About as Subtle as a RHINO

A GaaraXOC Fanfiction, Gaara POV


Chapter four:

"So…" Temari whispered, sitting on the couch. A pad of paper in her hand, her hair let down and her legs crossed Indian style on the soft leather couch. I lay on the floor, my robes flung over a chair behind me. I hadn't meant to disrupt my siblings planning for the next day's training session of her students. Temari had a four man group, a medic ninja stuck in for good measure. Not really, the council said that to cover it up for the fact we didn't have many medic ninja and they wanted her to be trained by the best.

But I came storming in, ripping the robe off my body and chucking it onto the chair before swiveling and planting myself on the floor. I spread out my arms and legs, staring blankly at the ceiling. Temari let me have a moment, not saying anything and waiting for me to start up the conversation first. I didn't blame her for waiting, for 15 years of her life she knew that trying to talk to me first would only get her death glares and death threats. But the last year or so, I had changed with my siblings… but old habits did die hard. Also it didn't help I had a horrible night and day.

"So…" I mumbled back, looking to the ceiling still. Temari rolled her eyes in my peripheral, but I didn't say anything else. What was there to say? I had the day of all days! It was all over the news, and people talked about it constantly. I went from funeral to funeral, lunch-in's, open casket viewings, jail cells, building reconstruction, everything that I could go see to remind myself my village hated me, I went to see. I let out a huff and closed my eyes.

"What did the slave driver make you do today?" Temari joked.

"The slave driver kept the kazekage from getting his ass chewed out by the council!"

I snapped opened my eyes to watch Abbi come shuffling through the room, dropping a newspaper next to me before dropping herself on the couch. Temari laughed, dropping her legs down to the floor, looking right at my assistant.

"Sorry Abbi…" She stated, still laughing. Abbi looked up from her clipboard, glasses on her face and she tilted her head with a cocked brow.

"For what? I am a slave driver, how do you think I got this job?" Abbi stated with all seriousness. Her face was plain, like it was a statement of absolutely no value before looking back to her clipboard. There I could see the shadow of a smile as she continued to scribble. Temari eyed her before looking to me. I looked right at my sister, watching her point and mouth the words 'is she for-real?'.

"Yes, I'm for real Temari…" Abbi stated, flipping over a page and continuing to read and scribble. Temari's jaw dropped and I couldn't help but smirk at her.

"What? Did you also minor in reading lips?" Temari sneered at Abbi, taking offense to her being caught. I rolled my shoulders to watch this whole scene panning out, this was the most uplifting conversation that had been said around me all day. Also, I was enjoying my know-it-all sister being attacked by Abbi, my… I don't have a title.

"Yes, and I got my bachelorette in sarcasm." Abbi looked up right at Temari with a smart smirk, "Any other dumb questions?" I joked down what felt like laughter as Temari huffed. My blond sister flipped her right leg over her left and went back to her notes. Abbi went back to her clipboard, ripping off a page and sticking it underneath other things before grabbing another parchment and slipping it infront of Temari.

Temari furrowed her brows before scribbling on the parchment and shoving it onto Abbi's Clipboard. I watched as this continued, Abbi writing something in her soft, light scribble before handing it to Temari to read and write hard on it. Soon, after a while of silence, they began to giggle as they passed it back and forth.

I furrowed my brow at them both. What were they doing? Passing notes? I slowly got to my knees to come and see what they were writing when Abbi quickly tucked the paper away in the abyss of her clipboard.

"Can't I know?" I asked, looking at them. Temari looked up from her notes to Abbi then to me, she shook her head.

"Confidential." Abbi reported with a smile at Temari. I glared at them both before laying right back to where I was. I didn't even want to know, anyway. Whatever womanly conversation they were having didn't even faze me. I was the Kazekage, I had far more important things to think of.

"Gaara," Abbi interrupted my thoughts. I flicked my eyes to her. She pushed her glasses up her small nose and cocked a brow at me, "Paper…Read." She pointed at it.

"Why?" I asked, looking to the Sunakagure newspaper lying beside my shoulders.

