No owning of Gaara or Naruto characters anywhere here. Sorry.


Chpater 3: Apology Not Accepted


A file was laid down onto the kazekage's desk by Temari. The red haired kazekage made no motion of picking it up and reading it so Temari picked it back up herself with a sigh. 'Sometimes I swear he's getting too lazy for an ex-murderer.' Temari opened the file and read the information of Hitomi aloud to her youngest brother and Hitomi who stood on the opposite side of the desk.

"Name: Kasumi, Hitomi

Age: 17

Hair color: brown

Eye color: brown

Specialties: taijutsu, multiple water techniques

Level: Hunter-nin

Missions accomplished:

S- 2

A- 12

B- 23

C- 9

D- 7

Village: Konoha," Temari looked at Hitomi's file picture and raised an eyebrow.

'All things I already know.' Hitomi thought and the memory of the day she had her file picture taken flashed back. It was a nice day until Naruto had barged in only wearing boxers right as the picture was shot. She thought it too funny and did not have it retaken and kept it as her file photo. Now, however she wanted to squish herself in the corner and die as she watched Temari hand the photo over to the kazekage. 'Not him! Why does he have to be the kazekage? The hottest guy I've ever seen just HAS to see that stupid… He's not hot. What am I talking about? That bastard made a fool of me and hit my pride without even trying. I hate him!' And with that thought, Hitomi frowned to herself and made up her mind that the kazekage was not someone she liked.

She was so caught up in muttering obscenities under her breath that she didn't hear the kazekage ask her a question. He closed his eyes and sat patiently waiting for Temari to shake the girl out of her foolish daydreams.

"Hitomi-san. The kazekage asked you to take off your mask to make sure that you're you." Temari said in a whisper to the girl. The kazekage noticed this transaction and wondered what had transpired between Temari and the girl in the last three hours for Temari to go so easy on her.

"Oh! Right!" Hitomi snapped out of her murder fantasies and unknotted the bow on the back of the mask. She felt a whoosh of cool air invade her once covered face and allowed the revealing of her identity to Temari and the kazekage.

The first things that the kazekage noticed were her eyes. They were consisting of a warm familiar substance that caused him to feel an unfamiliar pang in his heart. She had beautiful ivory skin unfazed by the desert's glare- much like the kazekage's, but with a bit of a tanner complexion. Her small but cute dark red lips also stood out with color and curled up in a smirk.

"I am Kasumi, Hitomi. You can just call me Hitomi though. No –san or –chan, thank you. I'm here to hunt down Satoshi, Ken- a missing-nin of Konoha." She reached in her small side slung bag for a folder with the missing-nin's information. "I hope that you will be so kind as to allow me to continue my stay in Suna and hunt him." 'Him? Kind? Pfft! The jackass nearly crushed my ankle with his damned sand.' Hitomi bit her lip angrily while she handed the tan folder to Temari who read the information to the kazekage.

He gestured to Temari for the folder and skimmed through the information. He flipped over the first page of the brief summary and unclipped a photo on the next page of the file. He held the photo up for Hitomi to see.

"Is this the man you've mistaken me for?" Hitomi took one look at the photo and instantly sweat dropped.

"I guess. I didn't really look at the photo because like I said, red hair is not common and you have similar colored eyes so I just kind of assumed that you were him. Gomen." She bowed again.

"Temari, escort her to a nearby hotel to check in and help her with anything else she needs." With that, the kazekage slid the missing-nin's folder across the desk towards Hitomi and focused his attention on the nearby stacks of papers in need of approving and signing.

Hitomi almost let out a growl as she grabbed the folder and walked out of the office with Temari at her side. She closed the door and instantly turned to Temari.

"Temari, I believe that your kazekage is one of the most… pretentious stuck-up sno-" Hitomi felt Temari's hand muffle out her accusations and whisper in her ear.

"Shh! My brother can hear you through the door perfectly." At this Hitomi blanched and Temari took her hand away.

"B-brother?" Hitomi stood slack-jawed at Temari until Temari grabbed her wrist and led her out. Temari and Hitomi ran out of the kazekage building and into the streets of Suna that was blanketed in moonlight. "You never told me he was your brother!"

"You never asked and I had hoped it wouldn't come up. Something about your youngest brother outranking you and giving you orders is just a little embarrassing."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I won't lie though. I don't like your brother one bit."

"Yes, he can be quite… annoying at times but he's improved by a lot compared to how he was seven years ago." Hitomi decided not to ask.

"If he's much better now then I'd hate to see him when he was littler." Temari smiled.

"By the way, his name is Gaara." Temari kept walking but Hitomi stopped in her tracks.

'Gaara?' A rush of images from her past hit her and nearly made her clutch at her head. The images were blurred and played out like a home film. '"I'm a monster." "Stay." "I promise…!"' Hitomi only caught a glimpse of a blurred out form of red and tan before the images disappeared as quickly as they had come. She didn't notice that her eyes were closed until she heard Temari's voice right next to her.

