Hallo~! Lots of thanks to indescribable music, Jestie Uchiha and Akatsukifreak for reviewing! Love you guys!

Okay I'm SOOO sorry for not updating for such a long time! But unfortunately this will keep on until June after I finished my finals... Yeah stupid school hindering me from writing anything.

Guess another reason for the delay is that I totally changed the concept for this chapter and had to think up the whole thing again! Well at least I finished and could finally manage to tell you guys about my current situation of not updating. I hope you'll forgive me... *sobs and kneels down to apologize*

Now to come to an end, here's the totally late chapter... enjoy!

Sins and Sunshine

Chapter 22: Hospital Time

When I woke up again I found myself in a hospital room. Three days had past since then and neither was I allowed to leave nor was anybody visiting me. I don't know what happened after I passed out and nobody cared to enlighten me about it.

I was lying in my unusual comfy hospital bed, had the usual hospital gown on and saw out of the big hospital window just to look at a massive white wall. Great, I didn't even have a good view to let the time pass, but instead was stuck in this white empty room to stare at the wall of another building of this hospital complex.

I was afraid, I was anxious and worst of all, I was bored to death! My only distraction was the nurse that would come from time to time to check on me. But after letting out all my loneliness on her, meaning talking about absolutely meaningless things with like 20 words per second, she decided to make her visits shorter and more seldom every time, which again made me talk more and more to her. It was a vicious circle and the poor nurse was in the midst of it. Blame the no-visitors-and-no-leaving-the-room-rule!

So like I said, here I was in this boring as hell prison-like room and tried to entertain myself without going insane. To do so I stared at the fly that sat across me on the metal frame of my bed and lazily returned my stare. It really was, I swear!

So after intently staring at the insect I decided to take the first step and name it... Franc. I shall name it Franc. Now to the next step: approaching the target.

"Hello, Franc.", I said with a friendly smile and held a hand out to Franc for him to shake it. Or to hop on it since he couldn't probably shake it without having hands, silly me.

Well, his response was flying away the moment I held my hand out, buzzing trough out the whole room and landing in the upper corner farthest away from my.

"Hey, that's mean, Franc.", I whined and pouted.

… I was pouting because of a fly... Yep, so much for not going insane...

I jumped as the door to the room suddenly got opened. I dramatically backed away to the corner of my bed with a hand on my heart, the other holding out as to keep away whoever was about to enter.

I stopped my act as I saw the hokage entering with two Anbu following and stand to each side of him as he stopped in front of my hospital bed. I wore his usual robe and had his usual nice-old-man-smile which let me feel at ease and return the smile.

"Hello, Minari. How are you feeling?"

Well, to be honest, I was bored to death, every inch of my skin was burning, I still had trouble to breathe normally and I started talking to a puny little insect. But apart from that...

"I'm fine, thank you." I answered politely. The old man nodded and observed me while I sat on the bed cross-legged and looked down on my hands. It was never a good sign to have a private talk with the hokage and two giants as bodyguards next to him. Every other person would have looked like some drug lord, but this nice old man looked more like a grandpa that by chance stood next to two doormen.

"Are you worried?" he mused already knowing the answer since I didn't even try to hide it. I nodded nonetheless.

"Because of what happened at the preliminaries?"

Again a nod.

"Well, you don't have to be. We knew since the beginning that this could happen."

surprised I looked up at him with confusion in my eyes.

"You knew?"

Now it was the hokage's turn to nod, before he answered with a smug smile.

"We made a check-up on your past the day you asked for permission to stay in this village."

I deadpanned. Of course they would do that, why could I have not thought of that? But that confused me all the more.

"Then why did you...?"

"Because I know just how hard it is for someone like you to be accepted by others. We already have a similar case like yours so it didn't really matter. And it was surprising that you didn't even use a pseudonym when you introduced yourself to me."

With a sheepish smile I scratched the back of my head.

"Well, I don't like the idea of lying to everyone, including myself. Especially when I made so many friends."

The man laughed and gave me a reassuring smile.

"Well, don't worry about it, it was just the right thing to do. And I'm surprised how well you did the time you were here. I heard this demon of yours is quite a handful."

I still smiled and simply nodded but hearing the word 'demon' gave me a little sting to the heart. Maybe because I felt a bit sorry for Kumiho being treated like something evil. Well, according to my family she was but somehow I couldn't really think of her like that...

"Now for the reason I visited you today." the hokage began and regained my attention back.

"Since we didn't want to let your case be known, all attendants were told that you suffered from a case of schizophrenia and this was what Ino saw, when she entered your mind."

I didn't know what to respond. I was grateful that they were considerate enough to keep my secret, but on the other hand I was now a complete freak. But I didn't have enough time to think about it since the man continued with his explanation.

"The problem was the Jonin from Sunagakure. It seemed that he recognized you and according to our information it wouldn't look good for you then. In the worst case Sunagakure could threat us to hand you over or otherwise start a war.

