Edit: Tweaked some things. Hopefully, for the better.

This fic is based mainly on Grimm's' Six Swans story, with some influence from the novel Daughter of the Forest, which was an interpretation of the Grimm tale. Some of you may know the story, some of you may not. I suggest you take look at it (search 'six swans story' in Google, and click the first link). It's not necessary, though.

(x) mean notes, which can be found below.

Title: Two Swans
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Characters: major: Temari, Gaara, Kankurou, Shikamaru, Kazekage, Yashamaru. minor: Chouji, Ino, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, Hinata, Neji, Temari's mother.
Relationships: ShikaTema, subtly implied SasuNaru

Notes:

1.I tried to keep most of the characters at least partially IC. Yashamaru is not their aunt in this story, though, and is very OCC. Pretty much the only similarity is the name. I needed a witch, sorry.
2. I know the title of Kazekage isn't passed on from father to son, but in this story it is.
3. I know Temari in the storyline fears Gaara as much as Kankurou does, but keep in mind, she's never met him before, and Kankurou has tried to hide the fearsome details from his sister.
4. Nettles: "Any of numerous plants having toothed leaves, unisexual apetalous flowers, and stinging hairs that cause skin irritation on contact." AKA, these plants hurt like a bitch if their hairs get into your hands.
5. Underwear, in this case, does not mean bra and panties, but a nightgown sort of thing. Garters: "a band worn around the leg to hold up a stocking (or around the arm to hold up a sleeve)." Girdle: "a band of material around the waist that strengthens a skirt or trousers." Both are not part of Temari's underwear.
6. I don't see Shikamaru ever really being Hokage, but go with it.


He used to enjoyed hunting, she remembers, sitting in the tower room by herself. The Kazekage, her father.

She never knew him very well. He kept himself very reserved, even before he was bewitched.

Their smell still surrounds her, and she misses them. But she came, and she betrayed them, that witch. Yashamaru (x).

Ever since that day that their father returned from his hunting trip with a glazed look in his eyes, it all changed. She was too young to notice the change in her father, then, but Kankurou did. He feared this man their father had turned into, and so he whisked Temari away, to live in tower, far away from the castle. Temari hadn't cried—even then she knew she was different from the other children, and had to keep composed at all times.

And so she stayed at the tower, and didn't hate her older brother for keeping her there. She would sneak outside and lay on the sand that lined the tower for several meters. Or she would train hard, to be ready to show Kankurou how much she grew since the last time he visited.

Their father was so intent on the birth of his new son, he didn't even notice Temari's absence. Her mother noticed, but she was kept in bed and only the Kazekage was allowed to see her. He was making plans, secret plans, that he let no one know of. And the day the new baby boy was born, their mother died, and their father planted an evil seed in the infant, but not even he knew the extent of what he had done.

And with their mother dead, a new woman appeared in the castle. His father announced his desire to wed this woman, for he had found her in a cottage with her aged mother once, as he was lost in the woods. Her mother had helped him find his way out of the woods, in exchange for bringing the young woman out into castle society. But he claimed to have fallen in love with her, and soon they were indeed married.

She was beautiful, this Yashamaru, more beautiful than any other, it seemed, but Kankurou felt her true nature, and went to visit Temari more and more. And it carried on this way for years and years, with Temari filling up her time as best she could, with Kankurou worrying about her as well as the worsening state of their kingdom, with the whole castle fearing Gaara.

Kankurou hid his own fear of Gaara from Temari, but he never brought the little boy to see his older sister. In fact, Kankurou had covered up the girl's disappearance by saying she had been killed by a giant snake several months before Gaara had been born, so Gaara had no idea Temari even existed.

The Kazekage, their father, would take Gaara away for days on end, and the two of them would return, tired and serious. Sometimes it seemed to Kankurou that even the Kazekage was afraid of his own creation. In fact, almost everyone stayed out Gaara's way if they could afford to, except Yashamaru. She spoiled the little redhead rotten, but Gaara never seemed to like her any more than he liked every other person in the castle, including his own brother.

