Chapter 10
Apothecary
Gaara watches Kaguya from the sidelines, all the while keeping his presence well hidden in the shadows. He watches as she smiles sincerely and assisting those who came to her for help. Her stunning appearance in the crowd helped a lot more than what the silver-haired guy had done, and with her presence, everything is well managed and organized. Even the crowds are quieter with her there.
They liked her, ya know?
I can see that.
You're not jealous?
Why should I? They're not the one who's going to be her husband.
But I can see you didn't like the way that silver hair and Kaguya behaves around each other. Feeling rather scandalous, brat?
Don't start.
…
Shukaku knew when to open and shut his mouth. He knew the limit around his host, and he didn't like to step over the limit. There are consequences to receive if he were to overstep the boundaries, and though he had done it in the past, the thought of ever doing it again never passed his mind again. He didn't know why, but he just never thought about it again. He didn't like them to begin with anyway, so he put them off his mind.
Gaara balled up his fist when he saw just how pleasant their relationship is between each other, Kaguya and Senri. Despite the argument and the scoldings, they actually looked content with each other's presence and there's no doubt that they are close to each other. There was life in them, just like Temari and Kankurou. He could never have that kind of everyday light arguments with just anyone. He wondered just who Senri is when something dawned upon him.
From the start until now, Kaguya never stepped out of the area around her manor. There was even a line drawn around it, and she moved only within the line and made sure to keep away from the line. He remembered her telling him about the curse that keeps her within the compounds of the Miyagusuku Manor, and just when his other thoughts are forming, a strange question rang in the almost silently buzzing crowd and caught his attention.
"Is it true that the Kazekage and his siblings came and proposed an engagement to you yesterday?"
Naturally, Gaara froze in a way that nobody would ever knew he had frozen.
Right from the start, Gaara had a feeling that he shouldn't let down his spying jutsu, and he, in fact, can still hear clearly what other people around the jutsu he placed talks about, that includes the now whining Senri, squatting in a corner, one hand covering his red ear while the other drew circles on the sand, and it's the mention of his title in society that made him jump.
Kaguya, though surprised with the question, stood her ground and answered with a pleasant smile, "It does seems so, but that's only an informal proposal since the Kazekage gave me no engagement ring or gifts but a speech about it. But it doesn't really matter, is it not?" said Kaguya confidently, an air of superiority spreads over her, but she is still as humble as any other kind and good Feudal Princess.
The old man, however, have other ideas of understanding.
"What?" he said in a scandalous way, eyes wide with one hand over his heart. "It does not matter? It's the Kazekage we're talking about, not just some common pile of tramps and low ranking aristocrats." Kaguya frowned at the term of 'Low Ranking Aristocrats". He didn't say it out loud, but Kaguya knew that the old man meant her. She knew just how high her status is in society despite her being rather withdrawn in the social order, and that she is just second to a Kage in Suna. In such, she is more powerful than any council member.
Unlike the other nations, Suna's Kage system relies upon the aristocrats and Feudal Lords to be their leader of the nation. The Kazekage's family comes from a direct line of the Feudal Lords, and descends purely out of noble blood. To add with their Kage title, they are first in the chart tree of the Lords and Ladies of Suna.
To sum it all up, the Suna Siblings are all active Feudal Lords and Ladies as well.
Wow…Shukaku piped up in awe at the stupidity of the old man, feeling Gaara's wrath boiling up. Those garbs are lame. They couldn't even cover his shiny boots, but this old man sure got the guts to say that. He's just a commoner before he's given the council's seat, isn't he?
A commoner down to the roots of the family, Gaara answered mentally, eyes glaring at the old man, who seems to have felt it, and shrugged uncomfortably, preferring to ignore the glare he received unknowingly from the Kazekage. Everyone knew Okawa is the only councilmen to have been elected without an ounce of noble blood in him. He's been desperate to be one too, and he's trying hard to win favors from nobles just so that his children can marry into their noble families, but alas, the nobles are smart enough to not let him in, more so his children.
