XxpuppetmasterxX and LilMzSunshine

Chapter 11: Mr. Puppet's Advice

A/N: I always feel like I need to apologize for Hinata's behavior. In the last chapter, she wasn't trying to be cruel to Kankuro; she was trying to avoid him, because he's an unpleasant reminder of why she and Puppy can't be together.


One should never know too precisely whom one has married.

-Friedrich Nietzsche


Email

From: XxpuppetmasterxX To: LilMzSunshine

Subject: I've Made A Huge Mistake

Sunny,

I'm so sorry about my last email. There's no excuse for it. I was just... I dunno, stressed, or tired, or PMS'ing or something. I have no reason to complain, you've put up with so much more in the past few days.

I do want to be nicer to Puppet Mistress, because I feel like she's miserable living with me, but I don't want to lose you. I've felt so miserable since I sent that last email, thinking about what I'd done. I don't think I can survive without you anymore. I love you.

Please forgive me, please don't forget about me.

Anxiously and miserably yours (forever and ever),

XxpuppetmasterxX


"NEJI! NEJI! GET OVER HERE! LOOK AT THIS!"

Neji looked up from the bag he was stuffing his clothes into and lumbered over to the computer room.

"What?" he asked irately. Neji's patience had thinned dramatically the night before, when Hinata crashed in slightly drunk, courtesy of Shikamaru's family recipe for dealing with heartbreak, and he had to put her to bed before anybody noticed. This was difficult to do without waking Kankuro (who was sleeping on the floor) or hitting her for crying about her lost Puppy.

"XxpuppetmasterxX apologized! He says he loves me!" Hinata sighed dreamily and read aloud, "I don't think I can survive without you anymore. I love you," she swooned. Neji left her lying on the chair and went back to packing.


"Neji, why is my daughter lying unconscious in front of the computer?"

Hiashi had noticed this phenomenon when he woke up and attempted to find some coffee. It had struck him as rather odd.

"Well, my guess would be that she passed out. She does tend to do that," Neji shrugged without looking up from his final suitcase. "Why, did you want me to do something about it?"

"...Yes, kind of. She's your cousin."

"She's your daughter, you deal with it. Or have Kankuro deal with it. That is what he's for, right?"

"Oh, that's what he's for," Hiashi whispered to himself. This made sense. However, something was wrong with this picture, and he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"He's sure as hell not for sleeping with her, I can tell you that," Neji snorted.

Suddenly, it struck him. "Neji, why are you packing?"

Neji looked up for the first time during the conversation, a polite and fake grin pasted on his face. "About that," he said, handing Hiashi an envelope, which he opened.

"Your two-weeks notice?"

"Oh, is that what it says?" Neji asked, yanked the envelope out of his uncle's hand, scratched out the word "weeks", replaced it with "minutes", and then placed it back in Hiashi's hand.

"You're moving out?"

"I've had enough, sir." Hiashi had yet to notice that Neji was always being sarcastic when talking to him. Everybody else had, of course, but they had never felt like enlightening him. "I think I've fulfilled any contract that could possibly exist between us sometime between Hinata's third and fourth emotional breakdown this month. Good luck dealing with this lot without me. Not, of course, that you need my help or anything."

"Huh?"

"This isn't difficult, sir. I'm leaving. I will be living somewhere else from now on."

"Huh?" This was from Hanabi, who had also found Hinata in a state of shock in the living room, and also wanted to ask Neji what was going on.

"I'm out of here," Neji explained to her, shouldering one suitcase and working on the dufflebag, which made him very lopsided. "Have a good life, Midget, and I'll see you when the next parent dies."

"Well, I'd rather be dead here than alive at Gai's," Hiashi said rather snidely.

"I'd be happy to help you arrange that," Neji said brightly, lumbering out of the room with his stuff before his uncle could piece together the implications.

Kankuro stumbled out into the hall in his pajamas, a little face-paint smeared on haphazardly. "What's going on?"

