Gaara finished his tea quite simply and at peace after Sakura left; a grin on his face as he collected the tray and set it on the counter. His brother was sitting at the kitchen table; bare faced, as he determined how to apply his war paint for the dinner.
"What says more formal, horizontal lines or left turns?" Kankuro asked with a smirk, looking at his baby bro. Setting to wash the cups and place them aside Gaara lingered just a bit longer at Sakura's cup before answering. "Your striking resemblance to Rasa would be the most formal."
Kankuro tsked at Gaara's comment before waving the brush in his hand at the redhead. "Listen baby bro. Kazekage or not you are not allowed to look at me with that tone of voice. Just because all the girls flock to you and mom's looks doesn't mean you have to insult me and mine." Grinning more so at his brother he paused, "So how's Sakura?"
Sighing deeply Gaara nodded and replied, "She'll be fine inshallah." He added, mixing in the Suna traditional tongue in the comfort of his brother's presence. "Wisteria?" He asked turning
towards his brother and noting his state of undress with a small groan that he himself would need to change.
"Just the same. She did press your costume though sand prince. If you want me to do your makeup you should get in the shower." Kankuro chuckled waving the paintbrush in his hands.
"Can't I just not bother and wear my robes?" The red head questioned staring at the door that would currently be holding the traditional garments of Suna he had to wear. In observation they were beautiful clothes. Golds and red scarves in sheer fabrics with intricate designs woven into them. However, they were a bitch to put on properly and Kankuro refused to let him wear them without decorating his face slightly. He was born with Tankuni marks; that was plenty war paint.
"Min sijak?" Kankuro questioned giving his baby brother an incredulous look at whether or not the almighty kazekage was really about to have a tantrum about clothes. Pausing to think of a proper reason it dawned on him.
"You haven't shown Naruto or Sakura your tattoo yet have you?" Kankuro accused, knowing his baby brother hated the bulk of the kazekage robes and hat. There had to be a good reason for him to dawn them.
"No, but that's not the point. The costumes stick out in the leaf and I'd rather not be bothered." He did however, place a hand on his right shoulder, directly over the ink that spanned from there to his elbow. A birthday present from his brother last year.
"Just dawn your eyes properly and man up. Leaf Kunoichi fawn over our costumes anyway. You'd probably have Sakura down your pants with the set Wisteria got you. Now go get dressed sand prince. I've got to cover up how much I look like our sperm donor." Kankuro chuckled before dodging a sand kunai; waving his hand for Gaara to go get ready.
Sakura groaned loudly, pressing as many bobby pins in her hair as she could. Naruto was through the roof when Sakura gave him the official invite to the welcome dinner. It was one of the nicest tea shops in the leaf and he hadn't seen Gaara in months. Hinata and him were on a vacation trip for their anniversary and had missed his last visit to Konoha. Reminding Naruto that it was formal dress only and that orange and black jumpsuits wouldn't cut it; she herself realized she needed to get ready or she wouldn't make it on time to set up the reservation.
Begging Ino to help her get ready she was quickly tying her hair up in an elegant enough bun. Placing a few ornamented senbon in her hair that were as delicate as they were deadly, she went on to grab the kimono she was wearing.
The thing was actually a beautifully expensive garment; one she was given after successfully saving the life of a dress maker while she was on her way back from a mission in the land of snow. It was a beautiful jade color with gold designs sewn in to it to resemble a sakura tree. The Obi was white and was accented with a pink belt adorned with gold petals. All in all the garment was probably worth more than sakura's apartment and Ino positively fumed when she saw who the dress was from.
Seeing the blond Kunoichi sigh again as she helped Sakura into the item Sakura responded. "Ino you agreed to help me get ready, if you're going to complain the whole time I can just get ready myself."
Shaking her head Ino quipped as she effortlessly placed Sakura into the kimono. "It's not that forehead. You know as well as I do The Lucky Rabbit takes months of reservations to even
squeeze a table into. You get a vip room for the whole night for free. I'm envious as hell plus you get to dress up and relax. This really is meant for me not you and you know it."
Shaking her head Sakura looked at how expertly Ino tied her obi. Making sure the many well to do men in the area knew she was available. "It's not just a party. I'm working to. I have to set it up so that everything is nice for Gaara and Kakashi sensei, plus I have to make sure all the ANBU have proper uniforms for the event. It helps everyone who works at the lucky rabbit wears masks anyway."
Ino sat Sakura down and began to adjust her hair, making every loose strand curl and be placed perfectly before she started on her makeup. "And with your track record how is that not a walk in the park? If it was anyone less than Gaara we would have sent genin to do this. Is Temari coming?"
