A/N: I didn't get too much feedback on the last chapter, so I sincerely hope I'm not boring you guys, but in any case, here's chapter 3! Sorry this took so long, by the way. It's been a hectic few weeks. Thanks to brizamartian for continually hounding me to update. Without her, I may never have finished this chapter.
Yumi and Hiroki are a nod to another of my favorite shows, Code Lyoko, but they are not at all based on their namesakes. I made them up! I also made up Sachiko. Shocker, right?
Anyway, as always, enjoy…
"These are hard times. The world hurts. We live in fear and forget to walk with hope. But hope has not forgotten you. So ask it to dinner. It's probably hungry and would appreciate the invitation."
—Going Bovine, Libba Bray
Chapter 3: The Hospital
"Names?"
"Temari no Sabaku and Shikamaru Nara."
The nurse behind the counter recorded this information in the Hospital Logbook, being far more slow and meticulous than Temari really thought was necessary. They were in a hurry, after all.
The nurse smacked her bubblegum and pursed her lips as she looked back up at the haggard pair in front of her. She tucked a strand of long, brown hair that had come loose from her bun behind her ear. "And you're here to see…" she asked, clearly irritated.
"My brother, Kankuro no Sabaku, and…" Temari trailed off, gesturing to Shikamaru to complete the sentence.
"Choji Akimichi, Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuga, and Sai."
The nurse jotted this in her notes in her flowy, overly complex script. She took extra care to dot the i's with little hearts. She stopped rather abruptly after writing Sai's name, her pen still hovering expectantly above the page. "Sai what?" she demanded.
Shikamaru shrugged unhelpfully. "I dunno."
The nurse arched a delicately plucked eyebrow in disbelief. "He's your friend and you don't even know his last name?" she quipped, tapping one of her long, ornately decorated fingernails against her pen.
Shikamaru's lip curled distastefully—Temari could tell that this nurse was grating on his last nerve. "Nope," he replied tersely, his lips making a sharp popping sound on the 'p'.
"Right," she said as she tossed her pen onto her desk. "Lemme just check their files." She turned away and started to rifle through the wall of manila folders behind her, pausing every so often to remove one.
Temari turned to glance at Shikamaru. He really did look awful—he had harsh dark circles under his eyes, dirt caked into his hair, and he still smelled of stale smoke from last night. She was sure that she didn't look (or smell) much better. They were no doubt a rather startling sight to the other people in the waiting room, but Shikamaru had absolutely refused to waste any time when they'd awoken that morning. As soon as Temari had awoken on the couch, he'd been all but pulling her out the door and to the hospital.
Now that they were here, of course, his level of anxiety was abating somewhat. She could see it in the way the corners of his eyes softened.
The nurse returned to her desk with four very thin manila folders and one rather thick one. Temari was fairly sure she knew which one was Kankuro's. The nurse picked up one of the thin folders with her manicured hand and flicked it open, her eyes dancing quickly across the page. Her brow furrowed in confusion as her gaze landed on one piece of information.
"Hmm," she muttered, tossing that folder aside and grabbing another one. She repeated the mechanical reading, eventually tossing that folder aside as well.
Temari glanced over at Shikamaru and was unnerved when she saw the apprehensive expression on his face, the darkness in his eyes. A vein was throbbing in his forehead, threatening to burst if this nurse kept taking her sweet time.
Finally, after the nurse had finished scanning all four of the skinny folders, she raised a slender finger at Shikamaru. Temari winced as she heard Shikamaru take a sharp breath, bracing himself for the worst.
"Your friends are all fine," she said. "This says they've already been discharged. They've been taken to the visitors' quarters over by the Kazekage's office, so I guess you can find them there."
Shikamaru heaved a huge sigh of relief, but Temari felt none of his ease. "And what about my brother?" she demanded.
"Oh, yeah," said the nurse, clearly annoyed at being badgered. She grabbed the thick folder unceremoniously and began thumbing through the pages, making a tremendous show of the whole endeavor. She ran her fingertip along the page, searching for the relevant information, and finally came across something useful. The nurse opened her mouth to speak, but before she could say anything, a gruff, angry voice floated out of one of the nearby rooms, spooking the nurse and causing her to drop the folder, multicolored pages fluttering haphazardly all over the pristine tile floors.
"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? QUIT TELLING ME WHAT I CAN AND CAN'T DO. I KEEP TELLING YOU I'M FINE! JUST LET ME FUCKING GO ALREADY!"
Temari glared down triumphantly at the nurse, who was on her hands and knees trying to gather papers. Temari painted a fake smile on her face and condescended, "We won't be needing your help any longer. I think we just found who we were looking for."
With that, Temari grabbed a fistful of Shikamaru's vest and began pulling him bodily down the hall to the door from which the noise was emanating.
Shikamaru wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He could feel himself moving, but his whole body was numb. His eyes were glazed over, his ears were buzzing, and his feet felt like they weighed a hundred pounds. He could be dying, for all he knew. He could be tumbling to his death, or marching to the gallows, or any number of bizarre, macabre circumstances, but he wouldn't know. The only thing he knew in that moment was the sensation that was eclipsing all others, the phrase that played itself over and over in his mind, that danced across his vision, that fluttered along beside him like a million tiny butterflies, carrying him and his heavy feet to wherever it was he was going: They're okay.
He could see nothing but They're okay. He heard nothing but They're okay. He felt nothing but They're okay. He could not think of another time in his life that he'd felt such relief, except perhaps after that first mission-gone-wrong. He was sure he was smiling like some kind of idiot, but strangely, he was okay with that.
Suddenly, he was jerked to his right and he was sent reeling as he came back to his senses. He was in a starkly lit hospital room with three other occupants. Temari, of course, but also a rowdy brown-haired boy in a patterned hospital gown and a doctor, who was sweating profusely as he attempted to prevent the brown-haired boy from getting out of his bed. The boy was putting up a tremendous fight, and he was yelling at the top of his lungs, as if he could fling the doctor from his side with sheer volume.
"JUST LET ME GO TO THE FUCKING BATHROOM, OR I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL PISS ALL OVER YOUR PRECIOUS UNIFORM!"
"KANKURO!" Temari shrieked, and the boy's jerking stopped. Shikamaru gaped. This boy was Kankuro? He hadn't recognized him without his kabuki makeup. He glanced back at Temari for confirmation, but she was already off interrogating the doctor. "What the hell is going on in here?" she demanded.