Kaguya frowned from the insult. "Excuse me?"
Okawa puffed out his chest, dropping the 'sick and frail' façade entirely and said arrogantly, "It would seem that since the Kazekage's proposal is not counted as formal and official without the proposal ring and gifts, your meeting with the Kazekage will be for nothing then. That will mean no engagement. It is null and everything is void."
And that will mean that his granddaughter will still had the chance to be a Kage's wife and his daily income will increase ten folds, Shukaku said, rolling his eyes.
For once in 18 years Shukaku, you're making some sense.
Well I'm not totally useless am I? At least with my over hundreds of years of experience and power, my existence in you will be able to help you in governing this kind of people.
And getting the honor of having insomnia and black rings around my eyes that made every one of my fan clubs nicknamed me as the cute panda king? Save your breath.
Aww, come on! It's not all that bad, and you're already good looking enough without the black rings, and with the black rings they sure do make you look more alluring and irresistible to women. You know the girls liked mysterious cool quiet guys. The colder you are to them, the more irresistible they are to you.
How many men did you detect so far, Shukaku?
Shukaku immediately sobered up. When Gaara used the beast's name, it usually means business. 5 men. They're not a Shinobi of Suna. They're bodyguards and assassins. Each are at an individual random post dressed as normal citizens. Newspaper stand, Lamp Post, a beggar by the stinking drain, a drunk by the side of the road and a post man that never seems to deliver any letters. Man, they're lame!
It's their eyes and their auras that give them off.
Correct, said Shukaku in a matter-of-factly tone.
Gaara scoffed silently and gave Shukaku a "…"
Oh, man! I've wanted to say that for years! "Correct." Wow, just how cool's that!
Stupid.
I admit that, but I'm not one all the time.
"But its right up to the Kazekage himself to make the decision isn't he?" Kaguya's voice brought him out of the small talk with Shukaku. Kaguya continued in a sweet honey voice with disgust dripping off every drop of sentence, "After all, it's Gaara-sama that is getting an engagement and matrimony, not the council." Gaara smiled his crooked smile. He can feel that she felt challenged, and is determined to fight back without backing down.
I like a lady with guts, Shukaku said, receiving no replies from Gaara.
The councilmen looked aghast and stuttered a comment while jabbing his finger towards Kagya, "Ho-How dare you-"
Slapping one hand over her chest and puffing them out, Kaguya said sarcastically, "How dare I? *scoff* I suggest for you to take your leave right about now, council member, if you're not here to see me for medicinal purposes. You see, others are politely waiting and lining up, unlike a certain someone who forces through with a lame costume…I must say you do have a very interesting idea in dress codes."
For one thing, Kaguya had the knack of knowing what status that someone is by a glance from top to toe. Normal citizens won't wear their hair in such way that a fly would slip down the moment it landed on their hair, and normal citizens won't groom their moustache in time-wasting way, and it would seems that the old man had used a hair curling iron to curl his moustache as well, and certainly, normal citizen in Suna won't wear such expensive looking shoes.
"The Kazekage's matters is what most important!"said the old man, starting to bounce in fury from the insolence of a 'child' that stands far taller than himself and spoke in such aristocratic way that outshines his council member's status, which is higher than the highest aristocrats status in Suna. "For the sake of the village's future, those people can wait!" The old man hates those that do not recognize him as the council member and often makes their lives a living hell of trouble by using dirty methods, and those that do not even bothered to use honorific titles to address him almost always ends up spending the rest of their lives in dungeons and jails. Most of them, sad to say, are innocent framed good aristocrats.
Kaguya shakes her head in a sorrow stricken way, eyebrows knitted together in a concerned way, and looking disappointedly at the old man. She states in a cold low voice, "So this is the way Council Members treat Suna's residence. It's a wonder how someone like you managed to climb up to that seat, while others that voted for you stay as unfortunate as a wingless bat without all the things you have promised them, poor things."
