Vindicated
Chapter 5: I'll tell you
When Temari and Kankurou came back to Neji's house, they snuck upstairs to Neji's room before coming down to the kitchen where Gaara and Neji sat, munching on snacks. They stopped before entering, watching their brother shyly converse with the older boy. Neji was telling him about a game he liked that was similar to what he did in soccer. He called it Hacky Sack and promised to teach Gaara how to play. The smaller boy looked down at his cookie and mumbled that he could try. Exchanging glances, they entered, smiling and gave Neji a look behind Gaara's back.
They went out again, this time taking Gaara with them. The three went to a restaurant that was supposed to be of Gaara's choice, but ended up being Kankurou's. They stayed out for about an hour and a half, before walking back to the Hyuga household, talking happily to themselves. When they got there, Kankurou opened the door to the house and pushed the other in.
"Why's it so dark in here?" Temari asked, loudly, grinning at Kankurou over Gaara's head.
"Where is everyone?" Gaara asked looking around.
"I donno, lets go in the living room," Kankurou said, pushing Gaara ahead of them.
"…why?"
Kankurou flicked the living room lights on.
"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Gaara yelped aloud as he jumped and stared as a whole bunch of people jumped out from their hiding places and cheered.
Neji grinned from where he sat with his camera, as he took a picture. 'What a priceless face,' he said to himself laughing.
Gaara glanced around, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Kankurou put his arm around his brother and laughed. Temari hugged him, laughing as well. Gaara really didn't know what to do. His mind wasn't working at all, so he just stood there as everyone rushed to him, hugging and congratulating him. Sakura was the last to hug him, and she smiled as he looked at her. He looked totally lost and unable to grasp what was going on.
"What's wrong?" she asked. "Aren't you surprised?"
"Wha—….Ye—I—I thought you…" Gaara stuttered, pointed around, completely lost.
"Gaara!" she cried as if she was offended. "You didn't think we'd forget your birthday, did you?"
"I—I don't…"
"Silly!" she cried. After giving her mini shirt a little tug to straighten it, she continued. "Kankurou told Neji about it in class yesterday and Kiba thought of the sleepover. Ino and I already wanted to do something and we got together with our lunch table this morning and started planning, but then Hinata said that Neji and Kiba had already thought of the sleepover. We thought that was a good idea. Then Ino told Shikamaru, who told Chouji, who told Kiba, who already knew, but he told Shino, who didn't tell anyone cause he doesn't talk, and thus ending that gossip chain, but he came though. Well, Haku sits at our table, so of course we told him, and he told his friend Zaku—isn't that funny? Haku and Zaku? We thought it was funny when Haku first introduced him to us, we teased him for like forever, but anyway, Zaku told Dosu, who of course told Kin cause their like best friends, and Zaku has THE biggest crush on her. Kin told her sister, Tayuya, who told her best friend Kidomaru, who's got six arms for some reason, but who really cares, who told Sakkon, who told his like completely identical twin Ukon, who told Jiroubou, and Kimimaro just showed up cause he does that a lot and we never have any idea how he finds out about these things but he like IN THE LOOP! And we dragged Sasuke here, because….everyone else is coming and we wanted Sasuke here. Oh, and Neji brought Lee cause their friends…oh, and Neji brought his soccer team and Genma-sensei came but he's only staying for an hour or so." GASP FOR BREATH. "Look! Look! WE brought food!" she dragged him over to the table with food.
"Look! Hinata's mom made a big cake for you!" Ino said dragging Gaara out of Sakura's grasp and over to another table.
"We brought presents!" Naruto and Kiba cried dragging him over to another table.
Gaara: Swirly eyes
"Gaara?" Sakura and Ino shook him. "Look presents!"
Gaara looked down at then incredibly large pile of presents. 'whoa…' He didn't take his eyes off them, afraid they'd disappear if he did. He had presents. Lots of them. And they were his. He could see his name on the cards of tags.
"So!" said one of the lavender-haired twins, looking around with a big grin on his face, one hand on his hip and the other holding a present. "Who's the birthday boy?"
