Second Time's The Charm

Chapter 23

He stared at her from his bed. He couldn't move much – not that he really wanted to, but the beds were close to each other in the same medical room. If he reached out, he could probably touch her arm.

He continued to stare as he watched sleep – not really a foreign site for him. Her hair was sprawled out on the pillow, and she was lying on her back. Her left arm was heavily bandaged and he had seen the medics check on it several times. He wished they would talk louder, so he could hear.

Right now, it was only the two of them in the room and he was grateful that she was sleeping.

He didn't know what he would say to his sister.

Shikamaru woke up a few days ago, but was still fragile from the attack and was not allowed to leave his bed. His teammates had come in that day, and every day after, to check on him, chat, and tell him the scope of what was happening outside these four walls.

He remember being shocked and sad when they softly told him about the Third Hokage. Apparently the Hokage gave his life to seal away the leader of the enemy forces, with the help of the sannin: Jiraiya. And with the death of its leader, the Sound pulled out of Suna – or at least, what was left of its forces.

Asuma-sensei told him that they were helping Suna with wounded and getting all the civilians, who were visiting for the Chunin Exams, home or out of the town while the Sand rebuilt. A large section of Suna's wall was obliterated in Naruto's fight with Gaara and the main section of town had crumbled from the summoned snakes and battling ninjas.

Gathering up the courage, Shikamaru finally asked tentatively about his sister, who hadn't stirred once since he woke up. His father was in the room at the time and asked his team to leave, to give him and Shikamaru privacy. Shikamaru had felt his heart dropped, expecting to hear the worst – that she wasn't going to wake up. Ever again.

When the door finally shut, his father told him about the condition Choji's father found her in and how she was barely healed before running to his rescue.

Shikamaru was completely floored.

He knew that the two of them had this weird bond where they could tell when the other needed them, but also knew that Kanoko ignored the bond most of the time. Or at least... He thought she did. Shikamaru's attention was diverted back to his father when he saw the serious look on his face. Shikamaru didn't understand the problem – outside the fact that his sister had pushed herself past her limits. It really wasn't a surprise to him. She did it all the time.

When he questioned his father, he sighed, explaining that she used too much chakra while simultaneously absorbing more than she could handle. Her left arm was completely burned and the chakra points were damaged severely. On top of that, her stab wounds were not completely healed when she went into battle with Gaara and as a result, reopened them.

To summarize: She was suffering from a severe case of chakra exhaustion, her arm completely destroyed, and suffered internal bleeding.

Shikamaru felt cold as his heart dropped.

For so long, Kanoko has been cold, indifferent, and distant. She would crack a smile or smirk here or there – followed up by some smart remark, but when it came to it, Kanoko didn't hug, didn't say she loved anyone, didn't cry... She never even rebelled or thrown a tantrum. She accepted things as they were and went about her way.

Shikamaru was always trying different things to get some sort of emotion out of her.

.

She didn't even cuddle.

.

What kind of girl doesn't cuddle?

.

Ok, maybe he's holding that one against her out of his own irritation that she refuses to cuddle with him, but they were twins! Twins cuddle!