AN: Uh….

Under The Influence

Temari and her two younger brothers stood quietly in the equally enormous and gloomy cemetery. It was almost pitch-black in the starless and clouded sky. They knew that somewhere beneath their feet rested their father's body; he had been dead for about five years by then. Five years that had marked how close the three had gotten to each other, miles from their previous strained dynamic.

"Wow, this cemetery's huge," Kankuro remarked, glancing around at the overwhelming amount of tombstones that surrounded them, "And it just keeps getting bigger and bigger…"

"Yeah," Temari agreed, "I wonder how many dead people are here."

"Well, it's a cemetery, Temari. I'm pretty sure they're all dead."

Temari spun around, ready to swat at Kankuro for making such a silly and immature comment in such a sacred place. She looked at him, her eyes narrowing into slits; he was grinning widely, but he titled his head to the side, towards the youngest, Gaara.

Temari let out a low groan, and Kankuro started snickering uncontrollably, lightly slapping Gaara on the back. He knew that she was never able to get mad at Gaara. As close as they had become, they'd never have the same back-and-forth teasing relationship that she and Kankuro had always used to cope. Her pity and fear of Gaara had dissipated over the past five years as he began to come into his own new-and-improved demeanor, but it had grown into such a fragile love and trust that she was terrified to break. He had always put on a brave face, but it was obvious that he still carried and occasionally radiated those feelings of sorrow, fear, and isolation. She was afraid of saying the wrong thing and accidentally pushing him away due to his lack of socializing in the past. Even with her being careful it had happened a few times.

Gaara's face softened, appreciating the approval from his brother, and as Kankuro's laughs rang through the air, Temari knew that he had something to do with the joke and with Gaara's more recent behavior in general. Both Naruto and Kankuro were heavily influencing him personality-wise. She wondered if she'd been able to influence him as well.

"Wow, Gaara. You said it before I could-"

"Don't encourage him!" Temari scolded, smacking Kankuro upside the head with her closed fan. One little brother who acted like a bumbling idiot had always been more than enough for her. But she was going to start having to deal with two of them? She sighed in exasperation as Gaara and Kankuro both turned away, and she overheard Kankuro babbling to Gaara about how when he was much younger he had pulled a prank on the councilmen involving his puppet jutsu and some of the corpses that had been on their way to be buried… Temari explicitly remembered how much they "didn't appreciate it," as their uncle had said. That was certainly an understatement. But Gaara seemed genuinely interested. Great. Give him more terrible ideas, why don't you? Sometimes she swore she missed the days when her brothers didn't get along.

But she immediately took it back. As she watched them walking away she noticed how relaxed they both looked, smiling, laughing… Sharing. The two of them had grown so close, especially in the last couple of years. Gaara was emotionally accessible around Kankuro and Naruto in a way that he wasn't around anyone else. Temari felt a wave of discomfort. Was it jealousy?

Gaara turned suddenly, gazing at Temari, who had fallen behind. He stopped and extended his hand to her, holding it there until Temari walked forward and took it. It felt as if he was reminding her that he needed her, too, and at just the right moment. Had he been able to sense her uneasiness?

Temari walked in between her brothers all the way back to their home, and they all soaked in each other's company. After all that they'd been through, everything seemed to have finally fallen into place.