As the sun finally started to rise after yet another sleepless night, Gaara began to watch the clock carefully. He sighed. Needless to say, waiting for the day to begin once again with nothing but endless piles of paperwork to occupy him was not fun. Gaara may not be one to have 'fun,' but anything was better than how he usually spent his nights.
The young Kazekage slowly got up from his desk and drudged over to the window to gaze at Suna. Even in the winter, the humidity in the Village Hidden in the Sand was easily visible, blurring the edges of buildings with nearby objects, causing everything to appear distorted. Seeing as it was now 6 am, Gaara decided to take a walk around his village.
As he was walking down the hallway, he took a small glance at the calendar.
"Hn. January 19th already," he thought.
He continued walking casually until it dawned on him.
"Wait a second…" He muttered to himself, "January 19th.. Today is my 15th birthday."
After thinking for a few more seconds, his eyes widened. "Oh no…"
Ever since Gaara had gotten over his uncontrollable urge to kill just about everyone he met, when his siblings became less afraid of him, Temari had always felt the need to throw him a party against his will.
Every. Single. Year.
For Gaara, his birthday had never really been any different from any other day. Just another year gone by. He hated parties, especially when they were centered around him. He hated having so much attention drawn to him.
The Kazekage quickly cancelled his plans to take a walk, went back to his office and locked the door. "That will never work…the whole building is guarded by highly trained shinobi. What will a locked door do to stop one? Come to think of it…why the hell do we even have locks in here? If someone was going to assassinate me, it's not like they'd say "Aw…the door is locked." and go home. Hmph."
Slumping back into his chair, Gaara decided to reinforce the door. Without lifting a finger, he watched as sand floated out of the gourd in the corner of the room and worked its way to the door and the windows, covering them completely.
"There. I'll just have to stay here for the day. Back to my paperwork, I suppose," he groaned.
Just as he touched his pen to his paper, a muffled knock sounded at the door. It was harder to hear through the thick layer of sand, but he could make out the voice of his older sister.
"Happy birthday Gaara, can I come in? I've got a surprise for you!" she said, sounding too cheery for such a dreaded day. He shuddered at the sound of her.
Not wanting to even discuss it, Gaara ignored the request. After a minute, the knock came again. This time it was much louder and made Temari's frustration clear. "Come on Gaara! Whether you like it or not, it's your birthday and we're going to celebrate it. I promise you, just open the door and we'll settle for breakfast at a small diner. We just want something to celebrate your day."
Gaara thought this over. He knew he should not open the door. She wasn't the type to give up so easily. Opening that door now would be sealing his own doom. There was another knock, it was even louder. "Gaara! Unseal the door or I will take it upon myself to do it."
Gaara sighed. It was a mistake, but…he'd learned not to take his sister lightly, and he really didn't want to worry about replacing an entire wall. It was bad enough that it was his birthday. One little meal couldn't hurt, right? He couldn't help feeling that it would be more than that, though.
The redhead closed his eyes for a moment and let the sand fall to the floor. Temari stepped in just as the last of it floated back into the gourd. "Don't be such a baby," she smirked.
"We aren't discussing this. I'm busy," Gaara answered with a small grunt.
"You heard me, we're just taking you out for breakfast. We're just going to the diner up the road."
He sighed. "I really don't want any celebration. But if it gets me off the hook, fine."
"That's the spirit!" she said, using that sickening, cheery tone again.
"Promise me this. It's just breakfast, right?"
"Hurry and get ready, we'll be leaving in about an hour."
"That doesn't answer my question. Damn it, Temari, what are you planning?"
"Nothing, nothing…you trust me, right?" she said, making the puppy-dog eyes that practically screamed trouble.
"Not one bit," he stated bluntly, glaring at her.
"Well come on, go get changed into something a little more casual. You're always wearing that same uniform."
He shot another glare at her.
"Gaara," she said firmly, returning his look, "go get changed."
He turned his head back to his paperwork, giving a small sigh of defeat. If he didn't do it, she would just keep nagging him. "Fine. Give me a few minutes."
Temari smiled and walked back out to the hallway.
After she left, Gaara got up, picked up his gourd, walked out, and started heading to his home to change.
Temari followed him there and sat patiently on a couch outside of his door, waiting to inspect him.
Looking through his closet, Gaara let out another sigh. "I really should have a bit more of a variety."
All of his clothes looked the same as what he wore now. All except for one thing…
When Gaara stepped out of his room to face his sister, she fell over on the cushion laughing.
"Thanks for the mature opinion," he grumbled sarcastically. Sarcasm? From Gaara? Weird…
"Really Gaara, it looks fine, I just haven't seen you wearing that for years. I'm surprised to see if still fits fine, considering you've grown a few inches."
