OI MEH HEARTIES...how's life? Just pointing it out the part where Aiko says
"Like killing somebody because she didn't like their face, or thought their eye was weird or something. Then she'd be ripping up the floorboards to find the beating of her hideous sanity."
It was a reference to the last line in "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe
Was wondering if anybody recognized it.
I dreamwithinadream262 do not own Naruto. I merely write fanfiction because it's fun.
~oOo~
"Oh, and you are?" The blonde young adult known as Temari questioned Aiko, noticing her beside her two younger brothers. She hadn't noticed the aloof girl eating a muffin before from across the room, as she was too busy reprimanding her brothers for their tomfoolery. Seriously, what did Kankuro and Gaara believe, that shopping was to be taken lightly? Temari wasn't happy, she of course, being an experienced shopper, knew the true importance of shopping in this day in age. It wasn't simply a recreational activity. No, it was necessary.
Aiko swallowed another bite of her muffin scrutinizing the older girl. On the outside it seemed like Temari was a high maintenance bitch, however Aiko could see that Temari didn't take shit from anyone, and was prompt and direct when starting her opinions. Temari respected herself, and wasn't afraid to show her true colors. Aiko decided she liked the older girl.
"Aiko." She slowly replied, looking up to meet the older girls eyes. A glint of satisfaction and confidence shone in them. Temari approved of her.
"Ah, Aiko, aren't you just the cutest thing! I'm Temari if you didn't know already!" Temari enthusiastically introduced herself. She was certainly good with people, and uncannily charismatic.
Definitely the opposite of her two brothers.
"Uh thanks." Aiko retorted, regarding the "cute" comment directed at her. She didn't exactly know what Temari was talking about. She hadn't exactly dressed to impress. Scanning her outfit which consisted of a gray hoodie, and some plaid pajama pants, she shrugged nonchalantly. "I call it sleep chić."
Kankuro bit back a laugh while Gaara smiled faintly. That was certainly something they'd never heard before.
"Sleep chić..." Temari repeated, humored. She put a hand to her lips contemplating. A few tense seconds passed, the only sounds of Aiko's muffled chewing.
"I've decided..." Temari started a clear tone in her voice. Kankuro and Gaara knew were this was going. There was either one of two phrases Temari would say after this. They waited on their sister, anticipating her next few words.
"I've officially decided that I like you." She finished, a wide smile adorning her face. Temari appreciated Aiko's blunt tone and clever sarcasm. She kind of reminded her of her own self.
Aiko's eyes widened a fraction, soaking up Temari's words like a sponge.
Well that was rather blunt...
"Thanks..." She trailed off, not quite sure what else to say. "You're not too shabby yourself."
Temari beamed at the younger girl in front of her...kind of like a fly trap. You know, the really bright ones, that basically fry insects to death? Yeah, that's how bright Temari's smile was, except it probably wouldn't be best to make an analogy about how she attracted bugs in front of her. Temari's humor only went so far.
Anyways, Temari, still smiling at Aiko (she wondered how long Temari could smile until her face froze that way) re-registered the fact that she was supposed to be at her brothers. She turned on her heel, grabbing Kankuro, or Kitty boy as Aiko referred to him as, by the ear, the real ear, and pinched down hard.
Kankuro hissed in pain.
"AND YOU!" Temari pointed an accusing finger towards Kankuro. "I leave for one minute to reserve a pair of the lasted style of Bandolinos, and you run away to the food court like some uncivilized stray feline!"
Kankuro breathed in sharply, this sort of insult seemed to get thrown at him more than often. To him, his hood did not resemble cat ears. He was not a freakin cat. Why was he the subject of so many cat jokes? He let out his agitated breath. Even if he were a feline...
He would be a lion dammit.
A fearsome Lion.
An attractive Lion.
hmph.
...
"Gaara left too!" Kankuro defended, pointing towards his younger sibling accusingly just as his sister had done to him. Gaara stared blankly at his older brother a look of innocence gracing his features. He folded his arms defensively, raising a non-existent brow challenging the offense.
Temari's vision shifted over to Gaara, and she reluctantly released Kankuro's ear. He stepped back a few feet, rubbing his ear muttering about his "crazy demonic sister" or something like that. Temari pretended not to hear him.
"And you..." Temari addressed the youngest Suna sibling menacingly. She stepped forward towards her younger brother pausing for dramatic effect, "Don't be an idiot like Kankuro, okay?" She finished, her words soaked in affection.
"Anything for you." Gaara said giving a closed eyed smile.
