AN: Thanks so much guys for all the views. I've got a ton of viewers and it's making me laugh at my sis because she looks at how many people read hers, then she gawks at how many read mine… considering she edits most of my writing, you guys really should read her writing too! But I digress! Keep it up!
And to Me and Gaara 4ever, Yeah, that's the way to pent up your anger! You sound like the crazy massage robot from Wall-e. If you haven't seen that yet, it's good, you should watch it! Mo is the shiz!
And to Thomas Drovin, Well, they've been there almost three months, so yeah, they've most likely adapted to the crazy Naruto world. Haha. Wow, you guys only have a couple chapters until you catch up with me. ^.^o
And to the GrimSpeck18, Yes, I did read White Wolf… I have a feeling mine and Maeir's character won't be in there for long… cuz it's obviously based on your character, but that's fine. It sounds really good, even though it's only two paragraphs long. I'm interested in that one. Trapped… considering the pairing not so much, but I'm willing to tolerate the Uchiha-Emo-King, because it's your writing.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters etc. You know the drill.
Chapter Thirteen: Gaara's Bad Luck
As soon as Rox got home that night, she wrote a letter back to Cordi, which entailed Ronni's suggestion and news about Konoha. It was rather long and kept her up until between midnight and one o'clock writing it. She put it in an envelope as soon as she was done and addressed it.
Once she woke up the next morning, she found another mail-nin and gave him the letter. Then she watched the goofy looking mail-man sprint as fast as he could through the gates of Konoha towards Suna, which made her laugh. Then she went on her way to her chakra training lessons with her new guy-friend, Shikamaru.
After feeling like the sun was blinding her through her eyelids, Cordi decided to get up and greet the new morning, groggily, muttering, "No, good dream." It was Saturday, the twenty-fifth of July, and it had been nearly a week after the Matsuri incident, and since then, Cordi had been appointed chuunin level and had been training with each of the Subakus on chakra control. She clambered out of bed and grabbed a sweatshirt, which she slid on as she left her room. Her room happened to be a little expansive. It had a queen bed, a walk in closet, an armoire, and a luxurious bathroom, but what else would you expect from the richest family in Suna. The walls were tan stucco, and the floors were carpeted, white, except for the bathroom which was a white tile.
The rest of the house floors were a tan stone, which had been buffed and polished to smoothness. It actually felt quite nice against her feet as she walked down to the kitchen for coffee and breakfast. As soon as she entered the room, she followed the heavenly aroma to the coffee maker and grabbed a mug next to it to pour her a cup. She added cream and sugar, then took a sip. Suddenly, she felt a little awake from the warmth she felt as the coffee flowed down her throat and settling into her stomach.
"Mmmmm," Cordi moaned softly. She fully opened her eyes to see the counter holding plates with toast, bacon, eggs, and dumplings. The eggs although were scrambled, which Cordi frowned slightly at, but she still grabbed a plate and dished herself some bacon and toast, which she took straight to the table where a cheery Temari sat. So cheery, it seemed that it should be banned in the mornings.
"Good morning," Temari smiled. "How did you sleep?"
"Same as usual," Cordi replied in a bored tone. "I actually had a strange dream last night."
"Oh?" Temari asked an eyebrow raised.
"Yeah. We were at a festival, I have no idea where. It was you, me, Kankuro, Gaara, Rox with Shikamaru, Ronni with I'm guessing Kiba, Fred, and Lynne with some guy I couldn't see. Matsuri showed up about halfway through with a little kid, whom I couldn't see, on her hip, but then she faded, leaving the kid. Then suddenly, Gaara, who was standing next to me, got down on one knee. Then I woke up," Cordi explained. "Before he even said anything," she clarified, clearly a little disturbed by not knowing.
"You think he was going to propose?" Temari smiled, laughing a little.
"No. Well, maybe, but that would never happen," Cordi grimaced. "No matter how much I wish it would …" she muttered darkly to herself. She was so quiet about it, Temari almost didn't catch it.
"Why not?" Temari asked, giving her a curious stare.
"Because we're just friends. He's made that painfully clear. Being just friends is the kiss of death when it comes to relationships," Cordi explained. Then she grabbed a slice of toast and bit a piece out.
Temari shrugged, then took a sip of her coffee. "Well, you guys actually have a lot in common. And you've been there a lot for him recently. It would be very unlike him if he didn't even notice it."
"I'm not saying he wouldn't notice it," Cordi argued. "I'm just saying he would register it as an act of friendship, not an act of …" She stopped, thinking she was saying too much. So she changed the subject slightly to not reveal herself, "And I'm not even sure if I would date him in the first place."
"Why not?" Temari asked, a smug smile playing on her lips.
