Ch. 3: Protect Our Own
"Kankurou!" Temari hisses at him. "What are you doing, you idiot!"
He straightens. "I'm looking for my hat."
Temari sighs. "The Kazekage will kill you if he finds you."
"He won't. Him and some of the council are too busy discussing Gaara's fate at the moment."
Temari's brow furrows. "Say what?"
He points at the large ornate door leading to the Kazekage's office. "Gaara's fate. They don't think he should become a genin because no team will be safe from him."
Temari's eyes dart to the door.
She bites her lip trying to decide if she should snoop. She really, really wants to know what's going on….Sure, the red-head is a creepy demon evil thing but that thing is still her flesh and blood. Doesn't she have a right to skulk around?
"Temari." Kankurou murmurs warningly.
"I have a right to know!" she exclaims to him. Temari creeps over carefully to the door.
Kankurou wrings his hands. "Jeez, Temari, you're going to get us into trouble!"
"If you would shut up, neither of us will get into trouble."
Temari kneels down on the floor by the door and presses her ear to it.
Kankurou grumbles about angrily for a bit, before settling down beside her. "If we get in trouble—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Temari waves him off. "Listen."
Inside an irate voice, not the Kazekage, grumbles. "We need to get rid of it once and for all."
It? Surely they weren't talking about Gaara?
"No one can kill it. Many shinobi have tried."
"Tell that other son of yours to do it. He lives with that monster. Surely he has plenty of opportunities to murder the thing. Or even the daughter. She'll do anything for recognition." Temari can hear the mirth in their voices at the last bit.
Beside her, Kankurou's eyes are wide. "They want to kill Gaara?"
"They want us to kill Gaara." Temari scowls.
"They can't do that!" He hisses.
"Obviously." Temari stands up and turns the knob.
"Temari!" Kankurou hisses in panic. "What are you doing?!"
"Giving them a piece of my mind."
"Temari!"
Temari walks into the room defiantly.
"What," the Kazekage growls, "do you think you're doing?"
"Would you look at that?" one of the council members says in amusement, "You're little children are ungrateful snoops."
Temari doesn't know why she feels so strongly about them killing her brother. Really, she doesn't know why she shouldn't want them to kill her brother. That red-head threatened to kill her and Kankurou far on a daily basis. Obviously they meant nothing to him. He'd hurt them many times before in the past too.
Temari just…even if that boy is demented and scary and…there's something seriously wrong with him, she can't shake the feeling that he's her family.
He's been through hell, too. Worse than she or Kankurou have ever had to suffer, because well, hell he's grown up in the same dysfunctional village, in the same cruel family, but he also has a devilish monster inside of him. He got the short end of the very short stick. If anyone deserved to be cruel and unfeeling it was Gaara.
The scary thing probably was that, as frightening and terrifying as Gaara was, the Kazekage was worse. Or so she felt. Gaara had a reason for being the way he was; the Kazekage was just a blackened core with blackened skin and sharp poisonous teeth.
Temari wanted to believe somewhere inside the red-head, there was something human. Something waiting to be awakened.
She was just too scared to do the waking herself.
But she'd be damned if she let the Kazekage murder Gaara.
"You can't kill him." She says to him.
"I can do what I please." He scowls at her. "What, have you grown fond of the disgustingly evil monstrosity, daughter?"
She wants to spit at him. She hates being called his daughter. She refuses to be called his daughter. "You can't kill him." She repeats.
The council members laugh coldly. "No one will put up with him. If we make him a ninja he will kill whoever we put in his team in less than a day."
"Then put us on his team." Kankurou blinks. He seems shocked at the words that just slipped from his mouth. He looks at Temari, surprise in his very eyes. Temari is a bit taken aback that Kankurou has suggested it. Kankurou is mortified of Gaara. But she can see his eyes sharpen with determination. He probably hadn't thought he'd say it, but he certainly meant it.
The Kazekage laughs.
Kankurou's eyes are hard. "I wasn't joking. Put us on his team."
"You are mad. That monster—"
Temari smirks. "Hasn't killed us yet, has he, father dearest?" She crosses her arms across her chest. "He lives with us; clearly he has no apparent inclination to murder either of us anytime soon. We hold no protest to being on his team, and he is too cold to care."
"No Jounin will consent to—"
"Then your Jounin are all cowards." Kankurou spits out at him.
The Kazekage is furious. Temari can tell. But the council members, the two in the room with him, are toying with the idea.
They're starting to like it.
"Kazekage-sama," one of them begins, "it seems a worthy endeavor. That creature is decidedly powerful and if he is somewhat controlled with these two vagabonds it can prove useful to us. I'm quite sure you're son is up to more dangerous and menacing missions and the girl will do anything to prove she can hack it. If we're lucky, we can get rid of the creature and crush the blonde's ambition in one blow."
Temari grits her teeth together.
"You underestimate Temari." Kankurou smirks. "If you think you can send Gaara and us off and a difficult mission to severely injure my sister and cause the death of Gaara, you don't quite realize just how strong Temari's predisposition not to lose is." He straightens. "I'll make you a prediction. In your murder attempt, you'll realize the three of us as a team are a valuable asset."
"Are you threatening us, Kankurou-san?" one of the council asks venomously.
"He's merely stating a fact." Temari replies. "I'll give you two options. Put us on a team with him, or see what happens to the shinobi you send to kill Gaara. That is a threat. We may be heartless, but we protect our own, even if our own hates us."
"He wouldn't hesitate to kill you." The other council member hisses.
"We know." They both reply in unison.
Kankurou stares at his fingernails in mild interest. "The thing is, we don't particularly care."
Temari didn't know when they got so bold. Granted they were horrors around other shinobi. Horrors with their senseis. Horrors with anyone who looked down upon them or hurt them. She just never imagined she'd be talking quite so…casually and threateningly with the Kazekage.
They really did protect their own.
How astonishing.
Later that night two shinobi tried to sneak into their house.
Presumably to get to Gaara.
They were found dead the next morning on the roof.
"Did you kill them?" Gaara had asked, well demanded more than asked really.
Kankurou shrugged.
Temari just looked at him.
It was the first time Temari felt something shift between them. They were a crazy kind of family, but they did understand one another.
Gaara nodded.
Not another word was said on the subject.
Soon enough, the Kazekage yielded.
They were a team.
He still threatened to kill them quite constantly, but there was something very different between them now. The difference was, she and Kankurou were now painfully aware of just how far they were willing to go. Despite everything, Temari mused, she might, possibly…
Love Gaara.