Suna's Kekkei Genkai

Chapter 10- Night at the Hyuga's

Of course, as you might have guessed, the Hiashi said it was fine if the Sand-nins stayed at the Hyuuga estate for a while. So they packed what they needed and hiked over. Neither Gaara nor Temari had ever been there before and Kankurou had only been there once for dinner. Apparently the Hyuuga's all lived in the same enormous, laid out mansion, like a bunch of houses all connected. Almost every Branch family member was subjected to protect a Main family member and had a room near each other. They learned this because Hiashi had to be at a meeting and he went to Hinata's room to ask her to get them settled and it happened to come up in the conversation, because Neji's room was right across from Hinata's.

Hinata smiled at the sand nins as her father bowed and said goodnight. "This way," she said leading them through the halls where they came, but turned down the other fork. "Temari, this is you're room," she said opening the sliding door. "It's made for a Main family member, so it's a bit better then the others.

"Thanks Hinata-kun," Temari said stepping in to see her new temporary room.

"You and Gaara will share the room across from her's," Hinata said to Kankurou and Gaara. "It's a branch house room, so it's a little smaller, but it's the closest one to Temari's room." she told them opening the door.

"T-that's fine..." Kankurou stuttered looking in. If this was a branch house's room, he'd like to see what Temari's room looked like. It was all old fasion japanese style, but it was very beautifully decorated.

"I'll go and get bedding for you three," Hinata said as she went back down the hallway.

"Don't even think about it," Kankurou said to Gaara who was inching towards the gold and silver decorations throughout the room.

Gaara glared at him as the puppet user went to the closest and looked in. He pulled out two robes and threw one at Gaara. "I'm not taking a bath," Gaara told him looking at the robe in question.

"Traditional families sleep in robes, didn't you see Hinata's?" Kankurou asked, changing. "These are warmer then the other ones in there, so these are winter robes." He finished tying the robe and looked out the window as Gaara also changed.

"Hinata-sama, what are those for?" Neji asked, peeking out of his room as his cousin walked past with bedding.

"Mm, Temari, Gaara and Kankurou are spending the night until the heater in their house is fixed," Hinata told him, smiling. "You can have a chance to talk to Gaara," she said smiling shyly. Neji gave a humph noise. "Huh? What's wrong?" she asked putting the bedding down for the time being.

"Nothing," Neji said turning to go back in his room.

"Liar!" Hinata accused sticking her foot in the door so he couldn't close it. "What's wrong?"

Neji stared at her then glanced around looking for listening Hyuuga's. Seeing none he told her about what had happened. She listened closely then stood back in thought.

"Oh..." she said when he was finished. "I don't think he meant any harm," she suggested.

"That's just it!" Neji said. "He didn't, yet when he realised it did he didn't do anything."

"Neji-kun, Naruto-kun told me that Gaara's never had anyone to care for before. It was only recently that he started caring for his brother and sister and they are the only one's who've ever loved him back," Hinata said.

"What about his father?" Neji asked, never hearing the story before, he was curious.

"His father was the one who put the demon, Shukaku (Shukaku: Hell yeah go me! H-R: Not go you! Bad for Gaara.), inside Gaara to make him stronger. He sealed it inside him knowing that when he was born he would kill his own mother, knowing that he would never sleep for the rest of his life, and hating him while viewing him as Sunaga's trump card. Gaara doesn't understand how a father could mean anything to anyone. So it didn't bother him that Hizashi-oji-san was..gone," Hinata said, fumbling with her fingers.

Neji stared at her. Now he felt bad, he realised, for yelling at Gaara when he couldn't understand. Hinata gave him a small smile then picked up the bedding and went back down the hallway.


Later that night...

Gaara sat in the room that he was now sharing with Kankurou watching the puppet user sleep. He'd watched other people when they slept, breaking in their houses and watching them, not understanding the process at all. But he had never watched either of his siblings sleep before, though he knew they did. 'Kankurou takes his makeup off when he sleeps…' Gaara noticed and stated to himself. He watched Kankurou smile in his sleep and desperately wanted to know what it was he was smiling about. Temari was in the room across from the boys, sleeping peacefully, Gaara had already checked.

