Chapter 35

"Why are you eating with us?" Kankuro growls as soon as he enters the dining room and notices Temari is seated where Shikamaru used to sit around the round table.

"I have as much right to be here as you." Temari then shoves a piece of bread into her mouth.

Gaara, the only other person in the room, just continues to munch his breakfast quietly.

"Oi Gaara, why'd you allow her to sit there?" Kankuro asks, conveying that the situation is unacceptable to him.

Gaara glances at his older brother before he gestures with his head towards Temari's direction. "She cooked breakfast," the fifteen year old mentions in lieu of explanation.

Kankuro's lips pull back from his teeth in disgust. "So she has really come to poison us!"

"IT ISN'T POISONED!" Temari stands up suddenly, forcing the chair behind her to be pushed, causing it to topple backwards and crash on the floor loudly.

"I let her sample everything first," Gaara answers evenly as he takes another piece of bread, covers it with feta cheese, adds scrambled egg on top and then takes a bite. After which he deposits the bread back to his own plate as he chews slowly.

"I won't eat that. I'd rather starve!" Kankuro scoffs, leaving the two in the dining area to continue towards the kitchen. Kankuro then searches the cabinets for food, spying burnt pita bread instead of the loaf bread served on the table; he grabs it and a bottle of what he thinks is apricot jam, but with its brownish tinge he can't be that sure. Returning to the dining area, Kankuro barks, "Did you make these too?"

"No," Temari lies. She had already up-righted her chair when Kankuro went to the kitchen, resuming with her meal.

"Yes she did," Gaara admits.

Temari glowers at Gaara. That action of hers causes little change to Gaara's expression except now his lips have a very slight, very imperceptible tilt to it, either in scorn or mirth, Temari can't tell, since his eyes are blank and much more difficult to read than Shikamaru's.

"Bitch!" Kankuro swears, throwing the flat bread and banging the jam on the table before stomping back towards the kitchen. From the kitchen comes the loud banging of cabinet doors, and some swearing as the sound of someone rummaging continues before Kankuro returns to the dining area laden with some fruits native to Suna.

"I bought that this morning," Temari divulges defiantly before Gaara beats her to it.

Kankuro who is already chewing a piece of chestnut, spits it out on the floor.

"Now, I have to clean that," Temari remarks drily.

"Yeah suuuure but I wouldn't want to owe you anything so you won't get to do even that," Kankuro scowls.

Owe. Is my younger brother snidely referring to my owing Shikamaru my life? Temari's hand goes to her abdomen underneath the table Or that Kankuro thinks Shikamaru owes me something and it cost him his life.

Noticing the kunoichi's disquiet, Kankuro angrily rants further, "You are not welcome here. Didn't my big bro tell you not to ever come back?"

Fisting her hands on her lap, Temari speaks her voice in a steady monotone, "I will leave immediately once I've delivered my message to Kamaru. Until then anything you say or do is irrelevant." Letting her words sink in, she observes that Kankuro retaliates with a look of pure hatred in his eyes.

Turning her head to the youngest brother, Temari inquires of him, "Are you finished?" She then stands up to collect the plates after she sees Gaara nodding his head.

After a few seconds, as she carries on with her chore, she remarks dryly, without glancing at Kankuro, "Just trust that Kamaru will return here soon otherwise you would really be starving to death."

"HE WON'T BE RETURNING BACK!" Kankuro suddenly shouts.

"If you're really not hoping for that, why are you adamant that your brother's room be left as it is?" Temari raises her eyes and meet Kankuro's as she asks calmly.

"Snooping little bitch!" Kankuro snarls.

"Call me a bitch again and I'll—"

"You'll what? Threaten to cook me lunch? Smash my face in it if I don't eat it?" Kankuro interrupts. He gives a harsh laugh before he speaks again, "Big bro disregarded orders," Kankuro leaves out the because of you part thinking it would give the kunoichi more reasons to gloat, "I even helped him with it. If I knew this would happen..."

Kankuro takes a deep breath trying to control his temper but even then, he still spats his words through his gritted teeth as he recounts, "I didn't see big bro's body. When I, guided by the Tanigakure shinobi, went to where he was supposed to have found the dead body, the body was already gone. I would not have believed that stupid shinobi but then for all his stupidity, he was able to describe the robe big bro was wearing in detail. The Tanigakure shinobi even mentioned that he didn't suspect my brother was a Suna nin since the body wasn't wearing any forehead protector. But really, who else wears their insignia where nobody else sees it? Just big bro. I still couldn't understand why he wears his beneath the sleeve of his fucking robe!"

"That isn't sufficient to—" Temari angrily counters.

But Kankuro cuts off her tirade with an evil glare. "I'm not stupid. I know that! I finally noticed the scattered grains of sand on the ground. It was so fine, there was no doubt it came from Suna. That was when I became sure it was big bro. He brings a pouch of sand where ever he goes." Kankuro gives another mirthless laughter. "So see, you can go home now, Temari-san. My brother won't be coming back."

Before Kankuro can finish what he is saying, Temari has already resumed collecting Gaara's and her discarded plates from the table. Without pausing she picks up the pita bread and places it on the side of the table. She has already decided to take Kankuro's share of the breakfast meal with her to the kitchen, rather than leave it on the table. She has a lot to do after washing the dishes. She has already checked the laundry room and has noticed a mountainous pile of used clothing. Back home, she only needs to take care of her own clothes and sometimes her kasan helps her with her pile. Speaking of home, she needs to write that letter to her par—

"Are you listening? I said go home!" Kankuro bellows, angry for being obviously ignored.

"Shut up! I have several things to do." Temari balances the plates and Kankuro's uneaten share of the breakfast, carrying the dishes towards the kitchen.

"If he's still alive, he should have returned by now!" Kankuro hollers after her departing back.

"Or maybe niisan just wanted to be out of father's shadow," Gaara adds quietly from his chair.

Kankuro glances at his little brother, noticing his calm, solemn expression. Kankuro gives a slow but genuine smile. "Yeah. That too... He'll return," Kankuro utters out of Temari's earshot, praying it is so.

TBC

~3/27/11AF~

A/N: Ligare, found Naruto?...I think he's in chapter 29, 34 and around chapter...

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