The Konoha squad found themselves before the walls of Suna by sunrise. Their escort greeted them warily before leading them towards Suna's hospital. Sakura was already in the process of tying her hair back as they entered through the front of the building. Naruto, Kakashi and Shikamaru held back as she sped away towards the awaiting Kankuro. They could hear her ferocious barks from nearly a floor away.

"Troublesome woman," Shikamaru muttered, curling his arms across his chest. But one hell of a medic, that's for sure.

"Sakura's the best of the best, believe it!" Naruto grinned out. "She'll get Make-Up Man up and at'tem before you know it!" The fox boy made it well known that he was very proud of the female member of his team. He admired her, cherished her, LOVED her more than anyone could imagine; it was only common sense that the pride he exuded was nearly palpable in such a dire situation. He had full faith in Sakura's ability to heal Kankuro.

"Yeah, but she IS human, Naruto," Shikamaru bit out with hard eyes. "Everyone makes mistakes. I'll admit it, she's good, but she's no Tsunade-sama. Plus, Kankuro might not even make it past her original treatment. I heard that he—"

"That he what, you ignorant runt of a jonin?"

Shikamaru clammed up. His shoulders slumped. Oh no.

That voice. That goddamned voice.

He turned slowly. As soon as his eyes were to make contact with the holder of the voice, a black plank greeted him instead. There was no time to cover. The wood made immediate contact with his face, throwing his feet from beneath him as he crashed into the wall behind him. He didn't open his eyes, didn't BREATH; even though a potted plant perched precariously on his spiked head was leaking dry soil onto his face.

Temari grabbed the diplomat by the collar of his flack jacket and brought his face close to her own. "Say one more thing about Kankuro, Pineapple Head, and I swear to Kami, you're going to be six feet underground before noon, you got that?"

Gaara's assistant, Matsuri, flitted between her master's sister and the petrified jonin. "Maa, maa Temeri-donno! You don't want to hurt Shikamaru-san more than his already is, right? Besides, they're our guests! They just arrived and must be tired! If you hurt him, it'll only give Gaara-donno more to do and you know how cranky he gets with paperwork!"

Temari gave an angry glare towards the small kunoichi, who shirked down at the sight of the blonde's blazing viridian orbs. She huffed and turned away, her hands wrapped around the back of her head. "Psh, asshole started it."

Naruto immediately rushed towards his friend, lending him a hand to stand. Shikamaru stood on wobbly knees. "T-thanks…"

Naruto leaned in close to his friend, whispering in his ear. "I wouldn't talk about Make-up for a while if I were you… 'Specially not around her…"

Shikamaru didn't need the jinchuuriki to tell him. He was going to stay away from that hellion if it was the last thing that he did on this planet.

Temari turned to Kakashi, her face relaxing at the sight of the copy ninja. At least there would be one sane person she could communicate with. "Gaara wanted to thank you all for coming here so quickly. He's been… Preoccupied, with Kankuro. He's just not himself since we had brought him back."

"Completely understandable," Kakashi responded quietly. "But, we do need to see Gaara-donno before we can continue on with anything. We know that Kankuro is in Sakura's capable hands, but we need to know exactly what happened and what to expect."

Temari nodded. "Of course. Only, the ones that know the details about what happened out there are Kankuro and the prisoner he brought back with him." She bit out that word, prisoner, like it was the poison in her little brother's blood stream. "You might have a better chance of questioning her than waiting for him to wake up. You're going to need Gaara or my permission, though."

Temari spun on her heel, sheathing her fan on her back before shuffling down the hall, a natural sway to her step. The Konoha ninja followed quickly behind towards the infirmary.

He had really done it this time. Sakura was immediately sweating the second that she walked into the room. Kankuro was pale, his cheeks sunken in, the bags under his eyes nearly purple even though he was already unconscious for three days. Sakura racked her mind for information, taking in his symptoms and hoping to match it to a certain, specific poison.

She came up with nothing.

"Shit. Someone give me details."

The ninja around her rambled off stats that meant nothing to her. Falling blood pressure, increasing brain activity yada yada yada. Wait. Increasing?

"Wait, go back. You mean his brainwaves have been going up?"