Kankuro seethed in the corner, throwing up his arms in indignation Glaring at his younger, and older siblings he frowned. Gaara always got off the hook for being the youngest. IT WAS THE EYEBROWS, Kankuro thought. It just had to be.
"Did my brothers," Temari started, quickly sending a heated glare to Kankuro. "Cause any trouble for you?"
Aiko thought for a moment. She didn't think muffin homicide would technically count...or would it?
"...Not particularly." Aiko stated. Kankuro breathed a sigh of relief. He would get to live and see another sunrise.
Temari breathed her own sigh of relief. "That's relieving. These two," She slung an arm around both her brothers shoulders,"Have a habit of getting into trouble when I'm not around."
Gaara and Kankuro looked slightly uncomfortable in the choke hold their sister had put them in. Gaara made little to no effort to move, but Kankuro was struggling.
He growled.
"I resent that!" Kankuro screamed.
Temari flipped his hood up and ground her knuckles into his head, ruffling his spiky, brown hair in the process. Aiko flinched. That'd have to had hurt. She recalled all the times where Sasuke had done that to her.
Kankuro resembled that of a frazzled cat who'd just gotten their tail stepped on.
"Who told you speak?" Temari intimidatingly asked her brother through clenched teeth, tightening her hold around his neck. Over the years she had perfected the art of skillfully cutting off ones air supply via chokehold. At the moment Kankuro's face was turning colors, from red anger, to blue air deprivation.
That sure looked painful.
Aiko blanched. She almost felt bad for Kitty boy.
Almost.
...
After a few seconds, Kankuro caved. He valued his pride, but his life was more important to him.
"Go- gomen," he bit out, gasping for air.
Temari smirked.
"That's a good kitty."
Temari harshly loosened her grip on her boys neck. He wheezed and took deep breaths, attempting to restore his air supply. Too distracted by the burning of his lungs, he didn't quite register the cat insult.
"Temari?" The auburn haired teen beside her asked. Temari turned her head over to see her darling younger brother. He didn't speak much, but when he did he always had something important to say. Not like that idiot Kankuro.
Okay, maybe Temari was exaggerating, but she liked picking on Kankuro.
Gaara didn't say another word, but instead nodded his head to the side, eyes going in that direction. Kankuro, Aiko, and Temari followed his gaze and now, noticed the amount of heads and eyes trained in their direction. They were quite the spectacle, especially with Temari's practical abuse. The loud girl stood out amongst the crowd of soft-spoken families.
It became awkwardly silent, but Aiko didn't mind, she was use to this type of atmosphere.
Aiko ate her muffin.
Gaara looked at the floor.
Kankuro threw up his hood.
Somebody coughed.
"Better continue this conversation outside?" Temari said, not at all affected by the many eyes on here. She laughed. Temari, embarrassed? Not a chance.
~oOo~
...
...
...
"How did I end up in this...?!" Aiko said sighing, looking at the ceiling in irritation.
Behind her a mother ushered her child hurriedly away from the strange teenage girl clad in pajama's who had been muttering to herself for the last five minutes. Take note, there are some things you just shouldn't do in public.
In Aiko's defense, she hadn't quite noticed she was voicing all of her thoughts aloud. That was a bad habit of hers.
Somehow, the teen had been caged by Temari's charisma, and hadn't noticed that the older girl had led Aiko away from the hotel grounds as she chatted away happily. Not wanting to be rude, Aiko stayed listening to Temari, answering more monosyllabic as the conversation continued, and before she knew it...she was dragged along on Temari's shopping spree. For a split second, Aiko thought of the offhand chance that she could get kidnapped by the odd strangers, but decided that was highly improbable.
How, great. (Note, increasing sarcasm)
Kankuro and Gaara had slyly slipped away from the group, taking the opportunity to leave when they saw the chance. Of course they felt bad for Aiko, however they were perfectly content with letting the girl take their places as Temari's slaves for the time being.
Freedom was sweet.
Aiko was cursing them in her head.
Aiko didn't have any problem accompanying Temari to shop at first, and thought that she may as well benefit from shopping with another female around her age. She didn't go shopping often, and this gave her the opportunity to replenish the supply of clothes she had lost in the fire. Her mother simply refused to take her, claiming that she was very busy organizing accommodations, fire and all, but Aiko knew that was a lie. She saw the small stack of designer bags hidden under the hotel room's bed.
