"Hello, sir. May I seat you?"

"Why, yes. That would be great."

"Follow me." I giggled softly and led Kankuro to the counter, placing the menu on the surface. "Oh, wait. I think I know what you want. You saw the imaginary sign for endless soba noodles for guys with brown hair and dark eyes, didn't you?"

He smiled at me. "You must be a mind reader. That's amazing."

"I know. I think I'm pretty awesome sometimes," I jokingly boasted, moving to the back. "Three orders of soba noodles for Kankuro!"

"Kankuro's here?" Mother screeched, popping her head out from the kitchen. "I want to say hi."

She caught him in a tight hug and began a conversation, ignoring the other customers who were beginning to crowd in. With a warm feeling of contentment in my stomach, I greeted them and found them seats while Grandfather slipped the three bowls of noodles in front of Kankuro.

I hardly had any time to talk to him. As one person left, two more people would take their place. I found myself running back and forth between seating people, taking their orders, and running those orders back to my family. Kyan was just as busy as I was, cleaning the tables after people left.

"Need help?" Kankuro asked, watching me.

I gave him a look of relief, but shook my head. "No, its okay. You just sit there and keep eating. You don't even have to stay here. You can go train or something."

He stood up from the stool and reached for a pencil and a notepad at the end of the counter. "One; I'm full. Two; I trained with Temari at four this morning," he said in a cocky way. I lifted my eyebrows at him, only to have him laugh in response. "Am I not good enough to take orders, Haketa? I know you have to have some serious skill, but I think I'll do decently."

"Kankuro, really, you don't have t-"

He ran his pointer finger under my chin, making a "shhh" noise before sticking his tongue out at me and hurrying to a table I hadn't yet tended to. I didn't quite have time to pout about it, so I continued with my job, making faces at him whenever we passed each other.

"Oh, really?" he would say. "Is that how you really feel, Haketa?"

"Yeah, Kankuro," I would reply. "That's exactly how I feel."

Then he would smile and make my job so much better.

()()()

Within three hours, the rush died down. Hardly anyone came in and Mother offered for Kyan and me to take the rest of the day off, which we instantly took.

"That was so exhausting," Kankuro said sarcastically as we left, Kyan walking behind us. We both glared at him.

"Try doing it almost every day," I told him. My sister nodded in agreement. Before it could turn into an argument, I changed the subject. "Now what are we going to do?"

Kyan motioned for us to follow her, and then took off running toward the forest that surrounded the village. I sighed, running after her, but because she learned how to control her Chakra under Father's watch, she was gone within seconds. I never got that far in the academy.

Kankuro jogged next to me, watching me curiously. "You don't know how to focus your Chakra?" he asked. I shook my head in an embarrassed way and he lifted me off the ground easily, sprinting after my sister.

She led us to the river Grandfather always took us to when we were younger. "I bet you don't have this in Suna," I whispered to Kankuro.

"Want me to throw you in the water?"

"No!"

"So, yes?"

I began to flail around as he moved closer to the water. Kyan silently laughed as she watched me bury my face into Kankuro's shirt, screaming loudly.

"Oh no!" Kankuro said dramatically. I could feel him lowering me down. "Haketa's going to get wet!"

I stopped screaming when my butt touched solid, dry ground. I released his shirt and opened my eyes, realizing I was nowhere near the water. Kyan, taking off her zori, was still laughing at me.

"You're mean," I growled at Kankuro, standing up and walking away from him.

"Are you really mad at me?" he asked, following close behind me. I stood at the water's edge, glaring into it.

"Yes."

"Why? I didn't throw you in-"

I turned and wrapped my arms around his body, throwing myself back into the water and taking him with me. The water rushed over us as I opened my eyes. Kankuro glowered at me before going up for air.

"You fell into that trap!" I told him after taking a substantial breath. With his hair wet, it nearly covered his eyes, so he flicked it to the side.

"Oh, did I?" he questioned, anger obvious on his face. He stood up and made his way to the edge of the water, lifting himself out. "I'm going back to the hotel."

My mouth fell open. "Kankuro, I'm sorry! I thought we were just playing around!" As he walked away, I hurried to get out of the river. Kyan watched us closely. "I'm sorry!"