There was something about him . . . strange things happened in his presence, but Gaara never seemed to be able to explain them. Rumor had it that Yashamaru was teaching witchcraft in secret. No one dared say it to the Kazekage or Yashamaru's face though.

Just as no one dared call her witch Yashamaru, as they all knew her as, instead of Queen Yashamaru.

This could have gone on forever, or for the remainder of their lives, at least.

It could have, but it didn't. Kankurou was the heir to the title of Kazekage (x), after all, and there were several obscure family members who thought they might have a shot at the title if the boy were out of their way. Usually, Kankurou traveled with at least one guard, but there were times he would sneak away—like when he would leave to visit Temari—and travel by himself.

It was on one of these occasions that an assassin caught up with him. His face covered, and the sharp kunai held skillfully in his hand, he attacked Kankurou. The boy received training worthy of the title he would one day receive, but this was not nearly enough to save him from the blow.

Gaara's powers were. It didn't help Kankurou's fear of his youngest sibling when the sand flew around the man and blew him to bloody pieces. But Kankurour couldn't deny the fact that he owed Gaara his life. So, he decided to return the favor. He snuck Gaara out with him as well, one day, deciding with was time his youngest sibling met their sister.

Temari remembers that day perfectly, even though it wasn't an especially amazing day, climate-wise. It was temperate, not too cold, not too warm, and she sat up in her chair by the window, studying the clouds. They would bore her eventually, as they always did. She wasn't the type to lay about and do nothing. She had to be moving, be busy, or she would feel the loneliness of the tower.

Neither Temari nor Kankurou knew that Gaara housed in him the dormant spirit of Yashamaru's mother, the old hag in the forest who had first bewitched their father into thinking he was lost. Yashamaru planned to take over the Sand kingdom and rule it with her mother by her side, but they didn't know this yet either, the three Sand siblings.

Kankurou let the boy follow him, but he didn't take his hand, he didn't even make an attempt to help him or even touch him. Disgust, fear and suppressed jealousy had built a wall between them that neither of them wanted to admit to. But it was there, and Kankurou refused to tear it down.

Unfortunately, the hag inside Gaara was awakened from her usual slumber by the boy's excitement, and she saw all that unfolded. The tower, the reel of thread, the sister, everything, and she realized that this could very well ruin their entire plan. So she waited out the trip.

Meanwhile, Gaara, completely oblivious to the creature inside him, fell in love with his older sister. She was the most beautiful creature—as all sisters are to their younger siblings while they're in their youth, and she was the strongest, and the all around best person he knew. And she couldn't help but like him, too(x). After all, he was the first person she had seen in years besides Kankurou, and as much as Temari loved her older brother, no one wants to have the same person as company for years on end.

He reminded her of her father, of a family before the witch.

She made him feel loved, for possibly the first time in his life. The only other person to have shown him any kind of endearment was his stepmother Yashamaru. He loved her, of course, for she treated him like a son, but Temari was his sister, his real flesh and blood. The only flesh and blood that seemed to like him sincerely.

Gaara was sad to leave, but Kankurou knew they couldn't be gone long before Yashamaru would notice. They returned to the castle, and as far as they knew, no one had noticed their disappearance. While Gaara slept that night, though, the old hag relayed the information to Yashamaru. Yashamaru, angered that this child, this male, thought he was intelligent enough to think he could get away with hiding something from her, made two small white shirts, one for Kankurou, and one for Temari, and carefully entwined enchantments with the thread.

They would suffer for their arrogance and pride, she threatened.

And she waited for Kankurou to go visit his sister once more, and when he did, she trailed him. It wasn't an especially long walk for anyone who knew the way, but since she was not using the reel of thread, she had to follow him with her own magics. This tired her out, but she knew this mission was important is she ever wanted to succeed in her goal.

