Title: Like A Puppet
Author: AppleL0V3R
Beta-reader: Terror-Of-The-Crimson-Night
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Akasuna no Sasori and Subaku no Temari
Rating: T
Type: One-shot – Complete
Summary: His hands were rough, like the rest of him. He'd never be smooth and perfect like his puppets. She didn't care, though, and that's why he stuck around.
Theme: #11 – Rough Hands
Word Count: 1,921
Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.
Note: I am bending the story line a little. Instead of Sasori leaving around fifteen, I'm going to have him leave at twenty-one which will leave Temari at five since she's sixteen years younger than him. Oh wow. By the way, I don't have a complete grasp of Sasori's character. I know he grew cold after his parents' deaths and he doesn't like to wait or be kept waiting but that's about it. So sorry for too much OOCness in his character if there is.
..:Xx0o0xX:..
Temari, like most her age, was a very curious child. Even though she was the oldest, she was also a girl and as her father had said: not fit to learn politics. So she often wandered about without much care, most were mindful of the five year old but none ever said anything. The way she saw it, the whole village was her domain and she could therefore go anywhere she wanted. So she did. She explored and spent most of her time walking through the village.
Kankuro was usually at home with their father to begin learning the way of the shinobi and Gaara was left to his numerous toys. Honestly, little Temari found something odd about her youngest brother, but he was three and cute and she knew she loved him just as much as she loved Kankuro.
Everything was relatively simple in her eyes, black and white. She liked it that way; it was so easy to understand even if that old advisor lady had once said to her father that the world didn't work that way. That to think so was childish. Well, sooner or later she'd show her. But until then, she'd scour every part of the village, get to know her home on a personal level. She was sure that would be the best way to led Suna as excellently as her father.
One day though, everything changed.
The girl child had been sauntering in a more remote section of the village when she'd happened upon a cottage that appeared abandoned. Immediately her interest had been piqued and she couldn't help but think that maybe this could be her own secret place. It was so dark and dusty that surely no one lived there; perhaps she could make it all cute and stuff. Liking the idea more and more with each passing minute, she forgot all the safety precautions she'd been taught and simply bolted for the small wooden building.
She never could have known just how familiar this place would become to her even well over thirteen years later. And never could she have foreseen what came next. Both within that moment and during her entire first stay in the abovementioned place.
Upon entrance, she'd found herself held tight unable to move from the position of a child with her arm outstretched and one foot forward that she wasn't completely putting her weight on. Something inside her, maybe the shinobi that she promised herself she'd become, told her to stay perfectly still. And just like with all her other urges and whims, she followed it, freezing as best as she could in place.
When a silhouette suddenly formed in her line of vision she felt a sudden pulse of fear. A small voice, the only thing in an otherwise blank mind, reminded her that her father had drilled it into her head that she wasn't supposed to be anywhere near here. And she had forgotten in the face of childish idealism. Was he a monster? Was going to eat her? Or do unspeakable things as the Kazekage had said would happen to children who didn't do as they were told?
And then the tears began to form and blurry her vision, it was getting harder and harder to stay still with each passing second and her fears simply kept building. "Please don't hurt me! I'm sorry I forgot I wasn't supposed to be here. I'll be a good girl, I promise!" and then she lost her balance.
Faster then she could track the shadow had disappeared, but she'd had no time to let her fear grow. Within the same second that it'd gone rough, large hands were suddenly on her, one firmly placed on her shoulder and the other on her waist as an arm around said body part steadied her. She knew that all those fears from before should have intensified, but it simply refused to. Not because her petite body could take no more emotion, but because it had all melted away and she was crumbling into this stranger's body. When did she become able to move, she wondered? But she wouldn't have an answer, not even when she asked. She felt herself lifted from the ground as if she weighed nothing at all and found herself surrounded in strong arms and black cloth. It seemed so easy to fall into a sense of security.
So many questions bubbled forth but the exhaust from the weight of so many emotions at one time was the catalyst for the darkness tugging at her eyelids and her consciousness. She tried to fight it, but her eyes wouldn't stop blinking and the heartbeat next to her ear, so much stronger and reassuring than her fathers, was like a lullaby. His soft soothing voice mumbling words she couldn't understand wasn't helping much either. And soon enough, her eyelids refused to open and all she could do was snuggle closer to this stranger, who was scary at first, had somehow gained all her trust in one fell swoop. Then she was sleeping.
