A/N: Hello, and welcome to another fifty sentences installment! The fifty sentences format is an LJ prompt which can be used for personal writing or for fanfiction, and the rules are simple- for each one word prompt, write a sentence involving whoever you wish. In the case of this set, the characters included are all three Sabaku siblings, Chouji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and some randomly mentioned Konoha and Suna nin. I started this with the firm intent of writing all the prompts on Kankuro alone, since no one loves him enough..and you can see where that got me.
WARNINGS: Contains mentions of a yaoi/male-male relationship, in this case Caith's personal crack pairing of Chouji/Kankuro. If that bugs you, then I really don't want to hear about it, because you should have just clicked the back button. Also, sentences contain fanon information and spoilers, for those of you who haven't seen far enough into Shippuden. If you haven't, then GAARA'S THE KAZEKAGE. Okay, quick, go kill that spoiler before it gets too far.
Pairings: Shikamaru/Temari, Chouji/Kankuro. Poor Gaara. No one loves him..yet. Although if I have my way Lee might bebop along eventually.
Timeline: ...flexible. Let's call it after the whole soul-getting-sucked-out thing, because that makes our lives easier. Jounin Kankuro and Temari and Kazekage Gaara.
Right. I think I'm done rambling, soo...
SANDSTORM
#01 – Comfort
Temari was always after him to clean up his workshop; she didn't understand just how comforting poison and paint fumes could be.
#02 – Kiss
It had surprised him when he had to tilt his head up to kiss Chouji; he hadn't met someone taller than him in a while, and truth be told, it made that first contact all the more pleasurable.
#03 – Soft
There were few things that Shikamaru Nara and his brother-in-law agreed upon, save one; that Akimichi tummies were quite possibly the softest things that had ever existed.
#04 – Pain
Gaara claimed that the Desert Coffin caused no pain, and Kankuro could attest to the truthfulness of that-unconscious older brothers make handy test-jutsu subjects.
#05 – Potatoes
Kankuro decided to never mention cooking around his lover's family again after the potato incident; the resulting mass Akimichi hysteria had nearly cost him Karasu.
#06 – Rain
The rain fell more often in Konoha than it did in Suna, and Kankuro always managed to be out when it poured; he would walk in looking for all the world like a sopping, disgruntled cat, and it took all the willpower Chouji had to never laugh at him.
#07 – Chocolate
It had taken him four months, but Chouji had perfected his chocolate recipe, right down to Shikamaru's every specification; the resulting Valentine's Day had given him a sister-free day with his lover, and Shikamaru a grin that went on for miles and the affirmation that "Chouji, you're the best."
#08 – Happiness
Happiness was seeing just how that ridiculous hat, with its kanji for 'wind shadow', fit so perfectly on his baby brother's head.
#09 – Telephone
"Puppeteer Telephone", Kankuro had explained it, snapping his fingers along the chakra threads; and sure enough, they were waiting, their face paint stark and hoods black as their leader finally came home.
#10 – Ears
There was really no need to put ears on a puppet, except, perhaps, as a way to hide weapons; but every good puppeteer knew that sometimes you needed someone to talk to, if only to keep yourself sane.
#11 – Name
He was in the family registry as Sabaku-no- Arashi, and in the puppeteer's notary as Kankuro of Red Sands; but he liked Chouji's petnames for him the best, even if they were mostly food-based.
#12 – Sensual
The best times in bed were when he was slow, and sweet, and practically made of honey; and Kankuro always vowed upon recovering from his flight to the stars that the next person to look at Chouji cross-eyed would meet Karasu's many business ends.
#13 – Death
Death had been playing a waiting game for the past twenty years, rolling the dice and always passing just over his head; laying in a sand dune, watching Sasori walk away as darkness rolled in, he was positive that this time, his luck had run out.
#14 – Sex
Gaara told them they made too much noise, Temari said they didn't make enough; it was Shikamaru's softly grumbled 'troublesome' that pushed them into soundproofing their rooms.
#15 – Touch
The touch of a puppet, Gaara had learned, was very different from the touch of his brother; but the trick always surprised their enemies, and he had to wonder why he was the only one who noticed the difference.
#16 – Weakness
Kankuro was never so aware of his weakness as when he was sitting in a tiny shadow, his breath almost nothing, praying to whatever god would have him that the poisons took effect before anyone thought to look for the man behind the puppet.