"Hitomi? Are you alright? I told you not to eat that much ramen!" Temari placed a hand on her shoulder. "Seriously, are you alright?" Hitomi opened her eyes to take in the familiar scenery she had been in before the episode had hit her.

"Yeah. I guess I just took a pretty rough trip down memory lane. By the way, do you have a maid in your house?" Hitomi changed the subject and thanked the great Kamis' that Temari did not push it.

"Actually, no. Now that I think about it, maybe it's about time we hired one." Temari said aloud.

"Perfect! I'll be your maid! Think of it as an extra apology." 'and a perfect chance for me to find out more about Gaara because he's so cute and mysterious and… a complete asshole! That's right, I will find out his most embarrassing secrets and mess him up for life! Payback for hitting my pride that way.' Hitomi started to cackle maniacally with her hands clawing at the air.

Temari decided not to question this as she often had to encounter this behavior from her younger brother, Kankurou. She knew instantly from experience that from this 'clawing' motion and the evil cackle that the girl was plotting something that probably had to do with Gaara. Temari considered turning Hitomi down on the offer (or more like demand) but remembered how her restaurant experiences and talks with Hitomi had been quite favorable. 'It can't be too bad. I'm sure Gaara can handle anything. Plus, it'd be nice to have another girl in the house for once.'

"That'd be nice. How much did you want us to pay for your services?" Hitomi stopped cackling and grinned at Temari.

"Can I work for room and board?" Hitomi could tell from Temari's expression change that she was very hesitant.

"I'd love for you to do that but I'm not sure how Gaara will feel about that." Hitomi took this moment of hesitation to act.

"Pleeease? I have nowhere else to go." Hitomi pouted out her bottom lip and allowed her eyes to grow big and watery.

"Argh. Don't do this to me!" Hitomi let out one single tear escape from one of her eyes and instantly knew she had won Temari over. "Fine, whatever. We don't really have any open rooms so you can either sleep in my room or the couch."

"That's fine! I'll take the couch. Thank you so much Temari!" Hitomi gave Temari a quick side hug before Temari led Hitomi to their home.

Once they got to the large house built of tough compact sand and adobe, Temari let Hitomi in.

"You hungry? I can fix something. Kankurou and Gaara probably haven't had dinner yet." Temari placed her fan against the wall and made her way to the kitchen. She never made it there as she was stopped abruptly by a flash of black and red landing in front of her way.

"I'm sorry but I cannot allow you to cook, Temari. My services are required to start as soon as I get here. As long as I am here I will please you and your family with my cooking and services or I guarantee your couch back full price!" At this Temari laughed.

"Suit yourself. I'll warn you now though, it's pretty hard to please Kankurou and Gaara with anything so don't expect any great thank you from them." Temari threw back one last sincere smile before she dragged her fan up the stairs behind her towards her room leaving Hitomi downstairs alone in the vast kazekage resident.

She took this time to survey her surroundings of the plain ivory room color. The couch and the huge T.V. was placed in a more den-like arena a few steps below the ground compared to the main level. The stairs were built to the right of the entrance with a bay window right next to it. Hitomi entered the room to her left which Temari had made clear that it was a kitchen. She entered the kitchen and was instantly awed by its vast space and island table complete with black leather bar stools. It practically made her forget that she was in a desert at all by the cherry wood cabinets and black marble countertops. She made her way to the room on the left side of the kitchen to find a cute little dining room painted a wine red with a cherry wood table and four chairs in the center. It was one of the cutest houses she had ever seen yet it held a certain state of formality.

Hitomi smiled as she noticed an apron hanging on a hook.

"Time to get to work…"

Much later that night, a rustling could be heard at the entrance door as it swung open to reveal a hungry Kankurou dressed in his usual attire of a black suit with a hood bearing a close resemblance to a cat. He set down his mummified object on his back with a loud thud by the stairs and headed straight for the dining room all the while yelling.

"Temari! We're home. Where's dinner?" 'Or the animal that got ran over and set up on the table as dinner…' He thought grimly to himself as he opened the dining room door. What he saw left him standing slack-jawed at the doorway. It was a table set up with loads of food including chicken, sushi, vegetables, and all other different assortments of food. It was like a table of food fit for a king. Even the wine glasses and the utensils sparkled like never before. Kankurou still stood at the door way with his drool hanging out of his mouth and didn't notice Gaara enter in right after him.

Gaara upon arrival had placed his gourd in his room upstairs before he trudged back downstairs to witness the horror of Temari's cooking once again. But tonight was different. He found Kankurou standing by the doorway of the dining room and instantly watched as his mind conjured up images of a dead road killed raccoon for some odd reason. He sidestepped around Kankurou's drooling face before he looked upon the glamorous dinner table set with actual food. If Gaara ever allowed his emotions to display on his face, he decided that he would probably be standing there slack-jawed as well but not to the point of standing there with drool like an idiot similar to Kankurou. He wondered how Temari could have improved her cooking skill at such an amazing rate when he felt a nudge at his shoulder.

