A/N: Here it is! My first story ever! It takes place after Naruto and his group leaves to return to Konoha. I hope you like it!
WARNING: MAY HAVE SPOILERS! If you don't want to read anything that might give something away, DO NOT READ!
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! The Great, Awesome, and Most Extravagant Masashi Kishimoto does! If I'd own Naruto, there would be a LOT more humor, and butt-kicken' goin' on!
Enjoy!
Eyebrows
Naruto is leaving. Thanks to him and Granny Chiyo, I'm still able to be the Kazekage. I really am thankful, and for the first time in my life, I feel happy. He says he did nothing, that Granny Chiyo did all of it, but I can't help but think he had something to do with it. If he didn't, well, than I'm just oblivious.
"It's good to see my little brother is still breathing!" Temari said to me, "I was so worried about you. But you're back now, and you're not going anywhere!" Temari was always worried about me, even if I wasn't sick or anything, she always cared. So did my brother, but not quite as much. If I got hurt, he'd help, but that's about the extent of it. Temari and I were very close, as close as you can get with your sister. Kankuro, not so much. He was my brother, and that's about it. He didn't hate me, but he didn't love me, either. My father tried to have me killed.. I doubt he loved me. My mother died giving birth to me, so I'm not sure about her feelings. I killed my uncle because of a sneak attack. Well, I just hurt him very badly. He blew himself up. However, before he did that, he said that it was my father, the 4th Kazekage, had ordered him to kill me. My uncle had a choice, but he said that deep down, he really did hate me. He tried to love me, he said that I was a part of my mother, his sister, so he tried to hold me dear to him. But when he had the chance to kill me, he took it for what I did to his sister.
I went into my office to do some paperwork. That's basically my whole job: paperwork and sending Shinobi off on missions. I liked it, though. I am the 5th Kazekage. A very demanding job. My siblings are Jonin, both very strong. They look absolutely nothing like me. Temari and Kankuro look alike, though. One of the main things that are different about me and my siblings, is my hair color. A blood red. Temari's is a light blonde, and Kankuro's is a dark brown. Another difference between us is my paleness. Both of them are very tan, but I'm as white as a ghost. The other main difference are my eyebrows, or lack there of.
I don't want to change the way I look, but It would be nice to look like my family and all of Sunagakure in a way. I wanted to have eyebrows. I've tried everything. Drawing them on, cutting my hair and gluing it in little lines above my eyes, and cutting lines on my forehead. The blood from it matched my hair perfectly, but my "eyebrows" were too thin, and it hurt too much. I did all of these experiments when no one was around, and if they were, I simply locked the door.
I enter my office to six stacks of neatly piled papers on my huge desk. I sigh not wanting to do them right now, see as how I was just dead. That is a weird thought. I just died, and came back to life. Hmmm…
I turn around to lock my door, and afterwards, I head for my desk. I sit down on my chair and sigh at it's unbelievable discomfort. The chair was old and hard, and it hurt every inch of my body. I sit there just staring at the piles of papers for about 3 minutes, and decide to do a stack. I really didn't feel like doing them at all, but it was my job, so I had to. And if not now, when? I might as well just get them over and done with. I was very tired and exhausted. I just wanted to sleep and think about recent events. That was my favorite thing in the world to do: think. I loved thinking. It was fun.
After about an hour, I finished the first two stacks. I did the first one, and just got used to the flow of things. These two were relatively easy to do. When I finished, I looked at the third stack. It looked complicated, so I'd do them later.
But for now, I was going to think. I was going to, but just I sat down on the sofa in my office, a knock fell upon my office door.
"Gaara? Are you in there?" It was Temari.
"Yes," I answer plainly.
"Can I come in?"
"Yes," I say again. She tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Gaara, the door is locked. Can you-" I cut her off by opening the door.
"What?" I did not say it rudely, but it got the point across.
"Dinner is ready. Its been. We've been calling you, but you mustn't have heared." She said with a rather sad look on her face.
"No, I didn't. Thank you for getting me," I responded. She looked at me in disbelief. Why was she staring at me like that? I was going to ask, but she walked away before I could open my mouth. I stood there for a second thinking over the look she gave me. After I decided it was nothing, I headed toward the dining hall. Once I got there, Temari and Kankuro were already sitting down. Kankuro was already well into his meal, and there were a few bites out of Temari's plate.
