Nonexistent Mourning
by tovanell
-AU- An assassination attempt on ten year old Gaara is successful, and Temari and Kankurou mourn for the brother they never really had.
The village was in a festive mood.
Look up and there was ninja leaping from rooftop to rooftop, in all directions, no doubt rushing home or wherever to announce to friends and family that the demon was gone. Small groups of chuunin and jounin gather in the shade of the arcade walkways and roads of Suna to gossip and exchange information. Bars and restaurants were filling up with people who felt the need to celebrate the news.
Before, when their team walked through the streets, with Gaara leading the way, it would be dead silent. Everyone on the road would slow down the pace of whatever they were doing, or stop altogether. Heads turned away from the Kazekage's children; eyes filled with fear and hatred darted back and forth between the ground and the three children, wanting to avoid looking at the team, at the demon vessel, but also wanting to keep a watch on them, just in case. Tension filled the air, everyone cautious and nervous, afraid that one wrong move or look will catch the attention of Gaara and hell would break loose.
Today, the streets were noisy, filled with laughter and chatter. Everyone seemed to be filled with energy and cheer, and children ran around without fear, without anxious parents holding them close. Hardly anyone looked twice at the two remaining siblings, and Temari didn't hear any of the low whispering behind her back that she usually hear when Gaara was with them. In place of all that, though, were the smiles. Occasionally, in the crowds of the street, someone would notice Temari and Kankurou, someone would recognize them, and they would smile at the two, with this kind, relieved smile that seemed to say Isn't this great? and I'm so happy for you guys.
If things had been different, if they had been a normal team, if Gaara had been born human and not possessed by Shukaku, they wouldn't have gotten smiles. They would have gotten pitying looks, sad nods of condolences, because they had just lost a teammate and brother. They would have had people reminding them to act like shinobi and deal with death, had people ask if they were okay, and had people give words of comfort and support. If things had been like that, Temari would at least know how to deal, because that was how she was taught, what she would have expected, and she been through this before, first with her mother's death and than her uncle's.
She didn't know how to respond to those smiles, so she ignored them and looked straight ahead, determined to get home and away from all these people.
Kankurou wasn't having any better luck dealing either. Her brother was scowling, glaring at everyone and everything, and his fingers twitched, the puppeteer's version of clenched fists. Temari knew better than to assume it was Gaara's death that would bother him this much; he was pissed at Suna for acting like this right now, much like herself.
"Kankurou, stop that." She hissed at him, because he was losing control of himself.
"Shut up, Temari. I'm not doing anything," He shot back, but his scowl lessened and his fingers stopped twitching. Kankurou gave an annoyed sighed and looked around the street.
"You know," Kankurou began, not looking at Temari. "I just saw this kid, and he was from my class at the academy. Never talked to me before. He's a wimp, and this one time he saw me with Gaara, looked like he almost pissed his pants." Then he grinned, harsh and bitter. "Just then, I saw him, and he grinned at me, like he knew me and we were friends or some crap like that."
The grin turned into a snarl. "Fucking coward. I hate people like him." With that, Kankurou shut his mouth and didn't talk for the rest of the way home.
Other kids kept a respectable distance from them because they were the Kazekage's children, and were the best in their age group; they had to be the best. It's because of Gaara, because they were siblings to 'that thing', that other kids completely avoided them and feared them along with Gaara. Shunned by association. Temari went to the Academy for six years and made only two friends; then they became genin and Temari never saw them much anymore, much less was still friends with them.
She didn't know about Kankurou and whether or not he has friends, given all the time he spent with his puppets instead of real people…but he was right. Suddenly Temari and Kankurou were approachable because Gaara was gone, as if now that Gaara was dead, they were forgiven for being siblings to the jinchuuriki and it was okay to make, be friends with the siblings now.
Fucking coward
Temari has never felt this much hatred for Suna's inhabitants before. It's more than a little irrational and immature, but she didn't care.
The celebration was week long. Things went on sale, a third of the village was constantly drunk, amateur puppet plays with titles such as 'The Defeat Of Demon Child Gaara' put on by stupid genin and chuunin performed on the streets (Kankurou once watched from afar, and it was awful…the acting was stupid, the characterizations was wrong and so were the events. He should really beat them up for it or something, but he wasn't Gaara and can't go making trouble for no reason), and most Suna shinobi took an unofficial vacation.
The leader of Suna refused to acknowledge the festivities, but quietly tolerated it. Despite a few suggestions from his shinobi, he would not make it an official holiday. The Kazekage seemed to be trying to pretend that Gaara never existed.
