I'm not sure of the rating of this chapter since it has some stuff that aren't very nice and might be considered torture (I really don't know) so I'm warning you now.

Chapter 14- A Brotherly Plot

"I don't think we've been too thorough." Kankuro commented to his brother. Gaara looked up from his work momentarily. They were both in his office. He was working while Kankuro was 'watching' him. "Seeing those leaf ANBU yesterday reminded me that we have gotten absolutely nowhere with our Temari case."

"True." Gaara said with a frown but turned back to his papers. His stack was actually lessening.

"I think we need a more direct approach." Kankuro said leaning back in his seat thoughtfully.

"Direct approach?" Gaara muttered.

"Yea, we haven't tried just asking her directly, have we?" Gaara looked up at his brother. It was true. They hadn't tried that yet.

"But would that even work?"

"Only one way to find out." Kankura answered getting up and stretching. Gaara completed the paper he was on before getting up to join him. When was the last time they visited Temari at her home.

XXXXX

Temari had woke quiet happily despite not seeing Kiba when she did. She knew it wasn't a dream, the shirt he had switched was still draped over the small sofa that was in her room. she got up and hurriedly went to have a bath. She was going to be late if she didn't.

She had just finished her bath and stepped out of her bathroom in her towel when Gaara and Kankuro entered. She smiled at them.

"What are you guys doing here?" She asked happily. Kankuro smiled back at her.

"Figured we could come do a morning visit." he answered "And maybe have some brother sister conversations."

"Isn't that thoughtful." Temari said pulling his cheeks. The other hand held her towel firmly in place. "What do you guys have to talk about? Have you eaten breakfast yet Gaara?"

"No." Gaara answered as he watched Temari go to the kitchen.

"We were wondering how your little dating thing was going." Kankuro said nudging Gaara when Temari's back was turned.

"We're… concerned." the red head added as Kankuro looked around for any clues.

"You shouldn't be. We're going on so well." she said from the kitchen.

"Are you sure about that?" Kankuro asked loudly.

"Absolutely. He's just the best there is. He's just so great." she answered and some movement could be heard in the kitchen.

"Weren't you absolutely sure last time?" Gaara asked and Kankuro quickly switched to just standing around with his hands in his pockets when Temari stepped back into the living room.

"There are some leftovers on the table." Temari said still smiling before giving Gaara a death glare. "Be sure to eat."

"What is that?" Gaara asked staring pointedly at the shining thing that they'd missed the first time. Both his siblings eyes followed his to the circlet/armlet around her upper arm.

"You didn't see it?" Temari asked in surprise. At their dumbfounded looks she giggled. "I've had it for more than a month now."

"No, we didn't see it." Gaara said tightly. This guy was moving too fast for his liking. Kankuro was too struck by the boldness of whoever the dick was that gave her something so personal like and did his sister just giggle? Did THE Sabaku no Temari just giggle? WHAT THE HELL!

"So who exactly gave it to you? I'd like to ask him where he found such a beautifully crafted piece." Kankuro said pushing his shock aside. She grinned at them.

"Wouldn't you like to know." she said before happily skipping off to her room and closing the door behind her. The two watched after her.

"So that's how she's gonna play this." Kankuro said through grit teeth.

"She skipped." Gaara stated and Kankuro raised a brow at him. They pushed that disturbing thought out of their heads. Their sister did not skip, ever. "New plan: quick search."

Both were still for a moment before jumping to digging through her stuff ninja style. This was getting out of hand. Even if this Temari didn't want to show them her boyfriend yet did this boy really have no morals that he didn't push to be introduced?

"This is shit." Kankuro said we shouldn't have to be digging like this.

"Maybe we shouldn't be." Gaara grumbled at his lack of anything that could help them. Kankuro turned to him with a stern face that left no argument.

"You could tell me that if she told us who he is. Until then we have every right to know who this guy is so we can do our duty as her brothers and teach that guy not to mess with her. We didn't do that with Shikamaru and look what happened! From now on, constant vigilance!"

"Constant vigilance!" Gaara echoed with a nod.

"Constant vigilance in what?" Temari asked coming from her room fully dressed. The boys instantly took unassuming stances as if they were never snooping.

"Suna's defences." Gaara lied easily. Temari looked at them with suspicion burning in her eyes.

"Do you have any ideas what we could do to boost them some more?" Kankuro asked because despite everything Temari was smart and while the whole topic was a lie it would still do good if they needed to come back up it later.

"I'll have to think about it." she said thoughtfully and they followed her to the kitchen for her to prepare breakfast for them. they watched as she moved deftly around the small kitchen.

"We know who it is." Kankuro said suddenly and Gaara looked at him wide eyed. Temari had her back to them as she prepared the food.

"Hm? Who what is?" she said distractedly. Kankuro gave Gaara a wink behind her back. Gaara rose a non-existent eyebrow questioningly.

"Your precious boyfriend."

"He is precious, isn't he?" she muttered thinking about all the times she was tempted to slap him because of some joke innuendo or statement. Yup, he was precious (sarcasm people). "How do you know him?"

"Met him once." Kankuro stated watching his sister closely.

"Not surprising, he travels alot." she commented.

"He's a merchant?" Gaara asked but was met with no answer.

"If he travels so much how do you guys even spend time together?"

"We have our ways." she smirked at him. Both brothers frowned but dug into the food she placed in front of them. "Why are you two so adamant about who I'm dating?"