"Aye Sakura-sempai," a woman responded, handing her the charts. Sure enough, the curve of the graph showed increasing brain waves. What in the world was that?

She thrust the vial of golden liquid into the hands of the same medic in payment for the charts. "I took this from a ship that we had found in the sands. If this is the poison that's in Kankuro, we need to find something to dilute it immediately. At least if it's a variant, I can work around it to save him. Make it FAST." There was no sugar to her voice.

"Hai sempai!"

Sakura approached the bed quickly, placing a small hand on the clammy, tanned forehead of the puppeteer. Just from a simple touch, she could immediately tell that he was suffering from a high fever. Fevers cause hallucinations. Hallucinations could happen when a patient is unconscious. Is that what the scan picked up on? She could only hope.

Slowly, she worked her chakra down his body. She felt out every crevice, every nook, every cranny. Each result said the same thing: blocked. Every SINGLE chakra pathway had been blocked. There was nothing running through Kankuro's system other than his slowly thinning blood. Not a single ounce of chakra flowed through his skin.

Fuck.

Kankuro would be dead within by nightfall if she didn't do anything.

"GET ME THAT FUCKING ANTIDOTE, DAMN IT."

She sealed her hands fastidiously onto his skin and began her slow, painful clearing of his pathways without the lubrication of the antidote. He wouldn't mind the after soreness. If he lived to feel it, that is.

Tired, green eyes watched from the window as the pinkette began her work. She was his only hope now.

Something warm flowed over his skin. He couldn't figure out what it was, but he didn't mind it in the least. It was fuzzy and soft, kind of like what he imagined the hair on that Inuzuka kid's dog-wolf-thing would feel.

The sensation drifted down from his head all the way to his toes, wrapping him gently in total safety. He had never felt so relaxed. Not since the before the war. Not since his childhood, wrapped in the arms of his mother.

Mother. Karura. Someone whose name was nothing but an engraved word in a family photo album somewhere in the depths of the Kazekage's mansion. She didn't exist in his own home anymore. He had stored away all of those family photos with good ol' dad. She didn't exist anywhere but his memories. Her dirty blond hair, her violet eyes, a gentle smile and such smooth hands. Even with all of the work she had done around the house, her hands were always as smooth as the silk scarf around her neck. Kankuro was always mesmerized by those hands.

For now, he would just float on here in the warmth, imagining those smooth hands clenched loosely around his body. Those beautiful, beautiful hands…

Naruto spotted his old friend nearly immediately. Gaara was staring intently through the window of a hospital room, many people rushing in and out of a door just past him. His hair had grown just a tad longer since the war, but otherwise, his features were still the same; the same, stern posture, lips drawn into a straight line. The same red tattoo perched above his eyebrow.

"Gaara!"

He didn't turn immediately. In fact, he didn't turn for the first minute of the blond yelling his name. He didn't do anything but let his sand vibrate around him dangerously. It fizzled with electricity at the bottom of his heels, slithering like poisonous snakes; like the dragons that had encircled his city. He was agitated, worried, but overall, confused. Temari furrowed her eyebrows. Oh Gaara…

Naruto gritted his teeth had begun to stride towards his complacent friend when Kakashi held out an arm towards his student. "Not now, Naruto. Gaara-donno will acknowledge you sooner or later. Just give him time."

Shikamaru had taken a seat against the wall, eyes closed with his hands behind his head. Naruto gave a worried look towards his friend. It'll be alright. It'll all be okay.

He heard the raspy voice of his closest friend, but he didn't actually hear. It was an odd experience for Gaara. After hearing everybody's yells and screams as he dismantled them on battlefield after battlefield, he couldn't even distinguish the difference in those tones from his friend's greeting. There WAS no difference. Naruto yelling his name was the same sound as an injured Kankuro yelling for him as a clay bird and it's blond, Akatsuki master whisked him away.

It brought the same amount of anger.

He felt a small pressure on his shoulder, causing him to jump. Nearly immediately, his sand responded to attack the unwanted touch, only to have a gush of air wash over his face. A warmth enveloped him nearly immediately as strong arms wrapped tightly around his torso.

