I'm sorry! I feel like I'm submitting something new again, waay too early! (Just a week later! T_T) Think of it as a Halloween gift? (That no one wants XD haha sorry!) Anyway, more at the end! This takes place after Gaara Retrieval arc, but before the Five Kage Summit arc... specifically, really, before the Fourth War...
In keeping with the "M' titled fics :p I'll try to change that eventually! I just didn't really have a title! Sorry!
Disclaimer; I don't own the characters or anything!
"Pitiful. This wouldn't have happened if you were like me."
Kankuro winced, panting and breathing heavily as he shakily raised his head, straining his neck to look to the foot of his bed. Sweat dripped down his jaw line, not bothering to curve fully with his chin before dropping to his soiled sheets that were in desperate needing of a wash. His fists clenched around the fabric, straining to continue pulling himself up, but found he had no strength. His eyes, blurred and hazy, attempted to focus on the figure standing a few feet from him, but found they couldn't. Just a blur of red and black, maybe some pinky flesh but in the shadows it was hard to tell. If nothing else, the lanky height and build suggested it was human, though that much he'd understood when it had spoken to him.
"Fever. Weakness. It's why I cast aside my human body. Settled for something more...immortal."
Kankuro spat at the voice. He recognized it, but his mind wasn't registering beyond 'dislike' and 'anger' at it. His eyes rolled back and his head collapsed back upon his pillow, no longer able to withstand being suspended up on the strength of his neck and elbows alone.
"Where's...T-Temari..?"
The figure scoffed. "Relying on some woman? You're weaker than I thought."
"Gaara..?" Even he, in his feverish stupor, knew this was highly unlikely.
"Good grief, brat, are you so bad with faces?" A pause. "Well, If it wasn't for the talent I recognized within you when we fought, I'd say you truly are a shame to the puppeteer style."
Then, it hit him, much like an afterthought that seemed to fit a missing puzzle piece, though only if said puzzle was hardly what held his attention. More like a passing memory.
"Sasori..?"
Sasori neither frowned nor smiled; he simply stared.
"You don't look too well. No better than how I'd left you, I suppose. But time has passed, hasn't it? So you survived after all...till now."
Kankuro snarled. "A fever, damn it. I'm not dead yet."
Sasori shrugged, looking away with his same bored expression plastered upon his face. He looked about the walls at the strewn puppets hanging in repairs and completion.
"Are these all mine? I'm flattered. Oh!" He faked amusement. "That's new."
"What the hell do you want?"
"So venomous..." It was then that Sasori allowed himself to smile. "Much like myself..."
"You're a hallucination."
"Looks like you're not a jounin for nothing," Sasori dead-panned. Kankuro tried to focus his eyes on the ceiling, but the faint light flickering upon it from a nearby candle danced in blurred shades and he found he couldn't quite keep both eyes open without blinking furiously. He shut one, the other half closed in a wink that allowed little light and less sight.
"Why are you here? You're...the last person I want to see..." Kankuro huffed out, fighting for breath to speak. Sasori smirked. But just then the door opened, letting in more light, and the rogue master was gone.
"Kankuro..? Are you ok?"
He snarled again. "Stop asking that!"
Temari blinked back in confusion. "Kankuro...what are you..?"
Did she want to fight? He made a motion to get up, to grab the puppet closest to him. Kuroari, he thought. He fumbled in the air beside his bed, reaching, but nothing was there. Kuroari was on his work bench. He cursed under his breath before half falling out of bed. Temari rushed to his side, helping to readjust him back into the bed.
"Kankuro! We should take you to a hospital, this fever, it isn't-!"
"Temari, I'm fine." He spoke softly, warmly. Why was she so worried? He was just tired. Sleep, he wanted to sleep. Suddenly, he thought of water.
"I'm thirsty."
"I'll get you some water, try to rest, will you?"
"What do you think I'm trying to do!" He snapped in a low voice. Temari didn't answer. Kankuro settled snuggly back under sheets she'd tucked over him. She left the door slightly ajar when she left.