#17 – Tears
Kabuki face paint was water resistant, but when they buried Chiyo, not a design in all the plays ever written could hold Kankuro's tears.
#18 – Speed
There was nothing quite like running over the desert sands at midnight after a successful mission, especially when you knew that there was a worried older sister making coffee and a powerhouse of a younger brother sitting behind a desk, listening to your sandals on sandgrains from kilometers away.
#19 – Wind
There were few things more amazing to Sabaku-no-Kankuro than watching his sister ride the winds, her fan a great bird over glittering gold; but he'd never say a word, because then Temari would get cocky.
#20 – Freedom
There was a time in their lives when both Temari and Kankuro secretly wished someone would achieve the impossible, give them a younger brother's burial, if only they could be free; and neither ever spoke of it to Gaara, who, they were ashamed to think, probably knew already.
#21 – Life
Most people thought that puppeteers were crazy when they spoke of their weapons as living things, but Kankuro could tell them that he did not have tools, he had partners, and sometimes they could be royal pains in the ass.
#22 – Jealousy
It was silly to be jealous of a lifeless thing, but sometimes, watching Kankuro's soft whispers into Karasu's unhearing ear, Chouji felt the strangest desire to turn into a puppet- if only so that it could be him riding on Kankuro's back, and his ear the puppeteer whispered in.
#23 – Hands
Being a puppeteer necessitated being good with one's hands, but Chouji was fairly certain that when Chikamatsu Monzeimon created the puppeteer's jutsu, he hadn't quite envisioned what the Akimichi's lover would do with it.
#24 – Taste
Chouji always tasted of something new and interesting, but Kankuro rarely ever got the chance to ask what it was he had been eating.
#25 – Devotion
The battle of Kazekage vs. The Red Sands Troupe Master had been ongoing ever since the village's creation, but Gaara thought, looking at his brother dozing in a chair, scorpion-stitched hakama askew and facepaint smeared, that maybe they could end the feud.
#26 – Forever
Kankuro had never had any illusions about how short his life would be; he hadn't even expected to make it to his eighteenth birthday, but worrying, to him, seemed rather pointless- why worry about living forever when a single breathtaking performance could render you immortal?
#27 – Blood
Love was Akimichi Chouji sitting underneath a wide tarp, handing his lover various cleaning implements and fighting his gag reflex as Kankuro explained, with red-tinted hands and messy sleeves, that cleaning out Kuroari wasn't the most pleasant of his jobs.
#28 – Sickness
There was nothing more difficult to care for, nor affection-inspiring, than a miserable Akimichi with a Konoha summer cold.
#29 – Melody
Temari could sometimes hear from her balcony the softest sound of metal strings, and a low, sweet voice singing a love song; she never told Kankuro she could hear him, because if she closed her eyes it was Shikamaru serenading, and she preferred that as a rule.
#30 – Star
In Suna, where there were no trees, the stars marched like soldiers all across the sky, forming a wave in the heat of battle; it was the next best thing to cloud watching Shikamaru could find, and much cooler, to boot.
#31 – Home
Home for one was sweeping forests, the other swirling golden sands, but no matter where they were, Chouji and Kankuro felt the most at home together.
#32 – Confusion
"But how does it WORK?" he asked again, and Kankuro, eyelid twitching, walked through the process of puppet control one more time, mentally promising Gaara that if he got stuck with Naruto again his brother would need poison testers for the rest of his life.
#33 – Fear
Those bright blue wings were beautiful and oh-so-wrong, and Kankuro thought that he understood true fear; but when knees gave out and swirled cheeks went pale he realized just how mistaken he was.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
Lightning, Gaara explained in his best Leader-of-a-ninja-village-monotone, was very different in Konoha than it was in Suna and therefore he had every reason to squeak in terror and run to his brother's room, hijacking Akimichi Chouji's stomach and smirking all the while.
#35 – Bonds
He could still remember the argument he and his first lover had had, the night before the jounin attempted to carry out the will of the Kazekage, about family duty verses prison and brothers verses demons; it hadn't surprised him at all when nothing could be found of the body, and when Gaara presented him with what was left of a puppet arm.
#36 – Market
The marketplace in Konoha was always bustling, which made tripping the Inuzuka with chakra strings all the more difficult, but Kankuro enjoyed a good challenge, even if it meant an irate Chouji and cold leftovers.