He had imagined if this was how his mother's arm would feel; protective and safe. That the tendrils of comfort radiating around him came from her gentle hands. That they would take these thoughts away from his head. The constant worry. The pain. Gaara was never one to FEEL pain, emotional nor physical. There was no need for such weakness. He just needed to sink into the warmth, that familiar warmth

A swift punch cracked against the side of his face.

He crumbled.

"NARUTO."

The blonde stalked Gaara, who was currently sitting with his head lolled to the side of his chest; a rag doll. He lifted the Kazekage by his collar, lifting his feet from the floor.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ALMOST DID? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU GAARA?!"

Gaara only stared, his cheek beginning to darken nearly to the color of the bags below his eyes. It swelled painfully against his pallid skin. Naruto shoved the man back down to the floor and huffed, muttering something below his breath.

"I don't need your observations, Naruto. I can do so on my own."

The jinchuuriki spun on his heel. "Oh really? You don't need me? Then find someone else. Why don't you ask Matsuri-chan then, huh? I'm sure she'd help."

Kakashi scowled towards his pupil and Shikamaru looked as if he wanted to crawl into the deepest crack in the adobe walls of the hospital. Gaara let his eyes wander about the hall. Where WAS Matsuri? And Temari?

"Oh wait, that's right. You tried to strangle her with your fucking sand, you baka."

He had WHAT.

He stared incredulously. There was no way. He hadn't done anything wrong. The warmth had stopped him before he could do anything drastic. He would NEVER hurt Matsuri. Never in his years of existing would he ever think to lay a single FINGER on his pupil.

Naruto kept rambling. "It was as if you completely reverted, Gaara! Like you were with Shukaku again! You didn't even look at her when you did it! If I didn't sock you in the face when I did, you would have choked her out! WHAT -"

"The warmth."

Naruto stopped. Gaara had drawn into himself, his eyes distant and barren. "The rage. I couldn't stop it. I knew I had felt it before once upon a time. It seemed so kind to me. So gentle. I didn't know… I didn't know-" I could feel this way about another person who I tried to kill dozens of times in my childhood. I didn't know I could be so WORRIED about someone who was never anything more than a punching bag to me. I didn't KNOW that I could FEEL.

A different warmth covered him with the sound of swishing cotton. Vanilla and light lavender overcame his senses. He slumped into the new figure, something familiar about this apparition that appeared in front of him, maybe the red vest, or the scrubs over their chest. He was calm. He rested his eyes.

Sakura had sensed the chakra flare from inside of her operating room. She didn't pay much attention to Naruto or his angry aura; she expected him to over react at the Kazekage's distance. What she didn't expect though was Gaara's shaking. It was as if his body was confused and his energy didn't know how to follow. She could nearly feel his breathing hitch in his throat as he had sank into his abyss of his thoughts.

"Take over for me."

A medic, now equipped with a semi potent antidote, scrambled to take his sempai's position as she shot from the room. She spun past a confused Naruto and immediately dropped to Gaara's height, sending stabilizing chakra his way through her fingers. His head hit her shoulder and she knew he was blissfully unconscious. She stroked his back carefully, his still trembling fingers clenching into her vest, slowly relieving their rigor mortis.

Kakashi and Shikamaru approached the situation quietly, taking Gaara's now limp form from the medic and whisking him away to another room. Naruto gave a questioning look to his counterpart. "What happened to him, Sakura-chan? He was fine! There was nothing wrong."

She gave him a sharp look, her eyes like daggers. "There was absolutely SOMETHING wrong with him, Naruto. If I could feel the difference in energy from another ROOM, there was ABSOLUTELY something wrong." She stood up quickly and jabbed a finger in his direction. "I know you've heard this before, but you don't understand what is happening to him! I don't, Kakashi-sensei doesn't, Shikamaru-kun doesn't; the only one that knows and can understand him right now is Temari, and she needs to find a way to talk to him. He just needs time and not your constant pestering!"

Naruto clammed up immediately.

"But," she continued on with a sigh. "I know you want to help. I know you do, but there… There just isn't anything you can do… You can only sit and be patient. I know you're really bad at it, but please, just try for me?"

She began to walk back into the operating room before he could comment.

She wouldn't even let him mention the tear stains on her vest.

