A/N: Sorry I'm a little late with the chapter. I have a wicked sunburn and haven't been doing much today because of it. Sooooooo much pain! Fucking buses man.

Anyhow! I know like 10 chapters ago I said we were getting closer to the end, but now I actually mean it. I don't know how far away that is exactly, but it's getting REALLY close.

Also, I put up the first chapter of that new story I mentioned. If ya wanna check it out, darkness galore! It came out WAY better than I expected so I can't wait to start working on it.

This chapter is a little short but enjoy!

Wakana lay next to her mother, never once having left her side since being found. The small fireball worried that she would never wake up. It didn't help her nerves any when Gaara had come for a visit that once and since then hadn't come back. She had heard the conversation between him and his sister but didn't understand a single word of it. All she knew was that they were both upset, which in turn caused Setsuko to become upset. It had been exactly one week since then and today was the day that pink haired medic was supposed to come for Setsuko's weekly check-ups. Wakana never showed herself to the medic, but watched everything she did from the safety of the realm only her kind and wandering souls could inhabit.

On cue, said pink haired, green eyed, nurse walked in with her hair up and those signature white robes on. White eyes watched as she picked up the chart that hung at the foot of Setsuko's hospital bed and flipped through the pages. She placed a finger against her chin, looking like she was thinking hard about something and earned the curiosity of the Shibokasai. Wakana floated over to peer over the young woman's shoulders and see what she was reading. None of the words made any sense to her because she couldn't read human.

Bringing the chart with her, she walked around the side of the bed and set it on the small bedside table as she checked all of the monitors to make sure they were working in proper order and producing accurate readings. Taking the stethoscope from around her neck, she placed it in her ears and carefully began to check her vitals. There was great care needed because of the massive physical trauma she had suffered from being in the direct line of the thousands of explosions. Wakana's white eyes flickered from the nurse to Setsuko and back to the nurse as her brows seemed knitted together in contemplation. Her ears were suddenly at the ready when she heard a small gasp from the woman and shrill screams of pain.

"I need help here!" the woman screamed as she quickly placed some of her weight on the flailing arms of Setsuko as she screamed and cried in pain.

Three other nurses ran in at the urgency of her call, all semi-shocked as they witnessed the struggling Princess.

"Hold her down while I get another I.V. started!" she commanded as she let the three take over. From the corner of her eye, she was mentally amazed that she had awoken so suddenly and not passed out from the pain yet.

She quickly rifled through the cabinets and pulled out a bag of clear liquid, rushing over to the currently empty bag and throwing it aside. With professional ease, she switched the two bags and began administering the pain medication that had been keeping her comfortable. She gripped the bag tight so that the medication would drip faster and flush through her system sooner. Wakana quickly flickered out of the room and zoomed her way to Gaara's office to try and get him to go to the hospital. When she found him, he was sitting on the roof of the Kazekage building looking out at the village. A stoic look of loneliness that was only known to him was on his face.

Her raging blue fire appeared in front of his face and he actually looked surprised, "Wakana?" his vocal cords breathed. "What are you doing here?"

She squeaked and flew around him rapidly, her fire even turning red when he gave her a quizzical look.

"I…I don't understand…" His brow furrowed and his head shook lightly.

Her body dropped a little in exasperation before floating back up to be eye level with him. Soon, many little balls of blue fire roared to life in a trail leading towards the hospital.

His eyes followed the trail and when his brain registered the direction they were going his eyes widened a fraction. "Setsuko?" He stood quickly and followed the trail in haste, with Wakana appearing on his shoulder.

Gaara arrived at the hospital well after they had sedated the in pain Princess. He burst through the door only to have Sakura glare and push him out. Slamming the door in his face, he fell back against the opposite wall and exhaled heavily. He could hear Sakura and the other nurses talking but all of it was muffled. Wakana appeared by his side, having hidden so no one else could see her, and cooed at him softly. Absently, he ran his fingers along her flaming fur as a way to comfort his racing mind. It didn't help all that much. Setsuko was just beyond that door, alive and finally awake. He no longer had to worry about her possibly slipping away in the middle of the night. It was his fears that had kept him away this entire time, unable to cope with the horrible pain it seemed to bring his being when he saw her in such a broken state.