Kankurou spent the first two day pissed. Pissed at what, he wasn't too sure. That the whole village was making such a big deal out of Gaara's death, probably. Then he settled into some sort of resignation, because the village did suffered when Gaara was alive and you can't blame them from being relieved.
Kankurou once passed the cemetery and found quite a number of people visiting their dead, who ended up six feet under because of Gaara. That won't happen anymore. There won't ever be any more random killings, any more terror and any more wasting the village's shinobi on those assassination attempts. All good things, even if suddenly, to Kankurou's horror, little kids were everywhere now that parents don't have to worry about a monster hurting their kids and let them run free.
It was for the best interest of everyone that Gaara is gone.
Yet Kankurou can't seem to find and feel the joy everyone else is feeling. He was still living in the mindset that Gaara was still around, still alive. He would see a gust of wind and sand moving along it, and would freeze, glancing around for the little brat, only to remind himself that there was nothing to cause sand to move unnaturally anymore. He would check the calendar and upon seeing that next week was a full moon, would remind himself to do a maintenance check on Karasu and replace the seals in his room, because someone always dies on a night with a full moon, only to realize there's nothing to prepare, nothing to be on guard for anymore.
Gaara wasn't coming back; he was really gone forever now.
(Vaguely, bordering subconsciously, part of Kankurou would wonder if he was pissed because while the villagers could be so happy, he himself for some reason just can't bring himself to)
When Temari was twelve, she, like so many of her classmates, graduated from the Academy. Unlike all the other genin, however, she wasn't placed on a team; instead, she received more training from private tutors. When Kankurou turned graduated from the Academy this year, the same happened to him. They both know why. The reason, as always, was Gaara.
Gaara was a double-edged sword. Even as the Kazekage sent assassins after him, he was still Suna's greatest weapon. He might be terrorizing the villagers, but if war breaks out, he was their trump card. That was what he was created for – the ultimate Shinobi of the Sand. That was what he would have been if he survived to age twelve – given a hitai-ate and made to serve Sunagakure no Sato.
Temari and Kankurou are the only two genin able to form a team with Gaara if he were made genin. Who else could survive? Who else was brave enough? Their individualized training wasn't simply because they were the children of the Kazekage and received the best – it was so they wouldn't be killed by their brother.
But then Gaara died.
Gaara died and no longer do Kankurou and Temari have to wait, so they received another genin to fill the spot Gaara would have taken on their team. They were now a more-or-less normal genin team, expected to perform D- and C-ranked missions and work as a team.
Their new teammate was a fourteen-year-old boy by the name of Hamaji, and both Temari and Kankurou thought he was annoying, useless and arrogant. Hamaji seemed to think he was something important now that he was placed on the same team as the elite Kazekage's children and actually attempted to be team leader since he was the oldest and more experienced.
In their first sparring session, Temari broke his arm in three places, then with her fan and a giant gust of wind, sent him crashing into the wall of a building and broke two of his ribs. He recovered a week later and when he sparred with Kankurou, he got poisoned, deep cuts all over his body and a broken leg. Hamaji got out of the hospital in under a week this time, and now that he knew what his place on the team was, he kept his mouth shut and didn't think he was so awesome any more. As time went on, it also became obvious that Hamaji lagged behind the siblings.
Baki-sensei reprimanded the siblings on their lack of cooperation and teamwork and tried to train Hamaji up to the two's level, and although they did try (Hamaji more than the other two), it was clear that the three didn't work, can't work as a normal genin team. Hamaji was normal enough, but Temari and Kankurou were specifically trained to be placed on the same team as Gaara, to survive and maybe control him to an extent. As nerve-wreaking as being with Gaara was, Temari and Kankurou didn't expect anything less.
They weren't normal and Gaara dying wasn't going to change that.
A/N: Had a bit of a block, but it's been destroyed now. Huzzah. That's why you guys get two chapters this time. Thanks for reading everyone, especially those that leave reviews. I really appreciate it.
I really wished Kishimoto had shown us more about the Sand Sibs before they went to the Chuunin exams and before Gaara went into Naruto-induced-rehab. It would have been really interesting to see their childhood, together. I think that, even if they were normal and their dad was the Kazekage, Temari and Kankurou suffered some loneliness as well, from their connection to the village monster. Though we can feel sorry for Gaara and Naruto and the other jinchuuriki because we know they are human, the people in the Naruto-universe doesn't. It's like...having a modern-day Hitler clone walking around, and he's been known to cause trouble. The stigma is so bad that anyone near him gets shunned. ...That's what I think, anyways...
tovanell