Finally they arrived at the tower, and as Kankurou and Gaara were greeting the girl at the entrance, the witch threw a shirt over Kankurou's head, and headed towards Temari to do the same.

She didn't take into account loyalty, for she had never felt it, nor love, because her heart was cold and hard. But Gaara, young as he was, knew loyalty, and knew love, and with those two feelings in mind, pushed Temari aside and the shirt fell onto him instead.

And Temari's two brothers flew away, across the lake, and into the skies, now swans and not boys. And Temari herself fled into the tower, and locking the doors leading up to the highest room, and hid. She didn't know what else to do in the face of danger. She had never experience danger, because her brother had always shielded her from such things. And so she hid.

Yashamaru let her go, and returned to the castle to find a way to return Gaara back to his proper form, for her mother had been transformed along with the youngest sibling. She assumed Temari would be too frightened to leave the tower, in any case.

The girl didn't know her way back to the castle, Yashamaru reasoned, so she would not be able to cause a ruckus.

And Temari sits in the tower, crying for her two brothers, and for her own weakness. She knows that she must go save her brothers, for they each saved her, Kankurou in hiding her in this tower, and Gaara in taking her blow. Now it is her turn. But she is afraid, more afraid than she has ever been in her entire life. Even more frightened than in the winter were the food had been sparse, and she had thought she might starve.

So she gathers the few things she owns, a necklace from her brother, her dress, her girdle, her garters, the underwear she had greeted her siblings in, and a pair of needles in case her clothes rip.

She looks at herself in the mirror. It is lined in a simple golden design, and she remembers when her brother brought it to her. The girl she sees the mirror looks so small, and so weak. How can this person save her brothers? Tying up her short hair into four ponytails, she gives her reflection a determined glare before turning away, and leaving the tower for good.

She's leaving behind that girl, the one that is scared and looks so young. Once she's out of the tower, she'll be a stronger person, someone who is able to save the people she cares for instead of having to wait to be saved.

And the next day, when Yashamaru returns to do away from the girl, she only encounters an empty room that smells of feathers and of youth. Her cry is heard far and wide, causing all birds in earshot to flee to the sky in terror.


Temari rests in a small hut, tired from walking all through the night. She had not stopped for fear that if she did wild animals, or Yashamaru would catch up to her. When the sun rises, she feel relieved, as if her enemies will not find her as the sun watches over her.

Inside the hut are six beds, but she is still afraid to rest so openly, so she hides underneath one of the beds, and sleeps until dusk. She is awakened by the sound of wings flapping outside. Both afraid and hopeful, she crawls out from under the bed, and looks out the window.

A few feet away, two swans are landing on the ground, their feathers falling from them as they do so. By the time their feet meet the soil they are completely human.

"Kankurou! Gaara!" she cries as she rushes out to meet them. She is sobbing with joy; glad that the curse has worn off, and that she and her brothers have been reunited. But her joy quickly leaves her as they begin to speak.

"Temari, you must leave this place at once!" Kankurou urges, pulling on her arm as he speaks. She follows him and Gaara as they lead her into a forest, where the trees block all view of the sun and she feels cold.

"Why, Kankurou, what's wrong?" she asks, worried.

"Yashamaru's spies live there. You are lucky you slept under the bed, for they came around midday to have their meal. Had you slept on one of the bed they would have found you and brought you to Yashamaru, and to your death." They finally stop running, and pause on the side of a lake. Gaara stands on the side, glancing at Temari nervously.

"Temari, we cannot stay long," Gaara whispers in a low voice.

"What?" The girl cries, staring at her siblings in disbelief. No, this cannot be true. The curse has not yet been rid of? Was one day not enough torture?

"We can only stay as humans from the time the sun touches the horizon to the moment it disappears from sight," Kankurou explains sadly, not looking at her as he says so. He doesn't want to see the pain on her face.

"How can I help you?" Temari whispers urgently, grabbing her brother's shoulders as she does so. She has to help them, if it's the last thing she does. She feels the sun sinking lower, even though she cannot see it for herself. "How can I get rid of the curse?"

