Author's Note:
Psychobabble by Frou Frou
How did you get this number?
I can't get my head 'round you
Of course you're not coming over
Snap out of it
You're not making any sense
You couldn't be more wrong, darling
I never gave out these signs
You misunderstand all meaning
Snap out of it
I'm not falling for this one
This is set about two years after Naruto takes off to train with Jiraya, just to let you know. So, basically, this story is happening in Naruto's absence. And if your wondering what's with the slab of lyrics above, it is 1) where I get inspiration for the title(s) and 2) It's a bit of a preview as to what's to come. Just so if there's any confusion, it is NOT a songfic or anything like that. I don't know if it's copyright infringemet to have slab of lyrics in the author's note and say you got some inspiration from it or not, but if it truely bothers anyone I'll won't post the lyrics. Anyways, Enjoy!
Also, Naruto is not mine, sadly, he belongs to Kishimoto. I just get to play with the characters
Close Quarters Ch. 1
The blonde woman sat at her usual place at the breakfast table – sipping casually at the black coffee in her hand. Morning light streaked through the window, making the room glow. It made Temari squint; her eyes lidded against the intense morning light. She was still in the process of waking up, but the caffeine was starting to do its magic.
She was shuffling through the mail, a morning habit, throwing the junk mail to the far side of the table. She was left with very little after she was finished sorting; some bills, some village notices, and a letter addressed to Gaara.
Hold on, when does Gaara get mail? Ever since becoming Kazekage, Gaara had developed the habit of bringing paperwork home, and usually received notices or summons, but those were delivered personally by Sand ninjas. He never ever got mail. But there it was, an envelope with Gaara's name printed clearly on the front.
"Hn," Temari remarked, chewing on the inside of cheek. She wondered if she should wake up, or, rather, disturb Gaara. Would Gaara want to be bothered with something like this in the morning, or should she just let Gaara read at his own leisure? How important was it? Her fingers fiddled over the edges as she tried to reach a decision. As her fingers ran over the edges her curiosity pondered over who could have sent the letter. She flipped it over to look over the front of the envelope – no return address.
While she still stared at the offending envelope contained letter Kankuro entered – yawning loudly and with his face bare of its characteristic face paint.
His attention was instantly caught by the dull yellow envelope in Temari's hands, "Oh, what do you got there? Is it a love letter from that Leaf ninja friend of yours?" Kankuro smiled widely as Temari's flustered for a moment, before she could spit out, "It's not for me! It's for Gaara! See for yourself." She held the mentioned envelope behind her for Kankuro to see.
"Suuuuuure..." Her brother chuckled loudly, not believing his older sister, but he still plucked the letter dutifully from her hand. He instantly noticed the ink that made the letters of Gaara's name. It was for Gaara alright. "Who'd send him a letter?" The laughter was gone from Kankuro's bare face to be replaced by apprehensive curiosity.
Temari shrugged, "How should I know? I'm as surprised as you." Her response did little to settle Kankuro's curiosity.
"You are just so helpful you know that, Temari?" Kankuro growled, though his attention was still on the little object of inquiry. He rubbed his chin, his mind wondering.
"Well, that leaves us with no choice," Kankuro plopped himself in the seat opposite of his sister, "We'll just have to open it and see who's it from."
Temari promptly choked on her very hot coffee, almost spraying it across the table. However, being in the direct line of fire, Kankuro still wiped away a fine mist -- made partly of saliva and partly made of coffee -- from his face.
"Kankuro, are you insane?" Temari yelled, then, remembering that Gaara could easily be in the house still, began whispering fiercely, "We can't go prying through Gaara's things! And God knows what's in that letter!" Temari decided to ignore her brother's disgusted look as he wiped at his face with a napkin, but opted to give him a patronizing glare.
She had played with the idea of opening the letter herself – the peculiarity of Gaara receiving a letter created some interesting, and tempting, methods of inquiry. Temari wanted to know what was in that letter just as badly as Kankuro but she knew that it was not right to go through a person's personal things. Not to mention it was Gaara's. True, Gaara's behaviour and demeanor had improved since his fight with Naruto, but Temari knew still she definitely did not want to be on the receiving end of Gaara's rage.
"Which is exactly why we should look at it," Kankuro responded, the revolted look still on his face as he continued to clean his face.
The blonde woman's eyebrows furrowed and her mouth dropped as she stared blankly at Kankuro. "You realize this is a letter for Gaara, right? The Kazekage? Our little brother? Someone who might be very angry if we looked something as personal as a letter meant for him?" Temari asked, her voice strained with impatience.
"Exactly! This is a letter sent to the Kazekage, a very important political figure. A political figure someone might just happen to want gotten rid of. A harmless looking letter like this might be hiding some kind of malicious jutsu that could kill him before his sand could react. I think it would be just in Gaara's best interest that we made sure that this letter is really harmless. Don't you agree, Temari?" Kankuro grinned.
A matching grin swept across Temari's face. Trust Kankuro to come up with a very applicable and realistic excuse.
"You're right, Kankuro. It's our duty as Sand ninja to protect the Kazekage," Temari proudly snatched the letter back from her brother, "we should be honoured to put ourselves in harm's way for our little brother." Temari took a celebrative swig from her coffee.
"You're both very loud in the morning, did you know that?"
Temari's coffee sprayed from her mouth, this time showering Kankuro in coffee and spit. Across from her Kankuro held a face full of horror, and it was not from being drenched in coffee and spit.
While wiping her hand across her mouth, Temari chanced a look behind her. She almost visibly winced but it hid it quickly by clasping her hands in her lap and loudly announcing in a honeyed tone, "Gaara! Good morning! How long have you been standing there?!"
The person in question was standing in the behind the kitchen counter, his back to the doorway that led to the main hallway. He had not been standing there very long; he really only had gotten the tail end of the conversation as he had gone to the kitchen for a cup of coffee to prepare himself for the day. Not that he would ever admit it, but he was slowly becoming addicted to black coffee.
"Long enough," he responded. The sadist in him still enjoyed harassing his older siblings: he did have to remind them who Kazekage after all.
Moving to the head of the table, Gaara held out his hand. "I believe that is mine."
Temari passed the letter to Gaara rather grudgingly -- looking like a child who had been caught nicking a cookie from the cookie jar and forced to put it back.
The blonde kunoichi shared a relieved look with Kankuro, sipping at her remains of coffee slowly as it soothed her jangled nerves. Having a panic attack was a little too much excitement in the morning.
Silence reigned in the kitchen, except for the soft breathing noises Gaara emitted as his lips slightly mouthed the words of the letter(another habit he denied), while the oldest of the Sand trio fidgeted; they really wanted to know what was in that letter.
If Gaara's face was any indication, it only fueled Temari's and Kankuro's curiosity. Gaara's usually stolid expression was being pushed away as Gaara's eyes narrowed and his eyebrows (if he were to have any) furrowed. It appeared Gaara looked perplexed.
"Damn it all," Gaara cursed softly.
Temari shared a concern look with her brother across from her.
Silence.
"Gaara?"
Silence.
"What did the letter say?"
In silence, Gaara passed the letter to his older sister.
Temari read through the letter a few times, not really believing the contents, before she passed it to Kankuro. This is completely unbelievable.
"Well," Kankuro remarked, after quickly reading the letter, "this is … uh … interesting."
Author's Note:
Yes, I'm evil! But everybody loves a cliffhanger!
What did the letter say? Who sent it? You'll just have to wait! MUAHAHAHAHA!