No, Aiko didn't have a problem accompanying Temari, and she didn't mind the odd looks she was getting for being dressed so casually in public, but Temari, just like the Uchiha's when angered, resembled a demon in her domain of shopping.
However, she wasn't fond on divulging the deatils to her private life. When Temari inquired on why the girl was staying at the hotel, Aiko coughed uncomfortably, and calimed it was "family business"
Aiko could barely count the amount of blouses, pants, skirts, belts, shoes, and other accessories that Temari inspected in every store, cross comparing prices, ranting about shades and tints and what colors were in season. For all Aiko knew, there was no such thing as a "hot" color, as Temari referred to them as. Aiko struggled to keep up with the older girls graceful fast walking pace while carrying her many bags like a human pack mule. The visits to the stores were either very short, or excruciatingly long, ranging from mere seconds to an hour. Worst of all, there were times when Temari tried on multiple out-fits claiming she liked the style and color, only to leave the store not having bought anything, leaving a very angry, exhausted manager in her wake.
She was an expert shopper alright. Some of the store owners even referred to her as the notorious Sassy Suna sister.
No wonder Gaara and Kankuro ditched the second they could.
Jerks.
Right now, Temari was yet again trying on outfits in the changing room. Occasionally you could make out the sight of a random article of clothing flying out from over the changing room doors, or heard the bossy blondes voice calling out for somebody to get her the article or clothing she wanted in a smaller, or larger size. That "somebody" being Aiko.
She knew Temari was going to take her time in this store. This hypothesis coming about when Temari's eyes had lit up upon seeing the shops sign, like an even more fierce-some level of marathon shopper had been awakened inside of her, the blonde exclaiming in a loud excited voice how this was her favorite store.
Aiko scowled as her arms fell asleep. Her feet hurt, and she'd just discovered how energy-consuming shopping really could be.
However not all was terrible.
Temari at least had the decency and courtesy to buy Aiko a smoothie. Diet of course, because apparently it had The taste of real food, diquised as rabit food. Aiko didn't exactly know exactly what was in the supposed "ultra health drink", but it tasted good, and that's all that mattered.
Aiko snickered remembering what'd happened right after that. Temari spotted Kankuro in the food court flirting with some girls (it looked like it was going quite successfully) when she marched up to him, pinched his cheeks and rambled about how when he was six, Kankuro thought he was a cat, and refused to go outside in fear of flees.
The girls all laughed, but Kankuro was red as a beet.
"An eye for an eye." Temari whispered in his ear. "An eye for an eye."
Right after that incident, Gaara was spotted in the middle of a crowd of nerd looking teenagers, with a couple of college students milling around, who all looked shocked and enthralled to see him. Aiko even thought she saw him sign some autographs but dismissed that thought as foolish and downright weird. Gaara wore a smug look as he stood in the middle of the crowd, somewhat amused at the occurrence.
Aiko followed in Temari's stead as she heard the demon shopper mutter under her breath about her "stupid little brothers fanboys" or something of the sort.
Gaara, sensing the presence of his sister smiled at all of his fans saying "Looks like it's time for me to take my leave..." as the oldest Suna sibling dragged him away from the crowd. All of the nerd guys, intimidated by the presence of an attractive female stared in shock as the object of their affections was taken from them.
Aiko thought she heard a few muffled cries of "Kazekage-sama!" coming from the crowd, but she chose to ignore it. She had no idea what that meant. She also noted the presence of a teenage guy walking by as he muttered "troublesome" under his breath. Aiko agreed with him while heartedly, and for some odd reason, he looked strangley familiar. Kazekage-sama...Aiko pondered.
Later, she found out it was some kind of game rank.
...
...
...
That explanation didn't clear her confusion whatsoever.
Then, once again, the crafty Suna brothers somehow disappeared from view, and Temari, deeming that searching for her brothers for a third time would be completely useless, and inefficient, resumed her shopping.
...which brought us back to the present.
Aiko closed her eyes, feeling the weight of the bags growing the more she held it. If shopping were an Olympic sport, the athletes would certainly have great stamina and upper body shape. Temari was right,shopping really was something not to be trifled with. It could be serious under the correct context, as in now.
Feeling half of the weight load suddenly becoming alleviated from her left side, Aiko snapped her eyes open to be met with Sea-foam green eyes. Aiko's beating heart started to slow down. Gaara was very good at lying low and not being noticed.
That guy's a freakin phantom. Aiko thought, calming herself down. She almost had a heart attack for kami's sake! (she'd also just noticed how many times she used the phrase "kami's sake")
"Sorry to have startled you." Was all the soft-spoken auburn haired male said.