"The last one hurt you Temari." Gaara said calmly.

We couldn't do anything about i."

"Exactly. So stop beating yourself up about it. He wasn't the first one." she told them. At the last sentence her brothers looked at her shocked.

"There was another one?" they both asked and Temari immediately realised her error.

'Now they wouldn't drop the man hunt on Kiba.' she thought mentally slapping herself.

"Who was that bastard?" Kankuro asked. He's hands were already itching to hurt him. All he needed was a name. That was another that hurt his sister. Gaara sat stiffly beside him barely holding his temper. If it was a Konoha nin he couldn't very well punish them but if he was from Suna well that would be the first time Gaara ever used his power for personal gain. Thinking about it brought his thoughts to a conversation he had with one Shikamaru Nara.

FLASHBACK

The lazy brunette looked up from his papers to look at the stoic red-head towering before him. He wasn't that tall but from a sitting position with that smoother intensity directed at you he could very well be touching the ceiling. Sometimes Shikamaru forgot just how intimidating Gaara could be, how intimidating any of the Sand sibling could be.

"Can I help you Kazekage-sama?" he asked swallowing the urge to curl in on himself.

"I'm not here as the Kazekage." the red-head stated and Shikamaru instantly knew this wasn't going to end well. His mind was already formulating plans of escape. Most of them had a high probability of failure, some were definitely failures and the handful that could work, were only temporary.

"How may I help you?"

"You can begin by explain to me exactly what happened, why it happened, why you didn't stop it, when did you realise your wrongs and why you didn't correct them." Gaara stated in a professional monotone as he gracefully sat in the chair across from Shikamaru with a emotionless expression. The cork in the gourd he had rested beside him popped out and sand was lifted slowly from the gourd in tendrils by Gaara's sand. There was no way out of this for Shikamaru.

"Well," Shikamaru began wearily watching the sand form a figure that looked suspiciously like him. "Well, I cheated on Temari with Ino."

Gaara's face remained impassive but the figure lost a leg and began to move as if hopping. Yup, that figure was definitely him.

"It happened because... I don't know really." he said and winced when the 'sand Shikamaru' had his arm twisted to an awkward angle. "We were together one evening and we were talking and one thing lead to another."

Gaara gave the equivalent of a snort and the arm broke in three places.

"I was under alot of stress from work and I wasn't thinking clearly. I realised the next morning."

"When?" Gaara asked and Shikamaru's eyes shifted from the figure to look at Gaara.

"Three months before she found out." he answered softly. The figure lost it's unbroken arm in a splay of sand blood and fell down on it's one good knee in anguish.

"How many times?"

"What?"

"How many times before she found out?"

"I… don't know." he answered. And the second leg was removed. What was left of the figure lay suspended on its side. That signified a lot of pain. Gaara was still as impassive as ever.

"Why didn't you correct it?" More sand moved to join the figure to form a model of Shikamaru's head and one of a kunai. Shikamaru wasn't liking where this was going.

"I don't know." he answered nervously gripping his chair. The kunai made a small cut on the cheek of the model. It was small but it bled sand.

"Are you that ungrateful, sadistic and stupid?"

'Sadistic? You're the one being sadistic!' Shikamaru wanted to say but was frozen when the sand kunai made another small cut on the other cheek. That model was very vivid.

"Are you suicidal?" Gaara asked making a deeper cut to cross the last one. No answer once again. "To be truthful, I believe she hasn't repaid you with the proper amount of zeal and suffering that she should. She was too lenient. That will be remedied soon enough though."

"W-what do you mean?" Shikamaru stammered out as Gaara's attention finally shifted to the model and wasn't staring right at him. He soon realised that wasn't a good thing, the sand kunai began moving with more purposeful strokes.

"You're the genius, you tell me." the red-head answered distractedly, seemingly entranced by his own creation. "Nevermind you seem to have taken a dose of the idiot medicine recently."

The point of the sand kunai hovered over the model's head and Shikamaru had a sinking feeling.

"This may very well be you." Gaara muttered and the kunai moved swiftly downwards and the sand dispersered on contact. He rose from his seat as the sand rushed back into his gourd and re-corked it. "Good day, my duties dictate several things and a treaty prevents several others."

Shikamaru watched as the intimidating man left. He understood the message clearly. 'If I weren't Kazekage and there wasn't a treaty, you'd be dead.'

FLASHBACK END

"No one you need to worry about." she answered with a shrug. "Why did you two come here in the first place?"

"We just came to see you." Kankuro answered alittle too quickly. Her eyes narrowed at him.

XXXXX

"Well nothing has been working so far." Gaara sighed tenderly touching the sore spot on his leg where Temari had hit him with her fan when she found out the real reason for visiting. He was sitting carefully in his seat in his office with a nice bit of ice cooling his leg.

"We need to hit harder be more thorough." Kankuro said. He was pacing but the ice pack he held to his head was a sign that he had not remained untouched by her angry swings. "We need a new plan."

"The girls." Gaara suddenly suggested.

"Yes! Are they here? When will they be back?" Kankuro was immediately at his desk. Gaara shook his head in a no as he pulled out their mission file to check.

"Not until next week." he answered putting the file back.

"They'll pry it right out of her." Kankuro said darkly rubbing his hands together as a smirk spread across his painted face. A face of true terror. Gaara watched him wearily. Kankuro was getting to the stage of obsession quickly.