Authors Notes:

Well here's the fourth chapter, i was extremely bored so i had a lot of time to finish it. So far I've still only received positive news on this story so ill keep writing it for now. i'd like to remind everyone again to review what you think about my story so far and point out anything I've messed up, i'll also gladly take any suggestions into consideration.

I'm still curious whether or not you guys want me to pair Temari and Shukaku together so id appreciate more response to that question, I've already set it up for that pairing but it shouldn't be too hard to go a different direction.

Disclaimer: i do not own Naruto, if i did Sakura would probably be dead.

So far, Shukaku had been having a great time. He had been freed, yelled at, attacked, been deprived of thanks for healing his previous jinchuuriki, and then passed out with a smile on his face. Yep, Shukaku was having a truly wonderful time.

Unfortunately, all good things must end one way or another, for Shukaku that involved waking up, tied to a chair, with all three of the sand siblings looking expectantly at him as if he had the answer to life; the answer was 42, but he doubted they would listen to that. So instead, he put on his most cheerful smile, a truly terrifying thing to be seen, and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Do you guys mind if I crash here for a few days?"

The sound of Temari's head hitting the table and Kankuro dropping the spoon he was eating ice cream with, was all the reply he got. Looking over at Gaara he noticed that his former container wasn't even paying attention to him, instead he was playing with his sand, making a small tanuki version of himself dance around with a top hat and cane.

'Ok first thing to do when I get the chance is kick his ass' he swore mentally.

He looked over to Temari and noticed that she was shaking her head in denial and mumbling something he couldn't quite make out; Kankuro was just sitting there with the smuggest look on his face. Shukaku made it a point to hit him with something after he'd kicked Gaara's ass.

After a few minutes of general silence, Shukaku decided to interfere with Gaara's sand puppet show. By controlling his own sand he managed to create another small version of his tanuki form and made it walk across the table to join Gaara's; during the short walk a small chair made of sand formed in its hand and once it met Gaara's tanuki it smashed said chair over its head. Once again, the room was introduced to the sound of Temari's head hitting the table.

'I should have tried to kill him' cursed Temari.

If she had of known that not one, but both of her brothers would react to this as a joke then she never would have dragged him down here for questioning. It had taken her a little while to actually come up with and excuse for why she was dragging a nearly dead looking Shukaku down the stairs. She had been forced to listen to Kankuro's gloating about being right for almost a full 3 minutes before punching him in the face.

Gaara she expect to be at least shocked or something, but no, he just disregarded Shukaku even existing; she was really starting to worry about her little brothers mental health. Even after the more non-serious moment was over, they still didn't really care; was she going insane or were her brothers complete idiots.

She looked over to see that Gaara and Shukaku were having a small-scale war with sand creations, some of which were quite impressive, and Kankuro off to the side making imaginary bets on who would be victorious. She would slam her head into the table again if she didn't fear it would leave a rather painful mark.

Without saying a word, Temari stood up and walked out of the room. The small-scale war stopped and all three remaining occupants of the room shared a confused look.

"Do either of you guys know what that was about?" asked Kankuro.

"I believe she is having a hard time coping with our reaction, or rather our lack of reaction, over Shukaku here," explained Gaara.

"Hmm, good point. Perhaps one of us should go talk to her about it," stated Shukaku.

Both Gaara and Kankuro gave him an expectant look to which he responded with a confused look. The next few minutes were filled with all three boys giving each other different looks expressing a wide array of messages ranging from and not limited to: angry, happy, confused, expectant, fearful, smug, cocky, and eventually pained.

"How about you talk to her," offered Kankuro.

"And why would I do that?" he asked.

"I think what my brother is trying to say, is that our sister has a tendency to react violently to this kind of news. Not to mention that if she found out that we had kept such information from her for this long; well she might not be so inclined to castrate you," explained Gaara as he shivered from the mental images he had given himself.

"So you guys are just gunna make me go into the dragons den ahead of you, is that it?" he asked accusingly.

Gaara and kankuro gave a nod of affirmation simultaneously, before going back to what they were doing before. Shukaku sliced through the ropes holding him to the chair, stood up, and stretched; he was still extremely weak but the small rest he had was better than nothing. He prayed that Temari wouldn't try to kill him again because he honestly wasn't sure he could go up against an angry teenage girl in his current condition.

After a few minutes of searching the house, he found Temari back on the roof sitting exactly where she had been before. He walked over and sat down next to her with his legs crossed; they stayed like that for a few moments before Temari decided to break the silence.

"They know something I don't, don't they?" she asked quietly.

"Yep" he answered.

"Is that the reason why they aren't attacking or trying to capture you?"

"Yep"

"You have 10 minutes, explain," she ordered.

"There's not much to say really, I guess I should start off with the fact that I didn't break out of the seal, at least not intentionally anyway" he began. "That seal was a real pain in the ass, remind me to kill whoever made the damn thing," he added with a sneer.