The doctor hastily removed his hands from Kankuro's shoulders and moved to wipe the sweat from his brow. "And who might you be, Miss?"
"I'm his sister."
"Well that's very nice Miss, but I'm afraid this is a matter between myself and the patient."
"I also happen to be a member of the Kazekage's personal guard."
The doctor laughed. "A little lady like you? I'm sorry Miss, but I'm not sure I believe you." He turned back to Kankuro, who was attempting to take advantage of the doctor's distraction to get out of bed.
Turning his back on Temari's was a very poor decision indeed. Shikamaru could practically see the steam billowing from Temari's ears and the flames dancing in her eyes as she lunged at the doctor. There was a glint of steel as Temari slipped a kunai from its sheath and within seconds she had the doctor pinned to the floor, the knife at his throat.
"Listen up, you ridiculous chauvinist: whether or not you believe me is not my concern," she spat venomously, "but you will tell me what is going on with my brother. Or do you want me to contact Lord Gaara?"
The doctor gulped, his Adam's apple pressing against the cold blade as he looked into Temari's face. Shikamaru couldn't help but feel bad for the man—he knew how it felt to be on the receiving end on one of Temari's attacks, and it wasn't fun. But at the same time, he was being pretty rude.
Shikamaru glanced up at Kankuro, who was sitting upright with his feet swinging joyfully over the edge of the bed. He had a toothy grin on his face, obviously enjoying the doctor's discomfort. For a moment, Shikamaru thought he might even applaud his sister's performance, but Kankuro somehow managed to restrain himself.
The doctor licked his lips nervously and began to speak in a very small voice. "Kankuro needs to urinate, but he refuses to use the bedpan."
"And why should he have to?" demanded Temari.
"Well, it's against hospital protocol to allow patients to use the public bathroom facilities within twenty-four hours of an operation. We have to allow his wound to heal properly," the doctor continued.
"Well this may shock you, seeing as I'm a woman," Temari hissed at him, pressing the kunai's flat side into the doctor's neck even harder, "but I was at the battle yesterday, so I saw his wound. A single gash to the thigh, about six inches long, about one inch deep? That's not something twenty-four hours is going to fix. And if you did your job properly, if it's stitched and bandaged properly and you had a Medical Ninja look at it, I don't see why he's even still here. There's not much more you can do for him, am I correct? And I want you to think long and careful before answering. I'm sore, I'm exhausted, I'm dirty, and I'm mad, and you definitely don't want to test me right now."
Shikamaru whistled quietly. This poor doctor was getting absolutely smoked.
The doctor's eyes twitched around in their sockets, glancing frantically back-and-forth between Temari and Shikamaru, who was standing above the whole mess. The doctor finally met Shikamaru's eyes, pleading him for backup, imploring Shikamaru to see reason. Shikamaru simply shrugged. There was no way he was saying anything contrary to Temari right now. She was scary when she was like this. The doctor sighed dramatically as his eyes shifted back to Temari. "I suppose you're right, Miss," he relented.
Temari's grip on the kunai loosened and she slowly got back to her feet. "That's what I wanted to hear," she said coldly. She turned to Kankuro, who was already slipping off the bed, his bare feet gradually coming into contact with the cold tile floor. She smirked at him as he padded over to her. "Go take a piss, Kankuro," she said.
"You're the best, sis," he responded, clapping her on the back as he limped to the door. As he neared Shikamaru, he sprouted a heartfelt smile and exclaimed, "Hey, Leaf Boy! You were awesome yesterday, I swear." He paused and leaned closer to him, as if he were about to speak some kind of crucial secret. "And don't be so loud—you might wake the other patients," he joked, proceeding to the door.
Shikamaru laughed heartily, making his first real sound in what felt like hours. "It's good to see you again," he called over his shoulder, slowly pivoting to see Kankuro shuffling down the hallway.
"You too," shouted Kankuro, waving but not turning around. His open-backed hospital gown fluttered around his bandaged thigh as he moved, exposing his bare ass to all the people who'd swarmed the hallway to see what all the commotion was about.
Temari, who'd joined Shikamaru in the doorway, chuckled quietly and shouted down the hall, "You're such a moron, little bro!" With her smile still twinkling in her eyes, she turned to Shikamaru. "He scares me sometimes."
Shikamaru met her gaze. "You scare me sometimes," he responded bluntly. He nodded behind both of them, where the doctor was still struggling to his feet clumsily with a dazed expression on his face. "What happened to all that 'I hate fighting' shit?"
"It's not like I was actually gonna hurt him or anything," she defended. "Besides," she added quietly. "That asshole was practically begging for it."
There was a shrill squeak as the doctor's shoe skidded on the tile floor and Temari whipped around, her smile disappearing completely. "You!" she shouted. "Don't think I forgot about you. You're gonna get me all of Kankuro's personal effects. He's coming with me."
The doctor wrung his hands, flustered. "Miss, I'm not sure that's the best idea. It might be beneficial for him to remain in the hospital for a couple more da—"
"GET ME HIS SHIT; I'M TAKING HIM HOME."
The doctor bowed furiously, trembling with fear. "Y-y-yes, Miss." He scampered out the door, failing to meet their eyes. As they watched him scurry into the distance, Temari sighed. "Ah…It's good to have my brother back." She nudged Shikamaru's side with her elbow. "And now we can go get your friends."
Shikamaru felt that same dumb grin spread across his face as he thought again, They're okay. And now he was going to see them. This was going to be a good day; he could feel it.
Outside the hospital, Temari raised her hand to shield her eyes from the mid-morning sun. The air was already sweltering in the desert, and as she, Shikamaru, and Kankuro began the journey back to the Kazekage's headquarters, and she could see Kankuro fidgeting uncomfortably in his black uniform as he stepped into the sun's direct path. In his work, he spent a great deal of time inside (in the shade) tending to his puppets, so the traditional heat-absorbing puppetmaster garb was rarely a real problem, but now, on what was shaping up to be one of the hottest days the Hidden Sand had seen that year, Temari was having a bit of trouble seeing where exactly the practicality came into play. She'd have to put that on her list of things to ask the village elders when she had the chance.
