Disclaimer: Own Naruto? Me? Nah…
A/N: I should tell you all right now that I'm not going to follow the timeline from the anime or the manga. Just tellin' ya.
Chapter 5: As the Months Pass By (Part 1)
October 31
"Kina," Kankuro said, holding a frighteningly large amount of papers and notebooks in his hands. "Do you know where my baka brother is right now?"
Kina stared at the puppet master and frowned. "Kankuro-san, why are you wearing a school uniform? And what happened to your make-up?" The teen looked over at Kina and smiled. Damn, he looks yummy, she thought. Yummier than usual, actually. (1)
"It's Halloween, Kina," he replied. "I wear enough make-up the rest of the year, when I dress like this people really get freaked!"
"Kinda like Marilyn Manson without make-up," she muttered.
"Who?"
"Oh, nothing. I think Gaara-sama's in his office," she answered. Kankuro moved in the direction of his brother's office and entered. Kina followed, determined not to miss this particular show.
"No."
"Gaara, you have to get this paperwork done!" Kankuro pleaded—well, as close to pleading as the older Sand nin would ever get. "It needs to be filed before next week."
Gaara turned cold eyes towards his brother and frowned. "Then you do it."
"I can't. I have plans."
"Then cancel them."
Kankuro gasped. "But it's Halloween! You know how I love Halloween!"
Gaara did know and just two years ago he wouldn't have cared. But now that small seed of conscience that Naruto had planted was rooted in his brain. "Where's Temari?" he asked roughly. "She'll do it."
"She's on a mission," Kankuro said."What idiot gave her a mission when there's so much paperwork to do?" Gaara growled.
"You did, Gaara-sama!" Kina happily answered. Obviously, the girl wanted to see what the inside of a sand coffin looked like.
But to Kankuro's surprise, Gaara just gave a strangled scream and sat down at his desk. "Give me those reports. It's not like I'm going to sleep anyway."
After Kankuro left, Kina stood next to Gaara's desk. Gaara's tattoo twitched for the fifth time before he yelled at her.
"What do you want!"
Kina wasn't scared of the Kazekage—washing a man's underwear and cleaning up after him kind of took the edge off of the whole menacing killer thing. Especially when said underwear had small sand castles on them. (2) Not to mention the fact that she's trained every single morning for the past month with the rat bastard.
"Need any help?"
Gaara blinked up at Kina and remained silent.
"Well, do you?"
Gaara continued to blink.
"Fine! I'll just reorganize your closet then!"
The threat of Kina changing anything in his highly organized closet jarred Gaara out of his stupor. "Can you even read this, Kina?" he asked.
Kina came up to Gaara's shoulder and picked up a report. After a few blinks of her own, the now familiar white flash appeared before her eyes and the previously jumbled patterns of ink made sense to her.
"Sure," she said. "This is a laundry bill for the Squad Captain of ANBU Team 8. Wow, those sand castle boxers sure are popular here."
"Give me that," Gaara said, certain that she lied. But no…there in black and white was a laundry inventory that included: 2 ANBU uniforms, 4 pairs of black socks, and 8 pairs of sand castle boxer shorts. "Huh," he murmured. "And the saleslady said that mine were the last pair."
Kina stifled a laugh as she sat down and started to separate the huge pile into smaller ones. "Okay, this one is for mission reports, this one is for bills, this one is 'and junk', and this one is for mission requests," she said, pointing to the small piles.
"What does 'and junk' mean?" Gaara asked, raising his eyebrow. At least that's what Kina thought he did, since his 'love' tattoo scrunched up a bit. (3)
Kina waved her hand. "Y'know, the useless stuff that all directors of paperwork like to create. Memos, reprimands, forms in triplicate, and junk. They had a lot of that when I helped my dad out at the hospital back—"
…back home.
Kina quickly looked down at the papers she was shuffling and Gaara coughed into his hand. So her dad worked at a hospital and she helped out, he thought. Interesting.
"Here," he said, handing her a red stamp with the Kazekage insignia and a huge ledger book. (4) He then pointed to the pile bills. "All you have to do is stamp that in the 'Signature' box and write down the amount in the ledger. If anything looks off—the type of bill or amount or whatever—ask me. Okay?"
Kina nodded and took the stamp. "Okay."
They worked in companionable silence for the rest of the night.
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November 14It was late, probably around 2 in the morning, when Kina heard the noise. Carefully, putting on a soft lavender kimono, she grabbed her kunai and headed towards the stairs. There it was again. The soft sound was similar to that of a crying kitten scratching at a door. Keeping her guard up and sticking to the shadows, she headed downstairs. There at the bottom of the stairs was Gaara. Kina gasped as she realized that Gaara was injured.
