Hello all my fellow Gaara and Kankuro fans! First fanfiction! So if you are a flamer, please have pity on the poor newbie *gives puppy dog eyes* Anyways, I do not own Gaara or Kankuro, just Hailee and Kaela and Steven and all the other non-Naruto characters. XD Kishimoto-sama is the supreme ruler of all of Naruto, I have no claim over anyone in his empire! Oh yeah, rated T for language and later mushy stuff. Okay you guys get the point, so on with the show!

Mouthful of Sand

Essays. Why must they plague my existence? "I just helped you clean your room; now pay it forward and finish your AVID essay." Easy for you to say Mom, you aren't the one who has to be stuck in a room with a blank sheet of paper and no where to start. I sighed and shooed her from my room; I was gonna do this essay on MY terms. Taking out my iPod, I put on Karma by Alicia Keys and went to my Notes. I chuckled evilly. 'You said to start it. You never said when it had to be finished!' I was having a streak of inspiration, so I had to get my story down. "If only I could meet the characters... #!*% I sound like I'm at Disney World!" And I wasn't (though I had just gotten back from Epcot the day before). I was talking about Naruto and/or his friends. I had fantasies frequently where I was a ninja being totally badass with the hotties of the show. Fangirl-ish I know, but it was a heck of a lot better than being alone in your room with nothing to do, considering I technically had no friends. My free days were spent writing fanfiction, drawing Naruto Shippuden characters, more writing, talking on the phone with Tori (my only true friend), and important junk like that. I had no life.

Well, moving on. I flopped down onto my bed quietly and put on my Suna gloves (I had gotten them at the Japanese store :D), gazing at them thoughtfully. What if? That was when I heard the wind pick up. I opened the window, and was greeted by a mouthful of...sand? We did NOT live in the desert. No where close. Why the heck would there be a sandstorm? 'Wait, the only reason there would be sand was if...No, that can't be!'

Well, it was exactly what I was thinking. Cuz out of a sandy portal about 10 feet outside my window, shot Gaara of the Sand, Kazekage of Suna and his brother Kankuro. Wait, him too? My mind had to go into overdrive soon though cuz they were falling at a breakneck speed down towards the neighbor's dog. Wouldn't want to have to pay for her doggie funeral. I shot my arms out the window and caught Kankuro by the cat hood and Gaara by the collar. They were awake at least. "A little help would be nice!" was all I could muster through gritted teeth before my arms gave out and all three of us fell into the rocks beneath. "OW! Get off me, Kankuro!" "Sorry Gaara, there's a strange chick sitting on my back!" "You know you like it, brother." "SHUT IT! YOU-" "Shut. The. #!*% . UP. Someone will hear you!" I hissed as I stood up, dragging the two boys into the bushes. "How the #!*% did you end up here? Aren't you supposed to be in Suna doing paperwork, Gaara? And you...doing whatever puppet-y stuff you do Kankuro. Why was there that big portal?" #!*% , I need my Abilify, I'm seeing things..." "Who are you?" Gaara asked, staring at my shirt. Oh dear Kami; it was my Gaara shirt. "Uh, you guys wait here! Be right back!" I shot out of there as fast as I could, grabbing a spare shirt from the dryer, along with two outfits of my dads for the two Suna boys. I sped into my room and ripped off the current shirt, exchanging it for my black tank top. Speeding past my mom, she called out "Where are you going?" "HELPING!" Leaving her confused, I tumbled into the bushes most ungracefully, shoving the outfits to their chests. "Here. Change; I'll look away." As they tentatively started taking off their outer garments, I looked away until they were finished. "There. Now I can introduce myself properly. I am Hailee. Pleased to make your acquaintance." "Likewise." As I held out my hand, Gaara shook it. "Now, since I bet you won't be leaving anytime soon, let's go break the news to my mom." Kankuro looked at me like I just ate ostrich poop. "What news?" "You're gonna need a place to stay, right? We have a spare office; I hope mom won't mind taking in a few anime characters. Oh yeah. In my world, you guys are story characters. Now wait here while I bring her out." They stared at me dumbfounded, and I couldn't help but giggle girlishly at their faces. They were so adorable, I could eat them! Ahem. So I went and asked my mom if she would follow me, and she gaped at the two teenagers when they were revealed. "Honey, that redhead is on your shirt...How...?" "They somehow ended up here, I don't know how. Can they stay? Please?" "Well, they don't have anywhere else to go...Gosh, your father is going to have a fit. Fine. They can have the spare room." "Yatta! Come on boys!"

"Hey, don't we have any say in this?"

"Unless you want to live on the streets in a strange dimension with no prior knowledge, then no. Here, kitty kitty!"

"That's not funny."

"Heck yeah it is!"

"It kind of is Kankuro. Now shut up and accept their offer."

"Yes Gaara!"

