Fumiko woke up slowly, yawning and stretching.
She blinked when she realized her head- and most of her upper body- was hanging off the side of the bed. She lost her balance and slid off with a sharp yelp to the floor headfirst, then landing on her back with a thud.
Fumiko just fumbled for a second, confused, then started to laugh.
She must have been tossing and turning in the middle of the night again.
Fumiko heaved to a sitting position, shaking the last of the cobwebs out of her brain and reaching for her prosthetic.
...
While she was brushing her teeth, Fumiko took a second to blink at her own reflection in the mirrors. There were four Fumiko's blinking back at her.
She was still wearing her pajamas. The shirt was still a little rumpled from her night's kicking around, and her face was still flushed with sleep, but her eyes looked strangely alert, even to her. Fumiko paused, leaning closer to the mirror in front of her.
They were brown. No flecks, like in her sister's eyes, that were dabbed with shades of gold, like their father's eyes. Hers were plainly brown, but shadowed as she moved so they looked deeper, like holes you could fall into, bright in some places and dark in others.
Fumiko realized she was staring at her own eyes and resumed brushing her teeth.
Finally she spat into the sink. Pink spotted white strawberry flavored toothpaste drained into the sink with the water. She put her light blue toothbrush in the little ceramic cup next to Gaara's dark red one. His toothpaste was just plain mint. Fumiko wasn't even sure he'd been looking when he picked it up.
Or that he cared.
She shrugged and splashed water on her face, then shook her head to flick it off. Her hair was still a puffy mess, so she picked up her blue plastic hairbrush and set to it.
Fumiko never took baths in the morning. Why? Because at the end of the day she was always covered in paint, so why would she sleep covered in paint? Besides, it tended to take a while anyway, and she still needed to make breakfast for the Sand siblings.
Temari was leaving in a few weeks for Konoha- she was just waiting for a Genin escort to accept the C-rank. Not because she needed one, but because some of the higher-level Jonin and other ninja were trying to give the new Genin experience.
Speaking of which, Fumiko needed to hurry, if she wanted to get any work done before Mai's initiation meeting tonight.
Her sister was walking around now without support. Fumiko had resealed the ANBU Jackal mask back into Mai's bag and left it by her bed. When she noticed it, she'd grinned and given her a thumbs up, like let's keep a secret.
Fumiko put her hairbrush down, pushed her hair over her shoulders, and peeled her pajama top off, throwing it backwards the hamper behind her.
It missed, and she had to turn around and put it in.
"I'll get that someday."
...
"Good morning, Temari."
"Morning, Fumiko. What's for breakfast?"
"Omelets." Fumiko smiled, sliding her spatula underneath the egg to flip half of it over.
"Omelets sound good."
"Yeah?" Fumiko grinned down at her pan. "Good, 'cause that's lunch for me. I'm making a lot."
"Why?"
"I don't know. Maybe someone else will be hungry."
"You just wanted to use the last of the green peppers before they went bad, didn't you?"
"Nobody eats the green peppers," Fumiko agreed. "Dunno why the greenhouses send over a batch of everything if some things we never get around to using."
"Dad used to eat them. With onions. For his steaks."
"The Fourth?"
"Yeah. Didn't you know that?" Temari sounded surprised. "I would've thought Gaara had told you already. Meat and onions with green peppers, that was his favorite. He ate it almost every night unless mom made him eat something different... huh... I'm sorry. Gaara wouldn't know anything about mom."
Fumiko stopped flipping. The eggs sizzled away in the pan and she put down the spatula.
"Temari... Gaara never ate dinner with you... did he?"
"No, he didn't. Not unless somebody forced him to for appearances. Even then..." her voice was wistful and sad, almost, a complete three-sixty from her previous sarcastic, jovial tone. "Even then... there wasn't too much you could say or do back then to make him do anything."
Fumiko turned around. Temari was staring into the cup of coffee Fumiko had put out for her.
"You know Gaara never talks about his parents with me." Fumiko stated. Temari didn't know that, actually, but it felt like she should have. "That's the one thing he doesn't tell me."
"I suppose that's for good reason, huh?" Temari poked the drink with her spoon to make a ripple. "Dad tried to kill you guys a lot. Kami, I swear..."
