A.N.: I do not own Naruto. Leave a review if you like the story, Dattebane! :D

A week passed by with Nana lying unmoving in her hospital bed. Her team visited her everyday including her sensei, bringing her welcome gifts. Her brother even got her ramen, but ate it soon after with the excuse it would spoil, even though it was insta cup'o'ramen.

Days went by and Naruto began his training with Ebisu and later on switched to Jiraiya, one of the legendary sannin. Hibachi was being trained by Isoda-sensei from dusk till dawn, making only Nobuo stay with Nana for most of the days as he helped his mother who was in charge of taking care of his unconscious teammate.

A few more days passed and it was the final week before the final Chunin exam would start when Nana started to stir in her bed. Her eyes fluttered open, making her close the fast again as she was overwhelmed by the light that shone through her hospital window. Opening her eyes again, more slowly this time, she saw on her left side table a single white daffodil in a vase, and around it a few wrapped up gifts. Next to the two small gifts was a note that she opened.

'-Congratualtions on passing the Preliminary, hang in there!' She saw it was signed by her team and she smiled.

Hearing the doors open she looked up and saw Nobuo stepping in. It took him a minute to realize that she was sitting up in her bed with the two gifts now unopened still on her bed.

"Nana…" he whispered with wide eyes before he dashed out of the room.

'What the…' She thought to herself as she sweat dropped.

She took the first gift and opened it to see a bracelet with two charms on it, one was shaped as a dango and the other as the number nine. Smiling at it she lifted it up over her head to inspect it more. The charms reflected the lightning from her window directly in to her eyes, making her drop the bracelet on to the floor. Pulling her covers off of herself she slid to the side of the bed making her legs dangle before they touched the ground. Wincing she lifted her right leg as her ankle still hurt, she squatted down on only her left leg and picked up the charm bracelet. As she stood back up she looked out of the window where she saw the hospitals backyard with 4 people outside. She recognized three of them immediately, Sakura and Ino stood there with a nurse Nana didn't recognize while they tried to stop Rock Lee from doing push ups. Nana noticed his left leg and arm wrapped up wondering what happened to him. Lee did a few more push ups before she saw him faint.

She heard the door of her hospital room open again and she looked away from the now unconscious Lee to her teammate and what looked to be like his mother.

"You shouldn't be standing. Please go back to bed." The woman told Nana who nodded in response and went back under her covers.

Nobuo's mother checked her over nodding and muttering something to Nobuo that he wrote down. She unwrapped Nana's right foot and started to poke and twist it gently asking if it hurt. Nana tried to hold back tears while hear ankle protested.

"Hmmm… It's healing just fine but I don't think you will be able to fight next week, especially with your chakras state right now." She told Nana as she redressed her ankle in some clean bandages.

"Don't use any ninjutsu for a month or your state will be worsened." The lady added before she left the room.

Nobuo stayed with her for another hour watching her pig out on the dumplings he brought her. He smiled as he saw her eyes sparkle as she opened Naruto's gift. A big green dango plushie looked back at her as she hugged it to her chest squealing like a five year old.

-x-

Three days before the Chunin Exam Naruto was placed in the hospital in the same room as Nana. As the door opened Nana signalled with her finger over her lips for the person to be quiet.

"Good morning." She greeted Shikamaru in a whisper and he greeted her back sitting down next to Naruto.

Nana observed Shikamaru as he played Shogi alone for a few minutes before she joined him. Of course Nana didn't win a single game against him but she kept on going not giving up.

"This guy sleeps a lot. Maybe he's dead." Shikamaru complained as he looked back at Naruto over his shoulder.

"Well it's Naruto. He sleeps like a dead man." Nana explained as she moved another shogi piece making Shikamaru sigh out loud.

A few minutes later Naruto finally woke up and both Nana and Shikamaru smiled at him as they greeted him, before Shikamaru told him he was asleep for three whole days.

"Three whole days?!" Naruto yelled as he jumped up, standing on the bed yelling at Shikamaru and Nana.

"When are the final matches?" He yelled at them.

"Tommorow" Both Shikamaru and Nana said still in shock over Naruto's sudden outbreak.

As Naruto kept yelling on Shikamaru, Nana sat back laughing at the scene unfolding before her as she grabbed a dango to eat. After a few minutes of Naruto jumping around on his bed looking for his clothes he sat down and went quiet, before explaining that he was hungry. Shikamaru gave him a fruit basket that he explained was for Chouji, but that the Nurses told him he couldn't eat it. Nana gave him one of her dangos as to cheer him up. Before Naruto bit down on the Apple in his hand he started snickering and told Shikamaru and Nana to go and eat these in front of Chouji.