"Well…it's the only other clothing I have…"
Gaara had decided it was worth a shot. He put on the only other thing he could find. His old clothes. The same outfit he'd worn through all of the murders he's committed, through the psychotic outburst he'd had during the Chunin exams. Just seeing the outfit hanging in the back of the closet brought back the nightmarish memories. He didn't have much of a choice, though. It was the only thing he had other than his normal clothes or his Kazekage robe, and it did look a bit more casual. Just for old time's sake, he even decided to carry his gourd along with him.
Kankuro walked into the room just then. He was also dressed casually. He was wearing a plain white T-shirt, black pants, and was without his makeup. "Hey Temari, is he ready yet? Let's get going, I'm starv- HAHAHA that still fits?!" he interrupted himself after looking up at his little brother.
Kankuro was about to say more, but with the look he was getting from Gaara, and even the small one from Temari, he quickly decided against it.
Seeing Kankuro's expression made Temari chuckle a little. "Guys, I'm going to get dressed and we'll head out."
"Great," Kankuro replied, "now it's going to take forever for us to eat."
He never learns, huh?
"Sorry," he muttered after getting a quick, hard smack to the head.
Soon after going in, Temari stepped out of her room wearing a lavender V-neck shirt with a black knee-length skirt, wearing her normal shoes to go along with the ensemble.
"Well, what do you say we get going?"
When they arrived at the diner, it was just as Temari said. It was small and casual. Gaara gave an internal sigh of relief.
A waitress walked up to the three of them and asked in a high-pitched, childish voice, "Only three? Oh, hello Kazekage-sama," and before giving anyone a chance to answer, she smiled, "Right this way."
When the three had ordered their meals, Kankuro claimed to have to use the restroom. He was gone for about five minutes, which was unusual. He never takes very long to use the restroom, and it was not very far from their table. A second later, Gaara spotted him. He was socializing with the waitress.
"Pervert," Gaara thought, "Always flirting, every chance he gets. It's sickening."
It never even occurred to him what his brother was really doing. He never would have thought that…
"Sir?" came a familiar voice. It was the waitress. "Can you please stand up for me?"
Gaara's face immediately flushed before turning a bright crimson color. After a few seconds of silence, she repeated the question. "Kazekage-sama? Can you please stand up for a second, we have a surprise for you."
His face suddenly returned to his normal color as he met her eyes with an intense death glare.
"Or…you could stay sitting….whatever works for you."
Looking up, he noticed several other waitresses were gathered around his chair. At this point the knew he was right. Possibly the worst part of his day was about to come. He braced himself for it, closing his eyes tightly.
"HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE--"
He tried as hard as he could to drown out the sounds. All of them. The idiotic song that burned his ears, the clapping that was coming from just about everyone in the restaurant, and the snickers coming from his two siblings. He had half a mind to sand-coffin them into next week. But…he wouldn't, no matter how appealing it sounded.
When he was sure the nightmare was over, he opened his eyes once more, and cleared his head. The singing stopped, but upon opening his eyes he was met with a cream pie. Yes. It is what you think. He was the Kazekage, respected leader of Sunagakure, one of the most important figures in the land. He was a jinchuuriki, host of the one-tailed demon, Shukaku! He was feared by so many still after coming out of a long, psychotic, murderous period in his life. Yet, as intimidating as he appeared, all dignity was immediately diminished. Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage, was hit in the face with a pie. It was like something from a bad cartoon. Even glaring daggers at his brother for causing this had no effect.
Gaara let his sand armor fall off onto the table as if it were running water, letting the demolished pie go along with it. Now, the glare he shot at his brother was one of the most infuriated looks he'd ever given anyone. There were no words to describe it. If looks could kill, Gaara would have his brother dead a thousand times over. All the wrath Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, and Gaara's previously demented self and more was put to shame by the fury in the intense, narrowed, dark-ringed, pale orbs that were Gaara's eyes. Kankuro would have soiled himself if he hadn't gone to the bathroom prior to setting up the little event.
Seeing this, their waitress just left the food with the bill and backed away. The rest of them were long gone. Neji Hyuuga, who had just walked in with his team, ran out screaming and flailing in a completely OOC way. Gaara didn't seem to notice that Konoha shinobi were here.
Right now, the idea of using sand coffin was becoming more and more appealing with every passing moment.
"Any other surprises? Kankuro?" Gaara hissed, putting a lot of venom into 'surprises.'
"What did I do?!" he replied, acting completely innocent.
Gaara ubergaarafacepalmed at his ingrate of a brother.
After the so-called breakfast that was the definition of Hell in Gaara's eyes, Temari suggested they all go to the training field for an hour or two. Her brothers nodded in agreement. Maybe training would wash away the memory of this morning, or at least ease it. However, when they arrived, instead of their usual training field, what they saw shocked and horrified the youngest of the three. Gaara's eyes widened. His head turned slowly to help him meet his sister's eyes. He was giving off some sort of psychotic-looking glare that said 'I will kill you for this.'
