Chapter 36: Confessions

When Riko stepped into the quarantined wing of the hospital, the overpowering smell of antiseptics hit her so suddenly that she felt slightly lightheaded. There were several rooms that the hall led to. Peaking through the doors' windows, Riko could see several motionless patients lying down in hospital beds. She took a deep breath and devised a simple strategy. She would go in one room at a time, fully heal everyone, expel all the diseases in the air so that they do not end up perpetuating it to anyone else, and then she would keep them in their room until she got the confirmation from the other doctors to clear them. With a clearer goal in mind, Riko got to work.

On the other side of the quarantining door, Gaara was told to leave the hospital, as to not disturb with the daily functions of the staff. He begrudgingly left, saying he will be back in a few hours to check on things. He still did not feel comfortable about leaving her alone there so he decided to report back to Riko's squad leader, Might Guy, who will be the one deciding how to proceed.

After recounting the events of that morning to Riko's squad, they all had different reactions. Lee was almost about to bust out of there and run to the hospital.

"We cannot just leave Riko there by herself, we are here to protect her!"

Tenten was just really annoyed at Saboten.

"What's his problem anyway? Does he have some issue with Riko-chan or does he just hate anyone from Konoha? Just wait until I get my hands on him for treating my Riko-chan like that!"

Neji, even though a little irritated by all this, was keeping a cool head.

"It is upsetting to not be there for her, but she chose to do this. Let's believe in her and wait for her. I'm sure she took her own precautions to make sure nobody follows her in there. She wouldn't want any of us to be put in harm's way."

Guy was silent for a bit, his eyes closed. He then opened them with a serious expression on his face. Everyone was waiting for him to say something, to give an order of what to do next.

"I understand all of your points of view and you are all right. We need to, however, take a decision as the squad that was sent to protect and escort Riko. As such, we will position ourselves in different parts of the hospital to gather information and keep an eye on the situation. Neji, you will be stationed in front of the quarantine wing since you can use your byakugan to see how Riko is doing. Tenten, you will walk around listening to any gossip or information that the other staff and patients are talking about. This will help us anticipate what to expect from what they're planning to do to Riko or if there's any foul play. Lee, you will scout the outside of the hospital to get an idea of the structure and size of the quarantine wing. I will go talk directly with the Sunagakure committee that assigned us this mission to inquire about them stepping in to deal with the disruption the medical team is creating to our mission."

"Yes sir!"

Team Guy said in unison as they all went to their destination. Gaara, a bit taken aback by the situation, took a few seconds before also making his way to the hospital. He joined Neji who had started activating his Byakugan to see what's beyond the closed doors. As Neji looked around, he started telling Gaara what he was seeing, knowing that was what he was there for.

"I can see Riko in one of the rooms, she seems to be still doing well. There are no signs of fatigue, she's walking around healing everyone in the room without missing a step. She's wiping her forehead with her hand so she must be starting to get a bit tired. I would have been able to know how much chakra she had left, but she doesn't have a chakra network."

"No chakra network?"

This was the first time he heard about that. He knew Riko was not fully human, but he assumed she must have had chakra to be able to accomplish the things she did.

"Yeah, it is quite surprising. She is glowing with a white aura, however. I've never seen this kind of thing before Riko."

"Do you think someone in your clan might know?"

Gaara was curious about Riko and he knew that if he got some more information about her, maybe it would help her find out more about herself as well.

"What do you think you're doing here again?"

An unpleasant voice sounded behind them. They both sighed internally and turned around to find non other than the head medic, Saboten.

"We are only ensuring that our mission is successful and you are not in any position to obstruct our efforts."

Neji said in a cold voice and turned back to monitoring Riko.

"What did you say to me? I'll see to it that you are all removed from this hospital!"

Saboten retorted as he left to find a way to persuade the members of the council to dismiss the Konohagakure team. Little did he know, Might Guy had already spoken to them, making sure that they had the real version of events.

Riko was so focused on healing everyone around her that, at first, she did not notice Lee outside the window of the room she was in waving at her. When he knocked on the window, she jumped a little before realizing who it was. She waved and smiled at Lee who did it back. As soon as she was done healing everyone in that room and disinfecting it, she opened the window to greet Lee properly.

"Riko-san! Are you still feeling alright?"

Riko slowly nodded, starting to feel fatigued after almost a full day of work.

"You do not seem to be doing all that well. Let us call it a day for now and you can continue tomorrow when you are feeling refreshed."

Riko, feeling guilty for leaving all the other patients who can die at any moment, looked away for a bit and slowly nodded. She knew she wouldn't be able to be of much help if she did not rest.

"Alright! Come out the window, I will help you."

Riko smiled and bid her farewells to the patients in the room. She then jumped out of the window while holding Lee's hand as support. She motioned to go back to the hospital so that she could report back her progress.