I sat down in my chair at the head of the table. Kankuro to my right and Temari to my left: we always used these seats. We never decided, they just sort of chose. The Kazekage always sat at the head of the table. I had no choice, otherwise. Temari was still staring at me with that same face.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I finally ask.
"You thanked me. It was weird. You never did that before."
"I never had a reason to be thankful," I say with all seriousness. Temari's looks softens, and smiles at me. She looks away, and resumes eating her meal. I look over at Kankuro to find he's already done.
"You should probably eat that soon, it looks lonely," Kankuro laughs out.
"Do you want it?" I ask, again, totally serious.
"I was just joking. Eat it, you hardly ever eat, and it's going to start getting cold if you don't eat it soon," he responded, still laughing. He always laughed when he'd talk. Even if someone died, he'd say, "HA HA! HEY, GAARA! HA! SOMEBODY JUST DIED! AHAHA!" He would, he has. We were on a mission, and this team ambushed us, and Kankuro killed one of them with a single flick of his finger, and started to burst out laughing at the guys weakness. I never laughed when I killed people. I never laughed, period. Smile, yes. Twice. Both having to do with Naruto. I began eating my meal. It was very good. I'm not quite sure what is was, though.
When I finish cleaning my mess up, I head back upstairs to my office. Again, I lock the door and walk over to my oversized desk and very uncomfortable chair. I sit down, once again, staring at the piles. Finding myself deciding if I want to do them or not. I put my right elbow on my desk, and rest my head in my hand, sighing. I used my left hand to touch above my eye where there should be something other than smooth flesh. I think about what I can do to obtain the eyebrows I've never had. What it would feel like. What I'd look like. I pictured my self with eyebrows, and was shocked. I never imagined myself with them, I just wanted them. I just now realized how stupid I'd look. But I only think I'd look stupid because I'm not used to it. If I'd get used to them, there'd be no problem. I'd look "normal".
I think of new ways I can have that look of normalcy by having eyebrows. They put stuff of crops to help them grow, so I could put something on my forehead to grow eyebrows! I finally figured out a good idea that made sense! But what would help hair grow? Hair isn't a crop. Its hair. What would make it grow? I pondered with this thought for the longest time. The sun began to set, so I decided to go to bed. Maybe someone else could help me. Who, though? Temari? Kankuro? Who? I'll think about it tomorrow, I need some sleep, now that I can sleep.
I woke up to a very bright sky. It was almost blinding from the pitch-blackness of the night. I was very groggy. It was the first sleep I ever had. With the Shukaku inside of me, I wasn't able to sleep. But if I did, it would have taken over me, and destroyed all of Sunagakure. That would not have been good at all. It would be as if I was never a Jinchuriki in the first place, and the Shukaku was never sealed. The stupid one-tailed beast had kept me awake for my whole life; 16 years of being awake, but never being tired. Now that I can sleep, I feel tired. Life is weird.
I looked over at my clock on the wall beside my bed. 8:00 AM. Wow. A full night's sleep. I didn't want to get up yet, it was too early.
There was yet another knock on my door. "Gaara! Time to get up!" Kankuro yell at the top of his lungs. He did that to me every morning since I became Kazekage; I was used to it.
"Kankuro. Come in here for a minute," I say not polite, but not rudely, either.
"Why. Oh, right. How did you sleep?" he asked as he walked into my room.
"I don't know. I never slept before, and if anything, I feel even more tired before I slept. Why is that?" I ask. I said it rather slurred, like I had a hangover, but it was just from being so tired.
"Yeah, you have a point. Did you sleep all night undisturbed?"
"Yes, I did. Is that a good sleep?"
"Yeah!" he says, laughing again. what else is new? "But you said you feel even more tired now that you slept? That's weird. But I think all people experience that. Its normal," he says without uttering a single laugh.
"Okay," I add, believing my older brother.
"Shouldn't you be getting to your Kazekage work, crap?"
"Crap? Without that crap work, this village would be in a terrible situation!" I was a little offended. I know Kankuro is my brother, but I'm still the Kazekage. My work isn't crap, is it? "there would be no Shinobi to protect our village or-"
"Crap," he says, cutting me off. Now, I felt awake, and like I could kick his butt into next week.
