Cause and Effect
Chapter 12
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"Would you calm down already?" Kankurou watched as his sister fussed with the place settings, adjusting them so that they were more evenly spaced. "It's not a goddamn dinner party for the fucking president."
"I know, I know!" Temari was flushed and looking very pretty in a dress that she had just bought specifically for tonight. "But I've been waiting so long for you guys to meet Kamae."
"Are you guys engaged or something?" Kankurou asked, chuckling as she moved the salt and pepper and then moved them again, as though it would make a big difference. "You're just going to freak everyone out if you can't get a grip."
"Kankurou, just because you don't know what it's like to love someone and really want everything to be perfect…" Temari took a deep breath, sighed, turned to her brother, and smiled so sweetly he stepped back in fear. "Kankurou, I really hope you two get along. This is the first really adult relationship I've had, and there's no saying where it might go."
"Stop being…like that." Kankurou turned tail and fled, and Temari couldn't help giggling as she straightened a napkin and went to check on the chicken. Sakura and Sai were actually making the dinner, but she was sure they wouldn't mind the extra help.
"You are so wound up!" Sakura giggled as Temari fluttered around the kitchen. "Why don't you leave this to us and go upstairs and see if you can get the hermit to come down for dinner?"
"You know he won't talk to anyone." She pouted slightly. She really wished that Kamae didn't have to come over when people in the house were fighting. Now he wouldn't get to meet Sasuke, and unless he spotted him coming down to use the bathroom, he likely wouldn't see Naruto, either.
"He might. I got a text message from Sasuke this morning." Sakura beamed excitedly. "He's coming back."
"He texted you?" Temari was a bit surprised.
"Sasuke and Sakura have become better friends since he started dating Naruto." Sai explained, not sounding the least bit jealous. "They have a mutual interest, if you can understand."
"Like how you'll actually talk to Neji." Sakura pointed out, and Temari flushed slightly. "He didn't tell me any details, but I'd bet money that he tried calling Naruto and he wouldn't answer, so he wanted someone to be here to let him in. And we checked out that website. The videos are all gone."
"So he really did know who posted them." Temari frowned slightly. She knew that Gaara had an idea about that, one that Naruto had told him, but he had refused to share the information with Temari, which had bothered her a little bit. It was one thing for him to have secrets about Neji and himself, but Naruto was just his friend. She was his sister. "He should have called me, I could have gotten him set up with a legal team."
"You're not the only person with their own lawyer in this house, Temari." Sakura pointed out. "And he seems to have handled it fine on his own."
"Did you tell Naruto yet?" Temari asked, biting her lip thoughtfully.
"I did, through the door. He might've been asleep. It's so hard to know when he won't respond to anything." She frowned slightly as she rolled out some dough for biscuits. "I was going to camp outside his door this weekend, but if Sasuke's coming back tonight, I might not have to worry about it."
"Oh! Then he'll get to meet Kamae!" Temari clapped her hands and whirled in her dress.
"Temari is very happy." Sai smiled, looking up from the potatoes he was setting to boil.
"Remember how excited you were when you met my parents?" Sakura teased. "It's understandable. They've been dating for over a month now. Is Kankurou going to behave for dinner?"
"Does he ever?" Temari rolled her eyes. "I'll just have to hope for the best. Honestly, I told him all about that already, so it's not like he'll faint if Kankurou spends all of dinner insulting him and cursing like a sailor. I'm just hoping Gaara and Neji can actually come out of their room."
"Well, you told him your boyfriend would be here, right?" Sakura shrugged slightly. "I'm sure he understands how important it is to you, and I'm sure he wants to make sure this guy is good enough for you. He's not that obvious about it, but he really cares about you."
"I…I know." Temari gave a tremulous smile. "Oh…I just want so badly for everything to turn out all right!"
The doorbell rang, and Temari yelped in excitement.
"That is probably your boyfriend." Sai nodded sharply, drying his hands. "Would you like to let him in, or do you want to wait coyly in the kitchen while I answer the door?"
"No…no, I'll get it." Temari took a deep breath and giggled slightly, spinning around. "How do I look?"
"Very cute," Sakura couldn't help giggling at Temari's happy anticipation, and shooed her away. "Go let the man in, now."
Temari rushed to the door, nearly tripping over herself on the way and struggling to repress the urge to giggle. Finally, everyone would meet Kamae, and he would meet them, and it would really be real, somehow. If things went well, maybe in a few months, he'd want to move in, and so it was very important to her that everyone like him.
