Gaara had been shielded from wounds all his life. What injuries he had sustained were rarely not entirely healed by the time he made it to a medic. Other than the pains Shukaku inflicted on him purposefully, he rarely ever experienced pains that were not his migraines and emotions. Arguably both caused by Shukaku.
He had not felt this extraction though afterward, his body did ache and feel wear.
This is why he concluded that this was possibly the worst pain of his entire life.
From what he understood of the process, they were rerouting chakra veins back where they should be by squeezing the leaking veins that had formed. He had an understanding of chakra but not on a level where any of that had made sense to him. He always thought of chakra about his sand, a wave or wall, or a stream. In a way, it felt like he was having sand shoved through a vein. Hinata held his hand and clenched her other hand over his wrist. He was sure he had tightened his hand far too much to be comfortable, but she had never complained.
Her eyes were closed, and she was silent. He focused on her hands when he could no longer distract himself with the question of if this was the worst pain he had ever had. This was only the first day.
"Alright, that's all we can do for now." Hinata looked up from her husband's face. His clenched look had long since gone slack. He had lost consciousness, which she knew was going to happen. You could not mix that much pain and chakra loss and hope to stay awake. At least he couldn't feel it anymore.
This was what it was going to be like for the next couple of weeks, and she could not let his pain get to her. The stress would hurt the baby, and if she started to get sick or if the development started to show signs of difficulty, she was sure she would no longer be allowed to be by his side for these, and that would be hard to explain.
She brushed his hair out off his forehead, thumping over his odd kanji scar. This must-have hurt too, but it was nothing compared to chakra rerouting. She had had some small vein damage from careless training when she was in her early teen years. Small and would have probably fixed itself with a few weeks of not using it, which was the treatment most people would take as chakra rerouting. Without Hyuga, vision could be extremely dangerous, but it had been in her palm. Her father made her get it fixed. It was the most painful thing she could imagine for any amount of time. Only a minute and her hand was in so much pain, she just stopped feeling it. Her medic explained that if she stayed awake past the point, it stopped hurting, and it was normal for people to just succumb to the pain. She was told that they had expected her to faint, and the Hyuga media noted that she would not have blamed her for doing so. She knew her father would have. Her father was not impressed either way, but she got silence instead of another show of her low worth.
"This room was prepared for you." She fell out of her thoughts to the medic. She looked around the room. A set of futons, a bathroom, a table, it was prepared for guests. "We were sure you did not want to try to carry the Kazekage back to his tower in his state."
She nodded, thanking her as she left. She hadn't thought about it, but it was probably best that she didn't try to have him carted through the village in his state. She was going to have to go to the council and explain that not only was the Kage not going to be staying at his tower, but he was also going to be out of commission and being at the mercy of Hyuga doctors. The best part was she had to explain why they were not consulted for any of this.
How was she going to keep the stress down when she had to stand between her husband and his judgemental demanding council?
Hinata pushed the extra futon over to her husband's, making one big sleeping area, and tucked herself next to him. She could have a nap. She was sure she needed one.
Aching, that's what they called it, it would be constant in the area's they worked on. He curled around a pillow with his face buried into the soft fabric. His wife gently laid her hand over his head. Touching any other part of him right now would have hurt.
He was not looking forward to more of these treatments.
"He looks terrible." He heard Temari as the door closed behind her.
"He's not very comfortable." Hinata hummed.
"How long will these treatments need to be done?" She asked. He raised his head from the pillow to see his sister sit down at the low table in the room.
"At least the rest of the month, they can't do it all at once." She explained as she pet his hair. He put his face back into the pillow.
"It would kill him, right?" Temari asked.
"Yes, doing the amount of chakra repair he needs in a short amount of time would not only take multiple people but to do it all at once would be horrible dangerous if the new paths didn't take. He could speed up his regression rather than get better." He didn't like the sound of that, though he didn't like this either. He knew it was necessary for the pain for him to get better, but it was hard to subject yourself to something you knew was going to hurt so much.
"I honestly didn't think I would ever say it, but I'm glad your family is here." Temari admitted, he agreed. Somewhat.
"I am pleasantly surprised at the pleasantness of those who came. The council is rather understanding, and the medics are much kinder than any I was worked on as a child." She admitted.
"You had a meeting with the council her the other day, didn't you? You didn't say what it was about." Temari wondered.
He already knew the answer she was going to get. "Clan matter, sorry." Hinata mumbled.
"That has to be a pain, doesn't it, keeping secrets for Suna and the Hyuga?" Temari whined.
"It's not all that terrible. I have been doing it most of my life. You have to be extra careful when you are unsealed." Hinata explained
He struggled to understand how the healing process benefits outways the damage.
It was important as a leader to ensure not only the safety of your people but also ensure their feeling of safety. It didn't matter how safe they were if they were oppressed to get it, what was the point. Were their secrets so important that partly enslaving and possibly killing your people was an option to them? He didn't understand it. He was trying to focus on the thought to distract himself from the pain. It was getting hard, and the ache in his back started to get worse. "Hinata."