Gaara sighed and edged closer to his brother and watched him closer. Kankurou was splayed all over the futon, his blanket thrown off of him. Even though his mouth was hanging open with a bit of drool hanging out and snoring loudly, he looked very peaceful to Gaara. He wished he could be that peaceful. More then any thing. With another sigh he stood and went to go watch over Temari. Stopping at the door he went back and fixed Kankurou's blanket, then stepped out.

Neji opened his eyes for the thousandth time that night. He couldn't sleep. Getting up he put on a robe and stepped out into the hallway to go to the kitchen. On his way he passed the sand nins rooms. Gaara was stepping out of Temari's room, sighing again.

"Gaara!" Neji cried softly. "What are you doing up-oh, never mind." Neji shook his head. "Hungry? I'm going to the kitchen."

Gaara looked up and nodded slightly.

In the kitchen the two boys began raiding the fridge, pulling out their favorite foods and things they couldn't identify. They piled them all on the table in the kitchen and picked at the food. Gaara wasn't sure what most of the stuff on the table was but he could eat anything. He remembered what he and Kankurou always did when they raided the fridge. Neji watched him as he began opening all the cabinets, leaving them all open too he noticed, looking for something. Finally finding what he wanted he climbed up on the counter to reach the large bowl on the top shelf. Gaara returned to the table and began putting a little bit of everything on the table into the bowl. Going back to the fridge he took out several bottles of soda and poured a bit into the bowl. Picking up a spoon, he stirred the mixture together. When he was done it bacame Unaia (H-R's word for an UNidentifiable And Interesting Assortment (I am a master at Unaia)). Neji stared at the stuff trying not to be sick. Gaara put the spoon down and picked the bowl up.

"Ugh! You're not going to eat that are you?!" Neji asked, in realization.

"No," Gaara replied.

Neji gave a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to drink it." And he proceeded to do so.

"Ack!! Stop, you're going to get really sick!!" Neji said grabbing his arm to stop him.

"Actually it tastes pretty good," Gaara said looking down into the bowl. "I'm a good cook!" he stated to no one in particular. He held the bowl out for Neji. "Try it."

Neji looked at the bowl, then at Gaara then back at the bowl. Dare he risk hurting Gaara's feelings and say no? or should he try it, throw up and hurt his feeling that way? Good God, both choices were bad. Swallowing hard he reached over, dipped his finger into the goo and pulled it back to look at in. It smelled funny and made his stomach churn.

Cringing slightly he let a drop drip onto his tongue.

Then he took a lick.

Then he stuck his finger in his mouth.

'What an interesting flavor....'

"Do you like it?" Gaara asked, taking the bowl back.

"Kinda…"

Gaara grinned and lifted the bowl to his lips and continued to drink it. Neji's left eye twitched. Any normal person would have asked if he wanted more, to which he would have said yes because the stuff actually tasted pretty good. But Gaara was definitely not any normal person and finished the whole thing without any offer of more at all.

"I don't get it."

Neji looked up at Gaara questionably.

"Temari does this sometimes and it tastes like crap that's sat in the sun for a few days."

'Ugh, bad mental picture!' Neji thought to himself.

"How come Kankurou and I do it and it tastes good?" Gaara asked, cleaning the bowl with his finger.

"I do not know," Neji replied, munching on a carrot sticks. "Maybe she's cursed. Or you're just a better cook then she is."

Gaara seemed to remember something. "I can make cookies," he told Neji.

"Yeah?" Neji smiled at him. "I can make popcorn in the microwave," he said with a grin. "What kind of cookies?"

"Chocolate chip, and sugar cookies," Gaara told him. (H-R's speciallty)

"You should make them here sometime," Neji suggested.

"You guys own chocolate chips?" Gaara asked looking around the kitchen. To him the Hyuga's didn't seem like the kind of family to keep a stash of chocolate chips hidden in the cupboard.

"We can get some," Neji assured him.

There was a long pause. "I'm sorry.."

Neji looked up. "What?"

"I'm sorry about earlier," Gaara mumbled.

Neji smiled. "Me too. I shouldn't have gotten so mad."

"Gaara?" the two boys looked up at the doorway where Temari stood rubbing her eyes. "What are you two doing?"

"Munchin'," Gaara replied. (did Gaara just say munchin?!)

Temari gave a tired grin. "Aren't you cold?" she asked rubbing her arms, missing her bed. They shook their heads as she yawned. "Clean up and go back to bed before someone notices you're up, ok?"

"Ok," they replied. They picked up the plates and bowls of food and stuffed them back in the fridge.

