Sorry I didn't upload this yesterday, I was really sick, like after I got home from school and crashed on my bed, I did not want to move. Again, I'm sorry.

Enjoy

About a week or so passes and Asuka is still in the hospital with Hatsuharu. She occasionally looks over to him, but usually avoids staring at him because she feels terrible about what happened to him and can't bare to see him like that. She got visits from both Gaara and Lee, but Gaara tends to stay longer than Lee. They catch up and tell each other what's all happened since their separation.

It was around evening when someone finally came to visit her today, they knocked on the door and she let them come in. To her surprise, it was someone who hasn't visited her before.

"Hey."

"Hey there."

"Kankuro? And you're…?" Asuka scratched the back of her head embarrassingly. "I'm sorry, I don't believe you've told me your name yet."

"It's Temari." The sandy blonde sand nin introduced herself.

"What are you two doing here?" Asuka asked them.

"We're here because of Gaara." Kankuro answered.

"Gaara's been… less cold lately." Temari stated.

"And we've noticed that he's been visiting the hospital daily as far as we're concerned." Kankuro added. "We figured he's been visiting you, is this true?"

Asuka nodded, "Yah, he has, why?"

"What did you do to Gaara to make him ease up on his attitude?" Temari asked.

"Wait… you're his older siblings, right?" Asuka retorted, they nodded. "Don't you remember me then? I was Gaara's friend when we were kids." Asuka smiled at them, they both looked at her like she was crazy. "I'm Asuka, I don't remember you two either, but Gaara told me about the time when his only friend was taken off somewhere, and that person who was taken is me."

"Damn… I didn't think Gaara told anyone else that." Kankuro stated in disbelief.

Temari took a good look at Asuka then smiled. "I remember you now, you were the only kid who wasn't scared of him." Asuka nodded in agreement. "Kankuro, don't you remember her? She'd always take apart your puppets and you'd yell at her for touching your stuff."

It seemed like a light bulb went off in Kankuro's head. "You are that girl! You pissed me off all the damn time you brat!"

Asuka held up her hands in defense. "Look, I don't remember anything that happened whenever I was in the Sand village, I swear! I just found out last week I was originally from the Sand."

"Whoa, don't tell me… you lost your memory of that?" Temari questioned. Asuka nodded and stared up at the ceiling again. "What a shame…"

"You probably don't remember about your older brother then huh?" Kankuro queered.

Asuka's eyes shot wide, she sat up and quickly grabbed his collar. "Brother!? I have a brother!? Tell me about him please! Please! I beg of you! I would die to have a family!"

"I'll tell you! Just let go!" Kankuro took her hands off of him and backed up a step.

Asuka smiled then slowly laid back down on the bed as pain shot through her stomach and nearly made her cough up blood again.

"Are you going to be ok?" Temari asked her.

Asuka nodded, "Yes… I'll be fine… It happens. Please, tell me about my brother."

"Ok, but it was a really long time ago, I was only six at the time…" Kankuro started.

ooOoO0OoOoo

"Hey! Who are you and what are you doing to my puppets!"

Asuka stared at Kankuro quizzically, "These tiny things are puppets?" She asked while holding up one of the puppets arms, "They seemed more like dolls to me." She giggled and put the arm down then walked over to him. "I'm Asuka." She introduced herself while extending a hand to him.

Kankuro looked at her with disgust, but took her hand anyway and shook it, "I'm Kankuro… Now how did you get in my house?"

"Gaara invited me." She chirped. "I like exploring… so I found your room and messed with your things." She smiled up at him. "If you'd like, I could help you put your puppets back together."

"No! You've done enough, get out of my room!" He shoved her out and slammed the door, he was about to walk over to his disassembled puppet, but stopped because he heard something that made his heart sink to his stomach. He then turned around and slowly opened the door to find Asuka still there… crying.

She sniffled and tried wiping away her tears while choking on her sobs as she spoke, "I-I… just w-wanted to… to help you… K-Kankuro."

By the look on his face, he felt terrible. So he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Do you want to help me?"

She nodded, "Y-yes…"

"Fine… come in." He told her.

She wiped away her tears and instantly stopped crying. "Thank you." She curtsied then walked into his room happily.

