Kankuro unlike his younger brother who graduated very early in the sunagakure ninja academy albeit secretly is currently training his ninjutsu. Although not much of a genius, he showed decent improvement over the time he spent learning in the academy.

Although he did not realize it yet, Kankuro had a passion for puppets. Whenever he is free or resting, he would either play with a puppet that he saved money to buy, or he will spend his time designing his own puppets.

Without having to fear his younger brother, Kankuro grew up a little happier than he would have than the one from the anime. He and his elder sister Temari would even train with Gaara sometimes which served to their advantage as Gaara would often point out their weaknesses and help resolve them.

He admit that he sometimes envied his brother's talent but these passing thoughts never really lingered for too long in his head. His brother is caring and loving, even protective of them at times and he as an older sibling should not show or feel such petty things.

puff

'sigh~ I failed again.'

His clone lived for a few miliseconds before vanishing into a puff of smoke.

"Control big brother. You need to control and mould your chakra properly along with the hand signs for a jutsu to work as intended."

Kankuro was startled by the sudden voice. When he turned to look, he saw Gaara smirking playfully and then vanished into smoke before he could say anything. Although he was about to tell him to go away, he was still thankful for his help. Not many would be able to enjoy his brother's teaching after all.

'This kid ughh. The pain of being a secondary character.'

Resigned to his fate, he did it as instructed and like a charm, he succeeded in his attempt. This is one of the reasons why he can't hate his younger brother, he was never stingy with his help especially when it came to his family.

"Heehee. See, listening to your brother doesn't hurt now does it?"

The nerves in his forehead threatened to burst from annoyance.

"Fine then, I want you to train me!"

Declared Kankuro on the verge of frustration. Although he found Gaara annoying like any other older brother would feel about his clingy younger sibling, he still acknowledged Gaara's ability to impart knowledge.

"Are you sure? Training under me could be very difficult, more than that of the training done in the academy."

Gaara teasingly warned.

"Tsch... I'm sure I can take whatever you throw my way though. Question is do you dare teach me or are you afraid of me surpassing you?"

Kankuro teased back he couldn't lose in the battle of talk no jutsu as well or he'd lose self respect.

"Hahaha Great! If only Temari is as gullible as you are then we'll be 'the unstoppable trio of the sand' or something like that."

Kankuro visibly shivered upon the mention of a title and the terrible naming sense.

"What gullible, come here and I'll show you whose boss."

Kankuro ran and headlocked his younger sibling who showed no resistance whatsoever and only laughed harder as he began to pinch his nose.

'Gaara can be cute too.'

"Ughh my perfect nose, you ruined my style Kankuro-nii no one's gonna like me anymore."

Gaara twitched his nose before his hand glowed green and his red nose returning to its normal look.

"Seriously, you didn't have to be so merciless. Here, put these on."

Gaara handed him a set of paper seals.

'Those... aren't those...'

"Are you trying to kill me? Why would you make me wear explosive tags?"

Kankuro's comment is indeed within reason. His self adjusting weighted seals and gravity enhancement tags look eerily similar to explosive tags.

Gaara was stunned for a second before bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Hahahaha and why would I need to spend a precious tag to kill you. These are only similar to those things. These ones however have a different function. Look I myself am wearing these tags."

Lifting his sleeves to show his usually hidden tags managed to convince Kankuro who began to put them on.

"I don't feel anything though. Are you sure it's working?"

Kankuro asked with a somewhat doubtful expression.

"I assure you that it is working properly big brother. Come on let's have a little sparring match."

A few minutes later, Kankuro can be seen huffing and puffing to catch his breath like a tuberculosis inflicted patient.

'These things are heavy.'

He complained inwardly.

"You should feel it now yeah? Those tags will slowly adjust based on your current development and body state so there's no need to replace them. Be sure not to lose them or show them to other people, these are very rare and expensive to make."

Gaara warned seriously. He didn't mind if the tags are lost though its just that nobody knew he is capable of fuinjutsu yet as he had just started 'learning' from Lady Chiyo.