Affection Blooming From A Desert (Gaara x OC)

Chapter 12: Truth and Recovery

The day after Gaara woke up he was carefully transferred back to his residency. Kankuro was happy his brother had woken up and even more delighted to know that he and Akina were still in a relationship and that they would be living together, even if it's just for a week. He spent most of the day helping her move some of her clothes to the guest room in Gaara's home and gave her a tour of the place since Gaara couldn't do so himself. After she had settled in and went to work, he went about his duties. Now, he was on his way back to Gaara's home to inform him of some news.

After doing some digging around, he managed to find the fool that decided to spread misinformation about Akina and her involvement with Gaara. He was not surprised by the individual, he always had a bad feeling about them whenever they ran into each other.

Kankuro took out his key and unlocked the door to Gaara's home. He closed it gently behind him and walked up the elaborate staircase to a long and wide hallway. He walked to the end of the hall and opened the door to his brother's bedroom. Gaara laid motionless on his bed with his right arm slung over his eyes seemingly asleep, but Kankuro knew better.

He sat on the couch that was pressed to the right wall. "We found the person who fabricated the story."

Gaara lifted his arm and sent a sidelong glance at Kankuro.

"It's your secretary, was I mean, I took the liberty of firing her. I hope that's okay." Gaara sighed. He always knew that his secretary had feelings for him but he never fired her because she was good at her job and her work didn't seem to be affected by her affections for him. Oh how wrong he was.

"Where is she now?"

"At home I would imagine. There is an editor at the publishing place that has a thing for her. She used his feelings for her to get him to publish that article without confirming any of the information she disclosed." Kankuro rolled his eyes. "Rather ironic that she would call Akina the seductress. Anyways, we've decided to completely shut down the Suna Gazette after their long history of publishing various misleading stories."

"Set a meeting with her for next week, I wish to have a word with her. Have you told Akina yet?"

"No, I thought it'd be best if you did."

"Thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it. I'm just glad this is all sorted." Gaara agreed, now the next step was to snuff out the rumour so the villagers knew good and well that their Kazekage was in a serious relationship with a kind and honest woman.

"I just stopped by to tell you that. Are you going to be okay here by yourself?" He asked, standing up from the couch.

"Yes, Akina should be back in a little bit anyways."

"Alright sounds good. I'll see you tomorrow."

Gaara heard the door slam shut and sighed. Despite it being his week off for recovery, and being the workaholic that he was, he decided to have his advisors bring him some work so he could get a head start on it. He realized that just resting was not an option, it had only been a several hours and he was already losing his mind from just laying around. Since he couldn't quite move his body without feeling some type of pain, he decided that he would start off slow by having his commanders update him on the situation with Junichiro.

They stopped by and informed him that Kakashi had been the one to save him. Konoha had dealt with the enemies on their side and rushed to provide them with backup in case things had gone awry. The medical team stabilized his wounds as much as possible so a squad could hurry him back to the village for proper treatment. Kakashi and Kitsuchi had remained there to oversee the demolition of the base.