RECAP:Yeah, given up on these I think...
After Naruto and Gaara had gotten back from sneaking out to Ichiraku's Sakura and Kiba came in.
"Good news Gaara. Tsunade gave me permission to remove your bandages."
"Awesome!"
"But I'll have to put a like huge band-aid on your scar so you can't show it off yet. Oh and she said something about not sneaking out anymore, I don't really know what she means."
"How'd she know?"
"What?"
"Nothing."
Sakura sat on the bed next to Gaara and had a tray of medial tools right next to her. She started unwrapping and cutting through the gauze on Gaara's head. He was getting pretty anxious.
"Hey Sakura did they like shave half my head?"
"No, it's a vertical cut so it'll be harder to see and we only cut like once centimeter around the whole incision in the very back but it'll grow back fast."
"Oh, does it look bad?"
Sakura had all the gauze of at this point and was pushing his hair out of the way to see his stitches.
"Nope, and your hair's long enough to cover it completely."
"How are my stitches."
"I always do a good job. They're perfect and we'll get them out in a few more weeks but you can go home before that."
"Wait, you did these stitches? Did you do my surgery?"
"Some of it. One of the interns in there passed out. I guess yours was the first brain she'd seen so they called me in, I have no idea what happened to my other interns but they weren't available."
"That's awesome!"
Sakura laughed and finished up with his head and got off the bed and threw away his gauze. He ruffled through his hair so it wouldn't look so flat.
"Hey Sakura have you taken out Kankuro's stitches yet?"
"No but I think it's about time they came out."
"Can we watch?"
"Sure, let's go!"
Gaara got in his chair and hooked his IV onto it and wheeled himself behind Sakura. Naruto was laughing as he followed Gaara and started pushing him. Kiba caught up with Sakura as they moved into Kankuro's room. All of his visitors had gone back home. It seemed like everyone was getting sick of the hospital. Kankuro was half asleep when they came in.
"Hey, Kankuro. Time to get your stitches out."
"...Oh, yeah OK."
"OK Kiba, if you wanna look away I understand."
Kiba, a little offended at the comment, responded.
"What makes you think I need to look away?"
"Well...you nearly passed out when you saw Gaara's, Naruto's and mine. This one's worse than the three of ours combined. At least on the outside."
"I'll be fine. I'm tough."
"OK, you've been warned."
Sakura took off the leg brace and then started unwrapping the gauze. Kiba wasn't looking at his leg yet, worried about what was so bad. Then he heard Sakura say-
"OK, Naruto will you throw this gauze away?"
"Sure. The red trash or the yellow trash?"
"The one that says biohazard."
"Is this really a hazard? Should I be touching this?"
"Just throw it away."
Kiba watched Naruto throw the gauze away and then his eyes followed him back to Kankuro's bed. He then decided to just look. Slowly, he moved his eyes to Kankuro's leg. Everyone but Sakura was waiting for his reaction. Finally he saw it. It was jagged and discolored and had so many stitches and it looked so bruised. It was sickening. Kankuro laughed a little and took a mocking tone as he talked to Kiba.
"What dya think?"
"...Oh God...that's..."
"Uh oh...Naruto...Naruto he looks like he's gonna be sick..."
Naruto turned to look at him again.
"Uh oh. You're right. Kiba?"
Kiba looked awful.
"OK, come on Kiba."
Naruto got up and walked Kiba out of the room. A few steps out and Kiba was running to the men's room. Naruto followed and found Kiba clutching a toilet bowl.
"Come on, Kiba. That was, that was bad. I thought you said you could take it."
"Ugh...come on that was...nasty..."
"I'm just saying you're not looking very good in front of Sakura."
"What makes you think...I want to impress Sakura?"
"The fact that I'm not an idiot."
"..."
"I won't lie and say I'm OK with it but I can't expect Sakura to be alone forever."
"I'm not sure about Sakura...I mean I can't compare to Sasuke...look at me."
"I'm not going to compliment you Kiba. You'd be lucky to have Sakura."
"I know."
"OK, so be a man and stare at that scar."
"Naruto...do you think Sakura could ever...ever love me as much as Sasuke...?"
"Get your head out of the damn toilet."
Kiba stood up and went to wash his mouth out.
"OK, come on. I don't wanna miss this."
"You gonna answer my question?"
"I don't want to."
"Will you though?"
"...No, I don't think she can. Sasuke was her first love, they went through a lot together, they had a baby together. I mean can you honestly say you're over your first crush?"