"Kamae!" she beamed at him as she opened the door, and he smiled warmly in return, his hair combed and pulled back neatly, and she was pleased to see that he was well dressed as usual, with a bouquet of irises in one hand. She really wanted him to make a good impression on everyone. "You're here! Come in, we were just working on getting dinner out on the table."
"You look lovely," he beamed and stepped inside, dropping a kiss on her forehead as she took the irises from him and flushed. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No, no, you're the guest, you shouldn't cook!" she barely repressed a giggle. "Just…you can hang your coat right in this closet and take a seat in the living room. I'll put these in water and then I can show you around a bit."
"That would be nice." He smiled, taking his coat off as she rushed back to the kitchen to take care of the flowers.
"Oooh!" Sakura squealed a bit as she saw Temari bustle in and reach into a higher cupboard to find a vase. "He got you flowers, how sweet."
"I buy you flowers often, Sakura." Sai pointed out. "That means I am also sweet, yes?"
"Of course you are, honey." Sakura giggled at his need for reassurance. "Don't worry about that. Can you check the potatoes?"
"Of course!" Sai smiled brightly, pleased with any praise at all, and jumping over to help.
"He's in the living room, do you want to meet him?" Temari asked. "I was going to give him a tour of the house."
"Oh…well, my hair's a bit—" Sakura patted at her head, conscious of the fact that she had a kerchief keeping her pink bob out of her face and away from her cooking.
"My dear, you look lovely as ever." Sai assured her, still clearly pleased with himself. "And these potatoes need about five more minutes."
"Okay, sure," Sakura leaned over to kiss Sai on the cheek before she opened the oven to check on the chicken. "Might as well meet him now."
"Okay, great!" Temari giggled and filled the vase, putting it in the middle of the dining room table before rushing back to the living room to find that Kamae was introducing himself to Tenten and Kiba, who looked like they had been studying when he arrived.
"So this is Kamae?" Tenten was smiling in an odd way, and Temari assumed it was simply because Kamae was so good looking. "It's interesting to finally meet you. I must say, I never expected you to look so…"
"Familiar." Kiba finished, turning and giving Temari a look that she would have to ask him about later.
"I do have one of those faces." Kamae smiled politely, shaking Kiba's hand, as he had just finished shaking Tenten's. "When Temari and I first met, she told me that I she could have sworn she'd seen me before."
"Yeaaaah." Kiba gave Temari a befuddled look and shook his head. "I…I think I'll go see if Sakura needs help."
Kiba helping in the kitchen without Hinata around?
They must be just as nervous to meet him as I was for him to meet them.
"What was your last name, Kamae-san?" Tenten asked, tilting her head to one side.
"Sensu." He told her, and she nodded. "My family isn't a very old one. We live in the north."
"Huh, interesting." She smiled brightly at Temari. "Are you showing him around?"
"Yes, want to come along?" she asked.
"Oh, no, I don't want to intrude on your private time." She turned back to Kamae, tapping her chin thoughtfully before shaking her head as if dismissing a thought. "So! That'll be nice. Oh, but if you could spare Shino, he's on the phone with his father, and he doesn't like to be disturbed when he's talking to his parents."
"Oh, no, that's fine!" Temari nodded brightly as Tenten scurried out of the room as well, following after Kiba. She wondered if those two were up to something. They had been acting a bit odd. "So, this is the living room."
"Very spacious." He nodded admiringly, and took her hand as she led him out of the room. "What's downstairs?" he pointed to the staircase near the front door.
"Oh…the den." Temari told him. It's a bit of a mess, the boys have let their rooms overflow. Chouji's got food wrappers everywhere, and Kankurou's always 'unwinding' down there. Their rooms are down there as well."
"Your brother, right?" Kamae asked, and she nodded brightly, leading him instead to the dining room and through to the now slightly crowded kitchen.
"So you've met Kiba and Tenten, but this is Sakura," she pointed to the girl who was tasting some stock, and started choking when she looked up. "And…Sai's the one making sure she can still breathe. They're dating, remember."
"Yes, of course." He nodded politely as Sakura recovered, Sai hitting her back gently and giving her concerned looks. "Are you quite all right?"
"Sorry!" she was so pink it put her hair to shame as she stepped forward to shake his hand. "You just made me…ah, it's great to meet you!" she recovered swiftly, and Sai smiled, seeing that everything was okay, stepping forward as well.