"What do you mean?" she questioned.

"That seal was the weakest seal that could possibly contain me, but that wasn't the issue; the issue was the berserker seal infused with it" he shivered slightly at the memory of it, "Every time I'm sealed, you people place a berserker seal over the top of everything. It makes me more agitated and forces more of my chakra to continuously flow into my vessel; Bijuu chakra, when not freely given by the respected Bijuu, causes bloodlust, insanity, and will force me to take control when my host is unconscious, in bad cases the host will suffer eventual breakdown of body tissue" he explained calmly.

"I've spent nearly the last century sealed under the same kind of circumstances; Because of that, you people have naturally assumed I'm a monster, much like the other Bijuu, and you wouldn't be too far off. I won't lie, I am insane, I was also very bloodthirsty back before I got captured, always trying to prove myself to be stronger than my siblings; but I'm hoping that now that I'm free I can be seen as something other than a monster"

"You said something about not breaking the seal, what did you mean?" asked Temari, surprisingly she had been listening intently to every word and was trying to believe what he said, so far it wasn't too difficult.

"Gaara's seal wasn't as strong as my previous ones. Your father wanted access to as much of my power as possible, and so he sealed me into Gaara during childbirth. With a weak and unstable seal infused with a berserker seal, combined with the interference of your mother's chakra network, it should have blown up and released me immediately. That's where I come in; due to the poor quality of seal, I was able to retain most of my consciousness while contained, thought I still went completely insane when I was released"

"Using what I had at my disposal, I held the seal together, waiting for a moment when it would be possible to release myself without killing Gaara. That moment was not what happened two days ago. The seal fell apart and I was forced out, I tried to cause the least amount of damage but my chakra is volatile by nature. Even I'm surprised Gaara survived that, which is why I went back and healed him as best I could"

"So that golden chakra was you healing him?" Temari interrupted.

"Yeah, I just wish I could have grown his arm back, but he seems to be coping just fine with it now. Lucky him, its gunna take me a couple of weeks just to regain my strength from that" he muttered the last part mostly to himself.

"So, assuming that all of this is true..."

"Which it is" he interrupted

Temari gave him a glare and continued. "Assuming this is true, how do my brothers already know all of this and how come I was the last to find out?" she asked.

"I told them in the hospital after you passed out; in fact you burst into the room shortly after I had finished asking them how to tell you"

Temari's eyes widened and she gave Shukaku a horrified look. "You mean you were in the room when…..And you saw my…..." she choked on her words and prayed it wasn't true.

"Oh yeah, I saw it all; best view I've had since I got outa the seal!" he exclaimed before bursting into hysterical laughter.

Temari for the second time in one day blushed red enough to give Hinata a run for her money, but that blush soon turned to anger as she punched Shukaku square in the face as hard as she could while screaming "Pervert" as loud as possible. Shukaku still didn't stop laughing, so she continued to punch him until her arm got tired. Once she was done Shukaku got up as if nothing had happened and led Temari back down to the kitchen where Gaara and Kankuro were.

The scene they walked into was not one either expected. Gaara had made a small army of raccoons out of sand that Kankuro was fighting off with a spoon. Temari turned to ask Shukaku if he knew what was going on, only to find he wasn't standing next to her anymore, instead, he was standing next to Kankuro helping her brother fight off the ever-growing swarm of racoons.

All three siblings and one Bijuu sat quietly in the lounge room of the Kazekage mansion. Because boys never know when to quit, the kitchen had now become a victim of what was being called "The Racoon War". Now was not the time for games however, the sand siblings still had some questions that needed answering and Shukaku had recently decided that he needed ice cream.

"So, I Believe you guys have some questions for me," said Shukaku, each word was said slowly between each mouthful of ice cream.

"Yes, we do. But before we ask any questions, is there anything you would like to add to your side of the story; or perhaps anything you would like to ask us first?" asked Gaara. He had stopped playing around with his sand, but everyone could see him twitch every now and then, just waiting for the chance to cause a little more chaos.

"Well you guys still haven't told me whether or not I can crash here for a little while" he replied.

The siblings all looked at each other; Gaara kept his emotionless expression, Kankuro gave a nod while smiling, and Temari was glaring at both of them. Out of all of them Gaara was the first one to say anything.

"I do not have a problem with you taking the couch," he said.

For the first time since the conversation started, Temari smiled. Who would have known Gaara would make such a responsible decision despite his most recent actions. She also realised that due to her being one of the owners of this place, she had a certain level of control over what Shukaku could or would have to do around the house. She chuckled darkly while forming a plan in her head.

"However" added Gaara.

Temari froze at that. Whatever her brother was about to say, she knew she wouldn't like it at all, unfortunately Gaara was still the Kazekage and she was under his control as a shinobi. She had to obey whatever orders he gave, no matter what; she was usually spared the demeaning orders because of her close relation with him, but right now, she guessed that it didn't really count for much when it came to Shukaku.

