Yes, this was certainly not Hissori, not unless Hissori had shrunken, became covered in fur, grown a tail, and sprouted ears. The cat that had leapt at her was standing on the ground rubbing against her sweat covered legs, purring.

She picked up the cat and rubbed the fur at the base of its neck. The cat was completely white with a red patch the covered both of its eyes, he looked like a bandit. An adorable little bandit. She held the cat and looked up in the tree yet again. Hissori was in fact in the tree, sleeping. He had found a shady place to wait while Sakura napped.

Again, thinking of her, before himself. She picked up the boy and cradled him in her arms. She really had to get them both out of this heat. The cat had run back up into the cool shade of the tree; smart cat.

After hours of sprinting through Suna, Sakura realized the city was extremely large. She felt the first symptoms of exhaustion approaching, she needed to find the hotel; preferably soon.

Suddenly the hotel was in view, not far either. A smile of relief crossed Sakura's features, but this was brief. As soon as Sakura tried to move, her legs locked and then her muscles relaxed, leaving her to tumble to the ground.

She used all the strength and will she could muster to twist herself so Hissori, still asleep in her arms, would land on her; not under her.

As she hit the floor she almost sighed in relief to no longer be in constant motion, but soon Hissori's weight was put entirely against her.

The constant pressure against her chest insisted on not letting her breathe. Soon, she passed out, whether from heat or suffocation she didn't know. Not that she was really capable of conscious thought with her world blacked-out as it was.

AGHK

Sakura had regained consciousness but had yet to open her eyes. She silently laid on her back taking slow and steady breaths. She felt so calm. So at peace. The air she was breathing felt stuffy, like the room was steamy. Come to think of it, the room did feel pretty warm.

Her eyes fluttered open silently and she realized she was not in the position she'd went to sleep in. She fallen asleep…wait no, she'd fallen unconscious. Hissori was with her, it was hot and…they were out cold in broad daylight.

Now Sakura lay on the floor of a small room. It was hot because the room was obviously made of metal and it was most likely around 100 degrees outside. She moved to stand, but her arms were shackled above her. She tried to move her feet, but they were cuffed as well.

She thrashed her head around violently, looking in any and every direction for Hissori. For her son.

She had so many questions. Where was Hissori? Where is she? Why is she here? Who took her? What do they want from her? How was she going to get out of here?

She focused chakra to her arms and braced herself for pain. She then threw all of her strength into shooting her arms forward, thus ripping the cuffs from her wrists. It did the job, but it left her wrists in pain. With that she focused more chakra to her hands and pulled apart the shackles on her ankles. This was rather painless.

She stood, now that she was able, and looked around the room, the door was nowhere to be found. Sakura recalled old days at the academy.

A huddle of kids were talking and playing, she was not with them. Later though, Ino came out and went to go play with her. She smiled brightly and asked Sakura a question…

"How do you get out of a room, with no windows and no doors?" Sakura sighed in frustration. "Why didn't I pay more attention?"

"Damn! How do you get out of a room with no windows," she said again looking around the room "and no doors?"

Sakura's Inner self just sighed. she had thought it would be blatantly obvious. 'If there are none, make some.'

Sakura was happy to hear this new idea, though another part of her wondered why her Inner self decided to wait so long to inform her. Sakura focus some chakra to her fists and did a few hand signs, then shoved her hands toward a random wall. The wall melted away to reveal…more metal. She continued this process with another wall, using only a little bit of chakra at a time.

Sakura had lost hope again; she slouched on the floor in a sweaty heap. The temperature was starting to get to her again. "I mean, it's almost as if I'm underground with nothing but miles of metal around me."

Again Inner Sakura had the 'no duh' expression. Sakura focused her chakra one last time, again a small amount because she knew there would be guards of some sort to fight, and probably a long way to run. She thrust her hands above her, and the ceiling melted away to reveal…a room!

She leaped up into the room and saw there were no guards. There was no one. Where was she? This place…it looked familiar. A hospital? Yes it was a hospital.

Sakura rushed through the halls searching for people. She soon found a room, the only door in the seemingly endless hallway. She walked inside and saw her mother. She was in labor. Doctors were all around her. She was encouraged to push one last time and finally a baby emerged; A wonderful, beautiful little…boy? Yes, there was no doubt this was a boy, a baby boy with brown hair, like his father.

Next there was another baby emerging; A little girl, with pink hair. That was Sakura, she was watching her birth, but did she really have a brother? Was this real?

Her brother was toweled and cleaned one a bed right next to her, Her mother had fallen asleep and couldn't hold the children so they wailed.

