Thanks and thanks and THANKS for everyone's reviews and support!
to Kunoichi no Gaara and BlackKanki: thanks for pointing that stuff out... i would have never noticed unless you guys said something about it...oops, heh heh, i'll try not to let that happen in the future. If there's anything else, please let me know.

:-)

still don't own Naruto...

Time seemed to skip from 4 AM immediately to noon.

I tried to think of a way to get away from Tsunade and Sakura…but I was cornered.

I hissed at the two woman when they entered the room and I watched as Sakura visibly became agitated with me and that evil Tsunade woman just smirked at me. She was planning something, and I had to find out what it was so that I could stop it from happening.

"Now Gaara, relax. Everything is going to go just as it always has, only Sakura will be the sole person in charge of you…"

I hissed again.

Maybe if I kept this up, Tsunade would forget about everything and just decide to let me leave.

But instead I heard a calm yet agitated voice say, "Tsunade-sama, could you excuse us for a minute?"

I glared hard at the girl. I swore by the time I left this hospital, she would crumble at my feet.

Tsunade looked at Sakura, then she looked at me and smirked once again, the she exited the room closing the door firmly behind her.

My eyes returned to the girl as she stomped her way over to my bed.

"What is your problem?" she started "why are you acting like this?"

I looked at her with mild amusement, this girl likes a good verbal war…

"My problem is obvious." I stated shortly crossing my arms over my chest.

"Oh yeah? And what's that? You're a stubborn ass who feels sorry for himself, so he pushes everyone who tries to help him away?"

Wrong thing to say.

The dirt that was replaced into the pot after I first used it slithered out and snuck up on the girl from behind.

"I do NOT pity myself." I stated shortly as the dirt wrapped around her arms. "I wonder how well you'll be able to heal me when you're hands are crushed?" I smirked at her.

But surprisingly, she didn't show any fear. Not a single glimpse of fear showed through anywhere...not even her eyes.

"There you go again. Making empty threats at someone who is trying to help you and trying to be your friend. Are you intimidated by me? Is that why you always threaten to kill or maim me?"

DEFINITELY the wrong thing to say.

My eyes narrowed at the girl and I growled loudly.

"What? You don't have an answer? Does that mean I'm right and you're just too afraid to admit it?"

Anger and rage overwhelmed my body and surprising both the girl and myself, I jumped out of the bed and before she knew what had happened, my hand was around her throat and I lifted her off of the ground. My back screamed in protest as the new skin stretched to its limits.

"First:" I stated, "I am NOT afraid or intimidated by you. Second: I do NOT feel sorry for myself, only for weaklings like you who don't even deserve death. Thirdly: my problem is YOU."

The girl was trying to hold back her fear, but that didn't stop as her nails dug at my fingers, trying to force them off of her windpipe.

"Why…am…I…the…problem?" she rasped out.

I squeezed tighter so that she could no longer talk. Her nails dug harder at my fingers and I could see the scratches that she was leaving behind.

"You're the problem because…"

And I stopped there. Why was she the problem? Was it because she was questioning my whole existence? Was it because she stood up to me and all who stand against me must die? Was it because she unquestioningly touched me without so much as a second thought? Or was it because she was too damn caring?!

"because…"

Which was it? I had to think of something fast, I looked up at the girl's eyes and they were begging me for air.

Sighing, I dropped her. She hit the ground with a soft thud and she grabbed her throat and stared at me.

I walked over to my bed and climbed back into it.

She sat on the ground staring at me for a while, she only got up when Tsunade entered the room again. She stared at Sakura on the floor and then looked at me dangerously.

"What happened here?!" she demanded sharply.

"It's okay Tsunade," Sakura responded, "I slipped."

Tsunade looked at her student for a while with a calculating stare. "Very well then." she said dismissing the whole matter, "let's begin then."

Much to my surprise, Sakura was a lot like Tsunade when it came to healing, she was a little rough around the edges, but she was still very good…not like I'd tell her though.

When she first started healing me, her hands made more contact with my skin then Tsunade's usually did, which as a result caused me to shake. But over time, I grew use to her touch and the shaking dulled to a slight tremor.

I found myself in position and waiting to be healed before Sakura even got into the room. Sometimes I would find myself staring at the clock as I laid on my stomach waiting for it to hit noon…her touch became a source of loathing for me. But yet, as much as I hated this girl, I almost craved her hands to roam over my skin and heal my tattered back. I knew that the skin was growing thicker and I heard her mention something about me about ready for visitors since the threat of infection from my open wounds was almost gone. I huffed at that though, no one would want to visit me.

One overly bright morning, Sakura came to my room early. I watched her approach my bed with a smile plastered onto her face.