"You will have to be accompanied by one of us at all times while outside of the house. Although you don't seem hostile, it is difficult to just outright trust you; so until you have proven yourself to be trustworthy you will be required to have an escort wherever you go," stated Gaara. The way he said it, despite his monotone speech, told his siblings that this was an order as the Kazekage and not just him suggesting it.

Temari felt all hope of being able to torture Shukaku fall from her grasp. She inwardly cursed her brother for being too lenient and kind as a leader, but she couldn't get mad at him. After all, a kind and considerate leader is exactly what Sunagakure needed after the reign of their father. Unfortunately, for Temari, Gaara hadn't finished speaking.

"Now unless you enjoy sitting around in an office, doing nothing for hours on end, I would be a poor choice for keeping an eye on you and Kankuro is due to head to Konohagakure for an extended mission. This unfortunately leaves only Temari to keep an eye on you"

Time slowed down and Temari could almost see the pieces of her world shatter around her. If Gaara were still a murderous psychotic lunatic, she would have gladly made an attempt on his life for the stunt he was pulling right now. What the hell was her idiot of a brother thinking by sticking her with him for who knows how long?

"Gaara! You can't be serious, surely there is something more important for me to do," she yelled.

She hadn't expected Gaara to look at her with a dead serious expression and an accusing look in his eye. "More important than keeping an eye on one of the nine Bijuu? More important than making sure that he doesn't go on a killing spree through our village. Can you think of anything else more important than that?" he replied harshly.

Temari didn't answer; instead, she just sat back in defeat. Once he had seen that he had gotten his point across, Gaara turned back to Shukaku.

"My sister will be your escort from here on out, you will obey her rules and any command she gives you. You are not to leave the mansion without her and if she suspects that you are going to harm anyone within my village without good reason, then I give her permission to take you out by any means necessary" he finished.

Shukaku nearly had a heart attack as soon as he realised that his entire life for the foreseeable future would be controlled by a person who's mental stability was questionable even by his standards. Was his former jinchuuriki really cruel enough to practically hand his life over to her so easily? Did it count for nothing that he had been keeping him alive for 14 years, or that he had healed what should have been life-crippling wounds, did he really not get bonus points for doing any of that?

Temari couldn't have been happier. At first, she feared Gaara had lost the plot, what with the racoon war and Shukaku puppet dance, but now she could say that she liked this Gaara better. He had just given her complete control over Shukaku and the permission to kill him if he tried anything; she was practically holding his life in her hands. Most would have gone mad with that kind of power, she knew Gaara had once, but she would never let herself fall so low.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have 14 years of sleep to catch up on and I would very much like to begin now," said Gaara.

"Wait, didn't you have questions?" asked Shukaku.

"Questions can wait until tomorrow, after I've informed the council of what is happening," answered Gaara before walking up the stairs to his room.

Kankuro as if sensing the potential awkward situation, also left and went to his room. Only Temari and Shukaku were left in the lounge room and the awkwardness of their situation was slowly being realised. The evil grin that was plastered on Temari's face slowly grew into a mad smile, the kind of smile that Shukaku had long since learnt to always fear.

"You're not gunna make me do something sexual are you?" he asked fearfully. And just like that, the mad smile disappeared.

"NO!" she shouted while jumping away from him. "Why do you have to be a pervert?" she asked in a disgusted tone.

"Hey, I'm not the perverted one here, that'd be you. Don't think I haven't forgotten how you thought I was good looking," he answered hastily.

Temari froze, a look of complete horror formed on her face as she turned to look Shukaku dead in the eye. "How do you know that?" she whispered.

Shukaku's eyes widened to comical proportions and his jaw dropped in much the same fashion. "Wait, you actually thought I was good looking? I was just making a wild accusation, but this, this is so much better; how good looking do you think I am?" he asked.

Temari almost screamed in frustration. She didn't answer him, instead opting to stomp out of the room and up the stairs. Shukaku followed as she stormed up to her room with a cocky grin etched on his face.

"On a scale of one to ten, how hot do you think I am?" he asked before she slammed her door shut in his face. "I'll take that as an eight," he added with a chuckle.

Shukaku had to admit, things were definitely going his way. He was now free and had a place to stay for a while, not to mention a personal escort who thought he was attractive; yep, life was good.

Temari was already planning on how to make Shukaku suffer for as long as possible when she heard his footsteps lead away from her door. She was going to torture him in any way she possibly could, she was going to make him wish that he had held that seal together for much longer. A maniacal cackle escaped her mouth as she prepared for tomorrow.

Back down stairs, lounging on the couch, Shukaku felt a shiver of fear crawl up his spine, as if he had somehow just incurred the wrath of a teenage girl. He quickly shrugged it off and went to sleep; tomorrow he would get to see how the rest of the village would react to him.