Closing her eyes so Ino could start her makeup she hummed in confirmation. "Yes, her and Shikamaru are acting as bridges to the nations. I wondering if Temari will dress in a kimono or something more typical of Suna formal wear?"
Shutting Sakura's lips so Ino could have a still canvas she replied, "I think if she's as smart as I think she is she'll do some sort of combo and make Shikamaru do the same. But that being said you owe me for missing out on any Suna men wearing traditional clothes. I'm not even into either of them and I was in awe. The Suna Festival of Color was a sea of eye candy all wrapped up in embroidered bows. "
Giggling slightly Sakura couldn't help but speak, forcing Ino to work on her eyes. "Yeah Gaara actually saw you drooling over Kankuro, he said something along the lines of you looking like you wanted to devour him or something."
"Not like I didn't see you marveling over the red headed devil. Jesus Sakura you acted like you'd never seen someone without a shirt on before. I thought you were actually frozen in shock that the Kazekage had abs." She teased before a final sweep and proclaiming Sakura finished.
"You owe me. Dinner, drinks, shopping, a whole day plus if anything remotely gossip worthy appears I hear about it first deal?"
Sakura grinned, looking at the expert job Ino always did, "Deal." _
There were three arguments and one almost blow out that led them to being twenty minutes late. They compromised, Gaara would wear one ring and two arm bands but he had to only bring his small gourd. He could wear a shirt but Kankuro had to as well and Gaara's couldn't have sleeves.
Kankuro nearly lost his head but Gaara's eyes were eventually darkened with kohl that made the green of his irises nearly glow in the moonlight. Those were accented by a few tasteful dots around the bottom outer corners. It was Kankuro's convincing speech that ran though the Kazekage's head as they entered the establishment.
"No."
"Gaara, you're not wearing garments that took weeks to make only to dishonor them with a bare face."
"You're not touching my face."
"If you could do it yourself then by all means please do." "I'm not wearing them."
"Gaara."
"No."
"Gaara."
"No."
"Gaara!"
"What?!"
"Why do we wear warpaint?" Kankuro asked, his face steeled as he adjusted the purple and black scarves tied around his waist.
"To represent those of us who have fallen in the honor of battle." Gaara answered, knowing well the history of their past.
"Why do I wear purple?"
"To be honored by the past generations of the puppet brigade. To wear the colors not poisoned by green or humanized by red. The immortal army. The Desert Ghosts. The wooden soldier." Gaara groaned slightly; knowing where Kankuro was headed.
"And why, baby brother, can you, and only you, wear the color black?"
"Because I am the Kazekage. I alone hold the favor of the old gods and the new. I alone have passed the tests and been blessed by the desert to rule its people. I alone carry the blood of my people of my ancestors and of my descendants not yet of this world. Their blood, their sacrifice, their hopes I carry and it hardens my blood as payment. It is darkened to an armor only I can be burdened with. Only I can be blackened by it's power."
"Now." He smirked handing the black paintbrush over to his brother. "Are you going to go to a dinner about honor and tradition and Suna culture and prosperity and walk up in the Leaf's domain bare faced?"
"...No."
"You're damn right you're not. Now hurry up and look pretty, we're going to be late."
The Lucky Rabbit in it of itself Seemed like any other Tea House. It was set near a valley that
used to be part of the Uchiha compound. Sasuke had sold off half of it knowing that it would go into disrepair long before they would be filled with dark haired red eyed families again. The owners had turned it into a utopia of villas each decorated elegantly and filled with staff that waited hand and foot for their prestigious patrons. All with the upmost discretion down to the various rabbit half masks the employees wore.
It was a particular rabbit mask that puzzled Gaara as the two of them entered the main entry way to the restaurant. It was a simple white mask that covered from the forehead to the cheeks. The cheeks themselves were dawned with a peachy swirl that resembled, resembled.
"Naruto" He whispered out, under the comfort that his mouth was covered under a scarf just a shade darker than his own red locks. In fact the color more resembled the pristine bob that their hosted had. Bowing briefly to her and her back to them much more formally Gaara began to speak before a manicured hand was raised.
"Ah, it seems there will be auspicious times for us here at The Lucky Rabbit. The famed jack rabbit has entered our gates with his trusted tarantula. Your party is in the winter room for the evening and we here are all over the moon that you have graced us with your presence."
The girl couldn't have been more than 15 with that voice, yet she spoke with the practice of the seasoned professional. The words she said seemed covered in riddles, and in a better mood Gaara would have been intrigued to discover them all. Yet, tonight that was not so; so he simply asked, "Jack Rabbit?"
"Suits you does it not?" The girl smiled, grabbing a lantern and leaded them through the courtyard and to the private rooms towards the back of the villa.