My face dropped and I blankly stared at him. Were they planning to send me to my certain death? Or maybe they were trying to tell me that I should disappear from this village? Either way I would be screwed. Sadly I watched the old man as he went on.

"But as long as it stays like it is, we won't do anything. Well, one Anbu will stay on guard in front of your house in case they try to assassinate you and even though you officially won the match against Ino, you'll get disqualified from the last test. We can't let you be recognized be the Kazekage who is going to attend the battles."

It took me quite some time to digest everything he just said. So all in all it means that I won't get thrown out of the village nor get sent into my certain death, instead they even gave commands to protect me?

Tears stung in my eyes and heavy sobs came out of my throat as I threw my arms around the hokage's neck and almost knocked him over.

"!" I cried out in joy and the old man smiled and patted my back.

After I calmed down a bit I quickly let go and hopped back on my bed, wiping the last teardrops out of the corners of my eyes.

"Now that you know the official story, we can finally tell your friends that you woke up so that they can finally visit you." he stated and turned to leave but I stopped him.

"Uhh, I have a question." I asked shyly and saw as he turned to me with a raised brow.

"Was is it, dear?"

"Uhh, for how long was I asleep?"

"About two weeks." he answered with a smile and left the room, one Anbu in front of him, the other one following and closing the door behind him.

I was left dumbfounded. Two weeks? Such a long time, wow! Good thing the first thing I did after I was able to move again, I took a shower. I didn't even want know how bad I had smelled back then.

The next problem was, from now on I had to act like I was completely crazy. Not slightly crazy like I normally did, but completely insane, like some maniac! On the other hand, if they believed the story about me being schizophrenic it would also mean that I acted crazy enough all along to convince them this easily. Now should I be happy or sad? Let's just be happy, it's better than being depressed anyway.

The next day...

"When can I go home?" I asked the doctor who was checking me through.

"Don't worry, miss. According to your results, in a few days we can discharge you." he answered and looked one last time at my file before opening the door to leave.

"Oh, and miss" he added "some of your friends are here to visit you."

A huge smile grew on my face. Finally, someone thought about me!

I brushed with my hands through my hair to make it look less messy and patiently sat on my bed and waited for my friend. But since I wasn't really patient I kept hopping up and down till the door got timidly shoved open and a blond head was peaking inside.

"Naruto-kun!" I shouted hopped off the bed and tackle-hugged him to the ground.

"Mina-chan! Sorry that we're this late." he apologized with a grin and I ruffled his hair.

"Looks like you're better now." I heard someone say and looked up to see Shikamaru standing in the doorway, unable to get in because Naruto and I were blocking the way.

"Yep. I even can go home in a few days." I answered grinning, then got off the blonde and reached him a hand to help him up.

"We heard that you were awake so we came to visit you." he declared and hopped on the bed next to me just when I sat down myself.

"That's great, I was so bored! I even started talking to a fly since I had no one to talk to." I pouted and curiously watched their reactions. They didn't look different than usual. Was I really always this crazy?

"Then why didn't you talk to the nurse?" the blonde suggested.

"I did. But I annoyed her so much that she refused to check on me anymore."

Yes, now I finally got my strange looks! Great to know that I can still freak out people. Would be boring otherwise.

"Anyway, tell me, how did the preliminaries go?"

"Believe it or not, but I made it!" Naruto declared happily and I congratulated him while patting his head.

"Shikamaru also did it." he then said and pointed at the lazy boy that was leaning against the wall.

"Wow, Shika-kun, congrats!" I said with a big smile. He just mumbled a "troublesome" as a response.

"But too bad that they disqualified you for he third test, Minari-chan." Naruto whined and looked like he really felt sorry for me. I gave him a smile and ruffled his blonde hair.

"That's okay. Less trouble for me and I can cheer on all of you."

"But I can't understand why they'd disqualify you just because of your... circumstances." He hesitated for a moment as if thinking carefully of what to call it. I needed a brief moment to understand what he meant but then I remembered.

Ohhh, the schizophrenia thing...

I had to force a smile back on my face and tried to sound not too irritated about my made-up illness.

"Don't worry about it. Maybe it's for the best." I answered stiffly.

"Well, we have to go now. We still want to visit Lee, you know." Naruto explained and waved goodbye, Shikamaru doing the same and followed the blonde outside. I said goodbye and watched them leave. Then After the door closed I felt back into the hospital pillow and let out a sight.

Great, now I'm really just some messed up freak.

But maybe it's for the best this way, Kumiho suggested. I raised an eyebrow at her comment.

How so?

Well now you have at least an excuse when you're answering loudly to me again.

If you didn't piss me off all the time I wouldn't need one. And anyway, if you hadn't done these crazy things back then, I wouldn't be in this mess now!

Was it my fault that this low-life tried to enter my realm?

"It was your fault for trying to take over my body to kill her!"

And again you did it... Kumiho sighted like a grown-up at a little child that knocked the food bowl over.

I growled at her and crossed my arms pouting. Just in this moment I heard the door falling in its angles and my head darted into to the direction of the sound. My mouth fell open of what I saw. A certain redhead stood there his cold eyes observing me and sand blocking the door as if he didn't want anyone to interrupt him in whatever he was here for.