Sasori snickered. "Just like a child."
"You're a monster." Kankuro countered.
"You're the same."
Kankuro switched to lay on his side, placing a hand near his cheek. His hand felt cold but his face was clammy; warm and sweaty. He rolled his eyes forward to stare at the wall, a serious expression taking over despite the chills shuddering down his back. His teeth chattered slightly but he pushed past it to sound as strong as he could muster. In the end result, he wasn't sure if it worked at all or not.
"Why do you keep saying that?"
"Saying what?"
"Kankuro?" Temari had returned.
Sasori was gone.
"Here's some water." Kankuro pretended to be asleep, but forgot to slow his breath. His large, heaving chest was a dead give away, he noted, and he gave up, re-opening his eyes to acknowledge Temari.
"Thank you, Gaara-kun..." He muttered. Temari furrowed her brows. "Kankuro, it's me!" She huffed, play irritation laced within her words. Kankuro smiled.
"I know, nii-san."
Her smile faded. Now she looked worried. Don't look so sad, Kankuro thought. He reached up a hand to her face, but looking again he realized he hadn't raised a hand at all. Both were still by his side, limp and numb.
"Get some rest, okay? You're starting to worry Gaara and I...Baki brought over some broth, you know. I was saving it for you when you could actually stomach something more solid than water..." She faded off, watching as Kankuro stared at her with blank, dead eyes. For a moment, she feared he'd stopped breathing. But then his nostrils flared in a strained effort to suck in oxygen and she released her held breath.
Kankuro didn't speak for an awkward pause, replying momentarily to late, "Tell Baki I said thank you." He couldn't remember what for.
Temari smiled weakly. "Gaara said he'll try to be home as soon as he can. There's a council meeting going on, I just stopped by real quick to check in on you...I'll be heading back now.."
"I'm fine. Go ahead, Gaara needs you." Who are you again?
"Are you sure..?"
"Just hurry back when it's over. I'm going to sleep some more." He lied. He smiled weakly, this time his physical actions matching his mind as a hand plopped itself sloppily over her own, reassuring her with his trademark wink and smile.
"Kankuro.." She breathed, the slightest hint of tears. How weak, he pouted. Temari, you're stronger than this, I know you! She got up to leave. Where's she going again?
"Tell the council I apologize..." Why again?
"Kankuro, don't worry about the council! You're sick-don't worry about anything! Except getting better!"
It's an order he thought. "Hai," Kazekage-sama.
Kankuro doesn't remember Temari leaving, but now she wasn't there anymore. For the longest time, no one was.
"So when are you going to do it?" Sasori.
"Did you see Temari?" Kankuro asked. Then it occurred to him that Sasori and Temari never met. She'd never seen him, never met him. They'd never met, he realized.
"You've never met." He breathed. Sasori ignored this comment, answering the first.
"She looked...healthy."
Bastard, Kankuro thought for no apparent reason. Was healthy good or bad? Coming from an enemy? The man Kankuro hated second to none other than his own father?
Healthy was still good, though, right? Besides, right now, Sasori was company. Kankuro didn't mind company, he thought.
"What did you mean?" Kankuro finally stuttered out, remembering Sasori's first words.
"Say again?" So polite, Kankuro thought. Gaara, you don't have to bow down to those bastards...they never respected you.
"The...doing...what?" It was so hot in here! So stuffy!
"When will you become a puppet yourself...like me."
"Tch." Kankuro ignored this. He'd never become a puppet like Sasori. Konoha rained too much! He smirked at his reasoning.
"That doesn't make any sense." Sasori frowned. Had Kankuro spoken out loud? Or could Sasori hear his mind? Kankuro groaned a wince as his stomach lurched. But nothing came out, until he began to gag by reflex. Then, whatever contents he'd had left over the past few days of nothing to eat (Water and bile) all came out, up-chucking into a waste bin Kankuro had conveniently remembered was to his left.