"My name is Sai." He re-introduced himself unnecessarily. "In my case, it is fine to forget name endings."
"Okay." Kamae handled that with only a slight grin, and Temari was impressed. Meeting Sai for the first time was always…interesting. "And I take it this is the kitchen? You have gone to a lot of trouble to prepare a lovely dinner. I wish there was something I could do."
"N…no, it's fine! We have a lot of people, we always make a lot of food." Sakura explained a bit too exuberantly, and Temari assumed that she was also just nervous that Kamae might not like them. "And you brought flowers. That's…that's really nice of you."
"Do you have a brother?" Kiba spoke up and Tenten elbowed him.
"Why yes, I do." He smiled at them. "I see Temari has spoken of me to her friends nearly as much as she has spoken of her friends to me."
"Let me show you the rest of the house." Temari ushered him out of the kitchen.
"Maybe skip Gaara's room!" Tenten called after her. "He's probably…er, getting ready for dinner…"
"Oh…oh!" Temari realized what Tenten meant and coughed nervously, leading him to the stairs, pointing to the other doors. "That's Tenten and Shino's room," she indicated, and she could have sworn she heard Shino's voice raised, but…he was probably excited about some bug having a whole batch of babies back home or something. "And there's the bathroom, and my younger brother Gaara's room. He lives there with—" she choked slightly as an unmistakeable noise filtered through the door and reached them. "his boyfriend Neji." She finished weakly, blushing as she led him up the stairs. Couldn't they lay off for one day? At least with Sasuke gone, upstairs wouldn't be so…inappropriate. Everyone else seemed capable of keeping the noise in check. Not to mention she had a pretty shrewd suspicion that Sasuke and Naruto had been having sex in areas of the house expressly forbidden by the house rules.
"Everyone else lives up here?" Kamae asked, as though he hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary. Likely he was just too polite to say anything about it.
"Yes, that's right." She smiled gratefully, moving on with her tour. "This is Sai and Sakura's room," she opened the door for him to see, since she knew they kept it rather neat and with them both in the kitchen, it was unnecessary to knock. "This is the pretty standard room here, you can see they're organized a bit differently," she darted across the hall to show him her room. "This is my room, it's a bit larger, but I mean, I own the house. I gave Ino and Shikamaru the master, though, since they have the baby coming."
"That was good of you." He smiled brightly, looking around her room with interest.
"Want to see?" she led him down the hall and knocked on the door. She heard a brief argument about who was getting the door, and then just heard Shikamaru yell for whoever it was to come in. "Hey guys," she smiled, opening the door. "I'm showing Kamae around. Remember, my boyfriend?"
"Oh, not right now, my hair's a mess!" Ino was lounging on the bed, and she struggled to sit up straighter and do something about the messy bun her hair was in, made more difficult by her stomach.
"Calm down, he's not going to date you, he doesn't care what you look like." Shikamaru told her, and she huffed at him in annoyance as Kamae stood behind Temari, waving and smiling politely.
"Wait…that's your boyfriend?" Ino turned her head so far sideways it looked like it was going to fall off. "Oh…wow."
"Sorry, hormones." Shikamaru shrugged. "Name's Shikamaru, this is my pregnant girlfriend Ino who needs to stop looking at other men."
"I can look if I want!" Ino snapped at him, and Temari shut the door to the sounds of bickering.
"Sorry, they've been like that a lot lately…hormones and everything…with the baby coming." She flushed slightly and knocked on the door across the hall. "Naruto, are you coming down for dinner?"
Silence.
"Sakura and Sai made a nice big roast chicken dinner. There are biscuits. You love biscuits, right?" she pursed her lips as the silence persisted. "My boyfriend came over, and he'd love to meet you. Everyone just wants to hang out with you. It's okay if you're sad. Sasuke told Sakura he's headed back, he got everything taken care of so…you should get out of there and get some air." She turned to Kamae, who knew that Naruto had locked himself in his room and knew why, since she told him basically everything that happened with her friends.
"Still in there?" he asked in a soft voice. "Sasuke…that's his boyfriend, right? And he's coming back?"
