You never know how much someone means to you...
He was Gaara no Sabaku. This type of thing wasn't supposed to happen to him. He'd already been through so much. He truly didn't deserve it. The Kazekage was sent on a seemingly easy B-class mission, having wanted a break from his Kazekage duties. All he had to do was guard a shipment of highly valuable and important weapons scrolls that were traveling from Suna to Ame. A relatively short trip, well compared to a trip to Kiri or something, and a relatively easy mission.
The Daimyo of Ame warned Gaara that there was a rather violent uprising coming from the people of Ame and that many of the shinobi were looking to overthrow him however, knowing Gaara, it didn't faze him in the least bit. In fact, he was actually looking forward to a good challenge. However, the Daimyo just-so-happened to forget to mention that those weapons scrolls contained some of the most powerful weapons, having come straight out of the factories brand-spanking new models. Apparently, those new weapons could help the now-missing-nins overthrow the Daimyo and now Gaara was the only thing stopping them.
According to their sources, and in theory of Konohas' greatest tactician, Gaara was ambushed just a few miles from the gate to Kumogakure. Approximately eight missing-nins had attacked him at once, sending volleys of kunai, shuriken, and exploding tags his way from all directions. Shikamaru, who was in Suna for chunin duties at the time, guessed that the rogue-nins hadn't a clue who was transporting the scrolls, probably assuming that it'd be a jounin. There was evidence that Gaara had, with a speed to rival Rock Lee's, encased himself and the scrolls in a barrier of sand.
It wasn't much to go on but that was all the evidence they had, well except for six bodies found scattered in the area surrounding where the attack had taken place. It seemed that he was simply gone, without a trace of evidence. It took exactly six days, and five hours to find him.
Throughout those six days it had been pure madness in Suna. The civilians were scared shitless simply imagining people that could harm the Gaara no Sabaku. Their kazekage. People were outraged and going completely beserk. The council was frantically trying to organize the once-tamed and elegant land of the sand, whilst nearly having a coronary from all the stress.
Temari was completely stark-raving mad, snapping at anyone who dared upset her and yelling at the so-called "incompetence" of their own ANBU. She would've been fighting tooth-and-nail to get to Gaara however, she'd been pretty beat up from her last mission and was confined to the hospital bed. That, of course, didn't stop her from scaring her nurses so badly that they quit right after their first hour or so tending her.
Kankurou was one of the worst to take it, he was completely bent out of shape. Gone was his normal joking and sardonic personality. His sarcasm turned into bitter, harsh words and he lashed out at anyone that gave him a bad update on the search for Gaara, which were required on an hourly basis. He even put one of the poor jounin in the hospital with a dislocated jaw once he heard the sixth bad report.
Matsuri took it horribly. Although she was always shy, she was usually friendly and warm. Throughout that near-week of disparity she became cold, isolated, maintaining a completely deafening silence. She'd seen with her two eyes what Gaara was capable of, if somebody was able to take him then she had no clue what could've happened.
They'd found him in a cave not too far away from Ame. His body crumpled and with large gashes along his forearms and legs. Bruises covered his body and just from looking at him you could tell he had quite a few broken bones. His gourd had been destroyed, his sand mixed with his own blood and water from the damp cave. The medics had begun treating him immediately, having heard a faint and barely-there pulse. They searched for internal injuries and hurriedly fixed two broken ribs, a broken shoulder, a fractured wrist, a completely mangled and broken hand, and a crushed foot. However, they still had a lot to do with his external injuries. They healed the large gashes running along his chest and forearm and quickly bandaged up a broken finger and some less severe cuts.
They quickly brought him to the Sunan hospital, making record time by getting back to Suna in less than a days' time. This was, after all, their kazekage. He was placed in the bed next to Temari, she'd made sure of that. The first time she saw him being wheeled next to her she went into a blind rage, throwing anything within her grasp and vowing to repay "that fucking bastard from hell". The doctors and nurses then forced her to return to her bed because her "heart rate was escalating to a very unsafe level" and "this amount of stress is near fatal for her". Temari told them that she didn't give a damn and that they should all fuck off.
Kankurou took a slightly different approach. He refused to even go into the hospital room for the first few days. He simply couldn't take seeing his brother like that. His brother, Gaara. The one that could tear you to shreds at the tender age of five. The Gaara that was never injured in a fight, well except for during that one chunin exam. The Gaara that was once so strong and powerful, now degraded to someone battered and helpless. However, he did come around. Once Temari threatened him, Shikamaru explained the stupidity of his actions, and Matsuri convinced him that Gaara would have wanted him there.
Matsuri, oh such a different case. Once she saw him she went completely hysterical. That was Gaara-sensi. Her Gaara-sensi. The one that taught her everything she knew about being a shinobi. The man that defied all odds and earned the title of Kazekage and, most importantly to him, his peoples' trust. The man that she had spent hours training with. He was her first real friend. He was her first crush, although she had reprimanded herself at the thought of such a relationship. Nonetheless, he was the man she loved (whether she knew it or not). And he was lying there, helpless and defeated.
