Akina was lying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling with blank eyes. She bit her bottom lip, a habit she had picked up over the 2 years she had been in Suna. She bit the dry skin off, causing her lip to bleed. She heaved a depressed sigh and began sucking on her bloody lip.

She didn't mind the taste of blood. It was a strange taste, but it didn't bother her. It had this sweet taste, almost like metal. She kind of liked it. That was one of the reasons she didn't mind when her lip would start bleeding. Still, biting her lip was a nasty habit and wasn't good for her.

She sucked on her lip a little longer before getting up and walking to her dresser. She took out some chap-stick from her top drawer and applied it to her dried lips. She jumped slightly when she heard a knock on the door, which made her drop the chap-stick. She quickly picked it up and put the cap back on it. She walked over to the door and answered it. She smiled when she saw Temari.

"What's up?!" Akina greeted her cheerfully. Temari looked at her with worried eyes, making Akina frown. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Can I come in?" she asked. Akina nodded, stepping aside so that the blonde could enter. Temari took a seat on the couch, Akina taking a seat beside her.

"What's going on Temari? Is everything okay?" Temari shrugged.

"I'm not really sure," she sighed. "Gaara has been acting really strange lately. I know that it's only been two weeks since the kidnapping, but isn't he supposed to make some kind of improvement?" Akina looked at Temari with a serious look.

"It's going to take awhile Temari," Akina told her. "It may take months before he has fully recovered from everything. I'm going to be checking up on him tomorrow afternoon and I'll see if everything is alright." Temari smiled weakly and thanked her.

"I just can't help but worry about him," she sighed. This wasn't hard for only him. It was hard for all of us." Akina nodded in understanding.

"I know, but you have to let Gaara cope his own way. Unless it seems like he's going downhill, try and stay out of it. You can as him how he's doing every now and then, but don't push him into giving any specifics. He'll recover. You don't need to worry about that."

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Gaara heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair. He felt absolutely horrible. For the last past 2 weeks, he had been constantly attending meetings and filling out paper work. One would think that the council would give him a small break, but that wasn't the case. Instead, they added more work onto his pile of things he needed to get done. They were drowning him with work and stuff. He didn't have any time to sort out his thoughts, or anything like that. Even with all the things on his mind, he just didn't have the time to mull it over. Now, he just felt miserable.

"How are you feeling Gaara?" Akina asked, putting a hand on Gaara's forehead.

"Miserable," Gaara muttered. "I can't even concentrate anymore." Akina kept her hand on his head for a couple more seconds before removing it. She frowned at him and shook her head.

"You really need to cut your work load down," she told him.

"And how do you expect me to do that?" Gaara asked, furrowing his brow at her.

"I'll write that as part of my prescription," she told him. "And for me to be able to do that, I am going to need a copy of your daily schedule. I'll look it over and let you know which things I think should be cut. Another thing that I highly recommend is for you to try and get some sleep." Gaara stared at her through blank eyes.

"I'm not supposed to…."

"The Shuukaku is gone now, correct?" she asked, interrupting him. Gaara slowly nodded, looking down at the floor with sadness. "Then it should be safe for you to try and get some sleep. With the demon gone, your body can't handle as much stress as it could before hand. Like I said before, I highly recommend it." Gaara nodded and watched as Akina took out a pad of paper and scribbled something on it. She handed it to Gaara and smiled at him.

"What is this?" he asked, looking at the slip of yellow paper.

"It's a medical diagnosis. Give it to the council, and if they have a problem with it, they can come and debate about it with me personally." Gaara smirked at her and thanked her. He was just about to leave when Akina stopped him one last time.

"Gaara." The red-head stopped and looked over his shoulder at Akina. "If you need someone to talk to, I'll always be here. Temari and Kankurou will be there for you too. Don't be afraid to come out and say something that's been bugging you." Gaara gave her a weak smile and nodded.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," he said softly as he left.

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Gaara sighed softly to himself as he walked home. It was close to midnight by the time he finally got out of the office. It had been almost a week since Akina had given him orders to take it easy. He did for the first few days, but it didn't last much longer than that. Akina didn't really know about it yet, and he was kind of glad about that. He knew that she would flip and would probably go off on the council.

It wasn't that he didn't want to take some time for himself, it was that he couldn't. He actually wanted to have some time to sort out his thoughts. They have been driving him insane. He felt strange and miserable most of the time. He didn't even know why. It just felt as if there was a rain cloud following him around everywhere, causing him to feel rather depressed.

As for the other advice Akina had given, he ignored it for most part. He was a little nervous about sleeping. He knew that his body would benefit from it, but it just didn't seem right. He had lived a good portion of his life without any sleep, and it was just kind of awkward to change so suddenly. He did, however, lie on his bed and sort out his thoughts. It didn't seem to help. It seemed to only make him even more miserable.

Gaara silently entered his home and went into his bedroom. He took off his Kazekage robes and stripped down to his boxers. He walked over to his dresser and took out a pair of sweat pants, putting them on. He then turned out the light and plopped down on his bed.

"Maybe I should try it," Gaara thought to himself. He didn't even have to try. His body couldn't take it anymore. He immediately drifted into a deep sleep, everything around him disappearing into darkness.