Chapter 25: Waiting Room Talk

If I thought Kankuro was uncomfortable when Gaara admitted that he had fears of his own, he was squirming like a little worm now.

It only took me five minutes to recount to his sister the whole issue going on between her two brothers, but it only took her one before she was glaring daggers at the brunette. Kankuro looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here right now, and Gaara was loving every second of it, deftly hiding his grin behind the sleeve of his coat.

His saving grace came when a cool and collected Kakashi and a shaking like a leaf Sakura walked into the building. While the pinkette went off to find the thickest blanket that she could find, the puppeteer jumped out of his seat and walked over to the silver-haired creative director before he even had a chance to get called forward.

"He's so going to get it once he gets back here!"

It was the first thing Temari said since I had finished my story, and judging from the intensity in her voice, something tells me that she really means it. Kankuro has a right to be scared, because if looks could kill, he would have keeled over by now.

"I think the thought of you coming after him is already troubling to him enough," Gaara quietly suggests as he weaves his fingers together. "He's probably trying his best to not piss his pants at the very thought."

"He should worry . . ." she argues back as she crosses her arms. "He had no right to treat your fears so trivially. I know Kankuro tends to treat things like a joke, but someone's fear is no laughing matter, especially ones that involve life-and-death situations."

"Now isn't that the truth," I mumble as I lean back into my seat. "Treating a fear like it's a frivolous notion should never happen, Then again, sometimes attacking a fear head on like you suggest may not be the best strategy either."

"I was trying to be helpful." Temari was smart enough to look bashful after being called out.

"And I do appreciate the sentiment sis," Gaara adds as he looked at her with a reassuring smirk. "But did you have to throw me into the pool headfirst so many damn times?"

"You make it sound like I did every day of your young life! It was only three times!"

"That was three too many," Gaara was so blunt with his answer that it stopped his sister from speaking a proper rebuttal. "You had to fish me out of the family pool as soon as you threw me in each time."

"The first time I did it, I was confident that you would get it immediately. You had been reading up on proper swim techniques, and I figured that knowledge would see you through, and yeah, ok, it didn't work," Temari calmly mumbled as she pointed straight at his face. "The second time I threw you in, I did it while you were completely off guard. I figured that maybe your instincts would kick in and you would have start swimming like it was nothing. . . Yeah, that didn't work either."

"And the third time?" I couldn't help but ask, genuinely curious as to what her reasoning was for the last time.

"Honestly, I didn't push him to help him with his fear. I pushed him because he was the one who ruined the shoes I was planning to wear for my high school graduation," she tells me with a look that screamed that she was still annoyed by the entire thing. Gaara didn't look amused, but Temari's expression was unchanging. "Oh, don't give me that look Gaara! You know you ruined my heels the night before I planned to wear them! Do you know how hard it is to clean suede dammit?"

"What exactly did Gaara do?" I ask, ignoring the unhelpful glare the redhead was sending my way.

"He spilled his glass of iced tea right on top of them, even the lemon wedge."

"It wasn't like I did it intentionally. I tripped over one of Kankuro's stray puppets that he had lying around. Sue me!" Gaara mumbles in his defense, looking defiant in the face of his accuser.

"And then you tried to clean them . . ." says Temari, which didn't sound that bad to my ears. ". . . With the same stained rag Kankuro uses when he's oiling the joints of his puppets."

Ok, now that sounded bad.

"Yeah, I probably should have paid attention to what I had picked out for cleaning material," Gaara concedes, his defiance becoming as flat as his hair. "But in my defense, I was rushing to clean them because you were threatening to smack me upside my head with that battle fan you bought during that old trip to Sapporo we took. I didn't realize how dirty it was till it was too late, and you can be quite scary when your angry sis."

"You own a battle fan?" calls TenTen as she waked over, dressed in an outfit that reminded me of a Vietnamese ao dai in shades of silver and white. Her hair was tied up in a sleek, low ponytail, and she was, by far, the most covered out of everyone.

I would be lying to myself if I said that I wasn't a little jealous of her right now.

"She has a collection of them TenTen," Gaara adds as he nodded his head to his now slightly sheepish looking sister. "She's practically obsessed with them."

"I think they're awesome! They're graceful and elegant, yet sturdy enough to use as a great tool to smack someone's head with," she grumbles, unashamed of her hobby. "But back to the real issue at hand, I only had your best interest in mind when I chucked you into the pool. And hey, I only threw you into the shallow end on the third attempt! You weren't flailing around that time!"

"Because it was the shallow end!" Gaara practically yelled, his voice sounding huskier when he did it. . . Not that I didn't mind of course. "Anyway, can we just agree that Kankuro was wrong for dismissing my fear of drowning so easily and you were wrong in making me tackle my issue so head on?"

"I'm willing to admit it, but if you mention one word of this to Kankuro, your collection of cacti will be enjoying a date with the weed whacker. Got it!?"

"Crystal clear!" says the redhead, now looking a little worried about the threat. Temari does seem like the kind of person who would make good on her threats.

"Ok, so, what I'm getting so far is that Gaara has a fear of drowning, Temari has tried to get him to tackle it head on, but it hasn't been working so far, and Kankuro just doesn't take it seriously . . . Sounds about right, right?" TenTen asks as she looks around slightly confused. It's gone once Gaara gives her a nod of assurance. "Oh good, I thought I had gotten something wrong in there. . . Anyway, since tackling your fear head on hasn't worked out for you so well Gaara, do you have any idea what you'll try next to get over it?"

"Don't worry about me. I already have a plan in the works." he says, the smallest smirk showing across his face as he manages not to make any eye contact with me. It was probably for the best. Temari and TenTen looked like they were the kind of girls that picked up on something as soon as they noticed the smallest movement.