"Good morning." she said cheerfully. Bile rose up my throat when she said that.

"Let's take a look at that back of yours…" she said as I rolled over and she gently pulled the bandage away from my skin.

"Wow, this is really healing well. Of course you're going to have scars, but you should be able to perform the tasks that you could prior to this…punishment." she added the last word with a hint of sadness in her voice and my eye twitched.

"You can even carry around that gourd of yours without a problem." she added cheerfully.

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Your ever present optimism disgusts me."

"And your constant sulking annoys me." she responded quickly and stuck her tongue out.

How did it come to this? She should have been dead by now…the smell of her blood should have long since mingled with the others in my sand. But yet, there she was, standing right in front of me, smiling.

I only rolled my eyes at her.

"Oh come on," she teased "I know you have an inner child within you somewhere…"

I just stared at her.

Throwing her arms up she continued, "Everyone has an inner child! Even the most serious person in the world! I just have to find it in you…"

I responded quickly, annoyed with her antics, "You will not be finding anything. Just heal me so that I can leave this damn city."

The look that crossed her face was one of hurt and confusion.

"Oh..okay. You're right, I'm sorry…"

And with that said, she started healing my back.

Something tugged at my heart again from the look on her face. But it didn't make me feel good, it made my stomach drop and my heart clench.

I shifted slightly in my bed hoping that if I changed positions, the feeling would go away. It didn't, the only thing that I had succeeded in doing was putting my hair into my face. I quickly got annoyed at it since I couldn't move my arms, otherwise Sakura's work would be disrupted, but it was tickling my nose…I scrunched my nose up trying to move the hair away, but it only made more hair fall into my face.

I heard Sakura giggle as she stopped her healing and moved the hair out of my eyes by brushing it back for me.

Her hand lingered around my ear and she smiled thoughtfully, "You're not flinching away or shaking anymore…"

She was right…I wasn't.

What did that mean? Had I gotten use to the girl and not known about it? Shukaku didn't even tell me to kill her anymore…what did that mean? This had never happened to me before…

I diverted my eyes from her and reverted to staring at the floor, but she continued to rub her fingers through my hair.

I didn't like this…it was making me uncomfortable.

"Stop." I said and immediately her hand stopped moving and she left it fall to her side.

"Why?" she asked innocently.

I knew she wanted a real answer…but instead I just said, "because I asked you to."

Sighing and returning her attention back to healing, I decided to do something I've never done before…I started a conversation with someone.

"Why are you here early?"

She looked at me, obviously surprised that I had asked her a question. But a smile soon played on her lips as she said, "It's a surprise."

Annoyance was plastered on my face again, "I hate surprises."

"You'll like this one…" she said as she continued to smile.

I decided to keep asking her questions, after all, she made me answer her dumb ones all the time.

"Why do you do that all the time?" I asked.

She stopped healing and looked at me confused, "Do what?" she asked.

"That." I said as I pointed at her mouth.

She tilted her head to the side and asked, "Why do I smile?"

I nodded. I rolled over onto my side so that I could more fully see her. I wanted to get to the bottom of all this nonsense.

"I smile because…well, because I'm happy." she shrugged.

"But you do it all the time. Are you always happy?"

Her gaze dropped to the floor and her eyes became distant, "No…I'm not always happy."

"So then you're lying about your feelings. You're a liar, just like I said."

"I am NOT a liar." she bit back "I always smile when I'm happy…you just aren't around when I'm not happy is all."

"So you're always happy around me." I half-stated, half-asked.

A blush caused her pale skin to turn pink, "Yes." she responded shortly, staring at her hands that were now in her lap.

I looked around the room, looking for the source of her happiness. I only saw blank white walls, a light gray concrete floor and the plant in the corner of the room.

"What makes you so happy? All I see is a dull room that contains no source of amusement."

She looked up at me then seemingly surprised at my statement, "The source of my happiness?" she asked shyly.

I nodded.

"Well…" she started, "the source of my happiness is…"

Suddenly my room's door flew open and hit the wall with a loud bang.

There in the doorway stood Temari with Kankuro right behind her. I looked at Sakura questioningly.

"Surprise…" she said as she half-smiled and shrugged.

I just stared at my siblings.

Were they really there? Or was Shukaku playing tricks on my mind again…Did I really have visitors?

"Gaara!" Temari said as she rushed to the bed and grabbed my head and pulled it into an embrace.

I froze.

Not only did I have visitors, they were happy to see me…

I heard Sakura laugh at the expression on my face.

"I'll leave you three alone to catch up then." she said as she bowed to us and turned to walk out of the door.

"Sakura," I heard Temari say as she continued to hold my head in a death grip. "Are you sure it's okay if we visit with him now?"