Temari waited for them then walk with them down the hallway. Where the hallway branched off Neji bid them good night and went down his hallway (yes he took the round about way to get to the kitchen so he could walk passed Gaara's room and see if he was awake). Temari placed an arm around Gaara's shoulders as they turned down into their hallway and gave him a little squeeze. Gaara looked up at her in surprise. 'What's with all the hugging lately?' he asked himself.

"Have fun?" she asked.

"We just ate," Gaara said.

"Did you talk?"

"Yeah."

"What'd you talk about?"

"Why are you so nosy?" Gaara demanded.

"Cause I love ya," she said smiling. "And I want to know, what'd you talk about?" she said in a demandingly low voice.

"Nothing, I made Unaia-"

"You ate that stuff in front of Neji!?"

"He tried some," Gaara said defensively.

'Of course he did,' Temari said to herself. Out loud she asked. "Did he like it?"

"I guess. Then I said I could make cookies and he said I should make them sometime."

"You should, I like your cookies. They're better then mine!" Gaara gave her a look. "Shut up! I can cook some things!....Like…water..for ramen." Gaara smiled inwardly as they continued to walk down the hall. "You've never come in my room before at night Gaara," she stated.

"You were awake?" Gaara asked wide-eyed.

"Only when you left, you bumped my foot, that's all. Why'd you come in?"

Gaara shrugged. He decided that answering would be a waste of breath and he wouldn't be able to say what he wanted anyway. Temari smiled. She understood. Kankurou stepped out of his room as they walked up.

"Temari have you seen-oh, there you are," Kankurou said sleepily when he saw Gaara. "You know, this feels kinda weird," he said looking around the hallway. "We've never slept in someone elses house before. It feels strange....kinda unnerving."

Temari nodded her agreement, pulling her robe tighter around her. "The rooms are so empty...and quiet. And it's really cold."

Gaara inwardly rolled his eyes. He knew where this was going. In a few minutes they would all agree to sleep in the same room for the one night, but none of them would admitt that they actually wanted to sleep in the same room together like a bunch of two year olds, since it had been an unspoken agreement between them (Gaara wasn't actually involved in this since he didn't care) that they did indeed share a love-hate sibling relationship, more leaning towards the hate in public.

Deciding to skip the whole process together Gaara walked inbetween them back into his and Kankurou's room and pushed the two futons together. Temari and Kankurou followed him shortly and the three climbed into the futons. During these rare happenings, Kankurou was usually in the middle, do to the fact that before he was afraid Gaara would fall asleep, have Shukaku take over him and squish his sister, but this time Gaara got pushed into the middle and the two others 'snuggled' up to him for 'warmth'. All three sighed in unison, then began to drift off into slumber (not Gaara).

Gaara sat up the next morning feeling very bed lagged, but he didn't know that's what that was. Most people don't know that if you can't sleep, or are unable to sleep (Gaara, H-R and SNG hold up a peace sign) that just laying quietly in the dark will feel like you were sleeping. And Gaara had laid in bed, unable to move because of Kankurou and Temari's 'snuggleness', all night. He yanked at his hair that had fallen in his face. He would need to cut it soon.

"GAARA TEMARI KANKUROU WAKE UP!!!!!"

Temari and Kankurou jumped at the sudden waking and looked sleepily at the door. Gaara trying to cover his reaction, but it didn't work, he panted heavily and clutched his racing heart.

"....Naruto....?" Temari asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"

The enthusiastic fox-nin, Kiba and Neji stood in the door way grinning from ear to ear. "Kiba and I went over your house, but you weren't there, so we came over here," Naruto explained. "Come on! Get up! Get dressed lets go!!"

"Why?" Kankurou asked, the three of them not moving.

"Look outside!!" Kiba said as loud as Naruto, pointing to the window. When he saw that the sand nins were taking their time getting untangled and completely awake, he growl. How could they not be excited? Stalking across the room and picked Kankurou and Gaara out of bed and dragged them to the window. "LOOK!!"

Sleepy glance.

Blink Blink.

Stare.

"What the hell is all that stuff?" Gaara asked staring out the window.

"It's snow!!" Naruto shouted in their ears.

"Ok, one: don't ever do that again," Kankurou said. "Two: it's seven o'clock in the morning. Three: even if I was awake enough to be excited, none of us have clothes to--"

"We got you some, Tsunade sent them," Neji said tossing a pile of clothes onto the futon next to Temari who'd gone back to sleep.