"Is he right behind me?" Cordi asked, which she then turned promptly around to find air behind her, not noticing his red hair peeking out from the doorway. "Ok. I probably wouldn't date him because it would be weird. I mean, it's cool when he was a fictional character and I could dream about meeting him. It's kind of like meeting your favorite actor, … but then start dating him? Stuff like that just doesn't happen. It's too weird." Temari nodded understandingly. "Especially for him because I already know so much about him, just because I read the comics and watched the show, I would seem like a stalker. But I'm not. I already knew his life story when I met him, but he didn't know mine."
"Well, what if it wasn't serious?" Temari asked.
"That would be worse," Cordi stated. "Because then it would be my dream with a bad ending. – Why are we even talking about this?"
"It beats the hell out of me," Gaara stated. Cordi suddenly whirled around, her face paled as she saw the redhead with a dower expression, and also looked kind of tired.
"How long were you standing there?" Cordi asked in a breathy voice.
"Not long," Gaara stated, grabbing a plate and placing toast, eggs, and dumplings on it. He walked over to the table and grabbed a seat opposite of Cordi.
"How did you sleep?" Cordi asked. He just looked up at her, pursing his lips slightly. "Right, you're still mad at me," Cordi stated, going back to her breakfast.
"Hey, Cordi, I've heard some of the music you have on that little device you have. What is it called again?" Temari asked, changing the subject.
"It's an iPod," Cordi answered through her bite of toast.
"Yeah, that. I was wondering if you could play it at the party tonight. You have a lot of great songs on there I think everyone will enjoy," Temari smiled. Gaara frowned, but it was minimal.
"Yeah, sure," Cordi replied, smiling at the eldest Subaku. "I just have to set up my iHome. It won't take long at all. But wait, isn't it at a local bar?"
"Yeah, can you play it there?" Temari asked, concern crossing her face.
"Yeah, well. I'll have to use my computer, which has more songs than my iPod, and I'll have to get a hold on their stereo system," Cordi explained. "It's not impossible, I'll just need a little longer time."
Temari nodded, then added, "We'll have to get there earlier for decorating anyway." Suddenly she pulled out a checklist and checked something off. "Okay, so music is done. Gaara, you're in charge of getting the cake," Temari listed, pointing at him. Gaara grimaced. Cordi nibbled on a piece of bacon.
"I hate cake duty," he muttered, before taking a stab at his eggs and biting hard on them.
"Well, nobody asked," Temari stated, ignoring his glare and checking off things on her checklist. "Anyway, quit acting like a petulant child. You have to have at least one job!"
"That's what being Kazekage is for, is it not?" Gaara growled, glaring at his older sister.
Temari looked at him with a "you-know-what-I-meant" look. Gaara kept glaring at her. And the staring contest continued for a while, which was when Cordi interjected with "You know, the weather outside today is just beautiful!" Then the glares switched their focuses onto the teenager sitting at the table. "Ri-ight," Cordi said, "I'm gonna head back upstairs and grab my computer." With that, she left the table, the Subakus' gazes following her out.
As soon as she got into her room, she opened her computer and sat on her bed. For some odd reason, she felt like watching the chuunin exams, and so she did. Starting at episode twenty, she watched the episodes she had bought on DVD so long ago. It wasn't long until she could feel a presence at the door. So, she paused her video and looked at Gaara leaning against the doorway. "You know, I had no idea you were so emasculating," Cordi laughed. Gaara quirked an eyebrow then sat down next to her on the bed.
"What are you watching?" he asked. Cordi played it and smiled. It was currently at the part where Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were waiting for Kakashi on the bridge a second time.
"The chuunin exams. This is just the beginning of it," Cordi laughed. He furrowed his eyebrows at her then turned back to the screen when Sakura and Naruto scolded Kakashi for being late. "You can watch it with me if you'd like," Cordi offered. Gaara didn't say anything, but kept watching. "I'll take that as a yeah," she laughed and turned to face the screen again.
"You got a letter," Gaara stated handing her an envelope, but still focusing on the screen.
"Oh, thank you," Cordi said, taking the letter from him and opening it.
"Dear Cordi,
Hey, it was so nice to hear from you, granted it was ranting. We've been doing okay over here. Ronni recently went on a date with Kiba. She says it wasn't a date-date, but we don't believe her one bit. Shikamaru has been making sure there are no more possibilities for any more asthma attacks, almost to the point of annoyance. Every training session, he asks "Do you have your inhaler?" It's considerate, but sometimes I wish he'd stop asking.
Oh, and Fred met Sai. She was so pissed off at dinner because when they met each other, she was painting and he insulted her artwork and then called her an ugly bitch. You know how he likes ugly bitches. Haha. …"
At that, Cordi snorted and could not stop laughing. Gaara gave her a strange look before she managed to say, "Fred met Sai the other day. Do you know who Sai is?" Gaara nodded. "Well," she continued telling him about how Fred and Sai met. Once she finished, he gave her a small smile before turning back to her computer.