"…That would be the person they're all dragging around, Ukon," the other twin said in a monotone.
The twin named Ukon turned and saw Gaara.
'…I just got a chill,' Gaara thought as the twin zoomed over, colliding with the smaller boy. The guy just screamed GAY! But somehow, wasn't really… I mean, his other brother wore a pretty beaded red necklace for crying out loud, I think that made Ukon a little more manly…
"I got you a present!" Ukon shouted excitedly, bestowing a fore mentioned gift on Gaara with the air of one bestowing the gift of sight to the blind. "It's a knife!"
Kankurou went bug eyed and his mouth dropped open.
"But wait, there's more!" Ukon continued, assisting Gaara in the unwrapping of the present. "Oh, you go too slow! Ok!" He lifted the Bowie-style knife out of the box and unsheathed it. "Behold!" He waved it around.
Everyone who had ducked at the thought of a psycho wielding a huge knife looked up again to stare in disbelief.
"BUBBLES!" Ukon said in a rather loud voice as the knife did, indeed, somehow spout bubbles.
'…..whoa.' Gaara stared as thousands of little bubbles floated around above him before settling down to pop on him or the floor around him. Ukon proudly handed the knife over to him as if he was knighting him or something. Gaara stared at the knife in awe, giving it a little swing. '…wow…'
"Ukon, get over here!" Sakkon said in a long suffering voice, pointing to a chair.
Ukon pouted and sat down with his arms crossed.
"Gaara, say thank you," Sakura said from where she was hanging on him.
"Huh?"
"He'll come back next time too!" she said, grinning.
"Thanks," Gaara said.
"You are welcome, birthday boy!" Ukon said giving him thumbs up.
Sakkon bopped him on the head. "He's got a name, stupid!"
"He does?"
"Duh."
"What is it?"
"…………"
"Ok, birthday boy! Open the rest!" Ukon said ignoring his brother.
"No lets eat first!"
Everyone looked at Gaara, who blushed darkly at all the attention, for him to decide.
"……uh…."
"He wants to eat first!" Ino cried, shoving him over to the food table.
"No! open the presents first," Ukon protested.
Ino and Sakura: FIREY PIT OF HELL!
"Then again, I am rather hungry….."
And then came the who-gets-to-sit-next-to-Gaara fight. Sakura and Ino both wanted to sit next to him, but they also wanted to sit next to Sasuke and also have a good view of the soccer players. Haku wanted to sit next to Gaara for obvious reasons, but Ino and Sakura wouldn't let him ("sob sob Ino-chan!"). Then Kankurou found out that that was Haku and wanted him to sit at the complete far end of the table, but he somehow found a seat three seats down from Gaara. Neji wanted to sit next to Gaara because he felt as though this was his idea and his house (sort of) and he wanted to sit next to him. Gaara wanted Neji to sit next to him because Neji was his friend, but he also wanted to sit next to Temari and Kankurou, but he also wanted Sakura to sit next to him and Ukon seemed very eager to talk to him and Gaara was just on mental over load so he sat down at his place and let them all fight it out. In the end, Temari and Kankurou sat next to Gaara and Neji sat next to Kankurou and Sakura sat next to Temari. The other's seats don't count so we'll continue.
Although the Hyuga family provided many different assortments of food, everyone brought something themselves, to contribute, so there was a fricking lot of food. But there were also a fricking lot of people there and so everyone ate until they remembered, 'hey there's still cake!' So Genma and Hiashi brought the cake over and set it in front of Gaara and lit the candles. Everyone sang happy birthday to him, which he decided was one of the most embarrassing event of his entire life, and made him blow out the candles and 'make a wish' (Gaara: wtf?). Hinata's mom cut the cake and passed out pieces for everyone and piled ice cream on top as well.
(Shukaku's random note: holy freak! That's 38 fricking people at Gaara's first birthday party!)