"You're so like me...That hidden ambition and drive. You want to protect those close to you, but the system, this accursed village, raised you so dark. So damaged. You've seen death and watched horrors others can't imagine. Some were of your own devices. Others your sole viewing pleasure. I did you a favor," He switched tactics, "By extracting Shukaku. Saved you the pain of watching it eat away at your darling little brother."
"He had it under control."
"You can't protect him." Kankuro winced. If he'd been thinking right, he would have questioned this tactic of switching sides and topics so loosely, but his mind was frantic and didn't linger on after-thoughts.
"That much was certain after your duel with me. You were left to die; you didn't even come close to saving him. Your emotions got in the way and you almost died from them. I did you a favor, offering to end your life then and there. You should have accepted my final blow, or at least begged for mercy when the poison wasn't fast enough. Now you'll have to continue living, knowing you're not strong enough in the state that you're in to save your brother. Knowing no matter how hard you train, you'll always be a step beneath me, and I'm not even the strongest there is. There are others; stronger, faster, more cunning than me. More wicked. They'll find a way to your brother, and you'll be helpless."
"Who asked you?" Kankuro proudly spat back.
"Isn't that the ultimate goal to a puppeteer? To bring a puppet to life? This way, you are the puppet, and you are life! To cheat death...to become so powerful!"
"Go to hell." The insults kept coming.
"If you would just become like me...everlasting life, immortality. A life time to master every technique, every possible move. Perfection. It's art; it cannot be tampered with."
"For someone with all the time in the world, you seem rather rushed," Kankuro noted.
"Do you know what I did to the Kazekage of my time?"
Kankuro, in his dazed stupor and hallucinate state, could perfectly recall the corpse puppet description he'd heard through the Konoha brats. Funny that he could remember that little tid bit, but hardly nothing else.
"You were a monster." Kankuro mentally took pride in the emphasized 'were'. He's dead now. Dead and talking to him.
"I was powerful. I was your age-younger even, if I think hard enough. Age doesn't matter to me anymore, though. They thought to use me as a puppet to their system, their society? In the ultimate twist of irony, I did that very act upon him! I turned the Kazekage into a puppet himself!"
"Which lead to Father..." Kankuro muttered, more to himself than to Sasori. He sighed. That caused a lot of problems, he thought.
"I was unstoppable! Immortal! A god, pulling the strings!"
"A god! Ha!" Kankuro cackled.
Sasori stared blankly at the boy. Kankuro suddenly remembered something.
"Say, if you were immortal, how come you died?" Sasori showed no reaction.
Kankuro smiled. "C'mon, that was a good one..." He chuckled. Or attempted to. The rogue puppet master obviously was irritated. He said nothing.
After a long period of silence, Kankuro seemed to sober up, his vision cleared as he gazed yet again at the dim, dark ceiling.
"You really went that far, huh?"
No answer.
"I...I could never do it." Kankuro raised a hand, reaching for nothing in particular. "I'll never be like you. If that makes me weaker..." He trailed off. Sasori still said nothing. Kankuro frowned, anger now rising in him. Determination.
"There will be others. Stronger than you and I could ever hope to be. Natural enemies of a puppeteer. They'll come for Gaara-for the Kazekage. They can try. I'll protect him. This won't happen again. I'll be there for him, next time. No, there won't be a next time. I'll never let that happen again. I'll protect Gaara. I'll stand by his side, and I'll keep him from harm. I'll get stronger, but in my own way. On my own. I don't need your help. I don't need to become like you. I'll rise in the ranks of the shinobi world, until they fear me almost as much as they fear Gaara. But I won't be like you. I won't go down that path."
He wasn't sure if Sasori was still there or not. He heard foot steps, but continued none the less.
"I'll protect Gaara...and Temari. Everyone. Everyone precious to me, I'll protect them all. Because just that-they're precious to me. I have bonds with them. I love them. That's what makes me human, it's what binds humanity to this body. It's what you lost, Sasori...I won't throw that away. I won't cast love aside, like you did. Life isn't to be taken for granted..."
The foot steps stopped. Sasori was outside his door. Kankuro caught a glimpse of his red hair. He knew he was there.
