A/N: Teehee, everyone loves a bit of angst, yes?
Emi sat atop the second highest rooftop in Suna. She refused to go anywhere near the Kazekage tower after her shameful display before the council a few days prior. She had basically admitted to the jonin council and Kankuro that she cared deeply for Gaara as more than a student should care for a former sensei. She didn't speak to anyone after, simply released her anger and frustration into physical labour by cleaning up the residual evidence of the Akatsuki attack. Kankuro had disappeared shortly after the meeting. Emi wasn't sure where he had gone.
Messenger hawks below her shrieked as the handler fed them their dinner. The sun had set a half hour ago, the residual light fading into a perfect blend on orange and pink, the stars beginning to awaken as night settled over Suna. Another day without word of Gaara. He had been gone for almost two weeks. Two weeks that Emi had tried her best to continue her duty as a Suna nin, but she was finding it hard to concentrate. The fate of the Kazekage was on everyone's minds, but they went home to family and slept peacefully at night.
Emi's dreams were filled with Gaara lost in a sea of white, unable to move before it morphed into him being cloaked in his own blood, his sightless eyes staring into her soul. She had woken up screaming and cried until dawn.
Her care for Gaara ran deeper than simple admiration and she knew it.
She loved him.
She wanted to protect him against the world even though he was one of the strongest people she knew.
She wanted to take away his pain and sooth his doubts and fears.
She wanted him to feel the same intensity she felt for him, but emotions like that were so new and complex for him. After a lifetime of heartache, rage and pain, happiness must seem like a fallacy.
Even if he could never feel the same for her, she would never abandon him. She would die to protect him, to save him from harm. Emi wasn't quite sure when her feelings manifested into love for Gaara of the Desert, but she felt it and she wasn't afraid of it.
She embraced it, but without him near her she was miserable.
Sighing, Emi blinked away the tears that seemed to come more easily now as she reclined on the cooling tile roof.
She counted the stars, making out constellations like she did with Gaara countless times before.
A new guard was posted at the aviary about two hours after sunset. If the ninja was aware of Emi's presence he didn't make it known, deciding to leave kunoichi to her thoughts.
Not a half hour later, a high pitched shriek rent the night air, making Emi go from relaxed to alert in an instant. The cry didn't come from the cages below, it came from somewhere in the sky.
Emi felt panic war with hope in her chest as she clutched the edge of the roof and swung herself into the hawk tower. The ninja made no move to drawer weapons so Emi guessed he knew she was there. She rushed between tall cages bearing hawks toward the ninja who had a pair of binoculars planted to his face.
"What do you see?" Emi asked, a little impatient.
The ninja leant forward against the railing, as if the extra few inches he leant would add miles to his scope of vision.
"I can't quite… It's moving fast, though. It's…" the nin gasped, making Emi freeze.
"It's Takamaru!" he cried. As if sensing Emi's confusion he elaborated. "Takamaru is Suna's fastest hawk. He has news!"
The nin pocketed the binoculars, rushing to clear a perch for the rapidly approaching hawk. Emi scuttled back as the sound of flapping wings got closer. A flash of brown wings and a shrill cry greeted them as the hawk landed, its chest heaving a little after flying such a distance.
The hawk nin unstrapped the scroll carefully before gathering Takamaru in his hands and leading him to a spacious cage, perching him on a branch with a fresh dish of water and seed. After latching the cage door, the ninja released the seal on the scroll and unrolled it, his eyes scanning the coded text with a trained eye.
His face turned into a deeply troubled frown and Emi's heart sank.
"Who… who is it from?" Emi asked, hating how hesitant and childish she sounded.
"It is from the retrieval team," he said simply. Emi's heart didn't know whether to sink or flutter. The news could go either way. After long moments, the silence sometime being disrupted by a hawks cry, Emi began to fidget.
"Well?" she prompted.
"Lady Chiyo is dead, her grandson Sasori is dead also…" he muttered, his eyes still scanning, his brains still decoding.