..:Xx0o0xX:..
His front door opening so suddenly had taken the twenty-one year old male by surprise; he would have sensed a ninja and civilians didn't come to his home. He was immediately in the entry way to see who it was, forgetting that those unaccustomed to high ranking shinobi speed would think he was materializing. It was easy to when it'd been well over five years since he'd encountered such a simple thing.
What caught him off guard was seeing a little girl with blonde hair and frightened teal eyes frozen in place as if she knew the strings he'd placed were there and could very will slice her to bits. But that wasn't possible, which meant she had very good, very loud instincts. Perfect for a shinobi. Again he was shocked when he saw tears begin to collect in her big pretty eyes and she wobbled slightly, intrigued he stayed still to see what she would do. Would she dare to move and abandon the instinct to stay still that she was obviously holding to so tenaciously? Surely not.
"Please don't hurt me!" The unsteady voice was full of fear and it hit him hard. Was that what her gut told her? That he was dangerous? It made sense enough and it was entirely true, but he didn't quiet like either emotion that plagued her. "I'm sorry I forgot I wasn't supposed to be here." He frowned imperceptibly. Had she been told to steer clear of his home? If so, then why? And why bother if it wasn't made important enough for her to remember? "I'll be a good girl, I promise!" By then her voice was cracking full of sobs, she seemed to have reached her limit. And much to his alarm she lost her balance, beginning to tumble. He was not yet ready to give up this interesting girl, not if he could help it.
And so he was quickly before her, loosening the chakra threads with the hand he'd placed on her comparatively small shoulder while the other encircled her waist so as to steady her. For so long he'd been so cold, focused on only his puppets that the warmth of the small girl as she crumbled into him made him still completely. He watched her as fear turned to trust in her dazed eyes and something in him told him that something could be his again. Not just his puppets, but someone, someone with strong life flowing through her.
This someone.
On a split second decision so unlike him, he choose to pick her up and curl her into his chest allowing the black cloth of his shirt fall on her like a blanket. The man with a shock of shaggy red hair continue to watch as her eyes began to blink more and more until they didn't open again. "You have done nothing wrong." He murmured softly, something in him warming fractionally when she curled into him.
..:Xx0o0xX:..
A twenty-one year old Temari sat in a chair in one of the rooms in a wooden cottage on the outskirts of her Suna home. He'd been twenty-one as well when she'd met him. The memory had never faded, so prominent even now. It had shaped her in ways she never would have been had it not been for him.
She glanced at the bed that had rumpled, disturbed sheets but no body occupying them. She had recently woken from her dream to find her favorite person in the world gone. He'd return at some point she knew, he didn't like to keep people waiting. In the mean time, the brash blonde let her thoughts stray and it inevitably continued where her dream had left off.
She remembered waking a little while later in the same bed her older form sat across from now and he had been in the chair she sat in now, in the very same position. Fear had flashed through her before leaving when rationale told her that she was unharmed and the at-the-time-stranger probably didn't mean her any. So curiosity stepped in and she asked him his name. From there one question lead to another and finally she asked if she could come again. When he said yes, she found herself here as often as she could be even when he wasn't. Which was probably how he developed that 'don't keep me waiting and I won't keep others waiting' philosophy.
She chuckled at the thought.
One her favorite parts of him were his hands. They were rough, they had been since the first day she met him but she still loved them. She'd spent hours simply fiddling with them and he never seemed to mind, neither did. Because neither was perfect and they'd long since realized that. He had joined a criminal organization, but refused to harm her brother, for that she had been thankful. Though there were plenty of arguments and even more times when she thought the relationship they had would be over.
It remained strong, even through it all.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and another encircled her waist. She smiled at the symbolism of it that Sasori seemed to love to keep. She turned and kissed him on the lips and he was quick to reciprocate the gesture.
"Welcome home." She murmured when they parted.
"Have you been a good girl?" He asked in turn.