Yo! Hehehe. Sorry it took me so long to update! My computer has been acting shitty, so we got a new modem for it, but the modem made it so that unless we uploaded DSL, it wouldn't let us get online. So basically, since the day I last updated, I haven't been online at all, and haven't been checking my mail, and had to walk to the nearest library to upload this chapter because the DSL won't work until Wednesday. I hate my life.
Kyuubi: My work here is done.
S.N.G.: (still in closet, telling Kyuubi what to write) Grr... BTW, I'm working on a F.A.Q. thing to post after I finish all this (which won't be for a while, unfortunately, the way things are going, so if anyone has any questions about the content of this story, please review and ask me. But please make sure you put down that you want it to be for this, because I'd probably forget. The questions I came up with myself that might be bugging people probably suck, so I need help!
Anywho, this is the chappie I sent to KageNoKatana, since she is special and gets to read everything before I post it, and she said it was really, really cute. I think I mentioned before somewhere about how her favorite chappie is coming up. This is it. At least, of the ones I've sent her, this is it.
Anyway... S.N.G.'s thanks, dictated to Shukaku, since Kyuubi refused.
TY TO: KageNoKatana, for giving me ideas, and making sure I finished. If she didn't push me to make the next chapters after I sent the last ones to her, I probably would have given up a long time ago.
Kyuubi: Oh, god, cut the melodramatics.
TO TY: Jazzywolf. She has continued to review me, and, even when I though my stories sucked, like This Much I Know Is True, she always reviewed and told me they were ok. (Were you lying...?) Anyway, thanks!
TY TO: Kashisenshey, for putting up with my shit. I know I can be a pain in the ass a lot. (That's totally irrelevant but I'm too sigh to tell him to his face, even if I only know him online...)
TY TO: ALL THE REVIEWERS! I LOVE YOU ALL! BTW, I noticed something that was unfair. I always beg for reviews, and get sad when I don't get any, but then I noticed, I have only sent about five reviews, total, my entire life for other people's stories. That's cold. So I'm trying to change! HINATA AND I SHALL CHANGE TOGETHER!!
Kyuubi: (bangs his head between a door and a post)
TY TO: Kyuubi, for not killing me yet...
Kyuubi: Currently, you are floating in the safe harbor of my patience.
...Not that he could.
Kyuubi: (grumble grumble) She is still trying to make chapters longer. Mostly, what I do is add my notes on last, when I'm uploading the chapters, so the number of words for each chapter goes up. But she is trying! Please bear with her. BTW, she wants to make there be some sort of obstacle for Kyu along the way, but she just can't think of anything! She has a perfect life now, and that must change! But she's such a sweet, caring person, she can't think of anything!
Ten bucks to anyone who just fell off their chair laughing.
NOTES:
The authoress is still crazy.
She still owns Kankurou.
Kyuubi is still in her head.
Kyuubi: Dammit!
She is fully aware Temari should be the oldest, but the true question is whether or not she cares.
Reviews can pull a girl from her dying position.
Disclaimer: I'm shocked! You people read this shit and you don't know whether or not I own Naruto!? AND YOU CALL YOURSELVES FANS!?!
Chapter Seven: Gaara's Wish
Kankurou sighed heavily, and leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands. He was in the hospital, and Gaara was in the bed next to him, and Naruto in the bed next to Gaara. The procedure had left both of them utterly exhausted, Naruto drained of chakra, and Gaara was rendered unconscious. The elders had told Kankurou that the recovery may take up to ten days, and Rynn, Kyu and Shikamaru were arriving in eleven days. So, Kankurou mused, Gaara would be out of the hospital the day before the girls and Shikamaru came home. It all worked out.
And if he didn't get 'Big Brother Award' of the century for this, he was going to have to be annoyed with... someone.
"Kankurou, you should go get some sleep," Temari said at his elbow. "Sitting there for the whole ten days is not going to make him get better any faster."
"Yeah, but what if he wakes up and no one's here?"
"Naruto will be here," she reminded him.
"The Kyuubi gives Naruto some sort of healing powers, he told me, so he'll be out of here by tonight, at least."
"Since when are you so obsessed with making Gaara happy?" Temari asked through a laugh.
Kankurou gave her a sort of glare. "I've been trying to make him happy for a while, now."
"Yeah, but a couple years ago, you couldn't give a rat's ass if he lived or died."
Sadly, Kankurou thought, that was true. During the first Chuunin exam, when they were in the forest of death, (for however short a time that was) Gaara had threatened to kill him at least five times. Temari had always been closer to Gaara, for whatever reason Kankurou was not clear on. Gaara had hardly ever threatened to kill her, or anything like that. But then, Kankurou recalled, Gaara wasn't always like that.