There was a hissing sound, the omelets starting to burn. Fumiko turned around hurriedly and flipped them, digging the spatula under them to dislodge them from their pans. Finally they were set and it was quiet again.
Fumiko stared at a mar of brown where an omelet had almost burned.
"Tell me... about Gaara's mom."
Silence. Then: "Why?"
"Yashamaru said... you know about Yashamaru, right?"
"Yeah. Gaara told me and Kankuro about him and all that. What about him?"
"Yashamaru... ah, I don't remember all that much from then. A lot of it went poof!" Fumiko wiggled her fingers in the air. "But... I remember this one thing he said... I never talked about it, 'cause it messed Gaara up bad."
"What was it?"
Fumiko slid her spatula underneath an omelet and pulled it off the pan, dropping it on a plate for Temari. The others would be ready soon. She turned the burner off for that one.
"He was saying something about Gaara's name."
"The way it's spelled, right? I, love, and demon. Self-loving carnage."
"Yeah, that. And that Karura... Gaara's mom... that she named him that to curse the village."
"What? Yashamaru said that?"
"Yeah." Another omelet, flick the burner off. "Yashamaru told us that Gaara's mom hated the village for forcing her to have Gaara, and for sealing the demon inside against her will. And that... She hated him enough to give him that name, to live forever as a burden on Suna."
"That's not-!" Something crashed. "That can't be right!"
Fumiko jumped and whipped around. There was coffee everywhere. "Tema-"
"Forget breakfast, Fumiko," Temari muttered, heading for the door, coffee dripping down her fingers. The shattered cup was in pieces on the table and the floor. "I need to go cut things in half."
There was a whirl of wind, and Temari was gone.
...
Fumiko didn't mention her conversation with Temari to Gaara when she brought him up his omelet.
Temari had refused to talk any more on the subject. She didn't deny Yashamaru's claims, but she didn't agree with them, either, which was strange. All she'd said was, "I guess mom didn't want to die." And then she'd leapt out a window, fan in hand.
The subject of Gaara's mom wasn't any more cleared up than it had been for the last eight years of Fumiko's life, so she decided in the end that it didn't really matter. Karura was dead now. Worrying about her hatred made no more sense than worrying about Rasa's.
Gaara looked stressed, so Karura was immediately forgotten.
"What's wrong?"
Gaara didn't even look at the plate. He was rubbing his temples, eyes unfocused, sliding across his papers like wild blue marbles. "All of my assistants are out today, we lost six ANBU to an ambush in Iwa, the main catacomb underground has collapsed and now we have no gravesites left, there was an error in the Academy registration process and now no one is signed up for classes next semester-"
"We're going for a walk."
"We- what? But I-"
"We're going for a walk, Gaara."
"No, I-"
"We're going for a walk."
"But-"
"In the desert."
"Fumiko, I can't-"
"Now."
Fumiko didn't wait for him to disagree again, just pulled up on his forearm until finally he stood, and practically dragged him out of his office and away from his crazy.
...
"Better now?" Fumiko asked after almost a half an hour of mostly aimless wandering through the hot desert surrounding Sunagakure's walls. Neither of them had said a word at all the entire time, but Gaara had very visibly relaxed. Aside from occasionally venturing outside to give some speech or address some crowd, everything he needed was in the Tower, and so very rarely did he ever get the chance to go outside.
"Much. Thank you."
"No problem. Sugar, Gaara, you got pretty trampled today."
"The flu's getting around again. A lot of my helpers of any kind are coming down with it. Of course, everything went wrong as soon as I was the only one left to deal with it."
"I can't believe the catacombs collapsed. Even..."
Even your family?
Gaara seemed to understand and let out a long sigh. "Gone. Destroyed. We used stone and concrete to make it last longer, but... the coffins were made of wood, and sand doesn't hold off stone masonry very well, apparently. So many people are upset."
"I guess so, huh?"
"All of the complaints, the reports, repairs, evacuations of buildings that could go into sinkholes, that alone could last me a week. But on top of that, six ANBU have gone missing, which is causing an uproar in the shadow corps, and now the next generation of ninja have to scramble for spots that got mixed up with the villager school's children."
"Maybe I should help you sort through it all."