The loud cries of the babies seemed to get louder. Yes, it was defiantly getting louder, her ears had started to ring. Sakura's world went black around the edges and everything got slightly dimmer. She felt an enormous shock go through her, a wave of pain that strained her heart. She fought to remain conscious.

The wail of the children was gone and had been droned out by the incessant ringing, she was on the floor trying hard to fight to stay, to find out what happened. To see what became of her brother. But when another shock went though her, her heart pulsed once more and her vision went black once again.

Such…warmth.

AGHK

Gaara had been doing paperwork, when a strange wave washed over him. He felt as if something were wrong. Something bad was happening. He tried to ignore it but the voices in his head told him to go look, to go see what was happening.

Still he ignored it, but soon his head pulsed with intense pain; A terrible migraine. He knew he would have to listen to his instincts. So he rose from his almighty chair and exited the room. On his way out he explained to the secretary that he would 'be back when he sees fit'. The secretary was definitely not please with this, but she valued her life, so she, and her opinions of the Kazekage's mood swings, stayed silent

As he walked the streets, he noticed the intensity of the sun which was having a very direct affect on the temperature. He felt the feeling grow stronger, more urgent. And so he began to sprint down the streets. He felt awkward in his situation, it was so unlike him. Here he was, abandoning work for no reason besides to run around the city on a simple gut feeling.

I suppose the key word would be feeling, a thing that Gaara had desperately tried to avoid his entire life. Or maybe in some cases he wasn't so much avoiding it as he was void of it. Feelings and emotions were new things and he would rather not get involved with them. Gaara never really liked new things. He liked control and part of that is knowing where you are, what's going on, and why. And so it makes perfect sense why he would not like emotions

His thoughts halted when he saw something on the street. A body lying on the ground; no two bodies. He walked up to them and instantly noticed who they were.

"Haruno, how idiotic." He commanded his sand to lift the two off of the floor and then a separate floating platform for himself. He began forward at breakneck pace, not sure why, but he was in a rush to get them to the hospital.

He barged into the medical center, carrying Sakura and Hissori with his sand, and walking himself.

"Kazekage-sama!" was exclaimed several times by various people and hospital staff.

"They need medical attention." He said monotonously. The nurses rushed to the two floating patient-to-be's, and got them on stretchers. The two were sent in opposite directions, one for the ER, and the other to the pediatric ward.

One hour later

Hissori had merely been sleeping soundly. He was up and alert, walking and talking, but mostly worrying about his adoptive mother. Sakura wasn't as lucky as her son, she was severely dehydrated and her body had forced itself into a coma. The doctors were walking towards Gaara at the moment.

"Kazekage-sama, it appears that Sakura-san wasn't properly hydrated, so she went into a coma. She didn't have enough water to sustain the entire body so it shut down to use the remaining water on keeping her brain in working order. We are trying to get her out of the coma. Now, with any case of a person in a coma, there is always some chance the patient might not wake up, which is why we are trying so hard to get her up now. We have her on IV and she's been force-fed some liquids, so she's perfectly healthy. Would you like to go see her?"

Gaara had absolutely no interest whatsoever in seeing Sakura, but children under 12 years of age were not allowed in the rooms alone. So he would do it for the sake of Hissori.

They entered the room and Gaara took a spot leaning against the wall in one corner. It was a surprise to see Sakura in such a state. Wires and tubes were everywhere and he could hear her life through the blip of the heart monitor. She was pale and thin, her skin near translucent due to the lack of blood for so long.

Suddenly, the heart monitor began to ring. The little blip of her heartbeat gone; the flutter of the sound wave was proof, for it was straight and unmoving. Sakura had no heartbeat, no heartbeat means death, Sakura was dead. The logic made sense, but it wasn't quite clicking.

Doctors came rushing toward her, and swarmed around her like bees. Buzzing about, getting tools, following orders, it was annoying him to no end. The more they moved about, the antsier Gaara became. He felt the all too familiar urge to decapitate everyone in the room. The room grew silent as the defibrillator was wheeled up to Sakura's bed.

"Clear." the doctor stated while he rubbed the two pads together. This was a signal for all the nurses to remove their hands from the body so that when he sent the electric volts through her they wouldn't also shock the nurses.

The doctor pressed the electrified pads against Sakura's chest and she lunged upward off the bed, because of the shock. Still, though, her heart monitor showed no sign of activity. The nurses once again went back to manually pumping her heart. The doctor walked over to Gaara and Hissori.

