Gaara had thought that he could handle all this. Then they took his gourd away, so he got nervous. He still believed that he wouldn't be scared of anything to come. Then they strapped him down to a table. That's when he realized that he was absolutely petrified. He had no idea what that woman was actually going to do to him. The Hokage wasn't going to be doing to first few tests herself. Instead, she sent her attendant to do the first few tests while she passed out missions.

"As if I'm not terrified enough," Gaara thought as he tried to keep a hard face.

"The first one is simple," Shizune began, "I'm going to stick this needle into your vein carefully and extract some of your blood. That's the easy one that I'm doing today. I'll run tests on those compared to Naruto's later. We're going to check to see if there is a trace of the demon in your DNA so that we can trace it through Naruto to reach the demon. After that, I'm going to thoroughly examine your chakra flow. To do that, I'm going to have to feel around with my chakra. It will be painful, I warn you. That will take the longest. The last thing we're doing today is checking around on how your demon was sealed. With your and Shukaku's chakra charts, we might be able to figure out how to fuse the two together leaving you in control of everything."

Gaara nodded. He tried not to show that he feared being defenseless without his sand confined to this table. Suna and Konoha had not officially become allied nations again. There was no telling what they could actually do to him. Gaara hushed the voices in his mind. He knew somewhere within that they wouldn't let true harm come to him because they wanted to help Naruto and he was certain the Hokage wanted their ally back in the current weakened state.

Gaara watched in fascination as the woman leaked blood from him into little tubes. She set one aside and attached another. Blood squirted out in a straight stream into the next tube. He chuckled when he saw that, making Shizune give him a strange look. Five minutes and 7 tubes later, all the blood needed was taken from Gaara. Since the wound was so small, she didn't bother to heal it which was all for the better because Shukaku's chakra swarmed to the point and did the healing for her.

Shizune prepared Gaara for the next round. She had previously had him change into a basic hospital gown. The woman began massaging Gaara with a little chakra to get him to relax as much as possible. She wished that she could give him something to take away the pain but feared that it would alter the experiments. Shizune decided that the best course of action would be to go for it without warning so that the boy had to time to tense back up with fear and nervousness.

She extended her chakra from her fingers tips like long needles. It was at a time like this that she wished that she could use a bloodline trait like the Byakugan to do this for the least amount of time possible. Suddenly, she shoved her fingers onto Gaara. The redhead screamed in pain as she traced her chakra throughout it body, attempting to follow the flows.

"Is this what pain truly feels like? Is this how Naruto feels? I must not give in to it!" Gaara thought as she prodded through his body with thin sharp knives.

Gaara didn't know how much more he could take of the pain. He'd never felt anything like it before. He had completely underestimated what he had inflicted on others. It was a learning experience. Or at least that's how Gaara saw it. He could now place himself in the shoes of those great many that he squeezed to death with his sand. All of the blood in his sand now had much more of a meaning to him. He couldn't believe that he had done this to others and fully enjoyed it.

The pain was unbearable. His body twitched and spasmed every time Shizune's fingers would travel a tiny bit more. It felt like she was severing all the nerves in his body. The worst part was she would stop and withdraw to write something down, then plunge her chakra right back into his body. After the fifth time she did that, Gaara found he couldn't hold himself back anymore. He screamed at the top of his lungs. He pushed on the straps holding him down. But when Shizune asked if he wished to stop, his answer would always be a firm 'NO!'

Gaara can't remember anything of moving from the laboratory to a hospital room. He just assumes that he passed out. If he passed out, he then wonder's about Shukaku. Did his demon come out? Did he hurt anyone? Did the demon eat more of him? He can't really remember any of it. All Gaara knows right now is that he is in pain.