I laughed out loud at Mr. Fearless who #!*% himself whenever Gaara got mad. I ran upstairs before Kankuro could get me, using a pillow to shield myself from him. "I was kidding! Don't tickle me, please!" "Ooh, we've got a ticklish one! Time to play cat and mouse chase!" He lunged at me, grabbing my elbow and trying to tickle me. I bit his arm and ran off towards my bedroom. "OW! You're gonna pay for this, you little rat!" I decided to tease him a bit. Putting his hood on my head, I meowed and said "Bring me a saucer of milk; I'm the feared Kankuro-Kitty!" "Give that back! Ha, gotcha!" I squealed as he tickled me ruthlessly. I was unable to escape on my own. So I called for backup. "Gaaaaaaara! A little help!" THUNK. Kankuro fell on top of me, causing me to blush wildly. "GET OFF OF ME!" I shoved him off and muttered "Pervert. Gaara, thanks for the help." "Anytime."

"Why did my own brother have to push me onto a GIRL? One that looks like a boy, at that!"

That was the last straw; NO ONE calls me a boy. " #!*% !" And with that, I bit him on the shoulder. HARD. "OOOWW! She bites too!"

"I love you, Andrea. Thanks for rubbing off on me."

"Who?"

"Nobody :3"

"I dont even wanna know."

The next day...

"Ah, the glory of CHURCH!"

I was in a chipper mood that day. It was Sunday, which meant CHURCH TIME! I was only worried about leaving two older teenage boys alone at the house. Not that I was worried about Steven; the boys loved him, even Gaara. How do I know this? 'Cuz I'm good like that! Ah, me and my over-confident self... Uhh...ANYHOO. I was worried about a certain puppeteer kitty terrorizing my newly cleaned room. And I didnt think my mom would know how to deal with a typical boy of about 18; first off she thought he was 16, and second she lives with an autistic Pokemon obsessed 12-year-old. Enough said. So I went into "the land of spare-oom" (A/N: Narnia reference. Dont know, dont ask.) to wake up the boys, only to find that Kankuro was bare-naked. I shrieked and slammed the door, the image seared into my psych. "NonononononoNOOOOOO! EEEEEWWIE! MUST BLEACH MY MIND!" True to her role, Mom ran up the stairs and started interrogating me on if i was hurt and junk like that. "No mom, its all good. Just need to get my very recent memory erased for the sake of my sanity. Dont ask; you dont wanna know." She nodded and went downstairs, probably already knowing what I was talking about. I released a breath I didnt even know i was holding and went into my room to get dressed. I put on my Gaara t-shirt (the subject of the shirt gave me permission to wear it) and some sand colored slacks, along with my Suna gloves and walked out of my bedroom. "You should have knocked if you didnt want to see that." I looked up to see Kankuro's towering form leaning in the doorway of the bathroom, smirking. "Well you should have been mindful that there are GIRLS IN THIS HOUSE!" I practically yelled at him, pointing and waving and yelling incoherently at him like I belonged in an insane asylum. Then after realizing my struggle was futile, I sighed and said "Dont even bother putting makeup on today; You're coming with me to church. Besides, you look better without it. Now go get a shirt on, 'cuz you arent allowed to be shirtless at church." And with that, I set off down the stairs. Hopefully he didnt think I actually LIKED him. Cuz I didnt...did I?

Kankuro's POV

That girl was CONFUSING. One moment, she was yelling at me like a maniac, the next she was complimenting me. And why did I have to go out in public with her? "You need to go because she wants you to." I turned slightly to see Gaara walk out wearing a shirt that said "Animal Kingdom" on it and some random shorts that belonged to Bailey's dad. " But whyy? Why would she WANT me to go with her after tickling her half to death and landing on top of her?"

"She's lonely. She was crying in her room last night and saying something about how her friends left her alone again. So you'd better go with her and be civil, or you'll have to deal with her dad. Not to mention me."

The threat of having to deal with Gaara scared me into submission. He's freaky when he gets mad! So I found myself walking next to a 16-year-old girl on the way to something called a church with a bunch of girls staring at me and her, because no one expected her to have a boy walking with her. She told me this after we passed a group of giggling and gossiping girls that she knew. She apparently wasnt very popular at her school because of her obsession with this thing called anime (It's quite addicting, although I havent dared watch the one with Gaara and I in it), and she seemed down about it. But before we could get into the subject more, we reached a building that apparently was this church. "KAELA! You finally decided to show up!" "Yeahh, I've been- Heyy, who's this?"

"Uhh, this is John. My cousin. He is staying with us cuz his parents disowned him."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hi John, I'm Kaela! Don't worry, I dont bite...hard."

Hailee gave me this secret look of "Go-along-with-it-or-die" so I had to listen.

"Uh, yeah. its fine." 'Wait, did she just say she BITES?' "And please dont bite me. Someone I know just loves to do that *cough Hailee cough*"

She just rolled her eyes and turned to her friend. "Me and John need to talk to you alone. Can you walk with us?"

"Uh, sure."

So long story short, she found out who I really am, flipped out a bit, and asked if she could come over afterwards. Kami forbid, Hailee said yes. That day was just about to get interesting.

...to be continued (DUN DUN DUHHHH!)...