Desert Snow Ch. 1
Gaara sat at his desk going through the many documents stacked in front of him. Just earlier that day, he had received a special letter from the feudal lord's secretary, a request to manage and send recent immigration records of Sunagakure to the foreign relations department in the capital. He was initially planning to manage that record throughout the week but suddenly it became a lot more urgent.. and he forgot where he had put it.They weren't on the piles on his desk, though that wasn't really surprising since he usually put already reviewed documents aside. He wasn't sure why he was even going through the stacks, to begin with.Leaving the unread letters and requests on the table, he bent down and opened a drawer which he usually put the more important files into. The immigration record was there, laying on the top of the piled-up papers, as empty as ever.Being in the middle of the desert, Sunagakure didn't get a lot of immigrants, after all. But that wasn't what caught his eye. Rather, it was the edge of what looked like a photograph peeking out from the bottom of the drawer. It wasn't supposed to be there, maybe it just slipped down from the drawers above.Gaara lifted the papers and carefully took out the picture. It was a photo of him and Akira. He vaguely remembered her pressuring him to agree to take the photo while she was visiting three years ago, which annoyed him a little back in the day, so he had put it away. Now he felt kind of glad he kept it, even though it was a less than flattering picture of him. 'That was already three years ago, too, wasn't it.' Gaara thought to himself. Time seems to go on so slowly but looking back on the past few years of his life, they passed by so quickly without him even noticing it. Gaara put the photo and immigration document on his desk and sat back down to work.It wouldn't have taken very long to work down the list and send it off to the immigration office but before he even realised, an hour had passed wherein he had only stared back and forth between the document and the photo without actually doing anything. Why was he so distracted? He turned his chair and looked out of the window, yet seeing the town and the vast desert landscape in the distance didn't get him any clarification. Just then, Gaara recalled the last thing Akira had told him before she walked off, unbeknownst to anyone where to: she was 'going home'. No one he asked had seen her since then. It confused him. What did she mean?She had been telling him about it since they first met but never actually explained to him where this 'home' was or anything about what happened, leaving him completely in the dark. He decided to stop thinking about it just when someone knocked on the door.The redhead turned back to face the room and to his surprise saw his sister leaning against the wide-open office door, the impatience being clearly visible in her facial expression."Just how long were you planning to ignore me for?" Temari huffed when her brother had finally turned around. How long had she been knocking? "Temari-" he couldn't find any way to continue. His sister added, "What's distracting you so much, anyway? This isn't the first time, either." She approached him at a quick pace and slammed her hand onto his desk. "There's definitely something bothering you. Tell me." Whether she was concerned or just annoyed was unclear. Gaara wanted to give her an answer but he was cut off before he could even start, as Temari spotted the photograph on the desk.She picked it up and looked at it before Gaara even had the time to react. "So this..." She assumed and held the picture up in front of her brother's face. "Is this what's so distracting to you?" Gaara took the picture out of her hand and put it face-down back onto the tabletop. "Not quite." Temari tilted her head. "Look, Gaara, it's been a year. Why are you still so bothered by it?" - "I'm just a bit concerned, is all." He deliberately avoided eye contact with Temari, who just now seemed to have realised something. Her eyes widened. "Don't tell me-" How did she not notice that earlier? "-you had feelings for her?"Gaara seemed confused when he raised his head again. "What?" Temari shook her head. She must've also forgotten how dense her brother was. The blonde sighed and thoughtfully scratched her cheek with her index finger. "Let's see… how do I best explain this?" The redhead waited for Temari to explain, meanwhile feeling very irritated about what the conversation had turned into."Love." Gaara blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?" - "It's different from the love you share with family or friends." Temari turned the picture around again. "It's when someone who's very important to you keeps coming to mind and you feel a need to be with them." She couldn't help but smile a little. "It's not easy to explain but you'll know when you feel it if you're aware of it." Gaara's eyes moved back to the photograph, which he silently looked at for a few seconds. In that time it was quiet in the room.Then the 18-year-old looked back up. "Thank you. Also-" he paused. "Was there a specific reason why you came to the office?" Temari took a step backwards, remembering what she was actually here for. Her demeanour became more serious again. "Right, of course."She took a neatly folded paper out of a small purse that was attached to her belt. "There are new reports from the anti-terrorism department. Kankuro wanted to bring this back here himself but he got caught up in something. He told me that the caught culprit gave some valuable information on the future plans of their organisation. The details should be in the document." She gave the paper to Gaara, who unfolded it and took a look. He nodded to himself silently and put the document down. "Thank you. I'll check-" Suddenly the door busted open again. "Lord Kazekage, there's an emergency!"The siblings looked up towards the chunin who had rushed in, both equally caught off guard. Gaara raised up from his seat. "What's the issue?" The chunin caught his breath before continuing, "Two of the village guards are going on a rampage! We don't know what suddenly got into them!" - "Where is this happening?" - "It was close to the gateway, but they may have gotten further into the town by now." Just then, an explosion could be heard in the distance, startling everyone in the room just a little."I'm going." Without the need to hear anything else, Gaara left the office.
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