"Gaara." Sakura's voice caused him to bring his eyes from the floor and look at her. Her eyes were a shade of green that reminded him of jade. "Don't just barge into a hospital room with a severely injured patient! You can cause more damage if we mess up from outbursts like that!" She was glaring at him, seething with anger at the way he had rushed into the room.

The look he gave her though, it softened her anger. It looked like a child who was being scolded by their parent for getting into trouble. She couldn't stay mad at a face like that. "…Is she…" he ventured to speak.

Sakura sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "She woke up not too long ago but we had to sedate her because she was in too much pain. Through her writhing, she managed to reopen practically all her stitches so those had to be redone and then re-bandaged." She sighed again, this time rubbing the bridge of her nose. "We already switched out her pain meds so that when she wakes up again at least she'll be in mild comfort. But that might not be until tomorrow."

"I understand." He nodded, trying to act as composed as possible which he found was actually quite difficult.

"I'm going to send word to Lady Tsunade that I'll be staying here for a few days, I'll be back shortly." Undoing her hair, she smoothed it out as she removed the robes and walked past him. "You're welcome to go in and visit, just don't stay long. She needs her rest," she said to him over her shoulder as she made her way towards the front doors of the hospital.

Gaara walked into the room without a sound, Wakana leaving his shoulder and hovering beside Setsuko's sleeping form. The annoying beeping of her heart monitor echoed in his ears as he stared at her from the door. He still had trouble looking at her. It was even worse that he was hesitating on getting any closer to her. Why was it so hard? What kind of question was that? He knew the answer; he had known it for nearly a month. He had feelings for her; the constant fear that she would die any moment, his racing nerves, pained heart and wrenching gut. It was an unavoidable truth. Would he ever admit it? Probably not. He had no idea what was going through her mind and this moment didn't seem the right time to say anything.

With a heavy sigh, he walked over to the bed and sat down in the chair. Running a hand over his face and into his hair, he leaned back in the stiff metal chair and stared up at the ceiling. He remembered the day he realize and admitted to himself that he had feelings. Before he had been so confused having never felt like this about someone, but now he knew. It was two weeks into her admittance, when she was the most unstable. She had crashed at least once in that period and when he had heard about it, he felt his whole being grow cold. They were able to save her, but when the words left Temari's mouth he had felt so devastated and hollow. It was as if all he heard was that she had died again.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose at the memory. His green eyes looked over to her sleeping, bandaged body and he uncomfortably crossed his arms. He wasn't good in situations like this at all. Was he supposed to say anything to her? What could he say? Could he tell her that he had felt guilt at not being there to save her? Or that he was angry at himself for not finding her sooner? What about the fact that he hadn't come to visit nearly the entire time she was here? How could he tell her that he had had feelings for her when he hadn't even mustered up the courage to visit her? There was little doubt that would go over well.

Leaning back in the chair, his eyes lazily fell onto the clock; 4:39pm. The day was already more than half over and he hadn't even bothered to do any work, the council wouldn't like that. As he stared up at the ceiling, his mind wandered to his meeting with Kazeku and he suddenly felt his blood boil. That man had tried to talk to him since Setsuko had been put in the hospital but each time, Gaara had brushed him off. He had been in a fouler mood than normal, almost like his days as a child. Kazeku was certainly pushy; it made him think that there was some ulterior motive behind him even being here in Suna.

"Hn, I guess she made a stupid choice," a smooth and sardonic voice cooed from the shadows in the room.

He was instantly on guard, his sand already swirling around him angrily. How dare someone invade her room like this! "Come out of the shadows," he ordered darkly.

Before him stood the Ice Dragon Meroko, her black cat suit covering her to allow her to blend with the shadows. "Oh don't be so pouty Gaara."

He glared at her, his sand moving at lightning speed to pin her to the wall, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk," she grunted, feeling the sand tighten around her thin body. He could see her face contort in pain and honestly, it brought him pleasure.

"Then talk." He wasn't in the mood for her games. From their first encounter he knew she liked to play with her opponents. This was not the place, or the time. "Have you come to slay her while she lay injured?"

She laughed, "What? No! I don't like my prey to be helpless….completely." Meroko hissed when she felt the sand tighten around her, the feeling of her daggers digging into her back becoming very uncomfortable. "I gave her a choice when we met in Konoha…"

His eyes widened, barely straying from the death glare they held though. "What do you mean you met?"

