if it's an everyday occurrence."

"There's been one or two a year for awhile now." Kankuro explained. Temari shot him a murderous glance and elbowed him sharply in the ribs. Even before she struck, Kankuro looked aghast at what he had said. Despite the fact that they were family, Gaara and Yashamaru were shinobi of Konoha now.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anybody," Gaara assured.

"No we won't," Yashamaru agreed, "The Hokage wouldn't do anything differently even if we did tell him. He's not like that. Things are so much more different here from Suna. I wish now that I had taken you two with me as well when I took Gaara away from that place."

Temari and Kankuro remained silent, although they looked uncomfortable, unwilling to betray their father by agreeing. Gaara felt intensely sorry for them, which surprised him much as his concern for Kankuro during the preliminaries had. It seemed that despite years of atrophy, some small shred of a bond still connected him to his siblings. He wondered if it was there for them as well.

"Well," Yashamaru said, a slow grin spreading over his face, "If your father has gone back to Suna, there's no reason you couldn't come over to our place and visit for awhile, right?"

"I guess not," Kankuro said, grinning back. Temari, though, twitched and gave Gaara a quick sidelong glance. Gaara shrugged and followed Yashamaru as he led the way back to their apartment. For the rest of the night, the family from Suna caught up on the events of each other's lives. Gaara let Yashamaru do most of the talking for them, although his uncle tried to pull him into the conversation as often as possible. Gaara appreciated the sentiment, but his siblings always looked awkward when he started talking. He would have just preferred to sit back and watch. Although, by the end of the night, at least Temari and Kankuro seemed to stop expecting an attack every time Gaara moved or spoke.

The next day, when Gaara and Yashamaru stopped their training for lunch, Temari and Kankuro showed up again. They shrugged it off as another happy coincidence, but Gaara had sensed his siblings tracking them as soon as they had left the training grounds. Judging by the knowing smile Yashamaru sent Gaara's way, he knew as well. They spent the rest of the day simply walking around Konoha, seeing the sights and talking. When the sun began to set, the four retreated again to Gaara and Yashamaru's apartment, where they stayed until nearly midnight. It was when Gaara was helping Yashamaru clean up the mess that a discovery was made.

A discovery that would change his life, and the lives of those around him, forever.

"Whoops," Yashamaru said.

"What?" Gaara asked.

Yashamaru turned and hefted something in his hand. Gaara looked at it and saw that it was a Sunagakure headband.

"Looks like one of them forgot this here," Yashamaru said, "I'd better return it to them."

"I'll do it," Gaara said, "You're the one who actually needs to sleep."

Yashamaru grinned and tossed it to him. Gaara caught it in one hand and headed for the small cluster of hotels in Konoha, near the Hokage's tower. As a hidden village, only a small conglomerate of merchants and foreign ninja ever made visits. As such, not many hotels existed in the village. The ones that did usually made good business. When he reached the most expensive hotel, certainly the only one fitting for the Kazekage and his family, he paused before going in the front door. It would have been faster to scale the wall, but he did not want to be mistaken for an assassin. That would be inconvenient, not to mention that it would disturb the neighbors. So, after asking the person behind the desk about the room number, Gaara began climbing flights of stairs to reach the tenth floor of the hotel.

When he did, the stairway ended in a hallway. The hall ended in a grand doorway, leading into the only suite on the floor. Two Suna jonin stood on either side of the door. Both of them stiffened and gulped when they saw Gaara. Unlike Naruto, Gaara was notorious in his home village for the demon he hosted. Baki had been one of the best ninja in the village before Gaara had killed him. He was not surprised that the ninja from there now viewed him with something near supernatural dread. That could be useful in the future, but right now their fear meant nothing to Gaara.

He halted ten paces from the door and the shinobi, and simply traded stares with them.

"Boo," Gaara said, deadpan.

The jonin on the right scowled at him before rapping sharply on the door. A few moments later, Kankuro opened the door from the inside. His makeup and black outfit was gone, replaced by a white shirt and grey sweats. Without the makeup, he looked a lot like the Kazekage even though he had his mother's brown hair. He straightened up a bit when he saw Gaara, but that was his only other reaction.

"One of you forgot something," Gaara said.

Kankuro actually managed a smile. "She noticed right when we got home. Come on in."

"Sir?" One of the jonin asked disbelievingly.

"It's alright," Kankuro said, "He's not going to eat us."