"I won't be like you...I'm not a monster. Gaara, he never was a monster...he wasn't a demon. He just had one sealed inside of him. You...it's people like you who are the real monsters...soulless...heartless bastards. I'll never be like you. I won't be the puppet...I'm the puppeteer." He smiled weakly, turning his head and pressing his chin down to face the pair of glinting eyes widely staring through the cracked door. Slowly, Kankuro felt his lids grow heavy and close.
"Right, Gaara?"
Gaara, stunned, opened the door to peer inside, only to find his brother had drifted off to sleep. Had he meant everything he'd heard him say? He looked around. He'd said Sasori...Gaara took note of the latest addition to Kankuro's work bench; an all-too familiar puppet he'd picked up during a recon and recovery mission. A souvenir, his brother had said.
"This way... it's like I finally defeated him. My own dark shadow, my inner demon. He was... what I could become... could have," He added, turning away in slight embarrassment and vulnerability. "I... I needed closure. I let you down... he was the enemy I couldn't defeat... this way, though... I'm the master, and he's just the puppet... He's always been just a puppet."
'You're the monster', He'd said. Gaara looked back to Kankuro, shocked to find his eyes open. Kankuro blankly stared at him, cold but not angry. Gaara waited for him to say something. Gaara almost spoke to apologize for intruding, when Kankuro cut him off.
"Gaara...can I have some of Baki's soup? I'm hungry..."
Gaara smiled. "I'll have to have Temari check on you first, give you clearance for any liquid other than water..."
Kankuro moaned characteristically at the trouble he'd go through for some broth. Gaara genuinely smiled. His brother was finally recovering.
"Hey, Gaara?"
"Hm?"
"Did you see where Sasori went?"
At first, Gaara thought he meant the actual puppet. Kankuro didn't mean to start working again, so soon, did he? Then he remembered the one-sided conversation he'd walked in on hearing. Kankuro had addressed Sasori at that time. He'd been talking to Sasori.
Did Kankuro hallucinate Sasori being in the room with him?
Gaara said nothing, so Kankuro continued.
"He wants me to become a puppet," Kankuro chimed, as though he was bragging about a Christmas present his parent had spoiled him with to some other neighborhood child. Gaara didn't move a muscle of his face. He waited and watched. Kankuro had turned to admire the ceiling, not watching his brother's no responsiveness.
"I told him no...I don't want to become a puppet."
"I know," Gaara added. He was about to finish 'You want to be the master, free of strings', when Kankuro cut in-
"I want to be your brother."
Gaara, stunned, didn't respond. He didn't know how. Kankuro, closing his eyes, muttered, "Temari's, too..." Before light snores announced he'd fallen back to sleep. Gaara stood, perplexed, for a moment longer before finally sending off to find Temari, debating whether what he heard should be kept secret or not.
A/N: K-! I hope you didn't get too confused...Kankuro is sposed to be feverish, hence sometimes he sounds confusing or things don't match up-Hope ya'll caught onto that...
Interesting Facts about this story; I love the idea of interactions between Kankuro and Sasori! I love the different angles and plays on how to get these two together, or compare them-this was my interpretation. I know, it's a lot like my first fic T_T Sorry! But, I was sad at the lack of Sasori and Kankuro fics, sooo I felt I needed to add one! (I'm a one-trick pony who loves conversationalist fics, hence that's how all mine are :I) There's some fluffy Bromance Gaara and Kankuro thrown into the end to fluff-up the fic, and the end does get a bit more serious w/ Kankuro's speech-of-defeat to Sasori...but, in honesty, the rest of it was really sposed to be a more twisted and even humorous interaction between a dellusional Kankuro and an imaginary Sasori...BTW! Sasori might be a bit OC (I'll go ahead and say it now-Gaara is the hardest person for me to write, Sasori is close second :p) But, I'm taking a liberty that this is the Sasori of Kankuro's imagination, hence the perhaps OCness...Anyway-! That'ss all I've got right now, again, sorry for the recent update! I promise I'll take a longer break next time and really polish up a fic before publishing!