"… Lynne is jealous that we all have met the guys we liked on the show and became friends with them. She was pouting earlier about how she'll probably never meet Sasuke.
Anyway, the best advice we could give is just wait it out. The guys will come around eventually. Until then, just respect their wishes that they don't really want to talk to you yet. Can you believe Ronni gave that advice? She said she was an expert on matters of the heart. Yet again I have to laugh at that because when it comes to most of the guys she dates, she couldn't be further from the truth.
Tell Kankuro the ninjas of the leaf village wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Well, maybe not all the leaf ninjas, just the cool ones (us, if you could figure that one out). How old is he, or is that information classified? Well, I gotta go. It's like one o'clock and I have to get up tomorrow for training.
Love, Your sister,
Rox"
Cordi smiled and folded the letter back up. Then she gained a curious face and turned to Gaara and asked, "How old is Kankuro?"
"He will be twenty-two," Gaara stated, still focused on the show.
"Then how old are you?" Cordi asked holding the same face in place.
He returned her gaze with a similar one, then said, "Twenty. Why?"
"Well," Cordi started. "Wait, when's your birthday?"
"What is this, an inquisition?" Gaara asked edgily.
"No, I was just wondering. They never really bring that up on the show or in the comics," Cordi explained.
He gave her a skeptical glare then growled, "January 19th."
"What about Temari?" Cordi asked, looking curious.
"She is also twenty-two, but will be turning twenty-three in two months."
"So they're Irish twins," Cordi whispered to herself. He gave her an annoyed glare for her interruption. "Oh, sorry. Please continue."
"September twenty-seventh is her birthday. Anymore questions?" Gaara asked a little annoyed.
"No, well," Cordi started. Gaara gave her a small glare, until she asked, "Do you want help on the cake duty?"
Gaara's glare dissipated, and he gave her a grateful look and said, "Yes. Thanks."
"Okay, we're almost there Kankuro!" Temari squealed excitedly, making sure her brother's eyes were covered. Kankuro obviously didn't really care for the spectacle of being run through the streets by his sister and being blindfolded.
"You said that five minutes ago," Kankuro growled, really hating this. He could hear groups of people snickering as he passed.
"Well, I misjudged time," Temari fibbed.
"You just didn't want me knowing where I was going did you?" Kankuro asked. Temari didn't say anything, which made him smile. "I knew you guys were doing something special for my birthday!" He laughed, almost giggled. Temari frowned. They had been lying to him for months that nothing was going on. Even when Cordi joined, they made her lie to the middle child to make the fib more authentic.
But Temari ignored him, and led him to some doors, and said, "Just right through here, and…" Suddenly his ears were filled with hard rock songs that sounded slightly familiar. Then he recognized the song was Let It Rock, by Kevin Rudolf, from Cordi's music device. "TADA!" Temari yelled, ripping off the blindfold, letting Kankuro see that his favorite bar in Suna had been transformed for a birthday party. His birthday party. He could see presents held by the stereo system. He saw that the room was packed with friends. Baki stood with Gaara in the front, and Cordi stood not far to the side. Then there were neighbors and friends from when he was growing up, which had been a lot of people, but they were all relatively his age, minus Baki and a few of his other mentors whom he had kept a good relationship with.
"SURPRISE!" everyone yelled, smiling big smiles.
"You guys didn't," he laughed in disbelief.
"We did," Temari smiled. "Well, Gaara secured the bar months ago. You know, him being Kazekage and all." Kankuro laughed again.
"It finally pays off that your little brother is the strongest person in the village, eh?" Gaara asked, smirking.
"Oh, it's been paying off a while, but this is by far the coolest thing you've done!" Kankuro laughed, looking at the place in aw, then giving Gaara a hug. "You are my favorite little brother!"
"I'm your only little brother," Gaara stated, slightly confused.
"Thus why you're my favorite!" Kankuro laughed. "If I had another, it would be mean to play favorites."
"I play favorites between you both all the time," Temari joked, her face deadpan. They looked at her a little hurt. "That was a joke," Temari stated. They still gave her wary glances. She sighed and pointed to the bar, "Bartender has agreed to stay, so drinks are available there. Hors d'ouvres are on the table over there. The dance floor is open. DJ-ing is being done by Cordi over there. Cake is in thirty minutes, followed by gifts. And – I think that's it. Have fun!"
Before Temari could leave, Cordi ran over and asked, "Hey, could you tell me when thirty minutes is up? I'm going to have the visualizer on, so my screen will be covered."
"Why are you doing that?" Temari asked, confused.
"Well, I was also able to hook up my computer screen to the TV screen above the dance floor. The visualizer automatically goes with the music, and it was easier than figuring out how to do a light show," Cordi explained. Temari nodded, then walked off onto the dance floor.