"Yes?" She wondered, leaning over him.
"Look at my back." He bit down as the pain got worse.
She mumbled as she activated her eyes. She lightly touched his shoulder, moving him slightly, which hurt immensely. "The rerouting is taking, your main chakra is going where it should. Does it hurt more?"
"Yes." He gritted.
"I think it's meant to, but I can get the medic." She offered.
"I'll go." Temari hopped up and stepped out of the room.
Hinata frowned as the medic looked him back over. She held his hand, and it was clear by the flinching that the light touches of the medic were hurting him.
"This is normal. Sorry I can't do anything for this that wouldn't hinder the process." She bowed her head. "I would suggest we keep the room cool and use heating pads. It will soothe some of the affected nerves."
"Hot pads in the desert?" Temari wondered.
"We will try to keep the room cool as we can to use them, but they should help." She offered.
"That be okay, Gaara?" Hinata asked, petting back his hair again. His eyes scrunched shut, and his eyebrows furrowed told her he wasn't feeling well enough to refuse. "Let's at least try it." She agreed.
Hinata sighed, closing the door behind her. He was finally asleep. The pain was keeping him up, but he finally gave in to the tiredness. She was sure he didn't have much energy with that much chakra movement.
She laid her head back on the door. She was tired, but she had to check on Kankuro.
"Hinata-sama? Are you sure you should be up? You have taken on a lot of stress. With the status of your health, you should be resting." Hinata glanced back at the closed door and silently thanked the woman for being discrete.
"I need to check on my brother-in-law. There was some project the Kazekage was working on. I want to make sure that he is up to date with it. I also want to make sure my assistant can take on my work for the time being." The young Hyuga medic didn't look very sure. "Would you like to come with me, you won't be able to come inside for the meetings, but you can be close by if it helps."
"I would like that thank you."
Hinata wasn't sure how she liked having a Hyuga shadow again. Her father had one on her regularly as a child, especially around events. When she was functioning in nin training, they could not interfere, but she could not do much of anything that her father did not know about. Still, no matter how much she trained and how many hours she was sure they reported back to him, he was never impressed.
She was quiet and kept a few steps behind her as she should as a Hyuga shadow, but that was what was making her uncomfortable.
In the Hyuga, she was recognized as a more important life, needing to be respected and protected by those of 'lesser importance'. In Suna, she was respected. She had proven that her respect was earned, and those who protected her were at her command to protect the village before her. After earning what Suna had given her, this silent unearned devotion felt wrong.
She couldn't blame the young woman. It was not her fault she had grown up living this way her entire life. This was what she was accepted to do. Hinata could only hope that the Hyuga in Suna would learn that value of truly earned respect in the future. Maybe the younger generations would bring it in. Hopefully, it would not be snuffed out by the old ways of tradition.
She updated Kankuro, who didn't look all that good. He was tired and had just come back from a mission. She suggested he did pull Temari from her project temporarily if he needed any help. She added that she would be happy to do any low clearance paperwork that was cluttering the desk while she was at the Hyuga compound.
Mitsuri had already basically taken over her position. She was very proud of her for seeing the need and stepping up to fill it. She asked for semi-regular updates and made sure that if there was a decision that she wasn't sure about or wasn't comfortable making that she would not hesitate to come to ask.
They had both asked about Gaara. She assured them that his life wasn't in immediate danger anymore, but he wouldn't be back until he had healed properly. She knew she looked horrible because they asked about her as well. She assured them that it was just the stress and that she would be fine once he started to recover.
With the help of the medic. She gathered a few night's worth of clothes for both of them and anything she thought that Gaara would want with him while he was recovering. He wasn't one to get attached, but she was sure he would appreciate his bedding. She knew the Hyuga bedding style was starkly different from that of Suna's, and he had even commented on the odd texture.
She took a final look at the bedroom with a sigh before closing the door. "Are you alright?" The medic asked.
"Yes, but I am getting tired. We should get back so I can rest with my husband." She was going to have to have a meeting with the council in a few days she was going to have to prepare for.
She was sick. She hadn't told him.
His tired eyes look at the closed door with a frown.
There was something she was hiding about her health because his health was degraded. He didn't know how he should handle it. From what he had heard, it was likely that stress would add to it. Asking her about it would no doubt stress her out, especially if she didn't think he should know. The Hyuga medic knew, though, meaning that she was at least getting treatment. Temari had mentioned that she had been seeing a Hyuga doctor for her injuries. Was there something that the Suna medics could not treat, or was it something that only the Hyuga could get? If it was something that endangered the Hyuga secrets, she would not be able to tell him, and that always upset her.
He would stay silent for now and hope that she would tell him if it was something he needed to know.
Now that he thought about it, she had not looked all that well today, but he had thought it was his health that was making her disheveled. Maybe that was all the Hyuga medic had meant by it.
He was in too much pain to think about it any more.