The unruly trio set off into the village just as the storefronts began to open. As they passed, restaurant doors all around them began to open and a plethora of scents started to fill the street. Temari smelled sweet dumplings, hot buns, sesame noodles, miso broth. Her stomach rumbled, and Temari recalled that she'd skipped breakfast. Temari grinned as they passed her favorite fruit stand, where the owner, a kindly white-haired woman named Sachiko, was setting out her wares for the day. She glanced up and stretched her lips into a toothy smile upon seeing Temari, raising a weathered hand to wave hello. Temari jogged over, fishing around in her pockets for change.
"Good morning, Sachiko-san," she sing-songed pleasantly.
"Good morning, Temari," Sachiko returned. "What'll it be today?"
Temari extracted the appropriate amount of money from her pocket and handed the woman the coins. "Three, please."
Sachiko accepted the money with a mild nod of her head. "Three of what?"
Temari shrugged. "Whatever you think is best."
Sachiko appraised her wares, finally plucking three ruby-red apples from the pile. "These okay?"
"Perfect," Temari smiled, eyes twinkling as she took the food from the woman. "Thank you, Sachiko-san!" she called over her shoulder as she walked back toward Kankuro and Shikamaru, who had continued on their way, lost in the chaos of the hustle and bustle around them. She heard Sachiko chortle good-naturedly behind her.
The crowd of people in the street was growing quickly, the village gradually transitioning into full swing. Tenants in the upstairs apartments opened their windows, calling across the way to each other and stringing up their laundry. For the life of her, Temari could not stop smiling. She was rarely awake in time to see it, but she absolutely loved seeing the city come to life in the morning.
She saw her brother's cloaked head and Shikamaru's ponytail bobbing a few feet in front of her. "Boys!" she called. As they turned around, she tossed two of the apples into the air, each of them catching one. "Breakfast," Temari said in explanation, taking a bite of her apple. The cool, sticky juice dribbled down her chin. Delicious. She wiped at her chin savagely to catch the juice before it dripped onto her chest.
Kankuro snorted as he took a bite of his apple. "That's not very lady-like, sis," he jested.
Temari glared at him. "Don't even start with me," she said. "Don't forget I'm the one who sprung you from that joint; I'm not afraid to send you back."
Kankuro held up his hands in surrender. "Jeez," he enunciated exaggeratedly. "I was only joking." He took another chomp out of his apple, chewing a few times with his mouth open before leaning down close to Temari's ear. "Miss," he whispered slyly, almost as an afterthought.
Temari slapped him away, shoving him roughly with her shoulder. "I am going to kill you," she shrieked, desperately trying to hold back the laughter that was dying to escape from her mouth. "And I swear, when I do, I'm going to enjoy it."
"I don't doubt that," Kankuro smirked. "Not one bit."
Temari shook her head in disbelief. Her brother could be such a pain sometimes. Ha, she thought, glancing over at Shikamaru. I almost sounded like Nara just then.
Shikamaru's eyebrows were wrinkled in concentration as he nibbled mindlessly at his apple. His dark eyes were fixed on the ground, but it was clear to Temari that he wasn't watching where he was going. She wasn't sure what he was even seeing, but it certainly wasn't the sand. "Hey, Nara," she prodded softly. "You okay?"
Shikamaru started, glancing up at Temari with frightened eyes. "Huh?" he asked, returning his gaze to the ground as he processed the question. "Oh. Yeah. Fine." He took another nibble of his apple, chewing meticulously before swallowing. He looked like he was in pain.
"No, you're not," she muttered, shoving Kankuro away as he craned his head to listen in. "What's eating you? You should be happy, right? We're going to see your friends."
Shikamaru tilted his head ever so slightly, a habit she knew he fell into when he was thinking but didn't want to be too obvious about it. "I don't know," he admitted. "I think I'm just a little nervous."
Temari looked into his blank eyes, searching for an answer she knew wasn't there. "Of what?"
"How they'll react."
"What, when they see you?"
"Mm," he confirmed, taking a large chunk out of his apple without even the slightest change in facial expression. It was unnerving, really, how much he cared. She would have thought that he'd be too lazy to care this much, but it turned out that Shikamaru was full of surprises. He definitely wasn't everything he'd seemed.
"I don't get it," she started. "Why should you be nervous? They're your friends, right?"
"Well, yeah," he mumbled around the apple.
"But…" he sighed, "I kind of…y'know…abandoned them. During the battle. I did what I thought I had to do to win but…I just left them to fend for themselves. I was their Captain and I let them down." He bit his lip, bracing himself for her judgment.
Temari wanted to laugh at his embarrassment, his sincerity, but couldn't bring herself to, so she just settled for a slight crinkling around the corners of her eyes as she responded. "That's all you can do in battle," she sympathized. "You focus on winning; everything else is a postscript. That's practically the first rule of being a shinobi."
"Yeah," said Shikamaru, "and maybe that's how things work here, but in the Hidden Leaf, we don't put much faith in the rules."
"Well obviously," Temari replied forcefully. "That's why you're so good."
Shikamaru looked up from whatever was so mesmerizing on the ground, surprised at Temari's answer. "Why do you say that?"
Temari shrugged. "Why do you think we modeled our Shinobi Academy after yours? You've proven time and time again that you're better than us. As much as I hate to admit it, you beat me fair and square in the Chunin Exams. That Uchiha brat all but defeated Gaara; Kankuro chickened out and didn't even fight."
A dignified, "Hey!" floated over to them from Kankuro, who had evidently decided to eavesdrop despite Temari's encouragement otherwise.
"Oh, don't give me that shit; it's true," Temari shot back. "We all know it. We staged a full-fledged attack against your village with Orochimaru and a Jinchuriki on our side, and we lost. There's no sugarcoating that. We lost because the Hidden Leaf is better. I didn't understand why until Naruto rescued Gaara from the Akatsuki, but then it was so obvious. You guys care about each other. When you guys go on missions, they're about protecting your friends, not retrieving some top-secret document or whatever other crap you guys get stuck with."
Shikamaru, strangely enough, cracked a smile at that. The smile was contemplative and distant at best, but at least he didn't look like a crazed angsty teenager anymore.
"What?" Temari prompted. "Why're you smiling?"
Shikamaru shook his head. "Just thinking about something I heard Kakashi Sensei say once."
Temari waited for more, but it appeared Shikamaru wasn't going to supply anything more without further questions. This conversation was like pulling teeth. "What'd he say?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Shikamaru took a deep breath. "In the Ninja world, those who break the rules are regarded as scum, but those who would abandon even one of their friends are worse than scum."