"I'm leaving," Neji explained yet again, giving Kankuro the courtesy of setting down his baggage and patting the young man on the shoulder. "Good luck, Kankuro. You know, I actually like you a lot. I hope you win," he said, partly to himself.

"So do I," Kankuro said after Neji had once again shouldered his duffle bag and walked off.


Email

From: XxpuppetmasterxX To: LilMzSunshine

Sunny,

Hey, sorry about how long the chapter's taking. Puppet Mistress is practically glued to the computer these days, so I haven't had time to type it... also, I'm a bit stuck in one part, but nothing to worry about. X3

Love you

-Puppy


He glared at her, infuriated. He should have felt sorry for her, sympathetic after their ordeal, even grateful for her quick thinking that had saved both their lives. But instead he saw her as he did everyday, self-absorbed, timid, frigid, and uncompromising. But it made sense. Why would a few moments of shared terror have changed their relationship? No, she was still the same old her, with her flowing, silky hair, piercing eyes and withdrawn, impossible attitude.

"Can you at least try to treat me like a human being?" he finally yelled.

"I- I do," she stuttered in that infuriating weak way (all the more so because he knew she wasn't weak, not really). "Please, Kenta, don't be angry. I- I- I need you."

He looked at her, gazing up at him. "Youko..."


"AHH!" Kankuro growled in frustration, scratched out the lines on the notebook, and turned to a fresh page. "And that one was going so well, too!"

He had been desperately working on the next chapter of Make Me a Match for the two weeks since Neji had moved out, and while it had been simple enough to draw the two characters into an argument, he couldn't think up a way to end it. Well, he could, and had. He had written about twenty endings, all of them so out of character that the God of Continuity died a little with every piece of paper that he wasted on them. He would be going along, not really thinking about it, just another story, when his pencil would start writing things like "he drew closer, pulling her into a deep kiss." (Add insult to injury, it was always incredibly corny, as well as out of character.)

"All right," he said to his traitorous pencil. "Let's have Youko throw something at him before he can open his mouth."

"Can you at least try to treat me like I'm—," Kenta was cut off as a vase shattered inches away from his head. Youko screamed—

"Kankuro-kun, I- I'm off the computer now."

Kankuro looked up, instinctively closing the notebook and throwing it behind Karasu just before Hinata peeked her head around the corner of Neji's room, which Kankuro had taken over as an office and place to store his puppets.

"Ok, thanks."

"Y-you're w-w-welcome," Hinata whispered, but Kankuro didn't hear her as he walked past, and he just thought she was being rude, as always.

Hinata had been practically glued to the computer in recent days, not only hoping for word from her online lover, but also trying to get in touch with Neji, who was studiously avoiding his entire clan so well that her mother had called Gai up the day before just to make sure that her nephew had arrived at his new home. Lee had told Naruto, who told Sakura, who told Ino, who told Shikamaru, who told Hinata, that Neji had returned to Team Gai's home almost as full of youthful enthusiasm as Gai-sensei himself, and that he did nothing but train with Tenten and lie on his back in the yard, watching the clouds and whistling to himself.

It wasn't that Hinata wasn't happy that her cousin's latest attempt to flee from his family seemed to be going well for him. She just wished that he had taken her along, too. Or that he would answer his emails. Which would mean not fully escaping from their family, which basically boils down to, yeah, she wasn't happy that his latest attempt to flee was going well.

XxpuppetmasterxX was being wonderful, as always, but he wasn't there for her to talk to twenty-four/seven. Shikamaru was going through writer's block and didn't want to hear anything that wouldn't be ridiculous, ironic, and inspirational. Kiba and Shino treated her and Kankuro as a single entity now. Hanabi's reaction to all her complaints were "Put on your big-girl panties and deal with it, sis." Her mother suggested that she join a nunnery if she wanted out that bad ("I almost did the week before I married your father, but your grandmother caught me sneaking out of the house.") and her father had fixed her with a blank look and stared in her general vicinity until she gave up and left him there. Life had been a lot easier when she could always find Neji hanging around and talk at him until he was forced to reply to silence her.

