"Temari?" Eight-year old Kankuro stared intently at the girl who entered the kitchen and sat across from him at the table.
"Yes?" She replied as she began to fill her bowl with cereal.
"Why is your hair tied like that?"
"Why? What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing, it's just that it's the first time I've seen you tie your hair like that. Actually… it's the first time I've seen any girl tie their hair into four ponytails."
"My hair gets in the way of training and I just thought I'd try something new," Temari replied in a tone that told Kankuro not to ask any more questions. But Kankuro liked to speak his mind.
"Okay. It just looks weird if you ask me."
The young boy earned himself a black eye that day. Later that night, as he sat on his bed and practiced his puppet manipulation with a small marionette, a knock sounded from his door. He didn't bother calling out, "Come in," because Temari always let herself in his room after knocking. She sat across from him at the foot of the bed. A few minutes of silence passed, the only sound being the marionette creaking and bending about.
"Kankuro?" Temari finally spoke up.
"Yeah?"
"Sorry about getting mad earlier."
"It's okay." Kankuro wasn't one to hold a grudge, especially if it was about something shallow.
"Sorry about your black eye, too."
"It's okay," he repeated.
A few more minutes of silence passed. Temari was the one to break it again.
"Wanna know the real reason why I tie my hair like this?"
Kankuro paused his little activity and looked up at his sister curiously. "Okay, what is it?"
"Well…" Temari thought of how to word her explanation. "Remember what Father told us two weeks ago? About what happened between Gaara and Uncle Yashamaru?"
The puppeteer raised his eyebrows in surprise. He certainly didn't expect Temari to bring that up. He remembered being in their father's office a few days after the village was evacuated and Shukaku went on a rampage. The Kazekage had told his two older children what had happened that night between their younger brother and their uncle, sparing them no details so as to give them a clear picture of what could happen if they so much as tried to upset Gaara.
Kankuro swallowed, trying hard not to remember their father's narration of that night. "What does that have to do with your hair?"
"Remember the things that Uncle Yashamaru said to Gaara before he died? About… our mother?" Temari paused.
"You're making no sense, Temari."
"Let me finish! Anyway, Uncle Yashamaru told Gaara that Mother never loved him or even cared for him, right? Ever since Father told us about that, I keep seeing mom when I look in the mirror. Everyone says I look a lot like her."
"Yeah, you do. So?"
"So… I started to wonder what Gaara feels whenever he sees me."
"That's why you tied your hair like that? So Gaara wouldn't be reminded of our mom?" Kankuro had a hard time comprehending the words he just said.
"Exactly. I don't want him to see mom when he sees me."
"Why? Are you afraid he's gonna go crazy if he gets reminded of her?"
Temari blinked. "I… never even thought of it that way. I just don't want him to be reminded of mom, or of Uncle Yashamaru, or that night."
"…Oh. That's it?"
"Yup."
"So are you gonna continue wearing your hair like that from now on?"
"Maybe." Temari adjusted one of her ponytails. "I kind of like it."
Kankuro swallowed down his insult. He didn't want two black eyes—that would just make him look weird. Or look like Gaara. Later, when Temari had left the room and Kankuro tucked himself in his bed, he thought about the conversation he had with his sister. She did somehow look a little less like their mother with her hair tied like that. Guess Temari has a soft side after all, the boy snickered to himself. Before drifting off to sleep, he wondered if he should do the same thing.
"What in the world?" Temari's mouth hung open as the boy with strange purple patterns on his face and a lopsided cat-eared hood on his head walked towards her. "Kankuro? Is that you?"
She had expected the boy to say no, he wasn't Kankuro, that she had mistaken him for someone else. But the boy with the strange patterns and the strange hat answered in a voice that was unmistakably Kankuro's: "Yup, it's me."
Temari continued to stare at him as he stopped to stand a couple of feet away from her. He took out a few kunai from his pouch and began throwing them at the target boards across the training ground. As hard as she tried, she couldn't match the Kankuro standing in front of her to the Kankuro in her memories: his unruly brown hair was tucked and hidden under that hood thing, and his sharp facial features were softened by the purple lines that bent and twisted all over his face.