"No problem..." Aiko mindlessly replied. She could really go for another muffin right about now... The one he chose was pretty good too...
...
...
...
"I thoroughly apologize for any transgressions you may have experienced at the hands of my sister." Gaara looked straight ahead. "She's a bit...excitable."
Aiko stared at the brow-less male with interest. Hah, it's not quite common to find a person who apologizes for their older siblings behavior versus the latter. Then again, out of the three siblings it had seemed that Gaara was the more toned down, while his older brother and sister were definitely more expressive and social than him.
"...Hn...It's okay."
It got quiet quickly as the two introverted teens lapsed into their comfortable silence. Aiko debated taking out her phone to listen to music, but she thought that'd be rude. Gaara however had swiftly taken out his phone, and was rapidly texting. He returned the device to his pocket a short time afterward.
Seconds later, the familiar face of a panting Kankuro was seen. Besides his ragged breathing and pounding heart, he was very elated.
"So..." breath, "Temari's..." Wheez "...In the dressing room?!" He sputtered out, unable to speak his sentences in one fluid motion.
He really did sound like a cat throwing up a hair-ball.
Just a beautiful analogy, for a wonderful day.
"Right over there." Gaara gestured, rolling his head to the side. Kankuro glanced over noticing the pile of clothes haphazardly thrown about the front of the door. Yes, that validated it. It was in fact his sister, occupying the small space. He grimaced, acknowledging how big the pile of clothes had grown. Some poor worker was not going to enjoy themselves cleaning up after that monstrosity.
Finally noticing Aiko, Kankuro cocked his head to the side. He'd forgotten that the raven haired girl had tagged along with them. He applauded her mentally. Dealing with Temari for a day was a real daunting task. He could barely put up with her himself, and he was her brother. How the pint-sized girl was still standing up straight, and not going out of her mind at the moment, Kankuro could not understand.
Taking note of the smoothie in Aiko's hand, Kankuro speedily scooped up the cup in one swift motion. He was seriously parched, and in need of fluids, now.
"Hope you don't mind," He said in between a gulp, "If I borrow this for a second."
He'd basically inhaled it all down in one second. It was comical and intriguing sight. The speed in which the boy was finishing the drink looked physically impossible.
Temari would surely refer to him as "uncultured swine" if he ever committed that act in front of her.
Aiko stared at the empty space in her hand where he'd abducted her fruity drink, and then looked back up at the dehydrated male, pouting.
"Uhm...fine. You can have it." she said. It seemed all her food was disappearing nowadays..
"Really?! Thanks!" Kankuro said, turning the drink upwards at a ninety-degree angle in order to get the last of the liquid left in the cup. Maybe they'd just gotten off on a bad start, he thought. She wasn't that horrible. Anyone who could bare the company of Temari for the amount of time Aiko had, deserved his respect.
Aiko watched Kankuro down the last of what use to be her smoothie and sighed. She could always get another one anyways...
"That was refreshing." he finished with a smile.
"Kankuro..." Gaara's voice interrupted.
Kankuro, turning towards his brother, a clueless expression on his face. Then noticing the calculating stare his brother was directing at him, his eyes rested on the crushed cup between his fingers. Suddenly he felt guilty. Whoops.
"Ah...sorry for that..." Kankuro turned towards Aiko with a sheepish smile. He'd just realized how brash his actions had been. He looked down at the crushed cup. "I'll buy you another one...if you want..."
Aiko blinked, realizing kitty boys apologetic words. So he did have a brain after all?
"It's all good." She stated.
"You sure...?"
"Hn"
...
...
...
"So...why were you in such a hurry to get here anyways?"
Kankuros face brightened like a lightbulb. He smirked. "This," he said arms waving out to the space around him. "Is Temari's favorite store. She always saves it for last...meaning..." Kankuro checked the watch he had on his wrist. "She should be out in..."
"Three..." Started Gaara...
...Aiko felt that something interesting was about to occur.
"Two..." Kankuro continued.
...the suspense was killing her.
...
"...one..?" Aiko finished.
as soon as Kankuro mouthed the word for zero, there was a distinct sound of a door slamming open.
"THIS IS IT!" Temari yelled valiantly, a bundle of fabric (her newest purchases) in hand.
~oOo~
Aha, that was a fun chapter to write. A bit challanging, but fun.
I can't wait til summer so I can't write fanfiction everyday.
Right now, I'm a prime example of Sleep Chic.
~dreamwithinadream262
Review?
