I do not own Naruto or any part of it. If I did own Naruto, it would focus completely on Gaara-chan, and I would live off of something besides rice and cheap dollar store food.
I hope you enjoy the fic, and please review when you're done reading it! .
Gaara stood in the doorway, torn between speaking up and leaving. It hurt him to see his older sister in such a state. He knew that the life of a ninja was harsh, no one knew that more than him, but she had always seemed so cheerful and happy. He had never thought that everything was so bad.
"Temari-nee-chan?" Gaara finally spoke up, his voice faint and hesitant.
"Ga-Gaara-chan! I didn't see you there, you shouldn't sneak around like that!" Temari giggled nervously, hiding her arm behind her back, blood dripping onto the floor.
"Are you okay?" Gaara asked.
He knew it was an odd question. A few years ago he would have glared at her silently, and continued down the hallway, not caring about the kunai she was digging into her flesh. But now she was his older sister, in both blood and word. He couldn't let her throw her life away over some unknown problem.
She was his only sister, and he had to look after her while Kankoro was away. That's what family did, he had learned, they looked out for each other.
"I'm fine, Gaara-chan," Temari smiled, her face calm even in the midst of her lie, "You shouldn't worry about me. You have enough problems on your own."
"You would tell me if anything was wrong, wouldn't you?" The red headed nin asked, looking at her ragged form through sad eyes. He berated himself mentally for not noticing her condition earlier.
This had been going on for too long, and he was going to put a stop to it.
"Of course I would," Temari smiled, "You're my little brother, and I trust you."
"Liar," Gaara hissed suddenly, grabbing her injured arm, smearing blood across his hand, "What the hell is this!?"
"Please, Gaara, let go!"
"Not until you tell me why!"
"It's nothing! It's nothing," the blonde sobbed, collapsing to the ground, tears streaming down her face, "It's nothing."
"If it's nothing then why are you hiding it!?" Gaara demanded, pulling on her arm angrily, "Why, Temari, why? I thought you trusted me."
"It's not your problem," Temari whispered, staring at the floor as salty tears flooded the bloody mess.
"You're my sister, Temari, that makes it my problem."
"There's nothing you could do. There's nothing anyone can do."
"There's always something to be done," Gaara whispered, sand whipping around his feet as his anger boiled, "I can protect you, Nee-chan. You're my family, and I will protect you!"
"No you can't! You can't do anything!" Temari screeched, tearing free of Gaara's grip and collapsing on the floor, curling up into a little ball, "They're going to kill him, and there's nothing anyone can do about it."
"Kill him," Gaara whispered, the pieces suddenly coming together in his mind.
Temari's sudden deterioration after Kankuro's assassination mission. The mission she had pleaded him not to take. The man's name that she had sobbed in her sleep. Gaara was torn, his older brother had been sent to kill his sister's lover, the heir to themost powerful clan in Konahagakure.
Hyuuga Neji.
"I'll take care of it, Temari-nee-chan," Gaara whispered, smiling down at his startled sister, "I'll make everything all right, so don't you worry."
"But," Temari gasped up as he left the room, his form shifting into dust, "How?"
Neji lay on the ground, gasping for breath. It was obvious to him now that he would not survive this fight. His chakra had already been drained by the puppet master, and his body was far too strained to continue. He had to laugh at the irony of the situation.
He had told her he loved her only a month before, and now the higher ups in the Hyuuga clan, disapproving of his chosen match, had hired her brother to assassinate him. It truly was a fitting irony.
"Could you just give her one message before you kill me?" Neji asked, blood trickling down his chin as he wiped sweat from his forehead. He knew he should have trained harder.
"Gladly," Kankuro smiled weakly. He hated this mission, but, as he reminded himself constantly, a ninja must lock away their emotion if they were to survive.
"Tell her that I love her," the white eyed man smiled, charging at the puppet master, kunai in hand.
If he could not grow old with his beloved, watching their children and grandchildren grow up happy around them, then at least he would go with honor. He would truly give Kankuro a fight to remember, and scars that he would never forget.
Neji lurched in his tracks as Kankuro let out a startled yelp, sand encasing the both of them up to their knees, immobilizing the puppet. A familiar red head, his kanji standing out as the dust settled, approached the former battle field of the two opponents, his lips set in a grim line.
"What are you doing!?" Kankuro demanded, struggling uselessly against the sand.
"Stopping you," Gaara hissed, glaring at his brother, "Haven't you seen how sad Nee-chan is!? If you kill him you'll be killing her as well!"
"Don't you think I know that!?" Kankuro shot back, ceasing his struggles, "But I am a ninja of the Village of Sand! I have to complete my assigned mission or die trying!"
"What about Temari!?" Neji growled, interrupting the conversation.
"Then you will betray you village, because I will not allow Temari-nee-chan to suffer any further," Gaara spat, ignoring Neji's outburst.
"The Kazekage will not like that, we were paid a lot for this mission," Kankuro reminded him.
"I will be Kazekage soon enough that this should be of no concern to you," Gaara reminded him.
Kankuro turned over the facts in his mind briefly, but quickly came to the conclusion that Gaara was, indeed, correct. Within another year, two at most, he would have enough power to overthrow the current Kazekage, and take their deceased father's title as his own. And, then, this matter would be of no concern to any of them.
And, while the current Kazekage would be blistering mad about the failure of the mission, he would not dare try anything that could anger Gaara. No one dared anger Gaara without facing the dire consequences.
"You had better treat my sister damn well, Hyuuga," Kankuro growled, signaling to Gaara that he had decided.
Temari was lucky to have such an odd, yet powerful, family that loved her so.
"I will," Neji whispered, bowing politely to Gaara as he left the scene, trekking quickly toward the Village of Sand, and Temari.
"I'll see you at home," Gaara smirked, walking away from the clearing, his body fading into sand, a smile in his green eyes. He had stopped his beloved older sister from crying.
"Hey, aren't you going to at least unbury me!?" Kankuro shouted from the background, "Hey, Gaara, this isn't funny!"
Temari looked up from her bed, tears still streaming down her face, as someone knocked on the door. She was confused onto who it could be that would come calling so late at night. But, it had been such an odd week for her, with Gaara rushing off angry and returning within the hour smiling, she had been expecting something was up.
But she had never expected to see her beloved Neji, dirty and tired from the long journey, standing on her porch.
"Neji," Temari sighed, collapsing into his arms, shedding tears of joy.
"I hope you are happy now, Nee-chan," Gaara whispered, watching the two lovers share a passionate kiss with his third eye.
He was proud of himself, he had made his older sister smile.
Owari (The End)
Author's Note: Yeah, I know, I should be working on Return of the Lost, but I've become so obsessed with writing a Teamri story that I couldn't resist. I do promise to update Return of the Lost within the week though. I'm just finishing up a new chapter, but I can't seem to get the last half of the chapter to suit me. It's annoying. >. Oh, in case anyone's wondering, Nee-chan means older sister. Well, at least, that's what I was taught in high school Japanese classes. If you think it means older brother, you're think Nii-chan, which DOES mean older brother. Notice the difference of the i and the e. .
Well, I'm off to finish writing the next chapter of Return of the Lost, if you've enjoyed this story please leave a kind review! .