Gaara jerks his head up to look at her, his eyes serious and desperate. "You cannot. I won't let you." He takes her arm gently, uneasily, unsure if this is the right way to do this. He's never had much experience with touch. She looks at him, unknowing of the uneasiness he feels, and then up at Kankurou. Kankurou nods slowly, agreeing with Gaara.

"The sacrifice is too much, and I don't want you hurt. Just flee from the Sand kingdom, Temari, and find yourself a good home. Forget the two of us, for we will be content if we know you are safe from Yashamaru's clutches." She scoffs at him, and glares.

How dare he? She has no need for a home, and when he says home, she knows what he really means. He's implying that she needs a man to protect her. Doesn't he know her better than that? She knows how to take care of herself. She been training her mind and body for years, and he's telling her to go find herself a bodyguard husband? This makes the anger bubble up inside her, in a way she hasn't felt in quite a while.

Yet, when it really mattered, she thinks sadly, she had needed to be protected, first by Kankurou, and then by Gaara. She does not consciously acknowledge it, but she feels that she will not be able to the live with herself if she does not return the favor. If is not able to show them her own strength.

"Home? You mean husband. What a ridiculous thought, Kankurou. I want nothing more than to help the two of you, and I will not love a man or bear his children until I have freed the two of you from the spell. That is my utter promise to the two of you, and I will not break it!" Her eyes are fiery with passion, and her brothers realize they will not be able to shake her from this path.

Gaara looks about ready to try, though, before Kankurou shoots him a look, silencing him.

Reluctantly, they both give in.

"To free us, you must not speak, or laugh, or make any sound, or communication through letters until you have fulfilled a specific task." The sun is setting, nearly gone, but none of them know this. They feel it, though, somehow, and Kankurou rushes through the rest of the explanation vaguely. "Make us each a shirt. But not just any shirt, but shirts made of nettles(x). You cannot cry out in pain, or ask for assistance. Now, do you see? This is why you cannot do this."

Gaara, in one last attempt to stop her from attempting this task, takes her hands to him and hugs them. His hands are cold around her own, and she wants to wrap him up in blankets to make him warmer. "I like your hands as they are."

And then the two of them rise through the trees, now swans once more, leaving their sister surrounded in shadows and darkened by her doubt and fear. She whispers a quiet goodbye to her brothers, fully conscious of the fact that this might be the last time in a while before she will be able to speak once more.


The next week, she gathers the nettles and her sewing needles, and begins her task. She finds it hard enough to sew, though, with the meager skills she has. Kankurou attempted briefly to show her how to sew, for he didn't want her to raise herself like a boy, but he failed miserably. So even before she begins, her task seems impossible.

And the pain is worse than she expected. In the beginning she ends up having to rip a thin piece of fabric from the bottom of her dress and gag herself to hold back the yelps as the needles sink painfully into her flesh. She sits high in the branches of a tree, to avoid contact with others and the teeth and claws of the creatures that dwell in the forest.

"Temari, speak to us," her brothers cry when they visit her at dusk, but she ignores them. She will save them, even if it costs her youth, her beauty, and her life. They eventually relent, and are content with hunting for her food as she works, in silence, up in the branches. She is glad, because now she can work instead of wasting hours looking for food herself.

She is done with the sleeves of the first shirt.

And one day, a group is coming through the forest, mounted on horses, and loud compared to the usual relative quiet of the forest. She brings up her legs, and climbs higher in the tree to avoid attracting their notice.

Temari does not know this is the Hokage of the Leaf kingdom, who is known far and wide for his eye for detail and above average intelligence. He is traveling with his fairly large hunting party, although not for the hunting. He'll leave that to the noblemen, particularly Kiba and Naruto. He finds that he would rather look up at the clouds and think. He cannot even get that much pleasure in this forest, thanks to the trees that block his eyesight and make this whole place so much darker.