"Yeah, Sakura got a message from him, that whole thing with the videos was taken care of, so I'm sure he just wants to come home and be with Naruto, but Naruto's probably thinking that since Sasuke doesn't know about Gaara…well, I don't know what to do, but if he doesn't come out of there soon, I'm taking his doorknob off. I know he uses the bathroom, but I don't think he's been going to class or eating much of anything. It's not healthy." She whispered as she led him back down the hall. "This is Kiba and Hinata's room, but we should—" she paused at the sound of crying, and she looked back at Naruto's room, before pressing her ear to Hinata's door. "She's been upset about something lately, but no one seems to know what." She continued whispering on the way to the stairwell. "I don't think even Kiba knows, he's horrible at keeping secrets, so if he knew the whole house would."
"Oh," Kamae nodded slowly. "It sounds like I came over on a bad day."
"No, not at all." She smiled as they headed back to the dining room. "This is just how it is, this many young people living together, there's going to be drama and upset at any time, and with us all being friends, of course we're all trying to help each other out…which is sometimes not really helpful at all, I suppose."
"It is wonderful to meet all these people." He told her. "You've told so many stories about them, it's a pleasure to finally see them in person. I can't stay too late, though. I have a paper due tomorrow morning."
"Oh yeah, that's right." Temari nodded brightly. He was such a good student, and despite all his attention to his studies, he never neglected her. She was so lucky to have someone like him. And from the looks her friends had given him, it was clear they all were surprised that she could land such a hot guy, but while she knew she should be annoyed, she couldn't help being a little proud that they were making so much of him. "Let's see how close dinner is."
"Perfect timing!" Sakura met them just as they were walking into the dining room. "Dinner's ready!" she bellowed up the staircase before repeating the procedure down the stairs to the den. Chouji was up the stairs so fast, Temari was surprised he could actually climb stairs that quickly at his size without pulling a muscle.
"Chicken!" he was shaking his fists excitedly like a small child, and walked right past Kamae without even noticing anything out of the ordinary. Temari and Kamae pulled up seats next to each other, and it wasn't long before the rest of the house was making their way to the dining room, and after some bustle, everyone was seated and passing plates around for food, although Naruto was missing. Temari wasn't really that surprised. The sooner Sasuke and him made up or cleared things up, the better.
"Looks great, guys." Kiba beamed excitedly, and Temari eyed Hinata, who seemed fine now, though a bit pale. She would never guess that the girl had been crying in her room only a bit ago. "You guys, look how awesome Sai carved the bird."
"It all looks great." Ino kept glancing at Kamae, but was keeping an eye on her plate as well. "Hey! More potatoes! Don't stiff me, Kankurou."
"I don't think you need more anything." Kankurou teased her. "It's amazing Shikamaru hasn't starved to death, you eat all of his food, too."
"My best friend is Chouji." Shikamaru explained, as though this clarified everything. "So…Kamae? You're a grad student, right?"
"That's right." Kamae nodded, putting stuffing on a plate as it was passed to him and accidentally tipping it as he moved to pass it along and grab the next plate. "Oh my…I'm sorry," he stood up, gravy and potatoes now on his shirt and slacks.
"Oh, Kamae, are you okay?" Temari fussed over him with a napkin, and he brushed her away.
"No, it's nothing. I'll just go clean up. I'm sorry to be so clumsy." He smiled at them all and then left the room. Temari beamed at everyone.
"So?" she asked. "Isn't he cute!"
"He…yeah, he's definitely cute." Ino confirmed. "I wouldn't really have expected that after all that time you spent pining after Shikamaru…"
"Like you're one to talk, you did like the same thing." Sakura teased her. "First you're all about Sasuke, and then it's all Shikamaru, and they're really nothing alike."
"Well, we all make mistakes." Ino told her rather diplomatically. "I just meant…he's not really the same type. He's very…polite."
"I'm polite." Shikamaru grumbled. "If I have to be."
"I wish Naruto would have come down to meet him." Temari frowned. "Are you sure Sasuke's coming back?"
"Sasuke's coming back?" Gaara repeated, and Neji and him exchanged a look before Temari and Gaara exchanged a look.
"What is going on?" Sakura set down her silverware in annoyance. "I know something's going on, I know you two are involved, I know Temari knows, I know it has to do with Naruto, and I don't appreciate all the secret keeping! Seriously. Naruto's my friend, too!"
"It's not really anyone's business besides…" Temari frowned slightly. "Well, it's not your business."
"When is Sasuke coming back?" Neji asked, and Temari gave him a measuring look before she turned to Sakura.
"I don't know if it's your business." Sakura shrugged slightly. "He told me when he should be here, but I'm just not sure I should tell you."