"We have many dignitaries as yourself visit The Lucky Rabbit, as well as military war heroes, great heirs and heiresses, celebrities, and criminal masterminds. Discretion is a common thread among our patrons so there are no names here. Only titles of fantasy and nature. It would ruin a rather lovely night for many of our guests if a potential business partner of a CEO is here and wants to avoid them. Or a lord's mistress and his wife are found out." She turned towards Gaara with a Cheshire grin as they turned a corner to cross a small bridge over a pond.
"We do not judge at the lucky rabbit but even still we were happy to find the desert jack rabbit in our midst. Only our most auspicious patrons are given the title of rabbit, such as the white rabbit you are meeting here." She paused in front of a door that had two ANBU disguised to look like employees in front of the door.
"Your cherry blossom is waiting for you along with a sloth and a jumping spider. The fox and his blackbird went for a walk in the gardens but will return before the first course. If you need anything at all simply place the lantern at the door and someone will be with you shortly." She bowed handing the kazekage the red lantern and turning to open the door.
Kankuro, ever the flirt tipped his head out as she went to leave asking, "And if we want you who do we ask for."
With a grin that seemed to tell more than it should she replied smoothly. "Silly Tarantula, I am nothing but a red herring." And with that she left and the two sand siblings returned their attention to the room.
Sakura was happily enjoying the tea and small snacks provided for them in the room decorated to resemble a snowy winter forest. She was passively chatting with Temari and Shikamaru over a movie she wanted to see when the two brothers entered the room. Noticing Kankuro first she saw that without his normal coverings he had grown out his hair, and the sandy brown locks were more suited to the length and framed his strong features nicely. He was still heavily covered in black but it seemed more formal, more traditional. It was what she expected of the red head when she turned her head and nearly gasped.
His face was half covered by a sheer red scarf, making the jade of his eyes pop alongside pale skin. The scarves continued in elegant reds and golds pooling down his neck and collar and water falling over his left arm. A few were caught in place by a leather arm band and Sakura went to see the matching one on his right when she caught it. A muscular forearm led to defined biceps absolutely covered in tribal markings that resembled the marks from Shukaku. She had apparently let her control slip as she gaped at the intricate tattoo as Temari commented,
"I take it you didn't see that Gaara decided to leave a piece of Shukaku with him. This year will be the 10th anniversary of Shukaku's extraction you know."
Fixing her face Sakura nodded slowly as she thought about all that had happened since she had taken down Sasori of the red sand, and how it almost seemed fitting that he would come back into her life now.
"I see, well it's a lovely work. Suna tattoo artists must be commended for marking the kazekage in a way few shinobi have had the opportunity to."
Kankuro chuckled at the joke and the two brother's sat in the comfort of family and friends. "What Gaara will never tell you is he found the prettiest of women to do the work. The girl had probably never harmed a fly and here she was stabbing the Kazekage with a needle a thousand or so times."
"Who stabbed Gaara a thousand times?" Mentioned a distinctly loud voice as a yellow blob entered the room. Noticing Gaara's bare shoulder the ninja put two and two together and did a double take himself. "Whoa, Gaara you got that done and didn't tell me? It's sick. I would get one too but to be honest I don't have the patience to sit that long." He chuckled sending a hand through his hair before sitting.
"It has been some time Naruto. We will have to catch up while I am free from discussing things with Kakashi." He nodded, a ghost of a smile on his face.
"Yeah, speaking of Kakashi-sensei where is he? Is it like a precursor to being a Kage if you're late all the time?" The blond groaned to the snickers of the red head's siblings.
"Boy if you only knew." Kankuro teased earning a glare from his younger brother.
"I don't think Gaara could be on time if he was threatened with his life." Temari added with a face flushed from trying to hold back giggles.
"You would think that wouldn't be the case since he can teleport with sand though, right?" And that small burst of what they later realized was an actual question, but at the moment seemed like a scathing burn from Hinata Uzumaki forced everyone, including Gaara to a small degree, into uncontrollable laughs.
Kakashi entered in the midst of that, a smile seen slightly through his mask as he popped his head in. "Ah, sorry I'm late but you all seem to be having a good time." Stepping in fully the Hokage took a good look around the room before landing on the still scarped Kazekage. "Gaara, it seems that we are matching today. If that isn't a sign that the meetings of collaboration won't work out well then I'm not quite sure what will."
—-
AN:
Inshallah - God Willing
Min sijak- seriously?!
I prepped both of these with the mindset that I envision Suna to be a modern day interpretation of 1001 Arabian nights. Tradition demons warriors and strong women felt very suna. So modern day Agrabah I thought would speak Arabic. All my actual speakers let me know what you think.