Sakura nodded professionally and answered, "Yes. His back is almost healed up so the risk of infection is now very minimal, so you guys can visit whenever you want…just as long as you don't get in the way of his healing of course." she added with a wink.

"Thank you." I heard Temari say and I watched as Sakura turned around once again and left the room.

Something inside me didn't want her to go…she had never answered my question.

My thoughts on the pink haired girl were interrupted my Temari's numerous questions.

"How have they been treating you? You're so skinny, have they been feeding you regularly? How is your back feeling?"

Finally, Kankuro covered Temari's mouth with his hand and simply said, "In other words, we've missed you."

I stared at them wide-eyed. They what?

I watched as Temari forcefully pushed Kankuro away and added, "We were so worried about you. All that Tsunade would tell us is that you were improving. We had no idea how you were doing…" she trailed off as her voice cracked.

What the hell was going on? Were these fakes? Were there people posing to be my siblings because they thought it would make me feel better? That had to be it…there was no way that these two imposters were my siblings.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

The two of them stared at me questioningly.

"What are you talking about Gaara? We're your siblings…remember? Temari and Kankuro?"

"You're not them." I stated matter-of-factly and crossed my arms once again.

"What makes you say that?" my "sister" asked.

"Simple. There's no way that my siblings would show any sort of emotion such as 'worry' for me. If you're going to impersonate someone, get it right so it's at least some sort of a challenge for me to figure it out."

I glared at them as they both looked at each other and sighed…

"Gaara…" Temari started but Kankuro cut her off. "Look Gaara," he started "we've been talking a lot about things and we've realized that how we've treated you in the past was…well…wrong. And we wanted to make it up to you."

I still didn't believe them. This sounded way too scripted.

"Prove you're my siblings." I stated shortly.

Again they looked at each other and Temari stepped forward pulling down her shirt slightly from her shoulder, revealing a slight scar there. "This is from when you were little and I tried to take your teddy bear away from you. Remember? You got so upset with me that you threw me out of the room using your sand and my shoulder hit the corner of a table that was in the hallway…"

I did remember that. Maybe she was my sister…

Kankuro stepped forward then and rolled up the sleeve on his right arm showing me many scars that snaked their way up his arm. "This is from the time when we were sparring and you…er…we got carried away and you almost crushed my arm with your sand. Baki rushed in and stopped the fight before we both killed each other."

I remembered that also...but there was something wrong with his story...
"If I remember correctly…" I cut in, "you were the one that was about to be killed, not me."

Kankuro chuckled at this and scratched the back of his head, "yeah well…I think this hospital has gone to your head and caused your recollection to become a little fuzzy…"

"So…you believe us now?" Temari asked timidly.

I looked at them both and nodded once.
"But go back to how you were before." I said, "I don't like the new you."

Temari smiled, "You'll get used to it."

My siblings stayed with me for the rest of the day. We talked about what had been happening to us since we were separated upon entering Konaha. I found out that Tsunade had provided them with a room in the main Hokage building and only kept them imprisoned for a few days. Baki had returned to Suna a few weeks ago, saying that he would calm the storm down before we returned.

I told them in short sentences how my healing was going. I didn't mention anything about Sakura or the promise we had made to each other or the alien feelings that she was causing inside of my body.

When the sun set, a nurse that I had never seen before poked her head into my room and informed us that visiting hours were over, and that they could come back tomorrow morning.

Sighing, my siblings said goodbye and promised to be there first thing in the morning. In fact, they promised me that they would be there everyday from the beginning of visiting hours until they kicked them out.

I nodded. I half-trusted their promise…maybe people kept some promises after all. Sakura hadn't broken hers yet…

When they were gone, Sakura entered my room again.
"Were you surprised?" she asked.

I only stared at her. I was too overwhelmed with all of these new things to respond to anything. It was strange, now that both of our parents were gone, we were closer to a family than we had ever been.

"Can I get you anything?" she asked.

I shook my head no.

"Alright then, good night Gaara." she said and started to exit the room.

"You never answered my question." I said.

She stopped halfway out of the room and looked back at me, "You never answered mine."

I looked at her in confusion. She smiled slightly and then exited the room.

I racked my brain for the question that I had left unanswered… I couldn't think of any.

I had answered all of her stupid little questions with as much accuracy as I cared to answer with…then it hit me. Why am I the problem? her raspy voice echoed off the walls inside my head.

She was right… I never answered that question.

Laying down once again, I thought about why I never answered her…and the answer was simple: because I didn't know why.

I had a feeling that Shukaku's plan to emotionally destroy the girl wasn't going to work… partly because I could sense a sadness within her already and also because…I didn't think I wanted to anymore.