I quickly shut my mouth and began observing him as well. He looked like always, emotionless and cold, sand clouds surrounded him like stirred up dust. Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to make the first step.

"Gaara! How nice of you to visit me." I chirped happily with a big smile and inwardly hoped that he'd respond. But he stayed silent.

"Why are you here?" I then asked confused and worried at the same time.

"... I wanted to finish my battle." he answered after some time of more silence. I inwardly heaved a sight of relief. So he was willing to talk to me at least.

"You mean the battle from the preliminaries? I thought they were finished?"

"Not mine."

"So you finished it now?" I asked anxiously. This didn't sound right. I didn't even want to think about what he meant with finishing a battle.

"No." he answered briefly, his face still not showing any emotion. Now I really got confused.

"Why not?"

"..."

So he wasn't going to tell me, I thought and looked down to my hands. My fingers were intertwined and I slightly rocked them back and forth.

"Are you in the next test?" I then asked after the silence got too hard to take and looked up only to see that he got few steps closer to me. I turned around to sit normally on the bed with my feet swaying back and forth.

"Yes..."

"Congratulation, I knew you'd do it! Too bad I couldn't watch your fight." I said and scratched the back my head with a sheepish grin.

"Yeah..." he answered briefly and I noticed that he now stood right before my. If my reached out my hand I would be able to pat his head. But I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I would do it if just the whole situation wasn't so awkward right now.

"To whom did you talk just now?" he suddenly asked and left me dumbfounded. Did he hear my remark to Kumiho. I inwardly growled at the demon and fiddled with my fingers.

"Uhm, it's because... of my... special circumstances." I explained hesitantly and could almost laugh as I used to call it the way Naruto did.

"Don't lie to me." he retorted coldly and made a shiver running down my spine. I looked up to him to see something threatening in his eyes. I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off by him.

"That chakra was the same like back then in Suna when they said you died. Schizophrenia can't do that."

My eyes widened in surprise. I wasn't ready for that. Now I had two choices. Either talking my way out of it or plainly telling him the truth. But since I couldn't come up with a reasonable lie, it was best to stick with the truth. I sighted and gave him a small smile.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to lie to you. This story is to cover something up that can't be found out, especially not from Suna."

Gaara frowned but stayed silent to let me continue.

"You know, the day my house burned down and my parents burned in it. On this day we were attacked by Anbu that were ordered to execute us."

His frowned got deeper as he spoke.

"Why would they do that?"

"Because they found out that inside of me a demon was sealed, that my clan had protected since centuries. It seems the elders feared that we could plan a coup d'etat or something and decided to get rid of us. I had to flee and hide to prevent them from finding out that I had survived." I finished and fixated my eyes on Gaara to study his reaction.

First he widened his eyes in surprise, then something like understanding reflected in his eyes and he nodded in silence. I hesitantly reached out my hand to touch his arm and quickly retreated as he backed away.

"Gaara?" I asked worriedly. Would he hate me now that he knows the truth? Would he hate me for lying to him all these years?

"You shouldn't touch me." he said quietly. I looked at him in confusion.

"Shukaku tells me to kill you. So you should stay away from me."

My eyes widened in understanding. So this was his problem? Shukaku? Then maybe he didn't really hate me.

"Is this the reason why you came here today?" I asked hesitantly. He nodded, his blue eyes locked with mine.

"Did Shukaku also tell you to kill the person you fought at the preliminaries?" Again a nod.

"Do you still hate me?"

His eyes widened, in surprise or confusion I couldn't tell. His silence made me uneasy and I felt tears gathering in my eyes ready to come out any moment, till Gaara's head slowly moved from right to left and back. He shook his head and averted his eyes. A huge smile found its way back on my face. So he didn't hate me any more! I had this enormous urge to bounce up and down in happiness and reached out to hug him tightly but stopped midway. Shyly I sat back down and looked to the side, a pink tinge decorating my cheeks.

"I'm s-"

I got interrupted in mid-sentence as the door got smashed open and an Anbu came in with weapons ready to attack. My head spun back to Gaara but all I could see was a small amount of sand swirling in the air on the place where the boy stood moments ago. I kept a smile on my face as I watched the Anbu scanning the room, then putting away his swords and kneeling before me.

"I'm sorry, Takanaki-san. I was just assigned my order to protect you and the enemy took this chance to come at you. This fault of mine is unforgivable and I-"

I sniggered at his way of speaking and cut him off with a waving motion of my hand.

"It's okay. Nothing happened, don't worry."

The man nodded and then vanished. I looked out of the viewless window with a content smile. With this security I won't able to see Gaara that much from now on but at least we now made up. And who knows, maybe some day we could go back to be friends again...

Finished! And it's even longer than originally intended! Hope that'll make up a bit for my long absence... I'll still try to find time to write but I can't promise that, please forgive me...

Review are still very appreciated and help me always getting reminded of my stories. So review pwease~~~! ^.^