So, with Kankuro gone from his work space, Hinata flopped down on Neji's old bed and stared at the ceiling for a while. She had a revelation.

"This sucks."

She looked at Karasu, hanging off of the closet door, staring at her quizzically. "Hello, there, puppet-san. I'm sorry, I didn't see you."

Karasu grinned at her.

"I mean, I do feel kind of bad when I make Nii-san listen to all my problems, but it's just... I feel like he doesn't mind." She sighed at the puppet. "Ok, I know he minds, but... when I tell other people, I'm afraid that they'll get bored with me, and I don't care if Nii-san gets bored with me, 'cause he'll listen to me anyway.

"Is that mean of me? There aren't many people that I really feel I can talk to. I mean, when I'm around Shikamaru, I can talk about writing, which is important to me, and when I'm around Kiba and Shino, I feel really happy and free. But I only really talk to Neji. And Puppy."

She looked over at Karasu again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't tell you things like this. You have certain loyalties, I understand. And it really is horrible of me, I know, but... well, I'm in love with someone else. ...Puppet-san, does Kankuro-kun ever talk about me? Does he think I'm mean? Am I just this horrible, despicable bitch who drives all her friends away? Because I don't mean to be, honest. I just... I panic.

"Don't look at me like that! I know it's no excuse." Karasu kept looking at her, only Hinata thought maybe he was a little more sympathetic now. "I shouldn't burden you with these things. Imagine having to fight next to Kankuro, knowing about his wife's infidelity... damn, that would make a good plot for a story." She grinned. "I'll name it after you, ok? You... I'm sorry, I've been rude, calling you Puppet-san..." She walked over to where Karasu was hanging and bowed politely. "I'm Hinata... and your name?"

Karasu didn't answer, of course, so Hinata began searching him for some sign of his name. "Do you have a name-tag, Puppet-san? ...what's this?"

She picked up the notebook lying next to the puppet. "What's this? It looks a little like the notebook Shikamaru got me when I went to Suna... What was Neji doing with it?"

Suddenly, she remembered some of the things she had written in that particular notebook, and, panicked that Kankuro would find it if it was left here, shoved it down her shirt. "We won't be telling Kankuro-kun about this, will we, Puppet-san? I think I'd better be leaving, but thank you for listening... this could be the start of a beautiful friendship, don't you think?"

She was about to grab Karasu's hand and shake, when her limbs froze.

"Don't touch him," Kankuro said. Hinata spun around against her will.

"I-I'm sorry," she said, avoiding his eyes. "I was just— I didn't mean to snoop..."

"It's all right," Kankuro said, walking towards her, the chakra threads still anchoring her to the spot. "It's just dangerous."

He tapped the palm of the puppet hand that Hinata had been preparing to shake, and needles shot out of the fingers. "He's a weapon, first and foremost. I don't want you getting poisoned."

"I'm sorry," Hinata squeaked. "I didn't think..."

"No harm done," Kankuro said amicably, releasing the threads around her. "Just be careful."

"Um..." Hinata gulped. Kankuro seemed in a good mood, so she doubted that he had overheard her conversation. "Does... does he have a name?"

Kankuro looked at her appreciatively. Hinata supposed that he didn't get asked questions about his puppets often. "His name is Karasu."

"He seems very friendly," she said.

Kankuro stared at her, trying to decide if she was teasing, or just a moron. "If he likes you, he can be."

"Oh..." Hinata turned red. "Well, I'm sorry for intruding..."

"It's ok," Kankuro assured her again, but Hinata made a retreat anyway.

Kankuro had no way of knowing that she had suddenly remembered the notebook in her jacket and left to hide it more effectively.


"You impossible man!" Youko screamed. "Can't you just be grateful that I saved your life? I probably shouldn't have, you know. Then I'd be out of this disgusting mockery of a marriage!"

"You wouldn't have saved me if he hadn't been trying to kill you, too!" Kenta muttered, angered by this little brat that he was so in love with.

DAMMIT!


Hinata tried to decipher the lines that had been violently scratched out on every page. Every few sentences seemed to end in a declaration of love.