"Sakura, don't be a bitch." Temari hissed, glancing over her shoulder to be sure that Kamae wouldn't walk in on her telling off one of her friends. "It's important, because he might…there might…be trouble. And everyone who might be in trouble should know that maybe it's time for them to go in their rooms or go out for the night…or something."
"Gaara slept with Naruto!" Kankurou pointed at Gaara, and the redhead went very pale. "Ha! Got it in one!"
"You…you shouldn't just say that!" Temari flushed angrily. "Gaara, did you tell him?"
"No." Neji answered for Gaara, who was still too surprised to speak. "He only told you. I told him I didn't want the whole house knowing."
"Oh my god…oh my god!" Ino gasped, shaking slightly in her chair.
"You guessed that?" Temari turned to Kankurou in amazement. "How was that your guess!?"
"Well, duh, obviously Gaara fucked up cause like, he was mad at Neji for something and then suddenly they're fine. So clearly he did something wrong. And Naruto's been locked up since Neji came back, and you know about it, which means it has to do with Gaara, cause if Naruto told you, he woulda told Sakura, so clearly Gaara told you. It's pretty obvious if you just think about it logically." He looked around at everyone's shocked expressions. "I'm a fucking engineer! I'm not dumb!"
"And…and you two are okay?" Sakura turned to Neji and Gaara. "Neji, you didn't threaten Naruto or anything, did you? Because I'm sure it was just—"
"Oh my god!" Ino was starting to turn pink, and Shikamaru was blinking at her in alarm.
"No, we talked about it, everything's okay." Neji sighed heavily. "It almost makes us even, I guess. After Sasuke."
"Well, but you've still slept with like eight hundred more people." Kankurou pointed out.
"Would you stop helping?" Temari shook her head at her brother in annoyance. "Ino, seriously, calm down."
"My water just broke!" she exclaimed.
Shikamaru fainted, and everyone else at the table broke out into a panic. Tenten grabbed the expectant father off the ground, slapping his cheeks until he came around, and everyone stood up, rushing about but accomplishing nothing.
"Everyone calm down!" Temari yelled, holding up her hands. "This is fine! Ino, you have your suitcase for the hospital right? We were talking about it the other day."
"It's in the coat closet." She pointed down the hall, looking slightly surprised as Kiba and Chouji held either arm and helped her out of the dining room carefully.
"I'll grab that." Sakura rushed to get it. "Temari, I think it would be best if you take her because you have the most reliable four-door."
"Perfect," Temari nodded sharply. "Hinata, can you bring everyone else who wants to come in your van? Shikamaru, Sakura, Ino, you're in the car with me. Sakura, I want you shotgun, Shikamaru in the back with Ino. Ino! Remember your breathing." They were halfway down the walk to her car when her face went pale. "Crap, Kamae! I'll just run in really quick to say goodbye…"
"No, no time for that!" Chouji turned back toward the house, and Shikamaru, having regained his ability to walk, took up his girlfriend's free arm, helping Kiba get her to the car. "I'll let him know!"
"Thanks Chouji!" Temari called back as Sakura rushed past her, with the suitcase, and she popped the trunk so they could get it in. In minutes, they were gone, with the rest of the housemates piling into Hinata's van. Chouji was the last one to jump in, and they were off to the hospital.
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Naruto had heard a commotion downstairs, and he couldn't help being a bit curious. Maybe…maybe Sasuke really had come home? He was nervous, his stomach tied in knots. But soon, the furor died down, and the house seemed amazingly quiet. He began to feel concerned, and he got up, opening his door and peering outside. The hall was quiet and empty. He was used to the soft hum of conversation, the rustling of movement, but there was none of that. Maybe they were all eating dinner?
He stepped on the stairs and walked down them slowly, biting his lip. He couldn't hear anything. He should be able to hear people talking while they were eating, he should be able to hear the scrape of silver on dishes. Was something wrong?
He reached the foot of the stairs and walked into the dining room. It was bizarre. It looked like they had all disappeared in the middle of a meal, he could see half-eaten helpings of food on some plates, some plates were almost completely full, and there was still steam rising from the chicken.
Where would they all go in such a hurry?
Ino…she's due in two weeks, right?
Suddenly, it all made sense. Sasuke wasn't home. Ino had gone into labor and they'd rushed her off to the hospital.
"Hungry?" the voice was familiar, and he jumped in surprise, whirling around to see the man standing behind him. "I guess it's just us."
"You're here."
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To be continued…