GARAA'S REPENTANCE

CHAPTER TWELVE

The 'Kakaishijimaru-Maru' House

When Kiba, Akamaru (stung by stingers and dazed with pollen), Shino and Kai got back to their house, they found two surprises waiting for them. One was Mari and Chouji, cooking in the kitchen, and the other was Shikamaru, Temari, Naruto and Garaa, the latter who was still unconscious and on the couch.

"Holy Cow!" Kai shrieked. "Mari-Chan, you're cooking but not eating!"

Mari had her back to him, but she tossed a peeler and a potato at/to him, and he found himself wearing an apron and helping.

"Holy Cow!" Temari screamed, seeing poor Akamaru with welts and blisters on him. "Why didn't Sakura or Ino do anything?" She shifted her hands in a hand-seal, and said: "Kedin!"

The sores disappeared instantly from Akamaru's body, but he was still itchy, and so Kiba, Shino and Shikamaru took the poor dog out the back to have a special oatmeal bath (I dunno if this would help, but it's better then saying Bleach or White-King).

By the time everyone had finished what they were doing, and supper was ready, Garaa had awoken (luckily, Shukaku had stayed dormant, but the demon had told Garaa everything that had happened when he'd been out of it).

"Why," Garaa asked, as they all sat down at the table. "Didn't anybody notice me?"

"Oh, we noticed you, Garaa-San." Mari said, as she passed Kiba the potatoes. "But, we're all so used to this happening, and we knew that as long as Shu-Shu 1 stayed where he was, then you – and us – would be fine."

"Jeez, thanks." Garaa said sarcastically, just as there was a tap on the dining room window.

Temari looked up, and gasped in delight. "Takamaru-Chan!" She cried, leaping up and running to open the window.

The large brown falcon-like bird of the Hidden Sand Village came inside, followed by a smaller tan eagle, and seven smaller eaglets.

"Takamaru had kids!" Mari cried happily, as the bird-family swooped around the room. "Takamaru and Ukamara had babies!"

Ukamara was a bird from the Hidden Sound Village who had appeared the moment they had all returned to Konoha. She had (is Takamaru a guy?) carried a message for Kin and Zaku, which had said 'meet me at Yumen'. Yumen was an island just off of the east-coast of Suna, so the two of them plus the bird had gone back to Suna with Emma, Kankurou, Temari and Garaa. Ukamara had stayed in Suna, where she had met Takamaru, and the Sound Ninja had continued along Tōkaido 2 to take a boat from the mainland off to Yumen, and nobody had heard from them since. They weren't too worried, now that Lord Orichimaru had been destroyed, how many more evil villains were there out there?

According to Garaa, just two.

"Listen." He said, as they all sat down, but he was interrupted by Mari, who was feeding one of the baby birds a piece of lettuce.

"Alright Drumsticks!" Mari laughed.

"Ah, guys?" Temari sweatdropped. "Mari named her chicken."

"It's an eaglet, Temari-Chan, not a chicken." Mari smiled. "You should know that."

"I did."

"Well good. And it's not mine. But we're gonna name all of the babies." Mari declared.

It was the birds' turn to sweatdrop.

The baby birds were all lined up in front of Mari, as she stood by the bench.

"Okay, here goes." Mari smiled. "The brown one is Takamaru Jr. The tan one is Ukamara Jr. The red one is Drumsticks. The chocolate-coloured one is Cadbury. The grey one is Pigeon. The white one is Snow White. And the black one on the end there is Bob."

"BOB!?!?" Shikamaru and Kai shrieked. They glared at each other, as Temari giggled.

Garaa looked annoyed that nobody was listening to him.

Naruto noticed this.

"Everyone!" He announced. "Garaa has that look on his face again!"

Everybody nervously glanced over at Garaa, who was glaring at everybody.

"I think," Temari said softly, a serious look crossing her face. "That Garaa has something to tell us. He nearly got killed when we found him."

Mari looked stricken.

MEG: Quick Shino, I needa write another chapter! TRANSLATE! TRANSLATE! TRANSLATE!

SHINO: OKAY

1 Shu-Shu was actually the name of the dog in One Piece (I don't own it) who was helped by and then helped Luffy and Nami.

2 Tōkaido is also known as The East Sea Road, which stretched almost 500km from Tokyo to Kyoto.