He looks up every so often anyway, just to make sure. One of these times he catches a glimpse of white in the branches. White? He knows there are no tree plants in this forest, nor are any white birds native to this land. His curiosity grabs hold of him, and he asks the party to stop. Kiba, slightly miffed that his hunt is being interrupted, asks gruffly what is the matter.

Shikamaru, for this is the Hokage's(x) name, points upwards towards where he saw the white flash. "I think there is someone up there," he says simply.

Naruto immediately opens his mouth to offer to go up there and look, but Sasuke places a hand on his shoulder to silence him. Shikamaru is grateful; he isn't sure he wants to scare what is up there, and Naruto would no doubt do that. Without meaning to, of coarse, but still. Naruto does not know the meaning of subtlety.

"Is there someone up there?" he yells up at the branches. He catches a slight movement in the branch that seems substantiates his claim. "It's okay, we're not planning on hurting you."

A flash of white comes down, and he wonders how the creature can fall so slowly, so gently. Then he realizes it is only a piece of clothing. It falls silently at his feet.

"Well, that's it then," Ino says, picking up the fabric gently. She sniffs it and grimaces, putting some space between it and her by passing it to another noblewoman, her friend, Sakura. Sakura rolls her eyes in response and gazes at the cloth. "What in the blazes is a girdle (x) doing in the middle of a forest?"

"Perhaps a woman was bathing in the lake, and her girdle blew away," Naruto says, brushing the subject away. "What does it matter? Let's move on."

But Shikamaru isn't convinced. "Hinata, Neji, can you please check up there, just to be sure." The two cousins are members of the Hyuuga witch clan, which have been age-old allies with the Leaf kingdom for as far back as their records go. Their white eyes are telltale signs of this, and with these eyes they can see farther than an average man could.

"Neji," Hinata says in voice no louder than a whisper, and Neji turns her to her, a questioning look in his eyes. Hinata rarely speaks so directly. "Let me. If this is . . . I mean, this could be a . . . a woman. It isn't decent." It takes Neji a moment or two to understand exactly what she means, but he nods once he does.

And so Hinata glances up at the tree branches with her powerful white eyes, but not for very long. "You're right, Shikamaru. There's a girl up there. I think she's . . . sewing."

Sewing? Shikamaru wonders, staring up at the branches in thought. How will he approach this? "We know you are up there," he yells up again. "Once again, I promise you we are not here to do you harm. We simply wish to know why a lady would choose such a place as this to do her sewing." Once again, instead of answering, another article of clothing is thrown down at the hunting party.

Ino names it immediately. "Garters.(x)" She looks up at the branches. "What is this woman doing?"

Naruto crosses his arms, and answers her, although it was mostly a rhetorical question. "I think she wants us to leave. Maybe she likes sewing in trees."

Sasuke nods in agreement. "Naruto is right—"

"That's a first," Ino mutters as she coughs into her hand. Naruto shoots her an angry look, but doesn't say anything, allowing Sasuke to continue.

And so he does, pretending he hadn't noticed the mini-spar between the two. "I don't think we should interfere with something that has nothing to do with us."

Shikamaru ignores them both. "At least tell me your name," he yells up in the general direction Hinata had pointed out. He's finding himself intrigued, and little enough seems to do that. Chouji, the man who knows him best, seems to understand this, and says nothing.

This time a dress (x) comes fluttering down. "What if she is trying to tell us to help her?" Sakura asks, worried now. "We can't just leave her here."

Naruto is about to argue with her, when Sasuke silences him again. Naruto grinds his teeth instead, and glares at Sasuke.

Shikamaru picks up the dress from the ground, and passes it to Kiba. "Find her, and bring her down here." The other all stare at Shikamaru in shock—except for Chouji. Even Sasuke and Neji, whose expressions are usually serious and stoic, have their mouths gaping a little. Kiba eventually snaps out of his shocked state, and begins climbing up, following the scent on the dress.

