Naruto: -poking authoresses, who has gone comatose- I told her to wait to check her reviews... now she's in shock.
Kankuro: Oh yeah, she wanted tell you guys...
Neji: ...that she's going away again. She'll be at choir camp from august 6-16.
Kankuro: Which means no electronics, which means no computer...
Neji: ...which means no updates. Well, at least she had the sense to update before she left...
Kankuro: ...So she doesn't get mauled.
Disclaimer: Nope, belongs to Kishimoto-sama.
Temari had just finished checking her email when one of her little brothers strolled in the door, too bad for him.
"KANKUROOOOO!"
Kankuro squawked in fear and surprise when his dear aneki pummeled down the stairs and glomped his to within an inch of his life, babbling incoherently. He gasped for air.
"T-Temari…! c-can't… b-breathe…"
After one last squeeze his sister let him go, looking at him expectantly. He stared back.
"…What?"
"…Well? Aren't you going to tell me what happened with Neji-kun?"
Kankuro went pale underneath his makeup.
"H-how the hell did you know about…?"
Temari gave him the Scary Sister smile.
"I' m a big sister Kankuro, I know these things. So did you two make out, or what?"
The puppet master dropped his head into his hands, embarrassed. He just had to have an older sister who was a total Hentai. He'd accidentally run across one of her 'romance novels' a while ago, and it scarred his poor eyes for months.
"That's none of your business!"
"Fine, fine. Do you know what direction he went?"
"To his house, why do you…?"
Before he could complete his sentence his older sister was out the door. He looked after her, wondering just where the hell she was going.
Neji was almost at his house when he noticed someone approaching behind him. Activating his Byakugan, he realized that it was Kankuro's big sister, Temari. For some strange reason, a shiver of fear went up his spine.
'Now, where did that come from…?'
'Premonition, perhaps?'
'Of what?'
He paused and waited for her to catch up with him.
"Is there something I can do for you, Temari-san?"
She flashed him a smile and he noticed that she was leaning on her giant fan, which suddenly looked a lot more ominous than usual.
"Nope, I'm just here to do my duty as a big sister."
Neji felt the sudden urge to run away. His ninja sense were tingling, and they were telling him to, 'get the fuck out of there, you moron.'
"And seeing as you're going out with my brother, I have a few things to say."
Neji almost ran away but was immediately stilled by 'The Look'. It was possibly the scariest thing he'd ever witnessed, and put both the Byakugan and Sharingan to shame. It was enough to have both the Uchiha brothers and Orochimaru running crying to their mommies, or in Orochimaru's case, Kabuto. Such was the power of overprotective Aneki. The scary thing was, 'The Look' could be done with a smile.
"First of all, I just want you to know that I'm happy for the both of you, and fully support your relationship. However…"
Her grip tightened on her fan.
"…If you ever hurt him, I'll beat you to within an inch of your life and castrate you ... Painfully."
Neji began praying to every god he knew to please, please let him get out of here with his life and all attached body parts. Kankuro had warned him, but damn, his sister was scary. Not even Gaara could be scarier.
"Secondly… take care of my brother, okay?"
With that, 'The Look' was lifted, the fan was put on her back, and she patted him on the shoulder with a smile.
"…Or else. Oh, and remember to use protection!"
Neji almost collapsed on the ground after she left, but his pride didn't allow him to.
'Damn… that was fucking scary… what have I gotten myself into?'
'Dating a guy with one a hell of scary sister and a homicidal little brother?'
'It was a rhetorical question.'
'I'm aware.'
'…Screw you.'
'Wouldn't you rather do that with your boyfriend?'
'…Have I mentioned that I hate you?'
(The next day)
Naruto was having lunch with his favorite sensei. Gaara had opted to give the two some privacy, and the red head told Naruto that he would visit T.C. and talk with her a bit. Now Naruto was enjoying a large bowl of miso ramen and chatting enthusiastically with his teacher. Iruka smiled at him.
"So, how have you been, Naruto?"
"Anou, I've been pretty good I guess."
'Apart from finding out that Gaara and I have to go through some mating season thing, Kyuubi seems nervous about something, and I might get hit on from random demons disguised as people. Yep, I've been just fine.'
Iruka looked at his former student with suspicion; he had a feeling that Naruto wasn't telling him something.
'But… if it was something important Naruto would tell me, right…?'
'I won't tell Iruka-sensei everything that's going on, I wouldn't want him to go through too much stress…'
Iruka was about to inquire if something was bothering Naruto, but was cut off by a soft, female voice.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
Naruto looked up from slurping noodles, and saw a girl standing next to him, smiling coyly.
"Nope."
"Oh, good."
The girl sat down next to him and ordered a bowl of ramen, throwing a few discreet glances his way. Naruto was starting to get uncomfortable, and he tried to finish off his ramen as fast as he could. The instant he set his chopsticks down the girl decided to talk to him. She turned in her seat and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Naruto felt uneasy.
"Oh, excuse me for not introducing myself. My name's Riiko."
Iruka raised an eyebrow at the girl's sudden interest in his little brother.
"Um, I'm… Uzumaki Naruto."
Riiko moved closer to him, stopping inches away from his face. Oh, how Naruto wanted to push her back… she was definitely a female looking for a mate, and he wanted none of it.
"Hello Naruto-kuuun, how are you?"