"What's with the hood and the make-up?"
Kankuro paused from his target practice to frown at her. "It's Kabuki paint, not make-up. Don't call it that."
"Fine. What's with the hood and the Kabuki paint?"
The boy resumed his throwing. "I'm a shinobi who uses the puppet jutsu. I decided that when I go against future enemies on missions, I want them to get the full experience of going against a member of Suna's Puppet Corps. So, I made my whole get-up an allusion to Kabuki Theater."
Temari rolled her eyes. She never really understood the puppeteers of their village and their obsession with the art. But Kankuro was taking it to a whole new level. As far as she knew, members of the Puppet Corps weren't required to wear clothes that resembled the theater. She suspected that her brother had a whole different reason as to why he suddenly dressed himself like that; a reason similar to the one she told him in his room a few days ago about her new hairstyle.
"Okay, what's the real reason?" Temari asked, crossing her arms.
Kankuro looked at her. "What? I just explained it to you."
"You're not fooling me."
The two stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, Kankuro sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you since you told me about your hair."
The two siblings sat down in the shade at the west side of the training ground.
"I guess you already know what I'm about to tell you," Kankuro started, looking at his sister. He continued when she didn't reply. "I thought about what you said to me a few days ago, about you tying your hair like that so that Gaara won't see mom when he sees you. I guess you have a point. Even after all the stories we heard about him and the Shukaku… I still feel kind of sorry for the guy. So I thought, 'How can I change my look?' I got the idea after reading about a puppet jutsu. It's perfect 'cause it represents something I like, and it makes me look less like Father," Kankuro ended, looking pleased with himself.
Temari grinned at him. "Yup, you look a lot less like him with your make-up."
Kankuro frowned at her teasing. "Don't push it."
The two siblings were quiet again. Then, Kankuro sighed, abandoning his irritation at his sister's earlier comment. "I guess it's a good thing I look a lot less like Father with this whole get-up. Gaara must really hate him, or must be really scared of him. After all, what kind of father would want to have his own son assassinated, even with a monster in him…" Kankuro trailed off.
"And what kind of father seals a monster in his own unborn child," Temari added, implying her agreement. She looked at Kankuro. "Are you gonna continue wearing that hat and painting your face?"
"Probably."
Temari smiled mischievously. "It's gonna take some time to get used to, little bro."
"I could say the same for you," Kankuro retorted. The two laughed.
"Hey, don't tell anyone about this, okay?" Kankuro said after a while.
"About what?"
"Why we changed our looks."
"I won't." Temari paused. "Purple Freak."
Kankuro's eye twitched. "Porcupine Head!" He earned another black eye that day.
Kankuro entered his brother's office with a stack of papers in his hands, which he dumped with a heavy thud on the desk. "Here are all the profiles and application forms of the genin who applied for the upcoming Chunin Exams. All they need is your seal."
"It looks like we have quite a number of applicants this year," Gaara commented without looking up from the document he was writing.
"Yeah. I think it's more than double the number of applicants from the last Chunin Exams," Kankuro said as he took a seat in one of the cushioned chairs of Gaara's office.
The two brothers chatted idly for a while: about their expectations for the applicants, about yesterday's meeting, about Kankuro being assigned to mentor a group of Puppet Corps newbies.
"Speaking of which," Kankuro said as he stood up. "I gotta head over to the Puppet Corps Complex right now. Don't wanna make a bad impression on the kids. I wanna be as intimidating as possible." Kankuro chuckled as he turned for the door. "See you later, Gaara."
"See you later and good luck," Gaara responded. "Oh, and Kankuro?"
The older boy already had a foot outside the room. He turned to his brother, who was looking at him. "Yeah?"
Gaara's mouth curled into what would pass as a smile for the normally-impassive Kazekage. "If one of your new students decides to apply purple Kabuki paint on his face like you do, try not to call him a 'Purple Freak'."
So Porcupine Head told someone about our secret after all.