"No, it's... it's fine." Gaara looked up towards the sky, squinting at the bright sun. "I just needed to breathe."
"Plenty of air out here, ne?" Fumiko spread her arms and smiled widely. "Nothing but air and sand and cactai. And..." she paused as a strange clicking sounded nearby. "And a rattlesnake. Let's go that way instead."
...
After a few hours of playing hooky and walking around the desert, they finally made their way back into the village. The studio was closer, so they would stop there first, and then Gaara would go on ahead to the Tower. He insisted on finishing his work on his own.
Fumiko was holding Gaara's arm now for balance, skipping over various random pebbles and debris and laughing. Gaara didn't seem to mind, smiling himself as he watched, so she didn't stop.
They were just a few yards away from the building when an older man wearing a formal Suna headdress stepped out of the shadows. Ninja seemed to like doing that.
Fumiko stopped jumping. "Hi, Joseki."
Joseki didn't seem to like her very much, or find any of the things she did helpful. Then again, he didn't really much like Gaara, either, as far as she could tell. He was probably the only one on the Council requesting that Gaara either create an heir or train an apprentice to take his place 'someday'.
Joseki ignored her.
"Gaara-sama," he said. "What are you doing out here?"
Gaara made a sharp tch noise with his teeth, mouth turning down at the corners with displeasure. "Joseki-san," he said politely. "I was just heading back."
"How long have you been out here with Fumiko-san?" Joseki's own lips were tugged down in a scowl of disappointment. "You are the Kazekage now. Perhaps Fumiko-san isn't capable of taking things seriously, but you should know better than that."
"Ne, but Gaara was overwhelmed," Fumiko said. "He needed a break."
"The Kazekage is fully capable, I'm sure, of handling paperwork," Joseki said, voice falling just short of respectful. "You may go back to your paint shop now, girl."
"Fumiko," Gaara said. "Go on ahead."
"Huh, but-"
"Joseki-san is right," Gaara said. "I need to get back to work."
His eyes were narrowed. Something, some intuition, told Fumiko that whatever it was wasn't just about work. She nodded once, smiling, and kissed his cheek. "Okay. See you later then, Gaara."
She stepped away, waving a little before concentrating on the ground in front of her so she wouldn't trip. She hummed to herself as she walked, some old lullaby song her mother had sung for her as a child, before Gaara. "Sleep, little pigeon, and fold your wings..."
She pulled out the keys to her studio door as she stopped outside it, digging through her satchel. "... Little blue pigeon... with velvet eyes... sleep to the singing, of mother-bird swinging, swinging the nest where her little one lies."
She stuck the keys in the lock and turned the knob, opening the door to darkness, which was odd, but maybe the windows had been covered up by some of her work. She hadn't really been paying attention to where she hung her canvas lately.
"Away out yonder, I see a star." Fumiko reached for the light switch. "Silvery star with a tinkling song... that's weird. What is this stuff?"
Where her light switch usually was, there was apparently a bunch of... what were they? They felt like snakes, or firm spaghetti. Fumiko felt around, but her vision even adjusted to the dark couldn't quite make it out. Just the silhouette of something that still looked like snakes or firm spaghetti sticking out from the wall.
"Those are my wires," Fumiko said, song dying on her lips. "The sugar?"
It didn't really matter anyway, there was an emergency light that worked on solar power from the roof anyway, behind the counter. It was red, but that was okay.
Fumiko felt around for canvas or easels that she would probably run into, stepping slowly to where she knew her counter was. She tripped a little on a tarp but managed to catch herself on a stool. "Yick! Oh nope, I'm okay now."
She felt around the counter to get around it, fingers of one hand sliding along the bottom for the light. Really, why was it so dark? Briefly she wondered what had happened to her light switch, and how much it would cost to fix it, and then her fingers caught on the switch and she flicked it on.
Red light seeped into the air, illuminating everything with a bloodlike reflection.
"Oh." Fumiko said, because she couldn't think of anything else.
There was a man standing there, behind her cashbox, one she recognized to be one of Kankuro's puppet brigade friends from the picture on his workshop wall, though she didn't know his name. He had light hair and small, dark eyes, so far as she could tell through the red haze.
He leered, not in a creepy kind of way, but like he'd pulled something off he didn't think was possible, sweaty and nervous.
