Kintsugi
Further Tilting

"Seriously."

Temari was definitely irritated with both of her brothers. Gaara recognized the look on her face, yet for once he couldn't place what he and Kankuro both did, or relatively – what Kankuro did. He found himself attempting to prepare himself breakfast without her help, although this involved very little cooking, now staring at her. "What did we do this time?"

Kankuro turned and looked at Gaara, a horrified look on his face. "Really? Did you really have to... never mind. It's you."

"Okay. So maybe I shouldn't be frustrated with Gaara in the fact we decided he wasn't supposed to be alone with mother."

Gaara's eyes blinked. "Should I be insulted."

"Says the person who's been avoiding his mother ever since she's moved in. It's been, like, a whole month now. Right?"

Indeed, he had avoided his mother. Arriving at the bedroom which he once considered his father's and thus took over in an attempt to connect with the man he'd struggled all his life connecting with led to what he felt was a rather awkward situation which he hoped his mother suspected was just him checking in to see if she was alright.

"How is she supposed to know that, though, if you've been, you know, avoiding her when it's not mealtime?"

"I have my Kazekage duties, right? Those are outside of the home, right?"

"You're missing the point. You've both been awake at night, but you've kept turning in the other direction. You could ask her anything."

"Something tells me Temari and Kankuro – there are things they don't want me to know." Gaara looked at his siblings.

"How do you come to that conclusion?"

"Because they're not letting her leave the house without supervision."

"Alright. Why are you irritated with me?"

"I'm irritated with the fact I've been the only one dealing with mom. I get Gaara, given the fact she promised us she wouldn't leave the house without you or me being there, but you? Every time she's left the house, I've been the one whose taken her."

"I don't want to go to Lady Chiyo's place."

"You're still going on about that?"

"Please stop arguing." Gaara didn't like it when his older siblings argued. Many times, it was either something stupid, often Kankuro's fault.

Temari looked at him, worrying her lip. "Sorry, Gaara."

"Don't apologize." Gaara started into his breakfast, keeping a wary eye out for their mother. In the back of his mind, he wondered if she was avoiding him as well – perhaps because of the rules, his older siblings put into place.

She turned towards Kankuro. "What are you going to do if I'm not here? Do you expect mom to stay in the house? I mean, seriously, do you expect her to stay in the house?" Kankuro shrugged his shoulders at her. "Don't shrug your shoulders at me like that."

"Yeah, well you're not getting up early everyone morning..." Kankuro froze, his eyes widening as if he'd almost said something, but then stopped. He glanced away.

"And what?"

"Cleaning up the mess left by whoever's been vandalizing the walls of our home during the night, though it's gotten less frequent due to me asking those who patrol to keep an eye out."

"What!" Temari slammed her hands down. "Neither of you were going to tell me."

Kankuro opened his mouth. Gaara continued eating, only stopping briefly to say, "I thought you knew."

"Okay. Gaara's answer I buy, but you Kankuro?"

"I didn't want to worry you. I didn't want to worry mom either, or Gaara." Kankuro looked at Gaara. "You really know?"

"I have insomnia, remember. Which, by the way, mother's been struggling to sleep at night." Gaara finished his food, setting his plate in the sink, preparing to head into work for the day, not at all looking forward to yet another meeting with the elders where they told him he was wrong for letting his mother out of the mental ward. So far, he'd not seen any sign his mother being outside of the mental ward causing and kind of problem. "What could possibly go wrong?"

He managed to get a few stacks of paperwork before the meeting, yet when he got into the room sitting in his usual seat, he couldn't help but feel the tension in the room as the elders gathered. He watched them carefully, not saying anything while he waited for the agenda to come up. Again, a few of the elders noted the fact they felt his mother shouldn't have been removed from the mental ward.

More specifically, they brought up the fact there were certain villagers who didn't think her appearance after all of these years was a good thing, many of whom wanted answers regarding what Baki insisted was a private, family matter. They reminded him they'd told him that it was instead a public affair, that the public was entitled to answers regarding her appearance, but leaving it for an entire month was uncalled for. "You do realize nothing's happened."

"Yet you've asked those who patrol in the area of the Kazekage's home to be on watch, have you not?"

"That is because..." Of course, he didn't have an answer regarding why he'd not said anything regarding the vandalism going on outside of the Kazekage's house, given the fact Kankuro was doing such a good job of cleaning it up, yet he expected the person causing such mischief was, in fact, a young shinobi he didn't wish to get in trouble.

"Rather ironic given the fact you yourself are a young shinobi. Good thing you're an insomniac rather than a sleepwalker, because we might assume you are the one doing the sleepwalking."

"Not funny."

"Maybe your mother was sleepwalking."

"Very funny. I would have noticed Shukaku."

"I know. I just wanted to pick on you a bit."

"Not now."

"Lord Kazekage." One of the elders let out a sigh, clearing his throat. "In another matter, there is a mission to Konoha Village we would like Temari to handle.

For once, Gaara found himself reacting, his eyes widening. For some reason, this felt like a convenient move by the elders, yet he couldn't fathom the reason behind it, let alone say no. "What could possibly go wrong?"