I started writing this fanfic about a year ago and just recently took up a renewed interest in it. I've really enjoyed writing it so far and would greatly appreciate constructive and positive feed back. Enjoy!
If Only I Had Known...
Jugs of milk, boxes of cereal, and an assortment of bowls and spoons were spread out on the kitchen table. Soft crunching noises and the rustling of a newspapers swirled in the early morning silence. One bowl lay void of milk or sugary cereal.
"Hanako…" a soft voice cut through the silence "Can you wake up your brother?"
Hanako looked up from her book, a spoon of captain crunch left hanging mid air on the way to her mouth. Reluctantly she put the spoon back in the bowl and gingerly bookmarked her page.
"Yes mother..." she sighed, pushing her chair back from the table and leaving the room trying her best to hide her annoyance. She hated going into her brother's room, it was messy and not the typical teenage messy but dirty, food wrappers collecting on the floor, glasses full of unknown green, grey, and black substances that had been in his room for god knows how long. But the smell was the worst, and unmistakable stench of body odor, rot, and the perfume of the countless girls he brought home. Standing in front of her brothers door she raised her hand to knock but then dropped her fist to her side knowing that simply knocking wouldn't wake her brother who slept like a stone. Holding her breath, she turned the door knob cautiously stepped inside the room avoiding piles of clothing and weaving around abandoned soda cans to get to her brother's bed.
"Sasori get up! You're gonna miss school again!" she shook the body that was engulfed in a pile of blankets only to receive a groan of protest. Grabbing a hold of the corner of one of the blankets Hanako tore it away to reveal her brother.
"Ahhh! Put on some cloths Sasori!" Hanako screeched covering her eyes and stepping back, tripping over an empty crate and falling into dingy over sized bean bag chair. The sound of his sisters high pitched scream shot Sasori awake.
"Damn it!" he cursed grabbing a pillow to cover himself "Hanako, why are you in my room!?"
"I-I was waking you up! You're gonna miss school again!" she stuttered struggling to get up out of the bean bag chair.
"Shit..." Sasori pulled his sister up and pushed her out the door all while holding the pillow in place.
Hanako stumbled into the hall and heard her brother slam the door behind her. Blinking, she tried to clear her mind of the image of her brothers naked body.
Down stairs, Hanako packed lunch carefully, making sure that there was an even number of grapes and carrots in each plastic baggie and that both ham sandwiches had the crust neatly cut off. Putting all the items into two brown paper bags, she put one in her back pack and left the other on the counter for Sasori knowing that he would either forget to take it or not eat it and throw it away but she still made him a lunch everyday because she really did love her brother even though they were so different. Hanako was a straight A student, was on the honor roll, and was in the drama club. Sasori was failing school, skipped class most of the time, and his only after school activity was detention. Hanako liked painting, swimming, and reading. Sasori loved collecting knives, breaking household objects, and playing poker online. The only thing they had in common was their bright red hair.
Sasori came flying down the stairs still pulling on his shirt.
"I made you a lunch." Hanako held out the paper bag to her brother.
"Yeah thanks." he snatched the bag from her hand, swinging his backpack over one shoulder and rushing out the front door. Also grabbing her back pack, Hanako followed him and watched him fling his car door open, cringing when she heard the squeal of the engine start up. He drove away loud music blasting and exhaust fumes trailing after him. Every time Sasori left, all the things she could have said to him flood into her head. They used to be so close and could tell each other anything but lately Sasori hardly ever said a word to Hanako and seemed so detached. He used to love school, get A's or B's in all of his classes, was polite to their parents, and laughed a lot. But he changed. Their parents had long since given up on him and everyday he was on the verge of getting kicked out of school. she loved him so much and just wanted to know what had changed him.
Hanako snapped back to reality when a car pulled up in front of her.
"Hey Hanako, sorry I was late."
"Its fine Temari." Hanako smiled at he friend happy to see her. She got in the car pulling her back pack into her lap and they drove away.
"So what are you dong for your language arts project?" Temari glanced over at her.
"The one that due at the end of the month?"
"Mmhmm..."
"Oh, Im doing a 20 slide presentation on bullying."
"Heavy stuff..."
"Yeah, well I think its an important thing to address. So many kids become victims of it and not just at school, sometimes they are not even safe at home. They are bullied on the streets, on the internet..." Hanako ranted on not realizing her her voice was escalating until they pulled into the school parking lot.
"Umm...sorry. Kinda got carried away." She chuckled, embarrassed.
"Its okay! Im glad you're passionate about something important." Temari smiled.
The two girls made their way to the main door of the school being swept up the crowd of other students. After shoving her stuff in her locker Hanako joined the rest of her friends that had congregated around Temari's locker.
"Hi Hanako!" A boy with spiky blond hair greeted her with a smile.
"Good morning Naruto."
"Umm...hello Hanako." A girl with long dark navy hair said shyly.
