Suna's Kekkei Genkai
Chapter 11: Skating no Jutsu
Blooper from last chapter: (SNG's idea)
Kankurou finally pulled himself out of the hole and looked around, just in time to see thousands of snow balls flying towards him in every direction. Kankurou clasped his hands together like he was going to pray.
"Save me, Bug! Save me!!"
(That was for those of you who read Three Again For those of you who haven't and didn't get it, read Three Again and find out)
No one quite knew who had won the snowball fight, only that Kankurou lost. Naruto and Kiba were preaching that they won, and Neji and Gaara didn't really care. They went back inside and removed a layer of clothes. Hinata dried their coats, gloves, hats and scarves for them, then all six went back outside to walk into the village. Naruto took them to the Raman Stand and each enjoyed a few bowls of the steaming noddles and meat. They continued on and saw the Yamanaka Flower shop was getting a make over.
Since flowers were scarce in the winter, the Yamanaka's instead sold Christmas decorations. They went in to say hi and to look around. Sakura and Lee were helping Ino set up the shop and they greeted them excitedly, very much in the christmas spirit. Lee got down from the ladder when he was finished putting up the gardlands that was bordering the ceiling.
"What is that ridiculous thing on your head?" Gaara asked the boy.
"Hm? This?" Lee touched the Santa hat Sakura had found. "It's a hat."
"It looks funny."
Lee shrugged and smiled. Then picked up another box of goods and began shelving them. Gaara watched him until he grew bored and went over where Neji and Hinata were looking at ordiments with Ino.
"What do you think Gaara?" Hinata asked, she and Ino holding up two boxes of ordiments. "This one or this one?"
"What are they for?" Gaara asked.
"The christmas tree at our house," Hinata said.
"What's a christmas tree?"
Hinata and Ino dropped the boxes, which Neji quickly caught. Gaara instantly got the feeling that he said something wrong again. Before they could say anything, Sakura came by and dragged him away. Although this happening is not in the fanfic because H-R is absent minded and forgot, Tsunade is training Sakura along with Gaara so the two are 'close' friends (meaning Gaara stands her company) now.
"Look, look!" Sakura said pulling him over to a miniature ice rink with little people on it. "Watch!" she pushed the ON button and the little people started to move, in dancing motions, around the rink, and the little box inside began playing 'Here We Come a Wassling'.
Gaara, slightly interested, leaned down to look at it. "What is it?" he asked.
"It's like a music box," she told him.
"What are they doing?" he asked pointing to the people.
"They're ice skating," Sakura explained. "You put on special shoes and slide around on ice. It's a lot of fun."
"Do you know how to ice skate?"
"Oh, yeah, I love to ice skate," Sakura told him. "I could teach you if you want me to. The rink opened last night."
"What's christmas?" Gaara asked, poking at the skating people.
"It's a holiday in the winter," Sakura explain, turning the ice rink one off and starting a different one. "It's when we celebrate with family and friends. Most people give gifts on christmas." Gaara made an 'oh' sound and they watched the new music box for a while. "Gaara?"
"You know Neji likes you?" she asked, softly.
"Temari and Kankurou told me," Gaara said, again avoiding the whole ghost thing. He had been getting bad reactions from it.
"Do you like him back?"
"I don't really know how to 'like some one'," Gaara said after a few minutes of thinking. "I don't really understand how Neji likes me. I enjoy Naruto's company, but this seems different. Everyone's making a big deal about it."
Sakura thought for a moment. "I like Lee-san, and Temari likes Shikamaru like Neji likes you," she said.
Gaara thought about this for a while. He was having a mental image of Temari and Shikamaru snuggling on the sofa and then they were replaced by him and Neji. Pause. Gaara thought about that for a while. And he actually began to understand. His mind suddenly went back to his original questions.
"Sakura?"
"Yeah?"
"What's a christmas tree?"
"A pine tree that you put the christmas gifts under," she said. "My family is getting ours tonight."
Ino suddenly came up and stood next to Sakura. "You don't know what a christmas tree is?" she asked in that prepy 'are-you-stupid-or-something' voice.
Sakura glared at her and Gaara replied, "It's a pine tree that you put christmas gifts under."
"Ino, just bug off! Leave Gaara alone!" Sakura said making a shooing motion.
"Don't tell me what to do, Miss. Wide forehead," Ino shot back. "This is my store and I can kick you out if I want."
"Fine, then I'll leave, and you can set all this up by yourself," Sakura said taking Gaara's hand and dragging him away again. "Lee-san! We're leaving!"
"Um..Ok, Sakura-san," Lee followed her outside, putting his coat back on. The other five followed them out and they walked down the snowy streets together, Sakura tugging on Lee and Gaara's arms.
"Oi! Where we going?" Kankurou called from behind them
"Ice skating!" Sakura called back. She paused for a minute to looked at Neji's jealous face that was staring at the place where her hand and Gaara's connected. "We're going to teach you two how to ice skate."
"Ok," Kankurou shoved his hands back into his pockets.
"Eight please," Sakura said to the boy a the counter. He gave her eight wrist bands and a ticket to give the guys who gave out skates. She handed one to each person then they went in to get their skates. They went into the area where you put your skates on and Sakura gave Neji a push towards Gaara. "Neji, you help Gaara," she ordered. "Lee-san and I will help Kankurou."
