Beautiful Silence

Chapter 16: Searching for You

It was getting dark. Riko pointed at the setting sun, and then looked at Gaara. She had been giving him a tour of the village. However, now she had to go home.

Gaara was afraid. He was afraid that, once she let go, she'd never come back. It had all been too good to be true for him. As soon as she let his hand go, an indescribable rage filled him.

"Why?!"

His sudden change made Riko jump.

"You're going to turn out just like everyone else! You're going to abandon me! You're going to betray me! You're..."

Too blinded by his negative emotions, Gaara didn't realize that Riko had taken out her notebook, written something down, and was now handing him the piece of paper. With a shaking hand, he hesitantly took it from her.

I'll see you tomorrow?

She was hoping she would be able to see him the next day. After seeing the note, Gaara began to calm down. He then nodded slowly.

They parted ways. Gaara folded the paper again and put it alongside the other one in his weapon pouch.

When Riko arrived home, Kurenai was there. She had been more free, since her squad wasn't being assigned on missions lately because of the Chunin exams.

"Riko, you're home later than me now!"

Kurenai jokingly said.

"Ehe!"

"It's been a while since we spent time together, don't you think?"

Riko nodded then ran up to Kurenai and hugged her. After living together for so long, Kurenai had become a mother figure to Riko.

"Ah! Ah! Eh... Ah!"

"I see you a lot to say. Let me get some tea and you tell me all about it."

The two of them spent the evening together with Riko using a sign language that they developed between each other over the years, and with Kurenai listening and talking to her as well. Riko told Kurenai about all the things that happened during the Chunin exam, taking out of course the parts that Kurenai was there for. When she got to the part about Gaara coming to Lee's room, Riko started smiling shyly. She also fiddled around with her hands, avoiding Kurenai's gaze.

"That Gaara kid is dangerous, Riko..."

Riko fervently shook her head in disagreement. She then went on about how she held his hand and how he calmed down from it. She talked about how they spent the day together. Riko couldn't stop herself from giggling when recounting what they did.

Kurenai was looking at her with soft eyes. She was worried about Riko getting hurt, but she found her so adorable acting all shy about holding hands and feeding each other.

"Riko..."

Kurenai started when Riko finished telling her everything.

"You like him, right?"

Riko's cheeks turned bright red and she hid her face behind her hands while shaking her head rapidly. This caused Kurenai to chuckle and give her a teasing smile.

"You can't hide it from me, Riko. I know that look."

Riko turned her back to Kurenai, too shy to look her in the eyes. After spending some more time together, they decided to call it a night and went to sleep.

The next day, Riko headed to the hospital to resume her daily tasks with Rock Lee. There was a bit less than a month left until the third part of the Chunin exams. Riko had decided that, after her job with Lee was done, she'd go look for Gaara and spend more time with him. She couldn't wait to see him again.

When she finished up with Lee, she rubbed her hands together in an apologetic manner to him for not being able to stay longer and left the hospital. She wandered around the village, in hopes of running into Gaara eventually. She didn't really know where to start. Seeing that walking aimlessly didn't get her any results, she decided to ask around for where the contestants were lodged.

After getting pinpointed to the inn that the contestants were staying at, she hurried there. She went up to the innkeeper and wrote down Gaara's name on a piece of paper.

"Gaara? Let me see if his name is on the list..."

She took out a file that contained all of the guests' names.

"Gaara... Gaara... Ah! Room 206. It's on the second floor, honey."

Riko wrote thank you to the innkeeper and hurried up to the second floor. She really hoped that he'd be there.

Riko stood in front of room 206. She was feeling really nervous all of a sudden. Would he be happy to see her? She gulped and brought a shaky hand up to the door. She then shyly knocked. For a while there was no answer. Just as she was about to knock again, the door slowly opened. Riko recognized the person who had opened it. It was Kankuro, one of Gaara's teammates. He was looking at her with a bored expression.

"What are you here for, you little brat?"

"Ah!"

She wrote down the reason of her visit.

Is Gaara here?

When Kankuro read it, his face twisted in annoyance.

"He's not here, and it's better this way!"

Riko flinched and looked at the ground. She saw that Kankuro really didn't like Gaara, but she just had to find him. She wrote down another question.

Do you know where he might be?

Kankuro sighed in impatience.

"Do I look like his babysitter? He's been gone since this morning and hasn't come back. Now scram."

He then shut the door with a loud bang. Riko slowly turned around and made her way out of the inn. She didn't know where else to look. She suddenly felt really sad. She was looking forward to seeing him, but it seemed like he didn't want to be found.

After walking around, her head hanging low, an idea flashed in her head. Maybe he was actually going to come to her. That meant that he'll try to find her where he saw her last time: Lee's room. Riko hurried back to the hospital and went up to Lee's room. She was hoping and wishing with all her heart that Gaara would be there, waiting for her.