It had smelled of blood and birds, but he doesn't mention that to Shikamaru.

After climbing a little way up, he finds her, dressed only in her underwear (x), staring at him blankly. Perhaps there was a bit of shock in her eyes, but she didn't make a sound, so Kiba wasn't sure. She seemed unhurt, though, except for her hands, which are red and raw and bleeding. In her hands he sees what she was sewing, and it resembles cloth, except it's made of nettles and stained with blood.

She smells, horrid, and it's quite obvious that she hasn't bathed in quite some time. He plows on, despite her rancid smell.

She is obviously mad, anyway, in his eyes, and he feels sympathetic for the confused girl. "It's okay," he calls to her slowly, as he would to a child. "I won't hurt you. I'm from the Leaf kingdom, and the Hokage won't hurt you either."

She eyes seem to show recognition at the mention of the Leaf kingdom, and of the Hokage, and approaches slowly. She never lets go of the thing in her hands, even though she looks precariously close to falling off the branch. He takes her hands, avoiding the barbs, and leads—although some would call it carry—her down to where the rest of the hunting party is waiting.

The main hound dog—and Kiba's personal favorite—pads over and sniffs at the new arrival. Kiba—and the rest of the hunting party—waits for the dog's assessment of the girl. They trust the dog's intuition almost more than they trust their own.

They sigh inwardly when the dog wags his tail. Kiba calls the dog to him, muttering quiet phrases of encouragement and satisfaction.

Meanwhile, Temari looks at the crowd, dressed in fine hunting clothing, and with looks of pity and subtle fear in their eyes. She does not care about them, or what they think about her, but she knows that the Leaf kingdom is far enough from the Sand to make it difficult for Yashamaru to find her.

Well, she hopes.

"I'm Shikamaru," a man introduces himself carefully, looking her over charily. She's been in the forest for sometime, he notices, and on her own, it seems. She nods to show she has understood, but doesn't reply. Is she dumb? he wonders. He takes note of her injured hands, and of the nettle cloth she clutches in her grip still. Once he's sure he has assimilated all the necessary details, he takes a moment to clear his throat to speak again. This small instant leaves his eyes free to wander, and they fall to her bloody hands. He wants to clean away the blood, and this feeling surprises him. "Will you come with me?"

She nods once again, ignoring them all but him. When he offers her a seat in front of her on his horse, she agrees, but she refuses to allow him to help her up. She's not a delicate woman, and because of her isolated upbringing, she doesn't even know she's supposed to be. She hugs the horse between her thighs, not looking down, in case the food she ate that morning comes back up.

She's never been on a horse before, but she doesn't want them to know that.

When Chouji offers to take the nettle cloth away from her, she shakes her head, and hugs it closer. That is the extent of communication she has with the others for the rest of the trip.

Ino and Sakura exchange wary looks, unsure of what has caused their Hokage to act so . . . strangely. Ino is slightly jealous of this woman, who has so quickly managed to cut through Shikamaru's mental shield. It took her years to do so.

And so the hunting expedition is cut short—to Naruto and Kiba's annoyance—and they head back the way they came, to the Leaf kingdom.

Temari ignores all these people for one simple reason; she believes if she pays too much attention to them she knows she will fear them. It has been many, many years since she has been in the presence of so many people. It has been only Kankurou and Gaara for a long, long time now. But this will make things easy, this opportunity. She can do her task without having to worry about food or wild animals, or Yashamaru.

She mourns her brothers, though, who will no doubt not be able to find her again for a long time. As she rides in front of this man who introduced himself as Shikamaru she hopes that there are nettles in the Leaf kingdom.


I got the idea for this when I saw a story titled Seven Brothers, Seven Sisters, or something like that. It reminded me of the Six Swans story, as the phrase seven brothers always does. And I got to thinking about doing a Naruto version. It was originally going to be Naruto-based, but Naruto doesn't have a family at all, so I couldn't really start it well.

And so, TEMARI and her brothers!

Show me some love, people.