Temari whistled. "That, from that guy…wait, Kakashi is the white-haired guy, right? The one who reads the trashy romance novels?"
"Yup."
"Wow," she said, finally at a loss for words. "He sounds like a smart guy."
Shikamaru nodded. "He is."
The trio walked on in silence for a few more minutes, but before long a child's shrill voice pierced the air.
"TEMARI SENSEIIIIIIIIIIIII!" shrieked a black-clad projectile as it sped straight for Temari. It barreled into her at full speed, sending the apple core flying from her hand and nearly knocking her over, but she somehow managed to stay upright. She looked down at the tiny child who had buried her face in Temari's thigh, clinging desperately to her sensei's legs as if she were afraid something awful would happen if she let go. Temari felt her trembling against her and felt a wet patch forming on her skirt as the girl sobbed. She felt Kankuro and Shikamaru's eyes boring into her, asking her what the hell was going on; she simply shrugged at them. She delicately placed a hand on the girl's head, stroking gently at her shoulder-length jet-black hair.
"Yumi," she said softly. "What's wrong?"
Yumi tilted her face directly up, and Temari was dismayed to see the trail of gloopy snot leading from her nose to the wet patch on her skirt, but was a bit too worried to be properly angry. "I w-w-was s-so s-s-scared!" stuttered Yumi, hiccupping pathetically and raising one pudgy fist to her swollen face to wipe at her bloodshot eyes and dripping nose.
Temari slowly knelt, trying to lessen the ridiculous height difference between herself and her student, grasping one of Yumi's hands (making sure it wasn't the one she'd used to wipe her nose) with her own. "Scared of what?"
Yumi sniffled, gasping for breath. Temari was getting really worried; she'd never seen her this shaken up.
Suddenly, Yumi flung her arms around Temari's neck. It was still a stretch for her, despite the fact that Temari was on her knees, but Yumi pulled her into a hug anyway, this time burying her face in Temari's shoulder. Temari, never having been one to understand emotional etiquette, didn't reciprocate the hug, deciding instead to simply allow Yumi's continued contact.
"Y-y-you left during class yesterd-d-day and nobody knew w-where you were," she mumbled into Temari's shirt, the fabric muffling her sobs. "And I went home and asked my m-m-mommy, and she said there was a big b-battle going on outside and you were th-there and I was s-s-so scared 'cause I thought you were gonna d-d-d-die!" she shrieked.
Temari was stunned. Yumi usually sat in the very back of the class, constantly twiddling her fingers and hiding her face behind her dark curtains of hair. She never raised her hand to answer questions; she rarely participated in class sparring matches; she was incredibly timid and shy. To be honest, Temari had always thought Yumi had hated her, or at the very least been afraid of her. She'd never thought that her participation in a battle would merit this kind of reaction from anybody, let alone a six-year old who'd been thrown into the Shinobi Academy by strict parents who expected their frail daughter to be strong. Yumi had never been particularly disposed to being a ninja, and Temari had always been particularly hard on her, having to urge her on far more than the other students, so Yumi in particular had decent reason to hate her. It had never occurred to Temari that Yumi actually cared about her.
Temari looked down at the shivering girl tenderly, and finally wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her tight. Temari hunched over to bring her mouth closer to Yumi's ear and whispered, "It's alright, Yumi. I'm okay."
The girl sniffled once weakly before taking a tiny step back, breaking the hug. Her tears were ebbing now, her hysteria fading. "Really?"
"Really," she confirmed, standing up. "Look at me." She held out her arms and did a little spin. "I'm not even hurt."
Yumi's tear-streaked face broke into an ear-to-ear smile, laughing joyfully. She grabbed Temari's hand and began tugging Temari along, so the trio began on their way again, still heading for the Kazekage's headquarters. Temari thought Yumi was done with her outburst, but just as she was about to suggest that Yumi go back to whoever she was with, Yumi opened her mouth to speak again.
"I can't wait until I'm a big strong kunoichi like you, sensei," Yumi gushed. "I'm gonna train so hard—you'll see! Next time there's a battle, I'm gonna fight with you!"
Temari felt a proud smile twitching the edges of her mouth. "I can't wait," she said softly, as if she were presenting Yumi with a vital secret.
"Yumi?" someone called in the distance, causing Yumi to stop in her tracks. "Yumi? Where'd you go?"
"Hiroki?" Yumi yelled.
"Yumi!" shouted a skinny black-haired kid as he broke through a crowd and came into view. "Man, why'd you run off? Mom and Dad are freaking out!" He grabbed her hand and squatted down, looking at her. "Have you been crying?"
"She's fine now; we took care of her," said Temari.
Hiroki started, just noticing who his little sister had been standing with, and quickly straightened and started combing his hair back with his fingers.
"Oh," he said, blushing, "good morning, Lady Temari."
Temari rolled her eyes slightly. "Good morning, Hiroki."
Kankuro, somewhat jealous of all the attention Temari was getting today, cleared his throat loudly.
Hiroki turned, taking notice of him for the first time. "Oh, hey, Kankuro Sensei!"
Kankuro smiled wide and raised his right hand for a high-five which Hiroki quickly returned. "What's up, man? Have you been doing those shuriken drills?"
"You bet! I'm getting so much better. I'm hitting the targets almost every time now!"
"What'd I tell you? You just had to find the right motivation, that's all."
Hiroki shot a slightly guilty look at Temari, but averted his eyes quickly. "Yeah. Right, Sensei," he said as his eyes searched for something else, anything else to look at. His gaze ultimately fell on Shikamaru. "Who's this?" he asked.
"That's Shikamaru Nara," replied Temari. "He's a friend from the Hidden Leaf."
Hiroki sized Shikamaru up as he would a competitor, looking at him top to bottom. Temari saw Shikamaru arch one eyebrow skeptically, practically baiting the kid.
Hiroki looked back to Temari. "A friend, you say?"
Temari crossed her arms. "Yeah."
"Huh," Hiroki grunted, unconvinced. "Well," he said with a tone of finality, "Yumi, we should be going. Mom and Dad will be looking for us." He grabbed Yumi's hand perhaps more forcefully than he would have a few moments ago and nodded to each of them in turn. "Bye Kankuro Sensei, Temari." He paused for a moment before acknowledging Shikamaru. "Temari's friend," he finished.
