The Return of Something

Chapter Nineteen- Realization

~p.o.v. switch~

A deep breath in, and a slow groan out. Raising his arms high into the air, the young man leaned back into his chair. Snap, crackle, pop.
Breathe,
Groan,
Pop.
That's how it had been for several days now. A never ending loop was how it felt. Then, a stop in the circle.
The young Kazekage swiftly stood up from his chair, and rubbed his eyes.
'Damn sand.' He grumbled, the dryness of the atmosphere had gotten to his sensitive sea-foam green eyes. 'Needed to stretch my legs anyway...' The raccoon thought to himself, bending forward to touch his toes.
Suddenly there was a knock and opening of the door. It caused Gaara to jump in surprise, and hit his head on his desk, hard.
With a hiss of pain and a grabbing at the back of his fuzzy head, he pulled himself from under the wooden furniture.
"Can I help you?" He grumbled with annoyance.
"Well someone's moody..." The female teased. Gaara squinted, then rubbed his eyes again.
"Oh, Temari."
"Hey there hot shot, I'm glad to see you're out of that trance. When the elders crack down on you, you start to get scary." She smiled.
"Scary? I haven't been called that in a while..." The red-head muttered.
"That's a good thing isn't it?" Temari came closer.
"I believe so." A small smile came to his lips, but it went unnoticed.
"So... I actually came here in hopes that you had broken out of that damn stress filled work coma. You've barely eaten, drank, or slept for months."
"I don't sleep much anyways... what do you mean months? It's only been a few days." He gave a small chuckle, thinking this was one of those sibling pranks that he had heard about. Temari went pale.
"Gaara... do you know what day it is?" She suddenly grew very serious.
"What? Of course I do, it's April 21st." He furrowed his brow.
"No... Gaara, it's... It's August 15th." This was too elaborate to be a prank Gaara thought.
His eyes grew wide in shock once more.
"No, you're joking. You must be joking, correct?" She slowly shook her head. The Kazekage grew pale.
'Naruto.' Was the first thing he could even think of. 'Oh no! No, no, no! This isn't true! This cannot be possible. Oh Naruto, please be okay!' The man began to shake in fear and anger. With a swift flourish of his arms, the previously neatly stacked papers were floating around in the air. Temari jumped backwards.
"H-Hey, it's okay. It'll be fine, I'm sure he's fine." She sputtered nervously.
"No, you don't understand he- wait..." A flush of emotions as crowding the man's thoughts and when he looked at his sister, he had tears brimming his eyelids. "How do you... know?" A look that a mother would give her young child after he got a paper cut grazed over into Temari's eyes.
"I'm your sister Gaara, I'll always be your sister. I always have been, and always will be. I know you, Gaara. And though we certainly have had our fair share of differences, now that you've calmed down... you're my baby brother, and I am seeing you for you. I've seen who you really are these past few years, and I know you now. There is no way I wouldn't be able to figure you out." She paused, coming closer to him and wiping his eyes with her gentle finger tips. "Besides... you didn't really think your wimpy ass memory jutsu would get the best of me did'ja?" Her motherly tone and look switched into a smirk. Bewilderment flickered into the Kazekage's brilliant green orbs.
"I-I'm sorry, Temari."
"Oh? An apology? What's that about all of a sudden?" She raised her eyebrows, but her small smirk told him that she knew what was going on.
"Look, you'll have to excuse me..." He muttered.
"Yeah, yeah." His sister came over and patted him on the shoulder. "Go get 'em tiger!" She chuckled. Gaara snorted as he ripped open one of the drawers in his desk. He seized up a kunai, and yanked it across the thin cord of the necklace.
"Thank you, Temari."

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(A/N)

Hello my amazingly patient readers! I'm sorry for the long wait, it's been several months hasn't it? I'm so sorry, and I don't know if this chapter is going to be incredible or up to your expectations since I've been gone. It's been kinda strange these past few months... so I'll ask you to forgive me. I don't know when the next update will be, finals are coming up and my final project for English is due the week after this Monday. Once again, thank you for being patient. I've had a story idea in mind since last night... it's an original story, so when I finally get the first chapter written, I'll see how well it goes over. Thank you for supporting me, have a good rest of your morning/evening/night.

-Lilkittxns