"Hey Hinata" Hanako smiled kindly. The girl was always so soft spoken and shy even more so when Naruto was around, Hanako thought it was adorable.
The group of friends started to make their way to class. Hanako separated from them to go to her first class, language arts. The class was quiet when she entered for there were no real trouble makes in her honors classes, only other kids that kept quietly to themselves. Taking her set she waited for class to start, passing the time by arranging her supplies neatly around her and opening a copy of Pride and Prejudice which she had already read many times before.
"Get out your project notes!" Announced Mr. Hatake, the language arts teacher. He was a very peculiar man, he was young, yet his hair was a silvery grey which he spiked up, he wore an eye patch in his left eye, (he told no one why) and was always late. But he was a good teacher, always making the curriculum fun and interesting.
"Today is a work day, I want you to use your class time to research your projects." The class made a quiet cheer, thankful for the extra time to work on their projects.
Hanako checked out a laptop to work on but couldn't concentrate. She looked back on this mornings events and realized that if she hadn't been so shocked by her brothers cloth-less body she would have noticed that his skin had been marked by multiple cuts and bruises. Had he gotten into a fight? It wouldn't surprise her but the injuries looked fairly serious.
The next four class periods went like normal for Hanako, turning in the previous days homework, listening to the teacher lecture, taking notes, but her mind was somewhere else. What did Sasori do this time? Should she ask him? Should she tell someone? She was lost in thought when Temari caught up with her.
"Hello? Any one there?" She waved her hand in front of Hanako's face. Hanako jumped and chuckled, embarrassed.
"Sorry, I was just thinking-"
"Come on!" Temari grabbed her hand and pulled her along, "They are serving pizza in the cafeteria today and I don't want to miss out!"
Hanako let her body be dragged along through the crowded hall filled with other people all making their way to the cafeteria for lunch. Sitting down at their usual lunch table, Temari ran off to get her prized pizza and Hanako took all the food items she has packed out of the bag placing them neatly in front of her before she took a small bite out of her sandwich. Looking around she easily spotted Sasori's red hair. He was sitting at a table in the far corner of the room with a raven haired boy named Itachi and another boy named Deidara who had long golden blond hair. She knew Sasori's friends because they would come home with him in his junky car and disappear into his room to play video games and mess around with his assortment of knives. She also knew Itachi from the honor society awards ceremony, surprisingly one of Sasori's friends was a good student. She knew Deidara from the news where he was reported as the only suspect in an arson case were someone's car was set on fire.
"Hey there..." Shikamaru plopped down lazily across the table from Hanako with a try of food "You look kinda glum, whatcha thinking about?" Hanako was still amazed at Shikakmaru's ability of perceiving peoples emotions, he read her like a book. The boy stared at her with his piercing brown eyes before looking up.
"Oh stop torturing Hanako with your probing questions..." Temari sauntered over giving Shikamaru a peck on the lips before sitting down next to him.
"But look at her..." he motioned toward Hanako "Doesn't she have that worried look?"
"Oh she always has the worried look!" Temari laughed
"True..." Shikamaru smirked in response.
Hanako blushed. She didn't always have a worried look...did she?
Naruto joined them and was closely followed by Hinata who say next to Hanako and glanced frequently at Naruto as he played with his food. Usually Hanako would converse along with the rest of her friends but today her brother was the only thing on her mind. The fact the he was hurt worried her but lately she has heard him sneaking out of the house late a night and comeing back early in the morning.
The bell rang and Hanako jumped, surprised at how fast the time had passed. Her next class was gym so she quickly gathered the remains of her lunch tossing them in the garbage and hurried to the locker room to change into her uniform.
Mr. Guy, the gym teacher enthusiastically cheered every one on as they ran laps around the gym. Hanako was not exactly the athletic type but she tried her best as she did in every class. The class transitioned from running to teaming up for volley ball. For the next forty minutes of class time Hanako dived, lunged, and jumped trying to hit the ball over the net mostly succeeding in getting hit in the face or falling on her butt. But she didn't mind, she enjoyed playing along with everyone else and it took her mind of Sasori for a while. When class was over she took a shower, and dressed back into her regular school cloths. Looking in the mirror she observed her face. She really did have a worried look. Quickly she brushed out her waist length red hair and applied a quick coat of mascara to the lashes around her chocolate brown eyes. She wanted the day to end so she could go back home and worry in peace with no one there to ask questions.