"You're seriously going to take that with you?" Shikamaru asked her pointing at the huge dango plushie in her hands, getting only a nod in response he let out a sigh again muttering how troublesome in the process.

After some time of annoying Chouji they decided to go and visit Lee next.

"I don't know what happened, but I heard he won't be able to recover." Nana muttered to both of them as she looked down at her crutches.

"It's fuzzy eyebrows, he'll be fine. He has to." Naruto said with his hands behind his head.

"It was that Sand ninja, Gaara." Shikamaru told her before she excused herself to the bathroom while the two boys continued walking to Lee's room.

As soon as Nana was done she left the bathroom and walked slowly due to her injury to where Naruto and Shikamaru would be. Walking down the long corridor she felt someone tap her on her shoulder, making her squeal in surprise and clutching the plushie hard to her chest.

"Sorry, sorry." She hear someone apologise so she turned around just to see an older version of Rock Lee.

"Ah,… no problem. You are Lee-san's sensei, right?" She asked him as her grip on the plushie loosened.

"Mmm-mmm." He nodded in agreement and smiled at her, Nana could swear she saw his teeth shining in the corners.

"Are you perhaps on your way to visit my beautiful young student?" She nodded with a sweat drop showing on her head and a forced side smile. This guy was plain weird.

"I shall accompany you then. I was just on my way there too." He told her and they made their way over to the room.

They both stopped before the doors as they listened to the commotion inside. She could recognized the three voices inside that belonged to her brother, Shikamaru and Gaara. It seemed that Gaara was doing all the talking as he explained about a demon inside of him and his past, making Nana burry her face in to the dango plushie. As he talked she couldn't help but think about her brother and the fox sealed inside of him, about their childhood and most of all how lonely Naruto must have felt before she and Iruka-sensei came along. The memories caused Nana to break out in tears and dip her head even further in to her plushie. She saw Gai-sensei starting to open the doors and she quickly wiped away her tears with her sleeve.

"Stop right there! The main matches are tomorrow. There is no need to get hasty. Or do you want to get hospitalized today?" Gai-sensei interfered before Gaara's sand could touch any of them.

Nana stopped by the doorframe looking at Gaara clutching his head what looked like in pain.

"Are you alright?" She asked as she added his name after a while, making him look at her. His sand started to retreat in to his gourd.

She saw Gaara slouch in exhaustion as he slowly walked toward her or rather towards the door. Nana took a step back out of the room to give him space.

"I will kill you guys for sure. You just wait." He said as he stopped at the doorframe and looked back at Naruto and Shikamaru.

Nana looked at the shocked faces of Naruto and Shikamaru as she closed the door turning over to where she saw Gaara's form slowly walking down the hall. Not thinking straight she threw the dango plushie at his head making his sand shield protect him from it. She breathed heavily now as she started to walk towards him, if push came to shove she would use ninjutsu to escape even though they strictly said she shouldn't use it. She saw Gaara stop and turn halfway around.

"If you bother me, I will kill you too." He told her as his cold eyes looked into her blue ones.

"You already tried to kill my team in the forest." She shot back. "But that's not the point right now." She added quickly making him fully turn around facing her.

"You know… I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. In your case you kill, you kill so others would notice you. But not everyone is like the people who are trying to assassinate you! Don't throw everyone in the same basket. If you'll keep killing more and more people will fear you. Do you really want to be alone for the rest of your life?" She told him.

"No one wants to be alone. Each of us has a meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you yourself are the answer. Why would you want to prove your existence by killing others? It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this very moment." She told him as she inhaled and exhaled loudly, she nearly fainted from exhaustion.

"Why don't you hate me? I tried to kill you and your team" He told her his eyes digging in to hers trying to get a flicker of fear or hatred.

"Because taking this exam I knew what was at stake, but even if I die, at least I'll die in a battle trying to do something right." She told him with determination written all over her face.

"So if I kill you now…" He started as his sand crawled around her fragile body.

"If you kill me now at least I tried to accept a person who's begging to be noticed." She interrupted him swaying a bit to left and right before catching herself with her hands against the wall.

"I don't need acceptance. I fight only for myself, and only love myself. As long as I think that other people exist to make me feel that, the world is wonderful." He didn't continue his explanation as he saw Nana falling unconscious. His sand around her protected her from the fall, still wrapping itself around her. Gaara's hand extended towards her.

'It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this very moment'
'If you kill me now at least I tried to accept a person who's begging to be noticed.'

Gaara grabbed his head again in pain as their conversation repeated itself with those two statements in the foreground. Forgetting about the girl who lay unconscious on the floor he disappeared from the corridor leaving her there to be later found by her brother and Shikamaru, with still some sand beneath her.

So much philosophy going on here. Existence yada yada... Done with this next up Chunin exams.