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"KANKUROU!" She stomped over to him and stood right under him, glaring with all of her might. "Explain!"
Running his fingers through his shaggy brown hair, Kankurou gave a sigh. "Look, Temari. It's late and-"
She pinched his cheek and pulled him down closer to her. "I don't care how late it is. Why did I just hear from some random girl that Gaara is a good kisser!?"
Gaara grinned. "Well, I am!" Temari shot him a look but his expression didn't change.
She let go of Kankurou and looked at Gaara. He was indeed changed and he reeked of alcohol. He had been drinking and a lot of it. "Gaara, you realize that drinking underage is illegal right?" He shrugged dismissively. "Mom would have a heart attack if she were here." He yawned in response. She narrowed her eyes then turned back to Kankurou.
"What happened to him? And you had better be specific, Kankurou. I'm serious," she stressed with a menacing tone.
Kankurou caved into her demands. "Well, I went to find Gaara like you told me to that night and when I found him he was passed out from drinking but he woke up before we got home."
Temari tightened her fist. "Why didn't you tell me that Gaara was acting strange?"
"Well…I kind liked him like that and I thought you'd ruin the fun. I mean so he's a little drunk… at least he's not dangerous."
"NOT DANGEROUS??" Temari pointed at Gaara. "He tried to Sand Coffin two people and he's been pulling pranks on innocent people!" She turned to Gaara. "He's not Gaara… He's the Shukaku."
Gaara looked behind him then back at Temari pointed to himself. "Who? Me?" He grinned.
Temari smirked and pulled out a diagram from her pouch. "Yes, I have figured it all out. You see, after I discovered what kinds of things Gaara has been doing lately I began to formulate a theory." She pointed to a little stick figure of Gaara. "Our Gaara is very subdued. He doesn't sleep much, talk much, or party AT ALL. But over here we have a tanuki." She pointed to a crudely drawn tanuki. "Tanukis like three things: women, booze, and tricks." She pointed to a picture of Gaara looking inside of himself and the Shukaku looking out. "Our Gaara of course had the Shukaku demon inside of him. The Shukaku is a tanuki, yes? Yes. Now when some people drink alcohol." She pointed to a Stick Gaara drinking. "They become sleepy." She pointed to Stick Gaara asleep and drooling on the table. "When Gaara goes to sleep, the Shukaku comes out." She pointed to Stick Gaara with pointy teeth and Stick Kankurou looking scared. "But Gaara didn't fall into a normal sleep, he fell into a booze induced sleep. Making the Shukaku not desire to fight but to do what tanuki's do best: be troublesome." She rolled up her diagram.
Kankurou looked at Gaara in a funny manner. Shukaku-Gaara looked guilty. "You got me. Do you want a prize?"
"No what I want to do is to take you to Tsunade's to have you fixed," Temari growled. Kankurou moved away from Temari and closer to Gaara. There was a brief stare-down.
Gaara walked over to Temari, eyes closed and an amused smile on his face. "You're really something, Temari. You were always perceptive and intelligent. You deserve a prize."
Temari blushed at the compliments and Gaara's smooth words. Maybe this Shukaku wasn't all that bad. He certainly knew all the right things to say. Suddenly she felt warm hands on her chest. Gaara was grinning and groping her. "Hehe, you've filled out nicely for a whelp of the Kazekage," the possessed young boy said between cackles. Kankurou saw the vein in her forehead explode and the fire burn in her eyes but suddenly he had to cover himself as he was thrown back by a powerful force.
/(6.9)
Tsunade towered over the three of them in her office. Kankurou was looking like a beaten puppy, situation having gone from interesting, to confusing, to worst possible case in only two days. Temari had a mixture of guilt and excess anger on her face. And Gaara was giving Temari a harassed look. What the hell had happened?
The Fifth Hokage of Konoha sat down at the edge of her desk her arms crossed. "Why is there a crack down one of my streets?" was her first question. Gaara pointed to Temari.
Four blonde pigtails shook angrily. "Tsunade we have an emergency! It's Gaara," she yelled as she stood up. Tsunade looked a little shocked and gave Gaara a look. He looked the same as a few nights ago if not a little happier. "Gaara is currently being possessed by the Shukaku!"
The 50 year-old woman almost fell off her desk but she caught herself. This was not the Shukaku she had ever expected. Where was the transformation and the destruction? "You mean he caused that scar in the road?"
Temari shook her head. "That was me but only because Gaara…I mean, the Shukaku groped me and I lost my temper. But this is a serious situation! We need to wake Gaara up!"
Silence filled the air of the office as all eyes fell on the red-haired trouble sitting completely relaxed in his chair. Both of his arms were hanging languidly over the back of his chair and his legs were crossed. It was entirely apparent by the arrogant grin that getting Gaara back might involve a fight. Tsunade's over all assessment of the situation was that it was bad.
"So how did this happen?" She asked.
Kankurou spoke up since he had found Gaara this way. "He had been drinking, passed out, and when he woke up he was like this…" Suddenly his eyes widened and he looked at Tsunade. "Hey… Gaara was drinking with you! And Naruto! And some spiky haired dude. You were all passed out!" A weight had been lifted off of Kankurou's shoulders. It wasn't his fault after all. It was none other than the Fifth Hokage that had caused this catastrophe! He was off the hook and looked rather smug about the fact.
Gaara chuckled." I drank that bitch under the table! Speaking of things under the table…Hey, Tsunade, how about you and me-"
"FAT CHANCE!" Tsunade was hot under the collar now. It was her fault? How? Why did she let him drink? Naruto was fine. Why wasn't he fine? Dammit all, she thought angrily. "Right, so we need to wake Gaara up but while there is still alcohol in his system the Shukaku will just come right back out."
Temari nodded. Getting Gaara help was more important than throttling their only chance for hope. There was no quick way to eliminate the alcohol in his blood stream but keeping him here was going to be no easy task. The Shukaku clearly wanted to enjoy his time on the outside before getting shoved back into a pre-pubescent boy. His entire existence the last 12 years had centered around trying to catch Gaara off guard and escape. What should they do?
Gaara approached Tsunade, who was much taller, and looked up at her innocently. Perplexed, Tsunade looked back down. "You're pretty." The Hokage narrowed her eyes. What was he planning. Pan!" The Shukaku had his hands in the older woman's top. "Pretty well racked. I'm having a good day. These are the second ones I-"Tsunade screamed a battle cry and punched through the sand wall Gaara had instinctively put up. The Shukaku-possessed child looked frightened.
So shocked was the Shukaku that he found that he was too slow to adequately nullify Temari's attack from behind and found himself going into a deep dark sleep. Temari had a little guilt for hitting Gaara on the head so hard but she still hadn't properly avenged herself for what the Shukaku had done to her earlier. Kankurou was sitting on the floor and looking at the two women with intense fear. They were far more terrifying than a Desert Coffin right now.
Tsunade took Gaara over to a couch and began to work her medical ninja magic on Gaara. First, she needed to assess how much alcohol he had drank. Using her chakra, to form a link with the boy's blood stream, she began to concentrate on its contents. She opened her eyes in surprise. The blood alcohol level was high enough to kill Gaara if he were a normal boy. She would have to purge it all immediately before the Shukaku had time to regain consciousness. "This is going to be interesting…,"she said with a smirk.