Kankuro woke to the feeling of being drenched in sweat. He slowly opened his eyes noticing how heavy all of his limbs felt. He wiped his arm across his forehead and sighed. He had felt discreet symptoms for days, but had blown them off telling himself that he never got sick, so why should he start now? He let the back of his hand rest against his hot forehead. Putting up with the heat of the desert was one thing, he had done that for his entire life, but having to deal with a fever as well was just ridiculous. Nonetheless he still had a job to do today. He sat up on the edge of his bed and as he did he became very dizzy making it difficult to navigate around his room. He determinedly made his way to the wall and leaned on it for support as he headed to the bathroom. When he reached the bathroom he gripped the sink to steady himself, then began splashing cold water on his face. It felt good at first, but as the water dripped down his face it began to heat up and felt like sweat as well. He grabbed the towel hanging next to the sink and dried his face so that he could apply his regular face paint. His regular style of Kabuki paint was what he was going for, but is hands we shaking so much that he ended up with a zigzag across his face. He looked up into the mirror and what he saw there resembled a young child's abstract art project. He felt annoyed with how the paint had turned out, but he knew that he did not have time to fix it now or he would be late for sure. He started back into his room fighting to keep his balance as his head throbbed and continued to make the room spin. He just needed to put a shirt on and be on his way, but with the fever taking its toll on him this was much more difficult than it should have been. He lurched from side to side keeping one hand on the wall as long he could to help him maintain balance. All his effort seemed for naught as he stepped away from the wall, lost his balance, landed on his face, and passed out on the floor.
Kankuro came to hearing the sound of someone calling his name from what seemed like a great distance. It was definitely a voice that he knew well, but at the moment he couldn't quite place it. He turned his head to the side, squinted his eyes open, and saw the fuzzy features of a blonde girl in dark clothes kneeling next to him. Temari, he decided after staring for a while with his eyes refusing to focus. He closed his eyes again and pressed his cheek onto the cool stone floor. It felt good on his feverish face. The heat of his fever momentarily nullified by the cool stone, Kankuro felt like he might fall asleep. Just as his consciousness was slipping away he felt someone tugging on his arm. Undoubtedly Tamari was trying to help him to his feet, but in truth he didn't mind continuing to lie on the floor. His limbs felt heavier than they had when he woke up this morning, so getting up didn't seem like an option to him, at least not on his own. There was also less light to hurt his head down here.
He heard Temari speak again as she attempted to pull him to his feet. She seemed to be saying, "Come on, help me out here, Kankuro." She sounded annoyed. Kankuro smiled to himself, it was just like Temari to be angry at him for being sick. Temari did have quite a temper, so he figured that he shouldn't try Temari's patience while he was too weak to defend himself. With this in mind he obediently attempted to push himself up off the floor. Even with Temari helping he was panting by the time he had managed to get onto his hands and knees, but from there it was easier for Temari to help him. She ducked under one of his arms so that it was around her shoulders and held on to this arm so that he wouldn't slip, then wrapped her other arm around his torso. Kankuro felt his body rising from the ground, but at this point he was so disoriented that he wasn't sure whether he was standing by himself, or if Temari was supporting him. Suddenly he felt himself being pushed backward so that he fell onto his bed. He lay there dazed as he felt Temari grab his ankles and throw his legs onto the bed with the rest of him. He heard the curtains move and the light that had been streaming into the room died out. He heard Temari cross the room to the door, command him to,"Stay here and get some rest," and leave closing the door behind her.
Following Temari's instructions was not difficult. Kankuro didn't think he had the strength to get up and run off right now even if he really wanted to. He knew that at least the running was completely out of the question seeing as his equilibrium was obviously off right now. Then a thought hit him that made him panic. He remembered that he had something important that he was supposed to do today, but he couldn't recall what it was or why it was so important. He lay in his dark room racking his brain trying to remember what had been so important. He knew he didn't have a wall guard duty today nor was he supposed to be guarding Gaara. He finally decided that he would just ask Temari when she came back as she was bound to do at some point. He knew that she would not just leave him in this state because he knew that deep down the only reason she got angry at him when he was in trouble was because it made her worry about him. Good old Temari, he thought to himself smiling, she's as caring on the inside as she is wrathful on the outside. With this thought he drifted off to sleep.
He woke several hours later when someone lightly slapped the side of his face.
"Eww! You're covered in sweat!" exclaimed Temari's voice as Kankuro opened his eyes to see her wiping the back of her hand on her skirt with a look of disgust on her face.
"Serves you right for slapping a man on the brink of death," Kankuro retorted smirking.
"I cover for you today and even bring you lunch," she replied angrily holding up a tray in her other hand, "and this is all the thanks I get? Sweat and sarcasm?!"
