(Part One - same as previously posted)

The night after Kankuro's 20th day in the hospital – a personal record he'd rather not have – Kankuro found out precisely why he was on chakra suppressants. Due to some mix-up with the night's nursing staff, the injection was never given. As the unknowing shinobi lay sleeping, his chakra supplies were slowly and steadily building.

And so was the pain.

At 3:36:03AM, Kankuro awoke to the unfortunately familiar feeling of fire coursing through his veins. At 3:36:09AM, Kankuro began screaming.

It wasn't until 3:45:27AM that the correct injection and a sedative had been administered and Kankuro finally fell into a restless slumber at 4:00:00AM.

By 5:30:00AM, two nurses had been suspended and would likely need therapy after an encounter with an extremely angry Kazekage. Temari was more reluctant than ever to return to Suna and a rather rumpled but wide-awake Sakura was attempting to explain what had happened to the two conscious Sand Siblings and an equally rumpled Naruto.

"It won't happen again." Sakura tried to sound calm, but Gaara was unnervingly quiet and staring intently at his brother's sleeping face as though looking for the slightest hint of discomfort.

"Damn right, it won't! How the hell can we leave him here?" Temari was only barely succeeding in keeping her voice down, but her fear was plain in her eyes. "I barely even understand what just happened! What's going on, Sakura?"

Sakura looked uneasily at her patient, trying to switch into what Naruto called 'Doctor Mode', but finding it difficult to be objective. "As you know, Kankuro's chakra system was seriously damaged. And… as you also know, chakra is needed to heal our injuries." She took a deep breath to calm herself. His screams were still echoing in her head. "The problem we're having in treating Kankuro…" All eyes jumped to her at the word 'problem'.

Temari's voice was strangely quiet. "Problem?... What do you mean problem?" Sakura cleared her throat.

"Kankuro's chakra is further damaging his channels. At least at their normal level. The chakra suppressants were keeping it to a very low concentration. So far, it's been enough to facilitate healing while not being too much to cause more damage." Gaara's quiet baritone filled the silence that Sakura left behind, asking the question they were all thinking.

"And after this morning…?" Sakura met his gaze head on.

"This morning's incident was a set back." Temari's anger was back.

"Incident? One of your nurses screwed up and hurt my brother more!" She turned to Gaara. "Gaara, we can't just leave him here. He hates the hospital, Sakura can't be with him all the time," she turned back to Sakura, "and I'm sorry, but I simply don't trust your nurses anymore." Sakura nodded her understanding – after this morning she was considering a serious overhaul of shift-change procedure. They only had to wait a moment for Gaara's voice to offer his response.

"We are expected back in Suna in four days time. That is non-negotiable." He glanced at Sakura before continuing. "Regardless of what occurred this morning, Konoha is still the best possible place for his care. Moving him to Suna would be foolish. We have no other choice but to leave him in the hospital." Gaara's teal eyes returned to his brother's face before snapping up to meet Naruto's pensive, yet uncertain, look as he spoke for the first time that morning:

"What if he didn't have to stay in the hospital?"

~*~ (Part Two - the new stuff!)

Kankuro awoke late afternoon. He was groggy and could still feel the remnants of the hell he'd been through that morning. He ached all over his body, but when he gingerly attempted to move his limbs, he could've cried in relief to find that they were still almost as cooperative as they'd been when he went to sleep the night before.

He let out a soft sigh and opened his eyes, unsurprised to find his brother and sister seated anxiously by his bedside. Temari was the first to speak, asking how he was feeling, and she visibly relaxed when he offered her a small smile. She didn't return the gesture, however.

"Kankuro, we've been talking…" His smile vanished. This couldn't be good. "We know you don't like hospitals – "

"No shit." Temari's eyebrow quirked up menacingly. Okay, snarky interruptions – even as coping mechanisms – were apparently not welcome. Jeez, only his sister would threaten someone in a hospital bed. Well, and his brother, too. He vaguely wondered what that said about his family.