"We'll wait outside! Hurry up!" Naruto and Kiba ran out of the house to where Akamaru waited. The Hyuga's rule of thumb: No dogs in the house, was set when Kiba, Akamaru and Shino first came to Hinata's house and the ninja dog accidently destroyed half the main hall in his attempts to get the harmless cricket that had entered the house.

Hinata stepped into the room, wrapped in an extra robe to see what was going on. She helped Neji sort through the clothes, setting them in neat piles for each sand nin.

"Why did she get us so many?" Gaara asked sitting on the other side of the piles.

"To stay warm," Hinata said smiling.

"...... You mean I have to wear all of them?!"

"Yeah...." Hinata and Neji looked at each other then down at the clothes. It wasn't that much. Jeans, snowpants, a turtle neck, a hoody, jacket, and boots, gloves and scarf. They didn't tell them, but Tsuande had thought of getting them more, just in case, but Naruto had talked her out of it.

"I'm not wearing all that," Gaara stated, crossing his arms.

"Gaara, comm'ere a sec," Kankurou beckoned him back to the window. When he stood in front of it, he threw it open letting a blast of freezing air and snow in.

"CLOSE THAT WINDOW!!!" Temari shouted pulling the blankets over her tighter.

Kankurou did so and looked at Gaara, who moved back and took his clothes from Hinata. "How do I put these on?" he asked.

"You can not be serious."

"Hurry up, Naruto and Kiba are waiting," Neji said, slipping his snow boots on.

"But--"

"Lets go," Neji tied his scarf then went over to the door.

"Neji!!"

Neji turned and looked back at Gaara. "Yeah?"

"I can't move." Gaara glared at him reproachfully from behind the coat, scarf and hat. He was so bundled up that he found he couldn't walk at all.(H-R hates snow pants and all that stuff her mom makes her wear. She doesn't even need it. She came go out in snow wearing shorts and flipflops and she'd be good SNG: It's true.)

Kankurou came down the hall way, dressed for snow and laughed when he saw Gaara.

"Shut up!"

"Ah..lets see..." Kankurou helped him loosen the clothes a bit so he was able to move. "Better?"

"..." Gaara stared straight ahead at nothing.

"Alright lets go!" All three trudged out the door.

And were imediately plummeled by snow balls. Well, Kankurou and Neji were plummeled by snowballs, Gaara stared at a wall of sand for moment then glanced around it.

"Gaara, that's cheating!" Naruto called from behind the tree.

Gaara however wasn't paying any attention. He gave the snow a little tap with his boot, then a tiny kick. Kankurou and Neji watched him and looked at each other, trying not to laugh. The redhead reached out an picked some snow off the bushes next to the front door. Crushing it between his gloved finger he frowned, not quite understanding what it was. Kankurou began to loose patience.

SHOVE!!

Gaara: O.o

To compensate for Kankurou pushing him in, Neji gave Kankurou a push, knocking him into the deep snow next to the hole where Gaara disappeared. Neji waddled through the snow to Gaara's hole, where the sand nin lay staring up at the sky that was still dumping snow.

"You ok?" Neji asked.

"What is this stuff?" Gaara asked not moving (actually he couldn't move, his clothes were still too bundled up).

"It's snow," Neji answered, holding a hand out. Gaara took the hand and Neji hauled him up. "You play in it. It's fun."

The sand caught another volley of snow balls that came their way. Neji grabbed Gaara and dragged him behind a tree. Another snowball came their way, but this time Gaara caught it with his hand.

"What's this?" he asked looking at it.

"A snowball," Neji answered, deciding that a shocked reaction was getting old. "Here watch."

Gaara watched him roll a hand full of snow into a ball, then chuck it in Kiba and Naruto direction, clobering Kiba as the dog nin lifted his head up. Neji snickered evily then began making more. Gaara sat and watched him then started making some too. When they had a decent pile they stuffed them in their pockets and started to creep up on the two other nins. However, the 'two other nins' were also doing the same thing, advancing with the stealth of lots of training. Both groups noticed what the other was doing at the same time, so they stepped out into the clearing around the Hyuga house and prepared to start an all out war.

Kankurou finally got himself free and sat up, just in time to see hundreds of snow ball flying towards him in ever direction.

All Done this one. (does a happy dance) almost christmas almost christmas