He took a step closer.
Fumiko backed up and then turned to run, but the puppet master slid easily in front of her before she could clear the counter's corner, hands up to prevent her escape.
Fumiko yelped and dropped to her hands and knees, which he didn't seem to expect, scrambling out of the tight space between his leg and the side of her stone counter. Before he could catch his bearings, Fumiko stood up with her back to his, and without thinking pulled her arm forward and slammed her elbow back into the small of his back.
He fell, cursing in surprise. Fumiko didn't give herself time to process what had just happened, she started to run again, but them something caught the back of her prosthetic and puled and she fell, arms flailing, cry of alarm stuck in her throat, and hit the ground hard, skidding a little.
Fumiko could hear him starting to get up and tried to struggle to her foot, but the thing was still caught and he was up, but she was up too, and tried to bolt even though she hadn't made it all the way standing yet, trying to plow forward toward the door with her momentum and also trying not to wipe out again.
Pain flared in the back of her skull as the intruder's grabbing fingers caught a knot in her hair and he pulled. Fumiko stumbled back and he grabbed her arm, jerking her around. His face was washed in red, eyes glinting with anxiety and determination.
Something with his hand was hurting, stinging her arm, pulling chakra out like water, and she couldn't focus it or move it enough for a Genjutsu as it flowed across her skin towards his sucking fingers.
Fumiko tried to jerk away but her arm burned and he was stronger than she was and he was pulling a knife-
Fumiko froze. She could see something sliding off the blade. In the red glow, it was yellow-brown and thick and dark, probably a deep green under normal lights.
A sedative? Maybe. Most likely. Plants in Sunagakure that killed made poisons either purple or black in color. Homemade sedatives, however, were usually green, as was senbon paralytic coating. He was in puppet corps, it was likely he knew how to make different poisons.
There was a pretty good chance she could get another hit in before he attacked, a good solid blow to his liver or his solar plexus, knock him down and run away. But on the other hand, there was also a chance, a very likely chance, that she would get stabbed or scratched no matter what she did, poisoned; severely injured or kidnapped, especially if he managed to cover her mouth before she cried out.
He raised the blade. A single dark yellow-brown drop of poison reflecting red dripped off the tip to the ground, where it splattered against the wood floor.
Fumiko screamed for Gaara.
The man froze, went very, very still, and a reddish drop of sweat curved down his cheek. For half a second, there was nothing, only quiet and the echo of her cry bouncing off the walls.
"I get it," the man said after a moment, recovering his leer. "You're bluffing. The Kazekage's at the Tower working, isn't-"
The door slammed open and sand rushed into the space, when it cleared, there was Gaara, light filtering in around him through the door, not quite snarling or making a facial expression, but his eyes were narrowed and his teeth were showing, which was a bad sign. For her attacker, anyway.
The intruder managed a weak "Ka-ka-kazekage-sama," and tried to hide the blade behind his back.
He forgot to let go of her arm, though, and that still hurt, and now she was getting woozy from chakra loss.
"Fumiko," Gaara said, and his voice was deadly quiet. "Close your eyes."
"H-hai." Fumiko did so, and immediately there was a rushing sound like a waterfall, and warm sand scraped across her arm and under the man's fingers, easing his painful grip, and the intruder was screaming even though Gaara hadn't even done anything yet-
He yelled even louder, and something warm splattered across her arm and neck and cheek. Fumiko chewed her lip, wincing.
His screams abruptly cut off. There was a thud.
Hands on her face. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Cautiously, Fumiko opened her eyes, meeting Gaara's worried blue ones. Fumiko could hear the advisor outside saying something about the door and Gaara taking off in the middle of a conversation.
From the way he said the word 'conversation' led her to believe that Gaara had not been at all pleased with the advisor to begin with, but he quieted instantly when he looked inside at the wreck.
And it was a wreck. Now that Fumiko actually looked around, a lot of her paintings were trashed, lying on the floor, and there was paint everywhere, empty punctured cans lying on their sides like dead fighters bled out. There was broken glass from another busted window. She could see now that her windows had been covered up with tarps.
The shinobi, Fumiko realized with shock, wasn't dead. His right arm and shoulder, belonging to the hand that had been holding her, was practically gone, completely destroyed, but he was still alive, Fumiko could see his shuddering breaths by the red light and the regular light from the doorway.