Actually, that wasn't true. The first twenty pages or so were normal writing, outlining the chapters. It was the latest one that seemed to be giving him trouble.

But this was a minor detail. She took a deep breath and focused on what this notebook really meant. What it meant that Kankuro had this in his room.

And what she was supposed to do now.


Hinata wouldn't look him in the eye at dinner. This was typical, but it gave Kankuro a few flashes of inspiration, and after leaving Hanabi with the dishes, he went to write a little.

Except that his notebook wasn't in his study.

"Oh crap."

He tore the place apart, looking for it, but all he managed to find were some old magazines of Neji's that had clearly been hidden for a reason. He doubted that Hinata had found it, although he had caught her hanging around Karasu, and he did seem to remember hiding it there last. There was no change in her attitude towards him. He figured it was more likely that he had left it somewhere else.


Hinata noticed that Kankuro seemed distracted the next day, searching around the computer room, the kitchen, and even their bedroom, although he only went there to sleep ever since acquiring Neji's old room. If she had any doubts, Kankuro's searching erased them.


Kankuro carefully screwed the chest plate back onto one of his puppets. He hadn't really thought that he would take the time to hide the notebook in one of them, but he might as well check. He would have to ask Hanabi to help him look... she would be curious, of course, but he doubted that she would care too much about his online life; she rarely noticed Hinata's.

But he would have to be quick on his feet to get her to swear to secrecy. He decided to confront her in the morning.

He wiped off his makeup wearily and pulled off his shirt, tossing it on the bed before turning around.

Sitting on the pillow was his notebook, with a small sticky note attached to it. Kankuro ripped off the note and held it up to the light.

To: XxpuppetmasterxX From: LilMzSunshine

Subject: Looking for something?

Hey, Puppy. I found this, thought you might need it if you're ever going to update (and I am getting a little impatient...)

Love,

-Sunny

Ps: I hope you don't mind that I peeked ahead... and I really like the direction it's taking.

"How long have you known?" Hinata asked. Kankuro winced and turned to face her. She was standing in the doorway, resting her head against the frame.

"N-not long..." he stuttered, astonished. "Just since your last chapter."

She took a step forward. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I..." Kankuro gulped. "I didn't want you to hate me."

"Oh..." Hinata turned red. "I..." She took another step towards him and put her hands against his cheeks. "You told me you were too awkward," she said.

"You told me you were too pale," Kankuro countered.

"You told me your hair was ugly," she continued, reaching her fingers to touch the offending fibers.

"You told me your hair looks like a wig."

"You told me your nose was a tumor."

"You told me your eyes were like a corpse."

"You told me I looked like a princess."

"You told me I was incredibly handsome."

"You told me not to waste any sympathy on you."

"You told me you wouldn't be afraid of me," Kankuro reminded her in turn.

"I'm not," Hinata said. "Not anymore."

"So... can I–," Kankuro turned red and tilted his head towards her hesitantly. "Can I...kiss you?"

Hinata blushed and stood on her tiptoes. Kankuro wished he wasn't so tall. "Of course, Puppy."


Hinata woke up before dawn to find her head resting on Kankuro's shoulder. It would be nice, she reflected, to not have to wake up on the floor anymore. And she didn't have to bother Neji when she wanted to cuddle with someone.

A loud snore from Kankuro reminded her why she was awake. "Puppy," she muttered, shaking his shoulder. "Puppy, stop that."

Kankuro snorked once, then went back to sleep, breathing quietly this time.

Hinata checked the kunai under her pillow. If XxpuppetmasterxX had not sent the assassin for Kankuro, and LilMzSunshine had not sent the assassin for her, then it was clear to Hinata that she should keep an eye out. She hadn't mentioned it to Kankuro... it would just make him worry... and it wasn't really something to worry about.

Satisfied that she was armed, Hinata looked over at Kankuro one more time, kissed his cheek, and snuggled deeper into the blankets. Smiling contentedly for the first time in months, she went back to sleep.