Chapter Two: You Must Read All the Instructions
A/N: Second Chappy!
Sachiko had woken up the next morning in a bed of satin sheets. She definitely could get used to the bed there. She stretched awake and yawned. She had met only one the Sand Siblings and expected to meet the other that day at breakfast. She threw on her clothes and headed down to the room Kankuro had showed her the day before.
She found the other two Sand Siblings already at the table eating.
"Good morning Sachiko-san," Kankuro greeted her as she took a seat next to him, "Now you can meet Temari."
"Hi," Sachiko greeted to the Sand Siblings and stuck her hand out for Temari to shake, "I'm Sachiko Cloudishida and future Raikage."
"Nice to meet you future Raikage," Temari greeted Sachiko with a smirk as she took her hand and shook it. Temari called over some servants and had them take Sachiko's order of food.
"So Sachiko, how do you like Sand so far?" Kankuro asked as he took a bite out of a rice dumpling.
"It's alright I guess…" Sachiko said as some servants brought her food.
"I'm leaving," Gaara said as he stood up and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Does he always do that," asked Sachiko as she took a bite of sushi.
Kankuro shrugged and then Temari spoke, "Gaara… just stay out of his way and you shouldn't have to worry about him killing you."
"Killing me," Sachiko asked as she cocked a perfectly arched eyebrow, "Why?"
"You haven't heard," asked Kankuro shocked, "They didn't warn you before you came here?"
"Warn me about what," Sachiko asked her, playing dumb. She knew about Shukaku and she honestly wasn't that scared about it but it wouldn't be a bad idea if she could get more information about it.
Temari and Kankuro looked at each other as if to ask the other if it was okay to tell her. "Well," Kankuro said, "Gaara has a bad temper… and it's just not good to anger him because he just kills anyone that bothers him."
"Oh," Sachiko said dumbly. So they weren't going to tell her anything at all. "I'm going out," Sachiko said as she got up, "See you two later."
"See ya," said Kankuro and Temari as Sachiko left to her room.
XXX
No one had shown Sachiko the way out of the stupid mansion and she thought maybe they were trying to imprison her by throwing her up on some high up balcony where she couldn't get down. "I am a ninja," Sachiko told herself as she stood on the railing of the balcony, "I could just jump off and land down or I could walk down it using chakra… but because I am no ordinary ninja I will not." She smiled to herself as a small cloud appeared under her feet.
"Piece of cake," she said triumphantly as the cloud lifted her up and took her beyond Sand Castle.
The loyal cloud finally let her down on the ground in some deserted alley. "Perfect," she said to herself as she began to follow the back alleys.
Her stomach grumbled slightly and she sighed. She had only eaten one piece of sushi and then taken off. The Sand Siblings were tolerable she supposed but far too secretive and quiet for her taste. She wanted excitement and adventure and she was going to find it. She came across a dark lit alleyway and found a small shop at the end of it.
"What's this," she murmured as she entered the store.
As she opened the door she heard a familiar jingle of bells and wondered what tune it was that they were jingling to. Inside the shop were rows of candies and confectionaries none like she had seen before. It was some sort of whimsical place filled with sweets.
"Hello," said a beautiful voice that seemed to be sugary sweet like the rest of the candies in the shop, "I'm Midouri."
Sachiko turned to see a very pretty girl with dark hair and teal eyes. The teal eyes reminded her of Gaara's for a moment but without the bloodlust. Instead, the girl's eyes were of pure innocence like that of an infant's.
"Hello," Sachiko said as if spellbound, "My name's Sachiko…"
"The confectionary you are looking for," said the girl with her honey coated voice, "Is the popsicles I have in the freezer by the door. It's on the house since you're my very first customer and this is my grand opening."
Sachiko wasn't used to any kindness at all back at her village but she decided that she would take the popsicle anyway. "Thank you," Sachiko said as she pulled out a purple popsicle from the freezer, "What's this popsicle called?" Sachiko noticed a sign that said, 'Grand Opening' by the freezer and was almost positive that it wasn't there when she first came in.
"The Shadow of the Day," she replied in a voice so sweet she couldn't possibly be human.
"Shadow of the Day? That's a weird name for a popsicle," Sachiko replied as she looked at the plastic wrapping of the popsicle and it did indeed say Shadow of the Day on it, "Why would you call it that?"
The strange girl Midouri shrugged and said, "Well, I'm closing shop right now because I have some matters to attend to… Make sure you read the wrapper before you eat the popsicle."
Sachiko took this as a hint to leave the store and obliged. She stepped out of the shop and smiled to herself, "So I guess there are some nice people in this stupid village."