Fumiko looked back at Gaara, eyes wide. "Yeah."
He made a deep growling sound in the back of his throat and pulled her to him violently enough that Fumiko almost lost her balance. Now she couldn't see anything but white fabric, and that was okay; Fumiko closed her eyes and breathed in his scent.
For a moment, anyway.
"Who is this?" Joseki demanded.
"I don't know," Gaara answered in a monotone, but his fingers curved into her back like claws.
"He's in the puppet brigade," Fumiko said, voice muffled through Gaara's robes. "I saw him in one of Kankuro's pictures."
"And why would he go after you, I wonder? Gaara-sama, I told you you should have assigned her guards. I knew something like this would happen eventually."
"And I told you I wasn't going to have Fumiko tailed for the rest of her life," Gaara said, finally letting go and stepping back to survey the damage, eyes narrowing smaller and smaller as he did so. "... This looks like a robbery."
It did look like a robbery. But Fumiko was pretty certain she had seen a sedative or at least a powerful paralytic on that guy's knife. Something else had been going on, she was almost sure of it.
Fumiko glanced at Gaara, wondering if he had seen it. He caught her eyes and pursed his lips before looking away.
Fumiko blinked but didn't say anything.
"Obviously this was a robbery," Joseki said, "But why would a known puppet brigade member stoop so low as to rob an art studio? And if he was desperate enough to rob this particular store- which is under the protection of the Kazekage himself- why did he ruin instead of trying to steal any of the artwork?"
He looked down at a broken charcoal impression of icicles, crushed in the middle like it'd been stepped on, and nudged it with his sandal, nose wrinkling in disapproval.
Joseki was an advisor above everything else, and he was an advisor because he was wise. Fumiko didn't know exactly why Gaara didn't want it known- at least didn't want it known yet- but trying to keep it from the Council for very long probably wouldn't work.
That didn't mean she wouldn't keep a secret. Gaara always, without fail, had a reason for everything he did.
Gaara didn't respond, just stepped over to the unconscious, shivering one-armed man bleeding out on her floor and knelt down to look him over, putting a not-quite-so-gentle hand on his neck to check his pulse.
His eyes slid to Joseki. "If we want him to live long enough to question him, then this man needs a medic."
"I'm a medic," Fumiko said automatically.
"I'll go and find assistance," Joseki said stiffly and stepped back through the busted door. "Don't let him escape."
As soon as he was gone, Fumiko carefully stepped over the canvases ripped apart and soaking spilled paint on the floor, making her way over to the man and the rather large pool of blood slowly but steadily spreading around him.
She knelt on the side opposite Gaara, his injured side. She didn't really have the chakra to spare for healing ninjutsu, but she pulled her medical pouch onto her lap and opened it, reaching in for her stitching kit and disinfection and scissors.
Gaara was feeling over him briskly, hands dipping into pockets and folds of clothing, spilling out miscellaneous weapons and one packet of cherry flavored bubble gum onto the floor, behind him, away from the blood.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for his identification." he answered. "And trying not to kill him."
Fumiko nodded. "I need to roll him on his side."
Gaara slid back easily and Fumiko tipped him onto his uninjured arm. There was practically nothing left, the sand had torn it all away, but it was ragged and there was bone showing.
Unfortunately, she didn't have any gloves. Fumiko took a breath, then swabbed the crude amputation with a handful of small sterile towels to try and mop up the blood, but it kept coming.
She fashioned a torquenet out of clean tarp, string, and the broken handle of a long wall roller paint brush, pulling it as tight as she could. He was unconscious but shivering, so while she waited for the blood flow to slow she gave him pain medication injections.
"Why do that?"
"Why me? Because I'm not going to give someone stitches without a painkiller unless it's an emergency. Why a medic? Because if he wakes up without it he'll start thrashing all over the place."
She had her hand on it, her open palm, and she could feel the bone. It wasn't jagged, thank god, Gaara had ripped the other clear from the joint, but the skin was rugged around it. She threatened the needle with one hand and her teeth, well aware that is was unsanitary and well aware that he would be brought to a hospital if he didn't bleed on the floor, so it didn't really matter.