Flashback"Nii-chan!"
Kankurou turned, giving his little brother a glare as the red-haired slip of a kid ran towards him. "What do you want now?"
"Will you play with me?" Gaara asked, panting from his run.
Kankurou rolled his eyes. "I don't have time to play with a four year old."
"Come on, Nii-chan!" Gaara cried, tugging at Kankurou's leg. "You always say that! Please?"
Kankurou looked down into the large, pale green eyes gazing up at him with little brother adoration. God, why did the kid have to be so cute?
"Ok, ok..."
"Yeah!" Gaara jumped around, obviously pleased, and Kankurou couldn't help but smile.
Later
"Yashamaru, can't you make Gaara play with someone else?" Kankurou asked, after five hours of playing with the young insomniac.
Yashamaru smiled a little. "I can't make him dislike you, Kankurou-sama."
"But none of the other kids want to play with me when they see me with him!" Kankurou whined, plopping down on his chair. "Everyone's scared of him! No one likes him!"
"So, you're saying you want him to be hurt even more?"
"Ye—No—I don't know." Kankurou banged his head on the table.
"Kankurou-sama," Yashamaru said gently, sitting across from his nephew. Kankurou looked up. "You're his big brother, which therefore makes you his idol. He wants to be just like you."
"Yeah, whatever."
The next day
"Kan-nii-chan!" Gaara wailed, running to hide behind his brother's leg.
Kankurou looked down at him. "What?"
"The kids!" Gaara pointed to a small army of four year olds, armed with rocks and sticks, undoubtedly chasing Gaara away from where they were playing. "They—they—"
Kankurou shut him up, glaring at the four year old before him. "What do you brats want?"
"Tell your brother to stay away from us!" one of them, obviously the ringleader, snapped.
"Yeah, we don't want him here!" another shouted.
Kankurou scowled and flicked his wrist. A pebble came into contact with the ringleader's forehead. The kid fell backwards, a red mark on his head, the wound throbbing. The other kids, including Gaara, starred at Kankurou in awe.
"Go away," the hooded nine-year-old said coldly, tossing another pebble up and down in his hand. "Leave us alone."
The kids dragged their ringleader to his feet and ran away, screaming about some insane big kid who wanted to kill them all. Gaara starred up at his big brother, green eyes wide with admiration. "Nii-chan..."
"Don't let those kids push you around," Kankurou said gruffly, giving him the pebble.
"Arigato, Kan-nii-chan..." Gaara whispered softly as he walked away.
Kankurou paused and looked over his shoulder, in time to see his brother pocket the pebble and walk away.
End Flashback"You were never around when the kids picked on him, were you?" Kankurou asked, starring at his brother's face.
"No."
"Then you never saw his face when they chased him away, screaming that he was a monster, and that he should get out of 'their village'?" Kankurou looked at her over his shoulder.
Temari's eyes widened. "They said that?"
"They said a lot more then that, some times," Kankurou said bitterly.
FlashbackTen-year-old Kankurou sighed heavily, shoving his hands in his pockets. Baki-sensei had put them through some painful training that day. Kankurou couldn't wait to get in his room and in bed.
Walking past Gaara's door, he stopped when he heard crying. Gaara was crying? Pushing the door open the tiniest of cracks, he heard five-year-old Gaara sob softly.
"Why am I the only one they call a monster...?" the little redhead sobbed, burying his face in his pillow. Kankurou didn't understand why Gaara had a bed, seeing as he never used it, but apparently he did. "Why doesn't anyone like me...?"
Kankurou was about to leave Gaara alone when he heard his name.
"Kan-nii-chan..." Gaara sniffed. "Kaasan... Why does Nii-chan hate me...?"
Kankurou felt a lump form in his throat. I don't hate you, Gaara...
End Flashback"Sorry, Kankurou," Temari said softly. "I didn't know it was so important to you."
"You never asked," he said, putting his guards up again.
"I know..." Temari sighed heavily and left the room.
Frowning thoughtfully, Kankurou picked up Gaara's pants and looked through the large pockets on either side. In the pocket on the right side, where his shuriken holder should have been, was a small, white pebble.
Kyuubi: We hope that was worth the wait.
Shukaku: They worked hard on it.I helped!
Kyuubi: BTW, shukaku, we are NOT helping them with their notes ever again. we will just write what we need to and then upload it, got it?
Shukaku: (sad) Hai...