I gazed at him until he was no longer in sight, then stood next to Kyan. I honestly felt like crying, but I didn't want to in front of her. Especially not over a boy. She patted my leg gently and smiled weakly, mentally telling me that it would be okay.

"And Kankuro comes in for the kill!"

"Wha-"

I was suddenly bear hugged from behind and tackled back into the water. From under, Kankuro grinned innocently at me and I punched his chest, which of course didn't hurt him at all. Stupid water resistance.

"Now my clothes are wet!" I complained once we came back up.

"That's your fault!" He helped me out from the water and tried to ignore the upset face I wore. "Look, I'll make it up to you."

"How?"

"I'll…teach you how to focus Chakra into your feet, so you can keep up with Kyan and me," he offered as he slipped his zori and wet shirt off. I tried my hardest to keep my eyes on his face.

"Will you really?"

"If you want, but not right now." He sat on the grass and sprawled his limbs out, closing his eyes. "I never get to relax like this. There's always something that has to be done and when I can't push it off onto Temari, I actually have to do things. I hate doing things."

()()()

"That's a duck."

"How is that a duck?"

"See the head and the feet? Its obviously a duck."

"I'm not seeing it."

We focused on the next cloud that came floating by. On the other side of Kankuro, Kyan twitched in her sleep and rolled over, curling back into her ball. I readjusted my arms behind my head.

"That one looks like a…" I stared at it, wondering what it could be. "…a dolphin."

"Not even," Kankuro retorted. "It looks more like a penis than a dolphin."

"Are you crazy? That is a dolphin. End of conversation." I rolled onto my stomach and stared at his face. "Will you teach me now?"

He gave me an odd look, batting at my hair. "Teach you what?"

"You've already forgotten?" I whined, moving away from him. "You said you'd teach me to focus my Chakra!"

"All right. Fine. We'll use that tree."

"How?"

"You'll see." Kankuro stood up and wrapped his fingers around my wrist, leading me to a thick tree. "You're going to climb this without using your hands."

"And how exactly am I going to do that?" I asked, not believing it was possible. His eyes strayed from my face for a moment before he grinned.

"Kyan will show you."

I turned to see my sleepy sister make her way over to us. She nodded to Kankuro and made a simple hand sign. The short grass around her feet swayed as if a strong wind had blew past us, and she placed her left foot on the trunk. My eyes widened as she began walking up vertically like it was solid ground, until she reached a branch. She wrapped her arms around her shirt to keep it from falling up as she hung upside down from it.

"Its as simple as that," Kankuro said, looking up at Kyan. "But there's more to it. When I first learned this, my sensei explained how it also helps maintain your stamina. Hanging upside down like that, Kyan will eventually get tired as her Chakra slowly depletes. The more you practice it, the longer you'll be able to hold the Jutsus you use."

Kyan moved back to the truck and slid down, doing a messy somersault at the bottom. She gave me the thumbs-up signal and I sighed.

"Okay, teach me."

"There's a certain hand sign that greatly helps with focusing, which you'll need to do for this," Kankuro explained, forming his hands in the same position Kyan did.

"Like this?" I mumbled, trying to mimic him.

"Not really. Here." He pressed his palms to the backs of my hands and intertwined our fingers as he stood directly behind me. His bare chest was warm on my back. "Its kind of like…your left hand is hugging your two fingers on your right."

"O-Oh, I see now."

He moved away, leaving me very disappointed. "Now close your eyes. When you focus your Chakra to the bottom of your feet, they'll start to get this weird tingling feeling."

I exhaled slowly and did as he told me, mentally picturing my energy moving down to the soles of my feet. They began to feel warm, then I felt that tingling feeling he mentioned. I heard Kyan clap for me.

"Good. Now open your eyes and walk up the tree."

The world around me looked different for some reason. Everything was much more vivid than before. Was it because of the Chakra?

I placed my right foot on the wood, slowly making my way up while I pretended it was just normal ground. Once I passed the middle, I made the mistake of turning my head to glance down. The tingling disappeared and my feet slipped from the tree. I screamed as I fell through the air.