#37 – Technology
When Tenten told Kankuro she was having trouble with her weapons-storage scrolls, they sat together under the pagoda for hours, looking over notes and swapping ideas, discussing this loading mechanism over that poisoned blade; Gaara almost couldn't believe there were two of them in the world.
#38 – Gift
He'd asked Temari, Lee, Shikamaru, Gai, Ino, Sakura, Baki, and even Naruto; it surprised the hell out of Chouji when Gaara informed him, in his voice like a droning sand cyclone, "Kankuro likes orchids."
#39 – Smile
Even though he thought that both were absolutely insane, Kankuro couldn't help but grin back when either Gai or Lee smiled; sometimes Youth was disturbingly infectious.
#40 – Innocence
Kankuro could almost remember a time when he was considered innocent, before he became Suna's foremost authority on poisons, and his name was spoken in hushed whispers; all in all, he prefers the here and now, because in his experience innocent people are dead people.
#41 – Completion
When a play reached completion, he always took a moment to breathe; and it always, always felt like he was falling.
#42 – Clouds
The puppeteer couldn't for the life of him understand what the fascination was with clouds, but he never interrupted when his lover went out with Shikamaru; there were some things even he knew not to intrude upon.
#43 – Sky
Shikamaru wasn't sure when it became his job to watch the horizon whenever his brother-in-law went out on a mission, and he hadn't bothered attempting to change his routine; it was always a relief to whisper 'troublesome' when that familiar silhouette came streaking through the twilight, puppet wrappings flying behind him like streamers.
#44 – Heaven
If there was a heaven, Kankuro knew that Chiyo was there, as reward for all the times she had smacked him over the head and bemoaned him ever becoming a true puppeteer while picking misfired senbon out of the courtyard walls.
#45 – Hell
"It isn't fair," she'd whispered into his shoulder as he clenched Chouji's limp hand, "haven't we done our time in hell? Aren't we safe YET?" and as much as he wished he could console her, to do so would bring up the fact that the lazyass had taken the kunai for her, and that would only irritate his sister more.
#46 – Sun
Sunlight bleached Temari's hair until it was a shade of white gold that bards sang about and poets lusted after; Kankuro never told her that when she became of age most of her suitors had to be treated for minor poisoning.
#47 – Moon
There was always something different in the moon, depending on the country you were travelling in, but no matter where he was, Kankuro knew that he would always and only see a tanuki.
#48 – Waves
All three Sand Siblings feigned nonchalance when they saw the ocean for the first time at the Wind Damiyo's summer palace; but midnight found them standing on the beach, staring at the waves as they came in and comparing them to sand.
#49 – Hair
It had taken Temari four hours to cut the auburn locks off his arms; the first two had been spent laughing at the very idea of her little brother accidentally screwing with the chakra in his boyfriend's highly volatile hair.
#50 – Supernova
The sabaku taiso echoed over the dunes with a mighty crash, and in its wake Kankuro could only ride the shockwave and hope that Gaara noticed him, plucking him to safety on that damn sand cloud he loved so much; sometimes it was just plain irritating, having a supernova for a brother.
A/N: annndd that's the end of that! A few notes on content:
That Chiyo was Kankuro's Mentor isn't canon information, I just like the idea.
As far as I know, the Red Sands Playhouse and the other puppeteers are also all conjectures on my part (and on the part of many Kankuro fans) and Kankuro himself becoming the leader of said fictional troupe is also not canon information. If you'd like to borrow the idea, please give me a little credit, I waste tons of personal time on stuff like that.
No. It's not a cat hat. In fact, it has nothing to do with cats, which you would know if you did research. It's a kabuki puppeteer's hood, AKA a bunraku. The facepaint (not MAKEUP, kthnksbai) is also kabuki-based, hence my thought that Kankuro and his fellow puppeteers also act as actors and entertainers, not just puppeteers. And you're right, this note has nothing to do with the above sentences. It just bugs me.
Kankuro only has one name, and that's Kankuro. But I liked the idea of him being given a birth name that he rejected upon becoming a puppeteer, and Gaara and Temari honoring his wishes and calling him by that new name only.
Right, if there's anything else you'd like to know, then please feel free to note or email me. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again!