She answered his silent threat with a smile. With that, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the huge crowd of people. There were so many there to celebrate his birthday. There were even shinobi from Konoha there, only some of which he recognized. One such person, wearing an all-too-familiar orange jumpsuit, came speeding through the crowd, headed straight for Gaara in the form of an orange blur, Yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAARA!"
Gaara was met with a glomp of epic proportions, which caused his eyes to become even wider. No one had ever hugged him. This took him by surprise.
"Gaara-kun! How've ya been, man?!" the blonde asked, his blue eyes wide with curiosity and excitement.
"Fine. It's good to see you again, Naruto-san," Gaara replied, finally being released from Naruto's death grip.
Calmly walking up to Naruto's side and looking up from his book, Kakashi greeted him as well, just without being hell-bent on making the day worse. "Afternoon, Kazekage-sama."
"Afternoon, Kakashi-sensei. And please, it's just Gaara."
"Very well, Gaara-kun." Kakashi smiled at Gaara with his eyes while saying this last word.
This made Gaara shiver a bit. He wasn't used to people being nice. His whole life had always been the total opposite of nice.
"Gaara! Get over here, it's cake time!" Temari called from behind our little Kazekage.
Once again, Gaara's eyes seemed to get a little wider and he whispered, "No, Temari…you didn't…"
Temari gave a wolfy grin and motioned for him to follow, but his feet refused to move him. Giving an impatient grunt, she walked over to him and dragged him over to a table by his shirt. She gestured for him to sit down, but ended up having to force him into a chair.
"Ok, everyone. Time to sing happy birthday to our Kazekage. On the count of 3, 2, 1..."
Gaara shot a quick glare at his sister just before the start of their singing.
"Happy birthday to you!"
Gaara's face was turning darker to match his blood-red locks. Could we have embarrassed the Kazekage?
"Happy birthday to you!"
Starting with his neck, then his arms, Gaara's body was soon deepening to blend with his reddened face.
"Happy birthday dear Gaa-ra!"
Starting to grip reality, he looked up at the many faces staring directly at him. This only caused him to look ten shades worse.
"Happy birthday to yoooouu!!"
Suddenly, his whole world turn into hell. There was practically a cloud of glitter. It was everywhere! Floating around him, on his clothes, in his hair, starting to get in his eyes, reaching the very fabric of his soul! There was a ear-splitting roar from a wide array of noisemakers, being blown by just about everyone in the crowd surrounding him. He cringed. This was too much. "C'mon, Gaara, lighten up a little bit, bro!" Kankuro said, attempting to give him a playful punch to the shoulder, only to be stopped by a small wall of sand before he made contact. "Or not…" he added, rubbing his hand.
"Gaara?" called Naruto, "Aren't you going to blow the candles out?"
With no more than a barely noticeable twitch of his fingers, Gaara caused a small amount of sand to float out of his gourd and form what looked like a blade.
"G-Gaara, what are you doing?" Kankuro asked, his voice shaking. Right now he was beginning to expect the worst.
The blade flew across the table, creating a small gust of air, strong enough to blow the 15 small flames out. Many of the people in the crowd gave a sigh of relief. Temari let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Well," she started, "since you got sand all over the cake, I guess it's present time!"
You wouldn't think the Kazekage would fear something like this, but upon hearing those words, a look of pure horror shot across his face. "Present time" he repeated in his head. Gaara had never enjoyed presents. He saw them as pointless and never thought he deserved them, anyway.
Before he had a chance to protest, he found himself being dragged off by his sister once again. This time, he was sat down in a chair, next to a fairly large pile of neatly wrapped gifts.
"Great…" he thought.
Before he knew it, there was a neon orange box flying at his face. Shukaku put a stop to that. No brightly colored gift was going to use it's menacing pointy edges and frilly bows to harm this Kazekage!
With an sigh, Gaara bent down to pick up the gift marked 'From Naruto.'
Not caring one bit to preserve the wrapping, Gaara quickly tore it away from the box and tossed it to the ground next to him. It was…a box of instant ramen. Ichiraku brand.
"Er…thank you, Naruto-san."
"No problem Gaara-chan!" Naruto answered, quite loudly.
The next present he got was in simple, white wrapping, decorated with excessive ribbons and bows. Giving it a puzzled look, he thought, "Who could this one be from?"
He truly had no idea. That was until he found a card that said 'Behold the power of youth!! YOSH!! Use it well Gaara!'
"Oh…that guy."
