Dunno why I decided to write SUCH a story for a birthday gift. But it came anyway. It's for JoeAshaman's birhtday on the 23rd. I had written it but had to ask him first, so I'm posting it up now
I don't own Naruto.
'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'
That day, Matsuri woke up with a feeling of responsibility weighting over her. She didn't know why, but she felt like she would have to deal with a whole bunch of responsibilities today; and they wouldn't have to do with her usual paperwork.
Indeed. She had forgotten it, but when she arrived at the Kazekage mansion, Gaara told her that there was a meeting going on, a meeting during which they would talk about the orphans and the poor children wandering and living in Suna's streets.
"Oh, dammit! I had forgotten! And I prepared a whole article to sum up my opinion…" she said, slapping her forehead.
"It's okay. I know that if its you, you'll definitely think of everything and speak when your turn comes." Gaara told her, holding her in front of him from the shoulders. "So, will you come in now?"
"Of course, no need to ask!"
They quietly entered the room and took their seats; next to each other. Baki, Gaara's former teacher, was arguing with the rest of the councilors about whether building an orphanage would cost them much or not.
"Even if you say so, look at our surroundings! We live in the middle of the desert; and if we need water for building, we have a whole ocean close by."
"The expenses will grow huge once we gather the brats off the streets and take them in; they'll need medical care, vaccinations and who knows how much more! We'll have to feed them three times a day too; most of them are bad mannered and stubborn, they'll be starting fights all the time!"
"But isn't our intention to help them get over these hardships? Isn't this why an orphanage should be built? The only difference would be if each of us took one of them in their own houses and took care of them." Matsuri said, biting her pen. Baki looked at Gaara, proud that his student had found such a reliable and thoughtful person to be his personal assistant.
The other man hit his fist on the stone table.
"Why exactly are you insisting so much on this suggestion, young lady?"
"Oh…Well, you see, I really know how it feels for a little kid to be left alone after its parents have either passed away or abandoned it out of their own will…Which is crueler, because then-"
"-you know that they're alive and they just don't care."
"Precisely. You know that even though they can take care of you, they don't want to, they don't want you. And that feeling deserts you yourself from them, you develop a bad mannered or a problematic personality, and in the end, if someone doesn't help you before it's too late, you end up taking it out in the society when you grow up."
"That's exactly where we should step on and build one. Gaara-sama also knows some of that stuff, since he too was kind of abandoned when he was little, and not only from his family." Baki said.
"I couldn't agree more. When you know that you are not needed, unwanted, you lock yourself up and don't let others get close to you easily. Becoming a "fine adult" as you would want them all to grow up to be would be really hard for these kids if we wouldn't do something for them. Matsuri has already talked to me about this once, and she had made some sketches to visualize the whole idea. Take a look." Gaara said and Matsuri dragged a folded paper out of her pocket.
"It's an old drawing, almost childish since I'm still just 15 myself, but I think you can clearly see what I wanted when I was like those kids." The girl said, stretching the paper on the table. The rest of men in the room all leaned over to see, and many were amazed by the details in which she described every room. There was even a school included in the building, a big yard, a hospital…If she really had drawn this before, it was the first time these men saw of a kid thinking that far ahead.
"She sure has overlooked too many details…" Baki murmured and some of the older members shook their heads.
"What I would certainly agree on is the hospital. Suna's Medical Centre can't handle its own patients, a separate hospital for just kids and teenagers would be a great idea." Gaara said, pointing his finger on the part of Matsuri's drawing where the kanji for "hospital" stood. Her childish hand writing was too correct and calligraphic, but he knew it was hers. All the paperwork they shared every day had imprinted many details of her characters in his brain.
"Wouldn't it? Besides, if not anything else, people would start thinking of becoming pediatricians too, and not specialize only in the adult body's conditions." Matsuri said.
On that sentence, everyone around shook their heads in understanding, some of the younger members even tapping their fingers on the stone table to congratulate her for her idea.
"As you see, I even drew a school. For many people in this society, even trouble-makers and such labeled kids should go to school to learn to behave, most of all, but I think that we shouldn't chose teachers who would push the kids over their edge just to "save the face" of such a school. Maybe even find some of them who were adopted or orphans themselves; they certainly will know what these guys have been through and understand them better." Matsuri said. Her fingers ran over the old paper as she showed every part and explained why she had thought of drawing it.
"Still, all these don't assure us of success, or of the fact that these guys will behave after being brought to such a place." The man who had been protesting from the beginning continued.
"It's a start, though." Chiyo said, her hands folded. All this time she was sitting silent, next to her brother, just looking over and thinking. "And the fact that the idea comes from a girl who has firstly been ditched and then adopted, and then has seen her parents die in front of her should have immediately left you with no second thoughts, gentlemen. We should proceed as soon as possible." She said.
Gaara looked at everyone, shaking their heads and then his eyes flied to Matsuri again; he felt his chest filled with pride. Her strong will and sincere words had moved everyone, and now the kids in Suna could look up to reach a better future thanks to her. She smiled as she was asked to pass on her sketch, nodded, and he saw an unshed tear clinging to her eye lashes. He himself hid a smile; she was really amazing.
None of them could imagine how quickly her idea would come to life though. By next spring, the orphanage was already complete with a medical centre of its own. Their first priority were infants and children younger than 10 years old, but slowly and steadily, more and more kids were into the orphanage, and despite everyone's attitude in the beginning, after a little while, different for each of them, they managed to fit in. Fights weren't bursting out so easily anymore, and when the school was completed too, everything seemed to work out just perfectly.
One of the days that Gaara and Matsuri got off work together, he stopped and leaned over the fence of what seemed to be just a dream one year ago. He let his gaze wander around for a while; looking at the kids but not seeing anything in particular, just thinking back to the feelings he had when he was their age. Alone. Abandoned. Deserted. Unwanted. Hated. They wouldn't have to go through such things anymore, and it was all thanks to her. Thanks to the person that saved him too.
"Gaara?" Matsuri asked, one hand on his shoulder. She didn't call him "sensei" anymore, he had insisted on her doing so in the beginning, but she gradually grew to hate it herself. Now, out of his own will, he turned and looked at her, her hand over his shoulder feeling warm, so much that reached even his heart.
"I'm okay. Just think of how many people you have helped with this…" Gaara said, and Matsuri smiled.
"I think that this was my second greater dream. To one day be able to have such a thing built here too, to help all those that I know were feeling like I did and maybe worse." Matsuri said, hands behind her back. Her eyes were proud, but hiding from his as usual.
"And if that great thing was just the second, what was the first?" he asked, passing his arm around her shoulders.
"That's personal, so it's selfish. I'm not telling."
"Not even to me?" She was again, still and always avoiding looking at him in the eyes. Every time, it was a glimpse, just a glimpse, and then her eyes would fly away faster than a mother bird who tries to save her children.
"Especially to you." She pouted, blushing.
"Why so?" he asked, noticing. "Oh, you're blushing. Cute."
"Huh?" she choked, surprised. "I'm not!" she said, rubbing her palms against her cheeks. "It's the heat! The heat!"
Gaara smiled, and pat her forehead.
"You're such a child."