Konoha's Chef (Gaara Love Story)

29: Recovering hearts

Author's POV

True to her grandpa's word, Akimi was wheeled to the Hokage's funeral, dressed in a black kimono. Akimi and Grandpa Kosuke each left a white lily on the grave, clasping palms together for a prayer. As Grandpa Kosuke pushed her away from the grave, Akimi thought back to Sora who was still unconscious. Yesterday. The Sand Village had made a truce with the Leaf Village and as a result, many Sand ninjas were taken the to the Konoha hospital. Akimi wasn't surprised to hear Gaara and his two siblings be taken to a room, one floor below hers.

Rock Lee was next door to Akimi, and she could tell since his Sensei was always visiting him, giving him strange medicine to make him better.

Hinata Hyuga stayed across, her injures hanging in between fatal and minor. Akimi knew the shy girl was there, because after visiting Lee, Tenten and Neji would go see the girl. Kiba and Shino would slo stop by to see their teammate. Akamaru's whining alerting Akimi from her room.

So far, no one has visited Akimi yet. Sora was out, and Shigekazu was missing. Even Daikoku Funeno Sensei had a ton of work to do, but was kind to send flowers and a sketch book.

"Let's go back," Grandpa Kosuke said, shaking Akimi from her trance.

"Okay." He wheeled her from the graveyard and towards the hospital. "Grandpa?"

"Hmmm?"

"Can we get some flowers? I want to give my friends some pansies."

"Sure."

They stopped by Ino's shop to buy some pansies before returning to the hospital. Akimi was allowed to walk around the hospital, but not for long periods of time, and she had to use a cane. Grandpa Kosuke left, kissing her forehead affectionately, before going off to patrol on the border lines again.

Akimi took the bag of colorful pansies and made her way to her former classmates' rooms.

Hinata had all the purple flowers, Lee had the yellow, Naruto had the orange, and Akimi had the red ones left.

Shyly, Akimi walked to the floor below her, where the Sand Siblings were staying and knocked on Gaara's door. No one answered. She opened the door carefully, and looked inside. Gaara wasn't inside. Feeling a little bolder, Akimi placed the rest of the red pansies in the vase beside the bed and left immediately.

Twenty minutes later, Gaara returned from a evening walk in the woods, taking in the fresh cool air, unlike the humid weather in Suna. Temari and Kankuro stayed in a hotel, while he rested in the hospital. The three of them would also have to escort the remaining injured Sand ninja back to Suna, so they wouldn't be gone until much later.

His blue-green eyes scanned the room and spotted the red flowers sitting in the vase. He walked towards the night stand  and gently touched a single petal. He brushed his fingertips over the flowers carefully, feeling the velvety texture.

Mother once taught me that when someone leave you flowers, they mean, get well soon.

Gaara looked at the setting sun, a little spot in his heart, slowly warming.