Emi felt sadness wash over her. She had met the Honoured Siblings on a few messenger occasions. At first she had thought them old and senile until she looked into their eyes and saw uncanny brilliance in them. They had come to a mutual understanding; Emi put up with their teasing and bought new fishing line for them as they put up with the fact that Emi wasn't raised in Suna.
The hawk nin gasped, making Emi jerk away from her thoughts.
"What? What is it?" Emi asked, her voice a little high from a mixture of impatience and concern. Please, let Gaara be okay… please let him be alive.
"The Kazekage is alive!" he crowed, looking up at Emi with a genuine broad smile. Emi collapsed to her knees from relief as happiness swelled with her. Gaara was alive, and they would bring him home.
"I have to get to the tower right away!" the nin rushed, rewrapping the scroll and darting down the stairs, Emi already up and close on his heels.
She smiled all day, especially when the news came that he was less than a day's travel from Suna.
"Whose hand is this?" Gaara asked, inspecting the enigma attached to him. He looked around, a sense of loneliness invading his heart. He wished for someone to be there with him, but he didn't know who.
He looked around and found himself alone. The feeling of abandonment was crushing and he sank to his knees, suddenly a young boy again with the world against him. He heard himself sob, but felt no tears. Why had they shunned him? Why was he alone?
A hand on his shoulder had him looking beside him, the face familiar but he couldn't place a name to the face. The boy was smiling down at him with warmth he had seldom felt. The boy was a friend. In the endless white, Gaara felt nothing besides emotion. But now he felt warmth, a true presence by his side.
"What's happening? Where am I?"
The white around him pulsed, burning brightly and clouding his sight, the boy disappearing from view. He blinked with wide eyes, trying to clear his vision.
When it finally did, a familiar looking blonde was by his side, but this one was very much real.
"N-Naruto?" he murmured.
The blonde jinchuriki smiled warmly down at him, the hand on Gaara's shoulder squeezing a little. "Welcome back. You had us all really worried there for a second," Naruto said weakly.
Gaara tried to wrap his head around Naruto's words. He tore his eyes away from his friend before gazing around him. Everywhere he looked, Suna nin stood in a circle around him. He could see the familiar faces of his brother and sister as well as a few Leaf ninja.
"What…" he trailed off, unsure of what to do or say. He tried to sit up, but Temari laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. His entire body felt stiff and sore.
"Don't rush yourself. Your body is still fighting the effects of rigor mortis."
Gaara looked at his sister. He had died? That explained the place he was in moments before coming to.
He let Naruto and Temari help him to his feet, his still wide eyes scanning the crowd.
"What are they all doing here?" he rasped quietly. Temari sent him a warm smile.
"They're here for their Kazekage."
Cheers erupted and tears flowed freely as Gaara stood before them. The pure acceptance and relief his people felt towards him humbled and shocked him. His sights landed on Sakura who was cradling a still Lady Chiyo. A pair of kunoichi barrelled Naruto out of the way to fawn over Gaara but he didn't notice. His gaze was fixed on Lady Chiyo.
"She gave her own life to save Gaara's," Kankuro said to Naruto after helping the blonde to his feet. Naruto sucked in a shocked breath.
Sakura looked up at Gaara with a smile, but it was saddened and forced.
"Everyone. Let us have a moments silence in reflection for the courageous Lady Chiyo," Gaara projected. "She sacrificed herself for her village and her people. It was a death worthy of a true Suna shinobi."
Silence rained down on the crowd, the only sound was of the wind sweeping through the meadow they were in. Long moments passed until a pair of Suna nin knelt beside Sakura to help with preparing Lady Chiyo for travel back to Suna.
Gaara let his gaze wander through the crowd, searching for a familiar face, the person who he wished to see more than anything else, the person responsible for the warmth spreading through his chest as he thought about her smiling face; her special smile for him and him alone. A tug on his arm had him looking into Temari's eyes, a sad smile playing on her lips.
"She was ordered to stay in Suna, but I sent a hawk. She's waiting for you, Gaara."
Gaara watched as his sister almost read his mind. He and Emi had been discreet, but since both Kankuro and Temari were around them constantly, it wasn't too surprising to learn that they knew. Gaara's lips quirked a little into a rare smile.
"Let's go home."