Gaara walked past the two door guards only half expecting a kunai to impact his shield. Surprisingly, they did not even utter an obscenity as he passed. The inside of the suite did not have a single surface that was not covered by something expensive. Once the door was closed, Gaara pulled the headband out of a pocket and dangled it from his right hand.

"Heh," Kankuro said, "So that's what got Temari so worked up awhile ago. She already went to bed. I'll get her."

"Probably a good idea," Gaara said. Then, as soon as Kankuro turned and took his first step, Gaara knew something was wrong. It took him a second to realize what it was, and if he had not been focused on Temari's room he would not have noticed it. A faint, flickering presence. A trained shinobi, trying to hide himself. And he was lurking just feet away from Temari.

Gaara launched himself forward and threw every grain of sand on his back towards Temari's door.

"Kankuro!" Gaara bellowed, "Move!"

When Kankuro saw Gaara, flanked by his mass of sand, charging the door, he did not even have to be told. He threw himself out of the way, and Gaara used his sand to bring down the entire wall between him and his sister. For one brief moment, he was able to see what was inside before anyone reacted. The flickering presence turned out to be Dosu, the bandaged bastard from the preliminaries. His gauntleted fist was raised above Temari's sleeping form, poised to strike. His single visible eye widened in shock, even as Temari's snapped open.

But he did not freeze.

His fist came down like a hammer, striking Temari in the stomach. Shimmering coils of chakra-enhanced sound lanced out of the holes in his gauntlet. This time, instead of heading for the ears, the sound waves converged on the exact spot Dosu had hit. Sound waves with a frequency so high they were almost solid vanished into Temari's guts, tearing her insides to shreds. Temari let out an inhuman shriek of agony and curled into a ball, the agony so intense that she could not have resisted the impulse to curl up if she had wanted to.

Gaara's vision tunneled even as it turned red.

Sand lashed out with his will and shattered the gauntlet around Dosu's right forearm, breaking the limb beneath it for good measure. More sand wrapped itself around Dosu's other hand, his knees, his throat, and drove him into the wall next to the open window he had come in through. All of the sand except for that around his neck contracted violently, snapping bones and tendons. The Sound-nin let out a bellow of agony as his limbs were shattered. Gaara stalked toward his enemy, put his nose an inch away from his enemy's bandaged one, stared into his eye and asked a question.

"Why?"

"I must defeat Sasuke," Dosu whispered.

Hayate had shown them the tournament roster before the end of the preliminaries. Temari was scheduled to fight against Shikamaru in the first round, and whoever won that match would fight Dosu in the second. Dosu wanted to increase his chances of reaching Sasuke by killing off his opponents early. Gaara processed this for a full three seconds before he made his next move.

He removed the sand from around Dosu's neck and condensed it into a lumpy, fist-sized mass. Then, he drove it through the bandages over Dosu's mouth, breaking several of his captive's teeth in the process. When Dosu opened his mouth to scream, Gaara sent the sand down his throat, into his stomach, and then through his stomach to wrap his heart in a grip of sand. He gave the failed assassin a split second to realize death was coming before he ripped his heart free of its moorings with one savage twist. The corpse fell limply to the floor when Gaara let it go.

"Gaara!" Kankuro shouted. He was cradling his older sister in his arms. Her screaming had graduated to gurgling as blood leaked out of the corners of her mouth. She had thrown up into Kankuro's lap while he held her. He seemed not to notice. "She'll bleed out!"

If someone didn't get her to the hospital in about fifty seconds.

"Give her to me!" Gaara shouted, sending some sand to wrap her in a protective cocoon.

For one frozen, horrible moment, Gaara saw Kankuro consider refusing his help. Old habits die hard, after all. Temari needed every microsecond they could give her, and Kankuro's resistance might mean her death. Of course, he knew that too.

"Take her!" he shouted, allowing the sand to scoop her up. Even as it did, Gaara used the rest to blow out the wall he had held Dosu against, gathered himself up in a loose grip, and then threw himself out into the night air. But he did not fall, not tonight. For the first time in his life, Gaara flew. He rocketed across the city towards the hospital, covering the distance in a fraction of the time he could have managed hopping rooftops. He barely managed to slow down enough not to shatter the hospital's glass doors, and even so he arrived in the front lobby in a hurricane of wind, sand, and Temari's blood.