"Gaara," she cried, forgetting to add '-sama' to the name for once. She raced down the stairs and knelt by his side. "Gaara-kun, are you alright?"
"Bastard Sound nins surprised me," Gaara gasped. "They used explosive seals…Suna no Tate couldn't keep up."
Kina couldn't help but let a whimper escape. If they had managed to evade Gaara's sand shield, then the explosives must have been either large in number or extremely strong. Knowing how strong Gaara himself was, it was probably both. "Gaara-kun, we have to get you to a hospital," she said.
"No," he said, grabbing her hand. "I just need to rest. Shukaku will heal me in a few hours. (5) Just get me upstairs."
Kina tried to get him upstairs, but he was too heavy. The gourd! she thought. She untied the gourd from Gaara's shaking body and tried to balance his weight on her hip. "My room's closer than yours, Gaara-kun," she whispered. "I don't think I can take you any farther than that."
"Hn."
It took almost twenty minutes for the girl to half-carry, half-drag, the semi-conscious boy to her room. Collapsing onto her bed, Kina rolled Gaara onto his back and gently took off his sandals. "Just rest," she said, examining his wounds.
"I won't go to sleep," was the slurred reply.
"Then don't sleep," she snapped back, pulling on a pair of shorts from her dresser. Watching over Gaara she could handle, but not in her underwear! "Just close your eyes and meditate or whatever."
"What are you doing?" Gaara asked. Kina lay down next to him and rested her head next to his on the pillow.
"Gaara-kun, as hurt as you are, I am not so giving as to let you have my bed all to yourself," she answered, cranky. "Night."
"Hn."
Gaara woke up when light hit his face. Wait a second…he thought. I just 'woke up'? He sat up and looked around. This wasn't his room. He looked down and saw the girl curled against his body. And that wasn't his pillow! His mind flashed with what happened the night before and a small crack appeared in the sand wall surrounding his heart, right next to the one Naruto had created. He could still hear her voice in his mind.
"Gaara-kun…""Gaara-sama, you're awake," the girl said shyly.
"It was Gaara-kun last night, Kinabuhi," Gaara replied, not looking at her.
"I-I'm sorry if I offended you, Gaara-sama."
"Hn," he muttered. "You didn't offend me. Call me whatever." He wasn't prepared for the hug Kina gave him.
Holy shit! I'm hugging Gaara, Kina thought. She let go of the surprised Sand nin and pulled the sheets up to her neck. Ugh! There's sand everywhere! Well, she had to do laundry today anyway. "Um…so you're alright now, Gaara-kun?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes, Kina…chan," he added. "Quite alright." He quickly got out of bed and headed for his room.
But not before Kina saw the slight blush on his cheeks.
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December 24
Kinabuhi was sad.
Gaara was surprised that he noticed this. It wasn't like the girl sat moping around all day or cried every time he looked at her. He noticed that for the past few days her eyes weren't as bright as they once were and her smile was a bit too wide. He even noticed that she was looking towards the east more often today. He didn't know why though. There was nothing to the east but a large ocean and after that…well, no one really knew. (6)
He could even hear it in her voice. After a lifetime of keeping his emotions held in, Gaara knew the heavy sound of tears in a person's voice very well.
It might be because of the holiday, Shukaku murmured.
Gaara silently agreed.
Ever since the night Kina started to call him 'Gaara-kun,' Shukaku had calmed down quite a bit. The raccoon demon even allowed him a few hours of sleep a week without threatening to eat at his consciousness. But only when Kina was in the room and laying next to him.
He wanted to talk to her, but couldn't find the words.
Temari walked into the room to find Kina gazing out the window and her brother gazing at Kina.
Well, well, well, she thought. Isn't this interesting?
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December 31
Stupid, ignorant, hateful bastards!
Gaara fumed as he strode out of the dining room of his own home.
His home!
A man doesn't deserve to be disrespected and gossiped about in his own home! he seethed to himself.
It would have been tolerable if Kina and Temari were allowed to eat with us. Stuffy old Council bastards. Let's kill them, Shukaku whispered.
The thought was tempting, but then Kina would have to clean up the mess. She hated cleaning…especially blood and sand stains. Shukaku nodded his head at this and, surprisingly, quieted.
You're turning into quite the puppy aren't you? Gaara asked the raccoon-dog demon.
I noticed you didn't tell those two assholes off…was Shukaku's reply.
Reaching the roof, Gaara paused. There was already someone here.
Kina's crying, Shukaku said.
"Kina-chan?" Gaara called out.
Kina jumped at his voice. "Oh, Gaara-kun," she answered. "How are you? Why aren't you at the party?"