After a week of him being in the hospital, under constant supervision and care, Temari was released from the hospital. The next day, she and Kankurou set out to find the bastard that did that to their brother. Two days later they came back with a dark-haired man in tow, cuts from Temari's Kirikiri Mai evident throughout his body and sliced clean through his clothes. Bruises littered his body, most likely from both Temari and Kankurou, and several of his bones were broken. He had blacked out, most likely from blood loss, and woke up in a hospital bed, Temari and Kankurou looming over him.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you right here, right now." Temari seethed, grinding her teeth out of anger. Kankurou cracked his knuckles and clenched his jaw, eyes flicking to his puppets and Temari's fan. The man smirked and that just caused Temari and Kankurou to get even angrier, ready to strangle him in a seconds' notice. Shikamaru chose just that time to visit the man, his goal to squeeze every living detail out of him. It took five minutes of incomprehensible yelling and Shikamaru using his Kagemane on Kankurou and Temari for them not to kill the defenseless man.
Three days later and Gaara still hadn't woken from his coma. A week later and the medics explained to them how Gaara had been so used to ignoring and refusing the Shukaku's power that when it came time for him to need it again, he couldn't access the power and therefore was defenseless when it came time to need it. The medics told them there wasn't anything they could do but watch and monitor, that he'd be like that for (most likely) the rest of his life...or until they took him off his life support. Temari nearly killed the medic for even suggesting something like that. A day later and Shikamaru left Suna, having been given an S-ranked mission by the Hokage. Temari told him that if he got killed she'd personally hunt him down, resurrect him, and kick his ass for being such an idiot.
By the end of the first week of Gaara in his coma they'd come up with a system. Kankurou would spend most of the morning with him, well up until noon, Temari would take over, Matsuri would come around early dinnertime and would sleep on the extra hospital bed and stay until Kankurou came. They kept that up for about four days. Then they started getting called in for missions. The council had declared Suna in a state of Priority One Emergency and with that came the virtual takeover of the Council. They would basically do all the kazekage duties and council duties until a new kazekage was found.
Ten days into the coma and the council had sentenced Gaara's attacker, Hotaru, to a lifetime of hard labor lest the kazekage dies. Then, Hotaru was to be executed in the outskirts of Suna. The villagers had bets on how long Hotaru would live, due to the many death threats he'd received, and many reasoned that he wouldn't make it through the week.
In the end, Hotaru died of one of the many fatal blows he'd received when fighting with Temari and Kankurou. It seemed to be something that the medics would've easily caught if they did the examination thoroughly and correctly. There was a rumor going around that the medics purposefully left the internal injury as it was however they claimed that it was blocked by so many other injuries that they hadn't noticed it. Something made people doubt that but, really, who was to complain?
When he'd been in the hospital for exactly one month, Suna had already begun rebuilding itself. They were edging out of the Priority One Emergency state and into finding themselves a new Kazekage. Temari and Kankurou had resorted to seeing him at least once between their missions. Matsuri was the only one that saw him once a day, every day. People thought it was endearing that she was so connected to her sensei. However, when it came to the second month they knew it was only hurting her to see him every day. She'd resorted to C ranked missions and the occasional B ranked mission but only if it would last her no more than a days' time.
Kankurou and Temari tried convincing her that, although it was a kind gesture, it was only self-destructive. They told her she should move on with her life and start by accepting a mission that sent her away from everything for a little while. They tried to get through to her but she was stubborn as hell and it seemed like nobody could talk sense into her.
Another time, Shikamaru was in town and Temari told him to talk some sense into Matsuri. He begrudgingly agreed but not after she'd properly threatened him. Matsuri wouldn't have anything to do with him, she was adamant that it was a completely different case. Asuma was dead and Gaara was simply in a coma. Shikamaru finally ended up getting to her when he said that Gaara wouldn't have wanted her to be wasting all her time visiting him when she could be improving her skills. How he wouldn't have wanted all their training together to go to waste.
The next day Matsuri accepted her first A-rank mission in two months. She visited Gaara right before she left for the month-long mission. She'd thought that if she visited him every day and just talked him through everything that maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't have ended up like her parents did. Four days into her mission and she received a scroll telling her that Gaara died that morning. She was to come back the day she finished the mission and the funeral was to be held promptly after her arrival, she was his only pupil after-all.
She'd never worked that hard on a mission before. Driven by something of a misplaced rage, she found and completely mutilated her opponent (a missing-nin from the Wave country who had allegedly killed his family and neighbors) within a week. It was the day of the funeral that she realized that you never know how much someone means to you until they're gone.
...until they're gone.