Kankuro was about to yell at her again, but he was interrupted by her pulling on his arm as she sat down where his puppets were left. He sat down across from her and furrowed his eyebrows as he glared at her with daggers in his eyes. She didn't notice his stare as she started trying to figure out how to put them together.

He sighed and grabbed another one of his disassembled puppets and started clicking the joints together. "Just use your rights and lefts to figure out which arm goes where, the left shoulder goes in its left side, and its right shoulder goes into his right side, got it?"

She stared at him curiously, but did as he said, or what she thought he said.

"What are you doing?! You don't put the right arm in with the left arm!" He snatched the puppet away from her and put its limbs in the right places. "Do you not know your rights from your lefts?!" He finished putting together his puppet then looked up at her when she didn't respond. Her head was lowered and she was twiddling with her thumbs. "Wait… you don't know your rights and lefts?"

She shook her head and picked up one of the puppets arms. "No…" she answered sheepishly.

Kankuro sighed and held her right arm, "This is your right," then he held her left arm, "and this is your left." He let go of her arm and crossed his arms over his chest. "What's so hard about that?"

"I… Uh… have a hard time remembering that…" She weakly admitted.

Kankuro grumbled before continuing, "Look, do you know your compass?"

She looked at him quizzically. "Com…pass?"

He facepalmed and left a big red hand print on his face. "A compass is a sense of direction, it's what travelers use to not get lost." He grabbed his notebook and pen then drew a circle.

"That's a terrible circle." Asuka pointed out.

"I'd like to see you do better." He retorted by giving her the notebook and pen.

"Ok." She tore off the page he written on then drew her circle on the paper and handed it back to him.

"Well… it's better than mine." He admitted. "Anyways, the compass has four different main directions, North, South, East, and West. East is to the right, and West is to the left, got it?"

She scratched her head, "I don't even know where East and West are…"

"Right…" He wrote down the directions in the correct order then held the paper up in front of her. "North is up, South is down, West is left, and East is right."

"I don't think I can remember that…" She told him.

"Look, I have one last thing that can help you remember, but if you don't know this, then I can't help you." He told her with a hint of irritation in his tone. "Do you know the numbers on the clock?" She nodded happily. "Good, now prove it." He tore off the page with the compass then handed the notebook and pen back to her.

She accepted and drew a circle with the numbers one-to-twelve on it. "See, I do know." She happily told him. "Now how is this suppose to help?"

"Think of the compass as a clock," He put the drawn compass next to the drawn clock. "North is twelve, East is three, South is six, and West is nine, now do you think you can remember?" He asked her once more.

She thought about it for a moment then smiled. "Yup! I can remember this, thank you Kankuro." She smiled up at him and slightly giggled.

"Alright then, finish the last puppet to prove it." He handed her the last few disassembled pieces and sat back and watched.

She picked up an arm and the torso then clicked the joint in the right place, she looked up at him and he nodded. She smiled bigger and started putting the limbs back in the torso. After she had finished, she looked up at Kankuro, who smiled back at her.

"Yup, you put one back together without my help." He told her with a hint of pep in his tone.

She smiled brightly at him and nodded her head happily. "Thank you Kankuro!"

"It's no problem, really…" He smiled back at her.

"Hey… I have a question." She told him as she examined the puppet closer. "I've seen others in the village use bigger puppets, why do you have doll sized puppets?"

"Because I'm not strong enough to use the ones for fighting, I have to build these smaller ones before moving onto bigger ones." He answered.

"But, you look strong enough to use the bigger ones." She told him.

He chuckled, "I'm still just a kid, the ones they use for fighting are twice my size, I could never use one of those until I grow up a bit more. Besides, I plan on making my first combat puppet."

"How interesting… how do you control them?" She asked while looking at him quizzically. "I've seen them use blue strings… that's it."

"Those blue strings are chakra threads, they control them by using chakra, nothing else." He answered plainly.

"Oh…" She looked around then got up. "I'll see you later, ok Kankuro." She smiled at him before leaving.

"Yah… ok." He answered back while waving her off.

She walked down stairs and went into the living room where Gaara and a little girl were found sitting on the couch.