"No, I can't."
"Who was she?"
"Doesn't matter. What about you?"
"It's kinda funny actually, my first crush was Sakura."
"Really?"
"Mhm, but I got over her easier cause I'm not into girls anymore. Point is you won't love Sakura as much as your first real love. It just doesn't happen. So maybe she won't love you like Sasuke but you won't love her like whoever it is you have in mind."
"...Well that's a problem."
"Hmm?"
"It kinda was Sakura."
"Well...yeah...maybe you should've told me that before I made a speech."
"Yeah...maybe I should just lay off huh?"
"I would. Who knows, Sasuke was really special, you might get over Sakura easier than I think."
"How did you?"
"Gaara."
"I wish I had a Gaara."
"You're not gay."
"...This sucks."
"Come on let's go."
The two left and returned to Kankuro's room. Naruto sat by his bed with Gaara and Kiba stood behind Sakura again. Kankuro started talking to Kiba.
"You OK there big boy? I know it must look bad but trust me it hurt a lot more."
"Yeah..."
"Sakura...Sakura you're gonna need to speed this up!"
Sakura stopped taking out the stitches and looked up.
"Why's that?"
"Because I can feel from my hip to my knee."
Sakura looked and was already half way up his thigh.
"So you can feel this."
Sakura tugged at the stitches she was working on.
"OW! YES I CAN FEEL THAT!"
"Alright I'll numb it again calm down."
Sakura just used some numbing cream. She knew Kankuro still had some of the stronger stuff still working and she didn't want to over do it but that meant she had to rub it on. She started rubbing on the cream, she kept telling herself it was purely medical so she wasn't bright red but Kankuro was. She continued taking the stitches out. Kiba was looking away this time, trying not to embarrass himself further. Gaara had almost fallen asleep in his wheelchair. Finally she was done. Naruto turned to Gaara to start to wheel him out and when he did Gaara had his hand propping his head up and was asleep.
"Aw. Sakura look he's asleep."
"He must be so tired."
"Well he just slept four days how tired could he be?"
"Hey, he had to reintroduce himself with one eye. Cut him some slack."
"I bet Ichiraku's didn't help either."
"What?"
"Nothing. I'm gonna take him to bed."
"Oh, Naruto, he can leave tomorrow."
"That's great! I'll tell him when he wakes up."
Naruto slowly wheeled Gaara out of Kankuro's so he wouldn't wake him up. He lifted him out of the chair and into bed. He woke up a little bit but not enough to stay up. Naruto kissed his forehead goodnight and turned his light off. He then walked back to Kankuro's room with Kiba and Sakura. Sakura had scheduled Kankuro for physical therapy and her and Kiba were just walking out when he was going in.
"Where are you two going?"
"He's walking me home. Why?"
"Just wondering. Hey Kiba can you come here for a second?"
Naruto took Kiba aside and Sakura went to get her things from Sasuke's room.
"I thought you said you were gonna lay off?"
"I'm just being nice. Plus I have to watch Naru tomorrow morning anyway."
"So now you're staying there?"
"I sleep on the couch."
"She's not going to just all of the sudden forget Sasuke and fall madly in love with you. You're just setting yourself up to fail. What are you gonna do if Sasuke wakes up?"
"...Get over it."
"It's not going to be easy."
"I know. I'm gonna enjoy it while I can."
Sakura came back and her and Kiba left. He then went back into Gaara's room. He was waking up and Naruto sat next to his bed.
"Where'd everybody go?
"Go back to sleep Gaara. You need your rest."
"Mmok..."
Naruto giggled and Gaara fell back asleep. Naruto went back in to Kankuro's room to check on him.
"Hey Kankuro."
"Hey, I'm so bored."
"Ha...hey I'm sorry for yelling at you...I know you were as worried as me..."
"You've already apologized."
"I know but it...it was uncalled for, I mean of course you're worried about him, you're his brother."
"Well, sometimes I don't feel like it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean he likes it here more than the sand. You know he calls our house back in the sand 'Dad's house'."
"So?"
"You know what he calls your house?"
"..."
"Home. I get why but it still hurts...I mean we've never been all that close but I'm still his brother. With him living here...it's harder to feel like a family...but it's not either of your fault...which is why it's so frustrating."
"I'm sorry Kankuro..."
"Don't be you didn't do anything wrong."
A nurse came in to take Kankuro to his physical therapy so Naruto went back in with Gaara. He was pretty worn out too so he fell asleep on the cot next to Gaara's bed.