Temari and Kankuro notice that their little brother has woken up after only an hour of being there. They had come to look for him because he had not checked in as he was supposed to. Temari had questioned the nurse about Gaara still being in the hospital. The lady had informed her that Gaara was still there but he was unable to accept visitors at the moment. Frightened, the siblings interrogated the nurse until she finally told them about Gaara agreeing to be a test subject. Kankuro forced her to tell them what room their little brother was in and they ran as fast as they could to him.

When the pair arrived at the room, the first thing they realized was that it was Uzumaki's room. They assumed the nurse had given them the wrong number. That is, until they noticed the almost lifeless body in the next bed over covered by a dividing wall. Gaara lay there looking paler than normal. His body was covered in small bandages that concealed holes and chakra burns that Shizune left by lingering too long in one area. Needless to say, Temari and Kankuro were burning with fury.

At the time Gaara had awoke, the pair rattled off questions and concerns. "How could you do this?" "Are you alright?" "What possessed you… you know what I mean…" "Please be okay…" "Why would you let yourself endure this?" "I don't understand!" "How are you?" "You're an idiot." "Why would you let yourself be hurt for someone else? It's not like you at all."

"Shut up. You'd never understand," was Gaara's only statement.

The two decided that they were going to get him something to eat because he looked like he needed something hearty in him to get him healing. Gaara enjoyed the silence for a good half hour. After that half hour was up, he heard two pairs of footsteps enter the room. He assumed that his brother and sister were back with that food they promised him. Gaara's stomach growled in anticipation. He hadn't realized he had actually been so hungry. When was the last time he ate? He couldn't remember, and that was most definitely a bad sign.

The footsteps never came near him though. They stopped at the first bed. He heard a female voice whispering something that he couldn't quite make out. He did catch a few words here and there: please, better, so sorry, ramen, as much as, my fault, shouldn't have, none of this, we love you, back to us, NARUTO! So, he was in the second bed in Naruto's room. And that girl that was talking… that must have been Haruno-san. Gaara pondered for a while what he should do. Should he remain quiet? Not let her see him like this? Did she still hate him for what his demon did to her? Who was the other person with her? Gaara decided.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"What? Who is that?" Sakura asked.

"Me. Open the wall."

"Gaara? Why are you here? Like this?"

Gaara opened his eyes. Then he saw the other person that was with her, holding her hand, Uchiha Sasuke. Gaara stared into both of their eyes. His curious thirst was now quenched. He had confirmed who was visiting Naruto. His eyes traveled to the Uchiha's neck, bandages were wrapped around it heavily. Then, that curiosity was back. He hadn't heard much of what had happened to Sasuke. Gaara only knew that he had come back in a worse condition than Naruto but healed faster.

"What happened to you," Gaara directed at Sasuke.

He fully expected a smart-assed comment to come back at him from the dark-haired boy. Instead, Sasuke's eyes flashed an indiscernible pain before he lowered them to the ground. The boy touched his neck and thought about Naruto, those wild red eyes glaring at him as he made another nasty remark about his fighting. He recalled Naruto howling as he charged Sasuke for the last time and slashed at his neck, ripping his throat open. Sasuke winced, but calmed down as Sakura put an arm around his shoulders.

"He can't talk anymore," Sakura stated bluntly. "It happened during his fight with Naruto…"

"Naruto… he can be scary. I've fought him."

Sasuke just nodded.

"But somehow… he has a special power. Not the extra power. He can change us all. He'd do anything for his precious people. He has the power to turn people's lives around and make existing worthwhile," Gaara pointed out.

Sakura and Sasuke nodded in agreement to that.

After a moment of silence, the doors opened again. Temari and Kankuro were startled to find Gaara talking to people without threatening to kill them. Something had changed in their little brother and they finally realized it. Kankuro remembered Gaara apologizing to them after Gaara's fight with Naruto. Temari remembered Gaara thanking her for cooking breakfast the morning after that incident.

Gaining her composure, Temari walked over to the three of them and smiled at them. After all, they were allies now, weren't they?

"You two are lucky, I bought five meat nikuman. That's all that they had left. I guess we can each have one now," she said offering an open back to the group.