Hanako refused Temari's offer to take her home, telling her that she would rather walk and that she felt like she needed the exercise. Temari gave her a weird look considering it was raining outside but shrugged her shoulders "Whatever you want..." She hugged Hanako and ran toward her car using her backpack to shield her from the rain. The cool droplets of rain pelted Hanako's back in a steady rhythm. Her hair was already soaked as well as her cloths and shoes. The sound of the water falling and cold was numbing, she could clear her mind. Her house came too soon, she wanted to just stand on the front porch in the rain but she knew someone would look at her and think she had lost her marbles. She opened the front door slowly looking around for her mother making sure she wasn't hanging around waiting for her. Hanako didn't want to face her mothers questions "Why are you all wet? Why didn't you go home with Temari?" What's the matter?" blah blah blah... She sprinted for her room shutting the door behind her. Throwing her stuff randomly on the floor (very unlike her) she grabbed her bath robe and headed for the bathroom. Glancing towards Sasori's room she saw the door was shut either meaning he was not home or him and his friends were hanging out in there.
Hanako stripped out of her wet cloths and turned the shower knobs making the water steaming hot. Jumping in she gasped as the water scalded her skin but after standing under the hot cascade of water for a minute she got used to it, letting her muscles relax. She massaged a lavender scented shampoo into her hair working it into thick white suds. Stepping out of the shower she dried off and put on her fluffy purple bath robe. She brushed her hair back into a pony tail and opened the bathroom door letting out a cloud of steam.
"Why hello there beautiful." Hanako squeaked and almost turned around back into the bathroom. The tall blond Deidara stood in front of her.
"Ehhh...h-h-hello..." Hanako stuttered backing up slowly.
"hey Deidara did y-..." Sasori emerged from him room and looked up eyes widening a bit in surprise.
"Dude, this is your sister right?" Deidara asked
"Uhhh...yeah." Sasori answered flatly.
"Nice to meet you madam..." The blond smirked and took Hanako's hand kissing it like a "gentleman". She glanced over to her brother who just shrugged and rolled his eyes.
"Common Deidara..." Sasori motioned.
"Until next time my dear!" Deidara made a large sweeping hand motion and bowed before catching up with Sasori.
"Hey Sasori how old is she?"
"Stop being such and ass"
"Isn't she like only two years younger than you?"
"Just shut the fuck up..."
"Sorry man, you don't have to be a pissy old bitch all the time."
The two boys voices faded as they walked out the front door and Hanako waited for the shriek of Sasori's car starting before she walked back to her room.
After changing into plaid pajama bottoms and an old over sized t-shirt, Hanako settled down to do her homework which took up the time before her mom called her for dinner. The smell of Parmesan chicken wafted through the house calling everyone to the dinner table, well everyone exempt Sasori, who hadn't attended a family dinner for weeks.
After all the food had been served the typical questions started.
"How was your day hanako?"
"Fine."
"What did you do?"
"Same things I do every day."
"Anything interesting going on?"
That question stopped Hanako in her tracks. "Gee I don't know mother, Sasori got in a fight, leaves the house every night, never talks to anyone anymore" But she bit her tongue.
"Ummm...there is a parent teacher conference next week..."
"Oh that's nice honey, we'll mark our calendars." her mother smiled. Hanako's mother loved going to parent teacher conferences because she just loved hearing other people compliment her daughter. On the other hand, Hanako hated it when people complemented her, it was embarrassing.
For the rest of dinner Hanako's parents complained about the rain, rambled about their days, and argued about politics. As soon as she could be excused, Hanako disappeared into her room. She had decided that she was gonna find out what Sasori was up to every night. All her life Hanako played it on the safe side, always avoided trouble and did what people told her. But what's the fun and living if your just gonna hide and play by the rules. That's what she told herself.
She pulled out a pair black sweat pants but finding a dark colored top was a challenge. Her wardrobe was almost all bright pastel yellows, pinks, greens, blues, and purples but no black or grey exempt the black dress she wore to her grandmas funeral. She peered out into the hall. Downstairs her parents were watching tv and drinking wine. Hanako tip toed into her parents room and started carefully searching her parents closet. Her father had a couple black dress shirts but she didn't think that she could get away with wearing that. Her mother also didn't have very much black clothing, only a little black dress, a black scarf, and some black work out tank tops that were too reveling for Hanako's taste. The last two choices where going out and buying a black shirt or...going into Sasori's room and borrowing one of his many black shirts. Finding an outfit for this operation was more trouble than it was worth. Hanako sighed and put back her parents cloths before cautiously approaching her brothers room. He hadn't come home yet for she has not heard his car pull up in the driveway. Opening her brothers room she made sure not to move anything as she made her way to his closet door which was hanging by one hinge from the time when he had broken it out of anger and rage when their parents didn't let him leave the house. There was almost nothing but black in Sasori's closet so there was a lot of choice. Hanako picked out a shirt that was still hanging on a hanger and that had not been thrown in the floor. On the front was a band logo, a giant eye with the band name, "Always Watching."
She folded the shirt and tucked it under her arm. She had the urge to snoop around to try to find something that would give her some clues but she was afraid of what she would find and that she would get caught. Closing the door behind her she crept back to her room and shoved the shirt into the back of her closet. There. Now she had the right attire for this mission. A spark of excitement lit up Hanako's face, she felt like a detective...a spy.