Hello out there to all you people on the Ethernet! This is OniChild42. Welcome to a pointless oneshot I came up with eons ago. Like most oneshots, this has literally no point whatsoever. Just so you know, when the writing is like THIS, then that means that I have (momentarily) invaded the story, and when it's like THIS then it's either writing or Gaara's thoughts. And when it's normal, I'm sure all you smart people out there can figure out what that means.
'Tis a pointless, cute, fuzzy-and-warm-inside thing that was more or less an excuse to write about my favorite character and parings. It's now 12:30 at night and I forgot to save so this has all been rewritten, which is another reason why it's not as good as it could have been. I tried not to abuse the English language too much.
Enjoy.
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Gaara sat alone in his office.
There had been no activity at all during that day.
The building was eerily quiet.
No one else was in the vicinity at the moment.
Not even the ANBU scouts.
In a fit of desperation to ward off his feelings of boredom, Gaara had completed all of his paperwork by noon.
But now he didn't have anything to distract him.
No shinobi had knocked on his door.
Even his siblings were gone.
It was soon going to be time for yet another Chunnin Exam, so Temari was over in Konoha, no doubt flirting with that shadow-manipulator, Shikamaru…
And Kankuro? He was on a B-ranked mission with Ino.
He remembered the look on Temari's face when Ino announced that her acquaintance with Kankuro was not going to end after the mission.
Of course, Temari wasn't one to talk, seeing as she herself had now been dating Shikamaru for over two years now…
Gaara rested his chin in his hands, and sighed.
He knew he should be doing something productive right now, but his mind was wandering and so far today no one had asked him of any favors.
What of his friends?
"Let's see…" He mumbled, bringing his hands up to his face to count out the names.
"Lee…" The first name to come to mind. How can you forget him? Lee was practically a virus, because once you met him, he'd NEVER leave you.
Lee had met a girl from the Hidden Grass village last summer, and besides his training she was the only thing he thought about.
"Naruto…" The blonde maniac. He was with Hinata now, wasn't he? For… good lord, three years now? Oh, yes, that's right. It was their anniversary today, wasn't it? He had invited Naruto to come visit, but Naruto had said he couldn't because of his anniversary. Or something like that.
"Sakura…" Ah yes, the pink one. Yep, ever since they had retrieved Sasuke, she had practically threatened him into going on a date. It mustn't have been too bad, because they'd been together for several months now. Though to the casual observer you wouldn't know, because Sasuke was very iffy about the whole "PDA"s and such. Some things never change.
Who else? Oh yeah, Kiba. The dog boy. He was getting ready to be married soon, as Gaara had heard it. Once again a girl from the Hidden Grass, those girls must have some sort of jutsu to use to ensnare young, defenseless Konoha men.
And Shino? Well, as much as the bug freak hated to admit it, Shino was now romantically involved with a girl from the Hidden Rock Village. Turns out she was some sort of bug specialist. Oh, the irony.
Now, who was left? Um… Neji. Yeah, he and Tenten had hooked up during a recent mission. Not much else was known. But it wasn't like Gaara expected any compassion from Neji, the human refrigerator. Tenten certainly had a very...unique taste in men.
And then there was Chouji. Amazingly, even Chouji had found someone. She was a native of Konoha, and a good cook. Gaara had met her. He liked her. She was a very pleasant person, not to mention that her cooking was second to none.
"So there you have it…" Gaara sighed again, clasping his hands together and stifling a yawn. There it was then. They all had their lovers, they all were happy.
He didn't matter much anyways.
There was a knock on the door.
Gaara looked up, startled.
"C-come in." He said, not too confidently.
The door creaked open, and Gaara saw that it was only one of his assistants.
The girl, around his age or younger, bowed and stood, a package in her arms.
"State your business." Gaara found his voice.
"It's a package for you, Kazekage-sama. It's from Konoha." She kept her eyes fixed on the window behind Gaara's head. Which was, admittedly, better than what she usually did, which was stare at his tattoo.
Gaara nodded, and reached out for the parcel.
The girl handed it to him before quickly dismissing herself. Basically all of his advisers and assistants did the same thing. They got their job done, then got the hell out of there. Some of them seemed to still believe that Shikaku was going to leap out and eat them. Fear can be very hard to forget, as Gaara had found out.
Gaara stared down at the brown object with curiosity. While it was common for him to get messages from Konoha, this had to be one of the first times he had received a package.
He contemplated the possibilities of the contents, but soon gave in to his childish desire and attacked the wrapping, ripping the paper and untying the rope. No one can resist the power of the wrapping paper, NO ONE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ahem ahem sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen, back to the story...
There was a silence as he stared at the contents.
There was a pressed flower, with a small black ribbon tied loosely at the leaf.
Kankuro and Ino.
A fan.
Temari.
A note, scribbled in a familiar scrawl.
Shikamaru.
A… green jumpsuit?
Obviously Lee.
Chopsticks?
Good grief, Naruto, you're so cheap!
A blanket?
Probably Hinata.
A… rock? No, a pebble?
Let me rephrase that; Sakura that's cheap!
Wait, two pebbles?
Oh, you're no better, Sasuke.
A dog collar.
Gee, three guesses who that's from.
A book on bugs?
Oh, Shino's dry sense of humor. It kills us all...
A card from Tenten and Neji.
And…
No…
Could it be?!
Yes, IT IS!
"COOKIES!"
Once Gaara had calmed down enough to stop dancing, which was a rather undignified thing for Sunakagure's Kazekage to be seen doing, he reached into the box to find a small piece of paper.
There were multiple signatures all over, some he recognized, some he didn't. He held the leaflet closer to his face, his eyes scanning the message printed before him. He felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.
There, in a very flowing handwriting that could possibly have been Chouji's girlfriend's, was a simple message;
Happy Birthday Gaara.