As everyone started slowing down on the eating, Ukon wasn't the only one getting impatient for the presents. Kiba and Naruto started complaining, then Temari started suggesting, then Kankurou decided for the group that it was time to open presents. Gaara glanced up at him when he made the announcement, then down at his plate. Kankurou physically lifted him out of his chair and sat him down in a big chair. Gaara gave Kankurou a funny look and continued to eat his ice cream and cake which he grabbed when Kankurou picked him up.
"I'm not finished eating," Gaara stated.
"Oh, you can multitask!" Kankurou said. "….or Ukon could open them all for you," he added as Ukon began examining all the presents. 'Is this kid really 18?...geez…'
Ukon brought Gaara a present. "This one looks interesting I think you should open it first…or I could."
Gaara held his hand out for the present and Ukon begrudgingly handed it to him.
"Wow," Haku said to Sakkon. "You're brother hasn't changed…"
"You should see him on his birthday. He opens mine and then he opens his," Sakkon said again in monotone. "And then he tries to keep them all….even the sock and underwear."
"I see," Haku said, preparing to defend all of Gaara's helpless presents.
As it turned out, the first present was from Chouji. It was a bag of Hershey kisses, except Chouji thought he was supposed to go through and wrap each Hershey kiss individually and then wrapped the whole thing in tin foil, which was why it looked so interesting.
"Now open mine!" Ukon ordered.
"…" Sakkon smacked a hand over his eyes. "You already gave it to him, Ukon."
Ukon looked like his life had lost purpose. "I DID?"
"Yes. You did. Thus robbing you of the chance to go last."
"When did Ukon ever want to go last?" Haku asked.
"On our last birthday."
"What was the present?" Haku asked curiously.
"Pantyhose!" Ukon cried, over-hearing.
"…Wha?"
"We were going to go burgle something because we were 18 and wanted an adult sentence," Sakkon said in a monotone.
Flashbacks
"Alright, Mr Decrepit Shop Owner Person!" Ukon shouted, holding a bubble gun to the shop-owner's head. "I want this and this!" He threw a pack of gum and a soda on the counter. "And I ain't payin'!"
"We're adults now," Sakkon said coolly. "At least steal something cool."
Ukon thought for a moment. "And I want a cup of Java, too!" he added, grabbing a cup.
End flashback
"But for some reason, we didn't even get in trouble!" Ukon said, waving his hands. "Wasn't that a crime we did?"
"…we stole about three bucks worth of stuff."
"SO?"
"…" Sakkon got out his keys. "Look, Ukon," he said, jingling them.
Ukon's eyes widened. "GIMME!" He snatched them, then ran off to his own little "spot" in the room to look at them where no one else could see them because they were HIS keys now, dammit!
Back to Gaara.
"Those guys are weird," Kankurou said, raising an eyebrow.
"I like them!" Gaara said with a small grin.
Haku: (STAB) UKON HOW DARE YOU STEAL GAARA FROM ME?
"…He didn't belong to you in the fir—OH YEAH, MORE PRESENTS!"
Now, people may think everyone was annoyed by Ukon's behavior. Actually, Sakkon was the only one annoyed, and that was because he was the only one who had to admit that he and Ukon had the exact same genes. Anyway. Everyone else liked him a lot.
Back to the presents.
"This…" Hinata said slowly, giving a present to Gaara before Ukon could pick a new one, "…is from me."
"U-Um… thanks," Gaara said, taking it warily, since Hinata was a morbid Goth girl and he wasn't sure what it was.
As it turned out, it was a book full of morbid poetry.
"I hope you… enjoy it," Hinata said, just as slowly, before walking away, leaving a lightly traumatized Gaara.
