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Chapter 13

Her eyes felt unnaturally heavy as she came out of a haze. At first, she thought that she was trapped in the darkness, a prisoner to the bleakness of the void. After some time, she started to regain some sensation. She felt…cold? Though sometimes there would be a moment of comforting heat originating from her right hand. She mentally clutched onto that warmth. It was so different from the never-ending cold blackness.

Eventually she could hear snatches of unintelligible conversation floating around her. Different tones and pitches meant that they were different people. Who were they? She wanted to know. She tried to force her eyes open again, but they were stubbornly resisting her command. She knew that she was more stubborn though, so she kept trying.

She had no idea how much time had passed before she felt the warmth again. A moment later it left and she desperately wanted to yell in protest. Before she knew it, she felt something settle over her that chased the cold away a bit and the warmth returned to her hand. It gave her that one, last push she needed to finally open her eyes. She was blinded almost instantly and closed them again. She heard an intake of breath beside her and steeled herself before blinking her eyes open again. Everything came into focus slowly.

The first thing she noticed was that cold that seemed to seep into her very being was part of reality, not just the void. The next thing she noticed was the light grey ceiling, which was really unusual…most walls and ceilings in Suna were tan. She turned her head a bit and saw a red, cream, and teal blob. Blinking a few more times, she started to see the blob become her closest friend. She smiled.

"Hi," she croaked out, her throat scratchy and dry from disuse.

Tears ran down his cheeks and she frowned. That's not right. He's not supposed to cry. Crying is bad. She put all her effort into raising her hand to wipe the tears away, her hand kind of flopping onto his cheek in a light smack instead as she dragged it downwards.

That seemed to snap him out of his daze as he blinked and let out a small cry of joy, standing on his stool and climbing onto the bed to hug her.

"I thought I lost you," he said into her shoulder.

She lightly hugged him back and scrunched her eyebrows together in thought, trying to remember what happened. The slight pain on her back and chest made it all come back to her in a rush and the air left her lungs, "I'm sorry."

Gaara pulled away and looked at her, "That's what you said before you passed out, too. Why are you sorry? It wasn't your fault."

Minoko scratched her cheek a bit in guilt, "It…it kind of was."

Gaara stiffened a bit, his eyes narrowing in suspicion, "What do you mean?"

"Umm…you know…how I had a dream bubble before we left? And how I said it probably wouldn't happen for a while?"

Gaara's eyes hardened, "Yeeees."

"Well, I kinda…sorta…saw the moment when the sword was sticking out of my chest," she said, her voice growing softer as she spoke while his face got angrier.

"You what!?" he asked, voice low and incredulous.

She cringed and looked away.

"You mean to tell me that you knew that you were going to be stabbed and you didn't do anything about it!?"

"I didn't want you to worry!" she said, trying to defend herself. She instantly knew she said the wrong thing when more tears started to fall while his face turned red in anger and eyes flashing briefly to gold.

"You didn't want me to worry? What do you think I was doing when you fell into a coma for two weeks!?"

She shrank back into her pillow and tried to bury herself under her two thin blankets, "I'm sorry," she squeaked out again.

Gaara looked at her as she tried to imitate a turtle and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. After a moment of silence, he opened his eyes and deflated a bit. She peeked out from under the covers and he looked her in the eyes, "It's…it's fine….Just…don't do that again," he whispered his plea, "I felt so useless. I couldn't protect you, couldn't help you. If it wasn't for Yashamaru-oji-san, you would've died."

She sat up, careful of her still-healing injuries, and hugged him as tightly as she could. He just let it happen and rested his forehead on her left shoulder.

A few minutes later, Minoko opened her eyes and peered over his shoulder, finally taking notice of her surroundings, "Umm…Gaara?"

She heard a muffled sound of acknowledgement and continued hesitantly, "I know you said I was close to dying and all…but why are we in the morgue?"

Gaara stiffened and pulled back a bit, looking sheepish as he avoided eye contact, "That's…probably my fault. This is the only room I'm allowed in, so the doctors moved you here when I insisted on visiting."

Minoko smacked her face with her palm and shook her head, "Of course."

Before the conversation could continue, they heard the door to the room open and turned to see Taru as he dropped a bouquet of desert roses on the ground, "Minoko?" he whispered in hopeful disbelief.

"Hi daddy," she said with a smile.

The next several minutes were filled with more tears, hugs, and relieved laughter.

…

Yashamaru bowed to his leader later that day, "She woke up."

"Good," the Kazekage stated, not even looking up from his paperwork, "It was unfortunate that she fell into a coma in the first place."

"Indeed," Yashamaru said blankly, masking any attachments he may have toward the young girl, "Shinji deviated from his instructions."

"No matter," the leader of Suna stated as he signed off on the document, "It's no wonder that he didn't make it past chunin. He knew he wasn't supposed to target the girl. His own incompetence got him killed." He looked up and set hard eyes on his most loyal subordinate, "Next time, there won't be a mistake. I have plans for that child the boy has taken a liking to. Make sure to train her well."

"Yes, Kazekage-sama."

A/N: She lives! Let me know what you think by leaving a review!

On another note, the next update will be in two weeks. Work is getting a bit crazy thanks to Covid-19 so I don't have as much time to write. Sorry...At least I didn't leave you on too much of a cliffhanger this time ;D