Akemi's door slammed open with a bang. Before she realized what happened, her chains were cut from their supports and her face plummeted to the concrete below her. She spat blood onto the grimy floor, her pained wrists barely able to support her small frame. A hand snaked up her neck, gently stifling her air supply. Gasping, she was lifted to her knees and held there.

"So, this is THE Akemi Nakahara, is it?"

A bored tone, one she hadn't heard before, reverberated throughout her cell. All she could see was his shadow compared to the bright light of the hall. Hold on. If he was over there and she was over here, how was he holding her right now? She hissed towards the new comer's direction, even though the light from the hall was probably more painful than his hold.

"What's it to you, Spikes?" She decided that would be a good enough nickname since the man looked like he had a mace sticking out of the top of his head. Who styles their hair like that, anyway?

The man grunted. "Look, I'm not here to hurt you. No need to be defensive. Plus, I'm not even a part of Suna, okay? I just wanna ask a few questions is all."

Akemi stayed silent, her teeth grinding.

"Troublesome…" He began walking forward into the cell. Akemi immediately began her damned trembling. The man stopped. "Why are you shaking? I told you I'm not going to hurt you already."

Akemi snarled. "That damned woman has me trained like a whipped puppy. Footsteps equals punishment. Punishment equals pain. I might not be a stranger to it, but no human wants to feel pain. Not even me." Her volume lowered as she had continued to speak.

The hand around her neck loosened just enough to let her sit comfortably on the floor. The footsteps started again, and so did her shaking. The man, his face now clearly visible, sunk to her level a few feet away. "I'm not going to hurt you if you cooperate, alright? I'm doing this for that tired hound. She's not in any condition to come down right now. 'Got too much to deal with up top, you know? Now again, I'm not gonna hurt you if you won't hurt me, you got it?"

Akemi stared hard at his features. Dark brown eyes matched his dark, spiked ponytail and his expression just reaked of impatience, boredom and too much knowledge. He smelt of leftover cigarette smoke and grass on his clothing, one scent more familiar than the other. She smirked.

"Spikes, you gotta promise me one thing." She stared hard into his features.

The man sat down and rubbed his head. "I don't know if I can PROMISE per say, but I can give it my best shot."

"Get your damn back up away from here or tell them to join the party. One of them wants to chew my damned head off, I know it."

Spikes taken aback, turned towards the door and sighed. "Jig's up Kakashi. Naruto."

Another two figures, both male entered the room. One was a heterochromic with one eye dark as ink and the other as red as blood, a calculating look on his masked face. Sizing her up. The second, the one that wanted to throttle her, was dressed in a bright orange and black jumpsuit with almost as obnoxious yellow hair. Oh jeez. That doesn't help blending in, does it? She eyed the hitae'ate.

"Ahhh, Konoha shinobi. Welcome to my cage," she greeted frankly. Her hands mingled with her bloodied wrists, the sensations sending shivers of pain down her spine. "Enjoy your stay."

The grey haired, heterochromic took a quite step closer. "Shikamaru-kun is right when he says we mean no harm, Akemi-san. We were just meant to keep the both of you safe if anything was to happen."

"Safe my ass. Nothing you could do could save me from future punishment from the Kazekage or his bitch of a sister. I have no reason to attack. You're not my order."

The blonde stayed silent. She eyed him warily. He was going to be trouble if she needed to withhold them. She scoffed.

"I don't think either of YOU are going to hurt me, but blondie bear over there doesn't feel too peachy keen on being in the same room with me, do ya short stuff? Got anything to throw into the open?"

The blonde bit his lip, trying to contain himself. He looked towards his superior, the grey haired one, who gave him a nod. He stepped forward.

She couldn't stop trembling. There was no way. Why did her big mouth always get her into these kinds of situations?! Why couldn't it just shut up for once?

He crouched even lower to her than Spikes, or "Shikamaru", and stared at her dead in the eyes with those sapphire jewels. "Why?"

She just stared.

"Why? Because I was told to."

The boy stared back. She could feel his chakra, dangerous and strangling, surrounding her body. "Because you were told to…" he whispered through gritted teeth.

"I'm not different than any of you shinobi, you know. We of the Tori no Suna are given orders. We follow them or we die. Whether we die in battle or we die for treason for failing and NOT dying in battle, it doesn't matter. You don't have a choice when you're in my line of work."