She closed the wound the best she could, but there wasn't enough skin. It was enough that the blood stopped and would possibly help with potential infection. Fumiko cut his shirt away and wrapped a thick bandage around his chest to keep it on his remaining bit of shoulder and tied it off.
The only other thing she could do was roll him onto his back again and give him a few blood pills and basic antibodies with water and her clean hand over his mouth to make him swallow.
When she finished, she leaned back far enough to fall on her butt, then pulled her prosthetic into an almost criss cross. Gaara resumed his search, fingers wet with blood, but he didn't seem to really care.
"Gaara, what's up with the robbery thing?"
"I didn't want to get into it again with him. Not with you here."
Fumiko cocked her head to the side, absently wiping her blood-soaked hand on her cloak. "Why? What's he say that makes you so mad?"
"Ah, nothing. That old fool hasn't stopped blabbering at me since the festival."
"Gaara... Um, not that I'm upset about it, but..." She glanced down at the man with his white slowly turning red bandage. "Why didn't you kill him."
"Because he's probably not stupid." Gaara pulled his hand out of a hidden pants pocket, something akin to a wallet in his hand. "Which means he wouldn't rob this place without a reason."
"So what do you think then?"
"Money. Or maybe he's being blackmailed. I don't know. But either way somebody most likely put him up to this. If there's one traitor there's a hundred more."
"You want to find out who did it."
"I want to find out who's after me," Gaara said. "And why he wants me badly enough that he'd send people after you."
"Do you think they live in Suna?" Fumiko said in a smaller voice. She hadn't thought of it that way before. Fumiko personally hadn't pissed off all that many people, but Gaara as the Fourth Kazekage would have enemies everywhere- even in other villages.
"I don't know." Gaara shook his head. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."
Before the words had left his mouth, ninja spilled in through the busted door.
...
Since work was out- her studio was trashed and swarming with Intelligence shinobi investigating- Fumiko focused instead on helping set up the newly repaired arena for the Genin coronation ceremony. They were mostly done, but they still needed help with some things.
Mostly it was just chairs left, chairs and organizing ninja ID specifications and clearances. There were specific packets for each new ninja, with a gift certificate to the photographers and a info sheet to fill out for everyone, and then either sets of shuriken and kunai and ninja wire, or chakra enhancement pills and various starter seals depending on whether or not the new Genin was graduating into Genin or Medic corps.
Most kids were graduating into the ordinary Genin corps.
Fumiko filed the paperwork and coupon into a manila envelope, then wrapped it in a box underneath a prepackaged set of seven kunai, a pack of sixteen shuriken, a twenty-six pack of senbon along with three nonlethal poison variations included with it, a roll of ninja wire, two flashbombs and a blank scroll for sealing that would hold up to four general seals.
Each scroll, as Fumiko accidentally found out when she tripped and dropped a scroll so that it rolled all the way out while she chased after it, had a tiny, intricate sealing on the back of the end of the roll's bottom corner that probably held some little surprise for those few Genin both clever enough to find it and skilled enough to open it.
She figured Mai would find it and bring it to her for help.
Unless she learned more than a basic seal with ANBU. Fumiko didn't know her sister's limits anymore. It was just getting to the point where she could pick up on Mai's chakra and recognize it as well again.
"Fumiko-san, are you almost done with the student starter's packets?"
Fumiko looked up and smiled at Toyotomi. He was a thin man with white-blond hair and large brown eyes. He had been Mai's original sensei, and had returned to the Academy after Gaara and the other two sensei had resigned. Fumiko had talked to this man many times before- after all, she was the one Mai had always come to to sign of on detentions and have parent-teacher conferences.
Fumiko counted as one of Mai's guardians probably because she had worked in the hospital and was released from her home to live on her own. Fumiko wasn't even sure how many times Toyotomi had even spoken to their parents.
"Yeah. Do you want them alphabetized?"
"Agh, it doesn't matter. I'm going to retire after this... the kids are getting crazier and crazier."
...
It was afternoon, and Fumiko was bouncing with excitement, craning her neck to stare at the door over the heads of the people in front of her. They were organized in alphabetical order- the families were- so Fumiko wasn't sitting next to Gaara and she wasn't sitting where she could see. Even if Gaara's last name had started with an M and not an F, he was the Kazekage and therefore was in the actual arena.
