"…Temari…" the voice of Gaara couldn't be mistaken. Temari slowly turned her gaze from the manga she was reading to Gaara standing in the doorway to her room inquisitively. He never came up to her very often for a demand or question or anything of the sort, much less looking as perturbed as he did now. Gaara looking perturbed? Sure, over time he had shown a little more expression in the daily things he did, but not much. Being perturbed was one of them. Very curious, she asked him what the matter was.

"It's Kankurou."

"…Kankurou? What's he up to this time?" Not too surprising that the matter had to do with the middle child. Sometimes he could be very dramatic and stir things up occasionally in their lives. It wasn't too often, but it occurred more than Gaara's ability to laugh.

"He's talking to my… er, he's talking to inanimate objects." Silence. Temari merely just blinked at Gaara, speechless. "I think he needs therapy," Gaara finished.

The oldest sibling clamped her book closed with an apprehensive sigh, shutting her eyes. I can't be sure exactly what he means by talking to inanimate objects. Better go check it out. She scooted off her carefully made bed and followed the kazekage to where Gaara's room, which was never used for sleeping in, was located upstairs. Prepared for the worst, Temari shoved the door open further to find Gaara's old teddy bear sitting on a desk, staring up at Kankurou with its one remaining beady eye. Hands on his hips, Kankurou stared back with more intensity, glaring down at the faded brown fabric of the teddy bear. Gaara felt embarrassed to know that both of them were aware that he still kept his bear after all these years, but even more so to have it talked to by his older brother. Temari didn't care; she was simply disgusted at what Kankurou was probably about to do.

"I highly doubt they're going to make me see a shrink," Kankurou told the teddy bear. "If anybody needs to do that, it's them. They'll have to once they see a teddy bear talking!" He smiled to himself, his mouth forming a wide grin. It was easy to see his expressions since he was not wearing that puppeteer hood.

"It's more on behalf of you talking to a teddy bear!" Temari snapped, marching over next to Kankurou, staring him suspiciously in the eyes. "Do you know how stupid you look?"

Kankurou blinked, shocked at Temari's sudden presence. "Wha? No… don't you see it?" He motioned towards the stationary bear, as still as always. Silent, too. "I mean, don't you hear it? You must be deaf."

"You must be insane," Temari retorted, shaking her head in repugnance. "Listen. You're not just putting up some stupid act, are you? Because it looks retarded. Very retarded."

Kankurou protested. "But it talks to me! Right?" He glanced at the motionless bear.

"…"

"See?"

"See what?" Temari asked, crossing her arms in the same fashion Gaara had done. He found this very amusing, yet he was starting to become concerned with the puppet master. "It's just a teddy bear. It's not making a sound."

"I think you need to get your ears checked or something." Kankurou shook his head. Poor, poor deaf Temari…

"You need to get your brain checked!" Temari snapped, heavily disliking being dissed. "Teddy bears can't and never will talk!"

"This one is! Right, Gaara? Can't you hear it speak?" He looked hopefully towards his younger brother, who stared blankly at the scene occurring in front of him.

"…No. I am sorry, Kankurou."

Temari's Ha-I'm-Right smirk played on her lips as she held a triumphant shove-it-in-your-face gaze. Kankurou cringed and glanced at the teddy bear again. Then to his siblings. Then the teddy bear. "He says you two are a bunch of impotent retards with no ears."

"At least we're not an impotent retard with no brain." Temari shoved Kankurou. "Stop it. It's not working." She turned around to return to the peaceful privacy of her room. Gaara and Kankurou exchanged glances, then watched Temari take her leave.

"It's fine if she doesn't believe me," Kankurou decided indifferently. "But I'm taking the bear. Me and him have issues to resolve."

Now. Kankurou could have done anything at the moment not to disturb Gaara's sense of diplomatic mind. He could have thrown a shoe at him. He could have declared that he had stopped being his brother all together. He could have danced the Macarena with no clothes on. But taking his teddy bear… his substitute companion over the hardest years of his life was unforgivable. The aquamarine eyes of Sabaku no Gaara narrowed crossly. "No you won't," he resolved, voice seeping with ice.

