Kosuke Maruboshi, the Eternal Genin, has adopted a child and named her Akimi Maruboshi. He has taught her to cook without a kitchen, fight without fancy weaponry, and go to the Academy for an education. Now if only there was a way to fight without...
Akimi daily left flowers for Gaara now, every night. Sometimes, Gaara would be in the room, but Akimi always came, no matter what. A silent welcome nod from the boy would encourage her to place a small bouquet of red flowers on his night stand. After exchanging a brief glance, she would depart.
After the third night, Akimi found a card with two violet irises tied with a ribbon. There were only two words inside the card, but Akimi already knew what those two words were. Irises meant "thank you."
Sure enough, the card had the two words, "thank you" written inside.
"Your welcome, Gaara-san."
The next afternoon, Gaara was meditating in his room. He had to focus and make sure Shukaku did not attempt to get out. A gentle knock on the door, brought him back to the present world. "Gaara-san, may I come in?"
He didn't know what to say. Instead, he got up and opened the door for her. "Thank you, Gaara-san." She set the flowers on his night stand like usual, but instead of just leaving, she stood there in the room for a moment. Neither knew exactly what to say, yet the silence was comforting.
"By the way, I wanted to give this to you," she said shyly, withdrawing a small box. Gaara eyed it closely, instinctively detecting for poison. Not that it would kill him, since the One-tailed beast would heal him, but after going through an entire childhood of being poisoned, he didn't dare trust just anyone. Even this girl who continuously visited him and left him flowers.
"It's Baumkuchen!" Akimi said brightly, her shyness washing away. "It's a type of cake that looks like a tree, because it's baked in thin layers. This was one of my favorite things to eat as a kid. I promise you, it's really good! Anyways, I wasn't sure if you liked sweets, but this isn't too sweet, thankfully. It has some coffee flavor, but that's the coffee chocolate coating on the sides."
Gaara stared at the box, not responding.
"Um, so yeah, sorry if I talked too much," she apologized. "Thank you for the card, it was nice of you to give it to me. Sorry again. I must have taken up too much of your time, huh? I'll take my leave then. See you tomorrow, Gaara-san!"
Akimi placed the beautiful cake on the night stand next to the flowers, before slowly walking out. I must be careful about my stomach wound, she thought, resting a hand on the stitches. They still hurt.
Gaara looked at the presents in silence. Then went straight back to his mediation, ignoring the cake.
That night however, Gaara opened the cake box to look for the layers. Sure enough, the cake was baked like a tree's rings.
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The next day, Akimi found two irises on her night stand again. She smiled and tucked the flowers away.
