Suna's Ninja (Gaara Love Story)

15: Advice and guidance

Author's POV

Akimi sat on the couch, frozen in place for nearly thirty minutes as she slowly let Pearl's words sink in. What can I do? Pearl, you don't understand. I can't do anything! I can't work, I'm not strong enough to fight, and what can my cooking skills do to help this situation I'm in?!

She sighed and cleared away the tea set she had laid out. During Pearl's angry speech, neither girl had noticed one of the glass cups had fallen to the floor. Akimi grunted and stooped to carefully pick out the larger pieces of glass, noticing the shards still left on the ground. As she was sweeping up the bits, she wondered if Pearl had injured herself. She vaguely remembered the girl walking around the table, near the broken glass cup. There was a high possibility Pearl was angry enough to dismiss the pain and left in a hurry without feeling any pain until her head had cleared.

"I should give her some medicine as an apology," Akimi decided, meekly. She returned to her kitchen and began carefully setting up her lab equipment and dried herbs. She checked on the herbs she had been drying out on her balcony before heading back into the kitchen to start working.

"Akimi? Can I talk to you?" Akimi shut the burner off and removed her apron.

"Yeah, just a second." The Genin opened the door for Temari who came in as well. "Hi, Temari. How have you been?"

"Annoyed I didn't get to go help rescue Gaara," she grumbled, flopping on the couch, her fan leaning against the wall.

"Tea?" Akimi offered politely.

"That would be great, thanks."

"So how can I help you?" Akimi asked, glancing over at her lab workstation. Her equipment had been turned off, and thankfully, she hadn't started the major parts of the experiments yet.

"I heard you were in the same bad mood as me, but since we're both calm, want to talk it out?" Temari suggested. "I'll even go first. I need someone I can talk to. You know, girl talk."

"Sure thing. I'll get some tea." When both girls had settled on the couches (no cookies, because they didn't feel like having any), Temari began ranting her own personal frustrations.

"I mean, Gaara is my little brother! Of course I'm dead worried about him!" Temari raged furiously, while Akimi coolly refilled her tea cup. "Even the most disagreeable siblings would be worried if one of them had been kidnapped!"

"I see."

"And what's more, I believe I should be the one to go help rescue Gaara, because since Kankuro is out, I'm the only available sibling around!"

"Temari, are you saying you doubt the Leaf ninja?" Akimi asked.

"Well, no, but--"

"What's done is done. It's strange for me to say this, but what can you do right now? Or rather, what responsibilities do you have that Suna has left you with?" Akimi asked gently. " You're the Kazekage's older sister. You definitely have a ton of things to do, that so many people rely on you to get them done. No doubt, Gaara is your biological little brother, but leave that to the Leaf ninjas for now. They aren't weak, so don't worry about it."

"Yeah, I know," Temari frowned. "But it's just so frustrating, just waiting!"

"I understand what you mean. But I don't want Gaara to come back and literally find half of Suna missing, because someone forgot her responsibilities..... I consider you luckier than me, because I actually don't know what I can do," Akimi sighed.

"Do? You can do a lot of things," Temari remarked. "You can cook, can fight, are part of the KP team, and make poison. You even made medicinal food that could speed up the process of healing, and saved Kankuro from poison. Akimi, there's a whole lot of things you can do yourself. Don't underestimate yourself."

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No, thank you," Temari said softly. "You gave the best advice I could ever ask for."

"Glad to be of help," Akimi smiled. Once Temari had left, she resumed making medicine for Pearl. While she was bottling the medicine in a clean jar, an epiphany came to her almost immediately.

"WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS SOONER!?"