Sachiko decided to find some nice palm tree to stand under so she could eat her popsicle. She found a nice tree in a place that seemed to be of little interest to the residents of Sand. She smiled to herself, glad that she had found some peace and quiet. She sat underneath the tall palm and looked at her popsicle. "Shadow of the Day," she repeated the label of the popsicle, "Instructions of Consumption… This popsicle will never melt from sunlight or heat so it can be stored for later easily but each lick melts it down like a regular popsicle would. Ants will never eat it because it is only meant for humans and they know this."
"Tch, weeeiiiiirrrrdd," Sachiko said as she tore the wrapper off of it and disregarded the rest of the instructions of consumption. She jammed the popsicle in her mouth and enjoyed its flavor. It tasted like boysenberry; her favorite flavor. "Glad it's not grape," she said as she took a bite out of it, leaving half of the popsicle for her to lick.
The wrapper she had thrown on the ground got picked up by the wind and blew back to the place it came from. Standing outside the candy shop was the owner Midouri. Midouri picked up the wrapper and read aloud the neglected part of the instructions of consumption, "Once this popsicle is finished the shadow that your figure casts will captivate any person who steps in it but it only works for the first person who steps in it. The effects of the popsicle will take effect as soon as the Shadow of the Day's shadow disappears into the night."
Midouri smiled to herself and said as if Sachiko could hear her, "Sachiko-san, you must learn to read all the instructions."
Sachiko had noticed the time passing her by as she looked at the sun. "Afternoon already?" She asked herself as she took many more licks of her boysenberry popsicle.
One last lick would finish off the popsicle and Sachiko reluctantly gave it a lick. "All gone," she declared with a smile. She threw the popsicle stick on the ground and laid herself out underneath the tree to take a nap.
"Pick it up," said a chilling voice from behind her.
Sachiko was startled awake and stood up immediately to turn and face the voice. The redheaded boy stood in her shadow's path but it still didn't reach him. "Excuse me," she asked him with a slight tone.
"Pick it up," Gaara said, this time with more grave seriousness.
"Right," Sachiko said as she walked toward the abandoned popsicle stick.
As she walked toward the popsicle stick, she also walked more toward the sun and her shadow kept growing through the sun's power. The very tip of her shadow reached Gaara's feet. She bent over to pick it up and the shadow missed him yet again. A strong gust of wind blew and the popsicle stick flew another foot away. Sachiko turned around to give Gaara a dirty look, thinking he had made the popsicle fly.
"You didn't do that did you," she muttered to herself as she took another step and bent to pick it up again. This time her shadow grew another inch and finally reached Gaara's feet. Sachiko took the popsicle stick and stuffed into her Cloud band around her waist. "Happy now," she asked as she walked back to the Kazekage-in-training.
He gave her a disgusted look as if to say he was never happy. "Guess you're never happy," Sachiko commented as she sat back down under the tree.
Gaara ignored her comment and stood there glaring at her, wondering how much trouble he would be in with his father if he just killed her right then and there. As if reading his thoughts Sachiko said, "Cloud would wage war on you."
"For what?" He asked as he crossed his arms, not really shocked about her comment.
"If you killed me," Sachiko said casually, "It's not that they like me over there… but the current Raikage, my father, is a rash man. He'll wage war on anyone for any little thing; ask the Leaf Village, they know."
"Hn," Gaara grunted as he disappeared in a puff of sand to get away from the strange girl.
"Figures," Sachiko murmured as she closed her eyes to take her nap, hopefully uninterrupted this time.
A/N: In case some of you are a bit confused… On the Instructions of Consumption there is the part that says, "The effects of the popsicle will take effect as soon as the Shadow of the Day's shadow disappears into the night."And then in the first chapter Gaara's shadow is referred to as the Shadow of the Day and then because he stepped into Sachiko's shadow, which became the Shadow of the Day due to the popsicle, his shadow became the Shadow of the Day again. Therefore, when nightfall hits and covers his shadow, the effects of the popsicle will take place. If that makes any sense at all… hahah. It's hard to explain but I hope you got the gist of it.
Sachiko: You're one confused Author.
Author: Shut up. It's easy to understand.
Sachiko: Right…
Author: It is!
Sachiko: The Shadow of the Day is Gaara, then it's Sachiko, then it's Gaara then he's captivated and then nightfall hits and then his Shadow of the Day disappears and the effects of the popsicle take place so then there is Shadow of the Day magic. Blah blah blah blah blah.
Author: Well it just has multiple meanings!! And some of those things, I didn't say.
Sachiko: But you were thinking them.
Author: I don't know who is worse… You or Sasume from my Death Note fanfiction.
Sachiko: We're probably about the same. Your OCs tend to be alike.
Author: That's not true! I have OCs with different personalities! You and Sasume just happen to both be smart mouths! Besides, you'll see how different you two are once your character develops more in the story.
Sachiko: Whatever… Wow, Chihoko has been quiet.
Chihoko: That's because I was listening to you two idiots bicker.
Sachiko: Shouldn't have jinxed it.
Author: Seriously. Anyway, Bye Readers! REVIEW PLEASE!