He stiffened at the reminder of the New Years' Dinner and the men currently eating his food and drinking his wine and sake. "It was getting boring," he said emotionlessly. "Nothing but aging shinobi ranting about the old days and the old ways. You know how it is, Kinabuhi."
Kina was about to smile at that when she got a good look at his face and heard what he had called her. Gaara never joked when he used her full name. "What happened?" she asked.
"What makes you think something happened?" Gaara asked back. Damn! When did she get so good at reading me?
She stood up and planted her hands on her hips. "You would have answered my question about the party with one of your annoying 'Hn' sounds instead of saying anything," she explained. "One of those tontos said something to piss you off, didn't they?"
"What's a tonto?" Gaara asked.
"It means 'fool' or 'idiot,'" Kina supplied. "Now which tonto said the stupid thing that brought you up here?"
"It's nothing," he waved off. "Just more of the same old, same old, same shit that I've seen and heard all my life."
"In your own house?" she gasped, unknowingly echoing his earlier thought. "No one's that stupid!"
Gaara was surprised when a chuckle came out of his mouth. "Apparently, someone is that stupid," he said. "But forget about that. Sit with me. You can tell my why you've been sad lately." There, he'd said it. He'd asked. If she didn't want to answer, then that was fine.
The hell it is! Shukaku roared. When Kina is in Suna she shouldn't have any reason to be sad!
"It's nothing that won't pass in time," Kina whispered, sitting next to him. "Just a little homesick. Must be the holiday." She turned and smiled at Gaara. "I'm sure I'll feel better when Temari-neechan and Kankuro-san come back from their mission and we're all together again."
Gaara gave a soft smile at the mention of his siblings. A smile that he only showed to Kina. "Why do you think it will get better? Those two are annoying, ne?"
Kina laughed and bumped Gaara's shoulder with her own. "Ever since you guys saved me, you've been like my family," she said softly. "Well, not right away 'cause you were kind of a jerk. But after a few days…especially after Baki-sensei tested me…you all are the closest thing to home I have now. In fact, you guys are my home now."
Gaara didn't know what to say. Sure he had forced her to stay in Suna for the first few weeks, but he didn't know that she had accepted it as her new home so completely. He was saved from forming a reply when bells started to ring and a dull roar could be heard from all over the village.
"Happy New Year, Gaara-kun," Kina said, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Happy New Year, Kina-chan," he answered.
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February 3
"I am so BORED!" Kina yelled into the empty room.
When Temari and Kankuro still hadn't come back from their mission by mid-January, Gaara had gone after them to find out what went wrong. Since then, Kina was left alone with the order to "Not do something completely stupid" while Gaara was away. School was on break for now, so she didn't even have the excitement of dodging stray shuriken—seriously, whose bright idea was it to give 8-10 year olds extremely sharp objects? Everyone knows you're not supposed to give children under the age of 11 anything more than a ball to play with.
Gaara had taken Baki-sensei as well, so Kina was left in Suna with no one she knew—shopkeepers and delivery men did not count and her coworkers at the academy considered themselves way too old to hang out with a 13 year old. Since the average age of the teachers was about 23, Kina didn't blame them.
She was completely bored out of her gourd!
Hehe…gourd…Gaara-kun…
She already counted the number of rooms the Mansion had and then after that counted the number of chairs in each room and subtracted the combined ages of her, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro (she didn't know Baki's age, so couldn't add him into her equation) from the total number of chair legs in the house.
42.
She played the piano for two hours and then tried to play the weird looking instrument in the corner of the music room.
Why does this thing have a hose and three dozen knobs on it? she thought to herself.
She had even counted the number of times the 'Suna' character appeared in the etchings on the edges of Gaara's desk.
5,406 and a half.
It was a BIG desk.
"Oh, God! I'm going INSANE!"
I know! I'll redecorate one of the rooms!
Kina raced down the hallway into Gaara's office. "Now where is it?" she asked. Ten minutes later, she triumphantly held up a manila envelope labeled: "Decorating Checkbook: Kazekage Mansion."
Laughing evilly, she looked around her. Which room would be the easiest to redecorate? A thought came to her then.
A very evil thought…
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February 5
"That was worse than the attack on Konoha…" Baki muttered as he and his ex-students entered the Kazekage Mansion.
"I can't believe that they were that hard to handle," Temari agreed as she fell onto the nearest couch.
Kankuro came in next, dragging the parts of what used to be his puppets. "I'm gonna need to buy new puppets now…" he cried.
Gaara came in last…and looked the worst. His clothes were torn, green ink stained the skin on his entire right side—including his face—and it looked like he lost a fight with a lawn mower.