"Stop calling my work crap. That so called crap is difficult, and you couldn't do it if your life depended on it!"
"I could to! Try me!" he says like were about to have a battle or something.
"Okay, follow me," I say calmly this time.
"Fine!" he snorts. We walk down the hall to my office. When I open the door, I notice there are 3 more piles on my desk. I'm right back where I started, except with an additional pile. I sigh a very aggravated sigh as I close the door and walk Kankuro over to the stacks.
"Here, show me what you can accomplish," I say sitting him down and handing him the pen.
"What! This is what you do all day! And you expect me to do it!" he yells rather loudly.
"You wanted to prove something, right?" I say with a hidden smirk o n my face.
"G-Gaara!" he yells as I leave the room.
"I'll be back in an hour to see the quality and quantity of what you did."
I come back in an hour to find he has a little more than ½ of the first stack done, and heave a silent chuckle to myself.
"So, how hard it this crap ?
"Gaara?! It's been an hour, already?!" he yells in disbelief.
"Yes. I see how much you have done, so let's see how you did, shall we?" I say., again with that little smirk behind my face.
"You think it's funny that this crap is hard, don't you?!"
Yeah, I do, but I can't tell him that, so I just shake me head "no" instead.
"Yeah right! You think it's freakin' hilarious that your older brother can't do 'simple' paperwork, am I right?" he asks again, except this time, he is laughing, and raising those blasted eyebrows of his. I need to ask someone about that.
"Kankuro, can I tell you a secret?" When I'm finished asking, his face turns grim, almost like I'm going to tell him I did something horrible.
"What did you do?" he asked knowingly.
"Nothing. But there is something I want to do." His look changes to confusion.
"What do you want to do?" I fumble with the words in my mouth, trying to form my answer, my secret, perfectly.
"I-I want to have… eye…brows," I say stuttering and shameful.
"You want EYEBROWS! OH MY GOSH! That's your 'secret?!'" he asked again, in disbelief.
"Y-yes. It is. Will you help me get some?" I ask rather shyly.
"Wait, what? You're serious?"
"Yes."
"Wow. Why do you want eyebrows?"
I look away, ashamed and red in the face. "W-Well, I want to look like my family in at least one way, and I thought having eyebrows would make me look like you and Temari."
"Well, that's a… good reason. How are you going to get eyebrows? Don't they just grow?"
"I guess. But if that's what's supposed to happen, mine never did. Why?"
"Heh, don't ask me! My eyebrows just grew! You are one weird kid, Gaara," he said as he looked away.
"So, will you help me get some?"
"Eyebrows? How?!"
"I've tried a bunch of things, here," I say while digging through a draw in my desk for my notebook. "Look through it. They were ideas I had for getting eyebrows. None of them worked, though." He looks through my many ideas, but stops when he sees the one.
"Cut yourself a pair of eyebrows. That ones new. But you are technically right, if they weren't so thin, they'd look real because of the color. Why don't we ask Temari? Hair stuff is girl territory. Do I look like a girl to you?"
"Yes," I say jokingly, but he thinks I meant it. Seeing as how I cant show emotion in my face, it looked like I was dead serious.
"Oh, well, thanks Gaara, that makes me fell really masculine!" he yells and punches me playfully in the arm.
"You're welcome," I reply, once again attempting to be funny.
"Ha Ha," he says sarcastically.
"So, do you have any ideas?" I ask rubbing my arm where he punched me.
"No, sorry. You should ask Temari though, she could probably help."
"Me? You… won't come with?" I ask shyly.
"Wha-? Are you afraid?" he asks laughing, but trying hard not to show it.
"M-Maybe. Please, Kankuro?"
"Okay!" he yells enthusiastically while laughing and heading toward the door.
"Where are you going?"
"To ask Temari, Duh!" he laughs the "duh: out uncontrollably.
"Wait! Kankuro!" I yell as I run after him in my pajamas.
A/N: YAY! I finished my first chapter! Sorry if it was too long for your liking. I like long stories! If you have anything to say, weather is be praise or critique, I don't care! Both are wanted! Please comment and tell me what you think! And remember: Simulated muffins and cookies (whichever you prefer) will be given to those who comment! =^-^= ! And a simulated Hershey Kiss to those who just read! And I'm sorry if it's boring, I promise you, it will get better!
~GaaraIsMe