The other presents were all, actually, kind of interesting. Sakura got him a 'best friend' necklace (she gave him the 'friends' half and made him put it on) which he secretly treasured for the rest of his existence, Ino got him a bracelet like Kyo's in Fruits Basket (which she made him put on and wear for the rest of the night)Kiba got him a t-shirt that said "Silence is golden but duct tape is silver", the girls at Ino and Sakura's lunch table got him hair products for some odd reason, Shikamaru got him some weird game, Shino got him an ant farm (which Kiba seemed to think was just too hilarious for some odd reason), Zaku got him a beanie hat ("Face it, crazy people are hot" with a morbid, deformed kittie), Dosu got him some random manga, Kin got him what Ukon called a 'funky cool fresh watch' (it looked just like any other watch Gaara had ever seen, but Ukon pointed out that this one was waterproof), Tayuya got him a humongous assortment of CDs (Kidoumaru pitched in and bought the humongous case) (Kankurou: "Wow! Can you come to my birthday?").
"Where's your present, Sakkon?" Ukon asked curiously.
Sakkon looked up at him. "You're wearing it."
Of course, everyone had to look at Ukon, who was wearing a black Disturbed t-shirt.
"…You left it on my bed," Ukon said in an "aren't-I-innocent" voice.
"That was MY bed! You just think everything in the room belongs to you!"
"It was gift-wrapped!" Ukon protested.
"Well, there's your mistake right there," Tayuya muttered. "Leaving something gift-wrapped where Ukon could find it…"
Back to presents…
Jiroubou got him a gift certificate to Wokenfuss, which is like, this HUGE candy store at the mall (Chouji: "Dammit!"), Sasuke got him a shirt with a dragon on it (apparently, dragons are like 'the thing' now, but then again, Sasuke had an image to uphold, even thought he didn't really even want to be here… he doesn't even have a speaking role, for crying out loud!) Kimimaro got Gaara a snake plushie, but Gaara had no sooner unwrapped it before Ukon swooped down like a hawk and snatched it up.
"Oh my god, it's fuzzy!" the older twin (if you can believe it) cried, petting the plushie.
"LEAVE GAARA'S SNAKE PLUSHIE THING ALONE!" Haku shrieked, attacking, swooping down like a mother hawk protecting her nest.
SMACK-FIGHT!
"Ukon, knock it off," Kimimaro said calmly, going to get a chip (Yes, that's right… one chip at a time).
Mumbling darkly, Ukon started to walk away.
"THE SNAKE!" Haku shrieked.
Ukon: Glare
Haku: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE!
"G-Gay man got scary," Ukon whimpered, clinging to Sakkon as Haku walked away calmly back to Gaara with the snake plushie.
Lee gave Gaara a grin, holding out a present. "I would like you to know, Gaara-san, that this gift I am about to give you is in no way, shape or form intended to give HAKU," insert pointed look at P.O.I.G., "ideas."
"Um… ok…" The present turned out to be a set of Gravitation manga.
Haku gasped. "Oh my god, I love vol…" Everyone turned to look at him. "…ume… um… 2!" He nodded, grinning brightly.
The entire soccer team had pitched in to buy Gaara a subscription to Sports magazine (and if you think this is a piss-pants present, think about how much a subscription to a magazine costs), which Gaara accepted with a rather large, fake smile that no one picked up on except Temari and Kankurou. Genma's present, however, caused Gaara's eye to twitch.
"A soccer ball!" Neji cried, grinning happily.
"Come on, Gaara, Neji told me he's been showing you stuff!" Genma said, grinning. "Show us what you learned!"
Gaara glared and pelted the ball at Genma's head. Genma, however, was a soccer coach, and caught it easily, laughing.
"No, no, you don't throw it unless you're a goalie, and you're too little to be a goalie! But you got a good arm though."
"He IS puny, isn't he?" Ukon said loudly, recovering from his Haku-escapade. He went over and stood in front of Gaara, bending over with his arms crossed so he was looking Gaara in the eye. "I mean, he looks like he'd just blow away if I sneezed at him." …Shifty eyes. "ACHOO!"
Long silence.
"Would it humor you if I fell over?" Gaara asked.
Ukon nodded. "Yep!"
Gaara promptly fell backwards in an over-dramatic stage-fall. However, this movement was hindered greatly by the fact that he was sitting on a chair, but it sure seemed to make Ukon happy. Gaara smiled up at him too, thoroughly enjoying himself. Across the room Kankurou smiled at him, happy that he was happy, but it dropped when he heard a click. Glancing at Neji, he gave him a weird look.