Her mom was on her left, her father on her right, and one of her grandparents was sitting in front of her that she hadn't seen in years but had known what today was because she worked in Intelligence. Fumiko's mother was grinning broadly, and Fumiko's father had on a smug-ish smirk, both watching the door.
"Mom." Silence. "Hey, mom."
"What?" she whispered back. There wasn't a rule against talking, but everyone was hushed as they waited for the newest batch of kunoichi and shinobi to come out.
"Do you think Mai will move into a Genin apartment?"
"... Most likely. Yes."
"Yeah."
They would also be assigned into Genin teams. So far as Fumiko knew, Mai was still going to be in a team, despite her ANBU rank. Otherwise it would be too easy to figure out what her disappearance had meant. She would probably level up to chunin and then Jonin all while being in shadow corps.
There was no way Mai wouldn't become a Jonin.
Fumiko wondered if she would still be assigned a standard Genin apartment, or if she would get something else. Probably not- if anyone ever came over to visit or deliver a message, that would be a giveaway.
"I can't believe she finally graduated." her mother said softly.
Fumiko smiled a little. "Well, at least now she can finally go on missions. She always got mad before when something happened and she couldn't go 'cause she was only a student."
Just then the doors opened. Now people were standing up, trying to see, and relieved now that they had an excuse to stand- and get out of the tilted chairs sitting on a mostly-cleared sand dune. Fumiko stood as well, not that it would really make a difference, since she was so much shorter than all of the adults around her.
Nobody said any big words- Fumiko could assume that that had already happened inside the arena, during the coronations, but they would have gotten their headbands, and you could tell they were excited; they were all yelling and talking at the tops of their lungs, filtering through the crowd to see their friends and families.
"Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. Gah, move it!"
Mai pushed her way through the crowds towards them.
"Congratulations, M-" Fumiko started to say, grinning and holding out her arms.
"Not in the mood."
"What?"
"Mai?" her mother said uncertainly.
"That's my little girl."
"Don't touch my hair, dad."
"But you're a ninja now!"
"Seriously, stop touching me."
"Mai, what's going on.? What's wrong?"
Mai glanced over, hand around her father's wrist that was still on her head. She probably was about to sap it, but their father didn't really seem to notice. "Oh, nothing. Just some Eishi shit."
"What'd he do?"
"It wasn't him, it was Toyotomi-sensei." Absently she clenched her hand to try and pull her father's hand off her head, and he winced, bit his lip and tried to tug it away, but now he was stuck. "Eishi's my goddamn teammate."
...
"Oh, that won't end well."
Gaara had met up with her at the Mitsuwa's celebration party, which was still held in her original home. Fumiko had spent all the day prior cooking and cleaning and helping her mother- and father- set up.
Now there were people everywhere, because a few of Mai's classmates that she didn't think were absolute losers had come over, along with their families, and their friends and their families, and now the party was almost as big as the Kazekage's anointment party they had thrown, and annoyingly enough, he was having a lot of the same problems.
"I know." Fumiko shook her head. "I understand it from a shinobi perspective- Eishi is the talker, and he also has better long-range taijutsu then Mai and Shiragiku with his wind-style tessenjutsu and Mai is better at direct confrontation and has more raw strength out of any of them. Shiragiku has the best tactics of the three of them. Logically, their team would be ideal as a general, non-specialization squad. Only..."
"There's no cooperation."
"Not yet." Fumiko shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe they'll figure it out."
"Or maybe we'll end up minus a Genin."
"I guess it depends on who their Jonin-sensei is. Do you know?"
"Not yet."
"Excuse me, Gaara-sama!"
Gaara cringed away from the high-pitched female voice behind him. What was worse about this now was that now Gaara actually had a girlfriend and they still wouldn't leave him alone. At least Matsuri had started to tone it down a little.
"Oh, hello," Fumiko said, hefting her tray of snacks and blinking around at the girl standing behind him. "Dango?"
"No, thanks. Hey, Gaara~!"
Gaara sighed and turned around.
...
"I can't believe you're finally going on a mission!"
"I can." Mai grinned. "I've already been on seven D-ranks, you know."