"It seems Sakura is resisting. She is resisting and it is killing her." The doctor looked Gaara in the eyes. Apparently at this point the doctor had assumed them lovers, and most likely Hissori, was their assumed son.

"Do it again, shock her one more time." A voice spoke out low and deep, Gaara turned towards Hissori who was looking up hopefully at him. After a few seconds while the doctor had nodded and walked to Sakura's bedside, Gaara realized it was he himself, who had requested this.

Why?

He didn't care for Haruno.

The defibrillator zipped on and made a high ringing sound that matched the ring of the monitor.

No. Gaara did not care for others.

The doctor rubbed the two pads together once more, the nurses still pounding on Sakura's ribs to manually pump her heart,

Gaara looked at the small boy beside him. This boy was living proof that Gaara did care. He would guard the boy with his life. So while there was no proof specifically, the possibility that he cared for Sakura, could not be disproved.

"Clear."

Once all the nurses hands were off of Sakura, the shock was sent. 1500 volts sent pulsing through her.

The room was dead silent.

The monitor was still ringing.

It hadn't worked.

There were frowns upon the face, of every nurse and doctor. The doctor turned the heart monitor off and the ringing that had filled the room, stopped instantly. They all exited the room to allow her 'lover' time to mourn. Gaara was not frowning; his mouth was set in a grim line as he approached the hospital bed in which Sakura lay. He was standing right next to her, and his hand moved on its own accord. It had lain itself on her cheek. It was cold, it felt like ice water was running through her veins.

No. There was nothing running through her veins. She was dead. It still didn't click in his head. It didn't make sense. Sakura Haruno was a stubborn girl, she was full of hope and life. She took care of everyone that needed her, she did not give up. She did not just lay there and die. She wouldn't just accept death.

At least, that's what he had thought.

Gaara moved his hand lower so his fingers spread across her cheek and the base of his hand, where the palm met the wrist, was resting on her pulse. Such a sad sight to behold…wait.

Pulse.

She had a pulse.

Gaara flicked the switch on the heart monitor, there was a slight jump in the still line. The blips of sound proved that she had returned from the dead. Still he had his hand on her cheek, he promptly removed it and walked off to a seat.

Hissori was staring at him with such intensity. No actual emotion showing, just and intense gaze pointed right at him. But soon, a smile graced his features and admiration all but poured off of his body.

Hissori had to be the first of two people to smile genuinely at him; he had done it years ago. The second was currently lying in the hospital bed right behind the boy, with only slight signs of life, which was quite an improvement from being dead.

Hissori glanced at his adoptive mother, his gaze so filled with love and complete adoration. He then turned back to Gaara with respect. Slowly he approached the Kazekage of sand, his gaze never losing intensity.

He halted in front of the man. Lifted his tiny arms and encircled them around the older boy as good as he could.

Much like the smile, Hissori had to be the first person to give him such a sincere, loving hug, ever in his life. He wondered for a second what he had done to merit such respect and love.

But Hissori was quick to solve the puzzle. He smiled against Gaara still hugging him tightly. He stepped back and looked up to Gaara's eyes.

"You fixed her."

…TBC.

Authors Note: Again, I apologize profusely for the wait. To tell you the truth yesterday I had only one page of this chapter written. I re-read all of my precious reviews and they inspired me, so I'm up now at midnight, almost one now, to finish this story. Kya, 8 pages! Just barely. It's longer than last time, at least. Still not as long as I'd like, but hey, I typed this up in about an hour so I think it earns me some points. And plus I wrote longer paragraphs on this one. Kya! 2968 words, and my other chapters of this fic the highest was 2560, so yes, this one is the longest I've written!

I still have a very loose grip on the plot, I know where I'm going but I have no clue how to get there. This chapter is weird but I liked it. Hopefully you do too. Review please, and I will be inspired to write, I'm serious, because it was the reviews that got me to finish this up in the first place.

On that note, I'd like to thank my reviewers.

First and foremost I'm thanking byakugan-master93 who was the first review on the story and has literally been with me from the beginning. So I thank you very much for that.

Next I'd like to thank Cyber Clash who has review more than one of my fanfics; Many thanks to you as well.

Also thanks to:

Placid Snowflake

MysticWolf71891

angelfox13

GaarasGurl

Sakura LOVE shadow

bad bunny1818

xXYour Vampire91Xx

yumi hasegawa

NekoHanyouHerInuHanyouHim4Ever

You guys really don't know how much I want to thank you all. Your reviews inspire me to write and they just make my day really. I feel so happy after I read a nice review from you all. So just really, thank you all so much.

Please Review,

Saayu-chan