"But you DO." He only continued to stare. "You don't have to stay there. You can leave! It's a rogue village! You could join a village! Use your powers for good and-"

"For GOOD? You think that your people do GOOD?" She exploded. "All you do is cause PAIN and SUFFERING to people like mine. There is nothing but blood and rubble where many rogue villages used to stand! I've moved almost 5 times, trying to rebuild what was destroyed! My home is my home! And like you try to protect your precious Konoha, I try to protect mine. These people tried to take something very important from us; the only thing that sustains us. You think we could just sit back and let them try again? Let them destroy everything that we had ever BUILT? I would NOT stand for that son of a bitch Kazekage coming into OUR village, tearing down OUR homes, killing OUR children and making off with the only thing that we've been blessed to hold!" She paused to have bloody coughs erupt from her lungs. "See? How are we any different? We bleed blood. We scream. We shout. We cry. We live. We die. It's a pitiful life, but it's a life that I chose to live to keep invaders like you away from the people that I love. That's all I can say…"

And finally, Akemi was silent. She let lightheadedness, hunger and pain finally overcome her.

Violet. Violet. VIOLET.

Violent.

It was the only color Kankuro could see. The color of the feathers, of his face paint, of her eyes. Those eyes that burned so ferociously, they gave their owner the strength needed to pull creatures dozens of times her size by her fingertips. She struck down shinobi after shinobi, friend after friend, civilian after civilian. There was NOTHING but fire, the smell of iron and burning left behind those fucking eyes.

He tried to close his own, but the feeling of insects crawling across his skin kept him squirming over the heat on his skin. That previous, loving warmth of his mother had melted into a stifling oven under his skin. The hottest Suna day had NOTHING on this hellfire. He couldn't breathe; couldn't think. His arms flailed in the fire of those eyes, those so very familiar eyes, shining in utter delight from his pain. He clambered and kicked and screamed, but nothing would block him from the persecution of those eyes. It was as if they would burn holes through his body.

Kankuro was trapped. There was no escape. He stopped his movements. He stopped his struggle. He let his world burn. He couldn't. He couldn't…

"NO!"

The monitor ceased. Sakura quickly cancelled her poison extraction, the antidote leaping out of her fingers. The last remnants of her chakra thrust itself into his system to try kick-start his heart like jumper cables. One second it was beating, albeit weakly, but BEATIING, and then next, went directly into v-fib.

Sakura sent pulse after pulse into his chest, hoping, PRAYING that something would trigger an SA node. That some Purkinje fiber would strum to life. Anything. She couldn't let him go. She wouldn't. She couldn't bear to see Gaara cry again.

A wave.

If Kankuro knew what a wave had FELT like, what a cool, sweet oasis was like if they actually existed, it would be like this.

His skin soothed, his blood simmered down. His arms and legs fought again, sprung with a new life. He kicked up, swinging his arms rapidly to feel himself rising. He peered above him, seeing the eyes, those violet eyes, closed and weeping. The cool tears dropped onto his form and he continued to kick up, regaining energy with each propulsion.

Suddenly, he broke the surface.

The monitor beeped.

Eyes fluttered. Sakura sighed. That flutter was the first movement Kankuro made in his three days of unconsciousness. She stopped, leaning over the operating table. That was it. That last surge of inhuman chakra that she gave disintegrated the last bits of poison in his system.

All they had to do was wait.

"Alright all. I think we've done it!"

She collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Gaara sat up right. He had felt it. Felt it within him. Kankuro was alive. He was there. He was with them.

The Kazekage shot up from his bed and shot to the hospital like a red streak in the darkness of night.

Temari smiled. There you are, you knucklehead. You fucking ass. You worried your big sister nearly half to death...

She curled back into her sheets, the body next to her wrapping their hands securely around her waist. He would get a piece of her mind in the morning, only after the greatest wake up sex that she could ever imagine from a certain lazy jonin.

HOHOHO MERRY TURKEYDAY!

Well, almost!

Here's a nice little update for you all to chew on! Kankuro's back and a little of Akemi was revealed. Oh, and Temari's doing the hanky panky with Pineapple Head, but what's new? J We'll see where this goes next!

Until next time!

Epsilion