Outraged, the council men pointed a finger at Kaguya accusingly and shouted his orders. "You- You are hereby forbidden to see the Kazekage ever again! I shall arrange for your aristocrats title to be stripped and you'll be banished from Suna! This is the end, insolent brat!" Kaguya noted that his spits flying out with each sentence in every direction under the most disgusted and unimaginable way for an aristocrat holding the council member's title. Everyone that was here for medicinal purposes had stopped chattering and listened intently on their topic, some were supporting the short and plump old council member, while the rest, which consist almost most of the crowds supported Kaguya, for they knew that she is not a selfish aristocrat like the rest of the aristocrat families in Suna.
They never knew that she is not just an aristocrat, but a Feudal Princess.
Gaara finds that he himself is unable to remain silent any longer. From the moment the councilmen started to point an accusing finger at Kaguya, Shukaku had been rooting on behind his mind with a "SACK HIM! SACK HIM! SACK HIM!" cheer, to which he couldn't help but to agree wholeheartedly. He didn't like the idea that someone as low as the councilmen Okawa would dare to make a decision for him, and choose to strip Kaguya's title and banish her off Suna? Why, he just earned himself the very same thing.
He's a Kazekage of Suna, and he's no longer a puppet for Suna. Stepping up from behind the shadows, the crowd slowly parted for him to pass through upon sensing his dominating presence. He saw Kaguya looked up to him and gasped, a stunning bright smile broke out from her expression at the sight of him. He'll relieve her off this nuisance.
"And who are you to decide what I have decided is wrong, council member from the Okawa family?"
The stocky council men's eyes went wide with fear at the familiar deep and dangerous voice, and the aura surrounding the owner of the voice tells much more than his presence initiated. The old council member trembled like a leaf in the wind and paled immediately.
Gaara the Kazekage was standing right behind the old council member.
Turning around slowly, old man Okawa's eyeballs bulged outwards to get a good look of confirmation regarding the owner of the voice. He nearly whimpered when his sight confirmed that it is indeed Gaara who stood behind him and is glaring at him in a way that made him felt like death is upon the door. Slowly, in a trembling voice, Okawa greeted the Kazekage with a stutter, "K-K-Kazekage-sama…"
"Who give you the permission to overrule my decision?" said Gaara, venom dripping off his tone and instantly, blasted them towards the now cowering Okawa.
Swallowing nervously, Okawa dared himself to reply to the young Lord. "Kazekage-sama, the council had decided that-"
"The last decision lies in my hand, council member Okawa. What have the council decided? Did I not say that in the last meeting that I will request for the council's presence when I want a meeting? Who then, gave you permission to run a meeting without my presence? You know it is forbidden for meetings to be held without the Kage's or the Head of Councilmen's presence."
Gaara's eyes continued to burn holes into the old man's head, wishing infinitely that a vile and wicked person like him will end up in the trash site in Suna, covered in thick green and yellow goo. He knew what he had done to most of the good aristocrats in Suna, and by the time he is Kazekage, half of them had died in prison, and all because of a lowly commoner Councilmember Okawa. The old man quivered all the more Gaara speaks, praying with all his might so as to lessen the glare he received from the young Lord Kazekage.
"B-Bu-But Kazekage-sama-" once again, he dared himself to stutter a sentence on his behalf, but Gaara paid him no mind and continued in a dangerous cold tone.
"And do you think you have the power to strip off any unfavorable aristocrat's power off the line in Suna without first consulting with me? You're stepping over the boundaries you're not allowed to, Okawa-san."
After being cut off for two times in speech, old man Okawa kept his head and eyes onto the grounds, afraid that if he looked up, Suna will either be covered in frozen blizzard or consumed in hungry flames by the sheer stare from Gaara's sky blue eyes.
Walking closer to the squat little old man, Gaara towered above him and, realizing that he's covered in Gaara's shadow, the old man gulped and prayed that his pathetic life will be spared by Gaara's wrath. Gaara whispered in a venom-soaked tone, "Perhaps I should remind you whose position is higher, and who wield the most power in Suna..."