"Because it will keep you informed." Neeko blurted out of nowhere, appearing in the doorway. Abbi jumped before glaring at the man, while Temari just snickered and continued her business. I looked to Neeko then the newspaper. I didn't want to read what I already knew. All they were going to write about was last night and what happened.

"I know what they wrote about." I whispered, continuing to lay there unmoved.

"You'd be surprised who likes you in this village, Gaara." Temari perked up, placing her notes down. I sighed before snatching up the paper. I didn't really want to read this paper but if they all continued to pester me, I guess I will have to at some point. I pulled it towards my face and there on the front was myself. Of course! However, just as I was going to tell them my thoughts, something caught my interest. It was me shaking the hand of the head of Council, confetti and people cheering in the background.

GAARA! GAARA AS KAZEKAGE! The head line read and I furrowed my brow, there were two columns of text, a picture on the left and on the right. On the left was me at the party shaking hands with people, Temari and Kankuro next to me. On the right was Abbi by my side, talking to me as we walked through the town.

Gaara, the all-powerful, all fearless has become our new leader! The smaller headline brought my eyes to its attention. My eyes began to devour the text, reading over how the coronation went, my speech, the small things I had already done. For once, I was so interested in what others were saying about me. The paper, it was talking about me, and it wasn't cursing me for being alive!

X-X-X-X-

"Kazekage-san?" I looked up from my food in the restaurant. It was our waitress from the last time my siblings and I had eaten here. She wasn't in uniform, and she even looked upset. She had red around her eyes and her nose was pink along with her cheeks, I could see the stain of tears on her cheeks. I eyed her face before looking to her hands that were pulling at each other. She was nervous as she stood there in front of me.

"Yes?" I asked. She gulped down hard, bringing more curiosity to my mind. I even slid out of the booth to stand in my robe, facing the girl. She was still crying and trying to say something but it wasn't coming out. I could feel the awkward feeling in my stomach rising, how did I calm a crying woman? I didn't even know how to calm a crying person, I didn't even know how to calm myself from crying. I didn't cry much, but when I did, I didn't truly know how to fix my emotions. Now, I was faced with a woman, in tears, with something on her mind.

I opened my mouth to speak only for gasps to ring out as something that had never happened, happened to me. This woman waitress flung her arms around my torso and pressed her wet, tear stained face into my shoulder, gripping me hard. I blinked, my hands shaking, my head shooting to my siblings who were just as slack jawed and shocked as everyone else. NO! They needed to not be in shock because I wanted to be in shock! I didn't know what to do, and now the only people who would tell me what to do were just staring right back at me like snow appeared in Suna.

"Thank you…" The girl whispered, trembling against me. I blinked, patting her on the back lightly and trying to look at the waitress still clinging to me. I was still at a loss for words as I blinked at her holding onto me.

"Thank you…" She pulled back, looking at me in the eyes, "For letting him go. My father was drunk, and didn't know what he was saying or doing… I promise he didn't mean to hurt those people, he was just drunk and angry and needed someone to blame. Thank you, for letting my father and the others go." She whispered, biting her lip.

"I…" I trailed off, looking her over before looking to my siblings who finally came to life. They were waving their hands for me to continue what I was saying.

"I... I couldn't punish the acts of a drunk man." I whispered, eyeing her as she stood there between crying more and smiling. "All I want is my country is to prosper." I added, swallowed hard on my own saliva. That's when more tears formed in her eyes and I could feel more panic in my chest then awkwardness in my abdomen. But just as I went to try and say something else, she flung herself around me one more time before rushing back from my arms, running towards the door where I saw a man standing.

I could see his face from here, there was pain and regret as his daughter came crying into his arms. He wrapped her in his arms while he looked right at me. A sigh escaped his lips before he nodded at me, a fleeting smile on his lips and the two shuffled out of the dinner.

It was easy to feel my legs trembling more and more as I forced myself to sit back down to eat my dinner.

"Gaara?" I looked to Kankuro who grinned at me, "If you have any more fans coming by, can I just eat your lamb-chops and cherry rice?"