"What are you taking pictures of my brother for?" he demanded.
"Everyone takes pictures on their birthday," Neji said, no longer afraid of Kankurou's foreboding aura. "Besides, Gaara's my friend and I want a picture of him."
"You've been taking pictures all night."
"Not just of him. I have others," Neji insisted.
Kankurou glanced away, knowing Neji was lying through his teeth. The only 'others' he had taken had Gaara in it as well. 'Sneaky bastard,' Kankurou muttered to himself, going back to the presents
It was Haku's turn.
"Well, Gaara," Haku purred, smiling at him. (Gaara backed up) "I was going to get you a best friends necklace, but Sakura got you that. Then I was going to get you a Kyo bracelet, but Ino-chan got you that. Then I was going to get you an obnoxious T-shirt, but Kiba got you that. Then I was going to get you hair products, but the lunch table got you that. (oro?) Then I was going to get you a game, but Shikamaru got you that. Then I was going to get you an ant farm, but I don't like bugs and Shino got that anyway. Then I was going to get you SNG's hat, but Zaku got you that. Then, I was going to get you a random manga of doom, but Dosu got you that. Then, I was going to get you a funky cool fresh watch, but Kin got that. Then I was going to get you both a CD AND a CD case, but Kidoumaru and Tayuya got you those. Then I was going to have my present stolen by Ukon, but Sakkon gave you that… kind of… Then I was going to get you a gift certificate to Wokenfuss, but Jiroubou got you that. Then I was going to get you a snake plushie, but Kimimaro got you that for some unholy reason. Then I was going to get you a dragon shirt but Sasuke got you that. Then I WANTED to get you Gravitation so I could read it to you," Shojo eyes, "but Lee got you that. And I wasn't about to be totally dim and get you stuff you would NEVER read and NEVER use, so I didn't get you sports stuff, SO…" Deep breath.
The room fell silent.
"I got you a big pack of gum!" Haku said brightly, giving Gaara said pack of gum.
Ukon's jaw dropped. "That's the gum we stole!"
"…How'd he get it?"
"I gots mad, l33t gay skills," Haku said with a wink.
"………………o k……." Neji said breaking the silence. "Games any one?"
"Let's play spin the bottle!" Haku, Zaku and Ukon cried in unison.
"NO!" Gaara said, quickly.
"Let's play flashlight capture the flag," Kiba suggested.
"It's not dark enough yet, but we'll play it later," Sakura said, thinking hard.
"….hide and seek," Ino said finally.
"Don't go in my office or the bed rooms," Hiashi said automatically.
"Gaara's it."
'….saw that coming..' Gaara muttered as everyone darted out of the room.
"Count to 30 Gaara! And no cheating!" Sakura called.
And so Gaara found himself alone, well almost along, Sasuke didn't move from his seat. Gaara looked over at Sasuke, who had a 'dot dot dot' face.
"Do you really care if I stay?" Sasuke asked. (Shukaku: Sasuke has a speaking role!)
Gaara shook his head.
Sasuke gave him a wave and left.
Gaara glanced around at nothing, then shook his head. Staring up at the ceiling he began counting. '1…..2….3….4……'
Hiashi sat at the kitchen table while Hinata's mom washed dishes. She wrapped up most of the food and stuck it in the enormous fridge for the kids to eat for breakfast. Hiashi looked up from the work he had been…working on.
"What do you think of those three?" he asked.
"I think all three of them are very sweet children," she replied. "Temari and Kankurou are very sweet to their little brother. I'm amazed, though, that this is little Gaara's first birthday party." Hiashi gave her a questioning look. "I overheard Kankurou and Neji talking."
"Hm…." Hiashi thought for a moment. "Really? His first?"
"That's what they said."
"Come to think of it…their father didn't seem pleased with the thought of the sleep over."
