Chapter 4

"Would you mind telling me the meaning of this?" Gaara demanded coolly, hands folded in front of him on the desk. Idly he reached to smooth one edge of the scroll he'd just been handed then turned his attention back to his elder brother.

Kankuro shrugged. "I guess it means just what it says. Temari's returning from Suna."

"Yes, but why? Why now? Why so abruptly?" Gaara continued. "Doesn't she have any idea how disruptive this is to our relations with Konoha? To just dump everything into her assistant's lap, unprepared like this is...unprofessional to say the least."

Kankuro shrugged his shoulders again and gave a half laugh. "Oh, hell, Gaara, who knows why women do anything?"

The painted shinobi was brought up short by Gaara's icy glare. Even though his younger sibling had shed most of his murderous rage it was still best not to anger him. This was something Kankuro knew all too well. He cleared his throat and tried to look around the room.

Methodically Gaara began stacking the books and scrolls on the side of his desk so he could fully open up the latest one from their sister. He unfurled it and read it again from top to bottom hoping to glean some yet unseen insight into just why she would behave in this manner.

"She wrote this yesterday," Gaara said, noting the date on the document. "We received it this morning via messenger baza hawk. It says she's departing for Suna tonight..."

"Which means she'll be here in the three days," Kankuro answered, cautiously adding, "I suppose we can ask her the meaning of all of this then."

"Yes," Gaara replied distractedly, still studying the scroll intently as if he could force it to reveal more than the words penned in the brushstroke's of Temari's own hand. "In the meantime, I'll have the daimyo to deal with. He will be demanding answers, worried about trade routes and tariffs and other things..."

"Well, at least we have a good relationship with Konoha for the moment," Kankuro replied, "We will still have the post manned, even if it is a more junior person in the liason's office, it won't go completely empty. I'm sure you can get a replacement there shortly as well. Konoha is a premium post. I'm sure there are lots in the diplomatic corps willing, even eager to be stationed there."

"True. Or perhaps I could send you?"

"Oh, no," Kankuro answered with a smile, raising both hands and shaking his head. "Not me, I'm not the least bit diplomatic. Within our own family brother dear, Temari was your best bet." He paused then added, "You don't suppose there's some crisis brewing - something she couldn't entrust to diplomatic communiques do you? Is it possible she knows something and that she can't report it because communications have been compromised on her end?"

"I would think I would have had some inkling of it, " the Kazekage replied, "There's not even the remotest hint of anything at the moment, from an intelligence chatter standpoint it is calm to say the least. No threats on the horizon, no conflicts, nothing diplomatic." Gaara mulled things over in his mind, trying to make sense of all of it. Finally he looked up at Kankuro and asked plainly, "Do you think it's personal? Do you think it has something to do with that Konoha shinobi she's been seeing?"

Kankuro's eyes widened. It was hard to imagine that his younger brother might be becoming perceptive about these things. The thought had crossed his mind that perhaps her relationship with Shikamaru had ended. But just like a perceptive Gaara was hard to imagine, it was equally hard to imagine his sister, fierce and independent as she was, ever being bothered by a break-up. And certainly not to the point where she would resign her post to get away from the guy. Temari was like the wind itself, she came and went and did as she pleased, Kankuro could never envision her as actually being hung-up on a guy.

Kankuro cleared his throat once again, "Well, err, I suppose it could have something to do with that but I dunno, Gaara, I can't believe Temari would let a guy get to her like that. Even if they broke up or something she'd still stay in her job, actually probably more determined than ever to go about her own business, if I know Temari." He shook his head, "No, there's got to be something more to it than that."

Gaara shook his own head, "I fail to understand these relationships. The sex is pleasurable is it not?"

Kankuro spluttered and choked, thankful for his paint that hid the blush creeping up his cheeks. It was going to be another one of those sessions of verbal acrobatics trying to explain sex and love and relationships to his little brother. Only this time the subject matter wasn't general, it was personal, very personal, as it involved their sister. Before he could answer, Gaara added, "That is what she is doing, correct? Having sex with this shinobi?"

Sighing heavily, Kankuro acknowledged him, "Yes, Gaara, most likely she was although I didn't ask her specifically."

"Do you think she loves him?"

"I have no idea," Kankura answered truthfully.

"But she's having sex with him?"

"Probably."

"And sex is pleasurable but love is not?"

"It's complicated," Kankuro replied gently. Thankfully their conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door.

"Enter," Gaara said.

The door swung open and an older man entered, their former sensei and the man who had served as the Kage-pro-tem between Gaara's father and himself, Baki. Out of habit the two younger men straightened respectfully.

"Baki-sensei! Good to see you," Kankuro greeted the man. Baki clapped his shoulder in affectionate acknowledgment and greeted Gaara with a bow.

"Lord Kazekage," he said in his deep voice.

"Enough of that," Gaara said and Kankuro was pleased to note the faint twitch of a smile at the corner of his brother's lips. Their entire family owed much to this man and neither brother would forget his training or his unshakeable faith in each of them. "You will not bow to me, Baki-sensei," Gaara ordered.

"I appreciate the honor, Lord Kazekage," Baki replied, straightening, "but surely we must follow protocol."

Gaara rose from his desk and walked around to the front of it and smiled as he greeted his former teacher, "In public then I will accept it as a gesture of respect of this office. But in private? With only our family present? Never."

"Baki, what brings you here today? You don't come to the Kazekage's offices much anymore."

"I've done my time," he grinned slyly at them. "I don't need the diplomatic double talk and subterfuge. I spend most of my time in the deep desert now, among the tribes, among our people, where I belong. You two should spend more time there, too."

The two young men nodded. Their mother's family was one of the deep desert clans of nomads and traders. Their father's family, one of the principal ones in the city of Suna, had arranged a marriage between the two in order to strengthen ties between the city-dwelling and nomadic clans. Baki was a distant relative from their mother's side and he had taken to spending more and more time back among the people with whom he had grown up.

"We will, we promise," Kankuro said. "Still, why are you here today?"

Baki looked over at the open scroll on Gaara's and pulled out his own from his pocket. "This."

He handed the scroll to Gaara who looked at the address in Temari's handwriting and the opened seal. "This was addressed to you?"

Baki nodded, "I received it this morning."

Gaara opened it and read the brief message then passed it to Kankuro.

"I'm here," Baki said after they both finished reading it, "to do as Temari requested. To take her home to the desert."