Iruka was strongly reminded of Sakura and the way she fawned over Sasuke. Naruto twitched at the sugary, girly tone of her voice. Naruto silently thanked the gods for the fact that Kyuubi didn't act like this.
"Sorry, but… IalreadyhaveamateandnowIreallyhavetogosobye!"
Naruto literally pulled a surprised Iruka out of the ramen stand and practically ran down the street, leaving a blinking Riiko behind.
'Damn, he's taken? Oh well…'
Another figure sat down next to her and also ordered a bowl of ramen.
"Guess it didn't go over too well, right sis?"
She scowled at the smirking young man next to her.
"Shut up, how was I supposed to know? He's not marked or anything!"
"Guess you have a point. Y'know, the other guy with him was kinda cute…"
Riiko raised her eyebrows.
"He's a human."
"Hey, I can look can't I?"
"Go after him if you want, I'm leaving. Damn, that blonde was cute too…"
The girl paid for her ramen and left, her older brother staring in the direction that Naruto had run off with Iruka.
In another street the chuunin teacher was giving Naruto his best, 'you're hiding something from me and I want to know what it is NOW' look.
"So Naruto, what is this I hear about mating?"
Naruto looked sheepish.
'Oh shit.'
"Well, it's kinda hard to explain…
Gaara found T.C. in the shop, leaning on the cashier counter and gazing at something intently, a small smile on her face. Intrigued, Gaara crept up behind her silently to see what she was looking at. A small smirk crossed his features when he saw exactly who was in the picture she was gazing at.
'So is that how it is…?'
"…Hey."
T.C. started in surprise, quickly snatched up the photo in her hands, and turned around, her glasses hanging off her nose in surprise. She blushed but looked relieved when she noticed it was Gaara behind her.
'Damn bastard, sneaking up on me like that!'
She pushed her glasses back up.
"Hi Gaara, didn't see you there. What's up?"
"…So you finally caught on. Are you going to do something about it? Also… it's about time."
Smirk.
Glare.
'Stupid spying sand shinobi…'
"It's… complicated, okay? So I assume you wanted to learn more about mating season?"
"Hai."
"'Kay, just a sec…"
Digging underneath the counter, the girl pulled out an old, dusty scroll and spread it open over the counter. Both teens bent over to examine it.
"Auntie said we should look at this one, so…"
She put her finger on a certain part.
"The thing you guys should do first is to mark each other. Marking gives you guys a certain scent, telling others that you're taken. Won't deter some, but at least most people will leave you alone."
"…and this marking is done by…?"
T.C. stared at him like he was an idiot. Gaara bristled slightly.
"By sex, what do you think?" 'Duh.'
"…I knew that." 'Yes, I think we should do that really soon…heh.'
"So, anyone try to hit on you on the way here?"
Her answer was a heated glare, and inwardly she smirked.
'Apparently so…'
Gaara growled to himself, yes some guy had tried to hit on him, only to be given a glare that could cause a person to spontaneously combust. This seemed only to egg the guy on even further, and Gaara had been sorely tempted to kill the guy on the spot and make his blood rain down on the street, like in the chuunin exams. Unfortunately he couldn't, so he settled for punching the guy in the stomach -forcefully- and putting sand in his eyes. He'd left him passed out on the street, eyes twitching from the discomfort of the sand. He was feeling mighty frustrated right now…
Twitch
Gaara really wanted to see his boyfriend right now… he almost felt as if some force was tugging at him, telling him to go. He turned to bid T.C. farewell.
"…I have to go… bye."
"Bye Gaara, I'll see if I can find more stuff for you guys."
Suddenly Gaara remembered something he had picked up earlier and had yet to pay for.
"…I want to get this."
T.C. looked at the object in his hands and couldn't hide a perverted smirk from gracing her features.
"It's okay, just take it. Consider it a gift. You want a bag?"
Gaara shook his head, and slipped it into his pocket. He was about to exit the door when he turned around one more time.
"If you really like her, just tell her… I don't think Hinata will reject you."
Then he was gone out the door. T.C. looked at the picture in her hands, one of her and Hinata at the festival in their yukata. A sad smile touched her face.
"She might not… but what about her family?"
Hinata was passing by Hanabi's room and happened to look inside. Her little sister had a smirk of pure perversion on her face, and was looking at something on her computer. Hintata came in to check just what Hanabi was looking at. Hanabi turned to look as her oneechan entered the room, smirk still on her face.
"Neji-nii's been naughty..."
In another room, Neji felt a shiver run down his spine and sneezed.
TBC
Gaara: She awake yet?
Naruto: Nope.
Gaara: ...Oh brother. -sigh- guess we have to do this...
Naruto: Kay, so first of all she woud proabaly want to thank all her readers for 701 hits. Oh, and she also mentioned something about writing a oneshot for the 702nd person to review...
Gaara: ...with the pairing and plot of their choice. When she gets back, that is.
Naruto: Oh, she also has a new story out called 'Boys of Summer.'
Gaara: It's her first true AU, so she's pretty excited...
Kakashi: and the pairing is... -checks summary- ItaIru and Kakaobi? What the hell?
Anko: Ooo, sounds fun! -evil fangirl smile-
Naruto: -shudder- ...So thanks guys, and don't forget to review! -smile-
Review please!