You survived some of the scariest bad asses that existed on this planet, you survived nearly starving to death and you survived almost sixteen years of stones, accusations and witch hunts. You can do this. No matter what I told my brain my body refuse to co-operate, it had taken me nearly twenty minutes to get down the stairs and it was taking me another thirty minutes to open the door. Come on don't be a baby, just open the door and scuttle to the closest, darkness corner of the room before anyone notices, that way you don't break you promise to Hamako for not attending the party, giving my body another shake before attempting another try at opening the door, like the first three tries, it didn't work. Come on your half an hour late to the party already. Just as I was about to brace myself for another try of opening the door, the door swung open, forcing me to jump back. A man wearing a long red shirt and trousers walked through the door, closing it behind him and walked up the hall, tried to anyway, since he bumped into me as an alternative.
"Sorry, you must be Nariko." The man asked, stepping back a bit. I looked up to examine the man carefully, he had very pale skin with blood red hair and wore some type of eye liner around his icy blue eyes with a weird symbol above his right eye, he was just a bit taller than me and was also quite handsome but for some reason had no eyebrows. "All of the Uzumaki's are wondering what's taking you so long." He wasn't being harsh, just stating a fact.
"I've actually been standing out here trying to work up the nerve to open the door." I replied honestly, hearing a small laugh escape his lips.
"I know what you mean, I not actually a party person myself but it's the only time I get to visit my sister." He shrugged. I laughed a little putting a small smile on his face. "I'm Gaara by the way." He said offering his hand out for a shake; I took it and gave it a firm shake.
"I'm Nariko but you already guess that." I replied, making the older man laugh a little more.
"So Nariko, would you like to have an escort into the party." He asked a little smile spread across his face as he offered me his arm, at the thought of the party my face winced, making Gaara laugh even more. "I promise they only bite on Mondays, well except Grandma Tsunade but in about half an hour she'll be drunk on sake and you'll hardly notice her." He was so nice. How could I say no to him?
"I would love to." Taking his arm and letting him escort me into the party. As soon as we had entered the room everyone looked at me. My whole body stiffen. Maybe I should have run when I had the chance.
Just remember to breathe.
I know I need to breathe.
So why aren't you breathing?
Oh yeah.
I began forcing my to breathe, knowing if I fainted in front of everyone, it would be really embarrassing, though it could make a perfect escape route opinion.
"Come; let me introduce you to my wife and kids." Gaara finally spoke, pulling me gently to the other side of the room. As Gaara pulled me over to where his family was standing, everyone gradually began looking away from me and turning back to their conversations, I felt a breath of relief escape my body. Now I just had to get through the rest of it. "Nariko, I would like you to meet my family." Gushing me over. "This is my wife Matsuri." He indicated to a small woman with a beautiful plain face and short brown hair, she gave me a polite nod. "These are my children Karura and Yasunari." He indicated to the two children standing next to his wife. Karura was a pretty young girl around fourteen years old, with long dark brown hair and a soft complexion, while Yasunari was around Hamako age with a cute round face and dark red hair; they had both inherited their fathers blue eyes and their mother's eyebrows thankfully.
"Hi, I'm Nariko." I smiled, trying to be friendly; Hinata had told me the best way to know a person is to relax and to just be friendly.
"You're the lady who did Hamako and Jiraiya hair." Yasunari asked, pointing over to where Hamako was playing with another little girl with short blonde hair put into pigtails and was carrying a small fan around with her.
"Eeeerrr, yeah." I replied, I didn't know what to say, since I was a little shocked by the question, to be honest I wasn't expecting anyone to actually talk to me at all. I had only planned my greetings and nothing else; I have got to be better prepared in the future.
"I've never seen Hamako hair so curly before." Yasunari mused, staring in Hamako direction again with a little smile on his lips. Aaaaawwww! Little Yasunari has a little crush on Hamako, that's so cute.
"I've also never seen Jiraiya hair so neat." Karura commented, pointing at Jiraiya who was talking with two boys that looked exactly identical to each other and looked a lot like Sasuke but they had blonde hair and they were laughing and mucking around with each other, they were messing each other's hair up, until the attractive blonde lady I saw at the hospital came over to tell them off, however as soon as she left one of the twins started doing an impression of his mother telling them off and his other twin and Jiraiya began laughing their heads off.