"Who are you?" The sandy blonde girl got up from her couch and walked over to Asuka.

"I'm Asuka," She happily chirped, "and you are?"

"Temari." She answered back.

"She's a friend of mine." Gaara told Temari as he got off the couch and walked over to them.

"Oh, ok." Temari acknowledged.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Come in!" Temari answered without walking to the door.

A teen boy walked in then took in his surroundings to find Asuka, his face lit up when he saw her. "Hey Asuka, how was your day?" He asked as he picked her up and hugged her tightly.

"Hey! That's too tight! Let go Taiki!" Asuka squirmed in his grasp to breathe.

The boy chuckled and put her down, "Whatever you say sis."

ooOoO0OoOoo

"And… that's all I remember." Temari finished.

"Same here." Kankuro agreed.

Asuka eased in her bed and took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "I… I have a brother." Tears started to form in her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away before they could see it. "Thank you… really, thank you guys." She smiled up at them. "I'd hug you, but it really hurts to move right now."

"We're good." The sand nin both said in unison.

"What did my brother look like? Or do you not remember…?" Asuka asked.

"We'll… I think he had short white hair." Temari answered. "I think… he also had glasses on, and his eyes were a dark green… I'm not sure."

"It's fine, really, just you telling me this… really brings me hope… just thinking he may be out there somewhere…" She relaxed in her bed and looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then looked over to Hatsuharu. "I wish I could say I have hope for him though…"

"Oh… Um… Yah, I give you my best regards." Kankuro tried reassuring her.

"Thanks…" She responded weakly.

"Hey, I need to talk to Asuka in private."

All three of them turned their head to see Kiba standing at the doorway with Akamaru in his jacket and his hands in his pockets.

"Who the hell are you?" Kankuro asked.

"I'm Kiba, could you two leave for a moment?" He told them.

"Why? What's so important?" Asuka queered.

"It's about Hatsuharu."

Asuka turned her head to hide the fact she bit her lip.

"Who's Hatsuharu?" Kankuro asked.

Temari nudged him. "Who do you think?" She cocked her head toward the bandaged unconscious wolf behind them.

"Oh… ok, I needed to get back to training anyway." Kankuro folded his arms behind his head and left with Temari trailing behind him.

Kiba closed the door and sat down next to Asuka. "You know why I'm here I take it?"

"Well… I know you're here about Hatsuharu…" Asuka said nervously.

"Yah, and I just wanted to say sorry about his condition." He said as Akamaru crawled out of his jacket and nuzzled her hand.

Asuka petted him slowly and scratched his ear. "Thanks… but he's not going to live much longer than a month."

"I can see that… but there is something you could do for him to make his death less painful."

Asuka looked at him with full of eagerness and attention. "What?"

Kiba twiddled with his thumbs and licked his lips before answering. "Kill him yourself."

More tears welled up in her eyes as her hands started to quiver. "You… can't mean to tell me that… no… I-I can't…"

"Asuka! He's in enough pain as it is, why make him go through more just because you want him around just a little longer. If it weren't for you brining him to the Chunin exams, he wouldn't be like this! He wouldn't be in this condition!" Kiba scolded her as he stood up abruptly and slamming his fist into the bed side table.

"You don't think I know that! You don't think I regret bringing him in this!" She retorted while trying to sit up, but ended up having to lie back down.

"Asuka, let me make this perfectly clear," He got only inches away from her face and stared daggers into her eyes. "You started this, so you'll end it." He got out of her face and turned around to head for the door. "Do you really want some sand nin killing your partner? Or would you rather for him to die in your hands alone?" He left her in her room, leaving the thick tension in the air as well.

Asuka finally breathed after a few moments, just staring up at the ceiling with Kiba's words still lingering in her head. You started this, so you'll end it. She couldn't get that sentence out of her mind for even a moment to try to relax. She looked over to her partner and the tears slid down her face and onto the pillow.

Should I kill him? End his pain? Or let him live a little longer and die when his time comes? He's no animal… He's my brother.

What should she do? What do you think? Drop a review and tell me what you think, please and thank you.

9/23/13 *What a Bitch...*