"Gaara-kun!! That strange elixir seems to make me stronger when I am under its effects!" shouted the green-clad, bushy-browed idiot himself, "Though you do not need it, I'm sure it can do the same for you! :D"
Gaara gave a deep sigh. The 'elixir' as he called it was actually sake. Fun. And here he was, under the legal age. Oh well, he was Kazekage!! What would they do to him? No--what could they do to him?!
After two long, unbearable hours of opening gifts and thanking everyone, Gaara was exhausted. He wanted nothing more than to take a long nap, but with Shukaku still within him, that was off of the schedule.
"We should go." "Before this day gets any worse," he added in his head.
The two older siblings nodded in agreement and they started heading to their house.
Once the three siblings finally reached home, Temari stretched her arms and let out a very overdramatic yawn.
"I'm off to bed you two, don't stay up too late, Kankuro."
Completely ignoring his sister, giving her a simple nod, Kankuro took it upon himself to find the sake and pour two glasses of it. This made Gaara tense a bit. He wasn't going to offer alcohol to his underage brother, was he?
"Kankuro," Gaara sighed, looking up from a book he had received earlier, "Temari has gone to bed already. I doubt you need to drink from two glasses at once, what's the bother?"
"One's for you, man," his brother said with a smirk. Gaara tensed again, this time more noticeable.
"Today, I am 15. Several years under the legal limit." Gaara planned to drink the sake, but he planned to do it secretly. What kind of example would he be setting if he began drinking underage? He wasn't the type to want to do things such as drinking or smoking, but it was a gift. Thinking that would quiet his older brother, he settled down again and continued reading.
"Come on, don't be such a baby, it won't hurt to have a taste." He offered the glass to his brother, who reluctantly walked over and took it."
"Fine then. Just a bit, though. I don't plan on becoming intoxicated."
Gaara slowly lifted the glass to his lips. This was his first time tasting alcohol, so he didn't know what to expect.
The taste of it was bitter, making him cringe a little. He took one more sip, the taste still left something to be desired, but it seemed to soothe him.
Several hours later, both brothers had consumed the entire bottle. They were finishing it up around 3 am, just as Temari came out of her room to get a snack.
When Temari passed through the living room, her eyes widened. She was a bit confused at first. Her brothers were drunk. Well, she wasn't so surprised about Kankuro being drunk. Gaara on the other hand…But just looking at the two made her collapse in laughter. Gaara was laying on the couch disoriented, while Kankuro was passed out on the floor.
"T-Temari?" Gaara mumbled, just now noticing his sister, "Wh-what are you *hiccup* doing up so late? Shouldn't you be in…in bed?"
She suppressed the laughter to answer him. "I just got up for a snack, how's the sake?"
"It…it's good," Gaara smiled. Wait. Gaara…smiled?
"I'm glad to see you liked your present." Just then, she got an idea. Gaara was so uptight, she needed to show him he could loosen up. Having a bit of Blackmail on him couldn't hurt, either.
An evil smirk came across her face. She took one of her dad's old records and began to play it. The song that came up was Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up.'
Much to her liking, her little brother started mumbling the lyrics. Good. He knows it.
"We're no strangers to love…you know the rules, and so do I…"
"What, Gaara? A bit louder, I can't hear you?"
"I just wanna tell you how I feel girl…gotta make you understand…"
"What?" she asked with a grin, trying to provoke him.
"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN, NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU"
Gaara went back into his daze, and Temari went to get her camera.
At about 6 am, Kankuro woke up, moaning about his headache. This definitely made his list of top 10 hangovers.
Gaara, unable to sleep, got the worst of it. Instead of going to sleep and waking up with a headache, his slowly developed and just kept getting worse as morning got closer.
When she was sure he was sober again, Temari went over to comfort her little brother. It was his first hangover and he couldn't even sleep through any of it, he must feel terrible. He was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, obviously in a lot of pain. He looked as if he were fighting off Shukaku.
"Hey, how ya doing, Gaara?"
"It's the worst physical pain I've ever experienced…never let me drink alcohol again. Ever."
Temari giggled. "It won't last forever, it should go away some time this afternoon."
"Yes, well it's giving me a hard time with Shukaku. He's trying to take my weakened state as an opportunity. As long as I stay calm until this stops, it should be fine."
Temari frowned at first, but her expression turned into a sympathetic smile.
"Temari?"
"Yeah?"
He took his face from his hands and looked up at her. His eyes were only half-opened and slightly glazed. The rings around them seemed thicker and darker today.
"I don't remember a thing from last night. I didn't do anything…embarrassing, did I?"
"Oh, no…nothing like that," she snickered.
"Temari," he answered, this tone much more serious, a hint of anger, "Tell me."
"Nothing, nothing," she smiled, rubbing his head playfully.
To celebrate Gaara's birthday, January 19th, here's a little one-shot about his siblings' surprise. Read, review, tell meh what ya think.