The children walked away quickly. Yumi looked back apologetically, but allowed her brother to pull her along anyway. Temari waved pleasantly and she saw Yumi smile before she turned back around. Temari felt her heart swell with pride and affection. She was looking forward to class on Monday. Yumi seemed really motivated. And speaking of motivation…
"Kankuro," she said as the trio began walking again, "why did Hiroki look at me when you mentioned 'motivation'?"
Kankuro coughed into his closed fist, not bothering to hide his discomfort. "Wow, my leg is hurting all of a sudden," he said, trying to change the subject.
"KANKURO!" Temari shouted.
"All right!" Kankuro yelled back. "I promised Hiroki that…" he trailed off, reluctant to finish.
"Speak up, bro. I didn't quite catch that."
"I promised Hiroki that if he aced his next physical exam he could go out for dinner with you."
Temari stopped dead in her tracks. "You did what?!"
"Well he was struggling, so I thought that if I just gave him a goal he'd…y'know…do better."
Temari was aghast, but thankfully not lost for words. "Well don't encourage him! You realize he's brought me flowers before. He saw me in the Academy library one day and he asked me if I went there often. This boy does not need further motivation."
"But don't girls think all that shit is cute, or whatever?"
"Not if the boy is ten, Kankuro."
"Oh. Well."
"See, you don't have to deal with these stupid Schoolgirl crushes, 'cause you look like some sort of scary kabuki cat man with a puppet fetish. But if you did, you would understand."
Kankuro's mouth gaped, genuinely offended. "Hey—this is traditional puppetmaster clothing."
"You think I don't know that?"
"Fine. I'll let that comment slide, but please will you do this one thing for me? I already promised him, and he's doing a lot better."
Temari pursed her lips and crossed her arms tighter across her chest, tapping her fingers against her arm, irritated. Finally, she sighed. "Did you say anything about him going to dinner alone with me?"
"Really? That's the deal breaker?"
"Did you say it or not, Kankuro?"
"No. I never specified."
"Fine. Then I'll do it, but Nara's coming with me."
Shikamaru jumped, clearly unhappy with being dragged into the negotiations. He waved his hands in front of him as if fending off some sort of spastic insect. "No, guys, don't bring me into whatever…this…is."
But Kankuro was tapping his chin contemplatively. "No, actually, that's a decent idea. You can still hold up my end of the deal, but then Hiroki won't be under any illusions. I like it. So," he said, turning to Shikamaru, "you'll do it, right?"
Shikamaru's mouth opened comically, making him look somewhat what like a fish out of water. Temari giggled. Only in rare moments did she get to see Shikamaru look like an idiot, but when she did, it was absolutely priceless.
Shikamaru's mouth closed abruptly, his teeth clacking together loudly. He looked desperately back and forth between Temari and Kankuro, looking for some way out of his predicament, but evidently didn't see what he'd hoped reflected in their eyes. Temari bet they looked downright desperate.
Shikamaru cleared his throat. "I…I guess," he shrugged.
Temari and Kankuro broke into identical face-splitting grins. Shikamaru marveled at the striking resemblance between the two—he'd never really thought they looked like siblings. And he supposed that, given Temari's story from the previous night, they were only half-siblings, so the disparities were understandable, but seeing them like this, it was shockingly obvious.
Kankuro stepped closer to him, and Shikamaru saw the mischievous twinkle in his eyes that he'd become so accustomed to seeing in Temari's. "Temari," Kankuro started, "call Haru and tell him it's over; I've found a new best friend." He raised one large hand and clapped Shikamaru good-naturedly on the shoulder.
But it was the shoulder that had recently received seven stitches.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Shikamaru cried before he could stop himself.
Kankuro jumped about a foot in the air. "What the hell?!" he panicked. "What'd I do?"
"Nothing! I'm fine," hissed Shikamaru between his teeth, doubled over in pain. Oh, sweet mother of God, it fucking BURNS, he thought, breathing hard. Why does it have to burn? It hurt enough when I was getting them; why does it have to hurt so much AFTER?
Temari rushed forward unconsciously to help Shikamaru get upright again. She gently lifted his left arm (the side that wasn't currently on fire) and placed it across her shoulders. "He's got stitches, Kankuro," she chastised. "Just be careful, okay?" Shikamaru braced himself against her heavily, using her as a crutch until he felt he could stand again without passing out. He then took a couple steps away and focused on getting his breathing back to normal.
"How the fuck was I supposed to know that?" Kankuro demanded. "Y'know what? Whatever. Don't even answer that. But I have stitches too, you know," he said pointedly, trying to diffuse the tension. "So…watch out."
Temari snorted. "Yeah, well I don't think there's much danger of someone 'accidentally' touching your inner thigh, so…"
"And what exactly do you mean by that?"
"I mean that girls think you're a scary kabuki cat man!"
"Hey," he laughed heartily, "I know I said I'd let that slide the first time, but doesn't mean you're allowed to keep saying it."
Temari winked exaggeratedly. "Just try to stop me."
Kankuro shook his head, laying his chiding behavior on thick. Shikamaru could tell just by looking at them that they couldn't stay mad at each other. They were like dream siblings; exactly what he'd want if he weren't an only child. They didn't have to try to get along. They just functioned as a unit, feeding off each other to keep things going. Really, their relationship was very similar to the ones he had with Choji and Ino—very joking, very self-deprecating, very easy. And thinking of Choji…
I hope he won't be too angry with me, he thought. I know I was doing what was best, given the circumstances, but…I did abandon them. I saw an opportunity and I took it, and I didn't pause to think for a second what they'd do by themselves. And then they all got hurt as a result. Gah, I bet Naruto's gonna let me have it when he sees me; he's always such a pain after battles. But I don't have any idea how Sai and Hinata will react. I mean, Sai could go all crazy Anbu on me for all I know.
Why am I getting so angsty over this? They're my friends. They'll understand.
But what if they don't? What if this is one battle too far? What if they think I was trying to steal the glory for myself? Or if I just didn't care about them?
No, that's ridiculous. They're my friends. They have to understand. They just have to.
…
…
…
But what if they don't?
"Yo, Shikamaru," he heard, but the voice was all distant echoes. He pulled himself from his thoughts, the thoughts that had been eating away at him all day, the thoughts that had been keeping him from talking most of the day. He blinked a few times, coming to his senses. He didn't think he'd been out of it for more than a few moments, but when he looked around, they were out of the intense hustle and bustle of the marketplace. The streets here were much quieter and the HQ building was looking much larger than it had just a few minutes ago. He jerked his head around to Kankuro, who was looking at him with a bemused, yet somewhat concerned, expression. "You okay? You were pretty zoned out there."
