Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter 43

At hospital, the doctors almost immediately took the boy from Gaara. He shifted slightly before moving to take a seat in an uncomfortable chair and waited.

Kankuro came in after about half an hour after dealing with other guard. He saw his brother stop a passing nurse and ask about Kai. Gaara could see that the nurse had no information about the boy, but she started to scold Kankuro for flirting with her younger sister. Gaara shook his head at his idiot brother. He should really learn to stop hitting on every girl their age. It was giving him a headache.

He saw Kankuro try to defend himself but nurse Ai walked away in a huff. Kankuro looked mildly dejected before a more genuine look of worry seeped onto his features. He walked over and sat with him for the next two hours.

A doctor came out of the surgical room and Gaara and Kankuro stood.

"How is he?" Gaara asked.

"The wound is deep, but we were able to stop the bleeding. She's stabilized and awake. We moved her to room 304. She was lucky. A few centimeters to the left and it would have hit a major artery."

Gaara's eyebrows furrowed, "She? You mean he. I was asking about the boy I brought in with the kunai wound."

The doctor looked slightly confused, "No, with all due respect Kazekage-sama, the patient you brought me was most definitely female."

Gaara's eyes widened as he heard Kankuro sputtering again.

"It can't be…" Gaara whispered as he rushed to the hospital room.

Kankuro sat down hard in one of the waiting room chairs and tried to sort out his thoughts.

A girl? All this time?

I hit a girl, he thought in a state of shock, taking off his hood to run a shaking hand through his hair.

she beat me every time though, he winced, …that strength…Kai can't be a girl…but the doctor said…he would know…a girl…she's scarier than Temari…then…if they team up…

His head dropped down in defeat, "I'm doomed."

The…girl…was propped up by the pillows on the bed, her right shoulder bandaged. She was staring out the window even though she knew he was there. He could tell by the way she tilted her head when he walked in the door.

"Are you Minoko?" he asked in a rough voice.

He could see her hesitate, then slowly nod.

Gaara felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him, "You're alive?" he asked as his voice cracked over the words.

She flinched but remained quiet.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't lie," she stated in a monotone voice, still not turning from the window, "My name is Kai Minoko, I just used my surname instead of my given one."

"You know what I mean."

She sighed lightly, "You either thought that I had abandoned you or died. Either situation would have left you alone and it would hurt you. I hurt you," her voice grew softer at the end.

"If what you told me before is true, you saved me."

She finally faced him, tears gathering in her eyes but not allowing them to fall, "You would forgive me for leaving you?"

"I've thought of you almost every day Minoko. Do you remember the journal I made after you had gone on that longer mission to Kiri? I look at it regularly. I have never thought negatively of you. Not once. There's nothing to forgive."

Tears finally dripped down as she moved to get out of bed. When her feet touched the floor, she wobbled momentarily, then straightened out. He felt like he was in a dream. Like if he breathed too hard, she would disappear.

She started walking slowly, carefully, over to stand in front of him. She glanced at him, then took his hands and placed them around her waist, her good arm going around his neck. With a choked but clear voice she whispered, "Gaara, you're my best friend, I love you so much, and now we'll be together again, always."

Gaara grunted in agreement and relaxed into the embrace, the beginnings of tears threatening to form in his eyes.

The door to the room opened quickly and the two of them looked over, not bothering to break the hug. Kankuro was standing there gaping at the scene, pointing back and forth between the two of them. They could easily make out what he's softly mumbling to himself, "Kai, Gaara, hugging…gay? Girl, not gay...but Gaara hugging? Kai a girl? Gah!" He clutched his head with both hands in confusion.

Minoko smirked at her friend's mini mental breakdown, "I told you not to call me –kun."

Before Kankuro recovered enough to respond, another voice grabbed their attention from out in the hallway, "Kankuro, why are you standing in the doorway like an idiot? Where's Gaara? I need him to-" Temari gaped at the still-hugging friends.

"You're gay?"

Kankuro placed one hand on her shoulder and pointed to Minoko, "Girl."

Temari looked at the hand on her shoulder in mild irritation and Kankuro quickly removed it. She then studied Minoko for a moment and looked back at the puppeteer, "That's a girl?"

Kankuro nodded.

"Sooo, not gay?"

"Not gay," he confirmed.

Minoko's eye started twitching lightly, "So, now that we've established that I'm not gay, who's the girl Kankuro? Your current girlfriend?"

He blanched and gagged as the girl beside him laughed, "He'd be so lucky to get a girl like me. No, I'm Kankuro and Gaara's older sister."

"Oh, ok…wait…Gaara's sister?"

All three siblings nodded. Minoko looked between Kankuro and Gaara. "You two are brothers!?"

"You didn't know that?" Kankuro asked.

"You avoided talking about your brother! You only told me stuff about Temari!" Minoko finally broke the hug and sat down hard on the bed.

Temari turned to Kankuro, "You talked about me?"

Minoko nodded absently, "Oh yes, quite often, too."

Kankuro snapped out of his momentary daze, "No, Kai, guy-code! You can't say anything!"

"Kankuro," Minoko pointed to herself, "girl," she then pointed to Temari, "So girl code."

An evil smirk formed on the lips of the red-eyed former prisoner. Kankuro's head dropped in a dramatic fashion, "I'm doomed."

Temari grinned, "I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about," she then glanced at her younger brother that still hadn't said anything and remembered why she was there in the first place, "But that's going to have to wait till later. Gaara, I need you to come to the council room. The elders want to know what happened in the cells."

Gaara nodded, looked back at Minoko with a half-smile, then turned to leave the room with his sister. No matter how annoying the politics were, nothing could diminish his good mood. She was alive!

Minoko looked almost shyly at Kankuro, who still looked like the world had turned completely upside-down in the last few hours, "I guess I have some explaining to do."

"You think?" he got out, his voice going comically high.

Minoko sighed and nodded, situating herself onto her bed more comfortably, "Where should I start?"

Kankuro rubbed a hand over his face and plopped down onto the chair next to the bed. Minoko grinned slightly when she noticed that the rubbing didn't affect his face paint in the slightest. "Just…start from the beginning…I have a few hours before visiting hours are over."

Minoko closed her eyes in thought and started, "I guess I'll start from how I came to be in Suna."

Kankuro rose an eyebrow at that. He had probably thought that she had been born here. She opened her eyes and looked at him, "I was four when I had what I called a dream bubble…"

A/N: Minoko is back and she and Gaara are finally reunited! Please review!