When Neji told Gaara that Lee got her out and that she was heading back to the hospital, he could not wait there any longer. He turned around and, as he was reaching the hospital entrance, he saw her coming in. As soon as they saw each other, their faces beamed with the brightest smiles. However, neither one of them had the courage to get closer. They both felt extremely shy with everyone's gaze around them. Neji couldn't help but chuckle softly at the sight.

"Guys! Riko-chan!"

Tenten called out as she was coming back from gathering information. Riko walked up quickly to her and held her hand while smiling.

"I'm happy you're finally out of there. There are a lot of shady things going on in this hospital."

Tenten whispered to the group.

"We should get out of there to discuss things further. The walls seem to have ears around here."

Neji interjected as he moved his eyes around.

"Ah...!"

Riko wanted to communicate that she had something to do before leaving. Knowing that only Gaara knew perfectly how to understand her sign language, she went up to him and stood in front of him, signalling what she wanted to say.

"We need... to release... the people who... are cured."

Gaara interpreted Riko's signs. He then nodded, understanding what had to be done. He went to one of the medics around and told them the situation. The medic was first taken aback to be addressed to by Gaara, but then he seemed eager to share the news that many were cured. He promised to take care of it with other medics. Gaara returned to Riko and the others.

"He seemed happy to hear it and was hoping you'd be able to come back tomorrow to continue helping them."

Riko smiled and fiddled with her feet while looking at the ground. She was so happy that she was useful to all those suffering people and that her efforts were appreciated.

They all met back up with Guy at the hotel, including Gaara who wanted to spend as much time with Riko as he possibly can. The whole way there, they were walking side by side at the back of the group, still too shy to hold hands. They had both become a lot more self-conscious about their attraction to each other. Now that they were so aware of it, it felt more and more embarrassing for them to cross certain lines that were not that hard to cross before.

"Let's start with what you found out, Tenten."

Might Guy asked as they all sat at a table in the hotel's pub.

"Alright, so... First of all, there is a lot of inner conflict between the medics at the hospital. A lot of people are actually in support of Riko. However, those who voiced it out loud were dismissed immediately by Saboten and other conservative higher-ups. The reason why is because they still feel that Konohagakure is up to no good, given our history together. A lot of the patients have been asking for Riko and it seems like they've been refused any treatment until they shut up about it."

Riko looked worriedly at Tenten as she recounted what she found out.

"Hmm... Good intel work, Tenten. I talked to the council and, while I was there, Saboten showed up. He was trying to discredit Riko, saying that she was not competent and was slowing down the operations in the hospital. Since they were having conflicted testimonies, they decided to be present tomorrow to see how things are going. I need you all to make sure that Riko has no distractions while the council members are there. Our mission depends on it! As your sensei, I will be there as well to protect our dear comrade with all my might!"

Guy shouted that last part with his fist up in the air and one leg up on the table.

"Yes, Guy-sensei!"

Lee got up and did the same pose as his sensei. Tenten and Neji sighed out loud, used to their teammates' antics. Gaara jumped slightly at the intensity and Riko giggled.

As they all departed to their rooms, Gaara and Riko stayed behind, both wanting to spend some time alone together. Gaara couldn't help looking at Riko, even though he was extremely flustered about being around her now. Her long black hair that contrasted with her pale white skin, he striking blood red eyes, her small pink lips that were slightly parted, all of her features were so beautiful to him. Feeling Gaara's gaze on her, Riko looked up at him and felt her cheeks heating up intensely. He was sitting next to her since earlier, but only now did she notice how close he was. His intense eye contact made her heart leap and beat faster.

"Riko... I..."

Before he could say anything, Riko kissed him on the cheek. She couldn't help it. When she realized what she had done, she looked away and hid her face in her hands while letting out a small yelp. Gaara's face was fully red at that point, since he did not expect this at all. His heart was beating so fast and he felt so confused but really happy at the same time. Seeing her frail frame shaking in embarrassment, her back facing him, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to his chest. He couldn't see her expression, but he saw her taking her hands away from her face. She was looking down at his strong arms enveloping her and felt a surge of happiness at how close they were. She wanted time to stop and for her to stay like this as long as possible in his arms.

"I really like you..."

Gaara whispered in her ear. As she felt his warm breath on her ear and heard his words, her heart was beating really fast and her face was beet red. She nodded slowly to relay her feelings.

"Mm..."

She let out a shaky sound of affirmation. As he heard that, Gaara buried his face in her hair, overwhelmed by his feelings for her. They stayed like this for a while and eventually broke away from each other, unable to look in each other's eyes because of how worked up they were by what they did.

"Umm... Well... I guess you should get some rest for tomorrow."

Riko nodded and put her shaky hand on Gaara's hand. They finally briefly looked at each other with shy smiles and went their separate ways.