"Maybe he wanted them home for Gaara's birthday," she suggested.
"Yes, maybe," he replied.
Gaara walked into the room, casually looking around. "Is anyone hiding in here?" he asked, getting straight to the point.
"No, dear," Hinata's mom replied, smiling fondly at him. "Try where all the lights are out, that's where they usually hide."
"Ok," Gaara said, turning to leave.
"Um, Gaara," Hiashi called before he left. "What does your father do for a living?"
Gaara blinked and stopped. "Uh…he works for an international company that sells …. stuff…"
"Hm. I see," Hiashi said, sipping his coffee.
Gaara looked at him then at Hinata's mother, wondering if they still wanted to talk to him. She smiled and motioned that he could go.
By the time the sun set and it was dark enough to play capture the flag, which Gaara had no idea what it was, he had found everyone except for Hinata and Kankurou. Actually, he did find Kankurou, or rather Kankurou snuck up behind him and scared the shit out of him when he went into a dark room on the second floor looking for them. They headed down to the first floor and Kankurou noticed a linen closet on the landing. They opened it and looked in.
"You found me."
Kankurou and Gaara's souls left them, as Hinata calmly stood from where she had been sitting, waiting patiently, and went down stairs herself.
"What is 'Capture the Flag'?" Kankurou and Gaara asked in unison.
"I will explain—"
Haku pushed Ukon away and smiled at them. A pretty little diagram appeared behind him.
"Capture the Flag is a game played with two or more teams. Each team has a flag that can be anything from a person to a piece of cloth, so long as the other team knows what it looks like. Each team has a base and jail. The base is a safety zone for the team where the other team can't get to them, while the jail is where captured members of the other team are kept and guarded. You can capture players of the opposite teams by two hand tags and retrieve captured team members by tagging them out of jail. The object of the game is to take the other team's flag before they take yours. Once the person with the flag is tagged the flag may either stay where it is or be taken back to the base. Any questions?" he asked, tossing his little pointing stick away.
"No," Gaara and Kankurou replied.
"I vote that we have a human flag," Kiba said. "But the person can't protest or fight when their taken."
Everyone seemed to like the idea and everyone was put on random teams. And their flags were decided.
Team 1: Flag: Gaara (Ukon's idea); players: Ukon, Temari, Lee, Ino, Zaku, Tayuya, Kidomaru, Soccer player #1, Soccer player #3, Soccer player #5, Soccer player #7, Soccer player #9, Shino, Kiba, Lunch table #5, Kimimaro, and Kin
Team 2: Flag: Lunch table #3; players: Sakkon, Kankurou, Neji, Sakura, Haku, Jiroburou, Soccer player #2, Soccer player #4, Soccer player #6, Soccer player #8, Lunch table #1, Dosu, Naruto, Chouji, Shikamaru, Lunch table #4, Lunch table #2, and Hinata
Each team went to their bases, all clothed in black (provided by the Hyuga's) and began formulating their plans of action.
Team 1's jail was the soccer goal Neji used to practice while their base was the perimeter of a large Cherry Tree near by. Because there were no rules about putting the flag in almost near impossible places, Ukon placed Gaara on a semi high branch and told him to stay there, which he did since he was extremely high and didn't want to fall.
Team 2's jail was a bunch of tables and lawn chair arranged in a circle in the middle of their base and they, having the same thought about flags, placed Lunch table #3 on top of the small shed near the jail.
When both teams were ready, Ukon and Sakkon started them off with their helpful twin thing of saying things at the same time, yelling 'start!' Both teams darted off in the dark, running across the large backyard or crawling on the grass. Gaara lost sight of all his team mates, and could barely see the ones they were guarding him.
As he sat in the darkness of the tree, he began to realize things. Things like: wow, he was really high up, how'd Ukon put him up here?; or playing with these people is fun; and then he realized another thing about the game that made him shiver: Kankurou and Neji were on the other team and so was Haku. Kankurou was always good at games like this, and Neji just seemed the type to be good at this too. Haku was very possessive and knew Gaara was the flag and would do anything to get Gaara on his side. But then again, Temari was on his team and Ukon seemed determined to win this. The other teams flag was a girl that he could here squealing every few minutes at every noise. Ukon had told him not to make a noise, which he wasn't.
