The Shadow on The Sand [Naruto Fanfic]

Chapter 6 - Return

Chapter 6 – Return

Gaara was feeling quite happy today. Hitori was coming home after being away for over a week. He had gotten her message early yesterday telling him that she was leaving just after she sent the message and he had started smiling while he read it, making the shinobi that brought it to him look very confused and a little shocked.

Temari had dropped by shortly after and she had been quite glad to hear the news as well, even though they knew that she was leaving that day anyway. They had both – more Temari - spontaneously decided to throw her a small welcome back party, just for the sake of it. She would get back around 5pm today, going by her estimation. It was 3pm now, and he could barely handle waiting any longer.

He was leaving work an hour early at 4pm today, so he would only have an hour left before he would go home and start setting up and get ready, which would probably make time fly. Temari and Kankuro would already be home by now and if he didn't have a small pile of paper work left to do, he would have left ages ago. He wrote his signature on the bottom of the piece of paper, put it aside, and repeated the action until he got to the end of the pile. Maybe he could go home now after all.

The red head got up and started making his way out of the building and towards home. As usual, it didn't take long for him to get there and he opened the door. Temari popped out from behind a wall with an excited look on her face, but it faded a little when she noticed it was Gaara, not Hitori coming home earlier than they had expected.

She welcomed him, and he returned the greeting before heading off to his room and get changed into something more comfortable. Both him and Temari began cleaning since Kankuro was out picking up some food and sake for the night, but he got back only a few minutes later and started cleaning up as well after he had put the groceries away.

Before they knew it, it was 15 minutes to 5 and Gaara quickly ran to get changed into the clothes that Temari had picked out for him to wear. He threw them on and kicked the others under his bed and left to wait at the village gates for when Hitori arrived.

He had planned on dropping a few hints about how he felt about her tonight, but since Kankuro was determined to get him drunk, – and would most likely succeed so that Gaara could shut him up - he would probably just end up blurting it out in a very unromantic fashion. Soon, it was 5:30 and he was getting worried. She had that she had allowed an extra hour for travelling through the deserts, so he had ruled out that she had gotten lost ages ago. The weather was rather good today anyway, so it was doubtful.

The moment that thought crossed his mind, he spotted a black dot on the horizon. When it got big enough for him to identify it as Hitori, he could see that something was wrong. He could see that some of her pale-skin was covered in dark patches. Blood. Without thinking, he ran to her and put an arm around her to help support her weight a little since she was limping slightly. Hitori smirked at him, recognising the worry on his face.

"Wh-what happened?" he asked while looking at her injuries. She had a laceration on her upper arm, and another one on her right thigh as well as a few minor cuts and several bruises that were slowly colouring and becoming more visible. The cuts and lacerations weren't bleeding, due to her medical skill, even though they were moderately deep.

"Ah, I'm not sure who they were, but they were most likely just rogue nin trying to get the bounty on my head. It doesn't matter, they're taken care of." she said with a dark look in her eyes. "I've been healing myself since it happened about 45 minutes ago, so I should be fine within about 20 minutes or so." she glanced at him and smirked again, and it turned into a smile when he smiled back.

He still looked a little worried, but she assured him that she was fine. It took them a few minutes to get back home and Gaara opened the door and lead her inside. Temari and Kankuro popped out from behind a wall in unison, but their happy faces disappeared into worry seeing their friend limping a little and covered in blood.