"Trust me; you don't know how many broken brushes and torture I had to go through before I got it half brushed." I remarked sarcastically, actually he didn't break a lot of brushes but this one time when I was brushing through his hair and it got caught in a knot, I pulled it out so hard that when it did come out it flew across the room and broke in half. Karura started laughing at my little remark.
"Oh believe me, I can tell how much effort went into brushing his hair." She babbled, letting out another laugh. Gaara family were very nice, they told me stories about themselves and friends and they also talked about their everyday life. I listened, laughing now and again when Matsuri told a funny story about her husband. They also asked questions about myself, at first I tried to keep the answers short but then I started to really relax and talk about myself more freely. Gaara also introduce me to his older brother, Kankuro, who was heavily drunk and also to his older sister Temari and her husband Shikamaru (apparently it was their daughter who was playing with Hamako earlier.) I was listening to one of Matsuri funny stories when Karura suddenly shrieked.
"I love this song." Before anyone could say anything, she disappeared onto the dance floor. After watching the dancing crowd for a while I turned back to Matsuri to listen to the rest of the story when Yasunari face caught my attention. He seemed to look absolutely miserable now that his sister was gone; I looked into the direction he was staring at. I instantly saw what the problem was; Hamako was dancing with Itachi in the middle of the floor, a sudden idea pop into my head, I gave my empty wine glass on to one of the serves trays walking around the room and turned back to Yasunari.
"Yasunari would you like to dance with me." I asked, holding out my hand, a big smile grew on Yasunari face; he immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the dance floor. The music had quite a lively beat to it, so Yasunari and I were doing all of these crazy spins and steps. I had no idea what I was doing but who cares, I was having a great time. When the song stopped an eruption of applause sounded through the room. I blush a bit with embarrassment but not as much as Yasunari whose face had turned bright red like his hair.
"That was some amazing dancing Yasunari." A shy little voice spoke behind us. We both turned to find Hamako standing behind us with her hands behind her back and wasn't making eye contact with him. The little guys face blushed even redder then before.
"Thanks Hamako." He mumbled, also staring at the floor, at that moment a slow song began echoing through the room, I rolled my eyes. Love. I quickly gave Yasunari a little nudge and indicated to Hamako then the dance floor.
"Would you like to dance with me Hamako?" Yasunari asked nervously, Hamako looked up with a little blush appeared on her cheeks. Hehehe, my evil plan is working.
"I would love too." Hamako whispered, a big smile grew on Yasunari face as he grabbed Hamako hand and dragged her towards the dance floor and they started twirling around, man Yasunari and Hamako were quite good dances, it was really cute to see them doing the waltz together and let's not forget that I am an awesome cupid I suddenly felt a familiar spike of charka appeared behind me.
"Care to dance." Minato suggested, holding out his arm.
"I don't know, I'm not much of a dancer." I replied, feeling my cheeks turn a bit warmer, Minato let out a little laugh.
"Are you kidding, you were amazing on the dance floor." He smiled, despite my better judgement I took his hand and let him lead me to the dance floor. "So you enjoying the party." He asked, as we did a small waltz around the floor.
"I am. Gaara's family have been very nice to me." I answered, letting Minato spin me into to a twirl and back again.
"Yeah Gaara a great guy." He said, taking a quick look at Hamako and Yasunari."So been playing cupid I see." He smirked, letting out a little laugh, at his own idea.
"Now Minato, you know I don't believe in all that corny romance stuff." I acknowledged sarcastically, giving Minato a wink, making Minato laugh a little more. The soft music started to die down, bringing me out of my fantasy world, Kami! What am I doing? I let go of Minato hands and stepped back as quickly as I could without trying to look rude, the hand I had being using to hold Minato hand still tickled a little bit. "Thanks for the dance." I stumbled out quickly, turning around to walk away. Well, that was what I was hoping for but instead I walked straight into the waiter, spilling hot sauce all over me. I hissed out in pain and jumped back, I looked down to examine the damage. Good grief I was covered in red sauce and my skin was burning like hell.
"Nariko are you all right." I heard Minato call behind me but instead of answering I ran out of the room as fast as I could, dodging other party guests and ran up to my room.