Shikamaru shook his head to clear it, rubbing savagely at his eyes. "Yeah, I'm okay."
He heard some muffled words in a higher voice, no doubt Temari whispering to Kankuro all the shit that's been going on in his brain for the past day, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He was positive Kankuro was going to ask him about it, make him talk about it again, but he was wrong. Kankuro just took the news silently, waiting for a couple beats, and then finally opened his mouth and said the last thing Shikamaru had possibly thought he would.
"So how's your love life going, over in the Leaf?" he asked nonchalantly. "You've heard how we're doing—the only dates my sister's getting are with ten-year-olds and apparently I'm The Scary Kabuki Cat Man—but what's up with you? You put the moves on that hot blonde yet?"
Shikamaru was rather taken aback, in more ways than one, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Temari make a baffled expression eerily similar to the one he was sure he was making. "You mean Ino?"
"She was the one at the Chunin exams, right? The one who went all crazy and hacked her hair off?"
"Um…yeah."
"Damn, she was fine. You tapped that yet?"
"No, man, don't be an idiot. She's like my sister."
"Oh. Well then, you wouldn't mind putting in a good word for me?" he asked, grinning like the idiot Shikamaru had just accused him of being.
Temari angrily slapped Kankuro in the chest, causing his smile to falter momentarily, but he regained composure quickly. "What? It's just a question," he defended, turning his attention back to Shikamaru. "But seriously, a relatively handsome dude like yourself has to have a girlfriend."
Shikamaru stuck his hands into his pockets, burrowing them deep. He wasn't particularly enamored of the direction this conversation was taking. "I know what you're trying to do, you know."
"Oh, yeah? What's that?" asked Kankuro, batting his eyelashes in an over-the-top show of innocence.
"Take my mind off things, distract me 'cause I've been such a head case lately. And maybe if we were doing this later I'd be a little less high-strung, but I can tell you right now this isn't gonna work."
"Can't hurt, can it?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Guess not."
"Then c'mon! Give us all the dirty details."
"Heh," Shikamaru scoffed. "If only I had dirty details. I've gone out with this girl Shiho a couple times," he admitted, remembering the cagey blonde girl with the thick glasses. She was a really intelligent girl, a worker in the Cipher division, a kunoichi who let her brain do the talking and steered clear of the battlefield, which was why he'd said yes when she'd asked him out, but there'd never really been anything between them. "I mean, she's sweet and all, but I think she was a little more into it than I was."
"Oh, that's so rough man," sympathized Kankuro sarcastically. "I just hate that, when chicks like you so much they lose their appeal. I mean, it must suck to have some beautiful woman draped all over you, desperate to have you fuck them senseless. Seriously. I do not envy your pitiable position, my friend."
Temari flashed Kankuro another indignant glare, and Shikamaru was surprised when Kankuro didn't flinch, or even take notice. Glares like that could sear into most things, leave permanent scars. Temari's glares in particular. "God, Kankuro, you're worse than that doctor, I swear," she said. "Why must I spend my days surrounded by sexist pigs?"
Shikamaru laughed. "Well I can assure you our dates were nothing like that. It was more like us sitting across from each other in a restaurant and her blushing too much to talk. Or eat. It was really awkward, actually."
"Oh. Well that actually does suck," said Kankuro blatantly.
"Yeah, I know."
"Here we are," interjected Temari suddenly. Shikamaru looked around, stunned. They'd actually managed to distract him. Amazing. He'd arrived at HQ without having a panic attack.
They passed through the doorway of the imposing stone building into the shade, and it was only then that Shikamaru processed how hot it had gotten. He had no idea how Kankuro wasn't standing in a puddle of his own sweat, having just walked a couple miles in direct sunlight while wearing a hooded, black, long-sleeved uniform, but he must just be used to the heat. Shikamaru rolled his neck, exposing it to the cool air, relishing the biting sensation of that air on the sweat-soaked tendrils of hair at the base of his skull. They entered a long hallway and soon hung an abrupt left up a narrow staircase which clearly didn't lead to a part of the building that was used frequently. There wasn't enough room for two of them to comfortably walk side by side, so they fell into a single-file line, with Temari in the lead and Kankuro bringing up the rear, limping along behind them. Temari turned her head slightly and explained, "Their guest quarters should be on the third level. We're almost there."
Shikamaru felt his eyebrows inching closer together as the worry set in anew, and as if sensing it, Temari said, "And quit worrying so much. You'll be fine."
Shikamaru hoped so. He really did. He knew logically that it did him no good whatsoever to hope, but he couldn't seem to stop.
They reached the third story landing and Shikamaru found himself standing in a communal living room-type area, with a long couch, a loveseat, a couple armchairs, a small kitchen, and a counter with stools. There were three doors leading off in different directions, and Shikamaru assumed that they led to bedrooms. Before he could really take anything else in, however, there was a loud cry of "SHIKAMARU!" and Shikamaru was nearly bowled over by an incredible force. He had just quick enough reactions to take in the long brown hair and identify the force as Choji before the pain arrived.
His best friend's hug pulled nauseatingly at his stitches and he spat, "Choji, getoffgetoffgetoff," through gritted teeth, determined not to screech like a madman like he had earlier.
Choji quickly released his vise-like grip, eyeing Shikamaru up and down with uncensored concern written all over his face. "Where've you been, man? I've been so worried about you! We asked about you when the hospital let us go this morning, but the lady at the desk said she didn't have any record of you and I thought…" Choji trailed off as he sniffled. He looked like he was a few words away from a total emotional breakdown. His eyes were already red and puffy as it was; Shikamaru didn't want to make this any more dramatic than it absolutely had to be.
"But it's alright, Choji. I'm fine. Just needed a few stitches."
"Fifteen," muttered Temari under her breath. "Hardly a few."
"But that doesn't matter," stressed Shikamaru, talking over her. "I'm fine now."
He noticed for the first time the cast on his best friend's arm. "What happened to you?"