Kankurou grinned at her. "Slick." he muttered.
"Thank you," she replied putting her skates on.
"I don't think I want to do this..." Gaara said holding onto the wall of the rink like it was the thing that was between him and certain death.
"It's easy, once you get the hang of it," Neji assured him skating around him.
"Yeah, Gaara, it's easy!" Kankurou called skating passed them. (Kankurou found something he was good at!!!) (SNG: On the rink for five minutes, and suddenly, a pro... This is so brother-grudge stuff..)
"Shut up!" Gaara called after his brother.
"Neji! Come here!" Naruto and Kiba called from the other side of the rink.
Neji glanced at Gaara then, deciding that the sand nin was safer on the wall then on the rink, he skated over to the two boys. Gaara watched them for a second then began concentrating on his hold on the wall.
He glanced up in time to see a grinning blur rushing up to him , but had no time to react as Kankurou grabbed him and dragged him into the flow in the rink. Realizing that he was no longer within reach of the lovely wall, Gaara panicked and grabbed Kankurou, causing them both to fall to the ground (ice). Kankurou laughed however and sat up to watch Gaara.
"I'm leaving!" Gaara said trying to stand up, but falling again.
"Aw, come on, Gaara!" Kankurou said grinning from ear to ear.
"No!" he tried again and failed again.
"Please? It really is fun when you give it a try," Kankurou insisted.
"Like hell it's fun!" Gaara growled, resorting to crawling back to the wall.
Sakura skated up to him and knelt next to him. He looked up at her and she looked down on him, both with expressionless faces. Gaara broke the silence first.
"What?"
"You're not going to let your brother best you in something like this are you?" Sakura asked.
"I don't really care," Gaara replied. And Sakura realized that he really didn't care. (SNG: Too bad, Kan-kun.. you finally got something on him, but... yeah, hes Gaara...)
"Aw, come on," she pleaded. She held out her hand for him to take. Gaara hesitated then took her hand. She helped him upTimes New Roman
and he held onto her for dear life. "Don't put your feet together and stand up straight," Sakura odered. Gaara stared to do so when Naruto and kiba zoomed by and grabbed both his arms.
Sakura stared at the empty space that had been Gaara then turned to look at the trio skate away. Gaara, dissmissing what ever was left of his dignity, screamed at the top of his lungs in terror. The other five stared after them with various reactions. Kankurou laughed so hard he started crying. Hinata was torn between amusement and pity for the sand nin. Lee was also trying not to laugh, because Sakura looked pissed and Neji clamped his hand over his face.
"Oh, yeah, that's gonna help him like ice skating more," Neji mumbled. As they came around again, passing Neji, the Hyuga grabbed the back of Gaara's coat pulling him out of the loud leaf nins' grasps. The two turned to protest, but at the Hyuga's death glare that would put Orochimaru in tears, they left it alone. Neji looked down at Gaara who was glomping onto his leg. "Are you sure you don't want to learn?" the Hyuga asked.
Gaara made an incohirant noise, that could have been a yes or a no.
"If you do, I'll treat you to anything you want," Neji said, his leg starting to go numb from lack of blood.
"Gaara are you scared?" Kankurou asked.
"No!" Gaara said glaring at Kankurou.
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
Kankurou made a cry baby face. "Scary-cat! Your scared of a little ice?"
"No I'm not!" Gaara's face turned red.
"Gaawa's scarwed of a widdle ice?" Kankurou taunted. 'Good god, I'm gonna die...'
Gaara's face was now the same color of his hair and he grabbed the closest thing he could reach, which happened to be Lee, (Neji was his support) and chucked it at Kankurou. Kankurou and Lee sailed across the ice rink, knocking several innocent people to te ground, and slid into the wall.
Gaara used Neji as a support to shakingly stand and ordered the Hyuga to teach him to skate.
By two thirty everyone was complaining of hungry stomachs and they agreed to get lunch. Gaara was quite proud of himself and boasted to Kankurou how he could now skate better then Kankurou. His brother didn't agrue, he just smiled and let Gaara do his happy boasting.
"Someone fixed our heater," Temari told them when they happened to meet on the street on their walking from lunch. She was shopping with Shikamaru, who found that shopping with Temari wasn't as bad as shopping with Ino, since she just wanted to get christmas decorations. Temari handed the bags of decorations to Kankurou. "You did say you wanted to do them," she told him, walking away. (you don't have to go back looking for where this conversation took place, I didn't write it. They talked about it the night before)
"I know! You don't have to remind me!" Kankurou shouted back at her.
The eight nins said their farewells and merry christmas's and went their separate ways. Gaara, Neji and Kankurou went back to the Sand House so Kankurou could decorate the outside of the house. Sakura and Lee went to (H-R sits back and thinks for a while) what ever they felt like doing. Kiba saw Shino and went to hang out with his team mate. Naruto went home with Hinata to meet her dad which he had failed to do yet.
Sumon sumon
I've been having technical difficulties, but I've fixed them. Sort of...
Shukaku: WE WENT THROUGH A LOT OF TROUBLE FOR YOU GUYS!! AND IF DON'T APPRICIATE IT I'LL--
Can it dude. It wasn't that much of a big deal...