"Oh, she didn't tell you?" Meroko pushed aside her pain and smirked cockily down at him. "Keeping secrets from each other is a bad move this early in your relationship ya know," she taunted with another laugh.

"Shut up." He slowly began closing his hand into a fist, tightening his sand even more. There was the tiniest of whimpers from her, but otherwise she made no move to show she was in pain. She was very well trained. "Explain yourself."

She coughed out a laugh. "We had a nice little chat at that festival. Oh how she talked about you," she paused to allow a smirk to play on her lips under her mask. "We talked about her mother and the necklace she gave away…" Another pause. "And her death." The look he gave her made her cackle in amusement. "I let her choose how she wanted to die, taking thousands with her, or alone. Apparently she chose to take your village down with her. I guess she couldn't bring herself to lose more people she cared about."

"What-" he was cut off by Wakana buzzing around the woman's face angrily, her flames white hot.

Meroko cocked a brow, "What is this thing?"

Gaara couldn't help the slightly amused smirk that tugged at his lips. "Wakana. She's kind of attached to Setsuko and she apparently has some governing over the dead, so I doubt she'll let her die."

"Hm." She glared at the fireball, a swirl of ice forming and exploding in Wakana's face, throwing her across the room.

Gaara's sand shot out and caught Wakana before she hit the wall, cradling her in his sand. "Why would she choose a decision like that?" he wondered out loud to himself as his mind went back to their discussion.

Meroko tilted her head to the side, resting it on her shoulder, "Who knows. She's a complicated little vessel…" Gaara whipped his head around, looking at her with a sense of curiosity and shock. "Oops, did I let that slip? Silly me."

"Vessel? Vessel for what?" he asked, truly stunned by her words. He shook his head, "Wait, how do I know you're even telling the truth?"

"Hm, guess you don't," she shrugged. "That blonde kid knows, well, kinda. He's seen it anyways."

Naruto knows about this, he thought to himself still trying to work out the details and figure out if she was telling the truth.

She felt the sand around her loosen and used the opportunity to break free using a blizzard. "Well, this had been fun but…" she paused as she made her way to the window, "I have things to do, stuff to steal, people to kill…Ta." She disappeared in a whirl of icy wind.

Gaara stood in the silence of the room pondering everything he just heard. If Setsuko was a vessel, did this make her a Jinchuriki? "She's wrong…" the hoarse, strained voice caught him off guard.

"Setsuko?" he was shocked to see her eyes open, staring up at the ceiling with a serious look he had never seen from her before.

"I didn't make the decision to stay…" She never once looked at him, even when his brows furrowed together and a heavy feeling of anger seemed to seep into the room.

Wakana slowly woke up, seeing both of the teenagers not looking at each other. Gaara clenched his hands into fists, blood slowly starting to slide around his knuckles. "You lied to me?"

"I never lied to you. I just never said anything," she corrected, still not bothering to look at him. It hurt too much to move anyways.

"How is that any different?!" He sighed heavily, trying to calm himself. "Are you a Jinchuriki?"

Finally she looked over at him, wincing a few times in the process. "What? No! I don't even know what that is." Setsuko cringed painfully and went back to looking at the ceiling.

She screamed in pain when he was suddenly grabbing her arm, "And why does Naruto know about whatever is going on?"

"Gaara…" she whimpered, wincing as his grip tightened around her. Her bandaged face contorted in agony as pain coursed through her damaged body. "It hurts…" Seeing what he was doing, he quickly let her go, causing her to fall back against the bed. She cried out in pain as her back hit the mattress.

"I…" he couldn't even bring himself to apologize even though he felt bad. His anger was too much though.

"Get out." Her voice was low and trying desperately to be resolute but the pain she felt made it falter. "Get out!" she screamed at the top of her lungs as the room exploded into jagged, sharp spikes of ice.

Gaara's sand shielded him on instinct and he silently did as she demanded.

The door to her room was being banged on as she painfully cried in her bed, her arm bleeding. She didn't even notice when the door swung open from a punch delivered by her pink haired medic. Her mind was elsewhere, ignoring everything going on around her as everyone rushed in to see how she was doing; amazed by the condition of the room. Setsuko had been awake for most of the conversation that Gaara and that aggravating woman had and there was only one thing on her mind now. Vessel? She would have been told if she were a vessel for something. Wouldn't she? What was being kept from her?

"I need to see Kazeku…"