Choji glanced down at his injury as if he'd forgotten it was there. Knowing him, he probably had. "Oh. This Stone Ninja caught me off guard with a Mud Wall and I didn't get my hand out of the way in time." He mimed breaking something as best he could with his limited arm mobility and made a sharp Tch! with his tongue. "Broken wrist." He stared contemplatively at the ground for moment, but then his face lit up as he was struck with a question. "But hey," he began. "What happened to you during the battle? I lost track of you after I threw you, and then there were all those explosions, and I thought you'd gotten caught in one or something, 'cause I didn't see you again after that."
"Actually, I set off the explosives. I was up on the wall."
"Seriously? That was your big plan? Fucking genius, man! You got a horde of crazy Mist Nin off my back—you decimated that army. Wait, so how'd you get hurt?"
"He neglected to mention the bit where he got hit by enemy shuriken, electrocuted, and would have fallen to his untimely death had I not heroically saved him," Temari rattled off stoically.
Choji gaped. Everyone else stared.
"What?" Temari demanded. "It's true."
There was a soft clicking sound as one of the bedroom doors opened and Naruto tip-toed out backwards, delicately closing the door. With his back still toward the silent group, he raised a hand to his face and started massaging the bridge of his nose. "Choji," he said softly, "Hinata finally fell asleep." He turned and started trudging toward the center of the room, his eyes heavily hooded with exhaustion. He had a sizeable purple lump on his right temple and a split lip, Shikamaru noted, but otherwise he appeared to be fine. His obnoxious orange tracksuit was fairly thoroughly covered with dirt and was worn away almost entirely in some places, but that was nothing that couldn't be fixed. Shikamaru found himself letting out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "Those pain meds are doing a number on her," Naruto continued, oblivious to the extra company. "She kept telling one of the pillows she was in love with it. And then she kept poking me in the nose and giggling like some sort of crazy person."
Finally, he looked up from the floor, sensing that he and Choji weren't the only people in the room. It took him a few moments to process what he was seeing, but when he finally understood, his exhausted, sagging face transformed rapidly into a lopsided grin, his eyes sparkling with uncensored enthusiasm. "Hey, Shikamaru!" he said loudly before remembering that Hinata was sleeping. He glanced guiltily over his shoulder, but quickly became distracted by the prospect of a new conversation. "I'm so glad you're here," he gushed. "Choji was freaking out. He was getting to be a real pain in the ass."
Choji shot him a poisonous glare. "Oh, I was a pain in the ass? Who was the one stomping around the living room all morning, keeping the rest of us from sleeping? 'Cause I don't personally remember doing that."
"Hey—I had a headache. I couldn't sleep."
"So because you couldn't sleep, the rest of us weren't allowed to either?"
"Guys!" Shikamaru interjected. "Quit it."
Choji and Naruto visibly released the tension in their bodies and squinted down at the ground, mollified. "Sorry, Shikamaru," they said in unison.
"It's alright," he replied, amused by their quick reaction. It usually took a lot more effort on his part to break up the arguments Naruto has a habit of starting, but for whatever reason, today was an exception. If Shikamaru could rely on his hunches with any sort of accuracy, and he usually could, he pinned this down to sleep deprivation. He couldn't help but sympathize—he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night either. He'd spent most of the night tossing and turning in Temari's bed, unable to find a position that didn't stress his stitches, and unable to keep his nagging inner voice at bay. There is no greater enemy to a man than that man's own mind, something Shikamaru knew from experience—in his opinion far too much experience for a boy of a mere sixteen years of age. He knew it was a sign of being a poor ninja to become so preoccupied with would-a-could-a-should-a's, but he just couldn't seem to make it stop. But that wasn't all—then there was just the sheer weirdness of sleeping in a girl's bed. It's not like he'd gotten, like, horny or anything, but it was weird how he could tell it belonged to a girl. Not just because he'd been told; there was something different about it. He thought it had something to do with the smell. In his bed at home, he'd never noticed any sort of odor, but this bed had smelled like Temari. Fabric softener, a fruity aroma from her shampoo, an undertone of sweat, and—wait, why did he even know what Temari smelled like? He'd never sat down and considered the components of her scent before (that sounded like such a pain), so how did he just know? Who did he think he was, Kiba?
Shikamaru was really starting to hate his brain.
"So what's up with Hinata?" he asked, bringing his attention back to the conversation at hand. "Is she okay?"
Naruto raised a hand to scratch the back of his head, mussing his filthy yellow hair in the process. "Yeah, she's fine. Or she will be. She got a cast on her broken leg, they gave her crutches and everything. She had a little internal bleeding, but they stopped it. But apparently her leg was broken really bad, so they gave her all these crazy pain meds when they were snapping things back into place, and they're taking forever to wear off."
Shikamaru nodded. "She probably just needs to sleep them off. Hopefully she'll be back to her old self by tonight. Where's Sai, by the way?"
Naruto shot a sideways glance at Choji and they both rolled their eyes. "Oh, he's in his room, sulking," explained Choji, nodding at the door opposite Hinata's.
"He wound up with a couple cracked ribs and some face stitches," continued Naruto, "and he feels that, quote, 'his injuries hindered the effectiveness of the operation,' so he's in there angsting over his paint brush. Fucking drama queen."
"Sai, a drama queen? I don't think we're talking about the same guy."
"I'm telling you, man, the guy has actual, like, emotions and shit. You didn't see him earlier, but he totally does," Naruto blathered, a gossipy tone slinking into his voice.
Shikamaru felt a warm surge in his chest as he realized how glad he was to be back in the company of his friends. As much as he'd worried for their wellbeing, he'd missed them just as much for selfish reasons. Since he'd avenged Asuma's death, he hadn't spent a great deal of time alone, afraid of being left to the mercy of his own thoughts (which seemed to be turning into a recurring theme in his life, as of late), and one of his friends had always been by his side. Everyone had been there for him—more often than not Choji, but sometimes Ino, Naruto, Neji, Kiba, Tenten, and sometimes even Lee, whose overbearing enthusiasm was strangely comforting. It had gotten to the point where Shikamaru didn't feel whole without his friends, but now that they were back together, the tremendous weight that had been crushing down on him had been lifted and everything felt good again and—
The feeling of a hand on his uninjured shoulder removed him from his thoughts. He whipped his head around to see Temari, who was giving him a small, sad smile, as if she'd just seen every pathetic thought that had passed through his mind. "I'll leave you guys to catch up, then," she murmured. "I'm gonna see if I can find Gaara."
"Okay. See you later?"
"Yeah."