Before his sister could start thoroughly interrogating him on his plan though, Kankuro walked back in rubbing at his arms, grumbling about ice cold freezers as he headed back to wardrobe. Temari, realizing that the brunette was noticeably distracted, took that as her chance, quietly followed after him as Gaara walked over to an awaiting Kakashi.

"Izuka, do you happen to know what Gaara has in mind?"

"Huh?" I ask, turning my gaze away from the departing redhead. I ended up looking straight into TenTen's expectant eyes instead. "What did you just ask TenTen?"

"I asked if you knew what Gaara had in mind in combating his fear," she asks, crossing her legs at the ankles, her face expecting a response. "It's just that you two have seemed quite friendly with each other ever since this competition began; it wasn't hard for me to think that he may have said something to you about it."

"Well, I guess you make a good point there," I mumble, not seeing how I could talk myself out of this one. "Have we really gotten so close though?"

"You guys do hang out around each other a lot. That's usually a sign of a good friendship," her grin is almost cat-like. ". . . Maybe something more?"

"You're not planning on twist this into some possible relationship story angle for gossip, are you?"

"Really Izuka? How can you think so low of me?" TenTen playfully teases as Temari walks back over with Hinata, Neji, and my brother following close behind her. Judging from the victorious grin she had on her face, I'd say the revenge she sought panned out just fine. "I'm only teasing with you, but still, you guys just seem so comfortable with each other . . . How could I not take the opportunity to mess with you?"

"You're messing with my sister TenTen?" my brother asks as he takes the seat Gaara previously occupied. "How come?"

"Come on! Have you not noticed how close your sister has gotten to Gaara since we entered this competition?" TenTen bluntly states as she points her hand my way. I could feel my face start to burn at the inclination, but there was no way in hell I was going to have her pin all the attention on me that easily.

"Just like how you and Neji have been getting close, or Hinata and Naruto for that matter?" I ask in return. TenTen looked completely unfazed, but Neji looked surprised, and Hinata and Naruto were both blushing up a storm. I expected this from Hinata of course. Naruto, not so much, and while Temari looked completely amused over the entire thing, Naruto somehow looked offended while blushing, as if he thought I had betrayed him for outing him.

Technically, I kinda did, but I was just trying to get the attention off me before it could get any worse.

"Neji and I have always been close," that took the Hyuuga by surprise. "But as for Hinata and Naruto, I could see where you're getting at Izuka. They've been looking just as cozy as you and Gaara have."

"Whatever d-do you m-mean?" Hinata stutters, instantly making me feel a little bad about putting her on the spot in the first place.

And apparently my plan isn't working . . . Dammit!

"You and Naruto have been quite friendly with each other in that innocent, shy kind of way, kinda like how Gaara and Izuka are friendly in that cool and natural kind of way," . . . Again, dammit! "You know, this competition has been great at bringing people together in relationships . . . It might be continuing the trend this year."

"You are sounding way too pleased with this, you know that right?"

Oh, now Temari decides to add her two cents into the mix!?

"I know, but sometimes when I feel like things are going stale, I decide to 'mix' things up a little." TenTen concedes, showing us some of her true colors. Sure, she has shown a competitive side, a serious side, and even a teasing side, but this new devious side of hers was making me a bit wary.

"Neji, has she always been like this?" I couldn't help but ask as I turned to the clear-eyed man.

"Trust me, she could get a whole lot worse than this."

That just sent a chill down my spine. Judging from the reactions from both my brother and Hinata, I was not the only one. Tenten actually had the audacity to look sheepish, but it lasted just for a moment before she turned her attention back on Temari.

"Speaking of mixing things up, what's going on with you and Shikamaru?"

Temari's face was icy after that, her mouth turning into a grimace as she stared the unflinching brunette down. As the two got into a 'talk' about Temari's contact with the resident lazy genius, I uttered a quick apology to Hinata, Naruto, and Neji. I really didn't want to get them involved in this, but at the moment, I felt like I was being backed into a corner. Luckily, they all managed to forgive me, with Neji taking it all in stride, and Naruto promising me that he would get me back for it one way or another, in his usually playful way of course.

Knowing him, and his pranking past, I knew I had to watch my back from this day out.

Another five minutes passed before Gaara returned, shaking his fingers as if he was desperately trying to get the feeling back into them. Knowing I was next, I decided to meet him halfway. He needed to know what was going on in the waiting area before he got there because I highly doubt he would appreciate being blindsided by TenTen's abrupt questioning.

"How was it?" I ask as he continues to mess with his fingers.

"It's a bit brutal in there, but it helps if you don't think about it too much. I ended up clutching the ice a lot, and well, you can see the results," his hands were ghostly pale, but it was starting to show some signs of thawing. "I can barely feel them, but they'll recover with time . . . So, did I miss anything important?"

"Well, I'm only telling you this because I care. TenTen is being quite inquisitive right now, sniffing out potential relationships and all that jazz," I mumble as I spot Kakashi walking up the pathway. "She's already starting to push Temari's buttons over a certain lazy genius among our ranks."

"She's annoying my sister with talking about Shikamaru? This I got to see," he mumbles as he starts walking off, turning back around with a curious look on his face. "Um, judging from the look on your face you had when you were walking over to me, I'm guessing you got caught in the crossfire?"

"In a way: yes," I mumble as Kakashi gestures for me to come along. "If TenTen starts asking you questions, don't give her anything to work with. I think she lives off of anything gossip worthy, or she just likes to screw with people!"

"Duly noted, I guess." he mumbles, looking a little confused at my words.

"Trust me, you'll get what I'm talking about once you go over there," I mumble as I start backing away. "Now if you excuse me . . ."

I have a date with a freezer to get to.

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