"Kina-chan!" he yelled. Shukaku wasn't in a good mood and he needed to see the girl before he killed someone…five particular someones.
"I don't know why we agreed to watch those quintuplets while their parents were on vacation…" Temari sighed. "They practically ran out of the house when they left. That should have been our first clue." (7)
"Kina-chan!" Gaara yelled again.
"They said it would be easy," Kankuro reminded.
"Kina-chan!"
"Watching 5 year olds is never easy," Baki said. "Any teacher at the Academy could have told you that."
"Kina-CHAN!"
"We watched those kids in Konoha…" Kankuro muttered. "They behaved themselves, most of the time."
"KINA-chan!"
"Konaha children have better manners than Suna children," Baki noted. "You also only had them for eight hours a day."
"They don't come in quintuplet form either," Gaara added. "KINA-CHAN!"
Suddenly, Kina appeared at the bottom of the stairs. She looked disheveled and smelled slightly of paint fumes. She stared at the four exhausted Sand shinobi and gasped.
"Gaara-kun! What happened? Why do you have bald patches in your hair? Wait…do you have 'Panda' shaved onto your head?" she asked quickly.
"Yes," Gaara answered. "I need rest. Come sleep with me in my bed."
The others looked shocked at this and Kina hurried to explain. "Shukaku only lets Gaara-kun sleep when I'm with him." Then she remembered something. "Gaara-kun, why don't we sleep in my room? It's closer."
"No. I want my bed." He started heading for the stairs.
"Why 'Panda'?" she asked, holding on to his arm. Well, screamed is more accurate.
"What?"
"Why is the word 'Panda' shaved into your head?" she demanded.
"Our mission objectives thought that Gaara looked like a panda," Kankuro answered, since it seemed that Gaara wouldn't. "It's the black circles around the eyes."
Kina murmured something that Temari could've sworn was: "So I'm not the only one."
"Don't you, like, like pandas, Gaara-kun?" she screamed into Gaara's ear.
"No."
She pouted and pulled on his arm to keep him from leaving. "Not even, like, a little bit?"
"No."
"Not one teensy little bit?"
"I'd rather mount one on my wall."
Kina's expression lightened. "So you like them as, like, decorations for your room, Gaara-kun?"
"No. Let's get to bed. Shukaku's not in a good mood and I really need to sleep."
"If I was a panda, Gaara-kun, you wouldn't, like, hurt me, like, right?"
Gaara froze at that insane question. "Why are you asking me that, Kinabuhi? You're not a panda."
Kina let go of Gaara's arm. It was never good when he used her full name. "You would never, like, hurt me, right, Gaara-kun?"
"What did you do, Kinabuhi!"
She stared at Gaara for a few seconds before she broke and cried out, "I was bored! You guys were gone for, like, ever and there was, like, nothing to do!" (8)
(Away from the Panda and the Walking Corpse—ah, I mean, Kina)
"Kina-chan's talking strangely," Temari noted.
"You noticed too, huh?" Kankuro asked.
"This is very strange," Baki finished.
(Back to the pair)
"What did you do, Kinabuhi!"
Closing her eyes, Kina blurted out, "I, like, redecorated your room!"
Silence…
She opened her eyes to see a dust trail starting from where Gaara had last been standing and heading for his room.
"I can fix it!" she wailed, running after him.
Baki looked over at Temari and said what they were all thinking. "I wonder what she redecorated his room as."
The answer came in the agonized yell of a demon in extreme pain.
"PANDAS! WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE PANDAS!"
A/N:
Long chapter…sorry. I really, really, REALLY didn't want to split this up. This shows how Kina is being accepted into the Suna world and the growing relationship between her and the Sand nin…but mostly Gaara.
Next Chapter: Temari has a boyfriend? Kankuro knows how to ride a horse? What are Naruto and Jiraiya doing here?
(1) Think Kiba without the marks on his cheeks, round pupils, slightly older looking and taller. And wearing a school uniform…YUMMY!
(2) Hehehe…evil huh? Beware my sand castle wearing booty!
(3) Has anyone else noticed that Gaara has no eyebrows? He's like the Mona Lisa…or Whoopi Goldberg!
(4) You know those huge books that businesses use to balance their budgets? Well, a village will probably have several…it is like a small country, y'know.
(5) If Kyuubi can give Naruto super fast healing, why can't Shukaku do the same?
(6) Three guesses at what Kina was looking at…America! (It's to the east of Asia)
Gaara: Dude! You have to give them time to guess!
blacksyryn: Oops!
(7) Why should Team 7 get all of the crazy jobs? It's not fair I tells ya! Not fair!
(8) Yes, Kina is a Valley girl…or at least was a Valley girl. It comes out when she's extremely stressed.