As his eyes began to adjust, he began noticing people moving around. He could easily pick out Ukon and Sakkon's light hair as the two squared off ready to attack the first who moved. Ino was bound and determined to get on top of the shed without Sakura, who was one of the ones guarding the flag, catching her. He couldn't tell who anyone else was.
Looking down he noticed two dark figures crawling on their bellies towards the almost full jail, pausing every so often. Gaara looked around for the guards, but couldn't see any. The two figures were under the tree now. Gaara didn't move from his position. One of them moved into a little patch of moonlight shining though the leaves and Gaara swallowed hard. It was Kankurou. And he highly expected the other to be Neji. There was a yelling and laughing to the left of the jail. A group of people from the other team had stumbled on people from his team. He looked down at the ground and was surprised that he couldn't see Neji and Kankurou anymore. Where'd they go?
"Hey Gaara."
Gaara freaked out and nearly fell from the tree but was caught by a set of strong hands. Kankurou wrapped his arms around his smaller brother and brought him back down to the ground where Neji was waiting. His two capturers carried him across the field. When they got within their border Neji called that they won. Kankurou laughed with Gaara still on his shoulder.
"How'd you get that high?" he asked Gaara, swinging him a little.
"Ukon put me up there," he replied, smiling at his fun.
Kankurou laughed loudly as he and Neji carried Gaara back into the house with everyone else. Everyone was talking excitedly about what they did and who got who out and who cheated. They set him down in the kitchen and they all went into the living room again.
Because it was now around 10:30 at night and some people had work the nest day or some's parents didn't want them spending the night, people said another congratulations to Gaara and either hugged him or (in Ukon's case) gave him a hardy pat on the back that nearly knocked him over and said he'd see him at school on Monday. Now only Neji, Hinata, Kankurou and Temari, Ino, Sakura, Naruto, Kiba, and Kin were left. Hinata's mom told them to go upstairs to settle down. The boys were given Neji's room and the girl's Hinata's. Because Hiashi was generous and Neji was a good nephew, there was a tv in Neji's room where he played video games. All the boys crowded on Neji's random collection of pillows and chair and took turns playing different games. As much as the boys wanted to stay up all night, they began to get tired and finally decided to go to sleep and rolled out their sleeping bags.
Kankurou and Neji stayed up and talked for a while after every one else finally fell asleep. Gaara had fallen asleep practically the moment he laid down. Kankurou smiled at him when he noticed and tucked him in.
"Does he usually fall asleep that fast?" Neji asked laughing quietly.
"No actually," Kankurou said laying down in his sleeping bag. "Gaara's got insomnia. It usually takes him forever to fall asleep, if he sleeps at all."
"Oh," Neji said, laying down himself. "Is that why he has the dark circles around his eyes?"
"Yeah," Kankurou said, fluffing up his pillow.
Neji was quiet for a while. "Kankurou I—"
"Heh. I knew I wasn't gonna get through the night with out you asking me at least once," Kankurou said running his fingers through his hair. He gave Neji a stern look. "Lemme asked you this: why do you want to know?"
Neji blinked and stared down at his pillow. "I guess….at first it was because I was curious about you three. I mean, you're new and all. But then I began to get to know you guys, especially Gaara and we've become kinda close friends and all….and…and I really like Gaara."
"That's cool," Kankurou said. "Gaara really hasn't had a friend—"
"No, I mean…I really like Gaara."
Kankurou's eyebrows went up slowly as he stared at the fidgeting Hyuga.
"I don't know why…It's hard to explain, but I like Gaara a lot, not just as a friend any more…and I just…wanna get to know him more."
Kankurou watched him try to explain himself, a smile starting to play on his face. His expression softened and he sighed. "Alright. I'll tell you about us," he said.
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