"I got you!" Kankuro called, catching me gently in his arms. I didn't realize how much I was shaking until he placed me back on the ground.

"That was terrifying," I mumbled, backing away from the stupid tree. "I never want to do that again."

Kyan shook her head at me and I knew what she was thinking. I needed to learn how to do this. Focusing Chakra was a basic part of life.

Kankuro suddenly appeared behind me. I didn't even have time to ask how he could move that fast before he was pushing me back to the tree. "I'll stay right behind you this time, so if you fall, you won't go far. Try it again."

I made the hand sign and closed my eyes, but I didn't feel the sensation I was starting to love.

"You're focusing too much on being scared. I'm right behind you, Haketa."

I opened my eyes and turned around to look at him. He wasn't lying. If I leaned back even an inch, I'd be falling into him.

"Okay," I whispered, turning back to the tree. As soon as my eyes closed, I felt the phenomenon and began walking.

The entire way up the tree, Kankuro whispered encouraging things to me. "You're doing great," or "Keep going. See the branch? You're almost there." Fortunately, I wasn't scared anymore.

I rounded to the branch, holding my shirt in place with my hands. From the ground, Kyan smiled and clapped her hands for me. I had done it.

"Good job," Kankuro said, standing beside me. I grinned at the sight of his hair sticking up. I'm sure I looked just as ridiculous. "Now, getting down. Hold my hand." Without hesitation, I grabbed his left hand with my right. Our fingers automatically entwined. "We're both going to use our Chakra to push ourselves off in a front flip, got it?"

"Got it."

"One, two, three!"

I took a big breath and bent my knees slightly, pushing off the branch. I couldn't help but laugh as the air flew through my hair and we landed smoothly on the ground.

"I did it!" I cried out happily, my cheeks beginning to feel sore from smiling so big. Kankuro returned my smile and gave my hand a playful squeeze before letting go. I jumped at him in a hug. "Thank you!"

His chest vibrated with laughter as he held me to him. "You're welcome. Next, I'm going to teach you how to control marionettes."

"What?" I exclaimed, pulling back a little to look at his face.

"I'm joking. That takes years to learn."

()()()

"She's asleep, isn't she?" I heard Kankuro ask Kyan. As it began to get dark, I found myself unable to move. I remained on the grass, my eyes closed in a relaxed way, next to Kankuro.

I heard rustling and suddenly I was lifted off the ground and placed against something firm. Hair tickled my face and I realized I had been placed on Kankuro's back. He wrapped his arms around my legs, bringing them closer to his stomach, and Kyan's petite hands moved my arms so they were dangling over his shoulders.

"I was surprised she was able to do it so quickly," he told Kyan, falling into the rhythmic bounce of his steps. "It took me at least a week to learn this. Baki used to get so frustrated with me." I suppose Kyan mouthed "why," because he continued talking. "When I was in the academy back in Suna, and even when we were placed into teams when we became Genin, I was always the last one to get the hang of the lessons. I was always the slowest. Those stupid brats always teased me for it."

I felt sorry for him. I'd never really been teased by my peers. Probably because I was the quiet one who never drew much attention. The only one who ever gave me any problems was Kiba and that was because I wouldn't let him copy my work.

"Oh, she's asleep," Mother's voice said. We must have arrived at my house. "Could you take her up to her room?"

"Of course," Kankuro replied.

I heard my creaky door open and I was softly placed on my bed. It felt a lot better than the grass I'd been on.

I expected Kankuro to just turn and leave, but instead he sighed. I knew he was the only one in the room, because I couldn't hear anyone else behind him. Even though Kyan was mute, she was pretty noisy.

"Good night, Haketa," he whispered. I felt the edge of my bed cave in from pressure and suddenly, skin was pressed against my lips. Wait, not just skin. Another set of lips.

When they were gone, I mentally screamed at myself to open my eyes or lift a finger or anything! But I couldn't. My body was too physically exhausted. I gave up when I heard the door close and my mother tell Kankuro, "Good night!"

It ran through my head over and over again. Kankuro had just kissed me.

Oh, goodness.