By this time, the old man is half-kneeled, half-standing on the ground by Gaara's intense stare. But before Gaara can whisper another venom coated speech to the old man, a pair of soft arms wrapped themselves around the old man's shoulders. Smiling ever so gently and reassuringly, Kaguya said gently, "Gaara-sama, how nice to see you here early in the morning. It surely made my day to be able to meet you here, but, pardon me for my audaciousness, would you mind speaking in another place? The air here is getting rather tense..."
Gaara's eyes glanced around and, as per what Kaguya had said, the people coming for the apothecary had gone silent and is staring at the scene in front of them with rapt attention.
All of a sudden, everything happens in a flash.
Gaara' is almost thrown to the floor when he is tackled from behind by a sudden momentum. He caught strands of silver-hair by glancing from the side of his eyes, and he actually felt something hard rubbing against his flaming red head.
With a quick bow and goodbye, the old council men took the chance and fled the scene, followed by 5 casually dressed bodyguards. He frowned when he thought he heard a series of screws and bolts dropping to the floor. Straightening himself with the heavy weight that had latched itself onto his back, Gaara closes his eyes and wished that the thing behind his back is his sand gourd.
But then he remembered he didn't bring his sand gourd with him today. It's still sitting by the doorstep of the Kazekage's manor, if his memory serves him correctly.
Then Kaguya, he thought. He didn't mind if the one behind his back is Kaguya. Hell, he'd want her behind his back like that.
But then again, he caught sight of her surprised eyes staring at him, looking ever so elegant in the forest green silk she wore. It's rare to see someone dress in silk in Suna, but then again, she's no ordinary citizen. She's a Feudal Princess; of course she would have to dress according to her stature. Her eyes flitted from him to the one behind his back, then back at him then back at the one behind his back again.
And he still felt the 'rubbing' against his head. He began to have his own suspicions that it is in fact a silver-hair covered head.
He closes his eyes and frowned. Dear god.
"My goodness," an elderly voice cracked from the line. "I'd never knew Kazekage-sama is gay…"
"Me either," someone joined in. "I didn't know he likes boys."
"They looked adorable!"
"But I thought that the Lady Kaguya is engaged to him…?"
"That's strange indeed, but maybe the Kazekage had actually meant Senri…?"
"Senri? That hot headed handsome jerk! Lord helps us! That creep actually liked animals more than we girls!"
Oh Kami… Gaara thought to himself. Please send the person behind me into the deepest pit of hell…
Then, as usual, Shukaku piped in.
You need any help, kid? Shukaku said, sounding a little more than eagerly when his eyes shining a little too brightly and mischievous than Gaara's liking. You know I wouldn't mind helping you complete the deed.
Gritting his teeth, Gaara used his full physical strength and flung off the person behind his back towards the wall. Unfortunately, he had conveniently forgotten that the side of the wall that he flungs the 'parasite' that stuck behind his back a while ago is actually the wooden fence of Kaguya's manor. He could only watch when the 'parasite', which is actually the guy with silver-hair collided with the wall and cause a series of dust and soot and wooden splinters arising within a dramatic cloud of dust.
Talking about too late to cry over spilled milk...
"Gaara-sama…" Kaguya whispered in a shocked expression, one palm over her cheek.
Turning towards the feudal princess, Gaara said in a somber tone. "I apologize for this…slight disarray. I will arrange for someone to fix these up, but before that, I do believe you have an explanation to do with your fiancée with that."
Gaara pointed at the silver-haired guy, now lying in a heap of splinters, soot and dust, appearing completely knocked out. He fumes with the knowledge that the very man whom he had knocked out had bounced around Kaguya as if he is allowed to do so.
Again, Shukaku provided him with a new knowledge he never knew he could experience.
Admit it, kid. You're experiencing what we and the humans call 'Jealousy'.