Kankurou's breath stopped. It had been a while before he had seen the redhead get this heated… and over a simple matter, as he put it. A tiny prick of fear had entered his eyes as he quickly snatched the bear hostage and darted out of the room, ready to kill his legs if necessary to get away from the angered teenager. This bear was smart! He couldn't let him just sit alone and unused in Gaara's room. He would get lonely again.

Gaara immediately was hot on his tail, ready to give up his life to protect his beloved bear. His feet pounded the floor in the rush to catch up to his brother. "Give him back!" he cried desperately as he flung three kunai knives at him. Seeing this, Kankurou spun around on the ball of his foot to avoid the sharp objects. This obviously meant business. Gaara seldom used kunai to get his way, if at all.

"What was that?" he asked, leaning the bear in closer to his left ear. He smiled malevolently. Picking up one of the knives that had stuck into the wall behind him, he placed it towards the bear's weak, tattered throat. Gaara's dark eyes widened in mild fear. "Stop chasing me… or the bear gets it."

They were right outside Temari's room. Noticing the racket outside, she sighed in a fed-up fashion and walked out to see what kind of commotion Kankurou was causing now. The door opened and she peeked out to find that Kankurou was smiling deviously and ready to detach the teddy's head from its body, and Gaara standing in horror. This was a very interesting scene.

"Hand over Kuma-chan and nobody gets hurt," Gaara warned, slightly blushing in embarrassment for slipping out the bear's name. Nobody should ever know that he did something like that. Too late. It only enhanced Kankurou's smirk.

"If you really want him to stay in tact, you'll let me keep him," Kankurou bartered, clutching the kunai closer to the dividing line. Gaara swallowed, ready to use sand if needed. Temari rolled her eyes and grabbed Kankurou's shoulder, surprising him once again with her presence.

"Kankurou…" she growled, jerking him closer by the material of his shirt and nearly tripping him. "Just give him the freaking bear. You're giving me a headache of massive proportions."

Kankurou looked down sadly at the bear. "Kuma-chan says that he'd rather stay with me for a while and teach me the ways of speaking to more inanimate objects." It infuriated Gaara to hear his brother call his bear by the name he had given it when really young, so sand began to shift around Kankurou and envelop him in a hastily made prison of sand. Temari let go. Kankurou stopped breathing in fear, having been scarred from the sand after being with Gaara so much and knowing what it could do to him.

"Give me the bear and you won't have to give me your life," he threatened, holding up a hand to show the effects of him tightening his grip. Kankurou swallowed. Temari, in some state of slight fear, drew back a little. Was he this serious about his teddy bear? Still, despite how annoying he was being, she didn't want Kankurou to get killed for such a stupid reason.

"Give him the damn bear," she hissed.

"…" Kankurou sadly looked down at his new friend. He had ventured into the room of the kazekage to place Gaara's laundry, as Temari had ordered him, down on the desk, when he heard a voice speak to him. "Hey."

Kankurou had looked around in confusion. "Huh? Who's that?"

"The bear to your left. Hello."

"…You're kidding."

"Does it look like I'm kidding?"

"Huh. Would you look at that? A talking teddy bear."

"Yes. How have you been?"

"Uh… fine, I guess. Nothing too exciting."

"Ah. I know your pain. Lying around being a wad of cotton and fabric isn't very exciting either."

"Oh. Must be a sad life."

"Yeah. You guessed it."

"I need therapy."

"No. Don't consider such drastic measures! If you can keep your insanity, you will be able to do magnificent things."

"So I'm more insane than when Gaara would scream at random in the night and talk to his own sand as if it were kaa-san? That's pretty amazing."

"Yeah, and I'll tell you something amazing if you keep your insanity. Eventually, you'll be able to hear even your puppets talk to you."

"Really? Oh! That sounds pretty cool. I've always wanted to hear what Karasu would say."

"It takes a level of concentration and ability to handle this insanity. You up to it?"

"Damn straight!"

It felt like only yesterday. Well… it actually occurred today, but that wasn't the point. Now he was gazing solemnly at the bear he had talked to. "Goodbye, Kuma-chan. Thank you," he whispered, throwing it to Gaara. He caught it with ease, turning around and walking away. Little known to his siblings, he was holding onto Kuma-chan tight and telling him how he would never let such a dirty man touch him again.

"…Kankurou? What was that about?"

Uh-oh. He had some explaining to do.