Sasuke refused without words, semi-offending Temari.

"Sasuke can't eat solids until after his surgery in two days. His throat can't handle it," Sakura offered. "I'll still have one. Thank you very much."

"I'll eat Uchiha's share," Gaara stated, leaving no room for question. He explained, "I don't remember eating in the past few days."

Temari and Kankuro frowned in worry and offered their share to Gaara, too. He refused, saying that two was more than enough for him. It would fill him up fast. The four ate while Sasuke watched. A questioned bother Sasuke during that time. He desperately wanted to ask, but had no way to do so. Why was Gaara here in the hospital?

"I know what you all want to ask. Why am I here? Why do I care so much? Why am I letting this happen to me?"

They all looked at Gaara and slowly nodded.

"It has something to do with what Naruto once told me about precious people. If someone or something is precious to you, you have to protect anyway that you can. That's why I'm letting myself be tested on. On top of that, they promised to seal away my demon."

"You really do have a demon inside of you then," Sakura gasped. "I thought it was people just saying things. Why? How? Who would put a demon into someone? What's the point in that..? You must have had a terrible childhood know that that thing is inside of you. I just… wow. I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm sorry. I'm probably bringing up some bad memories, aren't I? I just don't know what to say…"

"If you think that… think of how Naruto must feel, too," Gaara demanded barely above a whisper.

Sakura and Sasuke's eyes widened at that statement. What could he mean by that? Sure, Naruto had no parents. He grew up alone. But he wasn't feared… or was he? He wasn't tormented by… the villagers always called him names. The children picked up on it. No one was allowed to play with Naruto, the parents forbid it. That could only mean one thing…

"How is it that you're helping Naruto get better by being tested on," Sakura asked warily.

"No body has tried to heal a demon before," Gaara stated matter-of-factly. "The Kyuubi no Kitsune inside of him is near death and killing him as well because of how long he used the demon's chakra fighting Sasuke. They're testing me to study demon vessels and how to heal a demon inside of someone."

"Kyuubi… no… Kitsune…" Sakura stuttered.

To Sasuke, things suddenly started to click together in his mind. He walked over to Naruto. He remembered the fight during the Chuunin Exams against Orochimaru. "Scaredy-cat?" He understood how Naruto defeated Haku at the bridge all that time ago. He realized exactly why Naruto was so determined to become Hokage and gain respect and recognition. He knew why Naruto hid behind those painful smiles. He understood why Naruto had wanted to be his friend but could never bring himself to ask when they were children. He understood everything about Naruto now. Sasuke grabbed Naruto's hand and remembered those nails tearing through him, but he didn't shudder. Sasuke just understood.

"Naruto… has the Kyuubi inside of him? Why did he never tell us," Sakura muttered to no one.

"Fear. Fear of becoming someone like me," Gaara offered, knowing full well the question was rhetorical. "He could have. But he is so much stronger than me. So much stronger."

Gaara sat in silence the rest of the time as he finished his nikuman. Sasuke's eyes never left Naruto's face. Eventually, Sakura noticed the sun setting in the sky and pulled Sasuke away from Naruto, they had to go home. Kankuro and Temari were happily chatting to each other from opposite sides of Gaara's bed. A nurse came eventually and made them leave. She hadn't realized they were still there and visiting had been over for two hours.

So that left Gaara awake, in pain every time he moved. Lying so still on the bed made him go numb so he had to move. It was a tough situation. In the bed next to him, Naruto was lucky to be asleep. He didn't have to feel the pain in his sleep nor did he have to be restless like Gaara. It was hard for him to just sit there doing nothing. So Gaara decided that the best solution would be to concentrate on healing as fast as possible so that more tests could be done and they'd find a way to cure Naruto quickly. It was the first time that he actually talked with Shukaku of his own free will. As Gaara had said, he'd do anything to protect his precious person.