Luckily, thirty minutes went off without a hitch. The music was great. No one had come to crash the party. Things were looking up. Dinner was great. It was a basic chicken or steak thing. Cordi and Gaara had gotten the steak. Temari and Kankuro had gotten the chicken. The cake was also great. It was a two-tiered yellow cake with lemon icing. Then the presents were given.
Gaara was first to give his gift. Kankuro couldn't believe his brother had gotten him a new puppet. Its name was Reaper. It was wooden like all the other ones, but it held an iron box in its torso area. It had wings on it that were made of two big scythes. It had a cloak, covering its four arms and the majority of his head. If the hood of the cloak was removed, the top of the head was bald, except for a few holes for poison gas. Kankuro had been eyeing this puppet for awhile, and Gaara knew he had wanted it.
Kankuro hugged his brother, thanking him for the gift, before moving on with the other gifts. The next one was Temari's. She handed him gift certificates to his favorite store, adding the price up to $500. Kankuro laughed, and gave her a hug too, thanking her for the gift.
Then it was Baki's turn. Baki had gotten him a really expensive looking diary. "I know how you like to keep your thoughts down," Baki stated. Kankuro laughed, because Baki had no idea how much he'd been wanting to write down what was going on in his mind for a while. He thanked Baki, and Baki sat down in the group.
It was Cordi's turn to give him a gift. Cordi gulped and stepped forward. "Uhm, before you open it, please don't get disappointed because it's not expensive like everything else has been so far," Cordi pleaded, blushing at her own poverty. All eyes were on her, and she was starting to get a little stage fright, which was rare. She handed him the small bag, which he took graciously. He opened the bag and pulled out a leather strand with necklace hooks on the ends. At the exact middle, there was a really sharp, and pearly white tooth on the end. Before Kankuro could ask, Cordi stated, "I'm considered the only one in my family who can make valuable jewelry from scraps. And since Aleera just started losing her baby teeth, she and I thought it would be cool. Its supposed to be able to boost your chakra a little bit and protect you from any fire attacks, considering it has to protect itself against a dragon breathing fire – so yeah." Kankuro was in awe.
"You made this?" Kankuro asked. Cordi nodded.
"Yeah, considering the other jewelry I've made, like the bracelet I'm wearing…" she said, holding up her wrist to show what she meant. The bracelet looked like it was made by a professional. It was beaded with precious looking stones on one strand, and on the other was a chain with beads dangling off of it like they were attached, but beaded also. "…and my earrings…" she added, showing more jewelry that looked professionally made dangling off her ears. There were six chains, like those of the bracelet, with similar stones attached. "…your necklace was easy. The only difficult part was figuring out how to tie the tooth properly without it falling out of its place," she explained.
"You made those?" Temari asked, completely dumbfounded.
"Yeah, about three years ago," Cordi stated, brushing the comment off her shoulder. "I've gotten way better at it since then."
"I want one of those for my birthday," Temari muttered to herself, making Cordi smile.
Kankuro looked at the necklace and smiled, "This gift is so cool! It'll really boost my chakra?"
"Well, that's what Aleera said. Reason being is it has her DNA in the cells making up the tooth, so it should keep some of her abilities," Cordi explained. She smiled to him, glad he liked the gift.
After her, several people gave Kankuro gifts, like organic purple face paint, a new set of Kunai knives, etc. After all the gifts were given, everyone went back to the dance floor for more music. Everything was going great. Kankuro was dancing in the middle of the floor with a group of friends as the strong beat of "Just Dance," by Lady Gaga boomed in the background. Temari was in the group too. Gaara sat at the bar, obviously not much of a dancer. Cordi danced with the group and let the computer DJ itself, because she had set it to random.
Suddenly, out of the corner of Cordi's eye, she saw something that could sabotage the party. Matsuri had arrived and was walking toward Gaara at the bar as he was finishing his bottle of beer. He didn't see her yet. Cordi started to walk over, so as not to disrupt anyone and attract too much attention, but she was on the other side of the dance floor, so it took her a little while.
Gaara looked over as he finished his sip and saw Matsuri, the woman who had basically ripped out his heart and stomped on it. He didn't want to talk to her, but he was unable to say no to her desperate face. "Gaara, I have something to say," Matsuri started, her hands moving over herself in a protective position.
AN: I've been wondering. When the hell did they state he was born January 19th? Because I never saw it. I just read it in a bunch of fanfictions. I figured it was a date that had spread through the fan world, and I when I originally wrote this, I had the funny ironic twist going that he was born on Valentine's Day. That was until I double checked and found it is actually January 19th, thanks to Wikipedia. But please, someone tell me, cuz it's driving me NUTS!
Oh, and please remember to review!!