"Wow. Dinner looks awesome!" Both Kankurou and Gaara whipped their heads around to look at their sister standing in-between them.

'If Temari didn't make this... Who-' Both Kankurou and Gaara's thoughts were interrupted when the door joining the kitchen to the dining room flung open to reveal a beautiful girl with long mahogany chestnut hair carrying a large plate of wagashi and a bottle of sake.

"Welcome home!" She set down the plate and the bottle and wiped her hands on her apron and smiled at the three sand siblings. "You must be Kankurou. I'm Hitomi. Nice to meet you." She bowed. Gaara out of the corner of his eye watched Kankurou's hunched form increase the rate of which drool was excreting and mentally shook his head. However, he gave a quick and unnoticeable look-over of the Hunter-nin. Apparently, she had changed from her fighting outfit into a little light purple dress with frills and lacing and a frilly apron on top that bore the words: 'Kiss the Cook. I'm Cute.' "Well, I hope you like the food I made. Did you guys know that you're out of food? I had to go shopping but that's okay. People in Suna are really nice. I got a bunch of deals. Well, why are you all just standing there? Dig in!"

"Alright!" Temari cheered and sat herself down while Kankurou ran over to his spot right across from Temari and almost started eating but Hitomi quickly hit his hand with a spatula she pulled from inside her apron pocket.

"The kazekage eats first."

Hitomi smiled to herself and thought this was the perfect time to start harassing Gaara. She pulled out Gaara's chair which was next to Kankurou and grinned at the skeptical Gaara still standing at the doorway.

"Won't you sit down… Gaara-kun?"

Gaara stood with a sense of bewilderment at the endearment placed upon the end of his name. Nobody had ever called him that. Even his older siblings had called him Gaara-san for years. Who did this girl think she was to call him something like that? Yet at the same time, he felt a gentle tug at his heart- something he had never had the pleasure of feeling before and he quite enjoyed it. However, it would not be proper of him to allow such behavior towards him when he was supposed to be the fearsome ex-monster of Sunakagure: The sand's ruthless murderer.

"Don't call me that. Be formal when you speak to me." Gaara took his seat next to Temari instead and ignored Hitomi's offering.

'Shit shit shit. Maybe I shouldn't have offered the chair and left my seat open. Damn!' Hitomi thought to herself as she remembered that she had set up a trap for Gaara to sit on the chair. His weight on the chair would have pulled the string from the bottom and triggered the bucket of water over head to drop on his head. Hitomi had mapped it all out before she started cooking. 'Oh well. I just can't sit down. That's all.' She feigned sitting down on the chair next to Kankurou. Instead, she placed all of her weight on her feet and legs to hold her up.

"Oh yeah, Hitomi will be staying with us until she finds the missing-nin she's after. Isn't this great?"

"Yessss! Good food!" Kankurou raised his arms in joy.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Temari gained several noticeable veins on her forehead.

For the next 15 minutes, Hitomi and the sand siblings had finished eating and were helping themselves to dessert. Hitomi thought she couldn't take it anymore though. Placing her entire body's weight solely on her feet was making her sore and it started to hurt really badly. She thought she couldn't take it anymore and placed her arms on the table to help support some of the weight but it only took off a bit of the weight for a short while. Beads of sweat dribbled their way down her face and on the back of her neck. 'Well, this is my limit!' She stood up abruptly with a red face and excused herself with empty dishes to the kitchen.

She stood in the kitchen with one hand on the counter panting. "Well, at least I made it! Whew." She came back into the dining room and cleaned the table of the empty dirty plates and placed them into the dishwasher. She was about to start washing the dishes when she heard Kankurou call her name. She went back out into the dining room and addressed Kankurou.

"Yes? Did you need something?"

"No." Kankurou started making faces at Hitomi trying to convey a message to her but she couldn't decipher it.

"Oh. Then why'd you call me?" Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Temari making gestures and faces at Hitomi also.

"Gaara told me to." She whipped her head over to Gaara and caught on instantly trying to dart away from the room but it was too late. Hitomi felt the ice-cold water pour upon her and drench her clothes and hair. She stood there shaking in realization as Gaara made his way to the door.

"ALRIGHT! This means war! Don't think I'll go easy on you, Mr. Sandman!" She screamed and pointed at Gaara all the while shaking out of rage and he stopped to watch her. "I'm going to make your life miserable while I'm here. You'll see. I always get the last word!

Hitomi watched as Gaara turned and left the room but caught the little smirk he wore before he did so. 'So that's how he's going to play. I'll have to get serious then…' She bit her lip and grinned evilly.


Author's Note:

If you have moments to spare, please review! Like I said, I love constructive criticism and any other kind of compliments and just reviews in general. I've noticed that a few people have reviewed and… I still can't stop cackling. I'm just so happy. Thank you for reviewing!