She and Kankuro turned and left the room, waving over their shoulders. As soon as they were gone, Naruto sprouted a devilish grin and focused his full attention on Shikamaru.
"Dude, I hadn't even noticed your girlfriend. Is that why we didn't see you last night?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Shikamaru sighed. It was always the same with Naruto. He's a great friend, but he's a genuine, bona-fide idiot most of the time. "Naruto, we've had this conversation before. She isn't my girlfriend."
"When have we ever had this conversation before?"
"The last time you asked me if she was my girlfriend."
"I don't remember that at all."
"I'm sure you don't."
"But really, dude, where were you last night? 'Cause you sure as hell weren't at the hospital. I checked."
Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, not meeting Naruto's eyes as he admitted, "I was at Temari's apartment."
Naruto leaped into the air, pumping his fist like he'd just won the lottery, or better yet, a year of free ramen from Ichiraku's. "I knew it!"
"No, you idiot, it wasn't like that." Naruto abruptly stopped celebrating when he heard the tone of Shikamaru's voice. "She was giving me—"
"Head?" Choji joked.
"—stitches," Shikamaru finished loudly, as if he could overpower their innuendo with sheer volume. "Honestly, why are you guys so determined that we're together? She's completely insane; she scares the shit out of me. When have you ever had any reason to think that we can even tolerate being in each other's presence?"
Naruto and Choji turned to each other, as if they were unable to come up with a good reason by themselves and were hoping that the other had an answer. Apparently they didn't have any luck.
"I mean, you do always get stuck together," Choji shrugged, pulling at strings.
"Yeah, why is that? Does Tsunade hate me or something?"
"Nah, buddy. I think the universe just likes laughing at you."
Temari and Kankuro rounded the corner into the main Office hallway and nearly plowed straight into Gaara.
"Oh!" Temari cried. "Gaara, I've been looking for you. I wanted to talk to you about—"
"About the rogue army. Yes, I was just about to go off looking for you two." Gaara checked conspiratorially over his shoulders to check that no one was watching them and then ushered his siblings into the nearest empty office. He shut the door behind them and took a moment to compose himself before turning to face them.
Temari stepped forward and placed a hand on her brother's arm. "What's wrong, Gaara? What's with all the secrecy?"
"I just don't want to cause a panic," Gaara whispered.
"Spit it out, bro," Kankuro barked harshly. "What the hell's going on?"
Gaara took a deep breath and then launched into his story, looking at the ground with his eyebrow-less forehead wrinkled in worry all the while. "Temari, do you remember yesterday, when you told me to stay at the Messenger Corp? Well I'd already gone to investigate the battle; I'd only gone to the Messenger Corp because I'd seen you run off and I wanted to see what you were up to. But I'd seen the army. I knew that it was made up of missing Nin from the Stone, Mist, and Cloud villages, so while I was with the Messengers anyway, I sent messages to the Tsuchikage, Mizukage, and Raikage asking them what was going on. I received their replies a few minutes ago." He paused and took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he exhaled. "All three of them said that there had been a great deal of discord in their villages ever since the Sand and Leaf became allies. Apparently people have been under the impression that we were going to use our newfound unified power to begin some sort of imperialist regime, and a lot of Shinobi abandoned their villages when the Kages refused to take countermeasures against our alliance."
"So that's the army," Kankuro simplified. "All the guys who defected."
"But why should that surprise us?" asked Temari. "Making friends with the Leaf—we were bound to make a few enemies, too."
"I haven't gotten to the bad part," said Gaara.
"Oh, so that was the good news," Kankuro scoffed. "Yeah, that seems about right."
"Shut up, Kankuro," shot Temari. "Let Gaara talk."
Gaara let the silence stretch out for a few agonizing moments, and then said the last thing Temari was expecting. "Temari, tell me what you thought of the battle yesterday."
Temari opened and closed her mouth dumbly a few times before thinking of anything to say. "Um…well…it was hard, I guess. They were good, and there were a lot of them, so…"
"But were they really that good? Or were you just so outnumbered you didn't have time to notice that they were novices?"
Temari gaped. "I…no—"
"No, he's right," interrupted Kankuro. "They were chumps. Most of them were definitely no higher than Genin level. The only reason we came out so bad was that there were so many of them."
"Exactly," said Gaara. "I watched enough of the battle to observe that. And not only were they relatively unskilled ninja, but the attack was far too straightforward. An army of that size could easily have stormed the village, as I think was their intent, if they'd just put some real planning into it. But as it was, they just waged a head-on battle for nearly an entire day and made no headway."
"Well, they're all dead now," began Temari, "so we're out of the danger zone, right?"
"I wouldn't say that," said Gaara, still staring holes into the floor. "There were only, what? Fifteen hundred ninja in that army?"
Temari glanced at Kankuro and their eyes met, conferring. "Yeah," they answered simultaneously.
"The missing-nin counts from the three villages totaled more than two thousand."
Temari gaped as she finally realized what her little brother was hinting at, why he'd been so reluctant to have people overhear their conversation. "You think that battle was just a diversion, don't you." It wasn't a question.
Gaara dipped his chin into his chest, still keeping his gaze firmly locked on the floor. "I don't know what their endgame is," admitted Gaara, "but I'm positive that no army of that size would attack with a plan that seems this hastily thrown together."
Kankuro's head was whipping back and forth between the somber Gaara and the gaping Temari, still struggling to come to terms with everything that had just been said. "So, you're saying…"
"Yes, this is part of something bigger," Gaara said, finally looking up and meeting Temari's and Kankuro's eyes in turn. "I fear this is only the beginning."
End Note: Well. That was fun. This chapter allowed for a lot more back-and-forth dialogue than last chapter, and I just love writing all that fabulous banter. And now I get to write Kankuro, Naruto, Hinata, and Sai! I love writing Kankuro. I'll admit that I took a little creative license with him, and if he comes off as OOC I don't apologize. I like him as this sort of potty-mouthed, crass, asshole of a dude. I think his and Temari's relationship is more realistic this way anyway. Since Temari's so hard and serious a lot of the time, I thought it made sense to make Kankuro more of a jokester.
Anyway. Enough babbling. Please review! I don't care if you loved it or hated it, TELL ME! I want to make this just as much fun for y'all readers as it is for me.
And I realize that I didn't follow up on everything I'd promised last chapter, but I really couldn't bear to make this chapter any longer. No hard feelings?