"Medic!" Gaara bellowed to the room at large. Most civilian doctors probably would have just stared in shock at a redheaded child standing in a miasma of bloodstained sand, holding a limp young woman in his arms. Fortunately, medic-nin were a little more jaded, and half a dozen of them took Temari within seconds of Gaara's arrival, their hands bathing her in multicolored lights. Gaara followed them until they entered the operating room, at which point an orderly, who must have been either extraordinarily brave or extraordinarily stupid considering the look on Gaara's face, put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to a waiting room. Except for Gaara, the room was empty when the orderly left.

Gaara sagged into a chair and threw his sand into a heap in a corner of the room. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, he was just tired and scared. He hated hospital waiting rooms. They were always too bright and sterile, lacking any kind of life or warmth. An empty one was even worse. At least he would not have to suffer alone for long. Kankuro would be along as soon as he told those door guards what had happened, and if Yashamaru had sensed his chakra he would probably be here even faster.

For precisely three-hundred and forty-five seconds, Gaara sat alone in the waiting room counting every second that passed to distract himself from his fear for Temari. Then Yashamaru burst into the room looking like he was ready to take someone's head off.

"Are you okay?" He asked urgently.

"I'm fine," Gaara said, "Temari isn't. One of the other genin from the exam tried to assassinate her."

"Who was it?"

"Some bandaged guy from Sound named Dosu."

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad. I fought him in the Forest of Death. He generates sound with this gauntlet and uses chakra to amplify it and direct it. During my fight he tried to hit my ears, but he hit Temari in the stomach with it."

"How was she before they took her away? What kind of symptoms did she have?"

Gaara thought for a moment before answering. "She was having trouble breathing and blood was coming out of her mouth."

"Was she making odd sounds when she was breathing?"

"Yeah, like she had to clear her throat. That means her lungs were damaged, doesn't it?"

"Almost certainly. How long did it take you to get her here after she was injured?"

"It couldn't have been much more than a minute and a half, more or less."

Yashamaru sat down next to Gaara. "That's good, if you were that fast there shouldn't be any brain damage from oxygen deprivation. Where's Kankuro, by the way?"

"He'll be here soon enough, I would imagine."

"You're damn right I will be," Kankuro said as he landed on the floor. He had snuck into the hospital through the crawlspace in the ceiling.

"Son of a bitch, Kankuro," Gaara breathed. He had just barely restrained himself from blasting his brother through the wall.

"Sorry, I figured if I came through the front door they'd want me to fill out paperwork or something. I just thought it'd be faster to sneak in."

"That is the protocol," Yashamaru said with a faint grin, "But we doctors are human beings, you know. If you had taken two minutes to explain, they would have let you through."

"Two minutes?" Kankuro said, bemused, "Who the hell can wait that long? But that doesn't matter anyway, where the hell is Temari?"

"She's in surgery," Gaara said, "That's all we know."

"Father is going to be so angry…"

Kankuro plopped down in a seat on the other side of Yashamaru and buried his face in his hands. Yashamaru put a comforting hand on his back. Time passed, only a few hours, but they seemed exceptionally long to Gaara. The bright white walls of the waiting room started to give him a headache, and Gaara rubbed his palms against his closed eyes. It was a relief when, at long last, a medic-nin walked through the door. Gaara, Yashamaru, and Kankuro jumped to their feet in unison. It was four thirty in the morning; four hours after Temari had been brought into the hospital.

"It was a near thing, I've got to tell you," he said, "But she'll make it."

Kankuro let out a mad whoop of glee. Gaara and Yashamaru fell back in their chairs.

"Where is she?" Gaara asked.

"She's being moved to the recovery ward right now," the medic replied, "You can see her if you like, but she won't be awake for awhile."

"Thank you," Yashamaru said, "Thank you so much."

"Not at all. You work here, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Room three-oh-one."

"Thank you."

The three of them walked swiftly through the hospital until they reached Temari's room. Being the daughter of a foreign dignitary, she had been given a private room to recover in. True to the medic's word, Temari was asleep. An EKG beeped in the corner. Word had apparently spread about the attack, because two Konoha ANBU stood outside the door and two more stood in corners of the room. Kankuro pulled the only chair in the room beside Temari's bed and flopped down in it, Gaara and Yashamaru standing on either side of him. For almost two hours, the three simply remained at Temari's bedside, just watching her breathe.

"Now I can't wait for the exams to start up again," Kankuro said abruptly.

"Why's that?" Yashamaru asked.

"Because I really, really want to hit something," Kankuro replied.

Gaara, although he kept it to himself, agreed.

The next chapter kicks off the chunin exams. Please review!