"Those weren't missions. That was me requesting a bunch of D-ranks around my studio so that you could qualify for a C-rank because you asked me to."
Mai shrugged, sliding her hands into her pockets. Only her fingers fit, and her thumbs hung out the front. "Eh, same difference."
"Well, good luck, in any case."
"Thank you, Fumiko-san," Shiragiku said politely. "We will do our best."
"You know I don't need you," Temari said, completely unimpressed, hands on her hips. Her fan was strapped to her back. "You just happen to be the Kazekage's friend and I just happen to be nice."
"Ah, let them have their fun, Temari-san," Otokaze, their Jonin-sensei, said with a lazy smile. "Usually kids their age don't get a chance to take on a C-rank this early in the game."
"But nothing's gonna happen, right?" Eishi said nervously, hoisting his own fan, which wasn't as big as Temari's but still formidable. "Because Temari doesn't actually need help and this is a peace act for all shinobi?"
"You coward," Mai snarked. Eishi, who was keeping Shiragiku carefully between himself and his black-haired fire-styled ANBU teammate that more or less hated his guts, stuck his tongue out at her.
Before they could start fighting again, Otokaze clapped his hands with a weary, irritated, strained grin. "Well, we'd better head out. The sun will come up soon."
"Goodbye, little Mai." Gaara said quietly. Mai saluted.
"Hai. See ya, Shorty-sama."
"Show him some respect, Mai," Temari said. "He's your Kazekage."
"I said sama, didn't I?"
"Things here'll be pretty boring without you guys." Kankuro said, hands in his pockets now as well. "At least maybe I'll get some sleep without the two of you nagging me all night and day."
"Yeah, nothing's gonna happen. It's just an escort mission. Eh, maybe I'll be able to take out a random bandit or something."
"I don't know," Shiragiku said softly, eyes still lowered modestly to the ground. He himself had light white-blond hair down to his ears and pale, freckled skin, with a probably hereditary red diamond smack in the middle of his forehead. He had bright green eyes and was fiddling a cut poppy plant through his fingers. "It should be a peaceful trip."
"Don't jinx it," Kankuro said.
"Oh no," Mai said with a shark grin. "Please do."
"Things here should be fairly quiet around here as well." Gaara said. "With the Chuunin exams coming up, villages are growing more and more peaceful with each other, at least for the time being. When you do come back, it won't be too exciting."
"Yeah, Mai." Fumiko grinned. "I'll have more art and Kankuro will be bored, but once you get moved into your new apartment, things will settle down."
"Well, jeez, if you don't want action that bad, don't jinx it, then." Mai laughed and shouldered her bag. "Both of you. Keep it up and we'll both get ambushed."
"Let's go already." Temari said impatiently.
"Goodbye, Mai!"
"See you!"
"Later, Gaara!"
"Goodbye."
"We're training when I get back, Kankuro!"
"Whatever, Mai."
"If she kills me, tell my mom I love her!"
"Oh, shut up, Eishi!"
"Ow!"
Fumiko laughed and waved at them from inside the gates as they left. Hopefully, Temari would finish up her business with the Chuunin exams quickly and come back. All five of them waved back.
They shimmered like a mirage and turned into shadows in the distance.
...
..
.
Well! Lots of action in this one.
I was getting so into the attacker scene while I was writing that I didn't realize I was biting my lip until I stopped and realized I was bleeding. XD
Just so you know, there is no huge coup planned or anything. I just wanted to write the scene. Take it as you will, a random shinobi who wants to take out the Kazekage, or maybe one of Sasori's sleeper agents or something.
ALL OF THE FORSHADOWMENT. Lol they jinxed it all right.
Well... I'm kind of sad now. I guess I'll see you guys in about two months. MAY 24TH EXACTLY, on my birthday, I will post the first chapter of Sands of Time, scroll one: Life and death.
But... feel free to message me if you're curious on the progress of the chapters or a particular scene. Just so, you know, I don't get lonely. T^T
This is THE END of Between Love and Everything else.
Please please pretty please because this is the last time for a while REVIEW!
By the way: there will be an infosheet on Satomi coming up soon on my and her deviantART page. (Because, unfortunately, it's still not done) So keep on the lookout for that if you want to kno wmore about Satomi at penname Geraniumpickle.