"But as I was about to say, we can't take you with us to Suna." Fuck. "It would be too risky while you're still recovering." He listened quietly as Temari explained what had happened that morning. Kankuro didn't know if it was comforting or even more unnerving to know what was actually happening in his body. Was that the only thing Sakura hadn't told him? He trusted her with his life, always had and always would, and so he'd kept quiet earlier, but how could he know what else was she mistakenly trying to protect him from?

"Naruto had an idea, if you're willing to agree…" Dammit. No matter how worthy Naruto had proven himself as both a good friend and an excellent Kage, Kankuro still cringed at an idea from Naruto. Usually his plans in the personal sphere ended one of two ways for whomever was the target: pain or humiliation. In this instance, it could be either… "It would remove you from the hospital and into the private care of the Inuzuka clan." …Or both. His mouth struggled to connect to his brain.

"What?" Kiba's family? The small, detached voice that had been expressing itself more often lately was quickly drowned out, as it attempted to list the reasons why getting out of the hospital was a good thing, by a much larger portion of his brain starting the mantra of: Oh no. No, no, no, no. Not Kiba's family. No! "You can't be serious."

"Kankuro, several members of the Inuzuka family have medical training, and Sakura would be close if something went wrong," Oh god, Temari was using her big-sister-knows-best voice. It made him want to vomit. "And Kiba would be there to keep you company."

The small voice piped up again, His flowers were the only ones you actually liked, before quickly being drowned out again by his pride, You can't let him see you like this…

"No." His siblings didn't look surprised. Temari looked exasperated and Gaara looked… well, annoyed, but that was nothing new.

"Kankuro…" There was that big sister voice again.

"I said, no. I'm not staying with them." His whole body had tensed. There were several emotions flowing through him that could have caused this, and a few that he wasn't willing to address, but the overriding one was fear – fear mixed with a very strong and very unwelcome feeling of vulnerability.

Gaara stood, his annoyance openly visible. "Kankuro, we are both needed back in Suna and are unwilling to leave you in the care of the staff here. The Inuzuka's would be able to provide – " He knew it was stupid to interrupt his brother, even when he was in a relatively good mood and not tired and worn as he obviously was from this morning's ordeal, but his mouth seemed to listen more to his sense of pride than his sense of self-preservation.

"No. And I don't care if you think I'm being unreasonable." Teal eyes flashed.

Gaara drew himself up to his full height and looked down on Kankuro with the eyes of a Kage, not the eyes of a brother. "Do you mean to deny Inuzuka-san the honor of not only having the brother of the Kazekage as a house-guest, but also the right to repay the blood debt that she owes to this family for her son's life?"

The voice of his pride went silent, mid-chant. Well, shit. Did he have to put it that way? The Inuzuka's had never repaid Kankuro for saving Kiba all those years ago, and he knew that must weigh heavily on a mind as proud as Tsume Inuzuka's. It was probably what had given Naruto the idea to begin with. That smug little ass he called a brother just had to make it about honor, didn't he? And as the Kazekage's brother, as Gaara had so tactfully put it, he was duty-bound to acknowledge such a debt. He took a deep breath before tersely responding, "Of course not." Gaara's eyebrow raised, obviously expecting more to that statement.

"You may inform Inuzuka-sama that I am honored to accept her gracious offer of hospitality." His words were diplomatic, but forced – he was answering his superior, his Kage, not his little brother.

Gaara looked triumphant, while Temari just chuckled. Wait a minute… Why the fuck is she laughing? As though reading his mind, Temari's laughter grew.

"Good. I was hoping I wouldn't have to play the 'big sister guilt' card." Oh hell no. "And if that failed, Gaara was just going to order you." Oh fuck no! He didn't know who to glare at first.

"Why the hell did you even ask me then?" Great, even Gaara looked amused now. Temari answered, her eyes smiling.

"Meh. Just thought you might like to at least pretend you had a choice. Congratulations! You chose correctly!" That's it – superior rank, my ass. This is a family matter now.

"Fuck you both."

A/N: Okay, so Kiba is being difficult, so he's not going to show up until Chapter 6... but that chapter is going so much better than this one, so it won't take as long. Look forward to awkward moments. XD Muahaha!

I hope that everyone gets notified that I changed this... I'm not entirely sure how that works, so I'll try to mention this at the start of the next chapter, too...