Kankuro studied her for a minute. She seemed angry, which truth be told was kind of normal, but there seemed to be something off about it, as if it were all an act. Kankuro sat up, pushing himself up with some difficulty so that his back rested against the wall behind him. "I don't remember much from today," he confessed staring into his lap, "It's all kind of blurry after I collapsed this morning, but I remember there was something important I was supposed to do today, do you know what that was?"
"You were supposed to have a meeting with Gaara and Baki today," Temari explained sitting down on the end of his bed and handing him the tray with his lunch on it. "It was some stuff about negotiations with the Leaf, and like I said I covered for you," she finished looking down at her lap.
Kankuro studied her quizzically as he accepted the tray, there still seemed to be something off about her. Temari stared at him as though she were trying to find the words to tell him something that she wasn't sure how to say. Finally she reached into her pocket and handed him a napkin saying, "Wipe all that sweat off your face, it's grossing me out."
Kankuro took the napkin, but continued to stare at Temari. "Is everything ok?" he asked hesitantly.
"Wipe your face!" Temari insisted.
Kankuro could see that the conversation was going nowhere, so he wiped the sweat and remaining paint off of his face with the napkin. "There," he said looking at Temari, "Now will you tell me what's eating you?"
"It's none of your business," Temari said defensively.
"Then I'll make it my business," Kankuro replied balling up the sweaty napkin and launching it at Temari. She swatted it away before it hit her in the face and looked up at Kankuro with a half smile. A silence followed during which Temari seemed to be deciding whether or not she wanted to confide in him.
"Look, you're my sister, so I just wanna, ya know…be there for you…if something is bothering you," Kankuro explained looking down embarrassedly.
"Awww, look who's developing a sensitive side," Temari cooed pinching her brother's cheek.
"Whatever," Kankuro snapped looking away from her, "If you don't wanna tell me that's fine. It's your business." With that he began eating his food so he would have an excuse to keep looking down. He was still embarrassed from being called 'sensitive'.
"Well I guess it would help to discuss it with someone," Temari replied suddenly serious again, "and I can trust my little brother, right?"
Kankuro's mouth was full of food, so he just looked at Temari and nodded.
"Well," she began taking off one of her gloves and wringing it in her hands, " it's just that Shikamaru's sensei, Asuma, was killed recently…and he seemed really upset about it."
"Why does that bother you?" Kankuro asked, confused. "I mean, I know we're allies with the Leaf Village now, but this doesn't seem like something that would normally upset you. You didn't even know the guy, right? So why are you upset?," he inquired.
"Because Shikamaru is … my friend," she retorted angrily at first, but seemed to carefully consider the last words before finishing. She sighed before continuing, "Shikamaru is my friend and…I don't know…it just makes me feel kinda depressed to see him so sad."
A smile spread across Kankuro's face. Talking about feelings had never been his forte, in fact he avoided the subject as often as he could, but Temari was being so obvious that it was hard not to see that she cared for Shikamaru as more than a friend. "Seems like someone got bitten by the love bug," Kankuro teased.
"Shut up!" Temari shouted blushing. "Ya know what, I never should have said anything," she ranted, "I knew you wouldn't take this seriously." She stood up and walked toward the door.
"Temari!" Kankuro called after her, "You know I wanna help you feel better, but I just don't know what to say to something like that."
"Yeah," Temari replied humorlessly looking back from the doorway, "I know." She then turned and walked out the door slamming it behind her.
Kankuro felt a little bad about what had happened because Temari looked legitimately upset, but at the same time he was her brother and he felt that his obligation to tease her at every possible moment came first. He also took comfort in the thought that if the roles were reversed she would definitely tease him the same way he had teased her. With that he banished the thought from his mind and finished eating his food.
It took Kankuro about 2 days to make a full recovery. Temari hadn't felt that it was necessary to bring any medical ninjas to examine him because it was just an ordinary fever and she figured that with some rest he would be better in no time. About the time that he was feeling fully recovered Kankuro and Temari were summoned to Gaara's office.
"The three of us are going on a mission," Gaara informed his siblings as they entered and stood in front of his desk. "Some diplomats that I sent to the Leaf Village were barely able to return yesterday and said that they had been ambushed on their way to the village. Now I would like to personally go to discuss things with the Hokage and I would like you two to accompany me."
"Any idea who they were ambushed by?" asked Temari.
"We believe they are shinobi from the Sound Village," replied Gaara.
"Then this should be a cinch with the three of us having faced Sound ninjas before," Kankuro stated confidently, " that two headed Sound ninja I fought last time never saw the Black Ant coming and it seemed like you guys took out the others pretty easily too."
"We still need to be cautious," Temari chided, "They could be different and more experienced than the ones we fought before."
Kankuro rolled his eyes. He hated it when she went into mother mode on them.
Gaara nodded. "We leave tomorrow at first light," he finished turning around to look out the window. Kankuro and Temari took this to mean that they were dismissed and left the office.